No stone unturned

Around four hours after my last log, I recieved confirmation that they had indeed arrived in NOL-M9, although actual entry into Blood Raider territory had been delayed by a temporary lack of active light transports, due to a recent conflicts in the area.

So, they finally got there, and...
Oh, what in God's name did I expect? A giant "Hi searchers, Izanami THIS way!" sign? An easily detectable path of ships signed in her name? Hell, is Izanami even her real name?
Anyway, they've found basically nothing so far. Or rather, they've found so much that its impossible to tell where she is; the whole place is riddled with deadspace production complexes, dark temples, and blood farms. She could be anywhere.

Oh, and did I mention that two of the six are completely out of action? One of the former blooders decided to attack on of the others an attempt to get Vitoc so he could flee... He broke quite a few bones before he was restrained. So now I've got one man who had to be sent back to Goon territory to recover, and the other I have half a mind to order killed immediately.
However, I still need these men. Every day, every hour we do not find another hint of Amaterasu is another day that she does through unimaginable torture. I pray she will be totally alive, let alone sane, when we find her.

So I sent three more men to join those already in Blooder territory, and another three who'll meet with the injured man and then begin a search of Goon space when he recovers - there's always a chance she's hiding in the outskirts rather than the fortress...

Finally, myself. HIMS Predator is fitted and ready, having already proved herself in combat twice. I haven't heard from Hitome or Aldrith, so I'm not sure if and when they will be moving.

One other thing has been troubling me - ever since I was diverted off my quest for Vitoc by this little escapade, the attacks on my property have ceased. Are they unaware that it is still an objective of mine? Or have I inadvertantly rooted out the agent and sent him or her to Delve?

Pointing the hounds

Delve is... well, easier than I had thought.

Of course, I have absolutely no fucking right to say that myself, seeing as how I am actually deploying tomorrow.

Accessing system file:
Memo: Experience in Delve
To: All slave section leaders
Please ask all those in your sections if they have any experience with the Delve region.
Experience with combat operations preferred. Forward results to my NeoCom.
Esna

Well, aren't I lucky. No less than six slaves respond - two turret gunners formerly employed by Band of Brothers, a clone technician who quit after Goonswarm forcibly relocated him to Delve, and... and three Sani Sabik who ventured into Imperial space and were caught by the MIO. I'm extremely hesitent about sending these poor men and women in, especially with the last lot - one of them shows signs of being turned back to God, but the other two... they're just smart enough not to make their views widely know, at least among the more religious staff. Giving all their vitoc doses the other three seemed to be the safest bet - they try anything, they die a painful death. Point of Vitoc, I guess.

But I have no option. I need information, lest I go blindly charging into a fool's mission. So off they went. They should be arriving in the legendary NOL-M9 in about three hours, after which they will break off and purchase a shuttle ride into Sani Sabik territory.

Where they will begin reporting back to me.






When I do go, I will have at least two compatriots - Hitome Kei, and surprisingly, Aldrith Shutaq.

Aldrith... I pity him. The befate that befell him is something no one deserves - to be tricked into betraying his friends by the Betrayer incarnate. She will burn for the pain she has caused.

Failure

Well, she had me fucking fooled.


Let me run back a bit: I've been putting off thinking about this, because frankly, I don't want to think about it. About the collosal failure of myself, my friends, everyone..









Amaterasu has been captured.
It's funny. Only a few weeks ago she moved in to Ghost Festival, an angel finally spreading its wings.
Took some investigation, and a lot of guesswork, to figure out what was going on. Eventually, I overhear Verone, Reimei, Morwen, and some guy from Ghost Festival discussing it. Thank God for less-than-obvious robes - I was able to get within hearing range and, surprise, guess who decided to take Ama?
Izanami Mikoto I. Guess I should have warned her off trying to reclaim Ama a bit more forcefully, huh?
Anyway, its not looking good. Izanami has been hiding out somewhere, apparently torturing Ama. (So much for the kind, if strict, old lady persona.) I've been catching a few references to Delve, which means that they think she's thigh deep in Blooder stuff.

Fucking great. I'll need a covops frigate or force-recon cruiser if I'm headed out that way - no damn way I'm going to just slip in if they can see me.

Or a carrier. Maybe we can slip into one of the bits that isn't cynojammed, cloak up, and get a base of operations running there.
I'd like to drop a fucking carrier on Izanami's head. And the rest of her damned corpse.

And make no mistake, I am going to come down on Izanami's head, even if I have to track down, probe out, and tackle her myself. She may hide behind her false persona, and her... allies may break their oaths, but I am not going to. I am not going to abandon Amaterasu.

Shifting

I have just passed the golden oportunity.

Bit of story here - seems Reppy, that wayward little Khanid, has a mother. A mother, as it is, who is apparently highly religious. So, long story short, she had come to The Last Gate, looking for Reppy. And guess who else decided to walk in - that damned traitor, Marius. "Lord" Maximullis. Well, after the local color drove her out, Marius apparently decided to follow her out and pick a fight with her.

In a typical display of his nature, Marius tried to pull a gun on her, despite the presence of several well-trained bodyguards. They were a tad faster, and when I got out there in response to the shooting, Marius was lying in a pool of blood. Even so, I nearly had to shoot the bastard again to keep him from trying to kill her guards.

About the time Reppy's mother - Rara? Cara? I've forgotten her name in all of this - left, one of Marius' little compatriots showed up. Zuzanna, a little Intaki girl...

And then I passed the opportunity. When I should have fired my sidearm until it was dry, watched the flesh boil off of Marius' skull and his neurons burn into nothingness, when I should have killed him...

When Zuzanna asked... I helped him. Lugged his damned body into the Gate, out of the Gate, into Seriphyn Inhonores' ship, where they managed to get a hardscan on him.

And I don't know fucking why. That, along with the possibility of making a "deal" with Ghost Festival..
Am I slowly falling away from God's path? Am I becoming like the others that have left the Empire's cause? Is this something that dooms all Amarrian podders?

I will not be falling willingly, that is sure. I will consider all my actions, and make sure that they are all good for the Empire's - and the Amarr peoples' - cause... make sure that there is no other way. And I must retain self-control... not allow myself to be swayed by begging girls when there is such an opportunity available.



I do pity Zuzanna, though. I've tallked with her, and she isn't evil or Amarr-hating. That she has fallen in with Marius is unfortunate - he is clearly affecting her.





SYS_EDIT//DOC_EXTENTION;

Still no contact from Ciarente. I am now certain that my request has failed. I suppose I will have to find a PRETA contact within the next couple of days.

Forcing the hand

Well, they finally got to me.



Was on a regular patrol in Providence, and had been running fine all day. After a brief break to reload and refuel, I returned to patrol.



I didn't notice that all external communications had ceased to function. That I wasn't recieving any incoming comms. Including the intelligence channels.



So I didn't know about the large Triumvirate fleet waiting dead ahead.



A new ship, gone. A new clone, inhabited.


I checked later on. Subsace comm relays had ceased to function several minutes beforehand. However, self diagnostics reported that they were functioning. Which means someone was fooling with it.





Whoever this is intends to force my hand. To push me to the point where getting this Insorum would be to great a cost.

I'm not going to let them. Oh, yes, they've forced my hand, but not in the way they expect. Electus Matari has not responded, and I am not going to give this up. I am going to be forced to find another source.

Aside from the Matari, there are only handful of others I know of who might have Insorum. The Jove aren't going to respond to me. The Elders, really the Republic... they would never trust me. Or would demand far to much to gain that trust.

That leaves criminals. Not a group I favor dealing with, except to enforce the law. But then, we are capsuleers, a law unto ourselves.
The Cartel would be my next option. They are the only others who might have a sample of Insorum... and be willing to deal with me.
A few more days, and then I'll have to make a choice I really don't think I'm ready to make.

Obstructions

Someone doesn't look favorably on my actions.

Got a report today that there was an attempt to ruin a good portion of my stored assets - during a routine inventory check it was discovered that a large cache of battleship-class antimatter hybrid rounds I had stored on site had mysteriously been set to active-load settings. That is, not only had the shells been primed for insertion into the turrets' loading mechanisms, but the they had also been set specifically to respond as if they had been loaded into a blaster - that is, the next time a signal reached the shell rack's system - say, from an automated inventory scanner - the shells would have responded by disgorging their load of antimatter into whatever, so that it could be processed and fired by the blaster.
Except in this case, the antimatter would have met atmosphere, and the anhiallation would probably have eventually breached all, oh, ten thousand shells I had stored.

That's a lot of antimatter. Not enough to blow the station apart, but enough to melt or badly irradiate a good portion of what I've got stored at that station. Thank God for automated pre-inventory diagnostics.

Anyhow, to do this requires a fair bit of tinkering, which means experience with shell rack systems. This also means that someone had to override the door locks to gain access to the secured hangar where all of my ammunition is stored. And finally, it also means someone who knew enough to tinker with the station's own systems, because otherwise there would have been an immediate lockdown of the area while someone went in and disabled the shells.


Which means I'm either dealing with one very, very knowledgable enemy, or a lot of very angry enemies. Not sure which I prefer more.

Which

Non-progress

It's about time my luck caught up with me.

Nothing this week is going the way I wanted it to.

First, there's been no progress on the acquiring of Insorum. I know Ciarente said she might not be able to produce results, but at least she could tell me if her requests were denied?
I'm not liking my other options, either way.

Second, I drifted into the Basilica again, and met a quite worried Aldrith. I hope nothing I said to his lady-friend worried her to much - last thing I need is her death on my consciounce. Or what's left of it, anyway.

And third, someone tried to kill me.
Yeah, yeah. I get shot at every day. I get blown up every month, and am podded every couple of months. But it's still not every day that someone goes into the single station where I am staying, attempts to hack into the station's mainframe, reverse the air ventilation system to the specific hab-block I am staying in, and deposit an aerosol neurotoxin into the reversed airflow.
She didn't get me. She got four of my security men, and the doctors say likely five before the week is out. She also wounded - *The rustling of papers can be heard in the background.* - nine station security personel with a projectile weapon, and attempted to shoot herself before being stunned and arrested. Bitch didn't want to go down.

So, I've got no progress on my projects, a possible Khanid woman worried sick over something I said, and a Verokhior who wants my neurons to stop pulsing. Permanently.

Great couple of days, huh?