"We have an ass-load of frigate-class ships in Eifer!" Yelled Aiko Shinjiro, a well-respected M34N corporation pilot. He was in a manticore-class ship in Eifer, cloaked and keeping an eye on a small frigate fleet that was roaming between the belts in Eifer. There were other targets in the system but this was interesting.
"Aiko, how many?" I asked, my interest piqued.
"Er, I say between 4-6 rifters, one crucuifer-class and a tristan."
"Are they all together? Anthing else in the system?"
"Unsure Flash, there was a dominix battleship here recently and a rupture and a crow as well but they're not together, I don't think. Most of the frigates are from 'British Federation'."
"Roger that - keep us updated; let me get a fleet up and running. Wait five."
"Roger."
The communication link went silent as I searched for available pirates, a frigate swarm in Eifer, roaming and moving around like they were was basically either bait or they were looking for a fight. Either way, this was not to go unchallenged. A quick message pulse and in addition to Aiko, I had Yoshi and Kerjin answering the call. Our little anti-frigate fleet now consisted Yoshi's brutix, Kerjin in his vagabond, Aiko in the manticore and I decided to get into my trusty Jaguar-class assault frigate. Yoshi was going to be the bait as I formed my plan.
"Ok fleet, listen up. Yoshi - get to 1-1 and sit there as bait. A frigate swarm will love you my friend -"
"Uh-huh.."
"- Kerjin and Aiko, sit cloaked in 1-1 and see what will happen."
Undocking into Gusandall space, I moved towards the Eifer gate. The crew at the gate waved me through, it's good to keep these guys sweet to ensure a quick transit. In Eifer, I could see plenty of pilots. I moved to a safe spot and asked for an update.
"Yoshi here. Am in 1-1 and nothing yet, doesn't look like the frigates will bite..."
"Patience Yoshi - prepare to move to the next belt. Aiko and Kerjin, I trust you chaps are close by?"
Both Kerjin and Aiko pinged an affirmative to me.
"OK Flash, am moving towards -" Yoshi's comms-link suddenly went dead.
"Contact! Contact! A crow just engaged me." Testing to see if it's bait?
"Aiko and Kerjin: hold. I doubt the crow can kill the brutix. Do not tip off the frigates, if they are together. You ok Yoshi?"
"Yeah, yeah. Am OKAY."
So we waited, Yoshi giving a running commentary on the damage, limited as it was, on his brutix.
"Guys, they're all here!" Not too sure what was going on, but everyone else then warped to Yoshi's Brutix.
My Jaguar whipped into space and I was as eager as the others for the kill. Landing inside the belt at 1-1, my overview lagged to load up all the ships in it. I saw four rifters and one or two others, some were already leaving.
"Primary? Primary?"
I looked, too many and I was very confident that we could take them.
"Opportunity fire. Take down anyone!" I locked three rifters and pointed one. A pod suddenly appeared in my overview. There was another flash. Missiles I think. The pod whipped away. My auto canons spun up and spat death. The EMP rounds knifed through the rusty frame of the rifter and split it into two flaming bits. I switched to my next target, a tristan. Before the lock resolved, it exploded into a million pieces.
A rupture loomed in my overview, I locked him and he locked me. It was 'Lt Calman', the name rang a bell to me. We both opened up as the other rifters warped out. The fight was quick and dirty but the rupture couldn't fight the combined fire power of our group. I have no idea if Lt Calman was with the rifters, he probably wasn't but we didn't care. He too, died but also managed to warp his pod out.
The belt was strewn with rifter and other frigate wrecks. It was over in a little under two minutes but what a fight!
Well done to the frigate gang, very well done.
Good kills - mission runners beware.
We've tangled a few times with a number of corporations that we want coming back (which is cool) to the same area. One of them is a corporation called, Soldiers of Eve (SOM) --> so far, our work has been pretty successful in terms of numbers though isk efficiency is only at 33% due to our BS loss to them.
Details are here: http://www.black-flag.org/kills/?a=corp_detail&crp_id=8378
Last night, we had good intelligence that there were some SOM pilots making their way through a cosmic anomaly in Sotrenzur. We know the entire area well, so we were almost guaranteed to drop onto them with no problems. As a rule, we pirates keep up to date star charts of cosmic anomalies and other celestial bodies; just so that we can vector in our ships onto the target with the minimum of fuss. Our intelligence reported back that the ship types to be a caracal, myrmidon, zealot and hurricane. I managed to rustle up a cerberus, hurricane, hurricane and vagabond - drawn from three different corporations.
"Fleet this is Flashfresh: status please."
"Kerjin, in vagabond and en route."
"Kane in hurricane, ready and en route."
"Daplat, cerberus, on gate and ready."
Daplat was closest and we need a tackle.
"Daplat - go and point the zealot, secondary will be the myrmidon - that's your baby Kerjin."
"Roger that!"
Like wolves, we descended on the SOM ships. Daplat, Kane and Kerjin arrived before I did and due to some communication problems - the caracal was pointed by everyone. The myrmidon was already in warp when the ships were coming in; the Angel's in the cosmic anomaly had been utterly destroyed and the SOM fleet was already making ready to leave. The zealot managed to get out.
No matter, a kill is a kill and the caracal was torn apart in a very unfair 4 v 1 - but who the hell cares? It's not a duel; it's a kill. However, the zealot suddenly warped back into the anomaly - maybe in a belated attempt to rescue his corporation mate. We momentary held our fire (though we insta-pointed him) as a sign of respect for his fool-hardy bravery, then killed his ass.
2008.05.26 22:18
Victim: Renato Pace
Alliance: None
Corp: Soldiers Of Mercy
Destroyed: Zealot
System: Sotrenzur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 7872
Involved parties:
Name: Kane Rizzel
Security: -10.0
Alliance: Derek Knows Us
Corp: NovaKane Incorporated
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 3518
Name: Piranha Light Missile / Minmatar Republic
Damage Done: 1750
Name: Daplat Mode (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Alliance: None
Corp: New Orion Underground
Ship: Cerberus
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 932
Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: None
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 848
Name: kerjin
Security: -9.5
Alliance: None
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 824
Destroyed items:
Multifrequency M
Multifrequency M
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Cap Recharger II
Armor Thermic Hardener I
Armor EM Hardener I
Heat Sink II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Conflagration M, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Radio M, Qty: 5 (Cargo)
Dropped items:
Multifrequency M
Multifrequency M
Multifrequency M
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Cap Recharger II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Heat Sink II
Armor Kinetic Hardener I
Conflagration M, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
We missed the pods in both attempts, I really wish we had a few smart bombs fitted!
Other bits.
Checking through the corp's killboard, I realised that I had hit and gone through the 300 kills mark with Black-Flag.
Time does indeed fly by on this and I cast my mind back to the kills and to be honest, only a small handful come to mind and usually the ones where I am (almost) hopefully outnumbered.
Finally, 1 v 1 - avoid them!!
Someone we knew accepted a highly dubious 1 v 1 and was then jumped by two others, making it a 3 v 1. Oh well.
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