Slaves do not buy themselves, even so, when the discrete personal notification went off he made his excuses, moving to find a private terminal. After positioning his security personnel to ensure he would be undisturbed he quickly found his way to a newly received data package. After further checks he was indeed alone he opened it with increasing interest.
///////*********ENCRYPTED CONTENT DETECTED
DECRYPTION PROTOCOLS RUNNING…………..
MESSAGE FOLLOWS*************\\\\\\\\\\\
THE IMPURE BITCH HOLDS GOLDEN THRONE.
CAPSULEERS INVOLVEMENT HAMPERED IMPERIAL GUARD STRIKES.
EXTERNAL TARGETS SHOW PROMISE.
SIMULATION FOLLOWS.
AMARR MUST BE PURE.
He read it twice to be sure he wasn’t hallucinating. His pulse was racing, finally, movement towards affirmative action. At the bottom of the message an icon blinked to indicate the proposed simulation was ready to start. He almost forgot to look round to check he was still alone before clicking the icon, almost, he wasn’t that excited just yet.
A video begins playing, at first it is a star field impossibly unidentifiable from any of the 4,999 other star systems in New Eden. Then the angle changes, the camera pans down to reveal an L shaped station, blocky and hard edges, thin at each end and chunky in the middle, that horrible Caldari grayish blue metal with a Perkone logo stamped on the exterior. Before he can begin thinking of the number of potential systems with such a station in them, if indeed the simulation is using an actual station, the angle changes again. More stars, nothing but stars, then a cyno lights illuminating a lone Ibis previously lost against the enormity of the nothing behind it, he quickly reduces his list of systems to low security space. Seconds later the angry orange circle of a capital ship jump tears through the fabric of space in the upper right corner of the frame. The expanding halo shock wave recedes leaving in its wake the glorious gleaming shape of an Ark. At the opposite corner of the screen two lines of text stand out in stark relief from the star field beyond.
For within it
Salvation is carried
The Ark turns, aligning towards the station before it leaves the camera shot warping off screen. Text in the bottom hand corner of the screen begins to appear and scroll downwards off the bottom of the screen. It lists alignment, velocity, and a timer counting down. The perspective is back on the station. The timer reaches zero and the text reads.
Explosives detonated
It hangs there on the bottom of the screen drawing the eye until it is replaced by text informing the viewer that the simulation is no longer running in real time. As the blue white flash of a warp termination draws the eye upwards the Ark reappears in shot. Even with the video running at reduced speed it is clear to the naked eye the jump freighter has not completed a controlled warp exit. The Ark is simply moving too fast. As it silently screams across the screen it seems to be dragging a burning red line of fire behind it. The entire engine section of the Ark is a blazing ruin, detritus is ejected from the back of the ship and flung wide in it’s wake as it hurtles towards the station. As the pointed front of the Ark bears down on the station it looks like a 2,484m long spear wreathed in flame.
The simulation shows a mass of various ships around the exterior of the station. The passage of the Ark through them is like a gunshot through a crowd. Anything caught in the direct path is simply annihilated resulting in a flash of light illuminating the bow and a fizzle of impact against the jump freighter shields. A myriad of ships disintegrate in seconds like a festival launcher celebration illuminating other luckier ships slightly off the Ark’s path that are bumped wildly wide by the sheer brutality of the Ark’s advance and the displacement of it’s shields. It’s next target is the station.
The Ark doesn’t just hit the station it dissects it. Shields that held against the smaller craft have no hope of withstanding striking such a physical mass. They sheer off instantly as a blinding flash of blue light marking the jump freighters first impact upon the station. The ark is still moving, punching through the station as it collapses behind it. Captain’s quarters, repair docks, factory spaces, entertainment suites are all voided to space by the ship’s passage. The station is lacerated, gas and debris bleeding from both sides of the wound. The momentum of the Ark flings debris off at all angles causing further damage to the stricken station as internal explosions begin to blossom along the line of impact. With failed shields, reduced velocity and a hull buckling under the impact with the station the Ark explodes. The strain on the noble vessel is so great that the majority of it simply vaporizes only a few large chunks of it escape the final explosion, lacerating out through the bowels of the wounded station dragging ballooning explosions along behind them.
The Ark is gone, in real time it’s flight would have been almost instantaneous. As the video reverts to standard speed the after effects of its journey are all too clear. The station is cracked into four separate pieces. Explosions continue to pepper the interior. Debris, bodies are littered everywhere some of which is alight. Then something rather surreal happens, ships are falling from the exposed edges of the station. Looking like normal undocking ships at first, they have no engine power, some of them are falling away from the station backwards. Others are incomplete, shaken loose from factory docks in which they were being assembled. Text begins to roll across the bottom of the screen in a sick parody of a Scope news bulletin.
Intelligence on ships under construction accurate. Ability to undermine her rule by striking at her allies is credible. Use of slaves and willing martyrs for the cause as crew approved. PURITY AT ALL COSTS.
The video dissolves to static and he licks lips that feel dry and cracked. He is committed, he knows the punishment for a lack of support at this stage. He has no choice.
Purity at all Costs.
No comments:
Post a Comment