“She’s almost ready, Colonel. And she’s gonna be a beaut,” my chief mechanic said. Your configuration for ‘er, it’s a bit pricey, so we may not be’un ready with that, but we’ll has ya a fine ship.”

“You’ve sourced it through all our usual channels?” I inquired. 

“Aye. She’s gonna be 4 billion ISK to do up the way ya want.”

Four billion ISK. I simply didn’t have that much, and I knew my corporation nor the Tribal Liberation Force would invest that kind of coin. 

“Well, do what you can. We’ve got what, two days until you’re done?”

“Aye. Closer to three, but who keeps track of the minutes?” He smiled at me, knowing I paid attention to those kind of details.

“Very good. Carry on.”

I simply stared at the Claymore. My crews had been working hard on this ship for almost a month, and soon it would be ready.

While I couldn’t get the parts I wanted, I was still excited about the ship. It had been a lot of training for all of us, but I knew it would be worth it.

Now if only I could find the parts I really wanted for this ship.

I picked up a nearby datasheet, and reviewed the list:

Gist-X-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Gist-X-Type Shield Boost Amplifier x2
Luther Veron’s Modified Invulnerability Shield x2

Yeah, those were going to be hard to track down, and expensive. I might have to try new channels. Maybe with all my recent public visibility, I’d be able to get them.

The anticipation was great. I wondered where I could start in my quest for these parts… what new contacts I had made who would volunteer to help me…*

*editor’s note: wink, wink, nudge, nudge