[sachmo]

Funeral

2413.4

The gray sky over Turian reflected the mood of the people. The celebrations of the victory over the Rage had wound down, and the people were once again reminded of the reality of war. Today was the funeral for the dead from Bardron VI.

A new memorial park was commissioned for the occasion, with viewing stands for the family and dignitaries skirting the field where the bodies would be buried. Days before the service was to take place, people began to gather on the fringes of the park, coming to pay their respects for the fallen heroes. As the day of the funeral drew closer, the stream of people became a flood, and by the time the funeral began, millions of Remorhaz citizens were standing around the park, silently watching and paying their respects.

In all, 2773 servicemen and women were buried that day. However, their deaths served to remind everyone throughout the society that although the price would be terrible, victory could be achieved.

Fleet Admiral Reed ordered Task Force 1 to sortie to intercept a lone Hedmora class cruiser that was on course to try to force the Lenoltris-Fezzran wormhole. The fleet destroyed the ship while sustaining no damage.
Just before the fleet turned to return to Highrock, a fleet of twenty-eight Ukra-Tal ships came through the wormhole from Yukra, but their destination was unknown at the time. Reed pulled the fleet back toward Highrock, but they would not be able to make it back before the month was out. The Ukra-Tal would not be able to make it to Highrock before then, either.

2413.5

The Ukra-Tal fleet was on an intercept course for Task Force One. Fleet Admiral Reed knew that the task force could not destroy them in a stand up fight, and so was forced to pull it back to Highrock. This left a number of holes in the Remorhaz front. A lone Hedmora covered the Fezzran-Lenoltris wormhole. There were ships waiting to come through, and Reed ordered them to form an ad hoc defense task force to cover Fezzran in case the Ukra-Tal headed in that direction. The senior commander in the system, Commodore Esteban Santos, formed Task Force 1.1 with all of the ships in the Fezzran system. He pulled his task force back to Cirius and would deal with any threats that came through the wormhole. His available forces consisted of one Javelin and one Rochester class light cruiser, the Prometheus light carrier, two Comet class ground attack ships, one minesweeper, and twelve system fighters. Scorpio put production effort into building more fighters to help make up for the lack of firepower in system. Cirius began producing defense bases. Two more cruisers, a Rochester and a Javelin were in system and headed for Cirius, but at least one month out.

In Iolo, things were quiet. A lone Hedmora was trying to run the Correlia gauntlet, but Hitcher pounced on it with Task Force 3, destroying it with no loss on the Remorhaz side.