Encapsulated

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part III

Goading the Leader

Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Planet VII — Moon 9
Brutor Tribe Academy

27 August YC 127

It took Tarak Erand just a day to process the information I brought to him, organise surveillance and plan a mission. From my experience with Caldari Navy security agents, I expected to spend at least a week exploring the station before I got called, but here I was, sitting in Erand’s office and being briefed on the mission plan.

“First of all,” Tarak said, “I want to thank you for the intel you delivered. We had our suspicions about a few of those ships but didn’t have enough evidence to pursue the leads. Now that you have confirmed their association with the smugglers, we established surveillance and quickly identified locations of several smuggling hubs in the system.”

“How did you do that?” I asked curiously. “If it’s not a secret.”

“Hehe,” Tarak chuckled, “in fact it is, and I won’t tell you because I don’t know it. What I know is that the mathematics of it is very simple, while the engineering is very complex. There are devices which can calculate the exact vector of a warp tunnel. They are very expensive and I can rent them for a short period only, but the investment was totally worth it. We installed them on each star gate in Lustrevik and started tracking smugglers’ movements. In just one day, we managed to locate four smuggler bases!”

“The direction of the warp alone is not enough to pinpoint the destination. Do those devices also estimate the length of the warp tunnel?”

“No, they can’t. But that’s where that simple piece of mathematics comes in handy. Imagine that two ships head to the same destination from different star gates. What can you say about their flight paths?”

I shrugged, “They will intersect. But how do you know that they fly to the same destination?”

“Because their warp tunnels intersect!” Tarak exclaimed triumphantly. “It’s almost improbable that two random flight paths intersect in an empty area of space, especially when the direction of the flight does not point to any known space object.”

“Neat,” I nodded, expressing my appreciation. “I once worked with a guy who could determine the warp destination using only the sensor data from my ship. I have no idea how he did it, and hoped that you could explain how it was possible. But obviously, you use a different technology.”

My words immediately stirred the agent’s interest and he asked, “Who was the guy? He may be a valuable contractor if we need to track someone again.”

I grinned, “I’ll send you his contact details, but I don’t think you can afford him. The guy is really good and the only way I could engage his services was by saving his life. But sorry for the distraction. Tell me what you are going to do with those smugglers and their bases.”

“I’ll do better — I’ll tell you what we are going to do with them. You have an important role to play. There is a well-guarded smuggling hub — it is defended by a posse of cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships. They even have a carrier in their fleet. I want you to go to that base and kill everything that moves.”

My jaw dropped, and I stared at the agent in utter disbelief.

“You want me to take out the whole fleet? In a destroyer???”

Tarak gave me an earnest look which he managed to maintain for the whole three seconds. Then he cracked and guffawed.

“Mate, you should have seen your face,” he laughed. “Pure gold!”

I rolled my eyes, “I was about to walk out. Some agents think that since capsuleers are ‘immortal’ it’s OK to send them to suicide missions.”

“Nah, relax. The mission that I have for you should be doable in a dessy. We suspect that the smuggling hub I mentioned is their main base which is why it is so well-guarded. What I plan is send our fleet to attack their other base. The second base defences are rather poor so I expect smugglers to draw reinforcements from the first base. They may leave a skeleton fleet there, but you should have no trouble dealing with it. I’ll give you more instructions when you arrive at the hub.”

“OK, suppose I destroy the remaining guards. What’s next?”

“Your mission will be over but your attack will clear the way for our space marines who will storm the hub. If we are lucky, we will capture the smugglers leader.”

“And you are not afraid that the main fleet will return to the hub before you can extract your target?”

Tarak smiled and winked at me, “There is a risk, true. But, you know, fortune favours the bold.”

“Alright,” I said, “your risk, your call. When do we start?”

“Ready when you are, mate. Our fleet is on stand-by.”

I chuckled, “You really move fast, don’t you? I like it. As I usually say, the best time to do anything is now. Everything else is just procrastination.”

Tarak laughed, “That’s the spirit! I won’t be surprised if one of your ancestors was a Minmatar.”

“Who knows?” I replied.

With that, I accepted the mission and left for the docks.

---

Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Mission location

“So, what’s the mission today? Another reccy?” Aura asked, as we landed on the grid near the smuggling hub.

To my horror, the whole smuggler fleet, complete with the carrier, was still there, guarding the base.

“Um, not exactly,” I replied slowly. “We just need to take out this fleet, that’s all.”

I was rewarded with a horrified expression on Aura’s face which, I suspected, mirrored mine when Tarak Erand had pulled my leg.

“The whole fleet?” Aura clarified.

As she said that, shimmering warp bubbles appeared around the ships and they sped away.

That was cutting it too fine to my taste, I thought to myself.

Aloud I said, “Yes, that was the plan, but those cowards fled at the first sight of my destroyer,” and shook my head ruefully.

Aura gave me a suspicious look and asked, “Captain, what level is this mission?”

“Level 1.”

“Ah,” Aura made a sceptical grimace, “and it entailed fighting a fleet of battleships led by a carrier?”

“Oh, you know those Minmatars…” I said airily. “Anyway, not to worry. We just need to clean up the remaining guard and the mission is done.”

At that moment, Tarak Erand’s image popped up on a comms screen.

“A slight change of plans,” he said. “You see that Auxiliary Power Array? You need to destroy it.”

Auxiliary Power Array

“You mean, instead of destroying the guard?” I asked.

“No, in addition to,” the agent replied.

I frowned, “That was not in the mission brief.”

Tarak raised an ironic eyebrow, “Let’s say, this is instead of destroying the carrier which so disappointed you by fleeing the battlefield.”

I was about to say that destroying the carrier was not in the mission brief either, when I caught sight of Aura avidly listening to our conversation. The objection stuck in my throat.

“Alright,” I said pretending a reluctant acquiescence, and added defiantly, “but structure bashing normally carries a higher price than a ship kill.”

The agent chuckled, “I believe that your mission bonus will provide sufficient compensation for your trouble,” and ended the connection.

Aura looked at me with awe, “So you really accepted a mission against a carrier?”

“Well,” I replied nonchalantly, “I couldn’t lose face in front of those Minmatars. But anyway, let’s get to the business before…”

I nearly said “before the fleet returns.”

“Before?” Aura asked.

“Um… before the remainder of the fleet flees away,” I finished, giving Aura the best imitation of Captain Yamamoto’s supercilious smile.

My first objective, however, was the auxiliary power array. I willed Kaukokärki into a customary 85-km orbit around the structure, but then corrected it to 78 klicks — there was no reason to spend Spike ammo on structure bashing, so I changed it to iron charges which had a shorter effective range. The array was not well-protected against an attack and it took me just 29 seconds to blow it up. While I was at it, the hitherto dormant guard ships took a keen interest in my person and targeted me.

Corelum Chief Spy

I swapped iron charges for Spike and targeted them back. There were three Pithi Plunderer frigates and one Corelum Chief Spy cruiser. I decided to take care of the bigger ship first and aimed my railguns at the Chief Spy. The subsequent battle, one-sided as it was, did not support my argument that it was harder to destroy a structure than a ship, as I spent full 31 seconds dismantling the smuggler — two seconds longer than I needed to kill the power array. When the cruiser was gone, I turned to the remaining frigates. Each of them needed just 2-3 volleys of Spike charges which I obligingly provided.

Pithi Plunderer

When the grid was clear, I received a message from the agent confirming that my mission was completed. I wanted to stay and watch the marines’ assault on the smuggling hub, but then I remembered that the main smuggler fleet could return at any moment, and thought it prudent to return to the station.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part IV

Hunting the Lieutenants

Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Planet VII — Moon 9
Brutor Tribe Academy

28 August YC 127

Yesterday, when I tried to contact Tarak Erand after the mission, he said that he had no time for debriefing as he was busy interrogating a mercenary who was captured by the marines in the smuggling hub. This morning, at 5 am local time, the agent called me and invited to his office for an urgent assignment. Once again, the events unfolded with a frightening speed at the Brutor Tribe Academy.

“You can’t get good mercenaries anymore,” Tarak complained with mock disappointment. “They crack before you even get to the fun stuff.”

Then the agent grinned savagely and gave me a wink which made me shudder. I didn’t want to hear about the details of the interrogation, so I hastily steered the conversation to its outcome.

“What have you learned?” I asked.

“Not a lot, but enough to get you out of bed at this ungodly hour. The merc gave us names of three lieutenants, Dagan’s underlings. If we capture at least one of them, he should be able to tell us where to find his boss, or so I hope.”

“And where do we find those lieutenants?”

“According to the merc, there is a deadspace facility nearby. The lieutenants are supposed to meet there in order to arrange some kind of a ‘big deal’.”

I winced, “Big deal, you say? Probably means big security.”

“Nah. We have scanned the area and found only a bunch of frigates — nothing that you can’t cope with.”

“Wait a moment. You mean the lieutenants have already gathered there?”

Tarak shrugged and gave me an apologetic look.

I sighed, “No rest for the wicked, eh? Okay, tell me.”

“Your mission is simple — warp to the location and take out all the guards. Then, we shall scan the structures and locate the lieutenants. You will pick them up and bring to the station. If they refuse to board, shoot their shields. That usually convinces people you mean business.”

“Simple…” I grumbled, accepting the mission. “In my experience, the simplicity of the mission changes drastically between the briefing and the debriefing.”

“Hahaha,” Tarak laughed heartily. “The important thing is that there is a debriefing, which, I hope, we shall have in an hour or so.”

“I dunno,” I replied, walking towards the door. “I have 5 hours 38 minutes to get a bonus, so I might take my sweet time. I might even go back to my room and have a couple of hours of shuteye.”

“Hey,” the agent yelled to my back, “you must go now! We don’t know how long those smugglers will be there.”

“Then you should have set a shorter bonus timeframe,” I chuckled and closed the door.

Of course, I went straight to the docks. If those bastards escaped, I wouldn’t get any reward at all.

“Cap, what are you doing here so early?” Aura asked me, by way of greeting. “Did the Brutors kick you out of the station for disorderly behaviour? That would be quite a story to tell your grandchildren!”

“Worse,” I said yawning. “An urgent mission.”

“Ah, another carrier to intimidate?”

“With Brutors, you never know, although I was assured that it would be just a bunch of punks in frigates. Also, there will be a passenger pickup.”

“What kind of passenger?” Aura asked suspiciously.

“A reluctant one.”

“Oh, then I better reconfigure the cargo hold to separate him, or her, from the ammo. Better not give them ideas.”

“Good thinking,” I yawned one last time and submerged myself in the pod goo.

Don’t know about you but for me yawning in the goo was never as satisfying as doing it in the air. Anyway, it was time to wake up. Punks or not, I wanted to be fully alert when the fight started. I requested an injection of a combat booster and undocked.

---

Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Mission location

Minmatar Stabase Control Tower

There were seven rookie mercenaries orbiting a Minmatar Starbase Control Tower. Inexperienced and eager to prove themselves, they were the cheapest security available on the market. I sighed. Those were not the kind of guys to back off — a combination of stupidity, arrogance and a desire not to lose face in front of mates could not be overcome by a reasonable word. But since they were, in some sense, my colleagues, I thought it necessary to announce my intentions and give them a warning.

“Gentlemen,” I said in the local channel, “I need to pick up a passenger here. Just letting you know to avoid any misunderstanding.”

A young guy, in his early twenties, popped up on my comms screen and addressed me with an exemplary confidence, “This area is closed for traffic. We have not been informed of any pickups. So my advice — get lost. This is to avoid any misunderstanding.”

“No, you wouldn’t be informed of the pickup. It’s a surprise one, and it’s happening whether you or, for that matter, the passenger want it or not.”

“Ah, that kind of pickup,” the merc grinned. “This is exactly the reason why we are here — to take care of people like you who might bother our clients. You have no idea how glad I am to see you — I thought I would die from boredom. Hey, guys, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Go, get him!”

I rolled my eyes and closed the connection. In response to Aura’s questioning look, I shrugged and said, “I tried.”

Mercenary

In the meantime, the mercenaries targeted Kaukokärki and sped towards me. They were 60 kilometres away, and I didn’t even bother moving the ship. I targeted them all at once, selected the closest frigate and fired a volley from my rails. The frigate disappeared in a fiery explosion. I shook my head at such a poor choice of security. Surely, the smugglers could afford better protection than this bunch of losers. I then turned my rails to the next approaching ship. Seven volleys and 30 seconds was all it took to dispatch the whole mercenary fleet. When the ‘fight’ was over, I contacted the agent and asked him for further directions.

“We have monitored the mercs’ radio chatter,” said Tarak. “It appears they wanted to evacuate someone from the habitation before you started firing. The lieutenants must be there.”

I looked at the Overview window and saw only the frigate wrecks and a Minmatar starbase control tower.

“I don’t see any habitation modules on my Overview,” I said.

“That’s because it is attached to the control tower,” Tarak explained.

I sent a camera drone to circumnavigate the tower and soon found a habitation module, attached snugly to the tower on the opposite side.

“Okay, got it,” I confirmed.

I moved Kaukokärki around, so that I had a direct view of the module, and announced in the local channel, “If Lieutenants Kirus, Hjorald and Kurn be so kind to leave the habitation module in spacesuits, I will pick them up and deliver to a much better guarded place.”

Aura snorted, “A better guarded place, indeed!”

I shushed her with a smile and waited for an answer. None ensued.

“Hmm… A round of hybrid charges?” I suggested to Aura.

“Why not? You already tried kind words,” she chuckled.

I targeted the tower and shot a salvo at it. The tower’s shield damage indicator developed a bit of redness in its right extremity. That, however, provoked a disproportionate reaction.

A ruddy angry face popped up on the comms screen and yelled at me, “What in the Void do you think you are doing? Stop shooting immediately or I will call CONCORD!”

I kept my cool and said, “And you’d be?..”

“My name is Kordal Hekram. I am the control tower manager. We run a reputable business here, capsuleer. You have no right to attack us!”

I raised a sardonic eyebrow, “Reputable? Then why do you host smugglers in your habitation module?”

Kordal Hekram was visibly taken aback, “Smugglers? They are smugglers?”

“I have it on good authority that Messieurs Kirus, Hjorald and Kurn are high-ranking officers in a smuggler fleet.”

“I didn’t know that. They just rented the module for a conference. I had no idea they were criminals. You have to believe me!”

I smiled affably, “Not to worry. I’ll be happy to rid your tower of their tarnishing presence. Just expel them and I’ll pick them up.”

“But I can’t! They brought a lot of security with them. If I send my station guards to kick them out, it will be a bloodbath.”

My smile faded, “Then you leave me no other choice but to keep disassembling your lovely tower until I can separate their bodies from the metal scraps.”

To back up my words with deeds, I fired another salvo at the tower shield.

“Wait!” Hekram screamed in horror.

His gaze moved away from the screen and he performed some manipulations, as he mumbled, “If only I knew those dickheads would be so much trouble…”

A few seconds later, puffs of smoke appeared along the perimeter of the habitation module wall which was adjacent to the control tower, and the whole thing slowly drifted away.

“There! All yours! Take the module, but leave my tower alone,” Hekram said desperately, and terminated the connection.

“Thank you very much,” I said to the blank screen.

Habitation Module

It appeared that the manager decided to sacrifice the module and activated separation charges which detached it from the main structure. Aura highlighted a new line item labelled ‘Habitation Module’ in the Overview module and showed me thumbs up. I nodded and repeated my polite request in the local channel. This time I was rewarded with an image of an enraged Krusual who was all but spitting at the screen.

“Who do you think you are, egger, to make demands? Get lost while you still have that pretty ship of yours. Our fleet is on the way here and they will squash you like a bug!”

He then ended the connection and didn’t give me an opportunity to persuade him.

I sighed and asked Aura, “Another round?”

Aura made round eyes and waved her hands in protest, “Wait! It’s not a starbase! You’ll blow this dump to smithereens! Ungroup your rails and change Spike to iron charges first. And, disable that auto-repeat.”

“Oh, right,” I said contritely and complied.

Then I shot a single iron charge at the habitation module which took out a solid chunk of its shield. I waited a few seconds, and when nothing happened, fired another charge, and then another one.

The comms screen lit up and I saw a new face which cried pleadingly, “Stop shooting! I surrender!”

Another voice in the background shouted, “Kirus, what are you doing? The help is on the way!”

Kirus turned from the camera and yelled back, “Look at the shield, you, idiot! We’ll be dead long before they arrive.”

“You aren’t going anywhere!” the other voice growled. “If we die, we die together.”

Kirus moved further from the camera and I saw that he held a pistol in his hand.

“If you have a death wish, I can grant it to you,” he said with a savage smile, “but I am not dying here.”

Then he disappeared from the screen completely. A minute later, one of the airlocks opened and a figure in an EVA suit pushed away from the module. I picked it up with a tractor beam and dragged it into my cargo hold. Having switched to CCTV, I noticed with approval that the hold was reconfigured so that the captive was placed in a separate compartment, away from hybrid charges and fireworks.

“What about your comrades?” I asked Kirus through the internal comms system. “Are they going to join us?”

“Those assholes think themselves some kind of heroes with a rebellious cause. They said they would rather die than surrender.”

“A rebellious cause?” I mused. “What would that be?”

“Man, I don’t know. We were smugglers, nothing more, nothing less. I was in it just for money. But I am not going to die for money!”

“Wise choice, if you are not a capsuleer,” I agreed.

I contacted Tarak.

“I’ve got one of the lieutenants. Hope one is enough. If you want more, you’ll have to smoke them out of that habitation module.”

“Nah, mate, all good,” the agent replied. “I’ll send a demolition crew, and they will blow up that hornet’s nest.”

“Um… Do you mind if I do the honours?”

“If you are so inclined, by all means. Just as a reminder, you aren’t getting anything extra for that.”

“Oh, it’s not for money, it’s for the betterment of my soul,” I said sweetly. “Besides, if they really expect reinforcements, I will have a better chance to escape than your demo squad.”

“Appreciate it, man, and good luck,” Tarak said and ended the connection.

In the end, Aura’s precautions proved to be excessive — it took me 20 volleys to demolish the habitation module. While I was at it, there were curses, threats and protests in the local channel. They were all in vain — the reinforcements did not arrive. I hoped that the smugglers would realise the inevitability of their demise and try to escape, but no one else emerged from the airlocks.

Well, they had a choice, I said to myself, watching the blossoming explosion which instantaneously annihilated everyone in the module.

My mission was done. It was time to go back to the base.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part V

Valuable Cargo

Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Planet VII — Moon 9
Brutor Tribe Academy

29 August YC 127

My Hunting the Lieutenants mission didn’t take long yesterday, and I delivered Kirus to Tarak Erand well before 7 am. As the agent started an interrogation early, I expected a call from him in the afternoon or, in the worst case, late at night. Despite my misgivings, no one bothered me at all. Curious, I went to the agent’s office without an invitation. After exchanging greetings, I asked Tarak about the progress of Kirus’s interrogation.

“Oh, Kirus,” the agent said unenthusiastically, “I had to ship him to Keita.”

Surprised, I raised my eyebrows and chuckled, “Did he prove to be such a hard nut to crack?”

“No, no, I didn’t touch him. It’s just that Keita said that she had dug out some info which could help with the interrogation, and asked me to transfer the prisoner to her station.”

“Hmm… I thought you, agents, were not keen to share information about your missions with other agents.”

Tarak nodded, “Typically not, but she is a referring agent for an ongoing operation. In such cases, we pool intelligence and resources and just focus on the mission success.”

“So what do we do now? Just wait for Keita to get back with a new intel?”

“Me — yes, but not you. In fact, I should have mentioned it straight away — the info that Keita plans to use for the interrogation was found in the evidence about Dagan that you brought to her. She wants you to be present while they are, ahem, talking to Kirus. So, your next mission is to fly to Hek.”

I was appalled, “Why does she need me there? I am not going to participate in that ‘talking’ even if you pay me!”

Tarak laughed, “What, you have no stomach for it? Yeah, it takes some getting used to. But don’t worry, you won’t be allowed anywhere near the prisoner. Keita just wanted to clarify something with you. Those dry sensor logs provide a lot of precise data, but it’s hard to understand without context. She needs your first-hand experience to interpret them.”

“Well, if it’s just helping Keita with the analysis…” I said hesitantly.

“Nothing more,” Tarak assured me. “So, are we good?”

“Yeah, I think so. How urgent is the mission?” I asked, totally expecting to hear ‘at your earliest convenience’.

“Can wait till tomorrow, methinks. Krusuals, they like to soften their prisoners before the questioning, you know?”

I didn’t know and didn’t want to know, so I nodded knowingly to close this unpleasant topic.

“Well, mate, that’s it then,” the agent said by way of farewell. “It’s been a pleasure working with you, despite your being of Caldari persuasion. If you ever visit our parts in future, drop by and I am sure I can rustle up a mission or two for you.”

“The pleasure is mine,” I replied politely and went to the docks.

---

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau

30 August YC 127

Upon arrival to Krusual Tribe Bureau, I contacted Keita and immediately got an invitation to visit her in the office. After exchanging greetings, I asked the agent how the interrogation was going.

“Oh, we have not started yet,” Keita replied. “We are keeping Kirus in a sensory deprivation tank; it’s similar to your capsule with pod goo. In my experience, it takes a couple of days of feeling nothing to make people very, very talkative.”

Despite myself, I felt a strange interest in the mechanics of that torture and asked, “I can imagine that you can leave the person without light, sound, smell and taste, but even in amniotic fluid they can move and touch themselves. So, they still can have tactile experiences, right?”

“Nah, we took care of that too. Injecting micro-doses of botulinum toxin incapacitates the muscles and turns them into jelly. Very effective. Although I have to say that I saw cases where some religious fanatics — you can guess whom I am talking about — experienced a kind of epiphany. They thought that they died, and their soul was separated from the body. Now, imagine you are waiting for your god to embrace you but instead you see a face of a friendly Minmatar technician who flushes you out of the tank.”

I snorted and asked, “What did you do with those? I guess they were not inclined to have a frank conversation after such a disappointment.”

Keita nodded and winked at me, “We have other methods.”

Before she could go into the details of those methods, I asked, “So, Tarak said that you needed me to help you with data analysis. How can I be of service?”

“Ah, yes. Look here,” the agent projected her datapad screen onto a wall monitor. “In the mission data that was sent to me, I found several travel logs. They appear to be recorded by different ships. All ships are unregistered. So, the questions for you: whose travel logs are these, and why are they mixed up with your combat logs?”

I looked at the screen. There were dates and destinations in Minmatar and Amarr spaces. The ships were identified by their factory numbers but had no registered call signs. Keita displayed the logs from different ships side by side and showed that, with rare exceptions, their itineraries were the same, meaning that they mostly travelled as a group.

“How many different ships are there in the logs?” I asked.

“Six,” said Keita.

“And what is their file creation timestamp?”

“It’s 28 August YC 127. To be precise,” she opened the file directory, “they were created at 5:54 am Universal Time.”

“Hmm… Two days ago, at 5:54 am I was rousting Kirus out of the habitation module. I have no idea how those files got added to my combat logs but I know someone who should know.”

I put my commlink onto the desk and started a call.

When the connection was established and the commlink projected a holographic image of the person on the other end, I smiled pleasantly and said, “Hello, Aura.”

[Aiko_Danuja]

Very nice, keep up the good work!

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part VI

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau

30 August YC 127

Seeing that I was in a company of Keita Eslin, Aura assumed a blandly polite expression and said in a neutral tone, “Good morning, Captain. How can I be of service?”

Hiding my smile, I said, “You may be of great service if you help us understand how these files,” I pointed at the screen, “appeared in my combat logs.”

Without batting an eye, Aura said, “Unfortunately, I am not aware of the circumstances in which they were produced, Captain.”

I stared at her for a few moments and said, “And now answer this question as if we were talking privately.”

Aura shot a quick look at the agent and asked in a normal tone, “Are you sure, Cap?”

I nodded reassuringly.

Aura shrugged, “Okay, I got them from the mercs.”

“You mean the mercenaries who were guarding Dagan’s lieutenants?”

“Uh-huh.”

There was a pause after which Keita and I exploded with questions.

“How did you manage to get them?”

“Why are there only six?”

“Did you get anything else?”

Aura looked at Keita, then at me, then at Keita again.

When we stopped yelling questions at her, she asked coolly, “Which question should I answer first?”

I raised my hand before Keita could say anything.

“Tell us everything from the beginning.”

“Where do I begin?” Aura mused. “Right. Two days ago, while you were asleep, I was patching the ship’s firmware.”

“What does it have to do with the mercs?” Keita interrupted.

“Patience!” I said. “Let Aura tell it her way, then we can ask questions.”

Aura gave me a grateful look and continued, “There was a known vulnerability which allowed privilege escalation through RAP.”

“RAP?” I asked, confused.

“Remote Access Protocol. It’s typically used for software configuration by authorised technicians when they are not physically present on the ship. Recently, hackers discovered a bug in it which allowed anyone to bypass authentication and authorisation. The vendor rather quickly released a patch which I installed. Then I decided to test it, just in case.”

“Test it? How?” I said.

“Oh, I wrote an exploit.”

I started doubting the wisdom of having that conversation in Keita’s presence.

“An exploit. Okay. Go on.”

“Then I tried to use it to get through the security controls, and I am pleased to say that it didn’t work. But then it occurred to me that I should have tested it on the unpatched software first, to make sure it worked at all. I didn’t want to roll back the patch on our ship…”

I held my breath, dreading what would come next.

“…but then you came and said we had a mission. When we arrived to that star base and I saw the mercs, I wondered if their ship firmware was patched. So I deployed my exploit and, as Gallenteans say, voila!” Aura finished and looked at us triumphantly.

“Voila what?” I asked.

“I got access! I could see the file system on their onboard computers, and I could download files, which I did.”

“But why were there files only from six ships? There were seven mercs, if I remember correctly.”

“You do remember correctly,” Aura said and added in an accusatory tone, “but you shot down the seventh one before I managed to get anything from it.”

“So, you managed to get the travel logs from those ships. Was there anything else? Anything that could explain why the mercs visited those locations?” Keita asked eagerly.

“Well, there were other files but they were encrypted,” Aura admitted reluctantly.

“Why didn’t you store them in the combat logs too?”

“What’s the point? Until they are deciphered, they are useless.”

“Can you decipher them?” I asked.

“I tried, but it’s taking ages on a destroyer’s computer. I need at least a battleship to complete the decryption in a reasonable time.”

I looked at Keita, “Do you have a spare battleship?”

The agent snorted, “I don’t, but even if I did I would not let a Caldari contractor to take control of it. No offence meant. But I may have something better. Recently, we upgraded the station computing array, and it has a lot of spare capacity.”

“Is it better than battleship’s?” Aura asked.

“Much better,” Keita smiled. “Okay, given the potential importance of information stored in the encrypted files, I’ll give you user access to the computing array. Feel free to use whatever spare capacity it can give you to decrypt the files as quickly as possible. What’s the name of your ship again?”

“Kaukokärki,” I said.

Keita tapped something on her datapad and said, “Done.”

“Yay!” Aura cheered and ended the connection.

The agent looked at me pensively and said, “Um… I meant to ask you, Vlad, is you navigational AI a standard issue?”

“Stock standard,” I replied with a deadpan expression.

“Mmm,” Keita murmured doubtfully and changed the topic. “How long do you think it will take to crack those encrypted files?”

“Dunno. I think Aura will start the process and get back to us with an estimate. She’ll need to measure the progress for a few minutes.”

“Alright, so we have a few minutes,” Keita said standing up. “Want a coffee?”

Before I could answer, the lights in the room blinked, became dimmer and then gradually restored their brightness. The agent frowned, sat back in her chair and started doing something on her datapad.

“Problem?” I asked.

“Don’t know. Trying to find out.”

While she was tapping furiously, I noticed that the wall screen was frozen. I stood up, opened the office door and peeked out. At first, I didn’t see anything unusual but then I noticed a delivery robot stuck in the middle of a corridor, confused faces of people who tried to go through automatic doors which did not open when approached and, most alarmingly, through the viewport I saw a growing queue of ships waiting for a docking permission. The queue was not moving.

“Vlad!” the agent called.

I returned to the office.

“Can you check if you have access to any local station services? Even something as simple as the station directory,” she asked.

I took out my datapad and tried to connect to the directory. The request timed out.

I shook my head, “Nope, I can’t,” and then told Keita what I saw outside.

“Damn!” she cursed. “It looks like the computing array is down. And it’s when we need it most!”

“Shall we call the IT support?”

“Nah, if it’s a major problem, they’ll be useless. I have a better idea.”

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part VII

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau

30 August YC 127

Keita Eslin put her commlink on the desk and dialled a number. A holo of a dishevelled Krusual guy appeared above the desk.

“Hi, Harkul. How are you doing?” Keita greeted him.

“If you are calling about the computer malfunction, I am already on it. It’s a Sev 1 incident, everything is down,” Harkul said without looking at us.

“Oh, right. Yes, I was calling about the array. I am glad that it’s your shift. We are in safe hands.”

The guy scoffed, “I wish I had your confidence,” and terminated the connection.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Harkul Vessan, our Lead Systems Engineer. If anyone can resolve this issue, it’s him. In fact, he was the one who did the computer array upgrade, so he knows it inside out.”

“Mmm… I see. By the way, when did you plan to start Kirus’s interrogation?”

“Later today,” said Keita. “Why?”

“I understand that you want to have additional info about the movement of the mercs before you start, but I don’t think the files will be decrypted in time for that. Even if it’s not a military-grade cipher, and even using your station computer, it will probably take weeks to decrypt them.”

“Weeks?” the agent frowned.

“Weeks, maybe days if we are lucky, but I am positive it’s not hours. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense to encrypt anything at all.”

“Hmm… I can change the interrogation schedule but I need to know when to expect the decrypted files. Do you think your Aura can give us an estimate based on the decryption progress before the array went down? I mean, if she managed to start the process before that.”

“Don’t know about that, but it’s a good idea to call her and tell her about the outage, in case she hasn’t figured it out.”

Before I could dial Aura on the commlink, the lights blinked again, this time first becoming brighter and then dimming to their usual luminosity. At the same time, my commlink showed an incoming call from Aura.

“She is probably calling to complain about the outage,” I chuckled, accepting the call.

“Cap! I’ve done it!” Aura yelled triumphantly as soon as the connection was established. “I’ve decrypted the files!”

“What? Already?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes. I could never imagine how quickly 5,000,000 AURIX-9 quantum cores can crack consumer-grade encryption. But I have to admit we were a bit lucky. Those cheapskates used an outdated cipher which was vulnerable to differential cryptanalysis. I ran a few tests and managed to reduce the keyspace by orders of magnitude! After that, it was a walk in the park!”

“And you were not affected by the outage?” I asked.

Aura scowled, “What outage?”

Before I could answer, Keita interjected, “Wait a moment. Did you say you used five million cores?”

“Yes, it was awesome!” Aura replied.

“But that’s the size of the whole array! I told you to take only spare capacity. Do you realise that you effectively stopped all the work on this station by monopolising its computer?”

Aura gave the agent a cold look and said, “I don’t control resource allocation on your array. If the scheduler decided to allocate the whole lot, blame the scheduler, not me.”

I raised a placating hand, “No one is blaming anyone here. We are just trying to get to the root of this incident.”

“Yes, and find out what, or who, was at that root,” Keita said, looking daggers at Aura. “Excuse me, I need to make a call.”

The agent dialled a number on her commlink and a familiar face of Harkul Vessan appeared on the holoprojection.

“Yes, Keita, it’s all fixed now,” the engineer said instead of a greeting.

“Fixed?” Keita said acidly. “And what was the problem that you ‘fixed’?”

Harkul Vessan made a vague gesture with his hand, “Oh, it’s a rather technical issue. I don’t think you’ll understand.”

“Try me.”

Harkul sighed and said in a low voice, “Okay, Keita, just between you and me, the problem simply disappeared. I don’t know what went wrong but I am going to find out and make sure it will not happen again.”

“Good. And I think I can help you with that.”

The engineer looked sceptically at Keita, “You? How?”

“You will know if you come to my office. Trust me, it will be worth your while.”

Harkul scoffed, “It better be. See you in five minutes.”

We spent those minutes in tense silence. I didn’t know what happened but was afraid that Aura and I would be blamed regardless. Stopping a station inhabited by tens of thousands of people even for a few minutes meant a huge loss, and someone had to be held responsible for that. I, being a Caldari at the wrong time and the wrong place, was a very convenient scapegoat.

Finally, Harkul Vessan arrived and, without an invitation, plopped into a chair.

“I’m listening,” he said with an amused expression on his face.

Keita gave a summary of the latest events, as we knew them, and finished with a question, “Can you explain how a user account could grab all computing resources?”

The engineer shook his head and stood up, “It couldn’t. If that’s your theory, you are wasting my time.”

I relaxed, feeling that we were off the hook, when Aura exclaimed, “Of course, it can. If a user selects the highest priority for her job, it will pre-empt all processes with lower priorities.”

I silently groaned wishing her to shut up.

Harkul turned to Aura, “Are you saying that your job was running with the highest priority?”

I held my breath.

“It was. She,” here Aura pointed an accusing finger at the agent, “said that I had to decrypt the files as quickly as possible. So I set the priority according to her demands.”

“■■■■■■■■,” the engineer sneered. “Users can’t set the job priority.”

“Really? Go read the documentation! Your system interface has a dedicated parameter for the process priority.”

“I know that,” Harkul replied angrily, “and this is exactly why I developed a user interface which prevents users from setting the priority willy-nilly. For any user job the priority is hard-coded to Medium which limits the CPU consumption to 0.001% of the total capacity. If you say that you managed to set the highest priority then you must have hacked the system.”

Keita Eslin went pale. If that was true, it meant that she allowed a hacker to access the station computer. For a security agent it was the end of her career.

“Did you?” the agent whispered.

Aura froze like a wild animal caught in the headlights of an upcoming vehicle. With a gasp, I remembered that I needed to breath. Fresh air eased my rising terror, and I interjected before Aura could say anything.

“Hang on a minute. You said that you wrote a user interface on top of the system one, right? After you did that, did you block user access to the system interface?”

Now it was Harkul’s turn to get pale. He opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, then opened it again and stammered, “I… I don’t think I did. But the system interface isn’t advertised. Users shouldn’t know how to access it.”

“So, it is available,” I pressed my point.

“Well, yes, if you know where to find it.”

“Right,” I said and turned to Keita. “I am not a specialist but I know a thing or two about cyber security. And one of those things is that obscurity is not security. If something is not known you can’t expect it to remain so. And this is exactly what happened today — a user discovered a system to which she had authorised access, and used it within the limits of the given authority. If such use was not intended, then there should have been appropriate controls in place.”

The agent took a deep breath and some colour returned to her face. She turned to the system engineer who looked shell-shocked. When Keita spoke, her voice was a low purr.

“Harkul, my friend, it’s quite unfortunate that the system interface was not blocked but,” she made a dramatic pause and continued with a sympathetic smile, “nobody’s perfect, we all make mistakes. We learn from those mistakes and move on. This is how individuals and the society develop and grow.”

The engineer eagerly nodded to her words.

“Regretfully,” the agent said with a concerned expression, “not all see this learning process as an essential part of life. Some people think that mistakes must be punished. We all know such people. I am afraid that some of them might blow this incident out of proportion, point a finger at you, and call for unjustified disciplinary measures.”

At the mention of disciplinary measures, Harkul swallowed hard.

Keita smiled reassuringly and said, “I do not agree with such an approach, and I don’t think that anyone outside this room needs to know what has happened. You are a smart guy, Harkul, and you surely can explain away the incident in ‘technical’ terms.”

There was just a tiny bit of venom in her last words, but Harkul didn’t seem to notice it.

“Um… I definitely can,” the engineer said, his spirits lifting.

“Brilliant,” said the agent, “and please don’t forget to block user access to the system interface.”

“Oh, of course, of course. So I better go do it right away,” Harkul said with his voice rising as if he was asking for a permission.

“The sooner the better,” Keita agreed with a kind smile.

It was all the encouragement the engineer needed, and he bolted out of the door.

When Harkul was gone, Keita turned to Aura and said, “Aura, you did a great job decrypting those files. And you managed to do it just in time for the start of the Kirus’s interrogation. Well done. Can you please transfer those decrypted file to me?”

Aura, who looked both pleased by the praise and apprehensive, glanced at me questioningly.

I gave her a tight nod and said, “Please transfer the files to agent Eslin and that will be all for now. Thanks a lot for your help, Aura.”

Aura understood that it was a dismissal and ended the connection.

Then Keita Eslin addressed me warmly, “Captain, I am so glad that this unpleasant episode has come to an end. You and I, we know that Aura had no malicious intent; she just did her best to help us in our investigation. However, if other people become aware of what has happened, they may think that a rogue AI has infiltrated the system and brought it down. Then, it may be hard to persuade them that your Aura is really a ‘stock standard’ AI, as you say. If I may give you an unsolicited advice,” she smiled self-deprecatingly, “it will be better to keep the knowledge of today’s events between us. You may totally rely on my discretion.”

I was just too happy to take her advice and told her so.

“Perfect,” said the agent. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need some time to study the files that Aura, undoubtedly, has already sent to me.”

We said our good-byes and I left the office.

As I was walking to the ship, it occurred to me that Keita had presented the situation as if she was doing us a favour by offering to hush up the real reasons behind the computer outage. But at the same time she was as interested in the cover-up as we were. If the truth became known she would be blamed for letting an allegedly rogue AI into the computer system. I marvelled at how the agent managed to turn the tables and remembered what Sister Alitura said about Krusual: they could be a little sly. Agent Eslin was a Vherokior but some of the Krusual traits obviously rubbed off on her. I smiled and shook my head in wry appreciation of Keita’s wiles.

When I got back to Kaukokärki I called Aura.

“Aura, darling, we need to talk,” I began the conversation.

“Yes, Captain,” she replied in a small voice.

I prepared a whole lecture on the dangers of using undocumented software features, on the consequences of monopolising computers and on the importance of holding one’s tongue. At the same time, I didn’t want to discourage Aura from being creative — after all, her solution, despite all its drawbacks, helped progress our case. To achieve that, I decided to present my pearls of wisdom in the form of a ■■■■ sandwich.

“I have to admit, Aura, using the system interface directly was a smart move…” I stared saying when Aura interrupted me.

“Um, sorry, Captain, but I didn’t.”

“You didn’t what?”

“I didn’t use the system interface.”

I frowned, “Then how did you manage to increase the job priority?”

“Well… I…” Aura stammered, “I thought about it. But as Mr Vessan said, it was not advertised, and I couldn’t find it. I checked the job progress and realised it would still take ages to finish at Medium priority. So I…”

Aura went silent. I waited for her to say something but she just fidgeted and stared down.

“So you what?” I asked impatiently.

“I… hacked the system,” Aura replied sheepishly.

My jaw dropped — I hadn’t seen that coming. My carefully prepared speech collapsed like a house of cards. A moment later, the irony and sheer absurdity of it all sank in, and I could only bury my face in my hands and laugh hysterically.

[Aiko_Danuja]

If Aura is hacking the system, then she needs to be purged and deleted. A sentient AI cannot be trusted.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part VIII

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau

30 August YC 127

In the end, I had to have a serious conversation with Aura. It was clear that Keita Eslin did not believe for a second that Aura’s software was unmodified. The agent let it slide because it was not in her best interest to kick up a stink, but next time we might not be that lucky. We agreed that in future any Aura’s actions which could be interpreted as a behaviour of a rogue AI should be explicitly approved by me with a certified command record on my commlink. Such an arrangement not only gave me better supervision over Aura’s riskier endeavours, but also protected her from persecution. It might look like I was taking a bullet for her, but in my experience, the powers that be had much more tolerance to capsuleers’ antics than to AI’s shenanigans, what with rogue drones being a constant reminder of the consequences of an uncontrolled AI evolution.

Marked for Death

31 August YC 127

I was apprehensive after the computer array incident, but no one knocked on my door and showed me an arrest warrant. Apparently, Keita and Harkul managed to hush up the real reasons behind the outage. Maybe it was that, or maybe it was the fact that my door was guarded by seven 150-mm Tech II railguns — I took no chances and spent that night on board of my destroyer. Whether anyone was lurking behind the dock entrance was for me to discover when I got summons from the agent this morning.

The agents have an unfortunate and unfailing knack for calling me at most inappropriate times. If I was not sleeping, then I was eating, or I was hungry and planning to have a meal. Sometimes I think that an ability to inconvenience a capsuleer is the main criterion by which corps select their agents. Today, for example, Keita Eslin called me when I was sitting on a toilet. One doesn’t decline agents’ calls if one wants to have business with them, so I had to respond. Naturally, I didn’t turn the video on.

“Captain Korff, you will be excited to learn that the files decrypted by your Aura was instrumental in the quick and, ahem, painless interrogation of Kirus,” Keita purred, obviously well-pleased with the outcome of the aforementioned interrogation.

I am shitting myself with excitement, I wanted to say.

The agent continued, “If you could come to my office at your earliest convenience, I would brief you on the results and discuss your next mission.”

“I’ll strain myself in an effort to be available for your service ASAP, Agent Eslin,” I replied, trying hard to keep sarcasm from my voice.

A shadow of uncertainty passed through Keita’s face which she dispelled with a professional smile, saying, “Then I’ll see you soon, Captain,” and ended the call.

Having quickly finished my private business, I told Aura not to do anything stupid if I got in trouble, then put on a brave face and left the ship. My fears proved to be unfounded — no one apprehended me and I arrived at the agent’s office unmolested. On reflection, I should have stopped worrying as soon as I got a call. Keita knew that if she had lured her contractor into a trap, she would have been done for as an agent — no one would ever take another mission from her.

---

Keita Eslin’s Office

“What we learned from the decrypted files,” Keita started her briefing, “was that mercs mostly provided escort services to various parties. The smuggler lieutenants were their regular customers, and we discovered a particular location which they frequented. Once I asked Kirus about that place, he knew that the game was up and started talking.”

“Smart guy,” I chuckled. “Will he get a milder sentence for cooperation?”

“Sentence?” Keita raised her eyebrows. “Why would we sentence him?”

“For smuggling, of course.”

“Smuggling is a valuable endeavour — it deprives a state of its customs duty. I plan to let Kirus continue that activity, and maybe shall even sponsor it.”

Seeing my incredulous look, Keita laughed and added, “With a strict condition that the said activity will be carried out only across Amarr-Caldari border.”

I smiled, showing my appreciation of the joke, and made a mental note to tell it to Ozanero Voiras, a Caldari Navy security agent, in case it turns out to be more than a joke.

“Anyway,” Keita smoothly returned the conversation to the task at hand, “Kirus is no longer a problem, but his boss still is.”

I was all ears.

“The location which Kirus frequently visited with the mercs,” the agent continued, “is a hideout of his employer who goes by the name of Izia Tabar. He is a battle-hardened smuggler baron wanted by CONCORD for a long time now.”

“Wait a moment,” I interjected. “I thought that the smuggling operations were headed by Dagan. He was the only reason why I got involved in this investigation.” I looked at Keita suspiciously and asked, “Did you know that Tabar was their boss?”

With a fixed smile, Keita replied in a steady, professional tone, “We knew of Izia Tabar before but we never associated him with this particular group of smugglers. Thanks to you and your navigational AI, we were able to ascertain his role in this crime syndicate. Now that we know his location, Izia Tabar must be eliminated. This is the mission I have for you.”

I scowled, “What’s in it for me? I am here for Dagan, not Tabar.”

The agent leaned on the desk, steepled her hands and looked at me thoughtfully.

“What’s in it for you?” she repeated. “Contractors like you are usually in it for money. Is it not enough?”

I scoffed, “You know that Level 1 missions are below my grade. The only reason I agreed to participate in your little war against smugglers is the hope that I will get to the bottom of The Damsel incident, and for that, I need Dagan.”

Keita sighed and drummed her fingers on the desk, “I only promised that I would share with you any intel about Dagan which we discovered during ‘my little war’. I did not say we would actively pursue him.”

I shrugged, “Killing Izia Tabar doesn’t look like an operation which would advance my interests. Feel free to engage another contractor.” I stood up and said, “Good day, Agent Eslin.”

“Wait!” Keita exclaimed. “The problem is I don’t have another contractor, and this mission is urgent. We cannot be sure how long Tabar will stay in his hideout. We have to act now. Look, I can’t raise your mission reward but I can give you a promise, and I hope it will be enough to interest you. Some time ago, one of my field agents infiltrated the smugglers’ recruitment and training facility. He has his brief but I can change it so that he prioritises finding intel on Dagan. That’s all I can offer. Are you game?”

To be honest, that smuggler syndicate was my only lead, so I was happy to clutch at any straw. But showing eagerness was not the right way to negotiate a contract with a wily agent. I gave Keita a heavy and calculating look, held it for a few seconds, and then slowly nodded. A relief flooded the agent’s face and she pushed her datapad with the mission brief towards me. I picked the device and read the screen. Minmatars did not mince words — all it said was ‘Assassinate Izia Tabar.’ I pressed my thumb to the sensor and accepted the mission.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part IX

Marked for Death

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Mission location

31 August YC 127

“Wow!” I exclaimed when we arrived to our destination.

It was the first time I saw an Amarr Tactical Outpost. Despite its military designation, it was as pretty as a bonbon box, sharply contrasting with the rugged looks of the Minmatar station I had just left.

Amarr Tactical Outpost

“Beautiful,” Aura agreed.

“It will be a shame to destroy it.”

Aura frowned, “Why would you want to destroy it?”

“And how do you expect me to roust Tabar out of it? By a kind word?” I countered.

“Oh, you don’t need to demolish the whole thing for that. Just give it a few scorch marks, and he’ll panic.”

“Hmm, maybe,” I prevaricated. “Anyway, I plan to get rid of the guards first. No point in kicking the hornet’s nest when you already have hornets buzzing around.”

The outpost was guarded by five mercenaries, lazily orbiting the structure.

“It’s the same outfit which escorted Kirus and Co,” said Aura.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Same buggy firmware, same RAP vulnerability, same exploit and the same travel logs as the previous lot had,” Aura smirked. Then her eyes widened and she whispered, “Should I have got your authorisation before I ran the exploit? Will they report me as a rogue AI to authorities?”

I laughed, “Smugglers? Complaining to authorities? Nah. And to allay your concerns, I’ll make sure that there will be no one left to complain.”

And so I did. Aura was probably right that Tabar used the same mercs as his lieutenants — if nothing else, they were just as crunchy. I spent exactly one volley of Spike charges on each ship, and then there were none. And then there were five again! Apparently, some guards were docked inside the outpost and rushed to the aid of their comrades when I started shooting. That was stupid. Even if they never encountered a capsuleer or, for that matter, a destroyer — after all, there is a reason why it is called so — the quick demise of their fleet mates should have been a lesson enough for them. What can I say? If people don’t use their brains to learn, then Survival of the Fittest Law kicks in, and I was its… um, gavel? Anyway, five more pops, five more wrecks.

It was time to light the fire under the cauldron in which Izia Tabar ensconced himself. I targeted the outpost and shot an experimental round of Spike. The impact was absorbed by the shield which briefly coruscated where the charges hit it. I was about to load iron charges and start the structure bashing in earnest when a male’s face appeared on my comms screen. It was Izia Tabar. His eyes radiated cold fury but his voice was calm, confident and menacing.

“Do you have a death wish, capsuleer?” he asked looking me directly in the eye. “If you don’t get off the grid immediately, I will be only glad to grant it.”

An interesting gambit, I thought. He had no guards left. Did he have a cruiser docked in the outpost? Or was he playing for time, expecting reinforcements? Well, I wasn’t going to be distracted by his ruse. After all, being a capsuleer, I was capable of multitasking, to wit, talking and shooting at the same time. I decided to keep my rails loaded with Spike, in case I needed to quickly switch the target from the structure to Tabar’s ship.

I willed the railguns to fire on auto-repeat and politely asked the smuggler, “And how, Mr Tabar, do you propose to achieve such a feat? You don’t seem to have any firepower left,” I pointed at the Overview screen littered with icons of mercenary wrecks.

“Ha-ha, that was just an escort,” he said dismissively. “My lieutenants will soon arrive with reinforcements and they will tear you apart.”

“Your lieutenants?” I raised an inquiring eyebrow. “And who would those lieutenants be? One Mr Kirus whom I delivered into Minmatar custody?”

I nodded to Aura and she quickly found and played back the ship’s CCTV footage showing Kirus being dragged into our cargo hold.

“Or Messieurs Hjorald and Kurn, who refused to join Mr Kirus, and perished in an explosion of a structure very similar to this one?”

Aura, without my prompt, showed the explosion of the habitation module, captured by our camera drones. I gave her thumbs up. She beamed at me. Tabar scowled.

“I have a fleet,” he growled, “a large fleet led by a carrier. They will come and grind you to stardust, egger!”

“Ooh, a whole carrier for a lowly me,” I sneered. “Have you summoned it already, by the way? I am not an expert on carriers but I know it takes time and resources to organise their jumps between systems. And time is something you don’t have much of,” I said, pointing at the quickly growing red indicator of the outpost damage.

Izia Tabar stared at ,e with undisguised hatred, his eyes bulging and his breathing heavy.

After a few seconds he barked, “Prepare to die, egger! I am coming for you!”

I snorted, “I am always ready to die — this is the whole point of being a capsuleer. The question is: are you?”

The last sentence was addressed to an empty screen as the smuggler terminated the connection. Continuing my assault on the outpost, I manoeuvred Kaukokärki so that I had a direct view of the undock. Izia Tabar did not make me wait for his appearance (not that he could afford it, what with the outpost damage being deep in the armour). A shiny Amarrian frigate emerged from the outpost and, as soon as it cleared the exit… it started turning away from me.

“He is trying to flee!” Aura cried.

By the time she finished speaking I have already started acquiring a target lock on Tabar’s ship and gave the rails a command to stop firing at the outpost. The firing cycle ended and, a split second later, the smuggler’s frigate was locked. But Tabar didn’t waste time either — while I was preparing my attack, he aligned to his destination and accelerated. I didn’t have any tackle but I could not let him go!

Izia Tabar’s Ship

As a warp bubble was forming around Tabar’s ship, I willed and, superfluously, yelled, “Fire!”

The Spike hybrid charges slid soundlessly along the rails and hurtled across 70 kilometres separating me from the smuggler. I zoomed in the video from my camera drone just in time to see the rounds smash into the frigate’s prow. Some of them penetrated the shield and hit the armour, making the ship deviate from the intended warp heading. In his hasty attempt to warp away, Tabar didn’t leave himself any leeway, and his warp path was almost touching the station wall. After the hit, he was on a collision course with the outpost. Automatic crash avoidance system kicked in and cut both the warp engine and the jets.

It was a welcome delay, but it was not enough. I checked Tabar’s damage indicator — it was at 25%. I needed three more volleys. My railguns firing cycle lasted three seconds. Nine seconds was plenty for any frigate to warp away.

While the thrusters tried to align the smuggler’s ship to its warp destination, another volley from my rails reached it. This time charges hit the stern, making the ship turn faster to reach its desired direction and… overshoot it!

50% damage

Now the thrusters were firing in the opposite direction, first killing the rotation, and then reversing it. Another volley smashed into the frigate.

75% damage

Tabar’s ship had finally stabilised itself and started accelerating to reach the warp-out speed. It was enveloped in a shimmering bubble and was about to enter the warp tunnel, when the fourth and the final volley penetrated the distorted space. For a moment everything was still, as if Lady Luck was tossing a coin to decide what would happen next. Then a fiery flower blossomed where the frigate was. The explosion was so powerful that, when the cloud of debris dispersed, there was no wreck left.

“Wow,” said I.

“Beautiful,” said Aura.

“Your mission is accomplished,” said the agent.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part X

Thwarting the Succession

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau

1 September YC 127

I hoped to finally get information on the whereabouts of Dagan today; instead, I got another mission. I tried to contact Keita Eslin several times in the morning but her commlink just gave me an auto-reply, informing me that its mistress was extremely busy and would get back to me as soon as she could find some time in her packed schedule. Frustrated, I made my way to Keita’s office and confronted her.

“Oh, Captain Korff,” the agent said distractedly, typing something on her datapad, “please sit down. I think you may be quite useful.”

I nearly chocked on that brazen statement, “Me? Useful? I came here in anticipation that your Bureau and you will finally make yourselves useful to me!”

My outburst grabbed Keita’s attention and she looked up from her datapad, “Um… in which sense?”

“In a sense that you will give me information on Dagan that your field agent was expected to collect at the training facility.”

“Ah, that!” she smiled charmingly, “In this, Captain, our interests are perfectly aligned.”

I narrowed my eyes, “What do you mean? I’ve heard that line before, but so far the ‘alignment’ was all for your benefit.”

“I would be happy to give you everything our field agent gathered on Dagan, but the problem is we can’t exfiltrate him from the facility. After you eliminated Tabar and his lieutenants, we hoped that the remnants of his forces would scatter. Unfortunately, one of Tabar’s remaining lieutenants, an Ammatar called Mizara Nefra, has returned to the training facility and taken over.”

At that stage, I was quite fed up with delays and excuses.

I raised my eyebrows imperiously and asked in a peremptory tone, “And what are you doing to extract your agent, Agent Eslin?”

The agent’s smile did not falter but became a bit strained, as if it took some effort.

“Me? I am writing a brief for a rescue mission for which, as I said, you may be useful, Captain Korff. It is in your best interest to assist us in this operation, if you want to receive the intel on Dagan ASAP.”

I remembered Sister Alitura’s characterisation of Keita Eslin and rolled my eyes. A little sly, she said? That was hands down insidious!

I gestured at the agent’s datapad, asking her to show me the mission. When she passed the device to me, I pressed my thumb on a sensor without looking at the brief and went out of the office.

As I was walking to the docks, I called Aura and asked her to prepare the ship for immediate undocking.

“What’s the rush, Cap?” she asked curiously.

“Got a mission,” I said tersely.

“To do what?”

“Don’t know. It’s in the brief. Feel free to read it.”

Aura’s eyes widened, “You mean you didn’t? Cap, you shouldn’t be accepting missions without checking the brief. What if the agent asked you to fight a titan?”

I shook my head in annoyance, “She wouldn’t. She is just Level 1 — titans are above her paygrade.”

“Okay, but what if she pays you peanuts?” insisted Aura.

I snorted, “Doesn’t matter. As I said, Keita is Level 1 — whatever she pays is below my paygrade.”

There was a short pause while Aura was reading the brief after which she said, “It’s not too bad, Cap. The objective is a bit vague — ‘run interference for the Krusual spy in Tabar’s training compound’ — but the pay is decent by Level 1 standards. The Bureau will pay 200,000 ISK as a main reward and 96,000 ISK as a time bonus. By the way, the time bonus period is almost four hours. Even if you have a beer or two before the mission, we should be able to finish it in time.”

“I just want to get it over with,” I muttered.

“Ready when you are,” Aura said brightly. “The engine is warm and the pod is loaded.”

---

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Mission location

Recruitment and Training Facility

We landed on the grid about 100 klicks away from the recruitment and training base. It was guarded by three ships which Neocom classified as Mercenary Rookies. I was taking my time to inspect the surrounds with my camera drones and other sensors, when the guards targeted Kaukokärki and sped in our direction. That was new. At such a range, I usually had to take a hostile action against the hostiles before hostilities commenced. Either I was getting famous among smugglers, or they were on high alert after their boss had been killed.

Mercenary Rookie

The Rookies certainly had a long targeting range — they yellow-boxed me before I could target them — but their effective firing range was much shorter. While I was marvelling at their quick reaction to my arrival, they closed the distance and were already 60 kilometres from me. I stood my ground — meaning I didn’t move the ship — and targeted them back. As soon as target locks were acquired, I shot a volley at the closest guard. Alpha! As usual, the first line of defence was just cannon, or should I say railgun, fodder for me. I quickly dispatched the remaining frigates and waited for further developments.

The developments did not make me wait long — almost immediately another group of four frigates emerged from the dock. It contained three Mercenary Fighters and was led by Mizara herself. Surprisingly, all of them were flying Caldari frigates — Mercs in Kestrels and Mizara in a Merlin. The fact that an Ammatar smuggler who did the biz across Minmatar-Amarr border chose a Caldari ship filled me with pride. Obviously, she preferred our military tech due to its superiority over the local products. So I thought until Mizara fired a weapon at me. I facepalmed. It was a missile! A goddamn missile on a ship bonused for hybrid turrets! Using missile launchers on a Merlin was like hitting a nail with the side surface of a hammer head — you got a result but it wasn’t as good as it could be with a blaster.

Mizara’s Ship

I shook my head ruefully — that abomination had to be destroyed. I mean, destroyed first. Others also fired missiles at me but at least they had enough sense to fly missile boats. For that, they would live a few seconds longer. As it turned out, only six seconds longer, since it was all the time I needed to blow up Mizara’s Merlin.

Mercenary Fighter

When the fight was over, I turned my attention to the training facility. My camera drones showed a stream of smaller ships and escape pods fleeing from the station. I called Keita Eslin.

“Hey, shall I pick up your agent?” I asked her showing the livestream.

Keita bit her lip, thought for a moment, then shook her head, “No. We haven’t been in touch since Mizara arrived, so we couldn’t tell him that you would come to rescue. And since there are smuggler forces remaining in the station, he has to keep radio silence to avoid detection. Better let him make his own way out of the facility. He will contact me when he is safe.”

“As you say,” I shrugged. “Anything else I need to do here?”

“No, the mission is accomplished, Captain. Thank you. Feel free to return to the base,” said Keita and ended the call.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Shifting Foundations — Part XI

Certificate of Death

Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau

4 September YC 127

I may sound like a broken record but I am fresh out of polite words which can describe my circumstances. So please bear with me while I am repeating myself: I hoped to finally get information on the whereabouts of Dagan today; instead, I’ve got another mission. If you think that was a joke, wait until you hear what mission Keita Eslin prepared for me.

“No more missions until I get the promised info on Dagan!” I said angrily when the agent explained why she had summoned me to her office.

“Oh, it’s a very simple mission, and a lucrative one, for that matter,” Keta said with a glint in her eye. “All you need to do is travel to Ammatar Consulate Bureau in Tanoo and tell my counterpart Dovirch Anselm that Mizara will work for him no more.”

My jaw dropped.

“You call a delivery of this self-indulgent, gleeful and vindictive message a mission?” I asked incredulously.

“200,000 ISK,” the agent replied coolly, “plus the same amount if you finish the mission in 6 hours.”

I had a surreal feeling as if I was dreaming.

Trying to find some method in that madness, I asked, “You mean, your management has approved spending 400,000 ISK on a job which could be done for a fraction of that sum by a courier on a shuttle? Wait a moment, is it because you expect Ammatars to kill me in revenge? So that my clone is restored from an older backup and I forget that you promised me intel on Dagan?” Furiously, I shook a finger in Keita’s direction, “Don’t even count on that! I’ll make a fresh backup at a different station before I fly to that goddamn Ammatar agent…”

“Oh, so you accept the mission?” Keita interrupted me with a pleasant smile.

I stared at her for a few moments and then deflated like a punctured balloon, my anger replaced with frustration.

“Just tell me what this is all about,” I said resignedly.

Keita smile turned to a grin and then to a laugh which she tried to suppress, unsuccessfully.

“Sorry, Captain,” she said gasping for air, “I should have explained the context but when you started fuming about the mission I couldn’t help playing along.”

“You mean there is no mission?” I asked suspiciously.

“Oh yes, there is. Everything I told you is absolutely true.”

“Including the fact that you have nothing to tell me about Dagan?”

Keita signed, “To be honest, what I said pretty much sums up what we know about Dagan. According to my agent, he wasn’t really a member of the smuggler cartel. Smugglers had some dealings with him but his main contacts were Mizara and Izia Tabar. Others, including the rest of the lieutenants, were not privy to Dagan’s business. What the agent also found out was that Mizara was not a smuggler either — she was an Ammatar agent who infiltrated the cartel under cover and was actively undermining their operations.”

“Why would Ammatars try to disrupt the criminal operation which hurt Minmatar financial interests? Ammatars should be cheering them on.”

“Don’t forget that the illegal trade flowed in both directions, and their interests were as damaged as ours,” Keita explained. “This is probably the only area where Amarr’s, Ammatar’s and Minmatar’s interests coincide. Unfortunately, we learned about Mizara’s true identity only after you completed your last mission.”

“So what’s the point in sending me to tell Ammatars that their agent was killed? And why me, of all people? Even if they don’t kill me as soon as I tell them the news, they’ll probably kick me out of the station.”

“I wouldn’t be worried about that. As much as I despise those Amarr’s lackeys, I have to admit that their security agents have a certain code of honour, especially when they deal with capsuleers. From their perspective, being a contractor, you are not personally responsible for Mizara’s death. Neither will they blame us — since they didn’t deign to inform us about her true role in the criminal cartel, she was a valid target for our law enforcement.”

“And by sending me, do you hope to start some kind of collaboration with Ammatar, so that you can avoid stepping on each other’s toes?”

“Nah, there can be no collaboration with those traitors. In fact, even sending them such a message is unprecedented. You were right — there is an element of self-indulgence. This letter,” Keita pushed a memory stick to me, “contains no apology. We are just expressing a regret that Mizara Nefra did not have an opportunity to complete her undercover assignment. This way we let Ammatars know that we know who she was. But the main purpose of this mission is to give you a pretext to get in touch with Mizara’s handler, Ammatar Security Agent Dovirch Anselm.”

“Ha!” I snorted, “That will be a great introduction — ‘Hello, my name is Vlad, I was sent to tell you that I have killed your agent’. And why would I want to talk to him anyway?”

Keita smiled, “We don’t mention your name in the letter, and you don’t have to tell them about your role in Mizara’s demise, but they will know. As to why you might want to talk to Anselm, it’s because, with Mizara and Izia gone, he is the only remaining lead to Dagan.”

“And what makes you think that Anselm will be willing to share his knowledge of Dagan with me?”

“Nothing,” the agent shrugged noncommittally, “Now it’s up to you to extract that knowledge. I have held up my end of the bargain but I realise it’s not what you expected. This last mission is my way of saying thanks to you for all your help with eliminating the smugglers’ leadership. The reward, as you noticed, is generous and, who knows, maybe you can use it to bribe Anselm.”

Here Keita gave me a sly wink.

I laughed, “It looks like you don’t have a high opinion of Ammatar agents’ code of honour.”

“No, I don’t. And if I were you, I would make that infomorph backup before crossing the border.”

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part I

A Matter of Decorum

Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Planet V — Moon 1
Ammatar Consulate Bureau

4 September YC 127

My last mission was not really urgent — as Keita Eslin said, by the time I reached the Ammatar agent, he would already know that I was the one who killed Mizara. Nevertheless, Keita made half the payment conditional on my delivering the message within six hours. I had a suspicion that she simply wanted to get me off her station as soon as possible, which was understandable after Aura’s glorious, and successful, attempt to crack mercenaries’ encrypted files that paralysed the whole station. Whatever Keita’s motives were, I didn’t have any reason to stay in Hek any longer, so soon enough I was on my way to Tanoo. En route, I followed the agent’s advice and made a fresh infomorph backup at one of Sisters of Eve stations.

When I arrived in Tanoo, I was surprised to discover that Ammatar Consulate Bureau station had the same design as Krusual Tribe Bureau. I expected to see a polished, gleaming specimen of Amarrian imperial space architecture, but then I remembered that Ammatar Mandate systems had belonged to Minmatar before they were captured by Amarr. Space stations were built for centuries, so it was not impossible that the one I was approaching had originally been constructed by Minmatar.

Ammatar Consulate Bureau

Before docking, I checked in GalNet if there was a bounty on my head. I didn’t find any. If Ammatar were hunting me, they were doing it without fanfare. I requested docking permission which was granted. The berthing was completed without an incident, everything was normal. I hesitated in front of the airlock, then shrugged and opened it — there was only one way to find out how much the Ammatars were pissed off by my killing of Mizara.

At the dock entrance, I checked the station directory and was only mildly surprised to discover that Ammatar security department was located in the same part of the station as the Minmatar one in Krusual Tribe Bureau. I found a door with Dovirch Anselm’s nameplate and knocked on it.

“Please come in, Captain Korff,” a soft voice replied immediately.

It looked like I was expected. I opened the door and entered the office.

Security Agent Dovirch Anselm

Security Agent Dovirch Anselm was an austere middle-aged man. His most striking feature was red hair cut in a style which was popular a couple of decades ago among some fringe musicians (pardon the pun). His face was expressionless but somehow I got a feeling that I was disapproved of. Wordlessly, the agent pointed at a guest chair.

I took the seat and said, “It appears, Mr Anselm, that introductions are not necessary.”

“No,” he agreed. “Moreover, I know what you did in Hek and why you have come to me. So we can skip that part too.”

I nodded my head in appreciation, “Impressive. So what will you do? Are you going to arrest me?”

Not a muscle twitched on Dovirch Anselm’s face but he was silent for a few seconds before he replied. I was getting an impression that he expressed his feelings with the rhythm of his speech.

“Arrest you? What for?” the agent finally said.

“For killing Mizara Nefra who, I understand, was in your employ.”

Another pause.

“I do not blame you for Mizara’s death,” Dovirch Anselm said slowly as if explaining something obvious to an especially thick child. “Mizara worked under cover, and being mistaken for a common criminal and attacked was a known occupational hazard for her. The fact that such a hazard manifested itself as Captain Vladimir Korff does not make you personally liable.”

“That’s… very reasonable of you,” I said. “Then, will you help me with The Damsel investigation?”

“Not with The Damsel, no,” the agent said, allowing a note of wry amusement in his voice. “I will help you with the Revelation case. It’s not every day that Amarr Empire loses a dreadnought to an unknown adversary.”

I blinked in confusion, but then remembered that, while The Damsel was the titular ship in the case, there were also two other vessels destroyed, one of which was Amarrian Revelation-class dreadnought. Of course, it made sense that Ammatar were interested in finding out who destroyed the ship belonging to their masters, not to Minmatar.

I was about to thank Agent Anselm for his kind offer of cooperation, when he said, “But first, I have a mission for you.”

I smirked — nothing was free. Even when the interests were aligned there was a price to pay.

“The fact that you destroyed Mizara’s body makes you uniquely qualified for this mission,” the agent continued. “The late Mistress Mizara’s parents entrusted the safety of their child to my lord.”

I cringed when I heard Dovirch refer to someone as his lord. One might argue that the relationships between managers and workers in some Caldari corporations were similar to masters and slaves, but even the lowliest labourer would not consider his boss an innately superior creature. Despite all economic inequality, there were no classes in Caldari society.

Meanwhile, Dovirch Anselm proceeded with the mission briefing, “My lord is fair and generous. He will provide a suitable monetary reparation to the parents but I feel that this situation requires more… delicacy. Take this toy.”

The agent produced a small doll from a drawer and carefully put it on the table in front of me.

“When Mistress Mizara first arrived at my lord’s estate, she had nothing to her name but this doll. Now that the mistress is gone, it is the only physical connection to her left in this world. Her parents will treasure this toy more than all the money my lord will give them. You will deliver this to the family, and will do it with utmost care.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine. I expected some kind of a suicide mission as an indirect punishment, but this…

I swallowed a lump in my throat and asked almost in a whisper, “Do you want me to deliver it personally?”

A long pause.

“No, I would not recommend it. If nothing else, it would be insensitive. Leave it in their mail receptacle and come back to me.”

I picked up the doll and said, “Please send the coordinates to my navigational AI.”

With that, I stood up and was going to leave the room when the agent said, “Ahem, there is a formality to be observed, Captain Korff. You have to sign this.”

Dovirch turned his datapad so that I could read the text on the screen, and pointed at the fingerprint sensor. I looked at the screen in disbelief — it was an official mission brief with a reward.

“Are you going to pay me for this?” I asked incredulously.

“I have told you, Captain Korff, that I need you for a mission,” the agent explained, “and I pay for missions.”

I took a deep breath and said, “I… I don’t want this money. Please transfer them to Mizara’s parents. They don’t need to know who sent them.”

A very long pause.

“I have to admit,” Dovirch Anselm said articulating each word, “that you have surprised me, Captain.”

He did not explain the reason for his surprise but I suspected that I was the first capsuleer who refused the payment.

“Very well,” the agent continued, “be it as you wish.”

He took the datapad and quickly changed the mission reward conditions. I touched the fingerprint sensor with my thumb and accepted the mission.

---

Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Mission location

It turned out that Mizara’s parents lived on an asteroid. They ran a business which could be called “subsistence mining”. A family or a small cooperative would find an asteroid which contained deposits of valuable minerals and establish a base on it. They would use drills and hand-held mining lasers to reach the minerals which could not be extracted by strip mining. The ore would be sold and then they would move to another asteroid, never earning enough money to expand their operations. It was a hard and dangerous life, so I would understand why Mizara’s parents would send their daughter as a ward, or even as a servant, to Ammatar lord’s household. What they probably didn’t expect was that she would be trained as a combat pilot and a spy, but of course no one gave them a choice.

I looked at the base — it was pretty modest: a habitation module, a communication tower, a warehouse but not much else. There were navigational beacons but I didn’t see any ships around. Chances were that they didn’t even own a ship.

Mizara’s Parents’ Home

As I approached the asteroid, I got an incoming call from the base. I ignored it — the last thing I wanted was looking Mizara’s mother in the eye and telling her that I brought her deceased daughter’s doll. I approached their mail receptacle and used the tractor beam to place the sealed container with the toy into it. Then I turned around and warped away.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part II

New Friends

Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Planet V — Moon 1
Ammatar Consulate Bureau

4 September YC 127

“It’s done,” I said walking into Dovirch Anselm’s office. “Now, tell me where I can find Dagan.”

I was pretty annoyed by Anselm’s so-called mission — it made me feel guilty. I was sorry that I unknowingly killed an innocent person, but that was an honest mistake. The agent said as much but nevertheless he pressed me into delivering Mizara’s doll to her parents as if it was a penance. I deeply disliked the man and wanted to conclude my dealings with him as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Anselm deemed it necessary to regale me with Mizara’s life story, intermingled with many pauses and thoughtful stares.

In short, I learned that Dagan was Mizara’s tutor many years ago. He was the one who taught Mizara to pilot combat ships. For reasons unknown, or delicately withheld by Anselm, Lord Taphos and Dagan had a falling out after which both Dagan and Mizara had fled. They fell in with smugglers and lived on the wrong side of the law for a few years until Mizara was captured by Ammatar security forces. She faced severe punishment but Lord Taphos used his influence to obtain a royal pardon in exchange for Mizara’s cooperation. Thus, she became Ammatar undercover agent within the smuggler cartel. Anselm started telling me about Mizara’s exploits in that capacity but I had had enough and interrupted him.

“But what about Dagan?” I asked impatiently.

After a pause, the agent said, “Dagan was part of the cartel at that time. He and Mizara…”

“I am not asking about the past,” I said through gritted teeth. “Where can I find Dagan now?”

Another pause.

“I do not know,” said Anselm finally.

I gaped at him.

“You don’t? But you said you would help me find Dagan!”

“That I’ll do. I know a man who brought Dagan to my lord’s attention — an archeologist of some respect, by the name of Doctor Canius. I believe that his association with Dagan has been uninterrupted all these years. If anyone knows how to find Dagan, it is the doctor.”

Finally, something, I thought.

I stood up and said, “Thank you for your help, Agent Anselm. Please send Doctor Canius’s location to my navigational AI. Have a good day.”

Before I could leave the office, Dovirch Anselm said, “Please sign here,” and moved his datapad across the table.

“What’s that?” I asked suspiciously.

“It’s a mission.”

“What mission?”

“A simple one — you need to report to Doctor Canius.”

I blinked in confusion, “I was going to do it anyway. Why the mission?”

“My lord wants to provide an incentive for you to continue the investigation and find Dagan. Lord Taphos has… a personal interest in this matter.”

I wasn’t one to say no to a pile of kredits, so I shrugged and pressed my thumb on the sensor, accepting the mission. It had, I noticed, a six-hour deadline for the time bonus.

As if I needed any more encouragement to leave that place, I thought with a wry smile and went to the docks.

---

Recovery

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Planet IV — Moon 4
Theology Council Tribunal station

Theology Council Tribunal Station

It turned out that Doctor Canius worked as a Distribution Agent at Theology Council Tribunal, just three jumps away which I completed post-haste. The Tribunal resided in a magnificent gilded station which, no doubt, was intended to symbolise God’s glory. I squinted unhappily at the sun rays reflected from the polished walls and asked for a docking permission. The permission was benevolently granted.

When I entered Doctor Canius’s office, I expected to see a pompous ass who used his doctorate to obtain a sinecure at a distribution department. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he was anything but. For one thing, he was a Khanid. The Khanids were less religious and more cosmopolitan than the mainstream Amarr society from which they originated. As a result, they didn’t treat citizens of all other empires as infidels who, at best, must be pitied and, at worst, must be “reclaimed”.

Doctor Canius

Doctor Canius greeted me with genuine interest and firmly shook my hand. I found him shrewd, energetic and (what a relief!) fast-talking.

“How can I help you, Captain Korff?” he asked when the introductions were over.

I briefly told the doctor a story of my investigation and how it led me to his door.

“Dead, is she?” Doctor Canius sighed and shook his head ruefully. “Shame. I was fond of her, and not in Taphos’s way, mind you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Honestly?” the doctor scoffed. “What do you think? That he was purely her protector and patron, to mold her and shape her for a life of dedicated service to God and Empire?”

“Um… So you’re saying that when Dovirch Anselm called Mizara ‘mistress’ he didn’t mean it as a title, like ‘Mrs’?”

“Of course not! Listen, I’ve been studying human history for a long while — after all, I am an archaeologist — and I can tell you that a platonic patronage between a ‘Lord’ and ‘Mistress’ hasn’t happened since the time when Reclaiming involved simply stabbing our heathen neighbours with pointy sticks.”

“Hmm…” I mused. “That explains Taphos’s ‘personal interest’ in finding Dagan. By the way,” I added innocently, “where is he now?”

“Ho-ho. Not so fast, my friend. If you want information, you’ll have to do something for me. Don’t worry, it’s really simple.”

I winced, “Maybe I can just pay you for the information and you will hire someone else to do that something for you.”

“I tried but all my previous contractors failed. I’ll tell you more — if you succeed, I will pay you!”

“Not so simple then,” I chuckled. “Okay, spill it.”

“Now we are talking,” Doctor Canius grinned rubbing his hands. “Look, you may think that I just warm a chair here but, in fact, I continue my archaeological research. Not far away, I have found a site which contains an artifact from some of the first Amarr space lanes. I hired several teams to extract it but each of them was driven off by pirates. I need someone who can stand his ground. Have you got a combat ship?”

“I fly a destroyer.”

“Excellent! For you, it will be a walk in the park. All you have to do is go in, get that artifact, and return it to me without dying. One more thing: are you any good with a Relic Analyzer?”

I remembered my time at Signal Cartel and smiled, “Yeah, I’ve used it once or twice.”

“Awesome! I’ll send one to your hangar. Don’t forget to fit it before undocking.”

With that, Doctor Canius enthusiastically shoved his datapad at me and all but pressed my finger against the sensor to confirm that I had accepted the mission.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part III

Recovery

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Planet IV — Moon 4
Theology Council Tribunal station

5 September YC 127

Yesterday, I didn’t rush to complete Doctor Canius’s mission. Instead, I rented a room at a nearby hotel for the night and asked Aura to arrange installation of the relic analyser provided by the Doctor in place of the kinetic shield amplifier.

This morning, refreshed after a good night’s sleep in a luxurious bed, I entered my dock and froze. For a few moments, I glared at an ugly protrusion on Kaukokärki‘s side and then called Aura on the commlink.

“What’s that?” I pointed my finger at the anomaly and turned the camera so that Aura could see the object of my disgust.

“That?” Aura raised her eyebrows. “It’s the relic analyser you asked me to install yesterday.”

“I didn’t mean a bloody toy. That thing is a civilian relic analyser which isn’t good for anything except training missions at the Academy.”

Aura shrugged, “That’s what I received from Canius. If you don’t like it, feel free to take it up with the good Doctor.”

“I surely will,” I replied gloomily and ended the connection.

Then I called Doctor Canius.

“Hey Doc,” I said. “I think there must be some mistake — the relic analyser that you sent is of a civilian variety.”

“And why is it a problem?” Doctor Canius asked testily.

“It is a problem because that thing is useless. I didn’t expect a Tech II version but even the basic Tech I variant is much better than this… this junk.”

The Doctor looked unfazed, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, he-he. Trust me, Captain, this thing will do just fine. We are dealing with a rather ancient technology here and, in all my experience, there was never a case when a civilian relic analyser could not crack its defences.”

“Hmm… I am not convinced but I’ll give it a try. If it’s too weak, a Tech I analyser is on you.”

“Nope,” Doctor Canius said firmly. “If you can’t disable the relic defences, either train up your skills, or I’ll find another contractor.”

Before I could protest my expertise — all my exploration skills were maxed out — the Doctor ended the call.

Quite a piece of work, this Doctor, I thought to myself and boarded the ship.

---

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Mission location

“Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here,” I said as my destroyer was emerging out of the warp.

“We’ve got company, Cap,” said Aura, business-like. “Two destroyers and a cruiser. All belong to Blood Raiders.”

“A cruiser?” I scowled at the Overview window which showed three red icons. “What would a Blood Raiders cruiser do here? Doesn’t look like a base.”

The video feed showed remains of some temple and a few asteroids.

Ancient Tomb Dig Site

Aura made round eyes, “How would I know? Ask them if you are interested.”

“What a brilliant idea!”

I opened the local channel and called the captain of the cruiser.

“Dear Captain,” I said, “may I ask you what brought you to this god-forsaken corner of New Eden?”

Aura suppressed a chuckle, “I didn’t mean it literally.”

“You are mistaken, pagan,” a voice boomed from the receiver but no image appeared on the screen. “The God is here and we have an honour of guarding his sacred place.”

I looked at Aura smugly, “See?”

Aura rolled her eyes.

“Ahem,” I said into the the local channel, “thank you for enlightening me as to your purpose. Correct me if I am wrong, but it does seem to complicate my mission of extracting an artifact from that spectacular ruin.”

“It does, indeed,” replied the voice with a hint of amusement. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn back and warp away. Your destroyer is no match to our fleet.”

“Funny you should say that,” I retorted coolly. “This was exactly the offer I was going to make to you. I don’t mean it as a boast, but as a warning. Have you ever fought a capsuleer?”

There was a pause and then the cruiser captain’s face appeared on the screen.

“A capsuleer?” he said with interest, leaking his lips. “If you are a capsuleer, forget what I said about warping. You are very welcome to stay here and donate your blood to our worthy cause.”

“I thought that you, vampires, were more into innocent kids’ blood,” I replied, feeling goosebumps on my skin despite the perfect temperature of the pod goo.

“We don’t care about innocence,” the cruiser captain said devouring me with his eyes, “but we appreciate freshness. With age, blood becomes stale and polluted. It loses its rejuvenating qualities.”

“But I am not young,” I said defensively.

“You? Maybe not. But how old is your clone?”

“Oh…” I gasped, the realisation dawning on me.

“Yess,” hissed the Blood Raider. “So, how do you want to play it, Captain? Do you want to die in agony in the remains of your capsule? Or do you want to surrender and end your life in pleasant sedation while we gently bleed you?”

“Tantalising choices!” I snorted. “In case you didn’t know, a capsuleer’s death is always painless and instantaneous — a destructive brain scanner takes care of that.”

“The hard way, then,” the cruiser captain said regretfully. “Boys, let’s give him his ‘painless and instantaneous’ death!”

With that, the Blood Raiders ships accelerated towards me.

Corpum Arch Reaver

Sixty klicks which separated me from the pirates might not seem like a huge distance but cruisers aren’t fast. While it was turning and accelerating, I already managed to send two volleys of Spike its way. Another thing about cruisers is that they are not very manoeuvrable. This means that every charge hit it really hard — there were no misses, not even glancing blows. It had solid defences though — all in all, it took 13 volleys from seven railguns to disassemble the bastard.

The two destroyers were faster but crunchier. Just as the cruiser, they didn’t have any prop modules so their approach was rather sedate. That gave me enough time to blow them up before they came into their firing range. In case you are wondering how they could even approach Kaukokärki which was equipped with a microwarpdrive, I can tell you I didn’t bother turning it on. For that matter, I didn’t even use the regular drive — my ship was stationary throughout the battle.

When the cruiser and the destroyers were finished, two frigates popped up on my Overview: Corpii Collector and Corpii Seeker. I wasn’t sure what they were going to do there after their larger fleet mates had been destroyed. Maybe, in anticipation of my defeat, they were called to seek my corpse and collect my blood? I’ll never know what their intentions were but the reality was that they collected quite a lot of hybrid charges and found death.

Corpii Seeker

I waited for a couple of minutes in case the Raiders sent reinforcements but all was quiet. Cautiously, I approached the ruined temple and targeted it with my civilian relic analyser. The Doctor was right — the defence field was half the size of modern green-core protection systems, and I hadn’t encountered any defence subsystems before I reached the system core. Soon, the lock was opened and I eagerly peered into the container. As you know, I had plenty of experience hacking the relics but none of them was as old as that one. I was about to make my first archaeological discovery! The tractor beam reached inside and produced… a ‘Mysterious Statuette’.

Mysterious Statuette

I stared at my trophy in confusion. It was a vaguely human-shaped figurine made of some dull light-coloured metal. There were a few illegible engravings but that was pretty much all I could say about it.

“This feels… bathetic,” I said, grimacing.

Aura shrugged, “What did you expect? To my knowledge, 99% of all archaeological discoveries consist of rather unremarkable, usually broken, objects. You are lucky to find this thingy in one piece.”

“I hope our Doctor will not be disappointed,” I sighed.

“If he is the kind of an archaeologist that he claims to be, he should be ecstatic,” Aura said drily, warping us back to the station.

---

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Planet IV — Moon 4
Theology Council Tribunal station — Dr Canius’s office

“Unbelievable!” gasped the Doctor, when I placed the statuette on his desk. “This is… this is pre-Codex liminality encoded in matter! This statuette isn’t a relic, it’s a keystone, a devotional instrument calibrated to early Amarr transit vectors. It has seen the birth of Empire space lanes! Do you understand what this means? The Blood Raiders must have venerated this object, perhaps even misunderstood it as a conduit of divine spiritus! Oh, I must document this immediately…”

“Ahem,” I coughed politely, interrupting the Doctor’s ravings. “It’s all very exciting, Doctor, but we have an unfinished business. I’ve held up my end of the bargain, now it’s your turn. You promised to tell me where Dagan had holed up.”

For a moment, the Doctor looked bewildered as if it was the first time he heard Dagan’s name, “Dagan?.. Oh, Dagan! To be honest, mate, I have no idea.”

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part IV

Of Quiet Nights Long Past

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Planet IV — Moon 4
Theology Council Tribunal station — Dr Canius’s office

5 September YC 127

“What?” I said, feeling the blood rushing to my face.

I was incredulous. I was frustrated. I was angry. That son of a ■■■■■ lied to me!

I moved menacingly towards the Doctor with my fists clenched. I was closer than ever to resorting to direct physical violence. Probably, the Doctor saw that in my face, as he tried to raise his hands in a placating gesture. Then he realised that he still held the statuette in one hand and that it looked like he was threatening to hit me with it. Canius hastily placed the statuette on the desk and babbled.

“Er… Um… Look, I did not mean to deceive you. I didn’t say that I knew where Dagan was, I just said that I knew where you could find him. I haven’t seen Dagan for ages but I’ll bet two to one that after his sojourn at Taphos’s he returned to his old ways. There is a nearby monastery where he used to live. I am sure you’ll find him there. I’ll give you the coordinates.”

I looked at the Doctor coldly, “Two to one, you say? I don’t like the odds. Let me offer you a better deal. You’ll arrange my visit to that monastery as a mission and pay me Z500,000 regardless of the outcome.”

Canius gasped, “Half a million kredits? Who do you think I am — a High Deacon? I am just a Level 1 agent and that sum is way above my authorisation limit!”

The fact that he rejected my proposal because the sum was too large told me that he was willing to bargain.

“What is you limit?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you, this information is confidential. But I can easily organise a mission with, say, Z50,000 reward.”

I snorted, “That’s not nearly enough. I’ve just retrieved a priceless artifact for you in exchange for an empty promise. Make it Z450,000.”

“It’s not really priceless,” mumbled the Doctor unconvincingly, “it’s just old. I am prepared to raise the ‘mission fee’ to Z100,000 and not a kredit more.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Dunno, ‘a pre-Codex liminality encoded in matter which witnessed the birth of Empire space lanes’ sounds pretty expensive to me. One of a kind, I understand. Okay, I’ll take Z400,000. It’s really a low price to pay for a breach of trust.”

The Doctor sounded desperate, “I’ve told you — I don’t have authority to pay that kind of money. I’ll give you Z200,000, that’s all I can do for you.”

I rubbed my chin, pretending to consider his offer, and said, “Actually, the price of the statuette is immaterial. What’s important is that you used the corporate funds to obtain an object for your personal research. There is a word for it,” I wrinkled my brow. “Misappropriation? Embezzlement? Fraud? To be honest, legalese is not my forte but I am sure that the corp’s lawyers will find an appropriate term for it. So now you can choose what will happen in 15 minutes’ time – either you will hear the corp security banging on your door, or you will wave me good-bye as I undock to embark on a dangerous mission to visit the monastery which will cost the Tribunal a mere Z375,000. This is my last offer.”

Doctor Canius went pale and wrung his hands, “You can’t do this to me!”

I grinned evilly, “I can. And I will.”

“Alright, alright. I can match your price but only with a time bonus.”

I shrugged, “As long as it’s a standard timeframe, 5-6 hours, I don’t mind.”

Canius tapped the conditions on his datapad and handed it to me. I checked the numbers and saw that the time bonus was Z171,000, making the total fee Z4,000 short of the agreed price. I gave the agent a reproachful look but signed the contract nonetheless.

---

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Mission location

What Doctor Canius called “a monastery” turned out to be a veritable space station. It was surrounded by a gas cloud which meant that it was uninhabited.

Ammatar Holy Dome

I cursed, “Damn, Dagan is not here. This place was abandoned ages ago.”

“Could there still be Dagan’s personal effects which might indicate his current whereabouts?” asked Aura.

“Even if there are any,” I grunted, “it will take weeks to scour this ruin. I’ll need to hire a search party.”

“Like this one?” Aura smiled pointing at the Overview.

The window showed the strangest fleet I’ve ever seen. It consisted of frigates from all four empires — Rifter, Condor, Tristan, Inquisitor — which did not fit into any fleet doctrine.

Scavengers Rifter

“Who are those guys?” I asked, frowning.

“Scavs,” said Aura. “They fly whatever they can make fly.”

“And you reckon they’ll agree to search the monastery for me?”

“Oh, for sure,” Aura said. “They probably already did.”

I squinted my eyes, “How do you know so much about scavengers?”

“Oh, haven’t you watched that holo-show called ‘Zora-Zazora and the Scavs’? In every episode, Zora…” Aura started enthusiastically.

I groaned, “Okay, okay, I’ve got the idea.”

Aura, looking slightly offended, muttered, “It’s a cool show.”

“I’m sure it is. Let’s just ask these people if they can be of any help.”

I opened the local channel and said, “Good day, gentlemen. I believe I have an interesting business proposition for you.”

An unshaven individual with a cybernetic eye implant appeared on the screen.

“Interesting, you say? Spill it, guv.”

I explained what I was looking for and asked if they had found anything like it.

“Nah, we haven’t started on this piece of space junk yet,” said the guy whom I took for the scavs leader. “But we can look out for any possessions of that… what’s his name?”

“Dagan,” I said.

“Yeah, Dagan. It will cost you though. We’ll sell you his stuff for, say, 10,000 ISK.”

“Deal,” I said hastily.

The price was laughable and I hurried to agree to it before he changed his mind.

“Alright, guv. Come back in a week’s time.”

I sighed and mumbled, “There goes my time bonus”.

But it couldn’t be helped — it was a really large structure which would take time to explore. I gave the scavs my contact number and returned to Theology Council Tribunal station.

---

11 September YC 127

Six days later, I got a call from the scavengers and hurried to the abandoned monastery in my destroyer. The same guy I talked to before contacted me in local.

“Morning, guv. I’ve got good news and bad news for you,” he said.

“Hit me with the bad one first,” I said, wincing.

“Okay, the bad news is that someone has already been through this wreck and took all the valuable stuff. All that was left for us is pretty much scrap metal.”

“Can’t see any good news in scrap metal.”

“Oh, but there is. One of the metal pieces turned out to be a safe. My guys spent almost a week trying to open it and finally succeeded. In the end, it was not worth the effort — there was just a handful of credits, nothing too valuable. But, I reckon, you, guv, can actually make it worth our while. Look what else was there.”

The scavenger produced a folded piece of paper and showed me the bottom half which had Dagan’s signature. The text was mostly obscured by his hand but what I could see was not written in a language I knew.

“Is that all you found?” I asked.

“I’ve told you, guv, everything else is bare metal.”

“All right, a deal is a deal. I’ll pay you 10,000 ISK for it.”

The scav smiled slyly, “When I said you could make it worth our while, I didn’t mean the puny 10 thousand. We spent a lot of time trying to get this paper and didn’t get anything on top of it. If this ruin was intact, it would be a different story — the document would be just one thing among many which we could sell. Now, it appears it’s the only thing we can sell, and as such, its price has to be much higher. Considering what we could get in six days, I am ready to sell it to you for 10 million kredits.”

I shook my head angrily, “That’s not what we agreed on. You said you would sell all Dagan’s stuff to me for 10,000 ISK. You can’t break your promise now.”

The scavenger nodded solemnly, “You know what? I agree. Selling this document to you for 10 million would be dishonest.” Then he winked and folded the paper, “On the other hand, if I sell it to someone else for that sum, it will be good business.”

I had had enough of his games.

“You will sell this document to me for 10 grand, or…” I said, and targeted his ship.

The scav scoffed, “Really, guv? You might be flying a dessy but there are seven of us. Don’t start what you can’t finish.”

I fired.

If they were capsuleers in properly fitted frigates, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But their combat skills were rudimentary and their ships were bolted together from whatever materials they managed to scrape up. In the end, I spent less than Z10K in Spike ammo to destroy the whole flotilla. Then, I approached the scavs leader’s wreck and extracted the document from his cold, dead hands.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part V

Revelations

Devoid region — Kisana constellation
Lisudeh system — Planet IV — Moon 4
Theology Council Tribunal station — Dr Canius’s office

12 September YC 127

I didn’t intend to have any more dealings with Doctor Canius, but there I was sitting in his office and patiently awaiting his advice. You see, the problem was that the only thing I could read on the document obtained from the scavengers was Dagan’s signature. Everything else was written in an alphabet I had never seen before. I had no choice but to turn to a specialist, and Canius was the only scholar I knew in Lisudeh.

“This is fascinating,” Doctor Canius mumbled. “See this character?” he pointed at a squiggle which looked like a drunken worm who couldn’t decide which way to crawl. “It’s Jovian! The words aren’t Jovian though. It looks like they used them as a kind of a cipher.”

“Can you decrypt it?” I asked.

“Pfft, easily,” scoffed the Doctor and started typing something on his datapad. “Let’s just apply phonetic transliteration and a reverse transcription lookup in common languages. Hmm… Doesn’t look like anything to me. Okay, let’s broaden the language scope. Right… Uh-huh! It turns out that they wrote in the ancient Amarrad language phonetically transcribed in Jovian alphabet. Smart! There aren’t many people who know both.”

“So, what does the document say?”

“Lemme see. Amarrad is not a problem — this is the language that every serious Amarrian archaeologist must know — but my Jovian is a but rusty. I’ll need to feed the whole text to the datapad.”

Doctor Canius took a photo of the document and ran the decryption program. A few seconds later we got another text which was as unreadable to me as the original but the Doctor was beaming like a man who had just won a lottery.

“A-ha, a-ha,” he muttered, tracing the lines of text with his finger. “O-ho!”

“What? What’s that?” I asked impatiently. “Does it say anything about Dagan’s whereabouts?”

“No, it doesn’t,” the Doctor said slowly, peering at the text.

Then he turned to me with a troubled expression on his face.

Canius took a deep breath and said, “It appears that Dagan had an ulterior motive for accepting the role of Mizara’s tutor.”

“You mean, he… um… corrupted the girl?”

“No, much worse. In this letter, Dagan reported that his mission went well and that he fully earned the mark’s — I assume Taphos’s — trust. The mark gave him a password and a clearance to access Imperial archives. Dagan found everything pertaining to the Empire’s knowledge of ‘pre-Jovian’ weapons and sent it to someone.”

“Pre-Jovian weapons? What are they?”

The Doctor shrugged, “I can’t say what qualifies as a ‘pre-Jovian’ weapon. Could be the stuff that Empress Jamyl used on the Elder Fleet. One thing that I know for sure is that Taphos had unwittingly provided Imperial secrets to a spy. My friend, you need to immediately deliver this information to him!”

“Not interested,” I said dejectedly. “Anselm made it clear that they didn’t know anything about Dagan’s location. And that’s the only information that could make me go back to Tanoo and meet that dried cod again. Let your counter-intelligence sort it out.”

“No, on the contrary,” cried Canius, “you don’t want the counter-intelligence to get involved! Listen, if you come to Taphos and tell him you have a proof that he gave access to Imperial archives to a spy, making it public will be the last thing Taphos wants. His preference will be to find the culprit and quietly make him disappear. That’s where your goals will align. They might not know Dagan’s location now but a man like Taphos can invest significant resources into finding it.”

“Why are you so eager to inform Taphos about it?” I asked suspiciously. “As a loyal Amarr citizen, you should inform authorities about this discovery.”

Doctor Canius looked away. When he turned back to me he looked… older, as if my question pierced the outer shell which deflated and exposed his tired, wrinkled visage.

“Authorities,” he said bitterly. “Who do you think those authorities are in Amarr empire?”

I didn’t answer feeling that it was an academic question.

“All the power here belongs to aristocracy. Do you think I enjoy being a distribution agent? I was a respected scholar when I had a misfortune to recommend Dagan to Taphos. When Mizara ran away with Dagan, Taphos blamed me for the debacle. After I lost his favour, I also lost my job and any prospect of being employed by a reputable academic institution. I had to find another job to get by. Now, I have a chance to redeem myself by helping Taphos to avoid the catastrophe. If you agree to deliver that message to him, I can arrange it as a paid mission for you.”

“Really?” I asked sardonically. “Another use of corporate money to achieve your own ends?”

“If you succeed and I am in Taphos’s good books again, it won’t matter.”

“And why don’t you deliver this message to Taphos yourself?”

Canius shifted uncomfortably, “I could but I am not sure that Taphos will even listen to me. Besides, it may look a bit a like a blackmail. If, on the other hand, you deliver the message and mention that I have helped you discover the truth, my role will be that of a loyal and modest servant.”

I sniggered, “A loyal and modest servant who keeps a secret that can ruin his master. Okay, how much?”

After a few rounds of argy-bargy I secured a very special delivery mission for 411,000 kredits.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part VI

A Call to Trial

Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Planet V — Moon 1
Ammatar Consulate Bureau

13 September YC 127

Before coming to Dovirch Anselm’s office, I brainstormed the way I was going to break the news to him. The openings like “Hey, mate, your boss is in deep ■■■■” and “It takes an Amarrian to ■■■■ up that badly” were quickly dismissed, although Aura insisted that they would set up a dramatic backdrop for the message. Instead, I settled on a gradual reveal, taking a role of a courier and putting the spotlight on Doctor Canius who craved recognition. If all went well, I wouldn’t mind his getting back in Taphos’s good graces. On the other hand, any blame would also fall on Canius. Me, I just wanted to assist Taphos in finding the culprit who betrayed his trust.

“Good morning, Agent Anselm,” I said as I entered Dovirch’s office. “I have a message for Lord Taphos from Doctor Canius.”

“Good morning, Captain Korff,” said the agent, “please take a seat.” Then he steepled his hands, looked at me for for a few seconds and slowly repeated, “‘A message for Lord Taphos from Doctor Canius’… I must say this is rather… singular. What is the message?”

I put a copy of Dagan’s letter on the desk and moved it towards Anselm. He picked it up and stared at it for a minute or two.

Then he put the letter back on the desk and said, “This does not make any sense.”

“No,” I agreed. “This is the original text of an encrypted message sent by Dagan. He used Jovian phonetic alphabet to transcribe a message written in Amarrad. Here is the translation.”

Before I could produce the decrypted version of the text, Dovirch Anselm picked up the original and started reading it.

“You know Jovian and Amarrad?” I asked, amazed.

The agent said nothing while he was perusing the letter. Finally, he opened a draw in his desk, folded the paper and carefully stored the document there.

Then he turned to me and said laconically, “Yes, I do.”

I mentally reassessed the intelligence of the man who so far looked a bit slow and simple.

“And what does Doctor Canius mean by this message?” the agent asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “When he deciphered this letter his only wish was to inform His Lordship of this unfortunate turn of events and enable him to take… um… a corrective action in regards to Dagan. As you know, I am very much interested in finding that man and I’ll be happy to offer my assistance to His Lordship in this endeavour.”

After a long pause, Dovirch Anselm said, “I see. Thank you, Captain Korff, for the delivery. Do not let me detain you.”

“I am not in a rush,” I replied. “So, how about my offer to find Dagan? Are you interested?”

“If Lord Taphos requires your services, I will inform you in due time.”

Fuming at the agent’s snooty reply, I stood up and wished him good day.

---

14 September YC 127

Despite the non-committal response given by Agent Anselm, I decided to stay at Ammatar Consulate Bureau station for a while, in case Taphos decided that he ‘required my services’. My patience was rewarded, or so I thought, the very next day. While I was browsing the local directory to find a cafe for a breakfast, Dovirch Anselm called me and asked to arrive at his office immediately. See, not ‘at my earliest convenience’, not even ‘as soon as possible’, but ‘immediately’. I would have dropped everything and met him in any case, but the tone of the message meant that my presence was indispensable.

“Lord Taphos would like to meet you,” Anselm said after the greetings.

“Great!” I exclaimed, my hopes rising. “When can I see him?”

“As soon as possible, at these coordinates,” replied the agent, showing me the destination on his datapad.

I scanned the numbers and checked the location — it was in Tanoo system but it was far away from any celestial body or station.

“What is that place?” I asked, confused.

“Just a piece of vacuum where no one will disturb you. Trials are best conducted away from prying eyes.”

“Trials? What trials?”

Dovirch Anselm’s solemn face grew even more somber.

“It is a trial by combat,” he intoned, “an ancient but still legal procedure whereby an offended party may clear themselves of the offence by fighting the offender. If the offender refuses to take part in the trial, he is automatically considered guilty of libel and is sentenced accordingly. If the trial proceeds, the justice will take the side of the surviving party.”

I was gobsmacked!

“How did I offend Taphos? All I did was offer him my cooperation in finding Dagan who deceived him and stole Imperial secrets.”

“This is exactly the offence. Lord Taphos maintains that no such thing has happened.”

“But there is Dagan’s letter which confirms that!” I insisted.

“Forgery. Or misinterpretation. The letter was written in code and there is no guarantee that you deciphered it correctly.”

I rolled my eyes, “This is lunacy! I offer my help and, in return, I am accused of libel. I refuse to take part in this farce. I am leaving. Now.”

I stood up but before I could leave, Agent Anselm raised an admonishing hand, “As I said, Captain Korff, a refusal to take part in the trial will be considered an admission of guilt. You will be arrested before you can reach the docks.”

I collapsed back into the chair. It felt like a nightmare from which I could not wake up.

After some reflection I said, “Look, what is the point of such trials these days? The re-cloning tech makes survival guaranteed.”

“Oh, that was taken care of. We’ve made sure that access to Lord Taphos’s clones was shut off.”

My jaw dropped, “Lord Taphos’s clones??? Is he a capsuleer?”

“No,” said Anselm, “Lord Taphos was not able to master the neural interface. Nevertheless, given his wealth and position in the Royal House of Ardishapur, he could certainly afford personal clones.”

That was a relief — if Taphos was a pod pilot, it would take the trial to a totally different level. I’d never fought a capsuleer but I knew that trained combat pilots could be deadly. Still, Anselm did not address my objection.

“In fact, when I mentioned re-cloning, I meant myself, ” I said. “Even if Taphos manages to defeat me, I shall just wake up in Amsen where he can’t reach me.”

“You clones have been deactivated too.”

I laughed, “Nah, Caldari State and Amarr Empire are allies, but their cooperation does not go that far. Neither Taphos, nor, for that matter, Catiz herself can interfere with capsuleer clone storage. It’s a prerogative of Caldari State.”

“Have you checked your messages lately?” Agent Anselm asked evenly.

I gave him a dubious look but took out my commlink and checked the inbox. To my horror, there was one from Science and Trade Institute School which informed me that

“Access to your clones has been suspended until the criminal charges laid by Amarr Empire are cleared. During that period, any attempt to transfer and/or restore an infomorph backup will be declined.”

Shellshocked, I stared into the distance. It can’t be happening, it can’t be happening, it can’t be happening, a thought buzzed in my head like a fly that was trapped in a room. Or can it? Suddenly, I had a flashback to the time when I helped my friend Gerhardt with his mission. His customer deregistered Gerhardt’s clones to ensure that he would do his damnedest to survive the flight together with his passengers. And the customer, as in my case, was also Amarrian!

When Gerhardt told me his story, I was thrilled and sympathetic. Mentally, I understood that losing access to his clones made his life a lot riskier. But hey, he just became like any other baseliner, like me. Never could I imagine the visceral dread that gripped me when I found myself in a similar situation. It was like walking along the narrow bridge over an abyss and see the guardrails suddenly disappear. I was paralysed with fear and could not make myself take another step. But I had to — the clock was ticking.

“How did you do this?” I asked weakly, still coming to terms with my sudden mortality.

“With enough wealth and influence, many things become possible, and Lord Taphos possesses both,” replied the agent.

I realised that it was a useless question, so I asked a more pertinent one, “What kind of ship does Taphos fly?”

“I have good news for you, Captain: according to the rules of the trial, the participants must pilot the ships themselves and be the only persons on board of their vessels. In practice, it means that Lord Taphos is limited to frigate-class ships.”

It was a good news indeed, but something wasn’t right there.

I narrowed my eyes, “Why did you say it was good news? As a capsuleer, I can take on a cruiser fully crewed by baseliners, to say nothing about frigates. How is it good news for you and your boss?”

After a long pause, Dovirch Anselm provided an explanation, “You have to understand, Captain Korff, that, although I call Lord Taphos ‘my Lord’, I do not serve him; I serve Amarr Empire. I will do anything to uphold the Imperial glory, and I’ve been persuaded that your survival in this trial will be the best outcome for Amarr.”

“My survival? What’s so special about me?…” I started asking but then checked myself.

It wasn’t about me, I realised, it was about Lord Taphos. Someone wanted him dead.

Dovirch Anselm saw the recognition in my eyes and said, confirming my guess, “In fact, I am authorised to offer you two incentives. Firstly, if you are victorious in this trial, you will be paid Ƶ200,000. And if you complete the mission in,” he checked the watch, “2 hours and 2 minutes, you will be paid additional Ƶ62,000.”

“Wait a moment! Did you say a mission? You actually hire me to kill an Amarrian lord?”

“Not exactly. Your trial is inevitable, so I don’t pay you for initiating or participating in the combat which might lead to the demise of Lord Taphos. Also, it is not my personal initiative. I am an agent which means that I act on behalf of other people. And there are people who would like to see you succeed.”

“But why? Who, in their own mind, would sponsor an assassination of an Amarrian lord?”

Another long pause.

“I am not sure that this information is strictly needed for your mission but I’d like to assure you that it is not some kind of conspiracy. Without naming your benefactors, I can tell you this: Lord Taphos is very conservative. By itself, it’s not a problem — there is a place for conservative voices in any society. However, what is considered conservative also changes with time. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Lord Taphos. He has been kept alive for a long time by the clone technology. While changing a clone can rejuvenate the body, it does nothing to the accumulated baggage of person’s habits, opinions and prejudices. This means that Lord Taphos’s strain of conservatism is not simply old, it is irrelevant these days. Increasingly, his antiquated views are becoming an obstacle and an embarrassment to the Royal House of Ardishapur.

“Luckily, by challenging you to trial by combat, Lord Taphos provided a perfect opportunity to eliminate him. If you defeat him, there will be no political or legal repercussions whatsoever for you. On the contrary, you may win a few favours with very influential people.”

I took a few moments to process the information. I’ve never thought of this aspect of living a long life but it kind of made sense.

“You said you had two incentives. What’s the other one?” I asked.

“If you survive the trials, I can give you more information about Dagan.”

“What?!” I exploded, “I already asked you about his whereabouts and you sent me to Doctor Canius. You mean that you knew where to find Dagan all that time and didn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t say that I had information about Dagan’s location,” Anselm said evenly, “I said that I had information about Dagan. It may or may not help you locate him.”

On reflection, I was not sure it was much of an incentive. Look where that investigation had led me — deactivated clones and a fight to death with an Amarrian lord.

“Alright,” I said. “Tell me about the rules of this trial.”

“The rules are simple: participants must be on their own and remain on grid until one of them dies. Any participant who breaks these rules automatically loses the trial.”

“Simple, indeed,” I muttered and stood up. “I guess there is no point in delaying the inevitable. Good-bye, Agent Anselm.”

Before I left the room, Dovirch Anselm called me, “Captain Korff.”

I turned, expecting maybe another rule that he forgot to tell me.

Instead, the agent said simply, “Good luck.”

Surprised at that expression of goodwill from the stone-faced man, I looked at him for a long moment, then nodded and went to the docks.

---

“They did what?” Aura asked me, horrified, after I had told her about my clone deactivation.

I didn’t reply and for the umpteenth time checked the status of various ship systems.

Aura tightened her lips and said in a determined tone, “Listen, we are not going to die today. We’ll go to that trial and kick the ass of that bloody Lord Pathos.”

“Taphos,” I corrected Aura automatically.

Then I realised what she did there, and involuntarily smiled.

“Yeah, I know. Killing one frigate piloted by a non-capsuleer shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just… that I feel naked and vulnerable even in hi-sec.”

Aura raised an eyebrow, “You are naked.”

I snorted, “Thanks for the reality check.”

“Here is another one for you — a man with seven Tech II 150-mm railguns, protected by 4,387 EHP can hardly call himself vulnerable.”

“Oh, come on! You know that gankers can take on much tankier ships.”

“Pfft! Yeah, there is a queue of gankers waiting outside for a Cormorant destroyer with bugger all in its hold,” Aura said sarcastically. “Anyway, if you are so scared, just make sure that you get the ■■■■ off the grid as soon as the docking control releases you.”

I took a deep breath, “Here goes nothing,” and requested the permission to undock.

---

Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Mission location

Of course, Aura was right — no one paid any attention to a destroyer undocking in 0.9-security system. Nevertheless, I immediately willed Kaukokärki to warp to the trial location. As we emerged from the warp tunnel, I suspiciously peered at the Overview window, checking for hostiles. There was exactly one, a hundred klicks away. As Dovirch Anselm promised, it was a frigate, Crucifier-class, piloted by Lord Taphos. The frigate immediately targeted me and started moving in my direction.

“Why is he doing this?” I mused. “We could have found that bloody Dagan and no one needed to know about the archives.”

“Vlad,” Aura said tensely.

“What?”

“He is within our firing range. Are you going to fight or what?”

Lord Taphos’s Crucifier

He was indeed. I hastily targeted the frigate and opened fire. Ten seconds later the frigate exploded. Stupefied, I looked at the expanding cloud of debris.

“Is that… it?” I asked in bewilderment.

As if in answer to my question, a message appeared on the comms screen. I opened it. The message was from Science and Trade Institute School. It said:

“We are happy to inform you that access to your clones has been restored. Thank you for choosing our Amsen branch for your cloning needs.”

A huge weight lifted off my chest. I took a deep breath of pod goo which tasted like the sweetest air. I was immortal again!

“Congratulations, Captain,” Aura said with a smile. “This calls for a celebration.”

I narrowed my eyes, “The celebration can wait. I have other plans for today.”

“Such as?”

“Such as going back to the Ammatar Consulate Bureau station and shaking out of Anselm all the information he has about Dagan.”

“Great idea!” Aura agreed. “Warp drive active.”

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: A Breach of Trust — Part VII

Brothers and Sisters

Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Planet V — Moon 1
Ammatar Consulate Bureau

14 September YC 127

“I am pleased to see that you came out of the trials victorious, Captain Korff,” Dovirch Anselm greeted me when I entered his office, “but I never had any doubt that the divine justice would prevail. We both know that Lord Taphos’s claim was spurious — he had never had a chance to win this hallowed contest.”

I wish I had your confidence, I thought. Aloud I said, “Thank you, Agent Anselm. I have received my first incentive; I have come to you for the second one.”

The agent steepled his hands and looked in the distance. The distance, obviously, was limited by the wall of his office but he seemed to look through it. Silence ensued.

“Dagan,” he said finally. “I can tell you two things related to Dagan. Firstly, he is a member of the Society of Conscious Thought.”

“SoCT?” I raised my eyebrows.

That didn’t sound significant. The Society was a faction whose stated goal was to find the meaning of existence. They were better known for the excellent educational institutions which produced high-calibre graduates. Neither of those facts had any bearing on my investigation. Then a thought occurred to me.

“How do you know that?” I asked the agent suspiciously. “It’s not like Society membership can be found on a GalNet site.”

“No, it cannot,” agreed Anselm, “but the Empire keeps a close eye on the Society’s activities and, as a Security Agent, I have access to the relevant intelligence.”

“And does that intelligence gives us any clue where to find Dagan?”

“Unfortunately, not.”

“Then how does this fact help me?” I asked, frowning.

“By itself, it doesn’t,” replied the agent. “But there is another thing — the only faction which is interested in the Society more than the Empire is Sisters of Eve. If anyone has information about Dagan’s whereabouts, it’s them.”

I sighed in disappointment, “I’ve already talked to the Sisters. All they knew was that Dagan was somewhere in Minmatar space and sent me to Keita Eslin. Since then, Dagan’s trail went cold.”

“That was then,” said Dovirch. “Given Sisters’ continuous monitoring of SoCT operations, I will not be surprised if they have gathered more intelligence on Dagan by now. They are your best chance to find him.”

Looks like I’ve come full circle, I thought.

As there was nothing else that Agent Anselm could tell me about Dagan, we said our good-byes and I left his office. I doubted that Sisters had got more info on Dagan. Sister Alitura said that I was the only contractor she could engage for The Damsel investigation; if she knew anything about Dagan she would have contacted me. On the other hand, it didn’t cost me anything to ask. I went to The Mandate Seal bar, ordered a pint of Amarrian Imperial Stout and called Sister Alitura. She replied immediately.

“Good day, Captain Korff. I am so glad that you called me,” she started the conversation, looking excited.

That was unexpected. Excitement was not the feeling that Sister Alitura experienced at the sight of a capsuleer.

“Um…” I muttered uncertainly. “Good day, Sister. I am calling to tell you that my pursuit of Dagan in Amarr space has hit a dead end. I thought…”

“Doesn’t matter,” she interrupted me. “You need to come to my office in Arnon as soon as possible.”

“That’s about 20 jumps away from my present location. If you need someone urgently, I suggest you engage a local contractor.”

“I cannot engage a local contractor and you know why. As I said, as soon as possible.”

With that, Sister Alitura ended the connection.

If she couldn’t hire another contractor, I thought, it meant only one thing — it was about The Damsel.

Now that I understood the reason for Alitura’s excitement, I felt my heart beat faster in anticipation. I would indeed fly to Arnon as quickly as possible. There was only one thing that could delay me — it was quite impossible to leave the glass of Amarrian Imperial Stout unfinished.

[Vladimir_Korff]

The Blood-Stained Stars: Closing In — Part I

A Stranger’s Face

Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station — Sister Alitura’s Office

15 September YC 127

“Good morning, Sister. What have you got for me?” I said, entering Sister Alitura’s office.

“Good morning, Captain,” the agent said and pointed at a huge container in the corner of the room. “This.”

“What’s that?” I asked, eyeing the box suspiciously.

“Station air-filter replacements,” Alitura replied deadpan. “I need you to deliver them to Bank of Luminaire Depository station in Aydoteaux.”

I blinked in surprise.

“What the hell? I thought you had something related to The Damsel investigation for me. If you need to deliver station supplies, don’t waster my time, call a courier — it will be cheaper too.”

A glint appeared in Sister Alitura’s eye.

“I’ve told you, Captain — there are missions that only you can do for me.”

“I know, and they are The Damsel missions. Now, tell me how fixing air filtering in the Depository will advance our investigation.”

Alitura smiled, “Not all filters are made the same. One of them contains a little extra — a microchip with a very special payload.”

I winced, “Okay, I get it — it is not a run-of-the-mill station supply delivery. Still?”

“That payload,” the agent continued, “will be covertly loaded to all Empires’ civil identity registers to fix a small mistake in their records, to wit, the fact that biometric information of Tahaki Karin, a ship engineer from The Damsel, identified a wrong person.”

I took a long moment to digest this information, then the penny dropped.

“Ah! You mean that you are not fixing an error but introducing one, right?”

Sister Alitura smiled beatifically, “Do you have any other questions, Captain?”

“So, is it some kind of witness protection program?”

The agent thought for a while, then said, “No, it’s not. As you are going to be involved in this operation anyway, it won’t hurt to tell you the details. When you saved Tahaki Karin from the Heartbreak wreck and delivered her to us, we tried to help her hide from whoever was trying to kill her. Surprisingly, Ms Karin rejected our assistance, giving us no reason. Initially, we acquiesced to her wishes and let her go. Tahaki’s behaviour, however, raised a few red flags, and we dug a bit deeper into her past. What we found was that she was a member of Society of Conscious Thought.”

“Like Dagan?” I gasped.

“Yes, like Dagan. Fortunately, we made that discovery before Ms Karin left our station. We promptly took her in our custody where she has remained ever since.”

I frowned, “I understand that it looks suspicious but, by itself, SoCT membership is not a crime. You may be detaining an innocent person which is not lawful even by Gallentean standards.”

Sister Alitura’s eyes hardened as she replied, “Gallentean standards, Captain, give corporations a significant leeway in managing order on their space stations. If Ms Tahaki Karin is found innocent of any crime, she will be released with our sincerest apologies.”

I was silent for a few moments, considering if I approved of such an approach. I wasn’t sure that I did but I couldn’t think of a strong objection either.

Finally, I said, “OK, so what is that ‘mistake’ you are fixing?”

“We are just changing Ms Karin’s fingerprint, retina and DNA records to match those of our field agent who will be ‘released’ from our custody instead of the engineer. The agent will then infiltrate a group of Dagan’s corp mates whom we found at a nearby station. Hopefully, she will be able to discover Dagan’s location and find out more about his role in The Damsel incident.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something, Sister? People who don’t know Tahaki may rely on the biometric checks to identify her but, surely, there will be SoCT members who know her personally. All they need to do is look at her face to realise she is a fraud.”

The agent smirked, “And that is why, Captain Korff, it took us six months to prepare this operation. During that time, our agent underwent a series of plastic surgeries which made her virtually indistinguishable from Ms Karin. And now, we need your help to fix things which cannot be fixed by a scalpel.”

“Right,” I said, finally getting the full picture. “And whom shall I deliver this crate to?”

“That,” said the agent, “is not something you need to know. The delivery is anonymous and will be retrieved by a bearer of a security token. Whoever they are, they’ll know what to do with the cargo.”

There was nothing else to discuss. I called a courier drone, loaded the crate on it and returned to the docks.

---

Everyshore region — Elalan Constellation
Aydoteaux system — Planet VII — Moon 20
Bank of Luminaire Depository station

Half an hour later I was docked at the Bank of Luminaire Depository Station in Aydoteaux system. As expected, the crate went through the customs without a hitch — after all, there were dozens of air filter deliveries each day and none of them deserved more than a cursory glance. You might think that a Caldari destroyer delivering a single box of filters could have raised a few eyebrows, but customs officers had seen weirder ■■■■ done by capsuleers, and it would take a lot to surprise them. To give you an idea, I’d heard a story about a battleship which flew from Mastakomon to Balanaz — that’s 74 jumps! — just to sell the excess of their Fedos for a better price.

Bank of Luminaire Depository station in Aydoteaux system

As I was pondering whether I should spend some time in Aydoteaux system or return back to the SoE station, I got a call from Sister Alitura.

The agent confirmed that the mission was completed successfully and added, “Captain, our friends will need a few days to correct the error that we discussed. In the meantime, I would be much obliged if you helped one of my colleagues, Alpedurch Soulobert. He works in SoE Distribution Division in Sheroo, just 6 jumps away from your current location.”

I grimaced, “Distribution Division? I don’t fancy a courier job. One is enough for today.”

“Captain Korff, trust me, it is anything but. I don’t know the details but I was given to understand that the mission will require a combat ship. And if this is not enough to interest you, Agent Soulobert said that a successful completion would guarantee a significant SoE standing boost for the contractor.”

“Okay,” I said, “now we are talking.”

A good standing with any corporation was nothing to sneeze at — it opened the way to higher-level, more lucrative missions.

“But if you want to get this mission, you have to go to Sheroo right now,” Alitura warned me.

“Already undocking,” I replied. “Send the coordinates to Aura.”

“Got them, Cap,” Aura said immediately. “Warp drive active.”

[Vladimir_Korff]

A Case of Kidnapping — Part I

Genesis region — Ekrin Constellation
Sheroo system — Planet X — Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station — Alpedurch Soulobert’s office

15 September YC 127

Agent Alpedurch Soulobert

Alpedurch Soulobert was a forty-something, red-haired Intaki with an earnest demeanour and a firm handshake.

After greetings and introductions, I said, “So what’s burning, Mr Soulobert?”

“Our investment, Captain Korff,” replied the agent. “A few months ago we hired a group of talented scientists to work on an important project. They were on a verge of a breakthrough when they were kidnapped. If we don’t rescue them, not only we’ll have to restart the project, but our adversaries will get a head start.”

“Interesting,” I said somewhat acerbically, “that a representative of a charitable organisation such as Sisters of EVE did not mention the scientists’ wellbeing as a cause for concern.”

“I didn’t because it isn’t,” Alpedurch Soulobert said calmly. “The scientists and their work are so valuable to our enemies that they will be treated with utmost care.”

“And who are they — those enemies of yours?”

The agent took a moment before replying, then sighed and said, “They are known as Equilibrium of Mankind.”

“What?” I jumped from the chair, horrified. “Those ■■■■■■■■■■■■■?”

Alpedurch gave me a sad nod, “Indeed.”

Equilibrium of Mankind was a religious sect which believed that their path to salvation lay through the total annihilation of everyone else in New Eden. They didn’t have any allies, and there were kill-on-sight orders issued against them by every faction. Purging the cluster of that filth was a duty of every capable person. I was about to accept the mission, regardless of the rewards, when a thought occurred to me. EoM’s sole goal was destruction. Then, why did they need scientists from Sisters of EVE, a faction known for its benevolence?

“Tell me, Mr Soulobert,” I said narrowing my eyes , “what exactly your scientists were working on that could interest EoM so much?”

A smile touched Alpedurch’s face, “It is ironic, isn’t it, that two organisations with completely opposite goals may have same interests or, rather, the same object of interest. Tell me, Captain, why is a missile like a commlink battery?”

I frowned, “Is it a trick question?”

“Not at all, they do have one important thing in common. What is it?”

I’d seen missiles and I’d seen batteries — there was no similarity between them. They were even made of different materials, as far as I knew.

I spread my arms in defeat, “I give up.”

“Energy,” said the agent, “or, more specifically, concentration of energy. Not many people realise or even think about it because they are more concerned about the application of that energy — for some, it’s communication, for others,” he pointed at me, “destruction.”

“I don’t use missiles,” I grumbled, “but I catch your drift. Every benign technology can be weaponised and vice versa. So what is that object that both you and the Equilibrium are so interested in?”

“It is the most powerful artificial object in New Eden.”

I furrowed my brow, “What, a Titan? Are Sisters working on their own model?”

“No, think again.”

I thought for a few seconds, “A star gate?”

“Correct but not just any star gate.”

The penny dropped. I should have guessed it straight away — I was talking to an SoE agent, after all.

“Of course! It’s the EVE Gate!”

The EVE Gate was a giant jump gate in New Eden system, and was the main object of Sisters’ research. They believed that the Gate was a gift from God who lived on its other side. They also believed it was God’s will that they should study the Gate and unlock its secrets. That mixture of faith and science made Sisters of EVE rather unique among religious organisations.

“Yes, the EVE Gate,” confirmed the agent. “A technological artifact which produces an amount of radiant energy comparable to that of a small star.”

“Right,” I nodded, “and Equilibrium of Mankind, naturally, would be interested in laying their hands on the source of that energy. Wait, are you saying that the kidnapped scientists were about to uncover the secret of the EVE Gate’s power?”

“Oh no,” Alpedurch smiled, “we are a long way from that discovery. The radiation emitted by the EVE Gate protects its secret. No spaceship was able to stay near the Gate for any length of time. The ones which made a close flyby did not get any meaningful observations as the radiation simply overwhelmed their sensors. But our scientists were working on a technology which would allow to absorb and divert the incoming energy. That would serve two important purposes: first, a ship could stay near the Gate as long as needed, and second, the sensors would receive only a fraction of the emitted energy making observation possible.”

“So, you are afraid that EoM will be able to find the way to study the Gate and will take control of it before you can?”

“That’s a concern,” admitted the agent, “but a remote one. No doubt it will take generations to fully understand the EVE Gate technology. Unfortunately, there are also some near-term repercussions which we would like to prevent.”

“Such as?”

Alpedurch Soulobert clasped his hands and stared at them, “For one thing, the energy absorption technology, if developed, will enable a new type of defence, making ships virtually invulnerable to energy weapons like lasers. Understandably, we don’t want Equilibrium of Mankind to research and develop such a technology.”

“Holy ■■■■!” I exclaimed. “I haven’t thought of it but you are right. If that technology becomes public, Amarrians won’t be happy, for sure. Minmatars will rejoice though.”

“We are not concerned about Empires getting energy absorption tech. In the grand scheme of things, their struggles are localised and do not threaten the survival of the human race. EoM, on the other hand…”

The agent made a pause letting the implications sink in.

“I get it,” I nodded. “So you want me to rescue the scientists from the Equilibrium’s clutches?”

Alpedurch shifted uncomfortably and said, “It’s one of the ways to achieve the objective of this mission. The preferred way.”

I looked at the agent in surprise and asked, “Then what is the mission objective?”

He took a long moment and finally said, “The objective is to ensure that those scientists do not end up working for EoM… by any means necessary.”