Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
28 November YC 126
The good news was that I was not eating anything when I got a call from Purkkoken Honuken, my almost favourite security agent. The bad news was that I was sleeping. It was a middle of the night and I seriously considered declining the call, but then I thought it had to be something so urgent that Purkkoken couldn’t wait for his customary breakfast-time chat with me. I took the call.
“You have exactly one minute to persuade me not to block your number, so skip the waffle,” I grumbled and yawned, loudly.
“Vlad, I have a really urgent mission,” blabbered the agent.
“I’ll be the judge of it. And you have just wasted five seconds of your allotted time.”
There was a momentary pause and then the speaker exploded, “People are dying! A mining colony is under attack!”
Damn, it didn’t look like I was going to get my beauty sleep tonight.
“Go on,” I said getting out of the bed and putting my jumpsuit on.
“The rogue drones have attacked miners, their haulers, and now they are threatening their outpost.”
“Where is the colony?” I asked walking toward the docks.
“In Ekura. There is a double deadspace pocket which encapsulates an asteroid field.”
“Encapsulates?” snorted I.
“I mean contains. Anyway, they need help as soon as possible! Are you able to deploy now?”
“You bet! I am halfway to the docks. Send the deadspace coordinates to Aura, and I’ll talk to you when I’m done.”
“Vlad, you are a lifesaver!” gushed Purkkoken, and signed off.
I wasn’t sure he meant miners’ lives but… whatever.
“Aura, plan the flight path to the coordinates sent by Purkkoken,” I said as soon as I was in the capsule.
“Already done, Captain. What’s the mission?” she replied.
“Just another pest control call. Rogue drones are attacking a mining colony.”
“Alright. Do we need any special poison for them?”
“No, the regular iron pellets should do,” I said, undocking.
Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Ekura system – Mission location
When I arrived to the coordinates given by Purkkoken I found an unguarded acceleration gate. The gate, upon its activation, brought me to a deadspace pocket filled with asteroids, mining structures and rogue drones – good old Infester Alvi, Mammon Apis and Belphegor Apis.
“Interesting,” I mumbled taking a closer look at the overview, “why are Infester Alvis classified as frigates while Mammons and Belphegors are shown as drones? I thought they were all drones.”
“Maybe the drones which are shown as drones are baby drones,” suggested Aura.
“And when they grow up they become frigates and corvettes?”
“Yeah, why not?”
I snorted, “You talk about them as if they were living creatures.”
“You too refer to them as ‘pests’,” Aura retorted.
“Fair point. Anyway, let’s eradicate them before they have grown to cruisers.”
The drones, once I’ve turned on my microwarpdrive, couldn’t reach me with whatever weapons they had equipped (or grown?). I, however, also had hard time hitting them with hybrid charges, as they were small and nimble. But since my hit rate was higher than zero, there were no doubts about the outcome of the battle. When the fight was over I called the miners on the local channel.
“Hi there. The sky is clear. You can safely proceed with your mining and hauling activities. Do you need any further help, like transporting your injured to the nearest hospital?”
A stern middle-aged Civire woman appeared on the screen and addressed me rather formally, “I thank you for your assistance so far, capsuleer, and for your generous transportation offer. However, your job is not done yet. The nested deadspace pocket which contains valuable asteroids is also infested by Rogue Drones. We will not be able to ‘safely proceed with our mining and hauling activities’ until that pocket is cleared too. Please use the acceleration gate to reach it.”
The connection broke.
“I’ve got a feeling that she didn’t like you,” Aura noted.
“Well, sometimes a fistful of ISK is the only reward you get,” I sighed, and activated the gate.
The next pocket didn’t have any habitation or industrial modules, only asteroids and drones.
“Ooh, a new drone type,” I said noticing Splinter Alvi description on the overview, and then winked at Aura, “but still a frigate.”
Aura didn’t miss a beat, “Good thing that you responded to the call so promptly then. By tomorrow they might have grown to a battleship with all that juicy ore around.”
“Oh, we can’t allow that,” I replied with mock seriousness and engaged the drones.
I was in the middle of the fight when reinforcements arrived, not mine unfortunately. They comprised two new models (species?) of Rogue Drones – Sunder Alvi and Raider Alvi. I focused a camera drone on the newcomers and then gawked at them in amazement.
“Look at that, Aura. They are swimming!”
The new drones had leg-like appendages which made breaststroke movements, as if they were swimming in water.
“I told you they were alive,” Aura said with excitement, “they even move like living creatures!”
“Living creatures evolve in a manner which makes them well-adapted to their environment. It would be a perfectly reasonable movement if they were in a water, but in space they can’t really propel themselves by pushing against vacuum. There is nothing to grasp. This is why it is called vacuum. Because it is… vacuous!”
“Really?” Aura made round eyes, “Then how come we lose velocity as soon as you turn off the engine?”
That remark gave me a pause. I never thought about it; it just seemed… natural. But if there was nothing material in the vacuum, what force caused ships to decelerate? While I was considering my reply, a Splinter Alvi managed to close a distance and started pummeling my shields. I had to give the pesky machines (creatures?) my full attention and let Aura win that round. Soon, Splinters were splintered, Sunders were sundered and Raiders were… um… wrecked.
Aura confirmed that the mission was accomplished. This time round I didn’t bother calling the miners and just sent them a text message informing them that the drones were destroyed (killed?). Then I called Purkkoken who was anxiously waiting for my report.
“All good, mate,” I said, “although the miners didn’t seem very pleased.”
The agent rolled his eyes, “I know. That lady, Kaelira Korviel, has already lodged a complaint.”
“What? I killed all the drones,” I exclaimed indignantly.
“I know, but a stray shot from your railgun also hit their warehouse.”
“Honestly? These guys settled in the middle of an asteroid field. Their constructions should be sturdy enough to withstand a meteorite hit. And I’ve got only small-calibre guns which don’t do that much damage.”
“I know…” Purkkoken raised his hands placatingly but there was no stopping me.
“And I have seven of those guns and only one brain. I can’t micromanage every gun and turn it off every time it points in the direction of their outpost.”
Purkkoken opened his mouth to say something.
I continued, “And did they consider what those drones could do if I didn’t turn up? They wouldn’t just lose the warehouse, they would lose their lives!”
“They didn’t lose the warehouse,” Purkkoken finally managed to chip in.
My jaw dropped, “They didn’t?”
“There is a small hole in the wall that we can fix quickly and cheaply. Look, that Korviel, their forewoman, is always a trouble. But don’t you worry, I’ll handle it.”
“What do you mean ‘don’t worry’? I don’t want to be blacklisted because some miner was too stingy to install a shield around their module.”
Purkkoken shook his head, “You won’t be blacklisted, and you’ll get your mission reward in full. I’ll just send her a standard reply that we had a discussion with all the involved parties and that we will take measures to reduce such risks in future.”
I winced, “So you expect me tomorrow in your office for a ‘discussion’?”
“No, we’ve just had it. As I said, don’t worry, it’s all under control,” Purkkoken said firmly and signed off.
Having calmed down, I realised that I brewed a storm in a teacup and sighed, “He is a good guy. I was probably too hard on him.”
Aura looked at me with an amused expression, “You were indeed, Captain. I didn’t expect you to work yourself up over a miserly 100,000 ISK payout. Maybe you should have taken a business career path.”
I scowled at her and warped to the station.