Life in Paradise

Second day with the corporation in our new home. Apparently the negotiation didn't hold well over night. It didn't take long for a neutral Crow-class Caldari Interceptor (An ex-member of the pirate corporation) to start tracking me down while mining. He failed to hold my Venture-class frigate and I was able to escape. It took them two covert op frigates to find me and hold my Venture-class frigate to blow it up. So diplomacy with locals might not always be possible. The corporation will need to evaluate the situation and make a decision on what to do.

Peaceful mining in low sec

The system later became pretty quiet, pirates do eventually get bored. So our members went out and started to mine and destroy some local Serpentis pirate ships. I managed to get a lot of ore which I will put towards making more ships to replace a lot of our current and future losses.

The beginning of an Empire

After about a month of successfully living in low security space, it was decided to expand this project to include other fellow capsuleers with similar interests. The idea was advertised using this post on the Eve subreddit. We banded together and created a new corporation called the Pioneers of New Eden. The plan was simple, find a reasonable system to settle in and move members with supplies to begin working. The majority of the initial members made it safely to the system where some proceeded to mine safely in low security space. Unfortunately the safety did not last very long, several of the local pirates have taken notice of our movement and activity and began to harass our members. Our first mining operation was interrupted by several Catalyst-class vessels, a very powerful Gallente destroyer, destroying two Ventures and even a bystander. The pirates then began to camp our headquarters preventing our members from leaving the station. I was able to freely move around thanks to several bookmarks I recorded in my logs, even able to easily mine some ore in the asteroid belts. The corporation needs some training in how to survive and escape threats in low security space, something which should be first taught to all new recruits. I proceeded to move around in a Velator-class ship, a Gallente frigate issued to all new capsuleers, and a Venture-class ship to scout and mine ore.

Extreme mining in low sec with hostiles in system

Negotiations took place with the pirate corporation to see if a deal can be reached. We managed to strike a deal and aggression should stop for now. The situation needs to be constantly observed to see if relations break down, but I believe things should work for now. It was a pretty rough start, lets see if we can turn things around tomorrow.

Capsuleer's Log Day 10-11

Not much has happened during these days. My Dragoon-class destroyer, the Partisan, has been successfully destroying Blood Raider pirates roaming the asteroid belts. The Partisan is excelling at destroying pirate battlecruisers allowing me to collect plenty of modules from the wrecks. Battlecruisers and battleships carry medium and large size weaponry, so when I destroy a pirate flying those ships, I am able to salvage those modules. The best part is these modules and ammo contain a high amount of megacyte, the precious mineral I need to keep growing. At the rate I am collecting megacyte, I should be able to comfortably build larger ships soon.

Head on engagement with a Blood Raider battleship

Capsuleer's Log Day 8-9

After a week of using only frigate sized ships, I finally upgraded to a destroyer. I was able to purchase a destroyer blueprint only several jumps away. So once I have acquired the blueprint, I set out to work on constructing a destroyer. I have chosen to produce a Dragoon-class destroyer, an Amarr destroyer which specializes in the use of drones and energy disruption weapons. The Dragoon-class requires no megacyte to construct which is a huge bonus for me. The Dragoon-class destroyer was named Partisan. With the Partisan, I am able to attack larger targets much more easily including lone battleships. Unfortunately, the Partisan is still no match against the more dangerous pirates and their large fleets. I took the destroyer out and was able to destroy many pirate ships, collecting a lot of vital modules from their wreaks.

My new ship, the Partisan

After destroying several pirates, I retrieved my Sickle to perform salvage duty to acquire materials to construct rigs. I made my first mistake. While busy reading information, a capsuleer entered the system. The capsuleer was flying an interceptor frigate, a very fast frigates used to scout and capture enemy ships. I was quickly captured by the interceptor and could not warp away because the capsuleer had targeted me with a warp disruptor. I attempted an escape when I noticed I was warp disrupted by using the Sickle's micro warp drive to move out of range, the escape failed as the interceptor was able to easily match my speed. So my vessel was quickly destroyed by the interceptor and I managed to warp off in my pod safely to the station. This was my first encounter with a dangerous capsuleer and I made a mistake of not paying attention to my ship sensors. I shall try not to make the same mistake again. 

The Partisan attacking a Blood Raider battleship

Capsuleer's Log Day 4-7

The Boomerang dodging incoming fire

Not much has happened during these days. I continued to roam asteroid belts destroying Blood Raider pirate ships and salvaging the wrecks. It has become really apparent that I need larger ships to be able to expand my activities. A frigate is no match for a majority of the combat sites I have discovered. I did manage to find a Rogue Drone Infestation Sprout, a complex rated by DED to be a 2/10. The DED, Directive Enforcement Department, are a division of CONCORD which often operate outside empire space tracking down the major pirate factions. A low complex rating indicates a criminal facilities with a low difficulty while a higher rating indicates a higher difficulty. Rogue drones are a form of advance artificial intelligent drones created by Gallente researchers which mutated out of control and are able to even self replicate. The complex I discovered was a new hive being constructed for a rogue drone mother. My Tormentor-class frigate, Boomerang, was able to easily destroy all the rogue drones constructing the hive. I need to be able to discover more sites with similar difficulty or move on to a more powerful ship.

An under construction Rogue Drone hive

Capsuleer's Log Day 3

YC116.03.02
A new vessel was constructed overnight, a Magnate-class frigate. The role of a Magnate-class frigate is to be used for exploration, the ship has traits allowing it to excel in scanning and hacking. I christen my new frigate the Sickle. Magnate-class frigates also have a bonus towards using salvager modules, which should prove useful later. I then set out to do some exploration in my home system. I managed to scan down both a relic and a data site, grabbing several salvage material and a blueprint copy for a ship module.

Launch of the Sickle

 I also flew the Boomerang several times to attack Blood Raider ships hiding out amongst the asteroid fields. After destroying them, I would bring in the Sickle to salvage the wreaks in hopes of gathering enough materials to construct rigs to modify and improve my vessels. Enough material was salvaged to build a rig which I then started to produce on one of the manufacturing lines. Something else I observed were the anomalies which hide vicious pirates and rogue drones. The overall difficulty of all the anomalies are above of what I expected. A lone frigate would be no match for these combat sites, I may have to relocate to a system with weaker pirates.

The Sickle salvaging a wreak

Capsuleer's Log Day 2

YC116.03.01
The day started with the completion of several manufacturing jobs. I built a Tormentor-class frigate which I named the Boomerang. I decided to build a Tormentor-class frigate for its excellent handling of capacitor usage of laser turrets. This trait of the Tormentor-class allows it to use long range beam lasers efficiently without worrying about running out of capacitor. So I equipped the Boomerang with weaponry and defensive modules to go hunt some Blood Raiders. My first task of today was to collect modules from pirate wreaks to reprocess into minerals, specifically for megacyte which is required for me to build additional vessels and modules.

The maiden flight of the Boomerang

After destroying several Blood Raider pirate ships, I encountered a new problem. The Boomerang has taken quite a beating from the local pirates, getting some damage on the armor. Damage to the armor or hull of a ship does not regenerate like the shields, so it must be repaired. My base unfortunately does not offer a repair service. The nearest station with a repair service is several jumps away, a dangerous mission for an already damage ship. Luckily I collected enough megacyte to build an armor repairer which will allow me to repair my damaged armor. My Venture-class frigate, Sandshrew, also got an upgrade of a salvager module to salvage wreaks for material to build rigs to further upgrade my ships. Since I have collected enough megacyte, I was also able to start production on an additional vessel with a new goal for tomorrow. So the day finishes pretty quietly, with production lines working on new items, tomorrow should allow me to do more exploration.

My Sandshrew mining some asteroids and salvaging some wreaks

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