And now for something completely different

I've joined the Ushra'Khan!

Well, more to the point, I've joined Phaze-9, a corp which is a member of the Ushra'Khan (U'K). I did this because its CEO, Maestro Ulv, has been harping on at me for weeks now to join his corp. Eventually I caved in and joined up, with my application being accepted today.

Now, there's a few reasons I accepted the invitation.

1. It was an honour to be invited, and I'm privileged to be part of Maestro's corp and the U'K.
2. It got me away from Providence, which is where the carebears hang out. Maestro didn't want to see me hanging out with the carebears... And I can't say I blame him. I could feel the carebear-ness coming over me, and I think it was good that I got out of there when I did!
3. I plan on being in a Force Recon very soon (a Rapier, followed soon after by an Arazu). I thought it would be a great idea to get some training from experienced pilots in covert ops / recon combat, and that just happens to be something of a specialty of Maestro's corp. I was promised extensive training and experience in such combat.
4. Experience in 'professional' fleet operations can only be a good thing for me. I've had my share of fleet operations over the years, but they've all been small, and I wouldn't say they've been professional. That's about to change.

So, I joined the corp today, and once I found myself part of the alliance, I decided to go on a roam around the region to see if I could find any 'intruders' to shoot at. I made certain I understood the local rules - neutrals were targets in the region and in Providence, but not anywhere else. Reds were always a target.

So I set off on my small journey. I quickly discovered some kind of plex with about 8 battleship rats and 6 frigates. What a shame I was flying around in my Rifter... I decided to leave it behind, but marked it on my map as somewhere to come back to when I was flying a battleship.

So I went through 19 systems in a circular route to come back to where I started. All I saw were alliance members.

This was good because it meant I could probably do some good ratting around here without worrying too much about the bad guys (don't worry, I know not to be overconfident; that's bitten me on the bum in the past, I can assure you).

It also meant that most of my combat would either be in defence of this region when attacked, and I answer the alliance's call to arms, or it would be on adventures into other regions.

I do look forward to either of them.

When I got back from my roam around the region, one of my new corp mates took me on a tour of jump bridges. Now this was exciting! I've never been part of an alliance before that had their own jump bridges.

So as I was taken on the tour, and bookmarking their locations in system, I was also marking the routes on my region printout, so that I could easily see where the jump bridges were in relation to the rest of the systems.

Very cool, and very exciting!

I can see some interesting adventures ahead....