Shifting Foundations :: Part 3

To my concern, when [Keteslin] asked to see me again, it was to offer me a mission of murder. Apparently the man I had brought in had been persuaded to give the co-ordinates of his employer's location, and I was being asked to go there and to assassinate him. A far cry from research into rogue drones, or helping the Sisters of Eve. But I was promised that doing this would allow other matters to "fall into place"

And, given that [Destiny] moves in strange ways, I reflected that perhaps the {Cosmic All] had decided that this man's time had come. With a [querulous] heart, I accepted the mission.


Reaching the co-ordinates, I found mercenaries, who swept to attack me. They were reinforced almost immediately by more of their kind,and then the miscreant himself made an appearance, but hung back. I wondered whether this indicated a willingness to negotiate a surrender, and held off from firing while I surveyed and salvaged from the wrecked ships. To my dismay it was not to be so -- he manoeuvred himself into a good position, and then stripped my shields from me and started in on my armour. I was therefore obliged to despatch him.

(As a side note, these were poor mercenaries to salvage from -- little but scanners and projectile ammunition -- both useless to me -- and minor wrecked circuits)


My doubts about [Keteslin] and the Minmater in general grew more severe, when my next assignment, although apparently to do with the man I was seeking about the drones, turned out to be a thinly-disguised mission to rescue a Minmatar spy and kill all those holding him. I bit my lip and accpted the job, turning my face away from the fact that I was being offered 200K ISK to do this thing.

Whether it was ill-luck, ill-preparedness, or ill-Fate, I know not, but this was one the harder of my fights. The initial mercenary guards were simple to remove,m but when the leader and his guards arrievd I found myself in trouble -- they were armed with thermal weapons, which cut through ym shields,and they fired on volley, preventing my repair equipment from keeping up. Finally, however, having warped out twice, I managed to defeat them. I could not help but notice, howver, that they appeared based in a small Minmatar station, and to wonder exactly how renegade these Minmatar were.