The moment the modules they bought arrived, every station got busy connecting them, especially the small MACs, which gave them the power to fight against bigger ships and have a chance at victory.
Aelita was prepared beforehand, so all she had to do was implement her plans and leave the rest for the drones to handle, while she went to connect the matter converters and the fabricator.
At the same time, Runir and Arien had switched to the two new heavy frigates that had just arrived, and left their previous ships to the captains from the gunships, while they left their ships to their first officers.
The two new ships were already fully loaded, crewed by droids, and ready to enter service as soon as the two ladies registered as their new captains.
-Boss, are there any ships that need a captain?
Giarna asked as soon as she entered the command center.
-Not for now, but three heavy frigates are getting ready to launch from the shipyard.
Andrew answered.
-Let me guess, you're bored and want to join the fleet.
The captain was not exactly the most sociable person and preferred to have some alone time, or to play chess with other ladies.
However, whenever Andrew needed to talk to her, she was always available, no matter the time of day.
Additionally, her sisters were also very cooperative, so he had a good impression of her.
-It's not that I don't appreciate the downtime on board the station, but I'm not capable of just sitting around doing nothing while there is such a big event going on.
-You would need to talk to Runir; she is the fleet commander, and I think that it would be more in line if you took over a standard frigate, then one of the heavies.
Andrew said while thinking about it.
-I don't care, I would not even mind taking over a Corvette as long as it's a real warship.
As to the fleet commander, I don't think there will be any trouble, as long as you approve of it.
The former pirate captain said.
-Alright, I'll let her decide which ship will be assigned to you, but you better listen to her orders, especially in a combat situation.
Andrew warned her.
He didn't have to add anything else as Giarna was well aware that this was her chance to prove herself and become something more than a liaison, and she didn't want to waste this chance.
Truth be told, she didn't expect Andrew to agree this easily, but she was happy he did and she was determined to prove that his trust was well placed.
Runir didn't assign her to one of the heavy frigates, as they were meant to be sent to the other stations to boost their fleets, but she did give her a frigate whose captain would take over a heavy frigate.
The only exception was Arien, but even she would not be assigned to her people, and instead, she was going to join Theresa's fleet.
With all the activity around the territory, the remaining time went by before anyone noticed.
-Andrew we have portal opening 370 light years away.
Lan said as soon as she got the notification.
-Can we see how many and what class of ships are coming through?
He asked.
-Nothing for now, but they are right in the middle of a system and it looks like the system master is mobilizing his fleet to try and stop the invaders.
She said seeing as squadrons of drone fighters and two corvette class ships approached the portal.
-There is another one in the system with the AI, she said a moment later.
After that she was notified every few seconds of another portal within their sensor range.
It didn't even take five minutes for them to see over three dozen portals and new ones were still popping up one after the other.
It was a terrifying sight as this was just within 500 light-years of their sensor range in a galaxy which was over 200 000 light-years across.
Considering all this, Andrew begun to wonder if it was even possible to defend themselves from such an onslaught.
However just like Tanera had explained to them.
Without a jump gate to connect to, the portals appeared randomly which sometimes had a disastrous implications for the invading fleet.
Lanarine spotted one such case, when a portal opened up right next to a star and as soon as the invasion fleet jumped in, it was incinerated, not even allowing the sensors to detect the class of the ships which arrived.
However there were also instances when the random portals appeared right next to the station in a system, enabling it to take out the system master, before he could even react.
-We have a first portal in our territory.
Lanarine suddenly informed, displaying Drevon's station and the small fleet protecting it.
The portal opened about two and a half million kilometers away from the station, and the invading fleet didn't jump in immediately, giving the fleet time to react.
Drevon didn't wait for the whole enemy fleet to arrive and ordered to open fire as soon as the first ships arrived.
The first corvette that jumped in, didn't even have the time to activate it's shields before it was hit by five gunships and left drifting in space for about twenty seconds, before one of the ships that followed, run into it, destroying both vessels and leaving a debris field which damaged another few ships.
All in all, the battle lasted only about 10 minutes and Drevon's forces came out on top with three gunships damaged, while the enemy force was annihilated, mostly by the wrecks of their own vessels.
The total was 25 corvette class vessels, 3 frigates and 8 large ships, which were not even armed.
All destroyed in minutes, by much weaker opponent.
However, not many systems had as much luck.
In most cases, the invading forces swatted away the defensive fleet and then targeted the station, overwhelming it with their numbers and firepower.
The fleet that Attacked the big alien's system was comparatively small, considering the size if the forces Lanarine saw coming through the portals.
By the time the former pirate dealt with the uninvited visitors, the portals stopped popping out, but their number increased to over a hundred within the sensor range.
The defense efforts by the system and station masters, had mixed results, some managed to defend their systems, destroying the enemy fleet or forcing it to retreat.
Others, were not as lucky, and even if they managed to inflict serious damage upon the invaders, many stations got destroyed or boarded and their owners captured.
The worst fate awaited the pirates who didn't manage to find a lord who would take them in.
Every invasion fleet that found any of them, wiped them out, without mercy.
Andrew and everyone under his command, watched in horror as the numbers of the invading ships grew.
In only this small space they were monitoring, the enemy numbers grew to over ten thousand ships, ranging from corvette class, to destroyers, and there were also hundreds of the unarmed large ships, that were the size of a heavy cruiser.
Soon their role was displayed as in the systems the invaders managed to capture, they immediately begun to gather all the resources belonging to the defeated system master.
-These guys didn't come here to capture territory, they came for the resources.
Lanarine said, seeing as the big cargo ships, cleared out everything they could including the parts of their ships that were destroyed.
-It look's like it.
Andrew nodded.
-Tanera told us about them and she was right.
Aelita chimed in.
-Yes, and another thing that checks out is that they will also fight each other, if the cross paths.
Andrew said displaying a skirmish between two of the invading fleets, over a system one of them managed to capture.
-This gives us a chance survive this.
He added.
If the enemy forces were united, there would be nothing they could have done do defend themselves as such an armada would simply sweep through the systems taking them out without much difficulty.
However as long as the invading fleets were divided and competing with each other over the resources, they had a chance of defending the territory.
-Lan, which fleet is the largest at the moment?
Andrew asked, seeing a lot of fleets in different sizes and configuration moving about in all directions.
-The largest one has over a hundred ships at the moment and is on its way out of our sensor range.
Lanarine said marking it on the display.
-The Kraken is back.
She suddenly said, highlighting the icon on the display.
The creature that once took out a small pirate fleet, was now hunting the invaders who never considered the possibility of it's appearance in this place.
One by one the smaller fleets, that decided to conserve fuel by using a single FTL bubble, begun to disappear, whenever the creature chased one down, reducing their numbers by dozens of ships in a short time.
-This thing is treating the invasion as an all you can eat buffet.
Theresa said from the entrance to the command center.
As she entered just in time to see the slaughter displayed on the main screen.
Everyone turner their heads to see her sitting in her wheel chair that was being pushed by Kirna.
-Shouldn't you be resting right now?
Andrew asked surprised to see her in the command center.
-I rested enough in the tank and I also wanted to see what this whole invasion looked like.
She responded.
Thanks to the healing orchestrated by the creators, she had her hands and legs fully restored ahead of time, but it would take time for her to regain their full use, so she was still using the wheelchair to move around.
-Since you're already here, then you can join us.
Aelita invited her in.
-It seems, that calling back our scouts from that system was a good move.
Nairin, said, while watching their surroundings on her hole-screen and focusing on the system they encountered the undamaged ships with dead crews.
The fleet that jumped into the system in question was now sitting still, with no life signs on board of any of its ships.
The invading forces were even smaller than the fleet that Attacked Drevon, but they didn't even have the chance to open fire or do anything for that matter before their atmosphere was wanted into space, turning the few ships into ghost ships.
-It seems so.
Andrew agreed.
Not that he didn't have an idea about taking the hacker or the AI down, but at the moment it was better to leave it alone and let it take down as many enemy ships as possible.
The next three hours could only be described as bloody.
The invasion fleets, continuously attacked the surrounding systems and each other.
Andrew's system was no exception to this as a small fleet also tried to attack his station.
Not that they even had a chance, using one frigate and seven corvette's.
Runir, quickly devised a plan to take them down while preserving the ships and implemented it as soon as they jumped into the system.
The result was three corvettes destroyed and the rest of the ships were damaged and captured.
Then the battle droids, went through them with the Terminator protocol active, eliminating the crews, which were freaky to say the least as they were some kind of oversized jelly fish creatures.
Not that it made any difference to the droids that simply wanted the atmosphere from all the remaining ships.
The whole battle lasted only about two minutes and the sweep of the ships took another hour, before they were transported to the shipyard for repairs, courtesy of some drones.
The best part in this event was that Runir's fleet didn't sustain even one casualty.
With this done, everyone once again focused on the sensor display and the enemy ship count, which was going down quite fast.
The battles, took their tool on the invading fleets, and the Kraken was also still around taking out every fleet it was attracted to.
However the main reason for the rapid drop in the enemy numbers was mainly attributed to them leaving the sensor range of Andrew's station.
Three hours after the first portal opened, the enemy forces in the 500 light year radius from Andrew's station, dropped by more than half of their beginning numbers.
However it was still almost 5000 ships and the threat they represented couldn't be ignored.
What's worse, this was only the first wave of the invasion and if what the merchant told them was true and they had no reason to think otherwise, it was also the weakest of them all.