While Andrew and his subordinates were dealing with the attack on their sector of the Andromeda galaxy.
The whole universe was dealing with similar incursions with differing results.
Some system masters and even alliances managed to deal a lot of damage to the invading forces, forcing them to retreat or even jump back to their own universes to survive.
However the conflict was far from being one sided as the same people who managed to damage the enemy, also took damage and there were still many system masters, who didn't have a fleet at their disposal other than some drone fighters and some pirate ships if they took some pirates in.
With invading forces everywhere, the remaining pirates were now desperate to join anyone who would take them in and they didn't even care if they had to become slaves in the process.
Being a slave and alive was preferable to being free and dead.
-Boss we have a problem.
The acting commander of the shipyard contacted Andrew some time after they took out the fleet that attacked their system.
-What's going on?
Andrew asked, worried that the shipyard might have sustained damage they didn't detect.
-The ships that fleet commander sent, to be repaired, are not compatible with anyone in the territory.
We can repair them but there is no way for us to use them.
-Why cant we use them?
Andrew asked, sighing in relief.
-They are operated by some sort of neural network and there is no way to for us to operate them.
We could remove the interior and reconfigure it for us, but it would take longer than building a new ship.
The former pirate said.
-In that case scrap them and use their parts to build our new ships if it's possible, if not then simply turn them into resources.
Andrew decided after a moment of thought.
-While were on this subject, how long will it take to build the ships I ordered.
-If we use these ships as resources, the corvette class ships should be ready within a week the frigates need almost twice that to be built, unless we activate this shipyard at full power.
This was not the answer Andrew wanted to hear, but it also made sense since they were operating the installation on less than half power, since they were trying to conserve fuel.
Additionally even with the new storage modules which by the way were already filled to the brim, thanks to the efforts of Lanarine and Jalina.
They were still short on resources, to build destroyers.
If the corvette class ship needed over quarter of a million tons of resources to be built, the destroyer needed ten times that or even more depending on how thick the hull they planed to build, and Andrew was not to happy with the idea of having a thin hull since the moment the shields failed, the ship was pretty much done for.
-Do what you can for now, as for activating the shipyards generators to full, we will need to wait for a bit longer on that.
He finally said, hoping to bring the shipyard to full power before the second wave of the invaders came.
-Understood boss.
His subordinate said and ended the call.
-Lan how's the situation with the enemy forces and how many system masters are still active?
Andrew asked a moment later.
-The enemy forces are still dispersing around the sector as for the system masters, I can see about a two hundred and fifty of them or so still active.
The geologist replied.
This was a very low number since before the invasion there were still over a thousand of them around.
-What about the pirates?
Are any of them still around?
Theresa asked.
-Most of them got wiped out, I can only see two fleets and they are massive, which explains why they survived.
Lan answered.
-Where are they?
Andrew asked curious about the pirates who managed to survive this long, while everyone else got wiped out.
-The nearest fleet is about 340 light-years away the other one is on the very edge of our range.
Came the answer.
-If you are planing on contacting them and making them get here, to join us, It's not happening anytime soon.
Tarina said also looking on the sensor display.
-There are to many enemies on the way for them to even get here.
She added pointing on all the red markers between them and the pirate fleets.
-Not to mention that they might not have enough fuel to get here.
Theresa added.
-Alright, I get it.
Andrew shook his head.
-Rhuneek is asking to talk with you, he said it's important.
Sarill, interrupted their conversation.
-Patch him through.
Andrew said, knowing by now that the former pirate didn't like to waste anyone's time, so if he said its important, then it really was.
-Boss, I see an opportunity to capture three warships and two of the big cargo ships.
Rhuneek said, without beating around the bush.
-Show me.
Andrew's interest was piqued.
They needed a lot more ships to even deal with the first wave of the invasion, not to mention the second one which they had no idea when it would arrive.
The station master immediately sent the data, which displayed one frigate and two corvettes escorting the two cargo ships while they plundered an abandoned system only 56 light-years away from Rhuneek's system.
The best part was that there was no other enemy force in the vicinity so if they were attacked, they could not count on any reinforcements.
-Alright, This is a tempting target.
How do you plan to take them over?
Andrew asked.
-For that we would need some additional gunships and more battle droids.
The idea is to jump in, drop our boarding pods filled with the droids, fire some shots, to make it look like a real attack and then retreat, once the enemy starts firing back.
If everything goes according to plan, the enemy should drop their guard down and that's when the pods deliver the droids.
Rhuneek explained.
The plan was simple and it had quite a big chance of success.
Truth be told, even if it failed, they would at most lose some droids that could ba quickly replaced.
-Runir, what do you thing about this?
Andrew asked, wanting to hear her opinion.
-The plan is simple yet bold, I like it.
She smiled.
-We should try it, if it goes well, we get some more ships, if not then we only lose some droids and pods.
How many ships would you need?
She asked Rhuneek.
-I was planing to send ten from my station, ten from Drevon, and ten from your fleet.
That way, I wont need to send most of the system defense fleet to try this.
The former pirate explained.
-I'm all for it.
Runir said before Andrew could even ask.
-If that's the case, then go for it.
Andrew agreed.
Such a chance would most likely not present itself anytime soon again, and they needed every advantage they could get.
Not to mention that even though it was just the first day of the invasion, they had to start chipping away at the enemy's numbers, before they got reinforced.
The preparations for the assault took around two hours and another two for the gunships to arrive at Rhuneek's station.
once they were all there, the fleet organized itself into groups of five ships as to not attract the Kraken and jumped away.
As usual the waiting was the worst part of the whole operation.
However when it was time for action the thirty gunships worked like they have rehearsed this scenario a hundred times.
They jumped near the enemy vessels and opened fire on them as soon as they could target them, while deploying the boarding pods at the same time.
The enemy ships were so surprised that the first few railgun rounds hit the targets, damaging the ships and in one case a lucky shot went straight through one of the corvettes bridge, taking out it's command crew.
However this was all they managed to do as the enemy ships activated their shields and returned fire, the moment they understood what was going on.
This was the moment that all gunships jumped away, before they got hit as there was no way they could take a direct hit from a frigate and survive.
The enemy fleet stayed vigilant for the next five hours, with their shields up and the weapons charged, but seeing as the gunships retreated and didn't seem to want to come back, they finally relaxed their defenses.
-It was only then that the boarding pods activated and before the enemy knew what was going on, they all slammed into their hulls, delivering the battle droids, which started to clear the ships immediately.
With every pod capable of storing twenty bots, each ship got boarded by 120 battle droids, and the crews were shocked once more, but this time they had no time to react as the moment they were found by the droids they were taken out.
The battle for the ships lasted less than an hour and the droids took 67 casualties, while all the crews on board the ships got wiped out.
The aliens looked like an oversized parrots, without a beak and with the four fingered hands in front of their wings.
As soon as the ships were cleared, the gunships came back and dropped some boarding crews to take them over.
-Boss what should we do with the bodies?
Rhuneek asked, once the ships were secured.
-Bring them back for funeral.
Andrew decided.
He watched the clearing of the ships through the droid cameras and was impressed by the tenacity of the crews.
They might have been his enemies, but that didn't mean he should not respect them, especially after the way they fought for their vessels.
Not one alien asked for pardon, or even tried to surrender, they all died fighting and in Andrew's eyes they deserved a decent burial, to honor their bravery.
It took over an hour for the boarding crews to figure out how to operate the ships, but once they did, the FTL drives were charged up and they jumped away.
only when the ships entered the FTL flight, did Andrew let out a sigh of relief.
After a long day, Andrew ordered half of the crews to get some rest while the other hald stood guard.
The last thing he needed was to be taken out by a surprise attack.