June 29th, 8252

You sit back in your command chair on the bride of the Night Horse and stifle a satisfied smirk. In light of the main thruster damage that the Night Horse has suffered she has been assigned to a orbital Navy dockyard Matar Romeo Sierra Two instead of the usual Surveyor's Corps Celesmore sky-city yard. As much as you enjoy the freedom that your command and service to the Surveyor's Corps gives you you can't help but to loath the bean-counting civilian contractor grade repair work they perform. Even overseen by government inspectors and held to government standards there always seems to be a bit more crap that slips through and has to be fixed up aboard ship after leaving the dock.

Now though, headed into a Navy owned and operated yard and with detailed damage reports in hand, you expect that so much of the crap you had to put up with aboard the Night Horse until now will be cleaned right up. The warp jump screen generators in particular are going to be scrutinized to hell and back given the three failures in your latest mission alone. You've also sent ahead a request for a full ship structural and system review to be performed in light of the battle damage that the Night Horse sustained in the Azur system and the repairs performed afterwards. Your written suspicions is that the work performed by the Celesmore sky-city yards was unduly rushed. They missed or ignored the warp jump screen generator hum to near fatal results so what else might they have missed?

The shuttle from Matar Romeo Sierra Two dock with the tug HMNS Butler. Shortly afterwards a Navy inspector requests to come aboard. You grant permission and direct him to Midshipman Huckle for the latest news on the status of the Night Horse. Not twelve minutes later a memo is copped to you.

TO: Yardmaster Tom Epps, Navy Dockyard Matar Romeo Sierra Two.

COPY (INFORMATION ONLY): CAPT Lawrence Warde, Commanding, HMSCS Night Horse.

RE: Preliminary reports from HMSCS Night Horse.

It's Bad boss. Real Bad. To hell with Political Lord Wynstryngham's standing orders. We'll need to do a full examination and repair for this case with Tribunal tier documentation. SC ship or not someone sent the Night Horse out with only four warp jump screen generators. Rapid reset version or not, this is a clear-cut example of zero redundancy in violation of Star Empire Government ship specifications and regulations. Moreover they are civilian grade installations, not Navy, paired up with a Navy grade warp jump drive. It's no small miracle that the Night Horse made it this far.

I'm condemning all four warp jump screen generators effective immediately on my own authority as utterly unfit for service in any capacity. They are all from the same batch and two of them have suffered failures well before their design lifetimes. We can at least fit government standard replacements, with the backups this time, in their place. I'd like to go to a Navy-style hexagonal screen arrangement too but I'll need to check over the drawings.

Other issues appear to be wide-spread but somewhat routine. The main thruster damage is the worst of it of course but there are other lingering faults too. In light of the Tribunal tier documentation required for the warp jump screen generators we may as well do the same for the rest of the damage survey at least. It's going to be a pain in the neck (mostly mine I'm sure) but it needs doing.

SIGNED: Inspector Bert Andrews, Navy Dockyard Matar Romeo Sierra Two.

You allow your smirk to dominate your face. Someone is going to get it in the neck over this one and it won't be you. You were not permitted to object to the fitting-out of the Night Horse Thus the below specification warp jump screen fit is not on your neck: you were stuck with it and forced to make do. Moreover the commander of the Celesmore dockyards, one RADM Horace Odgers, is on record as dismissing your calls for the same system to be refit. You doubt he will be taking any sort of fall over this but plenty of heads will roll.

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July 1st, 8252

You watch the automatons load the Zures data archive aboard the cargo shuttle with detached interest. Along with it goes five full bankers boxes of printed reports, in triplicate of course, for the Ministry of Colonization for their investigation. Plus three more for the Ministry of Justice for their parallel investigation. Not to mention the innumerable gigabits of data already transmitted on the subject.

The personnel shuttle sits nearby waiting for you to board. As part of the investigation into the Nigh Horse's warp jump systems you and your crew are not permitted aboard ship while the examination is ongoing. You don't mind as it means the Navy is paying for your accommodations this time around. It won't be luxurious, and they'll have you 'on call' the whole time in case further questions arise, but it's still at least a month off duty.

August 8th, 8252

You step off of the shuttle and back onto the deck of the now HMNS Night Horse with a sense of satisfaction and vindication. Too many people of rank signed too many pieces of paper and covered their bureaucratic backsides too well to get torn a new one by the warp jump drive scandal. On the flip side the Navy has formally reclaimed the Night Horse as a propulsion test bed ship under their supervision instead of trusting the Surveyor's Corps with the task. According the Surveyor's Corps still get to issue your missions but the Navy gets a copy of all of your reports and will be performing all of your dockyard maintenance in order to properly evaluate the ship and it's warp jump systems.

The 'Zures Colony Disaster' investigations are still ongoing. However your part in them is fully over and done with and you, and your ship, have been released to return to duty. Any further inquiries can be conducted via FTL comm link. The preliminary summary you did get to see (even though the junior aide that showed it to you probably bent the rules) is disheartening to say the least. Both the SES Ann Child and the SES Robert Harbrid lost their FTL comm link arrays and enough thrusters to leave them effectively adrift in the collision. The Ann Child also lost her warp jump drives, stranding her in the system, and forcing an attempt at a colony to be made. The atmospheric conversion plants never made it down to the surface leaving the involuntary colonists with only the hope that the atmosphere wasn't too tainted for long term survival.

It was tainted but in a subtle way that was not immediately evident: higher then tolerable levels of heavy metals and radioactive isotopes. The resulting degradation in health took five months to become apparent and by then it was too late. Every crop they grew, sip of recycled water they drank, and lungful of air they breathed only increased the damage taken. Preliminary estimates indicated that the colony lasted no more then five years from the date of landing. Those calculations also did not account for any outbreaks of diseases and are being re-run to account for the tuberculosis outbreak. The deer skull iconography has not been tracked down yet but you would not be surprised if it never is. From the grim look on Midshipman Huckle's face when he made that part of the report you expect that it's at least rumored among the spacer born and not something that the Star Empire will ever admit publicly. Thinking over the food situation it's not hard to come to a conclusion fitting a situation with a large number of stranded people running desperately short on food: cannibalism.

August 9th, 8252

It's taken a day to settle back in aboard the Night Horse as the yard workers clear away the last of their equipment. Midshipman Huckle spent a few minutes yesterday cursing something out so you suspect that his still was either stolen or trashed. He took receipt of a new box of engineering supplies personally though, so you know that a new one will be cropping back up soon enough. Midshipman Engel notably had a calmer attitude and a new familiarity with both Star Empire computer systems and bureaucratic paperwork. As the nominal team lead of the 'Zures Colony Expedition' he has had to spend an inordinate amount of time with both and developed his new skills and attitude out of raw necessity.

You had received a memo from the Office of Ship Manning, and had accordingly expected the arrival of a navigation officer with the morning delivery shuttle, but no such officer has appeared. Frowning in thought you stop by your cabin to check your tablet for any new messages. To your surprise you have two.

FROM: Office of Ship Manning

TO: CAPT Lawrence Warde, Commanding, HMSCS Night Horse.

We regret to inform you that the navigation officer scheduled to be assigned to the Night Horse as of this morning has fallen under the Sole Survivor Rule after their sibling perished in a sky-car accident. A transfer from a nearby ship is being sought on an emergency basis in advance of any future deployment.

SIGNED: CMDR Wilson Swadling, Office of Ship Manning (Celesmore System).

While you expected a notice as to why your new navigation officer was delayed, you didn't expect them to be recalled, much less under the sole survivor rule. Such a recall is so automatic and irrevocable that the Office of Ship Manning even has a standard form for it. You have only ever seen the resulting message once before but it is pretty much unmistakable as one of the few fully automated form that get sent out. The second message in your feed is equally surprising.

FROM: Office of Ship Manning

TO: CAPT Lawrence Warde, Commanding, HMSCS Night Horse.

After review of the emergency transfer situation, and the unique requirements of the HMSCS Night Horse, a new navigation officer has been arranged. You can expect their arrival on tomorrow morning's cargo shuttle.

SIGNED: RADM William Rikhil, HMN, Commanding Officer, Office of Ship Manning.