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Tender Games Preparations

Solitude Region – Orvanne Constellation
Aeter System

14 April YC 122

Two weeks of laid-back rustic life in Aeter bored me enough, to say nothing about Aura who, of all systems, preferred Jita. Besides, it was time to start preparations to Signal Cartel’s Tender Games. So in the morning I loaded the loot into Nosuri’s cargo hold, said good-bye to Federation Navy Station and undocked.

“It was good while it lasted but I don’t fancy returning here in future. Ever,” said I throwing the last glance at the station.

“I wouldn’t be so confident,” scoffed Aura. “With your luck you may visit this place more often than you think.”

“Ha! Is it an official route prediction by the navigational AI?”

“No, it’s an observation of an experienced woman who shared this gel-filled blob with you for months!” Continue reading “Tender Games Preparations”

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Great Cosmic Balance

Ruined Sansha Monument
C-R00015 Region – C-C00147 Constellation
J132907 System

31 March YC 122

After my unfortunate attempt to appropriate an unanchored starbase I continued my travels through Anoikis. The intent was the same – maintain caches and make money from exploration sites. Jumping through a near-dead wormhole I found myself in Class 3 system J132907. Having tended the cache and parked Nosuri at a safe spot, I opened the probe window and gasped.

“Look at that, Aura!” exclaimed I. Continue reading “Great Cosmic Balance”

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How to Return a Stolen Starbase

30 March YC 122

After the adrenaline rush of starbase extraction operation subsided I finally had time to think it over. Although I agreed with Aura’s argument that the unanchored structure had to be removed from space I was still not sure that it was right to appropriate it. And I mean right in the Credo sense, not by the rules of CONCORD who are too shy to poke their noses into Anoikis. For some time I played with an idea of not telling anyone what happened but quite soon I realised that the nagging desire to get some kind of closure, be it exoneration or condemnation, was not going away. There was only one way to resolve this – consult my corp mates who lived by the Credo longer than I. And so I wrote a post on the corp forum explaining the situation, my take on it, and asking for advice. Continue reading “How to Return a Stolen Starbase”

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How to Steal a Starbase

Small Caldari Control Tower

29 March YC 122

Having assembled a new Buzzard, I called it Nosuri II and continued my exploration trip. Ejahi, a hi-sec system next to Jarizza had a wormhole which took me back to Anoikis. I jumped through three systems, tended a couple of caches and finally arrived to Class 4 J123458 system. As usual, I ran the first scan with combat probes and found a lonely starbase. Warping to the location I inspected the structure; it belonged to Wormhole Surfers of Eve. Having noted it in the ship’s logbook, I was going to warp back to the safe spot when Aura stopped me.

“Vlad, wait a moment,” said she.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s unanchored!”

“What is?”

“The control tower,” explained Aura and pointed at the structure’s bracket on the HUD.

“So?”

“So we can take it!”

“How do you take a starbase?” wondered I. “I thought they could only be blown up once they were assembled.” Continue reading “How to Steal a Starbase”

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No Thanks Between Friends

Derelik Region – Oraron Constellation
Jarizza System – Ammatar Consulate Bureau Station
Valhalla Bar

25 March YC 122

I was sitting in Valhalla Bar and nursing a drink when I received a call from Yakub.

“Hi mate! Where are you? Are you in Jarizza?” I asked impatiently.

“Erm… Not exactly. I am in Madirmilire,” said Yakub in a strained voice.

“What are you doing there?”

“Um… Getting a new corvette.”

“Why do you need a corvette?” said I, confused. Then I remembered my recent experience and got a sinking feeling in my stomach, “What happened?”

“Um… I was ganked,” replied Yakub averting his eyes. Continue reading “No Thanks Between Friends”

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No Free Ride

Derelik Region – Oraron Constellation
Jarizza System

25 March YC 122

Triglavians… A mysterious race with a predilection for triangles and indiscriminate slaughter. They were causing quite a stir recently but I was still catching up on the latest happenings after five months in solitary confinement. Never thought that I would become their target, at least not in a quiet hi-sec system.

I turned to Aura, “Hey, how come there was no system invasion banner from CONCORD?”

She shrugged, “Dunno. There is anecdotal evidence that Trigs also appear in systems with an emerging conduit. Their lighter ships, like Damavik, may be able to pass through before it is fully formed.”

“And is there such conduit in Jarizza?”

“Can’t say. Our probe scanner window filtered out anomalies. If you want to check we’ll have to undock.”

“That we will, but first,” I made a finger gun and pretended that I was shooting at the overview settings checkbox labelled ‘Invading Precursor Entities’.

“Are you gonna fight them?” asked Aura, astonished.

“Nah, just want to put them on the overview,” replied I and ticked the box. “Besides, we need some kind of ship to salvage the wreck.”

I knocked on the capsule’s silicate glass wall attracting the attention of the technician.

He turned to me, smirked and mouthed, “Another one?”

I smiled apologetically in response. Continue reading “No Free Ride”

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YC 122 New Eden Capsuleer’s Writing Contest

A lot of things have happened since 25 March that I would like to write about but instead I decided to focus on my first ever fiction story. You see, there is an annual Capsuleer’s Writing Contest which I’ve been following for a few years. There were fascinating stories that I enjoyed reading and eventually I thought that I would like to write one myself. It took me two years to gather courage, find time and run out of excuses. Finally, my submission for YC 122 New Eden Capsuleer’s Writing Contest is ready. The story is called The Lesser of Evils. Wish me luck.

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An Invisible Enemy

Crumbling Sansha Antiquated Outpost in Jarizza
Derelik Region – Oraron Constellation
Jarizza System

25 March YC 122

Jarizza had just two signatures – one of them was a wormhole and another was Crumbling Sansha Antiquated Outpost.

“What do you think, Aura?” asked I, “Should we go straight to the wormhole or check out that relic site first?”

“Hi-sec relic sites are a waste of time,” replied she. “Even data sites are more profitable here. I would jump through the hole.”

“Yeah, that’s true. On the other hand, we haven’t had much luck in Anoikis. This may not be the most lucrative mission but at least it will pay for that Gallentean sparkling. Besides, I’ve never seen a Sansha outpost.”

“Oh, this one is crumbling and antiquated. If you want to see a real one I can get you in touch with a Sansha agent,” winked Aura.

“No, thank you. I am afraid I am not ready to bend the knee before Master Kuvakei. This individuality thing, you know, still possesses a certain attraction for me.” Continue reading “An Invisible Enemy”

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Day Job

Anoikis

25 March YC 122

The last few days I spent jumping from one Anoikis system to another. To my surprise the journey was uneventful in all respects.

For one thing, no one killed me or even tried to. There were no gate camps and no bubbles but even without them entering a new J-space system was one of the most dangerous parts of a journey through Anoikis. That was where I had to appear ‘naked’, without a cloak, even if for the briefest of moments. And it took me some time, after my initial underwhelming performance,  to make sure that that moment was indeed the briefest. Eventually I settled into a routine which was done almost automatically: bookmark the wormhole exit, bring up the system map, choose a celestial, start the warp and activate the cloaking device. All that took less that 15 seconds, so I never lost my gate cloak until I started moving, and after that the CovOps cloaking device made sure that my Buzzard flashed its tender flesh for less than a second. If there were any wannabe hunters, they would have had hard time even acquiring a target lock on me, to say nothing about attacking.

Being not just a traveller but an explorer I was also exposed to a potential assault while I was hacking containers at data and relic sites but that risk too did not materialise. That could probably be explained by an interesting (or, depending on your point of view, boring) fact – I didn’t see many pirate exploration sites where I could have been ambushed. By the way, Aura and I had finally figured out the classification of Anoikis cosmic signatures – if a site had a pirate faction included in its name then it was an unguarded remainder of their base; if a faction was not mentioned, then, no matter how innocent the name sounded, it was a Sleeper camp defended by an armada of bloodthirsty drones. So it happened that most relic and data sites I found were those ‘unprotected’ and ‘forgotten’ Sleeper bases which I, naturally, avoided. Continue reading “Day Job”

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The Big Scary Outdoors

Anoikis – Region B-R00005
Constellation B-C00037 – System J150859
Cosmic Signature SEZ-118 – Central Angel Sparking Transmitter

16 March YC 122

After uncloaking I kind of froze, scared to look away from the overview where I expected to see an Astero any second now. I stared at the overview, then ran D-scan, checked overview again, and another D-scan, rotated the camera drones to visually check the surroundings, back to overview… Seconds dropped one by one and morphed into minutes, and I was still waiting, waiting for…

“Boo!” suddenly said Aura.

If I wasn’t suspended in pod goo I would probably jump and injure myself. In reality, I thrashed my arms and legs wildly as if I was drowning, which apparently was entertaining to behold, as Aura laughed heartily.

I’ve stopped my attempts to break out of the capsule and asked indignantly, “Why would you do that? You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Still snickering, Aura replied, “You should have seen yourself. You looked like a cat who spent all his life in a safety of an apartment and then was suddenly kicked out to the big scary outdoors.” Continue reading “The Big Scary Outdoors”