True Meridian

True Meridian is a commercial freighter serving routes connected to Aralx. Before disappearing, its captain transmits a distress packet describing an unidentified, heavily armed dark vessel. The ship never reaches its destination, becoming part of a pattern of cargo disruption that helps isolate the Aralx colony. Its loss is initially easy to dismiss as piracy, mechanical failure, or ordinary frontier risk. In context, it appears more likely that the freighter encountered an IOC or Ministry-controlled ship enforcing the undeclared blockade around Aralx and its Osharran site. True Meridian’s disappearance demonstrates how covert power operates without issuing public orders. Rather than formally closing the route, someone makes freight service financially and physically dangerous until ordinary carriers stop coming. The freighter is a conventional long-haul cargo vessel with limited defensive capability and a crew accustomed to operating on thin margins. Its name implies reliability and correct navigation, making its unexplained disappearance particularly effective as a warning to other haulers. The ship becomes evidence only because a distress packet escapes before communications are fully suppressed.