“The Terran Starfleet is now virtually eliminated and the Darshik didn’t have to fly system to system within our territory picking us off. They didn’t count on our antiquated tactics, however, and most of the fleet is already heading home and everybody left is fully loaded and ready.”

“We bit on it hard,” Barrett nodded. “They seemed to know just the right strings to pull to get humans moving in the right direction. Shit … we thought we were flying out here to be liberators.”

“Incoming message from the New York, ma’am.” Ellison saved Celesta from having to answer. “They’re confirming four Ushin ships at the edge of the system, almost two-point-five billion kilometers from the Juwel jump point.”

“That’s something, at least,” Celesta mused. “If they aren’t guarding the jump point they may not have too much knowledge of our territory past the DeLonges System. Coms, has the rest of the taskforce confirmed our withdrawal?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Accari answered for Ellison. “They’ve confirmed through the Link status and the Hyperion has just reappeared on the net. They’re saying they had technical trouble due to the battle damage they took from the Darshik cruiser.”

“Mr. Ellison, send a message to the Atlas and ask them how they’re faring on one engine trying to get out of the system,” Celesta ordered before turning to Barrett. “Even with their head start I’m worried they won’t have enough time to get to the jump point before the Ushin spring the next surprise on us.”

The bridge again fell into a tense silence as they all waited for the other shoe to drop, the deep rumble of the mains at full power drowning out half a dozen muted conversations. Celesta knew that their only move was to get to the jump point and get the hell back to Terran space. She’d been somewhat privy to the initial planning stages of the hastily thrown together operation and now she was beyond thankful that CENTCOM had scaled back their taskforce drastically. They’d moved into the system with twenty-four ships, confident that their opening salvoes would clear the way for the destroyers to get down into the trenches and finish the Darshik occupation fleet off.

All of that was out the airlock now as it was obvious that the Ushin were working with the Darshik on some level, or vice versa. She didn’t know if one was coercing the other or if they’d always been working in concert, and she honestly didn’t care. If she could get the Ninth Squadron back to Terran space safely then she would consider herself lucky. There had been at least three cruisers in the system that had positioned themselves to take out the Terran destroyers at some opportune time, and she guessed that it was when the broadcast message had reached them.