The captain watched as the scouts departed from the hanger of the destroyer. Then his eyes looked searchingly at the towering landforms around the spaceship.

He turned to his tactics officer, "How long will this hide the fleet?" he asked in a low voice.

"At most? An hour," she said, "At least? Any moment."

He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Was I wrong to blow the fleet's cover and save that freighter? The whole fleet is in danger now."

"Saving lives is never wrong. Putting more in danger because of it?" She shrugged. “It’s our job to protect our citizens.”

“We can’t protect them if we’re wiped out.” The captain put his glasses back on and looked about the bridge. About half of the officers were busy. The other half sat waiting at their consoles.

They had all seen battle before, but he knew each of their telltale signs of nervousness. A slowly tapping finger, the occasional glance backwards at him and the usually quiet Munitions Officer Sovoy was rambling and spinning off jokes constantly to anyone who would listen.

“We need a plan,” he whispered to his tactics officer.

She responded in an equally low voice, “we’re a highly mobile fleet literally grounded upon a planet and hiding from a far superior force…we’re fish in a barrel as soon as they figure out which barrel we’re in.” She looked up at him from her console. Her eyes met his.

A hint of fear and worry were creeping through her expression, but most of all, he could see it in her eyes.

I’m sorry, he thought.

There’s nothing you could do about it, her eyes responded.

He glanced away but was drawn back to her eyes.

I love you, they said.

I love you too.

“Captain, we have an update on enemy movement from our scouts,” Information Officer Erik said.

He jerked back to his own console. “Go ahead and be quick.”

Sovoy instantly quieted.

A hologram popped up in the middle of the bridge showing the planet they were on in the middle. Triangles of bright blue were their ships clustered together upon the planet’s surface. Triangles of red showed the updated enemy positions. They were spread out amongst the solar system with small groups clustered at each planet, including the one they were on.

“One battlecruiser, two destroyers and a frigate in orbit on the other side, sir,” Erik continued, “estimated time until their scouts run across us is about ten minutes. This planet seems to be their favorite.”

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“Geography report.”

The hologram zoomed in on the planet with the blue triangles. Land forms were highlighted.

Analyst Officer Udmun spoke up, “Thick and stiff crust, large landforms due to tectonic upheaval, additional mountains like the ones we’re hiding in are here, chasms of more than ten miles deep are here with caverns and caves splitting off, inland sea here, underground sea accessible via chasms. All ships are submersible.”

“Move the fleet into the chasm as quickly as possible, we need to buy more time. Keep our heads down and unseen.”

The landscape rotated around them as the pilot turned them about. Captain Cadriel caught sight of their light carrier passing by an opening in the landforms.

He rubbed his eyes, they had already been playing cat and mouse for fourteen hours now. He needed some concrete safety for his men and himself. Something that would allow everyone some rest.

The enemy had been making sweeps of the planet for hours. They were narrowing the search down to this spot. However, if he could only pull off completely hiding the fleet, their field of search would widen considerably again.

In the initial battle, saving the freighter had caused the loss of their light battleship at the decision of the Admiral. Also at the decision of the Admiral was for Cadriel to take over command of the fleet.

In terms of chess, their “queen,” the light battleship and the admiral, had been lost to allow for the rest of the fleet to escape. Their king was the light carrier. Also in terms of chess, he had to think how he could win without the queen. It could be done, it was just never as easy.

In comparison, the enemy’s ships were heavy, large, long-distance models designed for long campaigns and sieges. To take down one of their frigates would take two of Cadriel’s own frigates to take it down.

The ship had picked up speed now and the landscape whipped by. Cadriel had to grit his teeth. He was used to the emptiness of space. Flying so close to something was unnerving.

Suddenly, the ship slowed and dropped like a rock into the shadow of a massive chasm. The bridge’s red combat lights glowed in the darkness.

Looking up, Cadriel saw the other ships drop in as well. The hologram pulled up a scan of the chasm and the caves shooting off from it.

“Get all the ships deeper, quick, and not all in one place.”

If they had time, they could set up an ambush, or make their firing arcs overlap each other. Right now, they needed time and they needed to seed doubt with the enemy.

“Captain,”

Cadriel turned to the Communications Officer.

“The rock of this planet blocks communications, Captain, if we split off, we’ll lose contact with the fleet.”

Cadriel sat back in his chair. A boon and a curse. He pointed to one of the larger cave openings. “Take the fleet into there, leave a stealthed scout probe at every opening and turn in the caves.”

The fleet entered the cave single-file.

Cadriel felt caged now more than ever. He breathed in, “the cave will open up into a cavern,” he told himself. It desperately needed to happen.

The minutes ticked by. The enemy scouts may have already flown over the area by now.

They flew deeper and deeper into the planet’s crust.

Cadriel found himself biting his nails. He forced himself to stop.

Finally, after a sharp turn the tunnel opened into a large cavern. Many tunnels led off from it in all directions.

“We split off here. The light carrier and a destroyer take the largest tunnel away, the two cruisers take the next largest, the other two destroyers split off, the four frigates stay in pairs.” Something caught his notice as more of the cave system’s map filled out from the scanners. “We’ll take this tunnel here, everyone go completely dark once you’ve found a hiding spot, we’ll communicate and update with scout probes in one hour.”

Cadriel pointed at the tunnel they would be hiding in and looked at the pilot. “Back us in.”

The pilot squinted and a few measurements popped up on the display at various points along the tunnel’s length. “Sir, we’ll barely fit.”

Tactics Officer Dawn spoke up. “Sir, that tunnel is, well, figuratively speaking, like hiding right next to an open doorway.”

Cadriel nodded. “Its risky for us, but also risky for the enemy. If anything comes through the door, shoot it. If it steps past the door,” he looked at the pilot, “ram it.”