Chapter 41 They did pay.
It took humanity three months to get ready and now it was time to avenge their fallen.
The three cruisers were as good as new and now they had five destroyers, eight frigates and seventeen corvettes as support.
All the captured ships were scrapped or repurposed to carry the materials.
First space dock was already building the next cruiser and the second dock was coming online within days.
All the ships were ready to go.
They were separated into three groups each group had a cruiser,destroyer,two frigates and five corvettes.
They would go to every coordinate provided by the scout ships and eliminate the pirates.
The idea was to send two groups out with the third remaining on standby to protect the system and swapping them out after every battle for rest and resupply.
The first to go was Mikael and Steuner and it took only two days to accomplish their mission.
Then it was Simon and steuner on the next sortie and they returned three days later with some pirate ships and a large amount of goods.
It took them another month to clear the pirates in only one sector but as they went out to clear out the outlaws,the next cruiser was completed and joined the rotation which increased their clearing efficiency.
As time went by the size of the Terran fleet increased and also the pirates count went down more rapidly.
After two months of being hunted,the pirates decided to try and attack the sol system again but this time their fleet consisted of over a hundred ships.
However humanity has learned their lesson and they prepared many defense satellites and hidden many cannons and rocket launchers inside the asteroid belt.
When the intruder alert informed them of the fleet coming their way they simply activated the defense network and prepared the two groups that were in the system along with the ships that were not assigned to the groups.
The pirates did not detect the defenses until it was too late and when hundreds of energy weapons and thousands of missiles and torpedoes swarmed the fleet it was a massacre.
From the fleet of over a hundred ships only nineteen managed to escape, the rest were destroyed and dead in space.
The Terran fleet didn't even fire a shot and it was all over.
All they could do now was to board the cripled ships and clear them out.
After that they towed the ships near the space docks to be dismantled and used as the materials for new Terran cruisers.
When this attempt failed,every pirate with even a little brain packed up and left,
Within a hundred light years there were no pirates left.
If they were smart then they left and those that stayed were wiped out.
-Five months and there is no pirate in sight.
Simon said with a smile.
He just returned from a third mission in a row where all they found was an abandoned hideout.
-I don't blame them,we just destroyed over a hundred ships in one go, not to mention all the others that we hunted down.
They can'[t stop us and can't retaliate even if they band together so they can only run or get destroyed.
Steuner said while eating his grilled chicken.
It turned out that he could eat poultry and beef but for some reason earth's fish and pork were incompatible with him.
-It's good that they ran away, especially now that the first human colony fleet is ready to go.
Simon said.
The first colonization program was just about to begin and the fleet consisted solely of military ships carrying the first batch of colonists and some equipment.
The colony was located in proxima centauri which was only about an hour away by FTL so most of the colonists would be carried in batches and all the equipment they needed was also not far away.
Also in the Sol system there was a massive space station being built between the moon and earth and the drones were building a base on mars.
-Well it's hard to believe that just a year ago we were still on the junk planet trying to escape and now my people are going to colonize another star system.
Also I heard that it was approved for you to get some of your people to earth so that they can study.
-Yes the council approved for fifty of my kind to come to earth for education.
The plan is to get my people to learn so we can all stand equal and then sign a mutual defense pact and non aggression pact.
I think that our species can be good allies but that needs to be seen first.
Steuner explained.
-If they are all like you then I don't see a problem and it will be just a matter of time for us to be official allies.
Time will tell. For now we still have a lot of work ahead of us and not much more than a year to prepare for the arrival of the diplomats from other races.
The lizard man reminded him.
-Don't worry, We just need time to produce more fabricators,matter converters,drones and ships, I just hope we have the time to do it all.
Simon said.
-Why are you worried about time?
Steuner asked his friend.
-Because it will take time to build everything and i don't think that we have enough of it especially if the word reaches the federation.
I'm afraid that they will not stay still and watch another power rise up, not to mention that they might not be the only threat.
Simon shared his fears.
-We can't do much about that,but right now we have a fleet that would be quite a problem for anyone in this region of space and according to the map the federation is still quite a distance from here.
What worries me is that they didn't send anyone to search for the ship we destroyed.
Steuner said with a bit of worry in his voice.
-I just hope that they think that the ship had a malfunction or some accident and was lost.
This would be for the best but unfortunately I don't think we are so lucky.
And even if that's the case then it's only a matter of time for them to send another ship to capture humans.
Simon said also worried.
-At least this time we have enough ships to scare them away.
Steuner said .
-Our fleet is still growing so if they won't send a battle group then we should be able to chase them away.
Simon agreed.
-The problem is that after we chase them away they might want to absorb us into the federation or just conquer us.
That's the main reason I'm worried about time.