Take Me Out to the Black, Part Three
Tuesday saw the release of the latest EVE expansion, The Empyrean Age, which focuses on lowering the barrier of entry for PvP by adding a middle ground between mission running in Empire and roaming the lawless reaches of 0.0 space. This was accompanied by a days worth of downtime during which all out war was declared by the four principle factions in New Eden. Full details of the day’s events can be read here. I could go into detail about how great it is that the Caldari State have retaken Caldari Prime, but that would be incredibly geeky…
So, yes. The Caldari have retaken their homeworld, how awesome is that? I jest, I jest. However, this does point out one of EVE’s greatest strengths. The universe actually changes, and on a regular basis. Compare this to WoW, where nothing ever changes. Nefarion and Ragnaros are still duking it out, the Gnomes are still living in exile and Lady Prestor is still stood next to the King of Stormwind. In EVE, the actions of the players can have an effect on the universe. Alliances constantly shift, the market acts like a real market (hell, CCP have their own economist, who produces quarterly economic reports) and the sovereignty of entire systems can change at the drop of a hat. But this is a rant for another time.
Popping Rats in Kalendra-BCh Mk3
Anyway, once the servers came back up, I decided to take advantage of the general quietness, as well as the appearance of my Harbinger, Kalendra-BCh, in the StateCorp hanger, to do some ratting in J-CIJV. I fitted out Kalendra-BCh with some appropriate shield hardeners and then headed out into the system, warping from belt to belt, clearing out any Guristas loitering about. The groups were usually simple enough to kill, though I’d usually have to re-dock after each pack due to a full hold space and a drained capacitor. Made a fair amount of cash in quite a short period (about 3 million ISK), which meant I finally had enough to actually insure my Harbinger. Which was nice.
Wednesday saw StateCorp out in force, with a 15 pilot-strong fleet roamining around Pure Blind. Our first stop was the system of RQH-MY, and we got off to an excellent start. Whilst waiting at the gate from J-CIJV into G95-VZ, an Abbadon (if I could afford a Battleship, this would be my first choice, based purely on how cool it looks) jumped in. He really didn’t stand a chance, however.
As we continued along the pipe to RQH-MY we encountered a Hyperion (who was possibly AFK and on autopilot), a Dread Guristas rat (with a 1,250,000 ISK bounty on its head) and a Vagabond. The latter was killed before I even arrived in system.
After reaching RQH-MY, our next destination was P-2TTL. Whilst en-route we recieved intel regarding a Pure gang roaming through the region. We decided to alter our course in an attempt to intercept them. On the way, we encountered a Zealot in X47L-Q. He tried to escape through the J-CIJV gate, but we followed and engaged on the other side. Knowing he was going to die regardless, he trained his guns on my Malediction, the weakest ship in the fleet, in an attempt to get some revenge. My structure was at 43% before he died, which cost me 173k in repairs, but I couldn’t really complain as it was preferable to dying. I certainly need to start dealing better with being attacked (i.e. warping away as soon as possible, hitting ABs or somesuch). I got lucky today, but one or two more hits and I would’ve been people paté. However, this pilot was a member of Pure, so would no doubt have alerted the fleet we were tracking to our presence, scuppering that plan.
The Frozen Remains of the Buzzard Pilot
At this point it was getting late, and several pilots had already left the fleet and docked up. We got one more kill, a Buzzard in R2-ROG. Being a frigate-class ship, it really didn’t last long. After a bit more patrolling, we headed home and called it a night around 10. Again, another succesful night. Next week, we’re due to roam even further afield, so fingers crossed we get some more interesting fights. So far, we’ve only faced single ships; I look forward to our first fleet vs fleet battle. As for this Factional Warfare lark, StateCorp are waiting a bit before trying it out, as we’re quite happy in Pure Blind for now.
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