Life is full of irony.

KBP7 BATTLE STATION
KBP7-G SYSTEM
XV7L-S CONSTELLATION
PROVIDENCE REGION

“I’d advise you move your assets sooner rather than later.” Emrys Ap’Morgravaine said.

Emrys was the on duty diplomat for the newly christened Damu’Khonde alliance (formerly known as Ushra’Khan). Instinctively, I pulled his bio. It was a mental habit I had developed, learning it was always good to understand the type of person I was dealing with. Concord kept very detailed records of Capsuleers, though to be fair, pod pilots had figured out ways to abuse even this system, maintaining their privacy.

“Humanity are a filthy, wretched, misbegotten, misguided, bigoted and morally failed species. I hate them. I really do.”

His bio was anything but encouraging. I assessed my situation.

Since moving to nullsec and joining Ushra’Khan, I had acquired assets in only two systems, the primary being KBP7-G. The two jump gates insystem were consistently camped by allies, and it was only one jump from Dital, leading to Empire, which was less than ten jumps to Rens, still one of my primary supply depots. KBP7-G was also advantageous as it was one jump away from the beginning of the now defunct Ushra’Khan jump bridge network.

Of course now it was sixteen jumps through the heart of Providence/Catch to retrieve my alliance assets. A part of me was willing to sacrifice what was there, mostly ammunition and T1 ships. Yet there on my screen, one of my Cynabal cruisers taunted me. It was too expensive a ship, with far too pricey a fitting to leave behind.

“Anyone able to help me get my assets out of N 8?” I said into our corporation channel. Given the lack of success I had experienced thus far with corpmates or alliance allies lending a hand, I wasn’t hopeful. I was already envisioning myself pod tanking back and forth through nullsec, pulling my ships out one at a time. That was going to be a very slow and painful process, I was sure.

“Sure hon, what’s up?” Neridah Tanz replied cheerfully. Neridah was one of the few corpmates I had gotten to know during my tenure. It didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes as well. I knew from the moment we first spoke that she had a thing for me, but then again, what woman didn’t? I mean, c’mon, short, bald, pale, I got it all going on over here.

Neridah was currently very popular with the alliance, as she was juggling freighter runs to aid in the evacuation of Providence, while her business partner had volunteered to open cynos for others to egress from the region.

I quickly contracted my N 8 assets to her, and thankfully, she had room in her next freighter run for everything except my Cynabal cruiser. I could’ve been negative about it, but hell, she was saving me a lot of effort already.

Playfully, I expressed my appreciation to her, letting her know that when this was all said and done, drinks were on me, and that I sincerely was thankful for her assistance.

“Anything for you, hon.” was all she replied. I was sure she would’ve been more conversational was she not in such high demand at the time.

In the meantime, I checked in with Emrys. I had finally sorted through sixty-three alliance emails, each one providing more details on the situation in Providence over the previous 72 hours. Seems we were NBSI (Not blue, shoot it), and standings between alliance corporations were still in the works, so basically, treat everything as hostile. There was also a warning about not undocking from your current station, as you wouldn’t be granted permissions to re-dock. That could obviously be problematic.

“Emrys, sorry to bother you.” I said in private conversation, “but as the on duty diplomat, I figured you’d be most in the know.”

“What do you need? I’m kinda busy here.” he replied curtly.

“Understood, sir. Just want to know if the station lockdown is still in effect in KBP7?” I asked.

“What lockdown are you talking about?” he replied a little too abruptly.

“As in, is it safe for me to undock? I will be able to dock again at the battle station?” I asked, trying to keep my temper cool. There were many capsuleers who were very detached from their emotions, who made decisions solely based on the logic of a situation. Their experience and training having taught them that regardless of emotional response, the situation, and the appropriate response, will not be influenced by your feelings. I wholeheartedly disagreed. I was ruled by passion. It fueled me, gave me strength. There had been many times in my life where had I not allowed emotion to rule me, I would’ve failed, given up, admitted defeat. That simply wasn’t my way.

Still, as the only liaison I was aware of at the time, it was best to keep my temper under control.

“Yes, yes of course.” he replied, before cutting the comm. I was going to attribute it to another case of being too busy, as he stated; nothing more.

Hesitantly, I undocked my pod, and started slowboating to N 8. I was cautious. In my years I had learned that exercising caution was one of the most effective means of preserving my life. I jumped off gate, to planets and moons, no straight warps between gates. Adrenaline surged through my veins between every jump. Pod tanking through nullsec; what the hell was wrong with me?

I arrived in N 8 unscathed. I arrived in N 8 better than unscathed. There hadn’t been a single registered pod pilot in local scan in any system along the entire route. I had never seen Providence so deserted, but was going to enjoy my good fortune while it lasted.

Within half an hour, I had my pod inserted into my Cynabal, had crammed my cargo hold full of the remaining ammo in my bay, and made my way slowly back to KBP7, once again, exercising extreme caution.

Alliance comms had a scout running a parallel route, that merged only a few jumps before KBP7. The scout was reporting the same system emptiness I had experienced. It was eerie, which only made things more nerve wracking.

Sard Caid popped up on my screen. “Yo.”

“Hey, you old pirate. How goes it?” I replied. I hadn’t spoken with Sard in quite some time, and honestly didn’t mind the company at this particular juncture in time. We engaged in the usual small talk, laughing at a bit at each other’s expense, really just two friends getting caught up on things.

I was three jumps from KBP7-G.

“How much you wanna bet I get ganked 1 jump from home?” I challenged Sard.

“You’re on, Roc.” Sard replied.

As soon as the words had left my mouth, I regretted them. I had never been superstitious, but had noticed in my career that when I joked about certain situations, they inevitably became very costly truths.

I focused while Sard rambled on.

I jumped into KBP7-G. There were 192 ships registered in local; all friendly. I breathed a mental sigh of relief. I had made it.

I wished Sard a good evening, and docked up.

The entire system was full of Damu’Khonde and its allies. I chuckled.

Maybe now I could get some help dealing with the Sansha Nation that had been infesting this constellation.