Star Ship Girl Era: My Shipgirls Are Too Overpowered

Chapter 275: The Escaping Governor

The quiet after the first phase did not last long.

Karven Spire was under control, but control was not the same as peace. Boarding teams were still moving through the station section by section, engineering crews were cutting into sealed Kharov data vaults, and security units were finding hidden compartments, trapped corridors, and frightened workers who had no idea whether to fear their old masters or the new power that had arrived in silence.

Aurelian remained on the Black Crown for the first hour after the review, watching reports move across the command display.

The battle in space had ended cleanly.

The occupation below was slower.

It always was.

Astra stood beside him, while Eirenne’s projection appeared and disappeared as she shifted between the Black Crown, Karven Spire’s relay core, and the wider electronic net.

Rhoswen had been ordered to patrol the outer debris line, which she accepted only because there was still a chance some hidden Kharov ship might try to run.

So far, none had.

Then a new alert appeared from one of the captured dock sectors.

A Kharov vessel was moving.

At first, Aurelian thought it was one of the disabled ships drifting loose from a broken mooring, but the track corrected itself too cleanly.

The ship was a near-Tier V armored cruiser, one of the better vessels that had remained inside the inner dock and avoided the main fleet battle because it had not launched with the others.

It did not head for deep space.

It turned inward.

Toward the planet below Karven Spire.

Aurelian narrowed his eyes. "Why is that ship moving toward the surface?"

Eirenne appeared beside the display. "It launched from a private military berth. Registry identifies it as the personal vessel of Governor-Marshal Daskor Vey, the Kharov authority over Karven Spire and the surrounding outer chain."

Astra’s eyes sharpened. "He was not on the fortress command deck."

"No," Eirenne replied. "He appears to have been on the station’s administrative level when the attack began. The fleet commander handled the battle."

Aurelian watched the cruiser accelerate toward the planet.

Karven Spire’s planet was not a rich world, but it was habitable enough to matter. Cold, dry, and heavily industrialized around several equatorial zones, it had been used by the Kharov as a military support world rather than a true civilian center.

The population records were unclear, but captured files suggested a mix of military households, forced-labor camps, technical clans, and administrative settlements built around mining, fuel processing, and dock support.

If Daskor Vey was returning to the surface instead of trying to escape the system, then he either had something hidden there or something desperate in mind.

Aurelian did not like either possibility.

"Can we stop him?"

Eirenne answered immediately. "Several nearby branch ships are moving to intercept, but the cruiser’s armor and atmospheric angle give it a chance to survive unless heavier fire is used."

Astra looked toward him. "If we fire with the Black Crown, we can disable it before atmosphere entry."

Aurelian studied the projection. The cruiser was close to the atmospheric edge, and its path took it over a heavily built region.

If they missed or hit too hard, debris could scatter across the surface. If they let it go, Daskor might reach whatever loyalist structure remained below.

"Target engines only," he said.

Astra’s hands moved across the command interface.

Before the Black Crown fired, another branch cruiser group opened up from the side. Their first volley struck the Kharov vessel’s shields, and the second began chewing into armor, but the near-Tier V ship held together stubbornly and kept dropping toward the planet. Its shields collapsed just as it crossed the upper atmosphere, but the armored hull endured the damage and vanished into the storm glow of reentry.

The branch commander responsible for that sector sent an immediate report to Cassian.

Aurelian saw the message arrive in the shared command channel.

Possible high-value Kharov authority escaped into the atmosphere. Vessel damaged but not destroyed. Pursuit paused to avoid atmospheric debris risk and civilian damage.

There was a short pause.

Cassian’s reply was calm.

Secure the orbital station first. Planetary escape does not change the system outcome.

That was reasonable.

It was also not comforting.

Aurelian opened a direct channel to Eirenne. "Track that cruiser."

"Already doing so. Its descent path leads toward the planetary capital district, likely the governor’s fortress complex."

"What assets does he have there?"

"Unknown. Captured data suggests ground forces, militia reserves, sealed emergency stores, and several hardened command bunkers."

Aurelian frowned. "Is that the last reserves?"

"Yes," Eirenne said. "But from the records, I can tell for sure that this is a futile attempt as it is not enough to do any kind of resistance."

That was true. Daskor could not win the system from the ground. Not with the Kharov fleet destroyed, the station taken, and the relay under Arcturus control.

But he could cause damage.

He could rally loyalists.

He could execute prisoners, destroy infrastructure, burn archives, poison factories, or turn the planet into a much harder occupation than it needed to be.

Astra seemed to follow his thoughts. "We should not ignore him."

"We won’t."

Rhoswen’s channel opened so quickly that she must have been listening. "Commander, I can go down."

"No."

"I didn’t even finish."

"You were going to ask to chase him."

"I was going to offer a controlled atmospheric interception."

Aurelian kept his eyes on the planet. "Not yet. We need to know what he is doing before we throw force at the surface."

Rhoswen sounded disappointed, but she did not argue further.

Far below, Governor-Marshal Daskor Vey’s cruiser tore through the upper atmosphere with half its engines burning unevenly.

Inside the ship, alarms screamed through the command deck, and the deck plates trembled under the strain of reentry.

Daskor stood with one hand gripping the command rail, his face pale with anger rather than fear.

He was not a young man. His hair had gone iron-gray at the temples, and the deep lines around his eyes came from years of command, politics, and suspicion.

He had not been born into the highest Kharov bloodline, but he had climbed through war, harsh taxes, broken rivals, and enough victories to be granted control of Karven Spire’s outer chain.

For ten years, he had believed that posting was beneath him.

Now he would have given almost anything to keep it.

His aide stood nearby, bleeding from the forehead but still upright. "My lord, the fleet is gone. The station is silent. We cannot reach the deeper line."

"I know," Daskor said.

His voice was low.

Too calm.

The aide swallowed. "Then, should we prepare surrender terms?"

Daskor turned his head slowly.

The aide immediately regretted speaking.

"Surrender terms?" Daskor repeated.

"My lord, if the enemy preserves the relay and the docks, they may intend occupation. If we negotiate early, perhaps we can preserve the administrative families and the planetary forces."

Daskor stared at him for another moment, then looked back toward the forward display.

The clouds below began to part.

The planetary capital appeared beneath them, a dark industrial city built around a fortified administrative ridge.

Smoke columns already rose from several districts where power grid failures had caused fires.

The population had not yet been told what had happened in orbit, but they would know soon enough.

"They have interdiction fields," Daskor said. "They have electronic warfare strong enough to silence the relay. They have ships that cut through our fleet as if it were target practice. They are not raiders."

"No, my lord."

"They are the same enemy that struck the four-star cluster."

The aide went still.

Daskor’s mouth twisted. "You think I did not notice the pattern? Communications killed first. Confusion spread. Military points struck cleanly. Resources taken. People extracted. The fools deeper in command blamed pirates because it was easier than admitting someone was moving through our blind side."

He looked toward the broken sky.

"This is not piracy. This is a power."

The cruiser shook violently as it descended through the lower atmosphere.

Another officer turned from the helm. "My lord, outer hull temperature is within danger range. We can land, but not take off again without repair."

"Land at the fortress."

"Yes, my lord."

The aide tried again, more carefully this time. "If this is a power, then resistance from the surface cannot defeat them."

Daskor’s eyes hardened.

"No. But I can deny them a clean prize."

The aide felt cold.

He understood then.

Daskor had no intention of retaking the station.

He intended to make the planet bleed before it changed hands.

The cruiser descended toward the governor’s fortress, trailing smoke across the sky.

In orbit, Eirenne fed the descent path to Aurelian.

"The vessel has landed inside the capital fortress perimeter. Local military networks are activating. I am detecting emergency mobilization signals, but their communications are unstable because of our orbital suppression."

Aurelian looked at the tactical map.

"Can he contact the wider Kharov network from the surface?"

"Not through standard methods. The relay is blocked, and the local uplinks are under watch. However, he may have physical courier systems, buried transmission arrays, or dead-drop launchers we have not identified."