The fleet took a course for the Andari system where the HQ of border guards was located.
The station was ready for the fight when the bugs arrived and it would also send a signal once it was attacked.
To bolster its defenses they left some mines around,it couldn't save the station but the enemy
would have to pay for attacking it.
After calling back the five ships they left as a lookout,they left.
It took them five days to reach their destination and to everyone's horror they found the base in ruins.
The space station that served the border guards as HQ along with a few dozen ships was now destroyed by the bugs but they fought hard and made the enemy pay as among the debris they found over 50 bug ships that were shot to hell.
Commander Pushkin just got promoted from a patrol commander to the border guard commander for this entire sector.
However he wasn't happy about this promotion,he lost most of his friends and bugs did not leave any survivors.
It pained him to do so but he gave permission to gather all the materials that were needed for the fleet.
The station materials helped but they needed to be fully stocked as he wanted to make the bugs pay for what they did.
-We need another destination preferably one with a communication relay so we can get some information about the state of the invasion.
Daniel said when they were planning their next move.
-There is a system with a colony and a relay around 3 hours of FTL flight away.
Maybe they are still intact.
Pushkin said displaying a star map with a highlighted system.
-Then we will go there once we finish resupplying.
Tommy said.
There was a chance that the colony wasn't attacked because bugs' main focus right now were military installations.
Who knows maybe we will find some allies there as I doubt that the coalition mercenaries are just sitting around.
Daniel shared his thoughts.
-There is a chance but i wouldn't make my hopes up.
Pushkin said.
-We just received a signal from the station. It's under attack by the bugs so we can't go back.
Tommy stated
It took another ten hours for the fleet to be fully stocked and leave the system.
When they arrived at the colony it was under attack and its defencive fleet was in disarray.
-We have around 400 bug's ships and the defense fleet has only around 50 ships left.
Anne reported.
They didn't wait and micro jumped into range the bugs were surprised seeing the reinforcements and that was the last surprise in their lives.
As soon as they were in weapons range they opened fire with a devastating effect.
The enemy didn't even know what hit them when over a hundred ships attacked them from behind.
The four battleships leading their fleet were targeted first and the sheer volume of fire coming their way overloaded their shields in seconds but they were able to tank the hits that got through.
Unfortunately for them their main weapons were stationary so they had to move the whole ship to target the new enemy and they never got that chance as more and more ordnance slammed into their hauls until they exploded one by one taking some of the smaller ships with them.
Next were cruisers and destroyers and they didn't fare any better than the battle ships.
Their shields flickered and died right before they exploded or suffered heavy damage.
The battle wasn't completely one sided as Bug's managed to destroy two of the border guards ships and damage some of the mercenary ships before they were wiped out.
This time the dragon star fleet had casualties 24 of them died and over 60 were injured.
Border guards lost over sixty men on the ships that were destroyed and damaged not to mention over a hundred wounded.
The defense fleet was reduced to 23 ships at the end of the battle and most of them were damaged.
All wounded were sent to the White dragon Alice and Jenny also went to help.
The star of Vengeance had no casualties and suffered no damage in this battle but their primary shield was down to 4%.
-I talked with the defense fleet commander and they are in the middle of evacuating the colony and he asked if we would stay to protect them until the evacuation is finished,in exchange he promised to restock us on ammunition and medical supplies.
Pushkin said to Daniel and Tommy over the comms .
-We need to stay here to make some repairs anyway so we can agree to his terms.
Daniel said in agreement.
-The relay is also damaged but i think we can repair it in a matter of hours.
Tommy said also agreeing.
-Then let's get to work.
Daniel said, ending the transmission.
Thankfully there were no more enemy attacks and within a day the relay was back online.
The ships would take longer to repair but almost all of them were able to fight if it came to it.
The information they got from the relay was disastrous.
The bugs were taking over the empire at a very fast pace destroying every fleet and planet that stood in their way but paying for it dearly.
Someone in the empire got an idea to fight defensively and delay the enemy as much as possible.
The problem was that bugs could afford the losses and the empire couldent.
To no one's surprise most of the nobles fled when the invasion started.
They left their fleets under the imperial command with the exception of some escorts and just ran.
The only exceptions to this were Liliane LeBlanc and Theodor Von Magnis.
They both commanded their own fleets and fought tooth and nail against the invaders making them pay dearly for every advancement they made.
However with the numerical advantage of the Xindarians the fall of the empire was just a matter of time.
Also the attacks on the other space nations were getting more and more numerous and bigger in scale.
It was obvious to everyone that the enemy wanted to take down the humans and any other species that could offer any resistance to their expansion.
-Well it looks like we will need to fight this war whether we like it or not.
Daniel said after reading the information they received.
-Actually we might stand a chance now that we are in the coalition space.
Tommy said.
-How so?
Pushkin asked.
-They are investing most of their forces into the empire and sending relatively smaller forces to the other nations.
Which means that either they don't have enough forces to attack everywhere at once or they just don't see the need to do so thinking that it's enough to just attack on a smaller scale to whittle us down over time.
-The latter strategy backfired spectacularly in the case of the battle on the border.
Pushkin said.
-That's only because we showed up,otherwise you would all be destroyed.
Daniel said stating the obvious fact.
-In any case ,they lost thousands of ships in that battle and they also got a beating here and that's another 400 ships and those losses are significant even with the number of ships they have at their disposal.
Also don't forget that they are fighting on many fronts and we don't know how many they lost there.
Tommy shared his thoughts on this matter.
-We need to solve our supply problem,so far we were lucky but sooner or later our luck will run out.
Daniel presented their current problem.
-If we can find the coalition navy then i think that this problem could be solved especially with all you have done for us.
Commander Pushkin said.
-We will look for them when we are done here oh and Tommy if we stumble upon any nobles that fled,you can just kill them I won't mind.
Daniel said, he despised cowards.