"What do you think it means?" Rosaria inquired, ever the inquisitive young woman. While the duchess was reluctant to make assumptions about the internal thoughts of any other intelligent life form, she was relatively certain the teen was eager for confrontation in equal measure to how much Solae and Rene were anxious. To Rosaraia it was still something of a novelty. For the adults, however, they had enough experience to be cautious and apprehensive. The diplomat was optimistic that the encounter would go well, but the appearance of a military escape pod was an unforeseen wrinkle, and suggested that this would not go nearly as smoothly as she secretly wished it would.

"This doesn't change anything," the former marquise quickly interjected to head off any inquiries if this meant they would advance with their sidearms drawn. The few weeks spent together, as well as recent prodding about a 'real weapon,' made her anticipate the next unspoken question. It was still only one escape pod. She didn't want to jeopardize a peaceful exchange of pleasantries by having their guns aggressively in hand. Privately she assessed that there was little to no chance whatever soldier stole the pod would be on par with her fiance's skills. Modest as he was, time and time again he had proven himself to be an exceptional combatant, and she was confident it would play in her favor in the future as well. It was much easier for her to make demands (and excuses) for keeping him by her side if were was a tangible benefit that he provided. Had she fallen in with a tradesman or craftsman it would be next to impossible to include him in her daily duties until after marriage.

"What is the allegiance of your military?" Yarue asked after a moment of contemplation. He had been briefed on the coup staged by Duke Tan, but needless to say he had no education on the empire on a whole, and had little knowledge about the intricacies of their structure. Both he and Dasin were still trying to wrap their head around the brewing galactic war. Syshin was a peaceful species on a whole whose actual physical fighting with each other was limited and hardly ever to the death. The very concept of killing each other for power was a foreign and had to be explained multiple times.

"With the exception of Rene, the imperial marines on New Concordia were murdered outright, no doubt because of their unwavering fealty to our empress. Duke Tan does have troops, and some of them may be imperial marines, but it's unlikely he's had as much success gathering their support as others. We're far enough from the battles that I don't think they will know what's happened in the Eastern Cross yet and, even if we assume they did... it doesn't make much sense for a soldier to defect here, by himself, on an abandoned planet. Whomever used that pod being unaligned is the most probable scenario," she mused aloud.

There was a small chance she would have authority still over the wayward citizen that had touched down here. The armed forces indoctrinated respect for figures in the upper strata of the society more than most. If that failed, whomever used the military escape pod may defer to Rene, if not for his rank than because of his service and skill. Perhaps it was naive of her to try to cling to her optimism in arriving at the conclusion that the appearance of a detachment of an imperial destroyer would not prove detrimental. Surely the influence of a treasonous narcissist would not work against them here in the farthest reaches of their sprawling civilization.

The terrain proved to be more a hindrance than their discovery. While Rene could easily keep his pace, and Rosaria to a lesser degree, Solae's genetic predisposition to athleticism had been mitigated somewhat by her sedentary lifestyle. Yarue and Dasin fared the best on the rocky downward slope; their race was unaccustomed to the tundra, but they had evolved to be able to scale much less hospitable landscapes on their homeworld, where the weather created towering dunes and mountains of stone rubble were more prevalent than grassy plains. Dasin subtly moved to Solae's opposite side from Rene to silently prepare to help catch her if she stumbled, not wanting to injure her pride or impose on Rene's role as her 'mate.'