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Personal Log, Lt.Sr. Adele Mundy, TSN Raven, 2nd Flt., 4th Lt.Div.
101216-2237As Viper and Phoenix were sent off to complete their mission from last shift, Raven, Horizon and Lancer started with some combat exercises.
The void-damned gremlins, however, had to have their say: I was in Engineering, and my comms link to the bridge was a howling, screeching, crackling mess, to the point that a couple of Maintenance Techs and I spent most of the exercise trying to fix it, thinking we had succeeded only to be blasted by another set of crackles and, well, what sounded almost like sniggering; and then going back to delve among the wiring to work out where the problem was. So, when the exercise was over and Lt.Sr. Hall was debriefing the crew, the comment aimed at me was “I suppose we can’t know how you did, with all the technical problems.” No, Computer, that is not an exact quote. I was trying not to remember the faint praise. And admittedly, I was only able to actually run the Engineering station for a brief stint at the end of the exercise; where, I need to say, if only to myself, I found it frustrating to try and read the bridge crew’s mind absut which systems to boost, since they were keeping quiet about their activities, and I don’t have a working psy-link with them. But since one psi-link is quite enough, I shan’t complain.
For the second exercise we were running just two ships, Horizon and Lancer. I was sent to Lancer, so it was a familiar ship and a familiar crew: Capt. Jemel in command, Lt. Greybeard on Engineering, Morlock on Tactical, Nhaima on Helm, Donovan on Science; I took Comms. It was a pretty standard exercise, and went smoothly, at least on our part. Something happened to Horizon, though, as Quinn, who is a perfectly capable pilot, sent the ship straight into a singularity at one point. I heard afterwards from Matsiyan that the helm went out of control, so… gremlins again?
So we felt pretty comfortable when we were told to stay aboard the same ship as we were sent out to help Viper and Phoenix on their mission to scan a number of asteroids for pathogens. The Pirates of Penwrath (and yes, Nhaima got the joke – at last, somebody understands!) were after the asteroids too, with the intention of mining them, and then manufacturing the pathogens into biological weapons. Again, we had a number of technical problems, and despite the fact that we intercepted and boarded several pirate ships, the mission was not entirely successful. Capt. Jemel did his best to point out to us that we had worked well together and done everything we could, in the light of uncooperative ship’s systems, but we weren’t entirely cheerful when we returned to base.
From there, we went back to sims. I was sent to Viper, which is one of the ships I am less familiar with; and Cmdr. Verok took command while Capt. Evans disappeared into his old haunt in Engineering (now, there’s something I didn’t know!); Lt. Cmdr. Aramond was XO, and on Helm, Lt. Wade was on Tactical, Cdt. Bubba on Comms, and I took Science. And I confess there was one moment when I was about to ask for details about an enemy captain, and suddenly realised I had the Science console, nto Comms… hasty scans ensued. A couple of exercises and one mission, and I was convinced I was still on Comms! Tut tut tut. Fortunately it was the work of a moment to catch up, and from then on I was able to provide ranges, frequencies and details about the enemy captains. I still found my hand hovering of its own volition over the Comms board from time to time, when I thought the surrenders demands were being sent out too slowly, but I managed to restrain myself. And it was good to be able to concentrate on one station.
As for any gremlins, I think Capt. Evans’ presence in Engineering must have frightened them away, because Viper ran as smoothly as Lancer normally does. So, Helm and Weapons did their dance, with quick striking runs at enemies, manoeuvres to lure ships away from stations (aided and abetted by scans and taunts), some lovely mine drops, and the ship humming quietly to itself as the power went where it was needed – compare and contrast, Computer, compare and contrast.
In the next sim Capt. Evans took Comms, and Cdt. Bubba took Engineering. It was an interesting premise: we needed to go from Volantis Command to Outpost 16 to pick up a prisoner, an enemy General, and take him to Atlantis system for trial, via Waypoint 52. We were warned that we might lose comms during the transit, and that we had to be ready for attempts to get the General away from us.
Everything went smoothly until we reached Outpost 16, then I saw several contacts on screen… and the gremlins crashed the simulation server. After reconnecting, the General was brought aboard Lancer, and we made our way towards Waypoint 52. Then a Bulk Carrier sent the fleet a message that they were to collect the General. Everyone was suspicious. I mean, everyone. On board Viper, on board Lancer… it just didn’t sound right. We checked their transponder codes, and they seemed legit, but nobody aboard seemed convinced. While Bulk Carrier B35 kept transmitting that they were awaiting the General’s transfer, our ships moved to defensive positions, and tried to raise CiC on comms. Of course, that was precisely the moment the comms went down. Yes, we had been warned. I still heard people mutter “gremlins” and “Murphy’s Law”.
And Capt. Jemel on Lancer let all ships know that we would deliver the General ourselves, according to our original orders. Whoever was in command on R35 was not happy at that, and repeated we had supposedly been reassigned to Volantis System. Nevertheless, we made our way to the gate, and jumped to Atlantis. That was when comms contact with CiC was re-established and, much to everyone’s relief, it was confirmed that we were, in fact, supposed to do exactly what we were doing, and that the transport ship had been an attempt to get the General away from us. So we delivered him safely, and moved on to the next exercise.
This one involved a transmission from Hjorden ships, requesting assistance to intercept some transport ships travelling through Hjorden space and not responding to orders. We were instructed to scout, find and capture a transport ship to find out what materials were being transported, in case they posed a threat to the TSN.
The simulation started us off in Cerberus Command, and added Excalibur to the battle group, with Aposine in command. There were plenty of Skaraans about, including some that attacked RS90 station, and then booby trapped it as they escaped… The only saving grace of being fooled like that is that it was an exercise, dammit. And just as we had boarded one of the suspect cargo ships in Hjorden sector VI, and were about to escort it to Alpha Base, the gremlins attacked the simulation server, which promptly crashed.
Continuing the sim, a squad of Marines was deployed on another of the transport ships to examine the cargo; once the information was retrieved and the Marines and ship’s crew picked up by shuttle, the transport was scuttled. Having analised the data, we were ordered to hide among the asteroids to lie in wait for more transport ships. We nearly caught the ship we wanted… but not quite, dammit. We sprang the trap too soon, and she made her way out of the sector just as large fleets started appearing through the Gate, and we were recalled to attack them. So, we need to work on improving the timing and coordination of attacks.
We finished the shift on a cheerful note as Cdt. Reynolds was promoted to Ensign, and nobody made the least mention of misbehaving.
Conversations overheard in the Bar are full of complaints about continuing malfunctions, unusual noises and disappearing implements… Also, it seems Chef Anatole can speak Torgoth.
[end log]
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