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Well, shit.
Safe to say this is one of the darkest hours the fleet has had. Everyone knows wars mean people dying, wars mean losing people you care about, wars mean putting lives in danger. But, even though we all know what war is and what it does, it does not stop the affect it has on people, you can see it walking around the station the grim looks on people faces, the slouching shoulders and heads down as they walk. It’s like a black cloud hanging over everyone. Pushing them down. Wars are not just fought on the battle field, wars are fought in your mind, it’s not just an inter steller war it’s an inter-emotion war. When you step onto the bridge of a ship, you don’t know whether you will ever step off it again.
I wonder if the enemy feel the same, do they sit here slouching and letting their minds think of the worst scenarios that the war could play out. Do they walk around corridors trying to think of happy things rather than the constant threat of imminent demise.
Do they sit in their chairs and think about us? Like I am thinking about them, do they wonder the same I wondering about them, but about us.This shift was spent mostly in the Command and Control deck, I managed to get a simulation at the helm, but it was by far one of my worst shifts on helm. Making little mistakes, miss-hearing orders, it must be getting to me this war.
I moved from the Simulation room into Command and Control, patched myself into ships sensors. I started to show them Hegemony fleets invading Promethean, this live fire was designed to test the fleets ability to work together, to prioritize and to know when to leave an enemy alone and when to strike.
Generating two heavy command fleets which distracted the bulk of the fleet, then generating small Krelien fleets, not too big, but enough to be a threat. Lancer was tasked with this job, once they got close I removed the generated images, simulating the sensor ghosts that we have encountered. Seeing how much it would take to stress the crew to breaking point, they held up well, and eventually they got to the juicy targets. It was a small Krelien fleet, not much of a challenge but something seemed to be holding the lancer back, not sure what but she should have ripped through the fleet, but took her time, and took a bit of damage.
Whilst lancer was playing chase the rest of the fleet was still engaging the two command fleets, it took a while, those ships are heavily shielded. Eventually though the sector was clear and the fleets regrouped in Promethean Command, the last part of the live fire was to generate the equivalent of two heavy command fleets together. The 4th Light looked incredible as it executed well coordinated fleet combat orders. Listening to the comms chatter was a delight.
We ended the live fire there and got our orders to move to Waypoint 52 to rendezvous with the 2nd Battle Division. I was once again in CIC coordinating with my counter parts in the Second Battle Division and Atlantis Command, they sounded just as grimace as I did! Jackson, my counterpart in the Second Battle Division was aboard the TSN Agamemnon, his last message to me was ‘Enemies en route, prepare for battle’ – He never made it to us, his ship was destroyed along with the Commander of the 2nd Battle Division, Admiral D’Rani.
When the 2nd Battle Division got to us they had minimal forces, the rest they reported had gone back to Atlantis Command due to heavy damage. Following fast behind them was the enemy fleet, we intervened and allowed the 2nd Battle Division to keep the rest of it’s ships. We made our way to Atlantis to pick up two new ships the Apollo and the Valkyrie.
I was admiring the shiny new hulls on the ships, wondering how long it would be before they would get their battle scars, turns out not very long.
My console beeped with a message from Volantis Command, they were detecting large fleets coming from Sierra, it was an invasion force.
I immediately contacted Fleet Captain Xavier and relayed orders onto him to go and defend Volantis. We hot footed it there and started to defend the stations. The CIC screens were lit up with reports across the sectors, heavy attacks from all sides, I tried to keep track of the number of casualties but lost track when it hit 5 figures. Finally, Command gave to order for a full retreat, I relayed this and the transports began there way to Promethean.
Thankfully none of the transports were destroyed and we managed to get them out.
Once the 4LD regrouped we found we could not jump, my whole body went cold, it smelt of an ambush, patching myself into to all ships sensors trying to see evidence of an ambush but nothing. The gate was reporting okay, but not allowing us to jump. Finally the sensors picked up a sensor bouy, bastards were hacking the gates… again.
The fleet went off to destroy them and being in a heavy nebula we did not spot the two Heavy carrier fleets, the 4LD scrambled to raise shields, the Valkyrie took some damage but was okay.
Once all ships and sensors bouys had been destroyed we could jump out. A surprisingly peaceful route back to Command. The whole fleets morale was in tatters, the loss of a whole system was not good. The remains of the Second battle did get one little bit of good news, the managed to lock down Way point 52, the enemy will have to get through Promethean and Cerberus to get to Atlantis now.What up high decisions had been that made us so ill prepared for war, how is it that one light division has to hold the line against the full force of the Hegemony.
Where is Atlantia? Where are the capitol ships, it’s all good saying there are being mobilized but why are they not here, this war has been brewing for a long time, now the 2nd Battle Division is in a mess. I read intelligence reports about the enemy and try to figure out what they’re are thinking, where are they sending their forces, now they have Volantis where will they go?
War plays with your mind, sending it in loop, making you think constantly about being attacked, wondering if you’ll see another morning, if you’ll sit in the bar enjoying a drink with good friends again, or whether you’ll get to full in love again.
To quote a Twentieth Century singer,
War. What is it good for?// Agreed. I think that is the first I have seen from the command deck. Nicely done, both informative and characterful.
All three engineering specialists missing from Lancer? The systems on Promethean Command and Montgomery must have been in need of some serious overhaul.
//I also think this is the first personal log I’ve read that is written from CIC point of view. Nicely done.
//You know, I think we need an entry on the Command and Control deck in the Encyclopedia.
I see it being a place on the Flag Ship, that way people aren’t left behind on a station that is potentially attacked (like last nights shift). It could be deep inside the ship’s structure, a small room with a couple of interfaces for several different feeds. The officer assigned there is then linked with Command and Control systems and relays orders from command. Basically, it is like a dedicated comms/sensor room on the ship, away from the bridge so as not to interfere with the bridge operations.
//Agreed with the command in control deck being on the flag ship.
Maybe if the flag ship gets destroyed, command and control will go as well.
//Sorry, I missed this thread or I would have replied earlier. And I’ll take the opportunity to chime in too: Garion, a well written log, keep it coming.
“something seemed to be holding the lancer back,”
//Well, Jemel and Matsiyan weren’t on board. Were any of the other
Lancer regulars missing? I should have taken screen shots, but didn’t.Lancer was very short-staffed. If my memory serves, Lt Hall and Lt Das were the only regulars, and the bridge crew included two cadets. One cadet had no experience at all actually operating any station, apparently even on a civilian ship, just academy classroom training. He took the Science post, and to his credit, he eventually figured out what was expected of him. The other spent the practice sims upgrading his bridge station with the current software, actually joining with the actual mission. That one served as Helm for the mission (Lt Hall covered both Helm and command during the sims).
Both cadets were particularly green, even for cadets. Perhaps both were a shade greener after the actual mission, as we had quite a rough ride. Several times I received the order to cut warp to zero power until the cadet collected his wits, and in addition, he scraped off a few hull plates on an asteroid — the damcon teams were not pleased, I heard their thoughts about it to no end after the duty shift. At least we never went slowly exploring the interior of a minefield.
I am sure the cadet at Helm was quite tired after scrubbing all the ship hallways and repainting the entire hull. With the war requiring all available hands, I suspect Lt Hall permitted him a space suit. This time. But for everyone’s sake, I dearly hope both cadets reopen their books and train hard before the next duty shift.
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