STGOD mk II Main Thread

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-02 06:04am

“Hello Jahil, it could be fun.” says Tia as she moves with the others to the lift “There's a few other nonhuman species on the fringe if you get the chance to look but none having travelled as far as we have to get here.” she says as they enter the lift and travel to the conference room.

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-02 12:08pm

The conference room is crowded. Rebekka and a few others from the command staff are there, along with Jahil's team, and several armored marines. After another round of brief introductions, everyone is seated and Khali begins.

"Now that we're not speaking on an open channel, I assume my superiors would have no problem with me relating the Dominatrixiat's nature and situation?" She smiles at Rebekka.

Khali told the story of the Dominatrixiat. The mission from Old Earth, the tragedy aboard the Asherah, the time of isolation, their capture of an Imperial vessel, and the conquest of Theta Mira and Alpha Cephi.

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-02 12:58pm

Their ways are not our ways, Unsurprising though their attitude is it's a little brutal... such is the price of political expediency

“I see. Our species has never had the capability to experience such issues, the inbalance of our genders has only ever allowed for one way of doing things. We have come from beyond your galaxy, our home galaxy is dead and we seek to make a new home here in this one. For the longterm security of such a home we've concluded several members of the former imperium must be neutralized for their xenophobic leanings, including the Humanist union.”

“I believe Kara would permit an expedition of second fleet to aid you in actions against them.”

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-02 01:28pm

Ah, refugees from another galaxy. That would explain how they had escaped the notice of the Empire. And their matriarchy was the natural state of things? Well, not terribly surprising, humans had only become what they were by biological chance after all, sigh, if only things could have been different.

Jahil listened as the meeting continued, the Chamarans believed that their queen would allow one of their expeditionary forces to aid the Dominatrixiat against the Humanists. There was talk about what such an action would entail, details about the espionage mission sent to Dayab, and their failure to return (Jahil wondered if Tia would care that the Dominatrixiat had probably sent a similar mission to Chamaran space). After a while the conversation turned to the long term goals of each society.

"Simply put" Khali continued "the Dominatrixiat wants to ensure that human space is the dominion of Womankind. Beyond that, much is negotiable."

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-02 01:50pm

Tia nods”The Chamaran Exodus has only basic needs, enough worlds to make a home for ourselves and neighbours that longterm will not seek our destruction or exploitation. Your organisations mandate is no threat to us.” she says while still considering what forces she could borrow off Melusine, somewhat more enthused by the fast cruiser idea than her peer she wonders whether she could swap a conquest cruiser squadron for Melusines allotment of the speedier vessels.

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-02 04:26pm

"Excellent, I hope that both our peoples can live side by side in the future. Once we've eliminated the threats to our mutual existence at least."

The conference continues, though little else of import is discussed. As it comes to a close, Jahil asks if she and her team can be allowed to ask the Chamarans present some questions about their culture and history.

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-02 04:47pm

Throughout the meeting it should be noticed that only Tia is fluent in imperial basic, the others relying on psi linked translators which meant that only when addressing eachother in their native tongue did their lips move.

Tia seems happy to help, though it's notable her protection duo are less than enthusiastic. Nonetheless undaunted Tia nods "Ask away." she says though amends that when Bosh gives her a pointed look "Ten questions only,I should be getting back to my command soon."

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-02 06:15pm

"Very well then." Jahil takes a moment to confer with the rest of the team. A few moments later they hand Tia a datapad with ten questions displayed.

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-Do other governing bodies exist in Chamaran society, aside from the queen?

-How long have the Chamarans been living in this area of the galaxy?

-Have Chamaran societies in the past usually been ruled by queens, or other hereditary rulers?

-Have the Makayans been able to integrate themselves into Chamaran society?

-On average, how long do you live?

-Were ancient Chamarans a predatory species?

-Is there any sort of widespread religion among Chamarans?

-Around how long did the journey from your native galaxy to this one take?

-Your ship, is it typical of Chamaran engineering?

-What does the typical Chamaran's diet consist of?

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-02 06:46pm

Tia conferrs with all three chamarans with her in the course of composing her answers then replies taking it one at a time.

1.Each clan has some autonomy and power based on standing and the noble clans have enough leverage that combined by alliances of convenience they can and have changed the course of our society. The matriarchs of the noble clans also form the advisory council.
2.Around a decade from the time we crossed the furthest fringe.
3.No, the queen used to have less power before the Magellanic wars and was more an arbitrator since the Magellanic wars we've needed unity. Clan matriarchs are chosen in different ways depending on the clan.
4.No.
5.100 of your years with recent advances
6.Still are *grin* though it's more a luxury nowadays, something primal about the hunt.
7.Our ancestors watch over us, that count?
8.For over a century we travelled the dark. The space beyond your galaxy is not empty but empty space would have been less hostile than the creatures that lurked there.
9.The Dominion class is the pinnacle of Chamaran technology and the largest ships we've built since the homeships.
10.Mostly meat, it made sustaining our population during the voyage difficult but our metabolisms don't work well with low density nourishment like plants. We're omnivores though.

Then rises "Now we must return to the Audacious pounce, nice meeting you." she says, no doubt leaving them with a hundred more questions as they move to the elevator on their way back to their ship.

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-03 11:28pm

Khali and a few of the unarmored guards from earlier escort the four aliens back to their shuttle. Before Tia boards the craft, Khali hands her a datapad.

"This contains the coordinates for Asherah station, as well as the necessary protocols for them to allow you to dock there. I hope we can meet again soon 'Mistress Tia, hopefully under less formal circumstances."

The Chamaran flier departs from the Athena's bay, and heads back towards the Audacious Pounce.

Raj Ahten · Post by **Raj Ahten** » 2008-07-13 11:42am

Outside the Chicago System

The Melconian Empire’s star fleet was on the attack. Its commander, Fleet Admiral D’Lak, thought it was about time. She felt the dishonor of having humans in Melconian systems keenly. The ancestors would be avenged by her fleet. The forces assembled were awesome, the majority of Melconian combat power. Hundreds of support ships and landers accompanied the fleet, full of army assets.

The target was the Chicago system. Resistance was expected to be crushed quickly and easily. Some had advocated simply bringing the whole fleet in and blowing the enemy apart in a set piece battle. D’lak had a more elegant approach in mind. One that would likely preserve more Melconian fleet assets. It was already in motion. Remaining hidden the entire fleet had moved within a 5 minute jump to the Saux Blackton. Intel reports indicated none of their vessels had the sensor technology to defeat even basic stealth systems. The Den of the Great Cubs had one ship capable of detecting the Melconians. They had been sent a message saying the Melconian fleet was coming to help them deal with their old enemies. A lie of course, but it might confuse their response. It was extremely doubtful they would tell their enemies the Saux Blackton about the Melconian presence.

The Melconian stealth ships had been giving continuous updates on conditions inside the Chicago system. The plan was to have the 2 Divine Wind battle cruisers and 4 Phoenix class fast cruisers companioned by 12 Spirit class destroyers jump in system and attack one of the Blackton’s patrols in the outer system. This task force was under the command of Admiral Drak N’Drak. He had a talent for this sort of thing. Hopefully N’Drak’s force would draw the human fleet assets away from their powerful surface gun batteries. Then the trap would spring closed and the rest of the Melconian fleet would jump in and destroy the Blackton’s fleet.

If the humans didn’t take the bait, so be it. D’Lak had more than enough firepower to destroy them close in to their planet. The Chamaran’s had sent a taskforce for this battle as well. D’Lak was using them as her reserve. According to the established time table, N’Drak should now be arriving in system.

The Outer Edge of the Chicago System

Drak N’Drak was ready for battle. He was aboard the bridge of the Divine Wind class Winds of Change. All systems were functioning with in tolerances and the battle net linking all the task force’s ships was up and operational. Time to destroy the enemy.

His taskforce emerged right on top of a human patrol. The two Revenge class vessels had provided extremely accurate information to N’Drak’s force. The Melconian ships immediately opened up with everything they had. Drones were launched as fast as possible. The human patrol was pounded. The Revenge class ships remained hidden.

Ships now in system:
2 Divine Wind Class: (25+3h+2d+6R+1C3I)*2
4 Phoenix Class: (15+3H+3D+6R+1C3I)*4
12 Spirit Class: (5+2H+1R+1D+1C3I)*12
2 Revenge class, currently stealthed (4+7S+2C3I+10O+2R+5H)*2
Total: 170+28D+18C3I (not including stealthed ships

Out System:
2 Emperor Class (30+3H+2D+1C3I)*2
4 Emperor II class (32+5H+5C3I+10O+3D)*2
2 Emperor’s Wrath class (30+10B+3H+2D+1C3I)*2
6 Council class (20+5H+4C3I+4D+2R+10O)*6
2 Admiral Voth class (20+3H+3D+1C3I)*2
4 Ramec class (8+3H+5D+2R+1C3I)*4
4 Echo Station class (8+3H+2R+7I+1D+1C3I)*4
24 Spirit Class (5+2H+1R+1D+1C3I)*24
10 Captain N’Tan class (10+5H+5D+2R+5O+3C3I)*10
Total: 692+148D+112C3I+28I+150O+20B
Note: the Chamaran cruiser taskforce not included in these totals.

Dark Hellion · Post by **Dark Hellion** » 2008-07-14 03:10pm

Turn 2 Start

The Bullpen, Capitol building of the Great Cubs

"Gentlemen, Gentlemen, sit down. We were proud servants of the Old Empire. How can we trust such xeno specie? We cannot. We must fight this incursion. Traitors the southsiders may be, but they are human traitors. Let us cooperate with them. We must set aside old enmity for the good of humanity. Let us stretch, for it is the seventh inning. Now we must put in our closers. We may not stand much chance, so send out our couriers, let us get some free agents. We must try to help the Saux, make this into extra innings."

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-07-14 04:16pm

Low orbit, Mintar

It wasn't much, but it was a start. Acting Commodore Drayson looked at the viewscreen of the NRS Lightning, currently displaying a view of the transfer of cargo to the last interstellar transport, with the NRS Alpha Persei hanging in space behind the freighter. The fleet captain's cruiser would be the escort flotilla's command ship, but the four destroyers would do the work of defending the freighters; the Guardian class cruiser and accompanying pair of Bandit class frigates were along in case of the remote chance of an enemy heavy ship intercepting the convoy.

Soon, the cargo loading was finished, and Mintar Control directed the convoy's ships and their escorts to their jump point. The hyperdrives on the ships spun up and presently launched them far beyond the speed of light, bound for the Humanist Union.

Force declaration:
1x Guardian class light cruiser (10+5O+5C3=20)
4x Polaris class destroyers (5+5D+5C3=15)
2x Bandit class frigates (5+5O+5C3=15)
Miscellaneous freighters loaded with food supplies for initiating trade with the Humanist Union; no points.

Lancer · Post by **Lancer** » 2008-07-14 06:17pm

Ohma wrote:-Prometheus Station, Deep Space-

Code: Select all

Light: What the flying hell? There's a man standing on the outside of that thing!
Roy: And it's glowing on my sensors brighter than a star.
Light: This can't be good.
Astro: They could just be customers guys.
Wildstar: Could be, but i doubt it.
Light@unknown: Attention unknown craft. You have entered space claimed by Kraidnick Industries, please state your business.

"We come to bring the Word of Ledo to the descendants of Terra. The Word of Ledo brings with it great strength, as you see with your own eyes."

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-14 06:44pm

-Prometheus Station, deep space-

We come to bring the Word of Ledo to the descendants of Terra. The Word of Ledo brings with it great strength, as you see with your own eyes.

Code: Select all

Roy: …
Wildstar: …
Light: Well then… 
Astro@LedoEmessary: We apologize, however this is privately held space. If you have no official business with Kraidnick Industries, we ask that you leave immediately.

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-15 02:10pm

Helios system
Star nation of Nashtar

A communication station, an antenna bristling hub of interstellar and interplanetary traffic relaying an immense amount of data per day, wading through such an ocean of binary and extracting things of value is a daunting job even for a full intelligence staff with unrestricted access to the array. For the struggling crew of the podship laying as a tiny orb of deeper black nearby with their crew of 13 and reliance on signal intercepts its a testament to the existence of higher powers and their malevolence.

“Any luck with the deeper encryption Eru?”
“Nothing so far, though i dunno if it's worth it. I mean look at the stuff we've found on the first level encryption.” Eru brings up some of the intercepts on screen “Movies of humans copulating, constant advertisements for their music and what is Vi-agra anyway? There's like hundreds of messages about it.”
“Maybe it's some sort of distraction strategy? Flood the network with useless information so that it takes more effort to sort through them?”
“Maybe you're right Misha but that's a lot of space to use for a distraction strategy...Keep an eye on the scope for me i'm going down to the Commissary bank.” Eru sighs at the nature of humans and the nature of their task and drops down to the levels below in search of a meal, leaving Misha to keep half an eye on the scope and the fading trails of the various unsuspecting vessels moving about.

They'd been here for weeks, clearly the clan has upset someone in command for them to be given this fruitless task, only moving to try and find more useful tightbeams to sit upon and intercept around the dozen communications stations in system...and to give any military craft a wide berth.

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-07-15 04:44pm

-DSFV Amaterasu, deep space, near Dayab-

“According to the last two recon flights by Lilith squadron, there is a cloud of debris here.” A small blue circle appears on the screen. “This, taken together with the civilian intercepts about a ‘pirate raid’ would suggest that the Sonya Olschanezky and the Yoshiko Kawashima were discovered by a Humanist patrol and destroyed.”

The change in the room’s atmosphere is palatable.

“Then it’s clear what we have to do.” Lola stands “Considering that there doesn’t seem to be much of a military presence in this system, they probably haven’t found much of use from the wreckage; however we can’t allow them the chance to find out who we are until we’re ready to fight them.

The Agrona and her escorts will exit subspace before the main force, near the star, they will fly in tandem with a fleet of sensor decoys and attempt to draw what orbital defenses there are around Dayab away. Meanwhile the Amaterasu, Eris, and escorts will move on Dayab itself, they’ll bombard any military installations on the surface where debris from the Sonya and Yoshiko could be held. Should the Humanist forces return to Dayab we will retreat back to Alpha Cephi and rally the other forces for a full attack on Humanist space.”

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-07-15 04:45pm

Helios system

In fact, the system was swarming with Nashtari warships, including the hulking shapes of the NRS Dauntless and NRS Intrepid in orbit over the capital world. The Intrepid's massive active sensor arrays were not pinging; their power was such that they could scramble unshielded electronics on nearby civilian craft, of which there were plenty in the busy orbital lanes. Command didn't consider this to matter very much, since most Nashtari vessels were equipped with their own sensor equipment and many were on picket and long-range scanning duty further out in the system.

This was due to change, however, as the Chamarans might be able to deduce: Public announcements of week-long traffic restrictions to make way for fleetwide exercises were even now making their way through the system's communications arrays on the civilian bands.

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-15 05:52pm

Pod ship 'Melodic silence'
Helios system
Nashtar

With such news the crew convened, the entirety of the clan present in the only room big enough for all of them to comfortably congregate. The decisions weighed slowly, an opportunity to watch the Nashtari fleet activities admittedly coupled with a greater risk of discovery.
“I say we slip out system for a week, tell high command its too much of a risk.”
“But we'd be able to gather valuable tactical data on the human fleet if we stayed.”
“They're not a threat to Chamara I don't think, hence tactical data is a bit worthless.”
“Things can change and seen as we're assigned here we may as well be useful.”
“So command can keep us on station here even longer?”
“I know you're not happy with us being assigned here and I know you think this is an irrelevant assignment but there is honour in duty as I don't need to remind you.” The feline who raised the objection ear splays a bit at that and the matriarch continues “We will stay in system for the duration of the exercise, move us to mid system solar orbit.”

Slowly, agonizingly slowly over a day with a practically imperceptibly weak psychic field the little pod ship propels itself onto a new course, stabilizing in orbit around the star further out than Nashtar, sensors unfurled to watch the coming show.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-07-15 06:43pm

Military Shipyards, Orodan

Most of the new Fifth Fleet's escorts had been launched already over the preceding days. Now it was time for the heavies.

The latest addition to the Dauntless class, NRS Indomitable, slowly floated free of her moorings, separating from the shipyard rings and drifting into open space. A cheer went up from the various dignitaries and military brass on the observation deck as her engines flared to life and the battleship lumbered away from the mass of shipyard facilities, slowly gaining momentum as she hove out to join the cruisers and destroyers orbiting between the Orodan and Oromos orbital paths.

The final ship to launch was the flagship. The NRS Enterprise, the fighters that would reside in her cavernous hangar bays swooping all around laying fireworks, lumbered free, her own engines flaring to life as a quartet of destroyers from Second Fleet formed up on her, NSC fleet protocol not allowing fleet carriers to go unescorted even for such a short run.

Their shakedown cruise would be interesting: They were to simulate an attack on Nashtar, the capital world, with First Fleet forming the OPFOR. Fifth was intended as an offensive weapon, and the exercises would be the perfect opportunity to both test the fleet tactical doctrine and give the Home Fleet much-needed practice in defending against a large scale assault. They would engage in shakedowns in the outer Oro system for a day before proceeding to Nashtar to stage their "attack."

Raj Ahten · Post by **Raj Ahten** » 2008-07-15 10:07pm

Anderhall

Karl Bist, Grand-Captain of the Company was having a war council deep underground with his top officers. Their well appointed command room boasted the latest in looted command and control equipment as well excellent food, opulent furnishings and brain wiped sex slaves to service the men between breaks. They were all there to discuss the Company's newest campaign.

While their conquered territories were meeting production quotas, to expand its ranks The Company needed to start raiding again. Besides, stocks of foreign luxury items were running low. To this end The Company's 10 Pikeman class Corvettes had already been dispatched to raid merchant shipping throughout known space. The Independent States Alliance and Humanist Union's civilian fleets were being hit the hardest due to proximity. The Company's commanders sent their vessels far and wide however, partly to obscure the source of their predations.

The Pikeman only targeted merchant vessels. The real purpose of their raids was to gather intelligence on what planets might make a good target for a full scale "raid" by the Company's planetary assault carriers. Bist had his eye on several targets already.

The Independent States Alliance was a tempting prize. The war council sent 6 of their Wardog class vessels to do a more in depth recon. That rich realm or merchants could likely be brought to its knees with the right strategy. The Syndicalist also seemed like good prey. The distance was great, but they had recently had their fleet trounced if interrogated prisoners and signal intercepts were true. Their decentralized nature might also make them a good target. A pair of Wardog Destroyers was sent to gather intelligence on that realm as well. The remaining pair of Wardog class ships was placed on deep raiding operations to assist the Pikeman corvettes.

The rest of the fleet would undetake training missions locally until a good target was found.

The Company would bide its time and learn their victims weaknesses. Then they would strike and The Company would be spoken of with fear once again.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-07-16 01:17pm

Helios system, outer planetary orbits

Over the preceding day as measured from Nashtar, First Fleet had engaged in gunnery exercises and small-unit maneuvers. Now, however, the main thrust of the exercise would begin.

The system's early warning network sounded the alarm fleetwide as Fifth Fleet approached in hyperspace. Fighters launched, escorts scrambled to deploy, heavy cruisers pulled in close to the Intrepid and fired up their massive active defense arrays, and the Dauntless along with a cruiser line and escorting destroyers lumbered "above" the system's orbital plane, fully clearing the lines of fire for their massive railguns and beam cannons. And most crucially, the Intrepid's sensor system left standby status and went to full power, attempting to gather information on the incoming fleet before it arrived.

In the carrier's CIC, Lieutenant Bronlothgar looked at a secondary sensor readout and frowned.

"Captain, we're reading the incoming fleet. Looks like two large capital ships and a wide array of cruisers and heavy escorts. I'm also picking up odd sensor ghosts near Helios V; they're difficult to pin down."

Captain Silverglate walked over to the sensor station and peered over the Ronoghan's shoulder, frowning as the lieutenant zoomed in on Helios V on the secondary monitor. Sure enough, there were intermittent and scattered contacts in an area near the gas giant, contacts that didn't even stay through the sensor sweep, but disappeared even as the detection array passed over. The anomalous blips seemed to appear randomly in an area almost as large as the gas giant itself.

"Admiral," the captain called across the CIC, "could Fifth have slipped a stealth frigate into the system before their scheduled arrival?"

Admiral Lancaster frowned and walked over. "If so they didn't tell me, but then that's the point of the exercise, isn't it?" A small smile played across his lips for a moment. "But it's unlikely; the fleet's barely out of shakedown. If they sent one ahead, they're risking an unproven ship."

"If I may," the Ronoghan lieutenant interjected, "I've scanned for both of our stealth frigates on sensors in exercises before, and the sensor ghosts they leave follow a different pattern. It's possible that the later frigates have differences in their systems, however."

Silverglate frowned. "Pattern? It looks random to me. So do our own frigates, as I recall, though they might leave fainter ghosts; I'm not sure."

"To human eyes, perhaps," the Ronoghan said without a hint of arrogance in his tone, "but Ronoghan pattern recognition is highly developed. It is complex, but it is there."

Admiral Lancaster's frown deepened. "Very well. Keep an eye on that, and we'll consult with Fifth once the day's skirmishing is over. If it's not one of theirs, we'll soon find out what it is. Carry on."

Darkevilme · Post by **Darkevilme** » 2008-07-16 01:47pm

'Melodic Silence' Helios system, Nashtar
“That's quite a sensor array they've got there.”
“Well it's within the estimates based on the pictures we have of those things, on par with one of our support cruisers.”
“Risky to get closer, we'll have to watch from here.”
“Good show though, spacekricket?”
“Sure.” And soon the command deck fills with the crunch sound of munched spacekricket as the on duty crew members watch the screens and the unfolding mock battle is recorded for later transmission to high command. The pod slowly tracking along its orbit, contortions of physics bleeding away its limited emissions, distortions of spacetime and good old absorptive tiles reducing its radar return and good old black paint doing for the visual side of things. The pod is the epitome of stealth and, so the crew believes, completely unobserved and unseen by the ones they themselves are watching.

Raj Ahten · Post by **Raj Ahten** » 2008-07-16 08:52pm

Deep Space
ISA Shipping Corridor
Aboard the Company Destroyer Drake

"Sensor Contacts Captain, looks like three ships coming our way,"
Said the sensors officer on the Drake.

"Soldiers or chattel?"

"Analyzing sir. Looks like three small craft."

The sensors officer put his information on the main bridge holo display. Captain Morrison smiled. These ships were well with in his weight class to take, even if they were a military patrol. He couldn't take them alone though. Fortunately, he wasn't operating alone.

"Contact the rest of the squadron. They are to rendezvous on our location,"
Ordered Morrison.

"Aye sir."

The bridge crew went to work sending out coded communications to the other three Wardog class Destroyers in the squadron. They were currently spread out over the shipping lane in order to be able to intercept any vessels that came along. All the ships were within a short enough distance to come together and ambush any targets that any individual member of the squadron spotted. It was a modern day wolf pack.

Morrison's XO came to his side and reported,
"Sir, the squadron is on its way. The Tercio will be able to rendezvous with us before the targets but the rest of the squadron will be joining us after they have been engaged."

Morrison nodded. If the target ships were well armed, things could get dicey.

Soon the Tercio had arrived. The two sleek dagger shaped vessels waited for their prey. At the right moment, They engaged their interdiction fields, yanking the targets vessels from hyperspace.

Morrison sent them a message over the comms while his crew scanned and targeted the three vessels before him.

“I am Squadron-Captain Morrison of the Company. The commander of your force will surrender your ships or when this is over I will castrate him and cut off his feet.”

Forces Commited:
2 Wardog class Destroyers
10+6S+2I+2D total

2 more Wardogs are on the way.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-07-16 10:17pm

Space distorted and warped as Fifth Fleet dropped out of hyperspace in attack formation, fighters boiling out of the Enterprise's hangars less than a minute after reversion. Missiles bloomed from the two fleets as the split elements of First moved to attempt to encircle the attackers and dilute their defensive screen. Nashtar's system patrol craft deployed in support of First, handily making up for the missing destroyer that was out on deep patrol.

After a full day of maneuvering and simulated "kills," the Fifth Fleet was driven off, though at great simulated cost to First. Significantly, both the Ebony and the Sable had been picked up by the Intrepid's scanners when they made their attacks, and neither were near Helios V.

Admiral Lancaster frowned on the bridge of his carrier. "Comms, put me through to the Enterprise. I want to speak to Admiral Fisher."

"Aye, Admiral," the ensign manning the communications station answered, reach up and turning a pair of dials. "Channel open, sir."

Lancaster nodded his thanks. "Admiral Fisher! Congratulations on your promotion, and on absolutely mauling my fleet," he said with a grin.

Fisher chuckled. "Didn't maul it enough. I should have had the Indomitable engage your cruiser screen sooner. But there'll be time for that in the after-action. What do you need?"

"Admiral, we've been picking up sensor ghosts in the area of Helios V since before your fleet arrived in system. They persisted throughout the exercise and..." he leaned over to look over the sensor officer's shoulder, "they're still there. We're pretty sure we accounted for your stealth frigates, but I'd like to be sure. Do you have anything out there?"

Fisher frowned. "No, we don't. One moment." He looked over off screen. "Sensors, scan the proximity of the fifth planet, see what there is to see."

The answer came from offscreen. "Anomalous sensor contacts, Admiral. They seem to disappear when the sensor sweep passes over them; they're only picked up on the leading and trailing edges of the scan. It's all over the place, sir."

Fisher frowned. "Well, maybe we can triangulate it. If it's not one of ours and not one of yours and we're both seeing it, there's probably something there."

"Agreed," Lancaster said. "At least it'll be a good exercise for the sensors. I'll patch comms between our sensor crews to facilitate the exercise."

"All right. Fisher out." The hologram of the other admiral winked out.

Lancaster frowned. "Fleet Command to Fleet Ops. Order the Altair, Regulus, and Sirius to ready themselves to jump to a triangular formation surrounding Standard Coordinates 5647, -4531, -17 star relative at a distance of 10,000 kilometers on my mark. Order the Protector to jump to those coordinates exactly at mark plus ten seconds. Sensors, focus the active arrays on those coordinates and ask Enterprise to do the same at mark plus five. We'll see if we can spook whatever it is."

"Aye, Admiral," the commander answered, and began relaying the appropriate orders to the ships and stations.

A few moments later he looked up. "All units report ready, sir."

"Very good. Three. Two. One. Mark."

The three destroyers he'd named had been hanging in space off of the carrier's port side. Then space distorted and they leapt forward, appearing seconds later in the ordered wide triangle near Helios V.

Five seconds later two of the most powerful sensor arrays in the fleet simultaneously focused their active arrays at the coordinates, trying to pin down the sensor ghosts.

Five seconds after that, the light cruiser left its station, blurred, and appeared in the center of the wide area the sensor ghosts had appeared in.

The cruiser and destroyers lit up their own active sensor arrays, scanning the area for any anomalies.