Valentine Day's Surprise

Not much love this time round. Black Fleet have decided to park themselves in Gusandall and one pilot just talks and talks and talks. Gah, gives me a headache!!!

However, Auren was a bit quieter and I was stalking two ships (vexor and rupture) there. The rupture was piloted by an old victim (Tazit1z) and I called in Lucius for assistance. It was a game of cat and mouse for ages though with new pilots coming in frequently. It was clear the two Moon Hawk Corporation pilots were ratting as they left wrecks all over the place; however each time me and Lucius were too slow. The vexor was the most dangerous ship with its myriad of drones but a challenge is a challenge. The vexor pilot was also at least six months old so had decent skills we think.

Finally, local cleared down to only four pilots (me, Lucius, Taz and his mate) and Taz made a mistake and ended up in a belt - his mate warped off to another part of the system so LC and I made our move. I arrived first and landed 6KM away - excellent! My heart thumping - I locked on and hit the scrambler. Then I started to loose off EMP roounds. LC came screaming in a second later and his T2 ACs spat death.

Amazingly, the rupture did not have drones.

We tore into the rupture and laughed as Taz' mate LEFT local, leaving Taz on his own! He was toast and begged us to stop but he was already in structure and soon popped.

BoomYah.

But the rat got the kill mail - a freaking Angel frigate decided to get involved and boom. Landed the killing blow. We got the pod however.

2007.02.14 16:37

Victim: tazit1z
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Moon Hawks
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Auren
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

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

Later on in the evening I was back on in Gusandall having made a 14-jump journey and it yielding no kills. Gusandall was full of Black Fleet pilots (again) but there were a handful of other non-aligned pilots. I spotted one in a Thrasher and decided he was a good target but he was a slippery chap.....

I went into the Angel plex but it was empty except of wrecks and I lacked the key to move to the next level. It was then that I spotted a new pilot....in a retriever come into local. With a manic laugh, I hit the jump drive. Just as I was leaving, another red blinky came into the complex in a merlin. It was Geigher (-9.6) and I had my eye on him. Better he stay out of my way and no funny business.

I landed in the first of three target belts but the retriever was nowhere to be seen. Frustratingly, he was still on scanner and I managed to eventually land on him. On came the scrambler and the tight orbit. Boom, boom. I quickly convo'ed him and asked for a 10million isk ranson, he took ages to reply but came back with a counter offer of 5 million.

I said no and repeated the offer with a time limit of 10 seconds.

He still wanted to bargain me down to 5million isk so I shredded his armour. Then something amazing happened. He ejected from the ship and sat there. I wondered WTF? but continued to blast his mining barge to scrap. I then scrambled the pod....as he hadn't even warped out. I was about to get another ransom when Giegher screamed into the same belt as me.

He targetted me and scrambled me just as I was 'negotiating' with Bahamut420. Gah - Giegher was more of a danger so I had to disengage.

Bahamut420 > FUCK YOU

Well, that was nice.

Anyway, Giegher in his merlin was now a threat. I tried to jump out as I didn't want to fight him but he had me scrambled. With that decision made, I went for him. His merlin was orbitting me at between 5-6km and even with my afterburner I could not close the distance. He had railguns that picked at my shields and my cap was going down fast. He had two small nosferatus on me.

I quickly shut down some mods and tried to save cap and returned fire. Even at 6KM my lovely 200mm autocanons were scoring hits. I turned off the warp disruptor as I reckoned Giegher was too intent on me to warp himself out. He wouldn't notice that my disruptor was off.

My EMP shells screamed across the vacuum and flared off on the merlin's shields. I was down to 35% armour but the tank had finally kicked in and held steady. The repairer was working at optimal effeciency while the merlin's shields were failing.

Once into his armour, like all other Caldari ships - their armour is like paper.

At this point, I knew that I had won this contest. I occasionally switched on the disruptor - just to make sure that Giegher decided to warp out. His Merlin was tough but not tough enough. His armour was eventually stripped off and his hull, well couldn't stand up to the pounding and fell to my 200mm ACs. I also snagged the pod and PK'ed him as I wanted my first bounty collection. Pity his bounty was only 55K isk!

2007.02.14 23:17

Victim: Giegher
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Black Fleet
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Gusandall
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:

Warp Disruptor I
Warp Disruptor I
1MN Afterburner I
125mm Railgun I
Small Nosferatu I
125mm Railgun I
Small Nosferatu I
Cap Recharger I
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 16
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 16


2007.02.14 23:17
For your termination of Giegher we have paid you the bounty that was set to his head: 55,000.00 ISK

2007.02.14 23:18
Victim: Giegher
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Black Fleet
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Gusandall
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

And the mining barge kill:

2007.02.14 23:14

Victim: Bahamut420
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Ice Fire Warriors
Destroyed: Retriever
System: Gusandall
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:

Strip Miner I
Mark I Modified SS Expanded Cargo
Strip Miner I
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)
Vespa I (Drone Bay)