[b]Trailus Major - Day Three
[/b]
The Shara Rae exploded silently at the dock. The sleek battleship’s four fusion reactors went super critical within milliseconds of one another, bulging the vessels midsection into a tetramer of white spheres each as brilliant as the birth of a new star. The thousand kiloton explosions converted three quarters of the vessel length into a cloud of debris and gaseous metal driven before the quad shockwaves like the bow wake of an unimaginable storm. The space dock to which the ship was dock cracked like an egg, its own internal oxygen and anything less combustible than silicon blazed in an inferno which was no more than a coda to the Shara Rae’s death song. The battleships foredeck and thruster nozzles were tossed from the explosion like children's toys, careening into the darkness of space. More worrying, the debris of the station began to fall towards the bright blue world below as the blast shoved the wreckage planetward from its geosynchronous orbit in slow arcs which began to blaze with friction heat almost immediately.  

Duke Alexis Tan, Emperor Alexis the first as he now styled himself, paused the holographic recording with a curt gesture and scowled at the knot of advisors which surrounded him.

“How in the Void did this happen?!” he snapped, his face slightly florid with suppressed rage. He had been a handsome man in his youth but the excesses of middle age and an indifference to even the moderate exercise required by vanity gave him a slightly florid look. His eyes were agate hard and held an animal cunning which supplemented his substantial intellect. Alexis was dressed soberly in a dark gray on black suit with a formal sash of expensive golden silk slashing diagonally from shoulder to hip. The courtiers to whom he addressed the questions showed no such restraint. Each man or woman was bedecked in the most expensive and often most gaudy outfit they possessed. 

The  crowd rolled back like a tide before their leaders anger, leaving a single woman, dressed in neatly cut military fatigues with a modest array of medals displayed on the breast of the field green tunic. She was dressed up for the occasion but no one would begrudge that general, formerly colonel, Bhast was a real veteran. She showed neither fear nor contrition but instead stepped boldly forward.

“The operation went of a scheduled,” she replied in a tone with the crispness of Capella or one of the core worlds of the Empire. She made a gesture at the holoprojector and the scene shifted to uniformed men and women rushing through the hatches of the Shara Rae, weapons flashing silently as the rebels attempted to seize the ship. The display showed an impressive amount of preparation and technical expertise despite its casual appearance. 

“We took Captain Gwindon and her officer into custody aboard the station, to secure her genetic code as instructed,” the general went on. Alexis arched a dangerous eyebrow at what was in essence a defence of failure from an underling.

“Then who set the self destruct?” the usuper demanded, pacing back and forth angrily as he spoke. Bhast made another gesture and a small red headed woman with a dusting of freckles across her nose appeared beside a service record for an Imperial Navy Engineering Lieutenant.

“As best we can tell there was no formal self destruct. One of the engineering officers, Kya Chobral, sealed the engineering deck the moment we fired. It would seem she opted to scuttle the Shara Rae rather than let her be taken,” the general explained in her calm precise voice. Chobral’s action had been instant, resolute, utterly fearless and had resulted in the deaths of nearly a thousand people including the captain and entire complement of the Shara Rae. Her name would live on in the Navy’s pantheon of heroes.

What Cobral wouldn’t have appreciated was what a blow she had dealt to the Dukes Rebellion. The death of Lysyndra Gwindon meant that the rebels were without a highborn noble who could activate the PEA system, a far greater blow than the loss of a ship, even one as impressive as the Shara Rae had been. The plan had unfolded like clockwork, the conspirators striking simultaneous across dozens of systems. The Imperial yoke in the Eastern Cross was light and the attacks had been savage and overwhelming. The embassies had been primary targets both because they boasted PEA’s and because they were centers of intelligence collection and distribution. It would have been possible to capture the buildings intact, but not before spies in the embassy beamed warnings to their masters. Unfortunately the same ruthless efficiency which had carried the coup to victory had denied them any chance to capture other candidates with the right genetic codes. Gwindor, a scion of high nobility as well as a naval captain,  was to have been their key to the communications system.

“So now we are blind and dumb general! We cannot expect to conduct an interstellar war without instantaneous communications!”

Bhast nodded her head though her stance suggested she wasn’t conceding the point. 

“We can mitigate that to some degree by using jump ships,” she began, continuing to speak despite an angry glare from her sovereign. 

“But I have some better news. I received word from New Concordia that one of the diplomats there escaped the initial purge. The Prefect there has already began the search and should have her in custody shortly.” Alexis ceased pacing at this news, his expression brightening marginally at the prospect of an unexpected solution.

“Who is this noble?” he demanded. Bhast nodded her head and made a third gesture. A holographic picture of a beautiful golden haired woman sprang up in place of the sterile naval personnel record.

“Let me tell you about Solae Falia….”