TBSO18

==Chapter 18 - The Silent Black Ocean==
CCS Incense, Cameron Class Battlecruiser
Idrmach Star System
Chainelane Isles, Deep Periphery
September, 3165
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Anyone with experience could tell what had just happened, as the sensor and fire control grids went down and the thermal management sinks went into overload.
"GET THOSE WEAPONS ACTIVE!!" Star Commodore Leland barked at the Tech.
No amount of shouting would suffice. Of course, but it was clear that the EMP and thermal pulse could only be from a ship pulling a 'crazy jane' maneuver-jumping into close proximity-a maneuver famous. But rationally rare-the risk it poses to both vessels is extreme.
Emergency lighting came up, and emergency power lit the main sensor arrays.
Four ships, not three, and the new arrival was less than 20 kilometers off his port hull, close enough to be a problem for bracketing with point defenses, and small.
Not so small it could not be hit, once the secondary batteries could get a lock, however...
It was positioned between the incense and the assault Dropships from her escort group, and those ships, (and their fighters) were still recovering from the extreme-close-range KF wave.
This was a race of sorts. The combatants were racing to see who can get their weapons systems up and running before the other side could.
To his horror, the Coast Guard ship got their guns up first. They began hammering the Dropships with an immediate launch of four missiles from the dorsal mount, while simultaneously firing single bursts from a turreted autocannon that had far too much punch for the size of it.
"Pack tactics..." he marveled, recognizing what had happened while he'd focused his fighter complement on the three pathetic gunships.
A fourth was positioning from another location, to strike.
Three silver flashes announced the destruction of better than half a cluster of warriors as the dropships were destroyed by thermonuclear fire.  Of course, they asked about civilians! They presumed we would have the civilians on the main ship so that the warriors could pursue glory in the landings! the Star Commodore thought. 
The dread certainty of that realization settled in.  "They want us to know they use nuclear weapons, but they also want us to understand they will not willingly use them on civilians."
This was not like the conquest of the Hanseatics.
This enemy has rules. Leland thought
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