After the Seven – Company

Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station

2 December YC 126

After sorting out the Paragon debacle, I called Aura, “Have you found out how IRIS hijacked our Neocom interface?”

Aura winced, “I have good news, bad news, more bad news and more good news. In which order do you want to hear them?”

“Logical, please,” I answered curtly.

“Ah, okay. So the good news is that I know how she did it, the bad news is that there is a vulnerability, more bad news is that the vendor is not going to fix it any time soon because, good news, it’s not that serious.”

I tried to digest Aura’s findings but the attempt caused a heartburn.

“Can you give me a bit more details?” I asked.

“Certainly,” Aura replied enthusiastically. “You know, there is a Neocom feature for newbies called Pointer-Chatlinks? You can post a link in a chat window, and when the recipient clicks it Neocom will highlight an interface element associated with that link.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, “I remember seeing that in release notes a long time ago, but I’ve never used it myself. But how is it relevant?”

“You see, the developers implemented the same function which could be used by support personnel during video calls. It was supposed to be for internal use only but the protocol specs were leaked.”

“So now anyone can flash my Neocom icons?”

“In principle yes, but only during a video call and only if they have specialised equipment. The highlight commands are transmitted as ultrasound patterns which normally are not picked up by microphones. So to send such a command, they need to have a device which generates the pattern and another device which mixes it into the audio stream. Due to the complexity of the exploit and a limited impact – the attackers can only flash the icons but not click them – the vendor considers fixing this vulnerability a low priority.”

I considered this info from different angles and finally said, “You know, on the whole, it’s good news. I was afraid that they could take control of the Neocom, but what you described amounts, at most, to annoyance. Good job, darling!”

Aura beamed proudly.

“If anyone tries to pull such a trick on me,” I continued, “I’ll just blacklist them, same as spammers. And, by the way, we do have the first candidate,” I grinned evilly, “Shall we?”

“With pleasure, Captain,” said Aura adding Paragon’s number to the Blocked list, and murmured under her breath, “Aura’s little helper, my foot!”


5 December YC 126

Purkkoken Honuken had finally got a mission approval and invited me to his office.

“We have found their base,” he said excitedly as soon as I entered, “and we think that’s where they keep the kidnapped citizens.”

“Where is the base?” I asked taking a seat.

“As it turned out, right under our noses – in Iidoken. I am prepared to grant you the authority, on behalf of the Caldari Navy, to hunt down those criminals and rescue the prisoners. Are you ready?”

I scowled with mock indignation, “Mate, I just made myself comfortable in this chair…”

Purkkoken started rapping his hand on the table, “Come on, come on, time is of essence! We don’t know how long they will keep the kidnapped in that base.”

I made a show of making up my mind, then stood up and said, “On the other hand, I have not yet seen a chair which was more comfortable than pod goo.”


When I boarded the capsule and turned on Neocom, first thing I saw was a message from my corp announcing the start of month-long Winter Nexus celebrations. They promised daily gifts and rewards for various challenges.

“That’s right,” I grumbled loading the capsule into Merimetso, “it’s high time they gave back some of those exorbitant taxes they charge on mission rewards.”

As I undocked from the station and prepared for a warp to Iidoken gate, I noticed a couple of red triangles on the overview. A closer inspection revealed that they were two Guristas Arrogators. The ships were on grid, but 15,000 clicks away – in one of the asteroid belts. I was wondering what they were doing between the ‘roids (Guristas were not known for their love of mining), when a yellow box appeared around one of the triangles.

“Damn,” muttered I and warped to the belt.

VlaDun's Retriever
VlaDun’s Retriever

On my arrival, I expected to see a scene of carnage, littered with wrecks of Ventures. Instead, what I saw made me chuckle: two Arrogators were orbiting a Retriever miner barge and pelting it with hybrid charges. The barge, piloted by VlaDun, indifferently stripped ore from the nearby asteroids, completely ignoring the pirates. It looked like two vicious terriers were trying to bite a leg of an elephant. And it was no wonder that the elephant ignored them – with 4000 HP in the barge’s shields, its rate of passive shield regeneration was probably higher than the Arrogators’ DPS. Still, it wasn’t a good form to leave a civilian ship under the pirates’ fire, so I targeted the miscreants and quickly put them down. Saluting VlaDun (not that he could see me in my capsule), I warped to the gate. There I paused for a moment to take a look at Merimetso wearing a new SKIN from different angles.

Cormorant Aspirant Enforcer SKIN
Cormorant Aspirant Enforcer SKIN

“Hmm… Not too bad,” I admitted and jumped to Iidoken.


Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Iidoken system – Mission location

As soon as I appeared on grid, someone called Surenna addressed me angrily in the local channel.

How the hell did you find this place? Never mind, it doesn’t really matter.

“I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew,” I mumbled and started inspecting the surroundings.

Seven's Starbase
Seven’s Starbase

The base consisted of several interconnected modules which were easy to cobble together or disassemble and move to another location, which made sense as the gang was nomadic. It was guarded by two Seven Recruits flying a Coreli Watchman and Coreli Patroller. I selected a bunker in the middle of the base as a pivot and started orbiting it while acquiring target locks. The Recruits noticed me and returned the favour. Interestingly, their speed was lower than mine even though I didn’t use the microwarpdrive. Having no chance to achieve any significant angular velocity, they were as helpless as sacrificial lambs. I graciously accepted the sacrifice.

Seven Recruit
Seven Recruit

Woken up by the explosions of their comrades, four Seven Plebes in Coreli Spy frigates emerged from the base. They were even slower than the Recruits and were slaughtered on the altar of justice, poetic and literal, as at that moment I was an authorised security enforcer representing Caldari State.

Having defeated all moving targets I looked around in confusion. There were no obvious storage structures which could be looted. If the prisoners were inside, then someone had to enter the base and free them. I’d be damned if that was I. And I didn’t mean it as a hyperbole – a captured capsuleer was damned to a life of slavery. While I was pondering my next steps, a Coreli Guard undocked from the station and started flying away from me. It was named Surenna’s Frigate. I had no chance of intercepting it before it could warp out. Then I remembered a saying ‘You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone’, and thought that it should also work the other way round – with a kind word and a gun than with a gun alone.

“Hey, Surenna,” I said in the local channel, “you said it didn’t matter how I found you here. You are right, it’s not the best time for root cause analysis. But would you be interested to know how I will find you next time?”

The Guard reached 75% of its max speed but did not initiate a warp.

Seizing the moment, I continued, “Last time I found your base knowing only the name of the gang – The Seven. Now I know your name, your ship and the cosmic signature of your bases. This time round it will be much easier to find your next hideout. How exactly I managed to locate your base is recorded in my ship logs. If you are really interested, you can get those logs,” I made a pause, and then finished, “from my cold, dead hands.”

“Acceptable,” was Surenna’s reply and his frigate started making a U-turn.

Surenna
Surenna

Without breaking the orbit, I targeted Coreli Guard and, as soon as it was in my effective weapon range, I concentrated the fire of all my seven railguns on the pirate. It took 12 seconds to go through its shield, armour and structure – a significant amount of time, if you compare it to fights with his henchmen which were sometimes alphaed off the grid by a seven-gun salvo.

“Apparently, curiosity kills not just cats but snakes too,” I snorted watching the expanding fireball.

When the explosion dissipated, the sensors revealed a slowly spinning cargo container among the debris. I approached the object, scanned it and immediately dragged it onboard – it contained 10 live prisoners!

I switched internal voice comms to the cargo hold and greeted my guests, “Good day! This is Captain Vladimir Korff of Science and Trade Institute. I am on an official rescue mission authorised by Caldari Navy. The pirates who captured you were defeated and I will transport you to Caldari Navy Assembly Plant station in Tsuguwa.”

There was a loud cheer in response.

“Does anyone need medical assistance?” I asked just in case.

A female voice answered, “Captain, we are stressed, frightened and exhausted, but otherwise fine. In any case, I would appreciate if you delivered us to the Navy station as soon as possible, as I have an urgent message for the Security Department.”

This one doesn’t sound too frightened, I thought.

Aloud I said, “ETA is three minutes, madam,” and Aura added, “Warp drive active.”

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