Private Beyond Basic

[Sera Dragovalor]

Graduation had changed surprisingly little.

Sera had expected something to feel different when she woke the following morning. Perhaps the uniform would sit differently on her shoulders, or the corridors of Aurora Station would somehow recognize that she was no longer a recruit counting down the remaining days of basic training. Instead, the station continued exactly as it always had. Personnel hurried toward their assignments, announcements echoed through the corridors, ships arrived and departed from the docking bays, and somewhere several decks below, Sera was reasonably certain another group of recruits was discovering precisely how many muscles could hurt simultaneously.

The only real difference was that she no longer belonged among them.

Private Sera Dragovalor. She was still getting used to that.

More difficult to become accustomed to was what had followed her name during graduation. Assigned to continue your training under my direct supervision. She had replayed those words more than once since the ceremony, usually followed by the High Commander's comment about her footing. That particular memory had earned several private groans. Of all the things Laphisto could have remembered from their first meeting, naturally it had been her arriving at his feet after being thrown bodily from a training ring.

At least she'd made an impression.

Today, however, there would be no formation to stand within and no instructors telling her where to go next. Basic training had provided structure down to the minute. Wake. Eat. Drill. Study. Train. Repeat. Her new assignment was different. Laphisto hadn't handed her a neatly organized list explaining what training beneath his direct supervision would involve, and after spending enough time wondering whether she was supposed to wait for instructions, Sera had finally decided waiting wasn't particularly useful.

So she'd gone looking for him.

Finding the High Commander of the Lilaste Order turned out to be considerably easier in theory than in practice.

Three wrong corridors, two turbolifts, one extremely patient administrative officer, and a brief detour caused by Sera confidently walking past the junction she'd been specifically told to take eventually brought her to the correct section of Aurora Station. By then, she had developed a new appreciation for just how much of the station she'd never actually seen during basic training.

She paused outside her destination and glanced down at herself, smoothing an unnecessary wrinkle from her uniform before catching what she was doing. "Oh, stop it." The quiet admonishment was directed entirely at herself.

She had already met Laphisto. More importantly, he'd seen her exhausted, sweaty, embarrassed, and sprawled across a training floor. Whatever first impression she might have hoped to preserve had sailed away months ago.

That realization actually helped.

Sera drew a breath, squared her shoulders, and stepped forward. Whatever Laphisto had seen during those months of observation that convinced him to select her, she wasn't going to waste the opportunity by waiting around for someone else to decide when she was ready to begin.

"Commander?" Her voice carried clearly enough to announce her presence without demanding attention as Sera clasped her hands loosely behind her back, a faint smile appearing while she waited. "Private Dragovalor reporting for..." She hesitated, suddenly realizing she wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to finish that sentence. Training? Instruction? Whatever came next? Her nose wrinkled slightly as she abandoned the attempt altogether. "...Actually, I'm not entirely sure what I'm reporting for." A sheepish smile replaced the uncertainty as she added, "But I'm here."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto's lone ear twitched at the sound of her voice. He looked up from the holotable, one brow lifting as his head tilted slightly in her direction before a quiet chuckle rumbled in his throat. "Perfect timing, Private."

The command room was already occupied. Three senior officers stood gathered around the illuminated holotable, each focused on the projection hovering above it. Commander Tarain occupied Laphisto's right, his weathered features as unreadable as ever while one cybernetic hand rested against the edge of the console. Across from him stood a Zabrak commander clad in armor marked with deep crimson accents, her attention fixed on the display as though committing every detail to memory. Completing the circle was a Selkath commander in muted grey armor, one webbed hand tracing the edge of the projection while quietly conferring with the others.

Laphisto himself leaned forward with both taloned hands planted firmly against the console. Suspended above its surface rotated the image of a single planet, slowly turning beneath a web of tactical overlays. One city pulsed in crimson near the continent's western edge while several others glowed amber, connected by projected supply routes, troop movements, and orbital approach vectors.

He stepped away from the table just enough to make room. "Come over." His hand motioned toward the hologram. "I'm sure you've had time to read the reports concerning the Assembly a few weeks ago, more importantly, the discussions surrounding Veridia." The hologram continued its slow rotation between them, throwing shifting blue light across the room as Laphisto folded his hands behind his back once more. "If you haven't, you're about to."

His expression settled back into its usual calm composure. "One of the first lessons you'll learn serving under me is that the battlefield isn't where wars begin. They begin in rooms like this."

Sera Dragovalor

 

[Sera Dragovalor]

Sera's sheepish smile faded almost immediately when she realized she'd walked into something considerably more important than the beginning of a training session. Her gaze moved across the three senior officers gathered around the holotable before returning to Laphisto, and for half a heartbeat she wondered whether she should excuse herself. Then his invitation registered properly. Come over. "Yes, Commander." She crossed the room without further hesitation, stepping into the space he'd made for her while trying not to feel conspicuously junior among the people surrounding the table.

The rotating image of Veridia immediately caught her attention. She recognized Bái Sēn from the reports, though seeing the city pulsing crimson beneath layers of projected troop movements and approach vectors made everything she'd read feel considerably less abstract. "I read them," she answered. "Including the Assembly record." Her eyes moved across the hologram again. "You questioned whether the Alliance would actually be liberating the Free Settlements or walking into the beginning of a planetary civil war."

That question had stayed with her more than the proposed assault itself. On paper, removing the people responsible for slavery seemed painfully simple to Sera. They were hurting people. They needed to be stopped. Yet the Assembly discussion had made clear how quickly something morally obvious could become politically complicated. Veridia wasn't an Alliance member. Kaze's provisional government didn't necessarily speak for the entire planet, and defeating one ruler wouldn't automatically convince everyone else to accept whoever replaced him.

Sera studied the crimson marker over Bái Sēn before tracing one of the projected routes outward toward the amber settlements. Laphisto's proposal from the Assembly came back to her as she looked at it now: strike rapidly, seize the seat of power, secure the records before they could be destroyed, and remove the officials maintaining the system before resistance could organize. At the time, she'd read it as a military plan. Standing here now, she began to understand why he'd spent almost as much time questioning what happened around that plan as describing the attack itself.

When Laphisto said wars began in rooms like this, Sera looked up from the hologram. Basic training had taught her what happened after decisions were made. Someone gave an order, and soldiers carried it out. Until now, she'd given considerably less thought to the burden carried by the people deciding whether that order should ever be given in the first place.

"So this is the part before anyone fires a shot," she said quietly, looking back toward Veridia. There was no attempt to offer an immediate solution or prove that she belonged among the experienced commanders surrounding her. Instead, curiosity settled into something more focused. "Figuring out whether winning the battle actually solves the problem." Her gaze returned to Laphisto. "And what happens to Veridia the day after we win."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

"Exactly." Laphisto gave a slight nod as his hand moved across the holotable, causing several additional layers of tactical data to bloom into existence above Veridia. Population centers, supply routes, suspected defensive positions, and orbital approach vectors appeared one after another until the projection became a dense web of information. He studied it in silence for a moment before resting both hands against the edge of the table.

"The longer an enemy is given to prepare, the more expensive victory becomes." His finger traced one of the primary roads leading into Bái Sēn before following it toward the surrounding settlements. "Every day we delay gives them another opportunity to recruit, move supplies, reinforce strongholds, and prepare defensive positions. Every bunker they finish. Every mine they bury. Every rifle they place into another pair of hands. means more fire coming toward our brothers and sisters in arms"

His hand drifted lower, highlighting a Lilaste infantryman displayed beside a breakdown of standard battlefield equipment. "That is precisely why we refuse to send our people into battle wearing inferior equipment." A second projection expanded, displaying the layered construction of new LO-60A armor beside the familiar outline of the Va'karis shielding system. "Training will carry a soldier a long way, but no amount of training will stop a blaster bolt. Kov'dra. Va'karis shields. Modern weapons. Reliable logistics. We invest in every advantage we can provide because every advantage increases the odds that our people come home The greatest responsibility a commander carries isn't winning battles. It's bringing as many of their soldiers back alive as possible."

With another movement of his hand, the equipment displays disappeared, replaced by reconnaissance imagery surrounding Veridia. Orbital scans, thermal overlays, and terrain models floated above the table, each bearing dozens of annotations made by intelligence personnel. There was enough information to begin planning, but not enough to commit thousands of lives without hesitation.

"Whether the Assembly decides we strike immediately or pursue diplomacy first is beyond this room." He looked around the table, making brief eye contact with each officer before returning to Sera. "Our responsibility is to ensure that, whatever decision is made, it is based on accurate intelligence rather than assumptions."

His fingers tapped lightly against one of the reconnaissance overlays. "From these preliminary reports, their equipment appears outdated. Their defenses are poorly organized, and their military doctrine leaves much to be desired. If everything we're seeing proves accurate, I'd wager they'd need a hundred soldiers for every one of ours. But that's also the problem."

A new annotation appeared beside the reconnaissance package. Source: Passive Long-Range Reconnaissance. Laphisto didn't point to it immediately. Instead, he allowed the silence to settle while the data rotated slowly above the holotable. After a few seconds, he finally looked toward Sera. "Tell me something, Private. If these scans are so important... why do you think they were taken from outside the Veridian system instead of from orbit over the planet itself?"

Sera Dragovalor

 

[Sera Dragovalor]

Sera studied the annotation more carefully once Laphisto drew her attention to it. Passive Long-Range Reconnaissance. Her eyes moved between those words and the collection of scans surrounding Veridia, trying to understand why he had singled out where the information had been gathered rather than what the information actually showed.

"Maybe because whoever conducted the scans couldn't get close to Veridia without being detected?"

The answer came cautiously, more thought than certainty. Sera leaned slightly closer to the holotable as she considered what that would mean. If they were trying to gather intelligence without alerting anyone on the planet, entering the system itself might have defeated the purpose. Ships could be detected. Sensors might notice unusual activity. Even something intended as reconnaissance could warn the people below that someone was taking an interest in them.

"But that means there's a tradeoff." Her brow furrowed as she looked again at the confident assessments scattered throughout the reconnaissance package. "We stayed far enough away that they probably didn't know they were being watched, but we also stayed far enough away that we couldn't see everything."

Her gaze settled briefly on the estimates of defensive positions and military strength. A few moments earlier, those numbers had seemed reassuring. Outdated equipment. Poor organization. An enemy that, according to Laphisto, might need overwhelming numbers simply to match Lilaste forces. Now she found herself looking at all the empty spaces between those conclusions instead.

"So we don't actually know that they're as weak as they look." Sera glanced toward Laphisto, beginning to understand the lesson hidden inside his question. "We know what our sensors could tell us from outside the system. That's not necessarily the same thing."

She looked back toward Veridia, studying the planet with considerably more suspicion than before. "If getting closer would risk someone noticing us, then I understand why they didn't." Her fingers curled lightly against the edge of the holotable. "But before we send anyone down there based on this..." She hesitated, considering her words before finishing. "I think we need a way to get closer without them realizing we're looking."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

"Not a bad assessment."

Laphisto inclined his head slightly before turning back toward the holotable. The projection responded to a sweep of his hand, peeling away several of the tactical overlays until only Veridia, its orbital lanes, and the surrounding star system remained suspended above the table. A faint ring marked the point where the reconnaissance package had been assembled, well outside the system itself. He let the image rotate for a few seconds, giving everyone around the table an opportunity to study it before speaking again.

"Passive sensor sweeps and long-range telescopic observations are valuable tools, but they're only one piece of the picture. They can identify terrain, infrastructure, heat signatures, power generation, shipping traffic, and broad military activity." His hand drifted over the hologram, briefly highlighting several industrial districts before moving to a series of suspected defensive positions. "What they can't reliably show us are the things an enemy works hardest to conceal. Troops can be moved underground. Equipment can be hidden inside civilian structures. Entire stockpiles can disappear beneath camouflage or be relocated overnight. Intelligence is rarely wrong because someone lied to you. More often, it's incomplete."

He withdrew his hand and clasped both behind his back, his eyes remaining fixed on the rotating projection. Around the table, the quiet hum of the hologram was the only sound for a moment.

"Going into the Veridian system isn't an option, not yet. The Assembly hasn't reached a decision, and until it does, we don't conduct operations that could complicate the situation. We aren't the only organization with an interest in Veridia. There are diplomatic channels, intelligence assets, and ongoing efforts that could all be compromised by a reconnaissance vessel appearing where it doesn't belong."

He reached forward once more, drawing a line from the outer edge of the system toward the planet before stopping just short of its orbit. "The closer we move, the greater the chance someone notices us. A patrol detects unusual sensor activity. A listening station picks up an unexpected signature. Someone reports that an unidentified contact has entered the system. The moment that happens, we've changed the battlefield before a single decision has been made. Every commander down there starts preparing for visitors, whether they're expecting us or someone else."

The tactical display shifted again as several projected invasion routes appeared across the surface of Veridia. Some were highlighted in blue, others in amber, each branching into alternate approaches and fallback positions. "So we plan with the intelligence we have, not the intelligence we'd like to have. Every operation begins with assumptions. The difference between a good commander and a poor one is understanding that those assumptions may be wrong. That's why every objective has contingencies. Every landing zone has an alternative. Every unit commander is expected to adapt once boots hit the ground."

Sera Dragovalor

 

[Sera Dragovalor]

Sera didn't interrupt.

Her attention remained fixed on the holotable as Laphisto stripped away the layers of information and rebuilt the situation piece by piece. The distinction he was making became clearer the longer she listened. Her instinct had been to see the gaps in their intelligence, probably like many people did, as something that needed to be corrected before they could proceed. Laphisto wasn't dismissing those gaps. He was accepting that they existed and planning around them.

That was different.

There might never be a moment when they knew everything they wanted to know. Even if they could place a reconnaissance ship directly above Veridia without anyone noticing, whatever information it gathered would begin aging the moment it was collected. Soldiers moved. Defenses changed. Plans adapted. Waiting for certainty could become its own decision, and apparently one with consequences just as real as choosing to act.

Sera's eyes followed the projected invasion routes as they appeared across Veridia. This time she didn't look at any single blue line as the plan. She noticed the branches. The alternatives. The places where one route became another and where contingencies seemed prepared to account for something going wrong. Basic training had taught her to adapt when circumstances changed. She was beginning to see that command required something more difficult: anticipating that circumstances would change without knowing exactly how.

When Laphisto finished, Sera remained silent for another moment, letting the lesson settle rather than rushing to prove she'd understood it. Her gaze moved once more across the intelligence estimates, but the numbers no longer looked quite as definitive as they had when she'd first approached the table. They weren't facts to be trusted blindly or guesses to be disregarded. They were simply the best information available, carrying different degrees of confidence and uncertainty.

Then she looked toward Laphisto.

"Based on this unverified information, what course of action would you suggest?" she asked. She was not trying to challenge anything he had said, and her face showed only genuine interest in how he would turn everything he'd just explained into an actual decision. "If we can't get closer without risking the situation, and we can't assume everything we're seeing is accurate, how do you decide which assumptions are safe enough to build a plan around?"

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto gave a small shake of his head. "We don't."

His hand swept across the holotable, and the blue invasion routes split apart into a web of branches. Alternate landing zones illuminated alongside secondary objectives, reserve positions, and fallback routes, the projection growing more complicated with each movement of his fingers. It looked less like a single battle plan and more like a collection of possibilities waiting for someone to choose between them.

"We don't decide which assumptions are safe. We acknowledge every reasonable possibility and build around them all. If the enemy is stronger than we estimated, there's a plan for that. If they're weaker, there's a plan for that. If a landing zone is compromised before the first transport reaches the surface, there's another already waiting."

Straightening, Laphisto looked around the room, briefly meeting the eyes of the officers gathered around the table before his attention returned to Sera. "That's why these men and women are here." He gestured toward the commanders surrounding the holotable. "No operation survives exactly as it's written. Intelligence changes. Communications fail. Units become separated. Someone discovers an opportunity no one predicted, or a problem no one saw coming. I can't command every platoon from orbit, and I wouldn't want to. My responsibility is to give my commanders an objective, the resources to achieve it, and enough freedom to adapt when the battlefield inevitably changes."

He reached toward the display once more, causing several branches of the operation to collapse until only the primary objective remained highlighted over Bái Sēn. "The framework is built before the first ship leaves port. Everything else is meant to be rewritten." Another series of contingency routes appeared around the primary assault, each feeding back into the same objective from a different direction. "As reconnaissance improves, reports come in, or a commander on the ground identifies something we couldn't have seen from orbit, the plan grows with that information instead of breaking because of it. "

Sera Dragovalor

 

[Sera Dragovalor]

Sera's eyes widened slightly as one route became several, then several became dozens.

She caught the inside of her cheek between her teeth while trying to follow the rapidly multiplying lines across the hologram. Primary routes branched into secondary approaches, which seemed to split again into alternatives and fallback positions until Veridia was almost buried beneath a web of possibilities. For several seconds, she wasn't entirely sure where she was supposed to be looking anymore. Her gaze followed one blue line toward a landing zone, lost it beneath another, found what she thought was the same route somewhere else, and quickly realized it wasn't.

Apparently, understanding the principle and being able to read the plan built from it were two very different things.

Still, as Laphisto explained what she was seeing, the confusion gradually began to organize itself. The lines weren't there because anyone expected all of those possibilities to happen. They existed because any of them could. The plan wasn't trying to predict the future perfectly. It was ensuring that when reality inevitably refused to cooperate, the people carrying out the operation wouldn't be left with nowhere to go and no idea what came next.

Sera stopped trying to follow every individual branch and listened instead.

There was a quiet pleasure in realizing Laphisto was taking her question seriously. He could easily have given her a short answer and returned his attention to the experienced commanders around the table. She was a newly graduated private standing in a room where everyone else had years of experience she didn't possess, yet he had taken the time to show her the answer rather than simply tell her one. The realization brought the faintest smile to her face before her attention returned to the hologram.

"So the objective stays simple even when everything around it isn't," she said slowly, more to make certain she understood than to demonstrate that she did. Her gaze found Bái Sēn again beneath the maze of routes, still highlighted at the center of everything. "You decide what absolutely has to be accomplished, then build enough ways of getting there that one bad assumption doesn't destroy the entire operation."

She chewed thoughtfully at the inside of her cheek again as her eyes wandered across the tangled display. A small, almost amused breath escaped her. "I think I'm going to need considerably more practice before all of that stops looking like someone spilled a bowl of noodles across Veridia." Her smile grew slightly before she looked back toward Laphisto, curiosity still plainly present. "But I think I understand why it's there now."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto gave a small chuckle towards sera " you will understand with time.". With a flick of his wrist, the remaining overlays disappeared, leaving Veridia suspended by itself above the projector. Gone were the contingency routes, the intelligence packets, and the annotations. What remained was the objective."But enough theory. you've spent the last half hour listening to how we think. That's important, but sooner or later every officer reaches the point where someone stops explaining and asks them to make a decision."

His hand moved across the projection again. Three blue markers appeared around Bái Sēn, each representing a different landing operation. One targeted the capital directly. Another struck a logistics hub to the west. The third aimed for a series of spaceports farther south. "Assume the Assembly authorizes intervention tomorrow. you're given one reinforced company. Air support is limited. Orbital fire is off the table until civilian casualties can be assessed."Which objective do you take first?"

Sera Dragovalor

 

[Sera Dragovalor]

Sera's faint amusement disappeared as the tangled web of lines vanished from the holotable, leaving behind something considerably easier to look at.

That relief lasted approximately five seconds.

Her attention moved between the three blue markers as Laphisto explained the scenario. Bái Sēn itself. The logistics hub to the west. The southern spaceports. Three possible targets, one reinforced company, limited air support, and no orbital fire until the danger to civilians could be properly assessed.

Sera chewed thoughtfully at the inside of her cheek again.

Her first instinct was the capital. Everything she'd read about the Assembly discussions pointed toward Bái Sēn as the center of the problem, and Laphisto himself had argued for a rapid assault intended to seize the seat of power before its leadership could react. Capture the registry. Secure government records. Arrest those responsible before the evidence disappears and organized resistance can form.

But he'd also spent the last half hour teaching her not to blindly trust assumptions.

She looked next toward the western logistics hub, then the spaceports farther south. Each had obvious value. Taking the logistics hub could interfere with the enemy's ability to move supplies and sustain its forces. Securing the spaceports could provide access for reinforcements and potentially control movement on and off the planet. Any one of them could be the correct choice depending upon what happened next.

Sera's brow furrowed as she studied the three markers, but then something clicked. She looked up from the holotable toward Laphisto. "What's my objective?" The question came simply.

"You've told me what I can attack, but not what I'm supposed to accomplish." Her gaze returned briefly to the three markers. "If my mission is to remove the leadership before they can react, I take Bái Sēn. If we're trying to cripple their ability to reinforce or resupply their forces, the logistics hub might matter more. If this company is supposed to establish a foothold for everyone coming behind us, then maybe I need those spaceports."

She looked back toward him, resisting the temptation to choose simply because he'd asked her to.

"So before I decide where I'm sending my people..." Her expression settled into thoughtful certainty. "I need to know what you've actually asked them to accomplish."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto didn't answer immediately. The holotable continued its slow rotation, Veridia hanging in the air between the gathered officers while the room settled into a brief silence. His eyes remained on Sera, though not in expectation of another answer. Instead, he let the question linger, allowing everyone else around the table to consider it as well. Several commanders glanced away from the hologram, their attention shifting toward the young Private who had stopped herself from making a decision without first asking what she had actually been ordered to accomplish.

A rough chuckle broke the quiet.b The Selkath commander standing across the table folded his arms over his chest and gave an approving nod. "Aye. tha' lass's got a guid head on 'er shoulders. Most would've picked a target the moment ye gave 'em one. She asked fer th' mission instead." A few of the other officers exchanged quiet nods. One human commander smirked to himself before turning his attention back toward the display. Laphisto's expression barely shifted, though the corner of his mouth rose just enough to acknowledge the remark.

"Commander Vesk is right." He reached toward the holotable, and the three blue objective markers dimmed to amber. Government districts, transportation networks, industrial sectors, communications relays, and military installations expanded across the projection, transforming three simple icons into a far more complicated operational picture.

"Too many officers confuse objectives with destinations. ou can seize a city and still fail the mission. You can destroy an enemy's logistics network and discover you've accomplished very little. And you can secure every landing field on the planet while the people you're trying to stop slip away because no one understood what success was supposed to look like."

Laphisto folded his hands behind his back, taking an unhurried step away from the table. The hologram shifted again as the government district within Bái Sēn illuminated in blue, while the surrounding logistics hubs and spaceports remained highlighted in amber.

"The Assembly's intent is to dismantle the slave regime, preserve the evidence of its crimes, and leave behind a government capable of maintaining order once the fighting ends." Laphisto looked around the table, briefly meeting the eyes of the other commanders before returning to Sera. "Everything else exists to support that outcome so Now that you know the mission. where do you send your company? to better accomplish the objective"

Sera Dragovalor

 

[Sera Dragovalor]

Sera became acutely aware of the attention in the room after the Selkath commander's remark. It was enough to warm her cheeks slightly before she turned her focus back to the holotable. She hadn't expected anyone to notice her question, let alone approve of it. Still, the feeling passed quickly. Laphisto hadn't asked for the right question. He'd asked for a decision.

Her eyes drifted across the projection again as he explained the Assembly's intent. This time she wasn't looking at the markers themselves but at the purpose behind them. Dismantle the slave regime. Preserve the evidence of its crimes. Leave behind a government capable of maintaining order. She repeated the objectives silently, letting them settle before she tried to connect them to the map in front of her.

"I... think I'd choose the government district."

The words came carefully rather than confidently.

"If I'm wrong, please tell me why." She glanced briefly toward Laphisto before returning her attention to the display. "I'm trying to think about the mission instead of the location." Her finger hovered near Bái Sēn without quite touching the hologram. "The people responsible, the records, whatever evidence exists... it all seems most likely to be there. If we secure that first, maybe we stop them from destroying what we'd need to hold them accountable."

She hesitated, her brow furrowing again as another thought occurred to her.

"But I'm not completely convinced." Her gaze shifted toward the logistics hub and then the southern spaceports. "Part of me keeps wondering if I'd be walking my company into a fight that becomes harder because I ignored those other places. I don't have enough experience to know how much risk is acceptable." She looked back toward Laphisto, genuinely hoping to learn rather than to be correct. "It just seems like, with only one company, I'd rather risk making the fighting more difficult than risk failing the reason we came in the first place."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto remained quiet until Sera had finished. His attention stayed on her for another moment before drifting back to the holotable. Veridia continued its slow rotation above the projector, the government district still glowing blue while the logistics hub and southern spaceports remained highlighted in amber. Around the table, several of the assembled commanders shifted their weight or folded their arms, waiting to hear his assessment. No one interrupted.

A small nod broke the silence. "I believe you'd be right." He stepped closer to the display, extending a hand toward the government district. The hologram responded immediately, enlarging the administrative quarter until government complexes, archive buildings, judicial offices, and communications centers filled the space above the table. Layer after layer of information unfolded around them, each structure tagged with intelligence estimates, security assessments, and known administrative functions.


"This is the center of the regime." His finger rested against one of the larger government buildings before moving across the cluster. "Records. Registries. Financial accounts. Judicial proceedings. Communications. Every document tying that government to the slave trade is likely sitting somewhere in these buildings." He looked briefly toward Sera before returning to the projection. "If those records disappear, proving what happened becomes considerably more difficult."

His hand swept outward, causing the logistics hub and southern spaceports to illuminate once more. "we can retake a spaceport. we can seize a supply depot tomorrow or next week." His hand returned to the government district. "but, we can't recover evidence that's been burned before we arrive." The room settled into a thoughtful silence as the hologram continued its slow rotation.

"The Assembly isn't sending us to Veridia simply to remove a government." Laphisto folded one arm across his chest while the other remained loosely at his side. "It's sending us to dismantle the system that allowed it to exist in the first place. That means identifying those responsible, preserving the evidence of their crimes, and giving whatever government follows the means to administer justice instead of revenge."

Sera Dragovalor