VC Chapter 2-Emergency Procedures

Sector 1600

Planet 1604

January 14, 2052

A solider ran down a crowded hallway carrying a sheet of paper that he had received from the communications relay room into a room marked “NB Operations”. Tens of officers scattered about the room coordinating battle strategies and controlling the sector space. In the far corner of the room was a small office with a small dark-haired Caucasian woman with some blonde highlights sitting comfortably at her desk looking at her datapad. The soldier knocked on the door and caught a glimpse of the name “Owens” engraved on it.

“Come on in.” the female officer with ranking of Lieutenant waved the young man in.

“Ma'am, where is Vice Admiral Owens?” the soldier politely asked.

“He at NB Central doing a meeting. I'm Lieutenant Franklin, Acting Commander of NB Operations while he is gone. What do you need Corporal?” the woman stood up from her chair and placed her datapad down on the desk.

“Our communications picked up a distress signal from Captain Preez's fleet down in Sector 1500.” the Corporal handed the piece of paper to Franklin.

Franklin studied the piece of paper and her face went from laid back to serious. Suddenly, she scrambled through Owens' desk and pulled out a binder.

“Thank you Corporal, that will be all.” Franklin excused herself as she frantically flipped through several pages.

The Corporal nodded and left Franklin by herself as she skimmed the contents of the binder marked “Emergency Procedures”. To her surprise, the procedures were only made for the operations of NB and not for conducting last minute rescue missions. It was up to her to make the right call or NB will suffer a loss to its command team. She quickly exited the room and walked up to a Sergeant seated beside his computer.

“Sergeant, find me any local units available to dispatch in sector 1500.” Franklin placed the piece of paper on the desk in front of the Sergeant hastily.

“Right away Lieutenant.” the Sergeant read the paper and quickly inputted coordinates into his computer.

The computer buzzed and a screen popped up of a fleet and a name in 1500.

“There!” Franklin pointed at the screen.

“Lieutenant Stein is stationed 1503 providing relief supplies to locals that were attacked by the VEGA Corporation.” the Sergeant pulled up the details of the file.

“Relief supplies? He only has cargo ships?” Franklin breathed deeply to calm herself.

“No ma'am, records indicate he took his Exodus cruisers from his fleet. Six, to be exact.” the Sergeant pointed at the fine print on the screen.

“Put me in contact with him at once.” Franklin demanded.

Sector 1500

Planet 1503

January 14, 2052

“Understood Lieutenant Franklin.” an tall white officer with a goatee spoke to Franklin on his battle screen as he brushed his rough hair.

“Preez is depending on you. So you better hurry Lieutenant Stein.” Franklin crossed her arms.

“We don't leave anyone behind. Hell, I always told Preez to not use cheap cruisers that only put a dent in VEGA. He's lucky that I always fly with assault cruisers because now is the time to show him some firepower.” Stein patted his chest proudly.

“Stop wasting time bragging and go save him. Franklin out.” Franklin ended the transmission in annoyance.

“And I thought that Franklin was a laid back officer...” Stein thought to himself as he exited his quarters and rushed straight into the bridge.

“Officer on deck!” the guard to the bridge announced Stein's arrival.

“At ease. I want everyone battle ready in 30 seconds! Plot coordinates to 1516, we're going to battle!” Stein clapped loudly.

“Engines are firing up and shields are ready.” one officer reported as the ship's engines roared to life.

“Get me off this rock now! I'm tired of doing supply runs when I got these bad puppies to play around with.” Stein sat on his command chair and tapped the buttons impatiently.

Stein's Exodus fleet lifted off the sandy grounds and into the atmosphere in unison as a display of good coordination.

 “Punch it!” Stein chuckled with enthusiasm as he craved for blood.