Celesta watched on the screen as all her expensive Jacobson drones began to fan out away from the ship as they flew at maximum acceleration down into the system. Once they were within the orbit of the sixth planet, all the drones would bring up their active sensors and begin to map out the enemy positions near the objective while also, hopefully, causing one hell of a distraction that would allow the three destroyers to move down to be of better use when the main body of the fleet arrived.

She thought back again to the three ships she’d lost track of, her instincts still wanting to hunt them down. Logic overruled her instincts, however, as she knew time wasn’t on her side. There was no doubt in her mind there was a CIS asset somewhere out there observing everything, and she’d rather not have to explain to her superiors why she had been unable to prep the system for their arrival as had been her one and only task.

“Receiving Link updates from the Atlas and Hyperion,” Accari said. “Adding their drone data to our threat board. Both ships are underway and moving into position.”

Over the next four hours the crew watched as the projected tracks of the drones reached out from their three-ship formation. It would be another six hours at least before the tiny ships would fire up their active sensors and give them a much clearer picture of what they were dealing with further down the system. So far all they could really tell from the passive sensors was that there did indeed appear to be a substantial Darshik presence about where the Ushin had said it would be.

“First of the drones are going active,” Accari reported, stifling a yawn as Celesta walked back onto the bridge after grabbing a quick meal in the wardroom. “We’ll have a much clearer picture of the enemy numbers once they update on the Link.”

“When are the first ships of the main body supposed to arrive?” Celesta asked as she sat down.

“Still another twelve hours away at the earliest if they departed on schedule,” Accari said.

“Call up your relief, Mr. Accari,” Celesta said. “You too, Lieutenant Commander Adler. I want first watch rotating out for five-hour breaks and I want everyone rested and ready when the rest of the fleet arrives. I don’t expect we’ll see any action until they do, but sleep in your uniforms anyway.”

There was some grumbling but her crew didn’t question her orders, and soon the relief watch officers began trickling onto the bridge to receive turnover and begin their own long, tense watch. Sitting in an enemy-controlled system while all was quiet was worse than a running battle. At least that’s what most of the spacers said until they were actually in a running battle.