Astercourt spoke before Aurelian had the chance to respond. "One is enough for the first phase; more would help later, but not right now."

That was the correct answer, and everyone in the room knew it.

Aurelian gave a short nod. "Then we build one, and as fast as possible."

Seris accepted that with a slight dip of her head, already shifting her focus toward how to make it happen instead of questioning the decision.

"There’s another matter," Aurelian added, his tone steady as he moved on.

"The preserved Tier IV warship in the sealed bay."

That line alone sharpened the attention of Seris, Meren, and the others on the bastion side, even through the projection. The shift was small but clear, like a quiet tension moving through them all at once.

"I’m not bringing it into the raid," he said before anyone could take it the wrong way. "That hasn’t changed. But I do want selected awakened captains and technical teams to get familiar with its systems under supervision, and please do it quietly, no activation attempts, no shortcuts, no reckless experiments. Just understanding how it works."

Meren understood the balance of that right away. "Preparation without use."

"Yes."

"That can be arranged."

That was enough.

By the time the command link ended, the shape of what they were about to do was no longer vague. It wasn’t just an idea anymore.

A route scout was already being prepared, war supplies were being gathered, logistics chains were expanding, and transport capacity was being forced into place behind the main strike.

The rear of the March was being shaped to stay stable while its forward edge prepared to push deep.

The next part came later that evening, when Lysara was almost ready to leave.

She met Aurelian alone on the main departure platform, the newly assembled stealth-linked armor already integrated into her form.

It didn’t make her disappear, not exactly, but it changed how she looked in a subtle way.

Her presence felt softer, less defined, as if her outline didn’t quite carry the same weight it normally did, almost as if she could blend into stillness if she wanted to.

Rhoswen had called it unsettling.

Lysara had taken that as praise.

Aurelian stood beside her near the outbound control pillar while the last pieces of route data were transferred between systems.

"You know the priorities," he said.

"Yes," she replied without hesitation.

"Your safety comes first."

That made her look at him differently for a moment, her expression calm but with a hint of something measured behind it.

"You really are learning," she said.

Aurelian ignored that comment.

"If the route is clear, mark it fully. If it isn’t, I want to know exactly where it fails and why. If you find systems that could be useful later, log them properly. And if you find signs that Mournveil isn’t as empty as it looked, you come back with that information instead of trying to handle it alone."

"I know."

He believed her.

She looked out toward the departure lane for a brief moment, then back at him again.

"If I find something worth naming, I’m naming it."

"That was already agreed."

"It’s good to hear it again."

For a brief moment, that drew the faintest trace of a smile from him.

"Go."

She didn’t hesitate.

Her ship slipped away not long after, moving cleanly through Haven’s outer layers before turning toward the dim, veiled darkness of the Mournveil Nebula once more.

Over the next few days, the Crownward March stayed in motion.

Aurelian moved from one task to another without slowing down, because once the decision to strike had been made, everything else seemed to move faster around it.

There was no real pause, no room to hesitate, only a steady push forward as each part of the system adjusted to support what was coming.

Neris handled the war stockpiles and forward support planning, speaking softly as always but keeping everything organized and ready.

Astercourt tightened the rear operations, making them more stable and less vulnerable, removing weak points before they could become problems.

Caelan pushed the Haven Garrison harder, focusing on training and discipline so they wouldn’t falter when pressure came.

Seris and Meren drove the bastion’s workforce into production, shaping raw labor into something capable of supporting movement and transport at scale.

Solenne spent her time reviewing deeper raid patterns, preparing for the kind of battle she would need to fight once the operation began.

Rhoswen split her time between combat drills and restless waiting, pushing herself where she could but clearly eager for something real to happen.

Astra stayed at the center of everything, holding the structure together without strain, making sure nothing slipped out of place while the rest of them focused forward. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

And through all of it, Lysara moved ahead alone through the nebula.

Her reports came back at steady intervals.

The first confirmed that the near route remained clear, with no signs of movement or obstruction that would cause immediate problems.

The second identified another quiet system beyond Redglass, smaller and dimmer, with no inhabited worlds but several mineral-rich bodies that could be useful later.

There were no signs of organized claims there, which made it even more valuable as a potential resource point.

The third report came with something different.

A name.

She had found a narrow star system that wound through layers of silver dust and pale ice fields, centered around a small blue-white star.

Around it, broken rings drifted far out from one of its dead outer planets, scattered remnants that caught the light in strange ways.

There was no life there, no signals, no movement of any kind. Just a cold, quiet space that somehow still held a kind of calm beauty in the sensor images she sent back.

She had named it Glasswake.

By the time her fourth report arrived, the path through Mournveil was no longer just an idea they hoped might work. It was becoming something real, something they could actually use.

And if the final sections of the route held together the same way the earlier ones had, then the Crownward March would soon have exactly what it needed.

A hidden way in.

A strike is ready to launch.

And after that, if the timing was handled properly, enough confusion on the Kharov side to return later and pull four damaged cruisers out of a ruin field before the enemy even realized how much had already moved against them.