Conspiracy?

We were scrambled out of our beds earlier this morning to intercept the NTF Iceni, the name of Bosch's ship that escaped the depot yesterday. Command had apparently identified it and we were rushed out to intercept him before he could escape again. But for whatever reason, we were jumped in at coordinates that put us several clicks behind Bosch's flag. I pushed my engines to the breaking point, but it wasn't enough. The Iceni escaped.

My wingmen weren't happy, none of us were, and one of them, Booth, said a lot of things that got us thinking. It did seem as if Command wanted the Iceni to escape. Bad coordinates, little support...I really don't know what we would have done if we had caught up to Bosch. It's not like we had enough anti-ship missiles or anything that could even slow a ship like his down. It also didn't help that he left us with a message, questioning the "wisdom" of our leaders. I'm not sure if that meant the wisdom of not believing his NTF rhetoric, or something else entirely, and that bothers me.

On the other hand, it could be that Command was too embarrassed to admit that they had screwed up. I hope Takeda is alright. He can't be taking this well. I know he's up against Bosch and he isn't exactly a pushover, either. After leading the NTF for eighteen months in open rebellion, the man has to have more than a few tricks under that Admiral's cap of his. So far it just seems as if he knew we were coming and planned out to be two steps ahead of us every time. Takeda hates to lose. We probably might not see him around for the next few games.

After Bosch jumped out, we got caught in the middle of a rush of ships from the NTF making for the same jump node. Fighters and cargo freighters don't last every long against something like the Myrm, but the two cap ships that jumped in at the end weren't something that we had expected to engage outside of the Iceni. Our fighters threw every Tempest we had at them and the Vasudans also sortied the Psamtik back into action to help. Both were destroyed, but we were left with a lot of questions.

Debrief was quick and Lt. Loukakis told me that I would be transferred over to the 107th Ravens. Wilkins said that meant that my aim wasn't as good as I thought it would be so I'll be dropping bomb rockets on larger targets to improve my score. Sheryl laughed when she heard that, but congratulated me all the same. Studi simply said to make sure that when I fire my capship killers, to be out of the way of the explosion.

It looks like I'll be heading back in for more training modules, then.

No medals for crate killers

We were given orders to attack an NTF depot and given the usual speech as how it might not win any medals, but will help in strangling enemy supplies. A ship short on weapons is pretty useless in a firefight. I thought that it would be a nice change of pace from the harrowing baptism by fire we had yesterday, but I was wrong. So wrong. And this mission is where things started going weird for a lot of reasons. I don't know if I'll be able to write about what I've seen here, but I'm recording it anyway for myself to help sort out what the hell might be going on.

The depot was located in a small asteroid field and was like most any other I've seen before when chasing down pirates and raiders on the frontier, a bunch of containers floating in space and protected by a few static defenses like turrets. A few Loki-class fighters from the NTF engaged us, but things began going south when Beta wing couldn't complete their scans of the cargo. Every container was shielded for some reason. I should have known something wasn't right at that point, but we still had a job to do. After clearing out the fighters and destroying the containers, we got word that there was a strange energy signature deeper in the field so we went to investigate it. It turns out that the NTF had a hidden base built into one of the asteroids and we were told to clear out the fighters for the bombers that would be arriving.

And that's when we received a communication from Admiral Bosch.

That's right...THE Admiral Bosch of the NTF, rebel leader and traitor to the GTVA. He was on the base! But that wasn't the end of the surprises. Command denied that he was onboard and said that he was elsewhere, but we knew damn well who we were hearing over our headsets. He was trying to negotiate for the safety of the base by agreeing to pull his forces from Deneb, in effect, giving up an entire system for one base. Whatever was on there must have been incredibly important for him to suddenly decide to sacrifice the battle there.

But Command didn't want to hear any of it and ordered us to destroy the base anyway. That's when it burst open, revealing a frigate hidden inside of it. It activated its jump drive and escaped before we could do anything else, but Bosch left us with an ominous warning that what he was doing would be the key to saving humanity. Whether or not any of us believed it was quickly swept under the rug by Command that quickly ordered us back home for debrief.

Back on the Aquitaine, we were all told not to discuss what we had witnessed at the depot and everything was classified top secret...like this personal journal that we're told to keep. After Lt. Loukakis was done with us, I saw Admiral Petrarch, the ship's commander, Gloval, and several other officers come in as we were filing out, closing the door behind them. While playing poker, Takeda had come down as he usually does, but his face wasn't the calm facade of an intelligence officer that we had gotten used to. He looked a little ashen and we asked, off the record of course, if it had anything to do with Bosch being somewhere else he wasn't supposed to be.

He whispered back that HQ was just as puzzled as anyone else, but they had managed to recover a few materials from the depot strike. He couldn't say what they found, but apparently, it was considered incredibly important that they sealed off one of the cargo rooms in the lower decks where they were stored and placed it on 24 hour guard...under the Admiral's direct orders. He couldn't say anymore than that, only that they were to treat this incident as if it had never happened.

It didn't take long for Wilkins to start yammering about Shivans and for Studi to shut him up by robbing him, and the rest of us, blind with a full house. I swear, that guy has the perfect poker face.

So much for the welcome party

We've just been transferred over to the Aquitaine and Admiral Petrarch himself gave the welcome speech. I can't help but think that he sounds a little exhausted, probably because he's been fighting on the front lines all this time without rest. The man's something of a legend back at the academy. I remember screwing up a tactical simulation against one of his strategies, losing all three wings and most of my engines with half of the bridge burning around me. Some of the vets called it a "Kobayashi Maru", based on an old film centuries ago on Earth, their name for an unwinnable situation. I still thought I won it, though. My ship wasn't entirely crippled leaving me free to ram the enemy flagship. My instructors didn't see it that way, though.

Before I can even hit the head, we get sent straight out to the Deneb system to engage the NTF. It seems that the GTVA and the NTF have been slugging it out over Cygnus Prime and both sides are getting their asses handed to them. It was my first time fighting the NTF, the first time for a lot of us. My hands were shaking in the cockpit, not so much out of fear, but out of the anticipation of matching my skills against pilots that may have gone through much of the same training as everyone else had. That thought quickly dulled, steadying my hands, when I realized that someone I might know could be in one of those ships.

Our first sortie had us defend a few transports evacuating civilians from Cygnus Prime. The NTF apparently saw them as targets of opportunity and we got into a furball with a few Hercs. The big surprise came at the end, though. Command told us that the NTF Belisarius, a Deimos class corvette, had broken through the blockade and was heading our way. The GTVA Psamtik was being ordered into the area to meet her since we had nothing to fight a cap ship with.

I've heard of the new beam weapons that were being developed and know that they've been in use elsewhere, but I've never really seen one in action until today. It's like a finger of light stabbing its way through whatever is between it and the void beyond. If only we had these thirty three years ago.

Takeda tells me that I'm allowed to post pics from my flight recorder, so I'll be adding more pictures in with my posts. I guess the GTVA doesn't have as much of a problem with this as I thought they might, then again, these aren't for general perusal by just anyone.

We were also told that the NTD Jacobus and the NTD Hengst were also destroyed in action elsewhere in the system. Sheryl's wing had taken part in the fight against the Jacobus and from the kill board, it looks like she did just fine. Studi took part in the fight against the Hengst and his numbers weren't bad, either. It looks like me and Wilkins have a lot of catching up to do.

If I had any doubts about the NTF, they faded as quickly as the battle had concluded. Attacking civilian transports? It didn't make any sense. It was as if Bosch's ideals went from violently opposing the GTVA to exercising genocide against the Vasudans simply because he didn't like them. Even if my former classmates were a part of the NTF now, I don't know how I could look at them in the same way if they're willing to take orders like this. I guess the rumors that I had buried my head over were true.

I saw Sheryl later and had coffee with her in the mess. It seems after my performance, I've been recommended to be a wing leader based also on my experience in the frontier. She was happy to hear that and Wilkins couldn't help but crack a few salutes my way as a joke. I thought I had him going there for a minute when I asked him if that was appropriate behavior for someone of his rank, until he told me to get the hell off of his ship. We asked Sheryl about the Jacobus and to hear her tell the story of how they cleared the way, you could almost see her enjoying it as much as she may have when she was out there. There's something in those steel grey eyes of hers that was pretty unnerving. I don't know if it was hate for the NTF, but it was something.

Training, training, and more training

We went through a few training modules on the new Myrmidon fighter and it's not as bad as some of the veterans say it is, although it's slippery when it turns and it doesn't have as much speed as I thought it might. It does pack a large number of missiles which Wilkins was excited to learn. He's always loved fireworks, especially when he's the one lighting the fuse, and the Myrm seems like something he'd get into.

I could never get used to the AI's voice routine warning me not to touch anything when I'd start up a module. You can move around and shoot off into space, just as long as you don't destroy anything you're not supposed to...yet.

Lost Generation

The NTF rebellion still has everyone on edge. Ever since it started, no one has really been too keen on getting back out into space and fighting the only other humans that are out here in this corner of the galaxy. I remember last year seeing Admiral Bosch's face on newscasts announcing the NTF's intention to break away from the GTVA. A lot of us in the so-called "lost generation" were inspired by what he was selling. What was interesting was in how he purposely left out the Vasudans. That became clear later when he said the GTVA was a mistake.

In one way, I can see what he's trying to do. He wants humanity to stand on its own two feet without help from anyone else, much like how Earth had done when it jumped out here for the first time and managed to hold its own until the Shivans came. But things are different now. A lot of my classmates' parents were hard hit by the fact that the way to Earth was gone. Just like that, it meant that we were alone out here with a former foe. Not everyone adjusted to this kind of life and to hear them say it, Bosch came off as a kind of messiah who had the right idea.

There were a few incidents then, between humans and Vasudans on Beta Aquilae, but nothing major until the NTF announced their intentions to break away. As much as Bosch had tried to convince many of us that his way was the only way for humanity to survive, it was still one man's opinion.

In the three decades since the Great War, we've done pretty well for ourselves and the Vasudans have done what they can to aid us. My parents told me stories of those early years. They said that some thought that the Vasudans should have done more to help us and not everyone was happy to see their engineers and specialists, as if they were rubbing the fact that we were refugees in our faces. With the Vasudans doing far better than we are, I guess that only gave more reason for those people to hate them. The seeds were planted way before Bosch did his thing, but I never thought it would turn into armed rebellion.

I'm part of the lost generation, but I don't think I've lost sight of what is really important...that we need to stick together to out here to make things work. That's just something that my parents wanted me to grow up with knowing and what had also gotten me into trouble with kids that wanted nothing to do with Vasudans in general. Still, hating someone because they're just extending an open hand to you is just stupid in my view.

None of the other pilots think of themselves as "lost". We're out here to do a job and we're going to focus on doing it right. Wilkins thinks that the rebellion will be over before the end of the year, and Takeda just shrugs his shoulders if he's asked if Wilkins is right. Sheryl doesn't say much about the NTF, but the rumors that I've heard is that it's because her parents might have been on Polaris when the NTF seceded from the GTVA. Studi just wears that poker face of his, although I can tell that something is bothering him about the NTF.

Not all of my friends made it through the academy with me. Some of them left to join the NTF. For me, that's the worst part about all of this. As selfish as this might sound, humans are still fighting humans out here, but some of those will have been people that I grew up with.

My First Post

The GTVA encouraged us to make regular posts detailing our lives for "future prosperity" in case anything happens to us. I smell politics all over this move since we don't have a lot of time to write about anything, much less get the antiseptic smell from our helmets off of our faces and out of our hair when we get out of the cockpit. Still, it's kind of nice to sit down and do something other than wait for the next patrol rotation.

So what to write for my first entry? I guess I could describe some of my team mates and where I am. If I put down something that shouldn't be out on the GTVA military network, it'll get auto-censored by the iceboxes anyway.

I've just been assigned to the 53rd Hammerheads and are awaiting transfer to the GTD Aquitaine. The pilots are as rowdy a bunch as you can expect with a mean game of poker, the kind that can leave your pockets empty and your head filled with hurt from pushing yourself to win it all back with liquid courage.

Wilkins will also come over with me and he's got that smile permaplasted on his face as usual, but he always gets excited over the smallest change in our routine. He's always been a motormouth which has gotten him into trouble on more than on occasion, but with this journal thing and the transfer, I'm guessing that he's just going to get worse. He loves chatting about anything, whether it's the new Vasudan cruiser he saw on patrol the other day, or bragging about how one of his cousins had actually seen a Shivan (which I doubt...a lot).

Sheryl is one of the other pilots who has been with the squadron for the past year or so and she seems to be something of an ace. I made the mistake of thinking that she might want to spend time teaching me the finer points of poker, but from what I've seen of her record, she deserves every word of praise that she gets. I think she was surprised when I tied her in a simulator challenge the other day, but have a feeling that she's the type that loves to eat up a challenge.

Roger "Three Hawks" Studi is the quiet type, but he's a veteran of several skirmishes with the NTF over the past two years that he's been a part of the 53rd. He and his family are Cherokee and can trace their line all the way back to the 18th century on Earth. How he ended up here is something I've always wanted to ask, but he just gives that smile of his, telling me to ask him next time there's a war on.

Hiroshi Takeda is an intelligence officer that loves to come down to the ready room and join in on the fun on occasion. From what I understand, he used to be a pilot himself until an incident with the NTF had him change his mind about what he was doing and he requested a transfer to GTVA Intelligence. Now he hangs around on the bridge, doing what spooks always do, but he's shared some interesting tidbits with us on occasion. I'm sure bridge command wouldn't be too happy about that, but I'm not complaining, not when what he says might actually save our asses out there. He's also coming over to the Aquitaine with us.

I'm being told that we have to review the training modules for the GTF Myrmidon, a new fighter everyone says is more advanced than the Herc it's replacing. I don't know, some of the vets think it's actually worse, that it flies like a stuck pig, and looks just as pretty. I suppose I'll find out.