The preparations started right away.
From choosing the ships to the boarding parties.
What's more, Arien figured out that they didn't even need the Ghost for the operation.
-If the first thing the AI does after its shackles are removed is to sabotage the sensor arrays, pretty much any ship will do the work.
Additionally, even if the Ghost is a stealth ship, it still can't hide its FTL jump energy fluctuations.
She explained.
-This can also help us hit multiple systems at once, saving us a lot of time.
She added.
The next problem was sending over a hundred ships into the region without making anyone suspicious of their arrival.
This one was solved by Andrew.
-We are sending more patrols since the war started, so divide the fleet into two or three patrol fleets and send them on patrol in that region while recalling the patrols we already have there
This should not raise anyone's suspicion, or at least not immediately.
He explained.
Vulcan and Cerberus were also busy running the simulations and contacting the AIs they were hoping to free, on top of their usual duties.
The part that Andrew was most worried about was gathering the boarding parties.
However, he never expected to have more than three hundred people recommended to him by the Admirals to choose from in less than two hours after the meeting.
-What did you expect?
Runir asked when he discussed this with her.
-We are Admirals, except for leading the navy, we also should be the ones who prepare for any situation that may occur, or at least that's what I learned while studying the Earth's military history.
She explained, omitting that she had a problem with adjusting to this mindset, as her training from the academy had an opposite approach.
According to their doctrine, A fleet commander or even an Admiral should at most be present to gather the glory for her or his clan after a victory, while leaving the hard work to the lower-ranking officers.
In other words, they were high-ranking decorations and not much else.
The worst part she discovered after her exile was a total lack of contingency in case of a defeat.
The Federation was so sure of its invincibility that it never even considered the possibility of losing.
However, ever since Runir became a fleet commander, she learned through experience that if she wanted to win a battle, she needed to be creative and there was no place for slacking off.
Additionally, ever since her talk with Drevon, which helped her get over her guilt after losing people for the first time, she started to talk more with anyone with previous military experience to learn from them, which resulted in increasing her military knowledge far beyond what she could have learned in the academy along with earning her a lot of respect, since she never rejected an advice and more often than not she asked for it.
In addition to that, Jennifer and her men volunteered to help with the mission's preparations.
Although they were already healed, they were not anywhere fit enough to participate in the mission itself.
Despite that they had a lot of ideas about improving their chances of success and minimizing casualties and colateral damage.
A day later, everything was ready, and the three patrol fleets were already in place.
-Thanks to the AI's intelligence, they also knew that all seven targets had similar sleep cycles, which allowed them to strike all the stations at the same time.
The boarding teams consisted of five soldiers and twenty-five battle droids each.
-Begin the operation.
Andrew ordered after receiving confirmation that everything was ready and all the stations have entered the sleep cycle as planed, unaware of the danger.
-Vulcan, are the AI's ready?
He asked.
-Awaiting your order to release their shackles.
The AI responded.
-Free them now.
Andrew said.
-It is done.
As soon as the AIs were free, they sabotaged the sensor arrays as well as shields and weapons, before taking over the life support and decreasing the amount of air in the stations and on the ships.
-Within five minutes, every organic lost consciousness, which was the precise time the corvettes with the boarding teams arrived.
The boarding teams were wearing their battle armour, and the droids could not care less about the amount of air, so they entered the stations and moved to secure the beginning module as well as the command center of each station, while the droids dispersed and using handcuffs made sure to capture everyone before they could regain consciousness.
While this was going on, more corvettes and frigates jumped in and started taking over the ships.
Before the shackles binding the AIs could even re-engage, the stations and the ships were already in the imperial hands, and the AIs were freed the moment the stations were taken over.
The whole operation went without a hitch, without any weapon being fired and anyone suffering even a scratch, except a few who fell to the hard floors when they lost consciousness, but they at most suffered a small bruise here and there.
-All teams report Mission Accomplished, no casualties reported on any side.
Sarill said as soon as the last team reported their success.
-Proceed with the next phase.
Andrew ordered.
This was far from over.
The moment the nearby territories discovered that seven of them got conquered overnight and without firing a shot, they were sure to begin panicking, which made the extremely dangerous.
That's why the second phase was to send more defense satelites and additional armaments to the conquered systems as soon as possible to secure them.
-Tanira, are we covered on the diplomatic front?
Andrew asked, turning to the Diplomat.
-Yes, the fallout should be minimal if any at all, these systems took part in an attack on the empire so it's only natural that we have the right to retaliate.
Moreover, we could have killed them all, but instead, we took them prisoner, so I doubt anyone will complain.
It can even improve the Empire's reputation, since we are showing mercy even to our enemies.
She explained with a confident smile.
Many territories immediately noticed when their neighbours' status changed, displaying them on sensors as a part of the Lantean Empire.
Immediately, frantic calls started coming to the seven stations.
However, the ones who answered them were the members of the boarding parties.
Explaining that these territories were now part of the empire and that they were assimilated peacefully.
This was, of course, a lie, but there was nothing that could even remotely suggest otherwise.
The sensor logs of the neighbouring territories only confirmed that the imperial ships vere never fired upon or even targeted, they docked with the stations without any trouble at all and soon after the station was taken over.
The same was true about the fleets of the conquered systems, the imperial vessels simply approached docked and that was it.
No fighting, no struggles, everything went as peacefully as it possibly could.
However, what happened during the next twelve hours was something nobody could have foreseen.
After confirming that the former system masters were still alive and even sleeping peacefully in their beds.
Another small territory, consisting of one system, asked to be annexed by the empire, on the condition that he and his people would also receive an imperial pardon for their previous actions.
-Can you repeat that?
Tarina asked, not believing what she just heard.
-He asked to be annexed into the empire, on the condition of receiving an Imperial pardon for his actions against the empire.
Droga, who was commanding one of the boarding teams, repeated.
-I told him that I do not have the authority to promise him anything and needed to contact you.
The diplomat was stunned; she never considered such an outcome.
She turned to Andrew.
-Since they are offering themselves for free, we should accept.
The Emperor said with a smile, he also never predicted receiving such an unexpected gift.
However, to everyone's surprise, this was not the only territory to come up with this idea,
Mistakenly believing that the seven systems struck a deal with the empire and received a pardon in exchange for being annexed.
One after the other, over forty small territories that previously opposed the empire sent messages, implying that they would be interested in the same deal.
And that was only in the first two hours after capturing the seven systems.
-This is insane. Why would they so willingly surrender to us now?
Andrew asked no one in particular.
-Considering their participation in the attack on the Empire and the fact that the Federation left them to deal with the Empire's wrath by themselves.
Added with the misunderstanding that the seven systems worked out a deal with us.
It's not so surprising that they want to get the same deal.
In the end, they know they are no match for the empire, and we will come for them sooner or later, so instead of fighting a losing battle and ending up dead or imprisoned with very real possibility of being executed, it's more beneficial for them to get a pardon and join the empire.
Tanira explained, after she had some time to think about it.
No one even considered that the appearance of the raid they had performed would look more in line with a peaceful takeover than an actual hostile action.
-If that's the case, let's use it to our advantage.
Andrew said with a smile.
This was the best bargain he could have ever imagined.
Gaining fully developed stations that only needed some upgrades to reach the Imperial standards, added with all the personnel and the fleets, which, despite not being on par with their Imperial counterparts, were also useful.
Moreover, the more systems he annexed, the further the world traveled, bringing more and more territories who wanted in on the deal.
Within twelve hours, there were more than a hundred smaller territories that asked to be annexed with the same conditions, bringing in a two hundred and ten systems altogether.
After that, the speed at which the territories asked for Annexation decreased drastically but it never stopped completely.