Not all PvP involves guns

I wrote this short story a while back in response to CCP's I Was There trailer for EVE Online. I thought about doing something with it for their Eve Is Real contest, but video production is a skill set I don't have and don't have time to acquire.

Market Battle

We’d gotten word that a new alliance was getting ready to move into null sec, and that they were planning to use our home station as a jumping off point. It was an opportunity no small industrial corporation could afford to pass up.

We threw everything we had into getting ready. The station’s factories ran non-stop as we drew down our mineral reserves to build what we thought they’d need, and then hit the belts to mine more ore to feed the machines. If we weren’t mining, we were off on quick trading expeditions, selling off the few things we had extra to buy what we couldn’t mine, and the more esoteric goods we couldn’t just build.

We got the station’s market stocked just before the main body arrived. Initial sales were good. We’d picked the right lines to concentrate on. But we knew we couldn’t stop now.

My partner took off for Jita in her Badger to pick up more supplies. I got back in my Hulk and headed for one of the few nearby belts we hadn’t already stripped.

I had a new recruit with me. He has too green to be able to fly any kind of barge, or even an Itty Five. But he could fly a Mark Four, and that was enough to keep up with as long as he didn’t waste too much time in port.

We’d been at it for a couple of hours when he came back from the station with horrible news. An outsider had brought in a freighter full of modules and small ships and he was undercutting our most profitable lines. It was our nightmare scenario.

I couldn’t afford to stop mining. Our mineral stocks were already dangerously low. I was going to have to check all our open sale orders against the market and adjust the prices where we’d been underbid. All while continuing to creep through the belt and keeping my mining lasers running.

The kid couldn’t help. Even if he’d had the roles to modify corporate market orders, he didn’t have the skills to do it without sitting in station and I needed him to keep hauling. If he didn’t I’d be getting can flipped by bored pilots in ships we’d just sold them. A few of them had already been eyeballing me.

It took over an hour to run through our order list. When I was done, I started a second pass just to be safe. It soon became clear that our rival was still in the area. He’d matched my price cuts with his own. I was forced to make further cuts.

The price war waged for hours. I’d make a 0.01 ISK move match it. We mainly battled over the faster selling lines, but I couldn’t afford to let my other orders go unwatched. I was watching our profits get eaten up by broker fees, but I couldn’t give up the fight. If we didn’t get those sales we’d have a hard time paying the rent on our offices.

Finally the enemy cracked. An hour passed without a price change, then two. I relaxed a bit, but I knew I’d have to stay vigilant. He could come back any time to resume the fight.