>>536420560
The entrance was a disaster and the one thing every criminal knows NOT to do, Molina performed at over 400 meters per second: the Empress was wounded. This would have Consequences...
But the Play was on regardless, so Molina gathered himself up and danced around the ship and it's paralyzed crew until the treasure was reached, then ditched the Lock Analhilator 1337 he brought when stealth was still on the table and simply broke the display case, picking up his objective. But it was already too late, the Empress in her last conscious moments gave the order to hunt down the depraved criminal no mater the cost and the remaining crew had quickly locked in. Now, surrounded with no way out, Fallacius had only the sketchy throneship blueprints and codes he purchased from the black market to thank.
The engine room housed an enormous amount of chemfuel. "If you can't reach the exit, make one". Still, Molina hesitated, even as footsteps gathered outside the barricaded room. He knew not but had guessed correctly the consequences such an action would eventually bring. But having no other choice, he did it. And so, what was supposed to be a legendary theft turned into a legendary assassination attempt and destruction of the most prized Imperial skyship.
Within a day, over a million people died as long-abandoned orbital cannons and lasers came to life for one last time and the entirety of the imperial space flotilla opened fire on every asteroid, rock and pebble as well as every town, hamlet and tribe even remotely suspected of criminal activity. Yet the man who the guns were aimed at survived, even as his gravship was grazed by a planetkiller, even as he was discovered by a random stealthship, even as his crew got killed in the fight and he was forced to flee in an escape pod to a nearby asteroid cluster...