- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Personal Log, Lt. Sr. Adele Mundy, TSN Sabre, 2nd Flt., 4th Lt. Div.
Stardate: 9917-2237There may be reasons to stop drinking Hjocoa, but at the moment I can’t think of any. Gather ye rosebuds, carpe diem, if we had world enough and time… all of that. Plus, it may keep me awake enough for a personal log after the ship’s log, and that call from the Library.
Our briefing mentioned Caltron activity in the Hjorden System, with attendant need to provide assistance; our mission to deliver Ambassador Fernbrook to her post; a mention of the sensor net in Cerberus giving problems; and a mission to salvage whatever remained of Lancer before the Kraliens got their hands on her.
Promotions: Jafar Ironclad is now a full Ensign; and Beaumont is a Lieutenant. I was rather hoping to celebrate in Babylon 5, but it seems neither of them share my appreciation for Hjocoa.
And we were damn short of senior officers: the Fleet Captain was there, and Capt. Evans, but otherwise, all the Captains and all the Commanders other than Aposine were busy elsewhere. I know that Capt. Jemel and Lt.Cmdr. Aramond were appearing in the enquiry about the loss of Lancer; I dread to think.
We held the customary preparation sim, which went reasonably well; then it was time to take our stations and set off to deliver Ambassador Fernbrook to her post. First, we had to clear a significant Caltron presence from Hjorden 5, including a Senary, a Duodenary, and a Swarm. Time for the headache meds…
We headed back to pick up the Ambassador, and a small, fast pirate flotilla was waiting for us — but as soon as Horizon and Viper were on their way, a USF fleet broke cover from the nebula where they had been hiding. Better tactics than we’ve seen from the Unukalhai in a while, perhaps because there were so few of them left after all the damage we inflicted in the last two shifts.
Dammit.
Well, we dealt with pirates and with USF ships. One of them surrendered, dammit, one of them surrendered and there was ordnance in flight already.
We took Ambassador Fernbrook to her posting, picked up the Ambassador pro tem, and returned to be sent on to our next mission.
A painful mission: recover Lancer’s remains. We could not risk the Kraliens recovering any technology they might be able to analyse, reverse engineer, and use against us: if they had our warp capabilities and our armament to add to their superior numbers, we’d be in trouble. So, our orders were to make our way to Erebus, and either secure the wreckage by attaching thrusters to it and sending it through the gate, or, if that proved impossible, to destroy it. We knew that Kralien forces would still be there, probably continuing to assemble the strike force we somewhat disrupted last shift; we were expecting them to be some way from the Erebus gate, searching for Lancer themselves; and we knew that the moment our engineering teams attached the thrusters, the signature would show up on the Kraliens’ scanners, and we’d have to keep them busy while the thrusters lumbered away with Lancer’s hull.
The Fleet Captain was in CIC for this mission. Lt.Cmdr. Aramond, as I said, was sweating in front of the enquiry board. Well, I don’t know that he was sweating for a fact, but I consider it an accurate guess. That left me as senior officer on Sabre. And the newly promoted Ens. Ironclad asked the Fleet Captain, “Who will be in command of Sabre?” Pause, Computer, I have to see if there’s a slot free at the range. Fragile egos need soothing. By shooting things.
[pause]
There.
The Fleet Captain replied without missing a beat, “The ranking officer.” So, I have a question of my own: why was that even a question?
So Sabre, Horizon, Hunter and Viper set out for Erebus. Horizon was lead, under Capt. Evans; Aposine had Hunter, Matsiyan had Viper. I had Wade as my extremely competent XO and Weapons officer, Quinn on Helm (he did some beautiful dodging of drones, making good use of asteroids), Jafar in Engineering. I was running Science and Comms as well, and the details blur. But we did what we needed to do, and the engineering teams brought back what was left of Lancer while we watched their back. Lancer is now in the engineering yards, while crews there evaluate if she can be put back together again, or whether she’ll be dismantled permanently. We keep losing ships, dammit. I loved my stint on Lancer, and the spirit of her bridge crew.
One cheerful event between missions: Lt. Beaumont was awarded the Silver Star in recognition of his excellent piloting skills that saved Station 557 in Cerberus.
We reassigned crew members, and were down to three ships only: Horizon, Viper, and Sabre. And no captains, either, because both the Fleet Captain and Capt. Evans were required in CIC. Because Aposine’s duties took him elsewhere, this left Matsiyan in charge of Viper and the fleet, Hall in command of Horizon, and me in command of Sabre, as we received a signal from some Zolmari ships through the Cronus Gate, requesting assistance.
They were trying to escape pursuing Kraliens in ships that weren’t really fit to fly – which was how they’d managed to get hold of them in the first place, since reasonable people wouldn’t risk their lives in them. So we had to keep their pursuers off their backs and escort them to safety, which was easier said than done. For a while, I fought to focus on my own ship and my own consoles, with Matsiyan’s voice, Matsiyan’s screens, the comms traffic to and from Viper battering at my attention. Then (was it a reaction to the overload? A protection mechanism?) I experienced a sensory blackout and had to leave Lt. Wade in charge. Yes, Computer, sensory, not sensor. Yes, I have reported it to MedBay. Yes, they did all the tests. No, they didn’t find anything.
Where can I place this memory? Somewhere dark and spooky… Perez Park at night, on the broken plaque by the Red River, by the moss-covered statue.
The screen went, and the bridge went. I heard a ringing in my ears. I had time to say, “Mr. Wade, you have the bridge,” and I lost all sense of where I was. A voice was talking to me, pleading for my help, urging me to support their cause. Who was it? What did I reply? I think I said I would make a call… Was it real? Did I hallucinate it? Do I know something I don’t know?
I felt rather disoriented coming back. One of the Zolmari ships had suffered a core breach, and radiation was affecting the area. Our ships improvised a containment field by deploying reconfigured comms buoys as we raced to recover the life pods from the Zolmari ship; all this, while fighting off pursuing Kraliens. And just to make life interesting, we received a message from an operative on one of those pursuing ships, who was close to being discovered. We were faced with the interesting problem of isolating one Kralien ship out of a Kralien fleet, one ship we did not want to destroy among a fleet we did want to destroy, because they were trying damn hard to destroy us. I threatened, I promised safety if they surrendered, I used the formal honorifics and the emotional undertones, but nothing. That damn ship’s shields were collapsing and they wouldn’t surrender. Wade resorted to using torpedoes to try and do just enough damage without destroying the ship.
She did surrender in the end. And whoever the operative “Callsign Pelican” is, they managed to send out a Black Box, which was recovered. As I understand it, the data on it contains information on Kralien forces in the area, which might well become relevant in our next missions.
And that’s it for today. I have reached saturation point. Decompressing would be good. I wonder if there’s a good sailing program on the holodeck?
[end log]
//Mundy’s sensory blackout, ringing in her ears and voice in her head were a RL phone call I had to take mid-mission.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.