Nihlism and Optimism in New Eden

I told you I would mention two people I met in Onga later on. I'm sorry it's taken this long but I've been keeping in touch with home, and giving some more thought to what was said. I don't any pictures today. I didn't think to take a snapshot. This is certainly not like my previous posts. But I went through a lot of thought from these conversations and perhaps you will too.

I ran into Melay Asuka. in Onga earlier as I was looking around the asteroid belts. She was in a Hulk mining, a nifty ship really. The design is from ORE and they know how to tear asteroids apart.

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to chat with her...I've been a little cagey just randomly speaking out of the blue. It is a bit different than talking to a person face to face. But I've resolved to get out there, as people won't be coming to me begging to chat, so I sent a query to chat and got a response.



Melay Asuka > Hya
Miko Stargazer > Awesome ship. I've heard about hulks and how awesome they're supposed to be.
Melay Asuka > Best solo mining ship there is , even better in a fleet with an Orca as Backup
Miko Stargazer > Wow...that thing is huge...it's over a kilometer across.
Melay Asuka > Yes , its just a shame its only a mining support ship so its no use directly mining
Miko Stargazer > Too bad.
Miko Stargazer > How goes mining these days? I've not really tried it myself.
Melay Asuka > Depends , Only mining here for a manufacturing job , in the More remote systems I normally mine in I can make 7 of 8 Mil per Hour, Low Sec 10 to 12 mil per hour.

It was a bit crazy talking about such sums of money. A guy I spoke with very early on had sent me some isk to welcome me to space, but it's still hard to get used to such massive amounts of money being tossed around in space so casually. Melay was obviously experienced and quite knowledgeable. She told me a bit about other ores and where I could find plagiosite, omber, and kernite. She also told me about some ores I could only find in pirate space, but she seemed unafraid herself as long as she had escorts.

She also got me very interested in some things.



Miko Stargazer > Guess I'll have to head into pirate space eventualy then. Idea of being blown up is a bit scary still
Melay Asuka > No problem as long are you are carful
Melay Asuka > Fit a cloak , and use a small fast ship
Miko Stargazer > I have been thinking about that ^^
Melay Asuka > Covert Ops ship & Covert ops cloak , and you can go anyware in almost total safety
Miko Stargazer > thanks for the advice
Miko Stargazer > I really enjoy exploring around. But there's still lots of high sec to explore before it comes to that ^^
Melay Asuka > There is a lot of high sec thats hidden as well , if you learn how to use probes and scanners , the 90% of high sec that is hidden will open up as well
Miko Stargazer > ah. I've been wanting to be able to find some of the stuff I see on directional scanners too. There's a lot of stuff to do out there. Who knows...I might even find a way to make isk while I do it :P
Melay Asuka > Codebreaker and Analyzer
Melay Asuka > When you find hidden sites they can open up the finds , and there can be a lot of ISK to be had

Really....I have never thought there would be isk to be had just flying around exploring. But I suppose when there are gems of the heart to look at and admire, there are often real gems around too. There's still a lot out there to explore, so I'm in no hurry, but I definitely want to look into analysis and code breaking to take advantage of my exploration. It fits in perfectly with my plans right now and just lets me explore even more. Though ....the skill input nodes are still damaged on my pod system and some sort of overhaul will need to be done. Not many stations repair things like this. Usually if your learning chip systems are damaged it's because your pod was just opened up to vacuum.

the other thing we talked about was the area that gave me the most thought.

Melay Asuka > This is my 'Scout' ship Slitherine

She sent me a database-link to a covert ops vessel, but I was surprised because it was Amarran.

Miko Stargazer > A Minmatar girl using Amarran ships. Scandalous :P
Melay Asuka > Well the former owners did not need it anymore :)
Miko Stargazer > hehe
Melay Asuka > and anyway me and the amarr have a agreement with each other
Miko Stargazer > oh?
Melay Asuka > as soon as we spot each other we open fire
Miko Stargazer > So I see ^_^

There are public postings of empire security rankings. Agents often use these listings as a way to decide who to hire and they also can tend to define people on the death list of an empire. And Melay's security standing with the Amarr was low enough she wasn't exaggerating at all. She'd get attacked the moment she entered Amarr territory.

Really Melay was the first person I'd spoken to who was very involved in the Minmatar Amarr conflict. Even if she wasn't in a militia in her own way she was fighting for the cause. If you remember I mentioned I don't hate the Amarr. I'd be considered weak willed by some people but I can't let myself go down that route of blind hatred.

Still, I am a bit of a minority. My younger sister Tara even could be considered a true patriot. She's young still and not a militant at all. However I've seen the ruminations in her eyes...a sort of faraway look when the Amarr or the Republic Navy is mentioned. We all draw different lessons from the past but I worry that some lessons lead us down a circular path forcing us to repeat yesterday's tragedies. I wonder if my sister will one day become like Melay, a fighter for the cause. I wonder if I'll become that one day if I find an atrocity of some sort in my journeys.

It seems like there is so much pain out in the universe with so many people believing in so little. And it feels like the universe is truly bent away from justice and leans to the strong. That's the lesson some of the Minmatar have taken, wanting to be able to grind the Amarr to ash if they can. It's perhaps the lesson both the Gallente and Caldari have learned in their fights with each other. I met someone bordering on Nihlism as she was passing through.

Another woman in onga caught my eye, as I saw her warping towards a gate in a Caldari battleship. I was interested and tried to talk to her a bit too, but she seemed preoccupied.

Miko Stargazer > Hey ^^
Windy Rockbell > Um, hello
Miko Stargazer > Sorry if I'm being a bother. I was just curious what you were doing all the way out here.
Windy Rockbell > Getting discounts. Got this Raven down here cheaper than I could in The Forge
Miko Stargazer > Ahhh...weird finding Caldari stuff at a better price here
WindyRockbell > Eh, you find everything everywhere. The corp I was in a lil while ago had lots of Minmatar flying Minmatar stuff. Equipment isn't empire specific much these days
Miko Stargazer > I see.
Miko Stargazer > Huh...but you just left recently. Did something happen?
WindyRockbell > Lot's of things happened.
WindyRockbell > The whole system is broken so I decided to take some time off
Miko Stargazer > aww. Sounds like a bad time.
WindyRockbell > Well, I worked in the corp for a while, but in the last few weeks become really familiar with the corruption and bullshit that can go on.
WindyRockbell > High Sec isn't much better than low sec, instead of pirates you have to deal with extortionists.
Miko Stargazer > How does that work?
WindyRockbell > They say 'pay us a bunch of isk or we'll blow your ships up' and if the group doesn't pay they bribe CONCORD and start attacking.
WindyRockbell > CONCORD is useless. What kind of protective force has corruption built into it so anyone can pay them off to look the other way?
WindyRockbell > Anyway, going afk for now. Have a good night.


And it was over with my short talk with Windy. She seemed to be burning with anger and I don't really know the details but it was enough to make her lose faith even in CONCORD. It was strange for me. I'd always seen CONCORD and the DED forces as the saviors in case someone tried to take a shot at me. I've heard about them flying in seconds after an attack and blowing the offenders out of the sky. The idea they were fallable....corrupt even was strange.

But she was right in a way. CONCORD has established rules for corporations to fight each other in high security space. I'm trying to find the history for these rules but it probably had to do with so many corporations causing trouble they decided to let them duke it out together. I can see how that could be abused...it's not like both corporations have to agree to the fight.

The most interesting thing to me was the attitude she had considering she's Caldari. She didn't seem like it was just a matter of falling profit margins. She was angry...hurting that corporation hurt her. I wonder if you could pull that into my theory about the Caldari losing their home planet...a corporation becomes a sort of home surrogate. They have each other, and the attachment to rocks or land becomes weakened, leaving just money to be made.

I checked with public records and Windy actually joined another corporation. Hopefully she's finding some more joy there. The universe is too beautiful and vast to become saddened by humanity's failures. We just have to move forward the best we can. I felt like I understand Eden a little better, having talked with Melay and Windy. Hopefully I'll learn even more as time goes by.

Onga

Sovereignty: Minmatar Republic
Constellation: Erada
Region: Heimatar
Security Level: 1.0

Now I don't want to turn my log into a boring tour booklet by any means but I think adding these little bits of info is helpful as a start. I traveled to Onga which is just a single jump away from Pator. Still in 1.0 security space where everyone is nice and secure and CONCORD comes warping in if you so much as sneeze.

But I'm no pirate so I guess I don't have to worry about that. I can just enjoy the system. Of course I'm already seeing a problem with a sort of 'seen one asteroid seen them all' sort of situation. Not the best analogy as I've only seen scordite and veldspar so far of course ^^. But I've noticed from orbit planets look a bit similar and asteroid belts are not interesting beyond novel types of ore. Partially this is because I'm still in top security space and that's the most predictable space. Still I need to branch out a bit more. I'm unsure if cataloging a single system at a time is the way to go. Still there were several fun things in the Onga system.


I wouldn't have minded growing up in Onga. The Onga system is right on the outer edge of the Crimson Nebula. I'm sure it has more technical names, but that's what we call it, nothing but deep red expanse in the night's sky. From Matar you can only see it properly with a telescope but now I'm bathed in the red light from all around me. It's just...beautiful. For comparison above I put the stargate in Pator I used to jump into Onga. Here is Onga, with the deep red nebula filling the sky:

Just beautiful...it makes me almost a bit giddy, and for a while I was just content to fly around. Even asteroids seemed more beautiful cast in their new light. It really is amazing seeing the universe shifted...even a few light years and everything seems to change. It's different flying as a capsuleer as well. I'd gone on vacations before but you usually fly right through systems. Interbus isn't designed to be a sightseeing venture. Transports aren't designed to let you meander around and just enjoy the surroundings.

If Onga was made with purpose, it's maker was an artist. The particulate matter that formed Onga is only partially made up of the nebula. It's possible that its natural gravity well led to massive comet activity, but the elemental composition is different, and therefore several planets are a turquoise blue against the background of crimson red. The innermost planet is solid with huge water deposits, which can give hints at the theoretical comet activity. Though far more beautiful are the gas giant planets further out. I wish my ship had a spectral analyzer but no such luck for this kind of vessel. Science ships are in practically zero demand amongst pod pilots so I don't know how I'd get one. I was never a whiz at chemistry so I can only guess at the composition from here. It's not a bad system for the inhabitants. Most people live in the innermost system and can harvest fusion fuels from the gas giants, though far from the most efficient power collection method.

Unfortunately there are no ice fields or stable orbit comets to mine in this system. It doesn't seem to be a very large mining system. Amongst all the hot spots I only saw one or two people mining. But I could have just warped in during their coffee break ^^. So I can't reserve any true judgment.

I felt primed and ready to do some more exploring when something interesting came to me instead. On the local channel there was a crackle and news...someone had discovered a wormhole. It was a Gallente man who'd designated himself 2123123. He'd apparently just come through the wormhole from Gallente space. I was intrigued....I'd never gone through a wormhold before and I thought it would be nice to at least take a look at one. He offered to create a fleet link and I decided to accept it.

A jump towards his com signal and I found myself in orbit near a huge ceremonial ring near the sixth planet of the system. Like the memorial at Matar there's no official inscription I could find, but it doesn't look like standard Minmatar work, engineering or art. Really, it looks like the piece of a ship, but it dwarfs my little shuttle completly....It looks like it would dwarf a battleship. It looks like something you'd only see on a titan...though admittedly I've never seen one. And...it isn't a ship itself, it looks like the piece of a ship, like a vent nozzle for a thruster....and that would imply something even larger.


I didn't have a whole lot of time to ponder though, as my new friend was trying to relocate the wormhole he'd come through. He helped me get a feel for my spatial scanning systems too which was really helpful, but sadly we couldn't find the wormhole again. The poor guy had to fly back to Duripant, though it wasn't a super long trip. While taking stock of his travel plans, I learned a lot from him casually chatting over our comm system.

2123123 > u wanna come back to duripant with me
2123123 > it's in federation space
Miko Stargazer > sure :) did you find the wormhole?
2123123 > no not yet
2123123 > its destablinzing
2123123 > go to map and search bar
2123123 > duripant
Miko Stargazer > bit of a trip ^^
2123123 > 12 jumps not far
2123123 > i have a minmatarian ship
Miko Stargazer > true. What do you usually do in Duripant?
2123123 > i mine and talk an do missions
2123123 > and terminate caldarians that enter our space
2123123 > what ship u have
Miko Stargazer > hehe, don't like the caldari huh? Guess that comes with the territory in the Federation.
2123123 > were in war with caldari lol
Miko Stargazer > Just a shuttle right now....I'm doing some exploring and it's the fastest ship to use for now ^^
2123123 > o how much it cost
Miko Stargazer > let me check ^^
2123123 > 9000
Miko Stargazer > exactly 10,000 the one I bought ^^
2123123 > im gallente lol
2123123 > remember
2123123 > i buy gallente stuff most ofthe time
2123123 > caldari stuff is the most expensive stuff!!!

I know there is conflict going on all around me, thousands dying on a daily basis during these wars...it's funny though, how distant I feel from it here. Others are more active, doing their part now and then, but I was never much of a fighter. If a Minmatar Navy man wanted me to go kill a fleet of Amarr, I'm not sure if I could.

I don't....hate the Amarr. I hate what they did to our people and the slavery that so many of our people still endure but I cannot bring myself to hate all Amarran people, all of their existence. Nor can I hate the Caldari for their actions. That is more the Gallente's fight than ours. But I can empathize with the Caldari as well. They lost their home in battle with the Gallente. It's rather sad, not being able to return home. I wonder if that is what makes the Caldari how they are. Without a home and place to return to with love, perhaps they find it harder to love a planet or system, and see merely sources of income.

I can't really make a judgment like that though. Who's to say what drives every single Caldari out there. I have to fight such urges. It's the urge to paint with a wide brush an entire people that causes so much pain. It is the Amarran's who can't see their slaves as equals...the Gallente and Caldari who can't come to terms with each other. And really I'm scared in a way. More and more people are getting into capsules now, becoming pod pilots. And yet I think what could heal us most is leaving our ships and meeting face to face.

Talking about interstellar wars isn't too fun, but it reminds me of two people I met in Onga, one a native girl and one a distant Caldari I spoke to for only a minute or two as she passed through my system. I think I'll reserve another post to describing those. Both of them got me thinking about where to go from here. For now....just look at the art of the universe, cold rocks orbiting a crimson sky.

Pator

Sovereignty: Minmatar Republic
Constellation: Sveipar
Region: Heimatar
Security Status: 1.0

I decided to try to be a bit more formal, almost like a tourist guide. And maybe it will make things easier to keep track of the systems I've been in. I'm going to try to get the hang of the tag system too. Hopefully that will help out some. I'm not used to trying to stay so organized. I think I should give some statistics too as a quick look, something like this:

Planets: 9
Asteroid Belts: 4
Stations: 5

If you have any opinion on information I should add or not bother to put please let me know. This is my first time really trying to make a proper record of a system itself rather than the particulars of my travels.

This is also my first real look at a system so it probably will seem a lot more detailed than later ones. I first traveled to the Republic Security Services Assembly Plant, the first station listed in system.

This really is a good example of Minmatar engineering.The whole thing looks like it's rusted, which is silly with us being out here in space. Still it's a representation of the Minmatar attitude of function over form and the simplest solution usually being the best. I've seen models of the cold steel of Caldari stations, the form filled and polygonal Gallente and ancient styles Amarr..but I've never really been to any of them yet. I'm sure it will be really fascinating when I get a chance.


You can see the large plasma exhaust areas on the back of the station, from those green plumes. You can see some of the bits in the front in that second picture showing how the station is sort of constructed from larger component blocks, a bit like a drone constructor kit from when I was a kid. It's kind of amusing when you think about it....how even the hugest station can be put together like a constructor kit....everything is just increased in scale. Hehe well I can tend to go off on little tangents like that...but I'm trying to make a proper guide here.

It turns out there is actually one Gallentean station here in Pator. And of course how could it be anything other than a Quafe factory?


I remember a friend who used to rant about this station and how we'd spent hundreds of years working to be free from the Amarrans only to become addicted to a soft drink. Now honestly he was the type to go into hyperbole and believe some of those conspiracy theories about mind control chemicals in the stuff. I never really liked the taste myself, but it's a popular drink...popular enough we need a whole station to keep up with demand. I think it doe say something the station isn't hovering right over Matar's orbit, so that's something. People at least insist it stays a bit further away. Out of curiosity I did dock in the station and there's plenty of quafe for sale.

Of course the computers assume cause I'm a capsuleer I'm looking to buy in bulk :P. A little over 47 isk per crate of the stuff....an amazing price. I imagine retail markup is a big business. I could see the quafe gets spread far and wide judging by the market. But quafe is strictly a non-cap business. That is to say, a capsuleer really doesn't have anything to do with it other than a commodity to trade. But I'm not interested in getting involved in the quafe business today. It wouldn't be any different than hauling soil or any other thing across space.

It's not the only thing to get at the station though. Even a station dedicated to beverages becomes a hub of trade and commerce. Seeing the work that goes on out here is astounding. Looking on the markets I can get just about anything from afterburners to guns larger than my shuttle ^^. I'm a little intimidated by how much stuff is available really. I don't have any idea how to work such things and apparently unless I get my neural interface fixed to start inputting things. But my shuttle is more than enough for now...though I might want to try out some other shuttles, see how they fly.

Asteroids

Unfortunately there's nothing too exciting about the stations themselves. It would take a long long time to disengage from the pod and I have too much else to do. I decided to go check out something else I've never properly seen, asteroid fields.

Asteroid belts, of course, span all the way around star systems, but the vast majority of concentrated ore is only found in specific areas you can access from ship computer systems. These inevitably are where everyone goes to mine ore. As I said above Pator has 4 areas listed as high quality 'belts' where people tend to travel. So I decided to go check it out.




This is the bread and butter of mining so I've been told. The almighty Veldspar. It gives you loads and loads of tritanium but not much else. Still that's all you need for things like my shuttle. But a lot of other things require you to get more. I've decided to take a picture of every kind of ore as I find them...I've been told some of the rarer ores are waaay out there. It'll be fun to see what I can find. It's not the most exciting asteroid by any means and looks pretty identical to the useless rocks you find often.

There was only one other kind of asteroid in the belt areas I looked through, that being Scordite, shown nearby here. As you can see it looks similar to veldspar but has a distinctive green tint in the veins. You may this funny as scordite produces tritanium and pyerite, neither of which are green. I've been told that it's from a mix of lesser minerals that are intermixed with the pyerite that produces the color, which disappears when the pyerite is refined. It's nice to see a bit of variety. Asteroids really aren't as vibrant as they could be...not that I'm suggesting nature needs to change itself ^_^

Things were relatively quiet as I flew around. There was a couple ships here and there, but only one I really saw 'in action.' That was a person called Virgilious Secundo. I watched in facination as he waped into this belt and mined asteroids until his cargo was full and warped away. And then, five minutes later, he was back to mine again.



I admired that level of dedication. He was obviously just starting out like me...but was trying such things as mining that I hadn't bothered to.

I've just checked again and can't seem to find him in the register anymore. I hope he's alright. Perhaps he decided to disentangle himself from pod life. I can certainly respect such a decision if that's what happened....it's not for everyone...and until I resolved to explore I was sort of wondering if I should as well.

Wherever Virgilious is now, he'll be in my thoughts. But I can't afford to linger too long...there are far too many systems to visit and things to see. Hopefully you can see it with me.

You Can't Go Home Again

Hey all.

I kind of fell asleep at the helm there for a little while but luckily the ship parked itself in a stable orbit when I got close enough to Matar. I was finally c lose enough my tracking sensors couldn't ignore the planet and I finally could get some good shots.



It was quite a trip heading on down the way and it took me a few day to get all the right pictures. Still it was worth it. They say all journeys should begin from home. But of course it's not quite the same. I'm not sitting down there on the Matar steppe. But not everything about being a capsuleer was supposed to be easy.

Besides it is an incredible view. It's quite interesting as the planet gets closer and closer.


When I finally got close enough, I could move into an orbital position and look for home. Sorry for the cramped look with all the snapshots but I am honestly excited to be home in a way. I spent all my time looking up at the stars, but that didn't mean I forgot what I was standing on.

I imagine I'll return to Matar many times during my journey. We always need a place to pause and reflect, to take things into perspective. Perhaps Matar will be that place...perhaps somewhere else will take it in the future. But for now...this is where I can turn to.

It's not quite the family holo sampling of home you'd expect...but right there below is where I grew up, on the edge of the mountains in the Matar steppes just outside the industrial areas further west. It was a wonderful place to grow up...but limiting. Though the industrial areas weren't for me either. I can hardly stand Minmatar station XD. Way too gritty.


But there is is...that tiny speck of light. I can't access satellite footage from here sadly. But maybe some other time I'll be able to get a feed and show you specifically. For now...I can dance around orbit....in the stars for myself finally.


there's not too much else to see from this distance ^^. I'm unfortunately having some trouble with my recording systems too and can't get a decent video of Matar in rotation. A whole day lost on that, but that's how it goes sometimes. For a brief time I was home even in this inconsequential way and was glad. Now the true dream is to move on and explore further.

And So I Begin Again ^_^

Hey everyone! I’ve been doing some exploring around to start and it’s been interesting. I do feel like this is what I really wanted to do. Maybe I’ll get tired of it at some point and find something else I enjoy. But I don’t have a clue what that would be. But hey I figure I explore enough and I’ll find out what it is.

I figured this should be for other people’s benefit as well as my own. I have always dreamed of exploring through space and aside from a few visits to local planets and a really cool vacation in Gallente space this is all new to me. I decided though I should start in a familiar place as a grounding for me and as a way for anyone who’s interested to get a chance to see.

So I knew I needed to start where all journeys need to start, at home.

Matar

You gotta start at home on any journey so I came here. Planet Matar, fourth planet in the Pator system, the home of the Minmatar people and where I grew up. Warping in it only took me within 6000 kilometers of the planet. I tried to order my ship to warp in closer but got a warning light about atmospheric destruction. And I will admit these ships don’t look terribly aerodynamic.

What I did find initially was nice though. There’s a sculpture out here, setup in geosynchronous orbit with an eternal plasma flame powered by a small fusion source in the center. It’s reminiscent of a lot of Minmatar abstract sculpture and reminds me of a large monument near my home dedicated to the memory of those lost to the Amarr over the centuries then and now. A lot of such monuments are abstract work. I suppose it would be a downer having a brass sculpture of own of our brothers in shackles as a memory. I prefer the abstract work too because it shows something that isn’t immediately clear to us. The abstract forces us to think about what the meaning of the sculpture is and decide for ourselves and that really sums up the philosophy of our people. We cannot live in the past thinking of ourselves only as liberated slaves. We have to look forward, taking those moments and memories and forging them into something new.




A lot of monuments like this don’t have proper inscriptions for that same purpose even though we all understand their meaning. I couldn’t find any on this monument either but stuck by it and decided to have my picture next to it as a proper memory.

After I took in my fill of the monument I looked down at the planet myself. I saw soon that violently ripping that tutorial node out of my pod interface had caused more trouble than just frying my skill training system. The statistics my pod gave me for the planet didn’t make any sense. I mean, it was telling me the average surface temperature is 58 Kelvin, that’s over 200 degrees below the freezing point of water. And I’ve been to the southern islands where you sweat all over in the summer. The gravity it listed was all wrong to and despite my computer’s insistence that I could have reached escape velocity with a good running start (3.2 kilometers a second? Come on) I knew better. I guess I’m not going to be able to trust the physical data my computer gives me, at least for the time being. But I was never big on the technical details anyway.

Still it did bug me some that I couldn’t get a good look at home. The sensors and remote camera drones on this ship aren’t designed for telescopic viewing. The atmosphere made things kind of blurry. It tried again to insist to my computer to warp closer…at least to get within a thousand kilometers which would be well above the atmosphere and allow me to get into a stable orbit with no problems. But the computer just wouldn’t let me. I was honestly tempted to start ripping more components out until it would but figured that was a bad idea. So I got a little creative instead.

It turns out the computer would allow me to align towards the planet and fly manually. So I did just that. I knew it would take a while though and decided to have a nap while my ship went on auto pilot closer. There's lots more to talk about but I don't want to keep you too long. So more coming later on. ^^

Lots of Changes

I know it's been a while but I've been kind of unsure what to do.

I flew out of the station, admiring my brand new Reaper and my screen immediately filled up with demands to go to a tutorial sight. And I thought I'd done all the necessary training out of the pod. But I suppose the military will never be totally satisfied. Some of those old goats must think the Amarr are going to warp in to re enslave us all any second.


I headed over there and there was just all this and that they wanted me to go over, training some skill to do soemthing I didn't even know I wanted to do. I got so annoyed I just ripped the tutorial AI out of its chip socket. The pod didn't seem to respond all that well to doing that...but I appeared to be in one piece.

I didn't come out here to do even more training and rigid work. The ship didn't seem to give me anymore tutorial messages so I decided to stop worrying about it and go on my way.

I asked around back inside a station and found out 1: my ship shouldn't have lost any integrity from violently removing that particular chip component but my learning apparatus appears to be completely dead and I'll need it serviced at a station if I want to fly anything bigger than a frigate and 2: I should try some missions to get some money. I was quite happy about the first thing and curious about the second.

My curiosity turned into disappointment very quickly though. You know my cousin-who was completely against me getting inside a capsule-told me capsuleers were all soulless bastards with no morality and I think I know why now. The people who wanted to hire me were all so soul crushingly petty and shallow and sometimes they wanted me to go off and kill other shallow soulless people. Just how many rich heiresses are out there that someone else wants to see dead?

And really for the first time....right out of the gate I felt like maybe this was a mistake. Maybe I should never have gone into a capsule. I mean, I was happy on Matar. But every night...every night I'd look up at the stars. I could have joined the merchant corp or even joined the Republic Navy outright I suppose...but that wouldn't have been doing what I wanted to do. Only a capsuleer would go where they wanted. I didn't want to be doing endless patrols around a stargate scanning ships for contraband...I wanted to see the stars.

But here I was, and my options seemed so limited. Was this really the life I'd signed onto? Was I destined to choose either transporting soil between solar systems and being the tool of other people's vendettas?

No.

No I decided that wasn't my future. I refused to let myself remain trapped by the expectations and advice of the others around me. I wouldn't allow myself to remain trapped serving the wills of others. Not now. Not anymore.

I had Republic backing for clones, a fusion reactor that could last for the next fifty years and an entire galaxy to see. I wasn't going to look out at those stores while hauling other people's things. I was going to visit those stars.

If I was going to travel the galaxy I knew a Reaper wouldn't cut it. It's too slow and I was looking to travel in a least a little style. I knew I had to get a shuttle.

Unfortunatly it was outside of my price range. I'd been given a 5000 isk stipend but it seemed like shuttles could go for nearly three times that in some place. It really did scare me....what isk buys up here and what it buys planetside can be two different things. I know the rich can't see the differences but the cost of ammo some of the people I spoke to use in a single battle could feed a family of five for a year. I didn't like cheating but didn't want to have to wait either, so I took advantage of a loophole in the system.

I found out during training that whenever a Reaper is granted to a capsuleer it comes with a civilian miner and civilian projectile cannon free. It turned out, however there was a glitch in their automatic program and the Republic would outfit a Reaper with new civilian equipment every time the ship was assembled


I felt a little guilty, but had the tech crew repackage and assemble my Reaper about ten different times, hording those miners. Some people still saw a use for them so they had a tiny price on the open market. Selling those miners was what finally pushed me over the edge and gave me the money I needed.

So I set off in my brand new Minmatar shuttle and decided the universe was mine to explore. In fact I should keep a log of my exploration here. Perhaps some people who aren't as fortunate to be able to fly could enjoy it. And maybe the other capsuleers might enjoy it as well...a chance to come out of their tunnel vision, look away from their wallets and gaze out at the stars with me.

So, with 251.88 ISK in my wallet, I decided to set out and actually see what there was to find.

Starting Off

I just wanted to start by showing off the great ship the Republic Military School gave me. It's a bit drab, not much flare but has it's own appeal. I do like the solar panels arrayed here and there giving it a very nice form and function feel to it. It's a shame the ship is in such a boring looking place.

If it was just the ship it would have that nice sort of brutish look but it comes inside this station as well.

Why can't we have a little more pizazz. Everything looks so industrial. You'd think we never learned to have any fun with the kind of station design they put up. Oh well I suppose it's a compromise. I have a lot of exploring to do and can't wait.

And So I Begin

It's been only a few hours since they plugged me inside of this pod and it was really creepy at first but things are all in focus now.

I'm a little amazed, but excited at what's waiting me outside. For now I just have to get used to this ship ^^ The Republic Military School gave me a Reaper once I graduated from their training course and it is really kind of cool with all the solar panels and odds and ends...though the poor thing looks like it could fall apart at any moment. Some experienced guys laughed and said that was true right before they plugged into some battleships and left.

I suppose getting this ship is nice, though certainly the only nice thing the Republic Military School did for me. The training was just so harsh and not at all what I was interested in. Still, being a loyal capsuleer for the Republic is how you get up here for someone like me.

They want me to do some other training now that I'm in my pod, hopefully that won't be too hard. I'm rather eager to get out of this station really. We Minmatar are great, but just can't make a beautiful space station to save our lives.

All I have to do is think over the interface, the undock proedures click through and suddenly I can feel the slight difference of hanging out in the void...I'm finally here!!