THS Anshar
Furthest outskirts of the Hood System
Lyran Commonwealth
Jumping into the Hood system was a tricky prospect for two reasons. First was the need to actually see what was going on. Second was the desire to not be seen while doing it. Normally, if one wanted to pass through a system without being seen, you picked a point far enough out of the way that nobody could possibly see you, or you used a ship that made as small of a jump signature as possible. Or you just didn't, picking instead any of the numerous stars that didn't have any people there in the first place.
The Anshar didn't have any of those normal options. The whole point was to see what was going on here, which ruled out keeping their distance or picking another star, and over eight hundred thousand tons of assault carrier tended to make an unavoidably big "splash" on entry. They had some advantages. The Anshar and the rest of her sisters were loaded with ridiculously powerful and sensitive sensor and tracking systems, which meant they could afford to hang around further out than a typical vessel could and still see and listen in on everything they needed to. It's what let them observe the Melissia system for weeks undetected, until all hell had broken loose and they'd jumped into the fray between the Jade Falcons and this first wave of a new invasion by Clan Star Adder.
Unfortunately, this wasn't Melissia. The Hood system was one of the worlds in the Quarantine Zone, the region of the Commonwealth that had been hit by Arluna Flu. Though the Hegemony's information on the Zone's current status was full of holes, even if the locals had gotten things sorted out, a lot of the infrastructure put into place to prevent almost exactly what the Anshar was doing was likely still in place. Warning satellites, passive tracking stations, maybe even active patrols.
Still, this was what they did, this was one of the things the Anshar's crew had trained for. And they had their orders. Commodore Riese needed them to keep an eye out for these new clan invaders, to get an idea just how widespread this invasion was.
"Sail is deployed," comms reported. "Charging cycle is underway."
Captain Emily Garson nodded her understanding. They'd come out of their jump well beyond the proximity limit, followed by a short burn that would put them on a path that would eventually intersect the limit, in a few months. Ideally, anybody who saw the jump flash would still be too far away to have picked up the burn of their transit drive, so by the time they were able to respond, the Anshar wouldn't be where they were expecting, but still close enough to pick them up when they jumped in.
Ideally, at least. "Thinker," Captain Garson ordered to the cybernetically augmented girl that practically lived in the ship's computer core. "You and the sensor teams had better be paying damn good attention. The patrol boats the locals use have damn small emergence waves, and intel says their navigators are scary good. I don't want a nuke armed lunatic sneaking up on us." Part of running silent, like the Anshar was doing now, meant no active sensor emissions, which included the fire control of the ship's point defense system. At short range, they'd have no chance of bringing it up in time to repel a snap missile strike.
Hopefully, even if they were detected, it wouldn't come to that, though. If detected by the locals, their orders were to take no hostile action unless fired upon. They were to talk first. Who they were, why they were here, info on the invaders encountered at Melissia. And if the invaders showed up, they were to render whatever assistance they could in repelling them. Not just as good samaritans. The reports of what Arluna Flu did to people were terrifying, and their interrogations of the prisoners taken at the battle of Melissia suggested the invaders knew absolutely nothing about it. It was a recipe for disaster if they came blundering in to spread it all over again.
"Emergence waves detected," the sensor officer reported. "Two of them, zenith point."
"Jump signature is most consistent with Fredasa class corvettes," Thinker offered over the comms. "Based on all available information, we have to assume these are part of the Star Adder invasion force."
"Of course they are," Captain Garson said with a sigh. "I'll do you one better, they're here because of us."
"I concur" Thinker replied. "Two small corvettes are insufficient to be conducting a planetary invasion. It is almost certain they were dispatched to locate the unknown force they faced at Melissia. Likely other ships will be probing other worlds."
"Worry about the ones in front of us, Thinker," Captain Garson said. Thinker, and the other Deep Thinkers assigned to the various ships of the fleet, did love to speculate.
"If we stick to silent running," Thinker suggested, "It's highly likely we will be able to remain here undetected until they move on. If we are detected, it's likely one of the hostile ships will jump out to report our position."
"They aren't trying to be stealthy," Captain Garson said, lost in thought. "The locals know they're there, which means they'll respond. Two corvettes against whatever patrol ships can get here quickly. It'll be a mess. Worse, even if they kill both the ships before they can run, the Star Adders will know something happened. They'll come back in force. Let's give them something else to look for."
"Shouldn't remaining concealed and continuing our mission be more heavily weighted?" Thinker asked.
"That's why they don't make you girls captain," Captain Garson said. "Detach the jump sail. Sensors, weapons, go to full active. Helm, get me an intercept course at two gravities and execute." Their jump core and the LF battery were dry just getting here. If they wanted to engage, they'd have to either close the old fashioned way, or bring the party to them. "Comms, the first patrol boat that turns up, I want our 'we come in peace' message ready to beam to them as soon as their sensors clear."
"You're hoping if you engage them here, they'll focus their attention here, and give Commodore Riese's group a chance to get through, correct?"
"Good girl," Captain Garson acknowledged. Commodore Riese had not only her ship, but a whole convoy of captured vessels, prisoners, materials, and priceless intelligence under her care. She wasn't using inhabited systems to transit, but with an enemy this aggressive, every edge would help.
