Lieutenant Commander Ames Defacto is the Second Officer of SS Charm Quark, Quasar 15A bomber.Last time i blogged i told you about how our ship SS Charm Quark was part of the September Sunrise exercise. That deployment ended in a training attack mission using live weapons (though only 1 ship used live nukes, SS Quasar) the other 2 Quasars including our own used simulated weapons on a target built on an asteroid.
Following the deployment the fleet returned to Proxima Centauri in early October and we had 7 days of R&R while CQ received some maintenance and supplies were replenished. Since then we have been part of the 1st Attack Squadron (which comprises 3 Quasars armed and ready for a live mission at short notice).
Because of the incidents in Raegris space involving the Bolitic we have been on a 2 hour readiness! That means simply the ship has to be ready to leave dock and start a combat mission within 2 hours. Now this is not easy to achieve for an extended period of time, because the ship has to be kept ready to depart not much in the way of engineering work can be carried out and all crew leave is at a minimum (and indeed limited to space dock).
It is likely if this readiness state continues for more than a week then other Quasars will be rotated into the squadron and we will be stood down. The worst thing about this level of readiness actually is the tension, we are all kept on tenterhooks waiting for the order to leave, the ship fully loaded and armed for nuclear attack. The tension is hard to take. Once the mission begins its fine but until then the waiting can be agonising!
