I pulled my Abaddon up next to the secure anchored container, targeted the massive veldspar asteroid and set my bank of mining lasers on full power. Then I sat back and waited for my cargo hold, made considerably larger by the cargo expansion modifications I had made, to fill up. I primed my digital cigarette and relaxed… I was going to be here for quite a while.

Meanwhile, less than a kilometer off sat several mining barges, tearing through asteroids at a pace that made my bank of eight mining lasers look like a waste of time, and a group of industrials sat like hawks, 160 km above us, waiting to swoop in, collect the ore and ferry it back to the corporate offices.

I mentally reassured my ship, which didn’t particularly care. “It’s okay girl, we’re helping the corp. We owe them a lot. I promise, after this we’ll put the guns back on and go shoot things all day long.”

“Hold nearing capacity,” came over my internal com. I gave the order for my cargo drones to transfer the ore to the external container. It was going to be a long night.

I spent several hours sitting in the asteroid field with the miners, tearing apart rocks and chatting in the local coms. To be honest, it was refreshing. Running security one can become overly serious. Conversations inevitably become very similar to interrogations: where? how long ago? who? how many? It was good to chat with people on a more personal level, as capusleers, instead of charges under my protection. They were all good people, they had families, dreams, ambitions.

After five hours in the field, there were no rocks left to mine, and I and the remaining retriever turned our slow hulls toward home to dock up. The corp coms reported our earinings: several million isk for the corporation and several million for my part in the operation. It was apparently a great success. I declined my cut, I made enough isk on my own endeavors, and saw no point to taking pay for the operation. I had my nav computer set a course for my home station in Pimebeka.

I left with a renewed sense of duty. In all my years as a military pilot, as a privateer, as a mercenary, I had only ever been charged with defending – or destroying – assets. Here, in this small budding corporation, I was responsible for defending people.

The difference was astonishing.