Kill the bastards!

Been getting a fair few messages of support from readers and I thank them. Keep the evemails coming and no, my consideration in joining Black-Flag in no way will stop me writing this blog; nor will my impartiality be impaired. I still need time to sort things out but Black-Flag is a new corp with pirates I like to yar with and killing and robbing and ransoming people is much more fun with others of the same mindset. We're pirates after all!

Moving round Heimatar and Metropolis I feel like there are more pirates around not less and about 50% of the fights are with other pirates. Some are new to the area, others are old hands. Nonetheless, this is about territory and loot and pirates will fight hard to maintain dominance. Currently, M34N corp are the dominant pirate corporation with Havoc Inc a continuous presence. BLACK-FLAG is a new upcoming pirate corporation with ambitious aims and enough blood thirsty pirates to make it a reality.

The Bastards are a pirate group that I've only bumped into a couple of times but we found out that they were camping a gate in Brin and we wondered whether pickings were thin for them that day - and maybe we can improve things for them?

We sent in a rifter first, for intel and the brave frigate pilot jumped in - meanwhile a mixed gang of us held station on the other side of the gate. The rifter pilot reported back, nervously as his cloaking timer was counting down.

"We have a drake, a harbringer, er and two 'canes and a punisher!"
"We need names to ships. Names to ships!" Said Viper Sam, the night's nominated FC. A few more seconds ticked by and we could only imagine what would be happening now.
"Lewis in harby, er Mahn in drake. Shit!" The comms went off and we came close to jumping. "Hold gate jump! Hold!" barked Viper Sam. Some of the others were eager to jump in and assist but we held. The rifter pilot reported back to us.
"They're firing on me and am taking damage - am running. They're agressed. They're all agressed." Reported our scout.

Decision made.

"Jump!"

We all jumped and stayed cloaked and waited for primary to be called. Viper wanted the harbringer to be primary but it was too far from the gate. Only the drake and punisher was close enough for me and one other. The punisher was the only one that was not blinking red too. "Harbringer is primary, drake secondary" I said to the rest of the fleet - jumping in front of our FC. Ach - we're pirates not an organised navy!

As the ships decloaked, the comms came alive.

"Point on Drake!"
"Locking 'cane number one - need to mwd to it."
"Cane two is aliging. Get points on it!"
"Harby is bugging out."
"Point on Drake. Firing."

I locked the enemy drake and hit with my full rack of 425mm II ACs, spitting out EMP shells and knocking the famed shields down in quick succession. Grunanca in his sleipnir with engines roaring, closed the distance and unloaded hell onto the drake as well. The other two canes and harbringer had aligned and warped out. We didn't have enough tacklers with us this time round and had to let the other marks go. Pity.

The drake popped and we all attempted to lock the pod, however it insta-warped.

Risking the sentry guns - I locked and blasted the punisher as well; my blood lust well and truly raised. The sentry guns started to hit me and Redbad as no-one else in our fleet was firing on the punisher. No matter, tough as it was - the plucky little frigate popped.

Had to log and leave the rest of the fleet to complete their sweep.

Yaarr..


2007.11.27 23:29

Victim: Mahn AlNouhm
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Bastards
Destroyed: Drake
System: Brin
Security: 0.2

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hobgoblin I

Name: Redbad
Security: -5.7
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Stabber

Name: Kane Rizzel
Security: -10.0
Alliance: Derek Knows Us
Corp: NovaKane Incorporated
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: Rupture

Name: WayCharles
Security: -2.2
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Tempered Steel Legion
Ship: Cerberus
Weapon: Terror Assault Missile

Name: Grunanca (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.8
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Sleipnir
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Name: Viper Sam
Security: -9.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: Vagabond

Destroyed items:
Havoc Heavy Missile, Qty: 2510 (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 112
Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 3
J5 Prototype Warp Inhibitor I, Qty: 1
Type-D Power Core Modification: Diagnostic System, Qty: 1
Type-D Power Core Modification: Shield Flux, Qty: 2
Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I, Qty: 1
V-M15 Braced Multispectral Shield Matrix, Qty: 2


2007.11.27 23:30

Victim: Erevex
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Bastards
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Brin
Security: 0.2

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane

Name: Redbad (laid the final blow)
Security: -5.8
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Dual 180mm AutoCannon II

Destroyed items:
Microwave S, Qty: 6 (Cargo)
Gamma S, Qty: 1
Small Nosferatu I, Qty: 1
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Inhibitor I, Qty: 1
100mm Reinforced Steel Plates II, Qty: 1

Squeezing the most out of our game time.

You know, us pirates can be a desparate lot: here we are, DT imminent when a call for a fleet goes out and we race to assemble on a gate ready to pounce. Considering the scan prober has another 2 minutes left, it gives the gang precious time to warp in, gank, pod and loot. Alas, such is the lure that like sharks to blood, we answer the call.

All I can say is 'HURRY UP!!'

Killed another cyno

Popped another cyno. As soon as I see one, I go and pop it. Always fun.

So who was trying to cyno into Auren then?

A nice day today but significantly, I took out two kestrels that were creating cynosural fields. The first one popped but only after a Moros class dreadnaught had appeared while the second one, I killed within ten seconds of the cyno-field registering on the scanner and overview. There must be a pissed off capital ship pilot out there. Auren is a quiet place, relatively speaking but not safe enough.

It dropped a cyno-generator and a cargo hold of ozone while the pilot was podded and added to my collection of discarded protein. A minute later, a rifter appeared in local and I thought - why not? Chasing him down was fun but he could get into warp pretty damn quick. When I finally caught up with him after landing four times too far in as many occasions! He gave me these immortal lines after I asked for a 500K ransom:

>> FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU FROM RUSSIA!!!!

He dropped ok loot for a rifter and after my flag had ended I traveled some more. In Gultratren, I jumped in and was not too surprised to see lots and lots of mindless haulers; poor pod pilots controlled by this one mastermind it would seem. My scanner gave a little bleep. It was a contact and not a shuttle or an industrial.

Looking closer, I saw it was OriasV! Yes, an old adversary who went from CEO to -10.0 pirate and now with a new corp and working his sec status up, it would seem. I tracked his movements on the scanner and locked on. My heart thumping hard as I anticipated another kill. OriasV was in a wolf, identical class as mine so it would be most interesting in finding out who pops first. He was also still a blinkie so it mattered little about a timer. My warp engines engaged and away it went, the distance to the destination counting down rapidly. With another wolf, suitably configured, it will be an armour tanker so i needed to switch to some armour-piercing rounds as soon as his shields went. Some hail and phased plasma would do it I think.

My wolf came out of warp and I saw OriasV with his ship blinking red in my overview. Beautiful I thought. Just beautiful. My 150mm T2 opened up and soon reduced OriasV into dust. It was only then that I noticed a blinking, minimised conversation window.

I opened up the small message packet and it was OriasV offering surrender terms. SHITE. I missed his conversation and it appears that the offer to accept the conversation never came up; so I didn't see it. The red-mist of combat clouds and hides everything. Then I realised that OriasV was in my address book.

Oh well.

His loot was ok and yes, I pod-killed him too.

2007.11.23 23:06

Victim: OriasV
Alliance: United Intergalactic Nations
Corp: EveCorp
Destroyed: Wolf
System: Gultratren
Security: 0.3

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II

Destroyed items:
Carbonized Lead S, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Proton S, Qty: 200 (Cargo)
Fusion S, Qty: 322 (Cargo)
Fusion S, Qty: 93
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 83
Small Shield Extender I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
1MN MicroWarpdrive I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Small Hull Repairer I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Small Energy Transfer Array I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Ballistic Deflection Field I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Qty: 3
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I, Qty: 1
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters, Qty: 1
200mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Small 'Notos' Explosive Charge I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher I, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane I, Qty: 1
'Limos' Rocket Launcher I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Angel Electrum Tag, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Domination Silver Tag, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Partial Weapon Navigation, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Arch Angel Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
Smashed Trigger Unit, Qty: 7 (Cargo)
Fried Interface Circuit, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Trigger Unit, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Salvager I, Qty: 1


Coming back into my home area, I was asked by one of the newly minted BL4CK FL4G players to help him. He was in his punisher and it was Mochur. There was a harpy around, piloted by SNURA who I was chasing for a while but never caught. It appeared that he was hunting Mochur which in turn meant that I was now hunting him.

After a few minutes of setting up in position, I was summoned by Mochur - already in mid-warp; I discovered that the harpy had pounced on Mochur and was busy smashing into him. Speed was of the essence and I warped to my gang-mate as quickly as possible. Arriving, i was dismayed to see that I had landed outside of the 20KM range and had to hit the afterburner to close the distance. This I did and locked onto the harpy, it was close to Mochur's punisher so it was a blaster harpy; not the usual run-of-the-mill; missile and railgun jobs. Most likely it would be T2 fitted with lethal void-class ammunition. Mochur's punisher managed to tank for a few seconds longer before it exploded. I was in lock range and opened up with the x4 200mm and x1 rocket launcher. A salvo that hit the harpy full on, knocking it's shields down to 50% in the first burst. However, the harpy was tough and like all Caldari ships, had a super-efficient shield boosting system and was soon running at 75% shield. I had to be quick and get the damage to bleed into it's comparatively thin armour.

"Just popped." Said Mochur in our Independence channel chat and I was alone to avenge my gang mate. Mochur got his pod out but wished me luck.

My T2 auto-canons had a high rate of fire and the extra gyrostabiliser that I had installed allowed my wolf to kick out an extra 15% extra in terms of damage and rate of fire. However, even without these mods, the wolf was more than enough and soon the Harpy was on fire as it's hull was breached in numerous places. Its precious fuel and life support systems leaking out. Then it burst. The pilot had a big bounty on him and I tried to clamp onto it but experience and a bit of luck was on his side and he got away.

The loot was good and would pay for several new Punishers for Mochur.

2007.11.23 23:29

Victim: Snura
Alliance: SMASH Alliance
Corp: The Funkalistic
Destroyed: Harpy
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II

Name: Mochur Villus
Security: -2.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: Warp Disruptor I

Destroyed items:
Corpse, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 1060 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 862 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 1083 (Cargo)
200mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 3
Sigma-Nought Tracking Mode I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
'Malkuth' Standard Missile Launcher I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I, Qty: 1
Spirits, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II, Qty: 1
Energized Reactive Membrane I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Pax Amarria, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Triple-sheathed Reactive Plating I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
OE-5200 Rocket Launcher, Qty: 1 (Cargo)

After a quick change over, Mochur was back out in his new punisher and once more was engaged by yet another Harpy class assault frigate. What was it with this punisher? This one however, hit a lot harder than the last one and Mochur's punisher soon disappeared in a ball of flame, just as I arrived and got a precious point on the new Harpy.

"That ship hits a lot harder than the previous Harpy. Watch out Flash!" Warned Mochur, his pod now warping away. I locked horns with the second harpy and by God this Caldari AF could hit hard. I lost all my shields and some armour before I had the sense to kick the armour repairer to life. However, my Wolf was no slouch either and had torn a sizeable chunk out of the shields, I could imagine his capacitor struggling to feed the shield boosters thirst as it bled of the excessive kinetic energy imparted by my auto-canon shells.

However, the power of the wolf is in hitting harder than most other frigate-class ships and let armour be damned. This tilted the balance to me, even though I was tanking it mattered not and soon the Harpy was blowing out fire and atmosphere. It was dying but the pod pilot bravely held on and fought.

Hats off to him.

As his ship blew, the pod-pilot's capsule instantly warped out leaving his wreck and his crew's rescue launches in space.

2007.11.24 0:20

Victim: Cerui Tarshiel
Alliance: Apoapsis Multiversal Consortium
Corp: Fabulous Soulcatchers
Destroyed: Harpy
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II

Name: Mochur Villus
Security: -2.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon I

Destroyed items:
Hammerhead I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Light Neutron Blaster II, Qty: 1
Medium Shield Extender II, Qty: 1
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator, Qty: 1
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters, Qty: 1
Void S, Qty: 55
Metal Scraps, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Smashed Trigger Unit, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Artificial Neural Network, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Salvager I, Qty: 1

Not a bad night. Nice loot too for me and Mochur to share.

Love them isk!

Nano-ishtars are a real pain.

Just wanted to check skills when I call rang out in the independence channel. It was Grunanaca, now flying under a new pirate flag: BL4CK FL4G and he needed help.

"Get your 'cane! Eifer. Enemy 'cane." He said, tersely. I checked my chrono and found that yes, indeed, I had exactly 32 minutes before a meeting so I undocked in my hurricane. It still had damage from that megathron engagement last night.

I joined fleet and found that Jack'Frost was also a member of BL4CK FL4G and there is an open offer for me to join them. An offer as I have mentioned in a previous blog, that I will take up - just not yet as I needed some time to fix the corp and move stuff around. But soon.

The fleet had an enyo (Jack'Frost), rapier (Grunanca) and my 'cane. More than enough to kill a single 'cane. As I jumped into the system, I discovered that the pilot ('Jiam') was from Nebula Rasa alliance, an entity whom we had some dealings with in the past. It was moving around and re-aligning so the pilot was skillful enough to know not to sit in one place for too long.

However, they had not figured on our tackler: Grunanca soon had a lock and vectored us in. As soon as I arrived, I found the hurricane was double-webbed by the rapier and taking fire from the recon and also fire from Jack'Frost's enyo. As soon as I arrived, I was chosen as primary by the 'cane. A sensible move since I was the biggest and probably the easiest to hit.

The fight was one-sided with only us the victors. Jiam had a good tank on the 'cane but as it entered hull, we all prepared to snag the pod. As a reminder to all to get some points on the soon-to-emerge hull would be the capsule. Jiam was a veteran and we would ransom him. I reminded everyone about the pod. Soon after, the battlecruiser exploded and the pod was visible. Jack'Frost was the only one who could realistically tackle the pod and he did and then podded the pilot.

Ah.

There was a comms breakdown as we wanted to ransom the pilot, as someone of his age would a) have money and b) probably have implants that he would like to keep.

No big deal however.

However, a known Anti-pirate came into the local system and tracked us down. He was in an ishtar and could anyone get close to him? Could we hell. Instead, the ishtar spewed out deadly T2 drones and tried to chew us up. He succeeded in destroying Nframa (rifter) who came in soon afterwards but was unceremoniously sent back in a pod to the nearby station.

A real pain but kudos to the pilot who knew what he was doing.

Next time we'll have to get our rapier on him.

Scan probers in the team

Coming back to Gusandall, I was happy to go camp this station but a gang had already been formed by Jubes and Ren. So off we went; General Coochie was also invited into the Independence channel - she is a skilled scan prober but lacked DPS to crack the ships she did probe out. Our group was the opposite, we had DPS but a weakness in scan probes. Sounds like a well-made match. So we sat and waited as General Coochie started to drop scan probes around Evati, we had already spotted another gank team (abaddon, domi and helios) and we decided to engage them. However, when the fleet was only one jump away - the enemy gank team had already engaged a drake, which was joined by another drake then another ship. All reported by General Coochie in her helios.

We decided to wait until there was winner one way or the other but it looked like the drake would be toast and so it was. The fleet jumped straight in as the Domi disengaged and warped and then the Abaddon straight after just as arrived. We were too slow and didn't get a point.

Pity.

We then scattered to our safespots and let General Coochie do her thing. As she scanned, we did out local scans too - Evati was just a busy, busy system.

It was Ren Surkova (a smart sassy Caldari) who spotted a new mark: a megathron and a rapier. She asked to leave her position to investigate and so she did.

"Tackle! Tackle!" She shouted, "I have the megathron and I have a point on it. Rapier nearby too."
My God she tackled a megathron in her myrmidon? I thought. She's braver than I thought. She's er, got balls.
"Go! Fleet warp to Ren." I replied.
"Rapier is primary. Rapier is primary." Stated Grunaca, our own Rapier-class pilot. He knew that the recon cruiser was the force multiplier in this encounter. The tackled megathron was the ganker and would be dealt with later.

I arrived seconds after Jubes. We all primaried the Rapier though Jubes, from what I could see, had landed close to the distinctive shape of the megathron. I locked the rapier and started to blast it. The rapier is pretty tough so I sent my drones after it and clamped my nos on it too. The firepower from two canes and a rapier was too much for the enemy rapier. Ren was locked in combat with the megathron but we were a bit too slow in taken down the enemy rapier and we were a myrmidon down as the Megathron took revenge.
Jubes' hurricane, being too close, was the next target for the megathron. The space between the ships was filled with hybrid rounds and missiles and auto canon shells. It was thick and heavy. Jubes went toe-to-toe with the megathron, just like Ren. I went in close to help and opened up with my hail ammunition but the armour on that battleship was thick and the pilot was not a fool.

Jubes eventually succumbed to the tremendous damage and then it was my turn. General Coochie meanwhile had leapt back one system to get his celestis and it's dampners. I took the full brunt of the megathron's fire as I was also too close. A heavy nos was clamped on me and his drones (Ogre IIs) buzzed around me like angry bees. My smaller drones tried to fend them off but it was proving to be difficult. I tanked the damage from his blasters and thank my stars for a damage control unit II and Cap boosters. So long as I had enough cap boosters, I could tank and so I did. The megathron did get me down to hull but the DCU II helped me. Grunaca's dual-webs on the megathron meant that even if I was webbed, I could still get some distance out. I need to get some range on the megathron and started to switch to barrage ammo. I managed to get out from the warp disruptor range just as Grunaca, concerned for the damage I had already sustained, called out:
"Flash, disengage and rep. Go!" As I aligned to leave, my cap now dry, General Coochie came in with her celestis and clamped a whole rack of remote sensor dampners on the unlucky megathron.

It was now dead - it couldn't warp, lock or run away and we could chip away at it until it was dead. However, I had another idea and called out in the fleet chat.

"We should ransom the megathron, we don't have enough DPS to kill the megathron quickly enough before help arrives."

I warped back this time, primed with barrage ammunition when the megathron burst into bright cloud of light and expanding cloud of debris. The megathron pilot, knowing it's hopeless situation, decided to self-destruct this ship.

Pity for all concerned.

Also, it appears that BLACK-FLAG had their first kill? I think so. Well done!

Concord, impassive as ever - recorded the kill.

2007.11.20 16:13
Victim: D0INK
Alliance: Molotov Coalition
Corp: Vale Heavy Industries
Destroyed: Rapier
System: Evati
Security: 0.2

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Name: Ren Surkova
Security: -3.7
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Down In Flames
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: Ogre II

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.7
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Brutor tribe
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Flameburst Light Missile

Name: Grunanca
Security: -9.7
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Rapier
Weapon: Warrior II

Destroyed items:
Power Diagnostic System II, Qty: 2
Nanofiber Internal Structure II, Qty: 1
650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 2
Large Shield Extender II, Qty: 1
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator, Qty: 1
Republic Fleet EMP M, Qty: 2742 (Cargo)

A new beginning?

Some things change, others remain the same. Independence is still there but I am considering the offer of joining and helping to start up a new pirate corp, BLACK-FLAG. At the time of writing, the corp is now up and running and have plans.

The Independence channel started off as a means of communication between outlaws, pirates and thugs mainly based around the Heimatar and Metropolis. I wanted it to be a means where we could all share intel and news and work together; independent of corp and allliance relationships. Ideally, it was to be for all those small-corp and independent pirates who needed to occasionally join up in a gang to tackle marks too big for solo work. However, we are first and foremost pirates and it does well for some to remember that. In other words, we're quite apt to be backstabbed if one doesn't keep both eyes in both directions. Don't be complacent and you can thrive. Yarr.

Certainly, Independence is not a corp.

Over the last 12 months, the channel has seen many pirates come and go but a small core of about eight became regulars, more so than their own corp channels. Over time, we worked together and took part in some outrageous marks and ambushes. Time and time again, peeps would ask - let's make a corp! However, the idea was always shot down as the mix of pirates was not quite right and people were in this channel precisely to get away from the tedium of the corp chat and the alliance chat etc.

Still, all the pilots in the channel wanted an identity they could rally around and fight for. Slowly, the pilots became a corp in spirit and action, rather than name. They have been mentioned in this blog now on and off: Viper Sam and Jubes and Grunaca to name three. In the chat, we've discussed our desires for small hard hitting teams roaming around, not claiming territory but kills and loot. No desire for massive fleets with capitals, more like fast HACs and recons.

It was inevitable but in these conversations, a new corp was being formed right before our eyes.

Since I know the pilots, I am happy to fly with them and pirate with them. The independence channel will still be active as there are others in there: Kane, Rail and Lucius who still will be doing their own thing but they are always welcome in the group.

Mail from BL4CK FL4G

You are receiving this mail because you are being invited to join the ranks of BLACK-FLAG. This newly formed corporation is going to be made up of many of the pilots you know from the Independence channel -- those who you've flown with in the Gusandall area for some time now.

You may apply at BLACK-FLAG's headquarters in Gusandall. Should you accept the invitation you will be among the core pilots of BLACK-FLAG and will act as its foundation as it grows in the future.

You will receive an EVE Mail upon acceptance of your application outlining the details of BLACK-FLAG as a corporation such as recruitment standards and our general battle plan/ambitions. It will be important that you look over this mail because it will lay down our ethos. Our goal, above all others, is to have a group of players who share a vision. This is what will separate BLACK-FLAG from the mediocrity of other corps.

We hope to see you in the corporate channel soon.

Indeed, tempting.

Am sitting back and mulling the offer in my mind. More so, I need to do some practical things such as get an alt to run the Independence corp - or wait for a friend in RL to come on over and take over. She's bored in her current corp and was about to start her own one.

However, the offer is on my mind and I will see what the future holds. Glancing at the Independence channel - half is BLACK FLAG and the other are independent pilots, of course, some are also alts of existing pirates too.

A fun weekend's pirating!

I haven't station camped for ages and my last session (about two years ago) was so boring, I swore I would never do it again. However, the sheer amount of haulers vomiting forth from the stations changed my mind. Grunaca asked me if I wanted to give him a hand along with Jubes, and Mochur Villus. Yes, as a group - we have peeps who are normally Red to each other fighting alongside each other. In all cases, the standings are corp to corp and doesn't reflect the personal relationships between the pirates. Sometimes, you have to leave all that crap at the door and join a gang to kill other innocent peeps; right? Hence independence. Of course, if you're not in the channel - it's fair game.

So I found myself in my hurricane, insta-popping the never-ending tide of bestowers, iterons and sigils as they blindly left the station. Grunaca was in his sleipnir and it was tanking the sentry guns fine. He was also locking and destroying the haulers faster than I could lock. He had no tackling gear but with his alpha-strike ability; who cares?

However, the haulers kept on coming and I did managed to kill a fair few, their cargo varied from heaps-of-garbage to weapon caches to dolls. I find the last item a wee bit disturbing to be honest. Oh, the ships were also dropping lots and lots cargo expanders.

Jubes in his cane was doing a fine job but Mochur had to be careful as he was the only one of the four who was not recognised as a pirate. His security status was still a healthy +3.1 though it was dropping!

After about an hour, some of the haulers came out shooting in their drakes. Perfect, this was what we were waiting for and we engaged them with glee. The drakes popped almost instantly under our fire. Those farmers, used to dumb and predictable Angel zombies were probably a bit shocked at how quickly their drakes succumbed to our fire. The loot was all t1 crap though.

We had already decided on a scorched earth policy where we leave them nothing. We salvage their wrecks and corpses. I was in my mammoth for a fair portion of the morning, dropping boosters for Jubes and Grunaca and salvaging the wrecks and grabbing the cargo and corpses. We left the farmers with NOTHING. I was momentarily engaged by a Goonswarm myrmidon; that got an instant response from Grunaca and Jubes who came to my rescue. The myrmidon however, escaped. The Goon thought that I was a farmer! Yes, indeed.

However, two hours into the shooting fest, I undocked once more when I came under fire. All I saw in our channel chat was Grunaca yelling 'Hostile mammoth undocking!' The mammoth was me but Grunaca had a borked overview and blew up the useful industrial.

Silly Grunaca.

I got another industrial and the group continued popping the haulers, whose numbers were slowly diminishing but still coming. We were then joined by PvP God in his Deimos, another M34N pilot. M34N is the main pirate corp in Eifer and Gus and the surrounding areas, though Havoc Inc would want to dispute this am sure. I have neutral standings to them as, while I am friendly with a handful of pirates, I never drop my guard - we're pirates after all. It does well for some of us to be reminded of that! I have no idea on how the other's feel about me but I don't mind. Pirates have no friends, just accomplices but I have the back of all those who are in the independence channel. I will back them up no matter what.

As we continued to pop the haulers, some overseer must have got pissed off and sent out one of their more combat-experienced pilots in a raven. We cheered in the channel as we saw the big, white square appear in our overview. It didn't even get a chance to complete it's lock on anyone as we tore it to pieces. We howled with delight as the mighty raven-class battleship was reduced to sparkling scrap.

Concord, impassive as ever, recorded the kill.

2007.11.16 17:18

Victim: yinssoo
Alliance: NONE
Corp: State War Academy
Destroyed: Raven
System: Ingunn
Security: 0.3

Involved parties:
Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.6
Alliance: The Church.
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane

Name: pvp god (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Alliance: The Church.
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Deimos
Weapon: Heavy Electron Blaster I

Name: Grunanca
Security: -10.0
Alliance: The Red Skull
Corp: Fusion Mercenaries
Ship: Sleipnir
Weapon: Sleipnir

Destroyed items:
Infiltrator I, Qty: 2
Hammerhead I, Qty: 2
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Qty: 2
Large Shield Booster II, Qty: 1
Ballistic Control System II, Qty: 1

Another 50-odd haulers later; I felt a tickle at the base of my neck: imminent combat so I swapped back into my cane and waited and sure enough (the farmers had a recognised mission team that infest the area) this time they engaged us. A drake, a raven and a domi all undocked and engaged my cane and Grunaca's sleipnir. Jubes and PvP God had left for a few hours but we had Telesk with us and the Muelac.

The drake was bait but it got blown to pieces by us. The domi was tougher and had caught Grunaca just as he ran out of cap boosters. Not good timing! We popped a few of the ogre drones and dented the armour of both the domi and the shields of the raven and warped out. We did manage to grab some loot off the destroyed drake before we all got out.

So the farmers showed some teeth. Good.

We regrouped and with Mochur back and Jubes coming back online - we went back to the station and continued to merrily blast the haulers with Mochur successfully selling 28 of the looted cargo expanders for a cool 1 million each! Amazing!


There was an incident of friendly fire in the early evening when some Pandemic legion pilots (vagabond and astarte) came close and Mochur (or was it Telesk?) opened fire on them. This provoked a hostile response (obviously) but they were blue to Grunanca and Jubes. I didn't return fire but decided to dock. Some hasty chat in chat and apologise from ourselves and the PL pilots were on their way.

Grunaca had about 150 kills by now and he frapsed the lot and made a fun video with a jollly tune here (hosted by EVE FILES - 'Death to all Farmers') or you can watch it from within the blogger........



The late evening became even more interesting: Havoc had come out in force and arrived at our station camp - initially they had one drake who sat far off the station. Only Mochur had the range to engage. Then local jumped and more havoc arrived. Soon the Havoc numbers included two drakes, two canes, one ishtar and a thanatos. Yes, there was a carrier.

Seeing what we regarded as over whelming odds - we docked and discussed our options. A friend of mine ('V') offered to help and undocked and acted as our scout feeding back good intel on Havoc's movements. Viper contacted some M34N pilots and explained the situation. Meanwhile the new pirate camp was merrily blasting the haulers in our place. Am glad that for the farmers, the misery did not end.

A group was hastily set-up with a common agreement on using a single voice comms system. However, it was obvious that the fleet had problems working together due to a lot of unfamiliar pilots - some actually flagged as red to each other.

The situation was also fluid - with potential targets located in Eifer in the form of a Claymore, ferox, caracal and stabber. Problem was, this quartet was flagged as blue to half the fleet! The Havoc ships were moving around and had relocated to Sotrenzur; with the thanatos undocking and then cyno'ing out of the Ingunn station. We gave chase, or as best as one could do but with no probe scanners it was going to be difficult. I joined Tiggertime at the station while the rest were vectored into a maelstrom, tackled in one of the belts and blasting it to bits.

The fleet however, dispersed after a while as there were no more viable targets due to standings clashes between the various pilots.

Pity - the night ended like it did but station camping is back on the agenda for me!

Anyway, take a bow gentlemen....




One can hope to have a chat here on this EVE-O thread.

A short road trip indeed.

A small gang formed and we decided to roam a bit, Viper Sam in the lead with me, Jack and Mochur following. Odd that Mochur and Viper's corps are actually red towards each but sometimes, you have to put aside your difference when in pursuit of the gank. A small mobile gang but Viper Sam, eager to test out his vagabond ended up stirring up a massive hornets next in the form of a ROADKILL gang somewhere near Akora.

We moved out fast as we didn't want to be caught out. It was fun running away.

MH was closed off as the junction had more Roadkill pilots there so, disappointed we moved back towards our home system.

It was busy. It is always busy, that's why we love it.

Another jaguar class ship stalked me while I was busy stalking everything else including a jaguar and three rifters. I hugged planet 8 when the jaguar pilot opened up a conversation window with me. He demanded that I rename my ship. I took his ship name as my own - merely to cause confusion not to insult but the jaguar pilot was not too happy.

He demanded a 1 v 1 but I merely retorted, 'We're pirates, not knights!' and with that, he grumbled an agreement. Of course, I would still like a kill as Gusandall is my home and also home for a fair few others pirates, some I call friends. Sometimes one feels a bit threatened and invaded when too many pilots roam freely, whether they are blinkies or no. Am sure this feeling is shared by all those 0.0 alliance pilots out there.

So I wanted a kill and swept my Jaguar-class assault frigate back towards the planet. My jaguar is fitted differently from other jaguars: instead of it shield tanking, it's like a rifter with an extra mid-slot. I use the mid-slot for either a tracking disruptor or a remote sensor dampner or even a racial ECM if one has the capacitor for it.

Blasphemous to some I know but the secret to success has always been to surprise. This setup has always been very successful to me except, ironically, against other shield tanked frigates like the jaguar!

So Alex Medvedov spotted me at the planet and warped in. We locked each other and I could see that my lock time was quicker due to his larger signature radius. However, chewing through a shield tank like that was not going to be easy. His Jaguar was fitted with tech two rockets as well and we exchange salvo at close range. He didn't web me (not enough mid-slots) bit even with EMP, I was having trouble chewing through his shield. He got me into armour just as my armour repairer came online. This went on for a few minutes, the small nosferatu making a difference to my cap. However, I couldn't keep this up forever and my armour repairer eventually shut down. I was taking a serious pounding now and had yet to get Alex's jaguar into armour so the situation was dire.

My ship shuddered as it realised that it was dying, leaking atmosphere and fuel, I continued on the crazy, and lethal orbit. When suddenly, another frigate came in. It was Kane. My ship popped just as Kane locked onto the enemy Jaguar. I warped out but Kane blasted the jaguar into scrap and managed to snag the pod. The ransom demands (quite reasonable at 10million iskl) was broadcast across the local Comnet. The stricken pilot, now in his pod - refused to pay so Kane blasted him to flash-frozen organic matter.

Alex vowed revenge.

2007.11.12 22:30

Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Jaguar
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Alex Medvedov (laid the final blow)
Security: -7.7
Alliance: The Church.
Corp: Soliders Of Eve
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II

Destroyed items:
EMP S, Qty: 1415 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 107
Gyrostabilizer II, Qty: 1
150mm Light AutoCannon II, Qty: 1
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I, Qty: 1
'Abandon' Targeting Disruptor I, Qty: 1
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I, Qty: 1
Spirits, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I, Qty: 1
Hail S, Qty: 381 (Cargo)
Barrage S, Qty: 500 (Cargo)

THIS IS GUSANDALL!

Love it.

Anyway, I have plans that are firming up - an extended road trip into alliance space with a bunch of cut throats. Can't wait and will keep you all posted.

We missed the Ishtar.....

Another night out and about in beautiful Heimatar and surrounding areas; i found myself in a small gang with a 'geddon, cane and stabber. I was in my jaguar and we had a scan prober with the gang. Within 20 minutes we were being vectored into a raven but a mix-up between the scout and the main gank party was confused and we lost the opportunity for a decent kill. Unfortunately, this was our luck for the rest of the night - close brushes with ratters and pirates alike but no kills. It was a pity really as the fleet of six had some considerable firepower. Coming back later in the day I was delighted to see a large fleet and within five minutes, I just made it onto the killmail of a very tough harbringer. It was packed with T2 gear. Skigganon was back once more but to my chagrin, we lost him, we were so close. Skigganon zipped out of the system.

Great pity as he would have had been a good kill, yet again.

Back in the pod...

I decided that it was time for bait -> once again to get out and about; the Independence channel had some new faces in it; soon to be permanent fixtures no doubt. We have Grunaca, Divinity Beta, Inglorfin and Nozaro; all hungry for the kill and loyal to the gank.

There was skiganon (see this entry) back in his ishtar along with some friends. We earlier popped his mate's hurricane but this time, Skig had woken up.

Grunaca in his rapier managed to track down the feared HAC and I was going to be bait; except a hound had appeared and had the audacity to fire at me. Anyway, it decloaked about 90KM from me and thought it would be safe. Little did it know that Grunaca was lurking - when I warped out, Grun had the hound dead. Skigannon then decloaked as I left the belt!

Grunaca called us all back into him and battle was joined. We had already decided to attempt to knock out all his drones, as most of his DPS would be coming from his T2 heavies. However, I was primary and was quickly reduced to scrap. I did knock out two of his drones though. I was in an egg but the rest of the gang fought hard and managed to bring down the HAC. The gang included Grunaca (rapier), Jack'Frost (enyo), Divinity Beta Hawk) and Nozaro (rifter and came in late!)

A good kill nonetheless.

Loot.....to share

Lewt. I think.

Dancing again

A road trip of sorts had me and a cane and ruppie make a 35+ jump into Metropolis to see what was around. The hunting in those areas can be a bit hit and miss to be honest and we didn't see anything at all for a couple of hours. There was a rokh, megathron, sleipnir and Astarte camp in Hadozeko but apart from that, not much else.

There were a couple of pirates who wanted to hunt with us but to be honest, I sensed a trap and decided against it. I only trust a handful of persons and these pirate cut-throats was not on the list.

On the way back, we met up with Grunaca - a former merc pilot now pirating away. In his rapier, it would make a useful addition and we played a game of cat and mouse with a nemesis and manticore, both who were sensible enough to stay away from us.

A hurricane flying under the UFA flag did come in alongside our friend Skigannon - our ishtar friend from a few weeks back. He went afk and was nice enough to tell us, could have been a trap but we pounced on the cane nonetheless with me in *my* cane tackling! It was fun and we pumelled the hurricane and I managed to lock the pod and kill it too. Lovely.

Poor loot however but I did get some ammo.

Local spiked but it coincided with my needing a break.

Musings of a Pirate - Part 5

No matter what ship I get into and fly, I always end up coming back to using the rifter. This is still the best T1 frigate in New Eden; bar none. Throw me your rocket kestrels, your tri-ion neutron incursus and the bleeder punisher. The rifter can take them all, hands down.

I base this on experience as I have flown all T1 frigates and while there are some nice ships out there, effective in their own way - nothing gives me the thrill, joy and firepower of the rifter. The Bleeder Punisher is probably the next best but the lack of the third mid slot weakens it.

So the rifter and her variants (the jaguar and wolf) are ideal pirate ships. They are fast and hit hard though of the three, the wolf is the more specialised and only useful in a frigate gangs due to it's two mid-slots. The more versatile Jaguar is a better solo machine with four mid-slots. I tend to use the fourth slot as my utility slot and fit either a cap booster, tracking disruptor hell, even a shield extender.

Love it.

Mining Op Interruption

I was out in the Jaguar and on my way home from a long and fruitless hunt when I spied a mining op of two retrievers and an escorting thrasher-class destroyer. All from the same corp (never heard of them) and jumped into a safe spot.

They had not moved and there was the welcome sign of a mining can.

Narrowing them down on my scanner I had them down to the third belt off the fifth planet. Excellent I thought to myself as the pickings had been quite slim. I warped to the belt and landed 80Km from their operation. No problem, I anticipated this and quickly book marked their can and warped to the nearby planet. On arrival, I whipped the ship around and warped back, this time towards the can. With luck I would be on top of the operation.

Exiting the warp - I crashed into one of the barges. I quickly locked all three, scrambling one of the retrievers and firing on the thrasher. The thrasher engaged me and as the second mining barge warped out. The scrambled barge probably tried the same but found his engines all scrambled. The thrasher meanwhile was being pummeled into scrap - it's thin armour no match for the T2 auto-canons on my jaguar. I had to juggle the distances between the thrasher and the scrambled barge. I had to keep the barge scrambled thus needed to be within 7.5km but I also needed to keep in my optimal range of the auto-canons to ensure that I could finish off the thrasher.

Then the thrasher turned his ship around and warped out.

LOL - some escort huh?

I concentrated on the barge and blasted it to hull and then decided to ransom the pod instead. Hopefully, it would drop one, maybe both strip miners. The ship exploded and out popped the egg. I had it scrambled and open up a conversation. Asking for some isk, my captive closed the window and blocked me. Well, taking that as a firm 'no' - I killed the pod and gave the mining pilot a free trip home to the cloning vats.


2007.11.07 9:22
Victim: Tebes
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Kosmische Hanse
Destroyed: Retriever
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:
Expanded Cargohold I, Qty: 1 (Cargo)
Strip Miner I, Qty: 2

2007.11.07 9:24

Victim: Tebes
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Kosmische Hanse
Destroyed: Capsule
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:

Now, with the criminal flag expired. I switched to the rifter for a change. I love that ship. Entering Eifer, I spied another two rifters - both pirates. These chaps were called 'A Death' and 'Hitoshiki'. I didn't know them and I was hoping that they would pluck courage to engage me; I would love a 2 v 1.


Nothing like engaging other pirates as all would be set up for combat and therefore would be a challenge. 2 v 1 would be even better.

So we danced around, trying to time our warp into the belts in order to intercept each other. There were plenty of targets and no doubt we both waited for each to engage before ambushing the entire group. After three minutes, I spotted a thrasher. Seconds later, I saw the two rifters in the same scan area. Narrowing it down to a belt and it was confirmed. Either the two pirates were engaging the thrasher or working together did not bother me. I hit the warp with a kill lust in my blood.

Bursting out into real space I landed in the middle of all three; I hit the lock button on all three. It appeared that the two new rifters were NOT engaging the thrasher. So a potential 3 v 1. Opening up on the first rifter (piloted by Hitoshiki) - I was trying to knock it out but kept a point on the thrasher. The other rifter whipped his craft round and warped out. Hitoshiki's rifter hit his afterburner and powered out of the fight leaving me with the thrasher. The fight was short and sharp but the thrasher could hit hard. The pilot was not a rookie but gave as good as he got. However, the rifter is tough and even with no capacitor - it can still dish out pain.


I was into armour but the repper was doing a superb job.

The pilot (MrValera) was in trouble and his pod popped out. Since we had two more pirates in local, I was nervous about the ransom so I decided to blow it up. Maybe I can chase the other rifters? Hitoshiki was still in the belt but was about 100km away - I think it was trying to get over 150km so it could warp back to me?

Whatever, the pod was destroyed and I gave chase.

The chase however was fruitless: the two pirates did not engage at all.

Pity.

I am NOT my ship.

The title tells it all but losing a ship still stings. After a quiet weekend, I chased down a rifter and proceeded to pop it. However, the wolf is a simple ship - no web so the mark started to move away from me at speed. Luckily, some Angels appeared and took exception to the rifter pilot and proceeded to blow off what little hull was left on his rifter. The Angels got the final blow and the concord killmail. I however, picked up some much needed T2 ammo and a T2 afterburner.

Meanwhile, Jack'Frost had tracked a wolf down in a complex and I eagerly jumped in to help. By the time I was in gate activation and about to be sling shoted into the complex, Jack'Frost informed me that he was down and in his pod - high tailing it out of there, leaving his drones behind.

I landed 2km from the target wolf, piloted by 'Countessa' so I immediately opened up on her. She had a nice tank, as wolves would have, but she had a nos and a repper. I was a fully plated wolf.

Should be an even match - my higher armour HP and DPS versus her repper and nos.

The the complex's angels decided to take a disliking to me.

They fired on me as well.

Ooops.

I popped under the combined fire and had the bad fortune of hitting Jack'Frost's wreck on the way out. So I got podded as well! Such is life. Reason why I never have implants.

Good fight by Countessa. She took out an ishkur then a wolf in quick succession. Pretty fucking good in my book. Am sure we'll lock horns with her again. Meanwhile, I had a long shuttle journey ahead of me......


2007.11.05 17:19

Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Wolf
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Countessa (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.1
Alliance: SOUL CARTEL
Corp: LEGI0N
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II

Name: Gistii Thug / Angel Cartel

Name: Wrecker Alvum / Unknown


Destroyed items:
Small Armor Repairer II
N-Type Kinetic Hardener I
J5 Prototype Warp Inhibitor I
Hail S, Qty: 1491 (Cargo)
1MN Afterburner II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 356 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 2010 (Cargo)
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 1228 (Cargo)
Thorn Rocket, Qty: 530 (Cargo)
1MN Afterburner II (Cargo)
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 3
EMP S, Qty: 39
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 53
Hail S, Qty: 38


2007.11.05 17:20
Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:
Name: Countessa (laid the final blow)
Security: -1.1
Alliance: SOUL CARTEL
Corp: LEGI0N
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II

Ahh - looks like I have a sens of humour too....

2007.11.05 17:19
So you died? Well you have a Clone at Auga X - Moon 3 - Brutor tribe Bureau station. Enjoy your afterlife.

Cane damage

Viper needed help.

Him and Jubes, both in 'canes were facing off a nighthawk, deimos, rupture and one other unknown. It looked a bit bleak and I had only a wolf available but I did have one unassembled 'cane in the hangar.

What the hell I thought and informed them that I would put one together. Jubes luckily had also asked an Ishtar pilot to join us so it looked a lot more even. With no insurance and some Tech 2 kit on my 'cane, I joined the gang - fully away that I had just put on most of the tech 2 modules that were due to see the market today!

Oh well. I had no insurance either such was the rush to get the gang together. However, Viper was adamant that we would get our kills. Checking the killboards, both Jubes and Viper had made nice kills that morning. Those naughty boys!

I waited on the other side of the gate as Viper went in to engage. Now the nighthawk is a mighty beast. It's shield tank is almost unbreakable but break it we must. I loaded up on EMP rounds to be sure. The deimos however was selected as the primary target with the rupture and then nighthawk following.

The tension was high as we all waited for Viper to call us in.

'X' - that was the signal. I slammed the engines into warp, activated the jump gates and into Eifer.
'X - IV-1', replied Viper to my silent question. I warped to my fellow pirate and burst out into real space. My eyes eagerly scanning the space. There was a deimos at 15km and a nighthawk at 18km. No sign of the rupture. Jubes had also arrived and along with Viper. I locked primary, released the drones, hit the mwd and scrambled the HAC. When I locked I was shocked at the damage that it had already sustained. Viper must be packing some serious ordnance. The Deimos died in a bright flash of light and debris. The nighthawk was next and I turned my guns onto it. My drones screamed over and I hit a tight orbit. The famed shield systems of this ship were no exageration as it took an awful lot of punishment. The ishtar had warped in also and sent it's drones over. Viper was taking the brunt of the damage from the nighthawk's system. Not for the first time have I thought of fitting a remote armour repairer into one of my highs.

Viper's hurricane went down bravely but we redoubled our efforts of destruction onto the nighthawk. It had to die. Jubes, I and Yago (the ishtar pilot) had the nighthawk scrambled and webbed and covered in drones, emp rounds and missiles (from me) and slowly, the shields started to fail. It could not tank such sustained damage and eventually once the shields flickered and died; it was dead. Caldari shields are tough, there armour aint!

This was the loot that the nighthawk had dropped (minus the AC ammo and boosters).....nice nice.

1 million or your ore gets it!

I was in Wolf and on my travels spotted a mining barge. Golden opportunity!

Quickly scanning him down, I warped in - eager for the kill. The Concord pilot information revealed a new player so I was hoping that pickings could be had. On entering the belt, i was about 50KM away. Quickly re-aligning, I made a note of where he was (thank you jet can mining!) and sped out to a nearby planet. Arriving a few seconds later, I whipped the wolf around and warped back in to the new position I had noted.

Landing more or less on top of the barge, I started scrambling and hitting it. It was busy with two angel cruisers, the mining barge's three hornet drones chewing away at them. Since I had one too many kill mails stolen by an errant NPC; I decided to kill off the NPCs since the mining barge was now down to about 15% armour and was scrambled - surely it wasn't going anywhere?

Ah, my arrogance. As I tackled the angel - I swung too far away from the barge and the scrambler turned off. I did not keep an eye on the range and therefore lost the barge. Cursing, I destroyed the angels and grabbed the leftover drones. Feeling a bit disappointed, I checked the can. It had over 12K of freshly mined omber.

Hmmmmm, surely the miner would come back for his ore? I went back to the nearby planet and kept an eye on the scanner. A minute later, a hauler appeared! Brilliant, at least I can salvage something. Springing the trap, the wolf dropped onto the still-unsuspecting hauler and I got some points on him and opened up with the 150mm tech 2 auto-canons. Frantically, I saw the hauler re-align and then warp out.

The pilot was smart fitting warp core stabilisers.

Stalemate.

I looked at the can and I thought, why not? Opening up a private sub-space communication with the pilot I ransome his ore back to the pilot. For one million isk, he would get his ore back. I shot at the can to make sure that I would make do on my threat.

The pilot was unsure how to give me money but his hauler did come back and made a beeline for the ore. I locked and fired a few salvoes at the can. I rocked violently as my shells started to shred the thin container. Bits of omber floated out.

'One million isk. NOW!' I demanded.

There was silence from the still advancing hauler. Another salvo and the can was near bursting.

'NOW.' I demanded and decided the can had only seconds to live. As I was about to blow up the can, the wallet blinked. Checking quickly, I was relieved to see the nice round figure of 1,000,000isk now in the wallet. The hauler by now had grabbed the ore and was aligning to get out.

We chatted some more, I promised to leave the miner along for today and left the system. Will probably come back to extract some more isk off him?

Yarrr!