The spies—the traitors—brought the news to Dyer at the Tree of Lights. The Military fleet was assembling at Myelen.
Dyer did not react instantly. He took time to think, then gave his orders: a pincer movement, with a Diplomatic task force descending on Myelen on separate fronts, using the two wormholes in the system—Myelen 1 and Myelen 2—to launch a devastating surprise attack. Dyer presented the plan to his commanders, but most of them were career Diplomats who had found themselves elevated to command status. Only a handful of Dyer’s commanders had any battle experience, and their objections to the splitting of the Diplomatic fleet were overruled in the rush to capitalize on the new intelligence received. This was their chance to strike at the Military while its forces were packed into a single system, with nowhere to run. It was how wars were won.
Later, the Chronicles would record that President Krake himself tried to change Dyer’s mind—his plan for surprising the Military required him not only to divide the task force, but also to deplete by half the fleet defending the Illyr system—but by then the die was cast. The first component of the Diplomatic force would move in on Myelen 1 from Obruscar, the main Corps base just one wormhole boost away from Illyr, and only two boosts from Myelen. The second, though, would require many more boosts in order to reach the second Myelen wormhole, and the shortest route would take it close to the Derith wormhole.
Dyer had been advised of the disappearance of the Gradus at that same wormhole, but his Nomad spies informed him that the Gradus had been captured by Military forces, and now formed part of its battle fleet. Satisfied that there was no reason to be concerned about Derith, despite the waves of unease coming off the Other in his head, Dyer gave the order for half of his task force to pass within sight of it on its way to Myelen.