Engineering Peace - Part 3

The burnished slug-like shape of a Cynabal class pirate cruiser swerved and banked frenetically between indifferently spinning asteroids glowing like coals with the reflection of orange sunlight. A group of heavy missiles followed in it's wake as if they were a pack of hungry predator fish on the hunt.

The pilot was skilled. Only now he managed to lose two missiles as they detonated on the surface of an asteroid that had moved into their path, but soon after his shields flared when then remaining missiles impacted on his swift vessel. Soon the defensive energy field would collapse.

Kassina Vikkonen smiled inwardly as her own ship, slowly but relentlessly, kept following her quarry. The Cynabal was fast and agile. Normally it would easily outrun her Tengu cruiser, but she had lured the pirate into a trap.

She had caught him in one of his favorite hunting grounds: The asteroid belts of Decon. There he preyed on mining crews foolhardy and greedy enough to venture into this border system where no official authority would protect them, in search of minerals not found in the more frequently mined belts of high security space.

Being a professional, Kassina had not allowed coincidence to play a role. For weeks she had paid mining crews to work as bait and informers for her. That allowed her to study the habits of her target without ever appearing in the picture herself.

When Kehlonn Baccar made his appearance, she was warned immediately. By the time she had jumped into system he was close to the mining ship that she had on her payroll. Normally a ship like that would be easy prey for a heavily armed combat cruiser like that Cynabal, but Kassina had given the miners instructions on how to fit their ship with a full compliment of defenses. Enough to prevent the pirate from scoring a quick kill. Enough for her to warp to their position, fully prepared to engage.

When her Tengu-class strategic cruiser appeared, she was conveniently positioned between the pirate ship and the only possible warp destination. Another aspect of this engagement she had not left to coincidence. During the past weeks, she had analyzed all the trajectories Kehlonn would take to warp out from the asteroid belts he used as hunting grounds. While she did not know where exactly his safe-spots would be located, she knew in which direction they laid.

From the position she caught him in, his only choice would be to navigate through the asteroid belt to warp off. That meant he would lose the speed advantage of his ship while her own vessel's missiles could follow his path easily. Now her ship's sensors told her that the pirate would soon be clear of the last asteroids, but his shield was almost down. Kassina steered her metallic-gray ship through the sluggishly moving rocks.

With tense concentration she forced her capacitors to push more power into the warp-disruptor. Inside the capsule which held her body, her fists clenched as she overstrained the missile launchers. They tracked, locked and expelled their deadly payload. The swarm of missiles trailed streamers of exhaust gases through space on their way to the target, and when they hit the shields of the Cynabal cruiser flickered before collapsing. The next volley tore open the armoured carapace of the pirate ship and threw it off course.

Quickly Kassina willed her weapons to disengage and activated the powerful force of a stasis field to hold the other ship down.

She opened a hailing frequency. 'Kehlonn Baccar. You have one choice: Stand down and face justice or die here.' Kassina transmitted across the link. Escape pods were jumping off the pirate's ship like lice leaving the body of a dying animal.

'Crazy Caldari bitch.' the pirate snarled back on the hailing frequency. 'I'm a capsuleer. You take me down here, I'll come back and rape your ugly ass until it bleeds.'

'Suit yourself.' Kassina Vikkonen would have shrugged if her body were not floating in a capsule, capable only of residual motor reflexes. Without any more hesitation she unleashed a last volley of missiles against her immobilized target. Without shields, and with it's armour plating destroyed, the ship came apart easily as explosions tore through it's weakened hull structure.

She could have told the man that his medical clone had been captured from it's cloning facility at an Angel Cartel station during a commando raid executed by Republic Security, but she had no inclination to be lenient in the face of the man's threats. The only place he would be waking up in was an isolation pod. His refusal to come willingly would be worth a few more years locked in there.

Satisfied she registered how her ISK balance trebled a few seconds later. Clearly the Matari authorities had received their man. She transferred the agreed cut to the miners and set course for high security space.

Several gate-jumps later – she was about to get cleared for her transition to Rens – her comm-system demanded attention. She sighed inwardly when she recognized the signature, but responded nevertheless.

'Aluvetti, what do you want?' Her only contact with that man had occurred when he had finalized the business arrangements necessary to get her current ship delivered to her. He worked as a go-between for Awakened Industries in the Minmatar Republic while officially holding a small-time trade commission with Kaalakiota corporation. A typical conniver. She didn't like the type.

'Kassina Vikkonen, friendly as always.' Before her mind's eye the man's clean-shaven face displayed a broad smile.

'Spare me the pleasantries Aluvetti. I have better things to spend my time on' she replied with annoyance inflecting her synthesized voice.

'I understand, you are probably very busy now that CONCORD has expanded the bounty regulations.' the trader concurred. 'But I am actually authorized to hire your services. It's not quite a bounty job, but something that requires a person with your superiour tracking skills.'

Kassina weighed the issue. Her crew could use some shore-leave, but if that was a tracking mission only, she could maybe do it with an unmanned frigate. She herself did not feel any desire to be out-of-pod for any extended amount of time between contracts.

'Fill me in.' she replied curtly.

'You remember that young Civire executive? The one who had captured one of the Awakened Industries capsuleers?'

Kassina replied that she did.

'We have indication that she traveled to the Amarr Empire. We want her found and we need to know what she is up to. Let's just say someone has a hunch that it might not be anything good.' Aluvetti explained. 'We'll pay fifty percent on top of your usual rates.' he offered after a small pause.

'Now you're talking my language.' Kassina said with renewed interest. 'Give me a day and I'll be on it.'

***

Tomoe Sairinen craned her neck while she let her gaze travel up along the shining,curved spire of the Ministry of Internal Order building. As Caldari Citizen she was not unfamiliar with daring megastructures and during the weeks she had spent on Oris, she had somewhat gotten used to Amarr architecture in all it's baroque opulence, but this behemoth was something different entirely.

The towering structure curved over Imperial Plaza like the claw of some immense beast. Facing downward, the emblem of the powerful governmental body seemed like a lidless eye staring down at the unworthy supplicant who would approach the gates.

For Tomoe central government manifesting in such grandiose manner was a foreign thing. In the world she grew up in, only the largest corporations would be housed in buildings of comparable size. That made it even more intimidating. How much more powerful must an institution be that acted by fiat of an authority which ruled something as large as the Amarr Empire?

She felt hopelessly out of place in her straight-cut Caldari business suit.

She stood out here, among people either wearing the austere robes of office or richly embroidered civilian clothes with accents of strong colours. Slowly and timidly Tomoe climbed the wide stairs approaching the gaping entrance to the Empire's main intelligence agency, entering the building's shadow. Then she stopped, took a deep breath, clenched her fists and drew her brows together. 'No, I will not be intimidated.' she decided resolutely. 'I have spent a long time and way too much money to be granted this appointment. I shall hold my head high and get what I want.'

The Civire executive nodded once with determination. Then she resumed her approach, walking briskly and with renewed focus.

***

'What?!' Keram untangled himself from the lithe woman beside him and threw off the bedsheet to sit up. 'You want to interface with a Sleeper Drone so some Matari crackpot scientist can have his experiment and possibly reinstate that little princess to her former glory?!' he exclaimed.

Alira smiled and shook her head. 'Look at you, being all protective.' she raised from the pillow, reached out, and ran her fingers through his long hair. 'It's cute, actually.'

Keram took hold of Alira's hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. 'I'm serious Alira. This is too much of a risk. How can you know that it will even work and you wont get your brain fried. We don't even really know what Sleepers are.'

The Matari woman squeezed her lover's hand reassuringly. 'I ran simulations with Shisei. Torstan and me went through all possible permutations for days. I am sure it can work, and if it does, we will write history.' Her eyes gleamed enthusiastically.

'Now you sound like him' Keram growled. 'You spend too much time with that old geezer and his flattery got to you.' he frowned at her.

'Are you jealous of an old corporate geek?' Alira replied with disbelief in her voice. She untangled her fingers from his and touched his cheek. 'Trust me. This is what I do since I was old enough to splice optronics and grow wetware circuitry in my parent's garden shed.' she looked into his dark eyes. 'How often have you taken risks in fights because you knew you can make it and the rewards would be worth it?' she reached out to him 'This is my chosen battlefield.'

Keram sighed. 'And all that so Sylera can return to her precious crusader brethren and serve the Empire?' He paused and pressed his lips together. 'Going back to killing your people.' he added.

Alira smirked 'No, she wont return. She is changed forever. If her experiences didn't do that, Sandrielle sure did. She is one of us now and we owe her our support.' she rested her head on the pillow again. 'Also, if the Amarr have no reason to hunt her anymore, that also means they will leave us alone.'