The Butterfly Effect, Part 4

Previously, on MinerBumping... An unlikely sequence of events led to the destruction of stephen Kalkoken's Retriever--and an even unlikelier result: stephen refused to buy a mining permit because he harbored ambitions of becoming a New Order Agent. Would the foul-mouthed miner become the next big thing in Code enforcement, or would he return to his bad habits?

An hour later, stephen returned to his bad habits.

This time, the rebellious miner vented his anger in local chat. No longer did stephen enjoy the privacy and security of a New Order convo.

As the carebear continued to act out, it became clear what was the matter: stephen was displaying all the symptoms of a downward spiral.

Now that stephen had lost his Retriever, he felt he had nothing left to lose. How far would he sink before he hit bottom? A few minutes later, he sent Agent Liek DarZ a private message:

Like so many other post-gank carebears, stephen found himself at a crossroads. He would either buy a permit and turn things around... or the other thing would happen.

Without the carefully crafted boundaries established by the Code, stephen had no principles to guide or regulate his behavior. He was adrift, headed toward disaster.

One of the things that originally set these events in motion was a random wardec inflicted against stephen's corp. He had told everyone in the Mining channel that he was confident of victory, since he'd purchased a Corax. Surprising no one but himself, stephen managed to lose the war horribly. He surrendered the next day.

Our Agents feared that stephen's defeat in the war, and the loss of his corp, might send him further down the path to oblivion.

The newly corp-less stephen became incoherent. He never grew out of his habit of interjecting random words into a sentence.

In vino, veritas. The carebear finally admitted what everyone else already knew: He was indeed guilty of AFK mining. Would this confession of guilt lead to the most shocking conversion story in recent memory?

Incredibly, stephen pulled a 180 degree turn. He dropped the profanity and threats in favor of a defensive posture. Now stephen wanted to compromise--and suggested he might buy a permit after all.

Would stephen make a last-minute breakthrough and give our Agents the 10 million isk they so richly deserved? Or would he once again plumb the depths of bot-aspirancy and rebellion?

To be continued...

Two seconds ago, on MinerBumping... Miner stephen Kalkoken expressed a desire to make things right with the New Order.

...But then he returned to "normal".

Sadly, stephen remains adrift in a sea of confusion and self-destruction. Our Agents are busy patrolling highsec. They're constantly on the lookout for carebears in need of rescue. No matter what the odds, no matter what the cost, the Agents of the New Order will never give up.