Farther out in the system, there was a dead star.

It didn’t shine anymore. It just sat there, dim and empty.

Whatever pull it used to have over the space around it was gone now, and what remained was a quiet, broken place filled with drifting rock and scattered debris.

Some of it was small enough to pass without notice, while other pieces were large enough that they might once have been called worlds, back when they still had meaning.

Now, they didn’t.

There was no life here. No heat. No reason for anything to grow or survive. Just silence, the kind that felt old, like this place had been abandoned for so long that even decay had slowed down and settled into something still.

The target they were looking for sat closer in, resting on one of the larger asteroid masses drifting through that empty space.

At first, it didn’t look like anything special.

Just another rock.

But that changed once the drones started scanning it properly.

"Contact traces," Meridian said after a short pause, her voice calm but focused. "Artificial. Buried."

Rhoswen folded her arms, looking down at the surface through the feed. "So they really are here."

Aurelian had never doubted that.

The clue had been too specific, and everything else around it had matched up too well for it to be wrong.

Still, seeing confirmation with his own eyes made a difference. It turned something that had been a strong possibility into something real.

He didn’t wait after that.

He sent the first wave of drones and support frames down immediately.

The surface wasn’t easy to work with. It was rough, covered in layers of old dust, impact marks, and debris that had built up over time, but even with that, the search didn’t take as long as he expected.

There weren’t many places that showed the kind of signals they were looking for, and once the drones started clearing away the outer layers, it became obvious which one mattered.

There was only one main section that gave off the right readings.

And once they focused on it, the signs showed up fast.

Specialized warship alloy.

Buried deep under everything else, but still there.

That changed how everything felt.

These weren’t ships that had been carefully hidden away in some intact hangar or sealed dock.

They had gone down hard.

Maybe they had been forced to land in a hurry. Maybe they had crashed while trying to escape.

Maybe they had been buried over time by impacts and shifting debris. It didn’t really matter how it happened.

What mattered was that they were here.

And they were real.

The excavation spread out from that first point, the drones working steadily as they cleared away layer after layer.

Within a day, parts of the first hull started to show, large sections of armor breaking through the surface like something long buried finally coming back into view.

They didn’t look intact.

They looked broken.

One of the cruisers was split badly enough that even Rhoswen, who usually didn’t react to things like that, went quiet for a moment when she saw it.

The damage ran deep, not just surface-level, the kind that told you the impact had been hard and final.

Another one had part of its outer frame twisted and crushed into the surrounding debris, like it had been caught in something it couldn’t fight through.

The third and fourth were in better shape, at least compared to the others, but that didn’t mean they were in good condition.

They were still damaged, still buried, still far from anything that could be called ready.

Rhoswen looked over the exposed wrecks, her usual confidence a little quieter this time.

"Do they still have a chance?" she asked.

Meridian didn’t answer right away.

She moved through the data carefully, scanning each section, checking the structure and integrity, and assessing which systems might still exist beneath everything that had been buried.

She didn’t rush it, taking her time to go through what mattered instead of guessing.

After a while, she spoke.

"Yes."

Just one word.

But it was enough.

The mood shifted as soon as she said it, not because anyone had fully given up hope before, but because hearing it from her, standing here and looking directly at the wrecks, carried more weight than anything else.

Aurelian stepped closer to the display showing the excavation map, his eyes moving over the shapes that were slowly being uncovered.

It wasn’t hard to picture what it had been like.

Years, maybe longer, sitting there under layers of rock and debris, no movement, no contact, no one coming back for them.

If any part of them had remained aware, even just a little, then that kind of wait wouldn’t have been nothing.

It would have meant something.

Rhoswen looked at the same thing, then turned her attention back to him.

"We’ll come back for them."

"Yes," he said.

It wasn’t meant to comfort anyone.

It wasn’t meant to sound good.

It was just the truth.

He had seen enough now to know the ruin field was real, that the site was worth the effort, and that the four cruisers could still be brought back if he handled it properly.

But not now.

Not today.

Trying to do it now would be a mistake.

He still had other things to deal with first, things that mattered more in the short term. The strike through Mournveil wasn’t ready yet, the route still needed to be confirmed, and the March itself still needed to stay stable while he pushed into enemy space.

This couldn’t come before that.

But it would come.

He had what he needed now.

Proof that the ships were there.

A clear idea of their condition.

Markers for excavation.

And Meridian.

She stood there, looking at the exposed cruisers through her working displays, her voice steady as she spoke.

"If we come back with the right support, I can save them."

Aurelian believed her.

There wasn’t any hesitation in his answer.

"Then we will return," he said.

Rhoswen looked over the wrecks one more time, then gave a slow nod.

"Good."

The world around them stayed quiet after that, the same empty silence as before.