Chapter 35: Target Omnic Tier III Foundry Core.... Open Fire

Aurelian’s gaze stayed on the map, not because he was scared, but because he was timing it.

"Is it alone?" he asked.

"As far as the radar can confirm right now, yes," Astra replied. "Lower-tier units are present, but it hasn’t released a full screen yet, which usually means it’s still in ’find out what happened’ mode, instead of ’destroy whatever you see’ mode."

That made their guess about a deeper relationship even more concrete, because it meant the Omnics were not just thinking of destroying everything, as that would make them care less about their companions.

Aurelian exhaled slowly.

"This is a good opportunity," he said, because he could see it clearly. "If we intercept it and take it down, we buy time again, and we also deny them information, because a scouting core that never reports back creates confusion."

Astra nodded once. "If we fire a proper opening salvo, I’m confident we can cripple it before it understands what’s happening."

"Then we do it," Aurelian said, and his tone didn’t change, because he refused to let urgency turn into panic. "Notify Cinderleaf Star and tell Merrick to keep the defense fleet in port for now, because if they rush out to look brave, they’ll just get used as scrap."

Astra sent the message immediately, and a moment later, a confirmation ping came back from the planet’s command channel.

Commander Merrick acknowledged, and the fleet stayed put.

Aurelian’s eyes returned to the star map.

"We need a battlefield somewhere far away from here," he said. "Cinderleaf’s star system is a terrible place for an ambush, and I’m not letting a Foundry Core come near here as it could lead to a protracted battle."

Astra shifted the map again, and the two of them landed in the same place without even needing to argue.

The Shatterglass Belt.

It was a small asteroid belt not far from Cinderleaf’s outer travel lanes, and it sat in the natural approach path that anything fast would take if it was aiming for the system without wasting time.

The belt wasn’t thick enough to be a true hazard for a flagship like Black Crown, but it was thick enough to interfere with long-range detection and break clean sensor lines.

Big rocks made good cover, even in space, as long as you respected how soundless and patient the void could be.

Black Crown left the dock quietly; no warp system was activated, just a controlled exit so that it might not cause any panic among the people of the planet, because the last thing Aurelian wanted was to have the administration of this star system focused on an internal crisis.

They moved at normal acceleration and kept their signature low, slipping out toward the belt, while Astra shut down anything unnecessary and tightened the ship’s output until it became a shadow behind stone.

As they approached the Shatterglass Belt, Astra guided Black Crown into a position where the hull could be hidden among larger chunks of rock, then gradually brought the ship into a near-silent state, letting the ship’s systems idle in the calmest mode that still left teeth ready to bite.

From the outside, at a glance, they could pass as one more dark slab drifting among hundreds of dark slabs.

Aurelian watched the map and the timing as the incoming contact drew closer.

The Omnic Foundry Core moved fast, as Astra said, because only Tier III-class cores had the speed and stability to cross space like that without support.

Lower-tier nodes could follow later, but if the person behind this whole situation wanted answers quickly, it would come up with them itself.

Then the situation got a little weird.

The Foundry Core began deploying combat units near the belt.

Angular silhouettes split off. Smaller bodies unfolded like sharp insects made of metal, spreading across the rocks as if sniffing the area with knives instead of noses.

The core’s speed dropped slightly, not stopping per se, but shifting from straight travel into cautious movement.

At first, Aurelian watched as these moves looked like the exact moment an ambush was about to be exposed.

But the core didn’t turn away. It didn’t retreat. It didn’t broadcast a full alarm surge.

It just continued forward, slow and suspicious, letting its smaller units move first.

Aurelian’s eyes narrowed.

"It hasn’t found us," he said quietly.

Astra’s gaze stayed cold. "It’s sweeping," she replied. "It knows the planet might be close, and it’s acting like it expects trouble, but it doesn’t know where the trouble is."

Which meant that waiting longer only increased the chance that one of those smaller units would drift too close and catch the wrong kind of reflection off Black Crown’s hull.

"We have no choice but to fight," Astra said, voice low and controlled. "Staying silent longer risks exposure."

Aurelian didn’t hesitate.

"Then we start," he replied, and then, because he’d already learned the lesson once, he added the line Astra deserved to hear. "You don’t need to consult me for the details of this fight, Astra. I trust your judgment."

Astra turned her head slightly, and for a second, something warm flickered under the killer calm.

"Yes," she said. "Thank you for your trust. I’ll bring you a clean win."

Black Crown’s systems woke in a careful, controlled way, not roaring to life, but snapping into readiness like a predator opening its eyes.

The main batteries rotated.

Four twin-mounted Sovereign 2200mm Stellar-Class electromagnetic cannons aligned through gaps in the asteroid field, their targeting logic stacking, adjusting, solving for any asteroid movement, and then coming up with other solutions, because Omnics didn’t move like human ships, as each ship is a living being, so they are able to control their movement.

The Foundry Core was fully inside the effective range.

Astra didn’t waste time with speeches.

"Target Omnic Tier III Foundry Core," she said, voice sharp and flat, like a sentence that belonged in a war record. "Open fire."

The first salvo lit the belt.

Brilliant lines of force tore through the dark, and the smaller Omnic units reacted instantly, some trying to intercept, some trying to scatter, and some simply accelerating like they believed speed could outrun physics.

They were too late.

The core attempted to pivot, modular plating shifting, shield logic trying to form a usable layer in the time it took to breathe to leave lungs, but the Sovereign cannons hit like judgment.

The first impacts cracked the core’s defensive skin open, not neatly, but violently, ripping through sections of structure and sending pieces of adaptive alloy tumbling into the rocks.

The second impact punched deeper, collapsing internal segments and bursting out through the far side in flashes of light that made the asteroid field strobe, as if it were having a seizure.

The Foundry Core didn’t die immediately.

It was Tier III, and Tier III units didn’t drop just because someone hit them once, even if the hit was unfair.

It began to retreat, trying to pull away from the belt, trying to drag itself back into open space where it could maneuver and call for help without rocks in the way.