More emerged from the lower folds, using the organic strands as cover.
Aurelian adjusted the formation immediately.
"Astra, suppress lower fold. Lysara, cut the strand anchors on the right. Solenne, pull the drones back ten degrees. Rhoswen, hold and break the first rush."
This time, Rhoswen did not say anything playful.
The Crimson Bulwark met the first rush head-on.
The impact shook the tactical display as three adult beasts slammed into her shield line. Her guns fired at close range, tearing through tendrils and forcing the creatures to unfold in pain.
She did not pursue when the first one tried to back away. She let the escorts finish it and turned to meet the next attacker.
Astra’s Black Crown fired with cold precision, cutting through the lower fold and forcing hidden beasts into the open.
Lysara’s lasers sliced through the organic anchor strands without collapsing the nursery beyond them, while Solenne’s drones kept the smaller adults from forming around the fleet.
It became a hard but clean battle.
The beasts had numbers and terrain.
The fleet had discipline, range, and command.
One adult managed to wrap around an escort and crush part of its outer armor before Rhoswen tore it free.
Another almost reached Meridian’s support vessel, which caused Meridian to threaten everyone on the channel while personally burning the beast apart with repair drones that had no business being used that way.
Aurelian chose not to ask.
By the time the final adult beast retreated into the inner lair, the route outside had been cleared. The fleet did not follow.
Rhoswen watched the wounded creature vanish into the nursery folds and stayed still.
Aurelian noticed.
"Tempted?"
"Yes," she said honestly.
"But?"
"But that is not the mission."
Astra’s voice was quiet. "Correct."
Rhoswen sounded tired but pleased. "I am getting so many correct answers lately."
The material harvested from the lair was better than expected. The adult beasts carried smaller source cores than the near-Tier V leader, but there were many of them, and the organic anchor strands contained useful conductive fibers.
Meridian believed the material could help build flexible shield stabilizers for ships operating inside crystal-heavy regions.
Eirenne wanted several samples for simulation work, while Neris wanted the rest cataloged and stored before anyone came up with new reasons to keep them lying around.
The juveniles were left untouched.
Some watched the recovery drones from deeper inside the lair, their small tendrils curling around broken crystals. Rhoswen saw them on the feed and went quiet for a while.
Aurelian did not comment.
Not every lesson needed to be spoken aloud.
After the outer lair was cleared, the region around Glasswake Watch became noticeably calmer.
The glass serpents kept to the debris belt, the shell-backed feeders returned to their warm current, and the remaining tendril beasts withdrew deeper into the inner shadow lane.
The different beast groups did not unite against the fleet. They behaved more like wild territories, adjusting after one strong group lost ground.
That was useful information.
It meant Mournveil’s outer regions could be managed, at least carefully. If each species held its own territory and did not automatically come to help the others, then the March could expand step by step without triggering the entire nebula at once.
Still, Aurelian did not let that make him overconfident.
Three days passed in a steady rhythm.
The fleet hunted smaller groups, mapped safe lanes, reinforced Glasswake Watch, and sent more probes toward the Ashring Drift.
None of the probes reached as far as the first damaged one, but several survived long enough to refine the outer storm corridor.
Eirenne began building a route model, though she warned that it was not yet suitable for ships.
During that time, the fleet’s improvement became visible.
Rhoswen’s responses were sharper and less wasteful. Solenne’s drone formations adapted better to dust interference.
Lysara seemed almost at home among the strange light and broken fields of Glasswake.
Even the escorts moved with more confidence, no longer hesitating every time sensors gave them conflicting distances.
Aurelian could also feel his own growth.
Commanding battles inside Mournveil required a different kind of attention. He had to think about dust, interference, beast instinct, route boundaries, supply costs, and the limits of each shipgirl’s patience.
It was not like fighting Kharov formations, where doctrine and command structure shaped the enemy’s actions.
Space beasts did not think like admirals, but they were not stupid either. They reacted to pain, territory, hunger, fear, and dominance.
Understanding that made the hunts easier.
It also made him more careful.
By the end of the fifth day, Glasswake Watch had become a true outpost in all but name. Its shield was stable.
The repair cradle could handle moderate damage. The storage modules were half-filled with beast materials and crystal fragments.
The survey relay maintained steady contact with the known Mournveil route, and Meridian had installed enough warning systems that the outpost would not be surprised by another pack of glass serpents.
Even Astercourt approved the structure after reviewing the report.
She praised the entire situation, which made Meridian happy.
The larger results were even more important. Several shipgirls had advanced through practical combat experience, though not all at the same pace.
Rhoswen benefited greatly from repeated controlled engagements. Solenne’s pilots improved their reaction timing, and her drone command became smoother under nebula interference.
Lysara gained useful data from every route she mapped. Even Astra, despite already being Tier V, refined how the Black Crown supported smaller units in complicated environments.
Aurelian’s own progress was slower, as expected.
That did not surprise him.
Commanders did not grow as easily as shipgirls, especially after Tier III. Aurelian had already advanced quickly by any normal standard, and he knew the road toward Tier IV would not be short.
Even with strong battles and high-quality shipgirls, he would need time, experience, and major victories.
Still, his situation was different from most commanders.
Most Tier III commanders did not have a Tier V flagship, multiple high-grade shipgirls, a growing territory, access to ancient infrastructure, and a hidden nebula full of space beasts suitable for training.
Most had to fight for scraps of experience in controlled exercises or wait years for suitable campaigns. Aurelian had found a dangerous shortcut.
Dangerous, but real.