Chapter 2

It was way too quiet for one Kevin Rem, ever since the incident a week ago recon teams were being sent out continuously, since that weird ship showed up. It had some kind of shield of course, but nothing a few blasts from mega particle cannon couldn't bring down. Probably was a weak I-Field. Just as quickly the ship surrendered, as soon as someone, he couldn't remember who leveled a beam rifle directly at the bridge window and then broadcasted on all available frequencies, if they didn't yield or tried to launch anything, a beam would go straight through the bridge and out the other side.

The ship was currently crudely anchored to the side of Second Axis, being swarmed over by engineers. Of course, everyone agreed it had to be an alien ship, but command was not telling anyone any information. All Kevin and his friends knew was that it was not one of there's. Hell, no one even caught a glimpse of whom or what was inside the ship.

Kevin muttered to himself, "Bet High Coms going crazy."

Currently, he was sitting in the seat of a Eye-Zack, a Recon mobile suit originally built by those gravity loving assholes the Titans (after they got knocked off, a whole mess of surviving units made their way into Neo-Zeon's arsenal through secret illegal channels).

He was staring at the long range sensor screen, as usual ever since the incident the particle density sensor was over 70 percent. Radar was pretty much a bust, but the Eye-Zack didn't rely on radar for its work. Its only sensor was a super powerful hybrid infra –red thermal sensor that could find a heat source from quite a distance and tell whether it was friend or foe.

Still Rem was worried. If he was in combat in this suit he'd be screwed, since most of the power went to the sensors now much was left to power the beam weapons or thrusters so the suit was basically a slug. The only weapons the suit could carry were an old MMP-80 machine gun and a weak shortened beam dagger.

Rem's thoughts were cut off by a beeping noise. Rem quickly began pressing buttons muttering to himself—come on not now! His fears were confirmed. One large heat source had just appeared out of nowhere, range 75,000 and closing although slowly.

Kevin swore to himself—dammit must be looking for that other ship—can't send up a signal flare, might see it, and the particle density is too thick for radio.

Bursting through the static his com beeped. "Lieutenant Rem, shift's over."

Rem turned around, coming up behind him was another Eye-Zack to relieve him along with two Dreissen Kai's escorts.

Rem said into the com, "Perfect timing, large heat source, range 73,000. Not one of ours, probably looking for their friends."

A voice over the com coming from the other Eye-Zack said, "Hold on a second—hey your right, I'm picking it up too. Moving rather slowly. Orders Major?"

Inside one of the Dreissen Kai's a man in what looked like a very beat up red/white space suit that had clearly seen better days replied, "Rem, you and I will stay here and continue monitoring; Brooks Feffer return to ship and report this immediately."

Both Brooks and Feffer's voiced in unison, "Yes Major Romfellow."

Ford stared out of the view screen of the Dreissen Kai at the Eye-Zack and looked toward the direction where the contact was to take place. The former Federation Pilot flipped the visor down on his ancient space combat suit and held on to the controls whispering "Rem shut off everything but your sensor and I'll do the same. For all we know they may have sent an elite group to investigate."

Rem whispered back as he began to power down all non-essential systems, "So do we try to talk to them or what?"

Ford replied, "Don't know yet, command still chaotic since the incident. If they get to close I'll allow it. If they start shooting I'll hold them off and you make a break for the ship."

Rem said, "Copy that."

Both mobile suits finished powering down all non-essential systems creating a space born equivalent of what a submarine captain would call a "hole in the water."

THREE MINUTES EARLIER:

Dropping out in three-two-now!

In a flash of light the Great Fox emerged from hyper space and was firing breaking thrusters to reduce speed.

Ken said, "O.K. we're here R-351."

Almost immediately, all the electronics on the bridge began acting up, something's went static and some just shut right off—a few just plane crazy.

Falco yelled, "What the hell is going on here?"

Fox replied, "Ken, ROB, stabilize the systems."

Ken replied, "I'm working, I'm working, just shut your yap—O.K. I think I've got it. Everything is stable at the moment."

Katt replied, "What just happened here?"

Fox added, "That's what I would like to know. ROB analysis?"

The drone hummed for a few seconds and replied, "Unknown closes match indicates electromagnetic pulse. All systems stabilized but reporting minor errors. Sensor range down by 90 percent."

Katt replied, "Impossible. There is no such thing as a continuous EMP. What could possibly generate something like that?"

Falco just frowned and said, "Whoever is doing this must be paranoid—out of their minds."

Krystal thought for a moment and said, "It's kind of like an old clocking spell—only on a massive scale. Perfect for hiding, but it's like a double blind---you can't see the enemy but on the other hand they can't see you."

Katt just nodded thinking that that made some sense to the situation. Although she was still getting used to the fact Fox's fiancé had weird mystical powers and ESP.

Fox thought for a minute and said, "Does anything still work properly?" At the same time he was thinking that when he got back he would kick Commander Michael's ass for this.

Ken looked over the computer screen and replied, "Short range radio is no good, we can still broadcast on a hyperspace frequency though. Plus all sensors except for thermal are pretty much out of the question."

Falco replied, "Great—just great! Everything is down except for short range thermal, we are in some sort of weird ass EMP, and to top it all off if our ship is this screwed up the Arwings are practically useless."

Ken answered, "Not necessarily, remember back in the day Falco, I could fix anything!"

Fox asked, "How?"

Ken thought for a second and said, "Well if we are dealing with some sort of EMP, the best course of action would be to shut off all nonessential systems on the Arwings. We will have to switch the CPU assisted controls over to a mono-system and we should probably shut down all sensors on the things except for thermal since that is still operational and just to be on the safe side, the shield should only be run on half capacity.

We should shut off the fighters life support as well. You will have to fight in a full combat space suit with internal air supply."

Katt snorted and said, "You're kidding right?" If we fight on mono we won't be able to pull off any complex maneuvers and it's been years since I've fought in a full combat suit."

Fox sighed and replied, "During the last days of the Venom War, the Arwings got pretty roughed up, had to fly the entire last mission on mono—it's difficult but not impossible.

ROB how soon can you configure the fighters to Ken's specifications?"

ROB droned out "One moment. Established uplink with fighter onboard computers. Estimated prep time 2 minutes. Commencing."

Fox said, "O.K. Falco, Katt, Krystal let's get down to the launch bay and suit up. Ken continues monitoring. Try whatever you can to bust the power of the thermal sensors Keep the engines running hot and prep for a hyperspace jump at a moments notice."

Ken replied, "On it. Just be careful. Something doesn't feel right."

Fox looked at Krystal and she replied, "I'm feeling something too Fox. Confusion, depression, and anxiety seem to be radiating all around this area."

Fox nodded and said, "Sure, let's get down to the bay and prepare for launch."

Authors Note:

In case you're wondering, we are going to find out what is going out with Bill in the next chapter as well as the initial contact.

Next:

The Wayward Warriors

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Rave Drifter