Sorry I'm late! I've had a horrible week at work and similar DosBox issues to Flying Target's. Not to mention the incredibly long into and try to journal it
Intro:
Damnit, it's happened again. First the Tiger's Claw and now the Concordia. I'll never get used to the feeling of knowing the ship you called home is no longer there. This time the feeling's even worse, as I get to stare at the Concordia's hulk. At least the Tiger's Claw exploded cleanly. Paladin is standing by my side, no doubt having his own memories of the Claw. He explains that I can't live for the approval of one man, but when that one man is your superior in the armed forces it's awfully hard to live with his disapproval. It doesn't help that Angel is off on a Secret Op and I don't know her status. I try to get some word from Paladin, but he deflects my questions. In secret operations, no news is rarely good news.
The meeting with Tolwyn afterwards also brings back some harsh memories of the Tiger's Claw. The war is too intense now after both homeworlds have been struck for him to ship me off to Insys, but I feel punished anyway, having been transferred to one of the oldest carriers in the fleet, the Victory. I try to get another ship or some word about Angel, but Tolwyn just ignores me, telling me that things are looking up. I board the shuttle for Orsini.
My first impression of the Victory isn't much better than the opinions I'd formed on the flight over, listening to news casters debating an evacuation of Earth. She's a very old ship, without the smooth lines of grace of the Concordia. The flight deck contains a pleasant suprise, though, as I see my old friend Hobbes waiting to greet me. We arrange to catch up before I get down to business with the Captain. This Captain Eisen has been with the Victory a long time, all of his career, so I have to keep my opinions to myself to avoid offending him. I'm shocked to hear that Hobbes isn't on the flight roster because the other pilots won't fly with him. My opinion of the Victory drops a little lower and I determine to get him back on the flight roster and show these guys that you can't waste a skilled pilot like that.
Orsini 1:
I decide to do a tour and acquaint myself with my new ship. First stop is Flight Control and a reunion with Hobbes. He seems to be doing well, I guess the war suits his Kilrathi genes just fine. He seems a little worried about being back on the flight roster, but I remind him that I need someone I can trust and right now, he's that guy. Inside the lift is a "Radio" Rollins, communications officer. He immediately starts regaling me with his inside knowledge on how the war is actually proceeding. I play along with him for now, I can't stop him from spreading rumours, but I can at least do something if I know what rumours he's spreading. On the Rec Deck, my opinion of the Victory drops lower as one of the pilots slams her glass on to the bar and storms off at the sight of Hobbes. Once pilot seems decent and willing to interact with Hobbes and I head over to introduce myself.
He's the pilot known as Vagabond and he's the ship's card shark. There's one on every ship, though I wager I can hold my own thanks to the games on the Concordia. We get into a light discussion on fitting into your surroundings and I ask him about his light bio. He gets a little defensive about that, so I back off. After all, there are no doubt some big gaps in my own file. My belongings have already been placed in my locker, and I check to make sure the one I consider most valuable is still there. I watch the last message I got from Angel and hope she's okay. There's another familiar hand on the bridge, but it's a less welcome familiarity. Maniac chose to skip my arrival so that he can hit on the bridge staff. The conversation with Maniac is very tense, though I'm not too sure why he's ticked off with me. The last time we worked together I was getting the Wild Eagles out of a very serious hole. I walk away knowing that both sides think they won the conversation and wondering if anybody really did. I'm about to introduce myself to another of my pilots, Flint, on the gunnery deck when Captain Eisen calls me to the briefing room.
The briefing is of a similar vintage to that on the Tiger's Claw. I just hope I can do as good a job up there as Colonel Halcyon did. Eisen briefs me on the situation: Intelligence believes Kilrathi presence in the Orsini system is on the increase and I'm to fly a standard patrol of the area to determine the accuracy of the report. Picking Hobbes as my wingman, I head to the flight deck. The deck officer on this boat is named Rachel Coriolis. She seems competent enough, though she chose a Hellcat with basic loadout for this mission. It's going to be a cakewalk but I'd still prefer a different ship. My predictions for a cakewalk are soon borne out by the mission. The only opposition being a few Darkets scattered around the place. A missile to take out the first and then close in to use guns is the strategy of choice here. Captain Eisen seems truly suprised at our success in this mission and I wonder if I'm not the only one with bad impressions. I'm sure I'll be able to prove myself more thoroughly in the future.
Orsini 2:
I have a short conversation with Hobbes following our landing. He seems very happy to get back out into space and no longer have to deal with the crew here who forced him away from it in the first place. I let him know that there will be plenty more where that came from. In the Recreation Deck is another pilot I haven't been able to introduce myself to yet, though I did see him on the flight deck when I arrived. Vaquero almost seems like more of a musician at heart than a pilot and he regales with his plan to open a cantina after the war is open. We all need a reason to right and I see no reason to deprive Vaquero of his. There's a less pleasant encounter with Cobra in the barracks. I bring her to task for the way she treats Hobbes, but she doesn't seem at all concerned and just continues to sharpen her knife. I'll try to keep those two apart for now but I need to get at the heart of her motivations here. There's got to be more to it than her file says.
Today's mission is another patrol. There's been a sketchy report of an enemy presence in this system, which may include a capital ship. Deciding to take one of the Victory's pilots out to see how they go, I select Vagabond as my wingman. Given the capital ship that we may encounter, I decide to take a thunderbolt instead of Rachel's suggestion of a Hellcat. To be honest, though, I didn't need to. The enemy presence is still fairly light in this system and all we encountered were some Darkets and a transport. It almost seemed like a waste to take the transport down with a torpedo, but a torpedo's better than a repair bill it some turret gunner gets lucky.
Orsini 3:
I meet with Rachel on the recreation deck for a drink. She seems quite eager to get her hands on the new Excalibur that's been promised to win the war for Confed. I'm not entirely convinced, remembering the Morningstar and Wraith fighters, though I do hear the Morningstar is making a name for itself. Somehow everything Rachel says has another connotation to it, I wonder if it's just her nature or if there's some deeper reason for this.
I finally get a break from the patrol routine with an escort mission. A transport carrying supplies has had it's course leaked to the Kilrathi and we're to make sure that it makes it to the other side. I select Vaquero as my wingman and an Arrow as my ship so that we can respond quickly to threats. This mission is much tougher than the previous two. We still haven't seen any Kilrathi fighters heavier than a Darket, but the Kilrathi brought a Corvette to the party this time. Once the Corvette's fighter escort was taken out, though, Vaquero and I danced rings around it, taking particular attention to removing the nasty rear turret on the thing. With the turret gone, the Corvette falls quickly and the transport makes a safe escape outsystem.
Orsini 4:
I finally manage to catch Flint on the gunnery deck. The conversation doesn't exactly go the best. I feel a little attacked for not flying with the Victory's pilots but, since I've flown with Vagabond and Vaquero already, I think she may be more miffed that I haven't flown with her. She has a nice, easygoing style that I don't want to disrupt by getting all official on her, so I play along with her. For now, anyway.
Today's mission is to be another escort, but this time with a twist. The Kilrathi are reported to be testing a new cloaked missile called the Skipper. Their target of choice is likely to be a Confed transport moving through the system. We are, of course, to head out and make sure the test fails. Choosing my usual Arrow for ship defense, I select Flint as my pilot to keep her happy. This mission sees the return of an old friend, the Dralthi. They're not tougher now than they used to be and Flint and I tear them to pieces in quick order at the first Nav point. We later encounter a Corvette escorted by more Dralthi. Reasoning that the Corvette will the launching platform, I direct Flint to engage the Dralthi while I head towards the Corvette, scanning for a missile launch. My hunch pays off and I'm treated to my first sight of a Skipper missile, followed by it shortly disappearing. I steer myself onto it's track and keep scanning for it to show up again. When it does, I'm almost right on top of it but some quick reflexes get my guns aimed and firing before it can cloak. The Skipper missile detonates well short of it's target.
With the main threat taken care of, Flint and I turn our attention to the Dralthi and the Corvette. This lot don't last too long and neither do the last Dralthi at the jump point. The transport jumps to safety and I return to the Victory to find that we're jumping to the Tamayo system to assist in the testing of the Excalibur. Rollins thinks it will be an easy mission, but none of my test flight have been anywhere near easy.
My confidence isn't raised much by the pilot of the Excalibur, either. He shows off plenty as he approaches the flight deck and a callsign of Flash is just inviting trouble. I try to deflect his young and cocky comments about his age by reminding him that he'll want to be my age sometime, but I don't think it worked.