Chapter Eight

Southern Beauty

ISK Balance: 4,016,546.00

Though my pod persevered, Yggdrasil was claimed by the Fallen Souls on the journey to bring me back to the safety of the four Empires. That particular Stabber had served me extraordinarily well, and I will always remember her for the rapidity with which she ferried me up to the north. Fallen Souls deserves the kill, considering it was the second time I was passing through their space, too brazen to deviate my course for the return trip. Nevertheless, the slight twinge of regret and disappointment that nips at me with each Stabber that is transformed into the familiar blue ball of plasma leaks and ammo cookoffs has not become dulled since the first loss.

I believe I'm getting better at not dying, though. Maybe. That's one of my few real goals after all - as opposed to some aspiration to become a terror of the space lanes - and even that is not terribly close to my heart. I apologize for the dreaminess, but I really do like what I do, and what I do lends itself to such spirals of thought.

With the monetary measure of Tassadar Beta's foresight, I purchased myself a new Stabber. Failing to summon a name that satisfied me and my arbitrary naming convention of archaic religious references - especially after the inspiration for Yggdrasil's christening came so late after her acquisition - I settled on Lux Esto, or "be light." Interestingly - or not really, because I chose the name for this reason - it is my college's motto. My creative skills must really be taking a dive.

There was little excitement to be had as I travelled through Amarr space to arrive at the system of Sendaya, the heavily trafficked portal into Curse; or, known more affectionately to me as the beginning of the Doril pipe. With all of the major Empire hubs I have passed through as of late, I had been hoping to happen upon an Empire gank or two for my own entertainment. Unfortunately, I had to make my own by destroying a few convoys when things were slow and adding their cargos to the increasingly eclectic contents of my cargo hold.

Since the journey was uneventful and I had time to bide, I turned to taking a number of beauty shots, several of them including the suns - one of my favorite parts of EVE's graphics - which have been reintroduced after a brief disappearance. The blinding brilliance and the roiling stellar surfaces and solar flares have always struck me as a unique and underappreciated portion of the systems we frequent.

One more that I couldn't fit into the narrative.

At the CONCORD outpost in Sendaya, I spotted an old friend of mine in a familiar situation; an Ibis sitting abandoned in the exit port of the station. Of course, I gathered up the lonely rookie ship and took it to the sun, where I gave it a proper funeral by flying it towards the sun and activating the self-destruct.

In short, I have been enjoying myself with a rest of a day or so while I wait for an old comrade or two to show up for long enough to take a trip with me through Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate space and jump straight from the frying pan into the fire of FAT-6P.