Pod Pilot Profile: Balof Faellin

This article will begin a series of monthly interviews with individual pod pilots. The purpose of which is to reach out beyond the most well known capsuleers and instead look at the "common man" (if any pod pilot can be indeed called "common"). We aim to question them about their backgrounds, accomplishments and goals and provide an insight into everyday life as one of the elite few known as “eggers”.

Earlier this week I was out in 9-4RP2 (Cloud Ring Region) and sat down with Balof Faelin in his plush office at one of the manufacturing stations there. Here follows a transcript of the interview:

Argooros Ployon: Tell us about your background.

Balof Faelin: I was born in Kakakela to lower class factory workers. Life was quite hard but we managed to make ends meet. As I grew up my talent for industry and merchandising was recognized and developed. Then I got some lucky breaks and with a bit of sacrifice was able to join the pod community.

AP: How long have you been a pod pilot?

BF: I've been plying the space lanes for over 4 years now.

AP: What organizations are you a member of?

BF: I am currently Industry Director with my corporation, Facta Non Verba. We are members of the Black Core Alliance.

AP: What is life like in your corporation/alliance?

BF: We are quite busy in Cloud Ring. We often have fleets from Triumvirate, Pure, and Bruce in the area looking for kills. Other than that, this is definitely a good alliance. It runs a Tech II replacement program for fleet battles, and an in-alliance store for all.

AP: Tell us about your training--what areas have you specialized in?

BF: I'm pretty much a jack-of-all-trades. I have good mining, refining, and building abilities; and I’m not too bad on gunnery and missiles either. I do a bit of everything, including defending our space when necessary.

AP: As the industry director I am assuming that your work as a pod pilot focuses primarily on that area? Could you describe some of the work you do as an industrialist?

BF: I pretty much mine it, refine it, and build it. We have been doing tier 3 battleships recently, and I'm looking into moon-mining for us so we can compete in the Tech II component markets.

AP: Is there a recent event you would like to tell us about?

BF: We had a battle with Triumvirate recently next door in XZH-4X. Our fleet was gathering at a reconnaissance control tower there, and the Triumvirate fleet engaged us. They had many battleships and Tech II cruisers. Unfortunately, we didn't have the numbers at the time, and we came out on the losing end. I myself activated a new clone, which isn’t unusual.

AP: How big an area out here do your people control?

BF: BCA, in conjunction with RECON, control most of Cloud Ring.

AP: What is your favorite ship?

BF: I'm quite in love with my Falcon just now. It is excellent for electronic warfare and for traveling around.

AP: That is all the questions I have. Do you want to make a closing comment?

BF: There are a lot of risks involved with 0.0 living, but the rewards make it worthwhile. Get yourself out here and make some history.