The following is an in character “mission report” based on my experiences at Bridge Command, a London interactive theatre experience / video game / LARP.

While the description of events below is as accurate as possible to the events that took place at Bridge Command as a player taking part in a one-off performance, some changes have been made for satisfying narrative flow and to simplify sharing the story with a potentially unfamiliar audience.

I have not shared any information that would be spoilers for a first time Bridge Command attendee. My publicly posted logs will only discuss declassified special events and frontline missions, both mission types that are one-off bespoke missions and not repeated experiences. If you attend Bridge Command, you will not be sent on any missions I describe in public mission logs.

I am not officially affiliated with Bridge Command, and my mission log is not an official “canon” account of Bridge Command lore.

My deployment with the UCN on the 21st was a little unplanned, scheduled that morning under an unusual and slightly rushed set of circumstances. I won’t go into the specifics here, other than to say that it was the kind of rushed deployment that involved doing work via my phone on the journey over to London Base in order to keep my day running smoothly.

We would be running a slightly below average size crew of 7 for this mission, one that I was given advance heads up would be diplomatic in nature, though exactly what that would mean was left unclear.

We were briefed that we would be heading to sector 06-05, one sector west of our prior deployment to rescue the stranded IMC evacuees from Albion a few days prior. The sector was neutral territory – UVP ships had been spotted erratically but nothing deemed of concern.

Retaining control of the sector was important for a few reasons – It’s directly adjacent to Albion (the IMC location we’re currently trying to liberate), as well as neighbouring pirate faction space, our primary trade route, and perhaps most importantly Solace Station.

Solace Station is home to a faction called the Terra Novans. They’re basically space hippy farmers, in control of most of the fresh food production and distribution in the Adamas Belt. Keeping them safe and protected, and on side with us politically, is vital for food access throughout the upcoming war.

They are also largely peaceful people, and have at present not committed any of their vessels to the war effort.

We need to protect Terra Novan society, and Solace station, but we also need to convince them to join the war effort. This is where the diplomatic element was going to come in.

The UN Admiralty ideally wants us to negotiate for control of the full Terra Novan navy, every single vessel.

Our objective on this deployment is not to seek out or fight UVPs – A fleet would be joining us and heading to the Albion border to slow their spread into this sector. They would handle the combat so that we could handle the diplomacy.

I volunteered for the role of captain, one I’d yet to step into since the war began. I have past experience with the Terra Novans diplomatically, and am a member of the UCN Diplomatic Corp, making me a solid pick for tackling some fresh wartime diplomacy.

With the crew all on board I began to brainstorm what we could offer the Terra Novans, as we flew to our rendezvous location.

A commitment to mutual defence, and prioritising Solace as a major defensive locale?

Increased material support, such as medicine, food, repairs, weapons etc?

Was there any technology of knowledge we could share with them?

Could we offer a specific type of protection agreement to Solace? 

We arrived at the X50 Comms Hub and received a brief message outlining the expected temperament of our soon to arrive visitor.

Sibling Noir likes people who are kind, nice, and offer gifts. They dislike selfishness, forcefulness, and loudness.

I rapidly searched the ship for a suitable gift to offer our impending visitor. My usual standby is a “For those who’ve gone beyond” patch, a signal of solidarity that feels fairly universal to offer in a time of war where everyone’s bound to have recently lost someone. I had unfortunately run out of spares, so instead decided to offer the visiting delegate a “UCN Credit Chip”, an old form of UCN currency that is still accepted as legal tender in the UCN, but aesthetically looks much more akin to old physical storage media.

I prepped the crew, who all met Noir in the entrance corridor, putting on their best smiles and gentle voices. We all walked together to the bridge, before jumping directly to the matter at hand.

I wasn’t going to be forceful or selfish – I could see the value that Solace and the Terra Novans offer to the UCN, and don’t take that for granted. My superiors had asked me to ask for something big, and I recognised how large an imposition the request I was about to make would be.

As expected, the idea of handing the entire TN fleet to the UCN was not initially well received.

Their first counter offer, a UCN sword class cruiser permanently stationed at Solace for its protection.

I leaned heavily into discussing the map of the Barrens. In the last two days we had cleared a corridor between solace station and UVP controlled territory, giving a buffer zone of protection to their station. I offered that we would prioritize maintaining this buffer zone, committing a sword class cruiser to solace’s defence any time that UVPs came within one sector of their station.

They continued to push for a permanent sword class at Solace. In truth, I felt this was honestly a fair trade to make. Sure, the TN fleet didn’t have any ship individually of that size or class, but their fleet in total would consist of a far larger number of vessels which could be strategically deployed across multiple sectors. That said, it wasn’t my place to agree to that deal without UVN approval.

I asked Noir for a moment of privacy while I discussed the deal with the UCN. They agreed to return to their ship, and as a goodwill gesture provide us with 2 Frigates, in recognition of the work we had admittedly done creating an effective buffer zone between their people and the wider conflict.

Around this time we got word from Flight Control that, while they passed negotiations up the chain, we would need to assist the fleet at the Albion sector border. In short, they appeared to have a larger number of ships than expected amassing at the edges of the sector, and needed to get a sense of the scale of the conflict.

UVP attention was focused on fighting our main fleet. The request was that we head around at a distance and flank the UVP fleet, send off some probes to assess the number of vessels and their types, then advise the main UCN fleet whether to engage in combat or retreat.

If we spotted more than three battleship class vessels, we were to give the order to retreat.

Along the way we spotted a Terra Novan base, Nairobi, under attack. It was only being attacked by four UVPs, typically a very manageable number, so we jumped in to attempt to protect the zone.

It turned out all four were destroyer class vessels, easily a match for the Takanami by themself. Even with the support of 2 TN Frigates we couldn’t handle these four ships and were forced to retreat for the time being, unfortunately seeing Nirobi station destroyed in the process.

We eventually arrived at our destination, and were blown away by what we saw.

At first it appeared that we had stumbled upon a fairly huge UVP cluster, somewhere in the region of 20-30 vessels. 

Then another.

Then another.

Then an even larger cluster.

Yes, there were definitely at least four battleships, probably a lot more than that, and a frankly mind warping number of assorted smaller vessels.

It was clear that the UCN fleet was NOT prepared for a fight at this scale.

We gave the order to retreat. No sooner had we done so than the UVPs began to move, as though trying to prevent their prey escaping the honey pot.

There were hundreds of UVPs, following us at high level warp speeds, forming a larger and larger swarm. Even at Warp 3 we struggled to keep just ahead of them. It was literally all we could do to run.

Apparently, for those watching the war map at home, the real time play looked something like this…

“UCN has a fleet strength of 50 vs an estimated 30 for the UVP fleet, this should be easy”

“UVPs are up to 50, okay, more of an even fight”

“Okay, UVPs up to 100, that’s quite a jump.

“UVPs at 250. What the heck, get out of there”

We were fleeing back to the rendezvous location in allied controlled space, but as we made the journey we noticed a couple of ships were missing, the Terra Novan Ambassador’s ship, and the UCS Luxor.

Upon a quick double back we recognised that both were dead in the water, having had major systems disabled by UVP fire. Both were immobile, with the entire UVP fleet fast approaching.

Flight Control told us we had a choice to make, dock with either the TN ship or the Luxor. We could use our systems to fix one of those ships given a few moments docked together and get them moving again, but there was simply no time to fix both and still get out alive, not losing the Takanami in the process.

I made the call, we would rescue the Terra Novan Ambassador. We had been making solid diplomatic progress with them, they’d already offered us use of some of their vessels, and we had a possible pathway to their whole fleet. If they died the deal might die with them, or their replacement might kill the deal on the grounds we were not committed to their protection as promised.

While it is horrible to have to leave a UCN ship undefended against that kind of threat, those officers knew what they were signing up for when they joined the navy. I cannot say the same about a ship full of peaceful farmers.

We rescued the TN ambassador and returned to our escape flight, managing to flee far enough they dropped their pursuit, suitably happy they’d driven us back from the sector.

While this far certainly not a military victory, we did get most of our ships out alive against insurmountable odds. We lost ground, but we did manage to gain a lot of favour with the Terra Novans.

The TN Ambassador was willing to, after our rescue, offer us the entire Terra Novan fleet, and did not insist on the continued commitment of a Sword Class cruiser to Solace. However, after speaking to flight control, I did agree to honour that request. Solace is an incredibly high value target, and as demonstrated today we do not have the military might required to guarantee defending it as is. If a fleet of that size can catch us off, if that fleet had continued to push and not let us flee, they probably could have taken Solace with ease, something neither the Terra Novans or the UCN can afford.

Permanently placing a Sword Class cruiser at Solace is in everyone’s best interests. We get a new fleet of ships to command, food production is protected, and we show our goodwill to the Terra Novans at the start of what looks set to be a lengthy war ahead.