Chapter Summary: Dealing with the attack on Chandar, and searching for the culprits.
Chapter Word Count: 5,205

Notes: Another installment before NaNoWriMo starts on November 1st. May not be another until December.

"Approaching the Chandar system border," Jolie's XO stated. "No sign of any other ships."

"Scan the system," Jolie said. "Find out what we're dealing with, ladies."

"No comm traffic," her Comm officer reported. "Dead silence."

"Where's that local?" Jolie muttered. "We couldn't have gotten here first."

"Distress beacon at one twenty," Comms said. "It's the same type of signal Fleet reported for the Chandar Planetary Defense ship. Something is interfering with our scanners in that area."

"Send out a scout," Jolie said. "And keep looking. There's something wrong. Chandar isn't heavily populated but it should have some comm traffic."

"Scout launched," her XO reported. "Five until contact."

"Kali, what do you see," her XO asked the scout pilot.

"It's a debris field," Kali reported. "Looks like something large lost a fight with a shark."

"Any identifying marks? Is that our Chandar contact?" Jolie asked, giving Quinn a concerned look.

"Looks like a station," Kali said. "At least the parts large enough to identify."

"What's blocking our ship sensors?" the XO said.

"There's an odd energy signature here," Kali said. "Relaying data stream."

"Not something I'm familiar with," Comms said. "Nothing in our databanks matches that."

"Gotta love a mystery," Jolie said. A warning bell sounded.

"Ship incoming," the Tach officer said. "Matches signature of Chandar defense force ship that contacted Fleet."

"Open a channel," Jolie said. "Kali, continue scanning the debris. We need to know what that is."

"So, we got here before them," Quinn said. "How?"

"Status of Chandar ship," Jolie asked her Tach officer.

"It's an antique," the Tach officer said. "Old Galactic tech. Large and slow."

"Armaments?" Jolie said.

"Basic self defense," Tech said. "Good thing it wasn't here, it wouldn't have survived whatever destroyed that station."

"Captain Hoor is requesting permission to board," the ship's XO said. "Ship security is waiting for your approval."

"Lady Q?" Jolie said. "Requesting assistance."

"Green will provide security backup," Quinn said, nodding. She sent a command to the Green Team commander.

"Ladies, we're just backup," Xano, Green Team leader told her XO and squad leader, as they joined Ships Security at the docking station. "The captain wants us to impress the natives."

"We can do that boss," Lil said, grinning. "Impressing the natives is a specialty."

"Try not to scare them," Security One said. "They probably haven't seen tech as advanced as ours."

The airlock status light went green. After a quick detox cycle, it started to open. Standing in the lock were three small female Juuns.

"Welcome to the Hotep," Security One said. "The captain is expecting you."

"We are pleased to be here," the older Juun said, staring wide eyed at them.

"Juun?" Quinn said, frowning at the data being relayed from ship security. "Did we know this was a Juun system? I didn't see anything about that in the data the Galactics sent us."

"We knew it was a mining conglomerate," Jolie said. "Aren't they usually Juun?"

"That explains the tech and signals Kali is getting," her XO said. "The Juun are not rich. Their ships are kept running for a long time."

"So, any tech is going to be really old," Quinn nodded, updating her teams.

Security One and Two took up positions outside of the conference chamber. Green Team Lead and XO provided security in the chamber itself.

"I am Captain Jolie, of the Serpent Clan Fleet, and this is Lady Hands, of the Clan Council," Jolie said, when Captain Hoor had joined them in the captain's conference chamber. "Welcome to the Hotep."

"You have a beautiful ship," Captain Hoor said, "It is not a model I am familiar with."

"Serpent Clan light cruiser," Jolie said. "We have a few of them in our fleet."

"You asked for our assistance," Quinn said, getting right to the point.

"There does not appear to be any life in this system. We've detected a debris field but nothing else," Jolie said. "No other ships, no tech."

"All communication with our people in the system has stopped," Hoor said, dismayed. "We were escorting a caravan to the metal markets on Targ Seven, and lost communication."

"Where's the caravan now?" Jolie asked.

"They remained at Targ Seven," Hoor said. "We contacted your fleet and headed home as quickly as possible."

"We're been scanning the system, but there's nothing here," Jolie said. "What metal were you mining?"

"This was a very profitable gallium system," Hoor said. "We've been mining it for several hundred galactic cycles. The planets are not habitable. All of our people live in stations. You should have seen signs of them."

"Show us where," Jolie said, pulling up a 3D map of the system. "The debris field is here," she said pointing towards a green light. "So far, all we've found is crushed tech. And a radiation field our long range scanners can't penetrate. Did you have any special shielding?"

"No," Hoor said, dismayed. "There should be a station here," she pointed at the map, "and here," she pointed at another spot," and another on the planetary surface here."

"We'll send scouts out to look but to be honest, I don't expect to find anything. There are classic signs of a Kraal fleet stripping the system," Jolie said.

"The Kraal were nowhere near here, or so Blue Clan claimed," Hoor said. "What happened to our people? There were a thousand breeding pairs, and miners in the system. Where are they?"

"We can't answer that at this time," Jolie said. "Where is the rest of your defense fleet?"

"It was really just us, with a dozen small shuttles and close support craft," Hoor said. "Pirates aren't interesting in gallium."

"We can spare several days," Quinn said. "If this was caused by the Kraal, we need to track them down."

"Even this wonderful ship is not much protection from a Kraal scavenging fleet," Hoor said, shaking her head. "We cannot stay here."

"Where will you go?" Jolie asked.

"We were a small operation," Hoor said. "Our parent conglomerate is in Wind Clan territory. We must find out what happened here. The families of the missing will insist on an accounting. The Conglomerate will determine if we stay."

"We'll stay as long as we can and help your search," Quinn said. "If the Kraal have been through here, we'll need to make sure it is clear of any traps."

"We thank you," Captain Hoor said.

"That isn't good," Quinn said. "Several thousand Juun gone without a trace."

"The Bugs usually don't leave anything in systems they've scavenged," Jolie said. "If they've been through here, it's surprising that we've found the remains of one of the Juun stations."

"We'll need an in-depth analysis of that debris field," Quinn said. "If that Juun station was able to resist the Bugs in any way, that is something we really need to know."

"There doesn't seem to be anything special about it," Jolie said, looking at Kali's report. "Other than whatever is blocking our sensors."

"Gallium?" Quinn said. "It's not a metal that is found in our sector in any large quantities."

"It's used in some older sensor arrays," Hancock, their Shadow liaison, said. "We don't use it in any of our Clan tech, though Tiger Clan often used it. And it is not known to cause scanner problems,"

"We'll need a sample," Jolie said to her XO, "of the ore and refined metal. Have the scouts reached the other station locations?"

"Scout Three has," her XO said. "Nothing. The area is clear. Scout Two is searching the planet surface. That will take a little longer. It looks like several volcanoes covered the surface in lava."

"I'm assuming no survivors at this point," Jolie said. "Unless they went deep underground."

"Scout Two is reporting a stasis field?" her XO said. "Old style. Requires special equipment to open."

"Do we have anything that will open that kind of stasis pod?" Jolie asked.

"No, but the Juun do," her XO said. "They use them while traveling between systems."

"There are clear signs of the Kraal in this system," Quinn said, recording a message to send back to Brittany. "It's been stripped bare and there are traces of the energy tools used by the Bugs. We've found a large stasis pod where one of the Juun stations used to be and will be opening it shortly. We haven't found any indication of the direction taken by the Bugs after they stripped the system." She continued for several more minutes, giving instructions to her teams and laying out their plans.

"Okay," Quinn said. "Let's go crack open that stasis pod."

"That's large," Quinn said. "Not quite as large as some we've seen. What do you expect to be in it?" she asked Captain Hoor, who had returned to her ship.

"All of our stations have the ability to encapsulate in an emergency," Hoor said. "This is big enough to contain the living quarters of the station that was at these coordinates."

"Do we need to move it to a safe location first?" Jolie asked.

"It will contain environmental systems to survive if stasis is removed," Hoor said. "De-encapsulating now."

There was a glow that spread across the area, gradually getting brighter. After several minutes, the glow disappeared, revealing a cumbersome looking structure floating in space.

"Looks like it was damaged in a battle," Jolie said. "Tach, scan it. Get me the status."

"There are a thousand beings in the object," Tach said. "It looks like it's leaking. They only have several minutes of air at the rate it's venting."

"Captain, we don't have room for that many, even in an emergency like this. Can you take them in?" Jolie said.

"No, but it's designed to dock with our ships," Hoor said. "But that takes time, that we don't have. We need to stop the leaks first."

"I think we can take care of that," Jolie said. "We can place a portable shield around it and contain the leaks." She turned to her XO. "Do it!"

"Yes, ma'am," she said. "Engaging lifeboat shields now."

"That'll contain any leaks while you fix them," Jolie said. "The shield will let your ship through so that you can dock."

"Thank you, Captain," Hoor said. She then turned and started directing her crew.

"What can you tell us about what happened to Chandar," Quinn asked the next day after the survivors in the stasis pod had been interviewed.

"They didn't see anything," Hoor said. "Things were normal and suddenly something attacked their station and it encapsulated."

"I was afraid of that. The energy weapon residue appears to be Kraal in nature, but I'd like more proof than that," Quinn said. "There's no sign of where they went after this. Unless they headed back into the sector, it's just empty space between here and the border."

"Whatever it was destroyed all of our system sensors," Hoor said. "I'm sorry we cannot help you any further."

"What's your plan?" Jolie asked.

"A Conglomerate transport ship shall come for the survivors," Hoor said. "It should be here tomorrow. All of the ore in the system is gone, so there's no reason to stay here. We thank you for your help. If you find out more, we would appreciate being informed."

"Of course," Jolie said. "We'll stay while you wait for the transport."

"You have two days," Jolie told her crew. "Two days to get as much data on this system as possible. We need to know where the Bugs went from here but we can't stick around once the Juun leave."

"I think we've found something," Hancock said. "Assuming that there was something special about this system that attracted the Bugs, we've modified sensors to use gallium as a sensor component. And this is what we've found." In the center of the room, a 3D map of the Chandar system appeared. And then faintly glowing white lines, looking like roads, appeared.

"What am I looking at?" Jolie asked.

"These are the space lanes used by the Juun," Hancock said. "The gallium allows us to see their trails."

"Interesting," Jolie said. "It's well known that ships energy leaves faint traces, but it usually takes large sensors to detect it. What else?"

"Tweaking it just a little and we see something else," Hancock said. She adjusted something and faint red lines appeared on the system map. In locations where there'd been a Juun station, large red pulsing lights appeared. "We believe these are from the Bugs."

"So we can track them?" Quinn asked. "Is this in real time? How much processor power does it take?"

"It depends on the quantity and quality of gallium," Hancock said. "This much," she held up a small sphere, "is 95% pure. Using spare cycles from the Hotep, we're able to process the data at near real-time speeds. A ship like Flag, with its redundant data banks could show this in real time."

"So we need a lot of almost pure gallium?" Quinn said, "and then we can see the Bugs?"

"Possibly," Hancock said. "So far all we've detected are their trails. Find us some real Bug ships and we'll test it."

"Where do we get the gallium?" Jolie asked. "Where did you get that?"

"The Juun," Hancock said. "They had a few small refined samples."

"We'll need more," Quinn said. "I don't think we have anyone familiar with mining gallium."

"Captain Hoor said there are several systems in our sector with gallium deposits," Hancock said.

"And, if Chandar is any indication, the Bugs will head straight for them. So, first we need to deal with the Bugs, and then find some miners," Quinn said.

"The Juun will probably be willing to do the mining," Hancock said. "But Captain Hoor said it took several decades to turn Chandar into a productive mine."

"So, we only have this?" Jolie said. "Is it enough?"

"We have enough for several cruisers like the Hotep," Hancock said. "But it won't last. It's consumed by the process. That sample is enough for the Hotep to run its scanners for six months."

"So, we need a supply of gallium, and a more efficient way to use it." Quinn frowned. "And we'll need a more efficient mining method than the Juun use. And someone will have to negotiate with them."

"Will the Council be able to meet fast enough?" Jolie asked.

"I'll send a message as soon as we're done here," Quinn said.

"Lady Hands?"

"Yes, Hancock?" Quinn said.

"It looks like we have a trail to follow," she said, expanding the 3D map. "Their path will intersect with the Bug fleet in approximately ten days from when they left here."

"Which we currently don't know," Quinn said. "Can you derive any time data from that?"

"Nothing useful," Hancock said. "Even with the gallium the Bug fleet is still distorting the space around it.

"So, follow the new trail?" Jolie said, looking at Quinn for confirmation. She turned to her XO. "We'll leave a scout here with the Juun. As soon as they are joined with their conglomerate, the scout can join us."

"Yes, ma'am," the XO said.

"We need to follow that trail before it disappears," Quinn said. "Is there anything here in this system that you need to look at before we leave?"

"No," Jolie said. "We can look at all of the data they collect while waiting for us to return."

"Good," Quinn said. "Let me now when you are ready to leave."

"This may not take us to the main Bug fleet," Jolie said.

"I expect that," Quinn said. "It would be too easy to expect signs pointing right at them. But if this does head straight to the Bug fleet, it could get messy. I don't need to remind you to take the usual precautions."

"No, Lady Q," Jolie said.

"Red Alert" blared throughout the cruiser, the ship's lights changing to amber.

Quinn stopped reviewing her updated plans for the Bug recon. "What's going on?" she asked Jolie over the ship's command comm.

"The Bug trail ends in the next system," Jolie said.

"Which system is it?" Quinn asked. "I thought Chandar was the only one in this area."

"There are several uninhabited systems," Jolie said. "Mostly just burned out husks drifting towards the galactic edge."

"What's your plan?" Quinn asked.

"We'll swing around and come at it from above the planetary plane," Jolie said. "We have scouts out mapping the entire system. With the gallium sensors we might be able to detect their ships if they are still here."

"Good," Quinn said. "Green and Gold teams can be ready to act as boarding parties if we encounter any Bug ships."

"You have thirty minutes before we'll be in position," Jolie said.

"Excellent," Quinn said.

Quinn joined Jolie on the bridge. "What have you found?"

Jolie pointed at a dark section of the tactical map. "There's something here," she said. "The Bug trails end there."

"How large is that?" Quinn asked.

"The size of Terra's moon," Jolie said, after consulting the display.

"So, big enough to hide several Bug ships." Quinn said. "That's more than we're rated for."

"If it's empty, we can handle it with no problem," Jolie said. "We haven't been able to penetrate it yet."

"No good with the gallium adjustment?" Quinn asked.

"No," Jolie said. "It's the same problem we were having with the Bug fleet in our sector. We know it's there. We can detect the trail going into it, but can't penetrate it."

"Well, at least we have something so we can follow them," Quinn said. "We'll need to get closer."

"Probes?" Jolie asked. "They're outfitted with the new sensors."

"Or troopers," Quinn said, grimacing. "A Shadow Recon squad would be useful about now."

"There's one with your recon team with the Bug fleet," Jolie said. "They're the closest. The next closest is half a sector away."

"Let's go with the probes first," Quinn said. Jolie nodded and waved at the Tach officer to proceed with the probes.

Even at half engine speed, the three tiny probes moved at an astounding speed. In ten minutes they'd reached the anomalous area, and begun to circle it. A constant stream of data was sent back to the cruiser. The console 3D map updated itself periodically.

"Nothing so far," Yola, the Tach officer on duty, said. "We aren't getting a solid look at it. Even the gallium sensors are bouncing right off of it."

"Try to push one through it," Hancock, Quinn's Shadow liaison, said. "Those probes can withstand almost anything, except being dunked in a sun."

"And in it goes," Jolie murmured. There was a burst of radio activity and all connections to the probe vanished in a flash of light. "Did you get that?" she asked. "Did anyone catch that flash?" There was dead silence on the bridge.

"Right there at the end," Yola said, pointing at her screen. "Look at that. It's a compressed burst of data. Right before the flash."

"From our probe?" Jolie asked. "Why would it be sending anything?"

"Not to us," Yola said. "Something inside the dead area sent out a burst of data when the probe entered it."

"Was it trying to find out what the probe was?" Quinn asked. "Did we capture the data?"

"Yes," Yola said. "It's in here somewhere, otherwise the sensors wouldn't have known what it was."

"Do ship sensors swallow everything sent at them like that?" Quinn asked, curious.

"You can't protect yourself against something if you don't see it coming," Jolie said. "Hotep is a hungry ship. Even before the gallium was added, the sensors were the strongest in the fleet."

"Can we see what was in that data burst?" Quinn asked.

"It's in quarantine," Yola said, typing away at her console. "It's not compatible with our systems, or it would have given Hotep a hangover, from the look of it."

"So the Bugs behind the shield attacked our probe and missed?" Jolie said.

"Well, the probe is very hardened, so it probably bounced off," Yola said. "There's not a lot of probe for anything to attack."

"So, where's the probe?" Quinn asked.

"That flash was its self destruct," Yola said. "It must have detected the data burst and interpreted it as an attack."

"An attack that caused a self-destruct?" Quinn said.

"Is every probe we send in going to react like that?" Jolie asked, frowning.

"Possibly," Hancock said, looking over Yola's shoulder. "They're supposed to do that if they determine they've been compromised. Or captured."

"Well, analyze that data burst," Jolie said. "We need to know what is in it."

"And why it triggered the self destruct," Quinn said. "I don't want to risk any suits against something that can do that."

"It's not moving," Jolie said. "We can observe it for now."

"So, what is it?" Quinn asked, several hours later.

"It basically says 'Hello, who are you? You don't have permission to be here.'," Hancock said. 'But it's in an odd quad data format. It resembles some old Bug data transmissions, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to decrypt it."

"And why did that cause the probe to self-destruct?" Jolie asked.

"It wasn't the message itself," Yola said. "After that was transmitted there's a brief millisecond pause and the probe was attacked. That is what caused the self-destruct."

"So, the probe didn't respond to the 'Hello' and whatever was there attacked it?" Quinn asked.

"Looks like it," Yola said.

"Okay, we can work with that," Quinn said. "So, whatever is there is hostile and communicates using old Bug comm code, correct? So it's likely a Bug ship of some sort."

"Nothing else in the Confederation is known to communicate using that code," Yola said.

"I want to know what's inside that cloud," Quinn said, "but without it telling any of its friends. Do we have anything strong enough to block its transmissions?"

"Unknown," Yola said. "We haven't detected any other transmissions."

"But that doesn't mean they haven't sent any," Jolie said. "How the Bugs communicate is unknown."

"If it's unknown, how did we know what that was?" Quinn asked.

"There was a sample in our databanks," Yola said. "It doesn't say how it was captured, only that the origin was from a Bug ship."

"That's unhelpful," Quinn said. "I'm assuming it's data we got from the Galactics. Would knowing where it came from help any?"

"It won't help us right now," Hancock said. "It might help Fleet."

"Okay, let Lady Shadow know what you've discovered, assuming you haven't done so already," Quinn said. Hancock looked at her innocently, but Quinn wasn't fooled. She wasn't the suspicious sort but knowing Brit, her minions were ordered to transmit anything related to the Bugs to her as soon as it was discovered.

"What's your plan?" Jolie asked.

"We need to know what's in there," Quinn said. "We need to quarantine it and crack it. I'd rather not wait for help but we may not have a choice."

"We should be able to handle one Bug attack craft," Jolie said.

"Isn't it more likely to be one of their planet busters?" Quinn asked. "And an escort?"

"We can still contain them," Jolie said. "There won't be much left if we have to defend ourselves. Can we take them intact? That is the real question."

"And the plan for doing so?" Quinn asked. "We've never engaged the Bugs in combat."

"You must have plans," Jolie said.

"I've got plans for recon probes, yes," Quinn said. "That's a quick in and out and not jumping blindly into a shielded area."

"Well, let's take that and come up with a plan," Jolie said. "Can't let your recon teams take all of the glory."

Quinn sighed. She wasn't against the idea but with just a light cruiser and two small teams of her troopers, and only one Shadow, they could easily get in over their heads. And Santana would kill her if she lost the ship and its' crew.

"Okay," Quinn said. "We're out here because the Bugs attacked a system. No reason to go home without at least taking a shot at them."

"So, first we need to encapsulate them," Jolie said. "Assuming they haven't already sent a warning, we don't want them saying anything else."

"The Bugs always move forward and aren't known to go backwards," Hancock said. "So they are very unlikely to get help from the Bug fleet. They will be expected to deal with any attacks on their own."

"So, they wouldn't send an SOS but we don't want them sharing any tactical data with any friends," Quinn said. "Has your science team found a way to block any transmissions?" Quinn asked Jolie.

"It'll take a lot of energy, but they believe they can use a portable shield to encapsulate that area," Jolie said. "The sun in this system is a red dwarf and should provide enough energy to power our converters to make it work."

"It'll make the sun very unstable," Yola warned. "It could go nova."

"While we're using it?" Quinn asked.

"Unlikely," Yola said. "But it'll speed up its decline. Right now they're predicting it'll go nova in a thousand cycles. If we do this, that'll be closer to a hundred cycles."

"So we'll need to put up warning signs afterward?" Quinn said.

"Or force it to go nova ourselves, before leaving. That'd be the best way," Hancock said. "Otherwise it's like leaving a potential bomb to go off."

"Okay, we'll need to know the ramifications of forcing it to go nova," Quinn said. "Fortunately, this is a dead zone."

"The science team is working on that, as part of the plan," Jolie said, after pausing to relay the request. "Unfortunately, we can't use that as part of our attack. Our equipment wouldn't survive a close encounter with a sun going nova."

"Or us," Yola said. "It'd certainly be a fantastic view, but deadly up close."

"We might need that as a last resort anyway," Quinn said. "We need to inform Blue Clan, at some point," she added. "They won't be happy with us, but the feeling is mutual."

"They've basically deserted this area," Jolie said. "So, no one really owns it."

"It is a rather large buffer zone between them and us," Quinn said. "But we might end up being stuck with it. Something for others to worry about."

"Once we encapsulate it, how do we get in there without getting blown up?" Jolie asked. "It's just going to absorb any energy we attack it with."

"We want anything in there as intact as possible," Quinn said, "but a little banged up won't be bad. As much as I want to test our suits against Bug warriors, that isn't our goal. We want useful intel. Intel that will help us against the Bug fleet, not just this side trip they've taken."

"We need to take their shield down," Yola said. "It'll absorb any weapons energy, but what if we try to syphon it off instead?"

"We don't have the tech to vacuum up huge amounts of energy, do we?" Jolie asked.

"We might know some beings who have that ability," Yola said.

"Who?" Quinn asked.

"The Juun," Yola said. "They have several tools that syphon off energy as they are mining. Not quite on the scale we need it but the tech is available."

"If there are plans, we can build it," Jolie said. "We've got some really skilled artificers on board and, as they like to put it, this ship has all the toys."

"Will the Juun give us their plans for these energy suckers?" Quinn asked.

"To get back at the Bugs who just destroyed one of their mining colonies? We might need to give them front row seats but I can't see them saying no to the idea," Hancock said.

"Contact them," Quinn said. "I'm assuming we'll need some help from Fleet also? Or can the Hotep do this alone?"

"It'll take several days to get any help from Fleet out here," Jolie said. "We can start with the assumption we're on our own and still ask for help."

"Okay," Quinn said. "I'll request another cruiser to help us, though I don't think Lady Air will give us another like this."

"There is no other ship like the Hotep," Jolie said smugly.

"Lady Hands, you have a message on the ship's long range comm," the Captain's aide said. "The captain said you can take it in her wardroom."

"Thanks," Quinn said. She headed towards the bridge to take a look. She'd be glad to be back in their sector with their high speed comm relays. Vid-mail was not as efficient.

Stepping into the captain's wardroom, Quinn nodded at Jolie.

"I can give you privacy," Jolie said.

"No need," Quinn said, sitting down and pulling up the message.

"Can't say you're not ambitious," Brittany said, in the message she'd sent. "We don't have a spare ship the caliber of the Hotep, as you know, but we've got several that have skilled crew who can work on these energy 'suckers' on their way to you so the Hotep doesn't have to build them all. The model is predicting that you'll break even with help and it's a little less sure if you have to handle this incursion site with just the Hotep. The time it takes them to get to you will save time and gives you more of these energy vampires to get through the shield faster. The additional ships will also help, depending on what is behind that shield."

Quinn nodded to herself. The plan would certainly work better with more ships and the additional energy suckers. They would just have to hope that the Bugs stayed put long enough.

Brittany continued, "I've included a slightly modified mission plan. Santana had several suggestions that she believes your Captain Jolie can take advantage of. She just wants her other ships back with as little damage of possible. She wants me to remind you that well trained ships crew don't grow on trees."

Quinn opened the mission plan, and quickly glanced through it. She'd recognize Santana's touch anywhere. It was obviously something she'd been thinking about for a while but hadn't had an opportunity to try.

"Looks like we're getting some help," Quinn said, looking up at Jolie. "Lady Air has given us a plan with her unique touch. See what you can do with it." She forwarded the plan to Jolie's comm pad. "It makes several assumptions about resources that you'll have to work out."

Jolie nodded, diving into the plan. "Yes, this does have Lady Air's touch. I remember seeing something like this at the Academy, one of her training missions. We should be able to do this with what we have and what the Apolis, Braise, and Polly bring with them. They're good ships for something like this. They don't have our speed or armaments but they are very tough little ships."

"My troopers on Alepsos won't have a part in this until the end," Quinn said.

"No," Jolie said. "But they are going to be vital once we stomp on them. We aren't normally equipped with boarding parties."

Author's Note: Yes, the 'Bugs' are also known as 'Kraal' and other names.