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Chapter Five
War Relics
Sigma Point
Admiral Bane’s Fleet Staging Area
Pure Blind Region
Betrayal, Bane thought, invokes the vilest of human emotions.
He watched patiently as camera feeds from the sentry guns of Forward bases Nine, One, and Two projected images directly into his mind. Surrounding the powerful Scorpion-class battleship slaved to his frail, physical self was an armada of Guristas warships whose commanders waited in angered silence for his orders. Bane told each of his officers that their prey was a man who conspired to betray the Guristas brotherhood, and that by doing so had betrayed each of them and their families personally. Otro Gariushi and all of his deranged followers are to be put down, Bane explained. Like facing a cornered animal, you cannot afford to make any mistakes, he had warned them. Kill as soon as the opportunity presents itself, without remorse.
A voice disrupted Bane’s concentration: “Target’s reconnaissance elements have been destroyed according to your instructions, sir.”
And so it begins. “You’re certain they had time to assess the size of the fleet?”
“Yes, sir. Without question.”
“Excellent. Hold there and await my command.”
“Acknowledged.”
Bane focused his attention on the hangar bays. Any moment now the first ships of Otro’s pathetic fleet would undock, revealing which of the bases he was using to hide. And then the massacre would begin.
Show yourself, Bane thought. Meet the destiny you’ve so foolishly chosen for yourself.
~
Forward-Nine
ROIR-V System
Pure Blind Region
“It’s done,” Mila said as she switched the comm terminal down. “You two had better know what you’re doing.”
Gavriel looked excited. “She has your entire analysis?”
“Copies will arrive at each of the destinations you specified within the hour, and my agent is on her way back to Ishukone Corporate Headquarters on Malkalen Five as we speak.”
“Outstanding!” exclaimed Gavriel, unable to contain his excitement. “Do you have any idea what that means!” He jumped from his chair and prepared to enter the mobile gantry unit (MGU). The Scorpion-class battleship awaiting his arrival loomed in the hangar beyond the thick glass like a floating city.
Mila looked worried. “Just leave my name out of this,” she replied, also getting up and hoisting a duffle bag over her shoulder. The boarding area for passengers was one deck below them. “That information might as well be antimatter. There will be dire consequences for many people, to say nothing of ourselves if we’re not careful. I admire your courage and determination, Gavriel. I sincerely mean that. But you’re in over your head with this.”
“I’ve been told that before,” he answered with a wink. “Hurry aboard. There isn’t much time.”
~
Otro was now looking at the world through the lens of a camera drone. His Moa-class cruiser floated in the hangar, fully crewed, armed, and ready for departure. The fleet commanders had all checked in, indicating their readiness to undock.
“Gavriel, you ready?” he asked.
“Roger that, Otro. Mila is safely aboard. Your call,” came the response.
Otro switched comm channels to address the fleet. “Tackler’s Squadron, go.”
The frigate squadron commander answered immediately. “Tackler’s undocking, aye.”
~
There you are, thought Bane as he watched a progression of Merlin and Kestrel-class frigates emerge from the hangar of Forward Nine. After a giving a terse command to his officers, the warships surrounding him disappeared. They would be within firing range of Otro’s fleet in less than five minutes. Of the three bases Bane had selected as possibilities, Forward Nine was the most accessible from Sigma Point. Bane was hardly surprised. His ambush plans were always perfect.
While his own Scorpion accelerated to warp speed, Bane instructed the sentry guns of Forward Nine to acquire passive targeting locks on the ships that he selected. He would not commence blotting Otro’s frigate squadron out of existence just yet.
Patience, he thought, is a lesson too easily lost on the young.
~
“Tackler’s are out, perimeter is clear,” voiced the frigate squadron commander.
“Specters, go,” said Otro.
“Wilco, Specters outbound,” answered the Specter cruiser squadron commander. Otro switched channels again. “Gavriel, what do you think? The abandoned mining outpost in A-DDGY?”
“Sounds good to me, Otro,” he replied. “Course is set, whenever you’re ready.”
“Standby,” said Otro. “One more Spectre is ahead of me.”
~
Bane counted ten Blackbird-class cruisers in all, flying a lazy orbit around the station with their frigate escorts following close behind. Then, a Moa-class cruiser emerged from the hangar.
Hello, Otro.
“Admiral, all ships in position, awaiting your mark,” announced Bane’s attack squadron commander.
“Standby,” he said, smiling from somewhere underneath the layers of ship weaponry, electronics, and armor surrounding him. With a single thought, all four of Forward Nine’s sentry guns fired twin 425-millimeter antimatter rounds at Otro’s frigate squadron commander.
~
The flash of light caught Otro by surprise, seeming too bright to be a navigation beacon from the station or any ships. Instinctively rotating the camera view towards the source, he saw an expanding shockwave and debris field in the midst of the frigate group. At the same time, four flashing threat indicators appeared on his tactical display. Just as the horror of what was happening began to set in,
Otro saw four bright streaks of light converge on the Specter commander’s Blackbird. The warcomm channel erupted immediately with confusion.
“Commander! Tackler One is down!” warned a frigate captain.
“What the hell is happen—” The Specter commander never finished his sentence as a second volley from the sentry guns vaporized his cruiser in a sickening flash of blue and white. Otro’s stomach turned to ice. Frantic, he switched channels.
“Gavriel! Don’t undock! That’s an order!” Otro winced as another explosion illuminated the space around his ship.
“Otro, what’s going on— ”
“The goddamn sentry guns! Bane has control of them!”
“Impossible! How do you—”
Otro’s tactical display suddenly jumped from four threats to more than thirty.
~
Bane surveyed the battle unfolding below him with sadistic ecstasy. With the sentry guns doing most of the work, his own frigates and cruisers pounced on the disorganized force with relentless precision, systematically destroying ship after ship. Otro’s fleet scattered in different directions, with no discernable coherence among them. Explosions illuminated the outer hull of Forward Nine, while Otro’s Moa twisted and squirmed, jammed into obsolesce, helpless to do anything but watch as his followers were killed in front of him. Leave his ship incapacitated and unable to flee, Bane had told his commanders, so that he will know humiliation and regret before he dies.
But the mayhem did not unravel precisely according to Bane’s prediction. Why has the other traitor Gavriel not emerged to assist his dying comrades, he thought to himself. Perhaps he is more of a coward than I thought. It was a possibility that Bane had hoped to avoid, but was amply prepared for nevertheless.
~
“Warp out! Anywhere you can!” Otro screamed, reeling in mental agony as he watched the carnage before him. Everywhere he looked, his ships and crews were being mercilessly slaughtered in a cataclysmic battle as hybrid charges and missiles slammed into ship hulls. Otro’s head began to spin as the anguished cries of his ship captains pierced his soul. Somewhere in the confusion he could hear Gavriel shouting orders in vain to bring order to the chaos outside. Otro knew the battle was hopeless, and shuddered at the thought of his sister being aboard a ship that couldn’t escape from the station.
Right at the brink of complete panic, he remembered his bitter hatred of Bane, Ishukone, and all the pain of his life that had led to this moment. The frenzied rage surrounding him was drowned out by a swirling vortex of nightmares and dread, taking him deeper and deeper towards complete breakdown, when suddenly, from out of the abyss, a ray of hope revealed itself with absolute clarity. Infinitesimal as that ray was, Otro embraced it in the darkness with desperate ferocity. There is always a way out, he thought as the solution unfolded before him. There is always hope!
Snapping back from the psychological chasm, Otro suddenly found himself imbued with supreme situational awareness. Quickly scanning the battlefield, he instinctively sought out the greatest threat posed by the enemy fleet: a Guristas troop transport moving into docking position with Forward Nine. Otro keyed the commlink.
“Gavriel, be advised that you have one enemy troop transport on final approach to Forward Nine. Gather whatever people that can fight together and prepare to defend yourself. You’ll have to hold them off for a maximum of sixty minutes.”
“An hour? We don’t even know that we’ll last five minutes!”
“Gavriel, old friend…you’ve been like a brother to me all these years. I have more faith in you than anyone I have ever known. Protect my sister. I will return with help within the hour.”
“Wait! What do you plan—”
Otro terminated the link and started the self-destruct sequence for his ship.
~
Bane saw it a half-second too late. A second Blackbird from Otro’s fleet had escaped into warp, and he was in the midst of delivering a scathing reprimand to his EW commander when the Moa suddenly exploded. His frigates were unable to lock down the fleeing pod in time, and it vanished.
When the last of Otro’s cruisers exploded a moment later, Bane furiously ordered his frigates to seek and destroy the pod. His rage compelled him to openly broadcast a system-wide message to Otro: I did not teach you to be a coward, boy. A few seconds later, a response came:
You did not teach me to be a fool, either.
~
The MGU opened with a metallic sounding click, followed by a hiss of escaping air. Gavriel emerged, still soaked from the ectoplasm inside the Scorpion’s pod. Mila was nervously waiting for him, oblivious to the events happening outside the station.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Why aren’t we leaving?” Gavriel’s dead serious appearance made her uneasy. He strode purposefully towards her, and with a firm but gentle grip, took her by the arm.
“Come with me, quickly. I’ll explain along the way.”
Six seconds later, they were standing inside a station elevator shuttle, plummeting downwards and away from the hangar. Mila became anxious.
“So? You going to tell me what’s happening?”
Gavriel’s eyes met hers like laser beams. The boyish demeanor that he revealed during the presentation of her Ishukone analysis was completely gone.
“When it comes to numbers, you’ve proven yourself to be an exceptional learner,” he said.
“Okay…?” she asked, puzzled. The elevator stopped, and Mila gasped when the doors opened. Before her stood two dozen rugged-looking men and women, armed with rifles and other heavy weaponry slung casually over their shoulders. Gavriel turned away from Mila to face the group of mercenary warriors. Without saying a word, one of them tossed him a rifle and helmet.
Gavriel shoved the weapon into Mila’s hands. “Well, then learning how to use this should be simple for you,” he said.
~
Malkalen V – Moon 1
Lonetrek Region
Ishukone Corporate Headquarters
“Rali…”
He thought he heard someone, but the sensation of his skull being drilled open by a mining laser was so overwhelming that he opted to ignore the voice and continue focusing on his misery.
“Wake up, Rali.”
Annoyed, he reluctantly accepted the fact that someone was talking to him who refused to go away. It was a familiar sounding voice. He guessed it was his wife and rolled over to his other side, pulling a pillow as close to his ear as possible.
“Now, Rali.”
The pillow was forcefully ripped away from his arm. In nearly the same instant that he became incensed, he felt a cold metallic object thrust against his forehead. A very sobering shiver trickled down his spine.
“Turn over onto your back, slowly.”
Rali opened his eyes and found himself staring at the business end of a Rist-11 pistol. He did exactly as he was instructed to.
“There’s a glass of water on your nightstand, plus a few supplements that will sober you up.” The gun backed away from him, and Rali moved his eyes past the 11-millimeter wide barrel pointed at him and focused on the intruder’s face. His jaw dropped. Capri’s expression bore no resemblance to the playful flirt that she was the last time they met.
“Quickly, please,” she said. “You’re going to be late for your meeting, and you’re not ready to face the Board just yet.”
Rali glanced over towards the nightstand. The water and pills were right where she said they would be.
“What’s your reason for being here,” he said, his voice dry and scratchy. “Can’t you just be gone with whatever it is you plan on stealing—“
Capri pulled the slide of the weapon back and lunged forward, jamming the barrel in between his eyes.
“It should be perfectly clear to you by now that if it was your life or possessions that I wanted, they would both be mine by now. What I am here to discuss requires your undivided attention, and this weapon ensures that I have it.”
Rali took a moment to consider just how surreal the situation was. A gorgeous woman pointing a cannon at my face in my own home. How ridiculous.
“You can’t escape from here,” he said. “What do you intend to do? You have damned yourself and your future by bringing that weapon into—“
“Some things are worth dying for, Rali.” She pulled away from him and produced a silencer from the back of her belt, screwing it onto the Rist’s barrel. “And I don’t plan on leaving until you see what it is that I’ve come here to show you. Now, swallow those pills and come with me to your study.”
“I really don’t have time for—“
The glass of water next to Rali shattered as the Rist spit a fiery round through it. The bullet continued on into the nightstand, spraying a burst of splinters across the room.
Rali flinched. “What the hell are you—“
The bedding in between his spread-eagle legs began exploding in little puffs of foam padding as Capri walked the rounds closer and closer to his crotch. He began to scream.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Alright already!”
“Rali, please get up and walk to your study,” she asked, calmly.
“Right,” he answered, getting out of bed in a hurry.
~
Forward-Nine
ROIR-V System
Pure Blind Region
“Keep running, Mila,” Gavriel said. “We’re almost there.”
Her legs were starting to burn, and the rifle felt like it weighed a ton. Ahead of her were two mercenaries, jogging slower than they would normally just to stay close to her and Gavriel. The rest of the group was far ahead of them.
“Why…can’t we use the elevator shuttles,” she breathed.
Gavriel talked as if he was exerting all the effort of being seated. “Because Bane’s troops are already in the station, and they can control them from any of the commlink terminals on the hangar concourse. To compensate, we sabotaged the most direct routes to our destination. Now the maintenance tunnels are our only way in.”
“Only way into what,” she gasped.
“One of the station’s grid junctions,” he answered. Mila heard voices down the hall. “The energy generated by the core is routed through them to supply power to different parts of the station. We’re going to see to it that some of those parts are shut down.”
“Which parts?”
“The hangar doors, MGU collars, and all the communication relays linking this station to anything outside of it,” he answered. “Including ships, other stations, and most importantly, the sentry guns.”
They emerged from the hallway into a cavernous, hexagon-shaped chamber with a thick, towering pillar that rose from floor to ceiling in the center. The pillar’s base was 15 meters wide on each side and resembled a socket with enormous, gunmetal-gray colored pipes feeding it from the bottom. The pillar’s cross section was also shaped like a hexagon, and from the middle of each side extended a thinner pipe that spanned the open space and ran into the walls directly across from them, similar to the spokes of a wheel. Maintenance trenches ran beneath each spoke and terminated at the pillar’s base. The mercenaries were working quickly inside of them, setting up heavy weapons along the trench ridges and training them towards the entrances into the chamber. One of the mercenaries noticed Gavriel and jogged up to him.
“Cap’n, we’re about done settin’ up a perimeter and’ll wait for your word to cut power,” he said. “We’ll put down traps and claymores when the lights go out.”
“Excellent work, Sergeant,” Gavriel replied. “You may proceed as soon as Miss Gariushi enters the trench.”
“Wait a minute, why are you going to put down explosives with the lights out?” Mila asked.
“Every kind of sensor you can imagine is embedded within those walls,” said Gavriel, motioning with his rifle. “Optical, infrared, heartbeat sensors, you name it. Bane’s men know exactly where we are because the station is telling them. Showing them where we’re laying traps wouldn’t be very smart, would it.”
“I get the point,” Mila sighed, still trying to catch her breath.
“So, you’re Otro Gariushi’s sister…” The Sergeant’s right eyebrow shot upwards. “It’s an honor to meet you,” he said, nodding slightly before hurrying back down into the trench.
~
Elonaya System
Lonetrek Region
Caldari State Territory
Otro broke his concentration just long enough to consider the irony of his predicament: Hurtling through space in a pod manufactured by the corporation that I declared war against. The routes to and from Empire space were pre-programmed fixtures in the personalized navigation system of every ship he traveled in, with carefully plotted jumps that put him directly on top of the stargates that he needed to travel between systems. The border crossing at Torrinos was uneventful—seeing pods come through there was hardly an unusual event for the locals—but the deeper he traveled into Empire territory, the greater the risks. Any Ishukone vessel that spotted him would attack without warning, and Bane had undoubtedly alerted the Guristas operating here to be on the lookout for him as well.
Deciding that Elonaya was close enough, Otro warped to one of the system’s moons and started to orbit. Twenty minutes should have been enough time, he thought, opening up the communications link.
~
Shock, disgust, and anger were all evident on Rali’s face as the information in the report filed past his eyes. And perhaps just a little bit of guilt as well, Capri thought. With her primary mission accomplished, it was time to start planning her exit. The shuttle bay was the only way off the station, and she wasn’t sure if Rali would have to be coerced into escorting her there or not. By far, this was the most dangerous assignment that Mila had ever asked of her. It was also the first time she ever fired a gun outside of a firing range. I have no idea what this is about, she thought, but it had better be worth it.
“Where…” he finally said. “Did you get all of this?”
“It was given to me by my superiors, and I don’t know what it contains. My job was just to make sure that you read it.”
“What firm are you with?” he demanded, crazy eyed. “Lai Dai? Kaalakiota? Tell me who else knows about this!”
Capri waved the gun. “Settle down, Rali. I don’t work for anyone that you’ve heard of. Think of me as a courier.”
“Capri, I know you’re the one with the gun here, but being associated with that information in any way puts your life in unspeakable danger,” he said. “I sincerely thank you and whoever sent you for bringing it here, but you need to know that what you’ve shown me could have disastrous consequences if it gets into the wrong hands!”
That sounded earnest enough, she thought. All the more reason to get the hell out of here. As she opened her mouth to reply, the commlink on Rali’s desk chirped. When he looked to see who it was, his face went completely pale. He turned back towards Capri and glared at her as if she had just committed an atrocity. “I…should have known you were with the Guristas!”
“Excuse me?” Capri asked, genuinely confused. When she glanced past his shoulders and saw the portrait on the screen behind him, she understood exactly what he meant.
~
Otro’s delivery lasted just over five minutes.
“I need an answer,” he said.
Rali was visibly distressed. Capri was speechless.
“You aren’t giving me much choice in the matter,” Rali finally said. “This is unprecedented blackmail, extortion on a scale greater than anything that I could possibly fathom.”
“And the scale of Les Akkilen’s crimes are the greatest in the history of our race, and possibly all of Eve,” Otro replied. “This is an opportunity to set everything right, and you stand to gain the most by taking this chance than anyone else.”
“Me?” Rali asked. “What do I gain from this insanity?”
“You’ll get your pride back, and the respect you deserve from Ishukone and the rest of the Caldari State. And most importantly, you’ll get your family back, if that’s what your heart wants. ”
Rali jolted upright in surprise.
“That’s right, Rali. I know about them as well. It must have been frustrating for you, trading away the privilege of watching your own kids grow up just to keep a bastard like Les Akkilen happy. If you agree to cooperate with me, then I promise that you’ll at least get a fighting chance of not having to spend the rest of your life regretting the choices you’ve made, not to mention the damage that those choices have caused to your family. But before that can happen, that ugly truth is that you have to trust me, starting right now, or else everything is lost.”
Rali sat back in his chair, closed his bloodshot eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath. I’ve worked so hard my entire life, he thought. And now this! The crossroads where all of that work has led!
Otro spoke up one more time. “Seize this opportunity, Rali. Take it. There will never be another time like this.”
From somewhere deep in Rali’s mind, where his analytical thinking and reasoning had no domain, a voice of conscience spoke out to him:
There is something undeniably inspiring about someone who has the courage to stand up for what he believes in, no matter what the cost. The fallacy of Rali’s hollow life caught up to him in a sudden, brutal wave of self-awareness:
My God, I’ve been such a fool.
Rali began a slow nod, and then his expression turned to one of hardened determination.
“Give me a few moments to make the necessary preparations, Mr. Gariushi.”
~
Piak IV – Moon 22
Ytiri Storage
Lonetrek Region
“…mix of explosive and electromagnetic pulse heavy ordinance, plus as many thermal and kinetic shield hardening modules that you can accommodate.”
The test pilot was scribbling notes down as fast as he could. “Umm, sure, but isn’t that a little—“
Rali cut him off. “One more thing: You won’t be flying her. A replacement test pilot is en route to your location to relieve you.”
The pilot blinked. “I…have I done something—“
“You have performed the tasks that I have assigned to you with a degree of excellence that is unsurpassed, but an emergency situation has arisen, and I need your continued support in a new role that you are eminently qualified to handle. Consider your current rate tripled, plus a quadruple increase in hazard pay.”
What the hell is going on, thought the pilot. “Thank you sir, but I don’t under—“
“Listen closely to these instructions, and fulfill them with haste: Choose four of your most trusted Blackbird-qualified EW specialists and equip their ships with gravimetric jamming systems and tracking links. They will be flying close escort for the Scorpion-class battleship that I just purchased for you. It is being held in escrow under your name in the same station you’re in.”
Just purchased? The test pilot started to sweat. “Now wait a minute, this is crazy—“
“The Blackbirds are under your command, but your mission is to provide support for the Raven test pilot when he arrives. Effective immediately, you and your escorts are to follow his orders for the duration of the mission that he assigns you to.”
“What’s the mis—“
“And captain, you are still bound to the secrecy clause in our contract. You are strongly advised not to break that clause. The contract is not all that will be voided if you fail to comply.”
The pilot gulped. “Understood, sir. May I ask one question?”
“Quickly.”
“What’s the test pilot’s name?”
Rali grimaced before answering.
~
Although she was certainly adept at hand-to-hand combat, Mila had no formal training in military tactics. But she was smart enough to understand that Gavriel had selected this chamber to be his last stand. Bane’s troops would not be able to leave the station once the grid junction was shut down. And if they were careless with the choice of weapons they used for the assault, the resulting damage could potentially trap them inside the station for a very long time. That conclusively ruled out grenades or rockets, at least not inside of the chamber. It was a brilliant strategy, Mila reflected, with its sole vulnerability being that it had a strict time limit. Otro would either produce a miracle within the sixty minutes he asked for, or they would all die waiting for it to happen. There was no escape from here without his help.
She silently went over the crash-course lesson on how to use the assault rifle in her hands: The gunsight is slaved to the optics system mounted to your helmet, Gavriel had said. The helmet system is electronically linked to the rest of us and has a built-in friend-or-foe targeting system. A targeting reticle will superimpose itself on anything that you’re pointing the rifle towards, so long as you keep that helmet on. The system displays “friendlies” with their names superimposed over your vision next to them in green. “Foes” will appear in red. “Unknowns” will appear in yellow. Anything that you point the dot at will be peppered with the 8.5 millimeter tack rounds in the clip of your rifle if you squeeze the trigger, so make sure you know what you’re shooting at. Got it?
Mila was too terrified to answer one way or the other at the time.
The mercenaries set the heavy weapons on top of the trenches facing three of the six entrances to the grid junction. These “mini-sentries” could be set to motion-tracking and fire on anything—up to and including smaller objects thrown into the room—that moved inside their cone of vision. The guns were chain-fed and supplied from ammo canisters kept inside the trench. The gunners could view the kill zone through the same weapon-slave optics system used with the rifles, while staying beneath the cover that the maintenance trenches provided. Exactly half of the chamber was a sentry kill zone— nothing could cross the open space without bring shredded by computer-guided machine gun fire. The other half was covered by the mercenaries, who were settling into defensive points facing the vulnerable entrances.
The only way to assault their position, Mila realized, was through trial and error. An attacker wouldn’t know which doors were covered by sentry kill zones, and would most likely have to trade his life just to find out. Gavriel had set the terms of this fight, drawing his enemies towards him and trapping them here to prevent Bane from just detonating the station and being done with it. Or, Mila thought, at least making him think twice about it.
When the demolitions specialists indicated they were ready to put the traps down, Gavriel inserted an electronic ID card hanging from his neck into a panel at the base of the pillar. His voice thundered on station’s intercom system.
“Attention, Bane’s troops: In just a few moments, I am going to cut the main power supply to this station. You won’t be able to leave, no ships can come to your rescue, and all subspace communications will be taken offline.”
“Before you commence your assault, ask yourself this: Whose will is this that compels you to raise arms against us? If a man is known to have betrayed once, is it wise to heed his call to battle? Otro Gariushi is not the enemy. The man who sits outside of this station, so eager to put you into harm’s way, is.
“The Guristas crusade against corporate subjugation is a lie, my friends. This is about greed, hidden under the pretense of freedom. This is about a thirst for power that no amount of spilled blood can quench—not mine, not Gariushi’s, not your own, and not the millions of Caldari left stranded on Drenali Seven.
“Their suffering is Bane’s betrayal to you! The man you take your orders from embraced Ishukone’s treachery and turned it to his benefit. By granting amnesty to Ishukone, he endorsed the abandonment of your brethren and left countless settlers to die, alone and desperate in the bitter cold.
“I am Caldari, and my blood flows through their veins! My fight is for Otro Gariushi and the future of the Caldari race, and the blood that I spill on this night will be in the name of hope. It will be spilled for the death of greed and the end of betrayal. Woe to the man who challenges me on this battlefield. Like the settlers of Drenali Seven, that man will know what it means to have no hope before death comes for him:
“He will be alone in the shadows, with his conscience on one side, and the barrel of a gun on the other.”
Gavriel yanked the card out, and with a nod of his head, the mercenaries threw a series of switches in the trenches. Blackness engulfed the chamber immediately.
~
Malkalen V – Moon 1
Ishukone Corporate Headquarters
Lonetrek Region
He’s making this too easy for me, Les Akkilen thought to himself as he checked his watch. Less than one minute to go, and Rali’s still not here. Fifteen minutes earlier, Les had nearly fired an aide for suggesting to dispatch security guards to locate Rali. This could not have possibly worked out better, he thought, allowing himself a quick smile as his watch ticked off the hour. Bye-bye, Rali. Been great working with you.
The guards stepped to the side in unison as the twin doors of the executive conference room opened. Les Akkilen and the other members of his executive team stood up and watched as the Board members filed into the room, one by one, without saying a word. The acting Board president, Zainou Biotech CFO Raurvoras Umokka, was the last to enter.
“Please be seated,” she said. “Let’s get started right away, we have a lot of material to cover.”
“Wait,” interrupted Ahtonen Osmon, the CEO of Hyasyoda Corporation. “Where is Ralirashi?”
Raurvoras looked at the empty seat, visibly annoyed. “Les, what is the explanation for his absence?”
Les did his best to appear disappointed. “The truth is that I do not know where Ralirashi is.” Time to set him up for the kill, he thought. “He has not been himself lately, and his performance as CFO lately has been abysmal.”
“The Board does not appreciate having its time wasted, Mr. Akkilen,” Raurvoras said. “Are you prepared to present Ishukone’s financial report in his absence?”
Jackpot. “Indeed I am, Director.”
~
Mila was the only one who jumped when she heard the explosion, but a few of the mercenaries swore under their breath. The unmistakable sound of machine gun bursts followed. The Sergeant’s voice boomed over the earpiece.
“Sentries offline and hold your fire, specialists comin’ over the line!” Breathing fast, Mila held the rifle over the trench ridge and toggled the camera sighting on her helmet. The night vision sensors illuminated her surroundings with an artificial greenish-hue. Moving the rifle as steadily as she could, she began to scan the chamber. She saw someone run out from one of the entrances, sprinting across the open space towards her. The name superimposed next to the running figure spelled “DETRIECH”. He jumped into the trench with her, breathing heavily. Gavriel approached him.
“What happened?” he asked.
“They’re real close, Cap’n,” Detriech breathed as two other specialists jumped inside. “Fuckin’ minesweeper caught me rigging a trap, I had to blow him away. I set off a few charges behind me to give myself more time.”
Gavriel nodded. “Good work, Detriech. Take up position with the others on—“
Two more explosions rocked the grid junction. Mila thought she could hear shouts coming from across the room, towards one of the vulnerable doors. Then, a series of loud machine gun bursts coming from the opposite direction made her heart stop.
“Man down, flatline, Door Six!” someone yelled.
“Cap’n, Specialist Dawson is down!” exclaimed the Sergeant.
“Are the rest of the specialists back in yet?” Gavriel screamed. More gunshots made Mila cringe as she spun towards the trench ridge behind her. Trembling, she raised the weapon over top to see what was happening.
“Dawson would have been the last of em’” the Sergeant replied.
“Sentries back online, gunners take your position,” Gavriel yelled. “This is it! If anything moves out there, cut it down!”
Mila moved the weapon in the direction of Door Six and saw Specialist Dawson lying face down on the floor about 30 meters in front of her. Various pieces of equipment and a rifle lie scattered around him. The blood pooling around the corpse looked bright green through the helmet’s eyepiece. She was just about to become overwhelmed with horror when the sentry gun next to her blurted out several rounds. The sound was deafening, and she cowered back down inside the trench.
Hell, she thought. This has to be hell.
~
Ibura System
Torrinos Stargate
Lonetrek Region
The excitement is just killing me, thought Lieutenant Menenden Reppola. Sitting up here babysitting a stargate watching industrials crawl back and forth. The Caracal-class cruiser at his command was flying a slow orbit around the gate on a routine patrol. It wasn’t a very challenging assignment, and certainly didn’t seem to require the years of grueling training that the Caldari Navy subjected its recruits to.
“Inbound,” his patrol wingman said. Menenden rotated the camera view and saw the plasma contrails of a ship decelerating from warp.
“Another indy,” he acknowledged, for the hundredth time since starting his tour. This is torture, he thought, watching the Badger Mark II begin a lazy turn towards the Torrinos stargate.
Maintaining law and order during peacetime was mostly agonizing routines and procedures. For a lucky few, there would be the occasional adrenaline rush that resulted from participating in an attack versus outlaws. Those encounters were very infrequent these days, especially for the Navy. I suppose that’s a sign that all is well here in the Caldari State, Menenden thought.
“Inbound,” his patrol wingman said again. “Multiple ships.”
Menenden was a little slow to rotate the camera towards the source of the contrails. Why bother, he thought. This rookie keeps giving me the play-by- play on every garbage hauling indy out there.
“Four Ishukone Blackbirds, a Scorpion, and…what the hell is that?”
Menenden was just starting to adjust the camera when his view of space was suddenly obscured completely. For a moment, he thought his ship had somehow vectored on a collision course with the Torrinos stargate. Panicked, he threw his cruiser into an evasive dive, realizing as the nose tipped over that the colossus before him was another ship. The behemoth vessel made no attempt to maneuver and held course, just clearing the rear quadrant of his Caracal. Five more sets of plasma contrails stopped directly above the Torrinos stargate as the Blackbirds and Scorpion decelerated from warp. They settled alongside the enormous capital ship that had nearly run him over.
Menenden barely had time to regain his composure when the captain of the unidentified ship hailed him.
“Attention Navy vessel: Please contact your commanding officer and have him set up a video feed from your camera drones to this ship. In a few minutes we’ll be conducting live-fire exercises for Ishukone’s latest product in cutting edge capital ship technology.”
A very shocked Lieutenant Reppola observed that the captain speaking to him had a 25 million isk bounty set to his head.
“Act quickly, Lieutenant,” the bountied captain said. “I’m about to turn you into a Navy hero.”
~
“I don’t care how dug in they are or how many casualties you have to take,” Bane fumed. “We are not leaving without Gavriel’s corpse, and if I have to destroy that station to get it, I will. Do not fail me, Commander!”
There was a pause before the response came. “Yes, sir.”
Bane terminated the radio communication with his troops aboard Forward-Nine and switched channels. “Scouting team, report.”
An impatient voice spoke up. “Sir, we have strike teams in position at Niner India, Echo Charlie, and Papa Three. We’ve covered the entire Empire border with our pattern and are expanding north towards the boundaries of Pure Blind. If he ran south, he hasn’t been sighted by any of our assets on the inside yet.”
“Continue to expand your search grid and report in ten minutes, Captain.”
“Yes—” Bane shut down the comm before the pilot could finish. Then he composed a message to Otro:
Death is upon your traitorous mentor, boy. He will die remembering you as a coward, who abandoned him in his time of need.
Again, the response came within a minute:
Gavriel is my friend. You were always the mentor, Bane. And death is certainly upon you.
Сообщение отредактировал Nordeck: 06 February 2014 - 8:15
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