Epilogue, part IIWithin the luxurious trappings of the ship's bridge, the crew of the
Empress' Wrath went about their respective duties while ignoring the blueshift of the hyperspace tunnel. Unsurprising given that they'd seen it for almost two straight weeks given the transit. On one of the holodisplays, a Real-Time simulation of the enormous Hapan Fleet drew ever closer to the target planet.
"Commandant, I want a SITREP
4 on our Fleet, immediately." The Queen Mother's melodious tone cut through all of the bridge chatter, her words reminding everyone that the Empress Herself--may Her radiance illuminate eternal--was overseeing the offensive. As such, every single officer, NCO, and technician was on their best behavior, buoyed by their Empress' orations.
"At once,
Ereneda." Commandant Vikari Rumen bowed at the neck, a fierce look towards a junior officer all the indication that she required the intel yesterday. In the seconds between, Vikari unnecessarily straightened her dark red uniform. She was still getting used to the Commandant rank insignia upon her chest.
After a moment, she was handed a datapad already keyed up with the required information. "
Ereneda, all ships including fighters report 'Ready,' all ground assault units likewise." She masticated the words, her clipped tone perfectly appropriate and deferential while being commanding and professional. Exactly like the Commandant herself.
"...thirty seconds..." Another junior officer quietly announced behind Vikari.
She gave a curt nod. "30 seconds,
Ereneda." She pronounced so that the entire bridge heard her. If anything, the crew seemed to work even more intently.
"Excellent, Commandant." The Queen Mother purred, content for the first time in a long time. In less than half-a-minute, she, Ta'a Chume, would redress the impudent violation of her--no, the entire Consortium's!--dominion from the bastard Vhal'Dan, their offensive Off-Worlder effrontery to be eradicated from the galaxy, her retribution and supremacy undeniable! And she had the force to execute her will:
Over 1,000 ships strong: Hapan Battledragons, Nova battlecruisers, Hetrinar assault bombers, Miy'til interceptors, all upgraded with the new turbolaser- and targeting-computer tech that her military R&D assured her were state-of-the-art. In record time, the newly developed weapons-systems had been built and installed thanks to the tireless efforts of the collective citizenry of the Consortium, their Empress' encouragement all the motivation that they needed to complete the necessary tasks in record time.
Ta'a Chume oversaw the largest expeditionary force in Hapan history, the fleet harkening back to the space battles of the New Sith Wars where thousands of ships fought. Suppressing a smirk and failing, the Queen Mother mused that her fleet would utterly steamroll whatever defenses the Vhal'Dan had implemented, especially if T'Atyanna's intel was accurate.
And she knew that it was; her daughter may have been a fool in her last but she was incredibly thorough in her reconnaissance. In fact, Ta'a Chume knew of none better...
...Well, except for one.
Heedless of the bridge crew, she palmed the holopendant that hung around her neck, activating it. The ersatz bluish image of a tall, handsome man appeared, his strong features matched by the perfectly proportional symmetry of his muscular body.
...Isolder...son... She thought wistfully. He'd been a good boy but, more importantly, a better man, taking the initiative when his older brother was abducted--and later killed--during which he systematically rounded up and eliminated the pirates responsible for his assassination.
This time the Queen Mother
did smile; such a good boy: he spent the better part of two years undercover to bring his brother's killers to justice. Two years! Just the kind of person worthy of the position of
Chume'da; the kind of person worthy enough to lead the Consortium...unlike his older brother, a spineless, weak pfassk of genetic refuse. Had she not been completely coherent the entire time during her birthing of the boy, she would've questioned whether or not the frail and apathetic child was actually hers.
A trait that he did
not grow out of as an adult. With the fruition of her plans to ultimately disband the
Marquessate and the laws of Primogeniture ensuring that her firstborn would inherit, it was inconceivable to so much as consider that he'd be the one to ascend...
Of course, Ta'a Chume herself had commissioned the pirates to take care of the wastrel...but Isolder need not know that.
Appropriately, the Queen Mother had had her firstborn's name stricken from Consortium records, the mere utterance of the boy or his name now anathema.
Thankfully, she had Isolder.
...Such a good boy... She thought again, love never once entering into it. He was strong, intelligent, capable; in short: the perfect decoy and target. Isolder would allow her to retain the power she had without the pitfalls attendant to the position. Now she just had to ensure that he married the right woman...
"Five seconds,
Ereneda." Vikari's voice recalled her to the present, excitement threatening to overwhelm her.
Sitting tall in the command chair, she made the utilitarian seat look a throne. "Our revenge against the Vhal'Dan transgressors begins today!" Her voice rang throughout the bridge, the ship, the entire fleet. "For the Consortium!" She trumpeted.
Even though no cheer arose, every single Hapan worked a little better, a little harder, a little faster. All in approbation of the Queen Mother.
Everyone aboard felt their stomachs clench, some with anticipation, some with fear, everyone with righteous inspiration as the hyperspace tunnel collapsed, starlines coalescing into scintillating dots of light. Like some vast, bloated organism, the Hapan Fleet returned into Realspace amidst a flurry of pseudomotion.
"Flight: all wings scramble! Gunners: target key military installations as soon as you have a shooting solution!" Vikari barked. "For the Queen Mother--may Her Radiance illuminate eternal--ATTACK!" Moving nothing but her eyes, she glanced over to the Empress, pleased to see that she wore an open if cruel smile. As she said: they would reclaim the honor stolen from them by the cowardly Vhal'Dan! A tight smile curled up the corners of her own mouth. She couldn't help herself and cast her full gaze upon the Queen Mother, expecting to see the look of victory fully encompass that which was Divinity Made Life.
What she did not expect was the look of utter confusion and consternation that met Vikari's eyes.
"What. In. The. Seven. Hells..." Her staccato tone--so incongruous with her earlier mood--pierced everyone's attention as the Queen Mother slowly stood from her chair. Like a revenant from an old Mak'Tor myth, she shuffled towards the enormous transparasteel viewscreen, staring at the blackness of space in front of her.
The Vhal'Dan homeworld was gone.
"Commandant, confirm the fleet's coordinates." Ta'a Chume could not believe what she saw. "NOW." She said quietly but forcefully.
"As you command,
Ereneda." Vikari was already at the navigator's station, leaning over the shocked officer who--like almost everyone else on the bridge--stared at the tableau that met their gaze, each and every mind working furiously to resolve their expectations with their reality.
Vikari blinked as soon as she'd confirmed what she--what everybody--already knew: they were
exactly in the right place. "
Ereneda, navicom and astrometrics have both verified coordinates; this is the Klasse Ephemora System."
For several seconds the Queen Mother said nothing, her emerald eyes staring out at the vastness of deep space. There was no Vhal'Dan Defense Fleet, no sign of any habitation, no planet. How could this be?
Furiously her mind worked: could T'Atyanna's intel have been wrong? Immediately, she dismissed such; after all, she'd absconded with Il'liyanav from her very apartments on the Order's Homeworld... Could...could it have something to do with the fact that they were in the Unknown Regions? It was something to consider but she seriously doubted it.
She was missing
something...
"Commandant, I want a full sensor sweep of the system." She said through not-quite-gritted teeth. "Look for anything amiss. ANYTHING."
"You will,
Ereneda." Vikari bowed at the neck, barking orders to her officers. After a moment, she approached the Empress, careful not to step onto the raised platform atop which the Queen Mother sat. In quiet tones Vikari spoke. "
Ereneda, I have my best people on it; we
will find you answers." She thought she saw a slight twitch in the Queen Mother's visage but decidedly ignored it. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explai--"
"Yes, you will,
Commandant." She brusquely interrupted with deliberate emphasis, her tone not quite flippant. "It's not as if a planet can just move." Even though she continued to stare at the starfield through the enormous transparasteel wall in front of her, Vikari would feel the Empress' withering gaze upon her.
Feeling exposed, Vikari worked to reassure her Domina (and, truth be told, herself). "Of course not,
Ereneda. Perhaps there is some stellar quantum drift in the area." She searched her memory, recalling some of the more incredible things she'd learned in the Academy. "I read that there are areas within the Unknown Regions in which space-time itself runs completely independent of Galactic Standard." The Empress did look at her then, her interest piqued. Vikari continued. "In some areas--called vacuoles--there were travelers that claimed that time itself was several years behin--"
The ship suddenly rocked as a violent explosion shook the superstructure, several inertial dampeners failing. Throughout the Battledragon, warning klaxons sounded. "Report!" Vikari shouted, cutting through the collective panic onboard the bridge. Making certain that the Queen Mother was unhurt and unmolested, Vikari then looked to her officers. Just as she was about to speak, she saw a bright, multi-spherical chain of explosions from the periphery of the viewscreen.
"Domina..." One of her officers addressed her, her tone one of controlled emotions. "It's the
Aura Lance," She said naming one of the main Battledragons of the fleet. "Sensors indicate that the vessel has been completely destroyed, all hands lost."
Vikari wanted to curse, instead saying a quiet prayer for the dead under her breath. "Order the Fleet 'All-ahead-stop.'" She turned to the sensor technicians and opened her mouth for more instructions when several more detonations proliferated through the fleet. "AS YOU WERE!" She growled, quickly bringing order to the chaos. After a second, she stared at the sensors officer. "Report."
Nodding respectfully, the woman spoke. "Commandant. There have been approximately four dozen large explosions throughout the fleet. I can't be certain but our predictive algorithms posit that the fleet may have entered a minefield..." Looking from Vikari to her tech and back again, the officer continued. "...Possibly populated with cloaked antimatter proximity spacemines."
This time Vikari did swear, if just to herself. Turning from the officer, she faced the Empress. "Ereneda, I recommend that we order all vessels to immediately stop all forward progress and withdraw along lines of direct egress from our fleet's insertion into the system." Even as she spoke, there were more--dozens more--violent spherical explosions that tore through the fleet. If anything, they seemed to occur with a much higher frequency now.
Without saying a word, Ta'a Chume gave a curt nod. Anger, frustration, and demoralization threatened to infect her.
The offensive was over before it had even begun; worse: now she'd also lost dozens--perhaps hundreds--of ships. Looking past Vikari, the Queen Mother's mind turned inwards, ignoring the numerous detonations that still filled the otherwise empty starfield...
How? How was it that the Vhal'Dan had escaped? There was no way that they could hide an entire planet, much less move one. But other than conjecture, she found herself completely at a loss as to how she'd been outmaneuvered. Oh, she had no doubt that this was entirely deliberate; that sly old Gray Jedi had possessed a keen mind and a dangerous fortitude that Ta'a Chume found absent in virtually all males. If he weren't her enemy, she would've liked very much breaking him under the auspices of her concubine...
In the span of a few minutes, the Hapan Expeditionary Fleet (now less several hundred vessels) had turned and, having made the necessary calculations, made the jump to hyperspace.
Everyone aboard now felt forlorn, their mission a catastrophic failure.
Even with their advanced
Froond-class hyperdrives, the fleet's transit would take more than two weeks to get back to Consortium space. Which for Ta'a Chume was more than enough time to affix blame. Pity. She like Vikari. However, better it be presented as "the incompetence of the new Commandant" than anything remotely tangential to the Empress.
Not for the last time did the Queen Mother curse the Vhal'Dan. Her face an impassive mask, fury writhed beneath her carefully cultivated visage. She
would have satisfaction. Thinking again of her firstborn, plans began to form: she would once again use the various pirates that operated along the borders of the Transitory Mists. After all, one could never be too careful.
And as soon as they'd completed her "request," well, she would merely have them eliminated. As had been all of her enemies.
As would be the fate of the Vhal'Dan.
While her mind continued plans within plans, Ta'a Chume felt herself feel a bit of relief. One way or another, she would emerge victorious.
As was proper.
<<<<< >>>>>
___________________________________________________________________________________
4. SITREP:
situation
report