Humanity First: Story Posts

[Kurt (OP)]

Shield Sector
April 7, 2157
The Tau Cephei system is located just within the borders of the Shield Sector.  It is an uninteresting red star system with three planets, a number of moons, and several comets.  Two of the planets are gas giants and contain significant amounts of sorium at good availability levels, marking them as targets for future exploitation should sources closer to the inner empire run out, but otherwise the system has largely been ignored.  It is, however, on the route between the Shield Sector and the GJ 1128 system, which contains the anomalous region of space dubbed the “Aether Rift” by the scientific team sent to study it.  Because of this, the sensor buoy network and the courier network have been extended through the system so that if something comes out of the rift the empire will know about it.   

At 01441 hours the courier and the sensor buoy stationed on the jump point in the Tau Cephei system that leads to the GJ 1128 system detects an unknown ship just off of the jump point.  The ship’s thermal signature is similar to that of an Imperial battleship, and its observed speed is 13,794 km/s.  The courier immediately jumps out to the Tau Cephei system, while the buoy sends a contact report to the other jump point.  As soon as the contact report is received it is forwarded on to the Shield Sector Capital.  This takes eight and a half hours. 

At nearly the same time, the buoys deployed around the Aether Rift in the GJ 1128 system detect a second ship in close proximity to the rift.  This ship’s thermal signature is between that of a battleship and a battlecruiser, and its observed speed is 10,626 km/s.   This contact report is sent off as well. 

About an hour later, a third ship is detected in the GJ 1128 system, headed towards the jump point to Tau Cephei.  This ship has a similar signature to that of the one still hovering over the rift, but is moving slightly slower.  The ship moves past the jump point, possibly headed to the system’s other jump point. 

The contact report arrived at Shield Base at approximately midnight, and their reaction was immediate.  Their course was clear, as the Naval HQ on Terra had directed a very clear response should ships emerge from the rift.  The bulk of the base’s mobile strength, the 1st Battle Group and the Battlecruiser Pluto’s battle group, were dispatched to the Tau Cephei system to make contact with the aliens.  They were not to move into the GJ 1128 system without direct orders from Sol, though. 

Meanwhile, the contact report, and Shield Base’s response, were forwarded up the chain to all other commands.  They would reach Terra in approximately 11 hours, and 111 Virginis in just over 10. 

When the contact report arrived in the 111 Virginis system, on the Kraken Frontier, it was received by Commodore Zadrozny, the Contact Force CO, who was on the verge of ordering his ships to return to the Solar system after the disastrous contact mission’s aftermath and cleanup.  His mission to the Kraken Frontier was done, he had merely been putting off returning to help the system garrison chase down the Hive Fleet Kraken survey ships that had been popping up occasionally. His squadron was still well within its endurance limits, and they had plenty of supplies and fuel.  So, after a short stop at Virginis Base to refuel one final time and give his crews R&R, he ordered his force to the Mu Cassiopeiae system.   They would approach GJ 1128 from the secondary route from the Kraken Frontier.  He sent his intentions to fleet command in the Solar System before he departed, but once en route would be beyond the courier network and out of touch. 

The contact report arrived in the Solar System one hour later.  The Admiralty had been electrified by the recent arrival of the news from the Bobruisk territories of the discovery of numerous wrecks and apparent fighting, but this was far more alarming.  Unknown ships coming out of a mysterious rift, something never mentioned in any of the records recovered from the alien Imperium. It could only be a threat of stupendous magnitude.  Therefore, a fleet was assembled and designated as the 1st Expeditionary Force.  It consisted of 1xCVA, 1xDN, 2xBB, 2xCV, 1xCVS, 6xDD, 5xDDE, 100xStrike Fighters, and 8xSensor Fighters.  Rear Admiral Paglinawan is placed in command with orders to establish contact with the new aliens.  Support units will follow as they are organized. 

April 13, 2157
The new aliens, already being referred to as Rift Aliens, have appeared in the Omicron Tucanae system.  The news is alarming, as the Omicron Tucanae garrison force is returning from several system’s away, where it had been chasing contact reports of an elusive Hive Fleet Leviathan warship. 

After hesitating on the jump point, the Rift ship begins moving in-system.  This causes a problem on the second planet, which has been settled by over five million colonists.  The system’s naval base is located on the first planet, where an ancient construct is located.  This is where the terraformers are currently stationed, and they are defended by the base’s STO’s in the absence of the garrison squadron.  The Imperial Army has not yet stationed a defensive force on the second planet, as it was not scheduled to be settled yet.  As has happened before, though, once the terraformers were finished civilian ships began transporting colonists to the now planet whether the government wanted them to or not.  So, the naval base in the system is defended, as are the terraformers, but the population on the second planet is not. 

Fortunately, the Rift Aliens reach the fourth planet and then turn for the outer system and the jump point, without moving towards the inner system planets. 

Once the alien ship departs the system, the base commander orders the terraformers to leave the system, fearing the disappearance of the aliens is only temporary.  The massive ships slowly lift away from the first planet and begin moving towards the distant jump point out of the system. 

April 14, 2157
A Rift Alien fleet is detected closing on the jump point to Omicron Tucanae in the GJ 1128 system.  The fleet is composed of nine ships of two different classes.  Five of the ships have thermal profiles consistent with that of an Imperial dreadnought, while five have profiles 50% higher than a dreadnought.  All are moving at 13,734 km/s.  When the ships arrive at the jump point, they casually swat the Terran sensor buoy before jumping to Omicron Tucanae.  The other buoys in the system record the death of the sensor buoy, along with the energy profile of the weapons that took it out.  If those weapons had been aimed at an Imperial dreadnought, they would have taken out its shields in one shot. 

April 17, 2157
The Shield Base Battlegroup, under Rear Admiral Casella, jumps into the Tau Cephei system from Gamma Carinae on this date.  The sensor buoy at the jump point reports the presence of a single Rift Alien ship at the system’s second jump point to the GJ 1128 system.  At this point, Admiral Casella is unaware of the destruction of the sensor buoy in the GJ 1128 system, however, that information would have been of interest to her, but would hardly have been pivotal in her planning.  The destruction of an automated buoy was not a friendly act, but it also wasn’t a declaration of war.  And she could hardly be any more cautious than she planned on being anyway. 

For now, the Shield Base Battlegroup was on its own.  The 1st Expeditionary Fleet, advancing out of Sol, was still twenty-two days away.  And the Contact Expedition hadn’t left the 111 Virginis system yet, and would need time to move up the chain to a flanking position on the far side of the GJ 1128 system.  Admiral Casella’s battlegroup was not an inconsiderable force in its own right.  The battlegroup consisted of the DN Pegasus, the battleship Rigel, four battlecruisers, four missile cruisers, six destroyers, five missile destroyers, four destroyer escorts, a fleet scout, and a carrier and strike carrier with forty-four fighters embarked. 

Admiral Casella’s orders were to block the aliens from moving further into the Empire, and, if possible, establish contact with them and determine their intentions.  Mindful of the fact that the alien ships were almost twice as fast as Terran warships, she was not willing to advance her force very far from the jump point back to the Empire.  Neither was she willing to risk her capital ships, or God forbid her carriers, in close contact with an alien race of unknown intent and capabilities.  Therefore, she ordered her force to advance 850 mkm’s towards the jump point on the far side of the system, and from that vantage point she would launch her strike group towards the lone alien ship.  The strike group would position themselves approximately fifty mkm’s from the alien ship, at which point a single automated sensor fighter would move into close contact with the aliens to determine their intent. 

April 19, 2157, Tau Cephei – Leviathan Frontier
The Shield Base Battlegroup’s strike fighters jumped through the system’s La Grange point into the inner system, bound for a waypoint that would position themselves approximately 60 mkm’s from the jump point to the GJ 1128 Rift System and the Rift Alien ship last seen on the jump point.  Shortly after jumping into the inner system, the Aegis sensor fighters with the fighter group detect a 7,423 ton Rift Alien ship in orbit over Tau Cephei I, an airless terrestrial class planet.  Instead of continuing on as planned, the strike group remained on the La Grange point and dispatches the specially prepared automated sensor fighter towards the Rift alien ship.  Shortly after that, the Rift Alien ship departed the planet, bound for the jump point to GJ 1128. 

The automated fighter makes contact with the Rift Alien ship short of the jump point, but is ignored as the alien ship continues to retreat.  Once the alien ship reaches the jump point it jumps out, followed by the sensor fighter.  The automated fighter is programmed to follow the alien ship through the jump point and return as soon as possible to report on the conditions on the far side. 

Two minutes and forty seconds later the fighter reappears in the Tau Cephei system and sends its report to the waiting fighter group.  The Rift Alien ship continued its retreat when the fighter appeared in the GJ 1128 system.  No other Rift Alien ships were within detection range of the jump point.  As ordered, the fighter stripped the logs from the sensor buoy near the jump point and transmitted those as well.  The logs were very interesting.  The buoys at the jump points to Omicron Tucanae and Mu Cassiopeiae had both been destroyed by Rift Alien ships, which was not in and of itself necessarily a hostile act.  While not exactly friendly, it was completely understandable that an alien race might not want sensor buoys from another race in territory they considered their own.  However, much more important was the destruction of an Imperial jump point stabilization ship that had apparently been in transit through the GJ 1128 system before it was placed off limits.  The commercial ship had been attacked without warning and destroyed within seconds of entering the system.  When that report reached Admiral Casella, it settled the question of whether the aliens were peaceful or not rather definitively. 

Admiral Casella was tempted to proceed to the jump point and picket it with her heavy ships, but her orders were clear, she was not to unnecessarily risk her command but rather to block any advance into the Empire.  To that end she recalled her fighters and ordered one of her missile cruisers to re-establish the sensor buoy coverage of the jump point to the GJ 1128 system. 

April 20, 2157, Omicron Tucanae, Leviathan Frontier
For days now a Rift Alien ship had been sitting on the jump point to the GJ 1128 system, watched by a sensor buoy sitting off of the jump point.  Now it was joined by a second ship, which immediately headed in-system, towards the Imperial base on the innermost planet.  Eventually this new ship would be matched to the ship which ran from the sensor fighter in the Tau Cephei system, but for now it remained unknown to the Imperial forces in this system. 

Several hours after leaving the jump point the ship stopped at about 350 mkm’s from the jump point, and the second ship, which had been sitting on the jump point, left and started heading in-system.  About an hour later the second ship returned to the jump point, while the first began heading across the system towards a different destination.   

April 23, 2157, Omicron Tucanae, Leviathan Frontier
The Omicron Tucanae Carrier Group was back in the system and finally in between the retreating terraformer squadron and the Rift Alien ship that had been poking around the system.  The Terraforming Group, one hundred and thirty-four terraformers strong and very slow, was still over eleven days from jumping out of the system.  The Rift Alien ship was five hundred and thirty mkm’s ahead of the Terran squadron, and was 7,400 tons and moving at 10,626 km/s.  Commodore Hong, CO of the carrier group, was very suspicious of the aliens.  They had not been confirmed as hostile, but the immense industrial investment represented by the terraformers meant he couldn’t just avoid contact with them, he had to be aggressive and try to establish whether they represented a threat or not. 

Unfortunately, his “carrier group” was, in reality, a single carrier supported by a jump capable battleship.  Doctrine demanded that the carrier not be exposed to close attack by a potential threat, but the battleship Antares was built for just such a situation.  Commodore Hong ordered the carrier France to retreat and follow behind the Antares from one million kilometers, while the battleship closed on the alien ship and tried to establish contact. 

April 24, 2157, Omicron Tucanae, Leviathan Frontier
The battleship Antares reached three hundred thousand kilometers from the alien ship without incident.  The battleship had been transmitting contact messages the entire way in, but the alien had not responded.  In fact, the alien was doing nothing, just sitting in space.  Since the alien hadn’t reacted, Commodore Hong ordered the Antares to close to one hundred thousand kilometers.  It was at this point that the alien ship began running, and as it was faster, soon pulled out of the Antares’ weapons range.  After ten minutes Commodore Hong called a halt to the chase.  After consulting with his officers, Commodore Hong decided on a different approach.  He ordered his ships to close on the second alien ship, a faster ship equipped with military engines that had been hovering around the jump point to GJ 1128. 

After several hours of following the alien ship as it maneuvered apparently aimlessly across the system, Commodore Hong was losing his patience.  The alien ship was faster than the Terran warships, almost twice as fast, and hadn’t allowed then any closer than seventy million kilometers before darting away again.  What made it even more frustrating to Hong was that he knew that he could order the France to launch its fighters and they’d be able to chase it down.  After some thought he raised the commander of the France and ordered him to launch the carrier’s fighters.  The fighters were to close on the alien ship to 1,000,000 kilometers range, and then send in a lone sensor fighter to try and make contact. 

Two hours later the fighters were in position and a single sensor fighter detached from the group and closed on the alien ship.  The aliens let the fighter close, and changed course towards the jump point, but otherwise ignored the Terran fighter.  As the alien ship raced back towards the jump point, the battleship Antares was able to intercept it by cutting across its course, but it ignored the big warship just as it had ignored the fighters. 

The alien ships both jumped out of the Omicron Tucanae system at 0937 hours on the 25th, leaving the sensor fighter to wait at the jump point for the rest of the squadron to arrive.  The Antares arrived at the jump point five hours later.  Commodore Hong ordered the France to retreat to the 4th planet, which would put it 415 mkm’s from the jump point, but still in between the jump point and the base in the inner system.  He then sent a message to the courier at the jump point back to the Empire to be forwarded on the other fleets involved in the operation and the fleet HQ on Terra. 

The Empire now has blocking forces in place in three of the four systems adjacent to the GJ 1128 system, although two of those forces aren’t particularly strong, and the main force advancing from Sol is still a week away from the Tau Cephei system. 

May 7, 2157, Tau Cephei system
The 1st Expeditionary Force has entered the Tau Cephei system, fresh from refueling from the tankers in the Gamma Carinae system.  Rear Admiral Paglinawan, following orders issued to him on Terra, retires to his quarters to open sealed orders.  Inside the packet he finds that he is ordered to clear Imperial space of the Rift Aliens.  Prior to his departure the Senate declared the Rift system and all associated systems part of the Shield Sector.  He was ordered to establish contact with the aliens and order them to depart, peacefully, if possible, by any means necessary if not.  If the aliens refused to talk, his orders were clear, that would be considered willful refusal of an Imperial order and he was authorized to use force to clear the alien infestation. 

His orders clear, Admiral Paglinawan ordered his fleet towards the jump point to the GJ 1128 system. 

May 13, 2157, Tau Cephei
The three assault groups of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet were arrayed around the jump point to the GJ 1128 system, also known now as the Rift System.  They consisted of an assault carrier, two dreadnoughts, two battleships, a jump battleship, four battlecruisers, and five destroyers.  Five million kilometers back from the jump point were the fleet’s other ships, three carriers, two strike carriers, four missile cruisers, five missile destroyers, seven destroyers, nine destroyer escorts, and several support ships.  On the signal, the assault groups jumped into the Tau Cephei system. 

They materialized in the GJ 1128 system with the familiar 7,602-ton Rift Alien ship sitting on the jump point.  The alien ship immediately set out across the system, towards the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system.  After the fleet’s sensors settled, several things became clear.  First, the rift itself was not only still there, but had significantly expanded, now extending beyond where the sensor buoys had been placed.  The buoys were still there, and still reporting, though.  The buoys on the Omicron Tucanae and Mu Cassiopeiae jump points had apparently been destroyed, and, finally, a commercial stabilization ship had been destroyed at the jump point to Mu Cassiopeiae system.  That last was enough for Admiral Cassella, who had taken over command of the fleet upon its arrival.  The aliens were hostile.  With the jump point secure, she sent a destroyer back to call through the rest of the fleet. 

Unknown to Admiral Casella, shortly after she jumped into the GJ 1128 system, nine large Rift Alien ships jumped into the Omicron Tucanae system, on top of the battleship Antares, which was picketing the jump point.  There were four 22,905-ton ships, and five 15,258-ton ships.  None were as large as the Terran warship, but as a group they significantly out-massed the battleship.  Commodore Hong ordered his crew to prepare to jump, and targeted all his ships weapons on one of the larger ships, but held fire to see what they would do.  After fifteen seconds of staring at the motionless alien ships, Commodore Hong decided to put some space in between his ship and the potentially hostile alien ships.  The Antares moved out to just within weapons range of the jump point and settled in to watch the alien ships. 

Ninety seconds later all uncertainty was removed when the alien ships opened fire on the battleship and the sensor buoy.  Ten lasers of varying strengths hit the Antares, reducing her shields to 91%.  Commodore Hong ordered his ship to open fire and sent a message to the France to launch her fighters.  The fighters wouldn’t arrive in time to decide this battle, but they would avenge the Antares, if nothing else.     

The alien ships accelerated away from the jump point at almost twice the speed of the Terran battleship, racing to close the distance.  The Antares fired her laser weapons, but the alien jammers made hitting the oncoming ships nearly impossible and all the battleship’s lasers missed. 

Commodore Hong saw the nine alien ships rushing towards his command and knew they were doomed.  He couldn’t out run them, and if a single long-range salvo was able to take out 10% of his shields, when he couldn’t even hit their ships, then he wasn’t likely to take very many of them with him.  Worse, based on the latest information he had, Admiral Casella had advanced into the GJ 1128 system to make contact with the aliens, and did not know that they were hostile, unless she had already encountered them.  His comms officer had already dispatched a message to the courier network ship sitting on the jump point back to the Empire, warning them of the attack, but it would take over twenty hours for the message to reach Admiral Casella.  There was a quicker way, though. 

“Helm, set a course to the jump point.  Take us through.  All weapons to continuous fire!”

The Terran BB turned towards the jump point, and the alien fleet, and raced forward. The aliens, perhaps realizing they held the range advantage, turned away to maintain the range.  This amused Commodore Hong, who hadn’t been sure that his ship could stand up to a close pass with the alien ships.  With them running ahead of his ship, the path to the jump point was clear.  The BB took several more hits to her shields during the approach, and scored one low power hit to an alien ship at long range. 

At the last second, as the BB approached the jump point, the aliens must had realized she was going to jump out as they turned and raced towards the human ship.  The battleship took a heavy shield hit that reduced her shields to 86%, and scored several more hits on one of the alien ship’s armor, and then jumped out. 

Once in the GJ 1128 system Commodore Hong ordered his comms officer to send a message towards the jump point to the Tau Cephei system and Admiral Casella’s last reported location.  It would take that message thirty minutes to arrive.  Then they settled in to wait for the Rift Aliens to jump into the system and continue their assault. 

Thirty seconds later they were still waiting.  By then the BB’s shields had recharged almost to 100%.  Thirty minutes later the battleship was still waiting.

Admiral Casella and the fleet received the transmission from the Antares twenty-eight minutes after it was sent.  By that time the Expeditionary Force’s carriers had joined them on the jump point and Admiral Casella had just ordered a fighter strike against the fleeing Rift Alien ship which was now ten million kilometers distant. 

Even as the carriers launched their fighters, the fleet scout accompanying the expeditionary force sent a contact report for four additional Rift Alien ships that had appeared within the Rift.  The four contacts were 15, 231 tons each.  Not wishing to leave a force in her rear when they advanced on the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system, Admiral Casella ordered her fleet to advance on the rift. 

Twenty-five minutes later the fighters had chased down their target and launched their missiles.  It took thirty-five seconds for the missiles to reach their target, which launched a decoy at the last second.  Only two of the twenty-four missiles were decoyed, and it only took five of the remaining missiles to destroy the fleeing ship.  Unlike the Hive aliens, the destruction of the Rift Alien ship left a drifting wreck, which was somehow comforting for all of the Terran crews.  The fighters returned to their bays aboard their carriers, to rearm for a strike against the ships in the rift. 

May 13, 2157, GJ 1128 system (Rift System)
By 0947 hours the Expeditionary Force was 82 million kilometers from the nearest of the Rift Alien ships.  The four ships that had ‘jumped’ into the system were divided into two widely separated groups, and had done nothing since jumping into the system.  This put Admiral Casella in something of a difficult position.  She could launch her fighters and use them to attack the ships within the rift, but she was reluctant to launch an alpha strike with missiles that could only be replaced by UNREP ships that had to travel all the way from Sol, against ships that could jump out of the system seconds before the missiles reached them.  In the alternative, she could take her assault groups into the rift to attack the alien ships, which would avoid wasting missiles, but that would expose her capital ships to a counter-attack by any ships the Rift Aliens had sitting on the far side of the rift. 

After some thought, and conferring with her staff, she decided to close to 25 mkm’s, at which point they would launch a strike from the force’s DDG’s.  The Absolution class DDG’s carried Archer IV missiles with a range of 30 mkm’s.  They would launch a small test strike, to see if the Rift Alien ships would jump out of the system when they came under missile threat. 
 
May 13, 2157, 1132 hours, Omicron Tucanae System
The France’s fighter group had been facing the same problem as Admiral Casella’s expeditionary fleet, in that their targets, the nine Rift Alien ships that had chased the Antares out of the system, were sitting on the jump point.  If the fighters launched their missiles, they would be able to avoid the strike by jumping out.  Here, though, the strike leader was relying on the experience of the France’s captain, who had served as a fighter pilot and fought several engagements against the Reapers and the Hive.  With both of those alien races, if the fighters got close enough to be detected, the aliens would pursue, even if they couldn’t catch the faster fighters.  Captain Zhen had ordered his fighters to approach to one million kilometers, and then, if the aliens didn’t react, to close even further.  The goal was to get them to pursue the fighters and move off of the jump point.  And it worked.  When the fighters reached two million kilometers from the jump point the nine alien ships began to pursue. 

The France’s fighters turned and ran ahead of the Rift Alien ships and salvoed their missile racks, targeting the four enemy ships equipped with heavy lasers, as they were the bigger threat to the Antares.  The heavy laser ships were slightly larger than an Imperial battlecruiser at 22,905 tons, and equipped with nine heavy lasers capable of dealing heavy damage out to 341,000 kilometers.  These had been christened the Espakeh heavy battle cruiser class, while the other five ships were the Caripare light cruiser class, in between battlecruiser and destroyer sized, and equipped with eight small lasers presumably for missile defense. 

Thirty second after launch, the missiles slammed into their targets.  Sixty-three hit their targets, fifty-one were intercepted by laser fire short of their targets, and the remainder came around to attack again.

Espakeh-001: Twelve armor hits, four decoyed
Espakeh-002: Twelve armor hits, two decoyed
Espakeh-003: Eight armor hits, four decoyed
Espakeh-004: Seventeen armor hits, four decoyed

The remaining came around and attacked again, getting only thirteen hits and losing fifty-three to point defense fire. 

Espakeh-001: two armor hits
Espakeh-002: four armor hits
Espakeh-003: two armor hits
Espakeh-004: four armor hits, one decoyed

The rapidly dwindling missile swarm came around again, but only managed to get one hit while losing twenty-six more to point defense fire.  That left one missile in the strike, and it got shot down before it could get close enough to attack again. 

None of the targets suffered breaches in their armor, however, the strike was not a complete failure.  The four ships had suffered an average of fifteen missile hits each, and as they had no shields their armor must be at least somewhat depleted.  The fighters raced away from the slower alien ships to return to the France and rearm. 

[Kurt (OP)]

May 13, 2157, 1210 hours, GJ 1128 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force has arrived at its waypoint.  Admiral Casella issues the order to fire to her DDG’s, and soon thereafter twenty Archer III ASM’s were on their way, headed towards the closest pair of Rift Alien ships.  Little was known about this ship class, which had been designated the Kurhah class.  It was 15,231 tons, putting it in between a Terran DD and a BC, but nothing more was known.  Twelve minutes later the missiles hit, scoring seven hits on the two ships, with the rest being intercepted. 

The Terran fleet waited another two minutes, bit the Rift Alien ships didn’t move.  At that point Admiral Casella ordered a second strike to be launched against all four ships.  Seconds later eighty Archer III ASM’s were on their way.  The missiles reached the closer group first, and this was the same group that was attacked by the first salvo.  Nearly half of the missiles avoided point defense fire, but a quarter of those were decoyed away from the ships.  The remainder hit the ships and scarred their armor, but none penetrated.  The second missile strike scored thirteen hits between the two ships, all of which were absorbed by the armor.  Five were decoyed and twenty-two were shot down short of their targets. 

The alien ships were proving to be more difficult targets than anticipated.  Admiral Casella ordered the five DDG’s to empty their missile pods, and seconds later one hundred and ten missiles were on their way towards the four Rift Alien ships. 

Once again, the closer group came under attack first.  One of the ships took seventeen hits, ten of which penetrated.  The other took seven, none of which penetrated.  The two ships of the further group took ten hits each, and both suffered penetrating hits.   
 
The survival of the four ships left Admiral Casella in a difficult position.  She could withdraw and head to the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system and relieve the BB Antares, leaving the four ships on the rift.  They were damaged, and it was possible they no longer represented a threat.  Or she could advance into the rift and force a close engagement.  Even taking the enemy’s superior technology into account, her fleet vastly outmatched the four ships, even if they were intact.  She had no idea what was sitting on the far side of the rift, though, and for all she knew the aliens might be waiting for her to move into the rift area so that her fleet could be ambushed. 

In the end she decided to launch a fighter strike against the four ships, to eliminate them before moving on to relieve the Antares.  Twenty-two minutes later the forty-four strike fighters from the Allegiance of Terra and the two DN’s Andromeda and Pegasus were on station and ready to launch.  Seconds later three hundred and twenty Sparrow IIb missiles were on their way towards the four alien ships.  When the explosions around the four ships cleared, three were little more than debris, while the fourth had suffered eight penetrating hits. 

The two strike groups reunited one point five mkm’s from the remaining alien ship, and then the four fighters with ordnance launched their missiles against that last alien ship.  The thirty-two missiles destroyed the last ship, but it took twelve penetrating hits to kill it.  Their job finished; the fighters returned to their bays. 

With the fighters safely in their bays, the 1st Expeditionary Force set out for the jump point to Omicron Tucanae and the Antares.  The five DDG’s, now out of missiles, detached from the main force and jumped out of GJ 1128, headed for Sol to rearm. 

May 13, 2157, 1814 hours, Omicron Tucanae
The CV France has rearmed her fighters, and launches again as soon as they are ready.  The enemy’s location is not known, as they pursued the fighters until they fell off the fighter’s sensors.  The France’s squadron will head towards the jump point in the hopes of reacquiring them. 

At 2330 hours the fighters are close enough to re-acquire the alien ships, which have returned to the jump point.  Once again, the alien ships begin to pursue the fighters once they get close enough, and again the fighters launch against the alien ships.  This time the fighters focused their fire on three of the Caripare class escorts, in the hopes of stripping their missile defense capabilities from the Rift Alien fleet.  The two hundred and eight Sparrow IIb missiles reached their targets twenty seconds later, scoring twenty-one, fifteen, and sixteen armor hits on the three ships, none of which penetrated.  Once again, the fighters turned back towards the carriers, leaving the alien ships to fall behind them.  The aliens pursued the fighters for over an hour, until they fell off the fighter’s sensors. 

May 14, 2157, 0639 hours, Omicron Tucanae
The France has reloaded her fighters, but has nearly drained her magazines to do so.  Captain Zhen launches his last strike, but with orders to remain four million kilometers from the jump point as Admiral Casella’s ETA to the jump point is approximately an hour after the France’s fighters will arrive.  It is Captain Zhen’s intent to have his fighters draw the aliens away from the jump point, so that Admiral Casella can get her carriers and warships into the Omicron Tucanae system without having to engage the enemy ships after jumping in. 

At 1155 hours the France’s fighters pick up the nine Rift Alien ships on their sensors as they approach the jump point.  The fighters approached to 11 mkm’s from the jump point, at which time the Rift Alien ships began pursuing them.  Lt Commander You ordered his fighters to turn away, and the fighter group set out to lead the alien ships away from the jump point.  Lt Commander You let the alien ships close to three million kilometers from the fighter group, then accelerated to match the alien ship’s speed, leading them on a course away from anything important in the system.

Almost two hours later, at 1345 hours, the 1st Expeditionary Force arrived at the jump point in the GJ 1128 system to the Omicron Tucanae system.  Admiral Casella ordered her assault units through the jump point and they arrived in Omicron Tucanae to find the nine Rift Alien ships pursuing the France’s fighters, now 71 mkm’s from the jump point. 

The 1st Expeditionary Force’s assault ships were content to wait on the jump point for the rest of the fleet’s carriers to join them.  The alien ships continued to pursue the France’s fighters, but then, just as the fleet’s carriers jumped into the system, the aliens turned back towards the jump point.  It was too late, though.  Admiral Casella ordered her ships to launch every fighter they had, and soon one hundred and forty-four fighters were in space, headed towards the alien fleet.  Once the fighters were away, the carriers jumped back to the GJ 1128 system and put some distance between themselves and the jump point. 

At 1429 hours the three fighter groups were in position to launch.  Admiral Casella had decided to launch an overwhelming strike against the alien fleet, as the range was too close to try again, or conserve missiles.  In seconds, one thousand, three hundred and sixty Sparrow IIb missiles were in space, racing towards the alien ships.  The Rift Alien ships all turned towards the France’s fighters after the launch, perhaps running from the bigger missile strike coming from the 1st Expeditionary Force’s fighters.  The aliens soon turned back towards the larger fighter group, meaning the alpha strike from the 1st Expeditionary Force’s fighters would arrive first.

The missile wave washed over the alien force in a flurry of explosions.  When the first wave’s fireballs cleared, three of the heavy cruisers and three of the light cruisers were just gone, leaving one heavy cruiser and two light cruisers to face the fury of the remaining missiles.  The next attack took out the remaining heavy cruiser and one of the light cruisers, leaving a single light cruiser in the midst of fifty-nine remaining missiles.  The remaining missiles took out the last light cruiser, meaning that the strike cleared the area of the remaining alien ships.  The threat to the Omicron Tucanae system was decisively ended. 

While the fighters returned to their carriers, messages were sent to recall the terraformers so they could begin working on the innermost planet once again. 

Once the 1st Expeditionary Force’s fighters were back in their bays, Admiral Casella issued orders for the fleet to return to the GJ 1128 system and begin to advance on the jump point to the Mu Cassiopeiae system.  A civilian jump gate stabilization ship had been destroyed at the jump point, and the sensor buoy watching the jump point had been destroyed.  If there were any more Rift Alien ships in the system, there were likely located there. 

Once the France’s fighters landed, the carrier would return to Shield Base for replenishment and overhaul, as it had expended almost all of its missiles.  The Antares was left to watch the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system, and Admiral Casella detached a DD and a DDE to join the battleship.   

May 16, 2157, GJ 1128 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force assault groups have arrived at their staging point fifteen million kilometers from the jump point to the Mu Cassiopeiae system without spotting any alien ships.  Once the carriers are in position, the assault groups advance and jump to the Mu Cassiopeiae system, where they find a single stabilization ship hovering off of the jump point.  No Rift Alien ships have entered the system, so the fleet returns to the GJ 1128 system and heads for the rift.  Before they depart, a missile cruiser launches a buoy carrier missile to station a sensor buoy near the jump point. 

With the system clear of alien ships, Admiral Casella orders the Contact Force, which had advanced out of the 111 Virginis system and had been guarding the jump point to the adjacent 82 Draconis system, to detach its support ships and return to Sol for overhauls.  The support ships would join the 1st Expeditionary Fleet’s support units. 

May 18, 2157, GJ 1128 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force is in position 141 mkm’s from the Rift.  Admiral Casella orders her missile cruisers to establish another ring of sensor buoys around the rift, to ensure complete coverage. 

June 30, 2157, GJ 1128 (Rift) system, Leviathan frontier
A group of tugs drops off four missile bases over the newly established Rift Base, located on the thirteenth moon of the seventh planet, a gas giant.  The base is still in the early stages, and does not have ground forces, or most of its installations yet. 

July 12, 2157, GJ 1128 (Rift) system, Leviathan Frontier
Assault transports finished unloading the 5th Guard Division and 69,00 tons of STO units for planetary defense.  So far, a refueling station and a munitions transfer station had been positioned at the base, and tracking stations and maintenance and R&R bases were on their way. 

July 13, 2157, EQ Pegasi System, Kraken Frontier
Xeno study teams have completed their work in the ruined colony found on the innermost planet, discovering seventy-six installations that appear to be recoverable. 

September 23,2 157, GJ 1128 (Rift System), Leviathan Frontier
Rift Naval Base is officially declared operational on this date.  The base is located on the outer moon of the system’s seventh planet, a gas giant whose orbit will keep it near the rift for some time.  The base currently consists of a naval command center, a refueling station, an ordnance transfer station, a cargo shuttle station, and thirty deep space tracking stations.  The tankers and UNREP ships assigned to the 1st Expeditionary force have transferred their fuel and maintenance supplies to the base, and heavy ground defenses, including the 5th Guard Division and a large STO contingent, are present.  The first group of maintenance and recreation bases are en route and will arrive in five and a half days.  Finally, fourteen missile bases are in orbit over the base, with more on the way. 

With the establishment of the base, the Senate officially renames the system to the Rift System. 

September 29, 2157, Rift System, Leviathan Frontier
The first set of five maintenance bases and a recreation base are delivered to Rift Base.  These bases aren’t enough to maintain the missile bases in orbit, much less the 1st Expeditionary Force, but it is a start.  The heavy tugs that dropped off the bases immediately leave, headed back to Sol to pick up more maintenance bases. 

December 29, 2157, Rift System, Leviathan Frontier
The heavy tug group delivers six more maintenance stations, increasing the Rift Base’s maintenance capacity to the point where it can maintain the nineteen missile bases currently in orbit, with a bit additional for ships.  The tugs will return to the Solar system for another group of maintenance bases to enlarge the base’s capability to support additional ships. 

January 20, 2158, Rift System, Leviathan Frontier
A salvage ship, working on one of the Rift alien ships destroyed within the rift, recovers a solid-core antimatter power plant, and a soft X-ray laser turret, along with assorted other standard ship’s systems and resources.

January 23, 2158
Both the Hive and the Rift ships have been difficult targets for standard Imperial missiles, so, after the recent engagements in the Rift and Omicron Tucanae system, the Navy began an R&D effort aimed at developing missiles with advanced point defense penetration capabilities.  The researchers soon settled on a capability first seen in use by the Rift Aliens, laser warheads, which could attack from a standoff distance that would hopefully allow them to attack before being engaged by point defense.  The result is the Assegai-LW ASM.  The Assegai is the same size as an Archer IV ASM, and has similar capabilities, except the warhead of the Archer has been replaced with a laser warhead set to engage at 20,000 kilometers.  Construction has started and the missile will be deployed aboard the Absolution class missile destroyers as soon as they become available.   

The base in the Rift system is now fully operational.  The base’s ground defenses are in place, and   twelve missile bases orbit the moon.  The missile bases do not have the range to engage ships in the rift, but are in place to defend the base should the Rift Aliens attempt to attack the base.  The base has enough orbiting maintenance bases to support the orbiting missile bases as well as almost two hundred thousand tons of naval ships.  Admiral Casella has decided to depart the system for home, as her ships are in dire need of overhauls.  She detaches a battleship, two battlecruisers and three destroyers, along with the 1st Carrier Group, composed of a carrier and two strike carriers, to act as the Rift System Defense Force.  These ships immediately set out for Rift Base, where they will undergo overhauls before taking up their system defense duties.  The rest of the fleet sets out for Sol. 

In addition to the twelve missile bases in orbit over Rift Base, seven long duration missile bases have been towed into position to engage anything coming out of the Rift.  Because the rift is now thirty million kilometers across, which more or less matches the missile base’s engagement range, the missile bases will be positioned within the rift. 

This is the first time the missile bases have been used in such a critical and exposed role.  This, in turn, has caused the missile base program to be examined more closely, and has revealed just how critically neglected the missile base program has been.  The bases were originally conceived and built decades ago when naval planners believed that the Raiders were using standard jump points to travel between systems.  The bases were built to bolster Terra’s defenses, and long-duration bases were built to be stationed at jump points to interdict Raiders trying to travel between systems.  When it became clear that Raiders used other methods to travel between systems, the bases were relegated to colony defense duties, and over the decades they fell behind as naval ships were kept current with successive upgrades.  Before being deployed to the Rift system the bases were loaded with the latest missiles, but most of their other systems are woefully out of date.  This has caused the Navy to re-examine the bases and planning for a major upgrade and expansion of the base program is underway.     

The Rift Campaign is officially over. 

[Kurt (OP)]

Note: These events occur during the same time period as the last post, but were separated out for clarity.  The last event in this post occurs just before the end of the Rift Campaign.

April 10, 2157, Bobruisk Territories
A ship from the 2nd LRSS working in the Bobruisk system of 86 Cygni, jumps through a newly discovered jump point to find itself in a binary yellow/red star system.  The system’s third planet, a super Jovian gas giant, is orbited by twenty-one moons, three of which have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres.  None of them are particularly Terra-like, but given the system’s proximity to the battle grounds in the 86 Cygni and HIP 84051 systems, it is certainly possible that this system contains the long-searched for Bobruisk home world.  The system’s secondary star is very distant from the primary, over two trillion kilometers, and has no planets or moons with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres.  As the jump point is located almost six billion kilometers from the primary star, the survey ship immediately begins moving in-system to reach a point at which it can launch sensor probes towards the habitable planets to determine if they are populated.  The system is designated as the Mu Puppis system.

April 23, 2157, Mu Puppis System, Bobruisk Territories
The first of the sensor missiles launched by the survey ship arrives over one of the habitable moons of the third planet and deploys its sensor buoy.  It immediately detects over three hundred Bobruisk ships in orbit over the moon and another eighty in orbit over the planet.  The moon has a thermal signature five times that of Terra. The other two probes find a small Bobruisk population on the sixth moon, and nothing on the eleventh moon. 

May 22, 2157, HIP 84051 system, Bobruisk Territories
Three ships of the 2nd LR Survey Group were occupied surveying this system when their sensors alerted them that numerous small nuclear explosions had been detected at the jump point to 86 Cygni.  Seconds later, the wreck of a 16,190 ton unknown ship appeared on the jump point.  The HIP 84051 system was controlled by the new race the Terran ships had discovered when they jumped into the system, and the Bobruisk had had ships stationed on the far side of the jump point.  It wasn’t clear if the destroyed ship was Bobruisk, the local aliens, or someone else. 

May 24, 2157, 86 Cygni system, Bobruisk Territories
Units of the 2nd LR Survey Group in operating in this system pick up sixty-two strength 12 nuclear detonations on the jump point to the HP 84051 system, along with a large secondary power system explosion.  This occurs just over two days after the incident in the HIP 84051 system.  It is clear that the Bobruisk and the new race are engaged in a war. 

June 12, 2157, Bobruisk Territories
A survey ship in the 2nd LR Survey Group jumps out of the HIP Alien controlled HIP 84051 system through a newly discovered jump point and finds itself in the Rho Camelopardalis system.  The system has a red M0-V primary, orbited by three terrestrial class planets, two gas giants, and a small outer dwarf.  The second planet was a colony cost 0.0 world for humans, and the other two appeared to be easily terraformed.   Of extreme interest were twelve wrecks, mostly clustered around the jump point.  Five wrecks were of unknown type, likely meaning they belonged to the new alien race encountered in the HIP 48051 system.  These wrecks included three mammoth 89,159 ton ships, and two smaller 25,517 ton ships.  In addition, there were five wrecked Bobruisk warships on the jump point, two light battleships and three cruisers.  There was an additional wrecked HIP alien ship 75 mkm’s out-system from the jump point, and a wrecked Bobruisk light battleship 800 mkm’s in-system, towards the habitable planet. 

The Terran survey ship immediately launched sensor drones towards all of the planets and then jumped out to inform the rest of the survey group about its find. 



Known Bobruisk Military Ships
2xLDN
30xHBB
3xBB
48x LBB
4xHBC
7xLBC
19xCA,
3xCL
12xHDD

The armaments of Bobruisk ships are unknown, but assumed to be advanced as their speeds range from 5,575 to 17,314 km/s for capital ships, and speeds in excess of 18,000 km/s for the CL and DD classes.  In addition to the military ships listed above, the Bobruisk are known to operate two hundred and six commercial ships of varying sizes.  Finally, there are four hundred and thirty-two ships of unknown design operating within the Bobruisk territories.  At the current time they have not been observed closely enough to determine if they are military or commercial ships. 

Currently, a fleet scout is en route to the Bobruisk Territories to scan both Bob and HIP ships and gather useful intelligence on their military capabilities.  In addition, a group of diplomatic ships is on its way to the HIP 84051 system to establish contact with the HIP aliens, and several salvage ships have been sent to begin recovering whatever we can from wrecked Bob and HIP ships. 

June 16, 2157, Rho Camelopardalis system, Bobruisk Territories, suspected New Alien home system
A Terran sensor buoy is deployed over the innermost terrestrial planet, detecting a thermal signature twice as strong as the Ganymede colony, which has 527 million colonists but little industry as of yet.  The innermost planet is much smaller than Terra, and has no atmosphere.  No ships are detected in proximity to the planet. 

The sensor buoy also detects a population on the second planet, which is the Terra-like colony cost 0.0 planet.  This population has a thermal signature close to that of Terra’s, indicating it is a heavily populated and industrialized world. 

Shortly after, a sensor buoy is deployed over the fourth planet, a gas giant.  This buoy detects two outposts, on the fifth and six moons, and nine HIP ships orbiting the sixth moon. 

Several hours later the drone assigned to the second planet deploys its sensor buoy, and when the data reaches the survey ship, its plot is littered with HIP ship contacts over the world, making it clear that it is almost certainly the HIP home world.  In fact, there were over four hundred ships in orbit over the planet.  The buoys deployed to the two outer planets, five and six, detected no settlements or ships.   

Sometime later, as the survey ship explores the system, it discovers a mining outpost on one of the comets, and deploys a sensor buoy.  Seven 956 ton HIP ships are accompanying the comet. 

June 19, 2157, HIP 84051 System, Bobruisk Territories
The survey of the HIP 84051 system is complete.  It contains two jump points, which see, to connect the HIP and Bob empires.  The innermost planet has large deposits of seven TN resources, some at good availability levels.  And, of course, dozens of wrecked starships. 

June 28, 2157, Rho Camelopardalis, Bobruisk Territories
The Long-Range Survey Ship Husband was conducting a geo survey on an asteroid when its sensors began picking up explosions on or around the HIP home world.  Out of the blue there were thousands of energy weapons discharges, and nearly simultaneously the survey ship’s sensors detected over a hundred HIP ships bound for their position at the asteroid, or intent on moving past it, perhaps fleeing the fighting in the inner system.  Based on the number of energy weapons discharges there was clearly a major battle ongoing over the HIP home world.  The captain of the Husband ordered his ship to abandon the survey and move in-system. 

It was at this point that the Husband was attacked by a missile wave, seriously damaging her armor.  The Husband’s captain sent out an emergency alert to the other survey ships in the system, and turned to run.  Unfortunately, the Husband wasn’t fast enough to escape the groups of HIP ships closing on their position, and they certainly weren’t fast enough to escape the missile waves approaching at 86,000 km/s and 53,000 km/s.  The ship wasn’t a warship, and her box launchers were filled with sensor drones. 

The first wave of missiles to reach the Husband was composed of four fast missiles, and they devastated the ship.  The missiles exploded short of the Husband and sent powerful laser blasts into the ship, which had already had much of its armor stripped away.  The four strikes penetrated the remaining armor and destroyed much of the ship’s critical systems, including its engines.  This left it a sitting duck for the next wave of missiles, which stripped away more armor and did even more internal damage.  At this point the ship’s captain ordered his crew to abandon ship and sent off his last report. 

There was one other survey ship in the system, the LRS McAuliffe.  When it received the Husband’s distress call and warning, the ship’s captain immediately ordered his ship to head for the jump point.  Their ETA was 3.3 days.  Once the HIP aliens began taking out the sensor buoys the captain of the McAuliffe decided to detour out to the outer system before heading for the jump point, to try and avoid any alien warships. 

June 30, 2157, 86 Cygni system, Bobruisk Territories
A survey ship in the 86 Cygni system picked up explosions at the jump point to the HIP alien-controlled HIP 84051 system, and shortly afterwards a new wreck of a small HIP alien ship appears on the jump point. 

July 4, 2157, Rho Camelopardalis, Bobruisk Territories
The LRS McAuliffe is on final approach to the jump point out of the HIP aliens’ system.  At a range of sixty million kilometers the survey ship’s sensors detect four corvette class HIP warships on the jump point.  The captain of the McAuliffe is determined to run the gauntlet and leave the system, to get word back to the empire of the treachery of the HIP aliens.  An hour later a light cruiser becomes visible on the jump point. 

When the survey ship reaches 38 mkm’s from the jump point the HIP squadron leaves its station and heads for the oncoming survey ship.  As the alien ships are much faster than the Terran survey ship, Captain Quinn knows that she will have little chance to make it to the jump point, and they cannot outrun their pursuers.  Therefore, she issues orders for a sensor buoy to be launched.  Seconds later a sensor drone races away from the ship, headed towards a point away from the jump point.  Before it was launched the McAuliffe’s comm officer downloaded the ship’s logs into the databank of the buoy carried by the drone. 

Two minutes later a missile salvo consisting of thirty-three missiles moving at 104,000 mkm’s appeared on the survey ship’s sensors.  Just before the missiles hit, Captain Quinn ordered a final download to the buoy’s databanks.  Then the missiles exploded and sent rods of coherent light spearing out, cutting through the survey ship’s armor and carving it in half. 

The sensor drone was too close to the survey ship when the missiles arrived, and died in the same salvo. 

July 7, 2157, HIP 84051 system, Bobruisk Territories
The LRS Smith, which was in the HIP 84051 system, on the jump point heading back towards Bobruisk territory, detected a group of four HIP ships inbound towards the jump point.  The captain ordered his science officer to continue to try to establish communications with the aliens, but was otherwise unconcerned.  When the HIP ships reached firing range they opened fire at the Smith, annihilating it in one salvo.  The Smith had been waiting on the jump point for one of the survey ships in the HIP home system to report in. 

July 20, 2157, 86 Cygni system, Bobruisk Territory
LRS-10 Resnik arrived at the jump point to HIP 84051 and found a single Bobruisk ship guarding the point.  As the Resnik approached the jump point, the Bobruisk ship transmitted a short message to the Terran survey ship.  This was an unusual development, from the normally standoffish Bobruisk, so Captain Jian ordered his ship to halt before they transited and waited for the message to be deciphered.  They discovered it was a picture of a wrecked starship.  As the survey ship’s officers examined it, they realized that it was a destroyed Terran Long Range Survey ship.  The Bobruisk were warning them. 

That was enough for Captain Jian.  The Resnik had been preparing to jump into HIP 84051 to determine the status of the other four survey ships of the 2nd LRSS, which had all been in the HIP 84051 system, or the HIP alien’s home system.  They had been overdue for check in, and now it appeared that they had been destroyed.  Captain Jian was tempted to jump through anyway, to see for himself, but his ship wasn’t a warship and couldn’t take a point-blank attack.  So, he did the only thing he could.  First, he sent a message to the only other remaining ship from the 2nd, which was heading towards the jump point back to the Empire.  The message informed them of the warning from the Bobruisk and detailed his plan to meet the 1st LRSS, which was surveying in Bobruisk territory beyond their home system and inform them of the possible destruction of the rest of the 2nd.  In the meantime, the Onizuka would head back to Shield Base with their information.     

It would take the Onizuka forty-three days to reach the Groombridge system and Shield Base. 

July 24, 2157, Mu Puppis (Bobruisk Home system), Bobruisk territories
A survey ship from the 1st LRSS jumps out of the system through a newly discovered jump point, finding itself in the omega Lyrae system.  This system has a G8-V primary, orbited by a inner terrestrial planet, a dwarf, two gas giants, and a super Jovian.  None of the planets have atmospheres, but the jump point is surrounded by forty-one Bobruisk ships.  While all of the ship classes are known, little is known about these classes, even whether they are military or commercial. 

July 26, 2157, Mu Puppis (Bobruisk Home System), Bobruisk Territories
The survey of the Bobruisk home system is complete.  In addition to a total of three jump points, the system contains a small number of resource deposits of limited interest.  The only major deposit is a sorium deposit on the same super Jovian the Bobruisk home world orbits.  Interestingly, the Bobruisk home world appears to have no TN resources, indicating that they must have mined it out and are dependent on out-system mining, much like the Empire.  The survey ships move on to the two systems found through the newly discovered jump points, both of which have been stabilized. 

August 1, 2157, Omega Lyrae System, Bobruisk Territories
The 1st LRSS Komarov, headed in-system and nine hundred and eighty million kilometers from the system, detects two Bobruisk light battleships apparently sitting in deep space. 

August 24, 2157, HIP 48659 (Original Bob contact point), Bobruisk Territories
The two surviving survey ships of the 2nd LRSS jump into the HIP 48659 system and immediately send their reports to the courier waiting on the jump point back to the Empire.  It will take twenty-three hours for the courier network to relay the message back to Terra. 

August 25. 2157, Terra
The arrival of the news of the destruction of the bulk of the 2nd LRSS at the hands of the enemies of the Bobruisk causes consternation throughout both the admiralty and the senate, however, that is a distant problem, and for now the Empire is focused on securing the GJ 1128-Rift system.  This new enemy is thirteen jumps from Terra and almost 39 billion kilometers.  It can wait. 

September 4, 2157, 86 Cygni System, Bobruisk Territories
Three Terran salvage ships and their six accompanying freighters jump into the 86 Cygni system.  The group immediately breaks up and heads for the wrecks clustered around their entry point into the system.  There are two Bob wrecks, a LBB and an LBC, and a lone 30,644 ton unknown class, probably belonging to the HIP aliens. 

The salvage ships are relatively safe in this position, deep within Bob territory, and a Terran scout is located on the far side of the system watching the jump point to HIP alien territory, so there will be warning if the HIP aliens jump into the system. 

This is a high priority operation, as salvaging Bob and HIP ships will give the Empire valuable insight into their technological capabilities.   

December 19, 2157, Sol
The Imperial Navy puts into action Operation Tollhouse, a plan to establish a hidden base in the Bobruisk Territories.  This base will eventually contain ground defenses, refueling and resupply capability, and maintenance support and R&D facilities.  The plan calls for the base to be established on one of the moons of the third planet of Upsilon Puppis, which is adjacent to 86 Cygni, where salvage operations are currently underway, and two jumps from the Bob home system and the disputed system of HIP 48069.

The Navy views this as a necessary step to enable a military expedition against the HIP aliens, now officially code named the Oct’s (rather unimaginatively, as the aliens look as if they are descended from Terran octopi).  The closest Oct controlled system to the solar system is HIP 48069, and it is fourteen jumps and 42 billion kilometers away from Terra.  The Upsilon Puppis system does not appear to be used by the Bob’s, so if they happen to stumble across our base, they hopefully will not be too upset.  It will take quite some time to ship all the necessary installations to the system, though.

December 29, 2157, 86 Cygni System, Bobruisk Territories
Three salvage ships had been working in this system for the last several months to recover everything possible from the five wrecks located in the system.  These wrecks belonged to both the Bob’s and the Oct’s, and the Empire desperately needed information on their capabilities.  The recovery effort was done, and the salvage ships were withdrawing from the vicinity of the jump point to HIP 86059 to rendezvous with the scout assigned to watch over them.  It had been a risky move to salvage so closely to the jump point, when the Oct’s were known to launch periodic attacks, but the jump point was guarded by two Bob light battleships, so the risk had been fairly low. 

The salvage ships had recovered numerous ship’s systems, including ECM systems equal to those the Empire used, various sensors, and size 8, 2.5, and 9 missile launchers.  The size 9 missile launchers came from the unknown wrecks, which were presumed to be Oct warships, and interestingly they were reduced size, slow-loading designs.  Additionally, one of the salvage ships stripped some data from one of the wrecks that would give Imperial R&D a leg up on fuel efficiency research. 

The real prize was in the HIP 48069 system, where over eighty wrecks drifted.  Unfortunately, the loss of the survey ships argued that the jump point was defended, so until the Empire could dispatch a fleet to the area there would be no way to recover those wrecks.