It was quite a party. The hanger deck was littered with empty bottles of alcohol, passed out Warriors of the Ushra’Khan and -A-. Xious could be seen staggering about with the assistance of quite a few ‘Ladies of Love’. He was smiling in a drunken stupor, singing some ancient song about a drunk Scotsman and a blue ribbon left by some admirers.

It was a glorious mess and it had been a long time coming. Unity Station had been freed after years of fighting. Now came the push further into Providence. CVA had been defeated again and again. They would continue to push deeper into their space.

CVA will fall. The death blow had been delivered, the rest of the body did not know it yet.

Ga’len stood, as best as the many spirits he had consumed would allow him. It was a hard fight, but he was finally aboard Unity Station.

“So,” Ga’len began to speak to a recently freed slave, “What do you plan to do now?”

“Well, the man over there,” the freed slave spoke while gesturing towards Xious and his gaggle of love,” he said, or rather slurred heavily, that I should speak with you.”

“Oh, what about?” Ga’len was looking at this man’s very intense look on his face.

“Well,” continued the man,” I think you may know about my daughter.”

***

Moments later…

“Whoa. I must have had to drink than I thought,” Ga’len said slowly. He was lying on the floor of the hanger, looking up at this man, “I thought you just said something about your daughter.”

“I did, but, uhm, perhaps you should let me explain,” continued the man as he extends his hand down to Ga’len, “I am Karled. Xious tells me that you have been taking care of a young girl that may be my daughter.”

Karled shows Ga’len a photograph of a younger Breanne. “Please, have you seen her?”

Ga’len graciously takes Karled’s hand and is helped to his feet. “Good sir, yes, my sister and I have been taking care of her. I will take you to her at once.”

Karled exclaimed, “Oh thank the Gods!”

Ga’len and Karled made it quickly across the hanger decks to Ga’len’s Vagabond, An Bealach an Vaga. After securing Karled in the rarely used passengers section, Ga’len got into his pod, his “Jovian Spud” as he sometimes called it and engaged the loading mechanism.

Undocking from Unity Station in 9UY4-H was fast and simple, not a single slaver in sight. As Ga’len willed his ship into motion, he willed the internal ship comms into life and brought Karled up to speed on the event leading to the discovery of his missing daughter.

“I can’t thank you enough. My wife is in Z-RFE3, looking for Breanne at the station there,” continued Karled, “Is it possible to send her word as to where we are going?”

“The panel in front of you should be active now,” Ga’len spoke from his mind’s voice over the internal comms, “Let her know that we will be arriving at the station in 15 minutes. Breanne is with my sister at the station in D-GTMI. I will be happy to take you both there .”

Ten minutes later, Ga’len jumped into a gate camp. Several tackler ships and a few battle cruisers to provide the damage dealing needed to destroy a target.

“Sod it,” Ga’len mutters in his mind. He aligns to a planet and engages his micro warp drive. The local comms channels come alive as Ga’len yells in his mind, “SLAVERS REPENT! LEAVE NOW AND YOU SHALL LIVE!”

The panel in front of Karled displays the visuals outside the ship. He chuckles to himself as the entire Slyph gate camp simply flees into random directions away from the gate.

“So,” Karled speaks slowly, “They flee before a single ship?”

Ga’len chuckles in his mind as he engages the internal comms, “The slavers who held this space know that they are defeated.  It’s time for them to protect what they have left, tuck tail and run.  We shall be in Z-R soon, I am alerting my sister, Leainati, that we will be arriving in D-GTMI later today.”

A few minutes later, Ga’len had his vagabond docked in station safely.  Karled and Ga’len made their way from the hanger decks where they happened upon a very petite woman.  She had to be Breanne’s mother.  It was her eyes, they were so blue.  She was trembling and it had been obvious that she had been crying recently.  She tried to speak, but her voice failed her.

“Ma’am, I am Ga’len.  Breanne is safe, she’s with my sister in D-GTMI.  If you come this way, we will head there immediately.”

She said nothing, just smiled broadly as we turned back towards the hanger.

“Ga’len,” Karled spoke, “This is my wife Taren.”  Taren nodded as they quickly walked toward the hanger.

“Don’t you worry,” Ga’len said quickly, “We will be there soon.  My sister Leainati is expecting us.  If I know her, she’s already alerted our fellow warriors to help  secure our route, we should get there within the hour.”

“Is she….how is….,” Taren’s voice was very shaky, she could barely speak.

“She is safe and unharmed, ” Ga’len assured Taren, “She’s a beautiful child.  Yes, she has all her fingers and toes and none the worse for wear so to speak.  She does think that you two were killed when you were taken away, but that will all be over very soon.  Let’s get you two aboard and get going.”

***

The trip to D-GTMI was fast and fortunately, without incident.  Many Warriors of the Ushra’Khan who were in systems they had to travel through were actively providing intel on enemy movements.  Before Ga’len realized it, they were on final approach to the station in D-GTMI.

Docking was quick as everyone had been alerted by Leainati that Ga’len had VIP passengers for D-GTMI station.  She told everyone who the passengers were, but to keep things quiet around Breanne.

They were greeted by Leainati on the hanger deck, she spoke warmly as Karled and Taren were climbing down the embarkation ramp, “Breanne does not know you are here, I wanted to keep this a surprise.  She’s on her way to the hanger as the thinks that ‘Uncle Twig’ is here for a quick visit.”

Karled and Taren looked at each other and then towards Ga’len with a shared questioning look between them.

“Well, she took to me.  She’s a wonderful child, ” Ga’len smiled as he spoke, “everyone in Ushra’Khan has become her family these past few weeks.”

As they approached the corridor doors, they parted and out came running Breanne.  She looked at Ga’len and then stopped dead in her tracks.  Her eyes wide, she stood with her jaw agape.

Ga’len walked over to Breanne and knelt down on one knee and spoke, “My little acorn, look who I found.”

Breanne’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly began to walk.  Taren fell to her knees and she started to cry uncontrollably as Breanne started to run towards them.  They all knelt there on the floor, hugging each other and crying.

Leainati walked over to her brother as he stood up, “How in the world did you find them?”

Ga’len shrugged, “He found me, said he heard from Xious that we were taking care of a little girl.  He showed me a photograph of Breanne and I thought it would be best to get back here as soon as possible.”

They all gathered back together near the corridor door.  Taren had regained some of her composure, walked up to Ga’len and gently slapped him across the face.

Ga’len was slightly stunned and glared at her as she spoke, “I hate all of you Amarrian bastards.  Your people took us away from our daughter but you are not like your people are you?  You take that slap to your face and you return it to them ten fold.”

“No, I am not,” Ga’len continued, “I hated how my family kept and abused slaves.  It’s why I left that place.  Don’t you worry, that slap has been delivered to them time and time again.”

Karled spoke, “And now -A- and Ushra’Khan are freeing Providence from that slaver oppresion.”

“Yes, they have,” Ga’len agreed, “We came for our people and now, my work here is done.”

Ga’len smiled as Leainati looked at him, “I joined Ushra’Khan with the hope of helping them return to their home at Unity Station.  I joined them to help re-light the fires of hope, to light the beacons of truth.  That part of my work is finished now.”

“So, with the slavers in Providence all but completely dead,” Leainati asks, “What will you do now?”

“I shall return to that which I know best,” Ga’len replied, “I shall go back to being the rogue who wandered.  That was my home, it’s time I returned.”

Breanne looked up at Ga’len as he slowly knelt down to the ground, “My little acorn, oh my child, I must leave.  It is time for me to go. Don’t you worry, my friends in Hellfleet are expecting me.”

Karled spoke, “Well, we can’t stay here.  It’s still not that safe for us.  May we come with you?  We will find a way to pay you.”

Breanne threw her arms around Ga’len’s neck and hugged him, “Please take us with you!”

“If you wish, I will take you all with me,” Ga’len assured them, “but you need not worry about money.  Loving hugs are the best currency.  I must head back to Unity Station to say by goodbyes.

***

Back at Unity Station, the meeting hall was almost empty as Ga’len walked through the door.  He was wearing his old clothes and was carrying a satchel with his Ushra’Khan uniform.

There was no one from leadership there as he had hoped.  They were all called away for another battle.  There was a note left for him however.  It read simply, “We will miss you, Ga’len, take care.  Keep the uniform,  you may be back one day as the Ushra’Khan bug is not easily ‘cured’.  We would have been here to say goodbye, but we had to go…for our people.”

Ga’len smiled as he looked out the window.  He saw the massive fleet warp away to battle.  They would free Providence of the slavers, that was to be sure.

For him, it was time to head back to D-GTMI, collect his “family” and head to his new home in low security space.  The time for piracy had returned.

More of The Bleeding Rose

Tags: -A-, 9UY4-H, D-GTMI, Piracy, ProviWar, Slyph, Unity Station, Ushra'khan

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Here’s your weekly roundup of all things EVE!  It’s a long post as I have a discussion point at the end.  Do take the time to read and think about this one.  I am looking for discussion from all viewpoints.

• The war in Providence continues.  It’s no longer a matter of a few systems but the entire region now.  As 9UY4-H fell on Monday and with -A- and it’s allies continuing it’s push, many say it will only be a matter of time before CVA disbands.  Some think that CVA will dissolve itself from it’s current form and head into faction warfare as that may be the only place they will be able to continue their role playing gaming style.  The reality is, unless CCP changes major parts of the Amarr/Minmatar story with the freeing of all slaves in New Eden, there will always be room for the role play side of the game.  Many people have written about the events in the Provi-war.  I’ve consolidated the D-GTMI and 9UY4-H Google items into the ProviWar feed.  You can catch all the blog posts, public forums postings and/or videos by subscribing to the feed itself.  More to come as things unfold but I will say this.  Monday was a day that will live in the heart of every Warrior of the Ushra’Khan.  Fighting at the side of -A-, Ushra’Khan was able to re-take 9UY4-H and Unity Station.
• Karn Mithralia made a great post on the EVE Forums Intergalactic Summit section relating to the retaking of Unity Station, head over and read [UNITY] – The Fire that Burns Within!
• Additionally, Ushra’Khan  and allies began taking systems from Sylph when they pulled a Goonswarm and forgot to pay their alliance bills.  They were able to take the J6QB-P  system and station, despite server crashes rolling the station damage indicators from zero armor and shields and less than 60 percent structure to 100 percent structure and 50 percent on shields and armor.  To relieve some of the frustration of that database failure, the station has been renamed for the time being, “C C P roll back  UK does not“.  I am sure a different name will be put into place by alliance leadership in the future.
• The Fan Fiction Blogfest #2 is still going on, head on over and join in the fun, write an entry today!
• Roc over at Roc’s Ramblings has some wonderful posts this week.  First head over read A hero address the world and then a  wonderful fiction post called Lament, head over and take the time to read it, it’s awesome!
• As always, update work for the blogs listed on The EVE Online Portal and the OPML download continues.  Head over and see who we added this week!

Now we have the discussion point I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  It relates to the siege of J6QB-P and the rollback event that occurred.

No, this is not a rant, only some observations and yes, it’s open for discussion as it’s a good topic for discussion.

Petitions were filed by many on the damage rollback issue.  Below is a copy of the responses from one of the GM’s:

Hi there,

I am sorry to hear what happened. My theory is that since the server underwent an ungraceful shutdown (in other words, it crashed), the state for the station (its shield, armor and structure level) wasn’t saved correctly to our database, and was therefore reverted to an earlier state when the server came back up.

Now, the problem with this, is that since the information was simply not saved correctly, it is not possible for us to verify in which exact state the station was in when the server crash happened. That means that we will sadly not be able to take any action here, as our logs surrounding the event are simply not conclusive.

I don’t doubt your description of the event, but my hands are simply tied due to the lack of verification from our end. I am sorry for this inconvenience.

Best regards,
Senior GM Lelouch
EVE Online Customer Support

Obviously this is not the response that anyone wants to ever see, that the data for the literally DAYS of shooting a station was simply lost.  This response is, however, one of the better responses I have even seen from a GM for this sort of issue.

Their position was explained clearly, not a simple “log show nothing” answer, but a valid, honest explanation.  One who puts in such a petition would see an insult as ‘your word is not good enough’.

I would have to disagree with that simply because there are those people who would make such a petition and falsely recount the problem.   It’s called cheating and unfortunately, this is why the GM’s take this stance on this sort of issue. Unless they have valid evidence in the way of database records,  there is nothing that can really be done.

Or is there something that they can do?  By their own admission, the database was not saved correctly due to the crash and thus the integrity of all the data pertaining to that time frame comes into question.   That is an issue that leaves me with some questions of my own.

Let me explain.  Every time you shoot a gun, ammo is consumed.  Crystals have a usage indicator, listed as damage.  Projectile, missile and hybrid ammo counts are reduced.  All that ammo usage is recorded by the inventory system with the usage indicator and location, mainly a weapon on a ship object.  Same goes for stront used by a dread in siege.   Ship objects are recorded in the database with your location sx, sy, sz.

So, when you shoot your ship, that means the inventory system records the removal of ammo, A1, from gun, G1, for ship, S1, at location s1x, s1y, s1z.  If you take that information from the database and match it up with the location of the station object in system and you can now establish that the station was in fact taking damage.

If  you expand the search for all inventory reduction events recorded in that time frame with other ships x, y, z locations in close proximity to the station object and you can confirm who was shooting at the station at the time.  You can not confirm the actual damage done sadly or any repairing done by the opponent using the inventory system.  So, for those of you thinking that the inventory reduction events data could be used to adjust the damage indicators for the station, I am sad to say that simply can not be effectively done.

However, in this case, the station damage was not recorded.  If all that data was lost, hours of damage indicator updates sent to hundreds of game clients, hours of inventory updates made for the ammo being used, hours of drones being used and/or lost, Stront consumed by dreads in siege, why was the only data rolled back the station damage indicators? 

What happened to all the ammo?  What happened to all the drones that were destroyed?  What happened to all the stront consumed?  Why was that data not rolled back?

If the database updates for damage taken/repaired for the station were not saved, then the ammo, stront and drones should still be there, is that not correct?  One would logically think so.

So, the questions for discussion are these:

Since the damage to the station can not be verified, why was the inventory system not returned to the same previous state for all those who were in system at the time?

How do you resolve the lost isk for ammo and/or stront consumed for damage that was not realized?

Should CCP be looking into the inventory system for such petitions and return ammo/stront used during a “rollback event” where the results of that used ammo/stront were not realized?

Can such incomplete database cleanups lead to other database inconsistencies?  Would these potentially be the source of all the crashes we have been seeing?

These are some of the questions that come to mind.  Please feel free to comment on this blog post or write a post of your own with your thoughts on this.  Feel free to answer any or all of these questions.

Personally, I think that CCP should be returning the ammo and stront that was used.

It’s a matter of examining the inventory system and placing those consumed items back into the respective hangers of the pilots whom their ship and character objects were present in the system with recorded inventory events at the time.

It’s the least they can do for having a server crash and “rollback time several hours” for a station that was under siege.

See you out there mates!

Tags: -A-, 9UY4-H, CCP, cva, D-GTMI, Discussion, GM Response, J6QB-P, ProviWar, rollback, Sylph, U'K, Unity Station

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• “At long last we come…” (14)
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Every time I write these Friday posts, they always seem to be a bit awkward to me. Well, the posting is not awkward, I just don’t want to leave the intro to the post something that is bland, the same thing each week. Bland posts every week lead to boredom for the reader and the writer.

So, what’s the stuff from this week?:

• There is a lot of news concerning the fall of the D-GTMI system pretty much all over the place. The EVE Forums, the EVE Blogging Community, Kugutsumen as well as many other places. There are even a few YouTube videos from the battle in D-GTMI. In a nutshell, Paxton Federation held the system for over three years and when it came time to defend it from -A-, they lost the fight. Many reasons were cited from server lag (which was very bad although the node the NOT crash) to poor FC work to inexperienced combatants on the field. As to what the future holds for D-GTMI and PXF, that remains to be seen. It should however, be interesting to watch unfold.
• Against All Authorities offered an olive branch to CVA after CVA’s failure to invade Catch as well as their loss of the D-GTMI system. CVA continued to be the arrogant aggressor and as a result -A- and it’s allies continue their response with an invasion of 9UY4-H. As of the writing of this blog post, 9UY4-H is under siege. There are both EVE forum posts and a few blogs posts on this battle so far and as always, I am more than willing to share what I find, enjoy!
• Nullsec space drama continues to unfold. On Wednesday, Goonswarm disbanded. Many say this was only the natural course as a problem with maintaining isk in the correct divisions of the executer corp’s wallet led to the loss of key systems in Delve. After listening to the recorded meeting that Goonswarm held and their internal declaration that they were moving back to Syndicate, I initially though this was part of their plan. In that meeting, you clearly hear that the main speaker called the current sov mechaincs (in beta). They seemed to make sense that they would pull out of 0.0 altogether, until you read the post from kartton, the alliance director responsible for the sov loss in the first place. His post titled ‘Dear Goonfleet’ pretty much sums up the Goonswarm mindset of “Frak it all” as he simply took what isk was left and ran. In EVE online, you “adapt or die“. Goonswarm had to adapt to the new sov mechanics as well as the changes to the Titan Doomsday weapon from being an area of effect, grid clearing weapon to a single target weapon. They simply could no longer win fights with large fleets holding people on a grid and using a Titan to ‘clear the board’. Adapt or die, they simply could not do this. Their attitude that the’ sov mechanics are in beta’ reflects this inability to change and thus the infighting must have grown within alliance leadership. Cal over at the Wild at Heart blog has a great post on what happened. As more information becomes available, you can catch the updates at yet another of my Google shared items,Goonsfall.
• Casiella over at Ecliptic Rift has started a Tumblr blog. So, being the social creatrue that I am, I caved to peer pressure and created one as well, http://eve-druid.tumblr.com. I plan to use my Tumblr blog in the same fashion as Casiella, to post things that don’t make it into my blog here or things that I can’t easily share with Google Reader.
• Akura kawanaka of Eve Monkey announced that Fan Fiction Blogfest #2 is underway. You can read all the posts in yes, yet another Google shared item (Google should send more advertising dollars my way for all the props they get from me!)
• One of my favorite sites, EVE Travel, moved to a new home this week. Head over to http://evetravel.wordpress.com and see why it’s a great site. Mark726 fly around New Eden and bring you photos of all the landmarks in game. It will take him a while, but it’s worth following the journey. The “Wanderer” in me just keeps bringing me back to the site.
• CCP announced that they have learned a lot from their testing for the lag in fleet battles. Be sure to read the ENTIRE dev blog as there are some very useful tips on how to deal with these lag situations. It’s a good read and should be something you stop right now and do. I especially liked this part of the dev blog in reference to the final battle in D-GTMI: “On Jan 28^th, we had a 1600 person fleet fight on Tranquility which our team monitored closely, keeping the node alive using methods that make our system admins faint. This was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, fleet fight ever in EVE (at least where the node survived the ordeal). This event allowed us to identify what was causing some of these glitches and deploy fixes live.” So, they finally listened to us, went to a system where the fleet fight request system was used for node reinforcement and actually monitored a live fleet fight 0n the production server. LO AND BEHOLD, THEY WERE ABLE TO IDENTIFY SOMETHING TO HELP THEM RESOLVE THIS ISSUE! Ahem…Well, finally they are listening to the stakeholders and we are again able to work together. Better late than never, thank you CCP. I for one am more than willing to continue to help resolve these issues, let’s keep that collaboration going!
• Manasi over at A Mule in EVE wrote a response to the CCP dev blog on lag and very accurately voiced a valid issue about some of the survival tips for fleet lag.  He feels that the concept of clicking a module to activate it once and wait 8 minutes for the time out is unreasonable.  I happen to agree with him.  Read the whole post and participate in the discussion.
• As always, update work for the blogs listed on The EVE Online Portal and the OPML download continues. I am continually amazed at the number of blogs that we have listed.

See you out there mates!

Tags: -A-, 9UY4-H, cva, D-GTMI, fan fiction blogfest, Google Reader, Goonswarm, Lag, OPML Download, The EVE Online Portal, tumblr, War

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EVEMonkey’s Fan Fiction Blogfest #2

February’s topic:
————————–
The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 has seen the beginnings of many nullsec wars: The Triumverate coalition is invading the Northern Coalition from Pure blind. Wildly Inapropriate has been forced out of Geminate. IT alliance has obliterated Pandemic Legion and Sons of Tangra in fountain. Goonswarm have been forced to retreat out of Delve/Querious into Syndicate, and there have been major border clashes between the providence block holders and -A-/Ushra’Khan/Systematic Chaos.

Everyone has been affected in some way. Write the story of someone affected by these changes. Whether it be a wife who has lost their husband working at a conquered station, or a pod pilot who has been brought to financial ruin, or a weapons manufacturer rubbing his hands in glee at the booming business. We have all been affected.
————————-

…since the great battle for D-GTMI and still, there are signs of the carnage everywhere.  Bodies of fallen slaver scum are still piled in some places in the station.  Most have been disposed of, but there were so many to fight, so many to kill.  Their stench burns your nose like a fire of rotting flesh, pervading your every pore of your skin.

And yet, those slaves who have been freed from their oppressors are not working to clean up the station.  They sit on the floor, huddled in clean blankets, clutching the warm cups of soup to their chests as if letting go would mean death.  They sit, sip, eat and watch others work to clean up the dead.  They have toiled enough, it was their time to rest, recover and begin their new lives of freedom.

There is a small child, sitting in a corner.  She is shaking as if freezing to death.  Her eyes are filled with horror filled days gone past these 7 years of her life.  She was born a slave and has known only Amarr oppression.  As her eyes look up at the warrior standing above her, the emblem she sees causes all those years to leave her small frame and joy fills her face.

She’s watching him closely.  This man, this warrior is ripping down the propaganda of their old oppressors from the walls.  Many of the posters are stained with blood.  He looks down from his work and sees this little girl.  To her shock, he is Amarrian.

“I thought they killed all you scum,” her voice shaking with fear but her eyes filled with a boldness of strength of a woman twice her size.

All movement in the hallway freezes as is the air had suddenly turned to ice.  Everyone’s eyes turn to look at this little girl and the man cleaning the walls.

Ga’len lowers himself onto one knee to look this little girl in the eyes.  He just looks at her for a moment and speaks with the soft kind voice of a father speaking to a beloved daughter, “My friend, I may be of Amarrian birth, but I know what my people have done to you is wrong,” Ga’len continues, “We are all human, all part of the same family and I will not sit by and let my brothers and sisters enslave you or anyone else.  What is your name child?”

Slowly she looks around and sees that everyone is staring at the two of them.  Everyone is smiling at her and Ga’len, “I am Breanne,” she says.

“Breanne, I am Ga’len.  My child, you saw this emblem on my shoulder?”, Ga’len looks deep in her eyes as he points to the markings on his clothing.  She looks at the emblem and holds up her small hands, making a fist with her right hand, mirroring the emblem.  Chuckles are heard in the hallway as everyone continues to watch this conversation unfold.

“You wear the mark of a Warrior of the Ushra’Khan,” Breanne says.

“That’s right Breanne,” Ga’len continues, “I am a Warrior of the Ushra’Khan.  We fight to free our brothers and sisters from slavery and oppression.  We fight to save you.”

Slowly thoughts cross Breanne’s face. With a confused look she asks, “But that would mean that you kill your own kind, doesn’t it?”

Ga’len smiles as he speaks, “My little acorn, I would fight and kill those who would harm other humans,” he points to a pile of dead Amarrians, “Those people stopped being human the day they raised an oppressive hand and struck you down to the ground.”

“Little acorn?” she asks, “What is a little acorn?”

“An acorn is a seed, it’s what you plant in the ground to grow tree,” Ga’len replies.

He glances up to see Leainati walking over.  She has huge grin on her face from watching her brother speaking with this child, “Think of it this way.  An acorn is the baby that becomes the sapling.  The sapling is the child that becomes the tree.  When you grow up, your branches mingle with the other trees in the forest, sheltering the acorns below that will one day begin to grow.”

Breanne looks up at Leainati as she too lowers herself onto her knees.

“Breanne, I am Leainati,” Leainati bows her head as she introduces herself, “I see you have met my brother.”

“Brother?  But he’s Amarrian and you are Minmatar, aren’t you?” Breanne asks.

“Actually, I am only half Minmatar.  Ga’len and I have the same mother but his father was Amarrian, mine was Minmatar.”, responds Leainati, “Half brother, part of our beloved family and fellow Warrior of the Ushra’Khan.”

“He’s your brother, wow.  That’s messed up,” comments Breanne.

Everyone looks at Ga’len intently.  Ga’len looks between Leainati and Breanne’s faces.  He smiles and a small chuckle grows in his chest.  He begins to shake slightly as the chuckle grows into a louder laugh.  As if he can’t contain it anymore, he roars into a very healthy laughter.  Slowly the laughter spreads around the hallway and everyone feels the tension become blissfully thin.

“Yes my little acorn, it is a bit messed up, but at least I get to have a wonderful sister,” Ga’len smirks at Leainati.

“Okay Twig, enough of that,” Leainati smack Ga’len on his shoulder.

“Twig?  I thought his name was Ga’len?” Breanne asks.

“I call him Twig when he’s being silly,” Leainati continues, “So Breanne, where is your family?  Are they here on the station?”

Breanne’s eye glaze over, a very distant sorrow fills her face and tears begin to flow from her eyes.  She is choked with tears as she tried to speak.  She motions with her hand at the pile of dead Amarrian soldiers.

“Oh my child!  I’m so sorry,” Leainati begins to hug Breanne, “They died in the battle did they?”

A weak tearful voice creeps from Breanne’s mouth, “No, they died a long time ago.  I think they died; they just disappeared with some soldiers.  I am all alone, I have no family.”

Leainati unfolds Breanne from her embrace, places her hands on these tiny shoulders of the sobbing child, “My child, you are not alone.  You are part of our family now.”

“But,” Breanne begins to speak, “You family is messed up.”

Ga’len roars with laughter again.  His face turns red and he hangs his head as he tried to catch his breath.  After several moments he begins to speak.

“Yes my acorn, our family is messed up,” Ga’len continues, “but we have what every family needs.  We look after each other; we stick together through the good times and the bad.”

“You do?’ Breanne asks, “You don’t just disappear one day without a word?”

“Not usually, no,” Leainati says, “Now, why don’t you stay here with Twig while I got get you some more food, okay?”  Breanne looks at Ga’len for a moment, then looks at Leainati and nods in agreement.

Leainati heads off and Ga’len begins to speak, “Breanne, would you like to help me for a moment?  I can’t quite reach high enough on this wall to put up this poster.”

“I am too small, you are taller,” Breanne says.

“That is true, alone we can’t reach, but together we can, “Ga’len places his hands on her shoulders, “If you sit on my shoulder, you can reach up higher than the both of us.”

Breanne moves behind Ga’len and with a jump and Ga’len’s guiding hands, she manages to sit on his right shoulder.  Together then manage to place a new poster on the wall.  When they are finished, they step back to look at what they have done.

“Looks good my acorn.  Forlorn has a talent that is to be sure, ” Ga’len says as he crouches beside Breanne, “Come, let’s go find our sister and see about your food.”

Breanne turns and faces Ga’len.  Without warning, she throws her arms around his neck and hugs him.

“Thank you Uncle Twig.  I like the poster,” Breanne says sleepily.

Ga’len laughs, returns the hug and stands up holding Breanne in his arms.  As he walks down the hallway towards the deck’s food court, he collects a blanket from a supply crate and wraps Breanne in it to keep her warm.  As they continue down the hall, Breanne lays her head on his shoulder and her eyes slowly close as she slips away into sleep.

Ga’len stops for a moment and turns his head to her sleeping face.  He places a gentle kiss upon her forehead and whispers softly, “Sleep well my little acorn.  You are not alone anymore; Uncle Twig and Aunt Leainati will take care of you now.  You are free”.

More of The Bleeding Rose

Tags: D-GTMI, fan fiction blogfest, The Bleeding Rose, Ushra'khan

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Yup, weekly highlights again.

Here are some things to highlight from the past week:

• It’s been an interesting week.  Many of you saw me snap and rant for a bit.  I’m not going to recount those forum postings and articles on my blog here, it’s time to move past that stuff.  I will say this though.  The EVE forums continue to see post after post of complaints, however, CCP is returning in kind with announcements of specialized test server sessions.  I’ll keep my comments in the future on a more positive note and less “ranty”.  If anything, CCP does inspire people with passion however there are times when that passion is not expressed in the best of ways.  For that, I am sorry.  This of course, leads us to the next bullet which addresses some of the ‘passion’ that myself and many others have expressed.
• CCP released Dominion 1.1.1, patch notes are available.  This line in the patch notes gives me hope:  Many behind the scenes optimizations and fixes have been implemented. Granted, this was announced before the test server testing on Wednesday the 27th, but it is obvious that they learned something.  The fight in D-GTMI hit 1600+ in local with well over 1000 on grid and the node held strong.  There was lag, but it was epically better than things have been, module response times varied from 30 seconds to 15+ minutes all throughout the battle.  Some times it was worse, other times it was better.  It was a bit random on who was being affected.  The lag problem is not fixed per se, but it’s a hell of a lot better than it was a week ago.  One thing that you have to note, the node NEVER crashed and that is a huge accomplishment.  We need to monitor this to see if similar fleet engagements obtain the same results, but I am feeling better about the work CCP is doing to work on this issue.  Yes, I will say it took too long since the deployment of Dominion, but they made a huge step forward.  My hats off to them on this one!
• Huge bullet point and this is why as it leads to this item. -A- and it’s allies continue their push into Provibloc territory.  First by reclaiming space they took from -A- during an attack near HED-GP and then they continued into Providence itself.  D-GTMI fell to -A- as a direct result of those efforts.  CVA and their pets put up a decent fight.  As I write this, -A- is deploying the tools for maintaining sov.  The system D-GTMI now belongs to -A-.
• Speaking of sov changes in systems, Goonswarm lost it’s sov in many systems due to it’s alliance bills not being paid.  Several other alliance lost their sov in the same fashion.  Seems that automatic payments for alliance bills have some issues, however, other alliance had these issues sorted out before their bills became due.  Many people are happy to see the goons fall as only the EVE Forums can relate.  A recording of a goonswarm meeting after sov was lost was recorded and placed on the EVE forums as well.  You can listen to it yourself.
• Helicity Boson was featured in one of the EVE Community Spotlight articles on MMORPG.COM for his work in organizing the Hulkageddon contests.
• Casiella Truza hosted an interesting discussion on writing fan fiction for EVE online.  If you like to write fan fiction head over and take a gander and join in the discussion!
• Speaking of Fan Fiction, Janette Davy has been working on an interesting story, head over and catch up on all the posts!
• On a non-EVE related note, Apple announced the iPad.  I am intrigued, but a lack of a camera, usb port and sd card slot are some things that I would have liked to see.  The announced accessories like the case that triples as a stand for watching movies or an inclined stand for ease of use of the onscreen keyboard for longer typing sessions are a plus.  The keyboard dock is also a nice addition.   Having an unlimited 3G data plan that is month to month, no contract at $29.99 is a major plus.  I’ll wait for the reviews after the 3G units hit the market here in the US in April.
• And of course, we continue to add blogs to The EVE Online Portal and the OPML download.  Even with the cleanup last week, we have made it up to 516 working blogs in the OPML!

See you out there!

Tags: automatic payments, Casiella Truza, D-GTMI, fan fiction, Goonswarm, Janette Davy, Lag, node crash, OPML Download, Patch Notes, The EVE Online Portal

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