$W 19th $W January $W 2368
$W 34 $W days $W after $W the $W Great $W Exodus

$W Fleetmaster $W Caliphtys' $W office $W Ready $W Room
$W ORD $W Demetrius

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: Welcome back to the realm of the living, Fleetmaster Tessandras. Your appearance was...unexpected, but your forces have turned the tide of this battle and for that, you have our gratitude. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: You helped me get the Vermillion back into action. We are even, I suppose. But let me get straight to the point. I am glad to see that you successfully carried out Operation Moyses. How many did you save? 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: 1.1 million. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: What? Why...why so few? Were there...complications after the last time we spoke? 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: Let's just say Fleetmaster Glenzmann remained skeptical towards Operation Moyses until his bitter end. I had to pull strings behind his back to carry it out at all. Events accelerated when the Thor was destroyed and I took command, but by then our worlds were almost completely overrun. Refugee convoys also took substantial losses in the final phase of the Exodus. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: I expected to see at least 10 million from Europa alone. This...is a disaster. 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: Perhaps things would have gone better if you didn't abandon us when the Shivans invaded. We needed you then more than ever. Some would call it cowardice. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: I do not care what fools think, Fleetmaster Caliphtys. I did not run. I had a different mission.

$G Fleetmaster $G Raji: What kind of mission? 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: To find answers. To catch the one who brought this fate upon us and our people. 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: I'm listening...

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: On November 17, 2367, as a result of the Capella star having gone supernova, a subspace cataclysm was triggered, and a connection between Sol and Beta Volantis was established. The Shivans launched their invasion from Capella soon afterwards. 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: We know all of this. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: You do. But do you know that Operation Moyses was not the first Terran exodus from Sol since the Delta Serpentis jump node collapsed? 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: We found traces of EFN activity in Delta Lacertae and Cor Caroli. Traces that originated before our arrival. We discovered wrecks and abandoned vessels that were reported destroyed before the Shivan invasion of Sol. It's like someone was using the chaos of the Rim Conflict to secretly form an expeditionary fleet. Unfortunately, we don't know who. Most of the records on those abandoned Federate ships were destroyed or erased on purpose. Erased very, very thoroughly. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Federates are not known for leaving evidence. Especially these Federates. 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: You have buried the lede, Fleetmaster. Who are they? 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: You've already said it. A secretly constructed expeditionary fleet, strengthened by elements of each EFN fleet, several supercarriers, and plenty of utility vessels. Even several sleeperships each capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of civilians in stasis pods. Millions of souls. One man was responsible: Admiral Marcus Rossendarch. 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: Rossendarch? That son of a bitch was reported dead in the Battle of Ganymede! We were told his flagship did not survive the crash-jump and was torn apart in subspace. 

$G Fleetmaster $G Raji: Another lie. I'm starting to think that the entire Rim Conflict was a diversion. Nothing more than Federate Admirals and Syndicate Fleetmasters playing chess. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Indeed, Fleetmaster Raji. Your intellect is second to none.

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: Enough flattery, Fleetmaster Tessandras. We do not have time for it. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Very well. Admiral Rossendarch was responsible for examining the Mastermind at the Redcrown facility on Mercury. I believe that is where he extracted the starmap. It was shortly before the ORS captured the Mastermind during Operation Argo...and made everyone else think the device was destroyed. When my team was examining the Mastermind, we were sure the EFN had failed to break its security systems. Now it turns out that the EFN had been at least partially successful. And they made good use of that success. Huge amounts of resources were disappearing from EFN depots. Several million people were reported dead, but their remains were never shown to their families. Ships were reported destroyed after jump drive malfunctions supposedly vectored them into hazardous areas...I read hundreds of cases like that. It was a massive conspiracy. Only with the fog of war is it possible to hide such an operation, but it still required a tremendous amount or resources and influence at the highest levels. Remember Rossendarch's disastrous defeat over Europa? Remember his failed counter-attack on Ganymede? It was all deception. Almost all of Rossendarch's fleet was reported destroyed, but wreckage from most of those ships was never found. My operatives tracked them down far beyond the Kuiper Belt. 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: I can hardly believe it.... This casts a new light on Operation Mjolnir and on why our offensive went so smoothly... We had decimated the Federates, driven off all of their counter-offensives, liberated Mars and cornered Admiral Walker at Earth's orbit...and all this...was possible just because Rossendarch stole the bulk of the EFN navy for his own expedition? Why didn't you tell ORS High Command? 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Oh, I did. High Fleetmaster Glenzmann ordered me to conceal my findings. He told me 'If a madman wants to take EFN ships on some crazy expedition, let him! I have a war to fight here and I wouldn't mind if some Federate ships disappeared from the frontline.' So, over my objections, we allowed Rossendarch to complete his project. We kept an eye on him, but we did not anticipate this turn of events. When the jump node to Beta Volantis first stabilized, his fleet crossed it even before ORSI became aware of its existence. 

$G Fleetmaster $G Raji: Your story would seem to indicate that Rossendarch knew when and where the node would be created. How?

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: If I only knew. It must have something to do with the Mastermind. I can't see any other way Rossendarch would have such knowledge. I should have asked this when I arrived...you do have the Mastermind in your possession, do you not? 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: We do, although our trust in it has been undermined recently. Well, this is getting curiouser and curiouser. An old enemy carrying out his own Exodus...and the Shivan apocalypse being brought down on our heads just after that. When did you decide to pursue Rossendarch? 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Shortly after the Shivans entered Sol, Glenzmann and I launched a desperate offensive to stop the incursion. I ordered Taskforce Shadow to jump to Beta Volantis to slow the enemy down while the Thor and its fleet escorted the ORD Lazarus, packed with our heaviest thermonuclear bombs, to the jump node. We were just about to save Sol from destruction...but the Tyrant was one step ahead of us. Shivan destroyers tied down Taskforce Shadow in Beta Volantis, while the Tyrant entered Sol and decimated Glenzmann's escorts and destroyed the Lazarus. The Thor itself barely made it out. After that, the Shivan blockade was so strong I couldn't even dream of establishing a perimeter. That was when I understood there was no hope of holding Sol. Not against this enemy. I contacted Glenzmann to plead with him that the only way to save the people of the Syndicate was to leave Sol, but he remained skeptical. Fortunately, Fleetmaster Caliphtys was more...open-minded, and I believed he would prepare and execute Operation Moyses with the means he had at his disposal. Having left this burden on him, I took Taskforce Shadow and followed Rossendarch through Shivan-infested space. 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: And what did you find out? 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Quite a lot. For one thing, the Shivans did not attack Rossendarch's fleet. For another, the Shivans even seemed to treat Rossendarch ships as allies, almost as if they had established a dialogue.

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: Quantum pulse emitters. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Oh, so you retrieved them? 

$B Fleetmaster $B Tyrone: Yes, we acquired one from the EFC Minerva. Al-Zardari's scientists are still trying to examine it. These quantum pulse emitters are unlike any technology we have ever encountered. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: An even greater mystery is how Rossendarch managed to get them. I am sure he did not invent them. 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: Please carry on, Fleetmaster. I know you were following Rossendarch, but clearly, you lost him. Why did you halt your pursuit? 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Throughout my journey I tried to infiltrate Rossendarch's fleet. Sleeper agents, cyber-attacks, hijackings... For some reason, all my efforts ended in failure. Rossendarch rules his fleet with an iron fist, but he encounters little opposition. In Delta Lacertae, I managed to contact a group of officers who feared his reign of terror and began trying to overthrow Rossendarch. He saw right through our gambit, slaughtered the rebels, and escaped to Terminus and then to Messier 80. And he somehow collapsed a jump node to cut off my pursuit. Some Federate stragglers were left behind, so I helped them. We hid in the nebula, having nowhere to go, with our only hope that Operation Moyses would be successfully executed and the Exodus Fleet would find us. And so you did. 

$V Fleetmaster $V Caliphtys: A thrilling story indeed, Fleetmaster Tessandras. But the conclusion is that the path taken by Rossendarch is closed. That's an irony, indeed. We thought the Mastermind was mistaken. It was not, but its data was.... In any case, this changes nothing about our situation. We decided to take the other route. It is longer and more dangerous. I will direct Taskforce Shadow to join our rearguard while-- 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: Pardon my interruption, Fleetmaster. First, I do not take orders from you. Second, turn the fleet back immediately. There is a jump node in Terminus. 

$G Fleetmaster $G Raji: We scanned the system thoroughly. There is no active jump node to Messier 80. 

$y Fleetmaster $y Tessandras: There is a node, but not to Messier 80. I will get you there. 
