Krum Chronicle "The Lost Souls"

In the far reaches of the universe knows as Eve, two capsuleers search for their way home. These are the last recorded logs of the revered and honored pilots known as Papator and Zarat Weissman: May God and the universe of eve protect them wherever they may be.

April 27, 2013 8:00am

It has been some time since Zarat and I have been out on our own private adventure, but hopefully this time the missions wont get scrapped by headquarters. I have been thinking to myself a lot lately about the risks and rewards of our mission, should it be approved and have found myself seriously contemplating that the chances of success are starting to weigh much less in comparison to our possibility of failure or even death. Bah, what do I know? I am a good pilot with great ambitions and so is Z, we have been on many of adventures together and have managed to make it out alive and with many rewards. The moons of Junso and the tribal clans of sleepers are two different monsters indeed, but I am confident we can handle them.......I am sure we can.....I pray we can.

"Sergeant Papator to the captains quarters".............I must go now. The Commander has already decided our fate.


April 27, 2013 8:05am

Finally the day has arrived for our missions fate to be decided and I couldn't be more anxious. Papator and I have been planning this mission for the Commander to review for the past several months. As to the lividity of the idea of venturing blindly into a wormhole, I myself can not say it is entirely safe, but what has safe gotten us before in the past? The Sisters of Eve taught me a valuable lesson which I am sure rings true in papators heart same as mine.

"There can be no gain without the threat of loss," Sister Natally spoke quietly over the dinner table. "I speak true to you men as I would speak to my own sister, you must be willing to lose it all before you gain everything. Only then will you be masters of this named evil in Eve known as fear."

Those words are embedded into my mind now, and with every detail of our mission so clear up to the point of exiting the wormhole, I can only imagine what lies on the other side. With this thought beating in my head, I wait, transfixed on our systems sun, Olympus, I drift.........

"Captain Zarat to the Commanders quarters"....... it is done.

The following is the best recollection of the conversation between Commander Krum Solaris, Captain Zarat Weissman, and Sergeant Papator, in regards to the mission proposal.

April 27, 2013 8:36 am

The walk down to the captain quarters was a long one for the two comrades. The corridors of the mighty Gallente titan, Liviathan, were all too familiar for Papator and Z. The thought of this being the last walk they may take of the ships mighty halls loomed in their minds, but they did not relish it as a young child would his mothers tit before being told 'you will never see this again.'

The systems sun, Olympus, shot a glare across our adventures faces showing no wasteful wishes on their lips and no tears of regret in their eyes. They knew the acceptance or decline of their mission had already been decided and all that was left was to hear the answer pressed upon their Commanders lips. A uneasy swell of excitement of butterflies churning in their stomaches arose as they approached the commanders door that can only be compared to the feeling of losing your first battleship to a ganking merciless pirate that cornered you while on your way home.

Cigar smoke seeped from the cracks of the Commanders door. "Enter" says the commander with an ominous voice.

"Gentlemen, please come in and take a seat. Please be silent as I speak and do not interrupt as I have a hard decision to make. As commanding officer it is my responsibility to take care of the pilots that reside under my command and as you know, you are my best. I answer to the Supreme Commander of this vessel, Jinkoti Boslin, and it is by his authority that I authorize or deny any requests for private missions by any of my pilots. Your request was not an easy one to deliberate amongst myself and by no means does it make any sense for me to release my best two pilots to go wondering into a level 5 wormhole, with no knowledge of the other side. Now I have read and pondered your request to the best of my abilities and without letting our friendships come in the way of duty and the greater expansions of the allied Gallente and Minmitar Empires, I have decided with great reluctance to approve your mission."

"Thank you sir!"........Zarat and I couldn't be........"Silence!" barked the Commander. "Please men I do understand your excitement and you are due your happy moment, but please realize what a difficult decision I just made. The chances of your missions success rests on the blade of a knife and the likelihood that we will see each other again is dire indeed. The last pilots that disappeared into a wormhole, did so unknowingly and later scans have showed that that was only a level 3 wormhole. You are asking to go into a level 5, and my friends I know you are capable of doing the math. The proposal for building a outpost is most likely the only reason the Supreme Commander has let me go through with my decision to accept your mission, as he believes that this can be a dawning of a new era where Gallente and Minmitar can colonize the unknown galaxy and become the prime alliance in the universe of EVE. There are certain parameters that have been changed to your initial proposal that I am sure you will not be inclined to argue with, as you are after all going on your little venture despite my best judgement as your friend."

"Sergeant Papator, you are hereby instructed to maintain contact with the nearest Gallente or Minmitar fleet upon your, if God willing, successful exit, and once every 12 hours after your initial transmission. You are also to help and aid Captain Zarat with all itemizing and calculations of the costs for any parts that are necessary to build and maintain a successful outpost."

"Captain Zarat, my dear friend, I only wish there were something I could say to change your mind, but I can see that nothing I say will matter, with the possibility of immense profits on your mind. You of course are the chief officer on this mission and as such you are bound by one rule. The lives of your crew and the well being of your ships are to come first, and above all else, you will not risk the lives of your men for your personal gain. I know you need not be told this rule, but protocol requires me to mention it, as it is most likely the last you will hear. Men, in these files you will find any and all details that Supreme Command has deemed necessary to your missions and I will not discuss any of them; they are set in stone and I will not budge them for anyone. You are dismissed gentlemen, godspeed and good luck. You leave tomorrow."

Sergeant Papator's Log:

April 27, 2013 10:10pm

Olympus spins slowly on its axis outside my port side window. It seems so peaceful for an enormous gas giant burning at 50 million degrees fahrenheit, I wonder if it will get cold without me. Will it still spin without me? I watch the mining drones our friend Slade Curvier has laid out on the near asteroid of veldspar, and I wonder what will become of him and his drones if I don't come back. Am I wrong to feel these feelings now? What kind of a mission have I planned out for myself and Z?

With the news of our missions approval I know I should feel more excited than I do now. Everything in my quarters seems to pull my heart and mind closer to staying here with the safe, planned out events of everyday life. I need to desperately drown these doubts and uncertainties deep in the well of fortune and glory that awaits us on the other side of the wormhole, before Z catches my thoughts.

It is nearing 10:30 now and I must get some sleep before the big day. It may very well be the last chance I have to sleep though a night before we plunge into an unknown abyss. I want to close my eyes, but I only see ghosts of our friends we will be leaving tomorrow, for perhaps the last time.

I must sleep!


Captain Zarat's Log:

April 27, 2013 10:15pm

Dinner seemed strange with Papator this evening. All I wanted to do was talk about the missions but he seems disconnected from it all. There is no mistaking that his smile is genuine, but his mind isn't behind it. Come to think of it, I am having my own set of jitters as well. If I am to command this mission, even if it only involves two people, millions across the Eve will be affected by our actions. The commander has faith in me and I must have faith in myself.

The possible rewards shine heavy in my eyes when I think of what we can gain from this risk we take. Minerals untouched and undiscovered, perhaps uninhabited planets to be a new Prime for a species, new neighbors be they friend or foe. All we must do is simply make it to the other side in one piece, discover where we are, relate our coordinates to a place we know, and before returning home, the long haul at perhaps making our own outpost. Oh, I know the commander only wants us to determine if having an outpost will be profitable and worth the effort for the alliance, but whom is he kidding, we would be passing up the chance for our own outpost in the middle of unknown space. Being the only station able to offer repairs for systems in either direction can bring us a pretty amount of isk.

Wait! Where am I going with my thoughts? Greed and corruption has no business being in my mind, nor does Papator need to seeping into his thoughts. We will forget about this moment and go on with ourselves.

My ramblings have taken me to nearly 11:00pm and I must put them away. My thoughts turn to peaceful things as I see Slade's drones outside the window dropping off another load of veldspar into his mining container. Drones..... mindlessly obeying their masters will without question, what if they had a voice? What if some prime evil lurks deep within its circuitry like my greed lies deep within my mind? What if it took control?

Sergeant Papator's Log:

April 28th, 2013 8:45am

It is hard to believe that the morning is finally here for Z and I to embark on our most epic adventure yet. I lie awake for some time last night with thoughts of success and nightmares of failure. There is only one thing left to do in preparation for this danger...prayer. I will not let my mind be swayed by fear.

Seeing that our ships have previously been fit out with enough food and clothing to last us nearly an entire year, I felt little need to worry about packing anything extra that may prove to be non essential to our success. Z on the other hand would most likely bring his kitchen sink if he could fit it. "There is no telling what we may need it for he would say to me", I can almost hear it now.

The wormhole we discovered near Amann is about 62 AU from the furthest moon and there is a strange energy reading coming from its center of gravity. There is something unsettling about this unknown pull, since being a wormhole, it should have relatively no pull at all, but we shall find out its intentions soon enough.



Captain Zarat's Log:

April 28th, 2013 9:00am

I tried to take the kitchen sink this morning in preparation for our journey, but quickly decided against it when I could not justify its use in our daily lives since our ships are fit to live in for nearly a year. I worry only for the proper fit to our ships seeing as we will not have a proper fitting bay to use, we are unfortunately stuck with our fitting we leave with until we find an outpost that will either let us use their hanger or we find our way back home.

While I did not sleep the best last night I am not unsettled. I can only hope that Papator is feeling as good or better than I am about our quest for glory and discovery. Now that I sit here and I am sifting through my thoughts, I do remember something that lay heavy on my mind last night as if a dream where starting to break into reality. Nothing more than a shapeless blob of black energy poured from the wormhole and started to twist itself into symbols that I have never seen before in my life. Now that I think of them they seem to burn deeper into my thoughts with every passing second I fight to see them more clearly. Could this have something to do with the energy readings we were receiving from the anomaly?

I must keep these thoughts to myself. Less they betray me and our mission.