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Empire Reforged
Chapter 41: Gilded Hulls, Hollow Shadows
Location: ISV Silver Lance, En route to Kuat Sector
Date: BBY 7 – Day 19 of Operation "Glass Veil"
The hyperspace corridor to Kuat shimmered with tension.
Lucan stood alone in the observation chamber, watching the stars stretch into infinity. It had been nearly three weeks since Operation Glass Veil began. Three installations uncovered. Two compromised. One enemy operative neutralized. But it wasn't the victories he was thinking about.
It was the pattern.
Each site they visited had been carefully chosen — industrial, critical, but distant enough from central scrutiny to allow infiltration. All except their next stop.
Kuat.
The naval heart of the Empire. Home of Kuat Drive Yards. The shipyards that birthed the Imperial-class Star Destroyers. A world that should have been untouchable.
Should have.
—
Veya joined him quietly, datapad in hand.
"Intercepted a flagged communiqué from one of the internal logistics nodes," she said without preamble. "Encrypted, relayed through a dead sub-channel. Someone tried to hide it."
Lucan turned. "Content?"
"Too fragmented to decode fully. But the timing matches a high-level inspection planned for three days from now. One of the Kuat family is due to visit the upper shipyard rings."
Lucan narrowed his eyes. "Which member?"
"Lady Arinh Kuat. Logistics overseer. She's not a politician — she controls movement authorization for heavy capital platforms. If someone wanted to cripple future deployments without drawing immediate suspicion…"
"She'd be a target," Lucan finished.
Veya nodded. "And no one else knows."
Lucan looked back out the viewport.
"Then we arrive early."
—
The Silver Lance dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of Kuat's massive orbital ring — a mechanical halo wrapped around the planet, humming with traffic, heavy-lift platforms, escort destroyers, and kilometer-long superstructures.
No world in the galaxy looked more Imperial.
And yet, beneath the gleaming hulls and broadcast pride, Lucan felt something else.
The quiet paranoia of engineers watching their backs. The too-perfect order of the docking lanes. The subtle absence of ships at berth.
Darran read from his console, voice low. "Traffic control is requesting our registry three times over. We're being routed to a secondary inspection platform — not the main ring."
Lucan exchanged a glance with Veya.
"They're trying to control our movement," she said flatly.
Lucan nodded. "They don't want surprises."
"Then let's give them one anyway."
—
Two hours later, Lucan stood on the main observation deck of Docking Arm Cresh-17, overlooking a near-complete Imperial II-class destroyer.
The inspection teams below worked like clockwork — no sign of fear, no obvious sabotage. But when he watched the fuel line diagnostics technician finish his check, Lucan noticed the wrong gesture. A slight hesitation. A second tap on a panel that shouldn't have needed re-input.
He keyed his comm to Veya. "Starboard midline substation. Track the man with the green maintenance sleeve."
Her reply was instant. "Already following. You saw it too."
—
An hour later, Veya intercepted him in a secondary junction.
"His name is Ralo Kess. Contracted external engineer. Records say he transferred from Fondor a year ago."
Lucan frowned. "Why bring in outside personnel for a site like this?"
"Because someone higher up authorized the clearance — and wanted no questions asked."
She handed over a decoded security log. One entry stood out: Restricted access override — timestamp matches Lady Arinh Kuat's upcoming route.
Lucan went still.
"He's going to plant an explosive during her inspection."
"No," Veya said, voice low. "He's going to detonate it when she's inside the inspection corridor. And make it look like an equipment malfunction."
Lucan's mind moved fast. "Can we intercept her before she boards the tram?"
"Only if we move now."
—
They ran.
No alarms. No sirens. Just precision. Veya's datapad fed Lucan schematics as they sprinted through access tunnels and into sub-tier maintenance levels, bypassing checkpoints and closed doors with overrides pulled from ISB clearances.
They reached the tram station seconds before the VIP delegation arrived.
A security team flanked Lady Arinh — a tall, sharp-featured woman in ceremonial grey with a datapad of her own and no patience for delay.
Lucan stepped into her path, breath steady despite the run.
"Lady Kuat, Commander Lucan Virex. I'm placing you under protective lockdown."
Her eyes narrowed. "On what authority?"
Veya flashed her credentials without waiting. "ISB. We've intercepted a sabotage attempt linked to your assigned route. If you board that tram, you die."
The guards tensed. One moved for his blaster.
Lucan's voice dropped an octave. "Do it, and you waste the only people trying to save your mistress."
Lady Arinh raised a hand, stopping her men.
She studied Lucan for a long moment.
"Explain. Now."
—
Thirty minutes later, the explosives were disarmed by the Silver Lance's tech team. Ralo Kess was captured — unconscious from a stun bolt Veya fired herself. His datapad contained encrypted messages from an unknown handler in Coruscant's administrative sector — evidence of a conspiracy that reached deeper than either of them had suspected.
Lady Arinh stood beside Lucan on the observation ring, arms crossed.
"You saved my life. And, more importantly, the dignity of this facility."
Lucan said nothing.
She turned to face him.
"Kuat does not forget debts, Commander Virex. When the storm comes — and it will come — remember that."
She walked away before he could respond.
Veya watched her go, then looked at Lucan.
"You just earned a favor from the shipbuilders of the Empire."
Lucan watched the stars beyond the ring.
"No. I just stopped them from losing more than steel."