4 years later
The empire idea had stuck with me and progress had been made I now had a proper fleet of ships including miners a colony ship transports and a mobile dock and were heading out finally. The trip out of the Sol system was uneventful and while ftl travel was a recent development in humanities technology and colonies had only recently been talked about not even proposed due to cost and the pirate menace that and finding ships capable of the trip as despite the technology we have even a trip to proxima centuari would take a week at our best possible speed and my fleet couldn't make that at even maximum power.
We were headed deep into the frontier farther than any fleet in history had ever gone to the point of no return and we were doing it all entire every part factory ship and man we were going to the point of no return. We arrived in what to this point had been known as the Artemis system at the very limits of our ftl endurance but I'd planned ahead and stocked every ship with extra supplies and vetted every single person in my convoy and ensured I had the best I could get and only the best. The Artemis system proved perfect for our purposes a habitable planet and a gas giant we could aquire fuel from a large asteroid belt and enough other planets that we could use for bases if needed.
We first assembled the fuel processing and collection plant as without it we were not going to be able to get back and once it was assembled I had the largest of our cargo ships refueling along with a pair of frigates as escort for a run back for more food and supplies. Once the fuel station was in place I ordered the colonization of the one planet that looked suitable there were two but one was a mostly desert world and the other was on the colder side but had some viable farm land we would colonize it first and get food growing however I personally would be colonizing the desert planet sure it was mostly desert but it had some promise not as a farming planet but for a mining one and while you would need sunscreen and to drink tons of water it had beautiful mountains and a variety of sand colors.
A few months after we had arrived we were set up fairly well our convoy had finally left our food supplies were rather low and our only hope of resupply had already left some of the crews had gone as far as setting up miniature green houses in their ships observation decks and we had obliged by ensuring that they pointed at the sun and noticed one peculiar thing the crops on the surface farms were doing spectacularly so much so that in a few months we would be almost entirely on our farmed crops. As the rest of our fleet were essentially just running drills and on reduced rations our cadre of researchers had set up a proper research base on what we were now calling Alpha the desert planet and had even come up with several relatively rapid methods of food production using algae and hydroponics they were almost food independent by the time the convoy returned but honestly they shared what they grew and I can say I wish they hadn't the stuff they turned it into was quite a wide variety but to me it all tasted the same like waxy greasy and soft sea weed however the crew and myself appreciated it even if it was unpleasant food was food when hunger had become your constant companion.
Our convoy returned loaded with supplies and just In time too or we would have faced mutiny luckily my luck held and we were resupplied on time and once the supplies were unloaded we sent them back for more and the last of my credits went with them their goal was collecting livestock for our farms. As the months passed we had established a proper colony and research base as well as refueling station and we were starting on an ore processing and ship building factory station in orbit to begin building our own ships. Production underway we began feeling pretty comfortable and then they came the pirates tailed the second supply run and came with a massive fleet to wipe us out 500 ships mostly frigates cruiser class vessels the only size that could travel this far reliably. The battle at Artemis proved to be bloody for both sides however in the end we had won albeit barely and only because I offered them a choice surrender or die the last of the pirate cruisers surrendered as well as three frigates my own ships had been whittled down to 3 frigates and my flagship not counting the mining ships and transports in system.
We put the pirates to work on building a colony on Alpha the harshest planet in the system and we gave them the algae farm technology and sufficient water and other resources to guarantee that they would survive albeit with some difficulty. The colony on Alpha was going well the colony on what we had now named Redfield was going fantastically the various stations were working at maximum efficiency and in general we were now self sufficient with the exception of some trace elements and labor so I decided to run a colonization effort back in the sol system and hopefully we could get a few colonists to come out and help populate our system. Our first new production ship the new class we had dubbed attack ship or fighter we still hadn't decided which yet was constructed and ready for trials it used a combination of our skelter II plate in key locations with oversized thrusters and a decent if a bit light weapons load out of 2 20mm guns 4 missiles and a pair of small pulse laser guns a well armed litte ship for defending the system and little else.
After implementing production of new fighter class ships we also restored the fleet back to full power over the course of a year all while the supply ship made runs back to sol for critical supplies and even colonists everything was going great we had the few pirate ships stripped of weapons and converted into mining ships and put to work. You would think that would be the end of our issues but sadly not after replenish our fleet and collecting thousands of new colonists even resuppling our crews disaster struck. A fleet of ships arrived in system unlike anything humanity ever built armored in a bone like substance they arrived as a single formation and by our estimate 40 cruiser and frigate class vessels a formidable fleet though they didn't follow any human design we had ever heard of all rounded and bulbous like looking at sea cucumbers made of bones it was an odd sight.