Crime & Punishment

I guess I was the first trial test with this. I was war dec'd by Leto Thule after I asked local if there were any signs of gankers in the system we were both in. I asked him about why he dec'd my corp and the conversation was pretty straight forward. If I help gank someone then the dec is off and my corp is free to go. Probably the funniest thing about this whole sittuation is Leto there-in forced my hand into becoming a ganker and then subsiquently a hypocrit in terms of my previous question in local. Well played Leto. So I talked to my corp, got in my t1 catalyst I'd been saving for who god knows what and headed out. After a little bit of waiting, we found an AFK Retriever, ganked his ship (Didn't have the time to pop his pod), warped out.

To me, in terms of the way gameplay plays out, I think Leto hit the nail on the head. I was never given a sittuation where I was able to throw myself into pvp. Yeah, it's there, I've been ganked before, but the threshold into joining it is awkward and felt like I was damning my character. Though I still enjoy mining and probably won't be looking for new targets any time soon, I think this was a glarring success in terms of contributing to the games content and expanding my personal know-how of the game. This also didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth after everything was said and done as well. Most of the time, people who are trying to pvp with me, a non-pvp player just get instantly hostile. The exchange of words never got rude, it was a nice change of pace. 10/10 would recommend.

For anyone that was wondering, the guy we ganked did in fact get pretty upset. Once he came back from being afk (rule #1 of mining har har... if I've learned anything from this it's reinforcing that fact... ) he dropped a 25 mil kill right on me, made me actually feel like I halfway mattered, and started spewing hatred in local. Blocked everyone involved and some random bystandard who just happened to be in the system. I was actually going to pay for the guys ship I just helped pop and explained the sittuation if he would of treated us with a little more respect. Hell, if he didn't say anything at all I would of probably still have given him the money.

I'll probably take you up on that on an alt of mine. I've been pretty curious about outside of high sec. My corp is scared to death of low and null sec and I have no context to why. Yeah, a little easier to get attacked, but in the end, it's just a game. Eventually, my end game is to run mining ops in null. That's never going to happen if I'm stuck in high sec.

I just want to leave this here.

http://pastebin.com/WBiecHME

Stella's tale

"I am so broke. Why dem ships so spensive?" Stella pondered as she watched the strip miner carve the pyroxeres from yet another asteroid. "I get that ya hafta start at the bottom, but this... this is no way to live."

Suddenly her wallet flashed. "What's this? Oh! Funding from Moon Moon! My twin brother's birthday is coming up. He must have gotten en early present. Looks like I get some too!" Stella noticed more isk than she'd ever had in her life was now on her account. Not space poor anymore. Space upper lower class? Whatever, at least I don't have to shoot rocks anymore.

Stella knew that Vortex wasn't the right place for her. Perhaps Everywhere and Terrible would be a better fit. At least for now it felt right. She felt new freedom as she inhaled and fully comprehended her new situation. "I can do whatever I want. I can do.. whatever... I... want! I wanna steal some ice from those silent pilots in the orcas and their procurers and their husks. Set course for Talidal!"

As expected, the ice field was full of miners and drones. Canisters of ice littered the field. Local comms were free from chatter, an eerie scene, no doubt. Stella flew casual, right up to a collection of canisters. Suddenly timid, she targeted the asteroid and flipped the switch on her ice harvester. "This will buy me some time to think this through." Stella mused. Someone from corp was headed this direction to join the fun, possibly flip some cans or something and see what happens. Nervousness gave way to boredom as she waited for company to arrive.

"Well, let's just see what happens when I do this..." Stella was done waiting. With impish glee she confiscated the full contents of a cargo canister. 12,000 m^3 of icicles! This will keep the beer cold!

"Ok, someone should be locking target any moment. I'm out!" Stella picked a random moon and warped towards it.

and then... silence...

Stella considered her position and her next move as her associate arrived. "I'm gonna stash this ice in about 15 minutes, then we can go back." she explained to her friend. After the long wait we returned. The field was smaller than before. These miners were fervent in their frenzy to secure every last bit of frozen water. Stella decided to forgo acting like a miner this time. She went straight for an unattended canister of ice, filled to the brim. Another load confiscated... and still no response!

Did they even notice this theft occurring right under their noses? We may never know, for their silence was as golden as the isk that awaited Stella for her bounty.

"Next time, I'm not settling for two loads. I'll find an out of the way hidey hole, stash as much ice as I can grab, and move it out when the authorities have calmed down. Maybe mining's not so bad... when someone else is doing the work!"

No longer another gazelle, her hooves fell away as claws grew in their place.