“Except for a few people going through the nomination hoop, I think so.  38, last time I counted and I am right in the middle.”

“Hopefully you can stand out better than that.” Scotty leaned back and smiled.  “You know what you gotta do, dontcha.”

“Ayep.  Shake the babies and kiss the hands.  Smile for the camera and hide the women of ill repute for a week or three.  Talk talk talk without saying much and then see if I can avoid being cornered on anything specific.  Promise the moons and whatever else the little voters hope for and then rely on the fact that they all have the collective memories of goldfish.”  Mike laughed

“Oh Lords, you’re not gonna do any of that, are you?”

Mike straightened up and looked Scotty in the eye.  “I am a man who takes a skiff in a race against interceptors.  I fly a glass cannon against sleepers.  Do you honestly think I am going to go into politics and play by THEIR rules?”  He chuckled low.  “If, that is, there ARE any rules to space politics.”

“Are you doing any of the normal things you are supposed to do?”

“Well, I is doing an interview or two.  Gonna be on a ‘cast with Alekseyev Karrde.”

“Well, that is a start.  Open debate?”

“Yeah, right, because everybody knows how often our paths cross and we compete for the same sort of isk or voters. “  Mike kicked back and set his feet on an extra chair at the table.  “He is probably asking questions right now like ‘who the hell is Mike Azariah?’”

“For that matter, who the hell are all the other folks you are running against?”

Mike activated his comm and started at the top of the list.  “First up is Akirei Scytale.  From what I have read, I would love to party with this girl, but I would probably catch something.  While rumors abound that a lot of Biz gets done after hours and over drinks I do not think she would really be the best one for the job.”

Scotty laughed and asked.  “Next?”

“Well, I’ll skip Aleks, seeing as I will get ta chat directly with him tomorrow.  So that brings us to Blake Armitage.  Now here is a serious candidate.  Guy wrote a lot of the book about settling in wormholes and works the industry side of the street.  He has a well rounded resume and is someone I think would bring new blood and a broad prospective to the CSM.”

Scotty grinned as Mike was hit on the back of the head. “Did I forget to mention I invited Kry over for this chat?”

Mike rubbed his noggin and turned.  “Heyas Kry.”

“You are not to be advertising the good people who could steal votes from you.  You should be focusing on what makes you better or unique.  Or at LEAST identify why they might not be a better choice for the job than you.”  She glowered at him as she pulled a chair up.

Mike looked to Scotty and mouthed the word ‘hormones’ only to get smacked again.  “OK, OK, let’s toss out all the joke candidates . . . Darius III for example.”

“He is a returning CSM, not a joke candidate.”

“The two are not mutually exclusive.  Trust me . . . clown.  Then there is Mintolio, though to do him justice I should shout his name and anything he has as an opinion.  That guy cracks me up.  PsychoBitch, on the otherhand . . . not as funny.  Riverini, you get back to classic political satire.”

Scotty frowned.  “I thought Riverini was a serious candidate.”

Sadly Mike had been drinking his coffee when Scotty said this so he was now mopping the drink off of his shirt and the table. “Bwah ha haaaaa.  Oh Gods I hope not.  I mean I love his stuff but if he was actually thinking that attacking the Goons made for a solid platform he would make a great running mate for Poetic.  Now Sollana may not be a joke but running a campaign based on wanting to make just ONE major change is a bit off of the beaten path.  Xenuria . . . “

Kry shuddered.  “Yeah, read a bit about that one.  Is it male or female?”

“Coming from you, Kry, that means something.  I don’t exactly know but I am fairly sure there has been a lot of optional surgery involved.  Not that there is anything wrong with that but making it the basis of the platform and totally ignoring the starships and fact you are trying to represent pilots . . . wow.”

“Not a huge list of jokers.”  Scotty observed.  “Doesn’t do much to narrow the field down.”

“Oh a few others may also be joking about running, or there to dilute the field, I just named off the obvious.  Thing is . . .”  Mike scooted his seat a bit further from Kry’s.  “there are some damn good people running.  I am honestly looking forward to seeing what changes this election will bring.”

*************************************************************************

Lessons

Little known fact:  Voting gives you the right to bitch about who got elected or what they are doing.  If you plan on boycotting the election the STFU afterwards.

Mintolio is my favorite joke candidate . . .by far.

Yes I have a sense of humor.  Yes I am running, no I am not another one of the joke candidates.

fly it like you won it

m

***************************************************************************

She was beginning the think that the mission was hopeless when she was contacted by a broker.  -We have found someone who claims he may have a way to get to the target.-

“Credentials?”

-He laughed and refused.-

“Then why are you wasting my time with this?”

-He also described in detail how your interior teams was eliminated, the targets standard methods of evasion, and named two different clone facilities that we have confirmed occupancy.-

“But no credentials? Very well, commence negotiations and I will . . . “

-No.  He has explained that he would only speak with you directly.  Ma’am, he named you, your ship, and your current system.  Could this be a counter by the target?-

“Mr. Azariah is a little more direct than that.  The last time one of our ships tried to get a lock on him it was . . . what is the term? . . .ganked.”  She paused.  “Put him off for two days, long enough to slap a tail on him and find out who he is connected with.  Then contact me again and we will see if he is what he says he is.”

______

“Ah say this is Science.”  Mike yodeled as the ship swung about to release more damage against the sleeper Battleships arrayed against the fleet

“And I say you ought to be dead three times over.  That paper bag should not be able to survive this.”  His fleet mate was protesting against the mounting evidence that a Tier 3 ship could fly in a C5 escallation.

“Well, ya can’t argue with the evidence.”  The last ships exploded in the distance as Mike orbited the sieged cap and grinned at the comms.  “I have got to be getting me a noctis in here.  Taint right that you all do the cleanin.”

Riyu laughed.  “Shut up and take your ISK.”

The wallet icon flashed and another 100 mill arrived, just in time to balance out recent expences and donations.

**********************************************************************

Lessons

Being told it is too hard or cannot be done . . . prove it, empirical evidence

Like Jonny Pew’s adventures in null.  Very cool work.  GBA donated 150 mill to his further explorations and vids . . . that good.

Tier 3 ships?  love them.

fly it like you won it

m

Mike grinned over at Scotty and nodded.  Number of open slots has been cut, gonna be interesting to see if the field of hopefuls diminishes in the same manner.”

“It won’t.  I’ve already seen some of the early hype.”

Mike laughed.  “Well for all the joke candidates there are also some good ones coming out to play as well.”

“If SHE catches you complimenting the competition again she is gonna line you up against an asteroid and shoot you.”

“Nah, she might get some organic matter on the rock and she wouldn’t want that.”

“Why do you compliment or give approval for the people who are supposed to be your competition?”

Mike looked off into the distance.  “Because . . . well partially because I like playing the long game.  I see the election as a short term thing followed by a much longer period of the elected having to work together.  Why would I want to burn bridges I hope to cross some day?  I was talking about that to some pilots the other day.  I asked them that if they could CHOOSE a CSM council of 7 and wanted to try to represent all of Eve who would they take?”

“Interesting way to look at it.”

“After the first answer I had to append that to limit the choices, seeing as Mynxee is not in the running.”

“Spoilsport”

“That is what they said.  But it is an interesting exercise.  What aspects of New Eden would you try to represent.  What voices would you want to speak your needs?”

“Did you tell them your choices?”

“They didn’t ask.”

“Maybe SHE will let you live after all.”

**********************************************************

Questions

OK< so you are trying to make a CSM that is not monolithic but a broad spectrum of players.  Read the platforms, if you have the patience.  Or at least let me know what you think are aspects of the game that need representation.  Do we more than one Null sec?  Would a bunch of Carebears ruin everything?

Who would you choose.  Give me a list and bet entered for a lovely Tier 3 BC of your choosing.

fly it like you won it

m

Go there if you are looking for something about me and my thoughts on the csm.

Use tags to see what I have had to say about the csm in the past . . . tag csm of course

m

“What if I don’t have anything that she wants?”  He groused.

‘Then we did something wrong far earlier.  You know as well as I do that the preparation is everything.  So we take this dossier down to the bones and we reassemble it till you know her inside out and can be or seem to be exactly what she wants.”

“Not exactly honest, is it?”

“We are NOT looking for a long term relationship, here.  You want to get close enough to close the deal and then you walk away leaving nothing but a cooling corpse.  So let’s get at it . . . what do we know about her?”

“That if she wants just male companionship she has it in spades.  Former commander of Gods Light battalion and currently engaged as a Chainer in an Orca known as the Flea market.”  Seems like a fair number of her command retired at the same time and are now forming a merc command.”

“Hammer of God?”

“Right, they . . . .wait aren’t they the ones who . . . “

She flipped through the file and started to curse.  “I am gonna erase each and every one of those smug bastards.  This is not a mission for you, you were just the leverage.”

“I am not going to have to . . . “

“Oh we still have work for you but our shadowy bosses know that there is an easy way and a hard way to go about this and were too chicken to order me to take the easy way.  So they set me to train you in hopes I would . . .”  she jabbed at the comm and grumbled, “where is he now?”

********************************************

I have had a few friends tell me that they have had applicants who are just ‘perfect’ for the position.  Every time I hear that I wince.  I wince even writing it.  Corp theft is common and the skilled ones know exactly how to social engineer their way in.  They bocome the ‘right guy for the job’ long enough to get close and then they leave your cooling corpse behind them.

We had one, wayy wayyy back in an early corp I was part of,  but the thief got bored since the CEO did NOT hand out privileges like candy.  As a result he settled for shooting up a few corp mates before dropping and moving on to the next target.  I contacted him and asked what he had planned and he laughed telling me he could play his game and there was not a damn thing I could do about it.

PvP is like that, isn’t it?

Nope (Chuck Testa)

I tracked him (and his alts) and would contact each corp he joined warning them of his M.O.  I got quite a few thanks from CEO’s and the thief would be moving on again (having been tossed out on his ass).  It became a hobby of mine that I did for a few months until he found a corp that I thought he belonged in. (Wicked smile: they deserved each other)

The greatest beauty of this game is not ships, not the graphics, it is the people and the fact that we are all on a single ‘shard’.  Your reputation follows you.

and I do pvp my way . . . with information

fly it like you won it

m

Marc Scaurus is trying to find a decent candidate for lowsec voters.  He sent word out to people who he already had heard were running and a few of us answered.  Here are the questions and my answers.

You can see the others here

What single part of the game do you feel requires the most work in terms of iteration by CCP?
Faction warfare

Do you feel that lowsec is ‘broken’? If not, explain why. If so, explain what you want to see done to fix it.
I don’t like the term ‘broken’. I would rather say it is underutilized or not fully developed into what it could be.

I’d like to see it become a vibrant area for the solo pvp (or small gang) player to be. Somehow there needs to be ways to stop hotdrop o’clock from ruining simple small gang fun.

Do you have any plans to push CCP, if elected, to iterate on lowsec in general?
Jack Dants ideas on a shift in sec status made me think a lot about how we could change the life and decisions that lowsec dwellers make.

I keep returning to the visage of the wild frontier towns where ‘anything goes’. Boosters, gambling, make Mos Eisley look like Vatican city

In your opinion, where should lowsec rank in terms of priority for iteration by CCP?
Gah, make me go politician on you, eh?

I like the way the teams at CCP have not chosen one space but broad sweeps and ‘little things’ I don’t see that they have to prioritize so the step child gets fed and the fat and sassy hisec gets left in a dirty diaper. I don’t want to choose . . . but if you press me . . .

Null has gotten a lot of iterations and changes, supers, sov, etc. ALL securities have received incursions but it mainly is being played in hisec. Rumors put lowsec and wh space next on the ‘changes’ list and I would be all for that.

Lowsec is home to around 8% of the playerbase. What, in your opinion, are the main factors that make it more attractive to its current residents than other areas of space?
The freedom to be in a small unit and not anchored to a space or a dictator. To be doing pvp on your own terms.

When I flew in OUCH I enjoyed the adrenaline rush of Tama and the area about it. Sure I lost ships but it was an entirely different game from being a mission runner. Later, in null I honestly did not get the same rush. It was all intel channels and standard practices.

I do wonder if some of the players in low are there to be the counter culture, they would go all hipster on us if folks started crowding in sayin ‘I was here before it was cool, I was underground/lowsec’

Some might say that 8% is proof that lowsec is not worth the effort since so few players are there. Bull. Make it better, give the people the mechanics and the ability to carve out a living there and see that % climb.

What are your thoughts regarding Faction Warfare, particularly the idea that FW is the key to revitalizing lowsec?
I don’t know that FW is the key.  I think it is another niche in the sandbox but I also think that low has a lot of niche play that is not dependent on FW at all.

Would you support using Faction Warfare as a test bed for future Nullsec Sovereignty Mechanics?
No. Faction warfare should be its own thing, not a cheap knock off to make someone elses life better.

What is your thinking regarding piracy in lowsec – is it good, bad, or ugly? Would you like to preserve it in the face of upcoming tweaks and possible expansion to Faction Warfare, or would you like to see lowsec go in a different direction?
Good, but there must be a way to make it better.

Piracy is a part of the game and should be made better, not tossed over for some other vision of lowsec. I would fight to find ways to allow piracy to continue and maybe even expand on that lifestyle choice.

What are your thoughts on the notion that increased protection for PVE players in lowsec will result in a better lowsec?
bullshit

What are your thoughts regarding the introduction of a PVE activity or item (minerals, manufacturing certain items, etc) that would be lowsec-exclusive?
YES!

But make something new. Do NOT steal minerals or choke-point materials from other security spaces. This is not about nerfing them to strengthen us. it is about making everything better without a balancing loss.

This attitude needs reinforcing, too often I see ideas like ‘take abc’s out of wormholes, too little risk for isk. Bull. Add something new, something people will want to go see and buy. Look how many people went in after ORE blueprints for the Noctis.

What is your opinion on the Jack Dant proposal (link below) and the general belief in some sectors that improvements to lowsec should focus on entry-level, casual PVP?
doh, not fair.  I commented on this, above, before I read this question.  For repeating . . .yeah, I think it is a great starting point

If elected to CSM7 and subsequently informed by CCP that lowsec was the ‘hot topic’ for iteration in the coming year, what input and advice would you have for them?
Seriously?

Look, I spent a few months in lowsec with OUCH. I have flown with the Bastards and been ransomed by the Tuskers. But I do NOT consider myself a lowsec player, it is not what I am trying to be.

What I would be doing if told the above by CCP is come right back to the players and try to be what I am running to be. A Representative. This is not about electing MY ideas. It is not about ME being the voice that makes decisions. It is about having someone who is willing to ask, to represent. That is what I am trying to be. Someone you will vote for because I WILL represent YOU

I’d be contacting you and people like you who have a set interest in possible changes to lowsec. I sure as hell would try to find Jack Dant and people who have made the effort to make changes to the game in the oft ignored assembly hall and Jita park.

I would not be giving advice to CCP until I got advice from the player base that it would be most likely to affect.

What lengths are you willing to go to in order to make pirates flashy red on overview by default again?
What? When did you guys lose that?

Seriously.

OK, so it has been a few months since I spent a decent amount of time in low. But they took that away?

wtf

Mike Azariah is a two-time candidate for CSM (5 and 6). You can find out more about him at his blog.

If people from hisec have similar questions send them in.  I do not ‘polish’ my responces, you get what I think, not what I think you want to hear.  I was the first to answer Marc and I will try to be prompt on answering any other questions sent in.

But take ONE thing away from this. I am running to represent players, not grind my own axe over issues.  You can ask me what I think about things but you should also tell me what you think.  Convince me you have a good idea.  I will tell you I like it or call bullshit on it.  I’ll represent players of Eve, not trolls.  (Though at times the differentiation gets tough)

fly it like you won it

(prowler and 2 wolves given out yesterday in channel)

m

“I know.  She usually is.”  Mike sighed.  “This election thing is getting me wound up more this time than in the past.  Probably for all the wrong reasons.  Smaller field, nomination process, and sealed records.”

“Sealed records?”

“Yeah.  A whole bunch of good things have happened in the past year and the current CSM will be taking a bow for all of it.  A whole bunch of bad things happened and they will say it happened on someone elses watch or they all argued against it.  Thing is, since they published no minutes and kept quiet as church-mice until the dreams became reality there is NO way to prove what they actually had a hand in doing and what was gonna happen in spite of them.”

“Ah, so the fact that they only took bows after something good happened. . . “

“Yup.  Like me taking credit for sunrises.”

“You don’t want to go that way.  You want to accentuate the positive, not throw mud on your opponents.”

“I know, I know, they do a good enough job of that, themselves.”  Mike ran his hand through his hair and sighed.  ‘Positives, eh?”

“Yup, and get a platform out there soon, don’t wait like you have in past years until the nominations are confirmed.  Everyone but you took a headstart last time and the race is going to be tougher this time around.”  Jarod poked a finger at Mike.  “You have to get moving now.”

“Why do you and Kry do this?  Help me along in the elections.”

“Because we believe in you.  In what you stand for.  But we are not the ones running, and you better tie your laces and get out on that trail.”

“Fine, fine.  With your support I will be fairly sure of two votes and that is a start.”

**************************************************

Lessons

I will be making a more cohesive platform but here are some of the basic planks

1) There is no ‘endgame’  Play as you wish, where you wish.

2)  While some features to be driven for are long overdue I think a major portion of the player base would like some good short term content.  Only have an hour?  Eve should still be the go-to game.  And not to click a thousand clicks for PI or 0.01 isk games.

3)  There are a lot of rp players, folks who live and breath the background of this game.  Something new ought to come to them as well.  It is not all spreadsheets and overviews.

4)  This is from eve encyclopedia

The purpose of the CSM is to represent society interests to CCP. This requires active engagement with the player community to master EVE issue awareness, understanding, and evaluation in the context of the “greatest good for the greater player base”. The scope of issues is restricted only to EVE, its ongoing development, and limited meta (out-of-game) issues which have direct relevance to the EVE universe.

When did they become play-testers and a sounding board.  What happened to representing us?  Do you think you were represented?  How can you tell?

5)  I want to return to a simpler time where there were meetings with minutes so you could see what was being discussed, who was fighting for things you believed in and who did not even bother to show up.  I do understand that there is an NDA and that some things cannot be discussed but the issues proposed in the assembly hall, in Jita park . . . who among the current CSM championed them, anybody?

6)  I am a casual player and that is who I want to represent.  I do not have a block of voters in some huge nullsec alliance to call on.  I fly in hisec and in wormholes.  As of the time of this writing I am in a C5 but I have spent months in incursions.  I have a family, a job, a life outside of the game and I would like to stand for others who are trying to balance reality and the game.

7)  I need your votes and I need you.  Talk to people in your corps and alliances,  make them understand that their vote does count if they can rally and stand up together.

stand with me

fly it like you won it

m

Mike looked at the incursion alerts and nodded slowly.  “Not much to do here, right now.  I ‘spose I can head on in to visit.  I have to pack my toothbrush, sleeping bag, and a good ship for the job.  Ask your folks what they would like to see.”

There was a pause and then Riyu asked.  “They want to know what you can fly.”

Mike chuckled.  “Well any bc, strat cruiser, BS, ,command ships, got all sub cap guns up to T2 specs.”

“All of them?”

“Specialization is for alts and insects.  Ask for some fits and we will see what I can bring.  I am leaning towards a laser boat so I don’t have to wory about logistics of ammo.”

An hour later and Mike was following a set of bookmarks through three wormhole systems to the destination.  The Navy Apocalypse was new to him but it was nice and stable and well founded, even if he had fit it for a shield fleet. His hosts had been waiting for him and they got under way right when he arrived to investigate a sleeper site. 

“Funny, I remember these guys being harder, before.”

Riyu laughed from his Dread.  “You were a lot less trained, then, right?”

“Yeah, and in a Drake.”

“Not to mention the fact that lately you have been fighting Sansha.  After them these must seem tame by comparison.”

Mike looked out at the wave of six Sleeper battleships and smiled.  “Well, slightly tamer, yeah.”

In the aftermath Koni asked if anybody had run a clock on the site.  Mike checked and reported “Looks like right about 38 minutes, give or take.”

‘Well, not bad work for less that 40 minutes, here is your cut.” 

Mike looked at his wallet flash and whistled softly to himself.  Just shy of 100 million.  “Thank you very much.  Now, where can I hunker down for the night?”

The pos password was entered in and he warped under the prove umbrella of shields and defensive and offensive arrays.  Telling his crew to get some rest and thanking them for a job well done he slept.

The following morning.  . . “What?”

He groggily watched as the ship bounced off of the shields and the defensive array that had protected him last night now was opening fire.  Quickly he resent the password but the guns kept firing and his warp was locked down.  “Abandon ship, people, this is not going to be pretty.”

It wasn’t.  There is something seriously wrong with losing a ship not even a day old.  His capsule swam right through the force field, same password accepted without a hiccup. His host were apologetic and helped rescue the crew and salvage the ship but Mike followed the path back to hisec in a ship far far smaller than the one he had entered in.

“Not your best first day.”  Riyu said.

“Win some you lose some.  I have not given up and I will be back, after I earn a bit of isk to cover the loss.”  Mike laughed.  “Maybe later this week.”

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷

“I do not want excuses.  Use one of those finder agents and tell me where he is.”

“The agents are not miracle workers.  He is out in a wormhole right now and until he surfaces again we cannot do a thing about it.”

“This is not tolerable.  Every day he is out there increases the risk of contagion.  Report as soon as we have a fix.  The next time we go after him will be The last.”

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷

“Tell me this is some sort of joke and we will laugh and switch envelopes in a minute.”

“Shut up, I am reading.  This is not a training mission, it is a hard target and we have to get it right.”

×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

Lessons. 

Hands up if pos passwords have ever gotten bad for you.

Wormhole earnings exceeded incursion earnings.  But. I was running with a good crew who are very experienced.

If you are looking for me to moan and wail about the null folks trying to rush incursions, you are goigntmo wait a long time.  Part of the GAme and from an rp standpoint probably a lot more honest.  Pilots would not farm while planets were being upkifted.

On the other hand.  . . Csm elections are around the corner and it looks like candidates will need a certain number of supporters to even get into the election.  You can let the organized null take the board again or hisec and wormholers can start to get organized.

Yes, I will be running again.  (Even with an arrow in the knee)

M

“A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons’ Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an “opt out of PvP” option.

Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?”

************************************************************

“But what if I am not ready to ‘make the kill’?”

“The world does not wait for you to be ready.  It does not care if you think your skills are up to par.  Combat will sometimes be far away and something happening to someone else but other times it will be right at your doorstep with you in its sights.”  She put her feet up on the desk and leaned back.  “There is no way to be ‘safe’ just ways of being safer.  That is what I am supposed to do, train you to be safer or to make things so unsafe for the other guy that they think twice about starting anything.”

“I am a tech, not a soldier.”  He muttered from where he sat at his own station.  His shoulders were slumped and he looked at her sideways, never straight on.

“Right now what you are is a target.  Everything about you screams ‘easy kill’.”  she snorted, looking directly at him.  You don’t have to be on the hunt all the time but you sure as hell don’t want to be wearing a bullseye, either.”

“I don’t want to fight.”

“Then you were born in the wrong universe.  This is New Eden and even if you want to quietly exist in a peaceful little cocoon there are folks out there that will object to it and try to prove something over your corpse.  I am not saying you have to be a raging lunatic with guns blazing, shooting your way across the stars.  Just be competent and confident so when you do meet someone who objects to your being peaceful one of three things will happen.”

He looked up.  “What three things?”

She ticked them off on her fingers.  “One, you die.  End of story.  Of course it isn’t end of story for a capsuleer or someone set for rebirth, but for normal folks that is it.  We don’t want that to happen, do we?”

“n n n no”  He shook his head and shuddered, seeming to shrink into his chair a bit more.

“Two, you make them dead before they get you.  You become one of them.”

“But I DON’T WANT TO BECOME ONE OF THEM!  CAN’T I OPT OUT?”  He screamed, emotions getting the better of him.

“No, but there is three.  Three, you become and look good enough that you are not the easy target, not the slowest or lame of the herd.  You convince them that there is easier hunting somewhere else.  You do not wear the bling because that makes you look worth the risk.  You walk confidently because you know how to fight or how to run faster than they can chase.  And you make peace with yourself and the universe as a whole that sometimes it will not be fair and you might get beat but that is just how it is.  You don’t opt out, you don’t hide your head in the sand.  You play your own game and work around how things really are.  THAT is what I am here to train you to do.”  She paused.  “But for that I also have to train you to be a bit of number one, the hunter.”

He stood up and faced her.  “You don’t like this, do you?”

“What I don’t like is when you go in I am going to be somewhere far off wondering if I trained you well enough.  I have no idea how you put up with that sort of stress.”

He smiled and straightened up a little.  ‘You mean I might have something to teach you?”

**************************************************************************

Lessons.

No, you cannot opt out.

Sometimes you cannot fight back and win, either.  They show up with a huge blob, what are you going to do, be called a coward for playing docking games or an idiot for stepping out to melt?

Don’t be a target.

Carebear are allowed to play the game they want as long as they keep in mind that others do not want to follow the same path.  Ganking happens, live with it.  Plan for it.

and for gods sake, stop crying.  sometimes they shoot at you to hear you cry . . . .moar tears.

I have died in bubbles, in wormholes space, from my own stupidity and from the malice of others.

I still play.  I still have fun.  I get pissed off, now and again, but I try to learn and get better.  Maybe this game is not for eveybody but I think that a lot of lessons can be learned here.In Mario, who plays hardcore?  If you die you have to quit forever?  Those damn turtles . . . can I turn them off?

Ever do that?  Enable ‘god-mode’ on a game?  Takes all the fun out of it.  If you enjoy that sort of thing then maybe, just maybe, Eve is not the right game for you.  Because here it is all about adaptation.  If the game develops a God-mode ship or I win button the rest of the population and the CCP work hard to remove it or find a counter.

I’m a carebear but I do not want to opt out.  I want the right to shoot back, to maybe take a few of them with me.

Fly it like you won it

m

Sorry it took a bit of time to get you a copy.  Enjoy it, I did.

m

She leafed through the pages and then gasped and returned to the first page, reading each word carefully.  She took time to eat and to contact the Captain asking for a weeks leave of absence.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mike opened comm channels as he looked down into the hanger where the Orcas were kept.  He tried to see where his pod fit into the great lumbering beasts but could not, though he knew he could find it on a schematic, if he bothered to try.

The channels were alive with conversations and he kept tabs on more than a few of them.  Every week another invite or another distraction would appear and he would join some new conversation or mailing list.  Incursions were especially known for recruiting channels that were ‘by invite only’.  He sighed and then laughed as a graphic depicting one channels opinion of one of the other shiny fleets.  The incursion fleets were always competitive and some were exclusive as to either the pilots they flew with or the fits they were willing to consider.

Shiny.  That was the word they liked to bandy about.  For DPS it meant Machariel, Bhaalgorn, Vindicator.  T3 ships like a webbing Loki.  The more common channels were almost sad with normal battleships plaintively asking to be allowed to join a fleet.  Now fleets were being even more specific and recruiting for exact ship types and compositions custom designed to take on certain types od vanguards.  A Loki/Sleipnir fleet for on type of Sansha invasion, shiny battleships for another.

“As the enviromental issues push the species it will devlop, each generation more specialized, more compartmentalized for its niche.  Nature dislikes generalists.”

Mike shrugged and collected a few more fits from friends to look at and considered making a conversion or shopping again but his account was too low to even admire the faction battleships.  “Looks like Loki’s, Legions, and Logis, for me.”

A warning had gone out about new hazards in the incursions.  New fleets were coming onto the scene and trying to rush the incursions to the end, forcing the fleets to shift more often.  “At least this is better than the Blackbird sympathisers.”

Blackbird fleets had come in waves, jamming the Logis and then cycling another set in as Concord removed the first.  A fleet without Logis would have to be very good and very fast to survive.  Mike had seen some of the cockier FC’s ask the Logis to hold reps and see if they could ‘gun tank’ vanguards but it was something you had to be prepared for.

“Sometimes, it be dangerous just getting up in the morning.”  Mike shrugged and tossed out an x for his Loki.  He had to wait all of two minutes before getting into a fleet.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“I don’t know why I got dragged along to this.”  Her tech grumbled.

“Maybe it is because you were the one waving the rum bottle?”  Free asked innocently.

“Last time I do field work . . . but it was fun, wasn’t it.”

“I have your next assignment files for you two.”  A blase tech pointed to the bioscan.

“Two?  Usually she gets the . . . aw never mind.”  Her tech stepped up to the plate, laid a hand on it and declared “Cory, 4-8-15-16-23,” he paused and took a breath “and 42″  He stepped back.

She stepped onto the same plate and said. “Freedom, 9-22-1862″  She also paused and blew gently at the scanner before finishing with “and 9001″

The two key codes were spit out and taken.  She took them and passed one to the tech while she inserted the other into her own comm.  There was a pause.

“WHAT?”

“This has got to be a mistake.”  The tech was begging.  “Please tell me it is some joke.”

Soundproofing kept the laughter in the other room from reaching this far.

********************************************************

Lessons

Yes, I do know where this is going.

There is always someone who wants to gather tears and disrupting fleets in incursions.  They have had . . .shall we say, mixed success.

Now when incursion people go after their own kind, well we know better how to hurt each other.  The drama of late on the channels has been increasing.

Fly it like you won it

m