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.”
[size=1]Requiem en Terra Pax[/size]
