So, as of today I’ve been a member of Goonswarm Federation for six months. I would to share this journey with you, the reader.

My story begins in 2011 when I first played EVE Online. I had come across articles of the great war with BoB, and read Sins of a Solar Spymaster by The Mitanni (pbuh), which gave me the inspiration to give EVE Online a try. In my trusty Bantam, I set forth with civilian miner and gatling gun at the ready! Within 10 jumps of Jita, I was promptly dispatched back to my clone station. I then realised this was going to have a steep learning curve. I researched newbie articles and gained enough knowledge to stay away from lowsec, nullsec, and the dreaded Goons.

I tried various hisec mining corporations, but found the wardecs too oppressive for my hisec care bear sensibilities, and so I summoned enough courage to give nullsec a try. I first joined a null bear corp in Etherium Reach, which was not much better. This was the time of the Jita riots and Monoclegate, and with so much negativity in the game at the time, I uninstalled EVE and went back to World of Warcraft.

Fast forward to 2017, I decided to give EVE online another go. After reinstalling the game, I wandered through hisec doing missions and mining. The tales of billions of ISK to made in nullsec lured me back to a null-bear corp in Etheruim reach again. That corp did not have the manpower or the muscle to fight neutrals and reds, and the call went out time and time again: “Red in local—dock up!” After losing several expensively-fit ships while while partaking in good Aussie beer, I said “screw this,” left the corp, and went back to hisec with my tail between my legs.

I jumped on to the English recruitment channel and advertised my wares, looking for a new nullsec corp. Low and behold the dreaded Goon made contact! I thought to myself, “Ok. This is one them Goon scams, but what the hell, I’ll chat to him anyway.” My contact was Hypno of Patriotic Tendencies. After a superb grilling, I was accepted into the corp. I sold all my hisec assets and headed to Fortress Delve. I gritted my teeth as I entered Delve, fully expecting to be blow up and set back to hisec, but to my surprise, I arrived at my destination, and I was made to feel at home.

My first few weeks were spent learning how goons operate and conduct fleets, that stupid losses are laughed at, and “goonf—ing” is a No-No. I knew I had finally found my Shangri-la, but living in Delve also came with responsibilities: I had to go on fleets and defend the Fatherland when needed! My most memorable fleet involved dropping on nine Rorquals and killing eight, before being chased across Deklein for two hours bouncing from stargate to stargate.

In six months of nullsec life, I have made billions of ISK. My killboard went from 2 billion ISK destroyed to over 500 billion ISK. I’ve seen great content and can say “I was there” as I went from scared nullbear to scarebear.

I would encourage any other null bears out to join a good alliance and get into some great content. You too can be a Scarebear!