Something New, Something Faction

Shocku brought his Machariel to rest in the ship maintenance bay of
Steky's carrier, the Cascade Essence. After a quick shower and pulling on a simple jumpsuit, he made his way down the access tube to the hangar. His face held a deeply creased frown as he met Steky. She put an arm around his waist and said, "cheer up boss, there was nothing you could have done. It was treachery pure and simple". She was referring to the recent loss of his vargur by a goon spy named Brainstem.

"Besides, on my trip to Jita I got you something fun to play with!"

Shocku struggled to show excitement but couldn't quite muster it. His expression changed however, when they entered the next bay. "Sweet mother..." and his jaw just hung open. "is that a...?" "Dramiel" she finished for him. "it's not fully fit because I didn't know how you would want it, but it has the basics."

Shocku looked at the frigate sized vessel, unlike anything he had seen before. It was built by the Angel Cartel, using a combination of Minmatar, Gallente, and quite possibly Jovian technology. Steky said, "If you can fly the Machariel, you can surely fly that, though I wouldn't do so right after lunch. They say it can do over 10 clicks per second on impulse!

Shocku smiled and they headed to the stateroom for dinner.

Treachery in the Rear

With the front in Providence winding down, Shocku decided the gang should return to the rear to make some money and build up their combat ships for the next war.  He contacted Steky and docked his Marauder class battleship in her carrier's ship bay.  While Steky jumped her carrier to a system where pirate faction anomalies had been detected, Shocku and his friend Laaj followed the jump gates.  Upon arrival, they had a conference aboard Steky's Cascade Essence.  Shocku went over the operation, "Number one rule, keep an eye on local. If a neutral comes into system, warp to the protection of a starbase immediately. 

After the briefing, the team proceeded to scan down an Angel Cartel Haven, and Shocku worked with Laaj providing instructions on when to deploy and recover drones, range of engagement, and other important aspects to prevent them from being overwhelmed by the Cartel.

Later that night, after Laaj turned in, Shocku engaged another one of the Cartel's havens.  While engaged with the pirates, Shocku's ship computer indicated it had picked up the transponder of a new friendly ship in the solar system with piloted by the call sign Brainstem.  Shock had seen Brainstem several times before in the area, but thought it odd that he would be this far remote in a reserved system.  He queried his ship's computer on the pilot, and found he was a member of Green Alliance.  Shocku decided at that point that the situation was probably fine and engaged the next group of pirate battleships.  The pilot would most likely leave shortly when he realized it was a reserved system, and Shocku transmitted, "Nothing to see here."

A few minutes later he frowned.  Brainstem was still in system.  Was he ratting here?  He would have to mention this to a director.  Just then, Brainstem's ship dropped out of warp next to the Marauder.  He was piloting a Rapier class covert ops ship, and his targeting computer had engaged Shocku's ship.  Something was not right. Shocku immediately hit the warp button as his ship was already aligned to the planet nearest the starbase. A message displayed across his overview indicating that the Brainstem had already disabled his warp drive.  Shocku cursed, "Was this some kind of practical joke?  It didn't matter, it wasn't funny, and Shocku immediately targeted the Rapier with all his guns and engaged Steky's fighters.  Suddenly, about six neutral transponders were reported in local, and he cursed, "Oh fuck!".  Shocku sent a message on his corporate channel, "Requesting backup in system".  He pondered if he should order Steky to warp in her carrier, but just then the hostiles dropped out of warp and deployed a warp interdiction field. A few seconds later a glance at his shields showed 20%.  It would be too late for Steky to warp in, lock him, and provide repairs to his armor, and best not provide another target to this treacherous enemy without backup from his corpmates.  All subsystems were now screaming warnings, his shields and armor both destroyed and his structure was failing.  Shocku stepped back from the situation and braced himself mentally, accepting that there was now nothing to be done now to save his marauder.   

It was cold and wet.  He heaved and pulled out the tube from his mouth and lifted himself out of the stasis chamber, pushing aside the medical personnel who tried to assist him.  His body naked, with tubes still dragging from various orifices, he stumbled to the nearest neocom and opened his corporate channel.  It was buzzing about the incident.  His director asked for information on the kill and Shocku immediately transmitted.  He then examined it himself as he tried to go over the event in his mind.  Did the data recorders show Brainstem as blue?  Had he been mistaken?  He kept trying to figure out where he had errored in the situation that cost him his ship, the first time in years while fighting faction pirates.  Shocku transmitted, "Mates, I am sorry about my failure tonight, I will try to learn from it." 

"You didn't fail Shocky, it was treachery.  There was no way you could have known, and nothing you could have done once you did."  Sure enough, the logs showed Brainstem was listed as friendly and having had disrupted his warp drive.  Shocku's corpmates were sending condolences and expressing outrage at the corporation who admitted a Goon spy.   Shocku wondered why a spy would out himself over a marauder, and then laughed.  Sure, it had been his most expensive ship. Sure, it hurt to lose it. But it was not that great of a percentage of Shocku's assets, and it was certainly not worth blowing a spy's cover.  The goons were fools. At least now the spy could not damage Atlas during the next campaign, so perhaps his loss was worth the loss.

His director transmitted a message, "Shocku, I have contacted the corporation that admitted the spy, demanding reimbursement for your loss. If they don't pay, some hotdrops will be in order.  The records show that pilot's clone had been sold to another entity, and they readmitted him to their corp without vetting the application."

"Aye boss."  Drops of stasis fluid were dripping onto the screen and Shocku's hands were shaking.  As he pulled a robe over him and headed for some rest, he felt better about the loss knowing his corpmates were behind him. 

Jumplife Chapter 1

 

Haika ran lightly through the narrow maintenance corridor. Its walls were mostly covered with conduits that carried nanites and coolant outward to the ship's hull.  A few years ago some maintenance work had been done on a section of the Nomad class freighter's hull, and she knew that access tube had never been removed.  A ship this size, with a crew compliment of almost 7000 lives having been docked for almost a decade, almost became part of the station.  Still, she had to know her way around, and get her timing right, to avoid the official checkpoints disembarking. Haika looked over her shoulder, and then quickly checked the air pressure on the console before opening the airlock and beginning her descent through the access tube. It wasn't as if she was breaking any rules by leaving the ship, she just didn't want her parents to know how often.

Haika ran down the Level 9 Street 477 of Jita Station and almost tumbled over the cleaning bot as she approached the entry portal.  She swiped her hand over the access panel and Luko's face appeared. 

"What are you doing here?  Your parents will be pissed if they find out!"

"I got it! I got it! Let me in!"

She brushed a lock of tightly curled hair out of her excited face.  The door hissed open and she practically lept into Luko's arms. 

Finally she released him and waved the datachip "I was accepted to the JU!"

"Oh congrats!" and he hugged her tight once again.

"This means we can be together, Luko."

"You mean you intend to go stationside?"

"Why wouldn't I?  The ship has been parked here more than a decade.  Why should I study by net if I can go to class with you?  After all, you can carry my netpad!"

Luko looked at the floor.  "But your father, he will say..."

Haika put a finger on his lips, and then replaced it with her own.  Later, as they floated twisted in each other's arms over the gravbed, Haika thought about how she would tell her parents that she wanted to study stationside.  She knew they would come up with all sorts of ridiculous arguments about tradition and culture, and what would happen if this or that.  Despite that, she was certain they just had to be proud of her and would eventually cave. 

The next day, Haika walked into her father's office. "Hey Pops!" 

"How is my little girl today?" He grinned as he looked up. 

Haika put her arms around him and gave him a big hug, "Well.... there is something I want to tell you."

"Hmm... What could that be?  Perhaps that the station crew neglected to remove the access tube to hull section 1047?"  Maalik grinned as Haika stood there with her mouth open. He relished any time he could spend with his daughter, and these days those times were fewer and farther between.  It was not like when she was a little and would spend hours just playing on the floor of his office. "Do you think I would keep my job as First Officer if I didn't know the comings and goings on this ship?  Sit down, tell me what's up."

 "You know how you have always encouraged me to not only do my best, but also to pursue my dreams, right Daddy?"

"Of course, you know I just want you to be happy."

"I took the JU entrance exam."

"Maalik raised an eyebrow, "Jita University? Honey, you know your metrics are good enough for officer training, or any number of university curricula the ship has licensed."

"I want to study stationside, Dad."

"We have talked about this honey, and even if you did pass the entrance exam, you know the stationside program would be too much risk.  We might get commissioned right in the middle."

Haika's face contorted, "Dad, this ship hasn't left its moorings since I was a little girl! Besides, I passed!" She placed the data chip on his desk and the document flashed onto the glass surface, complete with the colorful seal of Jita.

Maalik looked at the document, and when his eyes moved back to hers they were blinking away tears and he was trying to smile, "I am so proud of you."  He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close.  He knew his daughter was smart and ambitious, but he had always thought it was a father's bias.  Now it was confirmed.  How many Thukkers had been admitted to the Caldari University of Jita? He touched the Thukker tattoo on her face, "Just remember who you are, and keep your bags packed."  Haika rolled her eyes, "You mean repack them. I don't think the 13 year old clothes in them now would fit anymore.  I will be graduated before this ship goes anywhere Daddy!"

Haika gave him a kiss and then ran for the door as he answered an incoming comm.  Just before she closed it she heard him call out, "You get to explain this to your mother!"  Haika groaned.

"This is a capsuleer piloted ship!" her mother almost hissed at Haika and her father sitting at the table in their family quarters.  Her eyes moved from Haika to Maalik accusingly, "And you are the First Officer, you know what that means!" Nobody had to say that it meant the ship, which had sat in drydock for most of the last decade, could drop its moorings and undock with but a few seconds notice, perhaps never to return and certainly not for many years due to the affects of relativity and faster than light travel.  The two adults understood this on a practical level, and therefore had made few close acquaintances stationside despite the years they had been here.  It was the Thukker way to stay with those who shared the nomadic life of deep space travel.  But for Haika , yet a teenager, it was merely theoretical. Her mother reached out and touched the Thukker tattoo on the left side of Haika's cheek.  "This is who you are my girl; I cannot make you see any more clearly that which looks back at you in the mirror." Tears streamed down woman's cheeks, "But I am so proud of you, and you must make your own decision."

Maalik looked at his screen and called up his calendar for the day.  He didn't need it to remember that today he was off duty early to meet Haika for lunch at the University stationside.  It was "Parent's Day" or something like that.  His daughter was already in her third semester, and was making excellent grades.  He then turned to his messages. Along with the usual reports from the crew chiefs, some personal messages, and one from a woman named Steky was one from the ship owner's agent.  They normally met once a month. Usually anything outside of that routine meant a potential buyer had a question.  Maalik gestured at the agent's message first, and a 3d vid of his face appeared over the desk, "Maalik!  We have to meet quickly.  Call me asap!"  Maalik groaned.  Every time some halfhearted buyer had a question about the ship, the agent thought it an emergency hoping for the sale.  Usually it was some dimwit who wanted to know if capacitor rechargers could be fit, which of course they could not.

Maalik moved his finger to the screen to initiate the call to the ship's agent when it chimed with an incoming call. The originator was someone named Steky.  Beneath her name was the insignia of Atlas Alliance, and a chill went up his spine.  He had never received a direct call from someone in one of the alliances that operated outside the boundaries of the Empire.  His finger shook as he activated the call. 

A graceful female Minmatar face appeared and she smiled, "I assume you are the First Officer of the Burgeoning Intent?"

"Yes Ma'am, I am. What can I do for you?"

"You can meet me at 16.00 on the bridge.  The ship's agent will pass along a message to bring along a full report of your ship's systems and crew departments. What I called to ask was that you also come prepared to discuss the crew's moral and readiness, things that will never appear on paper."

"Yes Ma'am, I will do so." Maalik's mind raced at the implications of this meeting and request.  Was this lady a capsuleer?  Was she legit? If so, he would never make Parent's day...

"Very well, I will see you then.... oh, and Maalik.  Don't breathe a word of this meeting to anyone. Our lives may depend on it." The screen went dark. 

At first Maalik started thinking about what he would need to do and who aboard ship he would need to query to prepare his report, and then he suddenly panicked.  If Steky was a capsuleer, and if she was concerned about readiness, it could mean only one thing.  She was purchasing the vessel.  And Haika and his wife were not aboard!

Maalik put initiated a call to his wife who was stationside at Jita University with Haika .  His call went to messaging, she was probably preoccupied.  He typed out a text that could not be misinterpreted, and used his official rank to send it via the emergency channel. He would probably receive a fine when the message couldn't be correlated with a civil incident report, but it didn't matter. It was the only thing that would get his family back to the ship without a long explanation that he could not give across a public channel.

Haika and her mother came out of the concert hall and blinked.  It felt a bit like surfacing from a dive, the hall's simulation of the ocean depths of the planet Oricon were so complete.  She could still hear the echos of the songs sung by the sentient inhabitants of the water depths. "Mom, did you see the expression in the eyes of the last performer?"

"Yes, and to think his species is now extinct."

"What happened to them?"

"Capsuleers descended on their planet and installed gas extraction sites. They removed so much of the oxygen and nitrogen from the atmosphere that the temperature of the oceans rose, destroying the ecosystem."

"But how can they?  What gives them the right?!"

Her mother began to reply matter-of-factly, "The Oricon system is beyond the reach of the empire my dear, where the capsuleers make their own law." Then she noticed the tears in her daughter's eyes and softened her tone, "Oh sweetie..." Her words cut off mid phrase as both women suddenly got a distant look in their eyes.  Their comm implants displayed the following text across their retinas.

MEDICAL EMERGENCY ABOARD BURGEONNING INTENT. REPORT FIRST OFFICER QUARTERS IMMEDIATELY.

Haika cried, "Pappa!" and both women ran for the nearest transport. 

The Nomad

Steky took the transport tube from the station hangar to the Nomad Class Jump Freighter.  The interior of the translucent plexisteel had indicators where you could swipe your hand to turn portions of the wall transparent. This was seldom done, as the spherical transport rotated swiftly to counteract the g-forces as it wound its way through the station and across the umbilical to the great ship. It was so precise that so long as you couldn't see, the ride felt like a standard elevator in a planetside high rise. 
 
The hatch opened and Steky stepped out onto what appeared to be a balcony overlooking the vast docking bay of the station hangar.  There was a complex system of automated docking equipment for cargo containers, but she didn't see any ships.  In fact, the entire bay was empty besides the equipment.
 
"Where are the ships? Where is the nomad?"
 
The sales agent looked at her with a quizzical expression on his face, "Pilot, you are aboard the Nomad."
 
Steky gripped the steel support, even though thick plexisteel separated her from the dizzying drop of thousands of feet and her face turned pale.  The sense of scale was something she had never experienced firsthand, not only because she had not piloted a ship of this magnitude, but because her person had been isolated in her pod and senses extended through the neural network of the ships she piloted.  Now she stood disconnected, and had to take in the vast size of the Nomad's cargo bay through her naked senses. 
 
She consciously released her grip on the support, and took asserted her control over both herself and the situation, ordering the first officer to report to the bridge.  Turning on her heel, she stepped back into the transport.
 
"First Officer... is it Soderstrom?"
 
"Aye Captain, but you can call me Lars"
 
"I am not your Captain yet, Lars, but send me a report on the condition of this ship by 1900 hours. Make sure it is complete and honest, because you don't want to have to revise it after I become your captain.  If your report indicates that the ship is in less than satisfactory condition, and I do not make the purchase, I am sure that your current employer will be less than pleased with you." Steky gave the agent a sharp eye.  "In that case enough funds will be wired to your account that you won't need to work for some time, and I will provide you and your family a private shuttle to another system.  If your report is inaccurate, the shuttle you take will deliver your remains to your family."
 
First Officer Soderstrom saluted, and went off to prepare his report.
 
Steky turned to the agent, "If his report is acceptable, the funds will be wired to escrow by 2400 hours. I will be performing my own inspection in the meantime."
 
"Of course, Pilot. I will return to my offices to await your decision"
 
Steky pulled on a set of crewman's overalls and spent the next 8 hours inspecting the important subsystems of the ship in person, starting with the engine room and capacitor control section.  Nobody noticed her, and she listened to their conversations to try to judge the moral of the crew for herself.
 
At 18.47 the First Officer transmitted his report.  It included subsections from the various bureaucratic heads aboard the ship.  The crew aboard this particular Nomad consisted mostly of Minmatar Thukkers.  They were culturally conditioned for life aboard a jumpship, which was important to peaceful and efficient operation.  The crew consisted of 3,721 crew with 5,764 dependents for a total of almost 10,000 lives aboard.  As the ship's capsuleer, Steky was chief executive but would rarely interact with what amounted to a town government, complete with legislative and judicial branches. If the ship's social government did its job properly that is.  The ship officers formed the executive branch, and it was their responsibility to ensure that all systems aboard the ship were maintained in top working order to function on command from the pilot. 
 
Life aboard a jumpship is unlike anywhere else, mostly due to the practical considerations of jump travel.  Once a person joined such a ship, it was usually for life... and the lives of their families and children.  For if one disembarked, they would forever lose contact with their loved ones that remained aboard, their destinies branching into separate timestreams the moment the ship took its next jump.  Due to relativity, months or even years would pass for those that disembarked, in what was a short milk run for the jumpship between regions of the galaxy. For parents, it was particularly difficult to leave a child at university, and at the next station receive message transmissions that the student had graduated, married, or had children of their own.  For this reason one often found multiple generations of crew serving aboard a ship like the Nomad. 
 
Steky's thoughts returned to the report.  The crew was relatively light. It had been docked in Jita for several years and 7.4 percent of the crew had taken other employment during that time.  They had not been replaced as the ship was waiting for sale.  Otherwise, there had been no recent upheaval aboard, and all the ship's subsystems were in excellent condition.  Lars, the First Officer, did make a note that the ship had served as a ferry between gated systems in empire, and that few aboard had much experience operating or maintaining the ship's jumpdrive. That said, it had been maintained according to specifications and the maintenance schedule.  Lars warned that even he hadn't jumped in more than a decade, but was up to the challenge if the Captain had confidence in him.
 
Steky smiled and sent her final approval for the sale to both the sales agent and the escrow company.  She was amazed to see the reply message appear almost instantly with the transfer codes to the ship computer.  She entered the code, and immediately her name appeared on the header of the console and over the archway to the stateroom.  She sent out the message to prepare for jump in 24 hours.  It was time the crew start learning about life in Atlas.

Alliance Connections

 Shocku looks over his maps and recent intel data and comes across this diagram showing connections between alliances. He sets a panel of the wall in his stateroom to display the image so he can refer to it whenever looking at a pilot's info, corp, and alliance...

A Large Deposit

The door hissed open as Steky entered the stateroom aboard the Cascade Essence, her Nidhoggur class carrier.   Most pilots would be in luxurious quarters in the station, and while those where available to her while docked, she preferred her stateroom aboard ship. She plopped down on the gravbed, and unsealed the inseam of her boots with a swipes of her fingers, then tossing them to the corner.  She was tired from hauling station fuel and moon minerals to and from her moon harvesting silos and stations.  ATLAS Alliance was at peace, and it was time to make hay while the sun shines. 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw two small blinking icon on her neocom, one was a message notification from her bank. Steky pushed down on the matress with her slender arms, pushing herself up and over towards the neocomm.  She could have ordered the message delivered audibly from her bed, but she wanted to puruse the list of newly released vids for something to watch before bed.  She touched the icon on her screen and the message displayed "Notification of Deposit to your account: 6,200,000,000 Interstellar Kredits.  Her jaw dropped and she almost paniced.  Most people never saw an interstellar kredit in their lifetimes.  It was a currency used by governments, corporations engaged in interstellar trade, and of course capsuleers.  Six billion kredits was a sum most capsuleers never saw, and had to be the result of either a mistake or foul play that would surely result in the need for lawyers and body guards for the foreseeable future, even if there was a plausible explanation.  

Steky groaned and immediately opened her bank account, clicked the security option, and then initiated a freeze on her accounts. Whatever investigation was to follow, it wouldn't do to complicate the matter with further transactions.  Hopefully she had enough wine aboard to last her awhile!  She then put in a transmission to Shocku, her employer.  Perhaps he would have some ideas on what to do next.  

Shocku's image, and that of a young petite blonde lit up the center of the room.  His arm was wrapped around her waist as she appeared to be half heartedly pulling away from him to get out of scope of the virtual recorder. "What is it Steky?" Shocku asked, a glitter in his eye.  
"I have a serious problem, Shock"
"You have a lot of work to do, but I wouldn't call that a problem, I know you can do it and you have the training." Shock bend down and kissed the girl's pert nipple, biting it and making her yelp and thrash in his arms, her blonde hair rippling over her shoulders.  
"Look, I am not talking about work, I am talking about a problem with my bank account, and I need your attention. Its serious!" Steky blinked away a tear of frustration. 
Shocku raised an eyebrow and made eye contact with her through the vid, "I see you read your bank notification before my own." He released the blonde and she immediately moved out of scope.  

"Ok Steky, let me explain.  There is nothing wrong with your bank account. ATLAS is currently not at war, and I can't remember the last time that happened.  We need to get serious about our industrial operations, because we will never be able to support capital operations on bounty hunting alone.  I want you to take your moon mining operations to the next level.  We are currently mining two moons, and have a simple reactor in operation churning out Vanadium Hafnite.  I want you to complete the other half of the equation, and bring it all together in a complex reactor to produce intermediate alloys.  Once we have that set up, we will be printing isk while we sleep... and even if we deploy to fight the Northern Coalition.  

Steky lifted her hands in the air, "But I am run ragged just trying to run fuel from empire and empty two moon stations!"
Shocku grinned, "That's why you need a Jump Freighter"
"What?  We don't even have a jump freighter, thats like a supercapital!"
"Aren't you trained to fly one?"
"Sure, but that was just on a simulator!  How could we ever afford to buy one?"
Shocku said sarcastically, "Check your bank account" and then looked at her seriously, Take care of it, I trust you."
With that he signed off. 
Steky laid down on her gravbed and didn't bother turning it on.  She wasn't going to sleep anyway.