Chapter 79 Unprovoked attack.

The next morning as Andrew sat in the command chair, he received a ,lot of reports from Iliana and Aelita.

The medical reports included all the sleeping ladies and the three children he found on the Corvette class vessel.

All of them were still asleep, but in good health, and the children were all healed already.

Their injuries weree not caused by any malicious individual, but rather by the ship going so fast that it overwhelmed the inertiall dampeners, resulting in them being tossed artound and hitting the bulkheads.

Right now they were all sleeping.

The next was the report on Tibrana.

-She is definitely a human, but she was not born, she was created.

Ilia said, showing Andrew the scan results and the DNA comparison.

-You mean she's a clone?

-Yes and not only that, but she is a clone of a clone of a clone.

There is no way to determine how many times she was cloned but it's a lot and according to the scan, she has many issues as a result.

-Can she be treated?

Andrew asked with a bit of concern, he didn't want the only other human around to die.

-I have no idea, our current equipment can certainly prolong her lifespan, but to fully heal her I believe we would need a tier 5 regeneration tank or even better the nanite injection.

Ilkiana said.

-How long does she have?

Andrew asked.

-Without any treatment, around 10 years, with our current treatment, she might gain another 10 years, but that is only a guess.

I never tried to treat a clone, so I can't promise you anything.

The doctor said, with a bit of guilt in her voice.

Andrew put his hand on her shoulder.

-Do what you can, no one is expecting you to perform miracles.

He tried to comfort her.

-I'll do my best.

She promised.

-That's all I'm asking for.

The human smiled.

Then he remembered a question he wanted to ask her.

-Ilia, why would your family want to get rid of you since you have a rare gift?

He asked, surprising her with the change of subject.

-Like I said, I'm not the favored daughter, mostly because my mother was a concubine.

The fact that I have the gift makes it even worse because none of my half siblings born from legal wives inherited it, which sparked a lot of jealousy.

The man I was supposed to be sold to, is not only a sadistic bastard who loves to torture women, but he is also a scientist who only chooses women with some special traits and then conducts experiments to extract these abilities and tries to add them to himself.

If he managed to get my ability, he would gain the right to become the next council head, who is pretty much a ruler of my people.

Ilia explained the situation.

-Alright, I get it now.

Andrew said with understanding.

-That maniac is out of luck because I have no intention of giving you away, under any circumstances.

He reassured her, and she nodded acknowledging his promise.

They talked some more before it was Aelita's turn to give him a report on the ship and fighters.

-Both the ship and the fighters are fully loaded with the ordinance, they have a lot of fuel, and other than some minor damage caused by our railgun they are in working order.

At least as far as I can tell.

She said, showing him the scans of the vessels.

-Can we use them?

Andrew asked as this was his biggest concern.

-There should be no problem with that, but the ship requires a crew, or at least a captain and some droids to operate it to its full potential.

The fighters are drones, and they are controlled by the ship so they don't require pilots.

-Our military droids research should end soon along with the droid manufacturing module, once it does, we can crew her with droids.

As for the captain, we shall see, at worst I'll commander her until we find someone better.

Andrew said after a moment of thought.

-You can always trade for the module and the droids with the merchant.

We still have a lot of the raw nanite containers, not to mention 63 crates still waiting to be opened.

Aelita suggested.

-It is an option, but for right now, we need to expand the station, especially: weapons, shields, hangar, and storage capacity.

Added with enough power generators to power it all and let's not forget the hydroponics modules for the new ladies.

Andrew said.

-You forgot to add the production modules.

Aelita said with a smile.

-If we want to start building a fleet then we will need millions of tons of resources, which means we will need more drones and substations.

Not to mention the droids and the ammunition for the ships.

She added.

-I know, and this is just the beginning.

Andrew said with a tired sigh.

He now had a tremendous respect for the players who were all-rounders when it was all just a game.

Now he knew how much work went into being one himself, but there was no choice for him if he wanted to survive whatever invasion was coming in the future.

Their chat was interrupted by Lanarine.

-We have ships incoming, three of them.

She said over the comms.

Both Andrew and Aelita ran to the command center.

-Status on the incoming ships.

The human said the moment he took the command chair.

-Two of them started to broadcast the merchant ID, and the third one looks like a bigger version of a ship in Hangar 4.

Lan said, sending the data to his holo-monitor.

-Terelen, do you know why additional ships are coming?

Andrew opened a channel to the merchant, hoping that the Elf would have some information.

-The lead ship belongs to my sister, but I have no clue why there is another merchant with her, not to mention what's up with the third ship.

Terelen answered, as surprised as Andrew.

-Alright, I'm not taking any risks, if you want to separate from the station then do so now, because I'm going to full defense mode until this is sorted out.

-Got it, give me a moment, I believe that if there are any trouble, I'll be more useful to you as an escort ship than a stationary target.

The Elf said and a moment later his ship detached from the station gaining some distance.

-Aelita, can we launch the drone fighters we just got from the captured ship?

Andrew asked.

The girl shook her head.

-I didn't have the time to figure out how to operate them yet.

-Alright, then arm our weapons and raise shields.

What's the ETA for the incoming ships?

-They will arrive within 12 minutes and their predicted exit point is within our railgun's effective range.

Lanarine said.

-Good, now all we can do is wait.

The minutes felt like hours, while they waited for the ships to exit FTL.

Andrew heard many times in the past that waiting was the worst part, and now he had to agree.

Ever since he became a stationmaster, he experienced this many times already and it always sucked.

The moment the three vessels exited the FTL, they immediately hailed the station.

-System master, please hold your fire, these are friendly ships.

A melodic woman's voice said over the comms.

Andrew guessed that this was the voice of Tanera, Terelen's sister.

-I was not expecting any more ships than yours, mind telling me what's going on?

The human said, not lowering his guard.

-I will, but can you kindly take the target lock of the two of them and allow us to dock so we can talk in person?

Tenara asked, trying her best to de-escalate the situation.

-Alright, since you are Terelen's sister I will trust you.

Andrew said and nodded to Aelita who powered down the weapons and shields.

The two merchant ships started their approach to dock with the station, however, the third ship remained in place and suddenly activated its shields and opened fire on the station.

-Raise shields, target that ship, and fire at will.

Andrew yielded the commands, but it was already too late.

Six railgun rounds slammed into the station before the shields had the chance to rise again.

-Multiple hits, we have hull breaches in various places and were venting the atmosphere.

Aelita said, seeing the modules turning from green to orange or red and data that flooded her holo-screen.

The ship fired again but this time the rounds were stopped by the station's shields.

On the other hand, the ship's shields flared when the railgun rounds from the station hit their target.

-The enemy shields are weakening.

Lanarine said, surprising even herself with her calm voice.

-Ours are down to 62%, three more woleys like this and our shields will go down.

Aelita said, looking at the shield strength indicator.

-The enemy vessel sustained damage.

Lan said a few seconds later when another volley of railgun rounds slammed into the ship.

It was also at that moment when the cannon rounds started to hammer the enemy shields, despite their desperate evasive maneuvers.

The station shook again from the incoming fire.

-Shields at 24 %.

Aelita said.

-The enemy ship received another round of punishment from the railguns and its shields went down, opening the route for the cannon rounds, which slammed into its hull.

The 40 mm armor-piercing rounds dug deep into the ship opening hundreds of holes, which momentarily started to leak the atmosphere, while the high explosive rounds either enlarged the holes or chipped at the hull, with some even going inside the vessel and exploding, creating some secondary explosions.

Some of the ordinances, hit the ship's railings taking them out, while another wolley of Railgun rounds from the station took out the engines.

-We lost our shields and we got hit again.

Aelita reported.

-The enemy ship is dead in space and powered down.

Lan said.

This made Andrew hold fire.

-Damage report?

He said.

-We got a beating in the first salvo.

2 tier 2 shield generators, 3 cannons, 2 hydrogen generators, and hangars 2 and 4 got hit.

The damage ranges from medium to almost completely destroyed.

The second hit just a moment ago had taken out two cannons.

I already ordered the repairs.

Aelita said.

-The shields will come back online in about 20 seconds, she added while transferring all the power from nonessential modules into the shields.

-What about the enemy ship?

-It's still dead in space, and it seems to have lost all power.

There is only one life sign inside, and there is no way for it to fire its railguns again.

Lanarine said, sending Andrew the image of the crippled ship.

-Maintain the target lock, if this ship moves or powers back up, we'll take it out immediately.

Also Hail Tenera's ship, I want an explanation for this unprovoked attack.