Having a Ball

You can't start a fire,
you can't start a fire without a spark.
This gun's for hire,
even if we're just dancing in the dark.

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark

The jump was smooth. I winced a little as the fatigue hit, but it was mild. 2,000 meters away from my ship sat a Catalyst.

I set my orbit for for GTFO range and pulsed my microwarp drive along with my cloak. My Manticore responded like a dream.

The battle began in earnest. Torpedoes were flying, points were called and we started working on the enemy gang. A Phantasm... a Daredevil. Juicy targets caught in a bubble and engaged.

I laughed as I realized if I didn't decloak soon I'd miss out on the shooting. Then I ran into a Titan.

Capsules are completely prepared for any level of bodily waste you can produce. So when I shit myself a little, the system just sucked it up and kept on a booking.

I should be clear here, so you don't think I was overreacting. See... I thought this was a trap at first. It felt a little too pat. A little too easy.

But I jumped in because... "fuck it" that's why. You register your objections and then you follow your orders. What's the worst that could happen?

As I thought about that, my cloak deactivated. Because I don't mean "I ran into a Titan" like it showed up on grid 50 clicks out. I mean I took a hard left and the right wing of my bomber scraped a 20 meter gash into the side of a fucking Ragnarok.

Then I look at my overview. It's a blue titan. There's a friendly carrier out as well.

I can't help but think... what in the actual fuck is going on.

Fuck it. I'm not having any of this shit. I set a new orbit around the massive piece of space debris that was masquerading as a Minmatar supercap. Which was on the field for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY. Pretty much every target managed to burn out and get away as well. The whole exercise was nothing but a hilarious opportunity to gank a Catalyst. And gank it we did.

As we headed home I couldn't believe what had just happened. Still, regardless of our luck, I was getting tired. Just as I was about to dock up, I heard about a Bhaalgorn playing station games a few systems out. Everything about the target sounded wrong. A huge and expensive ship in a system with 10 reds all docked up in the same station?

Who the fuck did we think we were? But the FC told us to go in when the Bhaalgorn aggressed. And I jumped, again, into what was almost certainly a trap.

What's the worst that could happen? Of course an Oneiros undocked.

Now to be fair it undocked exactly 35 seconds after the Bhaalgorn exploded. And we looted the field of 350 million isk worth of mods while he watched helplessly. Also we popped the wrecks for good measure.

On the whole it was a pretty good day.

Opening the Door

Holy water, cannot help you now
A thousand armies, couldn't keep me out
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've come to burn your kingdom down

Florence + The Machine - Seven Devils

I'm in nullsec. A random glance at the 300 people in local reveals a collection of pirates, mercenaries, killers, and sov holders. I'm still not sure which is worse.

I dodged 2 gatecamps to get here. When the Sister's of Eve asked me to come out to Pure Blind so I could run a few missions, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I've spent the last 4 and a half years wandering wormhole space. I've seen wondrous things and I've seen horror. Yet... nothing like this. I jacked into the 'net to find out what's going on.

Apparently, the CFC has kicked up the hornets nest. Started calling themselves the Imperium. I think most people wanna take 'em out just for the pretentiousness of the name.

The galaxy is on fire but there's money to be made for a good pilot. There are opportunities to exploit. And there are corporations in the thick of this that would be happy to take me on.

The old itch comes back. There's voice in my head saying "You're the best pilot in the galaxy. People have forgotten that. Show them what they've been missing."

I look around one more time. Still surrounded. Pirates, mercenaries, and killers...

This is home.

Bad Romance

There's a humming in the restless summer air
And we're slipping off the course that we prepared
But in all chaos, there is calculation
Dropping glasses just to hear them break

Lorde - Glory and Gore

Hey.

Long time no see.

It's been, what, 4 and a half years since I posted here? Or logged into EVE at all. Anyone who used to read this might have questions. Where'd I go? Am I back?

I can answer the 2nd question easily: Yes. I'm back.

The first one's a bit more complicated. There was a time when it was the most important part of my day. Blogging, podcasting, news, and recording advertisements took up every free moment. When it was good it was great, and when it was bad... well. Long story short? I got into an argument with someone and said "fuck it".

I went into my options, scrambled my password and email and disappeared. But... like a lot of things I do, it wasn't as permanent as I thought it'd be. I've done a lot of other things in the mean time.

The thing I'm probably most proud of is writing for the SCP Foundation. Some of my friends there play EVE, and I got the itch again after listening to them talk. Then customer service, about a week ago, got me back into my accounts.

I don't know what I want to do or even blog about. I've got 100 Rifters sitting in Evati but it doesn't really seem as active as it once was. There's less things tying me down right now, but I suppose that'll change as I get more involved in the game. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But for now, I'm free to chart my own course. I'll be putting this blog on a once weekly schedule. We'll start with Thursdays and see where we end up.

By the way, the Gankalyst is pretty cool. Just saying.