EVATI

He wanted to pretend it was just another morning. He wanted to pretend that the last 48 hours hadn’t happened. He wanted to pretend that he could erase all of this, and just go back to his regular military life.

Pretending was for children. There was no room for make believe in the adult world.

Roc Wieler inserted himself into the pod of his favoured ship, the Renegade, and slowly undocked from the Evati station. He had awakened earlier, hungover, and had made his way back to his quarters for a quick protein shake, a shit, and a shower. He still couldn’t believe what had happened with Mynxee last night, all night; he shook his head, trying to force the memory away. Instead, he only succeeded in making his hangover worse, and was instantly fighting a wave of nausea.

He quickly put some distance between himself and the station, then directed Aura to bring up the scanning overlay. Evati was in a contested state again, according to militia intel reports, and while he had been busy with Mynxee … while he had been busy with his mission, the Amarr were trying to secure a foothold in this sector.

Roc gave a scan to the Bastards channel; more than a dozen pilots reporting online and active for duty. He opened a broadcast, “This is Roc Wieler asking for a wingman to take out some Amarr trash. Anyone interested?” The channel remained dead. He made his request again. Silence was his only response.

Fine. It was obvious how things were going to be since their last outing. Apparently the Bastards had decided to blame him for the botched mission; so be it. If they wanted to ostracize him from their little gang, he would do it without them.

Roc quickly scanned down a Minmatar minor installation, and set out about his priorities. He was a Colonel. He was a soldier. It was his duty to secure this installation for the glory of the Republic. He was already in warp.

At best, it was uneventful; at worst, it was boring. His mind and heart just weren’t into it, his thoughts continually returning to his night with Mynxee. He was having more trouble focusing today than he was accustomed to. He was thankful his remaining engineer and marines were finished their work, and on their way back to the Renegade.

The Bastards channel came alive. “I’ve got a Firetail on scan.” Mr. Frog said, declaring his intention of combat. Roc responded quickly. “That Firetail is me, Frog.”

“Too late, Roc, I’m already through the gate.” Mr. Frog replied, a light hint of glee in his voice.

Roc looked up on his screen. Sure enough, a Punisher decelerated to normal space 120 km in front of him. It sent angry shivers down his spine seeing the Amarr ship; guess it was just gut instinct now to hate the sight of anything Amarr. The Punisher aligned itself towards Roc’s ship, and began accelerating.

Roc opened a comm to his marines. “All aboard, sir; we’re good to go.” the marine sergeant replied. Roc sighed to himself. He really wasn’t in the mood for this, but if the Bastards wanted to test their mettle against a Colonel of the Tribal Liberation Force, who was he to deny them the educational lesson?

“You sure you want to do this, Frog?” Roc asked over the Bastards channel, making sure there were witnesses to their breach of the alliance agreement. Roc was flagged as a friendly, meaning you did NOT fire on your ally.

“I’m pretty sure.” Mr. Frog’s response was aggressive. Had the Bastards revoked their agreement without having the decency to inform him? Was this just some pissing match with Mr. Frog? Roc quickly scanned Mr. Frog’s ship. He was close range fitted, clearly not a match for the Renegade’s faction fit artillery.

“You’re going to lose if you do this, Frog.” Roc said passively into the Bastards channel.

“They all say that until I kill them.” Mr. Frog replied viciously.

Roc checked the distance between them. Mr. Frog’s Punisher was at 80 km and closing quickly. Roc sighed once again, and urged the Renegade to life, reaching maximum velocity on an intercept course in under four seconds. He heard the warning blare of target lock as Mr. Frog locked onto the Renegade, and Roc responded in kind, his weapons locked and tracking the Punisher.

At 35 km, Roc veered away from the Punisher, setting an orbit around it. At the same time, he reached out with his Domination Warp Scrambler, shutting down the warp drive of the Punisher well outside of its weapons range. He then unleashed a full volley of missiles and artillery shells at the Punisher, and watched with satisfaction as its shields quickly dropped.

Mr. Frog was committed to close range, and had no choice but to minimize the distance between them. The Renegade, with its Gisti B Afterburner, was easily quicker than the Punisher, especially with its micro warp drive disabled, and Mr. Frog found himself at a severe disadvantage. He couldn’t warp away form the encounter, he couldn’t get close enough to fire; he was essentially dead, and they both knew it.

Roc continued firing from maximum range, bombarding the Punisher continually. The ship’s armour was littered with holes as their damage control specialist teams worked quickly to repair the ship. Roc allowed himself a smile at the way this fight was going. Did Mr. Frog really think it was going to go down any other way than this?

In his arrogance, Roc didn’t see Mr.Frog’s course adjustment, which used Roc’s own velocity against him, and quickly put the two ships within distance of the Punisher’s weapons. The Renegade shook against the onslaught, it’s shields dropping to half strength, before Roc could get out of range once again. He quickly redirected power from the capacitor to the shield recharger, and watched as his shield strength hit 100% within seconds.

“A little cocky I see.” Mr. Frog said over the Bastards channel.

“Looking in the mirror again then, I wager.” Roc replied.

From his advantageous distance, Roc continued to attack the helpless Punisher. Plates of armour were torn away from the ship, followed by explosions from the internal structure as the ship began its death throes.

It was then that Roc Wieler had an epiphany. It was then that Roc Wieler stopped firing, allowing the Punisher to limp home and fight another day.

The Bastards only had power over Roc that he gave them. They could only get to him because he let them.

It suddenly all made so much sense. The unification of the Republic could not be stopped by the unwilling. It could not be made to happen by the efforts of one man.

The unification of the Republic would only happen when … an emergency call on his private comm. Roc immediately brought up the message.

“Figured it out. Need you here, NOW.” It was signed from Sam. Roc had hoped to hear from him much earlier than this, but was hopeful time was still on their side.

He flicked a private comm link to Frog, addressing him directly. “Better luck next time, Frog.”

“I would’ve had you if you’d been fitted for close range.” Mr. Frog said in a defeated voice.

“Yeah, but I’m not, and you didn’t.” Roc said happily as he aligned for warp, destination, Vanguard Frontiers.