The Blood-Stained Stars/Chapter 6 - A Breach of Trust

Main article: The Blood-Stained Stars

Mission 38 - A Matter of Decorum

Type	Encounter
Objective	Bring Mizara's doll to the colony where her family lives.
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~60,000-102,000 ISK (bonus)

Mission briefing

I would speak with you about your search for Dagan, but first, a matter of decorum. The late Mistress Mizara's parents entrusted the safety of their child to my lord. He has attempted to make amends, but I am afraid my lord can be...indelicate. He would replace their daughter with reparations of gold and ISK. This must be handled with more care. Take this toy. The mistress first arrived at my lord's estate with nothing to her name but this. As you destroyed her body, it is the only physical connection left in this world that her family will recognize as hers. Deliver this to the family, and with the utmost care. They have already suffered enough.

Tradition
Amarr society is popularly conceived as hierarchical and old-fashioned. True Amarr are thought to dominate all people they conquer, and treat their own people as little better than cattle. While that can be true in certain cases, the political realities of the Amarr Empire are far too complex to paint the Empire as a wholly evil power.

Objective
Bring Mizara's doll to the colony where her family lives, in Tanoo.

Notes
--The mission can be completed remotely and the next mission can be accepted remotely.--

You will receive 1x Mizara's Doll to deliver. Don't forget to put it from your items hangar into your cargo before undocking. Warp to the encounter. You will be placed about 18km away from Mizara Familty Hovel. Aproach it and drop Mizara's Doll into their home. Mission complete. Hopefully, it will help the family in their grieving process.

On turn in, Dovrich Anselm says: "Thank you for doing this, my friend. To see others suffer is never easy."

Mission 39 - New Friends

Type	Tallk to Agent
Objective	Report to Doctor Canius
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~133,000-192,000 ISK (bonus)

Mission briefing

You have proven you respect our ways. My lord now believes he can trust you. Yes, we know Dagan, and of your hunt for him. My lord hired him as a tutor for Mistress Mizara some ten years ago. Though my lord fancies himself a skilled pilot, he is very much of old Amarr stock. He wished the mistress to be better educated in the newly emerging technologies and political realities than he. Dagan proved a remarkable teacher. Sadly, he and Lord Taphos had a falling out after the coronation of Empress Sarum. There was an altercation, and both Dagan and the mistress fled. I do not know where Dagan himself is, but I do know the man who brought Dagan to my lord's attention: an archaeologist of some respect, by the name of Doctor Canius. You'll find him at the location provided. Be warned: he surrenders nothing for free.

Doctor Canius

Objective
Report to Doctor Canius at Lisudeh IV - Moon 4 - Theology Council Tribunal station - 3 high sec jumps away.

Notes
You can accept this mission remotely. You travel 3 jumps through high security space.

Mission 40 - Recovery

Type	Encounter
Objective	Recover an artifact from the dig site using an archeology module like the one provided.
Faction	Blood Raiders
Best damage to deal	EM Th
Damage to resist	EM Th
EWAR	Target Disruption by the reinforcements
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~178,000-211,000 ISK (bonus)
Extra	Relic analyzing

Mission briefing

Dead, is she? Damn. I was fond of her, and not in Taphos's way, mind you. Yeah, I know. “He was purely her protector and patron, to mold her and shape her for a life of dedicated service to God and Empire.” Listen, I've been studying human history for a long while, and a platonic patronage between a “Lord” and “Mistress” hasn't happened since the time when the Reclaiming just involved stabbing our heathen neighbors with pointy sticks. But if that was all that was goin' on, nobody would fuss. But that's enough story-time for now. You want more; you'll have to do somethin' for me. Hell, you don't want to hear more; you still have to do somethin' for me. Don't worry, it's real simple. There's a dig site a little ways from here: a small cluster of asteroids, containing artifacts from some of the first Amarr space lanes. I know there's at least one good piece left, but every time I hire a team, they get driven off by pirates. All you have to do is go in, get that artifact, and return it to me without dying.

Objective
Acquire 1x Mysterious Statuette (1 m³), and drop it off at Doctor Canius' station at Lisudeh IV - Moon 4 - Theology Council Tribunal.

You will be given the relic analyzer so you don't need to bring your own.

Notes
Fit the Civilian Analyzer before departing. Fly to the designated site in Lisudeh and recover the artifact from the dig site using the analyzer module. You will have to fend off several Blood Raider rats in the dig site. After you destroy them all, you will need to target lock the Ancient Tomb Dig Site and activate the Civilian Analyzer.

Once the hack is complete you can open its cargo and loot 1x Mysterious Statuette. That completes the mission. Return to Doctor Canius.

This may be your first attempt at the Hacking minigame. The wiki link will explain everything you need to know about this feature within EVE. The design of this particular hack seems to be awkward - if you hit more than one firewall (there's two in total) then you're unlikely to be able to hack the System Core as well (which you need to hack in order to get the required item for the mission). The good news is that you can repeat the hack attempt as often as you need until you succeed. It also serves as a gentle introduction to hacking, which can be a profitable part of EVE.

You can hack the relic can before you kill the guards, but you cannot open it until they are killed. Can also use any Relic Analyzer, does not have to be the provided Civilian.

Note that if you directly approach the relic can from warp-in, you will likely bounce off of a rock formation.

Update 6/10/2020: Frigate for me was a Corpii Seeker or Collector, both with tracking disrupt. In three runs, had: 3 cruisers, 1 frigate; 2 destroyers, 1 cruiser, 2 frigates; 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, 1 frigate. In all three, the frigates did not spawn until after one initial ship was destroyed. All frigates had tracking disrupt.

On turn in, Doctor Canius says: "Blood Raiders? You're lucky you lived. They're psychotic and bloodthirsty, literally. Their sect believes purity can only be reached by consuming blood, and clone blood are purest of all. I'm afraid that makes you Capsuleers their favorite snack. But you're alive, and you've got the artifact, so we're good."

(~26km)

		WD	EWAR	L
	Ancient Tomb Dig Site

Initial Defenders (~20-30km)

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 x Destroyer Corpior Visionary/Converter/Devoter/Cleric
	1-2 x Cruiser Corpum Arch Reaver/Engraver

Reinforcements (Trigered by damaging the initial defenders)

		WD	EWAR	L
	1-2 x Frigate Corpii Seeker/Collector

Mission 41 - Of Quiet Nights Long Past

Type	Encounter
Objective	Find the monastery. Clear the area of any pirates. Retrieve any documents you find.
Faction	Various
Best damage to deal	Omni
Damage to resist	Omni
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~120,000-146,000 ISK (bonus)

Mission briefing

You've done me a solid, so I'll return the favor. A few years ago Lord Taphos tried to hit me up to tutor his new miracle girl. I declined, but I pointed him to Dagan. Dagan was holed up in this monastery at the time, part of some weird hermitage. So I introduce them, think nothing of it. Then I start hearin' rumors about how friendly Dagan is with Mizara. This doesn't go well with Taphos, particularly if you also believe what they say about Taphos and Dagan. Dagan was driven off, and truth told that's what probably turned Mizara against Taphos right then. So Taphos wants to keep a tight lid on the whole affair himself, keep the rumors still. So that's his character history. Hope you wrote that all down. Nah, I don't care. There's no test or anything. But what did Dagan do after? I honestly don't know, but five will get you ten that it has something to do with his life before Taphos. This is the location of the monastery he stayed at. It's been abandoned for some time. I wouldn't be surprised if scavengers have moved in. Go reclaim the hell out of that place, and I'm sure you'll find something useful.

The Reclaiming

The Reclaiming is a major part of the Amarr religion, and of the Empire itself. They believe that all people in the universe were once part of the same empire, and the Amarr Empire is the direct heir to that legacy. Through Empress Catiz Tash-Murkon the Amarr are given a divine mandate to reunify the peoples of the universe through any means necessary. Historically, this has lead to numerous wars of conquest in which the Amarr decimate and then absorb civilizations. Each war is itself referred to as a Reclaiming to emphasize their divine mandate.

Objective
Fly to the monastery at the designated location in Lisudeh, destroy all the pirates, and acquire 1x Strange Coded Document (0.1 m³) - return it to the Lisudeh IV - Moon 4 - Theology Council Tribunal station.

Notes
Warp to the encounter. In about 35-50km distance you will be paired up against 8x Scavengers of various factions. Kill them all. The 1x Strange Coded Document can be found in a Cargo Container that drops from the last destroyed ship. Mission complete. Return to base pilot!

On turn in, Doctor Canius says: "Good job cleaning those guys out. I wouldn't worry about the ramifications of slaughtering some godless scavengers. The first rule of any good reclaiming is it's about souls, not bodies. You just happen to have a lot of the latter left over. Now, let's have a look at that document you found."

Defenders

		WD	EWAR	L
	8 x Frigate Scavenger

Mission 42 - Revelations

Type	Talk to Agent
Objective	Report to Dovirch Anselm
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~120,000-127,000 ISK (bonus)

Mission briefing

This is fascinating. See this character here? It's only found in the Jovian alphabet. It's not proper Jovian, though. It's like they just were using the character set as a cipher of some sort. Unfortunate for Dagan, no cipher exists to stop a Hedion University man! Let's see… that's strange. I can't tell who this is to, but it's definitely from Dagan. He says his mission went well, and that he fully earned the mark's— I assume that's Taphos's— trust. The mark willingly gave him passwords and clearance to Imperial archives, and… Emperors of old, he says he has sent all records pertaining to the Empire's knowledge of "pre-Jovian" weapons! I can only guess at what qualifies as "pre-Jovian", but Taphos has unwittingly provided Imperial secrets to a spy. You must deliver this information to him at once!

Dovirch Anselm

Objective
Report to Dovirch Anselm at the Tanoo V - Moon 1 - Ammatar Consulate Bureau station.

Notes
Fly the three high sec jumps back to see Anselm.

Mission 43 - A Call to Trial

Type	Encounter
Objective	Defeat Taphos in Trial by Combat.
Faction	Amarr Empire
Best damage to deal	EM Th
Damage to resist	EM Th
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~30,000-48,000 ISK (bonus)
Extra	No standing loss

Mission briefing

I'm sure you have several questions for me, but I'm afraid they'll have to wait. It seems Taphos caught wind of your investigation. I know because he has challenged you to trial by combat. It hasn't been common for years, but Taphos considers himself an old-fashioned true Amarr, and blue laws still allow it. Luckily, this provides the perfect opportunity for us. With the information we've uncovered, namely this cipher, we have enough to bring Taphos on charges. Doing so, however, would cause a huge political uproar, the kind that we frankly don't have the time for. I want you to go out there, meet Taphos, and kill him in combat. We've shut off access to his clones, so he won't be coming back. As you were challenged by a noble you'll suffer no consequences, legal or otherwise. His family line gets to keep their good name, and everyone can then go back to their nice, safe lives, confident that Imperial secrets are still safe.

Objective
Defeat Taphos in Trial by Combat. Location Tanoo

Notes
--The mission can be completed remotely and the next mission can be accepted remotely.--

Taphos will be in a frigate at the designated location. Easy kill mission.

		WD	EWAR	L
	1 x Frigate Taphos

Mission 44 - Brothers and Sisters

Type	Talk to Agent
Objective	Report to Sister Alitura
Rewards	200,000 ISK + ~134,000-189,000 ISK (bonus)

Mission briefing

Now, about Dagan. We've had our suspicions as to who he is. With the cipher you found, we know for sure. I'm violating my oath by giving you this intel, but odds are good we'd never be able to act on it ourselves. See, Dagan is from the Society of Conscious Thought. Dagan's made a mistake, though. He's been cut off from his buddies. The Sisters have seen to that. Yeah, the Sisters. I've been curious why they were so interested in my case. Now I know: if there's one group that keeps a closer eye on the Society than the Empire, it's the Sisters of EVE. They knew the whole damn time who Dagan was. I'd say it's time to head back over to the Sisters and get the full story.

The Society of Conscious Thought

Thought they were just a giant think tank, yeah? That's their public side. Diplomats and the rich send their children to the Society for the best education money can buy. I have a cousin who graduated from one, and he's straight as an arrow. Every once in a while, though, we get reports of Society ships showing up at the oddest places. Spatial anomalies, weird accidents, the like. They're Society, but almost a different breed entirely. These guys are ghosts. As soon as you think you've found one, they just vanish.

Sister Alitura

Objective
Fly back to Arnon and report once again to Sister Alitura at Arnon IX - Moon 3 - Sisters of EVE Bureau station. It's a bit of a trip - 22 high sec jumps away. Be careful when planning. There is a shorter route(17 jumps) but that will travel through 3 low-sec systems.

Notes
The mission can be accepted remotely.

Next chapter: Chapter 7 - Closing In