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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Complacency

"Docking request accepted"

This was announced by Erun's  on-board AI as his Myrmidon-class battle-cruiser was given a berth and towed into the small station.  He was docking up to rearm and resupply after spending the last few days hunting Guristas pirates for the local 'blued' alliance.  Finding ammunition had been becoming an issue as most of the ships being used by the alliance in the area were battleships or larger.  He'd managed to track down a small order for a few thousand rounds of thorium based plasma charges, and while they didn't pack as much punch as his normal antimatter rounds they did provide greater range as well as reduced containment costs from his capacitor.  The actual purchase and loading of the rounds required relatively little of his attention and proceeded with little hassle or fanfare.  His thoughts were focused on designing an efficient fitting for a Dominix-class battleship, as he'd made enough over the last few days from bounties to buy and fit the hull that was his go-to vessel owing to his drone control skills.  Weapons loadouts, defenses, power supplies, drone complements, all flashed through his mind as he requested and was granted permission to undock. He subconsciously plotted a direct course to the nearby alliance jumpbridge, a structure which functioned as capsuleer controlled stargate, usually to provide shortcuts within their sovereign space. Numbers danced in his mind as it wrestled with idea of reducing overall damage resistance in order to boost the amount of damage his drones could bring to bear.

 Suddenly alerts started flashing over the fitting projections as well as surprised yells rang out over comms from the skeleton crew as the ship's warp drive abruptly shut down and the inertial dampers struggled to kick in. The warp tunnel collapsed around him and Erun swore as numerous hostile vessels were detected all on approach vectors and locking on to him. He'd been caught in a warp bubble! He frantically programmed the engines to burn away from the center of the warp disrupting field, knowing he'd never be able to get a targeting resolution on such a small object in time. Numerous projectiles and high intensity light began to impact and wash over the shields and then quickly the armor as the ambushing ships opened fire. A nearby electronic warfare cruiser began bombarding his ship with conflicting sensor and telemetry data, rendering him unable to get firing resolutions or even give his drones targeting vectors. Resigning himself to the loss of his ship and it's small skeleton crew he broadcast the order to abandon ship as the armor began to fail and the damage control module's valency generators struggled to hold the hull in one piece. Numerous lifeboats ejected from the disintegrating vessel before it finally ruptured, releasing his pod in the process. Erun desperately tried to reach the edge of the debilitating warp field but his pod was quickly snared in a webifying field and then warp scrambled. Heaving a mental sigh of frustration at losing yet another clone he felt intense heat, then cold, and then...