A Collection of Thoughts from an Amarrian in New Eden

Welcome to the Amarrian Pilot blog, written by Ranis Garr. This blog serves as a place for me to put into text my thoughts, opinions, concerns, creations, and rantings about the world of New Eden. From Alliance Politics, to fiction, player quarrels to ship fittings, I plan on including it all. Although some of the posts may be frequent, and some may be few and far between, they will all be part of something I view to be relevant to the universe of New Eden.

Follow me on this blog and voice your opinions on my posts. I love to hear every side of every story, either good or bad, or if you agree with me or not. I want to hear your side.

Enjoy - and remember: Amarr Victor.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Genesis Freehold

Ranis walked down the corridor of the new office his corporation had opened up at Tzvi's 24th Imperial Crusade Logistics Support Station. As he rounded a corner, he got to the doors of his off-site CEO quarters. The door whized open, and he walked through. The workspace was far more spacious than the HQ Office he was used to at Riavayed. He set some of his paperwork down on the empty desk, and pulled up a communique on his NeoComm from the NETU CTL for Intelligence and Logistics.

"The Tower is online, and the assembly arrays have been onlined as well."

This news came as a relief to Ranis, already exhausted from moving several ships to the area.

This constellation had been looked at for strategic and intelligence reasons in the past, and was determined unsound due to faction warfare going on in the area. Due to the conflicts dying down a bit, it was deemed safe to setup a medium control tower in the area in order to further both the Navy and Industrial goals of the corporation.

Ranis closed the NeoComm and picked up a display pad on the top of the stack now sitting on his desk. The display pad outlined Tower Schematics, online structures, and plans for its use. Towards the end of the file being displayed, it showed mineral quotes for a large scale production operation the New Eden Trade Union was about to take on. Ranis forwarded these mineral quotes to his CTL of Industry, hoping to get started on production as soon as possible on the massive project. The ship, scheduled to launch from Union Shipyards in about a month, would be a monument to NETU's growth and expansion from its relatively young age.

Rounding the side of his desk to settle in his chair, Ranis sank into the Heimatar hound-hide seat, and began to write up a short press release to his corporation.

"Genesis Freehold, the name of our new low-security base, it a testament to the hard work of all of you. We have overcome many hurdles, and will continue to overcome hurdles in the future. Genesis Freehold is the embodiment of all of our members collective will to succeed, to drive forward, and to continue to prosper in New Eden. I am proud to announce Genesis Freehold as being our new monument to our own success."

Closing the file with plans to work on it later, Ranis glanced down at his NeoComm. A transmission had been waiting for his approval. He leaned back and opened the channel. Vampire Nocturnus' face appeared, a cool confidence that oozed through the screen made Ranis raise an eyebrow.

"Good news," said Vamp. "Production has already been planned and we have already begun to secure the belts in the area. Mining teams are moving into the area."

"Perfect. The Orca will move in shortly as well. Coordinate with Devildog and the Team Leaders in his department to help get production moving," replied Ranis.

"Already on it," Vamp replied.

"And one more thing," added Ranis, "lets begin moving our Navy into the area. We want to begin to secure locations for planetary control in the near future. We will need to have a Control Tower Network setup within the coming months to ensure production and profits begin flowing. I have a shareholders meeting in the next 48 hours."

"Sure thing," replied Vamp.

Ranis closed the transmission. He thought back to the last time he was at the City of God. The short prayer he whispered in that moment was being answered. God was on his side.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Public Relations

(IC Post, 3Psn)

Ranis sat at his desk analyzing the latest survey reports for the Control Tower that was being planed for the area. His desk was less messy that it he was used to seeing it. Able to focus on the present task of a Tower setup, Ranis felt like he was accomplishing something. For once.

The doors to his office whizzed open. A pilot with the call sign "Devildog" entered his office. Devildog was a tall, well built Minmatar pilot, CTL of the Industry Department. Although strange to see a Matari citizen holding such a high position in a corp run by an Amarrian Religious Reclaimer, the sight didnt bother Ranis. Devildog's previous CEO has sent a communique referring the Matari citizen to his corporation. With a detailed and highly decorated officer, referral in hand, docking at NETU Head Quarters, Ranis felt reluctant to give the man a chance. Once a slave, Devildog had proven himself in the Caldari-Gallente war. That in its own regard was enough allow him admittance.

"Good evening, Ranis. I have some troubling news," the officer said, as he handed Ranis a report.

Ranis skimmed the report, and in a few short moments, his eyes narrowed. The report was from a former CEO of a New Eden Trade Union Trainee. Recently out of the university, the report pointed out that the pilot in question had wasted no time in engaging in piracy activities, and was potentially targeting NETU for his next hit.

"What's the pilot's location?" asked Ranis.

"Riavayed V - Belt I. Currently mining in a Retriever," replied Devildog.

Wasting no time, Ranis immediately opened a direct channel with the CTL for Intelligence. "Vamp, I need a full background on this guy, and I need it yesterday."

"On it," replied Vampire, a well equipped Intelligence officer. "Why? Whats up?"

Ranis sent a data cluster to Vamp's on board system.

"Nice, Ill see what I can do," said Vamp.

Ranis closed the channel and issued a low-level alert to the NETU Navy Department. The signal, although subtle, was enough to let the CTL of that department to know that there was a problem.

"Lets go, we dont have much time," said Ranis, as he and Devildog rushed through the corridor to make it to the dock where their ships awaited them.

Ranis entered his clone, and had it lifted into his Harbinger. Fully fitted for combat, Ranis's Harbinger was the product of a year of trial and error. As he undocked, he issued subtle orders to his Navy on low level frequencies to have them prepare to spring a trap. As his ship arced toward the belt and took off, his display flashed three times to signal the Navy was moving into position. Upon entering the belt, Ranis screen flickered, signaling the intell report had been complete. Initial results indicated the intell was positive, and this guy was a snake.

The shipp roared out of warp and Ranis initiated a passive target on the pilot in question. Signaling to his fellow pilots that the plan was in action, Ranis began warp scramming the individual as he announced to him the allegations being brought forward.

The individual responded with confusion and shock, perceived to be a normal reaction for a spy to give when caught. With a short time passing with no response, Ranis gave the Navy the order to fire. Missiles and Lasers blazed through the space between the pilot in question and the 3 man gang that formed. Within seconds a light flashed, signaling the destruction of his ship. The smaller of the three ships began a warp scram, as the pilot continued to act confused. Shortly thereafter, the pod popped, as the pilot woke up lightyears from his start location.

"Good work boys," stated Ranis, as he gathered the online CTL's in a group transmission. "Get him on the line," barked Ranis, and within moments, the pilots face, still fresh out of the clone vat bay, appeared on the screen. "You are being charged with intent to commit criminal activity against the New Eden Trade Union in a time of peace. An investigation is underway," stated Ranis in a calm and collected voice.

"Im fresh out of the academy. I didnt do anything," said the confused and dazed pilot.

"Our intell reports show differently, and in the end, will tell the whole story," Ranis replied.

Outraged, the pilot demanded a representative. Ranis transmitted the contact info for the alliance CEO, as requested.

"This is a matter of internal security, and you have the right to arbitration. Until that time, you are not welcome in Amarr space."

The screen flickered black, and the pilot's face dissappeared. "Vamp, get the investigation underway. We need to have a full report for the public. We dont want to appear to be attacking graduates. Ill issue a press release here soon."

"Already on it," replied Vamp.

Ranis turned his ship and headed back to HQ to write up the release. Although an interesting turn of events, Ranis knew that this could get complicated quickly if the correct action wasnt taken quickly.

"Until the investigation closes, this is a matter of internal security, and we will only release some of the information to the public," announced Ranis to the group still in the comm window.

All of them agreed, and the proceedures began. All of the sudden, Ranis remembers how much he hates dealing with PR issues.

(To Be Continued)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

City of God

(IC post, 3psn)

Darkness surrounds what, in his mind, is just a body in a gel-filled pod. Ranis' has never really gotten used to the sensation of being in semi-suspended animation while in-pod. The hum of his Harbingers engines gently vibrated the ship, as he warped through the darkness of the system, Shastal. Once a holy place of worship, Shastal lost some of its awe and wonder as Amarrian culture seemed to focus more on how to expand the Empire's borders into Minmatar space and down into the lawlessness of Providence. Still, Ranis remembers coming here via InterBus transit lines, many years before he graduated from the Hedion University. Since his childhood, it has provided a sense of comfort.

His ship's engines lulled, as his warp drive began to slow. His neural displays flashed on and displayed a view of the Amarrian ancient site, the City of God. A shadow of its former glory, the City of God is a representation of all the Amarr are, were, and will be. The images being transmitted to his neural network dont do the sight justice. Ranis' thoughts' drift to what he remembers of the past years he has spent as a capsuleer. His class-mates back in Sehmy at the Hedion University are all successful people, from CEO's of mega-corporations, to major contributors to the market systems in the regions they currently inhabit.

Ranis begins to reflect on his accomplishments in New Eden. Although measurable, he is proud of what he has done thus far.

* * *

Refocusing his neural network on the ancient site, he suddenly is aware of where he is. Unbeknown to himself, Ranis finds that he spend several hours floating in front of the massive colossus. The power levels dimmed on the ship, as Ranis cut power to some of his on board computers. The pod goes quiet, and in that moment Ranis remembers a verse that was spoken to him out of his temple on his homeworld:

"Therefore, the lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden
He drove out the man,
And he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, Cherubim
And a flaming sword that turned every way
To keep the way of the tree of life."

This verse was the most memorable part of Ranis's upbringing, and provides him with much of his courage and will to continue life as a capsuleer.

Suddenly, the ships systems light up again. The ship turns and arcs towards the gate and the engines fire, thrusting him in the direction of the gate. In the time spend here, Ranis has noticed a few new evemails that he needs to address. Fortunately this site is only a short distance from his Headquarters. That thought provides all the comfort and faith in God that he needs to see his fellow pilots through even the worst of times.

The ship warps off into the distance, leaving Ranis feeling at peace.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Hardball

(I.C. Post, 3Psn)

The screen on Ranis' desk flickered in his office in Riavayed, signaling yet another evemail to be read. The station was cramped. The Hedion University station's hallways are busy with students rushing through the corridors, eager to pass their gravemetric training, in-pod simulation, and their in flight assessments. Ranis' desk is a mess. System charts and analysis, freight manifests, meeting notes, training assessments, production queues, and battle reports from the conflict going on in providence littered the already small workspace. He moved everything aside and activated his display screen. It was debriefing from a pilot in the Navy department.

Ranis glanced over the briefing. Its long and detailed, covering an incident involving the loss of a New Eden Trade Union vessel. Reading the more detailed portions of the report, he discovered that the operation involved alliance members with in close range of the reporting pilot. A hostile had taken down one of his ships in plain view of the fleet. According to reports, the fleet reacted in a passive manner, taking no action against the aggressor. Although cordial, the debriefing had an undertone of frustration.

Troubled by this transgression, Ranis began to make the arrangements with alliance leadership to discuss the issue.

Resting his head in his palm, he sighed in anticipation of the lengthy proceedings about to happen. Already dealing with rising tensions between New Eden Trade Union leadership and Apocalypse Now administration, Ranis knew this was going to be a bumpy road. The meeting that had taken place in Riavayed had already caused problems with his corporation, as things didnt go as they had hoped.

Ranis took a deep breath and opened his NeoComm and opened a channel with the current Corporate Team Lead of Personnel.

"John, get in contact with this pilot," he said as he transmitted a datacluster of information, "we need to get everything he knows about the incident if we are going to make a strong case."

"Got it," John replied.

"Things could get bumpy here soon. Have a report ready for the meeting tomorrow."

"Sure thing," John said. "Is everything okay?"

"No," Ranis replied "but it will be."

Ranis noticed his NeoComm flicker again, this time, a transmission from an alliance leadership official popped up on his screen.

"I'll get back to you John," said Ranis as he closed the current channel.

Not expecting to deal with things so soon, Ranis took another deep breath. "Good evening, I was just about to contact you..."

Friday, March 12, 2010

[NETU] Trainee Program

So, I've begun an experimental Trainee program in my corp to allow us to work better with the very few brand new capsuleers we hire. The program works like this:

We are going to start running pvp/mining training ops, requiring certain skills, ship fits, and for the pilot to have read a certain amount of material on the subject in order to join up. For example - pvp frigate tactics training would require the pilot to have successfully done the tracking and missile guides (available on the forums). We would require that the pilot be able to us (T1) MWD's, Webs, Scrams, and we will provide small faction ammo to them and possibly produce their ship. They fit it, take what they learned, and apply it on the real battlefield as we take on targets in 0.0. In the end, we do a debriefing and find what works, what doesnt, and why. This will also be an open forum to discuss what the fleet did well and what we need to improve. Each pilot will complete the lesson (or not) based on what the FC/CTL for the operation decides. People who fail the operation are people who fail to grasp the target concepts that we are trying to get across. People who pass are those who understand the ideas and concepts we are trying to teach.

In addition to this, I've opened an office in our area that allows us to base these TM's out of, and give them exclusive access to skills, mods, equipment, ammo, and the like. This will keep our HQ public hangar from getting crowded and messy with dozens of mods that not everyone will use.

This is also because I've lifted the ban on trial accounts, and the CTL - Personnel will begin recruiting starting Monday. Hopefully this will kick our numbers back in the healthy area that they used to be in.

For now, we will cap out our member count at 55.

Side note: I added my alt to the corp today. He is purely a RnD, Invention, and Rev Engineering Alt to provide a cash flow for both my main and my alt.

Dont want to get too sidetracked with this post, but there is so much going on. Keep an eye out for the update on how the Trainee Program turns out.

Fly safe out there.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Keys Principles of Leadership Mastery

Hey guys. If you've talked to me for any length of time, you know that I'm working on my leadership development skills in real life. As such, I'm reading a book on leadership. Some of this can be applied to myself and other leaders in the corporation. Here are some Key Principles of Leadership Mastery:

-When the leaders say the people are not following, its the leaders that are lost, not the people.
-Leaders get lost because of isolation, arrogance, or bad judgment. But above all they get lost because they because they become preoccupied with imposing their authority instead of truly leading.
-Leadership is helping people achieve a shared vision, not telling people what to do.
-Loyalty to leadership relies on the leader's connection and understanding people's needs, wishes, and possibilities. Solutions to leadership challenges do not lie in the leader's needs and wishes. Leadership solutions lie in the needs and wishes of the followers.
-Loyalty can't be built by simply asking or forcing people to be loyal.
-Before expecting anyone to follow, a leader first needs to demonstrate a vision and values worthy of a following.
-Any specific type of leadership inevitably attracts the same type of followers. In other words, for people to embrace and follow modern compassionate, honest, ethical, peaceful, and fair principles, they must see these qualities demonstrated by their leadership
-People are a lot more perceptive than most leaders think. People have a much keener sense of truth than most leaders think. People quickly lose faith in a leader who ignores those two facts.
-Often people have answers that elude their leaders. Leaders, therefore, should solicit, ideas, opinions, and suggestions to gain buy-in and cultivate loyalty.
-A leader who makes mistakes should come clean and admit the errors. People will generally forgive mistakes, but do not appreciate leaders that are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.
-A leader should be brave enough to negotiate when lesser people want to fight. Anyone can resort to threats and aggression, but being aggressive is not leading.

This is meant as a reference and a good read for those of you who want to take an active role in your development. Im here to help develop all of you as leaders, if you so chose.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Providence Times

I've been thinking about a way to gather information, news, updates, and special announcements and compile them into a news feed - The Providence Times. It would take simply a small website, a news ticker, a few correspondents, and some time (as always). Could be a fun idea, and could possibly generate some passive income to those involved. Best case, its an income stream that provides vital news to those in the providence region, and at worst, it could be a lot of fun.

Possibly take Kierah Garr (I think thats how I spelled her name), an alt character of mine, and use her to found the not-for-profit Providence Times News corporation. That, or i could operate the whole thing off of Ranis.

Still in the idea stage, but we will see if anyone else is interested to partake in the adventure.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Changing Course

So in my last post, I wrote about the possibility of declaring war on Atlas as a means of protecting providence. The meeting took place, and although wildly off topic, I managed to make my point:

The only way that we can help in the most effective manner is by war dec'ing Atlas and take the fight to high sec.

Now my position was met with very fair arguments. The war in high sec would disrupt our industry guys who don't fight at all. It would also require a ton of organization, that of which we lack at the present time. And overall, Formula doesnt allow for war decs. Its against his policy.

Now these being fair points, I cited a few points that other CEO's were making in the meeting. We have no clear direction as an alliance, and (in many peoples opinions) it stems from a lack of clearly set mid-term goals. CEO's noted that its hard to get operations together, and I made the point, "do the people see the overall goal behind these operations?" The answer was no, so I proposed a clear, short to mid-term goal that is achievable that also rallies both spectrums of the Alliance Community: The Protection and Defence of Providence.

This goal that was presented allows for indy guys to build discounted ships for alliance pvpers so that we can better defend our regions of space, and calls for PvP'ers to join up and help -7- defend Northern Providence, begin disruption fleets to break enemy lines of movements and logistics within the region, and to give our guys the experience they need to become veterans of the PvP community.

Shortly after our meeting ajourned, we were called to help -7- defend KBP from a 30 man gang that was in the area. Our short notice led to a powerful fleet of 50 various subcapital ships being brought to the area (Its was helpful that KBP is only 4-5 jumps out from our HQ).

Ill give these alliances leaders until the next meeting to see if they are taking the information given seriously and are acting on it to further ourselves as an alliance. If not, well, we will act then. If so, then its fair to say I played my part in helping the alliance move forward.

A side note, Im going to meet with my CTL of Industry and see about getting a Carrier on the production lines by mid June (roughly the time I plan on being in a carrier. :)). With a touch of luck, we can begin building up the APOC capital fleet, and start putting ourselves out there as a major contender for this area of space.

Providence

As you know if you keep up with the GalNet posts, or the Scope Reports, Providence is burning at the hands of AAA and U'K, and now Atlas are in the picture. My corporation is involved in an alliance, Apocalypse Now, and we are the fourth largest corporation out of the 18 corps involved.

Now let me get to the point. Atlas is currently JUST trying to cause as much damage as possible, and if they succeed in burning down Providence, then my corp will lose its opportunity to join the Providence community and further our goals of being a major player in the eve online market system, as well as become a pvp presence to be reckoned with.

In 10 hours or so, my alliance will be holding its monthly CEO/Director meeting. It is at this meeting where I will present a proposal that could at best, cause us to disrupt at Atlas at a high cost and at worst, get my corp removed from our alliance.

My proposal will be to declare a high sec war with Atlas to disrupt their logistics in and out of the providence region. By blocking supplies from getting in and out, and by disrupting the carebear functions in their alliance, we will (hopefully!) create a big enough distraction to allow Sev3rance to counter the assault on KBP, and regain their footing.

I expect there to be a large debate about this, seeing how Apocalypse Now doesnt engage in wars (meaning, they dont war dec people). My goal in 10 hours is to emphasize the historic importance of this course of action, and the role it will play in getting our name out there, and sending an ultimate message to Atlas: Providence is NOT Geminate.

The overall goal is to show them that they cannot come down here and do to Providence what they did to Geminate.

Now, I sleep. Cant go into one of these meetings without lots of sleep.

An Introduction

This blog will be done both in and out of character. My name is Ranis Garr, and I am an Amarrian Capsuleer. As a character that is older to the game, I have quite a history.

I am a CEO, an Investor, a Producer, a Capital Pilot, a Leader, a Student, an Idealist, and a Reclaimer. I believe in the Amarrian principles that call for a fervent faith in God. Slavery is a tool that we use to build up our empire, and I support the Amarrian right to bare slaves.

This channel will let me keep track of what I'm doing, what I'm involved in, who I interact with, and will also allow me to keep a record of the outcomes of my actions, as well as record my own history, and the history of my corporation, New Eden Trade Union.

Stay tuned, as I already have much happening in the here and now.