Data Retrieval
Everyshore region – Chasnaye constellation
Harerget system – Planet V – Moon 1
CreoDron Factory station
27 April YC 127
Having transferred the rescued scientists to CreoDron security, I headed to Delphine Xarasier’s office. When I pulled the door, I heard strange sounds coming from her room. Carefully peeking inside I discovered Delphine sitting in a guest chair with a commlink in her lap, crying.
I closed the door and asked in a gentle tone, “Delphine, what happened?”
The agent raised her head, saw me and suddenly burst out of the chair spilling the commlink on the floor. In a split second she crossed the distance between us and… hugged me tight, burying her face against my chest. Taken aback I stood there not knowing what to do.
Struggling with tears, Delphine managed to say, “She, she is dead.”
“Who is dead?” I asked.
“As-as-pasia,” she stammered and was overcome by a bout of sobs.
My heart fell. Something went wrong with the rescue mission, and Delphine had lost her friend. I felt for her but I didn’t know what to say, I was never good at condolences. Then I did an absolutely unprofessional but otherwise the only right thing in the circumstances – I returned Delphine’s hug and just silently stood there with her. I don’t know if she expected any kind of soothing words from me, but I felt that a human touch, just being there for her, was worth a thousand words.
It took a while for Delphine to calm down. I just waited patiently until her sobs subsided and she was able to speak again.
“Thank you,” she said hoarsely, sniffling and wiping her face with a handkerchief.
I led her to the guest chair, then picked up her commlink from the floor and handed it to her. She accepted it silently, as she was staring in the distance, still consumed by grief.
“You need a rest, Delphine,” I said gently. “Let me take you home.”
She shook her head defiantly, “No time. I need to send you on a new mission.”
Then she proceeded telling me what happened while I was dismantling the Serpentis lab. CreoDron sent a light corvette to intercept the transport which carried Aspasia. Unfortunately, the transport turned out to be a military vessel in disguise – it had concealed rocket launchers – and attacked the corvette. In the ensuing fight both ships were destroyed.
“Damn!” I exclaimed. “I should have pursued that transport straight away!”
“What difference would it make?” Delphine asked.
“They would have thought twice before attacking a destroyer.”
“Would they?” Delphine scoffed bitterly. “Doesn’t matter now. What matters is that at the time of the kidnapping Aspasia had her datapad with her. It contains all her research notes on the datacore that Alitura sent us. You need to go to the battle site and retrieve it.”
“But it was most likely destroyed during the explosion.”
“The datapad itself, yes, but it had a military-grade datacore which was designed to survive extreme conditions, just like black boxes. The datacore can be detected by an RFID scanner and recognised by a standard ship Overview as a lootable object. I’ll send the datacore signature to your navigation AI. She should be able to add it to the Overview database.”
“She certainly is,” I said. “But are you sure you don’t want a break?”
“I won’t rest until you retrieve Aspasia’s notes,” Delphine said resolutely. “And, Vlad… I must warn you – you won’t be the only one looking for them. I have reports that a pirate fleet is heading toward the transport wreck. And I have a favour to ask you… Well, first of all, stay safe. But if you can…” her eyes glistened, and she took a deep breath, “make them pay!”
I gave her a reassuring smile, “That’s what I do best. I can also transport datacores, but it’s just a side job.”
Everyshore region – Chasnaye constellation
Harerget system – Mission location
When I arrived to the battlefield there were already five frigates circling the wreck of the transport ship.
“Hmm.. Those are not Serpentis ships,” Aura noticed.
I looked at the classification labels and saw that all the ships were named Gistii.
“You are right,” I said, “these aren’t Serpentis, these are Guardian Angels.”
“Does it change our plans?”
I gave her my best evil smile, “Not at all. Let’s cut their wings!”
The bastards didn’t stand a chance. All they could do in response to the Spike barrage I unleashed on them from a safe distance was increasing my signature radius with a target painter. A fat lot of good it did them as they died before they could get close enough to fire at me. Still, they had enough time to raise an alarm and call for reinforcements.
The next wing that arrived on the grid had two destroyers supported by three frigates. I guess their logic was simple – two of their destroyers were stronger than one of mine – but that kind of arithmetic didn’t work when you faced capsuleers. One would have thought that the pirates learned from previous encounters with capsuleers and would send at least a battlecruiser to fight a destroyer but there you go. Anyway, to cut long story short, three volleys was all I needed to blow up each of Gistior Defacers. Then I mopped up the frigates and… received a second wave of reinforcements led by Gistum Predator, a cruiser-class Angel Forward Scout.
I smiled sadly and said, “This isn’t going to be any kind of compensation for the loss of Dr Aspasia Castille’s life, but a pirate cruiser looks like a decent tribute that these assholes are about to pay.”
The Predator was much tougher than the Defacers but, like them, it couldn’t get close enough to ‘predate’. I just orbited the hapless pirate at 80 km and kept firing at it from my one-fifties. Forty seconds and thirteen volleys later it was all over. One might say that 91 Spike charges was a decent amount to spend on one ship, but so was the 43,125 ISK bonus that I got for killing it, to say nothing about that dark satisfying feeling of an accomplished revenge I experienced when I saw the explosion.
I didn’t care if the pirates were going to send more reinforcements and headed full-speed to the wreck of the transport ship, casually destroying the remaining frigates on my way. Apparently, the loss of the cruiser made someone at Angels’ headquarters reassess the danger I represented, and they decided to leave me alone. I reached the wreck unmolested and activated the scanner. Soon the overview singled out an object labelled “Dr Castille’s Data Core (Property of CreoDron)”. I activated the tractor beam and dragged a small metal box with bits of molten plastic on it into my cargo hold.
“Um… may I check the contents of this data core?” Aura asked trying to hide excitement in her voice.
“Better not,” I said. “For all I know, it may be protected from unauthorised access and will erase the contents if you try to hack it. Let’s bring it back to Delphine and let her inspect it.”
“Fair enough,” Aura agreed reluctantly, and warped us back to the CreoDron station.