AFK

Ach - no pew pew - am away in RL for a week.

Have I set long skill training?

Gaahhh...

You win some and you lose some

Today, I toast the loss of my Hurricane-class battlecruiser. I jumped into a system and saw a retriever and lo and behold - it was piloted by a SWA pilot.....no this can't be; I thought to myself. Shurely a trap?

I scanned him down and jumped him but imagine my surprise when he was being escorted by a mighty Brutix? The brutix pilot while not 'piratey' - surprised me with his presence. No matter, I quickly locked the brutix and opened fire with the retriever scuttling off to dock. The Brutix pilot called out for help and a quick scan of local revealed at least two of his corp mates were there. Oh well, the die has been cast so all I could do was to fight my way out.

A vagabond appeared and locked me. I had my drones and nos and guns and webber on the brutix. I had no time to switch to the T2 HAC but I figured that I could kill the Brutix before turning my attentions to the vagabond. The brutix was slowly dying and not causing me much bother but once his armour was gone, it was taking a very long time for my guns to chew through his hull. Damage Control II maybe?

Gah. Not good, it was taking an age for his hull to pop and now I was starting to armour tank. The vagabond had me noss'ed and was hitting me hard along with the drones from the Brutix. My two medium armour repairers fired up but their repair rate was a tad too slow and damage was leaking through.

Another minute crawled by as I was being pummelled by the Brutix (now aflame from front to back) and by the annoying vagabond....which was probably the main danger.

Eventually, the brutix popped but I was really in trouble. I was webbed and being nossed and even with two of my nos and the cap injector....I was out of cap?

A bit troubled, I spotted my armour going down faster and faster. Checking that I had not accidentally switched off any repairers or damage control (damn the new GUI!!!!!) - I decided that it was indeed working and that I was in trouble. Turning all six of my autocanons onto the vagabond, now webbed, should have killed it.

However, it was not to be. I lost the hurricane in a spectacular fashion and then got podded too. The GUI froze even though I was spamming the 'warp to' button like a manic monkey.

Congrats to NJ Corp for kicking my ass.

No matter, a second hurricane awaits me and I am coming straight back.

Yaarr.

Musings of a pirate part 4 - Loot and more loot.

Piracy does pay and in the last three weeks I have had full sell orders for a lot of mods that I acquired through pirating and thuggery.

Glancing at the sales, I have made a pretty penny and my current sell orders are still quite full.

I have sold the mods at 75% empire price so this should bring more customers. Small shield booster II have been turning up in a lot of my kills and selling them has been easy.

Have a few implants too to sell and even a few million here and there will mean that I can get a second hurricane with rigs soon.

Lovely.


Who said crime doesn't pay?

Hurricane take down but myrmidon with X2 stabs?

So another day and this time what did we spy in local? First there was a hurricane and rupture in local.

The rupture pilot made the mistake of saying:

>> 105k bounty; let's collect.

I had the 105k bounty. Pitiful I know. I lost my 6 million bounty to Red Squad a few months back. Then lost another 1 million bounty to an ADF camp.

So it was a ruppie and hurricane versus a jaguar (me) and a hurricane (Kane). Quite even. I jumped to a scan spot but Kane had already hurled his ship into a belt and informed me that he had tackled both the ruppie and the 'cane!

I quickly warped in just as Kane told me to get a point on the rupture. Agreeing I exploded out from warp and quickly scanned the overview. The ruppie and 'cane were there indeed; however the rupture-class cruiser was over 90KM away and getting further.

Deciding against chasing it, I turned to the enemy hurricane being pounded by Kane's own Hurricane. It was noss'ed and then webbed and eventually pounded to scrap. I grabbed the pod and was about to ask for a ransom when the pod was squished by Kane. Talk about being eager!

The loot was very standard. All t1 for the hurricane and I left the ammo for Kane.

A couple of hours later, the ruppie pilot was back and he appeared to have two friends. One in a stabber and one in a myrmidon. Interesting.

After some false starts and a few close encounters we discovered that the stabber pilot was neutral but the myrmidon pilot was with the Ruppie pilot. Excellent. Some banter in local and we managed to track down the myrmidon and proceeded to tackle it. Before I managed to even get a point on it. The ship warped off leaving it's five heavy drones behind. The pilot also disappeared from local so he had logged. Probably a CTD.

We grabbed his drones and scooped them when three minutes later, the myrmidon pilot logged back in and his ship warped back into the belt, quite near to his drones and slap bang between me and Kane.

With a yarrrr! we get two points onto the myrmidon and proceeded to smash the feared Gallente battlecruiser into junk. His DPS was poor as he had no drones and once he was into armour, he then warped off.

WTF?

Stabbed. Gah,

You win some and you lose some.

We did snag the ruppie pilot eventually, he hung around while his mate (the myrmidon pilot) left local. The ruppie pilot was tackled by me and then Kane came in. The rupture, feared and respected was ganked.

The rupture was poorly fitted. It had a laser installed.

After a long chat with the pilot, mainly on ship setups we all departed to our various abodes. It was a good night.

Vexor kill.

Kane Rizzell has been a regular scally wag in Eifer and we've been chatting on the independence channel for a bit. I was making my way back to Gusandall to drop off some of the loot from my foray into Hadozeko; when Kane asked me to help him with a huginn problem. Laughing, I discovered that he was tackled by the huginn and Kane was now jammed to kingdom come. However, the damage from the huginn was pitiful and Kane was in no danger of his armour being scratched. By the time I reached Eifer, Kane informed me that the Huginn had left.

No matter something else had caught my attention: my address book informed me that 'Wuabba' had logged back in. Now this was fun, chances are he would be back in auren; ratting. I also noticed that Wuabba, OriasV et al had left The YingYan Concept corp and formed a new one called the 'White Flame Armada'. No matter.

I jumped into Auren and yes there he was. A quick scan and I found him in a vexor-class cruiser in a belt 5. Quickly informing Kane if he would be interested in helping, I jumped in and tackled the deadly drone boat. My priority was to destroy his drones so with 1pt on the vexor, I webbed and blasted the hammerhead drones. Wuabba probably wasn't paying any attention and didn't get his drones to attack me until he was down to three. He then launched two more and it was game on. The drones buzzed round me and chewed my shields while I quickly tried to despatch his drones. I killed three more before they were withdrawn and then released. Looks like Wuabba had learnt some tricks.

Meanwhile, Kane had arrived in his hurricane class ship and it would be game over for the unfortunate Wuabba.

So it was, I tried to snag the pod but Wuabba had logged!

Fair enough, we would sit here and wait for him to relog.

We waited for about 30 minutes and nothing. Kane had to leave and I stuck around for another five minutes before I too, had to leave.

Wuabba eventually relogged an hour later.

A good day and night of work

Still in Hadozeko, I decided that I could use the on-board scanner. I could see a number of destroyers and frigates and cruisers in space. They were not docked nor were they at the belts and planets. They could be at moons I suppose.

I hit the on board scanner and sat in my safe spot. After a minute, the return was an expected: 'no signatures found' reply. Moving to another scan spot (with two target ships in view: a rifter and a stabber) I performed a new scan. Again, nothing found. I manually scanned and yes indeed, the rifter and stabber were all within scan range. I hit the new scan once again and waited, after a minute - I got two responses. Two deep space signature.

Intrigued, I decided to warp to one of these signatures. Arriving, I saw a number of Angels zipping around; plenty of wrecks and a few loot cans. A quick scan revealed that the can was jettisoned from one of the two pilots I was hunting. At a guess it was the stabber pilot.

Thinking that he had docked up to remove some of the loot, I zipped to the second signature. I landed once again, in what appeared to be an angel refuelling station currently fighting off a pod-driven rifter. This was one of my marks -> so I hit the afterburner and closed the distance. The rifter pilot didn't even get a chance to target me - he was too busy. He died under a hail of EMP shells and was podded for good measure. His loot was ok, some named guns that would go on one of my spare rifters.

I zipped back to the second complex with the manual scanner ping ahead and I got a hard return. Looks like the stabber came back. Oh yes. My exit vector landed me right behind the ship. He was facing away and gunning towards a can. Unless he had an eye on his overview; he probably couldn't see me.

Hitting the afterburner I closed the distance just as my stabber victim was opening up on an Angel cruiser. I hit the warp scrambler, I swapped for a 20km this time round as too many potential victims got away from me in the last month or so.

Once again, the stabber was shredded by the 150mm T2 guns. He wasn't being damaged much by the angel cruiser but he died quickly to me. I podded him also. There were too many others in local for me to chat to him and can't have these chaps warn the others now can I?

60million isk stabber!!!

Ranging far and wide, I wanted to hunt in more areas and pushed into Metropolis; I died a few times to some corps here and I wanted to test myself here. Hadozeko is usually quiet for me but it seemed quite busy this time. I scanned and spotted a thrasher, rupture, two rifters and a stabber. I also failed to kill a thrasher who was show-boating towards one of the gates. I locked him and he retaliated, I forgot to scramble him and he got away once his shields were gone. This place seems like a fun!

I ventured into Hadozeko a few times and the stabber was still there and I believe he was hunting me as I was of him. A quick scan for wrecks revealed a number of player wrecks. Looks like someone was hunting here. We scanned each other down and I landed in a belt; the stabber was over 90km away but in a flash he closed the distance. I think it was going over 4K per second. Almost interceptor speed. I tried to squirm out as a stabber would most likely sit and orbit me at between 10-15km and pummel me to death with missiles and auto canon.

So it was, I could not control the range, in this engagement and that usually spells death for me. The stabber stayed at range and my autocanons only managed to scratch his shields. My shields were taken out in short order and I was armour tanking when he was still at 90% shields. He peppered me from a range of 13km at leisure. I fired off a couple of cap boosters to replenish my capacitor and that enabled me to cycle the small armour repairer a few times. I sat at 25% armour and it continued to drop. It started to look almost hopeless.

To survive I HAD to get close and web him. I just had to.

With my afterburner burning hot, I kept on attempting to close the distance and orbit at 500m but the stabber resolutely stood outside the 10km range skilfully. I made the jaguar duck and weave in order to get closer but it was futile. However, his DPS was slowly down and my armour was going down a lot slower. I suppose my speed and size also made it difficult for the stabber to track me. Suddenly, I noticed that the stabber had dipped into the 9Km range. I hit the webber on and snagged it.

My guns started to bite. His shields shifted downwards. My armour tank held. Shit, I might have a chance.

A salvo of missiles and my armour was blown clean off. The rest of his shots bit into my hull. There was an ominous hissing sound as atmosphere started to leak out.

Shit.

I fired off another cap booster and hit the armour repairer. My armour jumped back to 20%. I had 45% hull. However, my beautiful tech 2 guns continued and had chewed through the considerable shield in short order and was working on the armour. This stabber would not have an armour repairer so my damage on its armour would hurt.

With him webbed, I could control the range though the stabber's natural speed meant that it could slip out and be off again. I concentrated hard on maintaining a near 1km orbit as possible.

The fight was shifting towards me. My webber made sure that I continued to keep the stabber close but even webbed, the stabber was still fast and I had my hands full keeping it within 10km of my ship. His damage had dropped to near zero with near misses and glancing shots. My hits however bit deep and bit often.

The stabber's armour was gone. The last bit spinning off as my barrage shells clipped him. Looked like a passive shield / speed tank for the stabber.

I had him. My God, I had him.

The stabber's hull cracked and his ship blew to pieces. I even managed to snag the pilot. He had a bounty and I ransomed him for 1 million. He told me to kill him. I did.

The stabber was nicely (and expensively) fitted and here's a link to the kill. 60 million isk lost? Nice kill that then!

That was a good fight, I never gave up nor did the stabber pilot. We chatted for a few moments once he had reanimated from the clone vats. He had only x3 +1 implants and wasn't too bothered about the pod kill. He enjoyed the fight as did I.

Maelstrom Smack Down

I was travelling through Todifrauan and checked out some of the belts, there was a maelstrom and thrasher and I wanted the thrasher but both ships appeared to be in line with my scanner. I entered one of the ice fields and saw the Maelstrom near a wreck. There were a number of wrecks all over the ice field. I saw one that caught my eye, it was a hauler and appeared to be unlooted. I quickly book marked it and prepared to exit as I wanted to come back with my hauler once the maelstrom had gone. However the pilot had to say something....

Renata Uldseth > Good decision Flash

The above comment made me pause and in a split second, I decided to come back. I was leaving anyway as a maelstrom would be a bit too much for my jaguar to take down but I decided to make the effort and come back and tackle the fool. I checked my inventory and realised that I had a hurricane about two jumps away. Chuckling, I set course to this station with the full intention of coming back and with a surprise.

I switched to the hurricane class ship and headed back out to Todifrauan at full speed. On arrival, I jumped to my bookmark. It took me alongside the first of the wrecks and the maelstrom was still there. He was however, over 60km away at another set of wrecks. He was too far away for me to mwd to so I checked out the wreck's contents.

There was a crashing sounds as something hit the shield with a ferocious impact. The maelstrom had targeted and then opened up at me. From the range it appeared to be artillery pieces. I couldn't do a long range slugging match so I scanned and bookmarked a wreck that was close to the mighty battleship.

I then warped out. The pilot (Renata Uldseth) no doubt thought she had scared me off. Little did she know that I was coming back and going to land right next to her. If she had any sense, she would have warped out by now.

Arriving at my safe spot, I quickly turned round and warped to the second bookmark - in the time that I had, it was doubtful that the maelstrom would be leaving so soon. The warp tunnel wrapped around me and I checked the ammunition hoppers. It was going to be exciting and I could not wait. I ordered the crew to battlestation and to prepare for an epic fight with a ship twice the size of the hurricane.

I arrived inside the ice field and 19km from the maelstrom. It was slowly moving away from me and I hit the warp drive and the big ship pushed itself through the ice field towards the target. Renata Uldseth targeted me and let loose her artillery, I locked but held fire until I was in optimal. Her artillery shells flashed off my shields as I closed the distance.

I rode out the storm of artillery shells and got into optimal then engaged all my weapons: autocanons, webber, nosferatu and warp scrambler. My five drones streaked out towards the maelstrom too. Battle was joined.

I was too close for the huge artillery pieces to hit me and I started to kill the shields on the maelstrom. Her missiles slammed into me but I could tank it. The maelstrom had some impressive shields though and I knew that the corp that Renata Uldseth was close by with pilots within a few jumps. Surely a corp wide call out was already in place?

The maelstrom was dying though, it boosted its shields a few times but it's capacitor must be dying. Once the shield had died the armour was blasted off. I was elated as the hurricane had 50% shield left and this baby was an armour tanker.



A few days later, I realised he had quit his corp...









The loot was worth about 15 million isk, I wanted to salvage the wreck but when I doubled back in my salvager, the system was camped by pirates. Oh well.

The Mad Pirate

The Mad Pirate.

Hurricane-class battlecruiser, Captain Flashfresh.

Highs:
x6 dual 180mm Tech 2
x2 medium 'knave'

Mediums:
x1 Medium F-RX Prototype Cap Boost
x5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Warp Distruptor II
10mn MWD II

Lows:
x3 Energized Adaptive Nano-membrane II
x2 Medium Armor Repairer II
x1 Damage Control II

Drones:
Hobgoblin I / II

Rigs:
x1 Anti-kinetic pump I
x1 Anti-thermic pump I
x1 Anti-explosion pump I

Brutix take down.

Back in Eifer and as per normal, it was heaving. Luc tracked down a crow - and killed it. I arrived just in time to see the pilot's pod warp out.

I went back to Gusandall when Luc informed me that the same pilot had returned in a brutix. Lucius was in a rupture and was quite sure that the Brutix will pwn him. So I docked up and switched to the hurricane; just as Lucius told me he had engaged the Brutix and was locked in combat with him. I had two jumps to go.

Lucius held on long enough for me to arrive and to kill the brutix. We missed the pod but scored almost 12 million loot.

A good score.

Don't fly ships you can't support!!!

I do like to kill those pilots who shouldn't really be flying ships that they are not fully qualified to. We're back to my old friends at 'The Yin-Yang Concept' corporation. They're fine fellows, not much smack talk (well; not effective ones anyway) and some do put up a good fight.

Was in Auren, just chilling and sniffing around for any Domination spawns when local lights up with two new pilots. It was OriasV and Tarreck - the victim of my ninja strike a few days ago. OriasV disappeared from local but Tarreck was left behind. Bait? Maybe.

I scanned and jumped Tarreck who was now flying a punisher. I killed it quick then podded him. His loot was junk but we chatted. Bored, I decided to move down the pipe and in about 30 total jumps didn't see a single soul.

On the way back - I spotted a rifter; I scanned and landed too far - he spotted me and ran off towards another belt. I gave chase and landed on top of the rifter and killed it stone dead. Podded the pilot as he logged out of local. I then popped a rupture three jumps further along. The ruppie pilot was not too happy. Can't find the chat logs now but it was funny and he was kinda bitter....

Maybe he had computer problems; but whatever - he had to die. Zipping back to home, I spotted a cyclone class battle cruiser. A bit too much for the jaguar-class assault frigate so I quickly made my way back to one of my bases and switched to the hurricane battlecruiser. It was the nearest big ship available and should be more than adequate. I jumped back to the target system and the target was gone. Damn.

The hurricane is a lovely ship but not too good for hunting and tackling opponents. I was gone only two minutes so the cyclone was not too far. A quick scan of wrecks revealed wrecks. So he was ratting. Almost each belt had one or two wrecks; he was three belts away from the bottom-most belt so he probably had only just finished and left. I knew that there were only four gates here. One I came through, one was out towards high-sec and two more leading deeper into low-sec. Assuming my mark would just pick the first gate, I took that as my heading and activated the drives.

The stargate fired up and shot my ship into the next system. Nothing in local.

Shall I double-back I thought to myself but decided to push on and took the only other star gate. I activated it and it spat me into the new system. No-one in this one and a quick scoot into the belts revealed angel destroyers and an angel battlecruiser. Obviously, no one was here ratting and resisting the urge to blast the Angels, I back-tracked and took the alternative pipe. The next system in the hunt revealed more wrecks and they had the identification tags belonging to our cyclone pilot. At this point, I realised that the cyclone pilot was over three years old and was in the same NPC corp since he qualified as an egger. Could be a challenge.

The next two jumps were fruitless but I knew I was close. The hurricane is still fast when compared to other BC-class ships so I shouldn't be complaining too much. I approached the next star gate and activated it. Something in my gut told me that this was the system. The cyclone pilot was methodically picking off the angels in each belt and the next system had a fair number of belts. He had to be here.

The gate spun up and in a flash of light I was in the next system.

'Contact!' Yelled one of my bridge crew. With an air of excitement I activated the scanner and tried to pin down the cyclone and yes, there he was. After years of practise, I knew the workings of the onboard scanner. Without any further ado, I jumped in and landed close enough to scramble him. In under seven seconds from entering the system; i had located and tackled the cyclone. Not bad.

Just as it started to die, local jumped and lo and behold, it was OriasV and Wuabba. They were passing through but I managed to get an id on their ships. It was a rifter and myrmidon. I also knew where they were going too. I ransomed the cyclone pilot for ten million isk but i was impatient to catch the two YYC pilots.

The cyclone pilot's reply was a simple FUCK YOU NOOB, if this was 0.0 your dead

Whatever, I blew up his ship and got some nice loot of his ship. Unfortunately, no kill mail as some angels had sneaked in and delivered the last blow!

Quickly backtracking to Auren, I spotted that OriasV was back and he had Wuabba with him. So they didn't split up. Wuabba, was the pilot in the catalyst I killed many months back, who complained that I killed him while he was chilling.

I jumped to my scan spot and tried to pin them down. The scan returns were good: a rifter and a myrmidon. I knew that OriasV, the more experienced of the two was in the rifter so the myrmidon was piloted by Wuabba. With his experience, this ship was probably barely able to fly in a straight line.

Oh the fools.

I grinned as I knew that this would be a fun kill. A hurricane versus a myrmidon. I doubt very much he had tech 2 drones or even if the ship was well fitted. Once again, I fired up the onboard scanner and narrowed the two ships down. Normally, these chaps would scatter but no, they stayed. More fool them. I hit the jump drive and landed in the middle of them.

Yaaar.

There was a rifter and a myrmidon. I locked both but the rifter GTFO; leaving the myrmidon behind. I had it scrambled and hit it with two nosferatu for good measure as well as a webber. In response; five berserker drones slipped out of the myrmidon's drone bay and started to buzz towards me.

My auto canons opened up and sent barrage ammunition with a mixture of EMP towards the myrmidon. His drones were however annoying me and I switched my webber onto it and sent my own drones to tear into his berserker drones. Meanwhile I kept up the pummeling and his shields rapidly disappeared. Soon his armour was being chewed into while two of his five drones
were knocked out; thereby reducing his DPS significantly.

The myrmidon was now dying. I had it.

Once the armour was blasted off; the structure was easily punctured. I didn't even bother to ransom this time round as these chaps would give me the 'fuck off' treatment. No matter.

The loot was very poor but sometimes it is all about the kill mail, is it not?

Musings of a pirate - Part 3 - Ransoms and making money.

An acquittance asked me whether I could make money pirating and if not, what could one do if high-sec was locked out?

Well, this prompted me to think; I love piracy - the thrill of the hunt and the eventual tackling of the prey. I usually kill the ship and ransom the pod but most peeps are too pissed at me to care after their lovely little ship is reduced to scrap and want to get podded. Also, I have had two suicide on me while we have been negotiating. A final 'fuck you' which I applaud.

However, I love isk too - and I decided to check out my 'loot' tin I have in one of my bases. One thing I have noticed is that even very young pilots are now packing tech II gear and some very tasty ones at that. Just cracking open the can revealed some nice goodies, all destined for the market:



This is my main haul of tech II and named modules from about five months of belt and complex piracy. This does not include the salvage components and the recycled minerals from T1 junk. I have not done any gate camping or high-sec piracy; it has all been low-sec belt and complex piracy. The can is already missing some mods - as I have already put it onto the market. It was only after a few of them where on sale that I decided it would be a good idea to take a screenshot. Not bad though, I admit - it isn't the billions that some gate camps get but not too shabby either and certainly, the sales have been keeping me in ships and mods without need to run missions.

Some of the best mods have sold for 10s of millions, enough for dozens of rifters or an assault frigate.


As you can see, my sell orders are nearly always fully stocked and even one or two 750K module is enough to supply me with a ship.

So looking at the last five months; most of my isk has come from the following sources:

80% - loot from wrecks of prey in belts.
5% - loot from wreck of prey in complexes.
5% - ransoms.
5% - ratting (mainly Domi spawns).
5% - mineral and salvage sales.

I can definitely do better with the ransoms but like I said, most peeps are not happy having their ships shot out from underneath them.

Ninja Strike!

The Killmail below isn't too special on the face of it. It is a noob and he even had some civilian modules installed. However, I am so happy for the kill. Why? I hear you all ask.

Well, Tarrek was flying alongside a corp mate in a Rokh who was no doubt showing the young capsule pilot the joys of low-sec. I was flying the Jaguar-class assault frigate and was thinking if I could get in and pwn the executioner before the rokh could lock. It was a challenge to be sure and I needed a plan. Within ten seconds, my plan was: scan, zip in, lock and WTFPWN and get out before the Rokh has time to lock onto me. I had tangled with the Rokh earlier this week and knew it was packing some webber drones. Not nice.

OriasV, the CEO of the corporation was also around but he was hiding around a moon and out of sight and I was not worried about him. So, at the scan spot I found out which belts the rokh and the executioner were located. Angel wrecks confirmed that they were ratting.

I sat back and paused to collect my thoughts.

The order to engage raced out and the Jaguar class assault frigate leapt to life and screamed into the warp; hungry for the kill.

I landed a mere spitting distance from two ships: the small and hated silhouette of an Amarr class executioner frigate and the looming hulk of the Rokh.

1 second: I quickly target the lock onto the executioner and had it webbed and scrambled.
2 seconds: Within a second of the lock, I had the three auto-canons spitting out EMP round and the arbalest rocket chugging out gremlin rockets.
3 seconds: The Rokh and the executioner returned the lock with the executioner succeeding first.
4 seconds: The shields of the executioner had almost disappeared.
5 seconds: The Rokh's still flashed yellow but hadn't fired.
6 seconds: I started to move into a wider orbit, ready to break out and gtfo.
7 seconds: The executioner's armour was now almost gone, melted through by my angry ordnance.
8 seconds: Some friendly banter by Ethersong (the Rokh pilot) on my actions.
9 seconds: The executioner was on fire and was dying. I was aligning to get out.
10 seconds: The Rokh locked me and clamped a couple of heavy nosferatus on me. The Executioner was destroyed in a satisfying explosion.
11 seconds: I aligned and hit warp. I was scrambled. I was noss'ed. I was then webbed.
12 seconds: SHIT.
13 seconds: Even webbed, I was still a little bit quicker than the rokh - I moved away from him. Combat had fogged my mind. I was already at 12km; how was I still webbed?
14 seconds: Overview settings were barfed! I forgot to include stasis webifier drones on the otherview. I toggled it and saw two drones circling over me.
15 seconds: Locked and webbed the two stasis webbing drones.
18 seconds: First drone dead.
21 seconds: Second webber drone dead. Rokh placing hits from it's large blasters. Shields dwindling. No cap left. Still too far to move.
23 seconds: hit the afterburner and then warped out. Yaarrr.

2007.07.06 18:31
Victim: Tarrek Arniman
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Yin-Yang Concept
Destroyed: Executioner
System: Auren
Security: 0.4

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

Destroyed items:
Dual Light Beam Laser I
Dual Light Beam Laser I
Civilian Afterburner
Civilian Shield Booster I
Small Hull Repairer I (Cargo)
Angel Ship Log 303445882 (Cargo)
Fusion S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Don't tackle a Rokh in a ruppie!

So here I was, zipping around and I see Ethersong again, a youngish pilot who I know has been gunning hard to get into BS-class ships.

Well, he was and I tackled him in a ruppie. I was interested if I could take out this monster. I couldn't as even with his low SPs, the rokh was impressive enough to pwn me. He had webbing drones on me and I didn't concentrate hard enough on them - much to my detriment. Oh well, like me tackling a Drake in a rifter - it was a fun fight.


2007.07.05 14:31

Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Rupture
System: Auren
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Ethersong (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.2
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Yin-Yang Concept
Ship: Rokh
Weapon: Limited Mega Neutron Blaster I


Destroyed items:
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I
Warrior I (Drone Bay)
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Small Armor Repairer II
Warrior I (Drone Bay)
Warrior I (Drone Bay)
Warrior I (Drone Bay)
EMP M, Qty: 3

A 'cane with ECM?

Tried to tackle a Hurricane today but the damn ship had an ECM fitted. I only managed to lock a few times and eventually had to disengage. However, given what happened later, maybe I should have had stuck around longer. The jaguar may not have been enough but my Hurricane would be ample!

The conversation was casual enough though:

flashfresh > Hello!
Makari Ishtal > Evening
flashfresh > How are you today?
Makari Ishtal > Well enough I suppose
flashfresh > You have ecm on board?
Makari Ishtal > Heheheh
flashfresh > Love the 'cane by the way
Makari Ishtal > thanks...It's not what I want it to be but I get by

Finally sick of being unable to target, I warp out vowing to return as quickly as possible.

Makari Ishtal > Try this again some time?
flashfresh > OK . Can't take you this time. Next time.
Makari Ishtal > Any time my man...any time

Well, that was a challenge and I was not going to let it go.

So I came back in a 'cane but even if I was gone for no more than five minutes; two more pirates had appeared in local already. Typical. I laid low and waited and day-dreamed a bit to the day before that had me engage an arbitrator with Luc and Jubes, that was a good kill as the Arbi had over 20 million isk of modules on a 3 million isk hull. Amazing what some people do. Still, it did look like a good setup and checking the kill boards reveals that this pilot has been flying the same arbitrator-class cruiser for the last six months if not more. Must be a successful setup and from the killmails, I have an idea on what it is fitted with. All I can say is: nice.

A lot of the T2 stuff survived too which was great!

Yaarr.

Anyway, back to today and after about ten minutes, local cleared down and the two other pirates left. Now was my chance and I fired up the massive engines and jumped to a scanning spot. The target appeared to be in the same place. Of course, I went back to the belt and lo and behold, he was there in his 'cane. Waiting for me or just plain silly?
My hurricane landed right next to his hurricane and the broadside commenced.

flashfresh > Hello again
Makari Ishtal > sneaky little bastard
flashfresh > aye
flashfresh > I had to come back in something bigger!
Makari Ishtal > Looks like ya got me this time
flashfresh > 2 million isk to let you go
Makari Ishtal > See..now that's not nice...
Makari Ishtal >Are you still killing my drones?

As far as I know, my drones were on him.

Makari Ishtal > See how about we do this...I give you a million...and I not hunt you for the rest of your natural life?
flashfresh > LOL
Makari Ishtal > See...I've got bigger fish to fry,....but have it your way
Makari Ishtal > I hope you've got bigger ships than that for the next time
flashfresh > I do.
Makari Ishtal > Good....one of my gunners will have his carrier within a week so he'll keep an eye out for ya
Makari Ishtal > We spend a lot of time in Eifer pissing off the Mean corp guys
Makari Ishtal > Thanks for the 36 mil though...
Ah, once again - pilots need to tell me that they came out so much better than before.

flashfresh > Thats good and yes, Me4n are a fun bunch to place with
Makari Ishtal > Hell yeah...that whole thing probably worked out better for me than it did for you.
flashfresh > Excellent - v happy for you! (I was actually very happy at this moment in time)
flashfresh > See - we both come out of it all nice and rosy.
Makari Ishtal > Yup...except now I gotta buy new ammo...bastard...
flashfresh > Always a pain.
Makari Ishtal > Well....I guess I'll be seein ya around sometime...don't sleep too soundly.
flashfresh > I will be sleeping fine
flashfresh > I had to come back...you do realise that didn't you?
Makari Ishtal > Oh of course...why do you think I stuck around?
Makari Ishtal > I was waiting to see what you brought back with you.
flashfresh > Well now you know. I had to bring something back that was comparable a cruiser *may* have been enough.
Makari Ishtal > I didn't care much about that ship, that's why I was out there. Free ship with 36 mil insurance policy...less than a week from my hound
flashfresh > Well thats nice to hear
Makari Ishtal > Meh...I didn't have my warp scramble on me or my stabilizer
Makari Ishtal > And I was only using standard missiles instead of heavy
flashfresh > Well, that was a choice you made. If you used heavies I would have stuck around in my Jag
Makari Ishtal > And those drones were trash I had left over because I didn't feel like picking up the heavies from 8 jumps out.
Makari Ishtal > Eh, who could say.
flashfresh > Indeed. who can say.
Makari Ishtal > To tell the truth I was waiting for a decent fight. This character being relatively new and all, you have any idea how much it sucks running a cane with small weapons because you're stuck running level 1 agents
flashfresh > You have to start from somewhere. Why not stick to rifters? They rock and are not skill intensive.
Makari Ishtal > I hate rifters...prefer breachers myself
Makari Ishtal > everyone flies a rifter...I'd rather try and out-gun someone in a probe to be honest
flashfresh > Rifters can take a breacher every time.
Makari Ishtal > Or a vigil running my EW gear.
Makari Ishtal > Eh...I'll have to test that out.
Makari Ishtal > It's hard to hit a breacher when it moves at 1.2k a second
flashfresh > Please do. Bring your breacher. I will bring - *something* appropriate.
Makari Ishtal > Unfortunatly that'll have to be another day.....
Makari Ishtal > it's already 4 in the morning here and I've long since run out of beer to keep me going
flashfresh > Indeed. I will enjoy selling your loot while you will enjoy the 36million isk insurance payout.
flashfresh > It all works out.
Makari Ishtal > But I'll get myself a few good setups and we can have a little competition
Makari Ishtal > We'll do small stuff, frigates...maybe a cruiser or two or some destroyers
flashfresh > Sounds like a challenge.
Makari Ishtal > Who knows...maybe we can get some of my corps youngins to join in, give them some good training
flashfresh > Maybe.
Makari Ishtal > It's better than making them pick fights with SAVAGExxxWARRIOR in her myrmidon
flashfresh > Indeed. Savage et al. They all have friends close by.
Makari Ishtal > Though I will admit we got her almost out of armor in two frigates and a small cruiser before she nossed the hell out of us
Makari Ishtal > Yup..best to pick on her while PURE is around
Makari Ishtal > They usually hear the word 'fight' and camp the gate to keep anyone from coming in or out to mess up any fights they don't want messed up.
Makari Ishtal > But whatever...I've got my eye on you. Maybe we'll meet again and I can get some payback.
flashfresh > LOL
flashfresh > I am NOT scared.
Makari Ishtal > Oh, I wasn't trying to scare you.
flashfresh > It failed. But it pleases me that you have an eye on me.
Makari Ishtal > I'm just saying that I'll probably see you again,
flashfresh > I hope so.
flashfresh > Come here as often as possible. More than happy to lock horns with you my good Sir.
Makari Ishtal > You're only the second person to pod me on this toon. The fifth if you count all my toons over the past 3 years. You had me out-gunned all the way.
Makari Ishtal > *chuckles* any time
flashfresh > What was your setup then?
Makari Ishtal > For the second fight? Same as the first
Makari Ishtal > Phased plasma in a 425m, two 125duals, and 2 200's, all medium, standard guns, nothing special. A light assault launcher, standard and a standard malkuth launcher, both with bloodclaws
flashfresh > You were using dual 125s? nice choice
Makari Ishtal > Fast and fairly accurate even against frigates.
flashfresh > indeed.
Makari Ishtal > That's why I use em.
Makari Ishtal > But yeah...you had some tough armor though...I had a few 100mm rolled tungston plates on...usually I'm fitted with 4
Makari Ishtal > But I only had my armor pumped to 5800 or so
Makari Ishtal > No special resistances or anything
flashfresh > Why not consider using a ruppie? cheaper and v v good.
Makari Ishtal > Hmm? Sorry...not familiar with the term. The last time I've played outside the last week and a half was when Battlecruisers were new and everyone was talking about how cool titans were gonna be.
flashfresh > I use them all the time, was considering bringing that one along but it was parked too far.
Makari Ishtal > so it's been a while
Makari Ishtal > oh...same reason I don't fly a rifter
flashfresh > what was that reason again?
Makari Ishtal > Everyone and their mother has one and swears by them
Makari Ishtal > I have a stabber a couple of jumps out that I use sometimes still
flashfresh > Nice ship. Better off using that. You need some good skills to use the Hurricane well.
flashfresh > It takes time thats all
Makari Ishtal > Yup....that's why I was out there...testing what I had against cruiser class rats and seeing if any pirates picked on me
flashfresh > I see. Using a cane is an expensive lesson.
Makari Ishtal > I've flown a cyclone before on an alt I'm retiring, never had a hurricane and wanted to see the difference while I trained everything up.
Makari Ishtal > Yeah it is an expensive lesson.
Makari Ishtal > This last one was a gift though from some friends.
Makari Ishtal > I bought a cane off them and got a good deal on it, 34 mil with a projectile rig
flashfresh > Nice friends. The ECM was a nice touch, but not enough this time round.
flashfresh > Not enough by far.
Makari Ishtal > Oh, I know...That was my first time with a burst ecm
Makari Ishtal > To be hones tI couldn't tell if it was working or not
flashfresh > You couldn't?
flashfresh > Maybe I should have stuck around longer than.
Makari Ishtal > Yeah...it's not like directed bursts
flashfresh > Indeed.
Makari Ishtal > Doesn't give you that "Hey...so and so is trying to lock you again. I just die slower
flashfresh > Good against frigates, less so against Cruisers or bigger
Makari Ishtal > yup
Makari Ishtal > I figured it must have been working against the jag
Makari Ishtal > Because I thought they were stronger than that and I had you and those rats on me and I wasn't taking that much damage
flashfresh > Wasn't firing thats why.
flashfresh > Couldn't lock
Makari Ishtal > So I noticed
Makari Ishtal > I figured that's what it was when I saw you warp out.
flashfresh > No point in staying if I cant lock.
Makari Ishtal > If you had of stuck around though you could have had a chance
flashfresh > Maybe
Makari Ishtal > Between the burst, the web and when I finally turned my armor repairer on just to be safe...I would have been out of juice after another 10 seconds
Makari Ishtal > Hell, I even turned off my AB's to save fuel.
flashfresh > It's all about balance.
Makari Ishtal > Ah, you take care...I need a couple hours of sleep
Makari Ishtal > remind me to tell you how I used to pirate sometime, back in the day when my old group used to shipjack people.

The loot was ok but the killmail was more fun.

Musings of a pirate - part two.

Flying solo has always been fun and I have had a few pilots ask me how it all works and hangs together. Most pilots like to have some backup from friendlies and I agree; nothing like a friendly set of wings alongside you. I do have this; in the form of a loose gathering of pilots, not all who are pirates or killers. Some are good, positive security rates pilots themselves and all great to fly with.

Lately, I have hunted down and ambushed four pilots; various ages and experiences. All have complained that I took out their only big ship and that they could not afford anything else. Hence no ransom for me. I naturally, podded them.

However, it does appear that there are an increasing amount of pilots taking to the deep black in ships they can ill-afford to lose. One should only fly what you can afford to lose and no more.

I hope the lessons have proven to be useful to them.