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Re-checking the status screens William nodded, everything was still in the green and all stations reported ready for take-off. [i]Well, no time like the present.[/i] "Helm!" He keyed into his console returning the holographic view to that of the [i]Vitae[/i] sitting on the pad. "Take us out, nice and easy." He turned his head and looked up a the second floor of consoles. "Weapons!" He hoped to hell that he wouldn't need to use them, though he'd rather be prepared than be caught off guard, every second counted in an engagement and if it came down to a fight he planned to be the first one to fire a shot. Hit them first, hit them hard and hit them fast. 

"Sir?"

"Have all gun crews on standby for salvo-fire, I want the plasma cannons to fire their salvo approximately two seconds before the main battery. Understood?"

"Yes Sir!" The officer turned back around and began relaying the information back to his own crews, he just hope that the plasma worked as well against shields as theorized, it was always a risk employing a new tactic however the disadvantage in having the best technology humanity had to offer was that it was brand new and untested. He'd have to develop tactics and skills on the fly, and had spent a large amount of time doing so with the fact he was one of the first crew to board the ship. Since then it had been non-stop coming up plans, tactics and protocols for anything that could possibly happen on his ship. There was only one he was dreading, one he never wanted to use and it was the one that came with the territory. Concocted by high command itself, [i]Exodus[/i].

Shaking himself out of his reverie he felt the ship lurch slightly as it lifted off, however that was soon counteracted by the inertia dampeners. The rumbling through the ship could be felt if you just stopped to feel it, not that he had time for such luxuries. "Tactical-" He turned to Lt.Dakota. "-Return to your station, let me know the second any of those [b]Devastator[/b] ships change course to intercept and have a full sensor suite, including probe, prepared so that the moment we're through the Eye we can get a detailed scan on our arrival point and the surrounding systems." He turned himself back to the hologram of the [i]Vitae[/i] as it continued to rise above the clouds. 

"She's a fine ship, Sir." William turned his head, nodding as he saw the face of his XO. [url=http://t07.deviantart.net/47ry05BVN3AWBk32AaRnRtK8JUU=/fit-in/300x900/filters:no_upscale%28%29:origin%28%29/pre15/c733/th/pre/i/2014/026/7/7/female_character_concept_by_nookin-d73uv00.jpg]Commander Joanne Carter[/url]. Ex-Federation, she had served aboard one of their most prestigious carriers during the Three-Day War, though a blemish on her record that had been locked away had halted any chance of advancement for her, while they had become close these past couple of years he had still not sought the strain the relationship by asking what it was. 

"That she is Joanne. Once we're at altitude we'll be able to power the engines up to full and it won't be long until we've reached the eye, about twenty minutes at max speed. From there it's anyones guess, scientists still haven't quite figured out why in hyperspace time seems to act differently to real space. We could be in for minutes or weeks. Something to do with tachyons and some other scientific jargon." He shrugged his shoulders. "Once we're in we'll set up a standard rotation to make sure we always have someone fresh on the bridge." She nodded as she herself keyed something into the console, sending the command that all holographic screens in the ship would relay a view of Earth as they departed.

"Flip for whose on duty first?"

William shook his head. "No, I want my XO fresh and feeling as good as possible. Need to maintain those sharp vocal cords after all." He turned his head away and back to his console. "Noah."

The holographic face of the A.I. appeared on front of him. "Yes, Admiral?"

"Begin recording of our departure, no doubt our archives want some footage of us leaving. That'll be all." The floating head just nodded, before disappearing again. "You know, I'm never going to quite get used to how it does that-" a harsh [url=https://youtu.be/qzCbRRDPPns?t=9s]alarm[/url] began to blare throughout the command center as red lights blared. "Status!" No-one replied to him, but everyone was frantically shouting through comms as they tried to find out what was going on. "Someone give me a god-damn status!" The face of Noah appeared again. 

"We are detecting a gravitational disturbance to our port side, approximately ten kilometres away." The hologram in the center of the room moved itself panning over Earth until it reached an empty area of Earths orbit, though a faint shimmering could be seen as the sensors tried to make sense of something in the area. Then [url=http://hideyoshi.deviantart.com/art/Organic-Starship-496192955]it appeared[/url]. Far larger than any [b]Devastator[/b] ship ever seen, sensors initially put it at two kilometres long.

"Helm, give us max thrust now and veer away. Tactical, plot a new course keep us as far away as possible from that thing. Transmit the call for all non-essential personnel to report to the safe zones and have the engineering and medical crews put on alert. Have security move all civilians away from view ports and into the safe areas. [i]Now[/i]." He turned to Joanne and pointed towards a couple of consoles. "You oversee Navigation, Helm and Tactical. I'll take Weapons and Comms." She nodded without a word as she sped over, the entire center was filled with voices, each calm but speaking as quickly as possible. Someone who wasn't trained would likely see this as chaos, but on a military ship it was standard in battle situations.

"Command all escorts to engage at will. Weapons, fire the second you get a firing solution on that target." He keyed a series of commands into his console, which switched all viewscreens of Earth to pre-recorded footage. "Noah." The face of the A.I appeared again. "Divert all non-essential power that you can spare to engines and shields and inform the eye that we're coming in hot." One of the worst things about the command center being placed in the middle of the ship was the silence in battle, not of other people. He could still hear them, but of weapons fire. Then the ship shook and the lights flickered as the first salvo hit them. "Status!"

"Shields took the brunt of the fire Sir, holding steady at 89%! Some minor electrical fires, engineering teams are en-route." [i]89%[/i]. It didn't sound like a lot was lost, but in all their trials and tests even all the weapons aboard an Ark could barely cause a 5% drop let alone an 11% drop. He brought the hologram out, encompassing both the [i]Vitae[/i] and her escorts and the enemy ship. He could already see the cruisers and destroyers breaking off to engage, the question was whether or not the enemy ship would turn it's focus towards them or keep chasing the [i]Vitae[/i]...