So busy

It's been a long time since I last wrote about what's going on. That's because so MUCH has been going on! I haven't even had a chance to fart, let alone write about it!

So anyway, I got this idea to start a new corp that would be completely focused on industrial activity, and use shares investments to help it make money. Half the corp would move to the new corp to mine and build and make lots of ISK, while the other half would stay with Black Scorpion and focus on hunting pirates, nothing else. Financial support would come from the industrial corp, of which Black Scorpion (myself) would be a majority shareholder.

It didn't work out that way though.

First, we cleared out all the inactive members, those that hadn't been on for over a month and hadn't been part of corp activities. That got rid of about 50% of the corp. Wow.

Then we had some issues with the alliance, and some of the members left to go their own way. The majority of the remainder voted to leave the alliance, which was something I agreed with. So we left the alliance.

Those that didn't agree decided to leave the corp to stay within the alliance. At this point, there weren't that many left.

It was at this point that I moved countries, from New Zealand back home to Australia, and was effectively unavailable for a couple of weeks. The remainder of the corp fell apart.

Upon returning to active duty and discovering the shambles that was left, I disbanded the corp and gave it to one of the members, making him CEO. I took all the assets and started again. The legacy of Black Scorpion continues with:

Scorpion's Sting.

The reason I created a new corp instead of sticking with the old one is really quite simple, but very annoying. When I first created Black Scorpion I didn't understand how shares worked. I thought that the more shares we had, the better. Boy, was I wrong. But after creating another 100,000 shares, it made the corp worthless for shareholder investment, with any dividends being a miniscule amount.

CCP don't allow for any reduction in shares, so it left only one choice - start again. So I did.

Scorpion's Sting will be run a little differently from now on. I'll use what I've learnt from the leadership of my first corp and apply it to my second corp. I intend allowing and encouraging shares ownership, and paying dividends on revenue each month. I'll also be using shares as incentives for member promotions and exceptional service, and monetary donations will receive discounted bundles of shares.

I hope to use shares as both incentive for members to have personal financial gains resulting from the fruits of their labours, and for non-members to invest in the corporation and receive their own returns, not just from the fruits of their investment, but also to help the corp grow and succeed in fighting pirates.

Obviously investors are likely to be those people who wish to have an impact on the war against pirates. They don't want to fight them themselves, but they're willing to donate their resources to assist in the war.

Shares ownership will allow all shareholders to have a say in the future plans of the corp. I'll retain majority ownership in order to avoid any bad side effects, but I'll forego my own vote and let the corp be run via the votes of the shareholders. The only time I'll step in and use my majority vote is to prevent bad things from happening to the corp, but otherwise the corp's plans and its future will be determined by shareholders.

As long as those plans are in alignment with the goals of the corp, of course! And the plans are still quite simple - to make Eve safer by fighting pirates and denying them opportunities for their own success.

So if you would like to invest in Scorpion Sting's growth and success, please contact me to find out more information and to discuss your interest.

It's going to be a hard road to build up Scorpion's Sting. However, I got Black Scorpion Ltd to about 50 members within a couple months, so I know I can do it. I just need to do it again.

The legacy of Black Scorpion continues with Scorpion's Sting, and you can continue reading about it here.

A return to old ways...

I'm tired of missions already. I did a COSMOS mission a while ago and was then refused any more until I built up my standings with the agent's corp. I've spent time - oh God, the boredom - doing some missions with other agents of the same corp, but it's slow going, and the tedium is killing me again.

My entire purpose behind doing these missions was to raise money. I realised something today. Why am I wasting time on missions that are earning me 15 loyalty points and 10,000 ISK per mission when I could be doing something NOW to earn myself MILLIONS?!

So I'm returning to something I used to do some time ago - trading.

However, I'm going to get into it in a much bigger way than I ever used to. In the past, when I was still a 'baby', I used to do more hauling than trading. Buy and sell orders? Never used them. I used to spend time buying in one place, hauling to another place and then selling. I was a hauler. But now I'm going to become a trader. A real one.

If you have any tips or advice for me, please feel free to include them in a comment. Or, if you want to provide me something that you don't want others to see, I'd be most happy for you to contact me in-game. Thanks!

Please hold...

I thought you should know that any further action on my part is delayed for the time being as I raise my standings with various corps in order to contine doing COSMOS missions. Money-making is a little slow right now, as I engage in low-level missions to build up those standings so that I can get into the more profitable missions.

And then there's been the holidays I've been on... and the upcoming xmas holidays.... and then I'll be travelling to another country to continue my life...


So please hold.... there's going to be a few delays as this story continues, but I'll notify you when I have something more exciting to talk about.

Oh, something of interest is that the war between NMTZ and TNT has ended, with both sides declaring victory.... Personally, I believe that TNT was realisticallly the victor, and any comments from NMTZ to suggest otherwise looks more like an unprofessional attempt to cover their embarrassment.

War's over, move on.

The journey to COSMOS

In this galaxy I've come across some wonderful people who are very supportive, kind and generous. Thanks to their amazing generosity, I've been able to engage in anti-pirate activities for some time now, without needing to do anything else to bring the money in. However, that time is past, and I'm now forced to return to doing what everyone else does.

To start with, I've returned to my roots, so to speak, and sought out an agent who can give me a COSMOS mission. I've heard a lot about how much money you can earn from them, so I've taken the plunge and started the ball rolling.

Yes, that's right. I'm taking a break from hunting down pirates and dodging war enemies. I can't afford to sustain the lifestyle any more, and there's only so much generosity that one can take advantage of. It's time to get my hands dirty again, with the blood of various targets that are assigned to me by the agents.

It's been a long time since I ran missions, so I'm looking forward to it. I've got a Thorax set up for long-range combat with long-range drones. I think I'm set for taking out the targets without much risk to myself. Unfortunately, due to my lack of mission-running in the past, I have to start with a level 1 COSMOS agent and work my way up.

But I'm hoping the cash will start rolling in. I think I'll continue doing it until I have at least 200 million, and then I can afford to buy an Interceptor and go back to hunting those damned pirates again.

Speaking of hunting, I've come up with an idea for my corp, just to put a bit of fun into it during these times of war (thanks to the Alliance). The enemy that's at war with the Alliance is using superior guerilla tactics, which my corp members are finding difficult to deal with. So I think I'll help take their mind off the war - and help take them away from the battlefield - by organising a "Hunt The CEO!" event.

Yep, they can hunt me down and destroy my ship. If they can, that is. Their own ship might be destroyed in return, but hey, them's the risks! The rewards, obviously, should be quite substantial too, so I'll be offering a substantial monetary reward for the destruction of my ship, as well as a free cruiser.

I've left the battlefield and travelled far in order to search out a COSMOS agent, so it's not going to be easy for them to find me. It's going to be even more difficult for them to pin me down and destroy the ship I'm flying. But it'll give them something to do that they just might enjoy.

The war that the Alliance has against TNT (Trinity Nova) has been quite interesting. The enemy, as I mentioned, use guerilla tactics with stealth bombers and ships that fly over 5 km per second. Quite amazing to see them zipping about like that. However, the enemy has avoided small fleet engagements, preferring to attack 1 or 2 ships instead, and disappearing as soon as 3 or more ships turn up. Sensible tactics, but obviously annoying.

I was able to defend myself in 1 vs 1 or me vs 2 on a few occasions, reaching stalemate situations. That was fun, until they ganged up on me with 4 or 5 against my Celestis. That wasn't so fun, being ambushed. But hey, I don't blame them, as this is war.

I finished preparing my Thorax for the COSMOS journey yesterday, and this morning I set out to find the agent I was looking for. Along the way I ran into a couple of TNT members, Ffaide and Arkaiser (I think I have that name right) who tried ambushing me at a gate again. My bookmark wasn't perfect and dropped me 7km from the gate, so it was a little hairy as I was rushing the distance to the gate while they were swooping in on me. Just as they finished establishing a lock on me, I jumped through.

Then, on the other side it was a rush for me to get to a planet before they could lock me as they jumped through. I dropped a bookmark along the way which I warped back to as soon as I reached the planet. Then I warped to another planet and dropped another bookmark along the way, which I also warped back to when I reached the planet.

I then spent about 15 minutes warping back and forth between my two 'safe spots' until they gave up searching for me, and left the system. Happy, I continued on to the COSMOS agent, finally reaching him before shutting down for the day.

Tomorrow, I'll accept my first mission and see where it leads me.

Caught with my pants down

So I was sitting on the toilet seat, minding my own business, when suddenly everything around me started shaking. Have you ever tried to 'do your business' when your ship comes under attack? Maybe you have, I dunno, but it was a first for me.

Here I am, parked in a safe spot - obviously not any more - while dealing with nature, and some nasty pirate comes knocking in the worst way possible. Yes, I was caught with my pants down...

The pod refused to close when I managed to stagger back to it, and it was a few seconds before I realised it was because of the toilet paper trailing from the back of my pants. Not a good look.

I noticed that the armour on my beloved Celestis was around 30%, and I could see I was enveloped by the energy field from the pirate's Vexor that meant I wasn't going anywhere. There were drones buzzing around, chewing away at my ship, and as I got a lock on the pirate I activated my sensor dampeners. It was too late to matter with his drones though, so while I released my own drones to engage the enemy, I tried using the rocket launchers against the drones.

Unfortunately, being caught with your pants down, as I was, usually means you're screwed. And I was indeed screwed. By the time I took out one of his drones, my Celestis disappeared around me in the explosion that I have now become used to.

With my ears ringing, I quickly activated the warp drive on the pod and went to another safe spot, before making my way to the gate to return to HQ and get another ship.

I activated the Thorax and went back to find this pirate. I wasn't sure how successful I would be, but I at least wanted to engage him with my pants tightly fastened, and no toilet paper draped from the pod. At least that was burnt off when the Celestis exploded...

He was still there in Illamur when I returned, and after some coaxing, agreed to another fight. He thought I was going to ambush him with another alliance member, but finally decided to trust me.

This time it was his Vexor vs my Thorax.

I got his armour to about 60% before my pod was again ejected from the Thorax exploding around me.

Dejected, I warped away.

I've run out of money, and have no cruisers left. I have a Tristan frigate sitting around gathering dust, which I'm now going to have to fly around for a while. Until I gather some more money again, I'm going to have to become a mission whore.

Oh, the pain....

Nerdalus

You may know him. When he was in Darkside Inc, he was one of their more active members causing us grief, which we did our best to avoid or annoy. We mostly succeeded. It seems that when the war was over and Darkside lost so much, Nerdalus left them and joined another corp.

I encountered him last week, and we fought. His Cyclone against my Celestis. It was almost close for a while, with my sensor dampeners blocking his attempts to get a lock on me, and my drones chewing into his shields and then his armour. But eventually, he won.

His EW drones twice managed to get me to drop my lock, and the second time it happened, he was able to get in close with his 3 x Medium NOS, and my cap disappeared faster than I could say, "What the....." His 425mm Medium Carbines did the rest.

I managed to get my pod away though, and from a safe spot I bowed to him for a good fight. He seemed like a decent combatant, and we agreed to meet again, with him in a cruiser the next time.

I was surprised that a pirate would offer more even odds in a future engagement, but based on his response to a couple of other recent engagements between him and some of my corp members, I feel that there's more to Nerdalus than the smacktalking facade he was guilty of in the past.

Respect.

I learnt some good lessons from the combat, however. For a start, when engaged by drones that don't seem to be doing any damage to me, start worrying. I didn't actually realise their significance until it was too late. Next time I encounter such an event, I'll try to take out the enemy drones with my weapons, while leaving my own drones to take out the enemy ship. That was my mistake in the battle with Nerdalus.

We live and learn.

The return of the Celestis

I briefly mentioned flying the Celestis in a post some time ago, The life of an adventurer. My time with that ship didn't last very long, since it was jumped by 2 battleships and a T2 cruiser and destroyed. It was never proven in a battle it could possibly win.

Until now.

A few days ago, after finishing a whole bunch of skills, I equipped the Celestis and went out hunting pirates. That is, after all, what I was born to do. The Celestis, I was led to believe, is a cruiser that is underestimated by many pilots, but its ability to cope with PVP is impressive.

One of the funny things about Molden Heath these days is that pirates are often few and far between. There used to be a time when you could find pirates in Atlar and Illamur at any time of the day, on any day of the week. But now there's hardly any!

I attribute this to the NMTZ alliance, which is heavily active in Molden Heath. With over 500 highly organised and powerful pirate hunters, Molden Heath is becoming quite... silent.

And so, as I (and my corp) hunt for pirates, all we're finding are miners and travellers. This is actually fantastic, as far as I'm concerned, because it means that the goals I created for my corp, to make Eve safer, are actually coming to pass. Admittedly it's because of the alliance, but I'm proud to be part of that and contributing to the pirates finding other systems to nest in.

Oddelulf, however, seems to be where many of them nest. Which is strange, as it's only 1 jump from Atlar... Anyway, I digress.

I found a couple of pirates, both of them in Rifters. I wasn't yet sure of my capabilities against two frigates at the same time, and so I didn't engage in combat. I did, however, help one of them - Minmatar Devil - find a corpse of one of his previous clones...

They didn't attack me, and so I departed. I'm not attacking anyone first, as I don't want my security status negatively affected. However, I came upon Minmatar Devil again in another belt, this time without his friend. We faced off against each other, neither of us attacking first, but both of us target locked. A wandering Raven entered the belt, and Devil departed, just in case. However, the Raven pilot was only looking for rats, so he departed as well.

I suggested to Devil that he might like to return and we can end this once and for all. Which he did.

He engaged, and I dampened his sensors which broke his lock. I webbed and warp scrambled him so he couldn't get away. Because he was in a frigate, I decided to 'take it easy' on him... eg. I didn't deploy the drones. As it was, my rockets quickly vaporised his ship, and his pod was left sitting there in space, looking quite forlorn.

We had a brief chat, and I found out that he was a 'weekend pirate', choosing to have fun with his secondary clone while his main clone, going by a name I can't remember right now, is actually a 'good guy'. He seemed like a decent fellow overall, so I encouraged him to turn away from the 'dark side' and hunt pirates instead of being a pirate.

I'm not sure if I got through to him, but we bowed to each other via the commlink, and parted ways.

I wasn't sure if the Rifter was a good enough test for my capabilities, so I wandered around some more. I even tried 'baiting' some pirates, offering verbal temptations for them to accept. Unfortunately, none of them were prepared to do so. There was another alliance member in the system, and they were afraid I was calling them out in order for the two of us to ambush them. Untrue, of course, but they didn't believe me.

And then Draghkar offered to duel me, which I happily accepted. They didn't have a negative sec rating, but it seemed they followed the pirating path anyway.

They showed up in a Stabber, and immediately engaged. Being able to get the first shots in, they got my shields to about 80% before my sensor dampeners engaged. This time my drones were also deployed.

Unable to get a lock on me, and being chewed up severely by my drones, they withdrew out of the range of my dampeners and my drones. They never got in range enough for me to engage the web and warp scrambler, so all we could do was play cat and mouse with each other.

Draghkar kept on trying to make a rush to get me in range of their weapons, but the range of my dampeners and drones caused them some severe problems. It was obvious if they came all the way in to get into range, they would probably be destroyed before they could engage their weapons.

It was a stalemate. Neither of us could successfully engage the other. I bowed to them, thanking them for helping me test my ship, and they left.

So overall, I'm very happy now! The training I've been doing, heading towards getting myself an Interceptor and appropriate extras, has really paid off.

I'm looking forward to further 'tests' of this Celestis. So far, I like it!