Difference between revisions of "Innocence"

Revision as of 15:17, 30 April 2012

Innocence Part 1

Stars reflect deeply into a glistening eye, the lid gently closes producing a tear. The eye gazes out once more, trying, failing to take in the radiant beauty of the cosmos. She is suspended in space and time, like a foetus with the combined suns of the universe serving as her a womb.

Floating in an endless stream of stars.

Bliss for the first time.

She is brought close to a field of twinkling lights, they are like stars, not stars, closer still. Burning wrecks. Those that have mobility use it to limp away from each other. Some are still breaking apart and spilling out fire, oxygen and human beings from their depths.

She wakes up. Her eyes slowly open. An unconventional reaction to such nightmarish visions, if truth be told given the circumstance of this reality, she preferred the dream.

Her room vibrates constantly; the gentle pulse of the ship is soothing despite the cold angular Caldari design ethic. They are in deep space recon for the corp, on the lookout or any wrecks turning up, desperation has pushed them into lowsec. Concord does not know these regions, the pirates do.

– +00:27 Personal mission timer, encounter with unknown scanner contact–

She couldn’t fathom why this hulk of a man chose to spend a considerable portion of his wage on those cigars. They were large, obnoxious and probably made by Amarr slaves. None of this seemed to bother Brick the Comms officer as he continued to fill the docking array with irritating smoke.

They were waiting for their Cormorant destroyer christened ‘Innocence’, the last functioning ship in her father’s once respectably sized fleet, to dock with the strange vessel sensors had picked an hour ago.

The hastily picked boarding crew waited. She was youngest of them, the most superior and their reluctant captain. Fresh in her memory, the events that had led to this uncomfortable room. The company funding this excursion was counting on her to make things right. The same one that had supported most of them their entire working lives. It had lost its fight to remain independent in the fierce and brutal realm of the Caldari Mega Corporations. Ever since, there was a communally held feeling that things will only ever get worse. Her fathers legacy.

Back then he had owed it to the thousand or so employees in service to his venture, started from scratch to remain afloat whatever the cost. Once a pioneering fighter, a Capsuleer in the Caldari – Gallente independence war he had used his vast retirement fund to start a corporation, a non pod pilot corporation that would produce only goods to be used for the benefit of the States citizens rather than the destruction of its enemies.

When it had finally come to the last resort he gave up the company to be administered by one of the giant corporations. They wasted no time in making changes. Severance packages were issued to scores of workers who were initially promised they were safe, it pained him as military man of honour out of depth in this seedy world of business. He learned never to make promises, and never to trust those who made them to him. Millions of ISK in assets were immediately sold to cover the debts and the company mandate was refocused towards the very bottom end of salvage and reprocessing. Materials for war, another grinding cog in the war machine. The most grievous mistake of all had cost so much, was that of honesty. One contract clause was honored, his surviving wayward daughter was to command the commercial fleet. He didn’t live to see it for himself. The capsule that used to make him invulnerable to harm, did not grant immortality. Even old age catches up with the gods.

Assigned to them as Chief Financial Officer by the Mega Corporation, was the lowest of clerks. Not though merit but coincidence as his reassignment was due when the position became available. Thrilled with this seemingly monumental promotion, to him this was a chance in a life time.

In reality the company had largely been forgotten about once the takeover and restructuring was finalised. As long as a marginal profit was posted monthly, they were left alone. He was a slight man who would probably struggle to cope with true planetary gravity let alone a hard days graft. In his offices hung a painting named ‘Amour Forge’ it depicted a MATC carrying a large shield deflecting fire in one arm whilst cradling a wounded Caldarian in the other. It’s amazing how the passage of time withered memories of propagandists.

It was his responsibility to find the corps contracts. His competence in this was reflected in their current desperate situation. Their normal contracts came from tagging along after combat missions. Mopping up charred pirate remains left by the mission operative, these days the exponentially more efficient Noctis pilots snatch every profitable job almost as quickly as they scoop up the precious parts into their holds.

‘’Wake up Captain… Persephone!’’

The curt voice of her comms officer using her name rather than rank dragged her away from the dreams of her past to the current nightmare they were in. Docking with this ship had been extremely difficult. Because technically speaking, this drifting and sinister ship was still cloaked.