Back in Eifer and rocking and rolling

Getting back to my current system was hard - I was too distracted with targets of opportunity but after a long journey I was finally home. My new crew were joined by those I lost when the stabber was blown up so here's me hoping to become even more deadly.

A quick trip into Eifer and I spotted a 4 month old pilot in a thrasher - amongst all the usual big hitters. It smelt like a trap but who wants to live forever? I quickly and efficiently scanned him down. Setting battlestations for the ship I hit the jump drive and dove straight in. I landed too short for the warp disruptor and I commanded the rifter to make all speed to the target. The thrasher was sniffing around some old wrecks and apparently, had not yet spotted me.

Good I thought, keep your eye on the wreck and not on your scanner. Since local was so busy, it probably masked my presence somewhat. Impatiently, I waited until I was almost in range and then cycled up the guns and let the unfortunate thrasher have the full load. The rifter is such a fine ship - it can be one of the few frigates able to perform a decent 'alpha-strike'. The thrasher was punched sideways by the force of my 150mm autocannons and single rocket launcher.

The pilot finally managed to acquire me and hit me with 200mm auto-cannons that tore into my shields. One of a few thrashers fitted with fast-tracking auto-cannons? I might be in trouble now as I was banking on yet another artillery fitted destroyer. It also had missile launchers and the flameburst missiles rocked my rifter.

Trusting to the extra shields that I had installed, I pressed on with the attack, the rifter weaving in and out in order to confuse the targeting computers on the thrasher. However, there was little chance of my being able to tank any damage for any length of time so I had to kill the thrasher and hope no-one came in during the middle of the fight!

The thrasher had lost the shields now and I was breaking his armour down into small chunks - I was at around 35% shield and it wasn't dipping.

The thrasher was mine - I love the feeling when you know you have the victory in your grasp.

With a delightful explosion - the destroyer disappeared in a flash of expanding debris and flash-frozen gases. I locked the pod and popped the pilot. There were too many in local for me to have an extended conversation with a pissed-off pilot.

2007.04.20 15:15
Victim: Vj Gunter
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Thrasher
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon I

Destroyed items:
100mm Reinforced Steel Plates I
Standard Missile Launcher I
200mm AutoCannon I
Inertia Stabilizers I
280mm Howitzer Artillery I
280mm Howitzer Artillery I
Cap Booster 50, Qty: 37 (Cargo)
Flameburst Light Missile, Qty: 260 (Cargo)
200mm AutoCannon I
Proton S, Qty: 97
Flameburst Light Missile, Qty: 35
Nuclear S, Qty: 2

2007.04.20 15:15
Victim: Vj Gunter
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon I

Later on in the evening - Eifer and Gusandall was getting hot. We had ADF, FFAT and others in and around the system. Just how I like it. Proculus (CEO of Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat Corp) was zipping in the system in a Stabber fleet issue while ADF were present in various ships with a scan-probing helios in tow to make safe spots far from being safe.

Zombiee was present and Lucius so, after the last successful gang up - we did it again. Lucius was especially keen to take on and kill DELT4 (a pilot from FFAT) as was I. I have nothing against Proculus but he has some idiot pilots under his command.

So a game of cat and mouse ensued between all the parties. No-one was around the belts but in safe-spots but with ADF scanning, these would not be safe for long unless I continued to move around safe spots and made more.

Proculus actually lost the stabber according to Lucius who engaged him a number of times that night. According to Luc, the stabber was a poor damage dealer. No matter, Proculus was in a rupture and a quick scan of local revealed at least ten ships of various classes.

Zombiee was now in local too in his brutix so I opted to act as bait.

I warped to the top belt and sat there - didn't have to wait long; a rupture appeared 3km from me and locked and fired in one efficient move. It was Proculus. I wasn't too bothered who it was to be honest and while Proculus is neutral to me, as soon as I get fired upon; I will fire back and attempt to pod the pilot.

However, a second rupture came in too.

Ah - problems.

My punisher was holding up but the drones, auto-cannon and missiles was taking it's toil. I called in Zombiee already but he hadn't appeared next to me yet. All I got from Zombiee was 'fack'. That did not sound too good.

I was into 50% armour and tanking but I was not on top of the damage, I was targeting and popping the drones around me but the other ordnance were taking chunks out of me. I was down to 25% armour when Zombiee finally said: 'On my way'.

I feared that it was too late so I made sure that the last thing I would do was to maintain a disruptor on Proculus before the punisher was destroyed. When my ship went pop, I insta-warped just as Zombiee came in. I hoped he would have the chance to lock Proculus and who ever else was in the belt. Finally discovered that the other rupture was Captained by Fox20. So far, this chap and his corp were neutral to mine.

No matter; my job was to tackle and I hoped I did a good enough job.

2007.04.20 20:22
Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Proculus (laid the final blow)
Security: -8.5
Alliance: NONE
Corp: FORTES FORTUNA ADIUVAT CORP.
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: Hammerhead I

Destroyed items:
Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Small Armor Repairer II
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 2000 (Cargo)
Warp Scrambler I
Small Nosferatu I
Capacitor Power Relay I
EMP S, Qty: 40
EMP S, Qty: 40
EMP S, Qty: 39

Zombiee gleefully told me that Proculus was down a minute later. He apologised for not warping in faster - instead of 'warping to member' he 'kicked' himself from the gang!

Fox20 was also firing on Proculus and between Fox's Rupture and Zombiee's Brutix - Proculus was down. Concord recorded it all for our posterity:

2007.04.20 20:23
Victim: Proculus
Alliance: NONE
Corp: FORTES FORTUNA ADIUVAT CORP.
Destroyed: Rupture
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Fox20 (laid the final blow)
Security: -3.0
Alliance: FREGE Alliance
Corp: The Hand Trade Alliance
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I
Name: Zombieee
Security: -0.7
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Maelstrom Crew
Ship: Brutix
Weapon: Brutix

Destroyed items:
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I
EMP M, Qty: 3261 (Cargo)
Medium I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator
Warp Scrambler I
Compact 'Limos' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I
Hellfire Assault Missile, Qty: 900 (Cargo)
EMP M, Qty: 56

I warped back to Gusandall just as I heard that Zombiee was being ambushed by a bunch of ADF pilots (I think). Damnnit, if I survived long enough - I could have helped him. I only managed to grab a few snatches of conversation; combat usually results in a lot of garbled message traffic but Zombiee was down.

Lucius had flown back at speed to help us out. Eifer and all the surrounding areas was hot with pissed off pilots and itchy trigger fingers so plenty of loot and plunder opportunities.

I was back into another punisher and was taking a detour to Ingunn to meet up with Lucius (who had already located prey and was also tracking him) when I stopped at the Ingunn entry gate in Sotrenzur. I was just pausing to fire off a message to Zombiee when a rifter (yellow flagged) came screaming in from the Gusandall direction. The pilot was 'Cumbersnatch' - someone who I tangled six months back (but more recently, two weeks ago) and whom I have had quite civil dealings with. He was in a rifter once more. My own intelligence had informed me that he had lost at least one Wolf-class assault frigate lately.

His rifter hit an intercept course and buzzed close to me. Wondering what he was up to, I was about to message him when my own tactical computer screamed out that it had detected a targeting lock. Shit, Cumbersnatch had locked me and immediately after, my punisher was buffeted as his shells smacked into the shields.

'Battlestations!'

OK, civil or not - he was now going to die.

I hit back as hard as I could with the punisher. The bleeder setup is NOT designed for frigate 1 v 1 but I had to try. He had the advantage of speed while I had a tank. We jostled around the gate - with the sentry guns silent and brooding. Lucius jumped through and informed me that he was going to help but had to align. Cumbersnatch was not nasty enough to have a KOS on him and had not caused any aggravation against Lucius. Any hostile action by Lucius would result in the gate guns opening up on him.

That would be to his detriment one would assume!

The gates whirled into action as it detected an illegal weapons discharge by Lucius's rupture just as he aligned and warped to safety. By this time, Cumbersnatch was in trouble and his hull was on fire with his vented atmosphere ignited by the exploding munitions.

The rifter, taking too much damage exploded.

Grinning, I had to pod him even if it meant possible destruction by the sentry guns. Locking the pod and then opening fire must have surprised Cumbersnatch - who would be mad enough to do this in a frigate directly under the sentry guns in 0.4 space?

The rules governing the possibility of sentry gun fire is quite complex but one thing is clear. A pod kill of anyone not a pirate would result in an immediate response from station and sentry gun fire as well as Concord inside empire space.

So I fired at the pod. And missed.

SHIT.

The sentry guns then opened up on me and the tactical computer protested at the damage. I realised that I had drifted too far from the pod and was now 11km.......which meant that if Cumbersnatch had his wits about him - he could warp. As the sentry gunfire intensified, I turned the ship around and tried to get close. I was already down to armour from the previous fight and the armour repairer was working as fast as it could. I locked the pod again and hit the guns once more. The sentry guns pummeled the frigate. I was tanking them but doing a bad job.
The emp shells hit Cumbersnatch's pod but failed to completely destroy it.

SHIT.

Why are they so tough now?

Already I was down to 10% armour and I had to leave. I squeezed off one final shot and was rewarded with a squish sound as I finally sent Cumbersnatch back to the cloning vats. I didn't have time to savour the victory as I warped to a safe spot and checked the combat logs.

[ 2007.04.20 21:50:24 ] (combat)Minmatar Sentry Gun places an excellent hit on you, inflicting 267.0 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:24 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun places an excellent hit on you, inflicting 208.2 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:26 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun lightly hits you, doing 99.3 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:26 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun places an excellent hit on you, inflicting 203.8 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:27 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun places an excellent hit on you, inflicting 218.4 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:27 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun hits you, doing 152.0 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:29 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun aims well at you, inflicting 168.2 damage.
[ 2007.04.20 21:50:29 ] (combat) Minmatar Sentry Gun hits you, doing 142.0 damage.

Once my flag had expired I was contacted by Lucius - he had snagged a prophecy in Hrondredir so with a whoop I jumped next door and landed into raging combat between the harby and Lucius' rupture.

I helped out in my own way but with my fast locking, it was expected that I would snag the pod....which I did.

2007.04.20 22:13
Victim: Ketsunaire
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Kakurenbo
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Hrondedir
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