Log Mundy 2414-2237

[Adele Mundy]

Personal Log, Lt. Adele Mundy, TSN Eagle, 2nd Flt. 4LD
2416-2237

Privately amusing quote for the shift:
Morlock, rushing in to roll call at the last moment, out of breath: “Whew! Just made it!”
DO, admonishing: “Software update…”
Morlock: “Oh, goddammit!”

Which may not be the most appropriate response to the DO, but does fully express my own feelings when the updates are announcedat such short notice, just before we go on duty. Matsiyan was more colourful, since his systems were not cooperating, but I’m the only one who heard him. He recovered quickly, though. Being on Lancer with the crew he’s familiar with helps; and recovering his heirloom coffee-maker has definitely improved his mood.

Cdt. Jesse was promoted to Acting Ensign at the beginning of the shift, to cheers and congratulations.

Training continues for the new fighters, as the senior officers have devised a skills training course in one of the sim suites. Since I am still finding my way around the more limited skills needed to pilot a ship, I kept to the more traditional simulations. And I found myself in Engineering, which is a completely different challenge. Setting up the controls for allocating power to different systems was fiddly, but worked well once we were under way. I was probably a little slow getting power to where it needed to be, because I was still looking at the controls – otherwise I find my hands go to where they would on the Science console. Funny how it’s already a habit.

The first exercise, a standard battle sim, went quite smoothly. Capt. Evans asked Lt. Hall some questions I found interesting: how would you engage the first enemy grouping differently? Were there other options to engage the enemy fleet and save the base we lost? For one thing, the questions drove home just how little of the battle I saw from Engineering, even with the aid of a secondary screen (which malfunctioned at one point, leaving me very much with the feeling of being in a box trying to guess who needed power, when and for how long); and then, just how much of a blur battles are, even when I have the Science screen in front of me. I’m not sure I had a clear image of the instances they were talking about, let alone what the options were.

The second simulation stepped up the difficulty, since the first had been so quiet. And we were overwhelmed and destroyed, with all our bases, though we dragged a fair number of enemies into black holes when we were running low on ordnance. We also ran out of DamCon teams, which is one reason we were crippled. I did point out a couple of Vigoranium nodules (I was back on SciComms), which would have speeded up the teams’ recovery and therefore repairs to systems, but we were in the middle of hectic action at the time, and not in a position where we could easily reach them. So, one thing that brief stint on Engineering has taught me is to keep more of an eye on the DamCon situation.

Favourite quote from the discussion in the mess hall after the exercises:
Someone, I didn’t see who, to Lancer‘s crew: “What happened?”
Someone from Lancer: “Allard happened.”
Cmdr. Jemel: “I can’t think fast enough to get us out of the problems Allard puts us in.”

My notes from the patrol mission are skimpy, but all went quietly. I ought to see if there’s a way of copying the formal briefing notes into this, just for personal reference, so I can keep track of the big picture. We encountered no large fleets, and a scattering of pirates and other enhanced ships. The latter are a pain for Eagle because they often have anti-torp and anti-mine tech, and all Eagle can do is leave in a hurry and call for Lancer to deal with them. Which reminds me, I was talking to Matsiyan about how much energy Lancer‘s beams chew up – and with no ordnance to act as emergency battery, that’s a whole different challenge, even though normally Lancer is so efficient. This Engineering perspective is quite illuminating.

A second mission rearranged some officers, leaving Eagle docked so that Dauntless could be fully crewed, and we headed for the Poseidon Rift sector, where we were to disable some daka generators being used by the USF. We were warned that destroying the generators would give rise to a black hole, which would destroy any fighters in the neighbourhood, so our instructions were to use ordnance from long range on the generators while the fighters kept enemy ships at bay.

Allard, Blaze and Wade were flying the fighters; I was offered the post of CAG, but was unable to link my console to the flight deck – dammit – so, with some disappointment, I kept to my standard station at SciComms. Between the stations, the ships they launched after us, and the generators, my screen was full of presences to scan; and that increased when Caltrons started emerging from the black holes. Fighters don’t do well against Caltrons, that was made clear quite quickly; however, the fighters coordinated and were effective against other enemy fleets. Dauntless‘ cannon worked well when it was available, but what did the greatest damage were the anomalies that tore the enemy bases apart as the generators were destroyed. It’s also interesting to note that after the generators were destroyed, the Caltrons disappeared: whether there is a causation relationship or merely a correlation remains to be established by further study.

We were able, after a few attempts, to pick up a black box from one of the destroyed bases. Examination once it was brought back suggests that some of the Kralien factions may be supplying the USF – so that’s thought-provoking. I wonder how the USF justify assistance from non-humans. We were told in the formal debrief that from the next shift we’ll be redeployed to Poseidon sector, with the possibility of some patrols in Erebus too, and maybe the new deployment is connected to those findings.

It’s a relief to summarise a shift with no great drama. Perhaps to make up for that, some of the cadets and the younger techs are hanging around in little clusters, whispering, and scattering at the approach of senior officers. They think they’re being so surrepticious… Capt. Evans has already noticed that they shut down Deck 13, and Guy is confident that it won’t take him long to find out what they’re devising, since he claims they’re visibly eager to let the secret slip. He’s probably right, all it will take is a couple of extra drinks and they’ll sing like proverbial canaries. It’s a good thing none of them are considering a career in security.

• This topic was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Adele Mundy. Reason: Tidying

[Author]

Posts