In fact at first I didn't even get to meet Alitura in person. I'd notified her by datapad of my arrival the previous night and there she was looming large on my holovid the next morning, dispensing with the pleasantries and asking me to go and find a missing ship that they'd lost contact with.
So it was straight down to business!
I undocked from the SoE Bureau station and headed for some coordinates deep in the deadspace of Manarq first. Alitura gave me the impression that I was looking for one ship and one ship only - the Damsel. She did not indicate that I would also find a graveyard of Amarr and Minmatar capital ships that was dominated by the presence of an actual real-live Revelation! Dreadnoughts, right here before my eyes! I've never even seen a Revelation outside of a holovid before. I've seen a Naglfar at Mekhios, but that was in pieces too.
In comparison to the other dead ships which all variously had their backs broken and were spilling clouds of wreckage all over the void, the Dreadnought looked intact except for a gaping hole in the side big enough to drive the Tristan into. It was also still under some form of power as its interior decks were still lit.
The whole point of a capital ship is the impression of invincibility, yet here were several that had been fatally wounded and/or destroyed in the act of destroying each other. So much wreckage, so many lives, over what? So much waste...
They were also on the territory of a third party too so what the hell were they doing here?
If this is what it's like on day one, then this series of missions is going to be very interesting indeed. Another bonus: bringing a salvager was definitely the right call. The light skirmishes I've been involved in so far have still created enough wreckage to substantially increase the ISK-take beyond the already decent mission payments. The ISK is once again flowing like tap water. Result!
