The Blood-Stained Stars: Queens and Drones — Part IV
Planting the Body
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station
9 August YC 127
“What are we waiting for?” I asked Alitura. “If we can’t do anything for Burgan, can we try extracting Corin Risia?”
The agent shook her head, “As I said, there is no time for both missions. In 15 minutes you’ll be leaving the dock for the second part of Burgan rescue operation. I have just enough time to brief you. The DNA sample that you brought is being imprinted, as we speak, on a slab of human biomass — same material which is used for making capsuleer clones.”
“I was under impression that clone manufacturing took somewhat more than 15 minutes,” I said sceptically.
“To make a fully functional clone, yes, but we don’t need one. All we require is some human-shaped flesh which has Burgan’s DNA. You will plant it in a small outpost where pirates believe Burgan is hiding. He was there a few hours ago but managed to slip away. When Serpentis discover the clone, they’ll give him up for dead.”
“Well, that slab may have Burgan’s DNA, but it won’t take a forensic expert to see that it’s not Burgan,” I objected.
“Ah,” Alitura gave me a tired smiled, “that is the beauty of the plan that Wolf and I have developed — the pirates will never see the clone in one piece. Burgan has placed explosives in that outpost which will be detonated 60 seconds after you have planted the body. All that will be left of the clone is a lot of very small and very charred bits. No one is going to collect and put them together to see if they form the body of real Wolf Burgan.”
I remembered the time when I had to collect Phenod’s DNA out of the bloody mess and winced.
“I think you are right,” I admitted. “By the way, is that outpost guarded?”
“It is. Wolf saw a couple of Serpentis ships arrive on the grid — that was when he knew it was time to bolt. And this is why the mission is urgent — you need to plant the body before they scour the outpost. The mission, however, does not require you to kill the pirates. If you choose to do so, your only reward will be the regular pirate kill bounties. In fact, it will be desirable for them to be left alive so that they can witness your visit to the outpost. After the explosion they will think that you have swooped in under their noses and took Burgan out yourself.”
“Hmm… I’ll see what I can do about it,” I replied noncommittally.
The agent glanced at her datapad and said, “The imprinting is almost done. You better start moving towards the docks. I’ll call the station dispatcher and organise priority undocking for you.”
“Appreciate it, Sister,” I nodded and left the room.
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Mission location
The outpost where Burgan had been hiding was actually in Arnon system, so I didn’t have to jump through any star gates. A short warp landed me 55 klicks away from the structure. I looked at the Overview and discovered that there were already more than two Seprentis warships milling around the outpost. All of them were frigate-sized except one Corelior Infantry destroyer. While I was taking in the surrounds and pondering my next steps, the nearest Serpentis squadron targeted Kaukokärki and started moving in my direction. At the same time, a female Gallentean pilot hailed me from Coreli Defender.
“Hey, you, on the Cormorant, you are not welcome here,” she said self-assuredly. “Get lost before you get hurt.”
That was the opening I needed!
“Good morning, Captain,” I said politely. “I am not here to cause trouble, but rather to eliminate it. The trouble’s name is Wolf Burgan. Let me just quickly deal with him and I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Ha-ha,” the pirate laughed, “you too? Sorry to disappoint you, mon ami, but you are late. We came here first, and Burgan is ours. Now, scat!”
“I am afraid, you do not understand, Captain. I have a mission, and my mission is to kill Burgan. If I don’t do it, I will not be paid. If you knew how much I hate not being paid, you’d realise that I don’t give a ■■■■ about who came first. I am here for Burgan and I am not leaving without his head.”
“I think it’s you who does not understand, asshole. You aren’t leaving this place with Burgan’s head, nor, for that matter, with yours. Go get him, boys!”
Just as she said those words, the closest Coreli Patroller hit me with a sensor dampener, limiting my targeting range. I willed Kaukokärki to fly away from the pirates, targeting all their ships except the Defender.
Coreli Patroller
“Hey, Cap, what are you doing?” Aura asked, alarmed. “Didn’t Sister Alitura ask you to leave the pirates alone?”
“She did,” I replied. “She wanted them to witness my ‘attack on Burgan’, but,” I smirked, “they don’t need the whole fleet for that. One witness should be enough, eh?”
“Oh, I see,” Aura said with an impish smile. “In such case, don’t let those rails go to rust on my account, Cap.”
Coreli Safeguard
I was just too happy to oblige. By that time, Serpentis ships came so close to me that even with the dampened sensors I could target and track them. I grouped all my railguns together and fired at the nearest pursuer. Three salvos was all it took to dispatch the Patroller. Then I applied the same punishment to the rest of the wing. A minute and a half later the fight was over. Only the Coreli Defender that hailed me on arrival, was still buzzing around and stinging my shields like an angry gnat. Its damage fell off to zero as soon as I turned on the microwarpdrive and sped towards another group of pirate ships.
Corelior Infantry
The second wing didn’t have a single chance to get to me as I sniped at them from the safe distance. The interesting thing about hybrid charges is that they are just as effective at 80 kilometres as they are at 20. If the pirates had any doubts about the veracity of that statement, they were quickly dispelled together with their shields, hulls and armour. Having finished the clean-up, I turned back towards the hideout.
“Cap,” Aura suddenly said in a strained voice, “we’ve got visitors.”
I looked at the Overview, but couldn’t see anything except the elements of the outpost.
“Where?” I asked.
“Scroll the list.”
I scrolled the Overview down and found a bunch of red icons. The newcomers were just 20 klicks away from me, and normally they would be displayed at the top of the list, but the outpost, which was closer to me, had so many separate elements that they crowded everything else out of the visible area of the window.
“Damn,” I cursed and highlighted a fat cruiser icon labelled Corelum Chief Spy. “I wonder what that Burgan fellow has done to warrant the heavy cavalry.”
Corelum Chief Spy
Aura shrugged, “Maybe it’s not him, maybe it’s your target practice which attracted the reinforcements.”
“Flattery won’t get you anywhere, Aura,” I said with a chuckle, “but if it’s true, I am glad they have been paying attention, and I hope for a solid decrease in my standing with Serpentis. That neutral score is really becoming an embarrassment.”
Coreli Agent
I willed Kaukokärki into a wide orbit around the cruiser and targeted its retinue which consisted of Coreli Agents and Coreli Spies. One by one, the frigates illuminated the sky with the explosions of their fusion cores. Corelum Chief Spy doggedly tried to close the distance to me, but even without the MWD my max speed was high enough to keep it at bay.
Coreli Spy
“Let’s see how thick is your hull,” I muttered and targeted the lonely cruiser.
If there is one good thing I can say about pirates is that they don’t retreat under fire. While I was demolishing the frigates, the captain of the cruiser had plenty of time to take the measure of my firepower. Yet, he stayed his course and didn’t flinch when my hybrid charges started stripping his ship of its defences. If he had any regrets about his decision to make the last stand, I didn’t leave him much time to suffer from them or to change his mind — 30 seconds was all it took me to convert Corelum Chief Spy into a pile of metal scraps.
All that time, the Coreli Defender which I spared as a witness kept orbiting me and harassing my shields. I kept an eye on the damage indicator — it was growing but not at an alarming pace. Satisfied that I wouldn’t be blown to pieces while planting the body I willed Kaukokärki to approach the hideout.
Wolf Burgan’s Hideout
“Hey, Cap,” said Aura, “how are you going to transfer the body into the structure?”
I shrugged, “As usual, using the tractor beam.”
“That would work, if we didn’t have a witness. The Defender’s pilot may spot that what we are transferring looks more like a body than a bomb.”
I hesitated, “Hmm… Good thinking, Aura. I guess we better kill the bastard.”
“Not necessarily. You can dock to the outpost wall-to-wall using standard docking clamps. Then our hull will obscure the transferred cargo.”
“Damn!” I exclaimed. “I completely forgot about that option. You are a genius!”
Aura blushed prettily.
When we were within 100 metres from the outpost, I initiated an automated docking sequence. Kaukokärki was pulled towards the station and fixed in the docking clamps. At the same time, I heard an alarm and felt hybrid charges biting into my armour. I didn’t need Aura’s advice to understand what was happening — during the docking, the ship’s shields were turned off to avoid contact with the station’s shields. Now, the destroyer’s armour was the only defence between the pirate’s blasters and the hull.
“Oh, ■■■■!” I cried. “Aura, transfer the cargo immediately!”
Aura took control of the cargo drone and picked up the body. I watched the drone’s progress on CCTV and, as soon as it crossed the station threshold, willed Kaukokärki to undock. To my horror, nothing happened.
“Aura, what’s going on?” I asked feeling a chill running up my spine.
“It’s the clamp,” Aura replied tensely. “It was damaged by the pirate’s fire and won’t release the ship.”
I looked at the damage indicator and, for a second, was paralysed by fear — 50% of my armor was gone! Cormorants, like many other Caldari ships, mostly relied on shields for defence. If an enemy got to the armour, it was a signal to make yourself scarce. I had to undock and enable the shields as soon as possible.
“Fifty-five seconds until explosion,” Aura informed me in a monotone voice.
“What? I thought we had more time before it would breach the hull! I better kill it right now.”
“Not our explosion, the hideout explosion,” Aura explained patiently, and added, “fifty seconds.”
Now I was in full panic mode. On the one side, I was attacked by a pirate frigate which chewed through my armour with an alarming speed. On the other side was a ticking bomb which was supposed to make a mince of the fake Burgan’s body but would render the same service to mine, should I remain within the blast radius in 50 seconds.
“Forty-five seconds,” came Aura’s correction.
I fired up my engines to 100%, hoping to put pressure on the clamp and break it. Unfortunately, the clamp was designed to keep in place much heavier ships and refused to be broken. All I achieved was giving the station a miniscule angular velocity which was soon annulled by its inertial dampeners. The pirate, in the meantime, managed to reduce my armour to 20%.
“Shoot it!” Aura cried.
“What’s the point?” I yelled in response. “Even if I kill the frigate, we will still be blasted by the station explosion.”
“No, shoot the clamp!”
“How? I can’t target the clamp, its part of the outpost.”
“Target the outpost. Just do something. Thirty-five seconds.”
There wasn’t much else I could do in half a minute, so I targeted the outpost and fired at it with my one-fifties at point-blank range. All I achieved was an increased pace of my armour destruction as the hybrid charge explosions and debris from the station pummeled my ship. Another alarm blared as the armour evaporated and the hull started taking damage. Initially, I thought that the bomb planted by Burgan would be the first to hit my ship, but now I was not so sure — the double beating received by Kaukokärki from the pirate’s and its own guns was eating through the hull at a terrifying pace.
“Fifteen seconds,” Aura announced.
“Fifty per cent,” I mumbled stupidly, looking at the hull damage indicator.
Generally, it would take me a long time to destroy an outpost of that size, much more than a minute. Luckily, the same horrible misfortune which left me stuck to the station wall also ensured that all my fire was concentrated on a small section of the outpost. I doubted that I hit the bloody clamp even once, but as Aura called “five seconds” and the hull integrity dropped to 30%, a whole section of the wall to which the clamp was fastened came loose. Immediately, I started gaining speed and building a distance from the outpost but I didn’t manage to get far enough when the explosives inside the hideout detonated. The Cormorant was pushed so violently by the blast that I nearly lost consciousness. When I finally focused my eyes on the HUD, the hull was down to 5% but we were surrounded by the glorious shimmer of a shield!
“What the ■■■■ was that?” I gasped, looking in awe at the gaping hole in the wall to which I was docked just a few seconds ago.
I was interrupted by the surviving pirate who screamed in frustration in the local channel, “Die! Die! Die!”
The tracking computer showed that the Coreli Defender was on a collision course with us.
“Cap,” Aura yelled, “warp out. Now!”
I immediately saw the danger — the shield, even at full strength, would not prevent the collision. With armour and most of the hull gone, my little crunchy capsule would be smashed like an egg by a sledgehammer, if the pirate rammed her frigate into me. Even before Aura stopped speaking, I willed Kaukokärki to align to the SOE station. The outpost armour plate to which I was still clamped made the manoeuvring awkward as it upset the balance of the ship. I had to take manual control of the gyros and thrusters, all the while watching the pirate frigate image grow in my viewport. It was coming from my left, almost at the right angle to my trajectory.
“Five seconds to the impact,” Aura started the countdown.
My align time was 4.42 seconds and, in other circumstances, the navigation system would get me into a warp tunnel before the pirate could reach me. Unfortunately, I was struggling to hold the correct direction with the piece of station wall dangling off my starboard.
“Four seconds.”
I tried to correct the ship’s yaw but overshot the target direction.
“Three seconds.”
I was not going to make it. I made an attempt to turn the ship and at the same time increased the speed. It just made it less manoeuvrable.
“Two seconds.”
“No, no, no, no,” I muttered.
“One second. Brace for the impact!”
In blind panic, I wished I could do something to escape, to make the ship go faster, and unwittingly… activated the microwarpdrive. I felt a solid shove which propelled us forward, as the bulk of Coreli Defender whooshed behind me, missing Kaukokärki by mere metres. Later, I realised that the timing of MWD activation was perfect — it was early enough to give us extra speed and evade the approaching Defender, but didn’t give the pirate sufficient time to adjust its trajectory.
Some indeterminate time later, when I stopped panting and got my bearings, I found ourselves well out of the pirate’s reach. Now that we were not in the immediate danger, I gently changed the flight direction until we were perfectly aligned to the SOE station.
Having reduced the velocity to the required 75%, I said, “Aura?”
There was no reply. I looked at her and saw that she was in some kind of a stupor, wearing a shellshocked expression on her face, her eyes glazed.
“Aura,” I repeated gently.
She started and looked around wildly, “What? Oh, sorry, Captain. Warp drive active.”
