Earth Orbit, DSC 'Thor', 865ad. (Earth Calendar)
Admiral Ro-shar was in his private quarters, fast asleep in his bed when he was rudely awoken by his gauntlet beeping in notification, he sat up immediately at attention, trying to quickly alert himself to the incoming message. He focused his blurry eyes on the gauntlet on his right arm, it was only a written message, but still, when he saw the words “Priority – New orders from the Queen – eyes only” he suddenly finished waking up, eyes widened slightly, flung him self over to sit up on the edge of the bed. Orders only ever came from further up the chain of command in the Vanguard, to see one from the Queen herself was rare and odd and would undoubtedly require his full attention. He scrolled down through the message on the small screen, eyes completely wide by the time he reached the bottom. He had to blink several times as he realised he hadn’t at all while reading the message. He took a deep breath, “Alright then...” he told himself. He donned on his armour, all crew on any Vanguard vessel had to wear even basic life supporting armour when on duty, it was protocol, in case of hull depressurisation. The bland and basic armour plates, a pale semi-gloss white in colour, only broken up by six long vertical red lines that started half way down from his right chest plate and up and over his shoulder, designating his ‘Admiral’ rank. These armour plates were protecting most of his extremities, covering a more fragile, full under body suit which was the crucial piece to protecting him from the harsh sub zero temperatures of space… for a short while anyway. He slipped on his helmet over is horns and adjusted it until it was comfortable and locked it on, leaving only his full face on view and in any potential danger, that was fixed by a face plate that slid and locked down at a moments notice in the event of any danger.
Dressed and prepared, he hastily left his quarters and made for the bridge. Being the Vice Admiral and first in command had the advantage of having quarters in close proximity to the bridge, it only took him a couple of minutes walk at a fast pace. When he reached it the doors labelled ‘Bridge’ parted automatically, the three almost triangular pieces parted, the two outer pieces arced out into the walls and the central piece up into the ceiling. “Admiral on deck!” one of the bridge crew announced upon him stepping into the fairly large semi circular room.
Ro-shar: “As you were.” He followed on from the announcement, walked towards the command chair, which one of the other bridge crew was just standing up from, wearing almost identical armour to the Admiral, the only real difference being his chest plate only having 4 read stripes, while checking his own gauntlet for the time.
Commander: “You’re back early sir, couldn’t sleep?” the Commander questioned while turning to look at the Admiral.
Ro-shar: “*Scoff* I wish that was only the case, new orders from up the chain, where’s Captain Wrex?, do we have his location?” he asked outwardly for anyone to reply.
A Lieutenant from the Operations console at the side of the bridge to his front and left, replied, Ops Lieutenant: “Strike team Fury are currently positioned in Central Europe, last report from them 2 hours ago were large movements of humans closing in on them so they’re staying low.”
Ro-shar: “Helm, bring us into low orbit above their last known position, prepare for pick up.” He calmly ordered, the two helmsman stationed front and central, near the view port, one replied “Yes sir, proceeding to low orbit above central Europe.” confirming his order, tapped in a series of commands simultaneously with his co pilot and the ship hummed into life. Ro-shar sat in the now vacant command chair and looked out of the wide curved view port in front them. Earth, which was above them, was now rotating round to be underneath the long nose of the ship that extended out long past the view port and was now partially blocked from view from the two protruding secondary hulls to either side of the main long hull. Earth gradually started to fill what remained of the view screen as they dived toward the planet when the commander turned back to the Admiral.
Commander: “Sir… may ask as to why we’re making an emergency pick up of Fury?”
Ro-shar: “We’re going to be picking all the Strike teams up Commander, but I want Wrex collected first.” He replied, looking straight ahead.
Commander: “ALL of them Sir?” He asked a bit surprised.
Ro-shar: “Yes Commander, we’re bugging out...” He turned to the commander who was still confused but silent, “...they’re the orders from up top, Commander” He finished. The commander stood straight to attention,
Commander: “Yes sir” with the Draconian form of a salute, a small bump of a closed fist on his right chest plate and a bow of the head. and he left the Admiral’s side to man a vacant all purpose station just forward and left of him. He glanced at the Commander, viewing and cycling through various diagnostics of the ship, ‘You still have long way to go to be anything as good as Wrex’ Ro-shar thought to himself.
__________
Earth, Central Europe, East Francia
Eishin: “That was too close.” stated ducking his head back down from the small murky window up near the ceiling height of the damp smelling disused wine cellar of a house they had broken into.
Star Light: “Oooo the humans didn’t scare you did they?!” The only female member of the team taunted, jolting Eishin’s armoured back in an attempt to make him jump.
Eishin: “Knock it off, Lynxin!” he snapped back, using that name knowing full well she would annoy her.
Star Light: “Hey, call my Star Light, nobody calls me ‘Lynxin’ but my parents!” she well and truly bit back.
Wrex: “Knock it off, the both of you.” he stated rather bored, watching some humans pass out of the only other window on the opposite side of the room. Skylen walked up behind his right shoulder,
Skylen: “Think we should make a move soon? This cellar looks unused but I don’t like sitting here while they’re searching for us...” he grumbled in a deep tone. Wrex didn’t reply, just angled his head to the other side of the window to peer down the street in the opposite direction “...plus, don’t know about you, but I’d appreciate some kip soon.” He finished with a smirk. Wrex turned to look, taking in his smirk and responding with a small snigger.
Wrex: “What? Hoping for some beauty sleep? Trust me brother, no amount of sleep can fix that look.” Skylen shook his head and made a lazy punch into Wrex’s shoulder much to Wrex’s amusement.
Skylen walked away,
Skylen: “Well, that’s why I need so much to stand any chance of looking pretty, don’t I? Special thanks to Clayne for getting us spotted.” he said, looking down at the youngest team member, the only one lying down as well.
Clayne: “ME?! Wasn’t my fault the humans rigged the barn!” He replied in defence.
Skylen: “You tripped over their tools, that were leaning up against the wall! That’s hardly rigged! I don’t even get how that is possible!” he Taunted back.
Wrex: “Skylen, leave him alone, it’s not his fault, he was distracted...” Wrex stated, still viewing out the window, noticing the clouds rolling in.
Skylen: “Distracted? By what?” Skylen replied, confused, Clayne also looking up at Wrex also confused. Wrex turned to look them before replying
Wrex: “Well he was looking at Star Lights sexy behind wriggling in front of him, I could tell.” with a smirk, Skylen burst out laughing, maybe a little too loud with the base of his voice reverberating around the room,
Clayne: “What?!” sounding small and somewhat squeaky, escaping an embarrassed Clayne’s mouth, barely audible over Skylen's laughter.
Star Light: “Oi!” She said sharply with a cheeky grin, Wrex winked at her and she winked back. Then thunder rumbled around the cellar, everyone fell silent.
Wrex angled him self low to the window to look up at the sky, Eishin doing the same at his window, then both windows lit up from the sky, followed by almost instant thunder.
Skylen: “Is it Thor?”
Wrex: “Don’t know, can’t see enough of the sky...” He stated pulling away to look over to Eishin “...What about your side?” he asked, Eishin pulled away shaking his head. Another bolt of lightning and thunder lit up and rumbled around the room.
Skylen: “That came in too quick to be a normal storm.”
Wrex: “Agreed...” At that moment he looked at his gauntlet, he felt it vibrate, he took the silenced mode off and it started to beep. He held his hand up and opened his palm, swiping up the Gauntlet. A small holographic image appeared in the palm of his hand. “...Admiral Ro-Shar, we guessed this was no normal storm, to what do we owe the pleasure?”
The image returned the greeting with a curt nod,
Ro-shar: “Captain, I’m pulling the Strike teams out Wrex, I need you back on the ship asap.”
Wrex: “Sir? Sorry, did you say team’S’?, as in Plural?”
Ro-shar: “I did, I need you back here to help liaise and get the word out to the other teams and arrange collections.”
Wrex: “Understood...” he replied unquestioning, the image of the Admiral gave another nod before fading out, another lightning strike outside. Wrex lowered his hand and looked to his team who were all stood circled around the room, their semi gloss black armour that matches his own, seemingly glowing around the edges from the lightning that filled the from behind, all eyes at him. “...You heard him, mission’s scrubbed, lets move out, fall back to Thor”. The team moved unison and purpose, lining up with the only way in and out of the cellar, the stairs that lead out of the under side of the house to the outside, Skylen was up front. He gently pushed one of the cellar doors up and open and peered around at a low level.
Skylen: “Coast is clear” he stated standing up and opening the other door to step out into a back garden area. The rest of the team followed with Wrex bringing up the rear.
Once outside, it was relatively easy to spot, the Draconian Super Carrier ‘Thor’, moving gradually toward them, only the silhouette could be seen, but it was a BIG Silhouette, the ship was 18 Miles long and 7 Miles wide! It had an odd but distinctive shape, all three hulls, identical in diameter, all had an identical cross cut of an wide hexagon, the two outer hulls connected to the main hull via a large support corridors. The long central hull finished in six large fins, three on each side, at the ‘tail’ of the ship which was thinner only in height to the rest of the main body. The two outer hulls, which were about half the length of the main hull, housed the engines, that, to the untrained ear would seem like a constant rumble of thunder. Wrex always mused as to the fact that the Vikings of the northern area of this planet called it “Mjolnir” due to it’s hammer shape, the hammer of “Thor”, one of their ‘gods’, with the ability to summon thunder and lightning… ‘Oh how wrong they are' He mused. His trail of thought interrupted by Skylen,
Skylen: “Race ya!” he boomed, dropped to all fours and launched hard and fast from the ground, literally shredding grass and near by bushes with the sudden torrent wind created by his shear speed and power.
Star Light: “Pah!” She scoffed and launched herself off the ground too, shortly followed by Eishin and Clayne all of which didn’t create quite as much of a blast. Wrex shook his head in amusement and launched off as well in he direction of Thor.
