Entry Three: Getting the Crew Together

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The screen remained dark, the irritating beeps of a location page, the subsonic thrum of a Gallentian warp core and a muffled rustling the only noises audible.  Incrementally, more light appeared, until a narrow field of view showed the ceiling of a sparsely decorated Gallentian captain's quarters.  It was difficult to tell from what was revealed, but it seemed larger, the quarters aboard a battleship.  After a few more moments, the view cleared in increasing pieces, until the camera was freed and rose to its standard three meter repulsor height.

Beneath the camera was an entirely disorganized room, with Maxx standing amid piles of debris strewn about.  A great deal of dust floated in the air, slowly being filtered out by the air reclamation systems.  He was wearing simple blue jeans with a cream colored T-shirt, obviously not currently on-duty.

"Wow, I really haven't been here in a while.  Welcome to the Solaris Pride, which has been sitting in this hangar for nearly as long as I have had it.  As you can quickly see, it does not get much traffic.  I took a quick tour around the ship as I was intending to sell it, however once I realized it had auxiliary capacitor control circuitry wired into it, I didn't want to have it disassembled, so it was simply mothballed.

He started to walk down the hallways, heading for the debarkation airlock, while the camera followed about two meters behind him.  The hallways were dust and clutter free, however they were also completely devoid of other living beings.  Maxx shivered slightly and took a deep breath; the life support controls were at the minimum levels capable of sustaining life.

"But, I like to make sure things work how they should every once in a while, although I will probably sell this one" he gestured around, indicating the ship, "as soon as possible.  All my training as a covert operative simply screams to leave this place as soon as possible, since there is no backup, no one else on board that's supposed to be, and I'm not even controlling the ship, automated systems are."

Maxx reached the airlock and cycled through it as quickly as possible, enduring the compression pain for the sake of getting back to civilization as quickly as possible.  He shivered again, this time it had nothing to do with the temperature.

"I probably should have been staying more on top of the logs in order for them to make sense, but I'll try to make up for it a bit here.  Let's see...."  He gazed off in thought a moment while he walked along the hangar platform.  As he walked, the platforms beyond the Megathron came into view where various ships were undergoing service, the first containing a Thorax, the second a Manticore, the third a Raven.  The further platforms were shielded from view by the Caldari battleship.

"My cover was obviously made, which was to be expected since I was rather hoping she would find out.  It seems that I haven't been forgotten entirely, so that was nice.  Although, she seems to be a magnet for drama these days," he sighed, "as well as trouble.  I did what I could to take care of the agents who were following her around.  It involved some deals and......missions...."

He took a seat on a stack of ammo crates waiting to be loaded into the Thorax and buried his face in his hands.  Something about that situation obviously upsetting him deeply.  The loading crew was on break, so only the ship's maintenance bots and shore leave crew were milling about, none of them within earshot.

"I had thought that life was behind me.  Secret deals and doublecrosses, assassinations and backstabbing, but it seems to follow me around like the blackest storm cloud, threatening to break open and strike me down at any moment."  He was silent for a few minutes, brooding.  Then his mood visibly brightened, apparently the direction of his thoughts had changed

"In any case it seems she hasn't been bothered by them for a while.  I don't know if it's my doing or some whim of their leaders, but either way, it seems I am released from their 'service' at least for the moment.  On an entirely other matter, I found a club in the area, and although I've only been there a few times, it seems a nice enough place to hang out.  I can't speak for the amount of activity there, but it's certainly a place to start."

He jumped down from the crates, starting toward the boarding ramp for the thorax.  A few crew members saluted along the corridor to his ready room; he casually returned their salutes.  Once the doors to the ready room closed, he nearly collapsed onto the plush sofa and gazed at the far wall, watching the continuous flow of water down the glass.

"I haven't been sleeping well, all this running around for one person or another, it will be nice to get a break for a while.  No matter how brief.  Sometimes I wish I hadn't gone through all these extensive training sessions and physical modifications.  Occasionally I wonder what it would be like to not be a commando, to have never gotten all this training, to not be one of the best single ground assets a commander could ask for."  He sighed, a bit wistfully.

"Well, I can't change the past, of course.  And I'm afraid if I don't get some rest my future won't be pretty either.  Those Sleeper drones aren't anything to scoff at, so," he yawned, "end log."

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Entry Two: Division by Zero

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Maxx's quarters appeared, the blend of Caldari and Gallente styles somehow soothing and peaceful, yet efficient and confident at the same time.  He was sitting on the edge of the bed, appearing to fill out an after-action report.

"So, I think I finally got the cam drone working, and I even upgraded the software!  Don't tell the manufacturer, though.  I'd say the legality of it is questionable at best, but they're a bunch of idiots, so I don't foresee any problems.  Took several hours just to figure out what the frack their coding method was.  In the end I realized there was none."

He chuckled as he set the papers aside, moving to a recumbent posture, looking completely relaxed.

"You know, the more I get the place set up, the more attached and at home I feel.  Which is both good and bad, I guess.  Good because it means I have a sanctuary from everything, somewhere to just be alone and not have to worry about anything but some idiot crashing a mothership into the station.  Bad because no matter how much I wish it so, the lifestyle isn't and never will be conductive to settling down anywhere.  If you wake up in a peaceful garden with lovely waterfalls and smoothed, beautiful rocks.....it's probably because your body was just violently shredded by 200mm titanium rounds."

"That's not to say I don't love it, you know?  Killing off pirates who wouldn't think twice about murdering millions, fighting people for the good of the corp, there's nothing quite like the rush of combat.  Only problem is you can't take the time to stop and think.  It's dangerous to do so.  Then again, if you have no conscience, no regrets, no feelings, then you're just like them.  Cold, uncaring, all about what makes you feel good, what you want."

His thoughts had apparently started to drift, and he shook his head to clear it.  He rocked forward, throwing his feet off the bed and standing quickly, moving to a stack of boxes.

"Like I said, it doesn't do to think of some things, so I guess it's back to work for me.  Gah, what I wouldn't do for somewhere to hang out, some people to unwind with.  Doesn't seem like too many people are interested in that, as far as I can tell, around here.  I've hung out with some of the other officers a time or two, but most of the people who were really tight-knit ended up disappearing, nobody knows what happened to them."

"So basically my social life right now is like division by zero.  Undefined."  He heaved a sigh as he opened one of the containers and started looking through it.  It all appeared to be genuine artwork, centered around oceanic themes and locations.  He took the box into another room, then returned.

"I guess that's all I have for now.  We'll see how things go for the next few days.  High hopes but low expectations are the order of the evening.  Anyway, back to work for me.  End log."

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Entry One: And So It Begins

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Maxx's face appeared, far too close to the camera lens, as if he were holding the drone while trying to reach the controls on the back.

"Wow, that's a lot of time to set one of these damned things up properly."

Maxx took a step away from the cam drone.  His uniform lay crisp and pressed on the satin bed sheets.  The furniture and walls were clearly Gallentean design, however the soothing oceanic paintings could be none other than Achuran.  The feel of the room was obviously inspired by the Intaki, yet the organization was Caldari to the core.  In general it looked like the meeting of two worlds, yet they were intertwined in such a way that it was less a collision of worlds than a merging.

"How do I look?  Amazing, I know.  Anyway, so I ran into a friend from the old days, back from the happier, and back from the far darker, days."

He stared off in thought for a moment, remembering the good times and the unparalleled bad times from the past.  They had met before, although she had been known by a different name then.  My how things can change.  From running with the same crowds to flying against each other.  Then back to being friends. Now that they had re-established contact, it seemed none of the friendship had been lost to time.  For that he was grateful.  So few things were reliable in his life these days.

"Well, in any case, she and I had a discussion, and she mentioned that she kept a private log, a place to sort of vent, like a diary but more realistic.  So she turned me on....in oh so many ways.... heh, kidding, but she did make mention specifically of the camera drone here.  So I picked one up.  I figure, what the hell, not like I'm hurting anything, right?  Except on request."

He smirked crookedly.  He started walking to the wall console, but the camera didn't follow.  Apparently it wasn't set up all the way yet.  When he got to the console, he turned back to face the camera.

"Looks like I have a bit more work to do before this thing is ready for any serious log entries.  In any case, I think that's about all I had to say for today.  Hopefully I'll be finding a couple places to hang out around here soon.  Haven't heard much, but I'm not giving up.  Maybe I'll meet someone who actually gives me something to enter into the log.  One never knows.  End log."

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