Before Yang Xiyi took office, Eleanor Bonaparte had already put a great deal of effort into the defenses of the entire New Jade Gate system. She planned to make this system one of her home ports. The days when smuggling ships could easily haul heavy weapons down to a planet's surface, as they had in the past, were over.
The instant the three green-skinned landing ships—converted from armed merchant vessels—entered the New Jade Gate system, they were detected. Unable to identify the ships, the automated sentry guns stationed near the gravity well opened fire after three unanswered warnings.
But since they were automated weapons, their power and intelligence were exactly what one would expect, given how the universe worked. They could be useful for keeping pirates at bay, but in a more intense conflict, they could do little more than harass the enemy with secondary fire.
And no matter how orky these three unexpected visitors looked, they were still warships. Every modification had been made to prepare them for assault landings, so they had at least basic weapons and armor. They weren't going to lose to a bunch of automated sentry guns.
After a very brief exchange of fire that was hardly fierce at all, the raiders' armed transports took more than twenty ion-cannon hits between them, but not one proved decisive. In return, they destroyed more than twenty gun emplacements and quickly broke through the automated defense line.
In the past, the raiders would certainly have stopped their ships and spent at least half a day picking over the battlefield. The wreckage of those space turrets was military scrap, after all, and there were plenty of valuable parts to salvage. The turret mounts and barrels alone could be taken back, reworked, and used as replacements for their own guns.