GA HEALTH LOG: PEAV, MERTINGO

Mar 25, 8:49:00 51WR

I was told to start writing something for my stupid mental health so here it goes. Medical said that I should be as candid as possible, that they were not going to read this—but they will be notified if I lapse in writing. I think a part of it is when you’re out here in deep space the mental fortitude almost overplays the physical endurance. You’re just strapped in this chair for sometimes for months stints slurping on protein shakes and trying to keep muscle mass optimal in zero gravity. It's a crucible that I’ve seen other pilots crack from for sure.

So yeah. I wrote something.

Mar 28, 9:12:32 51WR

I’m still stationed on Nova Pax. There’s plenty to do here so I don’t see myself writing much. Pax is one of the biggest colonies in The Web of Words. I don’t think the core worlds get how large this thing has gotten. The colony is a spider web of expansions jetting outward from the ol’ Alliance Congress colony hub created a decade and a half ago. Each expansion is a space colony of itself, each one larger than the last as they expand outward from the center. The latest addition–this like resort thing for ambassadors–houses about a million people. Altogether Nova Pax is larger than like most capital cities of the planets out there. I think the only other presence of the Grand Army Charter Alliance this big is back planetside on one of the core worlds. Albrook maybe?

Anywhoo they have a kielbasa on a stick at this little booth down the way from where I’m housed at the moment and it is absolutely delicious.

Being told Admiral Heylin is planning a joint exercise with some militia groups. That should be getting spooled up soon, and we’ll be deployed as a part of it. Guys at my level are mostly used as refs and inspectors, which is pretty dull. Might pick up a few things from the militia guys. I think that’s the only reason the brass has us do these, just to not get rusty.

Apr 5, 22:09:51 51WR

So I’m on the Celes’ Vexation now. I haven’t been on this ship before, they consolidated a lot of the older Grand Army freighters for this to confirm they’re all rigged for mech deployment. A lot of these older Grand Army fleet vessels were designed for orbital bombardments and troop deployment, not for the space to space skirmishes. You can tell the GA still has that colonizer mentality that I see guys like Heylin still trying to shrug off. They gutted several decks of this thing just to house our mechs. We all get officer quarters. It's pretty nice.

Apr 7, 18:21:14 51WR

Just got out of the briefing. It's going to be a basic “protect-the-asset” kind of war game. Admiral Heylin has broken us out into our traditional eight strike groups for each quadrant from origin. Origin for this exercise is gonna be way way way out deep like past the dispersed worlds. I think these Admirals are trying to make a point to the top brass about strategy in dispersed world space versus the clustered core world space.

There’s another Admiral I hadn’t seen before, a man by the name of Tarr. Older guy from the Leviathan war generation. The officers say he’s looked over because he’s in the shadow of the Generalissimo and his general staff from the Great War. I don’t quite get the respect for Tarr personally, he looks like a giant tabby cat with a hangover in a white military suit. He’s going to be leading a ninth strike group of defenders which I’m a part of.

De’Zamma is going to be “the asset” it sounds like. The living legend himself founded my unit and has been around almost as long as Generalissimo Cole. Admiral Heylin is a protege of De’Zamma from back in the day. The man is one of those old grizzled Great War vets made immortal from sheer spite. He never talks much, but when he does it is like listening to living history. The man started his career with a bolt action rifle and is now flying a gigantic plastic space angel with lasers.

That’s nutty.

Apr 13, 12:53:32 51WR

Ok, so change of plans a little. Old man De’Zamma came down with the flu. He seems to get sick often, even though his blood is practically orange juice from the amount I’ve seen him drink. Admiral Tarr did a lottery among the unit to see who’d replace De’Zamma.

Guess who’s “the asset” now?

That’s right. Little ol’ me. Some of the veterans were a little crabby about it, especially the one from the core worlds. I wouldn’t say there’s animosity between the core and dispersed pilots, but a lot of the core world vets were test pilots directly trained by the manufacturer back in Tasnicaport and have a chip on their shoulder. Any excuse to show off.

I’m gonna give them a good show I think. I have a direct one-on-one with Tarr to go over specifics tomorrow.

Apr 14, 12:53:32 51WR

Ok I really like Tarr now. I’ve never met an Admiral for cheeseburgers and beer in the cafeteria. The guy is pretty down to earth for being so high up in the pecking order. He mostly wanted to vet me. It seems like–you know, make sure I was breathing and capable of piloting a robot with wings and a massive rocket pack.

We talked about all the different makes and models of mecha–the spider mechs of Hyland, the dracoforms of the Scandian League, the unique offerings of the Skull empire. Tarr was a fan of Superzilla, the beast of a dracoform from the Robotics Tournament a few years back.

The strategy for the exercise is that I’m going to pick a position at random from origin and head there at a random speed. I’m to wait there for a random amount of hours upon arrival, then select a new position at random. Rinse and repeat. The process then starts over until I am found for the 48 hours has passed.

The rest of the strike team will simulate a defensive and slowly retreat to a defensible asteroid belt. The maneuverability of the mechs would play to their advantage. It should play as a good ruse as a backdrop to my shenanigans.

Apr 15, 19:51:11 51WR

Haystack, meet needle. I deployed about 7 hours ago with Tarr and the defending strike team. We collectively headed for the asteroid belt for the first 45 minutes before I made my initial beeline to a random point in a random quadrant.

At first I thought my engine heat and light would be a dead give away to the other strike teams, but after the second course change it became clear over the scanners that no one had my tail. I still have a bag of chips from yesterday so I’m having a snack break before my next jaunt across deep space.

These have a little chili powder to them which gets kinda greasy on my jumpsuit. I might just smudge it off on the console. That’ll get sanitized when I get back to the Vexation. The crew is pretty good about that.

Apr 15, 22:02:54 51WR

So I just made a rookie mistake. Kinda panicking so wanted to log this to chill out a bit. This could be really bad but I have a record so I just have to back track and little. Admiral Heylin’s teams definitely won’t be expecting that.

Ok confession time. I smeared the chip grease on the directional console a bit more than I had thought. You know how there’s eight quadrants? You know, there’s positive positive positive, positive positive negative, positive negative negative, positive negative positive and so on. So there’s a little bit of grease that blurred the second value’s negative position soooo I sorta kind of have no idea where I’ve been going for the last few rounds of zig zag through the void. Anywhoo, just gotta be careful because there’s a few “gates” not charted out here. This wouldn’t be the Web of Worlds without random wormholes leading who knows where to who knows what. I just have to keep it slow and steady until I get my bearings again.

It is pretty late, so I’m just gonna go slow and it's pretty doubtful I’d hit a wormhole. My luck isn’t THAT bad.

Apr 15, 23:49:39 51WR

Son-of-a–

Apr 16, 01:21:18 51WR

…

Apr 16, 03:01:52 51WR

Stupid greasy chips.

Apr 18, 08:22:31 51WR

Its been over the forty eight hour time limit of the training exercise. Yesterday night I went through a gate at some point while I misread the navigation. I tried to back track, but not knowing the exact point I went through has made it pretty difficult.

I might be stuck out here for a while. I’m picking up some signals, but none that I recognise. There’s a planet that I can reach that isn’t too far off from my position, maybe a day or so. This mecha is equipped with landing thrusters, so I can touch down if need be.

The problem is fuel. Buzzing around in space isn’t too bad, I carry enough fuel to take a month on my own if I allow for momentum to speed me up over time. It's the lift off again to orbit that’s the problem. I’m never sure of the scarcity of my fuel type where I land. To get off any rock I need a hell of a lot of fuel, and it's always a crap shoot if it's available.

I can make my own fuel, but the amount I need would take… years? I don’t know the math off the top of my head. I’m trying not to think about it just yet.

Apr 20, 11:02:19 51WR

Ok, so some good news, and some bad news.

The good news is I made contact with Celes’ Vexation. No surprise, they’re pretty vexxed. The bad news is although we both have the general idea where the wormhole gates are located in space, neither side can exactly pinpoint the thing. Ther frigate is expanding past the region designated for the exercise to find it, and my mecha sensor’s aren’t powerful enough to detect it unless I’m right on top of it. We’re mostly just broadcasting out and seeing if we get a hot or cold response.

It took a few attempts but we hashed out a working operational plan moving forward. The computers are estimating a week or so to pinpoint the locational orbit of the wormhole gates for both sides. I can stay out here for a few months, but I don’t have food beyond what would last me a few days.

So the game plan is this: I leave a beacon for my current location and make a beeline for the settlement I saw earlier. I make friends with the locals, keep under the radar, and play ambassador from The Alliance Congress. The Vexation will leave a broadcaster in their area near the wormhole to pass messages. I’ll ping back the beacon and send reports until the planets literally align and I can get back through the gate.

At least this way I’ll still be on the payroll. Pretty big snafu but not the end of the universe. On the plus side, since I was never found, Admiral Torr is chalking this up as a win over Admiral Heylin. So yeah. Heading over to the settlement now. Wish me luck.