Tag Archive: pod pilot


Running the Gauntlet

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December 21, 2023

“I can’t breathe Abby! I can’t breathe!”

“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.

This image shows a deep space transport (DST) it is a long narrow ship.

“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.

Abby Talia > YQX-7U “CN hanxs” “M2018M” sabre interceptor
MKD-O8 G Munkee
Eddie Achasse > GOP-GE PsyBlade
stargank > Martin Conrad V-LEKM
Kooter Farmer > GOP-GE clr
Abby Talia > YQX-7U “CN hanxs” “M2018M”

“Whaaaat.” Karen’s voice was shaking.

“It’s okay you have an interdiction nullifier.”

“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.

Image details a Vargur Kill that totals 3.3 billion ISK.

https://zkillboard.com/kill/112775644/

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.

Imaghe provides details of Dutch Legions who describe themselves as a tight-knit corporation in Eve online. It reads: A formidable force in New Eden, this tight-knit corporation boasts quite a few skilled pilots. Known for their strategic prowess and unwavering determination, they excel in coordinated warfare across all regions. With a strong economic backbone, they're self-sufficient and thrive as a united community. Dutch Legions leaves an indelible mark on EVE Online, embodying the spirit of the Netherlands in the depths of space. In Dutch: Lijkt het je wat om ons te joinen of heb je vragen join dan ons openbaar kanaal: Dutch Legions of maak een application op onze website: https://auth.dutch-legions.nl/

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:

This image provides a summary image of the content of the fleet Karen caught on DSCAN, these Scans are very important because they alert others to the content of a fleet so they can prepare themselves: See this link for more information. https://dscan.info/v/fd9aac47870c

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:

https://zkillboard.com/kill/114163465/

The image is of a 2.9 Billion Paladin kill. The person in the kill is Kremner who had replied in the intel chat above.

The kill was inexplicable to Abby especially with all of the intel they had been providing. Just how?

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The first days in COSMOS

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January 7, 2022

I joined COSMOS with Karen Sokarad two days after the gank in Alakgur. The day after the gank by Gay Pride Boooom a second Gank attempt happened. I received the recruitment email almost right after this second Gank attempt. It wasn’t long until I was in a recruitment channel with Karen chatting to Chase Smackem about the corporation. The first thing he said to me in chat was that they were a mature bunch of players and real life comes first. This was a fundamental condition for me as I can get overloaded in real life with work. The last thing I need is a game starting to feel like a job!

The image is of the left half of a male face. His right eye has a monocle.
Chase Smackem, COSMOS Collective.

In all honesty I was looking for more from the game and COSMOS had a really nice infrastructure to get into. At this stage I wasn’t 100% sure I would extend my subs and was thinking I might not actually keep playing the game, ganking seemed to mean that it the game wasn’t going to be played that casually and there was a lot of hostility on the forums to miners. But Eve is a Sandbox and my sense was that it was worth trying COSMOS out. Chase did say they were in a relatively quiet part space and that ganking rarely happened. I thought “What the hell! What could possibly go wrong?”

I think it was practically within 12 hours that I had moved Karen to Eldjaerin the home of COSMOS. The whole thing was very complicated to my brain at the time. The chat logs show that I had no idea about Player Owned Structures in empire and so it took me a while to figure out where the Athanor was located. But once that was sorted I was up and running. I immediately got back out in a new Retriever and started mining. I still had little or no idea about the way different mining ships had changed, no idea that CCP had adjusted the roles and even less of an idea about the variations in tanking ability. Even worse – I knew nothing about other changes CCP had made to the game. The most important of these was the generation of new PVE content and the Forward Operating Base in particular.

The image displays the tall elongated structure of a Blood Raiders Forward Operating base. It has a rustic look and sit forlorn against the background of space.
Forward Operating Base.

I was merrily mining away and blogging on this site when some rats appeared. It took Karen a while to pop them – she basically had zero tanking ability and her drone skills were poor. Like anyone playing eve as a miner I had sacrificed tank and defence over mining yield. After all that is why she was there – to make ISK as reliably as possible!

So anyway I popped a few belt rats and unbeknownst to me a Blood Raider Forward Operating base had appeared in local. I wasn’t using D-Scan (I was mining after all!) just playing the game on one screen and writing on the other. Within a few minutes of killing the belt rats a load of NPC ships appeared, webbed scrambled and Ganked the Retriever. You can see some of my surprise at this in the following chat log from back then.

> Cannot believe that – a second retriever lost in two days – this time to some weird NPC Gank squad. I think I need a proper tank for this ship.
> Is there a FOB in system?
> What is that?
> Forward operating base for npc,s. sends out tougher npcs than u normally get
> Ahhh there is one at distance…. I think….. heading back now. It was brutal – webbed scrambled and basically killed really quickly. …..Ahh well you live and learn 🙂
> We try.
> Yeh, I wouldn’t mine if theres a FOB in system u will die all the time.
> Yeah – will move system – does it depop or does it have to be killed?
> Needs to be killed I think.
> OK thanks for the info 🙂

It’s weird isn’t it – Even the NPCs hate miners! Basically this was a second shock to the system in two days and the effect it had was quite profound. I started having a chat in Corp about this ‘new’ problem and it was apparent that this was by design. In other words it is what CCP wanted, I just had missed the memo!

> Rats are getting more deadly in Erl. was one that had 57,000 bounty that was taking out my Mining Drone II’s. Good thing I was watching or may have lost them and my Retriever.
Karen Sokarad > I was ganked in Eld earlier by Blood Raiders. Skilling up for a proper tank now. Does anyone have a decent tank fit for a Retriever?
> Not sure you can have a Retriever tanked much. Procurer is much better tank but less ore hold.
Karen Sokarad > I can’t seem to get much on with the CPU. Only small modules.
> Desk11 is mine. not much of a tank. I always watch when mining with this. Only afk when absolutely need to.
> https://www.eveworkbench.com/fitting/search?q= can search on there.
Karen Sokarad > ty
> welcome
Karen Sokarad > Tanky Retriever. Karen Sokarad …Really an anti solo gank but hey
> Not bad
Karen Sokarad > The lack of a scanner can be a bit of a pain but I do think the security is an improvement on where I am right now (Smiles).
> Yeah….. Scanner is nice when your using mining crystals so you don’t waste them on small rocks.
Karen Sokarad > Definitely.
> Speaking of scanner, I think I will go and get Survey Scanner II this one later.
Karen Sokarad > Very handy I bought the wrong one when I replaced this ship earlier (face palm moment) 🙂

If anything this conversation demonstrated the importance of getting into a Corporation in Eve, finding people who can help. But most of all it demonstrated to me at the time that I really should not be getting frustrated at losing ships. I still had a decent amount of ISK available and whilst losing two Retrievers was a blow, it was not the end of the world. The point of Eve is that it is as much about the Journey you are on than anything else. It is not about ‘winning the game’. The whole point of this blog from the outset was to write about that Journey.

The initial days in COSMOS were a revelation, there was so much I had forgotten and even more I had to learn. The game had changed beyond recognition. It was more complicated, yes. But so many changes made it so much more fun. I will come to those in future posts. After all I was still playing with Moriarity in factional warfare. But right now I started to enjoy the challenge in front of me – I had been mining and not realising that the ship was extremely vulnerable. Now both Gay Pride Boooom and CCP had taught me a lesson. Even an industrial character needed some means for self defence and really ought to be paying attention to they were doing or more losses would follow.

So, first things first. I needed to do a few things. Pay more attention in local whilst using D-Scan for mining. I also needed to drop that survey scanner if I was going to be using the Retriever, either that or get a Procurer with it’s tiny cargo hold. You can imagine that the latter wasn’t really an option for me, I prefer to stay on the belt for as long as possible and hate too much ‘piddling around’ unloading. It is just a choice I made at the time. One thing I resolved, was that I wasn’t going to lose another ship anytime soon. So I started training towards a better tank on Karen.

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Fletcher and Moriarity

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February 18, 2012

“Oh my God, we are all gonna die!” Screamed Fletcher at Cerbus as the ship lurched violently from another explosion, the whole chassis shook. Flames were erupting all along the fuselage. The ship had been turning for what seemed to be an age. There was a whistle and then another explosion somewhere towards the back of the ship’s armour. Fletcher was thrown across the service tunnel crashing heavily into the side.

The ship groaned and then seemed to pause momentarily before the warp drive kicked in. Cerbus watched as Fletcher slumped over. All around them the ship was shuddering and shaking as the FTL drive dragged them away from danger. “We are out! Its going to be OK we are out Fletcher.”

“Don’t bet on it, we have been in and out of that pocket six times now.” Fletcher moaned.

“This ship is not built for this kind of mission.”

“Tell that to our dearest Pod Pilot.” Fletcher rolled over onto his back breathing heavily.

“He won’t listen.”

“Maybe now he will?” Fletcher got up. “Anyway let’s get on with these repairs, we just need to stabilise the ship so he can get it to the repair shop.”  The ship remained stationary above the sun, hanging in space almost catching it’s breath.

“They are going to be laughing at us you know. It’s like they seen him coming.”

“Yeah by the time he finishes this mission most of the money from the bounties will have been spent.” Fletcher sighed as he moved forward.

They had been moving around the ship’s core patching up leaking conduits. Doing their best to keep it functional. This had been their first commission as free lance engineers and it wasn’t going very well.

“Remind me. Why did we choose “The Intrepid?” Fletcher looked at Cerbus.

“Well because you said it looked, well, ‘Intrepid’ and you liked the pod pilot. Kanenald seemed ‘pretty normal’ you said.”

“Ahh, right.”

“Well I guess being normal doesn’t necessarily make him a good pod pilot?”

“Too right.” Fletcher frowned.  “You know we are gonna have to talk to him about this?”

They continued to patch up internal leaks for a couple of hours while the ship remained stationary in space.  Then slowly but surely it changed direction.

“We are going to dock and repair the hull.” The Moriarity’s voice came over the intercoms.

“About time, we have already lost the bonus for this mission.” Moaned Fletcher  as he walked along the corridor in the direction of the bridge.  His overalls were covered in oil and grease from his work.

The ship groaned and shuddered as they entered warp and eventually slowed down.  Within second it began to shake, something was wrong. “Whats happening this time?” Yelled Fletcher as he sprinted off towards the bridge.

Outside the ship was being swarmed by the Mordus Legion.  The shields were being quickly stripped.  It would not be long until the ships armour would be left open to the mercy of the attacking ships.

“Errr…..  sorry!” Came Moriarity’s modulated voice.  I must have accidentally activated the wrong bookmark.  “Give me a second and we will be out of here.”

The ship rocked as another missile struck, shells were incoming fast and the shields were almost gone.  “I am going to kill him!” Screamed Fletcher, as he began to sprint.

The shields were gone and the ship’s armour was being pounded.  Finally, after what seemed like an age the ship finished its turn and paused. There was that eternity of a moment when everything seemed to slow to a halt, around the ship time seemed to alter its form and then the FTL drive kicked in.  The ship shook violently as it hurtled through space, eventually coming to a halt outside Eystur III Moon I Republic Fleet Assembly Plant.  Inside the small vessel a large wrench bounced off the pod that contained Moriarity’s prone form.

“Fletcher!  What are you doing!”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Fletcher screamed.  “Are you trying to kill us?”

“Clam down, it was a simple mistake.” Although the voice was modulated to make it sound throaty and masculine, there was a tightness about it that indicated the pod pilot was a bit scared.

“Get out of that pod so we can talk face to face!”

“No. I am not coming out until you calm down.”

“Get out here!” Fletcher was clearly apoplectic.

“No. I am not moving.”

“Moriarity if you don’t get your skinny ass out of that pod and speak to me like a man I am going to gut you when I see you.”  Fletcher was standing with his hands on his hips glaring at the pod.

“Look Fletcher we have to have some order around here.  Get back to your work, we have a mission to get completed.”  Moriarity was trying to be assertive.  It wasn’t working.

“I told you before.  This heap of crap is no good for these kinds of commissions.”  Fletcher was stock still staring at the pod.  There was a long pause and then the modulated voice buzzed through the speaker behind his head.

“I think you have a point.  Lets patch the ship up and finish this commission.  I promise we will sell this ship and buy whatever ship you think will do.  Can you get busy planning what we need please?”  There was a long pause before Fletcher turned a quickly stalked out of the bridge.

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Backstory – Moriarity’s parentage

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January 7, 2012

It would be a good thing to tell you all about Moriarity, about how his parents were killed by some Amarr slavers, about how his father heroically slaughtered the footsoldiers of the emperor defending his family before being brutally cut down by the emperor’s elite troops.  But the truth is that would be a lie.  Moriarity is nothing more than a pampered good for nothing wimp by Sebiestor standards.  He is also a bit thick.  No-one knows who his father is and no-one cares.

The facts are simple, he won the lottery on Huggar (Pator III) and used his winnings to join the immortal pod pilot class.  When this happened his friends joked that it was likely that Moriarity would forget to upgrade his clone, get shot and forget how to use a toilet, or worse still forget where his ship was.  As we all know, whilst a ship might be safe in a station, that is not what a ship is for!  Something some residents of 0.0 space don’t seem to have figured out.  But perhaps then, there is room for Moriarity after all?

From the beginning Moriarity learned slowly.  He entered the new pilot programme but failed to turn up for most of the classes at the  Republic University School in Malukker because he got a bit sidetracked by the station schematics, some nice looking Caldari pod pilots and a bottle of strong drink.

The white lines labelled “NEW POD PILOTS SCHEME” were lost on him, in fact he barely noticed those as he followed the slim figure of a leather clad Caldari around the station.  Eventually he found himself at the wrong end of the station amongst some seasoned pod pilot veterans of several alliance wars trying to explain how he got there.  Moriarity being Moriarity somehow disarmed them with his absent minded simplicity and they took him under their wings for a short while, promptly got bored and several wedgies later he was kicked out of the club with a brand new nose piercing and an odd looking tattoo on his chin.  They told him it would make him look more exotic.  This hopefully explains the male pole dancer look.

Three weeks later he was still trying to master scanning and gravimetrics.

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