Many of the ships lights were turned off as most of the crew members were asleep and waiting for their next mission. They were currently at the planet Cerea, in the western province as the ship had gone trough a regular check and small repairs, but nothing more significant and they would refuel before departure. The ship was a long sword frigate, which didn’t seem all that glamorous to most of the crew members, named "Dreamer". In command was a young promise from the academy as they all practically were, but they had completed a number of missions thus taking their place among the fleet of the western province. Their skills had been first put to test in Operation Surprise! That had been orchestrated by the defence minister himself. They had performed well or so many liked to think, but the young captain who now sat in his quarters still had his doubts. Most of the missions they had engaged had been escorting convoys, patrolling and diplomacy with no greater excitement about them. Daren leaned back in his chair and sighed as he stared at the roof, this new mission was better be worth something or he would consider a career change. Everything always tended to look perfect and certain as planned, but when those were put to the test, one or the other side of them crumbled. That was why it was always good to have a backup plan, which Daren happened to lack so he was stuck in his position unless he would get something of a greater significance to do. Daren leaned back in his chair and placed his arms behind his neck as he stared at the darkness of space, his attitude towards his own life and the whole coalition had come to change during his service.

At first he had thought the coalition had been somewhat of a hope in the galaxy, but in the end it might just be another side thriving to rule the galaxy all tough with far more better rights for everyone. Yet did it really matter? He was a soldier, he had sworn to serve the coalition in peace and war, and soldiers followed orders so there was no room for complaints about how boring his job might have been. Suddenly the door of his room slid open and a female officer stepped in, at first there was clear confusion and amusement on his face as he saw the room, but that washed away as Daren turned around to look at him.

“Anything new to report lieutenant?” Daren inquired.

“Yes sir, Colonel Enberbarg has sent new orders.” She reported.

“In this hour?” Daren asked with slight amusement in his voice as he was himself still awake so it didn’t really matter.

“Apparently he decided to send these orders before hand and informally in order to get one problem out of his way. I had the orders copied into this data pad…”

The woman officer, Mira answered with a faint smile and held out the data pad in question. Daren rose from his chair and took the data pad. Mira turned and left the room without another word, leaving Daren alone again. He flipped the data pad around between his fingers and finally sat back down starting to go trough the mission information. He hoped that there was at least some challenge about this one, but he was going to be getting more than he had hoped for, an extremely sensitive situation had risen up on G'rho.

“Ssi-ruuk?” Daren muttered to himself with a grin as he scratched his short spiky hair.

Apparently they had began harassing the newly arrived human settlers of the planet, but it was no wonder since the ssi-ruuk were known to have used other races as sources of energy and they already once cleared the planet of humans settlers. The distress call had come from the human settlers that had taken residence in the planetary capital, the rebuilt boku settlement. The reptilian’s raided some smaller human settlements and kidnapped a number of people, most presumably in order to feed their machines by using the settler’s life force. Such a grim fate made Daren grin in disgust as he even thought about it, the interference of the coalition had to be subtle yet effective as high command did not wish to start a fight, but could not abandon the settlers to the mercy of the lizards. Daren rapidly overlooked few less concerning facts about the situation that could go trough later on the way to and finally got to the part of the mission leader, he could sigh in relief as in this mission he would be in charge. They would only have to rendezvous with another long sword frigate, Protector that in the worst case could be used to move the settlers away from the planet; otherwise the ship would provide Telcrot with an extra number of soldiers and equipment to his disposal. Extreme measures would have to be avoided at all costs during the mission and that included using the extra forces for violence. Daren shrugged faintly to himself before placing the data pad in his jacket pocket and almost jumping out of his chair, they were scheduled to meet the protector on the orbit of Rattatak in 24 hours. Daren guessed that he could allow the crew a small rest before having their commanding officers kick them out of bed, but the officers would get an unpleasant wake up. Daren departed from his room and headed to the bridge, which wasn’t that far away from his quarters.

He entered the bridge quietly looking around; a few officers were present and all turned to greet him. He was not aware whether they had been briefed on the situation, but it might as well be best to give exact orders in case they hadn’t. He began slowly walking towards the centre of the bridge as he spoke.

“I need the ship fully operational in a few hours exactly, the crew is to ready and able in that time. Also contact the dockyard and tell them to start refuelling the ship.” He ordered rather casually before stopping by a chair and sitting down in it.

The officers seemed slightly tired themselves, but still began working as ordered, two of them left the bridge to carry out their orders as one on the bridge called for the dockyard’s commanding personnel to carry on the message. Daren hmhed quietly to himself and after a while began instructing more of the officers and crew members that arrived to the bridge in order to get all system ready for takeoff…