Override Transfer Array

Author: Serra Shaadow

Original post: https://overridetransferarray.blogspot.com/

Author's note: This work is dedicated to my loving mother, the only person who i know will always jump a super carrier to every cyno I light. Always, always, from the first moment i drew breath ...
I thank those who encouraged me in their own way during the time i spent writing this piece - Corpmates and dear friends.
Finally I thank all those who would spend the time to read this humble story, may it bring you excitement as much as it excited me as i wrote it.
"That in all things, May God be glorified"
Serra Shaadow
2012

PS. it goes without saying that an inordinate amount of thanks goes to CCP and all the hardcore boys and girls who keep our not so small universe not merely running but expanding in ways we are yet to imagine.

Entry for the YC114 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the Eight Thousand Suns in New Eden category.

Delve region > TIP-Z > THE SANCTUARY

It was a time of celebration; the Sanctuary has reached its first century of existence. Despite its comparatively remote location and modest facilities it has thrived in the face of the inherent difficulties of the region. For a hundred years the Sanctuary has served as a rest stop for merchants, pirates, fugitives and even the crew of a few down on the dumps capsuleer ships - providing fuel and provisions for their ships, rudimentary repairs, a venue to conduct trade and all forms of diversions.

Meeko lived all his life in the station, his father often told him that its one of the largest things in the universe. He however knew this wasn't true, he has heard of bigger ships called Tay-tans and had heard a man boast he flew a fighter for a ship that is as big as Sanctuary and can travel even without gates. Scratching his head, Meeko continued down the corridor to the community room. He often thought that some stories cannot be true like space monsters that ate ships and crew or that man called Sor who kidnaps beautiful women.

The smell of food and the charivari sounds of celebration greeted him as he opened the door to Sector 44's community room. He saw his parents and many familiar faces having a great time.
"Meeko! Thats quite a box there however did you get one?" Said one of his father's friends.
"Don't be surprised, this little one is one bright kid i'm told." Interjected another.

"The pastry store must be quite out of the way for you to be late." Meeko's ears perked as he heard Sirah's voice. He turned around and saw a pretty girl, the prettiest in the whole station, munching on one of the pastries he brought. His heart started racing and he felt a thrill rivalled only when he got to secretly play with station machinery.

"I was learning how to keep power feeds to the turrets above 98% all the time," Meeko quipped. "I even got to try the training program for shooting!" He added cheerfully.

"So that's why you were late little man!" Meeko saw his mother walking towards them and he left to join his parents.

Outside the window Meeko gazed out to space, admiring the battery of laser cannons that protected the station and all the different ships moored to the station. Out of the corner of his eye he saw half of the turrets move and a few moments later a small yacht trailing fire approached the station. That wasn't common but he has seen it before, victims of pirates or maybe Blood Raiders. He went back to eat more and maybe talk to Sirah again.

When Meeko woke up the following day the station was buzzing with gossip. The damaged ship he saw was from one of the star gates and was attacked by some unknown ships. It must have been a rather old Raider ship since they were able to escape, Meeko thought.

====

Later that day half a dozen damaged ships entered the station's space. A lot of different stories were being told, a large battle between the Khanids and the Raiders, a new pirate gang with raider weapons marauding in the system and of course monsters. There are always stories of monsters.
Two days later the owner of the station Master Phoon, addressed the station crew and warned that a new group has entered the constellation and is attacking other systems including T-MOFA where at least three of the damaged ships came from. It must be very important because the gun crews started practicing overload drills and Sirah's dad was in full combat armor.

The system news feed and the neocom was flooded with news of attacks on ships, stations and even planets. Meeko became worried that the station might not as safe as he thought it was. He distracted himself by listening even harder on the sector engineer’s lecture on how to maintain power conduits and how to look for signs that the cables need to be replaced. A blaring siren stopped everyone, all personel were ordered to report to their stations and visitors and dependents are to move to safe zones. Meeko however slipped from his class and ran off to turret 4, he knew that combat was coming and he wouldn’t miss it for the world.

As Meeko rushed along the corridors, dodging other crew and telling the odd concerned person he was going to the nearest safe zone, he glanced out the window and saw a large ship jump into view. It fired its microwarp drive and angled towards the station, a large trail of fire propelling the ship to amazing speed. Suddenly two small ships appeared and quickly approached the cruiser. Meeko felt a thrill run through him; he saw the cruiser deploy several drones but continue running towards the station. He knew that it was an easy victory, between a cruiser’s guns, its drones and the station’s guns – those frigates would be scrap metal in a few moments. A few moments became a few long moments and dread began to creep into Meeko’s heart. The cruiser wasn’t firing back and its speed has dramatically slowed, its drones can’t follow the nimble frigates and the station guns were missing virtually every shot. In a few heartbeats later - the inevitable happened; the frigates caught up with the cruiser and quickly began to orbit it. The station guns had to cease firing since it can’t risk shooting the cruiser. A few ships from the station have started burning towards the stricken cruiser but it was too late, the cruiser’s hull was venting atmosphere and most of its guns were turned into slag. A small explosion erupted and a small sphere started moving away from the ship and warped away. The frigates started moving towards the station’s flotilla and Meeko wasn’t sure anymore who would actually win. The frigates closed fast and aimed at the heart of the motley assembly of frigates, yachts and a pair of the station’s heavily armoured tugboats. The lead frigate suddenly decelerated as if it hit a brick wall and the second frigate immediately broke off the attack. As quickly as the frigate slowed down all the ships and the station’s guns fired at the frigate. A red flash signified that the shields failed and subsequent shots boiled off the frigate’s armor. The second time the station’s turret’s cycled nothing was left of the first frigate and the second immediately warping off as soon as its hunting pair was destroyed. Meeko cheered along with everybody in the corridor, the spectacle of a space battle mesmerizing even the station veterans. The small group of ships continued to burn towards the wreck of the cruiser to save any survivors.

====

During the late cycles the station’s mood was dreary despite the victory earlier. The station’s master has issued a statement that the enemy frigates that they fought were from the group that has attacked the D5-SOW constellation. Master Phoon grimly narrated that heavy attacks have been reported in T-MOFA and LUA-5Lparticularly on the planets. The enemy is known as Sansha’s Nation and they conduct lightning attacks across the universe and retreat within a few weeks or when strong resistance is met. The station is put on alert for a Sansha attack and vessels currently anchored within the station are encouraged to stay and find safety in numbers.

Meeko’s parents were distressed. Meeko’s mother was one of the nurses who attended to the injured crew of the “Thorax” class cruiser, Pegasus IV. Meeko’s mother was surprised that the station master ordered the best medical care for the injured crew and accommodation for the uninjured ones. The station was known to help when it can but in the far flung areas of the universe - charity is something virtually unheard of. The Pegasus IV was a combat vessel and a good portion of its armaments were not destroyed. Meeko’s father speculated that the cost of the ship components was such a windfall that the ship master was inclined to be generous.

====

The station was bristling with activity; the security teams were going around and asking people to join the militia. Meeko wanted to join; he rushed to Sirah’s dad to volunteer. Sirah’s father tried to initially talk him down saying that he can’t even lift a rifle. Meeko knew this wasn’t true and challenged the militia men to hand him one, one of the older ones handed Meeko a battered looking rifle and he knew the game was up, he can’t carry a Matar rifle it’s too stocky and its ammo packs are too heavy.

“No fair! That’s an old gun. The new guns are lighter!” protested Meeko. The group of militia men burst into laughter.

“That’s what the militia is getting little boy” Sirah’s dad said grinning. “Those old rifles pack quite a punch, enough to take down an armoured slaver hiding behind a crete wall!”

Meeko felt like crying, out of frustrating or disappointment he didn’t know. He saw his dad come out of their house with Sirah and his mother in tow.

Meeko squared his shoulders and in a loud voice cried “Dad, they wouldn’t let me in the militia because only old guns are available and I’m too small”

His mother gave him a small smile but his dad was too distracted to notice and continued walking towards Sirah’s dad.

“They’re not letting you in the militia because you don’t know how to shoot a gun” said a sweet voice. Meeko’s heart sank though the statement was quite true. He looked at Sirah with his coldest stare and he was met with her beaming smile. He cursed her silently as she melted his stare.

“Now now Sirah, Meeko knows how to shoot a gun. If his father’s stories are true he scores better than some ratings with the turret training programs. Just like his dad. I hear he’s quite the shot too”
Meeko’s heart grew cold; he wasn’t supposed to play with anything in the gun room without supervision much less permission.

“Yes, he’s quite sneaky but he always logs his name at the end of the training program.” His father actually chuckled “he’s not ready for moving platforms yet but he’ll get there.”

Meeko tried his best to become invisible, he slowly moved to have as many bodies between him and his parents as possible. He bumped into something and was afraid he might be called out – he saw Sirah smiling.

“So turret boy, they’re sending you to the safe zone too?” Sirah asked with all seriousness.
“Yes he’s going to the safe zone” Sirah’s father cut in “I’ve asked Meeko to look after you”
Meeko swelled with pride and excitement as he heard those words.

Meeko leaned near Sirah and whispered “this means you should follow me and keep quiet”

Sirah leaned towards Meeko’s ear and whispered “no, this means you stop crying when I tell you to”

====

Sansha was coming. That singular fact drove the station to an increasing crescendo of activity. Safe zones were established deeper into the station, security teams and militia trained ceaselessly, the ships docked at the station left their dependents to stay in the safety of the station. Meeko and Sirah have been relocated to safe zone E. They need to stay there for a short while their parents said. It wasn’t boring though, they helped packed food for the security teams and work crew. At one point they were asked to put bullets in to magazines, Sirah was quite good at it too. Meeko was surprised when Sirah explained that guns can only fire as long as there are bullets in the magazine. In movies they don’t seem to run out of shots, and turrets never run out of shots either, Meeko thought idly.

Meeko’s parents were going on a “Reaper” he didn’t know what it was but his father looked quite excited. Sirah’s dad was going to be in charge of sectors 40-48. Meeko is going to be in charge of Sirah’s safety, he thought everybody has an important job to do.

====

Sansha began broadcasting its successful engagements on all frequencies. A broadcast showed a Chimera carrier spooling its jump drives while a handful of cruisers and frigates warped in and swarmed it. The carrier began deploying its fighters and dropped its sentry drones but all were quickly engaged and destroyed. Three other carriers and a handful of ships warped in and began repairing the stricken carrier. They filled the space around them with dozens of drones and fighters and seemingly overwhelm the attacking Sansha forces. A Sansha frigate began to burn away from the engagement and began to crackle with energy. The space around the frigate was engulfed by red fire. A dozen of the vertical battleships appeared and began to fire crimson beams into the damaged chimera. A larger ball of fire erupted near the frigate and a massive ship came into view. It was so colossal that it easily dwarfed the carriers. The massive Sansha ship began deploying its own fighters and they quickly imploded the chimera’s shields with their torpedoes. The rescue fleet began to align out as soon as the chimera’s shields imploded. Some of the heavily damaged ships began to warp. Two of the carriers were able to warp away leaving the third carrier on the field. The broadcast showed the Sansha ships orbiting the carrier and several of its cruisers begin boarding actions then the broadcast suddenly ended.

====

Delve region > TIP-Z > SPACE OUTSIDE THE SANCTUARY

The moment the Sansha fleet arrived without fanfare. Four cruisers and a dozen frigates emerged a hundred kilometers from the station. They approached slowly knowing that the station is clearly out gunned. The Sanctuary's fleet, a little over a dozen strong orbited the station. The cargo tugs started to veer towards the frigate screen but the frigates remained in formation with the cruisers instead of dashing to harass the station's ships. At 30 kilometers from the station the cruisers opened up with a volley. Two dozen beams hit one of the tugboats depleting its modest shield banks and virtually evaporating the front half of the ship. The second ship began to retreat but the cruisers locked it up and took it out with a single combined volley. Like hounds scenting blood, the Sansha frigates then quickly dashed towards Sanctuary's ships.

The three Reapers and two cargo haulers waited for the station's signal to jump in while moving at full speed aligned to a pre-computed point 30km from the station. A quick burst of data told them that things are quickly getting out of hand. The tight formation engaged their jump drives. As they dropped from warp a frantic battle greeted them. They watched helplessly as the second tug was destroyed and the frigates began accelerating towards the station. They had little time for their gambit to work; all three reapers webified one of the Sansha cruisers. The station's guns broke their silence and poured azure beams into the cruiser. The cruisers’ guns began to swivel to follow the reapers but they cannot track the nimble ships much less engage without risking firing upon each other. After half a dozen cycles of the Sanctuary’s guns the cruiser's shield faltered. The reapers began to increase their orbits, burning away from the cruisers. The reapers released their webifiers from the damaged cruiser and transferred them to each of the undamaged ones. The station shifted its beams to another cruiser leaving the unshielded cruiser to manoeuvre behind its sister vessels.

Two cargo haulers hurtled to a stop less than a hundred meters from the Sansha cruisers. They quickly accelerated towards the unshielded cruiser. The cruisers were quick to react quickly bracketing the lumbering haulers. However it was too late, the first hauler slammed into the side of the unshielded cruiser and detonated with such ferocity that it engulfed even the second hauler. The second hauler buffeted by the explosion and hit by several beams exploded with equal ferocity. When the flare of the explosion dimmed, a cruiser was left hulled and drifting, another was crippled with its engines slagged and its guns stripped by the explosion. Two of the functioning cruisers moved away from the site of explosion but the reapers quickly moved back into range and webified another cruiser and the station's guns walked endless streams across its surface.

The Sansha frigates have closed with the station and began to engage the station's flotilla. The Station’s ships quickly burned away to put the station between them and the pursuing Sansha ships. They began to jettison Anti-Matter M charges, whatever could be spared from those loaded into the cargo haulers turned fire ships. Sansha was moving too quickly to notice the jettisoned items, not until the simple charges coupled with proximity sensors began to explode around them heavily damaging their shields. The make shift mine field has done its job, forcing the Sansha frigates to cut their microwarp drives or else risk greater damage from the explosions due to its flux effect that increases the ship's signature radius. The station's flotilla ceased running and met the scattered Sansha formation and remotely detonated all of the remaining scattered rounds. The combination of unforeseen cunning and sheer ferocity of the defenders left four of the dozen frigates destroyed or unable to fight. The small yachts and skiffs armed to the teeth with contraband weapons dealt damage that would put ships twice their size to shame. The Sansha vessels however were true combat frigates and that fact began to show when their webifiers and warp disruptors came into play. Sanctuary’s ships were not able to jump to tactical spots around the station once bracketed by Sansha ships. After the initial ferocity of the defense and their valiant attempt to fight they claimed merely two more kills before nearly half their number were destroyed forcing them to warp off to a safe spot.

The reapers shifted their webifiers one last time catching the final cruiser for the station's guns to engage. Suddenly a gigantic ship appeared into view. It was massive and oddly vertical reminiscent of the great Minmatar dreadnaughts. A swarm of frigates and cruisers emerged behind it. The reapers knew that whatever victory they scored was pyrrhic. They quickly aligned out and jumped, leaving the Battleship to pound the station’s shields.

====

Delve region > TIP-Z > SAFE ZONE E, SANCTUARY

Meeko knew something was very wrong when the station began to shake and the lights begin to flicker. The few security teams watching the safe zones rushed out, leaving the old and too young wondering what was happening. A few long minutes and the flickering lights turned off. Emergency lights, which Meeko only saw activate during emergency drills, began to turn on. Sirah moved closer to him and asked what is happening.

"They must have kept the turrets overloaded for long and some feedback has disrupted the station's power grid" Meeko offered, he doubted it since the guns have gone silent a quite a bit before the lights went out.

"What?" Sirah looked at him as if he just made silly animal sounds "The power overloaded?"

"Yeah they’d fix it soon and we'll be just fine" Meeko tried to assure her. He seemed to have jinxed the situation because gunfire suddenly erupted somewhere in the corridors outside.

====

There were no pyrrhic victories for the security forces. As soon as Sansha's assault shuttles attached to the station's hull, the conclusion was forgone. Sansha's True Citizens were unstoppable. They soaked tremendous punishment before dying, if thats the proper term. One defender too many remarked that the frenzied fanaticsm of Raiders seemed tame compared to the unspeaking, unstoppable mass of Sansha. The only reason the station didn't fall in few hours instead of a moderate siege nearing a day was Sansha's choice of weapons.

====

The moment the first enemy came into the room Meeko realized that monsters were real. The few security forces and militiamen that came back into the safe zone quickly barricaded the door and told people to hide behind something. Meeko watched in envy as some boys merely three or four years older were carrying Gallente rifles from the Pegasus IV. Meeko knew he could carry one of those easily. The gunfire outside became sporadic and their defenders visibly grew more tense. A tall bald man wearing a black coat walked slowly into the room. His coat was a little damaged and Meeko noticed that there was fresh blood in some places. He was carrying a large rifle and began to raise it. A quick order had all the station defenders firing their weapons at the tall man. His white skin suddenly became spattered with blood as smoky contrails erupted from the rifle barrels and connected with the man. The tall man fell on his knees but began to stand again when half his head disappeared and he fell down with a thump. There wasn’t any time for cheering since four men who look just like the first entered into the room and began firing some laser weapon. Two defenders were caught squarely in the chest and fell to the ground convulsing. Meeko realized that there is no chance that their defenders can fight four of the tall men. He grabbed Sirah’s hand and began to half drag, half push her towards the far end of the room.

“Help me get this panel off Sirah” urged Meeko.

They opened a small access hatch that allowed repair drones and personnel to conduct maintenance.

“Crawl inside and I’ll follow you. Quickly, the tall men are coming” Meeko piped as he glanced back to see that the six tall men are in the room and are beginning to shoot anyone on sight. As soon as Sirah got inside he began to crawl to follow. Something strong grabbed his leg and ice water pumped from his heart. He frantically tried to look and saw one of the tall men holding his leg and beginning to pull him out. He tried to kick the man’s hand but it was useless. He twisted on his back as he was pulled out wards gritting his teeth in anger and kicked even harder on the hand holding his leg.
The tall man’s head was momentarily covered by red mist and then only the lower jaw remained, the entire half of the face was gone. Meeko thought that one of the soldiers must have survived and saved him. He was snapped out of his reverie by something pulling his collar and chanting “lets go, lets go, lets go”. He glanced up and saw Sirah pulling at him with one hand while holding a large pistol on the other. Sirah must have seen the look on his face and said “Man stopper round, titanium sabot, it will tear through Paladin armor.” Sirah said offhandedly, still trying her best to pull him deeper into the shaft.

“Thank you, by the way” Meeko offered when they were further down the maintenance shaft.

“Just don’t leave me, I don’t want to be left alone with those Tru Cit Zens.” Sirah whispered sadly.

“You mean the Paladins?” Meeko asked.

“What? No. Tru Cit Zens. That’s what my dad said they are called. They work for San Sha, the group attacking us.” Explained Sirah, a little irked. “Where are we going by the way?”

“Turret 4? We can hide there until Sansha leaves. We can close the blast doors behind us.”

====

Delve region > TIP-Z > SECTOR 44, SANCTUARY

Meeko and Sirah left the access shafts and crept around corridors wary of any enemies. They found the access gate to sector 44 but it was locked. Strewn around the area are bodies of militia men. Meeko didn’t recognize any faces, some part of him wanted to cry but a bigger part of him was angry – so angry he wanted to hurt any of the tall men. Sirah began fiddling with the gate trying to get it to open. Meeko picked up one of the rifles on the floor and tried to hold it like how the heroes in the movies did. From the other end of the corridor a tall man appeared. Meeko was gripped with fear. The tall man was clearly wounded and one of his arms was missing - most importantly he didn’t have a gun.

Meeko’s anger boiled out of him and he hefted the rifle, pointing it at the tall man. With a loud cry he pulled hard on the trigger. The first two rounds hit the tall man on the chest staggering him; the next two dozen hybrid rounds peppered the walls and ceiling down the corridor. The tall man didn’t stop walking. Meeko heard a loud click and something fell from the rifle. Next he knew Sirah was pulling him through the door and the blast doors of Sector 44 slamming shut behind them.

====

Delve region > TIP-Z > TURRET 4, SANCTUARY

They reached the safety of Turret 4 and locked the bulk heads behind them carrying anything useful with them. They finally sat there in silence. For several cycles they said nothing and merely held each other’s hands. Outside the gunnery dome were a lot of ships, the vertical ship was the largest of them all. A lot of smaller ships moved lazily around it.

He saw a large ship jump in and it looked like a really large cargo barge. It was moving towards the station. In the other side of the station another one of the vertical ships arrived, followed shortly by three more. The vertical ships fired on the transport and began deploying fast moving drones. The transport was struck by more than a dozen white beams and it was left drifting in space.
The small ships began to dash towards the new ships quickly and the original vertical ship fired upon one of the other vertical ships. “They’re fighting each other!” Meeko exclaimed. No sooner than he voiced his amazement six other ships jumped behind the four vertical ships. Three of them began firing blue beams into their friend which was being shot. The three smaller ships were the same size as the Pegasus IV but the moved a lot faster and fired a staggering swarm of missiles destroying frigates one after the other. The station suddenly activated its energy transfer aiming at the original vertical battleship.

The other four vertical ships shifted targets and destroyed the cruisers approaching them. Meeko moved the turret to aim at the original battleship, he wanted those who hurt his station and he might as well help destroy one of their ships. No sooner than he traversed the turret two communication screens opened up, one is Master Phoon and the other was a young man with something round covering his right eye.

“Turret 4 report status” said Master Phoon.

“We are ok sir!” said Meeko excitedly with Sirah slowly moving to his side.

“Where is the gunnery crew?” asked Master Phoon rather harshly.

“There is only Sirah and me here, Master Phoon” Meeko said a little fazed.

“We can do this faster if you can take out that transfer array” The man with the eye piece said. Master Phoon’s face looked sullen and he was about to say something when Meeko chirped “I can do it!” Master Phoon’s face became incredulous but he said nothing.

“I am sending you targeting data, destroy the transfer array”

The turret screen suddenly went to life with the new data; all previously unknown contacts suddenly became identified. There were Augas, Romi Thalamus and Renyns. The large vertical ship was labelled a Deltole. The other four ships were called Nightmares each with its own name, and the “friendly” Nightmare being shot by the other ships was surprisingly named Pegasus V. Meeko traversed the turret to point at the station and fired at the transfer array, destroying it in one clean shot.

====

Delve region > TIP-Z > SPACE OUTSIDE THE SANCTUARY

As soon as the transfer array was destroyed the Nightmares targeted the Deltole and for a few minutes poured salvo after salvo of white beams into it. The Deltole was heavily armoured absorbing even more damage when its shields went down. However the new fleet’s firepower proved to be simply overwhelming. All the other ships were quickly destroyed in sequence as soon as the Deltole disappeared in a bright flash of light. Last thing Meeko saw were shuttles deploying from the battleships and moving to the station.

EPILOGUE:

Meeko’s parents were in one of the Reapers and they returned to the station as soon as they saw Sansha ships disappear from their long range sensors. The Station’s flotilla immediately jumped in and prevented any of the remaining Sansha Ships from escaping.

Sirah’s Father was able to lead his men to the station’s command bunker and took part in one of the most brutal holding actions in the station. They were holding out well enough when the marines from the capsuleer ships arrived to “rescue” them.

Meeko and Sirah were rescued by a marine fireteam shortly after the space battle and were brought to Pegasus V at the capsuleer’s insistence. He argued that a combat zone was no place for children. They were later returned to their parents when the station mop up operations were complete.

Master Phoon found himself 6 million ISK richer and was looking forward for a half dozen Ibis and Reapers to be added to his collection. Agreeing to save the crew of the stricken cruiser at the capsuleer’s request proved to be a most enterprising decision.

The surviving crew of the Pegasus IV were reunited with their capsuleer.