Meanwhile

It wasn't the most comfortable chair Admiral Serin Jensen had ever sat on, but there weren't many chairs in the fleet, so she had to make do with what she had.

The holographic images of the Secretary General of CATO Enzo Grayson and the director of the Galactic Intelligence Agency Lincoln Magnus sat around the square table.

Judging by Enzo's anxious face, he was worried sick. Since his last two years as the head of CATO, Serin had never seen him with this much anxiety. No one could blame him though, Euphoria was his home planet. Despite telling him that the strike group has crippled PRF capabilities in orbit, he was still worried.

Magnus crossed his palms on the table, "The Pentagon has reported that the PRF is forming a pact with the Nazi Federation and the New Soviet Republic. Those are the only two major anti-Earth states that we know that have re-alig-"

"Hold up, I thought those two factions don't get along well," Enzo interrupted as he leant forward.

"They may have different ideals but, they share the same goal," Serin said, "and that is to destroy the authority of Earth."

"If the other intel is right, there may be more rotten eggs in the basket than we think," Magnus added.

"What other intel?" Enzo asked.

"I'm afraid that's classified," Magnus replied

"Director, please clarify by what you mean by 'rotten eggs'," Serin added.

"The Icherian Republic, rogue Arben League nations, pirates, anarchists, crime lords, smuggling gangs, rogue military factions, terrorist groups, all of them," Magnus said, "the Office of Naval Intelligence predicts that they would arrive in two days from now."

The last time Serin fought the Icherian Republic was when she was 24, as a USF Marine. Unlike the Rukhovians, the Icherians did not go around boasting about their military capabilities, which made analyzing their capabilities quite difficult. So whenever her gunship was sent to take out some Icherian position, it was almost as if she was fighting an unknown enemy.

"We definitely need more than the IDA here." Serin said, "taking out the first fleet didn't mean anything."

"I'll inform the other Admirals, for now, you are to proceed with Operation Shatterfall, and wear down the enemy force, is that understood, Admiral?"

"Yes sir," Serin said.

"What about 'our pirates'?" Enzo asked.

"I'll get them to disrupt enemy logistics," the director answered.

Although not publicly acknowledged by the Earth government, the GIA provides mil-spec weaponry to several pirate groups. Most of these groups operate in and out of PRF territory. With millions of credits and thousands of armaments delivered to them, they have been a very helpful in the agency's disruption operations.

"I have to stress this over and over again," Grayson said, "this is the first time the PRF has stepped past the Frontline. The PRF would do whatever it takes to expand The Gap. If we don't stop them here, we would lose the entire outer colony systems. The Hyperspace Pursuit Force would not be enough to repel sporadic hyperspace jumps into other nearby systems. This breach may jeopardize the entire defense line. It is vital that you hold this system down. Any questions?"

After two seconds of silence," Then we shall conclude the meeting. Grayson out."

The holograms disappeared, draining all the light from the meeting room. Then several seconds later, the main light bulb illuminated the meeting room. The table's display in front of her wrote 'transmission end'. On both corners of the table, two perfect white squares formed and she placed both of her hands inside them. Within milliseconds the display turned black. Her verification was needed at all times, whether it was logging in and out of the database. There were too many classified data that she could not disclose to her subordinates.

What data you may ask? Such as the classified development of a brand new ship based railgun capable of firing near light speed. Or the technical layout of the new long range B-71 Stalker bomber and its Level 4 rated stealth coating.

She sat against her seat and pulled up the battle map.

A giant blue sphere representing Euphoria lit up above the table. Almost five hundred CATO ships, represented in blue formed around one half of the planet. The remains of the PRF fleet were highlighted grey while the known positions of the other ships were red. With the successful execution of the first stage of Operation Shatterfall, the USF will easily gain control of the less important regions. However, since most of the PRF force have rallied around the eastern and northen hemispheres, taking those two areas will be difficult. In addition, the strike group wasn't invulnerable. Recent reports suggests that there is a huge network of PRF anti-orbit missile batteries that can damage ships in orbit, which is troubling given the fact that she is sitting on the one ship the PRF will fire at.

To make matters worse, more of them are coming. She lacked superior numbers, but she had the logistics and technology to make up for it.

Hastily she stood up and headed for the USFS Tempest's bridge.

-----

"Escape pods?" Johnson asked.

"Hunted and pursued, the Tulumbass took them all out," the captain of the Wolf-class destroyer USFS Jericho, Captain Marcus Anderson replied through the holographic projector, "at least it seemed like it."

Johnson sighed and rubbed his eyebrows with his right hand. "Any lifeforms detected-"

"Fourteen scans, Johnson, fourteen fucking scans. I can't believe-" Captain Freya Palmer of the Excalibur-class destroyer USFS Sandstorm paused, then she exhaled loudly, "Goddammit."

The captains stood in a triangle. The holograms of Freya and Marcus look clearly troubled, with Marcus having his hands on his waist, looking towards the ground as if he was thinking. Freya on the other hand had her arms folded, her frown still distinct despite the blurry distortions of her image.

"Lost with all hands," Marcus added.

"Sanders was a good man," Freya said as sadness filled up her irises, "but there's no time for grief, I just got word that Admiral Jensen wants us to withdraw back to our original positions."

Marcus' hologram stood upright and faced Freya, "I thought we were supposed to set up an ambush here."

"The plan has changed," she replied, "intel suggests that the more hostile fleets are inbound."

"Isn't that part of the plan? To ambush the PRF reinforcements?" Marcus asked.

"Unless you want to die, then you can stay," she answered.

Marcus sighed, "Well that just ruined the exciting part of the battleplan."

"Where's the rest of CATO?" Johnson asked.

"Only the two armies from the VDF and the IDA are coming for now," Freya replied.

Although the two field armies weren't enough to match the PRF numbers, the Vanaheim Defense Forces had the second most powerful fleet in the CATO. They were made up of armies from the Vanir Sector. Unlike the USF who's doctrine revolves around combined arms warfare and technological and logistical superiority, the VDF focused on heavy armor and supreme firepower. With their brand new Hringhorni-class supercarrier, they would be a significant force multiplier on this battlespace.

"Unfortunately, the VDF isn't able to send its supercarrier over here, so we have to make do with their frigates and destroyers," she continued.

Johnson sighed in disappointment, "Was hoping to see it with my eyes. I heard its a beautiful peice of naval engineering."

"Then where the hell is our Navy?" Marcus asked, "Can't we just call in another two more battlegroups?"

"Probably somewhere else, defending the rest of the Frontline," Johnson said.

Marcus threw his arms upward, "So, what? Are we supposed to just pull back and wait?"

"Pretty much, yeah," she replied.

Soft thumping footsteps suddenly neared Johnson from behind. It sounded as if someone was running. Johnson anticipated this, and turned, "Yes?"

"Sir, I got a distress signal coming from the field, 14000km away, vector 2.5-3-9, code red," Rebecca said, her dark pupils were colored with stress.

"What?" Johnson asked, "How? Where? When?"

Freya's image disappeared for a second, before she returned, ".. got it, thanks, Albert. I assume you both have received the same intel?"

Marcus held onto a PDA, "You think it's the Greenville survivors?" he asked, still staring at the clear display with a mix of doubts and astonishment.

"Maybe.." Johnson said, "or the PRF is trying to lure us into another ambush." He looked at Freya, "What do you think?"

"Worth the shot," she said.

Marcus tossed his PDA out of the image, "Catch," he said to someone, "I thought we had orders to pull back?"

Freya shook her head, "Fuck that, we ain't leaving no one behind."

Johnson looked over his shoulder and Rebecca was still standing behind him, "You got a location?"

"Aye, sir," she said.

Jenkins said from the helm, "Coordinates are punched in, cap!"

Richard only nodded to Johnson, as if he was thinking what Johnson was thinking.

Johnson studied the other two captains, their eyes shared same thoughts.

"Then let's go get them," he said.