Hilda
Hilda watched the last of the royal fleet depart the Isca System through the Fabian Gateway. It felt odd to watch it leave, and for so many ships to remain behind as it departed. The fleet was larger than when it had set out from Bastion as local lords tagged along with the king on his progress throughout the Commonwealth.
Hilda felt it strange that not long ago the thought of thirty two Sword class Battleships would make her feel secure, but against the four hundred, and seven three capital ships of the Isca fleet, they were hopelessly outnumbered, and that did not take into account the more than five thousand support starships of frigates, and corvettes that the System-lord had under his command.
The System fleet of Isca might have been made up largely of smaller capital ships like most system fleets in Dumgarth. Destroyers made up more than half of the fleet strength, it held several Furse starships, as well as the three Super Carriers, six Dreadnoughts, twelve carriers, were more than a max for Task Force Bravo, not to mention the cruisers, and escort starships.
System-lord Peder Frost was the most powerful lord in Dumgarth, Lord of Dumgarth in all but name, and rivaled any of the most powerful System-lords throughout the Commonwealth, and that was something the King feared.
Hilda had poured over all intelligence that they had on the System-lord, and his forces. His fleet of various cruisers outnumbered Task Force Bravo three to one, and if the System-lord gather all those Corvettes, and frigates, the task force wouldn’t stand a chance.
Most those support starships were used for routine patrols throughout the sector. Patrolling trade lanes, border worlds, and even the western edges of the Dralan Trade Route. They were small, and spread out to provide the system-lord with information from throughout the sector, and Hilda shuddered to think how large that fleet could grow with the other System-lord’s of Dumgarth, or the support of the so-called king of Dumgarth, the System-lord of Horndrift, Radcliff Cadoc.
System-lord Frost seemed like a decent, and kind man. Hilda had read the file on the man. She knew he had fought against King Oswald only seven years earlier when he had bent the knee, and become System-lord of Isca. His history was impressive, and he was a respected warrior, and warlord, but everything in his file spoke of a loyal man who by all accounts had brought more peace, wealth, and power to the Dumgarth Sector than any king of the Commonwealth, or Daxholm before it, and that peace had brought in new taxes for the King, and more wealth than the conflict
Hilda could remember the attacks on the Commonwealth by Peder Frost, and his allies, among them King Harwyn of Fist. He had defeated force after force of the Commonwealth. Raided world after world for five years until the Peace of XXXXX was signed, and by all accounts became a loyal subject to King Oswald as the new System-lord of Isca. Yet Bishop Keyes, and King Oswald claimed otherwise, and now it was up to Hilda to discover the truth of the matter, and failing that, to arrest the System-lord, and his family.
Hilda let out a sigh, she would have plenty of time to get to know the System-lord as the Task Force joined Lord Frost in patrolling the northern border of the sector with much of his fleet.
