The station had been quiet when Neresa undocked and began her patrol. All was well in the world. Her daughter Breanne was safe and finally in a happy place. She spent her days on the station, going to school with the other children and finally experiencing one of the greatest luxuries in New Eden, having a mostly normal childhood.

Neresa’s thoughts stopped wandering as she approached the next stargate on her patrol. The gate begun to activate as she approached and her comms gear began to show more and more activity.

Damn, she thought, local spike and I am too far from the gate. Time to cloak up and wait it out.

As she willed her cloaking device to activate, one of the incoming ships appeared off her starboard bow. Unfortunately it was too close to her and her cloak shorted out against the other ship’s shields.

Alarms in her mind informed her that she was being targeted by her new neighbor in space. She willed her engines to life and engaged her micro warp drive, burning as fast as she could towards the star gate.

More alarms in her mind let her know that her shields were gone, her armor was almost gone and she was now webbed and warp scrambled. It would seem that she would be using that hat Breanne gave her a few days ago, her new clone with be without any hair. Such is the life of the Capsuleer, constant conflicts between practicalities and fashion.

As her armor continued to evaporate, she saw the stargate flash as another ship came into the system. Suddenly, all the incoming fire on her ship stopped.

The Buzzard class covert ops frigate she was flying was badly damaged and only one of the external camera drones was responding. As she willed the view to rotate around towards her attackers, she could see why her death was delayed.

Flying at high speeds and firing all it’s guns was a lone Vagabond class Minmatar heavy assault ship. Explosion after explosion rocked the view from her camera drone as each of her attackers simply evaporated away into the inky black void.

Soon, the only things on her scanner and in the camera drone’s view were numerous pieces of ship debris and this Vagabond as it came about and closed in on her wounded ship.

Neresa feared the end. She was helpless as this menacing ship closed the distance. Her scanner alarms went off as her ship was again target locked and she saw a single drone launch from the Vagabond and close in on her.

So, a slow death it is to be, eh? Neresa closed her eyes in her mind and waited for the end.

Suddenly, her ship’s status reports showed that her armor was slowing increasing in integrity. Neresa felt as if she snapped her head around in attention in her pod. She checked and double checked the status of her armor. Slowly, ever so slowly it was being repaired.

Then, her comms began a slow crackle and they tried to will themselves to life.

“Neresa? Are you still there?” The voice was distorted from all the damage to most of her internal ships systems, she was in bad shape, “I only have one armor repair drone, it’s doing what it can for you, but you need to get out of here. Approach the gate and hold until I send you an all clear, I will scout you through and back home.”

She still could not identify who this kind person was, the signal distortion was too high due to the damage to her ship. Slowly, ever so slowly, her wounded frigate inched towards the stargaze. She could see the Vagabond jump into the next system. A few moments later, her comms sprang to life again, “All clear,” said the voice.

She jumped and soon found herself in space in Lisbaetanne again. On her port quarter was the Vagabond, deploying it’s armor repairing drone again.

“Warp to the CAS station, I’ll meet you in the hanger,” again, this mystery voice echoed in her mind. As her ship began it’s acceleration into warp, she saw the repair drone again return to the Vagabond and his ship joined her in warp and soon they both approached the docking ports on the CAS station.

After she docked, the automatic systems in the hanger extracted her pod and upon disconnection from the internal systems, Neresa promptly blacked out.

Continued…
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