- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 11 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Personal Log, Lieutenant Conrad Matsiyan, TSN Lancer, 4th L.D.
Stardate: 30416-2237The Hjorden have been extremely hospitable to us. It was a lively time debating the fate of the fleet captain and the division itself in the bar of Hjorden station Sierra-One-Two. Fresh Hjorden ale and a derivative of a theobroma analog made into a bittersweet chilled drink, nicknamed Hjocoa, were much appreciated by all. Some even claimed to like Morlock’s vile decoctions, but I headed to bed after they anaesthetised most of my taste buds.
The facilities are pretty nice since the station is on a Terran tourist route. The four-armed, chitin-armoured Hjorden are a small, quick, sociable people, seemingly well adapted to the service industry. The station is a fascinating place. Its main research is into developing Hjorden native bioforms for export and to support the growing network of Hjorden offworld stations and colonies. The main lab is in the station core where plants thrive in microgravity. Breakfast is offered in station restaurant five, nicknamed “Babylon” by Terran visitors because of the lush microgravity gardens hanging in the air above its open air patio buffet atop a bluff with five levels of narrow terraces descending steeply to a huge swimming pool. To the left rises a sheer cliff faced with native Hjorden stone that continues all the way to the hanging gardens. To the right is a transparent wall open to the stars. It is a spectacular way to start the day.
However I was quickly in a rush as Mundy, who is in charge of Eagle’s small craft, had run the captain’s gig out to have the techs rebalance the thrusters. I gave her a lift in Montgomery’s shuttle to pick it up again which nearly made me late for the briefing.
The shift was straightforward: simulations to make sure our crews are solid, to impress the Hjorden that we are a disciplined, elite corps worthy of their support, and also to test out the integration with their command network. That last part was a real bugbear and especially aboard Montgomery, struggling to get familiar not only with her elderly frame and layout but also make sense of the Unukalhai upgrades partially installed before she was stashed away and then hastily upgraded with modern efficiency boosters in a desperately quick and dirty fashion. Just how much so rapidly became apparent and the experience of the sims taught us that the efficiency upgrades needed significant adaptation and rebalancing or the off-kilter power flows were going to create localized unpredictable overheating. And so that is what I spent the second half of the shift doing.
I ran Engineering in the first sim with our usual crew of Aposine on helm, Morlock on weapons, and Chuck Finley bravely trying out one of the fighters retro’ed onto Monty’s external docking clamps. For the second sim Dauntless asked for all qualified stick jockeys to practice wing tactics. In the shuffle we lost Aposine to Hunter. You could see the light in his eyes at the chance to go and discover how the old girl manoeuvres after her rebuild. So I took a crack at Helm. I managed to build on my last experiences aboard Lancer, but there was a lot to adapt to with Monty handling so differently, even with good engineering support from Chuck, and with having significantly different beam configuration. I just have to keep plugging away. At least I have the hang of my custom controls for reverse and docking requests.
Before the live fire exercise got going, I had to vacate helm and go help Kaplan and Polano with rebalancing the efficiency module before something blew.
So I missed the Skaraans butting in and the mysterious appearance of a gravitational anomaly out of which popped, not the expected Caltrons, but a Ximni light cruiser, “Rolling Thunder”, which had rescued Xavier before his transport got into trouble. Apparently picking up Monty took longer than anticipated. If it hadn’t been for old Ximni friends, the universe would be a much less happy place for us.
The big news is that the Ximni have lent Rolling Thunder to Xavier. Now all we have to do is eliminate the black hats after the fleet captain, clear our names and regain our honour and position with the TSN. Until then, technically, we are flying under the Jolly Roger.
[End log
//Good entry. And you let me know it’s Chuck who needs to get spaced for launching a fighter from the monty.
Or I’ll have @Blaze draft him to the Dauntless. There he can fly fighters all he wants.// I could point out that is a personal log Feil cannot read 🙂 but on the other hand, publishing logs like this does simulate the kind of things we would talk about off camera 🙂
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.