Explorer with a Bite, Part 2

The Forge Region – Onirvura Constellation
Olo System

16 July YC 121

“Firstly,” said Aura enthusiastically, “It never hurts to have a T2 tank. If you replace your T1 shield hardeners with Tech II variants then your EM shield resistance will increase from 68% to 71% and thermal from 75% to 77%.”

[Heron, T2 Tank AB Blasters SC Std]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Data Analyzer II
EM Ward Field II
Medium Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender
Thermal Dissipation Field II
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner

Light Electron Blaster II
Light Electron Blaster II

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Hornet II x3

Void S x1600

“One thing I know about Tech II modules is that they always hurt the wallet,” grumbled I. “What will it cost me?”

“The overall price of the fitting will be 10 million ISK.”

I whistled, “That’s 60% increase compared to T1 tank! I am not sure it is worth it. Any other bright ideas?”

Aura was a bit disheartened by my reaction but quickly rallied and rolled out another proposal, “Alternatively, you can install two Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer rigs and replace Tech II Thermal Dissipation Field with Small Ancillary Shield Booster. If you get hit it will restore your shield twice faster!”

[Heron, T2 Tank AB SASB Blasters SC Std]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

Data Analyzer II
EM Ward Field II
Medium Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender
Small Ancillary Shield Booster
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner

Light Electron Blaster II
Light Electron Blaster II

Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Hornet II x3

Void S x2000
Cap Booster 25 x107

“And what will such replacement do to shield resistances?”

Aura looked apologetic, “EM will be 61% and thermal 64%. But any additional damage caused by reduction of resistance levels should be offset by faster shield restoration.”

I was not convinced, “I understand that the sentry guns which guard the Cache are anti-cruiser, if not anti-battleship grade. Being fast and agile, we don’t expect to be hit as much as bigger ships, but the problem is that a lucky shot may alpha us off the grid. To avoid that, we need a big buffer and good shield resistances. The T2 tank fit looks the best but it’s much more expensive than T1. If I was sure that those 2-3 per cent increases would make a difference between life and death I would not hesitate to invest four more million.”

“Well, not all the time,” admitted Aura. “According to my sources, the first fit is adequate and I expect that it will protect you most of the time. With T2 tank, however, that ‘most’ will be more.”

“Very good. Then it’s down to pure arithmetic. Let’s start with the cheap fit and then check if it makes sense to upgrade it. Now, what skills I need to operate those modules?”

Aura checked my skill levels and produced the following requirements:

Required for Skill Primary attribute Secondary attribute
Tech II Blasters Motion Prediction III Perception Willpower
Small Blaster Specialisation I
Drones Drones V Memory Perception
Caldari Drone Specialisation I
Light Drone Operation V
Powergrid Weapon Upgrades IV Perception Willpower
Advanced Weapon Upgrades II
Shield Upgrades IV Intelligence Memory

I had inspected the list and said, “Hmm… I can’t help noticing that training time mostly depends on Perception while my last neural remap emphasised Intelligence and Memory attributes.”

“Not ideal,” agreed Aura.

I thought a bit and remembered my conversation with the neurosurgeon who performed the procedure, “You know, the doctor said that my brain could still tolerate two out-of-cycle remaps so I could do them at any time. Should I have another one and increase Perception?”

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that until you plan at least a six-month training queue which requires significantly different attributes. The list that I showed you won’t take much time to train, and if you want to reduce it you can always use implants.”

“Oh no! Cheap implants don’t make much difference. The expensive ones are good but I don’t fancy losing them if I get podded by a corrosive cloud in a Cache.”

Aura looked surprised, “But you don’t have to have them all the time.”

“Ha, did you forget? Implants are not dentures – if you take them out you can’t put them back. It would be cheaper to take my chances with the cloud than to destroy good implants before each Cache.”

Aura waved her hands, “I didn’t mean that. I wanted to say that you could always use jump clones – one with implants, and one without for dangerous exploration.”

I was taken aback, “I’ve never thought about it. Hmm… that may actually work. Okay, let’s go to Jita then and buy all this stuff.”

“Yay!” cheered Aura. “Shopping!”

2 August YC 121

Unfortunately, I had to attend to some plantetside matters before we could go to Jita. When we finally arrived to the trade hub first thing I did was buy, inject and queue all the required skills, including Cybernetics for implants. As a result, my training plan increased by nearly three weeks.

“Shit, I didn’t expect training to take that long,” complained I.

“But that’s without implants,” pointed out Aura.

“Yeah, but even so… I don’t want to wait even two weeks until I can use the new fit; after spending more than two weeks on the planet I am keen to continue exploration as soon as possible.”

“You can still use Haikarat, but since we are here… you can buy and fit another frigate now and pick it up when your skills are ready.”

That was reasonable and soon I became an owner of a new shiny Heron which I called, uncreatively, Haikarat II.

I was walking from the trade floor back to the docks when I suddenly noticed a familiar face in the crowd.

“Hey, Yakub,” shouted I attracting his attention.

He turned towards me and his face lit up with recognition, “Oh, Vlad! Glad to see you again. It is true what they say about this station – if you stay in it long enough you will meet all your friends. In the last week I met probably 30 or 40 of my pals here.”

“What have you been doing here all this time?” wondered I.

“Trying to sell Heavy Capacitor Boosters. Do you need one, by the way?”

“Nah, I don’t fly battleships. Out of curiosity, how much do they go for?”

“These days, around 80 million ISK apiece.”

My jaw dropped, “What? I never thought that fitting a battleship was that expensive.”

“Oh, the usual ones are thousand times cheaper, but mine are special – it’s ‘Brave’ model which has the lowest fitting requirements. You need rare Talocan components and Level V Talocan Technology skill to produce them. Blueprints are also hard to come by. I remember times when they were sold at 40 million kredits each,” said Yakub with a wince. “And what about you? What brought you to this place?”

“I am fitting a Heron for Sleeper Cache exploration,” shrugged I, understanding that it sounded pretty mundane compared to Talocan gadgets, but I was pleasantly surprised by Yakub’s reaction.

“Wow! Not many people dare to enter those caches,” he looked at me with renewed respect. “I’ve heard they are dangerous, but lucrative if you do them right. Look, if you survive the Cache and bring back any polarised blueprints, remember our deal – I’ll give you a good price for them.”

I slapped him on the shoulder and laughed, “Don’t worry, Yakub. You are my favourite industrialist and you’ll have the right of first refusal.”

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