Hmm... Upgrades.

Big changes lately. Maya hasn't said anything for a long time, over comms or otherwise. I did notice alot of transmissions to and from the Rockskipper as we mined. Turns out the man she was seeing before had come around and started talking to her again. The problem was actually his, because living planet side had pretty much isolated him from the rest of New Eden. Now that he had taken a job in the Customs Office above the planet they lived on, his exposure to Capsuleers has increased and he has decided to try and patch things up with Maya once more.

So after explaining the story to me, she left the Rockskipper and her Badger, taking a shuttle back to the planet to try and live a more domesticated life. Before leaving, she tipped her wings to my Exhumer, my camera drone locked onto her cockpit window, and caught sight of a rare smile and a half assed salute before warping off towards the gate out of this system.

That was about a week ago. Since then it's been a solo operation once more. I've upgraded to a Mackinaw, deemed Stonegrazer II, and set to work trying to keep up with the amount I was making with the both of us.

It's Not the Size That Counts, It's the Bonuses!

Now our little mining operation get's a little upgrade. Maya Nao has been training for a Mining Barge and finally today has completed her training. I've had a small Procurer sitting im my hangar I had put together because I had planned on trying a little low sec mining with it, but now, I've loaned it to Maya so she can stop hauling ore and start bringing it in.

Now here was where an interesting discussion took place. Normally, her comms are silent, and when she did connect, there was the sound of classical music in the background. Maybe her music files were left in the databanks of her Badger and the silence got to her. Regardless she hailed me soon after we started mining. Her proposal, was that her Procurer, which she named the Rockskipper without my permission, could haul in the same amount of ore as my Retriever, The Stonegrazer.

Her premise, was that the Retreiver's two strip miners, disregarding the fittings or skills for arguments sake, both get a fifty percent bonus to ore yeild, while her Procurer got two hundred percent for her one strip miner. If one strip miner without a bonus does one hundred percent and each one on a Retriever get's a fifty percent bonus, then the Retreiver is the same as three turrets without bonuses. A Procurer get's two hundred percent plus the one turret doing one hundred percent, so it too is the same as three turrets with strip miners.

However, in a witty rebuttal on my end was that because her ship only has two low slots and mine had three, I could fit one more Mining Upgrade Module than her to increase my ore intake, not to mention I also had training for modulated strip miners and use specialized mining crystals that give even more yield. I also use Mining Laser Upgrade II's. Plus, my ship has a much larger ore hold so I spend more time shooting rocks and less time warping to a station to dump it.

Little did I know, while I was ranting about how superior my ship was to her loaner, she had connected to her badger back in her hanger, downloaded her music collection to the Rockskipper, and her response was a huff, "Whatever! Mine looks cooler!" and a blast of Mozart from the speakers before she cut comms.

We are making good progress money wise, but I feel no workplace synergy between us...

Getting My Hands Dirty

I've moved my mining operation to a quiet little system where the asteroids are huge and go undisturbed for the most part. I ended up moving my small corporation here as well, to accomodate a joint effort between myself and a friend of mine, Maya Nao. Although she is still new to the field of mining, she is learning fast to be as effective as possible.



So now I'm sitting here, staring at different rocks, but now I don't have to wait until my ore hold fills up to head back to the station to offload. I don't have to move at all, actually. Maya can only fly a Badger II at the moment, so she has taken up hauling duty, taking the ore back to the station for me. Actually, the time it takes for my retriever to go back to the station and return to the mining area is now spent still dragging in rocks. Mining rate has increased noticeably.

Maya is training to fly a barge herself as I aim for an Orca. Although her stay in my corporation may be limited, she will try and make the most of her skills. If we make enough isk at this, maybe I can convince her to stick around.

I met Maya a couple of years ago. We were doing sort of the same thing now, back when I first started mining. We used to use Giant Secure Containers that I would fill and she would haul back to a station. I can't believe I used to think that I was raking in alot of money then. Now, that's change in my pocket. While I improved my skills slightly, bought better ships and continued my career as a capsuleer, Maya Nao had taken a break from Piloting to try and settle down planetside. She was engaged and everything, but she witheld the fact that she was a capsuleer. If she died no matter how horribly, there would be another Maya Nao arriving shortly on a shuttle from a station where her medical clone was kept. When he found out, he was fine with it for a while, but when the worst actually happened, it really freaked him out and he left. Maya never told me what happened to her but from what I understand, it was pretty graphic.

When I noticed her ship's online signal appear in my contacts list, I contacted her to catch up, then ended up going into business together. I just hope it works out. She kept her old apartment and was planning on getting a stable job planetside again...

Staring at Rocks

Some say it's boring. Others, like me, refer to mining as dependable, low risk, income. It's just so, I don't know. Repetative.

I'm just starting out at this. Just learned how to fly a barge not long ago and was all too eager to jump out to the first belt I could find and watch the strip miners chew rocks and haul in more than I could ever dream of doing in a small frigate. I don't think I could ever go back to one now.

ORE engineers recently changed their schematics for my new prize, making them even better. I hated JetCan mining. Watching my hard earned ore just floating outside my ship, vulnerable and open for anyone to take. I tried mining with secure containers too, but it was a pain to anchor three or four, then fill them up and having to switch to an industrial hauler to bring it all back to station.

I love my new Retriever.

This was not the first one I had owned. My first was destroyed in a scuicide attack, which I was barely able to escape with my life, which is worth about as much as the augmentations in my head for a capsuleer.

These barges have skyrocketed in price too since the redesign. I'm weary about taking this one out in fear it turn out like the first, but these asteroids aren't going to mine themselves.

Like I said, it's tedious work. I stare at rocks all day and watch a bright blue laser dance across them. If it weren't for the occasional pirate attack I would go insane. Then again, all I do is press a button and drones deploy to destroy the target for me. I press another and they return to the ship. Not much skill involved there.

Things have changed since I first came into being. My existance used to be limited to the confines of my pod. My ship was controlled by my thoughts as I float in a vat of primordial ooze from which my current body was grown. Now, we are able to leave our pods, and walk freely about our ships and stations. Capsuleers are now very hard to distinguish from normal people. Some, like myself, try and hide the fact that we are immortal. It sometimes scares people as they think we hold no regard for our own lives. They think we are loose cannons and wouldnt care if our ships were destroyed out from under us.

Dying sucks. It really hurts. It doesnt matter if you get to wake up in a clone afterward or not. Dying is the same for everyone. The worst place it hurts for capsuleers, however, is the wallet.