Trade and Tribulations

Station Prime: Fleet Command Center

Tor'han sighed as the lighting in the room dimmed for a moment and then reasserted itself. At least the engineers finally reconfigured life support so that it would no longer intermittently fail.

Over the last month, the fleet had moved in and begun to lay claim to various strategic locations in the system. But the jewel of their holdings was the jump gate. Tor'han looked up from his station to gaze at the mysterious structure. It was unknown who built this gate. His engineers told him that it was at least a hundred thousand years old. Worse, it permeated the entire region with a strange radiation field that drained energy from any weapons, engines, or generators nearby. For once, he was glad that the budget-minded high command had provided him with a station that generated gravity through spin rather than a gravitic field.

He could live with the lights failing from time to time. Ad-hoc shielding had guaranteed that other systems operated well enough to support the fleet. But his engineers has warned that bringing the station to battle readiness would overload the shielding and power would rapidly begin to fail.

Still...the field would prove as troublesome for any attacker as it was for him. And with Station Prime upgraded to a full Star Fortress he felt secure that the gate would remain in Dilgar hands. Also, the station couldn't now be moved even if they wished it. They would have to make the best of it.

The old War Leader turned back to his console and read over the latest reports. It seemed that the system was quickly divided up among the 3 empires. The Dilgar had gone for the more strategic locations, capturing the jump gate, the commerce station, and the sensors outpost in order to try and gain some advantage in the fluid combat environment. Data from Outpost IX had already given him some clues as to the tactics of his enemies.

The Centauri, however, had proven quicker even than he. Their centuries of experience in stellar warfare were evident as ships quickly subdued and captured the two primary inhabited planets, moving on to secure the space around the resource rich gas giant. Tor'han couldn't help but grin at this. The Centauri were always thinking solely about money and their choices in target showed it. Perhaps he could use that against them. He made a few notes for the next tactical briefing with his staff. One troubling item was the battle station they constructed in orbit over the industrial world of Krish Prime. Prying that prize from their hands would now prove to be a very difficult task. It also indicated a significant investment in the system. The Centauri were not simply raiding. They had come here to stay.

The Earthers were on the move as well. They first secured the mining outpost in the asteroid belt. Not surprising since each earth dreadnought seemed to use an entire asteroid's worth of metal in construction. They proceeded to immediately build their own powerful battle station near the smelting facilities. He had hoped that only the Dilgar would bring such a mobile facility to the system. The methods of making war spread too quickly throughout the galaxy. While construction of their station was underway, the Earthers built up rally points in orbit over Garden (the future Dilgar homeworld) and the ship graveyard that marked the site of an ancient battle. These concentrations of ships gave them control of these locations - for now. Tor'han sighed.

The most troubling news of late was the failure of the fleet carrier Wrath to report in. It's captain had taken it upon himself to try some commerce raiding in order to disrupt the nascent enemy economies. Scouts had reported a Centauri task force in the area. The conclusion was only too clear to an old campaigner like Tor'han. He pulled up his order-of-battle and crossed off the name of the Wrath. The ship was one of the elite crews from the Third Strike Fleet. Their experience and leadership would be sorely missed in the coming weeks.

He only hoped that they had died well.