Meanwhile in VnV Space

The accuracy of the intel lately was uncanny. In the history of warfare military intelligence personal and divisions are often the butt of jokes. Truly "military intelligence" itself is often called to a one of the greatest of oxymoron.

Commodore Isoroku was just ruminating on this oxymoron or military intelligence as he was pushing his task force of 100 Poseidon's to it's very limit. These ships weren't made to rattle and yet his was shaking violently with the demands being made on drive units. The drives were the latest technology of Science, Engineering, and Logistics Foundation. Fitted on the Poseidon frame made them some of the fastest ships in the known universe. If this intel was right, he would need all the speed and luck he could get out of those engines.

This was the craziest command yet from High Command. He was to rendezvous with another smaller 25 Poseidon force within a split second timing to defend the world of a VnV noble named Gehenna who had gone missing. Intel stated that the planet was undefended and under attack by 547 atlas from another galaxy.

"Five hundred forty seven?" Asked Isoroku to his comm officer. "Really? Not 546 or 548? And coming from Gal 40?"

"That's just what the order stated, sir" replied the comm officer.

Ever since the VnV Capital went on lock down several months ago and Emperor Vehemence went missing, this area of space has gotten strange. Orders were orders, and the current orders from Director James T SELF were to secure VnV space and guard against intrusions from all raiders within the range of ten systems of the capital. Since those orders, Commodore Isoroku has been on endless patrols and several raids based on this mysterious source of extremely accurate intel. "Just how does a spy get attack order of battle and timing down to the second? And from multiple empires?"

No sooner than that thought entered his head than the Navigator yelled: "sixty seconds!" That was the signal that they were about to come out of warp. If the mission planning was correct, Bravo Squadron would appear to their starboard within a second of coming out of warp. And if intel was correct a large force of transports, 547 to be exact will come out of warp within weapons range 5 seconds after that.

"Shields and battle stations. Prepare for battle!" shouted the Commodore. "Ten!" shouted the Navigator. "Shields up and stable, diverting power from the warp drives to weapons" calmly stated an old veteran engineer. The vibrations in the hull begin to subside. "Five, four, three, ..." The final two one was silent as the sensor scene went from a distorted view of streaming and color shifted stars a single planet orbiting a single sun.

Alpha Squadron was arrayed out in "line abreast / box formation" to maximize it's each ship's line of fire toward were the enemy was expected to arrive. The formation provides a 2D wall in which all the ships would be able to fire at the same point in space. There was a gap in a portion of the formation that was filled exactly one second later by the 25 ships of Bravo Squadron.

Four seconds later a ragged formation of exactly 547 atlas' came out of warp. Isoroku closed his eyes, sighed and gave the command, "fire at will." He couldn't bare to watch the carnage that was about to be inflicted upon this latest set of raiders and pirates.

"Whoever getting that intel is good, damn good" thought Isoroku.