Meeting up with allies

The intelligence reports started flowing in from the analyst team as the journey began anew. The web of possible Directorate commanders was continuing to shift as time went on but the current consensus was on a Flotilla Commander named Mara Attah. She was the closest in proximity with enough seniority and combat power to be a true contender. While the team continued to look for others in case it was a bait and switch Katla was fairly sure they had the right woman. The only question was if she'd been chosen because they explicitly knew Katla was in command or due to Mara's own political issues back home. According to the initial profile, the woman had primarily led an Interdictor Floatilla. I.E A flotilla whose job was specifically preventing and intercepting Viking raids. Technically other countries raids as well but their primary purpose was aimed at Asgard. She was apparently quite good at it too, what got her in trouble though was the way she was good at it. She actually intercepted raids on the way in. While that may seem like it was a good thing it meant that she didn't get paid recovery fees for the goods the Raiders collected meaning that her shareholders received less direct profit from her success. That left them in a bind, her success meant the Navy could refuse to remove her even with a shareholder vote, and the low profitability made it difficult to sell off their shares to other shareholders. While there might be some who were willing to pick some up as a charity action there weren't enough to let everyone who wanted out get out. Which had led to her next problem, if the shareholders couldn't get money they wanted a greater share of the slaves which left her with fewer for herself and her crews. The extent to which that caused morale issues was currently unknown.

That was where the intelligence report left off for the moment, they were still analyzing her tactical strategies but it looked like she relied heavily on subterfuge and establishing inbound ambushes based on advanced detection techniques. For an interdiction Floatilla that made sense but how it applied to a line battle remained to be seen.

A small chime sounded, indicating Jacyln was calling her. Katla tapped the answer button manually even though she could have just accepted via her collar.

"Commodore we've arrived in system. The Authority fleet is waiting for us. They haven't hailed yet but-" Jaclyn cut off, "They're hailing for you now Commodore.."

Katla pulled up the local situation on her terminal screen, as expected the Authority was waiting with two light carriers, a heavy cruiser, two corvettes and a new destroyer to replace the one they'd lost in action. Katla looked over her shoulder to where Shyna was sleeping peacefully on the bed after their most recent activities and determined she wouldn't be in the frame.

"Put them through."

Katla was easily able to see the family resemblance between the woman in front of her and the one she'd faced at the asteroids. Unlike Zui however the rank pips on her shoulders were permanent.

"Commodore Totsidottir, welcome. I hope your journey has been pleasant." The woman started, "I am Floatilla Commander Washi Yang of the Ever Victorious Fleet. We have much to discuss. I would like to invite you and your captains to my flagship for dinner and an initial strategy meeting." Katla considered it, there wasn't any hostile action that Yang could legally take while they were allied, that didn't mean this wasn't some sort of social game she was trying to play. While she didn't fully understand most of them Katla had seen plenty of those in her time with Avalon. Still even if it was she was going to be working with this woman for the next few weeks, as a pair of commanders against one unified command, their main advantage would be their ability to spread their focus more evenly while that unified command could be overloaded more easily by too many things happening at once.

That there needed to be a strategy meeting was self evident but as for the how...