Tangible Metaphors About New Jersey

Pretty much…

This past week I have been shipped out to New Jersey for work. Not just office work mind you. Back breaking labor. I honestly don’t know why we don’t subcontract this crap out except that we make money by having one of us out there doing it. For those of you not from ‘MURICA! I’ll try to accurately describe for you this glorious state of the union. New Jersey sits along the eastern seaboard nestled cozily up against New York’s Staten Island. While a good portion of the state is made up of picturesque farmlands, most of the northern half of the state is industrial wasteland. It’s been a great 5 days, let me tell you.

Anyway since we start fieldwork so early I got out at about 2:00 pm yesterday and finally had some Eve time coming my way. With no one from the corp online, and nothing but our static wormhole active, I decided I would pop out and do a little ratting before hunting for a lo-sec kill. Our static wormhole dropped me off in a system called Shach. I had never been in the constellation before, but it was glorious. A whole string of lo-sec systems outside of factional warfare, with no stations to be seen. I couldn’t believe it! At least four systems in a row, no station in any of them, and nothing but cruisers and frigates on d-scan! It was a cloaked hunter’s dream and I made sure to make a special note of the system for the future. This was quickly becoming one of my favorite new hunting grounds.

Hunting grounds

With almost no one around I decided I would take some time and rat a little. The only thing I hate about hunting in lo-sec is the security status penalty. Might as well try to buffer the damage ahead of time. Plus those new security tags are worth some pretty good loot, never hurts to look for a few of those if you have the time. My Oracle jumps from belt to belt, picking apart pirate ships with ease. In under 10 minutes I manage to find one of the new security rats and promptly destroy it. The tag inside was worth 68 million isk. Not bad for 10 minutes of flying! I continue to warp around the area, increasingly impressed with the offerings, until I start to run into some pilots. Now is as good a time as any to switch over to the Pilgrim and see what I can catch. I start making my way back to my wormhole home, only mildly aware that there are core probes in our static system.

Once in the Pilgrim it’s out to hunt! The probes are still in system but I ignore them for now. One pilot in a Buzzard isn’t going to be much of a threat to me getting back home, even if he does find my wormhole. I warp around the lo-sec chain. A Rifter and a Thorax lead me on a good chase for a while. I end up on a gate with the Thorax for a moment, but hesitate to engage him with the gate guns nearby. He ends up jumping back the way I just came, and I can’t be bothered to try to catch him. I move on, continuing to rat in systems that don’t seem to offer any other amusement.

Unwelcoming party

Finally the time comes for me to start heading home. I’m exhausted and need to get some sleep soon. An uneventful trip back home is rudely interrupted by a notification in my inbox. “Your corporation’s base is under attack.” Double-U tee to the F. Who the fuck is attacking our system?! There were no other wormholes in there half an hour ago, I find it hard to believe one just happened to pop up with an aggressive corp on the other side. I race back to my wormhole assuming our attackers are from w-space. I get to the hole without incident but am greeted by an unwelcome sight after jumping through our static connection. A Cynabal, Broadsword, and Scythe are on the hole, drones out, looking for trouble. Luckily I seemed to catch them on break, because I’m able to immediately jump back through the hole and warp to the star. I accidentally warp to 0 though, and curse myself for my foolishness as the Cynabal shows up on my overview. By some divine act of Bob, the Cynabal warped to 100km, the distance I generally warp to when trying to evade someone. If I had not accidentally warped to 0km, there is a very good chance he would have had me.

But Bob is on my side today. He warps back to the hole and I follow at a respectable 70km. I then watch his whole crew jump back Shech from my home system and warp away. I decide now is my chance and burn towards the hole. Once safe at home I scan the system and find no new signatures. The attackers apparently were from my new favorite constellation. Perhaps my new favorite hunting area isn’t as perfect as I had originally thought.

Return to the Pod

The pod goo is colder than I remember it being…

It is good to be back! After a long stint planetside, I’m finally back in the pod. A lot is going on planetside. I’m moving back to Brooklyn, just broke up with my girlfriend of four years (well she broke up with me), and things are pretty crazy in general. The good news is I’m finally settled in and seriously back in Eve.

The whole corp was online last night and we began telling old war stories as we pillaged the anomalies of a neighboring C3 system. After a particularly exciting engagement a few nights ago, Oz convinced me to start writing in the blog again. A fantastic idea, and this fight is definitely worth the spotlight of the first in the re-opening of Capsule in the Void.

Well it was about a week and a half ago. I had finally got a replacement Legion for the one that Oz borrowed and returned to me as a smoldering pile of wreckage. I was the only corpie online and a few anomalies looked more promising than scouting new wormholes or suckling Ladar sites. I align to my target and warp in to find the expected sleepers. So far everything is going as plan. I start popping sleepers, admiring my Legion’s shiny hull and blazing pulse lasers.

Huh, that’s funny, I don’t remember there being any Lokis in this class of anomaly, or any anomaly for that matter…

Oh shit. A few months away from the game has made me rusty. I was not spamming d-scan as much as I should have been. Regardless the reaction to the Loki appearing on my overview is instantaneous. The Legion begins aligning to the POS while I lock the Loki and begin to engage the new hostile. I should mention at this point, there is still a sleepless defender buzzing around who begins engaging the Loki as well. It’s nice to know the sleepers think this guy is as big a jerk as I do.

The cloak fitted Loki is no match for my tank or my lasers. His shields are dropping quickly, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s done for. That is until his friends in a Hurricane, Vexor, and Broadsword show up. I get it now. The Loki was just a point to lock me down until the real fleet can get there.

I start planning my next Legion purchase. It looks like the corp wallet is robust enough to handle another big purchase so I could be back in a new Legion by the end of the day. But let’s see what we can do.

As you would imagine the Broadsword catches up with me and puts the bubble up. It’s a good thing he does because now the Loki who is almost out of armor bugs out before becoming a casualty himself. I switch targets to the Broadsword, I need to bring that bubble down if I’m ever going to get out of here. The hurricane closes the distance and starts throwing his own weight into the mix. The Vexor thankfully is over 60 km away, not sure what he was doing out there, but I’m grateful he isn’t in the fight yet.

It occurs to me that the Broadsword has quite a tank, but is probably contributing very little to the damage being inflicted on my ship. The Hurricane is the real threat to my hull. I know my armor repair unit can handle the Broadsword, but the close range hurricane is beating me up pretty bad. I overheat the armor repairer while I switch targets to the Hurricane.

The Minmatar have fast ships that hit hard, but they are made of cardboard. Within 30 seconds the Hurricane has to disengage or succumb to my righteous lasers (my lasers have a special affinity for Minmatar). The Hurricane warps off leaving the Broadsword and Vexor. Well now what do I do, the Vexor is getting closer but still doesn’t seem to be in the fight. Might as well take this chance to pummel the Broadsword some. His tank is strong, but it’s passive, and he has no way to repair himself. His shields begin to evaporate just as the Vexor starts to realize he can’t shoot me from where he is. The Loki warps back in to the fray, but at this point I have a good read on their strategy and their ship weaknesses. I re-lock the Loki, quickly making him warp out again. Target focus is now back to the Broadsword.

Suddenly I realize the Broadsword is falling behind. Could it be I’m not wreckage after all? Sure enough I manage to get outside of the Broadsword’s bubble and slam the warp button to bring me back to the POS. I had remained aligned to the tower the whole time. I broadcast a “gf!” into the local channel which is reciprocated by the aggressors. I keep them chatting in local while I switch to a stealth bomber. I end up back in the anomaly aligned perfectly to the Vexor and launch a bomb to remind them they aren’t in hi-sec yet.

It’s a direct hit with something like 3,000 damage registering in my log. I get the obvious “that tickles!” in local, but they get the hint and warp out. I have a feeling the Vexor felt that bomb a bit more than he wanted to. Now it’s just me and a cloaked Loki looting my hard earned loot. I align to one of the last wrecks hoping to pop the wrecks with a bomb while damaging the Loki a bit. Unfortunately for whatever reason he leaves the last 3 wrecks. After floating aligned to the wreck of choice for five minutes, I decide to call it a day. This has been enough excitement for me thank you very much.

Welcome back to Eve!