Lysara closed her eyes for a brief moment during the final synchronization, then opened them again and looked toward the diagnostic displays, taking in the flow of data without rushing to speak. When she finally did, her voice was calm, but there was a quiet certainty in it.

"It’s good," she said. "Different, but good."

Aurelian didn’t move right away. He kept his attention on her rather than on the screens.

"How good?" he asked.

"I can use most of it already," she replied after a short pause. "Not perfectly. I’ll need time to adjust before I push it fully, but it’s stable, and there’s no rejection."

That was what mattered.

Not whether it was perfect.

Just that it worked.

There was no rejection, no instability, no sign that the system would fail under pressure, and that alone was enough to ease the tension that had been sitting in the room since the installation began.

No one said anything out loud or made a big deal out of it, but the relief was there, quiet and steady, spreading through the space as the readings held where they needed to.

Aurelian let out a slow breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

That success made the next step possible.

Rhoswen’s refit was always going to be more complicated, just as Lysara had said earlier, and everyone involved understood that going in.

Her frame wasn’t built for this kind of system, so the installation couldn’t rely on a clean integration.

Instead, the teams had to build translation layers to bridge the gap between what the engine expected and what her systems could actually handle, adjusting things step by step rather than letting them slot into place naturally, as they had with Lysara.

To her credit, Rhoswen stayed still through most of it, which was more than Aurelian had expected.

Not perfectly, but enough.

At one point, about halfway through a mounting recalibration, she shifted slightly and asked, "How much longer?"

"Longer than you are expecting," Lysara replied from the far side of the bay without even looking up.

Rhoswen frowned. "That sounded like something Astra would say."

"It was correct when she said it, too."

That answer shut her up for a while, though not forever.

The work continued, careful and steady, with the teams double-checking each step before moving forward.

Unlike Lysara’s refit, which had felt almost smooth from start to finish, this one had more resistance, more points where things needed to be adjusted and corrected before they could move on. Even so, nothing failed, and nothing broke in a way that couldn’t be fixed.

When the process finally reached completion, the first response tests were rougher than Lysara’s had been, but not in a way that raised concern.

Rhoswen had to get used to the changes, especially the way the thrust responded and how the balance shifted under higher output.

At first, she couldn’t draw on the full power cleanly without overcorrecting, her movements slightly off as she adjusted to the new behavior.

Still, the system held.

There was no incompatibility.

That was enough.

"I can work with this," she said after the fourth successful test run, her grin returning as the control started to settle into something she could handle. "It already feels faster."

"It is faster," Aurelian said.

"Then we should go kill something with it."

Lysara glanced at him over Rhoswen’s shoulder, her expression carrying a hint of dry amusement, but she didn’t argue.

There was one more thing Aurelian had been hoping for, though, something that would have made the trip even more useful.

Once the engine work proved successful, he had the fabrication teams review another possibility, something much more ambitious and far less likely to work on short notice.

He wanted to see if they could begin rebuilding part of the production chain needed to restore Lysara’s missing Severance Lance.

If that had been possible, the mission wouldn’t just be a hunt. It would have served two purposes at once.

The answer came back quickly.

Too many missing parts.

Too much specialized equipment.

Too much time needed to rebuild systems that Haven simply didn’t have yet.

It wasn’t happening.

Lysara took the news without any real reaction.

"I assumed as much," she said. "A weapon like that was never going to be ready this quickly."

Rhoswen folded her arms, clearly less satisfied. "Still annoying."

"Yes," Lysara agreed. "But the drive upgrade is still a gain."

"No," Aurelian said. "It isn’t nothing."

Once both refits were complete and the situation had settled, Aurelian called Astra to the command room and explained the plan in full.

As always, he didn’t mention the Destiny System itself. He never did. He only gave her what mattered for the operation.

"A beast migration will pass near the Mournveil Nebula in a few days," he said. "I’m taking Lysara and Rhoswen to intercept it, test the propulsion upgrades, and improve coordination. Solenne is still away, so Haven and the bastion remain under your control while I’m gone."

Astra listened without interrupting, her attention steady from start to finish.

When he was done, she nodded once.

"Understood."

There was no complaint in her voice, no sign that she wanted to go instead. If anything, she seemed to accept the decision as the obvious one.

"Haven cannot be left exposed," she said. "If anything changes here, I will contact you immediately."

"That’s why I’m leaving it with you."

For a brief moment, something in her expression softened, though it was subtle enough that most people wouldn’t have noticed it.

Rhoswen, who had been holding herself back for as long as she could, finally spoke.

"So I’m actually going."

"Yes," Aurelian said.

That was all she needed.

The reaction wasn’t over the top, but it was clear. A real refit, a real hunt, and a real chance to test herself in actual combat conditions, not controlled drills or limited engagements.

She had been improving steadily, but this felt like something else. More serious. More real. Closer to what she wanted to be.

Lysara didn’t show the same kind of excitement, but her focus didn’t waver.

"Departure timing?" she asked.

"Soon," Aurelian said. "But not immediately. You both need more time to adjust. I’m not taking newly modified ships into open pursuit until I know you can handle the changes without thinking about them."

Rhoswen made a face at that but didn’t argue.

She understood.

Astercourt had already moved ahead by the time the conversation wrapped up, shifting her attention to the next stage of planning.

Routes were being finalized, supply chains were adjusted, fallback options were mapped out, and communication schedules were set.

It was the kind of work that didn’t stand out on its own but held everything together underneath.

By the time Aurelian stepped away from the room, the plan was no longer just an idea.

It was already taking shape.

Solenne was still finishing her work on one side of the frontier. Haven and Helion Bastion Twelve were still settling into a stable system.

The Kharov hadn’t yet realized how much had already shifted around them. And now, if everything stayed on track, Aurelian would soon take two upgraded warships into the Mournveil Nebula and use a passing beast migration to push his fleet forward again.

Not because the hunt itself mattered that much.

Not because there was anything special about killing beasts.

But because every useful opportunity mattered when you were building from almost nothing, and letting a clean chance pass was just another way of falling behind.

This time, he wasn’t going to let that happen.