Star Ship Girl Era: My Shipgirls Are Too Overpowered-Chapter 42: Reinforcements Arriving 2

Aurelian reviewed the fleet composition briefly when Merrick forwarded it, and it matched what the mission packet had warned him: a strike group built around Tier III ships with an uneven spread of older escorts and a few veteran captains, plus two commanders whose bonded shipgirls were strong for a local sector but not the kind of power that made the Omnics retreat in defeat.

They were the kind of fleet that could hold a line using their bodies, and the kind of fleet that needed someone like Astra to keep the Omnics from just ramming through it with large numbers of bot fighters.

More reinforcements were listed behind them, including a large number of Tier II hulls that would arrive before the main battle if the lanes stayed open, and the numbers were big enough to make Cinderleaf’s staff visibly calmer in their internal reports as they felt safer seeing the number of ships who are going to fight for them, because nothing calmed administrators faster than seeing a spreadsheet become less hopeless.

Aurelian also understood what it meant in the ugly sense, because if the sector was pulling this many ships forward, then they could not afford to lose Cinderleaf, and they were treating this incursion as something that could spread if it was not crushed cleanly.

The academy’s direct fleet arrived the next day.

That arrival was different from the sector fleet’s arrival because everything about them was different from the garrison fleets that were sent here, because even from a distance, you could tell those ships were maintained properly, flown properly, and commanded by someone who is a fully-fledged commander.

Aurelian received a direct supply manifest before the fleet even docked, and when the crates began arriving at Black Crown’s dock zone, which did not surprise him, as he had already contacted the commander on the other side and requested them to bring in supplies.

Ammunition packs, charge cartridges, fighter reload stocks, spare parts, medical seal kits, and enough general supplies to make sure that they were ready even if it was a prolonged fight.

The reimbursement tag attached to the supplies was routed through the sector command office, which meant Cinderleaf was not being asked to pay for what it could not afford, and that alone made Halden Rourke look ten years younger in the next briefing, even though the planet was still under war declaration.

Aurelian finally met the academy fleet commander later that day in a port-side command room that was overcrowded and noisy, because everyone important kept trying to be present at the same time.

The man was not young, but not middle-aged per se, and he introduced himself without ceremony, which Aurelian liked because he did not think it was the right time to focus on etiquette.

He did not talk down to Aurelian, but he also did not treat him like a hero in the way civilians had, and that balance made Aurelian more comfortable than any applause ever could.

He asked for a clean report. Astra provided it in crisp detail, and the commander nodded through the numbers as if confirming something he already suspected.

When the immediate business was done, the man started talking about stuff that a student commander would learn back in the academy.

"Starting with your class," the senior commander said, voice even, "the academy has shifted priorities again, and a lot of the on-campus theory load has been reduced and pushed to remote study. This is mainly because commanders are usually busy with leveling up and finding ship girls."

Aurelian listened without interrupting, because this is something that he will learn after he joins the new year, but learning from a senior can help him understand some of the smaller points that may be important.

"The era of exploration is starting to heat up again," the senior continued, and the way he said it carried a quiet hunger. "When the area stabilizes, there will be openings for people with fleets to secure worlds, manage them, and join them properly into alliance structure, and if you do it right, then a hundred years from now your name will be in the textbooks."

Aurelian understood the meaning behind it because the name Arcturus is also something the first generation spent countless years fighting and expanding to make it what it is today.

"So the conditions are still that generous," Aurelian asked, keeping his tone neutral, because he did not want to sound eager in front of someone who could smell ambition like smoke.

"They are," the senior commander replied, and there was a flash of longing in his eyes that he didn’t bother hiding. "If you have the ability to actually control a world, supply it, defend it, and keep it stable, then the alliance recognizes it, and the sector governments recognize it, and the rewards are real, because they need people who can expand the frontier."

He did not say it, but Aurelian could hear the other part anyway, that this was the kind of opportunity that civilian commanders waited decades for, because without a great family behind them, they needed the system to open doors, and this system was finally doing it again.

The conversation ended quickly because war did not care about philosophies, and the next briefing began before the chairs cooled.

Aurelian returned to Black Crown afterward, not because he was avoiding people, but because he wanted to be on his ship if the Omnics moved, and because he did not like the feeling of being seen as the saviour and constantly being followed and monitored.

Astra agreed with that judgment without saying so, because she knew better than anyone what it meant when the enemy was not human.