About halfway

to my Dramiel, if prices stay low.

One quick mission, in between seeing to my ponie factory (and listening to Dr.U going on about how poor the rewards were for manufacturing Construction Blocks) -- Angels (or Ark-Angels) camped out in deadspace, spying on the Utterly Trustworthy Government's strategems.

So I went 20th century on their asses -- salvage was poor and I barely got 1 million out oft he fees -- I think I need a new agent -- either a richer one or a more stupid one.

Hope he never reads this.
J

So -- been quiet

Meh -- I haz ponie-farm, and it takez up time. I have to go and reset the extractors every few days, and then I have to find homez for the poniez. Still, I got a couple of missions done. The Serpentis don't like me a lot more because of their transport ship that had a terminal experience and I gather that I may find my name on a few cigarette cartons up in Mordus space as a "People we'd like to see lost"

Dem Rocks, dem rocks, dem dry-y rocks

Doing a mission I noticed one or two roids in the last room.

SO I eve-mailed Dr.U and got him to come over in his Hulk, and when I'd finished the rats (Amari scum) I told my agent I'd left some salvage behind, and ducked into my Orca and he and I had an hour popping roids without having to worry about pirates.

And in the end it wasn't really worth it -- veld seems to have gone down in price since my day. So I gave him some ISK and a hold full of veld and we parted company. but it was nice to have someoen to fly with, after all this solo PI.

I *hate* days like these

Just a simple little job -- that's what the agent said.

Flew out and found some Serpentis harrassing traffic. Blew them away, and more turned up. And more. Ran out of ammo, and had to fly off, in the middle of the mission no less, to buy more (and then couldn't get the stuff that I wanted).

Finally the Journal said I'd hit my target ship and blown it up, and I got the **** out of there. Left all the wrecks. offered them in local, only to be topld that some guy had been watching me all along. He offered to ctiricise my technique and I but my tongue and didn't tell him where to stick it.

The only consolation was that I reckon I made nearly 5 mill out of it all -- my most ever.

Back in the thick of it

Ran my 1st formal "mission" in months -- all part of the "buy me a Dramiel" routine (and because the new "factory fresh" poniez aren't, and they don't wash often enough, and I needed the break).

Shooting some Angel rats. Which tended to die out when my heavy guns spiked them around the 35K mark, and even more so when the drones and missiles got in. So, my apologies to their chaplain (assuming that they have one) for all the extra work, and another 500K into each of the wallets (regular and Dramiel fund).

Overdoing It

Okay -- I ought to have known, when the agent offers me about twice what he had been for a mission.

Mind you :: I've *learned* -- I looked it up first, before I accepted it. Four waves, it said -- frigates, cruisers, up to BCs, some with webby things and so forth. And a stasis tower.

But on my side I have Mal's legacy -- in this case a Nevy Issue with 12 drones in the bay, some modules that boost the drones, and four hybrid turrets. And a shield booster (which, being Mal, is an X-large and drinks cap like a dockside wrangler).

So I get there (no gates) and get stasis-towered. Launch the heavy drones and send them to deal with that, while I try to tank the frigates and get some range with my AFB. Then open up on the tower myself, and tank tank tank, till it's gone. that's better -- I can move now -- call back the heavies, loose a flight of lights, and watch as the frigates go down. There's one cruiser here, which I leave till last 'cause the cheat-sheet says that one's the trigger for the next wave.

It goes and they arrive -- at something like 120 km. So I call in the drones for some shield repair, run my own shields back up, and have a wait. Here's where I'd have chatted to poniez but there aren't any (and the man with the kittiez said they were too small to let me have :: they might get in the working of my bigger ships, and never been seen again).

Eeventually they arrive, and I target some at extreme range, fire off a volley or two, and, once I've got their attention, loose some drones. This lot, thankfully, come in 2 squads and neither seems exactly to love the other -- I blow one lot away and then start on the other. Once again, I'm lucky, and keep the drones off the trigger ship till I've cleared the others. Somewhere round the end of here, is where I decide that I can do to have a break, and get my cap back, so I collect the drones (see -- I *can* remember to, once in a while), warp to a station, repower, releoad, and get out there again.

The next lot also arrive at long range and once again prove to be two squads. Unfortunately, somehow, after clearing the first lot, the second ones send for reinforcements -- suddenly I'm overloaded with targets, coming in from three directions, and all angry. Fortunately they all target me, so I can leave the drones out unhindered. This one needs a warp-out partway through (for re-cap) but I go back at 70K range, which means I'm not where they expect mne, and I pick off the two b*tards with target painters quick (actually I'm quite proud, not once did the webby-type ones get within their range, and though there were targetting disrupters advertised on the cheat-sheet, I never noticed any on my HUD overwiew). I was just getting ready fort he foruth wave, when the "Mission Accomplished" flag goes up.

So I warped for home base, and switched ships to one of Mal's salvagers -- an ex-BC I think -- anyway it holds three tractors and 2 suites of double salvagers. Then back to hoover everything up (which took 2 runs and would have been more but there weren't as many Metal Scraps as sometime).

And when I added it all up, the bounties alove were over 3 mill.
So I'm going to lie low for a while, just in case the cartel have my registry number.

Back in the Sa-ddle

The Mega seems a bit better with the Warp Stabs off. I've also diversified ammo (anti-mater being a mite expensive), and worked out ranges. My long-range ammo hits at 40k, my drones can go in at 35k, and my shorter-range ammo kicks in around the 25k mark.

Frigates boil under drones; cruisers seem to wilt under shells, and Mal left me room for a tractor and salvager so I can even hoover my own wrecks most of the time.

Did Human Cattle 5of5; thought about the fleet, but then noticed there are no bounties (because they're Amarr) so I'd have to be sure I could get them all before I'd get the salvage. Decided to leave it alone. Still got almost a mill between fee and bonus. Rounded off the take with a L1 mission: 2 frigates. Didn't even need to fire: drones did both of them. Good fee -- must not have been taken for a while.

Hundredth-and-one post (apparently).

Broke from mining, to go ratting and meet up with the AKFT.

Took the Cheetah into the L1 dungeon, and found it totally empty, so slaughtered everything there, and salvaged. Oddly enough, there was no trigger to the next bit and no Overseer.

Then did some higher-sec belts waiting for corp op time, and then took Mal's Hulk into belts to wreck roids. And the Bear must have pimped up her Orca skills, 'cause my Strip Miners were running about 10% up (or down -- faster anyway) and they seemd to be clawing more ore, so that I didn't bother keeping it in my hold but just dumped it straight into jet cans.

When that had to end (RL Chinese run), I switched to clearing some of my module-loot. In the end, with a trip to Hek and back, and with Bear paying me for mining, I ended up netting almost *9 million*.

So me and the poniez are off to a spa for a day or two.

Then it's back to the mine face, I fear.

So, my drone training

finished last night, and I could use those Ogre IIs at last. I'd heard about them all my capsuleer life -- how they ate frigates for breakfast and shat out cruisers as poop.

I though they were in the Machariel, but that turned out to be a mix of light and mediums, so I looked along the hanger and found one of Mal's Megathrons which turned out to have 5 aboard. I went to an agent and asked (nicely) for a combat mission. When he'd stood up again, he told me about an illicit repair station, so I went off.

To cut long story short, it isn't there any more, nor are the missile towers and the stasis generator it had hidden behind cloaks. But those Ogres -- they chewed up some auxiliary power thingummies in seconds, and then, while I was tanking some large gentlemen of the "hey -- that was our station you just ganked", they wandered off and did for the stasis generator without even being asked.
I did have to jump out mid-fight due to not having an armour repper on hand, but they came back when asked, and then, when we went back, they chewed on almost anything that moved (while I scrambled out to a range suitable for the heavy guns I was mounting. Which also proved excellent once I had a range advantage -- like taking out missile towers while the Ogres were still trying to get to them.

The next thing is going to be training the Ogres to carry poniez aboard, and then fitting the poniez with Salvager modules. Then all I have to do is shoot things and sit while the poniez gather the loot.

And all this, when I added in the bounties, was a 7-figure mission. So I'm packing for a trip to go and see White Carnation, see if I can get her to do a few missions, get her head out of the skillbooks.

I want to say

a big thank you to the guy/girl/corp that's racked up the plag price in my local. Thanks to you, when I got back from looking after poniez, I had time to dive into Mal's Hulk, do three runs to a belt, pull in 3 holds of plag, and sell it for 1 million.

So, having done my quota for the day, I can rest, relax and pet poniez some more.

A good Day's Work

For complicated reasons (to do with a mining mission), I'd docked at a different station (in the same system, but ...). So, of course, there were different agents, working for a different corp -- tribal, ratehr than industrial. So I thought, while the techs were watering the poniez, I would see what work they had. And one of them told me about some documents that had been stolen and offered me almost half a mill to get them back, with a healthy bonus if I did the job quickly.

So I switched ships, went back to him, and took the job (off-loaded the poniez as well, as I tend to find they aren't keen on the battle-y bits). I reckoned that, if there were bounties, I'd easily make my million.

Not an easy job, though :: missile batteries, and substantial enemy -- also my pod interface kept sticking, and the only solution was to jump out and reset it (which meant abandoning my faithful drones as well). After three rinse and repeats, I managed to clear the first area (and recover all but one of the drones). Then I headed for the second area, through a jumpgate, to find heavy gun-drone positions, and some cruisers. Fortunately my current gun-load can be effective even at 40km, so I did my 'ran away while shooting backwards' routine. Then I collected the documents, and headed home, for my dedicated salvager. Nothing wonderful on the salvage (though some interesting components, I'm sure I can use).

But when I totted everything up at the end of the day, even allowing some some minor repairs I had to have done, I'd made over two million ISK. So I may well book in to the spa again, and see about fitting the pod with kumquat goo -- it's all the rage in Jita, they say.

So, clear skies, too.

Back -- Briefly

Couldn't get my pod straight.

I was going to try flying the Machariel, but the pod was glitchy so I switched back to the 'cane.

Tried to mission and kept dropping my connects. Finally got lined up and spent forty minutes getting pounded by some EoM militants. About survived, and then decided to salvage what I could in a dessie. Had to do three runs before I had everything, and had it born in on me that, again, I have no idea of what's worth keeping, what I can sell, and what I should recycle.

All this time and still a n00b.


And White Carnation's moving out and down, so I'll need to fetch the freighter up to move her, as she doesn't even fly industrials.

The poniez are well -- but why shouldn't they be ? They aren't paying the stabling bills.

Did make 2 million out of the mission though, once I added the bounties to the meagre fee that the agent offered.

An Interesting Couple of Days

Went back to missioning -- managed my million (out of 3 missions), and then got one of those Important Faction Missions. I was thinking of turning it down, till I saw that the reward was 5 mill -- grabbed that and flew it as fast as I could. And then looked at my hangar and rearranged some stuff and ended up ducking down to [CENSORED] where I sold some stuff and made another 2 million.

Just in time, when Pancho the Wonder Ponie licked me awake, to find that I had a 10 million ISK bill for insurance. Since it was on the ship I mostly fly (Ourenaris) I paid it, and flew a couple of systems down to where some friends were supposed to be getting a mini-fleet together.

Wandered round a L2 complex for a while, popping reds in my Jaguar for fun, and then went for lunch. When I came back Bear was calling the fleet to arms, so I switched back to Ourenaris, and flew out. It took (the ususal) half-hour to get everyone sorted out, but then we were gang-warped to a gate and told we were going through.

I never did see two of the ships I was with -- Ourenaris is a BC, and I know we had a Drake and an Abaddon somewhere; there may have been another BS, and there was a little thing nipping round that might have been a Caracal -- in fact we may have had two of theose, in serial, one having had a slightly terminal experience with enemy fire.

We jumped.
Into a wall of red. All of them out of range of my guns. I closed in -- too eagerly, as it turned out :: they targeted me and my shields wilted. Aligned for a station and warped out with 25% armour, and set about repping. By the time I got back, there weren't many of them left, but since they had all picked their targets, I just whittled them down. Apparently the corp I was with had a dedicated salvager, so once "they" were all dead, we were recalled to base station pending reassignment.

The next one was the field of drones mission -- all of them 3hp, AC7, so we blitzed that. Then we did two more -- a one-room and a two-room. This time I didn't have to warp out -- I waited 10 seconds after the BSs went through, and then went for ships that were engaged. Got a string of frigs and cruisers on me at one point, but being Min, I just showed my heels and parthian-shot over my shoulder. Still, the 87K trip back to the others was a bit of a bore.

Then people started to go off to watch the Tournament, so we split up. I docked and went for a meal (without Pedro -- the station were a bit snooty about him (or her -- I'm not sure with Pedro)) and when I came back I totted up and reckoned I'd got around 1.5mill in my share of the mission fees, almost a mill in bounty shares, and 4 mill in my share of the salvage.

So I'm thinking I may take the Machariel out for a test fly -- Ghu knows what it will cost to insure her, mind you.

Rats and More Rats

My current base system is 1.0 security. So you can troll the belts for all you like, but nary a rat do you see. Which is fine for mining, but less so for recreation.

Babylon Bear, who is a good sort, comm'ed me a couple of days ago, to say she was in a system swarning with rats and did I want a share ?

So I went over there, and she was telling the truth. Not that I'd ever thought she wasn't, but one person's teeming with can be another's, there's one an hour like the buses.
And no, I'm not so stupid as to say where it is: Bear found it, and it's her game reserve

Did three sweeps first night, and garnered a hold and a half of loot; went back next day and got another hold full, and then went back last night and did another sweep and got about three-quarters of a hold. In and among I also swept through a n00b dungeon, to get more practice with my Jag, tried out my CovOps skill for the h*ll of it, and took a shuttle all the way down to Mal's hangar, in the hope of loading up some of his ships, now I can fly Freighter. But he has them all equipped, and apparently I can't load equipped ships. So, I could load some, but lose their meticulous fitting-out, and I could repackage some of the ones I can't fly, and have no idea how they were fitted.

It just means waiting till April, when I can fly them all, ands then buying a *lot* of containers, one for each ship, to hold the fittings (and, in the case of the Machariel at least, the hold-full of Stuff(TM) that he has aboard her).

As I've said before, it's a nice legacy, but I'd rather have Mal back.


And in and among I did one mission, for my (currently) main agent, and made 2 million after bounties but before salvage. So the poniez and I have eaten well ( a little *too* well in the case of Dappled Barney, who's currently being examined by the University, in case they can use him as the reaction drive for a shuttle, 'cause they need a good supply of burnable gas).

Celebration #2

My agent offered me a slaver-hunting mission, which I took because I hate slavers. Anyway, I found and rescued the slaves and then I get told that she (the agent) had another mission for me immediately. It turned out that now she wanted a whole bunch of slavers killing.

So I checked on what was entailed, and set off. Half way through, I ended up in an asteroid belt, and as there was plenty of time left to still get my bonus, and as I had my new mining cruiser a warp away, I put the "killing slavers" bit on hold and fetched the miner. Then it occurred to me that there was a *lot* of ore. So I commed Dr.Ursus and asked him if his Hulk was free. He came down and we tore into a field of ombar. Mind you, the Hulk chews 'roids at a pace my cruiser couldn't match, so a lot of the time, I was doing hauling.

After about 90 minutes we'd both had enough, but I was able to point him to where he could sell a hold-full of veld he'd happened to have, and I've promised him a skillbook or two from Mal's bequest.

Then I went back to slaver-killing. Now, the warning I'd had was that the second pocket aggressed automatically, and were *heavy*. So I looked round to set a book mark. But then I noticed that I was only partway into armour, and had taken out 2 frigates, so I repped, and kept my head down, and let the drones carry the fight, since all the slavers were locked on my ship. And we blew them all away. Good bounties as well, even if the salvage was a bit on the superficial side.

And when I added everything up, I had *2* million ISK, for the first time ever. Which is good because I spent 10 on getting a skillbook from the LPshop.

Now I *need* sleep

Short and Shweet -- A good investment

[Dictated on the way to the spa]

I may have said that I was grinding for a probe launcher from the Sisters. And that I was trying to do it 500 Lp at a go.

Well, went to see agent, who mentions a merchant gate being blockaded, and offers me 600Lp to clear it. And when I looked things up, it seemed that these guys might be susceptible to explosive damage. So I nipped out and invested in a medium drone with explosive damage, and booted out the one with Thermal or some such (not *out* altogether, just into the hangar for now).

And went, and played with the NME, and blew them away, and got 700K in mission pay and bonus and another 700K in bounties.

So I'm taking downtime off to lounge in a strawberry skin-care pool, and drink Pie-Eyed Warthogs.

See y'all later
Jenni
(who may already have had a couple of Warthogs, but never mind who's counting ?)

The Grind continues

But in an interesting way.

[Although for some reason, I'm getting *no* standings rises no matter how hard I mission]

It's agonising but I'm not getting the bonus missions, because I have to keep turning down missions into lo-sec (unless I have a throwaway Reaper available, and even then I'm risking all my implants). SO I'm rotating round a series of 60 LP courier missions, with the occasional combat -- but this time it was a 400 LP one, which got me well over target for the day, and (at last, and even though it was only L2) a seven-figure one once I'd added in the bounties. And I don't believe I ever went below 50% shield.

The "nerf" on missiles doesn't seem too bad yet -- I'm still using artillery first, and then the missiles, and they still seem to kill things. Finally choked off the 2nd chattergun, and switched in another arty, and I'm relying on one gun and the rocket launcher for close-up, along with drones, when they're not straying all over the back-field, attacking thigs 40K away when I could do with them Here And Now.

If only the drones were as good as my poniez at staying close -- mind you, I feed my poniez, so maybe that's where I'm going wrong. What do drones eat ? Does anybody know ?

J

And Then

(or then again)

Mining Mission
Took on another of these, on the grounds that, if they're looking for the perosn who killed a few of their ships, they mightn't look too closely at a 'umble miner. of course, they might blow me away on principle, but so might any pirate with a suicide fetish.
Met more of those sentent drones. Got a look at a couple, while my drones were with them. Nasty b*ggers, with guns on the end of extendable limbs. Somewhat worrying, what with the rumours that some idiot's been looking into how to blend a human brain and nerve-stem into a cybernetic body. Fine for the bloke who gets quadrapleged in an accident, but what about if it's your local psycho ... ?
Anyway, it netted me another 7-figure fee, because I beat the agent's time estimate, so the poniez can eat tonite.

Also been thinking about tanks -- which I will put in another entry, so that folks don't get confused.

And I built another Cargo Optimiser, now that prices seem to have settled again. So I put one on the market and we'll see if anyone buys it. Might also put out a "buy" offer for Trit bars and see if anyone bites on that.

The new vanilla pod-goo seems to be working out, and the cabin scent is giving me good nights' sleep, now I don't have Welung.
I considered hiring him on as a body-servant, but he's happier at the resort, and he says he's allergic to poniez anyway.
And it wouldn't work too well if I go back to a new Jaguar -- there isn't really room for 2 on one of those, not after I've fitted all the T2 stuff. They say it's new-and-improved, but I can't help noticing that it always takes up more space that the T1 versions (especially the named-and-branded).

Talking of branded, I can hear a beefie-burger calling my name.
J

Out and In

I didn't have much time to fly today -- the poniez were restive (I think they wanted to go back planetside and play in the long grass) and I had to get them settled and make sure they weren't getting hoof-rot or any such.

So I only had time to do 2 runs -- first one delivering some reports (I get the feeling the guv'mint has some undercover people in some of the corps), and then, when I got there, I was "asked" if I'd mind doing a favour. It seemed the Angels were causing trouble (again) and would I go deal with it? I would have said no, but the base fee was six figures and the bonus as much, and then there were the bounties to think of.

I really ought to find out if there's a Widows and Orphans' Fund for the Angel Cartel :: I certainly seem to be contributing towards the numbers of widows and orphans.

One bunch round a gate, who all turned on me at once, but who then obligingly queued up in my Minmatar wake to be blown up one by one (or two by two, if you count the drones). Then through that gate to find another lot camping out round a radar station. They were heavier, and I had to bleed one group off and go back for some more, and then the last three suddenly triple-teamed me and I was taking damage despite my shield reppers, which had been coping up to then. Grabbed the drones, and issued the order to warp, and then had to wait forever till the ship-puter found somewhere to warp *to*.

Anyway, there was a station in-system, so I docked and hooked the cap to the station power supply for a recharge, then got out again, before the Customs man came to ask about the loot I might have been carrying.

Warped back, through the gates, and found that my three enemy had split up, obviously thinking I'd warp back direct and one of them would get me and call the others in. So I crept up and took them out one by one -- in fact I left the last and biggest alone and went salvaging until he noticed me. The odd thing was, once he did, he hardly got a shot off: we had artillery, missiles, the dawgs ... he died.

Loot wasn't too bad: even a couple of named doofrieys. But when I got back and saw the totals I realised that, with the bounties added to the fees, this was over 1.5M, which will pay for the sweetest sparkly nosebands I've seen for my poniez. Just need one or two more days like this, and I can have another holiday -- or buy a new Jag. One or the other.

J

And we're back (for now)

The poniez and I have had a little falling-out (a matter of stains on the deck-plates), so they're having a Quiet Moment in the stables, and I'm flying again.

Still got some of my lovely ISKies left but ...

It seems to be dig-it-up season. Apart from a couple of "nip out and fetch me smokes/oil / dump these reports/layabouts" missions, all I'm getting seems to be mining related. I do have a digging machine (2, actually, but one of them is a Mammoth that Babylon Bear rigged for me, that has a miner strapped on top, so that I cna mine without jet-canning -- slow but *safe*) and the pod now smells of Jenni again. One job involved large gentlemen of the pew-pew persuasion and I'm sorry to say that, since I couldn't get my BC in there to play with them, I just mined and ran. But the other one was a bit more complicated, involving mining some ore I'd never heard of, while being "observed" by drones. This time the BC was allowed, so basically I scoped the space out and BC'd in, played with the drones (none of whom seemed exactly bright, even if they were advertising that they were "sentient" or some such) and then put the Lesser Goronwy in for the digs. In the end, because the ore was so bulky and the drones didn't seem to be respawning, I even jet-canned the end of the mission.

And why, you'll ask, did Jenni put up with this tedium ? Simple: they woz offering ISKies in a lump -- 2mill, in all (since I always try for the time bonus). SO, I'm flush again for a day or two.
There was also some interesting salavge from these "sentient" drones. As soon as White Carnation is settled in, I'm going to pass them on to her, for analysis.

And that was going to be it, except that I had an EVE-Mail :: "Call on me urgently: your kin need you". Turned out my kin didn't need me as much as ombar. Which is a pleasant enough ore, but I wasn't in an ombar-rich zone.
But my miner buddy 3D is, so I phoned him and did a deal -- he mined the ombar, and I paid him some now and some later. An hour later his Badger was delivering ore to the mission site and all I had to do was go over, accept the mission, turn round and say "Oh, look what I just found down the back of the sofa" (Joke TM to John Rourke -- borrowed and now returned), and take the ISK reward. Which didn't cover what I'd paid 3D (or will in the future), but saved me hunting for the omb, and then digging it out while being ratted. 3D has drones for rats; the Goronwy has one small one and really needs her 3rd laser replacing by a turret gun (which I can find a nice one).

And now it's nap time for Jenni. and I'll see you all on the flip-side.