"Where was that enemy spacecraft heading before we lost contact?"
"The most likely destination on that vector is 54 Hydrae, sir.  Eighteen-point-five light years further out."
"The rack's still offloading thermal ballast at the planet, call them and inform them of our next destination.  Also get CENTCOM on the line about a spectral analysis of the system, looking specifically for indications of terraforming."
"Affirmative, Colonel, Hachette out."
    Cote met Golana's stare, deciding to dodge the subject of having just assigned her to more than a month aboard a cramped spacecraft.
"Our analysis will be twenty-five years out of date at best."  While voyages were no longer limited by the speed of light, observations were.  "Even if they are out there, we may not see it yet."
"Let's just hope their terraforming takes as long as ours."  Golana took a slow puff from her cigar.  She hoped there would be a stock of decent Maduros aboard the rack.
    Having paved the way for the newly-arriving US Army forces pouring in from nearby Salacia, Lt. Col. Jeanne Cote prepared to continue her pursuit of the mysterious enemy faction.  Kasparov.  She'd suspected Soviets, but this was something else.  What, exactly, nobody could, or in the case of NATO Central Command, nobody would say.

Right off that bat, this picture wouldn't have been possible without the mad space wizardry of , who graciously provided me with a 3D model of my TAV (the big spaceplane in the background) design to use as a reference.

It might take a month, , but god dammit, they're coming for you.

Again, thanks to for perspective tips, design suggestions, and putting up with all of my incessant questions.

*Updated 8/1/2016 - I didn't have a design for the NATO dress uniform, proper tail number formatting for the TAV's (or a naming scheme at all for my vessels aside from semmingly-random hull numbers!) when I first put this one together, which has been bothering me for some time.  So here it is with Cote wearing the correct uniform.  Also gussied up the story.

The original can be seen here

More images from the ongoing 23 Librae b/Kasparov 16L conflict.
   

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