Star Ship Girl Era: My Shipgirls Are Too Overpowered-Chapter 10: Source Energy

Two thousand three hundred meant Astra’s hull was not just special, it was large and something he could not wait to see.

Aurelian folded the bill once and handed it back toward the machine’s tray for logging. "They’re definitely enjoying this event."

Astra’s eyes flicked to him. "Is that a problem?"

He shook his head. "Not today."

Because for him, the academy’s cost didn’t matter the same way it mattered to others. The family resources were there, and more importantly, he understood that paying now meant controlling the pace later.

The worst thing a new commander could do was awaken a high-level shipgirl and then leave her floating without a hull because they got stuck waiting for dock access.

He set his hand on the control panel and initiated the build.

A confirmation prompt flashed, resource intake confirmed, and then the dock came alive, scaffolding fields rising like invisible ribs while the first streams of materials flowed in and began forming the base layer.

Aurelian watched the holographic timer lock in.

Three days.

Even with rapid-build, a proper Tier IV ship hull did not appear overnight.

"The dock will handle most of it automatically," he said, partly to Astra and partly to himself as he watched the arms move into position.

"But you’ll need to stay in the area for the fine alignment and finishing work; the system always wants the shipgirl close for the last phase."

Astra nodded once, as if it were obvious, then looked at the growing framework with a calm that made it hard to tell whether she was eager or simply patient by nature.

"I’ll be here," she said. "And it might be a good thing, as I have been asleep for too long."

Aurelian accepted that and stepped back from the panel, because there was nothing else he could do here besides watch the dock do its job, and he had three triplets who were about to set off their own explosions inside the construction wing.

He pulled out his device again, and the admin messages he had ignored earlier were still stacked at the top, as if the system was offended he had not clicked them.

The first was a status update.

Citizen Classification Updated: Commander Candidate Confirmed.

Commander Network Registered: Active.Privileges Updated: Dock Access, Restricted Zones, Commander Resource Ledger Enabled.

Under that were the usual rule packets, the kind everyone pretended to read but still got tested on later, things like conduct in restricted zones, shipgirl bond laws, commander responsibility clauses, fleet ownership limits for new registrants, and warning notices about unauthorized construction attempts outside approved windows.

He skimmed it anyway, mostly out of habit, because even if he had heard it all before, it was always better to know what the system thought you had agreed to.

Next was a short message about academy communications, how his device had been linked to the galaxy-level networks that commanders use to communicate, and how certain content would be pushed to him automatically now that he had crossed the threshold.

Then he saw the video.

New Commander Orientation Video: Galactic Human Alliance Historical Briefing.

It had a clean thumbnail, a bright emblem, and a play button that looked almost cheerful for something meant to summarize humanity’s survival.

Aurelian glanced toward the construction dock one more time, then stepped aside to a quiet bench area near the platform where he could still see Astra and the build process without hovering.

Astra remained standing near the hull framework, like a sentinel guarding something that was still being born.

He tapped play.

The screen brightened, and a polished, upbeat commentator appeared, a beautiful woman with a clear voice and a friendly smile that made the whole thing feel like a welcome video for a luxury cruise instead of a military alliance.

"Welcome, Commander," she said, tone warm and direct. "If you’re watching this, it means you’ve taken your first step into the core structure of the Galactic Human Alliance, and whether you realize it or not, your life just became part of something much bigger than your home sector."

The video shifted into clean visuals, showing star maps, old colony footage, early warp ships, and historical dates.

"It was the year 2888," the commentator continued. "Two hundred years after humanity mastered warp travel, expanded through nearby systems, and even touched the edges of the nearest galaxy."

Images showed sleek old exploration fleets passing through warp lanes, and then faded into something darker, quieter, as if the tone was turning without fully dropping the smile.

"At that time, humanity believed it was alone inside its known boundary. Technology kept us alive, and for a while, that was enough."

Aurelian watched closely, because this part mattered, not just as history, but because it was tied to the world he was stepping into now.

"Then something changed," the commentator said, and the visuals shifted to a single pioneer ship crossing an invisible line on the star map. "A boundary was crossed, and with it, a barrier that had kept something out was disturbed."

The word Source Energy appeared on screen.

"Source energy entered human space for the first time in recorded history," she explained.

"No one knew about it, no one gave it much thought, but once it arrived, everything humanity thought it knew about reality changed."

The video cut to old footage of early awakenings, blurred faces, ships reacting strangely, people standing in shock as systems lit up without being touched.

"Commanders began to appear," the commentator continued, still upbeat but now with a seriousness under the tone.

"And ships that had been with humanity through countless challenges began to change as well. Warships, exploration vessels, escort hulls, even ancient frameworks thought obsolete began manifesting as shipgirls."

Aurelian’s eyes remained calm as he listened, because he had learned versions of this before, but the way the alliance framed it always revealed what they wanted new commanders to believe.

"At first, shipgirls only manifested naturally during that initial wave," the commentator said. "But humanity adapted quickly. Methods were researched. Protocols were developed. Construction processes were refined until awakening shipgirls became something commanders could initiate with the right qualifications and resources."

The visuals shifted again, now showing old flags dissolving, borders fading, and new symbols rising: family crests, faction emblems, alliance banners.

"And as commanders rose, the old world structure fell apart," she said, voice still smooth. "Nation-states could not hold the same power when a single commander with a strong shipgirl could dominate an entire region, especially when commanders required territorial expansion to sustain their fleets."

Aurelian leaned back slightly as the video showed resource flows, planet installations, and the first versions of large-scale extraction systems.

"To support commanders, humanity developed specialized infrastructure," the commentator continued. "Source Extractors and Source Purifiers made it possible to harvest source fragments from livable worlds, refine them, and distribute them through alliance channels."

The video did not go deep into the technical details, only showing clean diagrams and simple explanations, the kind that made sense now but would mean more later once he saw the systems in action.

"As factions formed and families rose, the alliance structure evolved into what you see today," she concluded.

"Sectors, territories, and power networks held together by commanders and their fleets, with the alliance coordinating expansion and survival against threats outside the boundary."

The next line came with a bright smile again, as if the video wanted to end on hope rather than pressure.

"And now you’re part of it," she said. "Your actions will shape your territory, your fleet, and the future of humanity’s reach. Welcome to this brand new world where you will either rise like the sun or fade like a comet."

The video ended.

Aurelian sat still for a moment, device screen dimming slightly as it waited for his next input.

He understood why the alliance sent that video the moment someone became a commander. It wasn’t just history; it was conditioning, a clean reminder that commanders were not just fighters; they were pillars, and pillars were expected to hold weight without complaining.

He glanced back toward the dock again.

Astra was still there, calm and steady as she looked towards her ship that was being constructed with a dazed look as if reminiscing about something.

Then his device buzzed again.

Aurelian looked down, expecting another admin packet, but it was a message thread he actually cared about.

From Mirei: Wowwwwww, you won’t believe what rarity of a ship I awakened. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

From Yelena: Huh? You too?.

From Katsura: ....? You too?

Seeing this, Aurelian knew that the girls had awakened their ship girls, and from the looks of it, they seemed to like it very much.