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The Audacity, Ishukone Vulture
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Vechtor
Doomheim
#1 - 2012-05-06 16:12:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Vechtor
The Audacity Ishukone Vulture

***

For a moment, not as a capsuleer, I sleep inside the Federation Navy Assembly station at Dodixie. It was a long shuttle ride from the uncharted system I live, emerging from it into hostile Tash-Murkon territory, evading the Amarr navy as they don’t like me for good reasons, and totaling 21 jumps until I got here. Even for me as a capsuleer, 21 jumps seem too much and when I got here, I really wanted relaxation. This time I decided to sleep as a civilian, as near an Intaki civilian as I could. I feel the bed, the fabrics, the cushion holding my body against gravity and keeping me warm inside my quarters, and for a brief moment, I can bring from the most recondite corners of my memory the feeling I had when my mother put me in bed, a weak dimmed light in my room illuminating just enough to see her staring at me with admiration, long time before I could even imagine the possibility of becoming myself a capsuleer…

The alarm started to sound as it was programmed to sound if a particular person called me. And he called. He was an old time friend, an old time business partner, an old Caldari. I opened my neocom interface and received his incoming transmission requesting a conversation channel:
- Vechtor, as I promised you, I have your ship…
- Fair enough Mr. Kuumori. I’ll wire you the money as per our agreement: a surplus of 25 million ISK for your services added to the ship price.
- Alright. That’s the price I have to pay in order to keep cleaning my footprints mister…. Ah, you never told me your surname didn’t you, Mr. Vechtor?
- I never wanted to make public the name of my family and I don’t want to know any details on how you got this ship. You should be able to see the money on your account right now. As always, use it well.
- The ship is docked at the general shipping bay docking 87-B. All you have to do now is request Fed Navy to hover your ship to the dock of your quarters. Can I transfer you the documents and passwords you’ll need?
- Carry on Mr. Kuumori…

I knew Teguno Kuumori when I lived in Josameto during my first experience working for another capsuleer corporation. A young capsuleer venturing himself through the paths of trading and industry. That was almost six years ago… We have done many businesses together and I tend to pay him well for his efficiency. He has probably more wealth than many capsuleers I know and every time I have to rely on scarce goods for my work, I talk to him to see what he can do.
That was the case of this ship…
Information was passed to the Fed Navy station traffic control and the ship was hovered to my dock. The image of it being slowly carried to me was incomparable, even taking into consideration that I’ve seen many other as beauty ships as this one before. A mix of aggressiveness and elegance. A mix of dark and gold. The Ishukone logo shining on its hull. Lights flashing, windows lit, the ship was coming to me slowly, presenting itself to its new commander. I simply let it stay there, waiting for me, while I stared at its power, thinking that those are the moments where capsuleers can make a difference, where they truly show who they are, while they are still outside their capsules, outside their machines of destruction, pondering on the next steps of their lives. My decision was to return to my quarters, lay my body over my bed, meditate, and sleep…

***

God creates all human beings equal. They have the same capabilities, the same basic genetic code, they are by definition sovereign over their minds and their bodies even if enslaved by others. When the last layer of this sovereignty ceases to exist either by accident or because of the ultimate tyranny, even if the human still breathes, he is dead already, and it is in general just a matter of time until his body ceases to exist.

I convoed the ship’s X-O from my quarters, the man in charge of everything in my absence, the man who keeps every crewman in shape for the most precise tasks of a fleet command ship. I never talk directly to any human being who serves in my ships and it’s rare for me to take notice on how they even look like. That’s the way I choose. I’ve heard of other capsuleers who do different, even inviting some of their crew to their quarters, arranging parties filled with the best food and wine for them, but I never had that coldness and I couldn’t handle to remember their faces dying in the harshness of space every time I had to wake up in a new clone, many times light years away from their souls.

- As you are aware, I’m your new commander.
- Affirmative sir.
- I need to transmit you my skills database, and at least an initial idea on how I want this ship to be fitted. I want you to run combat simulations on the ship’s mainframe so we can find the best fitting according to my skills. The parameters for this simulation will be transmitted to you, but basically, we will consider engagements of two fleets consisting of 5 to 10 ships each side, mixed fleet setups, different environments with effects on the ship’s tanking capabilities, accuracy falloff, tracking speed, impulse drives speed, maneuverability and so on…
- Very well sir, I’ll be waiting…. May I ask you sir, why different environments with effects on ship’s systems?
Vechtor
Doomheim
#2 - 2012-05-06 16:13:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Vechtor
- Use your intelligence… odds are that you will conclude you will be living in a Class 5 Anoikis system for some time. The ship is now named Audacity and there is a reason for that instead of just being a fancy name.

I lied when I said he would be living in a Class 5 Anoikis system for some time. He would be living in a Class 5 Anoikis system for the rest of his life now, but the lie was useful to give him hope and extract his maximum efficiency during the final battle. Yes, that coldness a capsuleer must have and I had it. I’ve learned it, first theoretically, then on a much harder way… practically. I felt, from the distance of my chambers and through the distance of the technology being used to provide me communication with him, that he was surprised and afraid at the same time.
After a few hours, the simulations ended, a list of guns, modules and rigs were delivered to me, and the suggested fitting wasn’t so different than the one I was expecting. I bought everything, requested for everything to be fitted, and passed on to my X-O the awareness he would have to keep the crew from now. The ship was ready, I was ready, and all I needed now was a new entry point.

***

The bird of prey always stretches it's wings one time, it's legs one time, it's neck one time, at least, to let every single muscle, every single bone, prepared for action. The bird of prey flies sneaky, then, to its target, which was dead already before even knowing, because that’s how nature wanted, that’s what birds of prey do. They prepare themselves, they stretch their wings, legs, neck, and muscles. They plan, they prepare, and they kill.

That was the first time the Audacity undocked under my command. I set up a route to Augnais, the first 0.5 security system I could remember near Dodixie. Augnais… Much has happened to me in Algintal, grieving, war, disappointment, destruction. A slap in my face. The slap that serves to show every new capsuleer that he is nothing. This time I flew to Algintal on board of the Audacity, as a demigod. As someone in the position to be the slapper.
When the Audacity arrived at Augnais, I commanded it to fly to the Asteroid belt around the planet III, but warping out at range. What I wanted was simple, and yes, the Serpentis provided me what I wanted.
Four patrollers where flying, weak frigates of Incursus hulls. As soon as the ship stabilized out of warp, I targeted the four of them and waited for them to see me, lock me, and start to move. What I saw after was pure slaughter. A single volley of the Audacity rails tore down one of the patrollers, the shells annihilating every inch of structure cohesion that existed on those poor frigates… The following three patrollers had the same fate, despite the fact that for the last one I reserved the agonizing effect of receiving a hit of two Caldari Navy Scourge heavy missiles. The Audacity had perfect optimals and falloff for my purposes, and nothing else needed to be done in Augnais.

***

“- Mother! Mother! Look what I’ve found! It’s a cocoon, isn’t it?
- Yes Vechtor, it is, but why have you brought it home? Where have you find it?
- I was playing with my friends in the forest, and we saw those butterflies flying… I looked all over and there were several of them lying around, I felt I could get one. I wouldn’t be harming the nature doing this, would I?
- Well son, you will discover that even when you think you are not doing harm to a living being, you may be doing it. I know you are just a small boy playing and that you don’t wish to harm this little insect that is transforming into something greater, more beauty and more perfect than what it was before, but if you keep it to yourself now, you may be harming it, and you may be killing it. You should let it transform without your interference, in its own environment. Do you understand?

I looked to the cocoon on the palm of my hand, thought about what my mother just told me, and started to cry, silently, not as a boy, but as someone who just contemplated new wisdom, an universal wisdom, and I stared to my mother with tears rolling over my face.

- So Vechtor, what are you going to do now?
- I will return it to the forest mother, and I hope it lives…”
Vechtor
Doomheim
#3 - 2012-05-06 16:13:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Vechtor
While the Audacity rail guns cooled down, I opened our alliance channel in search of people relaying messages about possible routes to home. I saw our leader Kevin Emoto was there with possible information I could use.

- Kevin, do we have a way home from high-security?
- Yes, we have one in the Venilen system.
- Nice, its just 16 jumps out of where I am. Can you help me with the entry point when I get there?
- Of course I can but be quick. Your window of opportunity is small and the wormhole may not last much longer.

Gate after gate, the Audacity flew towards its destination, and at Venilen, we joined Kevin Emoto to lead us to the wormhole coordinates. I knew that would be the last time the Audacity would see empire space, that would be the last time the Audacity would fly by civilians, good people, working people, miners, industrialists, mission runners, traders, people of all sorts trying to make a living in New Eden, trying to be masters of their own destination, cheating death, playing with immortality, seizing their own destinies. That last jump, from Hogimo to Venilen, was the last time New Eden took notice of the Audacity existence, as well as its crew existence. They may never return. I have no intentions for them to return.
The Audacity is leaving its cocoon and becoming something greater, more beauty, more perfect than what she ever was.
Graelyn
Aeternus Command Academy
#4 - 2012-05-06 21:46:41 UTC
((Wrong forum, but a nice read. Well done.))

Cardinal Graelyn

Amarr Loyalist of the Year - YC113