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Personal Log: Ensign Nhaima, Tactical Officer, TSN Raven
Stardate: 261116-2237Things are quite quiet around here, what with the storm going on and all. I’m sure they aren’t so quiet in the quartermaster’s office and it seems like a lot of personnel has been reassigned to logistical efforts since they weren’t available for today’s drills. Things in the galley were slow. There was a discussion of civilian grade entertainment, and I continue to be unsuccessful in cajoling someone else to sing. Need to keep trying… perhaps maybe at the bar afterwards? People seem to have their guard up, even over cards. sigh
We were called into the briefing room and the Fleet Captain explained that the plasma storm was going to seemingly continue for the near future and that all non-essential operations would be halted until they abate. And everyone knows what that means… combat drills. But today was no normal day. We started with our normal fast response incursion drill. Lt. Quinn had been called away for other duties, possibly to assist the station engineering staff with their hydroponics to help stretch out the rations. In any case, I was tasked to fly Raven. Given her weapons loadout, I always expect her to handle more like a proper BB-style battleship or a pocket dreadnought, but her battlecruiser heritage shines through the stick clearly. This time, we didn’t run into a hijacked transport with our shields depleted and we had quite the good engagement. The main feature of note though was that the Lancer‘s captain had been called away and most of Raven‘s standard crew had other assignments, so I was able to fly with most of Lancer‘s crew. Ens. Xiph I flew with last week, and Ens. Donovan I’ve had prior contact with. This was my first experience with Lt. Cdr. Aposine and Lt. Snr. Mundy however, and having them all together gave the best picture of life on an Interceptor I’d had to date.
This was only brought into clearer focus when the Fleet Captain stepped off the bridge to conduct the next simulation, a historical mission where the fleet was tasked with ambushing and securing a Kralien VIP. This left Aposine in charge. Since I was flying the ship, my fingers were busy so my astrogation took longer than in weeks previous. Both the captain and the XO were clocking faster courses than I was, so I put stellar cartography in sleep mode and focused on charting efficient courses through the current sector and using the nebulae for cover. The lieutenant commander kept things lighthearted but on point, our XO had her capable hands full with the stupidity of local sector security forces. There was a slight reshuffling of positions so Xiph was in my normal chair and Donovan down in engineering, but everyone ran their tasks smoothly. We disassembled the enemy fleet with plenty of discretion, even fended off some Skaraans who seemed like they were angling after our prize. We finished mopping up the last pockets of resistance and had just returned into escort formation with the surrendered freighters when we were ordered away. They exploded shortly thereafter. I’m not sure whether it was battle damage or sabotage, I expect the latter, but I never caught why. Computer, replay comms log. Strike my last, it seems that we were able to retrieve the VIP…. maybe we scuttled those ships?
The Kraliens were developing some kind of weapon in the Erebus sector, and the fleet was dispatched to destroy it. We dove through sectors of enemies but avoided them. Most avoided them, in any case. Horizon decided that ‘do not engage enemy fleets’ still means you can enter ordinance range of them. At the center of a trio of starbases and ringed with defensive emplacements, we struck the weapons platform and destroyed it without issue. Following our tracks back home, we found that the gate had been locked out. To that end, we held on station until contact could be reestablished and gate lockout had been confirmed. After that, we began a fighting retreat through nearby sectors to circumvent the local gate’s lockout. It worked well enough, we made it to the Erebus gate, but it too was offline. We were ordered to hold at all costs until this new gate could be brought online. It didn’t look so bad. The first wave of contacts showed up, and it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle, but the previous sectors’ forces showed up in tow and suddenly things were looking less optimistic. Even so the up-gunned Lancer, in a spiritual sense, was more than able to hold her own. When the final recall order was made, everyone successfully made it to the gate and extracted without critical damage.
In our final simulation, we were tasked with holding off an invasion force attempting to establish a beachhead in our deployed sector. Lt. Commander Aposine had been handed command of the fleet, and Lt. Para reported for duty. He was handed control of the helm to my understanding disappointment. On the positive side, when I rotated back to weapons then everyone else was able to revert back to their primary stations. The acting fleet commander was having some difficulty maintaining strategic and tactical control, so he designated tactical command to the Helm and focused his attentions on making four pockets of steel, oxygen, flesh, and explosives work in concert over dozens of klicks of space. As well as we did during the previous engagement, the difference a fully staffed crew where everyone is on their primary or permanent station is a marked difference.
Cmdr. Verok wanted a private word before I went off duty. He said that the software on some officers’ consoles had not been appropriately updated and that this was likely the source of some instability in the command and control network. We discussed some steps that could be taken to help prevent similar mistakes from happening due to the oversight of a tired tech, and I told him I would work a first implementation of our discussed solution.
Goal updates:
- Shuttle implementation: Complete pending further feedback from command.
- Excalibur refit: Complete in so far as I’m able to do by myself. It’ll take a proper shakedown to see how she’ll truly handle now.
- Communication: Improving. I don’t understand the rationale for Helm controlling mine drops rather than the Weapons officer, but I’ll remember to do so in the future. I’d recommend adding that to the combat orders reference page, but I think that Captain Jemel is already tired of my training and reference recommendations. Other than that, it’s partly just adjustment to new personnel and different baselines. I don’t need to worry about calling contacts when Donovan is focusing on the Science scope. Other communication is coming along.
- Recognizing surrenders in the gunnery scope: Improving though aided by top notch science and comms officers. Thanks for all the help I get here.
- Console synchronization: Started…. not really sure what more to say here. I’ll be working on this when I’m not on watch or otherwise on duty.
Computer, cue ‘Lady of Shalott’ to play after log entry completion.
It was quite an honor to crew a ship with most of Lancer‘s finest. I know I’m slated for short range test piloting a shuttle prototype next week, but here’s hoping that’ll wrap up in time to join the rest of the fleet for the shift.
Recording off.
//Another nice log. 🙂
//”I don’t understand the rationale for Helm controlling mine drops rather than the Weapons officer, but I’ll remember to do so in the future.” → The Helm Officer knows where she’s going and knows if she’s about to make a sharp turn or not. A Weapons Officer can guess, but those guesses can sometimes be off.
// Love the flow of the prose and the consistent in character viewpoint. Great explanation of what was going on.
Cheers!// The idea of the turn is quite valid and one I probably undervalued, but most of the time the vessel is flying straight or straight enough that it doesn’t matter, there are one or two primary targets in the group or you are just aiming center mass, and the lag between helm saying it, weapons hearing it (assuming they hear it through comms traffic), and then weapons triggering the drop feels like it causes worse placement.
//The only times I had trouble with mine drops was when the Helm Officer forgot to call it, which only happens every once in a while, and I’ve spent almost all of my shifts as the Weapons Officer. Usually, there is no chatter during a mine run, since everyone knows better, so that’s not a problem. As for the reaction time, when the Helm starts flying towards the enemy fleet, my finger is hovering over the drop button, ready to press it on a moment’s notice. But you’re free to discuss the Echo manuveur with your CO.
// Onboard isn’t a problem, but fleet comms aren’t always as well timed ^_^ I definitely agree about being ready for it so I can key it off when I hear it called, but I’m still aware of the .2 seconds or so between when I hear the drop call and when the mine actually leaves. Doesn’t matter as much at low speed passes though.
// I agree with the course change issue. And efficiency aside, I like the additional element of teamwork. As helm, it is not hard to allow for the comms/weapons lag time, although at the moment I lack practice at both Helm and being aboard a vessel with mines!
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