The Rifter Story

This is my entry to the Inspired By Images Of Eve Competition 3. More details and links to all entrants can be found at Starfleet Comms.

This isn't really about a Rifter. It's a about a same-account alt who, naturally, doesn't realize that she's a same account alt. Based on a true story.

The Rifter Story

It was a Rifter that killed my Badger.

I can’t say it was unexpected. Nourbal is the first stop on my planetary materials collection route for a reason. It’s the one low sec system where I’m working a planet, so starting there minimizes the potential loss. It was still a shock at the time, since I’d been making my run every few days for close to a year without incident, and definitely a bit frustrating.

I think I need to back up a few steps for my groundside audience and explain that not all capsuleers are equal. In theory, maybe, and there’s that long list of things any of us can do that other people can’t. Potential  isn't always realized. In my case…let’s just say I wasn’t at the top of my class to begin with and I didn’t exactly set the galaxy on fire with my initial missions. After that, I spent some time relaying prices and got podded a few times scouting gates for people. Eventually I landed a gig handling planetary production for a small time mining and ship building concern in Khanid. Nothing too demanding, I just had to adjust extractor positions and reset timers once a day and then collect the output a couple of times a week. I got a fancy title and some space time, but basically I was office help. A step up from waiting tables at Jita 4-4, but not much of one.

The reason this matters to my story is that my job didn’t come with much of a training budget. I got the skills I had to have to fly my hauler and manage my planets, but that was about it for over a year. I’ve got to tell you, there’s nothing more aggravating than having your boss explain that he can’t spare the resources to give you any training time right before he impulse buys a fancy new Tech 2 ship and the skills to fly it. When I did get to do some training, it was just so I could run copy jobs at the corporate research starbase. Like I said, the office girl.

Which brings us back to my poor Badger. I got the ship as soon as I had the skills to fly it and before I’d really trained any of the skills to actually fit it. I did have a chance to learn some basic shield tanking and navigation, but somehow the boss never remembered to pass along any modules once I did have the skills. So when this Rifter showed up at the customs shed while I was doing my business there wasn’t much I could do.

Nourbal’s a fairly quiet system. Just the one gate, no stations. I sometimes see cyno fields active there but most of the traffic seems to be explorers and casual belt patrols. A lot of the time I’m the only one in the local comm channel. Still, it’s low sec so I’d worked out a minimum time routine for handling my one low sec planet early on. Jump in, warp to the customs office, have the goods sent up from the planet while in warp, transfer then to my cargo as soon as I was in range, and then warp back to the gate with my autopilot set to jump immediately.

It was just an ordinary day. I jumped in and saw one other pilot in local. Warped to the customs office as usual, made the transfers. As I moved the stuff into cargo, I saw a ship appear on my overview and instantly turn red.  I tried warping out, but the Rifter warp scrambled me before I could align and opened fire. My shields started to fail. Slowly. I had time to look up the pilot in the Concord database. From her age, it was quite possible she was even less skilled than I was. For a moment, I thought the Badger might be able to tank him even without any modules fitted, but no such luck. There was no way I was going to outrun her either. It was clear I wasn’t going to be getting out of this intact, but it wasn’t going to be over all that soon either. I thought about it. She was a young Amarr, flying a Minmatar frigate. It was highly unlikely that she could pilot a Caldari industrial. With that in mind, when she finally got me into armor, I ejected and warped my capsule to the gate. As I flew off, I broadcast a message that I was bored because she was taking so long to kill my ship. She responded with a frowning face and a promise to do better next time.

Once I was back in the relative safety of Keberz I reported in. The boss sent me off to Agil to buy a new Badger. He contracted me a couple of warp core stabilizers and the makings of a modest buffer tank. Told me to work on my situational awareness and that he’d see about getting me trained to fit shield resistance amplifiers “soon.”

I really need to find a new job.

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.