[h2] 1st Expeditionary Fleet, Legate class "Morte" [/h2]

The message played and Vasar listened carefully. He was impressed by the way they were able to translate their language so fast and form a proper, if slightly blunt, response. Everyone on the bridge had heard the message and all were awaiting his response. The creatures appeared to be intelligent, maybe even more intelligent then the people from Tallarn. But then again, they claimed to be in civil war which would make for an already weakened enemy, thus making it easier to invade the planet.

"Do our scanners pick up any hostile ships?" Vasar asked.

The response was almost instant: "Negative my lord, all we detect are some sattelites in orbit."

Vasar sits in his command chair, contemplating his next move.

[i]Sattelites in orbit... Those might be just ordinary sattelites or it might be defence stations like we have back in Confederate space. I can not take any risks.[/i]

He directs himself to the communications officer; "Get me a secure fleet channel to the Abbadon."

The Abbadon was an Athena class Battlecruiser, it was under the command of Baron Reinhart Loken. Vasar despised Loken because Loken was a turncoat, only carring for his own life and own personal gain. But there was something to respect about him aswell. He had a briliant tactical mind and he had build the Abbadon with his own capital. But the reason Vasar contacted Loken was not because of his briliant mind or Vasar's hope Loken might die, but because of the payload Loken's Battlegroup had.

"Secure line established my lord!"

"This is Fleet Admiral Ibrahim Vasar on board of the "TCS Morte" contacting Baron Reinhart Loken of the "TCS Abbadon", please copy."

For several seconds there was no response, then a communications offcer responded.

"TCS Abbadon here, we read you loud and clear"

Loken did not even bother to respond personally. Because Loken was an aristorcrat and Vasar came from the slums of Tallarn Loken had a sense of superiority over Vasar. And Vasar knew this.

"This is Fleet Admiral Vasar, I want a direct line of communication with the Baron!" he responded annoyed.

Again several seconds of silence.

"Affirmative, we will patch you through to our lord."

Some static occured and then the sound became very clear. In the background there was some music being played, a gracious classical masterpiece composed recently after the Vorchan war. Loken was obviously not even on the bridge, probably in the observation deck, observing the planet.

"This is Baron Reinhart, you wanted an audience Fleet Admiral?"

In his mind Vasar was enraged at Loken's reply.[i]The arrogance! Why do I have to get HIM under my command. The sooner the aristocracy gets removed from the Navy, the better![/i] But he knew that in the hierarchy of the Confederate society Loken was far above him. But this was not the civilian society, this was a military operation and Loken was under his command here. It was conflicting to say the least, his orders were basically requests to the Baron.

"Thank you for granting me the privilige of your time Baron. I am sure you have already been updated about our current state of affairs?"

"Yes, I've read the reply. How rude of those filthy xenos to even think that we would aid them. Why did you contact them anyway? I would have already taken the planet by force. I will report this to your superiours after we are done with this."

Vasar was infuriated by Loken's provocation, but his voice remained calm and respectfull.

"Unforunatly not everyone can be blessed with you skills. But now to the real reason why I contacted you. We will aid these xenos in their struggle."

The Baron spit his drink out in response to this and it was clearly audible.

"Are you insane!? You would want to risk the entire expeditionary force on this planet's personal strife!?"

"No" Vasar responded "I do not. Infact, I wanted to deploy you and your battlegroup under the Wotan Protocol."

It remained silent for a while. Then the Loken started to chuckle.

"I see where you are going with this. And my battlegroup is to have this honour? Well, I shall begin preperations immediatly... My lord."

The line of communication was broken and only a few seconds later the Abbadon's impulse engines activated and it approached the planet, followed by the rest of Loken's battlegroup. It looked majestic and terrifying at the same time. Seeing the orderly movement of his fleet made Vasar feel proud. But he wanted to be sure of a succesfull outcome. He deployed four Fury class Destroyers to scout the system. Meanwhile he contacted the Army highcommand and requested them to deploy the First Expeditionary Army to his location. The response he got was that it would take a while before they got there. Ofcourse it would take them a while... The Army and Navy always try to make the other bleed before doing something. If there wasnt this much infighting between the two branches then they would be unstopable, but alas.

Loken's fleet approached the planet, fighter and bomber screens were already deployed. His 10 Athena class Battlecruisers were accompanied by 12 Fury class Destroyers and 20 Nova class Cruisers.  Loken looked at the holographic globe infront of him. He saw craters the size of cities on the surface. Ooh what a glorious sight it must have been to see those xenos burn in atomic fire. He also saw the troop movements of the xenos on the ground. They seemed to fight around a large strip mine. 

Loken contacted the surface.

"This is Baron Reinhart Loken of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet. You requested our aid in your strife. We would gladly assist you in this. We need your own troops coordinates so we can deploy our marines near friendly territory aswell as being able to set up a bridgehead."

He turned to his aide. "And now, we wait."