Hot news on the wire, apprently mainframe update 1.4 is being applied to the AFS central network tomorrow. I'm pretty anxious for this update because there are a lot of changes being made to existing systems which are... problematic. I will be issuing a full report later this week. For now I'm going to get some paperwork done early this week so that later this week I can file a full report on my opinion of these ground breaking changes.

I got a little bored of all the lava and fiery death that exists within the Crucible so I decided to take a little trip up north. If there's one thing my counterpart and I agree upon, it's that knowledge IS power. I love power, so I'm taking the time to collect every piece of logos knowledge I can find. I had collected everything I had up until Crucible and I thought I'd explore Thunderhead and the Ashen Desert to see if I could acquire any more logos. I was sadly mistaken. While I wasn't quite ready for Thunderhead I was able to reach Ashen Desert and interestingly enough I was given some assignments to complete. These missions where difficult, but the rewards were well worth the effort. I was amazed at how different the landscape here was. I've never seen a Desert before and it was quite... barren. The stench of death was everywhere in the air so I felt quite at home. One interesting thing I found when I was exploring was the existence of Xanx. This is the first time I had seen Xanx on this Planet if memory serves me correctly. It's interesting how there are some species that exist on both planets. I'd have to assume this is either by Eloh or Neph interfierance.

Tonight was the first night I was able to spend a full night with Roland as a Guardian. We focused on completing all the assignments given to us in the Mires. Overall it seems like Roland is excited about his new Guardianship. He was particularly excited to be showing off his staff skills, bashing thax's faces in, charging them with a rushing blow, just to beat their faces in more. Up until this point I had been leading Roland around doing the majority of the killing with my injection gun because he hadn't been training abilities that were not guardian focused. Now that he is finally a guardian he's destroying the Thrax and now I can sit back, relax, and keep him alive. It's a job I do well and quite thoroughly enjoy.

Once a week as a clan we try to get together to participate in war games to keep our skills sharp. This week our head of recruitment decided to do something extra ordinary. We all got in our "Friday Best", headed out to the exact point we all started as recruits, and that's when the fun began. Several people chipped in for the prize. A prize to be won by the first person to run to the staging point in Palisades. 

Many took different routes because we weren't wearing our normal armor. We had to run by Thrax which if given the opportunity could kill us in a few shots. Many used "drafting" techniques to allow runners in front of them to get hit and then run by safely. I myself used it in Divide as we passed a bane hunting patrol party on the road near Foxtrot. When we finally reached Palisades many took different routes. My route was simple, I pushed toward the southern edge, then back up to fithik trench. Once at the trench, this was the hardest leg of the run. Many of us were neck and neck, I made it out in front with a little adrenaline left to push into the lead. I had the cave in my sights when all of a sudden out of nowhere Consequence jumps off the mountain and heads directly into the cave. Over radio channels people were screaming. People could hear me saying "HOW?!? Where did he come from?". I lost the race by mere seconds, about 8 second to be exact. It was a fun event and built up the spirits of our troops. I'm looking forward to what our officers come up with next week.

Today Roland received his Guardian certification promotion. He is fully trained in staves and starting his training in Vortex. I'm pretty excited about this news because that means we're going to be completing missions together again. He is finally caught up to me and now we're receiving assignments that we can complete as a team.

No, I haven't been on vacation this entire time. When I did get back from my "vacation" I had some much paperwork and other things to catch up on I haven't had time to write in my medical log. Here's some updates on what's been happening since I got back. Soriathus has been doing great and is now mastering the arts of Exobilogy. He's mastered the ability to sustain a temporary clone of himself on the battlefield which fights along side him. The closest person I can call a brother in this crazy world, Brison Roland, has been working on his commando training and tomorrow completes his certification for promotion as a full Guardian. He's even been doing some "advanced placement" training and should have his full guardian staff certification on day-zero.

The clan has been doing really well and though we're over 100 members, it seems like quite a few are AWOL. We're currently tracking them all down and if they don't shape up we'll have to replace them. Missions, war games, and squad training has been commencing regularly every week and Kall, our Scheduling Officer has been starting to kick things into high gear. Mandros, our Recruitment Officer has been doing a fine job doing direct recruitment with individuals through various channels. The future is bright and we're all looking forward to the new year. Hopefully every year from here out will be better than the last.

All next week I will be out on "vacation". Hehe, that's a funny concept. I'm being given a week of no assignments and being given the freedom to relax a bit, but out here on the fringe of space with bane everywhere there's no such thing as a real vacation. After spending the last couple of weeks our here on Arieki, the closest thing to a vacation would be to enjoy some of the more peaceful areas of Torden. The Brann mentality is so close to that of old Earth at the height of corruption, war, and other acts of violence. It will be a nice change of pace to spend a while talking with the Foreans about nature and having intellectual discussions about spirituality.  Who knows, maybe I might even visit Gabriel and give him an update on the information I've found concerning his counterpart. Oh yeah I don't think ever even mentioned Gabriel, that's an entry for another day I suppose.

For now I'll run around with my festive yule hat, relax, and hope that the other AFS who are fighting in my absence from duty will keep up the good fight. Until I return this Doc signing out. Oh and happy holidays!

Yesterday the AFS launched the new Military Surplus pretty successfully. Although the software they have in place to manage this giant sales network has it's bugs, the employees running the thing are working diligently to make sure everyones sales are being processed correctly. The average Joe in the AFS is going nuts about this thing and I have to admit I'm having fun selling a lot of the gear I've gathered in the past month or so out here on the fringe of space, but are weapons and armors I'm not certified (or care to) use.

To help some of the less bright recruits out there I even volunteered to help write a 101 course on how to use the military surplus. I guess everyone needs a "dummies book". I mostly wrote the guide because I think a lot of the price gouging is out of control and in my guide I'm trying to setup what I'm calling a "Military Surplus Recommended Pricing" or MSRP. We'll see how it goes, I hope the general population of those in ranks of the AFS appreciate my time and effort.

After completing all my assignments in the plains and incline, I finally received my promotion and certification for training in Exobiology. The art of reanimating corpses, cloning myself, and even immolating corpses into giant fiery balls of doom is my new specialty. I even took the time to help my counterpart catch up to my training level and now he's received his official Medic training. I guess he and I are even now.

There have been new reports on the wire of new breakthroughs in medical science. I'm not too sure about them. Some of the advancements include improved ways to reduce resuscitation sickness which is something that will definitely be a help over the simple jump start to the heart that engineers and demolitionists are certified in giving. On the other hand some of the changes are a bit odd and I'm not exactly sure about them.

Particularly there's been some odd communications on the data network about weird new breakthroughs in mind control. How is this done? Based on initial reading I would guess that some kind of medical nanoprobes are used to control the actions of the victim in question? I naturally ask, should the brain be messed with in this way? I've even read about the possibility of the nanoprobes replicating themselves and being able to be spread almost in an infectious kind of manner causing havoc and confusion within the ranks of your target.

Overall I'm looking forward to this training although I'm confused as to why Exobilogists are able to learn a lot of the healing and medical skills that should be reserved for properly trained medics. I wonder what my counterpart thinks of these changes.

Tonight I went out to test my newly certified mastery training in Hazmat armor. I took it upon myself to thrust myself head on into the nasties of the plains including Flamelashers (I think that was their name) and the electric beasts known as Mantas. I figured what better way to test Hazmat armor than against the beasties it's designed for. After taking lots of blasts of lightning and firey doom was beathed upon me, my opinion of Hazmat armor wasn't too impressive.

Frankly I'm thinking that all this time and energy into Hazmat training is not worth it. Sure it's a little tougher than Biotech armor that my counterpart wears, but not by much. It also self-repairs a LOT slower than Biotech armor. Frankly it's a lot harder to find good Hazmat armor as well. I'll find a full set of good Biotech armor in supply crates and by completing my daily assignments before I find one good piece of Hazmat. Overally I think that the re-training we've been hearing about in the coming weeks I might not bother with Hazmat, but rather go with Biotech.

After completing the last bit of assignments given to me in Palisades I headed to Foreas Base for something I'd like to call "Wormhole Surfing". This wormhole technology is rather interesting because it doesn't seem like they are all inter-connected directly. In fact it seems like some cases I had to connect from one to another to another establish some kind of internal resonance that allowed me to venture to new places. After surfing through various wormholes hopping from one to another I eventually was able to go directly from Foreas to four different locations. Some of the locations on these planets where the AFS have linked into the wormhole network are INTENSE.

I talked to some of the people at the camp near the wormhole at what's referred to as the "Abyss" and they say that it's a virtual bottomless pit. Of course eventually you'll hit the planetary core, but like they guys said, for all intents and purposes it's a bottomless pit. I bet if you fell in you'd get crushed at some point by the gravity / air pressure of being so close to the core. Death by implosion sounds almost worse than death by falling. One could only hope to die of a heart attack first.

NOTE TO SELF: Don't fall into the Abyss. Thankfully I won't have any missions in that region any time soon.

Since I started in the AFS I've been studying and planning my training throughout my entire career in the AFS. I'm the type who sits down and reads books and will do cross analysis of skills training available. I've been working with my trainers to figure out what skills to focus my training on to leverage my natural talents. Overall I'm really enjoying my job as a Medic and I'm looking forward to working with other members of the Browncoats, sharing what I've learned. Sometimes they teach you hot to fire a gun, but not how to use it in an intelligent way. I think I've mastered the Injection Gun to a higher degree than even my teachers and I want to share that knowledge with others.

I've added a link to my plan of study on the right. I think my analytical skills will help others so I figured I'd share it here. I've been worknig with Roland to help tutor him in his training so his plan of study is there as well. Apparently my clone has been busy doing the same. Great minds think alike right? If anyone has any questions for me, feel free to comment and I'll read it next time I'm making an entry.

They are not a good tool for "doing damage", in fact you really ONLY want to use them when you or squad members are hurt. In fact in my testing it seems like they do roughly half or less their standard damage if you're at full health and armor. I could be wrong but this is how it seemed. I'm no engineer, I don't know how these things work, I'm just trained on how to use them. I'd argue that in most situations it's a poor weapon to use while hunting Bane solo. Its true power is when in a squad and you can destroy your enemy like a solider but keep your party up like a Medic.

It's best to attack at around 40 yards, kneeling with full bead on the target, locked on and your leech gun be pumping out a really good stream of damage. The damage and ammo consumption is about equivalent to a soldier's chaingun. A sonic attack, physical attack, or something similar WILL get your stream interrupted and since it take about a second for the beam to start once you get interrupted, generally it's all over and time to swap to another weapon.

Damage done to an enemy's armor refills your armor and the heath damage done refills your health. For this reason I believe Virulent leech guns are actually counter productive which the same assumption for injection guns. Novice leech gun or injection gun users might notice an increase in performance with virulent damage, but ideally at expert level skill non-virulent varieties are best. You WANT to be filling up your armor by leeching your target's armor while doing damage to their health using Decay.

They are GROSSLY overpowered in war games. If Doctor Victeonus thinks he's unstoppable with his Medical skills, with a Leech gun at expert level skill I'm completely unstoppable. Combine a Leech Gun with decay as described above and there's no way you're going to lose a fight.

Compared to the injection gun, which is a absolutely beautiful weapon of mass destruction, Leech guns if you haven't deduced by now are a HIGHLY situational weapon. For a Medic, Leech guns are useless because Medics will focus their time healing via tools and logos abilities. For an Exobilogist, Leech guns are amazing especially when combined with Hazmat armor and later on Exobilogist skills that grants your squad resistances.

While I recommend expert level training in Leech guns for Exobilogists, novice level training in Injection Guns is recommended as well core damage should be done with Injection Guns and Shotguns while swapping to Leech Guns as needed. Medics are best to just focus on expert level Injection Guns since most Medics don't generally use Decay.