Another stretch of waiting followed, and this time it lasted longer.

At first, nothing changed in any obvious way. The space between the two stars stayed quiet, the same clean emptiness stretching out in front of them, but slowly, almost too slowly to notice at first, the edge of the system began to shift.

It didn’t happen all at once. It started as a few new signals appearing at the far end of the sensor range, faint and scattered, easy to miss if someone wasn’t paying attention.

Then more appeared.

Then more again.

The pattern widened, spreading outward across the edge of the display until it stopped looking like random movement and started to take shape.

What had first seemed like noise became something clearer, something heavier, until the tactical screen began to fill in a way that made the change impossible to ignore.

It spread like a stain across the far edge of Redglass space, growing thicker and denser as more contacts entered behind the first wave.

Rhoswen stared at the numbers as they climbed, her earlier impatience shifting into something more focused.

"That’s a lot," she said, her tone a mix of surprise and excitement.

"Yes," Aurelian replied, his voice calm as he watched the same feed.

Lysara was already fully engaged, her attention locked on the data as it updated in real time, reading through movement patterns and density shifts without missing anything.

"Approximately a thousand on the first clear pass," she said after a moment, her voice steady. "And that’s only what we can confirm. There are likely more still coming in behind them."

That matched what Aurelian was seeing.

The pack wasn’t small.

Not even close.

The Voidshade Fenrir moved with a kind of rough confidence that came from experience, their large bodies weaving around each other in loose patterns that didn’t follow strict formation but still worked well enough to make them dangerous.

There was no clean discipline to it, no tight control like a trained fleet, but there didn’t need to be.

Their coordination came from instinct, and it was enough. With numbers like that, combined with speed and aggression, they didn’t need perfect order to overwhelm weaker targets.

Some of them had already started to break slightly from the main flow, turning toward nearby chunks of rock and drifting mineral debris, as if testing the area or looking for something smaller to hunt along the way. It didn’t look organized, but it didn’t need to be. It was a habit, something they had done over and over across different systems.

Rhoswen looked from the display back to Aurelian, her curiosity cutting through the tension.

"What are they doing?"

"Hunting," he said simply.

That was all it really was.

The pack was spreading out, testing the system, looking for movement, weakness, or anything worth chasing.

If left alone, they would move through the area, kill whatever they found, strip it down to what they wanted, and only leave once there was nothing left that interested them.

Aurelian had no intention of letting that happen here.

Even if Redglass didn’t hold anything important right now, it was too close to areas that would matter later.

It sat near routes he would eventually use, near space he intended to control, and letting a pack like this move through it freely would only create problems down the line.

He wasn’t going to allow that kind of pattern to start, not when he had the chance to stop it early.

This wasn’t just a hunt.

It was control.

At that moment, another channel opened.

Solenne.

The connection came through clearly, steadily, and without delay.

"I’ve entered the designated approach," she said. "Requesting strike assignment." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Rhoswen’s reaction was immediate, her grin returning so fast it almost felt out of place compared to the calm around them.

"She made it."

Aurelian didn’t waste the opportunity.

"Good," he said. "Hold your current path outside their detection range and prepare your aircraft. We’ll start by pulling the pack away from the inner debris field. Once they commit to us, you strike from the side."

"Understood," Solenne replied without hesitation.

Lysara glanced at the timing and allowed herself the smallest hint of approval, though her expression stayed mostly neutral.

"That should keep them from spreading too far," she said.

"That’s the idea," Aurelian answered.

He didn’t wait after that.

The final order came almost immediately.

Lysara and Rhoswen’s laser systems began charging at once, energy building along their weapon lines in controlled silence.

There was no dramatic sound, just a steady increase in power as the systems prepared to fire.

Against shielded ships, fights often dragged out, requiring careful management of layers and defenses, but this wasn’t that kind of fight.

The Voidshade Fenrir relied on their natural toughness rather than advanced protection systems, which made them vulnerable in a different way.

Lasers worked well against them.

Heat, speed, and precision.

All of it mattered.

"On my mark," Aurelian said.

Then he gave it.

The first strike cut across open space like something final and absolute.

Two lines of focused light tore into the front of the pack before most of the creatures had even realized anything was wrong.

The result was immediate. Several of the Fenrir died almost instantly, their bodies breaking apart under the force, some burning through, others collapsing as the energy tore through them.

A few continued moving for a fraction of a second, driven by instinct even after they were already dead, before their forms failed and broke apart.

For a brief moment, the pack didn’t understand what had happened.

There was confusion.

Movement without direction.

Then that confusion shifted.

It didn’t last long.

Instinct took over quickly, and with it came anger.

The beasts twisted through space, their movements widening as they searched for the source of the attack.

Whatever interest they had in the debris field vanished immediately, replaced by something else.

They had found resistance, something that could hurt them, something that could kill them, and that alone was enough to pull their attention in a new direction.

"Good," Aurelian said quietly. "Again."

The second strike followed before the first reaction had fully settled.

More of the pack died.

This time, the response was faster.

They had direction now.

Not full understanding, not yet, but enough to start moving toward the threat.

Rhoswen looked ready to push forward, her eagerness almost visible, but she held her position. That mattered more than anything else right now.

The opening stage of the fight required control, not aggression, and the fact that she stayed where she was rather than charging ahead told Aurelian everything he needed to know about how much she had improved.

Lysara, as expected, remained steady, adjusting the next firing solution with calm precision while the pack shifted and reacted, her focus never breaking.

Solenne’s aircraft were moving into place as well, still holding back, positioning themselves outside the main attention of the pack so they could strike at the right moment without drawing focus too early.

The Voidshade Fenrir were starting to understand.

Too late.

There was no easy prey here.

No quiet system they could pass through and feed on without resistance.

They had entered a controlled space.

A trap.

And Aurelian intended to make full use of it.