THE FALL OF HMS 'ONLY PVE'
Colonial Marines on stand-by at the bow of Conqueror-class Destroyer (archive image)
WAR 117, DAY 1058 to 1060, Weephome, THE CLAHSTRA --- On Day 1061, I was exploring the wreck of the "HMS Only PVE", a [UCF] Destroyer that ran aground on a cliff near Weephome. During my search, I managed to find a waterlogged, but readable, journal made by an crewman. The name has been destroyed by the water, but I imagine it was one of the machine gunners. I have written out the entries I could make out below.
Entry 1
"Day 1058 of this never-ending war. We've been deployed to the Clahstra, something about defending some ship carrying aid supplies for the poor sods over in The Treasury. The MG decided to jam up today, so I had to be working down below as part of damage control. We almost got our bow taken off while repairing some bridges at Sly that those damned partisans blew up. Apparently higher ups think a DESTROYER is an appropriate tool for construction. That would've been quite the thing, to die not to an enemy shell, but to Command's stupidity. We also found this Warden ship, though I didn't see what it was from below decks. It must've been large though, the guns were blasting away at them like we was in a naval invasion."
Entry 2
"Day 1060. We've just been hit by some cheeky bugger with a Devitt. O happened to be on the 40 mike at the time, the guy let me have a go on it and I got a couple of shells into them! He did manage to disable our back gun, damage control must be annoyed, I imagine the dry dock engineers are livid. The guns are currently shooting up this SPG we found near the Warden base up the hill at Weephome. We already killed defenses for the tank push, so it'll be quite the thing to have an SPG on our ta-"
The entry abruptly stopped.
Entry 3
"Evening of Day 1060, though I suppose it's my last. The daft higher ups told us to hit further inland, and doing so we rammed the shoreline. We're stuck and tanks and arty are hammering the sides. All the other crewmen have been gunned down, the Damage Control guys stopped answering ages ago. Captain's gone and shot himself, too scared to face capture I suppose. I'm hiding out in his cabin now. I've got the Cap's Cometa now, it's got 3 bullets left. I'm going to stay here until either the ocean or the dammned berries get me. Godsp-
Damaged Destroyer sitting in Drydock (archive image)
Sadly, the writing from here was too damaged to read, apparently covered in blood and ash. I would've attempted to look through the Captain's quarters, but unfortunately they appear to have been completely levelled. Most of the ship is being used as a deck for a celebratory party by Wardens, likely with very high morale, considering the surplus of equipment captured.
Writer: [PRESS] Cataley Cheezit
Editor: [PRESS] Jean Baricave
Date of Publication: 04/12/2024