Perfection

A small milestone in the early stages of my career. I've finally hit perfect refine with Minmitar Mining Corporation (MMC). Now it's time to buckle down and start hauling in the ore and make some isk. I'm not sure if i had mentioned before, but my current goal is to be able to afford a freighter, possibly a Charon as it has the biggest cargo hold. The only problem is that it's over one and a half billion ISK, and I'm probably a month away from being able to fly it.

Maya is only about four days away from being able to fly one, however...

She only recently told me this, as I found her suddenly absent for a couple of weeks. She kept avoiding me and found excuses to miss mining ops, then when I finally cornered her in the station, she simply sighed and told me her Pilot's License had run out again. I figured it was about that time again, and looking at my wallet, I cringed at the thought of losing that ISK to keep her afloat. The past couple of weeks, however, were less than lucrative without her hauling ore so I sprang for another PLEX and got us both out into the fields. Hopefully with my improved refining skills and better standings, we can make more money back before next month.

We set up shop in Hardbako this time, lots of Veldspar and the only station is an MMC base with a 50% base yeild refinery, which would give me what most consider "Perfect" refine. The gate is also almost in line with the exit to the station, so it makes shipping with my Orca a lot easier as it warps as soon as I undock. It's fairly quiet too.

A little too quiet...

"Proximity Alert." Aura's voice stirs me from my slumber and I uselessly open my eyes to stare into the green goo filling my pod. I close them again and my mind connects to the camera drones in space. Maya's retriever is bumping into my Hulk and the computers of both ships are pushing away from each other with thrusters and external gravity plating or something. I was never sure specifically how they did it. It's like there's an invisible bubble around the ships and we bounced off each other.

"Wakey wakey!" The comms channel activated in my head.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, slightly annoyed. I had to adjust my position so my lasers would still be in range of the rock I was shooting when the cycle ended.

"You haven't dumped ore in a while. You almost full?" she asked. With a thought, the cargo hold status displayed in my mind and I transferred my full cargo into the jetcan outside the ship just as the laser cycle ended and even more ore fell into my cargo hold. Almost lost the entire cycle. The ore vanished from the jetcan soon after into Maya's ship which had a much bigger ore hold than the hulk. Again, because of the ship re purposing that ORE incorporated a few months ago.

"Are you asleep?" she asked, "Are you getting bored doing this?"

"No, it's just that it's been a while since I controlled the ship from inside my pod." I replied, "It's comfortable. I can see why some capsuleers never leave it."

"Yeah this whole getting out and walking around thing is new, right?" she said, "Something about our immune systems not being able to handle the environment outside of a pod?"

"The wonders of modern medicine." I replied, "But really, there's not alot going on in this system. Even the pirates are scarce."

"Isn't that a good thing?" she said with a smile.

"I suppose." I said with a sigh. Still, not a good idea to fall asleep while your corporation is at war...

Tavern Tales

I sat at a table in the local bar of a Minmitar Mining Corporation station in Libold, staring at my mobile terminal while I went over my industry job queue through the Neocom. It was a small room in the station, the bar was short, the tables few and close together, opting for booths along the wall to save space an increase seating capacity. Satisfied that my jobs were running smoothly, I set down the terminal and glanced up to see Maya Nao leaning back in her chair, her slender fingers around her dirty glass on the table and her eyes staring at me with a curious look on her face.

"Sain Darkwing." she began, tapping her glass, "So, tell me. I've been working with you for a few months now, but you never talk about yourself. It's always business with you. What gives?" It was true. I rarely socialized with other Capsuleers besides over Coms channels while in space and rarely in this setting. The rest of the patrons seemed to prefer seats away from the two immortals in the bar, as usual.

"A business tycoon!" A nearby drunkard proclaimed, then burst into laughter, "Must be Caldari! You look Caldari." Then he paused for a moment, then squinted at me as if trying to see me more clearly, "Are you Caldari?"

I sighed, "Yes, we are." I was annoyed by this man, but he looked as dirty as the rest of the station, probably a Minmitar miner just trying to unwind after a long day in the refinery or something. I turned to Maya after taking a sip of my drink, "But you are right. I don't talk about myself."

"We never talk, period." She said, "Business partners and the most interaction we have are short Coms messages and contracts."

"Correct again." I replied.

"So how about it?" she asked, leaning forward, "Tell me about you."

"Where is your Boyfriend tonight?" I asked trying to change the subject, "Won't he be jealous you're out socializing with me?"

"You're avoiding the question." she said, her eye's narrowing, "Do you have something to hide?"

"Not particularly." I said, taking another sip.

"Your Bio says you became a Capsuleer over three years ago." she said, "How many skill points?"

"Just about Nine Million." I replied, a little quietly.

"How did that happen? For your age I would have expected a lot more than that!" She exclaimed.

"Just after we first started working together and stopped, I took a break as well." I replied, "Being a Capsuleer was a little overwhelming and I had little or no contacts to help."

"What brought you back?" she asked. I took a while to respond.

"I guess it was the challenge." I said. "I want to make ISK, and try new things, collect ships or something."

"And going industrial was your choice?" Maya asked, "You know a lot of pilots look down on miners. They consider the trade to be boring and not worth the time."

"Mission runners and the Combat types." I said, nodding. "Where do they think their ships come from that they so carelessly get blown up? Besides, it's honest, steady income."

"True, but the allure of combat doesn't interest you?" she asked, sitting back again. I heard a clink behind her where a connection port in her back struck the metal backing of the chair through the thin tank top she wore. She lifted her drink and swirled the ice inside.

"Not really. I'm more of a pacifist." I said. Her eyes narrowed.

"Nine million skill points? All of them can't be in industrial skills." she said. A small grin appeared on my face I fought to keep hidden.

"Well I can defend myself, if needed." I said casually. I glanced out the window beside our table at the hangar below. My Orca and Mining Barges were held near the back of the massive enclosed area, but in a row above it, several ships floated eerily in storage. A massive Drake, a Thorax, and a Rifter could barely be seen floating beside the other massive two.

"Those are all yours?" she asked, closing her jaw.

"No. Just the one's in this station." he said, "Did you think all I did was mine?" To my surprise, she became angry.

"You asshole!" She exclaimed, "You've been making enough money to buy all these ships and you only pay me enough to keep my damn Badger running!" I glanced around the room and noticed everyone staring at me now. I don't like attention. Attention can get you killed. Albeit, not really an issue for a Capsuleer. Besides, I had expensive implants installed, but again not something I tell others.

"Maya." I began, "Have you looked at the market lately? The cheapest PLEX in Hek right now is around five hundred and eighty million ISK. I gave you one last month! That's worth nearly another Orca."

"That much?"

"Yes. And I give you whatever ships you need to do what you want." I said, "Any corp ship is yours to use."

"That's another thing. You're not even CEO of your own corporation anymore! What happened there? Why did you leave?"

"So you don't read my logs then?" I assumed. They aren't something I keep private. People on my contact list can link to my logs in my Bio so it's not a secret. She simply shook her head, "I can't be a CEO of one Company and join another. I could have had Darkwing Inc just join their alliance, but then any war target that goes after them would be able to come after you. It's only the two of us in this Corporation, Maya."

"Oh." She said, looking to the table, "Well, if I'm the only one left, does that mean I'm CEO now?"

"Um, no." I said, finishing my drink. It was stronger than I expected, "I transferred it to my sister, Osiph."

"Who? You have a sister?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"She lives in the main trade hub in Jita." I explained, "A station trader. It's just a few extra buttons to press to keep the bills paid. I didn't want to burden you with the task."

"I see." she said, "Probably for the best. I'm not good with math and stuff." She had finished her drink and was now sucking on the ice cubes. That ice probably came from Eygfe Ice field and still had space dust on the inside, but your concern for your health seems to vanish when you know you can't really die. If she got sick from it, she could just take a pod out, self destruct and wake up in a new clone back at the station. Still, it seems kind of wasteful to have to buy another clone because of contaminated ice...

A Wrench in the Works

It's been a while since I wrote in the ol' log. Things have been busy to say the least. I've started working with the Corporation's POS, researching Blueprints and making a few ships of my own. ORE has released blueprints for their new mining frigate, the Venture, which I found to probably be the best gas harvester ship so far. Four new destroyers have been releases as well from the four races respective design labs, all of which I have acquired and begun research on as well. Another new toy I've made are the salvage drones. Those, along with my new Noctis which I proudly manufactured myself, will be a beast in a field of wrecks.

The worst thing about getting new ships is not the insurance payment, but thinking of a name for them. I try to be creative, or witty with the names, but more often than not, I am at a loss. They say it's bad luck to fly a ship without a name, but my creativity often leaves me. When others scan in space, they can see "Sain Darkwing's Noctis" and if they were looking for me specifically, they would know where I am. However, if they saw something like "Wreck Noccer" or something, (Again, creativity is gone) they would have no idea it was me.

That's something else. I've recently received a message from CONCORD that someone has placed a bounty on my head. ME! A harmless miner! Why in Eden would someone want me dead? I was quietly hauling minerals to Rens when someone sitting on a gate placed the bounty. Reading her bio, she seemed to be doing it to every hauler coming through, making them meager targets for bounty hunters. With the changes to the Bounty system, it seems anyone, anywhere can place a bounty on anyone else, regardless of security status. This seems like a good idea for people who are being bad but don't yet have a -5 security status, but there is a fault in the system when bounties can be placed on normal, law abiding capsuleers. CONCORD needs to find another way to fix this. How, I'm not sure, but I feel like a criminal when I'm the only person with a WANTED sign on my portrait in my corporation mining op.

Our mining ops have been few and far between. I've been busy with research and manufacturing lately, but last night I participated in a corp mining op which included an Orca, several Hulks and Retrievers, and a massive Charon sitting among the fleet. They were updated too. They can now use Jetcans making mining ops easier, cutting out the need for the Orca to leave and dump ore in a station when it's full. Threats from war targets however, are the bane of miner's everywhere.

Because of harassment from our War Target, we had to move from our home system to start mining. Things changed, when they were spotted in the next system over, and out security ships engaged her, destroying her ship. It was a sweet victory, since she had destroyed a Hulk and Covetor earlier that day. Although I did not make it to the fight in time, I was happy we got a little revenge.

On another note, Maya Nao has been a huge help to the whole thing. When Corp mining ops are not going on, Maya and I are mining alone in belts, me in my Hulk, the Stonesmasher, and her in the Stonegrazer, mining and hauling the ore back to the station. We've been doing mining missions from the agents of the Minmitar Mining Corporation and they seem to like me alot more these days. The agents call me by my first name, they trust me to complete whatever job they throw my way, and they are even taking less and less minerals from my refining requests at their stations. Soon, I will have what miners refer to as "Perfect Refine" which gets the best net yield of minerals from ore possible. Maya and her boyfriend are doing well aboard the Stonegrazer as well. It took a while for him to get used to the idea of seeing his love connected to wires and cables inside a pod, but she handled the ship gracefully and her voice over the intercom speakers was comforting to him, like the ship was a part of her, protecting him from all harm. He did mention he was feeling a little emasculated for having Maya being responsible for his well being, but out here in the void, it's everyone's responsibility to protect others regardless of gender.

A New Approach

Only a few weeks have passed since I lost my pilots license. Those weeks were spent stuck in a station, staring out at the stars and the ships coming and going. The communication from CONCORD was a wave of relief that was welcomed.

With the sudden revocation of my license, I thought it would be prudent to look into the inner workings of CONCORD and why a license is required to fly in new Eden, and more importantly, where they come from and who supplies them. I understand many people save and buy a PLEX to extend the expiry date of their license, but to those who don't use them, their license seems to simply extend on their own without a loss of isk or anything else. The reason for this eluded me and my research hit many dead ends. However, over a rather large glass of Gallentean ale a drunkard at the Station bar spilled his entire life story, along with a mysterious entity even more rarely heard than the Jovians. Something called a "Player".

Many people in the bar laughed at the man, for his word was rarely credible, but the man went on. He said there's a player for all capsuleers. Sometimes a Player was responsible for more than one capsuleer. These beings are the benefactors who provide time on the licenses that CONCORD enforce. When they cannot provide, a PLEX is required. Sounds far fetched, but I finished my glass and remained silent. Maybe my benefactor was unable to provide for me when CONCORD revoked my license. There's no way to tell really.

Then, things got too busy for me to dwell on it much longer. With my license extended another month, I set back to work. Again I was alone in a Mackinaw, staring at rocks and slowly gaining isk again. It was tedious, and the quiet was getting to me. I started talking to other miners in the area and forming fleets to get and provide mining yield bonuses. One convinced me that perhaps it would be in my best interest to join an actual industrial corporation to participate in mining operations and to chat with. After much deliberation, I agreed. But as CEO and only active member of Darkwing Inc., what was to become of my corporation? The only one I could trust not to disband it and keep it alive, regrettably, was my sister, Osiph Darkwing.



Osiph, primarily a station trader living in the main trade station of Jita, was the same as I remember her when her image appeared on the subspace communication terminal. We aren't the closest of siblings, but we appeared to be on the surface. We smiled, exchanged pleasantries, then she bluntly asked me what I wanted. She was not expecting me to say I wanted to give her control of my corporation and make her CEO. She laughed at first and asked me if I was on Crystal Egg, but I told her I wanted her to just hold onto the title to keep the corporation alive. After assuring her I would still take care of the bills for the offices, she agreed and I was then able to join the Corporation Hand of Midas.

After a couple of days with boosted yield, I was able to purchase a PLEX, but a thought had crossed my mind. Once more, I was looking at another woman on the screen. Maya Nao smiled when she answered the communication. She and her boyfriend were getting along well and she had a part time job at the customs office in orbit. A slow life, but stable. Truthfully, however, she missed the life of a capsuleer and controlling her own ship. When I offered to give her a PLEX to help mine, she agreed immediately, then her boyfriend also agreed to join her on her ship.

So I'm in a great new corporation, working with new and old friends, raking in the ore and hoping to make a small fortune while I'm at it. Hope it turns out well.

Setbacks

Been a while since I posted in my log and may be another while after this for my next one. A few things to report. First off, my savings was traded in for a brand new Orca, aptly named the M.T. Pocket. A rather amusing pun from a good friend. I've outfitted the mining command ship with cargo extenders, as being a mining operation of one, the use I was planning for it was basically hauling, and with a power grid rig added into it, I was able to fit a 100 MN Micro warp drive. Now it can warp in ten seconds rather than the annoyingly 30 second align time before. Its a big ship, but still useless to me for actual mining.

I also bought a Hulk to see if jetcan mining in it was viable, but preferred the Mackinaw because of my solo nature once more. I make less hauling trips to Hek to sell my ore but my mining output stays the same.

However I believe I have made a mistake in purchasing the Orca at this particular time. Having drained my savings to purchase it, I was not able to recover enough to purchase a PLEX, and Concord has now revoked my pilot's license. It may be a while before I am able to return to the asteroid fields and start mining again. Hopefully it is soon and not too much dust gathers on my Exhumer.

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.