EVE Journey

Lesson learnt after seeing all those capital ships assembled, to truly enjoy a POS takedown, you need to pilot a dreadnought in siege mode. This quickly transforms the ship into putting out tremendous amounts of damage that makes short work of a POS.

Our fleet makes short work of the offending POS (they were red, enough said) and assembles at a nearby planet while we take stock of the situation. In my rather tiny incursus, there isn’t much I can contribute but to watch intel channels and observe the proceedings.

Even though I’m a miner, I’ve quickly learnt that even the smallest frigate is appreciated in fleets in 0.0. As a tackler, we can contribute to bringing a red down at the expense of our usually frail but inexpensive tech 1 frigates. My first fleet signup was amusing in that I had not fired a single shot or locked down a single ship before I was downed by hostile fire due to a mix up in POS passwords.

I do however get to view some of the more impressive ships most pilots don’t ever get to see in Empire. From carriers to dreadnoughts.. these capital ships fill the sky when they undock. Seeing them for the first time makes truly appreciate the scale of my training. I send Mica photos of the capital ships and he informs me that the Moros is a ship he hopes to pilot one day. I vow to be able to build one for him when the day comes.

Gallente Dreadnought – Moros

Caldari Dreadnought – Phoenix

Amarr Dreadnought – Revelation

Gallente Carrier – Thanatos

Caldari Carrier – Chimera

During a quickly organized corporation op in BR-N97, a red pilot from one of our long time enemies pops into local. Without thinking, I warp myself to a planet (thinking it would be safe) but as luck would have it, he does the same (what are the odds?!).

Forgetting to even launch my drones at his Tech 2 Heavy Assault Cruiser – Vagabond, it tore away at my shields and armor with Tech 2 Barrage M ammo, I quickly realize that my first ship loss ever would occur. Thankfully I managed to save my pod and thus the expensive +3 attribute implants that allow me to skill faster. This would be a day I remember as a lesson in the benefits of watching intel channels like a hawk in 0.0.

2008.08.15 23:14

Victim: Jar Calhoun
Corp: TransGalactic Industries
Alliance: Sylph Alliance
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Retriever
System: BR-N97
Security: 0.0
Damage Taken: 2324

Sansha’s Lord patrolling the belts

Shortly after the incident, I find myself in a new retriever but with little ability to solo mine due to the numerous rats that plague the belts. They were Battleship sized rats with frigates that liked to warp scram helpless miners.

Rokh taking damage and shrugging it off with ease

Luckily a friendly alliance pilots offers to help me “tank” the Sansha rats.. Apparently they are defective and will shoot at the first ship to agress them. This is a stroke of luck as it allows me to mine in the safety of the friendly battleship taking damage from the rats.

I get to enjoy local ores ranging from Hedbergite, Hemorphitee to Jaspet.. stuff that I would have trouble getting to in Empire. Of course Veldspar is present but in its more concentrated form, Dense Veldspar, with towering blocks everywhere. It was a miner’s paradise when reds stayed away!

Glazed Hedbergite – you don’t see this in empire!

Vivid Hemorphite

TGIND leaders have managed to get in contact with several alliances and it seems that Sylph Alliance might be a good fit for our new corporation. Most of us young pilots are uncertain as we have had relative little experience in 0.0 but they promise a NRDS (Not Red Don’t Shoot) policy which helps promote trade and has the back of Curatores Veritatis Alliance.

POS structure un-anchored and waiting to be scooped up

Part of the moves involves moving all our POS equipment in high-sec into Sylph space and so we spend countless hours un-anchoring them and moving them to a secure location for an alliance jump freighter to help move them safely. The numerous hours in my small cargo Bestower makes me envious of the Iteron Mark Vs hauling twice my load.

Obelisk waiting patiently for the control tower to un-anchor

On the final day of the move, our band of pilots form up a fleet of Ravens, Mammoths and Iterons to move our belongings safely to IS-R7P where we will meet the alliance for the first time. The route into 0.0 space takes us from Kari to YMP where we are warned about the dangers of 0.0 travel. Ignoring the warning, I bravely jump into Providence region for the first time.

The way to IS-R7P proves to be relatively peaceful for us, however we were neutrals in an area of space where reds lurked. With scouts reporting, we make our way to our destination jump after jump. Because of an alliance war dec in progress (war decs are everywhere!), we are unable to join the alliance to make use of the extensive jump bridge network which would have cut the whole trip time. The long trip does allow us to visit some of the outposts along the way that pilots had painstakingly built out in the frontier of 0.0 space.

9UY4-H Deliverance Reclaimed

QR-K85 Karishal’s Folly

IS-R7P Promethia

Reaching our destination was met with relief as some of us had brought our entire life’s possessions to the move. Some of our corporation pilots had not been so fortunate earlier and had lost some 500mil worth of belongings to pirates. This was no empire space as CONCORD had no jurisdiction here.

Graduating from the small time pirates on my home systems, I now find myself in the midst of my new corporation being war dec’d by a pirate corporation. Apparently, these pilots prey on small corporations like ours to disrupt our activities and also like to hunt down our industrial ships whenever possible.

Being a relatively new pilot with little in way of combat skills and ships, I find myself quickly constrained to watching as our hired mercenaries attempt to repel these offenders. We are given quick tips on survival and are herded towards a safer haven near to Jita (The Forge) where our hired guns are based. This proves to be an interesting experience as I’ve long heard of Jita as THE trade hub of New Eden. Local proves to be full of pilots hawking their wares from obvious scams to faction items and ships.

During this period of time, I managed to get in contact with a long lost cousin, Mica Breeze who had joined the Gallente Military instead of following my industrial career after we graduated. I had gone to the Center for Advanced Studies where I honed skills in all things industrial while he has chosen Federal Navy Academy to get experience in combat/gunnery and pvp ships.

Our agents that we had chose to work for couldn’t be more different. Mine was in relative ease ferrying goods and mining for Chemal Tech and Sisters of EVE while he had quickly risen through the ranks to help the Gallente Federation combat some of their worst enemies, the Serpentis and Angel Cartel. Unfortunately, he was still deep in his training and was unable to join us to help with the war declarations upon us.