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Empire Reforged
Chapter 12: Fracture Veil
Location: Lortan Fracture Sector, Outer Mid Rim
Date: BBY 8 – 1930 Hours
The Lortan Fracture wasn't mapped so much as survived.
Once a mining region rich with hyperreactive minerals, the sector had imploded decades ago after a chain-reaction detonation in one of its core moons. What remained was a maze of gravity shears, hollow asteroids, drifting slag clouds, and magnetic anomalies. Imperial star charts listed it as "unstable, low-value," and most patrol routes curved well around it.
Which made it perfect for rebels, criminals… and secrets.
Lucan Virex stood at the Vigilance's bridge viewport as the ship descended into the haze.
"Adjust vector five degrees starboard," he ordered. "Thread the dust ring and hold current speed."
Tarris' hands moved smoothly over the helm. "Course adjusted. Inertial compensators holding."
Outside, the fractured mass of Lortan's Belt twisted slowly across the stars. Shattered hulls drifted in the void — old mining barges, tug rigs, and one derelict cruiser split down the midline like a broken blade. All dead. All unclaimed.
Valk's console chimed.
"Receiving faint subspace chatter," she said. "Encrypted, short-range. Someone's using tightbeam bursts to communicate inside this sector."
Lucan moved to her station.
"Source?"
"Still triangulating. One of the pings bounced off a mass field near asteroid cluster Delta-Seven. Could be a listening post. Could be a mobile ship with a comm relay."
Lucan straightened.
"Darran, tactical scan. Filter out debris and isolate movement patterns. Holtz — reduce reactor output by fifteen percent. I want our thermal profile quiet."
Darran stepped to the targeting console. "Running analysis now. I've got faint ionic trails… multiple vectors. None consistent. But they cross near a gravitational node at the center of this belt."
Lucan tapped the display.
"A convergence point."
Tarris spoke without turning. "Captain, we're flying blind in here. If someone launches a sensor burst or pings with active targeting, we'll be a silhouette on a blank canvas."
Lucan didn't flinch.
"Which is why we're going to be first."
—
The Vigilance crept forward, its engines humming just above idle.
The further in they moved, the thicker the debris became. Large chunks of rock drifted lazily past the viewport. Static danced across the hull plating from charged minerals. Occasionally, a flash of distant lightning burst through the mist, illuminating ancient wreckage.
Holtz's voice came through. "We're running at minimal field resonance. Life support's active, weapons cold. But I wouldn't stay in here more than four hours. The magnetic drift could start frying our tertiary sensors."
"Understood."
Lucan turned to Darran. "Run a passive sweep of every object within two hundred klicks. Look for energy bleed, power spikes, or signature repeaters."
"Already on it," she said.
The minutes ticked by in eerie quiet.
Then Valk said, "Contact."
Lucan turned.
"One ship," she continued. "Holding inside an asteroid cavity. Small hull signature. Unmarked. No active pings. But they're running silent — too silent."
Darran zoomed in on the location.
The asteroid itself was vast — nearly ten kilometers wide — with a hollowed-out section from some long-ago excavation. Tucked inside the hollow, like a spider in its web, floated a corvette-sized ship with minimal profile, minimal emissions.
Lucan narrowed his eyes.
"A listening post."
Valk nodded. "That's not a transport. It's a monitor. Forward comms array, sensor dish, zero point defense."
"No visible escort?"
"None within scan range."
Lucan tapped his console. "We approach within thirty klicks. Holtz—stand by for emergency thrust. If this is a decoy, I want options."
"Copy that, Captain," came the engineer's voice.
The ship moved forward like a predator in murky water.
At 29 klicks, Darran's console blinked.
"Receiving handshake signal," she said. "Encrypted burst… identical header to our forged tag."
Lucan exhaled slowly.
"They think we're the courier."
A pause.
Then: "New packet incoming. High-volume compression. Same encryption method."
Lucan's gaze sharpened. "Valk, record everything. No decryption attempts yet. I want the full message passed down the line, like we were meant to. Tarris, mark the next jump vector. When this finishes uploading, we leave."
Darran looked over. "You're not even trying to break it?"
"Not yet. Let them believe we're part of the chain. If we keep getting closer, someone will want to meet us."
The upload finished.
A green light blinked on Valk's console.
"Message logged. Size: 34.7 terabytes. That's not orders. That's an archive."
Lucan nodded. "Then we're dealing with something bigger than contraband."
He stepped toward the viewport.
"Prepare the jump. We're going to pass the next message ourselves. And see if we can pull the web tighter."
As the Vigilance turned away, the quiet ship hidden in the rock remained behind — still, dark, and watching.