By the time they broke orbit, the ships had been given clearance to depart. Alexander was certain nobody was happy with the arrangement, but he didn't much care. His priority was to leave Sol as soon as possible to prevent another attack. The STO Navy may not have been behind the attack, but someone within the institution had to be involved. There was no other way a group of armed men simply strolled onto the Navy headquarters grounds without help.

He received a few concerned calls from Councilor Young and Vice Councilor Coronado, but he ignored them for now. They were likely worried about the future of their deal with him, but he had more important concerns on his mind.

The shuttle docked, and a moment later, Grace undocked from the exterior of the orbital elevator station and moved away at the quickest speed they could while not causing too much chaos.

Alexander picked Yulia up and carried her to their cabin. He trusted Vigbrand to ensure they left safely, which would be made much easier since he could feel the energy being pumped to the ship's weapons. If anyone had a problem with them leaving, the energy buildup would give them pause.

He set Yulia down on the bed and sat on the floor next to her, stroking her hair. He would have taken her to the infirmary to get her ears checked out, but Dorry was currently in surgery, and Fenrik's body was being removed from his armor.

It had only become clear who had died when Rokar gave Alexander a grim look and a curt nod before exiting the shuttle. He hadn't gotten to know the pair of men well, even though they guarded him. He did that in hopes of avoiding the exact situation he found himself in now. He regretted that decision because someone had given their life for him and his daughter, and he knew next to nothing about them.

Comm calls and messages were coming in from all sorts of people. Some demanded answers, others asked him to turn around and return so they could discuss the events that transpired on Earth. He ignored all of them, daring the STO ships in the system to come after them. None did, which surprised him. A few hours later, they jumped at an unapproved jump point, leaving the chaos behind.

It was only after they entered FTL that Katalynn reached out through the comm node.

"I'm sorry about the loss of your man," she stated earnestly. "I have already reached out to Asgard and the Loki order to find out who was responsible."

"Thank you," he replied quietly, not wanting to wake Yulia, who had fallen asleep. "I'm sorry if my actions jeopardized the STO's recognition of the Union."

"Don't be," she said. "I came assuming it would fail, so if it does, there is no loss. We simply go back to being what we always were, despite what the STO thinks."

"Do you think they will declare war over this incident?" Alexander asked.

"Doubtful, especially not with Grand Admiral Xin making his move. Even if they did, we would make them regret it."

Alexander sighed internally and hoped Katalynn was right. He did not want to wage another war, but he wouldn't be pushed around anymore, either.

***

A Marine Commander strode into the room and saluted. "The area has been secured."

Util let out a relieved sigh. "We can finally get out of this damn bunker."

Dufresne kept his face impassive, but internally, he was disgusted with Util's behavior during the attack. Instead of joining the other admirals as they monitored the offense against the hostile forces, the man had locked himself away in his private quarters within the administration bunker, only coming out in the last hour.

Since then, the man looked shifty.

"I need to see to my quadrant. I assume you three can handle the incident above."

Before Dufresne or the other admirals could respond, Util hurried out of the room with his aides.

"I don't want to disparage one of our own," Admiral Patel stated, "but what are the chances Util wasn't involved with this mess somehow?"

"Considering how pale he looked after he exited his quarters, I give it even odds," Admiral Elara Thorne added.

"It wouldn't be the first time he involved himself with Kane," Dufresne confirmed, earning looks of surprise from the other two.

"I assume the reason we weren't made aware of any previous involvement was because there was no proof?" Thorne asked.

Dufresne stiffened at the woman's question, temporarily reverting to when he was still a Vice Admiral under her command. She laughed lightly at his reaction, and he frowned.

"Relax, Anatole, we are all the same rank here," she chided him. "If you kept that information from us, we assume you had a reason to."

"I had no concrete evidence that he was behind another matter, so I kept it to myself until I could find that evidence," he replied stiffly.

Dufresne could practically feel the woman roll her eyes at his stiff comment.

"Then we'd best take a look before our compatriot decides to leave on an impromptu vacation," she said dryly.

As they exited the administration building, they found the area a mess. Hundreds of heavily armed Marines were rushing about securing buildings and people, while also putting out multiple fires. They had been alerted to something going on when the base's surveillance systems went down only a scant minute before the attack. From there, they had been ushered into the bunker and forced to deal with the chaos outside while completely in the dark. The Marines had acquitted themselves well, but he was going to speak with his fellow Admirals about adding blackout training to basic training.

"Gods!" Patel exclaimed. "All this damage in only a few minutes?"

Dufresne didn't respond; he simply took in the scene before him. He had seen what orbital bombardments could do to enemy targets, and the scene looked a lot like that. The only problem was that no orbital munitions were deployed. All of the reports stated that Kane and his people extracted themselves quickly and left for orbit as soon as possible.

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Any attempts to get them to hold off and answer some questions were met with hostility. He couldn't blame them after seeing the damage. Whoever had chosen to attack Kane had done so with a rather sizable force.

The three admirals made their way over to a line of dead invaders that the Marines had recovered so far. The Marines had taken some casualties as well, but those had been removed from the scene.

"It's as we were told," Thorne stated in disgust, "They were disguised as STO Marines."

"You know what I don't see?" Patel asked.

"Any of Kane's people," Dufresne responded, noting the same discrepancy. He bent down and ran his fingers around the singular hole in the armor of one of the attackers. "Were they using railguns?" ThiscontentwasfirstreleasedonMV_LEMPYR.

Patel glanced at the hole and shook his head. "That doesn't look like a typical railgun entry hole. Too small, but it must pack a similar punch to go through our armor that easily."

Dufresne stood and dusted his hands off. "The Marines in security did say that Kane's people had strange weapons. I assume whatever they were, they did that."

"That would put Kane's tech firmly up there with some of the larger corporate entities," Thorne added with a frown.

The trio walked over to the craters where the vehicles had been. It was clear that something had detonated inside the vehicles, but the armor should have stood up to anything a handheld railgun was capable of.

The missiles that were reported had probably come from the three vehicles. If they had more onboard, it explained the detonations. It didn't explain why they didn't use more of them instead of entering the landing area.

A Marine hurried over and saluted. "We put the fire out in Building F, but we found a body next to a stripped-down railgun meant to be contained within a small case."

The group glanced over at the building in the distance. The side was scorched black from a fire, and all the windows facing the direction of the landing area were shattered.

When the group reached the floor where the corpse was discovered, they found the distorted remains of a small railgun, the heat having damaged it, but not enough to make it unrecognizable.

What surprised them most was the clear line on the wall from a laser.

"The damage runs across the entire floor on this side," the Marine said.

"Thank you, you are dismissed," Admiral Patel said.

The man saluted once more before leaving the trio in the burned-out room.

Dufresne walked over and ran his hand along the burn in the wall. It was deep, but the walls were stone, so it hadn't cut through them. There was a section where the damage was less deep, and then where it simply stopped altogether.

"Kane brought a laser with him as well?" Thorne asked nobody in particular. "It seems like he might have been expecting an attack."

"It seems that way," Dufresne said as he let his hand drop away from the wall. He turned to the corpse on the far side of the room, near the window and the gun. One of the Marines had draped a white cloth over the body, which meant they recognized the person as a member of the Navy.

Patel pulled the cover away and scowled. "It's Willard, or what's left of him."

Dufresne walked over and saw what Patel meant. Half of Willard's face was burned off, but you could clearly still tell it was him, even if he wasn't wearing his dress uniform with a nametag. His arms were sliced off just above the elbow, which explained why the laser wasn't able to cut as deeply into the wall. The beam cut through his lower ribs and sternum, but didn't have the power to make it all the way through as it cut across the building.

"That isn't good," Dufresne stated the obvious.

"No, it isn't," Thorne agreed. "As soon as the Willard patriarch hears about his son's death, he's going to demand justice."

"I think that was the whole point," Dufresne stated, putting the final pieces of the puzzle together. "During one of the inquiry breaks, I spoke with Kane."

"About the rumors of his FTL comm?" Patel asked.

Dufresne decided to share what he had learned. "Yes, but he also told me that someone had tried to sabotage the Blueridge when Willard went to collect Kane. I don't know how Kane learned of the sabotage, or how he managed to save Willard, but it seemed likely that someone was trying to force a conflict between the STO and BSE. With Captain Williard being here, there's no doubt the Willard patriarch ordered the attack. If Willard senior gets his way, that might just happen."

"We can't let that happen," Thorne stated, "Not only because of the war, but also for the technology that Kane is bringing to the table."

Patel nodded in agreement.

"Finding Willard's corpse is a good start, but we need more evidence if we're going to stop the Willard family from plunging the STO into yet another war. One which we may not be prepared to fight if the evidence outside is anything to go by."

Dufresne knew the STO Marines were good, but Kane either hadn't suffered a single loss or his people managed to recover their dead while making a fighting retreat, which was arguably even harder. Their shuttle had also shrugged off three ground-based missiles, if the accounts were accurate, which should not be possible. If the backup recording equipment survived the fight, that would shed some more light on what happened during the battle, but until then, they had to assume Kane's tech was quite a bit more advanced than what they suspected the corporations to have.

The trio nodded grimly.

"First step, lockdown Util," Thorne stated.

They unanimously agreed, and the request to have Util held for questioning was sent to the STO Chairman for urgent approval.

***

Util's flyer landed outside his palatial estate in the Hawaiian Islands, and he hurried to collect the money he had secreted away for an emergency. He had been surprised when he received a visit from Bartholomew Willard, but he was more surprised by what the man had asked him to do. The money he was offered would set him up for the rest of his life, so it was too tempting to turn down. He should have known it was too good to be true. With the attack failing, it was only a matter of time until investigators tracked down who smuggled the weapons and armor to the mercenaries. That investigation would quickly lead to him.

It should have been cut and dry, the mercenaries were geared for war, and Kane only had a handful of armed guards and nothing to deal with armor, or so he had been told. Someone had majorly screwed up and not done their research properly, and now Util's life was on the line.

The STO would simply lock him up for the rest of his days, but Willard Senior would be extremely upset that one of his sons had died. They may not blame him directly, but he knew too much, so they were sure to silence him at the first opportunity, which is why he was in a hurry.

He exited his room and nearly ran into two Marines. "Sir, you need to come with us," one of them stated coldly.

"Excuse me?" Util laughed. "I don't think so. The Marines take orders from the Admirals, not the other way around."

"You can either come with us willingly, or we have orders to take you in by force," the man said, his knuckles whitening against the grip of the pulse rifle.

Util glanced at the weapon, then at the Marines before making a choice. He threw what he was holding in his hands at the Marines and raced for the bedroom window. He wasn't that far up; the drop wouldn't kill him, but prison would not keep Willard's goons from getting to him. Better to take the risk now.

He made it all of two steps before multiple pulse blasts slammed into his back, sending him careening into the poster on his large bed. He slammed into the wood painfully before collapsing to the floor.

Rough hands flipped him onto his stomach and handcuffed him. If he had control over his body, he might have tried to bribe the Marines, but his tongue wouldn't respond at the moment. He was dragged out to one of several fliers that he had been too occupied to hear land. Over a dozen Marine MPs disembarked from the landing craft and rushed past him to secure any evidence inside his house.

In hindsight, he should have deleted the data backups before going for his money; all of his illicit activities, going back decades, were stored there. He had kept records of those interactions in case he ever needed to blackmail those individuals or throw them under the bus with him if they ever tried to do the same to him. Now they would be a lead weight that dragged him to his doom. He would be lucky if he only got life in prison once they checked those logs.