Can you sleep with that in your hangar?

Long story short, Serotta offered to buy me the ship in exchange for some help in creating a poster for his thesis. Now that was an offer I could not refuse He gave me his concept for the poster, and I prepared a preview version. The same day, I went to pick up the ship (in Jita if I recall correctly). The first hurdle was the fact that I had not fit a shield tank on a ship in several years. Since the Maelstrom in my first year of EVE, actually. Serotta was nice enough to sponsor a faction shield booster, and soon I had a working fit.

Dubbed the “HMS Serotta”, the ship proved to be everything I expected it to be: a beast. It pretty much rivals the Paladin in both tank and DPS. It cannot beat the Paladin, but that’s not the point – flying into a mission with it just feels awesome. If you are into role playing your characters occasionally, you cannot pass up on the scene of that behemoth warping into a bunch of NPCs and leaving a trail of smoking wrecks in its wake. If looks could kill, this thing would surely leave a few enemy pod pilots dead from shock on the battlefield.

Here is my current fit:

[Nightmare, Missioning]
Imperial Navy Heat Sink
Imperial Navy Heat Sink
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II

Warrior II x5
Hammerhead II x5

Not much to say here – with my skills it is cap stable without the AB/Salvager/Tractor. Could use some better modules – a ship like this deserves investing, especially tank wise and cap support wise (think T2 CCC rigs).

Some theoretical stats (vs Sansha):

- 946 DPS / 3646 volley with Hammerhead drones (791 without)
- 461 sustained tank. 86k EHP
- 321 m/s with AB (118 without)
- Resists: 76,5% / 81,2% / 40% / 50%

What I did not anticipate however, was that flying this ship announced the end of a great chapter in my EVE life. Indeed, Serotta had been unsatisfied with CCP’s vision for EVE for a while now, and a few days later along with a new client patch, he decided to quit EVE. You can read his related blog post, I understand his reasons completely. It had been a long time in coming, I know he was trying to revive his interest in the game – but in retrospect, attempting this in the middle of Incarna and a series of controversial updates was not an ideal time. As usual your mileage varies, so far I have not had many client crashes, and my play style does not touch much on the big issues being discussed.

Details aside, I currently live in a strange duality. It is both a happy time for rediscovering the game, but also a sad time for losing a longtime friend (fortunately only ingame!) – hence the plural in the post title. My secret hope is that he will come back, but somehow I feel that his decision is final – and I respect that.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING AND GOOD LUCK!

A derelict Proteus in a debris field - wishful thinking much?

After hopping into an empty clone, I used an Anathema to do some scouting. I found an interesting route of about six systems in a row in 0.1 sec that I could start my exploration in. It was still lowsec, so no warp disruption bubbles – which is a plus when you start out. The only danger comes from gate camps, but with a cloakable ship you are extremely hard to catch. People on gate camps usually have some small ships with fast lock times along, but since you can cloak more or less instantly, the only danger is if they try to approach your last known location to try to decloak you.

I encountered a few pilots here and there, but most systems were just empty. When I felt a bit more confident, I went back and took the Pilgrim. While roaming through the lowsec area I had scouted, I took note of the people flying there, checking bios and security statuses. To my surprise, there was a fair share of 5.0 security pilots. I scoured some belts, and found BS of up to 1,1 million bounty. Not a bad start, and speed tanking them was easy. The old trick with orbiting a container you jettison is still as effective. With an orbit speed of about 450 m/s, there’s not much that gets through to the ship’s tank. Of course you have this leisure only when you are alone in the system, if you’re not you have to assume the other pilots are looking for you or setting traps.

For example, I scanned down some seemingly lost drones with two other players in the system. When I finally locked on them with my combat scanner probes and warped to them (cloaked of course), no one was there as expected. However, as soon as I decloaked the other player decloaked and started locking my ship. You always have to be ready, so I managed to warp away in time. I did not expect this kind of cunning trap however, and have since revised my behavior with people in-system. Scanning stuff down is okay, since you can do that cloaked. Actually going there to investigate I now do when any lurkers have gone.

After a little while, I got more confident moving around. I have not encountered any gate camps so far, so that’s still mostly theory. I’m quite sure I’ll find some in the future though, and they will provide some crucial experience. For now, I set up camp in a nullsec system with two NPC stations from where I can launch skirmishes into the surrounding systems. All in all it has been easier than I thought, but it confirmed what I already suspected: nullsec is the playground of corporations, alliances and PvP gangs. Solo players like myself in search of things other than PvP will be hard pressed to find something to make them stay for long. It’s fun for a while, but in my case I soon missed the freedom of movement (think in terms of being able to minimize local and the directional scanner) that highsec offers.

A proteus coasting next to an anomaly.

From a gate camper’s point of view, it looks like this: they can see someone jumped into the system (the gate shows that familiar flash of light), so the tackler(s) get ready to lock whoever is going to decloak. As soon as you decloak, they will try to lock you, as well as fly towards you. However, with that MWD boost, your ship shoots off in one direction and a few seconds later, disappears. They can try to decloak you, but determining your position is difficult.

You will find gate camps in two different places: when you jump into a system, or when you warp to a stargate. The first you cannot avoid; you have to use the MWD trick I described above. For the second, you have to understand that for a gate camp to be effective (especially in nullsec if they use bubbles), they have to place it on the warp trajectory between two gates – that way if you warp from gate to gate directly, you fall directly into the gate camp. So the solution is pretty simple: warp to a celestial before you warp to the gate you want to use, like a planet. This will alter the angle from which you warp to the gate, and avoid the gate camp entirely. Always use warp to 0 in this case.

I’m still figuring things out, but with those rules you can move around pretty safely. The key really is to use a small, fast ship. Needless to say, trying to do this in a battleship is not a good idea. That, and keep your cool. Come to grips with the fact that you will lose your ship sooner or later, as well as your pod – and think your way through each situation. That’s a lot easier if you don’t take your T3 on the first try

I just realized that if you take into account that this is the log entry for day 1806 of my travels, which means that it took me about 1800 days to finally take the step to go into nullsec. What changed? I could not say. More confidence maybe, a higher understanding of the power of the unknown or simply less concern about my expendable body? Regardless, I think it’s still pretty funny and shows how big of a carebear I am!

Is it safe to jump through? Sure, you first.

I knew my Planetary Interaction cycle was over. I needed to do something fun again, and after a good hot bath (my secret concentration weapon) I knew I had to take Aeon and Loreena back to their roots. Aeon has always been a nomad at heart, going where the cosmic winds take him. Loreena was uprooted from her previous life by her homeworld’s destruction, and has been a nomad since as well. I had to cut all ties to things that make you stay in one place in the game, the most notorious being a POS. I had moved Aeon to Chidah for the POS, but after its destruction by a roaming gang (due to my inactivity it had gone offline) I knew I would not set up a new one. It is always a bad thing if a GAME you play becomes as much a chore as your everyday job. In my opinion that is specifically an area in which CCP have blundered, but that’s another story. So for Aeon and Loreena to become true nomads again, I decided to let all this go. No more POS, no more PI, no more manufacturing.

Loreena sold her entire BPO collection for 2 billion (thanks again, DD!), which helped in funding better fittings for the few ships Aeon and Loreena would take along. Aeon needed only Sparhawk’s Wrath (his Paladin), Loreena provided support as always with Tatonka (her Orca). She transports all commonly needed modules with it, as well as a few ships: “Naeroth’s Razor” (her Proteus), “Repair-O-Tron” (her Oneiros), “Sentinel” (her Guardian) and a shuttle. No need for a fixed base of operations: between the two of them, they can master any task they might get.

Quite an installation.

Loreena has access to some agents in the area, so we are going to stay a while – until the need to move surfaces again. I have rarely had something as liberating as cutting off all ties as I did. It put the fun back into the game, because it became a game again – a place without duties, with good friends and interesting things to do. Granted, EVE is not a fun game per se. That’s also its strong point however, and one that I have come to appreciate, within certain limits. This brings me to something I had been meaning to do for a while as well: resume my original lowsec / nullsec sightseeing tours

For some months now, Loreena has been training to do some punching herself, upgrading first from her Myrmidon to a Dominix and now to the renowned Kronos. It can be argued that the Kronos is one of the weaker Marauder-class ships, but that has never been a deterrent in my case. I always liked the hull of the Megathron, so the Kronos was a good target to go for to improve her fighting skills.

She still needs to improve on some key skills, but she can already use the T2 railguns now. A few level 4 missions as testing ground have proven the ship to be everything I expected. The Paladin still trumps it, but the combination of Aeon’s Pulse Lasers setup for close range combat with Loreena’s sniping setup is very effective. Sure, two marauders for running a level 4 mission is overkill, but I appreciate being able to kill rats that are far away without slow-boating into range with 120 m/s.

This is Loreena’s current fit (tank optimized for Sansha):

[Kronos, Missions]
Imperial Navy Large Armor Repairer
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Federation Navy Magnetic Field Stabilizer

Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot II x3
Vespa II x5


With the drone space the ship offers, you can carry a good selection of drones – in my case I went for the armor maintenance drones to get Aeon out of a tight spot as he usually takes aggro. The sensor booster increases the targeting range so you can target as far as your turret’s maximal optimal range. It is intentionally without script, as the base bonus is enough to target out to 140km, that way I get the second bonus of the module as well.

Some stats:

Cap stable
830 DPS Tank (vs. Sansha)
410 DPS, 1745 Volley
Targeting range: 141 Km
Optimal range: 130 Km

Those are with Loreena’s current skillset:

Marauders III
Controlled Bursts IV
Motion Prediction V
Rapid Firing IV
Sharpshooter V
Trajectory Analysis V
Surgical Strike -untrained-

On a sidenote, now that learning skills have been removed I was able to top off some leftover skills, as well as get started on the next plan: a Proteus. Loreena had trained all learning skills to level 5, so she had 5.3 million skillpoints to distribute. A real treat just in time for christmas

Aramea, Loreena's homeworld before the cataclysm

Since that day, and thanks to Aeon, she has been able to get past the initial shock and to build a life for herself. About a year ago however, Ammatar scientists discovered that a large debris field near Gamis in the Derelik region was none other than the remains of Aramea, catapulted there by the wormhole from the vicinity of Oshaima and Hysera in Caldari space. Loreena went to explore the debris lately, and came back changed.

This is a transcript of what happened, as viewed by the people involved.

Note: non-roleplaying captain’s log continued below.

Aeon

The changes that the visit operated in Loreena were not immediately clear to Aeon, until a rather peculiar request reached him from a group of officials from the Ammatar Consulate Bureau in Tanoo. They wanted him to attend a reception in Loreena’s honor.

His interest was piqued. Apparently she was to be awarded a decoration, and he had no idea what she could be decorated for. But then they had never really talked much, they kept in touch but both lead their own lives. Still, this was different… he wondered why she had not mentioned it before. People do not drop a decoration on you without first telling you how lucky you are. Puzzled, he did what he always did: stop brooding and hunt for more information.

Information turned out to be surprisingly hard to hunt, and that always made him wary. Something was about to happen, and it would be big.

Loreena

She watched a piece of Aramea’s crust idly float by, its rotation catching the light of Gamis’ white dwarf star. She still did not know how to handle Aeon. She felt bad about dropping everything on him like this, but she knew otherwise he would try to stop her – and packed with feelings as she was, she was scared of losing it right there. She knew she was not being entirely sane, so she clung to her only hope of personal redemption.

The Ammatar consulate had sent her the final details of the reception that morning, so everything was ready. Hopefully the information filters she had put in place in Aeon’s infogrid would have kept him from finding out ahead of schedule. Her logs showed some activity, that was to be expected. To say she had not been her usual self was a gross understatement, so he was bound to notice. Glumly she aligned the ship and warped out. You do not treat family like this, she thought. Especially since there was not much family left. The debris field receded quickly behind her as warp engaged.

She shut off her emotions, she had to act now before she went to pieces.

Aeon

Sytek’s information board chimed. His worried frown turned into genuine concern when he read that Loreena had stepped down as acting CEO and designated him as new CEO. The concern quickly changed into anger – he did not like surprises, and especially not people going behind his back like this. What the blazes was she up to? This was not like her at all. He let the anger infuse him for a while, but quickly put it aside again. Being mad could be enjoyable, but it was never particularly productive.

He wiped his systems clean to get rid of the filters he was now sure she had put in place, otherwise he would have seen her drop all corp roles. Apparently him being the new CEO was an information she deemed him fit to receive, so whatever she was planning was coming to a head. He took a moment to suppress his anger again, she would never do this willingly. Either she was in real trouble, or she was going mad.

Whatever it was, he waited patiently for the decoration ceremony on Tanoo. His locator agent showed she was on her way there, so he made ready for the reception himself. He would have time to act after she put her cards on the table.

Loreena

By now he knew she had resigned as CEO, and she was afraid he might call her directly. The comms system stayed silent, though. She was on her way to Tanoo, and her locator agent showed he was on his way as well. It reassured her somewhat, it meant he still had his wits. He had always liked seeing the full picture before he made a final decision, and she was counting on that to bring this through.

The award was unexpected, but it had given her the perfect opportunity to show Aeon what this was all about, and hopefully he would understand her motives and not try to talk her out of it. Please. It took all her strength now to keep the pieces of her tattered soul together. She was not even sure this venture would help her mend herself, but there was nothing else the universe could give her that would. When she had first laid eyes on Aramea’s debris field, she had realized she had never healed one bit.

What a stupid thing to do! She may not have been whole before, but seeing the pieces of her former life drifting through space had shattered her even more fiercely than the initial event. She had pictured the souls of billions of lost souls clinging to what was left of their home and collapsed right there on the spot. Now all that held her together were the fine strands of purpose this project had given her.

She needed this to work. It meant survival and redemption. As her ship was towed into station, she saw that Aeon was two jumps out. Forgive me, she thought as her pod began the flush sequence.

Aeon

As he made his way to the reception hall, he wondered if his attire was at all appropriate for the event. He had chosen this flowing dark ochre capsuleer cloak because it scared most people into not trying to engage in idle conversation with him. Of course his scowl largely contributed to that as well, but the people who knew the origins of the cloak would give him a wide berth. He did not want too much distraction while Loreena unfolded her plans, so it suited him just fine. He was not here to make friends.

The reception hall was not as joyous as he expected. There was an underlying solemnity and serious expressions on everyone’s faces except maybe the young fools attending their first ever reception. Loreena was nowhere to be seen, so he took his scowl to the other side of the hall. There were some curious and frightened glances, but no one made a move to talk to him. The master of ceremony who had sent him the invitation briefly nodded to him, and he returned her nod politely. He climbed up the stairwell in the back of the hall and took a seat in the deserted upper lodge.

His cheek was beginning to ache, so he relaxed his scowl. It had served him well, and the attention of the room was fixed the other way to the dais now anyway; the master of ceremony had started introducing the members present. His initial sweep of the room confirmed his assessment: the majority of the attendees were caldari. Loreena was caldari after all, but who were these people? They did not look like officials of any kind, and there was even a whole bunch of common folk to one side, easily recognizable by their garments.

One thing was certain though: Whatever this was about, it was not about joy.

Loreena

Her biggest fear was that someone would say something that would make her lose her composure. These were people who had suffered the same losses, so they had a deeper understanding of what this represented than outsiders. They were bound to see how pathetic she was, trying to put a puzzle the size of a planet back together. But then, everyone had his own way to cope. If this could be her way, her wretched existence might mean something again, regardless of what the universe thought of her.

She unruffled a few folds in her dress, and waited for the signal. She could hear the master of ceremony, Imulia Aeduin, giving her speech around the corner. She had given Loreena the opportunity to review it before she gave it, and Loreena had been touched by the woman’s insights into Areamea’s survivors’ plight. She did not have any amends to the script, it was more than adequate. On a level of consciousness she was awed by the fact that her project had hit such a response, but it did not feel right because she was not doing it out of kindness of heart. Or was she? She was beyond knowing what she really felt.

A light came on above her lodge’s doorframe, and she made her way out onto the dais next to Imulia Aeduin.

Aeon

As he had half expected, the dress she had chosen for the ceremony was entirely unceremonious. He did not linger on her attire though, as her haunted look pierced him through and through. The screen next to him had a close-up camera view of her, and the woman he saw there was an empty husk compared to the one he knew. He half rose in shock, looking over to the dais in disbelief. He resisted a sudden impulse to jump down the three meters to the floor and run over there. Of course, that would accomplish nothing. He slowly let himself sink back into the cushioned couch, his mind racing.

The speaker next to her he had recognized as being the Ammatar Consulate’s CFO, Imulia Aeduin. She had given a pretty good speech about the survivors of Aramea, which helped him place the context of the ceremony as well as give him the reason for the bleak mood. Ever since he had taken Loreena with him into Minmatar space he had been concerned with how she would cope with her loss, and although he had been with her a lot in the first years, their lives had led them to see each other less often. As far as he knew, she did not have any friends, but he had not worried about it too much anymore.

She was unrecognizable, even worse than after the blast that had robbed her of her family and her home in mere seconds. He watched her on the screen, oblivious to what Imulia was saying. Something must have triggered this breakdown… she looked like she was on the verge of collapse, but still strong enough to see through whatever she had planned. She gave a stealthy glance around the room and spotted him, then quickly averted her eyes again. He was sure no one else had seen the movement, she must have wanted to make sure he was there.

Then, finally, her plan was revealed.

Imulia Aeduin

She had always had a gift to sense emotions. Her parents had even sent her to a clinic specializing in psychic abilities when she was young, to make sure she was not psychic. Apparently she was not, otherwise she would most likely be in a Minmatar training facility today. Nevertheless, her so-called ability was a very useful tool to have. She had sensed the crowd’s feelings, and modulated the flow of her speech to their emotional response. It had worked very well, she had been able to touch them without bringing too many painful memories to the surface. Something unruffled her slightly however.

There was tension in the hall, very intense – and from only a few people. Her gift did not enable her to pinpoint individual sources, but she was sure that part of the tension came of that AeonOfTime character in the back of the hall. He was far enough from the rest of the crowd to allow her to sense it. She did not know enough about him to determine if he could be a problem, but she did not think so. Then there was the matter of Loreena Syrkos. As far as she could determine, she was a nervous wreck. It would not show that much to bystanders like the people in this crowd as she had herself under tight, even desperate control – but Imulia could feel it.

When Loreena came onto the dais, she saw AeonOfTime half rise to his feet, and a wave of concern hit her with all its might from his direction. There was obviously a strong connection between them, which made the whole situation even more mysterious. It was none of her business, but she felt curious nonetheless. She lived in a giant melting pot of emotions, and she felt drawn to strong emotions that rose out of the general mess. Emotions like these. She introduced Loreena to the crowd, even if it was not necessary – all the people present knew who she was.

It was a crazy idea, one that only a capsuleer could come up with – but Imulia thought it was a good one. Loreena had created a unique industrial process whose purpose was to salvage Aramea’s debris field for any information and items pertaining to the Aramean way of life and culture. The Ammatar Consulate had sponsored a dedicated office space transformed into a museum here on station, and already a few choice items were on display. The elder Aramean survivors had called her Aramea’s “Keeper of Knowledge”, and that was the decoration she was being awarded now. Her new corporation, Aramean Excavations, was there to fund the project and ensure the survival of the items even after the last Arameans were no more.

She wondered whether Loreena would find peace in her venture.

Aeon

So that’s what she had found to seek healing. To cling to the remnants of her shattered home, to get entangled in a web spun by memories and artefacts of a lost world. Aramean Keeper of Knowledge? Indeed! What good could this kind of archaeology possibly do? Trying to find clues of long lost empires was one thing, trying to revive an empire gone in a mere human lifetime sounded dreadful. He was torn between shaking her out of this folly and trying to understand what it was that she really sought.

For an instant, when Imulia put the decoration on her dress she had seemed genuinely happy, but it had only lasted a couple of seconds before it was replaced by the same haunted look. The ceremony over, people flocked around her, sharing thoughts and ideas, offering support. Of course the dead could not come back, but he could clearly see that these people were grateful that someone was safeguarding at least a token of their past. He saw relief on some faces, plain gratefulness on others. He decided to use the occasion to take his leave silently. He was convinced Loreena would not want to confront him now – besides, he was not entirely sure he wanted to either.

He went back to the hangar the station had assigned him. Standing before the hull of Skullsplitter Junior, he watched the ballet of cleaning drones polishing the hell out of his thruster tubes. He had a hunch he would not be boarding his ship now, somehow it did not feel right. He had a nagging sensation of having forgotten something, and he knew it would nag at him until he did something about it.

Until he finally decided to go back and save her.

Imulia

He was gone. She could feel it now, the absence of his peculiar flow of emotions had dissipated. She checked the back lodge, his seat was empty. He must have used the general commotion after the decoration to slip out unseen, what a peculiar personage. Her curiosity got the better of her, so after saying her goodbyes to everyone she went back to her quarters. She accessed the infogrid to find out who he was, and a few seconds later she was already back on her feet, running like a cheetah with a hellhound on its heels to the ship hangars.

How could everyone have been so blind? He was the savior of Aramea of course, the pilot who had managed to get his ship out and warn enough ships in-system to save thousands of civilians. He was the one who took Loreena under his wing, who had saved her from destruction. Everything was falling into place now in her mind… all their feelings, the whole operation were all designed for one hidden purpose. Only someone with her abilities could see this, and now she had to convince him to come back.

He had to save her. Again.

Loreena

The attention felt good. These people were actually proud of her, grateful for what she did for the memory of Aramea. She saw the light that shone in their eyes when they spoke of their own memories, of what they could do to help. She let it all wash over her, and for a few precious moments she felt alight with the purpose that infused her, a bridge over the unsoundable, dark depths below. When the feeling slowly subsided, she mustered her strength again because she knew she had to see Aeon now. She knew that his reaction would eventually decide her fate, even if he did not realize it. She did not know why his reaction was that important herself, it was difficult to stay sane with so many shrieking souls trailing behind her wherever she went. Pleading her to release them.

Aeon was gone however, as a quick glance to the back lodge and around the hall quickly confirmed. Her control wavered for a while, and she had to fight with renewed vigor to keep her sanity in check. She had no idea how long she could keep this up, she desperately needed his approval. Everything hinged on that now, pathetic as it may be. She was still lucid enough to know that she was too far down the road to madness to try and lift herself out of the pit now. All she could do was to try and ignore the fact that she may never recover from this. She clung to the faint hope that Aeon would understand her, but he had left. Soon there would be nothing left to cling to.

She was talking with one of the elder Arameans to distract her mind when Imulia came back into the hall, with Aeon by her side. Her heart leaped. She did not know what the significance of them appearing together was. In any other situation she would have been curious, but now she could not have cared less. The time had come.

This was when her fate would be sealed.

Aeon

He was on his way back to the reception hall when the CFO of the Ammatar Consulate came running to meet him. When she caught up with him, she was panting like she had just sprinted accross half of the station. It later turned out she actually did, but for the moment he watched her amusedly, waiting politely for her to catch her breath. There did not seem to be any particular urgency on her face besides her mad sprint, so he did not want to press her about the reasons of this odd interception.

As it were, she was here to change his mind about leaving without talking to Loreena, which confirmed his hunch that it would have been a bad idea. Imulia had a peculiar way to see through people, and even if the reception had given him the final piece of the puzzle with Loreena visiting the debris of her home, she was able to give him some additional valuable insights. His final assessment had been that she needed more help that he could give himself, but he saw now that he himself was the key to her salvation – as uncomfortable as that may make him.

This was unfamiliar territory… as a hardcore lone wolf, he rarely socialized with anyone. Syrkos Technologies was an exception, he valued the insights and contacts with pod pilots like himself. Loreena was a lone wolf herself, but it had been forced on her. She had never learned to cope with the loneliness – no wonder, considering the burden she had to live with all by herself. Visiting the debris field must have reawakened powerful old daemons, and the only person she knew and that she trusted was him.

He was not one to dwell on the past. Letting them drift apart had been a mistake, he had not taken the time to pay closer attention to her. He was so used to minimizing duties and dependencies that he had mistakenly included her in them. The harm was done though, so he concentrated on how he could salvage what was left of her.

It seemed their paths were destined to run along each other.

Imulia

AeonOfTime was more receptive to what she had to say than she had expected. She often underestimated people, it was one of her failings. He had obviously come to the same conclusions, albeit not for the same reasons. His history with Loreena was a long one, but he had not seen exactly how much she needed him to be present. Loreena’s burden was a heavy one to bear, she could feel it seeping out of her like an ever open wound. When she had stood next to her on the dais, there had been a moment when she had thought that dying in the blast on Aramea would have been merciful.

When she entered the hall with Aeon at her side, only Loreena paid any heed. No one but herself had apparently made the connection between Aeon and the so-called Hero of Aramea, which was not a bad thing in this situation. Loreena emanated joy and despair at the same time, a very unlikely combination. She accompanied Aeon up to the Dais, but stayed a few metres behind to give them a semblance of privacy.

She felt like a leech. The part of her that craved strong emotions was ecstatic – she had never enountered people before whose feelings radiated so intensely and in so many layers of complexity. The reasoning part in her felt ashamed for prying on them like a voyeur, even if it was not exactly comparable. She even found a small part of her wishing Loreena would come undone here and now, to see what kind of emotions that would trigger.

Sometimes she disgusted herself.

Aeon

It was surreal. No one here even noticed the struggle that was going on, the urgency and critical nature of their exchange. Bystanders were enaging in idle conversation, small talk, even discussing cooking recipes. While they were deciding their respective fates. It seemed appropriate for lone wolves to keep their inner battles hidden, but for once he wished it would come out into the open, that it would make a big scene instead of some undercover-style communication based on looks and cryptic words. He felt Imulia’s gaze on them, she was a weird one. But she was at least one bystander that knew at least part of what was being played here.

Loreena looked strangely happy and afraid at the same time, but he did not have the leisure to wonder how one could mix the two. His instincts were on edge as if he had a whole angel fleet chasing him, and everything he knew about her was being retrieved, analyzed and reprocessed in his mind. As he approached her, he read her expression, saw the subtle tightening of her cheekbones and arms as he came nearer, and he realized that whatever he was going to say had the potential force of killing her.

He instantly dismissed congratulating her on the decoration – the heart of the matter lay somewhere else. No, the fact that she had sprung the new corporation and the whole venture on him like this meant that was the key. But what could she need from him other than his support and approval? But surely she knew she did not need plots like this to have those?
Then it came to him in a sudden insight. Of course, it was so subtle yet painfully obvious…

He knew exactly what he needed to do.

Loreena

Time had stopped. Everything was a blur except for Aeon slowly approaching. She saw his face, coolly examining her, trying to see through her. He did not seem mad at all she asserted, the tension of the wrinkles on his face only betrayed concern. A flicker of hope ran through her, momentarily silencing the abyss behind her from which Aramea’s souls were shrieking up to her. She could not believe how far she had let herself sink, but once she had realized what was happening it had already been too late.

Foolishly she had believed that she would be able to tackle the daemons inside on her own, but they had all the patience the universe itself could bring to the table. They slowly gnawed away her defenses until they were rotted from within, ready to crumble at the smallest pressure. That was the kind of damage that a person cannot heal on his/her own. Aeon had been so close… but still she had kept going on her own, ever widening the trap beneath her feet. Poor Aeon, so much hinged on him now. She did not dare to speak lest her voice fail her now. It had to come from him. Yet again her life lay in his hands.

Their exchange lasted a good minute, but no words were spoken. Of all she had come to expect, this was not even on her list. It was so unlike him, but it transcended all her hopes. Even the billion aramean souls were awed into silence, her daemons in shock. All these years spent slowly eating her alive from within, gone in a single act.

A kiss.

Imulia

She knew she would never feel anything like that again in her lifetime. She had been literally blown away by the conflagration of the pent-up bundle of emotions the two of them had released with that embrace. As she came back to her senses, she realized everyone was looking at the odd couple. Some showed that they recognized Aeon now for who he was, others were just mesmerized by what had just happened. All of them knew they had witnessed something momentous however, even if they had none of the details.

She had always sneered at fairy tales with their true love kisses junk, but if anything could come close this was it. Somehow, knowing that in their technological age emotions as strong as these were still possible reassured her enormously. Of all the things Aeon could have done to heal her, this had definitely succeeded.

The hero of Aramea had just become a hero all over again.

Author’s notes

Yes, it is kind of a fairy tale. But who in truth does not want a fairy tale for himself? I like a good story, and the setting from Aeon and Loreena’s biographies begged for a sequel, or at least another chapter. Like everything in EVE, both are a bit broken by the harsh world they live in, but all hope is not lost. Yes, it is cheesy and a bit overdone, but we are living in a society where everything is slightly overdone so I am thinking it should not show too much

Anyway, if you are looking for references, I was inspired by the Gap Series by Stephen Donaldson, The Elenium by David Eddings and the movie The Princess Bride as well as EVE Online of course. All characters and places exist in the game, except for the fabled Aramea.

Captain’s log, supplemental

On a sidenote, Loreena is growing teeth in more ways than one… along with the new corporation she now flies a Dominix, a perfect addition to her extensive drone skills. Her battleship support skills are not that good yet, so no level 4 mission running solo but along with Aeon as a tanker, it is a beast of a drone carrier. And she has a lot in store for the future… she is on a skillplan that will take her all the way to a Kronos, which will be the final step in making her stand on her own two feet.

Then she will be able to save Aeon for a change.

After losing a Zealot to a particularly deadly sleeper site, I tried to come up with a better ship for the task. I let no stone unturned, from destroyers to battleships. All but the strategic cruisers. The conclusion was that the Zealot is definitely in a class of its own: none of the Amarr battlecruisers can match its tank (neither can the Brutix), the Omen Navy Issue cruiser packs a good punch but is too frail, and battleships are too clumsy. Command ships I deemed too expensive to lose in a wormhole, although the Absolution is nearly perfect for the task. So a new Zealot it was, with the same fit as before. It has proven itself over and over, so I went back to exploring.

What ensued was a chain of frustrating experiences. From acceleration gates that did not allow HACs to class 3 wormholes in which most sites are too dangerous for a mere Zealot, it seemed that I was doomed to switching ships for nearly every site I encountered. My local station was beginning to fill with different sized ships again, and the logistics of the whole operation was beginning to get on my nerves. Of course Loreena could have tagged along in the Orca, but she did not seem very enthusiastic – she was busy in the Kador and Amarr regions collecting COSMOS components. Aeon could have used his charm, but I preferred to keep that Joker card for another time. There had to be a solution.

For the time being, I stuck to what I could do with the Zealot while I built up some ISK to buy an Absolution fitted for wormholes. The solution came in the form of a graphical layout and website I built for N.A.G.A. Corporation (www.nagacorporation.net), and which replenished Aeon’s wallet in one strike. I made another EFT session, and as I had dabbled with strategic cruiser fittings before I thought what the heck and made a new one.

The result left me speechless and grinning like a madman. The Legion fitting I had had just whipped together had slightly less DPS than the Zealot, but about 3x the tank. Enough to take just about anything the usual complexes and sleeper sites could throw at the ship. It was even cap stable without a single Capacitor Control Circuit rig, which was the topping of an already juicy pie. As you can imagine, my mind was made up in a few nanoseconds and Aeon was already on his way to Amarr to buy the ship.

My only worry was that I did not know how much these things cost and that I may not be able to get one despite the ISK I had earned. Contracts showed some hulls at about 240 mil which did not seem too bad, but that was without the subsystems. When Aeon arrived in the Amarr Oris station, the hulls were actually selling at a round 200 mil, so I bought one right away. The subsystems cost an average of about 60 mil per unit. I bought everything I needed for the fit on the spot, and after the subsystems, rigs and co had been properly installed and configured I took the time to contemplate the beast.

Damn, that ship is sexy. As many Amarr ships, the base hull has a resemblance to a bug with those mandibles. This particular subsystem configuration makes for a rather compact and bulky shape – fitting for that beast of a tank I think. I christened it “Alea’s Nemesis”, in reference to the main character of my EVE-related short story. Aeon was just as eager as I was to give her a spin, so he undocked, and made the trek back to Derelik.

He took a short detour through gallente space to meet up with another Sytek member who is a Tengu pilot, and was busy dispatching EOM ships. I found out that the tank was more than enough for this mission, but the DPS was severely lacking. Then again, it was a complex-oriented fit with only three turrets so that was to be expected. All in all it was a good test, and the two ships side by side did look extremely good.

Back in Derelik, I took out the Anathema and went lowsec scouting to explore for wormholes and complexes. It was a quiet night, but I found no wormholes. I did find a 3/10 sansha complex however, and that turned out to be exactly what I needed as final test. The last room was one big fleet with about 40 ships all classes combined (frigates to battlecruisers). When they all got into range the tank started to break slowly, but Aeon was killing them fast enough to handle it all effortlessly. Without moving an inch, which is quite decadent compared to the Zealot with which I have learned how to navigate with afterburner to mitigate the incoming DPS.

The one big realization that came to me that night was that these ships are more or less made for complexing, as they fit into almost any acceleration gate where command ships or even HACs are not allowed. I used to use a regular cruiser (Omen Navy Issue or Pilgrim) for those, but this is infinitely more useful. No need for an army of different sized ships anymore, yay!!

Strategic Cruisers come with one big drawback: if you do get caught and your ship is destroyed, you lose one level in one of the ship’s race subsystem skills. So if you trained them all to V, you will have to re-train the one chosen randomly to V. It is not that bad, as they are all 1x skills that do not take too long to train up.

Here is the full fitting for the ship as I use it right now. As you probably guessed, it is made for wormholes and complexes. It uses just a few faction mods and works with all T2 as well:

[Wormholes & Complexes]
Imperial Navy Medium Armor Repairer
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Imperial Navy Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Kinetic Hardener II
Heat Sink II
Cap Recharger II
Cap Recharger II
10MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Heavy Pulse Laser II,Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II,Conflagration M
Heavy Pulse Laser II,Conflagration M
Salvager II
Core Probe Launcher I,Core Scanner Probe I
Medium Energy Burst Aerator I
Medium Energy Locus Coordinator I
Medium Nanobot Accelerator I
Legion Defensive - Nanobot Injector
Legion Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Legion Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix
Legion Offensive - Liquid Crystal Magnifiers
Legion Propulsion - Chassis Optimization

With this setup, using a better armor repairer will have drastic effects with the nanobot injector subsystem + nanobot accelerator rig combo. With my crappy skills (Strategic Cruiser at 3 and all subsystems at 3), this setup gives me an EFT omni defence rating of 450, 213 DPS and 85.7% EM / 81.4 % TH / 89.3 KIN / 89.1% EX resists. At level V, the defence rating climbs up to 520 with 255 DPS. As an example, fitting an A-Type armor hardener puts the tank at 675 defence rating.

…not bad for a cruiser!

I will have to testdrive the ship in wormholes next, but so far they have proven to be surprisingly elusive over here. Will post an update when I have found one and ground some sleepers to dust.

On a sidenote, if you have COSMOS BPCs you cannot build from, evemail me which ones you have and I’ll make you an offer for them. Alternatively I also offer a manufacturing service for them, Loreena has all the specialty skills at V (Sleeper Tech, Talocan Tech, Takmahl Tech and Yan Jung Tech). Just contact me ingame for details.

Aeon is 13 days away from being able to fit every tech II module in the game today (apart from guns and capital modules), which I believe is a major milestone. What really blew me away though is that he is a mere 35 days away from flying every race ship from frigates to battleships. For some obscure reason I had always thought training up the skill tree for a second race would take too much time, and I was giggling manically at the thought of finally being able to hop into ships like the Hyperion or even a Nightmare.

Once the idea had struck, I knew what I wanted. Now after three days of training, Aeon finally has the Gallente Battleship skill trained and I went in search for a Hyperion. Ever since that time I had seen one when undocking in Rens I had wanted to have one. My Harbinger had been dwarfed next to it, and as very few pilots fly them I had been stunned at the sight. To my surprise, the cheapest offer was a local one in the Kador region with 124 million ISK. I was thrilled at the prospect of flying a new ship, so I had Aeon drop what he was doing, namely helping Loreena in a level 4. Needless to say, he will have to make amends for that… He went the 10 jumps in his pod to pick it up, and there it was, in all its glory (hit the screenshot above for a close-up of the beast). He named it “Angus’ Fist”, which seems pretty fitting. It is a reference to Angus Thermopyle, from Stephen Donaldson’s Gap Series novels. Highly recommendable for EVE players!

Aeon has trained some crappy hybrid skills, which should be enough to get an idea of what the ship is capable. I have yet to use the ship in a mission or else, but some of the fittings on battleclinic do have potential. I will have to use the meta 4 guns for starters, but I do not really mind. I have made a small selection of those I found most interesting:

- Regretfully gentle’s L4 mission loadout
- Mike721′s L4 mission loadout
- Vanthropy’s Cheap Fleet PvP loadout

Yes, I have a PvP loadout in here! I am not planning on using the ship for PvP, but I found it to be an interesting fit nonetheless. It has the big advantage of being very cheap for a ship that size. I will post a fitting later matching my skills when I have been able to testdrive it in a few missions. For now it just feels so good flying around in the ship, it is one of the more original ones out there. It is a matter of taste of course, some do not like the midsection, some do not like the paintjob…

“Anthea”, the research POS

Yes, I have dusted off my POS (Player Owned Station) plans of yore. The response from the corp has been very positive on the project, so that is going to be one big step in Aeon’s EVE life. I have held off from one so far because of the running costs, which can be trouble with my ISK flow (it is still far from optimal). However, downgrading my plans helped a lot. A small POS with just one lab and some basic defenses would only cost about 40 mil per month, which should not be too much trouble to organize.

I think it is a nice way to learn the inner workings of a POS, even if almost everyone told me to go for a medium or big tower directly. I am not trying to start a giant research operation, and a small tower costs a lot less to maintain. Even if the initial investment is not that much different at least it gives me a good way to test without going broke within two months. If the venture should turn out to be profitable, a small POS is easy to dismantle and be replaced by something bigger.

Loreena will probably resign as CEO of Sytek and create her own corporation to run the POS. Aeon will take her place as head of the corp, a skillplan for the required corporation management skills is ready. While training skills like Ethnic Relations feels a bit awkward (Aeon’s good looks should be enough!), the requirements are not too steep for a small corporation like ours. The good thing is even Alliance members will be able to use the ME/PE lab slots, which is a good thing.

For now, Aeon needs to rebuild his wallet though…

Maybe some have already wondered about Aeon’s wallet. In his status below I always include his current wallet balance, and it rarely ever went above 60 mil. “Such an old player, hahaha, he’s pulling our collective legs.” Not so! I do round up the sums, but Aeon’s personal wallet is really that “small”. It is Loreena and the corporation that handle all the big ISK.

…I wish it was that big. The all-time high was just a bit above 1 billion before I bought the Paladin, since then it stabilized around 100-300 mil-ish. Nearly everyone ingame will tell you they have billions, but I suspect the truth is that most of them are just paupers like my humble self, or make a way bigger dent in their RL time and/or wallet

Earning ISK: a matter of time and concentration?

There are no secrets: unless you are rich enough in real life to fund your ingame lifestyle, you have to invest time to make ISK. Whether you are just trading or running missions, these things all take time. Now a lot of players seem to have heaps of time and do not understand how I can be poor in the game. Well, I am often online but as I mentioned before it is mostly to follow up on what’s going on in the corp or the game in general: it is the famous “semi-afk”. Sadly enough, that does not pay very well

Running level 4 missions is profitable, but even if not all level 4 missions are as time-consuming as Angel Extravaganza, they all require concentration. And that is a realization that came lately: with two small kids, it is virtually impossible to concentrate any lengths of time. That reduces my “active” playtime to not much at all, especially since my gaming philosophy is that EVE is just that, and as such should not overshadow anything real life-related.

In practice, I can run about two big level 4 missions per week nowadays. More than that is pretty rare, because even on weekends I rarely get the occasion to play with the concentration I need. The good thing about traditional games is that you can hit ESC anytime and come back to the game later if something comes up. EVE is a lot more restrictive in that regard, so if I start a level 4 I want to be sure I will be able to run it without interruption. I do not want to have to tell my son or my wife that I cannot help them because I am in the middle of a mission.

All my ship losses come from not having been concentrated enough, and losing a ship like a fully fitted Abaddon or even Oneiros is quite hard to replace with this kind of ISK flow. Even if it is “only” T2 fitted, it can make quite a dent in the wallet. I am very pragmatic in life, so naturally I restricted myself to running dangerous missions only when I can do so in good conditions

Note that I am not complaining – I am merely sharing some insights into how I play EVE and how that affects me ingame. I still enjoy the game the same way, and at least my wallet ingame reflects my real life wallet

On a sidenote: Of course there is always the option of finding out how the richest player in EVE did it, and become an EVE billionaire yourself! Invest in this real life money sink (aka “Scam”) and within two days, you can buy two dozens of motherships and at least three titans. Hahahaha, that totally made my day there

On a sidenote’s sidenote: go read drmgrl808‘s blog, she has a nice natural way of writing down her experiences.

The logistics of running level 4 missions were just too much of a hassle then, so these missions were a welcome worry-free change. Loreena even left her manufacturing ventures and moved out there with him, providing support with Tatonka (Orca). Having mobile corporate hangars and a ship maintenance bay makes a lot of things much easier. Aeon just brought Skullplitter (Absolution) along, as I have really grown fond of this missioning powerhouse. It shrugs everything off that these level 3 missions can throw at it – with the right amount of caution that is. Triggering all waves in The Blockade at once for example stretches its tanking capabilities pretty thin.

Once everything was set up and a number of missions later, the Vherokior tribe standings were already climbing noticeably. For some reason that felt very right, and I think Aeon wants to make them even better than his Brutor tribe standings. One should not let his family down like that to begin with, but then Aeon did not exactly lead a simple life. Since he rescued Loreena from the wormhole collapse in the now defunct Aramea system, he has wandered around pretty much aimlessly. It is time to go back to the roots now, however. With all the recent events in New Eden, I think he just needed some stability. He just cannot fully grasp how Loreena fits into the whole picture yet, even 922 days after he brought her back to Ammold and she eventually joined his operations.

Strange how in this world, any place you stay for a while starts to feel like home – the crowded Lustrevik already seems pretty far away. Teonusude is a nice enough spot, even if the luxurious Vherokior Tribe Treasury station does not really fit Aeon’s idea of a permanent home. Ammold will always stay Aeon’s spiritual home however, the one where it all started. It is even doubly significant, as it is also where it all started anew after his trip to Aramea. He had gone there with death on his mind, but out of the billions that died that day, he rose to live a new life. Loreena made that possible, and in a very real sense, she is all that keeps him alive. Of course he is not directly conscious of the strength of the link between them. Aeon has never bothered with feelings, he usually just shrugs them all off, concentrating on the tasks at hand. Incidentally, that accounts for his occasional puzzlement when he tries to understand how she fits into his life.

I think he is still quite a tortured soul, trying to believe without much success in some kind of divine intervention that made him and Loreena be the only survivors of the cataclysm – but all the while fiercely refusing to accept he could be worth the trouble. His instincts had saved him, but why? All he had wanted back then was to get a sweet kiss from death, yet his very own instincs had betrayed him. Thus is the nature of man, questioning himself and everything, even established certitudes. A rock solid atheist like Aeon suddenly contemplates the existence of “divine intervention”. Mind you, all this confusion is relegated to mere footnotes in his life when he has a task to fulfill. Then his mind becomes a beautiful display of the finer arts a human brain can bring forth. All the training and experience he has gathered so far have made him fearfully efficient in everything he touches.

One could argue that his choices have not always been inspired, and I would tend to agree. However, who can say for himself never to have blundered? The people of New Eden live in a wretched world, eons from the once innocent life on their lost homeworld. What have they all become, and where are they going? It is a question that Aeon contemplates occasionally when he is in a melancholy mood. Is it a pointless question? What can a single pilot achieve to change things? There are those that command millions in battles of interests, harbingers of death for the conquest of one or more pieces of space here and there, bound to be lost and retaken again endlessly. All races confounded, their achievements are great. The universe itself sometimes seems to tremble in their wake. But from a distance, it all sounds hollow and soulless. In Aeon’s eyes, they all lacked a goal – a vision. In the end, no matter how much destruction you sow, something will rise from the ashes and bite you back. So why bother? For money? Fame? Personal gratification? Those are the modern career choices.

Aeon sometimes likes feeling sorry for himself. In those moments, he sometimes gets the impression that his goal in life must be hiding somewhere around the next corner. It would be something beautiful in its simplicity, something that everyone could strive to reach. He had felt that way when he had entered his first wormhole. That proved to be a vain hope however, wormholes now being the same cesspools than so-called civilized space in his eyes. I think Aeon knows he is growing bitter constantly brooding on these matters, so he keeps his mind occupied with other things. Loreena will always be his biggest occupation of course, in part because she can erase all his fears with a single smile.

And there we have the heart of the matter. Aeon is a consummate judge of character, but Loreena remains a mystery to him. From the death of her homeworld and family to all the lows they have lived through together since then, she has taken it all in stride. She picked herself up every time as if she could see something in her future he could not see in his. She seemed to have what he lacked – a goal. Of course they talk a lot with each other, but even though they both seem curious about the other’s deeper thoughts, neither dares break the chemistry. He also often wonders why she stays with him and follows him in all his ventures without ever questioning him about it. He knows it is not merely because she feels she owes him that much for saving her, that is a feeling that usually does not stay for so long. No, there must be something else. With her skills and experience, she could easily reach for the stars. She loved him of course, just as he loved her – but that was not the reason either, he could sense that. Their relationship could be described as unconventional to say the least, hovering between platonic love and carnal passion, but all within the confines of their own minds. There is a mutual unspoken agreement that simply living out their passion would break everything apart – so they were both effectively doomed to live partnerless lives. One might sneer at a setup like that or even laugh at them, but I can guarantee that a look into their eyes and history would make you drop to your knees in sudden understanding and grief.

I like to think nothing is ever set in stone, and things may still take a turn for the better. In the meantime, Aeon and Loreena continue to make their way in New Eden, surviving against all odds – better than many, worse than none other.

Author’s voice-off: “I fear this may sound terribly cliché and cheesy, but it is nice to see these two characters evolve in their own world. Granted, they are merely pawns in a game I play – they cannot exist without me. I hate puppet analogies so I will not go that way, but somehow they are extensions of myself and they live the life I would have liked to live if New Eden was a reality. Even if you do not roleplay as such (or even hate it), as soon as you build a character you start roleplaying simply through the projection you make of yourself in the game. Imagining yourself in your ship, flying through space and even picturing your opponents are all aspects of roleplay. Even though I do not really roleplay in the game, I like to immerse myself in it and give my characters a semblance of life. In a very real sense, that binds my virtual life’s ethics to my real life ones, and sometimes I miss out on some of the shadier aspects of the game. I do not mind though, I have always been true to myself and enjoy the experience a lot more that if I had to jump into a custom built role everytime.

Comment your thoughts here directly, or give me a link to your blog posts / websites and I will read them and link them here.”

Update 11/05: Added screenshot and Wikipedia links.

I started Loreena to train all the prerequisites, which incidentally means she can now also fly mining barges, which is a plus. By the time she had all the required skills a few Orcas were available on market, but as usual with new items at prices beyond reason – some even above 1 billion (the BPO price). From then on, it meant waiting. A friend of mine active in capital ships production told me they would eventually settle around 450 mil depending on mineral prices, so I gave it my best shot at patience. I had been mining for quite a while before that, and liquidating some unused assets catapulted Aeon’s wallet up to an all-time record of 1.1 billion, which did not exactly help the patience bit. It was only about finding my breaking point from there.

I observed the price evolution, and the decision was quickly made when I saw one for 630 million ISK. I made a few inter-regional pricechecks and eventually bought the ship right in Lustrevik, next door to Syrkos Technologies‘ headquarters. A trip to Jita would only have saved a few million, so I decided those 20+ jumps were not worth the trouble. Still quite a ways off the 450 mil mark, but it was good enough for me. Besides, having all that ISK in the wallet made me nervous, with all the other shiny stuff I could buy. Incidentally, it made me realize that Heimatar is quite a competitive market compared to Jita. Rens is often cheaper for tech 2 modules than Jita, if not on par with going prices there. Not enough to make a lot of profit, but enough to make it feel good to live in the area and know Jita is not the holy grail.

There was something thrilling about buying something that big after the Abaddon almost a year ago. I logged in Loreena, and checked the price three times to make sure there was the right number of zeroes in it (not that a missing zero would have been an issue). Then the market deliveries window refreshed and there it was, together with some Frozen Food, Frozen Plant Seeds, a bit of Wheat and 70 Tourists that were probably amazed by the huge packaged ship. I did not check if any of the frozen seeds disappeared, but I for one would surely have made myself some popcorn to watch the ship being assembled. For the first time in quite a while, christening the ship felt meaningful, and reminded me of the joy from my first acquisitions. After an albeit impatient solemn moment, Loreena was in space in the “Tatonka” (from the root Native American, meaning “large bull”) and en route to Sytek’s Lustrevik headquarters for a short fitting session. After whipping on a hasty fitting, Loreena warped out to an empty moon and together with a few corp members, we tested the ship’s functions.

Impressive, dr Watson

First off, the ship is huge. As usual in EVE you won’t realize this to its full extent until you see some other ships next to it – even battleships are relatively small compared to the Orca. As a mostly highsec pilot, it is refreshing to have a “heavyweight” ship other than the existing freighters allowed to fly around there. Especially since the Rorqual and all the battle-oriented capital ships are restricted to low- and nullsec. Beyond the mere aesthetic points, what seduced me is primarily the solid mining gang support. A lot of players thinking of buying an Orca crunch numbers like how long they will have to mine to get back the cost of the ship, but I have a much more pragmatic approach: I take decisions by gut. Otherwise I would probably not have bought it, and missed a lot of fun. Friends of the pew-pew will doubtlessly wonder behind which asteroid the fun in this might be hiding, but sitting in a belt with that ship is just awesome. Loreena keeps it within 1.500 metres of Aeon’s Hulk, that way Aeon can move his mined ore directly into the Orca’s corporation hangar without even having to drop a jetcan. Try stealing that ore

Here is a quick overview of the Orca:

• 250% tractor beam range bonus (~71 km), 1000 m/s speed
• 500% survey scanner range bonus
• 5% cargo bonus per level
• 3% gang modules bonus per level
• Transportation: 81.588 m3 with 2 x Expanded Cargohold II and 3x Cargohold Optimization I rigs at my current ICS II
• Transportation: 40.000 fixed corporation hangar space on top of raw cargo space
• Transportation: 400.000 m3 for assembled ships with rigs (so up to BC size)
• Full-fledged command ship, can fit all gang modules
• Can fit three gang modules out of the box
• Corporate hangars that can be accessed by up to 10 members simultaneously
• Fitting and storing / undocking ships in space with the ship maintenance bay
• Docking/undocking ships in space
• Not easy to gank (10.750 Shield / 6.900 Armor / 46.000 Structure without skills)
• Limitation: Ships in ship maintenance bay can only carry charges in their cargohold, no regular cargo
• Limitation: Maintenance bay can only carry assembled ships

The gang modules make Aeon’s often short mining sessions a lot more profitable (with a theoretical maximum yield bonus of 45 to 50% depending on skills and implants). There are three Mining Foreman modules:

• Harvester Capacitor Efficiency, -2% capacitor need of mining turrets
• Laser Optimization, -2% mining cycle duration
• Mining Laser Field Enhancement, +2% minig laser range

Of course these bonuses are subject to the related Leadership skills and ship bonuses. Loreena currently gets 10.6% from all three with Mining Director V. On Tatonka I use 2 x Laser Optimization and 1 x Field Enhancement as I have no need for the capacitor bonus. I could go for all-out cycle duration, but being able to mine up to 18 kms away without moving around is worth it. What I also like about the ship is that it is not an easily gankable ship. You need a lot of firepower to take one down even without any defensive modules installed. I am not keen on losing the ship though, so following some recommendations I always have a Damage Control II fitted and active. On top of that, as I do not use any survey modules or midslots at all I fitted a permarun Large Shield Booster II. Handy to tank rats… and more.

Of course it all depends on how you use the ship. My case is pobably not very widespread, with only one Hulk in the mining gang With a ship like that, I prefer to be safe than sorry. You should not fly around with all your assets in the hold anyway, that is a gank waiting to happen. When I need to transport things I try to keep the total value not too high, and NEVER do it on autopilot. I have been ganked once before that way, it was a lesson well learned – but I digress, back to the topic at hand. Battleclinic has no way to post a fitting for ORE ships, so here it is the old way:

[lowslots]
1 x Damage Control II
1 x Power Diagnostic Unit II

[medslots]
3 x Cap Recharger II
1 x Large Shield Booster II

[highslots]
2 x Mining Foreman Link – Laser Optimization
1 x Mining Foreman Link – Mining Laser Field Enhancement

[rigs]
3 x Cargohold Optimization I

Beyond mining

Trust people to use it for everything it is NOT made for, but as a command ship the Orca is not limited to mining tasks alone. You can fit any of the available gang modules, and some players successfully use the ship as missioning support. It has a 75 m3 drone bay, which means it can actively participate in fights if need be, and it’s a great salvager with that 70 km tractor range and increased speed. It can carry all the ammo you will ever need and you can even store ships for different tasks in it to swap around in space. Want to change hardeners for the next room? You do not even have to dock. It is not exactly what I would do with it, but it is always good to think outside of the box… Which is exactly what some pirates did when the Orca was released. As far as I know they used a small glitch that allowed the ship to transport -10 security status characters into highsec, and would warp into belts, undock with ships from the maintenance hangar and gank some unsuspecting miners. That glitch has been fixed since, but it further demonstrates that as boring and repetitive that mining can get, you should always keep your guard up.

Well I think this about wraps the subject for now, I wrote a lot more than I started out for. As always, feel free to comment. I would love to hear how you use your Orca, or what you are planning to do when you eventually get one.

On a sidenote, Aeon really has to train Veldspar Processing sometime soon… 2 years into the game and he still cannot mine Veldspar properly, and that with the current market prices! Chribba, if you hear me, I know – I’m not worthy Seeing how fast I can strip a belt on my own now, it is kind of depressing to have to leave all the veldspar asteroids behind. The ship and gunnery skills have gotten a lot of love lately, so I think it is only fair to focus back on mining for a month or two.

I have posted few screenshots of late, so here is a catchup collection!

But let’s get back to the game at hand. Aeon is only ten days away from Amarr Battleship V, which will help a bit (5% more turret damage and 5% more armor resistances), even if not tremendously considering the time invested (34 days total). However, if I want to take Aeon further into the realm of EVE’s ship goodness it is slowly becoming a must-have. If he ever manages to decide which way he wants to go that is… it merits some thought.

Catching up

News have been scarce of late, but a number of things happened before I took my summer break that are worth noting. Sharon Valer11, an alt of my good friend Serotta Ortot, had joined Sytek for a while – “hiding out” as he used to say, to avoid being flagged as a macrominer. A name with numbers in it and virtually no standing when he bought her, I can’t blame him… But I do blame him for leaving the corp again to create his own Sharon’s boobs were a ray of light in the corp, even if none of us were allowed to get near them (sorry, insider joke).

Now Sharon runs her own POS with highsec research slots, I will post some details when she is ready to go public with the research services. Highsec research slots are always a nice commodity, so this may be interesting to a few people I think, myself included. And it is always good to know who you are dealing with, in this case a great friend I know I can trust.

On Aeon’s front I made a few expenses (read “OUCH”) and bought a second Abaddon to be able to manage two different fittings, one with beam lasers and one with pulses including two different rig setups. The pulse setup is my current favorite, it packs a way heavier punch albeit at close range.

PvP, here I come!

Well, not really. I still do not like it, but I wanted to learn a bit more about it to at least have a fighting chance if Aeon has to defend himself or to protect corp buddies in need. I dusted off the Aeonizer, and spent quite a while searching the battleclinic loadouts for PvP setups followed by a heavy-duty EFT session. I ended up with a pretty unorthodox setup for my usual playstyle (sorry, this one’s staying secret for obvious reasons!) and only needed a few testdrives.

I got to make a few sparring sessions with a more experienced corp buddy, and while the fights themselves were all pretty even (I won one, the other two I think he would have won) it showed me that I am not quite as defenseless as I always believed – especially since his char is one year older than Aeon, and he regularly takes PvP courses. I still lack the experience, but I know the key elements now. I am still not going into lowsec/nullsec anytime soon though – not until I have found a way to earn ISK that suits me and my playing time, other than mining

Wreaking havoc

Yes, that’s definitely what I intend to do. Run some level 4 missions, snoop out some complexes in highsec and blast everything that so much as looks like a red dot in the overview. I have to catch up on my quota of angel ships per month, so I will have to squeeze my agent very hard as long as some level 4 agents are still in highsec – hint at the current forum discussions on how all level 4 agents should be moved to nullsec. A load of horsedung in my opinion, I don’t think CCP will shoot themselves in the foot like that. Add a few more level 4 agents in nullsec, maybe. But not remove them from highsec altogether.

Now that Aeon has Heavy Assault Ships V, I also have to dust off my Zealot again and try to build a fit that works. I currently use the ship for probing (don’t laugh – I have a perfectly sane reason for doing so!), but I have to really put that skill to use. I think some EFT sessions are in order

LTT design

On the ever-present sidenote, I did a design for the LTT (League of the Tiger and Tentacle) corporation website, which I still have to slice and splice to build the website with. We hang out in the same channel ingame, and when they saw the Sytek website they asked if I could make one for them. They had to wait quite a while to get it, but it’s finally here.

The challenge in these designs is building something attractive that will still work in the ingame browser. That’s why most of the graphical work is done in the header and footer – the content part is simplistic on purpose so that it will still display alright in the browser. You can have a look at the design on my DeviantART page.

If you want one for your own corp, I am open for commissions. Evemail me for a quote – I can do both the design and development. I use a homebrewed, EVE-specific framework built on PHP that the Sytek website runs on. Beyond that, I also provide professional RL web design and development via my france-based company, Mistralys.