“ Report!” ordered Admiral Desaria as he entered the bridge’s aft control corridor from the lift. A pair of nearby guards came to attention as he did so, getting an ‘ as you were’ from Captain Voltaire as the Sector Fleet’s commander proceeded deeper and deeper into the bridge proper.


“ A small freightor dropped out of hyperspace and deployed an object that exploded five minutes ago. I sent a TIE Vanguard to investigate and it sent back these images before we lost contact.” Commander Aerin was a competent officer of middle age for a human, the Auratch’s first officer since it was commissioned.


Desaria took to his command chair and quickly viewed the images as they were fed to a display on the left arm console. The images were not pristine, and by no means good. Another black hole had been created, this one however on the edge of the system.


“ I’ve run the numbers through XG-99 and he says, since this one is smaller than the occurrence at Gir’Siz, we are in no danger as long as we remain in orbit of Tanaab.”


“ Very well. Captain, what’s that hole on? It’s of little value at the edge of this system, isn’t it?”


“ I’m, afraid not, sir. It appears to be on the periphery of the Serranz Trade Spine running just outside the system. Anything that runs it will be yanked out and destroyed.”


“ Serranz? I didn’t realize it was that close. That’s mostly low-key ore transports so casualties will be minimum – but the worlds they serve have small populations so the affect will be disastrous to them. Captain, keep a watch on that hole and inform me the minute it begins to dissipate. Make the fleet ready for departure thereafter and send running orders to the Third Squadron and 10th Response as well to join us at coordinates to be specified. And summon Colonel Lenin to my office immediately!”

Colonel Lenin arrived in good time, presenting himself before the Grand Admiral at full attention and none of the cordial frills with which their last meeting had taken place. This one bore none of the same intimations of the rendezvous between friends the prior one had been, but instead the entrance of a subordinate to one of the highest ranking men in the Empire bearing a rather crucial report on a series of events that had all but crippled civil movement and commerce in eighteen sectors.


“ You bear news, Colonel?” asked the Admiral who looked down his nose at the arrived guest to his office. This new arrival nodded solemnly and approached, mounting the room’s desk-dais so that he could stand before Baron Desaria in a more regal manner than ten meters distant provided.


“ I do, Your Excellency.”


Admiral Desaria bade his guest sit, and he promptly obliged. Lenin handed the Demasi Sector Fleet’s commander a thin pad with the layout of one single planetary system laid out thereupon.


“ I can gladly report that earlier this afternoon, a task force under Commodore Viren and another under Vice Admiral Gilhoulie eliminated simultaneously two separate pirate bases at the bridge of the Mutaba Asteroid Field. It is my guess that this represents two of the last outposts that oppose us.”


An eyebrow shot up powered by keen interest. The officer from Intelligence now had the complete attention of the gentleman from the Fleet.


“ I have been studying every recorded instance of an appearance by rebel ships. In that time, I have noticed this:” – the Colonel showed the Admiral a still flimsiplast holo of a frigate just before its destruction – “ centralized carbon scoring. This can indicate only one thing.”


“ Please continue, Colonel.”


“ The ships operated out of an area where they were subjected to continual bombardment by chunks of rock, so numerous that the particle shields were running to counter larger portions. Smaller sized pieces would be left to the hull. This ship was destroyed by the Hammer-class Light Cruiser Ataturk under Commodore Viren earlier today. These others,” Lenin said, handing Desaria more flimsiplasts, “ were engaged and/or destroyed prior to yesterday. All but six have this distinctive carbon scoring. The Mutaba Asteroid Field is close enough to Gir’siz, Mimban, and Tanaab, the three systems targeted by the rebels, to act as an effective base, and the radiation therein does explain the inability of our sensors to locate them en masse.”


“ And the other six?”


Lenin paused for a second, placing his hand over mouth to stifle a cough. Despite the creases of his black uniform, rings pervaded under his eyes while the eyes themselves were criss crossed by red lines etched through little regenerative time.


“ One of them was spotted near a planetary system currently not a part of the Empire close to the Core, while the other five were destroyed here. When I triangulated their hyperspace vectors, I found their starting point to be there.”


Lenin alluded to the pad he handed Desaria earlier and which the Admiral took in hand now. When he did so, the pupils in his eyes grew twenty times over.


“ Is this where I think it is? The main and last rebel base?”


“ It is,” Lenin replied, solemn.


“ May the Emperor forgive us.”