Felicia Winters has promoted me to Level 4

After the first couple of cycles of power play (2 weeks) I have got to level 4.

At first I was ferrying propaganda (b.t.w. it isn't propaganda really it's pretty factual stuff) to & fro to systems to prepare for expansion but after the first few days it became clear that despite Felicia Winter's clearly magnanimous, humane liberal goals the rest of the Galaxy is full of violent wrong-headed expansionists. Her systems were under threat all over the place. I tried to save Morten Marte as an expansion target but to no avail.

This week alarmed by the number of core systems being undermined I've decided to focus on keeping the core protected by getting Aid from Rhea to the places it's most needed (the core systems with the highest cost is undermined)

You can see below which one I am targeting at present since I think I can make a difference:

First Week of Power Play

So after trying various systems and a combination of the 3 types of Merit Earning activities I have settles on a three part round trip.

I start in the Capitol Rhea and while conducting other business around the port I load up every half hour with 10 Federal packages which will be used to fortify a nearby system.
I started the fortification missions because I saw an alarming number of Felicia Winter's core systems under threat.

The system I've decided to support & focus on is Namte (Johnson Orbital). The advantage of Namte is that they have some seriously cheap Gold for sale.

Once I've got a decent Cargo of packages to take to Namte I head out an deliver them. Then I load up on Gold and deliver this past Rhea to LQ Hydrae where I sell the Gold at A GOOD profit.

The factories at Wohler Horizons do a good line in Marine equipment which the Krill harvesters on Rhea pay an OK price for. I take these back to Rhea and start the cycle again.

Only this time I spend a couple of 100k from the Gold sale profits on getting more federal packages to deliver.

All in all a nice round trip which has seen me accumulate over 750 merits this week.

The only slight issue has been the Alliance and independent craft which are hanging around Ito Orbital in Rhea. They normally come in packs of three (e.g. a Federal Dropship plus 2 sidewinders or 3 vipers).

A few of them managed to get through my shields but so far only 1 ASP lived to tell the tale by jumping out before I roasted them.

Power Play Begins

So I've thrown my lot in with the Feds and have allied to Felicia Winters!!! She fits my trading methods.

I have earned my first 30 merits but need some R&R now.

Here is my first view of a pilot in the cockpit - albeit me!

Alliance Capital - Alioth permit

At last I have the coveted Alioth permit. Just waiting for the latest ship systems update to finish (aka power play 1.3)  before I visit.

I did quite a lot of trading / delivery missions but the mission still remained unobtainable. However as soon as I'd cashed in a bounty mission for the Alliance hey presto the Alliance was happy with me.

I'm where I wanted to be now just in time for getting stuck in to the more political world that the 1.3 upgrade will allow.