Prince Basileus's troops were in disarray when the ships nearby received an SOS.
Immediately, those who could pilot were called to search the area for any signs of the prince. The amount of time that had passed and the last known direction he was headed were all taken into consideration.
The worst part about space was that objects would keep moving until they were acted upon so any available wreckage would have floated away until it was knocked off course by another object or pulled into a planet or other celestial body that had a gravitational pull.
Eventually, a sergeant found the wreckage, but it wasn't nearly enough to draw any conclusions. One wing and the tracking device of the spaceship weren't solid enough evidence to start handing off Prince Basileus's active general status to another soldier.