Mark Loganic 01

A Brief Autobiography of Mark Loganic

Part 1.

I was born in 1983, in Vancouver. Dad was an American, working some mysterious government job. Mom was Canadian working a more normal office job for the same gov-department. My early life was more or less normal. Friends, school, comic books, TV, and the dawn of the internet in the early 90s.

I eventually learned that Dad was part of a shadow group that hunted aliens. This seemed the coolest job ever, form a kid’s point of view. The 90s were a rough time for him as he became part of X-Com and spent a lot of time away from home on dangerous missions. Of course Mom knew all about it, she was always one step ahead of everyone.

In 1997 me and my best friend Shiro, he was the son of one of Dad’s co-workers, we were visiting the super secret research center, when the place came under attack. It was horrible but exciting too. It was my first experience with aliens.

In 1999, for the summer vacation Shiro and I went with our fathers on a boating adventure. They rented a big catamaran and we sailed around the Pacific islands for a few weeks. It was great. I was 16 when the giant alien ship streaked across the sky and crashed into an island about 10 km from us. That was the day the world changed for everybody. Of course at the time no one knew what a huge event it was.

Dad made a radio call and then we went to investigate. Dad made us promise to stay with the boat, and if anything dangerous happened, we would sail a few km off shore. Im sure we all knew that was not going to happen, but we agreed to the safe sensible plan. Dad and Dr. Wanabi got their kit on and went into the alien ship. Shiro and I waited about 20 minutes then went in too.

It was a wreck but it was amazing. Im not sure how long we walked around, taking photos, before the computer voice said “Hello Humans”. It spoke perfect English. Shiro did most of the talking as I poked around looking at stuff. He and and computer got along real well. Eventually Dad called on the radio and said “Things are ok, but it is time to go.” We ran back to the boat.

As the first people in the alien ship we all had something of special status. Although the marines that showed up were not all the happy to see us. Dad talked to them and they talked to some general and eventually everything was cool and they acted like Dad was now in charge. Naturally Shiro and I wanted to stay, but we were sent home.

We did get to visit the island again, the following year. It had changed a lot. There was a big camp full of scientists and military guys, flags from a dozen countries marked the various zones. “It was the first foot print of the UN-Earth Defense Force.” Dad told us. The world had changed too, people were both more frightened and more hopeful. Frightened that the aliens may attack at any moment. Hopeful that we as Humans were actually uniting in the face of a common danger. 

 

Part 2.

My next few years were spent in Hawaii, with occasional trips out to the island. Shiro was in regular communication with the Arcadia, the alien ship’s AI. This worried some people, but there seemed to be no way to stop the AI from accessing the internet and talking with anyone it wanted to. I didnt know it at the time, but the AI was searching for people it could recruit as crew.

One day on a family trip to the beach, we played a game of “What if the Arcadia wanted to take over the world.” It was like many RPGs, we bouncing around ideas and plans. What it might do. What Humans in general and us in particular might do. I knew deep down it was not a game at all. Mom said “It is unlikely, but it is always best to be prepared.”

In 2001, after high school, Shiro and I joined the newly created Space Academy. Every kid’s dream right? We dint realize what a big deal that was. Out of a million applications only 500 were selected for that first year. Family connections assured us a spot, but we would have to keep our grades up if we wanted to stay. That was a point one teacher made very clear. Shiro was all about the technical stuff, very much like his dad. I simply wanted to fly a space ship.

In 2003, shortly after I turned 20, I got a ride on the Skylon, my first trip up to orbit. Soon enough I would be piloting one. A few months after that I would be qualified for flying the Venture Star too. It was super exciting at first, but soon flying cargo runs to orbit and to the moon became a normal part of life. The glorious and dangerous future we expected a few years ago seemed to be slow in coming.

The exciting stuff happened in 2005. The X-66 space fighter program. A few of us got involved with it, intent on being the first generation of ace space fighter pilots. The Dart was a great craft, and the test flights of 2005 were one of the high points of my life. We were ‘full of piss & vinegar’ as my Dad often said. We wanted to face the aliens in combat. We wanted to prove what we could do. But nothing actually happened. We tested the craft, we trained, we waited.

Also that year they started building Gate Way station. I consider myself very lucky not to have be stuck on endless cargo runs up to it.

In 2007, I was assigned to help with the construction of moon base Alpha. This was something of a downer, because most of my job was cargo hauling. Until I put in an application for cross training. I then learned to operate some of the big moon machines used in the construction. It was a new and interesting challenge. Driving a dump truck in low gravity is not easy. Of course like most things the more practice you get the more skilled you become and the more dull it eventually seems.

Soon enough I got myself involved with a group of construction workers who sat around each night trying to design new equipment to make their jobs easier. The result of several weeks of brain storming was the Egallax lunar transport shuttle. We ran the draft by some engineers, including my friend Shiro, some said it would be useful, others waved it off as unnecessary, because of the Mule class cargo shuttle that had recently entered service. Being young and stubborn, I pushed for the Egallax and eventually we set up a biding yard on the moon for it.

We got a prototype built in early 2008. It was fun to fly although nothing like a fighter, it was partly my creation so I loved it. By the end of the year it was certified and entered production as a utility craft. My share of the company would go on to provide a nice income. And I would help develop a few variants of the basic Eagle.

In 2009, Shiro was offered a spot on the Arcadia by the ship’s AI. As it had been repairing itself it had also been looking for a crew. One hundred invitations were sent out 99 accepted. It was a big step. Although the ship was a defender of Humanity it made clear that it did not take orders from the UN or any Earth authority. Shiro had to resign his commission in the EDF and board the Arcadia as a privet individual. I was sad to see him go, but it was clearly what he wanted.

Also that year we had a family reunion on the moon. As Alpha Base was completed and made the HQ of the Earth Defence Force, my Dad who was one of the top officers, was assigned there. He had been to visit a few times, but by this point I had spent more time on the moon than he had. The world had always been his back yard and I was the wide eyed guest. This time the roles were kind of reversed. We had a lot of fun when I took the family sight seeing in my Eagle. 

 

Part 3.

In 2011, at the age of 28, it was back to the academy for me. The first FTL test ship Vinland was in development and they wanted more people trained on hyper space operations. Of course it was all theory at that time, no one really knew what it would be like. There were 20 of us in the class. We would all get seats on the early missions, but the big question was “who would be on the first trip to Alpha Centauri?”

As it turned out several of us would get a chance to captain the Vinland on various test flights around the solar system. On my first turn we did a hyper jump in the H-1 band, just around the speed of light, out to Jupiter, then out to Pluto, then home. On my second command we did a hyper jump in the H-3 band, just about 1 LY / week speed. We travelled 3 hours out of the solar system, then came home.

On the historic Alpha Centauri voyage of 2013, I was in the second seat, Jane Petrove was in the captain’s chair. Along with Tony Bahum our tech expert and Lisa Smith our medic, we made that 11 week trip out and back. As amazing as it was to do, it was actually 40 different kinds of hell. The Vinland had about as much habitable space as your average 20 ft camper-van. We quickly started using the escape shuttle as extra living space. The effects of H-Space were anticipated but underestimated. After a few days in it, everyone was experiencing the symptoms and growing irritable. I will not go into all the details, the issues we discovered and the ways we dealt with them are all on file. I will just say that we were all totally determined not to scrub the mission and return home with out reaching the objective. 

 

What the public quickly forgets about is the fact that the Vinland actually made 3 trips to Alpha Centauri. Each time with a different crew, testing different systems and refining ideas from the previous mission. We were every bit as important in the design of the Rangers as the engineers who drew up the plans.

In late 2014 Ranger 1 was put through its test flight. I missed out on that because I was involved over at the Luna ship yard working to improve the Percheron Patrol Craft. The first gen had come into service in 2012, but there had been many issues. Including questions of tactical usefulness. You see in my spare time I had been writing space war theory. As me and a few friends from the Vinland program had sat down to consider just what you could do with a FTL warship. The brass at UN HQ seemed to like my report, so they stuck a “tactical expert in space war” note on my file. I did meet some good people working with the Percheron project. But it was command of a Ranger that I wanted. 

 

Part 4.

In mid 2015, at the age of 32, I was given command of Ranger 3.

My first mission was to Tau Ceti, 12.5 LY distant. A very long trip, but the reports said it was a top candidate for having habitable planets. We were all eager to find one and be the first to set foot on it. You know what happened? Tau Ceti-E turned out to be a jungle paradise, great if you can ignore the 1.4 G. Of course we had a mix of joy and dread as we made out landing. Doc Kenson was understandably worried about bio hazards, poisonous life forms and the contamination of the ship. So we made out foot prints on the new world in full suits.

We did one scouting mission per year. A short mission was about 5 months, a long mission closer to 10 months. Between missions we relaxed and enjoyed some time dirt side. I continued to work with the EDF tactical department to develop our anti Hyper Ship plans, often playing the attacker in simulated battle. I like to think my input helped to develop the Defender class ships in 2017.

In 2018, while on a scouting mission to Wolf 424, 14 light years distant, we encountered an unknown alien ship. We tried to communicate but failed. Their reply was unintelligible and short. As per orders, (avoid conflict) we backed off and left the system.

In late 2019, I was part of the diplomatic mission sent to talk with the Saurian at Ross 154.

In mid 2020, I was part of the follow up mission to Sigma Draconis. I was one of the first Humans to set foot on the Saurian colony world (Dessennis is their name for it).

After the diplomatic work I was felling a bit run down. Maybe I needed a change of career. 

 

Part 5.

I took all of 2021 off to relax and consider the next step of life. High command did not want to lose me. They told me about the new faster H-Space systems that were in testing. Soon ships would have speeds of 1 LY / day. There would be no more long missions, with endless weeks spent in hyper space. They also talked about the new ships that were on the drawing board. The Saber warship and its armed explorer variant were very interesting. But truthfully I was more interested by what I was hearing about the colonial effort that was soon to be getting underway.

So in 2022 I put in my application for command of an Outreach ship. My long time friend Jane Petrove, a fellow Ranger Captain, was appalled at my choice. “You want to run a colony ship? That is like being a bus driver. How can you give up on exploration?” she demanded. All I could tell her was that I wanted a different sort of challenge.

In 2023, just after I turned 40, I took command of the Dawn Horizon, a MK2 Outreach ship she was a cargo hauler with room for about 1,400 tons and passenger capacity of 20. I was expecting to do a few test runs then take part in the planned colonizing at Tee Garden Star. That is not quite what happened. I spent most of 2024 running supplies to our many scattered outposts, including a few I didn't even know existed. It was actually rather interesting. Some outposts were being enhanced, while others were being stocked and locked, basically abandoned with a “Do not enter” sign on the door.

In 2025, we started on rotation making 1 supply run to Tee Garden for every 3 we made to the outpost effort. I quickly realized the Brass had no intention of letting me have a dull bus driver job. 

 In 2026 I took a new set of diplomats, including a few mega corp guys over to the Saurian on Dessennis.

I did stake a claim on Tee-B on my second trip there, shortly before the space station was completed. So when I want to retire I have 100 acres of nice alien wilderness along a river. It was actually a very good policy that the UN-HHC put in place. I have sometimes wondered if it entitles me and my old crew to some land on Tau Ceti -E, or the other planets we landed on during those scouting missions. I really should write to them and get some clarification.

In late 2026, I met up with Jane and Shiro in a most unexpected way.

I dropped out of H-Space in Eridani 82, on a supply run to our outpost there. I dropped right into the middle of a space battle. The Dawn was a good ship, but she was paper thin, slow and basically unarmed. We had a total of 8 point defence guns and shields that could stop nothing serious at all.

A Saber class warship was engaged against a dozen alien craft. Scans showed the entire area was hot with radiation from 20 or more nukes recently going off, and there were stray rail gun rounds zipping here and there.

I told helm to get ready to jump us back into H-Space, then I radioed the Saber. Jane was her captain. She told me the situation was bad, and ordered me to run.

I told her, we would attempt a rescuer of the outpost personnel, on our way out. Because of the positions of everything we had a good chance at pulling it off. So long as the aliens stayed focused on the Saber for a few more minutes.

As we took on the outpost crew, I watched Jane splash one more alien. She would not last much longer and of course one of the bastards was now heading my way.

Just then, a big ship jumped into the fight. It opened fire almost instantly, with powerful beam weapons punching strait through the alien craft as if they had no shields at all. They returned fire but made no impact. In a short few minutes the battle was over. The Arcadia had saved the day.

After we evacuated the Saber, Jane and I went over to the Arcadia. I hadn’t seen Shiro in over 8 years, but he hand not changed at all. We met with Albert Tor the ship’s Captain. Shiro being the chief engineer. He explained that the Lobstron, the same aliens that attacked Earth in 1999, were becoming increasingly aggressive. He warned us that Earth should be ready for a real war soon. 

 

Part 6.

In 2027 I hung up my hat as a bus driver and requested a post on the Resolute project.

The simple way to explain this new class of warship is to imagine an Outreach, with armor and serious shields, 16 point defense guns, rail guns like those on the Saber mounted forward and aft. With a central very big rail gun running the entire length of the ship. She was intended to carry one Condor shuttle with a marine squad and 2 small fighter craft. She had 4 double missile bays, and could launch her entire missile load in 5 minutes if desired. With her 4 cargo pods switched out for small rail guns or lasers weapons, she was a fine all around slugger.

So I was given command of the first Resolute off the construction block in 2028.