Chapter III - Blockade Runner

0.0 Linguistics

My day was essentially done, but not before fate could dictate that I be given another tool to help me through the rigors of 0.0. No, I didn't come screaming out of port in a Battleship armed to the proverbial teeth, nor was my shuttle equiped with some fancy cloaking device... I was given the gift of language. 0.0 language.

Saying 'Hi' in 0.0ese:


It may further speed my journey to blend in with the denizens of lowspec space - anything to help keep my head from decorating some spear posted menacingly beside a stargate to ward off would-be adventurers. Happy with my progress, I retired for the evening.

DAY TWO

At the rate I was going I could fully appreciate IN's experience myself in a third of the time, and with that very thought happily etched on my mind and set off towards PF-QHK, the next stop on my journey.

"Onward!" - I cried in Local.

My shuttle danced through the abyss towards the first stargate of my 20-some jump journey. What sights would I see? What mysteries would be revealed to me?

Shortly both my shuttle and pod were plucked from the sky rather unceremoniosly, and I found myself sheepishly forking over more isk for another shuttle back in port.

Members of the ROADKILL alliance had apparantly set up a tea party at the gate - ostensibly to protect a brothel on the other side. What more, I was perceived as a very real and serious threat:

"Shuttles have been known to have DDD equipped, you can't be to carreful these days" - a Kriz Lupin pointed out knowingly.

I searched my mind for the acronym... Doomsday Device! If only I'd remembered to 0/ them! Perhaps they would not have thought me a possible scourge on their existance. Of course, now that they'd reduced my previous vessel to space dust I was sure they'd be satisfied now that I was in no way affiliated with any of the Horsemen of the Apocolypse (short of being a distant cousin).

The security regimine on my second attempt at the stargate was as invasive as the first. ROADKILL, it seems, doesn't take any chances with DDD-equipped shuttles. I attempted to negotiate and pass but made no headway:

Wrong gate time, wrong gate channel:


I was determined to continue making progress in my quest, however - I had to reason my way through. Alternate paths? Much too long and I wouldn't be following IN's path if I attempted that. But then I realized - a least one of these ROADKILL knew of INNOMINATE NIGHTMARE and yet would not let me pass.

Greetings from an Oppressed Follower:


It was obvious that he had to obey a higher power and could not conceivably allow me to pass so easily without facing dire consequences. How can I fault a follower of the Way who had to eke out an existance in the desolate expanse known as 0.0 space? Thankfully, I had an epiphany...

I remembered the South-West-Facing Cranes of Scrambled eggs Super-dee-Dooper-dee-Booper Special de luxe a-la-Peter T. Hooper fame. In guarding their eggs, these cranes face precisely one direction - the trick to procuring their unhatched offspring was to approach from the North-East!

So, I hatched my plan; undocking, I sent my ship off into the solar system to approach the ROADKILL tea party from the rear. Coming out of warp I noted the ROADKILL ships all oriented towards my port, but I sneakily snuck my ship close enough to warp onward. Success!

Kindred Spirits

A few jumps in and I encountered some members of The Mahkai having their own tea party, unfortunately also at a gate I was destined to go through. Without warning I was fired upon, causing me to quickly warp away, setting an intermediate bookmark. This appeared a prudent measure to have taken as another Makhai soon appeared at the waypoint I had warped to - was the threat of DDD-equiped shuttles so serious that I would be attacked everywhere I went? I alternated hiding at my bookmark and checking my exit while being entertained by a Makhai named Jedek and his peculiar squirrel-related delusions.

Shortly I learned that it was quite possible to be podded by a ship 105km distant. Amazing as my former self had never done damage further out than 30km.

Back in FDZ4-A, I encountered yet another delusional 0.0 spacer by the name of Dez Affinity... was this sort of thing endemic? How much longer until the madness enslaved me? Is this what had happened to INNOMINATE NIGHTMARE? I shuddered to picture finding IN at the end of this journey, feebly muttering about line dancing hors d'oeuvres and WMD-equipped pods while circling a golf-club shaped asteroid in some distant solar system of 0.0 space. The wilderness indeed...

Space Madness or Brothers from Different Mothers?