Chapter 1: Contact

Captain Mario Santize sighed as his frigate group scanned another empty sector in the hopes of finding their prey. The male boar was Captain of the Cornerian Frigate-class ship Praetor, one of the many ships of the Cornerian 3rd Fleet. Lately, some pirate group calling themselves the Sons of Carnage had been causing problems for commercial ships operating near the edge of the Lylat system and in response, Corneria High Command had deployed elements of the Cornerian 3rd and 4th fleet to search for wherever this group had been operating from. Santize was commanding one of these small elements composed of the CMS Preator and two other frigates the CMS Despot and the CMS Harpy, a duty he was hating with each uneventful day.

Santize had joined the military right out of high school and after barely passing officer training had worked his way up from 2nd Lieutenant to captaining his own ship. However, Santize was not content with his current posting, if he retired today he could afford a modest house and take up a part-time job to live out his post-military career but he wanted more. Firstly, there was no great fame or honor in being a frigate captain and it wouldn't pay for the large manor he could retire to that he had dreamed about when he entered the service. No, Santize wanted admiration people going to him for sagely advise, for books to reference his brilliance, for females to swoon at the dashing Captain, no Admiral!

However, Lylat hadn't seen a major conflict since the Civil War one hundred and fifty years ago. Most conflicts now were against pirates and smugglers and possessed little threat against the might of any of the systems regular military forces. This atmosphere while good for his own survivability was not conducive for promotion or fame and glory. Santize had been a Captain for five years and if he wanted to be promoted he needed to impress high command and to do that he needed to find these pirates.

Looking at his tactical map on the arm of his command chair he considered his options and decided now was the time to take a gamble. "Helmsman plot a course just outside of our Controlled space and set the scanners for max range, these pieces of scum might be operating just outside of Lylat space."

The zebra at the controls plotted the new course before the male tiger next to him manning the communications spoke up "Sir, Captain Lynn is on the horn."

Santize sighed before nodding "On screen" soon the image of a female cheetah appeared before him sitting in a captain's chair like his. Santize would willing admit that Captain Rachel Lynn was a true beauty with her lithe form barely concealed by her captains' uniform that had captured the attention of all who looked upon it. Her long blond hair fell to her lower back and her amber colored eyes looked both mesmerizing and yet carried a predatory gaze that sent a pleasant shiver down the backs of all males. Despite the pleasant view, he was presented Santize grimaced ever since she had been put under his command the younger officer had been a thorn in his side always trying to reign him in from skirting regulations. Now Santize had the feeling that this call was going to be much the same.

"Captain Santize why have we adjusted course to leave the Lylat system? It's strictly forbidden to do so without approval from high command." Lynn asked with a tone that sounded innocent but had a scything undertone that made Santize's fur bristle in agitation.

"The pirates could be operating outside Lylat space to avoid detection. I'm simply going to have our group probe the area to make sure that we won't miss them." Santize growled in agitation.

Lynn nodded condescendingly "I see and should I also take the liberty of sending a message to Corneria Command to let them know of your… precaution?"

Santize had enough of the young female's cheek "Captain Lynn, I am the commander of this patrol group and therefore I will determine when to contact Command about my actions! In addition, I've had enough of you questioning my actions, if you do so again I will consider it an act of insubordination. Are we clear!?"

Lynn glared defiantly at him before stiffly nodding her head "Of course…sir" she said before Santize ended the call. The boar breathed deeply raining in his temper before calming down enough to see that his group was crossing outside of Lylat space.

"Sir" a yell from the sensor officer's console rose up "sensors have picked up something at max range bearing 42 degrees to port 32 degrees down. At current speed, we should reach it within two hours' time."

Santize beamed in triumph "Helm set a course for the unknown and go to battle stations. Communications send word to the Harpy and Despot that we have found the enemy. Also, inform Lynn that she can relay the good news to Corneria Command." Santize relayed smugly as the three frigates maneuvered toward the signal.

X 1 hour fifty minutes later X

Captain Rachel Lynn stared out the view display at the distant image of a space station appeared before the patrol group. The female cheetah tapped the arm of her command chair in thought as something about the station didn't feel right. While it was typical of pirates to operate from stations like the one before them there were two defining issues with the scenario playing out around her. Firstly, for a supposed pirate base it was in relatively good condition with evidence of being well maintained, secondly the station's fighters were not patrolling the station but instead moving about a small cluster of asteroids and eventually moving to the station. The whole set up reminded her more of a mining operation than a mercenary port but Santize was convinced that even if it was for mining it was still highly illegal and likely operated by the Pirates for raw resources.

"Ma'am, Captain Santize has ordered the attack and for our ship to hold back in reserve." Her comms officer announced.

Lynn huffed in agitation knowing full well that the Boar was keeping her ship, CMS Despot, out of the combat to spite for her questioning his actions. However, from what Lynn had seen from Santize in the two months she had been put under his command she knew that he was too egotistical and brash for her liking not to mention a mediocre officer. When she had first been placed under his command the Boar had tried to flirt and impress her with his years of experience and position as her superior. He even had the gall to suggest in private that if she were to reciprocate his advances it might influence his recommendation of her in his report to command. However, Rachel Lynn was not some desperate and naïve officer.

Rachel had graduated at the top of her class from officer's school at the Corneria Military Academy and had reached the rank of Captain in only two years. The only reason she had been kept at such a low position as a Frigate captain was that Corneria's Military was still rather sexist though that was quickly dying out as more and more females joining the officer ranks. Rachel Lynn was intelligent and so she had hinted that she would think about it to the Boar before returning to her own ship and then give her reply by being a constant hindrance to the Boar's ego and reminding him of the 'proper' way of commanding a patrol, the Boar had understood the message loud and clear.

Now as she watched the two other frigates close distance with the station while the Despot sat back Halsey had a sudden sense of foreboding. "Communications send a message to the 3rd Fleet and Corneria Command tell them our location and that Captain Santize has ordered an attack on a non-registered station operating outside Lylat." She ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!" The communications officer replied before sending the message toward Corneria.

Halsey watched as the two frigates began firing at the station which didn't seem to respond at first before opening with a series of small lasers that hit the two ships shields harmlessly. Rachel at first thought that the pirates installed a series of defensive lasers in the station but suddenly realized with alarm that it was actually only two small turrets that were putting up a rate of fire that their own lasers couldn't do in their best day. Halsey realized that the turrets were more advanced than their own but much less powerful, though there was no reason for the pirates to have such an advanced system.

"I don't like this" she murmured with rising unease as the two frigates managed to overcome the station's shields.

X Aboard CMS Praetor X

The CMS Praetor and the CMS Harpy where typical Frigate class ships stretching only five hundred meters long and one hundred fifty meters wide they held only thirty to fifty crew members and had little armor and shielding. They were also lightly armed with only four forward facing light anti-ship lasers and three anti-strike craft lasers turrets they wouldn't usually be able to hold up in a stand-up fight with heavier ships being nearly one-shot by anything bigger than a heavy cruiser would destroy them. The ships only saving grace was its speed and maneuverability compared to other heavier vessels, this combined with being relatively cheap to make made them the go-to patrol vessels able to take down even heavy craft if sent with larger numbers.

As Santize watched his two-frigate force begin firing on the dilapidated station he knew that even with their minimal armor and shielding he had nothing to fear from this pirate station, that was until it started firing back with a pair of small laser turrets that fired three times for every one of theirs. "Sir, CMS Harpy reports shields down to fifty percent!" one of his bridge crew announced in amazement. Santize didn't blame him the station's turrets were firing at a rate that no pirate equipment should have been able to. Thankfully the weapons didn't seem to pack as much as their own and their shields were stronger as apparent by the sight of the station's superstructure suddenly taking damage from their fire, its shield only able to withstand three of his ships combined salvos.

Santize though knew there was something more to this "Someone has to be backing these scum for them to get equipment of that caliber." He stated to himself but loud enough for the bridge crew to hear him.

"Sir, detecting craft leaving the station they look to escape craft." His sensors officer relayed.

Seeing a chance to capture or kill the pirate leaders Santize issued orders. "Order the Harpy to intercept but leave one or two shuttles to escape. We will follow them from a distance and let them take us right to whoever is backing them!" he shouted in triumph. "Soon, soon I'll have the admiration and glory I deserve," he thought.

X Aboard LCC Mining Station B-1358X

It had been a normal day for the clone known as Jackson-2534. He was the only member of the control deck crew at his station after the others went for their lunch break and so when three unknown contact jumped in the system his reaction to their presence had been delayed due to running to the various stations to complete different tasks. First, he had run a ship analysis to identify the craft which had turned up nothing and raised a series of large alarm bells in his head. The second thing was to sound a general alarm to wake the crew and alert them to something being wrong. About this time two of the ships were moving toward the station while the third held back for some reason. So Jackson had tried to contact the ships to ask for their affiliation and intentions but the craft didn't respond to his hails either suggesting they were ignoring him or lacked both tight beam and TDal communication systems. It was after this attempt that the leading two ships began to fire upon the station.

Jackson-2534 desperately worked the communications station on the control deck. Just five minutes ago a trio of the unknown craft appeared on their sensors max range, ignored or didn't register the station's attempts to communicate and then began firing on them. The station itself was one of many like it at the fringes of Frontier space and thus was barely maintained with only a couple mining lasers for defense and a token shielding system to protect from debris. The station itself was mostly automated with only fifty or so human employees handling the critical systems while drones did the actual mining and refining.

Now with the station's shields being overwhelmed Jackson-2534 feverishly worked to send a message to the Inner Systems. "I say again this is the LCC Frontier Mining Station B-1358 we have been attacked by three unknown craft with no matching analogies on our servers believed to be alien in origin! Communications attempts have met with no response and our shields have been overwhelmed, we are sending the sensor date and ship analysis with this message! We are abandoning the station I repeat we are abandoning the station and sending our escape shuttles to sector 28932 on the viable planet we found on our long-range scanners! Please send forces and rescue to sector 28932! Jackson-2534 out." Jackson said before turning on the station's intercom "All hands to your escape craft! Abandon the station! Set course for sector 28932 immediately!"

Jackson watched as the first of five-shuttle launched from the emergency hanger and head away from the station. Normally he would have attempted to get to his own shuttle but the access tunnel from the control deck to the hanger had collapsed almost as soon as the shields fell. Jackson watched as the other shuttles launched and made their escape only for one of the two attacking ships to adjust course for an intercept.

Knowing that the ship would be able to take out two or three of the shuttles before they got out of range Jackson moved over to the drone control systems and ordered the drones to abandon their usual mining activities to charge at the ship.

"Eat this fucking Xeno's" Jackson shouted even as the other ship's weapons finally found the power core causing it to overload and explode taking the entirety of the control deck with it including a smirking Jackson-2534.

X CMS Despot, Command Bridge"

Halsey watched in bafflement as the station's core exploded in a bright flash and the CMS Harpy attempted to intercept what was obviously small unarmed escape craft on the orders of Santize. The Cornerian Military strictly forbids the attacking of escape craft but the boar had ordered it anyway stating that the leaders of the pirates were no doubt onboard.

As she watched the Harpy close the distance her sensor officer suddenly called out "Maim the drones in the asteroid belt are heading for the Harpy!" The officer announced obviously having come to the same conclusion that they were engaging a mining operation of some kind.

Halsey immediately stood up and began barking orders "Helm all ahead full, gunnery fire at those drones immediately!" Halsey ordered knowing that they wouldn't be able to stop most of them. Sure, enough even as the Despot and the Harpy's gunners downed a few of the fast-moving drones twenty or so fired their lasers punching through the ship's shields before plowing into the ship itself destroying its guns, engines, and bridge leaving the CMS Harpy crippled and bleeding atmosphere.

"Helm take us in abreast of the Harpy! All hands prepare for rescue operations!" Halsey ordered.

"Maim, Captain Santize has ordered us to stay and help with the Harpy while he tracks the escape craft and reports to command." Her comms officer announced.

Halsey growled doubting that the ego-driven Boar would submit a truthful report before an idea appeared in her head "Communications after we finish rescue operations I need you to send a tight beam message to Admiral Pepper in Sector Y."

X Three Days Later, Orbit over Cerinia X

If one could describe the planet of Cerinia it would be often referred to as a tropical paradise. The planet was sixty percent water and dotted with large and small islands with only two or three areas of land big enough to be called continents. These areas of land held a vast array of wildlife that flew, slithered, and crawled along the jungle floor and canopy. The planet also had a strange form of energy that permeated the area and helped support such a vast array of wildlife. However, there were one species on the planet that had not only gained sentiency but learned to harness the energy of their planet to develop telekinetic powers.

The people of this planet were also unique vulpines with varying hues of blue and white fur with elegant symbols they were born with. At first glance, the people of Cerinia would appear rather primitive with tribal-like clothing and heavy emphasis on spiritualism and a large number of pyramid-like shrines they built. However, in truth these people who called themselves Cerinians had already achieved space flight and constructed a single large space station and twenty or so interceptors. The reason for these precautions is that the Cerinian people had for many years detected strange signals from outside their own small solar system and so knew the possibility of a foreign threat. It was the royal family's duty to uphold the security and future of their people and so they along with their most accomplished warriors and scientists had formed the Guardians which constantly monitored and developed their sensors and space-born defenses.

Inside his throne room the King of Cerinia, King Dolis sighed from where he stood to gaze out the balcony at the large clusters of temples and small dwellings that poked out from the canopy of trees that made up the capital city of Cera. He had just finished approving the construction of new dwellings in another city and leading a large meditation ceremony at the head temple for his people.

"Is something the matter dear?" a melodious voice asked from behind him. Knowing the beautiful sound anywhere he turned and met the mesmerizing eyes of his Queen Meridia.

Many had called their union as the perfect marriage with Dolis being a renown warrior with a large frame of muscle but with a gentle and caring soul only matched by his intelligence and wisdom. He had been a member of the only son of the previous king and a highly respected member of the Guardians for nearly a decade before taking up the position of King after his father's passing. Only a year after taking up the title he had married Meridia who had been his lover for a couple years.

Meridia had been renown before their marriage as a High priestess and powerful telepath with a slender yet alluring figure and dark purple hair that had mesmerized thousands with her beauty. But Dolis knew her to be both a spiritual leader and an intellectual often keeping up their scientist's findings and even working with them to improve their understanding of the universe. In fact, it was Meridia that had discovered a whole new group of unknown signals with her Telepathic abilities. Apparently, the radio waves the regular scientists had discovered fifty years ago were coming from somewhere to their galactic south but only five years ago Meridia had revealed to them that she and a few other powerful Telepaths could detect some type of signals coming from their Galactic north using an energy similar to that of the energy surrounding Cerinia. However, they could not fully read the signals as they came and went with such a high speed that reading anything from them was nearly impossible.

"Nothing my dear, just focusing my mind before my next meeting with the head of the Guardians. Tell me where is Krystal? I would think she would be here for this meeting." Dolis asked his wife after giving her a small kiss.

Meridia smiled "Oh she will be down soon, you know our girl she's always training to be a guardian or catching up on the latest scientific journals, she's the combination of the two of us after all." Dolis smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Father, Mother!" a voice rang out along with the large door opening suddenly. The two royals tuned to see their thirteen-year-old daughter entering the room followed by a large male Cerinian the two knew as Firs the leader of the Guardians.

Hearing the alarm and concern in their daughter's voice and hard face of Firs the two moved to meet the pair halfway. "Krystal Firs, what is the matter?" Dolis asked with an authoritative tone that demanded a quick answer.

Firs was the one to respond "Your Excellencies, our long-range sensors have detected six unknown objects rapidly approaching Cerinia. Five of the leading ones appear to be small only a couple times large than an interceptor while the sixth seems to be shadowing them and is much larger being slightly smaller than half the size of the Cerinia Orbital Station (COS)." the male reported making the two freeze in shock.

Dolis shook off his shock and thought about the severity of the situation. "Have they attempted to contact us yet?"

Firs hesitated before nodding "Yes we have established rudimentary contact with the five-leading craft with our telepaths aid but are still working on interpreting their language. The sixth and largest contact however stopped and retreated before they were in range. However, our telepaths tell us they can feel a great deal of stress and anxiety from the individuals aboard the five craft."

Dolis nodded considering the new information "How long until they reach us?"

"Two days your majesty" Firs reported.

Dolis nodded before thinking a minute "Meridia my dear you are our strongest Telepath could you please journey to the COS and help in contacting these visitors, It sounds like they are in distress so please assure them we can provide our aid upon their arrival. Firs contact the Guardians and mobilize them. I want our interceptors on patrol and ready in case the meeting goes south. Also, mobilize our warriors to in preparation for a ground assault. I will be calling for a public announcement in four hours' time to tell our people." Dolis instructed.

"Father what of me?" Krystal asked in doubt wanting to be of help in such a serious situation.

Dolis looked his daughter in the eye "Krystal, I need you to go to the COS with your mother, you're a telepath but also a capable fighter and Guardian. Please protect your mother for me" he pleaded to covey his worry to her. Krystal seeing the desperation and worry in her father's gaze quickly nodded despite her own desire to board her own interceptor and join her comrades in their patrol. Seeing her nod Dolis smiled and gave her a kiss to her forehead "Thank you, my daughter, hopefully, this will be a time of great celebration for our people and not a calamity."

What the King did not know was that event was happening all over the galaxy that would affect his people. To Cerinia's Galactic south in the Lylat system, Corneria was mobilizing their third fleet after receiving a message from Captain Santize of finding a large Pirate base above a previously uncharted planet and a malevolent but genius primate was reworking his grand plan to incorporate this new development. Meanwhile to the galactic north, a distress message was being received and a quick response force was being deployed to the coordinates given to them while their government and military command organized a larger force to respond to an unprovoked attack to their people.

Wither the King knew it or not his planet would soon be host to a clash between two different peoples one an alliance of planetary governments and the other an unknown empire that had been rudely awoken.

Hello Everybody! For those of you that have read some of my work before you'll likely be reading this and going "Vantage is this a reboot of your old fic Guardians of Lylat?" well yes and no. You all will likely be seeing some of the same characters, but events and many details are being changed in this fic. I plan to start first with the Humanity-Lylat contact before moving on to the Academy. Also, I am changing the ages around a bit in this fic. First off right now most of the characters are in their early teenage years, also Fox's mother Vixy has not been killed by Andross who's part of the Cornerian science community is under investigation.

Now here is some free information on the state of Lylat

Lylat is divided with each individual planet having its own military and defense forces with a few exceptions that are planets unsuitable for life or used as a penal colony (Venom). Each planet though does participate in the Lylat Republic Council which is Lylat's version of the United Nations and has a representative from each planet. Corneria has by far, however, the largest military and so actively patrols areas around Lylat for pirates and other criminals. The other planets with representatives include McBeth, Zoness, Aquas, Papetoon, Eldard, Fortuna, Katina, and Kew along with the companies Space Dynamics Co., and recently Phoenix Arms. Lylat has been at peace for a long time though pirates and other criminals still present a minor threat. In addition, very little to no attempts have been made to leave the Lylat system as its outer edges have still not been fully explored (Cerinia) and colonizing what they have is still the priority.

Anyway, until next time remember to stay frosty and don't forget to review!