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Personal Log, Lt.Sr. Adele Mundy, TSN Raven, 2nd Flt., 4th Lt.Div.
Stardate 171216-2237Given the continuing malfunctions, maintenance continues, both on and off the station. During the briefing session, Capt. Jemel announced a vacancy for a Comms officer on Lancer, and dammit, I couldn’t help feeling guilty for being on Raven. But there are plenty of good officers, I keep telling myself, and the TSN is all about moving, and it’s not as if I’m never going to set foot aboard Lancer ever again…
Cmdr. van Leigh reminded the fleet of the need for a new Duty Officer starting in two shifts’ time. Need to check if I have to spend any of those future shifts on other training…
The opening sim was a Border War, plagued by much gremliness – Computer, do not engage your correction mode, If You Please! It’s a word now! – on Raven (we were running with Flt. Capt. Xavier in command, Lt.Cmdr. Aramond as XO and Science Officer, Lt. Vaj in Engineering, Lt.Jr. Quinn on Helm, Ens. Nhaima on Weapons; I took Comms) we had trouble on both the Comms and Science stations, and several bridge crew members also had consoles showing ships in the wrong position. The gremlins are getting creative with their meddling… Horizon was destroyed, and the sim came to a crashing halt with smoking wires (I hate the smell of burning insulation) and interesting popping noises, which were definitely not being made by chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
The new sim was somewhat more settled, though still interrupted by assorted systems failing, and ended, on our part, with a nice grouping of surrenders. Then it was onto the mission.
The senior officers decided we had enough personnel who could be spared from station maintenance to add Viper to the group; Aramond left us to take command of Viper, and I took over the Science console on Raven. The fleet was deployed to retrieve the mobile labs in Sector XIV, and since we received reports of enemy ships in Sensors VII, VIII and IX, we were also instructed to deploy sensor buoys there. While Lancer headed for the mobile lab, Horizon, Viper, Phoenix and Excalibur were to examine and repair the sensor buoys as necessary.
To make things interesting, we realised that the plasma storm had stopped deliveries of denobite crystals through the gate, so we were limited to half power because our power storage was affected by the shortage. The only exception to this restriction was Lancer, so that she could perform her scouting duties. And I have to say, it’s a tribute to our engineers that we barely seemed to notice the limitation.
We started out in Euphini XIII, and on the all clear moved on to XIV; recovery of the lab and repairs on the sensor buoys went smoothly enough, with only brief interruptions by pirates, so we docked at Penwrath Station 12 – I think their docking clamps are in need of lubricant, at the very least, to judge from the screeching transmitted through the hull. And there was the strange episode of TSN Phoenix showing its entire bridge crew consisting of multiple Cmdrs. van Leigh… and we all know cloning was banned after the unfortunate incident of the Lintillas. There continues to be discussion, in the bar, about whether it was a case of seasonal high spirits, high blood alcohol levels, or gremlins. Drunk gremlins in high spirits?
Continuing the mission, we were divided into three battle groups, consisting of Horizon and Viper, Phoenix and Excalibur, and Lancer and Raven; and we proceeded to Sect. IX, where there were pirates to be defeated, Kralien fleets to be dealt with, and two cargo vessels to be apprehended – which is where last shift’s exercises became relevant. Unfortunately, one Kralien cruiser that seemed to be travelling too fast for her class escaped when our sensors and engines malfunctioned again! This is getting to be a bit much, even for a gremlin infestation.
At that point, Capt. Jemel, who had, of course, been in command on Lancer, and therefore in command of our battle group, decided he had to supervise the maintenance teams charged with seeking out and destroying the gremlins (whether metaphorical or, at this point, real, if only because so many people keep mentioning them that they have been summoned into existence). At the same time, the Fleet Captain was called to CiC… and that left me not only as the senior officer aboard Raven, but also senior to the CO on Lancer, and therefore in command of the battle group. Our orders were to defend the base in Euphini XIII, CP 27X – the TSN could do with some catchier names for our command posts – and so we did.
It was an interesting experience – yes, Computer, I know I always say that. Do not dispute my choice of adjectives, they are chosen with deliberation, and with due thought about their true meaning. And if the meaning escapes you, so much the better. We had four bridge officers: Vaj in Engineering, Quinn on Helm, Nhaima on Tactical, while I ran SciComms and coordinated with Lancer. Thanks to excellent coordination between Quinn and Nhaima, who have worked together before and know each other’s mode of operations, and with the steady support of Vaj in Engineering, Raven engaged and disposed of several enemy fleets, which included some Torgoth Behemoths and even a couple of Griffzungenschwerte. Again, thanks to the magnificent way Quinn and Nhaima worked together, we were able to challenge ships to chase us, while Lancer approached them from astern and stabbed through their rear shields with her beams.
We returned to base for a debrief, a short pause, and more simulations. At this point it seemed that some gremlin had chewed through the intercom wiring from CiC, because the Fleet Captain’s remarks were a garbled mess of crackles and hisses, and the only way around the problem was to have Capt. Evans do the debrief instead.
Crews returned to their assigned ships for more sims, so I was back on Raven, on SciComms, with Lt.Cmdr. Aramond in command, Nhaima on Tactical, Quinn on Helm, and one of the new cadets, Grogbeard, in Engineering. We were doing fairly well defending against the simulated Skaraans, when the tech problems reared their ugly heads again. This time the culprit turned out to be some rogue subroutines in Grogbeard’s engineering console, and once the appropriate patch was downloaded and applied, the sim resumed. But only briefly, as more malfunctions forced an end to the exercise.
The end of shift debrief acknowledged the multitude of tech difficulties we had encountered, and set up teams to investigate them more fully. And to investigate, and I quote verbatim, “the strange creatures that have been seen on the station lately”. And there was the mention of “a fat man in red”… So, as the division stands down and waits for the provisions convoy to arrive, we were told that several senior officers will be on shore leave for the next couple of shifts. We’d better have the station sorted out by the time they return.
[end log]
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