12.22.2007

Agent Extravaganza

I spoke with the agent for a few minutes and found out that she had a job for me and pending a successful completion of that job may have more for me. The job was pretty straight forward, she wanted me to go rough up a group of pirates that have been harassing her companies miners. I accepted and went through with the job.

I assaulted the pirates and returned with news of success. Upon informing the agent of my success, she sent me off to go see another agent who would give me a couple missions to start me out. This new agent however, was not in this system, she was several systems away, and when i asked how I was supposed to get to her, the Jump Gate was explained to me. The idea is fascinating, linking several systems together with a massive relay system that would allow someone to travel across the universe in a couple hours. I asked where I could find the jump gate and the route I could take to get to my destination, but the agent simply told me to ask my pods AI to show me a system map for the gate destination and a galaxy map for a route. Won't i ever be rid of Aura?

A few hours later I arrived at my destination and proceeded to locate my new agent. She gave me job after job which I completed for several rewards. The most common was a money reward, but in two instances I got ships. I now have a Slasher class frigate and a Breacher class frigate. I personally prefer the Slasher. The sequence of jobs had to do with removing a pirate outpost in the system, which was easier than I thought it would be. During a few of the missions, the pirates tried to convince me to join them, which I think I might do. I think I might take them up on that offer, if I can ever find their head quarters.

Upon completing these missions, I talked to some locals on the local comm channel. After talking with them, I heard how most systems are monitored by concord, and any aggressive acts that are unprovoked will result in a near instant loss of ship. This space I determined would not be the best environment for a pirate. I also found out how there are systems that concord them selves will not monitor, they will leave it up to sentry turrets at stations and jump gates. this seems more ideal as it offers a false sense of security while allowing me to avoid the law. The most intriguing was the mention of the lawless space. It was mentioned that this has no security beyond what is provided by the corporations out there. It struck me that this is probably the most dangerous space but the mentions of riches sounds like it could be the most profitable. I think I will be heading out to the low security systems after this log entry. hopefully tomorrow me and my slasher will begin my piracy career.

12.20.2007

A Delayed Response

After a solid minute and a half of weapon systems firing, the ship took out a grand total of two percent of my shields, while I removed one hundred percent of his shield, armor, and hull leaving a floating pile of debris. Why would a ship that looks equivalent be so easy to take out? I would find my answer as I flew by the debris. A chunk of the ships hull floated by my into one of my monitors view and on it very clearly was written, "Minmatar Republic Fleet Trainer". My first victory was thrilling for the thirty seconds it took me to find out that I was fighting a restricted computer in a weakened ship, where is the excitement in that.

I fiddled with the controls until I found the sensor commands. Once I gained control of my sensors, I located the nearest station warped into the docking lanes and swiftly docked my ship. Boy was it a relief to be able to exit my pod and wash off all that goo. I wandered around the station for a bit stretching my legs and looking for possible jobs. I can already tell money is going to be a valuable resource in my affairs. I spoke to some locals and was told to look for some agents in a local lounge, so that's where I would head.

As I approached the entrance, I heard someone say something loudly in my ear, "Skill training completed." I jumped and spun around yelling "Holy Hubbard, did you have to yell?" and to my surprise, no one was there. I wondered where that noise come from when suddenly the same person said "From your mind." The realization of the situation settled in and I screamed "NOOOOOOOO!!!! I thought I got rid of you."

"Sorry Billy, I am in your head, what you thought my core in your pod was actually a stability gyro."

"Dammit. Alright, what do you mean by 'Skill training completed'?" I asked the annoying AI.

"The informational upload of the skills and knowledge of Electronics volume three are done."

That explained why I was understanding new things about electronics. So I asked the next logical question, "How do I change what skills and knowledge I am uploading, and how many volumes are there?"

"You can either tell me directly what you want to start on, or you can go back to you pod to see a list of current books available to you. If you would like to purchase new books you can purchase them in the markets and upload them to your pod to be 'Trained' later."

"Thank you for that information. Commence upload of Electronics volume four."

"Skill upload commenced, estimated upload completion in two days four hours fifty six minutes and two seconds."

That sounded good to me, so I said thank you and kindly asked Aura to leave me alone till I got back to my pod. After she said goodbye I blinked my eyes and found myself in the lounge sitting in a chair in front of a table. On the other side sat a man in a business suit. "Are you back with me now?" he asked. Hopefully my body's auto pilot sat me in front someone that can give me a job.

12.16.2007

First Blood

After looking through my pods complex monitor system, I discovered I was in the middle of space. I found that odd and discomforting. As I thought about it I tried to remember if I got drunk last night, but for the life of me could not remember anything that happened before I found myself in this pod. I decided to not let that derail the experience of being a pod pilot, so I set off to see what my frigate could do.

As I looked at the controls, I realized that I have no idea how to pilot a starship. I thought to myself "Hmmm... maybe I should let that stupid AI go through it's introduction on starship controls." I plugged her back in and immediately heard that same annoying two tone voice saying "Hello, I am Aura" and swiftly unplugged her again. I think I'd rather mine veldspar than listen to that voice. How hard could flying a starship be anyway?

I looked around the pod for some sort of controls but soon discovered that all that was in my pod were displays. So how do I control this thing? I though about how I could possibly get my ship to move. I then noticed a sticky stuck on my monitor that said "Point and click" Could the controls possibly be that simple? Only way to find out is to try. I moved my cursor to the area in space I wanted to fly and clicked. My ship suddenly shuddered and started moving, accelerating to full speed in a matter of seconds. Easy enough I thought, now what is this red cross in front of me?

I tried to remember back to my training when I again realized I can't remember anything past the pod. I'll assume that it is something I can shoot, seems how red usually means bad... that or I will just destroy my chance for dinner tonight. I navigated towards the red cross until it became clear of what it was. It was another ship. I figured out how to lock on to the ships signature radius and decided to orbit the ship at one kilometer. At that point it began to fire upon me. How do I Use my weapon systems? I noticed little icon of a gun and thought "Maybe that will do it." so I clicked it, sure enough, my frigate started firing back. I also noticed what looked like a laser icon right next to the gun and thought "A laser, that would be awesome to use." so I clicked that icon to. Instead of the sight of lasers firing from my ship I was greeted with a small little pop up that informed me that I can not mine another ship, I can only mine asteroids.

Who the hell puts mining lasers on a pirate frigate? I decided after I kill this ship my first objective would be to get a second turret to arm my frigate with, but that will come later. for now I am going to work on blowing up this other ship.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

Today, December 16th, is the beginning of the rest of my life. Through a chance of fate I am one of the "Elite" Pod Pilots. I have joined the few, the proud, and apparently slimy and sticky. With this pod I can single handedly control my new Reaper class frigate. It's not much, but it is a start. With this new ship I will...

Who was that... Who is in my ship.

Who the hell are you Aura? My Pod's AI... What is an AI?

Artificial Intelligence? Your not going to be telling me what to do, I am pulling your plug right now.

Sorry about the interruption, there was this crazy two toned voice trying to tell me what to do and how to fly my ship. She won't be doing that anymore, I cut the speaker wires. When I get out of this pod I will be locating the AI core and tearing it out of this small little pod, stupid AI.

Back to what I was saying, with this new ship, my Reaper class frigate, I will amass a small fortune to upgrade to a Rifter class frigate as soon as possible. I plan to acquire my fortune through piracy, but first things first, where am I?