Copy of A Psycho: Part 2 (Dust 514-inspired story)

Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Names are strange, they are seen as important, yet tell you nothing about the individual. Mine is Varian Wulf, that name is a memetic relic from the original Varian Wulf, I am a clone, one that inherited his memories and thoughts. Perhaps names are important because it lets us cling to an illusion of identity.



As a member of the newly formed Elite Guard of my corporation, me and my squad have been given the job of guarding the CEO during an important meeting later today. This "promotion" happened after a battle on a desert planet... I don't exactly remember the name, we briefly defended a planetary artillery, and kept the energy mainframe from enemy control long enough for the enemy mobile command center (MCC) to be destroyed. I honestly don't think we did that great, but I suppose taking out an entire enemy squad possessing 3 vehicles, including a heavy attack vehicle is somewhat of impressive.

This doesn't feel like much of a promotion, I'm still surrounded by a squad of people I hate. At least now I have a nice red ouroboros insignia in the shape of a hexagon on my shoulder pads, a very elegant symbol of our new rank. Angry squad leader is still as macho as ever, I never undersood people like him, how can you be so angry all the time and keep yourself from murdering people? Its hard enough as it is for me, especially since I woke up today to find out I ran out of my medication. Oddly enough, I actually remembered the squad leader's name this time, Malleo Horn. He is a Caldari, Achura bloodline to be specific. You wouldn't know it at first, he doesn't exactly exhibit that calm introverted scientific personality that the Achura are known for. His face is very bony, his eyes always look wild, when he smiles its actually scary. His hair is short and black, I never thought hair that short could look so damn messy. If you met him though, the thing you would notice first is the giant scar that cuts across his lips and runs diagonally on the right side of his face, for some reason he insists on having his clones made with that scar when he gets reborn. There are few others, but they aren't that memorable too me, I just know that at least one of them is Gallentean, and one of them I think of as "Tatoo-face" for obvious reasons. typical soldiers, or thrillseeking jokers. I guess if I had to sum up   myself though, I'd say I'm a murderer disguised as a quiet soldier.

We are now in the dining facility, or "mess hall" of one of our corporate ships. I always found that name pretty disgusting, messes don't exactly help my appetite.  I've never liked being in military ships, rooms made of ugly steel, and nothing but the bare minimum. While sitting, I look around the room, there are at least 7 other thick steel tables bolted to the ground. Each are packed with members of the corporation dressed in black mercenary armor with the name of our corp on their backs "Stateless Society" it reads. On the other side of the room are automated food stations, I can't look anywhere to escape the bland metalic gray of this ship. I notice this squad of Amarrians, specifically the shitty  religious kind... maybe I'm stereotyping, but you can always spot them in my experience, maybe its that smug look of superiority. I see them snickering as they look at me. I try to hear past the sea of noise, particularly past the laughter of my squadmates as squad leader brags talks about his desire to "fuck some shit up", but I already know what those Amarrians are saying. I imagine its something like "look at that Minmatar scum, I heard the only reason he got promoted was because the CEO is a Minmatar whore". I always hated Amarrian culture, goverened by fairy tailes of God, and they use it to justify all kinds of shit, like the ensalavement of the Minmatar, and many others. Can I blame them for being the assholes they are? Would have I turned out any different if I was raised by their parents, in their society, and was born genetically identical as them? Probably not, I would have made the same choices as them, and had the exact same thoughts. They didn't chose to be assholes. Free will may be an illusion, but doesn't mean I give a flying fuck. I want those fuckers dead.

I hear another burst of laughter directed me for the table of Amarrians.  I drop the spoon unexpectedly, and feel my self control slip away, I suppose its time to "fuck some shit up". I stand up with my hand on my sidearm as I quickly walk to table with the Amarrian trash. Their laughing stop as my approaching presence becomes more apparant. A bald pale member of their group, presumably their leader, stands up and moves his face close to mine, as if trying to scare me off. I smile and say "I never undrstood why people hope moving their face so close to mine is suposed to be scary, sure your face is ugly, but its not exactly going to scare me away". His face goes red, the wrinkles of his face becomes more pronounced with anger, especially on his forehead, much like tectonic plates grinding on each other before an earthquake. He starts to speak "I'm not letting a piece of shit slave like you talk to me that way" as he grabs the collar of my shirt from under my armor. My eyes flare while I shove him against the wall, and I quickly pull out my sidearm and shoves it in his mouth. "Studies have shown that the people that pissed me off! are always the ones I enjoyed killing the most! want to explore that interesting correlation?" I yell this to him in a tone alternating from playful to insanely enraged, while I slowly squeeze the trigger. What the hell was I thinking? I suddenly feel stupid after realizing that the phrase I just said sounded out loud, but I suppose having a gun in his mouth does the trick of being menacing. His friends start backing away in fear and leave the table. Before I could squeeze the trigger, I hear our CEO's voice in my earpiece, she is calling our squad to escort her to the important alliance meeting.

I feel a hand on my shoulder pulling me away from the racist, I turn around and notice its my squad leader. More shockingly, I notice a circular crowd around me with shocked looks on their faces. The most bewildered expressions were that of my squadmates, with the exception of squad leader Horn; his face was stern yet somewhat fearful, as if trying not to provoke me. I've never said much of anything in front of them, they have never let them see what lies beyond my mask until now, I'm getting worried. I calm down and pull the gun out of the bald man's mouth, its covered in his saliva, and the man appears to be weeping and praying to his god. I grab a napkin and calmly walk away as I wipe my gun clean from the saliva. No, I can't just leave them without making them pay a little, so I stop and turn around dramatically. I quickly raise my gun as soon as my feet stop moving, and shoot the bald man in the face before resuming to walk away with my squad.

The first half of the walk to meet up with CEO Namir Serr was dominated by an awkward silence. Someone finally spoke,  one of the snipers in our squad, Tattoo-face "We're all thinking it so I'm just going to ask... seriously man, what the fuck was that?". I wasn't sure how to reply, another one jumped in saying "yeah man, if this was the Gallentean military, your ass would have been court martialed". This makes no sense to me, the guy will just get reborn in a clone... sure it won't be the real him, but he won't notice, so I replied "Was this before or after soldiers became immortal?.. that guy is a fucking asshole anyway". Horn stayed silent, but merely looked at me suspiciously as if he discovered some dark terrible secret.

We've arrived to the CEO's office, she was waiting by the door for us to escort her to that starbase our ship just docked too. She always had a certain presence about her, as if everything she did was for some greater goal. Probably because she does have such a goal; she formed this corporation as part of an ambitious goal to grow it into a major superpower in New Eden, and eventually rule over the great 4 empires. She is Minmatar of the Sebiestor bloodline. She looked like she was in her late 20s, her skin was light brown, her hair was closely braided to to her scalp in various rows, she wore a white decorative tunic with white pants, but her most striking features were her eyes. Her eyes are artificial, with a coldly blue glowing irises, but that isn't why they seem to pierce to me, maybe its the strength they carry. They make me uncomfortable. Fuck! she's looking right at me for some reason.

"Director Vallus told me about your little outburst, he saw it in the security cameras" She says in a calm voice, I don't know what to reply, and for a moment I froze "That man you shot was one of many top mercenaries handpicked by the director, he has lots of military experience, a 68.3% mission success rate, and a 3.5 kill to death ratio" she says. Vallus was a Caldari business genius that helped her start Stateless Society, he was close to her father, but he's always been closer to numbers, stats, and especially money. The words finally escape my lips, and I tell her "He is a Minmatar-hating a racist who has no place in this corporation". Well... Vallus did not tell me of this, perhaps I should go have a talk with him about his hiring policies. Seems like he's too focused on stats and profits to turn down an asshole with a high KDR. Anyway mister Wulf, please don't let anymore... outbursts like that happen today during the meeting, immortal or not, people don't like being shot in the face, I need this to go well". I sigh in relief, I'm lucky she didn't ask why I was carrying the pistol in the dining hall to begin with, and I reply "Understood" as we all walk towards the docking bridge. I really hate this kind of attention, its even worse when the rest of my squad aren't saying anything, feels like they're just watching me, I need my fucking meds. We pick up some assault rifles from a gun rack near the door, and put on helmets.

We walked through the docking tunnel until we reached the door of the starbase. The door opens, and we enter a large beautifully decorated corridor, the walls are purple, with golden designs weaved in metal swirling over the walls. There are even 2 fountains, exotic plants, and decorative sculptures; if I didn't know better, I'd say this is a luxury hotel. I bet their dining hall doesn't suck. "Shit, these guys make us look poor" joked the Gallentean... I think its him. Namir Serr smiled and said "Yeah, can't believe uncle Vallus still has connection to bigshots like the Maraikhom Alliance, but I bet you one day we'll own all of this" in a half-joking tone. She says these really confident things sometimes, she has such huge... well not balls, I guess ovaries, and all I can help but think is 'like a boss', but she literally is the boss. We're encountered by a a young woman in a blue uniform, she gave us the standard BS greeting, and guided us to the meeting room. There is no way they could refuse us from the Mariakhom Alliance, no new corporation has rose this fast and become so powerful, we've won almost every territorial battle we've been involved in, and control massive amounts of territory for our size. As our CEO pushed the door open, I knew everything was about to change.