The Adventure Begins

StarDate: 2010.02.16, 01:09
Ship: *unnamed vessel* Imicus
Location: Find the edge of the galaxy, and fall off.

Today began like any other day, wake-up, and yell at the Imicus' A.I. that I'm alive. I seriously need to replace the mics in this rig. The A.I. promptly sets a course for an in-system warp, it had dutifully sent the ship out of hostile scanners' range as I was shutting down systems, and myself, for a good nights rest.

"Summers! Pick up your com!", my corporation's CEO somehow always knows when I'm awake. He informs me that he's found a wormhole leading to unexplored space, perhaps a system for our own base of operations. I collect as much information as I can and begin scanning for an exit from the system I've been keeping an eye on, it was a lost cause anyway and I knew it. The locals are a strange sort of drone, but more powerful and aggressive than I have ever encountered before in my travels, hopefully this other, unexplored system, will have less-formidable opponents.

I quickly scan down two wormholes using my remote probes, one leads to the system of Babirmoult, the other leads to an unknown system, which I have logged as J111629. I decide to try my luck in the emptiness of uncharted space rather than risk the pirates that surely await me in the land of the outlaws.

That proved an almost fatal mistake. Just as I approach the WH, a Navy issued Dominix de-cloaks and beings targeting me. Without enough time to re-align and warp out my best bet is to tuck and roll, I deactivate the external inertial dampeners (EIDs) and allow the WH to consume my ship.

Shooting out the other side of the WH I realize I am once again, not alone. A Hurricane, Thorax, and a vessel unknown to me, are all warming their guns waiting for the visual distortion around my craft to dissipate. My A.I. cooly points out that it is a strategic cruiser called a Tengu, well that's awesome, a ship so new I didn't recognize it, is waiting to kill me. My first thoughts are to get as far away as fast as possible but training, luckily, kicks in. I shut down all systems that are not absolutely necessary for movement or survival and activate my second generation improved cloaking device.

As the device activates, the residual visual distortion left from when my EIDs reactivated, disperses and is quickly replaced by my own ship-maintained stealth. Careful to move slowly, so as not to produce a noticeable ripple in the space I pass through, I aim my ship for the widest space between hostile craft and ease the throttle forward. The Thorax must have spotted my ship for the brief moment I was exposed because it immediately burns through the space I had only seconds ago occupied. The Dominix appears, seemingly out of nowhere, to my port side and I adjust my course accordingly. Heart pounding, I set the A.I. in charge of maneuvers while I rush to my capsule, just in case the worst happens I want to make it out with my own mind intact damn-it.

Usually on short flights, I don't leave my capsule (or POD), but on overnight stays in the deep recesses of the space between spaces, I like to walk about my cabin, study my books and check that all my systems are running smoothly for moments just like the one I find myself in now. Besides, my skin does not take well to the wrinkles of excessive-moisturization.

I see a spark, no I sense it, this spark explodes into a 3 dimensional awareness of everything within and around my ship as my mind interfaces with the ships sensors. I take back control from the A.I. just as the number of hostile contacts doubles and triples in seconds. My ship's sensors, now my own, pick up 9 very small, but very deadly combat drones. These drones begin crossing the space between the 4 hostile ships who are trying to expose my position, they were quite literally "sweeping" the space around the wormhole for any traces of my ship's cloaking distortion field.

This game of cat and mouse continues for what seems like hours (my A.I. interrupts my thoughts with a timer reading mere minutes, I do hate how my A.I. now senses any thoughts not related specifically to controlling the ship). I eventually put a distance of 100km between myself and the hostile search party, they've obviously underestimated the amount I paid for this cloaking unit, and thus underestimated how quickly I could travel whilst cloaked. I smile smugly to myself and warp away to scan down an exit, sending an open transmission, containing my smug thoughts of their failure to contain me, into open space in the form of subspace waves... Their resolve appears unbroken and I begin referencing their ships markings from my last data-sync in empire, checking for pilot information and security statuses. I realize, with little surprise, that the pilots very likely did not understand a word I was saying anyways. I am surprised however, that each of them has much better relations with Empire security forces than myself, the injustice of which I may consider another time.

I fire off my probes and do a system wide scan... .. . Unbelievable, a situation I have never before encountered. The system I find myself in has only a single cosmic signature, that must be the WH through which I entered! Now I understand why these... Pirates, are so content to wait me out without commenting or wavering in their search of me, they know I must leave this system somehow, and display the patience necessary to wait for me to choose my only option.

After much warping around and placing markers in the system I find myself 200km away from the WH and observing the hunting party under protection of my cloak. The Thorax warps away into the system to it's farthest planet. The Tengu, for reasons I can't fathom, puts 30km between himself and the WH. The hurricane is nowhere to be seen and I have only the bulk of a Domonix to deal with in getting through to the WH. I deactivate my cloak and fire up the warp-drive, bridging the gap between my ship and the WH in seconds and cease the EIDs function. On the other side I don't wait for the hunting party to recover their senses, I warp away to the first planet my sensors encounter and set my course for low security space... later on I find myself breathing relief in the safety of Empire-ruled territory, and tell my A.I. to make it's way home. Leaving a message for my CEO, "Rough trip, will check the space tomorrow, keep an eye on it until I get there" I let my body relax.

I think my ship has earned a name, I let this thought roll over my mind and replace the tension and paranoia of flying on the defensive for so long.