It wasn't but a few scant moments that the first Athena cruiser, the Trebuchet settled in that it detected the approaching crystal shard, likewise the 'Shrike' picked up their approach as well.
The crew of the first ship reacted first, with the Crystal shard mere meters from the hull of the Trebuchet, it made another emergency jump. The spatial shock-wave rippled through real-space, and would likely shatter the crystal to pieces from the proximity of the FTL jump.
This Athena jumped directly to Arastel, the heart of the Aschen holdings in the Aurora.
The Shrike did not fare so fortunate, the crystal shard plunged into it's hull, but the desired action was not achieved. The Cruiser banked hard to port as the crystal closed in, causing the Unimatter crystal to impact the Kanvium plating of the rear quarter of the ship.
The Kanvium reacted at the molecular level, dispersing the energy of the point across the entire surface, rippling at the molecular level and distributing the energy throughout the entire plate, this manifested as the Crystal being unable to penetrate the hull, and forcing the Athena class cruiser on a wide port yaw axis.
Two heavy disruptor batteries swiveled to life, discharging brilliant green streaks of energy at the black crystal shard, discharging one after another, millions of degrees of heat contained in a bolt the size of a large tree. Two Ajax missiles were also loosed from an opened silo, they banked hard around the Athena cruiser, and the Unimatter shard pushing into it.
Coming back around, the two Ajax missiles broke apart into dozens of smaller warheads, each containing a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead, all of them were poised to impact all along the crystalline shard.
Engines still intact, the attack having failed, the Athena cruiser gunned forward, and the split second before the missiles would impact, should they impact, the Shrike jumped.
Much like the Shard that attempted to impale the Trebuchet, the spatial shock-wave went out in all directions, but the Athena cruisers were gone, nestled safely within a defensive formation on Arastel. Safe to relay everything they had witnessed, and call for reinforcements.
The rest of the Patrol group wasn't so lucky.
----
The daemons of Chaos, something that the Aschen Empire had no previous experience in dealing with, were wholly unprepared for the events about to unfold.
When the Warp tear obscured the fleet before them, Costas opted to raise shields, engaging the powerful shields that the Aschen had been known for, a milky white sphere enveloped the Mercurial Strike from bow to stern.
Then the warp opened up dangerously close, and resulted in absolute chaos aboard the vessels closest to the warp energies. Mutations and Possessions consumed the crews closest, and self destruct erupted across several frigates closest to the tears, the vessels exploding in brilliant flashes of white, as the maddened crews, and whatever Daemons that had boarded were consumed.
Strike craft had barely a chance to exit their hangars, the Raptor Talons jettisoning into the void, and conducting dizzying acrobatics, a handful of Raptor talons managed to land a few kills on the Helldrakes, one lucky pilot perforated his target with 25mm armor piercing slugs, from his Ship's autocannons, and then bobbing and weaving for another kill, dodging incoming fire by scant seconds.
A second squadron of Raptor Talons opted for a different approach, engaging their Chromatique stealth arrays, they simply vanished from visual sight and sensor alike, striking from the void unseen.
A well placed Tactical nuke detonated among a formation of incoming Helldrakes, enveloping them in nuclear inferno, the hidden Raptor Talon that launched it veered off, kicking on it's engines and emerging from stealth.
As The Bloody Reaper gunned for the Mercurial Strike, a young Raptor Talon pilot clenched his teeth, barrel rolling to miss incoming autocannon fire, managed to loose two 200 Megaton Anti-ship missiles from the hard-points under the wings of his fighter, the missiles boiling towards the Bloody Reaper, a split second later, autocannon fire perforated the Raptor Talon, and the nukes would detonate in brilliant flashes should they meet their target.
The Bridge of the Mercurial Strike were also unprepared for boarding action, considering they were up against unfamiliar tactics, the XO was swiftly cut down, as was the rest of the bridge crew, but Costas said nothing as he was grabbed by the throat, and lifted into the air.
He stared directly at Vrosh before him, and struggled his reply. "I am Commander Dion Costas, Of the United Aschen Empire."
The split second the Warpsmith began tearing at the Shipboard AI, failsafes engaged, physically separating themselves from the main network, Navigational data, computer data, and several servers were physically isolated the moment the AI was compromised, this meant the Warpsmith would have to locate, and interface with these systems individually.
The next thing to happen was the AI was disconnected from the main bus by another failsafe, this was evidenced by the lights in the ship shutting off, the consoles losing power, but only for a moment as the analog backup systems engaged, lights returning but consoles all offline.
The Aschen ship was also drifting.
---
The Events on the bridge did not go unnoticed by the rest of the crew, the Security contingent, headed by a young Imperial sergeant was hard at work, assembling a small contingent of soldiers inside one of the Barracks common rooms.
"Anders, set the self destruct, Rydel, Jalen, head to the main bus and ensure the computron systems have been disconnected." He said, turning to a small monitor, playing back surveillance footage from before the ship's systems went offline. "We need to get into the Armory, these guys have some kind of power armor, so we'll need pulse grenades and Tesla rifles." He said, pulling out a paper schematic of the ship.
"Cale, Ramos, Mikel, you're going to be with me, we'll go to the Armory, suit up, and then try to retake the CIC." The Sergeant said, but Cale spoke up in protest.
"We're surrounded by hostile ships, the Patrol group is getting torn to shreds!" He said, while the Sergeant nodded. "We need to all stay alive until the Zelbinion arrives with her fleet, whatever these things are, they use some sort of Spatial tearing to their advantage, the Zelbinion's Planck packs should prevent that, and her Frag Cannons--" Wincing, a brilliant white light filled the barracks, another Raptor Talon's nuke had gone off, consuming whatever it could in some final desperate strike.
"Her frag cannons will make short work of these capital ships."
Laying down their plans, everyone agreed, and said a short prayer to their gods before grabbing their weapons, the MC-1 Carbine and moving through the corridors.
Perhaps the Sergeant should have been driven mad, everyone around him seemed to be, as a maddened technician lunged at him with a wrench, the report of his MC-1 signaled the man had been gunned down.
The Sergeant kissed his pendant, bearing the Sigil of Athena, and moved through the hall. The Lords of Kobol would protect and guide him through the madness that was taking over this ship.