madbringer:
The smallest FTL drive fits on a frigate - ditto for wyrmhole generators. Wyrmhole and FTL fields generated by the larger craft can encapsulate smaller craft - but those craft cannot use them independently. At least... not yet! Remember, these are very, very expensive pieces of high end technology. A very serious investment in a fairly disposable machine, such as a fightercraft.
***
Codexia the Brave
Time passed, as time is often wont to. The years, for their part, rolled on with a steady rhythm, a cadence that marked the continuing entropy afflicting the universe, and Codexia continued to grow and prosper. The population pressures on the Codexian homeworld slowly eased, as millions migrated to the Colonial Expanse, settling a dozen worlds and setting up outposts of Codexianity on a score more. The frontiers of the rising young state steadily expanded in a predetermined direction. Lightyear by lightyear, humanity inched toward the Phyr territories. The oldest of the human colony worlds was, by this point, a burgeoning, metropolitan project in its own right – and quickly developing a planetary identity. Other colonies were well on the way. Of course, it bears mentioning that there were also the Undocumented Settlements: pockets of humanity on nearly uninhabitable or very distant worlds, of which Codexia was largely unaware.
These settlements tended to be peopled by outcasts. They were men and women who either felt suffocated by the heavy Codexian tax burden, or stifled by government regulation. After the bio/gen-mod Ban of 187AU, tens of thousands of the most ‘customized’ persons also fled to these hidden ‘havens’. However, in reality, life in the Undocumented Settlements was harsh – often brutal. Terraformation technology was hideously expensive, and the only recourses left to the rogue colonists were unreliable habitation-tech solutions. A form of resentment flowered. During this stable, yet animated period (182-195AU), Codexian power, as a whole, grew significantly. The fleet was heavily restructured to accommodate hundreds of new vessels (the armada was estimated to number over two thousand ships of all types) and a ground arm was finally constituted (the Drop Troops were considered Naval rather than Army forces). Though Raumen monopolies on high-end products continued to dominate that marketplace, cheap Codexian goods also made their mark.
The two economies began to synthesize, in effect. But distrust at the highest levels continue, due in part to continuing Raumeni reluctance to share more detailed information about the galactic neighbourhood, which they themselves were known to be furiously exploring. Codexian INTOPS were convinced that, in actual fact, the Raumeni knew little about the Amoneth and avoided the Turanei, but the Phyr had become a Codexian matter of interest, and so little information had been released about them. It was, simply put, very frustrating. Nonetheless, a few details did emerge through various means. The ursine creatures controlled a significant belt of territory between the Raumen clans and the Turanei. Serious suspicions arose that they were at war with the latter – and the status of that conflict was unknown. Interrogation of Raumeni far-traders revealed little. No other option remained but to pursue the matter directly.
When contact was finally made in 196AU, it happened in a most surprising fashion. A lonely, recently constructed outpost in the farthest reaches of Codexian space received an uninvited guest. A small unidentified craft entered sensor range, scanned the outpost and its small complement of support vessels and began withdrawing. Silhouette recognition software identified it as a Phyr-probable, based on Raumen data. Two patrol ships were on hand to intercept its egress.
Do you... instruct your erstwhile vessels to intercept and pursue the Phyrrie vessel?
OR
Do you... allow it to withdraw without interference?