Rear Admiral William Locke
Command and Control Center
It was organised chaos in the CiC as the ship followed the path that the
Rejuvination hard carved out toward the heavens. Already the battlenet was filling with chatter as the Devastators pushed through the various defences placed around Mars to try and slow their advance. It was all designed to make Mars a more difficult target, a more alluring one. In the past the Devastators had always been systematic, moving inwards slowly. Never moving onto a new target until they had finished with the last, it was the hope of the council that this trend would continue. Meaning that the longer they held the Devastators at Mars the longer the Arks had to escape. It also gave time for the Federation and Conglomerate to institute their individual survival plans. How many Arks could they have built if all nations had truly worked together? If they had been united could they have saved everyone? Could they have prevented all of this from happening? William pushed such thoughts out of his head, it didn't do to dwell on the past. The reality was that he was responsible for what would be one of the last colonies of man, and the second he went through that wormhole he had to assume that he was responsibly for
the last colony of man. He couldn't dwell on what could be, or what was, merely what is.
The reality was that he had picked his crew from a candidate pool of millions, picking people who he felt were the best suited and would work together in the best fashion. This crew of the best was put on a vessel, the very first to be built by members of all mankind. The technology within it being superior to anything else man had ever built: Weapons, shields, FTL and even communications were to a level that nothing else built by mankind even came close, bar one exception. He shrugged off the thoughts agian and focused himself on what was ahead. "Noah." The hologram of the very plain masculine individual appeared. "Cut battlenet access to all stations, except those under command authority-" That basically limited access to his and Carters station, as well as that of Ross aboard the
Nyx. He had told him that having the ship crewed was unnecessary, if it was launched then the chances of them escaping were slim to none. He had insisted, and William had to appreciate that. The willingness of sacrifice, the necessity of routine and the requirement of some sense of control.
Either way William had had Noah magnetically seal the hangar doors, and the clamps. As well as revoke access to the
Nyx. Meaning that it couldn't leave the hangar without his authority, short of blasting it's way out anyway. Having the overall command override was a rather useful tool. While he initially wasn't too fond of Noah, being Martian he preferred to deal more with V.I than A.I. Overtime however he had learned to trust and even depend on the construct. He trusted his crew, depended on them... however sometimes the fact that Noah could comply with his request in a mere instant was beneficial. He tried not to depend on him too much, he was very much a crutch for him and his crew and they all needed to be on their toes. "Status?"
"We're passing through Earths Exosphere now Sir." There was a brief pause before Joanne spoke again. William looking directly at her. "We are now officially in space." William turned up to look at the hologram, projecting their course to the eye. The
Rejuvination was already on final approach to dock, as the energy began to build within the strucutre.
William moved closer to the hologram as something caught his attention. "Somethings happening-" He took a deep breath and hit a button on his console, immediately an
alarm sounded throughout the ship. Lights dimmed, flickered and turned off. Replaced by red emergency lighting. "-all hands battlestations. Route all non-essential power to engines and shields. Have engineering
prep the FTL drive but don't charge it yet-" The only issue with FTL technology. Once you charged a drive you had to jump, there was no other way to expel that kind of energy. "-NAVIGATION!"
He heard a
sir from nearby, Lieutenant Andrews. Chief navigation officer - who like many of the heads sat close to his console. "Calculate a course, if we do need to jump out of here the old fashioned way there needs to be a course already laid in." Joanne moved closer to William, moved around his side of the console. He leaned towards her as she leaned in to speak, she didn't want to be heard.
"Sir, what exactly is going on?" William in any other circumstance would have smiled at getting to show off his tactical skills. Now was not the time however. Instead he merely raised a finger, indicating she should wait a second. Then right on cue...
"
CONTACT!" William didn't really need to hear the call, he knew it was coming. The change in fleet movements above Mars, a ship from the Devastators attack had jumped. A massive vessel, which is what caused the fleet changes above Mars. He focused Noahs scanners on it, looking up at the hologram of the vessel. It's physical size rivalled that of the Arks, bigger than any Devastator ship they had ever seen and likely just as deadly. So far it seemed uninterested in them, as ships around it managed to compensate for it's arrival and began firing on it. Sister Arks opening fire on the ship that stood between them and escape, there was nothing William could do now but hope that they could last long enough to stall the monster of a ship. His orders had been clear, no turning back under
any circumstances.
Instead he just leaned back closer to Joanne. "Have all fighters, bombers, drones, gunships, frigates and even the cruiser prepped for launch. Also contact engineering, see if we can't get more juice out of the engines." Typing into his console he brought it back to the view between Earth and the Eye of Thea. "We're going to need it."
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