Log Mundy, 7117-2237; 14117-2237; 21117-2237

Terran Stellar Navy Forums Personal Logs Log Mundy, 7117-2237; 14117-2237; 21117-2237

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  • #20118
    Adele Mundy
    Participant

    Personal Log, Lt.Sr. Adele Mundy, TSN Raven, 2nd Flt., 4th Lt.Div.
    Stardate: 7117-2237

    Time for catching up, possibly. We’ll see if I get called again.

    A couple of initial sims went smoothly and quickly, with efficient work by Raven‘s crew: Nhaima on Tactical, Matsiyan on Engineering, Quinn on Helm, and Hall in command, while I took Science and Comms. The first sim in particular, was over in 9 minutes… the second one took a little longer, as there were larger fleets and more pirates, but not much longer. You can imagine, therefore – oh, wait, you can’t, Computer – what the effect on the bridge crew’s morale was when Hall remarked, in the debrief,”I need to find things I can bash you on, but unfortunately there’s little about your performance I can bash you on”. Yes, that is a verbatim quote. I don’t keep a Memory Palace for nothing, you know.

    The remarks hits that perfect note between damning with faint praise, the “oh not at all, I didn’t mean that, it was a joke, honest” cover-up, and the “I’m the kind of officer who will only remark on your failings, not your successes” attitude. As my own private, petty rebuttal, there is an old unattributed quote I use to cheer myself up sometimes, which may be applicable in this case: “no man is completely worthless, they can always serve as a bad example.”

    The mission started out with fairly routine deployment of sensor buoys in Sectors 7 and 8. It continued into Sector 12 to investigate conditions there. And that was when the situation turned chaotic, as the presence of a rift in the sector meant enemy fleets were jumping in, and our ships, when they approached the area, were transported, seemingly at random, to reappear in other areas of the sector.
    We had so many questions about the enemy fleets: were they using the sector for cargo runs? Were they moving troops, fleets? Where to? Where from? How stable is the wormhole? Is it shifting? And we had a disappointing dearth of answers, as our sensors were inconsistent, sensor readings didn’t change when our engineer boosted them or reduced power, and then we lost contact with ships for no perceivable reason – unless it was related to the wormhole transit by enemy ships. I have since spent a considerable number of hours with the techs, going over the sensor and console hardware, with no useful answers.

    After we returned to base, we engaged in a simulation with two ships as fighter command posts, with Berok in command of one fighter wing and Aposine of the other, five fighters in each wing, and a third ship as support. I didn’t detect much enthusiasm for this exercise from the bridge crews; the fighter pilots, of course, were all in favour; but the result was disappointing. The fighters seemed to be doing nonsensical things, our ships weren’t coordinating, there was confusion and friendly fire. The Skaraans killed a station, we (Raven, with Zelreich in command) fired ordnance at them and hit Lancer as well, and Capt. Jemel, in command of Lancer, was not best pleased. There was an exchange of, umm… heated remarks, I believe is the diplomatic term. Still, the fighters seemed to have a good time. As long as nobody has the bright idea to put me in one of those flimsy, flibbertygibbet little things.

    During a break in training, Capt. Evans announced his transfer to Fleet Intel, which means he would attend less frequently, and would mostly support from CIC; this leads to changes in Horizon’s crew, and likely a reshuffle through the Division, to be determined in the next couple of shifts.

    The final sim was utter chaos: we ran as Hunter, with Zelreich in command, starting with proximity scans of enemy fleets, moving on to dealing with elite enemies, and concluding by joining other TSN ships to destroy enemy fleets. Throughout the sim, Zelreich expressed nothing but disillusionment and ennui… does he know something we don’t know, (that’s right, Computer, he is not left-handed) or is it just him? He seemed untroubled by repeated instances of destroying surrendered enemies, and in fact encouraged it several times. I know it was just a sim, but dammit, if Tactical doesn’t get used to ceasing fire the instant a ship signals her surrender, what’s going to happen in a live engagement?

    Stardate: 14117-2237

    I seem to have vague memories of this shift, Computer, and blaming overwork is too commonplace. Let’s go through what I can remember:
    Capt. Jemel announced the promotion of Xiph to Lieutenant Junior, which of course was well deserved and well cheered.

    We started with a Double Front sim that went fairly smoothly – since Raven wasn’t running, I was sent to take SciComms on Lancer, with Capt. Jemel in command, Lt.Cmdr. Aposine as XO and on Helm, Morlock on Weapons, and Xiph on Engineering. It was a cheerful return to a familiar ship with a familiar crew, where everyone knows what they’re doing and is cheerful as well as efficient about doing it.

    The mission sent Horizon, Viper, Excalibur, Phoenix and Lancer to investigate the debris in Euphini Sect. 17, and the energy signature in Sect. 6; and the ultimate objective, as yet unrealised, is to find a planet for the ‘Ntani to colonise.

    We were warned that there had been intrusion attempts on Lancer, Phoenix and Viper, and that the engineering department had not yet determined what loophole could have caused the shutdown of the Engineering systems, but it was certainly due to enemy action. Therefore, we were warned to stay alert for any possible repeat of the intrusion. And as I recall, there was none.

    We met the usual assortment of pirates and enemy fleets in our mission, but were able to deal with them; and my mind is going blank, so I’ll sign out and dream of Paragon… I’ve been having the strangest dreams, where Great-Aunt Adele traipses through King’s Row with a couple of enlisted men and a Special Ops guy, fighting Skulls. And Polano is with her sometimes, with a couple of robots. As far as I know, Polano has never been to Paragon…

    I have no idea what Chef Anatole has been putting in the food. Perhaps the shortages are leading her to some creativity with ingredients.

    [end log]

    Stardate: 21117-2237

    Matsiyan and I had some on-site training last shift, but were able to join the Division part way through. I was flattered when Aposine, in command of Lancer, told me, in the mission debrief: “and Mundy, you saved the day as usual”; I felt compelled to point out that I hadn’t actually had that much to do on the Science console, but apparently if was enough to relieve him of the responsibility so that he could concentrate on commanding. It’s good to feel useful.

    Matsiyan, having expressed an interest in Intelligence (do not make jokes, do not make jokes, remember the psychic link…) went to CIC with Capt. Evans, who as Head of Intelligence was in command, as his instructor, and proceeded to try out a sim for the Division to take part in.

    In Matsiyan’s sim, we had to go to the Danae Sector and escort a transport back to our current headquarters, CP27X in Euphini. Pirates tried to intercept the transport, and even a couple of small USF fleets. Then an inter-dimensional time-space instability opened up directly in front of the transport, and a couple of Charybdis popped out, followed by some very surprised looking space whales, and an annoyed bowl of petunias.

    No, Computer, no petunias. I made that bit up.

    [end log]

    #20120
    Blaze Strife
    Participant

    //Berok? Hahahah

    //Glad to see you’re catching up with the logs, I’ve missed reading them. 🙂

    //Are the petunias from Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy? Or Harry Potter? I somehow see Petunia Dursley’s petunias…

    #20128
    Draeco
    Participant

    //That’d be Hitchhiker’s, with the whale and petunias being missiles until Arthur Dent started the ship’s improbability drive. Really, don’t you know where your towel is?

    #20130
    Blaze Strife
    Participant

    //Never read the book. Started it once, but stopped. Watched the film, though. But I don’t consider myself someone who must wear a towel. 😛

    #20132
    Matsiyan
    Participant

    // Hitch-hiker’s must be heard as the original radio series

    #20134
    Adele Mundy
    Participant

    //A No-Prize for Blaze for spotting my mis-spelling! It was late when I posted, and I didn’t catch the typo.

    And a No-Prize for Draeco for knowing where his towel is! And if neither of you have heard the original BBC4 radio series, I think it’s available for download somewhere out there
    waves vaguely
    on the InterTubez. In my opinion, better than the later adaptations to print or film, but then I’m something of a traditionalist. 🙂

    And a towel is essential to survival as a galactic hitchhiker:
    “A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

    You can’t be a real frood unless you know where your towel is!

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Adele Mundy.
    #20139
    Blaze Strife
    Participant

    //Oh, I didn’t know that quote. I knew about the line from the movie. Thanks for sharing it.

    #20145
    Matthew Vaj
    Participant

    // Gotta say, Hitchhiker’s Guide books are my favorite books possibly ever. And that’s saying a lot, for me.

    #20156
    Matsiyan
    Participant

    // The radio series really are more fun than the books

    #20160
    Matthew Vaj
    Participant

    // I’ve been meaning to listen to them. Maybe now’s the time…

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