It was his first solo roam since joining Sky Syndicate. Yooch hadn’t scanned much of late and was feeling rusty. However it felt good to get out on his own in search of miscreants and he quickly slipped back into his old routine, carefully scanning down and bookmarking the location of wormhole after wormhole before investigating the unknown systems to which they led.
A few hours in, he discovered a control tower in a class 4 system, surrounded by an impenetrable forcefield. It was heavily defended by enormous laser turrets and signal jamming batteries. Floating inside, a Prowler was moving about between laboratories. Upon closer inspection, Yooch could see several drug silos. He had stumbled upon an illegal production facitily, nestled in the deep unknown.
Knowing that the system was connected via wormhole to a class 2 system which in turn had a route to high-security space, Yooch assumed the Prowler pilot would take advantage of the opportunity to hawk his wares, and set about creating tactical bookmarks. Staking out the forcefield from a distance, Yooch watched the prowler go about his business. It would be difficult to catch a Prowler with his Nemesis, but he had to try. There was no telling what hands the drugs would fall into if he was allowed to reach high-security space.
Sure enough, the Prowler soon aligned toward the wormhole and began to accelerate. Already pre-aligned, Yooch put his ship into warp, landing just off the wormhole. He watched under the cover of his ships cloaking device as the Prowler suddenly appeared and entered the wormhole. Decloaking immediately, Yooch followed him through the portal.
A few seconds later his ship was ejected from the dark tunnel into the class 2 system. He immediately decloaked his ship as the Prowler appeared in front of him and locked onto it. The Prowler seemed to be unabled to activate his cloaking device. Perhaps the nearby wormhole was interfering with his electronic systems, or maybe he was just panicking.
Or maybe he knew it would make no difference. Yooch immediately activated his warp disruption system when the computer had finished locking onto the Prowler, but it slipped away in to darkness. It must have had reinforced systems to stabilize its warp core. Yooch cursed loudly and reactivated his cloaking device.
Now what? It was pointless to chase the Prowler, and likely it had alerted its corporation to the hostile attempt. Yooch turned his ship around and headed back for the wormhole. He needed to get back to the forcefield and get some intel before they could respond in force.
Upon exiting the portal, he immediately cloaked his ship again and burned away from the cosmic anomaly. Seconds later a Heretic pulled out of warp nearby and entered the wormhole. Yooch watched it disappear and whispered silent thanks to Bob; he had just barely evaded its notice.
Next his ship sensors caught an Oracle on scan. Presently it appeared nearby, slowly pulling out of warp some distance from the wormhole. Yooch was shocked when it suddenly disappeared from his scanner without warning. He rushed to the window but could not see anything in the dark void. A cloaking device on an Orcale? This was very strange.
Hoping to get a better vantage point, Yooch returned to the forcefield and checked his scanner, but no other ships were anywhere to be seen. Warping back to the wormhole he landed at range from it, near to where the Oracle had disappeared. If the Prowler returned immediately after depositing goods in high-sec, he would not have to wait long.
Sure enough, less than a quarter hour passed before the Heretic reappeared. Yooch assumed the Prowler would follow shortly and prepped his systems for combat. Presently the Heretic launched a giant warp disruption sphere which encompassed the entire wormhole as well as space around it. Anyone ship caught in that would have its warp core completely jammed out. Yooch was well outside the bubble, but watched carefully.
The Heretic pilot must have assumed Yooch was still in the class 2 system, because after launching the disruption sphere he immediately rentered the wormhole, presumable to apply the same treatment on the other side. For a brief moment all was quiet. Then the Oracle decloaked.
Yooch laughed out loud. The Oracle was a good 15 kilometers away from the wormhole and a bit further from Yooch himself. The warp disruption sphere surrounded him completely, making him a sitting target. Yooch immediately decloaked his Nemesis and fired up all his systems, painting a target on the large battlecruiser and unleashing a volley of torpedos. The Oracle pilot was surely panicking now, but he would receive no assistance. The Heretic had recently passed through the wormhole twice and it would be several minutes before his shield polarity disappated enough to allow another trip.
It only took four vollies to destroy the Oracle. Its pilot had reached the edge of the warp disruption field, but Yooch quickly closed the space between them and activated his own warp disruptor, easily avoiding damage from its large laser turrets.The pilot escaped in his pod as Yooch chuckled over the sensor boosters he could see floating among the flaming wreck.
Yooch recloaked his ship and disappeared among the stars. He was sure the Heretic would continue to camp the wormhole entrance but he wasn’t concerned. Enforcing space justice had instilled in him many times the patience of a normal man. Let them try to smuggle drugs without a security detail again. He would be ready.
Your cloaking will come at a price,
Your ship shouldn’t fit that device.
Inside your own bubble,
You’re headed for trouble,
You cannot have things which are nice.
Ensign Yooch, Reporting For Duty 