I never fail to be surprised at what people will do or say if they believe they have been given the gift of anonimity.
Today, an online game called EvE-Online, owned by a Company called CCP (links at the end of the post) has been taken off line to enable the owner of the game the ability to upgrade, improve and repair the systems. Every now and then, errors have to be fixed, improvements need to be made and the system needs a little tittivation.
Done right, the customers will continue to pay their twelve dollars a month and the Investors will see a return. The fact that some players are incapable of resolving the difference between reality and virtual reality is worrysome, but I don't think that is the real problem. Today as usual, a bunch of guys all complained about something or another they beleived was important. They forgot to ask "Important to who. Me, or them?"
I made a post, (copied below) but to me, the fascinating thing about people given anonimity, is the way they behave so badly when they have the freedom to be not held accountable. You just know some are going to squeeze every ounce of bad behavour they can.
Titles are, in the real world, given to others after they have earned the title or often, inherited it. Many people in online games of Virtual Reality, who in the real world, would be unable to even impress the anyone enough to earn a real title, give them selves a title and then behave as if the title had the value of the title percieved in the real world.
They will self title their name, such as Lord Death, Colonel Gurister, Lady Pimplepot or Captain Clever. The absolute failure is not so much in them beleiving that by creating a name that mimics a real title, but that the name will be respected and beleived by others playing the game.
Most players, as soon as they see some one with a name that includes a real world style or title, knows the player is behaving like a spoiled and often deluded child and treats them as such, often to their face, but the victim doesnt see it, they are protected by the shield of self importance they have drenched themselves in.
Names used in close family circles are different, the holder knows the title is something that means something to those around them and that it is not a 'Real Title' and typically 'Princess' is one such title. It is a sharing of a term of endearment, not as in most cases, a grasp for something that is neither real, of of value.
Links:
Eve on line: http://www.eveonline.com/
The posting in question:
User Name
You all seem to have some reality problems here, I suggest many of you grow up and get a life. If you are adult, then perhaps consider getting a shrink to explain the difference between games and real life.
If you cant play the game before you go to work, do something else. If its your day off, do something else, if your retired, wealthy and lonley, DO SOMETHING ELSE.
Its EvE.
Before any downtime, add a long skill to your training queue, it doesn't matter what skill you take out. Its Eve, things will change.
If your in a dispute, dock up, log out, and turn on the television, grab a cola and investigate the palms of your hands for hairs. It doesn't matter, it is Eve.
If you are waiting for a fault to be fixed, assume the worst, expect to be dissapointed and relax, it is Eve. Good things will come as a pleasant surprise.
If you know you could do a better job than the devs, apply to CCP, put up, or shut up, complaining about things done by others makes you look like a pratt. Its Eve, live with it.
If you know of a fault and they have not fixed it, again, then it is a low priority for some one, accept it. Your priorities are not their priorities, is Eve, learn it.
Above all people, it is a game, and the only reason you play it is because a Company called CCP is making a return on investment by some financial speculators who happen to own the Company. Their only aim is to make a buck and pay the bills, your opinions, complaints and whinges mean little or nothing to them. Get with the program.
If you have some thing positive to add to the already filled plates of the managers, designers, design teams, creators, server techs, customer support techs and those in HR that are trying to hold it all together, guess what, a whinging blog thread is not the place to express it.
If you don't like what I have suggested, I don't care because guess what, It Is Eve, it is a GAME, it is NOT REAL.
Friday, 21 January 2011
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Rivers Eve Chapter 2:3 Courier Delivery
To Perimeter
The agent’s head sat on a mount on the counter top while a technician probed into the inner workings of her headless torso. The somewhat unnerving illusion of a warm bodied, sensually attractive young woman was quite destroyed. The humour developed as I completed my task. The agents head spoke to me as though it was normal for a head to be separate from the body. We completed the transaction paperwork and I was invited to return the following day for another task.
The technician, with a screwdriver in his mouth, mumbled something about the unit’s processor was something or another and would be mumbled mumble soon.
I looked through the manifests on a clipboard while a pilot with more braid and badges came into the office and looked at the headless agent and young technician standing on a chair with one hand deep in the sitting body’s neck.
“Is she screwed again?” he asked the technician in a voice that told me this was a repeat event.
“Mumble sputter”, from the grinning techie.
The officer seemed to notice me as though I had coalesced into focus, and in a tired voice asked “Are you free to run a message over to the next solar system for me”, followed absently with, “just cannot trust the new starter pilots that come through here”
I said I was free and followed the officer into his nearby office. One wall was covered in awards, diplomas, credits, pictures of ships, models of different craft and insignia filling every inch.
“You have been busy”, I commented with genuine interest.
“A lot of what you see has been because I have a good team”, he said as he looked up from what he was doing, then continued with “a good team is worth more than a good ship”
I smiled.
He sealed a small canister and scrambling the digital lock, he handed the canister to me. He seemed to focus on me, and said in a low voice, “Sacrifice your ship, even your pod, but never your team”.
“Sir”, I said, in agreement and without fanfare.
“Get this over to Commander Jatorian in Perimeter”, he demanded, “It’s important, let me know when you get there”. He smiled and seemed to add as an afterthought, “good luck”.
The conversation was over and there was no invitation to stay, I left and after a moments thought, picked up one of the soft flight pouches from the outer office and while the techie worked on the agent, I left to go back to the hanger. I needed a ride.
The canister went into the pouch and I slung it over my shoulder.
I entered the chief’s office and asked if I could borrow a ship to get me to Perimeter.
“Perimeter"? he queried.
I lowered the pouch and told the chief I had a message to run over there for the boss.
“Perimeter”, he muttered and walked over to one of the screens on the wall. He touched it. Images and notes on the screen faded and were replaced with star maps, galaxy images and coloured circles.
“This”, he said pointing, “is Jita, the centre of most of the high sector commerce, a real pain of a place to be in unless you have to be there”.
I watched his finger trace a line, then he tapped the screen and another system was highlighted. “This is Perimeter, a couple of long jumps from Niarja”.
He paused, then added, “Make for Kamio and run in from there, it’s a bit safer”. I nodded and noted carefully the names of the places the Chief was showing me.
“Keep your wits about you lass, it’s not an easy run, go see Mick and ask for the Magnate, it will get you there”.
I thanked the chief and with the pouch over my shoulder, headed off to find Mick.
Mick found me first, he seemed to emerge from a pile of parts that either had been, or would be a small ship. Wires and pipes, metal bits and connecters seemed to be loosely bound together on trestles. “Off somewhere sunny?” he asked.
“I wish”, I said with a happy smile.
Mick’s hair fell across his eyes and as he brushed it back with his hand he gave himself a dark oily smear across his forehead.
I reached for a piece of safety towelling on the bench nearby and tore a small piece off. “Can I get a ship to run a package over to Perimeter, the chief suggested the Magnate”
“Perimeter?” he asked as I leaned forward and rubbed the smear from his head with the towelling scrap.
He smiled.
“Have you read up on the manuals for the Magnate?” Mick asked.
“Not yet”, I said, “not had a chance”.
“Climb into this ship over here”, he said leading the way, “Look up Magnate on the console and do the books, think you need level one, or two, its easy enough, wont take more than half an hour”.
“Thank you”, I said, but I was sure my voice had actually said ‘take me to bed’ or was it something of both, I don’t know.
Mick leaned into the small cockpit as I sat down into the seat and he switched on the various systems and passed me a headset to use in place of the helmet.
“’Be back shortly”, he said, and the screens lit up while I selected the menus and paid for the skill books I needed to train up with. In truth, I could have been doing something else while I was training. Sure it takes time, but that does not normally stop you from doing other things.
I looked up the schematics for the Magnate; it is a balanced little frigate, large thrusters on each shoulder, large claw like appendage on the front, typical of Amarrian design and with clean lines.
This ship came with either two fighting laser weapons, or two mining lasers, or a mixture of both, versatility with economy and simplicity. It had a larger than normal hold space with room for upgrades. Two drones in the drone bay gave this ship a hidden advantage; two drones could be a second pair of weapons, or a repair.
I looked up, Mick was talking on the comms system of another ship, he seemed agitated then he closed the comms and walked out of view. I angled one of the mirrors in the cockpit until I could see him again. I wasn’t spying on him; more, interested in whatever had agitated him.
He spoke to another technician. The guy he spoke to stood up and put down the parts he had been working on, wiped his hands on some towelling and then grabbed his hat and left in a hurry.
Mick appeared at my shoulder suddenly. “Grab the skill books for Dual Light Pulse Lasers while your at it”, he said casually. I smiled and as he looked in saw that I had them already selected.
“You are going to need something else”, he said.
I interrupted, “Drones”?
“Your too damn smart”, he laughed.
“I have a bear looking after me”, I said with a smile as I patted the tiny baer in my top pocket..
“I’ll buy that bear a drink later on” he said with a smile that suckered me in, switched me onto boost and sent shivers running through every nerve in my body.
Half an hour later, Mick shoehorned me into a Magnate, a ship that looked as if it had been around the block a few times. “I put an overdrive injector onto this one for you, will give you a bit of a boost” he said. I looked up to him before I closed the cockpit cover. He looked worried.
The systems grabbed me and I became part of the ship. Blinking through the menu’s I found the target destination was already programmed in. The path seemed a bit longer than I had seen in the chief’s office, but it had all the right places on for Kamio, then for Perimeter. I checked the hull and the container was neatly locked in place. There were two light drones in the drone bay, just waiting for launch instructions. In the high points, two lasers with multi-frequency lenses. A damage control unit had been fitted to the ship as well, this gave the ship extra armour.
I blinked the menus for launch and as the ship lunged forward and out of the hanger, I felt the surge as the engines came on line, far more powerful than the last ship I had flown.
I switched off the autopilot and something clamoured for my attention. As I came up to the first gate, I set the Autopilot on for the jump. Then as the ship jumped through the gate, I deselected the autopilot and set up for the next gate. More hands on, more in control. If I left the autopilot switched on, then the ship would run to around eighteen kilometers from the gate and amble towards it. This could leave me as a sitting target for any one with designs on owning my ship, with or without me still inside it.
With fifteen jumps ahead of me, this was going to be a long trip and I would have time to learn another skill while I selected destinations and jumped stargates. I set the channels off, so one on one communications were not going to interrupt me. The group channel I left on low, just in case anyone came on that had something of interest to share.
I had jumped through seven or eight gates when my console told me that it had rejected invitations to join other fleets. Auto fleet rejection meant I would not be seriously delayed chatting with other people flying through the systems.
Arriving at the next gate I was warned by my system that another ship was scanning me. Before they could gain lock, the jump took me through the gate. Was I under attack, or was someone just being nosey to see what I was carrying?
The next sector was still safe high security, but a little less safe than other areas. I knew that if I was attacked randomly, the Concorde Police system would close down my attacker and they could lose their ship. I was neither a wanted criminal nor did I have a bounty on me.
I told myself I was safe, then reminded myself that it takes time to destroy a ship, that ‘time’ was my godsend, it gave me time to get away, or defend myself or scream venom at my attacker.
As I materialised, I aligned my ship with the next destination and blinked the command to ‘Warp to zero’. This would give any would be attackers a minimum window of opportunity. My focus was on a small counter with its small dot cycling round and round. It told me how many seconds I would be safe for, before losing the safety of cloaking from the jump.
I had practised; “Align to” I commanded. The heading swung around and as the destination stargate appeared on my screen map ahead of me, the timer ended its little cycle. From somewhere nearby, a ship locked onto me and as I commanded ‘Warp to’, so my shields lit up, alarms sounded and suddenly I realised I was under fire from something a little too heavy for comfort.
I scanned the local ships sitting around the gate, one had the yellow box around it, warning me that it was that ship that was targeting me. It turned red as I started to warp.
My pulse was racing.
“Opportune thieves”, I told myself and started to scan the system for alternate gates and possible stations to divert to if I needed it.
The next gate approached and as I slowed down, rather than use the auto-jump, I manually selected another stargate and set a new destination.
I dropped out of warp and hit ‘warp to the new destination’ in one movement. As the warp engines took over I took a bookmark. A random location in that sector of space, not exactly at the gate, but near enough to be able to see what was going on.
Choosing the new location meant that who ever was attacking me, if they did follow me, would now have to search for me. It would give me a moment.
I arrived at the unexpected destination. It looked quiet, it seemed normal. I scanned the local channel to see if the ship that had fired upon me was there. It was.
The ship had fired at me, but had not been taken out by Concorde.
I knew I had to get to Kamio and somewhere safe as quickly as I could. My two lasers, though nicely armed, would have been no match for the ship that had shot at me. I punched for the bookmark and warped to it. In silence, I sat in space watching the gate at the limit of my scanners visibility. Ships were coming and going. Some were the inevitable gate campers that seemed to hang out together waiting for a lame straggler.
The concept is simple. Use a well armed small ship to take out the target ship. Concorde would take out your ship as the target ship explodes spilling its contents. A buddy would then magically appear and scoop up the goodies from the wrecked ship and the spoils would be shared later. A simple pirate tactic that relied on the suspect being too pre-occupied to take the correct avoiding action until it was too late.
Only I was not carrying any goodies, apart from a sealed message container.
The ship that had fired at me was not at the gate, but it was in the local space. I searched for it but was unable to get a location for it. To stay in one place for too long is asking for trouble so I aligned to the gate and warped to it, ready to jump through the gate before a ship could lock on me again.
I arrived at the gate, it towered over my small ship like an interstellar cathedral dwarfs those who sit and wait.
In slow motion, I waited for the speed to drop, constantly tabbing mentally to jump; As soon as it was available, I would be launched through the stargate.
Some one un-cloaked nearby, and as they became visible, they locked their sights on me. My speed was slowing. The gate was getting closer.
The alarm sounded again as they hit my shields, a broad swathe of red illuminated my console as the shields were almost destroyed as the first round splashed against me. Two ships had me locked, their markers turned red to indicate I was legally allowed to shoot back. I could have fired but had I done so, I would not have been able to jump through the stargate and to relative safety.
A nearby blast rocked my ship and it stuttered for a moment.
“Jump” I cursed with anxious urgency, “Please jump now”…
High energy beams seemed to interlace around me, and for a split second I realised other ships were fighting at the same time. The noise of the fight was lost as quickly as it started when the jump catapulted me to the next region.
My console reminded me that another request to fleet up had been rejected. I selected a station at random and selected to ‘warp to’ within fifty thousand kilometres, I needed to sit and wait for my shields to regenerate.
It seemed to take forever for my shields to rebuild themselves. Every passing moment gave my attackers more time to locate me. I searched the systems for other gates in case I needed to re-route my journey. One more jump would place me in Kamio.
I waited till there was only the smallest amount of damage to my shields, then set my ‘warp to’ point as the gate for Kamio. I crossed my fingers and hit ‘Warp to’.
As soon as warp drive took over, I selected Autopilot so that the jump would be as closely timed as possible. The gate loomed, I was targeted, I tried to ignore it, and again my shields were damaged. My Magnate rocked as systems went off line momentarily. This time the alarm shrilled as my shields were destroyed and the armour started to take a pounding. I guessed I had a couple more moments before my hull would be breached and the jump would take over.
I was bathed in perspiration. I saw my attacker, he was under fire! His attention was diverted. I locked my weapons and as time dilated to impossibly slow, watched as two stabs from my lasers searched for his hull. The gate started to push me into Kamio and I watched as two missiles from somewhere behind me hit my attacker, turning it briefly into a fireball. Then the silence and safety of the jump filled my senses.
Every system I had was in an alarm state as I came through the stargate. My Magnate was badly damaged. I searched for and found the only station in the Kamio region and limped my way to it.
Upon arrival, I stood off for a moment to check the other ships. I watched mining ships, Hulks, Retrievers, Mackinaws and the occasional Orca. My ship was towed into the station and I found myself sitting in the hanger. I opened the canopy and searched for the menu for ship repairs. The repair bots came over to my ship and started replacing panels and parts. I climbed out and watched.
While I was out of the ship I scanned the lists of other people in the same area, no one seemed to stand out. A technician sauntered over, cleaning his hands on the dirty coveralls he was wearing. “Need a hand?” he asked.
“I’m ok”, I said to him in carefully guarded tones. “I have some Rocket Launchers for sale”, he offered, adding “Genuine Navy Issue”.
I smiled. He could see I wasn’t taking his offer, so he promised to reduce the price by twenty percent if I was willing to pay up front.
I suggested I might look him up next time I passed through. Now he offered me a sixty percent reduction.
I apologised for being unable to stay, and as soon as the repair bots finished working on the Magnate, I climbed in. As I closed the hatch I saw the techie race off to somewhere out of sight. He sure seemed in a hurry to me.
From Kamio I made firm fast progress to Perimeter, remembering to make sure my timing was as fast as I could make it. I noticed two other ships, somewhat larger than me also running the same path. I didn’t know who they were, but it felt good to have some one large and powerful running along side me as I jumped the last few gates.
By the time I arrived at Perimeter I felt like I had lost a few pounds. For my second run, just a quick hop to deliver a message, it sure had been eventful.
* I have to acknowledge all rights to CCP for All Eve attributable content. CCP reserves the rights to the images, names, concepts and stuff. I just write the story about my journey in the MMORPG called Eve-Online.
The agent’s head sat on a mount on the counter top while a technician probed into the inner workings of her headless torso. The somewhat unnerving illusion of a warm bodied, sensually attractive young woman was quite destroyed. The humour developed as I completed my task. The agents head spoke to me as though it was normal for a head to be separate from the body. We completed the transaction paperwork and I was invited to return the following day for another task.
The technician, with a screwdriver in his mouth, mumbled something about the unit’s processor was something or another and would be mumbled mumble soon.
I looked through the manifests on a clipboard while a pilot with more braid and badges came into the office and looked at the headless agent and young technician standing on a chair with one hand deep in the sitting body’s neck.
“Is she screwed again?” he asked the technician in a voice that told me this was a repeat event.
“Mumble sputter”, from the grinning techie.
The officer seemed to notice me as though I had coalesced into focus, and in a tired voice asked “Are you free to run a message over to the next solar system for me”, followed absently with, “just cannot trust the new starter pilots that come through here”
I said I was free and followed the officer into his nearby office. One wall was covered in awards, diplomas, credits, pictures of ships, models of different craft and insignia filling every inch.
“You have been busy”, I commented with genuine interest.
“A lot of what you see has been because I have a good team”, he said as he looked up from what he was doing, then continued with “a good team is worth more than a good ship”
I smiled.
He sealed a small canister and scrambling the digital lock, he handed the canister to me. He seemed to focus on me, and said in a low voice, “Sacrifice your ship, even your pod, but never your team”.
“Sir”, I said, in agreement and without fanfare.
“Get this over to Commander Jatorian in Perimeter”, he demanded, “It’s important, let me know when you get there”. He smiled and seemed to add as an afterthought, “good luck”.
The conversation was over and there was no invitation to stay, I left and after a moments thought, picked up one of the soft flight pouches from the outer office and while the techie worked on the agent, I left to go back to the hanger. I needed a ride.
The canister went into the pouch and I slung it over my shoulder.
I entered the chief’s office and asked if I could borrow a ship to get me to Perimeter.
“Perimeter"? he queried.
I lowered the pouch and told the chief I had a message to run over there for the boss.
“Perimeter”, he muttered and walked over to one of the screens on the wall. He touched it. Images and notes on the screen faded and were replaced with star maps, galaxy images and coloured circles.
“This”, he said pointing, “is Jita, the centre of most of the high sector commerce, a real pain of a place to be in unless you have to be there”.
I watched his finger trace a line, then he tapped the screen and another system was highlighted. “This is Perimeter, a couple of long jumps from Niarja”.
He paused, then added, “Make for Kamio and run in from there, it’s a bit safer”. I nodded and noted carefully the names of the places the Chief was showing me.
“Keep your wits about you lass, it’s not an easy run, go see Mick and ask for the Magnate, it will get you there”.
I thanked the chief and with the pouch over my shoulder, headed off to find Mick.
Mick found me first, he seemed to emerge from a pile of parts that either had been, or would be a small ship. Wires and pipes, metal bits and connecters seemed to be loosely bound together on trestles. “Off somewhere sunny?” he asked.
“I wish”, I said with a happy smile.
Mick’s hair fell across his eyes and as he brushed it back with his hand he gave himself a dark oily smear across his forehead.
I reached for a piece of safety towelling on the bench nearby and tore a small piece off. “Can I get a ship to run a package over to Perimeter, the chief suggested the Magnate”
“Perimeter?” he asked as I leaned forward and rubbed the smear from his head with the towelling scrap.
He smiled.
“Have you read up on the manuals for the Magnate?” Mick asked.
“Not yet”, I said, “not had a chance”.
“Climb into this ship over here”, he said leading the way, “Look up Magnate on the console and do the books, think you need level one, or two, its easy enough, wont take more than half an hour”.
“Thank you”, I said, but I was sure my voice had actually said ‘take me to bed’ or was it something of both, I don’t know.
Mick leaned into the small cockpit as I sat down into the seat and he switched on the various systems and passed me a headset to use in place of the helmet.
“’Be back shortly”, he said, and the screens lit up while I selected the menus and paid for the skill books I needed to train up with. In truth, I could have been doing something else while I was training. Sure it takes time, but that does not normally stop you from doing other things.
I looked up the schematics for the Magnate; it is a balanced little frigate, large thrusters on each shoulder, large claw like appendage on the front, typical of Amarrian design and with clean lines.
This ship came with either two fighting laser weapons, or two mining lasers, or a mixture of both, versatility with economy and simplicity. It had a larger than normal hold space with room for upgrades. Two drones in the drone bay gave this ship a hidden advantage; two drones could be a second pair of weapons, or a repair.
I looked up, Mick was talking on the comms system of another ship, he seemed agitated then he closed the comms and walked out of view. I angled one of the mirrors in the cockpit until I could see him again. I wasn’t spying on him; more, interested in whatever had agitated him.
He spoke to another technician. The guy he spoke to stood up and put down the parts he had been working on, wiped his hands on some towelling and then grabbed his hat and left in a hurry.
Mick appeared at my shoulder suddenly. “Grab the skill books for Dual Light Pulse Lasers while your at it”, he said casually. I smiled and as he looked in saw that I had them already selected.
“You are going to need something else”, he said.
I interrupted, “Drones”?
“Your too damn smart”, he laughed.
“I have a bear looking after me”, I said with a smile as I patted the tiny baer in my top pocket..
“I’ll buy that bear a drink later on” he said with a smile that suckered me in, switched me onto boost and sent shivers running through every nerve in my body.
Half an hour later, Mick shoehorned me into a Magnate, a ship that looked as if it had been around the block a few times. “I put an overdrive injector onto this one for you, will give you a bit of a boost” he said. I looked up to him before I closed the cockpit cover. He looked worried.
The systems grabbed me and I became part of the ship. Blinking through the menu’s I found the target destination was already programmed in. The path seemed a bit longer than I had seen in the chief’s office, but it had all the right places on for Kamio, then for Perimeter. I checked the hull and the container was neatly locked in place. There were two light drones in the drone bay, just waiting for launch instructions. In the high points, two lasers with multi-frequency lenses. A damage control unit had been fitted to the ship as well, this gave the ship extra armour.
I blinked the menus for launch and as the ship lunged forward and out of the hanger, I felt the surge as the engines came on line, far more powerful than the last ship I had flown.
I switched off the autopilot and something clamoured for my attention. As I came up to the first gate, I set the Autopilot on for the jump. Then as the ship jumped through the gate, I deselected the autopilot and set up for the next gate. More hands on, more in control. If I left the autopilot switched on, then the ship would run to around eighteen kilometers from the gate and amble towards it. This could leave me as a sitting target for any one with designs on owning my ship, with or without me still inside it.
With fifteen jumps ahead of me, this was going to be a long trip and I would have time to learn another skill while I selected destinations and jumped stargates. I set the channels off, so one on one communications were not going to interrupt me. The group channel I left on low, just in case anyone came on that had something of interest to share.
I had jumped through seven or eight gates when my console told me that it had rejected invitations to join other fleets. Auto fleet rejection meant I would not be seriously delayed chatting with other people flying through the systems.
Arriving at the next gate I was warned by my system that another ship was scanning me. Before they could gain lock, the jump took me through the gate. Was I under attack, or was someone just being nosey to see what I was carrying?
The next sector was still safe high security, but a little less safe than other areas. I knew that if I was attacked randomly, the Concorde Police system would close down my attacker and they could lose their ship. I was neither a wanted criminal nor did I have a bounty on me.
I told myself I was safe, then reminded myself that it takes time to destroy a ship, that ‘time’ was my godsend, it gave me time to get away, or defend myself or scream venom at my attacker.
As I materialised, I aligned my ship with the next destination and blinked the command to ‘Warp to zero’. This would give any would be attackers a minimum window of opportunity. My focus was on a small counter with its small dot cycling round and round. It told me how many seconds I would be safe for, before losing the safety of cloaking from the jump.
I had practised; “Align to” I commanded. The heading swung around and as the destination stargate appeared on my screen map ahead of me, the timer ended its little cycle. From somewhere nearby, a ship locked onto me and as I commanded ‘Warp to’, so my shields lit up, alarms sounded and suddenly I realised I was under fire from something a little too heavy for comfort.
I scanned the local ships sitting around the gate, one had the yellow box around it, warning me that it was that ship that was targeting me. It turned red as I started to warp.
My pulse was racing.
“Opportune thieves”, I told myself and started to scan the system for alternate gates and possible stations to divert to if I needed it.
The next gate approached and as I slowed down, rather than use the auto-jump, I manually selected another stargate and set a new destination.
I dropped out of warp and hit ‘warp to the new destination’ in one movement. As the warp engines took over I took a bookmark. A random location in that sector of space, not exactly at the gate, but near enough to be able to see what was going on.
Choosing the new location meant that who ever was attacking me, if they did follow me, would now have to search for me. It would give me a moment.
I arrived at the unexpected destination. It looked quiet, it seemed normal. I scanned the local channel to see if the ship that had fired upon me was there. It was.
The ship had fired at me, but had not been taken out by Concorde.
I knew I had to get to Kamio and somewhere safe as quickly as I could. My two lasers, though nicely armed, would have been no match for the ship that had shot at me. I punched for the bookmark and warped to it. In silence, I sat in space watching the gate at the limit of my scanners visibility. Ships were coming and going. Some were the inevitable gate campers that seemed to hang out together waiting for a lame straggler.
The concept is simple. Use a well armed small ship to take out the target ship. Concorde would take out your ship as the target ship explodes spilling its contents. A buddy would then magically appear and scoop up the goodies from the wrecked ship and the spoils would be shared later. A simple pirate tactic that relied on the suspect being too pre-occupied to take the correct avoiding action until it was too late.
Only I was not carrying any goodies, apart from a sealed message container.
The ship that had fired at me was not at the gate, but it was in the local space. I searched for it but was unable to get a location for it. To stay in one place for too long is asking for trouble so I aligned to the gate and warped to it, ready to jump through the gate before a ship could lock on me again.
I arrived at the gate, it towered over my small ship like an interstellar cathedral dwarfs those who sit and wait.
In slow motion, I waited for the speed to drop, constantly tabbing mentally to jump; As soon as it was available, I would be launched through the stargate.
Some one un-cloaked nearby, and as they became visible, they locked their sights on me. My speed was slowing. The gate was getting closer.
The alarm sounded again as they hit my shields, a broad swathe of red illuminated my console as the shields were almost destroyed as the first round splashed against me. Two ships had me locked, their markers turned red to indicate I was legally allowed to shoot back. I could have fired but had I done so, I would not have been able to jump through the stargate and to relative safety.
A nearby blast rocked my ship and it stuttered for a moment.
“Jump” I cursed with anxious urgency, “Please jump now”…
High energy beams seemed to interlace around me, and for a split second I realised other ships were fighting at the same time. The noise of the fight was lost as quickly as it started when the jump catapulted me to the next region.
My console reminded me that another request to fleet up had been rejected. I selected a station at random and selected to ‘warp to’ within fifty thousand kilometres, I needed to sit and wait for my shields to regenerate.
It seemed to take forever for my shields to rebuild themselves. Every passing moment gave my attackers more time to locate me. I searched the systems for other gates in case I needed to re-route my journey. One more jump would place me in Kamio.
I waited till there was only the smallest amount of damage to my shields, then set my ‘warp to’ point as the gate for Kamio. I crossed my fingers and hit ‘Warp to’.
As soon as warp drive took over, I selected Autopilot so that the jump would be as closely timed as possible. The gate loomed, I was targeted, I tried to ignore it, and again my shields were damaged. My Magnate rocked as systems went off line momentarily. This time the alarm shrilled as my shields were destroyed and the armour started to take a pounding. I guessed I had a couple more moments before my hull would be breached and the jump would take over.
I was bathed in perspiration. I saw my attacker, he was under fire! His attention was diverted. I locked my weapons and as time dilated to impossibly slow, watched as two stabs from my lasers searched for his hull. The gate started to push me into Kamio and I watched as two missiles from somewhere behind me hit my attacker, turning it briefly into a fireball. Then the silence and safety of the jump filled my senses.
Every system I had was in an alarm state as I came through the stargate. My Magnate was badly damaged. I searched for and found the only station in the Kamio region and limped my way to it.
Upon arrival, I stood off for a moment to check the other ships. I watched mining ships, Hulks, Retrievers, Mackinaws and the occasional Orca. My ship was towed into the station and I found myself sitting in the hanger. I opened the canopy and searched for the menu for ship repairs. The repair bots came over to my ship and started replacing panels and parts. I climbed out and watched.
While I was out of the ship I scanned the lists of other people in the same area, no one seemed to stand out. A technician sauntered over, cleaning his hands on the dirty coveralls he was wearing. “Need a hand?” he asked.
“I’m ok”, I said to him in carefully guarded tones. “I have some Rocket Launchers for sale”, he offered, adding “Genuine Navy Issue”.
I smiled. He could see I wasn’t taking his offer, so he promised to reduce the price by twenty percent if I was willing to pay up front.
I suggested I might look him up next time I passed through. Now he offered me a sixty percent reduction.
I apologised for being unable to stay, and as soon as the repair bots finished working on the Magnate, I climbed in. As I closed the hatch I saw the techie race off to somewhere out of sight. He sure seemed in a hurry to me.
From Kamio I made firm fast progress to Perimeter, remembering to make sure my timing was as fast as I could make it. I noticed two other ships, somewhat larger than me also running the same path. I didn’t know who they were, but it felt good to have some one large and powerful running along side me as I jumped the last few gates.
By the time I arrived at Perimeter I felt like I had lost a few pounds. For my second run, just a quick hop to deliver a message, it sure had been eventful.
* I have to acknowledge all rights to CCP for All Eve attributable content. CCP reserves the rights to the images, names, concepts and stuff. I just write the story about my journey in the MMORPG called Eve-Online.
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