A Memoir from Space

“Wait… what?”. Not my most articulate response, I know. Had I not been talking directly with the proverbial horse, I wouldn’t believe it,

“It’s true buddy, we are packing our bags and moving to 0.0″, my CEO calmly replied. JohnPaulJones was a good guy. Recruiting me from very early on in my pod piloting days, I had grown very fond of him. Supplying me with knowledge, ISK, ships, help, and saving my ass a few times tends to do that. “We aren’t sure EXACTLY which system we will be setting up in, or which alliance we will be buddying up with, but first thing is first, and that is getting our tower and carriers out of this wormhole”.

Ah, I could already tell this would be a problem. While a nice guy, Jones was very stubborn at times, and easily irritated. More of the blow them up and ask questions never kind of guy. He was more than likely to open up a private comm with a 0.0 director and ask “Wanna be friends?… No? Fuck you” -beep- I knew he would be hellbent on keeping our current alliance intact, and the 0.0 alliances would want us to disband and join theirs. Not having any other Alliances with blue standings to us didn’t help either. Thankfully for all of us, Masamunesky was taking care of diplomatic relations. Masa, like Jones, was a good guy. Much more of a smart ass, but the Corp loved him for it, and anything you needed him to do got done.

As exciting as this would sound to others, my first thoughts were of apprehension. I was well aware of the dangers or 0.0; the constant war for territory, huge Alliances dropping fleets of Capitals on ill-prepared victims, “Steamrolling” them, if you will. On top of questionable mental preparation, there was my hangar to think about. At the time, the only ships I had to fly were an Apocalypse, a Drake, a Purifier, a Hookbill, and a Vengeance, and the Apocalypse was currently optimized for taking on the mysterious sleepers I had become familiar with.  I would have to ask my engineering crew the time they would need to refit my pride and glory for a more appropriate sniper set up.

Then the questions of who we would ally ourselves plagued my thoughts. For all we knew, Valhalla Strategic Command could be obliterated in one fell swoop by our own “friends”. We may be the next victim of the constant blood bath in 0.0 before we even get to taste it! This was likely, taking into account the recent flood of Corporations staking their claim in o.o recently.

“I know what you are thinking”, John interjected, snapping me back into the present. “This isn’t my first time dealing with null sec. I am going to make this work. Trust me”. He was right. I was letting my characteristically pessimistic side get a hold of me. I did trust John. I would follow him to the edge of the galaxy. Well, technically I already have, and farther. Wormholes DO take you pretty far from home… I owed everything I had to him, my Corp, and my friends. The decision was made, now wasn’t the time to start having personal doubts.

With my typical smirk on my face, I replied, “Time to take the plunge”.

Everything seems to be going as planned in Valhalla. Mining ops running near constantly now that we have some more participation going on. Last night we saw some action as our CEO (flying a Retribution, myself (flying a Vengeance) , and a handful of others (two bombers and a frigate) decided to go on a low sec roam. All was quiet during our first lap, but I decided to act as a forward scout and scope things out a system ahead.

AHA! A catalayst at the gate! I warped in right as he warped out… Right from my last system!

TMS- Catalyst in system, en route to Van. Stay on the other side, stay on the other side. Repeat- STAY ON THE OTHER SIDE!

Of course, my plan was to engage the catalyst and have him jump the other other side, where the rest of the gang would rape him, while I would warp to a planet and warp back to jump as I can’t tank the sentry guns like my CEO in his Retribution can.

So I warp back to the Van gate and engage.

TMS- Approaching, locking, point!

Apparently, the whole fleet thought point meant “ignore the plan, everyone jump in and let him jump to the other side and escape”.

So everyone jumps, and by the time they get a lock on him, the catalyst jumps through to Van and runs off, while we sit there with a 30 second timer.

TMS-…. What was is that I said… 4 TIMES?!?

No kills, but a nice bit of adrenaline, and no losses. Lesson learned? Listen to your scouts intel and don’t ignore the plan, especially when the plan works and everyone jumping and aggressing obviously will not.

Since my last real post hasn’t it?

Things have gone surprisingly smooth in Valhalla recently. Bashed a few POS’s, podded a Ukrainian intruder from a 0.0 alliance, mined rocks like our lives depended on it, and just simply made money. No casualties aside from the Goon gank on our Charon, pure profit rolling in, and things finally running like they should. T3 is on its way as well.

On the EVE wide side of things, the new changes coming in Dominion seem to not affect us at all aside from having to refit our hookbills. Though, we can’t be too sure. Depending on how things play out, we may end up packing our bags and making a stake in 0.0

The dreaded has happened… Yes, THAT… My game time ran out. *Cue gasping from audience*

The bad part? I was in a Corp mates battlecruiser in a neighboring wormhole right before we were going to do a combat site, with no probes… Yeah, fuck me. That means total losses of a set of +3’s, a fitted Prophecy, and a perfectly good clone. Since I’m screwed no matter when I log in, I will be taking a short haitus from EVE for a week or two. Life has me busy with auditions for the Marine Band (yes, I am a band geek, and proud), ROTC keeping my busy, Area marching contest (with a chance to go to State marching contest), and the family being hell as usual.

Of course, since my EVE time is on hold, so will this blog.

Fly safe!

Sorry to everyone reading this (all 5 of you) for not posting much recently. Time has been kicking my ass. High School Marching contests (moving up to Area, we have a shot at state!), ROTC, practicing region music and learning minor scales (try outs for the Marine Band) have kept me from playing EVE or anything else entertaining for that matter.

The good news is, I’ve got an iPhone, so this won’t be a problem anymore. I just got a whole lot busier during my bathroom breaks…

Not much news in EVE, other than I’m a week out from getting into a Stealth Bomber, and even longer until I fly it while armed to the teeth. At least my Vengeance will keep me entertained.

Fly safe!