"On it," Corporal Tanzer said. "Be back in a minute, Doc."

"Thank you," Willmore said. "If you'll excuse me, I'll tell my people we're leaving."

"We just have one section left," Walker said. "Do we want to—"

"Sergeant Enders, Fox Actual," the company channel lit up on their coms. Enders raised an eyebrow at Walker, wondering what the captain wanted.

"Go for Enders, sir."

"New tasking. Once the Bluebird personnel are accounted for and moving in the right direction, your team is to move to Research Hab Delta, section twenty-six, and secure that area," Captain Blackburn said.

"Sir, Research Delta has been empty for—"

"Things aren't always what they seem, Sergeant," Blackburn said. "Just get down there. "They want to— Standby." Enders waited while the captain conferred with someone whose voice he didn't recognize.

"Okay, Sergeant, get to that section and secure it. They won't give me any other information than you'll be reinforced by taskforce Marines who will be hitting the airlock via assault shuttle. Get moving."

"Moving now, sir. Enders out."

"Good news?" Walker asked.

"Probably not. You know of anything happening over in Research Delta?" Enders asked.

"Just rumors. Dude I knew from the unit we relieved said it's empty and was for a project that got its funding cut, but there was supposedly some weird shit happening down there. He said someone he knew found out they were doing some sort of freaky genetic shit down there trying to make super soldiers," Walker said.

"Bullshit," Enders snorted.

"I'm just saying what I heard." Walker put his hands up.

"Whatever. Either way, we need to go guard section twenty-six and wait for reinforcements from the taskforce."

"That's not a short hike, and the transport system is inactive in that hab," Walker said. "We better get at it."

* * *

"Admiral, Marines from the Exeter Battalion are moving now to secure section twenty-six."

"Thank you, Colonel," Jackson said into his headset. "Remember that all updates regarding section twenty-six come directly to me, not a word of it over the normal com channels."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Your drone is on its way down, Colonel. Good luck. Wolfe out."

"Everything okay, Admiral?" Captain Ellsworth asked when Jackson turned around.

"Has the rest of the taskforce arrived, Captain?"

"Yes, sir," Ellsworth said, taking the hint to drop it. "Captain Risher says three more hours to rejoin on us. The Jericho is also less than twelve hours away, and Captain Asher says he's willing to do a deep-transition that should put her inside the orbit of the fifth planet just ahead of the Alliance ships. He's just waiting on word from you."

"The risk is minimal," Jackson mused, looking at the top-down representation of Star System B-1171 and seeing where the planets and other major bodies would be when the Jericho came roaring in from the New Sierra jump point. "Tell him deep-transition is approved."

Jump points were really just arbitrary points in space picked out centuries before that allowed ships a starting point into a cleared warp lane to their destination. They were always far into the outer system so ships would never have to worry about inner system traffic. It allowed the previous generations of starships the room they needed to accelerate to transition velocity and to go through the complicated process of deploying their warp drive emitters.