Mdih Lihu's EVE Online blog

A Hulking good time

2012-01-18T22:12:00.001+11:00

The locals have been busy in my absence. I've missed another tower being anchored and onlined, several new pilots already sitting snugly inside the shield. I add the new arrivals to my watch list and do a little intel gathering.

Bouncing around between celestials shows a Probe frigate out and about, I seem to be a step behind each warp, finally losing track of them on d-scan. A check back at the new tower shows the latest arrivals appear to be gearing up for a mining operation. Two Hulk mining barges and a Badger Mark II hauler, all piloted within the shield, the similar names of the pilots indicating they belong to the same individual.

I don't have to wait long, the three potential victims all warping out of the tower. My earlier scouting efforts paying off, I follow straight to the grav site. The Probe is also here, I assume he scanned down the site and provided a warp in. The Hulks waste no time, they begin zapping away at an asteroid, a can appearing in the midst of the group, allowing me a convenient bookmark.

The four ships pose somewhat of a dilemma, while I only have a single point fit, I want to kill all of them. Several options occur to me, jumping out to kspace to refit a few more points, look to call in some backup from my short contact list (damn you antisocial tendencies!), point one ship and attempt to bump another. The extra points or backup being the better option, although by this stage the wormhole links I entered by are long since decayed.

Finally I decide a Hulk in warp disruptor range is worth two in the.. not warp disruptor range? I don't know, I've never been very good at deciphering these old phrases. I initiate warp to the can, as soon as the drive engages I drop my cloak, prime my systems and lock up the closest schmuck in a Hulk.

I tear the Hulk to pieces as his companions suddenly remember they left the iron on at their POS, the pod sticking around to watch the flashy lights finds himself snared as well. Nearly 500mil worth of hardware going up in smoke, lamenting the loss of the fancy shield booster, I grab what I can from the wreckage and call it a day.

Careless Covetor

2012-01-08T16:49:00.001+11:00

There is a mining barge and canister on scan, and he isn't at the tower bookmark I prepared earlier. I didn't bother bookmarking all the signatures in this system when I was here before, I didn't expect to be back before the connection closed.

To make me further regret my earlier laziness, the solar system is tiny, making it impossible for me to drop probes somewhere they won't be visible on directional scan. Warping off grid from the tower I launch the probes, send them out of the solar system as quickly as possible and re cloak. It doesn't appear that the pilot noticed, I carefully narrow down his rough whereabouts using directional scanner, move the probes roughly into position and hit scan.

The results are in, near miss, I make some slight tweaks to the probes, scanning, success. Warping to the ship at 100km I throw the probes back outside the solar system. The Covetor happily mines away into the can, which I bookmark, grateful not to be decloaked by a nearby rock. Bouncing off the closest celestial before initiate warp directly to the can, decloaking while en route, reloading short range ammo and priming my systems.

Landing 2km's from the Covetor I lock him down and open fire. A nice tight orbit is established as I watch for any signs of the ship attempting to align out, or any allies coming to help. He seems quite content sitting still as my autocannons return his barge to the asteroid belts from whence it came.

The pod remains stationary and I crack it like I'm planning a pod pilot omelet. I do love how we can now see what implants the poor buggers lose. I loot the wreck and while I would love to claim some kind of clever baiting strategy, I warp off leaving the can and corpse floating in space. While cloaked at the local tower tinkering with my overview settings and trying to find the corpse option, before finally remembering its called biomass, my watch list shows the freshly murdered soul disconnect.

Moments later another member of the victims corp connects and appears at the tower in a cheetah covert ops. I watch in dismay as he boards a Harbinger battlecruiser, which I'm not confident in pitting my expensive tech3 cruiser against. I decide to write the corpse and can loot off, and I'm about to my exit wormhole when the pilot suddenly switches ships into a Catalyst destroyer and warps off in the direction of the grav site. A destroyer, I'll take a crack at that.

I make an assumption and warp to zero on the can, decloaking in warp again to let the locking delay do its thing. I land right next to the poor chap and lock him up.

Another ship is returned to the asteroid gods, hopefully appeasing them after these fellows pillaged their holy arkonor.

This pod is on the ball and high-tails it out of there. I take my leave of their hole, abandoning the can there to tempt them once more. I like to think he sat there in the shields, watching, the can taunting him, urging him to rescue the precious minerals, before it finally decayed, rejoining the Covetor and Catalyst.

Damnit, I forgot to overheat my guns again.

Slippery Iteron

2011-12-30T20:53:00.000+11:00

Several days spent navigating the tenuous links of wormhole space, poking my head in and out of kspace like some kind of interstellar gopher (mental note: good ship name right there), I online my pod and quickly cloak my Loki in the hopes of going undetected, that is, if there is anyone around to detect me.

The C2 I chose to sleep in having a bevy of good sites and corporation that formed just over a week earlier. With any luck they'll be more active, yet less prepared than a more established wormhole entity. A directional scan reveals a new tower has gone up in the few hours I've been sleeping, damn, opportunity lost. A narrow scan reveals no defenses, an Iteron IV hauler and a cargo can at the new tower.

Warping in to the new tower at range shows it belongs to a different corporation, the Iteron slowly entering the shields near the canister. Saving the location of the can I warp back to the original tower seeing only one occupant I'd observed earlier in his cloaky Loki. My watch list not showing any other members I'd gleaned from killboards. I set myself up in position on the far side of the can so I can align to a safe spot, I sit in wait. It doesn't take long before the hauler moves back towards the edge of the protective shield.

With no online tower defenses to worry about I align to my safe spot, decloak, and locking delay permitting, open fire. He swings around almost immediately, heading back to safety. His shield's drop slower than I would have expected, I'm assuming he is shield tanked to leave low slots free to expand cargo space. One shot to his armor taking half of it, I suddenly lose my lock.

He crawls to shield safety and I initiate warp, humbled by a defenseless space trucker. The other resident warps into the tower in his Loki, the trucker switching to a Cynabal. Grumbling to myself I realise I didn't even overheat my guns, more rust. I forgot the same thing when attacking the Vexor, although fortunately in that case, it wasn't necessary. I could have aligned into him and tried to ram him off course with my microwarp drive, but instead chose the safer option of aligning out. I wonder what was in that can, I should have locked it and shot it as a parting screw you.

The element of surprise well and truly gone, I decide to go check out the neighbouring wormhole I jumped into briefly earlier.

Lowsec, I still like you.

2011-12-27T20:41:00.000+11:00

The rust is showing, and not just on my freshly assembled Loki. Fumbling with my scan probes it takes me a while to realise there has been a change to the filter system, causing the signatures to disappear once their type has been resolved, after enabling the filters things go much more smoothly, although I am still quite slow and clumsy resolving each signature.

I've saved the location of two different wormholes and I'm working on a third signature in the system when I notice there is another pilot registered in the local channel. How long has she been there? Is that the same gal from the last lowsec system I was scanning? What was she flying again? Even though I am safely cloaked off grid, I need to remember to pay more attention to these sorts of things.

Directional scanner reports a Vexor and ten scan probes within range, five of them are mine, of the Sister's faction variety, the others however are the generic tech 1 version. Those probes and the cruiser weren't on scan when I arrived, so its a good bet that they belong to the new arrival. Narrowing the range on directional I try to track down the Vexor's location, losing it several times as it warps around. It is good practice however, and judging by how long it takes me to find them each time, shows it is sorely needed.

Finally I have a good bead on her and she appears to be sitting still, whats more interesting is that all the probes are also showing on the narrow angle scan, meaning she is likely at the signature I was just working on. I quickly finish probing it down, revealing a Magnometric site. I initiate a warp to a reasonable distance off the signature, hoping not to be decloaked, and drag my probes outside the range of directional scanner, although by this stage the pilot has had ample time to spot them.

Landing a mere 15km from the Vexor surprises me, was I planning on engaging them? I guess I was, although I hadn't given it a great deal of thought beyond "Lets see if I can locate this mofo for practice".
She is moving away from me at a fair clip, my cloaked ship unable to keep pace with her as she quickly out ranges me.

A quick check of the pilots history shows she is only a few months old, losing a different Vexor at the start of the month, the fit aimed at lowsec exploration. I completely outgun this poor las, even if my tech 3 cruiser is configured primarily as a scan boat. The site's residents are moving to intercept her cruiser and a flight of tech 1 drones are plopped out in response, its only after they start zooming towards the locals that I realise I'm directly inbetween the two sides and stand a fair chance of being decloaked by the mechanical minions, a quick course correction and they end up skirting just under 10km from me.

Watching as the mag site's defense fleet is slowly whittled down, I wonder how I'm going to actually catch this cruiser, my Loki having a substantial locking delay after decloaking and the Vexor cruising around the outskirts of the site far outside my range, as the drones do their dirty work. I try to align myself to where the Vexor is going to be, judging by its speed and orbit but can't quite seem to get it right, before realising that I don't have to chase her, I know exactly where she is going to head.

The prize loot being held within the canister's at the center of the site, she is going to head towards them sooner or later. I work at keeping myself in between them and my intended victim and it isn't long after the locals are dispatched and the drones recalled, that the Vexor's heading changes directly toward me.

Aligning directly towards the cruiser, I wait until she is within 30km before decloaking, activating my micro warp drive and barreling straight towards her. Repeatedly ordering my targeting computer to lock as our ships collide head on. The lock is finally established, disruptor and guns activated as I order a close orbit, her goose is shortly cooked.

I make an attempt to lock down the pod but it zips away post haste, and once again proving that New Eden has the universe's nicest victims, she congratulates me on the kill in local. A private conversation is struck up and I'm more than happy to explain how I snagged her and offer some advice on avoiding the same fate again in the future.

Warping to one of the wormholes I scanned earlier, I can only hope I'll be so friendly and well mannered when I meet my explosive end.

The year that wasn't.

2011-12-26T12:01:00.000+11:00

I look sad because I've
accomplished nothing.

12 months give or take, it feels like longer. I haven't been completely absent, I've jumped in my pod every now and then, I've got a new face, some fancy legs with which to strut on my lonesome.

As much as I loved wormhole living, the upkeep of the tower given my sporadic pod time became too much, yes yes, you can fuel a tower once a month and just not think of it. But our small band was skating the financial line between minmatar booster whore and a twice divorced noble metal extraction laborer with child support payments. That is to say, we were barely scrapping by.

It's not that C2 wormhole living isn't profitable, it certainly can be. It is just that our merry band was too small and infrequent to take full advantage of everything our home offered us. As our already small numbers began to dwindle, with people retiring their pods or just straight up sitting in the POS shield ship spinning, the burden and costs fell on the few remaining and we decided to pack it in. The logistics and time involved in moving even a small group of people's assets out of the hole crushed the remaining dedication some of us had left.

Looking for something to do that didn't require huge amounts of pod time. Being ex-Ushra'Khan and at the insistence of a friend (who quit almost immediately awww), I joined faction warfare on the minmatar side. But what I learnt from that was that despite the profit of FW missions, I don't like to shoot at people who expect it. A fair fight, or worse still, one where I take a complete nut stomping, just means I've failed to properly assess the situation. In faction warfare people sign up for the 'good fights', or to roll over each other in the bigger/badder fleet, and more power to them if they enjoy it, but it is just another thing that's not right for me.

I'm all about the ganking of some poor chump who doesn't know whats coming, stacking the deck in my favor and then slamming them in the face with an antimatter royal flush. Does that make me a poor sportsman? Probably, but a poor sportsman with a hold full of what remains of said chump's ship, and the satisfying afterglow of knowing I've just committed the New Eden equivalent of space rape.

So what now? The holiday season is in full swing, the powers that be seem to have done a complete 180 in their priorities, fixes abound in Crucible, and I seem to find myself with some time to butcher the English language and with any luck a few unsuspecting capsuleers.

Politely piloted Proteus

2010-09-01T00:05:00.000+10:00

Waking up in my cheetah covert ops it initiated an automatic warp to my safe spot off grid from our station. Without conscious thought I activated the cloak and hit my directional scanner.

Sleeper wreck...
Sleeper wreck...
Proteus...
Sleeper w-..

Proteus? We're too cheap and poor to fly strategic cruisers. A quick check indicated I'm the only one of our little crew active, however another pilot is sleeping in his tackle fit Armageddon, possible tactics are discussed, this could work out nicely.

Activating my on board scanner, I watch the seconds tick down slowly as it searches the local area for cosmic anomalies, willing it to finish before the pilot completes his anomaly and moves on. The results are in and I send my covert ops into the sleeper infested site at 100km, hoping to avoid being decloaked by random space debris.

The proteus is under 100km from me and slow boating towards a sleeper battleship, altering my overview settings to display everything I manually pilot in his direction, avoiding any obstacle that would break my cloak. Positioning the Proteus between my flimsy but thankfully invisible covert ops and the moon at which our station resides.

"The fox is in the hen house!"

"What?"

"Never mind, I'm 10km from him. Go go go!"

The Armageddon's systems come to life and a fleet is created so he can warp directly to me at 10km. The proteus now having closed the distance melts the sleeper battleship nearly instantly.

"Holy shit, this guy puts out some serious damage"

"I'm in warp, go switch"

Warping my cheetah straight to our ship maintenance array, I switch into my dominix Spacetatoe II as the tackle is confirmed.

"Point, landed right on him... my pulse lasers can't track this guy, wow he hurts", the buffer fit Armageddon called urgently.

Quickly trying to find a remote armor repair module in our disorganized hangar wastes precious seconds before I give up and warp directly to my now endangered corp mate. Dumping out a flight of hammerheads as my lock slowly resolves on the expensive strategic cruiser. My web snagging him and bringing him to a crawl, the rack of capacitor neutralizers activating and sapping his nimble ship dry of energy.

Valarian Boville > Come on! PLease. lol
Valarian Boville > 100 mil for my escape?

The figure not giving us the slightest pause, the hull alone is worth probably twice that. Who knows what kind of goodies he may have fit. What kind of cargo he may have in his hold.

The webbed cruiser now track able by the Armageddon's guns and with my hammerheads closing on it quickly, is not long for this wormhole system. Bracing ourselves for the verbal explosion in local...

Valarian Boville > lol
Valarian Boville > Well...that was random... >.<

Mdih Lihu > o/
Valarian Boville > Was a little uncalled for......
Valarian Boville > I know it's how it goes, but I would have paid well for ransom.
Mdih Lihu > Yeah sorry, first tech3 cruiser kill.
Valarian Boville > I see, congratz.
Mdih Lihu > and when i saw 100mil it made up my mind :)
Valarian Boville > lol
Valarian Boville > I would have paid more. I'm fair game with negotiating.
Mdih Lihu > ah, sorry.. honestly I thought I was about to have your friends land on us.
Mdih Lihu > Quite a tank, didn't think it was going to break at first
Valarian Boville > lol nah I was just soloing,
Valarian Boville > IT wouldn't have with out the nuet,
Valarian Boville > Was a good combo.
Mdih Lihu > I hoped that would tip the balance :)

What followed was a pleasant half an hour chat, since he was such a good sport at having his ship shot out from under him, we let him collect his sleeper wrecks, chatted a bit about wormhole mechanics and parted on friendly terms.

Neo Shono > Well gratz again. Safe flights. o7
Mdih Lihu > Cheers sir, hope the rest of your day fairs better.
Mdih Lihu > o7

If only all intruders were so polite.

(( You may have noticed the date on the kill mail, posts are getting quite backdated now as I post when I feel like it and I'm killing a bit of time doing necessary evils *cough* autopilot jumping *cough* :D ))

New neighbours

2010-07-24T18:54:00.004+10:00

My Taranis slowly orbited one of the corporate Hulks chipping away at the Arkonor asteroid, hopefully a deterrent to any would be stealth bomber. Our communication channel active, people doing different things, and generally enjoying the quieter more laid back lifestyle that is wormhole space.

All of my attempts at Sleeper combat had proven more difficult than I'd expected, firstly the Myrmidon I had tried was a complete failure, the sleepers switching fire onto my drones, requiring constant attention to pull them back into the drone bay before they were destroyed, which had severely limited my damage output.

The next attempt in a blaster fit Brutix had gone better, requiring me to burn straight toward the sleepers with a microwarp drive before melting them with the close range high damage fit. Its tank however had some trouble dealing with the battleships and the need to get right on top of the enemy meant I couldn't be pre-aligned to safety should another pod pilot wish to pay an unfriendly visit.

"Imicus on scan" reported the corporate channel, a quick check of the directional scanner didn't show them within range of our current grav site. The idle chatter stopped as the mining vessels warped out back to our POS. Warping to a safe in the center of the solar system and hitting scan revealed the Imicus, his friends and their newly anchored and onlined tower.

Completely under our collective noses another corp had moved in within the last hour, on lined their tower and setup several gun batteries. Having just endured the tedium of removing an offline tower days before, the prospect of our small group taking on an online and actively defended POS was extremely unappealing. Covert ops and bombers were dispatched to monitor things, intel was being harvested from killboards and character employment histories. Diplomatic negotiations were left up to me.

Mdih Lihu > new neighbours?

my attempt at diplomacy appeared to have failed.. our eyes on their station reporting the anchoring of more guns.

Mdih Lihu > not feeling talkative?

Perhaps more than words were required to attract their attention. A corp member warped an Armageddon directly onto several batteries, incapacitating them with pulse laser fire before warping off again due to the lack of a warp disruption battery. Meanwhile the low security entry point they had been using was located by one of our scanners, and I switched out into a hound stealth bomber and anchored a small bubble 20km from it in line with the new station, assuming the several Iteron V's in their shields might attempt another trip.

The harassment of their operations lasted for a couple more hours, whenever someone would inch out of the shield to load a freshly anchored battery one of us would be there, firing bombs and torpedoes and forcing them to retreat into the shield. Unfortunately never doing quite enough damage to destroy them before they burned back to safety. Finally a very close call for one of their Heron pilots prompted a response.

FantomChaser > lol not bored yet? xD
Mdih Lihu > Nah, talking to people at the same time :)
Mdih Lihu > so you CAN speak english haha
Mdih Lihu > so... whats news?
FantomChaser > nothing much just spending endless hours of ancoring and putting online
FantomChaser > preparing for rest of the corp to move here
FantomChaser > having 5-10 ppl preparing all rdy awaiting to putting up 2-3 more posses ><
Mdih Lihu > eep, going to shoot ours down?
FantomChaser > well considering how you been to ours
Mdih Lihu > haha, well.. you didn't respond earlier so we considered you hostile :)
FantomChaser > well i cant promise your safety dont think my ceo like that you been harrashing our Lpos
Mdih Lihu > no doubt, but we were going to try be diplomatic to start but nobody responded.
FantomChaser > diplomatic means if no respond ya send a mail
FantomChaser > but as you started hostilities and the corp hunger for more pvp the diplo gonna be a thoug one
Mdih Lihu > true true, but you moved into an occupied wormhole without saying a word, surely you can understand our position
FantomChaser > tmw im gonna put my pvp char in the corp and move him here :) hes one of the strongest pvp chars in the game up to bs size wich is the biggest ship in here
FantomChaser > we had deep core scanners and warped to 3 differnt planets with massive distance to each other and made directional scans wo a single control towers

The strongest pvp character in the game doesn't know how to completely scan a system for a tower? His attitude and comments instantly solidified our response.

All non essentials would be evacuated from the wormhole at the earliest safest exit. The remaining backup batteries, ammo and hardeners would be anchored and online, several months worth of fuel imported along with ammo and all the necessary ships to endure a prolonged siege. While we didn't believe we could win, it was our intention to make it as unsafe and costly as possible to remove us, if we couldn't live in and profit from the wormhole system. We would ensure that they wouldn't either.

A short time later FantomChaser landed in the bubble I was orbiting near the low sec exit. The Crow interceptor a completely unsuitable target for my bomber I cursed and regretted my choice to change ship. Warping back to our tower I switched back into my Taranis initiating a squad warp, bringing Leysii's harbinger into warp toward the bubble with me. I couldn't have landed any closer to the Crow, instantly he was scrambled and my blasters began to strip his ship apart. The harbinger landing and applying drones as the crow came apart.

FantomChaser > that was the point of no return i think ;)
Mdih Lihu > yep :)
Mdih Lihu > you were shooting our bubble haha
FantomChaser > blocking the way
FantomChaser > no worrys calling in the ally :)
FantomChaser > funny thoug my mwd wouldnt activate even thoug i wasnt inside the bubble

Overnight we used a couple of sniper fit battleships to incapacitate most of the modules which had been onlined. To my utter amazement, I discovered this poor chap happily mining away in a grav site. Seemingly oblivious to the hostilities occurring between our peoples until I introduced his biomass to the vacuum of space.

FantomChaser > if you wish to be here you better stop that shit btw
Mdih Lihu > You move into an occupied wormhole, what did you expect?
Mdih Lihu > You weren't exactly friendly when I tried to speak to you *shrug*
FantomChaser > lol tryed... ive been busy putting up the pos and do other stuff to keep a eye on local
FantomChaser > and then you open fire.
Mdih Lihu > Yeah, I'm a fan of the preemptive strike.
FantomChaser > well gonna cost you your a 10member corp with around 3-6 aktive members rest is alts
FantomChaser > then you say you will go the diplomatic way when you finally get some contact.. 5m later you blow up a ship not the best diplomatic directions ive seen.
Mdih Lihu > I try to be friendly after the initial shooting, you basically tell me your guys want pvp and good luck with that. We're supposed to sit around while you get setup and organised in here so you can kill us?
FantomChaser > dont worry we got a few guys in we r a bit short to fix a pos thoug but not far away :)

After several more days of harassment, which included us nearly trading a Raven for an Armageddon in a bait gone wrong before we both managed to disengage. Bubbling, guarding and driving down the mass of wormholes to near collapsing. After much posturing, and threatening that our station was soon to be removed and our corp would be destroyed. The moon where the enemy pos had once been was suddenly vacant, and our home was quiet once more.

A(nother) fresh start

2010-07-02T01:56:00.002+10:00

I sat watching the wormhole as the Raven made her jump through, then returned through a short time later. My Dominix Spacetatoe sitting within jump range of the swirling distortion in space, but it wasn't time yet, my ships hull still polarized from the round trip I'd taken several moments earlier. As I floated there waiting, I thought back over the last few months and how everything was about to change.

My time with Ushra'Khan was well spent. I had met some fantastic people, fought alongside them in battles of a scale I had previously only imagined. Seen their dedication to taking and holding space, the difficulties and the commitment it takes, and keeping so many individuals working together and on track. But I had also seen the bad, after the battle of D-G the enemy lost the will to fight. Hours spent staring a the same star gate in the support fleet while elsewhere in the system those with bigger and badder ships were chipping away at a large stationary structure. The soul crushing boredom that you knew was a necessity, willing the star gate to deliver unto you some helpless smuck you could introduce to a few rounds of antimatter.

It wasn't long after I took my leave of Ushra'Khan, parting on good terms with the leadership and heading back into Empire space. There I met up with several friends who had either recently acquired their pod pilot license or had just renewed it after being stranded planet side. Forming a new corporation, we set about building up some assets and searching for the appropriate wormhole to call home.

That is how I found myself staring at the wormhole which formed a link between our new home J125927 and low security space. Our station online and functional, our small crew had worked tirelessly, moving around the necessary equipment and ships, scouting it in and securing it in place until the wormhole had collapsed of old age. The freshly spawned exit was deemed an unsatisfactory location, causing our current focus of plowing enough mass through it to force a new exit before we could continue.

Realising my hull could once again jump through the hole, I fired up my 100MN Microwarp drive adding mass to the jump and ordered my ship in. The split second my thoughts commanded it the Dominix was jumping, at that same moment I realised I hadn't paid attention to how many jumps had already been made. The wormhole collapsed, dumping me into Black Rise low sec, alone, in the biggest, slowest ship I own.

A chorus of laughter came through the communication systems, followed by several condolences and even a few offers to find a new way to me, then assist in scouting the slow moving bulk of Spacetatoe on a safe path home. "She'll be right", I graciously declined the offer of scouting, it was after all only a couple of jumps to high sec and it could take all night for a scout to reach my position.

Turns out, she most certainly was not alright.

One jump out of high sec, I landed in a large camp of nasty pirates. They fell upon my Dominix like so many Caldari whalers upon a helpless green space whale. My capacitor neutralizers lashing out at the Broadsword that had me harpooned. But several more points landed, sealing my fate.

Podding along back to our high sec HQ, I reshipped into my replacement Dominix and started making my way to the new low sec wormhole. My communication device relayed another message to which I responded,

"Thanks, I would appreciate a scout. I'll wait at the last high sec system"

D-GTMI 29.01.yc112 AAR

2010-01-29T21:39:00.003+11:00

=[ Transmission Recieved ]=

-DESTINATION: V2-VC2

-ORIGIN: D-GTMI

-10:40 29.01.yc112

CVA slavers and allies engaged.

Entire enemy cap fleet destroyed, 130 registered kills at this time.

Total enemy ships destroyed, 485 registered kills at this time.

Estimated ISK value: 237 billion isk.

Allied losses sustained, 14 subcapitals at this time.

Estimated ISK value: 1.05 billion isk.

Outpost Station captured, designation "D God Forgives AAA Does Not".

Paxton Federation Territorial Claim Unit destroyed, 00:27 local time.

Against ALL Authorities Territorial Claim Unit anchored and onlining, 9:30 local time.

D-GTMI Secured.

Operation duration, 13+ hours.

Further reports to follow, sleep time.

=[ EOF ]=

013 - Goodbye Stain

2009-11-15T02:48:00.007+11:00

Hoisting the small crate of my possessions onto my shoulder, I was walking towards the shuttle when the fast footfalls from the other side of the hanger alerted me to his presence. The young officer snapped off a nervous salute as he came to attention several meters from me, wisely avoiding walking into my path.

"Sir, I uhh.." he stammered, looking uneasy and not meeting my eye.

"What is it?" I shot back sharply, amusing myself at his discomfort, commoners often viewed pod pilots with both fear and awe.

This boy had become a member of my crew over a month ago, when I had taken command of my first Vexor class cruiser. Shortly after arriving in Stain, the group referring to itself as Hub Zero had broken out in civil war. Disagreements were had, sides were chosen, and before long, people who were once cooperating peacefully in the name of profit, had taken to shooting at each other with both ammunition and the written word.

I decided from the start that I wouldn't take sides, my small crew and I had stayed out of the way of the locals as best we could. Watching their petty arguments and the pretty light shows as they destroyed each others ships and the very cause that had brought them together.

Staying several solar systems away if possible, and remaining cloaked when detecting other pilots nearby. I slowly increased my wealth and skills, before too long I had upgraded to a Myrmidon battle cruiser, allowing me to withstand more concentrated fire from the Sanshas lurking within Stain's asteroid belts.

I watched and waited, hoping the situation in Hub zero would stabilize. Not caring if that meant one side wiping out the other and sending them back to empire, or coming to some kind of negotiated cease fire. It never happened, finally I accepted that it never would. The people of Hub zero weren't united with a common goal, the founding idea itself was unaffiliated individuals co-existing and working together. Most of them, myself included, had their own agenda and selfish motives for being here.

"I just wanted to confirm your last order in person sir" the young man interrupted my thoughts "Y-you want me to self destruct your remaining vessels?".

Nodding as I stepped onto the ramp leading into the shuttle, "Thats correct, strip the fittings, dismiss the crews, then self destruct them. Unless you have a problem defrauding the insurance company?" I asked, throwing the makings of a grin in his direction.

"No sir!" he laughed, visibly relaxing "Those guys are the biggest pirates in New Eden".

I could have taken everything with me, I thought as the shuttle sailed through warp. It wasn't far, it would have only taken several trips back and forth. No, best to make a clean break. Start fresh in my new home. The only thing I would carry with me from Stain would be the lesson I learnt there, how important it is to have a unifying goal, something that gives everyone direction, keeps them focused as one. I believe I have found that now.

We are Ushra'Khan,

We come for our people.

012 - To 0.0 and victory! Or death, either way is cool.

2009-10-07T09:04:00.010+11:00

InterStellar Kredits, or ISK, are a necessary evil of New Eden. I'd gotten lucky right out of the pod pilot gate, scoring a faction blueprint from a belt rat and an unsolicited yet generous donation from a helpful pilot. They expressed a wish to remain anonymous, apparently associating with an unstable individual, prone to random acts of violence, would reflect poorly on her within her current high sec missioning corporation.

Between frigate hulls, tech2 modules, faction ammunition, skill books and some bad investments, that ISK has been steadily running out. Perusing Galnet posts I looked for a viable method of making money, one that would be more entertaining than shooting Serpent cruisers in low sec.

I came across a post by an independent manufacturer living in 0.0, he was inviting pod pilots to his home system with the intention of helping them get on their feet and earning ISK, which in turn they he hoped they would use to buy from his market. The post indicated that anyone interested should send a mail for more instructions, I sent one off asking a few questions, and was a bit deterred when I received a seemingly generic response, with no answers to my few simple queries.

■■■

Invitation to 0.0

Hi, u responded to the forum, heres the reply

The location of the system is UF-KKH, u can attempt to jump there if u wish, U WILL COME UP AGAINST GATE CAMPS AND DIE.

the easiest way is as follows;

- get free jump clones, read this eve online forum:

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=939710

- Apply to my corp its at MOTSU VIII - Moon 1 - Rapid Assembly Warehouse.

- Once in my corp set your clone to respawn at FV-SEB VIII - Moon 1 - True creations Logistic Support

- Leave my corp

- when your ready, jump into the clone u just created and self destruct your pod.

- u will spawn in FV-SEB **** YOU MUST UPDATE UR CLONE BEFORE U UNDOCK ****

-CONTACT ME BEFORE U UNDOCK AND JUMP 2 jumps TO UF-KKH

Be aware as people will try to kill u in FV-SEB

BRING FRIENDS

■■■

The easiest way is to pod myself? Since when did I ever want easy? ...Except for when shooting at new pilots, getting given a large sum of ISK, and free jump clones without a standing grind. Well not this time, punching UF-KKH into the autopilot revealed it to be over 50 jumps from my low sec home, more than 30 of them 0.0 space. Time to run headlong into one of those famous 0.0 gate camps, or land in one of those warp disruptor fields that had kept me from roaming 0.0 so far. But now I had a purpose, a destination, however I fully expected to be forcibly parted from my ship within a few jumps.

I cobbled together a new Incursus, fitting for optimal align time, a micro warp drive for speed and a prototype cloaking device. I was sure I would need the ability to hide in a safe spot for an extended period of time, without the risk of being probed out. I set off, cutting through high sec in my nimble frigate, too fast for the local authorities to lock down. Relieved each time I jumped back into the relative safety of low sec.

After an uneventful 20 odd jumps I arrived at my 0.0 point of entry, KBP7-J in the region of Providence, which I had heard was controlled by Amarr loyalist alliances, who did not take kindly to known pirates entering their space. Did that mean anyone with a negative security status? Or only those reported pirating in the region? I wasn't sure, time to start being extra cautious.

The star map showed no signs of an organised gate camp, with only the odd ship or pod loss registering along my entire route. I carefully made my way through Providence without incident, taking extra time to warp to celestials within scan range of the next gate if there was one, and making sure there were no active warp disruptor fields.

Several jumps into the next region of Catch, I was just thinking to myself how deserted it was compared to Providence when the local channel spiked. Twenty names suddenly registering in the solar system, I was caught mid warp to a planet near the only other gate in the system except the one I had come through. Quickly bouncing between another nearby planet, and cloaking in a safe between them. I watched my scanner as the Red overlord gang passed through, waiting a couple of minutes for any stragglers who may be lagging behind.

Jumping into the next system, a Taranis interceptor sat at 0km on the gate.

Shit.

I almost panicked and tried to warp to the next gate, catching myself just in time. I was still under gate cloak and had a few seconds to stop and consider my course of action. The interceptor would be able to lock me almost instantly, and even if he wasn't paying full attention and I did manage to get into warp, his ship was capable of beating me to the destination and locking me down if he saw where I went. Suddenly I recalled a little trick I'd been told about using a micro warp drive and a cloak, but this being the first time I'd ever fit either together before, I hadn't had a chance to practice. There is no time like the present.

Carefully adjusting my default warp range to 79,000km, I surveyed the celestials in front of me, selecting an asteroid belt with the closest range and that would require the least realigning of my ship. The Taranis still had not moved, my gate cloak would be ending any moment. I took a deep breath and ordered my ship to align to the belt, breaking my cloak while immediately firing the micro warp drive and a split second later activating the cloak on my ship, preventing the Taranis from getting a target lock. My Incursus leapt forward as it lined up perfectly to the belt, the micro warp drive boosting my speed temporarily before shutting off due to the cloak.

Toggling the cloaking device back off, I repeatedly ordered my ship into warp, the extra speed helping to propel me near instantly into warp. It worked! I think? Well I wasn't caught but I wasn't out of it yet. I marked a safe while in warp and used the same method to align back to the gate and warp to it in case the Taranis followed. He didn't, several minutes later he left local completely.

The Taranis turned out to be the closest call of my whole trip, a few jumps later I landed in a sling bubble with a couple of wrecks when I couldn't scan from a nearby celestial. Burning my micro warp drive and cloaking got me out it before anyone uncloaked or warped in.

GE-8JV appeared to be some kind of local hub system, with nearly 100 Against all Authorities pilots active but I had no choice but to pass through. Nearly soiling my pod goo as I warped at range to a planet with a strange factory looking structure, a Sabre, and a Nidhoggur.

Finally arriving in the region of Stain, I docked up at the first station with a medical bay and ordered my clone moved. Only a couple more jumps later and I was in “Hub Zero” designation UF-KKH.

Mdih Lihu > \o hub zero

nina tosspig > o/

Aaron > mdih o/

Nina tosspig requested a private conversation and welcomed me to Hub Zero as I got myself safed up, warning me there was currently hostiles in the system.

On scan a hostile damnation sat outside the station, a wing of fighters assigned to it from a carrier I couldn't detect in the vicinity. Nina invited me to their local intel and chat channel. Greetings were exchanged, but the locals had some concerns.

Radgette > -4.8 sec status naughty boy mdih :p

Mdih Lihu > but but... ok I don't have any excuses, I like blowing things up.

nina tosspig > yes well if u shot us i've afraid u would be out numbered :)

I did what I could to assuage their concerns, informing them I was here in the name of teamwork and ISK, mostly ISK. That Aaron's words of vast riches, constant explosions and the risk of death had appealed to me. Positive standings and friendly words were exchanged. I was asked how I tend to fit out my Incursus.

Mdih Lihu > normally 3 ion II's, scam, ab, web, dc and sar

silveward > dc? sar? i hope scam is a scram

Muffcobb > you haev a scam module on your ship?

Muffcobb > that is awesome!

Mdih Lihu > whups, yeah scram.. hey its 5am, gimme a break ;)

Docking up, I spent nearly all of my remaining ISK buying my first cruiser, a Vexor, some basic tech1 fittings, drones and ammunition. It was extremely late by this point and I collapsed into my bunk, thinking about how far from my low sec home, and how dependant I had become on a group of complete strangers.

TL;DR

I went to Stain.

011 - Back in the black

2009-09-29T04:20:00.005+10:00

“Who the hell are you, and want do you want?” asked the overalls wearing lump, slouched on my ready room couch.

“Who am I?” I shot back, glaring as I stepped inside the room.

“This is my hanger, those are my ships, and you're one of my employees.” Stabbing my finger at each point for emphasis.

“You're Mdih Lihu?” he asked perking up in his seat.

“You've been gone a while, you owe me over 3 months pay”.

“Uh.. wait a minute, this isn't deck 17.” Shaking my head, I quickly backed out of the room.

A short crawl through the station's ventilation system later, I was back in my trusty Incursus and coasting away from the station. Having only had a few short chances to undock over the past several months, I was itching for a good explosion. My last had been over a month ago, when I'd caught a defenceless Mammoth industrial mining in a belt, making short work of him with my new tech2 ion blasters.

I roamed for several hours, evading large gangs of ships, solo battle cruisers, assault frigates and interceptors. The few frigates I did see, were generally rifters being piloted by some extremely experienced outlaws. I felt like the bottom of the food chain, everywhere around me were better equipped and more deadly predators. Several times I was tempted to throw myself at one with blasters blazing and try my luck, but each time the desire for self preservation told me if I was patient and careful, eventually, I would come across another pod pilot even lower on the food chain than myself.

As I made my way through low sec, I marked safe spots off grid on gates, and created instant undocks for stations I was likely to dock in the future. As I marked several vantage points between belts in Aeschee, my directional scanner detected a Vexor fielding a flight of four tech1 hammerheads. The pilot, one 'Ben Gibson' had failed to rename his ship. Quickly accessing his pilot license in the local channel, I discovered he was a mere 9 days old. It was time for some low sec hospitality.

Anxiously scanning the nearby belts felt horribly slow, every second that passed spent picturing my prey recalling his drones as he warped to safety. Finally narrowing him down I initiated warp, my heart pounding as I closed in on his position. The belt raced into view and the Vexor sat a mere 12km away, his four hammerheads swirling around a nearby Serpentis cruiser. As my Incursus aligned toward the cruiser, for the first time I used one of my newest skills, ordering my afterburner and warp scrambler to overload for added performance. Before the young pilot had a chance to react, he was locked and his warp drive rendered useless.

Orbiting Mr.Gibson's trapped Vexor, I stopped overloading the modules so I didn't risk burning them out. Deciding to go straight for the kill instead of picking off his drones I rained blaster fire into the Vexor's shields, overloading my guns, watching as his drones swooped toward me, I launched my single hobgoblin in return. I noticed that he didn't return my tackle and his drones were having a hard time even tracking my nimble little frigate. Without so much as a scratch I stripped his shields in seconds, the cruiser not once returning fire. The overloaded blasters bit into his armour as his drones began landing a few hits. The Vexor's armour repairer clawing to repair his armour he dipped into structure as I casually toggled my small armour repairer to keep at full armor.

Ben Gibson's Vexor exploded, his drones going dead in space. Reacting automatically I locked down the pod and slagged it without concious thought. Setting a course for the wreck, my overview flashed suddenly, cursing I realised I'd stopped scanning for incoming ships.

(combat) 250mm Light Artillery Cannon II belonging to Man Barthelme hits you, doing 513.9 damage.

(notify) Man Barthelme [TSKRS](Thrasher) has started trying to warp scramble you!

The Thrasher's first volley obliterated my armour instantly, sending me into structure. Seconds later the second demolished my fragile Incursus as I struggled to overload the small armour repairer. Not wasting any time, I repeatedly issued the order for my pod to warp as the ship came apart around me.

Mdih Lihu > gf

Man Barthelme > gf

Mdih Lihu > I shouldnt have got greedy and gone to check his wreck ;)

Man Barthelme > heehee

Man Barthelme > yeh i've seen you around but never in a belt..i was surprised to catch u

Mdih Lihu > I was surprised to be caught haha, wasnt checking my directional scanner enough I got excited to blow up my first cruiser

Man Barthelme > haha..nice kill..and thx for the lootz :)

Mdih Lihu > haha np *grumbles something about damn tuskers*

Later on the tuskers killboard I also found the following.

"Bart:

Dude just killed a cruiser in his Incursus and I popped in and shot him :( Should've been congratulating him instead. OH WELL!"

A good reminder of just how quickly your luck can change in this crazy universe. A few jumps later my pod docked in my home station, stepping out onto the hanger floor, I looked around at the huge empty space. That is not good, that is not good at all.

010 - Criminal? guess so.

2009-06-02T17:07:00.005+10:00

Criminals are not welcome into Gallente space - leave now Mdih Lihu, or your vessel will be destroyed!

I double checked my navigation computer, this system was rated 0.9 security status. Had my security rating dropped so low already? When I was first granted my pilots license, I hadn't planned on becoming an outlaw. My interest lay in exploration, the sheer size of the universe had amazed me, I wanted to fly from one end to the other. Then I witnessed my first explosion, the fact that the ship had been mine didn't make a difference, I was addicted.

The common belt and mission rats hadn't been enough, only the destruction of another pod pilot and the rush it provided had sated me. I could rationalise that they weren't really dead, their consciousness would be instantly transferred to another clone and they would live on, unlike the thousands of crew that would die every time other ships were destroyed.

What would I really be giving up by leaving highsec behind me? The space around my small Incursus was awash with ships, the local comms channel registered the system population in the hundreds. Crowds and pushy authority figures it seemed.Plotting a course for the closest lowsec system I engaged my engines. My cloak dropped, the local police removing my shields in a single volley before I escaped into warp.

Passing through Aeschee a short time later, carefully sweeping my scanner over the belts I detected a Covetor. What was that I wondered, some kind of cruiser? My ships database corrected me, a mining barge, in lowsec. I landed almost on top of damedia, only taking a few seconds before I had him locked and tackled. Lone hobgoblin and blasters tearing into his shields, the ship slowly began to turn as my Incursus settled into orbit.

I kept expecting it to launch a flight of drones in defense, but as the seconds ticked by there was nothing. The last of its shields disappeared and the armor started to melt as the ship disappeared into warp. That wasn't supposed to happen, the pilot must have fitted two warp core stabilizers which had cancelled out my warp scrambler.

Waiting out my global timer in a safe spot, I scanned a Rifter jumping around possibly looking for me. I decided to see what would happen and jumped into a nearby belt at 50km. I wasn't waiting long before Magnulf's Rifter landed at the centre of the belt and we started burning towards each other, the extra distance giving me a few more seconds to send my drone in at him before we started exchanging fire. I juked back and forth as I came at him until our ships practically collided, we slapped tackling gear on each other. The fight was short lived, his autocannons tearing The Green Nugget apart as I finally broke through his shields, a good many of my shots missing his ship completely. We exchange Gfs via local as my pod escaped into warp. Rifters scare me.

In my backup Incursus, I found a quiet nearby system and began shooting Serpentis cruisers to cover the small loss of my ship. Before long two names appeared in local at the same time. Cptn Elmo less than a month in a pod, Tilem nearly 3 years. A quick scan showed neither had bothered to rename their ships, Tilem in an Incursus and Elmo in a Punisher. It took me a little while but I finally zeroed in on them both at the same planet. At first I hesitated, imagining them sitting at the planet, tackle gear primed and wondering if I'd be stupid enough to warp into their trap. Yes, yes I would.

Warping straight to zero on the planet I landed right between the two ships. I began locking onto them as I realised they were shooting each other. The Punisher had no shields and my overview had him labelled as an aggressor, I scrambled and began blasting away. Launching my drone as the Incursus locked me, I let it loose at the punisher. Tilem's Incursus fired on me and my shields started to disappear. My drone was taking damage and I redeployed it several times hoping to throw off the lock.

For no reason at all I panicked when I saw my armor start to disappear, at the same time I realised neither craft had scrambled my warp drive, without thinking I initiated warp to a nearby planet, somehow managing to scoop my drone. While travelling through the warp tunnel I chided myself, why did I do that? I was barely into armor, yes my drone was nearly dead but it wasn't worth running away over. I resolve to head back even though they'd had ample time to make their exit. Spinning my ship around I aligned back to the planet, initiating the warp command as the Punisher landed directly on top of me. Cancel warp, cancel warp!!!

Locking onto the Punisher again and relaunching my drone, Tilem arrived just in time to see his friend explode. Locking down the pod I cracked it open as punishment for chasing me. Tilem and I began trading blows, cursing my lacking capacitor skills and vowing to make them a higher priority I escaped into warp. A few minutes later Tilem disappeared from local comms, I was left alone in the system running over the fight in my head.

I checked my combat log as I returned to scoop Elmo's loot and corpse, three new entries under the kills section. Three? Elmo's Punisher, Elmo's pod and Tilem's Incursus. After firing on my 'innocent' vessel Tilem had warped to a gate and exploded to sentry gun fire. Checking his wreck I discovered several tech2 modules. That sure beat shooting at Serpentis to replace my earlier Incursus loss.

009 - Blog Banter #8

2009-05-29T07:54:00.007+10:00

■■■

Welcome to the eighth installment of the EVE Blog Banter , the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here . Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from me, Ga'len at The Wandering Druid of Tranquility. He asks:

"What new game mechanic or mechanics would you like to see created and brought into the EVE Online universe and how would this be incorporated into the current game universe? Be specific and give details, this is not meant to be a 'nerf this, boost my game play' post like we see on the EVE forums."

■■■

I would like more control over how we use the directional scanner. I know, its not exactly a new game mechanic so I'm kind of bending the banter rules here a little I suppose. If I was choosing a brand new feature to be incorporated into EVE it would definitely be planets (Kirith Kodachi covers that awesomely in his banter here).

The directional scanner is one of the most powerful tools a pod pilot has access to, yet the way we interact with the interface feels so tedious and clunky. I would like the ability to save preset custom distances. When clicking the box to type a new number, a drop down window would appear (similar to searching in the market for things you have already typed in) listing from furthest to closest preset distances, you could then click these or type the distance.

The ability to bind the scanner functions to keys would cut down on a lot of mousing back and forth, carefully trying to adjust the Angle slider and click the scan button. The numpad would be perfect for this and I would like it to work something like the following.

• Numlock - When active you can type numbers like normal otherwise..

• 4 lowers and 6 raises the Angle slider.

• 8 and 2 jump up and down between preset range settings.

• 7 raises range to maximum 1 lowers it to minimum preset.

• 9 sets the Angle to 360 and 3 lowers it to 5

• The + and - key will raise or lower the range in increments of 1 while held down. The speed at which the numbers raise/lower increases the longer the key is held.

• 5 would reset the range and angle to maximum settings.

• The large 0 key below would be the same as pressing the scan button.

This would allow you to keep your hand on the mouse and swivel the camera, facing scanner where you want, while quickly making adjustments to it with your other hand.

There is nothing fun about clicking that scan button every few seconds, another nice addition would be some kind of repeating scan option, although I wonder if something like this would add too much additional strain or lag to the server. It also comes across as almost too lazy or 'easy mode'. Perhaps limiting it those people who have high Astrometrics skills, and make it only repeat for a short duration, depending on those skills, would be a fair compromise and a boost to the people who take the time to train them.

■■■

List of Participants:

CrazyKinux's Musing, EVE Blog Banter #8: Care for a little game of SecWars?
The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, Wow, that new thing is so shiny!!!
I am Keith Nielson, EVE Blog Banter #8 - Return of the Top Gun
Once More from the Beginning, 8th EVE Blog Banter May 2009 Edition
A merry life and a short one, EVE Blog Banter #8: In the Year of Our Awesome
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, Planets
Helicity Boson, Bantering the blog
Achernar, Unique adventures
Ecliptic Rift, OOC: EVE Blog Banter 8: Standings and secondary factions
The New Edener, EVE Blog Banter #8
Journey to New Eden, Eve Blog Banter #8: What new mechanic should be added to Eve?
One Man And His Spaceship, Blog Banter 8 - Something new to ponder about
Life, The Universe and Everything, Blog banter 8: mentorship
EVE Guru, EBB 8: Yarr! Prepare to be boarded!
The Ralpha Dogs, Greed Is Good, Greed Works
Rifter Drifter, Blog Banter 8: Strategic Gunnery
A Mule in EVE, Expanding EVE
Letrange's EvE Blog, 8th Blog Banter
Roc's Ramblings, Blog Banter #8
The Nude Nerd, Blog Banter #8
Scop's Log, Blog Banter #8: "We're caught in a tractor beam! It's pulling us in!"
Speed Fairy, EVE Blog Banter #8: Charisma Tanking
Industrialist with Teeth, EVE Blog Banter #8: It’s Like Tetris for OCD People
Diary of a Pod Pilot, EVE blog banter #8: Killing in the name of
Talk Unfraid, Physical Communications
Sceadugenca, EVE Blog Banter #8: Fighter-Class Ships and Sqadrons
Kyle Langdon's Journeys in EVE, 8th Blog Banter
Into the Unknown, Eve Blog Banter #8: Player Bases
EVE's Weekend Warrior, EVE Blog Banter #8
Life in Low Sec, Blog Banter #8: The Exasperation Factor
Symptom of a Greater Cure, EVE Blog Banter: #8 - Tug Me Away
EVE Journey, OOC - EVE Blog Banter #8: Marine Leader : “We have secured the ship, Sir!”
Thoughts from an Accidental Minmatar Revolutionary, All Hands on Deck! We are at War!

View the up to date list here.

008 - Lowsec, I like you.

2009-05-25T05:18:00.004+10:00

I rolled over with a groan, the movement causing a small avalanche of empty glass bottles to fall to the floor. Having blown a small fortune on lottery tickets, I had spent the last few days drowning my sorrows. I hadn't lost that much isk since I was addicted to underground minmatar children's boxing, a gentleman's sport if ever there was one.

Launching into space in my new Incursus The Green Nugget, I vowed to make myself feel better at the expense of others. After an uneventful tour partway around Essense highsec, tired of jumping into belts looking for can miners to harass, I decided to head once more to lowsec for my kicks.

Almost catching a Hulk in a belt in Vifrevaert renewed my determination to see something explode, several systems over I played warp in warp out games with an Atron. The pilot warping to a safe spot between a belt and a planet, I warped back and forth several times dropping bookmarks until to my surprise I managed to land 98km from their ship, only to see them warp away again before I could close the distance.

Passing back through Ladistier, a quick scan of the belts revealed a Catalyst and a Navitas. Both pilots had neglected to rename their ships and I quickly accessed their information via the local comms channel as I directed my ship toward the belt. SKINNYERIC1 was 8 days old and Logan 3393 only 4 days, excellent.

The asteroid belt streaked in focus, both pilots sat 50km from me surrounded by serpentis wrecks. Thinking back, I realise I should have bookmarked one of the closest wrecks, warped out and back in on top of them. But in single minded determination to see something explode I simply plotted a course, activated my afterburner, and floating in my goo repeated "Cmoooon... Cmmoooooooon" to myself while I slowly made my way toward them.

For what felt like an eternity neither pilot reacted. So close, almost there. Just a little further. Suddenly the Catalyst hurtled across the asteroid belt and escaped into warp, damnit! My targeting lock on the Navitas resolved and I activated my warp scrambler, GOTCHA! Remembering my drone this time, I let the small mechanical minion loose on the pinned frigate as my ion blasters began to sing. The Navitas exploded almost instantly offering no challenge whatsoever. I quickly scrambled the pod, hoping that by just pinning it in space for a while I could tempt the catalyst into returning.

Slowly orbiting the trapped pod, I detected a Wolf assault frigate enter scan range and decided it was probably a good time for me to make my exit. Should I let the pod go? Should I shoot it? What the hell, I'd already blown a new pilots ship out of space, lets really commit to this.

(notify) For participating in the podding of Logan 3393 your security status has been adjusted by -2.5000.

Making a quick escape as Tira Dread's Wolf entered the belt 50km away, I warped off to a nearby safe spot. Once my scanner showed the belt to be clear, I returned, looted the various ship wrecks and scooped the fresh corpse of my first victim into my cargo bay. I felt strangely at peace.

007 - Lowsec we meet again

2009-05-11T02:33:00.007+10:00

From my vantage point hidden between the asteroid belts, I swept my scanner carefully across the solar system of Adirain. A quick check of the local communications channel revealed 7 other pilots of varying ages, several of ill repute. My scanner isolated a lone Merlin at a nearby belt and I kicked my warp drive into gear. Within moments I landed 18km from Lion Silver's Merlin, engaging my afterburner I plotted a course directly toward him, ordered my targeting computer to establish a lock and primed my warp scrambler.

This action is an attack on your target. Attacking this target is a crime, will result in a security status penalty for you and will bring CONCORD to enforce the law by destroying your ship should you enter high-security space soon.

Do you wish to proceed with this dangerous action?

I had been expecting to encounter a pirate, but strangely the idea of shooting at a completely innocent civilian didn't deter me. Directing my ship into the tightest orbit it could manage, I opened fire with my ion blasters and activated my web. The Merlin's shields began taking noticeable damage as he laid his own warp disruptor and stasis webifier onto me.

Trading blows with the Merlin, we orbited each other so closely our hulls almost met. My shields vanished far quicker than my enemies and I began cycling my armor repairer. With his ship being of Caldari design, I guessed he would be stronger in the shield department and if I could just break through it, I may have a chance. Without warning large chunks of armor were torn from my ship, Stonecold Tyrannosaurus's Cormorant destroyer had also locked onto me. The goo in the lower half of my pod suddenly got warmer.

Where had this new assailant come from? Had I completely missed him in my rush to pin down the Merlin or had he just warped in? I couldn't be sure, and it really didn't matter now. Fires broke out all over my ship as the small armor repairer struggled to cope with the onslaught. A Thorax cruiser piloted by Gwydion Voleur landed in the belt, any hopes of him coming to my aid were quickly dashed as he added his own warp disruptor to my stricken craft. Borrowed Time exploded just as the Merlin lost the last sliver of it's shields.

As my pod rolled through warp to safety, I realised I had completely forgotten to deploy my single drone. I offered up a "good fight" in the public comms channel, but the locals ignored me and began chatting amongst themselves. My wallet flashed, alerting me to the deposit of my insurance, upon inspection I realised I had more isk than I should, 75 million more; my daredevil blueprint had sold.

I would see someone else blow up sooner or later, now I could afford to be persistent.

006 - Lucky Incursus

2009-05-01T22:50:00.027+10:00

Taking a few steps back I kicked as hard as I could, Nope no good. A few more steps and I had a slight run up. Still didn't make it. I walked back several meters, then taking a few long strides I jumped down onto it as hard as I could.

*CRACK*

"HEY!" screamed a nearby hanger mechanic, "What the hell are you doing?" he asked walking briskly towards me.

"Fitting a warp scrambler, what does it look like?" I replied as I lined up for another jump.

"Wait a minute, let me help" he said, surveying the equipment I had already installed on my new Incursus, "That is never going to fit in there".

"Sure it is, we both just need to jump on it at once".

After I'd promised never to fit modules with that method again, the helpful mechanic spoke to me about the various skills I could train to better utilise my ships CPU and power grid. He also informed me that the named Tech1 modules often had lower fitting costs allowing for even more flexibility in fits, which could be extremely helpful for newer pilots.

A short time later I was gliding through space on Borrowed Time's maiden voyage. I had managed to fit an 'Initiated Harmonic Warp Scrambler I' by the narrowest margin and with no jumping involved.

Eager to get a feel for my new ship I jumped into a random asteroid belt in my current system of Arraron, a strange vessel warped into the belt. The bounty was huge for a ship of its class and it had several guards flying escort. I wasted no time in locking it, activating my three Ion blaster's and unleashing my single drone.

It wasn't long before the craft exploded in a glorious fireball, I scooped up its loot quickly in case one of the other locals entered the belt.

Score!

A rare blueprint copy for a Daredevil pirate faction frigate. A strange split weapon system ship with bonuses to microwarp drive and small hybrid turret damage. I inspected the average price on contracts and realised I could fit roughly 70 of my incursus for the same price. Listing the blueprint for sale, I decided if it didn't sell, one day when I had the appropriate skills, I would build and fly it.

005 - First trip to lowsec

2009-04-30T03:27:00.028+10:00

The Adirain gate transmitted a warning message to my Atron's computer, I was about to enter a section of space that was not patrolled by the local authorities. Ignoring the warning I initiated the jump.

Arriving in Adirain only 2 other pilots registered on the local communications channel, one disappearing almost immediately. I instructed my ship to make a jump to the nearest asteroid belt as I opened the directional scanner and began to familiarise myself with its controls.

Landing in the belt I activated my afterburner and hurtled towards the two serpentis rats, orbited, locked and fired. Pulling up the information on the other pilot still in system I discovered that Seth Godan had a positive security status and had been granted his pilots license only a few days before me.

I had come to lowsec expecting nothing but grizzled veterans fitted out in tech2 ships, instantly blasting any young pilot into a cloning bay. My purpose for being here was only to survive as long as I could, attempt to evade any pod pilot combat and practice using my scanner in a more hostile environment. At best I hoped to learn a few things, at worst I would be cashing in the insurance on this little ship.

The first serpentis frigate quickly became a pile of wreckage floating in space, I trained my weapons onto the remaining ship and plotted an orbit around the small craft. Suddenly my directional scanner picked up a Vexor cruiser near my location, I quickly instructed my navigation computer to align to the closest planet as the Vexor landed a distance away from me in the centre of the belt. My overview indicated he had begun locking onto my ship, the Vexor spat a small flight of drones into space. I hit the warp button and was out of there before a single shot was fired.

While in warp I noticed two more pod pilots had registered on the local comms, both from a corporation called The Tuskers, Ka Jolo and Aldour Larrt. Their security rating leaving no doubt they were pirates. Warping to 100KM off the Aeschee gate my overview began flashing red, alerting me to Ka Jolo sitting on the gate.

"Ooo blinky" I announced stupidly into local, burning away from the gate and watching the distance between our ships. Without a word Ka Jolo warped off, I sat there for several moments before aligning back to the Arnon gate. This was probably not the best place to sit, I thought as I started adjusting the settings on my directional scanner with growing apprehension. My overview blinked madly, Ka Jolo and Aldour Larrt had warped straight on top of my position.

Warp drive active.

Without firing a shot I'd had two of my most exciting encounters since getting my pilots license. I jumped into Arnon and made my way through several highsec systems before jumping back into lowsec at Lisbaetanne. I spent the next 20 minutes jumping around the various lowsec systems nearby practicing with my scanner, looking at the locals names and even saw a shootout between a large group of ships at a gate in Old Man Star.

Eventually I found myself in Hervice, a small system bordering highsec. Aldour Larrt registered on local and it occured to me that I'd paid no attention at all to what ship types he and Ka Jolo had been flying earlier. Warping into the single asteroid belt that was far from everything else in the solar system, I engaged the serpentis and began scanning again.

It wasn't long before my computer detected a Rifter approaching, I started aligning to make my escape. The serpentis had taken my shields and I was already well into armor, I knew I wouldn't be able to put up a fight against this experienced pirate even if he gave me a headstart into his structure. The rifter shot into the belt as I engaged my engines.

Warp drive active.

Your capacitor is empty.

My atron lurched into warp for the shortest jump on record, I had left my armor repairer on for too long and completely drained my capacitor, damnit!. I had made it just far enough away from the Rifter that he could warp right on top of me, yet not so far away that I was out of range of his overview. Within seconds I was locked and my warp engines were scrambled.

Mdih Lihu > uhoh

Aldour Larrt > :)

It only took a few seconds for his autocannons to reduce my ship to scrap, my pod making it safetly into warp.

Aldour Larrt > gf

Mdih Lihu > haha wasnt much of a fight really but I do like explosions, even if they are my own :D

Mdih Lihu > seeya

Aldour Larrt > o/

I will defintly be spending more time in this strange place called lowsec, hopefully I can make something beside myself blow up. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go buy a new ship.

004 - Clones and Corporate change

2009-04-29T20:44:00.024+10:00

It had been a surprisingly good few days in Arnon, the Sisters of EVE were not the crusty old habit wearing nuns I had been expecting. The missions they had given me resulted in a satisfactory number of explosions and good pay.

A highlight for me during one of their missions had been seeing some of the largest ships I'd encountered, their huge wrecks apparently created by the same evil CONCORD that had cost me my first Velator.

Reclining in a chair in the local cafe I leafed through a magazine that had been left on the table by a previous occupant, in amongst the "sell order" section I came across an interesting service another New Eden capsuleer called Estel Arador was offering at no cost.

I had heard of jump clone technology before, their purpose being to enable you to jump from one side of the universe to the other in an instant, or to protect expensive implants by jumping into a different clone before entering a situation in which losing your pod is likely.

While I had nowhere I needed to jump to and not a single implant in need of protecting, the idea of something for nothing was too appealing to pass up. Within minutes my little Atron was in space and en route to the nearest 'Estel Arador Corp Services' office only a few jumps away.

I filled in my corporation application and only several minutes later I was accepted. A quick transfer of 100,000isk to the stations medical personnel and my jump clone was ready to err.. jump. I thanked Estel Arador for his services and resisted my strange impulse to tell him I had an aunt called Estel.

Upon leaving his corporation I was shocked to discover I was automatically made a member of Aliastra, a two bit retail company that sold god knows what. What had happened to my membership with the Center for Advanced Studies?

What did I ever do to those sons of bitches?

003 - The Military

2009-04-20T01:34:00.001+10:00

"I hate you and I never want to see you again!" I yelled as I hurled the stack of learning books into the roaring fire. Warming my hands I wondered what could lay in my future? What path shall I take? What strange wonders did this universe contain? What was that loud beeping sound?

The emergency crew extinguished the inferno that had once been my living quarters, I then suffered through their condescending lecture "If we wanted our students to have fires in their quarters, they would have fire places" before I made my way to a public terminal to check my messages.

While industry and business were of no interest to me, the prospect of joining the military division grabbed my attention immediately, as did Seville's fancy looking shades. It didn't take long for me to pack my few remaining singed possessions aboard my new Velator "Facemask II" and clumsily pilot the few jumps to my new home.

Seville's eye wear was everything I hoped it would be, I was so distracted by them I almost forgot to pay attention to his mission briefing. A small group of Serpentis pirates had been harassing miners in the local asteroid belt, it was my job to put a stop to it.

I worked for Seville for the rest of the day, rescuing kidnapped miners from floating cargo containers, retrieving stolen documents, investigating hidden star gates and tangling with a slippery Serpentis star ship captain known as Wolf, who even attempted to sway me to his side to help sling his deadly space smack.

While the offer was highly tempting, in the last few hours I had become addicted to a drug of my own...

OFFER DENIED MR WOLF.

I was rewarded handsomely for my days work, receiving several new piloting related skill books, modules to outfit my ships, even new Atron and Tristan class frigates. But I was only getting started, I had a taste for combat now. I lived for the rush of turning my opponent's ships into space dust.

I swaggered back into Seville's office, "I have been victorious" I announced to the room, placing my fists on my hips.

Seville Eyron looked up from cleaning his glasses with a beach towel "I have no more work for you." he said before returning to what he was doing.

I was stunned, I was a hero. A man of noble character, I had turned down Mr Wolfs offer of quick riches, drugs, space hoes and more than likely an abundance of explosions.. and for what?!

"Oh wait" said Seville, once again looking up "If you need work, go see the Sisters of EVE in Arnon".

"Space nuns?" I asked in surprise, "You're suggesting I work for space nuns?".

I wonder if Mr Wolf's clone would be forgiving.

002 - Learning to learn to learn

2009-04-06T12:10:00.010+10:00

It was moving slowly when I first spotted it, I was amazed by its size. Something with that much mass would collapse a wormhole in a single jump, was my first thought. The sizable bulk maneuvered awkwardly around the obstacles in its path, as it brought its attention to bear on me.

"Can I help you sir?", asked the heavyset woman behind the counter.

Quickly replacing the look of disgust on my face with a lopsided grin I stepped forward and produced my 'Center for Advanced Studies' student identification card. "Yes, I'm here to collect some books that have been put aside for me".

Snatching the card from my grasp like it was the last sugar filled snack in New Eden, she studied it for a moment with her huge bulbous eyes before telling me to "Wait here", she lumbered off through a small door that barely allowed her ample frame to pass.

"What the hell is this?" I asked in shock when she finally returned, dumping a stack of books in front of me. "Learning? Spatial awareness? Empathy?" I was plenty empathetic enough I thought, as I watched the fat pig struggle to regain her breath from the harrowing ordeal of carrying a few books.

"They're learning books" she panted, "Studying them will increase your ability to learn other things faster, a lot of students spend their entire first semester just studying these before moving into other fields".

The next morning when I awoke, I was still trying to get my head around this strange learning book concept. I could ignore them completely I thought, instead focusing the full effort of my studies on whatever career path I pleased. Knowing full well that it would slow down my overall progress along the way.

Lying next to me, the heavyset woman snorted in her sleep and threw her meaty arm across my chest. "No" I thought, as I felt her multitude of chins press up against my neck, "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to, a means to an end". As with a great many things in this universe, it came down to personal choice. Leaning over, I reached out for one of the books stacked next to the bed.

001 - Kaboom

2009-04-05T01:59:00.003+11:00

A large rotating asteroid loomed in the forward view port as I guided my small spacecraft in a tight orbit around the prey, my vision momentarily blinded as another salvo of blaster fire made contact with his large and threatening looking hull. Large chunks of hot debris began to occupy the space between our vessels before a sudden bright flash lit up the black of space. My comms console began blinking a message.

"You're an idiot."

My pod sat amongst the wreckage of my destroyed Velator while the Iteron mark IV industrial ship continued to attack the asteroids with its deadly mining lasers. The local authorities I had discovered were prompt, efficient and had reduced my security status to -0.15.

As my pod jumped into warp and raced towards the nearest space station, I realised the most important thing I had learnt today. I really, really liked watching things explode.