SCASSSS - A New Home

I've moved corps and home system. More on why tomorrow, too much to explain in a Sunday Short!

Sacrificial

Fiction Friday! Escape pod here. Also Pod and Planet results are out. I got second place in the comedy category and an honourable mention for my entry in the lore category. Happy bunny this morning give the stiff competition entered! Congratulations to all the winners!

I went for a roam in the week and had a fight. This story is loosely based on that.

Sacrificial

Katusen entered the bar. On the 14th deck it was one of the more higher class ones on the station, and in the Caldari State the money always flowed upwards. It was early and the bar was quiet. 17:00 New Eden Standard Time meant that most of the workers would be doing just that, working. He'd left early after a pretty lousy day. He spied her immediately. She was sat at the bar with an empty glass. Attractive, around late 20's the same as him, wearing some sort of uniform he didn't recognise. An empty glass in front of her. An opportunity!

As he started to walk over he saw the barman approach her with a bottle. Caldari Prime Rice Spirit. A potent drink. The barman poured a good measure into her glass and left. Damn it! So much for the good old "Can I buy you a drink?" line. He then watched as she lifted the glass and downed the drink in one. He reached the bar a couple of stools down, a respectable distance, and waved the barman over.

"Hard day?" he asked her casually.

She twisted in her seat and blatantly looked him up and down which made him feel somewhat uneasy.

"You could say that." she replied cautiously.

"Yeah me too. Markets have been in turmoil with this ORE-Serpentis thing. We lost several million by mid-morning in trades. Pulled it back to even by late afternoon. That's when I came down here after saving so many of my coworkers." Katusen boasted.

The woman looked at him. A strange expression on her face.

"Sounds terrible. My day was nothing like that. I escaped an exploding ship by a couple of seconds but my crewmates weren't so lucky. Killed in the resulting decompression and explosions. Leaving me the sole survivor."

Katusen looked at her in shock.

"Oh...." is all he could murmur staring at his drink. They sat in silence for a few minutes after that.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked finally.

"Might as well." she replies. "We were in Ishomilken defending a State complex from the Frogs....."

-o0o-

"XO, we've got a ping. That Daredevil is back. Within 1 AU so will be outside on the acceleration gate." Sawara stated from the scanning console on the bridge.

"Roger. It appears our Captain is well aware." Satoras replied nodding to the front view screen. Satoras was the XO on the ship. As a capsuleer ship he sat in the Captain's chair whilst the egger was encased in his hydrostatic capsule.

The starfield moved as the Kestrel class frigate aligned towards a distant destination. It was aligning to a gravity well that the warp drive could lock onto.

"CONTACT! Daredevil class frigate dropping out of warp right behind us!"

The star field blurred as the Kestrel's warp drive engaged. They were no match for such a ship. The Daredevil was worth ten times what their Kestrel was and could easily beat it in most fights.

"Our egger's not going to engage then?" Riteima the weapons officer asked.

The XO pressed a few buttons on his console and the external view on the large screen was replaced by a CONCORD ship destruction site.

"Our Capt been reading up on him. He's normally kite fit and with those boosted webifier systems on that ship we'd stand no chance. Its the right call to avoid that guy whilst we're flying this. Besides it appears our egger is too busy being social."

Satoras pressed a few more buttons and the local channel logs appeared.

"Who the hell is Joffy Aulx-Gao and what is Stay Frosty?" Sawara asked.

"Pirate and pirate corp. Our Captain knows their CEO apparently. Met him at the Yulai Convention on Emerging Threats this year."

The Kestrel class frigate continued to bounce between Caldari State plex however the Daredevil continued to pursue them. Finally they warped back to the State Protectorate Station followed by the other ship.

"Our Captain's requested docking permission. Think he's giving up? Aibi asked. He was the navigation officer although mostly he was back-up as the Capsuleer did most of that.

The bridge went silent as there was a flash of light and the Daredevil dropped out of warp firing its weapons almost immediately.

"Shields at 20%. That thing hits hard!"

"Relax. We're armour tanked and we're docking!"

The Kestrel was towed into the massive station by the powerful tractor beams.

"What now?" Sawara asked.

"Undocking permission has already been requested. I have no idea what our Capsuleer is planning. He's stopped talking in the local channel though."

The Kestrel undocked and immediately entered warp. The Daredevil positioned outside the undock didn't have time to scramble the warp drive. After dropping out of warp near a stargate the Kestrel returned to one of the Caldari State complexes. Within seconds the capsuleer had used the acceleration gate to enter the deadspace pocket.

"He's setting up in a defensive position from the warp-in." Aibi exclaimed as they watched their ship start a tight orbit around the beacon that indicated the warp-in position. "Surely he's not going to fight that Daredevil?"

"I wouldn't have thought so." replied the XO "This ship and its loadout are no match for that thing. It would take two of us to....." His voice trailed off.

"What?" asked Sawara .

"Riteima. Whats the status of the thermal cut-offs on the weapons?" the XO asked quickly.

There was a moment's pause. "They are all off! The capsuleer has set them all to overheat!"

The XO twisted in his seat. The other three all saw him look to the hatch behind them. The escape pod door had a red light above it meaning it was sealed. The Capsuleers always ensured the escape pods only opened when all was lost. They didn't want critical crew abandoning the ship too early.

"Sawara. What's in 1AU?"

Another pause. "That Daredevil has just popped up."

"And in 5AU?"

"New contact sir. A Tristan class frigate."

"Shit! That's their plan. We're going to double-team this Daredevil and we're the sacrificial bait!" the XO cursed. The other crew members looked at him in horror.

"What? You mean he's going to destroy the ship?" Riteima gasped?

"Effectively. That Daredevil will rip us apart but I'm guessing that Tristan pilot is probably that Joffy guy and he will be on hand to finish the Daredevil off after we've softened him up. Frack! Damn these fracking eggers!"

There was a flash of light as the Daredevil dropped out of warp. Alarms sounded as a tactical lock was detected and their own targeting subsystems locked the opposing frigate. Nobody wsa sure who fired first. The hybrid rounds from the railguns of the Daredevil and the rockets fired from the Kestrel passed each other in the void of space slamming into their respective targets. The two ships circled each other slowly. The Kestrel slowed by the enhanced webifier of the Daredevil and the Daredevil itself slowed by the dual webs of the Kestrel.

"Armour at 35%" Aibi called. Everyone glanced at the escape pod hatch. It was still red.

"Frack me he's leaving this late. Aibi see if you can squeeze more from the engines. His guns will have a harder time tracking us. Sawara any sign of our back-up?" the XO called.

"Tristan is on 500k scan. He's either at the acceleration gate or already in wrap."

The structural damage alarm sounded as consoles and lights started to blow out. Smoke billowed through the air vents and conduits came crashing down.

"Tristan on field!" Sawara shouted. He's landed 6km from the Daredevil!"

There was a distinct 'bing' sound and the escape pod door hissed open. All four crew were instantly on their feet running. A pair of Hybrid rounds slammed into the Kestrel knocking them off their feet. Suddenly there was a massive roar of rushing air. Sawara jumped for the hatch and caught on with her fingers as the atmosphere started to vent. She was pulled almost vertically in the wind. Looking back she saw Satoras and Aibi holding onto consoles for dear life. Aibi looked directly into her eyes, she was terrified. She lost his grip and was sucked screaming down the corridor leading out of the bridge. Sawara pulled herself into the escape pod as the doors started to close automatically detecting the pressure drop. She looked back. The XO was too far. She could see the resigned look on his face. Just before the hatch closed he willingly let go. Sawara screamed as she watched him tumble away into the blackness. The hatch sealed and she felt the pod launch. She stayed at the door window watching the Kestrel explode in a massive fireball.

-o0o-

"Frack me!" Katusen muttered.

"Yeah, pretty shitty day!" Sawara replied downing another drink.

"So did the plan work or was it all for nothing?" he asked guardedly.

"Yeah." she sighed. "The Daredevil was destroyed by the Tristan. It was exactly how Satoras said. We were the bait sacrificing our lives so the capsuleer could have a 85 mil' kill against an 8 mil' loss. Our lives exchanged for points on a leadership board. If defies belief the little these capsuleers give regard to human life."

Katusen was working on an exit strategy. He'd come out looking for a good time, thought he'd got lucky finding an attractive woman alone at the bar and then this. The only survivor of a disaster. He needed a good way to escape.

"Well are you ready?" she asked sliding off her bar stool and standing.

"Ready for what?" he asked confused standing too.

"To frack me. That's why you approached me right. You didn't just see me at the bar and think 'She looks and interesting person to have a conversation with' did you? You came over hoping to score."

"Well..... I....." Katusen didn't know how to respond. She smiled and her right hand grabbed his crotch. His eyes went wide in shock.

"Yeah, that'll do. Look let's cut the bullshit. We've both had bad days and I need something to take my mind of things and relax. We both want the same thing so lets go." she said throwing a 20 cred-note on the bar and walking to the exit.

Katusen quickly fumbled with his wallet and threw some money on the bar and chased after her still a little shell-shocked.

BB 70 - Dear CCP Santa Claus...

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 70th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

Dear CCP, I want a Space-Pony and a Space-Puppy and a....
If CCP was Santa and you could ask for anything (in-game obviously) what would it be? A new type of ship that is tailored to your game-play? A change to mechanics? A battleship mini-doomsday weapon? Proper hats for your avatar? Opening of that bloody door? There are so many different options depending on what you do and what you want to get out of Eve Online. What would you like to see in your virtual Christmas stocking from CCP?

-o0o-

Dear CCP Santa Claus

Eve is in a good place currently. I think there needs to be some work on solo and small gang PvP as many of the new ships being introduced are causing problems in that area. Svipul and Navy Maalus/Griffin examples of "Nope" ships unless you have the exact right counter for them. Death by extended range Scram Kite or Perma Jammed does not make for a fun fight and neither does insta-death even with a good sized buffer.

Heading out last night for a roam in my Kestrel I encountered. Navy Comet, two Navy Maulus, Dramiel, Navy Griffin and a whole host of other 'Nope!' ships. Finally I found some T1 action in Ishomilken but the Dramiel in system was making a GF impossible. In the end I paired up with a Stay Frosty pilot to double-team that Dramiel who clearly thought a Dram vs a Kestrel would be a good fight!

Low Sec is embracing faction frigates more and more which I suppose is good in some respects. The problem is those of us who like a nice T1 roam. Finding a good fight is getting more and more difficult... unless you like dying horribly to a much more powerful ship then you are in luck. They are every-bloody-where!

However, we are talking Christmas wishes here so not the place for rub-of-the-mill balancing that Foz-ise or is it Ris-zie can do, and will have to do if T1 frigates are going remain relevant in low-sec. Lets talk about that bloody door.

I admit its a niche area. Its not an area the majority of Eve players want to see. However I'd like to see more Avatar led game-play. This is simply for the sci-fi immersion. Any readers of this blog will know I like to have a bit of a play with Photoshop in my fiction on a Friday. I'd prefer to do more of this with less implanting things from other places and only use in-game assets more.

I know it'll take a Christmas miracle for CCP to devote resources to this for the small proportion of the playerbase that will use it. Therefore that's my wish to CCP Santa given its unlikely to ever happen. Open the door, open the station and expand the range of options in the NEX store to help the 'creatives' create more.

Dear CCP, I want a Space-Pony and a Space-Puppy and a....

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 70th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

Dear CCP, I want a Space-Pony and a Space-Puppy and a....
If CCP was Santa and you could ask for anything (in-game obviously) what would it be? A new type of ship that is tailored to your game-play? A change to mechanics? A battleship mini-doomsday weapon? Proper hats for your avatar? Opening of that bloody door? There are so many different options depending on what you do and what you want to get out of Eve Online. What would you like to see in your virtual Christmas stocking from CCP?

Participating Blogs:-

BB70 – I’VE BEEN GOOD THIS YEAR - Eve Hermit

BB70: Dear Santa - Eveoganda

BB70: Dear Space Santa - Evilswordfish' Gaming

BB #70: My Wish List for the Yule Lads - Nevillesmit.com

All I want for Christmas is... - Across the Threshold

BB 70 - Dreaming - Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
Dear CCP - Random Posts from Auga
BB70: Dear Santa, I want to be good, but... - Khanid Kataphract
Dear CCP Santa Claus - Sand, Cider and Spaceships

SCASSSS - Glowing Flabber

Loving the new damage effects. My Flabber's presence upset three Mordu's Legion battleships....

Comet Catcher

Fiction Friday. Escape Pod Here.

Comet Catcher

"Professor!" one of the students exclaimed bursting into the tent. The professor looked up from his desk. Two more students followed the first. They were clearly excited. The lead student placed a metal shard on his desk and stepped back. The professor placed his glasses on and picked it up. Of course Amarrian technology was sufficiently advanced to fix his eyes and give him perfect 20/20 vision. He just liked the look the glasses. The metal shard was clearly man-made and about 12cm long. It was incredibly lightweight. It glinted in the illumination of the large tent's portable lighting system.

"So what to you think?" one of the students asked excitedly.

"I'll turn that question around. What do you think?" he said with a wily smile.

"Well professor. We recovered this from underneath the meteor fragments meaning it was there at the same time as the meteor struck making it almost eight millennia old!"

The professor smiled. Ah the enthusiasm of youth he thought.

"Well, this is clearly man made. However it is an advanced alloy that is very light. It is unlikely to be that old. The inhabitants of this planet were still working with coppers and tins at that time. I think you'll find if you run a scan on it that someone is playing a trick on you. One of the other dig teams probably slipped it in there when you weren't looking to prank you."

"That's unlikely sir for two reasons."

"Oh how so?" smiled the professor.

"Firstly it took all three of us to remove the large meteor fragment as we dug it out. It had clearly not been moved since it hit and nobody was around."

The professor nodded and gestured for him to continue although he was far from convinced that another group of students were playing a joke on this team.

"We have already run a mass-spec analysis on the alloy and we got a hit in the materials database."

"I told you it would be a recent alloy that....."

"It matches the material used to build the stargate."

"See I said that....."

"No professor, you don't understand. Not our stargates. The ancient one we discovered hundreds of years ago. The first gate built by the 'others'."

The professor dropped the fragment with a clunk.

-o0o-

Approximately eight thousand years ago.....

Hiroko looked out the forward window at the comet. It was beautiful. A massive chunk of blue ice that had been travelling the cosmos for millennia. It was her job to end that journey. She looked one last time and pressed a series of buttons next to the large window. Noisy motors started up and the thick armour plates slowly closed over the viewport. She held another button down and leaned into the control panel.

"Tail-shields in place. Ship secure."

Hiroko was crew on the Yoshino, a comet catcher. Terraforming barren worlds was a massive task. Atmosphere processors, heat generators, ozone producing stations. It took centuries. One of the biggest problems was the lack of oxygen and water. The easiest way to get them was to crash comets into planet. This was their job. Their ship would anchor onto the comet and then use its engines to slowly align it on a collision course with the planet. They would be told what trajectory was needed. It might be a "rain maker" or a "sea maker". The rain maker would be given a shallow entry into the atmosphere allowing it to burn up slowly. The ice would not just be converted to water, the heat of the entry would actually break the molecular bonds and convert the comet to hydrogen and oxygen atoms. That was the most tricky as too shallow the comet would bounce off the weak atmosphere and back into space. Too steep and it would become a 'sea maker'. Sea makers were the easiest. Simply slam the comet into the surface adding billions of litres of water to the environment and as an added bonus place millions of tons of dust into the air helping the terraforming.

She heard the low shield alarm and then the first 'tinks' of ice hitting the thick armour plates she had just positioned in front of the delicate areas of the ship. She left the observation room and headed to the bridge.

The ship was old. It had been catching comets for decades but they could not afford the new tech used by the Mega Corporations of Sol. High-tech tractor beams that gently nudged the comet in the way they wanted. No, they still relied on the 'grab it and point it' method which had been used for a hundred years or more. They worked for a corporation that had its roots in what was central Asia on earth and that one day would be the distant relatives of the Caldari State. Now into the 8th millena in Earth years their HQ was based on one of the outlying colonies in the sol system.

Sol, her home and now an unknown distance away. Nobody really knew where New Eden was. The wormhole that led them there could have taken them to a distant part of their own galaxy although it was more likely another galaxy or even a parallel universe. Their corporation had bought the small rocky planet in this system still referred to by a series of letters and numbers. It needed terraforming and seeding the planet with ice was the first step.

"Fifty 'k' to the tailcone" Sumiko stated as Hiroko entered the bridge.

"Steady as she goes." Captain Daichi replied.

Hiroko took her seat and looked at the monitor. They were close now. When they entered the comet's tail things would get dicey. The small tremors in the ship she had been feeling started to grow.

"Harpoon check?" the Captain called.

"All four green Captain. Tubes closed and ready on your command." Takara replied.

Once inside the cone of the comet navigation was almost impossible. The ship used the old tried and tested method of firing four harpoons into it. They could then steer the comet as if it was part of the ship. It usually took a few days to get the trajectory correct. Then they simply unclamped and drifted off the comet. The tremors in the ship grew steadily. Chunks of ice were bouncing off the hull making a lot of noise.

"OK we are in the tail!" Sumiko stated.

"Roger. Open the tubes and fire harpoons!"

There was a whooshing sound as the four harpoons fired followed by a tense moment.

"Helm reduce the engines ten percent."

They felt the ship slow and then jolt. The Captain looked over at Takara. He was intently looking at his screen. He looked over at the Captain and gave a thumbs up.

"Helm start the steering routine. Lets give this big boy a nudge in the right direction. Let's move to skeleton shifts for the next 48 hours. Get some rest people!"

A small cheer went up from the crew.

-o0o-

"Helm confirm trajectory." the Captain ordered. It had been a restful two days as the ship slowly altered the comet's trajectory. Now was the moment of truth.

"Confirmed Captain. Entry to the atmosphere in 12 hours. Shallow angle and computer says 2% chance of a skip, 4% of a sea maker and 94% chance of rain maker."

The Captain nodded. Good odds. Crashing comets into the atmosphere was a tricky business unless the Client wanted a sea maker. They were easy and usually 100% chance of success. Hence the pay for those was crap. It took skill, judgement and more than a bit of luck to angle the comet for an entry where it would do several orbits breaking up as it did and seeding the atmosphere with water, hydrogen and oxygen.

"Science. Disengage the harpoons."

Sumiko went to work. Announcing as each of the first two harpoons retracted their claws and were pulled back into the tubes. There was a long pause after the second was retrieved.

"Problem Sumiko?" the Captain asked.

"Sir. Harpoons 3 and 4 appear to have hit something strange in the comet and are jammed. Probably a metal deposit."

The Captain did not look pleased. The harpoons were expensive and cutting them loose would eat a lot into their profits. This was a regular occurrence unfortunately. The comets tail always made good sensor readings impossible.

"Helm. If we tried to pull them free what's the danger to the course?"

The helm went quiet for a few seconds as he tapped away at the console.

"Unlikely to be a problem Cap. A gentle tug won't make a difference to the course at this point, we're already in the gravity well of the planet."

"Good. Forward thrusters ten percent for 2 seconds and then reverse thrusters five percent for three seconds."

The bridge fell quiet. They felt the ship accelerate and then reversed. The inertial dampeners on the aging ship unable to cope fully with the change in direction. Then the entire ship bucked. Alarms started sounding.

"CUT ENGINES!" the Captains shouted.

"One Harpoon has broke free the other...." Sumiko was cut off by a huge crash. The sound of grinding metal and multiple alarms sounded. Then it went black.

-o0o-

"So we're fracked?" the Captain asked.

Eiji nodded in the cold, dim glow of the emergency lighting.

"Captain, we're still inside the comets cone with one of the harpoons still anchored. We cannot suit up and go for a look. I've looked at the shielded cameras and replayed the footage from the ones destroyed in the accident. As far as I can tell when we pulled one of the harpoons free a chunk of the comet broke off with it. The other harpoon is still stuck so held us nicely in position for that chunk of rock to hit us. We've lost most of the starboard side. The big issue now is that the harpoon that is holding us there has had most of its mechanics mangled. We cannot cut the remaining one loose without someone going outside with a cutting torch and physically snipping the cable. That's not an option within the cone as they would be shredded before they even fully left the 'lock. Engines are down, main power is down and the computers are down. I say down, I mean wrecked. The holes the rock chunk made in us have let in he fragments from the comet's tail. Engineering hasn't just been depressurised, it's been iced."

"Escape pods?" Hiroko suggested.

"No point." Eiji replied "They are more sturdy than a suit but not by much. Those ice chunks out there are flying at such speed you might as well eject in a can of cola. You'll have a thousand breaches before you are fifty meters from the ship, and we have 20km to clear the tail debris."

The room went silent.

"I don't supposed we will be released during re-entry and can make an escape bouncing off the upper atmosphere."

Eiji gave a weak smile.

"Two problems. One, we have no engines or power so even if we the cable gave way we'd just follow the comet. The second one is more important. The chunk breaking away and the ship hanging on with one 'poon means we'll have changed its course. Without the navi-com I cannot say for sure, but looking at the external cameras I don't think this bad boy is going to be a rainmaker. Its now a sea maker, and that means we're the fish!"

-o0o-

Hiroko lay in her bunk staring at the ceiling. Discussions were still going on about how they could save themselves but they were just going round and round. She'd come back here to escape the depressing conversation. She was not ready to die. Then again may be some of her biological mass would survive in the thin atmosphere on the planet. Frozen and preserved. One day when life started to sprout part of it would be because of her.

"Hey!"

She looked over and found Sumiko almost floating in the doorway. The artificial gravity generators were fading and she could feel the low gravity getting even more shallow. Sumiko pulled herself down so she was almost standing.

"You had enough of the talk too?" Hiroko asked.

"Yeah. We've worked out 50 different ways that we're fracked and they are just starting back on option one for the fifth time. We've got four hours before we become terraforming material. Wondered if you fancied some company. I don't know about you, but I know I'd prefer to go out relaxed." Sumiko said.

Hiroko smiled and nodded. Sumiko entered her quarters and closed the door pushing herself off the bulkhead. She pulled her top off as she floated gently towards Hiroko. Hiroko herself pushed off and met Sumiko in mid-air.

-o0o-

The Captain looked at the bottle angrily. The almost zero gravity meant that it was almost impossible to get the rum out easy. He tried sucking and shaking the bottle but in the weightless environment it was no use.

"CAPTAIN!" a voice cried out. He looked to the far end of the galley and saw Hiroko floating in at speed closely followed by Sumiko. Both were partially dressed.

"Thanks girls but I think I'd prefer to spend my last minutes too drunk to perform!" he sighed looking intently at the bottle.

The two girls looked at him confused and then realised what they must look like.

"No Captain. We've got it! We have a way that might save us!" Hiroko spoke quick.

The Captain looked at her in surprise.

"The main cargo bay. Its exterior doors have emergency explosive ejection systems. If we blow them it'll depressurise the main bay. That should be enough?"

Daichi shook his head trying to clear it.

"So?" he mumbled.

"That should have us a boost in one direction which might be enough to start us spinning. If its strong enough the Yoshino should start to orbit the comet tethered by the harpoon. When we get close to the atmosphere we'd not be shielded by the comet. There is a chance the tether will snap and we'd be free.

The Captain started to sober up. "If it snaps as we're swinging towards the planet we'd be fracked as we have no engines."

"True." replied Sumiko "But if it snaps was we're swinging away we'd be drifting and someone might find us."

"How the hell did you come up with this zero-G physics solution?" said the Captain pushing off the floor and drifting through the air.

The two women looked sheepish. "We were just floating around and....." Hiroko's voice trailed off.

The Captain looked puzzled and then put two and two together. He suddenly looked embarrassed. As a frequent patron to the zero-G rooms in certain African Union stations he guessed what they were up to.

"Oh right. Eiji!" he yelled.

Eiji appeared from around the corner.

"Can we blow the main bay doors remotely from here?"

Eiji frowned. "Probably. It's a hardwire and the junction box runs down the corridor. It should still be OK. However if we do that there is the danger of a cascade. The explosive decompression could rip open the internal doors one by one."

The Captain nodded.

"Certain death by re-entry or 50-50 chance of survival minus chance of the doors giving way?" he asked.

Eiji paused. "I'll make sure the doors are sealed!" he said.

-o0o-

An hour later the crew stared at the two bare wires. Stripped and bare the coppery cable glinted in the dim lighting. The Captain held them apart.

"Well. Here goes everything!" he stated casually as he touched them together. There was a crackle and a spark followed by a huge distant bang. The ship shook and suddenly some gravity returned. There was another band followed by another. They looked at Eiji nervously. Three more bangs and then a pause. The pitter patter of the comet's tail fragments against the hull was the only sound now as they all held their breath.

"We depressurised about 75% of the ship at a guess." he said finally.

"Did it work?" Hiroko asked.

The Captain stood up and took a few uneasy steps.

"We have gravity. Therefore either the decompression fixed the grav-genny or we're spinning."

The noise of the tail fragments impacts  that had been continuous for a day started to fade. A moment later they were in total silence. Nobody spoke. They just stood there. 30 seconds later they obviously re-entered the tail when the noise started. After a few more seconds it stopped again. They were indeed spinning.

"It did work. We got the comet spinning!" Eiji stated.

Nobody cheered. They knew that it still might not work. However now they had a chance. All they could do is wait and hope they were the right side of the comet when the tether broke.

-o0o-

"Its one of ours sir. A contractor, looks like a comet catcher. Looks pretty banged up." the Science Officer on the huge command ship stated. "I have some life signs but they are pretty faint."

"Understood. Launch a S&R shuttle and lets bring them home. I think the mystery of that comet that slammed into the planet yesterday has been answered. Med-Bay stand by for potential casualties."

Internetless

No, I'm not dead!

As I said in an earlier post I am back in the UK for a week. My plan was normal blogging service. Then I got to my brothers new house and found that the internet hadn't been installed. Worse still, the mobile signal and the internet it provided was on a par with the late 1990's.

Finally there is no pub in his village or anywhere providing WiFi. Therefore I have hardly been able to use Twitter and email never-mind and sort of browsing that needed more than an 'E' signal on the mobile phone.

I'm back to civilisation now (London) returning to the real sandbox, where they have mobile internet, so normal service will resume later this week!

Screenshots - New Logi Frigates

I'm back in the UK for a few days for my father's 70th. He has no idea the wife and I have flown back and we're currently hiding out in the south-west with wifey's parents before the surprise party. Bit of a struggle to blog about Eve for the next few days but I can manage a few screenshots of the new logistics frigates for your viewing pleasure if you've not been on Sisi!

Yes FRAPS has left the frame-rate counter on there. No I cannot be bothered to do them again. I'm jet-lagged!

Jump Around! Jump Around!

At the weekend I had a play with the Command Destroyers. Erm.... interesting.

Speed
They are fast. I really mean fast! The fit I made was focused on speed as I wanted a fit that can get to the heart of the enemy quickly. However 3500m/sec with a standard unheated MWD, no links and an empty head is a bit silly for a destroyer. Hang on... what does it do with those? Fuuuuuuu.......... 5,510m/sec unheated and 7,700+ overheating the MWD.

I can outrun most things on the battlefield with that including assault frigates. AF are the heavy tackle of New Eden? Sorry guys, you just lost that crown!

DPS

They are not designed for DPS but I have heard some people getting some tasty DPS so I had a go myself and couldn't get there. Simply playing around with my "Speedy Bifrost" I got 250 DPS at 8.5km. Not great for a Destroyer but not bad.

Tank
CCP said they are beefy. But how beefy? My speedy CD only had 15k EHP. However this is with the Command Destroyers skill only at level 3! There is a 4% resist bonus per level so at 5 its going to be higher.

Micro Jump Field Generator
Now this is what people want right? Activate the mod and it sets your ship speed to 100% (you cannot change this whilst the MJFG is active). After 9 seconds (reducing by 5% for each level of the Command Destroyers Skill) it fires and everything within 6km is jumped 100km in the direction you are facing. 

I say everything....

Does get jumped - You, any player that is friend or foe, any NPC, any bomb, any dictor bubble, any cloaked ship (and yes, cloak is maintained) and any pod.

Does NOT get jumped - Capitals, asteroids, CONCORD Billboards, gates, stations, sentry guns or wrecks (all tested by yours truly. I was so hoping to find something CCP had missed)

Now if you venture onto the forums there is basically a wall of text how these things will destroy the game and ultimately the planet earth and even possibly the galaxy.

I don't see that. The range is pretty poor on the jump field. 6km? OK they may be able to break a logic chain for a second but if they can jump your entire logistics away in one go, they are too bloody close. These things will be primaried straight off the bat. A link boat giving boosts to the enemy fleet and the ability to feck up your logi, target caller or FC (obviously these will target the FC to move him 100km from the fight). They may be tanky destroyers but they are still only destroyers.

SCASSSS - Damage Effects

The new damage effects on SiSi are rather nice.

Started firing at the rear end of this carrier. Therefore the damage only shows up on the back.

Then I moved to the front. The damage to the hull shows up in the area its being shot.

The exterior lights of the target flicker on and off as it gets into structure. Lights out boys!

Nice one CCP!

The Jump

Fiction Friday. Escape pod here.

The piece below is based on this week's Blog Banter.

The Jump

Trerron pushed to the front of the murmuring crowd. Dozens of people josseled for a better view. Caldari, Gallente, Matari, Amarrian, every race was represented there. It was beautiful. The vast window looked into space and the massive fleet of ships assembled outside the station. The light show was hypnotic. It would have been a wonderful experience to watch, if the weapons fire wasn't aimed at their citadel with the sole intent of obliterating them. The citadel's massive shields lit up each time a torpedo or laser beam struck it. As one of the top engineers on the station Trerron could see the shields were weakening under the barrage of fire from the dreadnoughts.

"What can we do Trerron?" a voice said to his right.

He turned and looked. Challelle was by his side looking at him. He was surprised. Whilst he hadn't seen her directly, he was too busy pushing through the crowd and looking at the spectacular light-show outside, his subconscious must have noted her and guided him so that he was positioned next to the object of his desire. She even knew his name. He didn't realise she even knew he existed. They both worked at the local Propel Dynamics facility on the citadel. She was in accounts, he was a lead engineer on the laboratory floor. He'd watched her from afar for the last year, never having the guts to approach her. To him, she was the most beautiful woman on the station. Ethnic Gallente with jet black hair and a pale complexion. She was short, but perfectly formed. She always dressed immaculately and her bold make-up made him weak at the knees. She glanced back to the window and he took the opportunity to take her all in. Red high heels, black tights and a short pleated red skirt. Her top was skin tight and transparent black, but the ladies suit jacket she wore on top covered her modesty. It was a tantalising glimpse that sent him into a sweat. Without that jacket her outfit would be totally inappropriate even on a Gallente station. With it, she was professional sexy. Now, after a year of watching her from afar and wanting to speak to her more than anything, he could. All whilst two dozen seiged dreadnoughts and a large support fleet rained destructive fire at them. He felt that fate had given him a wonderful gift and then kicked him in the nuts a seconds later just for shits and giggles. As he stood there dumb-struck, staring at her she turned back and continued.

"Some have left saying they were going to grab a shuttle and make a run for it."

Finally Trerron found his voice.

"There is not a lot we can do. See those there." he said pointing up at a high angle.

Challelle craned her neck and looked at the six specs of fast travelling light. She looked back at Trerron and nodded.

"They are starburst torpedoes fired from our defenses. Their blast radius is large. Probably only tickling those seiged dreadnoughts but they'll rip any shuttle or small craft apart. That's before the idiots in command start firing off any citadel class smart bombs." Trerron sighed. "It would be suicide to undock."

"May be if they warped off quick they would get away?" she asked hopefully.

Trerron shook his head.

"See the flickering light out there that looks a bit like the shield bubble. They are warp disruption fields. Any ship or escape pod is going to have to fly well out of range of those before it can warp. Its suicide to take anything but a capsuleer piloted interceptor frigate which has a specially shielded warp drive. I don't suppose you know a friendly capsuleer here on the station with one?"

She gave a weak smile.

"Best chance might be the escape pods. However they'll only launch as the station gives-way. The warp bubbles and the explosions from the citadel going up and the weapons fire. I'm afraid the odds are not good."

"So that is it then? We're finished? Us? All these people? All these billions of tons of construction? The hundreds of ships and cargo inside? All to be atomised like we never existed?"

Trerron paused.

"Yes. Looks that way I'm afraid. We and everything on this citadel has the life expectancy of a bottle of vodka at a Gallente rockstar's afterparty. Well, expect of course for the....." Trerron trailed off. Deep in thought.

"What?" Challelle asked, a tinge of hope in her voice.

Trerron looked around to see if anyone else had been listening to him, they hadn't. Everyone was busy concentrating on the scene outside. Probably hoping a friendly fleet of capital ships would jump in and save the day. A smile creeped across Trerron's face. He took Challelle's hand and slowly started leading her through the crowd and out of the room without saying anything. She followed.

-o0o-

A few minutes later they were in deck 13. The top deck of the administration offices for the citadel which were now abandoned after everyone had fled. Trerron was stood at a secure maintenance hatch, its control panel had been popped from the wall and was hanging by a mass of wires. Trerron had his datapad connected to various points in the back of the console.

"Were are we going?" Challelle asked worriedly.

"We need to get down to the hangers." Trerron replied not turning his attention from the datapad.

"Why did we come up to the thirteenth deck then?"

Trerron sighed.

"Not the normal hangers. The hangers we need are shielded by a metre thick wall of tritanium that runs around the bottom of the citadel up to deck twelve so they are utterly secure. You cannot get across to these from the bottom decks"

He tried to ignore the fact that in space there was no top, no bottom as there was no up or down. However he didn't want to spend ten minutes arguing astrophysics with her.

"The capsuleer hangers!" she said surprised "You are going to break into a capsuleer hanger!"

"I will, if I can get some quiet to concentrate!" he said.

Challelle fell quiet for a few moments.

"Why didn't we go to deck 12 then? That's the start of the capsuleer's deck. Wouldn't it be easy to get to the hangers from their deck?"

Trerron sighed again.

"Have you ever been to deck 12? I have once for a meeting with the CEO. There is one single bank of lifts that breaks through the reinforced deckplate between 13 and 12. It opens in a secure room with lots of scanners and lots of big men with big guns. Rumour has it that in ceiling hatches there are even more guns controlled by the AI. You need an appointment and they only let you through if you have a invitation and not carrying anything suspicious. Our reason of 'We want to break into a capsuleer's hanger' is not going to work and I doubt the big men with the big guns would stand around and watch me hack the secure door like I'm doing here!"

A beep on his pad cut him off. He disconnected the device and pulled the sliding door open. A set of rungs were set in a conduit rising up.

"We need to climb up about ten metres, then there is a crawl-way access across the blast-shield wall. You ready?" Trerron asked stretching out a hand. Challelle nodded and took his hand.

-o0o-

The ventilation grating fell to the floor with a loud clang. Trerron emerged feet first, dropping the metre and a half to the deck plates. He then helped Challelle down. She had not enjoyed the last twenty minutes. The crawling through maintenance ducts and conduits was tough. He looked at her standing there. Her face was dirty and her usually perfect hair was messed up. Her legs were red from the crawling and her skin showed through where her tights had worn through and ripped at the knees. Were they tights Trerron thought? A woman like Challelle might wear something more racy. Gallente stockings made with imported Amarrian silk. Lace made from.... he shook his head. This was not the time. for one of his regular fantasies about her.

"You OK?" Challelle asked concerned.

"Yeah. You?" he replied blushing.

"Well not sure I'll win any beauty pageants right now but if we can get out of here before the pace blows I'll be happy." she laughed.

Trerron wanted to say something complimentary and witty. He just couldn't think of anything. He looked around at their surroundings. The hanger was immense. Ship modules and components were stacked tens of metres high. Massive secure crates carrying warnings of explosives and ammunition lined the walls. At least if he was wrong they'd not suffer. If this lot went up, they'd never even know about it.

"What now? We find one of those interceptor ships?" she asked.

"Can you fly one?" he asked.

"No! But you can surely? Why else would you bring us here?"

"I cannot fly even a shuttle, never mind an advanced frigate." he laughed.

"So why did you bring us down here?" she said surprised and sounded slightly annoyed.

He turned around looking for something. "There!" he said pointing to a door on the far side of the hanger. They walked over and Trerron opened the door. They both looked in at the massive machine in the circular room.

"So its true." he said marvelling at the sight.

"What's true? What is that?" Challelle asked.

"There were rumours. Like it was some big secret. Apparently capsuleers didn't like the fact their life savings were at such risk in a citadel. Effyr and Co allegedly came up with a solution. These hangers are actually self-contained. Multiple hanger modules fit together so you can have them as small and large as you like. This one is a capsuleer's equipment store. His ships will be in another. When the AI detects the citadel is lost it activates a fail-safe. That thing we're staring at, well it is basically an over-sized jump drive. When the time comes this entire hanger will be jumped to safety." he said, a touch of awe in his voice at the engineering feat required to accomplish something on this scale.

"But what about the warp disruption fields. You said...."

"They are out there. We are in here. The bubbles cannot effect something this shielded. They did it. I cannot believe the rumours are true."

"So we are going to survive?" Challelle said, her voice breaking with emotion. "Where will this take us?"

"Could be anywhere." Trerron replied. "Normal jump drives have a range of around five light-years. However they are restricted by available power and the fact both the departure point and arrival point are never fixed and always moving. Their navi-coms have to update the jump plan several times every millisecond. Avoiding suns and other gravity wells. This one has almost limitless power from the citadel's fusion reactors and is jumping from a static, fixed location to another. No complex re-calculations due to movement of the origin and destination points. I have no idea how far it can jump, but it'll be much father than any carrier, freighter or even titan could ever dream of."

The citadel shook and the lights in the hanger flickered. A loud hum started to emanate from the huge device in front of them as it started to charge.

Challelle turned to him and smiled. "You saved me. You're my hero!"

He smiled, embarrassed. He was a geek, inexperienced with women. He blushed again and looked down at the ground avoiding eye-contact.

"Haven't you seen those cheesy Gallente action holovids?" she said coyly. "You know how they all end right?"

Trerron shrugged and looked confused.

Challelle laughed and moved close. Her delicate perfume enveloped him. She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck pulling him in for the kiss. His first kiss.

The whine of the jump drive reached an almost painful threshold and there was a massive flash of light, then silence.

-o0o-

The drone rumbled along on its rubber wheels. It was an odd looking thing, built for practicality not looks. A robot designed and built by other robots. Four wheels each side of a rectangular base with a double jointed manipulator arm rising from a box in the middle-front. It moved around the various crates and items in the hanger taking the most direct line it could to its destination. The sensors in the hanger had detected the location and dispatched the drone. The AI was simple but it was determined. Nothing should ever upset the client. It knew not why, but it was built into its code so it followed the routine to the later. It didn't know what a capsuleer was. How much immense power and money they commanded. It had its job and it was going to do it.

The drone reached the location which was just outside the door to the jump drive. The manipulator arm started to pick up the scattered items that didn't belong there and deposited them in a small skip on the back of its body. A man's shoe, a shirt, one stocking, a high-heeled shoe, another stocking, a pair of pants with belt. After thirty seconds all the items were picked up. A blue laser scanned the pile on the floor that remained.

..... Scan verified. Organic matter. 145 kilogram total mass. Life-signs none. DNA inconclusive. Non-human. No known life-form. Categorize as deceased unknown organic waste. Clear to proceed on clean-up.....

The manipulator arms on the drone span and a nozzle was selected from the various options. A silver spray ejected from the arm over the mass of red organic waste. Tiny nanites designed to consume organic matter went to work. The pile appeared from a distance to slowly dissolve. Once it was gone the drone retreated. Its job done.

There is a section in the manual for the citadel capsuleer hangers. It warns capsuleers that the jump drive is unshielded and emits a huge radiation pulse when it activates. Shielding the jump drive would limit the range too much. Any organic matter in the hanger will receive a massive dose of ionising radiation, enough the break apart DNA instantaneously and mutate flesh and bone beyond recognition of even medical quality bio-scanners. Under no circumstances should any person, animal or organic material be located in the hanger during its emergency jump unless inside a shielded container. Nothing can possibly survive the jump. A few of the capsuleers have read this. None of them really care.

BB69 - Yeah! Science B*tch!

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 69th edition! For more details about
what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

Because of Space-Magic
CCP sometimes get stuck between a veldspar 'roid and a hard place when they try to blend realism with sensible game mechanics in our sci-fi simulator. Sometimes they create a scientific answer such as 4th dimensional drag to explain our 'submarines in space'. Other times, not so much. When a null-sec Citadel is destroyed players 'stuffz' is to be magicked to another station. Why should a citadel be different to a titan? Should CCP ensure that 'space magic' always has a plausible explanation or do we need just to say "Well, its only a game!" and engage the willing suspension of disbelief? How should it work when a citadel goes boom, how do we balance risk with reward, and how should any "space-magic" be explained?

BB69 - Yeah! Science B*tch!

CCP has in the past referred to Eve Online not as a game but as a "Sci-Fi Simulator" in their press releases. I think that is a big part of the game. Its not Call of Duty or Fallout where you die and respawn/load saved game. The game mechanics have a scientific explanation. Mostly.

One of the problems with hosting the Blog Banter is that with my posting schedule people beat me to the punch. Rhavas over at Interstellar Privateer has stolen my thunder about wormhole space. Without gates and their fluid routers FTL communications should not work. I'm not 100% sure but I assume our brain scans when we are podded/clone jump travel via the fluid routers. Else how can they get 100 light years almost instantaneously? Fluid Routers explain the space-magic, other games just hope you'll not question.

So onto the crux of the matter. When your citadel in normal space is destroyed the player's stuffz stored there will be transferred to another station by......

Here we have space-magic. Firstly do we need this mechanic? I say yes. Eve is risk verses reward. We want people to use citadels as their "space-home". We want to encourage their use. However, if we let people blow up ALL THE THINGS then many people won't. I do feel we need a mechanic to save a players stuff. Yes if an outpost is captured you 'lose' your stuffz there but the thing is, its impounded. You have the chance to get it back by re-capture, use alts or just sell it via contact to the new owners. However again we could question the lore of this existing mechanic. "Hey guys we have captured the outpost! It is ours now!" - "Great! Can we raid the enemies hangers and steal their stuffz?" - "No, they locked the hanger door on the way out" - "Oh, the sneaky bastards!". What we don't want is for people to go on holiday for two weeks and come back with a sun tan and the discovery that 10 years of Eve Stuffz has been destroyed.

Anyway I need to get onto the mechanics problem of blown up citadel loot. In sov null-sec you are the boss. There is no law. We are the law. So we cannot have any NPC taking control of the site to recover stuffz. In the lore the powerful capsuleer alliances aren't going to let InterBus shoo them away from the spoils or war. In fact why would these NPC corps really care what happens in sov null-sec.

So its onto "YEAH! SCIENCE BITCH!" to explain how we get our stuffz saved. But, how do we explain the transfer of Mr Players stuff from the exploding citadel to another station without using "space magic" and breaking immersion?

My mind goes back to Fanfest.... erm...... damn which was it, I was drinking... could be any then.... 2012? CCP Soundwave, when discussing the POS/space base talks back then, said the line "We'd really like to let you put jump drives on these things". So there is an option. The cargo bays are self contained and shielded areas equipped with a jump drive.

Next problem, range. Your citadel might be out of jump range of the nearest friendly station. OK, say jump range is not limited by technology, but physiology. Several times in the backstory and lore CCP have said what an awful experience jump travel is for humans. If we are jumping non-organic stuff only can we say range is massively increased? Perhaps as citadels don't move and the destination is set in advance they can plot a jump much further as the navi-com has days or weeks to plot a jump between two static points. Your carrier cannot do that as it's always moving and never knows exactly where the cyno will be. A stationary citadel jumping stuff from a fixed point to another fixed point might have a much better range? Power? A citadel has much more power than a capital or super capital allowing it to jump further? There are plenty of explanations why range could be increased through science and not magic.

So my answer to this banter is that there needs to be that 'safety net' for citadels so if you go on holiday you don't come back to find all your stuffz atomised/looted. However it can all be explained by big feck-off jump-drives strapped to the hangers within a shielded environment so even if the citadel is bubbled, when it blows, they can jump. OK, I'm stretching science a bit but its only a game... isn't it?

Blog Banter 69 - Because of Space-Magic

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 69th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are please visit the Blog Banter page.

Because of Space-Magic

CCP sometimes get stuck between a veldspar 'roid and a hard place when they try to blend realism with sensible game mechanics in our sci-fi simulator. Sometimes they create a scientific answer such as 4th dimensional drag to explain our 'submarines in space'. Other times, not so much. When a null-sec Citadel is destroyed players 'stuffz' is to be magicked to another station. Why should a citadel be different to a titan? Should CCP ensure that 'space magic' always has a plausible explanation or do we need just to say "Well, its only a game!" and engage the willing suspension of disbelief? How should it work when a citadel goes boom, how do we balance risk with reward, and how should any "space-magic" be explained?


Contributors:-

Suspension of Belief - Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
Because of Space-Magic - NevilleSmit.com
Loot Fairy Triumphant (Blog Banter #69) - Interstellar Privater

BB69: It’s Not About Space Magic, it’s About Space Money... - A CARBON Based Life
BB69: Oh, Video Game Magic - Eveoganda
BB 69: Because of Space-Magic! - MMO Nomad, confessions of a

BB69: Citadels are made of Space Magic, and other stories - Jakob's Eve Checklist
Blog Banter 69–A kind of magic - Morphisat's Blog
BB69 - Nitpick about lore or delve into core philosophy? - Absence of Substance

SCASSSS - New Shield Effects

The new shield effects are on Sisi.

Dey purdy!

I like 'emm. I like 'em a lot!