Capsuleer's Log Day 1

YC116.02.28
My journey to low security space has begun. I started from my home system of Olide in the Everyshore region of the Gallente Federation. I had set a route for the Aridia region controlled by the Amarr Empire, making it 21 jumps. The Aridia region was chosen for its numerous low security sectors with very few high security ones. The vessel I took with me is the Sandshrew, a Venture-class frigate of ORE design. A Venture-class ship should be a good choice for the journey with its agility, built in warp core stabilizers, and optimization for mining. My cargo hold is then filled with many blueprints for various ships and modules I believe will prove useful for my survival. Amarr technology is the most prevalent in these blueprints, chosen because of the relative closeness of the Aridia region to the Amarr Empire.

On my route to Aridia, I passed through the Yulai system. Yulai is the headquarters of the CONCORD Assembly, an independent organization to foster relations between the various races as well as provide a policing force throughout New Eden. Yulai apparently held a major importance to early traders of New Eden, being the primary trade hub where capsuleers from the four major empires bought and sold their goods. Yulai's importance was later diminished when the empires decided to change their stargate routes to promote more trade within their boundaries, thus creating the four major trade hubs found in each empire.

Damaged CONCORD headquarters from a battle that took place several years ago

 I made it safely to the Aridia region and found a quiet system to call my new home. My first task was to create bookmarks in space, to be used as places to escape from any hostile capsuleers. Once covered, I then decided to look at the local asteroid belt. Just as I thought, the belts are invested with pirates. One of the first challenges I will need to tackle is the local pirates, in this case being the Blood Raiders. With the Sandshrew, I barely stand any chance against anything larger then a cruiser by using only drones. I will need to selectively pick asteroid fields and avoid gangs of pirate roams. Something else I noticed were several pirates who are involved with clone soldiers. CONCORD has a strong stance against any pirate involved in using clone soldiers for pirating and has put very high bounties and rewards for destroying and returning clone solider tags. These individuals are pretty deadly, I don't believe I will be able to defeat them in combat, so I better avoid them.

Deadly Blood Raider Clone Soldier Negotiator

A decent asteroid belt was found and so I started picking apart asteroids. I need to refine these asteroids into minerals that I can use to build new ships and modules. Mining was quiet peaceful, I was not attacked by any capsuleers. The Sandshrew did have to engage several Blood Raiders, but they were quickly dispatched by my deadly drones. After several ship fulls of ore, I refined them into minerals. Another problem I will face is trying to produce goods which require a certain mineral. The mineral is called megacyte, a very rare mineral which is often found in ore in the depths of null security space. How will I gather the mineral? The easiest way to acquire megacyte is by reprocessing items which were constructed with megacyte. Those pirates I destroyed earlier? They dropped several modules, a couple of them could be reprocessed to produce megacyte. I finished the day by queuing up several production lines with some manufacturing jobs. I will produce a combat vessel which I will fly tomorrow to gather more resources from pirates.

Mining with pirates can be pretty deadly