Log Mundy, 3318-2237

[Adele Mundy]

Personal Log, SubKommandant Adelaide Mundy, ISN Oblivion, 2nd Space Flotilla, 4th Hunter Group
Stardate: 3318-2237

And so to Cerberus, with new and exciting adventures in… hold on a moment. Computer, add secondary encryption protocol Peregrine Island. Isolate file under codename Bastion. Run sound scrambling program Syryn.

Everything I’ve put in this log so far is more than enough to have us all executed, to be honest. But this is a big step. The safest thing would be to dictate a highly detailed description of, oh, I don’t know, the creepy cemetery on Striga Isle, perhaps, tomb by tomb, and place each phase of recent events inside each tomb. That would be cheerful, wouldn’t it? But then you’d never know what happened, and I would like you to know. It’s the only reason I’m continuing to write my personal log, while we’re here; it’s inherently dangerous, and will do me no good at all once we’re back in our proper universes. However, since I’m inhabiting your body and acting in ways that will most likely get you into significant amounts of trouble, I feel an obligation to explain what I’m doing and why. Your superiors may or may not accept this as proof that my actions were not yours, of course. As for what you’ve been doing, I dread to think.

We’ll cross that rainbow bridge when we come to it.

We were ordered to transfer from Promethean to Cerberus. Wagner seemed most dejected, which I only partly believed. I stopped by to see Yu before 4th Hunter left, paid Wagner’s bar tab and added a bit of credit, so that he’ll be able to drink away his sorrows with Petrescu, Ishimura, and even that xenophobe Patel.

Even on Cerberus, and with new orders coming in about clearing out the System of pirates and N’tani, it seems whatever has gone on my record is following me, and I’m not allowed on board. This left me on Station Comms, which turned out to be a good thing.

For one thing, the Fourth was assigned to act in concert with Third Hunter Group. Now, First Battle Command had a kind of grudging admiration for Fourth Hunter, a mix of wistfulness and half-ashamed envy, if I judge Wagner’s attitude and his friends’ rightly – and I think I got them drunk enough to tell. Third Hunter are a whole different kettle of space sharks. There’s no admiration, just a grudge. I have no idea what it’s about, yet, and I know that I’m not going to find out by buying drinks, not when Third Hunter officers deliberately move to the other side of the bar whenever one of us walks in. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. And yet again, I find myself wishing for a cross-universe psi-link, despite the fact that it would certainly cause as many problems as it would solve.

Our ships started out in Cerberus Sectors 2 and 5, where they engaged significant pirate forces, which were trying to salvage Hegemony and ISN ships. Strangely enough, Third Hunter’s ships were nowhere to be seen, despite having been dispatched at the same time… This meant that Oblivion, Relentless, Excision, and Invictus were gravely outnumbered, and had to take turns, leaving three ships to hold the enemy forces engaged while one ship returned to base to resupply.

After a long engagement, Fourth Hunter was dispatched to Cerberus 4, where they made contact with Third Hunter Group, and they were given orders to stop and search civilian vessels. And that’s where the situation precipitated. One civilian ship turned hostile, and was destroyed. Intelligence about a traitor suspected to be on one of the station was sent to Third Hunter, and they were ordered to apprehend him; so they started a sweep of the whole Sector, which spread panic through the civilians – I was monitoring Comms on Cerberus, and we were flooded with calls from station personnel – and caused unrest and increasing resistance. Then the traitor boarded a shuttle and attempted to escape.

One of our ships intercepted the shuttle and disabled it, killing the traitor but not destroying the controls and logs. So at least we have access to those, before Cerberus CiC do.

At this point, numerous civilian appeared to turn hostile, and Third Hunter’s Group Leader ordered Xavier – I could hardly believe it as I heard it: ordered Xavier! – to open fire on the civilian ships. I don’t think I can comment appropriately. I was busy, anyway, re-routing the signal and feeding in static instead. So, for what exactly happened afterwards, I have to rely on what I learned in the virtual conference we held afterwards (with all appropriate security protocols, naturally.)

There was no alternative: in order to prevent civilian casualties, Fourth Hunter had to engage and destroy Third Hunter. Then they detonated a number of mines Third had set, so that the radiation from the blasts would cover up evidence of the engagement. Then they sent Cerberus Command a suitably disturbed transmission about having picked up a virus (possibly from the traitor’s shuttle logs), and instituting comms quarantine protocols so that the supposed virus wouldn’t jeopardise systems on Command.

So, that’s where we are: sneaking messages to each other through comms back doors, and coming up with plausible stories so that we can continue our masquerade. I haven’t had to lie yet. I have, however, been extremely precise in my use of language, and equally economical with the truth. I am keeping to myself whenever I’m not on duty, because the less I have to talk to people, the better.

And since I have time to myself and access to the Encyclopedia, I’ve found out what’s so shocking about ordering Hjocoa. Dammit, Adelaide.

[end log]

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