Goading the Leader
Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Planet VII — Moon 9
Brutor Tribe Academy
27 August YC 127
It took Tarak Erand just a day to process the information I brought to him, organise surveillance and plan a mission. From my experience with Caldari Navy security agents, I expected to spend at least a week exploring the station before I got called, but here I was, sitting in Erand’s office and being briefed on the mission plan.
“First of all,” Tarak said, “I want to thank you for the intel you delivered. We had our suspicions about a few of those ships but didn’t have enough evidence to pursue the leads. Now that you have confirmed their association with the smugglers, we established surveillance and quickly identified locations of several smuggling hubs in the system.”
“How did you do that?” I asked curiously. “If it’s not a secret.”
“Hehe,” Tarak chuckled, “in fact it is, and I won’t tell you because I don’t know it. What I know is that the mathematics of it is very simple, while the engineering is very complex. There are devices which can calculate the exact vector of a warp tunnel. They are very expensive and I can rent them for a short period only, but the investment was totally worth it. We installed them on each star gate in Lustrevik and started tracking smugglers’ movements. In just one day, we managed to locate four smuggler bases!”
“The direction of the warp alone is not enough to pinpoint the destination. Do those devices also estimate the length of the warp tunnel?”
“No, they can’t. But that’s where that simple piece of mathematics comes in handy. Imagine that two ships head to the same destination from different star gates. What can you say about their flight paths?”
I shrugged, “They will intersect. But how do you know that they fly to the same destination?”
“Because their warp tunnels intersect!” Tarak exclaimed triumphantly. “It’s almost improbable that two random flight paths intersect in an empty area of space, especially when the direction of the flight does not point to any known space object.”
“Neat,” I nodded, expressing my appreciation. “I once worked with a guy who could determine the warp destination using only the sensor data from my ship. I have no idea how he did it, and hoped that you could explain how it was possible. But obviously, you use a different technology.”
My words immediately stirred the agent’s interest and he asked, “Who was the guy? He may be a valuable contractor if we need to track someone again.”
I grinned, “I’ll send you his contact details, but I don’t think you can afford him. The guy is really good and the only way I could engage his services was by saving his life. But sorry for the distraction. Tell me what you are going to do with those smugglers and their bases.”
“I’ll do better — I’ll tell you what we are going to do with them. You have an important role to play. There is a well-guarded smuggling hub — it is defended by a posse of cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships. They even have a carrier in their fleet. I want you to go to that base and kill everything that moves.”
My jaw dropped, and I stared at the agent in utter disbelief.
“You want me to take out the whole fleet? In a destroyer???”
Tarak gave me an earnest look which he managed to maintain for the whole three seconds. Then he cracked and guffawed.
“Mate, you should have seen your face,” he laughed. “Pure gold!”
I rolled my eyes, “I was about to walk out. Some agents think that since capsuleers are ‘immortal’ it’s OK to send them to suicide missions.”
“Nah, relax. The mission that I have for you should be doable in a dessy. We suspect that the smuggling hub I mentioned is their main base which is why it is so well-guarded. What I plan is send our fleet to attack their other base. The second base defences are rather poor so I expect smugglers to draw reinforcements from the first base. They may leave a skeleton fleet there, but you should have no trouble dealing with it. I’ll give you more instructions when you arrive at the hub.”
“OK, suppose I destroy the remaining guards. What’s next?”
“Your mission will be over but your attack will clear the way for our space marines who will storm the hub. If we are lucky, we will capture the smugglers leader.”
“And you are not afraid that the main fleet will return to the hub before you can extract your target?”
Tarak smiled and winked at me, “There is a risk, true. But, you know, fortune favours the bold.”
“Alright,” I said, “your risk, your call. When do we start?”
“Ready when you are, mate. Our fleet is on stand-by.”
I chuckled, “You really move fast, don’t you? I like it. As I usually say, the best time to do anything is now. Everything else is just procrastination.”
Tarak laughed, “That’s the spirit! I won’t be surprised if one of your ancestors was a Minmatar.”
“Who knows?” I replied.
With that, I accepted the mission and left for the docks.
Heimatar region — Sveipar constellation
Lustrevik system — Mission location
“So, what’s the mission today? Another reccy?” Aura asked, as we landed on the grid near the smuggling hub.
To my horror, the whole smuggler fleet, complete with the carrier, was still there, guarding the base.
“Um, not exactly,” I replied slowly. “We just need to take out this fleet, that’s all.”
I was rewarded with a horrified expression on Aura’s face which, I suspected, mirrored mine when Tarak Erand had pulled my leg.
“The whole fleet?” Aura clarified.
As she said that, shimmering warp bubbles appeared around the ships and they sped away.
That was cutting it too fine to my taste, I thought to myself.
Aloud I said, “Yes, that was the plan, but those cowards fled at the first sight of my destroyer,” and shook my head ruefully.
Aura gave me a suspicious look and asked, “Captain, what level is this mission?”
“Level 1.”
“Ah,” Aura made a sceptical grimace, “and it entailed fighting a fleet of battleships led by a carrier?”
“Oh, you know those Minmatars…” I said airily. “Anyway, not to worry. We just need to clean up the remaining guard and the mission is done.”
At that moment, Tarak Erand’s image popped up on a comms screen.
“A slight change of plans,” he said. “You see that Auxiliary Power Array? You need to destroy it.”
“You mean, instead of destroying the guard?” I asked.
“No, in addition to,” the agent replied.
I frowned, “That was not in the mission brief.”
Tarak raised an ironic eyebrow, “Let’s say, this is instead of destroying the carrier which so disappointed you by fleeing the battlefield.”
I was about to say that destroying the carrier was not in the mission brief either, when I caught sight of Aura avidly listening to our conversation. The objection stuck in my throat.
“Alright,” I said pretending a reluctant acquiescence, and added defiantly, “but structure bashing normally carries a higher price than a ship kill.”
The agent chuckled, “I believe that your mission bonus will provide sufficient compensation for your trouble,” and ended the connection.
Aura looked at me with awe, “So you really accepted a mission against a carrier?”
“Well,” I replied nonchalantly, “I couldn’t lose face in front of those Minmatars. But anyway, let’s get to the business before…”
I nearly said “before the fleet returns.”
“Before?” Aura asked.
“Um… before the remainder of the fleet flees away,” I finished, giving Aura the best imitation of Captain Yamamoto’s supercilious smile.
My first objective, however, was the auxiliary power array. I willed Kaukokärki into a customary 85-km orbit around the structure, but then corrected it to 78 klicks — there was no reason to spend Spike ammo on structure bashing, so I changed it to iron charges which had a shorter effective range. The array was not well-protected against an attack and it took me just 29 seconds to blow it up. While I was at it, the hitherto dormant guard ships took a keen interest in my person and targeted me.
I swapped iron charges for Spike and targeted them back. There were three Pithi Plunderer frigates and one Corelum Chief Spy cruiser. I decided to take care of the bigger ship first and aimed my railguns at the Chief Spy. The subsequent battle, one-sided as it was, did not support my argument that it was harder to destroy a structure than a ship, as I spent full 31 seconds dismantling the smuggler — two seconds longer than I needed to kill the power array. When the cruiser was gone, I turned to the remaining frigates. Each of them needed just 2-3 volleys of Spike charges which I obligingly provided.
When the grid was clear, I received a message from the agent confirming that my mission was completed. I wanted to stay and watch the marines’ assault on the smuggling hub, but then I remembered that the main smuggler fleet could return at any moment, and thought it prudent to return to the station.