ENCOUNTER AT THE GATE

Kassigainen....

Hatakani....

Sivala....

The gates winked by, flawlessly performing their duty. Sling-shotting the relatively small Gallente Industrial ship system to system. With each bright flare of a gate activation, the Iteron Mark III 'Run Rabbit Run' came closer to it's final destination.

Uedama....

Juunigaishi....

Suroken....

Her crew vigilantly scanned each new solar system critically, looking for anything that might bode danger. With each sensor sweep came the same result. No Contacts. No Hostiles. The Citadel Region of the Caldari State was eerily empty.

Kusomonmon....

Urlen....

The glare from the warp-gate dissipated and the photo-sensitive plas-steel windows slowly returned to their opaque state, allowing the personnel on the command bridge to once again gaze out into the immense depth of space. Before the auto-cloak safety field from the star-gate had fully disengaged, the Capsuleer helming the 'Run Rabbit Run' had already turned her about, priming the warp drive for the final intra-system jump to the last star-gate.

The drive finished it's initializing sequence as the Iteron Mark III completed it's lazy turn into warp alignment. The stars froze in place and the 'Run Rabbit Run' lurched forward into warp. At this exact moment, a tech officer manning one of the scanning stations saw something different appear on his holographic data terminal. A blip. A small, almost insignificant, thing with the exception that it was red. Red and blinking ferociously, like some sort of cyclopean terror trying to make out fine print on a Business Tribunal trade contract.

The tech officer checked and double checked the final telemetry readings and grimaced. Their unarmed vessel was heading directly towards the contact and he wouldn't be able to get a firm fix or transponder reading until the 'Run Rabbit Run' had finished her leap. Pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers in consternation the officer muttered under his breath, “Look first, always look”.

'Run Rabbit Run' broke out of warp on the mark, directly in line with the final star-gate. The ship's residual momentum was carrying it gingerly into optimal jump distance.

“Sir!” The tech officer blurted. “Hostile at five klicks. Eight-o'clock low and closing fast”.
“Condor class, Crow Interceptor”.

The tactical officer chimed in. “We're locked Sir! Crow is engaging a sensor scan!”

Inside the reinforced pod within the bowels of the ship, the Capsuleer stirred and broke out of his jump malaise. With but a thought, he activated the holo-projector on the bridge, bringing into being a visual representation for his crew.

“I'm activating shield boosters and...” The Capsuleer stated matter-of-factly as a glowing blue nimbus appeared outside the main view port. “.. reducing our target profile manually. We need to hit that Gate first. Helm, keep our forward velocity during my attitude changes”.

“Aye Aye, Sir!” answered the Helms-woman.

“And don't worry gang, we've ran this race before. I'll get us through it without a scratch. Trust me.” The lithe, red-haired holographic projection cheerily remarked with a sly wink.

The Crow raced past the lumbering Iteron Mark III, streaked aft for a kilometer. The Caldarian Capsuleer, in a gut-wrenching maneuverer, fired the interceptor's forward ventral de-acceleration thrusters and flipped about, end over end. Then, activating the ship's microwarp-drive it gracefully accelerated back along the course it had taken past the 'Run Rabbit Run'. As the Crow sped by it teasingly opened up with it's single 75mm Gatling rail gun. The rounds impacted the activated shields of the Iteron Mark III, doing little more than making a spectacular display of shattered munitions and ionized sparks. The interceptor traversed the length of the 'Run Rabbit Run' in seconds and was soon out in front of the industrial vessel.

“Crow has moved into jump position! Gate activating! He's gone sir.” relayed the tactical officer to the now concerned looking holo-capsuleer.

Seconds ticked by as the Gallente ship finally reached the maximum distance to engage the star-gate. The anxious command crew remained silent and maintained a concerned gaze at their Capsuleer's projection in the center of the bridge.

“Activate all Grav-locks on the cargo in the hold. Sound general quarters. Lock our destination into the Nav-puter. Keep the shields up and strap yourselves in” ordered the Capsuleer. 'Run Rabbit Run' lurched as the star-gate activated and the holographic projection faded away.

Kisogo....