<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=104145.msg4805673#msg4805673">Quote from: The Great Triangle on 19-06-2011, 07:17:23</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Aboard the Kobras Aquairre, an astropathic message reached the bridge just as the food was being loaded aboard.  "Rogue Trader Cortez, I've come to understand that the pirates are in a dangerous state.  Something attacked them, we don't know what.  I'm sending <em>Katana</em> in to investigate, in case they're just trying to lure us into a trap.  Want to come along?"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Sitting in his command chair on the bridge of the Everest, Captain Jason Harlock contemplated what they knew.  From the report of the attempted ship-napping of the Thamnophis, it was obvious that the pirates still had spies in the fleet.  They may not know of what exactly had attacked them in the nebula, but the status of the fleet in high orbit of Ares they almost certainly had, if not full intel, at least a good idea.  And yet, the imperial fleet had almost no intel on the pirates.  Cortez's group only had a little more.  A scouting mission... one in force, was probably for the best.  With the Alexander, Kobras Aqquirre and Katana acting as escorts and scouts for the Everest, they could scout the nebula in a fraction of the time a single ship could manage... and if any of the escort ships ran into trouble, they could fall back under the cover of the Everest's guns.  In short order, they'd have the nebula scouted, and rob the pirates of any hiding spot.  Then, then they could deal with the pirate base.<br/><br/>His mind made up, Jason Harlock activated his chair's data-pad, and began calling up the operational statistics of the Katana, Alexander and Kobras Aqquirre, in order to create fleet formations and operational protocols for using the four ships as a scouting group.  The Alexander and Aqquirre were the fastest, he knew.  They could be positioned on the flanks, using their speed to widen the search, while the Katana could be place reliably in the position of forward scout, in front of the Everest, which would take up the rear-most position, and would serve as a fall-back position for the other ships.<br/><br/>Captain Harlock considered the navigational and scanning problems posed by the nebula, and realized that at certain points, the scout ships may well be obscured from scanning range of the Everest, unable to be seen or to see the cruiser, if they wished to efficiently scout the nebula.  He pulled up his roster of proficient navigation officers, and selected a team to create a detailed flight plan for the Everest for each section of the nebula as they reached it.  If they could plot out the Everest's course precicely enough at each point, and give all three escort ships a minute to minute prediction of where the Everest would be at any time during their mission, the escort ships could aways rush to the relative safety of the Cruiser even when the nebula blocked their sensors.  All that was needed was for the Everest to fly a predicated course for each leg.  That would enable the scouting ships to fly about at will while still remaining able to form up with the fleet... and without having to risk communicating ahead and possibly warning any pirates of their intent.<br/><br/>It would require a detailed list of coordinates for each leg, and they would have to create a new set of them each time they reached a new section of nebula, so Jason assigned a different group to each set of coordinates and crossed his fingers.<br/><br/>With a concrete tactical plan ready for approval, Captain Harlock put down the complete details on his personal data pad and readied his Aquilla Lander to fly to the Rogue Trader's vessel as soon as the Kobras Aqquirre returned to Ares.