SOME SHIPS ARE BUILT TO FLY.
OTHERS ARE BUILT TO BREAK THE RULES.
For once, the crew of the Meridian are ahead. No debts, no pursuit, and no reason to take the next job.
Then the Empire notices them.
Deep within the Core Systems, something has been waiting. Built to predict behaviour, shape outcomes, and quietly decide how history unfolds, it knows far more about Rask than it should.
Getting close to it will be difficult. Getting out again might be impossible.
Because this time, the problem isn't firepower or strategy.
It's that every move they make is exactly what someone expected.
And the only way to win... is to stop making sense.