[1XF] Operation Farsight

System Prime

While Sune had not been pleased to be recruited by SAINT initially, as he looked deeper into the mission, he came to the conclusion that this was a mission he was definitely qualified for. It was intelligence gathering, and was entirely based in one of his areas of specialty. Science was about facts, and there were certain things that were dependable. These facts were both their tool and their challenge. Free from political and moral ambiguities, he through himself into the mission fully.

Technically they were free space, but the Lorath might not appreciate their presence. They were to avoid an encounter with the Lorath. To help with this Sune and the other Captain's came up with a plan. If they detected Lor vessels on a course for them the group would before the Lor dropped into normal space depart, each ship leaving on a randomly generated vector. Once underway they would alter course and proceed to the next designated scanning point. Sune had no intention of setting off an International incident, but if the Lorath came sporting for a fight, the ships of Farsight would defend themselves if attacked and there was no chance to break off. This is why after they had the proper distance calculated they would move between the various systems in a random pattern to reduce the chances of an encounter.

The task group traveled in full stealth to the first set of coordinates. The first set of scans were going to be with the ships staggered across the target distance. Each ship was two light weeks apart. Firebird with its Aether masking cloaking system was two light weeks further in. Their role was to play spotter. For the group to perform their scans they had to drop out of stealth. This first part of the operation was in Sune's mind the riskiest because it required them to come out of cloak. Conduct their passive scans, then move again in stealth, re-emerge and scan again. They were working to find the exact time frame of the incident. Once they had that done, it would make the rest of the work quicker. Once they knew the time frame the ships were going to spread out laterally. They would form a sensor array. The data from their sensors would compiled to increase the sensitivity and resolution. And all the while they kept an eye out for Lorath activity.

After five minutes of scanning, the other ships transmitted their data to the Firebird for initial comparison. The ship furthest back detected a significant level of EM activity coming from the system. Analysis of the data identified it as mostly civilian in nature. Communications about weather, entertainment, news were clearly present. When compared against the sensor data from the closest ship, this EM activity was completely missing.

The data from the other ships was used and narrowed down the target time frame to three weeks. At this point Sune had Rosalba pull up the visual data acquired and create a presentation. The image from the furthest showed the star system, and the target planet was visible. He could see cloud activity, oceans and land. But he could not see specific details on the ground, he did not expect to given their range. The visual data from the first ship showed a markedly different image. The clearly visible blues and greens were missing, and the visible atmosphere was a mass of clouds.

He walked to the bridge and took his station, "Shoi, any sign of Lorath activity heading our way?"

"Negative Chusa." Chiba replied.

"Very well, signal the group, we are moving to position beta, Rosalba will provide the updated specific coordinates. Full stealth before getting under way."

"I will pass on your orders to the rest of the ships sir." the blonde XO answered as she entered the necessary commands. After a moment, "All ships report ready to transit on your command."

"Engage."

Chiba sent the necessary command to the other ships, and Amethyst brought the ship to full stealth on the CFS and executed the shift in position to the next point.

Sune was on the bridge while his XO got some rest. This was the twelfth data collection effort. The group was stretched across several light seconds forming a giant net to capture electromagnetic signals. They would sit here for 5-10 minutes then move on. Unfortunately it would take another thirty minutes for all the sensor data to be collated and analyzed. They had narrowed the event down to a matter of four hours. But with them having to take short snips of data, it could take them another sixteen samples before closing in.

So far the Lorath did not seem to have taken much notice of them. It made sense for the moment. All their work was being done stationary and with passive sensors. The only transmission was unidirectional from the other ships to the Firebird. A few ships had passed near the group, but their trajectory was at a tangent and the ships continued on without incident.

He pulled up the message that had arrived a few hours earlier.

To: Chusa Jalen Sune
From: Shôshô Ketsurui Hanako

Would you be willing to return as my first officer? Perhaps we can talk about it aboard the Eucharis.

Click to expand...

He truly did not know what to make of it. Given their proximity to the Lorath, there was no way to reply without jeopardizing the operation. At least the tone of her message was more Hanako-ish, cordial even. That he felt must have been a positive sign.

"Jalen-Chusa... I have an initial analysis of the data. It is incomplete naturally, but. I am detecting significant changes in the chatter. I am picking up what appear to be three different signatures." Rosalba said through the bridge speakers. "There is insufficient data at the moment for me to try to match them to any known sources."

Sune's attention switched from the message to the data display on the main screen. He could see the highlighted areas, it definitely looked as if she was correct. Glancing in the corner he took note of the timer. 4:57 and counting down.

I am done with this thread. // The Lorath everything.