User blog:I am that guy/Duke of Normandy

Location: US Naval Station Rouen, Oort Cloud 486 AU from Earth

Admiral of the Navy Robert Stark stood with his back to the conference room table as his subordinates shuffled in and took their seats. Right now he want paying them any attention, right now he was prepping himself for the meeting that the man who's portrait he was looking at should be where he is. Admiral Neil Guy hadn't exactly been the young officer he was in WWIII, and after the Exile of the navy forces loyal to the United States, his health took a turn for the worse.

The funeral service wasn't compulsory, yet over three quarters of Rouens personnel either showed up in person, or viewed it on monitors. After his casket was shot out on a trajectory that will take it out of the solar system, Robert officially took over the duties of Admiral of the Navy. As Guy's second in command, his ascension was unquestioned, and there was also no question what ship he would take as his flagship.

The mega-dreadnought USS Admiral Guy, where everyone was gathering, was one of twenty-three such ships in the exiled USN, each packing 180 missile tubes.

Finally, Robert turned and sat in his chair at the head of the table, the late Admiral Guy's portrait behind him. Virtually every task force commander was here, as they needed to be.

"Operation: Duke of Normandy is just about ready. Vice Admiral Powell, what's our current ship count?"

"Just under a thousand, including about three hundred ships of the wall and eighteen carriers," Powell replied.

"And personnel?"

"We'll be leaving Rouenwith pretty much a skeleton crew, but we should have enough to fill the wallers to compacity. Since the destroyers and CLs need crews of only around thirty, everything should be good."

"Very good," Robert said. "Now then, here's the plan:"

Stark pulled up a large holographic model of the solar system. But it was one few would recognize. A very small yellow disc glowed in the center, surrounded by a blue-hued sphere. The yellow disc represented the ecliptic of the solar system out to the orbit of Neptune, while the expansive blue sphere represented the Oort Cloud. After a moment a green dot started glowing a significant distance out from neptunes orbit, representing Rouen.

"We're here, ladies and gentlemen, 486 AUs out from the sun, or roughly 45.3 billion miles from home. Once we leave Rouen we'll accelerate to 25,000 MPS before cutting all active emissions: main engines, weapon tracking, radar, and the sort. We'll be working on reaction thrusters from then out. Everything we've seen tells us that we shouldn't be detected before we shut down the active emissions, so our ballistic flight shouldn't be detected before we bring our engines and weapons back online. Now, we'll be running silent for three weeks, that's how long it's gonna take to reach the re-activation point. Once more, we'll be dipping bell the ecliptic and be coming up from 'below' them. This helps us avoid bases such as Eris, Pluto, and Ceres, which all are currently around the ecliptic, and should also be an unexpected attack angle. People forget space doesn't work on only two dimensions, so why bust through the entire solar system when we can avoid it all like this. Any questions?"

Rear Admiral Chester Guy, the Late Admiral Guy's son, raised his hand.

"Yes, Chester?"

"I assume we'll maneuver into the wall of battle before we bring our drives up?"

"That's correct"

"At what distance will we be bringing said drives online?"

"A hundred-fifty million miles from Earth, that should give us time to decelerate and for your carriers to get their squadrons launched."

"Since you mention Rear Admiral Guy's carriers, Admiral Stark," Vice Admiral Rollins spoke up, "may I ask if it's necessary to devote two dreadnought divisions as their escorts?"

"It is necessary, when we have three hundred other ships in the wall, we can spare twenty to escort the carriers. If a group of enemy ships get to the carrier groups, they'll need every extra missile they can get. Now then, Admiral Parnell, have we distributed the missile pods?"

"Yes, sir," Vice Admiral Parnell replied, "every ship has been stocked with their fill of five-shot missile pods. The destroyers, heavy and light cruisers will most likely run dry in the opening salvos, but battlecruisers and above will be able to make theirs last."

"Good," Stark said, "what are the tow limits again?"

"Mega-dreadnoughts can tow ten at once, super-dreadnoughts eight, dreadnoughts six, battlecruisers five, everything else three."

"Also good. And Admiral Alexander, is your fleet ready for its part? 'Hardrada'?"

The quiet Rear Admiral near the back only smiled and nodded slowly.

"Very well, gentlemen, if there's no more questions, that about covers it. Let's be about it."

Three days later the fleet of the U.S. Navy in Exile depart Rouen. Twelve hours later, with their speeds reaching 25,000 miles per second, they cut all active emissions, and begin the ballistic portion of the journey. The three week journey.

OOC: I have all ship types for this fleet built, and will be posting them hopefully tomorrow.