Solenne’s arrival changed the shape of the battle immediately.

Aurelian did not waste a moment after she entered the position. The first two laser salvos had already done what they needed to do.

The pack had been bloodied, angered, and turned away from the inner debris field. Their attention had shifted.

Their instincts were pulling them toward the clearer threat now, and that was exactly what he had wanted.

"Begin the strike," he said. "Choose targets freely, but keep your aircraft clear of Lysara and Rhoswen’s firing lanes."

"Understood," Solenne replied at once.

The timing was almost perfect.

Her first wave of strike craft reached the edge of engagement just after the second round of laser fire, and the effect was immediate.

Until that moment, the Voidshade Fenrir had only been dealing with distant death, something cutting through them from far away without shape or scent or anything they could sink their hunger into. Now a new enemy was in front of them, fast, visible, and close enough to chase. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Missiles hit first.

Not the heaviest kind, and not meant to kill the larger beasts outright, but enough to tear into the front ranks, break movement, and force their attention outward.

Several Fenrir twisted aside too late and were hit along the flanks or jawline, their long bodies jerking violently as warheads burst against living tissue.

Smaller ones died outright. Larger ones were mauled, enraged, and pushed off line.

The carrier aircraft came right after, spreading out in a broad attack pattern rather than clustering too tightly.

Against proper warships, small craft had to think about shields, point defense, and the usual layers of fleet combat.

Against these beasts, the problem was different. The Fenrir had no shields and no proper long-range targeting systems, but they were fast, aggressive, and extremely dangerous once something entered their reach.

That meant the strike craft could hurt them, but only if they stayed disciplined and did not get dragged into close-range exchanges carelessly.

The first few seconds proved the point.

A cluster of Fenrir peeled away from the main mass and lunged toward the nearest wave of aircraft with startling speed, their long bodies flexing through space in a way that looked almost impossible until it was already happening.

The pilots broke formation at once, scattering just before the beasts could tear through them, and in that movement the whole pack’s attention shifted more fully toward the new prey.

"They took it," Rhoswen said, almost delighted.

"Yes," Aurelian replied. "Now keep pressure on them."

Solenne was already doing exactly that.

Her aircraft did not try to stand and fight. They struck, shifted, and drew away, forcing the Fenrir to commit more and more of their front line into a pursuit pattern.

It was not elegant, but it did not need to be, as they were not fighting other races that use tactics, but instead beasts that rely on their superior bodies.

They wanted the closest enemy. They wanted movement. They wanted something they could actually catch and tear apart.

That impulse made them predictable.

From farther out, Lysara and Rhoswen kept firing.

Their laser batteries recharged and discharged in a controlled rhythm, reaching across open space again and again to reap the lives of beasts now fully committed to the wrong direction.

Every time the front of the pack surged after Solenne’s aircraft, another line of death tore through the side or rear.

Creatures burned, split, or fell apart in drifting ruin, their pack momentum working against them now instead of helping them.

It was working almost too well.

Which was why Aurelian kept watching for the point where it would stop.

The warning came from the center of the pack.

At first, it was only a shift in movement density, something large pushing through the mass behind the hunters that had already surged forward. Then the returns sharpened, and the thing became clear.

The alpha.

It was huge, far larger than the others, its body stretching nearly to the size of a cruiser hull.

Its transparency was less complete than the others’, with layers of darker internal mass visible beneath the pale skin and long armored ridges running down its spine like jagged bone.

Even before the feed finished focusing, Aurelian could tell it was stronger than the rest by a wide margin.

Rhoswen saw it too.

"There."

Aurelian was already tracking it. "Solenne, the large one is yours to bait away from the main body if possible. Do not let it close on a concentrated aircraft cluster."

"Understood."

The alpha moved fast.

Faster than the others, and with a purpose they lacked.

It did not keep drifting with the pack or simply lunge toward the nearest moving target.

It broke away from the center and drove itself directly after Solenne’s outer strike line, abandoning the herd impulse in favor of something sharper.

Not true strategy, perhaps, but close enough to be dangerous.

It closed the distance quickly.

Solenne reacted at once.

Her strike craft split apart in a scattered pattern so cleanly it almost looked rehearsed, the formation breaking into separate streams that forced the alpha to choose rather than reap.

It still managed to catch one of the slower aircraft in its first rush, smashing through it in an ugly burst of wreckage and burning fuel, but the rest escaped the initial kill line.

"That’s still too close," Aurelian said.

"It won’t get a second clean pass," Solenne answered.

He believed her, but he did not intend to leave the matter on trust alone.

"Lysara. Rhoswen. Shift target priority. Kill the alpha."

Both acknowledged at once.

The main laser arrays adjusted, swinging away from the pack’s broader body and tightening onto the new target.

The alpha either did not notice or did not understand what that meant until it was already too late.

By the time it turned its head slightly, sensing the light building in the distance, the firing line was already locked.

The volley struck like a hammer.

Two heavy beams crossed open space and hit the alpha almost simultaneously, punching through its body with enough force to twist the whole creature sideways.

For a brief instant, it looked as though the lasers had simply passed through it without effect. Then the damage became visible.

One side of the beast had been opened nearly end to end, and a huge section of its internal structure was simply gone.

Still, it did not die.

It convulsed, thrashed, and somehow kept moving for a moment longer, though now the movement was broken and wrong.

Rhoswen stared at the tactical display.

"That thing’s still alive?"

"Barely," Aurelian said.