[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpxpWjD7dL0[/youtube][/center] While the Eye of Theia was orbiting Earth it wasn't exactly a short trip to get there, even at maximum (safe) thrust within an hour they were no more than three quarters of the way there. For the most part the bridge crew had been relatively quiet, talking among themselves. Some of them took a minute for quiet prayer while William just stood watching the holomap on front of him. He knew it was pointless watching the battle when he couldn't do anything to help, all he was doing was tearing himself a part even more as he watched as the Devastators slowly chewed through the fleet. At least Rita didn't have to see this, she was such a firestarter she probably would have went to help if she could see the size of the Devastator fleet now... All being said something didn't seem quite right to him. The Devastators followed no real strategy but attacking Mars still made little sense, it was obvious that Earth was the one that was undefended. Anyone with military training would have hit the soft target first, especially one that would deal such a devastating blow to morale. That said the Devastators weren't exactly known for making sense, he'd leave it for the analysts to determine what was going on. They'd have plenty of time to theorize on the Devastators and what they were doing, what their goals are. Suddenly an [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzd7OJmlqmM]alarm[/url] began sounding throughout the bridge. "Report!" William wasted no time in typing commands into the table on front of him, the surface of the Earth appearing in a view that shown the shipyards housing the remaining nine Arks, one of them visibly detatching from the dock. "Unknown energy source detected above the shipyard Sir, the reading is off the scale. Matches that of Devastator based technology, no idea as of yet of the-" Static erupted the screen as a [url=http://orig06.deviantart.net/5d37/f/2011/232/8/9/ancient_spaceship_by_radojavor-d471swo.jpg]Massive Ship[/url] appeared above the shipyard, easily as long as an Ark itself. William could feel the room stiffen, ships a fraction of the size had done tremendous damage to Human vessels. A ship the same size as an Ark was no doubt capable of tremendous destruction, even the wake caused by it's jump sent shockwaves that could be seen rippling around it pushing everything that it came in contact with. That was just using a hologram, he couldn't even imagine what it felt like to be one of those arks struck by the concussive blast. Hundreds, thousands of smaller signatures began spewing from it's belly, beams lancing striking everything in their path. The cannons on the arks lit up, creating a barrier of flak in their defense. Though it was too little, too late. As a massive beam shot down from the mothership, cutting a ark in two. That was all William needed to see. "Divert all non-essential power to engines-" He didn't need to repeat himself, his voice was being transmitted to the entire bridge and relayed further to the likes of security and engineering. "-have all essential personnel report to their stations, that includes cryogenics and the archives. Have all non-essential return to their quarters until further notice." Already at this point a low toned alarm and a yellow light flared throughout the hallways, as all the signs and screens in the ship relayed the orders. "Inform the hangar bay they have five minutes to refit a squadron for anti-fighter duty and get in the air, I want a defensive perimeter set." William keyed in several commands to the table, bringing up their own course to the Eye and zooming out to view the [i]Destiny[/i] on their tail. He turned to Joanne as he indicated that she should turn to her own terminal on the holotable. "Prime keys for Exodus Protocol." He typed in his authorisation, as Joanne did the same. Accepting the verification on his smaller screen he viewed the command. Not acting on it he just let it sit there. "You sure about this Admiral?" He nodded at her. "If they catch up with the [i]Destiny[/i] or even make a beeline for it we have no choice but to follow protocol." "If we do that only-" "If we do that we'll have saved as many people as possible. We can't save everyone, you signed up knowing that. Otherwise you wouldn't be here." [hr] [i]"Exceptional record, for what I know about you. Though if I can ask sir, why am I here?" Joanne sat across from him in full dress uniform in contrast to William who simply sat in his regular on duty attire. After all he had spent the day split between familiarizing himself with the ships systems and interviewing officers and heads of departments. He was building not just a ship, but a society and a family. If they didn't get a long, he didn't want them. That said he wanted an XO who would call him out if he did anything questionable, and from her record she fit the bill. "You're here because of your record Commander." He pulled out her file, her [b]full[/b] file. He saw her eyes widen at it, they were in conflicting militaries after all. Just as she couldn't access his full classified file, she believed he didn't have access to hers. "How did you get that?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm entrusted to safeguard a portion of the human race for the eons, and you think I can't get a classified file just because you're not Martian?" She nodded her head, after all he did raise a valid point. "You enlisted at eighteen, became a fighter jock. Different route than I took personally, but no less commendable. Like most pilots you were known for being hot headed, didn't always agree with your superiors. In fact by your whole record there are at least twenty blemishes on your record from when you decided to disobey orders, why?" "They weren't good orders sir." "So you didn't follow them?" "I completed the objectives sir, I just did them in a more effective way." William chuckled. "Sir?" "So, say if you were under my command and I made a decision you didn't agree with, would you call me out on it?" "If it was a stupid decision, yes sir." He just smiled. "Are you offering me a position?" "I am Commander, I'm looking for an X-O. Now it won't be good to you, no doubt it'll be long tedious hours and it'll be stressful to. Though I don't expect you to break easily, it'll save you and up to three family members. I also think you're the right kind of material to help me run this ship and make sure we all get to where we're going." William offered her his hand. "What do you say Commander?"[/i] [hr] William watched as small blue blips appeared surrounding the [i]Vitae[/i] indicating that the fighters had launched, he nodded at Joanne. "Tune into their battlenet, keep them right. It'll help motivate them knowing you're the one doing it, they noticed your exploits at the battle of Ceres after all." She nodded as she picked up her headset and tuned in, that's when he turned back and looked at the map. A swarm of red was approaching the [i]Destiny[/i] at a rapid pace, her own fighters launched. Though unlike the [i]Vitae[/i] she let them all loose, it was a bold move. If she was to jump now, or to successfully escape she ran the risk of loosing all her veteran pilots in one engagement. Though everyone ran their own ship differently, and he had no place to judge. "Weapons." "Sir?" "Deploy missile pods, long range. Open fire on the swarm, we're going to give our sister ship as much cover as we can muster. Have all weapon crews begin calculations for long range engagement I want everything but the main cannon ready to fire." "Yessir." William could hear him speaking into his respective comm system and he just nodded as he continued to look up at the hologram. He didn't dare turn the screen back to that of the surface of Earth, fearing what he'd see. Instead he kept his eye alert for any signs that the mothership was breaking her position to come after them. If that was the case he'd just call for a jump, they had no intel on it's capabilities. Though the last thing he expected to come through to him was a request from comms, though when it did come through he was even more surprised it wasn't from Admiral Lance from the [i]Destiny[/i]. "Admiral, we're receving a signal from the Devastor mothership." "From the Devastators? What kind of signal." "It appears to be some form of hail, I don't quite understand it." "Ensure the firewalls are secure-" He tapped his earpiece momentarily turning off his microphone. "Noah." The holographic avatar appeared below the holomap. "Yes, Admiral?" "Ensure that the comms system is secure, I want you to make sure that this signal isn't carrying some form of computer virus." "Yes Admiral." He tapped his earpiece again. "Put it through." He didn't really know what to expect, other than something he couldn't understand and that was exactly what he [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u4Qyd2tUrE]got[/url] He tapped his piece again stopping the alien message to speak to the ensign manning the comm station. "Have Erik Karlson brought up here, see if he can make heads or tails of this garbage." "Yes Sir." It was just a waiting game now, he watched as the first salvo of missiles launched towards the swarm. Nothing they could do but head for the Eye. He contemplated sending his squadrons to assist the [i]Destiny[/i] as if it got overwhelmed that would mean only two Arks made it through, but at the same time he had to think about the [i]Vitaes[/i] survival. If he lost those two squadrons now, that could mean the difference between life and death at a later stage. Everything was a balancing act, everything had an effect and from now on that was amplified to not just affect him and his crew but all the civillians aboard the ship including those who were cryogenically frozen. No, they'd make a beeline for the Eye and support [i]Destiny[/i] long range. There was nothing else they could do for them now.