Yeah, so, they buggered off. Literally, never showed up. We had guns and ships and pilots and were ready for this mega epic dust up between them and us and all our allies. The field was set, the banners were flying, the battle plans drawn up, and the pilots were rearing to go. Turns out, they decided they wanted to go beat the drums of war elsewhere.
In the end, though, we did lose our space station. Not due to the German corp blowing it up, but due to some opportunists in the area. Remember those station and gate campers in Futzchag? Yeah, they blew it up. Apparently someone told them or they happened to spot the thing being reinforced and came and blew it up when we weren't looking. It was a blow, but not a huge loss. That station was primarily used to harvest some planetary materials from time to time and to do chemical reactions to make stuff. We can build a new one, so it's not a huge deal.
We did, however, retaliate for the station and custom station attacks against us from the Germans. We hit and destroyed their small station in system. Wasn't much there, but the message was, we hope, very clear. Now, it's just watching for them in low security systems and killing them there.
The funny thing is, I was mining the day after the fighting was supposed to go down. I was in an asteroid belt in Gamis, just mining away and passing the time to gain the minerals to go and build more warships when I happened to open up my scanners and spotted something odd. A control tower was within scan range with the name "Rostnagel." Control towers anchor player owned space stations, putting up a force field and letting the user anchor structures to produce and manufacture and other things. I tried hitting up @Siobhan Kerrigan, but she wasn't online it seems. I needed a translation for the name Rostnagel because I wasn't fully sure it was German or some weird eastern European dialect.
Ended up doing some research, but most translations were giving me variations of the term "Rust Nail" which sounded... off. Sat back, mulled it over, then realized that the station in question was from a faction that colored most things gold or white. Control towers look just like a floating spike in space and, if this one was yellow and white, it'd look a bit like a rusty nail in space. With that logic, I jumped up, informed the corporation CEO that the German corp may have a station in Gamis, and got to work.
About fifteen minutes of scanning with a group of scan probes and I'd found about six player owned stations (POS) in Gamis. Most were from corporations I'd never heard of before and looked old and inactive. Others were active, but no one was home right then. Then I found what I was looking for: Rostnagel. Dropped in about 100km off the station and poked around a bit. Sure enough, it was owned by Steel Eagle. It was also active, the forcefield was on, and it was more heavily defended than the one in the other system, Kuharah. By "more heavily defended" I really mean "has three or four guns on it rather than the one gun the other had."
I dropped a corporate bookmark, tossed the CEO a message, and went back to go mining. Not like I could take on a POS on my own, much less in high security where Concord would show up and kill me, being the space police they are. I'll let the Corp decide if a war declaration is worth the money to kill them.
After that, I putzed around and mined some more, eventually getting to the point where I was real punchy and loopy while mining. Apparently between fatigue, lack of sleep, lack of caffeine, and mining for... about four hours straight, you find the sweet spot of L, O, and L. Wound up singing Space Oddity in Local chat. Even had some folks join in for a few lines. Good fun.
Well, then I wizened up and dumped yet another hold of ore and minerals into the station. Loaded up the Susan Constant (my big hauler) with the stuff and hauled it out to the factory two systems over. Dropped that off, figured it was quiet enough to risk a little scouting, and hopped in the Sir Robin (my little shuttle that Jon made).
I ran all the way out to a trade hub that I'd found a Battlecruiser BPO in and bought. Remember the BPOs? Blueprints you can build from indefinitely. Frigging amazing stuff. Anyways, I had one there, but at nearly half a billion in isk worth, I was hesitant to move it at all. I landed in system, searched the map, and found a research station nearby. The entire route was high security and, therefore, safer than low security. Probably.
To make sure, I stayed in my little shuttle and made the jumps out to the new system. The entire way there was uneventful, no one shot at me, no one really even messed with me. The destination was quiet and no one was causing trouble. So, with all that in mind, I decided it was worth the risk.
I hauled tail back to where I had the BPO stashed, loaded it up, took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and undocked. I ran, screaming, the entire way to the research facility. Figure out why my shuttle has the name it has yet?
Made it safely, no problems. Did my little victory dance of joy... well, more like a jig, really... and threw the BPO straight into the laboratory. Set it to make a single BPC worth ten runs of the battlecruiser and decided maybe I could get a few more BPOs out this way, too.
I scouted the route between the station and my factory area near Gamis and found that it, too, was empty and probably safe. Tossed in the BPOs for a Rifter, a Venture, and a Thorax (a tier/tech 1 frigate, the basic mining frigate, and a Gallente cruiser known for being a blaster boat. It's also a favorite of Larraq's, so I know he'll buy them). Put them in the station and set them to research in time efficiency and material efficiency. I'll leave them here and research them, periodically making Blueprint Copies to haul out to my factory to manufacture with less materials and time rather than the full time and costs.
After that, I ran back to my factory station, logged off, and hit the rack. I heard later that the German corp shot at another customs station, but I'm not worried. We'll punch them in the face soon enough. Again.
For now, I have rest, relaxation, posting, and industry to do.
In the end, though, we did lose our space station. Not due to the German corp blowing it up, but due to some opportunists in the area. Remember those station and gate campers in Futzchag? Yeah, they blew it up. Apparently someone told them or they happened to spot the thing being reinforced and came and blew it up when we weren't looking. It was a blow, but not a huge loss. That station was primarily used to harvest some planetary materials from time to time and to do chemical reactions to make stuff. We can build a new one, so it's not a huge deal.
We did, however, retaliate for the station and custom station attacks against us from the Germans. We hit and destroyed their small station in system. Wasn't much there, but the message was, we hope, very clear. Now, it's just watching for them in low security systems and killing them there.
The funny thing is, I was mining the day after the fighting was supposed to go down. I was in an asteroid belt in Gamis, just mining away and passing the time to gain the minerals to go and build more warships when I happened to open up my scanners and spotted something odd. A control tower was within scan range with the name "Rostnagel." Control towers anchor player owned space stations, putting up a force field and letting the user anchor structures to produce and manufacture and other things. I tried hitting up @Siobhan Kerrigan, but she wasn't online it seems. I needed a translation for the name Rostnagel because I wasn't fully sure it was German or some weird eastern European dialect.
Ended up doing some research, but most translations were giving me variations of the term "Rust Nail" which sounded... off. Sat back, mulled it over, then realized that the station in question was from a faction that colored most things gold or white. Control towers look just like a floating spike in space and, if this one was yellow and white, it'd look a bit like a rusty nail in space. With that logic, I jumped up, informed the corporation CEO that the German corp may have a station in Gamis, and got to work.
About fifteen minutes of scanning with a group of scan probes and I'd found about six player owned stations (POS) in Gamis. Most were from corporations I'd never heard of before and looked old and inactive. Others were active, but no one was home right then. Then I found what I was looking for: Rostnagel. Dropped in about 100km off the station and poked around a bit. Sure enough, it was owned by Steel Eagle. It was also active, the forcefield was on, and it was more heavily defended than the one in the other system, Kuharah. By "more heavily defended" I really mean "has three or four guns on it rather than the one gun the other had."
I dropped a corporate bookmark, tossed the CEO a message, and went back to go mining. Not like I could take on a POS on my own, much less in high security where Concord would show up and kill me, being the space police they are. I'll let the Corp decide if a war declaration is worth the money to kill them.
After that, I putzed around and mined some more, eventually getting to the point where I was real punchy and loopy while mining. Apparently between fatigue, lack of sleep, lack of caffeine, and mining for... about four hours straight, you find the sweet spot of L, O, and L. Wound up singing Space Oddity in Local chat. Even had some folks join in for a few lines. Good fun.
Well, then I wizened up and dumped yet another hold of ore and minerals into the station. Loaded up the Susan Constant (my big hauler) with the stuff and hauled it out to the factory two systems over. Dropped that off, figured it was quiet enough to risk a little scouting, and hopped in the Sir Robin (my little shuttle that Jon made).
I ran all the way out to a trade hub that I'd found a Battlecruiser BPO in and bought. Remember the BPOs? Blueprints you can build from indefinitely. Frigging amazing stuff. Anyways, I had one there, but at nearly half a billion in isk worth, I was hesitant to move it at all. I landed in system, searched the map, and found a research station nearby. The entire route was high security and, therefore, safer than low security. Probably.
To make sure, I stayed in my little shuttle and made the jumps out to the new system. The entire way there was uneventful, no one shot at me, no one really even messed with me. The destination was quiet and no one was causing trouble. So, with all that in mind, I decided it was worth the risk.
I hauled tail back to where I had the BPO stashed, loaded it up, took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and undocked. I ran, screaming, the entire way to the research facility. Figure out why my shuttle has the name it has yet?
Made it safely, no problems. Did my little victory dance of joy... well, more like a jig, really... and threw the BPO straight into the laboratory. Set it to make a single BPC worth ten runs of the battlecruiser and decided maybe I could get a few more BPOs out this way, too.
I scouted the route between the station and my factory area near Gamis and found that it, too, was empty and probably safe. Tossed in the BPOs for a Rifter, a Venture, and a Thorax (a tier/tech 1 frigate, the basic mining frigate, and a Gallente cruiser known for being a blaster boat. It's also a favorite of Larraq's, so I know he'll buy them). Put them in the station and set them to research in time efficiency and material efficiency. I'll leave them here and research them, periodically making Blueprint Copies to haul out to my factory to manufacture with less materials and time rather than the full time and costs.
After that, I ran back to my factory station, logged off, and hit the rack. I heard later that the German corp shot at another customs station, but I'm not worried. We'll punch them in the face soon enough. Again.
For now, I have rest, relaxation, posting, and industry to do.