The travel distance to The Citadel should of taken years, if not centuries. However the Stargates which now connect all the occupied regions of space have made what was once a life journey, into something that takes mere hours.
I had a severe hangover that morning due to the 2 bottles of Rum last night. I reread my application to The Black Rabbits Academy. And decided I probably couldn’t do any better sober than I could drunk so left it as it was. After a quick Bio Shower and a cup of hosgage tea to help ease the hang over, I packed my case, loaded my Rifter, Riffy I and set of for Ishomilken, a system in the Citadel Region . Home system of The Guristas Associates.
The Journey was uneventful until a system only one jump out of my destination. Nikkishina. After almost a year behind the controls I have become accustomed to activating my directional scanner on a regular basis, just to keep an eye on who, and what, is around me, assessing threat levels automatically and keeping my eye’s open for targets or signs of aggression.
My system wide broadcast receiver showed only one pilot other than myself was currently in the system. All ships automatically join this channel upon entry to new systems. You can not get around this so it is a very useful tool, especially if you know how to access a pilots personal information using this link, as I do. I set my destination for the Nikkishina – Ishomilken stargate and engage my warp drives. At the same time I activate my directional scanner. I have another Rifter on scan within 14AU of my current position. Interesting. I decided to investigate this further. I cancel my warp drive activation and adjust my scan range. He’s out that way. Excellent. Towards planet three. Yes. I can’t scan him down to any one astral body as they are all aligned from where I am. It was time for a new plan. I engaged my warp engines and set heading for one of the moons around Planet Three. From there I was able to can the individual orbital bodies of Plant Three, looking for this Rifter pilot. I decided to take a second and check this pilot’s file.
I selected his file. Not a member of The Guristas Associates. That was good. A member of Empire Assault Corp. That was bad. I had heard of this corporation, they had the reputation of putting one ship in a sytem to be engaged by pirates, then jumping through with a number of other ships. He had been a pilot for three months. That wasn’t too bad.
Asteroid belt one.
Excellent, engage warp engines. I landed in the belt 10km from the Rifter. He had renamed his ship in an archaic language, after the fight I found it meant, ‘don’t kill me’. I targeted the Russian Rifter pilot and engaged the warp disruptor. He was locked and he could no longer get away. I approached at full speed. Weaving from side to side to make sure that, if he got a lock he wouldn’t be able to track my small frigate class vessel. At 2000m he finally reacted, turning away from me and trying to make distance. Trying to break my lock and disruptor. Not going to happen, I was faster; I had enough experience with high speed manoeuvres to close the gap to 1000m. My group of 200mm Autocannons engaged and ripped into his shields. He was taking a pounding. He decided to lock and engage his own guns. They did moderate damage but I had enough faith in my Riffy I to shrug and carry on the attack. As he started taking damage to his Armor I noticed another pilot had entered the system. I took a second to bring up his file. Russian. Same corporation as the pilot I was currently engaging. Not good. No ship on directional scanner. Good. The Russian pilot had started taking heavy damage to his structure. His engines were flaming and there was air escaping from the hull of that ship. With a flash, what had once been a majestic Minmitar frigate became scraps of metal littering the number one Asteroid belt at Planet Three in Nikkishina.
I checked my scanner for any incoming ships. Nothing. His back up had decided it was a lost cause and not to get involved. Unfotuantly my little Riffy I was full with my own supplies for my move to Ishomilken so picking through the wreck was not an option. I blew the wreck and anything of worth up and proceeded on my Journey to Ishomilken and the Black Rabbits.
To be continued...
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