Sel's hand had raised into the air, bringing with it a duo of logical and informational queries as to the arrival procedures once the Infamous Alto makes it planetside. If it makes it planet side of course but what he knew what was on the other side of the exit point was just as scarce as everyone else's guess. "Right you are Sel'Varok. Depending what we find at Ebrillon, portions of the crew will take command based on their specialties and training once the given situation has been identified. As an example...In the event that hostiles are on the ground and the space around Ebrillon is secured, if the Infamous Alto is asked to participate, we'll more than likely take on the rolls of troop transportation and fire support."
Despite being an AISC commando, a former AISC commando but an commando nonetheless, Rayland had since lost most of the gun-ho eccentric bravado the job demanded and found the idea of the Infamous Alto getting into a brawl of lasers and cannon fire very displeasing but it was the risk he and the rest of the crew signed up for; hardly anyone here no longer had the right to complain. "As to your second question Sel and a follow up to the first one, our main focus is the starport which leads into the main colony. Depending on if the starport can be captured and secured, the Infmous Alto will be able to properly land and efficiently assist with the next phases of the operation, again given the situation."
After everyone in the room appeared satisfied or even more worried about the mission, Rayland tapped at the holo-table’s interface, causing the holographic image to dematerialized as the projector shut down. “At any rate, we got a couple of hours left before we punch out of slipspace. I want everyone to get check their gear and weaponry. Pray to the Celestials or whomever you pray to; we’re soon about to find out why a colony of five million jumped of the radar."
---
Exiting the dimensional rift of slipspace was far less taxing than it was when the mass interstellar jump took place hours earlier. The flotilla and its heart, the SWS Howling Sun emerged from the slipspace portal, warships and transports pouring into normal space; into the Quox System. The Quox Star System played host to only a small hand full of celestial bodies with the majority being gas giants, leaving the only exo planet, Ebrillon, the only one of its kind. Had the colony prospered for a century more, the surrounding spheres of Helium-3 and Drellium dioxide would have made for an impressive monopoly. But with recent events, the system is now a discouragement for any interested business to take root.
Force Commander Reinhardt Victor Arik sat royally cross legged within his throne at the apex of the massive internal command bridge of the Howling Sun. The man was adorned the commanders cape and fur mane, with magnetic medals and insignias indicating his prestigious rank and display of valor across his armored chest plate. Unhappy that his indoctrination into becoming an Ascended occurred decades after the Interstellar War, Arik had compensated for his denied glorious conquest against Bel’Kian Kotorian warriors and Oun’mai battlesuits though several centuries of service to the Galactic Coalition, consecutively putting down rebellious incursions and rogue warlord agendas with precise efficiency. He was bold, brave, and courageous but also stubborn and cocky; Arik thrived off of conflict created by fools of self interest and welcomed the valor it would wrought regardless of the factors against him. Fascinating in the end that Arik himself would be chosen to command a force three times his usual compliment of super soldiers to even he questioned what he had even done to lead a force large enough to invade a system; he could only speculate the risks at play and treed carefully for once in his entire career; for someone willing to charge a battle-line, even he knew what a deathtrap was.
Spreading several yards apart, haloing platforms of Ascended bridge staff and officers surrounded him, resting in their own terminal seats as. Almost every one of them was consciously diving into the carrier’s immense network array of synchronized personnel, processing the many commands to keep the Sphere warship operations and every ready for action. Since hardly anything was manually done on the digitally mainframe of a ship, the bridge was rather quite; the only sounds usually came from off-duty personnel or the humming ambience of artificial gravity generator constantly and endlessly spinning to replicate the proper living and operational conditions.
With his cyber port already connected to the ships network, Force Commander was capable of speaking to almost everyone on the carrier, even the fleet if he so desired without even physically speaking.
===(FCO ARIK: All hands, status report on current fleet position and ship operations.)=================================
===(ADV SERENA: Aff. All stations showing thumbs up.)==========================================================
===(NAV ZULU: Aff. Confirming position on target system; Grid sector G25, 05 point 34632453)=========================
===(NAV LIMA: Affirmative. ETA on target planet; one hour, 34 minutes at present course.)=============================
===(FCO ARIK: Any anomalies or other vessels in the system? Remnant transmissions?)==============================
===(COM ROMEO-2: Calling Neg. Communication and radio burst traces are null. Target is dark.)========================
===(RAD BRAVO: Neg. No ships or anomalies in range. Scopes are clear.)===========================================
===(OBV TANGO-3: Neg. All is well. No pings on light displacement or gravitational rift traces.)==========================
===(FCO ARIK: Very well. Scout teams report in current status.)====================================================
===(SCT VICTOR-1: Victor Team aff. No visual or sensor pings on potential hostiles, keeping distance.)==================
===(SCT CHARLIE-1: Charlie wilco. Negative on any problems. Maintaining 15 kilometer distance.)=======================
===(SCT HOTEL-1: Hotel Team nothing to report…Its a ghost system I’ll tell you.)=====================================
===(SCT VICTOR-3: Copy on that, Hotel-1. There’s nothing here.)===================================================
===(FCO ARIK: Acknowledging all reports. Maintain current approach vectors.)=======================================
===(FCO ARIK: Sound off on any developments.)================================================================
===(OBV TANGO-2: Effective distance for LRVL Scope verified. Confirmed visual in 40 minutes.)========================
---
The exiting from Slipspace was a much needed relievement for the crew of the Infamous Alto. When some expected the worse to relapse once more, what they found was an uneventful safe passage back into real space. There were no new phases of the operation that the frigate crew had to concern themselves with as the military force outside was already on alert for any possible threats. Plus the ship was along for the ride. But so far everything seemed quite and calm; an unnerving sentiment considering the vanishing of five million people. Worse were the official reports that came into Rayland’s own personal terminal on the bridge revealed no traces of any transmission being broadcasted by the colony, even before or after its disappearance; it was almost as if the colony never existed.
The slow cautious approach toward Ebrillon was stressfully uneventful with a whole lot of nothing to report. The scouts of the Howling Sun had since stopped bothering with calling in every ten minutes and only settled with reporting anything that they found was unusual while allowing their craft to constantly ping their status. The crews however kept to their tasks in keeping their respective vessels going all the while preparing for whatever would await them once they were in Ebrillon’s local space.
Finally after more than an hour of waiting while on final approach, imagery captured by the Howling Sun’s LRVL Scope began to pop on the bridge of every ship in the flotilla. The sight of Ebrillon was startling to every command staff member viewing the footage. The once supposed green world was now tainted in a redish brown hue of decay and oceans as black as the abyss. The polar caps were uncontrollably frozen white and further spread across the continents fifty percent more than current records had shown. To say the least, Ebrillon was dead and desolate.
“What the hell…Happened to it…?” Rayland muttered; frozen in terrible bewilderment at the sight of the decayed planet.
