Old Friends

In the last few days, I have spotted some of my old Phoenix Wing comrades. Interesting to see where they are these days.

Former Phoenix Wing Admiral and one of the best leaders I have ever flown with, Tyr Cloudstone, has joined Veto, a pirate corporation. Quite a turn-up for someone who’d loyally served the Gallente Federation for years.

Brother Simple, a quiet achiever and helpful influence when I flew with the Wing, has joined Strix, our former comrades in Acheron Federation. (I considered taking a similar path recently, but Strix’s hard-core RP policy is a bit strict for me)

And not surprisingly, the only Caldari pilot who flew with us, Odessima, has also gone into piracy.

Legion Industries

When I flew with Phoenix Wing last summer, the Wing was part of the Acheron Federation (along with Strix & Tagaki corporations). It meant the Corporate channel often had a few pilots there, and the Alliance channel always had at least a dozen present. Joint operations, especially during the war in Solitude region, often involved up to a dozen pilots using voice communication channels. There was a feeling of camaraderie and it was a highlight. After the disintegration of Acheron Federation, flying with Phoenix lost a lot of its magic. Instead of being part of an alliance of over a hundred, we were a corporation of about 20, with very few in pod in my timezone.

I therefore didn’t need a lot of convincing when Robertt told me he wanted to return to Sinq Laison and set up a corporation aimed at mining belts and using the minerals to make products to sell. The war in Solitude had left m craving cashflow. The new plan looked promising. The Brotherhood of Mars was born. I was able to return home to Ardene.

Being in a small corporation though, I missed the teamwork aspect I’d had with Acheron Federation. I spoke to Robertt recently, and we agreed I’d go looking for a new corporation to join, with a view to probably returning to The Brotherhood down the track.

It was a result of this that I found myself with Legion Industries, currently part of the Veni Vidi Vici (v3) alliance. Several of the corporation are from my timezone. And even though I am a novice compared to many in the corporation, they’ve seemed willing to help thus far.

Tourism, The First

I was looking at the map the other day, and I read that a black hole existed down near Konora system. So I thought “I want to go see”.

I therefore today loaded up Velocite, my frigate, and went for a fly down there. It was about 21 jumps, so took a while. It’s also in low-sec, so I thought I was taking a bit of a risk. It turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax though. The reports I’d read that the black hole was visible were old, and nowadays, it’s not possible to see the black hole. It did though inspire me. I’m compiling a list of tourist spots to check out.

Toasted

I’ve been using the Swordfish to mine down in Schoorasana. Low-sec. Plenty of jaspet. But this morning, luck caught up with me and I got jumped by Hairtrigger, a pirate who hangs out down that way. He was in a command ship, and I (fortunately) had loaded up with rail guns for a change. So we had a slog-fest outside my base down there. He won. I got him down to 60% armour before he podded me, and I was reanimated back in Ardene. But the starbase guns wiped him out.

Stepping Up A Level

For the last few weeks, I’ve been keeping the wallet slowly accumulating mainly by mining in Ardene. I began with an Exqueror (Scoop) with three Miner II lasers. Then, after a while, I bought myself a Thorax (Achilles) which could carry four Miner IIs. With Achilles, I could mine about 18,000 cubic metres of ore (mainly omber and plagioclase) in an hour, and then use the Iteron V to ship it back to base.

About ten days ago though, I was mining in Achilles and along came French Connection, in a Myrmidon, who flipped my can. I was unsure if I could retaliate legally (turns out I could have) but with five Hammerhead I drones, I couldn’t have done much to the thief before they’d have opened fire and I’d have died.

My reaction was to buy a Myrmidon of my own (Swordfish) and turn it into a mining boat. It carries 5 Miner IIs meaning I can mine a full jetcan (27,000 cubic metres) in just over an hour and that’s slightly more than the Iteron V can carry. If I only fill the can to 25,200 and then the Iteron V can grab it in one hit. That sounds like a much safer system.

Cold of Space

The last day or so, I’ve been doing some courier work around Sinq Laison & Essence. Along the way, at one of the gates, I found maybe a dozen corpses floating.

Obviously, there’d recently been a great battle. Wrecks had been removed, because I could see none of those. But the dead pilots were left behind.

I would have paused to think. But if there were that many frozen bodies, there was a good chance someone else might be still hunting.

Slow But Forward Progress

My son, Lucius Camembert, has joined The Brotherhood of Mars last week. I am therefore spending a fair bit of my time teaching him the basics of piloting his ships. He started off playing in an Incursus (called Lancer) and is now adventuring in a Catalyst (the Lancaster).
I like Catalysts. Lovely fuselage shape that reminds me of the ancient British bomber aircraft. Lancasters, Beauforts, Wellingtons.
The recent growth of The Brotherhood, although slow, has got me thinking more about corporate management and similar things.
The Brotherhood of Mars, despite the militaristic origin of the name, is primarily a corporation involved in mining, producing and selling goods. Ammunition, drones, ships mainly. In addition to that, we buy whatever we can find cheaply on the market, and sell it for profit if we can. We’ve got the hauling capacity to do decent sized movements (our largest at the moment is 25,200m3) so I’m also starting to take on some courier work.
I am discussing with an agent in Jita that she might sell some products for us in that great trade hub. I am considering advertising for the first time for new pilots. I am making friends with some small corporations whose paths are similar to ours.
All in the name of furthering us all along our chosen careers. We’ll see if any of it bears fruit.

Ending the Sojourn

A few weeks ago, I found myself rummaging through my storage locker and I unearthed my old pod pilot uniform. It’d been months since I’d tried it on, and a few months more since I’d spent much time in my pod.
I couldn’t help it. I slipped into it and apart from it being a bit snug, thanks to a winter of too much good food and too little exercise. But the desire quickly returned, and I found myself plugging in once more. Then back down to the dock, and I began to fire up Scoop, my old mining Exqueror.

So I have spent the last fortnight back in my pod. Mining plagioclase and omber in Ardene. Slowly, slowly making some money with the aim of reviving The Brotherhood.
I dropped a message to Rob. He’d recently done something similar, returning to his pod after months off.
Last week though, a significant development – while mining, I found some treasure in a wreck – a smuggler’s implant. A quick price check – I could get 40 million for it! I’ve never had more than 50 million in the whole previous year of flying. Now I had 40 million in one hit!
I was telling Rob about the discovery, and he told me I could get 55 million if I sold it in Essence. I decided that I would head over there in the coming days and sell it off.
After thinking about it for a while, I realised that if I could get 55 million in Essence, I might get a better price elsewhere. So I began to ask around. Someone told me I could get 84 million in Jita. I’d never been to Jita though – it’s legendary lag meant I’d avoided it like the plague.
I decided though to try it out. I went to Jita, expecting to find the lag would be terrible. I also expected the price information to be wrong. It turned out to be right though, and I made 84 million ISK in one afternoon.

Growth

Most of the last few weeks have been spent very dully – mining for omber; plagioclase and jaspet. So that Robertt can achieve his goal of producing a run of 15 Thoraxes. So not much to report on that front.
The only real issue lately has been the management of the corporation. Robertt & I have clashed heads on a few issues. Mainly because the objectives we have are almost mutually exclusive.
We need new recruits because sharing the work around, and working together, is going to get us ahead faster than staying as a team built only around Robertt, Anthony & I.
We need to base ourselves close to low-sec space to get decent returns on our mining, so we can get into ship production.
But new pilots aren’t going to leap into lowsec until it’s safe enough for them. And that could take months. Until then, I am teaching them things and working with them mainly in Ardene. But Robertt wants our corporation based in Haine (because it’s in lowsec). He even got so shirty as to suggest the corporation split, as he & Anthony are based in Haine and the rest (I’ve recruited some new pilots around Ardene lately) were based in Ardene.
Once I pointed out to Robertt that him & Ant going alone would not solve any of the issues he was raising, but would actually hurt in his progress, he had vented enough steam. So that was patched over for a while.
Then Anthony began to suffer too many ship losses, and has now decided Haine is unsuitable as a base. The reality is we just need a lowsec base closer to Ardene. Somewhere not as dominated by pirates. I think the area around Jel/Ardene/Ney is better. But we’ll see how things play out with Robertt in the coming weeks. He hasn’t had as much to spend in his pod lately.
Yesterday, and again today, Anthony & I have been going on joint missions with two of the new pilots – Vonax & Spearson. The sense of teamwork built by activities like that is invaluable. It’s also fun.
Tomorrow I’ve scheduled a session during DJ Pugg’s EVE radio stint. Either joint mining or mission running. It’ll be good bonding and fun.
I’ve also been tasked to sort out some voice comms. So I spoke to Kieran today about the TeamSpeak server. It seems my roles are many and varied. Minister of Communications now apparently.

Low Sec Space

When we lived out in Solitude, low sec space didn’t bother me. But out there, low sec was sparsely populated. And of course I didn’t go mining.

On the weekend, Robertt, Anthony & I went out mining in Haine. Rob with his barge; Ant & I escorting in Thoraxes. Things went well at first, but then local channel started showing other pilots arriving. So we decided it was a bit hot. We returned to base, and Rob changed into his Iteron to collect the ore – jaspet I think it was we did that day.

Warping back in to collect the jaspet,  there were some Serpentis ships there, so Ant & I got busy dealing with them while Rob picked up our takings. Once the Serpentis cruisers were dispatched, Ant & I pulled our drones in. Then we noticed a visitor – Islador.
Since we knew Islador as a comrade of RGPX, a local corporation Rob & Ant had done some work for, we didn’t react immediately. But he soon targetted me. I tried to warp. Scrambled.

A while back I learnt that the only response to being scrambled is to make a lot of noise. Mostly by firing off guns at whoever was scrambling me. So I did. I launched my drones and sent them against Islador as well.

In such a situation, there is enough I am doing in my own pod to worry about what the others were doing. I was praying Rob had got away with the jaspet. I was praying Ant was doing the same as me. Or running away if he wasn’t being scrambled.
It was reassuring to see CONCORD pounding Islador as well. So he soon died. But then another pilot was targeting me. Time to get out. I warped for home, and managed to get out. I presume Ant did the same, because he got home as well, although badly damaged.

Rob was disappointed he’d been unarmed when the fun went down. But getting him back to safety was the mission objective, and that’d been achieved. We got chatting to Islador later and he seems the type who alternates between “Sorry, I didn’t know” to “I don’t know you, I don’t consider you guys friendly, you’re fair targets”. So as a result, Islador goes on the list of people who are shoot-on-sight. At least in my classification. I think Rob took more reassurance out of the discussions held post-combat. But I don’t trust him. And I’m unsure about the viability of Haine as a base of operations. Probably because I haven’t had the positive interactions that Rob & Ant have had with the Haine locals.
The result though is that I’m basing in Ardene, while the others base in Haine. Corporate actions will be limited in the next week or two while Robertt is in Dublin. But we’ll see what happens when he returns.

Islador counted as a kill for me though. My second in my five months as a pod pilot. And in both cases, it was the same rule – when scrambled, shoot first and ask questions later.