Lifting the Fogs of War

Cedrien was confused. He had been prepared for an unequal engagement, that would most likely result in the destruction of his fleet by the swarm of ships the Scions of Tranquility fielded against him and his own. But not only did a small but powerful attack force of Arclight ships jump in and cut off the main body of the enemy fleet, what happened shortly after the battle was joined surprised him even more.

Instead of engaging with the reckless fanaticism the Scions of Tranquility were known for, their ships had begun to drift aimlessly. What Cedrien had feared to turn out as a dreadful massacre had instead become a farce. After the first few enemy ships were turned into smouldering wrecks, venting sickeningly beautiful plumes of plasma, without even firing a shot in return, or maneuvering to evade, he recalled his fighter wings, and ordered his fleet to stand down.

The Arclight squadron kept firing a bit longer, but once a dozen more of the Scion's modified strategic cruisers had been smashed into floating debris, they also ceased their attack.

A hailing signal pricked at his peripheral awareness as Cedrien concentrated on a full sensor sweep of the seemingly disabled enemy craft. He opened the channel and the capsule interface filled his mind with a simulation of Arrakh's booming voice. “So what trick did you come up with this time you Gallente fox?” the Matari fleet commander taunted. “Or was it that black haired snake you keep?” he added.

“The black haired snake is just as surprised as everyone else” Sandrielle responded on the open frequency and the neural interface inflected her voice as if she were smirking.

Cedrien diverted part of his attention back to the intensive scan the powerful sensor systems of his carrier conducted. 'Their ships look fully operational and the crews seem to be all alive.' he transmitted, still looking for an explanation in the data his ship fed him.

'It was Sylera.' The voice-simulation of Alira came across as if she had just recovered from a spell of speechlessness and could barely form the words in her mind.

Inside his capsule, Cedrien's face sightly jerked with the echo of a scowl, and he switched over to an internal channel. 'Alira, explain that?' he sounded annoyed. 'Don't tell me that Amarrian did something against my explicit orders again!'

'I don't think she broke any orders, she did what she was supposed to do.' Alira paused 'But somehow it was her who shut down the Scions.' Across the link, Alira transmitted a sequence of technical specifications flickering before the mind's eyes of her fellow capsuleers.

'She shut down a whole fleet with modified tracking disruptors?' Keram chimed in with disbelief.

'I don't know what exactly she did, but she wanted me to write an instruction set and make modifications so she could override the mindlink of the Scions.' Alira tried to explain.

The mental reflex Cedrien sent through his link with the ship's systems translated as a short grunt before he spoke again. 'Contact her.' He ordered 'I will deal with Arrakh and find out how he managed to show up so conveniently with his ships.'

***

Inside the womb of her capsule Sylera floated in a state of meditative relaxation. Drawing on everything she had learned of the ancient Intaki techniques Sandrielle had passed on to her, the fair skinned Amarrian breathed the cramps out of her slender body and emptied her mind of the agony she had forced herself to re-experience. So deep was her trance, that she did not even register the communication signal that tingled her nervous system ever more insistently. Eventually it got through to her and she willed the channel to open.

'What have you done Sylera?' wistful inquisitiveness modulated Sandrielle's contralto.

'I shared my pain.' the young Amarr woman replied softly, as if she had just woken from a deep sleep.

'You transmitted your memories of suffering across the fluid router link of the Scion hivemind?' Sandrielle asked rhetorically as she pieced together what Alira had told her with that which Sylera implied. 'A creative, if painful, solution.' she admitted.

'Less painful than all the death that would otherwise have resulted from this invasion.' Sylera answered and added: 'At least there was no more surprise in it for me.'

'The Scions of Tranquility are another story though. We are boarding their ships now and they are all in various states of shock.' Sandrielle told her. 'Where are you now?' she asked after a short pause. 'Still on the site of that collapsed wormhole?'

'Yes.' Sylera confirmed. 'A group of Arclight alliance's scout ships are here with me, and the main body of the Scion fleet.' she quickly assessed her surroundings. 'They have brought in two Orca class vessels and are boarding the Scion ships too, it seems.'

'Have they threatened you?' Sandrielle sounded wary.

'No, they hailed me and offered to help me return to you once they are done here.' the Amarrian responded.

'That sounds good.' Sandrielle concluded but did not seem completely relieved yet. 'Stay sharp though, we still do not know what their role in all this was.'

***

Arrakh muttered a string of Matari curses as he strode through the corridors of his command carrier. His two female warrior guards did their best to keep up with the tall, strong man. 'Cedrien you sly little fox.' he inwardly swore. 'You and your slippery snake saw through my little setup didn't you?'

They had received him like a welcome guest at their station, even allowed him all the Scion ships he wanted to take as spoils of war. They warned him not to keep any of the cultists prisoner, though, so he had them all set adrift in escape pods.

Still, with his tongue loosened by spiced wine, and by the manipulative words of that damn Gallente woman, he was made to reveal a bit too much.

Arrakh was not sure where exactly he slipped up, but he knew they figured out that he had made sure the Scions found the right route, and that he could be there just in time to come to the rescue. He had seen it in the smug gleam of the snake's half-closed eyes, and the slightly disappointed look on Cedrien's face. They were just too much Gallente, so full of that false courtesy, to say it right to his face.

One of his bodyguards helped Arrakh out of his heavy armoured jacket when they arrived in the ship's pod chamber. He stripped out of his boots, trousers, shirt and briefs himself, before handing them to the second woman, who folded the clothes over her arm after slinging her heavy rifle.

He scowled when he stood naked in front of the opened shell of his capsule, but suddenly he threw back his heavy black mane and bellowed with laughter. 'One day Cedrien.' he declared loudly to himself. 'One day I will find you with your pants down, and then you will have no choice but to join Arclight.' Then he stepped into his pod and the tendrils of the neural interface snaked from their recesses to seek out his spinal plugs.

After the capsule had closed, only the two dark skinned amazon guards remained. They looked at each-other with expressions that wordlessly conveyed how they were used to the capricious outbursts of their commander. Then they left as the deck began to vibrate softly with the resonance of the massive engines powering up.