Personal Diary: January 21st, year 115

Today some demented Blood Raider was bragging about how he'd make food out of people on The Summit. And it reminded me that I've never actually gotten down to writing what happened with them so long ago. As hard as writing this words may be, I believe it is something I need to do now.

I was on my second year in the Navy back then, year 104, a fresh cadet working under the orders of Templar Liuteneant Anna Mirth, commonly known as "The Hound". Since fourteen months before I had been placed under her command in the Military Intelligence unit she led, and we usually went around scanning, exploring and doing military reconaissance before the main combat fleets of the Navy. We were scouting in the Bleak Lands' border with the Empire, in Iesa to be precise, but the wars hadn't started back then and the Minmatarr were only launching small time raids of "freedom fighters" to release slaves. They were not our target.

Contradicting reports gathered by the Navy Intelligence suggested that the area held a hidden POS run by the Sani Sabik, from where they were launching raids against traders and belt miners. They controlled the Bleak Lands mostly back then, as the Empire wouldn't clear them from there until year 107, but tensions had been piling up against Omir Sarikusa. Templar Liuteneant Mirth had been assigned the task to scout those systems with her squad and confirm or deny such a possibility. It should have been a piece of cake, but it was not.

As soon as we warped to the first planet in Iesa and started scanning, a full combat fleet of the Raiders fell upon us. Almost like they were specting us. We fought as hard as we could, but we were overrun without really having any chance of doing anything. Most of the squad died in the first three minutes of combat, including the Templar Liuteneant. Three of us were hit but not destroyed, they just crippled our ships and disabled them before taking us "into custody".

I was... Well, I...

Can't do it. I can't write what happened then. I guess I'm not ready. Let's just say it took the Imperial Navy four days to find and release us three, and those were the longest days of my life. I saw things... I was done things... I...

Let's just say that, if I still hate the Sabik now, it is due to a lot of good, painful and disgusting reasons. But, most of all, to the unshakeable terror that still assaults me sometimes at night and prevents me from sleeping. I have fought the Nation, the Republic, the Serpentis and Angel cartels, pirates, terrorists, the Minmatarr militia... but all of those are just targets, enemies to take down following orders. Some even deserve a certain amount of recognition.

But, when it comes to the Raiders, there can be no mercy, there can be no tolerance, there can be no understanding. With them, it's personal. And it wasn't enough to kick them out of the Bleak Lands.