Blog Banter #6 - One small chip changed the world

Welcome to the sixth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from Quintrala of Speed Fairy . She suggests to "write a short fiction story about the dissolution of the BoB alliance. It could be from BoB's point of view, the Goons', by neutrals in 0.0, civilians in Empire, NPCs or even rats. Write about before, during or after the coup; give us stories of market, war, people or love. In-character or roleplay. We want to know what happened, from those fictional characters that, in your mind, were part of it."

Personally I found this task hard - I don't usually do fiction. This is written over 2 days, please let me know your thoughts good and bad! Total fiction and the events told DO NOT represent the reality of the situation. Anyway lets begin:

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Senx sat in the bar in the Federal Navy station in Algogille. He was sitting uncomfortably, at a bar stool by the edge of the bar, with a good view of both entrances to the bar. He was noticeably on edge, and was to any observer clearly nervous. He ordered another drink, a Fried-Marble - a strange multi-coloured beverage which resembled a Whiskey sour in taste, but not looks. He sat at the bar looking more and more concerned by the minutes passed.

A group of Caldari walked in the bar, and he looked up alertly. He quickly settled again as their arrival hadn't bothered Senx at all - They didn't have the swagger or confidence of immortal pod-pilots so he resumed waiting, and casually observed the new arrivals getting a drink and sitting down in the corner of the bar.

Senx was a industrial hauler pilot, and had been hired to travel some 35 jumps through high-security space to deliver a encrypted data chip, but was required to deliver the item in person. This was unusual, but such was the items value, it was not being trusted to any electronic means such as contracts - on the off-chance the data would be stolen in-view by hackers en-route. A strange hooded gentleman, naming himself "TheMitani" had handed over the chip, a 100mln deposit, and instructions to leave quickly. He had explained that hiring a private contractor to move the chip was required, as a shipping company would get less attention from moving the goods than a personal flight from one of his corporation's members or friends (who would be mostly known by the enemy) . He also explained the delivery method and the fact he would know Darius by the fact he would order a "SuperNova" from the bar Senx now found himself sat in.

At the time Senx left quickly rubbing his hands with glee, as carrying a simple datachip all this way was great news as it meant that Senx had an empty cargohold to fill. With glee he used the deposit monies to fill his hold with Zydrine, as he knew it would sell for way more money in Gallente space than it would locally in low-sec.

He thanked the local station staff for their help loading the piles of minerals, then undocked in his Iteron "The Badger Baiter". He had an uneventful journey - and didn't notice anyone following him.

He eventually made it to Algogille, where we resume the story:

Senx was inwardly concerned "Where is Darius" he muttered under his breath. Why is he late... He knew what he was carrying must be dynamite. The fact he was delivering the item to personally to the CEO of one of the largest Alliances in the Universe indicated the items value. The other item that indicated this was unusual was the fact he was being paid enough to retire comfortably or buy a brand new freighter and skills to pilot it - a figure around 2 billion ISK once his taxes had been accounted for. He inwardly was wondering what data chip could be worth all this hassle...

In the bar, a rather bedraggled man was sat in the corner, in the shadows, watching Senx out of the corner of his eye while pretending to be interested in the attractions of a female who was openly flirting with him. She was obviously a professional - but this didn't bother him. He knew that in this area, in this bar, being seen with a professional was the perfect cover for his trade. Professional girls were generally not looked at, and were not seen by people not looking for their trade - and thus were ignored out of social habit. This man was a pod-pilot, a assassin & a spy and was thus a man who very rarely was seen by anyone. He operated in the shadows, and was also watching one of the doors. It had been said in the past by others who knew his name and reputation that this killer worked for a "higher" power, but in truth, he was a merely a hired gun. No-one who hired him had ever seen his face, and he had never been caught. He merely was known by the moniker "The Don" to those who did know of his services. Although Senx did not know it, The Don was here to protect him from threats known and unknown.... and was in the employ of TheMitani.

Senx however had no clue of Don's presense in the room. He was almost pacing in his seat at the bar. The barman came over and was looking concerned - he'd seen this behaviour before, and he was aware it usually resulted in either a a fight or flight without paying the bill. He decided to present Senx with the tab. As he did so, he noticed that his customer noticeably relaxed as he saw a tall confident swaggering gentleman enter the bar and start walking towards the main bar area. Senx watched carefully as the barman walked to the other side of the bar to greet the tall gentleman.

The tall gentleman ordered a "Luminaire Frogian" and sat down. He also was keenly surveying the bar, and didn't take long to settle his gaze on Senx. In fact he stared disconcertingly at Senx for a good minute before breaking his stare to look at the paraphernalia from the ball-games situated behind the bar. He reached under his coat and camnly started screwing a silencer onto the barrel of the old fashioned projectile gun he held there. It was a classic weapon, designed to avoid the modern world and CONCORDs weapon checks in this high-security station. Before he could finish screwing the barrel on, he was disturbed and embarressed by "The Don" putting a hand on his sholder & injecting some neuron-toxin into his neck to paralyse and kill him instantly. The tall gentleman slumped on the bar looking in like a drunk to any casusal observer, and "The Don" grabbed his gun from under his coat to add to his personal stash. He then simply & quickly walked out of the bar giving a subtle nod to the table of Caldari.

Senx was unaware of all this occuring however, and was just finishing paying the bill that had been presented in front of him. A dark faced guy from the group of Caldari he had spotted earlier came over, sat next to him, and ordered a "Supernova". He quickly turned and said "I'm Darius, we better get this done quickly". Senx wondered why, and before he could voice the question he got the response "Look, you're unware of the trouble you were in here. See that chap by the bar? He was going to kill me and possibly you when we met if we had not anticipated the attempt and dealt with it. Here is your money, give me the chip, you don't need to know the contents - its safer if you just leave now". "Forget me, forget my face, and you were never even in this bar today".

With that he left. Senx was 2 Billion ISK richer. He was elated. He quickly got back in his Iteron hauler and flew the short trip to Oursulaert to stay in the most expensive orbital hotel he could while he awaited the order of the Obelisk he had ordered from a local vendor to be delivered.

The next morning in the hotel room, listening to his favourite morning DJ, FunkyBacon, he heard the news on the radio. BoB disbanded, taken out using insider knowledge and encryption keys Goonfleet had acquired apparently. Senx was elated, and dismayed simultanously - He now knew what that chip had contained and realised he had played a part in one of the biggest changes in the world of the 0.0 lawless space - but no-one could know. Senx knew he would be the most wanted man in the galaxy if anyone knew. He also felt sorry for the ordinary civilian residents in Delve, as he knew he had turned their life upside down - they had been used to the stability of Bob, and now faced all out war.

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Participants:

• Speed Fairy, The Hand of BoB
• CrazyKinux's Musing, No where to go...
• A Mule in EVE, Rolling to the Warzone
• The Ralpha Dogs, Two Tales of Glory and Honor
• One Man and his Spaceship, Times they are changing
• OZ's House of the Evil Dead, Every betrayal contains a perfect moment, a coin stamped heads or tails with salvation on the other side
• The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, Who the Hell are They?....
  
• I am Keith Nielson, He Gave Up the Stars
• Life in Low Sec, Six Degrees of Seperation
  
• A Merry life and a Short One, Die Bard
  
• Roc's Ramblings, Mythology
• Dense Veldspar, EVE Blog Banter #6
• Letrange's EVE Blog, A toast to the disolution of BoB
• Fumbling in Space, Scarnan Vs The Fleeing Bankrupt Hordes
• More coming soon...