Instead of breaking or running, the remaining ships slowed in a way that felt wrong. They turned without direction and raised weak defenses, like they were still following orders that no longer matched what was happening around them.

A few tried to lock targets, but it was slow and disorganized, and far too late to make any difference.

Aurelian watched for a moment, already knowing how it would end.

Then Neris spoke.

"Commander."

He looked at her.

"We have an incoming communication request."

Rhoswen frowned. "From who?"

Aurelian didn’t answer right away. He was already looking at the signal, and there was a look of surprise as he saw the location of the communication request.

"Oh?" he said, "Looks like it is finally here."

Rhoswen, who heard her commander say this, was confused but didn’t interrupt. She could tell this wasn’t random.

And she was right because the request came through a special network, and it was from his family.

And he kinda knew what this communication was about; he just hadn’t known the exact moment, but he had known it would come, and now that it had, the timing made sense.

Because this arrival is kinda a perfect surprise and something he has been waiting for since he became a commander, finally getting it can be said to have made his day.

The battlefield didn’t matter right now. The remaining patrol ships were already finished, and anything deeper in the system wouldn’t arrive in time.

The warp denial was still active. For the moment, everything around them was his.

"Connect it," he said.

The channel opened.

A small girl appeared on the main display, her form clean and steady, as if she had practiced this for a long time.

She wore a simple but formal old-style dress, and the way she carried herself didn’t feel out of place at all.

She gave a small bow, calm and unhurried, like she was greeting him somewhere quiet instead of in the middle of a fight.

"Greetings, my lord," she said. "I am Eirenne, your personal AI designed by the Arcturus family so that I can serve you and help you manage anything you require."

Rhoswen narrowed her eyes. "Personal AI?"

Aurelian ignored her and looked straight at the projection.

"You’re late," he said.

Eirenne smiled slightly. "Timing matters. And so does entry."

At the same time, Neris shifted her focus to her own screens. "She’s moving," she said quietly.

Aurelian already knew. Eirenne wasn’t just standing there talking. While she introduced herself, she had already slipped into the system around them, working through what was left of the old command network.

It wasn’t loud or forceful. She didn’t push anything aside. She just entered, found the weak points, and started mapping things out, clean and fast.

Rhoswen glanced at the screens. "She’s already inside their system?"

"Yes," Aurelian said.

Eirenne tilted her head slightly, not hiding it. "It would be a waste of time to wait. Their systems are damaged, but still open in places." She said it as if it were simple, as if she had done it before.

Aurelian studied her for a moment, not surprised, just confirming. "You found your way in quickly."

"You brought me here," she replied. "The rest is just work."

And she did just that: as Eirenne worked behind the scenes, the old instructions and information slowly began to disappear, and new ones were added without any resistance.

Aurelian shifted his attention to the remaining patrol ships still drifting in broken formation. They were trying to respond, but nothing about it was working.

Their movements were slow, their systems out of sync, like something inside them had already given up. Then he looked back at Eirenne.

"What do you see?" he asked.

She didn’t rush the answer. A layer of clean data appeared beside her, far more organized than anything the system itself should have been able to produce. "The outer patrol network is nearly gone," she said. "Control is weak, and their response is slow. What you see now is not temporary." She paused for a moment before continuing. "There are still deeper systems active, not whole per se, but not gone either. Some parts still work."

Neris nodded. "That makes sense, after all, this is still part of a lost civilization, so they must have some back-ups."

Rhoswen leaned forward. "So we go deeper."

"Yes," Aurelian said. "But not blindly."

Eirenne looked at him. "There is a central structure still running. Not fully intact, but it is still strong. If anything here tries to regroup, it will happen there."

That was the real point of interest. Not the patrol, not the outer remains, but the center.

Rhoswen smiled. "Now that sounds better." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Aurelian kept his attention on Eirenne. "You knew this place."

"Yes."

"Okay then, lead the way," Aurelian replied in a natural way, as if he had been doing this for a long time and had not just met Eirenne.

Neris kept watching the data. "If the system is this damaged, then whatever is still running inside might be useful, but unstable."

"Then we take what we can before it breaks completely," Rhoswen said.

"Or before it reacts," Aurelian added.

Eirenne stayed where she was, steady and calm as more parts of the system opened under her.

Some sections responded, and others didn’t, but everything about it showed age, damage, and time.

There was still enough there to matter, though, and Aurelian could see it clearly as he looked across everything at once.

The dead star. The broken ring. The failing fleet. And now this. Not unexpected, not random, but something he had been waiting to arrive.

Useful and dangerous at the same time, and he wasn’t going to move forward until he was sure about what he was stepping into.

He checked the patrol readings again, then the deeper layers of the system Eirenne was uncovering.

"Hold position," he said.

Rhoswen let out a quiet breath. "Still waiting."

"Yes."

Neris didn’t look up. "It’s the right move."

Aurelian didn’t respond. He looked at the system again, taking in the parts that were beginning to show themselves, and made the simple decision first.

Verify the fleet, then decide how far to go. Because even if this was what he had been waiting for, that didn’t mean he would move without checking everything first.