FSRB Chpt 73

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==The Federated Suns Reborn - Chapter 73==
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===New Orders===
Captain's Cabin
Fox Class Corvette, FSS Woodstock
Federated Suns Space, 3067
Captain Livingston was still getting settled into his wardrooms chair he was doing the usual paperwork for running the ship and was reading through a persistent targeting issue they’d had on the forward barracuda launcher, when they’re, was a chime from his desk console.
He pushed down on the button, “Yes?” He asked.
The enlisted crewman who took the place of the marine sentry who would have been on a larger ship said, “Sir, communication officer to see you with an important message.”
“Send her in, Private.” he said.
The door opened and lieutenant Khatri stepped through the door her she was slender and relatively small with black hair and a complexion that spoke of her family’s descent for the old United Hindu Collective worlds. She was on her first deployment with the Woodstock after transferring out from the FSS Covenant where she performed well as the assistant com officer and taking over the vacant role after the previous officer was transferred to an FSS Churchill to take over as the ships XO.
“Yes, Lieutenant?” he asked.
“Sir,” Lieutenant Khatri said, “we just got a high priority message from the Foxes’ Den.” She then placed the printout in front of him.
He nodded and took it and read threw it his eyebrows rising slightly as he read through the message he also felt the blood drain from his face a little.
“Lieutenant, you are dismissed though expect a command briefing at 1600 with all Senior officers,” he said, “I will inform the XO and the others.”
“Yes, Sir.” she said and left the compartment.
He quickly punched in the code and the voice of the ships XO Commander Jagger came on he was a Lyran expat from Dongle who had come to the AFFS with the First Prince and had come onboard with Livingston when the ship had first floated off the slip. He was currently standing on the bridge as an officer of the watch and was running through a drill with the bridge crews. But he responded to the call quickly.
“Yes, Sir?” came his thickly accented voice.
“Jagger,” He said, “I want you to pass onto the Senior officers we’re having an emergency briefing at 1600.”
“Right, Sir.” He said and then asked, “Sir, may I ask what’s happened?”
“The Taurians,” he said, “have finally lost their damn minds by the looks of it.”
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At 1600 every division head was gathered in the small briefing room that of the Woodstock. He scanned around looking at each of them trying to gauge how they would react to the news; Commander Jagger provided a solid presence to the room as he always did but he looked on edge after they had spoken briefly before the meeting. Next to him was Lieutenant Commander Bruce she was a fiery redhead who was in charge of the tactical department and had some of the best gunnery scores in the growing fleet.
Moving on the table we had Lieutenant Commander Lucas who was a short intense man who was Chief Engineer on the ship and to him, it seemed he’d memorized all the Fox’s machinery manuals. Sat next to him was Lieutenant Crossroads whose family were political activist from the Confederation who had managed to flee at the start of the 4th Succession War and who was the Ships Navigation officer. Next to her was Lieutenant Blanding the Ships Quartermaster and had short-cropped blond hair and grey eyes. Then there was Surgeon Commander Rierson who looked more like he should have been a prizefighter than a doctor however he had mastered his trade putting men back together when they were fighting the clans and he was glad to have him. Finally, being the junior of the senior officers Lieutenant Khatri was sat at the end of the table.
He stood up and the small talk that had been going on while he looked at them stopped he then said, “Ladies and Gentlemen as you are all aware tensions with the Concordat have been rising” there were a few nods around the table, “Well I have just received the report from High Command that Bromhead has been attacked by force of the Concordat but has been driven off.”
There were a few small smiles at that but most stayed quite knowing what this means, “Right now we are at war with the Concordat to that end we have been ordered to link up with the Warships Dahar, Edwards, Galax, Kittery, Ridgebrook, Kathil, and Bryceland to form the 1st Corvette Flotilla at Ridgebrook under Rear Admiral Geary to support Task Force Sortek.”
“Sir,” Jagger asked, “do we have any Intel on the progression of the TDF’s own warships?”
“Based on the last brief from MIIO,” he said checking his note, “they are marginally operational at best with the indication that there are Word of Blake advisor aboard who are mainly operating major systems.”
Their Lucas seemed to grimace and said, “If that’s the case , Sir, then they will be more dangerous to themselves than to us, Sir.”
“How do you mean, Chief?” asked Khatri
“Well Lieutenant,” Lucas said, “It took us time to regain the skills to run a Warship they have Word advisors sure but they are running around in barely operational ships they're going to struggle to handle them and do vital duties like damage control, navigation among other things. That’s not counting that their ships are going to ramshackle at best when it comes to operations, I expect them to have equipment failures daylily.”
“I agree,” he said, “but enough speculation Lieutenant Crossroads I want a course plotted to our rendezvous point, Commander Jagger and Commander Bruce.”
“Yes, Sir.” they replied.
“I want to run as many drills and simulations as possible before we reach the rally point.” He said, “We need to be as ready as possible I want you to treat this as if we're going against the Dracs or the Cappies fleets, not a ramshackle fleet I want us to be at our best.”
There we determined nods around the Table at his word they would not let down their prince, the AFFS or their Commander. They would show the bastards what the Cappies and Dracs learned the hard way you don’t mess with the Prince's spear.
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===Engaging the Enemy===
FSS Woodstock
Ridgebrook System
Ridgebrook PDZ
Taygeta OA 
Capellan March
Federated Suns
3rd March, 3067
A few weeks later they had arrived in the Ridgebrook system and were drilling with the rest of the Flotilla so far they had been drilling to act as hunter-killers against light Concordat warships and Assault Dropships and working as close-in support for their cruisers so they could provide screening duties for their large consorts.
The bridge was quite it was the main watch with their assistant operators and they were just about to do another set of drills and exercise with the rest of the fleet simulating against a Concordat force playing the role of the Concordat when the suddenly detected a massive burst from the jump point.
“Sir,” came the call from Lieutenant Crossroads, “Unidentified jump signature at pirate point L-5 transferring track to tactical.”
A quick scan by Bruce and she stiffened in her seat and said in a stiff voice, “Sir, preliminary analysis suggests their the Concordats missing fleet I’ve got Pintos drive signatures.”
He nodded sharply and pressed his hand down on the console action stations alarm which began blaring crew members all over the ship dropped cards, stopped eating and leapt out of their racks as they hurried to their combat stations throwing on skinsuits as they went.
“All hands action stations!” he said over the speakers, “I say again all hands actions stations, incoming Bull flotilla.”
His officers watched as the boards went from red to green as all crew arrived at their stations and then as the last of the light went green as he and the bridge crew finished donning their suits.
“Sir we’ve got a call from the Admiral,” Lieutenant Khatri said, “Orders are to form up in screening pattern 9 around the Covenant!”
“Confirmed,” he said, “Helmsman, bring us up next to the Covenant in screening pattern 9. Bruce prepare point defense for incoming ship killers the Bulls are looking to do a repeat of CASE AMBER lets show them times have changed!”
There was a bloodthirsty grin on the younger assistant officers faces as they moved into position. 
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Chapter written by guest writer, Kelgar04.
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