Fatimar Outpost

The Fatimar Outpost is a surprisingly sprawling one despite being found deep in null security space.

It’s a well-known but at times little understood fact that the interstellar economy requires constant destruction in order to not only thrive, but even survive.  Without the vast amount of ships taken out of commission daily by my fellow capsuleers, New Eden’s economy would grind to a halt.  Suddenly, people would no longer be buying ships or ammo.  Prices for ships and the modules that go on them would plummet as supplies flood the market.  This leads to a crash in mineral and salvage component prices, meaning that even the most isolated amongst us get hit hard as the economy grinds to a halt.  It’s a sobering thought, because on the one hand the economy, such as it is, brings prosperity for billions.  On the other hand, one only needs to look at the past day’s casualty lists to understand the cost of that prosperity.

One of the many small support craft found at the outpost.

Either way, it doesn’t appear that the economy will be grinding to a halt for lack of violence any time soon.  Us capsuleers show no sign of abating our violent tendencies, either against each other or the multitude of pirates and other unseemly people who have made their homes in the stars.  As such, there is a constant pressure to find new sources of raw materials to feed the ever roiling violent frenzy that is New Eden.  It’s easy to imagine that in the vastness of any star system, resources are nearly limitless.  But the key word of that phrase is “nearly.”  While any one star system starts with a vast amount of resources, many of the core worlds in high security space have been in development for thousands of years.  And the resources are therefore starting to dry up there.  Such a trend is even evident in low security space, even though many systems have only been inhabited for a hundred years at best.  Only null security and especially wormhole space still has nearly-untapped resources these days, and it is out there that you can still find the massive mining operations that keep our economy clipping along.

One of the support complexes set up by the colonists.

One such mining enterprise can currently be found in MY-W1V, in Catch.  It’s a small colony, and nothing on the order of what you would see from a well-organized capsuleer mining operation, but it’s interesting to see nonetheless.  Perhaps that’s because of late I’ve found myself more and more fascinated with how the non-capsuleer class lives.  Though I of course used to be a non-capsuleer myself, I’ve recently passed my fifth anniversary of being a capsuleer, and perhaps my recent interest in the general public is a bit of nostalgia on my part.  Regardless of where my current interest in what is otherwise a fairly normal mining operation comes from, it’s apparently also interesting enough to CONCORD to warrant a navigational beacon.  As Aura explains:

Frolo Fatimar was a famous Amarrian explorer that passed away only a few years ago. During his later years he founded this outpost, hidden within a deadspace pocket which originally contained large quantities of Arkonor asteroids. Those are now long gone, having been mined to oblivion, but what remains is a sizable colony of harvesters and miners that have been scouring the 9HXQ-G constellation for the valuable gas clouds Frolo claimed to have found in massive quantities.

The defense station stands guard over the colony

The colony has all the trappings of a modern day deep-space outpost.  A number of asteroids have been hollowed out in the traditional format to serve as living and working quarters for the variety of crew that have settled here.  A number of completely artificial habitats also populate the area.  Beyond that, there’s also a shipyard and a number of huge storage containers, undoubtedly holding supplies as well as ore while waiting for the freighters to make supply runs out to Jita and back.  There’s also a few solar energy harvesters to provide energy to the outpost.  But by far, the scene is dominated by the massive sensor array and the central work outpost.  The outpost itself is a standard Amarrian “let’s make everything look like a church” design, contrasting sharply with the utilitarian design of the dish.

Part of the support fleet for the outpost.

It shouldn’t be surprising that even a minor outpost settled in the depths of null security space, away from the protection of CONCORD, should boast a substantial defense force.  The colonists have not only built their own defense post (notably a rather non-Amarrian design), but have built a minor fleet to protect itself.  The three battleships and assorted support craft won’t stave off a coordinated assault, of course, but it should be enough to scare off most minor pirate assaults.  Considering the fact that they’re presumably supporting the defense fleet solely through earnings from the ore and gas they’ve mined, the colonists apparently know what they’re doing.  But I guess high risk like this brings high rewards as well.

Anyway, I spent only a few minutes poking around on the colony.  I was en route to other, perhaps more interesting sites, and I didn’t want to overstay my welcome.  With another look around the system to make sure I wasn’t being followed, I was on my way.

Basic Information:

• Attraction: Fatimar Outpost
• System: MY-W1V
• Security Rating: 0.0
• Region: Catch
• Potential Hazards: MY-W1V is deep in 0.0 space, involving jumps across a number of different alliance territories, many of which may be operating under “Not Blue, Shoot It” protocol.  Gate camps (including warp interdiction bubbles) can be found often in transitioning from 0.0 to high security space, as well as on other gates.  Caution is advised.
• Additional Notes: This site is a COSMOS site, and agents are available if you have the proper standing with Amarr.