UGT (Unified Galactic Time): 20th Revol (July) 280 a.G.A. (after Galactic Armistace) / 1:11 p.m.

  Location: KF Battlecruiser Kaiseradler, Felsmark system (yellow dwarf), (Outer-)Noran Principality, Kingdom of Ferron, Milky Way

  Admiral von Kr?henfels was sitting within his personal quarters on board of the KF Kaiseradler. With both the Federation and the FSF Aurora having withdrawn for now, this was the perfect time for him to get some rest. Still, sleep was eluding him.

  When he had originally shared his strategy with the other officers, many had thought the risk was too great. No one truly believed Captain Lunaris to directly jump into their pre-prepared minefield like that, it would be a rookie-mistake by all standards, jumping towards your target in a straight line like that. But he had been proven correct once more in his assessment of Captain Lunaris.

  While she certainly knew the textbook strategies for her ship and warfare overall by heart, and could be quite clever, when necessary, she simply lacked in experience that comes with age and surviving battle after battle. No, Captain Lunaris wasn't just an incredible young Captain, she was also inexperienced, far more than the Captain of a Super Battleship should be.

  Admiral von Kr?henfels had already held his suspicions for a long time and everything he saw only confirmed it more. The Federation was great at making bad choices for their commanding officers, seeing how rampant corruption ran within them. But if Captain Lunaris were a political appointment, her name would've meant something to him, the same if she had made an impressive career within the Federation ranks. But she had appeared out of nowhere. No, the FSF Aurora certainly wasn't an SHF ship like they claimed. More likely some First Federation technology. The true question was where it came from.

  With a sigh he cut off that line of thought. While he would love to find out, this was not the time to get lost in his own head. If he didn't use his time to rest, he should at the very least prepare himself for the still ongoing siege of his system. Every other question could wait until he had successfully warded off the Federation advance for good.

  His plan had not just banked on the inexperience and overconfidence of Captain Lunaris, but also on her becoming more risk-averse after his relative success. While he would've preferred to cripple the Federation fleet while the FSF Aurora was occupied, he'd always known that would be a long shot. He hadn't known the full capabilities of the FSF Aurora after all, something he did now. No, just making it unlikely for them to repeat this tactic was enough.

  In truth, Admiral von Kr?henfels didn't have the mines left to repeat this move over and over. While he had done his best to gather as many mines and electromagnetic disruptors as possible, he'd simply lacked time and resources. His reserve stockpiles had mostly been emptied by preparing both the kill zone around the hyperlane exit point and by setting up his trap around the second habitable world. If the FSF Aurora tried again, there was little he could do to stop them from taking the second world.

  But knowing that the Federation fleet was currently retreating again, clearly focused on taking out the smaller Ferron holdouts throughout the system, it was clear that they prepared for a longer siege. How long, Admiral von Kr?henfels didn't know. Maybe he had just bought a few days. Maybe a few weeks. But either way, he had halted the Federation advance for now and bought time for his own side to send further reinforcements. After what had happened in the Schwarzfels system he'd instantly given orders to inform the entire nation, something he should've done from the very beginning. Now he only needed to hold out.

  He had to buy a few weeks at the very least for enough reinforcements to gather. He really hoped his father and the king would understand the direness of the situation better than he had. Because after the destruction of the Battlestation KBF Sternenschauer, he'd been forced to significantly up the danger the FSF Aurora posed to them.

  Captain Lunaris had willingly exchanged fire with four Battlestations stronger than most Battleships on her lonesome, however temporarily it had been. And she'd come out on top. He was sure that continued saturation fire would've most likely overwhelmed the defenses of the FSF Aurora not much after, but that didn't really matter if her ship could just jump out of danger the second no one was actively shooting at her. Combined with her higher effective weapon range, the FSF Aurora had a way too easy job of taking out his Battlestations, destroying the greatest advantage he'd had in defending the system.

  Admiral von Kr?henfels chuckled slightly. All his problems could be traced back to that one ship, couldn't they? That one ship that he had to counter without a given doctrine and no luxury of failure. At least he hoped he'd by now truly found out the maximum output of the FSF Aurora; however discouragingly high they were. And he still had a few more plans up his sleeve, and he was quite confident he could predict what the Federation's next move would be as well.

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  The Federation would not repeat the same maneuver again. They had already learned the cost of splitting their forces, and Captain Lunaris in particular would not risk being caught in isolation a second time without preparation. That left only one logical course. They would return to the secondary inhabited world and attempt to dismantle its defenses by force. The loss of one Battlestation had weakened that position enough to make it appear vulnerable, and Captain Lunaris would know that time worked against her as much as he did. A slow siege was not in the Federation's interest. They would push where progress could still be made, meaning they would try to grind down the remaining Battlestations from maximum range.

  It was the only approach that made operational sense. The FSF Aurora could outrange the Battlestations and dismantle them piece by piece while the Federation fleet remained just far enough back to avoid a decisive engagement. Eventually the defenses would collapse under the constant pressure. He could not stop that outcome entirely. But he could make it costly in time, which was exactly what he needed right now.

  The Battlestations had been designed as static fortresses, immovable pillars of the system's defense. Against conventional fleets that had always been sufficient. Against Lunaris it was a fatal weakness. Anything that remained stationary would eventually be destroyed. So, his plan was to make sure that there would be no stationary targets.

  The remaining three Battlestations around the secondary inhabited world would be shifted from their defensive anchor orbits into controlled rotational patterns around the planet. Carefully calculated trajectories would ensure that at least two Battlestations always remained between the FSF Aurora and the planetary surface while the third rotated through exposed positions. The Federation ship would be able to engage individual Battlestations, but only for limited periods before orbital movement carried the targets out of effective firing geometry.

  Normally something like that would be unadvisable, unwanted even. The propulsion of the Battlestations was abysmal, once they started moving properly there was no way he could get them to be stationary again in any reasonable timeframe. And standard doctrine wanted them stationary, because only if they were unmoving could they actually have longer firing engagements with enemy fleets, for which they were designed. The weapon range of the FSF Aurora, however, meant that they wanted to stop exactly that from happening.

  No, he would force the Federation to reposition constantly if they wanted to maintain pressure on a single specific Battlestation. And every repositioning maneuver would push them closer toward the asteroid belt stretching between the two inhabited worlds.

  That belt had remained unused so far, its defenses silent and waiting. Static platforms and embedded weapon emplacements were of limited value on their own, but if the Federation fleet allowed themselves to drift too close while pursuing the rotating Battlestations, they would find themselves operating inside overlapping fields of fire, for in that asteroid belt with many stationary targets, his fleet would be waiting should they be given a chance.

  He would reinforce this rotating defense with assets that otherwise held little military value. Freighters were already being stripped and converted into auxiliary orbital platforms. Their drives would remain functional, but most internal volume would be filled with improvised shielding layers, sensor emitters, and power conduits for basic defensive weaponry. They would not survive long, but they would be able to soak up whatever the FSF Aurora threw at the Battlestations and buy time.

  Dense formations of civilian hulls would complicate targeting solutions and generate overlapping sensor signatures. The FSF Aurora would still be able to identify the Battlestations, but every firing solution would take longer to compute and verify. Railgun trajectories would require adjustment. Missile guidance would need recalibration. Every second lost to targeting was a second gained for the defense. And time was exactly what he needed.

  Many of those Freighters would be lost. He had accepted that already. Most of them would have to be abandoned anyway once the secondary world could no longer be held, which was only a question of time anyways. Used this way, they could still serve a purpose. At the same time the remaining transport capacity of the system was being used to move agricultural reserves from the secondary world to the primary one. Grain stores, preserved food stocks, seed reserves, and critical farming equipment were being transferred in carefully calculated quantities. Enough had to remain behind to keep the secondary world functioning if it fell into Federation hands, but the primary world needed the reserves if the siege dragged on. He would not allow his people to starve simply because he had defended the wrong planet too long.

  Eventually he would be forced to withdraw from the secondary world. Of that he had no illusions. The FSF Aurora would dismantle the defenses sooner or later, no matter what measures he took. His plan did not prevent defeat there; it merely delayed it. But if he could stretch that delay into days instead of hours, perhaps even into weeks, then the price he paid would be worth it.

  The moment his food supplies ran out would be the moment he would be forced to surrender to the Federation, to avoid his people starving. The longer he could stretch the siege, the more likely it was for reinforcements to gather in time. Not to relieve the Felsmark system, for that it was probably already too late. But maybe in time to prevent the fall of the remaining Noran Principality.

  Instead of sleeping, Admiral von Kr?henfels got up again and made his way back to the Bridge of the KF Kaiseralder. He could waste time sleeping later, when his mind was less in turmoil. Right now, he felt better overseeing the completion of his orders and the Federation retreat personally.