Concluding Technological Secrets

6th August 2008 – 7.53 am

The explosion-damping module is fitted, the heavy launcher is swapped out for a fourth assault launcher, all launchers are fully loaded with Bloodclaw missiles for kinetic damage; I'm ready to end the Minmatar threat I was made aware of in the level two mission Technological Secrets.

The Minmatar ships are converging in Amarachi, a single jump away, so it is not long before I am warping to the deadspace location. When I arrive there are a dozen or so ships loitering, waiting for the reinforcements before warping to their destructive destination, but I'm not worried. With my Caracal kitted out to hit them hard whilst having their missiles bounce off my shields what could go wrong?

I find out what could go wrong when I'm struck by the first volley of Flameburst missiles, hitting me for thermal damage and not the explosive damage that I took previously from the Piranha missiles. That's when I remember the agent saying this is a Minmatar/Gallente alliance, and I wonder if maybe I should have gathered some intelligence on the Gallente as well. But with my shield at half-strength already this is more the time to concentrate on the task in hand.

With the explosion-damping module drawing capacitor energy but not actually protecting my boat I turn it off and rely on my shield booster, once again balancing shield strength with capacitor charge. It is also pleasing to see a cruiser or two in each wave of frigates, just begging me to have a heavy launcher installed. Ah well, I have plenty of missiles and it just takes a few more to take the cruisers down.

As perhaps a gesture of goodwill, my final two opponents appear to be firmly Minmatar, firing Piranha missiles and being susceptible to the Ladar ECM system, allowing me to absorb most of the damage they throw at me whilst only having to deal with one of them shooting me at a time. All the dangerous work had been completed by then, and still I manage not to take any damage below my shields.

The mission complete I salvage from all the ships and head back to the station. My agent is quite pleased with my success, and gives me a healthy 240,000 ISK reward. The significance of the mission also increases my standing quite nicely, so much so that I have a look around again to see if any higher-standing agents are now willing to talk to me. I find a couple, one of which is only a couple of jumps away from Jita and has a quality level of -5, quite a bit higher than the -14 quality agent I'm currently dealing with.

I load all the salvage I've accumulated and my necessary spare modules in to the hold of Tiger Lily and prepare to ship back to Jita, to sell and store as appropriate. I'll send back Harvest Moon to pick up what the Caracal can't carry, before heading out to the system to introduce myself to a new agent. I would have made the move last night but I had a bout of narcolepsy and couldn't even get the Caracal's hold loaded (i.e. the client kept crashing).

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