I've had Shipcore bookmarked for a while to eventually check out, but it looks like Act 1 was deleted? Is this an error, or some kind of Kindle exclusivity thing?
From what I heard Shards was dropped because demoness was a more interesting story, and that shards wasn’t really working as a pallet cleanser / writing aid.
Shipcore is, unfortunately, is a space scifi that was written like a litrpg fantasy novel. I cannot enjoy it as my brain hate any space operas that's not hard-scifi.
It doesn't really begin until later in A3. Even then the focus is never heavily on romance, but her relationships are definitely an important part of her life.