[3B] Asteroid Wastes between the Saphrithid and Coalition Territories

[3B] "Grey Area" Space.

The Peoples Republican Navy had jumped into the grey turf, at first the Red Guard Emerged, followed by the Revolutionary Guard. Further off from the jump site came The Everlasting in slight tow.

Admiral Quing Cho-Sun was eager to do some point scoring if conflict was going to break out, and the Koreans were exercising every change they got to strut the chicken wire fence.

<:: "Deep scan for any enemy infiltrated units, scan for radiological signatures, scan for space stations. Keep coms open."

"Commander, nobody was left behind, everyone is here."

<:: "Very well." He sighed, he'd been saying the same thing for most of the afternoon, and his news updates on the situation were small at best. "Spool up the FTL drives, prepare to separate the flotilla on given directives."

03-B System, Coalition/Saphrithid Neutral Zone
Boeing B-23/S Stratobomber Deep Space Recon Variant
6th Air Force, 21st Deep Space Recon Squadron // Mission: Early Warning
Days in Stealth Rotation: 13

<"Alert alert. Passive. Electromagnetic. Detection. Multiple, new, contacts. Threat, bearing, zero eight seven. Mark, two, two, three. Distance, zero, point, three, astronomical, units.">

The crying of the medium-range threat detection alarm was enough to shock Captain Andrew Lenninger, and the poor Air Force pilot pretty much banged his head against the monitor on the top of the short ceiling of the cockpit; of course, the computer knew that to be a mistake, so it disregarded the sudden input. Within seconds the Captain was joined by his co-pilot, Second Lieutenant Serena McAlister, who had disappeared into the tiny bathroom compartment of the stealth craft moments before; her uniform was still unzipped.

"Sir, what the hell's going on?" asked the Lieutenant, her fingers swiftly reaching to secure the straps of her seat around her body, and to zip up the vacuum-resistant jumpsuit she was wearing. In the meantime, the Captain regained his bearings and started to press various keys on the mechanical keyboard pressed against his thighs, bringing up the passive sensor display on the large screen that served as the bomber's 'window'.

"Hoooooly shit, we've got eighteen warships of unidentified origin here... They are scanning for us. JONAS, can they see us?"

Of course, the chances of the bomber being detected in its present state were extremely low: it had landed in one of the asteroids, merging its RADAR signature with that of the gargantuan rock, and the electronic countermeasures were operating as expected. Everything else was operating at minimal capacity, and many major systems had been powered down, including the main reactor: the ship was running on battery power. There would be no indications that a ship was present in the system.

The AI took less than a millisecond to respond, its voice a deep male tone with a distinct robotic punctuation style to it. <"Stealth, systems, operating, at, optimal, capacity. Proximity, to, asteroid, provides, maximum, coverage.">

The pause lasted for only a few moments, however: <"EM, fluctuations, detected. Unidentified, fleet, preparing, for, jump.">

The word 'shit' kept repeating in the Captain's mind several times per second, and for a few seconds he paused to consider his actions. He had to get the word out to Europa, but he did not know of the detection capabilities of the unidentified ships. For all he knew, the standard bouncing-signal technique wouldn't work. He had to use the quantum transmitter, but it would use a lot of their energy; the message had to be short, lest they be forced to initiate the reactor and risk giving off a radiation signature.

"JONAS, send quantum message to Europa, spare them all un-needed data. Message begins. '18 u.i.d., 3b, ftlprep, 6c/6d/6f'. Message ends. How much will that cost us in battery time?"

<"Forty-nine hours. Remaining time under battery will be three hours.">

That was most of their remaining battery power; they were supposed to cycle battery and reactor every three days in order to recharge the batteries at times of perceived safety, but they hadn't expected to send energy-intense quantum messages (which were undetectable, according to the laws of physics).

"Send it. Reduce power to all systems aside those needed for intelligence gathering and stealth, Lieutenant, we are going to put on EVA gear and shut down life support. That should buy us a few additional hours."

Powering down life support also meant the ship wouldn't have to waste energy in two counter-productive processes: heating up its interior and maintaining the exterior cool at the same time. Within a few moments, the message had been dispatched to Europa.