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Instead of an immediate response to the attack, you decide to <span class="mu-i">gather whatever intelligence you can on the Esaal</span>. Bluey, the current ruler of the HVS and the most diplomatically connected high-level official you have access to, attempts to find a vector for espionage. Unfortunately, he is now a <span class="mu-i">Jaxtian</span>, which means any degree of separation between himself and the Hegemony is now reduced to basically nothing.
<span class="mu-b">”I'm sorry, Master. The Consortium won't sell any spies to me, and the Aristocrats view my new life expectancy as a further drop in their caste system- not that being an outcast mutant “Hazaar” was any better...”</span>
Because of this, you have to gather information the old fashioned way. Several high tech probes are equipped with sensors and transmission data and sent secretly into Esaal and border space; with the intent of gathering whatever intel they can by decoding and monitoring the Esaal's own communications and computer networks. Though this will take a little time...
However, more immediate information on the attack is obvious. Because the Esaal craft attacked on its lonesome, it is highly likely there is a nearby Esaal base in one of the rogue <span class="mu-i">Brown Dwarfs</span> in the border spaces between your two empires. As they are not full stars, they produce little light, but may still have planets or large moons, or just orbital colonies, as a nice gravity well to operate extended missions with.
