Convoy Snippet 1

Hi,
Humming along with things despite lingering frustration and depression over the election. Here is the first snippet.

Prologue

"A couple more jumps and we'll be at the base. Unless of course they moved it," Captain Fernando Lafayette of the Admiral Hipper class heavy cruiser Fancy said moodily as he drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. As senior officer he was in command of the detachment from Fourth Fleet. He had 2 senior officers on-board but they were not in his chain of command. His eyes scanned the plot. Another twenty-two minutes of deceleration and they would be on top of the jump point. Preparations were already under way to get the ships rigged for hyperspace. As the time ticked down he noted the hyper-capacitors were slowly charging.

Once he finished his scan of the instruments and bridge his mind returned to the overall picture once more. Fourth Fleet's Tau mission had an extra element he found distasteful but necessary. The current plan would take decades before the fleet arrived in the sector to take physical control, and investing in so many planets was cost prohibitive in manpower and machinery. Therefore, they were relying on other means to secure the sector and reduce its unwanted population, or eliminate it entirely.

He shook his head. That part of the plan was thankfully not up to him to execute, he just needed to get the materials and the orders to the Admiral and not step on his toes. Getting the water dwellers with that going on would be tricky though.

He still missed Gorgon, with her gone he was 1 ship down which made his search that much harder. He could understand Captain Yanakov's problem, there had been similar concern with Cytheria since she too was a venerable Cutlass class destroyer. After the structural faults and cracking had been reported by Gorgon's chief engineer, a close inspection of Cytheria had been in order. Fortunately, for her she didn't turn up the same problems as Gorgon however, so she was able to continue on while her division mate had been forced to drop out of hyper for a brief period.

He wasn't certain which way Yanakov would jump. Would he return to Airea 3 and Rho sector? It was possible. He'd like to think the man had put his ship in order and had stayed on mission, but since he hadn't shown up in the Trajin cluster, it remained doubtful. And since they didn't know exactly where his ship had dropped out there was no telling where Gorgon was in real space if she were trapped.

That was something every spacer dreaded, being trapped in a ship that couldn't get back into hyper again. He bet that Gorgon's chief would patch the structure enough to get her back to Airea 3. He shook his head.

Whatever happened he had to deal with it. Stay on mission, he reminded himself.

"Sir, a hyper jump has been detected at the jump point," a rating reported.

"Which... you mean the one we're almost at?" the captain demanded.

"Yes sir."

"No IFF yet sir," the comm section PO said. "Sensors can't get an ID until the energy pulse fades. Based on the size though CIC is pegging it as about a hundred thousand tons, give or take twenty percent."

"Which makes it too small for a standard freighter. It could be tramp or yacht," the captain mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"It could be one of ours sir. A member of the Gather Fleet," Commander Siri Misaki reminded him, fulfilling her job as his executive officer.

The captain nodded once, but he didn't believe in easy coincidences. "True. Comm, raise them. Send them our IFF," the captain ordered. "CIC, I want better details on this ship," the captain said. He turned to the XO. "I think we better button up, just in case."

"Aye aye sir. Setting battle stations now," the XO replied with a curt nod.

The captain nodded as the energy readings on the hyper capacitors stopped climbing and then began to fall. If they were wrong he'd be chagrined but relieved. But better that than to get his ass and his ships shot up.

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The North Hampton class light cruiser Puglia had been assigned with her division mate Belfast to make contact with several star systems in Tau as advanced scouts before the official Tau mission was kicked off. With a bit of horse trading of parts and the hard work of Puglia's engineering compliment to partially restore a ship, they had sent back the tramp freighter from the Trajin cluster to Airea 3 with a request to join the Federation. Their files had also been sent in encrypted chips.

Captain Loggins shook his head as he contemplated the mission. The jump to Tau-X3301 had been a waste of time; the space colony's population had refused to trade with them. To be fair, they were hanging on the ragged edge and were low on fuel themselves. Their orders were to return to the Trajin cluster when their fuel reserves got below forty percent. They were at thirty-nine percent and they still had 5 jumps before they got back to the cluster. By the time they returned to the cluster they'd be on fumes, Captain Loggins mused as his crew secured the ship from jump. The navigator was going to have to plot an economic fuel burn to the next jump point he thought moodily just as something changed on his bridge.

The nebula they were in, the destroyed star system that had once been Tau-T1832 bothered everyone since it was so cold and dark. It was best to get across quickly, he thought just as CIC painted moving karats on the plot.

"Sir, we've got multiple ships approaching the jump point. They appear to be slowing to jump. CIC is still working off of passives, the energy pulse hasn't fully dissipated," a sensor rating reported.

"Multiple..." the captain murmured as he checked the plot. There were four ships there, all on a heading for the jump point, which meant on a direct course for his ship. "Comm, any IFF yet?"

"Too soon to tell sir, the energy pulse is still interfering with everything," the Veraxin rating reported.

"Active sensors and communications will be nearly useless for another four minutes sir," the sensor rating added.

"I don't like this. It could be the Tau mission, but... it feels too soon. Helm, back us off. Engineering, how soon can you spin up our hyperdrive again?" the captain demanded.

"We bled off a lot of the excess energy that couldn't be recovered easily. It will take at least thirty minutes sir," Ensign Apulia, his ship's dumb A.I. replied.

"They'll be in extreme weapons range in ten minutes sir," Ensign V'll'n the Veraxin JTO warned.

"Battle stations," the captain said flatly. Klaxons and red lights went off throughout the ship. "Button her up. Helm, keep us nose on to them as long as you can. Sensors, we need more information. IFF?"

"Working on it," the rating said. "Tentative ID, at least three of the ship silhouettes do not match any merchant ships."

"Frack, warships. What about the other ship, could it be Prometheus?"

"No definitely not skipper," the rating replied.

"Give me something. I don't want to be in a shooting incident with our own people if I can help it."

"Sir, Comm here, we're being pinged! It's Horathian!" the comm rating said urgently as the Naga TACO slithered in to relieve the JTO. The Veraxin stepped aside and then took a duty station from a rating in her department.

The captain looked over to the Naga. "CIC sensors are calling the 2 largest warships as heavy cruisers. The port one is an Admiral Hipper class. The starboard one is tentatively ID'd as the same class. The slightly smaller tango has been positively ID'ed as a Cutlass sir," the Naga said as she checked the readings. "We are in serious trouble here."

"Engineering, we're going to need that hyperdrive sooner. Get our shields up people, we're playing defense. Helm, pick up speed."

"We can't get much more speed facing them sir," the rating said.

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