Eve Online: The Adventures of Niveuss Nye

[Green1]

I figured since this foray is turning pretty interesting, I would put it on a different thread for those interested to gawk at.

Well, the political situation is getting... more interesting.

The first order of the new CEO was to retract the senseless war with our former allies, the Requeim Liberators who controlled the system in the wormhole. There are still about a third of the corporation trapped in there with only five days worth of fuel before the corporation's station orbiting one of the moons goes offline and begins to float aimlessly in orbit. Worse, the protective force shield and all defensive systems will go down at that point. Unfortunately, our new CEO and those members are trapped! There is no exit back to known space. Also bad news for them is that, at least according to CONCORD, we and the Requiem Liberators are now at war somehow. Former nerd raging CEO Star's declaration of war somehow went through, despite us retracting the war.

As for Niveuss, he sits in his home system of Leva, 2 jumps away from the capital system of the religous Amarr empire. I doubt Requiem will leave thier wormhole to come get us here in empire. But, that may not stop the guys stuck in that place with them.

If you also notice the screenshot, there is another war fixing to happen. A one man corp called Paid Blood has declared war. I have looked the guy up with what feeble intellegence gathering available to my fledgeling character. Supposedly, this guy lives to prey on weaker characters. He is an accomplished pirate and mercenary who has been in Eve since 2007. That also means he probably has massive amounts of skill points. Experience in Eve works differently than most MMOs. Most MMOs are level based and you grind and grind till you gain levels and get to max level where the end game is. Eve, however, goes by skill points. You gain a number of skills in real time even while logged out. It does not matter how long you play as long as you have time on the account. Hence, our future enemy probably is a god of swooping death flying the cosmos in an incredibly powerful ship with great aim.

Fortunately, he can not be more than one place at once as a single pilot. I put him on a watch list so I can keep an eye for when he logs on. Who knows.. he may be just some random guy who wants helpless targets... or he may be someone hired by our former friends to enact vengence for bounties placed on Requiem. When I bump into the new "leaders", I will ask. I will also keep my eyes in local to watch for him to appear in my solar system.

You will also notice someone has offered "assistance" to the corp. But, that is a ruse. that person is a one man corp, too. Probably knows the other guy. Not to mention he is asking 300 mil. I laugh. The corp is bankrupt! You can not squeeze blood from a turnip.

Other than that, bussiness as usual. I take my mining ship out to hunt for asteroids. I find that the pyroxenes asteroids have a decent buyer in the huge station I am living in here in empire. It is boring work, but the good thing is I can tab out to other games and forums while my mining lasers cut through rock and ore fills the cargo bay.

I also answered a call from a corp mate 7 jumps away to help her. It appears that a mission she was involved in was giving her trouble. All good for me as I got to dust off a logistics ship the corporation funded for me before the emo drama. Me and another mate in a frigate got there and made quick work of the Minmatar pilot. I also learned a bit more about the logistics ship and what tweaks I need to make mechanically to work out the kinks of it and make it more effecient. A stop by the capital market hub of Amarr is in order.

Pic #1 The wars
Pic #2 Logistics ship gets the maiden lauch. First combat mission for her since leaving Amarr to Leva!
 

[Green1]

It has been a while since I have updated AC2 on our hero, Niveuss Nye.

After the whole mess with the CEO of Nye's corporation Transit - Mining - Refining - Production and paid mercenaries perhaps from Requiem ambushing people who were careless, everybody went separate ways.

A good majority of the corporation went to join the new CEO, Mosi in his new industrial corporation Meritech Combine. Some very good industrialists went there. Even some decent budding combat pilots. Another went to try to form his own corporation. Yet another got accepted into the prestigous Eve University, a player run organization that trains and graduates pilots through rigorous classes and esteemed instrustors.

This would not be Nye's path, though. Nivuess recieved an offer from the Amarr Fleet War corporation Advent of Faith. For those not familiar, there are 4 major empires in Eve. Those are the Caldari, the Minmatar, the Ammar, and the Gallante. Currently the Ammar, Nye's home empire, is in a war that wages in the hundred fringe solar systems bordering the Amarr and Minmatar main systems. These systems that border the empires are called "Low Sec" for low security amongst pod pilots. In "High sec" or Empire Space, a powerful police presence called CONCORD keeps people from indiscriminately blowing folks up. Not so in Low Sec. There is no police, only guns on various stations and stargates. It is a lawless no mans land where the Empires send fleets to kill each other. It is also the home to pirates, REAL players who would shoot thier own mum for a kill mail and enough cash!

Accepting the job offer would mean moving shop 12 stargate jumps to my new home - the Kamela system, gateway and staging point for the Amarr - Minmatar Fleet War!

For the first mission, I was grouped with a new commander True Faith and his major domo, Jehovah's witness. Knowing I stood a chance of being blown up and possibly ending up a frozen corpse in space, I did not bring the exxpensive cruiser but a destoyer.

The first mission was a disaster. It started off good enough. We jumped one minnie [progeny of unmarried parents] at the Kamela - Koumen gate before his buddy in a long range destroyer could close from 120 kilometers. It was no fight. Then, as we approached targets a scout scanned one system away, things went south. I survived, but not by any skill. Windows Update came on right before the final jump and my computer shut down. When I logged back in, it was over. True Faith said it did not matter. The enemy Minnies outgunned us. Out of seven that jumped in and engaged, only three left with thier ships and the other four escaped alive in escape pods.

My second brush was also unfortunate. The Kamela - Koumen gate in that system, as I would learn, attracts my new Minmatar enemies like a June bug to a porch light. That star gate is a vital link for the Amarr empiire Fleet Militia to reach the rest of Low Sec and onwards into Minnie held space. Yes, there is another stargate around it, but it goes to another star called Lamaa which has gates in orbit that take you out of the way through backwater systems. Anyways, two Minnie battle cruisers were going toe to toe with other Militia members. These were not in corporation, but had enlisted through the militia office. I was in a small frigate. I dropped out of warp at 100 kilometers to survey the situation. Those battlecruisers are HUGE! They also had four drones hovering apiece, ripping the other allied battlecruisers apart. I am small, but maybe I can at least take out the drones and buy those guys some time. maybe I can disrupt the engines on that thing by webbifiers and warp disruptors. I go full tilt at the fastest the little ship would go! I target one of the 8 drones and one of the battlecruisers. Just then, one of the allies I was trying to save blows up in a huge explosion! The other one escapes, leaving me alone.

I try to get out, but then I am disrupted. The guns on these battlecruisers are huge, firing progectiles the size of cars at my ship which is the size of a jumbo jet! I dodge a few and engage microwarp to get away from them. Just then, my warpp core fizzles! I am being disrupted! Then, a turret clips my little frigate knocking out all my shields and half my armor. Another hit like that and I will not have a ship. I remember a pamphlet from Eve University I found on the web. Warp to a PLANET! Keep punching WARP! I had it set up. The remaining drones, finished with the floating husk which was the ship I was trying to help turn on me and my crippled, disrupted ship. I explode and escape in a pod. They attempt to target my pod... but next thing I know, I am at the second planet of the Kamela system!

[Green1]

There is a saying amongst the pod pilots of Eve. Do not fly what you can not afford to lose. Fortunately I listen to sage advice such as that. The tiny frigate I lost was peanuts.

You see, I had 24 hours to prepare for going into this clustermess I was getting into. Before moving, I stayed back in the Leva system mining up enough various ores in my trusty mining ship to purchase multiple small frigates! After purchasing the frigates, I moved each of them one by one to the staging area in Kamela until I had five cheap frigates of various designs and a anti-frigate equipted destroyer. I left that big repair cruiser back in Leva. It is too expensive to lose as I can not afford to replace things like that.

Which brings me to the next stage in my adventures and why I am out in this place where explosions and death is everywhere: the payoff!

I would not see payoff till my third mission. In the war between the Amarr and the Minmatar, there are structures in various systems called PLEXES which are important stations located in various orbits in each solar system. In a system currently in control by the enemy, these are called offensive PLEXES in that you have to capture them. In a system owned by us, it is called a defensive PLEX. If a faction loses a number of PLEXES, the system becomes vulnerable to being taken over OR commerce begins to be affected.

There is also war on the ground. Each temperate planet has infrantry in dropsuits battling on the planets below. These are actual real players on Playstation 3s playing a game called DUST 514. If you know the location of which planet and district from a CEO of an infrantry corporation on one of these planets and you have the right guns, you can orbital bombard the planet. But, I digress.

The third mission, I was accompanied by jehovah's Witness and Scottie07. Getting around the constant Minnie deathtrap gate camp at the Kamela - Kouman gate, we take the Kamela - Lamaa gate then out about ten jumps through lonely systems in the backwater fringes of the Minmatar holdings.

At first we are chased by a superior force. But, due to Jehovah's knowlege of these systems, evade them. After that, we knock out PLEXES in low populated backwater systems. The only defenses were the pathetic NPC ships. Not enough to tip the whole system for the glory of Ammar, but enough to disrupt. using hit and run tactics, we took out several of these PLEXES in one night. Almost we were bored joking the Minnies had lost thier will to fight us!

Then, Jehovah got a call from an old friend... a local pirate and scum. It appeared that a certain industrialist was trying to mine rock out in Low Sec. Worse, this miner must had pissed someone off, he had a bounty! The pirate could not catch him though alone. The miner was in fast ship with warp stabalizers. Jehovah offered our help. We warped in and slaughtered the innocent miner and split the bounty. It was not much.

But, arriving back at Kamela, the reward from the Amarr Empire was. I had gotten tes of thousands of loyalty points! With this, I could get some rare items.

I felt sorry for the industrialist. After all, most of the guys in my former corp was. Hell... I still make thing and mine metal from space rock. Cry me a river. Poor [progeny of unmarried parents] should know not to mine in Low Sec. Idiot. Plus, in a way it works to my favor. makes me look good to the locals. When in Rome.

Anyways... many Empire militia guys like myself merely take things like implants, faction ammo, and other things with Loyalty Points and resale this stuff to those not able to get it because only folks in faction war can get it. But... too many people get this. Too much competition. Until I eye something that uses my industrialist background: a blueprint copy to make an Imperial Navy Slicer. Yeah, it is a one run copy. Yeah, It is 2 million isk plus the rock I need to make it. But, quick calculations tell me it would take me 5 million to build and I could sell for 14 to 16 million! That is profit. Plus, much less competition. These pilots out here could not build something if thier life depended on it!

Now back to High Sec Empire to build!

Pic 1: The cheese!
Pic 2: Back to Leva to bring back cash!

[Green1]

But... even in the carebear world of miners and industrialists, there is competiton.

Leva is empty of asteroids, it seems. I finally find 3 lonely pyroxenes rocks the size of a large building in a distant orbit of the gas giant Leva 6.

Unfortunately, someone else has designs on that rock! A retriever. A far superior ship whose lasors can rip sections of rock and place it in a much larger hold than I can.

It appears my plan to make a ton of cash the old school way may be a bit more trouble than I thought. Maybe I should have just been a reseller for Imperial Navy ammo and fought all the others low bidding each other. There is a reason for the profit margin on that blueprint.

Pic: Asteroids near Leva 6. By the way. All those stars are actual stars. Those are real systems. That planet folks can, with the  right investment of skills and equiptment, put structures in the clouds to harvest and launch materials back up.

[Green1]

Lead Faith > get in fleet
Lead Faith > get in vent
Lead Faith > let's go [fuddle-duddle] someone in the ass
Base Baltar > Glippo's Frozen Corpse  present for you lead
Lead Faith > yayyyy
Lead Faith > its like christmas all over again
Lead Faith > except with frozen corpses
Base Baltar > lol

In Eve Online, pod pilots are imortal. As long as they are in thier pod, all ot thier brain functions and consciusness are uploaded into empty sleeping clones of themselves to wake up when they die. For those wanting to train thier mind, there is a skill called infomorph psychology that can let you divide yourself into multiple clones. You can effectively send your mind into waiting vessels across the galaxy.

But, that vessel has a different meaning to each pod pilot. Eve is a huge place with different subcultures. The industrialist does not want to wake up in a clone. He adorns his brain with the latest implants. Some implants that serve as memory aides, others help him be more sociable, and others increase his skills in certain tasks. These are expensive and are lost if you lose the clone. The size of the wallet and the emptiness of others is what matters to the builder and trader.

But to the Faction War and pirate culture, the empty vessel is a collectable. It is not enough to destroy the most expensive ship you can to make them cry. You want to destroy them and make them wake up maybe 30 jumps away. And if they did not pay the medical facility to upgrade this clone, lose skills as well!

The empty vessel, the frozen corpse of a dead pilot has even more value to some. Many militia members and pilots make a point to collect the dead corpses of who they kill. The corpses of big name players have been known to fetch multi millions in the great Trade Hub systems like Jita 4-4.

There is also the forum tale of the pilot that has a female corpse and RPs that he dresses her in the cockpit of his ship as his macbre constant companion and probably a thousand other unspeakable acts.

Being that there is no rock in Leva, I may need to answer the call for blood. It is only Minmatar after all. They are not human. Plus, if I show one sign of my industrialist nature around the wolves, I could lose face with some.

Not a wasted trip, though. I needed to replace a warp disruption module on a frigate I brought from Kamela. When I took this out there, I just slapped whatever I had at the time on just to fit something. Fitting your ship in Eve is a chess game in and of itself, and this ship was not fit very well versus what I actually need to do.

Otherwise, I could be that corpse.

[Green1]

I should be more careful in the future when speaking of corpses....

It turns out, there is a reason why a novice industrialist and budding pilot like myself was actually offered a position in a corporation so dedicated to the war effort against the Minmatar allied corporations: we are a rag tag bunch that gets blown up a lot. I find out that the war takes it's toll on most of the members' wallet. Most of us stay broke!

I mention to the others about when I lost the small ship on the Kamela - Kourmen gate. It seemed a big deal to me coming from an industrial culture. To them, it was just another day's work. "You should have hung back a bit. Do not engage and be careful when committing".

I would be sad I did not heed that advice.

The next mission, 13 of us rag tag pilots massed together in a wing of frigates and a cruiser or two. We started by taking care of what could be a potentially annoying situation right in our home sysytem, Kamela. You see, Minnie pilots had snuck in and taken some PLEXES over the course of a few days and if we let that continue would lose commerce and potentially control of Kamela if this was left alone for a few more days. We started by recapturing various locations in Kamela all the while the out numbered Minnie pilots played games of cat and mouse throughout the entire solar system, attempting to catch fleet members that fell behind and running when out numbered. Always, these cowards could be seen 150 plus kilometers away out of the reach of our guns but watching us looking for weakness. No doubt on thier comms reporting what ships we had to other pilots debating what ships to bring to counter us.

Some of our recon pilots actually managed to catch a few, but otherwise we took the areas back without too much incident.

"You know there is a station in this system around one of the moons in Kamela we thing these guys come from and hide in...", the flight commander says. The thought of the bad guys having our interlopers able to be able to hide from us under the force field and guns of a small station made me queasy. Not that we could do much about it. A small station would have to have the help of someone loyal to the Amarr empire to set up with a frieghter that can send fuel to stay in orbit undetected. A traitor, as you will, who would be undetectable within our system. It would also take significantly larger ships with very good guns to remove such a haven. Otherwise the guns would make quick work of us if we dropped out of warp anywhere near the orbit of that moon.

Fortunately, it does not seem to be a base for many minnies. I would think no more that 5 or so in thier own private corp who enjoy living behind enemy lines close to the fight to harass and hunt the unwary.

Having taken care of stuff at home, the commander wishes to jump into Kourmen. Kourmen, while the gate iis camped by minnies at various times, is still an Amarr system for the time being. however, it is a much more hotly fought over system and literally right next door. We decide to go and help the offensive there. I decide to go back to station and pick up a small repair logistics ship instead of the small fighter frigate I had originally brought. I felt offering support by being able to project nanite beams to do field repairs and energy transports to field recharge empty capacitors would be more useful to the fleet.

It would be the last decision this "corpse" would see.

I went to the main station, 24th Imperial, to switch out ships while the rest of the fleet. That did not take too long, but the rest of the fleet moved ahead to the other system. I undocked from station then warped to star gate and jumped to Kourmen to join them.

In Kourmen, local indicate A LOT of minnies! I was not hanging on a gate, so I immediatly warped to the closest planet to the star. The fleet had moved to the PLEX which was only accessible by an acceleration gate on the other side of the system. All clear for logistics to approach the acceleration if activated on contact, so the recon pilot reported. I hit warp. Halfway in the middle of the warp bubble, recon yells cancel warp! Cancel warp! Enemies near the accelaration! Too late. I could not cancel warp. When my ship dropped out, I tried to activate, but was disrupted by two minnies. They were a fast frigate with guns, while my ship was defenseless, only carrying remote repairs and one tiny combat drone. They pinned me down with engine disruptors.

Keep holding up Nye, recons will warp to assist you.

It was too late. Before they could get there, another ship called a Raven warped in armed with electronic warfare and fried my electronics. next thing I knew, I was in an escape pod. Smashing warp... warp away... but they were quicker than I.

I do not remember being dead.

All I remember was I awoke in the Sehmy system outside of the throne world system of Amarr. I had originally thought I would awke in Cornoban. Funny, I should have read the mail that the clone had been moved.

I did read this message from the medical company:

Enjoy your afterlife.

I announced my death. While to the industrialist that avoids death at all costs, it would be major. But, as I mentioned, in the culture of this new place and new people, the first death iis akin to losing one's virginity.

The industrialist died. While I keep his memories and am the same person, I do not waste time on a funeral.

I jump back to Kamela and get into spare ships waiting in Kamela while my fleetmates hunt to avenge my death.

This is not High Sec, Dorothy. We ain't in Leva anymore.

PIC: The last time I saw the ship I was in: a small logistics frigate taken near a beacon.