The Opux Luxury Yacht

The Opux Luxury Yacht is one of the most luxurious and opulent cruise ships in existence. Yet despite this fact, you won't see these in capsuleer hands, save for a few exceptions.

The reason being is that Opux shipyards refuses to rig or even sell their ships to capsuleers, claiming that such clients would only serve to find ways to weaponize their luxury ship. Such unintended role will surely harm the Opux Yacht reputation among their decadently wealthy clientele who seek out a luxury cruise ship as a peaceful retreat..

You can spot most of these ships as property by Duvolle Labs in the Roden Centers scattered throughout Gallente space. Then you have the Intaki Agent Mamo Guerre who eternally taunts capsuleers by flying this exclusive ship in the Lirsautton system

The Opux Luxury Yacht cruising through space

However, two Opux Luxury yachts did end up in capsuleer hands according to official sources.

One ended up as capsuleer property in a daring heist during the Quafe Ultra Promotional Party held by the Quafe company on YC 106, April 1st. During this promotion, the capsuleer Ice Quaan  hijacked the ship after the pilot was distracted.

Later on he sold this Opux Luxury Yacht to the very wealthy capsuleer investor Voogru who still owns the ship to this day
.

The second Opux Luxury Yacht was given to capsuleer Caitlyn Rose as a gift for proclaiming her engagement on a public CCP capsuleer gathering. After all these years, she is still happily married to her lover, may their marriage last! To date this is the only Opux Luxury yacht that has been given to capsuleers by Opux Shipyards.

These two owners went on and formed what can only be described as the most exclusive club of Eden! The Opux Owners Club! This very exclusive club only has two members as their requirements are very hard to meet, one has to be a capsuleer flying an Opux luxury ship!

Capsuleer reporter Di'ann Surali writes about the first exclusive gathering of this club in her report here: Opux Owners Club - First Meeting!

Eden's most exclusive club! The Opux Owners Club!

However rumors do surface at times that there's more of these Opux Luxury Yachts piloted by capsuleers! Considering Opux Shipyard stance on selling their famous cruise ships, it is not known how these capsuleers acquired them.Perhaps they managed to steal them? Or maybe for the right sum, Opux did convert these luxury yachts for an exorbitant price in exchange for the capsuleers silence.

The basis of these rumors lies in the famous Capsuleer Killboards, that track the loss & victory of every capsuleer ship. On this you can find 4 surprising combat entries for the Opux Luxury Yachts. 2 of these were committed by Concord Command Personnel (CCP). However the two others are capsuleer entries! The first one of these is the loss of an Opux Luxury Yacht by Capsuleer Faroth.  It is unknown how he got into possession of this ship.

The second entry is by capsuleer Chienka, who used an Opux Luxury Yacht as a droneship when she fought a Moros alongside her allies. Just as with Faroth, there are no known records on how she acquired this ship.

In short, there's currently two Luxury yachts in official capsuleer possession, one handed out by Opux Shipyards, the other stolen. The one deployed by Chienka does show there might be a few more lurking off the records in some capsuleer hangars... The total number of these unofficially owned Opux Luxury yachts is unknown but considering their lack of presence on killboards, their numbers must be extremely small.

Caldari rescued from Black Eagle Prison Camps!

A few days ago, the Caldari Militia launched a successful attack on the Verge Vendor region. During this operation they managed to conquer the Jovainnon system from the Gallente Militia.
As the Caldari Militia secures the system, they scan down an odd Gallente installation in close orbit of the local plasma-planet. As the energies released by this planet obscures the scanning, a small Militia group decides to investigate in person.

After they approach the site, they notice it isn't part of the system defense, meant to keep the militias busy. When their curiosity gets the better of them, they inspect it closely. Turns out it's a prison camp! Rapidly, they engage the facility, taking out the few guards.
Pushing the attack, the Gallente frigates explode under the relentless Caldari missile barrage, the prison facility is now unguarded. With the area secured, the small Caldari Militia group docks with the prison station, to check out what kind of prisoners are held here.

When they inspect the facility, they make a gruesome discovery... It wasn't a normal prison... it was a Black Eagle interrogation camp! The Black Eagles are a Gallente covert intelligence organisation known for their ruthless approaches to achieve their goals...
As the prisoners were freed, this ruthlessness became apparent. They were Caldari prisoners of war, taken from Gallente occupied territories for various vague reasons, but with one ultimate goal in mind, to extract information, any information by any means possible...

When the freed prisoners boarded the small Caldari Militia frigates, it clearly showed that torture was among those means. And in a dark twist, it is known that Gallente torture is extremely physical... and through such severe physical abuse it warps and twists a victim's mind so much that they'll say or do anything, just to make it stop... Many of the prisoners where grievously wounded and psychologically damaged during their stay in these Black Eagle prison camps... Some of them were too far gone to be rescued, believing it yet another way of extracting information by the Black Eagles...

As they realized they could not give the proper care to these people, the small group reached out, contacting the Aurora Arcology Project. An agreement was quickly reached, the Arcology would take in these Caldari ex-PoWs and give these people the medical care they needed and help them recover from their atrocious imprisonment.
However, the road to recovery will be long, and they will undoubtedly carry these mental & physical scars for the rest of their lives... But with the proper spiritual guidance and medical care, they'll be able to join society once more, but now in a safe place, away from the systems affected by the Pendulum Wars...

Over 17.000 refugees are welcomed aboard the Aurora Arcology station

It has been a busy week, starting with our first official sponsor advertising on the Aurora News Network, namely Eve Online Hold'Em Poker! Thanks to their sponsorship, the Aurora Arcology can now enhance investments in various fields to enhance the workings of the refugee programs, ensuring they receive quality jobs!

Also, our reporters keep track of the Rens Bombing, providing updates when more information becomes available. Attacks on capsuleers outside the pod are generally treated as high priority law breachings due to the power and wealth capsuleers possess and their vulnerability outside the pod.

Pieter Tuulinen's ongoing investigations into the Arcology insurgents continues. The reports indicate that slowly but surely the net's closing around them. There have been a few minor incidents that helped to track these culprits down.
Unrelated to the insurgents, the Gallente division has begun recruiting their own militia forces as they are displeased with the security reforming. They claim the reforms & Tuulinen's security force *clamp down on liberty* and *violate free speech*.
I like to remind that the Arcology is still in State territory and thereby complies to State Law, not Federation Law! When freedom of actions lead to less security for the citizens, law enforcement has to step in, assuring the safety of all.
In the long run however, these gallente militia will assist in reducing tensions as now all 4 large factions have their own militia force for internal security.

And now onward to this week's census report! With special thanks to the Ember capsuleer family, Anmaris Voeld and other capsuleers, we can welcome thousands of refugees & rescuees once more!

Regular Civilians

-983 Homeless
-1.335 Janitors
-21 Prisoners (Part of the Prison Lend-Lease Program)
-428 Refugees
-12 Scientists
-5.842 Tourists
-316 Freed Slaves

Pets

-2 Fedos (Datafile:A strange animal)
-228 Hounds

Law Enforcement

-15 Caldari Light Marines
-456 Freedom Fighters
-6.552 Marines
-350 Militants
-10 Slavers (Part of the Redemption Program)

Employees for the Nightclub L'Etoile Rouge

-594 Female Exotic Dancers
-941 Male Exotic Dancers

With thanks to all the capsuleer support that the Aurora Project received,the industrial base has been expanded upon, allowing a larger variety of jobs within the Arcology, mainly in the luxury good manufacturing field!
Also, research opportunities have been expanded with a large addition of mysterious devices, ready for research!

Bombing in Rens, Gradient Capsuleers wounded!

As you can read in this announcement: News: Rens Security Incident/Bombing, an explosion inside the Brutor Tribe Treasury Station in the Rens system injured two capsuleers.
While not much information has been shared, the Gradient CEO did release an official statement concerning this attack: CEO Challis Drant Statement

The two victims were member of Gradient, a capsuleer organisation that is loyal to the Republic. One of the two capsuleers is gravely wounded and at this time is unable to perform a clonejump without putting her mind at risk! Medical personnel is doing anything they can within their power to stabilize the lifesigns of this capsuleer.
Recently, Shaman Kyllsa Siikanen unveiled the names of the wounded Gradient capsuleers. Ava Starfire escaped any serious injury and her situation is stable. Expectations are that she'll be able to leave the hospital later today! Undoubtedly, due to her fame, this will send a ripple through the capsuleer community as she is a well known combat-pilot for the Minmatar cause.
Sammi Oskonnur is the second victim, and here the news is much more bleak as she is the one who suffered critical injuries, preventing a safe clonejump for an emergency recovery. Currently, surgeons are doing all they can to stabilize her lifesigns for continued treatment.

While it is believed that this is an isolated incident, targeting these unfortunate people, capsuleers are nonetheless asked to take precautions until more details are known. Do note that security stressed that public venues are safe as they always have been, as this was an attack aimed at specific individuals.

As of yet, there has been no release of possible suspects, however the fact they could manage to access a capsuleer quarter will surely help in tracking down possible culprits as these tend to be closely monitored, mainly due to the questionable lifestyle of quite some capsuleers.

Currently the Brutor Tribe, owner of the Rens Treasury station, and Gradient are working together to investigate this brutal attack. Gradient takes this matter seriously, as an attack on their members is seen as an attack on their corporation, and hence an act of war!
For now, the official authorities refrain from releasing more info due to the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation.

Anyone who has any information related to this incident are requested to contact Gradient or Brutor authorities to assist them in their investigations!
Do note that the alarming nature of this attack is not that capsuleers were targetted, but the fact they were attacked in their private quarters, about the only place where capsuleers can sustain permanent damage, possibly leading to death in certain cases!

Slaves rescued in Jita!

Most people know the busy tradelanes of Jita, the system that sells everything you need, and even more things you don't, legal and illegal! However, a bustling tradehub not only attracts traders; industrialists, speculators & customers alike, but also scoundrels, thugs & pirates!

Jita Traffic advising you to Fly Safe! Image provided by Melana Emmagan

The danger of Jita became very real when I travelled through it this weekend. Near the Perimeter gate, I noticed a group of Tornado's & Catalysts at the gates... These are known ganker ships, used to destroy transports and loot their wreckage for valuable cargo.
As I cleared the Perimeter gate for a last jump to the Jita 4-4 Navy station, the Catalysts found a target! A mammoth industrial making its way to the gate, but it would never reach it... The Catalysts opened fire, ripping apart the defenseless ship.
Shortly after, Concord intervened, obliterating the catalysts, but the deed was done. The raiders jumped in their transport, taking anything of value with them, or so I thought...

Scanners informed me something was left behind in the wreckage. To investigate safely, I activated the cloak & inspected the wreckage. Turns out this trader wasn't so innocent after all! Almost a thousand slaves were left behind in the unbreached bulkheads of the destroyed transport!
Immediately a rescue operation was set up, speed was critical, as the Tornado's and Catalysts were still out there, and a blockade runner is a soft target.

As my ship decloaked and linked with the wreckage, transfer of the slaves began right away. As one of the Tornados began targeting me, transfer was complete, and I jumped towards one of the quiet Jita stations, to minimize risks for the crew and rescued slaves.
After a short inspection, it became clear that these slaves were bought from Jita's black market and were in fairly bad health. After this assessment, I set course for the Arcology station, so our refugee center could give them the appropriate medical care and a temporary housing.

Meanwhile, I contacted the Disciples of Ston concerning these slaves, as they have a long history and great expertise in helping out slaves. They agreed to pick them up and assist these poor souls in their well-known matriculation centers, to cope with what they had to endure as slaves.
In total 960 Elite Slaves have been rescued from the slaver transport and are now under the care of the Disciples of Ston!

Eve Online Hold'Em; Play real poker for isk!

An introduction

Eve Online Hold'Em Poker,also known as EOH Poker is one of the oldest capsuleer entertainment sites around, focussing on offering capsuleers the enjoyment of a good game of poker. Their long history (over 7 years) is a testament to their reliability and the trust they enjoy.
The EOH Poker site is centered around the rules of Texas Hold'Em, an ancient game known through the Eden cluster, but its origin has gone lost in the shrouds of time. You can find the rules on how to play here: The Rules of Eve Hold'Em. Despite it's age, it is still a widely popular poker game to play due to the easy to learn rules and the sheer enjoyment factor.

The current EOH CEO Niraia, as drawn by artist Evelyn Anna Baine

Why should I play EOH Poker?

In short: it's fun! But to elaborate on it, it offers the thrill of success through skill and a little bit of luck, two traits most capsuleers enjoy, but without running the risk of losing your assets because of a bad gamble as it often can happen in a battle between capsuleers in space.
The great thing about a game of EOH Poker is that it isn't purely luck based, but that skill plays a great part in securing a win, yet the random element keeps the thrill alive game after game.

Due to the variety of game styles at your disposal, as shown here: Offered EOH game types, you can have short 1 vs 1 games, to kill a dead moment, to a full fledged tournament for your corporation to determine who's your best poker player! This variety of available Hold'Em poker games assures there's something for everyone.
An interesting option that EOH Poker offers are the Ring games, where you can easy join & leave tables, permitting you have isk for chips in your deposit. An excellent choice for those times when you seek some fun entertainment between tasks!

Also, as reported here: Celebration of Cardinal Graelyn's Decennial as Capsuleer, a short EOH Poker tournament also serves as a great icebreaker for events. You got an event planned and want to spice it up a bit? Why not introduce them to a good game of poker? Not only will it entertain your guests, it'll also serve as a great way to provide fun banter along the way!

If you want to organize a private poker event, you can contact EOH staff to check for the options they offer and to assist you in setting up your own table(s)

How do I sign up to play?

So in short, you enjoy taking risk, but hate losing assets? Then put aside some isk and sign up on the EOH registration page (capsule link required).  Once done, you can follow the continued guidelines on their site.

Sign up here to get started!

In cases of doubt and/or questions, you can consult their database of Frequently Asked Questions!  It is also a good source for additional info and clarifications.

It's also recommended to join their two comm channels namely:

EOH Poker: This is the main channel, the MotD contains alot of useful info and it's a good way to get in touch with the bankers & EOH staff for added info & support should you need it. This is also the place where you can contact bankers for your winning payouts.
It's also a good place to get to know some of your fellow EOH Poker players better!

EOH Games: This is the channel where bankers announce the upcoming games. To participate, just pay the announcing banker the buy-in isk and join the game. Note: only EOH approved bankers can talk in this channel! This eliminates scams.
This channel is also used to announce upcoming tournaments!

You can also join the mailinglist EOH Action to receive notifications about upcoming games & tournaments in advance.

Important! To access the EOH Poker client to play poker-games, you must have an OOC link! (OOC= Out of Capsule) You don't want your capsule mixing your ship-instructions with your poker-instructions! The results of such miscommunications can be hazardous to your crew!

A last note

In short, EOH Poker provides entertainment through poker for a large variety of people. Their long standing history not only shows that they are reliable, it also means they managed to built up a good core community that assures you'll be able to find & play games at most times.
You can read the positive feedback of many players at their feedback thread: ♥ ♦ Eve Online Hold'Em ♣ ♠ -- EVE's Oldest Gaming Establishment.
If you decide to try it out and enjoyed what EOH Poker offers, do leave a feedback in their thread!

Over 13.000 refugees join the Arcology!

So far it's been a quiet week, taking a rest can be good at times, allowing to set things in order, and to prepare for upcoming work. In this case, citizens selected for the Ayem colony project are getting ready for the last few preparations before their take-off into Providence.

This will be the second large colonisation wave, to reinforce the colony and give it a solid base on industrial production. In order to lessen the strain on Ayem Agriculture, several groups of genetically engineered livestock will also be ferried along to strengthen the agriculture companies on Ayem.
Due to recent unrest in the Providence region by outside forces, approval has been given to add 3000 Marines to the trip to undergo training at Port Larren to prepare them for their task planet-side.

More detailed info on this second Ayem colonist wave will be given in a separate publication. Meanwhile, Pieter Tuulinen's security force is tightening the net around the insurgents that tried to disrupt the orderly workings of the Aurora Arcology project.
So far, the deployment of these foreign security forces has caused the Gallente faction to recruit their own militia. While this is being closely monitored by our security, the numbers recruited are sufficiently small that they are of no major concern.

Now onward to this week's census report! Thanks to helpful capsuleers like Jack Sly and others, we can greet immigrants with wildy varying backgrounds!

Regular Civilians

-320 Civilians
-311 Homeless
-3.458 Tourists
-1.640 Janitors
-50 Prisoners (Part of the Prison Lend-Lease Program)
-216 Scientists
-4 Stranded Pilots
-2.037 Freed Slaves

Pets

-5 Fedos (Datafile:A strange animal)
-4 Miniature Hounds
-344 Hounds

Law Enforcement

-553 Freedom Fighters
-9 Gallente Light Marines
-15 Army Recruits
-420 Kameiras
-2.511 Marines
-780 Militants
-185 Slavers (Part of the Redemption Program)
-2 Spies

Employees for the Nightclub L'Etoile Rouge

-221 Female Exotic Dancers
-848 Male Exotic Dancers

Councilmembers

-2 Minmatar Emissaries
-12  Oura Madusaari (Patients suffering the Oura M. Syndrome)
-7 VIPs

All in all, a wide variety of refugees can now call the Aurora Arcology their new home, thanks to the contribution of capsuleers like you!
If you rescue people from certain death or want to assist refugees in giving them a safe haven, know that you can contract them from anywhere to us. We'll take over  the menial tasks like transport & administration!

Federation hands over historical Caldari capital to the State

As of this month, the city of Arcurio, historical capital city of the Caldari people, is now returned to the State under Ishukone's administration! The official announcement can be found here: Ishukone Accepts Formal Handover Of Arcurio.
The official ceremony to hand over the city from Material Acquisitions, a subsidiary company of the Federation megacorporation Quafe, to Ishukone, one of the ruling 8 megacorporations of the State, took place in front of the "Operation: Highlander" memorial, to symbolize the significant sacrifice made by both sides to make this deal go through.

With this, the State has regained an important part of their cultural heritage. This move will also serve as a stepping stone to build a lasting peace with the Federation, as was reported here: Caldari Prime, the road to peace.
After all, one of the major issues in the Federation-State conflict was the occupation of the Caldari homeworld by the Federation. While alot of issues still remain, like the whole 'democratic' voting business of the Federation being unacceptable to the State, it is a good step forward that Caldari Prime is no longer a major driving force in this conflict.

To maintain security, Mordu's Legion has been contracted to keep the peace, both in orbit as planetside. There has been some unrest in the outlying districts shortly after the handover, but there have been no reports of injured and neither of property damage.
This can be attributed to the efficiency of Mordu's Legion security, but also that the unrest by small groups didn't carry the support of the larger population.

Greater surroundings of Arcurio, showing the Shiigeru Crashsite

While Arcurio is now under Ishukone's control, it's still not yet clear what the Federation got in return. While no obvious State assets can be traded away, Ishukone still has alot to offer, being one of the most advanced organisations in the Eden cluster.
It is suspected that part of the price to reclaim Arcurio for the State is the take-over of the cleaning & salvaging costs of the Shiigeru crash site, which lies very close to the city.

May our ancestors smile upon us for reclaiming Arcurio to the State, our old capital city once more under Caldari rule!