Introduction

This blog is about my character in EVE Online, a sci-fi MMORPG from CCP. In it, I'll attempt to chronicle the path of a former mission runner as he tries to make his way into piracy, and deals with the changes that it requires. Hopefully I can save some other pilots from making the mistakes I'm bound to make along the way. Many thanks to the other EVE blogs on the sidebar - veteran pirates who make it look easy!

I'll be trying out a marginally different format from other EVE pirates' blogs here. Instead of chronicling just my interesting adventures, I'm going to try to keep a running count of every kill or loss I get, and a blurb about what happened. I hope to interject other posts too, but hopefully I'll be able to look back at some point and see progress in my abilities...

My story begins - or at least, the interesting part - just a few klicks off of a stargate in low security space somewhere between the Amarr Empire and the Gallente Federation. I'm sitting in a newly-purchased Rifter-class frigate, a departure from my usual favorite, the Punisher-class frigate. Having just jumped into the system, I'm still contemplating my next move under the protection of the gate-induced cloaking field when something catches my eye. A Coercer-class destroyer is nearby, moving slowly. I begin to wonder what he's up to.

The cloaking field wears off before I realize it, and the Coercer has me targeted in no time. I know its eight pulse lasers will tear through a ship like mine.. but I know something he hasn't realized. The first pulses from his guns hit my ship.

You have foolishly engaged in criminal activity within sight of sentry guns and must suffer the consequences.

The broadcast came over the high-priority channel as the gate guns spun up. They tore through the destroyer before its guns could even fire another volley at me. I turned to my data console and looked into the pilot's employment history. A new recruit, only a few days out of flight school. I chuckled and collected what I could from the wreckage, and followed the destroyer pilot's capsule to the only station in the system.

In the station, I dumped the salvage I had retrieved into the other pilot's hangar and offered a few words of advice and an offer for a real fight outside the range of gate guns someday. He was surprised at my reaction to his attack, and asked if I was a pirate...

"Not yet."