Farewell from Beyond the Veil

Letter from Titus Haijikioten to Ryven Krennel:

Ryven,
No man walks eagerly toward death. You are reading this, so we can safely assume I am dead. You probably have also been informed you are a very wealthy man. Despite your denial by taking that garbage Gallente name, you are a Haijikioten, the last scion of a house of murderers, thieves, pirates, and. the like, but a proud one no less. I never was good at emotional shit, but, since I won't be around for this, I can express to you the closeness I had with you. I have gone my entire life without children of my own, and through no one's fault but my own. I felt that void acutely. And then I found you. You filled the position of a son for me, and I loved you as one. As such, I have a gift for you. I sent in an applicstion to the State War Academy for you. Yes, I forged your signature. I applied you for their capsuleer program. Immortality, my boy. Their response arrived already. You're accepted, and have up to one year to enroll. Consider it my last request that you do so. Pull our family out of the dregs and make something of yourself. Find a nice girl, maybe? Hump like rabbits and have some little shithead welps running around. At any rate, this is me saying goodbye. Do me proud.

-Titus

Nail in the Coffin

"Mr. Krennel?" The young woman's voice, questioning, erupted into his ear.
"Sure. Who is this?"
"I am Li Kora. I handled all legal matters for Titus Haijikioten and HSG. We have never met."
Ryven scowled and took a pull from his drink. "Go on."
"Your uncle had me draft his will a while back. You are his sole beneficiary. In addition, he left a message to be given to you upon his death. May I send it to you now?"
Ryven rubbed his eyes and took a drag from a cigarette. "Fine."
The attorney sounded relieved. "Good, sending it through. Also, all of your uncle's possessions have been transferred to you."
Ryven's scowl deepened, another nail driven into his guilt-lined coffin. "Liquidate it all, and transfer the proceeds to my account."
The Achura acknowledged and Ryven ended the call. He then began reading the message from Titus.

The Aftermath

The stars formed a backdrop for the misery. Ryven sat in the captain's chair, the lifeless body of his only family laying propped against his feet, head cradled in his arms. Shiny rivulets of tears streaked his face, and his own self-hatred peaked. He was the agent of his worst pain, the queller of his bloodline, scourge of all that was right. He trembled.
The guristas compound was naught but a glowing red ember, and as far as Ryven could tell, so was his life. His world was shattered, a fractured glass leaking his own stain into the void. This pain was his penance.
***********************
Titus's funeral had been a very private affair. The news of Ryven's selling of HSG and it's assets was met positively. Most of the crews felt he was bad luck anyway. So, Ryven engaged in the oldest form of self-flagellation: he sat in a bar and drank alone, hoping to drown his pain. This carried on for a week or two before his neocom began to buzz, and for some reason, he answered.

Rage is the Downfall

The beam overhead gave way and crashed to the deck of the Tovil-Toba's bridge. Ryven cried out to warn Titus, but was already too late. The jagged end of a large metal beam plunged through Titus's chest, blood spewing in a spray of crimson, and spattered out his mouth. He survived just long enough to pull himself off of it, which sealed his fate. Ryven's vision went red. He could feel the tears welling in his eyes. This was his fault. His plan to kill his cousin succeeded, but in rage, Titus drove the fleet into the Guristas compound, revenge as his goal. Rage was his downfall. No less culpable, Ryven drove his guilt into rage and took command of his shattered fleet, blind to the destruction around him. Ship after ship exploded into fiery chaos until only the Raven and a cormorant remained, the lone victors, battered and burning. Ryven gave the order.
"Destroy their base. All of it."

The Dragon's Rage

Titus's fleet dropped out of warp. They were twelve ships in number, scattered in a loose formation around the Tovil-Toba. The Raven was the largest, with two drake-class battlecruisers, five caracal-class cruisers, three cormorant-class destroyers, and a merlin-class frigate. They were greeted by a larger force of at least twenty-five ships. Four feroxes, three caracals, and the remainder were all frigates of various classes. The two fleets sat still for a few moments, each taking the pause to take a deep breath before the plunge. The Guristas couldn't see the look in Titus's eyes, but Ryven could, and he felt a preternatural chill at the base of his spine. The glow from the bowl of Titus's pipe cast his face in a chilling visage of rage and sharp shadow. He blew bluish smoke from the corner of his mouth before opening comms with the fleet.
"All units engage. Primary is target alpha one, Ferox. Fire at will."
The space around the deadspace compound exploded into fierce combat, missiles streaking toward the targetted ferox, exploding brightly upon impact. Both fleets began maneuvering in the elaborate dance of interstellar combat. The feroxes returned fire, but lacked the discipline to primary just one ship, and Titus's fleet began taking sporadic damage. The Tovil-Toba was rocked by repeated hits. It was taking the brunt of the Guristas' volleys.
The first ferox and then another went down, but so did two of Titus's drakes. The cormorants began to engage the frigates and they began popping as well. The battle raged on for a hellacious ten minutes before tragedy struck.
The last ferox was not going down fast enough, and the Tovil-Toba's shields were depleted. The Raven and Ferox traded blows, but the Tovil-Toba's armor was quickly destroyed. The ferox was already in structure. One more volley would destroy it completely. The cruise missiles fired and streaked their way toward the ferox. Just before impact,the ferox's turrets flashed. The ferox exploded into bluish-white brilliance, but it's final volley breached the Tovil-Toba's hull.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thoughts

The war is going well. My brothers and sisters in the Knighthood continue to treat me well, though I wonder sometimes what they really think of me. I admire and respect my superiors, an altogether new experience for me. I met "Red" the other day. Strange child, but fiery, and I approve of that. Fearless too, like me at that age. Shalee seems to be my closest associate, and I greatly enjoy her company. I also met her "friend" Tigerfish. We seemed to get along. Eran seems a bit gruff, but I suspect it is mostly stress from the tumultuous combination of his personal and work life. Raphael, well, what can you say about him?

We faced tragedy in the loss of Raze and Victoria Valadeus. They both were very respected voices in the community. I didn't get to know them as well as I should have. I have been too preoccupied with my own search for information regarding the relationship between both of my surrogate fathers, as well as my own sudden need for absolution, the latter being more of a surprise than the former. Regardless, the loss of the Valadei hit me and I felt something I hadn't in a long time: mortal. I drank a lot. Things weren't any clearer the next day.