To dark places

I sit here now, thinking deep thoughts about my career.

When I first started, I was proud to follow my King's decree. I believed in my objectives. I believed in having a reason to fight.

The desire to do a duty, even to a figure I had never met, gave me the impetus to strike out beyond safer places of space. The Crusade forced me into danger. It forced me into combat with other capsuleers. Under my King's orders, I was prepared to carve a bloody swathe through the stars, leaving a rail of my own cloned corpses and wrecked ships.

I fooled myself into believing that King Khanid's ideals and goals aligned with my own. Independence from the Amarr Empire. Freedom from tradition. Defying God's law, as told by theocrats. These attributes made me proud to bear the Khanid badge, proud to declare myself a Khanid Kataphract.

But it is illusion.

King Khanid is simply another Empire ruler. He serves his own interests, and is willing to do anything to get what he wants. This makes him admirable. To not be constrained by tradition or others' laws is freedom for him.

But without guidance, without someone else's goal, you must have one of your own. The ship does not sail without a destination in mind. Even those ships have something to look for.

What is my purpose?

In the Crusade, I was a simple soldier. Learning how to fight was my goal. A simple life: follow orders, do as well as you can, and get rewarded.

So what now?

I have my oath, but an open ended 'Learn to fight' goal doesn't have any real conclusion to it. My current plan of arbitrary 'Get x kills' is hardly compelling. But what else is there for me to do? There's no great war for me to fight. The current Empire Wars are only the bizarre outcome of controlled self-interest, regulated to the point of irrelevance.

There is nothing to really fight over in the Crusade. There is a lot of money to be made, but my market slave is nearly producing a fully fitted cruiser a day for me, at no real effort on my part. So why fight at all?

And after a week of wrestling with the concept, I still have no definitive answer for what I want to do in the end. All I really know is that I want to get better. To what end, I don't know. Perhaps that will be my goal. A romanticized drift through New Eden searching for a new objective.

My family's oath is to walk in dark places. I think I have found a dark place to walk. There are shadows there, shadows with skill and experience beyond what any in the Crusade can teach me. I'd like to walk with them for a while.

I hope they accept my application.

I hope my family will understand.

Arzad, and the character of the Crusade

Sleep has been elusive of late.

When I first started in the Crusade, it was when the Amarr forces had been pushed to their breaking point. Only a few strongholds held out.

My own contribution to the inevitable turning tide was negligible. But turn, the tide did.

Crusdaers had a sudden surge in skill, passion and above all, luck. They pushed the Republic capsuleers back, taking several systems.

One such system was Arzad.

The taking of Arzad was... special.

Jamyl Sarum, the Emperor of Amarr ordered the system to be bathed in slave blood. Not warior's blood. Not Matari. But slave.

A freighter was brought to the Infrastructure hub by capsuleers. It was full of slaves. The Crusdaers fired upon the defenseless freighter. Their lasers stripped it's hull quickly, and it detonated, killing many of the slaves inside.

They were the lucky ones.

The wreck floated in space, slaves still surviving inside. Slowly, their pressurised cargo containers lost integrity, and they suffered an agonizingly slow death, as their oxygen was depleted.

After an hour or two of taunting the Republic, daring them to rescue their bretheren, the Crusaders opened fire again, vaporizing the wreck, condemning the slaves inside to the harsh vacuum of space.

I very nearly left the Crusade that day, King's orders be damned.

I stayed believing in Khanid II. I stayed trusting his leadership would never set the Khanid Kingdom on such a bloody thirsty and psychotic path. We Khanid may be harsh taskmasters, but slaves are still a valuable resource for us. We are never so wasteful.

So I stayed, turning a blind eye to the psychotic nature of the Imperial Navy, and the Crusade.

There are many fine pilots here. Many who are helpful, and many who act like decent human beings. But even these could not stop Arzad. And so now, they are tarnished by the actions of others they could not stop.

And that includes me.

Back to New Eden

Well, that was a little longer than I thought!

Other duties demanded more time than I could give to commanding my ships. And in truth, I was not the most motivated crusader.

New technologies are on the horizon, meaning that new opportunities have arisen. My King has pulled me from the front lines, determining that my efforts are best spent elsewhere. I have yet to decide if this is a demotion or a boon granted to me.

His new orders are to explore Wormhole space.

I believe this to be a death sentence. But an Arcani never sways from a Royal Decree. They merely take extended leave from duties.

I once lived in a wormhole, standing with the once great Talocan United. I left after a few weeks though. I could not give the corporation the time necessary to perform well. It also felt far too restrictive. Too many rules and standard operating procedures, and too many calls to arms for people I barely knew.

This time, I will approach Anoikos on my own terms. I am going to fly solo.

Yes this is suicide. But many would have called flying a lightly tanked Executioner against a Firetail suicide. I look forward to proving people wrong.

The blog site will be refurbished, for no better reason than I like refurbishing it. I always say you need to look the part to play it, and I'll be tweaking things to show a more adventurous spirit. I may or may not include an antique compass.

There are secrets in wormholes. My King wishes to know them. I wish to seek them. Lets see what we can find!

Strategikon: Deployment

My King has ordered me to war. For the Arcani, Khanid and the Kingdom!

But before we go flying off into a blaze of glory and destruction, proper planning and strategy must be discussed.

Contrary to popular belief, successful capsuleer combat rarely follows the form of 'Jump into frigate, find fights, win.' That more than often ends with one dead frigate, one dead clone, and a long, tedious turn around between fights.

To give ourselves more time fighting, and less time preparing to fight, we should choose a system to fight from, and to re-ship from.

My trade hub, where I purchase all of my arms, is Amarr Prime. It is a great hub to work from, and a strategic advantage for the Crusade. Prices and availability of weapons and ships are good here. However, it is too far from the front lines.

As with all warfare, first go to your maps. I have a fantastic cartographer who I use for this.

I have chosen a system near The Bleak Lands to stage from.

The system you choose will be based on what your needs are. As a solo player, I won't be able to mount a consistent defense of a Faction Warfare system. I can only access stations in systems the Crusade has conquered, meaning tht should the Republic take it back, I will have a struggle to reclaim my armoury.

I could choose to stage from a system occupied by other militia corporations, but that would leave me vulnerable to their own defensive capabilities.

Instead, I have chosen a High-security system, just on the outskirts of the Faction Warfare zone: Kuomi. This system gives me to entry points into the War Zone. CONCORD prevents the Republic from invading these systems, so my arms will always be accessible. It also has an allied corporation running the stations there, which I appreciate. Caldari food is satisfying, if a little bland to the Khanid palette.

To move there, I have a choice of hauling it myself in industrials flown by my slaves. Concord should hopefully protect them from pirates, but there is still a risk of lost goods. A second choice, more expensive but less risky, is to use PushX Industries. They are a courier service I've worked with in the past, and have always been reliable.

To begin with, I will move ten frigates plus fittings there. When I fall in battle, I will fly back, and grab another frigate from here. Moving stacks of ships and equipment will allow me to fight many times in one day, without needing to retreat back to Amarr

Eventually, I can set up buy orders at this staging area, to attract traders to courier my weapons for me. This will save me time, and allow me to get on with the task of defending the Empire.

Stages:

• Decide on your needs
• Find a map
• Find a system that suits your needs
• Move many stacks of equipment you need

This will be my first serious deployment. If any have advice about how to do it better, please let me know.

Royal Decree

Khanid II, King of the Khanids, decreed that his kingdom and the Amarr Empire will reconcile their differences.

Why there are differences is a history lesson for later, but part of the negotiations is military aid in the ongoing 24th Crusade. In return, Khanid Kingdom has a seat on the Emperor's Privy Council, whilst keeping it's independence.

Military aid is where I come in.

We Khanid are excellent fighters, with a long martial tradition. Discipline, and cunning are the ideals we strive for. We adhere to past doctrines, but welcome new innovations. We never discount a path to victory.

In ancient times, our ancestors rode into battle on steeds, covered in armour, wielding a variety of weapons. I honour this tradition.

I am Behnid Arcani, son of the Arcani Holder family. We are relatively small family compared to the larger Holders, but we lay claim to a wealthy chain of islands on Khanid Prime.

I now fight for the Imperial Crusade.