Log 2 - Old Friends
14 Jul 2024Ethan Cenick
Decided it might be a good time to update the logbook tonight. An old friend reached out to me today asking for my squadron's help in a war his faction became embroiled in. Without hesitation I answered the call and rallied my men to jump to his system and join in the fight. As is the case with all logbook entries of this nature, the names and systems in which these battles take place must remain anonymous so as to not jeopardize our operations, but it's enough to say my men and I are getting to stretch our legs and put the name of this squadron to use for an old friend of ours.
More than an old friend, actually, a former fellow squadron member.
In my early days of my pilot career, I joined a squadron and am extremely grateful for the help they gave me. I would not be where I am today without them. They took me in and helped me get the credits necessary to get my first Cobra III and strike out on my own in the galaxy. Taught me the ropes, showed me how to fly and fight and mine and explore. Years went by, and I found myself needing to leave for personal reasons, and eventually started my own squadron. However it was all on good terms and there is no bad blood between anyone. Life happens, tastes change, and sometimes people need to go their separate ways. Despite my need to separate myself from them officially for the aforementioned personal reasons, I will always hold a special place in my heart for the squadron that helped me get started.
From guardian sites to pirate hunting to core mining, I did it all with them. Some of the friendliest people you could imagine, salt of the skies. A favorite memory of mine is when we all went to a guardian site and, after getting bored of driving the SRVs around I turned to one of the commanders and said "Hey, your Beluga looks a bit like a golf club, want to play golf with my SRV?" And boy did I have the ride of my life! Boosted up into the skies and got to watch the tail of a Beluga smack my SRV what must have been 4 or 5 kilometers across the planet surface. With some finessed booster use, I was able to land safely back on the ground and we all had a great laugh as we took turns getting hit by that massive ship.
Oh the hours we spent hunting pirates, defending the faction, mining for LTDs and Void Opals, those were good times. Happy times. Memories I'll always cherish from my beginnings as a commander.
So as you can see, answering the call to help an ally of the squadron was an easy choice to make. Some of my men are also from this squadron and are eager to aid in the war effort.
So far we have had only one man down, lost his Mamba in an intense firefight against Spec Ops forces, but thankfully his escape pod jettisoned in time and he is now in recovery. I myself found myself flying SLFs with my friend and we've won nearly a dozen battles now. We'll have to see how well we're doing tomorrow when news of the war is updated. Had a narrow brush with a rival Pilot's Federation commander as well who was fighting for the opposing side. Despite being massively outgunned against an engineered Corvette, I opened fire on the opposing commander's ship to draw his fire and let my pilot make a safe retreat. The Python II has fantastic shields and is plenty quick so even though I nearly lost my shields in the escape waiting for my FSD to charge, she held up just fine while we made a retreat to repair and re-arm. I knew my pilot wouldn't last long against such a ship and sometimes as the leader of a squadron those are the risks you have to take to keep your men alive and fighting. Knowing when you can take the hits is an important part of group combat management.
It feels good to be back in the helm of my Python II. An absolutely stunning ship, nimble and powerful, I'm not ashamed to say I take advantage of my shields from time to time and simply ram into the smaller ships to save time and ammunition.
All the while during the fights today, however, it felt....empty. Not empty in purpose, I feel the fire of helping my allies, not it was something else. It wasn't until my quiet reflection tonight I realized I'm still processing my time with Indra. Combat zones are nothing to be trifled with, let alone when a war is happening, but compared to Indra I was in my element here. Indra......was something else entirely. Combat like that changes a man. Nothing else compares. Still sends ice through my veins thinking about the experience.
Can't get distracted though. Once this war is through, we'll join the fight to open up the warpath to Thor.
Until next time, commanders.
-Ethan Cenick