The Sentry Drone completed its recon sweep. Feltain had elected not to try and use its sensors to get a better look at the alien craft - not they Sentry Drone's scanner really had the range anyway - but instead concentrating on making sure the immediate areas was safe. 

After the sweep completed to Feltain's satisfaction, and the Myst Gate momentarily opened to let the Sentry Drone back through, the captain reviewed the final results for a moment, clearly formulating his plan of action, while Alpha settled back into their ready positions.

"All right." Feltain was not just briefing them, as would be typical, but the open comms to operations, to keep them appraised on his plan. "Alpha, we will proceed through to the planet in the Fallen Soul. If they pick us up right away, we'll be within running distance of the Myst Gate. If not, we'll start moving closer. We'll skirt around their ground forces initially, and get a bit of distance from the Must Gate. We'll see if we can take a closer look at those ships first, maybe try and active scan. Depending on what happens, if we stay undetected, we can perhaps get closer to their base and take a look-see.

"Shadowflight, you've got enough power for a Gate or two, right?"

The tall lich nodded. "Yes sir." He continued, not speaking as much for Feltain's benefit, nor the commands, but for [i]Crippling Glare[/i], which was linked into the communications and wouldn't be familiar with his capabilities. "It's not my speciality, but I'm rated at level 9.7 on Gates. I can manage up to [i]Gate X[/i], which is a bit of a strain, but we could come in from nearly a hundred miles; on foot of course. If we can get within ten miles, I can use [i]Gate V[/i], which would be better - or [i]IV[/i] if we need to take the Fallen Soul - in or out - in a hurry." 

Feltain turned to Stab. "Voidslay, initial impressions of the alien tech?"

Stab had been ruminating as she'd been watching, so her answer was immediate.

"My first guess would be gravitic technology of some sort, or TK-based, like the Jalyrkieons use."

"Right," Feltain grunted. "they got those little balls on the back of their ship units instead of engines, don't they?"

"Yes, sir" Stab replied, her eyeglows softening a little in a grin at the description. Then she sobered as she spoke. "From what I recall on the intelligence reports, those extra-galactic alien drone-dude-thingies on the rim" - Stab didn't feel bad about calling them that, since no-one yet had given them an official name, since so little was known - "use a simalar system, too. Heck, sir, if it wasn't for the location and there's SOME visible features on those ships, I'd had said they looked a bit like the ovoids seen by those things. And I wouldn't rule it out, since what we've been able to snag data-wise says those things are just automatatons." It has been one of the reasons Stab had looked up the report. The idea of an alien race sending drones across a whole galaxy to terradform worlds for them was quite intreguing.

"Sir," Shadowflight interjected. "As we know so little about those, it IS possible they might be related. If so, we should be wary, since they use a mix of magic, technology, psionics and bio-engineering, so they would certainly be able to detect our own magic."

Stab nodded. "That's correct. However, if it IS those things, the automatons at least were very passive if not interferred with. But we're making a big assmuption - and even if is IS them, the species behind them might not be.

"They're also really close together." Standard Aotrs distances for starships, like much of the galaxy tended to be at distances of sixty to eighty thousand kilometres. Much closer than that, and you ran the risk of being close enough that even the short-lived beams and bursts of energy weapons could track over more than one ship at once, nevermind the vulnerability to cluster weapons. It was not like the movies - though it was an easy mistake to make if you actually looked at starship's combat informaton holoprojector. In order to be visible to the crews at such distances, the 3D holotables exaggerated the real-time imagery enormously, so that it LOOKED to all intents and purposes, that they were only a few hundred metres apart. (Stab had, like many before her, noted that the real thing didn't look that dissimilar to the computer games, for the obviously convergeant reasons.) 

"You only get that relativisitcally close if you needed to dock, tow or unload. Or their weapons are [i]really[/i] short ranged. Or the little ships need to be that close to the big one to draw wireless power from it. In which case, we might not really be looking at several ships, but, like, one ship which has disconnected parts." 

Feltain nodded in satisfaction. "My gut feeling says whoever these guys are, they either had a major malfunction or came out a fight. They're probably focused on getting themselves entrenched right now so if they don't have Shardan-level sensors, they probably won't notice us until we're pretty close. Once we're there though, maybe the Fallen Soul sensors can see if there's any commications chatter."

"If they don't use telepathy or something," someone rumbeled.

"Point," Feltan conceded easily. He directed his next question to the [i]Crippling Glare[/i]. "Captain Whisperbleed, I don't suppose you're getting anything like that?"

The slightly gravelly voice that replied suggested to Stab that Whisperbleed had likely been a Orc or Half-Orc. "Sorry Fleshslicer. We're still too far out for detailed scans. But," she continued, "I think it might be wise for us to close in. If they don't pick you up immediately, we can probably take it as dead they don't have super-sensors, so we can pop in a bit closer and go back to stealth. Obviously, we can't do any serious scanning until we're in the same system, but the closer we are, the sooner we can get to you if something goes seriously wrong."

It was a risk, of course, against an unknown enemy. A [i]Traitor[/i]was far from toothless, but it wasn't a heavy combat ship and outnumbered, unless the Aotrs turned out to have a significant technological advantage.

"I concur with your collective analysises," a new voice said.

Stab's control was pushed to its limits not to gasp with excitement, and she wasn't able to control the brightening of her eyes glows. [i]HE[/i] was listening to them! Oh, well, [i]of course[/i] he was, this was super-important, and especially with the alien ship being there!

Even Feltain was for a fraction of a second taken aback.

"Thank you, Lord Foul Skream."

"General Flaywind," Foul Skream addressed the oprations. "If Alpha [i]is[/i] able to get any scans, please alert your team that I will be joining them on their analysis remotely. With this many unknowns, I figured another pair of eyeglows won't hurt."

DAMMIT, though Stab, now she was super-duper jealous. For half a mment, she actually regretted not staying behind.

"Will do, my lord," General Flaywind said. "and thank you. They'll be delighted. Alpha, any further input?"

Feltain glances around his team. Stab silently shook her head, as did Shadowflight. 

"No, sirs, ma'am, milord," Feltain said. "Then with your permission?"

"Good to go, Alpha," Flaywind answered.

"I don't need to say it," Lord Foul Skream called. "But I will anyway - don't get killed, Alpha, you're too valuable to lose."

Stab felt a warm glow in her soul.

Fallen Soul Nightsabre lifted off the cradle. With a quick burst of the engine, they were through the Myst Gate and out the other side. 

[i]Now[/i], Stab thought, [i]we see how good their sensors are, and whether this little adventure going to be over before it even starts...[/i]