I had to die to satisfy the blood god!

My Death

You are unable to warp because you're warp scrambled.

That one sentence told me that I was now dead, events just had not caught up with me. I had the unfortunate luck of a system's break down - my stabber shut down as I was en route to the Todifrauan gate and as an emergency, the warp engines activated and slung me into the depths of space and very far from any navigational beacons. Once the computer was back online after 48 hours of frantic repair, I managed to pick up the previous destination and landed on the target gate. I did not check the star map for 'ships destroyed' and any other update and this was my undoing - this gate was now camped. Compounding my mistake I jumped through and was caught by two rifters with webbers and scramblers on the other side. Stuck down like a fly in amber, the other ships came in and dismantled my ship in short order.

For them, it was a good, clean kill for the Red Republic Alliance pilots.

My Rebirth and Revenge

Havoc, Violence and Chaos are another crew who are red to this us but they too, were hunting the Red Republic Alliance and their friends so we teamed up with HVC for the night, just to increase our chances of a kill. An 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' was the motto for the night.

I was already docked up in Gusandall and went downstairs to the Independence bar. I went back to the bar and helped myself to a cold beer and looked around at the crowd. Seeing some familiar faces, I strode over.

"Nova, Snake, Christioff. Greetings."

"Hi Flash."

"Yo."

"Greetings."

"How are you lads set for tonight? We have potential targets in Evati. Booty and loot and plenty of killing?" Scraping along the floor, I dragged a seat and sat down on it.

"Sure thing. If I stay in the station any longer, I think I will burst."

The mixed gang eventally included Hellequin, Black-Flag, HVC and the Independent pilots with Black-Flag in the lead and Viper Sam, Fleet Commander for the night.

Getting my revenge proved to be difficult as a gang was formed and just as we were about to spring our trap, one of their number came through the system and discovered the fleet of seven ships lurking. We gave chase but it was an epic fail. This did not deter us.

The gang included the following:

Viper Same (Black-Flag, Maelstrom) - Fleet Commander
Flashfresh (Black-Flag, Hurricane)
UrbanCapt (Astarte, -HVC-)
Wessler (Hurricane, -HVC-)
Baccus65 (Hyperion, -HVC-)
Muhaar Gemeinian (Hellequin, Astarte)
Ichiro (Hellequin, Scorpion)
Dutch Jones (Clan Wolf, Broadsword)
Snake Boy (Devil's Advocates, Hurricane)
Christoffski (Catch-22, Thorax)
Nova Blackadder (Brutor tribe, Stabber)

A mixed but powerful fleet and more than capable of blasting most ships out of existence.

Let's go to KAT!!

"Flash and Nova in the lead. Moving out." I glanced over at my wing-man in his stabber-class cruiser, plasma streaking off the thin, deadly lines of his craft.

"Okay Flashfresh is in the lead. Clear the voice channel. Good hunting," said Viper Sam, assuming overall command of the fleet. "Fleet, form up on me."

"Roger that. Nova, set your destination to Katugumur. First stop is sotrenzur."

"I copy Flash. Next stop Sotrenzur."

My hurricane battle cruiser and the smaller, stabber moved into warp together and we activated the jump gate on contact, having sent a request to gate control before we even entered system. As per standard Black-Flag operating procedures. We hold cloak for as long as possible.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Two ravens and a scorpion on gate."

"I see them Nova. Hold cloak. They must have spotted our gate fire and are waiting." I toggled the chat to general fleet. "Black-Flag this is Flash. Three Goonswarm BS on the Gusandall gate in sotrenzur. All ships, get to the gate and hold."

The three battleships were probably the reason why there was such a high ship-kill count in Katugumur. These guys were making their way down and popping all the ships they could catch at the gates. Glancing at the clock, Nova and I had less than seven seconds before the spatial distortion on our ships dissipated.

"Nova. Get ready to decloak. Warp out if you have to, I will get back to the gate and get then to fire on me."

"Roger that."

"Fleet, this is Flash. Status please?" There was a burst of static and Viper came back.

"We're aligning and will be there in two minutes."

"Nova. Decloaking in five, four, three, two, one. Decloak. Go Nova!" I moved my hurricane back towards the gate as the last whispers of the gate cloak disappeared. About 8km from the gate, all three ships locked and fired at me. No doubt, their alpha-strike would take down most industrials. Nova's stabber whipped out towards planet IX and he was safe.

"Flash under fire. No webbers, am moving to gate. The three battleships are now flagged due to hostile actions. "

"Roger that. Fleet - jump." There was a flash from the multiple gate activations. I was pulled back into Gusandall while the fleet jumped the other way into Sotrenzur. The calm voice of Viper Sam came through on the fleet communications.

"Primary is DarkGold. Secondary is TheUnreal." The scorpion was to be blasted first, a wise tactical choice. Turning the ship around, I jumped in and locked the scorpion. Our fleet had a 3 v 1 numerical advantage and the Goons found themselves out-numbered and out-gunned. All three battleships went down very fast with no loss on our side. A goonswarm brutix (piloted by a goon unfortunately named 'Rob Rectum') arrived too late to help and was dispatched with ease.

The loot was quite good and we collected as much as we could and pushed on. Setting out sight on L4X-1v and Bosena.

Skarkon - first stop

Sam explained to the fleet how we were to operate and to minimise chatter. Nova and I pushed on ahead and the next seven jumps had nothing. It was all quiet. Too quiet maybe. As the fleet continued, the two Hellequin pilots dropped out to attend to their personal matters. We bade them a safe journey and continued. Arriving at Skarkon, a quick visit to L4X-1V revealed a warp disruption sphere and some Goonswarm pilots in local but nothing else.

"Nothing here in L4X-1V. Flash and Nova - go towards Bosena."

"Roger that." A few boring jumps later and I arrived at Oddelulf, my scanner picked up something interesting.

"I see a thanatos on scan. Nova, can you confirm?" There was a moment's pause and in came the reply, strong and clear.

"Roger that. A thanatos on scan as well as lachesis, pilgrim and crow."

"Nova - check out the station. I think those ships are scanning. Keep on your toes."

"Roger that. Moving towards the station." Nova was gone in an instant, my scanner then started to beep. Something was around.

"Fleet I might have a contact. Stand by. " My hurricane's micro warp drive lit up as I moved away from my safe spot. I had spotted a scan probe and it was likely that the lachesis had my position. So be it. Alarms rang out loudly and three ships appeared between 15-25km behind me. My hurricane was moving at speed and I could sustain this velocity if I wanted to.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Three hostiles locking Flashfresh. Engaging."My hurricane's frame protested as I swung the ship around to face the small nimble ships now locking and scrambling me.

"Fleet go!" Ordered Viper Sam as the fleet jumped as one into Oddelulf. I warp scrambled the lachesis but we needed webbers to slow down these ships. My shields started to wink down as all three ships fired on me. I maintained my point on the lachesis but the pilgrim was sucking my cap dry.

"Lachesis pointed."

Once Black-Flag arrived, the three enemy ships smoothly disengaged and disappeared like smoke. Lacking webbers and fast tacklers, our fleet could not control this engagement.

Eve-University - next stop.

Moving into Bosena, I was still the scout. Nova in another system doing the same job, the big fleet we had was holding together well.

"This is Flash. In Bosena. I have a rifter approaching the gate and three contacts on scanner." I decloaked and wanted to see if the the rifter would bite.

"Roger that Flash. Moving fleet towards the Bosena gate. Stand by."

"The rifter has locked me." There was a burst of light and three more ships appeared. "Contact. Contact. Contact. Brutix, Hurricane, Hurricane and Myrmidon now at the gate."

"Move back towards the gate. Get them to aggress you."

"Trying." None of the ships would fire though they flashed yellow on my overview. I slowed my approach down but did not stop. "Hostiles have not yet engaged."

"Draw them through Flash."

"Roger that." I requested an immediate gate activation. There was a crackle of power being built up and then, I was through. The Black-Flag fleet sat there, patiently waiting.

"Gate fire." It sounded like Snake.

I checked local.

"It's the Brutix coming in for a look. Get ready."

We all waited and after 15 seconds the Brutix appeared. It quickly made it's way back towards the gate. Again, we had no webbers - an omission that we would come to regret as the brutix though blasted into armour in one volley, it had enough momentum to get to star-gate activation range. It jumped and those who didn't fire, jumped after the brutix.

There were no ships on the other side of the gate, the brutix pilot doing a good job warning his companions. I couldn't jump but the brutix slithered away from the grasp of the four ships that followed; much to our disappointment. There was a strong presence of Eve-University students, about 20-25 ships passing through. They then left local as the fleet turned round and headed back towards Ennur.

Skarkon - Part Two

"Let's check L4X-1V again shall we?" By this time, we were joined by a friend from the Gusandall flying a falcon to make up the loss of Muhaar and Ichiro.

"Go ahead of us Nova. Flash, can you bring up the rear?"

"Roger that."

The fleet then started to zip through Ennur and into Skarkon and there was nothing in L4X-1V.

"Nothing here guys but there's a fair few in local. Come on in and sit next to the warp bubble. Flash, stay Skarkon side and keep an eye on the gate." Sam wanted the fleet to camp the gate for a while, using the existing bubble to stop ships from leaving. The only ship floating around the gate with me was a noob pilot. This pilot was clearly a scout and jumped into L4X-1V only to be popped by our fleet. This pilot repeated the same tactic at least two more times, each resulting in the same pod kill.

"Flashfresh here: all looks quiet I think -" I broke off as local suddenly jumped by ten pilots. "All pilots hold." A quick scan revealed nothing but they could be making their way towards the gate. I waited.

"Flash! Report!"

"Several new pilots in local mainly White Core alliance. Attempting to locate." Nothing on scanner and if they were on their way towards L4X-1V gate, they would have arrived by now. I decided to hit the warp drive and try and find them.

"Flash here, going to leave the gate and scan them out."

"Roger that."

I jumped to the other gate and found nothing and turned to the second gate. Local dropped.

"They're leaving. Either through to Ennur or into Skarkon."

"Gate fire! Gate fire! Gate fire!"

"Flashfresh en route. Racing back towards the L4 gate."


Battle at L4X-1V gate

When I arrived at the gate, the space around it was still shimmering due to the multiple ships that had jumped through. I hit the gate as our fleet started to engage the enemy fleet.

The fleet composition was even in numbers: ten v ten. They had the edge in terms of ECM (a scorpion and two blackbirds versus our one falcon) but we had marginally more in damage dealing.


We did not hesitate and made our intentions known:

"Primary is endemic!"

So it began, the fighting was controlled and decisive on our part. Knocking out the abaddon was done relatively easily but somehow we failed to spot the scorpion quickly enough and it managed to get a few sensor jams on all of us until we targeted it, jammed it and then destroyed the scorpion. Nova was tasked with going after one of the blackbirds as Prediction Pain was busy jamming the scorpion and remaining blackbird. He did an excellent job chasing the black bird down. Snake Boy, in his Black-Flag hurricane held the centre along with Viper Sam's maelstrom and Baccus62's Hyperion. I was on the flanks with Christioff's thorax and the broadsword and astarte from -HVC-, hitting the enemy ships hard and giving them no time to think or react.

The result was a complete victory.


The loot was divided up amongst the combatants and it was a good fight with excellent FC'ing by Viper Sam. The loot can be seen in the previous post.