_Subcommander Erf found Commander Krg running laps of the observation deck, his brow furrowed with thought, "I see their medical equipment works quite well" Erf said as he joined Krg, his armour clanking against the deck as he kept pace, "Too well, the medical team are in the brig." Erf frowned, "Why?" Krg lead the pair towards the hydroponics bay to port, "They stole some of their medical equipment, which has been found and sent back. As a show of good will I put the medics in the brig and sent our friends details of our armaments." Erf grinned and shook his head, "Now that they've seen what we can do." Krg stopped, "Yes. About that-" Erf put up a six fingered gauntlet, "Before you chew me out you should know that the Talus empire has grown increasingly unstable, which is having an effect on our friendly neighbourhood fleet, and some members don't like us, but that should not be a problem for a while as they now know we are not an insignificant force."
_They began walking through the hydroponics bay which was awash with bright blue light and black looking plants, "Hmm," Krg said after a few minutes, "That explains why this was so easy to get," Krg removed a data slip from a pocket in his light civillian clothes, "It is a report by that Unification ship, the one that scanned the Crbrs." Erf nodded, "You are thinking that this is a 'we want you to know what we know' situation?" Krg nodded, "Exactly, a way of keeping us on a short lead. They may be a little concerned about the state of our relations, this alliance has been more beneficial to us than for them." As they left the hydroponics bay a grin slowly crept accross Krg's face, "Which brings back to who deasn't like us, and why?" Erf spread his gauntleted hands wide, "Why is easy; for most of them we present a problem regarding planet grabbing in the old unified Kallum sectors, and our membership of the Fleet gives us a legitimate territorial claim in that area-"
"-And protection from Fleet... oh, I see what you mean. Things are delicate right now, aren't they?" Erf nodded sagely as they reached the heavy door to Commander Krg's quarters, "I shall return to the bridge."
"No, no, I want you to see this too. Come in."
_Commander Krg's quarters were sparsely decorated, with only the main room painted a colour other than white, with Krg choosing bright red. There was one table, bearing a remote keypad, with two chairs either side of it facing a console mounted into the centre of the back wall, to one side was a wide sofa with an antique stereograph standing in front of it next to an uneven stack of stereograms. The sofa smelled strongly of something that Erf suspected was only legal for tax reasons, "I'll just get the console to scan this." Krg placed the data slip into the reader.
***
_Samantha hit record and the machine began to automatically transcribe her words, turning each syllable into a piece of encoded data. She listed the appropriate numbers and codes before listing her full name and rank followed by the date as she began reviewing the scanning records from the secondary science and tactical stations.
_"Their engines seem to be nothing more than very big ion drives. According to these readouts they are being powered by some kind of basic plasma reaction that reaches deep into subspace, not very efficient but immensely powerful. Their long range weapons appear to be little more than simple blasters, used primarily for picking off incoming ordnance it seems. Primary weapons use some form of basic plasma, again reaching deep into subspace and again more powerful than... Holy christ! Primary weapon seems to be designed specifically to counter energy-based shields, the Kallum shields can't deflect the plasma, it's just stuck there, burning! The smaller cruisers can't handle it, their shields are overloading... Hmm, they're turning on a heavy cruiser, looks like a dual explosion plus the plasma was too much for its aft shields... looks like all of the Wardancer plasma cannons are firing, I'd say thirty, predictable results against the Kallum armour. That's odd, I'm reading metal coming from the Wardancer's flank, but they haven't been hit... Requesting higher resolution.
_"The Wardancers are using cannons, I can't tell how they're working in a vacuum but they are, and they're tearing the Kallum ship to pieces. There must be billions of hull-breaches on board, you can see a fine mist around the vessel as the atmosphere condenses in open space. It looks a little like a comet.
_"I personally would not like to come up against one, although I do not doubt that my own victory would be certain I also do not doubt the heavy damage and losses we would incurr. They are as equally determined in their goals as we are in ours, and for that reason alone I reccomend caution; Their presence in the outer arm is inconvenient but I doubt it will become troublesome without outside interference".