VC2 Chapter 10-Sandcastle

Sector 2300

Planet 2304

October 21, 2052

“I see the blockade Du Preez. Let's do this mate.” Tarbuck sent the command to Du Preez's fleets in space.

Tarbuck's cruiser made its push forward with its other cruisers in a triangle formation while Du Preez flew in a straight line. The blockade dispatched some Revelation cruisers and began to engage the first NB ship.

“Contact starboard.” an officer alerted Tarbuck as the enemy pelted his ship with projectiles.

“Hold steady, return fire. Let's get them to loose up that blockade.” Tarbuck commanded as he watched his shields absorb fire.

The thermal beams on the Tarbuck's fleets charged and fired locking onto one cruiser shredding it into bits.

“They're breaking off to attack us.” an officer notified as he saw two fleets of venom battleships break off from the formation.

“Alright, let's get to Sandcastle. Notify Stein at once.” Tarbuck turned his ships and ordered his communications officer.

The venoms turned to fired their broadside weapons and a barrage of red missiles flew out and began to turn locking onto Tarbuck's fleets.

“Mother of god, hydra missiles!” Tarbuck watched as a cluster of missiles exploded near the ship and split into tinier missiles bombarding the ship.

“Shields at fifty percent Admiral!” the weapons officer shouted as parts of the ship were scorched.

“Full thrusters to Sandcastle.” Tarbuck pointed as he watched another barrage of hydra missiles slam into his cruiser.

“Cruisers one and five are down, repeat one and five are down.” an officer reported as two Revelation cruisers went up into flames from the explosions.

* * *

“Stein, do you copy over?” Tarbuck sent a transmission full of static.

“Yes sir, a little fuzzy, but I can hear you.” Stein replied back on comms.

“We're getting hammered and we won't make it to Sandcastle.” Tarbuck replied with images of fire in the background of the bridge.

“Shit! What's the plan sir?” Stein replied as he hopped off his command chair.

“You need...to...” Tarbuck transmission buzzed out.

“What's going on?” Stein rushed over to his communications officer.

“We lost contact with them. They're gone sir.” the officer pressed some buttons.

“What about Captain Du Preez?” Stein shouted in frustration.

“We are in the dark sir. Our comms are being jammed by them.” the communications officer walked to his other workstation to type on the computers.

“Enemy ships approaching!” an officer shouted as he watched his scanners.

“What do we do Lieutenant?” the communications officer asked.

“Damn, this is not going to plan. Who's next full senior?” Stein shouted out loud in the bridge looking at the crew.

 “You are, sir. You are.” an officer beside Stein replied as the whole crew suddenly went silent as they locked their eyes at their Lieutenant.

VC2 Chapter 9-Interrogations

Sector 2300

Planet 2305

October 21, 2052

“Let me rephrase it one more time. Captain Johnson's wife was Commander Thompson who was killed and now he wants revenge. How does Rumblelow tie into all of this?” Stein folded his arms as Irene was handcuffed to the chair in the portable room.

“I think the Vega corporation has other plans in mind and are playing with us.” Irene explained.

“You are crazy. For all I know, you may be a TFD spy feeding us false information. I'm not buying your story cadet.” Stein walked behind her.

“Are you stupid?” Irene struggled in her chair.

“Look around! Everyone is in uniform and not in some cadet training uniform.” Stein pulled at her hair to direct her head to his soldiers.

“Oww. Let me go, my brother is Lieutenant Commander Papagiannis.” Irene cried.

“How convenient, you already know all the officers in charge of the mission. What other info did you give to TFD hmmm? Coordinates? Strategies? I'm sick and tired of the spy shit.” Stein walked around her.

“I'm NB!” Irene shouted.

“Shhh, you are going to wake up the others.” Stein covered his hand over her mouth.

“Mhmmm” Irene tried to talk.

“Don't make this any harder than it needs to be.” Stein pulled out his switch blade and waved it in front of her frightened eyes.

All of a sudden, Wicker walked into the room and saw Stein with a knife waving around Irene and jumped into action.

“What the hell man!” Wicker pushed Stein away from Irene.

“Dude, she's a spy. I found her sneaking around.” Stein pointed at Irene with his knife.

“Put the knife away for god sakes. She's NB you noob.” Wicker uncuffed Irene.

“I kept telling him.” Irene stood up and walked to Stein and gave him a hard slap to the face.

“Doesn't matter. What are you doing here?” Wicker shook his head in annoyance.

Irene told Wicker what she overheard in the Johnson's ship and gave her concerns for the NB team.

“I'll keep that in mind. I'm going to have to tell your brother that you are here.” Wicker listened attentively.

“No please don't. He'll kill me.” Irene begged.

“I guess my knife wasn't intimidating enough...” Stein muttered as he looked outside the window to watch the sun begin to rise.

“Shut it Stein. You're not helping resolve this.” Wicker warned.

“Please Captain Wicker, don't. If he knows I am here, it will affect his mindset on the mission.” Irene asked nicely.

“You may have a point. You are staying here with me for the time being.” Wicker deduced.

“Thank you sir.” Irene gave her thanks.

“That doesn't mean the disciplinary actions to follow after for your insubordination.” Wicker replied with a serious tone as he pointed at her.

 “Sunrise Captain. Time to get the ships ready.” Stein turned his head from the window to notify Wicker.

VC2 Chapter 8-Commander Thompson

Sector 2300

Planet 2305

October 20, 2052

Irene slowly exited out of the closet of a sleeping quarter and made her way towards the cafeteria. The ship was dead silent as the crew had already gone to sleep for the big day tomorrow. She went to the counter and managed to grab two apples before a figure passed the entrance door.

“Hello?” the figure shouted from outside the door as the doors got pushed open.

Johnson scanned the dark vacant cafeteria before returning to his duties. Irene watched Johnson leave and quickly stuffed the apples in her pocket before making her way out of the room. She watched the man make his way down the corridor when a solider ran up to him.

“VP Rumblelow is on the line sir.” the soldier reported.

“Good.” Johnson increased his pace towards his quarters.

The word “Rumblelow” perked Irene's interest as she knew Rumblelow was the Vice President of the Vega corporation. She sneaked past some guards in the shadows and placed her ear to the wall of Johnson's office.

“Sir, I have news for you.” Johnson spoke.

“What is it Captain?” a deep voice replied which appeared to be Rumblelow.

“Commander Thompson's fleet is here.” Johnson replied.

“The hijacked fleets?” Rumblelow raised his voice in surprise.

“Yes sir. It appears that TFD are the ones responsible.” Johnson's voice cracked.

“This is an unexpected turn of events. I know you have been searching for the killers responsible for the death of your wife, but there is a job to be finished first. We will retrieve the lost ships after the job is done.” Rumblelow talked cooly.

“The bastards will pay for killing Evelyn Thompson.” Johnson thundered.

“Captain Johnson, are you fit for carrying your duties?” Rumblelow questioned.

“Um, yes. Yes sir I can.” Johnson toned down his voice.

“Good, I do not want to send Commander Vorzer here to clean up a mess you made.” Rumblelow threatened.

“No sir, I am good.” Johnson replied smoothly.

“Dismissed.” Rumblelow ordered.

Irene knew she needed to get off the Apocrypha and relay what she heard to the NB officers in the other docked ships of Johnson's condition. She scurried out of the ship access hatch and ran towards the portable room when suddenly someone grabbed her from behind.

 “Well...look who we have here.” the man questioned as he held Irene down to the ground twisting her arms behind her back.

VC2 Chapter 7-Missing

Sector 2100

Planet 2101

October 20, 2052

Charlie watched as Parks grabbed her bags and climbed aboard her Apocrypha cruiser in the loading bay.

“Come on Sarah, it was a joke.” Charlie pleaded her to stay as he grabbed her arm.

“Let go of me.” Parks shook away from Charlie and went inside the ship.

“Damn it!” Charlie kicked a nearby resource crate as he watched Parks' ship fly out into space and warp out.

“You alright sir?” a tall officer in full combat gear walked overhearing the commotion.

“I'm good, thanks.” Charlie watched the officer remove his helmet.

“Captain Rob McClelland.” the officer offered his hand.

“Admiral Charlie Chu. I haven't see you before...” Charlie squinted his eyes to think.

“I'm with the research division. Perhaps that's why?” McClelland guessed.

“Maybe.” Charlie crossed his arms.

“Don't worry too much. Women need space.” McClelland chuckled.

“I just don't get it...” Charlie sighed.

“You never will. Now go find another girl to talk to in the time being. Keep your mind elsewhere.” McClelland pointed at a distant girl watching them.

McClelland waved at the girl and motioned her to come over. As she got closer, Charlie noticed it was Natalia in her cadet training uniform.

“Yes sir?” Natalia walked over and saluted the men.

“Enjoy.” McClelland whispered into Charlie's ear and patted his back before walking away.

“Umm, how long have you been standing there?” Charlie inquired.

“A while actually. I was going to ask you if you have seen Irene, but then I saw you with Commander Parks having a...discussion.” Natalia chose her words carefully.

“Yeah, let's go talk to my office where I can access logs where Irene has checked in.” Charlie nudged gently.

The two made their way into Charlie's office which was decorated with lots of medals and awards hung on the walls. Behind his desk were two flags, one Canadian and one Australia, on each side of the back window overlooking the base.

“Take a seat Natalia.” Charlie pointed as he sat down in his chair.

“I see you know Commander Parks when she was young?” Natalia couldn't help but notice some photos of Parks that appeared to be younger.

“Ah that was a long time ago. I think you are too young to know about the Earth incident.” Charlie grabbed the photo frame and smiled.

“All I know what that we lost Earth from an outbreak of diseases making it uninhabitable.” Natalia watched as Charlie touched the picture of Parks' with his index finger.

“That's right. We abused the planet's natural resources and disregarded our wastes. When the virus appeared, we were almost wiped out to extinction. We had to leave the planet in search of new homes and join outer colonies in deep space.” Charlie took his sleeve and brushed off some dust on the photo before putting it back to its original spot.

“You love her?” Natalia studied Charlie's facial expressions.

“I do. I tried looking for her with hopes that she survived the outbreak and got off the planet, but I found nothing and thought she died.” Charlie reminisced.

“Ahhh.” Natalia tried to understand what Charlie went through.

“Nonetheless, enough emotional talk. We got a person to find, yes?” Charlie snapped out of his trance as he looked at his computer.

“Yes, Irene is not in her quarters nor attending her training classes.” Natalia nodded.

 “Ok, Irene Papagianni...where are you....?” Charlie typed in his computer as he looked at the data logs and then browsed through surveillance footages.

VC2 Chapter 6-Base Camp

Sector 2300

Planet 2305

October 20, 2052

Tarbuck's Revelation cruiser took point as it flew in front of the fleet of ships. The ship passed a green planet which appeared to be very peaceful compared to the other distant planets. A lone Nighthawk frigate flew out of the planet and flew in a circular motion hailing the communications.

“Follow me to the outpost.” a young Caucasian male with dark hair spoke in the hologram transmission.

“Miss me Wicker?” Tarbuck replied back as he followed the frigate towards the atmosphere.

“Not really, no.” Wicker replied cooly.

“All units, we are going to be landing at the forward operating base.” Tarbuck broadcasted.

“Solid copy Tarbuck.” Johnson acknowledged as he left his fleet of Destiny corvettes into formation to begin the descent.

The ships slowly began to land at a grassy field and turn off their engines. Stein's fleet of Exodus cruisers remained in the sky flying around the docked ships on high alert for intruders.

“We're all set Stein, you're good to land.” Du Preez parked his fleets.

“Roger that Captain.” Stein began his descent.

The officers left their ships and assembled into a small portable room with some charts and maps on the walls. Wicker watched as the men took the seats and began passing on the intelligence.

“Ok, here's the intel you need to know.” Wicker pulled down a map from the wall.

A big grid map was labelled in large sections with circles and arrows all over. Wicker took a pen out of his chest pocket and pointed at the top right corner marked with an “A”.

“Insertion point Alpha is located 100 kilometres from the rebel blockade. Du Preez and Tarbuck will draw fire to location Sandcastle southwest of the blockade where Stein will be waiting to ambush the enemy.” Wicker pointed at the map drawing invisible lines.

“What's the enemy fleet composition?” Johnson inquired.

“This is a blockade fleet so the majority of ships are battleships with some cruiser for support.” Wicker replied.

“Please continue.” Johnson jotted down notes.

“Insertion point Bravo is directly on the opposite side of the planet. Once enemy's attention has been lured to Sandcastle, Johnson and Papagiannis are to fight off the weak rear defensive line and head into location Gibraltar to find the blueprints. Remember, once you get the enemy's attention, you will only have one hour max...” Wicker drew some circles on the map.

“Wait, one hour? I thought this outpost was designed to jam communications outwards.” Du Preez interrupted.

“That's correct, but that doesn't stop them from sending supply ships every hour from the planet. If the supply ship does not arrive on their planet 2321, they will be on alert that something is wrong.” Wicker pointed at the large satellite dish outside the portable room.

“So much for cake walk...” Johnson joked to himself.

“If you do not find anything on that planet within the hour, get out and we'll all extract at LZ Kilo. I'll be waiting with my fleets to make sure you guys get home safe.” Wicker drew a big circle around the word “LZ K” beside planet 2303.

“What about us? We're not in the planet.” Tarbuck voiced his concern.

“Once I meet up with the crew at LZK, we will rendezvous here. LZ Mike.” Wicker pointed at a spot in deep space away from 2304.

“Outstanding.” Stein clapped with a big smile on his face.

“Any contingency plans Captain Wicker?” Papagiannis raised his hand.

“We are running on a tight schedule and there will be no room for error. This won't be like Tachyon Industries. In fact, it will be like the invasion fleets back in 1601 once TFD reinforcements arrive.” Wicker went to his desk and grabbed a folder full of photos.

“Shit son.” Tarbuck coughed.

“Take a look yourselves.” Wicker tossed the open folder onto the table and watched as photos of hundreds of ships scatter in front of the men.

“They got Apocrypha cruisers?” Stein picked a photo up and examined the ship hulls.

“These are hijacked vessels. I recognize the hull markings from Commander Thompson's fleet.” Johnson looked at the custom grey stripes on the Apocrypha cruisers.

“What happened to Thompson?” Papagiannis turned his head to look at Johnson.

“Two months ago, Commander Thompson was doing her routine supply escorts when she got ambushed. Twenty ships were captured and her crew were all executed on live transmission to the VEGA corporation.” Johnson told the story with a serious face.

“Public execution? No negotiations?” Stein's jaw dropped.

“These guys don't care about the money or the ships. They want to make a point to VEGA that they are unstoppable.” Johnson clenched his fist.

“Is it me or do I feel like we need more ships?” Tarbuck interrupted.

 “Too much ships will attract too much attention to get the job done. Good luck everyone, get some rest before the big day tomorrow.” Wicker put his pen back into his pocket and went to the table and began to collect the loose photos.

VC2 Chapter 5-Departure

Sector 2100

Planet 2101

October 20, 2052

“Let's go! Let's go!” Papagiannis waved at his men to board his Revelation cruiser fully loaded with thermal beams.

Irene ran up to his brother who was marshalling his crew and waved him over as she began to put on the space outfit.

“Sis, what are you doing?” Papagiannis stormed towards his sister.

“I'm coming with you whether or not you like it.” Irene strapped body armour to her chest.

“No you can't.” Papagiannis shook his head as he scanned the hangar for his superiors.

“You are not even fully trained sis.” Papagiannis held her down as she began to walk.

Charlie was walking alongside a middle-aged black man dressed in a Vega Captain uniform when the man caught the scuffle from the glimpse of his eye.

“Lieutenant Commander Papagiannis, is there a problem?” the Captain walked over and looked at Irene.

“No Captain Johnson.” Papagiannis released his hands off Irene.

“Good, move along. Time doesn't wait.” Johnson lifted his officer's cap and scratched his bald head.

Irene turned around and began to walk towards the Revelation when Johnson grabbed her shoulder.

“Not you cadet. You are staying here.” Johnson replied.

“Told you...” Papagiannis whispered as he walked past Irene shaking his head.

“But sir.” Irene complained as he looked at Johnson and then at Charlie.

“No, you haven't even co-piloted a ship in training yet.” Charlie gave the final decision.

Irene sighed in frustration and walked out of the hangar feeling annoyed with the order.

“She's young. She'll get in line.” Johnson chuckled.

“I'm sure she will. I'm sure she will...” Charlie crossed his arms.

Charlie walked Johnson to his Apocrypha cruiser where he turned around to look at the fierce thermal beam weapons of a stronger variant.

“Good luck out there Johnson.” Charlie wished as the man walked up the ramp.

“It's going to be a cake walk. I'll be back before you and Parks have any fun.” Johnson joked and winked.

“Oh I'll have lots of fun here with the girls...don't you worry about that.” Charlie grinned as Johnson closed the hatch.

The Apocrypha detached its ship locks and began to hover out of the of the bay to join other ships in the formation. One by one the ships began to warp in deep space as the space around them turned a lightish blue before engulfing the ship.

“So Charlie...girls huh?” Parks walked from behind looking unamused.

“Shit. You heard everything?” Charlie stared at his feet.

“Heard enough.” Parks scoffed and walked off.

 “Oh come on.” Charlie whined and chased after her.

VC2 Chapter 4-Hydra Missiles

Sector 2100

Planet 2101

October 19, 2052

“As of 0700 this morning, these photos were taken by Captain Wicker on his routine route to conduct trade.” Charlie briefed a room full of officers seated in rows alongside Owens who was pointing at the projection of images.

“A rebel blockade have starved the planet 2304 from any outside trade merchants. These guys are known as TFD, The Flying Dead, we have not heard of them before so I would take extreme caution in dealing with them.” Owens pressed a few buttons on computer as the images changed.

“Excuse me sir, are they insectors?” a young Lieutenant Commander with tanned skin raised his hand.

“We do not know Lieutenant Commander Papagiannis, which is why we are advising extreme caution when engaged.” Owens looked at the officer's name tag.

“Copy.” Papagiannis nodded.

“Also from these photos that we got, we have reason to believe TFD has a new weapon technology.” Owens zoomed in on a photo of a ship in the distant.

“What is that?” a tall Captain with the name “Du Preez” asked out loud.

“That is a hydra missile. We had spies within Vega that stole the blueprints from our researchers. We never finished the project.” Parks walked onto the stage as she inserted a computer chip into the projector.

“Hydra missile?” Du Preez asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Advanced missile with homing technology in spatial warfare. The first ever accurate explosives that won't miss its target.” Parks uploaded a photo from the chip for the audience to view.

“That is deadly! Can't believe these wankers have it and we don't.” a well-built Caucasian man with stubble in a decorated uniform joked in a British accent.

“Admiral Tarbuck, which is why it's imperative we get the technology back.” Parks crossed her arms and shot a stare.

“Great another retrieval mission. Look what happened the last time we did something like this.” Tarbuck flung his hands in the air.

“This is a textbook example of outsector warfare ladies and gents. Crossing sector to assist these locals will be dangerous as well as recovering that asset.” Charlie continued on.

“Which is why we are looking for volunteers for this mission to work alongside Vega.” Owens scanned the crowd ignoring Tarbuck's unpleased facial expressions.

“I'm in.” Du Preez quickly volunteered and stood up without hesitation.

“If you are going. So am I.” a tall Caucasian Lieutenant smiled at Du Preez as he stood up.

“Stein, you silly bastard. Always looking for a fight that you can't finish.” Tarbuck shook his head and stood up from his seat to volunteer.

“I thought you were retired.” Stein joked at Tarbuck.

“Not yet mate.” Tarbuck sighed.

“Excellent.” Charlie clapped his hands together.

“Charlie, if there's one more spot...I would like to participate.” Papagiannis stood up from his chair and looked at the others who were standing.

“Yeah sure. Mission launches at 0900 tomorrow. I'll get Lieutenant Franklin to give you the necessary details to your offices.” Charlie looked at a dark-haired Caucasian woman sitting beside Tarbuck and nodded.

 “Dimissed.” Owens ended the meeting.

VC2 Chapter 3-New Relationships

Chapter 3

New Relationships

Sector 2100

Planet 2101

October 19, 2052

A beautiful middle-aged blonde of good complexion was curled up beside Charlie resting her head on chest bare chest with her right arm hugging him tightly. On the ground were clothes scattered all over the room. One piece of clothing was a VEGA corporation uniform with markings of a Commander and the name “Parks” stencilled above the chest pocket. Charlie opened his eyes and stared at the woman sleeping soundly and decided to not to wake her up as he got out of his bed.

“Charlie, stay.” Parks mumbled with her eyes closed.

Charlie slipped on his undergarments and picked up his uniform beside the bed. Just when he was about to say something to her, there was a knock on his door.

“Hang on Sarah.” Charlie got up from the bed and walked over to the door.

Charlie opened the door to see a young Caucasian Lieutenant with brown hair holding a folder in his hands.

“What can I do for you Krawiec?” Charlie opened the door halfway.

“Good morning sir, I need you to take a look at...” Krawiec paused as he noticed clothes lying on the ground and a mess of blonde hair on the bed who he easily identified as Sarah Parks.

“What?” Charlie yawned as he looked at the folder.

“Are you busy? I'll...I'll come back later.” Kraweic muttered as he left.

“Later.” Charlie shook his head and closed the door.

Charlie walked up to his bed where Parks was semi-awake with her brown eyes trained on him.

“Who was it?” Parks asked as she nudged him.

“Lieutenant Krawiec. He had some folder to show me.” Charlie watched as Parks hopped off the bed and put on her underwear.

“Where's the folder?” Parks bent over to pick up her bra.

“He's going to show me later.” Charlie rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“I think I scared him off.” Parks clipped her bra on and slid onto the bed.

“What can I say? You're a fierce good-looking VEGA commander.” Charlie flirted as he brushed her hair behind her ears.

“You are too kind.” Parks laughed lightly.

“I love you Sarah.” Charlie stared into her bright eyes.

“I love you too.” Parks managed to say after looking back at him.

The pair continued talking and making out for a few hours before they had to get back to work.

* * *

“Sir, this is what I'm talking about.” Krawiec pointed at the images of ships beside a planet.

“What the hell is this?” Charlie studied the ship formations at a blue planet.

“A rebel blockade. They are forcing people to join them or die.” Krawiec reported.

“What force?” Charlie asked.

“The Flying Dead, also known as TFD.” Kraweic presented another picture of a ship hull with the words “TFD” painted on it.

“Do the others know of this?” Charlie looked at the various images.

“You are the first, sir.” Kraweic replied.

“Contact Admiral Owens.” Charlie picked up a photo and saw something important.

“Sir?” Krawiec raised his eyebrow.

 “Now!” Charlie demanded.