HEIMATAR REGION
AMAMAKE SYSTEM
OSOGGUR GATE

I know! I know! I thought within my pod. It was an odd sensation to be yelling with your thoughts alone.

Armour plating at 47% capacity. Please engage repairs. Retreat recommended. Aura stated calmly in my mind.

It was just a quick jump to Rens to pick up a gift from an old commanding officer. I’d made the trip hundreds of times between Dal and Rens, and always, if there was going to be any trouble, it was in Amamake. I hated that system.

I’m trying to get away! Shut up already! Bubbles escaped from the tubing in my lungs as my heartrate increased too quickly for the system to compensate for.

There hadn’t been any gate camping pirates on the way to Rens. The vain part of me wanted to think they saw me coming through and decided to setup camp in case I returned. Maybe they had studied my patterns and knew that I wouldn’t be out of Dal long. The reality of it was probably no where near that. More than likely it was a random op, and I had been randomly snagged for my carelessness.

Granted, I’d never lost a frigate class ship to a gate camp before, and I sure wasn’t going to start then.

C’mon Ripsack, hold together a little longer. I could feel the ship straining and groaning, though the sounds were displaced inside of my cocoon. Still, I knew my ship, and she wasn’t doing well.

I knew as soon as I had landed on this side of the gate I was in trouble. There was nothing directly in front of me to align and warp to; that would’ve been too easy. Thankfully, the Wolf was an agile ship, and I had the skills to get the most out of that.

The pirate interceptors raced towards me, the cruisers raining their supporting fire down on me. Another volley and I wouldn’t survive. They were still out of web scrambling range, which was the only blessing of the situation.

Warp already! I urged Aura towards faster action, which was funny when you considered how much data she could process in a nanosecond.

Warp trajectory alignment not complete. Initiating warp in 2.38 seconds. Aura replied calmly in my mind. One day, someone would program her to understand sarcasm.

2.3 seconds might as well have been an eternity. With each passing moment, the interceptors drew closer, and my heart raced knowing I might’ve had to fight my way out of the situation, at least long enough to allow an escape.

The nearest interceptor was 11 km away and travelling close to 1600 meters per second. The web scramble was imminent. I cycled up my weapons and locked target.

Warp Drive Active. Aura said flatly, as she did everything, and the stars grew long around me.

I was away.

—

Docked securely in Dal, I surveyed the damage with my deck team. They were currently contractors, and not very good at their trade. Given the large gaping holes in the sides of the ship, I was pretty sure the armour plates were a write off. Hopefully the shield systems were undamaged and just depleted; I could easily recharge shields at my leisure.

Watching those contractors work was like banging my head against a ferrocrete wall. If I had the time in a day, I’d just do it all myself.

Ah well, no use getting myself worked up about it.

Off to the gym. Damn you, Amamake.