The lone mercenary slowly works his way up the side of the mountain. A dropship would have been faster but he wanted to experience every last detail, every footstep, every strained breath. It's not often that you get to choose where you die on the battlefield, war is ruthless like that. Even so this time was special because it would be the last time. GÇ£Obsolete technologyGÇ¥ they said, GÇ£The hardware is degrading too quickly.GÇ¥ He knew this day would come, they all did, but even so it was more difficult that he expected. It's a funny thing, being an immortal and dying thousands of times...only to be forced to suddenly cope with your own mortality.

He knew this clone wouldn't last, they weren't designed to, and the system to transfer his consciousness would soon be taken offline. He was going to die soon and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Fear of death was always the first thing new mercenaries needed to overcome, yet he could feel it wrapping around his heart yet again, its cold grip squeezing his chest. If anything he welcomed it, the fear of death is truly proof that one is alive, a feeling he had long forgotten.

He reached the peak of the mountain, a spot he remembered well. He chuckled to himself, looking at the spot where he died for the very first time. It was during his first battle that he was crouched in this very spot overlooking the canyon below trying to perform recon on the enemy below. He was so scared of dying that he didn't notice the scout behind him until the nova knife was buried in his back and he fell from the cliff to his death.

The mercenary shakes his head, a faint smile on his face, thinking about how much things have changed since then. Even so it seemed fitting that it should all end in the same spot where it all began. He offered himself this quiet comfort of choosing where to die to help quell the memories of all that he had endured to get there. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be on his terms for once.

He stands and checks the time, 11:59, this was the end. He presses the release on the back of his dropsuits helmet, pulling it from his shoulders and dropping it to the ground; he wouldnGÇÖt need it anymore. His eyes are closed as he breaths in the planet's thin atmosphere; it's cold and harsh, but he welcomes the dull pain in his lungs. Standing at the edge he lifts his face up to meet the warmth of the sun, letting its light engulf him.

All the memories, all of the experiences, all of the people he met. They rush into his mind one by one, filling him with a sensation of a life well spent, and well fulfilled. He went through hell, but it changed him for the better, and for that he was satisfied. The gripping fear of death slipped away from his heart as he opened his eyes to meet the blinding whiteness of the sun.

The mercenary smiles and says to himself GÇ£Such that we may rise again.GÇ¥ and takes a step forward.

You're not fading into the dark.

While for the time being, there's no PLAYER cloned mercs deployed in New Eden, all the DUST NPC corporations will continue to operate in an in world sense, in terms of backstory.

Question is whether you're ready to become part of a new breed of immortals when Project Nova becomes available?

Beautiful. Just one problem though.


In the lore of EVE, we are not going away, and our clones are not being taken offline.

The lone mercenary slowly works his way up the side of the mountain. A dropship would have been faster but he wanted to experience every last detail, every footstep, every strain.....

Y'know I'm not convinced TACNET is actually off line preventing cloning in the event of death. That would be terrible customer support from Genolution.

You lore people just love to ruin everything don't you?

You lore people just love to ruin everything don't you?

lol No it doesn't ruin it, Pokey. You have to understand to start with that EVERYTHING in the EvE universe is lore based, whether you like it or not, but that doesn't mean a merc can't die one last time and stay dead. There are cases of it in EvE already, so it's completely believable.

Just understand there will always be lore people who "ruin everything", because lore is the primary driver of a lot of EvE and what was Dust, even though I know a lot of Dusters thought it was superfluous, unnecessary, and actually disruptive of what they wanted the game to be.

Handled correctly, it can actually enhance, but you do have to accept it.... :)

That clone audio script would be epic if it were placed on the battlefield, blended sounds with the chaos of fighting in the background. Was good and quite chilling as vanilla speech though.

Well the Corporate Clone Production overlords pulled the plug because of diminishing returns. No matter how we felt or what we did to support this game. I surely hope it is reborn again bigger faster and stronger.

If Nova happens, I'll think about 3D animating it and getting a voice actor to record it ;)

Lol I was just giving him ****. Lore is neat I just am not very well versed in it so I'm sure my little story has plenty of lore-holes I just knew True was dying to go balls deep into ;)

Handled correctly, it can actually enhance, but you do have to accept it.... :)

Lol I was just giving him ****. Lore is neat I just am not very well versed in it so I'm sure my little story has plenty of lore-holes I just knew True was dying to go balls deep into ;)

You lore people just love to ruin everything don't you?

Nice work, Pokey.

True takes an unholy glee(how predictably Ammarian) in such things ;)

I'm thinking your swan song scene still happily fits the lore tho: we will each have faced the death of our last 'free' clone and the loss of the (nebulous) independent cloning infrastructure to which we had unrestricted access.

Presumably before that final incarnation as a free merc we negotiated with the NPC corps for long-term contracts and use of their cloning facilities. Of course they had us over a barrel and we are no doubt being paid absolute sh!t - once-free mercs now a race of immortal slaves indentured to our various corporate masters.

---

Dropsuit. Dropsoldier. As a mortal soldier the idea of dropping from orbit in power armor to hit the battlefield like some mythological avatar of old was an alluring vision. The reality of the clone program turned out to be less romantic, however, a giant years-long clusterf*ck of epic proportions. That was over now, and the only game in town was indentured servitude to some mega-corporation or other entity. It was beginning to look as if the price of immortality might be dealing with consecutive periods of major suckage.

For now, however, that could all go f*ck itself: he had a plan for his last drop as a free man.

It had taken surprisingly little effort to find a willing pilot - the things that Lavo, his Gallentean bartender, could dig up on short notice were impressive and occasionally disturbing.

An Empyrean, a tricked-out interceptor with minor cargo bay modifications and 50 million ISK got a merc a ride to Jove space, where it all began. Mordu had been amused at his proposal and had graciously provided hidden gate coordinates and access codes to one of his old mercs. A week later, leaning on Lavo's polished obsidian bar and nursing a glass of 20 ISK whiskey, a grin slowly, irresistibly overtook his matari features: this was going to be glorious.

to be continued...

---

Nice story, that pretty sums it all: feelings, memories...

PS: why the scouts are always the bad guys in the end? :)

Because they usually kill you before you out have a chance to fight back?

Only when you don't look out, a scout will only get you when you aren't paying attention.

The one thing that will kill a scout, every single time, no matter how good that scout is, is situational awareness.

No use debating over a dead game though, unless you want to.

No use debating, I just spent a fair amount of time in a Commando suit with weak ewar and not enough slots to equip the needed mods to spot cloaked scouts until they were within shotgun range. I'm fine with hard counters, doesn't mean I have to like being slapped seemingly out of nowhere.

As a person who used both a Proto Commando ak.0 and a Proto Scout mk.0, I can say that the Commando is a force multiplier and works better in a group, and when you are in a group, you have a higher chance of spotting a scout before they are able to come into range.

On the other side of the coin, the Scout is mainly (though it is very fun to run a knifing squad) a solo unit, capable of getting behind enemy lines, but having to choose targets carefully because if you run into a large group, you will most likely get spotted, and then die (because unless you are brick tanking a light breeze will instagib a Scout mk.0).