Life in a Wormhole Eve: For the Republic! #eveonline

Our wormholes-of-note (both our class 2 and the class 6) continue to have absolutely abysmal connections -- the class 2 system is connected to high-sec, yes, but it's out in a CONCORD-controlled hi-sec 'pocket' of systems deep in the lawless Aridia region, over a dozen jumps from contiguous high-sec and another thirty-five jumps from anywhere useful. Everyone already in the wormhole stays there, and I'm left to my own devices back in civilization.

My 'what to do' solution is to return to my 'repair my standing with the Minmatar Republic' project. Rather than a series of normal missions, I've decided to run through some of the "Cosmos" missions available for the Minmatar. COSMOS missions are special, in that each mission can only ever be run once per pilot, and are generally quite a bit tougher than normal missions of the same 'tier', which makes them a bit more interesting. Each of the four major factions have a constellation where all their COSMOS agents hang out, and the Minmatar constellation isn't far from the section of Gallente space I'm in, so I hop into my Ishtar heavy assault cruiser (which I expect will be small enough to be allowed into most of the sites I plan to run) and head over.

Things go all right for the first few missions, but get considerably more complicated when I realize that some of the missions involve hauling large quantities of stuff around. The Ishtar is many things, but 'capacious' isn't one of them, so I'm forced to pick up a cheap hauler to move the macguffin crates back and forth.

Luckily, this doesn't take long (and I can watch MLP on Netflix while I jump from system to system), and soon I'm back in the Ishtar... only to be told that HACs are "too big" to fit into the next mission (never mind that it's the exact same hull as a normal vexor cruiser). So it's back to the market to pick up some cruiser-sized ship. What's available?

No... no... no... no... no... Oh, here's one. A Stabber? Really? That's the best cruiser hull available within 11 jumps?

Minmatar: Good firepower. Little light on the armor.


(Note to self: haul 25 rupture-class hulls out Nakugard, marked up 25%. Profit.)

So I get in my new... stabber... and prepare to speed-tank a LOT of NPC pirates.

Well... if nothing else, flying a stabber in level 3 cosmos missions is a lot more exciting than using a Ishtar. I mean, who needs hull integrity? Not the Minmatar, baby!

For the Rebublic!


I run through all the COSMOS missions in the first system in the constellation with at least a dozen more agents to go, and realize that I don't need to move on to the next system, because the (massive!) boosts to my standing for each of these one-time-only missions is enough to finally put me over the top on my Minmatar Republic standings, finally returning me to the coveted ranks of the "truly beloved less objectionable Gallente dilettantes soiling our stations with their perversions."

Which I choose to count as a victory.