Null in Void .03

Nul Sec - Unknown System

Emilien was lying sleeping in his cockpit when a blinking yellow light in the HUD and a soft repetitive buzz woke him. “I am almost home baby.” He took over from the auto pilot and broke out of warp twenty thousand kilometres from the jump gate. He hit the directional scanner, listened for chatter in local... the channel was silent. He waited patiently for at least two hours hitting D Scan intermittently, scanning the gate more than anything else. “No traffic as per usual.” Emilien aligned his Rifter towards the gate and activated his micro warp drive. Slowed down again to realign with the gate. The ship entered the gate and jumped. Emilien looked up at the roof of his cockpit for the duration of the jump and then began a slow countdown under his breath.
“ONE!” He sat up and punched D Scan while simultaneously opening local and listened. “Silent as a tomb.” He relaxed and pulsed his ship lightly away from the gate and waited for the residual cloak to dissipate.
“Is she awake?” As soon as his ship de-cloaked a private comms line opened. Jenny spoke first.
“Welcome home master.” Emilien admired the view of his home. He had become so attached to this system that he even felt jealous to think that any interloper could fly through it in his absence. “Did you have any guests while I was away baby?” Emilien admired the purple dust cloud of what he believed to be the remnant of a million year old super nova. “I did have one visitor. He was very friendly.” His heart felt a dull pain. His virgin territory had been defiled. “Where did he come from?” “I believe he was an explorer.” “Did he know where you were?” “I played hide and seek with him.” Emilien had a recurring dream that slowly conceived in his consciousness since he settled down, that he could shut down the gates in his system and reactivate them at his leisure. The dream frustrated him, when reality is not so forgiving. “Did you hide or did you seek?” “A little of both.” A subtle rage developed inside him. The asteroid belt he was approaching grew larger considerably faster as he increased the speed of his approach. He hit D Scan just to be sure that the intruder was not still in the direct vicinity. “Is he still here Jenny?” “No, I killed him for you.” The Rifter drifted around an asteroid within the belt exposing a space station anchored to the large roid and the husk of a ripped up Astero. “Did he hurt you?” “I had to feign lack of fire power to lure him to myself. But when he was in optimal range I scrambled his warp drive and activated ALL the turrets.” “Bastard! How much damage did you take.” “I have lost sixty percent of my capacitor recharge rate. And I cannot feel all my modules... Emilien” “Yes baby?” “He used droids on me.” “Aagghhh!!! I fucking hate droids!” He aligned to dock with the station. “Permission to dock?” “Permission granted.” The ship entered the hanger and landed before the doors had opened fully. “I'll patch you up baby, don't worry.” Emilien waited for Jenny to complete atmospheric adjustment and climbed out of his ship. He jogged to the command centre of his station. A huge screen lit up and Jenny projected Emilien's favourite interface onto it. “I have to update your systems girl.” He pulled a cable from his trousers which he plugged into an implant on his neck and connected the other end to the control panel. “Up to speed?” “Yes, thank you. How would you have me adjust myself to this contract?” Emilien smiled an affectionate smile that only Jenny ever sees. He loved efficiency and companionship combined into perfection. “I have researched the desired goal of my employer, and found that there are no stringent rules about how he wishes me to achieve his aims. I can literally do whatever I find necessary as long as I am successful at guiding a third party mercenary group into taking military control of any system I choose, setting up a blockade and making it safe for anonymous fourth party alliance affiliates to pillage as many resources as possible, all the while putting the Amarr Empire’s Capital fleet into a strategically inferior situation.” Jenny's avatar flickered. “Stretching the war to more fronts.” “Exactly!” Jenny looked indignant. “Whats wrong babe?” “You talk to me as if I am not updated and you still have not answered my question.” Emilien tried hard to remember. “Sorry baby, I wasn’t listening.” “What preparations should I make to adjust to this contract?” “Aah... I am going to Khanid Prime to enlist for a recently advertised colonial expansion program. The planet is in a system I do not know. The Sib system.” Jenny darkened the room and summoned up a holographic image of new Eden. Spinning it around so that the Sib is hovering directly in front of Emilien's face. He continued speaking as the display changed to show more detail. “The Moro star has a new colony on its third planet but I might have no permanent connection with my pod like I would on a high tech planet. If I die my clone might have no memory of who killed me. I need to regularly link up to comms somehow so I won't have amnesia if I get killed.” The artificial intelligence raised her eyebrows. “You will be offline? That is risky.” Emil closed his eyes and shook his head patronisingly. “Jenny, did you see the Isk? They have already paid fifty percent. I am rich. I am even considering replacing you with a newer version of A.I.” Jenny looked shocked. “Don't you love me?” “I love what you can do babe. But that new chick is smoking hot with CPU efficiency. I could upgrade all the systems in this base, add modules, increase the hanger size and get a Cruiser with the payout. More than you could handle, sorry. Anyway, back to business... if I do not hook up with and update my pod for longer than one YC, dump me straight into the clone.” Jenny pleaded in her most desperate voice. “What about a support technician. There is a high probability for malfunction. What if you have not died yet?” “Jennifer. Do not argue with me. I do not intend to die, I am just playing it safe.” Emilien walked over to the foggy glassed cryo chamber and pressed the demist button. The glass became clear and he looked at his frozen clone. Emilien disconnected the data cable that was still hanging loosely from his shoulder and touched his implants while seeing his clone's body lacking these systems. “I would hate to lose these precious babies too.”
Emilien smiled, he felt like a god. Untouchable.