[b]HDSTF148's ancillary group, Alcuberrie space. [/b]

Unlike most modern Hegemony ships, ships as old as the Hood and her escorts relied on the flagship of the fleet to generate the warp bubble that allowed them to transcend the light-speed barrier. This was later considered a design flaw, and a glaring one at that, but it did have it's advantages. For one, mounting a stronger Alcuberrie drive than most ships, highly reinforced and built into the super-structure with it's own dedicated reactors and power-grid, the drive could take far more damage and still generate a viable warp bubble. It was, at one point, however, decided that the "Fleet-Alcuberrie" had to go. It was thought that losing one ship was better than losing an entire task-force to the loss of a flagship. 

These drives were also radically different from the more modern drives. They were built before the study of FTL Harmonics was a thing, therefore, their transition to normal space was not silent. Far from it. It generated a flash of light and a slew of particles collected along the way, which, if they dropped in too close to a ship - could be deadly. It was also known that they were imprecise - once again a hallmark of the Hegemony's early days. 

Thus, this caused quite a spectacle when the entire Geriatrics task-force dropped in next to HDSTF148, only a mere 100 kilometers away. Of course, modern sensors wouldn't even flinch at such a sight, but never-the-less, it was bound to scare some poor sod on sensor duty. IFF codes were broadcasted and exchanged, and things taken care of. The Geriatrics joined up with the task-force, moving into formation slowly, almost boringly so - once again, another hallmark of their extreme age.