As you run short of senior officers you are reminded of Lt Commander Clase Bertson, he warned you of the attack on Imhotep, escaping four strike cruisers without being damaged, right now he is leading the three cutters you brought with you for scouting and courier work. You assign him as the prize captain of the Putian for a guaranteed promotion to Commander at least upon your return.
You jump, dozens of ships transitioning into hyperspace as a single coordinated action that will be clearly visible from Chuang Mu's surface. It is the first of many jumps but thanks to the sluggish speed of the merchant vessels you have three weeks before you will return. You are careful about positioning the captured armada of civilian craft under your guns during each stop, your marines rotated every time you return to real space so that the squads on the bridge of each vessel do not grow fatigued.
You are returning in triumph, there is no question of that, this is the kind of victory that makes a career at the highest levels and is likely to terrify anyone who felt that the Imperial Navy was weak. You do however have the decapitated corpse of a ducal heiress in the Sword of Democracy's morgue, Ranca spends the journey with what intelligence operatives you have on board attempting to debrief her implants.
Ranca's Viscountess Implant Interrogation
1 + 2 + 5 + 13 Subterfuge = 21
Viscountess' Signal Security
6 + 2 + 1 + 13 Subterfuge = 22
There is no hope of breaking the encryption on the Viscountess' protected memory banks but there is the hope that she has left incriminating evidence elsewhere, call logs, any indications to her treachery. Sadly she seems to have been quite disciplined and there is not even any proof of her communication to you mid battle, at best it is slightly suspicious that she has no records of implant communication at all but it could well be excused given her rank, even considered admirably security consciousness.
There is however evidence that she is carrying the encryption keys to access some truly staggeringly huge escrow accounts in her headware. She might well have had access to enough money to buy dozens upon dozens of Shares when connected to any Imperial bank. That is absolutely not normal even for a Viscountess and ducal heir, either she was planning on engaging in some extremely high level bribery or her father was trusting her with unlimited access to the ducal accounts. Or both.
Journey To Illam: Convoy Herding, you:
2 + 2 + 6 + 22 Strategy = 32
Great Success. No ships escape.
All Prize Officers – all succeed, boring.
Despite having tens of thousands of prisoners confined aboard their ships your worst fears do not come to pass, none of the battleships crews seize back control over their vessels then turn their guns on you, no cruisers overthrow a prize crew during hyperspace transit then jump away never to be seen again.
When you are a day or two out from Ilam you send a patrol cutter forward to warn them, you do not want any of the recruits you left manning the orbital fortresses to fire as foreign made battleships emerge into the system, for the same reason you initially jump to a deep space logistical base where you leave your civilian ships under the guns of the Perun. Trusting to the strike cruiser and local defenses to keep the civilan ships in line, you wait for your hyper drives to fully spool up again before continuing to Illam orbit.
It does not surprise you to be immediately contacted by the Governor General, this time he has had plenty of warning to know when you will arrive and is in his office, wearing his full regalia worth as much as a prosperous city. He also calls to your bridge, though it is rather empty given the insatiable need for prize crews.
"Commodore Lord Reinhard Strauss."
That is not how he normally addresses you. He continues smoothly as you mentally reel. "The Empire is most satisfied with how you handled the invasion of Imhotep by a rogue world from across the Imperial border. Your destruction of their war making potential and capture of their fleet against overwhelming odds and without the loss of a single ship are rewarded with the bestowal of a Share, making you a Peer of the empire."
You notice that this is also being sent to every other ship and is apparently on general media broadcast. The announcement does give you some time to gather yourself though.
Acceptance Speech (No bonuses from Political Capital here, this is down to you).
4 + 6 + 6 + 8 Diplomacy = 24
Success
You remember yourself to give the appropriate low bow of a minor but Share holding noble to a prince, with the correct degree of allowance for your wearing your dress uniform. "I am humbled your highness. Humbled yet exalted by the generosity of the Imperial House. For the Empress! I shall strive to continue to find myself worthy of my new position and achieve further deeds in the Empire's name."
The old prince succeeds in not looking surprised as you get that right, then inclines his head ever so slightly in grave acknowledgement. "For the Empress!"
Then the public broadcast ends and you are personally contacted via your implants.
<The Arslan heiress. We need to speak, urgently. Take a shuttle to the palace within the hour. Lord Strauss.>
That does not promise nearly so well. Do you have a particular focus you want to take with the Governor General when you meet with him? Regardless of option will will raise that she was trying to suborn you into genocidal treachery but what will be your main push?
[] Ranca did a Ranca Thing. Ranca kills people, she kills somebody in a duel every few months. She already demanded to fight the Viscountess due to her dishonourable refusal to accept the monitor's surrender and just did her usual thing in the duel. Obviously the Viscountess was dishonourable given she lost the duel after refusing to accept the defeat of her champion.
[] It Was Resisting Arrest. You were going to arrest the Viscountess for treachery. She had the right to duel as a noble, but make no mistake, she was resisting arrest. Of course you do not really have proof other than your words.
[] She Was Dangerous. You Killed Her. The Viscountess was dangerous, a traitor, she would have pulled the Empire into a war to further her own position in a hope to become Empress. It is much neater that she is gone in a duel, a natural form of death for young nobles, leaving her unable to defend herself. The governor general is sensible enough to realize the truth of this.
[] Other. Write in.
