This ends the sub log of Kat Lord Suralle on the Prydean military manuever now known fleet wide as "A Crazy Yor!" As mate to Suralle and the Primary Keeper of the Faith I will attempt to post the sub log below in its entirety.
Keep the Faith,
Che-Rene Straykat
Kat Lady @ Large
Interpretation provided by Che-Rene,
Kat Lady @ Large,
Mate to Suralle,
Primary Keeper of the Kat Faith
No means no! I do not care how far we are out of the area the Kat Council determined as the stepping off point. We will continue to shadow their main battle group at extended sensor range. We intend to see where they are headed and as long as they do not deviate off projected course and increase speed we will not break radio silence for anything!
As CINCKATFLT2 Kat Lord Suralle was a busy individual, now the communications officer had her fur bristling from the nape of her neck down to her surprisingly trimmed tail. If he did not know any better he would say that she was coming into her time and would need to return to Prydelan soon as the scripts they all took to slow down the bodies needs were running out. Just yesterday Lord Gats-Ton had to be put in his place with a private but firm physical reminder from the blunt end of a large folstah stick that despite this vessel being his command the operation and fleet it belonged was my responsibility.
The Yor fleet that had been spotted weeks ago transferring troops and cargo near the fourth planets moon in the Vesta star system could not be ignored. A sally from the 2nd fleet in Operation Stymie convinced the Kat Council that the Yor were not intent on invasion of the Pryde, but not knowing who they were after was nearly as bad as not knowing they had been in the Vesta system for at least a week prior to Long Range Sensors (LRS) sweeps returned a faint echo. Currently the Pryde had 3 fleets, one always in repair status, one in home coverage, and the last in operations away from the Pryde. As the Second Fleet was in operational status Suralle “borrowed” the best sensor ship and discretely began to conduct electronic surveillance of all communications, radio and data transmissions from the Yor after Operation Stymie concluded.
Now though, a significant and sizable portion of the fleet ahead had suddenly made a radical maneuver to its projected course by turning 120 degrees in what could take it in a few weeks directly back into the Prydes sphere of influence and away from the humans sphere they were headed to. What could the fleet ahead be doing, when exactly would this vessels ECM no longer be able to hide its location and the sleek and darkened hull be revealed to what was obviously meant as a force to be dealt with.
Lord Gats-Ton looked anxiously over at me; I remember his tail quite rigid and ears laid back almost flat on his skull, and stated that Pryde intelligence suggested that although this particular Yor fleet had a very limited sensor range perhaps we should do an oblique turn and high-tail it in another direction. I grinned a toothy response at him reminding him that even if the Yor had poor sensors even a near blind dirt crawler would stand a chance at seeing our engine flare as we maneuvered away.
I agreed thought that we had to do something and soon, at the present rate of closure we would pass at just about three parsecs distance from the ship. Close, very close indeed. Than the electronic surveillance technician shouted out, “CRAZY YOR!” indicating that the Yor fleet had again changed course this time turning an additional 60 degrees to make their course change a full 180. The decision was made for us; we were going to ride it out. Gats-ton positively freaked, his tail bristling and lashing to and fro. I had to lay a paw on him to keep him from pacing and causing fear amongst his crew. Quietly I reminded him that fear is the mind-killer, push his fear away and show the confidence that all aspiring Kat Lords held close to themselves. Immediately Gats-Ton began issuing orders on top of his standing orders to shut down the warp drive and secure all outside and all non-essential internal electro-magnetic “signature” emanations. Would it be enough though?
Kat Fleet Starship Records (Confidential)
Ship Class: Modified Kat Industries Drak-Lir Scout Class Fighter
Crew Complement: 14 - 2 Pilots, 2 Officers, 8 Enlisted, and 2 Students
Weaponry: 2 – fuselage mounted Klawsburg Mk-2 Rail Guns, 2 - wing mounted Katsklaw Mk-3 Laser Cannon.
Defenses: 1 – Fasttrack Multi-purpose ECM/ECCM system complete with Mk-3 sliding shield beam deflectors.
Modified Warp Propulsion, Sensors, and a state of the art Communications Suite coupled with the newly acquired Terran Extended Life Support system make this craft ideal for surveying and monitoring of space lanes, ensuring that vital trade links can be maintained with the other major and minor races of the galaxy.
Lord Gats-Ton looked anxiously over at me; I remember his tail being quite rigid and ears laid back almost flat on his skull, and stated that Pryde intelligence suggested that although this particular Yor fleet had a very limited sensor range perhaps we should do an oblique turn and high-tail it in another direction. I grinned a toothy response at him reminding him that even if the Yor had poor sensors even a near blind dirt crawler would stand a chance at seeing our engine flare as we maneuvered away.
I agreed thought that we had to do something and soon, at the present rate of closure we would pass at just about three parsecs distance from the ship. Close, very close indeed. Than the electronic surveillance technician shouted out, “CRAZY YOR!” indicating that the Yor fleet had again changed course this time turning an additional 60 degrees to make their course change a full 180. The decision was made for us; we were going to ride it out. Gats-ton positively freaked, his tail bristling and lashing to and fro. I had to lay a paw on him to keep him from pacing and causing fear amongst his crew. Quietly I reminded him that fear is the mind-killer, push his fear away and show the confidence that all aspiring Kat Lords held close to themselves. Immediately Gats-Ton began issuing orders on top of his standing orders to shut down the warp drive and secure all outside and all non-essential internal electro-magnetic “signature” emanations. Would it be enough though?
As the parsecs closed Gats-Ton and my eyes were glued to the Geo-spatial Fusion Plot that was being maintained by the electronics surveillance technician (ET). The ET had patched the plot from the Fasttrack ECM/ECCM system over to the Commanders Unit. Occasionally a new line would flicker up on the glass showing the latest emanation bearing and declination to the Yorian fleet. The situation was becoming critical way to fast. Closest Point of Approach (CPA) was computed at just under 3 parsecs at a -14.5 degrees declination, although visually the fleet was approaching at 4 parsecs a week and the bearing rate was 0 or maybe just slightly, very slightly right.
Lord Gats-Ton thought we should skat immediately, personally I think he was worried about his next command position. The Kat Council frowned hard on confirming promotion on any wannabe Kat Lord to a Cruiser Captaincy as the confirmation automatically ensured a voting position on the council from then on until death. Needless to say even with Fleet Commander onboard the black mark if we survived after being caught would not bode well for him. Growling low I informed Gats-Ton to start using maneuvering thrusters to gently start banking the ship to starboard and firing aft port engineering thrusters to start a very gently rolling motion of the boat over. The goal of this roll was to present the smallest active radar signature to the incoming fleet, additionally we wanted our nose cone as the lead body pointing toward the Yorians. Given that the nose cone was made from a state of the art nylon-phenol ceramic compound with multi-latticed weaves the ability of the Yorian Magnetic Anomaly Detectors (MAD) should be theoretically hampered even further. If everything worked as I planned, the Yor should breeze right on by, with us being nothing more than a black hole in a sea of endless nothingness.
Waiting is the hardest part though, several times over the next couple of sleep cycles and crew rotations Lord Gats-Ton and I had to employ light taps of our folstah command sticks to prompt them to continue their functions and conduct themselves as proper Kats. I have to admit, the nervous tingle I felt run up and down my spine as CPA came and left was most delicious, especially when I overheard Gats-Ton order the pilot to ¼ impulse power for a maneuver that brought us even closer to the fleet. Fortune was with us though as just after we slowed the Yor made a maneuver to their starboard and passed again within CPA a couple of hours later. Lord Gats-ton had effectively placed us exactly where the Yor had been thereby reducing our Ion trail even further. A nice piece of work on his part that reminded me of why he had been promoted from his previous enlisted engineering position to a command rank. I will have to remember to place an entry into his service jacket and for that matter a scaled down entry into the ships log commending the crew for making this small portion of the mission successful.
So says Che-Rene,
Kat Lady @ Large
Mate of Suralle,
Primary Keeper of the Kat Faith