Ga’len’s mind was drifting in and out of sleep. His ship was quietly sitting in open space, cloaked and motionless. It had been 6 days since he set out on his roam and he decided to stop and rest a while in the quaint system of Akila.

“So, still nothing on the scanner,” Ga’len thought, “guess it’s time to check the system charts and intelligence reports and see what I can find.”

Ga’len wills his navigation and communications systems to life. Checking the station reports, combat alerts and various other pieces of information reveals interesting “pockets of silence” in the area.

“Hmm…,” Ga’len feels his mouth water in his mind, “Lisbaetanne is in want of a visit perhaps.”

As his ship begins to move, his course is set, the cloak drops and he warps toward then outbound gate. The journey is uneventful. Only one ship crosses his path along the way, another of his Corp heading on a scouting run.

The Bleeding Rose jumps through the last stargate and the cloak immediately engages before a scan of the system.

Ga’len can feel his heart sink at what the scanner shows him. His instincts were correct. There seems to be a number of ships in system and the usual pirates are no where to be seen.

“It appears that the mice are playing while the cat is away again.” Ga’len announces to his mates over the comms. The silence on the comms tells him that these kills he will have to savor alone.

As his ship drops out of warp in the first asteroid belt, three frigates warp out. Ga’len wills his ship to approach one of the remaining destroyers. It seems that these fellows have been fighting some of the Sansha’s Nation in this system. Wrecks litter the local space and that serves as a welcome sight. The destroyer is occupied with looting these wreck a and that distraction gives Ga’len the vital few moments he needs.

Suddenly, two more destroyers drop out if warp and charge for Ga’len.

“Ahh…a proper pirate’s fight, three to one against, eh?” Ga’len feels joy as his warp disruption module activates and locks down the first destroyer. His guns shred it quickly as the two new destroyers close in and open fire.

Suddenly alarms alert Ga’len that his warp drive is disrupted.

“Hehehe,” Ga’len chuckled in his mind, “keep coming, more wreckage for me to loot!”

As the first destroyer’s hull evaporates, Ga’len redirects his warp disruptor to the thrid destroyer and begins firing on the destroyer that has him tackled. A few lucky shots later, he is rewarded with a second destroyer wreck.

As Ga’len wills his communications array to open a channel with the last destroyer, his sensors alert him to an energy buildup within his victim’s ship.

“Self destruct? What, don’t want to even talk about a ransom?” Ga’len’s mind echoes the disappointment, “Very well, I shall help thee on thy journey.”

Gunfire erupts from The Bleeding Rose and after a bight blue flash, Ga’len is once again alone in space.

Looting the wrecks reveal the remains of poor quality ship fittings and a few items of some worth, but not much money can be made from such low quality equipment.

“Hmm…civilian warp disruptors…they actually make those things?“

Breanne was so excited that she could hardly sit still, as if sitting still was something that Breanne did on a regular basis. The Buzzard class covert ops frigate continued it’s journey from Lisbataenne towards their new home.

As Breanne continued to bounce around her seat like a ping pong ball that’s had too much caffeine as Leaniati sat reading over the battle reports Ga’len sent her that morning, Neresa allowed herself to drift through thought and memory as she made the warp between stargates. Soon they would all be together, perhaps to be a proper family again.

Several hours later, Neresa’s ship was docked and they were all walking out of the hanger. There was no one in sight, however there was a sign in the hallway, directing them towards one of the meeting areas.

When they got there, the room was dark until Neresa walked through the door. The lights came on, illuminating the whole room. They could see a table in front of them, covered with all kinds of food. Ga’len was standing opposite them with a drink in his hand.

“At last, you are here,” Ga’len put his drink down on the table and strode towards them. He bent down and scooped up Breanne in a big hugging motion, “I have missed you all. Please sit and eat, I’ve been playing in the kitchen again.”

Neresa and Leainati exchanged worried looks, they could remember the last time Ga’len played in the kitchen. Their bowels remembered it for days afterwards.

“Come, come now, it won’t be that bad. I had help this time, “Ga’len reassured them, “Well, in help that being a professional chef worked in the kitchen, I stood back and watched.”

Neresa breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh thank goodness. For a moment there, I thought you were trying to scare us away!”

Breanne laughed at her mother and sat down. She waited until everyone had taken a seat and then began to devour her plate, stopping to catch her breath every few moments.

“So, tell me, Leainati, did you receive those reports I sent you?” Ga’len inquired.

“Yes,” she confirmed, “I read them on our journey. Interesting information there. Do you really think that the Sansha’s Nation will make more aggressive moves soon?”

Ga’len’s face transformed from a kind smile into a slightly more worried sterness, “Yes, I do. I think they will be come more aggressive in the coming months.”

“Are you worried,” Neresa asked.

“I am more concerned than worried, ” Ga’len replied, “We will do what we need to should they show up at our doorstep, but I think this will give our organization some interesting tacitical oppoprtunities in the near future.”

Breanne stops her feasting, looks up, covers one eye with a piece of squash and yells, “YARR!”

Ga’len, Neresa and Leainati all exchange glances, smile and chuckle.

“Yes my acorn, ” Ga’len replied while covering one of his own eyes with a piece of squash, “Yarr it will be.”

The station was empty when Ga’len clone jumped. No one was in the secured hanger sections. It was very quiet.

As the last of the clone vat fluid was beginning to dry on the floor and Ga’len finally started to breath normally, a small flicker on a nearby data pad began to pulse urgently.

ATTENTION….ALL ALLIANCE ASSETS HAVE BEEN MOVED OUT TO SAFE SPACE. YOU SHOULD MOVE OUT OF THE GREAT WILDLANDS ASAP.

Ga’len quickly checked his private hanger in the station. He still had a fully fit Vagabond ready to go and nothing else. Then he looked at the date of the alert, it was four months old.

Well, at least they left me one ship, Ga’len thought to himself, time to leave.

As Ga’len made his way to his waiting pod, he connected his data pad to the internal station network. After a quick check, he could see that only a few pilots were in station and even less were registering on the local communications channels.

Undocking from the station went without incident and after a quick warp to a safe spot and a cloaking up, Ga’len began to explore his options.

This region of nullsec space as it was known was not one that could be controlled by the capsuleers no matter how hard they tried. Sure, could put up gate camps and the like to try to control access to individual systems, but you would find it hard to try to control this space without being able to conquer the stations nor hold sovereignty over the systems. It was just not possible in this region at all, the Thukker Tribe and the Angel Cartel had solidified their hold years ago.

It’s was a long way back to the alliance base systems in Essence, Ga’len continued to debate options in his mind, might as well start out with leaving null sec first.

The nine ships that appeared on scanner quickly confirmed that this may be the correct course of action.

Another quick thought later, the Vagabond decloaked and warped to the first gate of the trip. The enemy curse was sitting their waiting. Through the gate Ga’len jumped and the curse followed.

After a few moments, Ga’len’s Vagabond was on the end of the jump and aligned at high speed to a planet. The curse that followed him was matching his maneuver and already engaging it’s delay capacitor neutralizers.

Let them chase me, Ga’len thought, it could be fun and it’s been a while since I’ve had to run blockades.

As Ga’len’s Vagabond continued to extend away from the stargate, more ships jumped into the system. The nine ships that were initially on his scanner only told part of the tale, they had more friends in system and his scanner was showing more activity, a few more Curse recons and a few Vagabonds.

As they all began to converge on Ga’len, he continued to stay aligned to the second planet in system. Suddenly another Curse warped on his ship and within range to activate it’s neutralizers but the ship did not have a warp disruptor that could reach him.

Ga’len smiled, and continued to evade their waiting warp disruptors. He waited until his capacitor was drained to almost nothing and engaged his warp drive. His navigation system informed him that he would not have enough energy to reach the planet he was aligned to, the plan was working.

Success, Ga’len thought, I will fall short of the planet and they will all think that they will catch me there. Once they have all dropped out of warp at the planet, I’ll warp to the outbound gate, that should give me the precious seconds I need to build up a lead from them.

A few moments later, Ga’len’s scanner showed his pursuers passed his position in space and showed up on scan in a direction towards the second planet. As they traveled past his maximum scan range in that direction, Ga’len warped to the outbound gate and jumped out of the system.

No time to waste, his mind was focused now, I need to put some distance between me and that hungry horde.

Ga’len warped to a scouting point near his next outbound gate, all was clear. As he began to jump out of the system, he could see his scanner filling up with the ships of his pursuers.

Well, that didn’t take them long, Ga’len thought as he jumped out of the system.

For the next several systems, it was the same story. Warp to the scouting points at each gate that were saved a year earlier, avoid the deployed warp bubbles and jump out just in time before he was caught.

At last, Ga’len thought, the last jump to lead me out of here.

Ga’len then realized a problem, he did not have a scout point for this outbound stargate.

Damn, well, it was a good chase, Ga’len could feel for his pursuers as he had chased people in this fashion in the past, If they catch me now, it’s definitely well earned.

Ga’len engaged his warp drive towards the stargate. As he approached, his scanner showed him what he already knew to be waiting for him, a warp bubble had been deployed in the standard drag fashion.

The scanner was clear for the moment. Ga’len engaged his micro warp drive and approached the gate, a mere 100km away.

Soon, the scanner was showing a vagabond and a curse. As they dropped out of warp, they too were pulled by the drag bubble as they are known.

They were 25km from Ga’len and the stargate was sill 40km away.

The pursuing vagabond was faster than the curse and locked up Ga’len as soon as he could.

Time to push it, Ga’len’s will course through his ship’s systems and they answered his call to overload the micro warp drive. His his surged faster towards the gate, leaving his counterpart in the vagabond behind.

As Ga’len neared the stargate, he willed his communications system to transmit an old parting into the local channels, a simple farewell from times past, “o/” was all they received as the stargate activated and Ga’len was safely on his way back to low security space.

OOC: To those brave souls who chased me last night. That was a lot of fun and you almost had me. I got very lucky in being able to get out of The Great Wildlands. Thanx for the chase, it was a lot of fun.

…it was so simple.  Each morning came to light the day, just as the last one had.  The sun would slowly rise over the horizon, the house would begin to stir and the call of the forest would drift through the window into the room.

His sleeping mind would be awakened by the smell of the trees, that musty freshness that sweetened the air from the morning dew.  It would greet him with the hope that one day, he would be far from this place and living in peace.

The sensor alerts echoed in the distance and moved closer to the front of Ga’len’s mind.  His daydream of memories past was cut short.  Another ship was coming into his hunting area.

Revenge, for my friend, Ga’len grinned his evil grin in his mind, alas, it is afoot now.

The An Bealach an Vaga decloaked quickly, locked it’s weapons and began to open fire.  As the shields of the incoming rifter melted away, sensors dectected more ships appearing in range.

Blast, they were waiting for me this time, Ga’len’s smile was detected by his sensors in his pod.  No matter, to it then!

First was the Rifter frigate.  It closed on his ship quickly, spewing rounds into his shields as it’s warp scrambler locked him down.  Ga’len turned his ship and aligned out to a planet, trying to put distance between him and the closing frigate.  Sensors had detected something unexpected in the rest of the hostile gang.  A Loki and it was closing fast.

As the Loki closed range and engaged it’s warp disruptor, the rifter’s hull gave way to the vacuum of space.  Suddenly, Ga’len’s ship began to move faster, but not as expected.  Yes, the microwarp drive was working, but not as it should.

So, webbed me as well? No matter, I can still outrun you.

The engines of An Bealach an Vaga overloaded and Ga’len lurched forward, moving away from the Loki.  By this point, the Loki was deep into it’s armor and for a split second, Ga’len thought about staying in the fight, but the lack of shields and armor made that decision for him.

As Ga’len moved out of range of the Loki’s warp disruptor, he willed his comms to life.

“Nice trap my friend, well played.  I would taunt you, but I can see from my sensors the 2 interceptors closing in on you and the 3 battle cruisers who just fired on you are more worthy of your attention than I.”

Ga’len warped off towards a planet as the Loki fell prey to the other roaming pirate gang.  All that he could hear on his comms were the threats of revenge from the doomed Loki pilot.

Sometimes, it pays to not be the biggest fish in the pond, Ga’len pondered.

Slowly Neresa’s eyes opened and the blinding pain coursed through her body like a flooded river in a rainstorm.

Am I dead? Oh dear lord, please let me die, this is unbearable, Neresa thought.

“Neresa,” a familiar voice rang in softly in her ears, “Can you hear me?”

Neresa slowly, painfully opened her eyes. She gasped in shock, pain and joy. “GA’LEN! YOU’RE BACK!?”

Ga’len stood bent over to look closely in her eyes. Breanne was at his side, clinging to him as if she was drawing in fear of loosing her mother. “Yes old friend, I am back. You took quite a beating out there, good thing I came along when I did.”

“Mommy!” Breanne threw her arms around Neresa’s neck. She choked a bit and Ga’len managed to pry her arms away.

“Now, now my little Acorn, you need to be careful,” Ga’len continued, “Your mommy is hurt pretty bad, but she will be okay soon. Why don’t you go grab your book from the table over there and read to her so she can rest.”

“Ga’len, thank you,” Neresa’s eyes filled with tears, “I thought I would be in a new clone by now or worse.”

“Don’t you worry, let the doctors fix you up. I’ve taken care of your ship, it will be as good as new in a few days,” Ga’len smirked his evil pirate booty filled wallet smirk, “It was a good trip. I’ll be by later to check on you.”

As Ga’len started for the door, Breanne called, “I’ll take care of mommy Uncle Twig, see you later!”

***

Elsewhere, in the station hanger, the ground crews were organizing the new arrivals for Ga’len.

“This pirate is nuts, flying such an expensive ship like this,” Murray mumbled as he moved more crates of Republic Fleet EMP ammo into the cargo hold, “This guy is a badass, but he’s just bonkers for risking a ship like this one.”

“Ahem,” Ga’len cleared his throat, “Murray, I thank you for your concern.”

Murray stopped cold in his tracks.

Ga’len continued as he patted Murray’s shoulder, “Of course, you do have a valid point my friend, it is risky to fly such a ship. I’ve lost a Proteus and another Loki already. It hurts, but these ships can do some very useful things. Is the An Bealach an Vaga ready to go?”

Murray relaxed a bit, “Yes sir, it’s fully loaded as you requested, repaired and the rust has been polished.”

Ga’len grinned, “Very good Murray. After you load that crate, call it a day and have a round on me in the bar.”

Ga’len tossed him a isk card with a few thousand isk on it and smiled, “I’m gonna have a little party of my own now.”

Murray chuckled, “May whatever divine being they believe in have mercy on their souls. If I may ask, why head out so soon? Why not stay and join the party?”

“Indeed,” Ga’len agreed, “Indeed, it’s party time, however, I need to stop those who are attacking me and mine. It’s time for me to party Vagabond style!”

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.