Status: M-drive running at full power for seven hours. Engineer reports that we can do this for another forty-eight hours if need be. After that we would not have enough fuel to jump to any system. Jump drive is out of commission due to damage to its containment but this is being repaired as I write. No significant injuries.
I directed the ship to make a closer pass on the Uridae cache, with the intention of ascertaining the quality and content of the materiel. The Ursidae destroyer on station was not manoeuvring at all and not using active sensors, thus it seemed possible we could close with the cache and make an undetected pass at visible range. I ordered the navigator to place the cache between us and the destroyer and to move into that position by occluding as few stars as possible. We subsequently moved onto that vector and commenced to close with the cache under silent running orders.
We closed sufficiently to make a more meaningful study of the cache. We observed a number of fuel bladders that were large enough to contain an estimated four thousand tons of fuel. There were also forty to fifty containers that we did not recognise. The marking on them do not match anything we have in the language program on board, but we have pictographs stored analysis.
I ordered a reverse in direction intending to return to a safer observational distance. Within minutes of the course change Dr Hill burst onto the bridge warning of the imminent arrive of one or more ships. I kept the ship on course but had the engineer shut down the Manoeuvre Drive.
Three minutes later Dr Hill's warning proved correct. Two more destroyer class war ships and five more transports exited jump. I'm now convinced that Hill is onto something of vital importance with his detection gear.
The new arrivals were all within line of sight, only the original ship was occluded by the cache. One of the destroyers immediately pinged us with active sensors and we were detected. I ordered full power and launched a missile on the cache.
We were pursued by a single destroyer that also intercepted our missile. We were grazed by a single laser battery before outranging them. We continue at full speed and the enemy ship pursues. I intend to jump for Sunodar as soon as the jump drive is back on line.
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