It would seem I wasn’t finished eating humble pie that evening. I’ll admit that given my directed euphoria, my personal revelations as to what my next steps were to meet my goals, that I was foolhardy and frankly quite stupid. 

I had been planning on buying a Sleipnir for a while, and upon checking my NeoCom, noticed I had won an auction for one in a somewhat remote location from my base of operations, Dal.

I had taken a shuttle to the system indicated, and picked up my Sleipnir. I ordered some weapons mounts for it, as well as some other essentials they had in stock, the rest of the fitting waiting back in my personal bays.

All this before meeting with Gigaer for dinner.

Now, dinner since passed, I had fired up the Sleipnir without a crew, figuring that given the late hour and inactivity through both militia channels and New Eden map filtering, that I was safe to transport the ship back to Dal.

On the way, I also stopped at a system where I chanced to have some items waiting for my Firetail. I had also won an auction for a Pith-X X-Large Shield Booster for 1.4 billion isk. I decided to not pick it up that evening, given how out of the way it was at the current time; how serendipitous.

90% of my journey passed uneventfully; two jumps left, Amamake, then Dal.

I gave a quick scan of the militia channels, as Amamake was a cesspool, continually under fire. Militia intel was clean, no hostiles insystem. Still, I should’ve hired a scout, or parked my ship somewhere and taken a quick peek first. Hindsight is 20/20.

I jumped through the connecting gate to Amamake. 

Immediately, Aura highlighted numerous active hostiles in flashing red on my HUD. They weren’t Amarr; they were pirates, Heretic Nation to be exact. I immediately regretted my decision to not contract a crew, nor to completely fit the ship upon picking it up. At the very least, I should’ve loaded in some ammo, or taken any other number of precautions with such an expensive vessel.

It was all pointless now. The decisions I had made were based on prior experiences, and not wanting further expenditures when I had plenty of parts and ammo, as well as faithful crews, awaiting me in Dal.

I was fifteen kilometers from the gate, in a partially fit command ship with no ammunition. I had no afterburner, so no chance of running for the gate. My only choice was to try to warp away to safety.

I picked the celestial object I was most aligned to, knowing I wouldn’t have much time to act, and urged Aura to enter warp.

My ship was too slow, nowhere near agile enough to outperfom the band of pirates that would now feast on me.

I was locked nearly instantly, and couldn’t even offer them a decent fight. I knew my ship was lost, and at this point, it would be fortunate if I were to get away in my pod intact.

I had nobody to blame but myself as the armour began to peel away from the Sleipnir. I prepared myself for emergency ejection, hoping I would be quick enough to at least keep this body I had been working so diligently on.

The Command ship exploded brilliantly around me. I warped away, under fire, my pod’s hull at half integrity. I requested emergency docking clearance at the nearest station, and as priority docking crews stood by with medical teams to assist me if needed, I landed my pod.

“Well, damn.”

What else was there to be said really.

—

Victim: Roc Wieler
Corp: Freeform Industries
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Minmatar Republic
Destroyed: Sleipnir
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 9890

Involved parties:
Name: Themistocles (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: 181st Legion
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rokh
Weapon: Neutron Blaster Cannon II
Damage Done: 3103

Name: JIm Hammer
Security: -10.0
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: NONE
Ship: Muninn
Weapon: Muninn
Damage Done: 2382

Name: Kri Matar
Security: -10.0
Corp: Failed Diplomacy
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: NONE
Ship: Maelstrom
Weapon: Ogre I
Damage Done: 2198

Name: GaGGiChief
Security: -10.0
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: NONE
Ship: Harbinger
Weapon: Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 1609

Name: stinkxfinger
Security: -10.0
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: NONE
Ship: Phobos
Weapon: Phobos
Damage Done: 598

Name: bigwong
Security: -10.0
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: Heretic Nation
Faction: NONE
Ship: Phobos
Weapon: Warp Disruption Field Generator I
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:
Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I, Qty: 2
Gyrostabilizer II
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Qty: 2
Co-Processor II

Dropped items:
Gyrostabilizer II
Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner (Cargo)
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 8 (Cargo)
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II, Qty: 5
Internal Force Field Array I
Power Diagnostic System II
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I
Medium Diminishing Power System Drain I
Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster (Cargo)

Yes, something definitely had to be done about the increased pirate activity in New Eden. My resolve was strengthened whilst my wallet was lightened.

And in the back of my mind, I could see Sard Caid laughing.