Amamake was alight with destruction once more. Amarr and Minmatar destroyed each other by the thousands with no end in sight.

That was the intel report coming in from Mutnin, a TLF scout I had retasked to my purposes.

I sat docked in Rens, my Sleipnir class Command ship, the Onslaught, vulnerable and overpriced. This was my second Sleipnir; the first not surviving the maiden voyage home, due to my own ignorant negligence.

I had learned from  my mistakes I hoped. This time I had 5 warpcore stabilizers strapped onto the ship, as well as a Pith X-Large Shield Booster and a Field Extender II rig. That gave the ship an incredibly hard shell, hopefully enough to make it back to Dal unscathed.

“You’re gonna have to go around, Colonel.” Mutnin reported. I calculated the route to enter Dal via Vard; 13 jumps. I was only 4 jumps away from Dal here in Rens. It was ridiculous to me, and there were several lowsec systems even on the alternate route.

I sighed in resignation.

“What time is your rotation finished, pilot?” I asked.

“19:00 hours, Colonel.” Mutnin replied promptly.

“Very well, standby.”

I exited the ship in Rens, and spent the next hour at a local pub. I figured if I wasn’t going anywhere for the moment, I might as well enjoy myself.

My Neocom buzzed. I had a new corporate mail.

It is with great sorrow that I write this communique, but I find myself no longer able to shoulder the burden of leadership alone. Unless by some miracle, Freeform Industries will permanently close its doors two weeks from today.

All assets will be sealed indefinitely, should the opportunity ever arise that we find ourselves a corporation once more, but for now we each will need to find a new place to call home.

I have enjoyed flying with each and every one of you, and wish you only the very best. Fly safe.

Cytral

Seemed even the eternal optimist had limits. I hoped the conversation we had a few days prior hadn’t been a negative influence. Cy had asked me my honest evaluation, and I told him, the corp was dead. I hadn’t moved on, giving Cy my word that I would wait to see what he could do to resurrect FFID. I felt stangely guilty that I hadn’t done more to help.

I returned to the Onslaught, and commed Mutnin for a sitrep.

“There’s a single TIC on the Amamake side of the gate; could be a trap, but this looks as good as it’s going to get, Colonel.” Mutnin said.

Did I risk it? Even in this partial “travel” fitting, there was over 2 billion isk invested. I really had learned not to invest in expensive ships, preferring Rifters and my shiny Firetails, which, to me, were something I could afford to lose. Losing this ship would hurt me financially, in a big way.

At the same time, it was useless just sitting here in hiding. I had big plans for this ship, profitable plans.

“Alright Mutnin, I’m coming through.” I said as I undocked and entered warp.

Two jumps later, I was adjacent to Amamake. I took a deep breath and entered warp for the last leg of this voyage.

As I exited warp, there were no surprises waiting for me. I jumped into Amamake without incident.

Quickly making my way towards the Dal gate, I grew alarmed by the sudden spike in local. Things just got busy again.

The stars reverted to normal around me as I slowed at Dal gate. Over a dozen wartargets were sitting at the gate, whether having just entered Amamake, or been camping there the entire time I did not know, nor did it matter.

I jumped. There would be no repeat of my last death. There would be no technology glitches to cost me another clone.

Upon entering Dal, I immediately docked up at my base of operations, and set my teams to optimizing the best possible fit for this ship.

A few hours later, we had calculated a way to fit 7 720mm artillery cannons on it without overloading the capacitor, as well as keeping the Pith booster.

She was a magnificent ship. I couldn’t wait to take her out now that she was fully fitted.