Yeah I know the last entry said it was the first week. It was actually the first five days. Five days...a week...close enough for a brand new pilot.
Last night was an exciting night. I found my self looking at a Drake and things started to fall into place in my mind. I soon understood the dynamics of the larger ship. There is a certain nest of drones that has already claimed a few of my less expensive ships and that Drake looked promising. I didn't want to jump right back in there just yet though, not when I had just learned how to fly a 30,000,000 isk ship. Some of the equipment that is meant for that size ship is still a bit confusing, but I plan on fighting with drones and frigates for a while yet anyway. I have heard enough stories from other pilots to know that loading up the biggest missiles I have is not always a good idea, so I spent another chunk of my recent windfall on some assault launchers and a pile of light missiles. I also figured I better protect my investment so I quickly learned how to manipulate shield systems, at least a little bit, and fitted the Drake with some modules that would make my ships hold up better in general and one that could slowly replenish my shields. I was a bit taken aback when I realized I had six missile launchers, a salvager, and three different ways of keeping my shields up and my ship was still keeping its capacitor partially charged. So I left the station.
And I turned right back around. Boy was that thing SLOW! I considered getting the hull converted to lighter materials, but I just wasn't sure the speed gained would be worth weakening the structure of this expensive ship. Instead I picked up an afterburner for it. So much for a stable capacitor, but it should still be manageable. Before leaving the station I noted that I still had a fair amount of space to modify this ship. I will need to learn a little more about some equipment in the near future. For the moment I have a huge book about flying smaller craft that I am tearing into so I can set myself up for some covert exploration.
Now for the test run. I still don't feel ready to take this ship into that drone hive. It does have a lot stronger shields, armor, and even the hull itself, but the drone hive was scrambling me so if things should go badly I lose the 35,000,000 ship. Yeah--it is more now that I fitted it with some stuff that might just keep it alive. I wasn't really attentive to where I was, but I started some probing. I cleared out a couple of small pirate nests and found a couple of things I had never seen before that seemed like they might be useful or at least worth taking to market. I jumped from system to system clearing out a few of these, not really paying attention to where I was going as long as my sensors didn't warn me about leaving the security of space patrolled by CONCORD. Bless them.
Eventually, after clearing pirate dens in about 3 other systems, and finding a couple of unstable worm holes--no way I am taking that chance in this Drake or with these implants, I scanned down a cosmic signature that turned out to be a much larger pirate den. It was a complex with three rooms. The pirates here were getting stronger. A couple of them might have taken three shots from my linked missile launchers. I had to do some quick math: 6 missiles per shot x 3 shots per ship x 9 isk per missile = 162 isk per ship. Okay so that isn't bad at all, especially since CONCORD has been paying me bounties by the hundreds of thousands for these pirates. I was starting to resent the 11% tax, but I reminded myself that I am enjoying the protection offered by my corp, for now. I finally reached the last room and my sensors informed me that a group of pirates had escaped to Hek. I grinned at the thought of a group of dirty, thieving pirates "going to Hek." So I cleared out the rest of the pirates here and, as I was salvaging the very last ship, realized that I was just about completely out of room for cargo.
I switched my nav computer from Hek to Arnon. Sometimes I like to hoard stuff and just sell thousands of items at once. I went to Arnon where I had already begun accumulating stuff and dropped off all my cargo. I almost forgot and left my missiles with it! With that straightened up I began a second long run, on autopilot so I could focus on other things, like my reading, to Hek. At Hek my nav computer told me where to find the other pirates. As I warped I realized that some of the coordinates I had were actually just dates. So I had reached a dead end, but there still happened to be some pirates here. I shuddered a little when I saw a ship that looked a bit different from the rest. I knew what it was. I had seen it before, but only when I salvaged the remains after someone else had destroyed one long before. It was a ship design unique to the pirates and that meant one of their better pilots was sure to be on board using some of their better equipment. As the battle wore on I started seeing my shield turn red. That was the first time I had seen it even damaged by one third on this ship, let alone half...two thirds. It occurred to me that I had not taken out an insurance policy on this ship. And then it was done. All of the pirates' ships around me were heaps of scrap metal. Unfortunately there was little of value still functioning on the better pirate ship. All the same, it was quite a first experience. I noticed then that I had moved from a "0.9 security" system to 0.5. I might have to try starting a little bit lower tomorrow and see what happens.
Once I had salvaged everything that looked useful I returned to the nearest station and insured my ship. You need to watch out for those insurance agents! The highest level of coverage from my ship was 2,500,000 isk more than the second highest but the payout if I lose my ship was only 2,000,000 higher! I settled for "second best." When I left the station I made some half-hearted attempts at using my combat scanner probes, but I mostly just ended up scanning down ships that were docking and undocking from stations. At least I am getting better at scanning.
Finally I made one more long trip back to Arnon and to neighboring Aere to check on my planetary structures. I carried a load of Noble Gasses back to Arnon and threw everything (except my ammo and probes!) in the hangar there. It has been a long day and I am tired. I wonder how many days I can put off selling stuff. The more I have all at once the more fun it is! I also cannot wait to scan down more pirate hideouts another day.
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