"I am Leaq" announced Awarming coat calmly. Suddenly the chatter in the room dropped into a dead silence.

Round face freshly shaved, Red hair neatly trimmed, Coat held his head high. Soft velvets and lush saudes lined the furniture of the BLB meeting room. A gath ering of about forty men, most under the age of thirty, they sat split into different groups around rectangular polished oak tables. Expressionless, some stared. Others cast looks around hesitantly. Finally, Pans Exual spoke. "What basis do you have to make this claim, Warming?" "I have the same spirit as the vanished one, Pans." Coat replied, looking determ ined. Pans' dark eyes glowed with amusement. "Do go on." he said dryly. "Allow me, gentlemen, to regale you with a tale of one week past, shortly after the dissapearance of Eukaryotic." Several mouths tightened at the name. Some had treated leaq like a mentor, other s as a younger brother. "I was deployed to Essence with Black Rebel Rifter Club, as we had discovered ac tivity from a rival group in the area." "They call their group The Buttfucking Quitters" Several people in the room snickered at that. Tiny debris battered at the windows of Coat's Stabber Fleet Issue class vessel a s he hurtled down the asterioid belt. Engines flaring, he deftly made rapid corrections to his course, avoiding the ro cks safely. On his heads up display a grey square showed a Mackinaw, about sixty kilometers away. Overheating his engines for extra power, he rocketed towards the barge and disru pted its warp core. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK" roared the miner in local chat. Coat's 425mm Autocannons made quick work of the exhumer and his pod shot out tow ards the station. Slapping the killmail on his visual interface, he reviewed the loot data. Coat's eyes widened. For some ridiculous reason, the miner had deadspace shield hardeners. Coasting happily towards the wreck, Coat used his ship's systems to retrieve the goodies. Suddenly, a Harpy, Harbinger and Rupture uncloaked. Recoiling abruptly, Coat slammed on an overheated cycle of his microwarpdrive an d swiveled his ship away from the enemy gang. A few heart wrenching split seconds passed where the Harpy tried to lock Coat an d was in range for a warp scramble, but the SFI barely pulled away. Coat heated his guns and delivered a volley of metal to the face of the Harpy. The Harpy's shields faltered precariously. In what Coat assumed must have been a mind blinding rage, the Harpy pilot continued directly at the stabber, slowly g aining ground. Unforuntately for his ship, this gave the autocannons the tracking precision the y needed to annihilate him. Coat circled back to take potshots at the Rupture. Fit for short ranged brawling , the most of the Rupture's bullets passed by him harmlessly. Coat smiled. Even though his enemies laid the trap, Coat was gaining the upper h and. The Harbinger loaded scorch crystals and was beginning to erode Coat's armor. As the Rupture fell below half shields, Coat's reppers were starting to lose gro und.

Desperately, Coat took an exile booster. The chemicals entered his system and a flood of anger raced through his brain. Snarling, Coat continued his assault as the Rupture began to lose armor. Abruptl y Coat noticed a Crow interceptor landing on field. He could leave, but he wanted to see the Rupture destroyed. Almost immediately t he Crow sped towards the Stabber and latched on with its warp disruptor. The tiny pattering of its light missiles would usually not be a problem, yet Coa t's tank was already stretched thin. As the puny crow heated its launchers, Coat's armor began to dip. Using his trai ning with reisel numbers to work out the sums, he frowned worriedly. He needed some way to be rid of the cro w or he was finished. Spotting a small hole between a group of asteroids, he banked his ship and whizz ed through the opening. As the Crow approached the gap, he slowed to reduce the risk of a collision. Tho se moments of low angular velocity were all Coat's turrets needed to obliterate the vessel. Coat zipped back through and resumed warp disrupting the Rupture. His enemy fell through structure and exploded violently. Concentrating, Coat took a closer look at the Harbinger. It had never loaded sco rch at all, in fact it was using beam lasers. Laughing, Coat activated his afterburned and began a close orbit. As the minutes past and the Amarr ship's armor wore down, Coat realised that the Harb pilot mu st have low grade slave implants. He also must have been really drunk to try such a strange fitting using his expe nsive clone. "I knnew this ws a bad idea xd" the Harb pilot slurred. As the pilot warped off in his escape capsule, Coat smirked. Originally he had p laced the bubble between here and the station to catch miners. Hopefully, he warped to his tactical. Sure enough, the Harb pilot sat trapped in the great blue sphere. Coat swooped in, the autocannons boomed, and the Harb pilot was reunited with hi s cloning station. Gladded by his success and brimming with satisfaction, Coat jumped through the s targate that began his route home. Arriving in the new system, Coat looked around to find himself surrounded by blu e light. Trying to rapidly reapproach the stargate, he activated his microwarpdrive and w as greeted by a dull bleeping sound. Horrified, he realised that he had burned it out. At the edge of his vision, he glimpsed tornados landing about 60km away. The next thing he saw were the white painted walls of the cloning facility. "And so you see" Awarmingcoat finished grandly, "I have all the right qualities to be the next Leaq." Enraptured, his audience blinked. Surprise painted Pans Exual's face. Pans cleared his throat. "The council will now decide". Turning away, the attendees huddled together. After a short term of fierce discu ssion, they turned around. "The council has decided. Awarmingcoat is officially the second Leaq." Pans decl ared. As enthusiastic applause was given, Coat bowed and grinned.