Anyone who has read the blog for awhile is certainly aware of just how many times this poor weary player has moved around the universe. Each of those moves has a story behind it of course, but they also have a story that hasn't been told. Exactly how does one move across the entire universe from one zero space system to another?
It isn't easy. But over the course of doing it so many times, I think I've gotten pretty darn good at it. Both from a personal and corporate perspective. The situations vary of course, from open warfare and hurried evacuations, to more leisurely, to more sneaky, but they all share one common goal - to get out with as much as possible.
Assets is the name of the game and keeping those assets alive is the most important part of moving them. Now those assets can take many forms, but the easiest way to move them is to turn them into ISK. Cash can be moved safely, it can't be blow'd up and it can buy stuff later. The trick is that sometimes, especially in a hurry, you can't easily turn assets into cash. (Amazing how much like the real world this game can be.) So the first decision is the big one, how much are you going to take? And how much are you going to sell, trade, trash or leave behind?
When I started thinking about this last week I had 37 ships in my hanger deep in zero space. 29 of those were fully fitted and rigged. That is more than even I usually have, mostly because my ships were not dying down there. At all. So I had to decide which I would take with me and which I would try to sell. Any ship that required me to rip the rigs from would be a loss, so that had to be taken into account. Two ships I decided to self-destruct for the insurance. The un-fitted spares went into the Corp courier account to be taken to Empire via carrier. Any doubles, like my two Megathrons, would be split - one to sell and one to fly out.
All my mods and hanger support went into cans (7 total) for transport via the Corp Carrier to our Empire dump-off. They'd be picked up, along with the un-rigged ships, and transported by my other toon Anastastia. (She'd end up making 5 long trips in her Impel, on one of those trips I bet she had about 12b in assets inside that thing. A couple of Tempest's did try to lock me, but I got away. Whew.) The rest? Well those would have to be flown up to Empire one at a time, only 17 remained of the originals. They all made it without incident. 3 of them would be stripped and sold in Empire which left 14 to be flown, one at a time, back down thru Empire to the new low-sec launching system.
Which is what I am doing right now. Yippeee.
That sounds like hard work, but it's nothing compared to the work being put in by others in the Corp. Dismantling POS towers, POS Modules and moving Corp assets is the really hard work. I admire everyone that has worked together on that project, and its only half done. I helped as much as I could, mostly popping cynos and running guard duty, but the bulk of the work fell on the usual broad shoulders. My hat is off to those guys. Well done as always.
So that's how you get out of zero and back into the safe embrace of Empire. Now to get back into zero somewhere else... again. Where exactly? Well you'll just have to wait and find out like everyone else now won't you?