EDITED: I rewrote a fair bit of this to account for some things I hadn't remembered correctly from the match, and I used the actual names of the crew Ruckdog had come up with. Here's parts one and two, I'll finish the conclusion later.
Butchery at Butera pt 1
Captain Rubin surveyed the bridge of the Light Cruiser 'Daring', taking pride in the well oiled operations of his disciplined crew. While not a prideful man himself Rubin was the rare sort of naval commander who viewed mentoring the next generation of fresh ensigns and lieutenants to be one of his chief duties, and while his occasional untactful critiques of his superiors may have stymied his own career he took pride in the successes of those he trained.
The Daring was sailing as part of the escort of a supply convoy out of Butera. A Dozen heavily laden bulk carriers wallowed under several trillion tons of raw mineral ore. While it was unusual to transport an entire years tithe in one convoy Admiral Goodenough had ordered the number of convoys be reduced to deter the increased xenos pirate activity within the subsector. And so the Daring flew with the Dictator Class Cruiser Furious and a squadron of Sword Class frigates. The mission so far had gone without incident, and after three days travel from Butera they were nearing the system's Mandeville point.
Seeing a small commotion by the sensorium Rubin decided to use the uneventful mission as a training opportunity. "Mr Keller, what seems to be the matter?" He asked the ensign overseeing the three monotasked servitors in charge of parsing the data from the Daring's myriad eyes in the void.
"Its probably nothing Captain," the ensign said, standing smartly to attention, "but we're detecting several small warp rifts within a 6 million kilometer radius of the Mandeville point. The spacial distortions keep giving the sensors fits, and we keep picking up ghost returns." Gesturing at the scope, he added, "I took the liberty of inquiring with Mistress Malistlen, and she told me that the rifts 'taste' clean to her."
Rubin suppressed a smile at the thought of the Ensign suffering through a tirade from the Daring's Navigator for several minutes about being bothered with 'unimportant matters' before getting such an answer.
It wasn't really surprising news, each system's Mandeville point was after all the seemingly random spot in space where the veil of reality thinned enough to ease translation into the warp. The sensor ghosts were probably nothing, but it never hurt to be sure of such things. He was impressed by the boy's initiative and good sense though to check with that bothersome woman without needing his guidance, and it had saved him the earful. This one was worth watching.
"Thank you Matteus, keep me apprised" he said before turning to his second in command. "Well you heard the situation, what's your analysis Lieutenant?"
Though bright Lieutenant Mumsdean had been a bit of a slacker in the academy, nearly being tossed out before his father called in a favour. Sent to Rubin for "additional training" he had shaken down well over the last few months.
"Well the ghosts are probably nothing but without clearer intelligence it would be prudent to treat the Mandeville point as unsecured."
Deciding to test the young man he asked, "I see, and how would you recommend we proceed then?"
"We could retask the Swords to sweep ahead of the convoy to take a closer look, and it would likely make sense to have the freighters drop speed until we've cleared the area." Mumsdean replied. "Total time for a full sweep of the area should not be more than 8 hours standard."
Rubin had already drawn the same conclusion, but wanting to see how well his 2nd would stand by his view he countered, "And what of the delay such a course of action would cause, I don't need to remind you that we are 2 days behind schedule already."
Mumsdean considered this for a moment, visibly searching for the correct way to tell his superior that he was wrong. "Excellent, the boy's learning" Rubin thought.
"Thats true sir, but is it not better they arrive late rather than never." The Lieutenant finally answered.
"Indeed it is," Rubin replied, pleased that the boy had a spine. "Retask the 302nd and coordinate with the freighters, have them fall back by 500,000 kilometers. Apprise the Furious's officer of the watch, and place the fleet on alert."
His crew began putting his orders into action, reforming the convoy as the smaller frigates advanced to sweep the rifts. 36 minutes later the signal officer called out "Flag Captain Hoyt on the comm for you sir." With a sense of resignation Rubin went to take the call. While they shared the same rank Hoyt was the appointed commander of the mission. It had been too much to hope that the he was actually asleep during Rubin's watch.
"Rubin what have you done with my fleet!" Hoyt sounded furious, and after a brief exchange he dismissed Rubin's concerns out of hand. "No one is stupid enough to hide that close to a warp rift. We belong on the front, not babysitting some inbred ore haulers, and I will not extend this mission even longer because you can't keep your ship in working order. Resume formation and get us back on the timeline. Hoyt out."
Rubin wanted to tell the man exactly what he thought of his orders, specifically that his starched collar must have cut off circulation to his brain. Instead he relayed the orders to recall the swords and bring the freighters back up to speed.
Coming to his side Lieutenant Mumsdean whispered "Sir the 302nd is only 7 minutes from primary sensor range with the first rift, if we..."
Rubin held up his hand to silence the boy before he said something unfortunate. "The convoy commander has issued his orders Lieutenant, see they are carried out." Silently adding, "And pray that he's right."
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