As the four ships went full speed to their target like a pack of hungry wolfs, chasing their prey.
As they went Andrew kept an eye on their target as well as their route, to be sure there was no surprise waiting for them once they arrived.
He also was looking at the invading fleets as their count fell lower and lower as they were either destroyed or in most cases, they simply left his sensor range.
At the beginning of the invasion, there were over 10,000 ships, now there were barely 1900 ships left in the sensor range.
Considering the pace at which they were dispersing, Andrew deduced that before the second wave arrived, the number of ships would fall under a thousand, mostly belonging to the fleets that took over systems and held them as footholds for their reinforcements.
No matter how much he wanted to take these fleets down, he knew better than to try especially since these fleets consisted solely of combat vessels and had at least three destroyers or more at their disposal.
Challenging them would result in heavy losses to his fleet or even its total annihilation, depending on the victory or defeat.
Andrew immediately pushed these thoughts away and focused on the matter at hand.
Arien's fleet was nearing the target system and they were way ahead of the slave ship, which would still need around half an hour to arrive.
The frigates arrived in the system and didn't even stop to regroup before they went for the slaver's base.
However, there was nothing there.
No defenses, no shields, not even a sign of a station or any kind of base.
-Andrew, this is strange, I could have sworn this was their base.
Arien contacted him when she didn't find anything.
-Are there any signs of habitation anywhere in the system?
Andrew asked, not liking this development one bit.
-No, this system looks like it has never been inhabited, We are not even detecting any signs of mining in the asteroid field.
She answered after checking the data from the ship's sensors.
-Is the wormhole still active?
He asked, having a bad feeling.
-It just opened.
-Retreat, get out of there immediately.
Andrew shouted the moment he heard that.
Arien didn't protest or argue and immediately ordered an emergency jump.
Just as her ships went into FTL Andrew saw a fleet emerging from the wormhole.
One after the other 32 ships emerged with the smallest being a group of 12 pirate ships to one heavy frigate class vessel.
If Arien hadn't jumped out when she did, this fleet would be more than enough to take out her four ships, even though, they would have to pay a hefty price to take them down.
The commodore ships jumped out of the FTL two light years away from the system.
-Why did you tell us to jump away?
She asked, not knowing what was going on until she saw the sensor readout and went pale.
-It was a trap, if you stayed there even a moment longer you would have fallen into it.
The human calmly explained.
-Also, you're not out of danger yet, the fleet that you evaded seems to be preparing to pursue you, so get back here as fast as you can, if they follow you, we will take them out here.
He added seeing as the fleet jumped out and was directly on course to intercept Arien and her ships.
Seeing this Arien didn't waste any time and ordered her ships to return to base at top speed.
Andrew also didn't stay idle and scrambled the fleet, while preparing the system defenses for the incoming enemies.
If that fleet was crazy enough to challenge his system.
He would take it out and maybe get some more ships as well.
The pursuing fleet adjusted its course the moment, Arien's ships jumped out again.
It seemed that they were determined to catch her.
Andrew attributed this to their lack of knowledge that she was part of a much bigger force, or they never met an enemy they were unable to take down.
Whatever the case was, the moment they entered his system, he would take them down and no amount of confidence would be able to save them from that fate.
As the two fleets approached the system, Andrew managed to prepare everything to give their guests a warm welcome.
The four frigates jumped in first and Andrew immediately ordered them to relocate behind the defense fleet, to clear the field of fire.
Not even five minutes later the pursuing fleet arrived, but as soon as they jumped in, all the ships hit the reverse thrust, seeing the fleet and the defenses of the system they just jumped into.
It was one thing to chase four frigates, even if two of them were heavy frigates, and a whole different story when they faced a fleet along with a station and a shipyard, which were heavily armed and shielded.
-To the fleet pursuing my vessels, I suggest you surrender now, or face the consequences.
Andrew opened a channel and said, coldly.
However, the fleet responded by opening fire on everything in sight, without a warning.
The heavy frigates, the station, and the shipyard took the enemy fire, but their shields held.
Now it was Andrew's forces' turn and the moment they returned fire, the enemy ships started going down.
The pirate ships were the first to go since their shields were the weakest, followed by almost half of the corvettes, and one frigate.
That was the result of the first salvo, by the time the second one was fired the drone fighters started their runs, dropping bombs and launching missiles at the enemy ships, draining their shields, until they collapsed.
The enemy did what they could, to damage or take out at least some of Andrew's forces, but the only effect of their efforts was the destruction of three dozen fighters and one of his frigates losing its shields before it retreated while it was shielded by a heavy frigate, that took the incoming fire on its own shields.
In less than five minutes from the first shots being fired, most of the enemy fleet was either dead in space, destroyed, or at best lost its shields, and was taking damage.
However, even when facing such colossal defeat, they never even tried to retreat, which baffled Andrew and everyone else as well.
In normal circumstances, the only solution was to try and escape or surrender, but these guys never even tried and fought till the end.
It took another five minutes before the last enemy vessel lost power.
-Send in the droids, and if possible find me someone alive in that fleet, I want to know why they refused to surrender and why they even pursued Arien all the way here for that matter.
Andrew ordered the moment the enemy fleet stopped firing.
By this time all the ships were damaged to various degrees, and he wasn't sure if any of them were salvageable at this point.
The droids went through the ships unusually fast, and the reason for it was that everyone inside was already dead.
They didn't die from the battle, at least not all of them.
The crews that survived, all committed suicide in one way or another.
Some used their side arms to end themselves, and some that were not armed simply overwrote the safety protocols and vented themselves into space.
There were no survivors.
Andrew watched the whole thing from the droids cameras, noticing, that the wounded were killed by their cremates before they ended themselves.
It was strange, to say the least as not many beings would simply delete themselves to avoid capture and to make the whole matter even weirder, it was not just one species it was a whole mix.
He could recognize some of the species, but many he saw for the first time.
-Arien, make sure to bring the bodies to the main station, I want to know what the hell is going on.
Andrew said, seeing the slaughter.
He was not worried about the data as the shipyard could extract it if there was anything to extract.
Which was doubtful since it would make no sense to kill all the crew and leave the data to let the enemy learn about you.
A few hours later all the ships, or what was left of them, were sitting in the shipyard and as Andrew predicted, the data was erased in most of them, with the only exceptions being a Corvette class ship that was almost completely destroyed when the shipyard's energy beam cut it in half, and two of the pirate ships which were not much better.
However, by some miracle, their hard drives managed to survive, and since the crews died almost instantly, there was no one to delete the files or destroy the devices.
The shipyard crew also informed him that the ships were not worth repairing and it would be better to use them as resources to build the ships he ordered.
Andrew agreed to this since the repairs would take from two weeks to over a month, in which time he could build new ships instead.
The only change was that he had ordered another 5 heavy frigates, 10 frigates, and 10 corvettes to be built, on top of repairing all the ships from the previous battles.
He also agreed to drain all the fuel they found on board the destroyed ships into the shipyard's tanks, as some of the current crew discovered the reason the AI was not activating.
It turned out to be a fail safe that activated whenever the installation was low on fuel and needed to use the reserve tanks as the AI used a lot of power.
This was also the reason why it took so long to repair and build ships, as at the moment the shipyard was operating on approximately 20% power and to work at full speed, it required a minimum of 90%.
-Andrew, can you come to the medical module?
Iliana's voice came through his bracelet the moment he finished speaking with the shipyard.
-I'm on my way.
He answered and went to see what she had discovered.
The doctor was tasked with scanning the bodies of the aliens they encountered and trying to figure out if there was a medical reason for their mass suicide.
The moment Andrew entered the module he was speechless as the body in the scanner belonged to a human.
A male in his late twenties judging from the looks of it and he was one of the guys that committed suicide,
-Did you find out anything?
Andrew asked once he got over the surprise.
--Yes, I did.
Ilia said showing him a small glass jar with something inside.
He took a closer look and recognized the small device immediately.
-They were all slaves.
The doctor said, pointing at the small mountain of similar jars, each containing a slavery chip.
It took a moment for Andrew to understand the implications of her discovery.
-You mean…
-The most likely scenario is that they were ordered to avoid capture by committing suicide and to never retreat in battle no matter what.
She confirmed his worst fears.
Andrew understood that he had the same ability to control others, but it never even crossed his mind to use it this way.
The sheer thought that he could do something like this terrified him.
-Don't overthink it, you are not the kind of person to do something like this.
Iliana said, seeing his terrified expression.
-But I do have the power to do this.
Andrew said blankly.
-You had this power all this time and you never used it.
What's more, your reaction right now, tells me that you never even thought of using it that way, and I doubt you ever will.
She said like she was stating the obvious fact.
-You're right, and seeing the result of such power, I don't want it.
The moment we get our hands on the Tier 5 regeneration tank, all your chips are going to be removed.
He promised.
Swearing to himself, to never use this power in such a way and to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Iliana looked at him in surprise.
She never thought that this revelation would make him want to remove all their chips or that he would be afraid of ever abusing his power over them in such a way, but she also understood that such power was most likely very tempting and he wanted to remove the temptation along with any chance of him ever using his power in such a way.