Introduction to Angrod

Introduction

From the moment the chip entered my head the first time I knew that my life and by extension everything I did from now on would be altered irrevocably. If you could even call it life any more, more along the lines of a dream. They told me about the risks, about the pain, about the changes. They never told me about the dreams, about the memories, about seeing death meeting you in the face and waking up staring at yourself in the reflection of your clones hibernation chamber.

They opened so many doors at the same time, it was almost too much to comprehend. I cannot die, I kept saying that to myself over and over and over. They kept saying it to me over and over and over. Risks, went in one ear and out of the other. Risks? How do any risks compare with immortality? Gods, that's what they wanted to make us. Warriors for their little wars, the ability to keep throwing fodder in front of the fine mesh of auto-cannon fire. Economically they have pretty much converted us into reusable robots. Drones that need no repair, little maintenance, and no replacement. Instead of worrying about loss ratios and squad numbers they have converted warfare into a battle of logistics, who has more ammo? Who can provide their fodder with more guns?

From the beginning I was skeptical, but there really wasn't much I could or couldn't do to prevent the inevitable. Immortality. Simple, everlasting and flowing. I can almost feel the fluidic plasma of time flow around me and through me but reject my existence and find itself helpless to affect me. I am forever.

From that moment I hated the capsule. I hated feeling like I was owned. I fought and died many times in the service of my Race. In the service of the gods and against heretics. I grew in rank from a simple soldier to a leader and a general. I commanded from the bridge of an almighty Abbaddon class BattleShip. I felt its power beneath my feet as my crew rained hell on those who dared oppose us. I commanded fleets of bombers to destroy transport and unsuspecting enemies alike. I felt the after shock of the Apocalypse Class Battleship beams firing at targets who couldn't even see us coming. I watched planets burn and thousands die. I watched my soul wither away.

I finally left, not as a traitor, nor as a coward. I simple resigned. I was done, off to repent for my sins. I wandered the galaxy mining, fighting, trading, and even hunting a bounty or two. Eventually I found my self back in my old profession of killing for money. I had found myself in the employ of a group of mercenaries with noble intentions of protecting miners from others who would prey on them through the bureaucratic nonsense of war deceleration on trumped up charges. We defended the miners with our lives and were paid well. However, the monotony of killing and being killed over and over just, got to me. Like a sludge rolling through my veins akin to the withdrawals from combat boosters. I finally left their employ and made my way to a small corner of space where I spent most of my days in a small frigate sized Magnate class vessel I kindly name "Retirement.” That was my boring life. Then, I saw salvation......

One moment I was scanning down some fairly interesting signatures, hoping to find an artifact that some dealer would purchase for a couple million ISK. Something to take my mind of the monotony of my shallow existence. I was chasing down a particularly difficult and odd looking signature when I finally pinpointed, something. My sensors couldn’t make heads or tails of what I had found, maybe it was something valuable. It definitely was not something my sensors had ever seen before. What the hell, I thought, so I warped. While I saw the stars and planets blow past me in their liquid-like state. Then I landed on grid with a crash, gravometric forces felt like I was being torn apart. I was pulled rapidly in to the event horizon of doom itself. I felt my body scream as I was sucked through. Then it stopped. Just stopped.

I was somewhere else, with that...hole.... off of my port side, thumping and throbbing. Then I saw them, drones, thousands of drones. None like I had ever seen before! They reminded me of Jovian design, but more, sinister. They immediatly swarmed around me and had my ship torn apart in seconds. The second before I died I felt a pang of fear, if I didn’t know where I was, would I survive this encounter in a clone?

I awoke with a start, my heart pounding and medical technicians yelling at me. Where did you die! How long since you’ve transferred your clone?! Do you know who you are!?

Yes, I am Angrod Losshelin. I am Immortal.

Chapter One

From this point on I'll document my travels into this intriguing conglomeration of adventures. I have found a new purpose to my life, I will explore this untapped reservoir of resources and riches!

For the next two months I was primarily in a frenzy, trying to garner funding from even the most shady of characters for an expedition into what I now called wormhole space. Wormholes, the name one particular agent presented me with, what an odd sounding name. The hole in which colossal space worms traveled? I think not, though at this point I can discount nothing.

I felt my heart leap as I was in a seedy bar of off Hek's main trade hub. I felt sweat start to form on my brow as the agent claimed to know of some who had explored the depths of wormhole space and returned with riches beyond imagining.

I begged for the name of this corporation of amazing explorers. I was given a slip of paper with a single word written on it, Aesir. Who in the gods names were they? Not many really knew. Most referred to them as a group of drunkards, well no ****, if I was as rich as they had become I would be as well. So off into the Cosmo's to find this alleged corporation of wormhole explorers.

Nothing, its hard to quantify the amount of nothing that was found. So, for 4 more months I starved myself in my pod looking for a trace of evidence that these fools even existed. Nothing.

So, my goals needed to change, I need to explore on my own. No, not on my own. I need other rich hungry fools to fly by my side. So I went out to find these dregs of society!

For a few more months a went around known space gathering new capsuleers and transformed them into my own private exploration army, with scanners, combat pilots, and a few Industry Moguls who were sick of mining asteroids in high competition area's.

We sat down together and formed our own corporation, tied not to one race but to all in our own small way. We were the folks who did not belong in any one place, but wandered from system to system looking for something of interest. Thus we were called the Forsaken, and named our little Corporation the Oath of the Forsaken. WE set out for our first incursion into wormhole space together in a motley group of ships, exploration vessels, combat battlecruisers, and mining vessels. Little did we know we would not return to known space for months as this time the wormhole collapsed behind us.

Determined as we were to survive, not all of our crews felt the same way. We had to handle multiple mutinies within the first week. Though a couple of the mining vessels had brought planetary command centers in their cargo hold and we were able to find a number of Temperate Planets to colonize for cattle and coolant production. WE also managed to secure the Command Tower I had brought along to a near by moon.

We managed to use the combat ships to clear away some of the deadly drones that apparently "inhabited" the area and were able to setup mining operations in this wealth of space. I was able to calculate our return on investment at over 1000%! So much wealth to be had here! Sadly, we had no way of selling the goods we had acquired and did not much fancy blowing our selves up to return to the known world. So instead we decided that it was logical to assume if there was a way in there must be a way out.

For days and days we scoured our space in search of a way out, another wormhole, a dessicated gate we could repair, something. Then we found it! a wormhole that led right back to known space, though deep into the unsecured sectors of Angel Territory. Some who had brought cloaking devices fitted to their ships decided to make a run for secured space where they could sell products and bring back much needed supplies. Most did not survive.

When we finally had the resources to recover those who we had lost as well as the supplies we ventured out and scanned down another wormhole that led to a less formidable section of the galaxy. We emerged near Rens, one of the outlying trade hubs that we were confident we could utilize to peddle our fortunes. We recruited more capsuleers and purchased more ships, as well as a few hangers to hold everything we had acquired. Furthermore, as paranoid industrialists sometimes do we decided we needed more than just ourselves to protect our little kingdom. We purchased a number of defense systems for our control tower to include some targeting jamming arrays and a few automated defensive beam laser batteries. Somehow we also ended up with a number of warp disruption bubble devices and warp disruption turrets.

With our expensive array of gadgets in tow we made back for the hole that was slowly turning into our home and took a few months to set everything up. The weapons arrays were valuable to the defense of our little station as drones occasionally wandered too close to our home. Until the 8th month inside, when we encountered another capsuleer. He sat outside the automated defenses for what seemed like hours, just sitting there. Nervous of pirates we sent a small contingent to engage and capture this pilot.

The battle lasted mere minutes as the BattleCruiser we had scrambled simply shot him from the sky. As we questioned the pilot about his disregard for orders we learned that the other pilot had been using probes to attempt to scan down another entrance into our home. We thanked our BattleCruiser captain for the decisive outcome and decided to engage any other capsuleers on sight from that point on. There was no Concord out here to prevent us from defending ourselves. We were the Kings of this sector and refused to allow anyone to bring others in to contest us.

For a few more weeks we were successful beyond our wildest dreams. We pillaged drone "habitats" we sold their wrecks, we mined our asteroids that were being discovered every day, and we mined our planets resources. All in all an operation of over 30 capsuleers and at least another 1000 human residents and crew. We increased our defenses and did have a few more encounters with other capsuleers. Some fruitful and others the were deadly.

We did discover that we always had what we called an exit from our section of unstable space, from what we could tell and what some of the industry scientists told me, our section of space was unstable in such a manner that alot of wormholes would generate in the correct "frequency" to connect with our home systems and known space. Most of the time we found known space on the other side. Occasionally we found other unknown systems. Most were empty, except for those damn drones, some had pilots and capsuleers in them. We jumped in and out of quite a few wormholes and lost a few pilots due to collapsing wormholes, which led to a study of how they worked in greater detail.

We did discover a number of things in our system and about the exits and entrances. We found that there was a number of ways to track and calculate the mass these wormholes allow and the maximum number of ships we can jump in and out. Also, most of the wormholes had a specific time period that they could reasonably stay stable before dispersing or collapsing. Oddly enough from everything we were able to determine, there is no actual way to be stuck inside the wormhole transition as you are essentially exist only in one point and then the other. There is no "travel" between wormholes. Not that it makes any sense to me, but it is reasonably reassuring that I wouldn't be disintegrated between systems.

In other area's we did not excel quite as much. We lost a number of pilots to incompetence and attacks increasing, some returned when they had re-cloned, others did not. We actually had quite a few fail to return. "More profits for us" we all thought, though most also knew that our security was at risk with a bare bone crew managing an entire solar system of our own.

Then it happened, the invasion, the reckoning. I woke up to blaring sirens and sounds of explosions. I felt my heart stop from the impact shock wave that came from only one thing, an Abbaddon's lasers impacting the shields of some unlucky control tower. I felt my blood run cold as I heard the familiar rapid fire from our defensive turrets abruptly end following an explosion that shock my bones to the marrow. I jumped out of my bed and sprinted down the corridor to the command center of our tower. I heard the call for help as the radio chimed in with calls from all over the tower, the majority of my crew were sealed inside their habitation modules or locked inside the Ship Maintenance Array after falling asleep on their ships.

I was alone, me and my ships crew. I looked out of the view port of the commend center to see at least four Dominix Class BattleShip, thankfully only one Abbaddon, and at least 3 Logistical support ships with their support fleet totaling more than 15 ships converging on our door. I checked my roster of ships and crews that I could commend against over whelming odds. I had two crews available, my Apocalypse and my Purifier crew. Not the ideal setup but if I am going to survive I needed to do something fast. I scrambled everyone to check the operation of all available defensive modules and turrets anchored. Only four of the Electronic Counter Measure systems were still operational and none of the gun crews had survived the initial assault.

I immediately, took assessment of the Electronic Counter Measure systems we still had yet to Anchor and Online, a total of twelve systems still available for deployment. I yelled at my engineers and drone operators to Anchor and Online as many of them spread out as possible while my ship crews prepped for what would likely be their deaths and my inevitable rebirth. I couldn't hear myself think as the Sentry Drones from the Domi's all fired in rapid succession followed by the boom of the Abbaddons lasers. Like the drum beat to our defeat they pounded on and on.

I could hear a few of my Minmitar slaves call to their gods for strength and courage. I tried to reassure them, but I could see the doubt in their eyes. Once all of the ECM modules had been onlined I took note that the Abbaddon had slowed it's fire, probably due to an issue maintaining it's target lock. I was also able to note that their support fleet had dwindled slightly, for whatever reason. With slightly more hope I climbed into my capsule and closed the hatch. My Apocalypse slowly kited from the Ship Maintenance hanger and into the glare of the Sun.

I prepped the lasers and slowly inched towards the edge of the shields, hoping to catch on of their logistics class vessels unaware and shoot him down before the other responded or the Domi's could reposition their sentries. As I poked the nose of my Battleship outside of the shields I was able to target and fire a single volley before my ship's shields were melted under Abbaddon laser fire and sentry barrages. Not a scratch on their logistics.

As my hope slowly dwindled I slowboated back into my ship maintenance array I contacted my Purifier team and had them prep the ship for a bombing run. As my Apocalypse crew was prepping the ship for re-birthing back into the SMA I ran to the thunder of my Control Tower shields and alarms screaming at me to run faster. As I slid around the corner I a jumped into my pod that had been reloaded into the Stealth Bomber moments before I hit the gel. The hatch slid shut as we left the air lock. I pinged the ships computer for a total ammunition count, only one bomb and a few hundred torpedoes. Damn, not much to work with, but I sure as hell would make it count. I warped outside of the shields to a safe location I had saved in my navigational systems and cloaked. Now the slow approach, the scariest time for any stealth bomber pilot.

While they slowly pounded away at my shields and ECM arrays I slinked toward them in total silence, I could feel my heartbeat reverberating through the pod-gel. I was close enough to be almost blinded by the flash of the Abbaddons lasers. I creeped closer until I was in a perfect position. Just in range of their sentry drones, I de-cloaked, aligned to the other safe-point and dropped my payload. I didn't even wait around to see the all too familiar explosion and deafening sound of my destruction.

I re-cloaked and aligned my ship back, I checked my sensors and felt my heart leap as I saw not a single drone! Then, the Dominix's opened their drone bay doors and out swarmed sentries. I had not killed a single one, they had simply recalled them at the last moment to prevent my little escapade from being effective in any shape or form. My torpedo's would do nothing to their thick armor nor the drones that they could simply recall at a moments notice. I felt my hope slide from my body like a discarded robe. I turned my attention to my crew and announced that we would be sacrificing our souls to whatever god they deemed fit and to prepare themselves for their afterlife.

Chapter Two

Nothing emerged through the wormhole, as I waited nervously on the other side. My ears were ringing in my pod from the ambient EM radiation that were interfering with my camera drones. I could feel my crew's anticipation through the controls and displays they operated with apt precision, exclusively reserved for "we're going to die horribly" moments.

Anoikis is a place that some think removes all traces of humanity from those already limited in their "humane" capabilities. I never really thought much of simple things like social interaction until I moved into Anoikis and lost the remaining traces of my sanity. Sure I had my crews and the few other capsuleers that were insane enough to follow me. Most had been outcast from the empire Navies that had created them, turned them into more of a machine than their original bodies would ever have imagined and then dropped them when they were no longer needed. With our common dislike or hatred for the empires and CONCORD alike, it drove us to find our meaning and happiness in the unknown.

A lot has happened in my little corporation since the last time I recorded my exploits. We have lost so many crews and yet more are willing to risk all inside our mobile coffins. I do have to admit we were probably some of the richest citizens of New Eden, mainly because we sold a lot of the salvaged technology from the drones we destroyed in our home. Our unstable deadly slice of space.

As exciting as our existence was, the lack of contact with anyone but those you knew and spoke with everyday took its toll. For one our sexual encounters were limited simply because you knew everyone and if you were sleeping with someone it was known by everyone in the whole system before the deed was complete. Not to mention the issue of becoming attached to someone on your crew that you may have to sacrifice at a moments notice. Simply put it was simpler to become attached to another capsuleer.

Suddenly, the wormhole pulsed and throbbed indicating an object somewhere in its confines. I prepped my Anathema for de-cloaking and felt the other capsuleers in my fleet respond to my communication ping. I saw a crusader class interceptor slide through the event horizon almost 15 km off to port. I prepped my warp disruptor for overheating and new it would be no use as I could never hope to match speed against such an agile ship. I decided to approach closer and try to lock him down with my stasis webifier in order to allow our own interceptor time to land on grid and assist in capturing our little friend. As I listed slowly closer I wondered what in the universe he was thinking, simply sitting there waiting for something.

My instincts screamed at me to turn and run, call off the ambush. "We need to protect our home...." I heard Lodern mention. He knew better than most that I was particularly unwilling to risk anyone but myself, but this needed to be done. I signaled in position to the rest of the fleet and heard my interceptor pilot acknowledge and accelerate into warp towards me. As soon as I saw his signature appear on my overview I decloaked and targeted the Crusader. My ships targeting computer locked on right as he opened fire on my vessel and flew completely outside of my warp disruptor range. I overheated my warp disruptor and caught him right at the end of it's extended range. I felt my ships sensors inform me that the wormhole had started to pulse and throb once again.

I turned off my warp disruptor and aligned away from the wormhole as a Megathron Class Battleship burst through less than 6km from my vessel. I saw it's deadly drones spill from its hangar as I entered warp and called for every available ship to enter warp immediately and land on grid to engage the Megathoron. I heard confirmations and acknowledgements. from my fleet.

After what felt like a year and a half I landed inside our POS shields and sent instructions ahead to our pod gantry crew to prep my Armageddon for Capacitor Warfare.