Marked for Death
Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Mission location
31 August YC 127
“Wow!” I exclaimed when we arrived to our destination.
It was the first time I saw an Amarr Tactical Outpost. Despite its military designation, it was as pretty as a bonbon box, sharply contrasting with the rugged looks of the Minmatar station I had just left.
“Beautiful,” Aura agreed.
“It will be a shame to destroy it.”
Aura frowned, “Why would you want to destroy it?”
“And how do you expect me to roust Tabar out of it? By a kind word?” I countered.
“Oh, you don’t need to demolish the whole thing for that. Just give it a few scorch marks, and he’ll panic.”
“Hmm, maybe,” I prevaricated. “Anyway, I plan to get rid of the guards first. No point in kicking the hornet’s nest when you already have hornets buzzing around.”
The outpost was guarded by five mercenaries, lazily orbiting the structure.
“It’s the same outfit which escorted Kirus and Co,” said Aura.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Same buggy firmware, same RAP vulnerability, same exploit and the same travel logs as the previous lot had,” Aura smirked. Then her eyes widened and she whispered, “Should I have got your authorisation before I ran the exploit? Will they report me as a rogue AI to authorities?”
I laughed, “Smugglers? Complaining to authorities? Nah. And to allay your concerns, I’ll make sure that there will be no one left to complain.”
And so I did. Aura was probably right that Tabar used the same mercs as his lieutenants — if nothing else, they were just as crunchy. I spent exactly one volley of Spike charges on each ship, and then there were none. And then there were five again! Apparently, some guards were docked inside the outpost and rushed to the aid of their comrades when I started shooting. That was stupid. Even if they never encountered a capsuleer or, for that matter, a destroyer — after all, there is a reason why it is called so — the quick demise of their fleet mates should have been a lesson enough for them. What can I say? If people don’t use their brains to learn, then Survival of the Fittest Law kicks in, and I was its… um, gavel? Anyway, five more pops, five more wrecks.
It was time to light the fire under the cauldron in which Izia Tabar ensconced himself. I targeted the outpost and shot an experimental round of Spike. The impact was absorbed by the shield which briefly coruscated where the charges hit it. I was about to load iron charges and start the structure bashing in earnest when a male’s face appeared on my comms screen. It was Izia Tabar. His eyes radiated cold fury but his voice was calm, confident and menacing.
“Do you have a death wish, capsuleer?” he asked looking me directly in the eye. “If you don’t get off the grid immediately, I will be only glad to grant it.”
An interesting gambit, I thought. He had no guards left. Did he have a cruiser docked in the outpost? Or was he playing for time, expecting reinforcements? Well, I wasn’t going to be distracted by his ruse. After all, being a capsuleer, I was capable of multitasking, to wit, talking and shooting at the same time. I decided to keep my rails loaded with Spike, in case I needed to quickly switch the target from the structure to Tabar’s ship.
I willed the railguns to fire on auto-repeat and politely asked the smuggler, “And how, Mr Tabar, do you propose to achieve such a feat? You don’t seem to have any firepower left,” I pointed at the Overview screen littered with icons of mercenary wrecks.
“Ha-ha, that was just an escort,” he said dismissively. “My lieutenants will soon arrive with reinforcements and they will tear you apart.”
“Your lieutenants?” I raised an inquiring eyebrow. “And who would those lieutenants be? One Mr Kirus whom I delivered into Minmatar custody?”
I nodded to Aura and she quickly found and played back the ship’s CCTV footage showing Kirus being dragged into our cargo hold.
“Or Messieurs Hjorald and Kurn, who refused to join Mr Kirus, and perished in an explosion of a structure very similar to this one?”
Aura, without my prompt, showed the explosion of the habitation module, captured by our camera drones. I gave her thumbs up. She beamed at me. Tabar scowled.
“I have a fleet,” he growled, “a large fleet led by a carrier. They will come and grind you to stardust, egger!”
“Ooh, a whole carrier for a lowly me,” I sneered. “Have you summoned it already, by the way? I am not an expert on carriers but I know it takes time and resources to organise their jumps between systems. And time is something you don’t have much of,” I said, pointing at the quickly growing red indicator of the outpost damage.
Izia Tabar stared at ,e with undisguised hatred, his eyes bulging and his breathing heavy.
After a few seconds he barked, “Prepare to die, egger! I am coming for you!”
I snorted, “I am always ready to die — this is the whole point of being a capsuleer. The question is: are you?”
The last sentence was addressed to an empty screen as the smuggler terminated the connection. Continuing my assault on the outpost, I manoeuvred Kaukokärki so that I had a direct view of the undock. Izia Tabar did not make me wait for his appearance (not that he could afford it, what with the outpost damage being deep in the armour). A shiny Amarrian frigate emerged from the outpost and, as soon as it cleared the exit… it started turning away from me.
“He is trying to flee!” Aura cried.
By the time she finished speaking I have already started acquiring a target lock on Tabar’s ship and gave the rails a command to stop firing at the outpost. The firing cycle ended and, a split second later, the smuggler’s frigate was locked. But Tabar didn’t waste time either — while I was preparing my attack, he aligned to his destination and accelerated. I didn’t have any tackle but I could not let him go!
As a warp bubble was forming around Tabar’s ship, I willed and, superfluously, yelled, “Fire!”
The Spike hybrid charges slid soundlessly along the rails and hurtled across 70 kilometres separating me from the smuggler. I zoomed in the video from my camera drone just in time to see the rounds smash into the frigate’s prow. Some of them penetrated the shield and hit the armour, making the ship deviate from the intended warp heading. In his hasty attempt to warp away, Tabar didn’t leave himself any leeway, and his warp path was almost touching the station wall. After the hit, he was on a collision course with the outpost. Automatic crash avoidance system kicked in and cut both the warp engine and the jets.
It was a welcome delay, but it was not enough. I checked Tabar’s damage indicator — it was at 25%. I needed three more volleys. My railguns firing cycle lasted three seconds. Nine seconds was plenty for any frigate to warp away.
While the thrusters tried to align the smuggler’s ship to its warp destination, another volley from my rails reached it. This time charges hit the stern, making the ship turn faster to reach its desired direction and… overshoot it!
50% damage
Now the thrusters were firing in the opposite direction, first killing the rotation, and then reversing it. Another volley smashed into the frigate.
75% damage
Tabar’s ship had finally stabilised itself and started accelerating to reach the warp-out speed. It was enveloped in a shimmering bubble and was about to enter the warp tunnel, when the fourth and the final volley penetrated the distorted space. For a moment everything was still, as if Lady Luck was tossing a coin to decide what would happen next. Then a fiery flower blossomed where the frigate was. The explosion was so powerful that, when the cloud of debris dispersed, there was no wreck left.
“Wow,” said I.
“Beautiful,” said Aura.
“Your mission is accomplished,” said the agent.