Vizeadmiral Wolff looked up from his never-ending stream of reports as his adjutant opened the door and escorted Kontreadmiral Erika Michel and Kapitan zur Stern Richard Fried into the office.
"Kontreadmiral! Kapitan! Welcome," Wolff said, "I trust this news has not gone any further yet?"
Both officers nodded. "Sit. Let's keep this brief and informal. Now, Kapitan Fried, what happened in the Hannover system?"
Kapitan Fried cleared his throat nervously and started, "As you know Admiral, Geologische ?bersicht Eins was conducting our geological survey of the system. The warp point emerges on the fringe of the B component's system. We surveyed the B component first, and then proceded to the A component. We had completed approximately half of our survey when our thermals picked up 6 contacts, one slightly stronger than the others. Per our standing orders, we returned to our initial warp point and made transit. The contacts did not follow that we could tell."
Wolff glanced at Kontreadmiral Michel, "Any thing else Erika?"
She sat thinking for a moment, "How soon will the Tirpitz class be ready for production sir?"
Wolff pulled up the shipyards on his screen and grimaced, "Not until 2025 at the earliest Erika."
Erika Michel nodded with a sigh, "About what I figured sir. I'd suggest attaching a Blucher or Scharnhorst to the Stern-Flotte for transit, but the jump generators are too small. You've received my suggestion for a fleet scout sir, construct a couple of them for the Stern-Flotte, and we wait for the first Tirpitz. Richard's ships out ran the contacts handily, so they cannot know where we came from."
Wolff nodded absently, "You mean we think they don't know where we came from. They might have had low profile ships near the warp points. As soon as the Stern-Flotte is finished with the scheduled refits, I'm ordering them to picket the Sol-Hamburg point. I also plan on laying down a second Stern-Flotte."
"Some sort of base or sensor installation near all of the points would be nice too sir," Erika said.
"True. I'll see what the BSG can come up with. In the meantime, I want Stern-Flotte on that point as soon as possible."
"Yes sir."
"Thank you both. For now, the Hannover system is off limits. The F?hrer will decide when the citizens should be told of the aliens, so not a word from anyone in your crews or staff."
Both officers nodded.
"Dismissed," Wolff said as he turned back to his paperwork with a sigh.
*edit* Fixed the system designation from Hamburg to Hannover.
