Musings of a pirate - part 7 - The Hurricane

A return!

It's great to be back and I love the tickle on the back of the neck when you hear the sweet voice of Aurora welcoming you back into the pod. I took a leave of absence and went traveling (in cognito of course) to the fleshpots of Luminaire for a recharge of my batteries and creative juces. It also allowed me to think about some subjects in a little bit of depth as well as respond to the new challenges in Black-Flag.


A roam to 0.0 - let's do it!

First off is the addition of new routes into 0.0 for Black-Flag. We are low-sec pirates but we also move where there's new, fresh prey. Who wouldn't want to get involved in killing 0.0 alliance pilots? This addition of a 0.0 region to our roaming route has meant a temporary cutting down of active forays as the Black-Flag pilots get the logistic chain set up to move ships, ammo and supplies to a staging area closer to this new 0.0 operating area. Since many of us are 'criminals' we have to utilise friends and third parties to move our gear through high security space as required. All this movement of goods takes time. Am sure that the success of any roaming gang depends largely on it's logistics and how well it's going to be managed. We'll probably be seeding ammunition dumps around selected systems to facilitate easy re-supply as there are no stations for us to dock in. I suppose this is where capital ships would be useful - an area that Black-Flag is not too interested (except trying to take them down....) at the moment.

I have no information on how long Viper Sam, the CEO, wants us to roam in this 0.0 region but I guess, so long as we can kick somebody's nuts in and rob him of his modules and ransom his pod; we shall remain. Oh, due to the power of cloning, Viper Sam got a face-lift and now looks like thus -->


The Hurricane - my thoughts

The force with which this ship hits is more than sufficient to leave a trail of shattered enemies, floating around like so much lifeless debris. An adaptable vessel, it has enough turret hardpoints for a full-scale assault while remaining versatile enough to allow for plenty of missile fire, and has both sufficient speed to outrun its enemies and sufficient capacitor charge to outlast them.

Ah, how I love the hurricane and how I am so happy that Black-Flag has a variant of the Hurricane as its standard line-of-battle-ship. While Black-Flag has other ships types available, all Black-Flag pilots are expected to fly the hurricane not just competently but expertly utilising the 'canes speed and firepower. While the maelstrom-class battleship has made it's appearance in the order of battle for Black-Flag, the core is still the hurricane-class battle cruiser. I actually dropped down from the typhoon-class battleship to a hurricane when it came out as I was very dis-satisfied with using a battleship-class ship for roaming and solo low-sec work. The 'cane proved to be ideal. Been flying the 'cane now for well over a year and since joining Black-Flag, the use of a fleet of hurricanes has been a revelation. With five or six of these ships - am confident of taking on most fleets of equal size and coming out on top. The use 425mm auto canon, the gun by which the hurricane was designed for and the presence of some top-notch gyrostabilisers, mean that the hurricane can pour out a tremendous amount of lethal fire in a concentrated burst. Not many ships can survive this onslaught and when you have five of these ships each with a full complement of 425mm auto canons pointing at you, the chance of surviving it is slim.

Finally, the ship looks damn sexy.

The next few weeks...and The Bastards

For me, the next few weeks will see me moving a portion of my ships to the new 0.0 staging area - we hope to be causing maximum havoc and destruction and this requires some patience and planning on our part. Am also sorry to see founding Black-Flag member, Grunanca, depart from Black-Flag due to RL issues but I wish him well and that Black-Flag would not be here without his efforts. Having said that, we've have had a rush of new applications from pirates and others. The largest contingent has been from 'The Bastards'


A pirating bunch based a few jumps from us in Gusandall and I know them from reputation, especially General Coochie a most excellent pirate and pilot. They have submitted their applications and it's being looked at carefully by Muelac and others. They all have the skills (or close to it) and low-sec experience and I wish them luck as well as a patience in waiting forthe application to process especially with the refocusing of corp energies into prepping for the extended 0.0 tour. However, I support their applications and extend our courtesy and thanks to them. Of course, they are still red to us until their application is successful and I will not hesitate to fire nor should they.

We're pirates after all.

Right, now where's my hauler?