The FTL flight was going smoothly but unfortunately they found out that there were quite a lot of pirates around their system.
The closer they got to Sol the more pirates they met.
The outlaws were not the brightest bunch in the galaxy as instead of running when they saw three cruisers they usually sent their threats or just opened fire.
Unfortunately for them,their ships were unable to match the firepower of the human warships and all of them ended up as space debris.
The last stop before Sol system was especially packed with pirates.
Everyday they spent there they had to fight a group of pirates and the same trick worked every time.
The pirates gave up the location of their hideout and were destroyed.
Simon,Mikael and Steuner didn't have any mercy for them and since they had enough supplies they decided to pay a visit to each hideout.
They found more tech and supplies but unfortunately only one hideout had prisoners which they set free.
What the trio didn't know was that the last group of the pirates they destroyed managed to send a warning about them as a pirate hunting group.
The prisoners also spread a word about them when they reached their home systems.
So the Sol system was avoided by the pirates and every planetary government that heard about them wanted to send envoys to their system to start diplomatic relations with a species that didn't just condemn pirates but also took steps to do something about them.
They were stopped when the prisoners told them to wait two or three Earth years so that the Sol system would be ready to welcome them.
Fortunately for them their fame did not reach the federation space yet.
For now they were just locally famous in the so-called unclaimed territories.
It was also the reason why they destroyed the pirates with ease.
They had federation weapons and shields that were outdated by federation standards but out here it was far superior to anything the pirates and most planets could throw at them.
Also what they didn't know was that the armor they were wearing was superior to even the federation military armors as they redesigned some parts of it.
-This is the last one.
Mikael said when they cleared the last pirates hideout they found.
-If we keep hunting pirates we will never get to earth.
He continued.
-It's not like there are no benefits to this,but you are right we can let the actual military deal with them when we build more ships.
Simon agreed.
-They were the ones that challenged us so I see no problem in destroying them.
Steuner said.
The lizardman was in a good mood after some combat in the hideout.
He loved to fight as on his planet he would be considered a great warchief after so many battles and that was the third highest rank for his people.
Only a tribe's chief and a great shaman were above this rank.
-It's great that you have fun but there are way more pirates out there and we can't hunt them all down with only three ships.
Also we have a lot of work to do in our system and not much time to do it.
Mikael said,reminding him of their goals.
-I know brother,but it is also important to eliminate this scum.
The lizardman started calling them brothers some time ago and explained that after surviving this many battles together,It was a custom in his world to call the warriors by his side brothers as they were considered blood brothers at this point.
He also didn't understand the concept of piracy at first but when his human brothers explained it to him,he decided that they had to be exterminated as they brought shame onto any real warrior.
-We will exterminate them when we have more ships to do it and I'm certain that no one on earth will forbid you from joining the hunt.
Mikael tried to calm down his alien friend and it worked.
-Then let's go,the faster we have more ships the faster we can hunt this vermin down.
Steuner said after he thought about it for a while.
He was really passionate about pirate hunting and he also didn't like the idea of slavery.
From his point of view it was the worst fate that could happen to a free being.
After taking all the things they could as their cargo holds were getting full.
They destroyed the hideout as usual and they refueled in this system as they used quite a bit of fuel jumping from one system to another.
This time there were no more pirates bothering them.
Simon was busy writing a rapport about the pirates they destroyed,it was Mikael's idea to do so.
The raptors contained the ships class that the pirates had their hideouts locations along with the information about their destruction,how many prisoners were freed and from which species and lastly what technology and materials were acquired from the pirates and as a gift from the freed captives.
They would come in handy when they were talking with the leaders of earth nations.
A few hours later they were fully fueled and ready to go.
This was their last jump and when they emerged from FTL they would find themselves on the fringe of the Sol system.
When they jumped,they started to revise their plans once again.
-I don't think that we should land all at once,just one of us will be enough for now.
Mikael said,when they were planning on how to contact the world leaders.
-Actually I think that it would be a good idea to build ourselves a small base on the moon,that way if things go south we will be able to fuel our ships.
If I remember correctly one of my friends who is interested in space told me that there is a whole bunch of helium 3 there.
Not to mention that according to international law the moon is a no man's land so we can do what we want and there is no one to stop us even if they wanted to.
Simon proposed.
-But what about the materials?
Steuner asked.
-There is plenty of materials around earth's orbit and if it's not enough then we can just go to the asteroid belt to gather them.
Now we have the matter converters so we don't have to rely solely on the scrap around earth.
Simon answered.
-I suppose that you already have plans ready,so how long would that take?
Mikael asked.
-A small base that I found a blueprints for would take us fourteen days using the drones we have and while we are doing that we can also contact the world's governments and tell them what is coming in the near future.
Simon explained.
-And how large is a small base?
-It's not that big:three pods for our shuttles and some dome shaped structures for us to use as housing,we also have to add another two days to build a reactor to power the thing up.
Simon pointed out what they needed.
-So you propose that we build a moon base for ourselves while talking with the bigshots on earth and you think they won't be pissed about it?
Mikael asked.
-They won't have the time to be pissed about it when they hear about what we got in store for them.
Simon answered with a mischievous smile.