A Legacy of Death

Author: Doggo Von Booplesnoot

Original post: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lYAevd35rq-_NcYpQIxTSHpog_M41v5a/view

Entry for the YC120 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the A Day in the Life category.

Deep null sec A shrill tone blared to life, inaudible to anyone except the intended recipient. Groggily, the recipient, a capsuleer, mentally silenced the alarm, rolled off the bed, and collapsed onto the metal floor. Shocked into action by the cold, the rose and quickly made themselves busy with a morning routine. Mentally connected to the Galnet via their implants, they reviewed the news from around the cluster, discarding most of it as uninteresting or unworthy of their time. As they began climbing into their capsule for their daily activities, they reviewed the agenda. It was disappointingly empty. No ops today. Bummer. The capsule sprang to life as the final connections were established, running through the various diagnostics and other checks as the capsuleer inside made their decision on choice of ship. An Ishtar- class Heavy Assault Cruiser named Nancy. Nancy had been owned by the capsuleer for years, and had always been their “go to” ship for fighting the seemingly ever encroaching pirate menace. As they connected to their Corporation, Alliance, and various other communication channels, they were met with the usual cacophony of many voices talking to each other simultaneously. To anyone less, it would have been maddening. Capsule-Ship interface completed. Reactoronlinesensorsonlinelifesupportonlinenavigationonlinemoduleinterfaceonlinedronecontrolonline warpdriveonline..........all systems nominal. The capsuleer regarded the standard connection message coolly, and opened a channel to the ship's internal communication system. “XO, is she ready to roll?” “Yeah, she's ready and waitin' to kick some pirate ass!” “Very well. Stand by for undock .” The capsuleer changed channels. “Traffic Control, Ishtar Nancy, requesting undock.” “Undock request granted. Fly safe.” The umbilicals, gangways, and other supports tethering the massive ship to the internals of the station began releasing and retracting as massive tractor beams grabbed the ship, maneuvering it gently into an outbound lane, where another set of tractors took hold and flung the ship into open space. Traffic Control released their controls of Nancy's navigation systems, and the capsuleer was free. They drank in the information Nancy's sensors collected, were energized by the power behind Nancy's engines, and felt the solar winds brush against Nancy's shields. They were free! After a moment taking it all in, the capsuleer selected a sensor anomaly further out system that the shipboard AI indicated as possible hiding place of pirates and other scum. The command was issued to

warp to the point in space, and klaxons began blaring inside the ship, warning the crew of pending warp drive activation. Nancy's ion engines engaged in a controlled set of actions and reactions, smoothly aligning the Ishtar towards the distant point, before the warp drive finally opened its tunnel and pulled the ship towards the point faster than light itself would travel. Such were the wonders of man. The warp tunnel collapsed mere seconds after it had begun, depositing Nancy towards the edge of the sensor anomaly. Short range sensors began pulling information from their surroundings. Immediately, the capsuleer focused on the battleships and battlecruisers several dozens of kilometers away, reading their transponder codes. Pirates! The capsuleer reacted faster than any normal human could have. Orders went over the ship control network, deploying Ogre-class heavy drones and engaging sub-light engines in maneuvers that would have taken a normal crew seconds longer to simply receive the sensor telemetry and come to a decision. The first pirate battlecruiser was an expanding fireball from reactor containment failure before its captain's orders had reached engineering for sub-light maneuvering power. The other ships reacted as any ship commander engaged in battle would be expected to, maneuvering to bring their attacker into range of their weapons while staying out of fire themselves. Their maneuvers amounted to little, as the tiny Ogres ripped through ship after ship, depleting shields, rending huge gashes in armor plating, and eventually ripping apart internal bulkheads, leaving the ships as little more than wreckage, scarcely recognizable as their former selves. Nancy's shields had barely been depleted five percent. It was a massacre. The Ogres returned to their drone bays as Nancy headed towards the still cooling wreckage, standing down from combat alertness and flagging escape pods for pickup by the local Sister of Eve rescue contingents in system. Doubtless they would be pleased to see the carnage when they arrived, but the capsuleer and crew would hardly lose sleep over the relatively large piles of money being deposited into their accounts by the local CONCORD bounty reporting systems. The capsuleer had finished sifting through the wrecks and was preparing to head to another possible pirate point when chatter came over one of the communications channels used for local intelligence. One of their alliance mates had spotted a Buzzard-class Covert Operations ship on a stargate, and had graciously linked the system and pilot name in the channel. The allied pilot had been unable to engage the Buzzard in their cruiser before it had warped off, cloaking as was standard for the ship. It hardly mattered, as most ships of that class were beneath notice of most combat pilots of the Alliance, to be reported for tracking just in case it wasn't harmless. A trifling matter. Nancy slowed to a stop as the capsuleer searched the Galnet for intel on the Buzzard pilot. Who were they, how long had they had their license, who might they be associated with, possible intentions, all questions burning through the capsuleers mind. Several petabytes of information passed through the capsuleers mind in seconds, sifting the data like a prospector of old, search for the few hidden nuggets that mattered. Eventually, their mind was made up. The Ishtar's warp drive klaxons sounded, and the ship was gone a scant moment later, leaving the remaining survivors of that fateful battle in escape pods, watching and praying for rescue before their life support batteries failed as they drifted among wreckage. Wreckage still glowing as it cooled far from the star. As the warp tunnel dragged Nancy back to the station, the capsuleer had opened a communication channel to a much smaller ship in one of the hangars owned by them. “XO, report status of being ready to fly” A man inside a ship, inside a hangar, inside a station, jumped suddenly as the voice of their master

before God spoke, seemingly from all around and nowhere at once. They dropped a tool as they slid out from under a console, rising and stepping over to a small panel on a wall. They pushed a button on the panel, and spoke. “She's as ready as she'll ever be, cap'n. We going hunt'n' again?” “Affirmative. Prepare for my arrival.” The man released the button on the panel and sighed. So much for the planned maintenance that they'd authorized earlier. He flipped a switch on the panel, and pushed the button again, a tone emanating throughout the ship informing those on board of an announcement. “Cap'n's inbound, get ready for another hunt.” He released the button, picking up the tool he dropped earlier before heading through a hatch and out of the room with another sigh. Nancy exited the warp tunnel, and a channel was immediately opened with Traffic Control, requesting docking permission. With permission granted, the capsuleer released control of navigation, while the strong tractor beams once again grabbed the ship and moved it towards its berth from before. Systems inside began powering down and the normal operating lights outside began dimming before extinguishing completely to be replaced with those indicating a ship in berth, while gangways were extended and cables and pipes extended from the station to the ship. From the outside, it looked like Nancy was falling asleep, resting peacefully cradled in the sweet embrace of the station, as much as any ship could look asleep. A gantry positioned itself by an access port, and an arm extended. A relatively small, egg-shaped object object exited the port into the waiting arm, and the gantry slid away silently, clutching its prize firmly in its grasp. The crew was heading off to drink down their profits, as sailors were often wont to do. Oblivious to the capsuleers fate. The gantry slid to a stop by a smaller ship than before. This one was a Sabre-class Interdictor, and was precisely where the capsuleer wanted. The gantry deposited the egg-shaped object into a waiting opening by the side, before sliding off again. Capsule-Ship interface completed. Reactoronlinesensorsonlinelifesupportonlinenavigationonlinemoduleinterfaceonlinedronecontrolonline warpdriveonline..........all systems nominal. The capsuleer would have frown in impatience, if the capsule hadn't interfered with muscle control. They wanted to go, and they wanted to go now, like any petulant child not having their way this instant. Such was the way of the immortals. Yet again, the capsuleer initiated the song and dance routine with Traffic Control, before being launched into space yet again. This time however, it simply felt different. The Sabre was smaller, weaker in some aspects, but stronger in others. The sensors drank the information differently, the power behind the reactor tasted differently, and the shields felt the solar winds more strongly. But all the same, the capsuleer sounded the warp drive activation klaxon, and the plasma thrusters aligned the ship towards its destination by a planet, before the warp tunnel took hold and the ship was no longer present a the station. This particular Sabre had never been christened like the Ishtar before, sentenced to a nameless life as an expendable piece of equipment like all the capsuleer's Sabres before it.

The warp tunnel deposited the Sabre at a stargate, and a different klaxon sounded, warning the other passengers of an imminent gate jump. The crew each reached for their waists, opening a small pouch on a belt to retrieve a pill, before swallowing it. Gate travel had a different effect on everyone, but during it it would feel like the proverbial “going down the drain.” The capsuleer initiated contact with the gate controller, forwarding the ships identifiers and other information requested by the gate controllers automated systems, before the system returned that he was to proceed with jump. The Sabre 's plasma thrusters fired, and the ship slid into the opening of the gate. A flash of light, and the ship was gone, the gate alone in space once again. Several light-years away, another stargate exhibited a brief flash of light before a Sabre exited through the aperture where seconds ago was emptiness. The sensors once again began drinking in the information around them, and the capsuleer checked the local communication beacons. Right where they expected. The capsuleer triggered the warp drive klaxon, and the ship's plasma thrusters once again began moving the ship towards another distant point in space as the mass boson shell around the ship faded, bringing the Sabre back to visibility before the ship was once again pulled into a warp tunnel. Several crew members had lost breakfast. The Jump-Align-Warp-Jump process repeated itself several time, but the crew members only had one breakfast to lose, and so the remaining jumps had occurred without incident. At their destination system, several light-years from where they had started, the capsuleer warped the ship to a planet. The local communication beacons had not indicated anyone else along the route towards the last known location of the Buzzard pilot, nor was the Buzzard pilot in the current system, the one where they were spotted. Undeterred, the capsuleer simply pulled up a map in their mind's eye. The system was a split, with two ways the Buzzard pilot could have gone, if not having gone into low power mode for a sleep cycle, or having exited the region via the unstable wormholes that randomly popped up throughout known space. A course of action set, the capsuleer moved the Sabre once again through a warp tunnel to a stargate, and jumped once more. The system was left in silence once more. Jump after jump, system after system passed by in the course of mere minutes. Local communication beacons all along the way gave no hint to if the Buzzard pilot had gone this way or the other. After checking several “side” systems and “pockets,” the capsuleer had come to another split. Again, frowning if they could have, opted to head back and check the other path, hoping for better luck with the second route, when suddenly the intel channel sprang to life again. Another pilot in the Alliance had spotted the Buzzard pilot in a system, further down the route from the split the capsuleer had ended up. They simply had not gone far enough. The capsuleer would have grinned if the pod had not stopped it. Entering warp to another Stargate, the capsuleer pulled the map up once again. Observing the possible choices for the Buzzard pilot, the capsuleer settled on a destination on the most apparent way of the Buzzard. They entered the system with the Buzzard pilot along the way, the capsuleer resisting the urge to say something in the local channel as they passed, but noting the system topographical scans for unknown anomalies. Finally, they reached their destination. They parked the Sabre at a particular point right on the stargate, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. The capsuleer sat in their pod, the crew members cleaned up their mess, and the XO twiddled his thumbs. This wasn't their first hunt, and stars willing, it wouldn't be their last. Another flash on the intel channel, and this time the Buzzard pilot was one system away. The capsuleer could almost feel the Buzzard pilot on the other side of the gate, trying to draw it into themselves, wishing to

contact the Buzzard pilot and urge them through. But no, that would scare them off, so they kept to themselves, and kept an eye on the gate. Soon. Sooooon. A flash emanated from the gate, announcing the arrival of a ship. The capsuleer's heart skipped a beat. The local channel did not indicate the Buzzard pilot, but the Alliance member who reported the Buzzard from the system over. Excitement crashed against the cliffs of reality, and the capsuleer readied themselves once again for the eventual arrival of the Buzzard. And waited. And waited some more. Doubt began to creep into the capsuleer's mind. Had the Buzzard pilot gone low power for a rest? Had they exited the region via wormhole? Had they turned around, spooked by not one but two pilots passing through? AHHH I wish they'd hurry up. Another flash of light from the gate, another check of the local communications, and the capsuleer would have smiled a vile smile if they could, not unlike a wolf sensing its prey. The capsuleers heart began beating faster. Adrenaline flushed from glands into the blood stream seemingly enhanced the capsuleers senses. This capsule had long ago been modified not to interfere with autonomous bodily functions. In this case, it was fight-or-flight. Time seemed to slow for the capsuleer. Seconds stretched to eternity, tension filling the capsule, ready to be broken at a moments notice. The Buzzard had to have seen the Sabre. Would they think the capsuleer having forgotten to pay attention to their surroundings? Not interested in the Buzzard's presence? The Sabre remained motionless. Hurryuphurryuphurruphurruphurrup. The Buzzard shed their mass boson sphere, seemingly appearing from thin air, as their magpulse thrusters began aligning the nimble ship towards another gate in preparation for warp, while activating a cloaking device commonly found among such ships. This in turn, triggered a split second response from the Sabre pilot. First, they triggered the launch of the warp disrupt probe from the interdiction sphere launcher commonly found on the Sabre class ship, inhibiting the Buzzard from using its warp drive in the area of effect, which had the unfortunate effect of causing the Buzzard's warp drive to shut down. Second, the camera drone of the Sabre locked onto where the Buzzard was disappearing from space, while the Sabre itself activated the microwarp drive, significantly enhancing the ships sublight speed, while the plasma thrusters of the Sabre pushed the ship towards the Buzzard's last known location. Finally, the targeting sensors attempted, and failed, to acquire a lock on the Buzzard, as the cloaking device interfered with the targeting. It was gone. For a brief second, the Buzzard had completed disappeared. The Sabre continued traveling away from the gate, but to an outsider, it might appear as though the Buzzard had escaped. The Sabre's capsuleer watched as the distance to the stargate increased, the speed seemingly slowed by the rush of adrenaline triggered by the fight-or-flight response. 8458m. 9462m. 10km. 11km. The Buzzard suddenly reappeared on the Sabres sensors, the cloak of invisibility broken by the proximity of the Sabre. The Sabre's capsuleer slowed the ship, attempting to pull the ship around to bring the Sabre on practically on top of the Buzzard while another warp disrupt probe was launched, and this time the targeting sensors found their mark. The targeting senors had lock. The Buzzard could cloak no more. The Sabre's capsuleer ordered its weapons to fire, and other equipment to activate. A warp scrambler module activated, projecting a field of energy that interfered with the ships warp drive, and had the Buzzard a microwarp drive as the Sabre, that as well. A second module emitted streams of energy from the Sabre, causing the Buzzard to be slowed as though tangled in a net. Finally, several 200mm

autocannons began expelling their deadly payload, delivering shell after shell filled with phased plasma into the shields of the Buzzard. The Buzzard's capsuleer cried out into the local communication channel, begging for the Sabre's capsuleer to stop. The response was more phased plasma as the autocannons cycled again and again. The Buzzard was destroyed, as inevitably as a star burns hydrogen in a fusion reaction. The autocannon rounds tore through the shields, stripping armor from various points of the Buzzard's hull, then eventually melting bulkheads to scrap and blasting vital equipment for ship operation to pieces. The Buzzard's automated systems, recognizing the destruction of the Buzzard as the phased plasma rounds struck over and over, ejected the capsule containing a capsuleer that was, moments prior, safely ensconced inside the Buzzard. The capsule sat their, trapped in the effect of a warp disrupt probe, while the final autocannon rounds slammed into whatever was left of the Buzzard. The Sabre's fire control locked the capsule, and another burst was loosed by the autocannons. Several light-years away, the former Buzzard's capsuleer was waking up in a clone bay, frustrated. The Sabre's crew picked through the remains of the Buzzard, and pulled the now deceased capsuleer's corpse into the cargo bay, as per orders. Meanwhile, the Sabre's capsuleer was celebrating the destruction of yet another covert ops ship in the Alliance channel, to the cheers of their alliance mates. The Capsuleer set their navigation system back to the station where they had departed, and entered the stargate. A few systems before they had returned to the system, an Astero-class frigate was noted in a different part of the region. Checking the map and setting a destination, the capsuleer chased after their new prey, and would have grinned all along the way had the pod not prevent the motor function. Half an hour later, the Astero was also a wreck. The Sabre's capsuleer's Alliance mates cheered again. The Sabre remained unnamed.