Kohl was the face of the cabal's military power but, in truth, each member of its leadership boasted their own private fleets. While they deferred to him now, he knew they didn't fear him. Yet.

"Very well, Councilman," Kohl said. "I will play my part…for now."

5

"Arcadia Defense Control would like an update, Admiral."

"Tell them Arcadia is not the target," Jackson said. "Make sure they understand we do not fall under the normal CENTCOM charter, and we are not subject to their authority if they try to command us to stay."

"Aye, sir."

Taskforce Wolfpack had been in an extremely high orbit over Arcadia, flanked by their own support ships to mask their visual signature, and squawking ident codes that showed them as half a squadron of Paladin-class heavy cruisers from 4^th Fleet. They'd stressed to Arcadia Orbital Authority they were to be given a wide no-fly zone around the formation and that their mission was highly classified, which was true.

The Super Valkyrie-class was so sensitive that even most of the top brass within Starfleet had no idea they even existed. Given the number of leaks in the organization, CIS had decided to keep it that way.

"The last of our VIP shuttles have departed the formation, Captain," the OPS officer reported to Ellsworth.

"Have the support fleet drop back and down from our formation," Ellsworth ordered. "I want room to maneuver without their drive wash interfering with the engines."

"Aye, sir."

Jackson listened to the bustle on the bridge of the Saber while he continued to scan through the intel available on his personal server that even this ship's CIC didn't have access to. He was trying to figure out what the small inbound strike force might be after. Arcadia was a wealthy, important system, but strategically insignificant.

It was remote and without any real military presence. Falling within the projected cone of likely courses the ships could be taking was the Atlantia System, a New America-held system that specialized in heavy industry on its many orbital platforms. Atlantia certainly produced a large amount of CENTCOM and Starfleet materiel, but nothing that made Jackson think the ESA would risk a deep strike with such a small force to take out.

"Ah, there you are," he said as his search algorithm dug up something from his personal files that would be a prime target for the Alliance. Star system B-1171, a surveyed system near the border but claimed by Britannia. There were two habitable moons there, but the climates were so extreme they weren't practical for colonization.

The stable gravity and remote location made it ideal for a military installation, however. B-1171 was home to Exeter Base, a secure site where they manufactured and stored the entangled pairings for Bluebird transceivers, as well as the Phase IV hardware for Jackson's own Mickey program. Either target would be a big win for the Alliance and a devastating blow to the Federation.

"Captain! A moment, please."

"Admiral?"

"This is their target," Jackson said, bringing the navigational data up on another monitor for Ellsworth to look at.