[center][img]http://68.media.tumblr.com/43c2b357cf1a12a9b0a58db756d5934a/tumblr_nppo1lKH9A1r57ixdo1_1280.jpg[/img]
[sup]An image of the Juran Escort Corvette[/sup][/center]

[b][u][color=gray]The [i]JSBF Silent Sentinel[/i][/color][/u][/b]
The ship waited, thrusters still at full burn. No response was recorded; nothing changed. By any means, it appeared that the ship hadn’t broadcasted anything at all, and there were still well over three thundred incoming entities on an intercept trajectory. 

Abruptly and silently, all point defense turrets opened fire, releasing easily over a hundred rounds per turret, each of them layering at least ten rounds per incoming interceptor. The railguns targetted the larger craft hanging back behind the interceptors, likely bombers or heavy fighters of some kind; with a 9-round burst from each turret, the small patrol craft spit out enough ordnance in 10 seconds to lay a small city to waste.

[hr][color=gray][b][u]Inside the CIC of the [i]Silent Sentinel[/i][/u][/b][/color]
Su’Talra paced back and forth in front of the holographic map depicting their ‘battle.’ If only he had missiles…

[i]<Utility Officer, how many surveillance drones do we have?>[/i] asked the shipmaster, a plan forming in his mind to ensure his survival.

[i]<Shipmaster Talra,>[/i] replied the resonanting voice of the slightly smaller female officer.[i] <This craft currently has ten more surveillance drones, but has more of other types. What do you plan?>[/i]

Su’Talra remained silent for a long moment, watching the small icon that represented the brief 20-second burst of fire from all his turrets. It was hardly a third of the way to the incoming interceptors, having fired nearly two minutes ago, but the rounds would impact shortly. Still, though, their motherships might have more interceptors, or ship-to-ship weaponry on board.

[i]<Prep six of the drones. I want commands entered for them to detonate at half the distance as normal, and i want their launch tubes aimed at the carriers. Designate enemy units as Tango Carriers One through Three, and Tango Intercept and Tango Heavy. I want all Tango Heavies dead as soon as they enter the edge of effective point defense range- there’s no way they could survive point blank range. Ready launch tubes to fire two drones at Tango Carriers, and ensure that their self-destruct blows only when they’re very close to their hull- ballistic course only, keep them silent.>[/i]

The officers on the bridge were… unsettled with the unorthodox attack, but notheless did what he said. 

All surveillance drones were top-of-the-line Juran Ark Federation technology, using the latest passive and active sensors, electronic warfare modules, and sensor scramblers. It could fly invisible, or it could fly to appear exactly like an asteroid. Cut off normal communications in an area, send and receive messages, and more. Because of the advanced technology used, it’s considered imperative that none of it reaches the hands of its enemies- and so inside each drone is a small 40-pound core, right next to the pressurized and cloaked hull that contains the drone’s batteries and its black box. Inside the 40-pound core is a 15-pound containment core, 24-ish pounds of titanium armor around the outside, and 20 grams’ of antimatter held suspended inside the containment field generated inside the core. 

The twenty pounds of antimatter is enough to annhilate the entire drone, and the area around it. 

Using them as makeshift missiles was definitely plausible, even if you could produce sublight antimatter missiles for about a third of the cost of each drone. 

Suddenly, the Communications officer piped up. [i]<Shipmaster! We have a confirmation on reinforcements; Central Command acknowledges our plight and discovery of a hostile alien race, and is dispatching 3rd Fleet to help scout and take the system. If we slip into hyperspace now, we can meet with them halfway along. If these enemy ships follow us, we could easily lead them into a trap. The Commodore of 3rd Fleet has already ordered us to escape immediately and bait the ships behind us- they want to pull the enemy ships out of hyperspace somewhere out in the Deep and deal with them there.>[/i]

The officer, knowing what Su’Talra would ask, had already transferred the message to the holographic plot. Reading over the official orders, he inwardly frowned- he was looking forward to surprising three enemy warships with antimatter. Nonetheless, he had orders and a new commander.

[i]<Helm, have Engineering power up the Warp drive, and bring us into hyperspace. Navigation, plot the best possible course to 3rd Fleet’s hyperspace coordinates. Stand down all weaponry and drones; all hands to Transition Stations, Combat Stations are on hold.>[/i]

As the CIC officers scrambled to do his bidding, Utility piped up.

[i]<Sir!>[/i] snapped Cu'Ylleri. [i]<There is a second alien fleet to our bow. The computer affirms that they are of a different faction of the one that’s following us; different design.>[/i]

Truly beside himself now, Su’Talra physically swiped at the holographic display, snarling. Unable to process the command, the floating holographs just flickered red for a moment.

The shipmaster wasted no time in responding, snarling, [i]<Report this news and continue our previous orders!>[/i] He saw for himself as the purple-neutral icons went enemy-red at the same time Utility called that they were preparing weapons.

[i]<Retreat into warp, immediately!>[/i]

With that, the corvette disappeared in a flash, having left behind only a single salvo to impact the incoming starfighters.

Within half an hour, it’d regroup with the two destroyers that were en route. Shortly after that, the three ships will meet up with the much, much larger 3rd Fleet, which will drop out of warp to wipe the offending aliens out of space. 


[center][img]https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/004/771/783/large/drock-nicotine-x.jpg?1486138558[/img]
[sup]An image of the Juran Carrier[/sup][/center]
[b][u][color=gray]CIC of the [i]JSBF Third Harbinger[/i], Carrier-Flagship of the 3rd Fleet, Intersteller Warpspace[/color][/u][/b]
The carrier’s shipmaster and Fleetmaster both had two different rooms: the CIC- Combat Information Center- was reserved for the shipmaster and his ship, while the FIC- Fleet Information Center- was reserved for the Fleetmaster.

The Fleetmaster was one of few particularly high-ranking Admirals in the Juran Spacebourne Navy, and a veteran of over fifty years of combat- having joined into a town’s militia by the ripe age of twelve, and continuing on into a career ground-pounder. After a series of incidents, the gifted non-commissioned officer found himself in fleet school, and shortly afterwards, on the command track.

3rd Fleet’s Fleetmaster was a Juran of particular talent and skill, even as he was one of the lowest ranking Admirals. 

And in this case, he was also the calmest out of an entire fleet’s worth of shipmasters.

The FIC had a dozen consoles, with only four of them within reach of the holographic pit in the center. Those four officers were rather straightforward- Executive Commander, or the Fleetmaster’s second in command, Communication, Fire Coordinatior, and Fleet Analyst. In this case, the Fleet Analyst officer had been replaced with a robot- Juran in all aspects but being of metal rather than flesh, with a quantum supercomputer with organic storage core in his chest rather than a brain in his head. The robotic Juran was one of five, placed among various positions near Admirals, both as an advisor in whatever form, and bodyguard.

Fe’Sutakra, Fleetmaster of the 3rd, Admiral of the Fourth Class, Victor of Vilery’s Bay and Brawler of Boshtyk, stared at the constantly updating holographic display, as routed to him via [i]Silent Sentinel[/i]. A salvo was about to impact a series of small attack craft en route to the [i]Sentinel’s[/i] final position, and a total of nine battlecruiser-sized carriers, carrying those attack craft, were en route to a second alien force- one that didn’t appear to be backing down from the fight.

The fight would’ve been maybe half an hour, an hour into it by the time he arrived. Neither force, even if they combined their numbers, could possibly beat his own, of that he was certain. Both of those forces were also being updated in real-time because of the two surveillance drones the [i]Silent Sentinel[/i] dropped right before it entered warpspace and began to rendevous with him.

The Jura Fleetmaster crossed his arms, and waited silently for his fleet to arrive.