//------------------------------//
// Contact 
// Story: Beyond the Stars 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

The blaring of alarms snapped Slipstream's eyes open. In a moment she sat up in bed and glanced around to see that everything was flashing with red lights, shaking the sleepiness off of her instantly. As she shot to her hooves and donned her uniform, she could make out that the ship had come under attack over the intercom in the hallway. Once she had slipped into uniform she kicked open her door and raced out into the hallway, where dozens of others were racing around, each of them heading in different directions.

"What's going on?" she asked one of the soldiers that ran by her.

"We're under attack! A bunch of ships just came out of a wormhole in the middle of nowhere!" he replied before shouldering his rifle and racing off. Slipstream glanced around for a moment, wondering what to do, before over the intercom she heard the call for all pilots to head to the hangers. She flashed a quick glance at Updraft's door before she turned and full on sprinted for the hangers.

'Who would have the guts to attack a full blown cruiser and one from the Cornerian army at that?' she thought to herself as she ran, pushing past technicians and other workers that got in her way. 'Andross's army is long sine gone and the apparoids are no longer a threat. So who else is out there?'

An explosion rocked the cruiser, tossing Slipstream off of her hooves and driving her head first into a wall. Her vision went black for what she believed was a few seconds, but when she opened her eyes again she slowly realized that everything had changed around her. A rabbit doctor was kneeling over her and was bandaging her head.

"Easy there, you took a nasty spill," he told her before another explosion tilted the ship. The doctor gritted his teeth as sparks flew down from overhead, while Slipstream struggled to push herself up to her hooves. "You should stay down. You need to rest."

"I need to get to the hanger. They called for all pilots to defend the ship," she told the doctor, whose eyes narrowed before the ship groaned from another assault. "If I don't get out there, then maybe nobody makes it out of this. Let me go."

The doctor sighed before waving her away, allowing Slipstream room so that she could spread her wings and fly down the hallways towards the hanger. She reached it within a matter of minutes, long enough for her to gather a little information from other army members she passed by.

'Unknown assailants. Ships the likes of which they've never seen before. This isn't good,' she thought to herself as she raced through the open door and into the hanger. A quick sweep showed that there was only one standard fighter left in the hanger, while through the force field she could see the battle that raged in the stars. 'Need to get out there and help. Everyone else is already out there.'

She flew over to the Cornerian fighter, pressing a button on the control panel next to where the ship hung to open the cockpit. One of the ground crew raced over, giving her a thumbs up as she hoped into the pilots seat. Slipstream tossed off her cap and donned the helmet that was rolling around on the floor, jamming it onto her head and flicking down the visor. 

The cockpit closed over her head as she ran a quick diagnostics, finding everything to be in working order. She nodded to the ground crew, who pressed a few buttons on the control panel which got her ship into motion. She tightened her grip on the flight stick before in a blur of motion her ship was rocketed through the force field and into the battle among the stars.

Immediately she saw violet lasers flash by her head, getting her to snap her neck around to see that two of the strange craft she had heard about were already behind her. The ships were designed to be similar to birds, with large wingspans and the cockpit jutting out from the center. Twin accelerator packs were tucked underneath each wing and the main guns were next to them, allow for both precise and rapid fire. But what drew Slipstream's eyes was the strange energy that seemed to be radiating off of the crystals that lined their craft, something that she had never seen before.

An explosion next to her head snapped her back into the battle and she pulled back on her stick, looping into the air in an attempt to get behind the enemy fighters. She glanced over her shoulder once more to find that the both of them had followed her motion, getting Slipstream to grind her teeth as she pulled out of the loop and started evasive maneuvers.

'Whoever these pilots are, they're not rookies,' she realized as she snapped the stick to the left, whipping her craft down at an angle. Once more she saw the two craft follow her, laser fire just narrowly missing her tail. She tucked and rolled, spinning as she did so to throw off their aim. Another glance over her shoulder showed her that they were keeping up with her, but the two's formation flying was falling apart. 'But they're flying is a little wild. It's not like army flying, more like mercenary flying. Which means I can do this.'

She cut power to her main engine and instantly activated the small thrusters in the front of the craft. All the thrusters did was give of a small burst, but without any resistance that small burst was enough to stop her long enough to allow the two strange craft to fly by her. Slipstream fired the engines again and tore after the two ships, unloading with her twin cannons.

One of the ships was fast enough to roll out of the way, but the other craft took three shots to its engine and exploded into a ball of plasma and fire. Not wanting to let up the attack, Slipstream yanked on her stick and rolled after the other ship, firing at its engines even though she wasn't lined up. She pulled her turn tighter and lined up the shot for a brief second, allowing her to fire two shots into the engines and turn the ship into scrap metal.

"Two down," Slipstream muttered before she looked at the battle up above her. The Cornerian Cruiser was surrounded by the strange ships that had engaged her, while a massive ship half the size of the cruiser was firing bombardments into her main ship. The cruiser fired back with its massive cannons, doing far more damage to the attacking ship than the ship was to them.

"You going to sit there and stare Slip or are you going to get back into the fight," a voice said over her comms, snapping her back into the battle.

"Updraft?" she asked in reply.

"The one and only. We need you to get back into the fight. Whoever these guys are, they're not the same mercs we were trained to fight," Updraft replied before he cut off his communications. Slipstream focused herself and pulled back on the stick, angling her craft up and flying back into the main battle.

Explosions rocked around her as she flew into the fray, with so much going on that she was having trouble keeping track of the battle. Off to her side an explosion took out the side of the cruiser, while off to her front she watched as one of the Cornerian fighters went down in front of her. She pulled to the left just in time to avoid a missile that was launched at her, while at the same time giving her a target. 

"Alpha leader, come in," Slipstream said as she followed after the enemy craft, firing her cannons at the back of it. it weaved to the side to avoid being hit and Slipstream snarled as she kept up the chase. "This is Equis one, Slipstream. I am engaging the enemy and require backup. Over."

"This is alpha leader. We don't have any backup for ya, newbie," the gruff voice of the leader replied. "We're being attacked at every angle and we're doing our best to just keep the enemy back. You need to put those fancy flying skills of yours to the test and do the best you can. Out."

"Yes sir," Slipstream said with a sigh as she lined up her sights, waiting with held breath until her foe was lined up right in her sights. Yet right as she squeezed down on the trigger, the ship vanished in a flash of violet light. Slipstream's eyes went wide as she started to glance around for her target, only to spy them reappear off to her side in a burst of light a moment later. "Okay, did anyone else see that?!"

"These things can teleport?!" one of the other pilots cried out before his comm was consumed by an explosion. Slipstream felt her blood boil at the lost of a comrade before she yanked up on her stick and ascended to where she could see the remains of the Cornerian craft. She came up underneath of one of the enemy craft and fired her cannons into its underside, turning it into a ball of fire within a few moments. Slipstream was about to start her victory cry before a violet blast tore into her wing. 

"What the hell?!" she roared while glancing over her shoulder, finding that she had a chain on her tail. Her eyes went wide with worry as she started to roll out of the way of the laser fire, only for a few more shots to strike her craft. Alarms started to blare as she checked her ship's status, eyes going wide when she saw that her shields were practically at zero. Another shot tore into her wing and a glance out of the cockpit showed exposed wires along her wing tip.

'This is it,' she thought to herself as she realized that the next shot would take out her shields. 'My very first combat mission and I'm going to die in it. I don't know what's worse. That I've failed the army so early. Or how much Updraft is going to hound me when he finally dies.'

Explosion rocked the enemy ships behind her, turning three of the four into balls of plasma and death. She whipped her head around to see what was happening, giving her just enough time to see the fourth ship try to break off before a rain of laser fire blew it to pieces.

"What the...?" Slipstream asked herself before glancing up to see another Cornerian fighter ship flew over her head.

"Now how often do I get to save you?" the mocking voice of Updraft said in Slipstream's ear, getting her to groan with a smile as she realized who had saved her. "In fact I recall a time during training where you told me that I would never save you ever. My goodness, you must be so embarrassed."

"You just couldn't let me keep my pride and die, could you?" Slipstream asked with a relieved chuckle, before she took up a position behind Updraft's craft and formed up. "How many more of these things are there?"

"There's a lot of them. We're managing to fend them off for the most part, but they keep coming out of wormholes to continue the attack," Updraft informed Slipstream before he banked to go after a group of enemy ships, forcing Slipstream to turn to keep up with him. The both of them unleashed a hail of laser cannon fire upon their foes, blowing them apart.

"What are the losses?" Slipstream dared to ask as they flew through the burning remains of the enemy craft.

"We've lost thirty percent of the fighters within the hangers," Updraft said after a moment of silence, long enough to shake off a pair of crafts that had tried to attack them from behind. Slipstream let out an angry sigh at the loss of all of the pilots before she cast a glance at the cruiser down below them. There was plasma burning off of the side of the cruiser and bits of the ship looked terribly damaged. Slipstream glanced over at the enemy frigate, which had been joined by two more crystal frigates, which had begun to open fire as well.

"We need to bring down those frigates," Slipstream told Updraft before she turned towards the frigates and engaged her thrusters. Updraft let out a curse before he followed after her. The frigates defenses recognized their approach and began to open fire with their defense cannons, forcing the incoming craft to weave in and out of the fire to avoid being hit.

"I hope you realize that this plan is pretty much suicide," Updraft told Slipstream as he launched a bomb from the end of his craft, hitting the frigate closest to them in its main guns. He let out a cry of victory as the bomb took out the defensive guns, giving the two an opening to attack. "Any idea where this things weak point is?"

"Go for the engines. Even if we can't blow it up, we can still cripple it," Slipstream told him as she rolled underneath of the frigate. Enemy fighters began to chase after the pair, forcing them to put all of the skills to the test as they ducked and weaved through enemy fire, while firing in reply.

"Careful there, Slip. You're crafts pretty banged up and one more shot might get rid of you," Updraft informed her before he flew in behind her, taking a shot that might have hit Slipstream's craft. "And as much as I would love to be known as the greatest flier in Equestria, I'm not ready to get rid of the only pony that can hope to match my skills."

"You really know how to push my buttons, you know that?" Slipstream smirked in reply as the two of them turned around to see the engines of the craft floating in front of them. "These...don't look like any engines that I've ever studied. You know what they are?"

"They almost feel...magical," Updraft said in a serious tone, a tone that told Slipstream that things were really serious. "I don't like this. We need to bring these things down as soon as we can. Come on!"

Updraft hurled his ship towards the engines, with Slipstream following after him. The both of them charged up their cannons to full power and unleashed every last ounce of laser energy that they had into the engines. The combined efforts of their shots was enough to overload the violet engines, getting them to burst into plasma and fire. The two broke off their attack right before they crashed into the engines, letting out victory cries as they did so.

"One down, two to go!" Slipstream told Updraft.

"Equis one and two, come in," a voice said over the two ponies communication systems. "Whatever you did to that frigate really knocked off its aim. Think you can do that two more times? We've almost cleaned up all of the fighters out here."

"Roger that, we'll begin our second attack," Slipstream replied as she cranked her stick to the left and angled her craft towards the next frigate. "Updraft, I need you to keep the enemy fighters off of me. One more hit and I might not make it out of this battle."

"On it," Updraft replied before his ship broke off of her side and turned around to engage the fighters that had formed up behind them. Slipstream let out a tired sigh as she locked onto the engines of the second frigate, doing her best to ignore the explosions that rocked the space around her ship.

'You've trained for this. You've been shot at by lasers, missiles and even the freaking princess of Equestria. You can do this,' Slipstream thought to herself as she lined up a perfect shot on the engines. A quick glance at her ships setting showed that she had one bomb in her craft, which was to be used in emergencies. 'Well, I'm fairly certain this counts as one of those.'

Slipstream fired the bomb right into the center of the engines, watch with a large smile as the bomb detonated and decimated the shops propulsion. Slipstream sighed in relief as the frigate began to tilt to the side, allowing it to be fired upon by the guns of the Cornerian cruiser. She pulled off her run and rejoined Updraft, who had a daisy chain on his tail.

"Thanks for getting them off of me. Seems that everyone wants a piece of me," Updraft said with a laugh, getting Slipstream to shake her head with a smirk at his words. "Okay, we've got one more of these bad boys left. Let's line up with a few of our fighters and-"

The two snapped their heads to the side as a black vortex appeared in the space over the cruiser, a wormhole the likes of which the pair had never seen. From within the wormhole burst out a single, black craft. The craft was designed like a vulture and mimicked the designs of the other craft. But what drew Slipstream's eyes was the strange, almost tribal style markings that were carved into the ship, markings that glowed in a dark light.

"What the hell is that?" Slipstream asked before the ship that entered through the wormhole began to get work. it dove with a precision that made the pony pilots jaws drop, before it began to open fire on the Cornerian fighters. Three of their fellow pilots were turned to balls of fire before Updraft and Slipstream turned their craft towards the black fighter and chased after it.

"Whatever it is, the pilot behind those controls is like nothing I've ever seen," Updraft snarled as he began to open fire upon the black craft, which began to weave with a precision and speed that made every single one of his shots miss. Slipstream locked onto the engines and fired a charged missiles towards the black craft, only for her eyes to go wide when the ship did a roll and generate red energy around it that disintegrated the blast.

"A particle barrier?" Slipstream asked in disbelief as the ship pulled up and rocketed into the fight going on overhead. "But the only ships that have particle barriers are the Star Fox and Wolf teams! What the hell is that ship doing with one?!"

"I don't know, but things just got infinitely worse for us," Updraft said with a growl as the both of them pulled up and went after the black craft. That was until Slipstream noticed a vortex opening behind the final frigate.

"The pilots the distraction!" Slipstream roared as she rolled her craft down and sliced towards the escaping frigate. Her movements gained her the full attention of the pilot of the black craft, who rolled his ship and dove it straight down after her. 

"You're not going to touch her!" Updraft roared as he unleashed a barrage of laser fire into the black craft, but it spun once more and activated the particle barriers to deflect his shots. While it spun it opened fire upon Updraft, blasting one of the wings off of his craft and sending him into a spiral. The black craft placed itself behind Slipstream, unloading violet and red laser fire into the back of her craft.

"You're not going to get away!" she seethed as she weaved in and out of the shots, knowing that she couldn't allow the frigates and the other craft to get away. She was rapidly gaining on the frigate, which had turned to get away from the bombardment of the Cornerian Cruiser, while all of the fighters that hadn't been blown up were flying into the vortex behind the frigate to escape.

A perfectly aimed shot caught her craft right in the wing and tore it from his ship, sending Slipstream into an uncontrolled spiral. With no way to control where her ship was heading she wrestled with her stick to try and pull out of the spiral. But even though she was spinning she slowly realized that her craft was heading right for the vortex, the same vortex that all of the other ships had escaped into.

'Got to pull out! Got to-'

Another shot to her other wing put an end to those thoughts, as she lost all control of her craft. With no way to steer her ship, all Slipstream could do was watch as her fighter spun into the vortex. She felt her body shake as she was thrown through the vortex that traveled across space and time, before a moment later she was shot out on the other end.

Her ship stopped spinning as she was shot out of the wormhole, allowing her to take in the full terror of where she was. Flying high above her was a massive ship, one that was three times the size of the cruiser that she had been on. Much like the black craft that had shot her down, there were strange, red markings all along the hull of the colossal monstrosity that made her eyes shrink.

All around the ship was dozens of other frigates and cruiser, none of which had the markings, but were all equally as terrifying. She couldn't count the number of fighters that flew around the ships, but she knew that the number could have probably rivaled the Cornerian army. It wasn't just a group of mercenaries she was looking at. It was a full fledged army.

But there was one finally item that sunk her soul to a new levels of horror. There was a black cube floating close to the main ship, a cube that was hardly bigger than a frigate. But when she laid her eyes upon it, she knew that it was something to be feared. She could see from the way it pulsed and moved that it was something to cause destruction. It was a weapon to kill. Her only question was how many would it kill.

Then she turned to the side to see the black craft floated across from her, resting in neutral just to the side of her. She pulled once on her stick, only for her ship not to respond. The grim realization sunk in and she turned to look at the cockpit of the craft to her side, unable to look into the cockpit to see the pilot. But she was certain that the pilot could see her, so she made a gesture commonly found as rude in Equestria before she closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.

Then the lasers struck her ship and everything went black.