Somewhere on the edge of the Dawnstar Sector, a modest fleet of Commonwealth ships and an Imperial fleet were sailing through unfamiliar starfields in "perfect harmony."
The Commonwealth fleet was, naturally, the Thirteenth Fleet, which had been assigned patrol and shipping-lane security duties. After receiving twelve "assault ships" produced at the New Jade Gate shipyard, it had also taken on two light cruisers and four destroyers transferred from the expeditionary fleet. It was starting to look rather imposing.
The Imperial fleet consisted of one battlecruiser, three heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and six destroyers. Though it had fewer ships in absolute numbers, perhaps because they were all medium- or large-sized vessels, it looked even more formidable than its "friendly forces."
Colonel Ina Silika stood on the bridge of the Thirteenth Fleet's flagship, the Aurora. She held a radio telescope up to her face with studied seriousness, scanning the distant stars and nodding thoughtfully, as if she had really spotted some blind spot.
Yes, as a third-ring psychic, she had just received her colonel's rank at the start of the new year. Judging by her speed of promotion alone, she was already almost on par with a certain someone.
"So, have you discovered anything that can guide our next move, Navigator?" Brigadier General Eleanor Bonaparte asked, arms folded and face impassive.
Eleanor was, of course, joking.
Though Ina Silika was a newly minted colonel and had made it into the ranks of senior officers, she had once been a public high school underachiever who'd nearly failed to graduate. She'd never received any formal training in navigation, so there was no way she could serve as a navigator. The Thirteenth Fleet's chief navigator was an experienced old hand. He wasn't a psychic, but he knew his trade inside and out.
Of course,