Log Mundy, 2917-2237

[Adele Mundy]

Personal Log, Lt. Sr. Adele Mundy, TSN Sabre, 2nd Fleet, 4th Lt. Div.
Stardate: 2917-2237

One thing to be thankful for, when preparing to deliver an Ambassador to Hjorden space, is that there is no need to stock up on crunchy milk chocolate confectionery, because everyone knows there is going to be Hjocoa. I wonder if any chocolatiers have started making Hjocoa truffles yet?

Yes, Computer, we were off to Hjorden space again. But first, we had to practice for a strike into Kralien space, because the Zolmari who joined us last shift brought warnings about massing ships, possibly a major strike force, from which they were excluded because of their (rightfully) suspect loyalties.

We ran five ships for the sims, revelling in the luxury of having many newly-assigned cadets at the bridge stations. Sabre’s crew was a little shaky on the first sim – well, no, let’s be fully accurate about this: the new cadet we had on Science was shaky (understandable), and I was not much better on Weapons. Dammit. I can shoot just fine with a pistol…. But leaving the shields down that time, that was inexcusable. I was a little better, though not enough to satisfy my expectations, on the second sim.

An interesting psychological note: when Act.Ens. Ironclad told me, “You did your job as far as I was concerned” I thanked him, but I bristled. And then, when Lt. Wind Breeze, who was on the bridge as an observer, and whose specialization is Engineering, commented on Ironclad’s handling of the Engineering console, he clearly bristled. Egos are fragile things.

No room for fragile egos on missions, though. We set out for Erebus System on our pre-emptive strike against the Kraliens, under instructions to strike at capital ships and bases, cause as much damage as possible, and take as many surrenders as possible. Basically, to strike at morale, since we knew we did not have a large enough force, and could not carry enough ordnance, to defeat the whole fleet.

Because Aposine was required to take a PsychEval (is it those ONI officers again, or is it routine?), Lt. Cmdr. Aramond was sent over to take command of Lancer. Aposine’s parting remark to Aramond was a joking recommendation, “Don’t blow up my ship!” — and thereby hangs a tale… We took four ships only, not wanting to risk the success of the mission by having bridge crews spread too thin. I was XO on Sabre, taking the Science console, as we received replacement crew members We arrived into Erebus Sector 10 through the Sierra Gate, with orders to proceed to Erebus Sector 6, and wreak havoc.

We did meet large Kralien fleets, as predicted. Sabre destroyed several bases, working with Lancer, who kept the fleets distracted and occupied while we went in to hit the bases once their fighters had launched. Meanwhile, Horizon and Viper ran interference on the rimward fleets, taunting them away from our area of operations. Splitting the fleets worked, though we were heavily outnumbered, and we were going through our ordnance fast. We had been told there was a possibility of sending us a supply ship to replenish our ordnance stock, but for the initial phase of our attack, it was not safe to do so.

We were told to obtain as many surrenders as possible. I didn’t hear us transmit any surrender demands… I suppose, since we were mostly attacking bases, few opportunity presented themselves. I was kept fairly busy scanning enemy ships, but we were trying to keep out of their way to attack bases. Still, I hope having the ships already double-scanned was useful to the other Weapons officers in the Division. We had moments of uncertainty when our Weapons console cut out, but DamCon teams swarmed to the rescue.

Then we moved on to the next sector to do the same thing all over again: Sabre and Lancer coordinated in attacking the coreward bases, Horizon and Viper took the rimward ones. Except that this time, Lancer found herself in trouble, first with a large Torgoth fleet, and then with tractor beams. We all heard Aramond calling “Mayday, Mayday”, and then Lancer was gone. Dammit.

We broke off engagement and rushed to collect the life pods. So did Horizon and Viper. Casualties were minor, for which everyone is thankful; but at that point, with our ordnance down to negligible and one ship gone, the Fleet Captain decided it was time to make our retreat, and we headed through the gate back to Sierra System.

And that’s where we met the supply ship. The language this elicited can be imagined and does not need to be repeated.

The mood in the Galley after the mission debrief was that strange mixture of somber — none of the DamCon team members on Lancer escaped without some injury, and some didn’t make it into the life pods at all — and gallows-humorous, with calls to Aramond of “You had one job…” and suggestions of sending Capt. Jemel flowers and a case of Red Bull (that antique beverage is, for some inexplicable reason, something he actually enjoys.)

And after our pause to refit and resupply, we set out on our mission to Hjorden, to safely deliver Ambassador Elizabeth Fernbrook to her new post. Since ONI Section Blue needed some crew members to assist in running one of their specialist frigates (that whole sentence is a minefield of begged questions. Section Blue? One of? Specialist?) and Lancer was a wreck in Erebus, Lancer’s crew was temporarily assigned to the Section Blue frigate, under the temporary call sign Hunter, with all its classified systems temporarily removed. More questions marks. What exactly is a classified system?

Preparing this pseudo-Hunter took a little longer than expected, and we experienced an annoying number of technical problems, but we reached the Hjorden System eventually. And there we found a number of USF ships, probably the remains of the fleet whose bases we destroyed last shift.

We had to combine forces to attack them — shields of 1200-plus are not to be trifled with — and we had to take turns to run off to refuel and resupply with ordnance. I was in command of Sabre — another temporary arrangement in a mission full of temporary arrangements — and I may have been a little short with our Comms officer when I didn’t think he was sending out surrender demands fast enough as the USF shields came down. I think I even admitted to becoming somewhat emotional when it comes to the USF, dammit. I hope nobody takes that the wrong way.

Then, when we had cleared the way of USF ships, either by destruction or surrender, the Caltrons arrived. Dammit, Caltrons are headache material. We cleared away as many Primaries as we could before they could combine, but we had the same problem we had had against the USF, and, earlier, against the Kraliens: limited ordnance. Our ships had to dash back to the Hjorden base to load up new ordnance, and there was a moment when it seemed the Caltrons would just keep turning up. There were a couple of Senaries, that I saw, and a Superswarm. One of them had an extremely long beam range, that hit us even as Lt. Quinn, our Helmsman, had us out of his console range. That kind of thing leads us to question all the intelligence we think we have on the damn constructs..

We did, eventually, succeed in thinning down the Caltrons enough that we could work together against the Superswarm. It was a relief to see those shields creep down at last, and the damage list grow longer on my Science console.

We limped back to S12, and the Ambassador decided to stay a little longer than she had originally planned, so that she could assist in humanitarian efforts (alienitarian efforts? I don’t know, Computer, our language is human-centric). There are still injured Hjorden personnel on S12, and repairs are continuing. There are now a number of injured TSN personnel on board as well.

I confess to a secret and very selfish relief that the beautiful bar with the plants and the waterfall wasn’t damaged, the friendly barkeeper was not injured, and the stocks of Hjocoa were unaffected by the attempted Skaraan take-over last shift. It’s time for me to go and make a personal attempt to affect them.

[end log]

[Matthew Vaj]

Nicely done Mundy!

[Matsiyan]

// Sapienitarian? Sapiotarian? Actually I think the impulse arises from our humanity, not from their alienness. So it still works, but it is interesting to wonder what we substitute for “human” when we mean “citizen of the USFP”. In Trek they use “federation” but the USFP is a union.

[Adele Mundy]

//Thank you, Vaj. Now that ONI reports have become a regular feature, my logs are less needed as general reminders of what happened, but writing it down helps me fix events in my mind. And I’m deliberately focusing even more on Mundy’s personal perception of events.

[Donovan]

However, we must be clear: ONI will not confirm or deny the existence of a group called [REDACTED].

[Adele Mundy]

//True. But I thought the ship was Redacted. The group must be Censored. 😜

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