“Coms, tell the taskforce they’re now operating autonomously,” Celesta said. “We’ll be too far out of range soon to effectively communicate orders. Make sure you emphasize that nobody is to fire without being provoked. OPS, give me a status update.”

“The four original contacts are moving to pursue us.” Accari read off a summary list he’d been keeping updated. “So far they’re just pacing our acceleration curve almost exactly. The other eight contacts have broken into four two-ship formations, three of which are pursuing the other taskforce ships and the fourth appears to be heading to our entry jump point.”

“Another enemy that seems to know a lot about us while we know absolutely nothing about them,” Barrett grunted.

Celesta said nothing, but was forced to agree with her XO. This new group could only be another space-faring race that, for some reason, seemed to have a low opinion of humans. Now that she was able to think for a few moments while the Icarus raced ahead of her pursuers, she tried to objectively analyze their options.

They had mentioned a “warning,” yet were chasing them around the star system. Celesta had to assume their tech was at least slightly more advanced than what she had at her disposal given that they seemed to just appear deep down into the system, managed to retrieve the Ares and bring it back, then rig it to blow in a demonstration that was impressive in its raw destructive power. The initial analysis by the CIC indicated that the blast was on an order of magnitude greater than the Icarus’s entire weapons payload combined.

So turning tail and running was the only viable option in the short term while she was facing a numerically superior enemy of unknown capability, but she needed to come up with something else and come up with it fast. Her hope was that she would get a response soon from her still-transmitting message, but the longer the engagement went on the less likely that seemed. Whatever the motivation for the warning, they weren’t talking.

“The support frigates have transitioned out of the system, ma’am,” Accari said after another four hours. “However, the Vought has dropped off the Link. Waiting on confirmation from the Midlands as to what might have been the issue. They were still twenty-two hours from the jump point at last update.” Celesta clenched her hands. The Vought was a heavy assault cruiser that probably should have been retired from service six decades ago. It was as likely she’d floundered and lost power while trying to run as it was she was destroyed by the enemy, a term Celesta had to now concede was appropriate.

“Direct message from the Midlands,” Ellison reported. “The Vought was destroyed by what they’re calling an energy lance of some sort. After it had destroyed the Vought, the ship vanished.”