korsriddare | Anthology snippet #1

"The forts are in position, ma'am."

Admiral Angelina MacKenzie acknowledged the report with a nod, her eyes still fixed onto the main plot. It was set to show a scaled down version of the Sol system, with a sea of green icons, especially within the inner system. The Conclave had decided that holding Terra and the inner assets were more important than spreading out what ships the Terran Federation Navy could put out to cover the entire system.

Not that was much comfort, she thought harshly. The Republic of Luminaire's Navy had brought in almost five entire battle fleets above McKenna Station's orbital plane instead of through a jump point, catching the TFN by complete surprise. Latest reports indicated First Fleet running for the McKenna-Sol jump point after a brief but brutal exchange, and she read the print outs at the sidebar of the display with a frown.

That First Fleet could get away at all due to its ships having better acceleration was scant comfort that even if, which was a big if, it arrived in Sol with the rest of its ships intact, the total combat strength of the TFN here would be barely three battle fleets' worth - Home Guard, Fourth Fleet and First Fleet.

She could not help but think of how badly the Luminairieans had outwitted them. Taking into account the distance between McKenna Station and the nearest Republic major naval base, this attack must have been planned well before their fleets attacked the Terran Federation's outlying systems. Travelling via hyperspace tunnels was nearly instantaneous, though limited by the finite number of jump points each system had. Sol had three confirmed jump points, while McKenna Station had a staggering seven. Most interstellar traffic used those, as they were much faster, even if a ship had to make several transits. A modern starship's hyperspace drive also allowed it to transit into hyperspace, though it would require the ship to be a certain distance away from the system's star, and its speed would be at most a thousand or so times that of the speed of light.

Which meant that the RLN ships hitting McKenna Station must had been sent nearly a month ago, despite the fact that Federation's border systems were only attacked two weeks ago. For all she knew, there might be another Republican fleet ready to transit out of hyperspace.

Angelina shuddered inwardly. Her flagship, the TFNS Spiral of Winter, might be the largest vessel in either navy, but it was cold comfort against the juggernaut bearing straight for her. She was not going to roll over though, and at that, she smiled grimly.