"Exeter Base? Isn't that just a deep-storage site for retired hardware that's still classified?" the captain asked.

"Officially, yes…and it does actually perform that task," Jackson said. "There are also two other programs there that are highly classified and critical infrastructure. Somehow, the Alliance found out about one, or both, and is on the way to take them out."

"Not capture?"

"Not with six ships," Jacksons said. "Unless they're executing a multi-pronged assault—unlikely with the system being so deep in Fed space—the only thing they can hope to achieve is denying us one of our most crucial advantages in this conflict before it even gets started."

"Now that you mention it, sir, six ships don’t seem to be enough to do either job, capture or destroy."

"They're plenty when your side has weaponized antimatter," Jackson said. "Six cruisers could be carrying enough munitions to wipe out the moon Exeter altogether, not to mention the base on the surface."

Understanding dawned on Ellsworth's face as he realized what Jackson was saying. While he may not know the details of what CENTCOM was doing on Exeter Base, he knew enough about the Alliance's antimatter weapons to understand how overkill six capital ships would be, meaning they had no intention of leaving anyone alive.

"Sir…our mission—"

"Is to specifically hunt down Vadim Kohl," Jackson interrupted. "I'm well-aware of our orders, Captain. However, those orders contain a significant amount of leeway in which to execute them, agreed?"

"Agreed," Ellsworth said. "I suppose we really have no way of knowing whether this Alliance strike force is part of Kohl's force without investigating, do we, sir?"

"My thoughts exactly, Captain," Jackson said with a straight face. "Please, interface with our CENTCOM liaison and inform them we think Exeter Base is the target and that we are en route. Any regular fleet units should stand down unless they hear otherwise from us."

"Right away, Admiral," Ellsworth said and motioned for one of his bridge officers to come over. Jackson stood and walked to the middle of the Saber's nerve center while the captain relayed his instructions to the junior officer.

"Coms! Signal the taskforce we'll be getting underway in the next fifteen minutes," Jackson barked. "Nav, set course for Star System B-1171. The approach data will be in your mission supplemental. Let me see what you have before you relay it to the rest of the fleet."

"Aye-aye, Admiral."

The existence and location of B-1171 was listed in the Master Navigational Database updated and shared publicly for all interstellar traffic, but the details of which jump points were needed to get there and what the safe approaches were through the outer system were kept classified. Taskforce Wolfpack had been given a mission supplemental packet that contained the needed data so they could navigate to any Federation military or government installation if they needed to resupply.

Jackson made a mental note to have Lieutenant Trapp inquire as to who else was authorized the specific nav data for Exeter Base. If the small Alliance force was indeed heading there, it would be because someone leaked the information about not only what was being built there but how to get to it.