The new ships didn't have near the constraints on them and could safely navigate deeper into a system at warp. It was generally not approved since the risk of popping back into real-space while some intra-system mining barge lumbered across your flightpath was still a risk. In a deserted system like this one, however, there was little danger. Having the Jericho make it to the base before the enemy could was an advantage Jackson sure as hell wouldn't turn down.

He looked up at the master mission clock one more time, and even though it would be close, he thought he had a good chance of evacuating most of the critical hardware off Exeter Base. The people, however, were a different story. Most of the Bluebird Program was automated, and there were only sixty people in total who produced all of the transceiver pairs to CENTCOM, the numbers kept deliberately low for security reasons.

But the base also housed almost two thousand additional Fleet personnel, three thousand civilian contractors, and almost a thousand Marines in Colonel Serra's battalion. There would be no way to get them all off the surface before the enemy fleet arrived, even if there were room for them aboard his ships, which there wasn't. Even adding the Jericho's impressive cargo capacity, these were capital warships, and the cargo holds were made for stores the ship would need to survive and fight not to ferry additional materiel.

Jackson had already decided the Katana and Cutlass would be the two ships that would take on the Bluebird hardware and personnel, and then evacuate to a backup location. The captains of those two ships were the least combat proficient he had in his taskforce so they were the two ships he could afford to lose the most. He had no idea how he would break it to the base commander he hadn't actually shown up to rescue them, and that unless they got a stroke of luck soon, they'd be on their own.

Need to talk. Now.

Jackson looked at the message on his comlink and saw it was from Pike.

"Shit," he muttered, wondering what else could possibly go wrong. "Captain, I'll be in my quarters. Proceed with the ground op and monitor the Jericho's approach."

"Aye, Admiral."

Once Jackson reached his desk, he could see that the channel ready light was still flashing blue, indicating Pike was waiting for him. This time it was a full-vid request. He activated the link on his side and sat down in front of the camera. "Speak. I'm right in the middle of something."

"Aren't we all," Pike said, rolling his eyes. "I'm just letting you know Vadim Kohl just made an appearance. His ship, the Implacable, attacked our training center at Brabus."

Jackson's blood ran cold at the Agent's words.

"Losses?"

"Total," Pike said. "He fired his mag cannons from the outer system and let the projectiles accelerate as they fell to the planet. The damage was immense. The base was perched up on a coastline, and I'm told shells hit with enough force to break the continental shelf and permanently change the topography of the planet. Brabus is being written off as a total loss. The disruption to the climate will make it uninhabitable for a generation or two."