Short stories from the District

I died

A sudden flash of neutrons made her eyes move rapidly. “she is waking up now doctor”  a white-yellow silhouette was for Keina a confusing and incomprehensive blur. She could barely make out anything, her eyes had never been used before and could not yet balance the massive overload of information that the revival introduced. The sudden rush of information was painful and the bright unfocused room did not yet make sense. “Take is easy sir, we just woke you up” Keina continued to receive information from sounds and light around her, everything from biological canister to metallic electric machinery. “follow the light please”  the male voice was talking to her in a short direct tone. “Good, you are getting your reflexes back quickly, please inform them that the revival of the clone was a success, now inject her with with a double dose, she needs to get back in the fight.”  the male voice got louder and yet again was directed to her

“Look, we need to inject you with a double dose that will wake you up faster, you are needed outside, the defense is going bad, really bad. You will feel like shit later tonight”. The last second of information and the dose they gave her woke her up “Shit I died”  Keina yelled.

Short stories from the District

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Engine trails

CNR Procella, the Golem-class battleship slipped from the Kaalakiota station’s dock. The powerful engine clusters lit, and slowly accelerated the capsuleer's ship away. Throughout the halls, overhead speakers kick on, announcing to the crew, "Prepare for warp, load missiles". Hakato Mizuki  willed his ship to a new vector, and started to spool up the warp drives. Once at full power, the ship momentarily stopped before being launched into warp. A flicker of light played off the ship's hull as the shield generators kicked on, the energy shimmering across the various windows. It shuddered from deceleration and offered a last minute of peace for the crew before missiles start to fly from their rails. A single technician, responsible for the Launcher #1, shuddered at the thought of death. The capsuleer simply smiled.

*

Short stories from the District

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Thoughts

I have not put so much thoughts into my past life since I became a capsuleer. I mean, why should I? The gap between an immortal capsuleer and a ordinary “baseline” is growing each time I come back to any place that is familiar to me. I must have "died" dozens of times by now and the only thing that is me, was me, is billions of neurons which instantly is uploaded into a new clone when it receives the signal that I´m "dead". My new body is just a shell of nerves, flesh and muscles and each time I die it takes me a few seconds to realize that I am alive again. And on top of that I feel more a custom to the regulations of capsuleers movements in the State when I travel, as the gap was not wide enough. A lot has happen over the years and more will sure follow in its wake. I don’t know if anyone is ready at all, it seems more and more everything involving us capsuleers is driven by conflict rather than cooperation amongst each other, so it seems at least,  maybe I have seen too much of conflict and to little of cooperation, maybe the future will change or maybe it will not, who knows.

One thing Im sure of, this is what I am now.

*

Short stories from the District

*

He arrived too late.

The urgent summons from the agent, and even more urgent request to hurry to the ambush site had done nothing to save the crew of the two convoy ships. He passed under their blackened hulls, a profound sense of disquiet filling him as he navigated through the debris and the remains that had once been the ship’s crew. He shut off the synthesizers - a moment of silence the only gesture he could offer - and set his ship on a course back to the agent's station. It would not be good news he would bear.

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Short stories from the District

*

There was not much Joni could do when he saw her fall, the narrow staircase that was secure into the station bulkhead had without warning collapsed, only a sudden scream just before the metal sound of the staircase giving in had warned him and rest of the station workers that something had gone horrible wrong. The last thing he saw was her wide open eyes and flying arms as she tried to reach for anything to hold on to. Then a distant “thud” sounded as her body hit landing pad C, some 40 meters below. His reality started to muffle the sound around him and his vision tunneled as he saw her fall. Without thinking he started to run down the stairs alongside one of the fuel silos to the landing pad, he dropped every tool he was carrying and as he was running he kept screaming “medic to the floor! Medic to the floor!” thinking that he should be the one that should fall, not her. Suddenly their date from last night was coming back to him and the emotion that came with it, he ignored anyone who stood in his way and his adrenaline filled mind ignored the running chaos he made while descending to the floor.

*

Short stories from the District

*

She stayed just long enough to watch the body stop moving. The final gasp of breath and the sightless eyes were beautiful to her; he had been a fool, and a dangerous one. But the issue was settled now. What a spaceship war had failed to achieve, she had managed with a few honeyed words and a drugged glass of wine. No more assassinations, no fear of a merger to rip apart all the hard work that her father had done to build their company’s reputation. Perhaps now they would listen to her and cut away from the bothersome capsuleers.

*

Short stories from the District

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Raw data

Is there no escape from yourself? Where do we simply go when we shut off, when we unplug from the constant inputs of raw data that is reality, or do we unplug? I guess some people do and some people don’t. And how do we interpret the visual inputs that the brain gives us if the image is so disturbing that all you want is to gauge you eyes out and then realize that it was a dream, what the fuck does one think of himself then? Damn, I guess all we can do is sit still and enjoy the ride. My own ride is a rain drenched back alley on Kiguru Street on New Caldari and the corner bar at that street, Spader´s. It was an image that stuck to me early on when I got these implants, when I knew that I would be plugged to a massive steal beast and become a living machine to wreck havoc amongst the void of space. I needed a place to hide, to escape the constant inputs of raw data. The corner door is best described as shady, an almost criminal invitation with bright flickering green text "Spader´s" that illuminates and reflects in the humid air in front of it. Maybe not the normal place where you would find a "good" citizen, but it’s where my mind goes and escapes the other reality, I find myself here quite often, far away from the constant inputs of raw data.

I need a drink.

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Short stories from the District

*

Kemil had been afraid of space travel all his life, and other than the brief trip through the stars that had brought him to the colony in his mother’s arms, had never stepped foot off a planet. Fifty years later the news that his son, his only child, had been accepted into the elite capsuleer training program filled him with both terror and bitter regret. It was one thing to accept your child was a man grown and off to his own life; it was another thing to watch them show bravery in the face of your own worst fears.

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Short stories from the District

*

The enemy fleet had de-cloaked and locked her before she could transmit a full report of their location. Their superior fire tore through shields and structure in seconds, and she felt the ship fall away around her, the yawning void left in place of where a solid hull and functioning engines had once been leaving her disoriented and breathless. It was only a split second as the pod ejected, but it was enough; she was caught, unable to warp to safety, and simply waited for the searing pain of the poison that would hasten the journey to the next clone. 

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Short stories from the District

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They had warned him about this part of the job, but when he stood there behind the protective glass wall and watched the thirty-odd recruits lie back and accept the fatal injection, Dovash knew for certain that he would never understand what it was about the heavens that made capsuleers so willing to die to become part of it. One by one the light above the recruits’ stations changed from blue to dull red; in the same span of moments, the green lights above the clone tanks start to blink, and the newly activated clones opened their eyes to immortality.

*

Ayem colony under high alert after recent attacks.

The colony of Ayem in I-MGAB solar system has been put under high alert by the planetary military forces of Fourth District after the recent attacks on alliance property in the system. The order comes directly from the alliance command through the planetary development office of Fourth District. It comes days after capsuleer battles around the moons and around the systems both star gates and even if the battles has not yet reached the planet a decision was made to protect both the citizens and the property of Fourth District.

"We made a commitment to our development of our space when we came here and we made a commitment when the colony was attacked from Sansha forces. This time we are prepared and actions has been taken to secure our infrastructure and our personnel on the planets surface"

- Cmdr. Demion Samenel, Diplomat, Caldari Independent Navy Reserve.

No official rapports has come from the alliance military advisory board from the attacks on alliance infrastructures.

"All I can say is that Northern Coalition. [NC.] has decided to attack our infrastructure in an unprovoked attack. And this has made us be on high alert on future attacks. It has also escalated in to two larger battles and a few smaller skirmishes between 4TH and other Providence coalition members. Rest ashore that we are on the top of things and we will defend our property to the best of our ability, but NC. is one of the major powers in capsuleer controlled space, so it is a daunting task to face them. What made them attack Providence is a this point unclear, it was a unprovoked attack, that all I can see is that they want to show their naighbours who has the biggest d****, sadly no one is watching..."  

- Cmdr. Demion Samenel

We will be as always providing updates on recent news to you.
Fourth District News Service

I-MGAB infrastructure under attack.

At 22.54 yesterday, a known terrorist group made an attempt to blockade the Fourth District infrastructure of I-MGAB solar system. The threat came from corporation Why So Mad from Space Immigration alliance.

"They are known to us, and we consider them a threat to our development of this region" Demion Samenel told District News.

"They make use of black ops battleships and hit and run tactics which is hard to counter. And they have also been caught working with neutral entities in the area that makes them harder to hunt down." Cmdr. Samenel continued.

The two blockade units was shoot down just a few hours later by a joint fleet of coalition members under the command of Lt. Turelus of Caldari Independent Navy Reserve.

"We find it hard to believe that this was a serious attempt for a sovereignty push by Space Immigration, its more likely that they wanted to draw out our capitals for an easy kill." Lt. Turleus told the District News Service.

On the question if the Ayem colony was affected on the infrastructure attack cmdr. Samenel told District News.

"No, not really, there were no immediate danger for the colony or its inhabitants and we had just finished putting more soldier on the ground. And those ships they are using is not equipped with planetary bombardment units. If a situation do appear that we would need to evacuate the solar system, we have evacuation plans in order to make sure that all personnel is evacuated as quickly as possible."

Battle rapport SBU 1

Battle rapport SBU 2

Colonists found dead

The 132 colonists that was abducted last week by Sansha loyal forces has been located by a capsuleer member of the Fourth District. After days of spacial anomaly scanning, a small hidden Sansha base was discovered. The station and sansha forces was destroyed by the capsuleer and after the destruction when salvage operation of the station started, bodies was found that could be positive identified as members of Ayem colony. All remains has been identified and now been successful retrieved and transported back to Ayem colony for proper burial rites of the family. "We are would like to put our condolences to the family of the colony of the deaths of there relatives. We can find some comfort that they did not continues there lives in mental slavery that Sansha´s stands for, and now they can find rest instead.  They will continue to live in our memories and find peace with our ancestors" Demion Samenel from CAIN told District News. He continued "We have increased our presence in I-MGAB system and put a small military force on the planet to help the colony security force. Its important that this wont hinder our development of the system and the District has hole. We need to continue to push for control and keep a firm grip of the system if we are to succeed. The loss of work forces has been put forward to the alliance council and I suspect that we will see a new work force heading to the colony. We will make sure that investors and Fourth not fall behind in its development of an Caldari alliance in this constellation." Cmdr Samenel told District News in his statement.

District News, Providence.

Ayem colony was attacked by Sansha forces.

The colony on Ayem in I-MGAB solar system was attacked yesterday by Sansha forces. A small force of Succubus and Phantasm ships raided the settlement and planetary infrastructure, according to District military command, the Sansha´s Nation had an objective to abduct as many colonists as possible. "This is sadly something we have seen taken place before" Cmdr. Samanel told District News. The attack came early in the morning were  the largest settlement was located, 132 colonists was abducted during two waves before planetary security forces managed to fend off further attacks, officials from Fourth District is saying that there has been a increase of Sansha´s Nation activities in system were there is less military presence such as I-MGAB solarsystem. "We are struck on what happen, but the colonists knew when the colony was created that it would be a hazardous and dangerous undertaking" Demion Samenel told the District News. He also continued " we have sent out more regular patrols through out the cluster to try to find hidden Sansha bases, in hope we can find the colonists alive"

Ayem colony has be under construction for almost a year and its goal is to have permanent settlement on the planet. The settlement will in the future work towards increasing planetary production. Planet Ayem is the only planet with a planetary environment that can facilitate human life without a prolonged terraforming process, other planets exist but requires certain level of terraforminig to easier support human life. At the moment around 15 000 colonists is living on the surface, mostly industrial workers and  researchers and there families.

The attack on the colony was a set back on the District cluster development but District News has been reassured that this will not stop any plans for future planetary or cluster wide developments. "We need to increase our military presence in the cluster and might even put small military forces on the planet itself to be able to protect our people on the planet. Today only a small security force is stationed on the planet, but this was clearly not enough." Demion Samenel told the District News.

District News Service will continue to monitor the attacks and will be updating you when we have anything new.

Stories from 4TH District

A story from capsuleer pilot Sillanda Kachira, a story that got her a second place in the first 4TH writing contest. She decided to write about here earlier time in CAIN and Fourth District.
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Sillanda had just finished her daily duty and walked back to her Captain's quarters, sitting herself down at her desk as the door closed behind her. It was a long day again and she still had to write up her report. She had always hated doing her daily paperwork; it had been one of the few things she hadn't missed about serving in the Fourth District. Few alliances were as strict as they were when it came to writing reports, but this wasn't her first time in the alliance; she had already had three stints in its service.


She started her report with the normal questions about hours in space, used ships...she had only undocked twice today, spending about three hours in space. She had been fighting some Sanshas in the morning that had tried to settle into 3KB-J0, piloting her ship the CNR Golden Hope. One of the vessels she was proudest of, the Golden Hope was one of her oldest and she had no better crew. As she wrote her report on the anti-Sansha deployment, however, her thoughts began to wander to a previous time.


It was a wonderful morning; Sillanda had just woke up from her quarters in 5ZXX-K, where she had been living for some time now. Where before she had only been serving the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve, now she was a proud member of the Fourth District, the alliance CAIN had recently founded. She got out of bed and began to get ready for her duty.


As she walked into the CAIN offices, she saw a smiling face, and it took her still-not-quite-awake brain a few moments to register that it was Shirukii, who was already waiting for her. “You really should go to be earlier,” chided the other pilot.


“I needed to finish this stupid report,” replied Sillanda angrily. She grabbed some food quickly as the two female pilots got ready for the upcoming work. Since Shirukii had joined CAIN, the two had become best friends, doing their best to contribute to the Reserve with their skills.


That particular day it seemed as if there was no work left for the two girls, so they checked for known enemies around 5ZXX-K, but it seemed that even their usual enemies were still asleep. With nothing better to do, they asked their agent in the Mordu's Legion station for work.


His job didn't seem that difficult: “destroy the thief, loot the reports, and bring them back to me.” Sillanda and Shirukii prepared to undock from the station. Sillanda was in the CNR Lando, her heavily-tanked battlecruiser, an inexpensive ship that she always felt safe in. She always seemed to have money problems, so she couldn't afford many other ships than her Drakes. She had a number for different uses.

She looked over at the shiny Maelstrom battleship that Shirukii was undocking in next to her, the CNR Rain. Despite the fact that Sillanda had been flying longer than Shirukii, for some reason she still found herself flying the worse ship. Sillanda initiated a fleet warp, setting the two of them off on the hunt for the thief.

Arriving at the agent's bookmark, they found that the thief was not alone, flying with a fleet at his side and trying to save his life from the two pod pilots. As she landed on the field of battle first, they opened fire on Sillanda; this had been the two Reserve pilots' plan, as the Drake's tank held much better against most enemies. The Lando's shields held without any problems and the two women began to pick apart the enemy fleet. Eventually, only the thief himself remained; at that moment, Shirukii's older brother Mookuh woke up and contacted the two, asking if they needed help. The two younger pilots always felt safer with him around, as he was an experienced pilot and one of the Fourth Districts best fleet
commanders, and they invited him to join their fleet; but when Sillanda asked what ship he would be bringing, all he would say was “you'll see.”


She didn't really like guessing games, but she knew that he'd likely be flying one of his new ships; while they talked, the two women had managed to take down the thief, barely managing to get him as he tried to slip out of Shirukii's range. Unfortunately, when his ship exploded he was still almost 50 km away, quite the trek for the two slow ships. Right at that moment, Mookuh warped in next to them.


Sillanda looked over and saw his new ship, rolling her eyes. “A frigate?” she yelled at him over voice comms. “You aren't serious about joining in that thing.” Everyone in the alliance knew she hated small ships – she always got sick in them, moving far too fast for her liking. As she complained, he was already on his way to get the reports from the distant wreck.


“At least he is useful for this,” replied Shirukii. The two women warped back to the station to dock up and wait for Mookuh to return, so that he could hand over the reports, but he never arrived. Sillanda undocked, but still couldn't see him, her scanner not showing any sign of his tiny ship either, and she noticed that he had left their fleet channel as well. On their corporation channel, all he said was “you need to catch me if you want them back.”


The two women grumbled angrily, but they wanted to show him that they were no longer helpless without him. They undocked again in their normal combat ships, Sillanda in another of her Drakes and Shirukii now in her favorite ship, a Stilleto. After a while, they managed to catch Mookuh in a belt, and in a second they managed to get him warp scrambled so he couldn't get away. Before they had a chance to ask him for the reports, though, a fleet of Guristas warped into the belt. Before they had a chance to react, the pirates locked up Mookuh's ship and he disappeared almost instantly under their missile barrage. He managed to get his capsule out, and Sillanda tanked the Guristas just long enough to get the reports from his wreck.

When they returned to the station, just before Sillanda retired to her quarters, she smiled and said to Shirukii, “he really deserved it.”


She smiled while the daydream faded; it had been so long ago that it had happened, during her first tour with the Fourth District. The alliance had just been founded, with only a few small corps that they had been living with in Pure Blind at the time. The years when Sillanda had been flying Drakes were long gone; she hadn't undocked in a Drake for some time now. For fighting Sanshas, her red and gold Paladin was way more effective.


She still missed Shirukii; the two had been the best of friends until Shirukii had disappeared entering a wormhole three years ago. Many things had changed since then; Sillanda was back in the Fourth District, but they were in Providence now, holding their own systems, six of them in total. The alliance had grown and they found themselves fighting alongside CVA these days.


A new recruit had just joined the Reserve, and she noted that there were a few new people joining the Reserve the last few weeks. She made a note on her report; she thought it was way too easy for a new recruit in the alliance today. Freighter and carrier jump services, cloaking ships to get to their staging system jump bridges, and friendly-camped routes up to 3KB-J0. Sillanda looked up from her report and once again got lost in her memories, a smile crossing her face.


Shirukii had just joined the Reserve, and had been told as every new recruit had been that she needed to get into Ladel's hangar and paint one of his ships a different color. No one
had managed to get past Ladel's security so far – not until now. Sillanda and a few other CAIN members had been sitting in the CAIN offices in 5ZXX-K when they saw Shirukii emerging from Ladel's hangar with a pail of pink paint in her hand. The pilots looked at each other nervously, sure that Ladel would be really mad if he saw one of his ships repainted.


The next morning, the usual Triumvirate. Vagabond fleet showed up and Ladel called for a response fleet, undocking in his own Abbadon with other pilots in their own remote-repping battleships. As they formed up and waited for Ladel to undock, they heard him yelling suddenly. “My Abbadon, my Abbadon has PINK letters on it!” He ranted for a while, fired his security people and then disappeared into his hangar for the next few hours, cleaning his ship – no one saw him for the rest of the day.

When he undocked his Abaddon the next time, it still wasn't totally golden; the words “Ladel loves Kills” was still readable on its side. Sillanda wasn't sure if he ever found out who was responsible, but she thought it was probably better if he never did.


Sillanda looked back at her report; she wasn't even half through it, and she kept finding herself thinking about Shirukii. She resolved to get the report done and tried to remember where she left off. Moving ships? No...carrier jumping? No...ah, new recruits. She made a few more notes on the report.


Now she only needed to finish the fleet report. Ladel Teravada had called the fleet up this evening, the normal fleet the District fielded these days, Nagas with Rapier, Lachesis, and logistic ship support. When she had joined the fleet earlier she had waited to find out what logistics ship she would be needed in. Ladel had decided he wanted three Basilisks, so Sillanda had pulled the CNR Rep Me out of her hangar. Three Basilisks, one Lachesis, and one Rapier; Ladel was in the Rapier as usual. She made sure to put him at the top of her watch list, to ensure that he wouldn't die again.


She hated that she couldn't save everyone, but sometimes the enemy fleet just put out too much damage, more than she and the other logistics pilots could ever repair. She had only been piloting logistics ships in fleets for some time now; every time she wrote her reports she missed flying the ships she had in the past. She found her thoughts wandering again, thinking about old fleets.


She undocked from 5ZXX-K station in her Drake again to join up with a fleet under Ladel's command. Looking right and left, she could see two Blackbirds, another two battlecruisers, and two interceptors, one of them piloted by Ladel himself. Sillanda joined the fleet in a Drake for one of the first times in her career, previously only flying Caracals. At that moment she was both proud and nervous; she wanted to leave soon so she can finally show what she had learned in the past weeks. She was always eager to prove herself, always wanting to do everything perfectly in a fleet.


Ladel still yelled at her a lot, and she hated it, just because she wanted everything to go smoothly. But everything still seemed so complicated, so many things to pay attention to; shooting the right ship, flying in the right direction, staying at range...


They were leaving, Ladel staying in front of the fleet trying to catch any enemies near their home system. They were patrolling Pure Blind nearly every day, trying to make sure there were no hostiles living there. It wasn't always easy, with Triumvirate. still living just a few jumps away.

After some time, Ladel gave the fleet the command to jump through a gate and warp to him. They followed quickly and found him tackling a Sleipnir; Sillanda always wondered how he managed to find enemies so easily. They chewed through the ship's shields slowly, but the attack went perfectly and Sillanda was happy to see on the kill report that she had done the most damage to the target. It was the first time she had done more damage than some of the older pilots; she knew it had nothing to do with her training, but more to do with the range they had been fighting at. The Harbingers that the others had been flying were not able to do damage at the range her Drake could, but she was still proud of the accomplishment.

She looked at her report again, trying to finish the fleet section. She missed flying the Drake and Abaddon; she had flown them since Shirukii had disappeared, and she still felt horrible that she didn't seem to fly anything other than logistics ships lately. Since Shirukii had been gone, she felt like she was missing something in a damage ship; Shirukii had always flown the light tackle, grabbing the enemy. In logistics ships, she didn't need to worry about that, and felt better about it.


She continued writing the report, reflecting with satisfaction on the number of pilots the alliance could field these days. They had been fighting a 60-man Goonswarm fleet, but after the first dead ships on the Goons' side they had lit a cynosural field and CAIN found themselves hotdropped once again. But she was still happy; their reps had held up well and they had only lost one ship in the end, which had been tackled when the cyno field went up. She finished the fleet report and got to the last section.

It was Sillanda's duty to keep track of the capitals in the alliance, she began to tally the numbers in the Fourth District's growing capital fleet. The number of carriers and dreads were getting better every day, and the alliance could even field a few supercapitals now.


Finally, she reached the end of the report and closed the file, glad to put an end to the ordeal. As she did, she still felt the tinge of loss, wondering Shirukii still survived, lost in wormhole space

Fourth District reveals the winner of its first writing competition.

And the winner is Nidia Masters from Caldari Independent Navy Reserve for her well written story of a hazardous journey out to Providence region and the homesystem of Fourth District. She will receive a Cynabal Cruiser and 500 million ISK for her contribution to the District.   

It should also be noted that Sillanda Kachira will also receive a Cynabal Cruiser for her historical capsuleer centered story and for her contribution to the District. You will soon be able to read her story in this blog. 

But now I present to you the winning story of the first Fourth District fiction competition. 

Gods' Deliverance by Nidia Masters

Felix Renard liked to drive space ships. He did not much care for exactly what he was doing in regards to it. Whether it be a simple transport assignment, an escort, or, as he liked to call it, making someone hurt, he loved every aspect of starship operation. This was a good thing, as for the last day, he had immersed himself into some of the more loathsome areas of starship operation.

Luckily for him, and his small crew, the life support and environmental systems were back online and they did not have to spend whatever remained of their short lives inside space suits waiting for the end. Instead, Felix now had lubricant covering his skin up to his elbow as he desperately tried to repair the critical systems of the ship.

            Felix Renard captained a second, possibly third hand Ibis-class frigate, the Senshi. A fierce name for a small ship, it meant warrior in an old dialect of Caldari. Felix found the ship in a dilapidated state, previously owned by a capsuleer and inexpensive, by their reckoning. For Felix, it was a small fortune, but it meant something more: freedom

To Felix, freedom's price was well known to be more than purely monetary. For Senshi, the risks of nullsec were suddenly taught to her when what was planned to be a routine transport assignment turned into a rather unpleasant encounter with a hostile cruiser's lasers; Senshi herself barely escaping in mostly one piece.

Senshi's first mate, a heavily tattooed Nefantar with a dark complexion by the name of Fahim Najem opened the door to the small equipment room where his captain had been working for the better part of an hour. "Warp drive is restored, Captain," He spoke with a gravelled voice that comes from being a life long smoker. "How are the shields coming along?" Felix responded by waving his hand back and forth quickly, the universal symbol for not so good. Fahim started lighting a new cigarette before continuing. "Without the shields, taking us into warp will be rather painful."

"Yeah, I know how my frigate works, Fahim, thank you. How is everything else coming along?" The young captain spoke without taking his eyes off of the delicate, though dirty repairs he was continuing.

"It's just you left."

"Figures... Put someone on watch and get everyone to get some rest, this is a one man job anyway." Felix's commands were firm, though not disrespecting. This was his ship and he made sure his small crew knew it, but he did not treat them badly. He was not of any higher stature than any of them. Likely less so, in fact. As he continued to work, Felix's thoughts turned back to the earlier skirmish, and how he and Senshi came into the position they currently found themselves in.

           

            Wear and tear on Senshi had been mounting in recent weeks, and so were the debts owed to an assortment of unsavoury individuals. The little Ibis-class frigate was already old and had clearly been through a few battles of its own before Felix spent more money than he had on her. Now, desperate for a quick infusion of money into his vacant accounts, Felix took a courier job for some capsuleer in nullsec. He scoffed at the memory, remembering how he thought of how these capsuleers were either so posh and refined that to move a few expensive modules some twenty or so jumps was beneath them, or that they were of a form of lethargy so extreme that language has yet to name it. Felix finally settled for a combination of the two, and accepted the job, aware of both the risk, and the payout; for what was to a capsuleer, equivalent to pennies, the reward for completion of task would pay all of Felix's bills and still have money left over for a very nice refit of the frigate.

The dangers and near lawlessness of nullsec were not unknown to the general populace, especially ship captains. Getting to nullsec was not a particularly difficult thing to accomplish; coming back from it was. This was where Felix, Senshi and the crew found themselves in their current predicament.

Senshi jumped into nullsec and travelled the first few jumps unmolested. Providence was a far more pleasant region than most others in explored space, but they would soon come to see that paradise, it was not. With just a few more systems to pass through, it seemed like they would make it to port just fine and ignored, a milk run essentially. This all changed when they jumped into an uncreatively named system: DP-JD4.

True Slaves, zombified soldiers of Sansha's Nation surrounded the stargate as Senshi  jumped into the system. A pair of cruisers flanked by a pair of escorting frigates, Sansha Kuvakei's minions were ready for targets of opportunity jumping through the gate, and Senshi was a soft one at that. Felix ordered his navigator to immediately align to warp and escape the Phantasms and Succubi, but the Nation seemed to have other plans for them.

Warp disruptors were the bane of most ships across New Eden, and Senshi was no exception. Her small size, weak weapons and pathetic shield generators meant that her best defense was escape. Now with one of the frigates warp disrupting Senshi, this was no longer an option. Felix called for evasive maneuvers and brought up commands for the lone ECM module on his little ship. The one ace in the hole that remained, though Felix knew at best it would buy him a few seconds unless something else was done.

That is when Senshi's missile turrets turned to face the first Succubus. Certainly not enough to harm the cruisers, the light missile launchers were enough to pose a serious threat to the frigates. The first scourge missiles heaved from their launchers with a frenzied sprint towards their marks as fiery beams of light crossed from the opposite direction, striking and nearly obliterating Senshi's shields in a single impact. What little speed Felix's frigate could muster kept them from taking the full brunt of the Sanshas' assault, for the moment he had only the frigates to worry about, though the cruisers fired their microwarpdrives to close the distance; a module Senshi did not have.

Luckily for Felix, the one piece of equipment that did work properly on the first try, was the ECM module, which immediately scrambled one of the cruiser's targeting systems before she could fire on the frigate. This bought enough time for Senshi the one frigate that was disrupting her warp drive, but not before the unjammed cruiser and second frigate fired their lasers again with hate, melting and burning away nearly all of Senshi's starboard armour, exposing much of the underlying superstructure and overloading numerous systems.

Senshi made the warp during the brief moment before the True Slaves could recognize their error, and she only stopped when she entered high orbit of a desolate, uninhabited world. So began their long day of desperate field repairs.

Felix smirked. He was not entirely sure whether the True Slave zombies had any emotions to speak of, but he knew if they had, they would be furious at losing such a simple prey. That day, fortune was on their side. He did not know if it would be the next.

The captain closed up the panel he previously had his grease-covered arms elbow deep into, as the circuits and power came back online, and he heard the tell-tale sound of the re-powering of the shield generator. He took his tool box and marched down the short length of the ship, stopping in the lavatory for only a few moments to wash the worst of the grease off his arms before heading down to the flight deck. Felix found his navigator standing watch in the cramped space, in one of the few seats available.

Irina Saika excelled at mathematics. Along with quick reflexes, a calm demeanour and numerous other talents, it made her a very good navigator. She was also Felix's oldest and possibly only close friend. She sat at the console, watching the scanner carefully as she sipped her tea, a red blend from Iyen-Oursta, one of the few luxuries on board the tiny frigate. Felix looked at the scanner as he spoke to her, answering his own question. "How are things looking out there?"

She offered a small scowl, it annoyed her when he checked her work. He trusted her, but it was still a terrible habit of his. "Some movement around, but nothing seems to be interested in us. Or is particularly close by."

"Good." He paused for a moment as he set his tool box back to its nook, under the console. "Are you coming to bed?"

"In about an hour," She sipped at her warm tea, coddled between her hands. "I'll wait for the next watch. When are we getting out of this shit hole?"

"0600, I hope it will be at an hour when there isn't a lot of traffic around, so lets hope whatever asshole deity watches over us is in a good mood in the morning. Tell the crew.” He turned and headed through the door as she returned an understanding nod, worried more about the condition of the ship, rather than the crew.

The sun does not rise in space. Not like anyone standing on the soil would be used to. Morning came to Felix, his crew and Senshi regardless. The prospect of a new day offered opportunities to Senshi and her desires. Felix and his crew rose early and manned their stations, weary from a lack of sleep and an abundance of maintenance that Senshi so desperately thirsted for.

The little frigate's engines rumbled unhappily to full power as she aligned to resume her previous day's course. “Bring the warp drive online, let's make for the next stargate, and hope against anymore surprises.” Her ordered, as he manned his own station in the small flight deck.

“Warp drive active.” Irina the navigator returned the call to her captain.

The frigate did not particularly enjoy the transition as she entered warp, screaming towards the stargate at superluminal velocities. Senshi shuttered and rumbled in annoyance as her already damaged systems and hull plating took the forces of the transition past light speed.

There was a collective cessation of breathing on the frigate as she made the jump to the next system... and nothing happened. Sighs of relief filled the ship as their sensors reconfigured post-jump and discovered they were alone. There was no blockade at the stargate waiting to assault them again.

“One more jump to go.” Felix explained, as he gestured to make the next transition to warp, and  the final stargate.

Senshi again lurched in annoyance as she made the final to her destination. A backwater system in a dead-end constellation in a region beyond the control of the empires: Providence. The system they jumped to was the unceremoniously named 3KB-J0.

The crew's earlier sighs returned to still breath due to the scene before them. Giants fought in the space before them. Capsuleers, this generation's current deities warred between each other. Two dozen battlecruisers and their escorts traded shells, beams of light and missile back and forth as drones of all sizes followed along, moving from target to target leaving an exploding ball of light in their wake. Any one of those battlecruisers could obliterate Senshi in the briefest of moments, especially if they were piloted by capsuleers, and Felix recognized the danger. “Get us out of here, now!”

Irina went to make course corrections as the engines fired to move them out of danger. Fahim manned the weapons console should their escape prove unhelpful as Senshi's engineer called from the lower decks, frustrated and flustered that the engines were being pushed too hard, for the second time in as many days. Senshi bounced and weaved between the blows the capsuleers threw between themselves in whatever manner of argument that caused their belligerence to one another. It did not matter to any of them on board the little frigate, for the moment their only concern was survival.

Senshi's luck would run out as she aligned for a final warp. The frigate's shields cracked suddenly as did her hull as she took the full brunt of a stray slug from one of the capsuleer's blasters. Senshi entered warp, although her rumble turned to a much more violent shudder as her hull had micro-breaches, and her shields crippled. The Ibis-class frigate came out of warp close to the outpost in the system, adrift, damaged to a point where she would probably be considered an economic loss, and perhaps trapped in less than the friendliest space.

"That's it. We're dead in the water." Felix said with a melancholic voice.

Irina frowned as she looked down at her sensor console. "It gets worse, a dozen battlecruisers are showing up on scan, probably heading this way."

"Wonderful, any way we can get any power to the engines? What about the missiles?"

The raspy Minmatar broke his silence. "The launchers are fried, not that they would help at all." Irina just shook her head, and Felix returned the frown in understanding.

The battlecruisers dropped from warp, one by one in quick succession. Most were in good shape, others were burning, venting their atmosphere from holes torn into their sides from the battle. Those were the first to enter a docking pattern to the outpost before them. It took Felix a moment to realize that instead of removing him and his crew from existence, they were heading home. All but one of the battlecruisers, who moved to approach them. The Naga-class battlecruiser dwarfed the frigate, but her guns did not point towards them. Instead the communications array came to life, one of the few systems remaining in operation, with a hail from a young woman's voice.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you little one? Seems like you got here right at the wrong time, and in the way of us and a few pirates." The capsuleer spoke with an air of arrogant superiority as she circled around them.

Felix picked up the microphone and returned the greeting. "Yes ma’am, Captain Renard of the Senshi here to deliver a courier... and regretfully... requesting a tow." The last words came out only with some persuasion from Felix, he was sure that the cost of repairs would greatly exceed their bounty.

The woman capsuleer's voice returned to the comm. "I believe that is actually my courier, thank you, I've been without decent tea for days now. Station control has been advised of your situation and is deploying a tug now for you."

Tea, thought Felix, all this because some asshole capsuleer was too posh to get her own god damned-

"Still," The capsuleer woman went on. "You managed to get here all on your own. Well done I'm impressed, even I was never able to do that in a little Ibis the first time. Tell me... do you boys need a job?"

Felix smirked, maybe not a complete asshole.