The fleet had pulled to a stop in the void, light-months away from the nearest star, just above the enormous disc of the Andromeda galaxy; directly above what the Confederacy referred to as 'Hub 5'; one of the largest shipyards in the Republic, building tens of thousands of starships each year. Intel from the Paradise operation had suggested that there were over 40,000 Republic starships under construction at any given time, and that perhaps as many as an eighth of those were being built right here, below them.
Most of the time, those ships would stay fairly local; within a few hours flight time of the gate. Recent events, however, had hopefully changed that; over a quarter of a million starships were in this region normally, and if they were all still there, the upcoming battle would be... complicated. They could contact the local factions of the Confederation for backup. They could let Ascension's von neumann probes get to work and wait til they had a full-scale fleet to match. First, though? They could see if they even needed to do that.
Maybe they'd destabilize the star, or a planet, and pop the gate, trapping the fleet here? Maybe they'd have a chance to secure the partially-built ships for themselves? Perhaps their equipment would allow them to actually secure the system and re-purpose Republic equipment for their own? No way to know til they got closer.
At this sort of range, the scans they received were months old. They got a good look at every nearby republic system; studying what the picture of the sector was before Jason had kicked over the hornet's nest.
Jason and Svetlana stood on either side of a table in the lab; one of Ascension's drones on the other side. "We can expect some significant changes at we go closer... but once we get less than a light-month out, we risk detection, even from up here where nothing is expected, unless we use a hyperdrive and possibly show our hand. What's the picture look like, Ascension?"
"I've taken the liberty of placing a single destroyer and an array of telescopes one light-month out, at the minimum safe range, and also, of course, assessing other nearby systems. We also have encrypted communications from the local Confederate forces that will be cleared momentarily."
The map focused in on the dot that depicted the Hub system. The gate itself was in orbit of a gas giant; while the closest planet to the star had an orbit filled with manufacturing facilities; hundreds of them, each with multiple ongoing constructions. The gas giant had its own ring; a station hundreds of kilometers long, with what were undoubtedly complete starships, waiting for orders to undock and head off after the Republic's enemies. This image would be from after the enemy knew about Jason's arrival in Andromeda; but before that cataclysmic battle in Paradise where the Republic had lost so many ships to the star.
"The Hub system; locally named 'Mia'; has three intact planets. One habitable world with a narrow band of relative comfort around the equator, and ranging from cold to frozen across the rest, the gas giant, and a small barren world not far from the star. At least one additional planet once existed, and was deliberately broken apart for shipbuilding materials; forming an unusually dense asteroid belt which has thousands of mining craft working it. At the time of most recent observation, over one hundred thousand starships were in-system ready to go within hours, and over ten thousand ready to go within minutes. Exact numbers are impossible to get at this range."
The view zoomed out. "The other nearby star systems; an orange star with a single world, two red giants with a handful of worlds each, and twelve binary pairs with little in the way of planets between them; have outposts and little else. There are established travel lanes allowing rapid exit to habitable worlds over ten light-years away; and ships actively establishing lanes between several of the local worlds. It appears they plan on completely mining out the Hub system over the next few centuries, and either relocating manufacturing to other stars, or feeding it raw materials from these other locations."
The view zoomed out again. "Here, roughly seventeen light-years away, is a nebula containing a few relatively new stars and minor planetary bodies. I would recommend placing a manufacturing hub of our own there, inside the nebula; considering the sluggish rate warp-based ships transition nebulas, there is likely no Republic presence there; they likely don't even think of it when making their own plans. Alongside making cautious attempts to infiltrate those systems they plan to use for mining, and seeding mines along their travel lanes, we could prepare for a more long-term conflict, in the event we cannot simply seize the star system."
Jason nodded slowly. "Nice. We should see what the locals have to say first, but obviously if they haven't already cleared the system, that sounds like a good start. Did they do anything with the call to arms about the gates?"
A soft buzzing noise. It wasn't really needed; Ascension was likely just making some white noise to notify the humans that it was actively processing. After a few seconds, the zoomed-in image snapped back to the Hub system.
The new image showed... a damaged, nonfunctional gate. A few thousand intact ships, and a few thousand others in various stages of disrepair; as well as substantial damage among the construction yards.
"The local construction yards are largely intact, but of the over ten thousand ships in production, most have been damaged. Apparently the locals struck, temporarily disabled the gate, cleaned out most of the local defenders in a surprise attack, but were forced to flee with heavy casualties. There is actually a substantial Republic fleet, over fifteen thousand ships strong, moving to invade one of the local star systems, with only a token defense force; still over two thousand ships; left behind for defensive purposes. Most of the local fleets are gathering to defend against them at the homeworld of the Shivamarick, the largest local Empire."
Jason chuckled. "So they did some good work. Can we make it in time to help the defense?"
"With over a week to spare. There is a pre-cleared lane reaching to this system..." A highlighted golden path traced out to another star. "But the Shivamarick empire has no such lanes. If we follow the fleet, we can swap to hyperdrives and dramatically outpace them for the last twenty light-years of the trip. In fact, we could even beat some of the defenders on their way."
Svetlana glanced at Jason, frowning. "Why, though? Shouldn't we take advantage of the lack of ships to secure or destroy the shipyards and let the locals fight it out, kill more Republic ships? Its not like we care about this Shivamarick group."
He blinked. "...They're an allied fleet. Helping them survive would improve our chances diplomatically, increase the odds of securing more allies. Maybe even bring some of their fleet along to the next fight."
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She slowly shook her head. "We don't need more allies. We have Ascension, and we have time. Destroying Republic shipyards and gates makes sense. Spreading Ascension everywhere makes sense. Chasing some random Republic fleet is a waste of time and effort until we get enough ships that we can easily crush it. Can we even take on that many ships?"
Jason sighed, shaking his head. "With the support of a defensive fleet, maybe? Plus... we'll get dead or living Republic forces to turn into Pale Ones, wrecked ships to salvage.... out of a fleet of fifteen thousand, who knows; we might be able to substantially accelerate our plans after taking it out."
Svetlana glanced down at the map, then up at Jason. "Fine. We can help the locals. I can see how we can get something out of it. But first, we should do something about this base. Can you do what you did in that Forstage system, take out the planet the construction hub is surrounding? One shot, poof?"
He studied the map. "Huh. But we don't want the construction yards destroyed. We want the still active, living ships gone. I....think I've got a plan here." He glanced up at Ascension. "Let the fleet know about the defense of the... Shivamarick, and send most of your ships that way, except for the pirates we re-equipped. I'll need... we'll say six... of your destroyers, and as many Pale One controllers as you can spare. Can you fake me up transponders that looks like some of those ships that left?"
***
There were five volunteers among the pirate crews, all of whom had been gifted with repaired Republic warships to replace ones they'd lost in the battle for Paradise; and of course had no idea that Ascension had backdoors into them all. The predominant species among them was Yogg; and while they might be pirates, Jason still had a positive impression of the species from the first time he'd encountered them; finding the wreckage where, as supplies went down, all the older Yogg voluntarily gave up their air tanks and suffocated to the youth, in the vain hope at least some would survive.
The ship was simply named 'Revenge' in one of the various Yogg dialects; and Jason settled in on the bridge, looking around at the crew going about their duties before turning to the captain beside him, studying her for a moment.
When this band had joined the assault on Paradise, they'd been a motley assortment. No real uniforms, whatever weapons they could buy or steal; but now... they all wore dull black uniforms not that different from his own. In fact, black and silver was becoming increasingly popular among the pirates. This Yogg woman's long mass of bony spikes protruding from her head and shoulders was more extensive than normal for her species; and the grey skin also seemed odd, but then... he hadn't met enough Yogg to know how different that was.
"Captain Sorbaxen. Are you comfortable with this operation? I know you volunteered, but the only backup we've got if this goes wrong is a handful of destroyers... however impressive they might be."
The woman studied him for a moment, and gave a smile; like all the descendants, she had too-sharp teeth, more predator than ominvore in looks. "The targeting computer that lets you do all the crazy things. Implant in your head, yes? Not built into the Gaze?"
He focused. Eyeball. Not Jason. On the ball. "Precisely. You give me the ship's controls, it will interface with the ship and let me get a safe course out of here in warp, if there is one, or sync up with the target's randomwalking to let me nail them from whatever the weapon's effective range is. I can't make a safe course from nothing, but if there is one, I can find it. Ascension will make us look like a Republic crew; they'll be showing a simulation of us. I believe he'll also be getting us more info?"
The familiar dull red machine currently pretending to be an armored humanoid in a suit with a yellow hammer and sickle logo gave a nod. "Affirmative. Republic information security is a joke by our standards. Give me a few minutes within comms range and I'll give you the names of who to pretend to be, and can even add their faces into the simulation. If they hail us before I know, just stall about giving info til I give the signal."
Eyeball nodded, and turned back to Sorbaxen. "Just use a common Marrick name, please... Charis would do... at first, and don't specify rank, if it comes down to that. We can swap with someone else and say the captain just reached the bridge if need be."
With the 'Revenge' logo scraped off the hull, the damage from when the vessel was captured at Paradise; and the exquisite repair Ascension had done torn out and replaced by a rough patch-job; the ship looked exactly like what she was supposed to be; a Republic warship which had just recently left the system but had suffered some serious damage; now heading back to base for a more thorough repair.
The running concept was a particle collision at warp-speed; rare but possible in the cleared-out travel lanes; but they'd decide for sure after the Republic called in.
Eyeball inhaled deeply as the Revenge popped out of warp, slowing down to normal speeds as she approached. Ascension should brush over any gaffes in communications, but they needed to remember this wasn't the Revenge, but the... 9H73.... if they spoke in person.
The system looked much the same as the last detailed report. Thousands of ships under construction; now being repaired as well. Hundreds of ships being repaired in orbit of the gas giant... and over two thousand ships split into patrols of a few hundred to a few dozen each, all around the system.
He glanced at Sorbaxen; who nodded. "Send the standard entry code and damage assessment. They should respond with a berth on the repair base."
The ship headed into the system. Seemingly unconcerned. Everything should go just fine; he didn't really feel any problems with this, so it should be a walk in the park... right?
***
Among the Republic, his rank was 10; if he were human, he might be called an Admiral. Still; at the moment, Admiral he might be, Seriche was mostly just doing babysitting.
A tall, powerful form of a Marrick, boasting the usual pale features, two vertical rows of black pupils, an elegant teal uniform; he was, in his own opinion, perfection made manifest; he believed that in creating the Marrick, the founders had improved upon their own design; something the republic in general would consider blasphemy. As he surveyed the deck, he glowered at the glowing error messages on the status board.
He'd served here for over fifty years. Seen endless thousands of warships join the Republic fleet from this spot to join the Purge. This... was the first time he'd ever seen error lights. Ten thousand manufacturing slips, hundreds of thousands of workers ranging from tier-3 slaves to tier-0 experts; and only a few dozen were still at full capacity.
Filthy swarmlings had entered his domain. Destroyed his ships. Sabotaged his manufacturing. Even damaged the gate so badly it had to cut power and go into maintenance mode; he couldn't even call for backup. Not that he needed it.
Obviously, the only advantage the swarmlings had was surprise. Once that was done, his fleet had crushed them... another few weeks and they'd arrive at their homeworld, and crush this particular branch of the swarm. Meanwhile... he would babysit. Watch anxiously as one error light after another went away... and they slowly got back up to speed. Not that they would be at full capacity for years; even the slaves would take time to replace and train, and some of the elite engineers he'd lost...
He glanced up at a teal dot that appeared on the scope. A line was showing leading from it to the maintenance hub beneath his very feet; a group of five light warships; a cruiser and four destroyers; had arrived. One of the destroyers had sent a repair request; apparently there was concern about ambush, so it had been sent with backup. The backup had held back, and wanted permission to rejoin the fleet... while the destroyer had seemingly hit a random stray particle and was back to be repaired.
He frowned. The very idea of an ambush.... was unfortunately possible. The surprise attack was woefully effective here. He didn't give the destroyer a second glance; affairs like that were beneath him. One of his underling's underlings would assign an engineering team to handle the issue. He studied his ships. Only two thousand one hundred fully effective. An abysmally tiny fleet for a system of such importance. He almost wished he'd sent a smaller fleet against the swarm... but no. An overwhelming show of force was needed. Put these creatures in their place, make sure they knew that even if they could sometimes poke the Republic... their deaths were all inevitable. Nothing could conquer the might of the Marrick.