Another Day and Another Day of Hatred

Author: Jack Carrigan

Original post: https://jackcarrigan.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/another-day-and-another-bit-of-hatred/

Entry for the YC116 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the A Day in the Life category.

“Sometimes it amazes me how much hatred that a simple action can produce.”

DUVOLLE LABORATORIES FACTORY
GRISPIRE SOLAR SYSTEM
PLACID REGION
GALLENTE FEDERATION

Once again the sound of my NeoCom beeping with numerous messages woke me from my sleep. I carefully slid from my bed to avoid waking Trianna, and made my way to the makeshift office I had set up in our shared quarters. I could hear my hangar manager shouting at the rest of the workers about a container of minerals being dropped from a power loader. I picked up the NeoCom and went through the messages, only to smirk, “Well, it seems as if today is going to be a busy one.” Another local organization just had their control tower reinforced, one of my pilots had harvested an obscene amount of gas, and my recruiting efforts had clearly paid off. I went over into my kitchen area, and poured a cup of coffee before getting to the applications, as I had to do background checks on each of the pilots. Everything I came across seemed above board, so I went ahead and accepted the applications before moving onto the next task.

I could tell Trianna had gotten out of bed as I heard the shower come to life in the other room. I took a sip of coffee and then moved to get dressed. Another one of my pilots sent a short message letting me know that local activity was picking up. I walked down the gantry and my hangar manager had Harbaror, my Naga-class battlecruiser prepped for launch. I slid into my capsule and sealed myself into it, only to have it locked into the battlecruiser. The docking manager told me that it was going to be a few minutes before I could launch, to which I scoffed, and throttled up, carefully making my way out of the station into open space. Within seconds, I noticed my sensors had detected a cynosural field at one of the other stations, and I wasn’t really in the mood for company.

I aligned to one of the pre-determined navigation points that I had set up, which was well out of the range of the station sentry guns, and engaged my warp drive. Upon landing, my camera drones vividly displayed the cynosural field as well as the small frigate which had deployed it. I primed the rack of four-hundred twenty five millimeter railguns, and ensured they were loaded with Spike ammo, as I was going to be engaging outside of two hundred kilometers. Harbaror bucked from the volley, and the frigate exploded, leaving the capsule of the pilot to warp off, figuring he was relatively safe. Not having been able to catch him, I returned to my home station, and then undocked in Vili, my Falcon-class force reconnaissance cruiser. I launched eight combat scanner probes and engaged my Covert Ops cloaking device. After roughly two minutes, I had the capsule’s location and was in warp to it after having recalled my probes. A smirk came across my face as I slowly crept up on the capsule and disengaged my cloaking device. I then attained a tactical lock on the capsule and engaged my warp disruptor as I closed the distance. I laughed as I engaged the smartbomb on Vili, and the capsule cracked open, messily depositing the flash frozen corpse of the pilot who formerly occupied it. The corpse was scooped up, and I was on my way.

I returned back to station, and had Hetja, my Arazu-class force reconnaissance cruiser prepared for launch while I went down to the station promenade to grab a bite to eat with Trianna.

After lunch, I made my way back to the gantry, and sealed myself back into my capsule, only to have it loaded into Hetja, and surprisingly, was given immediate clearance to undock. I set a course for a nearby system, where I knew that I would be able to find someone’s day to ruin.

UPHALLANT SOLAR SYSTEM
PLACID REGION
GALLENTE FEDERATION

Coming out from the jump from the Dastryns solar system, I noticed that this system was relatively devoid of pilots. I fired my afterburner and engaged my Covert Ops cloak before running a long range directional scan. To my surprise, I found a Procurer-class mining barge in the first asteroid belt in the system. I aligned and engaged my warp drive, only to find the barge sitting still approximately twenty kilometers away from me.

Normally in a situation like this, a pilot would be harassed by a small voice in the back of their mind telling them not to do what I was about to, because it was wrong, and the barge can’t really defend itself. Whereas for me? I disengaged my cloaking device, attained a tactical lock and engaged not only my warp disruptor, but the rack of sensor dampeners that I had on board. I then began a mid-range orbit, and opened fire with the the two-hundred fifty millimeter railguns, and launched a flight of drones. The Procurer pilot, attempting to save his own hide, launched his own drones, which mine quickly dispatched, leaving the barge defenseless. A few moments later, the Procurer-class mining barge erupted into a blossom of blue-green fire and the pilot warped away in his capsule.

As I was waiting on my drones to return, some of the barge pilot’s compatriots, one in a Tornado-class battlecruiser, and the other in an Ishtar-class heavy assault cruiser warped in and began firing on me, without much luck, expecting an easy kill. What made me laugh about this, is neither had the presence of mind to attempt to warp scramble or disrupt Hetja, and I was on my way. I set a course for home.

GRISPIRE SOLAR SYSTEM
PLACID REGION
GALLENTE FEDERATION

Upon arriving in Grispire, I couldn’t help but notice another cynosural field was present in system. I smirked as I aligned and warped back to my home station. Moments later, I had once again undocked in Harbaror, and was setting up another two-hundred kilometer firing solution. The four-twenty-fives sang a lethal song as the frigate erupted into flames, leaving the capsule drifting near the wreckage. I attempted to attain a lock on the capsule, which surprisingly was making no effort to escape what inevitably came next. Another lethal verse rang from the railguns on Harbaror, setting another flash frozen corpse adrift in the black. I warped to the wreckage, and scooped anything of use from it, and then scooped the corpse before setting a course for home.

DUVOLLE LABORATORIES FACTORY
GRISPIRE SOLAR SYSTEM
PLACID REGION
GALLENTE FEDERATION

Having shifted the cargo of the frigate used to light that cyno to the reprocessing plant, and the corpse to a container that served as a large freezer, I made my way back to my desk to arrange what I intended on doing this week. A message from Vick came across, only stating, “The check from your little excursion cleared, check your wallet.” One of my other pilots sent me a message, mentioning an undefended control tower that was offline. But that would be something for another day.

END