STC Gerrard ( BH-04)
Commander Velka Marseilles 
Bearing 36 degrees at 43,000ly
Ship Log:
Left Taoshe dockyards
Jump bearing 40 degrees 
Exiting slip-space : bearing 36 degrees at 40,000ly
Set up LP1 ( listening post)
Jump bearing 36 degrees
Exiting slip-space bearing 36 degrees at 43,000ly
Set up LP2 / cooling Slip-space drive.

For the past few weeks the Gerrard had floated through the immense vacuum of space without seeing much of anything. An asteroid field here, small nebula there, it was all sort of like a research journey. Most of the crew was new, the entire bridge crew had just graduated from their technical schools and this was the Commanders first command, it was all very exciting. Even after proving herself fit to command a vessel she still had a lot to learn, it was one thing to know the capabilities of the ship but using them effectively when it was life and death was something completely different. Commander Marseilles loved the challenge but she was still slightly nervous and eager to gain experience. 
	It was roughly 03:00 core world time when things started getting………weird. First the radar operator detected a singular radiation spike on the long range scanner, this alone was nothing to be concerned about. Thinking it was just an echo from a super-nova or maybe even their own echo from exiting slip-space, the crewman dismissed it as coincidence. A few minutes after that, the long range scanner picked up multiple radiation spikes at the same range and in almost the same location, this was cause for alarm. Everyone on board had ground warfare experience and everyone was well versed in reconnaissance tactics, this just looked too……..planned. At 03:00 everyone was asleep, on watch was a skeleton crew of 3 officers; and Ensign and two Junior-grade Lieutenants. Word was passed between the officers quickly and it was decided to send a singular radar ping to identify what caused the radiation disturbance. Without a second thought, the radar operator turned on their active radar and pinged once, sending the radar waves flying through space. 
	It was around 04:20 when Commander Marseilles woke to the distinct sound of an active radar ping. It was a high pitched hollow sound, that resonated throughout the entire ship, everyone who was awake heard it. Active radar was usually left for search and destroy operations, or to distract an enemy with a obvious target. Pinging during a reconnaissance operation was almost unheard of and gave away their position almost immediately, not the smartest thing to do when you want to watch and not be seen. With a groan the commander got up out of her bed and hastily threw on service fatigues as she walked out of the door. Almost immediately after leaving her stateroom she felt the vibration of the engines, “the ship was moving, but why” she thought as she made her way to the bridge. 
	The first thing that caught her eye was how hurried the crew was running about, she hadn’t seem them move this quickly since their ship trials, even then they had an calm demeanor as they ran/shuffled from place to place. This was much different, they all had the same worried but stern demeanor as the sprinted form station to station. “ Whats wrong?” Velka said in a groggy voice, expecting to hear something about a systems malfunction. The radar operator stopped mid-stride and turned towards the commander “ We detected multiple radiation spikes on the long range scanner, so we decided to ping it and see what it was. After waiting for the ping to bounce back we got this image” the officer said, pulling a crude grainy print-out of the radar readout. The picture was grey and heavily distorted but six solid objects were clearly seen the this picture and they were big. “ We thought they may be asteroids so we scrubbed the image and ran it through our infrared camera” the officer said, walking/ trotting to another station before pulling up another image. A hologram image of the same picture but enhanced with infrared appeared on the main holo-screen, all of the objects were yellowish gold becoming darker towards the rear, they were vessels. “ We think they are ships, probably still dissipating the heat from jumping….” another officer said. “ They are quite large, outclassing us by a few hundred meters, and there are a lot of them. We counted four more since we pinged..”
	Velka nodded and eyed the third officer who was busy plotting point on the map and entering them into the navigation computer. He was steering the ship into a “lay up” position, where they could hide as they watched the mystery vessels. A light wave of fear washed over her as she walked to the command chair, quickly pressing the intercom button on the control panel. “ tou’le ains, Au’ostes de combat………..Au’ostes de combat………..” ( translation: all hands to combat stations).

STC Gaston BH-32 ( Blackhole class ship)
Somehwere around last coordinates 
30,000 ly 
Ship log: 
-Disembarked from Taoshe
- Jump- Exiting slip-space just outside of the Kalai abyss ( approx 35,000k ly bearing 20 deg)
-Entered Kalai Abyss
-Succesfully Navagated the Kalai Abyss( vou ne compre pa’a quel poi’c eta) Translation ( You don’t understand how hard that was) 
- Docked with asteroid, conducting recon operations
- Sighted Unknown vessel
- engaged stealth protocols 
- bringing stalking operations

“ They are still sitting there….. They have been sitting there for........... * he looked at the clock* 72 hours now….” the radar operator said nonchalantly, the heat had sapped the energy out of him and the rest of the crew for that matter. At this point uniforms became optional, men and women walked around in armor underlays and underwear to combat the heat. The deck was slick with the constant sweating of the crew and the smell was that of a gym that was not allowed to be aired out. The entire crew was miserable and the captain knew it. Captain Hagaas was a veteran of two naval campaigns and four campaigns as a ground commander, he knew war and no one dared question is orders. Even he was beginning to doubt this current action, the vessel was clearly not a threat and he doubted they even knew where they were. “ Cant we just……talk to them?” a junior weapons officer exclaimed between sips of water “ We might be able to learn more if we just…..reveal ourselves”. The entire bridge crew froze and stared at the junior officer who was blissfully unaware of his actions. 
	To the surprise of most of the bridge crew Captain Hagaas chuckled and let out a long sigh “ Oui, disengage stealth protocols and hail the vessel, we are going to get to the bottom of this”. Everyone was still shocked and smiled awkwardly around the bridge, the weapons officer was still to tired to notice. After a long awkward laugh someone finally shut down the stealth protocols and the ship coasted behind the unknown vessel. Captain Hagaas pressed the master siren twice, the naval signal for battle stations and pressed the intercom for the missile bay. 
	
STC Gaston, Missile bay 

The missile bay was a giant hotbox before the battle stations call, one of Kabal platoon’s operators “Tanaka” smuggled twenty kilos of Pryzanthium, a blue herb known to cause euphoria and joyous behavior, Kabal platoon thought it would be fun to see how smoky they could make the missile bay. After A day of constant smoking some sleep and another day of content smoking the missile bay looked like a foggy bog. They were still smoking when the battle stations call rang. “ Shit…..” an operator said quickly putting out the cigarette, “ I know right, they are shutting down the stealth protocols too…..” Sergeat Margaux said quickly running to his gear. “ Sergeant…..” the intercom barked, as Margaux was half way through putting on his underlay. Running over to the wall he pressed the button “ Oui Capitaine, he said as shimmied into the bottoms of his armor. “ Go make contact with the unknown ship…” he quipped quickly, shutting down the comm line. “ Shit……..” he exclaimed running back to his already staged gear “ Tanaka, Hakto and…….Gulan, stage on our ship as snipers. I will make contact, if it goes south the rest of the platoon will rocket in take down the ship……all good”? The platoon stared at him in a high stupor and nodded slowly, if they hadn’t done this many times before he would of never guessed they were ready for a mission. 
	The ship accelerated next to the unknown vessel and mirrored the first hatch they saw, coasting next to it as Kabal platoon launched their operation. The snipers covered Sergeant Margaux’s advance as he floated over to the unknown vessel carrying a magnetic line.