LOG #102 - Commander A. Adair - TITAN Contractors
27 Mar 2022Aurora Adair-Levine (Radiumio)
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LOG: #105
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.
RECORDING LOCATION: T.O.C. Solaris (Victory-class Carrier, Q4V-40N)
Hey. Well... it's me again.
I know I have really not been keeping up with the logs very well, but for the most part I've just been hanging out with Isa. Honestly... you'd think the job of being Squadron Commander was busy or something but, right now, not really. Operations crew handles a lot of it and I get to relax. It's a win-win; since the squadron can function and I can just... chill.
And yeah... I know... as the SC, I should really be more hands-on. I'm... trying. It's just difficult sometimes. Though, I'm not shutting everything out completely. Still here, and still kicking. Had to issue a statement on the 23rd... and that was a whole thing. Last time I mentioned how the squadron was expanding operations and vice versa, which includes CSF growing its forces. Well... people didn't really like that. They figured we were militarizing fully, covering the Solaris in soldiers or whatever...
... which wasn't exactly the case. I previewed and approved the budget and process myself, and it was just new hires and new equipment being purchased. No protocol changes... no increased guard routines or whatever. So I couldn't really understand this... 'massive controversy'... that suddenly arose around it. People are - or should be at least - used to CSF operating on the carrier. It started after a second cyberattack happened on the Solaris. I mentioned the first one last time, which didn't do much damage but led to us discovering that the enemy has a fleet carrier.
This time... was nothing like that. The whole carrier went down, even after all the reinforcements we're trying to put in place with this expansion. It wasn't all that noticable for normal crew, but as the news started to spread, it became clear. Entire networks went down, the Solaris couldn't even jump. The navigation team said they couldn't risk any nav telemetry being corrupted, which is fair enough. But... it was scary. If we'd been physically attacked then... who knows what would've happened?
Thankfully, the source was obvious. That same satellite. CSF brought it on board for Mantis to analyse and whatnot but the quarantine didn't work, and the satellite wormed its way into our network, launched the attack and then deleted the core parts of its data. So... lots of people stopped trusting CSF, because they brought the satellite on board in the first place... though they still don't even know how it got into the network again even after being cut off.
Then protests started again. To say that was a trigger was... putting it mildly. It scared me. People were advocating for the entire division to just... drawdown. Now... we can't just... shut down our only defence force. But I guess I feel like it made me feel... vulnerable. Our own people turning against us. If it'd had gotten worse, we'd be facing our own internal conflict, which just can't happen right now.
Thankfully... it didn't happen. People were protesting and getting really passionate about it, and then it just... stopped after I released a statement. Just a statement saying that we needed CSF... explaining what the 'militarization' was actually about... and to my surprise, that calmed people down. It... It was actually really weird. They just changed. People advocating for total drawdown were now suddenly in support of continued expansion.
Just was really confusing, I guess. We had BLUSTAR medics theorizing that it was just stress being amplified by current events and threats but... I dunno. Raises an eyebrow, but I guess we can move on from it now. Hopefully, it doesn't happen again. I do kinda get why people don't trust CSF all that much right now, even if they're all really good people and... in the end, they're just trying to do their best to defend their home.
But, yeah... I see where the mistrust rises. When the second cyberattack happened, CSF decided to destroy the satellite... only that they didn't at the last second, and instead took it away on a covert operation, back to where they found it in order to try find more information. I didn't know about this at the time... they just... went ahead and did it. Which, even I'm not fully happy about... but I want to know what's going on as much as everyone else does.
Not excusing it obviously, it's just... having been a CSF soldier before all of this happened, I get that sometimes we can't always share what we're doing, to avoid leaks and stuff. But when I'm trying to keep the interests and safety of thousands of people in mind... well, that perspective shifts a lot. At the very least, they have said no more field operations will be taking place unless necessary. And I believe that, because we just finished Phase 2 of the squadron's expedition trip and we need to prepare for Phase 3... and CSF isn't going to abandon their one and only goal for some endless pursuit.
But, other than that... it's been quiet. Since that attack, there's been nothing more from the enemy, that we don't even know much about. Though, something odd did happen... but I don't know if it's related. Isa... had an issue with her PDA. It was all buggy and whatnot, so she sent it in to the Solaris tech shop for repairs, only for someone to get onto her digital concourse app - the one every other Commander in the squadron can access. They were typing away messages and all sorts of stuff, and when she got her PDA back and finally got back into her account, she couldn't read the messages. Most of them were corrupted and... unreadable.
I guess someone's screwing with her, but... I'm way more paranoid than her. She was talking about how Sharales told her to get a new PDA entirely but she didn't feel it was necessary and... I agreed with him. But... it's her PDA. And I know she'll keep herself safe, I trust her. Honestly... I figure she just wants to enjoy the trip. Not fixate on this small, stupid detail. Nothing much happened with it, and she has her PDA back now, so it's all good. Probably just some idiot decided to be funny or whatever. I didn't see any of this... but honestly I've never hung out on the digital concourse. Maybe I should get my account sorted and change that... I dunno.
Other than that... uh... yeah. Yeah, we've honestly been having a great time. Every day I get to see that beautiful face and smile and every day we do something together. Watch movies... or eat copious amounts of popcorn or whatever... or we cuddle~... we cuddle a lot, haha~...
Ahh... yeah. I really love her so much...
We have been hanging out with Violet too, but there's not much to say in that regard. She's just a teen and I think it's that time of the month again... so we've been mostly leaving her alone. She's doing well, though. Keeping herself busy around the Solaris too. We suggested she could fill in as a maintenance worker, earn a bit of money while she does her studies. I think that'd be pretty cool for her, but she's welcome to do her own thing as well.
And... in terms of the trip... we're back in our staging system again; Misir. We finished Phase 2 which was basically exploring these vessels called the Generation Ships, and then we tied off the end of the journey with some cool sights in and around the bubble. It was a mixture of spooky, beautiful sights and some dark mysteries. Not going to lie... I had some time to go out to a few, and they were generally quite creepy. I know Isa was checking them out quite frequently, but... yeah. There was this one I remember though, one she spoke about. The Thetis.
It had this weird signal... like a 'kill signal'. People started hearing this signal in the ship, and they gradually went crazy. Ended up killing each other. And the odd part? Isa downloaded the same 'kill signal' that had infected the Generation Ship, and she played it back, listened to it herself. She said it was creepy but it was otherwise just... a signal. She played a copy for me and even I listened to it. The signal really does sound like it's saying... 'Kill them all'... but we didn't go crazy just listening to it.
Weeelll~... unless we count being crazy for each other, obviously... haha... but yeah... She found the whole trip pretty interesting, all the sights and whatnot, and I loved hearing her talk about it. Honestly, she can talk about anything and she'll already have my attention the moment she opens her mouth. Even if it's the most silly thing...
Gosh, I keep gushing. Sorry. I'm just a little excited, I guess. A lot excited, for the next Phase of our trip. We're actually... leaving the bubble. I've gone exploring occasionally since I became a Commander but never out that far. Usually just a few thousand light years. But this... this journey is a lot further than that. We're going to Colonia. Isa said she's been before but didn't stick around long, and I've never been, obviously... just been stuck in the bubble my whole life. So, I'm really excited for this.
Can't wait to spend and go exploring with her out there. We've been talking about all the things we could find and do together, and... yeah. I'm looking forward to it. Hey... y'know, maybe we might even get married in Colonia. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I mentioned last time we were engaged, and we spoke about it a few times. But... I really want this. Really want it to happen. To be with her, for as long as I breathe.
It's just thoughts right now, though. I'm in no rush... Isa isn't either. We already got engaged faster than expected, so... we just want to enjoy it. Enjoy the moments together... and let things run their course. And when the time feels really, really right... we'll go ahead with it. Sounds like a plan, hm?
Anyway... what else...
Well, no other news, to be honest. Oh, right! Almost forgot. I had the Templar repainted again. Was just browsing online through a bunch of official, manufacturer-approved paintjobs for ships I own... and I stumbled across some Krait Phantom ones. They had one on special literally called... "Iridescent Aurora". So, honestly, I couldn't help but purchase the scheme for it and have the crew paint the ship using the scheme as a reference.
When they showed me it... well... I was blown away, actually. I liked the matte black but this one... it's beautiful. I haven't showed Isa yet but I'll do so later. I think she'll like it. Maybe she'll laugh or... joke around when I tell her the name of it!
So yeah. Things have been good. Real good. Can't really complain that much, honestly... I-...
... hm...
Ahh, right. Gotta go. Sorry... Isa's calling me. She's probably wondering where I am. Right, well... I'll try keep up with logs while we go exploring. See what beautiful stuff we can find, but honestly... I'm not too bothered about the logs. Just doing them when I feel like it and... yeah. So, while I'll try share the things we find, I'm just taking this trip as it comes and enjoying every moment with Isa-...
Right, I really, really got to go before she gets mad at me, or worried. See ya around, bye!
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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 Isabella Levine and SpectreKryik for allowing me to use their character in the story!
INARA page here.