The entire taskforce would be wiped out, and Kohl would likely retain at least a third, most likely half, of his total numbers. They'd come to Xinjia to make sure Kohl wasn't able to isolate and secure the planet but, so far, he hadn't been given an opening that would let him do that.

If he couldn't develop a working strategy within the next twenty-four hours, which was how long he figured it would take Kohl to mop up the remaining Xinjian forces, then he'd have no choice but to withdraw. The Wolfpack ships could certainly be used in Federation space right now as they were dealing with devastation unheard of even at the height of the Phage War.

He would return home in failure, turn over the taskforce to whoever was commanding CENTCOM at this point, and most likely be replaced with someone else. What he wouldn't do, however, was take reckless risks with his ships and crews when the payoff would be miniscule. Losing one or more of the Super Valkyries would be a heavy blow to Starfleet but would only cost Kohl time in the Xinjia System.

Not for the first time he wished he'd been given Black Fleet to hunt Kohl down rather than a small, secret taskforce with no command affiliation. With a couple of full squadrons at his disposal, he could make quick work of the Alliance forces in the system.

* * *

"Good morning, sir," Barrett said as Jackson came onto the bridge. The admiral was reading the morning brief off his tile as he and Barton came up from the officer's mess.

"Captain," Jackson greeted him. The crew looked rested but pensive as the battle fox Xinjia had reached fever pitch around them. The defenders had now scattered and were simply flying away from engagements. They weren't leaving the system, but they weren't whittling down Kohl's forces, either. They lacked focused leadership, and now, each ship seemed to be trying to stay out of weapons range until someone filled that void.

"What did the Cutlass find?"

"Other than a huge smoking crater? Not much," Barrett said. "Sorry, sir…the charge was simply too much, and any base or structure they would have had on the surface was completely obliterated."

"This looks like a big damn mess," Jackson said, walking to the main display and seeing the battle had fractured, and now, individual elements flew wildly through the system. "And Captain Ellsworth is reporting that nobody has tried to take a swipe at them?"

"No, sir. The Cutlass rejoined the formation without incident, and now, they're just sitting idle, waiting to see what happens."

"Has Hawkins got me anything on our ghost ships behind that moon?"

"Yes, Admiral," Hori spoke up. "It's in the deep-dive on your morning brief. There are definitely ships there, but since they're not using their RDS for station keeping, CIC can't get a good ident on them. The optics show they're using maneuvering jets to keep in position."