Celesta made no move to take the Icarus down into orbit over the contested planet before seeing exactly what was going on down there. With the bizarre way the Darshik ships had just suicided, she believed they may have been more of a decoy and that the real nasty surprise was some sort of planetary weapon. If they had weapon installations on the surface that were similar to their shipboard plasma lances, with nearly unlimited power feeding them, she was certain they’d be able to swat ships out of the sky. With the Icarus now running on her MPD main engines there would be no way to avoid it.

It was another four and half hours before the first scans from the Jacobson drones came in from the planet. Flight OPS had smartly put them on an intercept trajectory at maximum burn, having them fly by for an initial scan and then enter into a high elliptical orbit and begin decelerating so they could come back around and slide into a low geosynchronous for a more thorough look.

“Ma’am, there’s nothing there,” Accari said, clearly confused. “No power sources, no heat sources, very few artificial constructs. The atmosphere isn’t even the right composition for what we understand about Ushin-compatible worlds.”

“Coms! Sound an emergency withdrawal on the Fleetwide channel!” Celesta was on her feet. “OPS, recall our drones. If they can get here, capture them; if not, blow them. Nav, get us a direct course to the Juwel jump point. Helm, all ahead flank when you get it.”

“Captain?” Barrett asked.

“This is a trap,” Celesta said with certainty.

“I don’t understand how the Ushin would want to—”

“The Hyperion just dropped off the Link,” Accari said.

“Incoming transmission, not on any of the taskforce channels,” Ellison said.

“Play it,” Celesta ordered.

“Please surrender your ships and yourselves,” an artificial, emotionless voice came over the speakers. “This is what must happen. Further fighting only prolongs the suffering of all.”

“That’s it, ma’am,” Ellison said. “It just repeats over and over.”

“Who the hell was that?” Barrett asked.

“The Ushin,” Celesta spat. “They set us up. Tactical, keep up full-power scans of the system. They know we’re here already so there’s no point in hiding.” The deck shook as the helmsman pushed the throttles all the way up and the Icarus came onto her new course at maximum thrust.

“Ma’am?” Barrett asked.

“Think about it,” Celesta said bitterly. “The Ushin had to be in on this. They get us to swarm into this system and take on their decoys in a glorious battle and then, when all of our munitions are depleted and we’re all congratulating ourselves on such a rout, the Darshik show up and hammer us.