Log van Leigh 3916.2237

[John van Leigh]

Personal log
Commander John van Leigh, TSN.
Stardate 3916-2237

This week I was finally able to get some sleep, as most of my paperwork was up to date. Too bad my ability to stay awake went right through the airlock the moment our plans for the evening were announced: we’d be practising formation flying.

I should probably begin at the meeting. At last, the crew of Phoenix is complete. All six bridge officer chairs are assigned, and the names in that list are extremely promising. My presentation regarding the Personnel Department went without issue, as well. But then came the planning stage. We received orders to deepen our offensive in Erebus, which is great, but we had to go through formation flying. Voiddamnit.

Spending an hour killing simulated targets while trying to retain a V shape is not easy, interesting, nor rewarding, and my lack of enthusiasm might have extended to the others. This became even more poignant when we finally got the hang of the exercise and the rest of the sim became an endless routine of formation keeping and sarcastic comments. I did learn that Slate doesn’t like Pomp and Circumstance, though, although I wonder how she’d react to Walton.

The siege went well. Phoenix took a hell of a beating but handed out a worse one, and I’m more concerned with letting the crew rest than the repairs, at this point. We can beat the old ship into combat shape if necessary, but exhausted officers make mistakes. There is one last point to be said of tonight’s battle: as Dante put it with incredible accuracy, blowing up Kraliens at the sound of Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto is classy as all hell.

Again, when we were done, everyone at all levels was exhausted, and continuing with combat sims as scheduled would had turned into a clusterfuck in ten seconds flat. So we decided to have fun and rotate command postings. Both Kennon Far and Braddock proved to be amazingly skilled.

And I need a glass of anything.

[Matthew Vaj]

// Sorry I missed it. I’ll be missing next week, too, and then my Saturdays should be clear again for awhile.

[John van Leigh]

//This time of year is rough on a lot of people, as well. You’ll be missed, sure, but we’ll get to work with you eventually.

[Matthew Vaj]

// Incidentally, I find it amusing that although you’ve complained about the Phoenix being the oldest and in some ways weakest ship, she’s the one with the first full bridge crew.

[John van Leigh]

//I think I owe that one to Dante to a good degree. He did manage to keep a lot of the crew together after the rearrangement. But Phoenix is really, reaaaally old, she’s been with us even before I first joined, and (having been destroyed a lot in that time) we never had a period without her being in service. If you look at it, all other ships of the division belong to a class from the mod: a Battlecruiser, a Valkyrie cruiser, an Interceptor, and an Apollo cruiser. The Artemis class has no special features whatsoever, no increased rate of fire, no long range beams… And yet she manages to hold her own as well as any other ship. I find that amazing.

[Matthew Vaj]

// Perhaps the crew can take credit for that to a large extent. Although we’ve had our fair share of close brushes with destruction and death, we’ve managed to hold her together. 🙂

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