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Personal Log, Lt.Jr. Adele Mundy, TSN Hawk, 2nd Flt. 4LD
30116-2237That’s enough, Computer. I know this is the third time I’ve told you to erase this log. Computer voice deactivated. Let’s start again. Once more, with feeling. Or rather, with a little less feeling and a little more objectivity.
I was on the shuttle back to Command; Matsiyan, back from his admin stint, was on the same shuttle. The images I got from him of the colourful and improbable fates that he was wishing upon the bureaucrats were… surprising. I suppose it takes an engineer to devise certain things. Then the main lighting went off, the alarm sounded, the emergency lights came on. The pilot advised us of “a minor engine malfunction ” – exactly the same thought crossed my mind and Matsiyan’s, and we both took off the safety harnesses and headed for the engine compartment, walking briskly but not running, to avoid spreading panic.
Matsiyan deserves all the credit for working out what was going on, and fixing it; I just pointed the flashlight where he needed it and handed him the tools he asked for. The techs wielded the fire suppressants with reassuring efficiency. The shuttle made it to base, and is undergoing diagnostics and maintenance as I speak. The result, however, was that Matsiyan and I dashed into the briefing room disgracefully late, just as the announcement was being made that Matsiyan was appointed temporary XO on Hydra, and Lt.Cmdr. del Pino was under arrest, “detained for further questioning because of a secret communiqué”. Well, voiddammit.
And before I could even whisper a question to my closest neighbour, we were being deployed for an exercise. Hawk‘s crew were assigned to Valiant again, and because we were short of bridge crew, Lt.Cmdr. Allard took SciComms as well as command, Lt. Kennon Far took Engineering along with his XO duties, which left Aposine on Helm and me on weapons. We had a shaky start but settled down into the relatively unfamiliar stations, and the sim was straightforward.
During the quiet moments when we were scouting, I tried asking about Capt. Corwin, because I remembered that del Pino had mentioned him during the last duty shift, and I wondered whether there was any link between that and del Pino’s arrest. I received the immediate, categorical answer “He was a traitor”, but nobody would go into details. So I gather he was not the soul of honour, kindness, mercy and goodness. Perhaps I should consult official records to obtain an objective view of events. Or perhaps the conversation was a mere coincidence, an officer reminiscing about his early days in the Service, and nothing more. I just hate gaps in information.
Then the alarm sounded, as Command received a distress signal that was traced to Cerberus Sector 4, from TSN Roanoke. She was taking fire from an unidentified ship, possibly rogue TSN or Unukalhai. So we scrambled. Matsiyan joined us on Valiant, taking Engineering so that I could get back to SciComms and Lt. Far to weapons. Somehow, though, the technical problems that had plagued our final exercise last shift resurfaced (have more MREs disappeared after midnight?) and I had to exercise restraint as my consoles went dark and Valiant was left deaf and blind, repeatedly. I could hear Matsiyan calling the engines a number of unflattering epithets as they sputtered, too; and Far lost power to the weapons systems on several occasions. With all of that going on, it was all we could do to keep formation with Raven to protect the scout ship while Phoenix and Lancer darted around to pick off the enemies; and during a moment when my consoles were actually connected, I was stunned to see the ship we were engaged to protect be destroyed. After the chroedinger incident last duty shift, this was another heavy blow. I have gone over the recorded data, but the blank intervals are too substantial, and I can make little sense of it.
So we were not in best spirits as we returned to Command; and despite the good news that Hawk is operational again, and would be ready to be picked up in Atlantis Command, I could only think somber thoughts at the announcement that the Unukalhai have issued a broadcast declaring war. It seems they haven’t attacked yet, but the TSN is anticipating attacks in the border regions, and we are to be ready to respond whenever they take place. In order to improve our response time, Command has reassigned the Division to be based at Atlantis Command, so we were to report to Atlantis Command with all dispatch, while engaging any Unukalhai ships we might find on the way. Be far away, I thought. Be very, very far away.
Clearly, there was not a moment to be lost. Everyone reported back to their ships, and we set out for Atlantis. Valiant scouted ahead of the formation, making the most of her speed, and though we did encounter some Unukalhai ships, the engagements did not overtax us – just my personal fears sharpening their claws – and the technical problems seemed to abate.
In Atlantis Command, we did indeed find Hawk floating in dock, ready for us to board. A new Ensign, Ricky, had the audacity to complain about the smell… It was fresh paint and new plastics, mostly, disinfectant, cleaning fluids, the usual stuff; I don’t know what was bothering him. All the upholstery is new, too, there’s no smell of burnt anything, and not a strip of duct tape in sight. She’s ready for the new dance…
A couple of exercises were scheduled to get everyone ready for the battles to come, and we took the chance to get comfortable with Hawk once more. Familiar names gathered again, Allard, Aposine, Zelreich, Greybeard, with Ens. Ricky as the new face. And I discovered that the technical glitches had followed me. Or some problems just weren’t ironed out yet, and the exercises did their job in making that obvious. Let’s go with the optimistic interpretation this time.
[end log]
// Continuing the OOC find the references game… Matsiyan is only allowed to chime in after the next duty shift, to give people who do not share a psi link with Adele a chance to reply.
From reading the logs week after week, I can only conclude that things tend to be a lot more colorful on other ships than they are on the Raven.
//Hmm, Once More With Feeling was both a 1960’s British comedy, and the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
// One No-Prize to Aramond! Two more…
Colourful how? I’ve never set foot on Raven, so I can’t compare. Or maybe it’s the way we tell them.
// Likewise interested to know in what way colourful. When writing things up one does tend to expand the little things that happen in a game into visualizations of what that must have meant to the characters and that in turn makes it easier to see the next shift in terms of the characters. And we exaggerate. In reality, the emotional content of naval officers everyday actions is very low. Duty actions are very constrained. Not much fun to roleplay in isolation.
The best way to describe the Raven is that we’re rather straight-laced. We’ve got no DJ. There’s very little “fancy flying” (at least not when Xavier is around). We’ll joke around about as much as everyone else, but it seems like the other ships tend to have a slightly different experience. It’s either how the stories are told, or the fact that we’re the flagship.
Generally speaking there is no DJ 🙂 Mundy’s experience aboard Hawk/Valiant is an exception. The only other time I recall music in a mission is one time when Lancer was waiting at a station for the battlegroup lead to authorize departure and Commander Jemel had us play some elevator music for a few moments to highlight the fact. But you do have to be careful with Aposine. He will play stuff at obnoxious volume at the drop of a hat 🙂
Fancy flying occurs more for scouting solo missions and both Lancer and Hydra have to manoeuvre carefully given their weapons. I am not a fan of the race back to command station. It was funny once or twice, and it is something I can see a maverick scout captain doing, happily egged on by an engineer keen to see his ship gain kudos. But ploughing through minefields or endangering station traffic crosses the line and breaks the RP for me. Acceptable in a sim maybe, when intership coordination is no longer needed.
//I did authorize music while in mission a couple of times, and some others I brought the music myself. Nothing like playing Sibelius during a slow patrol run, or entering combat with Shostakovich. Still, I need to work on a way to stop my music bot from whispering on top of me.
Still, light ships, like a scout or an interceptor, tend to have more unconventional crews. I think it comes from the feel you get: if you want to survive in one of those you have to become more open minded when it comes to tactics, and it reflects on crew interactions.
I do try to cultivate the image of an excentric officer on purpose. My choice of methods is agressive and differs a lot from the other senior officers, and I find that, partly because of the aforementioned reason, acting weird myself makes a crew less relunctant to do something counterintuitive. Besides, as I don’t really care to approve individual actions that my officers believe necessary to ensure the survival of the ship (it’s their job to think about those, therefore it’s their call until they start to compromise the mission too much), I think that minimizing adherence to protocol produces better results for me. Other captains have different styles of command that emphasize other attitudes, leading to different “feels” from different crews.
Aposine, never change. 😀
I’m right there with you about the race. It’s a lot more fun to watch in disbelief as you wonder who is going to get chewed out this time.
This feeling is either because of the fantastically written logs, or that the past few duty shifts have been particularly eventful.
Having jumped around a bit, the tone is different from ship to ship. I think that’s a good thing. It makes for more interesting interaction, and increases the variety, so that people can find something that suits them well.
//Also, I’m thinking Gremlins, but I had to look up the other one, so I’m going to let someone else get it legitimately.
I actually love the esprit-de-corps of the different ships. It is definitely something that Napoleonic naval fiction highlights. It is fun being proud of your own crew, vessel and tactical role in the fleet, and having a good natured rivalry with the others.
The recent shake up was a bit sad for me in that way because I felt very much a part of the Hunter/Lancer crew. I am however now having a whale of a time on Hydra as I hope to show in my next log, if it ever gets written…
// Awesome thread here
// Gremlins is correct, No-Prize for Remmick! One more… Looking things up is legit, google is your friend.
// The race back to base seems an odd custom…
// no one else spotted the huge reference to Roger Zelazny’s alternate worlds masterpiece “Nine Princes in Amber” and its sequels
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