OBSERVATION POST 219-A
DUTY LOG
This document classified CONFIDENTIAL. Level 2 security...
DUTY LOG
This document classified CONFIDENTIAL. Level 2 security...
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OBSERVATION POST 219-A
DUTY LOG
This document classified CONFIDENTIAL. Level 2 security clearance required for access. Unauthorised access or disclosure will result in disciplinary proceedings.
DUTY LOG
This document classified CONFIDENTIAL. Level 2 security clearance required for access. Unauthorised access or disclosure will result in disciplinary proceedings.
3/6/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1230. Minor corrosion noted on Mast 2, no immediate risk to operational readiness and on-site stores sufficient to effect repairs. Repairs completed by 1430.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Light breeze from the south-east, approx. 10km/h, light cloud cover, visibility good. Fire risk assessed minimal due to recent rainfall.
Remarks:
The "minor corrosion" on Mast 2 was no more than some streaks of rust on the paintwork; cosmetic damage only, at least at this stage. Still, it's not as if we have much else to do up here.
4/6/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1245. No faults found.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Light breeze from the south-east, approx. 18km/h, light cloud cover, visibility good. Fire risk assessed minimal due to recent rainfall.
Remarks:
Note to the Personnel Bureau: When choosing personnel to assign to these listening stations, I recommend you give priority to anyone with a hobby that benefits from a great deal of free time and solitude. Their morale will last longer.
15/6/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1200. No faults found.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong wind from the south, approx. 40km/h gusting to approx. 70km/h, moderate overcast, visibility poor. Fire risk assessed minimal.
Remarks:
I wonder if whoever's reading this is as bored as I am writing it? If anyone ever does read these log entries unless something goes wrong and they need to find out what happened. After all, we're manning a radio listening post on the border with Norland: A textbook case of no news being good news if ever there was one.
I wonder if anyone else has had the same thought and decided to try and see what they can get away with writing in the Remarks section?
Remarks, supplemental:
Okay, so apparently I'm not cleared to access the previous duty logs despite being charged with writing new ones, not to mention the ranking officer around here. OPSEC policy handed down from on high, or just an oversight that's gone uncorrected because nobody's noticed?
Either way, I don't suppose "I ran out of books to read and I'm really bored" would count as a valid need to know, but I'll pass it up the chain on the off-chance I ever do need to look something up.
21/6/5206
Duty Officer: W/O2 James Walker
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1300. No faults found.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong steady wind from the south-west, approx 50km/h, heavy overcast, visibility average. Fire risk assessed negligible.
Remarks:
W/O1 Wilson incapacitated with, quote, "the galloping shits", unquote. Suspect his testing field-expedient local food sources to blame. HQ advised to alert local Park Service and Environment Agency offices in case of water contamination. Any personnel assigned to this outpost are also cautioned that the small, green, vaguely oval-shaped fish in the nearby river may not be compatible with the human digestive system and in W/O1 Wilson's opinion taste, quote, "bloody awful", unquote.
22/6/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1235. No faults found.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong steady wind from the south-west, approx 50km/h, heavy rain, visibility poor. Fire risk assessed negligible.
Remarks:
Let's not do that again.
23/6/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection impossible to carry out due to worsening weather conditions.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong wind from the south-west, approx 60km/h gusting to approx. 80km/h, heavy rain, visibility poor. Fire risk assessed negligible.
Remarks:
Bloody weather.
Remarks, supplemental:
Ten million quid they spent running the fibre-optic link up here so another ten million quid's worth of SIGINT kit can relay whatever it picks up off the airwaves that might be of military importance, and the Ministry of Defence can't even spring for a basic cable package for the TV in the messroom! We need a union.
02/7/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1115. No faults found.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong steady wind from the south-west, approx 40km/h, scattered cloud cover, visibility excellent. Fire risk assessed minimal.
Remarks:
Two fighter aircraft overflew the outpost at high altitude around 0600. Neither of us could make out type or markings but they were definitely coming from the direction of the Norland side of the border.
Reported it to HQ and was ordered to go to an elevated state of alert. What that's supposed to mean for two signals technicians in the middle of nowhere I have no idea, but Jimmy or myself are going to be watching the perimeter cameras more closely from now on. I'm also going to inventory the arms locker… just as soon as I find the key.
3/7/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspection undertaken at 1100, complete by 1105. No faults found.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong steady wind from the south-west, approx 70km/h, light rain, visibility poor. Fire risk assessed negligible.
Remarks:
Found the key to the arms locker, but it turns out the lock had seized up from disuse! Nothing the bolt cutters we found in the stores couldn't handle, fortunately.
Our total small arms arsenal consists of two (2) standard service rifles with approx. 150 rounds per gun, one (1) autoloading shotgun with approx. 50 rounds each of buckshot and rifled slugs, and two (2) service automatics with 30 rounds per gun. I also found three (3) 4x optical sights and two (2) sets of infantry-grade carapace armour in storage. They're old Mark 4s without the new smartfluid armour inserts, but they're better than nothing.
That's the good news. The bad news is this stuff's been gathering dust in here for at least a decade. I hope we have some gun oil and cleaning kits around here somewhere, not to mention batteries for the armour.
4/7/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: Nominal. All readings within normal ranges.
Communications Status: Nominal. Transceiver tested at 0900, RST 5/9.
Maintenance Status: Inspections suspended until further notice.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: Strong steady wind from the south, approx 90km/h, heavy rain, visibility poor. Fire risk assessed negligible.
Remarks:
Someone's out there, and I'm damn sure they're not friendly. I got a human-sized signature on the perimeter cameras in infrared mode earlier: It disappeared almost immediately, like someone knew they might have been spotted and panicked… Or let themselves be spotted so we would panic.
Either way, someone's out there in full stealth gear, presumably multiple someones. Called it in to HQ, and reinforcements are allegedly on the way. Reading between the lines, we might be in for a long wait; the private on radio watch didn't sound surprised, so we probably aren't the only remote outpost to have company.
Which leaves the problem of how two signals techs who've never fired a rifle outside the range are supposed to defend this installation against a team of much better-equipped and trained enemy Special Forces. It's not as bad as it might be, mind you: The main building is a proper ultracrete bunker rather than a flimsy prefab hut like some of the newer outposts got, and it's got good sightlines. Even if they knock out the cameras there's no cover to speak of between the treeline and the perimeter fence, and that's got a motion-triggered alarm. There also can't be all that many of them for an installation this small: Six at most, more likely just four. They won't be all that heavily armed either, not if they had to tab in from the nearest place a VTOL could set them down without being spotted.
And if they're only here to observe and report, not take the installation out, we just have to wait them out.
Remarks, supplemental:
More aircraft overflights. Mostly fighters, but some bigger ones that might have been bombers or paratroop transports. I lost count at forty.
There's no denying it now. We're at war.
5/7/5206
Duty Officer: W/O1 Peter Wilson
Instrument Status: FUBAR.
Communications Status: Comms lost, probably permanently.
Maintenance Status: Everything got blown the whole entire fuck up.
Weather and Fire Risk Status: How the hell would I know from down here?
Remarks:
So, yeah. They called in an airstrike. I guess those commandoes must have been carrying a laser designator to guide the strike aircraft in. All four masts are down, the power substation took a direct hit and I'm pretty sure they took out the backup generator, not that I can get at it to start it. The sixth and final bomb levelled the main building, but apparently they didn't want to waste a bunker-buster or else I wouldn't be typing this from the bomb shelter.
I'm pretty sure Jimmy's dead. I kept telling him to stop sneaking out for a smoke but he wouldn't bloody well listen… Although considering I'm stuck in a tiny basement with a ton or more of rubble weighing down the trapdoor, enough emergency rations and water to last me about a week and very little hope of rescue I can't help thinking he might've been the lucky one.
I was able to get a message out before the attack run started, but I don't know if anyone heard it. Even if someone did, the Army have more pressing problems than one distressed REMF. (Insofar as you can really call this place "rear-echelon" after today.) I wonder if any of the transmissions this listening post was meant to be plucking from the airwaves gave the backroom boys any useful advance warning? I'd like to think that they did; not soon enough to stop the war before it started, but maybe just enough that were weren't totally clean-bowled. If so, at least I can say my death counted for something.
This is a hell of a format for my last will and testament to be written in. Well, just last testament really. It's not like I have an estate to speak of.
Remarks, supplemental:
I don't believe it. There are cryochambers down here! Proper slowship-grade ones rated for centuries, no less. This place must have been part of the old Deep Reserve program, although living stars above know why you'd stash a "dragon's teeth" squad out here in the arse-end of nowhere. Makes as much sense as everything else about the whole stupid idea, I suppose…
Anyway, it all works out to my benefit here. All I have to do is climb into the least grubby-looking one and wait until someone remembers there was a manned outpost here and comes to see why we're not answering the phone.
Shouldn't take more than a few weeks, right? Even if there is a war on.
Minor spoilers for my other original fiction project: Yes, he is tempting fate.
- Location
- The Midlands.
A significantly revised and expanded version of this story can be found here: Duty Log, an Ebook by Jake Grey
EDIT: Now available from Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Scribd.
EDIT: Now available from Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Scribd.
Last edited:
- Location
- The Midlands.
Don't worry, you haven't heard the last of the setting or the protagonist. This is a side-story to a much longer novel that's still being written, which I hope will be the first in a loosely-connected series.