I Only Fly Gallente...

...or at least I used to. As a Gallente pilot I naturally understand that Gallente designed ships are the most beautiful and well designed ships available in New Eden. The problem seems to be that style over function is sub-optimal logic when choosing a particular ship for flying around dangerous areas of unknown space.

These days I am more often found flying in Caldari designed ships. My justification to allow my morals to slip was that in times of danger you should use the best tools available to you. Living in wormhole space means my time is largely dangerous.

It was a gradual change to Caldari ships. The initial catalyst came in the class 2 wormhole system we used to occupy. I had an double-rep armour Myrmidon set up to fight against Sleepers. I could run sites with one other person but found that if they needed to warp out for some reason I would struggle to tank the damage. I was aware others could solo these sites in their Drake so I took a look at some fits. At the same time another Gallente pilot with weaker morals than me went and bought a Drake and we worked on the fitting for it together. The other pilot reported such a world of difference between the two ships that it became hard for me to ignore the potential gains to be had by switching. Even if the ship I was switching to looks like a piece or armour blasted off a supercap ship.

Self-propelled armour plating from a capital ship?

I slipped further when I was asking for recommendations for a ship to use in combat against other capsuleers. I was told in no uncertain terms that I should go for a Drake at battlecruiser sizes. Around this time I found myself in Empire space so just went out and bought one without thinking. I was still running sites in my Myrm, but everyone else was in Drakes and I had relaxed my guard enough for it to become a no-brainer.

On our move to the new class 4 wormhole system I completed the transformation. I added a new Drake for running sites and did not bring my Myrm with me. The Myrm is stashed with all my other Gallente ships gathering dust in a hanger somewhere in Sinq Laison. I do have access to an Iteron in our class 4 so I can relax in comfort. No matter how much better the Drake is for actually earning ISK, style is always something we Gallente require to truly relax.

Visions Of New Eden - IV

Orca Pilots do it slowly

Align times greater than 20 seconds upset me. Align times more than double that deeply disturb me. Thus I do not fly an Orca. If I did, I imagine I would need lots of pretty nebulae to stare at during the glacial align times.

CTA - II

Returning my attention to the goings on in the system I was surprised to see comms very active again. Surely the battle hadn't resumed on the customs office already? Reinforced state wasn't due to end for over two hours. What was going on?

It turned out that our new neighbours were a little bit feisty. They'd already scored an easy kill when one of the other corp member accidentally drifted from the POS bubble (don't ask). Now we were scrapping near our POS. I jumped in to switched from my cloaky scanner to an appropriately fit Drake. Unfortunately I was too late to the party and, after losing a Drake each, our friendly neighbours warped off.

So, now the question was: Is this a coincidence or a diversionary tactic from the customs office fight?

With more corp members turning their attention to the shenanigans occurring in our system we were now able to put a proper fleet together. I was glad of the chance to take the covers off my shiny new Basilisk, although being the first time I'd flow logistics I was a little nervous. The fleet warped off to the wormhole connection to the neighbouring system harbouring our new friends. Our attention was mainly focussed on the customs office timer but we were meant to be on fleet manoeuvres anyway. Instead of dividing into teams we might as well try and have a real scrap.

We formed up and held on our side of the wormhole waiting for any action. A couple of times the neighbours jumped in and back out immediately, trying to bait us through. But we had another job to take care of and after hanging around for a while and getting nowhere we headed off to reorganise.

After making sure we all knew the game plan, and with the customs office timer almost at zero, we warped off to meet whatever may come. As soon as we landed we set to repairing the shields on the customs office and waited for any offensive action to occur...

Orea's first Logi chain

...and waited.

...and waited. All the while repairing the shields on the customs office. Once they hit a good percentage we felt safe to leave it to naturally recharge.

All this build up and almost nobody to shoot. A bit of an anti-climax but a good outcome none the less. For a training exericise it was probably as good as it gets. We formed a good fleet, worked on comms discipline and flew under an FC who is pretty much new to us in that role. It all went well. Now we're wondering if it was all just a setup by the security team to shake us down.

CTA - I

I was awoken by excited comms chatter. Normally I tune out completely but for some reason I hadn't this time. Oh well, guess I'll see what's up... Really? Someone attacked a customs office and it's now in a reinforced state? Okay, guess we'll be ready for the killing blow if it comes.

As it happens this was occurring over several days where we had scheduled fleet operations anyway so switching to live ammo wasn't really a problem. It would also give those amongst us who had no fleet experience the best possible environment for learning in - the deep end.

Our customs office was set to come out of the reinforced state early the following evening giving us plenty of time to form up, discuss tactics and generally get ourselves sorted. We scheduled the formal assembly for a short time before the reinforcement timer would end. I fell asleep that night with the taste of battle in my mouth, or maybe it was pod goo given my choice to sleep out of the tower that night.

The following day there was a tangible quality in the air. The rest of the corp were relaxed and yet also tense in their own way. No matter what else was discussed, one thing was certain - we would turn up and fight to defend our space. Thus far we had no need to defend any private customs offices. We built them in the aftermath of Interbus' ill advised deal with CONCORD and they had remained untouched. I guess we all knew this time would come but living out in a wormhole means structure affecting combat is rare unless someone really wants to move you on.

In preparation for the battle ahead I took myself off to a quite corner of the system and engaged in some quiet introspection. Yes I am essentially immortal but that doesn't shake my attachment to a given clone. I had shared a journey with this particular clone for many months now and it was, um, comfortable. And in any case, getting a route back into the home system can be a real pain in the arse.

Battle would come later: Now was for meditation.

Promotion

It seems someone had spotted me massaging tech 2 ammo profit numbers for my friend Dhal whilst hanging around the mess hall. What started as a simple complement about me being organised with spreadsheets quickly escalated to something entirely different. As of a few days ago I was elevated to the lofty heights of being a C-suite corp member. My remit? I am to look after finances as the corp CFO.

Interesting challenge accepted.

I quickly set to work checking out the standard set of tools provided by my corporation to manage the ISK flow. I couldn't find anything useful which would display anything other than a vast vomit of numbers; an archaic sorting list of charge types, most of which I've never seen used; and no way to filter out items I wasn't interested in. Oh well, time to create my own tools.

So far I've spent several hours mirroring the relevant data stored in our creaking finances database into my own, vastly more performant database. I now have the ability to view the things I am interested in, hide the things I'm not, and pretend the whole thing takes longer than it actually does.

Well, I'm still working on that last item. I need to do something about a pretty interface, but that can wait.

Guess I'll be spending more time in the POS shuffling numbers around. Oh crap, I forgot to ask about a salary...

Visions Of New Eden - III

The wreck of 'Steve'

'Steve' was the first Titan launched in New Eden and also the first Titan to be destroyed. Lasting only 4 months of the year YC 108 'Steve' was destroyed in the nullsec system of C9N-CC. Intrepid explorers interested in a little bit of danger can still fly out to visit the wreck as I did recently to capture this wonderful image.

Sometimes you shouldn't think

Sometimes, when it's quiet in system and all of my corp mates are otherwise engaged, I stare at the stars and the galaxies I see. I imagine only sub-light travel and to journey amongst these pricks of light would take an eternity. And if my wormhole should close forever I would be stuck, alone, with no hope of rescue.

Sometimes I can almost taste the desperation that must have been present in the first days, weeks, months and years of the closing of the original EVE Gate wormhole. As those pioneering forces realised their route back to Old Earth and home was gone forever.

Sometimes I like to wonder how life would have been shaped if the cataclysmic closing had not occurred. Would innovation under less trialing times have taken us as far? Further? Extinction? Would life still be so violent? Would I still be essentially eternal?

But then the feeling passes. I accept my chosen life and immortality. My unencumbered travel possibilities and violent tendencies. I look to my companions and realise I will never be alone.