That was the balance Aurelian had been looking for.
He didn’t want to rush into a full salvage operation, and he wasn’t about to go back on a decision he had already made just because sothing new showed up.
At the sa ti, leaving everything untouched didn’t feel right either. What he needed was sothing in between, sothing that moved things forward without pulling attention away from the bigger plan.
This was that middle ground.
Not a full push.
Not ignoring the opportunity.
Just a small, controlled step that would make things easier later.
Rhoswen looked at him from across the room, her expression sharp as always, but this ti more focused than impatient.
"So we’re not putting everything on hold just for that."
"No," Aurelian said.
"But we’re not leaving it alone either."
"No."
She thought about it for a mont, then gave a short nod, like that was enough of an answer.
That was all it took.
The plan ca together quickly after that, without much argunt or delay. ridian would go back to the ruin field, but not with the idea of clearing everything.
She would take only what she needed, enough support, enough drones, enough tools to handle one clear task instead of trying to take on the entire field at once.
One ship.
One step.
Nothing more than that.
Aurelian would stay at Haven.
That part mattered more than anything else.
The route through Mournveil still wasn’t fully locked in, and the March itself was still taking shape.
Solenne was still working through raid planning, and there were too many moving parts that depended on him being present.
There was no reason for him to stand over ridian while she handled the first phase of repairs, when there were other matters only he could decide.
So ridian left again.
This ti, not just to check.
But to work.
The days that followed split naturally between two things.
War preparation.
And restoration.
During the day, Aurelian worked through March matters with Astra, Astercourt, Neris, and Caelan. Training continued at Haven.
Production at the bastion didn’t slow down. Transport planning moved forward step by step.
At the sa ti, Lysara kept sending reports from Mournveil, each one adding more detail to the route.
Alongside all of that, ridian’s work at the ruin field moved forward quickly.
Her first report focused on clearing the site.
The split cruiser had been buried more cleanly than expected, and as she worked closer to the hull, it beca clear that it really was the best candidate for recovery.
The damage had been severe when it happened, but the surrounding structure hadn’t been crushed or twisted beyond use. It had been cut apart, driven into the ground, and left there.
That made a difference.
Her second report went further.
The actual repair had started. Temporary supports were being placed to hold the structure steady.
The two halves were being brought back into alignnt. Damaged internal systems were being replaced where needed, and where they couldn’t be replaced, they were bridged carefully so the system could still function.
Structural welding had begun, slow and controlled, not rushed.
The third report was the one that made Aurelian stop what he was doing and read it properly, rather than just scanning it.
The ship was no longer in two pieces.
It was whole again.
Not fully repaired.
But whole.
The shape of it had co back, the outline of the class visible again in a way that made it clear this wasn’t just a wreck anymore.
The feed ridian sent showed exactly what she ant. The hull still carried scars, still showed where it had been broken, but there was nothing about it now that felt beyond saving.
She was rebuilding it.
Step by step.
Rhoswen saw the sa feed later and stared at it for a few seconds before speaking.
"That’s still ridiculous."
Aurelian didn’t argue with that.
ridian kept working.
She repaired the parts that would have caused problems during activation, especially the older systems that couldn’t handle stress anymore.
She corrected small structural faults left behind by the crash and the years buried in the ground.
She brought the power system online slowly, testing each step instead of forcing it forward and risking failure.
She worked like soone fixing sothing that had been broken for a long ti, careful and steady, making sure that when it ca back, it would actually hold together instead of collapsing again.
A little over two days after she started, the ssage Aurelian had been waiting for finally ca through.
The first cruiser was ready.
Not perfect.
ridian made that clear right away.
So armor still needed proper work in a full yard. A few outer sections weren’t at full strength yet. But the ship itself was stable, powered, and ready for awakening.
That was enough.
This ti, Aurelian went in person.
He took Rhoswen with him, keeping the trip simple and focused instead of turning it into sothing larger than it needed to be.
The route was quiet, the system still empty, and when they reached the site, the change was clear even before ridian’s full report finished loading.
The cruiser didn’t look dead anymore.
Damaged, yes.
Marked by everything it had gone through, yes.
But not dead.
The split line had been repaired, the hull resting on the broken surface of the world like sothing that had been dragged back from the edge and refused to stay down.
ridian was waiting for them when they arrived. She looked more tired than before, but there was sothing more settled about her, too, like she had fully stepped into the work.
"There are still armor issues," she said as soon as Aurelian stepped down. "Nothing critical. Nothing that would stop activation. But it will need a full yard pass later."
Aurelian nodded. "You did well."
ridian didn’t really respond to that, looking away almost imdiately as if praise was the one part of the process she hadn’t figured out how to deal with yet.
Rhoswen walked along part of the hull, looking up at it as she moved.
"It still feels strange that this is the easy one," she said.
"The easy one is relative," ridian replied.
That was true enough.
They moved inside not long after.
The interior matched what ridian had already said. The space was tight, built for function over comfort, with narrow passages and systems packed close together.
It wasn’t unbearable, but it was clear that whoever designed it cared more about what it could do than how it felt to move through it.
Rhoswen looked around and shook her head slightly. "I’d hit sothing every ti I turned."
"You probably would," ridian said.
She led them straight to the command center.
Once there, the process was simple.
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