"...if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
Karen spilled out of the clone bay in 1DQ, vomited and lay shivering on the floor. She was crying. She had been travelling to Cabeki to look at the location as a source of isogen for corporation projects. The plan was to try and find a good space to operate from that was not too far from 1DQ but afforded some freedom for high sec partners to join the team. A corporate associate had friends there. Hence the scouting mission. She had wanted Uldizo to do the run but he was setting up a cyno for Ekloke’s jump freighter. Abby was working on some science projects. And Mori was on a strategic op with Mist.
She had been careful, making sure she did not warp directly to gates. Taking time to scan them wherever possible in advance. Nothing could have prepared her for a cloaked Rokh sitting on the Goudiyah gate out of Baratar. The usual cheap ganker, to be expected really. For many this kind of death is pretty routine in New Eden. Gankers like to sit in the hope of catching
For Karen pod death was never a good experience. Something was wrong, very wrong. Every time she had been pod killed something happened to her in the spaces in between.
It always started with the darkness. Floating in darkness, suspended in the black, caught between New Eden and somewhere else. The first time she died it just seemed unusual that there was a delay before she woke. The next time she felt something grasping at her ankles and legs. A hand or tentacles slowly reaching around her ankles. The next time it was a full blown attack, she felt cloying slime, a tightening grip around her body, holding her from rebirth. Each time she died it took longer for her to wake up.
This time was worse, much worse. She saw herself surrounded by crushing tentacles, grasping, holding her, and tearing her limb from limb. A voice deep and dark inside her head.
Then, a sudden whiteness fading, she woke up rolled onto her side on the floor. A new clone. It was some time before she moved from her cold, shuddering poise. The memory. The horror, the claustrophobic, cloying, grasping crush was still there. It was, of course, technically impossible to have a ‘memory’ from ‘in between’ and yet there it was. The tightness gripping her, tearing her limb from limb.
Worse still, she had to go back.
Her new clone felt strange, alien, almost roomy. Worse, in fact, it was voluptuous, long wavy hair, almost Gallente.
“Ugh, for the love of …..what is wrong?” Karen got up slowly, looked around, caught sight of a strange looking woman in the mirror and awkwardly went to the shower. The clone remould would have to wait. She had promised to scout the pocket for the corporation. A few hours later she was back down the pipe towards the system beyond Baratar making note of stations and the location of allies. She compiled her report for Dan and returned home.
She returned to 1DQ and started to research the next manifest for the corporation builds but couldn’t focus. The flashbacks kept coming, much, much worse this time. She turned to her neocom and started to browse Pod Technology. Something was very wrong.
The history of the capsule and it’s link to the clone proved interesting reading, there was history of things going wrong. Sure this was a long time ago and reports of problems with the current technology were few and far between. But there are risks associated with cloning and it certainly is possible that something is malfunctioning with her tech. If something can go wrong with technology, as it did in the Peralles incident then perhaps clone technology was equally problematic? Karen took some more time browsing the information on pod technology and decided that she needed to go speak to someone at the Ishukone Corporation. This would mean a trip to high sec.
This is what he had been waiting for, a large scale battle with capital ships, a structure to kill and some glory fighting in New Eden. He had chosen the Onathura for this fight. A sleek Oneiros with a Serpentis coating, it had already served him and his crew well in the early skirmishes for this deployment.
Mori was in the Onathura tingling with anticipation. This was his first major deployment since the FI.RE coalition days where they fought a mostly out numbered, rear-guard guerrilla campaign against his new Allies the Goonswarm Federation. It’s funny how allegiances shift in New Eden. Cosmos felt the betrayal of FI.RE by Pandemic Horde particularily hard. It was time for some payback.
The Onathura.
Karen’s passivism was rubbing off on him. He was not so keen to be shooting things and had started to appreciate the kind of work that support does in a fleet. He enjoyed keeping people alive for longer, making a fleet hard to break, driving the opposition to despair. Logistics had grown on him over the past few months. Especially in the Onathura, there was no need for cap chains, no need for any extra support. She had borne the brunt of more than a few scrapes so far. The fit was a standard GSF fit with no frills.
The previous days had seen Goons pushing to break the cyno jammer in x47, but they had failed to do this. Mori had felt the tension behind this moment, from the day Pandemic Horde had backstabbed FI.RE, finally he had a chance to fight back. The extraction from Immensea had been weary and challenging. Taking weeks along with Ekloke, Karen and Abby. Harassed all the way by Pandemic Horde and neutrals, they had lost a lot of stuff, but they had made it, finally arriving in 1DQ exhausted and anxious. Since then, life had settled down. Goonswarm had turned out to be a completely different place to live. Everyone was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and warmth of their welcome. Karen and Abby immediately threw themselves into corporation projects, building Mackinaws and Occators for Ekloke to move and sell. Ekloke started trading in and out of 1DQ. Mori had been running in the Strategic fleets, getting used to a different pace, getting to know new friends.
He snapped out of his reverie, would Goonswarm attack a Keepstar with no ability to Cyno in Cap support? If they did, surely they would be driven off? Whatever the case, he was going to be there. The ping went out for the Tempest Fleet Issue doctrine.
“Yes!” Mori rushed to find the fleet and applied to join. The time had come. The Onathura was primed and ready.
Fleet chat was full of excitement, we were really going to do this. It took some time before everything was ready and the command to undock arrived. The Journey to X47 was already planned by the Fleet Commanders and so went very smoothly. The closer they got to the destination the more blue fleets along with a few red scouts could be seen in local and in the immediate vicinity.
“Check your stations, everyone is coming to this party.” Mori issued the command.
The crew also anticipating that something big was about to happen, stood in awe as the fleets around them grew and grew. Mori checked the Onathura’s systems, rechecked them, twitching in his pod with nervous anticipation. One system out and other fleets were already here. Like giant shoals of fish, spinning and weaving through space.
“Check yours systems folks. Emergency evac drill in ten.” Mori had been with this crew for a few years now, he did not like losing people, especially since this team were good at what they did. His consciousness extended out through the ship, listening, looking for signs of weakness. Nothing. They were steady, ripe with anticipation.
“System check complete.” The ship captain responded from the bridge.” Mori smiled inside. Efficient as always.
Mori triggered the emergency signal. The crew immediately left their positions, got to their escape pods and hit buttons to open their respective doors. All but one.
“Midshipman Vanir Alrekmur report to your escape pod.” Mori scanned the ship for the Minmatar citizen locating him moving quickly along a corridor well away from his escape pod.
“Apologies Captain, I was looking for my……..”
“It doesn’t matter what it was because you would be dead now.” Mori’s voice was tense.
Outside the Onathura space seethed with Tempest Fleet issues, Oneiros’, an assortment of ‘boosting’ ships and various small tackle. Boosting ships were known as such because they had the ability to release ‘nanites’ that could spread throughout the fleet enhancing various attributes of those fleet members in range, for example, enhancing reload speeds or improving armour resists. Fleet commanders would frequently give commands to have boosts “up” or “down”. “Up” usually meant a fight was anticipated, “down” meant either the fleet was about to jump into a fight, or the fight was over and the fleet was running for cover. Boosts were known because they would set a timer for the ship and pilot such that gates would lock them out because such an act was considered an act of aggression. Right now the boosts were down.
“Midshipman Alrekmur if we survive the fight I want you to report to the bridge.” Captain Veroga Gikar spoke through comms to Vanir.
“I am sorry Captain, it won’t happen again.” Alrekmur was at his station looking embarrassed.
“Do you mind me asking what exactly it was you had lost?” Gikar was looking at Alrekmur through a digital image. The slight figure motioned to a bag at his feet.
“I had forgotten to bring by toolkit Sir. I am sorry Sir. I have it now.”
“Alrekmur you do realise you are responsible for keeping the remote armour repair systems working?” The Onathura had three Large Solace Scoped repairers and a Medium Ancillary Remote Armor repairer. These systems were mission critical for the coming fight and if they went down many lives could be lost. This did not inspire much confidence in Gikar.
“Sir, yes. I know I am sorry Sir.” He remained motionless at his station. Truth be told, if a black hole could have opened up for him he would have been delighted. The Seibestor hated being the focus of attention. But he was usually so competent.
Gikar switched to private comms. “Are you OK Vanir?”
“Maam yes. Maam. I am just nervous.”
“We all are Vanir, but we have to be on point. Lives depend on us.” The Captain knew it was important to support her crew at times like this. There was little to be gained from further humiliation.
“I know Maam. I won’t let you or Mori down. I promise.” Vanir started to run a systems check on the remote armour repairers she could see from the data passing through her console that he was working very very fast indeed. With a loud thud and swoosh the ship jumped into X47. The sight on the other side had the whole of the Onathura awestruck.
Fleet clusters sitting cross bubbles in X47. Source: Courtesy of CCP Aperture.
The sight in X47 was dumbfounding to someone who had never seen anything on this scale before. Hundreds of warp disruption bubbles clouded the sky. Fleets appeared as small clusters of ships in the distance, there was at least twenty of them. Boosts could be seen spiralling out and around each fleet as they moved through space. At times the numbers of capsule pilots and their crew in and around the keep star numbered upwards on four to five thousand. All being moved around on a very large chess board.
On entering the system the fleet warped to a ‘perch’ sitting high above the gate where everyone waited for further instructions.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is going to be our job to keep pressure on that Keep star, that means we are in the Vanguard. We will lose many of you but your job is to return to DO6, reship and come back. We must not fail.” Apple Pear’s voice was calm.
Apple Pear
Mori felt a strong burst of adrenalin as the command to align to the keep star appeared in fleet comms. In unison two hundred and fifty ships swung towards the keep star.
“This is it folks. Focus, we are hear to keep people alive.”
“Karen you don’t have to breathe you are in a pod.”
Karen was twisting and turning in her pod. The ships crew stood and watched helplessly as the ships instruments went crazy.
“She needs to catch herself before we are all killed.” The flying officer remarked as he watched the instrument panel.
“Karen you can do this.” Abby’s voice was calm and steady.
They were running the gauntlet into 1DQ from Efa. This involved, as always a scout, in this instance Abby running ahead in a shuttle. It required timing. The shuttle jumps through each system staying within one jump of the Deep Space Transport. Abby had done this many times for Ekloke whose precision and timing was flawless. But unfortunately Ekloke was not around and they needed to move the low security space ore to the production line in PS-94K. Karen was fine in a blockade runner, the risk was minimal, but ever since the ‘incident’ in Alakgur with Gay Pride Booooom she had not been right. She had only lost four pods in her career but each time she had come back she was more reserved, more introverted.
“Just take your time. It is easy when you do it, hit align, then cloak and microwarpdrive then as the microwarpdrive cycle ends uncloak and hit warp. Align, Cloak, MWD, Cloak and Warp.” Abby was on the out gate in Efa waiting to jump into 3-FKCZ. Anyone could come through the gate at any moment, the pause stretched out into the void. Then a crackle.
“I am warping, I did it! I did it!”
Abby jumped through to 3-FKCZ and checked local. “It’s clear, I am warping to the out gate jump in when you arrive.” She hit warp, the shuttle aligned and was gone. Meanwhile Karen and her crew where heading to the 3-FKCZ gate in Efa. Karen was shaking, the adrenalin rush making her extremely agitated. She watched the distance close as the Gommorra shuddered its way through warp. It landed on the gate she took a deep breath as it jumped into Null. Abby meanwhile jumped through the Ansiplex into 8BO-IH. Local was clear.
“OK Karen come to me. Align, Cloak, MWD, Cloak and Warp.”
Silence.
More silence.
“Kar….”
“On my way.”
Abby breathed a sigh of relief and hit warp. Time to get rolling. The jumps started to take on a rhythm of their own, Abby running ahead carefully checking local and Karen getting into warp, starting to ease into the Journey. It was when Abby hit YQX that everything changed.
“I don’t, I don’t Abby what am I going to do? I can’t do this I caaaa…..”
“Shut up Karen and listen. Look around you. Do you see the outgate?”
“Yes.” Karen responded quietly.
“OK there is a station nearby isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“Dock up. I will keep eyes on these guys. You get safe.”
Adam Yule > MKD-O8 PsyBlade Mailly Gaterau > 1M4-FK G Munkee Mailly Gaterau > Stiletto Deresh Dovid Elkhavar > L-6BE1 PsyBlade Abby Talia > YQX-7U CN hanxs M2018M retribution flycatcher and interdiction probe Mailly Gaterau > 1M4-FK clr Deresh Dovid Elkhavar > L-6BE1 G Munkee PsyBlade stiletto loki Zeri Hamu > Anyone know the status of Ashmarir from Arzanni? Deresh Dovid Elkhavar > L-6BE1 clr Adam Yule > MKD-O8 G Munkee PsyBlade Kooter Farmer > G Munkee GOP-GE Eddie Achasse > GOP-GE G Munkee stargank > Martin Conrad K7D-II Abby Talia > YQX-7U CN hanxs M2018M Retri, Flycatcher Olakin Rethman > Martin Conrad normally flys a kiki Abby Talia > YQX-7U CN hanxs M2018M looks like they moved to a gate – be careful Abby Talia > YQX-7U clr
“Okay Karen, Undock and get into YQX before these asshats come back.”
Silence. Abby warped to 8-YNBE. “Karen…….”
“I am in warp, fuuuck Abby how could I have forgotten the nullifier? I am so sorrrry.”
“It’s okay.” It wasn’t.
“I am approaching the gate.”
“YQX is clear jump in.” Abby jumped through into 8-Y. It was clear.
“Karen you are good to go.” Come through.
They completed the next five jumps to PS-9 and delivered the isogen, nocxium, tritanium, pyerite and cadmium for the next corporation project. After a short break Abby persuaded Karen to take the three jumps to 1DQ to get that nullifier. Once it was fitted they flew back to Efa in a very uneventful journey. Karen’s confidence had improved to the point where not even a neutral in local stopped her warping to the station. The plan was to resume mining once more to secure the remaining Isogen and nocxium. But Mr Gillis wasn’t moving.
Clearly a scout. Never left the starter corporations for pod pilots. Karen looked up zkill to see what, if anything he had been involved. What she saw worried her.
Even more worrying was that his MO was big kills against Brave Collective. Brave had recently evacuated the north after years of pressure from PANFAM the biggest coalition in the game. PANFAM had wanted more space to rent, or so it seemed. Whatever the case there would be no mining this evening. Karen, Abby, and little Uldizo would be hanging out here for the time being, just to keep an eye on Mr Gillis.
It was several hours before local expanded. Many of these characters with red tickers. Einherjar Khamsi Eutectic Reaction Floki Khamsi Handsome Jacob John Vaille katalysator Tadaruwa Miko Li Obi-Twan Kenobi Peter Gillis Siliun Vaille Twan to Undercovernuke
All working for various corporations in Solyaris Chtonium hunting the simple minded with bling to take.
Karen had no idea where the Netherlands was nor had she heard of the ‘Dutch Legions’ before, they looked dangerous enough. Certainly capable of parting a pod pilot from their expensive modules. She showed Abby her findings, boarded her DST and Undocked. The plan was to sit on the undock and see if she could catch a DSCAN of the ships in local. Before long she was rewarded with this:
She pinged this to Abby who opened up the Querious intel channel.
Abby Talia > Efa https://dscan.info/v/fd9aac47870c Einherjar Khamsi Floki Khamsi Handsome Jacob John Vaille ++ Valkhir > Badivefi Twan II Neechi HollanderDanny Hans-Gustav Mayerling > K-YI1L Keraka <- Heron
Adirim > A-ELE2 +7 Lucuis Castus > Atraxy KEJY-U* Lucuis Castus > Hidden Rorshach KEJY-U* Yalla-Habibi > Atraxy , Hidden Rorshach (Gnosis) – KEJY-U Yalla-Habibi > srry, not gnosis, Drake Navy Yalla-Habibi > KEJY-U ESS linked Ray Stelar > Efa that fleet is blops probably Abby Talia > yeah be warned Yalla-Habibi > Atraxy bifrost Karen Sokarad > Efa Arthe Babaganoush III Einherjar Khamsi Floki Khamsi Handsome Jacob John Vaille +6 Valkhir > Badivefi Twan II Neechi HollanderDanny two more blobs Karen Sokarad > +2 more in Bav Karen Sokarad > Yeah Valkhir > Peter Gillis was their dropper have not seen him yet though Eutectic Reaction > Peter Gillis is in Efa Eutectic Reaction > will likely be a buzzard^ Karen Sokarad > Peter Gillis yes spotted him earlier he is still in Efa Abby Talia > Efa https://dscan.info/v/fd9aac47870c Blops fleet still here Blavish > 14 neuts in Efa , droppers with cyno Peter Gillis Alexandru Groner > H-4R6Z Peter Gillis Eutectic Reaction > Peter Gillis left efa Eutectic Reaction > Efa clear Jackson Tokila > 3-FKCZ clr Karen Sokarad > Peter Gillis on zkill : https://zkillboard.com/character/2120923742/ Kremner > Yea they dropped me 😦 Karen Sokarad > Efa clr Lady Siftt > H-4R6Z +20 blops/T3C Lady Siftt > Obi-Twan Kenobi Saints Sasen > YF-6L1 ecarus
There was not much more they could do. Uldizo was keen to go out again but they just could not persuade Karen to leave the station. She clone jumped out to join the Corp operation that evening. Efa was quiet once more. Later Abby was browsing Peter Gillis zkillboard feed and realised that they had already had their kill:
Karen caught a shuttle across PS-94K to the Reactions structure to see what else was needed for the build. Looking at the manifest she pinged Abby that they needed:
10 Malachite Cytoserocin 10 Lime Cytoserocin 10 Vermillion Cytoserocin 24 Viral Agent 10 Azure Cytoserocin and some 24 Supertensile Plastics. She located a load of preservation seals in 1DQ as well and pinged them over to Abby on contract.
“Do you mind picking these up for me please?”
“Sure.” Pinged back the reply.
Abby got up from her desk, initiated Goonswarm security channels for Delve and initiated her SMT map overlay. The map sprung into life. All of the systems in delve were mapped out in two dimensions with links between each system where the gates were connected. She could see that there were plenty of alerts already for the time of day. She was heading to 1DQ which was only three jumps but still risky enough. This is why she was using her deep space transport ‘Othrunda’.
She went down to the bay where the ship is located and quickly checked that everything was okay. Once the checks were complete the ship slowly left the docking bay and exited the station. PS- 94K was fairly quiet in local. She aligned the ship to 39P checked the map alerts, everything seemed fine, nothing within 7 jumps. She hit warp.
The trick with a deep space transport, everyone knows, is to align and cloak simultaneously whilst waiting for the ship to gather speed from the Microwarpdrive pulse. In this instance Abby aligned to the anti-Plex that connected 39P to MO-G and hit warp just as the micro warp drive cycle was about to finish. The ship hit warp immediately just as it de-cloaked. Learning this had been a fundamental skill for living in 0.0 space. This and the combination of intel along with the SMT tool reduced the risk of running into gate camps significantly. It wasn’t completely safe but the risk was greatly reduced. Using this method Abby was able to get to 1DQ with relative ease.
Everything in 1DQ seemed to go well until it became obvious that the market was out of Vermillion Cytoserocin and Azure Cytoserocin. Such is the way. Abby settled in to wait at the station, she was going to be here for some time. She pinged Ekloke.
“1DQ out of Vermillion and Azure Cytoserocin, could be an opportunity for you?”
As she was heading towards a favourite restaurant in the keep star she received a ping back.
“Okay let me get in touch with my associate, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” Such is the way.
Builds always require time. The golden rule of building ships is never to be in a hurry. If you hurry you can lose billions of ISK. You will not do the necessary scouting, or you will undock at a hub with too much cargo and get ganked. Never rush! This was a relatively easy acquisition, in the past the team had to face all sorts of difficulties just to build a few mining barges in 0.0. They were yet to lose anything significant but it had not been easy. There were times when the blockade runners had almost been destroyed.
Ekloke looked at the market data coming out of high sec. The market in Domain was not much more expensive than The Forge for both those gasses he pinged ‘The Associate’.
“Pick us up Vermillion and Azure Cytoserocin from Domain if you could please. I will rendezvous at the usual location.” He sent through an order for some further items and got up from his desk. He needed to go on a short trip. He boarded ‘Orlana’ in the dock, did a quick systems check and undocked. He opened up then map and initiated his SMT overlay. Then he initialised each of the relevant security channels. He set the ship to align to the out gate and watched the channels and the map for any activity. Once he was sure he had as clear a path as he could expect he hit warp and was gone.
In high sec The Associate was already on the way to their destination. This was going to be a quick job for their friend. New Eden works like this. Most of the economy operates on a patronage system. Capsuleer’s trade ships for favours and frequently provide material to each other for free in the understanding that the favour will be repaired at a later date. Ekloke had provided The Associate with the use of a very expensive ship and in exchange they were available for him whenever he called. They went to the trade hub, scooped up the gas for a reasonable price and headed to the rendezvous point.
Meanwhile Ekloke was leaving Delve on his way to high sec. as he travelled the security channels buzzed in the map led up around him. There were no neutrals in local and nothing seemed to get in his way as he travelled. It did not take very long to get to the rendezvous point. When he arrived in the station he settled in to the local coffee shop waiting for The Associate to arrive.
He had an excellent view outside of the station and watched as her blockade runner uncloaked at the docking point before she docked. He waited for the associate to come to the coffee room. She smiled cheerfully.
“Hey! How have you been?”
“Good!” He smiled. “Trade is good, and we are much more secure than Immensea.”
“That’s good.” She had been helping supply the team in their efforts to resupply the FI.RE coalition and that had been a tough ask. Getting stuff in and out of that area of null was a logistical nightmare. This was however a piece of cake.
“How have you been?”
“I’m good, high sec remains as crazy as ever. There is a lot of activity on the pipe right now.” The Associate operated a very patient approach to trade between Jita and Amarr. Takeing the back routes, avoiding Gankers and making ISK in the process. Ekloke had operated the same route before moving to Null. “I have paused trading. You know how it is these Gankers eventually get bored, you just have to be patient and give them no ‘content’.”
He smiled. Ekloke had prided himself in always being able to deliver courier contracts on time as well as having never lost a Freighter. Mostly because he was careful, very methodical. The Associate had adopted a similar approach and together they now had a trade route that extended from Period Basis to Jita. These Journey’s were, of course organised around their ‘couplings’. They liked to enjoy each other as much as the ISK from the trade. They left the coffee shop arm in arm and went to The Associate’s quarters for some fun.
———
The journey back had been uneventful until Ekloke got into YQX-7U when his local channels suddenly lit up with war targets and neutrals. He immediately checked his surroundings. He had come through an ‘AnsiPlex gate’, he could see on scan warp disruptor bubbles. He knew instinctively to avoid warping to his out gate. Instead, he scanned towards the nearest station and immediately hit warp in that direction whilst cloaking ‘Orlana’ there was no time for the Sabre he could see towards his out gate to react. He landed a hundred off the station fully cloaked and immediately warped towards the out gate at 70 km. At this point he changed the direction of the cloaked ship and started to keep eyes on the gate.
He reported to the Intel channels what he could see, in turn setting the map alight with reports of different ships jumping in and out hunting his allies. The intel was crucial, it allowed his allies to form a response fleet and for those travelling to avoid the area. He sat in space for over an hour reporting the movements of the enemy. This is why you never rush in New Eden. The buzzed through to Abby. “Could you pop along to YQX-7U and scout me home please?”
“On my way.”
Jumping through gate blind was always one way can get your heart racing but when you have a deadline to meet and some important cargo it is better to take your time and be sure that you can make it. There is no point feeding the sharks that like to circle looking for easy kills. Any ecosystem has it’s bottom feeders, and gate campers are just that.
It wasn’t long before Abby came through the gate in her shuttle. “It’s clear, don’t waste your time there is probably a cloaked Sabre on the other side. There are definitely two enemies and local and a further three neutrals. Proceed with caution.”
Ekloke was already aligned, he hit warp and ‘Orlana’ took off at warp speed. The ship landed and initiated the jump smoothly. Before long he was on the other side without waiting for any reaction he immediately hit warp to a station in a random direction away from the gate. He cloaked ‘Orlana’ at the same time and was warping within 3.5 seconds. Behind him a Sabre uncloaked and bubbled the gate. But they were both too late and the bubble was in the wrong place.
“I’m through.” Ekloke said calmly as ‘Orlana’ warped off to the station.
Meanwhile, in YQX-7U, Abby was returning to the gate she jumped through in the shuttle. The bubble was quite poorly placed, and on the gate was Don Hubba and the Sabre pilot W1star were at the gate. The shuttle was gone before they could react. Both Abby and Ekloke jumped through the AnsiPlex gate into one 1DQ. They delivered the package so the build could continue.
Mori was sitting across the table from Karen. He hadn’t seen her for at least three months since his deployment to D06. She looked stressed, then almost always she looked stressed.
“How have you been?”
“Okay, suppose.” She was looking down at her hands.
He didn’t like it when she was like this. Introverted, perplexed, it always meant she was thinking too much.
“How are you finding Pegasus?”
“It’s great.” She looked up at him and smiled. They had moved into a new Fortizar set down by the corp their new home since the eviction from Immensea. Even stranger perhaps, was the fact they were now in Goonswarm Federation. The very group who had attacked them when they first moved out To Immensea. Such is the way in capsuleer culture, alliances were fickle and sometimes associations very short lived. Mori had found himself once more on the front lines of an alliance. Only this time he had moved into logistics operations. Karen’s pacifist tendencies must be having some influence.
“What have you been up to?”
“Oh this and that. We built a load of mining ships for the alliance market in 1DQ. Those sold really well. The market is much more heavily regulated out here, if I’m honest it is much better looked after than it was in Immensea. We’ve also built three dreadnoughts for members of the Corporation and a further two we’ve been trying to sell on the market. Building dreadnoughts was a bit of a mission.” She smiled her eyes brightening up.
“How do you mean?”
“Well the materials are hard to come by. We’ve had to source gas from all over new Eden. It needed lots of planetary materials and loads of minerals from high security space. It took months to source everything and assemble it.”
He’d been aware that she had been working with Ekloke and Abby on this. But he wasn’t quite sure what it all involved. He didn’t really have the attention span for this kind of operation.
“If I told you that a wetware mainframe essential to the building of a Phoenix that probably wouldn’t surprise you. What might surprise you is that part of the materials come from livestock. Don’t you think thats odd?”
He laughed. “That is a bit weird what on earth does livestock add to a wetware mainframe?”
“Ekloke tells me they are essential for producing biotech research reports. That some construction blocks and nanites are all added together somehow in a production facility and we end up with these biotech research reports. I can’t quite understand it. It’s either some sort of strange trade he’s involved in, you know how he is? Or there is some weird thing going on in that facility in PS-94K.” She looked across the bar and glanced up at the monitor screen playing back advertisements on Quafe. “Anyway did you bring the BPC?”
“Yes I have it here.” He handed the package across the table. Then rested back in his seat drinking from his cocktail.
She looked excited in that childish kind of way that she did when she first started building cruisers for the corporation over in Immensea. “So we finally get to look at a Tech three BPC!” She glanced through the materials and smiled. “This is fairly straightforward we have most of this already I’m pretty sure I could build this within a few days.”
“It’s an interesting hybrid ship isn’t it?”
“Yeah, stasis webifier range looks very useful along with those energy drains and neutraliser’s.” You gonna build this for the corp mate we talked about aren’t you?”
“Xanden?”
“Yeah.”
“Of course it is his blueprint and up to him whether he wants to use the ship are not.” It should be fun to see this being produced. I haven’t built anything for a while I spent most of my time preparing the Rorqual for krabbing.”
“Oh really? So you’re becoming less pacifist?”
“Those blood raiders owe me a ship, and it seems like an honourable thing to do for the alliance.” She looked at him intently.
“Yeah, they’ve been good to us since the eviction.” Mori had been impressed with the Goonswarm Federation. Their organisation was astounding was so much happening in their space it took them months to figure out where to make their contribution. They were always constantly at war and there was plenty to do. The downside of this was he saw a lot less of Karen, Abby and Ekloke.
“They certainly have, I’ve learned so much about shipbuilding in such a short time that I can barely remember what we were trying to do in Immensea. Such is the way.”
“Yeah, I’ve learned a lot to about how the null blocs operate.” Mori was deployed in DO6 to support Brave Collective and what was left of their old alliance the FiRE Coalition. The Goonswarm Federation had offered them safe passage through their space. Cosmos Collective had been recruited alongside this operation into Goonswarm Federation. This move had been a very wise decision by the CEO Dan Dingle and leadership. It had given the corporation some breathing room after the constant wars.
“Yeah same here. I still think the whole idea of content and having to be at war is a bit juvenile. Such is the way.”
“Don’t be silly, everything will be so boring otherwise. Besides you can’t just let these bullies push everyone around. I’m glad we are fighting to defend free space, even if it is in the name of a large power bloc.”
“Whatever.” She looked sideways, bored.
“Okay so how does the manifest look?”
“I’m going to have to pop to 1DQ to pick up some of these materials. I definitely have the auto- integrity preservation sales and I think I have some of those life-support backup unit somewhere. The rest I can build quite quickly.” She started to get up.
“What are you up to later?” He asked hopefully.
“I expect I will be in one 1DQ if you want to join me?”
“That would be nice and pop along after the Corp operation.” He smiled as he got up and left the table.And
I guess it was inevitable that my alt Karen Sokarad would eventually get ‘ganked’ in high sec. The game had changed so much since I had played it previously. Ganking was always there but it had become a whole subculture in the game. I really had not been aware of that at the time and so when it happened I was mildly surprised and of course feeling a bit violated. I mean lets face it – the last thing you expect when eating a bowl of porridge and listening to the morning news is to see your ship melting.
“Good Fight miner.”
It was though quite funny, the character in game was ‘Gay Pride Booooom’ (with five ‘o’s’ don’t settle for a poor copy) and his ganking was in effect part of his campaign to join the CSM. He eve mailed me a really funny message demanding that I explain myself. As you can see the message drips with irony and is very tongue in cheek if slightly ‘barmy’. This is Eve after all!
I looked through the links and was completely bewildered, where on earth did all of this stuff come from? Who on earth were CODE? And what were they doing? None of this made any sense to me at the time. I had a lot of learning to do and clearly the game had changed a lot since I was last playing. The link at the bottom of ‘Gay Pride Booooom’s’ email takes you into an in game channel. Where you can of course explain yourself and demand compensation. I actually didn’t bother posting in the channel – I was on my way to work. I simply filed the email and headed off for the day.
CODE
As an old player coming back to the game this was all a bit of a shock. and this is the thing about Eve online – the sandbox is more than simply what you can do in game. It is what others are doing in game around you that generates a very particular ecosystem. One that really does suck you in. The best way to describe it is that it is like a spider diagram. You follow one rabbit hole after another and start to see that what you are sitting in is really quite remarkable.
I was certainly frustrated and a little bit angry at the gank. But this is the game and you have to accept it can do this to you. The thing I wasn’t prepared for however was the degree to which this had become a part of the game META. When I delved into some of the initial posts I could see some merit in what the Gankers were saying, at least initially. For a start there was my fit.
Tragic Retriever fit.
No tank, and the doom module (Survey Scanner II) in place of any kind of shield. Just embarrassing. I mean this ship would struggle in a 0.5 system against NPCs, let alone against a ganker. I wasn’t usuing anything I had learned whilst playing Moriarity on Karen. Almost like I had assumed the game was different in high sec when really it isn’t. I did sit down at this point and start to think carefully about my training programme. I was focussing on Karen’s reprocessing skills and realised after a bit of looking around that she was going to need a much better tank than what she had. This meant adjusting her training queue to accommodate a proper tank.
Within less than a week Karen faced another gank attempt. This time she survived because she had a bit of a tank fitted. The ganker was a new player who had no idea what they were doing (thankfully). The effect of this second attempt was quite profound though. I knew that her tank was not yet complete and when I did the maths it was obvious she was vulnerable. I found myself reading local and constantly checking ‘D-Scan’ something I had learned to use when on Moriarity. This however really did impact on my enjoyment of the game, I couldn’t chill out whilst playing, it made it very difficult to write this blog and play at the same time.
It was at this precise moment that I received a recruitment message from COSMOS Industrial.
I was having a bit of a rough time. I knew that staying in Alakgur was not viable. It was too close to Hek and so was always going to be a bit jittery. Gone were the days when you would be able to just chill out and play casually whilst doing a bit of browsing. Eve had changed beyond recognition and as this message very sensibly indicated. There was a lot to be gained from joining a player corporation. So I joined their recruitment channel and from that point everything started to change once more.
So I am reborn, a new member of New Eden’s Demi-Gods. A play boy of the brave New Eden. And I have yet to figure out how to fly a ship! I spend most of my time sleeping while my cognitive functions are growing, most of the time I am awake I feel tired. Most of the time I sleep I am awake, algorithms fly through my consciousness. I wake fitfully, sleep restlessly. I long for home but gone are the days when I walked Terra Firms. Already I have been rejected. Spat out onto the face of a brave New Eden.
My first hours were spent trying to work a new body. A skin I can mould and change as I see fit. It feels strange. Am I really alive? Or just the walking dead waiting to be reborn, a constant state of watching for rebirth?
This is a strange experiment. I have paid a high price in the name of this science. But it keeps coming for me drawing me closer and pushing me on toward new achievements. New heights.
Well its been a while since I updated this blog. Real life work and the fact I have been doing other things in Eve has meant I have not really had a lot to say about the game recently. I am still in there playing but focussing on the development of another character. More about that in good time.
Anyway, this has meant a bit of downtime away from Moriarity and invariably less to talk about. Moriarity is still developing his skills and floating around different parts of FW. Its my alt that I have been studying. The truth is I have been mining! Since the recent changes to mining barges this has become a much more interesting profession.
There is something zen like about mining. You sit in a very unusual position in eve, at the base of a pyramid of makers generating the minerals that will eventually form the basis of ships, charges and modules. There is something fascinating about that. Much is made about pew pew and about going out to grief and irritate others in Eve. People often sing about the glories of player led events like Hulkageddon. But there is very little said about those who just quietly get on with the task of harvesting and building.
Having studied this side of eve for some time I am now beginning to see that this kind of thing takes a lot of time to get into. From the outset it has been a slow process understanding efficiency and how different skills combine to provide you with a meaningful yield. I have spent days bewildered at how slow output can be and then as my skills have kicked in I am now beginning to see that mining can be very lucrative.
The reason for doing this was quite clear. I hate missions. I need a source of income that will allow Moriarity to fly something a bit more than a rifer. With Mr Miner I can see that is now a real possibility.
The thing that you can discover about Eve, something a lot of veterans already know is that it can be played almost entirely as a PvP game. You can indeed make enough ISK in Factional Warfare to cover your losses. If you stay smart I am pretty sure you can make a tidy profit.
The leitmotiv of all PvPers is without doubt do not fly what you cannot afford to lose. Sticking to this leitmotiv is quite easy, in factional warfare all you need to do is jump into a Rifter or some other frigate and get yourself busy fighting, looting and salvaging on the field. The latter in particular is essential to cover losses. Especially when those T3 wrecks appear.
Let me take you through the figures. This period of time involves the fate of one Destroyer, two Rifters and One pod. It starts with an invitation to join a bunch of crazy pirates going out looking for fights flying my destroyer. We killed a few boats but the inevitable happened I lost the destroyer. Destroyers seem to be very squishy, very much an early target because they chuck out a lot of DPS and relatively easy to kill. Of all the ships I have flown they are the most expensive ship and they invariably end up in some sort of loss.
Alright so here are the figures:
Losses
Pod loss 17,987,038 ISK
Rifter 9,747,030 ISK
Thrasher 15,200,536 ISK
Total Cost 42,934,604 ISK
ISK made from Kills and loot: 52,000,345 ISK
So a small profit of around 10million ISK in the time period which was around two to three weeks steady playing time, I still have one Rifter left and I hope to hold onto that for a short while longer. This is not the whole picture by any means. By plexing I have made 18,638 loyalty points to the Minmatar Milita which is close to the value of a Stabber Fleet Issue which are currently selling for around 55million in Rens. This means that with a few more nights out, if I can stay alive in my brawler tackler, then I should be showing a nice PvP profit. Not billions of ISK by any means but bear in mind I haven’t needed to PvE at all – bar shooting the odd belt rat if the target looks worthwhile.
Clearly to achieve this I have been forced to shift my playstyle. I now find myself rarely soloing, I miss that, but the changes in Factional Warfare through Inferno have been very positive. Factional Warfare is very active and there is plenty going on in the field. I find myself tackling and trying to catch the Amarr or any hostile pilots we come across. It has been good to snag a few but most of all it has been really good to discover how to try and survive better whilst playing an active role in fleets. I think I will write about that in a later post.
My losses have been my own fault. The Thrasher loss was something I expected. It didn’t bother me at all. Although the grid seemed to load very late at the time, it was a loss I was happy to swallow especially for the experience of running with those pirates for the evening. The rifter loss could have been avoided. I was in a plex trying to engage some Amarr when Ropf came in I managed to overheat out of scramble range but was heading nowhere having failed to align. So when I switched to align he snagged me again and that was it – Pop! Props to Ropf he was certainly quick enough to target and pop the pod.
So it has been a blast and at the lower tiers Factional Warfare – I am very pleased to say is a great spot for new players to get straight into the action and learn how to work in a fleet. The important thing to realise however is that whilst this might bag you some ISK and you will have lots of fun you will not learn as much about PvP and how to fly your ship as you will when soloing.
So after losing 15 Rifters and 3 Thrashers I finally managed to find some poor sod young enough for me to solo kill. I got so excited that I forgot about all morality and bagged the pod as well. It was a case of the usual roam around low sec when a Punisher was spotted on scan in Arzad. After narrowing the ship down to a belt it was a case of warping in at range to get a look at the pilot. Andros Acami, four days into the game. Yes! Finally, someone to shoot at that one had a reasonable chance to kill! The problem was getting to him before some other git did.
😉
Then, frustration, burning towards him and he warped off to the next belt. Damn! Why oh why didn’t I have a 74km Warp Scrambler! Doesn’t he know that I haven’t killed shit for months? All I need is for the we fecker to stay still long enough for me to bag the kill. I was after him, we warped around the system from belt to belt. I knew that he didn’t know much because he kept warping in at zero. Then I lost him. Nooooooo! How the feck could I lose a four day old noob!
The search for Spock continued for the next five minutes. I warped around the system, checking my scanner, he was moving around. After ten minutes I narrowed him down to another belt. Warped in, locked and this time got my web and scrambler up and running. Then my Rifter “Rubber Donkey” (a tad juvenile I know) was onto him, the autocannons tearing through his shields, into his armour. By the time he started shooting back he was deep into armour and a few seconds more into structure.
Booom!
What a pretty sight the explosion was. I couldn’t stop myself locked up his pod and pop. He was gone. Then it occurred to me, I am supposed to be trying to earn ISK by ransoming. “Bugger”. I warped into a safe spot to wait for the GCC to pass. Maybe I should convo him? After all his ship had an awful fit and the fight was so uneven, he might pay me for advice, now I was all leet and shit. I also noted that podding someone means you don’t get that ‘gf’ thing in local, hmmm a bit disappointing. GF is something we all have to do even if we just had our assess handed to us on a plate for the eighth time in a row. I felt a bit bad. Like that time when I was a teenager and I knocked an ice cream out of a kids hand just to watch them cry.
The feeling lasted about a minute, I used distraction tactics. In order to make myself feel better I let AUTOZ know I had finally bagged that first solo kill in a ‘cat that got the cream kind of way’. I posted the kill mails and sat and thought about it. Now I know what people were thinking when I first started flying around low sec a few months ago. There is no doubt that all the people I have fought cut through me in the same way that I had cut through Andros. It was a sobering thought. Checking the combat logs confirmed this. I managed to hit him for between 150-340 damage he was hitting for 28-34, this is exactly the same damage I was doing back then. I went through 10 rifters before I figured out what was wrong. Damn I am a slow learner. I was also a gift wrapped kill back then.
It was an easy kill but it is small first step. My first step into PvP with a small dash of moral depravity to go with it. The bad feelings will go away eventually. Andros Acami has gone away too.
Everyday Eve 