Hurricane Season!

I was bored and decided to check out the kill mails that I had accumulated over the last few months and it is over 200. A few were ship losses of my own and since I insist on flying frigates and with a 6million isk bounty; I do get a lot of attention.

More power to the bounty collectors I say, so long as they engage - I don't care. Also realised that while a T1-fitted rifter is a lot of fun, I do need something that can hit even harder so I am faced with either getting a Jaguar (drool) or fitting a new rifter with T2 kit.

Decided that I would do both but I also realised that I am using the punisher more and more; slowly I am refining the 'Bleeder' setup and understanding the ins and outs of this ship. Sure, it has been pwned a few times but it was always from ships with T2 guns or very fast firing ships. Need to be a bit smarter in using the tough little Amarr frigate.

I loaded up on ammo - opting for three-quarters EMP and one-quarter Phased Plasma and undocked into the vastness of space. The station slowly receeded as I increased the sub-light engines and pushed out into space. I check the local com-net and there were a few pilots. I took a chance and snapped on the scanner, just in case a few were around in the belts. After a minute or two - it was clear that the three local pilots (x1 battleship, x1 battle-cruiser and x1 frigate) were all in safe spots: deep areas of space away from any warpable celestial objects.

Sighing, I popped in the co-ordinates of the next system and fired up the warp engines. I have to admit, the Punisher has nice clean lines and makes a change from the Rifter. Of course, the deadly rusted Rifter is still my ship of choice but change is good. I arrived and recieved immediate clearance to jump into the next system.

Arriving in Eifer, I hit the scanner again - the local comnet was quite busy so potential for targets I thought. I hit the scanner and waited for the return. Finding nothing, I quickly hit the warp engines and arrived at my secondary scan spot. Sure enough, the scanner came back with solid returns. Narrowing the angle down, I spotted a Republic University pilot in a burst-class frigate. Not much of a challenge but I needed to warm up the guns.

I hit the warp engines and the frigate leapt into the warp. I could feel my heart start to beat faster as I neared the belt, adrenaline coursing through my body and feeling a touch-light headed. I hit the scanner mid-way to ensure that the target was still in front of me and yes, it was. The ship sensed my eagerness for the kill and hurled itself out of the warp tunnel and into normal space, thin plasma streams trailing off the ship's sleek golden frame.

The sweet, sweet overview return of a white cross made me grin with fierce joy. All hunters will know the feeling of excitement of seeing a target icon appear in the ships overview. I hit the afterburners as soon as the navi-computer was sorted out and closed the distance. The Burst class frigate was 25km away and I had a long-range 20km disruptor. I had to close the 5km gap before the pilot could get out.

23km and I hit the targetting computer - it cycled through it's lock very quickly. A long tone indicated a successful lock but the I was still 21km away. I prayed that the last km would be rewarded with a snared ship and not me chasing after plasma trails. The computer maintained its lock and the distance ticker read 18km and dropping.

On came the disruptor and he was mine - the burst-class frigate suddenly became aware of me and tried to pull away but I had the velocity and closed to within 9km and opened fire. The ship's shields flared brightly as my EMP shells spat out of the 200mm ACs. Soon I was chewing into his armour as the burst tried to fight back. The armour peeled off in glowing strips and the vulnerable and soft hull was exposed. The pilot was too young to have any money but his clone would be cheap. I quickly slammed two more shells into his hull and his pod ejected out. Calmly, I targetted the blinking pod and sent the Republic University back to his cloning vats.

A kill was a kill and I was warmed up.

2007.02.22 13:55

Victim: Ashval
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic University
Destroyed: Burst
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Destroyed items:

Dual Diode Mining Laser I
Dual Diode Mining Laser I
Civilian Expanded Cargohold
Small Shield Extender I


2007.02.22 13:57

Victim: Ashval
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic University
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Of course, the burst was a snack really I wanted more. I swept the area for more potential victims but they had all finally found a dark, deep hole to safely hide. If only I had a wing mate with scanner probes. Grumbling a bit I jumped through a number of gates after my criminal flag had expired.

One of my regular hunting buddies came back to the same area and we greeted each other. Lucius Cain is a pilot with SNIGGWAFFE but outside of corp operations, we fly with each other and other likely minded pilots; all frigate pilots and all looking to misbehave. We spotted for each other calling out targets in each system and assessing the likely success of a joint operation. He was in his trusty rifter while I still flew the punisher.

Lucius called out a hurricane-class battlecruiser had arrived into Gusandall so we decided that this would be a nice test of the two-frigate combo.

flashfresh > Phantom Sulker in 1-1
Lucius Cain > heh
flashfresh > he's moved
Lucius Cain > want to try him?
flashfresh > ofc
flashfresh > I always die to canes
Lucius Cain > Booyah :D
flashfresh > he's moved though
Lucius Cain > Try IV - 1
flashfresh > k
Lucius Cain > Warping

Lucius had tracked down and engaged the battlecruiser pilot and called me in.

flashfresh > laaagg
Lucius Cain > He's here
flashfresh > In warp
Lucius Cain > 20km away

I arrived within 10 seconds and landed a mere spitting distance away from the bulk of a hurricane battlecruiser. A rifter was in a tight orbit around the hurricane; there was a faint blue glow of an activated web around the battlecruiser - reducing it's velocity and transversal to a crawl. This made the beast easier to hit.

I hit the afterburners and pushed the punisher into a 2000m orbit and engaged the 200mm AC and the small nosferatu. The EMP projectiles screamed out and smashed and flared off the hurricane's shields.

My disruptor came on and with the nosferatu firmly engaged, I settled into destroying the hurricane's shields. Throughout this time, the Hurricane captain tried to fight back but he had the wrong weapons: too big to track small ships. He also lacked a nosferatu or even drones. However, his shields were ten times that of ours and I could only hope that the 6ooo rounds of EMP ammunition was enough.

His shields did go down however, as they could not last forever.

We knew we had him.

Soon the readouts were showing armour damage; I switched one of the 200mm ACs to phase plasma and continued to pummel the hurricane's armour - armour that was peeling off in white-hot stripes and spinning off into space. I could imagine the panic on board the ship as internal fires started to erupt and the klaxons blaring away at failed shield generators. No matter, I wanted the kill and to see what it was carrying.

The armour was soon gone, it was venting atmosphere and the hull's integrity was severly compromised. Still no word from the Captain but Lucius and I decided to ransom the pod as we both wanted a Hurricane kill to our names.

The Hurricane was in its death throes - it was still firing at us but it had seconds to live, Lucius and I were merciless and destroyed the ship. I howled in delight as debris flared off my shields, the explosion was a bright flash that vapourised two small asteroids. The Captain's pod was visible and both Lucius and I attempted to lock it but to our amazement, it jumped into warp instantly. The few remaining crew in their own life boats were ignored.

The captain opened up a conversation to me:

Phantom Sulker > I will find you and kill you when you are not with your buddy.

Great. Bring it on.

Concord confirmed the kill:

2007.02.22 14:28

Victim: Phantom Sulker
Alliance: Gods of Night and Day
Corp: Deep Space Consortium
Destroyed: Hurricane
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Lucius Cain
Security: -9.9
Alliance: Pandemic Legion
Corp: SniggWaffe
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm Light Carbine Repeating Cannon I

Destroyed items:

650mm Artillery Cannon I
Havoc Heavy Missile, Qty: 40 (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
720mm Carbine Howitzer I
Quantum Co-Processor I
Shield Boost Amplifier I
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 1650 (Cargo)
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I
Miner I (Cargo)
Malfunctioning Shield Emitter, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Small Capacitor Booster I (Cargo)
200mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon (Cargo)
Tripped Power Circuit, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Havoc Heavy Missile, Qty: 8
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 15

The loot from the wreckage was so-so, nothing T2-wise but plenty of ammo. Shame I haven't got a salvager here, one could make quite a bit of isk from the scrap floating round here.

Lucius and I congratulated each other on a good kill - a first I think for us both.

We both waited for the criminal flag to expire and then went out to seek more prey.

I found Ashval in a rifter this time and shaking my head in disbelief I warped into him his belt and killed him. He was understandably very pissed at me but I did tell him that he was in low-sec and that no-one was safe. I didn't pod him as I felt guilty - don't want him to hang up his pod controls and go back to being a planet-bound pleb now could I?

2007.02.22 14:51

Victim: Ashval
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic University
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Sotrenzur
Security: 0.3

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

In the next system, I spotted a vagabond heavy assault cruiser. Never went after a HAC before but flushed with success I called out to Lucius who duly responded with a firm 'yes' on engaging the vagabond. He docked to fit double webbers and a MWD while I maintained an overwatch on the vagabond. He was moving from belt to belt in rapid succession - no doubt looking for victims.
However, Lucius informed me that as he as undocking from Gusandall - he spotted yet another Hurricane-class battle cruiser. Deciding that a second kill would be good, we decided to engage the new targer. Lucius went to engage it immediately while I fired up the warp engines and made the two jumps back to Lucius' position.

flashfresh > Second cane today I hope
Lucius Cain > V- 1
flashfresh > omw
Lucius Cain > I don't have scram
flashfresh > YAAARRR
flashfresh > I have 1pt
Lucius Cain > Hurry
flashfresh > In warp
Lucius Cain > Man, now i'm the damn Noob

I warped in and saw the familiar shape of a hurricane-class battle cruiser. It was double-webbed by Lucius but not scrambled. I got into range and hit a tight orbit and hit the disruptor.

flashfresh > Scrambled for one.
Lucius Cain > Get a point on him and you're an angel.
flashfresh > I have.
Lucius Cain > *phew*

Once again, this Hurricane pilot did not fit a medium nosferatu or any other anti-frigate defence. We attacked the hurricane much like before and soon her shields flared off in a bright flash and we pounded at her armour.

Lucius Cain> 'Cant believe our luck. Two hurricanes in such a short time!'
Flashfresh> 'Yah'

Then the hurricane fired up it's warp engines and left us alone.

Flashfresh> 'WTF?'
Lucius Cain > DO you know that sound when the tea pot starts boiling?
flashfresh > wtf?
Flashfresh> 'Damnnit, stabs....but it's still in-system. No wait, its docked. Damn.'
Lucius Cain> ' Well, at least we got one kill. Might need to refit this rig and put the scrambler back in. Damn it!'
Lucius Cain > Well that sucked... Talk about anti-climax.

Both of us were unhappy but congratulations to the Hurricane pilot for fighting as long. Warp Core Stabiliser do gimp most pilots setups so he was willing to take this hit. No matter. However, it was clear as Lucius and my criminal timer was counting down that the hurricane pilot was still docked. The to our amazement, he undocked and warped to another belt. We were torn between re-engaging him again, as with his single WCS - he negated my single, one-point warp disruptor. It would be a waste of ammo and worse, he probably refitted with specific anti-frigate weapons.
Still, we realised that he had undocked and was continuing to rat. We both looked up at our timers and we each had 6 minutes left.

Lucius Cain> 'This is the worst moment in EVE for me....'
Flashfresh> ' Yeah. Goddamnit - this timer is so slow. We need to refit and re-engage the 'cane!!!'
Lucius Cain> 'I know mate, I know!!!'

The timer was glacial as we prayed that the 'cane pilot would stay outside. Maybe it was waiting for us?

We also noticed that a taranis-class interceptor had also undocked. Lucius, in another scan spot then cried out:

Lucius Cain> 'Taranis has engaged the Hurricane'
Flashfresh> 'OK - we re-engage and take out the Inty. The inty pilot is a pirate anyways. Don't engage the Hurricane - wait until your global timer is out.'
Lucius Cain> 'Roger. Let's go.'

We both warped and landed a short distance from a furious fire-fight between the Interceptor and the Hurricane. The taranis was indeed piloted by a pirate (-9.6) so we engaged him and with Lucius' double-webber rifter - we killed the interceptor in short order. The pod escaped though.

2007.02.22 15:25

Victim: Kailiao
Alliance: Astral Wolves
Corp: The Black Fleet
Destroyed: Taranis
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: The Genral
Security: 0.1
Alliance: NONE
Corp: FM Corp
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane

Name: Lucius Cain (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Alliance: Pandemic Legion
Corp: SniggWaffe
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon

Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Punisher

Now it was round two: I had the Hurricane scrambled once more and orbitted around him, he threw heavy missiles at me but I could easily tank his damage. Lucius's global criminal flag finally expired and he quickly made his exit towards the station. I had to maintain contact with the hurricane. It was tricky though: I had to do enough damage to make him fight me, take enough damage so that he would stay long enough for Lucius to dock, refit with a 2 point scrambler and undock and rejoin the fight.

Gah.

I turned my armour repairer off and took the damage - hopefully this would force the Hurricane to stay for his 'kill'.

I was down to 35% armour and he was down to 10%, I had one single 200mm AC on him now, having turned off the other two.

Just as Lucius undocked with a new scrambler - the hurricane hit warp again.

Flashfresh> 'Shite. He warped out.
Lucius Cain> ' Nooooooo'
Flashfresh> ':-('
Flashfresh> 'Safespot, as local is beginning to fill up'
Lucius Cain> 'Roger. Shame we missed the second Hurricane kill'
Flashfresh> 'Yeah. We'll get our chance'

So we each zipped off to our own spots and waited.

Oddly, the hurricane Captain was still in local. I scanned and realised that he had docked. Then a thought occured to me. I voiced this to my partner:

Flashfresh> LC - you know, we could get a third shot at this 'cane.
Lucius Cain> Yeah?
Flashfresh> I think the fool has redocked to repair and I think he will come back out again. I mean we had two attempts to kill him and each time he escaped. Probably doesn't realise that you docked up to refit or even realised that we now know why we cant scramble him.
Lucius Cain> He cant be that stupid....
Flashfresh> Lets see....yes! he's undocked. Scan and find him!

We both quickly hit the scanners and let the machine do it's work. There! We located him at IV-2 and with a wary cry both Lucius and I pushed our ships into warp and hoped that the Hurricane was not running away.

Both frigates burst back into normal space, the entry bubble bursting like a supernovae and there it was: the same hurricane - fully repaired and shields back to 100%. No matter, unless it had refitted with another two warp core stabilisers - he was dead.

He re-targetted us, just as we did him - looks like he was eager for round three as much as we were. I locked and hit the disruptor and got into nosferatu range. My faithful 200mm ACs spat death in the form of screaming EMP projectiles. Lucius's guns also spoke the same deadly language.

The hurricane was frantically regenerating his shields and also, for the first time - hitting us with ECM. He was using the wrong one though on me but one cycle was sucessful.

Flashfresh> Careful! He is using ECM.
Lucius Cain> Roger.

We continued to orbit, weaving in and out of each other's orbits and dancing around the bright flashes of the Hurricane's medium autocannon projectiles. Without anything to slow us down, he had a hard time hitting us....however, the Captain hadn't been idle and in addition to a single ECM module - he also fitted a target painter and it was I who was illuminated.

His heavy missiles shook the punisher and my computer protested at the damage being caused, with an angry look I shut the automated messages off as I needed to concentrate on managing my capacitor and the repairer. Still, his damage was inconsistent and I managed to get on top of the damage and tank it.

Meanwhile, our furious onslaught had knocked the hurricane's shields down and we were once more drilling into its newly repaired armour. This time, there would be no escape. The ECM had also stopped and Lucius and I assumed that he was running low on capacitor energy. No matter, that was his problem.

The bloodlust was on me and I howled in delight as the shells started to bore into the hull. If the hurricane wanted to escape it would have tried by now and I could imagine the panic on the Captain's face as he realised that this time, he was stuck.

Lucius Cain> I think we have him!
Flashfresh> Yaaarrrrrr

The hull was now a smoking ruin, venting out fiery atmosphere and crew escape pods. The order to abandon ship was obviously given. We however, waited for the Captain's pod.

Lucius Cain> I want to pod him. He deserves it.

The hurricane shook as a length wise shudder ran through it and then in a bright flash it exploded in a bright multi-coloured flash. We saw the pod appear on our scanners and locked it. Both Lucius and I hit it with our ACs and it disappeared in a flash. The Captain was no more.

We searched the wreck but there wasn't much in it. No matter, it had been a good day for us. We managed to get some named medium autocannons and a T2 shield booster but it was the thrill of the chase and combat that we loved.

I had to dock and grab a beer while LC had to log.

We both agreed that it was a superb day. Long may these continue.



2007.02.22 15:35

Victim: The Genral
Alliance: NONE
Corp: FM Corp
Destroyed: Hurricane
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Lucius Cain
Security: -9.9
Alliance: Pandemic Legion
Corp: SniggWaffe
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon

Name: Kailiao
Security: -9.8
Alliance: Astral Wolves
Corp: The Black Fleet
Ship: Unknown
Weapon: X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Name: Angel Nomad / Archangels


Destroyed items:

Mining Drone I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
425mm Medium Carbine Repeating Cannon I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
Damage Control I
Sensor Booster I
Basic Gyrostabilizer
Large Shield Booster I
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 1646 (Cargo)
EMP M, Qty: 1136 (Cargo)
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 703 (Cargo)
Civilian Shield Booster I (Cargo)
Miner I (Cargo)
Stasis Webifier I (Cargo)
EMP M, Qty: 60
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 24
EMP M, Qty: 60


I came back on later in the evening and hooked up with Rail Duke and went hunting in Ingunn. I got ambushed as we moved through the belts. I made a rookie mistake of redoing my overview settings inside a belt. I didn't see or realise that I was under attack until I was down to 50% armour. Noob.

2007.02.22 18:53

Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Ingunn
Security: 0.3

Involved parties:

Name: Lord Lilu
Security: 0.2
Alliance: The Pentagram
Corp: Marquie-X Corp
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Thorn Rocket

Name: Reiner Brutor (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Alliance: The Pentagram
Corp: Marquie-X Corp
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Name: Angel Shatterer / Archangels

Destroyed items:

200mm Light Carbine Repeating Cannon I
Small Nosferatu I
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
100mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I (Cargo)
125mm Compressed Coil Gun I (Cargo)
150mm Compressed Coil Gun I (Cargo)

So a great day ended on a slightly downbeat note. No matter. There is always tomorrow.