The Best Revenge, Part 17

Previously, on MinerBumping... Becoming nullsec's most influential leader isn't easy. It's not cheap, either. aiva naali's dream of rising to power in the Imperium and leading fleets against Pandemic Horde required him to give large amounts of isk to Agent Aiko Danuja and others. Somewhere along the way, all aiva had was a freighter. He had to give that up, too.

Agent Eva Erdmann graciously accepted aiva's freighter. Yet he was suspicious of the one-time anti-Code "king pin", so he put aiva to the test. Would aiva caution Eva about traveling through Uedama?

aiva flunked the test. He was still, at his core, a rebel.

Without the benefit of the Code, aiva was destined to suffer more losses.

As the weeks went on, aiva found himself trapped in a vicious cycle--one primarily characterized by losing ships and handing money to various individuals for "security fees".

From time to time, aiva sent me updates on his progress. He hoped each time that he would receive an encouraging reply from the Saviour of Highsec.

So far, aiva's EVEmails had been met only by silence. However, he had plenty of other Agents to keep him entertained.

aiva partnered with Aiko Danuja to carry out a convoluted double-bluff against Pandemic Horde spies.

The "spies" were left in confusion.

Still mired in the interminable Goon security clearance process, aiva (writing as "quantum" on Discord) prepared for the next phase of his master plan. As usual, it involved Rorquals.

aiva's friends in the New Order were vital to his agenda. He wanted to spend a large amount of money on skill injectors and skillbooks, but he didn't want to be wasteful.

Rather than making shopping trips to Jita, aiva decided to delegate his personal economy to Aiko and friends. He would give them the isk in advance, and they would ensure that aiva was supplied with everything he needed.

Luckily, the Agents of the New Order are elite traders. They could gather up all the items on aiva's wish list at the very best prices.

...Which was a good thing, since aiva had a voracious appetite.

To be continued...

The Best Revenge, Part 16

Previously, on MinerBumping... Firmly ensconced in his armchair, aiva naali took command of all the military forces of the Imperium. He outlined his plans to destroy Pandemic Horde, but he did not direct the Imperium's fleets in person. Instead, he left it to Agent Aiko Danuja to keep him updated on events. And aiva updated the Saviour of Highsec.

We now return to aiva's update, already in progress.

Always a miner first, aiva focused on Pandemic Horde's industrial capacity. He aimed to dismantle PH industry piece by piece. His latest secret weapon: the "trafic warden".

aiva had plenty of other tricks up his sleeve, too. Yet another secret weapon, simply code-named "the bee", would be instrumental to the Imperium's success. However, aiva feared revealing any details about the bee via EVEmail. It was possible that PH had hacked into the EVE network and was reading his private messages.

aiva was extremely optimistic about the future. One reason for that was his new Rorqual.

Oh, and some stuff about Phoenixes. But let us return to the wonderful Rorqual.

Ever since aiva's biomassed former character lost a fail-fit Rorqual in lowsec, aiva dreamed of getting himself back into a Rorqual.

But the road to Rorqual ownership would not be an easy one. Rorquals do not grow on trees.

Luckily for aiva, he had some friends who were willing to help him attain Rorqual ownership.

Nevertheless, even friends must get paid. Goon security checks aren't inexpensive.

aiva often found himself being forced to summon his legendary persistence. 'Twas the only way forward.

No matter what happened, aiva always managed to land on his feet; there would always be at least one ship left in his hangar. For instance, at one point, all aiva had was a Charon.

As I said, he had a Charon.

To be continued...

Kills of the Week

Each week's Kills of the Week post is, in a way, a medical check-up for highsec. We examine the highsec population to see whether they're sick. And so many are sick; they have been diagnosed with bot-aspirancy. Ganking the bot-aspirants is a time-honoured method of treating them. The following are some of our patients from the week of November 17th @ 00:00 EVEtime through November 23rd @ 23:59 EVEtime. Let us hope they get well soon.

KILLMAIL

Late last week, Wozzlebatneoclone Breau was caught in a 682 million isk Covetor. As you might expect, Agents were dispatched to kill him, namely Agents D34dly D34dly, Davina Mustaine, and Super Perforator. What's the point of a blingy Covetor? Do they think they're less conspicuous than blingy Mackinaws?

KILLMAIL

For whatever reason, Kaiwen1 voluntarily chose to engage in combat with Agents Krig Povelli and Vishnu Calm, who both piloted Triglavian assault frigates. Perhaps Kaiwen1 believed that since his ship was "bigger" it must prevail. How wrong he was. His fail-fit capacitor-tanked monstrosity soon fell to our Agents.

KILLMAIL

Bagodan has become a graveyard for Deep Space Transports. But nobody told Arkane Auscent, and the carebear wasn't interested in finding out. He was educated in the matter by Agents Ukira Kunero and Ariku Orenuk, whose Tornadoes made short work of the bot-aspirant. Just think of it--7 billion isk housed in a ship like that!

KILLMAIL

Another 7 billion isk DST stepped up to the plate: Madame Zoey Hummblaster, too, was found utterly AFK in Bagodan. Agents Rante Charante, Vlada Inkunen, Ukira Kunero, Ariku Orenuk, and Zhung Fei each got on the kill to inspect carebear's contraband.

Looks like a nullsec criminal to me. Why must they disturb highsec?

KILLMAIL

Strange as it may seem, the unlicensed hauler pilots are so desperate that some have resorted to the use of frigates. Dmitry123 Pupkin autopiloted over a billion isk of cargo only to be stopped dead in his tracks by Agent Aaaarrgg. Thrashers don't only kill pods, you know.

KILLMAIL

Thrashers also kill Hecates and, yes, their pods, too. Tarina Xen was blapped and then deprived of her implants by Agent Misha Mawashi. It cost her a 2.5 billion isk pod and whatever respect she thought she had.

Imagine autopiloting this stuff into Uedama. How many losses must be suffered by carebears until they care?

Highsec Miner Grab Bag #197

You know, there's a lot of negativity in the EVE community of late. People point to all of the high-profile devs who have left CCP in recent years and say that the game is dying--that CCP is dying. Not so. In fact, CCP still has lots of employees...

...And apparently they're all highsec miners. Welcome to another edition of the Highsec Miner Grab Bag!

Is that a threat of terrorism? On the bright side, CCP may have already cancelled whatever event the miner is referring to. Still, I wonder what's wrong with this Jmyotis fellow?

Jmyotis eventually traced the source of the Code to highsec's Saviour. He sent me some harsh words. But, to his credit, he changed his mind and sent a revised EVEmail ten minutes later:

He was still angry, of course--and still losing mining ships. For example:

Jmyotis is a Goofus.

People find it relaxing to kill miners, though.

Yes, there is an ETA on this, but I have a feeling you won't like it.

I've been getting a lot of reimbursement requests from hauler pilots these days. Since they come from Code violators, they keep getting rejected. But since I am in an especially generous mood, I have decided to grant one of these requests at random. Solomon Iskander is a lucky carebear! Before I send him the isk, there is but one formality to take care of--looking at Solomon's bio. That won't take more than a moment, and then he'll have his money...

Tsk. Reimbursement request denied.

Miners can be a proud bunch, crediting themselves with gathering the resources for all of EVE's ships and modules. At other times, they refer to themselves as low-hanging fruit.

Ranzin Yumanizer is among the lowest of the hanging fruit.

"I wasn't AFK, I was just away from my keyboard..."

After being ganked, dascouch Pappotte vowed never again to use a bad fit for his ships. And miners say that we don't teach them how to play the game.

Silly miners. On the one hand, they say we're chasing everyone away from the game and threatening CCP with bankruptcy. On the other hand, they think everyone in the New Order will get bored and quit the game before they do.

This game is EVE. And today, EVE belongs to those who obey the Code.