Welcome to Eden.
“ Ok Squad, on me ! “ Commander Lui Alvez commanded via Communications, and Tilly, a new recruit to the Defense program of Eden, carefully steered her training fighter into formation with the rest of the squad.
“ Oh, I can’t wait for your, long, hard, kchht. “ Another woman responded over comm’s, only for the system to cut her out.
“ What the ? “ Another member of the team exclaimed.
“ Oh for Mothers sake. Aria 06, command overwrite, RTB. “ Commander Alvez ordered.
“ Affirmative, taking your kitten home, Commander. “ Aria, the Assistant AI, present on all training vessels responded.
“ You don’t have to rub it in. “ Alvez would mutter under his breath.
“ You only have yourself to blame, Commander, regulations clearly state that Siren’s in Bonding phase are to be removed from active Duty for a duration of at least two weeks. “ Aria’s melodic, feminine voice responded.
Tilly, one of the newly turned Sirens, silently listened to this exchange, half a giggle on her lips that she could only barely restrain. She knew Calaya, or Cal as most called her, had been showing interest in Alvez for a while now, and it appears that she had shown him her inner self, which was an intimate thing for a Siren to do, and Alvez seems to have accepted her.
It was obvious that he had not considered just how much it changed a Siren then, but he would probably be very busy for a while, least, until Cal had calmed down again from her lustful euphoria.
Tilly herself was considered four years of age now, four years of being a siren and learning about herself and her own personality. And considered only truly mature after she had chosen a reflection of her own desires with her, as humans would call it, true form, even if that was quite the misconception.
Before that, like many Sirens aside from Queen Marianna, Tilly had been a drone, a sort of, servitor that, while acting human and alive in most regards, was little more then an obedient doll running on autopilot. A time that Tilly could not recall anything about, only that she had reached self-awareness while working on a farm on Eden, for a young man that, after a moment of confusion, welcomed her as a new individual.
It was a strange experience, and she could not understand it then, but Sirens where considered a gift to Eden’s society. Not only for their free spirited nature, but for the things they could do.
“ Are you ok Tilly ? “ Her personal Aria unit would ask, concerned if Tilly was truly ready for this, to attend flight school. Four years was still considered young for a siren, mature, but still with the chance to have mood swings and reflection moments that determined the development of their character.
“ Yes, I am fine. I think I just reminiscent about my birth. “ Tilly responded truthfully.
“ Do you wish to skip todays lesson ? “ Aria offered, worry reflected in her voice.
“ No, you don’t have to worry, there hasn’t been a reflection moment for me the past three month. “ Tilly assured, offering Aria a smile that the AI could take note of through the interior camera lens, installed on the heavy training fighters control console.
“ Or, would you prefer I Look for a bonding mate like Calaya ? “ Tilly offered the AI, a mischievous grin plastered across her face.
“ An actual bonding happens rarely, So I am not too worried about that. “ Aria noted dismissively, although adding then, “ Two can play that game, dear. “, as she was calling out Tilly’s bluff, even displaying a blinking smiley-face on the console, causing the Siren to smirk in turn.
“ Watch the Comms please. All wings form up on me, as explained earlier, we will perform a mock battle with the Stalker squad. Watch your wing-mates and work as a team. Aria 04 and 05 will be on me since your squad-lead is out for the count. “ Commander Alvez explained, going into a few more intricacies of their training maneuver, a means to increase Eden’s ability to fend of possible invasion attempts through the Terran Commonwealth.
The Terran Commonwealth had come in contact with Eden, as their home-world was called, 34 years ago, and given their stark difference in culture, quickly found themselves at odds with the people of Eden.
In part perhaps stemming from the longevity of the humans on Eden as they could easily reach 400 years of age, with Terran's, leading a decent life, often growing no older then 150. And the Fact that Sirens where amorphous in nature, and essentially immortal given no unforeseen mishaps, certainly may have played it’s part in this lack of common ground.
If the Human’s from earth, calling themselves Terran’s now, would have their way, then Eden would have been occupied long ago, but the fact that they still waged war with the Seltran, a sentient race of Robotic entities, was perhaps the only reason why the Terran Commonwealth had managed no more then a few scuffles and attempts of subterfuge in all this time. But that war would not last forever, as the Terran’s seemed to gain ground against the Seltran Union, and eventually, they would turn their full attention on Eden then.
No matter how much the people of Eden despised war, none would dare to loose the paradise that had been erected over the last 824 years. Be it human or Siren, they all desired to preserve their little corner of the universe.
“ Commander, all units show combat readiness. “ Aria reported, and the distinct sound of the weapons faring could be noticed by Tilly, the standard rail-gun armament under her fighters wings being swapped out for the training lasers that would determine hit’s between the two squads.
“ Good. Remember team. Follow your squad leader and cover each other. Stalker squad is using a lighter model, so you will be outmaneuvered ! “ Alvez reminded.
“ Hey, whats That ?! “ A male pilot would speak over the comms with audible surprise.
“ Is that a supernova ? “ Another pilot remarked, while one of the women, or possibly Siren, exhaled an adoring, “ So Pretty ! “
Aria would direct her observation means onto the space around her, until she spotted the source of what distracted the pilots. A large point of light in the distance. Aria put this finding onto the display of each fighter so that Tilly too could see it.
Aria was not content with a mere observation of what seemed like a natural phenomena, the death of a distant star. Using all the tools available to her on fighters and Station to magnify and measure the light-source, to the point where she detected an abnormality within the outer asteroid cloud that surrounded their system.
“ Warning, Evasive maneuvers ! “ Aria suddenly alerted the team, forcibly taking control of the training fighters to scatter them into different directions at full force, causing some of the pilots to actually pass out.
“ Aria ? Whats going on ?! “ Even Captain Alvez demanded to know, but in the next moment Tilly could watch how a beam of Silver light shot past them, pushing the ships around the light away, only to yank them back hard with so much force that the fighters Thrusters had a hard time to compensate, nearly slamming some of the ships into one another.
“ What the hell was that ?! “ Alvez demanded, now fully alert, detecting on his main-screen that some of the cadet’s fighter-craft had been severely hit by an unknown weapon. There where no fatalities thanks to the diffusion shielding, but the burnt exterior on some of the ships clearly denoted an impact of a massive focused heat source, like an extremely bundled laser weapon.
Tilly had been lucky, Aria had pitched her fighter forward, so that she had not received any damage from the passing object, but Tilly could feel her heart beat like a torrent after that sudden movement, and her youth was being reflected in her moment of confusion, where this sudden occurrence strained her ability to make a swift decision.
“ Unknown vessel Detected. “ Aria reported, and was then being cut off by her primary version that was based on the station around Eden.
“ All units, Emergency Launch procedures. Training squads are to Tail, but not engage until Further notice. Possible Hostile detected in System ! “ Aria’s primary variant stated over open comms.
“ Aria ? “ Alvez tried again. “ What is that Thing ?! “
“ Ship of unknown origin. My systems have not detected it’s approach until after it entered the system, it is currently decelerating, but at the moment of detection, I measured about 42% the speed of light. “ Aria reported.
“ Forty ….” Alvez hissed in disbelieve, needing some form of confirmation as it seemed implausible to him, even the Terran's only reached 20% with their current technology. “ Are you sure ? “
“ Affirmative. “ She responded, and displayed a magnification of the ship as it passed by them a few moments ago. A blurr of silver that was hard to make out. But Aria tried to reconstruct the image until she had a clear point of view, finally displaying a massive craft that was trying to slow down with three thrusters at it’s front.
“ Did they attack us ? “ Alvez desired to know, given the damage that his squad received.
“ Negative, the ship appears to use a densely bundled laser-band emitter to accelerate, and while it is currently trying to slow down, it appears that it’s systems are malfunctioning. The system is constantly switching between active and inactive. “ Aria reported.
“ So your saying, they strapped a giant laser cannon on their back to move ? “ Alvez muttered in disbelieve.
“ Not quite, but yes. And they seem to be using a Gravity field device working on the principal of a warp bubble, which is why the squad was thrown about so violently when the ship passed. However, it appears to be unstable. “ Aria explained.
“ Well. You heard Aria, All weapons to standby. Aria, Inform Stalker squad to fly ahead. They are to fall back to us the moment they notice hostility.
“ Received. Taking 5 units to base due to damage received. “ Aria reported.
“ Received, The rest fall into Claw formation. “ Alvez ordered, which was confirmed with a “ Received “ by the members of his squad.
Claw formation, so Tilly recalled, was a forward angled cross shape, a formation meant to capitalize on their Rail-gun armament that had been readied again now that the training was off, allowing a devastating first strike capacity that could take out even destroyer vessels from range. Their fighters where more into heavy firepower, unlike the stalker squads vessels, so their first engagement shot had to count.
After that, it was firing at opportune moments while lighter ships would try to tie up other interceptor type vessels in close quarters, so that the heavy fighters could cause as much damage in the shortest amount of time.
However, the heavy fighter model, the Valkyrie as it was called, was at a major disadvantage at a close quarters engagement, which was the reason for todays training, a means to increase the pilots survivability.
The Stalker squad was currently, so Tilly recalled, suited up in the Vengeful model, a high speed fighter model with extreme maneuverability, so extreme, humans where unable to fly them. But in turn, their armament had to be reduced to fast firing kinetic armaments.
Laser weapons where currently deemed inefficient, mainly because Terran vessels where hardened against heat based weapons, but once their Diffusion shielding failed, kinetics could quickly devastate those ships.
“ Aria, you mentioned it’s trying to decelerate, can you project for me where It would come to a stop at the current rate of deceleration ? “ Tilly asked her own Aria system.
Aria responded with silence, simply displaying a rough estimate that she was actively updating with the data she was receiving, until she fixed a point nearby the 7th planet on the other side of the system.
“ Warning, detecting gravity field failure on Unknown vessel. “ Aria reported with sudden urgency, and the entire squad could watch how another bright light shone in the distance as something on the ship must have exploded, and quickly focusing her observational powers onto the unknown vessel, the squad soon was given the magnified view of how part of the ships right wing section had first, exploded, and then crumbled inward, the atmosphere within the ship likely to have propagated the explosive force, only for the resulting hull-breach to warp the structure inwards while atmosphere vented.
“ Holy shit… “ One of the trainees gasped at that sight.
“ Comms please ! “ Alvez warned.
“ Do you see that ?! “ Another still managed to call out, and Tilly was not surprised.
She too saw it, how the debris of the ship refused to stay their course, and instead slowly return to the ship, only to start resealing the hull-breach, warping and reforming the material until it perfectly returned the ships hull to its previous shape. Though strangely, it only did so within the area where the explosion occurred, there was damage to the ship, older, that was left untouched by this effect.
“ Aria ? Likelihood of this being a Siren ? “ Commander Alvez demanded while watching this act of self-repair, aware of the abilities of Sirens, especially the older once that vastly outshone the Siren’s of Eden.
“ Unlikely. Even the oldest generation would have just sealed the hole. Pulling lost material in without physical connection is improbable. “ Aria responded.
“ Any radiation detected from the ship ? “ Alvez asked.
“ Negative. “ Aria, responding to his question.
“ Have the Wishkeeper ready to launch, this may become a rescue op. “ Alvez decided, concerned that what he was looking at where the last moments of a ship that was barely even holding together.