Desperado. Suicidal.

Caster was sprawled across his bed in his Captain's Quarters, bag of potato chips sitting on his chest and the TV flickering gently from across the room. He was almost asleep as his eye-lids began to drop, the soft breeze from the ventilation system above his head felt good against his face.

It had been a tough week, his ships had been dropping like rocks and it didn't particularly help that his crew was beginning to lose all faith in the Captains ability to keep them all alive for longer than 20 minutes. I've either lost my touch, or someone's planted AID's in my implants. Probably the latter. The overwhelming feeling of depression was finally pushing him asleep until the Communications Unit blinked loudly.

"Ah shi-" he muttered as the bag of chips rained onto the floor from the unelegant movement he produced to get off the bed. Caster trudged over to the wall-mounted unit and as he leant heavily against the wall for support, flicked the green switch. The 8" screen display beside him flickered to life to reveal a distinctive looking Gallentean woman.

"Izzy," Caster managed to croak in recognition. Izzybella - capsuleer and pirate, an old friend of Caster's - grinned wildly behind her red tattoo streaks.

"Heya Rom-rom, up for some roaming fun? Perhaps a drink or two afterwards? That is, of course, if it turns out well."

Caster sighed and emphasized his facial features of fatigue, "Not today, sorry... I've not been having the best of luck lately... I was drinking a few hours ago anyway, so I wouldn't be suitable for plugging into anything, anyhow."

The gallentean smirked at the Caldarian counterpart and asked, "Which ship? Or... ships?" An eyebrow was raised at this point, a sign of genuine curiosity. Caster was not going to be able to rid himself of her when she was in this heightened state of mood. He let out another sigh.

A few days previously, i was so bored and stumped as to what to pass the time with, i had decided to take my Megathron Battleship on its first flight operation, solo. As i undocked into the vacuum of space, my scan picked up readings of a Rupture within 15AU's of my location. A cruiser, why not, i thought. As i swiftly narrowed the scan toward a 5 degree reading toward an asteroid belt, i willed the cumbersome ship into warp. The Rupture left the belt as i was in warp. This process of cat 'n mouse continued for a while and i didn't enjoy it very much in my Battleship, even if it was slightly amusing. I made route toward a few neighbouring systems but no sooner had i jumped into Jovainnon, PreZiDenT called a point on the Rupture - Hevrice belt 5-1.

"Roger. Caster jumping into Hev. Caster in-warp," i confirmed.

"Please hurry, mate. My Rifter is going down fast," PreZ urged. "Typhoon and Oneiros have landed on grid." Oh shit, i thought. My ship was already mid-warp toward the belt, it was too late. I would have to engage. PreZ had lost his Rifter at this point, and i began to lay into the Minmatar Battleship. I broke through it's shields in little time and was met with a much stronger, resilient armour plating. I wasn't going to be breaking this so long as the Oneiros continues to remote-rep him. I noticed the Rupture had strayed closer at this point, and decided to switch all systems onto the cruiser. My large faction munitions violently shattered against this nimble ship, and its armour plating dropped considerably in just 2 volleys. However, now it had drifted out to a further ranged orbit and was most likely being repp'd by the Oneiros sitting the 49km distance away from us, i had no time to see if that were the case. I switched once more toward the Typhoon, drones and all. I didn't last much longer and my Battleship was destroyed. PreZ had also lost his Ishkur frigate in a futile, but valiant attempt to buy me some time. He gets a free bag of cookies and a beer next time i see him.

I managed to bring my pod safely home, and had a chat with Egrat (a fellow Tusker) regarding the event and my poor Mega' fit. I wasn't too bothered, it was my first time navigating a Battleship for solo purposes and i was happy to have learnt from the experience and to get advice on future fittings. Another Megathron is already on the way from Jita and when i finally take it out, it will melt faces.

"Ouch, that musta hurrrt!" She exclaimed, rolling her tongue on the last syllable to emphasize the pain. She was still smiling after he finished his recount of the event, much to Caster's irritation. She had made no attempt to hide her moment of joy at the part of his ships destruction and had let out a high pitched cry of entertainment.

"Honestly, i don't know what my problem is lately. I was even more embarassed with myself the other day in my Taranis. Was doing my usual business out and about, scanned some battleships in a belt, warped in to be cheeky, accidentally at 0km, landed right on top of them..." Caster hesitated. Izzybella leant forward, eyebrow raised once more, and nodded curtly to encourage him to continue. "I just sat there. Really, just sat there." There was a brief moment of silence until the realisation of what that meant, hit her. She threw her head back and snorted with laughter. Such a rough diamond, this one. Very unlady-like, Caster cringed.

"HAH! I love it! Anymore?" Her face was pressed up against the screen, the hunger for more was evident in her eyes. As reluctant as he was, Caster obliged.

"Lost an Ishkur shortly afterwards, can't even remember how that one happened. Then i lost a Gank-thrax later in a camp on the Aeschee-Adirain gate. The bastards."

Izzybella didn't look satisfied, "that was it?" She asked. Caster pushed himself off the wall in a rage, thrusting his face into the screen, his own eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"WHAT D'YOU MEAN THAT WAS IT? F**king.... they f**king hurt my feelings, they did. I'd like to see you lose two ships in such a pathetic manner and be happy about it, to be honest."

"It can't be helped, these things happen. Don't pop a vein, and grow some pubes for for-f-sake!" She now held a face of amusement, as if knowing something further. "I, er, I heard something, briefly, about this... arranged 1 v 1 you gave to a Navy Vexor in your Brutix?" She alsmot whispered the last words, as if mockingly. One hand scratching the back of her head whilst the other fiddled with something beyond the view of the screen.

Caster scowled.

I was roaming once more in systems not too far from home, this time in my gank-fit Brutix, or MAN-tix as i like to call it. After a few jumps around all the familiar systems, i decided to split from my usual patrol of known systems and venture into a little new territory. As i jumped into the 0.3 system of Heydieles, i noticed a Vexor Navy Issue at a Caldari outpost plex. I warped straight in, however the pilot was careful and was already fully aligned toward another plex. He warped as i landed on grid with him. I followed, but he left before i made it out of warp this time. As i swung the battlecruiser around toward a newly created safespot, the Vexor pilot hailed me on a private comms channel. I accepted, and he offered a 1v1. I obliged. We formed a fleet and he requested me to warp to his location. I obliged once more. As i landed on grid, he was 50km out. Not the most ideal of situations in my short-range, blaster boat. I began movie away from him, alligned to a far-off cluster. He maintained range and deployed a flight of light scout drones in my direction. I therefore began to web, and destroy each drone in turn, spurting my afterburner occasionally. He began to further deploy medium Valkyrie drones, all the while not venturing near enough to warp disrupt me. My attention was on the drones once more, but having no armour repairer available onboard, my armour was slowly chipping away. By the time he was down to 2 Valkyrie drones he deployed another 3 light's and i began entering structure. Still, perhaps due to my stupid stubborness which seemed to defy all meaning of common sense and logic, i stayed to play it out. As i neared 50% structure, the vexor made it's move and MWD'd into blaster range. This however, also meant he was in my blaster range, too. All seven of them. Overloaded. My blasters erupted with a deafening sound and the Navy Vexor shook violently as it was reduced to beyond minimal armour integrity in only a few volleys. Despite this, the fight was already over, my adversarie had seemingly timed his last second pounce perfectly. My Brutix exploded in a firework of blue just as the Navy Vexor touched structure.

"What a bitch," Izzybella commented. Caster was glad she didn't laugh this time, even if the edge of her lips did twitch occasionally.

"Yeah, but he knew what he was doing. It was a good fight, sort of." He gave his bed a glance, the sudden longing to be in it had hit him and his shoulders slouched in fatigue. "How goes things on your front? Hows your app' for the Tuskers turning out?"

"Ah, not too bad. Intriguing bunch of guys. They're running a background check i think, and i've got a few tiny last requirements to sort out, and hopefully it'll all go well." She only smiled now, her previous self having evaporated in the presence of thoughts on her personal goals. A moment of thoughtful silence followed, before a ringing noise raised both their heads. "Hmm, it's mine," she grumbled as she fumbled through her peculiarly styled garments for her Cell-phone. "I'm gonna have to catch this, sorry Caster. I'll catch up with you later."

"No worries." The screen flickered off.

Finally relieved from what felt like some form of life-draining interrogation, Caster Rom trudged back toward his bed - carefully sidestepping the potato chips - and threw himself onto it. The breeze from the Air-ventilation system above felt really good on his face.