Encapsulated

The Forge Region – Onirvura Constellation
Poinen System – Planet IV, Moon 13
Nugoeihuvi Corporation Development Studio

13 March YC 122

“Well, well, well, look who has graced the Caldari soil, or rather,” I tapped the station floor, “metal with his presence!” said I by way of attracting attention of a big man who supervised droids unloading cargo from his ship.

Yakub Albaf turned to me, beamed and gave me his signature bear hug which brought me to the brink of enforced re-cloning.

“Vlad, you rascal! What have you got yourself into again? Why do you need an old tired man to be your courier?” Continue reading “Aura Meets Allison”

The Forge Region – Onirvura Constellation
Poinen System – Planet IV, Moon 13
Nugoeihuvi Corporation Development Studio

10 September YC 121

After leaving my body with expensive implants in the safe hands of clone bay workers at Expert Distribution Retail Centre I came to at NOH station and went to the dock to board the capsule. On my way there I woke up Aura to let her know that the clone jump was successful. Before I could utter a single word she overwhelmed me with a stream of blabber.

“Vlad! Where have you been!? Are you okay? What happened!? What took you so long!?”

“Long?” I asked, surprised. “It’s been just half an hour or so.”

“What half an hour? Look at your watch! No, look at the calendar!”

I checked my datapad – it showed 20 February YC 122.

“What the fuck?” muttered I.

At first, I thought there was something wrong with my datapad but then I checked a few GalNet news sites and they all had the same date. That could mean just one thing – my clone jump, instead of minutes, took almost half a year! Continue reading “Stuck in a Clone Jump”

The Forge Region – Okkelen Constellation
Otomainen System

10 September YC 121

While we were flying through the artificial hole in the fabric of space-time I peered intently at the local channel window. Usually it showed the list of inhabitants before the jump was completed and gave an early indication of how busy the destination system was. The walls of the hyperspace tunnel were still whizzing past Haikarat when the ship established communication with the fluid router in Ihakana and informed us that the system contained the grand total of two pilots! That was good news – at least I didn’t have to face an armada on the other end. Still it was too early to relax as those two ships could be waiting for me.

When we finally were expelled into the normal space I immediately checked the grid and D-scan; both were absolutely empty. I shot Aura a triumphant look meaning “See, I told you!”

Aura rolled her eyes and muttered, “Boys.” Continue reading “Limited Sleeper Cache”

The Forge Region – Onirvura Constellation
Poinen System

16 August YC 121

I came to in the same glass-covered sarcophagus where I was given an injection. I looked at my arm where the needle penetrated the skin – there was no mark. At that moment the cover raised and a voice coming from the built-in speakers instructed me to get up and move to the exit. I lifted my head and looked around. Although the clone pod looked the same, it was in a different room. It meant that I had successfully performed my first clone jump! At the same time it occurred to me that declaring it a success might have been premature. I took stock of my memories and confirmed that I remembered my name, date of birth and all significant life milestones. Then I wiggled my toes and fingers, moved my arms and legs, turned my head left and right – everything appeared to be operational. I took hold of the sarcophagus walls and slowly lifted myself out of the pod. The overall feeling was as if I had had a very good rest; my mind was clear, the muscles were supple and there was just a hint of hunger.

Enjoying the levity in my new body I followed the glowing signs which marked the path to the exit. When I reached the door I discovered that I had to wait in a queue which consisted of a group of naked agitated capsuleers. I joined the line and asked the nearest guy what was going on. Continue reading “Cure for Stubbed Toe, Capsuleers’ Way”

The Forge Region – Onirvura Constellation
Poinen System

16 August YC 121

Some time ago I invested 40 million kredits into two implants which would increase my neural attributes Willpower and Perception by 3 points each. Such boost was expected to expedite training of skills required to fit a bitier version of Heron which could explore Sleeper Cache sites. To reduce the risk of losing expensive implants I decided to install them in a jump clone which would be used in safer locations. I quickly trained Infomorph Psychology to level II and was about to head to a clone bay to order my first ever jump clone when I remembered that my base station did not have a cloning facility. Cursing a certain fan of Vesa Yamaguchi I boarded the capsule and asked that fan to fly us to the nearest station with a clone shop. Seeing my expression, Aura without further questions brought us to Expert Distribution Retail Centre at Poinen 4-6. Continue reading “The Game of Clones”