[TOP SECRET]
[CLASSIFIED]
-EYES ONLY-
[UNREDACTED]
Date of Event
Date: 08.21. YC117
NEST: 1800
Location: Safizon II - Moon 1 - Amarr Navy Assembly Plant
–AAR [SCHISM] BEGIN–
The following is the personal log of Srajin, and is not to be distributed in any way without express approval.
My mission briefing began with a seemingly innocuous job description. Empress Jamyl Sarum I, would be arriving in Safizon to celebrate the launch of the latest Flagship, the Auctoritas. The Empress was to arrive on the TES Seraph, an Avatar-class titan.
Asset transport was easy work. Slightly more difficult in the presence of a massive congregation of the Empyrean Society that made up Jamyl’s welcoming party. Sometimes being hidden in plain sight amidst a crowd of hundreds of ships just the kind of distraction needed to pull it off.
The operation was simple. Link up with the TES Seraph, await transfer of the Asset, then undock and depart for my delivery destination. This… Is how it was -supposed- to go.
… It did not.
At Approximately 18:02, The TES Seraph warped in some distance away from the station. There were already hundreds surrounding the station awaiting her arrival. The moment she warped in is when my extraction window began. Sitting some ways off cloaked in my Manticore, I watched as the ships begin to swarm the Empress as she began her final approach toward the Shipyard.
Within less than a minute, an abundant cloak of vessels surrounded the TES Seraph. Time to fly in and link up. Who was going to notice one more ship among hundreds?
At approximately 18:05 an unknown fleet of Capsuleers warp into on top of Jamyl’s location, directly in front of the docking bay, cap chain rapidly established, clearly working together.
Right. Where. I. Needed. To go.
Things had just gotten infinitely harder as I quickly realized the combined forces were elements of Praetoria Imperialis Exubitoris, Curatores Veritatis Alliance, and even… Ushra’Khan? I can only begin to speculate on both the obvious, and less obvious reasons they could have even been there. But I digress.
Moments after, Jamyl spoke to the congregation of capsuleers that had coalesced awaiting her arrival. One capsuleer even had the AUDACITY to tell Jamyl that “She was late”. Late for what? Like they were going to begin the ceremony before the Empress arrived?
At approximately 18:08, I’d arrived near the entrance to the hanger at the bow of the ship and began docking procedures. Suddenly the computer started red flashing unusual error messages. Tyrranos. A seemingly endless list of Tyrranos had appeared on the targeting overview. Without consulting the debug documentation via neural interface, I immediately discovered what the unusual Red Alerts were all about.
At Precisely 18:08:22, the armada of drifter battleships unleashed their Isogen-5 based doomsday weapons on the TES Seraph. It was almost as if the focused fire obliterated the hull of the ship. I can only describe it as LITERALLY cut in half in seconds. Cascade detonations began ripping through the interior of the vessel as their flames found existing holes out to space, or created them at velocities approaching the speed of light.
I was so close to the ship I could almost feel the space/time distortion deep within my capsule coming from the directed energy beam passing within no more than a few thousand meters of my decloaked Manticore. It was almost as if a spatial rift was tugging my body in the direction of the beam. Kind of like in the cartoon holoreels kids watch where the character gets overly stretched like a spring going the opposite direction.
The chunks of hull separated and slowly floated away from the direction of the reactor core once it finally went. Chaos erupted everywhere. Local channels were flooded with chatter. But I couldn’t pay attention to that. As the Drifter fleet warped off, I frantically made top speed to the now-exposed cargo decks hoping to find what -could- have looked like the asset I was supposed to retrieve.
A needle in a stack of burning straw.
I rapidly hit the scanners over and over for any signs of cargo. Often hitting the scan before the last analysis was complete. I could only assume one of two things. Either my scanners were all janked up from the after effects of the Drifter weapons… Or worse. The asset was gone.
I’d almost given up hope when suddenly a golden container gently glided out from the hulk of twisted burning metal that very recently made up the Cargo Decks of the TES Seraph. It traversed the distance under the power of sublight thrusters on the exterior of the hull. I could only assume this was the asset, and somehow it knew someone would be there to retrieve it. I quickly opened up the cargo hatch to allow the container to park itself neatly in the center of the hold.
Whatever it was. I had it. Time to get the f**k outta here. I picked the closest celestial to bounce off of, hit warp, and cloaked up. Even amidst the destruction of the TES Seraph, the operation was a success.
As the hatch closed, the cargo hold atmo restabilized as I accessed the security cameras in the hold. Suddenly a hissing noise as a hatch depressurized on the front of the Golden Container sitting in the bay. Quickly I zoomed in the Security camera on the hatch as it lowered down into an access ramp incline.
Next thing I knew… Empress Jamyl Sarum I emerged from the shadow cast within the container… THE EMPRESS??? ON MY SHIP? What the ACTUAL f**k is going on? She descended the ramp with eyes laser focused on the security camera. I could -feel- her look. How can something be so intense, yet so serene at the same time? The legends of her beauty instantly gained a very -real- context within my mind.
The destination was Arek’Jaalan. The reasons why… Well… that wasn’t part of the contract, nor would I care to discuss something I can neither confirm nor deny anyway. But the Empress and I had quite the conversation along the way. Something larger than the even the Empire is currently at play.
… Jovians?
I docked up in the station, The Empress departed from my ship, and then she disappeared. I wonder if I’ll ever see her again. At the time of writing this, The Scope has been all over the case and Jamyl’s whereabouts are still unknown. One thing was certain. Out of everything I have done during my time as an Empyrean… The ripples of my actions today will reverberate through history. How? Honestly, I don’t know.
–AAR [SCHISM] END–