Pressing the firing button...

[Atreides2]

Leto looked around and he felt uncomfortable when he followed the Admiral. Bad enough this new class ships were in the area but this room was something that clouded his mind, as a true Crayterian and heir to one of the Families in the Republic he felt out of place. "Gods from below, we are living interesting times" he muttered and he disliked the Council influence in the room.

Leto took the pad into his hand and he listened to Admiral "Admiral, with all due respect, permission to speak freely, sir" and waited for his permission "First of all, I want to ask what happened with the Crayterian design? I feel like I am no longer on a warship of the Republic. Second, tactical and operations." he coughed and after a few seconds started to realize what he said but couldn't take it back even if he wanted to "Sorry for being so bold, Admiral. As you know, I am commanding here the Battlegroup Atlantis. At the moment, the Admiralty ordered me with defense of Tau 44 and we were heavily reinforced by another Task Force, Task Force Echo which bolstered my group with 2 Thanatos ships, 9 Hydra and another 4 Heavy Interceptor Hydra and as a bonus 11 Wings, Nyx and Pytho. Also, CIS Director also stationed here the main bulk of their forces, which I must say, since when they operate so many heavy ships?" he stopped and looked at his own datapad "At any given time, there are present in the system the CIS flagship, 2 Thanatos Cruiser class, 8 Hydra and as a number of Nyx operatives, how many is a mystery as they are trickier to discover." he waited and hoped he get a response.

"Tactical wise, we secured most of the system, but there are still intrusions from the Royalist Fleet and some shady Kusarian ships which sided with Commune. But in those operations, however, CIS are always present. Is like they track them. Anyway, my CIC received instructions to inform our pilots to keep their eyes peeled for anything suspicious. All my calls to CIS Bureau came back with the usual polite form of stay out of it."

Looked again at his pad "We had some losses, 24 Nyx, 13 Pytho destroyed , 13 Nyx, 12 Pytho and 2 Hydra Damaged,representing the losses since we finished the Campaign. The ships are being repaired on Atlantis and on Borneo and the Hydra are sent to Singapore for repairs. Governor Aeryn got us a docking port there for our Capital ships to be repaired. Sulawesi Citadel is operating at full capacity and is maxed out with Interceptors."

He looked at them and saw that they were looking for something else, not his usual report "Now for the Gallic movements. They are still using Tau 23 as an important node for their supply lines towards the main fronts. I want to come with a proposition. Bottleneck Tau sector fully. We should disregard the Orange Threat and focus mostly on the Gauls. Now that Helios Group jumped in the area, I propose that elements from the Combined CIS-Atlantis Fleet to restart the Guerrilla War here in the Tau at a different stage. We must target more their supply convoys,Royalist owned ships or civilian. Our ships and wings were designed for this kind of warfare and I think that my Group can put some pressure on their lines. I want permission to send my interceptors in a 3 system chase: Tau 23, Tau 31 and Orkney."

He stopped and saw the looks he received " I know that what I am proposing may appear primitive and savage but we are fighting a brutal enemy. We must strike where is going to hurt him more. Without resources, the Royal Navy Sirius Expeditionary Force would be put under a strain. And also another question is why there are 3 ships of the Line here in Tau 44 and why is Helios so close to us?"

---