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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tun Kai Poh" data-source="post: 8432119" data-attributes="member: 6761960">Brilliant and Professional"We're still looking at middle-confidence profiles, but at the moment we can make out four battleships and two capital-scale carriers, along with a dozen smaller escorts," says Vera. "The good news is that they're spread out, with one battleship and two carriers trailing the rest by 1-2 light days. There is a possibility - and I stress that this is all theoretical - that we could defeat the entire force in detail if we had to."Captain Rodin of the DOJ/HR, sitting in on the fleet conference, squints at the data and frowns. "None of the battleships look large enough to be the Rex.""Correct," says Bernd. "The Rex is not among them."Vera displays the profiles of all ships in SWIFT AMITY. "Aside from Battlegroups Splinter and Eland, we have the Sour Brains, comprising the battlecarrier We Demand Hazard Pay, and the assault transports Facefirst and Fool's Gold. The former carries four wings of mechanized chassis and is armed with superheavy mass accelerator banks, and the latter two transports have several marine landers between them, for boarding actions.""I'll have CGO Bryant start working up our targeting solutions as per standard, Tabitha," Caspian says, "I don't expect we'll be doing much out of our standard operating procedures to open this engagement, unless Colonel Milch and Major Mahayhay have anything to add?"The Colonel says: "Get us close enough to use our mass accelerators and launch boarding parties. I suggest sending us into boarding range alongside Battlegroup Eland - more targets for the enemy to split their fire against when we dive in. Then we just need your fighters to cover us when we launch. The Major has told me she's quite pleased with the joint training exercises we've been running. So I'm confident we can pull it off."Zoltan Pesh speaks up - although the lawyer's voice is just a soprano echo compared with the Colonel's bold bass. "We have cleared all legal hurdles to permit our NHP to fuse with your fleet legion in case of engagement. Thank you, Captains, for signing our liability release forms."Battlegroup Splinter Uptime Action - consult with Gunnery, using Caspian's Professional trait: (17+4) = 21Remove one additional charge counter on one of the SPKs during the first logistics phase.Seeing as this is basically Caspian and his crew's SOP at the start of a battle (and he's somewhat obsessive on training and efficiency), he wants to run his crew through the necessary checklists to prepare to open the fight with everything they've got.Battlegroup Eland Uptime Action - consult with NAVINT, with Tabitha's Brilliant trait: (16+3) = 191. What sort of charge weapons do the enemy Flagships have?2. Which of the enemy fleets will be more willing to stand and fight - and which ones can I intimidate into surrender?3. What sort of movement disruption abilities do the fleets have?Tabitha uses her Brilliant trait to try and tease out some vital intelligence on the incoming hostile fleets. She finds that four of the six capital ships are on file. Two of the leading trio are identified as PCV-DN Hannibal and PCV-DN Shaka Zulu, both built and crewed out of Rittermeer. Intel considers Rittermeer to be one of the more loyal Purview worlds, and unlikely to break under fire. Two of the Hannibal's subline escorts, as well as the Shaka Zulu and the unidentified third dreadnought in the leading trio, are at the early stages of charging their long-spool weapons, and there are also some odd exotic radiation readings coming from both the latter battleships."It's a high chance of more paracausal technology," says Vera. "Maybe it's Voladore blink-tech. We've been warned that they're bringing some experimental ships into the Shore, in which case we may expect some unconventional movement tricks from these ships. I'll flag them on the threat display for you."Captain Tiburce Rodin speaks up: "Strike Captain Catrina Bannon commands the Shaka Zulu. She was Harman Wilder's friend and classmate at the Purview Interstellar College cadet program. Strongly loyal to the Armory, a favourite of the high directorate. I would not be surprised if she's put in command of the fleet. She's supposed to be conservative and cautious. She prefers to let the long-spool weapons do the talking."Of the three trailing ships (two carriers and a battleship), Tabitha is able to pull IDs on two of them. One is PCV-GC Arminius, an IPS-N-built battlecarrier commanded by Strike Captain D.S. Gopalakrishnan, a young rising star in the Armory, known for his unconventional strategems at the Purview Interstellar College war games. And the other is PCV-DN James I, a Man O'War commanded by Captain Lowell Petrie - an old acquaintance of Tabitha's from her academy days. Petrie was a visiting exchange student, benefitting from a time when relations with the Armory were better. He's a good man with an honourable heart. Not the sort to waste lives in a pointless battle. And he had a fond spot for Tabitha, even though they only knew each other for a few months..."I beg to differ," says Vera to Captain Rodin. "If I was a smart Director, I'd put Gopalakrishnan in command. He's probably the most cunning officer of the bunch. They say he's studied NHP psychology in an effort to find new ways of tactical thinking."Next: Opening statements</blockquote>

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