Twilight Of Peace

[Dab]

34 Kilometers to Unknown jump hole. Rheinland fleet 24 Kilometers.

The comm officer looked up at Lord Captain Dab.

Communications Ensign: Sir we have a report from patrols 134-137. They have found destroyed crosair vessals. Scarring on the hulls suggests nomad blasters, cannons, and turrets killed them. LARGE Nomad turrets, at least battleship sized.

Dab: Sensors I want you to activate the new cloa sensors. I don't care if they are unreliable we will not be caught off guard this time. Send all information from the scan to the fighters and other cap-ships.

There was a loud screeching sound and the sensors came on-line.

Comm Ensign: Sir we have detected 2 Nomad gunboats trailing us and another two to either side of us.

Dab: Send 2 cruisers to deal with the side gunboats, but have them act as if it is a patrol or scanning team. Then we will move the battleships. Maul first, Ableben second, and Garde last. Cruisers in defense perimeter arrangement.

Comm Ensign: Sir we have reports of Phantoms in the area, using cloaking devices. Fighter 73 and 128 have reported sighting and destroying a phantom scout fighter.

As he listened he saw one of the cruisers come within range of the lefthand Nomad gunboat. It fired mortars and battlerazors into its side decimating the vessal.

Dab: Signal all ships to open fire on all nomads.

Immediately the space around them was filled with battlerazors, battleship cannon fire, and mortars flying towards cloaked nomads that had been encircling the group. He counted 12 gunboats, and 2 battleships and some fighters. All were completely destroyed by the brute force of so many ships and fighters. Within two minutes of the order every nearby nomad had been destroyed or disabled.

Ensign: Sir the cruisers have reported the deaths of both trailing gunboats and damage to the righthand one. It took off before they could completely destroy it.

Dab: Order flight group 12 to fly ahead and act as a transmitter between the Rheinland battlegroup and ours. They are to relay everything we send them to Admiral Kriegs group. They are also to state that we are remaining at the Theta jump hole, so they do not become aware of our presence.

Dab looked over the sensor lietenants shoulder at the readings. He counted at least 23 gunboats arrayed in a circle around the Rheinland fleet. There was no battleship and that unsettled him. They had sent a large number of gunboats to track this force, bigger even than what they sent to track us, yet no battleship anywhere near there. He had to wonder what they were holding the ships back for.

Dab: Stop that order Ensign, send one of our shuttles to them instead with one of the sensors, They might be able to find what we cannot from farther up ahead. Story remains the same, we are still guarding the Theta jump hole.

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