Xingyun Cluster, Da Ling Er System, SSV Hamburg, Comander Noah Beek, 1300 April 4th 2157:

I quietly walk into the Hamburg's CIC, the constant 'tap, tap, tap' of my uniform's boots striking the solid floor overwhelmed by the room's unending noise, except for in my own mind. My gaze turns to the holographic projector, one of a similar construction but greater scale than the one on the Marathon, seeing a representation of the small Alliance formation and the Relay. A vast area beyond the Relay, which the formation is in, is marked with a vast red sphere. My time in the academy, though short due to the need for personnel, supplies me with what the sphere is, the exit area of the Relay, an area almost 20 thousand kilometers wide, which the formation is currently burning to escape.

My walking finally brings me to my destination, Rear Admiral Julia Hawking, the commander of the 5th Squadron and my superior, the one who ordered me to leave the Marathon and come aboard the Hamburg. The Marathon is gone now, having left about 20 minutes ago beyond the Relay to the Da Ling San System.

I give a rapid and crisp salute to the Admiral alongside the obligatory "reporting as ordered ma'am."

The Admiral gives a salute of her own "Good, now you may be wondering why I asked you here." Her words strike true to my thoughts "While I have your and your crews reports on our new foe, they lack great detail, understandable considering the rapid nature of the situation and the short time since the event. My original plan was for you and the rest of the survivors to give more detailed reports later on and deal with the situation with my current amount of information," she pauses for a moment "but the arrival of that object has revealed that we don't have the time for such a luxury." Her eyes burn into mine like they are a pair of suns and not objects of mortal flesh "you are going to tell me everything about your battle, and our latest foe, spare not a single detail."

And so I speak, telling her all that I can. From the confrontation, to the smallest details I can remember of the ship (though it seems redundant due to threading of it now residing in the data banks of the Hamburg) to its tactic and its response to the crippling damage dealt by the Fighters, the words flow out of me like water through a faucet.

By the time I'm finished, the formation has reached near the edge of the Relay's exit area, the ships having long flipped for their deceleration burns. After only a short time, all the ships are in the formation the Admiral must have planed; the Frigate Flotillas remain within the exit area, ready to close in on any arrivals or provide mid range skirmishing fire, while the Cruisers sit beyond it, able to dish out fire from their mass accelerators even if the enemy arrives as close as possible to them. The Fighters remain within the Cruisers, ensuring their pilots are well rested for when the battle everyone thinks will come arrives. It is the standard formation planned by the Alliance in case of a Relay assault when there are no important targets in the system to defend. Its perhaps not the best plan, but with less than a decade of Relay travel under its belt and no real experience of any Relay assaults, its the best the Alliance has thought of.

Just before I leave to my temporary quarters, having been dismissed by the Admiral, the Hamburg's sensor officer shouts out "Relay activation! Estimated mass-" he hesitates for a moment, his eyes glued to "-estimated mass 4 to 5 million tons." His words, barely a whisper in its last moments, brings silence to the CIC. Everyone, me included, turn our heads to the central display, morbidly watching as the Relay glows and its ring spins, waiting for what we know is coming, yet we were hoping would not.

In my mind, I can almost hear that ancient cloak my mother kept in her home for so many years, a home that seems even farther away now than even the endless light years it truly is.

'tick, tock, tick, tock'

Then the Relay's buildup ends, and they come.

Xingyun Cluster, Da Ling Er System, PFS Jaxim Vadimos, Vice Admiral Elgos Lilix, 1320 April 4th 2157:

"Relay transition complete sir," the ship's sensor officer says. Their voice is but a single sound in the cacophony echoing throughout the bridge, the standard for any Hierarchy ship that just traveled through a Relay.

Almost immediately after their first pronouncement, the sensor officer speaks again, though with more urgency "Unknown contacts in the system, 3 Cruisers, 10 Frigates, direction 028 port by 091 ventral, distance 12 thousand kilometers!" Before the sentence had even finished, the holographic display in front of me changes to show a vast area around the Relay, with the unknowns being displayed near the edge of that area with placeholder images of rather generic Frigates and Cruisers. "No sign of the Solana Hanus."

"Sir, the Solooru Dralis, Bralac Vernic, RCL 054, and RCL 052 have passed through the Relay with us, formation drift 365 kilometers." I almost scowl at the last two names 'why did the fleet have to take my ships and replace them with those museums'. Half of the Light Cruisers in the 52nd were reassigned to replace losses caused by Terminus raiders in more important areas. To replace them, I was given a couple of new old Vernaris class Light Cruisers from the reserve fleet. While equal in size to the newer Palisis class, they are less advanced and have half a century of use behind them, something no reserve restoration can fix.

I look at my personal command display and pull up the images taken by the ship's passive sensors. They are lacking in precise detail, but both my own knowledge and that of the ship's database can't match them to any known classes of warships 'So a new player, or some new ships from a known one?'

"Start active sensor scans, I want detailed scans of those ships, and check for any other objects nearby, I don't want some ship on silent running to rip us apart." My officers follow my commands to the letter, and only a few moments later, my display shows the active sensors to be operational.

"Sir, scans detect a collection of objects moving away from the Relay at beyond orbital speeds, getting more details now." A few moments later, the same officer speaks again "It appears to be wreckage sir."

Concern wells up in me "Is it the Hanus?"

"No sir, far too little to be the Hanus, doesn't seems like there is enough for more than a Frigate or two, can't determine the class though, too few complete pieces." The officers words bring both ease and confusion into my mind 'So there was a battle? Who were fighting, was the Hanus part of it? If so, why did it not report in, or have its wreckage in this system?'

My thoughts are interrupted when the comms officer shouts out "Sir, we're getting a message from something!" A moment later they speak again "It's the Hanus' blackbox, our IFF's must have activated it."

"Review its last moments." The officer obeys my order almost immediately after it comes from my mouth.

"Sir, the Hanus appears to have been in conflict with a group of ships of the same design as those in front of us, but most of the data appears to have been scrambled by some form of weapon, can't get much else out of it."

The officer's words bring out both anger and resolution in me "Well then it seems like we've got some fighting to do. Maximus burn towards those ships, all crew to battle stations. For the Solana Hanus!"

And thus we charge into war.

I am deeply sorry that this chapter is so short. My original plan had this chapter and the next one as the same, but trying to re acclimate to DC heat after spending over a week in Ireland (sweet, cold Ireland, I already miss being able to go outside without sweating 10 liters) and getting used to work again (perhaps the fact the work is as a lifeguard is causing problems with the former), has had negative effects on my writing, leading to me getting little done and even forgetting to post yesterday's Citadel News. So I hope all y'all can forgive me and I can make it up to you by making more amazing (in my own totally humble opinion) content.