I had worked up some substantial frustration after looking at component prices to build the new command ship blueprint my labs had produced. Seriously, when the cost of the Fernite Carbide Composite Armor Plates alone will nearly equal the market price of the entire Sleipnir, something has gone wrong. We had managed to drive the materials budget down fairly low in our blueprint research, but I can’t really skimp that much or the whole thing will just vent into space. I understand that the moon materials market has started to fluctuate wildly, partly due to speculation and partly due to changes in the supply coming out from nullsec.
So, after I snapped at a few research assistants for petty little things that not only didn’t matter but really didn’t even have anything to do with them, one of my senior advisors pulled me aside and quietly suggested that maybe I needed a vacation. I didn’t really want to do it, but he convinced me after a bit. I poked around my inventory and realized I had an exploration Drake and a jump clone out in Khanid. I hate leaving assets all over the cluster and figured this seemed like a good time just to fly it back to base.
One of the local station staff really irritated me, though, with her condescending manner and preachiness. After the third snide, under-the-breath remark about uppity heathens with no soul, I let myself accidentally stumble into her, then started yelling about an assault. My security staff ensured she’ll be off work for the next week or two.
All this really just explains why I decided to take the scenic route from Ashi to Oursulaert, and look for whatever Blood Raider cosmic anomalies I could find along the way. That means the trip will probably take a few days, but given my temper, that might be safest. Nobody will miss a few slaving vampire wannabes, right?
In the next system over, I found a Blood Raider refuge. They have drugs, gambling, female prostitutes… some set of believers! The image above shows what I found. As soon as my Drake showed up on their scanners, they launched their frigate guards, but a few well-placed Scourge Heavy Missiles took care of those Corpii types. The gas silos didn’t succumb so easily, so I let loose some volleys on their bunkers and warped out.
Once I reached the following system, I found some burrow of theirs. Same result, though this had less in the way of built-up infrastructure. I think they used it for mining and production, more than anything else. See below.
Ring around the weirdos... lots of veldspar
Storage silos and bunker
If you look, you can see the other one in the background
I thought that would do it for this run, and I’d just dock up and sleep in my quarters on the ship. But in the last system I checked, I found another stinking Blood Raider burrow. This time, they had a lot more production infrastructure, including a shipyard. The nearby junkyard full of wrecks gave me the creeps, and I don’t mind slamming a few missiles up their tailpipes or showing them the business end of my Hobgoblin IIs.
Shipyard in a burrow
The fate of the survivors in those wrecks doesn't bear thinking about...
