“You can’t always escape from the past, because sometimes it draws you back in.”
GRISPIRE SOLAR SYSTEM
PLACID REGION
GALLENTE FEDERATION
“God damn it Vick,” I barked over the communications uplink, “What the fuck did you sign me up for?” He laughed, “I didn’t sign you up for shit. You volunteered because you heard there was going to be a massive payout.” “I told you I was done being the Federation’s pawn,” I replied. “Just go kill a few State pilots, blow up their colonies and it’ll all be worth it. Don’t forget to grab their dog tags so we can see what kind of blow you dealt to their naval forces,” Vick said with a chuckle.
I engaged the warp drive on Valhalla, my Thanatos-class Carrier, and soon I found myself looking at a few sentry batteries surrounding a pair of Mining Colonies. “Well, this doesn’t seem so…” I said right as alarm klaxons began screaming in my mind, “OH FUCK ME!” I found myself staring down a very large State battlegroup, and to make matters worse, the two energy neutralization batteries had just engaged. “All hands! This is not a drill! Battlestations!” I shouted over internal comms. “Engineering, engage nosferatu on nearest battleship! Electronic warfare, engage stasis grappler on targets I designate! All fighter pilots, get to launch tubes and scramble, we have numerous hostiles bearing down on our position!” I shouted. Seconds later, three squadrons of Firbolg-class fighters had launched and began engaging. As frigates and destroyers closed on my Valhalla’s position, the smartbomb fitted to the carrier was engaged, rendering the tackle frigates ineffective in seconds, completely destroying them.
I watched as one of my fighter squadrons suffered losses while trying to return for a resupply, and made a note of which pilots were lost so that I could ensure their families were taken care of. The shield alarm went off, and as the first missiles penetrated Valhalla’s thick armor plating, my vision went red. The fighter squadrons had just landed for resupply, and I shouted over comms, “Tell hangar crews that they need to hurry the fuck up, unless they want to be frozen corpses. The State isn’t too keen on us being here, and we need to make sure that we take these bastards down.” Apparently my orders had struck a nerve, as the fighters launched out again, and started taking down more and more of the enemy fleet. Cruisers and battlecruisers were exploding all around my ship, and the battleships fell not long after.
I called out on comms, “Hey Tri, you may want to get over here in something that can salvage, because I just ripped these State dogs a new ass. And there is one hell of a mess that needs to be cleaned up.” “I’m on the way,” Trianna said with a chuckle, “Let me grab my Noctis.” After getting Valhalla repaired at a Freeport citadel, I returned with Rasa, my Ishtar-class Heavy Assault Cruiser, dropped a Mobile Tractor Unit and Salvage Drones. It took a while, but we got all of the wreckage cleaned up. I called out to Vick, “So, about the payout.” “You may want to check how many Loyalty Points that Federation Customs assigned you for their store. Also, those tags? We don’t actually want them. Send me a picture of them so I can verify, and you can sell them on the open market. You should make a pretty decent amount of ISK off of them.”
I checked my wallet, the Loyalty Point balance for Federation Customs and the estimated value of the tags I had collected and smirked, “Well, looks like I just found a new source of income.”
As I climbed the stairs from my capsule, I spotted Trianna, “Those tags you picked up? Sell them. They’re worth a good amount of ISK. Should help offset some of the costs you’ve incurred lately with buying shit.”
END
