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Personal Log, Ensign Conrad Matsiyan, TSN Hunter, 4th LD
Stardate: 211115-2237Bleak would be the word. No real coffee until I can get more supplies shipped out from Terra. At least that should not be too hard to arrange as an Earth Company brat. Merchant Princedom hath its privileges for kith and kin. I suspect Dad approves every time he finds out I am abusing privileges. Probably makes his tiny, cold, hard, commercial heart swell with pride.
I could probably have a beautiful old stovetop espresso machine sent too. But it will never be the heirloom that was handed down to me by my grandmother. I think I will have a replica threedyprinted. I have enough photos to get an accurate model and heaven knows access enough to the equipment.
For you see, we lost the Hunter. My first cabin as a real officer is gone along with the machine, several kilos of beans and everything else. Which isn’t much when you are a serving junior officer aboard a frontline vessel, but every little thing takes on so much more meaning for that very reason. Lucky my datapad survived on my person or I would also be reduced to the most recent synch with the central net for personal data.
It started out so routine. Simple sims to test out new intership comms protocols to get past some confusion that has been arising during the later part of our deployment in Cerberus. Played at taunting several groups of hostiles and then hiding behind a singularity and a minefield and watching slow but inevitable destruction. Funny that patience is such a virtue for the agile, swift scout. Hydra nearly spoiled the fun by passing too close and breaking our fascination.
Then I had time to make a proper espresso to maintain the tradition before starting our last mission in the system. So I was wide awake when Admiral Fellraven came visiting to present the awards earned during this campaign.
Hey, Computer, insert the admiral’s speech in the log, but leave out the names to protect the fleet from encephalopathic inflamation.
[Begin insert]
Ladies and Gentlebeings, Officers and Cadets of the 4th, Light Division, 2nd Space Fleet, of the Terran Stellar Navy, pray grant your attention for the awarding of recognition for service given during the Cerberus Campaign.
Nowadays I fly nothing more exciting than a desk. We all know that R&D makes a valuable contribution, but far from the front line, trusting others to risk life, limb, sense of humour and the finest efforts of our tailors in the presence of rude strangers with live ordnance.
But I do remember the thrill of the chase, the soul-numbing boredom of the watches, the dry mouth when enemy launches are detected, the faint vibration of our replies, the crimson glow and strident wail of a good Red Alert. I remember the bitter reek of leaking coolant, the acrid stench of burnt insulation and the pungent aroma of my cabin mate’s socks.
And so despite the fact that I speak on behalf of the people of the United Space Faring Planets, I also speak for all your shipmates whose souls you have consigned to the deep, and the crews of all the fleet vessels that count themselves accursed they were not present in this fray.
For services rendered in defense of the USFP, the security of its borders, the safety, freedom and peace of its citizens and guests, it is with great pleasure that I have the honour and the privilege to present the following awards;
The Cerberus Campaign medal is hereby awarded to all participants in TSN actions in this place and time.
For the individual commitment of officers on a day to day basis during this campaign, the following service ribbons are awarded:
– for officers showing great promise in their field, the Achievement ribbon is awarded to…
– the Special Services ribbon is awarded to…
– for being seriously injured in the line of duty, the Purple Heart is awarded to…
for serving with distinction in the relevant department
– the Command Deck ribbon is awarded to…
– the Training Services ribbon is awarded to…
– the Public Relations ribbon is awarded to…
– the Duty Officer ribbon is awarded to…Personal medals are honours bestowed upon particular officers. They are a symbol of the officer’s honour and commitment to the TSN. Officers receiving these awards are nominated by senior command officers for demonstrating great bravery and upholding the highest principles of the service
– the Bronze Star for Merit is awarded to…
– the Silver Star for Gallantry is awarded to…
– the Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to an officer in recognition of exceptionally meritorious service and I have great delight in conferring it upon…On behalf of the Terran Stellar Navy and the United Space Faring Planets, I thank you, one and all, for your service, your achievements and your dedication above and beyond the mundane requirements of your rank and posting. Officers and cadets of the Fourth Light Division, I salute you. Well done.
Fleet Captain Xavier? You are hereby requested and required to continue in your command of 2nd Fleet 4th Division and proceed with them to their home base at Promethean Command. You will relieve the TSN Dragon, TSN Tsunami and TSN Grace from border patrol duty and commence regular patrols, surveillance and material surveys around the Promethean system and into Cronus at your discretion.
Congratulations, Fleet Captain. You are going home.
[End insert]
So our mission was to pack up shop and escort a convoy back to Promethean Command.
Hunter as usual scouted ahead of the fleet. We rotated in covering the convoy as close escort ships moved to deal with threats, especially when kinetic asteroid strikes threatened both the convoy and USFP stations. Hunter doesn’t have the firepower to take them out quickly.We did our job in detecting and engaging an ambush before anyone else. The arrow class pirate vessels are no big deal even for hunter, but the axe class is a problem. we took a mauling as initial damage started to spiral quickly out of control until one of our consorts took their attention and we limped away.
We actually had all repairs complete before a second ambush struck. this time there was no consort and our disbelief in the accelerating damage after our shields went down left us without propulsion. The axe class uses some kind of weapon that does massive damage once shields are down. I barely had time to issue the warp core shutdown before DamCon crew threw me into a life pod. Lucky that or the spacetime contraction would have destroyed all the life pods in a single blue flash.
And then hanging there in that frail cockleshell, hoping no stray ordnance comes your way and that your side hold the field long enough to collect you, assuming the pod beacon keeps transmitting and your side retains sensors enough to do the job before air and heat expire. It is amazing how fast a man can acquire philosophy.
We were glad to humbly sit aboard Phoenix as she conveyed us home. It is always ignominious to debark from a ship not your own and doubly so at the end of a campaign when you should be returning in triumph. No conquering heroes we, but glad of Phoenix’ support.
We did not suffer alone. TSN Hydra’s IFF stopped responding during that battle too.
Being back on station was a strange experience for several of us. Zargon remarked that the station was bigger than he remembered. He was taking it in carefully as a last memory because he also announced that he will be leaving to continue his studies with 3rd Fleet aboard the carrier TSN Rainfire.
Cadet Roy stunned me by pointing out he had never seen Promethean Command before because he joined us directly on campaign.
They did not give us much time to enjoy the fleshpots before mandating another couple of sims. The first one was an interesting action. Hunter sneakily took out a hostile fleet with a minefield, but our heart wasn’t really in it since we were destroyed again.
For this transgression we were assigned to crew the destroyer, TSN Excalibur, for the final sim, whic was practicing our new duties. We worked as a battle group with TSN Hawk touring the sector and collecting asteroid core samples while watching the TSNs Grace, Dragon and Tsunami on patrol. This was kind of torture for a scout crew as the destroyer, while a sturdy and useful vessel, is reeaally sloooow. She seemed slower than a dreadnought or missile cruiser, but that could be inexperience. It did make us long for a new scout hull to be made available. The sim planners also kept us on our toes by throwing in a few Calton incursions.
Bunking once more in a temporary, if roomier, cabin aboard the station with freshly replicated everything. Bleak.
[End log.]
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