Defending the Delta

[Sombs]

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These log entries are created in secret and aren't available to any other entity.

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Log - Ezrael Vertiga

It's done.

I still can't believe it. I really can't, but the fact that I'm still alive must be the evidence. Last night, I left the Core, stealing my own battleship. It is unbelievable, but it happened, and I didn't die! I got injured, though, but that's an okay price to pay. Could have been worse, and with an APM medical bay on the Apahanta and enough supplies brought with us, my shoulder should be okay in a week or something.

Well, most things went like it was planned. Uhm, I was surprised Auxesia wanted to do it that fast, but I expected it, since Raven surery didn't want to rely on the trust of a weird Core defector captain. Instead of sunday, it happened in the night from thursday to friday. Standard patrol aroun the Omicrons. We were done with Delta and Rho, so the next system was Minor. At first, we found a ship, ID Crimson.Tide, a Bowex-IFFed Liberty Rhino, impulsing around in the Minor cloud. The captain was talking about a... project, including high amounts of Rel, drawing the attention of the entire system to him, and wonder oh wonder, the nomads showed up. At least one. The playful one, as I called it, since it didn't talk around the first days we saw it, but flew around like a little weirdo, testing our shields with it's little nomad beams.

... that wound is really nasty. It burns, it hurts... but it's just a plasma burn. Nothing one can't handle. Will be a pain, but it's not deadly. I have to man up and bear it, but god, it hurts...

Soon, Auxesia appeared in the Minor cloud, with six of it's vessels, including the Eidolon.Wraith and the Cincinnati. Raven acted strange - well, that's nothing special, but in this case, she acted obviously overkilling strange, at least to me - and I saw it was the sign. So, instead of returning to the next waypoint, I ordered Berman to make a new waypoint at the debris field in E-5 of Minor. That's exactly where Auxesia awaited us, and their assets encircled the Apahanta in silence. The only one who were talking were Raven and me, turning the small talk into a good acting. She did a good job on quoting Nodtviet, telling the "the strong make the rules"-thing and such, and then she gave order to destroy the Apahanta.

I had to admit... I was scared. Her weird behavior, I mean, chances were good that she would just kill us. Doing evasive manouvers and trying to return the fire on the Eidolon Wraith and the Cincinnati, it just needed three minutes before I had to gave the order to abandon the ship, and the Core-loyals did so. Most of them. The bridge crew knew what to do, and they carried out the orders, following Raven's lead. The Apahanta's cruise engines are scrap now, so Auxesia had to escort the Apahanta. Luckily, the cloaking device was still working, so nobody saw the Apahanta leaving the Minor cloud, but the Order saw the battle between the Apahanta and Auxesia. So, we have witnesses of a situation where it was most likely the Apahanta got destroyed, while only the few defectors, Battlegroup Auxesia and the Livadia-Zoners know we're alive. Well, and Maren, I hope, since I contacted her right after we made it to Livadia, telling her I'm okay.

We had a battle situation on board of the Apahanta, since some Core-loyals stayed, preparing for a boarding scenario... while the turrets I bought from Detroit did a good job, I had to... well...

I had to kill some Core-loyals. It was a kill-or-be-killed situation, and I was faster. However, it's something I won't get used to. It's still a difference to give the order to fire but than killing a person you see some meters in front of you, aiming at you. There was that Core-loyal, Harris Goldsmith, a psycho. He joined the Core for, well, simply to express his hatred and disrespect on other people. He was one of those guys who visited the H+-Clinic on Durban Station, asking them to artificially enhance his body, to be a killing machine...

He missed my head when he shot burning plasma at me, however, he hit my shoulder, graze wound. We, on the other hand, didn't miss him. Just to be sure, I gave him another shot to the head. It felt weird, but there was no room for mistakes. Somehow, the Core-loyals found out there was something wrong, and two of them headed to the bridge, killing Horn and Pastak... We knew we would have losses on our side, but it's still a shame and I feel bad for it. In the end, I had to kill some of my crew members, just to make sure I didn't waste 2,5 billions on this ship. Damn it...

Anyway. Now it's done. We reached Livadia, getting some rest for now. The Lane Hacker system override software worked, so far. We're disconnected from the Core network relay, the ship system controls are still accessable, and even some of them we didn't knew about inbefore. Just as I expected, Core had some security measures for a case like this, and the Lane Hackers knew how they worked. Those guys know too much, if you ask me, but since they did their part of the bargain, I hope we can fulfill our part soon. However, I'm a bit scared about it.

Video recording: Stealing the Apahanta

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