The HUNS get their revenge......

The next day or was it later? Another call came out on the independence and there was much consternation due to a hated crow-interceptor racing around pwning us. Jubes lost his AF to it as the speedy interceptor raced around the hapless ships and pummeled them with faction missiles. From what I could hear it was not pretty.

The pilots all ganged up and tried to plot a way to get the crow. Webbers were needed most definitely so I refitted with x2 webbers and a micro-warpdrive. A second rifter and a jaguar completed the gang. Not bad we thought as we all jumped into Eifer. The gang was me (webby-rifter), Viper Sam (Jaguar) and Jubes in his rifter. We danced around the belts and planets as we spotted the crow. He had at least one friend with him, piloting a caracal. Could be tricky this one we thought but we were out for blood.

Viper called out that he had the crow and for us to warp to him. We leapt at the chance and landed.....miles from the crow. It was travelling at some velocity so we desperately tried to close the distance. I also spotted the caracal at around 60KM and slowly closing the distance. This could get nasty real quick. However, the crow was too fast, even with a microwarpdrive I could not close the distance to effectively use my webber.

I finally managed to double web the crow and then opened up with my weapons. It's shields disappeared quick...but so did mine. The caracal had managed to lock me and had unleashed a rain of missiles that destroyed my shields in a flash. I was dead but didn't quite know it.

Holding on I desperately shouted for help but it was too late. I popped but got the pod out.

The bitter sting of defeat still fresh in my mouth, I switched to the 'Black Lotus' my hurricane. My and Jubes and Viper came back in and re-engaged more or less the same bunch of pilots. They had a harbringer, carcal and thorax. We engaged the harbringer and blasted the Amarr BC into half armour before it knew what was going on. Then I suddenly lost target lock.

I looked around, my velocity had dropped and someone was using a painter on me. Checking the overview my heart froze. There was a rapier there now - it must have joined the gang that we were engaging. It had me webbed from a ridiculous range and had me painted, now my signature was the same size as that of a nearby moon and all hits were doing maximum damage on me. In desperation, I tried to wriggle out - but still concentrating on the harbringer who's tenacity on holding on was admirable.

The harbringer was down to hull and I lost my lock again. What the hell? My armour was tanking a huge pounding as my shields had long since evaporated. My drones, thankfully kept on target and continued to chew into the harbringer. After what seemed like an age, I regained lock and blasted the final, tenacious bit of hull off the harbringer's structure and it exploded.

I wasn't to far behind however and I gave the order to abandon ship.

Unfortunately, I got podded as I was too slow to warp out. Gah.

You win some you lose some. Good fight though, one of the best I have had in an age but am still a bit perplexed about why I was losing my lock so many times.....

Frigate Wolf Pack Packs A Mighty Punch.

The power of the rifter and her variants (Wolf and Jaguar) is a wonderful sight to behold. Yes, they are held together by duct tape and spit but when they come screaming into you and unleash hell. You know it.

I was out in the Metropolis pipe helping out a few friends and was warping back with an eye for some calculated violence. I wanted to bring out the wolf for a spin but I do miss the jaguar - lost to a vagabond from Havoc Inc a few weeks back. As always, I keep a keen eye on local and can usually spot the newcomers from the usual industrial farmers. So it was, two new faces in local in Gultratren. A rookie and an 18-month player. A quick scan and I see an osprey and a thrasher. Based on the names, the rookie was in the Osprey.

Pausing in my journey home, I warped to a scan spot I had in the system and hit the scanner once more. Indeed, they were in the belt - either ratting or mining or both. Making sure that it wasn't a trap; I jumped in with the warp tunnel enveloping me like an old friend. I knew I hit jackpot when the GUI took a little bit longer to load. The welcome blue squares appeared on my GUI and I instantly locked the thrasher. It was more of a threat due to the pilot's age. I then hit him with my trusty 150mm AC II and the fight was on!

The thrasher pilot locked me back and hit me with a combination of howitzers and auto-canon and missile fire. A bit of a mix of hostile ordnance but my shields held, just. I chewed through his shields in short order but then he started to tank the damage. Damn, I thought. My shields disappeared and I was into armour too. The Thrasher is tough when piloted correctly.

The osprey, not too sure what to do - just sat there.

Meanwhile, I was adjusting my orbit and got into a better range and started to score more devastating hits. My armour repairer was flashing away - patching the holes as fast as they appeared.

The osprey pilot, finally deciding that he wasn't going to help his thrasher friend, scooped up his drones and GTFO. Some gang mate huh? The Thrasher pilot soon died and flames erupted from it's shattered hull. I was getting ready to snag the pod and ransom the pilot. In a burst, the thrasher was reduced to an expanding debris cloud. I had the pod and opened up a conversation with 'Haruchain' the egg-bound pilot.

Flashfresh: 5 million to let you go.
Haruchain: No. Fuck you.

He then got popped though he stayed in my ransom channel.

His loot was disappointing but I did pick up some much needed ammunition. My ransom channel blinked as the podded pilot wanted to chat. Overcoming his shock and anger, we had a nice chat about 'stuff'. It was his first ransom and he was a 2006 player. Probably first time in low-sec then.

Concord confirmed the kills:

2007.09.26 07:15
Victim: Haruchain
Alliance: NONE
Corp: GeDunk Industries
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Gultratren
Security: 0.3

Involved parties:

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


2007.09.26 07:13
Victim: Haruchain
Alliance: NONE
Corp: GeDunk Industries
Destroyed: Thrasher
System: Gultratren
Security: 0.3

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Gremlin Rocket

Destroyed items:
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 960 (Cargo)
280mm Howitzer Artillery I
280mm Howitzer Artillery I
Salvager I
200mm AutoCannon I
Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 540 (Cargo)
Fusion S, Qty: 4122 (Cargo)
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 2330 (Cargo)
Ballistic Deflection Field I
Smashed Trigger Unit (Cargo)
Charred Micro Circuit (Cargo)
Carbonized Lead S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Medium Shield Transporter I, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 47
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 7
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 7
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 34
Proton S, Qty: 27

I waited for my criminal flag to expire when I was convo'ed by my friend 'Viper Sam' - there was potential prey in his sights and he needed a gang. I was three jumps from home so agreed and warped in, my bloodlust still not quite sated.

The gang was Jubes, Viper Sam and me. I switched to my wolf as Viper Sam had spotted some Omega Alliance ships in Eifer, a celestis and a stabber. Been seeing more and more of these Omega Alliance guys in Heimatar and Metropolis.

I jumped into the same system as Viper and Jubes and went to a deep safe spot. Viper was in his Jaguar with Jubes in his wolf. A mean, hard hitting gang. Unlike last time, when we were gate camping, this engagement would play to our strengths: speed and hard hitting DPS.

Viper Sam was bait and went to the top belt and hoped that the two Omega Alliance pilots would come in. We waited and kept chat to a minimum apart from deciding that the celestis would be primary. Minutes crawled by, local population fluctuated a little but the two potential marks were still there and on scanner too. Probably discussing how to best tackle Viper Sam. Since me and Jubes were all in different corps - it would prove to be difficult to work out if we were all ganged (we were of course). This should therefore work to our advantage.

Moving to the IV cluster, we re-aligned to the belts; Jubes and I waiting patiently for Viper to call us in. Then the channel started to blink.

'They're here!' Shouted Viper Sam. I aligned and hit full speed to his current position as, no doubt, was Jubes in his Wolf. 'Wait, let them open up first....' Viper Sam was making sure of the tackle. Got balls that man.

What seemed like a minute rolled by, slow as treacle.

'Go! Go! Go!' Yelled Viper Sam, now sure of the tackle. I hit the warp to gang member option and I leapt into warp instantly. My heart now hammering away in my rib cage, I tried to quell the excitement and channel it into improving my focus. Both Jubes and I burst out of warp and landed about 20-22km from Viper Sam. Frigate warfare is fast and long warps could entail that gang mates land a fair distance away due to the continuous movement of the adversaries.

I locked both the celestis and the stabber.

'Am damped to shit!' Yelled Viper. 'Can't hit anything. My tank is holding.'
'Celestis is primary.' I replied and hit the afterburner.
'Roger, Celestis is primary.' Confirmed Jubes as he too, vectored into the deadly Gallente cruiser. At 20km I hit the warp scrambler and at 12km I opened up with my lovely rack of x4 150mm AC II. Jubes did the same. Fiery ordnance spat across the void and ripped into the celestis. The shields flared and died in the first salvo. At 9km my rocket launcher opened up as my ACs cycled into their fourth or fifth volley. The firepower from two angry Wolf-class assault frigates devastated the celestis, too eager on Viper Sam to send a riposte in kind to me and Jubes.

Meanwhile, the stabber was hammering away at Viper Sam's webbed and damped, jaguar. Viper's shield tank is a monster of a thing. Little did the stabber pilot know that it would take a hell of a lot of firepower to knock down the shields.

A final volley from my 150mm ACs II and the celestis blew apart in a glorious burst of colour, sound and debris. The pod was insta-warped out of there so Jubes and I could not lock it.

Switching our hungry attention to the stabber - Viper Sam, no longer dampened; got angry with the now webbed and scrambled and soon-to-be-dead, Stabber. It would take a big tank to stop three, angry, kill-hungry, Minmatar assault frigates.

The stabber was thrown around as our ordnance buffeted it like a rag doll. We blew it apart with gusto and also snagged the pod. The stabber pilot was blasted into flash frozen gobs of organic matter. We all howled in delight at the kill.

It felt very good. So good. I love New Eden.

I managed to get the killing blows on both the celestis and the stabber:

2007.09.26 08:27
Victim: Hun Jakuza
Alliance: Omega Alliance
Corp: Imperium Galactica
Destroyed: Stabber
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4





Involved parties:

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.8
Alliance: The Church.
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: Wolf

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

Name: Viper Sam
Security: -9.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Sissy Boys
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: Jaguar

Destroyed items:
Alumel-Wired I Sensor Augmentation
'Arbalest' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
Warp Disruptor II
Gyrostabilizer II
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
220mm Medium 'Scout' Autocannon I
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon I Microwarpdrive
Overdrive Injector System II
Terror Assault Missile, Qty: 32

Here's the second one:

2007.09.26 08:27
Victim: pusm alterego2
Alliance: Omega Alliance
Corp: Hungarian Riflemen Regiment
Destroyed: Celestis
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4





Involved parties:

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.8
Alliance: The Church.
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: Wolf

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


Destroyed items:
Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I
Remote Sensor Dampener II
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
250mm Prototype I Gauss Gun
Beta Reactor Control: Capacitor Power Relay I
'Malkuth' Heavy Missile Launcher I
Dual 150mm Carbide Railgun I
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 173 (Cargo)
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 953 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 27
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 27

Well fought by the two Omega Alliance guys though - Hun actually came back in his Drake ten minutes later but we smelt a trap and let it slide.

The loot was decent: faction ammunition, warp disruptor II, micro-warpdrive II, gyrostabiliser II and some named 800mm plate. All to be sold and split between us. However, it's the kill that's important.

Viper Sam and Jubes - well done.

M34N are now leaving?

Interesting news that M34N have signed up with 'The Church' - does this mean that they are now leaving the friendly Gusandall - Katugumur neighbourhood for pastures anew? Most likely, as The Church is mainly based in Molden Heath. Certainly, it will make The Church stronger than they are now.

Good luck to them but it now means more room for independent pirates like me, unless some anti-pirates rush in to fill in the void. That is another possibility too. Either way, more targets for me.

Have been seeing a lot of Hungarian-based pilots (mainly from the Omega Alliance) in this next of the woods. They travel in groups and they come packing. I think I need a bigger ship!

0.0 fun or is it?

Roaming around in an assault frigate gang in 0.0 is fun...providing you keep moving. We ended up gate camping and got our asses kicked by an interdictor, x2 HACs and x2 Raptors. Ouch.

Assault Frigates lend themselves to fast, hard-hitting and constantly moving attack groups. They should not remain static and using them for gate camping can only work if they had backup. Yes, assault frigates have fast locks but can't withstand sustained fire for long.

So next time, I will decide on a route through low-sec and 0.0 and move through it swiftly; pausing only long enough to sniff out viable targets. By the time a response has been rallied, I want to be long gone.

On my way back, the massive camp I saw had all but disappeared and within three jumps I was back in familiar Metropolis / Molden heath low-sec space. I wanted to head back to refit my jaguar and spotted a covetor on scan. A lone miner? Checking his bio and he was in an NPC corp. Lovely.

A few scans and I narrowed him down to a planet and warped in. I landed over 100km away. Damn. However, the fool was right next to a can. I quickly bookmarked it and warped off, with the full intention of coming back and blowing him to kingdom come.

I did just that, the miner didn't even respond as I reckon he was afk. I waited for three minutes for a reponse when he was into low hull but nothing so I popped him. Snagging the pod, I did the same again and then popped him. As soon as I engaged, I had opened up a conversation with the miner but it was a full ten minutes after the invitation that he answered. He was away from the keyboard and was sorry he lost his ship and his pod.

Shaking my head I waited out for my timer and jumped home - snacking on an unfortunate rifter I found.

Time for a jaguar refit I think a road trip. Need to pack beer.

Wolf Power

I moved to a wolf and it sure packs a punch. Not too comfortable with it solo but a 3-volleyed a thrasher yesterday. Just plain ripped him up.

Hunting him down was fun, he was tricky and moved quickly but the lure of wrecks and loot in a belt ALWAYS brings those carebears back. Like a fisherman I waited and waited and pounced and it made the kill all the more sweeter. I chuckled when after the third volley from the 150mm T2 ACs, I was looking at a smoking wreck. Nice, nice. The loot was poor but it's the kill mail right?

Viper Sam told me he had 16 (SIXTEEN) kills that day and he is now in love with his Jaguar. Being in love with a ship is a dangerous move as this attachment means you will hesitate when the odds start looking a bit stacked against you. Hesitation kills.

Having said that, I love my Wolf and jaguar and cane and yes, even the humble rifter.

Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.

I was out in my jaguar and passed a blinking Brutix. It was gate camping and had just popped an industrial and was under gate gun fire. Why didn't I web and scramble the f*cker?

Gah.

FUCK

Server crashed just when I hooked up with a buddy of mine and his corp. Big f*cking gang too - plenty of hurt there.

When is EVE back online?

A new war?

I think a war is beginning to loom ahead of me; Eifer and Heimatar has seen an influx of new corporations (both pirate and non-pirate) in the last few months. MEAN Corp are slowly building up their resources and I think are about to unleash hell.

Should be fun to watch but I need to take steps to protect myself and my assets.

Keep you all posted.

Updates..

RL has been quite busy for me so only some yarring but am prepping more ships for an extended road trip. Am keen to revisit some of my older haunts and may pay Lucius a visit in Placid. Just chatting to him about his new haunts brought back good memories of my beginning days of piracy.

So, anyway - am debating what ship to take on this road trip. I will be operating solo so speed if of the essence. I think a jaguar may be the ideal ship type or even the wolf. Both are fast, can hit hard and are durable. Their loss wouldn't be too bad either.

Some advice would be good - what ship shall I settle for and where should be my first port of call?

Firing up Ombey's 2D Eve-Map and I am grinning like a fool at the opportunities.

A rookie loses his cherry and he likes it......

Being a pirate can be fun but I do miss high-sec (I know, I know, blasphemy!) as I love reading Nexa's antics with TRAPS and her postings on EVE-Pirate. Being solo also is hard but a friend of mine has recently moved some of his corp and resources close to me and it's fun flying with him and his corp mates. In fact, one of his corp mates is a decent scan prober and my mate V has given me his permission to ask for help whenever I require on the proviso that I don't render all his corpmate into blinkies!

So expect some more antics as I try to bust open those mission runners in Todi! Being able to rat in 0.1 and with no podding means that my more security rating conscious friends can maintain a veneer of respectability!

However, I loved it when one of my readers (christ, I have a readership now?) signed up to EVE and went down the darkside. We chatted over the last couple of weeks but he then posted this killmail with a note:

Thanks Flash, I didn't expect a kill would feel THIS good, here's the kill mail
2007.08.31 15:24
Victim: hiklipaka
Alliance: NONE
Corp: State War Academy
Destroyed: Kestrel
System: E###
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Xu'Chuang (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.6
Alliance: NONE
Corp: SVPP
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun

Destroyed items:
Small Shield Booster I
Standard Missile Launcher I
Standard Missile Launcher I
Standard Missile Launcher I
Dual 180mm AutoCannon I (Cargo)
Mark I Modified SS Overdrive Injector (Cargo)
Remote Sensor Dampener I (Cargo)
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 11
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 11
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 16


2007.08.31 15:27
Victim: hiklipaka
Alliance: NONE
Corp: State War Academy
Destroyed: Capsule
System: E###
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Xu'Chuang (laid the final blow)
Security: -0.7
Alliance: NONE
Corp: SVPP
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun

All I can say is, welcome to EVE.

Xu'Chuang then joined a gang of independent contractors and went hunting. He was bait and he found it fun.

God bless him!

The night ended with a bunch of us camping Havoc Inc in a station - to be honest, I am crap at camping and we didn't get a kill - just a lot of smack. No biggies though.

Right back to work....and oh, Xu'Chunag. Take a bow....

Needs must

Within 30 seconds of my undocking I was zipping towards Eifer in my jaguar - looked like some other independent contractors had tackled a rupture from 'Nebula Rasa Logistics' and needed some more firepower. I jumped into the next system and warped to the location of one of my new gang mates. On arrival, the target was already being pummeled into scrap. What was funny, was that of the gang we had, no one was nominated to negotiate the ransom. The pod was snagged and I was eventually asked to do it. Once I had opened up a conversation with the unfortunate pilot, someone in the gang, antsy that it was taking so long then podded the scrambled pilot for good measure.

So we lost out on some isk. Oh well.

I then killed a Rifter and a kestrel in quick succession; though I really needed to concentrate on the known dangers in system with a number of BCs and BS appearing.

Then our gang managed to engage two Havoc Inc ships on a gate. The ships were a Hurricane-class battlecruiser and a Drake class battlecruiser. Both deadly. Racing in was SavageXXXWarrior in her familiar Myrmidon ('ASBO'). I was in my Hurricane and quickly targeted the enemy hurricane, I was going to leave the drake to last; it's shield tank would be a hard job for us to break.

The enemy hurricane was volleyed into scrap and then it was the drake. The hurricane pilot was in his pod but did not immediately leave. No one bothered to scramble him either as the drake was the prize; so knocking out the enemy cane was a requirement in order for all of us to maximise our firepower.

The concentrated firepower soon overwhelmed the mighty drake. Heavy drones, EMP projectiles and bad language peppered the drake. It's tank broke under the silent sentry guns. Our tackler missed the pod. We cursed, unhappy at losing a pod kill but the loot from the drake more or less made things easier. The gang split about 4 million each way.

The gang roamed a bit and then we spotted a Maller. From the pilot information as provided by concord; he looked experienced. However, after a quick probe we found him and jumped in. Our tackler, in his rifter was blown to bits.

However, well done 'Viper Sam' (here is his portrait....) - his tackle was long enough for the rest of us to jump in.

The maller had an insane tank as it absorbed blow after blow after blow. It locked onto my hurricane and proceeded to strip down my shields but switching on the armour repairer kept the damage at bay.

Inspecting the kill mail revealed that he had a 1600mm plate welded onto the hull of the ship. Talk about an impressive tank.

Well done sir!



Anyway, tackling and killing the two Havoc Inc ships revealed to me that needs must. I was flying in a mixed gang that included pilots I would normally target and try and kill immediately. I suppose the motto ' an enemy of my enemy is a friend - or at least off my KOS'.