Free Web NovelChapter 198: Farewell Final Hit
The fleet entered the outer path toward Mournveil, but Aurelian did not immediately order a full retreat.
Not yet.
The mining depot was behind them, burning and half-stripped, and the Kharov pursuit had already broken off after Solenne’s rear strike wing punished their lead ships.
From the outside, it looked as if the raid was ending.
That was what Aurelian wanted the Kharov to believe.
In reality, he was still watching the wider cluster through Eirenne’s feed.
The chaos they had created had not settled. If anything, it had spread into stranger shapes. The Kharov knew they had been hit, but they still didn’t have a clean picture.
Their systems were full of false reports, broken commands, and delayed warnings. Some commanders were calling for all fleets to assemble near the inhabited worlds.
Others were ordering defensive lockdowns. One garrison had even declared that no ships were to move until the communications network was "properly clarified," which was just a better way of saying they were afraid to make a decision.
Eirenne sent another update to the main display. frёewebηovel.cѳm
"The remaining Kharov forces are not responding evenly," she said. "Two garrisons are still confused. One has entered full defensive posture. The research station fleet remains locked down. The mining-sector fleet is damaged and out of position."
Aurelian looked at the map.
"What about the first garrison?"
There was a short pause.
"That one is different," Eirenne said.
The display shifted toward one of the inhabited worlds deeper in the cluster. Around it, the Kharov military presence looked much cleaner than the others.
The formation was not perfect, but far better than others. Ships had moved away from the docks. Patrol lines were tighter.
Defensive zones were active. Even with communications damaged, the fleet had not sat around waiting to be told what to do.
"They reacted faster," Lysara said, studying the pattern.
"Yes," Eirenne replied. "The first garrison has declared local martial order. They are preparing all combat ships for launch. Roughly one thousand ships are already active, with more likely to follow. Their commander appears more competent than the others."
Rhoswen sounded pleased rather than worried.
"Finally."
Aurelian ignored that for the moment and kept looking over the enemy deployment.
The first garrison was not like the fleets they had crushed earlier. It had around four thousand combat ships on record, and far more of them were properly upgraded.
The ships still were not equal to his shipgirls, but numbers mattered if allowed to gather properly.
If they had encountered this fleet first, the raid would have been much harder.
Now, though, the situation was different.
The Crownward March had already destroyed two garrisons, crippled a mining sector, captured supplies, and taken several ships intact.
They had also collected enough Kharov hulls from surrendered and disabled forces for Eirenne to use as a temporary screen. freewebnovёl.ƈom
Not all were useful.
Most were damaged.
Many had poor crews or no crews at all.
But starships did not need to be elegant to draw fire.
Eirenne had been quietly organizing the captured ships ever since the second garrison fell. Some had been left behind as wrecks.
Some were marked for later stripping. But a few hundred Kharov ships had been functional enough to be taken under remote or limited machine control, especially once their internal systems were seized and their surviving crews removed or locked down.
They were crude and unreliable, but they were there in emergencies.
"Can you use them?" Aurelian asked.
Eirenne understood what he meant.
"To screen the strike force, yes. To win a direct fleet battle alone, no. Their response is poor, and I cannot run all of them at full efficiency through the sub-core, but I can use them as cover, bait, and temporary fire platforms."
"That is enough."
Astercourt’s voice came through from the rear link, calm but firm.
"You are considering another strike."
"Yes."
"This would be the last one."
"It would have to be."
She did not object immediately, which meant they still had room.
Aurelian looked at the return path, then at the first garrison.
The safe choice was to leave.
He knew that.
They had already gained more than expected. The raid had worked. The Kharov were bleeding.
Every minute spent inside the cluster increased the chance of something going wrong.
But the first garrison was also the one enemy force that might stabilize the cluster after he left.
If it remained intact, it could help the Kharov rebuild control faster, secure the surviving worlds, and lead the pursuit effort through nearby systems.
If he broke it now, the entire cluster would stay crippled for much longer.
That mattered.
"Eirenne," he said. "Can we hit the first garrison without losing the withdrawal window?"
The sub-core took longer to answer this time.
"Possible, but narrow," she said. "We cannot conduct a full plunder operation afterward. We can strike the active fleet, destroy or capture what we can, then withdraw. Any loading must be limited to compact military stores already in transport control."
"No station assault unless required."
"Correct."
Rhoswen did not even try to hide her excitement. "So a proper fight."
Lysara’s tone was calmer. "A more dangerous one."
"That too."
Aurelian made the decision.
"We hit them once. Break the first garrison enough that it cannot organize the cluster. Then we leave. No greed, no extended loading, no chasing beyond marked limits."
Eirenne relayed the order through the expedition net.
The fleet shifted again.
Instead of fully disappearing toward Mournveil, the main strike force turned along a curved route through the cluster’s broken sensor coverage.
Eirenne used the captured Kharov ships as a loose forward screen, sending them ahead under false fleet codes to appear as battered survivors regrouping near the first garrison.
It was risky, but believable.
The Kharov had already lost track of too many ships.
Their own network no longer agreed with itself.
A few hundred damaged or redirected vessels approaching one of the stronger garrisons did not look impossible.
It looked like the sort of mess that happened when a cluster-wide emergency was handled badly.
Which, in a way, was true.
As they approached, the first garrison tried to contact the incoming ships.
Eirenne answered.
