An hour went by in the blink of an eye while everyone was doing their best to make sure everything was ready.
-Raise shields, power up the weapons, and prepare all the fighters to launch on my command.
Andrew ordered the moment the three ships jumped out of FTL.
They were much bigger and carried heavier armaments than their own frigate, but that was to be expected as these things were not far from being light destroyers.
-Andrew, we are being hailed.
Sarill reported.
-Put it on the main screen.
The human said.
A moment later, the same alien captain appeared on the main holo-screen with the same arrogant and smug expression.
-Station Master, I trust you had enough time to think about the consequences of your decision to shelter the federation's traitors, so I will give you one last chance.
Trwen said with arrogance, not believing that a mere station master would dare to defy him.
-Hand over the two traitors and the frigate-class vessel you stole from the federation, and we will refrain from blowing your pathetic station into pieces.
If he was aiming on pissing Andrew off, he succeded spectacularly.
-Listen here, you lousy excuse of a captain.
Andrew said in a calm and cold voice, which surprised the enemy captain as he never expected to be insulted and was speechless for a moment.
-First of all, I'm a system master.
Second, you made a mistake by coming here despite my earlier warning.
Third, you are so arrogant that you jumped right into my effective weapons range.
And Fourth, you covet that which is mine.
For all of this, I sentence you and your crews to death.
Andrew said, like he was a judge passing a death sentence.
-Open fire.
He then added, and before the speechless captain had a chance to understand what was going on.
The station armamnets fired on his ships.
The first salvo of railgun rounds slammed into enemy shields, lighting them up and draining a significant portion of their power.
At the range, they were in it was almost impossible to miss, so when 40 railgun rounds slammed into the ships, they all found their marks and drained more than 30% of their shields.
-Fire the MACs.
Andrew ordered and another light show started just as the first one ended.
The crews of the three ships were so shocked at the firepower of this station that for good 5 seconds, they didn't even react.
The three warships lost over half of their shields before anyone even thought about returning fire or making evasive action, not that it would help them much against the station's anti-ship weaponry, not at this distance.
-Launch the heave fighters.
Andrew ordered calmly, like he was just playing another game of chess.
The next moment, 20 heavy fighters launched from the station's hangars and went straight for the ships.
-Arien, Runir, do the two of you plan on only watching the show?
The human asked over the comms.
He didn't have to say anything more as the two warships opened fire from their concealed positions, tearing into the enemy ships and draining their shields even more.
A moment later, the heavy fighters made their strafing run, placing two railgun rounds each on their targets, bringing the ships' energy shields to the brink of collapsing.
The crews of the heavy frigates started to panic when they saw not only drone fighters with such firepower, but also faced fire from two warships and the station itself.
They finally opened fire on the station, but it was too little, too late.
Their shots were absorbed by the station's shields, dropping their power by around 15%.
-Pathetic, even the pirate ships could do more damage.
Andrew commented, forgetting that these were tier 3 shields, which were at least 3 times more powerful than their tier 2 counterparts.
With another woley of railgun rounds from the station, both ships and a small swarm of drone fighters, all three enemy ships had lost their shields and started taking some serious damage to their hulls.
However, the battle was far from being one-sided, as this second strifing run cost Andrew's forces the loss of 6 fighters, as the enemy's cannons opened up on them.
It was over 25 % of his heavy fighters, but one of the shot down machines, lost control and slammed into one of the enemy ships, making it lose all power.
-Concentrate all fire on the remaining two ships.
Andrew ordered, not wanting to damage the drifting ship more than he needed to.
With the loss of one of their vessels and taking the full brunt of the station's firepower, it was not long before the other two ships also lost power and went adrift while venting atmosphere.
-Send in the boarding parties.
The human said, and immediately, a few dozen drones, each carrying a battle droid, left the hangars and came out form the asteroids they were using as concealment.
It didn't take long for them to drop their passengers into the holes made in the ships' hulls or directly onto the hulls.
-Runir, Tarina, if there is anyone on board of these ships that you would like to be spared, now is the time to tell me about it.
Andrew gave them the option to save anyone they wished to survive this battle.
-No, they would have brought us back only to be tortured to death and publicly humiliated.
They don't deserve my mercy.
Runir answered first, and Tarina agreed by nodding.
-Very well, activate the terminator protocol.
Andrew ordered.
The terminator protocol was his idea, and it was a function that enabled the battle droids to eliminate any life form that was not on the safe list, which only contained his subordinates.
The name was a bit cheesy, and he took it from a movie, but it was adequate for this program.
-Are you sure that you want to eliminate all of them?
Arien asked, shocked at the sheer ruthlessness of Andrew's plan.
-I'm not about to let my enemies live and send them back home, just so they can come back later to try and take me out again.
Not to mention that they would bring intel about our weapons capabilities and the size of our forces back with them, and that's not something I'm willing to allow them to do.
There is also a psychological aspect to this.
If no one comes back, they might have a hard time finding anyone brave enough or stupid enough to try again.
Andrew explained his decision, which he didn't need to do, but he didn't want his subordinates to think that he was simply a bloodthirsty monster.
-This makes a lot more sense now.
Arien admitted, even though she didn't like it that much.
She was ready to admit that a good enemy is a dead one, and her world was one where strength was praised and weakness was an unforgivable sin.
But even she was a bit hesitant to commit a massacre for no other reason than to just kill the defeated enemies.
However, Andrew's explanation gave her more than adequate reason for what they were about to do, and she also admired his battle style.
The preparations were a pain and a half, but the battle itself went as smoothly as it could.
His commands were quick, precise, decisive, and always calculated on inflicting as much damage on the enemy as possible.
This battle was the last thing that she needed to fully commit herself and her people to serving this lord, and it also convinced her fully that she made the right decision by choosing to submit to him.
Even though his personality change during the battle was terrifying her, it was also the best guarantee she could have dreamed off to asure the survival of her fleet during the invasion.
While she was thinking about all of this, Aelita activated the protocol, not doubting Andrew's decision in the slightest.
She had studied some of the earth's history and it was full of examples when the victors let the defeated enemies go, only to regret it later.
The moment the protocol was activated, all the droids went into a search-and-destroy mode, eliminating everyone they encountered while methodically going through the ship's compartments one at a time and venting all the atmosphere in the ship as they went.
Being mechanical, they didn't need air, and with the magnetic straps at their feet, the lack of gravity didn't bother them in the slightest.
They were also equipped with electronic lockpicks, allowing them to open most of the doors, and the ones they were unable to open were cut open by plasma torches that a few of them were equipped with.
Andrew and the ladies watched on the sensor display as all the remaining life signs onboard the three vessels disappeared one after the other, either after they were found by the droids or when the atmosphere was vented from that section of the ship.
Clearing the ships took almost two hours and cost the loss of 38 battle droids as the enemy crews fought back, not even trying to surrender.
During this time, Andrew received the full damage report.
And he almost laughed when he was reading it.
The station suffered no damage, and its shield strength barely dropped to 56%.
The two warships were not even scratched as the enemy concentrated all its firepower on the station.
The only serious losses were amongst the heavy fighters, which they lost 16 out of 20 that were sent into the battle, but 2 of these could still be salvaged and repaired while the rest would be turned into resources.
Andrew immediately ordered additional heavy fighters to be built to replenish their losses, and he also doubled the numbed, adding 40 new fighters to the 6 they had left.
All in all, the losses they suffered were minimal, considering they went against three heavy frigates, but Andrew attributed most of that to the enemy's arrogance and plain stupidity.
However, he was sure that there had to be some commanders in the federation who would not be as arrogant and would not make such basic mistakes as jumping right in the middle of his station's effective weapons range.
But considering that they were only days away from the beginning of the invasion, he was almost certain that the federation would have much bigger problems than him soon enough.