The Verle Task Force transitioned out of FTL at the outer edge of a boring red dwarf system. Due to minute variances in the FTL drives, tiny discrepancies got magnified into substantial divergences. Major Verle's ships spread out in a messy shotgun pattern that opened them up to a devastating ambush.
Fortunately, none of the ships detected any ships or mechs or weapon emplacements in the immediate vicinity.
Nobody let down their guard. The combat carriers adopted an immediate defensive posture and the entire fleet contracted in a defensive formation.
It took fifteen minutes of intensive scanning before everyone eased up the tension in their bodies. Besides a light rebel presence, the uninhabited star system contained no overt threats.
