Month: December 2018

The Forge Region – Ruomo Constellation
Itamo System

30 December YC 120

Today, next thing after breakfast I went to Annukka’s office with a hope of getting a mission. I was eager to try out my new ship in a battle.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Annukka greeted me. “Did you like your last mission reward?”

“It’s awesome. Thanks heaps! I called it Ampuhaukka.”

“Ooh, cute. My gramps used to hunt with one of those!”

“Did he? I thought the art of falconry was long lost, but there you go. By the way, talking about hunting, the bird’s got a name but it needs proper baptism by fire, if you know what I mean,” winked I. Continue reading “The Importance of Being Thorough”

The Forge Region – Ruomo Constellation
Itamo System

28 December YC 120

Annukka’s information was correct – there was just one drone in the area. I had never seen that kind of Seeker before; it was called Pacekeeper, and I soon found out why. All my attempts to get into the fall-off range of my Gatling Railgun, to say nothing about the optimal, were thwarted by the swift drone. It easily kept the distance of 8-9 kilometres and was pummelling me with missiles. The afterburner didn’t help either; even when my speed increased to 545 m/s I couldn’t get into 5,000 m orbit. Frustrated, I overheated the afterburner and squeezed 641 m/s out of Yatagarasu. The only outcome of that decision was 46-percent damaged afterburner, while the Pacekeeper continued chipping away at my shields. Ibis’s shortcomings were getting more and more obvious with each new mission.

Continue reading “A Rift in Space”

The Forge Region – Ruomo Constellation
Itamo System

28 December YC 120

After selling ‘Absolute’ Injection Augmentor I spent a whole day studying Caldari frigates catalogue and comparing their specs and bonuses. It was hard to choose one because I didn’t know what I actually needed. I realised that I simply wanted a new shiny ship, a new toy which was cooler than my corvette. At the same time, I didn’t really need one because when it came to bashing Seeker drones Yatagarasu was doing a commendable job. After much toing and froing, I decided to put the matter on ice until I actually had some requirements.

Then I got a call from Annukka.

“Hello, love,” she started in her familiar tone (which I didn’t really object to), “I know you are fond of missions with cool names. What do you say about one called Ancient Mysteries?” Continue reading “Ancient Mysteries”

You might be wondering what I was doing all that time between the visit to Blood Raiders and my last mission. Believe me or not, I was studying. Yes, there are certain skills that still can’t be injected into the brain and can only be learned through experience; skills like trading. I don’t mean Trade skill which gives an ability to place and track more market orders. The number of orders one can place simply increases the number of opportunities to make money, but the amount of money made from each opportunity depends on how, when and where the orders are placed. And this information can’t be found in skillbooks.

Continue reading “Learning the Trade”

The Forge Region – Ruomo Constellation
Itamo System

26 December YC 120

Today Annukka contacted me and said that CONCORD thought the seekers were building new complexes in the Caldari State space. They scanned down a suspicious site and wanted me to investigate it. The mission was called Measuring the Threat.

“What, just go there, take a look and get back?” I asked sarcastically.

“I told you not to pay attention to the mission names; they are silly. CONCORD doesn’t pay for leisure trips. Take your railgun with you,” replied Annukka.

Continue reading “Measuring the Threat”

14 December YC 120

I was making my way home and chatting with Aura when I was thunderstruck by the name of the next gate – it was Ashmarir! After saying good-bye to Behrooz I was so desperate to leave the Blood Raiders station as quickly as possible that I completely forgot to include Ashmarir into the avoidance list. And now I was staring at the gate that was leading to a system where two kills were registered not three hours ago. Continue reading “Damned Ashmarir”

Delve Region – XPJ1-6 Constellation
KFIE-Z System – Planet III, Moon 7
Blood Raiders Assembly Plant

14 December YC 120

When I entered the station I was surprised by how normal everything looked. To think about it, I was deep in the null-sec space, in a station owned by a pirate faction which was famous for harvesting human blood from their victims. At the same time, I was surrounded by ordinary-looking people, mostly Amarrians dressed in their traditional gold-coloured garments but with a vermilion tint, who went about their business without paying me any attention. After some time I noticed that they were very carefully not paying attention to me. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was an outsider or a capsuleer, but that made me uncomfortable. I decided to finish my business as quickly as possible and get back home. In the station directory I found the place where the hacker lived and took a lift to his level.

Continue reading “Babe, Where Have You Been?”

14 December YC 120

Every capsule is equipped with NEOCOM which can plan the route between any two star systems in k-space. It is good enough only if your journey takes you through the hi-sec. For routes which venture away from the CONCORD-enforced “safety” I found a better service in The Net – DOTLAN. When it came to route planning it did pretty much the same job as NEOCOM, but its major advantage was an ability to show ship kills in every star system along the route. Any low-sec or null-sec system with non-zero kills in the last three hours potentially harboured a gate camp and had to be avoided.

When I first used DOTLAN to plan the fastest route between Itamo and KFIE-Z I was stunned by the sheer scale of my endeavour – I had to make 40 jumps through seven regions! Me who had spent all my capsuleer career in The Forge. This is what my journey would look like.

Continue reading “A Trip To The Null-Sec”

The Forge Region – Ruomo Constellation
Itamo System – Planet VI, Moon 6
Science and Trade Institute School Station

Okay, I didn’t go straight away to Blood Raiders’ station. In fact, as soon as I asked Aura to plot the way to their system I freaked out and told her to get me back to Science and Trade Institute School. There I went to a bar and ordered a stein of beer to calm my nerves.

Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking…

I hadn’t felt so conflicted since Gerhardt offered me a referral to capsuleer training. I just couldn’t make up my mind as to what I wanted to do. On the one hand, I was getting tired of Aura’s robotic responses and I didn’t look forward to spending an eternity in her company. On the other hand, plenty of capsuleers, probably all but one, put up with their Auras for years without whingeing. Then again, on the one hand, if I had an opportunity to make Aura a better companion, why wouldn’t I do it? On the other hand, what was the rush? Surely, I could wait for a while, train some skills, buy a better ship and venture into the null-sec better prepared than now. I would miss Gerhardt’s one million ISK offer but that was just a loan anyway. Hmm… I ordered another stein. Continue reading “To Be, Or Not To Be And Then To Be Again”

The Forge Region – Ruomo Constellation
Itamo System – Asteroid Belt I
An Abandoned Mining Colony

It seems there is always work for capsuleers – every time I ask Annukka about a mission she always has one for me. That day the mission had a mysterious name “The Abandoned Colony”. I had to visit the site of a former asteroid mining colony and destroy all Seekers which for some reason were constantly present in that area.

The mission was pretty routine – three waves of Seekers, Circadians and Retainers, expectedly perished under the fire from my Gatling Railgun.

Continue reading “Trouble at the Mine”