Star Ship Girl Era: My Shipgirls Are Too Overpowered

Chapter 192: Continuing The Attack On The Other Side

"Commander," Eirenne said, her voice still calm even as the map kept changing, "it is not only the second garrison that is undergoing refit. The entire Kharov force in this cluster is in the middle of some kind of fleet adjustment."

Aurelian looked at the updated data.

Eirenne had taken more from the Kharov network while the second garrison was being torn apart, and now the shape of the enemy force was clearer than before.

Each garrison had a different mix of ships, but the pattern was the same. They were trying to replace old hulls, push more ships into higher-grade frames, and expand their military presence around the four-star cluster.

The quality was less certain.

That was obvious from the second garrison.

A large part of their fleet looked good on paper, but too many ships were under-crewed, under-maintained, or not fully upgraded.

Some of the newer hulls had stronger weapons but weak control systems. Some had better shields but poor engine tuning.

A lot of it felt rushed, as if someone had ordered a grand refit and then left the execution to people more interested in reporting progress than in finishing the work properly.

Eirenne highlighted several entries.

"Most likely, the other garrisons will show similar problems. There are more Tier III hulls than expected, but the reliability is questionable."

"That does not change much," Aurelian said. "More half-ready ships only means more targets."

Rhoswen gave a pleased hum over the link. "That is the right way to look at it."

Neris, who was watching the transport loading numbers, added in her usual soft tone, "As long as we do not waste ammunition on things Solenne can kill more efficiently."

Solenne, who heard this, didn’t respond as she was more focused on destroying the ships.

The first loading phase was almost complete by then. The transports had taken what they could within the time window, and the escorts were already pulling them back into formation.

No one tried to get greedy. Astercourt’s list had been very clear, and Eirenne was watching every cargo route closely enough that even a careless awakened overseer would have found it difficult to wander off task.

Aurelian looked once more at the second garrison’s ruins.

The starport remained mostly intact, but its military berths were burning, and the fleet that had protected them was no longer a fleet in any meaningful sense.

A few Kharov ships still drifted in broken escape paths, but they were too scattered to matter now.

Solenne’s patrol craft were already tagging the ones worth finishing and ignoring those too damaged to be a threat.

"Transports clear," Neris reported.

"Then we move," Aurelian said. "Far garrison. Same timing. Eirenne, keep them blind."

"Already in progress," Eirenne replied.

The fleet jumped.

The move was not long by interstellar standards, but inside a cluster this large, it was still enough to put them far beyond where the Kharov expected the next blow to fall.

That was the point. The second garrison had been hit near one side of the system, and by every normal assumption, any raiding force would either retreat or continue moving through nearby targets.

Aurelian did neither.

He struck the far side.

By the time the fleet came out of the jump, Eirenne had already pushed new false reports into the Kharov network.

Some command centers were still arguing over whether the first attack had been a pirate raid, a local revolt, or a catastrophic drill accident caused by failed radar systems.

A few had finally realized that the second garrison had been destroyed, but their warnings were tangled in broken relays and false priority queues.

The far garrison had received enough fragments of information, and they started to feel uneasy, but they still did not think they were the next targets.

That was exactly where Aurelian wanted them.

Solenne launched again before the enemy could understand what had arrived.

This time, there was less need for a slow reveal. The first wave of carrier craft moved out in a dark spread, crossing the empty distance toward the Kharov starport and the fleet berths around it.

Behind them, the main warships advanced in controlled formation, not rushing, not giving up their angles, but close enough to support the strike before the enemy’s outer patrols could respond properly.

On the Kharov side, confusion came first.

A few civilian traffic points detected the incoming craft before the military did. The first report entered the network as a possible merchant caravan moving off-lane.

The second identified smaller signatures and flagged them for review. The third tried to raise an alert and failed because Eirenne redirected it into a maintenance chain.

Inside one of the far starport’s observation decks, a Kharov technician stared through a magnified display and went still.

Those were not merchant ships.

They were warships.

Lots of them.

He tried to call the port defense office, but the line returned a "local network fault" message.

He tried a second channel, which sent him to a registration queue for civilian docking complaints.

By the time he cursed and started running toward the nearest security post, the first wave was already too close.

The military noticed next.

Several patrol ships moved to intercept, but they did so late and in poor formation.

Before they could reach Solenne’s strike craft, Lysara fired from behind the wave, her beams crossing the distance with clean precision.

Two patrol ships died immediately. A third lost propulsion and drifted into the path of its own allies.

Rhoswen pushed forward on the other flank, taking the attention of the ships that tried to turn toward the main group.

"Outer screen is soft," she said.

"Do not overcommit," Aurelian replied.

"I know."

She laughed and kept moving.

The carrier craft reached firing range moments later.

Their first attack did not target civilian docks. It did not waste shots on trade platforms or outer cargo towers.

It went straight into the military berth zone, where too many Kharov ships were still sitting half-powered, some with shields down, some with crews not yet aboard, and some in the middle of refit procedures that made them little more than expensive targets.

The bombardment came in layers.

Missiles struck first.

Torpedoes followed.

Then, precision warheads hit exposed power and weapon sections.