“Exeter to landing party, come in.”

The bridge crew of the heaviest destroyer in the Perseus Task Force formation looked at each other with stark eyes as they waited for a response. Their signals officer keyed the intership again.

“Exeter to landing party. Commander Hunter, come in please.”

“They’re not answering. Something’s wrong. First we got that fleetwide from Echo, and then nothing,” Lieutenant Hawkins urged. “We need to raise the Fury and investigate.”

“What we need to do, Lieutenant, is follow protocol. Force Command has us at Emergency Condition Three, which puts Fury’s Skipper in charge of any further action. Our job is to wait for orders,” Third Officer Pierce replied. “If we start going off on our own all that’s going to do is make us start bumping in to one another and cause confusion.”

“Echo reported intruders!”

“That robot would sound general quarters if a small dog walked into the mess hall and stole a piece of bacon,” Petty Officer Grant replied, causing a couple members of the bridge crew to crack smiles. “It probably saw someone sweeping up and thought they were trying to take over the quadrant.”

“You’re hilarious, Petty Officer. Check your regs. Perseus has Echo authorized to issue alerts by order of the Commander herself.”

“But Echo didn’t issue an alert, Lieutenant,” Pierce replied with a sigh. “It reported intruders to the landing party, which is probably trying to figure out if we’re about to send three million tons of starships after two guys and a mop.”

“Then why doesn’t the landing party answer?”

“The Skipper is probably getting ready to board us and deliver a swift kick to somebody’s backside for chatter on the emergency channel. The only officer authorized to speak for Task Force Perseus right now is the Force Commander on the bridge of DSS Fury. Our job is to keep our mouths shut and stop dreaming up phantom threats so when the time does come, we’ll be ready.”

“Sir–”

“That will be all, Lieutenant.” The look on Pierce’s face told Hawkins the matter was closed as far as the bridge crew was concerned.

“Aye, sir,” she said as professionally as she could before turning and stalking off the bridge.

The Exeter was officially designated a “War Destroyer.” She was a Thunderbird-class hull with heavier armor, short-range weaponry and, most importantly, most of the Task Force’s marine strength in the form of a full company of shock troops. The Exeter was the only ship under Hunter’s flag capable of launching additional warships into action. She had a small but capable flight deck with four tough little assault transports on a rotating 30 minute alert.

The reality of the situation in Skywatch was that fleet followed the book, almost to a fault. Pierce couldn’t be blamed for following orders, but there were times when a leader needed to go with intuition instead of waiting for signatures from three flag officers and a legislative resolution. Hawkins believed this was one of those times. She knew most of the Perseus crews tolerated Echo and Jayce’s robot hobby to a point, but she also knew they didn’t ascribe much credibility to the excitable little vehicles and their child-like personalities.

Then again, there were only a handful of people in the Task Force who had ever seen Hunter’s bots in any kind of real action. Hawkins was one of them, and she knew there was another currently supervising deployment drills with First Marines on Deck Four.

The other reality of the situation in Skywatch was while marines followed the book, they were far more likely to at least listen to alternatives. This was especially true if it meant getting the drop on a hidden enemy before they showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As far as Lieutenant JG Brittany Hawkins was concerned, this was shaping up to be one of those times.