[b][u]System Tryliktoji Išpirkimo, Fourth Planet in the System, one week ago[/u][/b]
The System was well into Kasus's territory- one of the many planets in one of the many systems that Kasus claimed to have no sentient species living on it. Kasus didn't, after all, want anyone to see their great big empire, and realize that half the systems within that had significant resources were virtually untouched, not because of a lack of ambition, but because Kasus had seen the power of other major nations, and decided to bluff their way into more power. When one looks at a nation with a great spread of territory, one assumes that they are powerful indeed.

Tryliktoji Išpirkimo- "Thirteenth Redemption"- was a system that had no significant Storm presence. Only a couple listening posts were sitting on the edges of the system, and nothing else. However, the fourth planet was set to be colonized- because it was already a life-bearing world. The race that resided on the planet seemed to be halfway into a new era of steel and gunpowder. They were developing, quite steadily, and among many of the other spacefaring powers, were considered a sovereign people that is off-limits to removal or intervention.

Storms were not like the other spacefaring powers. These sentient people were on a planet they wanted, and they didn't have [i]anything[/i] to bargain with. Which meant that, after picking out several culturally-rich groups of countries- some of the more powerful ones, for later study and eradication- they had a green light to cleanse the planet of its natives.

Vadas (Commander) Levnitska was tasked with preparing the planet for colonization. He had under him a carrier military fleet- one torpedo destroyer, three regular destroyers, three regular cruisers, one missile cruiser, one heavy cruiser, two escort carriers, and one carrier.

The carriers had just launched their first wave of ground-attack Shrikes. A dozen Shrikes from the two escort carriers, two dozen Shrikes from the one supercarrier. They were all armed with fuel-air cluster bombs. He watched as they flew over population centers, dropping a dozen small fuel-air bombs, which popped open halfway down their high-altitude drop to the ground, releasing a massive load of explosive gasses, tailored to the oxygen-rich atmosphere. They were set to remote detonate, so that they clouds could settle lower to the ground in a grey-green suffocating fog that would slowly connect to the other hundreds of similar clouds like it. A moment later, three cities and their surrounding farms and forests lit up in a brilliant flash of light, reducing the area to be a charred wasteland, albeit fertile in the future.

He was to be doing this for a week. Three freighters, escorted by a reinforcing missile cruiser, would be arriving in half as much time, to refill his fuel-air clusterbomb munitions. 

Nearly a billion souls were eradicated on the heavily populated but slowly developing world. A few in the fleet thought ill of the eradication; most were impassive, or saw it as a necessary evil. Eventually, those who thought ill would either become familiar enough with people who were impassive about it to start to think like them, or they'd seek others who thought ill of it, and start to border on rebellious. And that, of course, meant execution for them. 

[hr]

[b][u]Kasus-Eternal Union Central Border, Present Cycle[/u][/b]

Vadas Levnitska was again on the move. Having just arrived in the officially neutral system between the Eternal Union and Kasus, they were challenged and cleared by the small Kasus border garrison. Likewise, as they approached the similar Eternal Union border station, they were challenged, and a message was relayed. 

Some weeks ago, Kasus had requested a meeting with the Eternal Union.

Some weeks ago, the Eternal Union had replied, and granted it.

A Queen of Kasus was to meet with the Eternal Union leadership- a rare honor in the Kasus's opinion, since no foreign eye had ever laid eyes on a Queen.

Thus, Vadas Levnitska had his fleet flagship upgraded to a bėda-class Battleship, another two escort carriers added to the fleet, and another four missile cruisers attached, besides the original one and its reinforcement. Six more destroyers were attached as well, one of them being a torpedo destroyer. 

The fleet of two torpedo destroyers, seven regular destroyers, three cruisers, six missile cruisers, a heavy cruiser, a battleship, four escort carriers and one full carrier was going to be traveling through Eternal Union space to meet with their leaders. 

All the while, the destroyers, acting as advance forward, side, and rear guards would be launching spy drones all the while. Designed to self-destruct the moment active sensors- targeting sensors for example, anything that's used to actively find other prey- find them, and to record radio transmissions, and passively record ship movements, and report it back to Central Command via ansible/FTLcommunications. It was the same mission that was being planned for all the other nations- they wanted their fleet to show up on the border farthest away from where Kasus expected the foreigners' homeworld to be, and gain intelligence on everything they possibly could. They would launch spy drones on ballistic paths to go into orbit around planets or moons. They were built to be invisible and nonexistent- they were the most advanced tools in the fleet, at the moment. 

So the fleet approached the border station of the Union's, and requested that they be authorized for their trip to meet the Eternal Union's leadership.