Early this morning, I set off with my loyal crew and the one remaining missionary. There is a fifteen jump trek towards my destination and the idea was to scout out the route, and possibly create some safe spots along the way. These are not only good as hiding places, but also allow to jump towards the gate from an unexpected angle and thus hopefully avoid warp disruption bubbles and other traps by highwaymen.
Unfortunately, we hit stormy weather. The exotic matter storm is still raging, and a few systems out this was exacerbated by an electrical storm. This was what I feared: in the electrical storm, the Indigatrix's cloaking does not work. This was of course used by hunters in the system, there were combat probes everywhere on d-scan.
We made it unscathed trough the region affected by the storm. However, as we were getting closer to the border of "RHP", the Respect Honor Passion alliance, there was a marked increase in mercenary gangs associated with their rivals, "Volta". A large troupe of their warriors, under the banner of "we form blob" (really, the names in these parts...) was in 8S28-3. One system onward, in E3UY-6, there was a fleet of RHP ready to face off the Volta's.
In that system, I saw one of the largest privately held structures I ever encountered. A "keepstar" station, owned by RHP. It is immense, two large towers with living quarters and offices connected to a base with large hangars. The thing would dwarf Farthest Shore. It is a freeport, so I could dock up - I wanted to meet the locals. It had been under recent attack, and was reinforced into armor.
The commander of this immense station is a capsuleer named Leutnant Odin. I had the pleasure to briefly meet him - we from the core worlds are certainly a curiosity here. He tried, and I cannot emphasize how weird this was, to sell me the station. Lock, stock and barrel. For a mere 235 billion isk, a good price according the the lieutenant. I think RHP is losing the war, and cannot hold their keepstar... It also may be another attempt to bring in the Amarr Empire on their side.
These lands are ripe for the picking. If the Empire wants, they could reclaim these parts with just a bit of divide and conquer strategy. And they must be not completely devoid of industry, otherwise they could not have built the massive structure in E3UY-6.
