///LOCATION - NUAKEA/OBLIVION TRAFFIC CONTROL///TIME - 09:20 LMT///DATE - 18-05-2232///

Oblivion Station was surrounded with spaceships. There were vessels of all different types and sizes, ranging from hundreds of 1-seater fighters and civilian cargo ships, up to 8 gigantic H2200 Aristotle-Class Railgun Destroyers, provided by the United Earth Navy. There were ships, no matter where you looked. The local Space Traffic Control, or STC, had been working around the clock for multiple days to guide every ship to a safe place around the station.

Initially, the people at the Oblivion-STC were unable to handle the massive number of spaceships that were coming in to help in the search for Eric Callaghan, who had become known as the missing pilot. Luckily though, Olympus was quick to arrive, and the first thing they had done was bring more coördinators to the station to aid with the managment of the incoming wave of vessels. Shortly after these coördinators had arrived, a small fleet of towing-ships warped in, and they began the preparations for the larger vessels that were inbound.

The head of Olympus had been glad when they had heard that the high-court had cleared the Olympus Organization of all charges. Genesis BioTech, a daughter-company of Olympus, was however not so good off. They were instead put under investigation by the High Council of the UEE, and all their operations were seized immediatly, for as long as the investigations were to be underway. Olympus was, however, deemed to be far enough from Genesis in terms of bussines and managment, that they were free to help in the search, and to clear their name.

After a few days, the fleet had gathered. A massive armada of vessels, littering the sky around Oblivion. It was the largest fleet any human had ever seen, and possibly the largest fleet any human would ever see again. Everyone was amazed by the size of the fleet, even Admiral Bishop, who was tasked to lead this fleet trough their mission to find the missing pilot. After he had walked trough the door and had entered the STC-Tower off Oblivion, he received a file from an officer there, which contained a full list of all the vessels that had signed up:

\{O}/// [OPERATION FROZEN NEBULA] \{O}///

[LIST OF ALL ENLISTED VESSELS ORDERED BY SIZE, TASK INCLUDED]

===[SMALL VESSELS]===

185 X H250A DAGGER [ATMOSPHERIC LANDER]

194 X H250C DAGGER [LIGHT CARGO TRANSPORT]

255 X H250G DAGGER [LIGHT FIGHTER]

73 X H250D DAGGER [DROPSHIP]

59 X H250M DAGGER [MINING AND SALVAGING]

84 X H2215EX DIVERTIA [SCANNING]

56 X H2215FA DIVERTIA [STRIKE FIGHTER]

===[MEDIUM VESSELS]===

53 X EU55C HORNET [ATMOSPHERIC CARGO TRANSPORT]

23 X EU55F HORNET [HEAVY ATMOSPHERIC FIGHTER]

33 X EU55FA HORNET [ATMOSPHERIC STRIKE FIGHTER]

40 X EU80B EXOFORTRESS [HEAVY ATMOSPHERIC BOMBER]

28 X EU80D EXOFORTRESS [ATMOSPHERIC VEHICLE DROPSHIP]

H2300 UENFV-75 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-76 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-77 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-78 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-79 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-80 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-81 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-82 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-83 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-84 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-85 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-86 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-87 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-88 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

H2300 UENFV-89 [ANDROMEDA-CLASS FRIGATE]

===[LARGE VESSELS]===

XH0030S UENIV-88 [SPECTRE-CLASS EXPERIMENTAL CLOAKER]

H3000 UENCV-53 [MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIER]

H3000 UENCV-54 [MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIER]

H3000 UENCV-55 [MIDWAY-CLASS CARRIER]

EU787D UENDCV-27 [MIRAGE-CLASS DRONE CARRIER]

EU707K UENTV-18 [HORIZONS-CLASS SUPERTANKER]

EU707K UENTV-19 [HORIZONS-CLASS SUPERTANKER]

H2200 UENDV-60 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-61 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-62 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-63 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-64 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-65 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-66 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

H2200 UENDV-67 [ARISTOTLE-CLASS RAILGUN DESTROYER]

===[CAPITAL VESSELS]===

XH0001 UENCCV-02 [ATLAS-CLASS COMMAND CENTRE]

Admiral Bishop was glad to see that so many people had volunteered to help, altough it did start to dawn on him just how many vessels and lifes he would have to command. When the order for a shared-effort search party was first received, Bishop was uncertain if the reasons of the mission were important enough to send out atleast a quarter of all human spaceships. But, while watching the news, he realised that this event had united the UEE more than ever. It showed how humanity can still stand together, no matter where in the universe they're from.

Something important to note, is that the call for support was only put out for human members of the UEE. Altough there were many alien races included in the UEE, such as the On'San, Iknomi, Lomnéra and Sotrani, many of which were integrated into the UEE, they were still aliens, and were therefore not asked to participate, and were even actively denied from providing assistance.

Admiral Bishop himself was assigned to the largest ship known to human-kind, of which only two were ever constructed. This ship, designation UENCCV-02, was most commonly known as Atlas Beta, with it's twin-sister Atlas Alpha on a permanent mission to guard the capital-planet of Earth, in the Sol system. The Atlas-Class vessels were designed to command multiple fleets at once trough state-of-the-art communication equipment and a unique Artificial Inteligence, known as HANNBAI, or Highly-Advanced Neural Network-Based Artificial Intelligence.

This system was highly controversial when first released to the public, as it required uploading a human in order to function, or as some civilians like to say, the Atlas-Class ships require a 'soul' to properly function, which was not too far from reality. At first, people protested against uploading a human into a warship, but in the midst of the discussions, two twin-sisters volunteered to have their minds uploaded. They knew that they would never be able to return to their real bodies, but they didn't mind that.

The fact that they were twin-sisters also resulted in unforseen side-effects of the neural network. One of the most notable effects, was that the AI's were able to communicate and share data instantly, no matter how far they were apart from each other. The HANNBAI-Proggram was concluded to be limited to the two Atlas ships, as the consequences of Psion-Technology that it was based on were not yet clear.

It was time for Admiral Bishop to give his speech for the people on this mission. The comm-link had been established, and all 5.238.423 people that were tasked with finding the missing pilot, Eric Callaghan, were watching the Admiral on their displays.

"Ladies and gentleman, I, am Admiral Bishop. I will be commanding this endavour to find the one known as Eric Callaghan, who, as you all know, went missing a few days ago after being tasked to explore the Saggitarius Nebula. He offered himself to extend the grasp of human knowledge. Now, we will do what he had done for us. Help. We will help him, as he would have helped humanity. Now, with that out of the way, each pilot will have received instructions for their ship from HANNBAI. In general, all ships up to and including the EU80's in size will be loaded up into their assigned Midway-Class Carriers. In total, there will be a simultaneous jump of 31 ships, jumping a distance of several dozen lightyears, at exactly 12:00 LMT."

"Now then, all captains, please follow HANNBAI's orders, make sure not to collide, adhere by the rules of the carrier-crew, and lastly, I wish you all a safe flight. May fate be with us on this journey!"

With that, all the ships fired their engines. A total of 1.085 ships were moving to dock with their respective carriers, which were hard at work directing everyone into the correct docking-bays. It would take another 2 hours before every ship was docked, and the larger vessels were in position. "Admiral on the bridge!" a crewman yelled on the bridge of the Atlas Beta, as Admiral Bishop marched into the room. He was immediatly greated by the ship's captain, Captain Kevin Lenox.

"Welcome abourd our humble ship, Admiral. I'm sure she'll treat you well!" the Captain said.

"I'm certain she will. How's HANNBAI doing, if I might ask?"

"She's doing fine, although coördinating 1.085 vessels at the same time wasn't too easy for her, but she was able to handle it nonetheless!"

"Glad to hear it. Now, shall we initiate the jump?" the Admiral asked.

"Ofcourse, she's been spooling up her warp-drives whilst all the smaller ships were docking, and all systems are ready to go on your command. I will open a comms-channel to the other UEN-vessels for confirmation, sir!"

A crackling sound could be heard in the bridge of the UENCCV-02, as the communication channel was being opened. After a connection had been established to every UEN ship, the Admiral began giving out orders.

"Attention to all captains. It is almost time. I trust your ships are all ready for the maneauver?"

He received multiple confirmations from all the ships, letting him know that they were ready to go.

"Very well then. Captain Lenox, activate the drive!"

"Aye aye, sir!" the Captain answered, and he pressed the button. A loud sound could be heard throughout all the ships, and many of the civilians began to be scared. They had never experienced the power of the largest warp-drive in existance. It was quite a sight to see. The entire fleet was in close formation, with the gigantic Atlas-Class Command ship in the center of it all.

Then, at exactly 12:00 Local Mean Time, in the Nuakea system, close to Oblivion Station, the vacuum of space was suddenly empty again, as the fleet jumped towards the last known position of the missing pilot, Eric Callaghan.

"Wait, is that it?" Michelle asked, looking out of the window of the lounge at Deck 5 of Atlas-Beta. "I was expecting more... pizzaz, I guess? Are we even moving?!"

"I presume, from your reaction, that you have never travelled in a spaceship?" Adrianos asked.

"I have, but I have never gone outside of the Nuakea system. I just travelled to Admiral Thirsk Orbital a few times, but never using a warp-drive."

"Well, believe it or not, we are actually currently travelling faster than light!"

"Huh? I thought you said that going faster than the speed of light was impossible?!"

"It is."

"Then how are we travelling faster than the speed of light?!"

"We aren't."

"Huh?! But you just said-"

"I said we were going faster than light, not the speed of light. Yes, our velocity relative to the space directly around us is far from the speed that light travels at. But remember how warp-drives work? We are moving the space around us, thus making us reach our destination faster than light!" Adrianos explained with a smile.

"Haha, very funny..." Michelle sarcastically said.

"It is, isn't it?"

"Sure, if you say so..." She quietly said. "Don't worry Eric, we're on our way!"

As the fleet was moving trough the darkness of space, the 1.085 ships and their crew-members were being assigned into squadrons. Each squadron received their own role, some of which were support-roles, whilst some roles were to be put to use as soon as the fleet left warp-travel. Eitherway, every ship and every person on the mission had a task, and a way to be usefull.

In the VR-Area's aboard the carriers, the experienced UEN-Sailors were bringing the civilians up to speed with UEN tactics and strategies, as well as a variety of other usefull stuff that would be of extreme importance if they ever wanted to survive a conflict in space. The reason for combat-training and preparations, was the fact that the UEE had no clue to the reason of the loss of Eric Callaghan. Nobody knew what had happened, and as long as that was the case, no risks were to be taken.

///LOCATION - NLTT-511///TIME - 23:32 LMT///DATE - 18-05-2232///

Out in the depths of space, an incredibly flash was created as the armada of vessels left warp-travel at the last-known location of Eric Callaghan. A massive cloud surrounded all the ships as Atlas-Beta's Warp-Drive tried to dissipate all the energy of the now collapsed field.

"Alcubierre Field nullified! Initiating Energy-Deflector!" the Warp-Engineer yelled across the bridge of the Atlas. "Siphoning energy to UENDV 60 trough 67!" Engineers were running around to ensure that the dissipation of kinetic energy into electrical energy went without a problem. As they did, people all across the Atlas were being shaken about by the forces rippling throughout the hull. Most people had never experienced the warp of a ship of such magnitude.

A special feature of the Energy-Deflector aboard the Atlas, was that it could direct where the energy was being transferred to. As soon as the engineers noticed that there was too much energy to safely release into space, they had immediatly established an electrical link to the Aristotle-Class Railgun Destroyers. The energy went directly into the massive capacitors meant to charge the MRG-6000 Kinetic Penetrator Railguns, and was safely stored there, to be later used in combat.

After all the energy had been redirected, the shaking seized as swiftly as it had begun. People were relieved to hear that the jump had been succesfull, especially as the jump was quite a long one.

"11 hours, 32 minutes and 28 seconds, sir. Pretty good, isn't it?"

"Not bad Captain, not bad at all." Admiral Bishop acknowledged. Even he was impressed by what the Atlas could do.

"Nothing on the radar, nor anything on visual scanners. Should we send out the forward observer squadrons, sir?" Captain Lenox.

"I believe that would be our best option at this point. I'll be heading to my quarters. Let me know when the first reports come in."

"Ofcourse sir."

Author's Note

Names, locations, ships, technologies and events are inspired by various sources, including: Games - Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen | TV - MLP:FiM, The Expanse | Companies/Organizations - NASA/JPL (Alcubierre Drive)

If you want your character to be featured as a human soldier, pilot, politician or civilian, or a pony civilian, politician or royal guard, please send me a message with the character's name, looks, characteristics, and role if you have any preference. All featured characters will be credited.

Featured Characters:
Lightning Sky - Oskar

Fun Fact!
Kevin Lenox is the actual current Commanding Officer of the USS Nimitz, CVN-68 of the United States Navy.