Innocence
Contents
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 fetus 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 Amarrs’ slaves. None of this seemed to bother ‘Brick’ the Comms officer, as he continued to fill the docking array with irritating smoke breaking every safety rule in the book. Unfortunately the only ‘books’ he read only really contained pictures.
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. The destroyer pirouetted around in space getting a good angle. She was youngest of them, daughter of the founder and their reluctant captain.
She looked a lot like him, her father. Once a pioneering fighter, a Capsuleer in the Caldari – Gallente independence war he had used his vast retirement fund to start a corporation. He set out with the intent that it would be a non pod pilot corporation, mistake number one, and that would produce only goods for peaceful benefit of the States citizens. There’s no money in peace. Mistake number two.
A military man of honor sparring with the Mega Corporations and pod bound freelancers alike. Time again he rejected their buyout offers, using the last of his family fortune to prop up the ailing company. He surprised everyone with how long he held out.
Outvoted and outmaneuvered in the boardroom, if he could have met them in space, with rail and missile things would have been different he would lament. A shadow, an irrelevant hero of a war long over. Once the deal was finalized they were largely forgotten about. As long as a marginal profit was posted monthly, they were left alone. An overseer was put in charge as their administrator and de facto Financial Officer. He was a slight man who would probably struggle to cope with true planetary gravity let alone a hard days graft.
It was his responsibility to find the corps contracts. His competence in this was reflected in their corporate bank account, dancing on the red line, leaving nothing for uncertain times ahead.
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.
Today was different.
‘’Wake up Captain… Persephone!’’
The curt voice of her comms officer using her name rather than rank dragged her away from thoughts of the past to todays particular nightmare.
Docking with this ship had been extremely difficult.
Because technically speaking, this drifting and sinister ship was still cloaked.
Part 2
Captain, a Captain I may be but in name only, her face screwed up as it often did when dwelling on the subject. She was permitted to preside over the bridge and supposedly her team remained directly under her command.
Commands, she received them more often than she dished them out.
The CFO really pulled the strings around here, holding their livelihood in his hands as he did no one could argue. She took her honorary captaincy less and less seriously, turning up for duty barefoot, often in a state of undress. Pushing the boundaries of the upper management, just to see what would happen, an inquisitive mind left idle. She would sit at the captains console with her knees pulled up to her chest, resting her chin on them gazing out into space. A vision of authority.
‘’3 minutes to dock’’
The ship they were now about to board was discovered by chance. At first deemed to be a sensor glitch the closer they scanned the more of a reading they received. A Wreathe hull industrial, eerily drifting in space for who knows how long. Outfitted with a covert ops cloak, that was now chronically malfunctioning and sporadically revealing sections of the ship, as if to tease onlookers with her presence. The destroyers searchlights situated on her underbelly raked along its imagined surface, occasionally reflecting the hull wherever a section appeared.
Every 16 minutes its docking clamps would reveal themselves if for only a few seconds at a time, the auto coupler could not adequately process the information quick enough for a successful docking attempt, so manual it was. The person qualified in such an operation had only ever completed it in simulation. Such was the heavy reliance of automation and machine.
-- +00:45 Personal mission timer, boarding excursion into derelict vessel--
‘’Hard seal, you’re clear for mission go’’
Innocence was now firmly clamped to the mystery ship and would not let go until the team returned. The air inside was breathable but thick and unusually moist. Condensation collected on the two Minmatar made projectile weapons they had brought along. Mostly for piece of mind, as there weren't even enough rounds even for one full clip, Inari and Jack had to share between them. Neither had ever fired one.
Barrel mounted torches pieced the gloom, heavy water droplets, caught in the narrow beam denying further vision into the gloom. Wet and oppressive, like the inside of some foul giant beast. They are thankful for the crisp air provided by breathing apparatus.
Inari was the last to enter, the bulkhead door slowly descending behind her. The first step into the ship her foot gave way slightly, a thin slime coated everything. She looked up sharply, thankful that no one had seen her slip, movement caught her eye.
‘’Who’s there?’’ Her gun whipped up dazzling the rest of the team.
Brick held his hand up to fight back the beam, taking one step towards her was enough for her to stand down. He could be quite intimidating but only when he wanted to be.
‘’No one, all the life boats are ejected remember. This place is empty,’’
‘’Maybe the odd cargo drone’’ Jack the engineering prodigy chirped in hopefully, he had an affinity with A.I. any drones they salvaged usually made their way into his personal collection. Whether management knew about it or not.
‘’Stop messing around, let’s go to work.’’ Persephone interrupted, it was unusual for her to pull rank so when she did they listened, ‘’I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to, in fact I don’t want to be here at all. This mission is a waste of time and we know it so let get on with proving it so we can get back.’’
The ‘Mission’ as the overbearing CFO on board had dubbed it, was simple enough, search the ship for valuable cargo. If nothing of use was found determine the profitability of the covert ops cloak and prepare it for salvage. It had been suggested destruction of the vessel would be a less risky strategy, however survival of cargo and modules was not guaranteed. The earning potential of an intact Tech 2 cloak alone was worth the risk in human life.
Into the gloom.
The team press on.
Down to the darkness.
Part 3
She was still thinking about the dream, normally such things would have been put aside from her mind already. Today felt different. Something was coming for her. Destiny? Don't be pathetic, she cursed her self indulgent thoughts. Reluctant to respond to the orders she had just received, she resolved to kill some time and make the little man wait some more.
As she walked down the corridor, her bare feet padded gently on the warm steel floors, passing the ships name adored at every junction. Innocence, she hated it. Intended as a gift to celebrate a graduation day that never came. Just thinking about the War Academy made her feel physically sick.
The ship itself was a standard load-out, in her prime she was an instrument of war, 7 ‘scout’ 150mm Railguns arranged neatly along the hull. Now, re-purposed, half the armament had been stripped and sold off the make room for ugly salvaging equipment.
She still had claws, just less of them.
Rounding the corner of the bulkhead she entered ‘Bricks’ cabin. He was busying himself urinating in the sink
‘’For fu...’ she whirled round and placed hand on the wall to steady herself, leaning over as if to be sick.
‘’It all ends up at the same water treatment tank, don’t get all uppity’’
‘’The head is literally down the hall. Your bunk is the closest to it on this deck’’ she fumed making her voice sound as exasperated as possible but she really wasn't that surprised.
‘’When you gotta go...’’ he paused finishing up and stuffing himself back into his combat trousers ‘’besides when you've served in space as long as I have you learn to cut some corners’’
‘’Right...’
He was though, right, there was no point getting precious about human comfort and decency, not out here in the deep.
‘’You miss the real ground then, all the dirt and dust?’’
‘’Not the ground I was on’’
Persephone saw an opportunity and she took it, ‘’ah the recreational districts and housing projects, where you were a security enforcer?’’
‘’Where I got this name of mine, followed me into space. Cause only fine specimens like me can carry the big gun’’ you had to be to operate the heavy artillery required, what they don't tell you is the chronic back pain you receive for the rest of your life as a result of this duty. They were mainly for show, petty crime felt just that when the potential sentence was meeting an Amarr made multi barrel gatling laser. It’s no coincidence such weapons were designed to suppress slave uprisings.
‘’They called it worker pacification, after awhile I called it bullshit’’ he turned to look at her for the first time ‘’But that was another lifetime’’
‘’Dammed if you ever talk about anything to me, is it because I’m your boss?’’ I smirk crept across her thin lips.
She knew a few details. He had enlisted for the star ship crew program, to replenish the personnel that are never seen of again. With some rudimentary engineering skill and the entry requirements severely dropped. It had never been easier to see the cosmos, the only catch being that occasionally, you were forcibly introduced to it without the luxury of air.
Requesting capsuleer assignment only, he would always be the last to enter the life boats. When invariably, the ship met the fate of all space faring vessels. Brave. Suicidal. Each log Persephone had studied read like this man was daring the void to take him, each time he was refused.
‘’No it’s because I’m so complex and no one understands me!’’ he shouted with mock exclamation throwing his hands in the air like some tortured artist.
‘’Listen we’re suiting up, looks like king asshole want us to go into this ship and grub around for a bit. See if there’s anything worth taking.’’
‘’And you told him to shove it? It’s your ship.’’ Brick sat on his bunk scratching a thick scruffy beard, his paunch resting on his thighs and dead skin or bits of food floated down from the rustled beard, settling on his black shirt. No longer the young virile specimen of years gone by.
‘’While he’s on it he out ranks me, I could tell him where to go, he could tell me he’s selling the ship and dissolving the crew.’’
‘’Fair point.’’
Both their data pads vibrated simultaneously, a reminder that their boss didn't like to be kept waiting.
Part 4
-- +01:16 Personal mission timer, investigation of vessel storage areas--
The cargo hold is full of crates containing various bacteria, metals and water. Most having leaked causing a vile mess. Mold creeps over every surface with steam rising from the giant organism.
Bodies.
They decorate the cargo space, some are hard to spot. So overgrown with micro organisms, bursting forth from the bullet holes in the corpses body armor Only the bone and cybernetic combat implants remain. The rest, of what you would once call men, are now something else. Claimed by these tiny living salvagers.
‘’Their information was no good, they busted this ship open in search of some experimental tech. All they found was this cargo hold filled with bacteria an' metals’’ Inari held her weapon at hip height, casually illuminating row upon of storage crates but avoiding the deceased. She liked the way this would look to the others, it would give the impression she was cool and in control. She knew what she saw earlier. There is someone else alive in here.
‘‘Someone else here.’’ She muttered under her breath.
The recovered data pad showed this boarding force was after an experimental module, supposedly with the ability to break all enemy target locks, a game changer in the lawless low sec regions. This gutted and abused industrial was evidence enough of the cat and mouse game played by both hunter and prey.
‘’Looks like the containment wasn't too good either’’ Brick noted pushing a gloved forefinger along the greasy surfaces covered in moss and slime.
Persephone crouched down to what would have been eye level to one of the armored husks that used to house a vicious mercenary.
‘’You came here looking for some good tech, just like us.’’ She poked the skull with her combat knife, feeling the slime give way easily to the hard gravely texture of bone underneath. ‘’ And you found garbage, just some planetary junk. I get the feeling we’re just as fucked as this bastard here.’’
Jack had been watching her the whole time. He pulled his respirator off just in time to vomit his last meal into a secluded corner.
‘’You know how to motivate Cap.’’ Brick cut in before the team became any more morose this vile crypt.
‘’Can’t you see I’m interrogating this prisoner?’’ She quipped back, relying on her black humor as she often did, desperate to turn around and see if the joke had landed the way she wanted but it went ignored.
‘’I reckon we need to find the pilot, this is a pod ship, they don’t make em for non eggers. If they ejected there will be a record of what went down here.’’ Brick seemed unfazed by the horrors in the misty dark.
‘’ I've got into the ships crew computer’’ Jack tried his best to shout confidently, trying to sound very skilled however the console was already active with the information readily available "Its seriously degraded though, I have the combat logs but it doesn't seem right.’’ His breathing equipment retained the smell of sick, he tried to remain professional.
‘’How so?’’
‘’Well seems like there was no combat, shows here no incoming damage, only one act of aggression from the Prowler, single autocannon blast. Wrecked whatever it hit anyway’’
Persephone remembered seeing that the ships only weapon had been awkwardly turned on itself, its vector fixed on its last target.
‘’ I've got the captains details, names Eko’mo. Shows she tried to eject before activating the turret. Something went wrong, the ejection clamps had been sabotaged.’’
‘’So she’s still on board, shit this could waive our salvage rights’’
‘’This is even better. Imagine the cash settlement we’ll get from helping her out of this tight spot. Let’s go have a chat shall we?’’
A ships pod on most vessels would be completely inaccessible to the rest of the crew, docking procedure releases a hatch that guides the ‘egg’ out of the ship for un-docking or boarding.
A trail of blowtorch damage lead them deeper in this hallowed sanctum. It appeared that someone, most probably the intruders had forced their way into the inner pod chamber.
Persephone was the first to see it.
Brute force had won as t so often does. The intruders had gained access to the pods outer surface. It must have taken hours but the capsule had been breached. There she was, Eko’mo the immortal. Still hanging suspended from her plugs embedded in her spine.
The smell.
She’s been dead for some time. Denied pod death and the possibility of reincarnation. Persephone stood open mouthed in horror, imagining this pilot and her last moments encased in this tomb. Made to listen helplessly, as her murderers slowly sliced their way into the pod.
‘’Whoa! What a mess.’’ Brick headed up the team rounding the corner.
Persephone backed into a corner in silence. With eyes still on the dead pilot her hand crept behind her right ear, fingers sliding underneath her long hair finally touching that horrible secret that she hated keeping.
The socket resting at the base of her skull.