3.

3.

His classmates were aligning to the Malkalen stargate.

Stargates allowed starships to travel from solar system to solar system in seconds. Once you activated a stargate within 2500 meters, it would pull you inside its cylindrical infrastructure and spin up. Once it achieved the proper amount of power to propel you to your destination, it shot you at warp speed, (eight times the speed of light), to it. The star ship would then be cloaked for a short period of time upon arrival in the destination system, invisible to anyone else. Once a ship begins to move in space, its cloak would be disabled and the local police would scan your ship for any illegal goods. If you ship was found to be free of these, you would be free to proceed with your business. If your ship were to be found having illegal goods on board, you would be shot- and more than likely your ship destroyed by the police and their sentry guns.

Jack's Venture had nothing to worry about, of course. Carrying illegal substances in your ships would not only get you expelled from the institute, but also flagged as a criminal by the local police force, Concord.


Looking around him, Jack saw Malric's ship at his two o'clock. His ship number was "N-374". Just as Jack spotted his room mate, N-374 went into warp. The Venture shot away from Jack and his ship headed for Malkalen. Jack wasn't far behind. His ship chimed, "Warp Drive Active", and he was off.

Being in warp was a surreal feeling. Everything was a gray swirl around you. Jack couldn't make out anything outside his ship because its velocity was more than astounding. His ship compensated for the warp and relieved some of the g-forces put on his body. Without this technology, he and his ship wouldn't be able to survive. His Venture came to a slow halt as it came on its final approach to the stargate. Many of his classmates were there waiting their turn to jump. Jack knew a secret to get through stargates faster than his classmates. Most pilots sit where their warp puts them at the gate until the gate pulls them in to jump. Jack figured out that if he approached the stargates, they would prioritize him and make him jump before the ships that were not as close. He used this to his advantage to get into system first and begin mining as quickly as possible.

The stargate pulled his ship in. He was in the center of the stargate and it was spooling up. Jack could hear the power building and then it went quiet. A quick flash of light and he was off. Two seconds later, his ship was on the other side, in solar system Malkalen. Jack's ship was still cloaked. He checked the local list of pilots in space and found it to be free of criminal capsuleers.

His instructors were nearby, orbiting the stargate at ten kilometers. The instructors did not fly Ventures. They flew a small, frigate class, combat ship called a "Merlin". The Merlin was by no means the best combat vessel available for purchase, but it was light, fast, agile, and could deliver quite a punch with the proper pilot at the controls. It was more than enough to handle the kind of Gurista pirates that came into Malkalen looking to steal from, or kill unprotected miners. They had three stabilizers protruding from the main cabin, pointing downward and out to the left, right and front. On the stabilizers were Neutron Blasters, a hybrid weapon which fired a magnetically contained ball of sub-atomic particles at its target. What the weapon lacked in range, it made up for in damage dealing force. The instructors flew Merlins for the protection of their students. All were trained by the Caldari Military and were capable of fighting off small gangs of pirates that showed up looking for squishy, student Ventures.

Three instructors were assigned to today's flight lab. Jack watched one instructor stop orbiting, align, and warp away towards an asteroid belt. Jack realized he had been watching his instructors fly for at least ten seconds. By now, all of his classmates had arrived in system and were decloaking. There were about twenty ships in his fleet, not counting instructors. Over the communications channel, one of his instructors spoke,

"Malkalen five, asteroid belt one, is more than plentiful- and clear."

"Copy. Warping fleet at ten kilometers." Another instructor replied to the situation report.

Jack's HUD displayed "Following 'Instructor Kamura' In Warp". The instructor in charge of the fleet had the ability to warp all nearby members of his fleet to a destination in their current solar system. Instructor Kamura had warped the entire fleet together instead of letting them warp individually. This irritated Jack because usually the instructors allowed them to warp to any asteroid belt, so long as they cleared it first, and it was in the same solar system they were protecting. This gave Jack the ability to get to the belts first and pick the best asteroids to mine for the best lab grade.

Jack's ship sprang into its warp bubble, shared by all the members of his class and their two instructors.

"Abort! Abort warp!" Jack heard scream over the channel. "Guristas in belt! I'm engaged!"

"Shit! We can't! We're already in warp! We'll be landing in seconds!"

Jack was instantly terrified. His senses were switched to high alert, and his vision narrowed. He could almost feel the adrenaline spreading throughout his body like a crashing wave. This was the first time he would be encountering Guristas, himself.

"All students: upon landing, immediately warp back towards the Amsen gate. Everyone needs to get under the protection of its sentry guns and Concord as soon as possible! Do not wait for a fleet warp, warp yourselves out while we fight off the pirates."

At that moment, they landed.

Jack was able to see the pirates and his instructor clearly. The scout instructor was engaged in dire combat. His ship was obviously taking a lot of damage and being warp scrambled by a Guristas ship larger than him, Jack had never seen before. The ship was strange looking. It was asymmetrical and painted brownish green. On the side of the hull was the Guristas emblem: the skull with rabbit ears. The ship was bulky and had a long stem protruding from the front where the pirate pilot sat. It had a large bay protruding from its left side which housed its largest engines. The ship was accompanied by two other smaller ships which Jack recognized as "Kestrels". But, they too had the brownish green paint job and bore the emblem of the skull with rabbit ears. All three ships were orbiting his instructor at high speeds and firing missiles at him. He was warp scrambled and some of his engines were being slowed by a module Jack didn't know. He was in a very bad position, and Jack knew it.

"Everyone get out! I'm going down!" The trapped instructor shouted over comms.

"We can't leave until the students are out! Everyone get out!"

"They're through my shields and halfway through my armor. Won't be long now."

Ventures were rapidly leaving the system. Jack had lingered long enough. His instructors were starting to align to the Amsen stargate before they too, lost their ships. Jack aligned to the stargate. There was an explosion behind Jack which he could only guess was his instructor's ship. Jack heard the sweet sound of his ship chime, "Warp Drive Active", as he warped safely away from the three Guristas pirates and his instructor's wreck. He had survived his first Gurista encounter.

2.

2.

Jack listened intently to his instructor's directions with the rest of his class. It was lab day and they were all excited for the coming flight.

"I need everyone to stop in at medical and check on your clone before heading out. If you haven't upgraded since Christmas break, you may need to. I know nobody here wants to lose a semester of course work and studying because they failed to upgrade."

Jack found out his clone was up to date as he checked in to medical. He saw his clone floating in the vat of green mucus in a room full of others, ready to be activated if he were to be shot down and his escape pod destroyed. It was a strange thing to think about- dying. But thanks to technological advances in the stem cell research and infomorph psychology, nobody had to worry about death anymore if they had the ISK. Being a capsuleer or the child of one almost always meant you had the necessary funds.

Jack headed to hanger number three- his ship hangar. He could hear his classmates chattering on his headset about the upcoming flight; everyone was excited. He turned the volume down to heard his boots padding on the catwalk as he approached the hangar. He could feel his heartbeat and hands get warm with anticipation. He was born to pilot star ships.

As he rounded the corner, he saw his Venture hovering in the hangar. Magnetometrics allowed his ship to stay in a perfect position for maintenance and capsule boarding. Hangars were a work of modern miracles. All were autonomous and kept organized by their pilots preference of type or alphabetical order of items inside. 

Jack loved his ship. He was the first student to pilot his ship, as was the rest of his class to theirs. The Venture was a relatively new ship in New Eden. It was much smaller, maneuverable and affordable than Procurers, which were being used for training before Ventures came around. Jack's class was the first class to be issued the Ventures by their school, The Science and Trade Institute, located in the Amsen solar system. Ventures were small ships, frigate sized. They were yellow in color and had two storage stems protruding from the main cabin. They could hold a good amount of raw ore, but were slow to pull it in because they lacked the strip miner technology of exhumers. Each student was allowed to put whatever modules they wanted on their ships, so long as they were approved by their instructors. Jack fit two mining modules, a salvaging module, two small shield extenders, a microwarp drive and a warp core stabilizer on his ship. He also was able to fit two mining drones in his drone bay which he was happy to have. His mining modules were to pull ore from asteroids- as were his mining drones. His shield extenders allowed him to sustain a little more damage in case something were to go incredibly wrong. He decided on a microwarp drive for maximum speed to get out ahead of his classmates and reach the most dense asteroids to make the most of his time in the lab. Lastly, he had a warp core stabilizer for safety. If his warp core were to be scrambled by a ship, he could still escape. Students were not allowed to fit weapons on their ships until they graduated Industrialist school and completed Caldari Military school. Jack had no interest in military school, he only wanted to become an Industrialist and make his parents proud. 

He walked into the rear of his slick, green, egg shaped capsule. The door shut and sealed behind him. He heard his instructor come over the microphone and turned his volume back up. All students' conversations were cut off as the instructor spoke, "Students, we are headed to solar system Malkalen. Once we are in system and a belt has been cleared and deemed plentiful, I will give you the belt coordinates to warp to. I expect everyone to fly safely and fly together. This will be a graded lab session. Local Gurista pirates have not been spotted in the Malkalen system for more than a week; we should be all clear. Keep the chatter down in the classroom communications channel. You are clear to board Ventures and undock."

Jack heard his headset chime in, "Malric channel three. Malric channel three. Malric chann...". Jack switched to channel three and syncronized his headset to his capsule.

"What's up Malric?" Jack said playfully.

"You ready to go?", Malric's voice echoed from Jack's speaker system.

Jack responded with confidence, "Aren't I always?".

"Boarding sequence activated." Jack heard as he began pressing buttons on the piloting panel. The piloting panel was a series of LCD screens and dials. He had his yaw, pitch and roll control panels under his hands at all times. They lit up with bright color and had wheels to select degree of each property on the LCD screen. Controls for his individual modules were programmable but Jack liked to have them distributed between the left and right side of his ship navigation controls for maximum availability.

His Venture loading door opened. His capsule slid in the back of the star ship and locked into place. The door sealed behind him as his ship was tracked out to the exit of the space station on autopilot. He saw his classmates undocking in a mass group of Ventures. Jack's ship slid into line and exited the station.

"Autopilot disabled." His ship sounded, and Jack had control.

1.

1.

"If you don't stop that, I'm going to lose it...". Jack's roommate didn't exactly have the same tolerance for stress or noise as he did. With finals less than a week away, the pressure was definitely on and Jack's humming wasn't exactly helping Malric study Astrometrics.  Jack gave the credit for his cool and collective personality to his parents. The Triceryn family was lucky enough to have Civire blood flowing through their veins- the bloodline gave them great competitive drive and allowed them to thrive under chaos. This especially came in handy for Jack during exam crunches and hectic star ship command labs, when the rest of his classmates were drowning in their own sweat.

"I'm sorry. I think we should take a break and head down to the commons for some food. You've been cramming for that course since 14:00 and it's not even that difficult. Why are you freaking out about it?"

"It's not difficult? It's not difficult for you, Jack." Malric hissed. "I'm completely okay with you striving for Top Graduate. I know you'll probably get it. You have a natural calling for asteroids. I on the other hand, have to study for everything like a mad man. So when I'm studying, can you please keep your incessant humming down... or off?"

Jack nodded and apologized. He felt bad for Malric. He studied so much harder than he did the last four years at the institute. Jack just had an instinct for rocks. They spoke to him. He knew every type, every composition, every amount needed for refining, absolutely everything. He was at the top of his class and had very little competition for Top Graduate. Only one week stood between him and becoming an Industrialist. Nothing was going to stand in his way. 

The two of them zipped on and buttoned their black, gleaming boots and headed out the door. When they walked through the ID field of their door, they could hear their door shield ping and come up. The shields kept everyone but the two of them and instructors with the proper ID implanted out of their living quarters. The halls were crowded. Many students had the same idea as Jack and were rushing to the commons for food before it closed at 20:00. Once they got their food, Jack and Malric sat at a table with a bunch of other seniors. Many of his classmates hadn't even looked at their food yet, they still had their noses buried in books and notes. Science, Industry, Mining, Exhumers, Refining Efficiency were just a few Jack caught a glimpse of as he turned his attention to his food. 

Jack looked up and noticed something that would make Malric feel much better about his studying troubles. He nudged his roommate and nodded in the direction of a group of Rockies pacing around each other frantically trying to share notes and ideas to help them pass their freshman finals. Seniors called them "Rockies" for short. But what they really were was Rock Rookies. Malric smiled and shook his head, "I'm still mad at you, but that's hilarious!"