All preparations were finally in place. The chaos of the raid had passed, the battle-scarred fleet had reorganized, and one by one the ships returned to the hands of their rightful captains. Engineers patched hulls, navigators recharted their courses, and crews loaded supplies for the long journey ahead. Their destination was a supposed safe zone, a quiet corner of the cosmos.
The plan seemed simple enough. But when word spread that Emery and the Azure Kraken would not be accompanying them, the calm cracked like glass.
At first, the murmurs were hushed, carried across private channels between captains. But soon enough, voices rose in open protest. Fear made men bold. One grizzled captain spat his frustrations over the comms: "Safer under the Blue Skulls, we were!"
The sentiment caught like fire. The captains began to clamor for the same thing—that Emery and the Kraken escort the entire fleet until they reached the safety of their hidden refuge.
