[FT] The Long Journey Home (AAR) Part 3/6

> CONTINUED FROM PART 2 >>>>

Now Marie was carrying Intendant Zidane back to Earth, back to the inevitable
inquiries and diplomatic negotiations. A unified alliance was his idea and now
he had to save it, again. That was why Marie had agreed to the assignment. She
knew Zidane had to meld the whole sorry lot back together before they lost the
arse of their trousers and the Kra'Vak capitalised upon their disunity all the
way to Earth. She also knew it wouldn't be easy. The FSE and ESU were still
nominally allies and the Third Solar War had never officially ended. She
expected reprisals to occur at anytime. Furthermore, the 'Intersentient
Offensive' couldn't spare many vessels, not even to save the political will
which had set it in motion. The taskforce she'd chosen for the job was an
unusual mix, but she knew each of the Captains well, they were all experienced
and sharp, more importantly she knew she could trust them. Sforza, the son of
a close friend, commanded the Ibiza class frigate, VFE Ribas, while his elder
brother was in charge of a Milan class escort cruiser, the VFE Veneto.
Hernando Pizzarro captained the Suffren class light cruiser VFE Gravina, he
had been her third officer on her first command. Her nephew Collot commanded
the Trieste class heavy destroyer VFE De La Vega and the attack carrier VFE
Clemenceau was headed by her cherished mentor Louis Talleyrand. The ships were
all of older classes, classes she had fought beside many times during the
course of her career. She was not as enamoured as others with the new monster
ships being commissioned by the L'Astromarine, in her opinion they were
overrated and yet to prove themselves. She knew command claimed they had
corrected the weaknesses which had lead to two of the gargantuan Jeanne D'Arcs
being destroyed by the NSL at Neu Bremen, yet she still distrusted the
neoteric designs and much preferred their forerunners, the Picasso CVAs and
Chirac DNs, which were long tested and didn't call undue attention to
themselves.
        The taskforce was currently sub-lighting across the edge of the
Wolf-489
system, making good time to their next jump point. The Gravina, De La Vega and
Ribas were out in front, the Clemenceau was keeping pace to the Richelieu's
starboard and the Veneto was to the rear. Marie had them running under high
alert. Until recently this system had been under NAC control, now it nominally
belonged to the NARC, yet another of those NAC
breakaway groups - Marie was often at a loss to understand how the NAC
survived at all, with colonies erratically dropping in and out of the
confederation. Nevertheless the NAC remained an power of awesome influence and
even though Marie did not expect to see any official RNS activity here, this
system's isolated aspect seemed to make it a tempting site for an
opportunistic, or retaliatory, strike by an infant power keen to appease its
parent state.

As the ships cleared the debris cloud that marked the rim of the system Marie
was called to the bridge, her officers had detected a number of emission
signatures heading their way. They were on a bearing of 60 degrees to them and
if they were warships they could potentially be within weapons range in less
than 15 minutes. "Nerais, whose are they?" Marie inquired, lowering herself
into her chair, her gut tightening. Though she was prepared for action and was
not shy of what may be to come, right now she had to be cautious, get some
idea of what they were facing. She had anticipated a strike from some
disaffected human quarter, but before she reacted she had to be sure she
hadn't actually stumbled upon a Kra'Vak incursion. Words spoken and orders
given
to abate one situation would only inflame the other. After thirty-two
years of military service, seventeen years of command and a million years of
evolution Marie instinctively knew that to remove uncertainty was to survive.
"Can't say which power, but they're definitely human Admiral" came the sensor
officer Armand Nerais' studied reply as he turned to Marie, subconsciously
supporting his statement with a nod of his head. "Good, I want to know when
they sneeze." Marie shot back. Her countenance easing, an uncertainty removed.
Marie instructed her communications officer to put out a wide band hail
stating their identities and current UNSC mission. Whoever those emissions
belonged to, she wanted them to know what they were facing, she didn't want to
leave any room for misunderstandings. Marie realised that the knowledge that
these FSE ships currently flew under the UNSC flag may just stay a potential
attacker's hand, though behind these clinical thoughts a small, cynical, war
hardened voice warned that it probably wouldn't. Suddenly the sensor boards
lit up as if they were a part of some earthbound fairground attraction.
"Admiral, they've gone active." Nerais calmly stated as he shifted round to
focus his attention on some more detailed readings. "Fire control?" Marie
asked with icy calm. "Yes, Admiral. I'd say they're attempting a targeting
solution." "Hail them again. Make it VERY clear what our mission is and who
we've got on board. Helm roll so they can see our silhouette, I don't want
them claiming they thought we were Kra'Vak at the end of all this." Marie knew
such a manoeuvre would increase the chance of a targeting lock on them. On its
edge like that her Richelieu would have an even bigger sensor return than
those blasted NSL monstrosities with those huge fins of theirs. However the
NSL's heavy armour meant they could face down the results of a weapons lock
with some confidence, a luxury she didn't share. She knew she was putting her
ship in danger, but she was obliged to remove every opportunity for doubt. She
had to make sure who ever attacked her couldn't claim that they'd made a
mistake. Then as they were in some surreal opera the air was split by a series
of klaxons and staccato reports. "They're not responding to the hails
Admiral." "They've increased speed and are powering up." "They have weapons
lock Admiral."

> CONTINUED IN PART 4 >>>>>>>