TBC

Posted on Sun 2nd Oct, 2016 @ 5:55pm by Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Zachary Hunt & Lieutenant David Anthony

818 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Cloak & Dagger
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Prologue

Hunt and Drake had been getting the guided tour around Ops (Operations Centre) for the past forty five minutes. The overly enthusiastic Ensign, apparently an Engineer, was taking great pride in explaining every inch of the place to them, as if he had built it himself.

"... so bottom line is nearly three quarters of the work stations up here are non-operational... the systems are either still offline or need major repair..." he trailed off to yet another part of the command centre.

It was true... the Federation Civilian Defence Authority had done a right number on the station during their tenure. They had taken it over from Starfleet nearly two decades ago, near the onslaught of the Dominion War. The station was deemed as being too far away from the action for it to be justified to remained staffed. Thousands of personnel were shipped out to new assignments, whilst only a handful of advisors remained. The station was all but forgotten about until now... until someone had the bright idea of giving this rust bucket to Drake.

Hunt however saw the beauty of Vanguard. Among all the mess that had been left for them to clear up, underneath he saw what it could become. He didn't show his thoughts or feelings in front of Drake though and remained stern faced. The ensign was too enthusiastic for Hunt though that he stopped paying attention and was just admiring it all on his own. He glanced over at Drake, "what are you thinking?"

"I think Starfleet should have scrapped this place and just built a new one... it probably would have been less work" he grinned at Hunt for a split second, before snapping back to attention as the Ensign turned around to face them and continue his tour.

Lt Anthony arrived finally at Starbase Vanguard. Just before landing he received a message to meet Commander Drake and Lt Commander Hunt in Operations.

His first impressions of the base were big, run down, functional barely, and under staffed. What personnel he did see seemed to be in a hurry, going on some mission.

After taking a few wrong turns and having to back track, he arrived at Operations. Before entering he straightened his uniform as much as possible. He wondered to himself if he should have gone to his quarters first and gotten a fresh uniform. Well it's too late now. Taking a deep breath, he enters Operations.

He had hoped to see Operations fairly well staffed, and equipment that was working. What he actually saw was a few star fleet personnel at various posts, and working on equipment. Off to one side of the room there were two commanders walking slowly behind an enthusiastic Ensign. He was explaining what was working, what wasn't, and how soon things may be operational. There was several comments about the lack of personnel. He quietly walked up to the commanders, and gave a small cough. "Lt Anthony of Tactical and Strategic Operations reporting, sir."

As Drake saw the man making a bee line towards them the first thing that struck him was the averageness of the man. He was of average height, average build, with brown hair and a somewhat non-descript face... however it was often those who looked unremarkable who turned who turned out to be anything but.

"Lieutenant Anthony" Drake extended a hand. "Welcome to Starbase Vanguard, have you been on board long?"

Anthony takes the offered hand. "No sir. We just landed a short time ago. I stopped at my quarters, then came straight here. From what little I have seen, we have a lot in the way of repairs to get done."

Hunt sniggered as he heard Anthony say that, "Well you can definitely say that one again. Hopefully one day Vanguard will be the envy of every other Starbase...maybe."

"I know, junior officers stating the obvious can be funny, but man, this place needs a lot of work. I can only imagine how many systems in Ops, and defensive systems and shields are not working. Even if they are working, who will run them. So short on people. I know, stating the obvious," Anthony says.

"No offence meant, just didn't expect it to be as bad as people said it was here. The obvious is there to be stated no worries. Well I suppose that's why we are here, to get it back into shape. Eh Drake?" Hunt said, changing his glance to Drake.

Drake raised an eyebrow at the familiarity of Hunt... true, the Marine Corps held such formalities in a higher place than 'fleet staff', as they referred to them... but even for them...

"Quite so, Commander". He emphasised his rank.

"It will be nice to work with you Lieutenant Anthony," Hunt said to Anthony after realising Drake was making a point.

The three now fell into silence as the grand tour continued.

 

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