After the initial shock of the news that they just killed the three crews' worth of cadets.
Everyone went back to work, with the new found determination to never let something like that happen again.
The only way to achieve that, as Andrew pointed out, was to have enough power to make the next group, if they ever arrived, think twice before trying anything stupid.
At the end of that day, both stations crewed by Arien's subordinates were established enough that they no longer needed any additional modules from the main station, and they started producing their own parts, along with some heavy fighters, to boost their defenses.
Theresa's people were also getting more and more established, and with all the production power increased by Aelita to 300 component manufacturing modules, they would need at most two more days to catch up to Arien's people.
At the same time, they managed to repair their ships enough so that they could go to the main station for repairs and refueling.
This added 27 more ships to Andrew's fleet, and as soon as they were done with transporting the module parts, they would be upgraded with railguns, making them much more formidable in battle.
To speed things up, the ships from Arien's fleet helped transport the module parts for their new friends, as they had little to do at the moment as their own stations could now produce modules and were doing so as fast as they possibly could.
With all of this happening, Nairin started the preparations to build the shipyard.
She had four designs to choose from, but unfortunately, only one of them was possible to achieve in the time she had left, and it was the smallest one with two docks, and the biggest vessel that could be constructed in it was a destroyer.
Her initial goal was to build the biggest one with a dozen docks and the capability to build a battleship in each of these, but the construction would take well over two months, and they didn't have this kind of time.
But this also allowed her to build the jumpgate at the same time.
The time would be tight, but if everything went according to plan, she would succeed.
The best part of it all was thast Andrew gave her access to their full resources so she didn't need to rely on the two resource-gathering substations she had created.
Just as she was working on that, Aelita entered the command center.
-Andrew, this won't work.
She said, showing him something on her tablet.
-Well, it was worth a shot.
Ha answered a moment later.
-Yeah, we need the shipyard to make the repairs, otherwise, these three ships will only take up space in our hangars.
Aelita said with a sigh.
-How does tomorrow sound?
Nairin chimmed into their conversation.
They both looked at her, not understanding what she was talking about.
-I just initialized the parts production for the shipyard, and they will be ready in around 20 hours using 250 of our component manufacturing modules.
I estimate another 5 to 8 hours to assemble it, so if I'm right, we will have the shipyard tomorrow.
She explained with a proud grin on her face.
-Great timing.
Andrew praised her.
-Thanks, but just so you know, this is not the one I wanted to build.
I wanted the biggest one, but I dont have enough time to do so, and when I'm done with this, the jump gate is next in line.
Nairin said.
Earning herself a hug from Aelita.
-You exceed all of my expectations, I'm so proud of you.
The Cherin said while hugging her student.
This made the girl's eyes tear up with happiness as this was the one thing she always wanted, to make her teacher feel proud and recognize her efforts.
Thanks to Andrew's assignment, she managed to accomplish this two times in less than a week, so she was more than grateful for this opportunity.
Then, she remembered something.
-Andrew, take a look at this.
She said, and sent a file to him.
The moment he opened it up and read the first few lines, backed up by the data, his eyes went wide in surprise before he huckled.
-Alright, alright, I yield.
He said, chuckling.
-I need to remember not to issue challenges to overachievers.
He shook his head in defeat.
The file contained the predicted expansion of the resource-gathering and production capabilities of the station if they wanted to build more than one shipyard and sustain the ship production, before and during the invasion.
The cherry on top was the predicted number of ships they would be able to build before the invasion started.
With all of this, Andrew could only admit defeat.
Even though the shipyard would take another day to build, Nairin had already won and accomplished his assignment.
What's more, she even overdid it a bit.
Now, if only he could find a way to make her follow orders when it mattered, it would be great.
-Andrew, we just got a notification from the scout drones.
Lanarine, who was watching this whole thing with amusement, said after she heard a ping on her console.
-I almost forgot about them.
What did they find?
Andrew asked. After a moment, he needed to remember that they even had scout drones as it was already months since their deployment, and they hadn't found anything until now.
-I'll send the visual to the main screen.
She said, afraid that there was something wrong with the drone or her eyes.
A moment later, they all gasped at the sight.
It was a large crater, with the remains of a space ship in it and a gift box that Andrew was looking for all this time.
However, the box was not blue, silver, gold, or even platinum colored.
It was transparent, like it was made of glass.
-You have got to be shitting me.
Andre gasped and rubbed his eyes to make sure they didn't play tricks on him.
-Is this box defective or something?
Nairin asked when she saw it.
-No, it's not, and it's also the reason why we never found any other gift box in this system.
Andrew said, still having a hard time believing what was in front of his eyes.
-This is a crystal box.
When the Star Emperor was only a game on my planet.
There were only two people I know of who managed to find one, and both of them received a special reward when they opened them.
-What did they get?
Lan asked, curious about an object that could shock Andrew so much.
-I have no clue. They never shared it on the forum, but they shared that it was a special grade treasure that was impossible to get in any other way.
This sparked the biggest search in the game, but no one could find even one of these boxes afterward.
It was even speculated that there was only one such box for each galaxy, however, there was no proof of that.
Andrew explained.
-Lan, how far away is it?
He asked a moment later.
-It's on the other side of the system, near the place where Tibrana's station was originally located.
She said.
-Damn, sending a drone to retrieve it, is out of the question then, which leaves us with sending a ship.
Andrew cursed.
-Do we have any ships available at the moment?
Andrew asked, hoping that one of the pirate vessels would be in the system at the moment.
-There are none; they are all transporting the module parts to Theresa's station or on their way back, but it will take time to refuel them.
Our frigate is assisting Binon in removing the explosives, which leaves only the corvette.
Sarill said, looking at her holoscreen.
Other than the comms officer role, she was also starting to do the traffic control for all the ships.
-Is it ready for launch?
Andrew asked.
-It should be, but Arien is resting now, so it doesn't have a captain.
Aelita said.
-I'll go myself.
Andrew said, standing up from the command chair.
Eager to get the chest.
-Why do you want to go so badly?
Lan asked.
-This box was there for months; it can wait a few more hours.
Hearing her question, Andrew grinned.
-Because I also want to have some fun while flying around in a spaceship.
He said, making everyone surprised at first, before the whole command center burst into laughter.