"I am sailing my ship through international waters towards a destination which is also in international waters. I was not aware such completely legal actions warranted threatening my ship and the lives of my crew." Capitaine Toutain replies indignantly.

The frigate's single Kashtan CIWS turret is spun up and brought around towards the Imperious, ready to defend the ship.

"I am not required to share my orders with you, nor am I inclined to. Your feelings as to my intentions are duly noted. I will relay your insult to my Admiral, who will no doubt, relay it to the President." Capitaine Toutain replies.

Capitaine Toutain seethes. Unable to challenge the larger warship, he simply continues sailing to the East. Upon reaching Velucian waters, the frigate slows to 10 knots and sails along the Velucian coastline, remaining a kilometer into international waters at all times. The frigate, unable to safely use its more powerful equipment, sets to its now more difficult task. It tracks ships and triangulates radar locations based on their own radar transmissions. It would be impossible for the Velucian destroyer to see these actions as there would be no outward change in the frigate to signal the actions taking place.

The frigate sails on. It detects and plots the locations of powerful land based radars. It also quite easily picks out the small Velucian fleet preparing at the mainland by their radar signatures. While unable to tell class or size of ships, the frigate easily separates the various signals and is able to discern the number of ships and their locations. [I would like to know how many ships are in this small fleet since I have established that I am able to discern such things.]

Capitaine Toutain grows worried. "Quartermaster, I don't trust our new Velucian shadow. I would see the crew armed. Hand out rifles to those qualified, sidearms to the remainder."

The Quartermaster salutes. "Oui Capitaine." He hurries from the bridge to the ship's small arms locker. He distributes rifles to a dozen men and stations them on the deck. He issues sidearms to the remaining members of the crew and sets them back to their normal tasks.

The newly armed sentries stand on deck, rifles held low, watching the Velucian ship. The Quartermaster also orders the ship's autocannons prepped. a pair of crewman moves to each and loads it, preparing it for action. After the autocannons are prepared, the crewman manning them step back away from them, not wanting to accidentally cause an incident.

[How does surveillance, which is what I am using is what the French are doing, turn into a near war? In real life, the charge is espionage and being arrested and returned to the country they came from. This is like the Cuban Missile crisis, just a bit less tense because there is no nuclear weapons.]

[Where do you see threat of war? I only prepare to defend myself. I have no intention of peacefully surrendering a warship should I be attacked.]

[yea... I know   :p ]

OOC: It wouldn't be an international incident if it was only a single spy ship.