Settling In

So my gear is staged, my clones relocated, and my desire for blood and war ready to be satiated. Now I just need to find willing combatants...

So far with this new bunch, I've seen quite a large share of operations take place. Unfortunately, most of em I observed while working to get my gear moved to the proper staging locations. However, in the two days since my gear has been relocated to these stations, I've been able to get in on two fleets. Both fleets were really quite entertaining to fly with. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get in on any real kills other than a couple of SBUs (Sovereignty Blockade Units) that were dropped in ally space but I've gotten a chance to see how their fleets operate and am impressed. Fleet comms at times did get a bit messy from time to time, but when work needed to be done, the level of professionalism by the fleet commander and the fleet members themselves seemed top notch. Only once did I observe a single individual out of the 500 in the first fleet and about 250 in the second get out of line (apparently went afk while holding on the frontlines...). There was also a moment where some fleet members took a slightly different route than the main contingent, but was due to instructions to reach destination at best pace and their autopilot navigation differed for one reason or other.

We did see one fleet engagement. I was not able to get in on any of the kills given a disagreement my ship had with a POS shield and thus arrived on the battlefield too late to get in on the action before the enemy disengaged and warped off. However, it gave me a chance to observe their handling of target calling and such and again, I was impressed.

So although my own desire for blood has not be fulfilled, I am certainly looking forward to the many days to come flying with these new brethren of mine.

Back in the Saddle

Yep. That's right. I'm back. As of about 2 weeks ago, I decided to renew my pilot's license and am once again cruising the stars and it's been quite an entertaining ride already. (and that's my tl;dr)

When I had last gazed upon my hanger, already the map was becoming distorted, unfamiliar. Upon returning, as I expected, I was no longer allied to anyone. My previous corp had, as was also expected, booted me from their ranks. The map as I had once known will never be the same. New faces, new tactics, new...well...nearly everything seemed new to me! I feel like a shopaholic at the mall with a brand new credit card and a recent release of all the newest fashions!

So of course first things first. Given my lack of status within the region, I popped open my asset window and took note of where all my belongings were. Fortunately, before shit really hit the fan, I'd been able to get MOST of my assets out. However, I hadn't been able to get a couple larger ships out as well as some minor ships and gear dabbled about here and there. I then double checked to see where some of my old corp mates from years past had gone off to. They as well seemed to have dispersed to the stars. So now the choice came. Attempt to sell off my goods stuck in various stations around the area or attempt to join one of the local corporations. Only thing I was sure of is that I did not want to return to high sec empire. So I looked into two options before making the decision to sell. Did I want to try out wormhole life (something I admit to always being curious about) or did I want to just stay in nullsec?

Although wormholes certainly seem intriguing, I pretty much knew the obvious answer. Getting into an already established, and decent wormhole corp, is difficult at best. It takes a LOT of trust in your corp mates to successfully live in a wormhole. It is something that would take a lot of time to build before they even let you into their system, time I wasn't sure I wanted to invest.

Nullsec, on the other hand, is already home to me. Its had its hooks in my heart since before I even stepped foot in my first nullsec alliance. The political confrontations have always intrigued me.

Thus, the choice became obvious.

HOWEVER, given my lack of knowledge for the current political structure, as in who's allied with who and who isn't, choosing where to settle was a difficult choice and I admit I got a bit...rushed, to get things moving. I talked with a few corp recruiters and one did an excellent job of wooing me into complacency and quick trust. (yeah, my eve mentality was a bit rusty) He managed to talk me into contracting a couple of my fitted ships to be courier'd to their home system prior to being accepted into corp. I know, I know. Dumb move by me and well played on his part as I'm now out two ships. Ahh well. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Anyways, during my wait, I met with another recruiter representing 1st Steps Academy, a member corporation of the Fidelas Constans alliance. Talked with him for a fair bit of time and after some deliberation, decided to join up. And so far I've been very happy with the decision. They all seem to be a great group of people and I'm looking forward to flying with them in the days to come.

So that's where I stand now. Most of my gear has been moved and in place and I'm ready to wreak havoc across the vast expanse of the Eve universe once again.

On Break

It's been over a year since my last post on this recording of my pod life. I don't regret it either. This past year saw me slowly losing my interest in undocking. And then, when the glorious CCP gave us our own quarters, and the ability to leave the pod... I guess I lost interest for some time in ever getting back in it. (not to mention my "brain" nearly melted when trying to explore the oh-so-wonderful CQ) But perhaps I should mention that CQ was really just the final drop for me on a growing pile of negative experiences.

I guess it started when the corp I was with chose to join a low-sec alliance. Not that it was a bad thing but at that time I was really just in the mood to sit comfy in high sec for awhile. Slowly the corp member base began vanishing from our high sec system and thus things started to get a lot quieter. So I chose to move on.

I ended up creating a corp of my own. Really just because I didn't want to be in the default corporation. But with my associates, the corporation Hellhound Productions was given birth. It was a temporary thing, something to make tracking my various associates efforts a little more effortless for me. It was a good endeavor but not really one I had any intention of growing. The problem is that I am a bit of a social bug. So after awhile, the need for a more fulfilling existence grew beyond my ability to contain it. Thus, I sought company with a corporation I felt I could mesh well with. Deep in nullsec with the Mostly Harmless alliance.

Things were going alright at first. However, it was nothing like life with SSE and Sys-K. The leadership for the corp/alliance was a bit more fragmented. I had a more difficult time comprehending what was even going on. What really didn't help was that the corp and alliance relied heavily upon a forum board for getting news out. A forum board that was consistently screwed up to the point of where I could never even get on it, and thus had no idea when ops and other important info was being posted. So even though I was living where I wanted to be, I still felt a bit detached. It was also a bit of a pain in that given I hadn't acquired a carrier yet, I was moving my gear ship by ship through some rather turbulent areas. Moving stuff this way can be excruciatingly taxing.

And then a real bomb dropped. Without much notice, the corporation I was in was booted from the alliance. Everyone was so caught up getting their own shit out, I was pretty much stranded as my calls for assistance went unanswered. So I did the only thing I could think to do. I left the corp and sought employment with another corporation in MH. By then I'd decided I just wanted out and so my only real reason for joining a MH corp was to get my gear out. Unfortunately, that's when shit REALLY hit the fan for all of MH. My routes out were suddenly under constant attack from invading forces, jump bridges where being decimated and often JB passwords would be changed (and of course i still had no access to the forums so I couldn't retrieve the new ones).

To top it off, stations where I still had ships and gear stashed were quickly falling into enemy hands and thus cutting me off from retrieving them. So here I find myself, sitting in one of those stations that is now an enemy controlled with most of my gear spread around me, deep in enemy territory. I guess all I can do now is sell my stuff in a sudo-fire sale, hoping to get a decent amount, and then clone jump to empire. That is...whenever i reactive my pilot's license.