Log Mundy, 14718-2237

[Adele Mundy]

Personal Log, Lt. Cmdr. Adele Mundy, TSN Sabre, 2nd Flt., 4th Lt. Div.
Stardate: 14718-2237

Rumours had it wrong. The investigations are still going on, and 4LD is still confined to station, and on sims. Command don’t trust us yet, clearly. The sims we run are strategy ideas they want tested, supposedly so we can give feedback on the practical aspects. Whether the sims actually bear any relation at all to the strategy Command want to carry out in real life is a completely different question: for all we know, they might be giving us completely different parameters, just to see if any of us attempt to leak any details to the Unukalhai.

Talking of the Unukalhai, have I mentioned that Horatio is a Vice-Admiral in the Void-damned USF? Hell’s bells and buckets of blood, Computer… Void-damned Vice bloody Admiral… Does it count if he’s a rebel and a traitor? I know you don’t know what I mean, Computer. I’m being petty and furious at once. What does he think he’s doing? No, I know what he thinks he’s doing, he thinks he’s saving the galaxy from evil aliens. Earth for Humans, revenge for Paragon, all of that. Dammit, Computer, I can’t see a way out for him: he’ll either die in battle, or if he’s captured he’ll have to face trial. Armed rebellion against the USFP, destruction of USFP bases and ships, and killing of both civilians and service personnel are not charges that result in a light slap on the wrist and a note to do better in future. Dammit.

Anyway, back to the sims… or before that, some discussion among Senior Officers about appointments and promotions; but all of them still depend on our names being cleared and on us being reinstated to full active service. So who knows when that will be.

Some of the questioning may be easing off at last, because we had enough Bridge Officers to run four ships: Sabre (the Fleet Captain in Command, Cdt. Rakaydos on Helm, Cdt. Perpetual in Engineering, and standing by with the Shuttle, Ens. Xansta on Weapons, while I took SciComms); Lancer (Capt. Jemel in Command, Lt. Sr. Graybeard in Engineering, Ens. Ben on Helm, Ens. Avirson on Weapons); Horizon (Cmdr. Aramond in Command, Lt. Cmdr. Hall on Comms as his XO, Lt. Yooey on Weapons, Lt. Draeco in Engineering, Ens. Agoom on Science); and Viper, (Cmdr. Matsiyan in Command, Lt. Beaumont on Helm, Lt. Nhaima on SciComms, Ens. Starry on Weapons, Ens. Maxwell in Engineering). All ready to go. The simulation systems, however, had other ideas. There were assorted mishaps that stopped the first sim in mid-flight, and despite the efforts of numerous maintenance teams, and the more than clear expressions of displeasure from numerous Chief Engineers, repairs were slow enough that a second sim had to be pitifully brief. Even then, there were plenty of bugs; the most obvious of which, to all Comms officers, was the behaviour of allied ships, who communicated compliance with orders, but proceeded to completely and repeatedly ignore them. Just like last shift. And the shift before.

We ended the sim with a vast cloud of enemies to test the system’s capabilities, and if my recollection is correct, the system crashed before we were overrun by the hordes. So that’s good. Possibly.

The strategic sim involved us in opening a breach in the Promethean Command defensive perimeter. We had some reassignment of Bridge personnel, with Lt.Sr. Graybeard taking over in Engineering while Cdt. Perpetual moved to the Comms station, and stood by to pilot Perseus if needed.

The tricky thing about recapturing the Command complex of stations and weapons platforms is that, well, we don’t want to damage it too much, since it’s ours in the first place; so we had plans to use an electronic pulse to disable some of the WP capabilities. Meanwhile, 1st Battle Division was standing by, waiting for our signal to bring in their Marines ready to deploy on board, while we acted as support.

On the whole, the plan worked. We reached Promethean System via the Cerberus Gate, transited to Sector 7, and began our approach to Command. Our sensors were disrupted and their range limited, so we took up station in nebulas close by and launched probes. The probes detected approaching enemy fleets. Horizon and Sabre had something of a miscommunication which meant we couldn’t control the engagement the way the Fleet Captain wanted. We managed, anyway. Horizon and Viper did a better job of communicating in their first engagement.

And as we were approaching something resembling a successful resolution, the systems threw another tantrum, and the sim shut down. The tech team waved us away, calling it close enough. I don’t think close enough is going to be close enough, when the time comes for the actual recapture, but that was all the systems could take, apparently. Dammit. We tried to take up the sim again at a later stage, with minelayers entering the sector, and allied ships closing in, but it was not to be.

I hope nobody starts spreading rumours of sabotage. I hope even more that there is no basis on which those rumours might start.

We went back to the standard simulators, with the Fleet Captain standing over the command systems daring them to misbehave again; so I was in command on Sabre, Matsiyan took temporary Fleet Command, and I was too busy to remember any detail about what followed. I know that Cdt. Rakaydos took Helm and Cdt. Perpetual took SciComms, despite repeated protestations that he’s an engineer, not a Comms officer; but I had Lt. Sr. Graybeard in Engineering, and I’m not going to give him up if I have any option about it. He kept the ship in one piece and moving even when our energy supply was down to single digits, as he always does, in real action as well as, and much more importantly than, in sims.

Both Rakaydos and Perpetual did well on their stations anyway, protestations notwithstanding, so I’ve encouraged them both to sit their exams for promotions to Ensign. I hope we can start giving promotions and awards again soon, as the backlog is building up. If only the Brass would make up their minds, dammit!

[end log]

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