Sorry that it’s been a bit since we “spoke.” I’ve been busy with a number of things lately. From party planning at the start of the month to getting ready for more sports in the past couple weeks, I’ve had a lot to do. I’ve even taken up studying another language in my downtime. But it’s good that I’ve had things to do. I took it easy last month; perhaps too easy . It was good to take some rest after the war in Pochven, but I can’t afford to be as complacent as I was. At least sports are worthwhile because they improve people’s individual piloting skills. I can’t afford to not constantly be growing stronger.
The Party Against God went pretty well, all things considered. I’m glad that I threw the party for my anniversary; the gifts were so incredibly thoughtful and I enjoyed getting a little bit of time to relax with everyone. Also, it felt really good to best Edward in that Gladiator game. I’m also really glad that Arrendis was able to make the event; with the war in the outers winding down for the moment, maybe she’ll be able to relax at home for a bit.
It’s a bit surreal that I’ve been in Electus Matari for a year already, if I’m being honest. My employment still feels new to me. I suppose a year of membership is still pretty new in the grand scheme of things. I’ve enjoyed being in the alliance. The other capsuleers have been nicer to and more accepting of me than I probably deserve, honestly. More importantly, I feel like I’ve been a part of several important campaigns and that my skills have been of use. I know that there’s still an incredibly amount of terrible things going on in the cluster, but I feel very good about my place in it.
Sorry that I’ll be keeping this entry brief. I just needed to get some thoughts down before I lost them. I’ve been on metaphorical auto-pilot for most of the month. I promise I’ll be paying more attention to you again going forward, my dear diary.
Our sports season has ended before it ever really began. We lost quite horrifically in the preliminaries to Bright Side of Death. It’s disappointing, but at the same time not too disappointing. The whole tournament scene is certainly nice for team building and sharpening individual piloting skills. But at the end of the day, it’s still just sports . We can still team build. We can still hone everyone’s piloting skills. Most importantly, weekends will once again free up for operations more meaningful to the cluster such as anti-piracy and the like. I’m sure we’ll wind up partaking in sports again in the future, but being knocked out of this tournament before it even began is hardly the end of the world.
I also completed my annual negotiations and paperwork for my key staff. Though taking care of the contracts and salaries of the vast majority of lower-level ship and station crew in my employ has been delegated to others, I like to directly manage my most important people. And as it turns out, people are pretty predictable; they want more money every year. Thankfully the depth of capsuleer pockets is beyond the wildest dreams of most baseliners so the cost of keeping them happy is always pretty much negligible to me. I’m really happy things went well. Losing basically all of my staff over a period of a few months a year and a half ago or so was excruciating. I don’t want to go through that again.
I’ve been playing around with ideas for new fits and doctrines for both the small hunting gangs I run and myself individually. One thing I want to try out is an afterburner combat interceptor gang. With a forward fleet interceptor to two to grab things, the combat interceptors should have no trouble at all landing on something and burning it down. Only with afterburners, we should lose fewer of them and they should be able to make use of the bit of extra power grid and CPU. The problem is that there’s so many things I want to test and so little time.
The fake sky in the Astrahus’ garden is quite nice. It really does look real. What I really miss, though, is the rain. Walking the gardens in a light rain was one of my absolute favorite things as a child. The sound of the rain falling is soothing and being out in it is rather refreshing. The best thing of all, however, was the smell. The smell of rain is one of the most pleasant aromas I’ve ever had the luxury of experiencing. Back then, I would also get scolded if I was caught, but I very rarely was. My parents never paid all too much attention to me. I was never in line to be heir, so I was the nanny’s responsibility. Maybe someday, going down onto a planet will be regularly possible again and I’ll get to walk around in the rain to my heart’s content. I can’t help but feel a little pathetic for being so hung up on rain , but I really do miss it.
Anyway, my Dear Diary, this is where I end this entry. Thank you for listening to my thoughts, as you always do so well.
This whole thing where the Tetrimon are chasing the Blooders around the cluster is a pain in the ass. On one hand, I like the Blooders having their hands full, but on the other Tetrimon being all over the Republic is concerning. I don’t trust the Tetrimon to limit their international exploits just to fighting Blooders. I have evidence for this too; Elsebeth and I had to aid a brand-new Minmatar capsuleer fresh out of the academy who had been shot down with all of their assets by the Tetrimon. Unlike many capsuleers, I’m not declaring support for either the Blooders or the Tetrimon. They can both go to hell.
I’ve taken a liking to the Great Wildlands over the last month. Our allied groups in the region are full of pleasant and skilled pilots. They could use a bit more organization, but organizing many disorganized groups together is something I’ve done many times back in the militia wars. Our little band can deal with the local bullies well enough, but their relationship to Pandemic Horde could be a real concern if the large group decides to turn its sights on the small groups in the region. Whatever happens, I’m glad we’ve decided to lend our support to the region.
We’ve downed a couple of World Arks lately. Both in Skarkon. Before one, we chased a fleet out of a Flashpoint, protecting the EDENCOM operations in the system for at least a little. After the other, we bombed the newly constructed Svarog Shipyards, which unfortunately didn’t seem to take any meaningful damage from our fleet of Typhoons. I hate going to Pochven; the abused stars make me sick whenever I look at them. But the fact remains, the Triglavians are still holding and abusing the people still alive in the twenty-seven systems that they currently occupy. As frustrating as it may be, I don’t think its corrupted skies will be a rare sight for me anytime soon.
With problems in the Wildlands, the collection of occupied systems colloquially called Pochven still infested by Triglavians, and issued caused by Blooders and Tetrimon chasing one another around back home I’m really glad I’ve so much experience in moving around quickly and efficiently. Some people are surprised when they learn that I was educated and trained as an explorer back at the Royal Institute. They seem to think that in my current roles as a pilot, I don’t get much use out of my education. They also couldn’t be more wrong. I’m constantly diving through both Anoikis and all regions of known space to get me and my allies where we need to be safer and faster. Nobody will call me an explorer these days, but I couldn’t be more thankful that I’m well-versed in astrometrics.
Our forward base in Angymonne has been destroyed by the Triglavians. They made a strong diplomatic play to secure the support of Pandemic Horde in destroying the last EDENCOM aligned structure in Pochven. It was quite well played by our enemies. I personally didn’t expect it at all. After being unable to formulate a proper response in the two days of reinforcement between the armor and the hull, the station was mostly evacuated and unfortunately given up without a fight. It’s frustrating to lose, but it’s more frustrating to lose without an attempted response. In retrospect, I think we could have anticipated and prepared for it. But we grew complacent in our superiority and paid for it.
The fight must, however, carry on. It will be much more difficult, though. I won’t lie and say the loss of our citadel doesn’t matter. The fact is that its presence certainly made every aspect of resistance against the Triglavians easier to at least some degree. But it was never going to last forever and we should have prepared better for its destruction. I’m not sure that anyone can say how things will be going forward in the region, but the things are as they are and the fight continues. It’s not our first loss against the Triglavians and it won’t be our last, even if it is likely the greatest loss since the end of the invasions themselves. Today I may grieve, but the struggle goes on and I will proceed into the future as determined as ever.
On a more uplifting note, our participation in non-urgent fleet operations has been through the roof lately. It’s really encouraging to see everyone so invested. People are improving too! Not just one or two pilots, but damn near everyone showing up regularly to the patrols of the outers. It’s really nice to see people keeping calm, flying well, bouncing, and walking away with consistency. Kills are up and losses are down; it makes me quite happy to see. We must learn from our recent loss, however, and not grow complacent. It’s fine to be proud of our improvements, but I’m not going to let up on continuing to push everyone. I don’t expect that they want me to, either.
I’m throwing a party at the start of December. I was maybe a bit sarcastic in the post announcing it and expected to ruffle a few feathers, but I lit quite the fire. With my last event, I had complaints that my enemies weren’t invited, and one of the biggest things frustrating some of my enemies this time is that they are technically invited. I don’t know what I expected, but the way it turned out is quite humorous. I really can’t be too surprised that people are angry almost no matter what I do. After all, quite a number of individuals simply despise me and oppose me at every turn just for the sake of it. Again, it is what it is.