Ten minutes after the fleet began pulling toward Mournveil, Eirenne’s voice ca through the command link again.
"The first garrison is attempting to reorganize pursuit elents," she said. "They have confird that warp movent is being denied."
Aurelian looked at the rear display.
A portion of the first garrison had not accepted the loss of the flagship as the end of the battle.
That was expected. They were better than the others, and even with their main command broken, so captains still had enough discipline to act on their own.
Several groups were gathering around the surviving heavy ships, trying to form sothing close to an attack formation.
Though from the look of it, it was neither efficient nor powerful in any sense.
But if they kept chasing and managed to force a prolonged rear engagent while the other Kharov forces continued assembling, that could beco a problem.
Rhoswen noticed at once.
"They still want to fight."
"Yes," Aurelian said.
Her tone sharpened. "Then let turn around."
"No."
The answer ca so quickly that she actually went quiet for a second.
Aurelian kept his eyes on the display. "We are withdrawing. We only hit them if they beco a real threat."
"They are trying to beco one."
"Then we make sure they fail."
Eirenne marked the enemy movent in brighter lines. "Their remaining captains are using short-range signal lamps, shuttle relays, and manual command bursts. It is inefficient, but it is working better than their damaged network."
Lysara sounded thoughtful. "So the competent ones are falling back on older thods."
"That is correct," Eirenne said.
Aurelian was not surprised. A fleet did not need perfect systems to be dangerous if its officers had enough sense.
Communications could fail, but discipline could still carry a formation for a while. That was what made this last part more irritating than the previous battles.
The Kharov did not have to defeat him now.
They only had to slow him.
He was not going to allow that.
"How many captured hulls are still usable?" he asked.
Eirenne answered after a brief pause. "Two hundred and thirty-four under my direct control. 112 can maneuver reliably. The rest are damaged but can still drift, transmit, or fire limited weapons."
"Use them."
Rhoswen’s voice changed imdiately. "Use them how?"
"To make the Kharov waste ti."
Eirenne understood the order without needing more.
The captured Kharov ships that had been trailing the fleet began to separate from the withdrawal formation.
So of them were damaged ships taken from the earlier garrisons. Others were vessels surrendered or seized during the port strikes.
Most were ugly, scarred, and barely worth keeping in the long term.
That made them perfect for this.
They still carried Kharov hull patterns, Kharov recognition signatures, and enough familiar shapes to confuse the enemy in a broken battlefield.
Eirenne scattered them in loose groups across the pursuit lane, sending so ahead, so sideways, and so back toward the first garrison’s reorganizing ships.
Their signals flickered in and out, mixing false distress calls with partial friendly identification.
The Kharov captains hesitated.
But that was enough.
So of the first garrison ships slowed to confirm identity. Others kept moving and nearly collided with their own allies.
A few fired warning shots at vessels they believed might be compromised. One Kharov cruiser, already nervous, opened fire too early and destroyed a captured destroyer that had drifted too close.
That single shot created the next problem.
Other ships saw a Kharov-pattern vessel being destroyed by friendly fire.
They reacted badly.
"Good," Eirenne said softly.
Rhoswen sounded pleased despite herself. "This is so much more interesting than I expected."
"It is efficient," Neris corrected.
Aurelian watched the chaos spread across the map.
The first garrison’s remaining commander, whoever had taken control after the flagship died, seed to realize the danger quickly.
A tighter group of ships began forming near the rear, trying to push through the confusion and continue pursuit by force. Their movent was rough, but determined.
"They are still coming," Lysara said.
"I see them."
Eirenne marked the group. "Likely acting under a surviving senior captain. They are ignoring most corrupted network signals and relying on local visual markers."
"That one is a problem," Aurelian said.
Rhoswen’s voice ca in imdiately. "Now?"
Aurelian looked at the distance, then the withdrawal window.
They had room for one sharp strike, but just one, and not even a full-on one either.
"Solenne," he said.
"I have a reserve wing ready."
"Hold it for the mont. Eirenne, send the captured ships into their formation."
"Understood."
The captured hulls moved again.
This ti, they did not simply drift. Several of the better-preserved vessels accelerated straight toward the Kharov pursuit group, transmitting friendly ergency codes as they turned in ways that made their intentions hard to read.
The Kharov ships tried to order them away.
Eirenne answered with broken acknowledgnts and false damage reports.
Then, at close range, the captured ships opened fire.
The damage was not decisive. Their weapons were weak, many were damaged, and several shots were scattered uselessly across shields. But the effect was not in the damage.
It was in the betrayal.
For a fleet already struggling with broken command, false reports, and captured hulls, seeing "friendly" ships fire from inside the formation was enough to make everything worse.
The Kharov response turned violent.
Ships fired at anything that ca too close.
So maneuvered away without orders.
Others tried to hold formation and were blocked by their own allies.
A captured cruiser pushed directly into the path of a Kharov battleship, firing everything it had until the battleship destroyed it with a close-range salvo.
The explosion forced two escort ships to turn aside, opening the exact line Lysara needed.
"Now," Aurelian said.
Lysara fired.
Her shot crossed the distance and struck the leading command vessel through the exposed gap. Its shield flickered, flashed, and failed across one side.
A second beam followed, cutting through the upper hull and knocking out its main control section.
Solenne’s reserve wing launched at the sa ti.
The aircraft did not spread widely. They went in as a concentrated group, striking the ships that had turned to protect the wounded command vessel.
Missiles hit shield seams. Drones marked damaged engines. Torpedoes punched through the rear of a heavy cruiser before it could rotate away.
Rhoswen finally got her chance.
"Limited engagent," Aurelian warned.
"I heard you."
She surged forward, crossed the edge of the pursuit lane, and hit the nearest Kharov ship hard enough to drive it out of formation.
For once, she did not try to keep going deeper. She struck, broke the line, and pulled back before the enemy could close around her.
Aurelian noticed as the first garrison’s pursuit group ca apart again.
Not completely, but enough. Their strongest push had lost its head, and the captured ships were still causing trouble inside their loose formation.
So Kharov vessels tried to keep chasing, but now they had to decide whether every nearby ally was real, captured, or corrupted.
That kind of doubt was poison.
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