Arrival
“Six bouts of cyno sickness in 144 hours makes me want to ditch a clone, damn the hardware in my head. Whatever idiot at CONCORD that made the jump engine protection fields illegal should have his entire home planet razed to the ground. Daz, put that on your ‘to do’ list.” We were all feeling the negative impacts of a nullsec evacuation, but Pygon’s current clone was reacting particularly badly. “I’m going to make this announcement and then I’m going to either sleep or die, and I don’t care which one it is.”
Pygon was referring to the announcement that we were finally “home” for the time being. Because of security concerns most of our capsuleers had been given no information as to waypoints, routes or eventual destinations. A leap of faith to a cynosural beacon at an unknown destination was asking a lot of a capital fleet, but operational security was an absolute necessity when moving assets of this size and value. Trust, the single most valuable currency in New Eden, had to come from somewhere. The upside was that the approach kept you alive, the downside was that it pissed an already on edge group of capsuleers off even more each time you did it. Pygon’s announcement would likely be well received.
The comm broadcast node flittered to life, “Attention Imperium Technologies associates. We have now arrived at our new home. This Astrahus will serve as our base of operations. All assets, meetings and operations will center here and in the immediately surrounding star systems. We have formed a new alliance with the top four corporations from our previous venture. The name of the new alliance will be V.O.I.D. and will be overseen by Asmodean Shepherd and an alliance level executive council. Plans are currently underway that… if we can pull them off… will change New Eden forever. In the short term, everyone is expected to rest up, and as time permits begin getting defensive positions fortified. If you’ve got even more free time, do what you can to stop being poor. There are alliances four jumps in every direction who very much want us dead, so life should remain interesting. If you have questions, talk to a Director. Carry on.” It had taken everything Pygon had to remain standing while making the announcement. “Now you guys…” Pygon swung around and pointed at the Directors of Imperium Technologies, “ You guys need to get busy getting involved with the leadership of this alliance. The leadership experience in this room is second to none and this alliance is going to need every ounce of it if it’s to succeed.” Pygon disappeared around the corner while swearing through a hacking cough. “Forget about his implants, he just needs to trash that clone. I’d rather put up with clone sickness than 8 bouts of cyno sickness stacked on top of each other.” Thorvade had arrived and carried with him the smell of a clone vat bay. “But he won’t. It’s going to be fun to give him hell for the next few days while he can’t fight back.”
“People who want us dead four jumps in every direction? Sounds like you’re gonna fit right in.” joypunk poked her head around the corner. “But we won’t have to go that far if we’re in a hurry to die. I’ve already had a look around and the local Serpentis thugs aren’t too happy we’re here. I saw a Vehement class Dreadnought completely erase an entire mining fleet, including their Thanatos and Dominix security details. The explosions were fun, but the abandoned drones sure were a waste. On the planetary colony front, there’s no way the planets in this system are going to support our traditional setup. We’re going to have to figure out something new.” joypunk never wasted time and I could always count on her to have the facts ready before anyone else had even gotten settled. “That’s fine, at this point I’m just glad to have the fleet safe. Now I’ve got to see what sort of leadership this new alliance has.” I was planning to venture into the alliance command room and was tacitly excited about getting back into a management structure beyond that of the corporation. “Yeah, well, you can have it.” joypunk disappeared back around the corner.
