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Frisian Banks, open water south of the coast of Leonism
"The fleet has confirmed course 170. We are underway" The communications officer on the bridge of the Imperator-class battleship Leeste looked directly at Vizeadmiral Lena Meier-Gerke. Lena replied with a sharp "Verstanden", then handed over the bridge to her first officer, the brilliant but somewhat overambitious Vizegeneral Lüppo Lübben, one of the most South Frisian people she ever met, starting with his funny regional name.

Lena Meier-Gerke was well aware that all eyes were on her every move at this mission. It was not the first time she was commanding a large fleet. The expedition she lead to Hycronesia famously nearly ended in disaster, before she succesfully struck a deal with that nation, still the Imperium's premier trading partner in all of Thule.

This time it was different though. She led the largest fleet to leave the shores of the Imperium of Leonism since the huge Lazarene wars of the 1940s. The fleet was prepared for battle, and while it was not yet sure wheter or even whom they might fight, this was the closest Leonism's Imperiale Marine got to fighting a war for a long long time.

Her flagship was the Leeste. The 326 m long battleship was one of the Imperium's most powerful naval assets. With its sixteen 489 mm main guns, she could obliterate an entire town with just a few broadsides. The nuclear-powered vessel had enough secondary armament to defend itself against almost any threat single handedly, both from aircraft (with its 38 point-defense laser turrets) and submarines (with 10 torpedo turrets).

The fleet contained not just this one, but a total of three Imperator class battleships out of the Imperium's 14. Furthermore, it consisted of

• a single Aquila class supercarrier

• 3 Dominator class escort carrier

• 4 Perzen class heavy cruisers

• 12 Protector class multipurpose frigates

• 4 Skylancer class air-defense frigates

• 19 Bremen class corvettes

• 3 Meteor class fast stealth corvettes

• 3 Atlas class fleet support ships

• 7 Goldesel class tankers

The whole fleet had been named, in typical bureaucratic fashion of the Imperial Armed Forces, I. Expeditionsflotte "Süd", while the crew seemed to prefer the nickname Südseeflotte.

Lena was very glad for having recieved some of the newest and finest ships in the Marine, but would have wished for more Skylancer class frigates. These fusion-powered vessels were the latest addition to the Imperial navy and were renowned for their awesome point-defense capabilities, able to shoot down most any incoming missile or aircraft with their 52 "Illuminator" point defense lasers, truly lighting up the sky if they did. Unfortunately, the ships were still very rare in the fleet, and having recieved a whole four of them was already a feat in itself. Lena was unsure about how many had left the drydocks yet, but it couldn't have been more than ten in total for all she knew, with most of them still undergoing initial fleet acceptance tests. The Seeadler, whose hot-shot captain Frauke Sievert was infamous for nearly having started an unprovoked war with Custadia when she provoked a Wuzukoy-class missile destroyer, and famous for witnessing the terrorist attack on the battleship Invictus and preventing a worse outcome, was also part of the fleet.

Lena Meier-Gerke felt pride when she saw the sea full of ships around her, all under her command. She was certain of her ability to lead them, but less certain of what awaited them. The uncertainity made for the worst feeling, she would have prefered to set sails into a certain fierce battle rather than not knowing what would happen next. The fleet set a course for Danwaria and would await further orders there, depending on how the situation in the South Sea developed.