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Personal Log, Lt.Sr. Mundy, TSN Horizon, 2nd Flt. 4th Lt.Div.
10716-2237My second shift as DO, and updates galore. But everyone was expecting them, so the tech side of things went much more smoothly.
I’m still not used to how much mental, as well as physical, running around it takes to be DO, and how that means I have less attention to spare for other details in the set-up of the shift. We started out with what looked like a record low number of officers about to report in, to the point where we might have had trouble crewing four ships. Thanks to last minute arrivals, we did have enough bridge officers for four ships, and I tried to make sure the less experienced were evenly distributed – though I know Aramond nearly had a fit last shift when I sent Cdt. Brubel to Raven. I don’t know if he realises that I sent Brubel to Raven precisely because Xavier was in command and Aramond was XO: I couldn’t think of senior officers who’d be better at guiding a complete novice through his first shift.
Aramond was away this past shift, and will be for a couple more, as he’s been sent off to do a presentation about Caltrons to some of the fleet commanders in the Inner Worlds. Shame, because we needed all the experienced officers we could get.
Of course now I’m having trouble remembering which personnel I assigned to which ship this time, as there was quite a bit of reshuffling to do in order to have something resembling balanced crews.
I ended up on Phoenix (I place myself last, as D.O., according to what is needed where), with Lt. Cmdr. Zelreich in command for the first sim, Ens. Draeco on Helm, and Lt. Zephyr on Engineering and, because we were short-handed, on Weapons. It was, Zephyr admitted, a challenge, because the moment we approached combat, his attention had to be on the tactical display, and any finesse in power management went by the board. I was impressed nevertheless that we stayed alive and functioning throughout.
Once we reassembled in the briefing room we received orders for our mission. It was no great surprise that we were to continue our push to re-take Volantis Sector. Our crew on Phoenix remained the same, but because we were heading into real, not simulated, action, Lt. Cmdr. Zelreich decided it would be best if he took Comms and I took Weapons as well as Science, leaving Zephyr’s full attention on Engineering. And that is where I found out that the switch from the wide, strategic view of Science to the narrow tactical focus of Weapons is far from easy to execute. I am sure that I missed scans and didn’t give out bearings while I was busy firing beams; I even had trouble checking my own Science console to see which beam frequency I needed for which target, because I couldn’t afford to look away from the Weapons console for that long. I really missed having a Science officer talk to me.
Still, we made some advances into Volantis, recapturing bases by dropping our Marines there, engaging large Hegemony fleets while in formation with Viper, and finally taking down the Hegemony command ship, which had over 3000 shield as we first approached it. We liberated two sectors – good progress, especially considering our setbacks the previous shift – and it seems likely we’ll be moving on to re-taking the gates next time.
Having returned to Volantis Command, we concluded with one more sim, after more crew rearranging. I had the strange experience of being on Lancer, with not only an experienced crew who is used to working together, not only the Fleet Captain himself taking Tactical, but with me in command. So, well, I need more practice… We were destroyed early on, while I was still trying to sort out communications channels to the other captains; and I still find it difficult to give orders. Dammit. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t been brought up to be quite so polite.
I did have the support of an excellent crew, and this time I had a Science officer who did all the things I was expecting from him. I’m impressed by how efficiently Matsiyan provided all the information we needed; and I’m stunned to see, from the outside, how incredibly useful what I normally take for granted is.
That should be it. That is it, as far as official stuff goes. I’m still processing how I feel about my promotion, and how to talk about it. I was promoted to Senior Lieutenant, which was a complete shock. I can’t help remembering one of the stories Great-Aunt Adelaide used to tell. It must have been handed down generations of officers, because it was about a time when officers had to buy their own uniforms – the 20th century, perhaps, or perhaps earlier, she never specified what branch of the armed services she was talking about, or even which nation. Anyway, the story described an officer returning home to his wife and telling her proudly about being promoted, and the wife replying in dismay, “Oh, no! How can we afford the new uniforms? We’ll have to sell the piano!”
The TSN provides our uniforms nowadays, fortunately, and it’s just a question of having the rank patch sewn on. Which makes me grin, and I probably shouldn’t. But dammit, I outrank him now. Sibling rivalry, isn’t that a wonderful thing? Computer, that’s known as sarcasm. Just thought you’d like to know. Yes, that’s sarcasm too. The Little Horror made it to Lieutenant before he took off for parts unknown, and I am petty enough to crow over the fact that I’ve just made it past that. Of course, I have no idea what rank he may have reached by now, but outside the TSN it doesn’t count, right?
‘Struth, I don’t really care what rank he is, as long as he’s somewhere…
So, there’s my demon showing itself again. Blaze has demons of his own, if what he was saying in the bar is any clue. The translation software identified the language as Croatian; he was talking to some unseen interlocutor about torpedo flight paths, and then he was shouting in alarm to get out. I’m guessing he was remembering a ship evac. We’ve all lost crew members, colleagues, friends… I need to check the official logs, to see which ships he’s been on, and if one of them was destroyed, (Phoenix?) and if he was on board at the time.
I find the quiet moments floating in the lifepod afterwards are worse than the adrenaline rush of evacuation. You don’t have time to think when everything is fire, smoke and confusion, or when you hear the red alert sirens and the shrieking metal around you: you need to act, and fast; but when you sit watching the blinking light of your emergency beacon and listening to your own breath, waiting to find out if you’ll run out of air or be picked up, and by which side, that’s the time my stomach shrinks to a shrivelled husk.
// Very, very nice. Still loving the Little Hora-tio bits. That was a very strange sim aboard Lancer.
//Again, I’m sorry for last sim. My brain was truly close to non functional, and I didn’t realize you hadn’t been on Lancer for the entire day, or I would have kept things easier on your side. What I envisioned as a short in-and-out for you to kill a carrier, leaving room for better armored ships to engage freely, turned out to be a huge operational mess. Also, my expectations for recon were unclear. My battlegroup objectives were sloppy.
//You’ll do better next time, with more practise and a decent CO. You know you were promoted precisely because we know you’re good and can get even better.
//I think I’ve become addicted to TSN logs. 😛
//Yeah, I think Blaze was on Phoenix, but also on one other ship, when it blew up. I think we had to evacuate Dauntless once, as well. I remember talking to Verok about the confusion, since we blew up and were supposedly in the pods, but had no idea of what ship rescued us. The stories are mixing together in my head, so it’ll be even a greater mess in Blaze’s. 😛
@johnvanleigh, thank you for being so encouraging. And don’t be too hard on yourself, either 🙂 We trust you.
@blaze, I know I’m addicted to TSN logs!And yes, it does all blur together, so I’m sure Blaze’s memories are all jumbled up. Logs help… Hint… But emotionally, the mess is more plausible.
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