Jirai Laitanen and Korako Kosakami, today better
known by the nicknames they gave themselves: Fatal and the Rabbit, began
their careers as promising space ship captains in the 37th (Octopus)
Squadron of the Caldari Navy. Laitanen was a shrewd and gifted captain,
with a glib tongue and charismatic smile. Many expected him to reach
a position of authority in the end. But he was also vain and greedy;
traits that led to his eventual desertion. Kosakami was much more introvert
than his friend Laitanen, but he had a brilliant mind and was a technical
wizard.
When, in the space of one week, Laitanen was passed over for promotion
and Kosakami was blamed for a lethal crash landing, the two friends
decided to desert. They stole a couple of Condor-class frigates, the
same they still use today, and set off to a pirate-infested sector between
Caldari and Gallente space. This took place a decade ago.
It didn't take long for them to establish themselves among the criminal
society and few months after their arrival they'd set up their own criminal
organization, called the Guristas, which is an amalgamation of two Caldari
words meaning 'naughty people' and is also a slang term for 'gang'.
The Guristas are famous for their raids into civilized territory, something
that very few pirate clans are willing or able to do. The mission of
these raids is most often simply to steal cargo or passengers (for ransom)
from freighters, but on numerous occasions their main intention seems
to be to sabotage empire installations (mining facilities, sentry guns,
and the like). This has led to speculations that some unscrupulous empire
companies or even governments are hiring the Guristas to take out property
of the competition.
But by far the most celebrated of the Gurista raids was when they kidnapped
the Gallentean ambassador to the Caldari State and received an enormous
ransom from his family. The kidnapping itself was a brilliant feat and
clearly demonstrated that Fatal and the Rabbit were far from being the
stereotypical brainless brats that most people regarded pirates to be.
Ambassador Luecin Rileau, son of the diamond-king Darouen Rileau, had
only one noticeable vice, and that was gambling. His gambling fascination
was probably the main reason why he had sought to become the Gallentean
ambassador to the Caldari State, a notoriously tricky position. Ambassador
Rileau frequented the Grand Tiegjon Casino on Tiegjon Station in the
Caldari system of Vellaine. It was there that Fatal and the Rabbit struck.
The two of them docked at the station under in disguise. The Rabbit
(Kosakami) stayed behind in the ship while Fatal (Laitanen) entered
the casino. Fatal involved himself in a game of Pettokori, a popular
electro-board gambling game, which Rileau was participating in. In the
course of the game, Fatal deliberately lost money to the ambassador
and finally, when he'd run out of money, Fatal offered his ship to the
ambassador. The ambassador accepted and proceeded to win the game. Fatal
offered to show the ambassador his newly won ship and Rileau, accompanied
by several bulky bodyguards, accepted.
But while the game was underway the Rabbit had been busy. He rigged
the boarding ramp to the ship with tanks filled with sleeping gas. Needless
to say, when the ambassador and his bodyguards entered the boarding
ramp, they were promptly put to sleep. Ambassador Rileau was then carried
into the ship and Fatal and the Rabbit innocently left the station.
It was only when another ship docked in the same berth an hour later
and discovered the boarding ramp full of snoring bodyguards that the
alarm was raised, but by then the kidnappers were long gone.
The Gallente Federation was unable to apprehend the culprits and in
the end the ambassador's family paid a huge ransom in uncut diamonds
to the Guristas. All this drama received a great deal of media attention
and even if Fatal and the Rabbit relished the attention for a time,
in the end it only hampered them. Being the most notorious criminal
in the world of EVE has a downside, mainly that traveling around is
not as easy as it used to be. This has forced the Guristas to lay low
for the past few months.
