Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
12 September YC 128
“Really?” I leaned forward enthusiastically. “Are you saying that you have found Guristas HQ?”
Ozanero shook her head, “No, if only they were Guristas…”
“Then who are they?”
“Your old friends — Equilibrium of Mankind.”
I slumped back in the chair and took a deep breath. I assumed that the terrorists were Guristas because they operated in Caldari space. But Ozanero’s revelation made sense. Guristas were businessmen. Yes, their business was criminal but it was business nonetheless. Rampaging all over the system was not in their interest as it scared honest merchants away. No merchants, no profits. EoM, on the other hand, was all about chaos and destruction. I would go after them without any pecuniary interest but… it was not necessary to inform the agent about it. Besides, it never hurts to have access to the Navy intelligence.
“Alright,” I said. “What kind of defences should I expect there?”
“Only ships, no sentry guns,” replied Ozanero. “In terms of ship classes, our sensors have not identified anything larger than a cruiser.”
“How many?”
“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. I’ll start with bad news — there are a lot of ships. We estimate that there are at least two dozen EoM combat vessels operating in Airkio. Good news, though, is that we do not expect them all to be at the base. They are scattered across the system, hunting civilian ships. No doubt, they will return to the base once they receive an alert about your attack, but you won’t have to face them all at once.”
“Anything else I need to know?” I asked.
“One last thing — don’t destroy any structures. There may be hostages or valuable intel. Once you clear out their fleet, I will send a boarding party to capture the base.”
I nodded, accepted the mission and went to the docks.
“Captain!” Aura greeted me cheerfully. “I didn’t expect you back so soon. Have you whetted your exploration appetite and decided to continue… Oh, wait a moment, this is not a Buzzard! Cap, why are we in the Cormorant?”
“We are in the destroyer because Security Agent Ozanero Voiras ambushed me and asked me to deal with some bad guys,” I replied, as I was manoeuvring Kaukokärki towards the undocking queue.
Aura raised an eyebrow, “And you agreed?”
I gestured with my hand irritably, “It’s Equilibrium of Mankind.”
Aura eyes went round, “Those beep again?”
I nodded, “My thoughts exactly. Wait, why did you call them beep?”
“I didn’t call them beep, I called them a much worse word but I censored myself. You know how in holo interviews they replace swear words with beeps to avoid offending the audience? That’s what I did.”
I chuckled, “With me, you needn’t worry about giving offence. I am used to content rated well above R18+.”
Aura frowned, “Is there a rating above R18+?”
“Yes, it’s called… beep.”
Aura laughed, “You are pulling my leg. There is no such rating as beep. You’ve made it up.”
“Of course, I’ve made it up. All ratings are made up; they are not laws of physics, after all.”
“Alright, alright. Now, where are we supposed to find those… equilibrists?”
“In Airkio. My dear navigational AI, please plot the course.”
“Plot the course,” Aura snorted. “It’s just one jump away.”
Lonetrek region — Karnola constellation
Airkio system — Mission location
The EoM base was in a deadspace pocket. The coordinates given by Ozanero marked the location of an acceleration gate which led there. It was unguarded and unlocked. I jumped through the gate and landed on the grid with a space station enveloped in clouds of waste gases. Apart from the station and various debris, the Overview window showed six EoM Succubus-class frigates patrolling the perimeter. They did not pay any attention to me until a message appeared in the local channel.
EoM Priest: More vermin have shown up on our doorstep. Purge the unbelievers, in the name of the Lord!
Then my destroyer became a focus of six target locks. On the tactical display, the red triangles grew blue arrows all of which were pointing at me. The Succubi’s weapons obviously lacked reach to hit me from 50 km and they tried to close that distance. For my part, I was not interested in a close encounter, so I turned back and ran. While I was at it, I targeted all the pursuers and shot an experimental volley at the closest of them. The result was quite satisfactory — the Spike charges took out a third of the frigate’s defences. Two volleys and six seconds later, the Succubus exploded.
“Huh,” I said. “That was easy.”
I chose a new target and spent four volleys before it was destroyed. There were only four frigates remaining, and I started feeling comfortable, when another Succubus accompanied by a Demon-class frigate warped in.
“They are calling reinforcements,” said Aura.
“I see, but as long as we can keep our distance from them, we are good,” I replied.
I then exterminated the four closest frigates and found myself without targets — not because I killed them all, but because all the other hostiles were beyond my targeting range. At that moment I was about 100 km away from the station. I stopped Kaukokärki and waited for the EoM ships to approach me. They obliged. Two more Succubi and two Demons later, I ran out of charges.
As the railguns were being recharged, the ever-prudent Aura asked me, “Hey, Cap. Why waste Tech II ammo on them? They are so crunchy that iron charges will keep them at bay.”
I shrugged and loaded iron charges. With Tech I ammo things were slower — I had to fire six or seven volleys to kill a frigate instead of four — but I still had enough advantage to pick them off before they could fire a single shot at me.
I lost count of the EoM attackers I destroyed when another message appeared in the local channel.
EoM Priest: Brothers, our own are suffering at the hands of these infidels. Come to their aid at once!
“Hey, Priest,” I said opening the comms. “Why don’t you lead the way and show your brothers how it is done?”
I didn’t expect any reaction, except maybe a deranged rant, but to my surprise, another icon soon appeared on my Overview window. Its shape indicated a cruiser and it was labelled ‘EoM Priest’.
“A man of action,” I chuckled. “Always a pleasure to meet one.”
My pleasure didn’t last long as the Priest fired a missile at me… that connected! The explosion did not cause much damage as it was a Scourge heavy missile which was designed to fight larger vessels. Nevertheless, I objected to the very idea of being shot at and started moving. While I was manoeuvring Kaukokärki into a 75-km orbit, the bloody priest smashed two more missiles into me.
“If you want to destroy the humanity,” I said in the local channel, targeting the Priest, “why don’t you, assholes, start with yourself? Your god will be pleased.”
The Priest was not the one for a theological debate, and it was just as well, as I probably would lose it. So we committed to resolving our dispute by physical means — he launched missiles and I fired hybrid charges. The Priest was ill-equipped to fight a destroyer and his hits barely moved the damage dial on my HUD. My iron charges, on the other hand, applied full damage to such a large and slow target as his cruiser. Nevertheless, it took me more than a minute of continuous bombardment from all seven railguns to finally penetrate his hull and blow up the bastard. In hindsight, I should have switched to Spike but I didn’t feel any pressure to do it. Other Demons and Succubi arrived while we fought but they didn’t make any difference as I stayed well away from their firing range. Even when two more Priest cruisers emerged, I continued my leisurely orbiting picking them off as I pleased.
When I finally ran out of targets, the Overview showed 27 EoM shipwrecks floating around their base. I called Ozanero to tell her that the grid was clear, and proceeded to loot the wrecks. While I was at it, two Caldari Navy transports warped in and expelled several skiffs with boarding parties. I asked Ozanero if they needed fire support from me.
The agent smiled, “The way your targeting system works, you are as likely to shoot our marines as the hostiles. No, you’ve done your job, Captain, and I thank you for that. Now, if you want your time bonus, you better hurry up and come to my office,” she checked the time, “within the next two hours.”
She had a point. Although the final value of the loot was twice higher than the time bonus, the pickings were slim and they took time to collect as the wrecks were scattered all over the place. To give you an idea of the loot value, there were 26 items (stacked) and metal scraps were the top 4th by price at 21,000 ISK. The most expensive item was Compact Layered Energised Membrane at 62,000 ISK. Nevertheless, there was still enough time and I emptied the wrecks before returning back to the base in Tsuguwa for my well-earned reward.