[b][u]Naris orbit[/u][/b]
The New Frontier orbital station has been a hive of activity for the past ten ten months. Among the passenger liners and ever present freighters, nested in the numerous berths scattered around the station itself, were four Guardian-class corvettes that did not belong to the defensive fleet. Further behind them, hidden away from most praying eyes, the bow of a Vanguard-class cruiser was visible from Primarch Ascari’s seat in the station’s observation dome. Although the Council tried to conceal the uncommon activity around the shipyards, everyone knew something was coming. It was uncommon for the military to seal off several berths without at least a nonsense cover story. The Primarch remembered the rumors that emerged mere hours after the Exile Rebellion because the official sources were silent, leaving imagination running rampant. Fortunately, public relations weren’t his responsibility anymore. He would just have to tell everyone that he doesn’t know about anything. Carthus picked up his bag and walked out of the observation deck, heading toward the hangar.

Minutes before departure, a fair-skinned man rushed into the small passenger compartment, panting for breath despite his powered suit.
“Ran quite a distance, have we?” The Primarch asked.
“Indeed. Prefect Nyxeris, NSS Asgypus.” He responded with a salute, taking a seat beside the Primarch.
“What’s the hurry about, Prefect?”
“We’ve been attached to the exploration fleet, but my flight from Naris got delayed. As your subordinate, I haven’t received any departure orders. Can you shed some light on that?” he asked.
“T minus thirteen hours. Smart of them, we’ll be leaving with Lux Naris on the other side of the planet. With no light, the only thing visible will be the subspace windows. The jump point is located away from the observation dome, so even those will not be seen by many. We’re jumping beyond the outer belt, five kilometers from the node.”
“That’s a lot of secrecy. How many ships are a part of this?”
“Two cruisers, two frigates, eight corvettes and four science vessels.”
“That’s twelve warships.“ he gasped, “Now I hope we don’t find any intelligent life, because if we show up with this lot, nobody with their head screwed on right will believe us when we tell them we are just exploring the neighbouring systems. I understand they’re being cautious, but this is built like an invasion fleet.”
“The Council fears we will run into hostile life. Would you rather come prepared and hope you can reach out to them before an accident happens, or face an empire of xenophobes that see you as a snack with just one Vanguard, one Privateer and four Guardians as was originally planned? Not to mention keeping the science ships safe. But you’re right, I intend to hold back most of the fleet. Lord-Commander Eudorian has assured me the Amare and her battlegroup will blockade this side of the node, so we will take the entire force through at once and secure that side of the corridor. We’ll decide what to do based on what we’ll find on the other side. But I reckon it’ll be a bunch of rocks, maybe a few useful planets. Or we could jump near a black hole for all we know.”

[b][u]Past the Arcus Belt, fourteen hours later[/u][/b]
The expeditionary fleet assembled around the intersystem node. The cruisers at the tip of the formation, flanked by the rest of the ships. Primarch Ascari took up his position in the Latanos’ CIC, looking over the fleet. Only the position lights were visible, with the occasional faint glow of thrusters here and there.
“FCO, signal the fleet we are go. SCO, contact control. Boffins estimate the jump to take a little under two hours. If homeworld doesn’t hear from us within six hours, we’re likely in trouble. We’ll try to call back as soon as as we secure the node.”
The formation headed for the node. First crusiers, frigates and corvettes four minutes, science vessels eight minutes behind them.
“Engineering reports subspace motivators ready. Both reactors stable.”
“Signal the others. Jump in ten seconds.”
Three subspace windows opened and swallowed the two ships, sending them onto a two hour journey into the unknown.

[b][u]Two hours later, Subspace[/u][/b]
The two of ships raced through the Subspace corridor shoulder to shoulder, the white and blue walls shooting past them. Primarch Ascari rested in his seat, trying to relax while he could. So far, they were safe. But in ten or so minutes, that could drastically change.
Prefect Nyxeris was quite the opposite. He kept pacing around the CIC in circles, hoping they would be out soon. Subspace always sent a chill through his guts. Although two Vanguards were a force not to be trifled with, at least in theory, he never would’ve thought actually going past Naris would be this much pressure.

Both the Latanos and Asgypus were Vanguard-class cruisers. The 1100 meters long ship was the main warship of the starfleet, preceded by the Legionnaire-class cruisers. With six quad turrets and 16 torpedo tubes for anti-ship work as well as 24 strike craft, the Vanguard should be able to handle whatever lay on the other side. In theory.

The smaller Privateer-class frigates have always been intended for long-range patrols and reconnaissance. At 600 meters, they could be considered the big, mean siblings of the NCv Guardian-class corvettes. Though far from defenceless, their anti-ship capablilty was limited to three quad turrets and 12 torpedo tubes with limited ammunition. The Privateers Subspace motivators were fitted with advanced heatsinks, allowing it to jump in shorter intervals than would be expected from a ship of its size. In addition, each carried two Pillager-class dropships equipped with an additional sensor and communication package to provide better coverage in cases of interference, be it environmental or artificial.

Lastly, there were the Guardian-class corvettes. At 170 meters, she was nothing more than 12 Swarmer missile turrets with engines strapped to them. Eight of them were more than capable of neutralizing a large force of fighters or bombers, but a single hit was enough to incapacitate it.

[b][u]Eight minutes later, uncharted system[/u][/b]
The two brown dwarfs lay seemingly stationary in the center of the system. In reality, they danced around each other, forever bound together by the tethers of gravity. Besides these stars and two dwarf planets circling the stellar duet, there was nothing interesting in the system when two white and blue subspace windows formed, spitting the Vanguards out into real space. Carthus scrambled to the sensors officers, eyes glued to their instruments.

“Well?” he asked after gazing over their shoulders for several minutes.
“Looks like we found ourselves a binary system here. We seem to be about 108 million kilometers from the closer star. Astrogation reports two orbiting bodies visible, preliminary observation would suggest dwarf planets, but you know how confusing things are at such distances.”
The Primarch nodded. “Once they arrive, send the Sandstorm and Uppercut to investigate the planets. We’ll stay here take a look at the surrounding stars and report back home. If there’s something noteworthy here or in close proximity, I want to know about it.”
“Hold on, possible contact.” the sensors officer called, “Picking up a thermal signature, heading three-three-zero, inclination negative three-six. It’s much hotter than our ships, and it’s big. Either it’s several ships close together, or it’s massive.”
“Already? Fine, no plan survives first contact. Leave the Asgypus here to secure the node, let them know we’re going to investigate. Tell them to send a frigate our way once they arrive. Jump to the planet closer to the contact, we’ll take a closer look with optical sensors as well before approaching.”
The Latanos disappeared through the subspace window, emerging near the planet, much closer to the contact.