The dark places

113-06-20 Somewhere in The Bleak Lands region.

A single light on the lone desk was the only illumination in the room. There was a window facing out into space, but it was polarized at the moment, and not allowing any of the starlight that was slamming into the side of the station into the room.

That was the way the rooms one occupant preferred things though. When he was looking over reports he didn't want any distractions, and he often found himself starring into the blackness of space, sometimes losing hours to it.

As he was reading another report, the chime on the door activated, telling him someone wanted access to his office. As one hand reached for the pad that would release the doors lock, the other reached under his desk and rested on the grip of a laser pistol.

The door opened to admit an average height man, looking to be in his mid thirties. He looked to be of Caldari decent, but he also looked like he had some other races features in his facial structure. The rest of him was unremarkable, he looked as if he would blend into a crowd. Anyone looking at him, their eyes would just slide past without a second glance. The only feature that stood out about him, were his eyes. They were dark blue, and held no emotion of any kind.

The man sitting behind the desk smiled, taking his hand off the laser pistol's grip, he stood and offered the hand to the other man. "Glad you could make it Graz, I hope your journey was uneventful."

Graz smiled, but the smile did not reach his emotionless eyes. "Thank you Misk, it was." He sat in the only chair that was in front of the desk, and looked up at Misk as he sat down. "So, whats the job you need me to do?"

Misk reached his hands down to the desk and picked up a data pad and handed it to Graz, "We need you to grab a capsuleer, and bring her back here, alive."

Graz took the pad and opened the files on it. The first thing to pop up was a picture of a young Gallente woman, with a small nose, full lips, black hair, and a smile on her face. A name was up at the top right of the picture, "Laria Raven huh?" He scrolled through the information on her, "Says here she works for Re-Awakened, that the reason you want her nabbed?" He looked up at Misk.

Misk shook his head, "No, that's not the reason. If you read further on, you'll see she's involved with someone, Tiger Phoenix, co-leader of a Brutor clan." he rested his elbows on the desk, "He has caused us some trouble in the past, and we want to repay him for that."

Graz nodded, then went back to reading the information. When he finished, he put the pad into a pocket of his jacket, then stood. "I should have her back here within two weeks, most likely less. I'll contact you when I have her and I'm heading back here." He left through the door.

Misk sat at his desk in silence for a few moments, then he pressed a button on his desk. A small holo screen popped up above the desk, showing a older man dressed in golden robes. Misk bowed his head low before speaking, "My lord, the bounty hunter is on his way to retrieve the package, he will inform me when he has it and is on his way back here. I'll relay that to when he does my lord."

The man on the screen just nodded, then broke the connection.

New Beginings, Old Friends

113-06-14, Nakugard VI, Phell Clan holdings, Clan Council Chambers

Light streamed into a large room from skylights in the high ceiling. Seated around the large circular room in high-back chairs, was the council of Clan Phell. The chairs surrounded an open flat space in the floor that allowed someone to speak to the entire room and be seen by all. A large set of metal doors on the only flat wall in the room allow access. Across from the doors sat Tiger Phoenix, with Shekear Mervess siting on his left.

Leaning against the arm of his high-backed chair, Tiger was in deep thought.

Two nights in a row, he thought to himself, two nights in a row and I've woken up beside her.

Each time I wake up in the morning, I'm afraid that it will be a dream. His thoughts strayed even further from the talk going on around him.

Shekear leaned over to Tiger and sayed quietly "You might want to pay attention Tiger, this topic could be important to the Clan."

Tiger jerked at the sound of her voice. Turning his head to look at her, he nodded distractedly.

Shekear stared at him worriedly "Are you ok there?" she looked around to make sure no one had noticed her speaking.

"I haven't seen you this distracted before, has something happened?"

Shaking his head "No, nothing happened, just got somethings on my mind." Bringing up a connection to one of the camera drones recording the council session through his internal neo-com, he viewed the last few moments to get himself caught up with the discussion.

Shekear nodded and went back to listening to the councilman who had the floor outline future trade agreements with other Clan's in and around the system.

As he was viewing the recording, his mind wandered again. She said it, a phrase I haven't heard from a women that wasn't family for over 3 years.

He brought himself back to the present with a shake of his head as the recording ended. He tried not to think of anything accept what was going on with the council until the proceedings were over a few hour later.

When the meeting was over, Tiger remained seated in his chair and went back to thinking about her.

Shekear was talking to one of the Council members as she left the room. Before reaching the doors, she looked back to were Tiger was sitting and paused, a frown on her face.


"Ma'sa, go on ahead, I'll catch up with you later today to discuss the trade details." The man nodded and continued walking out through the doors as Shekear turned around and walked over to Tiger.

"Tiger, whats up, why are you so distracted?" She sat down in the chair next to him, "Whats wrong?" she asked with concern tinting her voice.

He moved his eyes to look at her, and a slight smile touched his lips.

"Nothing is wrong Shekear," he chuckled softly "In fact a lot of things are right in the universe right now."

She tilted her head to the side, a confused look on her face "Then why have you been acting so down today?"

"I've not been acting down" he shifted in his chair and sat up straight, towering over Shekear with his full height, "just thinking real hard about stuff."

"Well?" she asks impatiently.

"I think, no, I know I've found someone. She is fun, and we make each-other laugh, and last night she..." he paused and looked up at the camera drones that were still floating around the council chambers.

With a quick thought he sent them all to their storage alcoves, erasing the last few minutes.

"Last night she said that she was falling in love with me," he shifted his eyes to look at Shekear, "and then she left the channel we were talking in."

Shekear sat back in her chair, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Do you feel the same about her?"

He looked at nothing for a few moments before replying, "I talked to one of my friends in the corp almost directly afterwards and asked his advice."

"And?" she asked impatiently.

He turned his head back to look at her, "During our talk, I realized, yes, I do feel the same, have been feeling the same for a time now."

He sighed and pushed himself out his chair, "And when I see her next I'll tell her so." He turned and looked down at Shekear.

"Also, I'm assigning a platoon of the marines to guard her, if you see Shanaa before I do, tell her." He started walking towards the door, expecting her to follow.

She sat in her seat for a moment longer, then got up and followed Tiger to the door.

"So, who is she then?" She smiled at Tiger,"I want to meet this women who seems to have taken my co-leaders heart. I'm quite sure your cousins will as well."

"Oh, you all will meet her eventually, but for now," they had reached the doors and Tiger let Shekear walk through before he started closing it, "I think she wouldn't be comfortable meeting my family so soon after we just started going out."

The rest of their conversation was cut off as the doors closed. Towards the back of the room, in one of the small camera drone storage alcoves, a drone that should have been inactive rose up from the alcove. It flew its way up to the skylights in the high ceiling.

When it reached the skylights it hovered itself close to the edge to avoid detection if someone came into the room, and extended a small appendage from its tiny frame.

The appendaged tracked across the sky, looking for any passing craft that would contain a link to the planetary network. When it found such a craft, a small laser activated at the end of the appendage and sent a data burst to the it, containing the recording of the council meeting and the conversation afterward.

The data burst would find its way through the network the passing transport was linked to and then transmit itself along the inter-system channels and find its way into Amarr space, into the waiting hands of the Phell Clan's enemies.