The Adurian crews were stunned seeing with their own eyes as the being who ordered the destruction of one of their ships was now giving commands to save as many survivors as possible, no matter the cost.
All of them were station hamsters before they were found by Lord Muret and brought back to serve in the naw Adurian navy, so the knew that the regeneration takn solution and other medical suplies were not cheep.
However, the system master didn't seem to care one bit and even asked the other installation to prepare its med bay in case they didn't have enough room for the injured on this station.
A few minutes later, the gunships and the medical shuttle left behind by Adurians started to land, and their crews immediately disembarked, helping the injured and carrying some who had lost consciousness.
All the medics immediately started to examine the patients and provide what aid they could on the spot.
Some of the wounded had only light injuries and were left to the nurses to patch up while the doctors moved to the more seriously injured.
Many of the survivors had lost a limb or were seriously burned and managed to survive only thanks to the escape pods' medical assistance.
-How bad is it?
Andrew asked, once he arrived at the hangar bay with Captain Rodill, who wanted to see to his men.
-It's bad; most of them need some time in the tank, and we dont have this many tanks.
Ilia answered.
-These two will most likely die without a tank, and the one we have free won't cut it.
She pointed at the two Adurians who were covered in blood and on life support from their escape pods.
-How long can you keep them alive?
Andrew asked suddenly.
-The life support can work for another two days.
But that doesn't change anything.
-Can we send them to the shipyard?
-We can, but Aelita told me that the tanks there are not even assembled yet.
The whole shipyard needs at least a day or two to prepare everything.
Iliana explained.
-Ok, plan B then.
Andrew said, and activated his comms bracelet.
-Nairin, I need to know how fast you can build a dozen tier 3 medical modules with regeneration tanks and all the available upgrades.
He said, surprising everyone.
They never considered that he would go so far to help their people.
-If I stopped producing parts for the shipyard, it would take about two hours to make them and another hour or so to assemble them.
Nairin's voice came from the device a moment later.
-Do it. I need them operational as soon as possible.
Andrew ordered.
-Alright, the production will start in ten minutes.
The student replied.
She also knew that they had a lot of wounded on board, so she didn't argue.
-Thank you.
Iliana said, happy that her people could be saved.
She also didn't consider building additional modules and was surprised that Andrew came up with this solution.
-If you need anything else, just tell me or the other ladies. You have all the resources of this station at your disposal for this.
Andrew assured her.
Then he turned to the other doctors.
-The same goes for all of you; if there is something you require to save your people just tell Iliana.
He said, much louder.
The Adurian medics were once again surprised at the generosity of this being when it came to caring for their injured people.
They had no idea if it was a way for the system master to cope with the guilt of causing this or something else, but they were grateful that he wanted to save them all if possible.
-Andrew, we have more ships incoming.
Lanarine's voice came through his comms bracelet.
-What now?
He sighed.
This day was full of excitement as it was, he didn't need any more.
-I'm on my way.
He answered and left the hangar.
-Who is it this time?
Andrew asked the moment he entered the command center.
The first three ships are from the merchant guild.
As for the other group, I have no idea, we have never seen this ship configuration before.
Lan informed him, displaying the data on the main holo-screen.
The three merchant ships would arrive in about an hour, while the other group consisting of 6 frigate class ships still had at least 12 hours to go at their current speed.
Andrew had no idea why the merchant ships would want to come to his territory after they blacklisted him.
The only thing that came to mind was that his territory might still be considered a safe space for the merchants, since he did save a few of their ships before.
However, this didn't match with the three incoming ships as they didn't look like they were in trouble.
The other group was a bit suspicious, but he decided not to jump to conclusions as there was a chance that this was a diplomatic visit or something along those lines.
-We have a third group incoming, and they are pirates for sure.
Lanarine said a moment later as a third group of 17 ships entered the sensor range and their course was also set straight for Andrew's station.
At least he knew why pirates were entering his territory as there were only two reasons they could have to do so.
They either wanted to capture his station and territory as a whole, or they wanted to be taken in by him, and considering that there were only a few left before the invasion began, the answer seemed obvious.
And if, by some miracle, they wanted to fight him, then he wished them luck and a happy afterlife.
-How long till they arrive?
-36 hours at the speed they are going right now.
Lanarine answered.
-Alright, one thing at a time. Let's see what the merchants want first.
Sarill open a channel to the merchant ships.
-Chanel opened.
-Merchant vessels, this is system master Andrew Eagle, you are approaching my territory.
Please state your business here.
-Hello, Andrew. Nice to see you, too.
A familiar voice and face answered his hail.
-Hi Tanera, what are you doing here?
The last I heard, you were forbidden from trading with me the moment I was blacklisted.
-True, but things change and as of this moment you are no longer blacklisted by the guild.
The Elf said with a bright smile, and she even started to chuckle seeing his surprised expression.
Usually, she was on the receiving end of the surprises, and it was very satisfying to see this trend reversed for once.
-That was fast.
I thought that the guild would never want to trade with me unless I deleted my research data.
Andrew said when he finally got over the surprise.
-That was the idea, until my brother and I informed them about the jumpgate you wanted to build, and it also helped that you conquered three other systems, and in record time, I might add.
With all that, the guild can't afford to black list you and risk losing all the profit from the trade with your territory.
Finally, they were terrified when we told them that your and Aelita's armor would be fully unlocked if they stopped trading with you, as the guild rules would no longer apply to you.
Tanera explained.
-However, there are some conditions attached to this, and that's why we are here.
She added with a bit of unease in her voice.
-Tell me the conditions, and I'll see if they are acceptable.
Andrew said calmly.
He would love to have access to the merchants again, but during the time he was blacklisted he also learned that he didn't need them to prosper and with the jump gate in place in a few days, he would not need them at all.
-I'd prefer discussing this face to face.
She answered, a bit nervously, which made Andrew a bit suspicious about this whole thing.
-As you wish.
The hangars are occupied at the moment, but you can choose any docking bay on the docking modules.
Andrew said, doing his best to sound natural.
-See you soon.
Tanera said and ended the call.
-Lan, station some battle droids from the entrance to the docking modules all the way to the conference module, and increase the number of guardian drones in that part of the station.
Andrew ordered the moment the connection ended.
-Why would you want to station battle droids there?
Lanarine asked, surprised, but did so anyway.
-Something is off about this, and Tanera was nervous while talking with me, which never happened before.
Andrew said, and left the command chair.
-Where are you going?
Nairin asked.
-To wear my power armor. and send Aelita hers.
He answered and left, hoping that he understood what the elf merchant wanted to convey to him talking about the armor.
On his way to the armory, he contacted Runir.
-Get the fleet ready to launch within an hour, we might have some trouble on its way.
He ordered, hoping that it was nothing but preferring to be prepared.
-The fleet is ready to launch at any moment.
What's going on, and who are we supposed to fight this time?
Runir asked, surprised at the sudden orders to sortie.
-It might be a false allarm, but if it's not, then we will be fighting three merchant ships, and they will arrive in less than an hour.
Andrew explained.
-Why would we have to fight with the merchants?
The girl asked, surprised at this revelation.
-Call it a hunch if you want, but something is off, and I don't want to take unnecessary risks.
-Alright, I'm launching the fleet immediately along with the fighters.
I can't hide all the gunboats like before, but I'll try to hide at least a few of them.
Runir said and ended the call to issue the orders to the fleet.
-Aelita, I'm sending you your power armor and weapons.
Put them on as soon as they arrive, and start making more battle droids if you can.
Andrew said to his bracelet after calling Aelita to warn her.
-What's going on?
She asked surprised at what she heard, so he explained everything once again and informed her that he was launching the fleet just to be safe.
At the same time, he arrived at his armory and activated his power armor.
Just as he suspected, the armor was fully unlocked, with all the functions available to him.
The same was true about the weapons that were sent to him with the armor.
He quickly equipped the whole set and went to get Aelita's things.
A few minutes later, a gunship that was waiting in the hangar took the armor and immediately went to deliver it before rejoining the fleet.
Returning to the command center, Andrew also told Lanarine to put on her armor, just in case.