End of the year.....

I had to end the year with a bang and the last few kills of 2008 were all fun and memorable. After the ambush by the hyperion and hurricane (R.u.S.H. Alliance) things quietened down somewhat. I popped a probe and catalyst while flying my Jaguar but around 15:00 I was pulled into a fleet that had Viper, Dogz, and Muelac. A friend had notified us of a sleipnir loitering near evati and we thought - why not? The minmater command ship has a mighty shield system but under combined firepower from our ships; it would not be able to last long.

Both Viper and I made the jump and the tackle, the sleipnir was warp scrambled but the gate gun, detecting an illegal action opened fire on both of us. Our shield systems flaring brightly as we absorbed the fire from the robotic guns. Dogz and Muelac arrived a few seconds later and we had the sleipnir. The pilot was not afk but he was trapped and fought back, bravely. His ship, mighty as it was, went down under our combined fire. We missed killing the pilot.

Taking a break, I went back to Gusandall and spied my old slasher-class frigate sitting there. I wanted to take it out for a spin. Undocking, I was delighted in the swift and nimble response of the ship. It was wonderful to be able to spin on a dime and move quickly. To get back into interceptors would be nice; one can get addicted to speed I think.

A friend fired off a terse message to me, he found someone in a hurricane class ship in Auren and asked me if I wanted to kill. I agreed and making sure that I had the necessary points, undocked and sped across the system to the appropriate gate. On entering, I saw that local was busy. Quickly adjusting the scanner I located the hurricane on the on-board scanner, narrowing it down, I had it highlighted in one of the VI cluster belts. A slasher versus a hurricane is a mighty challenge and not wanting to lose the kill, I checked the Independence and M34N Flag channel and Dogz was around. Excellent, quickly explaining to Dogz the situation, he joined my fleet as I hit warp.

Landing inside the belt, I saw the distinctive shape of the hurricane. I was close enough to snap on the warp disruptor and vectored Dogz in, who had just arrived in-system in his vagabond. He had earlier killed a few more ships in the feared vagabond-class HAC.

The hurricane pilot (Tammy Raye) tried to escape but found her warp containment fields inoperative rendering a jump impossible, so she fought back. With no drones, she could not hit my nimble slasher. Visually checking the ship, I discovered that she was using howitzers - deadly but slow firing and tracking weapons. Utterly unsuited to hitting my slasher and the equally fast Vagabond. A target painter and webber would be required to support such howitzer units if one wants to survive PvP in it.

We slowly sliced the hurricane apart.

Tammy Raye bravely resisted the inevitable but died. My slasher quickly locked the pod and blasted her organic remains to frozen gobules of flesh.

She was unhappy when she re-cloned and convo'ed me. Threatening me with death and mutilation, I chuckled as she showed some spirit. However, a while later she convo'ed me again and was calmer and she wanted to find out how best she could have fought back. Now, this is a pilot who is showing some promise. One who is willing to learn. I gave her some pointers and satisfied, she bade me good night. No doubt, dreaming of killing me. She should join the queue. Anyway, well fought Tammy Raye and if you want one piece of advice, then it is this: YOU ARE NOT YOUR SHIP.

A few hours later, I was in my rupture class ship. Yes, it appears that I was having a trip down memory lane and with Redbad and Inglorifin we tracked a couple of thoraxes in Sotrenzur. Naturally, like sharks we leapt in.

It was a trap and one more thorax and a caracal appeared. My rupture and Redbad's ruppie killed the first plated thorax (1600mm plate with small T2 blasters) but the other two Plate raxes and caracal blasted both our ruptures to pieces. A well-executed trap with decent ships.

Best way to recover is to kill someone else. I switched to my wolf and went roaming, avoiding the Sotrenzur area for now as I had no backup. I found myself back in auren once more and lo' there was a Jaguar heading towards me and the gate. I naturally locked him and he locked me and he opened fire on me. It was Bashar Hardin from Twisted Inc and his first salvo almost threw my Wolf back into the gate. Not bad.

My response was equally as devastating.

So we had the two feared Minmater assault frigates going head-to-head. A wolf-class AF and a Jaguar-class AF. The former is more geared to attacking and killing it's opponent. With only two medium slots, it can't use any fancy tackling or EWAR gear. It sports x4 turret and x1 rocket/missile high slots and I had crammed x4 200mm T2 ACs loaded with Hail and x1 Rocket launcher with gremlin rockets. A wolf pilot needs to kill it's opponent before the opponent can kill him. A Jaguar pilot has less offensive, alpha-strike potential but it more than makes it up with versatility. Most sport massive passive shield tanks with speed.

My salvo chewed into the Jaguar and because the shields only shifted slightly, I knew very quickly that this opponent of mine had a shield tank therefore it had medium shield extender(s) and lucky for me, no tracking disruptors.

I quickly changed from hail to emp as I needed more effective anti-shield ammunition. However, it would take ten seconds to change ammo and I was so exposed to the Jaguars firepower. It's third, fourth and fifth salvos had taken all of my meagre shield and now I was into armour. A wolf is an armour tanker, as it had four low slots and I packed it with appropriate modules. On came the small armour repairer as the Bashar's ACs fired Hail at me, the deadly T2 munition blasting huge holes in my armour, only for my repairer's nanobots filling in the holes. My capacitor went down alarming as the repairer slaked it's thirst.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

My tactical control winked green at me as the EMP ammunition was finally loaded and I unleashed my guns once more. This time, with EMP loaded, the 200mm ACs ripped into Bashar's shield systems. It went down noticeably but so did my armour. Moving into my optimal as did Bashar, we both jostled for position, he snapped on his webber, slowing me down but he was geared for short ranged combat; thus rendering his webber a little less effective. If he could fight me from 10km - then I would be dead. Instead, he danced around me at less than 3km and my guns could still track and score hits.

My armour repper was stabilising but my cap was looking low. I decided to switch off my warp disruptor. If Bashar wanted to run, he would have done so by now and having him scrambled in mid combat was useless. Most peeps either run straight away or near the end. Not in the middle of the fight.

With the disruptor off, I had more capacitor to use. This proved crucial as I got an extra cycle or two from my repper. Bashar was now down to armour and my EMP ammo was just as effective and sliced into the armour, punching holes in the structure. I could armour repair, Bashar could not. My next salvos really hurt him as he was into hull and fire was flaring out. I quickly snapped on the disruptor just to ensure that he was not going to leave.

He bravely stuck to his guns and fought back to the end. He could not jump even though both of us were within range of the gate nor could he warp out. He could have turned and tried to out run me but instead my last shot clipped the Jaguar on the port-side and spun the Jaguar into a spin it could not recover. With a wolfish grin, I blew the Jaguar apart. Bashar, the Jaguar pilot, now in his pod, instantly warped out.

It was a good fight - I would have tried to ransom the pod too but saluted Bashar for a well fought and close duel. I looted his wreck and saw the clock count down to the end of the year.

2007.12.31 09:39

Victim: Bashar Hardin
Alliance: None
Corp: Twisted Inc.
Destroyed: Jaguar
System: Auren
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3722

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: None
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 3722


Destroyed items:

Hail S, Qty: 120
'Langour' Drive Disruptor I
1MN MicroWarpdrive II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Inhibitor I
Gyrostabilizer II
Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 316 (Cargo)
Hail S, Qty: 688 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Hail S, Qty: 62
OE-5200 Rocket Launcher
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Gyrostabilizer II
Overdrive Injector System II
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S, Qty: 1260 (Cargo)
Barrage S, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)

Corp Thievery

Black Flag just had its first case of corp thievery.

To cut a long story short, Aendoren, a new corp member grabbed a True Sansha Advanced Nano Plating from a fleet kill of a deimos on a gate. As agreed, all loot had to be pooled into a corp hangar so that lost ships and mods can be shared out equally to all participants. This is an understood and agreed procedure, even amongst pirates and murderers.

He denied all knowledge of this and was only undone when:

1. The Deimos pilot asked for the named loot to be sold back to him, he knew it wasn't destroyed.
2. The Deimos pilot posted his loss mail to us and we confirmed that that the kill mail we had was doctored by Aendoren before posting.

Aendoren was quickly locked by the rest of the Black Flag fleet and his ship destroyed. The kill mail revealed that one of the destroyed items was, True Sansha Adaptive Nano Plating.

Aendoren has been kicked from the corp, banned from the vent server and his name posted amongst other pirates as a corp thief.

However, his defence was that we're all pirates and that this behaviour was expected. Maybe, maybe. I can understand that argument and if one wants to RP this aspect of the game, then so be it. There is also nothing stopping the biggest and strongest amongst us from grabbing all the loot at the expense of the other corp pilots too.

Breaking an agreement is a no-no however, even amongst pirates. One can go on and on about honour and all that, but ultimately, in this world and the next, one's word is all that one has, correct?

A trap! A trap!

After yesterday's fun, the fleet was still buzzed about the fight. We still hadn't got all the loot sorted but there was more pickings to be had. We scanned down a scythe that had twice eluded us. I managed to snag it in my wolf once I joined the pirate fleet. We killed the ship but missed the pilot and thus a ransom.
Later on in the day, we had spied a four battleship camp. It was mainly a Roadkill gang, quite far from home it would seem. We made ready to ambush it with our own pirate fleet. The camp was on the Ingunn gate in Gusandall. Quickly, we moved our ships into position: me, Deathstar, Jubes and Krypt in Gusandall. Muhaar, Ichiro, RealZonk and Redbad in safe spots in Ingunn. We were going to catch them on either side and knock them out quick. It would be tough: the enemy fleet was made up of two megathron-class, one raven class and one dominix class battleship. Very tough for a mixed battleship / battlecruiser fleet. We had RealZonk in his tempest as our only battleship. The rest were a mix of force recons and hurricanes. No matter, our aim was to knock out the dominix and then the raven in quick order.

"Shit. Am under fire. Am engaged. Assistance required!" It was Ichiro.
"Say again, Ichiro. Say again?" I had to be sure.
"Hyperion and Hurricane on me and Redbad. Assistance required." Confused, I quickly checked my intelligence notes. There wasn't a hyperion facing us, it was a raven-class, megathron-class and dominix-class battleships we were facing. Not a hyperion. What the hell was going on?
"What the fuck is going on?" Complained Deathstar. "The BS camp is still there, hasn't moved."
"Roger that." However, I had to make a decision quick as our plan was starting to un-ravel."All ships in Ingunn, warp to Ichiro and assist. Hyperion is primary. All ships in Gusandall, we have a camp in front of us. Blast through and into Ingunn. Go. Go. Go." With the decision made, the ships all moved. I was in a neighbouring system so avoided the camp as the initial plan was the hit the BS gate camp from multiple directions but it didn't matter now. Ichiro and Redbad were in trouble. As I was in mid-warp to Ichiro's last position, there was a final communication from Ichiro.
"Ichiro down. Ichiro down. Fuck."
"I have a point on the hyperion." That was Muhaar in his lachesis, along with RealZonk and Redbad. "We're attacking the hyperion! Someone get points on the hurricane."
"Hyperion is primary, I will have points on the cane. " I replied as I burst out from warp. A quick scan revealed that these two ships were from Red Alliance and the Hyperion pilot had a hand in killing my 'cane yesterday at the Eifer gate. Revenge would be sweet.
"Hurricane pointed." Just as Redbad's stabber blew up from the close-range fire of the enemy hurricane. Cursing, I opened up with my own rack of 425mm ACs and blasted at the enemy.
"Redbad is down. Redbad is down." The hyperion however exploded at the same time as Redbad made his exit from his stabber. Jubes arrived in his solo cane and with RealZonk and the others free from engaging the hyperion. We very quickly killed off the enemy cane, I even managed to snag the pod of the pilot and giving him a free trip home.

Once the dust had settled and Ichiro and RedBad docked up, the circumstances of this fight made sense. The Hyperion and Hurricane were complete wildcards and had managed to scan down and break open Ichiro's and Redbad's safe spot in Ingunn while they waited for the rest of the pirate fleet to be ready to tackle the gate camp. They came in behind us from the direction of evati. We did not expect that attack but responded well. Not too sure how Ichiro's Astarte succumbed to the hyperion and hurricane's firepower - though there is suspicion of the use of a webber or target painter on Ichiro.

Meanwhile, the enemy BS camp had moved once Deathstar came through but did not pursue and eventually disappeared.

Bah.

Losing three canes in one day...and so much fun too.

Sitting here, I try very hard to recall what happened yesterday. It was a blur of fire and screams and noise. I recall the excited heat of combat and the searing pain of loss and the renewed energy of re-engaging in a fight after having had my ship shot out from underneath me. I stare at my ship inventory and see that I am down three hurricane-class battle cruisers, two solo-variants and the fleet variant. A big blow to be sure to my fighting ability.
However, I glance over at the corp's killboard and see that the tally included a hulk, rook, vagabond, tempest, typhoon, hyperion, drake (three of them) a hurricane, thorax and a vexor. I start to struggle to recall how it went but luckily, all my ships had an automated communication and video logger. I tapped a few buttons and the stored files unspooled from memory and started playing. I sat back, with a cup of tea and a 'do not disturb' sign on my door and enjoyed the show.

++HULK TAKE DOWN. 13:34 eve time++

Jubes and Snake Boy were already online and the three of us were moving around hunting for targets. Snake was our prober and was seeding his scan probes around Gusandall and Ingunn. We had hits from mission runners but not enough to go in close enough to make a difference. It was good that Snake could find time to roll with us, as working with us allowed him to see if he wanted to join Black Flag and whether Black Flag would accept him. It takes some time to get up to the level of skill and experience but with some patience, Snake Boy will hopefully have the BF flag on his arm in the near future. At the moment however, we were unlucky and I docked and went to sleep. An hour later, both Jubes and Snake had gone but there were some M34N and Hellequin pilots online. They are the only blue corps to Black Flag and have proved on many occasions to be excellent pilots and blood thirsty pirates to boot.

Taking the solo-cane, I went roaming and in the first system, I spotted a three-year old veteran. My interest was increased further when I saw that he was driving a hulk-class exhumer. By the Gods! I thought, a hulk mining here?

I hit the scan and within 3 seconds, had narrowed him down to a belt. Am confident using the inbuilt scanner and if something is in a belt or near a planet; I will usually get it. I quickly tapped in the course coordinates and my Hurricane-class battlecruiser, 'The Eternal Damnation', powered up and nudged itself into space, accelerating and then into warp. I kept the scanner pinging ahead to ensure that I could quickly recalculate his new position, if I was wrong with my initial scan. However, the hulk did not move. I exited warp in a flash and found that hulk aligned to a planet and battling against two Angel cruisers. I quickly swung my battlecruiser around and hit the microwarpdrive. My excitement building slowly as the distance between him and my ship dropped from 58km to 48km to 38km and then he warped. I realised as I was in warp to the belt, that this warp-to-planet would happen and quickly warped after him, guessing correctly, where he had warped to. I landed now 8km from him and on came the tackling gear. I opened up with ACs into his shields. They are relatively tough for a non-combat ship, but in these circumstances, the shields evaporated. He was already aligning. I laughed.

Am sure the Hulk pilot laughed even harder when he warped out from under me.

'Shit'. I thought. 'Stabs.'

I did not have enough points and needed either help or a module swap. Since I had a global criminal flag, I decided on calling in some help and one M34N (PvPGod) and one Hellequin (Muhaar) pilot answered the called. The Hulk was now moving around and had probably safe spotted. A hulk, however is a wonderful kill and worth the effort to hunt down.

Muhaar in his lachesis dropped scan probes while Pvp was in his deimos and hovered near a gate; ready to pounce.

The hulk pilot was good and managed to evade us and get into Gusandall, I was waiting in Gusandall on the gate but he appeared 47km from me. I was also under constant gate fire and couldn't tank forever.

'Target is in Gusandall. Tacklers move!" I said to the small fleet we had set up to give chase. The hulk warped away in the direction of two gates, both in line with each other. Pvp went to one, I went to other and we both came back empty handed. The hulk had not docked either. It was tantalizingly close on our scanners. The hulk pilot even had the sense to warn people in a local broadcast.
"Group of pirates in local hunting. BEWARE!" he said.
"No shit Sherlock." I replied in the same local broadcast. I kept on the scanner.
"He's gone back to auren gate. He's gone through. Chasing." That was Muhaar updating us. Pvp and I whipped our ships around, ignoring the sentry fire chewing into our shields and armour and turned towards Auren.
"He has stabs. We need at least two points." I said, gritting my teeth as I thought of the kill slipping away from me.
"Am in auren. Target is under gate cloak." Said Muhaar.
We might have a chance. I thought, if me and Pvp could get there quick enough. I landed at the gate and it instantly fired, hurling my ship through into the next system. I have to thank my XO for working hard in the background, ensuring mundane tasks like gate alignment and jump permission were done.
I exited and floated in space, some 6km from the gate and under gate cloak as well. The hulk, having arrived earlier than me or PvpGod should be de-cloaking now, the energy field enveloping his ship during his gate transit now dissipating. Muhaar also waited. Patient like a hawk.
The overview winked once and the hulk's gate induced invisibility, disappeared. It was exposed now but had the pilot aligned and was he moving? He was 23km from me, almost at the limit of my warp disruptor. I locked him. The targeting reticles flashing as the aging Minmater electronics tried to get a fix on the barge, which was now powering up. The reticle flashed and the became solid. My warp disruptor snapped on as I closed the distance.
"One point. " I said. Seconds later, I heard Muhaar and PvpGod confirm.
"One point."
"And mine. That's three points. It's locked down!" yelled Muhaar as we all closed on the doomed Hulk.
"Go for the kill. Ransom the pod. Kill the hulk." I said, my 425mm ACs spitting out emp shells at a frightening rate. His shields were tough but against a lachesis, a deimos and a hurricane, it could only withstand so much.

The Hulk burst apart, partly mined ore spraying out in all directions. The captain's pod instantly warped out, evading Muhaar's grasp. No matter. The kill was good. The loot was a bit disappointing for a hulk, there was a lot of standard tech 1 kit and only one of the tech 2 shield hardeners survived. The kill details are recorded here.

We congratulated each other on the kill, a tech 2 ship is always good.

Returning to Gusandall, I spotted a maelstrom and decided to investigate once my global flag had dissipated. The battleship was from an alliance known to us and KOS by us (which isn't?) and I approached it. Looming there, it sat near the gate back into Eifer. It was not moving, very little power was being registered by my ships scanners. It looked like the weapon's systems were offline. Could the pod captain be having trouble with relinking to his ship's systems?

I locked it to see if it provoked a reaction. It didn't.

Strange.

"We have a maelstrom here at the gate. It appears that the pod captain is not responsive. Looks like a trap. Can we have some eyes in Eifer?"
"Sure thing. On my way." That was PvPGod again and he jumped into Eifer. A notorious kill zone. "I have a vagabond class in eifer within jump gate range to Gusandall. Pilot is miriablis." Indeed, a name well-known to us and in the same corp as our Maelstrom pilot. How convenient It looked like a trap but a Maelstrom and vagabond and sentry guns versus a hurricane and hyperion (Muhaar) and a deimos? I would give ourselves good odds. However, we were patient as we wanted to see what type of trap would be sprung.

Dogz appeared and after being appraised of the situation, declared that he was going in his BS and taking the fight to them. I was in my solo cane, an armour tanking beast and we all aligned. Dogz warped off towards the eifer gate and we waited.
"Engaged. Guns firing. Warp to me. Warp to me." Like a shot the rest of the ships accelerated and jumped to Dogz. The vagabond jumped in as well and it was unfortunately nominated as primary. PvPGod and I killed it.
The suddenly, the situation changed, very quickly. The gate fired repeatedly and now we saw more ships and all hostile. Our eyes in Eifer had already told us of the presence of a rook and as soon as we saw it, it was picked apart. Jubes barreled in with his cane while primary and secondary targets were called. Then the gate fired again and a new wave came in. Things got a bit confusing now but some of the fleet, thinking that the fight was ending were aligning to move out just in case more friends appeared. It looks like we were a touch too slow. Dogz's own typhoon was destroyed before the rook was taken out.

Not too sure if Dogz or I was chosen as primary but my cane held up very well. Until it finally was overwhelmed by the massed firepower against it. Red Alliance had made their appearance.

It looked like VOW took out Dogz while Red Alliance came for me.

The Maelstrom survived by the way.


++Second Hurricane loss. 15:36 Eve time++

So my first solo cane was lost, most hands were lost but I got my pod out. I had flown this hurricane for the last six months and it had a lot of good kills for me. Also lost my expensive rigs so my efficiency would be impaired. I grabbed the second solo cane, it was built similar to the first minus the rigs.

I was bored after undocking and not having enough action, the mornings encounter had whetted my appetite for more and so I sat idlying on a gate when I spied a thorax. Deciding that I wanted to have a go, I locked it. He locked me and we fired. A second thorax appeared and I had trouble punching through the armour of the first one. It was webbed and my guns were firing and the I realised I should have been using hail and not emp. Cursing my stupidity, I watched as the second thorax took a bite out of me and it's drones buzzed around me angrily. My armour was going down too fast. Way too fast, those thoraxes were tougher than I had expected. The first thorax popped finally but I was deep into my armour and hull breach was imminent. My reppers were running and DCU online as well. What the hell was happening?

The second thorax blasted my tech 2 fitted cane into small pieces.

Damn good job by the two Exceed pilots; I got my ass kicked.


++Madness! 22:21 EVE TIME++

So with nothing more to do, I was back in Gusandall and staring at my Black Flag fleet hurricane. A call came out over the joint operations channel we shared with M34N and Hellequin. There was a Typhoon class battle ship being tracked by us. We were asked to bring some DPS to the party. There never is enough DPS is there?

So we undocked a fleet of six ships, overkill for a single 'phoon certainly but we were hoping there would be more. We're pirates and not knights. Fair fights be damned unless arranged. The idea is to kill the enemy, not duel with them.

The Typhoon was quickly dispatched with the pilot surviving and then whining in the local broadcast. Pitiful. There are no fair fights in New Eden. Accept it.

There was a lot of traffic too and we had a feeling that someone was scouting us out. Call it a hunch. Sure enough, a typhoon had appeared and it smelt like a trap. It went to the top belt at planet 1. It was Dogz who sprung their trap. He went into the top belt in Eifer in his vagabond and was engaged by a typhoon. We jumped in and then all hell broke loose.

The Black Flag / M34N / Hellequin (pirate) fleet was made up of the following:

• Vagabond
• Hurricane
• Damnation
• Cyclone
• Tempest
• Sleipnir
• Hurricane

From our records, the trap was sprung by a coalition of alliance ships made up from DoomGuard, Knights of the Red Sun and some non-aligned pilots. They were largely anti-pirates and were grim and determined to kill us all. In all they (anti-pirates) had:

• Tempest
• Vexor
• Blackbird
• Hurricane
• Hurricane
• Drake
• Drake
• Drake
• Hyperion

An impressive array of firepower. We quickly targeted the tempest, piloted by Syntek Dominus, the one that was the bait and destroyed it.

1-0 to us.

However, the enemy quickly targeted Redbad's cyclone. It was thrown back and forth as missiles blasted off the shields, melting through into the armour.

"Redbad is down. Redbad is down."

The pirate captain successfully punching out from his destroyed ship. His crew not so lucky, most vapourising when the ships fusion reactors exploded.

1-1. A draw.

Viper Sam had joint lead on the operation and called out new primaries as both he and Grunanca's sleipnir were called as targets. Both ships facing the firepower of the anti-pirate fleet. Both Black Flag pilots tanked well enough for the pirate fleet to concentrate and destroy Don J's hyperion.

2-1 to the pirates.

The enemy's reply was instant and Dogz lost his vagabond to the drake's missiles and the damage from the typhoon early on.
"Dogz is down. Dogz is down." Came the vagabond pilot's statement, echoing through the fleet communication net.
"Coming back. Warping back to base. Keep some alive for me boys."

2-2. A draw again.

I targeted the killer of the vagabond when all my target locks were dropped. Assuming it was a glitch, I re-tasked the targeting computer to seek out the target and still it failed. Glancing up on the overview, I noticed two new ships: a vexor and a deadly blackbird-class cruiser.The feared Caldari cruiser, packed full of electronic warfare gear was a force multiplier. Already, other pilots were cursing and cries of frustration from the fleet as some pilots.
"Get the blackbird! The blackbird!" I cried as I lost my lock again. The drakes on my overview, all within optimal range of my hungry 425mm ACs, so tantalisingly close.
"Roger. Need to get a lock. Need a fucking lock!" Someone cursed.
"Shit!"
"I have the blackbird." It was a confident statement from Deathstar. I was being pummeled senseless, red lights flashing warnings at me as my shields were failing. I ordered my camera drones out to wide view and saw the bird-like shape of Deathstar's Damnation pulse it's engines towards the blackbird. Deathstar was either un-noticed or managed to resist the ECM attack from the blackbird. Go Deathstar! Go! I thought to myself.
My aging targeting computer chirupped, once. The blackbird had lost it's jam on me - I was too far from it to fire my auto-canons but I did manage to send my ECM drones over to confuse the blackbird. Viper Sam did the same. ECM versus ECM and so shall it be. The blackbird cycled it's jammers and once more, I lost my lock. My drones, however, along with Viper Sam's had their last instructions and fired off their own jammers at the blackbird at the same time that Deathstar arrived and ripped the blackbird apart. The loss of the Blackbird was not un-noticed by the enemy and Deathstar's damnation was next with missile fire, rail gun shells and lasers streaking through the vacuum; cutting his ship to pieces.

3-3. Another draw.

I was next. The enemy were having no luck with Viper Sam's hurricane or Grunanca's Sleipnir. They were wasting their energies on trying to kill them. I was easier and my fleet cane, not designed for solo work rocked violently to one side as my starboard engines exploded in a shower of plasma.
"Damage report!" I ordered to my crew.
"Captain, engines three, four and five completely destroyed. We have hull breaches from decks three to nine. No response from engineering level."Shit. Deck four was where the ordnance was kept.
"Damage control parties to deck ten. Seal off all decks below level ten and vent the levels."
"Captain, we still have survivors. We need a few more minutes!"
"Vent all decks below level ten. Now." I had condemned over 500 good men to a vacuum-induced death as emergency doors blew open, jetting out men and material. It wasn't enough. Not by far. The enemy ships started to laser off chunks of my ship's infrastructure. My ship could not survive anymore of this. It was being taken apart around me. Reluctantly, I gave the order to abandon ship. My crew loyal to the end, stayed at their posts until the last minute.
"Flashfresh is down. Flashfresh is down."

3-4 to the enemy.

My pod was punched out. I lost all telemetry as explosive bolts blew then separated my pod from the ship. Automatic guidance system blasted my pod back to base, only one jump away.
"Keep some alive for me. I will back!" I yelled to my fleet mates. As my pod was making it's way back to the base, automatically activating the jump gates, the battle behind me receded.
"Scotty, get the next available ship ready for me."
"Sir, all you have is the Jaguar assault frigate. It will not survive the gate guns. You are still flagged."
"Flag be damned! Make ready my ship!" I docked and did a quick switch, my surviving crew from the fleet hurricane were still making their way back to base from the battlefield. I wonder how many survived this time round.?

I returned to fray, all the pirate fleet were still intact, though the enemy fleet was now in a bad way. All were close to armour damage, their shield systems close to exhaustion.
"Flashfresh requesting permission to re-enter the line."
"Permission granted. Primary is Eldante. He has a tough shield system."
"Roger. Primary is Eldante." I replied as I switched my weapon systems onto the drake-class battlecruiser. It's shield system was immense but it was dying. I added my 150mm T2 auto-canons to the fight - spitting out EMP rounds that were designed to destroy shield systems.
"Eldante is going down. He is going down!"
"Roger that. Maintain fire. Watch your neighbours." Eldante's drake shuddered as it's shield systems overloaded and blew and sparked out. Our EMP-based rounds, so easily absorbed by the shields now ate into thin armour. Caldari ships were not known for their armour and Eldante's drake blew into a thousand pieces. I snagged Eldante's pod and blew his body to small organic chunks. The pirate fleet were having the upper hand, our controlled firing and discipline were beginning to tell. The enemy hurricane fell quickly, as did the second drake and then the third drake. The vexor managed to snag my jaguar with his drones before he too died.

As my pod punched out, I warped back, once again to my hangar and grabbed the last remaining ship: a nano-rupture. I was going back to the fray and not leaving my fleet mates on their own. Once again, the gate guns fired on me as I passed through their automatic sights. However, on arrival, I patched back into the fleet communication net. It appeared that the last drake managed to escape, much to our chagrin. The battlefield was ours and we had the pickings of the loot and salvage rights.

Total ship count was as follows.

Pirate ships lost: Damnation, Vagabond, Hurricane, Cyclone and Jaguar.
Enemy ships lost: Drake, Drake, Drake, Hyperion, Typhoon, Vexor, Blackbird and Hurricane. The battlefield was littered with wrecks, spluttering and sparkling. Redbad was there looting and salvaging.

Loot was a nice mix of T2 and named mods all now heaped up in the Black Flag loot hangar; the spoils to be shared out at later date. The pirates had prevailed this time but am sure DoomGuard would be licking its wounds and would be back soon. We would be ready. Bring it on. The loot is so good, we want more.

Black Flag

A word from Black Flag, the guys I now roll with:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BLACK-FLAG is wrapping up the end of her first month now. It's been a great first month - over 7 billion in kills and maintaining an efficiency of 82%. We've met a few worthy adversaries and some who were less than worthy. We've managed to maintain the upper hand on all of them, however. We've made excellent progress in our fleet setups, coining a new and fearsome kind of Hurricane. This setup has been tested a great deal now and we are building around it. We're currently finishing up on some strides at strengthening attendance - an obstacle for many player organizations. This is going a bit slower than expected due to the holidays. Once this has been accomplished we'll be moving forward with our goals with respect to zero sec roaming/ransoming gangs. Currently we're looking for pilots to the following ships (in order of priority): Basilisk Scimitar Rook/Falcon (with Recon V) Hurricane Sleipnir/Claymore Having the ability to fly these ships is only one condition of membership, however. We are looking for intelligent players who take direction well. These two qualities, above all others, are important and can compensate for lack of experience under good leadership. If you're interested in membership you may post on our Recruitment forum. Further requirement details will be relayed to you there. In the mean time, the BLACK-FLAG will be carried forward leaving a trail of death behind it. Keep up the good work guys. Hail the FL4G! ~Viper
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The link to Black Flag Forum is here.

It was a good decision to join BF as one of the founding members, as all the pilots (bar two) were residents of the independence channel. Something I set up to facilitate pirates around Eifer and Gusandall. I would ask that all prospective pilots to join this channel ('INDEPENDENCE') in the first instance and say hi before considering applying to BF. Pilots in this channel tend to join up in mixed gangs and Alia, Snake Boy, Kane Rizzell and Inglorfin to name four channel residents, have contributed handsomely to the entire entreprise. Kane, especially, being an experienced pilot with 0.0 experience and now a broadsword pilot has had a hand in many a Black Flag kill and deserves a special mention. Just check his BC Killboard entry here.

Pretty impressive.

At the moment, Black Flag, while trying to stay apolitical, has had to be pragmatic and are now BLUE with M34N and Hellequin, our fellow neighbours in Gusandall. The latter having left 'The Church' and returning to their roots.

All other corps are RED even if there are individual pilots within such corps that we are friendly with. We're pirates after all. To me BLUE = TARGET REDUCTION. We can't have that can we as killing people generates so much material for this blog. However, it does appear that these two corps will be the only one's in Black Flag that will be BLUE. No more politics and as a combined group we knocked down a carrier already.

We're essentially at war with any other pirate corp around us, fighting over the right to pirate other people and general bragging rights. Pirates, gah - dontcha love them?

Still, am having a blast at the moment.

How to tackle and kill people at the gates

With a three-ship crew, we had spied a drake-class battlecruiser at a gate. It was not a blinkie so was not agressed and therefore could jump if in trouble. This left only a couple of viable options: kill it at the gate so quickly that the pilot has no time to jump or bait it so he fires first.

The first was hard to do with only three ships and the latter would be also difficult if the pilot was sensible. So there was a third option: force him to jump through the gate and catch him on the other side.

With me (hurricane), Spiderus (hyperion) and Mandaro (taranis) - it was decided to execute the third option. We would all arrive at the gate and only I would open fire on the drake. If the drake returned fire, then the other two ships would join in. If not, I could kill the drake solo. However, it was likely that once he was in danger of armour breach - the drake would jump through the gate. We had it bumped so that it could not dock or jump away from the gate. Once the drake was through to the next system, the taranis and hyperion (with no aggression flag against them) would tackle and kill the drake.

Of course, I would be drawing sentry fire but my hurricane setup (solo only and not the fleet cane) was able to tank gate gun fire long enough for this plan to work.

Arriving at the gate, the slab-shaped Drake-class battlecruiser loomed ahead. It was within 2km of the star gate into Ingunn. I took a deep breath, locked and opened fire, hurling EMP shells the short distance between my hurricane and the target-Drake. The automatic sentry guns, detecting an illegal weapons discharge opened fire on me. My shields shrank as it absorbed the impact.

The drake locked me but did not return fire. It shifted a bit, auxillary thrusters firing. Was it aligning to leave? Spiderius saw this and moved his hyperion into a blocking position. My shields were now gone and I switched on my armour hardners and repairers. My crew raced to their positions to lock down any loose items as my damage control teams spread out throughout the ship. My ship was starting to shake as the gate guns slammed shell after shell into me. The drake was now down to 25% shield but was not moving. It had me locked but still did not fire. I could imagine the drake pilot was his finger hovering over the fire button with all the consequences zipping through his head.

I hit his armour and the star gate fired. The drake was leaving.
"Go! Go! The Drake is jumping. Get him on the other side!" I yelled. Mandaro, well aware of his role had already jumped and decloaked on the other side. This was crucial now as the exit point from a gate is variable and it was possible that the drake would de-cloak too far away from Mandaro or Spiderus to tackle before it could fire it's engines and get away.
"Shit! He got away from me!" Said Mandaro, voice full of disappointment. "But I tracked his vector. Am on his ass." So the drake did decloak and had managed to get away from the tacklers. I tried to activate the gate but was refused entry due to my recent weapons' discharge. I still had to wait for discharge energies to sufficiently dissipate before the star gates could activate.
"Drake tackled." Informed Mandaro. Good job I thought as I tried the gate again. I was once more refused.

This was very frustrating.

I tried again and was refused, meanwhile Spiderus had joined in and had clamped it's teeth into the drake. On the eight attempt, I was finally allowed through, my hurricane catapulting across to the other side of space. On arrival, I hit the engines and my computer quickly pinpointed the taranis and I was away.

Arriving, the drake was already into armour and was dying. I locked and fired a few more rounds before it exploded. Checking the concord email showed me why: three expensive shield rigs.

It was a good team effort to take it down.

New Signatures?

Some New Signatures. Which one shall I go for?
Black Flag




Battle Clinic

Chasing them complex runners

Many pilots now run complex missions deep inside space, hard to probe out but if done - then it could prove rich pickings for pirates. A mixed gang was in place as a call went out for more DPS. Someone from M34N corp had found a gang comprising a megathron, drake, drake and rokh inside a known complex. Due to spatial anomlies, the complex entrance tends to shift so relocating it was a boon and we assembled a fleet as quickly as we could. We hastily refitted with afterburners to ensure a decent turn of speed inside the odd conditions within a complex.


Warping in assembled and took stock. The fleet included:

Hurricane
Astarte
Stabber
Prophecy
Typhoon
Taranis

(sorry if I got the ship types wrong!)

We approached the first gate - the mission runners had been inside the complex for a while and we had to hurry. They could be finishing their last level and we were merely at the entrance. Speed was of the essence.

Activating the first gate, we were catapulted to the next level, deeper inside the spatial anomaly. It was empty, only wrecks visible and evidence of the passage of the mission runners. There was a second gate, 48km away and the fleet hit their afterburners and tore themselves over to the next gate. It took precious minutes to get the entire fleet there. We jumped into the next level and found that, like the first, it was empty apart from wrecks. Checking our scanners we realised that the megathron and rokh were now present and probably behind us. Maybe they were aware of our presence and were thinking of a trap?

We ploughed on. The third and fourth levels were like the first and second: disappointingly empty with the next gate always further away than expected. The last level was the location of the hive mother. Yes, the complex was infested with rogue drones of all strains. Some absolutely massive and horrifying. Bursting from the previous level, I saw the monstrosity for myself: a drone of massive proportions with mutated ships growing from it. In front were two Drake-class battlecruisers, all that remained of the mission team we were hunting. We had to avoid the hive mother but also tackle the drakes. We were also 60KM away and had to circle round. The mission runners appeared to be unconcerned about our presence (or oblivious) and continued to fire on the hive mother.

I was caught on some debris and my velocity stopped dead. Meanwhile, a tackle was made on one of the drakes by our taranis and battle (albeit long-range) was joined. I was set up for short-range destruction so was unable to participate. However, I did get close enough to be shot at by the hive mother.

One of the two drakes warped off while the tackled one was destroyed. The fleet stayed and destroyed the hive mother all the time waiting for the megathron and rokh. However, once the last drake was destroyed, the megathron and the rokh also disappeared, reckoning that our fleet was too big for them. Fair enough - we hovered all of the compounds dropped by the rogue drones, especially the huge cache by the hive mother.

First Carrier Kill

Oh my God. We killed our first carrier....

http://www.black-flag.org/kills/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=601\

I recognise the pilot's name. We've killed him a few times: DannyRSTurbo

Love the loot

Idlying at a belt, I popped a Domi spawn.

Nice loot.

No idea how much this might be worth but I reckon around 70-80million isk. Not bad considering I was there in the belt searching for ratters to pop and ransom.

I am one happy pirate but where are the targets?

Fleet Canes for the win!

Busy, busy here but this day, my heart is still thumping from an encounter that will go down as one of the most intense experiences so far.

As ever, there were pirates of various persuasions in the independence channel as well as Black Flag pilots. A predominantly Black Flag fleet was setup with all the BF pilots in the specially modified BF Fleet Hurricane, a product of much research and development led by Viper Sam.

The fleet included: Jubes, Viper Sam, Muelac and myself in the fleet canes, Inglorfin (wolf) Sal (deimos) and Spiderus (hyperion). Inglorfin was ahead and scouted for us and we knew that there was sizeable fleet from the Russian Coalition between Gultratren and Arnstur. Inglorfin provided up to date intel on what ships were coming in and out. Spiderus was bait and jumped in on Inglorfin's word. The Russian Coalition had the following ships: two dominix class battleships, a stiletto, a drake, a thorax, a rupture and a harbringer-class battlecruiser. An equal fleet to ours but we felt that a decisive strike at the two dominix class ships should shatter them. Also, we were sure that this fleet knew of our presence and intention. No matter, it will not save them.

Spiderus jumped into Arnstur and found no-one in the gate but Inglorfin had now vectored him towards the Brin star gate. Spiderus turned his ship round and moved off into space. Inglorfin stayed about 100km from the gate, ready to update the vital intelligence that would win this contest. A few minutes later, the communication channel squawked.
"Stiletto and Dominix now at the gate. Stiletto now jumping into Gultratren." So, the Russian Coalition were sending in a scout. We were off the gate now and aligned and ready to pounce. "Dominix has jumped in as well." Spiderus chimed in.
"Coming back to the gate and jumping through. Maybe the domi will follow me once I am through?"
"Affirmative. Go ahead. Fleet align." That was Viper getting the four hurricanes ready. The ship's engine rumbled as the battle-cruisers slid into position. Spiderus jumped through and locked the waiting dominix and then engaged.
"Jump to me," said Spiderus as the trap was being sprung."I am under sentry gun fire. Engaging Dominix."
Meanwhile, Inglorfin was checking on the other side.
"You have incoming. The Dom was bait. I see their fleet inbound on your position. " There was a dramatic pause. "Gate fire! Gate fire! They're coming through!" We clicked once on the comm channels to confirm and we were in mid-warp.
"Hurry, am surrounded!"
"Hold on Spiderus. We're on our way." I said, putting my ship to red alert. All four hurricanes burst out around Spiderus in bright flashes. Our overviews filled with enemy ships. We had to engage them and incur sentry gun fire but that didn't bother us. We wanted our fill of blood and our pound of flesh.
"Primaries Sam! Primaries!" I yelled as I locked all the ships; we needed to target one ship to maximise our firepower however and our fleet commander had not yet allocated targets.
"The Harbringer!" Came the reply. Fuck, which one was that?
"Names, Sam! We need names!" I opened fire on the nearest target, a drake-class battlecruiser piloted by 'Malenkiy'. I was hoping I wasn't too harsh on our FC.
"Primary is Kelev. Primary is Kelev!" Good, I had Kelev's Harbringer already locked and knowing the names of targets was easier for everyone. I switched all my 425mm ACs on and hammered at the harbringer. So did the rest of the fleet. The Russian Coalition had two dominix class battleships and they spat out angry T2 drones. They screamed towards us. All their other ships locked us and fired. I had no idea who was primaried on our side. I glanced at my watch list.
"Help Spiderus!"
"Roger." That was Muelac, languid as usual but deadly efficient. We started to repair Spiderus' shields as we volleyed Kelev's Harbringer into scrap.
"Next target?" I said, well aware that we were a touch too slow on the target calling.
"Domi is primary. White Don. White Don!" Got it. I had White Don on lock and sent another volley of Hail towards him. Meanwhile, Spiderius's hyperion was being rocked back and forth but it's shield damage was almost repaired. Lucky for Spiderus as he was in structure already when the repairs began. White Don's Domi had neutralisers and was sucking the cap dry on Viper Sam. Just as he started taking in damage. I switched my repairer from Spiderus to Viper. Then the rupture and drake started to target me. My shields shimmered as it absorbed the energy of the rounds. Not too worried, I concentrated on the domi, now on fire, spewing atmosphere and fuel and unable to repair quick enough as four hurricanes tore it to pieces. Our hail rounds punched gaping holes in it's hull and it exploded to the cheers of the crews on our ships.
"Primary: Dobriy Ya. Secondary: Malenkiy." Target calling was coming quicker and the second dominix died under our guns. It's structure twisting under the intense heat of internal explosions. Jubes was under fire as was I from the sentry guns and the enemy drake but the rest of the fleet, nimble as ever had provided support to us. The drake's shield systems were overwhelmed by the HAIL and EMP rounds and then the rupture and thorax followed, burst open in a ball of light and sound. We killed them almost like an afterthought. In all this, we had lost Sal's Deimos. Stupidly, no-one had him on their respective watch lists and we were unable to see his damage until it was too late. He took gate gun fire, some T2 drone damage and possibly, the drake missiles.

The area around the gate was strewn with sparkling wreckage and flash-frozen bodies. Aimless drones drifted around, opportunity locking anything as it's AI mind tried to follow it's last commands of it's dying overseer.

The final tally was impressive: two dominix, harbringer, thorax, rupture and drake died to us for the loss of one deimos.

It was a good kill and our featured hurricane setup, a centre-piece of all Black Flag fleets performed superbly well. We looted and salvaged what we could and lept to our safe spots. Still drunk on adrenaline we wanted more and more targets. However, the Gods of New Eden decided we had had enough.

Oh well.

A day later, I decided that my thirst still needed quenching. I tackled and killed a thrasher and a phoon and a caracal (two) of them.

Lost to the macro'ers!

I had to leave my fleet cane down in metropolis
due to a massive gate camp that would have snagged the ship and destroyed it before I would have had a chance to react. So it was the shuttle for me and yes, the new minnie shuttle is a thing of beauty.

Jumping back, I noticed a lot of ships around and well; pity we had no scan probers with us. Anyway, on returning to Gusandall, the co-operative channel with M34N corp was blinking away like mad. I answered the call and after some deciphering they had first scanned down a big Kraftwerx gang and then, separately (with the aid of another friend) we had located a domi, raven and drake running missions. It was too good an opportunity to miss and we (as in four) all grabbed what ships we were in and jumped to the our scan prober. I quickly looked at the ships we had: I was in my jaguar, Athena in a buzzard, PvPGod in his deimos. Shit, this would be hard. The farmers were in a dominix, a raven and a drake. The drake was piloted by someone we knew about: he usually fitted pvp so would be challenge. Jubes, WC, Blade and I took him down a few days back - details here.

We arrived at the mission gate and saw a shuttle there. Athena already told us that there were scouts there, wonder why no-one had popped him? However, urged on by everyone else, I activated the gates and jumped. The massive shapes of a domi, raven and drake filled my GUI as my jaguar zipped amongst them. We put on points onto the domi while the raven and drake warped out. The main damage dealer was PvP's deimos but I was doing a decent amount too. The Domi meanwhile was tanking.

The raven and the drake came back and landed on top of us.

There was consternation amongst us as we yelled for more firepower - two more M34N pilots were en route in BS-class ships but for us, it was going to be tough. Laneth had already made an entrance but had to retreat, as did Athena in the buzzard. Soon it was just me and PvPgod around the domi with the raven and drake throwing everything at us. The domi noss'ed me and sent it's heavy drones onto me. I had to get out. I tried to tank the first wave of damage but even with a cap injector - I couldn't do it and soon popped. Cursing I warped back to get a new ship. Oddly, they fired on us first so I had no global timer. I came back in the hurricane, joining Dogz and Laneth in a 'phoon and abaddon. The scout was still there in his shuttle, why hadn't anyone killed him yet?

Not taking any chances, I targetted him but he then zipped away. Meanwhile, the others had made it back into the mission area and there was much cursing. They had not only left but had logged too. No sign of them in the local area. Nothing.

These farmers are playing smart...as should we. In hindsight, we should have popped that scout and spent an extra few minutes getting better ships. We knew what we were heading into so should have adjusted it accordingly.

Anyway, it proved to be a fun, if a frustrating night.

Here's a screenie of me and Muelac inwarp.

It's nice.

One before I go!

Back in Gusandall and with corp chat busy discussing the last op, my spies told me that there were ships about. I undocked and went hunting for loot and ransoms. In quick succession I tracked, tackled and killed a stabber and a thrasher. Both giving as good as they could, my Jaguar (an armour tanking one) took some abuse but survived. The stabber was a good kill. It was fast but it made the mistake of getting within my webber range. Once there, I could kill it. The stabber had two missile batteries that pounded my shields but it wasn't enough and died to my guns. My ransom attempt was rejected out of hand but okay loot was obtained, so no great loss.
I then tackled a thrasher in a complex - it was far from me and I hoped that he didn't notice me amidst the slew of angel frigates and cruisers and destroyers. Some immediately targetted me and by the time I had a point on the thrasher, my shields were down. No matter, my blood was up and I had the thrasher in my grip. I would not let go. I fought back well, I was under fire from both him and some angels but I prevailed.

Hitting the scan once more and luck was on my side, I spotted a wolf-class assault frigate, the cousin of my Jaguar-class. I knew this area well and there was a high probablility that he was in the second complex. I warped there eager to kill, unconcerned about the damage I had taken. Afterall, scars look cool.

I activated the complex's gate and arrived amidst debris. The wolf was busy and was 25km from me. I had a tech 2 warp disruptor and from 24km, it reached out to him, preventing him from escaping into warp. A wolf only has two slots with one (usually) being an afterburner the second being either a web or a scrambler. I started to take damage at 18km.

"WTF?" I thought to myself and yes, the wolf and some angels were hitting me. From this range, the wolf must be using artillery pieces. I had to get close and web him. There was a lurch as my jaguar bumped into some station hardware and then I stopped. Damn! Cursing, I hit the reverse thrusters and tried to get out - the wolf was hitting me hard and I was now stuck! After manically bumping my way out, I was free of the first set of structures and hit the afterburner again, the wolf stubbornly stayed at around 12km from me. It was warp scrambled but not webbed and I was not in my optimal. I was toying with the idea of switching to long range ammunition but decided that I would finally get close.

I was repairing my armour but my cap was dropping. The cap booster was running low on charges and I had to get close. I steered the jaguar around another obstruction and moved away from the wolf, my intention was to swing round and come up behind him, all the time his artillery pieces were taking chunks out of me. I managed to get a clear run for him and hitting the afterburners, I got him webbed but then hit another structure. The wolf was stuck at 7km now but I had this huge structure in front of me. I fired and he fired. His shield went down while my armour went down. This went on for a good two minutes with me firing off cap charges. He was slowly going down, slowly. Damn he had a good shield!

I ran out of cap charges and I had to get out. The structure was too big for me to move round and keep the webber on the wolf and his longer range munition was shredding me. His shields had finally disappeared but I had to to turn. I had to leave. I had to run.

A single shell clipped the rear of my ship and ruptured the fusion reactor. Emergency lights winked on and off and I knew that I was dead. I kissed my ship goodbye and blasted clear as the Jaguar convulsed and blew up. It was good fight and I was beaten by the better pilot on the day. However, revenge would be mine. Grunanca had finally emerged from his room and I fired off a terse message to him. Within seconds, he was in his jaguar and was en route to avenge me. He arrived at the same complex as I limped home, the Wolf bolted from the complex and Grunanca was in pursuit, snaring the Wolf near a planet and blasting it. Grun's shields never dipped below 93%. The Wolf pilot, brave as he was, got podded, his body-parts flash freezing in space.

2007.12.13 17:59

Victim: torgair
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Brutor tribe
Destroyed: Wolf
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Grunanca (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II

Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Unknown
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II

Name: Gistii Hijacker / Angel Cartel


Destroyed items:

Dropped items:, Qty: 6
Tracking Speed, Qty: 6
280mm Howitzer Artillery II, Qty: 4
EMP S
Fusion S, Qty: 12
Small Shield Extender II
Optical Tracking Computer I
Gyrostabilizer II
Inertia Stabilizers II
Overdrive Injector System II
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I
1MN Afterburner I (Cargo)
LiF Fueled I Booster Rockets (Cargo)
Small Energy Transfer Array I (Cargo)
Passive Targeter I (Cargo)
Proton S, Qty: 46 (Cargo)
Titanium Sabot S, Qty: 260 (Cargo)
Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 756 (Cargo)
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 1084 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S, Qty: 256 (Cargo)
Fusion S, Qty: 94 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 445 (Cargo)
Tracking Disruptor I (Cargo)
Angel Ship Log 343873495 (Cargo)
Quake S, Qty: 977 (Cargo)
Rocket Launcher I (Cargo)
Projectile Collision Accelerator I
Powergrid Subroutine Maximizer I

Oh well, revenge was mine and Grun passed over to me the Wolf pilot's remains.

Getting into a newly minted Jaguar - I undocked and went to a neighbouring system and grabbed another thrasher and killed it. Nothing makes you forget a death than causing another one!
I started chatting to Mandaro; he was hunting a vagabond and while it would probably end in my death - I thought, why the hell not? And joined in with Blade to see what we could see.

Tracking, Mandaro and I caught a scythe and a rifter in a belt. I killed the rifter and had a part in the scythe kill. Mandaro's taranis doing the bulk of the damage.

I think the interceptor class as a whole have been upgraded and now they make for deadly ships. Might have to dig up the interceptor skill books and train up for a claw or stilletto.


Maybe.

So many options. It's good to be a pirate.

Watch out for concord!!

Right - a busy day and not that much time to record but a Black-Flag gang was set up and went roaming all the way down to Amamake. We had a few scouts racing ahead (I was one) but the meat of the fleet were three specially configured hurricanes. Deadly ships, solo but when configured in the Black Flag special way, they would become deadly things.

So the gang roamed and Nightmare is proving to be the joker though no one can doubt his skill and intent...he justs makes it a habit to tell everyone about it. Viper is a good FC and once we were in Amamake - Blade and I went in to seek out worthy opponents and no-one was biting, yet. Snake Boy had also arrived so we proceeded to drop some scan probes and see what we could see. The three other hurricane pilots stayed put in the neighbouring system, chomping at the bit.

Amamake was busy. Probes were dropped by the other pilots to find suitable targets. From observations we estimated at least three different gangs were around in Amamake. All hunting no doubt. All hunting for each other. However, we waited in an obvious belt and may be our nonchalant presence shouted out 'BAIT' to everyone else. Nothing happened.

Blade and I split up - he was in a Myrmidon and I was in my jaguar. Tempting targets no doubt. It was Blade who tickled their interest.
"I think I have something Flash." He said calmly over our voice comms.
"ID?"
"Vagabond and something else."
Viper jumped into the conversation, "We have to get webs on that sucker."
"I have a web but we probably need more. " I replied, now aligning to Blade's position. I quickly hit the scanner on my ship and I also noticed another blip: a jaguar-class assault frigate and a vengance. They were close to me and probably vectoring in. At this moment we still had no intelligence on what cloaked ships were hiding in the system, this being Amamake, chances are there were at least three or four of these sneaky ships. I warped to Blade, hoping that the two enemy assault frigates would follow me and ending up with Blade's Myrmidon and his vagabond adversary. Once the party began, we would call in the heavy guns in the form of Nightmare, Viper and Jubes.
"They're close. Very close." Said Blade, excitement now creeping into his voice. I confirmed it with my own scan during my warp. "Shit. Contact! Contact! Contact!" Yelled Blade.
I burst out of warp and landed 10KM from the elongated shape of his myrmidon, a vagabond was streaking past us - its microwarpdrive pulsing. He was throwing AC shells at Blade, I hit the scrambler and webber and snagged him.
"I have one point on vagabond." I turned and tapped into our fleet comm's channel a single 'x'. An unambiquous signal for the hammers to come down, hard and heavy. On the otherside of the system, a star-gate flashed and three, arrow-shaped Hurricane-class battlecruisers materialised. It was Nightmare, Viper and Jubes and they all aligned then activated their warp drives and jumped to my exact position.

Bring the pain. I thought with some glee.

Unfortunately, in the instant the 'x' was sent, a jaguar and a vengance assault frigate came into view and locked me. I had a point (just) on the speedy vagabond but turned my guns onto the vengance as my ship shook under their combined fire.

My GUI struggled to update me as missile fire, auto-canon shell bombardment and lasers filled my vision. My shields were stripped down and I had to quickly activate my armour repairer. I replied in kind, choosing the vengance as my target - Blade had meanwhile, also locked the Jaguar and was hitting it hard. I was now webbed and couldn't move but I was getting on top of the vengance. The three hurricanes appeared and Nightmare, seeing that I was in danger of dying got a shield transfter to me - saving my ship from destruction. I re-loaded and pummeled the vengance when it turned and warped away. No one had a point on it, mine was still on the vagabond now orbiting at a 20km distance from Blade. The Jaguar, who was hitting me - exploded as Blade's weapon systems smashed it apart.

The vagabond was too fast and with three new Hurricanes, it turned and ran. No sooner had it gone, a sleipnir appeared. A feared command ship based on the cyclone hull. It would make a fine kill for us. However it was over 55km away and probably thought it would be safe. How wrong it was, of the five ships (six including Snake in his Cheetah) - the hurricanes were the fastest. Jubes, turned on his microwarpdrive and slammed his ship into space, eating up the distance in chunks. Nightmare and Viper did the same. I could only toggle my afterburner and struggle at 800m/s - poor Blade couldn't ever do that.

The sleipnir pilot must have looked on shocked as the hurricanes got within scramble then web distance within ten seconds, too quick for him to align and get the hell out of there. The hurricanes tore the sleipnir to fiery pieces within seconds. I didn't even get close to get a point to him as I was 35Km when the command ship blew up. The pod got away but what a kill.

Concord confirmed:

2007.12.13 14:38

Victim: MattFighT
Alliance: Long Distance Serial Killlers
Corp: Boennerup Banden
Destroyed: Sleipnir
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: ImYourNightmare
Security: -8.6
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane

Name: Viper Sam (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.8
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Destroyed items:
Dropped items:, Qty: 6
425mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 7
Barrage M, Qty: 224
X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I
Invulnerability Field II
Gyrostabilizer II, Qty: 2
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Overdrive Injector System II
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 7 (Cargo)
Barrage M, Qty: 1580 (Cargo)
Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I
Polycarbon Engine Housing I

The Sleipnir was fast but the 'canes were faster.

We celebrated the kill with much cheering and prepared for more combat but nothing then happened. Snake and I scouted around and there was definite movement in ships and pilots, as most people now had decent intel on our ships and locations. So we decided to move out and roam some more while heading back home. Snake and I raced ahead.

Then disaster struck.

Viper warped the fleet, now joined by Nozarro to a high-sec gate and the pirates found themselves in the warm embraces of concord! There were cries of horror and disbelief. I could only listen helplessly as Concord webbed and scrambled Jubes, Viper and Noz and pumelled their 'canes into wrecks. NIghtmare, to his credit, managed to save his cane and get back into low-sec. He then proceeded to chid his other fellow pilots on how to avoid concord. Endlessly. I had to chuckle.

A successful night, where the ships were tested ended with the almost total destruction of the fleet! At least I managed to get home in one piece but Viper, to his credit promised a full replacement for all ships and items lost.

What a night.

Welcome to EIFER

I love probe scanners. Love them and they made two of today's marks possible. Black Flag is growing as is the Independence channel with pilots forming mixed gangs as and when required to go after juicy prey. This is how it should be in my view.

Lord Moom was in his ratting raven in Gusandall. We had three probers in the gang and they threw scan probes all over the system in order to get a hit. It was Keira who got the hit after all the probers were patiently tracking down the raven pilot. It took almost 15 minutes before we had a successful hit. Well done to Keira!

Landing on Keira, we discovered the hidden gate and the fleet proceeded in; my heart pounding. Prediction Pain was her Falcon and sneaked into the first level, first. It was empty and the rest of the fleet followed in, shoving aside the spluttering wrecks of destroyed Angel ships. Prediction then jumped into the second level and once again threw on a cloak. She disappeared and the rest of the fleet, now about 6 strong waited. Impatiently.

"Raven is tackled. I have points on him. Warp In! Warp In!" Cried Prediction. With a roar, the fleet activated the gate and flooded in. The raven was there - ensnared and twisting like a trapped feral animal. We opened up on him and took it down to armour in an instant. A ransom demand was made but was rejected so we proceeded to dismantle the raven in the most brutal fashion. It felt good. So very good. Unknown to us, the pilot of the raven realising his predicament decided to offer a 200m ransom, however he rejected our initial conversation and no one was paying too much attention to the local chat channel. The raven pilot was then podded back to his clone.

We were then vectored into another well known area for mission runners and our scanner went to task. However, we were a little bit too slow this time and by the time we arrived at the hidden mission gate and into the first level, the two mission runners: a dominix battleship and a drake were warping out - their own missions now complete. Cursing our luck we headed back home; Jubes lagged behind and this proved to be fortuitous as he spotted a drake-class battlecruiser. I got back to help and we ended up tackling the beast. I was made primary but thanks to Jubes quick thinking - he activated a shield transfer array on me and kept me alive long enough for both of us to destroy the drake. We missed the pod however.

What is funny is that we tackled and killed a stabber - with a FinFleet pilot in it. We cheered as it was our first BoB kill.....little did we know that the pilot was leaving BoB....and joining us. What an introduction!

I suppose one can assume its an initiation rite?

Lost two caracals. Not happy - shall I pack for range or points?

Here I was, in my jaguar and enjoying the new GUI when I spotted a caracal. It was a known belt-ratter and I had killed him before. He was very skittish and never hung around long enough to loot the wrecks. Instead, he would cruise the belts in a seemingly random pattern and knock out the juiciest Angel cruisers and battlecruisers.

Like I said, I had killed him before and this time, as soon as he was aware of my presence - he would bolt. So it would be a tricky hunt but this is part of the fun and after chasing him, I discovered that his seemingly random belt ratting was not - there was a pattern and I managed to crack it after chasing the fool over twelve systems. Each time, missing him by mere seconds. I would arrive just as he would warp out. By studying his vectors, I gave chase only for him to be exiting as I arrive. Fun for a while, but irritating over time.

After the 13th or 14th system jump, I gambled and based on his previous pattern, I jumped ahead of him. Seconds later he landed on me. I grinned with satisfaction and on came the warp disruptor II. My auto-canons spat out destructive EMP rounds and yes, it was going to be a good kill. I love these ratting caracals. Just love 'em!

However, Hhairsenk (the caracal pilot) was slamming missiles into me with gusto. Now this jaguar was configured in the 'classic' shield tank setup. Basically a named Medium Shield extender and an invulnerability field. I switched on the latter as I had no armour repairer on. My capacitor went down as the shield module came on, drinking deep into my energy reserves to slake it's thirst. This was dangerous and in hindsight, I should have not installed it let alone activate it.

Yes, you all guessed it. My cap ran out. My disruptor - already slaking it's thirst for energy since the beginning of the engagement, turned off as it was now starved of energy. The caracal, burst out from under me, racing for the nearest star gate. The cruiser was down to about 15% hull, one more shot from ANY of my guns would have done it. However, it ran and got away from me. In frustration, I almost self-destructed the ship. Cursing myself for poor capacitor management, I could imagine what Hhairsenk was thinking.

I waited for the criminal countdown to end and ambled home. What did I see, yes - a thorax and a caracal. I chased the rax in the jaguar but he was having none of it and managed to get into high-sec space, leaving the caracal.

Using the scanner and selected overview settings, I quickly pinned him ratting in the IX-1 or IX-2 belts. I gunned the Jaguar into warp, wanting desperately to kill something. I landed amidst wreckage in the first belt and without pausing, jumped to the second belt - checking the wrecks as I was warping out to confirm that this second caracal was indeed ratting. In warp, I told myself that 'Cap is life, cap is life'.

Exiting the warp and landing on top of the caracal was pure joy. Once again, I locked quickly and started to hammer him. The caracal had decent shields but with EMP ammunition loaded, it made short work of it. I checked and rechecked that I had the disruptor on and that it had enough energy. The invulnerability field did not come on. Joy it was scrambled. It was going to die. It was.....

Stabbed.

The caracal turned and warped away to a belt at no armour. I blinked once and starred at my gui. Damn. Not enough points this time and I was one or two salvos from killing it.

Okay - from experience; once a ratter has survived an attempt like this. He gets cocky. Probably doesn't anticipate that I would come back with more points. I waited for 15 minutes and then jumped out. The caracal had been in system as well with me. I quickly docked up and switched to a Dark Blood scrambler, all 10KM range, 2-point goodness. That should be enough points but did I have the range?

I warped back into the target system and I saw SNURA in his harpy. Damn. He was hunting the caracal too. He had a blaster-harpy and I needed a webber to keep him out of range. I ducked out again and refitted a webber, dropping the invulnerability field and extender and going for a MAPC and a 400mm plate with SAR II. Back to armour tanking the jaguar.

Returning the belt, I saw the caracal flash past me! Snura was in local complaining about the stabbed caracal......NO! Apparently he had engaged the caracal but only had one point (or the caracal had x2 WCS) and this time the caracal had left local on fire. Much like last time.

I wanted Snura in his harpy and we tried to track each other - a little unsure who was the hunter and the hunted. However, eventually - he left local; either bored with me or cautious that I had help in the next system....which I did.

So ended a rather interesting, fun and frustrating day.

Now here comes DT.

AFK Dom got killled, I mean WTF?

Have to start with the most recent of piracy and wanton destruction...this was me and a gang popping an AFK dominix. I passed him three times in and out of Gusandall, sure that he would just warp away when engaged. Certainly, my first attempt, I locked him in the vain attempt of getting him to return fire and open up hostilities. No such luck for me. On returning to Gusandall, I called out for some help in the Independence channel and a few other channels that I was in, reporting back to all on the location and status of the dominix. I grabbed my Hurricane while Jaxx Blackfox and Salicyate both got their megathrons. We needed some tanking ability to split the sentry gun fire. I was hoping that my drones would do the job for me. On arrival, the dominix sat there, big and brooding and oblivious to its imminent demise.

The three ships arrived and we pulsed our engines to nudge our ships into optimal positions, we knew that the automated sentry guns would open fire on us the moment it detected an illegal weapon's discharge.

Once we had surrounded the dominix and we were all at our optimal ranges, out came the drones.

"Get into position. I will take first wave." Said Jaxx. She opened fire, the blasters on her megathron opening up in bright flashes. At the same time, Sal and myself locked and opened fire too. The dominix rocked as our deadly ordnance splashed over it. The shields, flaring started to bleed off the tremendous energies from our weapons. However, it could not silently take this punishment as it's deadly arsenal of drones would be screaming around all our ships, trying to take them apart. Surely there was a catastrophic malfunction between the pod interface and the rest of the ship? Already, we could see tiny puffs of atmosphere as the crews' escape pods rained out from all over the ship. The crew knew that the ship had moments to live, no point in going down with it. The shields soon failed and snagged the capsule and killed the pod pilot. We could only imagine what had happened to the pod pilot. No matter, he was blasted to frozen organic matter by our weapons.

The sentry guns continued to pound on our ships and I had to loot the spluttering wreck with heavy ordnance hitting off my shields and armour. We scored a couple of T2 cap rechargers, T2 berserkers and x2 named large armour repairers. That's what I grabbed - Sal and Jaxx also grabbed what they can. We all got back to split the loot.

Whoever was piloting the Dominix (a known farmer) was probably asleep on the keyboard. Poor bastard.

Joined Black Flag

Since my last entry in the blog, much has happened. I finally took the standing offer of joining Black Flag. In terms of who I fly with, it makes no difference as all the pilots met up in the Independence channel and we all still use that more so than the corp chat. The independence channel will continue to be the means by which pirates around the Gusandall and Eifer area communicate. In fact, many a gang has been temporarily made up with pilots from this channel. Also, in terms of my bias and blog entry - it will always be me first and my exploits.

JOIN BLACK FLAG

JOIN BLACK-FLAG!

Just wanted to give a shout out to a newly forming pirate corp that I hope will achieve notoriety and infamy in the near future. As I posted in this blog entry, this is the corp that has asked me to join them and they are, almost to a pirate, originally residents of the Independence channel and over time, some members decided to form a corp led by Viper Sam and Grunanca.

Hunting down a manticore isn't easy!

The hunting is the main thing, the chase, the scan, the anticipation and then the pounce. Especially, if one is chasing something that is designed to be stealthy and hidden; chasing it down is even harder but when (if) you get the kill - it does taste so sweet. So here I was in Eifer once more and the Independence channel had many new faces in it. Very happy to see old and new pilots alike and oddly, no Black-Flag pilots this time round.


I welcome all new pilots to the channel, so long as they are loyal to the Gank - then all is ok. MattCaladan and Nova Blackadder were in the channel and in local and we were hunting down some innocent pilots, completely oblivious to their imminent, fiery demise.

Spotting a thrasher - both Nova and I vectored to it. Due to a mix up, Nova warped and arrived at one cluster and I, at another. I was lucky. The thrasher was there, hovering over the still sparkling wreck of a destroyed Angel cruiser. No doubt, he was eager looting and salvaging the wreck. There is much money to be made.

Unfortunately for me, I had landed about 45km and was slamming my assault frigate into a tight turn and screaming towards him, afterburners pushing the weak-looking frame to its limits. I prayed to the various Gods to mask me, to make me swift like a hunting hawk, for a wave of confusion to confound him. My sudden appearance in his immediate vicinity must have given him a fright however, as he tore his thrasher-class destroyer out of the belt within a few seconds.

Disappointed, I tracked his ship and saw it was heading towards a gate.

Having some experience, I waited. No point in giving chase, I could at least check the wrecks. In the back of my mind, I also knew that for many pilots - losing a wreck or interrupting their salvage produces an almost irrestible urge to return. Sometimes within minutes. I have hunted prey like this for years. Patience I said to myself as I busied over the still smouldering wreck of another Angel cruiser. My automated salvage units removed some useful ammunition but that was all.

Glancing down at my system scanner, it was empty. No matter, I pulsed the engines and drifted quietly to the second of the Angel wrecks.

"Patience", I said, "patience."

Reaching the second, I checked the scanner. There was a blip. It was the thrasher and it was back and close by. Grinning, I had a familiar feeling building up inside me, a tingling and sharpening of my senses. Combat was imminent.

No doubt, the thrasher pilot had warped back to the planet and was scanning the belts and must have caught the tell-tale return of my wolf-class assault frigate. He also probably thought that his thrasher should be able to shred me and in some cases, I agree - if the thrasher could control the range of the engagement.

The thrasher came in and landed close to the wrecks - clever boy, he had bookmarked the wrecks before leaving. However, it meant he was now 2km from me. This was my kill-range and nothing dishes out pain like a fully-locked and loaded Wolf-class assault frigate.

On came the disruptor, pulsing and wrecking his warp core containment fields. My four T2 200mm ACs spat death in the form of EMP and Hail. Screaming and tearing into the shields of the thrasher. However, the destroyer replied in kind - it's eight turrets boomed out, and hit my wolf head on. I had zero transversal and took the full brunt of an eight-artillery barrage.

No matter. Shields and armour be damned. I wanted the kill and my third salvo punched into the hull and exploded the destroyer. He should have fitted auto-canons; he may have killed me sooner. I gleefully tracked the pod and killed the pilot. Disdaining the need to ransom him. Wasn't in the mood today. I looted the wreck and collected the sad looking remains of the pod pilot.

Throughout this fight, I was also aware that there was a manticore stealth bomber in the system. Chances are, the stealthy craft may have been tracking and watching me. Matt and Nova meanwhile, were doing their level best in tracking the manticore as well. I zipped to one of my usually scan spots and with one scan narrowed him down to a belt. Surely not?

I informed Nova and Matt to align to my ship when I was nearing the belt. Would the pilot be so bold I thought? Ever if i couldn't lock him, I would at least be able to identify the pilot.

"Align." I said in the Independence channel and I recieved affirmations from them both.

Coming out of warp, thin gossamer plasma streams trailing off my ship, my eyes spotted the distinctive, boxy shape of the Caldari stealth bomber. Instantly, I mentally ordered the targetting computer to lock onto the bomber. However, the computer was still re-aligning itself after it's journey through warp space and failed, I ordered it to lock, again and again as I also toggled the afterburner and my weapons to 'insta-fire' mode. My anger was rising as the computer failed to lock for the third time. The fourth attempt the targetting cursor was blinking steadily and in a second I had a lock. I was 25km away and my disruptor failed. I drew closer and the stealth bomber pivoted and started to move away. 24km and I wished I had fitted an expensive tech 2 warp disruptor. 23km and the stealth bomber melted away.

It had cloaked.

Cursing, I pushed my ship to it's last known location and proceeded to do a series of high speed orbits around him. Hoping to crash into him. However, it was no good. He had gone. I had no idea if he was in the belt, above me, below me or alongside me. No idea at all. I left the belt and went to a safe spot. At least I knew who the pilot was: 'MU Kurlyz'. I decided to access his Concord pilot profile. This happened a couple of times, coming close, so close. Frustrating.

Matt and Nova were still around. The manticore had re-appeared and both Matt and Nova zipped off to various belts to try and flush him out. It was an admirable effort and I was grateful for their work rate. Both would become good pirates given time. MU Kurlyz left local, probably wanting to avoid the attention of Matt and Nova. I checked his last known location and decided he went back to Gusandall and proceeded to go there with Matt and Nova holding station in Eifer.

Back in Gusandall, the local space was busy and yes, the manticore was back and on scan. Was he baiting me? I scanned him down to another belt and I banked on him warping not to 0km but a bit off it. Maybe I could get lucky? I warped in, modules toggled to 'insta-fire' mode. Bursting out of warp, I had caught the tell-tale trailers of a recently exited ship. He was in the VI-I belt. I spun the ship round and went to this belt. Cat and mouse indeed.

Exiting warp, I saw the stealth bomber but maybe he miscalculated as he was only 6km from me! I had to get an active lock and hit him with something to disable his cloak. Once again, the computer had problems with the target acquisition. Damn these old, useless Minmatar computers! Why not the latest Gallente or stolen Caldari technology?

The cursor then became a solid and I had a solid lock. It also told me that the manticore had done the same. My weapons and disruptor came on just as his heavy missiles slammed into my ship knocking it sideways. My systems blanked out for a second but the tough, no nonsense Minmatar chips refused to die and maintained lock. A more sophisticated computer would have rebooted. The EMP shells (I had switched all the ammunitions to the EMP variety) obliterated the manticore's shields in my first salvo. I had no shield left and the second missile salvo took me down to 85% armour. It was so quick that I had no time to even activate the armour repairer. However, we build our ships tough - unlike the now shield-less Manticore. The EMP munition, while designed to be anti-shield was still effective agains the thin armour of the Caldari and I was shocked to see the last shell of the second salvo blow the ship to smithereens.

Get the fecking pod! I thought to myself as I tried to lock the blinking egg-like capsule however, MU Kurlyz had already activated his drives and was gone.

In less than 8 seconds, the fight was over. The manticore now a unrecognised wreck amidst an expanding sphere of debris. Matt and Nova came in to help but the warp itself took over ten seconds so they missed out. I checked the loot and was delighted to see a Tech 2 Raltech Hidden-Eye Advanced Covert-Ops Cloaking device and a Tech 2 ballistic control unit.

Nice score.

There was also a large amount of Caldari Navy Issue Scourge missiles - I left them for Matt and Nova to pick up. I said 'Good fight' to the pilot but he had already left the system. No matter, the chase was thrilling and I love New Eden.

Concord fired off an evemail confirming the kill.

2007.12.03 19:09

Victim: MU Kurlyz
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Project Rain
Destroyed: Manticore
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

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


Destroyed items:

'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
Cap Recharger II
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Cap Recharger II, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile, Qty: 23
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 199