New Eden Chronicle #4

Serpent’s Run

Immortality... the prized objective of so many is a reality now for me and those like me, the gift of the timeless Jovians, the capsule along with the implants and cloning technology have made it so.  Still, it is not a perfect gift.

Most who wish to become like us fail, their lives flushed away in that one vibrant leap toward supposed Godhood.  I am not a God, not really...

I'm not even much more than a mere woman, albeit one who can die and wake up within moments as if nothing had happened, perhaps hundreds of light years from where I met my demise.

I am a capsuleer, a starship's main computer made of flesh and blood, of cybernetics and cloned tissue.  My name is Ai-Wei Song.

I spent over thirty years of my life as a nobody... at first I was a child, then a teen, a student, and finally a propulsion engineer on a frigate owned by a capsuleer.  My life wasn't unusual, or special, or even very different from the hum-drum existence of most people in this violent galaxy we call New Eden.

Then a bit of luck and a bit of fate conspired against me, this created a bit of excitement, a bit of daring, a rather large helping of screaming, and even praying.  Akash has never really let me live that down, but... I survived, triumphed even and the fates bequeathed a bounty into my hands, a chance at immortality.

I seized it like a giddy child.  So many of us dream to be amongst the stars, I'd wanted to go into space so badly... and so I became a propulsion engineer, a spacer, and now... I was offered to become more than that childhood dream, to be a ship unto itself, a pod pilot.

I was lucky... so lucky in fact that Aura calculates the chances that my friend would become a capsuleer as well, as being something on the order of one in four hundred.  We'd both beaten higher odds then that.

I believe she told me that the odds of surviving a Sansha boarding action are three-thousand-seven-hundred-and-twenty to one.  I guess I was just born lucky.

Or Akash was at least... The Intaki fool, I'm not sure what to do with him most of the time.  We're partners, of a sort... and he's, well... just dumb sometimes.  Like when he throws himself into the front of an attack, burning his frigate as fast as it can go, trying to get into range.  Yet... he survives, his crew is loyal, and I can only shake my head...

Well… technically, I actually can't most of the time, you see... when I'm in my pod, I'm suspended in a vat of fluid... My implants are hooked up directly to the ship and... my mind really isn't occupying that body so much as I am the ship... and then well, I don't have a head to shake do I?

Well, I do but those neruons that would have gone to my neck muscles are routed elsewhere, and it's really a pointless gesture if no one sees you doing it.  And no one, ever, looks inside my pod.

So I save my headshakes for those moments when I'm outside the thing... like when I'm drinking with my friends... or crew... or Akash... or in an agent's office, in a Gallente station, like I was right at that moment.

"Ai-Wei Song, Akash Misra... I'm a bit surprised that you wanted a face to face meeting... usually it's just an exchange of data and an electronic contract." The Agent said with a slight scowl. "I actually had to come into my office for this... something I almost never do, I guess after Thererie informed me, you did the same to her that I shouldn't be surprised."

"Well, the corporation we're members of is trying to improve relations with the Gallente, I understand a couple of skirmishes our members had that occurred in the past have soured our relationship, and Salma Idama would like to make expanded industrial activities in the systems worthwhile." I said carefully as I leaned toward the man, "Mr. Ellis, we'll be in the system for several weeks running missions... and I felt it'd be better to put a face with the mission briefing I received."

"You could have just taken a look at my holo." He said in irritation. "Alright, I guess you want missions then? With two of you working together I suppose you can handle some of the tougher ones that occasionally pop up."

A holographic console beside him flashed and he keyed himself in with a palm touch. "Alright... let’s see what I can do for the two of you... nothing to too difficult."

He stopped for a long moment and a slight smile played across his face.  I knew then that the mission he was going to give us would be anything but simple...

"Well... we've been having trouble with the Serpentis Cartel, they've setup some sort of drug manufacturing station in one of this system's deadspace pockets.  Every week they fly a hauler with a small escort in to refuel it... I'd like you to destroy their resupply so it'll be viable for a battleship to go in and finish it off." He smirked faintly. "If you're up to it."

"Sounds easy enough." Akash said and I groaned.  Damn Akash and his inability to notice when someone is out to get you for being an irritant.

Of course, I'd hoped for such a reaction, as a more difficult mission would be more profitable and... More likely to increase our standing in the eyes of the agent, and ultimately the Gallente Federation's Navy.

"Latest intel says they're in the pocket now... it takes them a day usually to navigate it and refuel, but I'll give you a bonus if you blow them out of the sky fast... I do hope you'll be willing to do this electronically from this point on." He said with a growl.

I smiled and nodded. "Of course... we'll get right on it."

"I'm transferring the location to your implant’s AI..." Mr. Ellis said with a harrumph. "Now, get out of my office before I get really irritated."

I nodded and led Akash out.  As the door hissed shut and the lift began to take us down the multi-story building that housed the agent's office, I smirked. "So... What's the brief call this?"

"Serpent's Run." He said with a shrug. "I've never heard of it..."

I scowled, I hadn't either... maybe it was something that rarely happened... once a month in a solar system wasn't that common. With a blink, I activated the heads up display of my implants and started skimming through the contract.  Nothing really flew up red flags except for a singular omission.

"It doesn't say the sort of resistance to expect... he just said two escorts though, so it should be really easy." I muttered to myself.

"Yeah... for a second there I thought he was planning on giving us the toughest mission he could... is it really that irritating to go to his office for an introduction?" Akash asked. "It's like he expects to do this all from home."

"They do..." I answered as I turned off the heads up display with another blink. "Hell, an agent can issue a contract while sitting in the bathroom, or standing in a shower, or... well, you get the picture Akash."

"Right, they've got implants too... only people that don't are the little people that work for us." He groaned. "At least my crew is behind me."

I rolled my eyes at that while the lift slowed to a stop and dumped us out into a rather boring little concourse. "Akash... I am not going to discuss the fears of my ship's power engineer with you."

"Maybe you should consider letting her walk out of that contract," He said. "I mean... we've only got two people on our frigates, we need everyone to be focused on their jobs, right?"

"You were a power engineer yourself... Can't you put yourself in her boots?" I asked with a bit of irritation.

He flinched. "Okay... just get your house in order Ai."

"Fine." I growled as I walked over to one of the waiting hovercars and closed the door between us.  As the car lifted off I got on my neocom and informed the crew that we had a mission.

Fifteen minutes later, I was stripping out of my clothes and stuffing them into a storage box nestled in my pod.  A few moments later and I stepped back into the bulbous thing and braced myself.

No matter what anyone else tells you… that moment when capsule and pilot link, hurts like hell.  It's like being stabbed in the spine as the first connection is made and you can feel the cybernetic circuitry, the implants, and even the neurons flare from the sudden change.  It's a spike of agony followed by a feeling of being burned from the inside for a few seconds.  Then another one connected, then another, until you're at the point where your mind is throbbing in agony and then...

Then the pod begins to fill with electrostatic fluid as it seals itself around you.  By that point your mind is no longer there, not really... instead it's staring through the eyes of a camera drone, guiding the movements of the pod as it disconnects from the gurney and slowly drifts to the waiting ship.

I own an Atron-class Attack Frigate, it's my primary ship... simple, fast, and effective.  I'm not normally a mission runner, that's for people who freelance mostly... and those who fly battleships.  I don't fit in either category, but a simple low level mission I can handle.

Usually I do trading... even a small ship, like the Atron, has a big enough hold to store a fair number of pieces of equipment, modules, parts, cybernetic implants, and so forth.  I also use a simple trick to avoid piracy... as very few people even think that an Atron speeding through the system is doing anything but being flown by a new capsuleer, shuttling it's pilot, or a war pilot looking for kills.

As the capsule locked into place, my senses expanded into the ship's own and I could see through the eyes of cameras placed inside its crew compartments at the same moment my gaze could star off at a distant ship through the singular lens of my ship's camera drones.

Alena Olvirsson stood by her station, clad in a heavy environmental spacesuit of Minmatar manufacture as her comrade, Vel stood by the power display, glancing nervously at the various instruments before her.

"Report status." I stated simply.

"Propulsion ready... nothing's broken yet." Alena said with a slight smile on her face.

Vel's face twitched and I would have sighed. "Power is good... just bringing everything online now." She swallowed nervously.

The woman needed to focus, and I realized at some level that Akash was right.  I did need to get my ship in order... Perhaps I could get her contract moved to an indy ship or a mining barge, as clearly this was not something the woman was really suited for.

Alena however, was like I had been... She was a hard drinking, hard working, propulsion engineer.  It was just that she was a daredevil too. Something I really hadn't been.  She was also a gossip, and I was her primary target most of the time.

"So... Ai, have you and Akash?" Alena started.

My voice growled through the speakers. "Not now Alena!"

"So… when?" She asked with a grin.

"After the mission, when I've had a nice big bottle of Gallente Spiced Red Wine, then... I'll talk."

"Really?" Alena asked hopefully.

"No." My mind focused on the station surrounding us and I sighed. "Undocking now."

I could see the thump on the crew monitors and how the two engineers glanced at each other then glared at my camera.

"You're in a bad mood." Alena observed for a moment.

"Oh shut up." I answered before focusing on my external communications. "Akash, we're out..."

“Aligning to the Serpent’s Run,” He answered and I stared at his worn Incursus-class frigate.  I thought for a moment and brought my Atron into position just a hundred meters below and behind his just as I caught an invitation into his fleet… his two-person fleet.

It’s amazing what interlocking capsuleer minds can do to improve the performance of a ship… truly astonishing.  “Alright, I’m linking up the systems now…” I watched as my ship’s performance leapt ahead a few more percentage points, and would have smiled… if, you know, my brain was connected to my body at that moment. “You’ve been training for fleet leadership stuff again Akash?”

“Yeah… but I doubt I’ll ever fly a boosting ship.  I’ll just lead a tackler frigate squadron.” He answered as his ship finished aligning. “Warp in ten seconds.”

My mental clock ticked away and then with a flash of motion we leapt into warp.

It was a short hop really... the deadspace pocket was in the middle of nowhere, and so I was on full alert, my nerves probably making Alena work a bit more keeping everything running... Then with a flash of deceleration, we arrived.

An enormous acceleration gate hung in the middle of empty space before us, energy arcing between its components.  I kept close to Akash as he approached the gate then activated it with an electronic command.

We were flung into warp once more and found ourselves sitting in the midst of a large gas field strewn with asteroids and other debris.  A good sixty kilometers away I spotted the next accelerator gate, and half-way between us was a single industrial ship lazily trolling toward the accelerator gate.  The two ships that were orbiting it slowly turned to face us.

They looked like some sort of modified Atron-frigate, I hadn't expected resistance to be that weak.

"Oh, this will be easy." Akash said with a smirk. "Stay close to me Ai... we've got this."

Then as the two contacts closed, I felt an icy nugget of dread drop into my stomach.  The sensor displays were giving names for the two frigates, capsuleer pilot names. This wasn't good. "Akash..."

"What?"

"They're capsuleers!" I shouted as the two frigates suddenly leapt to max speed, I swore as I saw their velocity break four kilometers a second. "They'll be on us in fifteen seconds!"

"FUCK!" He snapped.

With a shudder, I felt a beam of gravitons hit my ship's warp drive, disabling it. "I'm scrammed! Engaged defensive!"

"Roger!" Akash said as I locked my guns onto the Atron. 

I swore as it fired, splashing plasma against my shields, tearing a great chunk of their integrity away with that singular volley.  The other Serpentis fighter shot toward Akash, firing as it did.  My return volley tore into their shields, as I brought my ship up into a tight loop and fought to keep him in optimal range of my guns, even while keeping out of his.

Then he dove and rolled, and I swore... it suddenly was a chase.  Antimatter tore through space as another volley from his ship tore away my shields.

Shit! I activated an energy vampire and energy from his ship began to pulse between our ships and my guns fired again, ripping through the enemy's shields. I saw vaporized armor spill from the side of his ship.  Another blast from his ship struck home and I swallowed as alarms blared about the impact.  The armor repair system flared to life and began to reassemble the armor plates with nanites.

I fired again and smiled.  Huge geysers of plasma and vaporized metal shot from the ship's armor plate.  It broke away and I followed, barely keeping in range.  Another volley from their guns smashed into my armor, but the wounds were already beginning to knit.

The enemy's ship danced in my sights and I snarled.  A volley tore from my guns and ripped into their ship.  Smoke and flames burst from its innards as the blasts ripped through the armor and into the underlying structure.

Another volley struck and I heard a shout from the crew compartment. An alarm blared in my mind.  My mind tuned it out and I let loose one last volley that ripped the enemy frigate into pieces.  I saw a small capsule tumble past as I shot by the wreck and turned back to Akash just in time to see his opponent explode.

"Akash?"

"I'm okay... Ai! You're leaking air!" He shouted and my mind jumped to a damage assessment. “Damn it Ai… he got you good.”

“Oh hell.” I said before turning my attention to the engineering team, "Alena, Vel! What broke?"

There was a gasp from my internal pickups and I heard Alena's breath coming in gasps. "Hull breach: deck one, section one. It's sealed off... Systems are green otherwise."

"Vel?" I asked as I activated the internal systems and felt the electrostatic fluid of my pod drop ten degrees. "Vel, can you hear me? Vel!"

I mentally took a deep breath and tried to calm my nerves as I registered Akash's destruction of the industrial ship.  The mission was accomplished, but... I focused on the internal cameras and swore.

Bent over the propulsion console, Vel's helmet was shattered and blood was running down from a gash in her face.

Alena stumbled over to where Vel was, scrambling across smashed wires and broken bits of equipment. She knelt over her and pressed her hand to her jugular to check for a pulse. After a moment a relieved voice flooded my mind.

"She's alive..."

I would have let out a breath of relief, but I couldn't.  No wonder capsuleers didn't always feel human... Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out for this.

"Akash... you grab any salvage you can... I'm rushing Vel back." I said and could hear a quiver in my voice.