Commander's Personal Entry - December 24th, 3303
25 Dec 2017Orion Starhunter
I will begin this entry with a Merry Christmas to all, and both my wife and myself hope everyone has a great Holiday full of celebration with their families and loved ones.I have been monitoring sub-space audio for the last few days now, and apparently we have had yet another unprovoked attack by the Thargoids to three more starports. Reports came in on December 22nd, stating that Medusa class Thargoid ships were responsible for the damages inflicted to the stations.
As the days moved on, reports of casualties increased by the hundreds, while still others are left stranded on these stations.
As much as we would dispatch the USS Discovery to help evacuate the stations survivors, we are in the process of engineering a new ship design, and one we have named after an orbiter space craft that was sent to Saturn. The Cassini-Huygens mission was one that lasted between 1997 and 2017. The 20 year mission brought a new understanding to our own solar system in Sol, and paved the way for future space exploration. I felt the name was fitting for the ship we now travel in.
The ship I speak of is none other than the Type 10 Defender, which after a few engineering modifications, has actually proved to be quite the durable space craft. Rumor through the pilot community is that they are calling her the Battle Cow. A ship that was designed to help prevent what I previously mentioned earlier. Thargoid Attacks.
While I am sure that the research and development teams who designed and built her took all this into account, we are not using the Type 10 for this purpose.
It's current purpose is two fold.
1. Cargo runner with enough firepower and a fighter bay to keep pirates at bay.
2. A mining ship that rivals the Ravenous in more than a few ways.
(The Ravenous is a well known ship throughout the mining community, and is thought to be a "Ghost Ship" of which records on file show it as being lost in combat, however I have personally seen this ship, and even though the fleet records show her to be lost at sea, so to speak, she still flies...)
I have also considered other possible uses for this ship, however at this time we are performing a shakedown cruise in a cargo configuration before we consider any further mission options. Once I am satisfied that the ship is performing to expectations, then I will open up options for her future missions, but not until I am satisfied she can function properly on the mission objectives I have currently set aside for her.
Per my entry on December 21st, my new wife and I are doing well. The wedding was beautiful, and it was nice to see friends and family once more for the special occasion. It gave us some time to step away from the daily grind of Space Exploration, which has now given us a brand new perspective on the end goals.
Once the wedding and reception were over, we signed up for the community goals in the Guaras system, of which both are being backed by Core Dynamics, and once the week ends, most of the requirements for federal ships will be lifted for a short time.
So that is it in a nut shell for the moment. I have the course plotted for our next engineer rendezvous so we will be getting under way within the hour.
Again Merry Christmas to all Commanders out there and remember to fly safe.
Commander Orion Starhunter
USS Cassini
YF-13