Showdown in Juddi, Part 1

Important news from the front: The New Order scored a big win in the Juddi system!

The dashing Agent Kalorned launched a daring forray into an asteroid belt, where he came upon an unlicensed Mackinaw. The pilot in question, The Roak, was able to prove that he was not AFK. This was a good sign, since miners are much more likely to pay their dues if they're at the keyboard.

But it's not good enough to be at your keyboard when an Agent asks you a question. You need to remain at your keyboard for the full length of the conversation. Compounding his rudeness with a Code violation, The Roak went silent immediately after being asked to purchase a permit. His remarkably fail-fit Mackinaw was bound to die. (Yes, that is a Tracking Enhancer in the lowslot.)

Death was just the incentive The Roak needed to return to his keyboard. Though podded, he remained in the same system.

Perhaps laying the groundwork for a reimbursement claim, The Roak exaggerated his loss. The implants were worth only one billion isk. And to be honest, as a miner, he really didn't need most of those anyway. You'd think he would know better after spending more than five years mining in highsec.

Half a decade is plenty of time to pick up a few bad habits and pieces of misinformation. Somewhere down the line, The Roak got the impression that Juddi was a free system. (Or more precisely, a "fucking free system".)

As the Agent on the spot, it was up to Kalorned to share the good news. Juddi was better than free--it was a New Order system. Now The Roak would have the chance to follow a set of rules, rather than sitting around mining all day with no idea what to do.

Kalorned knew well what the pre-Order gankers did not: Winning the peace is much more difficult than winning the war. Kalorned earned his stripes as an elite PvP'er with his ingenious use of Catalyst alts in the Battle of Juddi. The winning of the battle was brilliant; Kalorned accomplished his mission to remove The Roak's Mackinaw from the asteroid belt. Now what?

Introducing the Code had the desired effect. The Roak was somewhat pacified. However, The Roak did not yet accept responsibility for starting the war. He gave a bunch of excuses for not responding, claiming that he'd been busy looking up Kalorned's profile.

Kalorned is the CEO and sole member of Psychedelic Llamas, a corporation loyal to the New Order. If The Roak really did spend his time looking up Kalorned's info, he should've immediately recognized that Kalorned was trustworthy.

The Roak disputed Kalorned's official report of the circumstances surrounding the gank. The Roak believed he was given only 2 seconds to reply after the permit request, while Kalorned estimated it was closer to 2 minutes.

Kalorned reviewed the timestamp evidence. It confirmed he had been well within his rights to call in the airstrike. It wasn't even close; it was a slam-dunk. Would The Roak admit his guilt?

In fact, the carebear's mental state began to deteriorate. It was a symptom Kalorned knew well and recognized immediately: The Roak was rejecting the Code. Things could go either way. The next few minutes would be critical for the Juddi system.

To be continued...