291 Reconquest of the outer citadel 3

"What the hell is going on?"

"No idea, sir. One second we were receiving and sending data just fine and the next second there's nothing other than this junk on all spectrums, we are currently unable to communicate with the fleet command, even just talking to the rest of the strike group has to be using laser or radio transmissions, nothing else gets trough."

While the communications officer was explaining things to admiral Simmons, Dax also arrived at the bridge, scanning the room he quickly realized that there was something wrong with the quantum communications array and checked his own, then walked over to a console and tried using emergency protocols which Mu had designed specifically to be tamper proof, all with the same result.

"It is not the array at fault, this is likely some kind of jamming measure from the Emergence."

"... What makes you sure of that?"

"Because I just tried my private uplink and channels designed to be tamper proof with the same result, I believe if we cross check with the other ships in the strike group we will see the same interference… Let's do just that, if there's any difference in the pattern we might be able to figure out something from it."

Quickly working to troubleshoot the issue, Dax quickly realized that their current situation was magnitudes more dangerous than what was apparent.

"That's a good idea, although I doubt it will solve the issue. As we've lost all means of communicating with the fleet command we should-"

"No, we shouldn't."

"Pardon?"

While Simmons appeared to conclude that they needed to return to their lines, Dax didn't believe the Emergence would be polite enough to let them attempt that.

"Normal procedure would be to return to base for repairs, doing so will be exactly what the Emergence would be able to predict after having assimilated countless ships of the Galatic navy."

"Tha-"

"... Then what do you suggest we do? While he just restocked everything, our supplies aren't unlimited. At some point, we're going to start running out of food, water and ammunition."

Hearing the solid reasoning Dax had behind not following protocol, Simmons was open to possible alternative plans although possible passable alternatives were hard for him to find. Closing his eyes for a moment to think, Dax was unable to connect to the wider network due to the current communication blackout, he still had a lot of basic information stored in his cybernetic spine for points in time where he couldn't communicate, exactly like this one.

"I suggest we find a defendable position in one of the nearby systems and hunker down to await rescue, in about a month the 14th fast attack group should have been fully retrofitted and operational under the command of my subordinate, she'll no doubt come to our aid, or at least come looking for us to find out why we went dark."

"That's a solid plan, except for the fact that we can't resupply out here, while we might have enough ammunition depending on the level of Emergence activity we see, this 3rd strike group doesn't have food stored for more than a month with rationing, even less if our men have to fight all day long."

Although there was well over a month of supplies on the strike group's possession, admiral Simmons worked off of the assumption that the Emergence would attack them relentlessly, and people fighting always needed more food than those who were simply moving from one point to another, then there was the issue of munitions, although there was technically enough to last a month, an unexpectedly intense confrontation, like hunkering down to await rescue could deplete those stores fast.

"As the 125th is originally a black operations unit there are times when we need to operate without support from home, to enable that across the galactic empire even before the iron race containment war meant establishing countless dead drop caches all over the empire, especially in dead systems with minimal traffic like the area we are currently in."

"I see, that would certainly take care of rations and water, but what about munitions? Even if that's also stored in these caches of yours they are unlikely to be of the required calibre as this fleet has just switched out all major weapons systems."

Feeling increasingly optimistic about Dax's proposal, Simmons nevertheless kept scrutinizing it for any holes, such was his responsibility towards his subordinates.

"Yeah that might be an issue, luckily the new torpedo launchers have backwards compatibility as a future cost serving alternative. While we might not be able to resupply railgun ammunition, that shouldn't be a problem either."

"And why is that?"

"Because this Battleship and multiple battlecruisers supporting it are all equipped with mana generators which are powered by the individual ship's state of the art fusion reactors, Coincidently we also have a surplus of mana users, isn't that lucky?"

"It is indeed."

-

"Ifrit, we've received final confirmation."

"Good, then let's go and secure us some war supplies admiral~✿"

With Dax's plan accepted by fleet admiral Simmons, a group of battlecruisers within the 3rd strike group was assigned the responsibility to forage for supplies while the main unit fortified its standing within a low traffic binary star system a bit away from any normal trade routes. One of the battlecruisers assigned with that dangerous task was the fast attack class battlecruiser Valor equipped with a mana generator, on its bridge stood a fairly strange creature which spoke with an overly sweet sounding voice, this creature served as the battlecruisers only offence and only valid defence as its normal armaments had been offloaded to make place for the supplies it would be salvaging. Still, admiral Johanson had heard what Ifrit was capable of doing from her superior, and while she didn't entirely believe those words she nevertheless trusted them and treated Ifrit with respect.

"R-right... Nav, make for system R-7290 D-92. Initiate jump when ready."

Still not completely used to Ifrit's way of talking, admiral Johanson slightly flinched whenever Ifrit suddenly spoke out from right behind her, having somehow found a way to sneak up on her for the nth time. Unbeknownst to admiral Johanson, her blood and soul had an extremely enticing smell, there was simply something irresistible about it so Ifrit only barely managed to avoid crossing the line by sneaking up close to her like that.

"Navigation reports jump ready, ship ready. Now committing to the jump."

While the battlecruiser's fusion drive spun up to overdrive, reusable jump pylons separated from the ship itself as its gravitational drive produced enough anti gravitons and negative mass to briefly create and stabilize a wormhole, the moment it was created a group of stabilizers travelled through the hole, before the battlecruiser finally begun moving trough.

[EXITING GATE IN: 3… 2… 1… BRACE.]

Coming through the other side, admiral Johanson immediately ordered the onboard fighter wing to scout out the nearby area while Valor itself scanned the entire system for any signs of the Emergence. Finding no signs of the Emergence in the relatively empty star system home to just a single red dwarf star and a sparse asteroid belt, the battlecruiser Valor moved on with its mission and quickly located the hidden Hellwalker cache built into one of the larger asteroids.

"Launch the CAS-7 and empty out the cache as fast as possible! I don't want to spend a second more in this system than we have to."

Almost as those words left Johanson's mouth, the sensors reported an active contact closing in on their location.

"Shit! Recall the CAS-7's immediately! We-"

"There's no need, just turn on the mana generator and I'll eliminate the contact."

Having her words interrupted in such a rude manner, Johanson turned to Ifrit in anger, although that anger soon evaporated when she looked into Ifrit's eyes, instead that feeling anger was transformed into a primal fear, all Johanson's instincts screamed out to her that she was not to anger the creature in front of her and doing so would lead to a fate much worse than death.

"O-okay."

"Great~✿ Although this 'Emergence' thing doesn't have a soul I can eat it still has been a while since I've killed anything~ I get sort of restless when I don't kill things, don't you guys also get that?~✿"