Sov Maps

Due to some rather poor planning on my part I am still not able to fly my Noctis with all the fancy tech II fittings that I have purchased for her. That and the fact that I am still a bit shaky from my near bout of death while brining her over to my Aldrat hanger from one jump away where I purchased her. So while training up these last few skills, made easier now by the installation of my set of plus 3 basic implants, I have tried to search around a bit about the going's on of the capsuleer corporations in null sec.

Around when I was becoming a capsuleer the influence map of null sec looked like this:
June Map

Then this the following month:
July Map

There is a lot more going on here than I really know. I am after all still a lone wolf capsuleer pilot, but pay attention to the southeast corner of the map. You will see Test Alliance grow and and Nulli Secunda and Red Alliance dissapear. This is the most recent conquest of Delve by the Honey Badger Coalition (Test Alliance, Pandemic Legion) and friends Goonswarm.

Here is the next month August:
August Map

Finally the last month that is presently available September:
September Map

Take a look at the North right in the center, you will see Goonswarm grow and NC. shrink. Specifically, if you can make it out on the map a region called tribute.

Here is the influence map as of today:

(Link is no longer working? Was working yesterday?

Tribute is now all yellow and is Goonswarms or the CFC alliance.

You will notice Metropolis is beneath tribute in high sec space (the black space), where your lowly capsuleer resides. You may have to move the map to the right a bit to see Tribute and Metropolis is under it a bit to the right. (Again link doesn't seem to be working so I will need to figure out another way to show this, sorry).

So null sec is raging. There is and has been more going on in the East and South but for now lets focus on what may be the strongest Alliances in the game. Basically Test and Goonswarm or their respective larger coalitions HBC and CFC. Now I don't pretend to be a historian or in the know but even I can read this map and see who is growing. The wars still rage and HBC is still fighting in the South and CFC swears to push on in the North into the remaining NC. territory. What the heck am I doing still in high sec? Well learning the life of a capsuleer. I am still getting the hang of high security exploration and am flirting with bankruptcy. I just hope by the time I dip my toes into null sec empire warfare that it won't all be overrun.

I was hearing today from some defeated alliance leader, AAA to be exact, asking his pilots amongst other things not to let their accounts dip below a billion isk. I have never seen a billion isk, nay I have just over one tenth that amount now. I am still far away from playing in these deep waters.

This draws a sharp distinction to the current wars my corporation is involved in. I haven't counted but we are at war with multiple corporations. It's high sec war so we aren't playing for systems or regions of space but none the less it's war. As my brief hunting experience described in my last post shows, it can be fun. But it's a bit like low brow humor, shallow. I really don't understand our strategy and it feels disparate. I am trying to hack out a living and occasionally throw in with a fleet. It does seem a bit pointless. I am busy trying to stay alive from solo pirates, which is an important education, but I know my true or at least perceived strength is less in tactical prowess but in grand strategy. It is hard to focus on the next steep and not gaze at the great events shaping null sec space. My road will be a long one but I must keep my discipline. I have already demonstrated a lack of patience and must not waver. There is so much I still need to learn before I can, with a band of fellow capsuleers, lay claim to some null sec space for ourselves. To build something, to be a player at the table. Ultimately to stare clear eyed at the map of New Eden and mix it up with the great alliances of our time.

Let's get this Noctis going, lets get my Cheetah. My Loki and become an expert at high security space. I still have wormholes, trading, mining, industry let alone single, small gang and large fleet warfare to understand. All this before I dip my toes into sovereign holding space and the mechanics involved. All this and I am still learning to fly my beloved Rupture and Rifter. Still getting my skills up to be competitive. New Eden swirls with delight and horror and I alone but a speck.

Hot Off the Press

Whew! I just almost lost my Noctis. I literally undocked and began taking fire. I was just about to go into structure when the warp finally kicked in. In my panic I didn't get the ship type but I did get the pilots name, Yendaj.

Wow, not making this up. While I was typing those two brief sentences above I joined a fleet whose purpose is to defend the local Unistas. Looks like Yendaj has been busy and almost popped the fleet commander Apothne who was flying a frigate. So I hopped into my Rupture, bought some more barrage ammo and headed out to our corporations own star-base (POS) to rally with some other fleet-mates. Yendaj was now in his Rapier, an expensive recon ship worth 595,029,304 isk to be exact or more money isk than I have ever had. Shortly after arriving behind our stations protective shield we get the call to warp to the Egyfe gate to meet up with the rest of the  fleet. Having only flown in five fleets before I am still a bit rusty at all this and it took me a few moments to get my ships navigation all worked out. I sat there seeing my fleet-mates warping out before me. I finally made it to the gate and could hear the fleet commander sizing up the situation. I am not really sure what went on but I will guess that we had a covert ops ships all cloaked up and scouting the Aldrat gate from Egyfe. Talking to the fleet commander Apothne now, who was in an interceptor (a classy expensive tackling ship [tacklers hold ships down so they can't flee])  locked him Yendaj right when he jumped through the gate from Aldrat into Engyfe and de-cloaked from the automatic jump cloak. Once locked Yendaj in his Rapier was not able to activate his own cloak. Then Apothne overloaded his point (so Yendaj the war target couldn't warp away) and the rest of the fleet was ordered to jump through from Aldrat and join the fray. In the moments the ensued Yendaj attempted to kill Apothne in his frigate letting lose his drones and shooting him possibly surmising that our fleet was camping the gate behind him and he couldn't flee through there. I am not real clear on the next part which has to do with agression timers so I won't try to explain but then our calvary arrived before Yandaj could kill Apothne and soon multiple points and webs (slow him down and keep Yendaj there) were set and our guns opened up. I actually ended up dealing the third highest amount of damage on the kill, which admittedly only was 2.2% of the total damage, but once again I am on the other side of the kill mail, the best side, the killers side. Best of all Yendaj who had previously caught me in a game of cat and mouse was subsequently caught.

So back to my story moments earlier before the kill and before I had left my space station on my way to pick up my new Noctis. I noticed that there was a war target in Aldrat, the aforementioned Yendaj, so I sat in my free noob ship loaded up with warp core stabilizers (to try and keep me from getting pointed) itching to get to Egyfe from my home base in Aldrat, just one jump away, to pick up my shiny new Noctis. As I sat there once again questioning the worth of my corporation for allowing these enemies to shut down our system I suddenly noticed local was clear, Yandaj had left the system. Here is my chance. I undock form the space station and make my way to the Egyfe gate. I jump through the gate and make it out on the other side and see a war target (WT) on my overview waiting for me in Egyfe. I quickly align and attempt to jump to the space station so that I can dock up before I am blown to pieces. The reason I picked this ship is because it is small and fast and can do just this quickly hopefully before the WT can get a lock on me. For instance I didn't even fit a weapon. I went into warp so quickly I didn't take a shot, which is a good thing because with my defenses one shot could of been all that was needed to kill me.

So I made it to the space station safely and quickly beheld my new Noctis for the first time. Here is where I made my big mistake. I quickly swapped my warp core stabilizers to the Noctis and looked at local and saw no WT's so I undocked. Ooops! I see bright red lasers and my shields dropping. My new industrial ship is laboriously turning trying to align to the Aldrat gate so that I can enter warp and my shields drop quickly and I am into armor. I begin to panic and get that feeling again. I am dying, and this death is the most humiliating. Why am I not warping. Ok how can I dock back into the station, why can't I dock! Forgetting of course to stop my previous align so that I can begin the docking process. My armor drops and I am almost into structure, my last flimsy line of defense. My gut sinks, my heart pounds, I feel small. Crap, the Uni is going to kill me as I am not supposed to be flying an industrial in war time. Then as I had given up hope the Noctis begins to lumber into warp. Warp equals temporary safety. My shields begin to slowly recharge as I warp to the Aldrat gate. Yendaj must surely know where I am headed, he saw me leaving the Pator Tech School space station and must know that's where I in my panic am flying to. I come out of warp expecting someone to be waiting for me. No war targets in my immediate vicinity. I try and get my slow beast of a Noctis to jump into Aldrat and slowly, slowly she does.

I am in Aldrat and I am still cloaked from the gate jump (one stays cloaked for one minute after a jump if you don't change the course of the ship) and look around. No war targets nearby and no war targets in local. My shields keep repairing. I start the process of jumping into Aldrat. Almost there, hope begins to glimmer. I lumber into warp and come out again heading towards the space station. Almost home, docking procedure commences, I am safe. 2 million isk in repairs because I am still scared and I make a mistake, as I could have later just made it to the safety of our POS and used my armor repairer, but the indignity of almost losing my Notics seconds after I began to fly it overwhelms rational thought and I want to repair my baby and forget about the whole episode.

Ok here is where I made my big mistake. When I was snug and safe at the space station in Egyfe before udocking in my new Noctis I thought I had looked at local and did not see a war target. Well it wasn't local I was looking at. I must of been on the intelligence panel or something else and though I was safe in local. That almost cost me what is by far my most expensive ship seconds into her maiden voyage. Lesson learned.

I suppose this story has come full circle. I won't get to use my Noctis tonight as WT are abuzz and it seems like we are at war with a corporation who are hunting us during my flying window. How in the hell am I going to make the isk now to pay for this ship, not to mention the Cheetah I was hoping to get soon?

A Slight Detour

While I like to credit myself as having a bent for strategic vision I must admit there exists a more primitive side to this capsuleer. Here I was patiently training so I could fly a covert-ops frigate so that I might fly unnoticed and unmolested amongst the stars. The last time I moved up in ship class, into my trusty Rupture cruiser, I grew a bit despondent by the amount of time not just to train into my cruiser but all the fittings (guns and the like). I suffered weeks of indignation as I had this beautiful new ship in my hanger but couldn't fly her lest she fall prey to war targets (WT) and not able to fire back and defend herself.

So now being a more experienced capsuleer I began adding up the time it would take me to fly and fit out my new cov-ops frigate. My mouth popped opened when I saw it would take more than a month. Now good strategy is good strategy and patience is a virtue. So I must confess that I am not a patient capsuleer. I quickly tossed my laboriously studied plan for a risky and I must admit unwise plan of buying a Noctis. Now a Noctis is a strange ship, for instance she can't mount guns. She is an industrial with only one real purpose and that is to salvage. Salvaging being my main source of accumulated wealth is quite important to this high-sec explorer. I had originally envisioned the reverse order, cov-ops first then salvager. The cov-ops frigate would allow me to more safely find higher value cosmic signatures in addition to my lowly anomalies and in return net me more isk and then my Noctis would quickly swoop up the salvage. The plan was Cheetah (cov-ops frigate) finds and bookmarks the sites, quickly dock up and pull out the Rupture who proceeds to smash the teeth of the Angel pirates and crack and loot the more advanced signature sites with their requisite tools and then the Noctis to clean up and salvage all the kills. Not that I like the idea of needing three ships to do what, if I had the money and the skills perhaps one ship could do, but it could potentially increase my isk earning potential from a few million isk per hour to potentially tens of millions, heck maybe even a hundred million isk or more per hour depending on the drop and loot.

Now the plan is to use my 30 million isk Rupture to find the lowly anomalies and kill everything in sight and my a hundred cough cough, and some cough cough million isk Noctis to sweep up the loot. The fact that it could take me a very very long time to pay off the Noctis in this manner is not lost on me. I still do hope to be in my Cheetah in a bit over a month but I have decided to run a big risk. The Noctis will come close to cleaning out my cash reserves. In Eve the golden rule is don't fly what you can't afford to lose. I can just barely afford to lose the Noctis, I won't be able to replace her and with WT's buzzying around and industrial ships banned by Uni policy to be flying in war time I also run the risk of being kicked from my corporation. You see industrials make expensive and easy targets and the Uni's strategy is to make war boring for the the other side.

So why continue with this lunacy? The truth is I am getting a bit bored. The Rupture pretty easily punches the teeth out of these scrawny pirates and it takes so long to salvage the loot with it. I figure with the Noctis I can spend more time blowing things up and less time salvaging. This has the potential to increase my earnings as I can spend the time saved on salvaging into clearing more anomalies. It's still chump change in the Noctis cost scheme of things, but it's different and it's a challenge. So with that in mind I hopped in my Rupture (hadn't fitted out my Rifter) and made the daredevil trip out to Hek, the local trading hub that the WT's like to hunt, and with heart pumping made the trip back in one piece. Now sitting in my hanger are all the pieces that will fit onto my Noctis's hull. In four days I will be ready to fly and fit everything I need for one tricked out mighty salvager. This time I am waiting to buy her until I can use her, no more ship spinning in the hanger but flying in the cold dark space. I only hope she doesn't get popped on her first flight.

An Inside Look Outside

I gaze out the window of my home spacestaion here in Aldrat, a system in the Metropolis region. Spaceships of various models lazily dock and exit. Trails of light behind them as they enter into warp.    I have been so busy flying, killing, earning, learning, that I have lost my way a bit. Sure I have plans and perhaps a purpose but I am once again forgetting the present. What a strange adventure this capsuleer life would be if I were to forget that bit of knowledge that has cost me so dear to learn.

I have grown used to this body, this clone. Having been some time now since my last clone perishsed in a capsule just outside the walls of this station. How confused I was then, losing ships, afraid. There is still fear, we are and have always been at war since I have joined this corporation, Eve University. War targets prowl this system, this region and others far beyond it. I have demonstrated that I am no match for them, not yet. In fleets I can get in on some kills, but being a part of the blob is not what I had expected or hoped.

The news flashes before me, blazing lights against the far wall. There is much going on here in New Eden. Even within my own corporation I have only scratched the surface of what is possible. When I left my natural body for an immortal life and inhabited my first clone I left much behind. Should I reclaim it now? I am Minmatar, I have brothers and sisters in chains. I am free, wealthy, a capsuleer, what is my duty? Should I participate in faction warfare, try to overun the Amarr? To what purpose, it seems the grand political events of our age are all scripted now. Concord polices us all.

I spead out the map of New eden before me. Empire space, high security, in there in Minmitar space I live. It is not safe, nowhere really is but I am protected. Coddled even by Concord. My eyes drift to low security space, Empire claimed but where Concord is limited. Where pirates roam and wreak havoc. Their Concords mighty ships will not reign justice. Only a thin veneer of the order remains.

Out beyod low security space lies null-sec. Vast stretches of space lining the periphy of New Eden. Here the mighty capsuleer alliances rule. Wars rage to the North and South. No Concord. Here capusleers lay claim to space. It is here that I feel where I belong. Now that I am a capsuleer I have a joined the realm of Gods. Is this madness, not yet, just immortality.

There also exits a strange in between space. The wormhole. I visited one early on. Inching into it's lair, eyes wide open and heart beating with fear. Me a new pilot who couldn't curb my curiosity.

So I have spent some time in high security space and have become a high sec explorer. I kill Angel Cartel pirates collect bounties, loot, slavage wrecks. It's a living. Soon I will scan out cosmic signatures and explore their mysteries, searcing for more valusable treasue and yes kill more rats. But what of capsuleers? Of these giant alliances who have come to dominate null sec space, when will their time come?

What can a pilot alone, with only a small cruiser do against such a behemoth? Not much. Hell I can hardly control my drones, what right do I have to lay claim to a piece of claimable space? None, I have not earned that right. I have reached out a bit to fellow capsuleers. More on that later if something pans out. I did not arrive here to stand alone. Alone I can do only so little. Perhaps I am not the man I thought, perhaps my role is not to lead capsuleers but to follow them? I suppose that is fine as long as I see a purpose. The Uni is what I thought it was, a place to learn and train. I have yet to find my real place in this  life.

Perhaps before I can find my place amongst others I need to truly find my own place inside. I hope to soon have my first covert-ops frigate. A vessel where I can pierce the dangers of wormhole, low sec, null sec space in some higher measure of safety. With this vessel I could travel the outer regions, spy on the goings on of capsuleers. But I can't really affect things. Not yet. Not until I am able to fly and afford a strategic cruiser. That will still be some time away. I doubt myself, perhaps it's my way of knowing I am still alive.

Back to Zero

So this high sec exploration day job seems to be providing some rewards. With my trusty Rupture I now, at least on paper, have regained all the isk I have lost since I first entered New Eden nearly three months ago. The big caveat being this is a theoretical postulate and not a practical, isk in the bank, reality. The significance of this cannot be overstated. The value of loot I have in my hanger now exceeds all my losses (mostly through incompetence but also from buying new ships and modules) in theory. Whether or not this will pan out to be true by the time I can actually sell my goods, or whether I will even be able to safely transport these goods to Jita remains a rather large question.

Yet my future begins to coalesce. I am in the very early stages of my capsuleer career. My goal, Eve domination, seems laughable at best and delusional at worst. My most prized possession is a lowly cruiser but with this cruiser I have proven to myself that I can make a living. Not a wealthy career but enough to move on to the next level and purchase my first covert ops frigate. Wait another frigate? I just worked so hard to move from my nimble and quick Rifter frigate to my Angel Cartel murdering Rupture cruiser, why go back to a lowly frigate, a mere step up from a free noob ship?

As mentioned previously, the Cheetah can cloak. Lots of ship can cloak but the Cheetah can warp cloaked. This basically means that I can travel long distances quickly practically invisible. This will   in theory allow me to make a journey to Jita, the largest trading hub, and sell some goods at what I hope is a fair price. This will also allow me to scout systems nearby with much less risk. This is the bridge to my two ship high security exploration gig. I could certainly do this now with my trusty Probe (another scouting frigate) fitted with a cloak, but in wartime  with war targets buzzing around I would feel more secure in a true covert ops ship. I don't want to think about the twenty plus jump trip to Jita, even in coddled high sec space without the ability to warp cloaked. Call me afraid but since my Eve induced paranoia (brought about by quickly dying several times) I have a streak going of not getting popped. My seamanship (spaceman-ship) skills seem to be improving. Plus I want to learn how to be a scout in our noob fleet. So this little Cheetah will provide me the next few adventures on my journey.

Having said all of this let me bring myself back to my true purpose here in New Eden and that is to prove myself against the best. This means other capsuleers. My goal aside from continuing to fly in the noob fleets (as a tackle frigate, scout and damage dealer [thus learning new roles in fleet warfare]) is to learn pvp (capsuleer pilot vs capsuleer pilot). For this I need isk as I expect to lose quite a few more Rifters in this education. As a member of the Uni there is a system called Libold that is a tech 1 frigate (read cheap frigate) dueling free for all. If you have been following my confessions you will of read how I ingloriously lost a Rifter already in this manner. I hope to learn about all the different tech one frigates and how to kill them. I will continue to learn the basic mechanics of this game but I need to be a successful combat pilot if I am ever going to progress in my dream of being able to challenge other capsuleers.

So the next few weeks I will continue to finish training salvaging 5 so that I can progress to a tech two Salvager (read bad ass and hopefully really fast salvager) then the fork in the road. I already confessed my desire to abandon the logical skill training sequence of filling out my basic skills and instead moving directly on to learning the other high sec exploration skills and the skills needed to fit out and fly the Cheetah. I still haven't figured out how long this might take, something I really need to do. I think I might need to look in buying some implants to speed up my training as I am a bit inpatient in regards to waiting two weeks for example for the ability to use a slightly faster salvager. But the distant goal remains.

So what of my confessions? Baring a major catastrophe, which is almost imminent in wartime, what will I write about? My Rupture can already seemingly handle everything the Angel Cartel seems to be able to throw at me, at least in my protected corner of high sec. I must admit the pace of this progression seems a bit too slow but at least I am back to zero financially. Sadly my greatest triumph to date since my arrival in New Eden. So I won't feel too guilty splashing the isk for a Cheetah and fitting her out well. Also buying the new gear for my Rupture once trained up in my exploration skills and perhaps a few flights of tech 2 drones once my drone skills improve.

Yet I still can't shake the feeling that I should be in null sec throwing it around with the major alliances in an all out war. I suppose I could learn the game that way. It is tempting especially since I haven't really found a niche in the Uni but I will hold my course a bit. There is still so much more to learn and that is the reason why I am here. Null sec war will come in time.

Day Job

While my Rupture continues to ply the high sec exploration trade new Eden continues in the flames of war. Even my corporation has never not been at war since I arrived in this dark universe. Unfortunately Eve University does not do a very good job of explaining what the hell is really going on. Strategically I learned from overhearing a pirate corporation CEO last night that the Uni makes a juicy target. Lots of members, most of them inexperienced, makes for some fun kills. I am still curious about joining the Ivy League, our military wing but for now have taken to earning some isk, as for the better part of my career I have become practiced at losing. Here is where my Rupture is growing on me. Sure killing lowly Angel Cartel pirates is not nearly the same level of challenge as killing capsuleers but it sure has been turning into a profitable venture. While I have yet to really sell most of the goods I have looted or salvaged I do almost seem to be near even based on the estimated value of those goods in my hangar. I don't expect to get this amount for them as when I have sold items I generally take a steep cut from these prices, but none the less my hanger is growing in value.

This leaves or rather leads me to my next planned progression. While flying around in high sec doing some exploration and running combat sites brings in some immediate isk in the form of bounties and I am learning to use my drones more and getting mused to my Rupture I understand this is not real combat. Capsuleers are far more deadly than these rats. I had been attempting to be a bit more disciplined planning my skill training and actually becoming a bit more balanced and training up my support skills. These are skills that help me fly my ship a bit better like, managing my power more efficiently (capacitor), allowing me to fit different modules with less penalty (fitting), blah blah blah. Yeah it's boring. Not nearly as cool as being able to use some killer new auto cannon or getting my drones to be more deadly but this was the plan I had for the long term. Well when I saw it was going to take me two weeks to train some obscure skill I bailed on my plan. I am now at the beginning of a two week skill to improve salvaging. What's the difference? Well salvaging is my bread and butter. Salvaging is what I do to those dozen of broken pirate spaceship hulls after my Rupture has said hello. Salvaging is slow and boring, but a potentially deadly exercise. I need to be able to do it faster lest a war target find me and have me for lunch. When I finish this skill (Salvaging 5) I will be able to salvage faster and be able to salvage tech 2 ships (which I haven't yet killed I think) with a Salvager 2. Yes two weeks for this. But salvaging faster means I am less stationary and less a potential target and I can earn isk more quickly.

What next, back to my original plan. Probably not. Clearing cosmic anomalies has been fun but it is getting boring. I did do well last night clearing some 23 million isk or so in a little over an hour (luck of the drop) but I want to broaden my isk earning potential. I am needing to go further into exploration and do some cosmic signatures. These are more specialized sites that require some different skills and equipment. At my level I will need to do these sites in two different ships, one to find the sites and the other to run them. I had planned on using my Probe as the scout ship but in the middle of multiple wars, despite being able to fit a cloak, I think I need a true covert ops ship and and aiming for the Cheetah. The advantage of the Cheetah is that I can warp cloaked as well which provides much more security. So I need to figure out the right balance, how much to improve my fighting skills, specialized exploration skills, and finally fitting skills so that I can actually fly and fit the Cheetah. The Cheetah will also allow my to fly cloaked to Jita where I can finally start selling some of my loot and maybe get me to a market with better prices to buy some of the more expensive goods.

So this side track into isk earning has really put a dent into my PVP development, which is really why I am in New Eden in the first place. Such is the life of a Capsuleer, I need a day job.

Finding a Rhythum

It has been nearly two months since I have been reborn as a capsuleer. I have learned many lessons since. Joining a corporation that has been continuously at war has been frustrating but has also been a stern teacher. I settled into a routine at this point which has lately been consistently been making me small but steady amounts of isk, about a million or more isk per hour. I have run multiple fleets, which I am still horrible at, taken some classes at the Uni and slaughtered scores of Angel Cartel pilots.

As an immortal the death of these non-capsuleer pilots seems routine, nothing more than a collection of a small bounty and perhaps a chance at some decent loot from their ships shattered hulls. I did not become a capsuleer to terrorize non capsuleers, I want to take on the best. Sadly I am not yet ready and I fly afraid of war targets. It is this fear that is keeping me alive, honing me into a weapon.

I have pretty much given up with not even a whimper my idea of forming a young worm-holing group. My leadership and organizational skills leave much to be desired. Now that I have found a slow but steady pace at making isk I don't feel the need to rush into this level of risk. I am busy training up basic skills to make me a more competent pilot. I will then train so that I can fly and then fit a Cheetah, a covert ops frigate. This will take me some time and in the interim I will continue to learn and earn. Then I will stalk dark space watching and learning. Waiting for opportunity, finding opportunity. I will make my first cloaked run to Jita to unload some of the loot I have collected for the almighty isk. I will become stronger and taking larger risks again to make more isk. More isk means more power. I still have much to learn so the Uni will remain my home for a while.

My main failure has been my inability to find a group of fellow capsuleers to fly with. It is these social relationships that harden into bonds that will mature into perhaps a small new corporation. A child to be unleashed upon the great wolves of the game. For it is in null sec that I am destined. To take and then hold space. To fight against the greats in this game. Is this all a delusion?

It is hard to imagine me, a pilot who cannot yet even really fly his new cruiser taking on alliances with thousands of pilots and trillions of isk to burn. The challenge fills me.