[sachmo]

Oversite

2409.4

The Rage fleet that had been moving toward the Lapzooli system and the planet Norak had once again demonstrated the unpredictability of the Rage Collective. The fleet would probably have been able to fight past the defense satellite rings, push thru and attack the planet Norak with at least 1 or 2 Remorhaz ships still being refit, but instead they changed course and headed into the western, unexplored wormhole. The Lapzooli fleet breathed a sigh of relief. Any extra time to prepare to meet the Rage on a more equal footing was more than welcome.

Lieutenant Commander Neaton was expecting a warm welcome when RSS Hawk finished the jump from Lezzari into the Jethanis system. According to Fleet Intelligence, this should be a gateway system into Rage space. Instead, a sweep of the system revealed only four tiny rock planets with hostile atmospheres. Still, Neaton could feel that the Rage were in this system somewhere, but none of the planets showed their presence.
“Mr. Devers, are you absolutely sure you’ve checked every planet for signs of a Rage Colony? I would hate to leave one in our rear area”, Neaton asked his Science Officer.
Devers stayed glued to his screen.
“Absolutely, Commander. There are no Rage colonies on any planet in this system.”
“Thank you, Ensign Devers.” If the Rage weren’t here, then why in the hell did he have such a strange feeling? There was something they were missing…but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Neaton brought up every piece of intelligence he had on the Rage. His tactical display was flooded with scientific facts, anatomic displays, brief cultural dissertations, but Neaton wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. He was hoping that it would grab his attention when he saw it.
He flipped thru a few more documents. Suddenly, there it was.
“Science, scan every rock moon in this system that has no atmosphere. I think we just might find something.” There it was, in the racial overview. The Rage Collective’s preferred planetary climate was a rock world with no atmosphere. Upon discovering a new system, standard operating procedure was to actively scan a system for ships, and then do a passive scan of all planets within a system to search for colonies. Most of the time, the moons and smaller bodies had been omitted from scans, as these objects were too small and usually uninhabitable for most races. They had not taken into account the strange biology of the Rage, however. A moon without an atmosphere would be an excellent destination for a Rage colony.
“Sir, Rage colony detected on the moon of Jethanis IX. Estimates are that there are roughly 11 million Rage colonists on this world.”
Neaton blanched. What if they had bypassed a Rage colony in another system?
“Sparks, get the word out to Naval Intelligence. Every system vacated by the Rage will need to be checked for colonies. Also, the SOP will definitely need to be changed.”
Within hours, Neaton’s fears were confirmed. The entire fleet had left Nova unguarded, and there was a rather large Rage colony still in the system on the alpha moon of Lezzari IV. Hopefully, the Rage on this world didn’t have a shipyard, or Nova was going to be in a ton of trouble, and quick.
Lieutenant Commander turned Hawk around as quickly as possible and made for Lezzari IV. Someone needed to find out what the Rage had there, and Neaton was the only Remorhaz ship left in system.

Back on Providence, work was begun on a new Glory C Class Destroyer. Its firepower would be needed to support the taking of these recently discovered Rage colonies.

In the Yullado system, Hispania arrived at Yullado and picked up another 5 defense satellites. She immediately turned around and headed back to seed the Lenoltris-Yukra wormhole. In Iolo, Loxias was able to do the same at the Iolo-Yukra wormhole. For at least a little while, the Ukra-Tal would be stopped at Yukra. Possibly, that was all that they wanted?

The Research Guild unlocked the secrets of the space mine, and also discovered a system that would be able to safely clear them. Immediately, a design was created for a new space mine, as well as a ship that would be equipped to lay them. This would help shore up the borders of the Remorhaz Society. Work was then begun on the principles of Energy Pulse and Torpedo weapons.

To be continued...