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System
    IDF Intelligence Ship ISS Tirian

    “Arrived at Nueva Leon, sir. We’re in high orbit forty-one thousand kilometers above the surface,” said the nav officer.
    Commander LaPlace nodded. “Sensor sweep. What have we got, tactical?”
    The tactical officer frowned at his screen. “Lots of debris in orbit, sir. I’m picking up metallic and radioactive signatures, and organic too.” The man looked up. “Bodies. Pieces of ships. There was a battle here recently, sir.”
    LaPlace leaped to his feet. “Full spectrum scan of the surrounding space, and the surface. I want to know if the aggressors are still here. Any sign of them?”
    “Negative, sir. No active ships in orbit.”
    “Swarm?” LaPlace glanced at the tactical officer.
    “No sign of them, sir. At least, nothing like their ships from the war.”
    The Commander stroked his chin and considered his choices. They needed information. At this point it could still be the Russians. A surprise attack, most likely, and then a raid on the surface to destroy key industry targets. Set the colony back a few years. Give them the chance to get a leg up in the sector before more colonists showed up.
    “Insert into a lower orbit. We need to see what’s going on down there. Three-thousand kilometer orbit.”
    “Aye, sir,” said the nav officer, and LaPlace felt the changing inertia as the ship accelerated towards the surface and increased its speed to attain the lower altitude.
    “Still no sign of the aggressors?”
    “None, sir. But from the looks of these readings the battle couldn’t have happened more than a day ago—the reactor cores are still pretty hot. At least the ones that are still intact.”
    Very odd.
    “Give me an ID on the destroyed ships.”
    The tactical officer studied his data readout. “Mostly a handful of merchant freighters and colonist ships. Several Mexican Fleet Zafano class cruisers....” The officer looked up, his face whiter than it was. “And one IDF Nebula class cruiser, sir. The Nimitz. Completely destroyed.”
    Dammit.
    “Captain Smith ...” said Commander LaPlace. That was her first command. They’d entered the academy together, fifteen years ago. “Do you have a visual?” His stomach churned a little as the inertia cancellation struggled to keep up with their acceleration. The hull vibrated slightly with the strain.
    “Aye, sir. Coming up on your console now.”
    The data stream on the screen in front of him disappeared, replaced by a graveyard of ships.
    “Good Lord.”
    There she was. The ISS Nimitz . Broken completely in two, electrical arcing still glittering at the exposed seams. Wicked looking carbon-scored holes peppered the hull, indicating heavy weapons fire, and several sections of the ship were completely blown away. Most of the section containing the reactor core and q-jump drive was merely a skeleton of steel-titanium girders and warped, blackened deckplates.
    “No life signs?” he said, hopefully.
    “None, sir. Life support is gone. The whole ship is at vacuum.”
    “There could be survivors. In space suits....”
    The tactical officer shook his head. “No thermal signs either. It’s all cold.”
    The Nimitz rotated slowly, and soon the blackened nameplate passed into view, a gaping hole appearing where the ‘z’ should have been.
    LaPlace took a deep breath. “Fine. Move us closer to the surface and get some visual scans.”
    A few minutes later, they were close enough for visuals. The tactical officer passed the scans directly to Commander LaPlace’s screen for him to see.
    Utter devastation. Several blackened, smoking pits where he supposed cities might have stood.
    “How many people were down there?”
    The first officer, who’d been studying the sensor images, finally spoke up. “Fifty million. Five cities and about a hundred smaller towns around them. All gone.”
    With a start, LaPlace remembered his first officer, Lieutenant Lopez, had family out in the Veracruz Sector. It hadn’t