EVE Fiction

Chapter 1: Exodus

The doorbell rang to a modest apartment, the curtains letting in the soft afternoon sunlight. Frisky, or so the youngest of the household liked to call her, lifted her head and perked her ears in the direction of the doorway, searching for the source of the strange chiming sound, as the clattering noise of washing dishes abruptly stopped from the direction of the kitchen. A brief pause ensued in which a barking dog and the twittering of birds from outside the windows were the only things to break the serene silence. The doorbell rang again, more insistently this time.
”Ok, ok, I’m coming!” called the woman who couldn’t quite be called old, but in her teens no longer, wiping her hands on a towel as she passed into the living room, “Jeeze frisky,” pointing her finger, “You’d think there could be no such thing as peace around here.” She said as she passed the rocker, looking at the brown and black spotted Calico sitting there. Frisky just stretched and yawned once again, then settled back and left one eye open just slightly, making a good show of sleep. Maybe Frisky knew something was going on? Some say that animals, cats especially, have this uncanny ability to know when things are going to occur; that maybe it stems from a long relationship with slow and stupid humans. An interesting proposition, but unfortunately that’s a point we’ll never get to explore. At that point, Lindsey Tahmen grasped the handle and yanked open the door, changing her life.
Soft white light flooded in the apartment from the white, sterile hallway. The backdrop of fluorescent lights gave an eerie, shadowy appearance to this strange visitor. Waiting for no invitation, this medium height (although muscular, he never let his friends overlook that) man stepped into the apartment and shut the door, simultaneously taking off his hat. The man’s wispy white hair gave more of an indication of his age than did his face, which looked hard and rugged; that of a man who has either seen much hardship, or has done much work (although the crows feet and laugh lines suggested the latter). The soft light coming from the window lent little to his complexion. The man, in dark blue button down uniform with a golden plus sign over his right breast crossed to the window and looked out nervously, turned toward Lindsey, and offered her a smile.
“Dad!” Lindsey proclaimed, rushing over and squeezing him tight, “I didn’t expect you so soon! I thought you were still on duty at work!” She smiled brightly and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, pumpkin’. Dontcha know better than to let in strangers without lookin’?” his voice was serious and gravelly, but as he returned her hug, he chuckled and the smile he favored her with gave him away. “Hey Frisky.” He said, pulling away from Lindsey and scratching the cat behind her ears, the cat’s eyes closed with pleasure, and a deep purr issued from her throat. Robert ceased his scratching, and the cat’s tail began to twitch in annoyance (she was a queen, after all). Robert’s shoulders slumped slightly, and when he next began speaking, his voice was cracking profusely, and it wavered a bit. It was very unlike him.
“Listen sweetheart… Things have changed at work, and I’m not sure how to put this so… Here goes..” Robert cleared his throat.

“About two days ago, while monitoring the comm Channels, I came across some very disturbing information. You know my job is to scan for drug traffickers and other law breakers, right hun?” Lindsey nodded, “Well, I was sitting in my office, doing just that and scanning toward the planet Pator Prime, listening to the normal comms about who’s going to be the next president and everything else, when suddenly everything from Prime went quiet. I thought that maybe it was my instruments acting up again, so I checked em. Nope, they’re perfectly fine” He said, shaking his head slowly. “So, I try to focus it again. Now, I know you’re not much into the “interstellar thing” that so many people are, but it’s not easy getting a signal from that far away. Our equipment, unfortunately, is second rate these days. However, “he continued, “no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recover the signal. I took it to some of the other guys around the place, and none of them could get a signal either. So, we then took it to our superior who has a direct line with some Republic Fleet officials that are stationed on that planet, and even he couldn’t get anything. After some puzzled looks, we headed down to the telescope deck.” (this telescope was MASSIVE and took the entire room as a view screen. It could see individual people on distant planets.) “Looking through the telescope at Pator Prime, we saw nothing but gold…” Lindsey’s face paled and her hand moved to cover her mouth,
“No, it can’t be!” she exclaimed. “It can’t be what it seems. Here? In Pator? I thought they weren’t close!”
“Yeah, hun.” Robert’s face was grim, “The Amarrians somehow got a fleet into Pator and have blocked communications from Pator Prime. Right now, they are probably massacring or enslaving millions of us Minmatars. They think of us as “inferior”… Pfah.. We have got to get out of here before they turn their attention to us.”
“But, but…” Lindsey yammered, clutching her hands to her chest, “Where is our navy? What about our allies?”
“I have no idea,” Robert replied, shaking his head slowly, “All I know is that we must evacuate from this planet, “ He took hold of Lindsey’s arm, “and I’ll help you pack. Just take what you must, and leave everything else. It’s not worth taking extra things if it costs you your life. Now let’s go!”
An hour later, Robert and Lindsey stood in the middle of the apartment, gazing around. Not much had changed, there wasn’t much essential for the trip. Lindsey walked over to Frisky and rubbed her head affectionately.
“Goodbye, Frisky. You’ve always been a good friend. I’ve left you all the food, and hopefully we can meet again.” Frisky just yawned

The people that were hurrying to and from it looked like tiny specks compared to the ship itself. It had two of those gigantic sails, both issuing form the main body; one went straight vertically until it almost touched the ceiling of the great hanger, and the other dropped straight down, the end of it resting on the floor. Right next to the straight segment of this descending sail was a long and wide vertical segment, upon which all the guns rested. It almost looked like a stand, however the bottom was not widened. How this vessel stayed upright was anybody’s guess. From the front there protruded what looked like a long and disproportionately skinny “neck” at least half a mile long, and on the end there was what looked like the ship’s bridge, as large as a four story building. All in all, this massive ship looked menacing, and the sheer size made Lindsey’s head spin. Robert looked over and noticed her gawking.
“That, m’dear, is the Republic Fleet’s Tempest class Battleship, named affectionately The Digger. Most people simply call it Diggs. This ship hosts a crew of several thousand, and has enough firepower to destroy a small city in a single volley. My oh my she’s a beaut!” Robert almost ran into a car next to him because he was staring as well. “Over there you can see a fairly sizeable frigate squadron,” Robert points, “There’s some cruiser class ships, then those over there are battlecruisers,” Robert points to something that resembles an arrow head and bristling with guns, “Got a good bunch here, but it may not even be enough to defeat the Amarr fleet. I guess we’ll see.” Their little car took another swooping turn, and the Republic Fleet hanger was lost from view. What they saw before them was another hanger, filled with ships the size of the frigates, although a bit more bulky, and not a single one had any guns.
Robert turned to Lindsey again, “These are personnel shuttles capable of carrying a few hundred passengers. They may not look like much, but these little babies are quick. We’re going to be on one of these, and I like our odds.” Robert piloted the car over to one of the little shuttles, made a landing, got out, spoke briefly to the shuttle captain standing outside, came back to the car and leaned in, “Alright hun, grab your stuff and let’s go!” Lindsey climbed out, got her baggage and headed for the shuttle. She noticed how noisy it was in the hanger, with people rushing everywhere, propulsion engines firing up, and announcements over the loud speaker. It seemed that most of the other ships were ready to go, and just awaiting the order. As soon as she entered the ship, the noise from outside became a low hum. She tossed her stuff into the cargo bay with everybody else’s, went into the passenger area and found her father. She sat down next to the window. As soon as she did that, she began to feel nervous. Maybe even claustrophobic. She had to get off. This ship was a death trap! She looked around nervously and her dad took her hand.
“Lindsey, we’re going to be just fine. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” Robert smiled. But as Lindsey looked around, she saw that nobody else was smiling. Just great.
A voice came on the overhead speakers, “Greetings, this is your captain. As you are all aware of our current situation, I don’t feel it worth our time to go through with any of the regular “have a good flight” crap. Instead, I’ll tell you that you’re in good hands. The Co-pilot and I will get us all out of here in one piece. So, we’ve gotten the OK to go ahead and undock and we’ll be leaving this planet. Talk to you all as the need arises.” Click.
Immediately, the ship hummed into life, almost as if it were living.
There was a loud click and hiss as the docking port disengaged, and then Lindsey was pushed back into her seat as the ship suddenly increased in speed. Looking out the window she saw all of the other shuttles following suit, and suddenly they were lost from view as they entered a tunnel. The lights flashed by the window in a steady beating pattern. Just as suddenly as they had entered the tunnel, they exited it and sunlight flooded into the window, blinding from the change inside the base. She felt the shuttle climbing altitude and when she could see again, she saw hundreds of ships following suit with them. Ahead, the Republic Fleet was flying in formation climbing in altitude, Diggs most prominent among them. Their little shuttle zipped between frigates and cruisers and gained the lead from the fleet. Other shuttles were following suit.
Lindsey looked around, starting to panic. “Dad, why are we going IN FRONT of the fleet that is supposed to protect us, instead of behind? Wouldn’t that make more sense?”
“No, hun. Shuttles go in front so we can escape as soon as possible. Also, if we stayed behind, the debris from the battle will likely crush and destroy many shuttles. This way is best, trust me.” Robert smiled reassuringly.
Lindsey turned and looked out the window, worry on her face. She supposed she could see the reasoning, but still…
The cloud cover was now far behind them and the sky ahead was quickly turning to the black of space. She careened her head to try and look behind and was relieved to see that now the Republic Fleet was keeping pace with them, bringing up the rear. The backdrop of fluffy white clouds amid a sea of ocean blue and the coastline of glinting silver from the base they had left gave the scene a surreal sense of reality. Looking at this environment, it finally hit Lindsey that this was real; this was happening. The home she had lived in for most of her life, and her wonderful neighbors that had helped her through some rough times. It was all gone, and likely never to return. She suddenly hated those Amarr bastards for what they were doing.

Thousands of Matari were killed in that single strike, and as she looked ahead to the Amarrians who were now very close, she saw a battleship turret turning its way slowly toward them. They were next!
“Stay calm, folks!” The captain said over the speaker, “We’re almost there!” Did the captain see their danger? Surely he did! That huge turret was almost aimed right at them! It would surely fire! Would she have rather been a slave than die? She wasn’t sure.
“Initiating warp!” The captain yelled, “Hang tight!”
The Lancer issued a loud bang from the rear, and was suddenly drifting motionless in space! It stopped moving, and the gigantic turret was pointing right at them! The turret glowed red with heat as it prepared to fire, Lindsey already feeling the searing heat and seeing the red blaze that would mean her death, and suddenly the battleship flew past them. Rather, the Lancer flew past the battleship! It had entered warp, and looking back she could see the planet and the battle disappearing far into the distance. It seemed they were safe, for now. Lindsey finally started crying.

Chapter 2:

Lindsey sat, staring at the starscape before her, the unfamiliar white sun blazing in the distance. The constellations were wrong; there were none she could recognize from her childhood on Pator. And really, why should she? She and everybody else were now on a station orbiting some planet in some distant solar system. The view was entirely unfamiliar, but not any less beautiful. On the contrary, it was even more beautiful than what she saw on Pator. Simply because this station was orbiting a planet, there was no atmosphere to cloud her view of the galaxy. She saw nebulas of stars clustered together, great and dense dust disks of forming solar systems. She could even see millions of differently colored stars winking at her, from red to yellow, to white, and even very faint blue. She could see vast tracts of clouds within which suns burned, turning the entire cloud tract into brilliant luminescent colors. All of this with a foreground of the dark planet they were in orbit around, one covered in black clouds and maelstroms, bright lightening flashing over its surface occasionally. Why there would be a station around this planet she didn’t know, nor really cared. In fact, she didn’t even really care about the beautiful and brilliant starscape before her. Her mind was numb, refusing to think clearly. The trauma of that event played over and over in her head. The red lasers. The cold voice. The gigantic turret turning slowly and aiming at them, beginning to glow crimson with energy, getting ready to end her life.
The door behind her opened with a light shoosh, startling her, and stopping her thoughts. Her dad stepped in and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, sweetheart. Good to see ya awake.” His musky cologne wafting through the air. With a pang, it reminded Lindsey of home.
“Hi, dad.” She offered him a weak smile to compliment the weak greeting.
“Listen, Lindsey,” he said, sitting beside her and gazing out of the window with her. “What happened is not your fault. It’s not the Matari peoples’ fault. You see, back before this all began, the Amarrians and the Minmatar were one people, alongside the Caldari and the Gallenteans. We began space travel on our home world, Earth. I’m sure you’ve read on it. In our ventures, we came across a wormhole that allowed us to travel to this universe. First traveling was tentative, testing the limits and stability of the wormhole, and after hundreds of travels through it, people began moving through to colonize and exploit this new universe. It offered incredibly vast tracts of resources and potential for budding entrepreneurs, journey and excitement seekers, and established megacorporations alike. Society bloomed, and cargo freighters were constantly jumping through that wormhole, ferrying freight to and from the new galaxy, dubbed Eve, because it was a “new start” as it were. The wife of the Earth galaxy, even. Life was good, with just the regular policing wars and occasional territorial disputes. People went off and did their things, expanding, constructing, developing. However, there was one major flaw in this expansion the people of Earth were doing; because all the systems here were mere colonies, they had no supplies for themselves. They were all merely consumers of the goods that were sent from Earth’s universe. And in this situation, the worst thing that could happen did happen.” Robert sighed, “One fateful day, the wormhole to the Earth universe collapsed. Nobody knows why, nobody knew why then either, and it sent the colonials into a panic. They quickly grabbed up as many supplies as they could, and started practicing isolationism. People starved and died off, the machines ran out of power. People were basically set back to square one, and space travel was a thing of the past. Four groups of surviving colonials endured and had separated in four different areas of the Eve universe.

These are the races that you know today; the Caldari, Gallente, Amarr, and we the Minmatar. As hundreds of years passed, Earth grew into legend and each race forgot about its ancestry. Such stories are difficult to keep going, generation to generation, and so the races each developed on their own stories and slowly regained their footing, but they had forgotten about the other races. The Amarrians during this time developed a strong cultist religion based around the Emperor and some Divinity he supposedly represented. They were also the first ones to retake space, re-discovering the technologies of their ancestors. Unfortunately for you and I, Lindsey, the Amarrians stumbled upon the Matari race first and decided we were heathens and to enslave us, since we didn’t believe in the Amarrian god. The Matari had some space travel as well, but not as advanced as the Amarr. So, at that time we weren’t able to defend ourselves.

It seemed that even old stations had a bustling commercial section. Looking at a hovering directional sign she noted the direction that she had to go for the food court and headed that way. Whatever else this station might lack in aesthetics, it certainly made up for in security. There was no way Amarr forces were going to take this station, there were security details and patrols everywhere.
Lindsey entered the food court looking around for her father. There were so many people that it was impossible to tell where he was and Lindsey was about to give up entirely when she heard her name being called from somewhere to her left. When she looked, sure enough there was her dad waving to her from the back corner of the food court amid a mass of other people. Fighting through the throng of humanity he made his way to Lindsey. Sweaty and disheveled, he took her by the arm and started fighting back the way he came with only a panted “This way.” As instruction. Being originally from one of the biggest metropolitan areas back on Pator, she was used to large crowds, but this was ridiculous.
The sheer density of people made it amazing there was enough oxygen for all these people to continue breathing. As she brushed her way past countless men and women, she noticed a small path opening in the throng of humanity before them, and before she knew it her father had reached a door, scanned his hand, and pulled her quickly inside under the watchful gaze of two guards.
She couldn't see because of the relative darkness of this room after the door had shut, but she could hear perfectly well.
“Ah, Sergeant Tahmen, glad you could make it back in time. And that lovely woman by your side must be Lindsey.”
As her eyes started to adjust, she could barely make out the balding man who approached her father and gave a quick salute, then shook Lindsey’s hand firmly, but quickly.
“Please, take a seat both of you. The meeting is about to start” the man in his mid 50’s said, motioning to two seats opposite the one he sat down in. Both Lindsey and her father sat down and Robert leaned over to whisper,
“Lindsey, I brought you here because I was told to bring somebody I can trust. I’m glad you were feeling well enough to come.”
Just as he leaned back in his chair, small circular plates of glass lit up in the other sitting positions around the circular desk, and each one projected the image of a head where there would normally be one if somebody were sitting there in the chair. Lindsey recognized these for what they were; holographic projectors. These other men were broadcasting their image to this meeting table from some other location. Their images would occasionally flicker and were slightly fuzzy but otherwise were recognizable.
“Greetings, gentlemen” the balding man said, “Seeing how this meeting is somewhat critical, let’s skip introductions and get down to business.”
“Agreed.” The heads all said, turning their attention to the man.
“Now then,” the man continued, “How many shuttles successfully escaped?”
“About 43 of 50, sir. Which, giving the scope of their assault, is fairly impressive.”
“About? What do you mean about?” the first man asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Well, sir,” one of the heads said, “Two of the shuttles that were supposed to arrive at my station earlier today haven’t arrived, and my best guess is they were intercepted mid-warp.”
The man’s eyebrows raised (Lindsey of him as the Head Hauncho) “How is that possible? Once in warp, there’s no way they should be knocked out.”
“Yes, sir, we are well aware, and have no idea how it was done, but fortunately we found a signal that is probably a distress beacon deployed by one or both of the shuttles. Sir, I recommend sending a ship to investigate while we try and work out how these ships were intercepted.”
“Make it done.” The head hauncho said, his hands clasped thoughtfully before his mouth, “And I want to get Lindsey’s feet wet. God knows we can use all the help we can get right now, as long as you’re up to it.” He gazed in Lindzey’s direction.
“Y-yeah,” she stammered, looking sideways at her father who smiled.
“Very well then. Robert, take Lindsey to get suited up and prepped, we’ll finish the mission details in the meantime. We want to get this started.”
“Yes, sir,” Robert said, standing up and saluting. Turning around, he took Lindsey’s hand gently and led her out of the dark room and back into the bright and noisy crowd of the station.

“Yep I sure am,” Lindsey responded, following him over to the cockpit of the Rifter. Walking to the side of the room-sized cockpit, Canis pushed a panel which gave way to a keypad. He punched a series of numbers and with a slight hissing the cockpit hatch opened and a section of the side slid away, granting them access.
Canis entered the dark innards of the little ship and beckoned for Lindsey to follow. She did, stepping over the threshold, and sat down in one of the two chars that stood before what could only be described as the console. The door to the outside hissed shut, and total blackness encased the two people as Canis sat at the other chair. The only thing that could be seen was a slowly blinking large red button. Lindsey started when Canis spoke, "Would you like the honors of pushing the startup button?"

"Sure," she responded, moving her fingers to depress the button. As soon as she did, it turned a solid green and numerous other lights, buttons and panels lit into life, a deep electric hum permeated the cockpit as systems came online.

"Checking system functionality," a gentle woman voice said, "All systems functional. Proceed when ready." The front viewscreen above the buttons and dials which had until this point been blank blinked into life, showing a display of outside the cockpit. The external cameras were also functioning, apparently.

"Alright, here we go," Canis said, looking sideways at Lindsey as he pushed a button labeled "undock". The rifter's engines roared into life; they seemed to be so oversized for this frigate that the cockpit itself did little to lessen the noise. Covering her ears, Lindsey looked over at Canis, who seemed to be relaxing in the captain's char as if enjoying the noise. The automated voice began the undocking procedure. First the magnetic couplings gave way with a small thud then the mechanical drone of magnetized railways could be heard as they came to rest underneath the ship. As if the frigates own engines weren't enough to send it rocketing out of the exit of the station, these railings would give it even more of a push, essentially catapulting it out of the station opening at speed. Finally, Canis pushed the large green button a second time, and whatever forces held the frigates in place disappeared. Lindsey was shoved back so hard in her seat that for a brief second she thought her heart had stopped. Before her next thought came to her, the roar of the Rifter's engines ceased, as did the relentless G-forces that had been pushing against her. They had entered space.

"Now this is more like it, huh?" Canis said, looking at Lindsey and giving a wide smile. "Look," Canis pushed a button and the forward viewing screen flipped over to a view of the rear of the frigate. There was nothing but blackness and stellar bodies. "The station's cloaking mechanism certainly work well." Canis remarked.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road." Canis said, briefly pulling up a solar system map, punching in a few numbers, then closed the map. "Hold tight, we're going to initiate warp." he said, pushing a blinking green button in the middle of all the switches and dials. It immediately turned red and the automated voice once again spoke and said "Warp drive active." As soon as those words were uttered Lindsey felt the presence of a very strong electrical force from nearby. It made her skin crawl and her hair stand on end. The ship reoriented itself with the destination coordinates, stopped briefly like the shuttle did, then accelerated to incredible speeds. The planet they were near started sliding past the viewscreen, and as the electrical charge nearby intensified, so did their speed. Soon enough, clusters of planets were flying past almost faster than she could see, and the sun grew more distant. Finally, the ship started decelerating until eventually it coasted to a stop, the electrical charge now completely absent.
"How you doing?" Canis inquired while checking gauges and systems.
"Not bad, it wasn't anything like the shuttle," Lindsey replied while she watched Canis go to work.
"Yeah, that's to be expected. This is a military vessel and has none of the niceties that you'd find on civilian transports." Canis looked over one final readout. "Alright, looks like we're completely green, not that I was expecting malfunctions mind you, just that this ship hasn't been flown in a while."
"So... where are we?" Lindsey asked as she looked at the viewscreen. She didn't notice anything spectacular except some small rocks and a bunch of dust.
"Well, we're in this systems asteroid belt. We're about 100km away from the nearest asteroid, so those small rocks are actually huge asteroids, and the dust is actually millions of smaller ones. This is where the distress beacon came from... I don't really know why or how, but it appears that there isn't anything out of the usual yet. Let's take a closer look at those 'roids. If they're anywhere, they're there." Canis said, gesturing to the viewscreen. Unknown to the occupants of the Rifter, they were already noticed by an entity of questionable motives to say the least. If they had been running scans for a certain frequency, the occupants would have undoubtedly turned around. As it was, the small ship engaged its thrusters and began hurtling toward its destiny.

As they approached the wreckage (it was now apparent it was in fact a wreckage of a Minmatar shuttle), they could see the crash landing the shuttle had taken. There was a long gash in the surface of the asteroid that stretched for nearly 1000 feet and it was plain to see as they got closer to the ship that there were long scorch marks with melted and ripped metal across the hull of the ship. One side seemed to be completely missing, and Canis approached and pushed himself gently through the orifice. Inside, despite the grievous wounds on the external hull, there didn't seem to be anything amiss. Everything seemed to be in order, with only a few objects floating lazily in the vacuum of space. So... where were the people?
"Alert, unidentified object coming out of warp." The calm female voice of the Rifter's automated systems broadcast itself over the suit's earpiece.
"Alright, I don't know what happened here," Canis said poking his head out of the hole in the side of the shuttle, "but we better get back to the ship before whoever just showed up detects---" His sentence was cut off by a massive tremor as the asteroid on which they stood started to shake violently. Both Lindsey and Canis went sprawling on their backs, and if it wasn't for their magnetic boots keeping them in place, they would have floated off into space like the rock and debris around them. A red light started approaching on the horizon away from the Rifter, and Canis turned pale. The asteroid shook once again and a panel slid open on the asteroid's surface not far from the shuttle.
Canis scrambled to his feet as best as he could and started running for the ship, grabbing Lindsey by the arm as he ran past.
"****, Lindsey! Run for the ship!" Looking back, Lindsey could see something rising out of the hole, something metallic with tentacles that were trying to find purchase on the top of the asteroid. It then launched itself into space and shortly after a pair of rocket thrusters guttered to life and it flew away behind another asteroid and out of sight. Another set of tentacles groped the top of the opening as more followed where the first one came from, red glass eyes glaring, their bodies looking vaguely insect-like as they launched from the hole into space.
"What in the hell are those?" Lindsey asked frantically.
"Rogue drones! Common Lindsey!" They finally reached their ship where Canis punched a button and they climbed into the Rifter. Diving in the captain's seat he tore off his face mask and started mashing buttons and flipping switches. To Lindsey as she sat down beside him, his hands appeared to be a blur.
"Hang tight!" Canis yelled as the Rifter hummed to life and suddenly blasted into the dust of the asteroid belt, barely missing a few of the larger rocks as Canis flew it frantically trying to escape from the drones.
"Attention, unidentified object in close pursuit" the calm ship-voice said. Canis switched on a camera in the rear and Lindsey could see that not far behind one of the drones was hot on their tail, zigzagging wildly with razor sharp pincers flexing on the end of the tentacles. Canis flipped another switch, hit a button, and the female voice said "Target locked, firing."
Lindsey could hear the methodical whoomp whoomp as the Rifter's autocannons tried to hit the drone. Some rounds found it, and a shower of sparks and metal debris flew from the drone. It veered wildly to the left and crashed with a puff of smoke on a nearby asteroid.
"Phew, Daisy never fails me." Canis said, steering the Rifter around another asteroid, almost clear for warp.
"Attention, more hostiles incoming." Canis swivelled the camera around and found two closing in on the tail again. The autocannons belched fire, one got shredded and went down, and as Daisy was taking aim at the second, the Rifter felt like it was hit by a boulder. Canis and Lindsey were nearly thrown from their seats as the Rifter absorbed the impact from the object.
"Attention," Daisy said, "Hostile has collided with this ship. One thruster down, speed at 75% and falling, warp drive inactive."
"****!" Canis yelled as the camera found the attacking drone, latched to the top of the Rifter and not in the firing arc of the autocannon turret. Its pincers and arms were moving frantically peeling away layers of armored plating and trying to get inside the small ship. Canis handed Lindsey a small pistol as he refitted his breathing mask, "Aim well" is all he said before turning back to pilot the crippled ship.
Lindsey could hear the metallic clanging and clattering as the drone tried to find a way in.
"Outer hull breached, critical systems damaged," Daisy said just as Lindsey could see the first of the drones' pincers coming into the cabin behind the command bridge. She gripped the pistol in both hands, readying for a shot, when a blinding white light filled the cabin and the ship shook violently. Then a second light followed, and a third. Lindsey had closed her eyes, and when she opened them all she could see was darkness. But no... she thought she could hear something... "Lindsey... Lindsey!!" It was Canis, and suddenly he was there shaking her shoulder and pointing to the view moniter. Her eyes adjusted and she could see they had cleared the asteroid field and before them, filling the view, was an Apocalypse class Amarrian battleship, its gold plating gleaming in the sunlight, pointed hawk-like front gliding past them as the Rifter floated with no power. Its massive guns glowed red with heat as it prepared to fire again, but the white beams of energy streaked past their failing frigate, striking targets behind them.
"All hostile tar-tar-tar getssssssss eliminaaaatttttt" Daisy tried to finish the statement, but the core systems were too damaged. Canis and Lindsey just looked at each other in disbelief.

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