Log Mundy, 22417-2237

[Adele Mundy]

Personal Log, Lt. Sr. Adele Mundy, TSN Raven, 2nd Flt., 4th Lt. Div.
Stardate: 22417-2237

We are still waiting for the diplomatic mission to the Ximni to bring back insights into why the Ximni have been attacking TSN industrial installations. Meanwhile, the Division is responsible for protecting the local systems. Under these conditions, it was, shall we say, unexpected to see a relatively small number of officers present at the start of the shift, to the point that Phoenix and Hunter’s crews had to be merged. Quite a number of Hunter’s crew are still recuperating, of course; Phoenix’s crew may be on alter-day rotation.

That, and the fact that the Fleet Captain was busy in CIC, meant that Viper took division command, since she had the senior captain on board. Lt.Cmdr. Aramond took command on Raven and doubled up on Weapons for the sim exercises, Quinn took Helm, Matsiyan took Engineering and Coffee Duty, and I took Science and Comms as usual. The sim went quite smoothly, and the second sim, where we practiced battlegroup formations, was also pretty good.

We came to the reasonably obvious conclusion that coordinating formations is easier with two ships than with large battlegroups; we had opportunities to practice different maneuvres, to place ships where they would be most useful according to the ship type, to work out how best to solve problems with damaged ships (hint: have a damn fine Engineer and experienced DamCon teams on board), and to practice switching roles within the formation, changing who was lead ship. All in all, we kept busy, kept thinking, and learned from the exercise.

That may be why there was singing and guitar playing in the Galley before the start of the mission: we felt we had accomplished something.

The mission took us back to the Ximni attacks again: our orders were to patrol stations in Krisenda System to ensure the safety of industrial stations, then continue into Cerberus System, finally docking at Cerberus Command. The Fleet Captain joined us aboard Raven, so that Aramond went back to his post as XO; apart from that, our bridge crew was unchanged. Capt. Verok was on Viper as usual, Capt. Tuor took command of Phoenix, since Cmdr. Van Leigh was unavailable, and Lt.Cmdr. Aposine took command of Lancer in Capt. Jemel’s absence.

We set out from Krisenda Command Station, crossing to Krisenda sector 5 with Lancer scouting ahead. We found bases P-382 and P-282 under attack by Skaraans, and once we cleared them up, we were warned by CIC of probable jump events in Krisenda sector 1. So we headed there in a nice neat formation, found and destroyed several Ximni ships, and continued to do so as they continued to jump in. I shouldn’t complain that jump ships are difficult to keep track of… they are. I just need to get better, dammit.

And we lost one base, dammit. I-45B. I didn’t see it go, and I didn’t see any signals from evac pods… I hope the personnel made it out, and one of the other ship picked them up.

So, that made it blindingly obvious that the Ximni are indeed targeting our industrial bases. Either they’re raiding them for supplies first, then destroying them, or simply destroying them; either way, it could cause serious problems with our supply chain. To say nothing of possibly starting a war.

We crossed into Krisenda sector 2 and took the Cerberus gate as reports were coming in from CIC about hostile activity in Cerberus System, but we dealt with that and docked without further trouble at Cerberus Command Base.

There we proceeded to continue training with sims. We were down to three ships at this point, as several members of Viper’s crew were called elsewhere, so we had Raven, Lancer and Phoenix left for a border war sim. It could have been a tough sim with just three ships, but then one of the Arvonian bases launched fighters and the whole thing came crashing down. I don’t know who won Matsiyan’s Arvonian Fighter Pool, though. We may need the sim computers to get an accurate timing on the crash, because the crew members I heard were quoting times in seconds.

In order to avoid the same bug, we went on to a two-front siege sim, where lots of enemy fleets attempted to destroy our bases, for all the good it did them.

The Fleet Captain then took over in CIC, and kept us busy with an interesting sim where officers switched bridge roles around: Aramond took command of Raven, Matsiyan was on Helm, I was on Weapons, and Capt. Verok was on Science and Comms, as Quinn was in command of the division. That left Nhaima in command of Phoenix, and I was impressed when, during one engagement, she diverted Phoenix away from the current fight to identify a new target and address what proved to be a more critical threat. I must add that our scans were quite restricted, and our targets were taking full advantage of the local nebulae to hide in.

Somebody in debrief summed up, “Lancer and Raven addressed lots of enemies; Phoenix only exploded once…” I am sad to say I don’t recall who said that. Far be it from me to claim, without evidence, that it might have been the Fleet Captain. Surely not.

[end log]

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