Vera Space Command has put its search-and-rescue fleets on standing patrol. Crews from the 1st Vera Space Command station, near Vera Orbital, cover the inner fields; crews from the 3rd, a long haul further out, cover the outer ones. Each patrol makes its rounds between the stations and the ore sites, loiters to search, and moves on.
When a distress call goes out, the nearest patrol breaks off and answers it, and its callsign goes out on the Network so the caller knows who is coming. If one fleet is not enough, more launch behind it. Crews rotate home to rest at the end of a shift and fresh crews relieve them, so the fields are never left uncovered.
Pilots in trouble are brought home alive and treated aboard or at the station. When a crew cannot be saved, the fleet brings them and their vessel home all the same. “Nobody stays out there,” a VSC spokesperson said. “That has been true since the first landings, and we would like to keep it true.”