EVE Fiction

Egghalende solar system, Security level 0.4
Region Sinq Laison, Gallente Federation

The Rusty Wreck bar was located in one of the lower levels of the station, just below the hangars. Living up to its name, the place was in a rough shape. Everything from the furniture to the glasses looked like it had been used for at least a couple of decades. The few bottles that were resting on the shelves behind the bar had no labels, leaving the customer to ponder over the origin of the drinks. The room lacked any decoration, but a couple of faded symbols on the wall indicated that at some point it was used as a waste storage.

This rugged interior didn’t seem to bother any of the patrons. A group of people wearing maintenance uniforms were playing cards. A couple of dock workers were arguing near the only station window in the bar. A man in a Thukker outfit had passed out on the table next to the entrance.

The two newcomers were obviously not used to such environment. They stood by the door for a few moments – the man had a frown on his face and his eyes were sweeping around the bar nervously, while the woman was just staring in disbelief at the miserable setting in front of her. She was tall and seemed to be quite slender, but most of her body was concealed by the long trench coat that she was wearing. Her hair was dark red, the fringe was cut long and fell over her green eyes. Her young face had the soft features of the Intaki.

“OK, now what?” The voice of the woman was steady, even though she was just as nervous as her male companion.

“Well, you didn’t think this would be a fine establishment full of upstanding citizens, did you?” The man wasn’t bursting with excitement, but his eyes turned towards the bar with determination. “The bartender can probably give us some directions. I’ll go check.”

The man walked up to the bar. He was taller than the woman and had a well built figure. His clean-shaven face looked even younger than hers. He had short, well-styled hair – the way many Gallente men preferred it. He was wearing what looked like a corporate uniform, the logo of Duvolle Labs could be seen on his right shoulder.

“Hey buddy, you got a minute?” He addressed the bartender.

The bartender, who was watching something on a plasma-nanite panel, turned around with a bored expression on his face. “You want a drink?”

“No, I need information. I am looking for the guys from the transportation business. I was told I can find some of them here.” The young man did his best to sound casual.

The bartender gave him a greedy smile. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Right.” The man pulled out a small chip from his pocket and placed it on the counter.

The bartender took the chip and inserted it into the plasma-nanite panel. After he pressed the screen a few times he looked satisfied and said in a low voice: “High-sec smugglers don’t come out that early. You’ll have to wait for a while.”

“I am just looking for a ride, actually. To a place that Interbus does not service.” The man didn’t think he could give the bartender a better hint than that one. The few places that Interbus shuttles didn’t go to, were heated warzones and systems with intense pirate activity.

“In that case you are in luck. See that guy sitting alone at the corner table over there? He can get you to any system in the cluster. But his services don’t come cheap.”

“No, of course not.” The young man frowned. “Does he have a name?”

“Don’t know if that’s his real name, but everybody calls him Flint.” replied the bartender.

“Alright, thanks.”

The man stepped away from the bar and headed back to the entrance, where the woman was waiting for him. He took another glance at the stranger who was sitting in the corner – not a reliable Interbus pilot, for sure.

“OK doc, here is the deal.” The man started talking after he reached the woman. “That guy in the far corner is exactly the person we are looking for. Allegedly, he can take us to any place in the cluster. He goes by the name Flint.”

“Let’s go talk to him then.” said the woman.

“I don’t know if that will do us any good, Sylvia. That slimy bartender just took my last ISK and if what he told me is true, hiring that Flint character can be expensive.”

“Let me worry about that.” The woman named Sylvia was looking at the place where the mysterious Flint was sitting. Her hand quickly checked something in the inner pocket of her coat.

A faint smile crossed the man’s face. “Have you been holding out on me, doc? You got a bag full of ISK chips hidden under that coat?” His smile quickly faded as he continued to speak. “That’s not our only problem though. I mean, look at that guy – he looks like a Frentix dealer. Even worse – a Caldari Frentix dealer! Even if he agrees to transport us, are we really going to trust him?”

“Listen Paul…” the woman looked at her companion and placed her hand on his shoulder, “… I know that trusting our lives to some random smuggler may not seem like a very sensible thing to do. But what other options do we have? They are probably looking for us already. We can’t stay in the Federation any longer.”

Sylvia knew that she was asking a lot. Paul had spent his entire life in the Federation. He was a young man, sometimes impulsive, but he had a promising future in the Duvolle corporate security. He had a curious mind and Sylvia had heard him talk about visiting the Minmatar Republic or maybe even the Amarr Empire. But he probably never imagined that he is going to leave his homeland as a fugitive.

Paul paused for a moment. His eyes were fixed on the floor. Then he sighed heavily and said: “Let’s go see if this guy is for real.”

Approximately 40 minutes later, the two fugitives were heading down a hallway which, according to the glowing signs, was going to take them to hanger 17. The hallway ended up in a T-junction, where Sylvia and Paul turned left, following the arrow mark on the wall.

Several meters after the turn, a couple of burly men were blocking the way. They were both wearing black military uniforms, but no rank insignias or chevrons were visible. The only identification mark they had was a small symbol of an eagle on the left side of their chests. One of the men spoke with a deep voice:

“Doctor Renn, would you please come with us?” He was addressing Sylvia, who had stopped dead in her tracks.

“No, I don’t think so.” said Paul. He stepped forward and positioned himself between Sylvia and the two soldiers. His hand reached behind his back and under the jacket.

The man with the deep voice made a calming gesture with his hand. “Relax kid. We have ships waiting at the undock point outside the station. There is nowhere for you to go. Now if the two of you would just…”

He was interrupted by the sound of metal hitting metal. Both soldiers looked down – a small metal cylinder had rolled on the floor between them. In the next moment the stun grenade went off and smashed the two men into the opposite walls of the hallway. The grenade didn’t produce a loud noise – there was just the sound of the bodies hitting the walls and then the floor. The two men lied unconscious.

It took a few seconds for Paul to realize what had happened. He was standing just a short distance away from the blast, yet the only thing he felt was a wave of air, which was sent towards him during the discharge. The grenade had been precisely calibrated. Paul turned around to check on Sylvia. She didn’t look hurt. Her eyes were staring at something behind him. Paul quickly turned around again, afraid that their pursuers had somehow gotten back on their feet, but the soldiers were still lying motionless on the floor. There was a man further down the hallway, he was leaning on the left wall – it was Flint.

“You two might want to hurry it up.” The smuggler sounded excited, almost happy. “If security finds the bodies before we undock, leaving this station can become a bit tricky.”

Paul and Sylvia did not need another reminder – they quickly proceeded down the corridor and followed Flint through a couple of sliding doors and into the hanger. The ship inside was frigate-sized. It was over 100 meters long, yet still considered small by most standards. The shape of the hull resembled that of a Caldari Kestrel frigate, but the configuration was different and the weapon silos looked very big, almost too big for a frigate. The ship was colored in black and red, the factory number was painted with white on the starboard side.

“Is that a Manticore?” asked Paul. “I thought only capsuleers can pilot these.”

“Only a capsuleer can take full advantage of the ship’s capabilities, yes.” replied Flint. “But we won’t have to utilize even half of the ship’s potential in order to complete the task that you have hired me for. And when it comes to discreet transportation, me and my crew are almost as good as a capsuleer.”

“And where exactly is your crew?” asked Sylvia. Other than the three of them, there were no other people in sight.

“They are already on board the ship. You will have no contact with them for the sake of anonymity and protection – both yours and theirs. Come on, we have to get going.” Flint started walking up the boarding ramp and the two Gallenteans followed close behind him.

Once inside the ship, Flint led them through a number of narrow hallways and eventually stopped in what looked to be the pilot’s cockpit.

“This is where I will pilot the ship from.” Flint said. “You can stay here and observe.” He pointed at the two seats which were positioned behind the pilot’s chair and were obviously not part of the original design of the cockpit. “The interactive display next to each seat will give you access to some of the ship’s camera drones as well as the navigation chart. That way you can follow our movement in real time – make sure that we are going towards the desired destination and that I am not trying to trick you. However, if you begin to annoy me or distract me too much, you’re going to spend the trip in the cargo bay. The last door that we passed on our way here leads to a small cabin. You can rest there if you wish, although our journey probably won’t last long enough for you to get tired or bored…”

Flint’s speech was interrupted by a woman’s voice, coming somewhere from the pilot’s control panel: “Hey Captain, station control just gave us a green light – we are clear to undock.”

Flint quickly sat on the pilot’s chair and replied: “Alright Liz. Commence a full system check, I will get the undock sequence started.” He pressed a few buttons and the ship responded with a slight tremble. “You should sit down, we are moving.” said Flint over his shoulder.

Paul and Sylvia took their seats. The displays which Flint had mentioned were mounted on the walls and they were offering a view of the ship’s surroundings. Sylvia changed the viewing angle of the drone camera and saw how the boarding ramp below them was getting smaller as the Manticore rose up and entered the main undock channel.

“I don’t know if you heard that part…” Sylvia began “… but one of the men in the hallway said that they have ships waiting for us outside the station.” For the first time her voice sounded uncertain.

“Yeah, I heard that.” Flint activated the intercom. “Liz, how is that system check going?”

“We’re good, Captain, all systems are operational. Only one ship in front of us, an Iteron II industrial.”

Sendaya solar system, Security level 0.3
Region Derelik, Ammatar Mandate

Sylvia knew that she had to be silent. Paul had already rumbled out enough nonsense, which Flint had heroically ignored. But curiosity kept tormenting her.

The wormhole had taken them to the Sendaya system, which was 16 jumps away via regular stargates. Just a few hours ago the Curse region had seemed unreachable and now it was practically next door.

Sylvia gave in to the temptation and spoke: “How did you know where to find the wormhole? How did you know it was going to take us closer to our destination?”

Flint was studying another navigation chart and replied absently: “I got the info on the wormhole the same way I get everything else – I bought it.”

The voice of Elisabeth, the ship’s communications officer and electronics expert, came over the intercom: “All systems are operational, Captain. We are good to go.”

The jump through the wormhole didn’t appear to have any adverse effects to the ship, but Flint had ordered a complete system check, just to be safe. “Good.” he said. “Get ready with the scanners. And check the cloaking system again, will you?”

30 seconds later Elisabeth reported: “The cloaking system is fully functional.”

“Splendid. Let’s go see what Curse is like today.” Flint activated the warp drive and the Manticore disappeared in the direction of the Doril stargate.





Doril solar system, Security level 0.0
Region Curse, Angel Cartel territory

Paul and Sylvia had heard many stories about null-security space – some of them were romantic and full of adventure, others were horrifying, but they were all exciting stories. The emptiness, that greeted them on the other side of the gate, surprised them. Their ship was the only one in the vicinity of the gate.

“How does it look, Liz?” asked Flint via the intercom.

“Initial scan is clear, Captain.”

“Just the way I like it. Cloak us up.” Flint fired up the impulse engines and steered the ship away from the gate. The cloaking system was activated – the outlines of the Manticore’s hull began to fade, the ship became transparent and soon disappeared completely.

“Well that wasn’t too bad.” Paul shared his relief. He had imagined dozens of pirate ships waiting for them around the gate, ready to blast them into oblivion.

“Hold that thought.” said Flint as he aligned the ship towards the Utopia stargate and activated the warp drive.

30 seconds later the Manticore, still cloaked, dropped out of warp approximately 300 kilometers away from the Utopia stargate. The intercom crackled almost immediately:

“Directional scan shows numerous ships in close proximity to the gate.” said Elisabeth. “Looks like a camp.”

Paul was toying with the camera drones – even at maximum zoom he couldn’t make out any vessels near the gate. However, the gate itself and the area around it appeared to be engulfed in some kind of energy field. It looked like a force shield barrier, only less sturdy. “What is that?” Paul pointed at his screen.

This time Flint had to actually turn around in order to see what the other man was referring to. “Interdiction sphere. If we had warped directly to the gate we would have been caught in it. Not a pleasant experience, I assure you.” The smuggler activated the impulse engines again and directed the ship towards the gate. The Manticore headed towards the dreaded interdiction sphere.

In 10 minutes they were less than a hundred kilometers from the gate. Advanced cloaking technology allowed the Manticore to move at full impulse speed while remaining invisible. Soon they were close enough to get a better look at the pirate ships guarding the gate. Paul was zooming in on the different vessels with the camera drones: “Look at all those autocannons!” he sounded impressed.

Sylvia was more interested in the way the pirates were moving. Most of their frigates were flying fast in a close orbit around the gate. The larger vessels, including a giant battleship of a strange design, were holding positions at the edge of the interdiction sphere. “Do you think you will be able to sneak past them?” she asked Flint.

“I won’t have to. We just need to wait for a little bit.” Flint stopped the ship about 50 kilometers from the gate.

“Wait for what, exactly?” asked Paul.

“The driving force of the universe… Capsuleers.” Flint spat out the last word as if he didn’t like the taste.

Sylvia and Paul looked at each other with confusion. Before they could ask for an explanation, a sudden, intense activity around the stargate captured their attention. Out of nowhere, a few small ships appeared right outside the interdiction sphere. Several of the pirate frigates quickly changed course to intercept, but the newcomers warped off quickly.

“Well that was quick.” said Flint with a lively tone. “First the wormhole, now this – you two have amazing luck, I swear it.” He activated the intercom. “Hey Johner, get that microwarpdrive ready. We are going to need a boost soon.”

Well this is it - my first complete work of fiction. I actually had to cut it short and change the ending, as the original one was probably going to end up close to 6000 words.

I hope you enjoy reading it. Comments and recommendations are welcome.