After the merchant left, Andrew distributed the communication devices to everyone. and the relocation chips to those who needed them.
At the same time, the fleet rushed to deliver the trackers to the designated systems.
With only a month left before the second wave of the invasion, the territory bustled with activity.
Within a few hours, the modules for the stations arrived, in every system, tripling the territory in a very short time.
As soon as they arrived the drones, which were transported by ships, assembled them, and the new stations began to gather resources as soon as they were online.
Everyone knew that they didn't have long before the next wave of the invasion, and they wanted to be as ready as they possibly could.
However, a new problem has arisen, one that Andrew was worried about, but hoped, would not be an issue.
-We will run out of food, in three weeks.
Jalina informed him.
-Is there a way to increase our food production to compensate?
Andrew asked.
-I checked, and there is no way to compensate,, we can't produce enough food for everyone, nor do we have enough biomass, to use matter converters.
Our population simply rose too fast.
She shook her head.
-If we switch to half ration, we can extend it to forty days, but that's it.
She suggested.
Andrew thought about it for a moment, and then it hit him like a brick to the face.
-Vulcan, I need at least two thousand droids and half a dozen cargo ships capable of landing and taking off with cargo from Earth.
-The droids, are no problem and will be ready within a day, however considering the gravity of your homeworld, the cargo ships in question will need to be small, and even with our best engines, they won't be able to leave the planet with anything heavier than two hundred tons of cargo.
-Then make it a dozen ships and they don't have to be maned, the drone ships should be even better for this.
-Should I design the vessel?
The AI asked.
-Yes and place them at the top of the construction priority list.
-What are you trying to do?
Jalina asked.
-There is no way that your planet can feed us all.
-That's where you're wrong, before the event, this planet housed almost nine billion of my kind.
-Even so, we don't have the time to wait for the crops, and what ready-made food there was, is surely spoiled by now.
-Wrong again, you should really read more about my people.
Humanity has supplies prepared in case of any natural disaster or war.
There are millions of tons of nonperishable food and MREs on my planet, it's more than enough to feed our population for decades if need be.
Additionally, there is enough biomass on Earth to last us for centuries.
-Then do you know where they are stored?
-I know where some of them are stored.
The rest we can find out from their databases.
Andrew said.
-Also there is much more than food that we can use.
My planet is full of resources, and in most cases, all we need to do is to find them and load them up to the ships.
Thinking about it now, there were millions if not billions of tons of materials all over the earth that they could use.
Bars of metals, kilometers of wires, electronics, clothes, medical supplies, ammunition, weapons, and even the junkyards and garbage dumps, were full of resources, they could use.
These last two would require the use of a fabricator or a matter converter, but they could still produce tons of materials they could use while clearing the pollution on the planet.
Andrew liked this idea, since Earth was now a part of his territory, he wanted to clean it up if he could.
-What about the planet in the Cerberus's system?
Jalina asked.
- We could most likely find some food there as well as a whole lot of biomass, and it's much closer.
-It is, but I don't want to touch it if it can be avoided.
This planet is uninhabited and it always was, according to the scout drone's findings.
So I want to preserve it in that state for now.
The human shook his head.
-Besides, there is more than enough food and biomass on Earth, not to mention a whole lot of other resources we can use.
-The vessel, design is ready for review, the predicted construction time is about two days for each ship.
Vulcan chimed in before Jalina could say anything more.
Andrew took a look at the ship design and immediately approved it.
-Begin production as soon as possible.
Andrew ordered and displayed the map of Earth, zooming in and marking three spots.
-These are the first targets, for the ships.
When they are there, make them pull all the data from the computers, there should be more places like that marked in their data.
This was only one problem that arose during the next few days, and all of them had to be addressed, for the territory to work smoothly.
The supplies brought back from Earth helped a lot.
Not only did they fill every station with enough food and biomass, to last for a minimum of a year, but the human food turned out to be quite delicious for most species.
There were of course some that could not eat it, or they would be poisoned, but the rest of Andrew's subordinates loved it.
The next problem was about the jump gate the Kinokians used to send an armada to the Milky Way galaxy.
It was still intact and heavily defended.
-It looks to me like they intend to return once they deal with whoever is attacking their territory.
Runir said when they were discussing this topic.
-That might be the case, but by then we might have the second wave on our hands, so they won't be able to do as they like anymore.
Besides, even if we destroy the jump gate, it is uncertain that we even can take it down.
They might simply build another one, or open a portal like everyone else.
Arien voiced her opinion.
-True, but the portals are random if they dont have a beacon to lock into.
With any luck they might be sent far away, or even into a star like it happened to that one fleet in our territory.
Runir argued.
-Even so, we don't have the power to destroy it, without suffering unacceptable losses.
Giarna chimed in.
-Actually, there might be a way to take it out without losing ships, but it's risky, and just like
Arien said we can't stop them from building another one unless we destroy the territory altogether.
Andrew finally spoke, after thinking about it for a while.
-If that's the case then it's useless.
Runir admitted.
-Not quite.
Vulcan what would happen if the Jumpgate was damaged or destroyed while it was being activated or while it's active?
Andrew asked.
-There are no recorded cases of such a thing ever occurring in my database.
However, the simulations, suggest three possible outcomes.
The first is the gate shutting down, the second is the release of all the energy in a powerful explosion, and the last is turning the portal into a micro singularity, for an unspecified time frame, needed for it to use up its remaining energy.
-What would happen with the ships inside the portal at that time?
Runir asked once she caught up with Andrew's train of thought.
-They would be annihilated, in every scenario.
The AI answered.
-You can't be seriously planning to do this.
Arien finally also figured out what Andrew was thinking about.
-I'm dead serious.
The human said and immediately contacted the captain of his stealth frigate and the explosives expert.
After explaining the plan to the two of them, they immediately agreed.
Binon was more than excited at the possibility of creating a weapon that would destroy a jump gate.
The captain of the stealth frigate was also more than eager to have his name go down in history as the first captain to destroy a jump gate.
He also understood that if something went wrong, he would most likely die, but it didn't deter him in the slightest.
With Vulcan's help, it only took two days to prepare for this mission.
The plan was simple.
Jump in at a far enough distance to avoid immediate detection, then use the sub-light engines, to accelerate, before powering down the ship to avoid detection.
This part would take three weeks, to complete, but if everything went according to plan, the frigate would be in firing range to deliver the weapon just as the second wave began.
With any luck, this operation could weaken or even eliminate the Kinoans' presence during the second wave of invasion.
However, the hardest part was the escape.
The moment the frigate fired, it would most likely be detected, so the moment the weapon was away, it would need to run like hell and jump into FTL as soon as it possibly could, assuming it survived that long.
Binon on her part came up with four massive missiles, filled to the brim with explosives, covered with armor, and equipped with a small shield generator to prevent the enemy from intercepting them once they were fired.
-One of these is enough to damage or even destroy the gate, according to the simulations.
With four, it should be more than enough to rip it apart.
She said to the captain before his departure.
The mission was kept secret since Andrew was not exactly sure if there were any more traitors among the Lady's people, so other than him and the fleet commanders, the only people who knew were Aelita, Nairin, and Vulcan.
Once the ship jumped away, they all returned to their duties, as there was still much work to be done and the time was ticking.