---

---

Light. Blinding, searing, rumbling light. And then, blackness. Was he dead? No, no not yet. He could still feel and think. Ascended? Not likely given how tedious, and thus memorable, such a task was. So it clearly wasn't that either. Letting out a shaky sigh as he slowly ran his hands over his body, making sure he was actually still in one piece, Valtrix quickly disconnected his mind from the ships neural interface before slowly getting out of his chair and walking over to the viewport across from him. Gazing out into the blackness beyond he realized that he was not in some kind of hellish void, purgatory, or some lightless higher plane, but rather a vast and seemingly empty expanse of unfamiliar space. As a matter of fact, the longer he gazed out into the darkness before him, the more clearly he could make out the familiar shimmering of distant stars. A comforting sight even though their formations and clusters were completely foreign to him.

Bracing himself against a nearby support beam, Valtrix squeezed his eyes shut as he pondered exactly how the hell he managed to arrive here. Wherever here was. The last thing he remembered was leaving his crew back at the outpost before heading into the depths of space and engaging the ships hyperdrive, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the planet as was humanly possible. Then that damn light appeared, seemingly transporting him here to this barren stretch of space along with the Renatus. Shaking his head, Valtrix cut off that line of thought. It's not as though it actually mattered how he got here, rather, only that he was here. He had been seeking a way to avoid the Council's judgement after all, and had seemingly found one, even if it wasn't exactly what he was expecting.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves a bit more, Valtrix opened his eyes and returned his gaze to the viewport before him. As he did so however, he began to notice bright flashes of light briefly flaring up within the darkness surrounding his ship. Taking a slightly unsteady and uncertain step back from the window, Valtrix quickly moved over to a nearby console and brought up the crafts sensor array as he tried to figure out what those flashes could possibly be. He suspected they were nothing more than the distant death knells of burnt out stars, though the sheer briefness of the flashes gave him some cause for doubt. Sending out several pulses into the surrounding void, Ornus's steel gray eyes narrowed into slits as the sensors revealed their findings...

Those flashes weren't the last screams of far off supernova's as he had previously assumed...

They were ships.

---

"We're approaching the site, sir. Your tip was good- the scanners are already picking up a lot of minerals here."

"I told ya, Wilkins. Prepare your shuttle, we've got digging to do." The captain laid back in his chair, putting down the radio and picking up his cigarette. From the viewport, the starts faintly illuminated the seemingly endless asteroid field around them. Blowing out a puff of smoke, he couldn't help but smile. Of course he was right- he was always right when it came to things like this. Turning to his left, he nudged his co-pilot next to him. "Joe, take us up to the site. I wanna see this for myself."

Joe took the controls, turning up the engines and steering the ship towards the marker on the screen in front of him. "Hope you know what you're doing, sir. We're in Zerg space, now."

The captain scoffed. "Yeah, barely. Trust me, we're gonna be long gone before any Zerg show up. We'll just grab the rocks, and go."

Joe shook his head, continuing on the course. "I hope you're right, sir."

"Come on, when have I been wrong? I've pulled us through way worse than this." He blew out another puff of smoke, before placing the cigarette back in his ash tray and grabbing the radio again. "Wilkins, you got a detailed scan yet? What sort of rocks are we looking at?"

No response. "Wilkins, you copy?" Again, nothing. The captain frowned, glaring at the radio. "Goddamn radio's on the fritz again." Grunting, he handed it to Joe. "Here, you try."

The co-pilot took the device, looking it over. "It's...there's nothing wrong with it, sir." He placed it on the dashboard as he felt ice run down his spine. "Sir, we..."

"Probably on their end, then. Speaking of..." The ship slowed down as they reached the site, with no sign of their sister ship. "Their lights must've gone out. Joe, get the floodlights, will you?"

Joe nodded, flicking a switch. After a moment, the lights went on. "Well, maybe- oh, sweet Jesus!"

Before them, was their sister ship...or what was left of it. The vessel was split in two, with debris scattered around in a wide arc, as if some massive blade had swung down the middle of the ship. The bodies of the crew floated in the void, expressions of pure terror etched onto their faces. The captain felt his heart sink, all his confidence draining away to be replaced by primal fear. With shaky hands, he gripped the controls, turning a hard left. "We need to get the hell out of here, now."

As the ship slowly began to turn to the left, a loud THUD was heard from the back of the ship, the shockwave sending the pilots forward in their chairs. The captain desperately tried to move the ship forward, but there was no response. A look at the screen confirmed his fear- whatever they had hit, it had taken out their engines. "No, no, no..." He turned to his side. "Joe, we gotta…"

But his co-pilot wasn't listening, staring into the distance. The captain followed his gaze, looking out into the black of space. "Joe?"

From the darkness, a pair of spiked tendrils emerged.

---

The Terran ship fell from a single swipe, just like the other. Ikani was almost disappointed. "I at least expected them to put up a fight."

"They weren't armed. They weren't expecting anyone to be here." Shelley, her infested Terran advisor, was standing beside her. From the membranous windows of the so-called "nerve room", they had a clear view of the destruction. "Either way, this will serve as a warning to others who would invade the Swarm's territory."

"Then our job here is done. I don't believe we have any other tasks, do we?"

"No, Broodmother."

Ikani was almost disappointed. Since the war ended, there had been very little for her to do, save for the occasional attack by pirates or ferals. True, there had been a few exciting missions, but those had been few and far between. She was hoping that this would be one of them, but it had proven to be a let down. What fun was there in killing an enemy that couldn't fight back?

"Very well. I'll put us onto a course back to Char, then." With a psionic command, Moonreaver began to make its way out of the asteroid field. "Shame. I was hoping for something more...stimulating."

"Well, maybe something else will come up?" Shelley offered, giving her a smile.

"I wish I had your optimism." They continued to watch out the windows as the living ship moved into open space. Just as they pulled out of the asteroid field, there was a white flash, and then nothing.

---

July 17th, 2552
2100 hrs
In orbit around Sigma Octanus IV...

Eerily, silently, streaks of yellow light and flame streaked across the battlefield like bolts of lightning, the three-hundred-sixty degree camera monitors showing a fleet enraged, firing off all at once, towards an enemy so unfathomably far away, a fleet which had scarce noticed them until the heat of forty-eight vessels charging weapons had alerted them.

"Green light. Fire it, Lieutenant." The cool voice broke the tension in the Combat Information Center (CIC) of the Kearsarge. All eyes were on the Captain as his order echoed in complete silence. The fire control officer, one Lieutenant Atkins, murmured an acknowledgement, and flipped the cover to the ignition button, before depressing a thumb to it. Every circuit and wire in the ship seemed to whine, the electricity giving an awful din, its own battlecry, drawing and building towards something. And the ship shook, violently, a motion counteracted quickly by an inertial dampener and maneuver thrusters, but not unfelt by the crew. And suddenly, a twisting arc of electricity spun around their bow, and the MACs at the fore shot yellow, first one and then the other.

The Captain's eyes traced the screens above, assessing the impact of the combined assault. Far off, plumes of purple and thick black gas gave a characteristic thermal signature. Hit.

"Get us mobile, prepare to evade incoming." The helmsman complied, bringing the stick around, as the thrusters spun to compensate and the hull groaned. "Klein." The Captain spoke to a screen showing a separate section of the Kearsarge, showing none other than Lieutenant Commander Klein at a station similar to the Captain's own chair. "Bring the Archers online, counterfire as soon as they're up." Klein nodded, acknowledging with a murmur. "Jawohl, Kapitan." It came back with static. Plasma interference.

"Plasma torps fore-starboard, turning to evade!" The helmsman cried, bringing the stick back around again, the vessel stressing with the sudden change of heading. Suddenly, a shadow began to creep in the path of closing plasma as hot as miniature suns. The Cradle.

At the moment when the fleet was at its most vulnerable, scrambling to leave its packed-tight checkerboard formation into a spread out battle line, the Cradle, the massing hulk of a mobile repair station had thrown itself to the front, acting as a shield to the UNSC fleet. It did not fare well. The shadow was broken by purple explosions and jets of fire and debris. The Cradle snapped at three different points, before shattering into a million shards of space trash.

It had bought time, that was what mattered. The fleet had spread out, and began to recharge its MACs, now releasing swarms of Archer missiles. As the Cradle's husk drifted away, the Kearsarge had both main guns back online and had sent thirty-two Archer missiles out, simple thermal seekers. The Covenant fleet was in rags and ruin. The first salvo had brought most of the enemy shields offline, and the second equally strong salvo sent at least a dozen of the foe to Hell.

The enemy now were free to retaliate, and the sensors on the Kearsarge lit up with two-dozen new contacts. Seraphs, the small, maneuverable fighter-bombers which could scarce be dispatched by point-defense. They'd picked their target, and the Kearsarge lit up, spinning out a grid of point-defense fire along all sides, a wall of flak. But perhaps it was not enough, or the Seraphs simply outranged the turrets, as forty-eight plasma torpedoes flew true. Commander Jefferson was sure this was the end, as it had been for dozens, even hundreds of other UNSC ships, swarmed by fighters with which they could not contend.

By all means, the blinding light and burning heat should have cleaved the Kearsarge in threes as it had the Cradle. But this light was different. The ship had not melted to a pulp, nor split at its keel. No, before them laid vast, empty darkness, planets and a sun some distance away. Not Sigma Octanus. The crew was silent for what felt like an eternity. The Captain sat, jaw hanging open.

"What the hell just happened?"

---

The engagement had been short; the marines were already returning to the Solomon via dropship. Captain Jaeger was proud of his men and women who had held to their training, showing that they were ready for the hardships that any armed forces had to deal with in space. "Well done everyone," the Captain began, "we accomplished the mission and by doing so have guaranteed the safety of the Martian miners and traders planning to come through here in a week. I'd like to tell you to get some R&R, but command wants us ready. You will all be informed when our new orders arrive." His communications officer cut the line and the captain allowed himself some coffee while they waited for MCRN command to relay the next mission.

Several minutes later the orders arrived via encrypted text. They were to deal with more pirates, as expected. The captain was about to get more coffee when several faint vibrations in the ship's hull marked the returning dropships and frigates, meaning it was time to brief the crew on their next mission. A nob told the communications officer once again opened the PA system, "attention all crew. Command wants us to prevent an expected pirate ambush near here. Be ready for a movement burn." After several moments the ship turned to direction and started a 1g burn towards the expected ambush site. The captain held his breath as they returned to the 1g, a feeling he was still getting used to. He didn't grow up in 1g after all, having lived his life on Mars.

The Solomon was about to reach the halfway mark in their journey, where a flip and burn would be performed to decrease their speed. The maneuver was usually seamless when done at low and unvarying accelerations, so the crew wasn't alarmed about it.

"Sir, we are beginning the flip and burn," the navigations officer said.
"Very well, when you are ready."

The captain felt short vibrations of the ship's thrusters through his feet, signaling that the maneuver had begun. Halfway through the quick move, however, a blinding bright light caused the viewscreens to go completely white, and then black with "rebooting" written across them. The Solomon had just flipped into another universe.

The Royal palace of New Mobotropolis, a grand jewel sat atop a city that had known little but peace in the last 50 years. Sonia marched through the guards as she made her way to the throne-room. Oglivie in tow. "Look, Sonia, i know you're pissed, but don't think there is anything that I can say that will sway him."

"You ARE him. If he's going to listen to anyone, it is you." She replied. Walking up to the royal court's doors, she was stopped by a pair of Wolves at the door.

"Princess, i'm afraid that you cannot enter, your father and mother are in deliberations with the cou-" She turned back to Oglivie.

"Open the door, or he opens it with his machine guns." She replied. The guards looked at the Metal-Sonic-clad Hedgehog. Oglivie put his hands up.

"Hey, don't look at me, i'm on your side, i'm trying to talk her out of it!" The guards continued to bar her entrance. She sighed, before turning around and walking away, but she had taken no more than 3 steps when she turned and sprang into a leap, rushing the door and barging it with her shoulders, pushing straight through it. Oglivie jumped over the guards and ran after her.

"-ughter of yours is getting far too much, with the betrayal of your son, i'm starting to have serious doubts about your parenting skill." a hologram of a black hedgehog said, before turning to see Sonia. "Ah, here comes my point now." he said, bowing to the princess. Oglivie finally caught up to her, grabbing her by the shoulders and beginning to drag her back out.

"Very sorry, Milords, but your daughter is a bit of a tough-" A weary, glove laced hand extended from the throne.

"Hush." The old, greying, blue king arose "Sonia, why do you approach my throne, unannounced, interupt a meeting with other heads of state and bring weapons with you?" He asked. Sonia and Oglivie knelt as he stood.

"Father, you have forbidden me to join the Egg Carrier's mission to hunt down Manic." She grunted.

"What of it?" Asked the King, his grimace unflinching. "You are a princess of Mobius, whilst Manic was still on the planet, you could easily be retrieved at any moment and were still within our territory, setting out into uncharted space, where i cannot protect you is-"

"YOU cannot protect me here. You are just an old man sat on his throne, daydreaming about past glories-" Sonia seethed. "Out there, Manic is plotting something else and it is my duty, as Princess, to make sure that New Mobotropolis stays safe. YOU can only send other peop-" Sonic stood up and tapped the bottom of the Royal Scepter on the ground, making a loud clack that made everyone fall silent.

"You have my ruling, Sonia, do not make me enforce it." He ordered.

"How can you enforce it?" Sonia grinned, rebelliously "You've got your attack dogs, i have mine." She backed towards Oglivie.

"Ummmm... Princess, i'm gonna let you in on a little secret, i'm SUPER uncomfortable right now. Please, milord, she has something up her sleeve and i don't know what it is, but i'm sure that i'm a part of it. Please, just let us go, before she forces me into this." Oglivie pleaded. Sonic slowly walked down the steps, approaching them. He stared her in the eyes.

"You feelin' froggy?" He asked Sonia with a confident grin of his own, guards slowly moving to surround them. "Then jump..."

"Oglivie is both right and wrong..." She smiled. "I do have something up my sleeve, but not involving him." He reached in her back-satchel and pulled out a bright yellow gem. Sonics grin faded as he realized what was about to happen.

"WAIT, DON-"

"CHAOS CONTROL!!!" She yelled as she clutched the gem, then her and Oglivie disappeared. Sonic let his head drop as the guards started to look around.

"She's gone, don't bother..." He turned around to see Shadow chuckling at the sight. "I suppose you had something to do with this? Because, i know i didn't teach her that."

"Let us just say that, she came to me and asked me to train her to defeat Manic. I did so. And i was right, your parenting skills do leave a lot to be desired." Shadow smirked.



High in orbit, the Egg Carrier was just taking on the last of its supplies, Eggman himself sat in the captain's chair, breathing heavily. "I'm too old to be chasing hedgehogs across space... Too old to be building death-robots..." He sighed.

"That's just what they want you to think, boss." Said a small, cute voice. He looked down to see Thunderbolt having entered the room. "It's finally time. This time, we're going to win!" She squeaked, a small spark of electricity jumping off of her. "Ok, sucks that we're on the good guy team, but we can still take it as a win over the hedgehog." Eggman looked out of the viewport to see Jack and K'Tari throwing magical spells at each other.

"Oh to have the old Egg-Bosses again. Robots are nice and all, but i did miss the yelling and berrating. It's no fun to have no spirits to break. Imagine all of the fun when it's the hedgehogs child." He grinned. "And my own son, as well."

"He's just a stupid robot that got some stupid flesh!" Thunderbolt huffed. "Hardly a son."

"Yeah well, i'm all he's got and he's all i got, so shut it!" Eggman yelled. At that point, there was a bright flash of light right in front of the captains chair as Sonia and Oglivie landed in a heap. The Chaos Emerald bouncing away from them. Eggman pressed a button on his chair and a clawed hand on a metal tentacle lashed out and grabbed the emerald, before bringing it to his hand. Oglivie and Sonia stared at Eggman. He looked at the Chaos emerald, before smiling and offering it back to her. "Sorry, old habbits die hard, i see an emerald, i grab it." Sonia snatched it from him.

"Ok, cast off, we gotta go now." She ordered. Eggman laughed.

"Let me guess, you just annoyed the old man. Yup, i know how that feels." He then pressed a button on the chair. "Attention all Eggbots, we are casting off immediately." There was a noticable clunk as the engines began to roar to life. "I would have rather waited another few weeks, until we at least had some of the other ships in the fleet re-fitted for space, but now's as good a time as any." He mumbled.

The Battle Bridge door opened with a soft pneumatic hiss. Unlike the main bridge, this control center wasn't carpeted nor decorated. It was half the size and a spartan facility with no distractions. Hustling, the ship's first officer, Chandani Madan, passed the tactical console and swept approached the conn. The two stations at the front of the bridge, also known as the Ops stations regulated navigation, power distribution, inertial dampening and warp field geometry. In front of her, on the main view screen, was a wash of blackness and subtle red and orange hues. Beyond the wash of colour was the eye of god, a stark cold darkness staring at her- unblinking -unyielding. Black Holes did not discriminate. They were an equal opportunity destroyer of all things. They would swallow up her ship and the Dominion ships alike.

Behind her the turbolift hissed again but she had no time to turn and investigate. If it was a Gem'Hadar then she was dead. However, she was damn sure that they had handled the last of them.

"By the Goddess," a female voice behind her uttered, tinged with incredulity, "How close are we?"

Long fingers fluttering across the LCARS console, Chandani first adjusted the inertial dampeners to compensate for the relativistic effects of being so close to a black hole and breathed a quick sigh of relief for the settling of her stomach. A black hole, like any massive object, bent the very space around it in towards itself. This was very similar to and often interfered with the very means a starship used to surpass the speed of light. As a result she adjusted the warp field structure to compensate for the shearing effect it was experiencing using the Enbridge theorum of quantum gravitic lensing to avoid the field's total collapse.

"Too Close," Chandani responded to voice behind her, "Get on Helm. We need to adjust course to compensate. Our vector is too steep and we don't correct the spin of the singularity isn't going to compensate for escape velocity. Main sensors are down. Passive sensors only."

Long supple fingers, covered in a short soft fur worked her own console as a woman with a long mane of hair. Unlike Chandani she rolled her hips and slipped into the chair even as she was working the seamless flat surface of the console. She cursed softly at the lack of complete sensor data but saw little choice in the matter. The console beeped softly with every frenetic touch as the pair struggled to survive.

The turbolift hissed again and again a crew member gaped in wonder at the screen. He began to speak, then thought better of it. The orange skinned alien stood with two arms crossed while his third arm, thrusting forth from the center of his chest over the other two stroked the long flap of skin hanging from beneath his chin. Calmly he descended to the pair of women at their consoles and silently observed. The Ops position was his station. He was backup to Lieutenant Cheng who manned the ops position on the main bridge and regularly did duty on the dog watch. He, like many of the junior officers, were engaged in damage control efforts until he was ordered here.

"Course plotted," M'Rella, the cat-woman stated.

"Adjusting Warp Field and Inertial Dampeners for your course," Chandani replied as she worked and then stood away from the console, "Mister Aurex. Operations is yours."

The Edosian took his seat, maneuvering his three legs around and pressed several buttons, bringing up a customized operations console that best suited his three hands.

"All right you two" the first officer stated, "we've done almost all we can. Monitor your stations and if you have gods, pray to them."

Outside the Dominion vessels watched helplessly as their prey began to distance themselves. Their prey, the "Faith of the Heart", spilling plasma in a long trail behind it began to speed away. Their adapted warp field and trajectory using the spin of the black hole to accelerate themselves, sling-shotting themselves in a wide arc and leaving the Dominion vessels to flounder.

Inside, on the viewer, the singularity on the right side of screen began to slip away. The stars, which had been sliding by as strips of light growing longer and longer as they approached the left side of the screen began to be joined by additional stars on the right and suddenly, with the singularity behind them became a traditional, familiar, screen of streaming elongated pins of light.

"Something is wrong," M'Rella called out, "We're accelerating, accelerating out of control!"

Before them the stars grew longer and longer, burning brighter, and becoming more numerous until the entire screen filled with white. The crew struggled to maintain consciousness. Aurex struggled to collapse the warp field but nothing would work. Inertial dampeners strained and alarms rang, lights flashed on consoles but nobody was conscious to hear them.

Across untold distance and over immeasurable time the Faith of the Heart burst into normal space. She was bleeding and broken, a long black scrape along the top of her saucer section and a gaping, sparking hole at the end of that scrape where the bridge used to be. It leaked plasma, a long glimmering line showing its course as it drifted quietly through the empty, lonely darkness.

You can't do this. The others will never allow it. The female in the far corner struggled to keep her head upright. Some form of unseen device kept her suspended upside down in the air. Her back was on some kind of mesh great, with nothing but darkness beyond. Her clothes were brown, torn and sullied. Though it was clear that they had once been the purest white before her torture had begun. Anubis merely sat in his throne observing her. Not only that. Your plan here is folly. Palpatine will betray you as soon as he's done with you, you don't think he has the power to be rid off you? Him and that apprentice of his.

Anubis waved a hand and the force pulling the prisoner towards the grid increased. She groaned in pain before with another wave of his hand the power decreased. "The others are not going to act. You know this as well as I do, they cannot without breaking their own rules. They do not even exist in this reality, how else do you think I managed to force you back to a corporeal form? I could have brought you all the way but now you're almost like me."

You were a child once. Innocent, loving, caring. Do you even remember those times Akil? Or is the boy truly gone? The boy I helped ascend to try and free his soul from the demon that possessed him.

"You never knew the boy. Only the God."

---

The Daedalus carved its way through subspace. Gliding effortlessly between the Stars. Ship and crew had been aboard for three weeks, that was the time it took to get from Earth to Atlantis. Atlantis personnel took the trip for granted but by the time Steven Caldwell's crew arrived at Atlantis they were bored and fatigued. A bad combination, which always resulted in a day of R&R on Atlantis base before whatever mission Weir had planned for them. Things would be a lot easier once the Apollo was finished, the fourth BC-304 between the two of them the theory was that Atlantis would have a constant presence in case of attack or solely if there was a job needing done. "Marks."

"Sir?"

"Run a full engine diagnostic the moment we drop out of hyperspace-" This was their last trip with their resident Asgard Hermiod. Apparently, the high council wanted him back on Hala. Part of him had wanted the mission to deliver Hermiod there himself, it felt poetic having the ship he had been on for the past two and a half years to be the one to take him home. Instead, SG-1 and the Odyssey were getting that mission. Word around the water cooler was that General Landry was going to get involved himself. No matter the case, he had Hermoid for another two months maximum, that was an asset he wasn't going to waste. "-Any discrepancies or fluctuation in power and I want the system checked."

Marks nodded as he relayed the instructions through the terminal. A small smirk crossed his face as he pictured the incomprehensible mutterings of the Asgard as he complained under his breath. Steven stood up out of his command chair as he walked to the main viewport just as the black haired figure of Lt.Colonel Sheppard walked in. Hair as dishevelled as ever, he wore the standard outfit of Atlantis Security personnel, jacket open with the red shirt of command staff underneath. Steven nodded acknowledging the other man. They had their differences in the past, and no doubt they would continue to do so. Despite this, there was a mutual respect that the two occasionally pretended didn't exist. "Are we there yet?

The window in front of them flashed as they reverted into real space above Lantea. There was a flash of light as Sheppard tapped his earpiece. "Atlantis, this is Sheppard. You miss us?" Steven turned to face him, tapping Sheppard's shoulder.

"It's gone."

"All ships, prepare for transwarp in three, two, one...warp!"

It was a dark time for the Earth Federation. Standing aboard the bridge of the Andromeda, Captain Yamanami was faced with the gravity of the situation. The Comet Empire was still on the advance, the fleet had been decimated, and Earth was directly on the firing line. All they had bought was time, and that was something they would not have for long.

Perhaps he would have been more confident if he hadn't been at Saturn, hadn't seen their ships swiped aside with ease. Certainly high command still seemed fairly confident that they could work something out, which was why they were currently en route to the Time Fault in order to effect repairs and prepare for the next coming battle. At least he didn't have to worry about missing that fight.

It was one of the advantages of the Time Fault, cutting down the period that it would take to fix this battle damage from potentially months to mere days or weeks. And the Andromeda had taken a pounding. The Wave Motion Guns were inoperable, courtesy of the hit that had pretty much caved in the bow of the ship. There was lesser damage all over from weapons fire and collision damage, and even their warp system was offline. That was why they were currently being towed by the two Dreadnaughts attached to the hull on either side of them.

"Continue patching up what we can. I need to go make a report for command," Yamanami said before turning tio depart the bridge. "XO has the conn."

"Aye aye sir, I have the conn," replied Kenshirou as he took over the main seat. Metal shone with the hiss of automatic doors as Yamanami moved to leave the bridge. he was confident in the crew that he had established here, meaning that he was already thinking about the report that he had in mind with each step. They needed to know about what had gone wrong so a new plan could be formulated, one that would hopefully work this time.

He had almost made it out of the room when a shudder ran through the ship, the tunnel of light visible through the viewscreen flaring in an eye catching way. Before he could ask a report came in, causing him to turn from what he had been doing. "We're getting warp fluctuations," Reynolds reported from his station. "It's destabilizing our travel."

Returning to his seat, Yamanami glanced at his viewscreens to begin reading what reports were passed to him. "Accumulated battle damage?" Given the state they were in, that was the most likely reason for any difficulties.

"No, it's not anything we're doing," Renyold assured him quickly, running analyses and diagnostics. "It...looks like it's coming from an outside source."

Before he could say anything else the ship visibly shook, a sharp jolt that had them rocking in their seats. "Yorktown's connections are snapping. She's falling out of warp!" The report was quick, and closer to panic now. This shouldn't be happening and they all knew that, as far as any of them knew. Was it another Gatlantean weapon? If it was, there wasn't much they could do.

The warp field rippled, visibly twisting and weakening to mark the departing of the vessel beside them. Which only made things worse as the process began again on the other side. "Is there anything we can do? I need options." He was not about to lose the ship when Earth was in danger.

"It's no good," Kenshirou replied after a few moments. "Our Wave Motion system isn't able to compensate with the damage we've taken. We're losing the Paris too."

Frowning, Yamanami accepted the inevitable as he activated the internal comm system. "All hands, brace for sudden deceleration," he warned through the alert system, which had been going since the Yorktown had separated. Crewmembers scrambled all over the ship, prepared for what was likely to be a violent stop. Just in time as well, as the other accompanying ship was pulled away from them in Warp. They would continue for a few seconds longer before transitioning back to real space, left floating in the dark void between stars.

They were quick to spring to action, confirming that this did not seem to be an ambush, while also beginning to work out exactly where they had landed. Hopefully they weren't too far off the beaten path to contact the Navy and get this mess sorted out. Head were going to roll for this, of that there was no doubt.

"We're being hailed on an open broadcast," Kenshirou reported, before confusion crossed his features as he glanced back at the captain. "It's something about...Atlantis?"h

"What, like the city that sunk in the ocean?" asked Lieutenant Kolkhov from his position at the tactical station with a skeptical look. What kind of nonsense was that?

Needless to say, Yamanami was not pleased. They were on a clock here, and every minute wasted was the closer that Gatlantis got to Earth and all of its people. They had already been subjected to near extinction once, he would not allow it again. "Hail them," he told his XO, who nodded and did just that. "Unknown vessel, this is the United Nations Cosmos Navy Ship Andromeda. I don't know what kind of joke this is, but it isn't a funny one. We are on urgent military business, and if you are responsible for this then there will be consequences. Heave to and prepare to be boarded."

Face gazing out the windows to the star field beyond, he wore a determined look as he waited for a response. They would get this sorted out, then get back to Earth to prepare for their defense. The less time was spent here, the better.

Though, this probably would have been more intimidating if the Wave Motion Guns weren't a bunch of twisted metal on the front bow. Oh well, they would make do anyway.

@Sep

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---

@Sep, @Flamelord, @Assallya, @mattmanganon, @thedman, @CaptainBritton, @Mataus

Valtrix whirled round towards the bridges communication console as a hail was broadcast. One in which the person on the other end was asking about Atlantis. Could that be the city ship? And if it was, were these people sent here to bring him back? Had the Council finally caught wind of his desertion and sent a fleet to capture him? Valtrix turned his gaze back to the viewport and gazed out at the varying shapes floating in the void around him, cutting off that line of thought. If it was the Council's doing, they wouldn't have made a hail like that. No, they would have aimed their guns at him and demanded his immediate surrender. Clearly this was not their doing, and now that he was examining the ships more carefully than before, Ornus realized that they did not bear the standard design of his peoples warships. So these were different groups of people then, most likely from different civilizations and, from the looks of things, all in the same situation he himself was.

Valtrix stepped away from the window and paced about for a bit, his mind racing in a hundred directions at once as he went over everything he had just been through. From the looks of things, it seemed as though he had been transported to another star system, or a new galaxy entirely seeing as how he couldn't recognize any of the local constellations. And it seemed as though the other craft had been brought here in much the same way his was. Which meant that they were most likely strangers here as well. Ornus halted mid stride and walked back to the comms console. There was only one way to find out who these people were and how they had gotten here. Assuming it wasn't all an intentional act to begin with that is. Pressing a couple of crystals on the surface of the console, Valtrix braced himself against the metallic edge of the device and leaned over slightly. Taking a deep breath, he began a broadcast to all ships in the surrounding space.

"This is Valtrix Ornus, captain of the Renatus speaking. I ask that you state your identities, intentions, and worlds of origin." He said, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow. The abilities of these craft were completely unknown to him. For all he knew, they could be capable of tearing through stars or worse. Taking a moment to compose himself, he continued. "I also ask that you refrain from firing upon each other or myself. While I'd like to settle this peacefully, I will not hesitate to unleash the full might of this vessel upon you should things get out of hand." With that said, Valtrix stepped away from the console and strode back over to the ships control chair. Leaning back, he took control of the Renatus's pulse turrets and trained them on each of the ships around him so they knew he intended to keep his word.

Letting out a small sigh, he waited to see what happened next.

---

Ikani reflexively lifted an arm to block the sudden flash of light. As she lowered her arm, she immediately noticed that something was off. Moving over to the membranous window, it took a moment before she realized what was wrong. "Shelley, check the starmap."

The infested Terran was already moving even before she gave the order, pushing a button on the starmap to activate its holographic display. She hurriedly flipped through several maps, a panicked look on her face. After a pause, she looked up at Ikani. "I don't know where we are...this system doesn't match anything on record."

Ikani looked into the distance, her mandibles contorting into the Zerg equivalent of a frown. "The stars are different, too." She turned to face Shelley. "Did you see a bright flash of light?"

"You saw that too?"

Ikani turned back to the window. "I see." Closing her eyes, she immersed herself in the psionic network. Fortunately, the many Zerg organisms on board seemed to be unaffected by the strange event, a fact that gave her some comfort. Pushing them aside, she turned to the ship itself, looking at what the massive creature was sensing. While she couldn't spot any sort of landmarks, there was something else far more important that she noticed. "We're not alone."

Shelley nodded, seeing the same things that Ikani was seeing due to also being part of the psionic network. "I don't recognize any of them. They all have different designs, and none of them match any Terran or Protoss design that I know of." She walked over to the radio, turning it on just in time to catch a transmission, something about an 'Atlantis'. "Two of them appear damaged, and none of them have made any sort of hostile action towards us. It might be best if-"

Before she could finish, another transmission came on, asking the other vessels to identify themselves. Ikani walked over to the radio, listening in as the transmission finished, promising to attack the others if they weren't peaceful. "Broodmother, the ship that sent the transmission appears to be aiming its weapons at us, along with the other vessels." Shelley said, walking beside her.

"It seems they are serious about upholding their promise." Ikani stood silent for a while, considering her options. She could attempt to make an emergency jump, but the other ship would likely be able to fire on them before they could escape. And besides, where would they go? The more they looked at the evidence, it seemed more apparent that they were far, far away from the Koprulu Sector. They could try to attack the other vessel, but she had no idea as to what sort of armament it had. For all she knew, a single shot from it would tear Moonreaver to a bloody pulp. There was only one good option, it seemed. Letting out a deep breath, Ikani activated the radio, preparing to broadcast on an open channel. "I suppose there is no harm in answering them."

Clearing her throat, Ikani began the broadcast, aimed mostly at the ship that was currently aiming their weapons at her, but also to the other ships. "Attention, unknown vessel 'Renatus'. This is Broodmother Ikani, captain of Moonreaver, of the Zerg Swarm. We have no intention of attacking you, or any other vessel. We are... She paused for a moment. "...confused. We do not recognize the stars here. There was a sudden flash of light, and then we were here. Did you experience something similar?" She asked, to the Renatus, but also to the other ships nearby. If they experienced the same phenomenon, it might somewhat explain what had happened here.

Eggman looked out of the bridge window. "All systems, full power!" He ordered, the engines roared as they charged up the special-zone engines. The ship began to lurch forwards, breaking orbit.

"Doctor, we are getting a transmission." Thunderbolt said, looking at the computer. The old king's face appeared on the viewscreen.

"Eggman, I hate you... I've always hated you... But you'd better keep my daughter safe." He said.

"Heh, always nice to hear from you, rodent." He grinned. "But don't worry, we're on the same side this time. Been a while, but i had your back on the ARK, i've got it here too." He replied. "Manic is far more insane than i ever was, and he's got your powers to back it up."

"Yeah, but you've never beat me." Sonic grinned. Eggman's smile faded.

"You always hold that one over me..." He groaned. 10 seconds until Special Zone Penetration A voice said. "Well, see ya, rodent." He said, before shutting off the feed. A ring appeared in space as the Egg Carrier increased in speed. Jack had walked onto the bridge.

"So, this is how you go faster than light?" Jack gasped in awe. Eggman looked back at him.

"Yup and you'd better sit down, if you value your spine." He replied. Jack jumped into a seat and his ears crossed his eyes. The ring enveloped the ship as it finally jumped. The swirling colours of light on the outside of the ship were beautiful.

"It's... Mesmerizing..." Jack said as an ear raised to allow him vision again. "It's like the first time i touched the etherial..." Eggman blew it off.

"Eh, it's just diffraction of compressed light through the ships shields." He sighed. Jack still stood up, looking into the pretty colours. He then cocked his head.

"Something is... Wrong..." He said. Eggman pushed a few buttons.

"Nope, everything is operating well within normal parameters." He replied.

"No... Something is very wrong... The energies of the universe..." He waved his hands around, a pair of magical symbols appeared in front of him. "They're still here, but they are... Different."

"You're being ridiculous, there's nothing wrong." Eggman replied, getting noticeably annoyed now. "Magic is all well and good, but it's just science you don't understand." He slapped the console "This is science that I understand, and it says that there's nothing wrong." He then pushed a few buttons. "Alright, coming up on Bluto now, it's the closest planet with an atmosphere that can sustain mobian life." The ship dropped from the special zone and into regular space. "See, a big ol' planet right there for the searching." He said, staring at a big, blue planet. Eggman looked at it, then to his computer, seeing a picture of a brown planet, then back to the planet, then to his computer, then the planet, then the computer. "Wait..."

@Sep

---

July 17th, 2552
???? hrs
Area unknown...

"What the hell happened?" His words fell flat against the silence. The planet in front of them was not the lush green anymore. It was not Sigma Octanus IV. This planet was deep blue. Commander Jefferson looked down and forward, to where the helmsman and navigator/sensors operator sat. The two crewmen sat stunned, the navigator slowly dragged a thumb across her touch console. The location had no match, no nearby location beacons.

"Captain, we aren't anywhere the sensors recognize." She communicated, motioning to the helmsman to break out the physical star charts. And poring over them, there was nothing. "These constellations don't even make sense, there's nothing like this on any of our charts-" She was cut off.

The communications specialist to Jefferson's left urgently made his information known, above all else. "Multiple transmissions incoming, recognized as UEG English." Jefferson responded. "Play them."

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard, you miss us?" soon cut to static, making way for, "This is Valtrix Ornus, captain of the Renatus speaking. I ask that you state your identities, intentions, and worlds of origin."

Jefferson began to speak up to his bridge crew, but was cut off, "I also ask that you refrain from firing upon each other or myself. While I'd like to settle this peacefully, I will not hesitate to unleash the full might of this vessel upon you should things get out of hand."

Another dark silence cloaked the CIC. Jefferson made a telephone motion to the communications specialist, who nodded. Jefferson picked up the communications receiver wired into his chair, pressing it to the side of his face, couching his peaked cap slightly. "This is the United Nations Space Command destroyer Kearsarge, hailing from Earth on behalf of the Unified Earth Government. Am I to take the addendum as a threat to a military vessel in the service of Earth and her people?" Jefferson let the question hang in the air as he slowly placed the receiver back on its dock.

---

---

@thedman & @CaptainBritton

Valtrix nodded to himself as he listened to the other ships response. So it was true that they weren't native to this place. And judging from their answers, they were just as unsure and confused as he was. Taking a moment to formulate a reply, Valtrix calmly took control of his ships comm systems from the control chair as he gazed through the viewport opposite him. "I see." He said, rubbing his chin pensively. "And to answer your question... yes. I experienced exactly what you described. I was on my way back to my people's home world when a bright flash of light engulfed my ship. When it cleared, I found myself here. I assume that's what happened to everyone else here as well." Valtrix remarked, mostly to himself, as he let his hand fall back onto the chair's armrest. Closing his eyes for a moment, Valtrix went over everything he had learned thus far. First was the nature of their arrival here. From what he could tell, he and everyone else had been brought here in the exact same way. But by who? That was the question. For as far as he could tell, none of the inhabitants of the other ships had actually planned on coming here, so they obviously weren't the one's responsible.

The next thing he thought about were the words of Broodmother Ikani herself. First and foremost being her species. A Zerg. When she had said they were a swarm, the first thing that popped into his mind were the Wraith. And while it wasn't the most accurate of comparisons, as the Wraith were more hive-like than swarm-like, it was still pretty close in his mind. Although the word reminded him of the Wraith, he highly doubted they were actually related to each other. These creatures were amicable, whereas the Wraith were not. He supposed they could be a less violent offshoot, but if that was the case, then his people would have come across them at some point in their travels round the Pegasus galaxy. And since they clearly hadn't, Valtrix concluded that while sounding similar to each other, these Zerg had no ties to his enemies, physiological or otherwise. He also gave some thought to the title of Broodmother, before quickly deciding that it was simply her people's term for a pilot or captain. Opening his eyes, and shifting his gaze up to the ceiling, Valtrix pondered over his next move when a potentially crazy idea suddenly popped into his head. They could sit here and talk all they wanted, but the only real way to build any kind of trust, or establish any kind of peaceful communication with each other, was to have a face to face meeting. Sitting in ships and pointing guns at each other could only work for so long. Someone's trigger finger would get itchy eventually, and when it did, all hell would break loose.

So, letting out a barely audible chuckle as he took control of the comms once more, Valtrix took a deep breath as he began his proposition.

"Broodmother Ikani. This may seem an odd request considering current circumstances, but I propose we all have a face to face meeting aboard my ship. We can sit here all day with our guns pointed at each other, but eventually someone's going to get spooked or annoyed and start shooting." He said, casting a wary glance towards the distant outline of the Earth Federation ship. The same one that had demanded another of the ships here to prepare for boarding. "And as you are currently aware, that's something I'd like to avoid. As for the rest of you, my previous statement was not a threat, merely a warning. Like I said, I wish to avoid violence. Especially when in a situation like this where it would harm us all more than help. All of that aside however, my invitation still stands. I am just as lost and confused as you are, and I would like to figure out how we all got here just as much as you do." With his message delivered, Valtrix let his ships comms fall silent as he awaited what he hoped was a diplomatic response from the surrounding ships.

As soon as the flash happened, the quiet planet appeared and they lost sight of Atlantis Caldwell was in the command chair keying in commands information on the display screens above the window. "Full alert status, raise shields to maximum and arm weapons. I want 302 pilots ready to go, Sheppard get yourself in the pilot chair of the jumper." The lights changed as the alarm began to sound, Marks spoke up.

"Sir, we're receiving multiple transmissions on the same frequency that we sent our open hail."

"Play them back."

"Unknown vessel, this is the United Nations Cosmos Navy Ship Andromeda. I don't know what kind of joke this is, but it isn't a funny one. We are on urgent military business, and if you are responsible for this then there will be consequences. Heave to and prepare to be boarded."

"This is Valtrix Ornus, captain of the Renatus speaking. I ask that you state your identities, intentions, and worlds of origin."

"This is the United Nations Space Command destroyer Kearsarge, hailing from Earth on behalf of the Unified Earth Government. Am I to take the addendum as a threat to a military vessel in the service of Earth and her people?"

Caldwell paused as the calls came in. Meyers was the next one to step up. "We've got multiple ships signals coming in. One of them appears to be an Aurora class." This didn't make a lot of sense. United Nations Space Command, United Nations Comsos Navy, an Aurora Class, someone calling themselves the Zerg. This didn't make a lot of sense. What was going on? Atlantis was gone, there was a weird energy spike and now there was a group of unknown ships, including an Aurora ships and some unknown planet. "Sensors are also reporting that we have no navigational fix on our current position. Nothing on what the computer has saved on Pegsasus, Ida or the Milkyway. We have no fix on where we are."

Caldwell didn't like to not know what was going on. Especially when surrounded by unknown possibly hostile ships. There were too many unknown variables in play here. "Give me a channel."

"Channels open sir."

Caldwell hit the key on his console, activating the transmission. "This is Colonel Steven Caldwell of the Earth ship Daedalus. I'm having a little problem in that there are multiple ships here hailing from Earth, and none of them seems to know what's going on. Though I will not risk the lives of my crew, we need to figure out what's going on. I suggest we all put our respective people on it while keeping dialogue open with one another to try and learn as much about this mystery as we possibly can."

UNCS Andromeda

More messages continued to come in, and eventually they resorted to funneling the radio into the bridge comms so everyone on the bridge could hear what was being said. It was confusing enough for just one person, with multiple ships making themselves known at this point. At least a few claimed to be from Earth, even a few from the UN to boot. But the fact that they mentioned a 'Space Command', meant they might not be the kind that they knew.

Which all was rendered moot when one of the ships threatened them all with force. And a two on one fight was something that they couldn't win. "I guess we'll have to stand down after all," Yamanami remarked. Probably for the best anyway. Now they had an excuse to not get in a fight without looking bad for avoiding it.

"I'm not seeing anything matching out database," Reynold reported as their sensor readings came back. "The...'Daedalus' and the 'Kearsage' are close to some of the newer Earth Federation designs, but I'm not picking up Wave Motion reactions from either of them."

That left the question of what was going on. Yamanami had read the reports about the Yamato getting trapped in a subspace pocket on it's trip to Iscandar, but that didn't seem to be what was going on here. Not that it seemed anyone else had an idea what was going on either.

Well, if there wasn't going to be a fight then there was only one thing to do. "All hands, stand down from red alert," he ordered via the internal comms. They would still be on alert, just not poised for a fight. "And keep working on figuring out where we are sso we can get back to Earth."

"None of these stars are making sense," Kenshirou observed. "Maybe we ended up in another galaxy. But that wouldn't explain these ships claiming to be from Earth, or the United Nations."

There was a nod from the Captain, who was not about to argue with the findings of his XO. they would just have to keep hammering away at the problem, and hopefully they would come up with something. In the meanwhile he activated the external comms again. Best to address the others now that things seemed to be going in a direction that he had not anticipated at first. "While the Andromeda is willing to participate in a face to face meeting, we currently lack shuttle craft to facilitate such a meeting. We merely seek to return to Earth as rapidly as possible."

---

Broodmother Ikani stood by the radio for a good few moments, running through everything she had heard so far. The other ships experienced the strange flash of light, which seemed to be the cause for their transportation to this place. There was still several questions that hadn't been answered, such as how or why they had been sent here, or where here even was, but those would have to be answered later. Besides, she doubted that any of the other ships would know, given that they all were apparently brought to this place just as she was.

Next, the captain of the other ship, this 'Valtrix', directly addressed her, asking for everyone to have a face-to-face meeting aboard his ship. As his message finished, she stood by the radio, contemplating her choices. A face-to-face meeting would help to reduce the confusion surrounding this whole scenario, and he did bring up a good point in that, if they didn't do something, someone could get spooked and start shooting. Although, she was always worried about the possibility of walking into an ambush. Exhaling, she turned to face Shelley. "What's your opinion on all this?"

"It seems like a good idea. I can feel that you're worried, but they would have nothing to gain by attacking us." She walked up beside her. "Maybe we could finally get some answers."

"Maybe." She looked back towards the radio, which was picking up transmissions from the other ships. There were a few different people speaking, who sounded Terran from their voices and the names of their ships and governments. Shelley took a step closer to the radio, a curious expression on her face. Ikani turned to face her. "Do you recognize them?"

She shook her head. "They're from Earth, but not our Earth. The United Nations was an old multinational organization on Earth. In our...uh, universe, I guess, they eventually became the United Earth Directorate. But, it seems where they came from, the United Nations didn't collapse, and survived long enough to have their own space navy."

Ikani nodded. "I see..."

"It also seems like, despite the similarities, they're from different universes, because one's the United Nations Cosmos Navy, and the other's the United Nations Space Command. Or the United Earth Government...well, on behalf of the United Earth Government, so they're probably a branch of their military. Huh..."

"This is why I don't bother with Terran politics." Grumbling, she pressed a button on the radio, preparing to send another transmission.

"Are you going to take up his offer?"

"I suppose I am." Pressing a button, she began to broadcast on an open channel. "Renatus, this is Broodmother Ikani. You will have your meeting. Tell us where to land, and we will be on our way." She paused for a moment, considering the ship that apparently lacked shuttle craft. "And to the Andromeda, while we could technically carry your personnel to the meeting, our...shuttle craft are not exactly designed to be used by Terrans. If nobody else is willing to, we can take you, but I recommend you look towards the other ships for help with your issue."

---

---

@thedman

"Glad to hear it. Sending you coordinates now." Valtrix said as he broadcasted a flight path to his ship via a mental command to Ikani's craft. Slowly leaning forward, Valtrix quickly disconnected his mind from the ships systems and got to his feet. Straightening his beige outfit which consisted of a form fitting shirt that had a diagonal slant beginning on the bottom left at the hip before ending just at his right thigh, a pair of simple pants, and a pair of plain white shoes, truly a design that valued efficiency over style or flair, Valtrix began making his way towards the docking bay near the front left-or right from the views of most of the other ships in the surrounding area-of the ship.

While he wanted to find out what was going on, and trusted the other's to keep their word, he didn't quite trust them enough to meet them in the Renatus's bridge. While he doubted they even knew how to work his people's technology, Valtrix still didn't feel like taking the risk. Especially if things escalated during the meeting. His ship could function without a docking bay. But without a functional command center, it'd be nothing more than a fancy looking brick, floating in space. And, sure, there was always the Auxiliary Bridge, but it lacked a control chair and thus didn't have most of the functionality he was used to.

It also made flying the craft pretty much impossible without a crew, as one needed multiple people to effectively man all the various station's and console's in that part of the ship.

"Perhaps abandoning my crew wasn't such a good idea after all. But then again, I don't think they would have taken my desertion very well. Heh, if they were still here, they probably would have locked me into one of the stasis pods and dropped me on the nearest habitable planet." Valtrix mused, as he stepped inside a teleporter leading to the lower decks. Disappearing in a flash of light, Valtrix rubbed his eye's briefly as he reappeared in a small alcove in the right wall of the hallway which led to the ships hanger, his vision having been temporarily disrupted by the flash of light that signalled the transportation and subsequent rearrangement of his atoms in that area. Shaking a bit to get rid of any leftover nervousness or worry, Valtrix adjusted his collar a bit before schooling his face into a mask of stoic calm and waving his hand in front of a glowing button embedded in the wall to his right, causing the door to the ships hangar to slide open with a silent vwoosh. Clasping his hands behind his back, Valtrix let out one final sigh as he stepped through into the room beyond and waited for Broodmother Ikani's arrival.

The Faith of the Heart tumbled aimlessly through space. Small arcs of energy danced across her hull from exposed plasma conduits.

Inside the Faith, nearly every hand was hard at work performing repair and damage control operations. Engineering Chief Rex Miller grasped both temples between thumb and middle finger, palm across his eyes, for a long moment. He was tired. Their ship had taken quite the beating. Normally, with the repair transporters up and running his engineers could simple cut away debris and remove slagged components and the ship itself would transport replacement components directly into position from storage. That simply wasn't possible at the moment.

"Good News," Rex reported, his Texan accent quite apparent, "The antimatter containment has been stabilized. We replaced the nonfunctional gravitic and magnetic coils. Main sensors are still offline. I think we blew some isolinear chips during the slingshot but I just finished making sure we didn't erupt into a bleeding supernova."

Chandani was also exhausted but she couldn't let weakness show.

"Good work chief. We're alive. That's what's important. Now that we've got the containment back under control and life support up and running we can begin looking at the other basics, the impulse engines, warp core and sensors. In the meantime. I don't like being blind. Secondary sensors are much more limited. That stream of plasma we haven't fully locked down is like a flare across the stars. We're very visible. The Dominion could be on us at any time.

"We could launch a runabout," Rex replied, "We may not have power to most of the primary hull and the main shuttle bay we can use the one meant to replace the one Deep Space Nine lost."

"That's a great idea." Chandani agreed, "It's got the range It's warp capable and can survive if we get separated."

"Which planet is that?" Eggman asked, staring at the blue planet.

"Analysing now, milord." Thunderbolt answered "But it doesn't seem to register any kind of markers that the known planets we have visited. We are reading several large metallic objects in the sky, probably ships of some kind."

"Metallix?" He asked, warily.

"No, doesn't match any known Metallix design..." She pressed several buttons to bring up the picture of the Immense, grey warships "Reading 3 in total." She said. "Reading thousands of life-signs onboard, though. Definitely well armed..." She trailed off as her eyes widened. "b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-" She stammered. Eggman threw his head back in annoyance.

"Not another feedback loop?"

"Bo-b-b-boss..." She squeaked. "They're..." She swallowed hard. "OVERLANDERS!!!" She finally screamed. Eggman's face drained of all colour.

"OVERLANDERS?!" Jack jumped to his feet.

"Overlanders? Get everyone ready for battle, i'll be standing by in the Egg Wizard." He said, before running to the hallway. Bumping into K'Tari. "Sis, it's bad, Overlander Warfleet."

"I thought Eggman was the last Overlander?" K'Tari said. Jack had already ran off at this point. K'Tari walked onto the bridge. "You're sure it's Overlanders?" She asked.

"Without a doubt." Thunderbolt replied. "Please, boss, don't let them skin me alive, or shove me into a tiny cage with a wheel and a sand bath and A LITTLE BOTTLE THAT I HAVE TO PUSH A BALL IN FOR WATER!!! IT'S HELL!!!" She screamed. Eggman nervously sat contemplating the next move.

"We'll bluff our way out of this. They probably haven't seen us yet, reverse course and let's get out of here." He ordered.

****

****

The Captain of the lead ship, Conqueror, stood at the comm desk, watching the unknown ship trying to reverse course. "What the devil is that?" he asked.

"Unknown, but we are picking up ungodly amounts of droid activity aboard." The comm officer replied. "Probably some last ditch Seperatist weapon." He replied. The Captain sighed, this planet was being pacified of Seperatist already, someone must have gotten a distress call out and some remnants have come in for the save. "Signal Ajax and Libra, tell them to form into attack position and get ready for combat." He then walked over to another officer "All pilots to their fighters, prepare for sortie." He ordered. He then walked back over to the comm "Get me that ship, tell them to stand down and prepare to be boarded."

"Unidentified vessel, this is Imperial Battle Squadron Centauris. You are hereby ordered to heave to and prepare to be boarded." The signal was filled with static, before a reply came. Eggman appeared in his chair as a hologram at the comm desk.

"Well, hello there, young'ins." He laughed nervously. "Don't worry about me, just an old Overlander out on a pleasure cruise with my robots. No need to feel threatened by me, i'm harmless."

"Sir, identify yourself." The comm officer ordered.

"Oh yes, my name is Julian Kin... Kin... Kinbotnik." He laughed. ""I'm the captain of this here pleasure boat." He replied. "And there's no need to board, we definitely have NO Mobians aboard. Those nasty little rodents."

"By order of the Emperor, all suspected Seperatist vessels must stand down and be boarded for inspection." He replied. Eggman stopped laughing.

"Wait, Emperor? Seperatists? Wow, you guys went way downhill since you left Mobius." He mumbled, he then readopted his "Kindly old man" demeanor "Oh, that won't be necessary, i'm a member of one of the old noble houses. House of Kintobor, we were loyal to the Grand Council of old." The Comm officer was now very confused.

"Sir, you have your orders. Stand down or we will use deadly force." He said. The lead venator shot a single blast straight across the Egg Carrier's nose.

"Wow, there, friends, i'm sure that we can come to some kind of an agreement. I've got rings... Lots of rings, i'm sure that enough will convince this to go away." Eggman laughed.

"Attempting to bribe an Imperial Officer is a serious offense, Captain Kinbotnik. Prepare to be boarded." The communication shut down.

****

****

Eggman put his hands together, fingers pointed up and across his lips. "Alright, looks like it's back to the great war." He grinned. He had betrayed his own people then and it looked, to him, like he was going to have to do that again now. "All hands, prepare for battle." He began pushing buttons. "Prepare the Egg Emperor for launch." He ordered, before pressing several more buttons. "Princess, if you'd be so kind as to man one of the Egg Bosses, i'd be greatful." He said with a surprisingly pleasent tone. "We don't know what those ships are armed with, we're going to keep the Egg Carrier as far from them as possible."

Down bellow, alarms were blaring. Oglivie ran past a swarm of Egg-Pawns that were running to their battle-stations. He rushed into armory and pressed several buttons on a panel, before standing on a pad between several robotic arms. The robotic arms began to attach the Metal Sonic armour plates to him, The weapons hardpoints equipped him with a Lance on his right arm and a Shield on his left, the other Metal Sonics jumped down from their holding bays. "Alright, we have no idea what these guys are armed with, we're going to assume laser weapons and combat robots. Move fast, hit hard. We're going to board the central one and take control." He said. The Metal Sonics nodded and they floated to their launch pads, before getting taken up to the top deck. He looked around to see the 3 vessels. A few seconds later, he saw bright blue flashes of energy heading towards the ship, most of them missing, due to the extreme range. The ones that did impact, smashed straight into the energy shield, creating ripples around the ship. He then saw immense amounds of smaller craft emerging from the ship. "Eggman, we've got fighters coming in."

"I see them." the mic replied. The mine-launchers began to deploy the floating explosives around the ship to prevent the fighters from getting close. Oglivie and the Metal Sonics took into space. Flying through the barrage of laser blasts, Oglivie flew with 8 Metal sonics formed up behind him. Several V-Wings flew towards them in the standard Attack Tunnel formation, 2 of the Metal Sonics, instinctively pulled away from the formation, straight into the V-Wings blaster fire, badly damaging the robots. The rest stayed in formation, their eyes blinking to indicate that they had learned from this. They continued on as the V-Wings now came into conflict with several of the drone fighters from the Egg Carrier. Oglivie looked back. "Broken through their front lines, bring the formation in tight and initiate evasive maneuvers." He ordered.

On the bridge of the Conqueror, pandemonium was setting in as these brand new models of droids were punching through their front lines and effortlessly avoiding both turbo-lasers and fighters. "Forget the enemy carrier, focus all fire on the incoming." The captain ordered.

Oglivie and the Metal Sonics were now ducking and weaving as much as they could from the now sheer downpour of intense fire. "Egg Carrier, require assistance!" He asked. "Anything to take the pressure off of us would be appreciated!!!"

"Standby..." Said the voice of Jack. At that point, a large blast of blue energy lanced out, leaving ice crystals forming along the hull of the Conqueror. At that point, the Egg Wizard came shooting across space, the fleets cannons now pointing at the huge mech, blasting it. As the blasts came in, the Egg Emperor intercepted, its shield deflecting the blasts.

"We've got your back, get to the lead ship." Eggman ordered from the cockpit of the Emperor. With the pressure now focussed on the larger machines, Oglivie's group managed to get into the Conqueror's main hangar. Touching down, the 7 remaining strike-team members fanned out, cutting down every crewman they could find, before they could go for their blasters. The lightning fast robots looked around.

"Hangar secured." Oglivie reported. "You two, find the magazine and get ready to detonate it, you two, sweep these lower decks, you two, follow me to the bridge." He ordered, before they began to go their separate ways.

****

On the bridge, the Captain was now organizing anti-boarding parties. "All Personnel, be advised, we have boarding parties." He called. "Blue droids, floating, very fast."

"Sir, we've lost contact with the Magazine. Cannons are running low on ammo."

"All units, converge on the Magazine." He ordered. If the Droids detonated it, they were all dead.

****

The Doors to the Magazine opened and the Clone Troopers slowly walked in. The commander guestured his men to fan out and search. They split and began walking down the vast corridors of Blaster-Shells. The Commander was backed up by the medic. Off in the distance, there was a clattering sound. The Commander and Medic began to silently run in the direction. Reaching where they heard the clattering, they found a blaster on the floor and a piece of the Duraplast armour and nothing else. The Clones looked at each other. At that point, there was a woosh and the Medic, who was at the back of the pack, was gone. The commander turned around, beginning to point his gun around. He raised his hand and signalled to fall back. The Clones began to head to the door, standard 2x2 cover formation. This time, it was the heavy weapon that was seemingly tackled by something moving almost as fast as the eye. The Clones got a few shots off. "Nuts to this, RUN!!!" The Commander yelled as they set off at a sprint for the door. The remaining 3 escaped. The Clones sealed the door. "Bridge, this is Cannock squad, we just lost over half the squad to hit and run, they're faster than we can see." He said into his wrist-mounted comm-link. "Please advise." He then turned around to see yet another member of the squad was gone. "CARABAST!!!" He yelled, raising the gun. "BRIDGE, THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!" He finally saw the Blue machine stood at the end of the corridor. He immediately opened fire, blasting the Metal Sonic. As the bolt neared it, the Metal Sonic's exoskeleton turned pitch black as a crystal-like field appeared around it. The blaster bolts bounced harmlessly off of it. "Dammit, be advised, these things are equipped with shields." He then took out an EMP Grenade and rolled it along the ground towards the Metal Sonic. The Grenade went off and suddenly, the Metal Sonic wasn't there. The Clone turned to see the Metal Sonic behind him with his ammo-belt.

****

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Was the last message that the Bridge got from Cannock Squad. The Captain looked around.

"What the hell are we dealing with." He walked over to the Comm. "Distress signal, now. Inform high command." He ordered. "This is Battle Squadron Centauris, we are under attack from Separatist Aggressors, brand new models of ships, fighters and Battle Droids. Counting 2 larger battle droids. Mayday, Mayday, Mayday." He then turned to the Conn. "Send all the images we have gathered." He said, he then looked out of the bridge to the Ajax, to see the Egg Emperor land atop their bridge and stick its lance into the bridge, before slashing sideways, sending the broken remains of the bridge tower into space, the flailing bodies of crewmen could be seen among the wreckage. "By the force..." The captain gasped. He then looked to Libra to see the bridge engulfed in lightning as they blasted by the Egg Wizard. The Wizard then pressed its staff into the main hull and the whole hull began to glow red as it had fire magic channelled into it. Flakes of molten armour began peeling away and floating into space. It then swung the staff around, pressed it into the molten hull. The Ship crumpled almost instantly as it was flooded with ice magic. "Get us out of here." He ordered. "Ajax, Libra, if you can follow us, do so, prepare for emergency jump to lightspeed!" He ordered. Anything was better than staying here. At that point, the door to the bridge exploded and 3 Metal Sonics stood.

"Reach for the skies, Overlanders." Oglivie yelled, pointing his lance into the room. An officer went for his Gun, Oglivies shoulder-mounted laser blasted him automatically. "Come on, nobody else needs to die today." He said. The crew put their hands up. "Good..." He sighed. "Doctor, we have the lead ship. their captain has stood down."

The Solomon drifted for a moment before the captain got his bearings. "Navigations, where are we?"
"Unknown sir. Not in our solar system," navigation replied, typing away on a glass keyboard. "I'm bringing up the render of our current location based on some scans captain." A hologram appeared in front of Jaeger, showing what their area looked like. The captain made a gesture and the hologram zoomed out, showing nearby stars and nearby, unknown ships.

"None of this makes sense," the captain said as a line opened to engineering. "Samson, how does it look down there? We need those reactors back online if we want to power our weapon systems."
"Should be online in 3... 2... 1. We're online." The chief engineer reported. The ship's emergency red lights were replaced by the white lighting of the ship.
"Battle stations, PDCs online and plasma torpedoes in their tubes." Captain Yaeger ordered. Blue combat lights filled the bridge and the rest of the ship. The XO gestured to the captain, pointing at a hologram depicting the text of several transmissions from the nearby vessels.

• "This is Valtrix Ornus, captain of the Renatus speaking. I ask that you state your identities, intentions, and worlds of origin. I also ask that you refrain from firing upon each other or myself. While I'd like to settle this peacefully, I will not hesitate to unleash the full might of this vessel upon you should things get out of hand."
  

  ---

• "This is the United Nations Space Command destroyer Kearsarge, hailing from Earth on behalf of the Unified Earth Government. Am I to take the addendum as a threat to a military vessel in the service of Earth and her people?"
  

  ---

• "This is Colonel Steven Caldwell of the Earth ship Daedalus. I'm having a little problem in that there are multiple ships here hailing from Earth, and none of them seems to know what's going on. Though I will not risk the lives of my crew, we need to figure out what's going on. I suggest we all put our respective people on it while keeping dialogue open with one another to try and learn as much about this mystery as we possibly can."
  

  ---

• "While the Andromeda is willing to participate in a face to face meeting, we currently lack shuttle craft to facilitate such a meeting. We merely seek to return to Earth as rapidly as possible."

"This does not make sense. None of this makes a hint of sense. Where is the doct-"
"Here, captain," Dr. Lavato replied as she entered the CIC. "I believe our universe has merged with other universes in is what is theorized as a multiverse. It's a classic in sci-fi, but to live it is... extraordinary."
"Okay," the captain said slowly, "how did it happen?"
"I cannot explain how it happened. This is way beyond anything we have ever experienced. The other ships may know something. In fact, one of those ships may have brought us here."

The Captain decided he would respond to the man calling himself Colonel Steven Caldwell, as the man seemed to have the same mindset as Yaeger. "Communications, wide beam. I want the Colonel and anyone listening to hear this.
"Channel has been opened, sir"
"Colonel Caldwell, I am Captain Mark Jaeger of the Martian Congressional Republic Navy hailing you from the MCRN Solomon." The captain took a moment to think of his next words. "You and others have mentioned Earth. However, you are not from the Earth we know. My scientist onboard has mentioned a multiverse, if that means anything to you."