Valtegan homeworld
When the hyper drone from the First Fleet arrived the general staff quickly downloaded the data before sending the hyper drone back. They imported the data into the central display. Compared to the displays on the General's battle ship this was massive. It was easily 40' around and the chamber it was in was massive. It could easily contain one hundred or more Valtegan's. It only took a few minutes for the computers to process the data and display it.
It was far more detailed than the fleet had seen. With the processing power available, based on the drone's data, they could even see the impressions of ships moving based on the indicators. To the best of their abilities the indicators showed the type of ship. Most were intersystem ships but there were plenty of them. Some military vessels were shown as well. Based on the signatures most were what they would consider intersystem patrol craft and small boys. Frigates, destroyers, and similar sized combatants.
The Emperor's General was standing off to one side looking at the 3D view of the system. He had to admit he was very impressed at the sheer scale of activity. The Valtegan system was busy as well but their ships were far larger and they didn't have as many habitats. They had long since decided, with few exceptions, habitats were to easily damaged. They had space docks and a few habitats but they didn't have a choice in that. The other system had dozens of habitats of all sizes. What they were for they didn't know for the most part. Some could be guessed at based on their locations. Others weren't so easy to figure out. Best guess they were simply to relieve the population pressure on the main planet. They had avoided getting the drones to close to the central planet but what they had picked up was a Xharon's nest of activity.
There were masses of ships crawling around that planet and they hadn't been close enough to identify most. A few were obvious based on the size or targeting sensors. The enemy's ship was very easy to identify since she was by far the largest ship in the entire system. She was easily three times the size of the largest ship. Her power signature was significantly larger as well, "Thoughts? Idea's? I have to talk to the Emperor soon."
The other Generals were evaluating the system information as well. One finally moved back and hissed slightly, "Sssir, we could take the system if both fleets worked together. The concerns the General in Fleet One expressed are valid. If he was to try and take the system with the ships and troops he has now they would be heavily damaged. Chances are good most of the ships would be lost. His concerns about the bomb is also valid. One or two in the right spots and they could lose most of the ships for no results."
Another of the senior staff spoke, "I think his thoughts on trying to identify other systems of theirs is a very good idea. Take out any colony world and it will force them to react. With portions of their fleet leaving to support the colony worlds will make this system easier to deal with. One option would be to combine both fleets for an attack as well. That would reduce the damage to the fleet. Coming in from two or three directions would lessen the impact if they did have one of those bombs. They can't have too many and they can't have them in or near critical infrastructure since that would cost them a great deal." He turned back to the display and kept looking at what it was showing. The repeat of the data was on a time compression so they could have a good idea of what was going on.
The General listened to several others speak and finally had a general consensus of what everyone thought, "I will be back." Or so he hoped. The Emperor had been on edge since he had explained the bomb to him. The R&D department was still working on how to create one using something smaller than a massive ship. It wasn't helping that they hadn't found the Enemy's homeworld either. It didn't matter that space was massive and the resources required were extensive. The Emperor wanted what he wanted and wanted it now.
He walked to his office and settled down and reviewed what the General on site had suggested. After reviewing everything he came up with several suggestions. This was going to be another pain in his tail. Now that he had everything needed he left his office and headed to the palace. It was deep inside a mountain. It would take several direct strikes from orbit before they even breached the heavy shields. That was assuming they knew where it was. Once he had gained access to the Palace he headed to the Emperor's quarters.
It took some time to gain access to the Emperor which was annoying. He had demanded answers sooner than later and what happened? The General had to sit in a waiting area cooling his tail waiting for access. It was damn frustrating. Once he was finally granted access he walked in and mentally sighed. The male was slouched in his chair and it was obvious he had been drinking, "Emperor, I have the information you requested."
The Emperor waved the cup he was drinking out of around, "What you got for me? Make it quick, I am going to visit the females soon." He wasn't in the mood to deal with this crap. Why couldn't they just give him a plan to take over and call it good? The General staff all seemed to think it was hard to come up with plans. Go in, blow the crap out of everything, and then subjugate whoever was left.
"Emperor, there are two primary options we have come up with. First combine the two fleets, send them in and take over the system. If we send one fleet it is very possible we would receive damages which would render the fleet useless. Their tech is inferior to ours by a fair amount but this is their central system. Also, we have to assume they have more of the bombs of the type which took our ships out in the beginning. The second option which I tend to lean more towards is to find and identify any colony worlds and attack there. Their military should be gathered around the central world. That will weaken the colonies. By taking out the colonies it will force them to deploy their military to try and protect or take back the systems. The second option is considered the better of the two." He didn't have any hopes of getting anything from the Emperor today.
After another drink from his cup he scowled, "The two fleets will not combine except for the stipulations I gave. Tell both to keep scouting. When they identify any potential colonies or bases then they will inform me and then we will decide what to do. Leave the information and I will look it over."
The General did as ordered and left the information on the desk before leaving the room. If that man didn't get his act together something might happen to him. He didn't have any urge to do such but others might just take care of the issue. What bothered him was it was a good possibility he would be caught up in the takeover, successful or not.
~~~
Drone found
"Captain we have a return on some debris. It isn't large but the return is showing a high-density metals. It is close." The small ship was a salvage ship and they tended to pick up scraps of ships, old satellites and probes. They made a decent living though occasionally it was hard. One of the best salvage they had was from a probe which had been lost in the early 2000's. It had been sold to a museum for a nice and tidy profit.
"Do I look like a fucking idiot? Deploy some drones and net it. How large is it? If it is as big as the engineer's ass, we might need to physically pick it up." There was some course laughter from him and another person. It was a small crew on a small ship. All were rough around the edges and it showed.
"Admit it, be in space long enough and you would nail that wide load." Another called out to more course laughter.
The sensor tech rolled his eyes since some of the joking rubbed him the wrong way. He launched the robotic collectors and carefully collected the object. It was larger than expected and took longer to get it to the ship. Once it was on board everyone headed to the hold and stared at it, "What the fuck is that thing?" The Captain asked.
The engineer, with the wide load, stared at it, "Naw idear Capn. Ner' seen nothin like that thar thing." She moved over to it and carefully examined it. The probe was a good three feet across with lumps and protrusions. Some she guessed were antenna, maybe openings for doing some sort of sensing, and who knew what else. Since it was floating in the cargo hold she worked to roll it over. When she did she almost jerked back. There was some writing on it but it wasn't terran, "Capn, not Earthen. Seen writin from them cats and nottin like that. Alien I thinkin. Needs contact the EU and sell to thems." They could get some serious money from this.
He froze for a moment, "Yaw sayin this from those lizard things? Bloody hell we can make some gash from this." He waved everyone away, "Sacure it while I make some calls." He left the cargo area and headed to the bridge. He knew exactly who he was going to contact since the person owed him a favor. She had been caught in a compromising position and he had been holding onto the favor until he had something he really needed.
When he made the call, he was smirking, "Good whateve time it is thur. Gots somedone you wants. Found something which might be from our scaly friends. Found it near the belt and wanna talk some gash." He gave the woman a toothy grin. It didn't matter than several of his teeth were missing, it was almost feral.
She wanted to cry, damn that fuck up. If it hadn't happened she wouldn't have this hovering over her, "Send me images and all the information you have and I will talk to my bosses. Before then I won't say anything." Just to be spiteful she disconnected from him.
The Capn started laughing at her reaction, "Get me images, all the senor data, and anything else you can on the thing. I feel a very nice paycheck in the near future. Do some scans unless it does or causes the thing ta do someting. Soonest best dan later." He leaned back in his chair and a slow smile crossed his face. They might be able to sell this piece of shit ship and get a better one.
It wasn't much later before the engineer walked into the bridge, "Nawt able ta get much. Sometin blocking scans. Fittin's wrong, not normal, wird and strange. Odd config. Nawt sometin I have seen before. Heres what I's got." She dropped the chip on the console next to him. Once done she turned and left the bridge without knocking anything over with her ass. Frankly she looked somewhat like a pear. Wide on the bottom and narrow at the top. Add a face only her momma could love and what she had going for her was her experience.
He jacked the chip into his system and after a quick review he shot it off to the woman. He figured it wouldn't take long for her to get back with him. In celebration, he had one of the crew break out some steaks and the good booze. They were definitely going to rake in some cash for this.
~~~
Scout Hyper Drone
