You have never heard silence like the silence of space. It's a quiet so loud it makes your head spin. Bereft of your hearing your eyes must tell the full story. Looking around the system, Dreygan didn't miss the noise. It feels like I am swimming in a trillion motes of light. Every direction, every angle is covered by more stars than could ever hope to be counted in one life time. Dreygan smiled. Thankfully, I have more than one lifetime now. Gas clouds played the light around in hues of every color imaginable, like watching every sunset all at once. Planets hung in his vision like brilliant tie-dyed marbles. Even seeing it every day didn't diminish the wonder of it for him.
A flashing in Dreygun's NEOCOM stirred him from his reverie. With a sigh he closed his eyes, or rather severed the feeds from his camera drones. Floating in his capsule, Dreygun was surrounded by cold darkness, but even then a tickling in the back of his mind made him aware subconsiously of every system on board his vessel. A standard cruiser, his Arbitrator was a small ship by capsuleer standards, normally crewed by over a thousand hands, with the capsule technology only a few hundred were on board. Alone Dreygun could pilot this entire starship, calculate complex jump coordinates in a second, formulated firing solutions on a dozen targets, and command a full wing of automated drones. He was a god among men, a Capsuleer. The cloning technology inherent in the capsules granted him near immortality, an eternity to spend among the stars.
Of course godhood came at a price. He had been selected by the Amarr empire because he was one out of billions of people capable of syncing with the complex capsule technology that the Jove had mysteriously bestowed on New Eden. He had been put through rigorous testing, training, and background screenings since the age of 12. After that 20 years had been spent in service of the Amarr navy. It saddened him that it had taken him 20 years to break free. Twenty years of murder.
He had caught hundreds of thousands of slaves. Some whom had escaped and some who had been born free. The Minmatar were lesser beings as were all humans when compared to the glory of Amarr, god's chosen. That was what he had been brainwashed to believe.
Images flashed over his vision. Lifeless bodies floating through space, their screams frozen in time. Thousands of them flowing like a river from dozens of unarmed transport vessels. Flesh mangled, interwoven with wires and charred metal from the debris, twisting and turning in a horrific dance. Dreygan tried in vain to shut out the images, but these were not from his camera drones these were memories embedded in his mind, his perfect cybernetically enhanced mind.
That had been his last mission for Amarr. The day he had woken up to the horrors he was committing. It was a reclaiming mission. He was suppose to capture the transports, but he had underestimated the Minmatar's desire for their freedom. After he delivered a dozen hails demanding that the vessels halt in the name of God and Empire, he destroyed the small escort fleet. The transports had no hope of out running him... and yet they refused to yield. He was not equipped with warp disruption so the order was given to destroy the vessels. It was better they die than be free in the eyes of Amarr.
Without question he had ordered his drones to fire. His drones tore into the vessels like rabid dogs. mincing their shields and armor in a second... Dreygun shook his head, banishing the memories away, and willed the red light still blinking in his mind to stop, bringing up his comm window he answered the incoming hail.
A gruff age worn old man appeared in his mind's eye, digitally projected via his neural interfaces. "We have rogue drone contact at 10 AU, 30 degrees below horizontal axis, 40 degrees west off solar north. Adjust directional scanners and warp to uploaded jump coordinates on my mark. Dr. Sali needs salvage for his research so focus targeting away from their neural processors. Avery out." The man's image blinked off Dreygan's vision and the jump data flooded his mind.
Rebooting his camera drones he made the appropriate course adjustments, aligning to his target. Taking a deep breath he willed his ship into warp.
This was his third year interning under Dr. Sali. After fleeing Amarr, Dreygan had found solace in the diverse ethnic culture of the Gallente Federation. Being a capsuleer he found work easily, but he quickly discovered a love for drone studies. That passion led him to the doors of the CreoDron corporation.
CreoDron was a mega corporation. A massive force within Gallente space. They had funded Dreygan's studies and set him up with a lucrative job working for one of their many drone AI research teams. For the most part this work involved salvaging some of the thousands of mysterious rogue drones that infested New Eden. It was grunt work, but killing drones was much easier on Dreygun's conscience than the massacres he had taken part of as a member of Amarr's navy.
The blur of light around him slowed as his ship began to decelerate out of warp. A dozen red X shaped figures populated his simulated vision. Zooming his camera drones in he recognized the unmistakable insect like silhouette of the rogue drones.
Dreygun established a comm link to his ship's crew quarters. "Hostile contact, all crew to combat stations." He recited the order verbatim from his memory, repeating it three times before closing the comm channel. He willed his afterburners on accelerating to full subwarp speeds. He was hoping to maintain an orbit of 30 kilometers, in order to maximizing his traversal speeds. This would reduce the damage coming from the pin prick lances spitting out of the bug like machines.
Dreygun opened his drone bays, cycling out 5 Gallente hammerhead class combat drones. He felt his mind split as a small part of his consciousness attached itself to each drone. Complex flight patterns of the drones were managed both by the drones own on board AI as well as the drone amplification software of the navigation and tracking modules on his own vessel. Together it was a concert of bobs and weaves as the the small vessels engaged the threats, and Dreygan was the maestro.
An alarm screeched in his ear followed by the voice of his chief defense officer, a middle aged Intaki female named Joan. "Captain, shields have fallen below 10% I recommend activation of the armor repair modules now to preempt damages from the next volley of drone fire."
Dreygun smiled internally at the crisp professionalism. "Of course, go ahead." he replied. A moment later the deep rhythmic hum of the repair systems nanites could be heard even in the depths of Dreygun's thick walled capsule.
Dreygun opened his comms again connecting with his officers on the main bridge. " What is the range on the new beam cannons we installed?"
"12 kilometers optimal, Captain." The deep voice of their primary weapons officer Biran replied.
Checking his range, Dreygun's mind instantly calculated the best firing solution of the closest drone. "Load radio frequency crystals and open fire on the primary."
High pitched screeches rocked the entire vessel as the ships cannons released their first volley. A distant boom confirmed the hit on the rogue drone followed another as the enemies hull breached.
The rest of the targets quickly followed suite. After only 10 minutes Dreygun gave the order to stand down from battle stations. Opening a comm to Avery, Dreygun gave his report. "Rogue drone contacts are clear, for salvage crew. Combat log is being uploaded to Dr. Sali's servers for analysis."
The vision of Avery once again winked into Dreygun's mind. "Good, that's all the contacts CONCORD had reports of in this system. I say we call it a day. Drinks at the mess tonight? I am ready for this week to be over." The hard edges of CreoDron's lead research team fleet commander, softened a bit, as he took a deep breath, and smirked "A few more days like this and I may have to call in my vacation time."
It had been a rough week. This had been the 25th site they had cleared today, and it made over a 100 this week. Dreygun hoped dearly that Dr. Sali would have enough salvaged AIs to finish his most recent studies. A breakthrough in this research could mean major changes in the way CreoDron constructed their current line of combat drones and even more impressively it could help them develop better methods for handling the Rogue drone infestations altogether.
"Roger that Avery," Dreygun said before adding with a chuckle, "but if you cash in all the vacation you have accrued wouldn't that be called retirement?"
The image of Avery shook his head with a laugh before disappearing and leaving Dreygun once again alone in his capsule. Whether Sali makes a breakthrough on this project or not, I hope something interesting happens soon. I don't know how much more of this repetitive stuff I can take...Dreygun calculated a route back to the station where they carried out their research on the salvaged drone parts. 16 jumps back to headquarters... I think I will let the autopilot handle this, time for a nap.
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