LOG #087 - Commander A. Adair - TITAN Contractors
10 Dec 2021Aurora Adair (Radiumio)
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LOG: #087
RECORDING TYPE: Personal Log LOG PUBLICISED
What does Log Publicised mean?
In our squadron lore, these logbooks are not supposed to be publicly viewable by Commanders. However, in some circumstances, a log may be compromised OR publicised, allowing it to be considered publicly viewable - in this case, the information within can be used for story or discussion purposes in-character. Compromised implies the logbook has been leaked, whereas publicised means the logbook has been willingly released for story purposes.
In our squadron lore, these logbooks are not supposed to be publicly viewable by Commanders. However, in some circumstances, a log may be compromised OR publicised, allowing it to be considered publicly viewable - in this case, the information within can be used for story or discussion purposes in-character. Compromised implies the logbook has been leaked, whereas publicised means the logbook has been willingly released for story purposes.
RECORDING LOCATION: T.O.C. Solaris (Drake-class Carrier, Q4V-40N)
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... Hey...
... Man... trying to figure out how to start these off is always a hassle. But... I don't know... I just wanted to talk about some stuff. We're still on that Solaris trip... I've been exploring a bit which has been pretty fun. Some beautiful views out here... not something everyone gets to see. But... obviously, can't have the good without the... uh... "bad", I guess.
So I suppose I'll just start off with the good news. That the trip has been fun. That I've had some time to hang out with Alexis... even Tori as well. We haven't hung out for a while and... I think that's because of what happened last time. Plus the... y'know...
Nevermind. So, as I said last time, Mantis... our... uh... strategy division, they basically started off a little survey operation. I'm still certain it's kind of a cover for whatever that CSF taskforce is doing back in the bubble but... not my concern because I'm still suspended...
Is it... wrong to say I'm starting to feel a little down? I guess when I get to the bad news, maybe you'll understand why. So... continuing the good news, like I said... the trip's been fun. I got an opportunity to tag along with some of the TSV Journey crew... they're... uh... basically a Mantis survey crew. About 70 personnel, usually they fly a custom-fitted uh... Beluga Liner, I believe. It's an awesome looking ship. Very sleek... fitted with a lot of exploration gear, and luxurious interior too. Wish I had one... well... technically it is mine, but whatever. They'd been basically recovering information on something called Project Dynasty - I mentioned it a little last time.
There were some settlements around the destination of the Solaris - not even going to try bother saying the system name - but they basically had the duty of retrieving the physical data from each settlement, just to analyse them for 'quirks', like anomalies and interesting corruption. Honestly, seems like a bit of an odd thing to go 8000ly out for, which is why I think there's more to it... but maybe not. I mean, what we found out here was pretty interesting, enough to warrant such a travel. So, once they'd scouted out all the settlements, they were going to travel an additional 4000ly to reach a lost megaship, called the Zurara.
I guess its objective was to locate terraformable or Earth-like worlds for humanity, marking them in case we needed a... like a fall-back point if the bubble fell. When it completed the mission, it got sabotaged... the crew just... left for dead in the Formidine Rift. For dozens of years. I guess that's the one thing that scares me about space. Being left alone. Never to be found by anyone... but at least with the technology nowadays, it's easier to get around... to avoid that fate.
Anyway, so the TSV Journey planned to cross that entire gap in their Beluga... but being a fairly heavy ship the range wasn't all that fantastic. I was told it was something around 50ly or so... so not bad, but 4000ly would take time to cross. So... I offered them the Andromeda. It might be a little sluggish and not exactly specced out to save weight, but it comes out on top at about 70ly or so, which would make the journey a bit faster. They did, surprisingly, accept the offer quite quickly, and just moved some of their personnel across, with some equipment. After all, we just needed to acquire some data from the Zurara.
And I got to come along. It was awesome... though I didn't fly. They wanted to neutron-boost... which I don't know if I have the skills for yet. The pilot... her name was Skye, she's damn good. It was like she'd done this kind of thing before, and even though flying into one of the cones was incredibly terrifying... she just did it with ease. After the initial worries subsided, I felt like the Andromeda was in good hands so... I spent some time chatting to Tori. She was there... apparently she got promoted to lead exobiology specialist on the TSV Journey.
She's still a CSF operative but... when the Journey goes out on missions, that's her new role. I'm happy for her... she seems happy. Way more so than after everything that happened to her. We don't talk much anymore but... I guess that's just how things go. But, at least we had some time to catch up now... kind of made me wish we could do it more often, but she's always busy with CSF stuff and... usually I'm busy with SC stuff. Anyway... time flew past while we were chatting so... before we knew it we were already at the Zurara. It was left abandoned orbiting a high metal content world... that could be a terraforming candidate.
When we found the ship... it was powered on, though the logs indicated the main reactor was sabotaged. So... either it's residual power from like... solar or something, I dunno. The ship was definitely not habitable within though... and even though we weren't allowed to board, the scans and logs told us enough. Other than it being a pretty morbid... messed up story... it was a... uh... serene view, I guess. It was pretty cool... despite it being... y'know... a husk of a ship that once had thousands of people onboard.
I did get to fly around a bit though. They retrofitted a fighter hangar into the Andromeda, so we could have a more flexible craft to get closer to the megaship... got to fly that around a little bit. Makes me wonder if I should keep the SLF bay on the Andromeda for stuff like that, though weight is a concern... Anyway, we spent some time flying around, while some specialist guys were busy connecting to the megaship to retrieve data. We didn't find anything new, but as I said... the interest was in what kind of quirks the data had acquired over these dozens of years. And it sounds like Mantis is satisfied with what they found.
So... after Skye returned us to the Solaris, after the data got all checked out and the Andromeda was handed back to me... I kinda went and did my own thing. Took the Templar out for a little bit and did some local exobiology. It took my mind off things, but not for very long because... well... the bad news...
The Peacekeepers have apparently been really unsuccessful about getting Isabella out of Imperial prison... which just [#$@!]ing sucks... makes me so angry. She doesn't deserve to be falsely imprisoned like this... and I hate that I just... I can't do anything about it... legally, at least. And I don't want to make things worse for us... or for her, by doing something wrong. Personally, it kind of feels like I failed her. And... maybe it's a little harsh but... even as SC, I couldn't do anything to protect her. To protect anyone. People got hurt anyway... because of my decisions.
... It's kinda funny how I hate briefings and stuff normally... but it's the only thing that distracts me from thinking about stuff like this. I don't know... I'm just looking forward to return to the bubble today. Now that the mission is done, the Solaris will be jumping back... and that's five hours extra I can spend sleeping... or thinking about stuff, yet again. I just don't know what to do anymore. I get to talk to Alexis every day a little bit, but she's busy hanging out with the CSF team she's been assigned to... Tori is busy, everyone else is preoccupied or wasn't on the Solaris when we departed.
It's a little bit lonely, I'll admit... and talking about this doesn't help me. Navarro is still a vivid memory, so is the attack on the Solaris... my coma. So, what's next, huh?
... I should probably go pre-occupy myself with something else, instead of ranting and rambling on... Sorry.
Maybe I have the space madness, I dunno... anyway... hopefully by the time I record my next log, we'll be back in the bubble and things will turn up again. Hopefully.
Thanks. See ya.
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Credit:
This story is only possible thanks to our squadron and community. Join TITAN Contractors, a diverse and talented squadron, and experience our custom lore and events. This logbook as well as associated images and story is property of TITAN Contractors, CMDR Radiumio. A special thank you to CMDRs Alexis Bright and Isabella Levine for allowing me to use their characters in the story!
INARA page here.