Inferno Snippet 2

 Still in chapter 1:

When the light cruiser Falstaff arrived, Admiral Nergal's staff were quick to lay a laser on her to get her report. The admiral had been napping before the arrival, but the announcement from CIC had woken him. He'd refreshed himself in order to allow his staff to get the initial logs and files and give them time to process them.

When his chief of staff indicated they were ready for an updated briefing he sat and listened.

“So far they are on schedule to arrive in three days and six hours. The numbers have gone up again,” Raul, the staff TO warned.

“I'm still having trouble believing they have so many ships. How did they keep unit cohesion in the bridge network?”

“Linking their ships in a network?”

“Yet how can that be in hyperspace?”

“We can communicate in hyperspace to some degree sir,” Angie, his staff communication officer reminded him.

“Still...”

“There is no telling what sort of tech they have. Or it could be that they just had orders to keep the ships around them in sight at a specific distance apart,” Raul stated.

The admiral grunted slightly and flicked his ears. He still didn't seem convinced though.

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Captain Dart was grateful when she was ordered to the fleet train to replenish her ship. She checked with the XO, he was already working with the quartermaster and Chief on a list of supplies. Fuel was of course top of the list, followed by fresh food, and then a few parts. Her ship was in good condition.

She was dismayed when orders for her ship came in a few minutes later. Once she was done replenishing she was ordered to join one of the CruRons. Apparently she was getting a ring side seat, not the rear seat she'd been expecting...

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The mine layers began their dance, some in the jump zone dropping antimatter weapons, others seeding mines around the perimeter.

Tactical departments brought the deployed platforms up to a ready status. Decoys, ECM, defensive, offensive, and communication platforms were seeded in a shell around the jump point.

The decoys were set to draw the enemy's attention initially. The ECM platforms were a new design purposely built to spoof and disrupt the enemy's sensors and communications. They were untested in combat however.

The defensive platforms had ECM packages as well but also specialty packages. Some had defensive weapon pods, either a point defense laser cluster or a counter missile package and shoals of counter missile pods arrayed around them.

A small subset of defensive platforms had special shields. They were called the Umbrella class; they were designed to interdict enemy fire coming for the fleet with a massive energy shield. All of the simulations showed that they would only be of use when the enemy used their energy weapons, the Xeno nanite torpedoes would tear through the shields and consume the platforms beyond.

Admiral Nergal might not have agreed with the sighting reports but he had accepted the new weapon mix the admiralty had put forth. The weapon platforms were outfitted with cells of force emitter tipped shields, plasma turrets, and graser mounts. Raul had convinced him to use the offensive weapon platforms as primarily defensive, to target and destroy the swarms of nanite torpedoes that got past the dedicated defenders. Thus they could preserve their ships for later.

The communication platforms were large. They had to be, each had an antimatter power plant and a tachyon transceiver. With the tachyon transceiver network the various tactical departments in the fleet could control the unmanned platforms like a finely meshed organism.

The final preparations were completed and the mine layers withdrew just as Captain Shady's Contra and her sister ship crossed the hyperwall into real space. They flashed their IFF and then made their way through the defenses as quickly as possible.

Admiral Negral ordered the ships to download their logs and then join the 52^nd Cruron. He knew they needed to be replenished but there was no time. The 2 extra cruisers brought his numbers up to 3,054 ships, an impressive number for a fleet deployed in deep space.

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The Epsilon queen's first hint that something was off was when the reports of the enemy ships trailing her clan dried up. Simulations stated that they were most likely racing ahead to arrive in the star system and then watch from there. A secondary simulation stated they might warn shipping in the area, or worlds, or even an ambushing force.

The last was unlikely given her numbers, but she couldn't discount it.

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