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P&P Fiction Contest - Collect and Return
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Finden Parril
Crinkly Ninjas
#1 - 2015-11-18 17:23:32 UTC
Collect And Return



“Jowey, its too risky.”

Sarra Sandilo looked anxiously at her younger brother as he sat at the cheap monoplastic table in the dingy apartment. The dirty plates containing the remnants of their frugal meal were a reminder to stack them in the autoclean, but at the moment she was more concerned with the danger involved in her brothers latest plan to raise some much needed ISK.

“Sis, we don't have a choice. The bank isn't going to lend us money without collateral, and the only thing we have left is Dad's old ship. If we sell that we have no way back, so we have to use it to get a job”. He looked unhappily at the remains on the table. “Do you like living like this? The Starline Transport Corporation – one of the oldest and most respected independent family haulers in the business reduced to two people existing on scraps and handouts from old friends. Who's numbers are getting smaller by the day I might add – charity can become uncomfortable when it involves friends.”

His sister grasped the back of the chair nearest her with both hands, holding it so tightly that her knuckles stood out stark white against the worn brown plastic. “We always have a choice! The choice is not to do something stupid and get killed! Worse – if you get killed your clone will activate, but you can't activate another military-grade ship! What sort of job can you get with a civilian ship? Low volume in-system hauling for a handful of ISK that won't pay for the maintenance of even civilian modules! Men! I don't know what you are thinking with but it isn't your brain!” She let go of the chair, worry in her eyes, and walked around the table to stand next to him. “We'll get by Jowey – we always do.”

“Not this time – we have reached the end of everything. Nothing left to sell, nothing in the bank and no jobs on the books. The only possible way of raising ISK is to take up the offer that Tanissa made us, no matter how risky it sounds. I have flown through losec before and I can do it again. I will be fine.”

Jowey set his jaw mulishly and pushed the chair back from the table, the scrape of the legs against the bare floor loud in the poorly furnished room. Gathering his jacket from the peg on the back of the door, he turned to his sister and said in a softer voice “Don't worry. I know its losec, but Dads ship is a covert ops frigate, and as long as I can get the cloak working I should be alright. After all, it's hard for pirates to shoot you if they can't see you. I'm going to fly over to Traun and meet this mystery man of Tanissa to see what sort of job offer he has.” Opening the door he turned and gave a cheerful wave before heading off down the street towards the stardock, leaving his sister to sit alone and wait for the news, good or bad, to reach her.

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Finden Parril
Crinkly Ninjas
#2 - 2015-11-18 17:27:51 UTC
Jowey looked cautiously around the bar, wondering why so many of them seemed to specialise in dark wooden cubicles and low lighting. He nursed the over-priced drink that he had bought with some of his few remaining ISK and tried to decide if his contact was here or not. He had no idea what the man looked like – his instructions had simply said to be at the bar at a certain time and he would be met. Well nobody had met him yet, and he did not know how much longer he could nurse this drink without incurring the anger of the bartender, who looked like he could wrestle a pack of slaver-hounds without breaking sweat. As he looked into the bottom of his plasmug the bartender came over and poured another shot of the alcohol-flavoured fruit juice that he had ordered into the mug. “Cubicle eight” he growled and walked stolidly up to the other end of the bar without demanding any form of payment. Jowey frowned and turned towards the cubicles. Number eight was at the far end of the row, nearest to a door that said 'Staff Only' and was probably the darkest corner of the room. He walked down the row and slid into the seat on the near side of the cubicle.

“Are you the man willing to do the losec run?” The voice was soft and cultured, a far cry from the rather harsh dialect of the locals, and it came from someone so muffled up in a cloak that it was hard to identify any of his features. “Yes. I can do a losec run.” Jowey tried to make his voice as confident as he could, well aware of the need for a good first impression. He needed this job – he wasn't even sure if he had enough ISK to get back to his sister if he failed here. He waited uncomfortably for a long moment before the muffled man continued. “What ship do you fly?”

“A Cheetah – a covert ops frigate.” Which was true, but rather glossed over the age and condition of his father's old ship. The soft voice continued “I know what a Cheetah is. It should be capable of completing the run without too many problems if the pilot is up to scratch. You would need to fly through a number of losec systems, dock at a station, collect a document and return here to Traun. Think you can do it?” Jowey nodded. “It doesn't sound too bad. What is the local pirate population like? “ A small chuckle floated across the table. “What are they like? Well they are pirates. If they catch you they will shoot your ship, loot the wreckage and kill you.” His voice hardened. “If they catch you going in that's too bad, but you are not under any circumstances to lose your ship if you are carrying the document. Is that clear?”

Was he supposed to guarantee that he would not get shot on the way back? That sounded more like wishful thinking than anything else, but Jowey nodded sagely and said “I can do the job. Where is the destination?” “No idea” said the man in a rather amused tone “but if I think you are up to it I am supposed to send you somewhere else. As nobody else has turned up to stake a claim to the job I guess that means you get it. Go to this address and ask for Sister Valentina.” He pushed a piece of card across the table, stood up and swiped a passcard over the door lock on the 'Staff Only' door and slipped quietly out of the room. The door locked again with a quiet 'click' giving Jowey no chance to follow him. He looked at the address and consulted his internal city map function – good, it was only a couple of blocks over. 'Sister Valentina' was obviously an alias of some sort, but the sooner he got his instructions the better. Pulling his jacket more tightly around himself he nodded to the barman and headed out into the night.

Jowey looked at the building which towered over him. He was clearly at a side entrance but it was definitely the same number on the door as on the card he had been given. Wondering why he could not use the front entrance, he knocked on the door and waited for a reply. The door opened rather suddenly and a small light came on above his head angled into the street giving him little clue as to who stood there. “Sister Valentina please” said Jowey. “That would be me” said a pleasant female voice. “Do come inside young man.” He entered and turned to face the woman, blinking in surprise as his eyes took in the clothes she was wearing. “You are a...” he began, but before he could finish Sister Valentina did it for him. “A Sister of Eve? Yes I am. Welcome to the Traun Food Relief hall.”
Finden Parril
Crinkly Ninjas
#3 - 2015-11-18 17:34:35 UTC
“I am sorry Sister, I think I might have been given the wrong address – I am not in need of free meals at the moment. I am in fact a pilot looking for a specific contract.” As Jowey turned to go, Sister Valentina laid a restraining hand on his arm. “I know exactly who you are Mr Sandilo – may I call you Jowey? The scan our agent in the bar made of you before he talked to you allowed us to confirm your identity - and you are in exactly the right place. The contract on offer was set by the Sanctuary, the part of our Order that deals with the very basis of our existence here. You may know that the entire population of this part of the galaxy came through a manifestation close to the New Eden system that is usually called The Gate. We believe it to be an exit from Heaven and if we can open it perhaps we could once more receive God's Grace. We have had a science vessel studying it as closely as we dare for a considerable period of time. We usually receive data from it every ten years, but the High Priestess was informed that an unusual event had taken place and a holoreel of the event was dispatched to us by courier.” The Sisters gaze looked troubled as her hands made an unobtrusive gesture of blessing.

“Unfortunately, the courier was waylaid on his way here and his ship destroyed. He himself managed to escape in his pod to one of the Inherent Implants Biotech factories in Angur and he used the contract system there to send the holoreel to a dummy corporation. After reporting this to us, all communications with him ceased, and we fear that he may have been killed – although if that were the case his clone should have reported back by now.“ She looked at Jowey with an expression of grim determination that went oddly with the subdued costume of a Sister of Eve. “We wish you to go to Angur and retrieve the holoreel for us. We have other agents there looking for our courier, but none of them can fly a covert frigate which means that you are our best hope. What do you say Jowey? Will you help us?”

Jowey looked thoughtfully at the Sister. On the face of it, this was not a particularly difficult mission. Yes a visit to losec systems could be dangerous, as any exit from hisec could be gatecamped at the whim of the local pirates, but a careful pilot could reduce the chances of being caught. The major problem would be the station in Angur. Easy enough to dock as they wouldn't be expecting him, but undocking was another matter – if pirates were active on the undock even a covert ops frigate could be caught. And what would happen to himself and Sarra if he lost their last ship?

Sister Valentina was watching him very carefully, and as she saw him hesitate she spoke up to dangle the carrot. “Of course, we are not asking you to do this for nothing – the payment for the completed contract is generous, very generous I believe. If you return to us with the holoreel you can expect to receive a payment of two hundred and fifty million ISK. That should be enough to set you and your sister back on your feet with some to spare. And of course you will have the blessings of the Sisterhood in any future endeavours.”

Two hundred and fifty million! If he could return to Sarra with that they could revive Starline Transport! Two new haulers complete with fittings and insurance and enough left over to hire competent pilots to fly them. They could also move out of the dump they were currently living in to a better district where they could hire an office and find a home without built-in smells. Forcing down the twinges of anxiety in his stomach he straightened his stance and looked the Sister in the eyes.

“That sounds like a very fair deal Sister. I am willing to accept the contract on behalf of Starline Transport Corporation.” To his surprise Sister Valentina shook her head. “Oh no Jowey – the contract is with you personally, not with Starline. After all, their current reputation is a little on the low side, wouldn't you agree? Lets just keep this between us. I will set you up as a member of the dummy corporation so that you can retrieve the holoreel. The station is the one at planet four moon two by the way – there are two in system so I do suggest that you dock in the right one. Now if you will follow me, we can post the contract details from my office.”
Finden Parril
Crinkly Ninjas
#4 - 2015-11-18 17:37:49 UTC
How to play this.... Jowey called up the Dotlan area maps again and checked the records. You could only go back over the last forty-eight hours for any individual system, but the maps were an invaluable guide to system activity. He was currently in Gergish, a hisec system only four jumps from Angur but three of those systems were in losec and losec was dangerous. Hisec systems were policed by Concord, which was a joint enterprise of the five empires that was designed to mitigate trouble in their systems and they were mostly peaceful as the Concord presence there was strong, but in losec it was poor to non-existent and piracy was rife. The nearest losec system on a direct route to Angur was Antem and it was a known pirate hunting ground. The Dotlan maps reported 14 ship kills there in the last two days which was high even for this area of Genesis and five of the pilots had been pod-killed, which would cause them to revive in their clone in whichever system it was stored in. The one bright spot was the timing of the kills – six were 12 hours old and the other eight were 36 hours old, which suggested that the pirates were gatecamping the exit at regular intervals.

Well, if the last kills were 12 hours ago then the next 12 hours should be reasonably safe. Muttering a small prayer to the Sisters of Eve (it couldn't hurt) he keyed in the jump command and the ship was sucked into the familiar turbulence of gate travel, emerging 12 km or so from the gate exit in the Imya system. The next jump into Antem would be key. He had two options – warp to zero on the Imya/Antem gate and jump straight through to Antem or check out the gate for pirate scouts from a safe distance. The charge-straight-through approach had some merit when flying an uncloaked ship, as it did provide a small measure of surprise if you could get close to the gate and jump before the scouts could report you to the gatecampers on the other side. But he was in a Cheetah which was fast, agile and had a cloak which would allow him to fly unseen as long as he was at least 2km from any solid object. Setting the Antem gate as his destination, he told the ships navigation computer to warp to within 100km of the gate, and as soon as the drives cut in he switched on the cloaking device. The ships powerful warp engines kicked in and the speed mounted towards its maximum of 8 AU per second while fading from view of both scanners and the visual spectrum leaving no trace of its passing. It did not take long before the massive Antem jump gate structure began to show on the ships systems, and as the speed dropped to zero it was visible even from 100km away. No sign of any other ships either visible or on scan range.

Jowey stroked the bridge of his nose absently, knowing that just because you could not see or scan ships it did not mean that they were not there. They could be cloaked as he was and watching from anywhere around the gate. Deciding that discretion was the best option for the moment, he turned the ship and fired the in-system engines to burn away from the gate at 700 m/s which with his skills was the ships maximum speed possible while cloaked. Unless he wanted to burn the whole 100km at that speed he needed to be at least 150km from the gate before he could use the warp drive to get close enough to jump through so it was obviously quicker to just burn the 50km and then warp to zero. Reaching a nice safe 160km away from and slightly above the gate, he was trying to decide whether to take a chance and jump through immediately when he noticed another ship signature on his scanner. A Cyclone, a Minmatar battlecruiser seemed to be closing on both him and the gate. Sure enough, the telltale flash of a ship emerging from warp drive showed up by the gate and the Cyclone appeared and started to engage jump mode.

A chance! If the Cyclone wasn't friendly to the Antem pirates any that were there would engage it, giving him a chance to slip past – and even if it was friendly two ships appearing close together might confuse them long enough for him to cloak and warp off. Jowey engaged the warp engines and set them to warp right to the gate, trying to make sure that the Cyclone would have jumped by the time he got there but not too far ahead of his own jump. As the Cheetah reached the gate he took a deep breath and set up the jump. Emerging on the far side of the gate he knew that he was protected from being seen or scanned for a brief period due to the energies generated by the gate mechanics, and took careful stock of his surroundings. The Cyclone was there, 22km away and close to four other ships which were not firing on it. Pirates! None of them were closer to him than 14km so he looked for the Djimame gate which was next in the sequence to Angur and locked in the co-ordinates. He knew that as soon as he moved the ship he would become visible, but hopefully he would be able to cloak and warp off before they could lock him and get a warp scrambler active to shut down the warp drive. Time to go. Start the warp drive. Start the cloak. Pray.
Finden Parril
Crinkly Ninjas
#5 - 2015-11-18 17:42:09 UTC
A flurry of activity around the pirates signaled that they had spotted him, and the two smaller frigates turned tight curves to align towards him. If they could prevent his warp, the Cynabal pirate cruiser with its attendant destroyer would make very short work of him indeed. Finally! The cloak came on like a wave around the ship and the warp engines kicked in propelling him away from the aggressors towards the next gate. Would they follow? Unlikely – gatecampers were lazy and preferred to lie in wait for unsuspecting victims and easy kills. A prolonged chase to kill a frigate, especially a hard to pin down covert one would not seem worthwhile to them unless other factors were involved - he was probably safe enough for now. The two gates between him and the Angur station should hold no problems as the only profitable spot for an ambush was the Imya/Antem gate between hisec and losec that he had just passed.

Jowey had started to relax, breaking out a cup of quafe to help calm his tightened nerves when a sudden and unexpected jolt caused to to inspect the ship controls anxiously. The cloak had disengaged without warning leaving him visible to any scanner in range. That was a real worry as covert ops cloaks were extremely complicated modules that either worked or didn't – there was no in-between we-can-fix-it stage unless you had access to the very best technology in a specialised repair station. And those sort of repairs were expensive enough to be way out of his price range unless he could get back to the Sisters with the holoreel. OK, not good. Flying through losec in a covert ops frigate that wasn't covert was very risky indeed. Yes he had fitted a small shield extender and a couple of shield hardeners to help against attacks and he could use them while the cloak was off, but it was pitifully small protection against something as potent as the Cynabal that had been on the Imya gate. This contract had suddenly got a lot harder, but there was nothing he could do about it now as he was already committed. Moodily sipping the quafe, he started the jump sequence into Djimame.

Djimame was a quiet system containing a couple of Amarr Civil Service Bureau Office stations and a lot of asteroid belts, but very little in the way of ships. Warping to Angur was uneventful and there was nothing on scan when Jowey jumped into his destination system, another that fell under the sovereignty umbrella of the Amarr as did pretty much everything in the Genesis region of space. Heading to the Biotech station at planet 4 moon 2 was peaceful enough and as there were no ships sitting outside the station Jowey was able to dock without problems. Well he had got here – all that remained now was to get the holoreel and return without being blown to pieces in an already damaged ship. Piece of cake. He exited the ship and walked across the hangar bay to the Neocom terminal.

He had posted his resignation as CEO of Starline Transport at Sister Valentina's request before he had left Traun and by now she should have enrolled him in the dummy corporation that the courier had set up to store the holoreel. A quick check of the terminal under 'Buisness Contracts' showed one contract outstanding for the corporation and he quickly accepted it to be delivered to his hangar bay. “OK hero” he muttered to himself “lets grab that reel and get out of here before anyone notices that they have a visitor in their midst.” Five minutes later he was back in his ship with the precious cargo stored in a nondescript holdall safely attached to base of the control panel where he could keep an eye on all 250 million ISK worth of it.

Now came the tricky bit. He had to undock and warp away from the station before anyone loitering outside could lock him up and destroy the ship, and there was precious little that he could do to stop them. If it had been a station that he knew well he might have had an instawarp point set up – a point in space in a direct line away from the docking bay which would have reduced his align time to zero and greatly helped getting into warp, but this was the first (and probably the last) time that he had been here. He would simply have to rely on the speed and agility of the Cheetah to get away before explosions set in. Deep breath and time to go. He engaged the undocking sequence.

As soon as the Cheetah emerged from the docking bay Jowey was frantically looking for the Djimame gate co-ordinates when he spotted another ship close by, a Merlin from the look of it, probably the best of the Caldari frigates and that couldn't possibly be good news. He selected the correct gate on the navcom and hit the 'Warp/Jump' key to get himself going and winced as the alarms sounded. Sure enough the Merlin was trying to get a lock on him and whats more it had succeeded! He hastily activated the shield extender and the shield hardeners as more alarms sounded as his shields started to disintegrate under the hammer blows from the neutron blasters on the Merlin. Not good! If this guy had a warp scrambler fitted he was going to be as crispy as yesterdays breakfast. Into armor – what there was of it, and the warp engines still not engaged although it was getting close – maybe he could make it....
Finden Parril
Crinkly Ninjas
#6 - 2015-11-18 17:46:40 UTC
The shudder of blaster fire hitting his hull let him know that he was all but done for, and then his prayers were answered as the warp engines cut in, catapulting him away from the station trailing flames and smoke from the badly wounded Cheetah. The shield extender and hardeners cut off automatically in warp which was just as well as his capacitor was all but gone. Covert ops frigates were not meant to be tanks they were meant to be stealthy, but his was currently anything but that. No cloak, flying through space like a firework and down to 12% structure. Life sure was getting interesting. With his shields slowly regenerating Jowey circled the Djimame gate at zero keeping a close eye on his scanners. If anything showed up he would jump through immediately but it would be preferable to have some sort of shield cover before he did, and it would allow the emergency systems to put out the worst of the fires. 12% structure – that was close!

When his shields hit 50% Jowey decided not to risk it any longer and jumped through the gate. A wonderful system completely empty of ships was his reward for good timing and he immediately warped to the Antem gate, jumping through without a pause. One more gate and he would be in hisec and theoretically safe, but this was the gate that the pirates had been camping when he was headed the other way. Sneak it or crash it? He would normally warp cloaked to a planet before warping to the gate itself so as to change the angle of approach, but without a cloak he did not have that option – it was going to have to be straight through and damn the torpedo's. Metaphorically girding his loins (which sounded painful) he entered the co-ordinates and hit the Warp/Jump key. Hisec here we come.

Sure enough the same pirate ships were sitting in space spread out around the gate, but his advantage lay in that they were expecting ships coming through from hisec, not going the other way. The comforting energies of the gate mechanics swarmed around his ship as he was sucked through to the other side into the welcoming arms of Concord protection. All he had to do now was fly back to Traun all 22 jumps of it and the prize was his. Patting the holdall with a grin on his face he started to lay in the course.

----------------------

Sister Valentina once again opened the side door to the Food Relief hall and her face brightened immediately on seeing him standing there with a holdall on his shoulder. “Welcome Jowey, welcome! I am delighted to see you again – and from the look of what you are carrying I think a celebration is in order. Please come in – I will have some quafe brought for you and possibly something to eat?”

“Just quafe thank you Sister, I am not hungry at the moment. To be honest I am keen to complete the contract and get back to Sarra. I am sure you understand.”

“Of course young man and the ISK will be credited to your account as soon as the High Priestess has checked the holoreel. Please follow me and we will deal with that at once.” She led Jowey into a small but well-appointed office a little further down the hallway and took the holdall containing the holoreel through a second exit into what looked like a larger version of the office. Almost immediately another Sister appeared with a glass of quafe which she offered to him with a smile before disappearing back into the hallway. Before Jowey had a chance to do more than sip the cool refreshing drink Sister Valentina returned followed by a more statuesque and richly dressed Sister who looked at him with disconcertingly sharp eyes.

“You are Jowey Sandilo?” Jowey nodded, wondering whether he should bow or something, but the Sister continued talking to him. “Well Jowey I am Harna Durado and I am the High Priestess of the Sanctuary Sisters. You have done us a great service here. If rumours are true, this holoreel contains details of an event at the Eve Gate which is a Relic from God. We have been watching the Gate for many many years, as we believe that opening it will lead to peace and harmony for all in New Eden, and this could be the first real indicator of how to do it. As such it is priceless, and you could almost be described as an angel sent by Heaven.” She smiled slightly. “Don't take that literally – I said almost. However, we are extremely pleased with your efforts so I have asked our engineers to go over your ship from top to bottom and repair any damage taken in our cause. The ISK will be in your account within the hour, and should you ever be in need of our services you know where to come. May the Blessings of the Sisters of Eve keep you safe young man.”

With that she swept out of the room, leaving Jowey somewhat bewildered but extremely happy. A complete overhaul for the Cheetah! 250 million ISK! Wait until he told Sarra that he was an angel....

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