Layover

Captain Darren sighed and leaned forward in his chair, rubbing his forehead with his index and middle fingers. It had been 4 days since the report of the Massacre at Onyx and the new orders to head out to engage UFP. After resupplying and reinforcing the fleet at Ardreas, they had headed up-galaxy toward New Corinth, the empire's fleet base in the north-central region. All had gone well on the journey up, but shortly after transition back to normal space, they received an urgent transmission from New Corinth Fleet Comm. Rebels on the occupied worlds of Cold Moonrock and G-Rocket M. Base had taken advantage of the empire's distraction with UFP and assembled a small fleet of heavy cruisers, rising up against the Ardrean occupation force. Their assaults had destroyed the small imperial garrison at the bases, paving the way for the populations to overthrow Ardrean overloardship. Both worlds now led their entire system in open revolt against the empire, refusing to pay tribute, and voicing loudly their will to independence.

Following the communique, Fleet Admiral Coriva held a brief conference on board the Olympus with the Regional Commanders from New Corinth. When it was over, he ordered the fleet to divert to the contested system to put down the rebels and restore order to the system. It would mean some delay to their mission, but knocking off some UFP would mean little if the political stability of the region collapsed.

Captain Darren was disappointed at the delay, but he took it in stride with his bridge crew. They had jumped together with the rest of the fleet, and after another long ride through slipspace, they were poised on the edge of the contested system. Peering over his left hand at the viewscreen, he went over the plan of attack in his mind while the fleet moved into position. The Frutol's Folley and her battleship group, subsidized by the two dreadnoughts, Delphinium and Tripoli, would blockade the area directly on the solar plane between the two insurgent bases, cutting them off from supporting each other during the battle that would follow. While the rest of the fleet took up a rear echelon formation behind the Olympus, the massive Titan class warship would drive straight in toward the rebel fleet at Cold Moonrock...

"Tripoli reports all battleships in blockade position Captain," his communications officer chirped, bringing him out of his repartees and back to the present. All of 24 years old, she gave the bridge a sort of extra sparkle that helped keep the junior officers from feeling too much tension on the verge of a battle. Darren nodded. "Very good lieutenant, keep us in position with the fleet and monitor communications." Turning to his tactical officer he said, "Active scanners, full sweep of the region in-system. I want to know if anything tries to come at us from the other base."

As his tactical officer complied, Captain Darren turned back to the viewscreen. "Magnify." He said, and the imaged jumped to an enhanced view of the Olympus moving in toward the insurgent fleet. The next few minutes seemed to go by in slow motion as the bridge crew watched in silence. The defending fleet launched a hasty salvo of plasma at the incoming Titan, then broke and scattered as their shots fizzled harmlessly on the monster's shields. As the insurgents broke, groundside defensive turrets launched photon torpedoes in an attempt to cover the retreating fleet. The shields on the Titan glowed under the impact, but they held. Captain Darren held his breath as the Titan's lateral weapons array glowed white-hot, then launched a blinding flash of pure disruptor energy. The blast washed over several of the retreating ships, overloading their shields and flash-vaporizing their hulls. The engines on the remaining insurgent vessels flared as they accelerated away, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the Titan as they could. But heavy cruisers simply aren't fast enough to escape a targeted disruptor beam. The Olympus heated it's forward disruptor array again and fired, and for a split second the outlines of the enemy ships were visible against the backdrop of space, lit up like candles in a window. Then the disruptor faded, leaving behind only dust... and the dying echoes of a dozen crews, forever dissipating into the void of space.

Captain Richard Darren bowed his head and let out a long breath. After all they did bring it upon themselves, he reasoned. But still he couldn't help shake the feeling that he was, at least a little, sorry for those crews that had just been obliterated. That must have been what it was like for our fleet at Onyx, severely outnumbered and outgunned... A tone sounded just then, bringing him out of his respite, and he looked up to see the fleet's recyclers moving in to clean up the debris from the battle. Well, at least they'll get a profitable run out of today's detour.

"Captain, fleet-wide communication from the Olympus." Reported his communications officer.
"On screen." He said, straightening up in his chair.

The screen changed to an image of Admiral Vincent Coriva, a slight frown on his face as he stood on the bridge of the Olympus. "Good news and bad news everyone. The good news is that the population of Cold Moonrock, upon seeing the firepower we unleashed on their fleet, has surrendered unconditionally. Restoration of government to Ardrean control will commence immediately. The bad news is that the neighbouring insurgents at G-Rocket M. Base are refusing to cooperate. They will need some convincing of their own before they follow Moonrock's example and return to Ardrean control..."

When the admiral had finished, and the screen returned to a view of the stars outside, Captain Darren leaned back and cursed under his breath. So it's not over yet... Shaking his head he called out, "Helm take us to course two-seven-nine mark three six. Bring us along side the Tripoli as we head in-system."
"Aye sir." answered the helmsman, and a slight vibration passed through the floor as the Frutol's Folley turned to follow with the rest of the fleet as they moved on the remaining insurgent base. It was going to be a long day...