"Anything yet?" asked Karesh.
"No admiral, these dark suns are making a mess of the scanners."
"Very well, run an active sweep. I just hope these new systems work as advertised."
"Still nothing, Sir" replied officer Darkon
"We might be a bit early. And I still think these ships need more testing" said Karesh with a disappointed tone.
"Sir you did get the report didn't you. RnD has remodeled most systems, they ran trials for months."
"Reports... statistics... those mean exactly nothing out in the field. How does she feel, Jan"
"Most excellent, Sir, she can push 170 easy and remain nimble" was a reply from helmsman Jan Santi, fines pilot the Blues had to offer "Just Like flying a fighter. And we actually saw Kurssa smile when he saw the new weapons' configuration"
"Lies. Tactical officer Draxon Kurssa, is this true?"
"Affermative, Sir. These new Delta bullets are formidable. Not only have the RnD boys increased damage tenfold, but the salvos are in a state of flux that allows them to pass though dampeners and resistance amplifiers with no significant damage decrease. RnD is still working on the power consumption however. With the new energy grid we can sustain firing for 33,5 seconds in optimal conditions. Sir did you read about the new assault mode?"
"I was there during testing, we lost some good men."
"They got it working now, you have my guarantee on that, Sir."
"The new cloaking system is still bothering me. We have almost no shields. If something were to go wrong... I told them on the trials they were pushing it. This ship is not ready for the field and if this..."
"Contact!!!" shouted Darkon.
Everyone went quiet awaiting the admirals orders
"Confirmation?"
"100% match, Sir!"
"Alright people, this is, we're going hot, notify the Wolfpack, bring up tactical!"
Admiral plotted an intercept course to the target.
"Status on fleet?"
Subspace became alive. Sensor echos and noise were broadcasted on all channels as the rest of the 6 Targan class ships contacted the flagship.
"Sir, all ships reporting in. Systems green across the board."
"Engage sensor linking, this has to go by the numbers. Time to intercept?"
"5 minutes, Sir"
"Make it 3, they mustn't reach reach the warp!"
"Aye, Sir"
As the 6 Targan class gammas picked up speed one could see the space flicker very faintly. The new cloaking field generators adapted themselves to the changes in space. Silent as death. They had to be, for their target was most formidable. The wolfpack was assigned to intercept and annihilate Big green dreadnoughts that were interfering with the normal blues operations. The green convoy consisting of a dreadnought and 3 battleships had no way of knowing they were being hunted.
"Time on target?!" shouted the admiral.
"50 seconds to weapon range, Sir!"
"I want phalanx formation, rear flanking positions. Match speed at optimal weapons range. Final systems check now!"
As the 6 Targans were coming into the range of the greens they formed a line and matched speed.
"Admiral, fleet is in position, all systems nominal. Awaiting orders."
"I want fighters to take out weapons on support ships. One wing disable engines on primary. Also full firing solution on primary as soon as engines are down."
"Aye, Sir. Fighters are ready to deploy."
"Launch fighters, and stay cloaked."
Greens had no time to react. They were disabled before they knew what hit them.
"Sir, engines are down on the dread."
"Good work, all ships open fire. Full firing solutions!"
As volley after volley of bullets hit the Green Dreadnought the admiral grew increasingly worried.
"I want that vessel destroyed, Major, and I want it 2 minutes ago!! They will regain control any time now and we have no shielding to put up a fight."
"Sir!" shouted Kurssa in a distressed voice, "Their shields are too strong Sir, we may need to break off."
"We can't, they will retaliate in force when they meet up with the rest of their capitals at their staging area. Anything you can do Major?"
"We still have enough energy to engage assault mode, Sir!"
"Doesn't look like we have a choise, tell the fleet I'm authorizing the use of assault mode!"
In seconds the volleys of death coming from the betas became a wall due to the massive recoil decrease granted from assault mode. There was a drawback, all other ships systems went offline to route all power to weapons.
"Sir, it's it's going down."
"Recall fighters and prepare to cloak, lets see how well these new cloaks work."
As the Dreadnought's shields collapsed and hull burst into flames the blues stopped firing and cloaked instantly. New technology worked. Radiation field generated by weapons fire was quickly dissipated allowing near-instant recloaking. Just in time too as the Green support ships regained control of their systems.
"Can we still fire?"
"Negative, Sir. Energy levels are down and 2 ships are reporting powergrid failure. 2 more are having trouble with engines exiting assault mode. We are in no condition to fight."
"I knew this would happen. Does it look like the greens can pierce our cloak?"
"Negative, Sir. They are running active scans but dampening fields remain unaffected."
"Very well commander, tell the fleet to break off. Disengage sensor links. We are going silent mode. To fleet captains: I want telemetry and tactical records in 15minutes, command needs these ASAP. Also get yourselves ready, intelligence reports another Dread is due to come through here in 3 hours and it's not going to be leaving. Oh and congratulations, good work people. Regroup at the staging area, Karesh out!"
"Here is the damage report from assault mode, Sir. We got some shield problems but everything else seems nominal."
"Get someone on that ASAP, also run a diagnostic and a backtrace of what went wrong. If those shields give in during a fight it will end very unpleasantly. And good work people, but next time lets try to get the support down too. They probably have already reported in about what happened. I'll go check with command. You have the bridge commander."
--- meh