Chapter 428 - 428 An Incomplete Resolution

Rowan Listig was about to drop Bastion off at his home when he received unexpected news from a high-ranking member of the Azade's Keepers of the Peace that he had planted in the organization long ago.The group that he had hired to dispose of Kokkas once the man had fulfilled his role had been captured and were currently on their way to an interrogation facility.

Fortunately, they had at least already silenced the man that Bastion had paid off to drug Jasmine's food. Something he had done due to Rowan's advice of course. He had not trusted the young senator to come up with any major details of the plan.

'I made sure to cover my tracks when hiring them, but this could eventually be traced back to me. I hate to do it, but I'll have to sever one of the links on the chain and prepare a suitable scapegoat.' Rowan thought, feeling a headache coming on.

While this had not been the most intricate plan he had ever devised, he had still been hoping for some better results.

Jasmine's resistance to the drug she had consumed was a major musculation that had changed how everything had played out.

Normally the substance should have warped her perception in its entirety without her even realizing.

She should have simply come to hate and be afraid of Avery and tried to get away from him.

Instead, she had a violent reaction as she fought against the drug.

'Her body and will must be incredibly strong. I didn't expect things to play out as they did.'

The incident had still created somewhat of a scandal that he could use against Regina, but not one nearly as damning as he had hoped for.

His association with Bastion was also a minor problem that needed to be addressed.

Originally he planned for the head of the kitchen staff, Kokkas to take the fall for all of this.

If no trace of him was ever discovered, then it would be easy enough to focus the attention on him.

Even if no one believed that he was the mastermind behind the plot, the authorities would still have needed to focus most of their efforts on finding him.

Regrettably, the man's body had been found before it could be thoroughly disposed of. So, he was no longer going to serve as a suitable distraction.

'I wanted to keep him around and hold this over his head to make sure he always voted as I wanted, but Regina and the public will need someone to hold accountable for everything. A single vote is rarely impactful, and he hardly has any influence as the most junior senator. I have other means to control the senate as I please. Forgive me Bastion, but I'll be having you take the fall for all of this.' Rowan thought, shifting his plans to make Bastion look as guilty as possible.

…

"He's really trying to run away?"

Regina nodded as she relayed information about Bastion Cuach to Avery and the other leaders of his team.

Naturally, Jasmine was present, and hearing this news brought a dark expression to her face.

It had been a couple of days now since she had been drugged. In that time, she had made a full physical recovering, but needless to say, she was still furious because of what had happened.

"It appears that he realized that we were closing in on him. The evidence collected against him had been mounting basically every hour at this point. Almost too easily I might add. I was about to order for his arrest when the Keepers of the Peace watching him lost track of his whereabouts. We've since found him again, but he was in a high-speed spacecraft. I don't know where he got ahold of the ship, but he was able to slip out of our grasp and has left the planet's atmosphere."

This was not the news that Avery had been expecting to hear, but in some ways, he felt that this was better.

As he had told Regina before, if the man fled out into space, he no longer needed to hold back.

"Got it, we'll head after him immediately. He's not going to get away with what he's done." Avery said, standing up and directing the others to head to their ships and get ready.

"I have informed the Alliance Police in the system to apprehend him, but his trajectory has him on a heading where none of their ships will likely be able to intercept him before he makes it to a hyperlane entrance. Even if you were to chase after him now, you probably won't catch up before he escapes into hyperspace."

Avery merely shrugged his shoulders at this and said, "Then we'll just keep following him until we catch up. Eventually he'll make a mistake or run out of fuel. There's no way he'll escape us."

After giving that declaration, Avery motioned for everyone to follow him, but Jasmine remained rooted in place.

"What about Rowan Listig? He's the one that instigated this all in the first place."

"I'm sorry, we don't have much on him. Just some minor circumstantial evidence. Nowhere near enough for me to go after a senator as powerful as him. I was hoping to get the truth out of Bastion once we took him into custody, but now this has happened." Regina said, her head lowered slightly in frustration and shame.

"Don't worry, Jasmine. We're going to go and catch Bastion, and we'll have him rat out the bastard that helped him."

Very rubbed Jasmine's back from behind to help comfort her. He knew that she had been through a lot and wanted justice.

While it had not been for long, the substance she had been dosed with had warped her emotions for a few seconds. Causing her immense pain and distress as for some reason the people she knew she loved and trusted frightened and enraged her just by existing.

It was something she would never forget or forgive.

"Okay, I'm good. Let's go, every second counts now, and I don't want Bastion to get away." Jasmine said, a resolved gleam in her eyes.

As soon as they had reached their vessels, the entirety of Avery's team set off from Azade in pursuit of Bastion.

There was no chance that they would be able to catch up to him before he entered hyperspace, but that did not mean that things were hopeless.

With only so many paths that Bastion could take from the hyperlane he was heading towards, Avery had already made a plan that would eventually head him off no matter which way the man tried to flee.

'Sometimes having numbers really does come in handy. If it was just me, I wouldn't be able to do this.' Avery thought as he watched the ships that made up his team flying off in different directions.

While he had tasked Ezra and Olivia to take a small squad and pursue Bastion on the same route he was taking, just in case he tried to double back at any point to avoid them. Everyone else was going in different directions cut Bastion off.

As for Avery, Jasmine, and Kasandra, the three of them were going a completely different way from everyone else.

With access to the Dramid Alliance Warp Portal network, he planned to jump ahead of Bastion and close in on him from the other side.

…

It took Avery and his team nearly a week, but they finally had Bastion cornered.

He had doggedly avoided them for as long as he could, but eventually his reserves of fuel were running low, and he was no longer able to jump to light speed with his ship or enter hyperspace.

This left him only his vessel's thrusters.

As a last-ditch effort, Bastion had flown into an asteroid field to try and shake them off, but it was not like he was an experienced pilot. Avery had seamlessly maneuvered the Dauntless after the man and now had him in his sights.

"I think I've had just about enough of your running away. Just accept your fate already." Avery said over open comms so that Bastion could hear him.

At the same time, eh fired the Dauntless' laser cannons and target Bastion's ship's thrusters.

It only took one volley to break through the vessel's shield and disable its mobility.

While it was a fast craft, it had not been designed for anything but speed. It lacked shielding and powerful weaponry, so there was no chance of him fighting back.

"Okay, now to finish him off. Then we'll have Kaiden reel him into his corvette's hangar."

However, just before Avery could fire his EMP blaster to disable all of the vessel's systems, it suddenly exploded.

As the blinding flash of light was rushing towards the Dauntless, Avery hastily pulled back on the controls and moved out of the blast radius before it reached them.

"He blew himself up." Jasmine muttered in disbelief.

She knew that Bastion was a vain person that almost always thought of himself. She had never expected him to kill himself to avoid being captured.

Unfortunately, with his death, the thread that would lead to Rowan Listig had been severed. Perhaps that was the senior senator's plan all along.

Jasmine slumped back in her chair looking defeated, but Avery was not willing to give up just yet.

"Let's comb through the wreckage and collect what evidence we can. I don't think that Bastion would have set off that explosion himself. It was probably a preprogrammed within the ship's systems. If we can tie Rowan Listing to this vessel, perhaps we can get him for killing Bastion."