TAZ4

==Chapter 4 - The Absolute Zero==
LCS Buena CB-103
Cutter
Capellen Confederation
3159 CE
Kapitan Rebecca Huyn was off the Coastie boats, she'd commanded a Patrol from 4th Squadron 4th Division during the Falcon War.  To the LCN, she was an O-6 officer, to her crew, she was the Skipper, and to Michael 'Mike' Hogarth, she was everything he wished his parents were and everything (aside from being a 'she') he wanted to become and he felt honored to be her XO.
"Well, Ex, we're here." Huyn told him.
"Yes ma'am.  Scopes are clear of civil traffic, we've done a digital handshake with the local patrols and had our diplomatic ident confirmed."
"Good news then." she said,  "You're getting a pretty decent walkabout for you XO tour, hey Hogarth?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"Strange contact twenty-seven thousand K off starboard."  one of the sensor officers announced.
"Put a telescope on it." Mike said, "See if you can get a visual ident, and get a neutrino reading."
"Bring the image from the scope on the main display when you've got one."  Captain Huyn added.
After a few moments, an image appeared. "Maybe a new model?"  Mike asked.  "The faceting is different from the bogey at Winter."
"Ayuh." she nodded, "That one had nonreflective paint over the plating.  This one's running CCAF colors, and the configuration's different."
"Radar and LIDAR are screwy with it though, she's low-observable."  Mike said it carefully.
"Not like the bogey over Winter-that ****** was ****** invisible..."
"Thermal spike."
The engines on the unidentified contact lit.
"Different engine spectra with the exhaust, they're doing something to cool it, or they're running bigger maneuver drives at lower power, but the fusion's running higher Helium count."
"Nice work though." Huyn commented, "Keep him in visual if you can."
"What's he doing?" asked Mike. 
''
"Probably taking a look at us." the Captain said, "Hell, we could be acting as a sensor test for that boat, what's our RCS on him at those angles?"
"Runs from about the size of a Pyramid beer to about the size of a compact car, Mum."  the chief at Sensors reported, "I'm not running active targeting spectra, but that boat's built to be low-observable, even more than a Sampan IV Cutter."
The [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Castrum Castrum patrol ships' garrisoning the station were visible enough, and the Cappie ship passed behind a couple of them, showing it was considerably larger in the reflected light.
"Well, I win a bet."  Mike said.
"A bet?" asked the Captain. 
"I wagered a case of MacAllan-Donegal '02 that the Capellans would have something clever they wanted to show us."  Mike admitted, "So, now Commander DeFalco on the Marsden owes me a box of whiskey."
"DeFalco, the Blonde with the impressive-"
"Intellect." he said diplomatically, while gesturing with both hands to his chest. This drew a raucous laugh from the Kowloonese born Kapitan.
"She is married, you know."
"That's why I only bet the Whiskey, Mum." he said innocently..
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==The Absolute Zero - Overview Summary for the Story So far==
Each of the escort fleets were held back in a separate system, one jump from Sian, each system chosen, was uninhabited-either had been uninhabited forever, or had been rendered uninhabitable by centuries of conflict, war, neglect, and so on.
Each Dignitary then was allowed to bring one ship from their flotilla into Sian space.
The Escort groups got to maintain a 'security' position (er, a threatening knife to the Confederation's government in the form of various sized and types of warships holding just one jump out with constant contact with the vessels bringing their VIP to the funeral, meanwhile under the terms of the truce specified in the invitation, anyone who deliberately makes trouble with their fleet assets gets jumped by the rest.  The two most powerful fleets in standby being the very-publicly-neutral Lyrans, and the Wolf Empire, who did, after all, send someone important to view the funeral and speak with the new Capellan leadership. Hilariously (or maybe not) the Wolf ships waiting in the wings were new-production updates of the Mjolnir, a design first built by the Steiners, while the LCN's ships included a variety of different types.  In either case, such an extensive display of wealth and power on the Confederation's day of mourning was probably in poor taste, so there you go.)
The attendance was actually comparable to that of the attendance to the funeral of Victor Steiner-Davion-except nobody from the Republic was invited, and requests for an invitation were met with a stern 'No' from Daoshen's successor.
Conspicuous in their absence were also the Rasalhague Dominion, whose refusal was in solidarity with their Republic allies and whose forces were being ground to powder along the third front of the Combine Invasion, as the DCA was proving to have learned quite a few lessons fairly recently about how to deal with Clanners who show up without their Warships.
This unexpected and totally unplanned for resistance happening because Yori Kurita pulled her forces out of much of the Federated suns, leaving only units commanded by the most fanatical of her rivals to meet the Fed Suns onslaught, and placing the now-relocated units under commanders with a grasp of modern tactics and some strategic vision.
the Ghost Bears went into the coreward side of the Combine expecting the kind of 'paper soldiers' that were retreating from the Davions, only to find themselves having a remarkably hard time even making a landing, while Yori sent the second worst of her rivals rimward, into the Republic front, to die gloriously for the Dragon while slowing the Republic onslaught using experienced, veteran pocket-warship crews supported by Kaga class carriers to make Republic Warships and dropships crewed by semi-regular and recently mustered crews die in droves.
This is what happens when you don't let your enemies ram you with their ships-the DCA was holding on two fronts and only slowly backing away on a third-enough to give the Feds a fight, but not so much that they really were putting much effort into keeping territory on that front.
After all, this was the nightmare scenario for the Combine; three enemy nations attacking simultaneously on three fronts.
Julian gave her safe-passage through the Federated Suns to attend. She gave him a cease-fire on that front in exchange.  (Which upset lots of people on Alshain and Terra but, not so much that the Republic was willing to risk breaking their alliance up so 'close' to victory.  aka without having destroyed the Kuritan economy and conquered Luthien first.)
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