Ecliptic Rift

Our most ancient legends from the remotest of time tell of an ancient sword forged from the tooth of a god that shone as fire and pierced any shield held against it. Constructed at great cost by skilled builders who served unwillingly, it became a curse upon those who possessed it even as it fulfilled its singular purpose as an instrument of war. Every time this weapon left its sheathe, a soul found its final destiny. And while men and women fought and schemed to grasp its power, few truly understood the terrible truth: the God-tooth knew only death and murder.

The development of the new fighter-bomber followed the pattern laid down by its namesake. A highly secret laboratory in the dark end of space housed a group of engineers and test pilots working for a shadowy corporation planning to sell the plans to the highest bidder. At the conclusion of negotiations with the Angel Cartel for the blueprints, test data, and personnel, the lab suffered a major hull integrity breach and an Einherji fighter launched towards distant deadspace just as the facility’s reactor exploded, destroying the entire test installation and datacenter.

The few surviving staff disappeared once more into the Molden Heath underworld, possibly to begin new projects or possibly to enjoy whatever gains they may have taken from the entire incident. But whispers in the officer lounges of the Republic Fleet units now flying the Tyrfing suggest that perhaps the Republic Security Services manipulated the whole project, allowing the Cartel or some other pirate faction to pay for the development while the Republic itself looked on carefully and ensured that it would keep the weapon for itself.

Whether or not this is true, the new Minmatar fighter-bomber has trailed death and fiery vengeance in its wake in the entire brief arc of its existence, including the fiery carnage brought down on its enemies on the battlefield.

Written for Flash Fiction 3.

Time for another week of Friday flash fiction! To recap:

That means I will post a small prompt every Friday. The following Tuesday, I’ll update the post with links to your own stories on your own blogs or even the EVE forum (preferably submitted through the comments here). This might consist of a phrase, or an object, or a location, or something else. Use it as the core theme, the starting sentence, or anything else; you just have to include it somewhere in the story. And the story should be really short. Definitely under one thousand words, but even greater brevity has great value. If you can tell a cohesive story (character, plot, theme) in a bare few sentences, go for it.

New Eden has seen new craft take the field this week, with the deployment of fighter-bombers designed to threaten and destroy capital ships as part of Dominion 1.1. These craft have non-capsuleer pilots controlling them, much like the existing fighters. Your story should reference these fighter-bombers in some way. Maybe a FB pilot prepares for an engagement in which she’ll pilot such a craft, or pirates look to steal the technology and resell it, or maybe station crew observe a battle involving these ships. Or maybe you’ll even examine the origins behind their names.

Let’s see what you’ve got!

Entries:

• Astrum Arcanum
• A Vasty Nothingness
• Diary of a pod pilot
• Ecliptic Rift
• Mike Azariah
• Nestor the Chronicled
• Nullsec Carebear
• Stitcher
• Tastes Like Chicken

Poking around the site for EVE Online: Dominion, I wanted different wallpapers than the three they give us. I really wanted higher-res versions of the screenshots, so I clicked on the first one (looks like a sovereignty blockade unit, maybe?) and didn’t really get what I wanted. Poking around, it appears they replaced an older graphic with this one, likely because of the mothership fiasco.

So in case they take it down later once they realize that they still have a fighter-bomber graphic, here you go. (And CCP, please just give us high-res versions of your screenshots suitable for wallpaper!)