Russo wasn't sure what to say to that. He could see there was genuine regret and fear for the population of Xinjia in Kohl's eyes, a far cry from the man who had shrugged off the accidental bombing of Odmena and the deliberate annihilation of four Federation planets. The man was a stone cold sociopath, so Russo doubted his regret had anything to do with the general notion of innocents being killed. Did he know people on this world?

"Should we pull our forces from the inner system and move them out of range?" he asked.

"They are already lost," Kohl said, waving to the display. "Captain Chang's fleet will soon run down the last of them. The only remaining ships are the frigates and a cruiser twenty years out of date."

"Then can we at least move the Implacable up where she has cover, sir?" Russo asked, exasperated by Kohl's laconic demeanor and defeatist attitude. If he didn't know better, he'd say the admiral was drunk.

"Do what you feel best, Captain," Kohl said. "The ship is your responsibility."

Russo stepped away from the admiral and walked back out to the center of the battlecruiser. His XO dutifully followed him.

"Prepare to move the ship," Russo said to him. "I want her pushing hard for where the rest of the fleet sits in the outer system as soon as possible. Make sure tactical keeps an eye out for those Fed ships."

"At once, Captain!"

Russo was conflicted in what he should do. He hoped the file he'd piggybacked on their beacon was received and understood by Wolfe's people. It was still possible the Implacable's crew would discover he'd tampered with the system and ferret out what he'd done. If the Saber didn't get the file, it would have all been for nothing.

Part of him wanted to break cover, kill Kohl, and get a message to the Federation before the security aboard had a chance to blow his brains out. The more pragmatic side felt that, despite all he'd seen, it was not yet the optimal time to sacrifice his life for the cause.

"We're under way, Captain," his XO said. "Full burn for the outer system. The three Super Valkyrie ships have disappeared from our scopes."

"Hopefully, they've left the system," Russo said.

* * *

"Admiral! The target is moving, but we've got bigger problems," Barrett said as Jackson walked onto the bridge. "Another forty-six ships flying Alliance codes just transitioned into the system."

"That would be either Makov or Chan," Jackson said. "We were warned about this from someone claiming to be an insider."

"One signature is consistent with one of their starfighter carriers, sir," Falcone said. "Now that the target is leaving the moon near the fourth planet, we can get a better drive profile on her. She appears to be a battlecruiser, newer generation RDS."

"That'd be the Implacable," Jackson said. "This brings up a problem…a single destroyer can't go head-to-head with a battlecruiser in a slugfest. Not even this ship. We could move the rest of the taskforce over, but we now have new inbound ships, and we're caught between their formations at the jump points and down further in the outer system."