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.
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