It's like the nervous little action before the grand battle.
The Terran Fleet is nearing the end stages of its refit to solid core anti-matter engines, and the support fleet is not far behind. That means the main fleet will be 128% faster than it was, which is good, obviously. But it will still be slower than the observed speed of both the friendly Bob's, which ranges from 5,500 to 17,000 km/s, and the hostile Octs, who have ships that range from 14,000 to 22,000 km/s.
I've boosted my fleet speed as much as I can, without seriously compromising either endurance or payload, or both. The distance to the Oct and Bob home worlds is currently almost fifty billion kilometers, and even with a forward base boosting the fleet's speed would increase their fuel consumption too much for my comfort.
