“Then there’s us. The honest void between. The black knights of the empire’s rim.
The ronin of the borderlands.”

Copernicus Coalition. When Rettic approached me about a new venture he was working on, and explained it to me, I jumped at the opportunity to join. Microcon’s founding tenet to “Do What We Want, Because We Want To” aligns very closely with what Copernicus Coalition is striving to achieve. We are all free to do what we want to do, but loosely tied to each other in a confederation of equals, assisting each other where we need to, providing intelligence, and having a great time while doing it.

So if you’re interested, give Copernicus Coalition a look. Read our charter and see if we’re the right fit for you.

Don’t hesitate to ask any one of us any questions you might have.

Planetary Interaction essentially consists of planet based resource gathering to simply what it actually is. It is also a method by which players in game can produce a lot of what was before supplied by NPC corporations on the market. As the NPC goods slowly fade and are replaced by player made goods, there will be a shift in price and production levels, and we’ll get to see how the market is truly affected by supply and demand of the player base. It’s fascinating to me at many levels, and while a lot of people don’t like the high level of complexity, I thrive on it. Of course, I make tech II ships, so there you are.

I managed to find a couple of good systems that house a good variety of the types of planets I’d need, and figured out what I wanted to make. I focus mainly on POS fuels, as I can offset the costs and requirements for our corporation POSes that way. I’m not necessarily into selling the goods I’m making, but rather not having to purchase so much POS fuel, which works out for me well. As a side bonus, I’m making construction blocks for T2 production purposes.

At the moment I’m producing everything for POS fuels that can be made with Planetary Interaction. Now that I have my routine down, I just make a few hops around to my planets to grab exports, and I’m set. I have 1 planet that requires imports of toxic metals, but that’s relatively easy to handle.

I do have some surplus. In the diagrams here, you’ll note that some of my planets produce a lot of overage. To me that’s OK, since I can just export the overage and store it. My eventual goal is to create a 6th “factory” planet where I can have multiple processors making a variety of assorted goods, or potentially sell my overages should the market have a high demand for a particular extracted resource.

The other option is to continue to tweak my extractors to where I have minimal overage, to avoid higher export fees, but to me this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I can fill up my hauler each day and carry it one jump back to my hangar.

I’m usually importing the extra toxic metals onto the barren planet from the lava planet to assist in the production of the P2 goods there. I make an entire P3 robotics chain on the plasma planet, and everything else needed on other worlds. Note I use the barren planet as extra mechanical parts (since I use those directly in robotics manufacture now) and for enriched uranium, and I net two full planets of oxygen and coolant from the gas and storm planet. The lava planet is pretty much just an extraction facility with the bonus of making construction blocks.

Comments on my layouts and of my production chains would be a great help in tweaking things further. Things I’m working on now are a spreadsheet to calculate my production in terms of how much I have to produce to allow for supplying a POS with 3 to 4 months of fuel, and also figuring out the math behind the extraction/processing mechanics.

See examples of my planetary layouts with detailed information about each below:

UPDATE: June 28th, 2010 at 4:24PM. I wanted to add, after I have been working some numbers, that I’ve determined it’s simple to supply a small POS with fuel needs with one character based on my mix of planets. You even have enough left over to assist someone with coolant and oxygen enough for an additional large POS (these are faction types of towers by the way). However, you will lack enough uranium, mechanical parts, and robotics to supply both POSes, and you won’t make enough robotics to even supply 1 large tower based on my calculations, running extractors at 22 hour cycles. So for those of you who run POSes, it can be done, although it looks like for the larger towers, you’ll need additional corp members to assist in the fuel requirements if you run anything but a small tower. I haven’t checked on medium tower requirements.

Again, these numbers are just estimates, but they seem to be pretty close to what actual yields are.

NOTE: One of the planet images, the Barren one, has an incorrect amount for yield of Uranium. It’s supposed to be 105, not 605.

I dismissed my reverie with an imperceptible shake of my head. It wouldn’t do to fail Andriana now when we were so close to discovering the syndicate’s contact.

Agony classes are now split into two parts, a lecture, which lasts about 4 hours or so. The practical roam is on the next night which can go for 4 to 6 hours or longer depending on the action. This is different from the previous two classes I took, where the classes were bundled into one long night. It was much better this way, and also very amenable to the significant other (i.e. my wife) so I wasn’t out of commission for prime kid time (which can get quite busy with 3 kids around 7PM bedtime preparations). The class nights both kicked off at 23:59 eve time, which for me was about 8PM.

Another difference for this class was that the instructor was also our FC (fleet commander). I cannot say more good things about Caldak. He is an impressive FC with an extremely large amount of experience with spaceship combat in EvE Online. I had Caldak as FC with both my previous classes (BASIC and WOLFPACKS) so I knew what he was like already. However, both of my previous classes had a separate instructor, Dr. Oozy, who was equally well versed in the material.

Lecture: In this particular class, we weren’t treated like noobs anymore. We were expected to come to class with the experience of BASIC and WOLFPACKS training, plus any actual PVP experience we had managed to get in between the classes. Therefore, we didn’t have exact fitting guides for our ships (which were Cruiser hulls for this class). We had to bring the loadouts we thought were appropriate for our particular ships. The course materials hinted at this fact, but there really was not a lot of hand holding during class. We had some course materials provided for us, plus the previous two classes’ materials as well to review. I cannot stress enough how important the course materials are, and how detailed as well. It’s worth taking the courses just for the materials (although the roam is the best part).

Caldak went over fitting out ships for the particular bonuses, plus what the fleet had. By the end of the first night, we had learned how to evaluate ourselves and our fleet for the encounters we might face, and how our ships inter-relate to each other in combat situations. We went over different threats to the fleet, and about different concepts as they relate to how to use our ships during those threats. We went over things like active vs passive tanking, ammo selection, ship bonuses, module selection, and how to balance the fleet in terms of EWAR and in relation to the fleet concept that Agony uses (I don’t mention this concept in detail as it’s property of Agony, and they are the best at describing it). Suffice to say we went over everything that would give you an advantage in large fleet combat, including how to decide for yourself in your situation how to act and balance that with the FC’s orders.

Caldak presented in a question and answer format for most of the lecture, in an effort to involve the class in the presentation, and not make it such a one sided instructor led session. This format worked well for me, as the topics were explained in greater detail and I received a number of viewpoints from each question. He also presented a few target prioritization scenarios which I found interesting, as we were given a specific fleet composition of enemy targets and a fleet composition of our own fleet and he asked us to decide how to call targets based on what was provided. This was particularly valuable as I took away a few examples of ships that are the most dangerous and why in enemy fleets.

The final portion of the lecture night consisted of going over the fleet setups using Agony’s own fleet setup tool. With what I can only assume is custom software that someone at Agony developed, they were able to import each person’s fit and output a view of everyone’s loadout denoting what each person had in terms of critical modules, such as ewar (jammers, damps, etc.) plus shield repair modules, etc. It gave the FC the ability to look over the fleet as a whole and help balance out the fits in case specific modules were needed. This is a really cool feature of the class, and has been much improved with the new browser that was released with the Dominion expansion.

Bio breaks were given at reasonable intervals during the first night. We broke up after the fleet was balanced and were set to resume the next night at the same time.

Practical (Roam): The next night started out at the same time, and the first thing was to recheck the fleet setup tool and ensure that everyone’s fit was still valid. The FC then asked to undock and head out for low sec. Since we were in a low sec gateway system, it was only one jump to low sec space and then from there into 0.0.

One interesting thing to note was that as we were setting up to leave, TeaDaze (yes, that TeaDaze) ended up joining the fleet for the roam. It was very cool to hear his voice on vent after watching and listening to the Alliance tourney last year; he was commentator at last year’s event.

The fleet immediately went to warp and jumped into low sec. The FC was already spreading out his intel net using covops scouts and other intel groups. Interesting to note I was part of the first group to go into 0.0 as we arrived at the gate to null sec, and the FC called for my wing to go in. We jumped into a group on the gate and I lost my first ship. The fleet ended up stabilizing the situation, and there were only 3 of us that lost ships. I learned quickly that the Blackbird is a ship that is always marked as primary, as it is a jamming boat.

I headed back to the home station 3 jumps away and retrieved my next Blackbird (I brought 4 with me) and headed back out. The fleet was actually docked up and waiting nearby, and then we headed out again from there.

A few more systems, and some interesting FC work later we had some juicy targets. Caldak had sent a couple of wings out to surrounding systems in an attempt to drive targets to our main fleet. We ended up getting a smaller group of ships caught by our tackle, and we made short work of two Nighthawks. I was happy with the outcome, even with a loss of my own ship right off the bat. Bear in mind my ship was far less ISK than the two Nighthawks. There was a small incident with someone in class shooting wrecks and the instructor getting very upset with them, but other than that everyone in class was very coordinated and did what they needed to considering the size of the fleet. It was a testament to the FC’s ability to keep things organized.

We took some more time with coordination of fleet, and some more FC work, and by then for me it was getting quite late. So I decided to call it an evening. I found out later that the roam went on for many more hours after (which is typical of Caldak’s roams – they can be quite long), and some nifty targets were had.

All in all I had a good time, and it was great experience. I definitely support Agony in their classes, and I hope they keep doing them. I was very impressed with the professional classes and materials provided, and it was worth every single ISK. Will I take another one? I daresay I will. I’m hoping for Covops next, where I’ll actually be able to provide recon reports for another class.

A little bit about the classes: The registration (at least for PVP Basic and Wolfpacks) is very hard to get in. If you want to register, go to their forums and read all of the very detailed instructions in the Enrollment section, sign up for an account with their forums, and after doing all of that, make sure you’re there to register at the EXACT time the class opens. If you wait too long, the class will be full. They can fill up in a matter of minutes for the more popular ones like the BASIC course.

The classes are very affordable. PVP Basic is currently 12 million, which is peanuts for what you get, roughly 8 hours or more of instruction + roam time with very experienced instructors and fleet commanders (FC). When I did the first two classes, they were 8 to 9 hours long in one day. Now Agony has split the classes into two days, and I must say that’s a great improvement as it was VERY long sitting in front of a PC for 8 to 9 hours of instruction + roam. They give you breaks of course, but it was still too long. So a split class will be a marked improvement in my opinion.

After you have successfully registered (and paid), you have to wait roughly a week, and they enable you access to the course materials. The course materials are well written, and as you progress through the classes, you have access to previous classes’ course materials for review before the next class. And that access stays with you through your whole Agony learning experience. After the class, you also get noted as a graduate, which you could potentially use as you are recruited into new corporations. Obviously to some this may be required, some may scorn it, in fact very similar to the way Microsoft certifications are treated in the IT industry. For me, any learning experience is welcomed, and I’m not worried about the paper at the end so much. It’s nice to know you proved you took the class, but not everyone cares about that.

I would have to point out that the classes are in no way a replacement for actual PVP. You need to get out there and get practical experience by flying and dying, and the classes teach you the basic concepts, and the roams teach you a world of information about how to interact in a fleet with a real fleet commander. These are all important things to know as you move toward a career in PVP.

So in sum, highly recommended. Caldak, my FC for both roams, was beyond a doubt one of the most amazing fleet commanders I have flown with yet. Dr. Oozy was the instructor both times in 2009. Not sure who the instructor will be for this course, but I’m sure it will be someone with a great deal of experience. Agony instructors and FCs are not only just for the classes, they actually are PVPers who fly with Agony Empire, so they have the practical experience to back them up.

In case you are one of those that likes the paper proof at the end of the day, here’s mine:
PVP-BASIC Graduates – May 23, 2009 and PVP-WOLFPACK Graduates – June, 2009

There once was a man from Audesder,
His reputation, he was quite a molester,
Until the one day he tried,
A pistol shot him. He died,
Killed by a female pod pilot named Hester.

Hester looked down at the man who was slumped over the booth’s seat, gasping for air, and bleeding profusely from the hole in his chest. Moments ago he had been attempting something Hester wasn’t sure was legal in any star system in the known universe, and was unforgivable in Hester’s opinion. It may be ok with some women where this throwback was from. However, Hester knew that here in the Audesder system, they worked on completely different standards of conduct and poor conduct was dealt with harshly.

As the light faded from the man’s eyes and his last breath came in rattles, she spoke: “Guess this is the last time you’ll be trying that.”

She holstered her pistol and walked out of the bar into the station concourse.

A short story submitted for Silver Night’s First Annual Writing Contest, February/March 2010. PDF and Word 2007 formats are available at the bottom of the post for download.

The vessel named Enigma was a small survey ship designed for deep space astrometric analysis. It was the sole asset of the Ko family, a pair of Amarrian Khanids who took up exploration in deep space regions to locate and survey valuable, rare ores and salvage whose locations were then sold to the highest bidder for exploitation of those resources. The career was not a profitable one, as the finds were always spread too thin and time passed too long in between “locates” as they were called in the exploration lexicon. As such the ship was not fitted with the best equipment, but it was always in good condition and had served well even for weeks in deep space.

Along the way among the stars, it was with much joy that Virat and Anema welcomed two children into their lives. Both Darius and Nalman were born in space on board the Enigma, and had grown into well-mannered and sharp little boys who knew the dark of space better than they knew the feel of solid ground. Virat and Anema loved their two children dearly, as to them it meant that they were no longer alone, but had a family of their own to raise as they saw fit. It was a dangerous life, and a hard one, and they spent weeks outside of any known and well travelled star systems. Somehow though, Virat and Anema always found time to foster learning within their children and ensured that their children knew they were loved and wanted. The children spent their time about the ship, playing in the cargohold and the cabins and watching their mother and father ply their trade in the unknown reaches of the star systems of New Eden.

The alarm panel blinked furiously as the proximity klaxon resounded through the ship’s narrow passageways. Virat and Anema, coming from different areas of the ship, raced onto the bridge. The bridge of the Enigma was small and well-used. Once an opulent vessel, the Enigma had been set aside once the original owners had upgraded to a newer ship, and Virat managed to obtain the Magnate-class ship for much lower than the asking price. There were controls, panels, readouts and large display screens scattered across the cockpit-like bridge. In front was a viewport overlooking a wide expanse of open space. Off in the distance was a small asteroid field which had been the primary focus of the ship’s activities this day. Two worn but cushioned seats were bolted to the deck on opposite sides of the main control board. Virat and Anema quickly settled into the seats to respond and assess the cause of the alarm.

Anema studied the proximity alert readout, and switched over to the scanner. It was only a second before two signatures appeared on scan. Anema looked up from her display.

“Two signatures on scan. Class unknown.” she spoke in a monotone voice.

Virat stood up and came over to look at the scanner panel. Anema tried once more to get a firm reading on the signatures.

“You sure you recalibrated the scanner from our last survey yesterday?” Virat asked.

“Yes, I did. The recalibration came out just fine; what do you think they are?” Anema replied.

“I don’t know. Try the scan again,” Virat said thoughtful, yet concerned as his eyebrows furrowed and tightened.

Anema hit the scanner button one more time. This time, the display supplied more information. Anema and Virat looked up at each other in horror as the scanner identified the vessels which matched Minmatar designs: Rifter-class. They would arrive within very soon according to the scan’s distance readout and there was no time to spare.

“ETA 30 minutes,” Anema said heavily, even though Virat had read the information off the panel as well.

“Get the children,” Virat Ko turned to his wife and hissed, “Get them into the pod now. Comm me when they are secured. Do it as quickly as you can.”

With a withered look in her eyes but not losing a second’s time, Anema ran down the passageway where the children’s room was and swung the door open quickly.

Darius and his little brother, Nalman, were on the floor playing with some spare replacement parts, nuts, and bolts. They had them all spread out on the floor on a soft mat and for all intents seemed like they were playing some organized sort of game. Darius had the dark hair of his father and the stark, piercing, beautiful eyes of his mother. His features were soft, unusual for Khanids, but he was still young with lots of time to grow into his own. He favored his father’s looks. Nalman seemed to favor neither parent, with a darker complexion than Virat. Virat and Anema were sure Darius would follow in their footsteps someday into exploration. With Nalman, they just had no ideas. He seemed more interested in building things, and fixing broken toys, even at his young age. The boys hardly ever fought amongst themselves. Darius looked up from the game they were playing as his mother entered the room.

“Darius, get your brother and come with me. Now.”

“But mama, why?” Darius looked up at her with his dark eyes, concerned with his mother’s urgent tone.

“There’s no time. We must go,” Anema said hastily.

“Yes, mama,” and stood up.

Darius grabbed his little brother’s hand obediently and dragged him to his feet, away from his toys and the game. Nalman, shocked at the unusually rough treatment from his brother, started to cry. He slipped from his brother’s grip and fell on the hard metal deck plating. Darius reached down quickly and swung Nalman up onto his back and ran for the door where his mother stood, Nalman’s tears wetting the back of his shirt as he went.

Darius followed his mother down the hallway to the lifepod chamber. It was a short way down the corridor, and they passed access panels, other cabins and workrooms on their way. Anema palmed the door panel, a lock clicked, and the hatch hissed open. She stepped into the circular shaped room. It had a large door at the far end of the room, which was heavily constructed and had a small thick porthole looking out into space. In the center of the room was a small egg shaped construction sitting in a cradle on the deck plating. The lifepod.

Lifepods were similar to the pods used by capsuleers to pilot spacecraft, but were designed to be escape ships for crew members of smaller, non-capsuleer piloted vessels like the Enigma. The lifepod could either be fitted with survival gear, food, and water for weeks of life support, or with a stasis envelope. The stasis envelope was a fairly new and expensive technology which allowed crew members to be placed in the pod and put into a state of suspended animation. The lifepod with a stasis envelope could theoretically keep its occupants alive for many months in stasis. They were designed in such a way as to automatically determine its location and then compute the best possible way to return to the ship’s designated port of origin. A lifepod had the ability to warp similar to the capsuleer pods did, so they could navigate jump gates through systems to known space. There was always a danger of being caught and destroyed but it was a sacrifice made to ensure the possible survival of crewmembers on smaller ships. The pods did have avoidance systems and scanning capability, so the on-board computer would make a good attempt at circumventing the possibility of capture. The Enigma had only one two-person lifepod aboard. It was all Virat and Anema could afford, but it proved the best chance of survival should something happen to their ship.

Darius halted right next to his mother by the pod, and put Nalman down. Nalman was still sobbing furiously. The pod’s door was open wide showing the padded walls and the stasis couches inside. The status lights on the outer panel were blinking slowly, like a heartbeat.

Anema lowered herself to her knees to look Darius in the eyes, and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Darius, you have to look after your brother now. Your father and I love you both very much. Make sure you remember who you are, and make sure your brother does as well. We are proud of you.” Anema said, her eyes welling with tears, and embraced both boys, first Darius, and then Nalman. Nalman tried to cling to Anema, he knew something was very wrong and didn’t want to let go. Darius had to help separate Nalman and Nalman clung to Darius as their mother looked at them one final time, appraising them with soft and saddened eyes.

The warning klaxon sounded again. Anema jolted upright and pushed both boys to the couches inside the pod. Nalman was still sobbing, and Darius helped settle him in his seat and strapped him in. Then Darius sat into his couch and buckled himself as well. Anema kissed both boys on the forehead, tears falling from her cheeks. Darius watched his mother recede outside the pod, tears welling in his eyes as he fought the urge to cry as well. Nalman just cried in his restraints, reaching for his mother and repeated “Mama, don’t go,” over and over again.

“Goodbye my children. I love you both, and God look favorably upon you as you grow. Father and I will be watching.” she smiled gently as the pod door sealed around the hatch and hissed shut. Through a small viewport, Anema could see the stasis cycle beginning as both boys closed their eyes and drifted off to the nothingness of dreamless stasis within the pod.

Anema rushed out of the pod’s chamber and quickly shut the hatch to the room. She tapped the commlink on the panel just outside the hatch, and shouted, “Virat, the pod is sealed. Eject them NOW.”

The outer pod bay door opened and the air rushed from the chamber. The pod’s outer lights blinked in succession, first red, then green. The pod then ejected itself from the bay door and began moving away silently from the ship. Anema, watching from the porthole in the hatch door, knew that once the pod was clear it would begin calculations to autopilot its way back to known space.

Sighing heavily, sobs beginning to wrack her frame, she turned and sprinted toward the bridge.

She made it with little time to spare. Virat was furiously working the panels, attempting without success to maneuver the ship away from the approaching vessels. He moved the controls and the ship lumbered and shuddered forward.

“Two Rifter-class frigates, not responding to hails.” he said quickly.

“I’ll get to the comm panel and try to send out distress signals and message drones,” Anema said in reply.

Anema jumped into the cushioned task chair and accessed the comm panel, brushing tears from face. She spoke quickly into the comm-mic on the control board.

“Survey Ship Enigma, designation K-56AGG-1, reporting distress in deep space region location K88X-J. We are under attack, two Minmatar ships, class Rifter, will not respond to hails. Please send assistance, ” she spoke clearly, and then repeated the message again. Then she reached over, punched a button on the board and ejected message drones.

The message drones normally were configured to include complete system and ship logs from the entire historical voyage of the ship as well as any and all communication from the ship. The drones were programmed to maneuver themselves automatically back to the ship’s registered port of origin similar to lifepods so that data and information could be recovered in the event of the loss of the ship.

She rocked heavily back in the padded chair. She looked at Virat, still bent over his panel working. Almost as if he could feel her eyes on him, he looked up and over to Anema. She mouthed “I love you” and smiled as the first volley of autocannon fire from the twin Rifters hit the outer shielding.

Virat looked back at his panel. He just stared at the indicators on the board as the shields buckled almost instantly. The next volley removed what little armor the ship had in place, and they only had moments.

Virat cleared his throat, stepped away from his chair, and over to his wife. He embraced her fiercely and whispered in her ear, “I love you as well.”

The ship exploded in a brilliant flash of pure light sending hull fragments scattering into the vacuum of space. A quickly cooling, tangled mass of metal and ship components was all that remained where the ship was a few seconds ago. The Rifters cut their engines for a moment and scanned the wreckage, but nothing of value was left to them in the shattered wreck of the Enigma.

Darius had been waiting for the last shuttle out to take him back to Amarr Prime as he passed by the window displaying the open expanse of space. He looked out of the station’s viewport window overlooking the second moon of Sehmy VIII. Alone in his thoughts for the time being, he wondered what it could have been like if his parents were still alive. Were his parents yet watching over him like they promised? Had he done the right things, and made the right choices? Now more than ever he wanted to know what his parents thought and whether all the things he had fought for in the last few years were worth it in the end. Nalman had just been accepted to Hedion University to study ship design and engineering. Darius had already said his goodbyes to Nalman. Embarking on a six year study program at the well-renown school, Nalman had high hopes to someday be able to design and manufacture starships.

Just as Virat and Anema knew that he would.

PDF Version
Word 2007 Version

Jerek crouched down in the passageway and looked into the access panel. He noted that the primary relay coupling was fried, and spitting sparks. Coolant was leaking from the attached cooling lines and was making a mess of the panel’s interior components. If he didn’t get things cleaned up it was going to be hell replacing the damaged components shorted by the liquid coolant.

“Jerek, what’s the status of the primary shield emitter?” a voice said behind him as he worked. The voice belonged to the senior technician, Alana Yoril.

“It’s still down Alana. I think I found the problem. The primary relay coupling shorted out from a coolant leak, and the coolant is pooling in the panel, causing more shorts in the circuits,” he said with a sigh, “and it will take me a while to get it cleaned up.”

Jerek applied a binding clamp to the coolant tubes, sealing the leak. He reached around to the back pocket of his coveralls and grabbed a spare rag. He started daubing the rag around the access panel, attempting to swab up some of the coolant and avoid any more shorts.

“Should you be doing that?” Alana asked in a concerned voice, “Please be careful of the….”

BZZZTT!

Jerek flew backwards involuntarily as his muscles moved on their own, smashing him into the hard metal wall across the passageway with a resounding thud. Jerek’s head lolled to the side, he was momentarily dazed from the impact. Alana rushed over to him and helped him sit up.

“Wha?” Jerek finally spoke, reaching up to grab his head.

“You took a nasty shock there Jerek. Good thing you didn’t have both hands in the circuit or you wouldn’t have survived that one. Next time, I suggest you take precautions before trying to mop up a coolant leak where there is live power. You should have shut down the power to this panel beforehand, ” she said reproachfully.

“I’ll know better next time, ” he mumbled.

“Good, let’s get you to your feet and off to the infirmary. We’re not in any danger where the ship will need shielding for the time being, so I’ll notify the pilot to dispatch another junior technician to finish up here, ” she said and dragged Jerek to his feet.

After we tossed a few in-game chats back and forth and some eve-mails later, I set aside a portion of our MCE forums for Joint Mining Operations. I gave Keldar and Jager access to this forum so we could set things up easier and keep lines of communications open.

We set the date for Monday, and people started showing up around 8:30 or 9PM. We mined until around 11:30PM or so. We had a total of 14 people, including myself, my CEO, Keldar, and Jager. It was very impressive to see, and once my CEO joined us in his Orca, I had to relegate myself to hauling using my Bustard which I had staged up in the area the night before. There was a mix of ships in attendance, a couple Hulks, a Bustard (me), a mining-fit Rohk, and some Retreivers. All in all a good group of people, and a great time.

It was all high sec mining in a 0.5 system in the Citadel region so we got some good high-sec ores. We ended up mining out two belts in a very short amount of time. I then collected all the ore, hauled it 8 jumps away in two trips, refined it, and returned with the splits for contract to the participants in the system we mined in. As a sidenote, I made a quick little Excel spreadsheet that figures the ore splits based on number of participants to make it easier to split everything in hangar.

To get an idea of what you can do with a mixed group, here’s a recap of how we did (and pictures too) – WARNING, beyond this point is extremely geeky number based data:

After refining at a 50% station, and taking into account my skills (Refinery Efficiency V) that left us with 99.5% yield, and at standings with Spacelane Patrol of 5.91, I get only 0.57% tax. A lot better refine rate than the system we mined in, but was 8 jumps away, so I had to run two loads in a freighter back and forth. Took a bit of time, but worth it to not incur as much loss.

We ended up with 15,454,190 Tritanium, 4,202,320 Pyerite, 1,325,335 Mexallon, and 17,040 Nocxium which was not bad at all. I also melted down the extra rat loot we picked up, and netted us a little extra in there as well (see pictures). The split, between 14 members of the group ended up being 1,105,891 Tritanium, 301,861 Pyerite, 94,805 Mexallon, and 1,220 Nocxium for each person.

The class always started the same way. The instructor stood at the front of the class with a severe expression, more akin to a drill sergeant rather than a teacher. There was a gigantic piece of polycarbon shaped like some form or another resting on his lab table and it seemed to engulf the table’s surface with its edges.

“Can anyone tell me what this might be?” the teacher glared at the young students.

No one raised their hands, and stared blankly at the instructor.

“Not one of you knows what this could possibly be?” his voice boomed to the audience, “Not one?”

Meekly, a girl in the back of the classroom raised her hand, shaking in nervousness. Wild blue eyes shone from behind a tangled and dirty mass of hair.

“Yes?” the instructor demanded.

“Please sir, I believe it’s a polycarbon engine housing from a small engined CF-4 skimmer,” she said, her voice wavering slightly.

“You are absolutely correct. How could you possibly know this?” he said with a surprised but angry look on his face. He hated to have no excuse to punish the class for ignorance.

“My father was a docking station manager. He brought me home small scale models of different machines and ships from different places that he got from traders. I used to build them in my room and I learned a little about how they worked. The CF-4 skimmer was one of my favorites,” she said with more confidence this time.

“Good. Well. You have been elected to come up here and show the rest of the class how to dismantle the housing and access the engine inside. There will be a test tomorrow on the correct procedure.”