[geoschmo]

Stardate 2415.9

Of course the Tribunal rejected the ultimatum to remove their ships from the Cephredi system. They did not attempt to deny the charges they were behind the massive Intelligence campaign damaging the smaller empires of the quadrant. They made no excuses for harrasing and intimidating the peaceful Fazrah people. Instead they claimed to be acting in self defense and reasserted their right to maintain a large military force inside a Sallegan system. They then had the audactiy to suggest the Cephredi system be cleared of all military forces and left as a demilitarized zone. Grandow snorted when he read that and wondered if the Norak would be so kind as to leave the system immediaetly next to their home system completely undefended and open to attack from three seperate directions. It was doubtful.

He didn't really expect them to acceed to the Sallegan demand. He was still hopeful a peaceful settlement could be reached in the matter however. What happened next took him completely by suprise.

All this time the offending Norak fleet had been stationed in orbit around Cephredi I, the old Zynar homeworld. It was the most populated planet in the system, and a significant base of operations for the Norak since the end of that war. The Norak did have an oxygen world in the system as well, Cephredi II. This of course was the colony that had percipitated the original hostilities between the Norak and Zynars so many years before. It had been destroyed at least once, maybe more than that, and rebuilt every time. THe Last population figures Grandow had seen were that there were some 1.4 billion Norak living on this world. It was likely their largest colony outside their home system, and obviously an important one.

Grandow had expected the Norak Fleet to be moved to defend it against the Fazrah battle fleet that had entered the Cephredi system, and against us were we to make good on our threat to remove them by force if neccesary. Of course the Sallegans had made no such demand on the colonies, only on the military ships the Norak were keeping stationed there.

But instead of moving the Norak fleet to Cephredi II, they moved to Cephredi VI, location of the Sallegan fleet that had come to remove them from the system. For a brief moment the Sallegan defenderd thought they were under attack, but the Norak simply moved their fleet of 32 ships into the same sector with the Sallegan fleet of 47 ships. They stopped at the extreme edge of the sector and sat there, unmoving.

Grandow was unsure at first what was going on. Were they surrendering? Why didn't they attack, or withdraw, or move to defend their own planet. It didn't make sense. But then he realized what they were doing. The minefields! They were moving their ships into position under cover of the treaty so they would have the current minefield access codes as all Sallegan allies have.

Added to this theory were two other facts. First, the smaller, but still potent, Norak fleet in Arklite had left that system and had moved into Hwansul, out of range of Sallegan sensors and on a course for Cephredi, and another small previously unknown fleet had just moved out of Hwansul into Cephredi and appeared to me moving towards Cephredi VI as well.

Currently the Sallegan fleet had a slight numbers advantage of 15 ships. But the majority of the Sallegan ships were older Light Cruisers and smaller ships left over from the end of the Xi'Chung war. They had been updated with newer weapons and sensors when practical to do so, but they were still small. And the Norak had recenlty developed a new mysterious device that appeared to give their ships amazing, you could say almost miracoulous accuracy. The Fazrah claimed that they never missed. Grandow doubted that was possible, but even highly accurate weapons combined with those larger hull sizes could make the umcomming battle a bad one for the Sallegans. He could not allow the Norak fleet to be reinforced and his fleet lose what little numerical advantage he did have.

The time for a decision was at hand. The Norak had forced him into a corner, he had to act. He could not repeat the mistakes made at the beginning of the Xi'Chung war. The Norak were too large. If he allowed them to get the advantage and wipe out the Cephredi fleet, there would be nothing stopping them from completely anialating or enslaving the Sallegan people.

The Messages were sent.

--------------------------------FLASH TRAFFIC-----------------------------------
TO:SALLEGAN SPACE SERVICE SHIPS EVERYWHERE
FR:SALLEGAN SPACE SERVICE COMMAND

RE:IMMINENT HOSTILITIES WITH NORAK EMPIRE. EXPECT ATTACK SOON. ALL NORAK SHIPS ARE TO BE TREATED AS HOSTILE FORCES. DO NOT SEEK OUT CONTACT UNLESS SPECIFICALLY ORDERED. IF APPROACHED, DEFEND YOURSELVES BY ANY AND ALL MEANS NECCESARY. WAR TIME ROE APPLY. IF NO FURTHER CONTACT RECEIVED FROM SPACE COMMAND RECEIVED, ASSUME CONDITION OF WAR EXSISTS. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS TO FOLLOW.......
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--------------------------------FLASH TRAFFIC----------------------------------
TO:SALLGAN SPACE SERVICE FLEET, CEPHREDI VI
FR:SALLEGNA SPACE SERVICE COMMAND

RE: NORAK FLEET IN SECTOR. COMMENCE OPERATION FRONT DOOR. ENGAGE AND DESTORY NORAK FLEET IN SECTOR. DO NOT SEEK OUT NORAK SHIPS ELSEWHERE. AVOID DAMAGE TO NORAK CIVILIAN POULATIONS AND SHIPPING. IF NORAK SHIPS ATTEMPT TO WITHDRAW FOM CEPHREDI SYSTEM, ALLOW THEM. DO NOT, REPEAT, NO NOT PERSUE INTO HWANSUL WITHOUT EXPLICIT AUTHORIZATION.
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---------------------------------FLASH TRAFFIC-----------------------------------
TO SALLEGNA SPACE SERVICE FLEET, NIZARUM VI
FR:SALLEGAN SPACE SERVICE COMMAND

RE:RECENT NORAK MILITARY BUILDUP IN AREA. COMMENCE OPERATION BACK DOOR. ENGAGE AND DESTORY NORAK FLEET, NIZZARUM VIII. DEPLOY TROOP TRANSPORTS AND SECURE PLANET. AVOID DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY FACILITIES AND CIVILIAN POPULATION. PREPARE SYSTEM FROM POSSIBLE NORAK/PRAETORIAN COUNTER OFFENSIVE. DO NOT SEEK OUT FURTHER NORAK SHIPS UNLESS THEY CONGREGATE IN LARGE NUMBERS OR MAKE OTHER HOSTILE ACTIONS.
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