Terran Resistance

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/4/2352 20:52

There was an accident. A technician, Elizabeth Carlyle, is laying unconscious in the surgery room. Neither Dr. Moore nor his surgeon would say whether they thought she'd make it.

For days now there's been technicians all over the Constant's hull. The Vinak are already heavily patrolling the inner orbits of the Volga System. The goal is to finish replacing the rest of our Active Camo panels before reaching their patrol routes. I ordered that the repairs go forward while the Active Camo was activated. That's against regulations. I am positive that it is because everyone keeps reminding me of it: Steele, Quid, every random engineer or technician that I talk too. I never changed my mind and still haven't. If we turn off our Active Camo, the Vinak will detect us. It's as simple as that. Of course, we could just leave the hull in tatters and take the long way around the System to avoid the patrols. In any other situation that is what I'd do, but we have a deadline of when to reach the rendezvous point. If we miss it now, we'll never hook up with the rest of the remaining Human forces, and I'll never be relieved of command.

As of Yesterday, 90% of our Active Camo panels were in place, but repairs still weren't happening fast enough. So, I ordered Quid to recruit anyone he thought could help. Unfortunately, that included a Jr. Shipmate who had a 12 week course in basic ship repairs.

That Jr. Shipmate was, of course, Elizabeth Carlyle. She attached the panel and it instantly went into Camo mode. This must of caught her by surprise because as it flipped over she somehow got pinned between it and another panel. Fortunately, she was with a group that rushed her inside the ship and to the infirmary. When I heard I went to visit and, very briefly, talked to Dr. Moore about her status. I was there when she was taken into surgery, and I caught a glimpse of her. After seeing her bloodied and bruised body, I damn near threw up. I don't know why though. I've seen many people, living and dead, that looked worse.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/2/2352 20:09

Our main Engine is finally online and the Constant is finally heading back towards the Volga system instead of away from it. It couldn't have happened a moment too soon. I finally got around to plotting our course to rendezvous with the rest of the surviving H.A.F. ships and soldiers. There are 3 different locations with different dates and times to meet up with the rest of the forces and we're barely going to make the last point.

All of the meet up points are in orbit of lifeless planets in uninteresting solar systems that we had claimed and maintained only because no one else wanted them. I guess the thinking is that the Vinak wouldn't bother patrolling those systems. Our final orders from Earth were actually pretty well thought out. Which isn't something I can say for most of the strategic decision made by our leaders. Like when they decided to abandoned the Joice System of supposedly "low" strategic value to better protect our mining operations on Athena in the Molotov system. God! Did they completely forget that the Joice System had 3 Warp Points to previously safe systems? I don't know why thinking about that strategic blunder still gets me angry. Maybe it's because I can still remember watching and reading real time reports of the Vinak flooding into those systems that were completely caught off guard. Or Maybe it's because that was the point I accepted that Humans were going to lose the war. Right after that blunder, negotiations with the Claus fell apart too. Apparently, they didn't want to enter a war on the losing side. I mean, who can blame them? Not me.

I think this log got sidetracked. Anyways, everything is going okay. We are on our way to our target warp point. I can't say which one, even for a personal log, for the sake of security. Our main Engines are functioning normal and Steele reports that there's enough spare panels to finish repairing the rest of our Active Camo.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 1/1/2352 20:17

This morning I had a hard time getting out of my bunk. Maybe it was the grogginess of getting 8 hours of sleep for the first time in 2 weeks. After turning off my alarm I just laid in bed for 20 minutes thinking about everything that needs to get done. I have to look over the fleet rendezvous times and locations, status update on the engines, learning more people's names, individual funeral services, status update on the Active Camo, supplies check, entire system check, personnel check, personnel reviews. After making my way to the Command Center, I still had no idea what to do first.

When I walked into the Command Center and looked around, the place looked abandoned. Miller was at the security station and that was it. He stood up and snapped to attention when he saw me. "Captain on deck!" Normally I wouldn't have been able to keep from laughing at the ridiculousness of a crewman announcing the Captain's arrival to an empty Command Center, but this time I was too startled. Instead I just stared at him blankly. He was staring straight forward and arms at the side in perfect attention. I didn't snap out of my stare until I noticed that his eyes had begun to wonder over to my direction.

"uh, At ease. I mean, um, as you were", I said. He sat back down and I walked over to my station. I tried not to acknowledge the weirdness that we were the only ones in the Command Center. I checked the latest status of the engines and Active Camo repairs. I then asked Miller, "Where the hell is everybody?" Thinking back, I probably should have phrased it better.

"Sir, Steele divided us up into sleeping shifts until the full Command Roster can be filled." Apparently, he thought that was a sufficient explanation because he went back to looking at his station after that.

I asked, "So why are you the only person here?"

"I volunteered for the last shift. I prefer nights, sir." he told me.

"First of all, you're an acting officer now so you don't have to 'sir' every time you tell me something." I said.

"Yes, sir" came his response. I stared at him for several seconds before I finally came to the conclusion that irony is a foreign concept to him.

"Second", I continued, "There should always be at least 2 people in the command center. Why did... never mind." What I wanted to say was, "why the hell did Steele just leave 1 person in the command center when regulations clearly states, and for damn good reason, the command center should always be manned by at least 2 officers. And if Steele did try to do that, why didn't anyone try to stop her." But, I knew I had to hold back. I was taught it's bad for morale to berate subordinates behind their back.

Instead, this just solved my problem of what to do first. I looked at the crew roster for possibilities to fill out a second shift for the command center. There aren't a lot of places to take from that wouldn't hurt ship efficiency. There's not a lot of places to cut corners when we might find ourselves in the middle of another battle. Unfortunately, with a third of the crew dead or incapacitated, I don't have a choice. At first I thought that the obvious place to look is from the security and engineering groups since they're the largest. However, those groups were the most decimated from the attack and I already took from the medical staff. Finally I decided to just look for the best candidates and the group they come from will just have to deal with it.

By the time I saw Steele, I just handed her my PID and told her to make a crew rotation of the Command Center with the backups that always leaves at least 3 people in the Command Center at all times. I then spent the rest of the day shifting crew members around and making Midshipmen disgruntled about either losing people or moving to a position where they no longer report directly to the Command Center. I all but dismantled shuttle control and supplies management. I also, once again reduced medical technicians and food services. At the end of the day I got the engineering staff almost completely filled as well as a re-beefed up security team. I think I got a lot done today. I could get used to this commanding thing.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/31/2351 6:00

This Active Camo may quite possible be the only thing that Earth's Engineers have ever done right. We fired our bright-bursts, launched all of our rockets so that they exploded near our ship, then activated our Active Camo, released our decoy debris, and finally used our thrusters to slightly alter our trajectory.

It worked without a single bug. We just kept one side of our ship angled towards the Vinak and we were never detected. They found our decoy space debris almost right away. One of the ships captured the debris while the other 11 went into different directions. It was hard to position our ship so that the same side was always facing all 12 ships. Fortunately, we kept them all within the same 180 degrees and were never detected. After a couple hours the Vinak ships stopped searching and took off back towards the center of the Volga system.

This was probably the first bit of good luck we've had in the last hellish two weeks and I think everyone felt it. When the scanners station reported they were heading away from us, everyone just started clapping and then wanted to shake my hand: "Good Job, Sir", "Thank you, Sir", "Nice Work, Chou". After the clapping and cheering died down there was a pause. Everyone was looking at me. It took me a moment before I realized they were waiting for me to give orders.

"uhh, first uhh..., Let's finish repairing our engines." I then turned to Mike Quid who was sitting at my old Damage Control Station. I just promoted him to the Command Center from Engine Control. So it seemed natural to put him as point. "Quid, you're in charge of getting the primary engines back online. That is your primary task."
"Yes Sir!", he replied. I have to admit it's going to take some time getting used too seeing someone else sit at my station, let alone giving him orders.

After that I then managed to look like a fool again. While looking around the Command Center, I shouted, "Steele! Steele? Where the he-". At that point she responded.
"Right here, Chou". I felt myself jump. She was only a foot behind me.
"Jeez, don't...". I then just stopped and composed myself. "Any people that Quid doesn't need, I want them outside finishing fixing our outer hull."
"Yes, Sir", she said.
"We need people working around the clock on this stuff", I heard a loud sigh from everyone in the Command Center when I said that. Then I announced, "but I want a crew that can still function. Starting now, Everyone can go back to getting a full 8 hours and no more chem sleep." A few people actually clapped when I said that. Apparently, I'm not the only one that hates that.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/30/2351 20:33

The command center stations have been filled out. I had to write down the names and stations of everyone. I'll try to remember them eventually. It doesn't really matter for now, I'll probably just call out the station names instead of the person's names. I always hated it when a Captain or Commander did that. I mean seriously, are you really so important that you can't remember the names of your command center crew? Looks like I'm going to have to be a jerk until I have time to remember the list.

Anyways, to evade our Vinak friends we're going to try and pretend to blow ourselves up. I think my plan is pretty brilliant. I'm going to use Bright-Bursts first to confuse the Vinak sensors, then use the rockets to create a large explosion just off our hull, then flip on our active camo. After that we'll create the illusion of ship debris by venting into space all replaced parts and other useless pieces of matter laying around. The only snag in the plan is that the ship still has to orient itself since the active camo only works on one side of the ship. That should be pretty easy though.

I'll be looking forward to actually getting some use out of our bright-bursts. Captain Harris didn't have a lot of faith in bright bursts. It's probably because Bright-Bursts were a Vinak invention. They're designed to counter anti-rocket technology. Usually when a high-yield explosive rocket is heading for your battlecruiser, you just lock onto it with a laser and it explodes long before it reaches your haul. Well, the Vinak developed, and humans later copied, a rocket you fire ahead of the explosive that blows up into a bright burst that confuses your targets sensors and the real rocket can get through. Well, the human adaptation of the technology hasn't been as successful. That's probably why we still rely more on energy weapons.

All right, time for what is hopefully my last chem induced nap for a long time.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/30/2351 12:33

I am in deep trouble. Those Vinak ships are less than 12 hours away and our main engines still aren't online. It would take more than 20 hours to replace them. Instead I've moved everyone to get this ship ready for another battle. Fortunately, when Earth supplied us last they gave us more weapons than anything else. Replacing the lasers and reloading the rockets is easy. Now the outer armor panels is another story. I've never seen anything so maddening to work on. Take a 2 meter by 2 meter panel and align it down to the micrometer on all 360 degrees. I've got the crew working on just one side of the ship. If my idea pans out we'll need a whole side to be operational. If not, well, let's hope we can keep that side of the ship facing the Vinak. I still need to assemble a full crew for the command center.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/29/2351 23:12

I just got back from a brief funeral that honored all of the fallen crew members before releasing their bodies into space. I'd never done a eulogy for anyone let alone one for over 150 people. With no prep time I had to make one up on the spot. I stumbled my way through with some mentions of "honor", "duty", and "carrying on". Then I promised that there would be an individual memorial service for each member once our current crisis was over. Which, I thought is what's normally expected. Afterwards, is when Steele told me that my promise to the crew wasn't really needed. It's not really expected, nor even customary to do so. I wish she would've told me that beforehand.

Before going back to repairs, I've decided to give myself a nap. Right now I've got people crawling all over the inside and outside of the ship trying to get all of our primary engines online. We've got most of our maneuvering thrusters responding, but we'll need more than that to evade the Vinak ships coming at us. We can't even put the ship into stealth mode. We can't get all of the panels to flip from armor to the Active Camo. Not to mention in many sections the armor was completely obliterated by explosions or melted through by laser fire.

Now... I promised myself a 20 minute power nap.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/29/2351 11:23

I don't really have time for logs, but I just need to collect my thoughts. Just two days... wait, no three, well a little over 2 days. The days have all just run together for me. 2 days ago I thought that I'd be dead by now, but here I am still going. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the crew. 152 people were killed in the fight. I'm still trying to piece together everything thats happened.

2 days ago we were ready to carry out our suicidal distraction plan so that the other Guerrilla Cruisers could escape from the Sol System. Less than an hour before execution time all of the Vinak battle cruisers suddenly left their patrol routes and converged on the position of the Cruisers we were supposed to help escape. I have to guess that they were somehow detected by the Vinak They were soon surrounded and attacked. We were on the other side of the solar system and couldn't help our brethren. At this point the plan changed. Essentially, They were now the distraction for our escape.

The Captain started barking out orders. "Helm, Full speed to the Volga Warp point. Weapons, put us into Battle Mode!"
"Sir, there's still one Vinak Ship guarding that warp point", Pierre politely reminded.
The Captain turned to Lieutenant Chang and said, "Weapons, concentrate everything we got on that ship. I want it destroyed before we go through the warp point." That's when some shipmate, I never knew her name, delivered the fateful news.
"Captain, I've picked up 2 additional Vinak cruisers heading our way.
"Pierre, bring up the tactical", Harris ordered. Pierre brought up the tactical display in the center council. Pierre then did some calculations for the Captain.
Pierre announced the results, "We'll be within the Vinak weapons range of their ships before making it through the warp point".
Harris stood by his original orders, "Weapons, ignore the other ships, concentrate everything on the ship already guarding the warp point."

It was a rough ride, but we made it through the warp point and the Vinak guard ship was destroyed before going through. Now, the Volga system was still held by humans at the time of Earth's surrender. Therefore, while we didn't necessarily expect to find any Human forces in the Volga system, we definitely didn't expect to see Vinak Cruisers in the Volga system already. However, 3 of them were waiting for us the moment we flew through the warp point and appeared in the Volga system. The firefight was intense. This little ship really showed it's colors. We destroyed 2 of those SOBs within minutes. That's when the Vinak cruisers that were chasing us in the Sol System came through. Our power was dropping fast and our armor was filling up with holes so the Captain had us retreat into open space. We were pursued and the fight continued. It wasn't long after that that our hull armor was falling apart and we were losing power throughout the ship. That's when we lost our Engines and ended up floating.

At this point, the Vinak could've probably finished us off if they'd wanted, but they had other plans in store for us. They were going to try and capture the ship. They stopped firing on us and then started launching their invasion pods into our hull. I think each one contained a boarding party of 6. The front of them would boar right into our hull - any place where our outer armor had already been destroyed. I don't know how, but those boarding parties all knew the quickest way to the ships Command Center. Security locked down the C.C. At this point, I don't know if the Captain was a genius or just a stubborn old curmudgeon that refused to give up. Either way his final orders is what won the battle. "Chou", He called me by name instead of station, "no matter what happens, you keep my fucking ship together you understand me?"
"Yes sir!". I said.
"And I mean NO. MATTER. WHAT."
"I understand".
Chang, the same goes for weapons. You keep firing whatever weapons we have at those Vinak SOBs until their ships are destroyed."
"Yes Sir!" he replied.

Every other person in the Command Center, except me and Chang grabbed a weapon. Security kept reporting that the boarding parties were getting closer to the Command Center. Our Security forces and systems just weren't able to stop all of them. Then Chang must've gotten in a lucky shot and managed to destroy one of the 3 Vinak ships. Our celebration ended quickly. The remaining 2 ships started firing on us again - I guess they were getting impatient with their boarding parties.

Everything after that point was a blur. I did what the Captain said, through the fire fight and all I just stared at my console and kept the ship together from the outside blasts. Diverting power, closing off sections that were breached, and dispatching what Engineers were left. I didn't look away no matter what. Even when I heard people screa... I didn't look up. That's all, I just... didn't look up.

An additional security team showed up just in time. They killed the last of those Vinak SOBs, but it was too late. Not only had the Command Center been tore apart, but Captain Harris, Pierre, Chang, and just about everyone else that was in the Command Center had bought it. It was just Steele, me, and some shipmate I'd never even met until that day. That's when the chief of the security team that saved our butts looked at me and asked, "Sir, what are your orders?" He realized it before even me, I was now the highest ranking officer on the ship.
I looked at Chief Miller, I found his name out later, "Take the security station and coordinate our effort to get rid of our Vinak infestation."
"Yes Sir." he said.
I surprised even myself when I started giving more orders. "Steele take the weapons station. I want those Vinak ships destroyed. You there, Shipmate. What's your name?"
"Chavez, sir"
"Chavez, take the-"
"Chou!", Steele interrupted, "The weapons console isn't responding."
I rolled my eyes and said, "Then reconfigure one of the auxiliary stations. Shipmate Chavez, take the helm."
"Yes Sir", he said with a shaky voice. I bet he never expected to be piloting a 40,000 ton ship when he woke up this morning.
"Miller, how's our infestation?" I asked.
"Uh... It looks like-"
Steele suddenly interrupted, "Sir! I can't get a lock on the last ship".
"God damnit you have a bad habit of interrupting." I yelled, "What's the problem?"
"The Vinak have resumed firing on us. There's still one Vinak ship, but it's angled so that none of our working lasers can hit it" I looked at Chavez.
"I can't get anything to work, we're still adrift", he said.
I was about to panic when a decompression alarm was set off on my station. It gave me an idea. "Chavez, get on the ship comm and order everyone off of deck 11. It's about to be decompressed. Steele, the ship is about to go into a multi-axis roll."
Guessing what I had in mind, she asked, "Chou, are you sure about this idea?". To be honest, at the time, I wasn't too sure about the idea, but we didn't have a lot of time to debate options.
"It'll be just like the maneuver the Johannesburg pulled." She stared at me blankly. I could tell that she had no idea what I was talking about. I remembered reading about it in my history of military tactics class. It is an elective class for officers, but it should be required if you ask me. "Just be ready to fire everything we got."
Chief Miller, who I'd almost forgot about chimed in, "Sir, everyone is off of deck 11".
At that moment I opened the sealed doors were the Hull had been compromised and let atmosphere start escaping and sent the Constant into a slow, but steadily increasing spin. It took 1 minute and 30 seconds for the first operational gun to gain a shot, and it was the longest minute and a half of my life. By the time the Vinak realized what we were doing it was too late. We got lucky and our primary cannon was lined up for a shot. It must've hit a primary system because they didn't fire another shot after that and the rest of our weapons took care of them.

Since then the remaining Vinak on board were killed. Now we're trying to regain control of the ship. When we lost the engines we were going full speed into open space and now our inertia is carrying us further and further into open space. Which, for now, is fine with me because a dozen or more Vinak ships are trying to catch up with us. Fortunately, it should be a few days before that happens. So, I guess that's my priority, get control of the ship and then evade the pursuing Vinak battle cruisers. When I put it like that it doesn't seem as overwhelming.

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/26/2351 20:22

In the latest briefing I and the rest of the Senior officers were told that everything's in place. At 0300 the Constant will be picking a fight she can't win, and, unfortunately, I'm still be on her. I've been overworking my brain trying to devise a way off this doomed ship. At the last briefing, The Captain told us what a fine crew we are and blah blah blah... I nearly laughed out loud when he said it. How cliche`.
At the briefing, Commander Pierre asked, "Can the crew record a message to any family? We can send them before going into battlemode."

Captain Harris refused, "It's too risky. We could give away our position and plan. I'm sorry, but this is too important to risk anything like that. Chou, keep our communications locked down to just myself, Pierre, and the Command Center." The Captain could tell from my reaction that that order really worried me; however, he was completely wrong when he guessed why. "Chou, you look concerned. Don't worry someday your friends and family will know that you were a hero. One final message will not change that."

"Yes sir." I responded. It was a nice sentiment on his part, but completely wrong. The reason I was worried was because I never remember being ordered to "lock down" our communications in the first place! It was the first thing I did after the briefing.

I have to admit that the fact that my last day alive was spent covering up a mistake somewhat fitting. It's fitting for the lack of respect that I have for the institute. And now? Here I am about to die for it. I've been trying to "think positive" and pretend that there is a chance that the Constant will survive. Even the plan has some farcical way the Constant can escape the system. It's all for show. We're the distraction so that the 4 other ships full of lucky bastards can get away while we die. It sucks. I'm pissed. and if this entire log doesn't make any sense it's because tomorrow I'll be dead and no one will ever know that this log ever existed.

System Command: End log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/25/2351 20:11

They're going to do it. I can't believe it, but they're actually going to do it. One ship is going to be "exceptionally endangered", in other words, sacrificed, so that the other Stealthed ships can escape. And guess who's going to be sacrificed? Us. Yeah, that makes perfect sense, let's sacrifice the newest most advanced ship because "it's had the most problems since going into the fight". Apparently single handedly taking out those 3 Vinak cruisers wasn't good enough for them.

The plan is pretty basic. We're going to flip from Active Camo to battle mode and try to draw away Vinak Cruisers from one of the warp points. When that happens the other cruisers slip past and get out of the Sol System and can rendezvous with any other Human Forces that still exist. The warp point we're going to target is the Carnegie System Warp point. It's one of 3 Human systems that the Vinak couldn't conquer without conquering Earth first. I presume that the forces there have been ordered to stand down, but even if they haven't they wouldn't last long from a Vinak invasion.

Anyways, If I'm going to figure out a way to get off this doomed ship, I have 24 hours to do it. That's how long it's going to take to get everyone into position.

System Command: End log