STC Syren

As the Lorca left the Syren became a flurry alf activity, powering up for the voyage back to Shao IX. Ice melted and shook from the walls as the reactor spun to life, making the engines fire for the first time in over a week. This was one of the many burdens that Blackhole class crews must shoulder, stealth is not comfortable most of the time and requires a certain mental maturity. Every Blackhole crew is screened and re-screened for any emotional instability or unfavorable traits, they are truly an elite group. You need to be mentally tough to withstand the rigors of hiding in space, while being able to function like a crew. 

“ Engineering, report” Velka said through the ships intercom as she settled herself in the command chair. “ No leaks and nothing is frozen, I’m purging the anti-freezing solution” the engineering officer replied as a clanking noise throughout the ship confirmed his actions. “ Pressure is green, temperature is…..acceptable, Slipspace drive is spun up and ready. We are ready to jump ma’am” he added before closing the comm channel. 

Tagging the Ardent Inquisitor with a friendly FoF tag allowed for data to be freely transferred between the two vessels without having to encrypt it. This allowed for coordinates and communication to be sent much faster and clearer. The trusting nature of the Aradites may have seemed a bit odd to the Lorca, but any Aradite will tell you that they can usually judge someones character within the first few minutes. Once the tag was accepted by the system Velka transmitted a group of coordinates to the Ardent Inquisitor. One group was the jump to their first cooling stop and the second was the jump into the system itself. Guiding a ship into Shao IX would be dangerous, there was only one safe way into the system. Between the gravity given off by the binary star, quasars and asteroid fields that litter the area, there was one draw maybe a couple thousand kilometers wide to enter. That draw just happens to be in between two large gas cloud, named the Twin Giants by the Aradites. 

“ Send the Ardent Inquisitor a countdown to our jump” Velka said as she entered in her own jump command before the ship made its first jump out of the system. 

Falacia 
Task Force Blue ( 50 ships strong)

Once Gul’s special operations team returned from the asteroid, one of the Blackhole class vessels retreated a safe distance from the planet before making a jump back to the main fleet, leaving on ship behind to continue the recon. Data from the failed raid and from the ships recon had to be analyzed for continued planning and adaptation. 

[b]Flagship CIC[/b]
“ So what you are telling me is that that asteroid is actually a military research facility?” the task force admiral said incredulously as he looked over the pictures from the site. 

“ Aye sir, that is correct” Gul said flatly “ Troop strength and equipment leads me to believe that is true. Total ground strength is unknown at this moment, but there is a heavy concentration of troops on the surface itself, I doubt there are many more in the facility.” 

“Why is that?” the admiral interjected 

“ There asteroid isn’t big enough to sustain much more, where would they be housed? fed?. I suspect the majority of the people in that facility are research personnel.” Gul answered, pointing to the asteroid on the star chart. The admiral couldn’t hide his interest in the facility, he wanted to find out what was there. In the same breath however, was is worth risking the fleet in order to make it happen. 

“ Naval strength?” the admiral asked, looking towards the captain of the recon vessel. 

“ 101 ships and defense stations, traditional EU defenses” the commander said, pointing their positions out on the star chart. 

101 ships versus their 50 would be a massacre in open fighting, they had to find a way to even the odds a bit. “ Activate the mine field beacons but do not activate the mines yet. If they take the bait, I want the task force to warp into the system and take down that asteroid.” the Admiral ordered before beacons activated. To EU radar it would seem like 55 Septonian vessels just warped into the system behind the EU formation.