This is a cross post from the eve forums. A friend told me about this place and said it would be somewhere good to go to get advice on a short story i've been writing. It's up to four parts so far but as i'm sure most of you know the EvE universe has quite a few "holes" when it comes to backstory. Anyhow read on an let me know what you think and of any gaping EvE lore mistakes, also to note I should have the remaining two parts complete by the weekend. ^^
Part 1.
Surely this dry spell had to end soon.
Sitting back on the couch in his quarters En’rie flicked through the latest data slate from his agent contact in Aunia. It was the usual excuse laden story, “really sorry about the lack of combat opportunities, but while you’re free would you mind running some packages for me.” This was the third courier contract this week, the ninth this month.
In some ways En’rie came across as your typical adrenaline junkie capsuleer with an addiction to the thrills of space combat, but he saw it as more intellectual than that. As a drone ship pilot the exhilaration En’rie got from the tactically complex combat between ship and drones was second to none and the disappointing lack of combat recently had him on edge.
Still, work was work.
He threw the data slate down on the long glass coffee table in disgust; accepting this mission was bound to end with him being given more in the future, but being out of work waiting on combat contracts would not pay the bills. That and re-building his reputation with the agents was a delicate task; turning them down may come back to bite him.
He rubbed his forehead and sighed, it was decided then.
En’rie called up the holo-display built in to the coffee table in front of him using a sub-dermal implant. Life unplugged from the pod could be inconvenient in some ways, but implants at least meant that he could maintain a level of connectivity. He flicked through his list of contacts until he found the agent entry he was looking for.
‘Eladette Gelarbese - Federation Navy - Security’
After a short wait a small holographic bust of a smiling Eladette appeared, projected from a small lens, ‘Ah En’rie, I was wondering if you we’re ever going to get back to me.’
‘Look Eladette, I'm going to cut straight to it, these contacts you keep pushing my way aren't exactly my type of work and...’
Eladette interrupted with a sigh, ‘I don’t think you’re in a position to refuse them En’rie, after the incident at Dodixie 9-20.’
‘Don’t you think I know that.’ En’rie grumbled at the holo-projection. ‘It’s just... I just want to get back to the way we used to work, running the combat contracts.’
A silence settled, En’rie leaned back on the couch and ran his hand through his thick blond hair. He didn’t like to dwell on the past but he found himself preoccupied by the fact that one mistake, one lapse in control, could cause so much trouble.
Eladette broke the silence. ‘Look we’ve been over this before, you know what you need to do; take the contract and work your way back up. It’ll take time, but if you run the contracts and keep a low profile you know the Navy will switch you back in to a more active role.’
En’rie, closed his eyes and sighed, ‘yeah I know, but that doesn't make it much more palatable.’
‘Well then this might cheer you up a little,’ said Eladette with a sly smile. ‘It looks like the courier contracts been altered a little since I forwarded it on to you.’
‘Altered?’
‘Yeah it looks like you’re going to have an additional package that needs running to the same station as the original pickup.’
‘That’s supposed to sweeten the deal?’ En’rie interrupted, looking questioningly at Eladette. ‘Fantastic so now I get two courier contracts instead of just the one!’
‘En’rie, let me finish. It’s a Navy contract, a prisoner transfer, and you and I both know that it might set you well on your way back into the Navy’s good books. This type of contract doesn't come up often.’
En’rie grimaced slightly, ‘Prisoners? not sure that’s something I’d want to be part of what about the ships crew? What about security? They could run havoc if any of them escape’
‘Don’t worry about it, the prisoners will be sealed in a secure cell, it’ll just be loaded up like a secure container’ Eladette reassured. ‘Just think of it as any other parcel.’
Leaning forward slightly En’rie rubbed his chin and considered the change of plans. ‘And the border politics? The original contract was a pickup in Minmatar space?’
‘You needn’t worry about that, the Navy’s on good terms with the Minmatar Republic and the contact for the delivery of the prisoners is Brutor so I assume it’s all above board. Oh and before you ask, I have no idea who the prisoners are but it’s a quick contract so just get it done.’
‘Ok I get the picture, send the new contract down and I’ll look over it.’
Eladette grinned, ‘Great, I’ll send it down now. Just have a read through and send back confirmation in the next few hours so we can get the ball rolling.’ The data slate on the table beeped, it’s little new message indicator blinked cheerfully.
En’rie sighed ‘You really should stop using these archaic slates you know Eladette, we can remotely sign contracts these days and you can feed the information straight to me via my implants.’
Eladette frowned. ‘Not all of us are lucky enough to have high tech implants En’rie. That and you know I just love to force you back into the real world now and again. We’ll speak again when you get back’ The holo-projection blipped off.
Part 2.
En’rie grabbed his mauve double breasted jacket of the couch, slipped on over his broad shoulders and picked up the data slate. It was a good jacket, the real dependable kind. He flicked through the new contract on the way out of his quarters, heading to the brightly lit hanger balcony, the sound of his feet on the metal walkway treads echoing along the corridor; It was only his eyes that were scanning the page though, his memory was running over the events back on the Dodixie 9 -20 station.
It had been the final straw when one of the engineers on his crew had failed to run diagnostics on the armour reps before launch. It wasn’t the first time this crew member had been out of line too, but the disregard for basic procedure had almost ended in the loss of the ship, crew and clone; not to mention the fact that it would have landed En’rie with a very expensive bill for a new clone and replacement Vexor.
The mission they had been on, clearing a Serpentis presence in a local deadspace complex, had gone from a walk in the park to a close call when the armour reps failed to cycle. The Vexor had only just escaped but not before receiving extensive hull damage. He’d been furious as they docked in the Federation Navy station at Dodixie planet 9 - moon 20 and after spending an afternoon in the bar was spoiling for a fight. The breaking point was the news from his chief engineer that it had been one of the crew responsible for the failure.
He managed to track down the engineer in question, out on a walk on one of the stations public causeways. The confrontation had been brief and involved a lot of shouting, a small amount of punching and a quick trip to one of the stations cells to cool off. The engineer ended the day in a hospital, En’rie ended up in front of the station commander.
The time in front of the commander had been almost as short as the conflict with the crew member. It was taken for-granted by most that capsuleers were a force in their own right, but this was the Gallente federation; even capsuleers had to maintain an air of democratic behaviour, especially when representing the Federation Navy. Dressing down, and assaulting, a member of your own crew in public was viewed as decidedly un-democratic.
The bright lights of the main hanger brought En’rie out of his reverie, the Vexor hung suspended in the space off in the distance, it really was a beautiful craft with it’s slender form and graceful curves. He enjoyed the view from the hanger balcony, the scene below with vehicles shuttling backwards and forwards, the feel of the cold steel railing under his hand, it felt good sometimes to just watch the world pass.
Leaning on the balcony En’rie brought his attention back to the data slate. The majority of the contract had stayed the same; the return cargo was still two hundred cubic metres of enriched uranium. It was the new entry for the out bound goods that interested him though. From the looks of it the prisoner cells were designed to fit the cargo bay of a Navy Vexor, so it should still be an easy cargo for a standard pattern Vexor.
The next entry on the list earned a sigh, a small compliment of Navy security were to be taken in addition to the prisoners, apparently to care for their needs and keep them secure. Just what he needed , En’rie thought, Federation Navy personnel on the ship to keep an eye on him; still it was an opportunity for redemption. He scrolled to the bottom of the contract and swiped his finger across the box to bio-metrically sign it. Now he just had to wait for the cargo to be loaded and to make sure the crew would be on best behaviour, but that would be a task for tomorrow.
It was an incoming message that awoke En’rie the next day. This time fed directly via his implants straight from the ship.
‘En’rie I think you might want to take a look at the Vexor.’ It was his lead engineer Masuko.
Masuko Ayano had join the crew just over a year ago now and although there had initially been trouble with the rest of the crew they had gradually accepted her. It was her Caldari birth that was the point of contention, something that was certain to cause trouble on a ship with a mainly Gallentian crew. Still her hybrid tech knowledge was second to none and had been well worth both the crew strife and the paper work, if there was one thing he could count on it was that his guns would never give him trouble.
En’rie sighed ‘Any reason why Masuko? Or are you just going to leave me hanging?’
‘Put it this way, that engineer you “fired” back on Dodixie... well he was the last one to service the loading bay arms.’
En’rie sat himself up on the side of the bunk and with a few taps he used one of the displays nearby to call up an exterior view of the Vexors cargo bay area. He was greeted with the sight of the large metal prisoner cell container listing to one side and jammed in the cargo bay entrance. From the looks of it one of the cargo bay cranes had released it’s hold on the end section of the cells.
En’rie swore.
‘Ok Masuko, tell me we can get this sorted out quickly. We need to be un-docked in two hours and the Federation navy security will want to be on board long before then.’
‘It’ll be a tight call but we should be able to make it, we’ll need to disable the ships grav generator though so we can float the cargo back into place.’ Masuko laughed, ‘It won’t make you popular with the crew, their quarters will be a mess when we turn the generators back on. You know they’ll love cleaning up the belongings that weren't stowed properly.’
‘Just get it done Masuko, i’ll sort the crew if they cause any trouble.’ En’rie rubbed his forehead, this was the last thing he needed with the Federation Navy security due to board the Vexor in a little over an hour.
Part 3.
The comm-channel clicked off and Masuko was left standing in the familiar metallic surrounds of the main cargo bay, once again with the responsibility of cleaning up after the crew. The large prisoner cell container was wedged up against the cargo bay doors blocking out the scene of the station hanger beyond.
It had always grated on her nerves that En’rie was always so slap-dash with crew recruitment. She’d only been on the ship for a year and in that time had seen the majority of the crew come and go. What ever the reason, whether it was due to a deep seated Gallentian character trait, a type of wanderlust; or just the fact En’rie like many capsuleers was arrogant enough to put prospective crew off, it was impacting the crews work.
The biggest problem with the continually changing crew was their work ethic though. As lead engineer she had found it difficult having to settle in this continuous stream of new crew members; between their varying levels of experience and generally poor work ethics the ship sometimes felt more like an engineering school than a combat vessel. Still the Vexor did have the advantage of being fitted out with engineering drones which tended to be far more dependable.
Thankfully with the majority of the crew still being off on station she had plenty of time with the drones to get the cargo in place. Masuko clicked open one of the ships internal comm channels.
‘This is lead engineer Masuko to those still on board. There’s been an issue with the loading of the cells due to mechanical failure in one of the cargo cranes. Capsuleer’s orders are to get it fixed as soon as possible, so the internal grav generator is being put offline for the next thirty minutes. If you haven’t stowed you belongings properly now would be the time to do it, you have five minutes.’ Masuko grinned, that would get them running.
Thirty five minutes later saw Masuko up in the ships dimly lit lounge, leaning up against the bar and sipping on a newly brewed cup of tea. The repairs had gone as smoothly as she had expected with most of the work completed by the engineering drones. Members of the crew had only been needed to straighten out the damaged door panels and repair the sections of the cargo bay the the drones were too clumsy to deal with; not that the crews repair work would be that great but it would do until they had more time in station.
Masuko enjoyed spending time in the lounge with the crew still mostly off the ship, it was the only time where she had it to herself, a quiet little corner on a usually busy ship. It gave her time to mull over events.
She was just musing about the stark differences between her working life on the Vexor compared to her previous engineering career when the new additions entered the lounge with their kit bags. The four members of the Federation Navy security team looked just as sharp as she had expected, shining black boots, perfectly tailored jackets, brightly shined rank pips and trouser that looked just a touch too tight; there was something about the Gallente and their sense of fashion.
The officer who had entered the room first dropped his kit bag on one of the tables and walked over. The way he walked up to her was enough put Masuko on edge, she had seen this act before with past crew members; this time though she was determined to nip any tension in the bud. Masuko opened her mouth to speak but before she could get a word out...
‘I don’t want to know.’ The security officer sneered, he look straight into her eyes as if daring her to interrupt. ‘I’m not interested in making small talk, just tell us where to stow our items.’
Masuko stared straight back. ‘Take the lift down to the main cargo bay, quarters have been setup in the Ops room overlooking the bay.’
The officer turned away and walked back over to the rest of the security team, he snatched up his bag and signalled for them to follow. ‘Well at least they’re only on board for a few days.’ Masuko muttered to herself.
Part 4.
An hour later the Vexor was prepped for flight and En’rie had podded up and was hooked in. They just managed to make the undocking window and so slid gracefully out into open space, in amongst the queue of other ships leaving the Aunia station.
Masuko looked over the jump route, displayed on one of the monitors at the end of the lounge, and was pleasantly surprised to see that En’rie and gone with the safer route for once. The destination was the Brutor tribe Bureau in the Rens system and there were two main jump routes, one of which took them through some decidedly lawless areas of space. Still En’rie had decided on the longer safer route this time round, it was four extra jumps but at least they would make it there in one piece.
With the launch prep complete and the ship underway there wasn't much that now needed her attention, between En’rie, the drones and the crew the Vexor could quite comfortably manage sixteen jumps without her involvement so she was determined to relax a little before redocking in Rens in a few short hours.
Masuko wandered over to the lounge view ports, large clear sections of Crystalline Carbonide plating that allowed you to stare through to the inky blackness beyond. For some reason she could never quite get used to Gallente spaceship design, as a Caldari engineer efficiency of design had been drilled into her during training, function over form; yet there was something undeniably beautiful about the Gallente ships that made Caldari designs seem soul-less by comparison.
She perched herself on one of the seats near the viewport, the only other people in the lounge were two crew members off in a corner having a whispered conversation. Looking around the room she let out a sigh as she noticed that once again one of the crew members had dropped their comm unit. The small black headset was resting on the floor just in front of the lounge entrance, luckily no one had stepped on it yet.
Walking over to it she snatched it up and turned it over in her hands, that was odd, it wasn’t one of the crews. A quick look along the side and she found the Federation Navy issue code. She sighed, it would have to be returned before they kicked up a fuss and had the crew turning over the ship. She set off.
As soon as Masuko stepped out of the elevator doors onto the metal plated floor of the cargo bay she knew she had made a mistake. It was one of those gut feelings, the instinct to run from a difficult encounter, but her head overruled and forced her on. The cargo bay was now mostly filled with the large windowless prisoner cell unit leaving just a narrow walkway and the stairs that headed up to the Ops room; she set off for the stairs, her only company the clicking of her heels on the plated flooring and the thud as she hit the floor.
A throbbing pain in the side of her head flooded her senses as Masuko opened her eyes, a hazy light was the only thing she could make out.
A Voice that wasn’t hers said, ‘Officer Telson, it looks like she’s coming round’ She could just make out the blurred silhouette of a person standing over her.
‘Ahh good, now maybe we can find out why she was skulking around with our equipment.’ It was a deeper more nasal voice than the first. She recognised the voice from somewhere but the pain was making it hard to concentrate.
As a second figure appeared before her, Masuko realised that she must be lying down, her vision cleared a little and she noticed the plating overhead reminded her a little of the cargo bay. That and the black uniforms the figures were wearing, she’d seen them too. Before these thoughts could fully crystallise though it was interrupted by another spike of pain in her cheek.
‘Nod if you can you hear us?’ She nodded.
‘Good, now maybe you can explain how you came to have this in your possession?’ She looked down at the offered item, her vision was still a little blurry but she could make out the item, it was a black headset. Then it struck her, it was the headset she’d found earlier, she had been on her way down to the cargo bay to...
‘Where am i?’ She gasped as pain lanced through her head again.
‘That’s not what we asked.’ It was only now she recognised the voice, it was the security officer from the lounge. ‘Where did you steal the headset from?’
‘Steal? I didn’t steal it i found it.’ Why would they accuse her of stealing?. ‘It was just lying around on the floor of the ships lounge.’
Officer Telson laughed. ‘You found it? One of our secure channel comm units just “lying around”.’ Officer Telson look straight at her. ‘That has to be the worst excuse I've ever heard. We don’t just leave these things wherever we please, they’re always put exactly where they’re suppose to be.’
‘Look just let me explai...’
‘No i don’t think we need to hear any more from you. We know your allegiances and that’s more than enough for us.’ He waved over one of the other security officers. ‘stick her in with the rest of the prisoners.’
The other security officer grabbed Masuko by the arm and pulled her to her feet, she struggled slightly but it didn’t take much for him to overpower her. The security officer leaned close and growled at her, ‘Look you can either walk to the cell or wake up there it’s your choice.’
Masuko was pulled along what she now realised was the cargo bay walkway, she must have only been unconscious for a short amount of time else they would have been docked up in Ren’s by now. Ambling along behind the guard she spotted their destination, a large metal sliding doorway built into the side of the prison container.
Before reaching the ominous door though something else grabbed the officers attention, he suddenly spun around looking back the way they’d just come, the sounds of an engine flaring up could be heard off in another part of the bay.
The hulking form of a drone appeared from the other end of the walkway hovering towards them with what looked like gun chambers spinning. The security officer pushed Masuko aside and took aim with a combat rifle that had been hung over his shoulder, the muzzle flashed and there was an explosion of noise as he open fire. The drone though easily weathered the hail of rounds, it was armoured for higher caliber guns than anything the officer had to hand.
It was at this point Masuko spotted her chance to escape, the lift door was only a short dash away. Gathering herself and she sprung up and ran for it, the pain in her head pounding like hell, the security officer tried to spin around but the drone was too much of a threat. She slammed her fist on the button and the lift doors closed, the last thing she saw was the drone powering down; the officers would be after her shortly but at least she would be with the crew by then.
Masuko let out a sob of relief. ‘Your a bastard you know that, what if they’d noticed it was a repair drone.’ She said, seemingly to no one but she knew he’d be listening.
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Topic: Courier Contracts (Read 683 times)