The Vigilant Flame cut through the void ahead of them, its engines burning a disciplined blue. Where the Lion's Gaze moved like a predator quiet, adaptive and the Imperial flagship advanced like a declaration.
It wanted to be seen.
Leonidas stood on the bridge, hands clasped behind his back, golden eyes fixed on the drifting wreckage ahead.
Twisted hull fragments spun lazily in the darkness, their surfaces scorched by plasma fire and gnawed by crude boarding scars.
"Confirmed merchant registry," Ezran said, fingers dancing across the console. "Three weeks old. Cargo vessel Silver Wake. Crew listed as fourteen."
Leonidas did not ask how many bodies remained.
"Black Maw signature?" he asked.
Ezran nodded. "Same pattern as the others. Disable engines. Breach fast. Strip anything valuable. Then vanish."
Titus snorted. "Cowards who hide after drawing blood."
Leonidas said nothing. His gaze lingered on a shard of hull plating tumbling past the viewport. Someone had etched a prayer into the metal before it was torn free scratched, desperate lines meant for no one but the void.
"They're close," he said finally. "They have to be after a hit."
On the secondary display, the Vigilant Flame adjusted course precise, confident. Leonidas could almost picture Leofric on its bridge, posture straight, expression carved from stone. Always forward. Always by the book.
A book Leonidas no longer carried.
"Leo," Ezran said more softly. "Imperial channel coming through. Encryption high-tier."
Leonidas inclined his head. "Put it through."
Leofric's image flickered into existence, framed by the polished steel of the Imperial bridge. His uniform was immaculate, his dark hair pulled back in regulation fashion. Only his eyes betrayed him, sharp, alert, and watching everything.
"We've intercepted residual engine wash," Leofric said without preamble. "Directional decay suggests a controlled shutdown rather than a jump. They're masking themselves."
"Derelict station," Leonidas replied. "Korran Drift."
Leofric's jaw tightened a fraction. "You came to the same conclusion."
"I had a good teacher."
For a heartbeat, the formality cracked. Then it sealed again.
"My scouts will sweep the outer debris field," Leofric continued. "Your ship is better suited for close-range detection. I want you running silent, ahead of us."
Titus raised a brow. "You would allow mercenaries to take point?"
Leofric's gaze shifted, assessing Titus with a commander's cool regard. "I allow my brother to take point."
Leonidas met his brother's eyes. "We'll find them."
A pause. Not tactical, personal.
"Leon," Leofric said quietly, using the name he rarely allowed himself. "This station… if it's the one I think it is..."
"then you survived it once," Leonidas finished. "So will I."
Leofric nodded once. "Vigilant Flame standing by."
The channel cut.
The Lion's Gaze dimmed its running lights and slipped forward, engines throttled to a whisper.
Around them, the Korran Drift thickened, a graveyard of failed mining ventures and forgotten ambitions. Hollowed asteroids drifted alongside skeletal station frames, their interiors stripped long ago.
Ezran leaned closer to his console. "Picking up a ghost signal. Power cycling at irregular intervals. Someone's alive in there and trying not to be."
Leonidas felt it then. Not fear. Recognition.
"There," he said, pointing.
The derelict station loomed into view, half-embedded in a fractured rock mass. One of its docking rings had collapsed inward, twisted like a broken crown. No active beacons. No standard emissions.
But there were scars, fresh ones.
"They're home," Titus said, rolling his shoulders. "Permission to wake the guns?"
"Not yet," Leonidas replied. "They took hostages. That makes them cautious."
"And desperate," Ezran added.
Leonidas allowed himself a thin smile. "I do not wish for them to be on guard."
On cue, a flicker bloomed on the edge of the sensor array and then vanished.
Ezran cursed under his breath. "Picket drone. Low-grade, but clever placement."
"They want to know who's coming,"
Leonidas said. "Let them."
He straightened, voice firm. "Bring us into their blind arc. Keep us cold."
The Lion's Gaze slid closer, a shadow among shadows.
Minutes stretched. Silence pressed in.
Then multiple heat blooms ignited within the station.
Titus grinned. "They've spotted something."
Ezran's eyes widened. "They're launching. Three ships, no, four. Modified mining haulers, weaponized."
Leonidas exhaled slowly. "They believe they have found prey."
On the far display, the Vigilant Flame surged forward, engines flaring like a rising sun.
Leofric's voice cut through the comms.
"Imperial task force engaging. All hostile vessels are ordered to stand down."
Static answered him.
Then a voice distorted, mocking.
"This is the Black Maw. We don't answer to crowns."
Leonidas stepped forward, opening a private channel. He keyed his transmitter personally.
"This is Captain Leonidas of the Lion's Gaze," he said, voice calm and unyielding.
"You've taken civilians and officers alike. Release them now, and you might live to face a cell instead of the void."
Laughter crackled back. "Another noble playing hero.
Leonidas' eyes hardened. "Last chance."
The channel went dead.
Titus cracked his knuckles. "That's a no."
Leonidas nodded. "Then we end it."
The Lion's Gaze surged forward as the first pirate vessel opened fire, crude plasma bolts streaking through the dark.
The Vigilant Flame answered with disciplined salvos, her cannons speaking with Imperial finality.
Between them, the Black Maw found itself caught in the jaws of fate.
Leonidas watched the battle unfold.
He thought of his father. Of the words spoken in ritual and silence.
Be soldiers.
The Lion's Gaze roared, and Leonidas Lionhart went to war.