EVE Fiction

Part 1

"Why don't you kill me and get it over with?"

The question came out as barely a whispering rasp. The captured capsuleer, an explorer of various ancient Blood Raider archaeological sites, was known to her peers as simply...Six. Now far beyond all her initial terror, Six simply wished to be granted a serene release from life. For some reason, the Crimson Lord, overseer of this particular Crimson Hand Supply Depot, had extended the ritual blooding for weeks; far beyond the time of the other captives. The droplets formed slowly on Six's fingertips from dozens of small cuts on her shoulders and arms. About every minute or so a metallic ping rang from the golden dish below where the blood fell. Six's shipmates had already died days ago, left aboard the now derelict covert ops frigate, drained of blood, and now lost forever.

The Crimson Lord, his real name unknown, turned and smiled stained teeth at Six. His bare scalp barely gleamed in the dim red light, tattooed in ancient Sani Sabik runes meant to imbue him with power.

"Because my sweet, if I kill you now you will simply download into a new clone. I intend to keep you alive here...indefinitely."

Six felt a weak surge of new disdain. Instead of allowing her to die, this leech would keep her a prisoner. She well knew that capsuleer or clone blood was considered the best of all blood for the Sani Sabik rituals. The Blood Raiders could keep her there...as long as they lived; that was the key. Although Six had made a terrible blunder allowing the guardians of this facility to destroy her ship, her anger gave her the strength to erupt, at least once more. "When I get out of here I will make you pay for this!"

"Ah, my dear," the crazed smile remained as the Crimson Lord said, "You will never get out." Hope relented, and Six closed her eyes so that sleep would pass the time. Suddenly the battle klaxon sounded, and she popped her eyes open to see the battleship's captain enter the blooding chamber.

"What is it this time?"
"Forgive me for interrupting your blooding ritual, my Lord, but we have a new group of capsuleers attacking the perimeter." The Crimson Lord waved dismissively, "They never get past the sentinel, much less all our battleships."

"Yes but...this group it's..it's," the Captain seemed unusually jittery. Only the most skilled capsuleers, or the largest groups should be of any concern. There should have been no reason for the panic, since this Crimson Hand Supply Depot had been well hidden far away from the major travel pipes deep in Aridia. The facility would have to be scanned down, and a ship or fleet with tremendous endurance or firepower would be required to destroy it.

"Spit it out, Captain!"

"It's those Interstellar Booty Hunters..." the captain said as if everything were explained. The Crimson Lord's face went even more pale than the norm and his eyes were suddenly far away. The captain went on, "they destroyed fifteen of our outposts and facilities this time last week, I recommend an immediate evacuation!"

The Crimson Lord looked away ponderously while Six began to grin from ear to ear. She soon would be released. The Crimson Lord glared at her with disdain and drew an ugly knife. Even from Six's weakened state a chuckle erupted from her throat.
"Those are old friends of mine. We're all about to die, and while I will be reborn, you will not!"

Six used to be a part of the organization serving as a covops scout. The Interstellar Booty Hunters were explorer hunters of a sort, with a reputation for acquiring all manner of valuable treasures before anyone else did. This would be her ticket to death, and final release from this prison of blood and torture. The Crimson Lord studied her as if hearing her thoughts. He re sheathed the knife with an angry snap and quickly left the chamber with the captain.


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Part 3

Blood Priest Nixean had never seen actual blood in such beautiful forms. On each pedestal stood a life-size figure made of carefully crafted glass. In front of him stood the most spectacular figure of them all, a glass statue of Omir Sarikusa, the only unifying leader of the Blood Raiders. Not just glass, inside, pulsing in rhythmic current, was real human blood.

"I see you like my blood glass sculptures." The voice behind him reverberated through the room with a deep richness. Priest Nixean turned to see the Crimson Hand Cardinal himself, Jamis Kugar. Kugar wore a sadistic glint in his eye that outshone most others revealing a keen mind, at least on one side of his face. The left side was a bit more difficult to read, particularly because it lacked any skin. A transparent plastic membrane kept it together; so that all the muscle fibers, sinew, fat, and of course, blood veins were on display. Kugar's condition had been part accident and partially deliberate. Battle injury and then medical reconstruction had left the cardinal intact. Rather than completely repair everything, he had chosen to put his innards on display - he was a 'blood' after all.

Priest Nixean bowed deeply. "Cardinal Kugar at last."

"Good to see you old friend. Although I am sure the Priests in Delve feel less enthusiastic about recent events."

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

Although Priest Nixean had been assigned the envoy of Delve status and shared equal rank with Kugar, in reality his power paled in contrast to Kugar's reputation for military genius. The Crimson Hand were the fists of the Blood Raiders, and this half skinned man rivaled even Sarikusa in notoriety. Kugar nodded as he stepped forward. "Let us walk together."

The two old friends strolled among the glass blood sculptures. "We are concerned. Aridia has been loosing too many facilities lately. I've come to see how we can help you deal with the problem."

"And I will be happy to accept the wisdom of the Priest Council, after I have fully educated them on the situation." Whether this was arrogance, or well earned confidence on Kugar's part, Nixean could not tell.

"Indeed!?" Nixean paused. "You talk as if there is a root cause to this problem."

"Very astute, Nixean. The problem is not Unchained, Lowshecneya, or ANY of the major alliances. They are mostly interested in protecting their moon mining and capital ship production assets; or using Aridia as a staging ground for heavy combat in Delve and Fountain. The problem is one relatively small, little known corporation."

"Who, and how could any one corporation cause so much damage?" Cardinal Kugar turned and looked at Nixean, the muscles clearly quivering under the transparent half of his face. "Motivation. Simple, unadulterated motivation and purpose."

Kugar turned to a holoprojector, clearly he had prepared for this meeting. He activated it to show a hologram of a talon outstretched from a sickle.

"What in damnation is that?" Nixean asked.

"The Interstellar Booty Hunters," Kugar answered.

"That sounds like a rag-tag group of pirates to me," Nixean spouted dismissively.

"No..." Kruger nearly whispered. "They have a method. They scan with covert ops ships, all at once, and sometimes most of the entire lowsec regions in one evening. And then they find our supply depots, and your Mul-zutath Monastaries or booster production facilities. They have no set base, so they will form a fleet sometimes from five different local systems, and even from outside the region, and they destroy the largest of our facilities."

"So there is no way to strike at them, as they do not present a solid target," Nixean said thoughtfully.

"That is correct. They have not lost ships on these operations, at least not as a group, for months. And in those cases, it has been to other capsuleers. Now lets look at the numbers."

The holographic display showed a bar graph of total destruction in isk value by corporation. And there it was, Interstellar Booty Hunters numbering in the billions, clearly and distinctly in the lead of all the other capsuleer groups.

"So what is this 'swift stroke' you refer to that will eliminate the problem."

"I have done some digging into the past, and it seems that the organization was not always so efficient. The one thing that can stop them are other capsuleers. Their leader, Maximillian Bonaparte, wants nothing more than for his group to have a profitable adventure that does not end in disaster. It's the thrill of being in danger, but evading it, or even becoming dangerous themselves, is what motivates them. When disaster has befallen them in the past, they pull out."

"Interesting...so we have to lead them into a disaster. How do we do that?"

"We bait them..." Kugar activated the image of two capsuleers, the one on the right seemed to be a pale asian clad in a red suit an exquisitely trimmed goatee, and the other wore one of those ridiculous Amarr hooded cloaks that hid his face.

"The man on the right is Quindaster, one of the leaders of Infernal Octopus, an alliance of aggressive capital ship builders. Their headquarters is one jump away from one of many Booty Hunter outposts. The man on the right is an unnamed contact who is part of TEST Alliance. We need to drive the Booty Hunters to the west where TEST alliance roams. I have already contacted Quindaster; Infernal Octopus will gladly put the pressure on them to drive them out."

"Excellent, but how will we control where the Booty Hunters go from there? Aridia is a big region. It seems to me that they could find our other facilities no matter what TEST or these Octopus people do."

"That's where we use the bait, and I need your help with that, or more properly the council of priest's help. We need to deploy some heavy facilities near the TEST staging system of Sahkt...."
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Part 4b

"Whatya' got their Crokite Dundee? A plan to dominate Caldari space with your army of five alt's?" Max said while walking near the table and briefly glancing at the star map.

"I have five capsuleers to license..." the woman began with an icy stare and a heavy accent of Italian-Gallente heritage. "So now that the war is over, I can get back to what is important, and that's making isk."

Max raised his eyebrows in what looked like surprise. "Really; that is what is important to you? Not the challenge of stepping up bravely against an enemy larger than us who is a dedicated anticapsuleer combat alliance? Not outwitting and outperforming the enemy at almost every encounter? Not learning how your corp-mates work under pressure, and in the process sharing adversity to get to know your friends better?"

Crokite looked away from her map as if considering all this. "I have the life I have, and it cannot be disrupted if I am to prosper." Max again seemed taken aback. He turned his chair around backwards and had a seat casually at the table. Crokite, with a subtle wave, dismissed her army who wisely cleared out.

"Isk is not as important to everyone," Max began. "Oh it helps, don't get me wrong. What motivates a capsuleer might be power, leadership, kills on the killboard, and in my case, shared adventures with friends. It is my view Crok, that if all one wants to do is make isk by farming certain combat sites in highsec; well you don't need a corp for that."

Crokite sighed, "Max, this is a good corp and you are a good CEO, but sometimes the direction you take things just conflicts with my method of flight. And frankly, I fear that you are becoming a warmonger, I am not sure I like this."

If Max did not look surprised the previous two times, this time his eyebrows seemed to get even a little higher. Max had always been extremely fascinated with Crokite; even when she went through an abrasive streak. She had been known to walk all over other corp members views in order to make a point. She more than made up for it on every occasion; not only was she capable of mobilizing a tremendous amount of useful supplies, logistics, and even isk. When the corp itself was under threat she brought her powers to bear with extreme aggression, even delight. Or...

Max wondered if she had only been interested in protecting her own assets and exploration grounds. Max had always been very fond of her; but he had learned not so long ago that his personal fondness for corp members should never get in the way of corporation goals or what is best for the corp. He could not decide just then if Crokite was dead weight for the corp, or a valuable asset. Perhaps both.

"Well, as a corporation of explorers, it is not easy to keep everyone from being greedy and going their own path. It is adversity that unites us and makes us stronger. I will be sending a corp email about what I intend to do next; and it has less to do with what I want than what the corp itself wants...so do what you will. Until tomorrow, my friend." Max adroitly slid back and spun the chair around to its original position, and Crok's retinue descended back onto the scene like a pack of vultures.

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Part 5b

Max entered the cafe to see CydoniusElfo, one of the most powerful members of the corp, studying map reports and sipping a little coffee. He usually functioned on a schedule seven hours earlier than Max, and it appeared that he had re-awakened for the upcoming operation. Max sat in his chair like a normal civilized person would; not turned round backwards. When this happened, it indicated that a serious conversation would follow. Cydonius's kind eyes studied Max, he knew well what had happened. By the look of it the situation had affected Cyd as well. Cyd and Crok had been good friends.

Max looked down at Cyd's sleeve tatoo, as if searching for some solution in the intricate patterns there. "So Crok is gone," Max blurted out.

"Yes..." Cyd began - also a Gallente accent, though not nearly as thick as Crok's and from a different heritage. Cyd sighed and said, "She sent me a message too. But it was in Italian so I am sure it was more long-winded than yours."

"Well...it was in response to the corp mail about a possible new war, except I haven't even decided who or if to war-dec anyone."

"I suspect there may be more to it than that," Cyd said.

Oh?" Max ordered a cup of tea. "Yes, Crok has lot going on planet-side. And she doesn't want the added stress of another war. She won't be in her pod as much."

"I see," Max said as he glanced up to see Rohc entering the cafe to join them. Max waved and gestured for her to sit. "Hello," she said in her calm, cheerful voice and took a seat. "Just waiting a few more minutes and I will be ready to fly on the op."

The Op, Max had almost forgotten again. Hard to lead an op when a friend is suddenly gone. Rohc looked back and forth at Cyd and Max as if picking up on the vibe. "What's the matter?"

"Crokite left. She seems to be afraid I am going to take the corp into another war."

"Oh I see," Rohc responded, almost as if the idea of being afraid of war seemed ridiculous.

"What gets me, Cyd, is that I thought she would be on-board for more aggression after how she performed in the war." Cyd nodded. "Well I am all for being more aggressive. But there are some people who just do not want to aggress other capsuleers. They want to be left with simply taking out Gurista pirates - its even relaxing for them; especially someone like Crok."

"Could it be the ONLY reason she fought for us was sort of to protect her own assets from war targets? Of course war targets never actively hunted us outside the war zone anyway."

"Well she fought out of a sense of loyalty to the corp. Nevertheless, maybe we should table conversations about war until we have rebuilt the corp membership. We are loosing too many members and Crok was one of the best."

"Well, maybe so. Only it seems that challenge and adversity are some of the only things that unite us. To make us better pilots and a stronger corp."

"Well I agree with you, Max," Rochi began. "I mean, what's the point of farming all those Gurista pirate facilities for isk, over and over and over again, if all you are going to do is destroy more; over and over again. What's all that isk for?"

"Hmm some people have gambling addictions or have no support from planet side to get their pilots licenses, but I think Rochi makes a good point, Cyd."

"And I get that," Cyd said. "Only, we seemed to have lost a lot of members. Seems to me that we have to focus on something; its hard to have highsec anti-capsuleer combat and combat exploration at the same time. They screw up one another."

"Yeh well, it's hard for me to relate sometimes since I spend sixty percent of my time in lowsec. I visualize the corp like this. Our combat exploration is what funds our anti-capsuleer combat. Other corporations have mining, mission running, sovereign space etc that they protect. All that is not 'our' resource. But I have always wanted us to be a group that is actually a bit 'dangerous to mess with'. The reality is, that is why most combat-exploration corps fail. As soon as adversity arises they crumble and scatter. Only we have not."

"Well it seems to me..." Rohci began, "that most of the corporation is all for being more aggressive. I mean we've done stuff no one would have ever expected of us."

"True, Rohci. We've been through wars, betrayal, theft, our share of drama, and we are still here. Either way," Max looked at his chronometer, "the corp will go on living and growing. Adapting and changing as necessary to get stronger."

"I am sure it will," Cyd agreed.

"Well, we have an op to conduct do we not? I will see you on the undock and floating freely." Max said and the three of them rose to get to their ships.

Part 7a

In the low security border system of Fensi, Wilhelm Ovlov's Myrmidon class battle cruiser sailed amongst the combat wreckage. He had just been finishing off the last of the vile rogue drone infestation when he saw someone new in local. He aligned his great battle cruiser towards a planet, reached optimal range on the last artificially controlled monstrosity that was a drone star ship, and picked it apart with his rail guns and combat drones.

As it blew to pieces he switched on his directional scan - nothing new. The system transponder grid showed the newcomer to be Rohci, a relatively young capsuleer, and a member of the Interstellar Booty Hunter's, a smallish corporation he had never heard of, and certainly not inhabitants of this space. He had nothing to fear. Willhelm was a member of Easily Excited, an aggressive pirate alliance that lived in the area. Also, Giuseppe R Raimondo was not far with his Deimos ready.

He switched off his d-scan so that he could concentrate on looting the wreckage. He picked up a few items, and then felt as though he were being watched. He looked down at local to realize that there were SIX newcomers in system. He quickly checked the corporation - all Interstellar Booty Hunters.

"Uh, Guiseppe, theres a big local spike." Willhelm did not get any response from his friend on comms. "Guiseppe you there?" Willhelm checked d-scan again. It showed several cruisers; some Vexors, a Maller, and a Rupture. And most of them were already at 12 kilometers. The enemy target lock-on tone made Willhelm jump out of his skin. He cleared D-scan to see that the cruisers had already shut down his warp drive, and stasis webifiers jammed his thrusters. He could not warp out or burn away. "My god, I'm tackled! Cruisers, six of them. Guiseppe, anyone, you there?"

"What?" Guiseppe had just returned to comms to hear Willhelm's frantic yelling. Six cruisers - that was his newer pilot and he was the only REAL pirate around to help. Who the hell were these guys? "Alright buddy hang on." Guiseppe sprinted down the catwalk to his pod. His Deimos was fit to deal with larger groups. Not a lot of firepower, but with active repping tank, and plenty of speed to stay out of deep trouble, he would be able to hold them off until help arrived.

"I need logi on the field and I need it now in Fensi," he said into his wrist comms.

"What, why? Someone under attack?" Came back the response from the nearest Easily Excited pilots; who Guiseppe though should be listening and get off their gate camping asses to be a little more versatile. Still, most strangers around here were not that aggressive. This seemed unusual. Well, perhaps it would be a good fight, and all pirates relish a good fight. Guiseppe had no time to wait. He needed to get on the field. He snapped into his pod, and got his Deimos hot for launch.

"Hang on Willhelm, try to hold out if you can. I am on my way." Guiseppe punched it and launched his heavy assault cruiser from the station. "I'm going down, not going to make it!"

Guiseppe finally got into warp and was en-route when he said, "So six cruisers?"

"Yeah, I'm being hit with blasters, pulse lasers, and...my god tech two heavy drones, I'm not gonna make it, oh I'm dead."

"****! Logi pilots get out here," Guiseppe screamed. He landed to find a swarm of Ogre II drones and the cruisers picking the glowing embers of the battle cruiser wreck clean. Guiseppe had to act quickly if he was going to save his skin. The first thing he needed to do was get some distance. The enemy targeting tone sounded and he locked up several of them, planning to concentrate on the closest for now. If those Vexors got too close he would be dead. He was sure he could kill at least one of them before help arrived if he played it smart. He turned away and switched on his microwarp drive. He had been warp disrupted, but not scrammed. He could burn away and stay alive. And then the Ogre II drones got to him, unleashed a storm of particle beams, and took his shields down to nothing.

"Guys, I sure am going to need logi."

"Logi inbound, three jumps!"

"Three jumps! Why so far?"

"Well we had to reship that's why. You better not die!" It was going to be ok. His Deimos was fast and the drone damage fell away. He could outrun those heavy drones. He put his armor reppers on and injected more capacitor power. And...finally out of point range. He could now leave whenever he wanted, and the fools were actually chasing him. Big mistake, he would separate them and burn one or two of them down, and then the reinforcements would be there - he could burn most of them down.

The nearest Vexor seemed to be a good thirty kilometers away from the others...some punk named CydoniusElfo. Guiseppe turned off his microwarp drive and let the Vexor get a little closer; he had blasters as his main damage dealer - he would take down a Vexor, burn off, and rep up. He found himself warp disrupted again - no matter. Guiseppe opened up with a generous dose of ion plasma. The Vexor's shields went down, and now bits of armor were being melted to slag.

Guiseppe found himself slowing due to a stasis webifier - this was to be expected. Time to burn away more. Only he wasn't moving fast enough. "What is this...the Vexor has double webs!" And the swarm of heavy drones were on him again, orbiting his ship and pouring thermal damage into his armor with no hope of it being avoided. He injected another cap charge and put his armor reppers on overdrive. To his surprise he might actually live long enough to get support. "Logi two jumps!"

"Well hurry up, I am tackled again!"

Part 8a

Eggshan Lopan closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He opened them to take in the space-scape; planetary rings sunlight in blue rays near a storm planet that flickered in the shadows. He flew his modest yet graceful covert ops frigate as if it were an extension of his body. With a second breath he launched a spread of core scanner probes. Eggshan extended his awareness along with them as they spread upon the inner system. Their gravity wave based sensors would sift through all the available bands, and relay the information into Eggshan's brain as if her were touching the signals with his own fingers.
Eggshan usually coordinated the scanning phase of these operations. He had arguably the best scanning skills in the corp; not always the greatest luck but great skills none-the less. His leadership style favored relaxation and informality. After all, they were scouting, not fighting. He would lead the fighting to Maximillian and the others - when he found them something of interest.

"Anything?" Maximillian asked with impatience. The man should learn to breath like Eggs did. "Just wormholes and those drone sites," Rohci reported.

"I am moving to Gentrenjesu," Akym reported. They had not seen too much traffic that evening. They had picked the area due to its remoteness and relative peace. Lately, though it seemed not so peaceful with the constant gate camping between Vehan and Udianoor. Hier used to be the hub for gate-kills, but not anymore. Eggshan finished scanning the system and moved onto the next one; nothing of real consequence had been found.

"I have a five-ten," Akym reported. Of course Akym would be the one to find it. The man seemed to have a gift for luck. "Very nice, sir." Eggs said. A DED five out of ten usually could pay anywhere from forty million to almost seven hundred million isk depending on what shiny modules the Blood overseer had chosen to fit on his ship.

"There's an Ishtar inside." This meant that Eggs was done for now. The others would be trying to hunt down and kill the poor sap (probably an innocent combat-explorer). "Ooh an Ishtar! Alright everyone lets not spook him."

"I thought our primary mission was exploration?" This came from the ever-catty Jonaas Staal, a good pilot; even if he did ask a lot of contrary questions. "Yes...with opportunistic anti-capsuleer combat. I hope you all have points fitted?" This was it - time for Eggs to take a break. He docked at the nearest station.

Maximillian studied the map for possible escape routes from Getrenjesu. There were only two, an excellent chance to catch him either inside the site or as the Ishtar pilot tried to escape. "Jonaas are you flying your cloaky Loki?" He was..."Okay I want Jonaas to enter the system and attempt to get us a warp-in or tackle. The rest of us form up in Nalnifan on the Getrenjesu gate - EXCEPT Rohci, who should be in Sota on the Getren gate; in case he tries to leave that way."

Soon everyone was in position. "I've been spotted. I am re-cloaking." Jonaas reported.

"Roger, see if you can get close anyway, can you send me the pilot profile?" Jonaas sent the information. No one of great consequence. Just some combat explorer with no real PvP record. "He has warped out."

"There goes that idea," Rohc said. "Stay on your gates - if he tries to leave the system we have him."

"He may not try to leave system."

"True. Jonaas, I believe you are better served by checking the stations." There were two stations in the system. Jonaas docked his Loki and sure enough the guest report showed that their target had his Ishtar safely moored in the hanger. The hunt was over."He's docked."

"Understood. Well we can just finish running the site ourselves. Everyone jump in. We'll take the blood facility apart."
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Part 9 (final installment)

"I've got a five-ten," Rohc said. He had switched to his covops ship. "But um, those one hundred Test pilots are only two jumps away."

"In Sahkt?"

"Yes," Rohci confirmed for Max. "No matter. As long as we watch d-scan properly we can get out before anyone comes looking for us. And if we are efficient we will finish before anyone realizes we are there."

Max found it interesting that Test was there. It was about two months prior that they had run into them over in Black Rise, almost on the other side of the New Eden cluster. "Alright lets reship to combat mode and get it done."

In anti-capsuleer situations they traveled together as a gang. In these cases they preferred to start getting the site destroyed and looted. The last site had proven somewhat fruitful although not the best. An Ashimmu blue print copy had been found along with some other items. It had not been the full potential of profit that Max had hoped for but it would do.

Max began to travel in the direction of the system that had been linked. Rohci would have to go back for his Myrmidon, so Max, Akym, and Damen and Jonas would be among the first to arrive. A few jumps later they were close, but with Test roaming about Max had a nagging feeling that it was time to switchon fleet discipline mode.

"Ok everyone, we will hold in Defsunen cloaky until Rohc arrives. We do not want to get caught alone. Your ETA, Roch?

"Three jumps..."

"Good. When we get to Defsunen lets cloak at a celestial."

Alright, I am in Defsunen cloaked near planet four," Damen reported.

"Hmm, Myrmidon on gate..." Rohc's voice was too calm to be sure Max was hearing what he heard. "Say again?" Max said with some irritation.

"Myrmidon on gate with me, but I warped off."

"You're okay, how many jumps, Rohc?" Max felt tension mounting. One hundred hostile pilots two jumps away, and light traffic on the inbound. "Just jumping into your system now." Max cursed Rohc's ever-calm manner. Didn't the woman ever scream when danger appeared.

"Local spike!" As Damen warned three new pilots appeared in system. Max's heart jumped a bit as he saw that all three were part of Test Alliance.

"Right, I've jumped in," Rohc said, "Great, warp to us - "and there's a Deimos and a Myrmidon on the gate."

"Can you microwarp - cloak escape?" Max asked referring to a little known trick for escaping gate camps. "The Myrm is targeting me..." Rohc said passively.

"Dammit! Try to burn back to the gate." This was it - either he ordered everyone to attack and fifty Test pilots might jump on them and burn them down, or he waited and Rohc would, once again, loose a ship. Max's old personal demon, hesitation, began to creep into his mind. It had always been something he fought against. Being a perfectionist at heart, Max wanted to pull off some genius move instead of simply acting. He knew that one day this thing might be his ultimate downfall. Max remembered the pier - the jump into the water always caused him hesitation, and yet he had done it countless times; this was no different.

"Their both flashy," Max said. "We can engage them; Rohc do not jump through the gate yet. Okay Damen, I am going to warp us to the gate at our optimal sentry range, and at least get these clowns off of Rohc." Everyone else was either docked or still a few jumps away - they had to act now.

Damen acknowledged ready and Max activated the warp drive. They landed to see the Deimos pouring volleys of blaster fire into Rohc's Myrmidon, while the other Myrmidon sat passively on the gate. "Drop your drones and primary the Deimos," Max ordered.

Painfully slowly, the targets were locked up - Deimos already in half armor, this would be easy; until the rest showed up. Damen and Max's sentry drones surgically began to slice into the Deimos's armor.

"Rohc, get in point range of the Deimos," Max said as he realized that he himself was out of point range. "I don't have a point fitted," Rohc said.

"Dammit, alright lets just try to burn him down then."

"Myrmidon jumped through," Damen said. "They are afraid?" The Deimos's armor barely remained intact when it aligned and managed to war out with no issue.

"Okay they are gone. Rohc dock up, get safe and rep up. We will watch the outside of the station for you." Max said.

Although they did not get a kill, Max had once again conquered hesitation and over thinking. How many more times would it take before his actions came naturally, he wondered.

***The End*** (of episode one)