A/N: Okkk... how to explain this, how to explain... Oh! I've got it! I Got lost on the road to life-... No no, that wont work... How about "There was this old lady and she asked me for a help and I..." No, that wont work either. Gah! Fine, I guess I'll jsut tell the painful truth... I WAS LAZY, OK? I had little to no motivation to work on S&S, and since I wanted to update that one fore this one, I didn't get this one updated either. PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I want to update, ir ealy do, but I just can't find the motivation. Well, I finaly found the motivation for this story, but again, I wanted to update S&S. Eventualy, though, I just got fed up with it and did this one. That motivation comes in the form of a certain game I like to play, and trust me it will flow. I already have the story planned out with this new element in mind, so its not like I'm just randomly putting it in there. Also, this is part of a two chapter special.
Also, some of you have comented on my needing to add more Naruto time. Well, what I had inteded on doing was have it Akatsuki and co. and little Naruto one chapter, then Naruto and co. and a little Akatsuki the next. And then just alternate. But I suppose you forced my hand. Now don't complain about the outcome then, because you asked for it!
Anyway, Read and Reviewreviewreviewreviewwwww! K? ^_^
Chapter 4: Creation is so Precious...
Time: Near midnight.
Location: Tatooine, Judland Wastes.
Naruto's eyes finally fluttered open, bit by bit. He picked himself up slowly and examined his surroundings. Apparently he hadn't moved from where he fell earlier that day. He felt his body protest his movement, but Naruto knew he'd die for good if he didn't move.
His mouth was dry enough for his tongue to stick to the roof of his mouth and make him try to suck up some saliva just to wet his mouth. It didn't work. There was not an ounce of moisture left in his body. Trying to stand up only caused him more pain as he collapsed and tumbled down the dune. With a disorienting thud, he landed at the bottom. He panted in thirst as he spit out a mouthful of sand.
He rolled onto his back, gazing up at the clear sky. Normally this would be a welcome relief, but clears skies meant no clouds, and no clouds meant no rain or shade. 'Not a sign of civilization anywhere…' Naruto thought, obviously depressed. Not a soul in sight; and in the darkness of the desert, no one was safe.
His eyes slowly closed. 'I… I can't… go on… anymore…' And again he drifted off into the waiting arms of sleep.
Time: A few hours after midnight.
Location: Tatooine, Judland Wastes.
Naruto's eyes slowly opened. He rubbed them with his hands and the cursed himself as he realized he was covered in sand.
At the top of the dune, he looked down and saw, to his amazement and immense relief, a sail boat that seemed to float above the sand. At this point Naruto didn't care about how it was doing it, or how surprised he should be that it was. He was just thankful to have found civilization. Well… of a sort.
With a second wind, he picked himself up and hobbled over to the slowly gliding giant. Jumping onto its side and latching onto it with the last of his chakra, he slowly and quietly climbed on board. The deck was bare and made of metal, as was the rest of it. He looked around, trying to find some sort of liquid. Quietly sneaking across the barren deck, he eventually picked up the faint sound of snoring from the lower decks. Naruto found a staircase leading down to the, which he treaded on. Below, if Naruto had the energy to jump and scream, he would have. A massive assortment of creatures were strewn around the floor, sleeping.
There were creatures with leathery skin, wrinkled faces, missing digits, gut-wrenching stenches, weapons of all sizes… Naruto would have shouted in shock, but his body wouldn't allow it. It barely even let him stand up. Not seeing any kind of drinks, he crawled back up the stairs. The smell below was far too musky to stay down there in his current state. He saw another hatch on the deck and opened it, wincing at the grating noise it made. He hesitated, listening. Nothing was off. He set the lid down quietly and dropped down. There were even more strange creatures here. And the massive slug like creature on the dais in the middle of them al made his nearly wretch out what little anything was in his stomach. He looked away quickly. Thank goodness too, because his looking away let his gaze land on a bar toward the back. His mouth watered in anticipation.
Tip-toeing around the various strewn about creatures, he made it to the back. 'Oh! Thank Kami! Water!' Yes, there were several bottle of water below the bar. He grabbed several and stuffed them into his pack. He didn't even have the energy, or patience to seal them in a scroll. He was so anxious to get back to the deck that he ran in between the randomly placed sleepers. Not that they cared. They were too tired to care about some guy who had motion sickness.
Back on deck, Naruto fell backward. Landing with a thud, he immediately pulled out a bottle and put it to his lips. The chapped skin softened as soon as the clear liquid touched the decaying flesh. In less than twenty seconds the bottle was empty and another was drawn. It too was drained dry. Naruto panted heavily as the bottle dropped to the ground. He breathed deeply, feeling the cool water swish down his throat and into his belly. He sighed contentedly as he lay there. He was ready to get some sleep for sure, but security came first. This boat was the only civilization he had seen so far, aside for those robed creatures (and they weren't too friendly). The decision was made; he would hide away on this ship and see if he could eventually get somewhere. If all else failed, he could always just hit the supply closet, seal it up in a couple scrolls and dash away.
He just hoped they'd get somewhere fast. He could only hide for so long a cramped dinghy like this.
Time: Unknown
Location: Unknown
"Aren't you done yet Sanjei? We're all watin' on ya." The English accent came through the com system clearly.
"Yeah yeah, give me a minute. I'm trying to sell some of my crap here." The voice was that of an average human. Very annoyed I might add.
"Um, if I may… why didn't you do this earlier when we had time?" Came another voice. The accent wasn't very recognizable, but it was close to the first person's.
"Sanjei if you don't get over here we're gonna leave without you. And then you'll be stuck here. Forever."
"I said hold on a fricken' second! Sheesh, always so fricken impatient." Came Sanjei's voice again in mock irritation.
"You know, I should probably be annoyed as well, but this happens way too often to surprise me." Came a fourth voice.
"Hey Apollos, what ships are ya bringing?" The first voice asked, obviously much more patient with this one.
"Uh the Tia Tanaka. Why?"
"Ah I was just curious."
"Well, Mr. Impatient, I'm done. So we can get this op rolling." Came Sanjei's voice over the com.
"Aww, and I was so close to finding out where you live so I could beat you until you actually obeyed."
"Oh Hahaha… Very funny Lethal." Sanjei retorted. Lethal (the first voice) was a codename. Everyone in the group could have one, or they could use their real name, as in Sanjei's case. He just didn't care.
"Ok Ladies, just jump to me and we'll get going." Lethal said. "Geminyer, you go ahead and check it out. We don't want to be ambushed as me make the final run."
"Okay."
Black Lister floated aimlessly around Lethal's ship. Well, that is, floated in the amniotic fluid contained inside a small neural control center within the ship. That center was actually another very small ship that could detach from the ship in the event of its destruction. Basically it was an escape pod. But the unique thing about it was that within these pods (for everyone else had one as well) were several connectors that linked the human brain with the command system of the ship. They could fly it as if it were an extension of their own body.
Black Lister felt his head shake. Lethal's command ship lay just below him. And below him was a large energized construct. Plates of metal interconnected with visible energy. In a moment, Geminyer (the third voice), used a remote command to activate the machine. Black Lister watched as Geminyer's ship vanished into space. Using the camera drones surrounding his ship, Black Lister looked at the gathered members. Most of them were from his small corporation, Onyx Heavy Industries. Sanjei had just jumped in as Geminyer jumped out. Lethal, Black Lister, Sanjei Anagei, Gaminyer, Method, Apollos, Anczak, Ghuldini, and Rai Hetoquis were all present. Method and Rai were close friends of Black Lister's and not affiliated with any particular group of pilots. They came along only at the approval of Lethal, who was very reluctant at letting them come along. Rai wasn't very skilled yet and was fairly new to his position. Method was better versed, but still relatively inexperienced.
"It looks pretty much clear here. You can probably jump through now." Geminyer's voice came over.
"Okie dokie. Everyone jump to Geminyer." Lethal's jet black and blood red ship also vanished into the distance in an instance. One by one they all vanished until it was only Rai Black, Lister and Method. Only Black Lister knew their real names. Rai Hetoquis was short for Raidden, and Method's real name was Josiah Valorous.
"So... do we just go ahead and jump?" came Rai's confused voice over the com. Black Lister would have nodded if his ship had a head. "Yeah, go ahead and jump."
With an affirmation, both ships zoomed into the infinite horizon. Black Lister looked around for a moment before using his cameras to zoom in on the device. He sent his ship up next to it and stopped. He switched to the ship intercom. "Attention all crew. Prepare for hyperspace acceleration."
A series of responses flooded his brain. When he was sure his crew was ready, he remotely activated the device. In an instant, his ship was sent hurtling through space, stopping only when his ship reached the beacon set up. His ship slowed to a stop amidst the others. Each of them pointed to… well, any uneducated person would call it spatial optical illusion. But it wasn't. The twisting center and bubble like appearance was obvious, and it pointed out, ever so clearly, what it really was.
A wormhole.
Black Lister had been in several, and found many others. Not like it was difficult. His scanning skills were decent and he was able to find pretty much anything, given time. True, he may not have had the speed for fast scans, but he was patient. With a thought he brought up data on the wormhole from the ships passive scanning systems.
WORMHOLE Z113:
"This wormhole seems to lead into unknown parts of space."
"This wormhole has not yet begun its natural cycle of decay and should last for an indeterminate amount of time."
"This wormhole has not yet had its stability significantly disrupted by ships passing through it."
'Never seen a wormhole like this before.' He thought. He wouldn't have even known about this one if it wasn't for one guy "happening" to mention it in one of the many channels he frequented.
"Careful guys. This wormhole doesn't seem to have a class, so it's probably a wild card. It could stick us anywhere from class one to class six wormhole space." Lethal said. 'I have no idea how we got conned into this in the first place.'
"Alright. Apollos, anything in there?"
Silence.
"…Yeah, looks clear. Go ahead and jump in." Came the man's voice, finally. With bursts of distortion, each ship there began to disappear. Black Lister didn't wait for the others, he jumped with the first group. The second wave of fellow corporation members were already on their way. Onyx had about seventy members, most of which barely even helped. This was one way they finally could. They were all in transport ships hauling ass to catch up with the rest of the fleet.
Black Lister looked around. This was different. Instead of the usual colorful background that he had come to associate with wormholes there was only pitch blackness, aside from the stars. Initial scans showed only one sun and one planet nearby. "Not even a customs station."
"Yeah that means no one's set up planetary installations yet." Came Apollos' voice.
"Then if you don't mind, when the haulers get here, I call first dibs on locations." Black Lister called out.
"…You brought your planet stuff with you…?" Lethal asked after a slightly awkward silence.
"Well, the other guys are picking it up. I didn't actually bring it with me." He was already scanning the planet for resources. It was a semi baron planet with a decent amount of Noble Metals. Easy to turn into Precious Metals and fairly valuable if harvested in abundance.
"Oook."
Lethal always teased Black Lister for his decisions. Not like he really meant to hurt him, and he didn't… usually. No, Black Lister knew he only meant well. As an experienced player far beyond his own skill, Lister knew he knew what he was talking about.
He didn't bother responding. The planet was marked as his and no one else would mind. 'Even so, there's plenty of planet for them to share, I'm just getting first dibs on sites.' He reasoned in his mind.
"Lethal, is the system secure?" A new voice came over. Black Lister checked his overview and saw the name of Roobski light up for a moment in his fleet window. Roobski could fly almost every ship in the known galaxy and because of that, he was piloting a Charon. It was a large rectangular ship that could carry near eight-hundred-thousand cubic meters of whatever they needed. Inside it was the items required for building an outpost station here in the wormhole.
Half expecting the wormhole to collapse as soon as the massive 2,426 meter long freighter came through, He watched as it slowly came into view at the event horizon. It lumbered over to the nearby planet, the rest of the fleet in tow. Two others had been stationed by the wormhole to guard the smaller incoming transports full of fuels, supplies and personnel. Black Lister had no standing orders (being a long standing member with the corporation gives you a bit of freedom) so he just settled to watch as automatons buzzed around the Charon as its external loading hatches opened, revealing the precious materials inside. One by one the small machines dragged the equipment out and began fitting them together as per blueprint specs. Bit by tiny bit, the station was being constructed.
"Hey Lister. Want your stuff?" Chidoryy asked, he pulled his Iteron V industrial cargo ship up next to Lister to watch the show. "Nah, I'll wait until we have the storage facilities up. No point in letting the cans (short for cargo cans) lay around until then."
"Sure there's a point; I don't have to haul your crap anywhere else."
"Hmm… still no." There was silence as they both dropped it and continued to watch.
Since the structure of all the station and its modules were intermingled, the mechanical constructors began building them all at once what whatever they pulled out. They pulled it out, knew what it was, and added it where it needed to go. It slowed down the construction but it meant that everything was going at a steady pace and would be done at the same time.
The peaceful moments like this were what Black Lister enjoyed the most. He loved enjoying them with his crew. He rotated his ship to the port side was showing the marvelous sight. He'd had his ship modified with all sorts of gadgetry and minute items, such as a visual intercom, light up floor and ceiling paneling that included multicolored arrows for easy direction. If a new crew member had trouble finding his station and no one was helping, it wasn't hard for Lister to guide him to his post. And now those lights were all directing the crews to the port windows. Cameras showed they were enjoying the view.
He loved his crews. He had multiple ships, all of various sizes. Each ship had a crew, and he grew attached to them easily.
He'd lost all of them.
None of them had survived. Each had died in a fiery explosion while his ejection pod floated of to the side of the wreck. The first time he had lost a ship, he had cried for a day. The crew had been with him for years and he never dreamed of losing it.
Since then he had grown increasingly detached from his crews. This one was just like his first one though. He had tried to remain cold and uncaring, but they were just so helpless in the beginning, he couldn't help but act like a mentor figure and teach them the ropes. Of course, none of them knew is real face, or even his real name. His hid behind the alias "Black Lister" and a digital projection of what he wanted them to see. A cold face surrounded by cool blue electronic light. But they learned after a while that that image contrasted with his actions. Of course they all knew that wasn't his real face. Everything they knew about him was a lie; even his voice was synthesized. The only thing they could count on was his patience and gentleness. But that was it. Not a shred of anything else. He never once left his pod, except to eat and sleep. And even then he locked himself in his private quarters directly next to the pod chamber.
There were only four people who had ever seen his face. His mother, his father (he presumed he had one) himself and one other. That one other was his personal assistant. She was the one who's job it was to disconnect him from the ship's inter-neural network. He had kept her station inside the pod. She was too valuable to him, in that sense.
She had been a part of his sixth crew. It has been a Thorax cruiser he had lost against a group of pirates in an asteroid belt. Fortunately he had already outfitted another Thorax with equipment and crew, leaving it to sit there until he had lost the first one. Immediately boarding the ship, he returned to the belt.
They certainly weren't expecting his imminent return. The first volley from his hybrid guns tore through the shields and halfway through the armor of the first frigate vessel. The other three immediately locked onto him and attacked. Fortunately, this Thorax had been better fitted. Using the rewards from corporate missions and pirate bounties, he had managed to, little by little, buy better equipment.
The second frigate exploded. A destroyer, fitted with eight large weapons of which type Black Lister didn't care to notice, began to annoy him. It was the next to explode. The last of them was a cruiser. Of Caldari origin to be sure; its asymmetrical shape and numerous blinking blue lights gave it away. However, its tan hull indicated that it was not a part of the Caldari Navy.
All the easier to destroy it then. And so it too was reduced to a blinding blue explosion. Lister looked around, panning the ship's cameras to and fro, examining the chaos. Satisfied, he returned to his wreck, which had yet to be looted. Sending out salvage drones, they began cutting into the scorched and mangled wreck for recoverable materials. Most of the usable equipment was salvaged after a few minutes. Not much was left. Some antimatter ammunition, a decent sized armor plate, a gun or two, and a shield booster. 'At least it's something…' He had thought. He let his drones get to work while he looked at the other wrecks. His drones could only salvage within two-thousand and five hundred meters of his ship before they returned, lest they shut off from the lack of a command signal. Fortunately all the wrecks were well within that range.
So he set about looting the wrecks of his vengeance. Not much there either. Just a few minerals that could be sold, another gun, and some missiles from the cruiser along with a launcher. Heading back to his wreck he waited a few more minutes before getting bored enough to zoom in on several different pieces of the wreck. He didn't entertain the cliché idea that he was "drawn to it somehow." It was pure boredom. But in that mangled mess, in the impossibly entangled cords and cables was a drifting body. The space suit had been badly burned, and he could see a trail of blood swimming through space. With a burst of neurons, a duo of salvage drones zoomed over to the poor soul. Upon closer inspection, he could tell that nearly the whole left side of the body was missing.
A light beeping from the ship drew his attention. Data streamed through his mind, data from the linked drones. It was unthinkable… completely incomprehensible that the person might be alive. Yet here it was; the hard fact that this woman (he noted with interest) was in fact still breathing, however shallowly. A twist of thought commanded the drones, and they obeyed. He watched them in fascination as they brought the body to the cargo hold. By the time the body had hit the floor from the nearly endearing drone's large appendage, there was already a team of medics there to assist.
It was only a few seconds, but they had already pronounced her to be irrecoverable. The portrait of his face on the screen they spoke to quirked an eyebrow. "Impossible you say?"
"I'm sorry sir. There's nothing I can do for her." The wizened old doctor said with a sad sigh. Ahh, the bane of all living things; impossibility. Truly, the girl was lucky to stay alive even after the core of the ship went up, vaporizing most of the hull and those within it. Sadly, she wasn't so lucky with her injuries. It would dishearten the crew, he realized. That there were no survivors from wrecks was usually a fact. No one really thought about it though, lest they turn back on their job. But here they saw that there was perhaps hope of life after destruction. The sad thing was that whatever life they might get will be as short as this girl's.
But then an idea occurred to him. It wouldn't be impossible to save this girl. It may with the ship's current facilities, but not with a station's. His physical body smirked slightly. The ship lurched suddenly and jumped to the nearest station. Not thirty seconds later the ship's docking request was accepted. As the tractor beam slowly pulled them into the station, Black Lister began a conversation with the medical ward of the small trade hub. "Is this procedure possible here?" He asked.
The director on the other side of the line nodded and looked at a screen below him. "Yesir. Our facilities are state of the art. Though it will be more expensive than if you were to do it an academy station." He added with twinkle in his eyes.
BL scoffed. "Money is trivial to me. Just get it done." As soon as the transmission was cut, he saw a team of medics from the station run up to his own ship's crew. They put the dying girl on a stretcher and took her away. The operation, if successful, would take about an hour. In the mean time, he had goods to sell. The combined looted materials only got him about 62,000 credits. No surprise there. He browsed the market looking at all the ships available in the region, as he often did when he was bored. He loved looking at the minute details of each vessel, how their makers focused on a specific function of the ship and improved upon it in later versions.
He had just gotten through interceptor frigates when the camera drones spotted movement outside. The return of his crew. They were talking amongst themselves as they boarded. As soon as the hatch closed behind them, Lister's face appeared in a two dimensional projected screen. "So?"
"We did it.' was their only answer. He assumed none of them had seen that kind of operation before. But he did. He had it done before. Many…many times.
His face on the screen nodded. "Very good. Go ahead and announce it to the crew." He ignored their confused looks and cut the feed. They may not understand it, but he knew that telling the crew that everything would be alright would prove to them that they need not be afraid of this ship's destruction.
Moral was an important factor of naval warfare. The operation? Copying the exact formation of the brain and its waves to create an exact duplicate of the woman's mind, memories, sensations, skills, personality, everything; all saved in the station's mainframe. Unfortunately the process by which they copied her mind, and indeed anyone's mind unfortunately leaves them as a vegetable. But it didn't matter, she was probably dead by now anyway.
"She's dead? Then what was the point?" You ask? Simple. All those things that made her her would be copied and downloaded into the mind of a clone, grown at an accelerated rate. It would only take a day or two to grow it. That fit right in with his schedule.
He came back after those two days and landed in the hanger. Many would question his choice to waste time for one crew member out of the near two thousand aboard his ship. They were all idiots in his eyes. The presence of the one who lived would only cement the fact that death meant nothing, and could be avoided. If they didn't understand that, then they were simply trash.
He watched as the woman stood at the loading ramp. Now that he had time to, he was able to examine her. She had red hair that stopped at the middle of her back, graceful features, her skin unblemished and a light tan. His camera's didn't have the resolution to se much more about her until she got inside. He could clearly see she was nervous. Stepping back on board the ship she had almost died in (the ship model was the same, and the captain was the same so it was pretty much the same for her) was, Black Lister had to admit, a little nerve wracking.
She carried on a small bag with a few belongings in it, namely cloths and other general necessities. She would probably buy more when it came time to be paid.
Pitiable. Really. But what she didn't realize was that BL had a different station for her than before. He had already used a blood sample to find out who she was on his previous vessel. Kora Ikari. According to her background check, he had run away from home at the tender age of fifteen. Her father was an alcoholic, now registered as deceased and her mother apparent had died a year before she left. Unfortunately the record indicates a four year gap where nothing happened. Then she appeared one day looking for a job. The councilor advised ship crewman of some sort aboard a capsuleer's ("capsuleer" was a term that indicated those who use the inter-neural network of the pod to link one's mind to the ship while their body remained in suspended animation) ship. When asked what her specialties were, she had said, quote, "There's nothing special about me." Unquote. She had been given a list of potential ships she could join in the region and had chosen his because it was of a decent size to be well defended. Of those kinds of ships she had randomly chosen one. She had happened to choose his.
But she was now something very special. She was a symbol of life after death. As was he. He would not have her doing work that could potential kill her. That was why in those two days of waiting, he had had his capsule retrofitted with a type of small living quarters for the girl. He wanted her as close to himself as possible. The reason for this was purely symbolic. She stood by an "Immortal;" one who couldn't be killed. Again, moral was an important factor and he knew it. Normal humans were so… Temperamental. He couldn't have that.
Over time their relationship of subordinate and superior became more than that and formed a deep friendship. She was the last one he ever told his name to. She still worked for him, outside the chamber where his body floated in the yellow liquid. Since the pod couldn't risk having a window, he'd had a high-resolution holo-screen put in so she could see the outside from his point of view. He'd even had her have an implant that allowed her to be a part of the ship, just as he was. The implant was a small socket at the base of the neck. This was where every capsuleers attached themselves to their ships. Even now that cord floated next to him the gel. Hers did the same, though since she wasn't actually controlling the ship, she didn't need to have her animation suspended.
That process was only required so that the pilot could focus solely on the ship and the ship alone. It also acted as an insulator from impact vibrations.
Even now, the ship, his body for all intents and purposes, told him she was looking at the scene outside with similar abandon as the other crew.
He smirked unknowingly. She was diligent, that was for sure; it was her job to make sure his body was safe and secure in the globe of fluid he floated in, and she always made sure to take extra, sometimes unnecessary precautions. Why, he didn't know. He supposed she feared he'd remove her if she didn't, which was simply ridiculous. He'd have to talk to her about that one of these days.
"Bump."
Lister was shaken from his thoughts as his ship veered off course. He turned his camera drones around and saw Sanjei in his battle cruiser hovering right above him. All ships had shields that would repel against each other if touched. When first discovered, hundreds of pilots suddenly found an unexplainable joy in shooting their ships out as fast as possible and bumping into another ship. Black Lister had to admit, it was fun. Ok, very fun.
"Yes Sanjei?" He asked.
"I don't know. I'm bored."
"Never would have guessed."
The Station was almost set up. BL hadn't realized but it had been almost three hours since he'd begun recollecting. Time really does fly when you're not paying attention. The station modules and extensions weren't active yet, but the station shield generator was.
"Ok hit it!" The words came over his intercom from the live mechanics working in space suits or operating drones manually. The station came online with a flash in lights. "Ok, systems check."
"Main power links green."
"Shield generator green. Flux coils could use some maintenance but they'll be fine for now."
"Habitation modules red. I'm guessing they haven't been 'onlined' yet."
"CPU levels green. Well more like a yellow-green…"
"It's good enough. Ok, start loading the fuel." The cargo bays where the fuel for the station was to be housed opened and one by one small shipments of fuel were placed inside. As soon as the shield fuel was paced inside and hooked up a silver transparent bubble spread itself out over the structure. It was a good thirty kilometers wide from one end of the shield to another, giving them plenty of room to place the necessary attachments to the station. But this was the boring part. No one cared anymore. One by one, the fleeted ships either entered the shield and docked up (unloading their cargo in the massive floating cargo bays), stood guard, or left to get more materials from the other side of the wormhole.
Little did they know that they were treading dangerous ground: the borderlands between the Chiss and the Vagaari were a dangerous place to be.
"Hang on, I've got something on directional." Apollos' voice warned. Immediately everyone else in the fleet pulled up their own directional scan to confirm it. Indeed, it was true. All that showed on their screens were their fellow ships, the sun, the planets, the station and one lone UNKNOWN.
"Why's it say UNKNOWN? It should either give the ship and its name or show as Sleepers."
"Dunno mate. But for safeties sake let's get the haulers inside the shields. If you are at the wormhole keep an eye out for hostiles." As usual, Lethal took charge of the situation. All combat ships stayed outside the shield while the transport ships stayed inside, protected. A mixture of ships of various sizes shape and colors loitered about, prepared for combat. Sleepers we deadly machine ships, much like Rogue Drones, that inhabited wormholes. The higher the class of wormhole, the stronger the Sleepers. Unfortunately they wouldn't know what class of wormhole this was until they fought the inhabitants.
"Got another UNKNOWN." Everyone refreshed their directional scan and confirmed it again. "Rai, Method, follow me." Black Lister called. Both did as ordered and followed him. He pointed his battle cruiser and headed back towards the station, but didn't enter the shields. "Since you guys aren't so good at tanking, you'll be support ships. Wait for the other guys to target us before you attack." They acknowledged and waited. To be honest, even though Black Lister could tank fairly well, he was only average.
Lethal, buried deep within the confines of his Caldari Nighthawk command ship had the most powerful tank Lister had ever seen. Never once had he seen his shields drop below ninety percent. Not only did he have an ungodly amount of shields, thanks to special next-generation modules, but he also had an incredible damage-dealing capacity. Six massive missile bays filled with Caldari Navy Scourge heavy missiles made any potential target quake in their pods.
Lister also wasn't long range. His ship, a Gallente Myrmidon battle cruiser, was essentially a large ship with limited firepower. It housed a plethora of automated combat and support drones, which he was able to command fairly well. His skills were only so good with them though. That was why he considered himself a medium skilled player. He had no specific specialty, but did average in everything. Except industry; he didn't dare touch the stuff. His ship was tanked to the maximum he could in shields, using large shield extending modules and shield reinforcements.
Josiah, or Method, was in a Minmatar Hurricane-class battle cruiser. Heavily defended by shields and sporting a dangerous looking armament of 425mm prototype automatic cannons and a duo of powerful heavy assault missiles.
Raidden was in a Caldari Caracal cruiser, a ship class directly below battle cruiser. He was much newer to pod-piloting and it showed in his skills. He was outfitted with a mild shield defense, as all Caldari ships specialized in, and fielded four or five assault missile launchers loaded with standard Scourge misiles.
Now many of you might be wondering what the f*** I'm talking about. It's quite simple. In the galaxy of New Eden, there exist five races.
The first to learn space flight was the Amarr Empire. Highly religious, they treat their king or queen as an instrument of god. Their ships specialized in armor endurance and laser technology.
The Minmatar Tribes were a young race when the Amarr invaded and enslaved them. For nearly a thousand years the Minmatar were treated as beasts and worked for their cruel masters. Then the day came when the Minmatar rose up and overthrew the Amarrians, driving them back to their former boarders. Their ships are deadly at both long and close range, punching holes through enemy ships with their projectile based weaponry, and excel heavily in speed. However, there is no "middle range" for them, giving their ships a small plane of mild damage when at a certain range.
The Gallente Federation is the only democratic government in New Eden and they consider themselves the keepers of peace and freedom. And they do for the most part, keeping an open door policy to foreigners. Their ships were built to specialize in drone warfare. Even then smallest ship can field a standard combat drone. Their ships rely heavily on these drones and the drones subsequently function far better than the drones of the other races. Their hybrid weaponry is a mix of Minmatar projectiles and chemical bonding. The shells contain charges of different elements that do different types of damage at different ranges.
The Caldari State, in contrast, stands for corporate capitalism in its purest form. There are eight great Corporations that together own more than 90% of all property within the State. Each of the corporation is made up of thousands of companies of various sizes and various sorts, ranging from simple mining companies to powerful police companies. There is no single, unified government as such, each corporation rules it's territories like their own kingdom with little or no interference from the other corporations. In higher matters, such as foreign policy towards the other empires, the Board of Directors, which consists of the CEOs of the eight major corporations, has the highest authority. Recently however, the eight mega-corporations have been united, however deviously, under Tibus Heth, the official Head of State. They are the only race to actively field missiles as their primary weapon and the Gallente hybrid weapons as a secondary, less common weapon. Their shields use almost exclusively shield as their primary defense. The pros and cons are that while they hard to take down initially, once their shield is gone, their armor and hull (the next two defenses in order) are, as commonly stated, "paper thin".
The fifth and final race is the most powerful and reclusive of them all. The Jove Empire, whose space is currently locked down from the inside, has technology far beyond even the Amarr Empire. Their ships and their abilities are closely guarded secret now, and they refuse to make contact with the outside world. It wasn't always this way though. At one point they were fairly open in their dealings, and few pod pilots know about them. Those that do speak of their greatness and spin tales about their past exploits. The greatest of which was their climactic conflict with the Amarr. The Amarrians, in all their self-conceited glory, turned on the Jovians in an attempt to subjugate them. The Jovians, though few in number (due to a psychological disorder caused from their strict emotionless society that cause an always-fatal depression), faced off against a major segment of the Amarr Navy at the boarder of their own space.
The battle lasted only ten minutes. It was a cruel one-sided butchery. The Amarrians were completely obliterated, and due to their strict doctrines, retreat was not an option. They died in vain. To make matters worse, the enslaved Minmatar, now seeing a chance to escape, rebelled. With the loss of a large portion of their fleet, the Amarr were unable to contend with an uprising of such scale. Unfortunately however, the Jove retreated to their own space some time later.
Recent events have brought them back to the spot light, if only as a nation, but that is for another time.
Black Lister was a Gallente, and so had extensive drone skills. However, ironically, he was better at shield defense than armor hardening, the main, but not only defense of choice for Gallente vessels. To make it even more bizarre, he outfitted his ship with Minmatar artillery cannons. It was odd yes, but his energy capacitor would run out of power far too fast if he used hybrid weapons. Fortunately Minmatar weapons did not use energy to fire, since their ammunition worked quite similarly to a bullet.
Just some metal and gunpowder.
Those very artillery cannons were loaded with highly volatile Phased Plasma. It was the ammo of choice for most Matari weapon users. Though it was better at closer rage, compared to most ammo, it delivered a decent punch to enemy ships. The only problem with them was that their reload cycle was far too slow for his liking. Several other ships approached from behind. Most of them were Minmatar or Caldari with a few Gallente and the even rarer Amarr. Pod pilots, capsuleers, were not limited by race to what ships they could fly. Black Lister could fly almost every first generation craft, commonly known as "Tech I", all the way up to battle cruiser. Roobski on the other hand could fly almost every ship out there in New Eden. So while he could fly different ship, Lister decided he liked the defenses of his Myrmidon. He could easily be in something bigger, lie a battleship by this point, but he had decided it might be better to be a "jack of all trades" in that sense. He was trained in all four nation's ships and weaponry, however limited.
Seconds ticked by, only increasing Lister's, Method's and Raidden's anxiousness. None of them had been in true battles against other capsuleers, only against manned ship ruled by a captain. Capsuleers were different. They were far superior.
The Chiss pilot Kiril'maw'ntodo relaxed in the cockpit of his small star fighter. His group of four other fighters were traveling through hyperspace on their usual patrol run. The Vagaari weren't known for their honesty, thus a regular patrol of the boundary between the two peoples was necessary. The Vagaari were more like a pirate nation to be frank. They took what they wanted and did what they wanted. They considered themselves above the laws of others; any non-Vagaari was treated as cattle. All of their constant attempts at conquering Chiss space were consistently rebuffed. The Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet was a force to be reckoned with. But that didn't stop them from trying.
Over, and over, and over again.
He was jolted from his thoughts as the white tunnel of hyperspace deteriorated and vanished like fog in the warm morning sun. His tactical overlay showed his small squadron in formation behind him. Doing a quick, but thorough scan, he looked back at the overlay as the sweeping radar's arm traveled around the circular monitor. This was a normal day in his life, and he was honored to be a member of the CEDF, and of "Jeril squadron". A light pinging sound alerted him to the presence of a potential target. "I have a target on scan. Please confirm."
"Target presence confirmed." Came his wingman's voice.
"Alright, altering course to investigate. Jaril 3, inform command of the situation."
"As ordered." The female responded.
Aligning to the target, he pushed the button and the ship entered hyperspace. The trip was short, only lasting about thirty seconds at the most. The tunnel dissolved again and dropped them behind a rather large asteroid, part of a average sized belt. It was actually fortunate that they were deposited there; the high density of rocks, and their close proximity to them would hide their signature. Nudging his fighter around the rock until he could grab a visual, he began altering his star fighter's electronics for long range recon. He pulled the throttle back completely and let his ship drift. If he used too much energy, he would be detected.
When the asteroid cleared his vision, his breath caught in his chest. A group of well over thirty ships were milling about, rather uninterestingly, he had never seen such designs before, even in his Current Societies class. Then he looked beyond them and saw a towering structure. It was shaped like a needle, and a pale grey-silver. Scattered around it were structures of unknown purpose, all glowing with power. But how? How could a force of such size have set up a complex of such size and sophistication so fast and without detection?
A majority of the ships were rectangular, but there were others that were shaped differently. There were vertical ships, triangular ships, ships that looked like they were made from scrap, and ships that looked like they cost billions. But there was something he recognized. The planet Omore, the only celestial body in the Omore system. And he could easily see traffic from the station heading down to the planet.
"We need to inform HQ about this." He said into his com. Right before he was about to power up his craft and jump away, his sharp eyes spotted another threat. Seeing it, he considered waiting for a few minutes. They could gain some more data on them if they did. "Belay that; let's stay a few more minutes." A chorus of confused affirmations sounded. He waited with baited breath as he watched, sitting firward on the edge of his seat, the flight straps digging into his shoulders.
That new threat was a group of Vagaari cruisers.
"I lost one of the UNKNOWNs." Method heard Black Lister report report. Method was refreshing his scanner like a madman, determined not to be caught off guard.
"Yeah… I wouldn't worry about it though. They probably got scared off. But that's OK, we still have another UNKNOWN. Probably something that hasn't been added to the NEOCOM yet." Lethal commented.
A new icon appeared on his overview and it read UNKNOWN, just as it had on his scanner. A second later, two other ships appeared; same identification. Not thirty seconds after they appeared, a message was transmitted through subspace for all to hear. Unfortunately, it wasn't for all to understand.
"Uhhhh, what'd he say?"
"I think he said 'please shoot me. I'm a big barn door and I drop good loot.'" Lethal said as if he actually understood it.
"I bet he does." Raidden commented.
"OK peeps, lock 'im up and open fire. Primary's up." The first target was indentified on his overview as Lethal called targets.
"Hey look, they use living shields." Someone piped in. A quick zoom-in confirmed it. They had glass bubbles all around their hulls, and inside them were prisoners and slaves. 'They probably did that so others would hesitate to shoot them.'
"And your point is…?"
"Nothing, Just thought I'd point that out."
But that made absolutely no difference to the capsuleers. They cared little for the lives of plebeians or for civilian casualties.
An absolute torrent of lasers, hybrid shells, projectile streams and lines of missiles tore through space, melting, tearing, piercing and ripping the armor off of the ship. In less than ten seconds the ship detonated, sending pieces of itself floating through space.
"Next primaries up."
Cold, efficient, unflinching. None of them, not one, cared about hundreds, maybe thousands of lives that just perished.
The second cruiser was targeted and lit up. By this time, the third cruiser was firing uselessly at them. But one simple cruiser's fire would do nothing as the second was destroyed. The third obviously made to escape.
"Huh, that's new. That's the first time I've seen rats run."
"With good reason though."
It too was emolliated in a flash of orange light.
"OK fellas, loot and salvage."
Kiril'maw'ntodo sat stunned. Well, sort of. He was surprised at the lack of hesitance these people displayed, and at the same time, was somewhat hoping they would attack the Vagaari. Now he hoped they wouldn't attack him as he brought his squadron up to full power and fled. He had recorded the entire event, and it needed to get back to the Chiss Ascendancy.
Even as his fighter lifted away from the asteroids, he could see the other ships turn to face him. But whether it was their intention to attack him or not, he would never know as his ship quietly slipped into hyperspace. Safe in the realm of faster-than-light travel, he was able to actually think about the event. However, his biggest question was not, who were they, but were they a threat to the Chiss? The Vagaari were destroyed outright, but then again, they did transmit a system wide surrender message. They may have taken offence to that. But the political strategies were best left to the politicians. His job was to obey. And right now, his duty was to submit his report to the Ascendancy.
A/N: OoooKK! That one took me forever. Thre days of straight writing (this one ad the next chapter). AND YES! I added EVE Online into the story! There are very few EVE stories and even fewer EVE crossovers. I felt it was somewhat necessary. Anyway, Review ppl! And say hi to my corp mates in the reviews! You'll be seeing a lot more of them (Chapter 5 will be up in a few hours)!
PS. If any of you are interested in making Fan Art for any of my stories, don't hesitate to ask, I'd realy appreciate it. If your interested, please tell me.