No targets!

Tried to get a cyclone and stabber but they were running missions. Wish I had a scan probe buddy.

Another 4 v 1....God love it.

What can I say? Was in a rifter (sprinkled with some T2 mods) and I tackled a stabber ratting in a belt. All was well until a rifter pounced in, then another and then a thrasher. They were all rookies not one was over 1 month old.

Yaaarr. Been in 4 v 1 odds before and I hit the afterburners. Amazingly, I was not webbed by anyone or they had forgotten to? I concentrated on the stabber and blasted off it's considerable shields. I had my webber on him too for good measure. Meanwhile, the other four ships were all flashing red at me and throwing everything at me.....and missing.

Laughing I concentrated on killing the stabber but one of the rifters finally got into his optimal range and my shields shrank quickly. Feeling a bit miffed, I switched my webber, guns and rocket launcher from the stabber and onto the rifter. I kept the scrambler on the stabber. The rifter was knocked sideways by the blast and the pilot quickly warped out. Meanwhile the second rifter pilot had obviously woken up and webbed me.

Situation changing fluidly, I responded by targetting him just as the thrasher managed to get several excellent hits on my. Puffs of atmosphere spurted from my ships, I had no shields and my armour, despite the best efforts of the T2 repairer was in danger of failure. I was also being nossed (by the 2nd rifter I think) so my cap was disappearing.

The second rifter was the danger though and I blasted him but failed to kill him as he too warped away. The stabber was still scrambled but he didn't have enough sense to GTFO. Still, I had missed out on two kills. Then just as I was settling in to kill the thrasher, the two rifters returned and with several more excellent and good hits, I was down to hull.

Not good. Worse was to follow, some angels spawned and they instantly locked me too!

I had seven targets now firing on me.

I had to bug out. So I did. No one had the sense to keep even a single point on me.

My ship was still on fire when I returned to get it repaired. I wanted to come back to get these four noobs so I switched to my rupture. I jumped and on the way back saw a blinking red Drake on the gate. Hmmmm.

I circled the gate and locked him, he was an outlaw like me and well, I wonder just WHO was on the other side of the gate? I activated the gate and was shot to the otherside. There was a camp and at least seven ships: a typhoon, lachesis, thorax and the rest. I had no nanofibres, stabs or speed mods. Shrugging, I aligned and decloaked and tried to warp out.

Amazingly, I took damage and was down to 50% armour but warped out in what seemed like an age. No one managed to get a point on me.

Rookies.

Well, that was interesting.

The day ended well however, I was in my rifter and helping out Kane who was having trouble locking a vengance that was bugging him. We went in and started to hunt. It was a good 15 minutes of scan and warp and baiting, we managed to catch up with vengance twice but it was quick to warp out. However, he was NOT leaving so it was only a matter of time. I finally scanned and jumped him. I called in Kane as my ACs spat death at the vengance. It's shields disappeared very quickly and I was into the armour. Kane appeared and the vengance, died. I was not paying attention and missed the pod.

The night ended with Kane and I chasing a super fast missile launching MWD'ing rifter. The pilot was 'Ashihei' and I hope bump into him again, and soon.

Uneven odds. I love it.

Yaaarrr - am back. Well sort of. Am still more or less without an EVE capable machine but that won't stop me.

With eagerness, I undocked in my rifter and hit the big black. Eyes scanning for prey. Local was once more very busy and the number of farmers was staggering. A good friend of mine was in local and was being ambushed by a Harbringer and being a friend, I redocked got my hurricane and jumped in. However, my friends in his thorax had actually killed the Harbringer already and had scrambled the pod. He had no intention to pod the poor pilot but well, I did. We both got a sec hit but since I am -10 it didn't matter. My buddy, who introduced me to EVE and PvP was a bit more pissed at me. We had a good laugh about it though. Sorry V. He'll probably kick my ass (again).

A bit later, I was roaming in my rifter when I chanced upon a known farmer in a caracal. My interest piqued, I scanned him down and amazingly, he was in a belt and ratting. I jumped in just as he jumped out. Gah. I turned round and scanned again but the farmer was off to the gate. I jumped after him but I only caught the tell tale gate activation as he jumped through. I gave chase but he went from gate to gate.

Disappointed, I returned to my roaming and found nothing. If I favoured gate camping I might be in the money but meh. I redocked and got my punisher out, hadn't taken this puppy out for a spin for a while and as I undocked and the gui cleared, I saw yet another farmer in front of me, this time in a thorax. It was 'CWQ2000' and amazingly, not in a NPC corp but one called D E D. Many farmers band together and form corps; which is good 'cause I can war dec them. Anyway, CWQ2000 saw me and instantly locked me and fired.

I took some damage but I did not retaliate, instead I docked and grabbed my hurricane. It was the only thing available and quickly checking the ammunition levels, I undocked and prepared to do battle. Local was FULL of the farmers. The thorax was still blinking at me and I opened up on him, confident that the sentry guns would stay silent.

My EMP rounds chewed into him and I webbed him for good measure. The thorax traded shots with me, eager for a fight. Soon, I understood why: a Maller undocked and engaged me. This ship was piloted by 'Nuren1' - a well known farmer. So it was a 2 v1 and I was not too bothered. The rax would be dead as I sent my drones buzzing around him. His drones were ineffectual. The thorax (a lovely ship) was tanking very well when space around me exploded and a raven warped in. It was another NPC pilot, no doubt the farmer's friend and to top it all off, a fourth ship arrived, a deadly fanged incursus.

So with four ships pounding me, things didn't look too good now. As my shields were stripped off, the thorax exploded in a glorious flash. I turned my fury now on the maller and unleashed hell on it. My armour was now taking a bit of a pounding and my repping was not keeping up. No matter. The maller at the very least, had to die as well.

It did and I turned towards the menacing raven - but it turned and ran. Gah!!! I couldn't catch the nimble incursus either and within seconds, I was alone outside the station surrounded by the still flickering wrecks of the thorax and maller.

A good fight nonetheless.

Loot was crap but the it's about the concord killmail yes?

Later on, I tackled a rupture, it had x2 stabs on it and naturally it got away. A second rupture was around and without thinking about it, I locked him instead once I scanned him down. It was a trap however, as an Arazu appeared. I was with Kane Rizzel who I called in and we popped the rupture-bait but I blew up.

Switching ships, I ended the evening with an industrial kill! It was loitering in one of the asteroid belts and I killed it. I opened up a convo to negotiate a ransom but it was rejected. A clear answer it would seem so the pilot was podded as well.

Helping out with folks in RL

Going to be away for about two weeks - need to help my folks out over the summer and they don't have broadband.

Will see what I can do!

1 v 1 - should have been more careful.

I lost my rifter today after agreeing to a 1 v 1 with a pilot who then said 'going to get my destroyer' as he had clocked what I was flying already.

Ten minutes later, he was in a catalyst with 8x 125mm gauss prototypes and the mag stabs to match. Amazingly, I survived the salvo and got him down to 5% armour before I realised that I hadn't even switched on my third autocanon (and yes, it was the T2 one!!!).

I managed to hang on for a few more seconds and kissed his hull before I blew up.

Gah.

Killed a tempest but where's the kil mail?

This is a re-write of an original post where it was all chat logs. I wasn't satisfied with that entry and decided to do the account some justice.

Now, I was out hunting in E## when I came across this chap: Akaya Kalari. He got out out fast, before I could lock him but he we struck up a conversation and chatted for the next hour or so. The prey was thin today as G### was full of other pirates and meanies.

The conversations meandered a bit but it got into a chat about the pirate profession and I told Akaya to get the warp drive disruption skill. Bread and butter for any pirate. Akaya lacked this skill and he has already experienced the problems this might have caused.

'Dude - if u want to practise; come and see me. I wont destroy you.' I said, fully intending to maintain my word.

'What system are you in?' asked Akaya. Checking the scanner, 'Go to a system called A###.' Flipping the map around, I got a feel for the route. 'Try E### to G### to A##. A couple of jumps, you should be fine.' I said.

'Gate campers everywhere today,' observed Akaya as he made his journey to our rendezvous. I could not agree more.

I arrived in A### and ganged Akaya. I also spied out a pilot I recognised: 'Eppix' - my notes indicated that he was a rookie tempest pilot and had been seen in and around E###. Maybe I would be lucky. A quick scan and indeed, there was a tempest.

'Eppix - lets get him. He's in a tempest. Lets take him!!!!' I howled.

The excitement was clear in my voice. Akaya was thrilled to be involved in a BS hunt and warped to me. Now tackling a big ship like this needed some plan and the death of frigates (in my view) has always been drones and webbers. Nos isn't too much of a problem for Minmatar ships due to our low cap weapons.

'Knock out his drones first and then the ship. Not the other way.' I said. 'This should be fun.' I added. Akaya agreed with a smiley and off we went to scan and to track down this big bugger.
'OK going to planet X as he is in that cluster. Then we scan him down and engage. Unless he has safe spotted


Planet X loomed ahead of me and I willed the scanner to pick out the battleship's signature. Nothing. I asked Akaya to continue to scan while I jumped to another scan spot. At my second scan spot I hit the scanner once more. Akaya was following me, ready to pounce.

'He's moving. IX cluster now. IX-belt 4 I think.'

I gang-warped me and my wing man to the target belt. Akaya's rifter was rigged for speed and burst out of warp seconds before my rifter.

'He's here!'Akaya shouted.

Indeed he was. Looming ahead of our two small rifters was a tempest-class battleship. Pride of the Minmatar navy. I checked my overview to see how far we had landed.

'Go go! We've landed too far! move move move!'

I hit the afterburners and got within range as quickly as the burners would allow me. Eppix was busy looting some wrecks: unfortunate Angels caught by the monstrous battleship. He apparently didn't notice two rifters enter into the belt, or did not care. It was his mistake and I ordered my wing-man in.

'Attack!'

Akaya powered his ship forward. 'Just now got in range!'

'I doubt we'll get him though. But feel the rush............' I said, the thrill of chasing a mark down and engaging it as intoxicating as it was all those years ago. So we blasted the tempest with all our weaponry. There was no return fire on me after we were locked. A couple of minutes passed before there was any hostile return fire. Heavy missiles it would seem but no drones. No web either. Could we be so lucky? There was flicker around the tempest, a slight bend in the light and the tempest warped out. Damn. I turned off the warp disruptor. Disappointed I spoke to Akaya.

'ach - stabbed.'

I checked the scanner and found that the tempest had zipped to a gate. Making sure that the young Akaya did not get himself killed. I spoke to him quickly.

'Do not follow.' And added. 'You had no scrambler and I did not have enough points.'

'I'll have one soon.' Replied Akaya.

Nodding, I said,'Indeed, but he'll sit here now as he knows we only have one point between us, so he will think we are no threat to him. You also have about 11 minutes left on your criminal counter yes?'

'Ya.' replied Akaya sadly.

'OK. Well we have ten minutes of twiddling our thumbs before I go back to fit more points. I am going to fit x2 +2 scramblers. Should give us four points that should lock him down tight. I paused and then asked. Akaya - you have a webber ?'

Akaya checked. 'No, I have electronics 2, I have none of that. 10 hours on electronics 3.'

Time trickled by. 'OK in 7 minutes I will leave the system and refit with x2 +2 scramblers. I hope Eppix is noob enough to stay put in the system but he is hanging around the sentry guns too now.'

With us unable to attack, I decided we could at least keep tabs on the tempest. It had already moved off from the gate it had warped to and appeared to be back in the belts.

'He's near the vii cluster lets get closer.' I said, as I jumped to the VII cluster.

'OK the scanner tells me he is either at vi-1, vi-2 or viii-1. This is agony. 4 minutes left. He's at vi-2 but we can't engage him yet. We can't lock him down!'.

It was absolute agony of just waiting. Just to rub it in, the tempest then went back to ratting.

'You know, I think the tempest pilot has gone back to ratting again! He's cycling through the belts.OK - he's moved to cluster VIII; do not venture into the belts Akaya.' Absolute agony.

The red counter winked off. My Concord Global flag had finally expired. I did not wait any longer.

'OK stay here. Am going to refit. keep him on scan!'
'K' Affirmed Akaya.

That was my last instruction as I activated the star gate and left the system. I was getting updates from Akaya as I docked and got the engineers to take out two mid-slot components and slap in two +2 scramblers.
There were plenty of other blinkies as I undocked and made the seven-jump journey back to Akaya. As I arrived at the warp gate and zipped through, I requested an update from my wing man.

'Is Eppix still there?'
'He's moved, I'm looking for him.......and I have found him!'

Damn it. Akaya was too eager and didn't have the points to lock the battleship down. I didn't want our mark to be spooked again.

'I am warping to you Akaya. You have him on visual or on scan?'
'Visual, but he just ran!' I cursed.
'damnit!'

OK, I had to concentrate - Eppix surely knew we were tracking him. I hit the scanner again and tracked the battleship down to a single location. I checked, rechecked and knew where he was.

'He's at XI-7. Go go!!'
I landed 6km from the battleship that was busy dispatching an Angel cruiser. I quickly hit the double-scramblers.

'Got 4 points on him now. Go go go!!! Attack!!' I urged my wingman on.

Like two furious flies, Akaya and I buzzed around the tempest firing at it with everything we had. Missiles streaked away from the missile pods dotted around the tempest and blasted Akaya. With his ship rattling around him, Akaya spoke up.

'doesn't like me lol - am at half shields.'

Checking the readouts - I realised that Akaya was in danger. I quickly warned him.

'Get ready to warp out then keep moving at max burn.' There was a long pause.

'boom.....' Said Akaya. 'I'll pod ram him for you! He popped me.'

Alarmed I said, 'you warped to a gate??

'No, he popped me'
'You should have left earlier to recharge. '
'You said move off at full speed instead of warping out, so I didn't warp. sry =/'

OK, so I was guilty of bad communication and lost my wingman. Not too happy, I couldn't do anything.



'He's hitting me now but I need you back as I can't break him solo.'
'Are you tanking that?'
'Yeah'
'lol, I was getting hammered'
'However, his armour is too thick and I will probably run out of ammo'
'Will sentry guns pod me?'
'no'
'I need to go replace my ship and how are you tanking that?'
'Size and speed.'

I realised that Akaya was still next to his wreck and in his egg watching the fight. He had to move.

'Go get another ship and come straight back'
'They weren't hitting me hard, but I don't have enough cap to run a rep'
'Get a nos - now move and get another ship please. I can't keep this up forever!'

I was getting impatient and needed Akaya to move. Akaya then finally left the system - burning for the nearest system with any shop selling rifter-class frigates.

'but I won't be able to come back through the gate for 6 minutes'
'I know'
'Wish he had podded me, I'd be back at the station immediately lol'
'ok never move away in a straight line - always orbit ok?'

Another five minutes trickled back - I had burned through almost 1200 EMP rounds but had finally managed to crack the Tempest's shield. I continued to hammer away but amazingly, I was chewing through a lot quicker. Wonder if he was shield tanking?

'omw back!'
'Careful u don't get taken out. He's down to 50% armour now'
'Ok Flash, how much ammo do you have left?'
'Enough - make sure you have plenty.
'I have 2k proton s'
'OK Akaya, that's good but move!'

Three minutes later and Akaya was nowhere to be seen. Where was he? I was still hammering away and had opened up a conversation with Eppix, the tempest pilot. I told him that, under current conditions - I would have him dead in three minutes. I wanted a mere 20million isk ransom. The answer was a cryptic 'We'll see.'

Hmmm, reinforcements? I re-doubled my efforts and finally cracked the armour. I certainly did not see the tell tale glow of a functioning armour repairer. The only data was a slew of missiles that I could just tank with my armour sitting at 25%. My repairer was keeping up but if a lucky shot came through then I was in trouble. Luckily this was not happening. What was on that ship? My target indicators told me that he was now into hull.

'He's into hull!'
'woot, gating into e### so almost there'
'He's on fire - hurry Akaya.'
'OK Flash I'm warping to you'

I fired a few more salvos but then the Angels turned up and also joined in the killing of the tempest. I made a mistake. I should have stopped pumping shells into the tempest and turned our attentions to the Angels.

The tempest, on fire from front to back, leaking fuel and oxygen, escape pods streaming away - finally shuddered and exploded. The pilot's pod insta-warped as well.

'Get the kill mail? Help yourself to the loot Akaya. You got the KM?'
'got no mail'
'Me neither -rats must have it. Good kill though!'
'You sure you don't want this stuff?'
'Naw, Keep it Akaya. You earnt it. '
'Okay, my cargo's full and there's a stack of 3.5k widowmakers in there if you want em and ty ty ^^'
'Akaya - so how was your first pirate experience?'
'Fun!!! ^^ way more fun than mining or mission'
'Well done, could not have done it without your help mate! ok - logging - its been a good night. see you later.''see 'ya :)'


I picked up x3 Large Named Shield Extenders and some named guns - so it was a passively tanked tempest?

Noooooo?

Time: 11/06/2007 21:17:18
Character: flashfresh
Location: G###l
Duration: 00:25:40

My Weapons Used

200mm Light 'Scout' Autocannon I
150mm Light AutoCannon I

Enemies Attacked

Eppix [TYYC]

Damage Done: 51017.00
Damage Received: 10905.30

ps: Akaya caught up with Eppix in Empire space and asked for the KM (kindly) - he got a polite FUCK YOU. Eppix has since been deleted and recycled as biomass.........

My reputation and a ransomed drake......

This is so funny, one of my past victims went looking for me and renamed his ship to reflect it's deadly new purpose. Unfortunately, it does look a bit confusing: is it MY revenge? I think it should have been called something like: 'Revenge on Flashfresh'......

LOL anyways.



Rifter gangs are deadly and with a gang of four: me, Jubes, Silvaran and Nozaro we felt like having some fun. We tracked down a number of ships and in Eifer we got lucky: Jubes had tracked a Drake-class battle cruiser. The rest of the rifter gang made their way towards Jubes who was busy scanning it down.

'Target scanned down. I am moving in' Declared Nozaro as the rest of the gang aligned towards their gang mate. A few precious seconds trickled by and then the announcement.
'X' – the signal for the gang to warp in.

As one, the three remaining rifters all swung round and accelerated into warp space; eager to join their companion in the kill. I popped out into warp and landed 3km from the slab-shaped drake-class battle cruiser. It was webbed and being pummelled by the other rifters. I locked, webbed and scrambled.

'2 points on the drake.' Announced Jubes.
'1 point on the drake.' Declared Silvaran.
'2 points from me.' Replied Nozaro.
'2 points.' I said. The Drake was well and truly locked down. It was also webbed but it did have a nice shield tank. I switched to EMP ammo to ensure maximum EM damage and my other gang mates did likewise. The drake's shields shifted only a little bit but it was going down. It was hurling heavy missiles at us, Nazor taking the brunt of the damage.

After a few minutes, Nozaro was declaring that she might have to bail out due to the damage – she wanted to save her ship. However, we were getting on top of the drake – the shield tank had disappeared and we were now eagerly chewing into it's armour relentlessly.

As a group we decided that we should ransom the drake pilot for a nice sum of lovely isk and I was asked to do the honours. All the while the gang kept firing and tearing off flaming chunks of Caldari armour. The pilot ensnared was called Azzail.

flashfresh > Hallo
Azzail > lo
flashfresh > Please jettison your cargo
flashfresh > Now
flashfresh > All of it. we've scanned you.
Azzail > u cant carry it all!
flashfresh > doesn't matter we have haulers en route
flashfresh > 50million isk to let you go
flashfresh > Now.

Azzail paused as he considered the generous offer, meanwhile he was down to 10% and in danger of hull breach.

Azzail > 30 mil

Wrong move.

flashfresh > 55 million. You are in no position to bargain.
flashfresh > I raise each time you bargain with me. So don't bargain and accept the offer.

The rifters kept up the barrage. No help was incoming to the drake but we didn't want to waste time. The drake was losing armour fast.

Azzail > 50 then!!!!
flashfresh > 55 now. Remember, don't bargain with me.

I kept an eye on the target readout and saw the drake's hull drop alarmingly fast, if he wasn't going to pay the ransom soon – he was going to pop. I composed a ceasefire message to the rest of the gang and made it ready to send as soon as I saw the welcome blinking of the wallet. Didn't want the welcome addition of isk and then for us to kill the poor chap! Reputations mean everything.

Still, he did not pay up. He was going to die. Come on,

Azzail- pay up!
Azzail > there!
Azzail > i paid!

His ship was now on fire and he was cutting things fine. I checked my wallet and there was the welcome addition of 55, 000, 000 isk deposited. In the gang chat, I yelled out:

flashfresh > STOP. STOP. STOP.
flashfresh > Disengage, ransom paid. All scatter and rendezvous.There was much yarring and cheering in the gang chat. Nice amount of iskies!!!

We let Azzail go and wished him God's speed and for him to safely go on his way. He was a good sport and no smack. He left immediately and high tailed it into Empire Space.
Feeling jubiliant we then tracked down a bellicose. It had a very tough shield tank but the four rifters ripped it to pieces. The pilot did skilfully deploy and scoop up his drones in order to save them but our auto canons killed his ship in short order.
We failed to get the pod as the pilot instawarped out of there and the loot was not too great.

Still, the killmail was important!

The day for me ended with my rifter being blasted apart by the fastest locking hurricane I have seen so far.

Well done Evel2k....

You win some and then you lose some.

A rifter gang was setup and we were in Eifer. I was in a jaguar with Rai and Silvervaran in rifters. Sil did a superb job in scanning and tracking down a rifter ratting, oblivious to the swarming pirates in local.

Another pilot (well a pirate), who would have been KOS to us was in trouble from some anti-pirates. After some garbled messages, the gang all jumped in to assist. It was already too late though - he was already in a pod and the three frigates landed into the welcome embrace of a tackling drake and friends. Drones swarmed all over us and I was popped in short order. I think I managed to destroy one drone before my lovely Jaguar-class assault frigate was turned into scrap underneath me.

I got out - Sil and Rai also got popped. So endeth the gang, pt 1.

I docked up and grabbed the stabber - the spindly cruiser slid out of space dock and into space. We were to hunt further down the Metropolis pipe and with Sil in another rifter and Rai in his hurricane - we were looking good. Two jumps in and Sil once again had tracked down another rifter. It was inside the belt and he had trouble tackling it. I jumped in and gunned microwarpdrive and hit 3000m/s and easily chased down the fleeing rifter. Being inside belt was troublesome and we all kept on bouncing off the rocks. We called in Rai and his hurricane barrelled in to get in on the kill mail.

Making our way to Brin and Helgatid; we only encountered docked pilots. Sil then had to log, leaving the gang of two. With no scout / tackler it should have been a bit difficult. We did get a new addition who could scan probe so we went to missioning heaven: Evati.

Bad mistake.

In our safe spots there was a call that a thorax was approaching to a gate and it was a blinkie. However, Rai was 70km off the gate and it was up to me to get him. Christ, a stabber to tackle and bump a thorax off a gate? The stabber is designed to stay off at 10km+ and to use it's speed to control the distance. I had to get close to the thorax and BUMP it off the gate. I hope it didn't have a webber!

Hitting warp, I tried to think of a strategy but couldn't think of one. I had to tackle and bump the thorax until Rai could get close enough with his hurricane to blast it. Exiting warp and there was the mark: a flashing thorax. I took a deep breath and hit the mwd. We engaged and I bumped him off the gate, he also drew aggression on me as he fired first. In hindsight, I should have hit the mwd and got the fuck into range but I hesitated and I found myself webbed at 2KM. My base speed was still high but not enough and I crawled away drawing fire all the way. My autocanons chewed away the thorax's shields but it's an armour tanker anyways so it meant nothing.
'Where the fuck was Rai?' I yelled as my shields and then armour was ripped off. One can't go toe-to-toe with a thorax in a webbed stabber.

I popped out in my pod and zipped out. I then discovered why Rai was not around, he was in a pod too.

'Fuck.' Said Rai.

It turned out that a big gank squad with a vagabond in tow had also appeared and powered straight towards Rai's hurricane. I didn't get the details but it wasn't too pretty.

So, what's a pirate to do? Had my ass kicked and I needed a pick-me-up. So, I started again; got another ship and started cycling the system. I entered Auren and saw a myrmidon on scan. He was difficult to track, he and his corp mate (in an omen) were jumping from one safe spot to another. They then disappeared from my scanner.

There was only one place he could have gone: the Eddar gate and I powered my hurricane there. As I approached, the scanner gave me hard returns on an omen and a myrmidon. Should be a challenge. I exited the warp and targeted both ships. Since they were under the protection of the sentry guns; I would be foolish to fire my weapons. The myrmidon would be handful at the best of times.

Lucky for me, the myrmidon pilot ( a brave pilot called 'A Saint') decided to engage and it was game on. I webbed the myrmidon and got into optimal. My Nos came on. My disruptor was on. Saint replied with drones and autocanon as well; he was tanking me and doing a very good job. I drifted too far out of optimal and tired to get back into optimal but I was a bit worried about his tank. It was too tough and maybe it had a cap booster installed? Interesting.

I noticed that his shield was gone so I switched to some armour piercing rounds. Still quite tough but oddly, Saint withdrew his drones. Odd behaviour I thought. My change in ordnance helped and I managed to break his tank. No chat in local which was odd but I was half deciding on ransoming him when my drones (obviously on a good run) chewed his hull off and popped him real fast.

The salvage and loot was good however. Very good.

Well done Saint, you fought well.

The new (and old) faces of 'Independence'

The residents of the 'Independence' channel has seen some changes but I had to clarify to some of the channel residents that it wasn't a corp chat - just my public channel. Still, we're an eager bunch of pirates who want nothing but fun.

So we have: Nazoro, Silvervaran and Kane. We also have Jubes and Rai but I dont have their potraits at the mo. The red-eyed devil Lucius is now in Placid.

2.5 Million ransom - thank you very much!

Been really busy in RL and such and will be trying my best to do some yarring in between gardening, working on the car, vacations and other stuff. However, the keen thrill of EVE will always be there.

Logging in, I wanted to set a record on how quickly I could get into a scrap without smacktalk. I undocked in my jaguar and with the clock ticking I zipped to Eifer and went straight to the Emolg' gate. Local was busy as per usual with 90% sweat shop haulers running junk in their cargo holds. Sometimes, pirates and others spend a day destroying them, leaving a hazardous mess of wrecks and corpse near stargates. It doesn't seem to stop them however and many come back in the same type of haulers and away they go.

The clock is ticking and I landed 1km from the gate. There was a thrasher-class destroyer sitting there. It was sniffing around some wrecks so I quickly locked the ship and hit the afterburner. We some joy, it locked me back though it could have been the ships auto-targeting system. Being so close to the gate guns; I could not afford to open fire but the thrasher could. The clock showed 76 seconds had elapsed.

The thrasher flashed red on my overview and then the first shots landed on my shields.

Yaarrrr!

On came the webber and the disruptor, the webber had to come on as the thrasher had turned and was running for the gate. The webber reduced it's velocity down to about 10m/s so I had time to kill it. My 150mm auto canons spun up and spat out EMP shells to that ripped into the shields and the then the thin armour.

The stargate flashed once and I thought 'Reinforcements?'

Maybe it was a trap and I had fallen for it. Who cares?

The newcomer was a rupture class cruiser and I decided that it too would die. I locked him but couldn't afford to put any points on the cruiser. Also, with some relief, I realised that if I did scramble him, the gate guns would open up and tear me apart. Ach, how the mind slows down when in the heat of combat!

Anyway, the thrasher was now on fire. The rupture locked me back but didn't fire. The thrasher popped and I snagged the pod and demanded a 2,500,000K isk ransom. Even better that the pilot gave me the ransom. I let him go.

Oddly, he sat there near the gate and didn't move. Very odd; maybe he was protecting his wreck?

With the new change clinking in my wallet I orbited the gate - quite pleased with the isk. Not bad after just under 5 minutes from login I was now 2.5million isk richer.

Unfamiliar and rookie gangmates FTW!!!

Well Jubes and I were asked to join a gang of new pilots all who wanted to pirate. Quite a lot of fun but the lack of experience told. Funny chat:

Lieutenant Seras > to any safe spot
Rohga > I'm picking up the myrm and jag now
El'kanya > Semi safe here
El'kanya > *pops a defacer*
flashfresh > Deast1 --> lets kill him
Rohga > myrm's gone
flashfresh > I am in jag. Anyone who fires on me gets fired back.
Rohga > I thought you were stalking us
flashfresh > Not now.
El'kanya > Seras. You're close to the Myrm
Lieutenant Seras > Yeah?
Lieutenant Seras > Jubes, flash, you guys to to myrm first

Lieutenant Seras was the rookie gang leader. The gang consisted of x2 rifters, x2 ruptures (with Jubes being in one of them), x1 Jaguar (me) and a thrasher (Seras).

Jubes > all in and already
flashfresh > Chaps, best to have one of you sitting in a belt and waiting for him.
Jubes > Yeah
Jubes > I can replace bait ship
flashfresh > We all align to him and as soon as myrm appears we warp to gang member
El'kanya > I got VI belt 1
flashfresh > ok El' will be bait
El'kanya > No, lemme take 4
Jubes > This is so cool
El'kanya > IV
flashfresh > El' -> call us in when the myrm appears close to you.
El'kanya > Gotcha

El'kanya seemed like a sound pilot.

flashfresh > We will warp to you at 0km so we will land close to you.
flashfresh > FFS do not call us in if the myrm is 100km away!!!

Jubes then offered some more sound advice:

Jubes > Remember take down the drones
flashfresh > Points on the myrm and knock out his drones make sure you target HIS drones.
Jubes > x as signal
El'kanya > Checking V
Jubes > type X to call us in
Lieutenant Seras > Why do you want to get this myrm so badly?
Jubes > He podded me bad

The myrmidon was piloted by SavageWarrior. A local pirate.

weth'Am Nos'redan > he's there!!!!!!!!
flashfresh > Be a bit more specific please weth'
Lieutenant Seras > I also podded you : /

Gah. No time for gloating!

Jubes > concentrate please
El'kanya > Checking I
flashfresh > Cut the chatter. Let El' call us in.
El'kanya > Checkin V
Jubes > Sit in belt and he will come to you!
flashfresh > Sit in v-1
El'kanya > He's at a planetEl'kanya > hang on
flashfresh > El = you have back up.
flashfresh > Deast1 DOES NOT KNOW WE ARE ALL WORKING TOGETHER
flashfresh > we need to hurry as the lack of engagement will probably tip off deast1
El'kanya > Working on it
flashfresh > S'ok mate
flashfresh > Not rushing you. You've got a hard job.
Lieutenant Seras > Why don't you also search..?

A rather silly question. Obviously he has never been in this position before.

flashfresh > I could be in mid warp when I get the call to come in.
Jubes > he wouldn't sit in belt
flashfresh > Thorax in local.
flashfresh > General Coochie

I knew Coochie had a scanner alt and that he would probe out all those SS'ed ships.

Jubes > El pls sit in V-1
El'kanya > Will do
flashfresh > OK - we have another player. Deast1 and General Coochie.
Lieutenant Seras > El, do what he says, but first sign of betrayal, get out of there

LOL. The paranoia.

Jubes > All align to V-1 pls
flashfresh > Aligning
flashfresh > General coochie is hunting as well.
El'kanya > Seras is in V-1
flashfresh > Am moving around now. He came close to my ss
Jubes > Type X if you need us
Lieutenant Seras > or broadcats it
Lieutenant Seras > cast*

Obviously he was referring to the rather nifty gang broadcast but to be honest, I never look at it.
Lieutenant Seras > enemy spotted or need back up
flashfresh > 'x' will do, cuts chatter and is very clear.
Jubes > hahhahah taking forever
weth'Am Nos'redan > v- 3
flashfresh > guys - look out for scan probes. General Coochie is using an alt scan prober to find ss'ed ships
Lieutenant Seras > x

We have a score and I hit the warp to button. Almost breaking the mouse.

flashfresh > omw
El'kanya > me too?

Obviously, even if you're bait.

flashfresh > warping
Lieutenant Seras > a drake and a myrm!!!
Jubes > warping
flashfresh > everyone warp to seras!
weth'Am Nos'redan > omw
Jubes > which target?
flashfresh > Myrmidon and drones first. Myrmidon is primary
Lieutenant Seras > deast and langori both
flashfresh > all warp to seras!
El'kanya > I can't hit drones with Arties

I exit warp.

flashfresh > wth ?
Jubes > what 300km?
flashfresh > Too far away now. All disengage
flashfresh > Ach.
Jubes > I thought you engaged
Jubes > This so bad
flashfresh > He was too far away. 300km. FFS, Don't call people in when enemy is +100km away
Lieutenant Seras > Least i found him.
flashfresh > We've giving away our hand. Oh well.
Jubes > OK forget it
Jubes > He knows already
flashfresh > Yah

On our own personal chat Jubes and I were tearing out hair out. What an embarrassing situation!

weth'Am Nos'redan > where was that?
Jubes > well something to learn
El'kanya > Shoulda warped in within 100km
El'kanya > or 70, even
flashfresh > Too late now.
Lieutenant Seras >I was more worried bout that drake, it was 40 k/m fro me
El'kanya > Yeah
Lieutenant Seras > He's still here
flashfresh > 40km still too far away
Jubes > when engaged and scrambling enemy then call us in
weth'Am Nos'redan > Where r u though?
Lieutenant Seras > I'm not a tackler.
Lieutenant Seras > Rohga is

El'kanya > Got an idea
weth'Am Nos'redan > which belt?
El'kanya > He's above you, right?
El'kanya > Technically
Lieutenant Seras > coochie is at..
El'kanya > No, Deast
Lieutenant Seras > 4-2
Lieutenant Seras > no 4-3
Lieutenant Seras > he at me

In all the chatter Seras call for help was not heeded...

El'kanya > Got a BC at the Emol gate
El'kanya > Right, but is he above you?
Lieutenant Seras > warp to me
El'kanya > How far is the Myrm?
Jubes > For what? only call us if sramble

What happened to the 'X' that we all agreed would call the rest of the gang in?

Lieutenant Seras > eifer 4 belt 3 has a thorax
El'kanya > If the Myrm is 100m above her, and we warp within 100m of her from above her, we're on his ass

Some are still chatting and distracting the rest....

Rohga > x
Lieutenant Seras > and it just killed me
flashfresh > One pilot at a time guys. Too much chatter here.
Jubes > then i buy you 2 of yours
El'kanya > omw
weth'Am Nos'redan > omw
Jubes > omw
El'kanya > Coochie
flashfresh > omw
Rohga > died
El'kanya > X
Rohga > goddamn that thorax hits like a brick
weth'Am Nos'redan > you did?
Lieutenant Seras > thats 2 of us down
El'kanya > 3
Lieutenant Seras > Ah well
Lieutenant Seras > Rohga, el you guys can afford to buy a new ship right
flashfresh > Thorax will be going down
flashfresh > who else is coming in?

Thorax got destroyed by my Jaguar and Jubes Cruiser and a one more cruiser.

Rohga > I can afford a new ship
Lieutenant Seras > k, you el?
El'kanya > I got taken out
El'kanya > Warp Scrambled and webified
Lieutenant Seras > can you buy a new ship?
flashfresh > good fight chaps
El'kanya > Yeah
Lieutenant Seras > alright.
El'kanya > but all my skill books were in the wreck

WTF?

Rohga > Did you take out the thorax?
flashfresh > yes
Lieutenant Seras > Damn, you should of put them in a station
El'kanya > Forgot to unload em
El'kanya > Grab my shit?
Rohga > Congrats, wish I lasted long enough to see it
flashfresh > Good job on calling it in though.
Jubes > wat ship you lost?
weth'Am Nos'redan > el'k: ya getting it
Lieutenant Seras > we get soem loot here
Rohga > rifter
El'kanya > Thrasher
Rohga > nothing special on it
Jubes > check wallet
flashfresh > Good call in Rohga. Well done.
Rohga > Thanks
Lieutenant Seras > : / I yelled it first.

LOL

Rohga > And thanks Jubes
Jubes > imy target keep lossing
El'kanya > Lost a Thrasher and about 10 mil in books
weth'Am Nos'redan > el'k, where do you want me to meet you with stuff?
Lieutenant Seras > I lost a rifter, though, my gear was the important thing..
Jubes > go get it
weth'Am Nos'redan > got books
flashfresh > You kept books on a combat ship about to engage?
flashfresh > Are you mad?
El'kanya > I forgot to unload em
weth'Am Nos'redan > that's waht i thought
El'kanya > I dont normally
flashfresh > OK - who has the killmails?
weth'Am Nos'redan > k, just killing an npc
Jubes > send me the copy
El'kanya > I was 100% insured, I'm goofd
weth'Am Nos'redan > x
weth'Am Nos'redan > coochie is back
El'kanya > Dude, wtf?
El'kanya > My stuff!
El'kanya > THought you were getting out of the system?
weth'Am Nos'redan > k, omw
flashfresh > warp to you Weth?
flashfresh > Who has the kill maiL?
weth'Am Nos'redan > nvrmind.. im gone
Jubes > omy
El'kanya > we gotta regroup
weth'Am Nos'redan > i do
El'kanya > Weth, meet me in Emalgranlan
flashfresh > send a copy to ALL pilots on it.
flashfresh > we have drake and myrmidon at the moment.
El'kanya > eh?
weth'Am Nos'redan > el'k: im jumping now
El'kanya > I'm at the Brutor Bureau
El'kanya > VII Moon 9
Jubes > why you bring skills book around
weth'Am Nos'redan > omw
weth'Am Nos'redan > lolz
El'kanya > Forgot to unload em, for the 4th time
flashfresh > That's silly....
Lieutenant Seras > Hurry up and pay my my compisation so i can log
weth'Am Nos'redan > you in station?
weth'Am Nos'redan > compisation?
El'kanya > Yep, in station
Jubes > el check your wallet
El'kanya > thanks
weth'Am Nos'redan > can i give you these things in station or do i have to drop them into space?
El'kanya > Can do it in station
Jubes > in station right cluick the name and trade
Lieutenant Seras > *sniff* My noob pirates are becoming real pirates :)
weth'Am Nos'redan > k, thnx
El'kanya > >.<> Oh and flash, i sent you my dead mail so you can compinsate me
flashfresh > You what mail?
Lieutenant Seras > Oh well, looks like i'm not getting reinbursed.

Er no.

Yaarrrr - back

Been away from EVE for too long in RL (ok, a week!) so it is good to be back. I had some long skill training anyways and it is almost done. That makes me happy.

So what has happened?

1. All of my sell orders have been sold and netting me a cool 23 million. Loot FTW.
2. Lucius Cain has joined up with the Blood Corsair's and left Heimatar (Good Luck Luc!)
3. Malevolent (ex- Blackfleet) has left Heimatar region - I think.
4. Ingunn has more sweat shop haulers than I have toes and fingers.
5. Realised that while hopelessly addicted to EVE; I really enjoyed (nay, loved) my time off. It sharpens the EVE appetite in my view.

Without my ado, I jumped into my Jag and was instantly convo'ed in the Independence channel by a few recognised faces. They wanted a rifter gang and we were to head in to Eifer as there was a Stabber fleet issue and a myrmidon for the picking. Now x4 rifters can do damage but against a myrmidon? A stabber (fleet issue or otherwise) would be possible but both?

Still, I have thrown myself into worse situations and got into the jaguar and joined the gang. Into Eifer and yes, indeed - Myrmidon and stabber to name two. Unknown to me, I was made gang leader that included RailDuke, Jubes and Nozarro. We scanned and tracked the ships down and I gang warped to the top belt. Note: I had only just logged in about 120 seconds ago after a week of being away from EVE.

Bursting from warp, we landed close to the myrmidon. I webbed, scrambled and kicked off the weapons at the hulking battlecruiser. My overview updated and x5 drones came out - and they targeted me. Then horrors! My GUI was stuck, I tried to web the drones but the nothing was happening. I started to activate / de-activate the modules but nothing was happening. Gang chat was not updating either and I feared the worst. I started to hit the warp to option and after a minute, I spotted the dreaded 'Ship is out of Control' then my GUI was disconnected....and I was presented with the logging in screen.

ARgghhghghgh!!

Logging back in, I found that I had indeed lost the Jaguar but was not podded. Embarrassingly, I had to ask the chaps on the killmail if I had managed to hit them!

LOL.

Anyways, losing the jaguar hurt but what the hell! I grabbed a spare rifter and was back in the black....and instantly scanned down another rifter that was ratting. I popped him in two volleys and killed him. I wanted to hurt someone so I did.

Does that make me a bad person?