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Personal Log, Lt. Jr. Alia Nhaima, TSN Phoenix, helm officer
Stardate: 22417-2237The past month has been somewhat tumultuous, and I haven’t recorded my thoughts as I should. To that end, I’ll try to summarize my thoughts such as they are. Computer, index log based on the following topics:
The end of the Euphini assignment
TSN Phoenix
Initial confrontations with Ximni forces
Events of 22417-2237Index: The end of the Euphini assignment
Slingshot facility damaged or destroyed. Planet discovered, and two expeditions made on behalf of the N’tani. The first journey lacked proper atmospheric craft to land their supplies… this required yet a second expedition that was vaguely less uneventful than the first but both were extremely routine. The renegade Kralien faction still seems like the enemy of my enemy, an ally of convenience and a truce that will be shattered the moment it is more convenient for them to do so than to maintain this farce. Unexplained anomalies and an unreasonably dense concentration of space crystals should help preserve the fledgling N’Tani colony. Standard orders should be to load a pshock before entering that sector though until something can be done to help counteract a hungry crystal unless the commander is willing to flush one down a singularity nearby.
Index: TSN Phoenix
As of 1417-2237, I was reassigned to the Phoenix. After a five month tenure at tactical aboard the flagship, I was finally able to take a permanent post at the helm so I’m no longer eyeing Lt. Quinn’s post with gaze unbecoming an officer. So I packed my things up and shipped off to my new bunk. The Raven had been my home since I joined the 4th Light Division. Yet in my off-duty socialization, the Phoenix had become a lot like a family to me.
Even then, fitting in off duty and filling in on a ship are different matters entirely. There are some days I’m not quite sure if I fit in on the Phoenix. Unless given an illegal order, it is my duty to obey my commanding officer to the best of my ability. I also know that the Phoenix can be a controversial ship. Despite that, it gets the job done. And I don’t mean that from the stand point that everyone always thinks their ship and crew is hot stuff. They all are in their own individual ways. The way the vessels themselves are designed and outfitted, the commanding officers, right down to how the individual officers themselves execute their respective duties. I approach my responsibilities differently than other pilots in the division. I’m probably more similar in terms of my tenure as a weapons officer to others, but that’s because there is not an awful lot of flexibility there outside of the gunnery scopes, knowledge of enemy hull design, and reaction times. In engineering I feel like I run the ship more aggressively than others, but that could just be because I’m not standing over their shoulders. I can’t see the heat indicators from another station unless some juncture ruptures and we have reduced system capacity. I know I approach science in the school of scan deep rather than scan broad in most circumstances, and while I will always be a student of Slate’s school of comms I won’t ever be her peer…
I suppose what I mean to say is that the ships are made special by the ones who fly them. That’s our family. We may be better at some things than others. We are certainly worse at certain tasks or roles than others. But our ship mates and the division are our family. We shouldn’t hate our family. We shouldn’t tear our family down. I’m sure on some level we can be too harsh even if well intentioned, and I know I’ve crossed that line before. I’m sure I will again. But I shouldn’t, because anyone who requests reassignment from the division or just desk duty is as much a hole when we ship out as someone who is KIA. I want to be better. Not just technically better, but better all around. I’m not really sure everything that means… Perhaps I was too hard on Cmdr. Tuor today. Perhaps I was too hard on Lt. Cdr. Zelreich today. Maybe I should cut everyone a break…. even if the deck officer in CIC decides that next week is a good time for another bloody simulated escort mission.
Index: Growing Ximni conflict
I’m still not certain why the Ximni have started attacking. They say we started it, but have yet to provide any proof. There was a diplomatic mission, but they broke it off while initiating a military strike nearby… I like the Ximni. They’re actually useful and I still maintain the hope of acquiring another jump drive and doing a proper installation this time.
Someone mentioned trying to develop jamming technology to prevent the ximni from performing their rapid reposition. If we captured one of their ships, we could perhaps develop some kind of inhibitor or reverse engineer the technology. We could also borrow officers who have experience with jump drive execution or theory and run a simulated combat encounter to allow the rest of the division experience combating properly jump capable targets. Some Skaraan ships have a short range jump drive but it’s unpredictable and pales in comparison to what is within Ximni capacities for warfare.
Index: Events of 22417-2237
Commander van Leigh had alerted me that he would be otherwise occupied and therefore would not be with the Phoenix during the duty shift. I’d assumed this meant that Lt. Cdr. Zelreich would be in the captain’s chair but instead Cmdr. Tuor was brought in and given the command instead. So it was the four of us (Cmdr. Zelreich, Lt. Slate, Vaj, and I) along with Beaumont who was familiar with the commander’s style having come over from Hunter too. I suppose this is why we run sims before a mission since things didn’t work well at first…
Everyone was on their specialty save Beaumont who had weapons foisted upon him, despite it being neither his primary nor secondary focus. The commander seemed to be accustomed to micro-managing. He questioned the XO when Lt. Cdr. Zelreich certified that the crew was ready to fly, censured him when the XO gave tactical direction as he was accustomed to with his crew under its normal CO, and criticized Weapons for firing a PShock without explicit authorization. We sustained a lot of damage from what should have been trivial engagements due to miscommunications and perhaps reluctance to act with initiative.
I know that was certainly true on my part initially because the commander, perhaps intending it to be a joke, made the comment that at one point I was finally choosing to obey orders. I don’t remember the exact words, but it was certainly shocking. I don’t think I’ve ever disobeyed my superior’s orders. That comes from someone who would have very happily burnt down fleets of what we call the renegade Kraliens because I did not feel required to honor their cessation of hostilities, and that comes as someone who has followed orders since the beginning of my tenure on the Phoenix that caused some controversy. And it’s my obedience that is questioned, in public, on a bridge, in the middle of a mission – though simulated. I found it quite humiliating.
Needless to say, the first sim went very poorly. I reminded the commander that the rest of us had served together a fair amount. It didn’t occur to me then, but the other three had been on the Phoenix longer than I’ve been with the 4th Light Division. It’s a family of it’s own. It should be welcoming of outsiders, yes, but it’s unreasonable to try and force on an immediate and temporary basis a crew to function in a way they are not accustomed to so long as compliance and obedience are provided… I wonder perhaps if the issue might have been solved had Cmdr Tuor and Lt. Jr. Beaumont were still assigned to Phoenix to close ranks but Lt. Cdr. Zelreich retained command since he was the executive officer assigned to his ship crewed almost completely by it’s regular personnel. COs frequently yield command during sims to those they outrank during sims so it’s not unheard of. It would also respect the ship and crew by not replacing the CO with someone they are unaccustomed to. Cmdr. Tuor could perhaps have been allowed to serve as XO to recognize his rank while still acknowledging that this is not his ship and not his crew. The Fleet Captain, aboard any other ship, is not that ship’s captain though he could assume command if the situation required it…… I did also ask for clarification about the commander’s joke but didn’t receive any clarification on the matter.
The second sim went better. I’d asked for assignments and guidance so I could execute the commander’s vision rather than just trying to blindly follow the vector I’d been given or run out the fuel collectors if we were going to loiter for a while. The XO had a longer rein to give advice or order the other officers in instruction to carry out the overall delegated tasks. I believe it was the second sim that the commander opted to go to the briefing room rather than give feedback when asked during the mission debrief, but I don’t recall.
After the sims, I was alerted by the DO that Lancer was under staffed and missing a pilot and that I was to report aboard at once. A few moments later, and I was trying to recall exactly how I needed to adjust my normal reactions for the Lancer. Some of my point turns were correct, but sometimes I overshot the target slightly. It’s a wonder what going a bit faster changes things. Lt. Cdr. Aposine was the OIC today and he handled himself quite well. Over the course of the mission, we were required to destroy several Skaraan and Ximni targets and all melted under the Lancer’s firepower in due course. At one point during the mission, we were tasked with QRF as well as defending an isolated base…. So you know what happens next. We got drawn into quick response defending the bases that were more closely aligned along an easily warpable corridor and while dealing with one base a Skaraan slipped in and destroyed the one we had been assigned. The Fleet Captain was complimentary of our performance but the CO still felt frustrated that while we had performed well by a realistic metric – we hadn’t accomplished our objective.
One further reshuffle and I was back on Phoenix. I was briefly assigned to tactical to allow Beaumont some time to drive, which was fine. The simulation suite crashed though during a border war simulator, and that was quickly scrapped. In its stead, Cmdr. Tuor decided we’d shake things up for the final mission. He gave Lt. Cdr. Zelreich the command and scrambled the rest of the crew in an attempt to put people on stations their service jacket would indicate they’d find challenging. I wound up in Engineering which suited me fine. I uploaded my preferred allocations to the computer and apologized to the DamCon crews and settled in to wait. Vaj was flying, Slate had… science I think? Beaumont would have been on comms then, because Cmdr. Tuor was on weapons. This was a bit of a disaster, but for differing reasons than the earlier set of simulations.
Despite the fact that I bring handheld view screens with me when I’m running the engineering deck, not as much of it sticks in my mind. Probably because I’m used to listening to the captain and reacting to circumstances rather than straining to listen to crew crosstalk for what the most pressing need at the moment is. Somehow, we got into a fight we weren’t going to win so we were ordered to withdraw. During the withdraw, Vaj said he was going to try and thread a minefield. Tuor didn’t raise the shields, so the extra power I dumped into them didn’t matter. My board lit up with bright angry colors and many of our systems were disabled. One I made sure to call out, perhaps not clearly or strongly enough, was maneuver. We continued pulling out to make repairs, but a few drones and a fighter (I think) appeared within combat range. I pointed out the broken maneuver system, mentioned that there were more mines directly ahead, and launched in a fighter to shoot down the drones and fend off the inbound bogey. Again, I probably didn’t say this clearly enough because Vaj reacted to the threats the only way helm can when the shields are down, by running away…. Straight into the minefield.
I survived, because I was in my fighter, but some contractor decided that it was a good idea to route fire control through the main ship so all my weapons went dead. Without the ability to defend myself against Arvonian fighters that were much faster than mine and without a display to tell me the boundaries of the nearby minefield, I wasn’t able to defend myself. I lasted longer than the Phoenix, but not that much longer. I think there was another close scrape with mines, and Vaj and I were ordered to switch. I was back on helm, so I was once again in my comfort zone as was Vaj down with the grease monkeys, but this kind of scrapped my assumption for the point of the exercise.
I don’t remember how it happened either, but Lt. Cdr. Zelreich suddenly said he wasn’t in command. I’m guessing this was just prep for the day he inevitably has other duties when the Phoenix launches and Commander van Leigh has one of his episodes and we’re left without a clear chain of command…. So I just started giving orders. It felt a little awkward because I knew both the commander and the lieutenant commander were still there, but Cmdr. Tuor continued loading and executing my orders even if he didn’t have magnitudes of seniority more than I. At some point, the Fleet Captain snuck onto the bridge to witness the results of my innocuous, innocent, and unintentional little coup. Everyone seemed to be pleased with the results of it, so at least there’s that.
It’s been quite the day… time for some rack time.
// Greatly enjoyed. Agreed on what makes ships special, that curious blend of personalities and the ability to get along and remember that everyone is the hero of their own story.
// Tuor just had to put me on the one station I just can’t man very well. *sigh.* Oh well. It was fun anyways, and hopefully I learned a few things. 🙂
// I wasn’t complaining about your performance Vaj, not in the slightest. I was also advocating for Slate to take Helm, who usually professes that we would have met the same fate if not faster. I lucked out and got put on a station I feel comfortable with. I’m much more reluctant about my ability on Comms, especially when I’m on the same bridge as Slate. If you want to work on Helm, just let me know. I’m always happy to let someone else take a turn or we can meet outside of shift and you’d have all the opportunity you’d want!
// I have been reminded how rusty I am on Helm. I enjoy it and usually perform reasonably well but lack of practice drags it down so fast. Last week my joystick config was all messed up leading to some very near disasters. This week I did better except for the embarrassing misses of the docking button. I think I missed four or five attempts. And I forgot I tend to pull back as I veer which led to deploying mines uselessly at maximum altitude. Sigh.
My main bugbear is Weapons. Don’t know why it seems like too many buttons to handle 🙂 So if I have to I love the interceptors.
// The most important buttons for weapons are B(manual beams) and K(raise shields). If you want extra credit, then L lowers the shields, 1-5 correspond to missile type, and shift+# loads corresponding tube with the active ordinance type or fires what ever is loaded. I know the hotkeys for the rest, but I use those so infrequently I don’t trust myself to find them quickly and blindly. And you can always rebind it. Same goes for you or anyone, if you’re free during the week or early for a shift, I’m happy to help get some practice in for whatever.
// B,K,L I have, though unless I am frquently on Weapons I always forget shields first time out. Also I have the arrow keys for selecting frequencies, but mapping ordnance type to 1-5 is not instinctive and my brain seems to rebel at the idea of overloading those with shift to represent a tube instead of a missile. I’m tempted to map Shift1-5 to 6-0 instead (or vice versa). And the one I can never remember is the zoom keys.
Week practices would be Monday or Thursday or Sunday which is why we have not yet managed to try Eastern Front.
// more than happy to help you find a game that fits your schedule. Or ping someone on the discord group and you can usually get something impromptu together. http://cattail.nu/artemis/when_is_the_next_online_artemis_game.html
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