7. The Battle of Newholme

Claude participates in Newholme's military operation to retake a space station and autofactory seized by Starfleet. The assault succeeds, but Starfleet self-destructs the station. When the local government moves to seize Claude's assets and arrest him, he uses cloaking technology and financial precautions to escape the system.

Claude monitors a military engagement from Newholme's command center with Commander Hobart. Newholme forces launch a coordinated assault on the relay station and autofactory that Starfleet had captured, intending to force an agreement separating humans and replicants. Starfleet deploys twenty busters in defense, but Newholme's forces decisively defeat them with minimal casualties. Before Newholme can secure the space station, Starfleet triggers its self-destruct. Hobart accepts the loss, preferring not to risk malware in the captured equipment, and accepts that Newholme will be isolated from the rest of the UFS for twenty-four hours while backup relay systems come online. Claude recognizes that as a replicant, he will become a scapegoat for the conflict. He immediately evacuates his manny off-planet using a cargo drone and has already transferred his liquid assets off-system via inter-system banking. The Newholme government issues an executive order within three hours to seize all Bobiverse in-system assets pending liability determination. Commander Hobart attempts to intercept Claude's drone, but Claude uses SUDDAR cloaking to evade military squadrons searching for him. Claude sends Bill a message about the asset seizure attempt, receives confirmation that other systems are doing the same, and decides to leave the Gamma Pavonis system to join Mario's exploration efforts beyond the Others' system.