The new station was progressing very fast and so did the scouting of the system.
Unfortunately there was no sign of the base they were looking for or any other signs of this system ever being inhabited for that matter.
The only good news was that no one tried to use the wormhole from the other side, giving them more time to prepare.
At this time the first ships Andrew ordered from the shipyard were finally ready to be launched.
Five corvettes, and five frigates, boosted the fleet's strength by quite a bit, as for the 5 heavy frigates, it would take at least two more days for them to be ready.
Most of the ships that they captured were turned into scrap since their repair time was longer than the time needed to build new ships.
There was also a problem with building destroyers, since they needed an onboard AI to function properly, and the only way to get shipboard AI was to wake up the shipyard's AI, for which they simply lacked fuel.
The helium 3 collectors arrived at their positions and deployed screens that caught the fuel.
However, they didn't have enough time to collect any significant amount of it.
To fill up the reserve tanks they needed a minimum of a hundred tons of fuel and more to start filling the main tank of the shipyard, at which point the AI would be able to come online.
After draining what little helium 3 there was in the ships they captured, it was barely enough to fill up the first reserve tank and add some fuel to the second one.
-I would welcome some suggestions on how to solve this problem.
Andrew said during a meeting concerning this problem.
They needed the shipyard at full power as soon as possible, if they wanted to have a chance to defend themselves against the second wave of the invasion.
-I have a few ideas about getting more fuel, but one of them is theoretical at best and the other one would require us to find a gas planet.
Lanarine said, surprising everyone.
-The first one is to try and extract the helium 3 from the asteroids while they are being processed, but like I said it's all theoretical and I have no clue how much fuel we would be able to extract even if we managed to do it.
The other one would require designing a drone capable of gathering the fuel from the atmosphere of a gas planet, and we would also need to have such a planet to even try it.
The geologist explained her ideas.
-Designing a drone would be easy if we had a planet like that.
Aelita said while thinking about both options.
-The other option would require us to heat the asteroids until the gas is freed and then collect it.
She thought out loud.
-Let's try both ways.
I know where we can find a gas planet.
Andrew said with a smirk.
-You don't mean the AI system?
Tanira asked, hoping that he was not thinking about it.
-If you have a better idea, then I'm all ears.
The human shrugged.
-We helped that AI once and I think we can convince it to allow us to collect some fuel from its system.
-What if you're wrong and it won't allow it?
Runir asked.
-Then we won't push it, as valuable as that system is.
The AI is even more so, considering how many ships it took down.
-Then what do you want to offer it in return?
Jalina chimed in.
-I was thinking about upgrading its shields to tier 3.
As far as we know that station consists solly of tier 1 modules, so we might be able to trade some of our technology for the right to gather fuel in it's system.
He explained.
-It's worth a shot, at worst it'll decline.
Arien approved of the idea.
-It's decided then.
With the decision made, it didn't take them long to prepare everything.
Aelita and Nairin designed the drone and got one of the gunships equipped with the collection system.
At the same time, Andrew contacted the AI, by sending it a message, containing his proposition along with what he was willing to offer in return.
The response was almost immediate.
-These conditions are acceptable, however as stated before, your ships are not allowed to approach the station.
The AI's message stated.
-Agreed, please provide us with coordinates at which to leave the module.
The coordinates followed soon.
Not long later three gunships were loaded with the module parts as well as a few drones, to assemble the module.
Within a few hours, Andrew's part of the deal was kept and the fuel-gathering drones were deployed, along with a recharging module and two solar modules for the drones.
The crews designated to collect the fuel were strictly forbidden from approaching the station or wandering around the system, they were simply there to collect helium 3 and nothing more.
Once Aelita and Nairin, were done with this part, they immediately started to think of a way to get the fuel from the asteroids while not losing some of the materials which had a low melting point.
The tests were conducted on a few small asteroids with at most 2 meters in diameter and the first 5 went badly.
Four times they lost all the gas from the asteroids and only the fifth try yielded some results.
Unfortunately, they were only able to contain 0.1 % of the gas that was freed, making the whole thing not worth the trouble, as the resources poured into it would be much greater than the returns in the amount of fuel they would gather.
-You two might want to have a look at this.
Sarill said while the two engineers were discussing the ways to gain more fuel from the asteroids.
-This has to be some kind of joke.
Nairin said once she saw what Sarill wanted to show them.
-It's not, and I think it will be much easier than making one from scratch.
The communications technician said.
-Gathering the resources should not be a problem, but we don't have that much storage at the moment.
Aelita nodded, agreeing.
The thing was, that they didn't have to develop a new technology at all.
There was a tier 4 research they had access to.
The problem was the cost of the research and the time as it would take over a week and they would need to get their hands on six million tons of resources, while their storage capacity was slightly below 2.5 million tons.
Not that it was an impossible task for them to accomplish and the reward was more than worth it.
Since the gas extraction upgrade would allow the resource processing modules to work in tandem with gas separation modules, to extract helium 3 from the asteroids while they were being processed.
The simple fix to their problem was to simply make more storage modules.
Andrew agreed immediately when the three ladies came to him with this.
-You can start immediately, the sooner we get this the better.
These were his words, once they presented him with the problem and solution at once.
So without any delay, they ordered 2000 tier 3 storage modules to be produced.
With the help of every other station, the estimated time of producing this many was just 32 hours.
This many modules would allow them to store 10 000 000 tons of materials alone, and adding the rest of the storage modules would be almost 12 500 000 tons.
With this much resources, they would be able to begin research once again while it would not hinder the ship production in the least.
In the middle of their efforts to solve the fuel problem, they all heard the message through their communication bracelets.
-All invasion forces, the first wave of the invasion has come to an end.
Retreat to your universes, within three standard days.
Those who fail to leave will be stranded in this universe until the next wave arrives.
The message repeated itself a few times before it stopped.
-Sarill, can you pinpoint the origin of this message?
Andrew asked the moment it ended.
-I'm working on it, but it's unlikely since it was an open-channel message using every possible communication device to be received.
She said while working on finding the source of the transmission.
-Andrew we might have a problem.
Lan's voice came from his bracelet.
-What is it?
-We have portals opening left and right, as far as I can determine, they are opening in the same spots they opened when the invasion fleets came here.
-I'm on my way, make sure to track them, especially those in our territory.
He said and went straight to the command center.
-We have 4 portals opened in our territory, but nothing is going through them.
Lanarine reported the moment Andrew arrived.
He took a look at the display.
-If these are the evacuation portals for the forces they sent here, then there won't be anyone coming through, but send the fleet to guard all the portals just in case.
Andrew ordered.
-The fleet is already on its way, and I also sent a few ships to the wormhole.
If some of the invasion forces try to use it, they will have a nasty surprise waiting for them.
Runir said the moment she arrived at the command center.
Her ship was undergoing maintenance and resupply at the moment, so she could not join the fleet.
-Good idea.
Andrew praised her initiative.
-Now let's hope that the invading fleets go home without making a fuss.