Day 530

Entry: five hundred thirty.

Today I was thinking about my life as a capsuleer. Honestly, it's hard to think as far back as my first days, even harder to think beyond that. However, this being the sum of my experiences, I will endeavor in the future to log and back enter my pre-capsuleer and early capsuleer experiences. Upon final compilation of this journal, this will no doubt be but a footnote referencing when I decided to do this.

It's a little humbling to think about all the experiences I've had since becoming immortal. I worked for Quafe and Brutor in my early career, joined a capsuleer corporation which attempted to become an economic power but failed, and was a miner for a brief period.

Shortly after working for Brutor under the guise of this capsuleer corporation, I and several corpmates ventured into w-space. We experienced difficult yet profitable ISK generation, combat, and gained more in those three months than we had gained in six in hi-sec by far.

After three months of w-space, we returned to k-space. A month later, the corporation I was a part of at the time dissolved, and the CEO went planetside. Those I had lived in w-space with formed a new corporation and we began the business of griefing.

We didn't last long as griefers. Our hearts weren't in it, but we had good times when the combat was available. I earned some man card points with the group, however, for chasing down and killing war targets in Amarr space. Normally, that in itself doesn't earn man-card points. However, the Amarr Imperial Navy was hunting me as I was hunting targets, and even engaged and attempted to destroy me while I assaulted the targets.

About a month into the griefing business, we had gotten tired of it. At the same time, I was approaching a two month-two skill plan: Logistics five and Battlecruiser five. To be brutally honest, I was also experiencing some burnout. Between regular logging, research on targets, and gate games and station games, I was exhausted.

I took a two month planetside leave of absence. Instead of hunting, logging, and researching space-combat, I took on a new course of study: strategy. Previous attempts, successes, and failures had largely been based on one or two step planning with a heavy emphasis on brute force or extreme stealth. The study of strategy planetside led me to learn the importance of positioning, reinforcement timing, advance and retreat maneuvers, and the importance of variation.

On my return, we joined a zero-zero corporation that was part of an alliance. The alliance at the time was a pet, but by now is probably a full member of the Deklein Coalition. In zero-zero, I got my first real taste of how what I learned planetside applied in space.

There were many CTAs, many small roaming gangs. I had established a good foundation on my leave, but now I was learning specifics. I was learning particular fitting schemes, small gang fits, fleet fits, fleet strategies, maneuvering, scouting, hotdropping, and target prioritization. It was a lot to take in all at once. I learned much of it quickly, and through some lost assets, other very important lessons regarding survival in zero-zero when solo.

Just as I was getting a concrete layout of the region, so that I could begin a new challenge, fleet command, our corporation changed alliances and regions. I started over learning the new region while still expanding on previous lessons in relation to combat. I began developing new fits to deal with problems I saw arise, and making ISK on the off time.

And then, after I learned the region, I found myself unsatisfied with my corporation. We had different goals and different timezones we were active. I was mostly solo, and I was having a difficult time rationalizing staying. I made the decision to change corporations, and joined what is my current corporation at the time of this recording: Militaris Industries.

It's been perhaps a month since I've joined them. I find myself enjoying this corporation and its members far more than my previous corporation however, as I tend to be active when they are. Also very important is the new alliance. They, like myself, decided their previous alliance was a bad fit for them, and left to join Cascade Imminent. I find myself in line with much of Cascade Imminent's modus operandi: zero-zero griefing and combat.

The thing I disliked about hi-sec combat was the ease of it. By and large, it wasn't a challenge, and being a small corporation of five at the time, we could not challenge many corporations. On top of that, I was forcing combat on someone completely unprepared. It was like being a soldier who killed civilians. It was plain boring, unfulfilling, unchallenging, and not worth any effort.

Being in zero-zero, everything is different. Everyone out there is prepared to fight, willing to take risks, willing to be bold. Kingdoms rise and fall based on the politics and the ISK. The station games of hi-sec are largely non-existent, and locking down entire solar systems or regions is entirely possible.

From what I've gathered about Cascade Imminent, it's an alliance of almost all combat pilots, with a small but substantial industrial backbone. As an alliance, we own a few systems so that we can recoup ISK we've spent on military efforts. Our operational scheme is largely to leave on deployment for a period of time, engaging in as much combat as possible, inflict as much damage or sovereignty loss as possible, and then return home for a brief period to earn ISK.

I think I'm going to enjoy the times ahead.

Computer: terminate recording.