Chapter 65 Kraken.

There was nothing much they could prepare that was not prepared before.

The only thing theory did was to get the two ships near the station into the hangar modules.

If they managed to get less damaged ships from the battle then it would be great, but if not, then these two would be left for Aelita to study.

The four ships arrived outside of the effective range of the station's weapons systems and stopped there.

They fired some of their boarding pods which were hidden from most sensors.

Unfortunately for them, Andrew got a thermal vision upgrade for the sensor module and he saw them all without a problem.

The pirates were surprised as they entered the cannon range and the station opened fire, taking out the pods one after the other.

Out of 24 pods not one survived or even got close to the station as the 40 mm rounds tore them apart.

Seeing the slaughter, both Lanarine and Iliana were terrified, not to mention that Andrew's personality changed as well and it was even more domineering than Lan remembered from the past.

The pirates also witnessed the demise of their comrades and decided to open fire on the station, taking advantage of the fact that it was a stationary target and quite big at that.

However, they failed to detect the four railguns firing, at the same time as the cannons.

Before they even knew what was going on, the first two ships got hit with two railgun rounds each.

That was enough to take them out of action as the first round took out their shields and made a hole in their hull, while the other one was aimed straight at their bridge and thanks to the more advanced targeting system in the combat control module, they hit p[reciselly where they were aimed at.

It also helped that the pirate ships were just sitting there, not even trying to evade the incoming fire.

Seeing half of their ships and all of their pods taken out, the other two ships wanted to escape, but before their captains could give the orders, their ships shared the same fate as the first two.

They made the mistake of stopping in place, and Andrew used it against them without mercy.

The life signs on board the ships quickly faded as their atmosphere was leaked into space.

-The targets are eliminated.

Andrew said, his voice as cold as a snowstorm.

-Our shields went down 8 % from their fire, and we lost 39 drones, that got in the way of the incoming ordnance.

Lanarine said, her voice shaky from fear.

-Are you alright?

Andrew asked, but this time he was back to his usual self.

-Yes, But I don't think that I will ever get used to this.

She said, sighing in relief.

-With any luck, you won't have to.

As soon as Aelita is back she will replace you at the engineering and damage control.

Andrew said.

-Great, but she won't be back before the next group arrives, and I doubt that they will make the same mistake as the ones you just destroyed.

Lan said.

-Well the next group should be here in another five hours, and the last one should arrive another 3 hours later, so yes you will need to help me with these two battles as well.

But after that, there should be no more attacks for now and Aelita will wake up tomorrow morning.

So you need to endure until then.

Andrew said.

-Ilia, can you get the drones to move the ships out of the way?

I don't want to damage them more than they already are.

-I'm already on it, but where should I put them?

The woman asked, she was no less terrified than Lan, but she handled it better.

-Let's land them on one of the bigger asteroids for now.

Lanarine suggested.

-That's a good idea.

Andrew approved.

-You heard her, land them on one of the bigger asteroids.

-Alright, but don't complain if they get a little banged up.

Iliana said.

-Just make sure that they are in one piece.

Andrew said amused.

Three hours later, all four ships were hidden in the surface of the asteroid and they were indistinguishable from the space rock on sensors, making it impossible to find them unless you knew where to look.

-We have two more hours before the second group arrives.

Lanarine said.

-Yes, and I suggest that we have something to eat, and take the stimulants, while were at it.

Iliana said, giving both her companions a box of pills, each with their name written on it.

-Why did you write our names on it?

Andrew asked.

-Because the stimulants are made for each of us specifically, and also to not mistake mine and Lan's with yours.

The doctor explained.

-What's so different about mine?

Is there something poisonous added to it for you?

His curiosity was piqued.

-It's not poisonous, but for both of us and also for Aelita, the caffeine that is added to your stimulant is a powerful aphrodisiac, so it's better that we don't take them by mistake.

Ilia explained, surprising Andrew and making Lanarine blush.

Andrew knew that they all had similar physiologies, but he never suspected that something like that was possible, he even wondered if there were any other things that worked differently for the ladies than they did for him.

However, this was not the time to think about it as they were less than two hours from another battle.

The time passed by quickly and the pirates arrived exactly on time, but this time , they jumped in only around 12,000 kilometers from the station and opened fire immediately.

This was their way to avoid a long range fire from the reilguns, and with seven ships fierring at once the shields of the station flared up continuously.

Andrew returned fire immediately, taking down one ship and damaging three more, but that was not enough and the parts of the station that were being protected by the weaker shield generators started taking damage.

-We lost four solar power modules and three cannon modules are offline, we also suffered damage to the storage modules.

Lanarine, read the damage list out loud while Andrew was busy taking down the pirates.

The whole battle was done in less than 5 minutes, but the damage was quite severe.

8 Solar power modules were destroyed, 5 point defense cannons were also damaged, 3 shield generator modules got damaged, 23 midsized-storage modules were damaged, and the list went on.

The good news was that they could repair all the damage done to their station and even replace the drones of which they lost around 900 this time.

The bad news was that there was no way to do so before the last group arrived.

-How are our shields holding up?

He asked, worried about the incoming enemies, 7 of them managed to damage the station when it was on its best and now there were another 9 coming.

-The shields will be recharged on time but with some shield generator modules down, they wont hold out for to long against their firepower.

Lanarine said.

-How about our ammunition?

He asked as this was his biggest concern.

We still have 48 % for the cannons and 57 % for the railguns, we should be able to take them out, but after that, we will be more or less defenseless.

Lan said.

-Guys, what is that?

Ilia asked pointing to the sensor display.

It showed a gigantic object going for the pirate ships.

Andrew took a look and paled.

-Call the student and tell her to power down her station immediately, leaving only life support online and power down ours right after that.

 Andrew said in a serious voice and started powering down the substations.

-What is going on?

Both women asked not understanding what he was doing.

-It's the Kraken, the pirates are using a single subspace bubble to travel.

It helps conserve the fuel, but if there are to many ships, then the bubble gets to big and emits a lot of energy, attracting this thing.

He said pointing at the holoscreen.

-When this was only a game, we called it the kraken, since it destroys everything in it's wake and the only way to avoid being discovered is to power down as much a possible.

Andrew explained.

-Can't we just kill it?

Iliana asked.

-Many of my people tried, but no one succeeded. I once read that one man used a fleet of heavy cruisers filled with explosives as bait, but it didn't even slow the Kraken down.

This thing is unstoppable, and these pirates just made the last mistake of their lives.

The human said, not stopping his work.

-Then what about the medical module?

Aelita is still in the tank, we can't power it down.

Ilia, said, remembering about the girl.

We can. The tank has its own battery, which will allow it to work for three days without any external power, and we only need to power down for a few hours at most.

Andrew explained.

Lan got on the comms and warned the student about the danger.

The girl immediately agreed and told them that she would power up the next day and contact them.

Then they started to power everything down.

-We now only have the life support and the sensor module powered up.

Iliana said once they were done.

-Good, this should not attract the beast.

Andrew said, looking at the sensor display.

The gigantic icon was nearing the pirate ship Icones at an incredible speed, even for FTL, and in less than five minutes it caught them.

A minute later it continued on its way, but there was no sign of the pirate fleet, not even debris was left of them.

Fortunately, the monster was moving away from their system, and in less than an hour it was beyond their sensor range.

-We can power everything back up now.

Andrew said, sighing in relief.

If this thing found them, the station would be doomed, but He already had a plan for how to survive it.

Unfortunately in such an event, he would need to start from scratch again, and that would set him far behind everyone else.