The answer

to the query at the end of my last post
appears to have been mining.

They're obviously gearing up for war :: every time I logged in, they smiled and said things like "You're the one with the mining ship, aren't you ?" and then "I know a deadspace you're just going to love."

In fact I secure myself by running three ships (fortunately I own three ships, at the same time, and have the skills to fly them all) --
first there's the gun-ship I use to check the site out and clear off the initial bandits (mostly drones this time, for some strange reason :: are they about to declare war on us?);
then there's my miner, which has 2 Miner IIs and some other gouging laser (I took the spitball gun off a month ago, and can't find it again) for digging, a drone (Tech I -- I keep meaning to upgrade, but you know how things are) and a missile launcher thing that goes Whoosh if you ask it nicely;
finally there's a hauler (which at the moment is the DigBunny, 'cause of its shields, and the fact that I don't need above 9K of m3. And in case of incursions all three of them have salvage modules fitted, which means those kind gentlemen who go round cleaning space up by salvaging Other People's wrecks aren't needed on a Jenni Concarnadine site.


The poniez are well, though the stabling bill was a bit higher than I'd expected -- something about Snoball eating a stableboy for lunch. I've smacked her and told that eating people is bad, but she's cute and she has a pink mane (courtesy of some gene-splicing ... which I suppose might have made her the tiniest bit carniverous).
I wonder if that Circus is still on tour in Metropolis -- maybe they'd like a part-pink ponie ....
Does anyone have their number ?