Ranger Station Alpha XII came into view slowly, Dalen Takas watched as the transport approached the upper docking ring. The Cheater let out a long slow breath and sighed. So this was it he asked himself he wasn't sure but he knew what he wanted and what he was here for. He looked to the Puma pilot and smiled a little.

"Ranger Transporter fourteen A, approaching docking ring, standby for tractor beam control"

"Roger that approach control" replied the pilot.

A light green beam shot out of the docking ring and snagged the transpoter, the pilot turned to look at Dalen. The Puma wasn't really interested mostly because his job was a supporting role for the Ranger officers. He didn’t really mind much at all, mostly because it was such an easy job and the bonus was that he'd never get to see action.

"Well here we are Ranger station twelve, in orbit of a class J gas giant. So Lt, who did you piss off to get posted here?" asked the Puma.

Dalen chuckled he wasn't about to go fully into that and he smiled a little. He stretched a bit as he watched the ship being docked and nodded. There was a loud noise of docking latches slipping into place and clunks as they locked down. J Class planets where typical to be found in many systems. Located in the cold regions of a star system they where unable to support life.They where comprised of gaseous hydrogen and some hydrogen compounds. As yet no one had ever found life on this type of planet.

"Well let's just say be careful of what you say at sector station dinners and receptions. I said to an older skunk I found the life in main control boring and I'd sooner go skiing. How was I to know she was an Admiral? She said, well young man if you find it boring here, I'll send you to a place where you'll get all the action you want. So here I am" replied Dalen.

"Oh man do I pity you" answered the Puma.

"Please disembark, Deep Space Ranger Station Alpha Thirteen bids you welcome. Please prepare to show passes to the deck supervisor"

Dalen sighed and stood up from his seat, he went and picked up the small holdall that was behind the seat. The three-hour journey had been rather tiring but he knew he'd get no sympathy from the deck supervisor. He made his way to the air lock and stretched, he waited and as he did so he brought out his Ranger pass, the passes where always up to date. The air lock opened and he and the pilot stepped inside. They waited for it to cycle and when it did so they stepped out onto the station proper. Waiting for them was a meerkat he nodded to the two as Dalen gave him his pass.

"Thank you Lt, your pass is in order, your quarters are habitat ring room H 2. You’re to attend parade in the morning in full uniform. I do hope you've brought it with you sir?" asked the Meerkat.

"Of course I did,” replied Dalen as he heaved the hold all into sight.

"Well Admiral Faren will meet you then. If you need help finding your room, just ask the computer. It will guide you there" the Meerkat commented as he gave back the pass and took the pilots.

The station mainframe computer toning three bells announced morning on the station. Dalen sighed as he licked his lips and slipped his cap into place. The extra toughened glass peak shone rather well, he looked himself over, everything was fine except a small problem his colour-code high boots where a little dirty. He leaned down and used a cloth to polish them. The boots where a bright yellow, most of his uniform was yellow. The departments in the Rangers all had coloured field agents like Dalen and thousands of others where yellow. Technical was green, Command where red. There where many others as well the one most disliked was the Special Judicial Squad who wore a black uniform.

Dalen made his way to the large parade room, the room it's self was in the centre of the station and could hold just under seven hundred people. As he entered all he could see was a sea of yellow uniforms. He soon took his place and waited. At the other end of the room there was a small dais, on it was a large white tiger. Admiral Faren introduced himself and watched as he looked at the officers in the room. He nodded and smiled a little as he took a seat. Very quickly patrol assignments where handed out and the officers started to file out of the room. Dalen followed the others as his room computer had told him to. He soon found himself in a much smaller room on the wall was the insignia of the Rangers. Across it sat a sectioned off area that led into the main dispatch control room. Who would be his partner he wasn't sure, to be exact he wasn't going to be picking.

Most partners where selected by the Ranger main computer core. Where that core was very few knew and only know to those with the rank of Admiral and above. Ahead a tall fox was looking at a computer screen, the white light it gave off made him look a little older than he was.

"Officers Dalen Takas, Cara Lovell front and centre" called out the fox.

Dalen moved to the front of the room and in the corner of his eye was a rabbit, she made her way to the small desk he was making for as well. She seemed rather fit and attractive in a way. She had purple dyed hair coming from under the ranger cap. He approached the desk and looked to the fox.

"Well you best both say hello to your partner. You’re going to have to look after each other, but I'm sure you know that right?" asked the Fox.

"Yes sir!" both Dalen and Cara said togher.

"Good, you’re both assigned patrol ship zed x nine. Your to patrol the sector nine, four six, till further notice" replied the Fox.

The launch bay was rather large in all it contained around eighty patrol ships. Finding their assigned ship was easy enough. Cara had been given the position as pilot for the moment. She slipped easy into the ships pilots chair and started to go over the pre-launch checks. Dalen slipped into the ship and the hatches sealed themselves. Dalen didn't know much about her so he was looking over her departmental files.

"You know you just could ask me, you’re my partner and all. It's not like I'm going to bite you,” commented Cara.

The rabbit shifted in her seat as she looked to Dalen. She chuckled softly and looked back to the ships display. She wondered why she had been put with him, perhaps she would ask later but right now she was unsure. Her last partner had been killed in the line of duty. Dalen wiped his mouth with his hand as he looked up, maybe that cup of stim-tea wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Well all I know is your name is Cara Lovell, more than that I've not got a clue,” replied Dalen.

"Hmmm well you know my name I'll take it from there, I was born in twenty fifty six to Kevin and Tara Lovell. My parents where killed in an mag-lev crash when I was twelve. My aunt brought me up and when I was sixteen I enrolled into the Ranger Academy. As soon as I graduated I asked for assignment out here. I was promoted last year to Lieutenant junior grade. There's not much more to tell really, I've done what I can and I think the Rangers have done rather well. I lost my partner a month ago; he died in the line of duty. Please don't press me on how he died as I'd sooner not talk about it" advised Cara.

"I see not much different than my own history I guess, I went to school and all that. But I found myself wanting to do something that would bring meaning to my life. So I enrolled at the Academy as well, I'm told there's several all making up one academy. Anyway here I am" answered Dalen.

Cara reached up a little and touched a control near the steering column. There was a slight hiss as the subspace radio connected to the control room.

"Ranger Patrol ship zed x nine to control, ready for launch"

"Control to Zed X Nine, standby for launch. Your after launch vectors are bearing four, zero, zero Mark one, zero, one"

"Thank you Control, vectors programmed into flight computer. Zed x nine out" replied Cass.

Both watched as the patrol ship was taken by tractor beam and slipped into the launch tunnel. The tunnel it's self was a rather plain surfaced affair. It was basically used to boost the patrol ships to a speed that would allow them to be ejected into space a fair distance from the station and it's gravity well. The two where pushed back into their seats as the ship was launched. As soon as the ship came to a halt outside the stations gravity well, Dalen brought the ships read out up and looked at the flight plan.

"Drives to sub light,” commented Cass.

Dalen nodded and touched some controls in front of him. The ships drives came to life and at the rear of the ship a bright orange light could be seen. Dalen's read out showed that both drives where at full power. Cara smiled a little and nodded her approval as she slipped her hand onto the warp drive controls. The ship jumped to warp and the two spent the next thirty minutes going over what their patrol entailed. Dalen checked the flight plan with the ships computer and nodded.

"We're about to arrive, we'll drop to sub light as we enter the system" reported Cass as she made the final adjustments to the ships course.

"I wonder if we can pick up any of the subspace radio stations out here?" questioned Dalen.

The cheater started to go over the smaller radio and sighed as he found one. He smiled as the music poured out of the speaker system within the ship. Cass smiled a little as she took the ship into a parking orbit so they could watch the space lanes. Sector nine, four, six was an approach system to one of the less populated areas. However it did boarder a much more important one. Sector nine, four, seven contained several planetary systems. Mostly the two would just be on station and keep an eye on space lane traffic unless something came up which at the moment wasn't very likely. Three hours passed slowly and Dalen sighed softly as he changed position in his seat and looked out of the left hand view port.

"Nothing, its kind of boring. I did want some action" he commented softly.

"Careful what you wish for as you may just get it" replied Cara as she checked her instruments.

"Heard that one before, drives on-line,” replied Dalen as he keyed in the next point on their patrol into the ships computer.

Cass slipped the ship out of the area slowly and then went over to the sub light drives. The ship moved out and quickly crossed the shipping lanes and entered warp drive. The warp jump wasn't long a few minutes in fact. The ship soon returned to normal space. Cass slipped it into a parking orbit of a nearby small moon. It was perfect for a good sensor scan and they waited there.

As the ship settled into its parking orbit Dalen's sensors suddenly flagged something up. He started to check the sensors to make sure it wasn't a sensor ghost.

"Cara I'm picking up a large mass just outside the system. I have a mean tonnage of five hundred thousand tonnes. I'm also picking up a weak transponder signal, I'm running it through the tac-ops computer for identification"

The Cheater was curious, you didn't get many ships of that tonnage out in the system. He shifted in his seat as his ears stood up. His eyes twinkled as he considered all the possible out comes of whatever the ship we was scanning was.

"Let me know as soon as you have something no matter what,” ordered Cass.

"I understand" nodded Dalen.

The computer was screen was a blur of images and starship classes as it sought out what the scanned ship was. It slowed down and put an image up onto the screen and Dalen read off the information. His eyes went wide as he read the information before him and blinked. Suddenly the computer flagged the other ship and the Cheater swore softly. The ship it indicated was well known. Very well known, but not for the obvious reasons. This ship had vanished without trace a long time ago. Its disappearance had been without explanation or solution, and now it was back.

"Cara...the results are back and I doubt your going to like them. The ship out there...it's been lost for ten solar years,” stammered Dalen.

"And?" asked Cara.

"There's a exact transponder signal match. It's...the Vindicator,” announced Dalen.

The rabbit sat back and looked to the read out, there it was full information history even down to where and who built the ship. Cara rubbed her eyes and sighed it wasn't possible, she licked her lips.

"Dalen it can't be, the Vindicator was lost with all hands,” Cara said calmly.

"I know that and you know that, but there it is" Replied Dalen

"Alright Dalen, we'll have to investigate, report this to central control please"

The starts shone brightly as Cara looked out of the ships canopy. She set a course and looked below. The terraformed moon shone brightly as the systems sun's light streamed over its face. As the patrol ship rounded the day/night terminator the lights of cities could be seen as bight pinpricks far below. Dalen touched a contact.

"Officer Dalen Takas patrol Zed x nine to Central Sector Control, we've picked up a missing ship the Vindicator. We're about to investigate the ship"

"Control to Zed X Nine, understood. Continue your investigation. Report in with all conclusion, if anything comes of this you are empowered to see your mission to it's conclusion. Sector control out"

"Well you have to say that was pretty clear" Dalen commented.

"Yeah, I've checked the Vindicator seems it still has its shields up. Something or someone gave priority to shields"

"Damn you do know what that means right?"

"Sure I do Dalen, it means you get to input a prefix code"

Prefix codes had been introduced after a small accident that had wiped out a small Ranger station. Thankfully no one was aboard at the time. The command gave complete control over another ship. It was routine to change the codes every so often. It was mostly to stop an enemy from taking over the ship.

"Alright, I have it already just in case. I'm sending the code now; it might take a bit for the Vindicator's computer to accept it. Now that was fast, the Vindicator is lowering its shields, I'm starting a life form scan now"

"Alright Dalen I'm heading for the shuttle bay,” replied Cara.

"Life form scan just came back, there's no one over there" Dalen informed as he sighed.

"Something the matter?" questioned Cara.

"For the record I don't like this one bit, there was talk the Vindicators crew mutinied" frowned Dalen.

The large ship filled the main view port as the patrol ship came in slowly. The larger ship blotted out most of the stars by its sheer size. The ships off egg shell white hull plates where easy to see as the patrol ship entered the shuttle bay and settled on it's anti-grav's. The sub light drives had powered down as the ship entered the shuttle bay. Behind it the atmospheric shield snapped into place as the ship settled to the deck.

"Don't tell me your scared, or do you believe in ghosts?" teased Cara.

"I'm not scared and I certainly don't believe in ghosts,” retorted Dalen.

"Alright, I was only teasing, what's the air out there like?" questioned Cara.

"Quite normal, no radioactivity no contaminates. It seems rather odd to leave a ship like this in such good shape. Life form scans still show no one but us aboard. I ran the scans twice to make sure"

"Fine, I know but you also know command rules. We don't know much if at all of what's happened. The ship is in fine shape and there's no battle damage on the outer hull plates. Weapons must be drawn while exploring any unmanned ship that has been found,” commented Cara.

Dalen nodded and touched the hatch release, the air that came in, as the gull wing hatch opened was cool but not unpleasant. The two stepped out onto the deck, their weapons raised. Cara's swept the room as she took up a position just outside the hatch. Dalen followed her with a raised eyebrow.

"I told you no life form is aboard" he said softly.

"That's life as we know it Dalen,” replied Cara as she looked to the atmospheric field.

"I think we should start with the bridge. Then work our way down from there if needs be" said Dalen as he walked off.

Dalen soon found the turbo lift he was looking for. He touched the pad to bring it. Cara padded over as she completed a scan of the shuttle bay. All the shuttlecraft where in place and strangely so where the lifeboats. The turbo lift pinged as it arrived and the doors opened. The two Rangers stepped inside.

"Main Bridge" announced Cara.

The journey like all others by turbo lift was quick. Soon the lift doors opened onto a deserted Bridge, the two stepped out and Dalen ran the air sensor over it, finding nothing he moved forwards. The bridge was split up into to parts. In front of the bridge was a large view screen. At the moment all it showed was a view of the stars. In front of the view screen where the Helm and Operations consoles. One of the chairs was covered in a fine spray of what looked like silver dust. To the right and a little further back was the science and library computer. To the left of that were communications then the turbo lift. Engineering and environmental was to the left as you exited the turbo lift. In front of the turbo lift and on a slightly raised dais where three chairs. The centre one was for the captain and the right one for the first officer. Behind them was a free standing console and chair. The console was for security and tactical. Dalen went over to the engineering console.

"No one is here, power is running at ten percent but only because of the built in safety for the warp core" Dalen said.

Cara nodded as she walked over to the helm control. Her yellow boots clicked on the bare surface of the deck and then went muffled as she walked over the carpet. The rabbit sighed softly as something had happened here what she was unsure of. It must have happened quickly given the evidence, and whatever it was had taken the whole crew.

"I'm going to the helm, maybe we can get some information"

"Alright Cara I'm checking the warp core's dilitium ratio, it will tell us how often and how many times the ship has been in warp drive" replied Dalen.

Dalen's hands flew over the control console. The bridge seemed to be empty to him; he knew there was only the two of them on the ship. But something was alerting him to something. He patched into the command logs and found something strange. About three months after the Vindicator’s start of its mission to explore something had happened. Something very, very strange. Dalen accessed the bridge recorder it showed business as usual. For some reason there was no sound with the video and Dalen raised his right eyebrow. Something off screen seemed to startle the bridge crew and the flash of a yellow alert indicator light up in the far corner of the small screen Dalen was watching. In a few seconds it was replaced by a full-blown red alert as the indicator went to a bright blood red. Suddenly the entire bridge crew vanished in a halo of bright silver light. Both Dalen's eyebrows went up as he checked for a beam out. According to sensors nothing had happened, he shook his head and sighed as he looked at the dilitium ratio. The ration was down by a few tenths of a percent, Dalen knew by that the ship had been into warp once, most probably a high warp speed.

"Dalen we best wrap up here, I've found what we need a bearing and mark. The ship has covered some distance, I'm not sure what happened to the crew" reported Cara from the Helm.

"Something happened to them, the recorder marker is still in place. It shows the Bridge, I think we can assume some force took the entire crew. There's an effect, which looks like a Transporter in operation. But according to sensors it's not happened. The ship has been to warp once since it's warp core change over at star base twelve."

"I'm not sure Cara, this is more Starfleet business than ours" replied Dalen as he stood up and turned around.

The Rabbit touched a few contacts and nodded as a small light started to pulse with the homing beacon. She removed her cap for a few moments and swept her hair back before replacing the cap. She stretched as she stood up and made her way back to the turbo lift.

"The way Starfleet took a beating in the last K'Ven war I doubt they have the ships. You forget nearly ever planet was affected by losses of starships. The ship yards are building as fast as they can but projected build lists show that they won't be up to usual forces till way into the next year or the year after,” replied Cara.

"Alright, let's go home,” replied Dalen as he entered the turbo lift.

The patrol ship roared in and soon was captured by the docking tractor beam. The ship was soon set down on the hanger bay deck. Dalen and Cara stretched as they headed up to their rooms. The two where just about to enter their individual room's when their cap mikes swung down.

"Officers Takas, Lovell to the station commanders office"

"Talk about great timing,” sighed Dalen.

"Yeah well you know what they are like,” replied Cara.

Base Commander James Watt looked out to the gas giant they where in orbit. Another two years and he would be promoted without doubt. He sighed softly as he looked around, the base was busy, and that was a certain fact. Perhaps things would calm down once the Star Confederation had rebuilt most of its fleets. The Lion was wearing a uniform much like everyone else’s but his was a red instead of a yellow. There was small noise as the chime sounded.

"Enter" called James.

The two officers in yellow entered the large office and quarters. Watt's quarters where off to one side and entry was gained by an automatic door.

"Officers Takas and Lovell reporting as per instructions" said Dalen as the pair stood to attention.

"Would either of you like something to drink or eat?" asked James.

"A drink would fine sir, if you have any tea sir" replied Dalen.

The two sat down and sighed softly. The whole of the office and quarters sat at the top of the station. Below by one deck were operations and below that was the expanse of dispatch. James went over to the small food replicator and touched a few commands. He brought over the cup of hot tea and set it onto the desk in front of Dalen.

"I asked you to come here for two reasons. One that report you turned in a few hours ago has caused a stir in the command chain. In fact the Commander in Chief was interested. Do you think you will need a task force?" asked James.

"I think so sir but only a small one, we might need something larger than a patrol ship though" Cara replied.

Dalen sipped at his tea while Cara was speaking; he thought the idea of a task force might be the best all round. There had been some rather strange readings taken by the Vindicator's sensors. Just what they would be up against he wasn't sure. Something in the back of his mind through said they should expect trouble of some kind or form. He put the cup back down and looked to Cara.

"I have to agree, perhaps a medium range cruiser,” said Dalen softly.

"I'll have to make arrangements for that. Now to the second thing I asked you both here for it seems you've both being impressing a certain sector quadrant commander. In fact you both have been given promotion, both of you in the past have done your work and duty to the uniform. True Mister Takas you did have a small incident a month or so ago. But your past record speaks for it's self. Both of you are as of this date promoted to the rank of Lt. Commander" replied James.

The pair where both surprised by that and Watt put out two small containers of the desk. The pair took them, and slipped them into a pocket. Watt looked out to the large view port of the office.

"That's all, a medium cruiser will be here in a few hours. I suggest you sleep, as a full crew will be with you. However as you both know no Lt. Commander can command a task force. So you'll be under a captain. Who you'll find out tomorrow, dismissed"

"Thank you sir" commented the pair togher.

Morning on the station wasn't run the way normal mornings on a planet where run. All the Star Confederation worlds ran to their own local time but the Rangers and the Star Confederation fleet ran to a twenty-six hour day. This gave three shifts, this was because it had been agreed to take the longest day from one of the founding member planets, which was Crios. Mostly anthropomorphic wolves populated Crios. It and four others had started the Star Confederation. The other three where Foxarn, Voran and Warren.

Cara watched from the stations promenade deck as the large medium cruiser slipped into geostationary orbit around the station. Few of the outer spiral arm stations could take the cruiser inside or even docked to the docking ring. Behind her came Dalen, turned to face the large view ports and smiled softly.

"My first time on anything that large" he commented softly.

"Not for me I was helm officer for a while on board one of those. There are bigger ships of course,” she explained.

"Oh?" questioned Dalen as he watched the large ships sub light drives flash for a few seconds.

There were a few static flashes as the large ships thrusters fired slowing the ships momentum to a stand still. Suddenly Cass's cap mike swung down into place.

"Officer Lovell are you and Officer Takas ready for beam over?"

"Yes we're ready,” answered Cara.

"Beam over...what" said Dalen.

The Cheaters speech was broken off as a wall of sparkling gold formed around them and suddenly they where on the cruiser. The two found they were in a small square room, at one side was a small free standing console and a ranger officer in a light blue uniform. The uniform was normally worn by sciences and tech support.

"The captain is waiting for you both in his ready room. Welcome aboard" commented the tiger standing behind the console.

"Thank you, I know the way,” replied Cara.

The task force consisted of the medium cruiser, eight fighter craft, four ranger landing craft and six patrol ships. There where also two smaller ships that where escorts. In all the task force personnel numbers over a hundred, which for the Rangers over all was a small showing. Cara and Dalen had been busy with the captain who was a white tiger his name was Brian Kellen.

"Well here we are" commented Cara as the two came to their quarters on deck three.

"Yeah well I guess it won't be long now,” replied Dalen as he scratched behind his ear.

"We have duty tomorrow we get to go out before the task force and sweep for navigational hazards"

"Whoopee bloody doo, we're out here to find what happened with the Vindicator not a nice trip out. Something happened on that ship, something unusual"

"Well you know command they like to take their time. Anyway the position of the Vindicators last jump to warp and return to real space wasn't in known space"

"Alright I guess there is a need to be careful,” replied Dalen as he pressed the button on the door to his quarters.

Cara stepped into her quarters and looks around. There wasn’t a vast difference with any other quarters; there was a bathroom, small sleeping area and an entertaining area as well. The room was split into three and each had a large view port. Through the sector base could be seen, the ship started moving as the two escorts moved off out of the system.

Cara sighed softly as she thought a bit. Cara knew that soon the ship would fire its thrusters and move out of the system. As soon as she thought of this there was a slight thrum of power as the thrusters turned the ship away from the station and the planet. As soon as it exited the system's Oort cloud and meet up with the escorts it leaped into the realm where faster than light travel was possible.

Captains Lee Nelson and Mark Hardy late of the star ships Vindicator and Orion stretched, the ore mines of Gar'nal where not a pleasant place to be. Lee couldn't believe where he was anyway, a planet of mythical creatures. It seemed impossible but here they where. For the eight time that day if it was day, he couldn't remember an energy tendril hit the wall in front of them.

"If she hits me again with that thing I won't be held responsible for what I do" commented Hardy.

"Calm down, it won't be us that would pay the price, we have two crews to think of" Lee said softly.

There was a small town of humans where they where allowed to live. Of course it was always watched and guards patrolled the few streets. The Krynn cities where much larger of course, if you where very, very lucky you could become a trusted and needed servant. Of course you could also pick up a craft, as most furs could turn their hand to anything. The tiger and calico cat stretched again, in a few more hours they would be able to return to their guarded homes and sleep. Far below a rumble was heard as the Krynn used gunpowder to blast the rock face. The furs would then have to take carts down to the lower levels and bring up the ore and gemstones. The results would either be sold or traded for things the Krynn needed from the surface world.

"Gods, is this ever going to stop?" asked Mark.

"Perhaps...just work Mark, you know who will suffer if we don't" replied Lee.

"I know, I know the children as the Krynn bastards will cut off the food for us all" exclaimed Mark.

"You know just once I'd like to see the stars again,” sighed a vixen behind the two.

"I know but...perhaps" replied Mark.

"Shush, thinking like that brings trouble. You know that will bring an escape attempt on by one of the two groups. Don't you remember what happened with the last one?" asked Lee.

"I..well yes we remember twenty escaped and got away. So the Krynn executed ten for the escape" Mark replied as he watched the Krynn come back over.

Lee still remembered the blood flowing and pooling on the ground, it hadn't been such a great thing after all. It had been damn hard digging graves into the cave's bottom. Ten graves had left more than a few tired and the resulting workload had also increased. The Krynn didn't let up at all, less mouths to feed. The group was allowed to rest for a little while. Not long afterwards the group was removing the ore and gemstones for processing.

Cara and Dalen had picked up nothing on scanners for a while. The two had reported their findings back to the Victory. The larger ship had changed course a few times, the only navigational problem was a small black hole in system K-209. The Victory launched a probe towards it and the task force continued onwards.

"Alright, I think we're nearly done. Soon be able to return to the Victory,” said Dalen as he shifted in his chair.

Dalen moved slightly again as he thought about the mission and such. There should be survivors if the entire crew had been taken off the Vindicator. Just how many he wasn't sure, the ships sensor log was damaged by what neither he nor the experts knew. The planet was the third from the sun in a system of twelve planets. Four where class J gas giants and two G class ice worlds. The other six where two L class which with some changes could support life. The others where M class where life would be found, while in the patrol ships the officers seldom wore their caps.

"System XL309 now on sensor scopes, starting sensor sweep" announced Dalen as his sensor controls light up.

"Starting sensor sweep now, awaiting results"

"Understood Patrol ship Zero four nine"

"Sensors confirm this is the system we're looking for. I'm picking up a small asteroid belt between the eight and seventh planets. I'm also picking up something we didn't expect, there seems to be wreckage from a second Confederation starship in orbit of the third planet in the system"

"Victory to Patrol ship Zero four nine, task force condition now set to Yellow Alert"

"Yellow Alert, Aye"

"Captain Kellen to all ships, Yellow Alert proceed into the system at one half sub light. Standby for quick manovering"