The doors of the Central Control Room hissed shut behind me, sealing us in a tomb of flickering holograms and rising panic. The air was thick with the stench of ozone and desperation. On the main viewscreen, the battle raged—a silent, brutal ballet of exploding starships and swarming Scourge fighters. Our shields were a dying ember, glowing a pathetic, angry red at thirty percent and falling.
Kaelen stood before his command throne, a solitary, rigid figure against the backdrop of his own failure. He didn't speak, merely gestured with one sharp, dismissive flick of his wrist towards the circular platform in the center of the room. The Judgement Platform.
“Prisoner 77-Alpha, you stand accused of treason, sedition, and complicity in an enemy attack against a sovereign Imperial installation,
