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.

Okay, where to even begin on this one.

While broadly the UCN has given clearance for Frontline Mission logs to be publicly shared with other UCN officers, there will always be exceptions. The following is one of those exceptions. 

The following mission log will be written twice – Once for private record keeping, and once for public publication. The following is the public mission log, which will feature certain redactions and ammendments to conform with official disclosure rules.

The mission prior to ours, 7:15pm Takanami, took place in Sector 05-05. The crew met with Gobba, leader of Gobba’s Gang and one of the pirate faction leaders we’ve been working towards offering a Letter of Marque.

A little context for anyone who’s not encountered Gobba – He’s not the most traditionally eloquent, but he’s honest and loyal and he loves explosions. If you match his excessively high energy, share stories of battle conquest, and let him hit the button to fire the big explosive weapons for you, you’ll become fast friends with the guy.

The previous crew met up with Gobba for Diplomacy, basically negotiating permission to reroute one of our trade routes through his sector of space. Basically, while we’re struggling to regain enough ground to reopen the old trade route, it makes sense to move the route elsewhere.

Gobba was given a bunch of HVLIs (High Velocity Lead Impacts), and provided the UCN with a mysterious black crystal that we were able to use to punch a hole in a mysterious alien barrier, so he could get inside the perimeter and fight some UVPs.

This was a diplomatic victory, but also flipped the sector from contested to pirate controlled.

We would be heading out to the same zone, 05-05, with Cmdr August Reede, a member of the UCNI (United Confederation Navy Intelligence).

Gobba had promised allied factions (UCN, IMC, TN, Syn etc) traversal rights within this zone. That said, we were told to still expect moderate to severe UVP responses.

So, to the matter at hand – A bunch of UCN vessels which had been docked at Sca Fell station when the war broke out were lost in the initial expansion of UVP vessels as the war began. Somehow they fell into the hands of members of Gobba’s Gang, and were going to be auctioned here in Gobba controlled territory.

UCNI (intelligence) caught wind of this, and flagged some of these auction vessels as of interest to them. UCNI stated that the vessels are incredibly important to recover, but did not elaborate during the briefing.

We were given a codeword, ■■■■ , and a sector, ■■■■ , where we could begin following a chain of interactions that would lead us to the auction, and present us as seriously interested bidders.

We would be sent with a UCNI Freighter, the Mirabelle, to attempt to recover these vessels. We were primed that weaponry would likely be a good starting point for negotiation, and that the UCNI have LOTS of resources they’re willing to throw at bankrolling this if required.

Lastly, there was no information on any other potential bidders.

As we boarded the Takanami, our Intelligence associate informed us there were a few hard lines we could not offer in negotiation – The main points were that we couldn’t hand over Nukes, we could offer “a pathway to nukes” but there was no guarantee that would be possible and could cause a diplomatic issue down the line, and that we couldn’t offer proprietary UCN technological advancements.

Additionally, we were informed that the vessels up for auction contained “very important ■■■■ ■■■■ ”. The UCNI wants them recovered, ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ . If it became necessary August would reveal the contents, so that we understood the stakes and any precautions needed, but otherwise could not elaborate.

I settled into the comms desk, my position for this mission.

As we made our journey we discussed possible avenues for auction bidding. 

We could offer diplomatic support?

We could point out that the auction was a bad look for progressing Letters of Marque and find an alternative way to settle the arrangement.

We could offer nukes by proxy, e.g. a visit to press the nuke fire button on one of our ships?

As we arrived at the comms hub I sent the code word, and a robotic voice rang out over the ship. While hard to make out, we deduced we needed to head to ■■■■ , with the code word “■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ”

On the way we were attacked by two separate factions, a fleet of Grey Hat ships and a fleet of UVPs

The grey hats, for reference, are a faction of tech savvy hackers. Often their ships are unmanned, remote controlled from afar.

We obviously wanted to avoid being caught between two separate factions, and so I reached out over text comms to XX Motherboard, their primary ship, with an attempted offer of collaboration.

We have a shared enemy, the UVP. There is no reason we need to fight each other AND them. Would they agree to focus on the UVPs, and work alongside us temporarily?

They agreed in the short term, willing to fight against the UVPs, but not without some give and take. They knew the starting key phrase for the auction, but not the second phrase we were currently following. 

I told them they could follow us to the auction, if they agreed to help us fight UVPs on the way.

Why did we do this, knowing it would add an additional faction to the auction? Well, there was a time limit to reach the auction which we might fail in slow UVP combat, but also because historically diplomacy with the Grey Hats has been deeply challenging, and a temporary alliance of convenience could help to improve relations with the faction long term.

We reached the second waypoint, gave our code phrase, and were met with a question:

Who did Gobba beat in arm wrestling at the Inaugural Pirate Council meeting?

We knew the answer, but I threw in a little flair – “Ed Bell, BUT Gobba COULD have beaten anyone and everyone there if he wanted”

The voice laughed, confirming it was live and not a recording. A good piece of intel, and proof we’d garnered some goodwill.

“Barka’s Waiting at ■■■■ . Don’t be late”

We continued toward the next waypoint at warp, before having our systems hacked by the Greyhats to pull us back down to impulse. They had decided we were trying to run away from them (rather than simply lead them as promised), and demanded we tell them the sector of the next waypoint. I tried to explain the situation, but we ultimately gave them the sector and trusted them to undo our hacked systems, which they did.

On the way we shared intel on where we had spotted UVPs, to try and show our shared mutually beneficial relationship.

Along the way the Mirabell was attacked by UVPs. We turned back to offer our support, and I messaged the greyhats to request they do the same. After initially hesitating they did turn back and come to our support. This was a good sign, they had the location of the auction and we no longer offered them a tangible benefit, there was a time limit so they could have had less competition at the auction rather than risk missing it. The fact they came back shows they kept their word, which feels notable.

We eventually made it to the meeting point, where I met Barka over video comms. He’s basically Gobba light, holding an upside down hammer. Any trick that works on Gobba seems to work on Barka just as easily. Match his energy, have a laugh with him, play up the pirate voice, he’ll quickly be your new best mate.

The auction would be for 3 lots, apparently Barka’s “biggest auction ever”. As the offers wouldn’t be directly comparable in monetary value Barka gets the discretion to decide the winner based on his own personal tastes and desires.

The auction started with lot 1, a single freighter from the batch of 3.

We opened the bidding with an offer of a monthly fuel allowance.

At this point Syn a fleet of syndicate ships arrived just in time for bidding. Barka took a 5 minute break for people to decide their bids, with the plan to call back shortly afterward.

I contacted the Grey Hats, and asked what it would take for them to abstain from bidding. They agreed not to bid on any of the three lots if we stayed away from 08-03, a sector already under pirate control which was presumably their base of operations currently.

We agreed. While their position is right between Horizon and Solace which isn’t ideal, the hope was that by making a deal to leave them be in a known location, we could keep track of their whereabouts and maintain this tentative truce. It might lead to them asking us for UVP combat support, or being willing to support us down the line perhaps?

I attempt the same with the syndicate, but they ignore my messages.

When Barka comes back on the monitor he asks for our offer, and we tell him we would like to make a bid for all three lots at once, not just the first lot. Apparently the syndicate did the same.

We offer a monthly fuel stipend, all standard weapon type shipments, and alcohol (his favoured drink is vodka and orange juice, but he’s never heard of a screwdriver). 

The Syndicate then returned offering to give him his own private bar, Barka’s Bar. As an entertainment centric faction, not too hard for them to commit to.

We try to add to our bid but it’s in vain, the syndicate win the auction.

It’s at this point that August came clean to us about what was on those frigates, and why it’s so important we get them back into our possession.

It’s ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ . Allowing it to fall into syndicate hands would ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ .

The Syndicate called us, smug voices comparable to British toffs, suggesting we offer to make a new deal.

When asked which family they represent, they stated “There are families, and then there are FAMILIES. We represent the silent partners”.

The syndicate attempted to ask what the ■■■■ they had just purchased was. We danced around telling them.

We offer ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ , with Syndicate ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ .

They said “No, we’d rather just hold onto them and learn what they are for ourselves”

At this point the Syndicate begin to leave.

What follows is the official report of the [Redacted] crew regarding the events which followed.

As the Syndicate ships began to depart, several wormholes opened up, out of which swarmed numerous UVP vessels. Barka’s group had already departed post auction, leaving just the UCN and Syn vessels.

We engaged in combat with the UVP vessels. The UVPs were attempting to destroy the frigates, and as such we needed to focus our combat on the UVPs first and foremost if our priority was preventing the destrouction of these ships and their contents.

The Syndicate also engaged in combat with the UVPs, while trying to protect their recently purchased ships.

I watched as multiple UVPs attacked, and destroyed, multiple Syndicate vessels.

By the time the dust had settled the Syndicate vessels had unfortunately all been destroyed. The last few UVPs escaped through a wormhole with one of the three ships.

As the Syndicate were no longer present to lay claim to the vessels, and these were fundamentally stolen UCN vessels, we reclaimed the ships into the fleet. They were not Barka’s to sell, and were now back in their rightful owners hands.

The following morning a letter was issued regarding the events of the previous night.