The Blood-Stained Stars: Closing In — Part IV
Chasing Shadows
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station — Sister Alitura’s Office
19 October YC 127
Infiltration takes time. I understood that and didn’t bother Sister Alitura with “are we there yet?” questions. My patience was finally rewarded on 19th October when I received summons from the agent.
“Are we there yet?” I asked entering Alitura’s office.
She smiled and said, “Yes and no.”
“Tell me about the ‘yes’ part.”
“Well, we haven’t discovered Dagan’s whereabouts but we have a plan for a plan. The surveillance data sent to us by our Tahaki Karin contained a mention of a certain Amarr pilot named Kritsan Parthus. That Parthus recently delivered a cargo of drone parts to Dagan. I contacted him and offered a handsome amount of kredits for information about the destination, but he was most unwilling to share it with us. I am afraid that he needs to be… um… compelled to cooperate.”
“Uh-huh, compelled,” I said sarcastically. “I like your choice of euphemisms, Sister.”
“I meant it quite literally,” objected Alitura.
“Yeah, but when such a request is directed to a destroyer pilot, the compulsion is better described as coercion.”
“Call it what you like, but I need results. Specifically, I want Kritsan Parthus in this station. Alive.”
“Sure. Let’s see if, as they say, a good word and a gun is more persuasive than a good word alone. Where can I find that Mr Parthus?”
“Actually, he is currently in Arnon. We traced his communication signals and determined his location. Mind you, he has a small contingent of support ships.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” I said airily. “Oh, by the way, I meant to ask you about something. At the end of my last mission I received this message from one Adani Yusev.”
I’m Adani Yusev from Ishukone internal security. We’ve been monitoring data traffic between you and the Servant Sisters of EVE. No, don’t get excited. We’re all on the same side, here. The state will help you get Dagan… as long as you hand him over to us once you’ve got him.
“And before that I got a similar offer from Minmatar. Do you know what this is all about?”
Sister Alitura scoffed, “I do. Dagan has stepped on many toes during his sordid career. And now that Sisters of EVE have done all the hard work of locating him, the empires want to reap the benefits with minimal investment. In fact, they contacted me first, but when I rejected their offers they tried to influence you directly.”
“Hmm… And what would like me to tell them in reply, Sister?”
“It will be your choice, Captain. But let’s not count the chickens before they hatch. We need to locate Dagan first.”
“Fair enough,” I shrugged and went to the docks.
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Mission location
“What the ■■■■?!” was the first thing I said when we arrived at the mission location.
Kritsan Parthus
My Overview window showed an entry for Kritsan Parthus adorned with a fat red pentagon with a line under it. I immediately called Sister Alitura.
“Sister,” I asked indignantly, “You said that Kritsan Parthus was a merchant and I expected him to fly some kind of a Sigil hauler. Why didn’t you say that he was piloting a battlecruiser?”
“Oh, does he now?” replied Alitura. “I didn’t know that but I guess he decided to upgrade his ride after our last conversation.”
I rolled my eyes, “By the Void, Sister! Are you even cleared to issue missions against battlecruisers?”
Alitura sighed, “Remember, Captain, I told you that you were the only contractor who was allowed to work on The Damsel investigation? I am afraid that the same restriction applies to me when it comes to agents. Kritsan Parthus might fly a Titan, for all I know, but it will be I who posts the contract and it will be you who accepts it.”
“I see,” I said gloomily.
“Any other questions?”
“No.”
“Then good luck, Captain,” said Alitura and ended the call.
Aura and I stared at each other for a long moment.
“Is it going to be a problem, Cap?” Aura asked finally.
“Dunno. I’ve never fought a battlecruiser.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“Have a go at it in Kaukokärki. If we lose it, I’ll return in a cruiser.”
“You can fly a cruiser?” asked Aura, her eyes gleaming.
“Don’t get excited,” I warned her. “If he is good, then we’ll lose the cruiser too.”
Aura’s enthusiasm winked out and she wrapped her arms around her torso as if she was cold.
I opened the local channel and said, “Captain Parthus, greetings.”
A long, severe face appeared on my communications screen. When Kritsan Parthus replied, his tone was courteous but cool.
“I greet you too, Captain Korff. What have I done to deserve the pleasure of your company?”
“It doesn’t take much,” I said affably. “A delivery of black-market drone parts to our mutual friend would put you in my good books.”
“Ah. If you have been sent by honourable Sister Alitura, please do not waste your time. I have already told her everything that I could tell.”
“Well, she impressed on me that there was much more that you could have told — such as the destination of your last delivery.”
“Correction,” said Parthus. “I have told her everything I could without losing my business. You must understand, Captain Korff, that I am bound by the non-disclosure agreement. If I break it, no one will deal with me in the future.”
“I am afraid, Captain Parthus, that breaking or not breaking the agreement is not your choice anymore — it has been made for you. What you can choose is whether you fly with me to SoE Bureau and have a cup of tea and a nice chat with Sister Alitura…”
“Or?” Parthus asked scornfully.
“…or you fly with me to SoE station anyway, but first you lose your shiny new battlecruiser.”
Kritsan Partus snorted, “Says a guy in a destroyer.”
“I am not just any guy, I am a capsuleer.”
“I stand corrected,” replied Parthus sarcastically, “says a capsuleer in a destroyer.”
“You haven’t fought pod pilots before, have you?”
“I haven’t,” admitted Parthus, “but I don’t see how an individual escape pod can make any difference in a fight between a destroyer and a battlecruiser. For that matter, my escorts will be able to deal with you. I strongly suggest you return to the SoE Bureau immediately, Captain, and…” he smiled, “personally convey my deepest regards to venerable Sister Alitura.”
I looked at Aura, my spirits rising. Capsuleers had been around for decades but still there were people who thought that floating naked in a pod with cables plugged into the skull was just a lifestyle choice. Kritsan Parthus apparently was one of those people.
“I think we are in with a chance here,” whispered Aura. “The guy has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.”
“He is not a capsuleer,” I agreed, “and his ship attributes will not be much better than the factory settings. Prophecy’s main weapon is drones. What’s their range?”
“It’s only 60 klicks even if he trained his Advanced Drone Avionics skill to level V.”
My railgun range was 85 kilometres. I grinned.
“Escorts, you said?” I addressed Kritsan Partus again. “What escorts?”
With that, I targeted all six Mercenary Rookies at once and alphaed them one by one with seven-railgun volleys.
Mercenary Rookie
“What do you say now?” I asked.
“I say,” replied Parthus, “that you have made a serious mistake.”
Having said that, he started moving in my direction. The distance between us was 82 kilometres, and I immediately willed Kaukokärki to keep it. That wasn’t a problem as no battlecruiser could keep pace with a destroyer equipped with a microwarpdrive. I targeted the Prophecy and opened fire.
Whether piloted by a baseliner or a capsuleer, a battlecruiser has solid defences. I fully appreciated that fact as Aura and I watched the damage indicator on Prophecy increasing oh so slowly on my HUD.
“Why is he not deploying drones?” asked Aura.
“Because we are out of their range. If Parthus sends the drones to space before they can start dealing damage, I can simply shoot them all and leave him toothless.”
“I see,” Aura nodded. “Then let us keep our distance.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Us? Who is a navigational AI here?”
“Right, right. I am on it,” replied Aura with a determined expression on her face.
We kept flying and shooting. When the damage indicator moved into the structure, a somewhat pale visage of Kritsan Parthus appeared on the comms screen again.
“Captain Korff, you have made your point. If you stop firing, I believe we can come to an amical arrangement.”
“A bit late for that,” I said. “Look, Captain, I don’t have anything against you personally, but I have never fought a battlecruiser, let alone defeated one. I wasn’t sure that I could do it and that is why I tried to negotiate. But now I just can’t miss the chance of adorning my killboard with your lovely Prophecy. The only arrangement I can promise is that I will not shoot your escape pod.”
Kritsan Parthus looked at me for a long moment and then terminated the connection.
“Too proud to beg,” commented Aura.
“I hope he is not too dumb to run,” I said.
He was not. When the damage indicator reached 90%, several escape pods were ejected from the battlecruiser and started sending distress signals.
“Which one is Parthus’s?” I asked.
“Can’t say for sure without a cargo scanner, but I bet it’s that one,” she replied highlighting one of the pods on the Overview.
I focused the camera on that pod and zoomed in. It was a standard model but what made it distinct was the hull painted in Amarr regal gold colour.
“Vanity is my favourite sin,” I chuckled.
I turned on a microwarpdrive and flew towards the golden escape pod. A minute later I scooped it into my cargo hold. I was aligning to the Sisters station when Kaukokärki shuddered and my shield indicator showed a few red tick marks.
“What the hell?” I cursed.
“I think Mr Parthus has called a rescue party,” said Aura pointing at the Overview.
I looked at the list and saw a trio of Mercenary Fighters burning towards me. They were 50 klicks away but already their light missiles were reaching my ship.
Mercenary Fighter
“Hey, mercs,” I said in the local channel. “The game is over. Your employer is in my custody, and you are not getting him back. At least, not alive.”
“He is not our employer, egger,” a woman’s voice replied with a snort, “and we don’t need him alive.”
Aura and I looked at each other. If they were not hired by Parthus and they were not sent to rescue him…
“Dagan!” exclaimed Aura. “They were sent by Dagan to kill the witness!”
“Smart girl,” I murmured. “What shall we do with them?”
“Asks a guy in a destroyer,” giggled Aura.
“Point taken,” I said and targeted the approaching frigates.
Flying straight into the barrel of a railgun is never a good idea. The mercenaries learned it the hard way, and the battle was over in less than a minute. While I was looting their wrecks (nothing interesting, by the way), a message from Amarr Security Agent Lear Evanus popped up on my screen.
That’s an Amarr citizen you’ve kidnapped, pilot. But if I understand your motives correctly, we can overlook that. Once you’ve extracted Dagan’s location, we’ll help you bring the hammer of God down on that bastard.
“That Dagan is a real talent — he managed to piss off Amarr and Minmatar at the same time,” I chuckled.
“And soon you are going to piss off one of them yourself by choosing the help of one party over another,” pointed out Aura.
“Hey, think bigger! Why upset only one when I can annoy both of them? For that matter, I’d rather work with Caldari!”
We laughed and I warped back to SoE Bureau.