Holy Mother Machariel!!

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There is always a lot of talk about the negative aspects of Eve, the nasty side of New Eden. Obviously that side, just like in real life news, is more interesting and sells more papers. Scamming, stealing, robbing, blobbing, ganking, all the seedy underbelly stuff in and out of game is certainly riveting and I've got no issues with writing about it here in these pages myself. But there is another side. I experienced that side of Eve my very first day in space when two total strangers in a belt gave me some very good advice. Since then, I've tried to continue that tradition myself as much as anyone can. Helping Noobs, giving advice, lending iskies when needed and never expecting them back, and generally trying to help the community in many different ways.

 But I never expected to be on the receiving end of unexpected and spontaneous generosity.

 Last week, for no damn good reason, Sindel Pellion (Sindel's Universe), started a drive thru Tweetfleet to buy me a Machariel. At first I thought she must be joking and I played along as I usually do. After a time however, it became increasingly obvious that she wasn't joking. I then began to believe that nothing would come of it. I was wrong.

 Some sample tweets:
 Thank you for your donation to 's fund! We're one step closer to giving a poor pirate an expensive ship! <3 Love, Sin

    He doesn't HAVE to. I took it upon myself to collect. Don't be a douche. Donate.

 Sitting at 950mil for 's Machariel. Who will donate to our (un)worthy cause of giving ships away to get blown up? 

  I'm not begging. Sheesh. I'm getting donations for a guy a respect and appreciate-- WITHOUT showing my tits.

 In the end donations came from Sindel, Joseph D Stargazer, Placid09, noise, Swearte Widfarend and Bagehi and the Machariel appeared in my contracts in Juffvitte about 4 jumps from Hevrice. 

 Most of this happened while I was away this weekend, I did my best to keep up thru the iPhone. So it wasn't until yesterday that I was able to get Ana up in the freighter to take the Mach back to Hevrice.

 Once back in station I decided to see what I could do as far as fitting on my own. I never know what is laying around the hanger, being a Pirate does have some benefits. One of the drawbacks of the Machariel is its inherent need to be bling fit. It almost has to be bling fit, in some ways you really can't fit it without faction mods. 

 You can click the picture above but for now I'm not telling which of those things is faction and which isn't. The fit is still a work-in-progress, so until it is finished I don't want to give away the details.

 I will say this however, she flies like a bat out of Hell. Took her out for a spin yesterday and for a Battleship, she moves like a Hurricane that can reach out and touch you from almost 100k away with Barrage loaded. That's without bonuses, just raw undocked and un-heated brawn. 

 Whatever ultimately becomes of the Mach, I will never forget those that helped to make a poor pirate happy. This year has been an extremely brutal one in so many ways out here in the real world that this unexpected kindness in the virtual one has meant a lot to me personally. I know that is an extremely silly thing to say. But fuck it, I said it anyway.

 Thank you guys. It's just a stupid ship, but it means a lot to me.

 I named her "tweetfleet" in your honor. Long may she sail.

 EDIT FROM THE FUTURE:
March 2014. The Machariel lived a long and awesome life. I undocked it often to ward off station-campers, to pop battleships, and even once to insta a Venture for the fun of it. She was a valiant and amazing ship that survived a few battles she probably should have died in.

 Until the NEO Tournament. Stay Frosty brought an all Pirate themed comp and won our match on the back of this amazing ship. She was top-damage in ALL our kills except one. She finally went down under heavy neut and Sentry pressures when she ran out of cap charges.

EDIT FROM THE FARTHER FUTURE:
The above was mistaken. In the intervening years I've bought several Machs, and they were in different stations. Turns out the one called "Tweetfleet" which is the original, is still alive and well. The one lost in the NEO was not her after all.