Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
24 November YC 126
The recent combat encounters awoke my interest in a more aggressive side of a capsuleer’s life. I considered a mercenary career before but I chose exploration then. Now, after watching rogue drones, pirate ships and Gallentean spies disintegrate under the fire of my one-twenty-fives, I felt that turrets were a better use of high slots than core probe launchers. Having concluded that I wouldn’t mind taking my Cormorant out for a spin, I called Purkkoken Honuken and asked if he had any missions for me.
“Of course,” he exclaimed, “good timing, my friend. I have an urgent delivery request.”
“Sorry, wrong number,” I said, sarcastically, “I thought I was calling Purkkoken Honuken, a security agent, but I guess I was accidentally connected to his twin working in the Distribution and Logistics department.”
“Well,” said the agent, carefully choosing his words, “it is a delivery contract but it may have… complications.”
“Like ‘being interrupted’?”
“Yes, that covers it well,” he nodded energetically.
“And may I get a bit more detail about the nature of that interruption?”
“I am afraid not.”
“The nature of the cargo then?”
“Oh, it’s just oil, synthetic oil. The Assembly Plant has almost run out of it, so we need someone to get an emergency supply that we keep in a deadspace pocket in Iidoken. It’s just one jump away.”
“Do I need a hauler?”
“Oh no. It’s only 60 cubic metres, so any ship like, to give you a completely random example, a Cormorant-class destroyer would be quite sufficient.”
I raised my eyebrows, “I see.”
“So, are you taking the mission?” asked Purkkoken eagerly.
That whole thing smelled of some kind of a set-up, like the Denial of Reconnaissance mission – Purkkoken all but admitted as much. But what the hell! I was looking for an adventure and it seemed I was about to get one. There was just one thing to settle.
“Purkkoken,” I asked, “do you remember what happens when I am provided with incomplete information?”
“What?”
“I get thirsty.”
Now it was Purkkoken’s time to raise eyebrows showing understanding, “I’ll see what I can do about it.”
Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Iidoken system – Mission Location
A few minutes later I was in Iidoken, warping to the deadspace pocket. What I found there looked like a mining colony combined with a factory. Among various objects on my overview one was labelled ‘Warehouse’, which I took for my destination. I inspected the overview one last time and, not having found anything suspicious, I approached the structure.
The warehouse had unrestricted access and contained, as promised, just one crate with synthetic oil which I transferred to my cargo hold. I was wondering at the lack of security at a military warehouse, when I heard Aura’s voice, tinged with a hint of apprehension.
“Captain, do you mind taking a look at this tower?”
I looked at the overview, “It’s classified as ‘Manufacturing Facility Control Tower’. Why?”
“No, look at the visual.”
I checked the video feed from a camera drone.
“Still don’t see anything interesting.”
“Let me ask you this then: why would a Caldari Navy structure have an Amarrian logo on it?”
Aura zoomed in the image so that I could clearly see two golden half-circles on the tower surface.
I was about to say “Graffiti?” when my overview exploded with red triangles, and suddenly there was no time for academic questions. My initial, automatic response to the danger was to start the microwarpdrive and ensure that I have an angular velocity by orbiting some object, the control tower in this case. Then I had time to take a closer look at the hostiles. All of them were frigate-sized ships classified as Corpii – Corpii Herald, Corpii Raider and Corpii Upholder. Blood raiders! Some of them targeted me and started sending laser beams in my direction, ineffectually. I felt that the situation was under control and conferred with Aura about next steps.
“The way I see it, I received a mission from Caldari Navy to steal a crate of synthetic oil from an Amarrian warehouse which somehow provoked an ire of Blood Raiders. Am I right?”
“Yep,” confirmed Aura.
“Does it make any sense to you?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm… what shall we do then? I can just warp away with the cargo and call it a day.”
“And leave those beautiful Tech II railguns to rust?” said Aura with a glint in her eye.
“Good point,” I agreed, “Besides, I don’t like how those hoodlums started shooting at me without explaining the nature of their grievance. I think they need a lesson in manners.”
And so the lesson was taught. I turned off the MWD to conserve the capacitor and started targeting and picking off the Raiders’ ships from a safe distance. They were crunchy and needed no more than five salvos each to pop.
“Look,” suddenly said Aura, “reinforcements!”
Indeed, the overview showed a second wave of enemies consisting of Corpii Diviners, Corpii Followers and Corpii Worshippers. One particular ship, Corpii Reaver, even broadcasted the name of its pilot – Kazem Tatha.
“At least, this one had the decency to introduce himself,” said I, “Now, let’s introduce him to hybrid turrets and Spike ammo. I don’t suppose that he, being an Amarrian, has seen anything but lasers so far.”
I have to admit that Kazem’s Reaver was pretty agile. I manage to land one solid blow on it but my further shots either grazed the enemy or glanced off. And then at some point I stopped hitting him altogether.
“Damn, what’s going on?” I exclaimed in frustration.
“He caught up with us and is now running circles around Merimetso,” explained Aura.
Of course, being a fast frigate, the Reaver outpaced my Cormorant and managed to get enough angular velocity by orbiting me so that my turrets were unable to track it. That could be easily rectified though – having enough reserves in the capacitor, I turned on the microwarpdrive and my speed quintupled. Kazem’s ship was left behind and the railguns started hitting it again. After a few grazes I finally managed to smash the bastard, and watched the expanding cloud of debris with great satisfaction. The remaining enemy ships did not present any challenge and I methodically dispatched them one by one.
Looking at the battlefield, Aura shook her head and said, “Unbelievable!”
“What is?” I asked.
“That all that carnage was for a barrel of oil.”
Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
When we arrived to Caldari Navy Assembly Plant station I intended to go to Purkkoken’s office and have a nice, long chat about that ‘cargo delivery’ mission with him. Instead, I found the agent waiting for me in my dock. Before I could open my mouth and say anything, he slapped me on the shoulder and said, “Great job, Vlad! Can you show me to the cargo hold? I just need to check that the seals on the crate are not broken, in order to finalise the mission contract, you know.” With a shrug, I turned and made my way up the gangway, back to the ship.
When we were inside, Purkkoken sighed with relief, “Don’t worry about that crate, mate, it’s alright. Let’s just go to the lounge.”
When we were comfortably seated, I finally asked the question that was on the tip of my tongue all this time, “Care to explain what all that ‘cargo delivery’ was about?”
“That’s exactly why I came. In fact, I am not allowed to tell you the details, so I couldn’t do it in my office where the Navy maintains constant surveillance.”
I was surprised to hear that, as I thought I’d have to tease the truth out of him with a hot iron. Maybe he had envisaged such fate himself and decided to take a pre-emptive action.
Still uncertain about his reasons, I challenged him, “There are no bugs on my ship, but why tell me anything at all, if it’s classified?”
“Vlad, the Navy used you as a bait without telling you. I used you too. I don’t think it’s fair. If we treat all our contractors like that we will soon have no one to work with. Besides, you did me a good turn when I was in a tight spot and I thought you deserved an explanation. After all, there is nothing really top secret about this mission. If there was, they wouldn’t tell me,” he said with a wink.
“Okay, go on,” said I, accepting his version for the time being.
“It’s all a bit complicated. That mining colony in the deadspace pocket in fact belongs to Amarrians.”
“I’ve noticed,” I said drily.
“I don’t know what exactly they are doing there but it’s a legally registered business venture. What I know is that it is somehow linked to Amarr Ministry of Internal Order. Recently, that Ministry sent us a request to assist them in capture or elimination of a notorious Blood Raider, Kazem Tatha.”
“Ah, the polite one,” I smirked.
“What?”
“Doesn’t matter, an inside joke.”
Purkkoken frowned and continued, “The Ministry planned to lure Tatha to that mining colony by planting disinformation indicating that some of his comrades captured by Amarr were kept there as prisoners. The pirates’ window of opportunity to free their mates would be a scheduled transfer of the captives to another facility. Amarrians wanted to ambush Tatha and deal with him during a rescue attempt that they were convinced was imminent.
“We had found ourselves in a delicate situation. Amarrians were our allies and we didn’t want to appear uncooperative by declining the request. However, we also didn’t want Amarr Navy operate within our space on their own agenda. Neither did we intend to stage the ambush ourselves. You see, allies come and go. If some time in future our relationship with Amarr sours, Blood Raiders may become a useful tool against the Empire, so it would be unwise to undermine our standing with them.
“All that I learned in a brainstorming session which the Colonel arranged with all security agents. That’s when I saw the opportunity to get back into his good books. You know, after I told him my suspicions about Violent Expulsion mission, my career was hanging by a thread. So I needed to do something spectacular to prove myself, and I came up with that ‘cargo delivery’ mission.”
“Right,” I said with a wry smile, “and all you needed then was a gullible pilot who would stick his neck out.”
“Exactly,” confirmed Purkkoken, “in fact, I had you in mind when I proposed that idea.”
“Honoured, much honoured,” I bowed sarcastically.
“In my defence, I did intend to talk to you privately about that mission and explain the potential ‘occupational hazards’ but you forced my hand by calling me first. It was only so much I could tell you on the monitored comms channel.”
“I guess, you did your best by providing a not-so-subtle hint about a suitable ship class,” I admitted grudgingly, “but how could you be sure that I wouldn’t simply warp back and bring you that barrel of oil? Or, for that matter, that I would be able to defeat the pirates?”
“Well,” Purkkoken smiled confidently, “you did ask for a combat mission after all. So why would you run from it? In any case, one thing that I was sure about was that the pirates would attack you, and that would untie our hands. It’s one thing to ambush and attack Blood Raiders directly, but coming to an aid of a capsuleer contracted by Caldari Navy for a legitimate oil delivery mission is a totally different proposition. The thing is, all that time there was a wing of Caldari Navy frigates on high alert waiting for my signal. If you didn’t destroy the pirates, then the Navy would. And it would not lead to any complications with the Raiders as they would have been in the wrong. But that issue didn’t arise at all since you wiped out the gang all on your own, for which you have my special thanks as it earned me more brownie points with the Colonel. As you can see, all contingencies were covered.”
“All but one,” said I, “if, as you say, all your comms and movements are continuously monitored, how will you explain that it took you so long to check the seal on the container? Won’t your bosses be suspicious about your prolonged co-location with me in a place where they don’t have surveillance?”
“Ah, but there is a good business reason for that,” replied Purkkoken reaching for a leather case that he brought with him and producing a chilled bottle of Gallentean sparkling wine. “I am currently conducting a relation-building activity with a valued partner.”
“Oh, so you too correctly interpreted my hint about the desiccating effects of information withdrawal?”
“Yep, and I took measures to alleviate your withdrawal symptoms,” he added, popping the cork.