Black Crown accelerated again, pushing through the last thick cluster of asteroids, and a few large rocks cracked and spun away under the ship’s passage as if they had been hit by a slow-moving hamr, while the Omnic units that attempted to use the debris as cover were cut down by point-defense fire so quickly that so of them broke apart mid-turn.
The Foundry Core realized the danger too late.
It tried to widen its distance, tried to angle away, tried to throw more bodies between itself and the flagship, but it was already limping, and limping things did not outrun predators.
"Main batteries ready," Astra said.
Aurelian leaned forward slightly, eyes cold and focused. "End it."
The Sovereign 2200mm Stellar-Class cannons fired again, and this second volley was not ant to clear space; it was ant to remove a target from reality.
The shells hit the Foundry Core through its broken shielding and tore into the exposed internal mass, ripping it apart so violently that the structure seed to fold in on itself, and for a mont the battlefield flashed with the hard white of catastrophic failure before the core finally broke, detonating in a cascading burst that scattered adaptive alloy and burning fragnts across the belt like a storm of sharp light.
For an instant, the remaining Omnic units hesitated, not because they suddenly felt fear, but because they felt the connection that gave them commands break away, a command logic that had been pushing them forward to fight and devour, and when that logic vanished, the swarm’s movent lost its smooth coordination and ’do or die’ personality.
So units kept charging on default aggression routines, so turned abruptly and fired at whatever was closest, including their own damaged bodies drifting nearby, and so simply went still, their internal code looping without direction like a mind stuck repeating the sa sentence.
Aurelian watched all of this and understood it imdiately, because it was the machine version of decapitation, and it was why Astra had insisted on finishing the core up close instead of trading polite fire from a distance.
Astra did not relax.
She began clearing the remaining units with disciplined efficiency, letting the rail batteries and point-defense guns do the work rather than wasting another main-battery cycle, and as the fight turned from danger to cleanup, she made a quietly smart choice.
Instead of burning ammunition into every scattered piece of tal, she opened the carrier systems.
The hangar bays released waves of Sovereign fighters, dark shapes with gold systems humming, and they moved like trained hunting birds, sweeping through the belt and cutting down stragglers with short, precise bursts, while the ship’s strategic ch fra launched auxiliary units that moved in coordinated patterns, not strong enough to be reckless alone, but strong enough when supported by Black Crown’s targeting and shield distribution.
It took ti because the belt was ssy with the Omnic remnants scattered through rock shadows and debris streams, but Astra did not rush or waste.
From the observer warship in the distance, the black-haired woman took another bite of ice cream and let out a soft laugh, almost pleased despite herself.
"Looks like he’s not all that reckless," she said, watching Astra’s steady control and the way Black Crown kept its shield level healthy even while pushing forward. "He’s confident, and his shipgirl seems to be an expert at this, which is surprising or maybe not."
She paused, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as the last serious resistance died out.
"With a flagship like that, he could walk around like he owns the corridor, and the only thing that would stop him would be higher-level ship girls, but that is sothing we need to take care of, not newbie commanders."
Back in Black Crown’s command core, the final hostile markers blinked out one by one.
Astra’s voice remained calm, but there was a quiet satisfaction in it now that the threat had been removed cleanly.
"Omnic Tier III Foundry Core confird destroyed," she reported. "Remaining units are being eliminated, and the belt will be swept until the radar confirms no operational signatures."
Aurelian nodded once. "Send the battle report to all sides," he said, because every outpost and fleet needed to see proof, and because he wanted to make sure that they had the latest intel so that they could perfect their plans. "Then proceed to full cleanup."
Astra acknowledged, and Black Crown moved into the center of the wreck field as the Source Extractor began pulling in the invisible residue of battle, drawing it through the ship’s systems and converting it into fragnts that rolled along internal conveyors in steady batches.
Aurelian pulled up the feed again, watching the output in silence for a mont, because it was hard not to feel happy and expectant when you saw war turn into resources in real ti.
This ti, the yield was clearly better than the Vanguard fight, because the target had been stronger, and the battlefield had more usable wreck matter instead of mostly low-tier bodies.
Astra finished the last sweep a while later, and only then did she allow the ship to settle into a less aggressive posture, though the readiness never fully left her.
"It has been confird," she said. "No operational Omnic signatures remain within scan range, and the belt is clear."
Aurelian exhaled slowly, then checked the Commander Network, and the first thing he saw was the experience feedback.
This fight had not been a stomp like the Vanguard fight, because the Foundry Core was Tier III, and it had arrived with enough supporting units to make the exchange real, and that ant Astra’s experience bar moved in a way it hadn’t before, filling smoothly rather than barely twitching.
Her level held steady at the top of its current band, then pressed forward enough to make the progress obvious, like a blade being sharpened rather than replaced.
And his own progression jumped again.
Not in the ridiculous way it had the first ti, but in a decisive way that mattered.
Aurelian’s commander level reached the full mark at Lv20, and the network responded instantly, unfolding a new prompt that did not feel like a reward, but like a gate.
Astra noticed his focus shift and looked at him. "You unlocked an advancent condition," she said, tone neutral but attentive.
"I did," Aurelian replied, and he read it carefully, because skipping details was how people got stuck later and pretended they didn’t know why.
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