Part I

Herein may be found the tale of one woman and her struggle against one of the legends of the deep; her defeat and later salvation with the aid of her brothers in arms.

Plying her deadly trade amongst the lonely space lanes, veteran pilot Sa'Haira stalked from system to system seeking worthy prey.  A great span of time had passed by as she prowled northern Venal, finding naught but a few brief skirmishes against locals.  Perhaps wisely none of her opponents dared to stray too far from the sanctuary of their home stations and Sa'Haira's bloodlust remained unslaked.

Moving south hoping for braver foes, Sa'Haira's sleek heavy assault cruiser arrived in V3X-L8.  Upon seeing another pilot in system with her the instinctive caution of a natural born survivor sought out any immediate threats.  V3X-L8 lay along a 'pipe route' with 1 entrance and one exit, both beyond the scanning range of each other.  A perfect place to ambush the unwary with warp disruption bubbles.  Seeking to circumvent such trickery the wily femme fatale sought to approach the exit from a different angle.  Warping to a nearby asteroid belt with eyes glued to the scanner she arrived back in realspace with no threat showing itself, and with a mixture of relief and disappointment she aligned to leave the system.

Something caught her eye though, an unusual name appended to the tactical information on her screen.  Usually the non-capsuleer pirates infesting lawless space barely register as a threat, but here was something different, a challenger.  Estamel Tharchon, perhaps leaving the  Guristas Training Facilities in Y-4CFK  to run through some exercises with the two low ranking Guristas accompanying her, here was one of the highest ranking guristas officers.  One with a deadly reputation.

Sa'Haira screamed through the void towards the Guristas officer, the challenge made clear by her actions; 'Face me!'.  Accepting the challenge Estamel and her cohorts joined the fray.  Quickly it became evident though that the two were evenly matched.  Sa'Haira's quicksilver grace avoiding the missile fury hurled at her hull matched against the strongest defences the guristas have to offer.  Neither side able to deliver any telling damage to their foe they broke off from the fight, one eyeing the other as they prowled beyond each others range.

Resigned to being unable to best the godly durability of the Guristas hull Sa'Haira's thoughts turned to more practical matters.  The modules behind such a tank must be worth a fortune on the open market, enough to keep her living in the style she's accustomed to for many months to come.  Settling upon a course of action the call went out to Easy Company (EZCO).  "Comrade in need of aid, wealth and plunder to be made".

First to answer the call was the deranged Killzaida.  In a constant frenzy of bloodlust this psychotic pilot spends every waking moment hurtling from one fight to the next, and this guristas challenge was naught to her but a way to stave off the 'shakes' that set in should she go more than 8 minutes without the prospect of violence.  Before any plan had been settled on Killzaida was already making best speed to V3X-L8, chanting her war cry "killmailskillmailkillmails" as she grew ever closer to venal.

The second mighty warrior to step forth from the EZCO ranks to meet this challenge was the venerable Boomer Ex.  Perhaps realising that a calming influence would be required to prevent Killzaida attacking everything in sight, (sparking off another war in the north,) he followed close behind.  Stowing the custom restraining harness in his hold 'just in case'.

Taking different routes both eventually arrived to lend their might to the cause and battle was joined once more.  Spewing a steady stream of kinetic hammerblows into Estamel's flank the black of space lit up with the fury of scourge torpedo explosions.  The vaunted tank of Estamel slowly crumbling as the combined fury of Fatal Ascensions finest smote her with their wrath.  But the guristas officer was just toying with her opponents, perhaps showing off in front of her minions watching from a distance.  With contemptuous ease Estamel restored her shields to full capacity with the unspoken challenge hanging in the air "is that it?"

to be continued...

Part II

That was not 'it', most certainly not.

Reading from the Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC) playbook, the hive mind of these three combatants reached unanimous agreement.  "If the current plan is not succeeding, bring more guys". The “CFC” would be proud.  Again an entreaty went out for aid, and again a hero stepped forth.  From the shadows scuttled forth Zaak Uruk, with the gaunt hungry eyes of the eternally poor lit up with avarice he came.  At the though of the riches just beyond the hull of Estamel a resolute drive to succeed could be seen, nothing would get between him and the massive piles of credits he'd been promised.

With mounting pressure on her tank the cocksure confidence of the pirate prey began to falter, yet as the EZCO cohort dashed yet more torpedoes against the walls of her vessel confidence returned.  Still she stood strong and unbowed, denied still EZCO's anger slowly grew.  This was rapidly becoming a matter of honour, for whilst the riches to be won were a fine enough motivation in themselves it is more important still that none be seen to defy EZCO and live.

Enough was enough; the true power behind EZCO had been watching events from the sidelines.  Content to let the younger, lesser warriors of EZCO spread their wings and create their own place in the void he had observed without interfering.  But it was becoming apparent the youngsters were in danger of embarrassing the corporation as a whole, and it was time to take action.  First arriving in a stealthbomber to take stock of the situation he quickly decided an escalation of force was appropriate.  Making the decision with the confident assurance of a veteran man of war he directed the blundering upstarts in V3X-L8 to provide a cynosaural chain required for him to end this farce.  Leaping to obey the grizzled veteran's orders Sa'Haira and Killzaida scrambled their resources to provide that which was required.

The logistical cogs of the mighty EZCO war machine ran smoothly once more, and in short time everthing was in place as true power was brought to bear.  Barely could Estamel utter the words "blobbing fucktards" before the fighters of Nodja shredded her defiant tank and the contest was brought to an end with swift finality.  All that remained was to tally the spoils and return home.  Hopefully the youngsters having learnt something; and the wise and mighty Nodja was content that the new additions to EZCO had taken one step further towards being vaguely competent.

The spoils:

Dread Guristas 350mm Railgun

Dread Guristas Kinetic Deflection Amplifier

Dread Guristas Shield Boost Amplifier

Dread Guristas Large Shield Booster

Dread Guristas EM Ward Field

Dread Guristas Tungsten Charge L

Estamel's Modified Large Graviton Smartbomb

Estamel's Modified Cruise Missile Launcher

Estamel Tharchon's Tag

Thanks for reading, and thanks to my space bro's for travelling a long way to help. ;)

Epilogue:

Devastated upon defeating his foe but not receiving a killmail, Killzaida slunk away into the shadows a haunted look of shock on her face.  Concern for her well being has spread throughout EZCO as it was noted he was absent during a fleet later that had a guaranteed killmail.  None can remember Killzaida missing a killmail before and wonder what this means for the future.