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Personal log: Ensign Nhaima, weapons officer abord TSN Raven
Stardate: 191116-2237It is quite nice to have quarters aboard a starship again rather than on a space station. They never sounded quite right…. In any case, making progress with my current study piece. I spent the morning before my shift continuing to learn it but since it’s longer than normal it will take more time. The galley was quieter than usual. I wonder if some have spent enough time away from home that they were nipping into the end-of-year festivities a bit early, but any day is suitable cause for celebration if we all make it back so as long as they are on time for muster then I suppose what’s the harm? Lt. Blaze, the current DO, showed me a neat trick with the laundry unit so that my uniforms are fully prepared automatically rather than needing to remember to reattach all my insignia, as well as a short cut from the docking bay to the galley. It should make things much quicker for rapid deployment if that’s needed in the future.
Several acting ensigns were promoted today, among then Ben and Candice. Good to see friendly faces getting recognition. I could tell that Ben was flying the Phoenix at one point today. Most TSN pilots don’t speed about as much, and few drift as stylishly into a holding pattern for resupply. Shift began with the normal warm-up drills. Of note were the presence of Lt. Snr. Matsiyan and Ens. Xiph, normally attached to the Lancer. I hadn’t flown with them before, but now I understand what Donovan frequently goes on about. Raven was destroyed when a hijacked vessel panicked and overloaded it’s warp reactors. Thankfully it was towards the end of the drill so I wasn’t left cooling my heels with failure in mind for long.
It was around this time that Viper and Phoenix silently fell out of formation and left the sector, though I never did catch where. I’ll need to make it a point to catch up with Ben or Lt. Slate after the fact to find out what went on since it seemed like they were able to do some real good out there. As for Raven and Horizon? More drills of course! The first was a first strike scenario where we were stationed at the enemy’s point of entry. Things went off quite well at first, but at least once friendly station was destroyed due to the wave of incoming hostiles and Horizon was disabled under similar circumstances. Lt. Snr. Mundy was in command, but whether that’s because Cpt. Evans was giving her a turn in the chair or because he had been called away to provide tactical support for the other two ships I wasn’t clear on. Lt. Snr. Mundy said that she acquitted herself quite well, and her voice did sound clear and largely untroubled the times I heard her broadcast ship-to-ship. The border war sim was followed by a deep space defense mission. It went well, though I don’t remember anything overly remarkable from it… Maybe I should set up flight recorders so I’m able to review our drills. Might help me learn more from any mistakes I make.
Of greater note, the Fleet Captain’s attention was required elsewhere, so he handed command of the Raven‘s personnel to Lt. Snr. Matsiyan who promptly marched us over to the brand new Excalibur to help give her a shakedown before her first proper sortie. It came in the form of an extended simulated mission, rather than a simple combat drill, where the USF we came to find out later had been hiding sabotaged viral containers aboard our freighters. The containment seals were intentionally weakened and would eventually fail, spreading plague as they moved from sector to sector. We came across several quarantined stations, tracked down the vessel, obtained her poisoned cargo, and delivered it to a research station for the development of an antidote. The intended response to this was to head into the Poseidon Rift and conduct an S&D mission in retaliation, but before we were able to initiate our orders we were recalled to defend Atlantis Command. The astrogation lessons I learned last week turned out to be useful earlier than I’d guessed, though I should begin familiarizing myself with key features of space because I was unable to locate Atlantis Command correctly before the final sector transition order was given. We were able to repulse the attackers but Atlantis Command and Gate Control were destroyed. Throughout the mission, Ens. Candice’s controls were going haywire so we frequently were without a science or communications officer. I rerouted part of my panel to access those functions, but split attention is not the same as dedicated hands.
As for the Excalibur herself, she’s quite different than a normal vessel. She has a standard beam as secondary armament and a heavy cannon for her primary ordinance. The range and power on it is incredible, enough to destroy an shielded target outright, but comes with a commensurately long reload time and the wait is quite a bit different when I’m used to simply burning down every target within range. The cannon requires patience for both reloading and then careful firing. Early on, it was discovered that the ship’s software would use the main cannon to intercept drones rather than the much cheaper secondary beam, so Lt. Quinn and I were required to work more closely together to shoot them down than normal. The heaviest ordinance Excalibur carries are EMPs, and that also requires some adjustment. Lt. Snr. Matsiyan, in command of Excalibur seemed pleased with our performance and I discussed the ship and it’s characteristics so that a retrofit could be prepared before the first live fire mission. It turns out that Cpt. Evans already had a lot of ideas in mind, so I merely provided some data for his modifications and confirmed the change to the beam fire control system.
Finally, Fleet Captain Xavier has requested that all TSN combat vessels begin carrying shuttle craft. I’m not sure whether this was in reaction to the training mishap, since it’s much preferrable to lose a single shuttle than the entire vessel. That’s likely part of it, but I’m sure this has been in the works for longer than that. I mocked up some initial specifications and delivered a prototype along with the retrofits required across the Division and what feedback I’ve received so far seems positive. Nothing from any of the captains yet.
Goals from this week: Remember to recommend hardening shields when approaching civilian ships, experimentation with Excalibur armament suite, deliver Excalibur analysis to Cpt. Fish and Lt. Snr. Matsiyan (complete), deliver shuttle prototype for Flt. Cpt. Xavier (complete), Excalibur simulations (ongoing), shuttle simulations (ongoing)
Display previous week’s goals:
Last week’s goals:
- Communicate more specifically: I think I’m doing better about this. I’ve started waiting half a second or so before calling out new contacts, just in case someone beats me to it, and it was easier anticipating fleet comms traffic now that I’ve had a refresher on the flagship. In progress
- Attack pattern study: Still improving, and I haven’t missed a call yet. I’m not terribly creative with inventing new designations, but I suppose that’s the least important part. In progress
- Aspect shifts in the gunner scope: I did a better job on Raven today, recognizing that a target hadn’t turned off when there was a miscommunication about surrendered targets. That said, this isn’t a skill easily practiced on Excalibur and I’m not willing to shift its status yet. Needs improvement
Recording off.
//”neat trick with the laundry unit” Hahahahaha!
//Definitely a very interesting log. I love all the RP details in it. 🙂
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