Risk vs Reward in Faction War? LOL!

/start_rant

Many of us in faction war are suffering a mix of burn out or are just plainly pissed of with the mechanics. Please CCP, do something! Risk vs Reward is utterly broken.

Take a week old alt. Put them in a 2m ISK frigate and go run some FW plex for the Caldari. With the squids at tier 3, a small plex will net you over 30,000 LP. If the LP store prices are low, that LP will get you around 18,000,000 ISK when you cash out. If the market isn't saturated and prices are normal, you'll get around 30,000,000m ISK. If you hold on to that LP and wait for the cycle of FW to spin round and LP prices to rise as the otherside dominates, you can make 45,000,000m ISK. All that reward from that single 15 minute plex (plus say 5 minutes for travelling) where you just have to kill one easy destroyer rat!

THAT IS UP TO 45M ISK FOR 20 MINUTES WORK WITH A WEEK OLD TOON IN A 2m ISK SHIP!

Seriously? 60 to 90m ISK per hour and if you lose your ship and get podded so what? In fact most people want to get podded after losing their ship! They are still on their free clone and the 'Pod Express' means they are back home much faster and can jump into another 2m ISK frigate and get back out there. Where is the risk? I can see the reward, there is plenty of that. But there is no risk. A free clone and a 2m ISK loss is not risk. Running level 4 missions in high-sec is not that profitable and carrys substantially more risk. You need a much more expensive ship to run level 4's in high sec. Why risk a 200m ISK battleship or a 1bn ISK Marauder when you can make more money using a 2m ISK T1 frigate, a low SP character and a free clone?

But what if you don't want to even risk that?

Well then, you grab your Venture, your triple stabbed Merlin or Punisher, your kitey Condor with cloaking device.

Now the problem is this. These arseholes are trying to kick me out of my home. OK, not directly but if the Caldari take Nisuwa I'd not be able to dock there and access my five years of Eve Online stuffz. So I, and my fellow Nisuwa residents, have to play whack-a-mole constantly with these risk-adverse asshats.

"Point! Nevermind, he's stabbed."

"Going after Merlin in Novice Outpost. Oh, he cloaked."

This is 95% of the Caldari militia. So we resport to dual scram ships and fast 'decloaking' set ups. Then once you are in one of those ships you are bound to run into one of the one-in-twenty in the Caldari who are flying an actual combat ship!

Risk vs Reward is utterly broken in faction war. Yes, we have more people than ever in low sec, but most are low SP alts flying either ghetto fit T1 frigates or stabbed/cloaked T1 frigates. It needs sorting. Here are some ideas:-

Timer Roll-Back
If a ship leaves or cloaks up in a faction war plex then the timer resets. To capture a plex you have to get in there and HOLD it! If you warp off to a safe and then wait until the enemy has left the plex then your 'hard work' should be undone. This will make a massive difference to LP farming. Rather than playing whack-a-mole constantly we just need to chase them out of the plex once every ten minutes or so.

Pimp the Rats
CCP, we made a mistake. When we asked for the faction rats to be nerfed it was to level the PvP playing field. We never expected farming alts to become such an issue. Please pimp the rats a bit. Either add extra rats or buff their tank and/or DPS. Balance the risk with the reward.

Gimp the Stabs
This goes with the above. The faction rats are so weak that even with three warp core stabalisers, a new-ish toon can still easily beat them. If we upped the PG requirements of warp core stabalisers that would hurt the DPS of the triple stabbed Merlins and Punishers. Another option would be to further gimp scan resolution and targetting range. Haulers or travel fit ships don't need to target anyone so it is not hurting 'legitimate' users of warp-core stabs.

Have the 'Button' Ghost-Target Enemies
It doesn't have to show, but have the structure in the plex 'lock' any hostile that enters. Same agro mechanic as the NPC rat in there. So when farmers try to cloak they get the same message as a militia pilot gets when he tries to cloak in hostile hi-sec "You cannot cloak as the enemy navy are tracking you" or whatever it says. This is supposed to be a military outpost. Surely they have a method of tracking hostiles entering that space!

The timer roll-back and the inability to cloak will have the biggest effects on faction war. It will severely hurt the farmers who do not want to fight, don't care about the war. They are simply there to leach LP.

FW is in danger of turning into a ISK fountain that rolls backwards and forwards every six to nine months. One side will get a high teir and all the farmers will farm like mad. Eventually the LP market will be flooded and the prices will crash as the othersides spikes from low supply. So the farmers will swap alts and farm the otherside. Faction War is supposed to be about PvP. Currently its a lucrative PvE with less risk than high-sec level 4 missioning.

/end_rant


Edit - To the forums! https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=303513

SCASSSS - Learn!

Many people use many different types of trap in Eve Online. I lost a Thorax yesterday to a well executed blob trap. Another common one is the alt in a cloaked Falcon, especially in medium faction war plexs. Set up some juicy bait that has DPS and wait for someone to come and engage you. Use the bait to get point and webs, then de-cloak the Falcon, jam them and kill them. Very effective. But.... you can only do this once to a person in the space of 10 minutes. Most Eve players do not have the memory span of a goldfish.

Yesterday we had a squid doing this in Nisuwa. My Thrasher and a corpies Atron had his Harpy until his Falcon decloaked. Given there were two of us the enemies warped away whilst he had us both jammed. Obviously didn't want to risk missing a cycle and having someone shoot the Falcon.

They went back to the plex after a few minutes and set the trap up again. Of course we docked up to reship and I jumped into a long-range Caracal dropping a target painter for a Gravimetric ECCM.

The same QCat in his Atron entered the plex again, and they repeated. Only this time I was in my ECCM Caracal 10 seconds behind the Atron.

Now, at what point did this guy (assuming it was one guy dual boxing) think - "May be resetting the trap here might be a bad idea. I mean these guys know I have my Falcon here and they might refit to counter my trap in that station over there?"

I'll tell you when.

It was at the point when his 426m ISK Falcon entered structure being unable to jam me and with a Pilgrim closing in to lend a hand.

Guys, fly smart! If you set a trap and spring it, move on.*


*Unless you are Caldari or Amarr Militia, in that case keep doing what you're doing!

The Affair - Novelette

Fiction Friday! Escape pod here.

This is my second 'e-booklet' piece and comes with a warning. This is not my usual action-adventure/horror in New Eden. This is a lot more..... erm..... 'racy'? I did it is an experiement and not sure I'll be trying it again, the next one is back to proper 'action-adventure'. So please, no under 18's here, this is strictly for the mature audience. Hang on...... mature and Eve? OK, this is for the grown ups only. Mmmmmm still doesn't work ;) Over 18's only! That'll work ;)

Download the PDF here and the introduction is copied below if you want a taste!

The Affair

The door opened and Detective Devereux was shown inside the small room. Inside, two uniformed men stared through the one-way mirror into the interrogation room beyond. The younger looking man wore a typical security services uniform, obviously the local law enforcement. The older man was wearing an officer’s uniform; Devereux assumed he was the 'brass' in the room. Upon hearing the door open, the two men turned and the older of the two approached.

"You must be Detective Devereux from the Federal Investigation Bureau? I'm Station Commander Vidal and this is Security Chief Gérard".

They shook hands before turning their attention back through the mirror. A woman was sat in handcuffs at the small table. She was smoking a thin cigarette and didn't appear to have a care in the world.

Devereux would have classed her as attractive. She was of Gallente origin and had dark, almost black hair. She looked dressed to impress and he assumed she had been arrested on a night out.

"Commander, as I understand it this is a pretty open and shut murder case. No confession but pretty damming evidence if I read the summary right. I'm a little confused why the FIB were called?".

"Yes Detective. If this had been a normal case Chief Gérard here would have taken it. She's clearly guilty as hell and any tribunal wouldn't be sat more than 20 minutes before sentencing her. But there is a complication that was left out of the official report. The murder occurred in one of our Captains Quarter’s."

"I still don't see the significance."

"A capsuleer’s captains quarters."

The detective simply nodded and left the observation room, heading towards the interview room. Capsuleers were a law-onto-themselves and crimes committed by them and in their quarters were a federal matter. Out in space CONCORD had jurisdiction, inside stations and planet side it was the individual Empires responsibility. It was very rare to find local law enforcement keen to get mixed up in capsuleer matters. Therefore in the Gallente Federation or their outposts the FIB were called on to enforce the law.

He entered the interview room a few seconds later. The woman just looked at him, blowing a cloud of smoke.

"My name is Detective Devereux, Ms Rochette. I understand you have used your one call but you say you won't be having legal representation?”

The woman just nodded as if she wasn't particularly interested.

"I'd strongly advise you seek legal representation. These charges are very serious".

She shrugged indifferently.

"I'd like you to tell me your side of the story, from the start." he stated as he took the seat opposite her.

"Why?" she asked as if she was bored and didn't have a care in the world.

"Why? Because you are charged with pre-meditated murder and are looking at the death penalty!" the detective couldn't believe her flippant attitude.

"It'll never go to trial." she smiled.

"Sorry, but from where I’m looking it's a pretty open and shut case. The victim, who you were found with, had been strangled with a stocking around her neck. Is your right leg cold, Ms Rochette?" said the detective as he bent over looking at her legs of which one was covered in black silk and the other was bare.

"I've already been through this with the security guys." she complained.

"Please, indulge me."

"Very well, I suppose we have a few hours to waste. But if you want the story on how that dancer died, I have to start at the very beginning. And it is Doctor by the way, not Ms.”

Devereux didn't understand that first comment about 'a few hours to waste', but as she started to recount her story he didn't want to interrupt.

Download the full story from Eve-Files here.

ISIS - Giving the Vets Something to Train?

We humans like achievements. The guys at XBox found this, and these days achievements are all over the place. From games on Steam to those on your mobile. Robo Defence on my Android phone has kept me going for ages as I try to unlock all the achievements.

When the ISIS ship thingy was launched in Rubicon I looked at it once. I have 105m skillpoints pretty much all combat spec. And this is what I see...

Yes, I have Mastery Level III in frigates and destroyers! What the....ffffffffffffffffffffffff? I left it at that, really? Level III? That's just wrong.

This week I'm back in the UK on a laptop so don't really want to undock. My Eve time has been mostly sorting out diplo stuff and chatting. When bored yesterday I did look in deeper to see why ISIS thinks I'm 'average' skilled at flying Caldari T1 frigates. Lets take the Kestrel, a ship I have a lot of success with at killing things.

Ahhhh so because I don't have Thermic Shield Compensation IV I am only level 3 in shield tanking. Well that is just silly, who uses passive hardeners on a PvP frigate? So there is the issue. As a PvP player who doesn't use passive hardeners I will never get level IV or V mastery unless I train four useless skills to levels 4 or 5 respectively.

Now if I look at the Gallente tree I see mostly IV's. Passive amour hardeners are useful in PvP so I have them trained to V. Looking at the armour mastery I am only missing Amour Layering to V and then I have level V mastery in armour tanking.

So am I going to train these skills, even the ones I don't really need? Of course I am, and CCP have been very clever here. Giving vets something to train for has been an issue for some time. If they introduce more skills it effects the lower skill point players as it gives them more to train. There is also the potential it'll make vets over-powered. So what can they do in this case? They can encourage vets to train skills that, if they really thought about it, they wouldn't bother with normally. How to do that.......

Well played CCP..... well played.


P.S. Damn you CCP! DAMN YOU!

Blog Banter 51 - ITS A TARP!

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 51st edition! For more details about what the blog banters are visit the Blog Banter page.

EVE Online can be a game of heart-pounding, palm-sweating, adrenaline-fuelled ecstasy or agony. Sometimes over the years those reactions dim and what was once a panic inducing situation becomes commonplace routine. For some, the shakes never go away.

From Druur Monakh (Twitter: @DruurMonakh) we get the topic of this banter: what was your most nail-biting experience in EVE Online so far? It could be PvP in a 1v1 or 1000v1000, your first fight or your latest one, a scam so close to being uncovered too soon, a trap almost sprung on an unsuspecting victim or the roles reversed and you desperately try to escape.

So many nail-biting moments.... which one to choose? There have been so many in my Eve-O life. Well, I think I'll go for the "a trap almost sprung on an unsuspecting victim" option.

It was March 2012, a week or two before Fanfest. I was sat in my Moros class dreadnought with the rest of my team of ten. Three more similar teams of dreadnoughts were grouped together in other systems. A supporting sub-cap fleet waited on a Titan. We listened as the five cloaked cyno ships slowly counted range as they advanced slowly towards their target. It had taken an entire week of planning and moving around to get to this point. Were we actually going to do this? Hotdrop PL.... in their home system?

For many weeks PL pilot Odda had been sticking his smart-bombing Titan on the gates in Amamake. He had a few friends and they'd spend their Friday evenings blapping hapless soles on the gate. Odda didn't seem to worry about this behaviour being so predictable, and why should he? He was in PL's home system. Who would drop PL and why would they? To most it would make no sense to risk a huge attack fleet to drop one titan in low-sec.

Obviously this behaviour had upset a lot of people. A plan had been hatched by the militia's to try and get 400 people in stealth bombers to kill him. This would have been all but impossible. PL has one of the best spy networks in the game. If anyone thinks they could get 400 pilots together without PL getting wind of it they are dreaming. However, talk of this plan got members of Shadows of the Federation and their friends Wolfsbrigade talking. Yes the stealth bomber plan is a utter non-starter.... but was there anyway we could kill it? The calculators and spreadsheets came out!

The answer? 40!

OK it's not as interesting as 42, but 40 was the number of "sieged" dreadnoughts that should take down a Titan in one five minute siege cycle. That was the only way it could be done. Hotdrop, one cycle of siege, pop the Titan, warp off and dock up in a hurry before PL could formulate a response to having such a fleet land on top of their heads.

So after a week of planning everything was ready. Less than a dozen people people knew the actual target. We simply told everyone there would be an awesome fight. Thankfully we got enough people in fleet. The dreadnought pilots were told it was highly risky but the kills would be vastly more than what they might lose. The non-dreadnought pilots were told to pod to a system where there were ships waiting for them. Yes, we'd even bought subcaps and moved them to a appropriate station to prevent spooking PL by moving a large BS fleet with HICs in jump range of Amamake.

Five cloaky cyno ships with massive tanks were positioned in system and the pilots all had different approaches. Splitting the dreadnought fleet into four had two motives. First we'd not spike the map showing PL that there was a decent sized fleet in jump range of their titan and secondly, it would limit bumping when we jumped in.

So everything was set. We waited. People moaned they were bored, some logged. We couldn't say what we were waiting for and this did upset a few the next day when they found out what the plan had been! Finally Odda logged in and a minute later our cloaky eyes reported he was at his usual gate in his Erebus. The trap was set.

Slowly the cyno ships approached. We held our collective breaths. The four dreadnought cynos positioning at optimals with the sub cap fleet cyno in the middle. Would this work? Or would our 150bn ISK fleet (no small number for Militia in those days) get utterly kerbstomped by PL? It was a nervous few minutes as the cloaked cyno ships slow-boated towards the titan.

Finally the call was made. The sub-cap cyno went up and the BS and HICs bridged in! Odda was probably fairly surprised to see a cyno light next to him and a battleship fleet bridge on top of him. He was probably not overly worried at this point. Yes, there were multiple heavy interdictors but a couple of dozen battleships could not scratch a titan that already had carrier reps. And it wouldn't take long before his PL bro's could gather up and kerbstomp them.

I assume that mood changed when, 10 seconds later as the heavy interdictors called point, another four cyno's popped and 40+ dreadnoughts surrounded him.

It was on like Donkey Kong!

We primaried the carriers on field to take the reps out. They went down fast. Then PL supers started landing. The quickness of the response amazed us. How???? We learnt the next day they had their superfleet out already and had a bait capital with cyno 'fishing' for targets. We'd picked the worst possible time. At that point it was balls to the wall! As swarms of deadly fighter-bombers appeared the FC called Odda's titan primary. 40 seiged dreadnoughts do a LOT of damage. Even with PL carriers appearing on field to rep the titan, our DPS was too much and in a massive boom the titan went down. I personally was stuck in siege with the PL supercap fleet sat on top of my dreadnought. As the swarm of fighter-bombers headed my way all I could do was smile and wave. I didn't care, we'd achieved our goal. All the preparations, all that nervous waiting, all the tension in the last five minutes, that was all over. The shakes were subsiding. Yes I was about to lose my dreadnought but I didn't care. We'd done it!

SCASSSS - The 200m ISK Merlin

I was roaming solo last week when I found three squids in a medium plex which looked to also include neutral logistics. My Thrasher would get kerbstomped so I entered a small plex. My reasoning was that the two Thrashers might try and gang up on me and the logi could not get into the small plex. If those Thrashers were AC then I'd have a chance of taking them both if they were AC.

I waited..... and of course they didn't come.

However I did get a Merlin on short scan. I thought to myself "Well he's not going to come in here is he!"

I was wrong!

He warped into the plex and I locked him up and fired, giving him a little wave goodbye. I'd loaded faction EMP ammo when I got him on scan so was expecting him to die in one, may be two volleys. Nope. He was also repping well. This got me confused. Surely he cannot fit both a MSE and a medium ASB? But my volley is only taking him down to 20% shields so he must have a buffer, but he's repping back to 80% in a single cycle.

Then I noticed my speed. 350m/s with my 10mn AB running. He was soon under my guns even with my web on him. What the hell is going on? I should have killed this dude already, instead my shields are taking a beating! I over heated the AB and the guns and tried to make range. The OH on the afterburner did the trick, and I moved away far enough for artillary cannons to start really hurting. Finally he popped as I was 70% armour.

I posted GF in local feeling slightly embarassed that a T1 brawler frigate had nearly killed my 10mn Thrasher, a ship designed to kill T1 brawler frigates with ease.

I looted the wreck and aligned out. I then stopped and thought, did I just see what I thought I saw? I re-opened my cargo bay. Its value was over 170,000,000 ISK. This is fairly unusual as I normally have less than a million in ammo in the hold. Faction modules! I opened the kill mail.

Oh.... so that's why I struggled a bit!

A 200m ISK Merlin. The fittings and rigs were 447 times the cost of the hull!

A Mining Town Called Reykjaa

Fiction Friday! This piece is more of an introductory piece to a potential setting for future fiction. I envisage a small town on a backwater Matari planet. So remote its perfect for people of all races who are looking to hide from something, or worse, are running from something. Frontier town, frontier values, frontier justice. The Wild, Wild West of New Eden? I'm flying back to the UK in a few hours, hope I've not missed anything...


A Mining Town Called Reykjaa

The town of Reykjaa was located in the centre of the biggest continent on the 5th planet of M-YWAL, a small unremarkable planet deep in Matari null-security space. Whilst there was a small spaceport, visitors could be forgiven for believing they were stepping back in time. The buildings where mostly stone and wood with only a few metal and composite structures in the more outlying areas. The planet was remote so it was much easier to use local stone and wood for construction rather than import construction materials at a prohibitive cost. The central drag had tried to preserve its olde world charm, but in the end just looked dated and poor. Other than the spaceport there were other small 'give aways'. A holoprojector had been strapped to the roof of the local bar and in the evenings would advertise their wares of drink, boosters and girls. Old model hover-cars cruised down the wide central boulevard dodging the even older wheeled vehicles. Occasionally a fight would break out into something more serious and blaster fire would streak across the town square until the Law Man showed up and dispensed traditional Matar justice. Usually involving the banging of heads together.

If it wasn't for the Promethium mine which gathered the relatively rare and sort after material for use in energy storage devices, this settlement would have died out a long time ago. However, even with the value of the 'Prom', as it was known locally, the excessive transportation costs, the need for escorts against null-sec pirates and taxes meant that very few in Reykjaa were truly wealthy. It was a hard life, but it was a simple life. Most younger residents left as soon as they were of age. The monthly Interbus shuttle taking them out of system to distance space-stations where they could seek their fortune. The monthly shuttle didn't just collect passengers, it also delivered fresh blood to the settlement. The remoteness of Reykjaa and being relatively cut-off from Empire space meant that it was a haven for those running. Many of the residents of the small town had arrived that way and they accepted new comers with open arms, as long as they kept out of trouble.

Darwish, the Law Man, stood in the porch of his office surveying the main street. The sun had set and people had tomorrow off as it was the weekend. It was likely to be a busy night for him and his deputy. He watched the trails of the shuttle arc up from the spaceport as it climbed up into the upper atmosphere. Four youngsters were leaving this backwater planet to seek their fortune in Empire space. He hope they would find it. However the shuttle also meant they would be new arrivals. This was usually a mix of good news and bad news. He picked up his datapad and reviewed the logs that Kador at the port had sent him a few minutes ago. There were three arrivals this month, two Matari and one Gallente. First names included only in his report even though a scan of their ID would have been taken on arrival. Kador rarely referred to the information he got from the ID card, there was no point. Nobody arrived here on a genuine ID, everyone was running from something.

Darwish read Kador's notes. These were worth a hundred times that of a scan of their fake IDs. Kador had been working at the spaceport for decades and could read people well. He stated the two Matari men were probably low-level criminals. Either with outstanding warrants in the Republic or their boss had caught them syphoning off. He put them down as potential mine workers. The Gallente woman he summarized was probably running from a relationship. He said whilst Darwish might want to point the two men in the right direction, he was sure the woman would need no guidance and would find her own way. After reading all the notes Darwish put the datapad in his pocket, checked his side-arm and headed to the bar. He guessed he'd find the two men there. The woman would probably be harder to track down.

The bar itself was an odd mix of old and new. Most of the construction was wood and stone, but there were various pieces, like the bar itself, that were made from modern composites. The large circular bar dominated the centre of the double height room. A balcony looked down on the main bar area with numerous doors that served for lodging and 'entertainment'. The floor itself was full of circular wooden tables where various people were drinking or playing card games. Darwish entered and scanned the crowd. Before he could find the new-comers a scantily clad woman bounced up to him smiling.

"Hey Law Man." she said as she kissed him on the cheek. "Going to show me your handcuffs and weapon?"

Darwish smiled. "May be later Leela, I'm working."

The woman put on her best little girl pout and he gave her a wink before moving past her in the bar area proper.

He spotted the two new faces immediately. They were sat a a table with a bottle of whiskey. He walked over to them and they both put down their drinks and eyed him suspiciously as he approached. He grabbed a free chair from a neighbouring table and sat down at their table, uninvited with a smile. Their looks of suspicion turned to nervousness when they saw his badge.

"Don't worry boys. I'm not here to arrest you. Just here for a chat."

The two men didn't say anything. They just continued looking nervously at him.

"You see not many people come here for the amazing social life and the generous public holidays. Most people who arrive here are running. Now, here's the thing. Generally we don't care. Even I, the law around here, don't care too much about your past. We don't know what you are running from, and we don't want to know. This place is like heaven. Past sins are forgiven on arrival. However, you damn well need to be sure trouble doesn't follow you here. Justice here on the fringe is pretty swift and brutal. So if someone is on your tail you might want to think about moving on. If not, and you are looking for a fresh start, and you will be keeping your nose clean, then welcome. I assume you haven't got any work lined up?"

Both men looked worried. The law man laughed.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to lock you up for vagrancy either. That Brutor over there at the bar. That is Ogluk, he's the foreman at the promethium mine. Its hard work but it pays well and they are always looking for help. Have a word with him and you might find he's looking for a couple of good men. There are rooms here that are reasonable, unless you have enough credits to rent somewhere."

Darwish rose and both men thanked him, although he could see they remained suspicious. He was used to it. Most people on the run for any length of time develop a healthy sense of paranoia.

He walked to the bar and ordered a drink.

"So am I next for the 'keeping your nose clean' lecture?" a voice said next to him. He turned to the woman stood next to him. He knew everyone in town but this face was new to him. She must be the other new arrival, saved him a job of racking her down. He was a bit surprised to find her here in the bar. She was Gallente, late twenties and very attractive. He knew instantly she was going to be trouble even if it was just bar fights breaking out between the locals over who was buying her a drink.

"Well Miss, you appear to have excellent hearing so I don't think I need to repeat myself." Darwish replied in a friendly tone.

"Good." she smiled "And trust me, I'm not being chased. The reason I am here is just glad I've vanished."

"Well Empire space's loss is our gain. Miss...?"

The woman took a drink. "Surely you know my name already, a well informed man like you?" she teased.

"Actually no I don't. I know the name that is on the ID you showed at the port, but I wanted to know your name." he replied putting emphasis on 'your'.

The woman looked at him and smiled.

"Monique."

"You frightening the customers away Darwish. Sheeeee-it. Do you know how bad for business it is to have the law in the bar!" a gruff voice shouted.

At that point the owner of the bar appeared and greeted the Darwish with a laugh and a firm handshake. Wilhelm had been running the bar for six years since the last owner passed away. The bar had always only served a small selection of drinks. The local beer and whisky was plentiful but with no supply ships willing to make the long dangerous run it was hard to get anything else. However Wilhelm was very switched on and soon found a novel supply line. The crews of the ore barges that arrived to collect the promethium ore had worked out that these remote settlements would pay handsomely for things that the crew took for granted in Empire space. However, it was not a one-sided deal. Wilhelm also knew that ore barge crews liked their drink and liked their women, especially on the long and lonely deep-space runs like this one. A bottle of Gallente vodka or a few bottles of Amarrian wine would be traded for as much local beer as they could drink whilst they were here and an hours company with one of the girls. Therefore, if you had the credits, Wilhelm had what you wanted.

They traded pleasantries and chatted for a while before a small commotion broke out behind them. Darwish didn't turn, he just looked down at his drink.

"So, what's kicking off behind me?" he asked quietly

Wilhelm glanced over Darwish's shoulder.

"Looks like Onar has just lost an unbeatable hand and is getting ready to kick off. He was playing against Jahn so this could go either way."

Darwish nodded and slowly moved his hand to his hip. He carefully unclasped the strap holding his gun into its holster. He listened to the rise in voices and the scrape of wood on wood as chairs were pushed back.

"Knife!" Wilhelm hissed quietly.

The report of the gun made the room fall silent and all eyes turn to the bar. Darwish hadn't even turned around, he was still standing at the bar with his gun in the air.

"I am having a nice cold beer here. If I have to turn around and come over there, I'm not going to be a particular happy man. So Onar put the blade away, Jahn take your seat and both of you play nice. Otherwise you'll find yourselves cooling in the slammer for a few days!"

All eyes turned back on the two men who quickly sat back down and resumed their game wondering if the Law Man truly had eyes in the back of his head.

"Nice work." stated Monique who was still stood next to him. "Unsubtle and the owner probably needs to repair that hole in the roof, but effective."

Darwish gave a suppressed laugh.

"This is the frontier. A bullet is more likely to get the message across than words. Also you cannot see it, but the guy who built this place knew that and installed a thick metal plate in the roof. We law keepers are told exactly were to shoot when we take the job.".

"Well law keeper, I look forward to seeing a lot more of you and your insights to frontier life." she purred as she finished her drink. "Until next time."

Darwish watched her climb the stairs to the balcony. He almost spat his drink out when he saw her enter one of the rooms reserved for the staff.

"Wilhelm! You hired her?" The Law Man asked!

"Sure. Hell you saw here. I'm sure she's going to be really popular."

"Yeah." thought Darwish as he picked up his beer. "And a real pain in the ass at the same time!"

Fanfest 2014 - 12 Steps to Happiness

On Monday Fanfest tickets went on sale. Go get yours now!

If you've never been and want to know what to expect, here are my reports/photos from Fanfest 2013.

Wednesday - Golden Circle
Thursday - First day and Charity Dinner
Friday - Fanfest and Pub Crawl
Fanfest Saturday
Party on Top of the World + Blue Lagoon
Gallery

I'm going to do the Wednesday to the Monday this year. I did the Golden Circle earlier this year and I don't really want to do it again so soon. So will be in Iceland just in time for any potential Tweetfleet Meet. I know from experience that flying is not a good idea on the Sunday after the party so will stay that extra day and probably go Blue Lagoon to recover. I'm no veteran, but this will be my 3rd Fanfest and here is what I have learnt so far.....

1. Buy booze as you arrive.
Buying drink in Iceland is a tad difficult as it is only sold in special shops to take away. A mate had particular issues last year. As you arrive there is a massive booze shop in the airport, you cannot miss it. Get yourself a bottle/crate there!

2. Take the Bus
The main international airport is a fair distance from Reyjavik so a taxi is expensive. The FlyBus is a great option and has deals with most hotels in the city. You take the main bus to the bus terminal and then minibuses to the various hotels. The main bus does have WiFi for the 45 minute journey but, like the Harpa, when its full of Eve Geeks who all have smartphones and tablets it gets a bit strained.

3. Pack the right clothing.
It's Iceland. You'll need everything from Arctic survival gear to beachwear! Well, may be that is a bit of an exaggeration. But last year I saw everything from heavy blizzards to rain to hail to high wind to a lovely calm day with warm sunshine.... and that was in the same day! We're a bit later in the year for 2014, but still it is worth being prepared.

4. Card is King
I always take some ISK in cash, no not the in game currency, the currancy in Iceland is ISK (you see what they did there). However, there are few places on earth that are more 'card friendly' than Iceland. Even if you are just buying one drink, you can use your plastic. Same for taxi's even. Makes for intersting (and long!) bank statements after the party! ATM's are plentiful.

5. Prepare for the Prices
Iceland is not cheap. Being an island where most things are imported and the lasting effects of the global ecconomic crash means that Iceland is not a cheap place. It's not hidousely expensive, I occasionaly visit Dubai and London, they're hidousely expensive. Whilst Iceland is not as bad as those, it is not cheap.

6. Try the local Vodka
They make a local vodka in Iceland and it is rather nice. Its called.... erm.... what's it called? I cannot remember. The only time I've heard its name is when I've been, well, drinking vodka! OI Google! What's the name of that nice local Icelandic vodka?

7. Pace Yourself at the Party On Top Of The World
You'll miss out if you get there early, power-drink and then go off looking for munchies.... I know! In fact you might wake up next morning, fully clothed with a camera full of pictures you don't remember taking and no memory of the events of the previous night. Thankfully I did make it to the Blue Lagoon! Don't go too early, don't get boozed up before and you'll not miss as much.

8. Try Everything Once....
The Golden Circle is worth doing to see the amazing Icelandic scenery. You can bored your friends by saying "I was there!" when you see the opening scene of Prometheus (the waterfall with the engineer). The Charity Dinner wasn't as good in 2013 as it was in 2012 (not as much ceremony) but it is worth doing. This year I got to sit next to CCP Guard plus the food was excellent! The Pub Crawl with a Dev is an experience, its much more difficult working out if CCP Fozzie is trolling you about T3 Orca's when you've had a lot to drink! Do the Blue Lagoon. Try the puffin. Go for a hotdog at that famous hotdog stand near the Harpa. Have breakfast at the Laundromat Cafe. Go to the Penis Museum (yes there is one). Go exploring!

9. .....Except the Horrible Rotted Shark Drink.
Its rank!

10. Get to Round Tables Early
If you are going to one of the round-tables and its one you REALLY need to go to, get there early. The popular ones tend to be standing room only very quickly and many find they cannot get in.

11. Enjoy Yourself!
Everyone there is mad about important internet spaceships and I've met some amazing people there. So grab a drink, get talking about spaceships and have a great time!

12. Give it an Extra Day
Sunday might sound the day to go home, but think about it. If your doing it right you had a very good time on Saturday night and into Sunday morning and you don't want to be travelling the same day as that! Book onto the Blue Lagoon trip, have a chilled Sunday and relax. Get the early flight out on the Monday morning!

"PvP Off" Option?

I read another delightfully whiny thread on the forums this weekend. A returning carebe.... erm, I mean player, came back to Eve for Rubicon. He sold all his old stuffz to buy one of the new, and hugely overpriced, SoE ships. This guy then thought high-sec exploration was boring, so he went exploring in low sec.... and can you guess what happened? That's right. He promptly lost his shiny new SoE ship to a gate camp. Apparently he is quitting (again) as it is not fun staying in high-sec to explore, and low-sec needs a mahoosive 'Here be Dragons!!??!!11?!1' stamp on the starmap. This risk-adverse guy wants the option of turning PvP 'off' so he can wander around low-sec without nasty, horrible other players attacking his expensive ship.

Of course all great explorers prefer to stay where it is nice and safe. Lara Croft tends to stick to central London, in the daylight, near a police station and Indian Jones prefers to look for treasure in his spare room. Yes, they are fictional characters but I think I made my point? No? OK then....

Eve Online is a simulation, in fact I'm sure I've seen CCP refer to it in a press release as a "Space combat simulator". It tries to have an element of realism, and like the real world, you are never safe.

Lets say you buy yourself a Rolls Royce and then pimp it out. Get some nice gold-plated rims encrusted with diamonds etc. You know, find some bloke who says 'Yo dawg' before putting something in your something so you can something whilst you something. Then you cruise around in front of people showing it off. In the city centre (high sec) you will have a chance that it will get stolen. In the rough industrial area on the outskirts of the city (low sec) you will be at great risk of losing it. If you go down the underpass by the ghetto then it, and probably yourself, are history.

Eve Online is the same. There is nowhere on this planet you are utterly safe from harm and nowhere in Eve* you cannot get ganked/killed. If you fly around high-sec in a T2 fitted Raven nobody will look at you twice, probably. If you fly around in a 20bn ISK officer-fit, then the gankers WILL find you and WILL gank you.

Anyway, why did he want to go exploring in low-sec? Probably because the rewards are so much better there than they are in high-sec. So why is that? Why would CCP reward people more for doing the same thing but in low-sec? Mmmmmmmm?

BECAUSE ITS NOT AS SAFE! There are people like me who fly around wanting to kill you. Therefore the rewards are much better as the risk is a lot better. We are back to real life comparisons. A guy who welds pipes in a factory gets paid a fraction of what a deep-sea welder gets paid. Why does the deep-sea pipe welder earn so much? Because he's at so much more risk. You generally don't get decompression sickness working in a factory.

I know I'm biased. I'm -10 and tend to blow people up when I can but why are the fundamentals of this game so hard for some to grasp.

1. You are never safe when undocked. You 'consent' to PvP every time you hit that undock button.
2. Rewards scale with risk. Doing something very safe will never net you as much cash as doing something risky.

No matter what security space you are in, these rules apply. CCP will never add a 'PvP opt-out' as that would break the game. Everyone saw what happened to Star Wars: Galaxies when they went down the 'please the vocal minority' route. CCP may make high-sec safer, for example faster CONCORD response or the CONCORD death-laser that Soundwave mentioned at Fanfest. However, they will never make it fully safe. So you need to make your own decision. Live in the Wild West where there are more opportunities and rewards, or stay as a drone in the 'big city' where you'll be ten times safer, but unlikely to even make it rich in the same time scale.

If you want to explore New Eden without risk there is a way. There is a command line you can add to your Eve start up file that removes non-consensual PvP from all but two or so systems in game. I use it regularly when I want to autopilot an alt somewhere in null to get screenshots such as the Eve Gate or a NPC HQ Station. What is this magical command? Look up how to log onto the test server and if you really believe Eve Online should have a 'opt out of PvP' option, please stay there! It's not rocket science people!


*OK, inside a station and also some null-sec areas are so blue'd that you can carebear to your hearts content and you'll hear about any non-blues before they get within 10 jumps allowing you to dock up. However, the risk here is someone will come and take your space and all of your assets.

SCASSSS - Chuck Norris Doesn't Quit!

It was a busy weekend in Black Rise. Lots of fights and I had a real blast. I also died a fair few times, so when I got a trade window opened in station I assumed it was a corpie with more of my wreckage/dropped loot. I then saw it wasn't a QCat and it certainly wasn't dropped loot. It was Eve-O Stuffz from the Chuck Norris of Eve, Loren Gallen. The BattleClinic number one and killer of 20,000+ ships, a good deal solo!

I convo'd him immediately to ask what was going on. He told me he was selling Loren!!!!

Apparently he doesn't have time for the number 1 killing machine on Eve so is offering the character for sale.

Its a shame, Loren is one of the nicest people you'll have brutally kill you in the game. I do hope his toon goes to a good 'home'. I would so much love to own Loren but at 45bn he's a bit out of my price range given I have about 1/45th of the ISK required. Oh well, I hope the auction goes well for you mate. Lets round off this Special Sunday Short with some Loren Gallen facts just in case you, dear reader, are thinking about buying him. Can you handle the Chuck Norris of Eve?

President Roden named a street after Loren Gallen in Dodixie Station, but they had to change it. Nobody crosses Loren Gallen and lives.

Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia, fear of confined spaces is called claustrophobia, fear of Loren Gallen is called common sense.

Loren Gallen doesn't jump through stargates. He stares at them until they reposition the universe so he is where he wants to be.

Loren Gallen can point a titan, with a shuttle.

Whilst some believe the Apocrypha event happened due to a massive detonation of Isogen-5, this is incorrect. It actually occured when Loren Gallen slammed a door too hard.

When Loren Gallen enters wormhole space the NPC's there become known as the Awakers.

Loren Gallen visited Jove space recently. The first Jove he met said "We all think you look like a pussy!". And the rest, is history.

Denied

Fiction Friday. Escape pod here if fiction is not your thing.

One of my proofreading volunteers was ill this week so I know I said I would release my second novelette/novella today but I cannot. Instead a funny thing happened to us on Wednesday and I'd thought I'd try to put it into a story.

Denied

The cruiser de-cloaked off the stargate and aligned towards the distant station.

"Sir, the system is hot. I'm picking up a dozen hostile capsuleers on the local channel. Gallente Militia."

The Executive Officer leaned forward in his chair and looked at his personal screen. The Ensign was right, there was one friendly pilot in the solar system, a few neutrals in the war and a lot of enemies.

"XO, the capsuleer has activated the warp drive. We are heading to the station."

The XO checked the system database. There was a State Protectorate Logistical Support station some 30 astrological units from their current position. The capsuleer, encased inside his hydrostatic capsule in the belly of the ship, was also a member of the State Protectorate Militia. Whilst Capsuleers rarely shared their plans with the mortal crew the XO guessed what the plan was. The war was going well for the Caldari and the State was paying generously to its capsuleer militia to further the war effort through various missions. In that station there were four State Protectorate missioning agents. When docked their capsuleer would approach these agents and collect a number of lucrative contracts. The missions could be anything, they may need to take out a Gallente officer in a nearby system or destroy a small outpost in space. Whatever the contract, he knew one thing, it would pay very well.

"Two million kilometres to station, warp drive systems commencing disengagement sequence." the helmsman announced.

The XO looked up at the viewscreen. After a few seconds the warp tunnel started to dissipate. At a frightening speed, the immense station came into view as their cruiser dropped out of warp and decelerated heavily. They stopped 1000 metres from the station. The XO leant forward and hit a button on his console.

"Nisuwa station. This is State Protectorate Vessel 'The Cinatit'. Requesting priority docking."

The XO leant back and smiled. They'd made it, in a few seconds their ship would be tractored into a docking bay and safe from the hostile forces roaming the system. Of course they would need to get back out of the system, but he'd worry about that later. A few seconds passed and nothing had happened. He leant forward again.

"Nisuwa station. This is State Protectorate Vessel 'The Cinatit'. We are a capsuleer vessel, please tow us in now!"

The comms unit activated as the station responded.

"Fuck off!" came the curt reply.

The XO stared in amazement at the console in front of him. The entire bridge crew had turned in their seats and were looking at him questioningly.

"Nisuwa Station, we are a member of the militia if you don't tow us in immediately will will report this to your superiors. In fact who is your boss?"

The tension on the bridge rose as the silence continued. They were vulnerable here sat outside the station. Had the XO's threat been enough?

"Sir! We have a Tristan class frigate landing on the station. He is 20km from our port bow. IDENT signature lists the capsuleer as a Djalis. Sir, he's Gallente Militia!"

The Captain opened the comms channel again.

"Nisuwa Station. Accept our docking permission this minute or...."

"Jacques Roden." Came the reply interrupting the XO.

"What?"

"You asked us who our boss is. We had a little chat and agree that as we are Federation Defence Union our ultimate boss must be the President of the Federation. So there you go squid. Please feel free to send him a message."

The XO's face went white. Gallente militia controlled the station. Had the Capsuleer not checked this? A alarm went off signalling a tactical lock was being detected from a nearby ship.

"Sir! That Tristan has engaged us with a Graviton Beam, our warp drive is offline. We cannot warp off whilst he has that on us. We also have a Keres closing at high speed. IDENT of Crosi Wesdo. He's a different corporation, but he is also Gallente Militia." the tactical officer shouted.

The XO looked at the screen. A Tristan and a Keres. Two frigates against their cruiser. He was not too worried. The cruiser was a Gila, a variant of the Moa class hull used by the Caldari State. The Guristas faction had taken the basic Moa and given it a substantial overhaul to produce the Gila. It was a good ship and a match for two frigates.

"Well looks like we need to fight our way out of this one! Tactical, lock up that Tristan and fire the missiles. Also launch our drones at the Keres. Give they a reason to back up. Activate the shield hardeners."

The Tac Officer looked at him oddly.

"Is there a problem with that order lieutenant?" the XO snapped.

"Two minor ones sir. They are small issues really. We have no launchers fitted and our single shield hardener.... is.... well it is in the cargo bay according to my screen."

The XO opened up the ships diagnostics on his screen. His world fell apart. The Tac Officer was right. The ship had no fittings. It was a basic hull. No guns, no upgrades, just as if it had been rolled of the production line. For some inexplicable reason they were carrying a shield hardener in the cargo hold. The XO tried to apply logic to the situation. Why would the capsuleer bring his ship into low-sec without any fittings or weapons? Why would he warp them to a station that they couldn't dock at.

"SIR!" the XO glanced up at the viewscreen. From the stations cavernous undock tunnel emerged the sleek green lines of a Thorax class attack cruiser. Even from that distance the XO could see the heavy neutron blasters dotted along its hull. A fully fitted Gila against a Thorax would be an interesting fight with the Gila having the advantage. With an unfitted Gila it would be a slaughter.

"Tell me that's a neutral." he sighed in resignation already knowing the answer. It would be a massive coincidence for that ship to undock at this exact time they were trapped here.

"Sir.... negative. IDENT is Drackarn, a Gallente militia pilot with the Quantum Cats corporation, same as the Tristan pilot. He's aligning to us and accelerating heavily. He has a microwarp drive fitted. He'll be in firing range in 10 seconds sir. Sir, what should we do sir?"

The XO stood and all the bridge crew stood and stared. The Tristan pilot had radio'd back to station. That Thorax would be enough to destroy them but in moments they could have even more on them. The crew were scared, they were looking to him for hope.

"Open a ship-wide comm channel." the XO said in a commanding tone. A bleep signaled he was speaking to the entire ship. He stood up and address the crew.

"Crew, this is Executive Officer Goro. WE ARE FUCKED! RUN LIKE BUGGERY!"

With that the XO sprinted to the bridge door and disappeared down the corridor. The rest of the bridge crew looked at each other in confused shock, before realising the situation and themselves jumped from their chairs sprinted to the corridor and the waiting escape pods.

Outside in space the Thorax attack cruiser had reached optimal range and had opened fire. Its heavy blasters firing against the Gila's shields as the Keres and Tristan frigates assigned their combat drones to attack the helpless ship. Tiny trails left the stricken cruiser as the crew abandoned ship early. Some escape pods were jettisoned directly into the incoming fire and were vaporised. The vast majority of the crew survived thanks to the quick, if not a tad inappropriate, broadcast from the XO. He was sat in a pod with four others.

"What now sir?" asked a junior officer as a bright light shone through the single window. The XO could see the Gila explode in a burst of flame.

"Well ensign. Now we wait for the Sisters of Eve to pick us up. Who knows, we may get a ride on one of those fancy new ships. Then we look for a ship seeking a new crew. However, I think I might suggest we head over to Villore or somewhere. You know, find a capsuleer who actually fits their ships before heading into low-sec."

P.S. I undocked a Thrasher to take the top screenshot whilst formatting this piece.... only to find a Caldari Militia Tengu trying to dock!

Rubicon Meme Day?

Yesterday CCP Logibro started this on Twitter yesterday as Rubicon deployed:-

Well to me that last quote was just pure gold. So I asked Rixx Javix of http://eveoganda.blogspot.co.uk/ if he could redo the Eve Online : Rubicon wall paper substituting the official tag line for CCP Fozzie's. Of course Rixx obliged:-

However Lukas Rox was not to be outdone and created his own adding 100% more Fozzie:-

This was on top of what appeared to be an unofficial Eve meme day with CCP's Lapdog aka Mark726 aka @webspaceships leading the way....

I decided to make one too!

Happy patch day all around :)

Ghetto Cockbag and Big Cockbag

Lately I've been playing with two variants of the trusty Cockbag Thrasher. One of my issues that at GMT +4 I am not EU TZ nor am I US TZ. So I share my time with early Euros and Yanks on night-shifts and a lot of farmers. We can be outnumbered in this TZ so we need to get creative.

The Attrition Thrasher
This is basically a "Ghetto Cockbag". A proper Cockbag Thrasher will set you back 10m ISK, this one will cost less than 2m ISK. These are for use in times when the ISK war is more important than the K/D ratio. It is basically a T1 fit Cockbag designed for breaching faction war complexes when outnumbered.

If the squids are set up in a medium plex in our home system and are in destroyers and we are outnumbered that is easy. We'll ship up to cruisers and kill them. But what if they are in a small and cruisers are not an option. Do we go in with destroyers ourselves? Jumping into them already set up at optimals with fewer numbers is suicide. We could try assault frigates, but again Leeroy'ing into a destroyer camp probably won't end well. That's when the Attrition Thrashers come out. We are fighting say 10 v 5. We warp in, guns overheated and alpha as many as we can before we all die. And we will all die. But if we take three down that means we lost 3-5 but in ISK we won 30m v 10m. Now here is the trick, we can reship in system. They cannot. So whilst there three are podding home, we jump into another 5 Attrition Thrashers. We might lose round two as well. It is now 7v5 and we are jumping into them. Say we get 3 more. Same again, they win on ship numbers, we win on ISK. We reship a third time, but now into normal T2 fit destroyers. Now the numbers are in our advantage. This time we win and capture the plex.

Over all, its a draw. 10-10. However, on ISK we win 100m-10m. In the end that's not the important thing, the important thing is that we took the plex.


A Mahoosive Cockbag
I made up a particularly large Cockbag for dealing with those rare times we get camped in station. A Cockbag Hurricane. Full rack of T2 artillery cannons, tracking computer and sebo's, armour tank with tracking enhancers and damage mods in the lows. Rigs are targeting speed like the Cockbag Thrasher. It moves like a slug, cannot do much other than sit still and fire those mighty guns! It will alpha an average destroyer and take gate guns. So if we get neuts harassing us we can ask them to move along nicely too!

I rarely need to use it and it sits gathering dust most of the time between my other Hurricanes. But now and again it comes in useful!

SCASSSS - OI! Get Back In Your Pod!

So we got to see the Rubicon trailer Thursday night. I assume if you read this blog then you've already seen it. No? Here it is:-

Us lore geeks had a few niggles with the video. Firstly, who is this toss-pot and who does he think he is?

 

Obviously CONCORD but is he a spokesperson? Someone senior? Come on CCP give us a clue! And shouldn't he be at CONCORD station in the Yulai system? What's he doing planet-side?

Secondly and more importantly we have the two capsuleers.

Now hang on, that is not right. Capsuleers don't look like that when flying their ships! This is what a capsuleer looks like when flying their ship:-

They generally never leave their pods when flying their ship, as it is a bad idea. Firstly capsuleer piloted ships are supposed to be so much better than normal ships as regular captains with large crews are so much more ineffective. The capsuleer, wet-wired into the systems, can run their ship much, much better. Overall performance is a magnitude higher due to the capsuleer. There are ships in the official lore where capsuleers can get out of the pod and stretch their legs but generally there is no point give the nerf to performance. The other issue is because of the capsuleers abilities, their ships have much smaller crews. If they are not in their pod, the crew are going to struggle due to low numbers. In Templar One, a Mordu's Legion Drake is already to run from a capsuleer Mrymadon because the capsuleer BC would stomp the normal BC.

So what are these two muppets up to?

Well there are two schools of thought. Firstly they could be holographic projections. I'm not sure of this myself. Why would they bother?

My view is these are supposed to be 'visual representations' that the capsuleer creates in their head. We know there is sound in space because the Jovian's included a synthesiser in the pod because early pilots didn't like it was so quiet. So why not have a system where the capsuleer in his or her pod can see themselves in a sort of a cockpit? After all it does serve one important purpose.... marketing!

Which ever way is true, they are definitely in their pods. After the station blows destroying the ship, we see Sinead O'Conner floating in space with her tubes attached. So she was in her pod when it blew. Ooooooo, lady capsuleers wear boob-tubes in their pods!

CCP simply has used 'artistic licence' to make the video more non-geek friendly. After all, who cares about a talking olive-green pod?

The Accident

Fiction Friday! Alternative post here if you are not into your fiction. What low-sec group do you belong to?

Next week I'm hoping to release a Novelette called "The Affair". Only 10,000 words so not as big as the last one!

The Accident

Senior Technician Gretara was sat at the monitoring station in the stargate's control room. She casually watched the the light traffic coming and going. Almost all the systems were automated but a small crew was needed for faults and minor maintenance. Her gate was connected to another just under one light-year away. The artificial wormhole between the two gates allowed starships to travel between the solar systems in a seconds rather than decades.

"Hey gorgeous! How's the exciting world of gate travel today?"

Gretara rolled her eyes and turned around. There in the door way was her supervisor, Cenn. He had his usual cheeky smile and devilish glint in his eye.

"Nearly as boring as your pick-up lines." she replied with a smile.

There had always been friendly banter between them. When she first started she thought he was going to be a pest. She soon found out he was very happily married and the jokey flirtations were just that. He'd had countless opportunities to try it on with her in the last six months but never had made a move. When she'd taken this posting six months ago she had just split from her husband and was pretty 'anti-men' at that time. However she had warmed to him over the first few weeks. He'd helped her see there was still hope.

"I see from the log you replaced some 'tronics last night?" Cenn asked.

"Yeah, we were getting some funny readings from one of the primary graviton controllers. It was quiet so I replaced it when there was a gap. Thankfully the connection remained solid whilst I did the hot-swap."

Cenn looked a bit concerned.

"Next time call me please, even if I'm asleep. Those controllers can be dodgy and could potentially collapse the wormhole and take the gate offline. If the connection drops even for 10 minutes, I'm the one who gets his arse chewed off by command. Then I'd have to come up here and chew your arse off. We wouldn't want that would we, it would be a waste of a very pert arse." he said with a smile and a wink.

A small bleep caught both their attention. Gretara turned back to the console and Cenn walked over.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Damn graviton controller boards again. Getting that same reading, but thats a brand new board in there."

Cenn brought up diagnostics on the main screen. Just as he did alarms started blaring. Gretara quickly shut them off. As soon as the alarms died she looked at Cenn in horror. The silence was deafening. On a stargate there was always noise. A constant drone caused by the massive technology that kept the wormhole stable. It had stopped. The gate was offline.

"Gretara! Did we have any traffic?"

Gretara quickly looked at the other screen on the monitoring station.

"Oh no....!" her voice trailed off.

"What is it? Talk to me Gretara!"

"A shuttle with two passengers. It jumped and entered the wormhole milliseconds before the connection dropped."

"Did they make it through?" Cenn asked nervously.

Gretara accessed the logs at the other gate. The way she looked at him he knew. They hadn't made it.

-o0o-

Two weeks later.

The three high-level executives were sat on the top table in the hearing room. Gretara was sat on her own in a chair facing them. She fidgeted nervously.

"Ms. Falk, we are gathered he today to hold an inquest into the events leading up to the recent class two failure of the static wormhole connection at the Gonheim-Hedaleolfarber startgate. This unfortunate event resulted in the likely death of two people. We are tasked with finding out what went wrong, if anyone is to blame and what steps are needed to ensure this never happens again."

Gretara just sat there as the stern woman explained the process and that many of her colleagues from the stargate crew had already faced the panel.

Over the next hour she was asked question after question. They were mostly concerning the graviton controller boards but also about herself and her abilities. She felt that she was going to take the fall for this. She answered the questions as the three executives of the Republic Government asked them.

Following the questionings she was asked if she would submit herself for testing. She agreed and was surprised to find a medic enter the room immediately and escort her down to a clinic two decks below. 20 minutes later she had been tested for drugs and alcohol abuse. She knew she'd pass, but it all pointed to her being the scapegoat here even with a clean bill of health.

Finally she was told she was no longer needed at the inquest and that she could go home. The panels decision and recommendation would be presented to the Government within 48 hours.

-o0o-

Three days later

Gretara opened her door and found Cenn standing there with a sad look in his eyes and a bottle of whisky in his hand.

"I'm so sorry" he whispered. Gretara stood back and let him into her apartment.

There wasn't much left, most of her furniture and belongings had been packed into boxes and these were stacked against a wall. He handed her the bottle.

"Thanks." she said with more than a little sadness in her voice.

They sat down in two small chairs. Gretara opened the bottle and took a long drink. She passed the bottle back to Cenn.

"Sorry, I've packed the glasses."

Cenn took a drink from the bottle. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

"I'm fine." she replied "To be honest I think I may have got off likely. The only reason criminal charges haven't been pressed is that the two people we lost could be alive somewhere in deep space. Unlikely, but as they cannot prove they are actually dead I cannot be charged with murder. Getting fired for gross negligence wasn't the worst that could happen when you think about it."

Cenn passed the bottle back to her.

"I know, but the whole thing stinks. I'm not sure I believe the whole thing about you installing the graviton controller board incorrectly. There are just too many things that went wrong at the same time. The backup failing, the emergency shutdown not kicking in. OK even if you did mess up that boards installation, it shouldn't have failscaded like it did. The entire system is designed to prevent that exact situation. The report ruled out sabotage but I'm still not sure, too much of a coincidence to me."

Gretara shrugged and took another drink. "May be, but the fact is all those backup systems are never really tested until the primary ones fail."

"So where are you going?" Cenn asked.

"I'm going back to my folks. Its not ideal as they live deep in low-sec and I thought I'd escaped that existence years ago. But its going to be a struggle finding work around here. 'Killed two people' doesn't look good on your resume!"

"They might still be alive, somewhere out there in deep space." he replied hoping to make her feel better. "That is another thing. That the logs didn't include the passenger manifest. We know a shuttle went through, but we have no idea who was on board. That information is always captured. Yet at the same time we suffer a catastrophic failure, the logs also bug so we will never know who was on that doomed shuttle? I'm not buying this."

Gretara shrugged gain and took another drink. "It sound far-fetched, but the investigation ruled out sabotage."

"They'd never admit that even if they found it. The company would lose all the stargate maintenance contracts in the empire. Its a cover up if you ask me!".

"Well apparently the logs hadn't been recording manifests and ship ident codes for days. In any case, I'm finished here. No hi-sec gate crew company will hire me now and I have nowhere to stay. Its back to the arse-end of space and hope they are desperate for a graviton specialist in one of the gates in the systems my parents live."

"Is there nobody in hi-sec you could stay with until you get back on your feet. I'd offer but my wife might have something to say about that. Didn't you say you had an ex-husband? Are you still on good terms with him?" he asked.

"Yes there is an ex-husband. But two major issues with that. Firstly, he ran off with my best friend. A blond bimbo. A younger model who I thought I could trust. Bitch! It was not a amicable split. Secondly he's now even more remote than my folks who live on the edge of known space. Yes, he's not easy to reach at all."

Cenn thought that was an odd thing to say but didn't press it.

A few hours later the bottle was finished and Gretara was asleep in the chair. Cenn carried her to her bed and wrapped the covers over her. He gave her a light kiss on the forehead and left the bedroom. He picked up the empty bottle and placed in the trash which was rather full. He closed the hatch and hit the automated empty button. There was a quiet hiss as the trash container was flushed to the stations reprocessing centre. He turned to leave but stopped suddenly. It couldn't be. He was imagining things wasn't he? He could have sworn he'd seen a couple of graviton controller boards laying amongst the trash. He decided that the late hour and half a bottle of Matari whisky was making him see things. He left the apartment and walked home with a nagging doubt at the back of his mind.

-o0o-

The stars were amazingly bright this far out into interstellar space. Dinna looked out of the small viewport in wonder. With no sun for many light-years the number of visible stars was blinding due to the low light in this area of space. The dim interior lights gave little refection in the glass, but her blond hair did reflect spoiling the view a little.

"Its so beautiful out here honey. Its like living in heaven."

There was no answer.

"I'm not sure I'll ever get bored of watching the stars out here."

More silence.

"I'm getting peckish. Do you want something to eat?"

No answer.

"OK, you don't mind if I help myself?"

Dinna glance out of the window one more time and made her way across the small passenger cabin of the shuttle. It was a mess. Empty bottles and food wrappers littered the floor. She picked up the bloody shard of metal laying on the table and approached the man's body. The left side of his head had been caved in. The hopelessness of the situation had the two lovers a breaking point within a week of being stranded in interstellar space. During a particularly heated argument about how much water she was drinking she had hit him over the head with a bottle. He never woke up.

She squatted down and cut some flesh from his upper thigh. A lot of the flesh was already missing and bone was clearly visible. She picked up the raw meat and placed it in her mouth, slowly chewing.

"I think I'm going to look at the stars a bit more honey. You want to join me?"

Of course he didn't answer, he had dead for over a week.

"OK darling. You just rest."

Dinna walked back over to the viewport humming to herself. She hummed a lot to herself since she lost her mind after beating her lover to death with a water bottle last week. A man who'd left his wife to be with her.