Back to the Battle

Amarr Facility
Sifilar Solar System

It'd only taken me a few days... One day to hurt Amanda, badly, one day to talk to Louella, and one to talk to Scillicicio. I'd been incredibly stupid, I couldn't deny that. I mentally ordered my Hammerhead II drones to pick apart another Imperial Navy warship, its defenses no match for my Gila cruiser. What Petra had done would haunt me for a long time. I wouldn't forget it easily. But I wouldn't solve my problems, nor my corporation's, by being a self-pitying fool. The Prophecy-class battlecruiser crumbled under my onslaught. I forced myself to focus on the here and now. Alowas's Thrasher was flitting back and forth between targets, its 200mm autocannons making short work of any Imperial frigates foolish enough to engage us. Eight minutes left on the bunker's timer. This bored me. I checked directional scan. Multiple Amarr Empire wartargets had passed through the system.

There was an Imperial Navy Slicer, Omen, and Hound on scan now. I checked the local channels for their presence, spotting them just as they left. Not a single wartarget would engage my cruiser. A tad disappoitning. No, this wasn't the time for wasting my energy on some sorry excuse to not deal with my problems. I had to face them myself. I fired the Gila's microwarpdrive for a single cycle, dodging past the tracking speed of the Imperial Navy's Apocalypse and setting a squadron of heavy drones on it. I'd deal with Petra if I had to.

Beyond Our Sins

The irony of my position now, and of my position in a corporation named "Beyond Our Sins", had occurred to me many times in the last few weeks. I'd done many stupid things. I wouldn't call them sins... I didn't believe in sins. But they were stupid. And I hadn't paid the price, others had. I put the small holodisc in the wooden box next to the infant's skeleton. And it was something I must never forget. The price was too high. I needed nobody else now. Not even Amanda. I checked my datapad, cleared my messages, then reached into a sealed container next to me. It contained a crushed, preserved human heart. Without a word, I placed that into the box too. I sealed the box and reset the password to "Shawley", and placed it on the cupboard. I should haev felt hatred, anger, rage, something toward Petra. I should have felt love for Amanda. I felt nothing. Just empty. I tried to conjure up an image of Amanda in my head. No emotion. Petra. Nothing. Mia. Nothing. I didn't sigh, I didn't regret, I didn't even feel anger anymore. I silently decided that all I had left was my ideals and the corporation. I'd never be beyond my sins, ever. But I had a flag to hoist. Alone. No, I had Amanda. But I didn't. No, I would do things on my own from now on. People complicated things.

Enyo Face

The lasers from the Amarr battleship fleet smashed the shields off of my Vexor, the audio alarms sounding immediately as they plummetted to critical levels. I wasted no time aligning myself out, and engaged the warp drive. The navy ships didn't follow. I'd chosen a route that would take me into an asteroid belt, away from the enemies. There were two Sansha's Nation frigates about twenty kilometers away. I was aligning back to the complex when an Enyo-class assault frigate warped into the area. It was only a few hundred meters away. I contemplated action when yellow brackets indicated a lock. I wasted no time, locking back.

I'd scarcely finished when he locked on and engaged his warp scrambler. The small railguns fired a spray of slugs that ricocheted harmlessly off my ship's carapace-like hull, the armor absorbing the shots with ease. What a fool. My own scrambler and webifier engaged immediately, and I activated my high-slot modules. They weren't guns. My energy neutralizers immediately arced out, beams of crackling power striking his ship, destabilizing its power grids. My Warrior II drones leapt forth, rocketing out and tearing the armor back from his ship with their autocannons. The small frigate was going down fast. I barely noticed the Vagabond, bearing tags, warp into the belt. It opened fire on the Enyo, but far too late to do much more than get on the CONCORD mail as it exploded. I wasn't paying attention as it engaged its warp disruptor on me.

I didn't hesitate. Recall drones, launch Hammerhead II's, engage microwarp drive. I leapt into tackle range quickly as his autocannons duck trenches in my armor plates. I didn't stop, and engaged my scrambler, webifier, and neutralizer. My armor was falling, but so were his shields. I ignored the low armor warning, intent on killing him if at all possible. My Vexor began to stream leaking plasma from numerous wounds. I ignored the growing count of alarms, my drones chewing through the Vagabond's shields. It was at fifty perce--- The HUD flickered, but I was prepared as my capsule ejected, immediately warping to a nearby stargate. "Good fight," I offered in local, making a mental note to not engage heavy assault ships in a cruiser.

In the Face of Superiority

Rens VI - Moon 8 - Brutor Tribe Treasury
Rens Solay System
Ortner Constellation
Heimatar Region

I checked the Raven's systems one final time, verifying that its shield extenders and weapon systems were online. Wedgetail was ready in the adjacent hangar with his Scimitar, with an allied Myrmidon and Caracal in other bays, ready to deploy. "All ships undock, open fire." The battleship accelerated straight ahead toward the docking gantry, the other smaller ships queuing up behind him. The battleship emerged amidst a crowd of ships. The wartarget's Megathron Navy Issue was hovering above and behind the undock point. I wasted no time, activating the Raven's invulnerability fields and turning the slow ship toward my target. My sensors achieved lock, and I opened fire, a volley of massive torpedoes streaking from my ship to his. They struck the shields with a spectacular explosion, the target rocking under the impact. He began to return fire, great splashes of plasma crashing against my battleship's shields. They flickered, but held. Just then, the other ships began to undock. Missiles poured from the Caracal as another torpedo volley struck, and drones from the Myrmidon.

I watched the target's shields plummet, then, as I'd predicted, it stopped cold as our weapons hit a thick layer of plated armor. The readouts showed it dropping slowly, but my shields were failing, nearly down to thirty percent. A small ship flashed past, shield transporters flaring into life as the Scimitar began providing logistics support to my ship. The shields immediately began to regenerate, gaining ground over the neutron blasters instantly. My heart sank as a Curse and another Megathron Navy Issue warped in. "Fuck! Concentrate all fire on the current target!" A swarm of drones flew forth, chasing after Wedgetail's scimitar. I ignored them, pouring torpedoes into the breaking ship in front of me.

"Sorry, I have to dock!" The Scimitar disappeared from sensors as docking drones took ahold of it. The two flights of Ogre drones turned and began to come back toward me, my shields already taking immense amounts of punishment. I wouldn't last much longer, but then the target was nearing armor. Just before we broke into its hull, it began to regain armor. I swore vehemently as two Guardians lit up as hostile. "Damn bitches can't even fight without a coward's backup plan!" It was already too late for me, the armor melting off of my Raven in chunks of glowing metal. "FUCK!" I exploded, furious as all of the damage was repaired from the two logistics ships. I didn't hesitate, punching out of the Raven and warping my pod before the hull began to split along the seams. I engaged the pod's warp drive, watching the station fade behind me, growling in frustration the whole way.

One More Chance

I watched the entrance of the La Maison fall into place, my retreat from reality. I walked in, tuning out the feed from the camera drones and tuning into the nightclub's environment. I walked through the table area towards the bar, and sat down, ordering a tea from the virtual bartender. I picked up the hot tea and sipped it slowly, looking around the the lack of real patrons. I looked over at the virtual bartender, a generic, non-racial male with obscure features, and nodded my thanks out of habit. I had only been there for a few moments when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned, and watched Mia approach. She was wearing a sleeveless green dress that matched her hair and data visor. Her stomach was starting to show her pregnancy, and the scars and bruises on her arms were fading. I turned away to hide the pain I knew was on my face, not turning when I heard her sit down next to me. "Hey..." She called in her soft voice. I turned, not wanting to be rude.

"Hey." I avoided her eyes, looking down at her orange juice, then her stomach, then back at my tea. "I haven't seen you in awhile. You okay?"

"Yeah," She responded. "You?"

"I'm alive." I didn't feel like it, though. I looked back at her, her haunted green eyes staring back. She began to speak again.

"William... I've been thinking about that day..." I sucked in air and cut her off rudely.

"I thought you wanted to wait until Amanda was here to discuss our relationship."

"She hasn't been around in awhile, and I... I'm lonely... I... I think I love you..." I watched her lip quiver, and considered my response carefully.

"You're only eighteen. Are you sure you know the difference between love and lust?" I watched her bite her lip, knowing I'd hit something sensitive. I wasn't sure if I was saying it because I meant it, because I wanted to hurt her, or both.

"I... I think I do."

"Are you doing this for the kid?"

"No..."

"You know something, Mia? At first, I was with you for the kid. But," I said, seeing a sharp stab of pain on her face, "I really, really like you. It grew into something." I wasn't sure if she'd heard the last bit. A tear slipped out of one eye, and she turned to go, hurrying towards the entrance. I waited until she was halfway, then took four long strides and caught up, grabbing her wrist. "Mia, wait." She stopped, and I turned her slowly, my heart aching at the tears coming from her eyes. I pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her passionately. "I want you... I want to be with you..." She snuggled against me, and I carefully lifted her up. It was only a virtual environment, but I'd go to Kamela later to visit her. "Please don't cry." I carried her out, watching the world deconstruct itself, her virtual avatar's weight disappearing and her body fading as my mind returned to the ship I was in. I undocked my shuttle and set a route for Kamela.

And Some You Win

I checked fleet communcations again as my battleship decelerated on the station. Sure enough, a lone Rifter frigate was hovering above the undocking point. Immediately upon my appearance, the pilot began to make comments in the local channels about cowards and backup. I didn't comment, just chuckled internally at how he'd attacked Eliza's frigate with a Hurricane. I docked my own ship, seeing her in the station guest list. Without hesitating, I requested permission to undock. The rusted gantries and other ships slid past as my Megathron slowly emerged into the depths of space, only about ten kilometers from the Rifter. It wasn't moving, and the pilot was still yammering in local. My patience was at its end, and I locked on. Eliza's Slicer undocked behind me, the golden ship immediately turning toward the other frigate. I didn't hesitate, firing all seven neutron blaster cannons. White streaks of antimatter washed over the small vessel, its shields flaring briefly before the hull split into pieces. The capsule barely had time to eject as pieces of its hull split off. The station's guns immediately targeted my battleship and fired, the howitzers glancing off its formidable shields.

I turned the two-pronged warship towards the military complex in system, ignoring the volleys striking the hull, and executed a warp. It took only a few moments for my ship to decelerate, and I didn't stop to think, activating the acceleration gate immediately. Eliza's frigate appeared behind me as I aligned and began warping to the actual combat site. I was honestly expecting it to be empty, but a Myrmidon was sitting four kilometers from the drop-out point. I had scarcely locked onto the ship when it began firing its blasters, a flight of drones spewing forth and encircling me. My own blasters fired in response, the antimatter crushing his shields with one hit. The aura of a stasis webifier encircled my ship, and his as well, as we both engaged the tackling gear. The next blast liquefied entire swaths of the sword-shaped ship. Drones spat forth from my own ship's bay, assigned immediately to Eliza's tiny ship. A warp disruptor engaged on the Myrmidon, but her guns targeted the mass of Hammerhead drones attacking me. I watched my shields slowly drop, and fired again. This time, the target's entire ship shook with the force. Parts of its hull split off, spiraling away in little plumes of plasma, but then I saw the green crawl of nanobots. The augmented repairers of the Myrmidon recovered quickly, the holes in its hide healing seamlessly.

I swore, and watched another of his drones explode. My capacitor was dropping slowly, the blasters requiring massive amounts of energy. I fired the capacitor booster, then cursed into the fleet channel as it refused to reload. "I didn't bring any damn cap booster eight hundreds!" It was enough for now, though, as my guns continued to pound at the target. He had to be going through his own boosters by the pairs, at the rate he was taking damage. One of us was going to run out of capacitor before too long. A fourth drone exploded, then a fifth. Suddenly, the Myrmidon's armor readings plummeted. The ship fired a new flight of drones, modified Vespa ECM drones. They raced for my ship, encircling it, and I ignored them, firing away. It didn't take long until I received a "Capacitor Empty" notification. Eliza's slicer was still orbiting, targeting his drones. The first of the ECM drones exploded just as they entered a jamming cycle, and I lost my lock on the battlecruiser. It began to slip out to a larger orbit, and I began monitoring my capacitor levels. Without any of my modules running, it was recovering quickly. Another two drones exploded, but the Myrmidon still had its webifiers engaged on my ship. I turned the Megathron straight for him and began to accelerate as another drone exploded, then his last.

I locked on and fired. The Myrmidon, now at eight kilometers, was in the perfect range for a direct hit, the blasters washing away hundreds of tons of armor plating with the first mighty blow. The ship wasn't repairing as I fired again. The pilot must've launched the ECM drone flight in an effort to escape, likely having run out of capacitor boosters. I let the blasters cycle again, the volley striking it below the main hull. The lower half of the ship split away and exploded, the upper half turning to escape as it began venting burning oxygen and plasma from the gaping wound. I grinned and fired again, ignoring all comm channels, intent on the kill. The antimatter blasted into its main body, tearing away an entire bank of blasters and sending the ship into an uncontrolled spiral away. I wasn't going to let it escape, my targeting systems showing massive hull damage. One more shot... My blasters lined up for the remains of the ship, and fired a final time, splitting the remains into thousands of shattered parts. The capsule ejected, but I didn't even attempt to target it as its pilot warped away.

Admitting to Mistakes

I walked into the small office, holding the door open for Amanda. The small, raven-haired Khanid walked past and behind the dark, wooden desk. I shut the door, looking around the small, grey-walled room. A few paintings of landscapes decorated the wall, along with a three dimensional holo drawing of some dark spire in the corner, drawn by my friend, Keena. She took a seat at the chair behind the desk, and I at one of the ones in front of it. Amanda checked something on the computer terminal, then turned to me, looking me in the eyes. "So... You needed to speak to me." I hadn't seen her in nearly a month, and what I was about to tell her thratened to choke me. I sighed, and began.

"The only way to say this is to put this bluntly," I said, pausing. "I'm seeing someone else." I watched her twitch, but hold her gaze. I looked away, unable to meet her gaze. "I'm sorry." I heard the door click once behind me, and knew Mia was in the room as well. Amanda closed her eyes, and lowered her head for a moment. She leaned foward and put her head down on the desk, hands over them, and began to rub her temples before sitting back up, hands under her chin. She looked over my shoulder at the Gallente woman, but said nothing to her.

"Is that all?" I could hear the pain in her voice, and I had to fight to gain the strength to say what I had to say next.

"She's pregnant." I watched Amanda pale, both hands dropping to the table.

"Shes... She's wha... Preg..." She stammered, sinking into the chair, staring off into space. I nodded slowly. She looked over my shoulder at Mia, and I could see tears forming. I fought to keep my own in check.

"Is this her?" I could only guess that Mia had nodded, still staring at the hands in my lap. "She's pretty... She have a name?" I heard Mia speak next in her soft, low voice.

"Mia, and I have a voice too." I didn't look up.

"I noticed," Amanda said, the sarcasm and hurt immediately audible. "So.. That's it, then..." I looked up, and she was looking me in the eye, tears flowing freely now. "When? How? Why?" I didn't know what to say, not sure how much of what had happened in the last month I could tell her without Mia volunteering to tell.

"I'm not as good a person as you thought me to be." My response made her half chuckle through a sob.

"Interesting thing to say... In front of your new... Friend..." I flinched. Behind me, I heard Mia sigh and walk out. I looked away from Amanda again.

"If you want to hit me, do it. I deserve it."

She scoffed and leaned back in her chair, folding her arms. "Yeah? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Will it make me feel any beter? What do you think, Caldari?" The words stung, and I found myself wishing she had hit me.

"I don't know what will make you feel better..."

"No... No, you don't... Not anymore." She looked at me sadly, shook her head, and spun her chair the other way. "If you have nothing else to say, then leave. Or maybe I should, made things easier for you the last time." She got up and walked past, then stopped for a moment. I didn't know what else to say, so said the only thing that came to mind.

"I know... I... Should've have... But I still want to see to the success of your corporation... If you'll let me stay."

"Do as you like... I'm doing things my way, on my own, from now on... Without your help... Or anyone else's." I heard her sob, as I was unable to turn to face her. "Goodbye, Dibble." The door slammed shut, and I put my head into my hands to cry.