Lolion Reglo's Captains log

The halls of the Tengu were metallic and cold in nature.  Much of the ship in the common areas were covered with creature comforts to ease their harsh appearance but the halls were left bare.  Wiring showing, pipes protruding every which way directing the eyes to follow them to their bulkheads leading to the different rooms they supplied or ran through.  The guts of the ship are what Lolion admired the most though.

Everything was right in front of you there were no nasty surprises or facades to dig through to get to what you needed.  Shaking himself from admiring the ship he rounded a corner and nearly bumped into a crew member.  Thomas was standing in front of him holding a few small firearms and a satchel on his shoulders.  “I already took the liberty of raiding the armory for you knowing that your shiny new ship would probably be commandeered before they really blew it up.” Tom said handing Lolion a side arm and a rifle.  It was the latest in small arms technology, built for ship use but won’t put any holes in the outer structure creating containment leaks.

Lolion holstered the handgun and chambered a round in the rifle.  “Thanks but I doubt they will board.  I actually think they will destroy the ship and then salvage what they can of the new tech.  The Sansha aren’t keen on taking prisoners.” Lolion said back turning to heard back towards the bridge with two more rifles in hand.  “Regardless equip the others and be ready for a fight.  I’ll get us out of this though.”

Lolion reached the bridge again and tossed Cyrus a rifle.  “Know how to shoot one of these?” he asked handing the other rifle to Eva.  “Cyrus nodded silently and Eva shook her head.  “Pray we won’t have to use them then just in case, but if we do stay with me and we’ll be fine.  Where are we at on the current route though?”  “We’re two jumps out. But the ships we ran into are starting to get closer and closer to jamming us every time we get to a gate.  I don’t know if we will make it to the last system though.

Lolion sat down in his chair again and started tapping away at the display.  He pulled up the corporation list of who was online and in the chat channel that he could contact.  No one was near the station except one.  He hailed Jack again, hoping this time to get his message across.  Jacks face appeared as a hologram in front of the bridge again.  Lolion cut him off before he could speak “Before you dismiss my plight again listen close…  I have Sansha pirates trailing my new cruisers and a crew on board I wish to keep.”  Jack eyes opened a little showing he finally got the urgency of Lolion’s problem. “I need your ass at the gate to help me get to our station else I’m going to loss a hell of a lot of money.  You know how I hate to do that so get in a ship and meet me at the damn gate… got it?”  Lolion was fuming a bit now.  “I got you.  It’ll take me a bit to get my ship up and ready but ill be there fast as I can.”  The hologram cut out and Lolion relaxed a little.  He opened a com’s link to Thomas.  “Tom, get the guns online.  You’re gonna have targets shortly.”

The hologram closed and the room became lighter again. “Eva I don’t know what just happened but call the captain and get him to the bridge.” Cyrus jumped into his seat again and engaged manual control of the ship again. Through the bridge window a giant blue bubble appeared around them. “Damn they have us in a warp bubble, but our warp core is still stable.” Eva looked back at Cyrus. “I just signaled the Captain and alerted the rest of the crew. She frantically typed away at her display. Cyrus knew this was no time to panic. The least he had to do was get this ship to the next gate and continue to the destination. Were being targeted” She brought up several screens in the front detailing the ships they were up against.

Several ships came up on screen. Some of the most horrid looking ships Cyrus had ever seen. Spikes protruding from odd corners making them look like floating torture devices. “They’re firing” Eva yelled curling up into a ball in her chair. “Initiate warp already damn it” Cyrus turned to see Lolion standing over him looking at the ships on screen. “Were not jammed so jump already. I’ll put out a warning to some of my friends at our destination that we may have company tagging along for the party.” Lolion said as he turned off the main screen.

Cyrus initiated warp and the speed off to the next gate. Cyrus let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad that’s” “Don’t even say it” Lolion interrupted him. Were in their hunting territory right now so were just as vulnerable until we reach our final destination. So keep your eyes peeled and keep a finger on the warp drive as well.” Lolion sat down in the captains chair and brought up a few displays. “Engineering, status report.” He said looking at Teodoro’s face. “All green though they did take out a good chunk of our shields. Down to 60% at the moment and they should be up in a few minutes.” Teodoro said, calm even though the ship had still taken some damage. “Lidiya is cursing up a storm though, seems the aftershock from the missiles made a mess of her bench.” He chuckled in his deep voice un-nerving Cyrus some. “Tell her to get used to it and to bolt things down if she doesn’t want them to move. Keep me posted.”

Lolion closed down the link and brought another screen. “Tom, what’s the gun status?” “Locked and loaded ready to blow some shit up. Tell Eva to give me something to shoot already.” Tom was sitting at his console down in the gunnery portion of the ship. Cleaning his hands of grease from working on the weapon systems. “In a few Tom, we still have to get to the system first.” The screen closed out and a tense silence filled the bridge once more. Only broken by the sound of the displays detailing every minute detail of what was happening in space.

Cyrus looked over the Eva trying to see how she was reacting to all this. She was pale, gripping the arm rests of her seat till her knuckles were white. Cyrus tried to think of what to say to her to help ease her mind but with the current circumstances nothing he could think of would have helped. A small red blip on Eva’s screen caught his attention. Lolion had responded to it quicker and brought up another person on the hologram in front of them. “Jack, good of you to respond so quickly. I’ve brought along company with me to our systems so I need some back up by the time I get to our station to take them out. Can you help?” Lolion said immediately to a tall man with a stern look on his face.

“Nah you should be able to handle them and besides… they don’t follow you after a few jumps. Let me know when you get here. I need someone to try this new setup I have on.” The man said yawning. The link closed down and a small tick could be seen in Lolion’s face. Cyrus knew not having backup was bad but he didn’t know this corporation at all besides Lolion and the rest of the crew. He stared back at his display and noticed that there were only a few jumps left before they reached the system.

“Remind me to kick him next time I see him, and keep this ship moving… I want to get as close as we can before they catch up to us. Preferably in the destination system” Lolion said rubbing his brow. Lolion stood up and headed for the door. “Where are you going sir?” Eva asked her voice almost shaking as she said it. “I’m going to go get some small arms for all of us to use. I have a feeling well be having visitors soon and I want to make sure we give them a nice warm welcome when they arrive.” He walked out of the bridge leaving another dead silence in his wake.

The bridge of the ship was quiet. There was very little noise that was made as it was traveling through space going from one star gate to another. The images of the stars streaking past in the bluish tinted warp bubble that formed when going into hyperspace. Cyrus yawned and stared at his display again monitoring the ships navigations systems. Warp core was stable and outputting at 100% while the power levels dipped in normal parameters for when warp was initiated. Everything on this new ship was working fine.

Cyrus fired up the auto pilot again and stretched out keeping himself awake and what had already been a four hour journey. He looked around the pristine bridge again trying to find something new and different this time to entertain himself with. When he didn’t find anything new since he had been on it he hazard a look over to see what Eva was doing. She had been looking at her display ever since she had sat down and not once looked up. She hadn’t typed anything that he could see either.

He wanted to say something to her. At least try and start a conversation to ease the dull noiseless atmosphere of the bridge. He glanced over to her again to see if anything had changed. “So your name was Eva?” he asked quietly trying not to startle her. She jumped and looked away from her screen at him. “Oh, ahh yes my name is Eva, Eva Therese. You’re Cyrus Matteo right?” she asked in return blushing.

“Yeah that’s my name. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He said turning red himself. He berated himself for saying such a corny line to her. Seriously? Was that the best he could come up with? “So what all are you looking at?” He asked curious to find out what has keep her eyes glued to the displays for so long. “Oh, its nothing really. Its just the different communication channels. I’ve be reading up on our corporation partners and the alliance were apart of. From what it seems like they’re quite the motley crew of people.” She stretched a bit. “My eyes are tired from watching the monitor for so long though, how far out are we from that destination he gave you?” she asked taking off her glasses.

“Well we had quite the journey to go through but were about to go through the next leg of the journey and I don’t know if I should wake Lolion for this or not.” Cyrus had a grim look on his face. “Where are we going?” Eva asked seeing his look and getting concerned. “Well were heading into null sec space and who knows what is out there. Its lawless space for a reason” “But he wouldn’t send us to anywhere dangerous so soon would he?” Eva asked “I don’t know but I’m not about to wake him up to find out.” Cyrus moved the sleek hulk of the cruiser towards the star gate to next system and activated the gate.

Seconds later they were in the next system having jumped several light years. They were officially in null security space. “Less populated than I had though” Cyrus said to Eva checking the navigation display again to see how much more they had to go. “I expected a gate camp or a group of pirates to attack us.” He pointed the ship to the next gate and fired up the warp drives.
“Don’t be so sure, I’ve got an incoming message from someone in system.” Eva said, fear resonating in her voice. “Bring it up on screen now.” A holographic image appeared at front of the bridge. A tall gangly looking man dressed in dark Caldari style clothing with a Sansha’s nation insignia behind him stood there. “Where is your captain?” The man asked eyeing the two of them in their seats. They both were silent. Cyrus stood up and bowed to the hologram. “I’m not sure, if you can wait a moment we can call him to the deck?” He was visibly sweating but he hoped that wasn’t visible to the person in the hologram. The hologram vanished. Eva and Cyrus turned to each other, a look of panic on their faces.

Lolion sat still in his captains chair watching the girders of the station go by while his ship was being towed out into space. The crew was still around him slowly absorbing what he had just told them and admiring the view of space from this new ship. He could understand why, the view was breath taking every time he undocked. Looking out into nothingness, but with the colors of the systems and the stars. Lolion knew this was why he was a Capsuleer. Just for the view.
After they had cleared the entrance to the station the docking control gave him the all clear and he regained manual control of his ship. High security space stations always had people coming and going and the traffic though it had been improved by assigning an exit vector to each different ship was still a hassle to get through. He decided to see how well it flew in a dodging capacity. He steered the ship towards the line of other ships exiting the station and flew around them in high speed arcs pushing the ship to the limits of its agility and maneuverability.
Lolion was impressed with this new ship. Happy with how well it was handling he set a course for an asteroid belt and stood up from the chair he was sitting in. “Cyrus, time to show us what you can do.” He said pointing to the seat. “Me sir?” he asked stumbling over his own feet taken aback at being allowed at the controls so soon. “No I’m talking about the other person behind you named Cyrus.” Lolion said regretting he did when Cyrus looked behind him to see who was standing there. “No I mean you kid, now come hurry up already.”
Cyrus moved to the seat and sat down. He adjusted to the control console and then sat there. “What are you waiting for? Fly it around a bit, see how it compares to those shuttles you’ve been flying all this time.” Lolion suggested watching the expressions on the young pilots face. The ship moved slowly under the control of the new navigator. Moving below 10 meters per second at first and then as the pilot grew more comfortable with the control he slowly accelerated. Pushing the ship through its paces and getting a feel for its handling.
Satisfied with how Cyrus was doing he turned to Eva and showed her the console she would be working on. “This will be your access to the ships communications network. Go ahead and play around with it to become familiar with how it works.” He said directing her to take a seat. “Now I’m sure the rest of you don’t need me to guide you around and show you where you’re working now do I?” He asked annoyed that it was taking his crew this long to get aquatinted with the ship. Tell you what. All of you download schematics to your data pads I gave you and study the layout of the ship. “
They did as he told him and went along to their areas of the ship they would be working at normally. Relieved that the others had finally left him he sat down in the captains chair and brought up a display of his maps he had uploaded to the ship already. “Cyrus set a course for this system and get us there in one piece. Our testing grounds will be there. And do get us there in one piece. Eva keep an eye on him and let me know when we arrive. Ill be in my quarters.”