[hider][h2]Degalian System[/h2]

Admiral Thaw had been in his state room enjoying a fine meal that had been much deserved when an alarm started up and a hologram in his room displayed the acting commander. "Admiral. Scans are picking up a large amount of unknown ships dropping out of warp. They number in the hundreds and early predictions would have us believe that there are at least a thousand ships to contend with."

The Admiral sat quiet for a moment before pushing his meal aside and getting to his feet. "Contact Admiral Ya of the Third Oppression Fleet and inform him of the situation at hand. Hopefully he will be of like mind and ready his ships. Pull our ships out of harbor and amass a defensive shield between the hostile fleet and Dorak. Also hail that fleet and inform them of where they just dropped out of warp." The Commander bowed and the hologram flickered to nothing. 

Commander Bath rustled his facial tendrils as he stood in silence with all eyes on the bridge staring at him. He was the only Falianth on the bridge giving him complete command over all proceedings with this new fleet until the Admiral showed up. He than ordered the First Oppression Fleet into motion as he stepped into an adjacent room to send his transmission.

"Attention Foreign Fleet. You have entered the space of the Fal Empire and are ordered to turn back immediately. If you do not turn back, you will be fired upon and this will be treated as an act of war against the Immortal King." 

The Collective Armada kept pressing onward into the star system, ignoring all warnings giving by the Falianth Commander, the large mass of drone ships moving closer and more closer to their target, the Foundry World. Any transmission sent back was garbled, incoherent nonsense, with few clear words, numbers and sentences sent out that could even be understood, namely "Ascension" and "Cleansing" before transmission was cut off.  

In that instance, the collective fleet had initiated a series of FTL mirco-jumps, and vanished for some hours, causing much tension as to the whereabouts of the the fleet. After some time had passed, the collective forces had reveled themselves once again as the fleet warped back into existence over the the local Gas Giant, still a fair distance away from their target, but are ever more closer then before. 

In the time the enemy fleet was missing, both Admirals had made thier ways onto the bridges of their respective battleships. Both Oppression fleets with a meager hundred and fifty ships each and spread out into a defensive net around the fourth planet in the Degalian system. "It would appear the Fal system has dispatched the Defensive Fleet to help us with our little problem here. They will appear within the hour." Both Admirals breathed a sigh of relief as it was only a matter of time before a fully armed fleet would show up to their rescue. Thier own ships were in various states of resupply and they had to even pull two carriers out of dry dock to help with the defense. 

Alarms sounded and a large holographic display of the system showed up on all bridges as the Collective fleet exitted above Agatha. Frantic orders filled the command bridges as the fleet was ordered back together and intercepters were launched from hanger bays to fill the spaces between the larger ships. "Order all defensive platforms to start charging their long range cannons. We can only hope to knock as many of those ships out before they draw in close. Any news from Theta outpost?"

"They seem to manning battlestations and readying their orbit driver." A communications officer replied to which the Admiral nodded and continued to what the movement of the enemy fleet on the display.

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[h2]Theta Outpost, Moon of Gas Giant Agatha[/h2]

A garrison of a mere two thousand clones manned a forward outpost on a planetary body orbiting a large gas giant. Much of the outpost had gone dark when the Collective fleet had reappeared as they were just a rocks throw away from the moon. The officer on duty had been shouting orders to a group of engineers who had been rushing to bring their only defense against orbiting ships. 

The orbit driver was a large surface based cannon that could launch shrapnel based projectiles into a high orbit above the planet. The explosive shrapnal in theory could deplete shields and punch through the outer layers of a ship in attempts to cripple the vessel. [/hider]