Styria-class Galleon Warley, in orbit via Uyter
Line Captain Lydia Nevaere leaned up against the ceraglass of the bridge viewport, watching Uyter drift to eclipse its golden sun. Yet despite being blotted out by the world, the sun’s rays still shone brightly outward, encircling the agricultural world in a golden halo. An angular object appeared out of the world’s side and flew towards them, the gray space station Uyter’s Tradewinds, followed by dozens of small starships. The very first Mercatus-class Space station had barely been in orbit when she had last visited the world. As it swung back around in orbit and away from them, she realized that it now seemed to be busier than she would have earlier thought possible. A cultivated voice rose up from the crewpit to lure her attention out her
ruminations. She glanced downwards.
“Ma’am?”
Lydia turned her head to face the voice, “What is it Henry?”
“We have a bolo from CSIS.”
“Let me guess, someone put graffiti on one of their undercover landspeeders?”
“No.”
She pretended to thoughtfully tap her chin with a finger, “Someone had a hit and run at the local fuel port…”
“No…” said the man slowly, eying her seriously, “They’ve spotted a group of Entymal ships nearby. One of them was at our last engagement at Balamak, it appears to be a frigate analogue that nearly knocked off the Ponsborne out of the fight.”
Nevaere broke eye contact from the man as she looked up. She pressed her lips together and immediately strode towards her command chair. The second he hears about that, they’re going to want to go to pursuit. That ship hurt his pride if nothing else…still, I can’t help but agree that if there’s a chance to hit the Entymal before they harm anyone else, we should take it…watch the Ponsborne get all over that frigate…Her stomach growled. Still, it’s nothing to rush into, if we don’t have to, that is…As she plopped into her command chair, Lydia rapidly typed in a few commands, unlocking the console and opening a message routed by one Lieutenant Henry Patches. She pulled up the message, revealing several holo shots of the ships, as seen by one of the countless Eagle Eye drones that CSIS operated. Nevaere eyed them closely. There appears to be several winged frigates, along with a half dozen of those Entymalian boarding boats…She squinted at two particular objects in the background. Those look like normal CEC Action Freighters…probably prizes. The woman from Soroya glanced at the coordinates and frowned.
“Lieutenant Patches,” questioned Lydia, “are these coordinates right? That’s right by Avenelle, isn’t it? We haven’t heard any fighting from the system, have we?”
“Negative ma’am, but…you are right…The coordinates suggest that they are anchored in the Avenelle system…actually not too far away from the world itself…”
“That’s a problem,” said Lydia, her frown deepening, “cancel all shore leaves and recall everyone up here immediately. We’re going to stop the buggers before something bad happens again…if it hasn’t already happened to the people of Avenelle…”
“With only four galleons?” questioned her new XO suddenly, leaning over her chair to view the holos.
She shrugged and looked up, “We’ve got to try.”
“Oh, I’m not disagreeing,” said the slight man, backing away, “I’m just saying we can get some more help before we give it the old good Confederation try. Why not see if the Uyter defense forces, or at least some of them, can join us? And besides, the CSIS bolo should be going out to other people soon too, once it gets out of this system…we’ll have other help coming in eventually…”
Lydia smiled, “Solid points. Why don’t you call our liaison officer on planet and see what you can scrounge up from the defense forces.”
“And what are you going to do?” said the man, ambling towards his station.
“I am going to be in my quarters, holding a holo-conference with the captains to plan our attack.”
Line Captain Lydia Nevaere leaned up against the ceraglass of the bridge viewport, watching Uyter drift to eclipse its golden sun. Yet despite being blotted out by the world, the sun’s rays still shone brightly outward, encircling the agricultural world in a golden halo. An angular object appeared out of the world’s side and flew towards them, the gray space station Uyter’s Tradewinds, followed by dozens of small starships. The very first Mercatus-class Space station had barely been in orbit when she had last visited the world. As it swung back around in orbit and away from them, she realized that it now seemed to be busier than she would have earlier thought possible. A cultivated voice rose up from the crewpit to lure her attention out her
ruminations. She glanced downwards.
“Ma’am?”
Lydia turned her head to face the voice, “What is it Henry?”
“We have a bolo from CSIS.”
“Let me guess, someone put graffiti on one of their undercover landspeeders?”
“No.”
She pretended to thoughtfully tap her chin with a finger, “Someone had a hit and run at the local fuel port…”
“No…” said the man slowly, eying her seriously, “They’ve spotted a group of Entymal ships nearby. One of them was at our last engagement at Balamak, it appears to be a frigate analogue that nearly knocked off the Ponsborne out of the fight.”
Nevaere broke eye contact from the man as she looked up. She pressed her lips together and immediately strode towards her command chair. The second he hears about that, they’re going to want to go to pursuit. That ship hurt his pride if nothing else…still, I can’t help but agree that if there’s a chance to hit the Entymal before they harm anyone else, we should take it…watch the Ponsborne get all over that frigate…Her stomach growled. Still, it’s nothing to rush into, if we don’t have to, that is…As she plopped into her command chair, Lydia rapidly typed in a few commands, unlocking the console and opening a message routed by one Lieutenant Henry Patches. She pulled up the message, revealing several holo shots of the ships, as seen by one of the countless Eagle Eye drones that CSIS operated. Nevaere eyed them closely. There appears to be several winged frigates, along with a half dozen of those Entymalian boarding boats…She squinted at two particular objects in the background. Those look like normal CEC Action Freighters…probably prizes. The woman from Soroya glanced at the coordinates and frowned.
“Lieutenant Patches,” questioned Lydia, “are these coordinates right? That’s right by Avenelle, isn’t it? We haven’t heard any fighting from the system, have we?”
“Negative ma’am, but…you are right…The coordinates suggest that they are anchored in the Avenelle system…actually not too far away from the world itself…”
“That’s a problem,” said Lydia, her frown deepening, “cancel all shore leaves and recall everyone up here immediately. We’re going to stop the buggers before something bad happens again…if it hasn’t already happened to the people of Avenelle…”
“With only four galleons?” questioned her new XO suddenly, leaning over her chair to view the holos.
She shrugged and looked up, “We’ve got to try.”
“Oh, I’m not disagreeing,” said the slight man, backing away, “I’m just saying we can get some more help before we give it the old good Confederation try. Why not see if the Uyter defense forces, or at least some of them, can join us? And besides, the CSIS bolo should be going out to other people soon too, once it gets out of this system…we’ll have other help coming in eventually…”
Lydia smiled, “Solid points. Why don’t you call our liaison officer on planet and see what you can scrounge up from the defense forces.”
“And what are you going to do?” said the man, ambling towards his station.
“I am going to be in my quarters, holding a holo-conference with the captains to plan our attack.”