[b][i]2179 / IV - Six month later, the Ring[/i][/b]

“The journalists must be having a field day with this.” Cygnus frowned, seeing the flock of civilian ships near the Relic portal, looking over the assembled Vanguard and Fifth fleets. She supposed it wasn’t often the Naris system would be hosting four expansion fleets. Minister Ertanax must have been silently thanking evolution for making the Faira species so low maintenance, les his work would triple rather than doubling. Combine that with the attempt at traversing an artificial jump node, and well, even the cold admiral could understand the sensation.

The Explorer stood still in front of the gate. After Terminus, she decided that a destroyer would lead the first expedition rather than a frigate, even if they were Curious class. One never knew when a wing of Muons might be needed, and if the worst case scenario happened, a detonation of the Explorer in the jump corridor would seal it shut, and the Ring then hopefully used to stabilize the Naris-Opportunity node. The probes that were sent through though didn’t report anything unusual. Of course, there was the initial screw up where the Ring refused to allow any ship through, until they figured out the Hammerhead was an IFF key to its use, likely a precaution used by the Relics against the Ancients returning to this part of space.

“Ring control, Explorer. All ready on our part.” she called over, waiting for the red light. The Curious, Studious and Latanos were waiting behind the Explorer to follow through quickly if needed. The Second and Strike fleets were also in the system, ready to start filing to the Ring once the system was declared without contact or with hostile one. She felt a pang of pride as she remembered the Roster of the Strike fleet, having grown into an effective fighting force, albeit with just three capital ships, two of them Curious class and one Studious. Astra called her a while ago, sharing that the interim Sword group would be left behind this time, still in training. Most of the Narix, OEP or citizens have left for that fleet, which made sense - the new ships have amenities for them built into the design rather than an add-on. She did like to see fresh recruits who she could mold though.

The rear admiral’s decision to make her the Longbow’s Master Engineer came an unexpected surprise to Tarith. After some persuasion on the account of commander Linsis and adept Nihlus, possibly a ploy devised by them in conjunction with the rear admiral, she accepted and now was standing in the frigate’s engineering section, responsible for the whole clockwork that made the ship tick, just behind the spearhead. Despite spending countless hours on both Faira and narix simulators, it was only thanks to the powered suit her hands weren’t shaking.

“How long do you think we have until they need us? Thirty minutes, an hour?” she asked her fellow grease monkeys to pass the time.

“ED Explorer, Ring Control, all gr- red- clear on our end.” Damn it, this would lead to problems one day. “Stars guide your way and try not to annoy any potential neighbors.” the Ring controller bode them farewell, signalling the Hammerhead to unlock the portal. “Lockdown lifted, you may proceed.”

[i]Well, the Rear admiral and Primarch are now in wave two, hopefully that’s taken care of.[/i] Cygnus winced. Astra had a streak of bad luck, first time she makes contact she has to deal with Ascari, and the next time an Ancient remnant shows up. She crossed her fingers and hoped for an empty, rich system. “Helm, take us through.”

A window like they have not seen before opened, similar to the Narix FTL but apparently an a different channel from it and Mindspace still. The vortex was tinted green, and seemed to be warping at speeds between the other two. The probe shown that using that channel of subspace, the travel was quite fast and yet smooth. No wonder the Hammerhead could outrun everything they had.

The trek was indeed smooth sailing and over before long, the Explorer emerging near a gas giant in the unknown system. “Perfect. Fuel station right at the highway exit. Oracles, get to it. Corvettes, take defensive positions around the node. Enlightenment, attempt a return jump.” the admiral set up tasks, and immediately found a hitch.

“Uh, ma’am, we can not jump back. The drives won’t engage.” The Enlightenment’s CO reported, “We can get a signal through though.”

“We expected as much. Ring control, Explorer. We have made it through safely, but are unable to jump in the other direction. Send the Hammerhead through.”

A while later, the Relic ship emerged from the Node, and immediately the Enlightenment engaged her drives successfully. “Ring control, Explorer. It appears the Hammerhead’s presence is required to travel in both directions. It really is a key to the gate. We’ll send it back as soon as it’s drives recharge. It would seem the Relics were very thorough in protecting us.” Cygnus smiled. Finally a little fortune smiled on them.

[i]“I would very much like to have a look at the Hammerhead’s guts. Stranded in an Oort cloud for thousands of years, yet it still works. It will be that much worse when it inevitably breaks down one day.”[/i] Tarith thought as the Hammerhead came back, not at all happy about the idea of her or anyone else being stranded somewhere, just like the Ancients they’ve encountered so far.

“Explorer, Ring Control. Do we start sending the others through, or do we stand them down for now?”

“Negative, Ring Control. We’ll scan the systems with what we have for now. If somebody is living here, we don’t want them to mistake us for an invasion fleet.” Cygnus answered, before linking on a private channel to the Amare: “Eudorian, I need you to promise me - If there are Ancients here, and they make it into the node despite not having the Hammerhead, you’ll blow it up and the ring along with it.” she asked, foregoing the rank. It seemed proper with a request this grave. “Save the Homeworlds.”

The admiral’s transmission was a little unexpected. “No offense, admiral, but I would’ve done that even if you pleaded me not to.” He then continued on a more lighter note. “But let’s focus on what we know is there for now. Let us know as soon your survey is done. We’ll keep our fingers crossed here and hope the only red and black ships beyond the node are yours.” Ideally, what remained of the Ancients, if anything at all, was permanently sealed away beyond the collapsed Terminus-X node. “Just don’t forget you have friends back here should trouble find you.”

“Good to hear. Thank you. We’ll send you a postcard once we find a new paradise to settle. Explorer out.” Cygnus smirked. “Alright, people, let’s get this done. Oracles, what do you have for me?”

“It looks promising, ma’am. Seven planets, four inner, three outer, likely gas giants. We are at the sixth, which appears to be the largest, some hundred thousand kilometers in diameter. There are signs of one exit node near the star itself.”

“Very well. I want one cruiser scanning each of the inner planets and one at the node, The rest will have to wait a while.”

[b][i]Half an hour later[/i][/b]

“Ring control, Explorer. Send through the first element form the Fifth. We need them to take a look at the fourth planet. I think they’re going to like what we found.” Cygnus called over, not wanting to spoil the surprise. It was not Naris, but it was closer than anything else they found yet. The planet had similar composition, albeit it appeared to be going through a mild ice age, with the polar caps reaching all the way to the tropical circles. What wasn’t on ice though was only slightly colder than their homeworld, and the ice meant that there would be no problem with freshwater.

The Latanos and her group lay in orbit of the planet, mouths collectively agape at the probe readings, eagerly waiting for the atmospheric composition results to be sent.

“I’ve never seen so much natural ice before.”

“Are we absolutely sure that’s water ice?” A planet covered in solid carbon dioxide was everything but habitable. Finally, the probes sent the results and the Latanos’ CIC erupted with loud cheers.

“Ring Control, Latanos. Pack your warm coats. 21% oxygen, most nitrogen, some other gases, but nothing harmful as far as we can tell. A little dry, but that’s probably a result of the suspected ice age. Pack the Asgypus with ground surveying equipment.”

But first the system itself would have to be secured. “Explorer, Latanos, how much do you know about the node? Is it stable enough for transit and can unshielded ships even get to it?”

The admiral pulled up the feeds from the cruisers. “It seems like the rest of the rocks are not as pleasant. The innermost has a nice temperature and composition for us, but again, no atmosphere. Still, the resource shortage has been averted for another thousand years with that one. The three gas giants are a welcome logistical relief as well. As for the node, there’s some solar wind, but it’s far enough for even a Guardian to go through if they do not hang around too long. Thus far, no Ancients or Relics, and there is no asteroid belt, only an Oort cloud to map out. I think we are safe to send the rest of Vanguard and Fifth through to start the searching. I believe Strike will want to take it as training time, Second is welcome to help unless they think it too boring.” Cygnus smiled.

“If they get bored, they can play Opfor for Strike Fleet.” the Ring controller laughed, “Sending them through. Fifth’s second battlegroup will be delayed three hours on account of loading additional supplies to explore the planet. Third Fleet has provided several Type VII Discoveries fitted for long-range recon and two for geological surveys. I know they’re not in the original plan, but they’ll make it faster.”

“Copy that, we’ll keep looking around until then. Note that I’m parking the Explorer and it’s corvettes at the Star node, just in case something wanted to come through. The Ira will need to take over blockade at this node.” Cygnus shared and terminated the link, instructing her battlegroup to make the jump and re-routing the cruisers to scan moons and large asteroids in the system.

A minute later, the lot of Strike fleet minus the Sword group has emerged from the node. “Strike fleet, reporting in. You needed to take a look at some comets?” Astra called over, promptly receiving patrol paths form the Explorer. “All group commanders, attend briefing on board Longbow in ten minutes.” she sent to her ships as they vacated the space around the node for the Fifth to land in. “It looks like all this has finally paid off, chieftain. Look.” Astra noted as she downloaded the intel package on the planet from the Explorer’s FleetNet and put it on display on the CnC TacMap. The OEP part of her crew had it’s shift, but the room was packed, the off-shift taking time out of their recharge to go have a look at what would possibly be the first planet the alliance settled.

“I reckon land is going to be cheap. Once at least some basic settlements are in place. Can’t wait to see footage from the surface.” the chieftain commented before pointing to an icy peninsula. “Cape Exile, right there?”

Astra laughed, “Really? You find a starsend new planet and the first thing you want to build is a prison?” she scratched her chin then. “Hm. We are an attack fleet. It’s reasonably possible our people would need to be deployed to ground operations sometime in the future. Forget videos, I think I can get our boots on the ground.” she nodded, already liking the idea of running some combat drills with the Faira shift. “However, look. Island, about half the size of Ardor. No volcanoes, but three fault lines joining right below it. That should be called Quake Isle.”

“Not just a prison, a labor camp. A lot of work will have to be done. If we could move the exiles here to help set up and populate Ardor with citizens, that would be ideal. And if they do a good job setting up here, the Council might even free some of them as reward for their service. Up until now, the only way off the island and back to society was being exiled military and surviving a suicide mission.”

“Boots on the ground will be a learning experience for both of our species. In theory, deep snow behaves similar to fine sand, but is somehow even worse. But you can’t thaw sand and drink it, so there’s that.”

Just then the group commanders arrived. “Ah, here we go. Helm, you have the ship.” Astra gave command and moved to the briefing room. “Commanders, Captains.” She greeted. She was happy that Linsis followed her to Strike fleet. She didn’t know whether the Lord-Commander told him of the option to be promoted to destroyer CO eventually, so she kept her mouth shut- it wasn’t like it wouldn’t be her flag until the Singularity was complete anyhow, but she could start preparing him for the role. Hence why she officially made the Crossbow the lead ship of the group, with the Longbow being a sole operating flagship with no other assets attached to it. Captain Zana has proven herself a capable XO when Aurigae left to the Latanos during the first phase of the OEP, and now served the role permanently on the Crossbow.

The other group commanders were also a favorable pick. The EFG Independence and her battlegroup were commanded by none other than Commander Mirai and Captain Auraxis. She wondered what her crew would achieve now that they had another way forward. With their luck, it was small wonder they didn’t find something of importance upon jumping into the system. “How are you settling in to your new roles?”

“Less turrets and abysmal sublight maneuverability took some getting used to.” Auraxis recalled her woeful first simulator experiences. “It’s a good thing it took us a while to figure out how to access the Ring, it gave me a lot of time to practice.”

“All is well on the Crossbow. With Captain Zana taking on some of the administrative work, the crew got their break room back without a fight. So, where do they need us?” Linsis inquired. “Planet satellites or Oort cloud?”

“Oort cloud, please don’t clobber me to death you two.” Astra shot an amused glance to the Independence’s commanders. Pulling up the patrol sectors the Explorer designated for them, Astra colored them two shades of orange in proportion to the size of the Independence and Crossbow battlegroups. “Here are the sectors that we need to scan. How you deploy your ships along which routes I’ll leave to you. Thus far, we have encountered no debris at either of the nodes, so chances are the Ancients purposefully cleaned up after themselves. That means if we are to make contact, it is more likely to be Ancient than Relic, so keep your shields up. Taking a note form the Terminus book, I want you to have your corvette crews run fire drills. There will be plenty of comets for target practice, and if there are Ancients here, they might draw them out. I’ll leave it to you whether to include the cruisers in this, but I’d advise against it due to their survivability. I’ll also leave it to you whether to deploy your frigates or leave them in reserve should any contacts engage the Pulsars, do keep in mind that we have a lot of ships in the systems and reinforcements are readily available. I’ll leave the Longbow at the node ready to jump to an assist in case a Lilith shows up. The extra cannon will be decisive in that engagement. Questions and notes?”

Auraxis spoke up. “If we encounter any debris, are we to pick it up immediately or simply log it’s coordinates and resume the patrol?”

“If the debris is small enough, we’ll could send the cruisers to get it.” Zana noted, waiting for the rear admiral’s opinion.

“Maybe have all ships send periodic reports every X minutes? If someone would be unlucky enough to end up like the NSS Independence, it’s best if we know as soon as possible.” Linsis touched upon another issue.

“The cloud in this system is relatively thin to the one in Terminus, we should be able to read IFF or thermal and there will be far less subspace noise. But yes, have the ships report in on a five minute basis. If anyone has a problem on hardware like the Halberdier in Terminus, please do not wait half an hour for somebody to notice you.” Astra nodded. “If you encounter Ancient or Relic debris and can scoop it up, log it’s trajectory and mass and pick it up. Anything bigger, holler to the Explorer or Latanos to send a specialized team.”

“Finally, I know your Narix crewmen will be curious about the new planet. I’ll be contacting Lord-Commander Zorea about the option of getting our boots and fighters on there to participate in the survey, it would be a good training opportunity and it should boost the morale.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ldF9EW6.png[/img][/center]

“Also, start marking land you’d like. I imagine the good spots will be spoken for fairly quickly. Sorry to disappoint you if you like mountain views, this rock appears to be rather flat and forested. Three large desert areas if you want to go play in the sand.” the admiral smiled, “I’d pick some high up though, because when that ice age eventually ends, a lot of that ice is going to become ocean. I suppose determining future shape of the continents will be part of the surveyor’s jobs.”

“We’ll be sure to tell the crews, the chance to get down there will be a huge boost. If that’s all, we best get going. There’s a lot of junk to sift through, even with the frigates and Discoveries helping out. I assume the Fifth is going to help? Or do we get sent to the middle of bloody nowhere while they do the interesting stuff?”

“They have their own patrol paths assigned, the masters should have real-time navigation updates courtesy of the Vanguard already having dropped FTL comm relays. Very well, keep me posted if something interesting happens.” Astra let them off the hook.