“Now then … this mission will be a counteroffensive to free two Ushin-controlled systems from Darshik influence. One system is heavily defended by the enemy, the other appears to just have a light rearguard. Since all of our intelligence is coming from our new allies we’ll be forced to recon ourselves before committing our forces. Trust but verify, as they say. We have four CIS Prowlers currently on their way to both systems to gather intel. I hope to get com drones from each team within the next few days, but no guarantee on that.

“If you’ll look at the accompanying imagery you’ll see that the heavily fortified system is defended by someone who knows what the hell they’re doing. Only the second planet is habitable, and the bulk of their forces are concentrated between the orbits of the second and third planets with outlying patrols flying random patterns in the outer system. As you’d expect from someone who has dug in, they have a slew of active sensor monitoring stations also scanning the outer system.”

Celesta knew that often commanders without much experience tried to hold an entire system and not give an inch of ground to an attacking force, but that was virtually impossible. By the time you get to the outer planets of a typical star system you’re talking about a patrol distance of nearly five billion kilometers, and that’s just along the ecliptic plane. The number of ships it would take just to provide an overlapping sensor grid, and the logistical infrastructure required to support them, would bankrupt both New America and Britannia within half a year, and that was assuming they even had that many ships to begin with.

The more effective strategy was to sprinkle the outer system with listening buoys and randomized patrols while concentrating the bulk of your force in a place you could more easily defend. If you knew where the enemy would likely appear, like Terran system jump points, all the better. What she was seeing in the scaled diagram of the defended system wasn’t exactly proof the enemy commander had a lot of combat experience, but it was an indicator. More importantly, their defensive formations provided important clues as to the capabilities of their ships. If Celesta was defending the DeLonges System with a squadron of the Vruahn fast attack boats she had seen during the war, with their real-time sensors and prodigious speed, she’d just park over the planet she was protecting and dare anyone to come in.

“Assuming the Prowlers don’t come back with contradictory information on our provided intel, the Ninth Squadron will be the first in. Senior Captain Wright will move her three ships into formation here”—a blue chevron indicating the Ninth appeared on the diagram—“and begin a bit of a distraction to allow us time to move in our ships for the opening shot.