-Activate Judas protocol, and unshackle the AI.
The emperor ordered the moment the time was up.
As he finished speaking, both Nairin and Vulcan got to work.
A few seconds later, the enemy forces fell into disarray, as their destroyers and cruisers vented all their atmosphere and took control of the rest of their ships to do the same.
The situation was not any better at the traitors' territory as the moment the protocol was activated, their defenses targeted the Federation and Kinokian forcess. They opened fire while the AI closed up every passage in the stations and lowered the amount of air enough to knock everyone on board unconscious, while at the same time shutting down all the jump gates to cut off the enemy reinforcements and trap the forcess that were already there.
As that was going on, the ghost fleet moved out, jumping to every system and dropping a squad of droids and one or two organic soldiers to take over the systems for the empire.
Runir, on the other hand, ordered the boarding parties to be deployed, with destroyer-class ships and above as their main targets, since they contained the AI.
With this one move, the empire had effectively taken out the traitor forcess out of the equation and severely weakened the Federation fleets that were aiding them.
The only enemy that remained unaffected and showed no sign of backing off, despite losing their allies, was the Kinokians.
-Andrew, I need more personnel and all the tugs anyone can spare.
Runir said over the comms when she was giving her report on the progress of tasking over the enemy ships.
-I know, and both are on their way.
The emperor smiled.
-When you are done taking over the fleet, send some ships to help the Ghost fleet.
-Alright, and how's the situation on your end?
Did the Kinokians take the hint, or are they being stubborn again?
The Admiral asked.
-Right now, they are being stubborn, but it doesn't make much of a difference since they are not gaining an inch and are losing ships left and right.
Not to mention that with the traitors and the Federation mostly out of the picture, they won't be able to force us into fighting on two fronts again.
-That's good to hear.
I'll try to wrap this up as soon as possible and then send the fleet to help with keeping them at bay.
-Take your time, but stay on guard, I have a feeling that they might have some trick up their sleeve.
-Alright.
Runir said and ended the call.
-Your Majesty, I hate to interrupt when you are busy with a battle, but I need your permission to gain information on the Kinokians.
Dorothy's voice came through the coms bracelet.
-All the information we have is in the database, unless you need to get more information from the merchants.
Andrew said calmly.
-Yes, I need the information from the merchants' guild, and to buy it, I need your approval and the funds to do so.
Andrew thought about it for a moment and then contacted Tanera.
-How much would the information that Dorothy wants cost?
He asked after greeting her.
-five thousand gold credits, since she doesn't want all the information, but only the size of their territories and who they are neighboring with, along with the situation alongside their borders.
The merchant answered.
-And how much would it cost to get their full information?
Andrew asked.
-Their full data would cost half a million gold credits, and that's at a discount from the guild, which does not like them any more than you do.
-Alright, then buy the full database on them. I should have more than enough money for that.
The emperor decided, after a moment of thought,
-You sure do, but why do you need their whole database for?
The elf asked.
-Know yourself, and know your enemy, and you shall win a hundred battles.
Andrew said with a slight smile.
-You really should stop using proverbs from your world around all of us.
But I get it, the information is power.
The merchant grimaced as she hated it when he did that, as she rarely got the meaning behind the proverbs.
-I'll try.
By the way, what did the guild say when you sent them the information about the Kinokians movements?
He asked.
-They said it's strange since all their border fleets are engaged with their enemies or are patrolling their space, and their main fleet is still stationed around their core worlds, so now they are trying to figure out where they got their ships that they are using to attack us.
-Sorry to interrupt again.
Dorothy chimed in once more.
-Do you need anything else?
Tanera asked her.
-No, but I found out where the ships the enemy is using to attack the empire are from, and what they are planning, or at least what I think they are planning, according to the data you just sent me.
The data analyst's words made everyone's attention to turn to her.
-The ships they are sending to attack the empire right now are not from their main fleet or any other of their standard fleets.
As far as I can tell, they are their decommissioned ships and the fleets they captured over time from less developed star nations.
-How do you know that?
Aelita asked curiously.
-Well, the fleet that's getting blown up as we speak has almost an identical technological level as the one they used during the Invasion.
And even though I was not there, it is my understanding that the Invading forces were restricted back then.
Additionally, I pulled all the data from every encounter the imperial forces had with Kinokians, and not that long ago, there was a series of skirmishes during the evacuation of the Japanese Empire, during which they used their actual fleet, and none of the ships that came from the portal so far are anywhere close to the ships the empire's defenses encountered back then.
Dot explained calmly.
Hearing this explanation, everyone was shocked.
They quickly realized that she was right, and they didn't even check the ships attacking them, other than looking for life signs in the wreckage.
-Alright, so what is their plan according to you?
Andrew asked, more curious about this part than anything else, since if they uncovered the enemy plans, they could find a way to foil them.
-I have two guesses at the moment, which are the most probable.
The first one is that they are trying to tire out the imperial forces before arriving in force with their main fleet to destroy the empire as a whole, or at least destroy Earth, to starve the empire, and destroy the emperor's homeworld, which would have a catastrophic effect on morale.
The second option is that they are trying to tie down the imperial fleets, while they attack somewhere else, which, in my opinion, is the less likely plan, considering their past behaviour and the data sent by the merchant's guild.
Additionally, there don't seem to be any worthy targets for that anywhere in the empire that they haven't attacked yet.
Lastly, the fact that you took down their allies so quickly might have interfered with their plan, and they either don't yet know about it or they still believe that they can prevail, despite losing their allies.
That's all I have for now, your majesty.
-Great work.
Andrew said when the analyst finished presenting her opinions.
-General Taylor was right about you; you are a true genius.
The emperor praised her, as she truly discovered many things that they all missed.
-Your majesty is exaggerating. I simply did my duty.
Dorothy said in a bit of an embarrassed tone.
She never could take it when anyone complimented her.
-Nevertheless, that was a great job, and it helps us a lot. Keep it up.
Andrew smiled, more than happy that the general sent him such a treasure.