Log Quinn 9116-2237

[Quinn]

Personal Log: Lt.Jr. Quinn of the TSN Hydra (CM-008), 2F, 4LD
StarDate: 9116-2237

With my unexpected and humbling promotion at the beginning of this shift from Ensign to Lieutenant Junior have come many thoughts about duty and legacy. It is with this in mind that I intend to begin the habit of keeping a personal log of my time in the Terran Stellar Navy. Just as looking back on my days as a cadet now seems a blur, I expect that after my retirement many years from now, I will have great difficulty recalling the exciting events of the present. I will only have to review this log to remember the camaraderie and the excitement of this time in my life.

As I said, my promotion to Lt. Jr. was somewhat unexpected. I knew it was inevitable, but I have worried lately that I have failed to distinguish myself significantly as “leadership material” to the top brass. It seems that my enthusiasm was noticed by Commander Verok at the very least, and for that I am grateful. I do not intend to disappoint him or invalidate his faith in me, and for that reason I have decided to volunteer for more duties both aboard the Hydra and within the division as a whole.

With the new year upon us, the brass have been encouraging us to apply for new billets on other ships, as well as shaking up the collated duties. My guess is that they intend to keep morale up and spirits high in the face of long, sometimes grueling patrols. They are even trying to imbue some honor and pride in the collated shipboard duties, which previously were foisted onto cadets and non-commissioned officers as unpleasant but necessary tasks.

With the USF breathing down our necks and possibly even infiltrating our ranks, I suppose these seemingly mundane tasks are actually quite important to the safety and security of the crew. As the ranking helm officer aboard the Hydra, I believe it is high time I started to set an example of attentiveness to such details, and apply for one of the positions myself. The billet of Ancillary Craft Officer seems most relevant to my skills and interests, and may even give me the opportunity to take the Captain’s Gig out for a joyride. Computer, strike last.

The position involves tending to all the small craft aboard the Hydra, ensuring that they are all fueled, stocked, and inspected regularly. I’m most interested in giving the life pods a thorough look, since the Hydra seems to make more use of them than the TSN engineers traditionally recommend. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the life pods may be older than any other part of the ship, given how many times the Hydra has been dry-docked and refit following some catastrophic occurrence or another.

We only have the one shuttle aboard, which should make the job of keeping those life pods up to snuff a little easier. Of course, the second shuttle bay was converted into ordnance storage after our last refit into a missile cruiser.

Also, the rotation of the Duty Officer and the Assistant Duty Officer have come around again and I have applied for the ADO position. I’m not sure how many other candidates there are, but I am eager at the very least to show the brass my intentions by throwing my cap in the ring.

That seems to be all of the clerical items out of the way. I’ll try to recall the duty shift’s events now, though I seem to have trouble with the details. I tend to get into a flow state when flying, which doesn’t exactly benefit the cause of posterity. In future I I’ll make a point to keep personal notes of the action, though I certainly have to be careful when it comes to classified information, command tells us we can never be sure when the USF is looking over our shoulders.

The start of the shift saw the three permanent members of Hydra’s bridge crew reunited again, which is always a relief. It seems that for the past few duty shift, Lt. Jr. Fulvus and I may have been trading back and forth some bug, landing us in sickbay in what seems like alternating shifts. As per usual, our remaining bridge crew was filled out by officers from other ships, or unassigned officers. If I recall correctly, we had Lt. Jr. Mundy on SciComms and Ensign Cessna take up the Engineering. I may be misremembering, of course.

Apparently Lt. Jr. Mundy was aboard the Hawk last shift, and is (perhaps rightfully) a little bitter about the incident that has become the talk of the division. All agree that it was the result of unfortunate miscommunication, but I can’t help feeling complicit in the accident that put the Hawk in drydock this shift. We had been engaging in fleet action against a significant enemy force, and, from my perspective, had been given the go-ahead for an Echo run through the center of the enemy fleet. Weapons and I both confirmed readiness for the maneuver, then Commander Verok confirmed the order as an Echo-4 and gave me tactical leeway to call for the mine drops. Apparently the Hawk had heard a command for Charlie maneuvers, and began to follow us into the heart of the enemy fleet. They never stood a chance.

I feel guilty about the accident, despite the Commander’s assurances that it wasn’t my fault. I should have noticed the Hawk moving in behind us and aborted the maneuver, but I was pre-occupied with navigating the best path and most effective drop zones. I know it’s not much of a consolation, but I hope I was able to make up for it a little bit by maneuvering with all haste to recover their life pods immediately. I know what it’s like being crammed into life pods and I wanted to relieve them of that unpleasantness as soon as possible. After the action was done, we were able to deliver the Hawk’s crew back to their ship and I was extremely impressed at the speed with which they were able to get her limping again.

I imagine the crew of the Hawk won’t soon let us forget that blunder. In any case, back to today’s duty shift.

Our first simulation went well, though I find myself wishing for a full, permanent bridge crew to work with. Not that Mundy, Cessna, and Lt. Hall (who joined us later) weren’t up to snuff. Quite the contrary, in fact. I could tell by the end of the shift that they were extremely competent and versatile officers. No amount of skill can compensate with the efficiency of a well-drilled and familiar crew, however. Our temporary officers have to start fresh every shift, learning how to operate a missile cruiser, learning how to work under Commander Verok, and learning how to work with Fulvus and myself. I don’t envy them that task.

After the first simulation, we were told we would be engaging in a ship-to-ship wargames simulation with the other crews. What could be more exciting? It was to be a 3-vs-2 scenario with the objective of controlling a tactically significant area under heavy fire. We were to be paired with the Lancer and I think all officers involved were excited to show their pride in their ship and crew. Unfortunately, the simulation never got off the ground and the techs have some more work to do before any scores are settled. Perhaps we’ll get the chance next duty shift.

We were called up to our scheduled patrol next, in which we had the honor of being the first joint patrol with the N’Tani navy. At first the patrol was somewhat boring, with the only highlight being the fascination with the N’Tani fleet. Their ships use jump drive technology, which I am grateful the TSN is hesitant to use, and fly in strange, organic formations. When the Hydra was used as an anchor point for their first jump, I got nervous when they began to swarm around us. Commander Verok observed that the formation looked a bit like a flower and I can only imagine what alien flowers the N’Tani modeled it after. One upside to their tight formations is that their laser coverage overlapped significantly. Any threat that decided to get close would have very little time to reconsider their folly.

Patrols are never boring for very long, and as the patrol went on we began to encounter significant resistance from both pirate forces and from USF ships. They are getting bolder with their incursions into our territory, sending formidable ships to harry our forward lines. After dispatching one of their larger ships, we were able to recover a life pod and a black box data recorder, which were each escorted cautiously to the medbay and to the cargo hold, respectively.

After our patrol, we had another simulation in which Commander Verok was in command of the fleet, which was interesting. He is getting much more comfortable commanding the fleet, which is inspiring to watch. Lt. Hall was acting as XO and the entire crew compensated admirably to the Commander’s diminished attention to shipboard activities by trying to anticipate his next order. He seemed to appreciate this effort, so I think I’ll work to be a little more proactive like that in the future.

I fear that this log may be too long to be of use to anyone but myself, but perhaps future logs will be more condensed.

Until next shift, then.

Lieutenant, Junior Grade Quinn
Helms Officer
TSN Hydra (CM-008)
2nd Fleet, 4th Light Division

• This topic was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by Quinn.

[Matsiyan]

// Apologies I am in a rush. This is very nicely done. I will try to give more specifics later. I think the logs could be invaluable in the next story arc.

[Author]

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