Cat o'Ninetails

My eyes opened. My long and ardiuos training had been completed, and I was now ready for my first ship of many to come. I gazed upon the landing pad of my assigned hangar, and surveyed the majestic exterior of my new ship. Glouriusly glinting and gleaming in the low artificial light, her name was Ibis. I couldn't wait to give her a spin! But first things first - my destination. I decided to chart a course that ended in a system called Hek, and given that I was just a few jumps away in a region called The Forge, this would be a breeze, I thought to myself.

Time to undock, Cat. This new capsule was uncomfortable. It was the first time I'd been inside my "own" capsule, having only used the mock versions in school before. It seemed a bit tight, the fluid a bit cold, and I'm sure there were some imperfections in the shell that I could feel with my feet. Nonetheless, I did not have the time to demand a refund right now. I willed myself to undock, and as if by magic, the great and vast plains of space appeared before me in a light that was somehow diffferent now to the space I remember looking up at as a child, and thinking "one day, Cat."

Get out of my way, noobs! The undock ramp was unusually cluttered with rookie pilots in rookie ships, some might have considered me a rookie pilot - but the difference was that I had business to attend to. Serious business. Why had the manufacturers decided against horns for spaceships? I would be giving mine some serious blasting right now. I did however, eventually manage to tear my ship away from the station, and enter warp towards the next stargate in route. I had noticed that on my destination checklist, there were a small number of low-security systems. I thought about turning back, but it was my duty to go to Hek, and go to Hek I would.

I had some time to relax, as my ship lazily warped towards a gate, activated impulse thrusters to close the distance, rinse, repeat. I wondered what I should do with my career, what goals should I have? What standards and morals should I conform to? These were all important questions that would be answered soon. I noticed the name of the solar system, it was Crielere. There was a mushy novel that I was made to do a report on, in literacy classes of pilot school - a class that most seem to skip - called the Crielere Incident. Some romantic trash about a Caldari woman falling in love with a Gallente boy, it probably wasn't true anyway. I decided to check out this famous station, as I was here anyway. Heh. Two stations right next to each other. Well, enough dilly-dallying, I had work to do. I reactivated the autopilot, and sat back to wonder what the future would bring.

ALERT! I did not have much time to relax and ponder. I had passed through into the 'Rancer' solar system, my ships systems were reporting that I had been locked, and my warp drive had throughly disabled. On my ships overview was just a plethora of angry, flashing red pilot names. My trusty Ibis, that had looked so marvellous just hours earlier, was destroyed in short order. Before I knew what had happened, I noticed my capsule had been warp disrupted as well. "Cease fire!" I barked into the local communication channel, but it fell on deaf ears. Several rounds of white hot ammunition battered the shell of my capsule, more than I'd expect it to withstand. I knew what this meant. I was about to die.

I never liked that capsule anyway. This new one is much better, but I was back where I'd started. I found that the Pend insurance company had deposited a new Ibis into my hangar, I wasn't so pleased with this. I think it was second hand, it definitely wasn't as shiny, and it smelled funny. But a ship is a ship, and it's better than nothing. I decided to power down my ship and hangar systems, to get some rest and seethe about the loss of my capsule. Why didn't they cease fire? Why don't they listen? Damn pirates, the lot of them. "They will rue the day," I thought to myself, "yes... I will make them sorry."

I knew what I had to do. I had found my calling. Time to get some rest.