Star Ship Girl Era: My Shipgirls Are Too Overpowered-Chapter 107: T4 Crownspire Large Starport

The Kharov called them beasts and mongrels in their internal records, but according to Vaeren, that was a lie born from contempt.

The people in question were a mixed demi-human confederation, not some primitive tribe.

They controlled several inhabited worlds, fielded a significant number of Tier III ships, and their energy systems were actually better maintained than the Kharov’s in some respects.

The Kharov had been trying to reduce them for years and had made progress, but not enough to destroy them.

That meant Aurelian had more options when he fought the Kharov, and he could even use their enemies while he sat back and watched the show.

When the questioning was done, Aurelian leaned back slightly in his seat as he ran through multiple plans he could use with the new info.

This ambush had given him more than a heavy cruiser and a battlefield win.

It had given him a regional map with all the information he could ask for.

Along with a group of useful people.

And more room to move than he had expected.

Vaeren, who had clearly understood that his survival depended on being useful, remained still while Aurelian thought.

Finally, Aurelian spoke again.

"You surrendered to protect your people," he said. "That was practical. Keep them under control, and I will not waste them."

Vaeren lowered his head once.

"Understood."

That was enough for now.

The return trip was the next problem.

The captured fleet was valuable but also slow. Their warp systems were inferior, damaged, or both, and towing so many vessels at once would drag the entire formation down badly.

If Aurelian stayed with them personally, he would lose too much time.

If he abandoned them, he would lose too much value.

So he made the only sensible choice.

Lysara would remain behind and escort the captured ships, prisoners, archaeological vessels, and recovered cargo back toward Larkspur Haven at a controlled pace.

She was the most suitable for it anyway. Her temperament was steady; her ship was more than strong enough to discourage any desperate nonsense from the prisoners; and, unlike Rhoswen, she did not look like someone who would die of boredom doing escort work.

When he told the fleet his decision, Rhoswen predictably looked dissatisfied.

"Escort duty is dull," she said over the line, not even trying to hide it.

Lysara answered with gentle dryness.

"Then it is fortunate that the commander chose me instead of you."

That actually made Solenne laugh.

Aurelian nodded once.

"Good. Lysara, you escort the captured formation back. Keep the command ships sealed, the archives under your control, and the archaeological cargo untouched until I see it myself."

"Understood," she replied. "I will deliver everything intact."

Rhoswen did not complain again after that, mostly because she knew she had been spared the boring work and would be returning with Aurelian instead.

By the time the battlefield cleanup was nearly done, the full scale of the harvest had also become clear.

This time, the source fragment gain was excellent.

The fleet they had destroyed had been built almost entirely from Tier III hulls, many of them of better quality than the usual Kharov line ships they had seen before.

Once extraction and purification were completed across the field, the total yield exceeded 10,000 green-grade fragments, with additional lower-grade material on top of that. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

That alone would have made the expedition worthwhile.

But it was not the only reward.

Among the archaeological cargo they seized were not just the two valuable blue items hinted at by the earlier clues, but four serious blue-tier finds in total.

Two of them were artifacts.

Two were blueprints.

The artifacts themselves were useful, though not immediately transformative. The blueprints were the real surprise.

The first was something he had thought about before, but did not think he would get it before he could ask his family for it.

[Equipment Blueprint: T4 Nullfield Warp Jammer]

[Quality: Blue]

[Effect: Creates a fixed interdiction zone. Enemy ships marked within range will lose their ability to enter warp, or will be forcibly dragged out of active warp transit.]

[Area of Effect: 2 light-years]

[Remaining Uses: 3/3]

Aurelian let out a quiet breath.

This was one of the things he had wanted badly ever since the earlier campaigns began forcing him to think beyond normal lanes and normal prey. Warp interception was useful. A true warp jammer was far better.

With this, future ambushes would become cleaner, wider, and less dependent on perfect route placement.

The second blueprint was even more important in a different way.

[Construction Blueprint: T4 Crownspire Large Starport]

[Quality: Blue]

[Description: Constructs a large-scale starport at the designated location, including an integrated production line for Crownspire-pattern starships.]

[Construction Time: 1 year]

[Remaining Uses: 2/2]

That alone would have been enough to justify an expedition.

But when Aurelian checked the supporting production list tied to the blueprint, he couldn’t help but click his tongue.

The Crownspire line did not include the heaviest frontline types like battleships, battlecruisers, or carriers.

What it did include was still extremely valuable.

Mining ships.

Transport ships.

Frigates.

Torpedo craft.

Destroyers.

Light cruisers.

Heavy cruisers.

In other words, everything a growing territory needed to begin forming an actual industrial and naval backbone, rather than relying forever on personal elite hulls and scavenged support.

For Larkspur Haven, or for any future world he secured, that kind of blueprint could change the entire pace of development.

There was also a captured green blueprint among the lesser finds that mattered to him almost as much.

It was for a Tier III engineering ship.

That one made him think immediately of the next stage of everything.

Larkspur Haven would need more than victories.

It would need reconstruction.

Ports.

Factories.

Logistics nodes.

Repair infrastructure.

And that meant engineering capacity.

He had already been thinking about that problem before coming here. Now the answer had practically fallen into his hands.

As the last of the numbers settled in, Aurelian leaned over the tactical projection one more time and considered the implications calmly.

He would send Lysara back with the captured fleet.

He would return ahead of them with Solenne and Rhoswen.

Once back in-system, he would have to think seriously about who would eventually take the engineering blueprint.

Perhaps one of the triplets later, perhaps someone else in the growing structure around him, depending on how things developed.

One thing was already clear, though.

Archaeology in this region was worth far more than most people would guess from the outside.

Ruins here were not empty stories.

They were stockpiles.

Weapons.

Ships.

Blueprints.

The kind of buried leverage that could change the speed of expansion if you had the strength to seize it before someone else did.

Aurelian watched the captured ships fall into slow, controlled formation under Lysara’s supervision and then shifted his gaze toward the return route to Larkspur Haven.

Behind him, the dead world and its underground secrets were fading into the dark.

Ahead of him, a wounded world was still being dragged back toward life under Astra’s command, with Elowen’s work still underway and the surface war not yet truly over.

The campaign was still moving.

But this detour had paid for itself.

More than that, it had shaped what came next.

He folded one arm behind his back and gave the final departure order in a calm voice.

"Rhoswen. Solenne. We return to Larkspur Haven immediately."

The answers came at once.

"Yes, Commander."

And with that, the fleet split cleanly, one part carrying the spoils of the ambush at a slower pace under Lysara’s watch, and the other using their powerful engines to return to where they came from.