After discovering another race in 70 ophiuchi which has been harrassing civilian shipping operation swift vengence has begun.
A severe fuel shortage still restricts what can be sent, however the latest destroyed freighter lies only 7.6 billion kilometers from earth in Bernard's star, barely missing the second colony run of Robinsons to the ruins in 70 ophiuchi. Considering the cost of these ships, and the tens of thousands of civilians within, The UN Security Council has authorised an immediate recon in force, hopefully salvaging the life pods will be possible too, however the only ship close enough is an unarmed geosurvey ship, thankfully the investment in powerful thermal sensors has allowed several ships of the hawke class to avoid several patrols from both hostile species.
Due to the availability of a mere 2 million litres of fuel the recon force will consist of the aging Hermes fighter maintenance corvette, which has the range and fuel caoacuty to escort a Wing of 6 fighters and a sensor scout to the battle site, arriving just after the Hermes will be the Valkyrie AMM destroyer, the crossbow gauss pd escort, the ASM destroyers Tenacious and Valiant and 4 beta class AMM FACs.
Of note is the observed speed of the belligerent, 4300 km/s, only the Betas at 4500 km/s and the Battle hawks at 9000 km/s can chase down the enemy ship.
However the destroyers while being slow at 2592 km/s possess a formidable 93 million kilometer fire range and the enemy is expected to remain within shipping lanes lieing in ambush.
Edit: the enemy ship caught up with the fleeing colony ship, after launching 3 salvos with several hits the assault ceased, perhaps running out of ordnance.
Edit: the crew of the geo survey ship Amber were not so lucky.