With Uruk and Bilbo

[centre][h3] Richter System, Fortress World of Richter Prime[/h3][/centre]

Like most RCN officers, Adison Volkov rather liked GDC engines. They offered excellent acceleration, good maneuverability, and produced very little strain on intertial dampeners. Their FTL was also an excellent tactical asset; Volkov had siezed more than one victory through the clever use of tactical FTL jumps. However, now those same engines were making his life an unending headache. Jumps grew more complicated to calculate with distance and with increasing numbers of ships. Larger ships, and CSCs in particular, were designed with increased computer power to make those increasingly taxing calculations for entire fleets. But that didn't help in the slightest when half the of Coalition expeditionary force used a completely different form of FTL.  

With the Alorians using conventional warp FTL, they travelled from point to point through subspace in a continuous trip, while the RCN did it in a series of FTL jumps that frequently emerged into realspace. In terms of absolute speed, the two forms of travel were fairly similar. But trying to coordinate it so that both forces emerged in realspace in the same place at the same time was a logistical nightmare, especially when factoring in the Varangian deep space detection arrays around the Richter system. Extensive scouting, pre-war intelligence, and some educated guesswork had given the Coalition forces a pretty solid idea of the capabilities of those arrays. The problem was, once the main fleet was in range, the Varangians, with continuously updated intelligence on their exact position, could choose to engage at any point, using their damned ship-mounted interdictors to isolate the two halves of the fleet from eachother as they made their way seperately in system. The Varangian picket of the system was fairly moderate so either element of the fleet could handle them individually, but Volkov knew they'd be encountering the same problem with heavier defences the farther they went into Varangian territory. Now was as good a time as any to work out an effective approach strategy. So it was that the combined fleets sat a good distance outside the estimated detection range, waiting.
"Comms," Volkov said, "put me through to HRMS [i]Tyrant[/i], let's get the Generals on the horn and see what we can come up with."

The control bridge of the HRMS [i]Tyrant[/i] was buzzing with activity, the officers of the ship gathered around computers and tables trying to figure out the FTL jumps which were giving both parts of the Coalition a hard time. This is something that the two powers should have worked out long before the invasion started, and was now biting them in the ass. Takeer had just returned from some kind of training excersize with the infantry and Selene was sitting at her place, gazing out at all of the sourrounding ships in the invading fleet. 

A male officers voice rung out from the far ends of the bridge, "Comms request from the CSC Praetoria". He shouted. Takeers gruff voice called back to him as he walked slowly towards Selene and infront of the holo-screen. "Accept it". In a couple of seconds an image of Volkov in his own ship was displayed infront of them, and they both nodded, smiling slightly.
"Hello Admiral, what can we do for you?"

"Good afternoon Generals." It was technically the afternoon, as both fleets had decided to synchronize their clocks to Earth's 24 hour GMT time for simplicity's sake. "I can't help but feel we should have drilled for this situation before we launched the invasion, but with all the battle excersises we were doing there was hardly time," the three of them shared a rueful smile. 
"Still," Volkov continued, "better we work on it now than when we reach Agartha. I've consulted with my fleet officers and my command staff. We believe the safest way to proceed in system is in short FTL hops to assigned coordinates, with your ships proceeding first via warp, and then mine jumping to meet you. It will be slow, but it will reduce the danger posed by Varangian interception, and with those detection arrays telling the Varangians exactly where we are, interception is a very real risk."

Both Generals kept quiet for a few moments as they thought about what the Admiral had proposed. They could find far less flaws with this plan of action than anything either of the fleets had came up with before to solve the problem, so for now it would do them well. Selene nodded, "I see no problem with that. I'm sure we could use that method going foward". She then looked to Takeer and he spoke.
"Another thing we were thinking about were the Varangian detection arrays. We believe we have come up with an effective way of tackling that problem". He paused for a second, as Eva walked onto the scene, but she didn't say anything and instead observed them all.
"When our fleets meet at a rendevouz outside our target system, we thought that sending smaller groups of lesser ships to eliminate the detection arrays could only serve us well". He took a breath, "Two things could happen. Either the Varangians do not intercept these lesser ships, and we destory the detection arrays so our fleets can move through a blindspot in varangian intelligence, and therefore have the upper hand".  He stopped, motioning for Eva to speak. She looked up at him, biting her lip softly before she took a step foward.
"If the Varangian's do decide to intercept and our ships end up in a firefight, our larger fleets could warp straight past them and too the target. They would know, but they would be distracted as they engage the ships at the detection arrays. We also further doubt that they would send a massive amount of ships, so the smaller groups who do attack shouldn't suffer major losses". This was only the third or fourth time Eva had spoken to the Admiral, but it seemed she was gaining confidence and coming across much better. 

Volkov frowned to himself, and stroked his chin absently. He'd beens so busy workin the FTL problem over in his head, he hadn't considered striking the detection arrays themselves. But it made sense, and as Takeer and Eva had pointed out, it left the Varangians with few good options, especially when defending something as large and delicate as a deep space sensor array. The strike force wouldn't have to be very large or inflict that much damage to put a few arrays offline, even if only temporarily. He looked up at the projections of his fellow commanders, and his eyes rested on Eva for a second. Nobody had seen fit to tell him what such a young girl was doing heading up an invasion fleet, and Volkov was too polite to ask directly. A mystery for another day...
"That's a solid plan," he agreed. "Let's start working out the rendezvous points, and figuring out the composition of the strike force."

[centre][h3] Twelve hours after [/h3][/centre]

The fleets carried on floating through the expanse of space for another twelve hours before any action was taken. The fleet commanders had to make sure both halves of the Coalition were debreifed and able to carry out the attack plans. The Alorian Generals set apart a small group of six corvettes, six cruisers and two more powerful destoryers. They were joined by ten corvettes, eight destroyers and two cruisers from the Commonwealth. Something that had caused confusion between the two navies had been the use of cruisers and destroyers, as with the Alorian navy the latter was more powerful, and with the commonwealths navy cruisers seemed to be more powerful. This small fleet was headed by the commanders from the HRMS [i]Tyrant[/i] and the CSC [i]Praetoria[/i], who were linked on comms with eachother aboard their respective vessels, as well as the capitans of the attacking group, nicknamed "Strikeforce Rapier".

As the FTL drives of Strikeforce rapier warmed up, one of the Capitans patched through to both commanding ships. "Rapier is ready to go. Requesting permission to jump".
"Permission granted, Rapier". 

[centre][h3] Eight hours after [/h3][/centre]

The smaller ships of Strikeforce Rapier were able to travel faster than their mother fleets. They were also employing sensor jammers to reduce their signatures, making the strikeforce seem even smaller. Nevertheless, Captain Dostyaki Matthews of the RCNS [i]Pelym[/i] was nervous. As the senior-most captain of the Commonwealth ships, he was ultimately responsible for their safety, and even with his Vigilance-class cruiser, he was feeling a little vulnerable. They were just one FTL hop from weapons range on their target sensor array. The Alorian ships had already gone ahead, and they would be arriving at the attack coordinates in less than a minute, and the RCN ships would have to perfectly time their instantaneous FTL jump to arrive at the exact same instant. The multiple jumps before this one had given the Coalition forces time to practice the maneuvers, but it was still going to be a close thing.

"The Alorian Navy ships will be arriving in 30 seconds," the navigation officer reported.
"Spool FTL drive, prepare to jump on my mark," Matthews replied. He kept a close eye on the ship's chronometer. "Jump in 5...4...3...2...1...Mark!"

Light-minutes away, just at the edge of weapons range from the first target sensor array, the Alorian ships dropped back into realspace, and within an instant, the Commonwealth ships appeared beside them in a flash of light and gravitons. The instant their sensors cleared, missiles launched at the distant array.

The array was an ugly thing, obviously made for fuctionality over form. It hung alone in the dark, small lights along the outstreched sensor arms the only indication that the thing was even there. As the ships entered into the things proximity several encoded transmissions were sent, as they moved in and launched, several more transsmissions echoed out from the small station. Yet it did nothing else as the missiles neared their target, the lights blinked once... twice and then were dark as the thing exploded, the sensor arms to whitch the lights were attached being flung out into the inky black. 

As the light and energy of the detonation cleared however it would be clear to the strike group that they were not alone, as silhouetted against the stars hung three Widow class ships. It would be obvious now the ships had been seemingly waiting there the entire time, probably in a low power state to avoid detection, only now coming to full operational power and thus onto the sensors. But yet the Widows did not move, nor did they launch fighters, they simply hung there, watching and waiting. 

Or so it would seem as a message would suddenly be broadcast to the entire strike force, a simple and short message "The dance greets its new particapants." 

With that the three would begin to manuver away, the motions of the ships syncronized to an almost inhuman level. But yet they did not jump yet, as a communication ping was sent to the largest ships in the strike force, one for each faction, the ping itself was an invitation to open up a channel, but its origens would be up for debate as the source seemed to be bouncing between the three ships. 

"Incoming hail Captain" the comms officer aboard [i]Pelym[/i] reported.
"Very well" Captain Matthews said. "Put it through"

The voice that would come over the com would be rather light and airy, carying less weight than a Tor or even a human voice "Ah so you actually picked up. I will not waste your time, im sure you have important things to be doing captian...?" The other captian seemed to wait for Matthews to fill in the blank. 

Matthews' voice was cold, scarcely concealing fury. He didn't bother giving his name. "Your government has betrayed you. The Vala, the Tor, the Sia; all have been abandonned in the name of political expediency. Your Dominus has signed a deal with the devil. Rest assured Faust will purge every non human in Varangian space when he has his way. Why you stand in defence of such a regime, I can't fathom. Rest assured, if you surrender now, you will be treated with the utmost hospitality. Otherwise..." Matthews sighed.
"We can not and will not ignore the danger your allegiance to Faust poses. Tell your forces on Richter Prime to surrender, or we will undertake [i]drastic[/i] orbital bombardment."

The Com sat silent for a moment until a sound came over it, a musical tone that one couldnt tell exactly what it was until the sound of breathing followed it. It was a laugh, "Oh sweet child. We know Faust and what he will [i]try[/i] to do if [i]allowed[/i] his way. As for the hospitality you offer, I can't say anything about yours, but I can speak volumes on your freinds. They are your freinds right? In any case, I have also been told to give you a message, for you to pass on to your higher ranks." The sound of the Sia clearing her throat is heard before she continues "Turn away, leave this place and return home to your wars and your homes. The defensive pacts made will not be called to action, and this incident will be forgotten if this is done. But if you wish it, come forward and dance with us on the ashes of your worlds." The Sia laughed once more before she spoke up again "So grim isnt it? in any case dear Captian, come to Richter Prime if you wish, we shall await your arrival or answer with bated breath." With that the Widow engaged their engiens to full as the form of a Recluse would jump into the system well outside of weapons range, flanked by four Hahni. When this happened it would become clear that the com was being relayed from the Recluse, using the Widows as relays or amplifiers. When the Widows reached the group all ships would power up their FTL, and just before jump one last message would come through "I can tell we will speak again before this is all done, so we might as well know at least one of our names so introductions will be somewhat easier next time. You may call me Valentina."

The bridge crew watched the main plot as the Varangian ships dissappeared. "Do you think they really mean it?" the XO said quietly. Matthews shifted in his seat. "In a way, yes. I think if we and the Alorians went home right now, the Varangians would not attack either of us. But our treaty with Uther obligates us to go to war with the Dominion, and I think the Varangians are too honorable to completely ignore their own treaty obligations. Either way, it's not our call. Relay the message to the flagships, and proceed to the next array."