Absolved Victory, Part 1

Saving highsec isn't just my responsibility; it's my pleasure. I love helping others, and I love hearing about others helping others. I knew I was in for a treat when I received a communiqué from Agent Fighter Jets GuitarSolo.

Fighter and the New Order Spai Agency implemented a new audit procedure to help ensure the Code compliance of highsec industrial corporations. The audit involves sending Agents into the very midst of the corp to see firsthand whether the Code is being obeyed.

A corp may exempt itself from the audit procedure by paying a yearly fee of 1 billion isk. Now, before the rebels and skeptics start their usual squawking, no, this is not a change to the Code. Mining permits cost 10 million isk and always have. No one is required to purchase an ECCP. Corporations whose members follow the Code have nothing to fear from an audit. The ECCP merely exists as a safe harbor for corps that wish to be exempt from that particular form of audit. This policy lessens the burden on the industrialists. Now watch the rascally rebels spin this as a bad thing, just like they did with the New Order bathroom protocol!

This isn't some kind of allegory; the corp targeted for an audit really was called Damned Defeat. Founded by carebear criminal JTClone Ares, Damned Defeat was open for less than a week before our Agents infiltrated it.

The audit was swift and its conclusions were devastating: Damned Defeat was filled with carebears who operated in highsec without regard for the Code. You could spend a whole day in the corp without hearing so much as a "praise James 315".

Agents Jerry Rin and McRibwich vonBlueRibbon GuitarSolo did what they do best: They started blowing up their corpmates' ships. Mining vessels and their escorts were shot on sight.

Highsec carebears go into a deep hibernation when they play EVE. It takes a loud explosion to wake them up. When the Damned Defeat line members noticed they were losing ships, they started actually paying attention to the game.

New Order diplomat DJentropy Ovaert strode into the Damned Defeat TeamSpeak channel and proclaimed the Code without fear. Now the carebears knew their day of reckoning had come. At this critical hour, with the corp in chaos, CEO JTClone Ares logged on and issued a bulletin:

The CEO took a very hard line on awoxing. He had almost no tolerance for it. If you awoxed the corp ten times (actually eleven if you include the warning), you would be forced to run a 200-system trip in a shuttle with a PLEX in it. That kind of punishment is enough to make anyone think twice about killing corpmates eleven times.

The CEO was satisfied that the awoxers had been brought into line, so he went to a movie and told his newbies to earn some tax revenue. (Just another swell highsec corp for new players!) But here's the thing. Jerry Rin and McRibwich vonBlueRibbon GuitarSolo weren't just anybody. They were Agents of the New Order doing an audit for the New Order Spai Agency. No one tells them they can't enforce the Code. They would stick to their beliefs like superglue.

Despite being aware of the active awoxers in corp, the carebears of Damned Defeat couldn't help themselves. Just a few hours later, they started a mining op, complete with Orca support. Our heroes refused to be constrained by JTClone Ares and his laws; they served a higher authority. But what would happen to them? Would they be forced to haul a PLEX in a shuttle around highsec? Or could they convince Damned Defeat to find absolution in the Code?

Next time: The most shocking MinerBumping episode yet!