The Lathspell of Mithrandir

“Mr. Stormcrow!  Mr. Stormcrow!”

I was jolted out a sounds sleep by an excited voice over the comm.  Why did I leave it on the table in the other room? I thought.  I rolled out of bed and dragged myself the ten feet needed to get into the main room of my stark apartment in Iyen-Oursta.

“Do you know what time it is?  Who is this?”

“I beg your pardon Mr. Stormcrow.  This is Tegan and I have some news for you.  You had told me to call you the moment the job was completed.”

“The blueprints?”  Before I made this last trip to Gallente space, I had gathered the Datacores I needed and started a number of invention jobs on a couple of hybrid weapons.  “What’s the word?”

“Of the five jobs inventing Tech 2 blasters, three of them failed and two were successful.  I hope you don’t mind that I started the manufacturing jobs making four Light Neutron Blaster II’s.”

“Good, good.”  A smile began to form on my face.

“Only one of the 75mm Railgun blueprints were successful.  I have started the manufacturing job for this as well.”

“This is great news.  Thank you for the call.  Is there anything else happening that I should know about?”

“Oh yes.  Your Rifter has been fitted and is being flown out to you.  It should arrive in the next day or two.”

“That sounds great.  Thank you for the update.  Get some sleep and tell the crews to go home.  You guys deserve a couple days off.”

“Thank you, sir.  It will be happily received.  Goodbye.”

With a click, the comm silenced.  I took a breath and went to the wall cooler to get myself a Pineapple-Orange Quafe.  The flavors were crisp and refreshing and the star rising over the planetary horizon filled me with energy.  What a great way to start a brand new day…

“I trust you received the data we collected from the Serpentis radar array.” I said to Rear Admiral Alexandros Reinhardt, “And I trust we won’t have any further miscommunications.”

“The Federation thanks you for your cooperation.” His words were filled with contempt, but he was sincere, “When you have a free moment, I would like to ask you some more questions – regarding a more personal matter.”

“I will set some time in my schedule for you, sir.” I answered, “However, at this time I must be away.  I hope you understand.”

“Certainly. I look forward to hearing from you. Fly safe”.  The good Admiral was a man of honor and respect.  It was a relief to see integrity in the Federation.  I stood up and headed to my ship.

The Federation Navy station was not the bustling station the Roden Shipyards Factory was.  The tungsten walls were sanitary and had no decor what so ever.  The lines were straight and the corners defined.  It seemed more like a Caldari design than Gallente.  The walk through the halls was drab and lifeless.  Even the PX shop was stale.  Not a hint of a sales person in sight.  Where was the art?  Where was the free trade?  I guess the Federation had missed the heart of the Gallente designers that first crafted the foundations.  As I arrived to the hangar where the shuttle was docked, I was met my a familiar grin.

“Boss, I have an update for you.” Kenzie started to explain as I walked past him.

“Follow me but hold onto the update. Once we get out of this station, I’m all ears.”  He followed me into the Tiph’arah shuttle and sat down beside me.  We secured ourselves into our chairs – sometimes it feels refreshing to be back in a seat.  The gel in the pods feel completely different.

As we warped away from the station, I turned to Kenzie and asked, “So what’s the update?”

“Well Boss, as you know, when I intercepted the original signal, I saved it to the ship’s log and my own memory partition.  The copy I was able to get was from the Serpentis group to the Federal Freight station in Faurent.  It was to an agent there.  I think it was the one that set you up.”

“What transmissions went to the Federation Fleet?” I asked.

“No transmissions went to the Federation Fleet.  They came in on their own.”

“What did the transmission to Agent Lanercheve say?”

“It looked to be an update on the status of the radar array.  It had just come online and hadn’t intercepted anything too important yet.  Just standard information and docking requests and the like.  I don’t believe we intercepted anything too serious.  My team will keep looking.”

“Good job, Kenzie.”

Our shuttle was in the docking phase at Roden.  We disembarked and I went to my quarters.  With a sigh I opened the door.  Finally back home, I thought and I headed to sleep.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day…

“President Stormcrow,” the voice of a new member of Tiph’arah Corp came across the comms, “Who are the Serpentis?”

“Pirates.” I answered, “And you can call me Mithrandir.  I’m not ‘President’.  I am just the CEO of this corporation.”  His question stirred my interest, “So, why do you ask about the Serpentis?  Did you catch some in Kuso?”

“Sorry, sir.  No, I went exploring to Iyen-Oursta after making a stop at my Research Agent and found a Serpentis Listening Post.  Should this be reported and to who?”

I notified my Executive Officer to assemble the crew of the Gwaihir.  “You reported to the right person, John.  Can you get me fleet numbers?”

“Yes, sir.  Let me get those numbers for you.” and the comm clicked silent.

I grabbed my gear and headed to the hangar bay.  As I walked through the door, Drew joined me.  “I refit the Gwaihir with the rail guns you requested, sir. She may not have the DPS but she’s a sniper now. Take care of her, Mith.”

“I always do.” I answered as I was being loaded into my pod.

The Gwaihir sprang to life.  I loved the feeling of my ship interfacing with my neural net.  “Let’s roll.  Captain Brennick will be reporting the coordinates and fleet numbers shortly.”

As we left the station, John reported back.  He gave us the coordinates and five Serpentis frigates.  The gunners loaded the Rail guns and the drone crews interfaced with their drones.  We warped 50 km from the listening post.  A full radar array was configured as well as two missile turret batteries.  The five Succubus class frigates didn’t seem to pose much of a threat.

“Target the guards and deploy the drones.” I gave the order to advance, “Let’s find out what kind of information that radar array has picked up.”  As we moved in towards the radar array, the guards turned to intercept up.  Unfortunately for them, the drones were already engaged and the gunners were poised to open fire.  My smile grew as the Succubus seemed to be torn apart by the drones.  One by one they were destroyed.  I chuckled as I heard the gunnery crew mummer how they still didn’t get to fire and with the guards taken care of, the radar array was ours to hack.

We eased close to the main communication tower, keeping a safe distance of roughly 3000 meters.  The Tech/Com crew started working.  A few minutes into the job, I got a call over the comm, “Mithrandir, we have broken the security and are beginning to download the communication logs.”

“Excellent work,” I answered, “Keep me posted.”

Just then alarms started sounding.  “We have picked up a fleet warping towards us.”  Tactical was alive with new pings.

“Can we identify the fleet type?” I asked.

“Federation… small hull… dozen, dozen and a half… and one battleship.”

“Let’s finish this up boys.” I kept watch on the scanners, “I don’t want to be here when this fleet comes out of warp.”

“About half done, sir.” Tech/Com replied.

Just then the Gwaihir jolted with the change in gravity.  “We weren’t fast enough boys and now they are on top of us.” I announced over the comms, “Battle stations!”

“Eleven destroyers, five Fat Mans and three electronic warfare frigates.” came across my HUD even before I asked, “The Fat Men are firing missiles.”

“Prepare for impact.” I ordered and brought the ship around to engage the incoming fleet.

I received the report of the missiles’ impacts; however, the Gwaihir was not their target.  The radar array began to crumble.  Then the battleship came out of warp.

“Megathron hull, sir.  Just entered normal space and on a direct course for us.”

“Get us out of here.  We’re not fit to take on a battleship of any sort.” I have great confidence in my crew, but I know the limitations of a cruiser up against a little under two dozen ships.

“Sir, we haven’t finished downloading the data from the communications tower.”

“Keep downloading until the very last second. We’ll analyze it in Kuso if we have to.”

“We’ll try, sir.”  The ship started to warp as I saw the radar array explode in a brilliant light show.  I could only hope that we we’re able to get enough data and can figure out why the Serpentis are out here.

We returned to the station where we have been staying.  The crew and I disembarked and cleaned up.  I sat down to wind down, when my communications pad sounded.  I opened the new message…

Mithrandir Stormcrow,

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Rear Admiral Alexandros Reinhardt, commanding officer of the Federation Navy Battleship Tiamat.  Your ship’s signature was identified at a Serpentis Listening Post.  While we have the remains of the ships you destroyed, we also know that you were downloading sensitive Federation communication logs.

You are hereby requested to return any data you recovered from the Serpentis communications tower.  If you fail to turn over these sensitive communications,  you along with your corporation will be charged with Piracy, Corporate Espionage, and acts of Treason.

We know, with the reputation of the family Stormcrow, you will cooperate to the fullest measure.  You may deliver the data to me via encrypted data chip and sealed in a secure container.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Rear Admiral Alexandros Reinhardt

Oh great, I thought to myself, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…