The problem wasn’t whether the stars could help kill the beasts. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

That part was simple enough. If things got close to either star, the heat and gravity would do some of the work for them, making the fight easier in a direct sense. That wasn’t what Aurelian was worried about.

The real problem was what came after.

If the battle happened too close to either star, and a large number of the pack died there, then most of what they left behind would be lost.

Valuable materials, biological matter, fragments that could be studied or reused, all of it could end up burned away, dragged off by gravity, or scattered so far out that recovery would become a slow and frustrating process.

There was no point in winning cleanly if the result made salvage harder for no real reason.

So he chose open space instead.

They moved between the two stars and kept searching until they found the right place, not rushing the decision, taking their time until the conditions were exactly what they needed.

Eventually, they settled on a wide stretch of empty void that gave them everything they were looking for.

There was very little debris nearby, which meant clearer sensor readings and fewer blind spots, and there were no dense asteroid fields or strange gravity pockets that would make movement harder in the middle of a fight.

The area was open enough to allow clean maneuvering, and if Solenne arrived on time, her aircraft would have plenty of space to deploy without getting boxed in or forced into tight angles.

More importantly, it was clear.

Clear enough that once the fight started, the beasts wouldn’t have many places to hide or break away.

"This will do," Aurelian said after a final look.

Lysara studied the tactical display one more time before nodding, clearly agreeing with the choice. "Good visibility, good maneuvering space, and enough early warning if the pack comes in the way we expect."

Rhoswen didn’t seem nearly as interested in the details as she was in the fact that they had stopped moving.

"So now we wait," she said.

"Yes," Aurelian replied.

She let out a quiet breath, as she also knew that there was nothing else to do right now.

For a while, the three of them held position in silence, their ships steady between the two stars while the space around them stayed calm and empty.

From where they were, the view felt almost too clean, like something had been cleared out on purpose.

One red star burned off to one side, the other a colder blue in the distance, and between them stretched open space that felt quiet in a way that made it obvious it wouldn’t stay that way forever.

Something would come through it.

Sooner or later.

Time passed slowly.

Rhoswen dealt with the boredom in her own way, running repeated drive-response drills in the background, pushing her ship through small changes in thrust and power over and over again until the new propulsion system started to feel natural rather than something she had to think about.

She didn’t say anything while she did it, but the focus in her movements made it clear she was keeping herself busy so she wouldn’t get restless.

Lysara spent her time differently. She kept one eye on the sensors and the other on the tactical overlays, adjusting projected paths and intercept points as new data came in.

She worked quietly, without rushing, her movements steady and controlled.

Aurelian didn’t do either.

He simply watched and waited, letting the system run while keeping his attention on the bigger picture, ready to act when something changed.

It took several hours.

Then the first contact appeared.

At first, it was small enough that it could have been missed, just a faint signal at the edge of detection that might have looked like background noise if someone wasn’t paying attention.

Lysara noticed it immediately.

"Contact," she said, her voice sharpening just a little. "Outer approach. Small group."

Aurelian stepped forward, his focus shifting to the main display as the sensor return became clearer.

There weren’t many of them.

A few dozen at most.

They weren’t moving in a tight formation either, instead spreading out slightly as they moved, covering space in a way that looked more like searching than traveling in a straight line.

Even before the visuals fully came into focus, their behavior made it clear what they were.

Scouts.

The image sharpened a moment later, and the name Voidshade Fenrir suddenly made more sense.

They looked like predators, long and lean, their shapes loosely similar to wolves but stretched and changed into something that felt wrong in open space.

Their skin wasn’t fully solid either, more like a mix of solid and transparent layers that let starlight pass through in strange ways, making their internal structures faintly visible as they moved.

They weren’t small creatures either. Each one was large enough to match a small patrol craft, and the way they moved through space made it clear they were built for it, fast and controlled, like they belonged there.

It wasn’t hard to imagine how dangerous they could be.

A weaker group caught by something like this in open space wouldn’t last long.

Rhoswen leaned forward slightly, her expression sharpening with interest.

"Are those why we are here for?"

"Yes," Aurelian said.

She frowned, but then she looked excited as she asked. "So can we go attack them now?"

"No, because that isn’t the main group."

Lysara answered before he needed to explain further. "They’re scouts. They move ahead of the main pack, looking for threats, food, or anything else that matters. If we attack them now, the rest of the pack might change direction, scatter, or approach differently."

Rhoswen looked back at the display, watching the movement again, and after a moment she let out a quiet breath.

"Fine."

She didn’t like it, but she understood.

Aurelian opened a side channel and checked Solenne’s position again.

She had moved quickly after finishing the transfer and rearming, and while she wasn’t fully in-system yet, she was close.

Close enough that her arrival would line up well if things continued the way they were now.

The timing was good.

Better than expected.

"Hold," he said again, even though neither of them had moved.

The scouts continued forward, drifting slowly toward one of the darker sections of debris deeper in the system, likely searching for prey or signs of other movement.

They moved without hesitation, unaware that something was already waiting for them, something that had chosen this ground long before they arrived.