A/N: This story was actually done on request. A reader asked me to offer my interpretation of the Space Colony ARK invasion in the Chaos Chronicles universe. We all know the ARK was a major point in Shadow's backstory, though it had remarkably little actual substance to it outside of his games, and part of the comics. This is how I'm going to present it. Expect differences, as the CC takes place in a heavily modified Sonic universe. This is a crossover universe, though that aspect does not come into play for about fifty odd years, meaning this can be placed into the simple games category.

Anyhow, please enjoy as always.


Chapter 1

The Great Debris Field
Space Colony Codename ARK
3185

Deck Officer Samuel Pertz found he had very little to do this morning. Indeed many mornings he felt he had very little to do. Part of his responsibilities within the long range communications office was to establish contact with freighters bound to the ARK from Mobius orbit, though these were few and far between. Every officer, every technician, and every scientist importantly of all, were stressed that the greatest asset of the ARK was its sheer secrecy. Nobody knew it existed, which was incredible considering its size. Upon his arrival almost three years prior, Pertz wondered just what sort of technology could render nearly two kilometers in radius worth of rock and technology, for all intents and purposes, invisible, but didn't think much of it, considering that knowledge of such state secrets without prior clearance was punishable by death.

Many things on this rock were punishable by death.

So it was here where he and three other men worked tirelessly monitoring the wavelengths for anything out of the ordinary. The vast majority of time it was simply debris on a far orbit around Mobius that played with the scanning equipment, reflecting signals and creating false positives on the scanner, and giving them all a big jump. Such was a danger of being within the Great Debris Field - the massive remains of what had once been the Broken Moon.

However, Pertz and his men occasionally did get what they expected - coded transmissions that contained keywords and numbers that signaled an approaching tug or freighter. A space colony the size of the ARK utilized an incredible amount of resources daily, and it was a challenge making sure that they were self-sufficient. However, there were things that simply could not be created on-board, necessitating a call back to MegaCentral. Today was one of those days.

Pertz found the signal on his scanner and shifted the spectrums between radio, x-ray and finally thermal to confirm that he was in fact looking at a spacecraft and not rocks in the surrounding field. Satisfied in his assessment, he switched his cameras to the visible spectrum and fixed them on the point of bright white in the starless black - a sunny day up here as always.

He could make it out clearly - a conical, almost cigar-shaped craft with several spinning sections on it that no-doubt contained fine goods, liquids both consumable and necessary for the scientists' experiments, and cargo containers that were red, green, and blue. The craft appeared to be slowing down slightly with bright blue blasts of thrust appearing at its front.

Pertz brought up the docking schedule to confirm that indeed there was an incoming flight today. He nodded to himself as he saw that the time slot was taken up by a Taurus-4 Class intermediate tonnage freighter. Visually the craft was that of the Overland, but one could never be sure. A slight snarl crossed his face when he brought up the possibility that it could be Mobian. It didn't seem to bear any markings of one of their countries, but he hailed the craft regardless.

"Flight Tau-Eta-One-Four-Niner-Niner-Seven, this is ARK Airspace Command, please come in."

The craft continued to slow, though it did not respond to the hail. Pertz stayed calm, though he licked his lips ever so slightly before tapping the transmit button again.

"I say again, flight Tau-Eta-One-Four-Niner-Niner-Seven, this is ARK Tower. Please copy my last."

The silence continued. He was about to call in the defense positions be activated before the radio crackled.

"Flight Tau-Eta-One-Niner-Niner-Seven copies ARK Tower, radio took a hit coming through the field. Some..." the sound trailed off for three seconds in a squall of white noise, "...if you don't mind."

Pertz groaned and rubbed his nose with thumb and forefinger. That was just great. A damaged radio system would mean that guiding in the freighter would be more tedious. While the pilot could potentially visually steer himself in, it was considered far safer to communicate with the crew to establish two-way communication. He checked all of the docking ports within the bay and discovered a few where they could park this thing. He lit up Dock 12 and fired up the guidance lights. No, he decided. He would override the small freighter and bring it in himself. It was something that he had been trained for along with the other deckhands up here in the dockmaster's control panel. He called up the remote access program that he frequently used on approaching craft.

"Flight Tau-Eta-One-Niner-Seven, please open your strongest COM port and boost signal gain on your craft, override on control systems will immediately commence. Sit back, relax, and stand by to dock." Pertz said. "Oh, I'm also going to need your 14-412 on broadcast." he added, referring to the standard bill of lading that all cargo craft were required by the Adjudication of the Overland to broadcast upon arriving at the ARK. This was a legal and physically defensive way of covering their asses. Fail to produce, and your vessel would be impounded upon docking.

Silence filtered through the radio and Pertz was about to hit the broadcast button again, believing that it was the faulty radio communications on the shuttle. This was going to be damned annoying. He was about ready to send a security team down there to make sure that none of the other systems on that ship were harmed. Something was up here and he wasn't sure he liked it. However, those fears were allayed when the vessel came back on the frequencies.

"ARK Tower, stand by for 14-412 broadcast on general communications frequencies. You should be receiving coded transmissions now; please acknowledge."

The pilot's voice was without emotion, but part of Pertz wondered if the son of a bitch at the stick enjoyed pissing the dock officer off. He checked the incoming signals and found the one broadcast by the freighter. He quickly opened it up and ran the decryption software on the packet. It immediately resolved itself into a document with the authorization of the Office of Transportation, a pretty standard affair. According to this bill of lading, Tau-Eta-One-Niner-Niner-Seven was carrying mostly perishable foods and several thousand gallons of fresh drinking water, doubtless were most of the gross tonnage would have been coming from. Cargo containers were slowly rotating around its central axle-like structure. Alright, the craft was airtight, metaphorically speaking.

Pertz nodded and fired up the remote access console, switching his display to the forward camera of the Taurus-4. When the feed fully resolved itself, he saw the craft approaching the entrance to where the docks were - hidden rather well he had to admit, behind several doors made to look like the outside of the rock.

He checked the feed and discovered he had an excellent link with negligible lag; less than one thousandth of a second.

Pertz took the freighter in. When he approached the Ark's outer doorway, the rocks drew away slowly, revealing the entrance to the docking ring. He pushed the craft forward, the camera vibrating slightly as the engines fired for perhaps a half second. The dock officer resisted the urge to look out the window as he could see the craft he was controlling slowly come towards him. It was almost like driving a radio-controlled car or airplane; he did this so often that it didn't have the same feel to him anymore. His was just a job and nothing more.

He was off on his approach. He tapped a few nubs on the joystick, firing the small RCS thrusters on the port side; small puffs of grey propellant misting in the air. The doors closed behind the Taurus-4, sealing it within the docking bay.

Pertz glanced around and saw the other freighters that came up from MegaCentral. For a brief second he wondered why he never saw any larger ships, like the Lost Million's colony vessels, eternally locked in orbit around Mobius. Those ancient vessels were practically sacred. All sides respected them, and in many cases it was one of the few neutral places the Kingdom and the Overland could actually meet without fear of reprisal. Nobody would ever be so stupid as to attack the cradle of both their races; the ships that had brought them here from their now-mystical homeworld - Earth.

But his mind returned to task. Now the Taurus-4 was approaching too quickly. He quickly tapped the nose thrusters and his view clouded as the control surfaces burned; vapor and propellant blocking the camera's view.

Twenty meters out now. It had taken nearly fifteen minutes of careful thrust and brake maneuvers to bring the spacecraft closer and closer to its mark, but now it was all gravy from here on out. Just above the docking clamp was a small target, painted like a crosshair. The camera's own overlay was made to match with that symbol. Now things got delicate. Pertz decreased the sensitivity on his joystick and leaned closer to the screen. This wouldn't actually make him see any better but it was a habit he had picked up in college and had never gotten rid of it. He actually felt himself sweat a little bit. As long as he didn't do something stupid and open throttle...

Ten meters. Five. Was that crosshair off? Maybe just a few centimeters? He'd have to back it out and try again, wasting more time while readjusting...

Contact. The docking clamp caught the freighter gently. Three limbs extended and held the craft in place, gently easing it into a position that caused the least amount of strain on the structure.

He let out a breath he hadn't known he had been holding. It was always a process of nerves bringing in a starship like this.

"Flight Tau-Eta-One-Niner-Niner-Seven, ARK Tower reads contact all-clear. Please acknowledge."

"ARK Tower, Flight lead acknowledges all clear. Powering down engines. Thanks for the ride."

Pertz cracked a small smile. He looked down at the craft and actually saw the pilot in the cabin glancing up at him and giving him a solid thumbs-up. Though the dock officer couldn't see it behind the mask, he believed that the pilot was grinning in a friendly manner as well. He leaned back in his chair and took a gentle breath.

"Flight lead, stand by for final docking arm attachment and for decontamination on entry. Welcome to ARK."

"Understood. Thanks again; we were really edging to get here."

That made sense. A busted long range radio, goods that had a shelf life, and the all important H20 were all things that anybody needed to take into consideration. He logged that the flight had been successfully brought in to the docking ring, signed off on it, and passed the cargo manifest over to the groundside boys. A few drones would take them off their mounts and gently deposit them on trams specifically designed for loading into the ARK's main manifest bays. From there, it would be unloaded at the crew's leisure. Pertz' responsibility was to get it all through the door. What the scientists decided to do with his shipment was their problem. He congratulated himself on his expertise, dreamed of a coming promotion, and then swiftly went back to monitoring the long range communication channels.