Star Ship Girl Era: My Shipgirls Are Too Overpowered

Chapter 282: Telling The Civilians About The Governor’s Capture

Elowen joined the channel from Larkspur Haven again. "I’m seeing the sensor feed. This is not like the black reserve samples. The environmental readings are inconsistent."

Meridian’s voice entered next, dry but alert. "Inconsistent how?"

"Some parts behave like airborne contamination. Some behave like energy residue. Some do not fit either."

Aurelian looked at the central district feed. "What about the civilians?"

Eirenne adjusted the drone path. The image moved farther along a wide avenue and reached a plaza outside what seemed to be a public assembly building.

There were people there.

Too many.

Thousands of civilians stood packed inside the plaza and the surrounding streets, most of them surrounded by Kharov soldiers.

Some were kneeling. Some were standing with heads lowered. Some looked dazed, swaying slightly in the haze.

At the center of the plaza, a structure had been assembled from metal frames, cables, and old stone-like components that did not match Kharov’s military engineering.

Aurelian felt a chill move through him.

"What is that?"

Eirenne’s voice lowered. "Unknown device. Some components resemble Vhaloric containment architecture, but corrupted or rebuilt badly."

The drone moved closer.

The signal distorted at once.

For a moment, the display flickered, and something moved inside the haze near the device.

It was not a person, nor a machine.

A shape like a long shadow folded over itself, then vanished.

The shipgirl controlling the drone cursed softly before catching herself. "Sorry, Commander."

"Keep distance," Aurelian said. "Do not move closer."

Cassian’s voice was colder now. "This is no longer a standard occupation problem."

"No," Aurelian agreed.

Rhoswen looked ready to ask to go down, but even she stopped herself this time. Her instincts for battle were strong, but this was not a simple enemy line to break.

On the feed, a Kharov officer stepped onto the central platform. His uniform matched the records for Colonel Hask Renn.

He looked pale, almost feverish, but his posture was steady. Several soldiers stood beside him, though a few looked terrified.

Eirenne managed to capture part of the local audio.

"...Daskor failed because he clung to dead authority," Hask Renn said, his voice carrying through the plaza speakers. "The old chain has broken. The fleet is gone. The relay is lost. But Karven Spire will not kneel to invaders. We will call on the power beneath fear itself."

Aurelian’s jaw tightened.

The civilians in the plaza began to stir, panic spreading in waves.

Hask Renn lifted an old book or tablet bound in dark metal.

Eirenne froze the image for a fraction of a second. "That object is not in the Kharov registry."

"Vhaloric?" Astra asked.

"No. Older, or altered beyond recognition."

The black haze thickened around the central device.

Elowen spoke sharply. "The haze is reacting to the crowd. Their stress levels are rising, and the field is growing stronger."

Aurelian understood at once. "It feeds on fear?"

"Possibly emotion, bioelectric activity, or some kind of source resonance through living minds. I cannot confirm from here."

"That is enough," Cassian said. "We stop this now."

The problem was how.

Orbital bombardment risked killing the civilians. A ground assault risked entering unknown haze and triggering whatever the device was doing. Waiting might let the ritual, machine, or whatever it was, complete.

Aurelian stared at the display, forcing himself to think rather than react.

"Eirenne, can we cut the plaza speakers?"

"Yes."

"Do it. Replace them with our broadcast. Show Daskor’s capture and the black reserve footage again. Then tell the civilians to move away from the central device in every language used on the planet."

Eirenne nodded. "Working."

"Elowen, can you prepare a counteragent?"

"Not without samples," Elowen said. "But I can guide atmospheric dispersal with stabilizing aerosols. It may slow the haze if it has a physical carrier."

"Do it."

"Meridian, can drones drop signal anchors around the plaza?"

"Yes, if we accept losing some of them. The field may burn their processors."

"Accept it."

Cassian watched him for a moment, then nodded once. "Proceed."

The response began seconds later.

The plaza speakers cut out in the middle of Hask Renn’s next sentence.

For the first time, his expression broke.

Then Eirenne’s voice replaced his.

"Citizens of Vortan Redoubt. This is Crownward March command. Governor-Marshal Daskor Vey has been captured. His final order attempted to poison the lower districts of the capital. The footage now shown is verified."

Images appeared across every still-functioning public screen around the plaza. Daskor ordered the vault opened.

The aide is resisting. Rhoswen and the containment team are stopping the release. The workers are being evacuated alive.

The crowd shifted.

Fear did not vanish; it shifted more toward confusion than toward hope that what they saw was real.

Hask Renn shouted something, but the speakers no longer carried his voice.

Then Solenne’s drones swept over the plaza and dropped small signal anchors onto rooftops around the central district.

Several burned out immediately, but enough survived to strengthen Eirenne’s intrusion.

Elowen’s stabilizing aerosols followed, released by high-altitude drones in a thin silver mist that descended through the black haze, making it ripple like oil disturbed by rain.

The strange shape near the central device appeared again.

This time, more people saw it.

The crowd screamed.

The haze surged.

Aurelian’s hand tightened on the edge of the command table. "We need the civilians moving."

Rhoswen’s voice came in, quiet and controlled. "Commander, let me go to the edge. Not into the center. I can break the military cordon and open a path."

Aurelian looked at the map.

She was right.

The haze was strongest near the central device. The outer cordon was still mostly made up of normal soldiers and vehicles.

If they could open exits and push people away from the plaza, the device might lose whatever it was using.

Cassian spoke before Aurelian did. "Approved. Rhoswen, outer edge only. No entry into the central field without order."

"Understood."

Astra added, "Do not be reckless."

Rhoswen smiled faintly through the channel. "I heard you the first time."

Her drop craft launched from low orbit with a small assault support group. She entered the city’s outer haze five minutes later, not alone but at the head of armored drones and family mech infantry wearing sealed protection.