Last Son of Prano - Chapter 9.

Chapter 9.

D-Day minus 2.

Venal
UTZ-7B
Y-4CFK – 0.5 AUs above star's northern magnetic pole.

The details were quite simple. A Gurista data-thief by the name of Jaynis managed to decrypt some transmissions belonging to the Elders that he came across while scouring the net. He sent a message to an assistant to Shobhena Yoonareyd (Chief of Surveillance at the Ministry of War) named Karo. Jaynis and Karo have had dealings in the past, and Gigaer suspected both were double-agents at some level. Jaynis had somehow managed to convince Karo to meet him at the Gurista Testing Facilities here to make an exchange. One would get information that would make his career, while the other would come into money few Guristas dare dream about.

Gigaer had spent 29 days painstakingly tracking Jaynis' movements, looking for an opportunity to reweave him of his burden. However, Jaynis consumed a large quantity and variety of narcotics on a daily basis and his extreme degrees and variations of psychosis (such as paranoia) served him well, as his security measures were always solid. After all this time stalking, Gigaer was forced to his last option: the day of the deal. He would have to wait until Karo exited the station and moved into another region, then pounce on him and take the information. This added the task of returning soon after and killing Jaynis, due the the possibility he would have made a copy of the data for himself.

Gigaer waited near the magnetic pole of the system's parent star, which obstructed the Guristas' system-wide sensor sweeps from seeing him, but a tight-beam scan directed at the station's port offered him a satisfactory view. The ship he was looking for, a Pilgrim, should pop itself out and head for the gates, beginning its long trek back to Amarr space with all due haste.

Sure enough, after nearly 20 hours of waiting, out came the Pilgrim. Gigaer was about to activate his warp navigation systems to follow when he noticed the Pilgrim was not alone, and was not heading for the gate, but for the one asteroid belt near Y-4CFK I. The companion ship was a Gila, and Gigaer knew it had to be Jaynis. His paranoia must have gotten the better of him again and he decided the station was too crowded a place for such an important deal to be brokered. Better to make the trade where nobody else would be watching. Once they arrived at the belt and settled near a large rock, Gigaer realigned his sensors towards the two craft. At this range, picking up a wide-cast transmission was easy, and Jaynis was probably too tweaked to take that small detail into account.

“Are you finally satisfied? The deal was that I come alone, and I did. All I have to do is wire the funds to any account you want and let you walk away, right? That was the deal we made. All I want is this information you say will make my career. Can we finally make this transfer so I can get out of this God-forsaken place?” spoke the pilot of the Pilgrim. Karo sounded like he was suppressing some frustration, and Gigaer guessed that Jaynis had begun to get on his nerves.

“Only when I'm satisfied you really intend on letting me live. You could have dozens of cloaked ships watching us right now, waiting to kill me once you have what you want.” said the pilot of the Gila, who Gigaer recognized instantly. The nasal, jittery voice of a man constantly about to fly off the handle and into a drug-induced craze. Jaynis didn't cope with stressful situations well, especially when he couldn't just kill the source of his fear.

Gigaer gave his micro warp drive a quick burst then shut everything down that could be easily detected at range. Only his life-support and passive sensors remained active. His Hurricane drifted towards them as Gigaer prepped his systems for a quick restart. Without a cloak, he would drift dark and frictionless towards them, then once he was close enough, reactivate his systems and have them at an instant tactical disadvantage.

“You probably think I'm easy to manipulate, don't you? You think you can just lure me out here so you can kill me and take what's mine?” Jaynis yelled over the comms. His breathing was getting shallower and Gigaer could tell he was about to go into his panic-induced frenzies. Gigaer had witnessed these before during his stalking of the man. Jaynis would pull a weapon and kill everyone around him if his stress-level rose too high, wielding near-superhuman abilities on account of the near-lethal cocktail running through his veins. He'd actually be quite well-off financially, if he didn't have to constantly pay people off when they come looking for compensation for a wrecked establishment or vengeance of some sort. Jaynis' Gila lurched in the direction of the station, attempting to align for warp. At the same time he fired a few random rounds at Karo. Jaynis had not bothered to target the pilgrim, but at this super-close range and zero motion the shots still did moderate damage to Karo's shields. Karo acted quickly and locked down the Gila with a webber and scrambler. The Gila slowed as energy shimmered around its hull as a warp field futilely attempted to form. Jaynis continued to fire but the Pilgrim's shields were too strong for him to punch through.

“You're not going anywhere, Gurista heathen. I won't suffer because you can't control your emotions or your habits. Hand over the data at once or I'll destroy you.” yelled Karo. Jaynis' panic attack was reaching its heights and the only thing coming in over the comms was a lot of unintelligible screaming, moaning and crying. The shimmering around the Gila became more violent as the screaming increased. Gigaer and Karo realized Jaynis was trying to overload his warp drive in a suicidal effort to break free. Gigaer quickly restarted the Hurricane's systems, as Karo would be far too concerned with what was going on in front of him to notice another ship coming in from his flank.

The Gila bucked as its engines were pushed far beyond their limits. Karo dumped extra energy into his restriction systems as his emitters overheated. He continued to yell Amarrian curses as his systems glitches due to feedback, releasing and sending the Gila sprawling into empty space. Seconds later internal explosions tore through Jaynis and his ship, transforming the Gila into a smoldering wreck. Obscenities continued to pour out of the Pilgrim as Karo tried to mitigate the damage done to his own vessel, unaware that the he was still transmitting.

Gigaer was about to remove himself from the scene, satisfied that the data had gone to hell with Jaynis when he noticed a small tractor beam stab into the Gila wreck from the Pilgrim. After a few minutes it pulled out an object the size of a human skull, and Gigaer considered this Amarrian may have odd habits of his own, before he looked closer. A Caldari datacore. No doubt it held the information that brought these three capsuleers together, and now Karo had it. Gigaer could not avoid a confrontation any longer.

Karo was about to head for the station when a voice he didn't recognize came in over his comms, transmitting from a Hurricane bearing down on him at full speed and targeting him with plenty of firepower. “My name is Gigaer, of the clan Prano. You have something that belongs to me.”