June 6, 2008

CCP lead writer Tony Gonzales talks about writing a novel about the EVE universe, offers an excerpt
By Michael Lafferty

“I’ve been writing about EVE ever since I started playing the game”

The world of EVE Online is a compelling place where technology mixes with faded memories of civilization lost when humanity was swept across the galaxies and splintered. Technology was the key to survival in this world, but at its core, it is the soul of the individual that prevails against the vastness of space.

It is a compelling place; so much so, in fact, that it has led to a wealth of lore and fiction. Tony Gonzales is a lead writer at CCP, the company that develops and publishes EVE Online. On June 19, a novel from Orion Books will become available, a work based on the universe.

CCP provided this short biography of Tony:

Tony Gonzales was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1973. He graduated from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey with a BA in Political Science in 1995, and is currently enrolled at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, where he is working towards his MBA. He is a Lead Writer for CCP Games in Reykjavik, Iceland, and is the author of two EVE Online novellas, “Ruthless”, and “Theodicy.” This is his first published work. He’s been intimately connected with EVE’s storyline for quite some time, especially so in the design and realization of the EVE Online: Empyrean Age expansion.

Tony’s novel will be available primarily via Amazon UK:. It is also available via Amazon in Germany as an English novel. More information about ordering it can on the myeve site as well.

Question: How did you land the opportunity to write a book based on the EVE Universe?

Tony: I was in the right place at the right time. The company was growing rapidly in 2005, and by then I knew a few of the devs very well. I had written two novellas that the EVE community seemed to enjoy enough to convince the CCP brass that I was worth taking a chance on. Before the novellas, I was writing short stories and news articles in the volunteer program. So I guess you could say that the opportunity started years ago — I’ve been writing about EVE ever since I started playing the game.

Was it particularly hard considering that the game has a well-established world and that the players are a bit fanatical and apt to hunt you down if you step slightly out of the laws of the world?

Tony: When you put it that way, absolutely. I think it’s true for all artistic ventures that whenever you put your work out there for others to judge, not everyone will take kindly to any diversion from their own perceptions of how the medium — in this case, the EVE universe — should be presented. We tried to reconcile a lot of things — everything from the game mechanics, background story, and even discrepancies in the existing lore to advance the storyline and make it accessible to everyone, not just veteran EVE players. That reconciliation process was the hardest part of it by far.

How long have you played the game and what class do you play? What do you enjoy most about the game?

Tony: I started playing when EVE was in beta. My main character was “born” on the same day that EVE’s servers opened for business in May 2003. I have to admit, just seeing that in print is a little strange, because I can’t believe that was more than five years ago. As far as playstyle goes, I’d say the only thing I haven’t tried is pirating. I just can’t bring myself to rob anyone, not even in a virtual sense. I love science fiction, and that’s what I enjoy most about the game. EVE is as close as I’ll ever get to exploring the real universe and the stars I see in the night sky. It’s therapeutic for the imagination to let yourself go in EVE’s world and just wonder if someday, we’ll ever get “there."

What did you try to bring to the lore of the gameworld?

Tony: I tried to bring out more of the human element and give more depth to the game world. EVE players interact only with each other through ships (for now) and represent the most powerful caste of human beings in an interstellar civilization consisting of trillions of people. From that lofty perspective it’s easy to lose sight of the human story — the story about ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances, and of how anyone — no matter how rich or poor, powerful or not — can be uprooted from the illusion of their own security and transplanted into unfamiliar circumstances at any time. That’s really what the game is all about as well — no matter who you are, there’s always someone or something out there that can get the better of you.

What do you like about the world that you think makes for a compelling story?

Tony: EVE is compelling because it’s a dark universe with traces of hope everywhere throughout. Even with all that advanced technology, we still stumble and get in the way of our own humanity. There are things going on in today’s world, right now and very nearby to wherever you’re reading this, that you quite simply wouldn’t believe. Now imagine thousands of worlds, the endless cycles of good and evil, and the countless tales within. The human story will always be fascinating, but mixing it with the technology of tomorrow makes it irresistible.

Did you have to do a lot of research for the book?

Tony: Definitely, but I’d say the research was more of a “breadth” effort on many different subjects than going into depth on any one. So the research ranged  from EVE’s original backstory lore to concepts such as string theory and loop quantum gravity. Although much of what happens in EVE just doesn’t fit within the boundaries of physics as we know it today, we’re trying to connect present concepts with hypothetical innovations or possible evolutions that could “get us” to the vision of EVE. It may be science fiction, but if it raises awareness of what’s going on in science today, it’s worth the effort to make those concepts part of the EVE universe directly. You never know — the person who makes that breakthrough innovation could be playing our game right now.  

Here is an excerpt from Tony’s upcoming novel:

Chapter 10 

With his heart racing and beads of sweat dripping from his brow, young Heidan marched forward, clad head to feet in body armour that was the property of Caldari Constructions. Unarmed, he stood before the thick lead doors, while behind him dozens of fellow workers hurried to move the last of several makeshift barriers into place. Using the MTACs, they were hauling starship armour plates forward from the assembly floor and placing them in staggered ‘kill zone’ formations at the entrance. Men and women armed with weapons taken from the Constructions armoury were

moving into firing positions behind them. If any Home Guard soldiers attempted to raid the complex once the shield doors opened, they would be subject to a bloodbath first. The plan was simply to keep intruders out, taking full advantage of the fact that Tibus and his followers had no  intention of ever leaving.

A voice spoke inside Heidan’s helmet: ‘Ninety seconds.’

The young man remembered how close he had come to ending his own life, when he decided he couldn’t stand to work one more day in the complex. Tibus had found him inside his assigned habitat module, sobbing like a child and gripping the sharpened edge of a sliver of scrap metal, moments away from plunging the crude blade into his wrists.

So many others had chosen this way out. There was nothing to live for, he explained, except another day’s toil for an indifferent corporation, earning wages that could buy him nothing beyond the borders of company property. No amount of work would free him from this perpetual bondage. And for whose benefit? The corporate elite? Where was the greatness that was supposed to accompany State citizenship? What pride was there in being Caldari?

To which Heth stood before him and answered:

Greatness is compelled by the pursuit of noble ideals.

Those words marked the beginning of Heidan’s rebirth, and his resolute devotion to a cause more fulfilling to his soul than anything a corporation could offer. It was a simple matter of ego, of the basic necessity of any man to be able to provide for his family, and of the satisfaction in knowing that a day’s work was contributing to a greater purpose. Only now the Caldari elite, grown fat with the opulence of their stature, had become oblivious to those elemental needs, and in their profound greed failed to recognize the grave danger in depriving men of those very things.

‘Sixty seconds.’

They couldn’t change the Caldari State, Tibus told him. But they could draw attention to its deficiencies here, at this very place, revealing to the universe that the elite are not as powerful as they think, and that their civilization was in peril of collapsing from the weight of their gluttony. This was a noble idea worth living for, he remembered Tibus saying with clenched fists, and with it great moments worth dying for. The longer they held their ground here, the more people around the State would become empowered, reminded of the spirit of their race, the one that had survived the perils of New Eden despite facing unspeakable odds.

To take this path, Heidan knew well, was certain death. But there was nothing to lose; no one would mourn him or anyone else with the courage to take up Heth’s charge. Whether they died in a few moments or in a few decades, there would be no memory of their existence if they did nothing. This time, right now, would define them. And if it made even the slightest difference to the fate of his countrymen, it would be worth the memories of a thousand lifetimes.

‘Thirty seconds,’ Tibus said, taking over the countdown. ‘How do you feel?’

‘I’m ready,’ Heidan said nervously.

‘Every man must learn to face himself. The fear is your own doing, and it can be beaten.’

Heidan, gulped, shaking his head. ‘I’m not scared anymore, sir. This . . . is an honour. I want to do this.’

‘I know you do,’ Tibus said, taking a stern tone. ‘Remember the mission. Just walk him back here.  Do not make physical contact – he has to enter under his own power. Understood?’

Heidan focused, forcing the fear from his mind. ‘Yes, sir.’

A deep, tumbling mechanical drone broke the silence as the shield doors slowly began to open. Water from the driving rain outside began pouring in at his feet, illuminated by hundreds of floodlights shining down to capture the event.

‘We are with you,’ Tibus said, as the door cleared over him. ‘Seize this moment.’

The sheer indignity of this disgusts me, Mr Shutsu thought, stepping off the dropship’s ramp into the mud and shielding his eyes from the blaze of spotlights. Immediately, the growing mob of onlookers began jeering at him. We employ, feed, and clothe these pissants, and yet here I am, subjecting myself to their humiliating scrutiny. He could feel the gaze of a million stares upon him, both here in person and watching from all over the State as camera drones swooped in to capture the spectacle. Far ahead in the distance, the great shield doors beyond the sentry towers were opening to allow a tiny, insignificant spec to emerge. If it was Tibus Heth, then it would be the last journey of his pathetic life, as the penalty for these outrageous crimes would be nothing less than death.

Roaring in unison, the crowd erupted into a chant: ‘Heth! Heth! Heth!’, fuelling the rage that Mr Shutsu was now struggling to control.

Ungrateful bastards, he thought, pausing besides the two formations of Home Guard soldiers. We’ll see how they feel about their hero once he’s dead.

The rain, pouring down in sheets, was cascading over the hulk of a towering combat MTAC.

Glancing upwards, he could see the visored face of its pilot staring down at him.

The Home Guard field commander approached him. ‘Sir, the snipers are watching for your signal,’ he said. ‘Heth will probably make you take off that earpiece before he says anything. Comply with him – if you raise both hands over your head, we’ll know to open fire. Understand?’

Mr Shutsu nodded, taking his first steps towards the dark figure ahead.

‘Remember, you’re perfectly safe out there,’ the commander reassured. ‘Once we take him down, we’ll secure your safety and then storm the complex. Good luck.’

There goes my sacrificial offering, Tibus marvelled, watching Heidan approach the Constructions CEO from the relative safety of the armour fortifications. This young, pure Caldari soul, whom I place upon the altar of change. It would be disappointing if they failed to kill him on the spot, as

Tibus well expected them to do. Our race needs to see spilt blood to understand what’s at stake, to understand that we are great no more. Now was the time, after countless sleepless nights, training and retraining these beleaguered workers underneath the very noses of their corporate masters, convincing them that this coup could work, and that they could taste what power really was, instead of reeling in oppressive dread of it.

Tibus paused to consider if he should regret the bloodshed that was about to ensue, questioning for a moment if this display of defiance was worth the heavy price about to be paid.

This is the way of things, he remembered being taught, as the two men approached each other in the open. To kill in the name of survival is merely the guiding hand of nature herself.

Mr Shutsu approached the shadowy figure, now just several meters away.

‘Mr Heth, I presume?’ he called out.

‘That’s right,’ a voice called. ‘Let’s take this indoors.’

The faintest beginnings of recognition began to take shape in Mr Shutsu’s brain. Just a little bit closer, he thought. All I need is a good look at his eyes . . .

Growing louder by the moment, the crowd’s frenzied chanting of ‘Heth! Heth!’ overtook the sound of driving rain.

And then the moment of clarity arrived, as he recognized before him the same eyes that appeared in the boardroom. This was his man, and as would a god, he would strike him down in a vengeful fury.

It was his hands that marked the beginning of the end, the way the Constructions CEO suddenly raised both of them over his head and jumped away from where he was standing. Puzzled momentarily, there was a flash from the direction of the Home Guard dropship, and then an

abrupt view of the dark, roiling clouds above. Barely aware of the gurgling, sucking noise coming from his chest, Heidan’s view of the world began to fade away.

The reddish-white mist hung in the saturated air for what seemed like an eternity, captured by dozens of cameras nearby. To the millions of people watching, there was no question of what had just happened.

For an instant, the grounds surrounding the western gates of the Constructions Armour Forge went silent. It was the final calm before the storm of the century was unleashed.

Heidan’s body had barely touched the ground when the Home Guard infantry units, flanked on either side with combat MTACs, began charging towards the gate. But the enraged mob, now numbering in the thousands, began selflessly throwing themselves into the electrical barrier erected by the Constructions guards.

‘Sir, should we close the doors?’ shouted a worker. Eyeing the soldiers charging towards his position, Tibus was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of duty, and of a compelling obligation to rescue the man whom he had wilfully sacrificed.

‘No!’ he shouted, hobbling to a nearby cargo MTAC. ‘You! Get out of there and grab a rifle!’

‘Yes, sir!’ the stunned operator responded, leaping down from the machine. Tibus pulled himself inside and strapped into the controls.

‘One hundred and fifty metres!’ another worker yelled, just as the first plasma rounds began hitting the barriers. ‘Permission to return fire, sir?’

‘As soon as I get clear!’ Tibus shouted before closing the hatch. Then he used the MTAC’s mechanical arms to hoist up a section of starship armour plating, holding it in front of the vehicle’s torso like a shield.

‘What the hell is he doing?’ someone demanded, ducking behind the barrier as more charges screamed overhead.

Tibus couldn’t hear him, as he urged the mechanical beast to advance as fast as it could go in the direction of Heidan’s dying body, rotating the armour plating towards the advancing infantry and using it to fend off a barrage of small arms fire.

‘Finish him!’ Mr Shutsu shouted, looking over his shoulder at the lone MTAC charging towards the felled bastard he had left behind. ‘Kill the both of them!’

The Home Guard infantry units running alongside of him ignored his request. ‘Keep moving forward, sir, we have to get you to safety!’  

An eruption of squawking radios suddenly broadcast a dire warning:

‘They’re through! Home Guard, we need help! The barriers are down, we can’t hold back all these people —’

The Constructions guard never finished his sentence, and Mr Shutsu saw a flood of rabid workers pour through the barriers and begin a frenzied charge towards them.

The muddy surface was as much a blessing as it was a curse, slowing everyone down but also making everything an easier target to hit. The cargo MTAC piloted by Tibus, never designed to operate in these terrain conditions, was labouring as each leg sank into the muck by as much as a metre per step. Hazardous as that was, the lack of mobility was the least of his problems.

Without an electronic sensor system to provide him with a tactical view of the battlefield, he was blind to the shifting dangers beyond the armour plating extended to his left side.

When he was just a dozen metres from reaching Heidan, a volley of rockets fired from a Home Guard MTAC struck the armour plating. The series of powerful explosions, timed just milliseconds apart, knocked the cargo MTAC onto its side in a violent crash. Though shielded from the searing heat of the blasts, the concussive effects were not entirely absorbed by the plating or the minimal protection offered by the cockpit.

Stunned and temporarily deafened, Tibus released his safety harness and pulled himself out of the vehicle, staggering towards Heidan.

In a surreal moment destined to become the birth of legends, Tibus knelt down in the mud and hoisted the mortally wounded man onto his shoulders. Battered and bleeding, he began to limp back towards the shielding doors of the complex as quickly as he could.

The Home Guard field commander, perched in the cockpit of his combat MTAC, recognized the deteriorating situation and reassigned priorities, ignoring the smoking ruins of the toppled machine and focusing on the problem of riot control. The combat MTACs were equipped with acoustic beam projectors, which emitted non-lethal but powerful blasts of high-pitched sound waves guaranteed to repel and disorient anyone with unprotected ears within range.

Calling off the infantry attack on the complex, the MTACs activated the projectors, arcing them across the advancing mobs and herding them back towards the breaches in the fencing. Impervious to the noise, the soldiers assigned to Mr Shutsu tried in vain to protect the man’s ears, but to no avail. He writhed and screamed, as did every other unprotected person within range of the device, desperate to do anything possible to escape from the maddening shrill.

Seizing the opportunity, Tibus Heth’s compatriots emerged from their barriers in MTACs and on foot, meeting up with the maimed duo out in the open and hurriedly transporting them back to safety. As the shielding doors began to close, Home Guard soldiers assisted the remaining Constructions guards with repairing the fence and retaking ground lost to the rioting workers.

Silently, the Home Guard field commander acknowledged that they had failed in their mission. There would be dire consequences, but he was still relieved with this outcome. In his entire career as a soldier, he never imagined a day when he would be ordered to slaughter Caldari citizens.

Heidan was rushed to the infirmary inside the complex. In the presence of captured Constructions guards recovering from the initial assault, medics tried desperately to revive the young worker.

But life had long since departed his shattered body. They had just closed the man’s eyelids when Tibus entered the room. His expression, hopeful at first, quickly changed to sternness as he observed the medics.

The body armour worn by Heidan was discarded on the floor alongside his gurney. Tibus lifted the bloody remnants up and hobbled towards the Constructions guards, waving it as he spoke.

‘Corp-issued nanofibre composite, correct?’

The guard, handcuffed to his own gurney, nodded.

‘All of you have been wearing this,’ Tibus growled, holding it up. A gaping hole was evident in the front and back of the vest. ‘Nanofibre composite can stop a high-powered sniper round. This vest didn’t. Do you know why?’

The guard shook his head.

Tibus tossed the tattered remnants onto his lap. ‘Because it’s not what you think it is. Or rather, not what you were told it was.’

Using his free hand, the guard inspected the armour. His face was ashen pale, and Tibus wouldn’t take his stare off of him.

‘You want to share your thoughts with us?’ he asked.

Running his hand along the inside of the armour, the guard spoke.

‘They told us these had trauma membrane linings on the inside,’ he said. ‘Adrenaline, universal blood coagulants, bio-nano sealants . . . stuff that might have saved Heidan’s life. This was filled with something else.’

‘You were always a dead man walking,’ Tibus muttered. The blood dripping from cuts on his face and scalp made him look like a ferocious warrior. ‘All of us were.’

‘Not anymore,’ the guard answered, meeting Tibus’s stare. ‘Not if my allegiance is to you, sir.’

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