The Sisters of EVE

Just a quickie this morning because I've got last nights Game of Thrones to catch up on before bed, but I did want to just quickly mention that four and a half years after starting it, I finally finished the Sisters of EVE epic mission arc "The Blood Stained Stars" in EVE Online!

That's quite a trek

In my first encounter with EVE Online back in September of 2009 I did what all good newbies do and followed the initial set of missions that are offered up to you. They do a reasonable job at introducing you to some of the things you can do to while away the hours in the game, but to be honest they barely scratch the surface. Probably the most useful set of missions for the new player is The Blood Stained Stars mission arc offered up by The Sisters of EVE corporation. Some forty nine missions spanning seven chapters will take you from your first combat frigate up through your first destroyer and into, (as long as you save up the mission rewards in order to buy and fit the damn thing), your first cruiser class ship, which you'll probably need for the last mission. I don't really remember much about the early chapters, but I think you get a few implants and skill books as rewards, possibly even a ship or two? I really don't remember. What I do remember is that somewhere along the line I ended up with a mission that required me to leave Gallente space and head over to Hek, the main trading hub in Minmatar space. This was a trek of 10 or so jumps and when I got there one of the first few missions was something like a further 23 jumps. I could have got it down to about 18 by going through low-sec space, but as a newbie that was too scary and really not worth the risk for such a small saving. It was at that point I gave up and headed back to my home station to start a life as a small time industrialist and regular mission runner.

I've burned out, gone away and come back to EVE two or three times in the intervening years and each time I come back I see that mission listed as "offered" in my mission log and think, "One day", but until this weekend I've never thought to actually try and finish it. So I loaded up in my Thorax and went for a long, long ride. It took two fairly long play sessions to actually finish the whole arc, and at this stage in my career the one million ISK reward for completing the final mission was pretty anti-climactic. I can make that in about 3 minutes mining Blue Ice, so it was a dreadfully unproductive couple of days as far as wealth accumulation is concerned. It did give me a good sense of completion though, having finally got through it all. I just wish I'd stuck at it back at the start when a million ISK in one payout would have been a big deal! I also wish I hadn't left some loot all the way over in Lisudeh, some 19 jumps away from were I currently am!