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Ghost Outrider in the Sky: Part 1

Published on 08. Sep, 2009 ... written by Casiella Truza, Tags: Articles

Picture credit: Wotlankor

This series is written in the in-character perspective of a young Brutor/Thukker pilot codenamed “Ghost Outrider”, documenting her adventures fighting under the banner of the Tribal Liberation Force.

I pulled my Rifter into a Six Kin station in Heimatar and disembarked quickly. Signaling to the local maintenance crew that she needed refueling, I made my way to the local capsuleer office complex. The directory listed all the corporations that had rented space, so I just glanced over it until I found the one I sought.

My former CEO had put in a good word for me with a new militia corporation for which she’d done a production contract. While my graduation record from Republic University and subsequent work for my Thukker tribe had proven my reputation well enough to get admitted directly to the Tribal Liberation Force as an independent pilot, I preferred to join up with a corp and join the fight that way. I could still fly solo from time to time, but this way I’d have much better support and camaraderie.

I put in my application with the friendly young receptionist and wandered over to a nearby cantina for a few drinks. People tended to leave me alone whereever I went, and this didn’t turn out any differently. While having a few glasses of my favorite Thukker ale, I took the time to review the current state of the militia wars. Principally, the heavy fighting occurs lately in the Hed constellation but the 24th Imperial Crusade penetrated from time to time deeper into Metropolis to contest systems there. Defensive work would suit me best at first while I got my wings set.

A ping on my datapad pulled me out of my reverie. The leadership at the militia corp had accepted my application, just as I’d hoped. As the war wouldn’t wait, neither would I. The regional map showed Gulmorogod in contest, so I set a course directly for that system. It took me right through Amamake, perhaps one of the most dangerous, pirate-infested systems in the Republic. I didn’t have any trouble there, though, and jumped over to Gulmorogod.

My overview showed that someone had already found two compounds in the system, but no 24IC pilots registered on local comms. A few pirates and other pilots did, though, so I’d need to take extra care. I scanned the minor compound from a distance but no threats appeared. I warped right to the gate and into the compound itself.

On my way, a fleet invite from a pirate showed up on my screen. If I accepted it, he could instruct my ship to warp to any location he wanted in the system, and my ship systems would happily comply with the directions from the fleet commander. Chuckling to myself, I politely declined.

The compound contained a few wrecks of regular Fleet vessels, sadly. Additional response forces buzzed around angrily, though no Amarrian pilots remained upon whom they could take out their vengeance. I received word from the local commander that the local complex had indeed withstood several minutes of intensive assault, so I’d need to descramble the electronic mayhem before I could get back to hiding the compound again.

My Rifter’s afterburners fired up and carried me into a tight orbit around the complex, within easy range of the anti-malware system installed by the militia. After a couple of minutes, I’d descrambled the work of the earlier Amarrian pilots and started to re-hide the compound. The whole process took about twelve minutes, during which time I kept an eye on my overview, local comms, my directional scanner (set to short range so I would know if anyone had reached the acceleration gate), and the strategic map to plot my next activities.

Once things had returned to nominal status, I got word from the TLF that they’d registered my activity and made a note on my dossier. Warping out, I got a query from the earlier pirate regarding the codename for my ship. Evidently he’d found another prey, possibly even a militia pilot, and wanted to make sure of the pilot’s identity. I didn’t really know why he’d chosen to avoid engaging me, probably due to our chat in Local earlier.

For a brief moment, I considered going back and helping the militia pilot that would probably engage quickly, but decided that I’d probably get there too late as I had already jumped into Amamake.

I joined up with my commanding officer after this and we ran a defensive patrol up through Metropolis, but none of the contested systems had any complexes that we could scan down. I docked up in Klogori and shut down systems for the night. Better get some shuteye before getting back into the fight the next day.

Tags: factional, militia, warfare