S[x],
The electrostatic burn of the plasma exhaust lights the darkness of the Everyshore starfield. Her Darkness at lull. An unusual night. The only pilot on the local band appeared to be a younger Achura - younger, but easily old enough to know better. Ferox, she's trying hard for the reward that the risk of lowsec seductively promises.
Belt to Ferox corrolation completed. Scanner detail cripplingly incomplete due to an overview error. Empirical evidence required.
Aura's navigation seamlessly takes over twisting the cruiser out of its alignment.
The heart hardens slightly. There appears to be no turning back now as the warp tunnel forms and sweeps the ship to the belt. Visions of brutality swarm and briefly overwhelm. The adrenaline spikes through looking for cells to warn, the warp tunnel closes in on my peripheral vision and there's nothing but the scanner, the local, the overview, and the modules. Ship and pilot briefly become indistinguishable on the interface end. The wreckage known as Vik has engaged.
An asteroid belt snaps into view. Supermassive stellar debris best left to the miner threat that is the freelance industrial base. Organized efforts are more selective and far more profitable. She didn't agree, and her mining lasers tear a cleft into the Asteroid [Omber] that plaintively gives up its precious isogen to the rust belt beauty of the ionizing mining touch. She looks like a killing machine, but beneath the graceless brute force of the Caldari exterior lies the essential contradiction that makes for good targets.
Before anyone could react the ship was on an orbital course. Afterburner aflare. Sudden acceleration. Silence and the noise it brings fills all. The modulation of the mining lasers sings briefly before being overwhelmed by the fleeting pulse of the scrambler and the immoral sound of the terrorist nosferatu bank.
At this point it is becoming clear that something clicked. Weapons relays. Ferox, she briefly cries out in local:
Cleared for publication by: Ander
D[x] > please stop
Let there be light. Ferox, her attempts to warp stifled by 140K worth of hardware. 20M in hapless mexallon infused armor plate, nanofiber foam, and Caldari nationalism held hostage under a quantum entangled mess of plasma spewed forth by a pile of looted budget modules.
Blasters live. Spewing matter's inverse at an alarming rate. Ferox, her shields weakening. She's not reacting well to the quantum interactions imbued within her shielding. Radiant matter bombardment. Beautiful in the darkness. The kinetic targeting engine working at a brisk pace to predict the interactions for maximum impact - it knows the Ferox hasn't a chance. Drones aren't needed here:
L[x] > 10M to stop
L[x] > transfer or the drones start
Easily made. Time will tell what happens here. Shortly. Plasma no longer grounded out on the laminar field of her shielding begin to conduct to the armor surface. I suspect the powercore is failing. The inevitable boosting halo flares briefly and ceases. Ionization spreads to the armor, slowly reacting away the hapless plating:
D[x] > ok
D[x] > stop fireing first
Her translator garbled due to the interference with the blasters. Done. The solid state controls disable the firing routine. Within a few seconds the blasters are idle, waiting.
L[x] > stopped
SCC is slowing this down. Manual refresh initiated - nothing. Again.
D[x] > theres the first halg
5M ISK. Incredulity. Drones - their sails unfurled . . . Blaster relays awaken and the powercore enlivens the night with fully ionized anti-fire. Ferox, her armor to splinter and shatter. She consents. Visible radiation begins pouring from the ship - and the electrostatic clouds released in the annihilation reactions begin to deepen. Ferox, she confuses loyalty with treason.
L[x] > 10M is agreed.
The surrounding asteroids are now being coated with a fine mist. Ferox, she effervesces. I quickly lose interest in her fate. Ferox, her attempts at delay hasten her demise.
L[x] > Not 5.
Ferox, her life now looking little more than 30 seconds. The targeting system interface bus with the drones is having a noticeable impact. Ferox - her arms useless, her capacitor shorted out, her structure perilously close to exposure. Her dorsal acceleration strain gauge begins to wonders what the shaking is about.
Ferox, her cries:
D[x] > i will gibe you the rest just stop
The last foil of the armor plate blows off in the particle stream of the starboard blaster bank... Ferox, she sees death approaching.
L[x] > Pay.
The dorsal acceleration strain gauge ceases to worry about the heat, navigation, and life's existential isolation. Nanofiber blows out of the ship in hunks, seeking shelter in the blackness from the assault - and find it as motes of light in the blaster paths. Ferox, she feels betrayed by her pilot.
L[x] > Or I destroy.
Ferox, she's spreading herself too thin. The drones are enjoying themselves.
D[x] > done
D[x] > stop
5M more into the SCC account. I keep my word.
The blasters and drones cease fire, reluctantly. One drone decides to go for the kill nonetheless. I chastise it but it reports that it is beyond 200K and cannot accept orders from the likes of me - [notify] Combat Drone is too far away and will not respond to the command you are giving it
Arrogant little bastards - at least they normally dock in single file now. This drone just earned itself an eviction notice.
D[x] > stop your drones
L[x] > that drone went dumb
The vector engine adjusts the ship to the tunnel and warp speed is achieved. The rogue drone now decides to give up and head home. Too late. Ferox, her survival is now assured - though she'll require patching and new armor deposition. A lesson learned, no doubt. Risk earns reward, but the converse applies.
Her guns cooling now, cruiser sits in deep space. Ferox has left the belt she was foolishly caught at, but this is none of my concern anymore. Local grows a few times, but it always contracts back to the two of us before any action is needed. A few intra-system deep space jumps later and the idiotic sentries forget who I am. I head out of the system into the fury of another.
Ferox, she survives because she paid. Hopefully the lesson isn't unappreciated - had the deception continued there would have been a frozen podpilot in her place surrounded by a cloud of a killing machine.
Regards,
L[x]
2 Comments
Jip·
Very bohemian writing style, interesting, and I liked it - nice work :)
ludvik·
Thanks. Expect more in the future.