A/N: Hello everyone, and welcome to my first story in.. well years. This time around it's a crossover of Starfox, and the EVE Online universe of New Eden. This chapter has been revised a couple of times now, and part of that is thanks to some great authors and readers out there such as the likes of Nail Strafer, Strikira, and others. In fact some of this wouldn't have been possible without a few of you. You know who you are!
I hope you all enjoy this little romp down the rabbit hole!
To say that Cornerian Command was in disarray would be an understatement. Under any other circumstance, Chief Warrant Officer Alvera would have enjoyed the opportunity to meet such esteemed members of the Cornerian Military and Cornerian Defense Force, but these were not normal circumstances
Three hours had passed since the sensor network had pinged several massive contacts and hundreds of smaller ones materializing deep inside Corneria's sphere of influence, effectively on their doorstep, and now it was the tall Samoyed's job to brief the upper command staff about the situation.
"General Pepper, Admirals, at 0000 hours CCT, the Cornerian Defense Network detected a massive energy release within three-hundred thousand SKM of Corneria, shortly thereafter, the Network picked up a spike of contacts materializing in the immediate vicinity of the release," he paused for a moment, taking in a breath as the various other officers discussed quietly amongst themselves, the old General however remained quiet and contemplative, motioning for him to continue.
"As of 0200 hours, a large detachment from the Cornerian Home Fleet, under Rear Admiral O'Malley, was dispatched to investigate. In the intervening time, there has been minimal change in position of the fleet detachment should be reaching visual range in the next twenty-four minutes. The Bulldog and Husky units were also scrambled from Katina under Commander Grey with priority Gate Transmission authorized for them to link-up with the fleet."
"What is the likelihood that this may be a Venomian Battlegroup Group?" one of the officers, a tired looking swan that Alvera did not recognize, spoke up, apprehension rising in his voice.
"The chances that the Venomians mobilized a force this size in such a short time without our long range pickets noticing is exceedingly slim, and would be in direct violation of the ceasefire agreement signed at the end of the Lylat Wars, Commander…" the Samoyed stalled briefly, trying to find the Swan's nameplate, but there was not one, possibly left behind in the scramble to get into Cornerian Command, "additionally, their command structure has only recently stabilized," he brought up recent reports from their long range scanners on the projector, "their fleets, while formidable, are still fragmented and spread between those loyal to the new regime, and rogue splinters. Unless something has changed on that front in the past three hours, I am inclined to maintain that Venom is not involved, directly at least."
Alvera took another pause, letting those seated around the table take in his words before he looked back to General Pepper, who still had yet to speak, despite the continued whispering of the others.
"Chief Warrant Officer Alvera," the old hound finally spoke, "thank you for bringing this to the attention of the Defense Council. Whatever the current case may be, we will know what we are dealing with soon enough."
"Of course Sir."
An aide came up and whispered in the Samoyed's ear, taking his attention briefly, "It would seem that the fleet is reaching visual range," with a swift click of a button, the projector began to display a live feed from the cameras under the hull of one of the Bulldog unit's Bottlenose fighters.
The room was quiet enough to hear a pen drop as the image displayed, the fighter was still many tens of SKM away from the nearest sensor ping, and already they could see what appeared to be several staggeringly sized vessel, and as it and the fleet continued to close range more and more could be properly seen spaced between the larger hulls.
"Cornerian Command, this is Commander Grey, with Husky and Bulldog, we're Oscar Mike on the… unknowns. you're seeing this, right? Over."
"Confirmed Commander, your signal is coming through, Five by Five," Alvera replied as all eyes remained locked to the projected display.
"Bulldog, you're with me, we're striking down the middle. Husky, circle the outer edge to starboard. The fleet has their own approach pattern they'll be following. Keep your eyes wide, seals tight, and your asses covered, I don't like how this is looking." A small chorus of yes sirs and ayes crackled across following the order as the silent ships continued to grow in the camera feed.
Blackness greeted the Capsuleer as her consciousness resurfaced, the low, warbling tone of inactive shields washing across her mind. She was surprised, she should have been awakening in a new clone somewhere in the Placid region, there was no way her ship, or her capsule should have survived. Despite the growing awareness of her newfound migraine, and her ship screaming at her, she was pleased.
As her proprioception began to reorient, she felt the sharp twinge of the mauled remnants of her ship's fragile nanite armor, and the searing sting of superstructure damage begin to worm their way across the neural links. She brought more of her systems back online, an ever greater surge of data began to filter into the capsule and imprint across her neural pathways, she filtered through it all at blinding pace, touching on as much as she could.
SYSTEMS CHECK - IN PROGRESS
REACTORS - OFFLINE
CAPACITOR - 30% AND FALLING - TIME TO DEPLETION, SEVEN HOURS, THIRTEEN MINUTES, FOUR SECONDS
PEG SYSTEMS - ON STANDBY
LIFE SUPPORT - 40% AND FALLING - TIME TO DEPLETION, THREE HOURS, TWELVE MINUTES, FORTY-ONE SECONDS
SHIELD INTEGRITY - 0% GENERATORS OFFLINE
ARMOR INTEGRITY - 12%
HULL INTEGRITY - 87% MULTIPLE BREACHES DETECTED
DAMAGE CONTROL FIELDS - ONLINE
It was worse than she had hoped, but far beyond what should have been possible. It was shear luck that the shields had held against the Aurora Ominae… the following Bosonic Field burst should have torn them asunder.. And yet, here she was, still connected into her Capsule, at the heart of her ship. Her crew, for the most part, alive. She was still blind to the happenings outside her vessel, but that could wait. She had to rectify the situation at hand, or there wouldn't be much that could be done for the future.
Crew vitals consistently pinged back as unconscious - stable for most of the survivors, those that were not pinged back as Unconscious - Critical, but the Capsuleer could read little else from their subdermal implants. Once they were roused, more thorough medical examinations would need to be carried out.
But first, the reactors, and life support systems needed immediate attention. The reactor was a relatively simple matter, the capacitors still held enough charge to do a cold start of the Graviton Core, and with a thought, the energy reservoirs began to cascade through the central coils, bringing life back to the slumbering core. As the reactors roared back to life, the PEG systems came off of standby, and entered online functionality, and they worked in tandem to slowly replace the stored energy that had been bled off during the reawakening, and the shield generators spun back to life, starting the shield integrity's slow tick back toward 100%.
The life support would be more difficult to begin to raise without the crew, but she could stabilize it temporarily until they could do their part, which she did to the best of her ability. It only bought more time, but it would be enough until the more permanent fix could be met.
She began to divide her attention as further systems continued to restore themselves now that the reactors were back online, manifesting holographic avatars in various sections to begin the process of rousing her mortal crewmen, maintaining an image of reserved indifference as she began with the highest ranking officers of each section, and then to lower officers if they could not be awakened for whatever reason.
As she continued to do this, she launched a small series of camera drones and opened her senses to the outward universe, the ship's massive sensor clusters overlaying fresh data with the images playing across her mind's eye. She was no longer blind.
Around her, she saw the hulking remnants of tens of other ships, equal, and even greater than her own, and the shattered husks of hundreds of smaller hulls spanning between them.
Some seventy kilometers to the fore and starboard of her, she saw the drifting hull of another carrier, a Thanatos-class, and mostly intact. Had another Capsuleer survived? Or had they ejected their Capsule and forsaken the crew aboard? It took her a moment to register that the other carrier's transponder had reactivated. UNF Svald… That was Sterling's ship..
Beyond the drifting wreckages, she could see a gleaming blue green jewel, floating several hundreds of thousands of kilometers distant, and even further, the light of a massive blue giant star. This was not the slaughterhouse of a grid she and her compatriots had been desperately trying to hold...
Her attention was drawn away from the planet at the sudden pulsing of a proximity alert. They were not alone.
A splitting headache and nausea greeted Lieutenant Harroway as he came to, slumped over his console. He knew the symptoms well, a prime tell of Jump Fatigue, and just about the worst he'd ever felt it. A prodding against his side forced a grunt from his lips.
The prodding came again, stronger, more insistent.
With a grimace, he pushed himself up, taking a long breath as he looked over to the source of the prodding and froze, standing over him was the flickering form of the Capsuleer, "Glad you could finally rejoin us in the land of the living. You are the first officer I've been able to wake, congratulations, Commander." The words were spoken with something approaching contempt, whether for him, or the situation, Harroway could not tell.
"Director Brezia, ma'am!" her steely visage glared down at him as he struggled to stand and salute, almost falling over as he did but managing to steady himself on his console.
"Begin rousing your new command, I've already begun to appoint new chiefs from those of appropriate rank capable of being woken in other sections. Have the able-bodied move the more heavily incapacitated to Medical Section, or the docked hospital ship if necessary. Then, bring the Bridge to combat readiness."
Even as a simple forcefield backed hologram, the woman was an unnerving sight to behold, a deceptively young appearance,metallic arms crossed in front of her, cybernetic lines carving thin channels across her face, all rolled into a lithe and powerful frame draped in a flowing sleeveless coat that reached her knees.
Harroway gave her a nod, and the hologram winked out of existence without another word. With a glance toward the back of the bridge, his eyes caught the golden-green glint of the Capsule, the place she resided. From inside, she commanded them, the ship little more than an extension of her body and mind, the crew, its lifeblood. Cells of a greater whole.
He shook the thought away, he had his orders, and best to get about them quickly lest the Capsuleer's patience wear thin. Others on the bridge were slowly coming to, and he set to work getting them situated.
"Bulldog 1-1 here, over. I'm getting no electronic signatures from the ships, can someone else confirm?"
"Husky 1-4, confirming. Over."
"Bulldog 1-3, I've got a bit here, some residual radiation signatures, reactors maybe? But well below what ships THAT big should be outputting, confirming no electronic emissi- oh gods. Is that debris?!"
The images projected resolved themselves in more detail, and what the officers and aide staff at Cornerian Command beheld was carnage. Even at twenty SKM, it was obvious that many of the larger ships were fragmented into several sections, slurries of liquid metal and other materials trailing from fragmented compartments.
"Bulldog unit, reduce acceleration by 015 and tighten formation on me, now! Husky, maintain your outward sweep."
"Yes sir…"
"Haven't seen anything this badly mauled since the Lylat Wars….."
"Got that right, who the hell did this?"
"Better question, how'd it end up here?"
"Commander Grey, Bulldog 1-1... I'm seeing bodies…"
"Bulldog unit, reduce relative speed, try not to disturb any of them too much with your engine wakes."
"They're dead, what're they gonna-"
"Lieutenant Jorien, you finish that sentence you're cleaning the latrines when we get back to Katina… Whoever these people were, they died in a bad way. Show some damned respect!"
"...solid copy Commander Grey.."
"They look Simian kinda… but they're no Simian race I've ever seen if they is.."
"Yeah, I'm seeing it too."
"Seeing some design variances in the wreckage, some are smooth, almost organic-like, yeah? And others are clean and angular. Think they were fighting each other, or working together?"
"No way to know for sure… but what's left of those big frackin' guns seems to be pointed outward from the fleet.. So I thinks they was fighting somebody else."
"Bulldog unit, cut the chatter, scanners are picking something up, low level electronic signature further into the debris field. Looks like another ship. Almost seems to be in one piece."
"Bulldog 1-1 here, I've got a visual, one of the angular designs looks like, it's electronic sig is blooming.. hang on, just saw something move past me…"
"Moved past you? What the hell do you mean moved past you?"
"Exactly what I fuckin' said Grey, something moved past my gods damned canopy!"
"You cracked Ez?"
"Blow me Jorien."
"Can it, both of you. Bulldog 1-1, I want a description of this thing."
"Small, less than a meter, saw something reflective, maybe a camera of some kind. I'm thinking some sort of microdrone or something. Why?"
"I'm looking right at it.. And it's lookin' back."