Chapter 173: Moving Towards The Artifact That They Came Here For 3

Aurelian didn’t make a show of it.

He simply stepped forward and offered his hand.

The unit took the sample without hesitation and sealed itself again.

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then the system reacted.

It wasn’t fast, not like anything new, but steady in a way that made it clear it still worked.

Something deeper in the walls began to wake up, one layer at a time, as if it had been waiting for the right signal and had finally received it.

Old locks turned slowly. Seals disengaged with a low, tired sound. Power began shifting somewhere below, moving along lines that hadn’t carried anything in a long time.

Neris watched the readings as they changed, her focus sharp even if she didn’t move much.

"It looks like you pass," she said.

Aurelian didn’t look at her, but just nodded as he kinda knew this would happen.

The last barrier opened.

The space below was different from the rest of the station. It wasn’t large in the same way the outer structure had been large.

This was smaller, tighter, and built with a clear purpose. Everything about it felt deliberate, as if it had been made to ensure whatever was inside was safe.

Storage lines sat in clean rows, though most were now empty. Some were broken. Some are still sealed.

Whatever had once been stored here had been important enough to place near the core of the system.

Most of it was gone.

But not all of it.

Eirenne walked ahead of them and stopped in front of one of the remaining sealed compartments.

"This is the engine artifact," she said.

The compartment opened quietly.

Inside, the item they had come for rested in place, held inside a stabilization frame that had survived better than most of the station around it.

Even before Neris moved closer to scan it properly, Aurelian could tell it wasn’t a waste of time.

It was real.

At least blue-grade.

Maybe better.

Neris stepped closer and studied it without rushing.

For a moment, she said nothing.

Then she let out a slow breath.

"This is good," she said. "Very good."

Rhoswen leaned in slightly, her interest clear now that something real was in front of them. "So that means we’re done, right?"

Neris shook her head. "That means the trip was worth it. It doesn’t mean we’re done."

That wasn’t the answer Rhoswen wanted, but she didn’t argue with it.

Aurelian didn’t focus solely on the engine. While Neris handled the transfer process, he looked around the rest of the vault.

There were other things here, too. Not all of them are in good condition, and not all of them are immediately useful, but enough to matter.

Smaller pieces. Old components. Damaged but recognizable equipment that could still have value later if handled properly.

Nothing here replaced the engine.

But none of it was useless either.

Still, the engine was the center of it all.

Rhoswen stepped back slightly and looked toward Eirenne.

"So, is there anything else that we need to look for?"

She wanted to know because there could be something else of value they could grab.

Hearing this, the others grew curious as well.

Eirenne turned her head slightly as she tried to check if there was anything else of use or value.

Aurelian answered after a short pause.

"That depends on whether they are still something og calue or rare, as we can’t waste time searching for low-level items," he said.

Eirenne looked at him again.

This time, the reaction was clear.

"My lord," she said, "that would require—"

"Yes," he said, cutting her off gently. "I know that it would take time, which is why you just need to do a surface search and that’s it."

At the same time, he was thinking about which roles he could ask Eirenne to fill, as she has enough computational power to handle a lot of tasks.

He already knew what it would take, and he was already thinking about how it could fit. A system like this wasn’t something you ignored, not when it came with something like her.

Eirenne wasn’t just useful. She was built for this kind of work, the kind that didn’t scale well with normal people alone.

He had already understood that.

Now he had proof.

Families like his didn’t build commanders to hold multiple systems and then expect them to do it alone.

They provided support like this because they knew what was needed at that level. It wasn’t just ships and force. It was structured.

Coordination. Something that could keep everything from falling apart when it grew too large to manage by hand.

That matched what he was building.

So he wasn’t going to ignore it.

Rhoswen looked between them. "So what else is left after?"

Eirenne answered before Aurelian did.

"It seems that there is nothing else worth of value that I can find."

Rhoswen grinned. "Good."

That settled that.

The rest of the work proceeded without much talk. The engine was secured properly. The rest of the vault was marked, with anything worth coming back for logged and set aside for later.

Eirenne pointed out deeper sections of the archive that could still be recovered if they returned with more support.

Neris was already thinking ahead, working through how the new engine would change things once it was installed.

The mission is pretty much over now.

By the time they started heading back toward the ship, the station didn’t feel the same.

Before, it had felt like something unknown, something empty and broken.

Now it felt different, not because they did something to it, because they did not, but because of the new addition to the team and also the devastation of this place, which made them even more determined to grow stronger.

As they walked, Rhoswen glanced around the worn corridors, the same dim lights and damaged walls. "You know, this place looked worse before we came in."

Neris gave her a look. "It still looks bad."

"Yeah," Rhoswen said, a faint grin showing. "But now it just gives a different vibe."

Aurelian said nothing.

He didn’t need to. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Because she was right.