Chapter 1103
The ship sent to infiltrate the Exalted Quadrant had been enhanced to deal with potential difficulties. They didn’t anticipate needing to enter the planetary barrier, but if that situation should come up it was prepared to do so while maintaining secrecy. Only a small number of tweaks were made for the actual stealth capabilities, and Velvet had taken to heart the small disturbances that had allowed Lelka to notice them the previous time.
The main change was to enhance the range so that they could travel between systems less directly. Each additional system they could bypass without stopping was a significant reduction in chances of detection. Since their enemy had to be watching for them specifically, they found those features to be critical.
One moment they were peacefully traveling along, then Catarina dashed to the controls and forcibly dropped the ship out of subspace. The scale of the ship they were on was so small any of them could reach anywhere on the ship in an instant.
“What was that for?” Velvet asked. She avoided an accusatory tone, since she could easily assume there would be a good explanation.
“Interstellar sensory formations,” Catarina said. “I’m not willing to assume that they are unable to sense us.”
“Can you sense how far it extends?” Timothy asked, having followed just behind her- the whole crew was crowded around the area because of the disturbance.
“Given the curvature… it has to surround most of Exalted Quadrant space. Similar to our grand formation.”
“But worse,” Chidi said.
“Different, at least. Lower energy,” Catarina admitted. “But we’ll need to find a formation node. I would assume this is an omnidirectional shell.”