Machine Come to Life, Part 3

Previously, on MinerBumping... Credibly accused bot-miner Lexxos could maintain his silence no longer. After months of being ganked by Agent Alt 00, Lexxos lost his cool and began acting out in local chat. His only defender was his own alt, Rhian Crescent.

Speaking through Rhian, Lexxos attempted to clear his name. He'd spent months silently watching as our Agent called him a botter in local. No more. This would be settled today.

Rhian challenged the Agent's account of events. But Alt 00 couldn't be moved.

As evidence, Rhian offered his own eyewitness testimony. Being the alt of the accused, he was probably a little biased.

The accused botter evolved into a space lawyer. Fueled by months of pent-up rage, he grilled Alt 00. Rhian was going to put the whole system on trial!

The miner began to slip up. Alt 00 had never suggested any connection between Rhian and Lexxos. Rhian had nearly blown his cover.

The accused was spinning in circles, but he didn't lose any of his passion. One way or another, he'd fight this one to the finish.

Other anti-Code miners watched the drama unfold in local. They naturally sympathized with their fellow miner, but Rhian was embarrassing himself.

Rhian tried to deflect attention onto other criminals with worse sins--a common tactic of the bot-aspirant miner.

As a Mackinaw pilot, Rhian felt it was unfair that Orcas were able to get away with even longer periods of AFK mining. The miner had no way of knowing that Alt 00 was planning to launch an anti-Orca campaign. For now, though, the focus was Lexxos.

Despite his vigorous defense--or because of it--Rhian was losing the support of the local miners. Perhaps they weren't keen on the way he'd thrown Orca pilots under the bus.

In fact, Rhian wasn't interested in gaining the support of other miners. There was only one person whose opinions he cared about: Alt 00, the ganker who'd been killing him all year.

As the bridges burned all around him, Rhian remained focused on his goal. Could he ever persuade our Agent to stop ganking him?

To be continued...