EVE Fiction

4 months later

Evylinn could feel her heart thundering in her chest. It had been just another Worm Hole. Nothing special. She had explored many and had learned the hard way how stay safe in these things. But she had become complacent. After thoroughly mapping the system in her cloaked Buzzard frigate she had brought the heavy guns in to do the dirty work. Her Drake battle cruiser performed admirably as it always did. She couldn’t blame her ship for this current predicament. It had been her lack of attention to the Dscan that had missed the small gang of pirates now pummelling her. These weren’t the locals either. They were capsuleers. Far more cunning, fierce and damn right meaner than the half witted local bumpkins.

This wasn’t the first time she had been on the end of capsuleer pirate guns and missiles and she had quickly learned to keep her clone up to date. But something was different this time. Death is a good teacher and she had managed to avoid pirates for a good few months now and in that time she had been studying how to fit her ship as well as avoid the pirates. She had also earned enough to fit the best modules and her old Drake was standing up well to the hammering it was taking. They were flying very fast Frigates, Rifters and Punishers. The last time she has been accosted by a gang of this size two months previous she hadn’t even have time to see what kind of ships they were before she was waking up in a fresh body.

This time her defences were holding up much better and she was returning fire. Her missiles were not doing as much damage as they were capable of due to the speed if the pirate ships. If only she had a web. Still, the damage was consistent and the shields of the frigate she was targeting soon gave way. Her 4 Hobgoblin drones (she had lost one to the locals) were doing little damage but they were drawing fire away from her. If only she could hold out long enough to get through the armour. She was in no doubt that she was going to die in the next 10 minutes but she was also determined to take one of these bastards with her this time. Something that she had never considered even as a possibility before today.

Adreneline surged through her body as she desperately tried to micro manage the ships direction, speed, drones and modules while also keeping an eye on the quickly diminishing armour of the frigate she was targeting. Another few seconds and she would be into the ships structure. Her own shields where now teetering on the 30% mark. If they got much lower she would be done for. Thousands of calculations flashed through her consciousness as she desperately tried to find ways to reduce the damage she was taking while increasing the damage she was dishing out.

Just when she thought she was about to penetrate the armour of the frigate it turned and fled. Damn! There was no way she could follow and keep it in range. And her own shields were now gone. She watched helplessly as her last drone exploded in a white phosphorous flash. Her mind clawed desperately for a solution but there was nothing she could do. Resigned she waited for the inevitable conclusion.

Back in her quarters she reviewed battle. She should have been carrying a web. She should have targeted the cruisers first. They were slower and doing more Damage. She should have paid more attention the Dscan if the first place. She needed to get better drones learn how to control them better. Maybe use ECM drones next time. Hundreds of thoughts and ideas on how she could have done better. One thought dominated them all though. The rush she had felt when for those few seconds when she thought she might get her first capsuleer pirate kill was overwhelming.

And she needed to feel that again.

“Dragons my arse” she thought as she scanned the data files on her console for the information she needed.

“Rifters Rifters Rifters Ah…here we are!”