Entry 0
[Time: 2505]
Anterian Command, Anteria, Triumvirate
Sentus took a sip of his coffee and stared out into the giant morass of reddish-white vapor outside the window. Past the lip of Anteria's base floor jutting out from below the command center, it was nothing but white, white, and more white. In the dying 25th hour of the day, on a planet where days were measured in 46-hour intervals, the star XZ was casting a mandarin-red hue over the cloudy planet of XZ-5, the 5th member of this backdrop system situated at the rim of the galaxy's Sagittarius Arm. The Sagittarius Trade Federation's namesake.
As one of the chief communications officers of Triumvirate's Anterian Command, it was understandable that following the abrupt departure of Port Flight ten years ago, there would be little to no communication worth doing on the floating city, aside from a couple of defensive missions mounted by the Valkyrie Protectorate, and the occasional update from the rest of the Federation. Though given that shrike activity surged to newer heights every day, it was almost entirely possible that one day, there wouldn't be any Valkyries left to talk to, like there usually was whilst they were out doing their thing.
Sentus could feel his eyes drooping. Almost time for shift to end. His brain never failed him - when it was time to sleep, it was time to sleep. He pushed himself off his chair, and, taking one final glance at the clock, made ready to leave.
"Beep."
"Hm?" Sentus turned to the dashboard. A beacon was hailing the command center.
"Hail incoming. Console: type?" he asked the computer.
"Distress," the computer glibly replied.
Was a Valkyrie stuck somewhere? Had someone flown too far, and been caught by the shrikes?
Sentus could feel eyes on him. The beacon was attracting the attention of the other officers in the room. Little wonder - they hadn't had anything big to do since the last major shrike offensive several months ago.
"Are there any ongoing missions right now?" he asked the others behind him.
"Not that I know of," someone said. "Patrols start at 2800, so the Valks should be on standby."
"Weird." Sentus bit his lips. "Maybe someone's going on a Valkyrie joyride. There'll be hell to pay for that." Laughs echoed around the room. "Console: designation?"
"Command," came the reply.
Alright, this was getting serious. The silence from behind Sentus was evidence enough of that. Only a handful of people had the "command" label attached to them, and they were either at least lieutenants or people of nobility from other allied planets. Since they didn't host any nobles on Triumvirate, the beacon was coming from one of their own.
"Console: locate," Sentus ordered. He turned to the other officers. "Get us a lieutenant in here. Someone ranked. A ranking Valkyrie pilot might be in trouble." He heard feet scuffling around the room, and the door slamming shut.
"Computing," the computer announced. "Core designation: Headquarters. Location: 54392-E, 38920-N, 38-A."
Sentus paused. Currently, only the Anterian command center itself had that designation. And they weren't exactly in any trouble. So what was…
"Those coords match ours, but the altitude is slightly off," another voice noted. "We're on altitude 102-A. So the beacon's coming from pretty much right below us."
"Maybe an automated hail from a dead Valkyrie." Sentus shook his head. "But that can't be. It's labeled as "headquarters"."
Then a thought struck him. No way… it couldn't be. But what if…?
"Console: ping beacon."
"Pinging." A pause. "54392-E, 38920-N, 39-A."
"Console, ping beacon," Sentus repeated.
"Pinging. 54392-E, 38920-N, 40-A."
"Whatever it is, it's coming up pretty quick." Sentus turned to the others again. "Mobilize a squad of Valks, and open up the lookout stands under Anteria. We don't have time to waste - we'll have to meet this thing head-on."
OOC:
Edited by Viscoun, 08 February 2015 - 03:53 AM.