Yarrr and all that with some smack please.

Warning: some bad language in this post.

"Welcome back Flash!"
"Great to see you!"
"WTF are you doing back?"

Well, just three of the greetings I got back into circulation. I was missed by some, not missed by others and yet more simply didn't care. Oh well. It is interesting how, in our 'profession' - you have to keep killing, looting and ransoming to get anywhere.....

It looked like three ex-Black-Flag pilots joined up with The Bastards: a fine bunch of killing, looting and ransoming pirates who I have flown with and one of them, Jorge Belda contacted me while I was in my bar, slurping noisily on yet another alcoholic drink.

Nothing too emotional, no hugs but straight to the point from Jorge.

"Flash! Am looking for this thorax and I may have found it."
"Jorge my friend - well done, your scanning kung fu is strong!" There was a pause and Jorge's voice came back, a bit distorted.
"One point!"
"Nice work Jorge - who is it?" I asked as I finished my drink. Seconds later, the CONCORD pilot details flashed across my viewer. The pilot was not a rookie and for Jorge it was a good tackle.
"Er, Flash - I need some damage here. Am in my 'ceptor and can't really much damage. Your assistance would be good!"
"Wait one." I replied, checking with my hangar manager. I had one new ship all prepped and ready to go, The Resilient, yet another hurricane-class battle-cruiser. A bit overkill for a thorax but I didn't care. "Be there in ten minutes. Can you maintain the tackle Jorge?"
"Yup. No problems unless the fool brings in help!"

Within seconds I was out in space, engines throbbing brightly as it pushed the wedge shaped battle cruiser into space. Gate activation was easy - those chaps know me and my ship very well and I was into Eifer. A quick scan to check for an all clear and I was hurtling towards Planet 1 - asteroid belt 1.

The thorax was tackled by Jorge's malediction. There were drones out but they had trouble catching the small and speeding tackler. I hit the target lock and diverted power to the micro warp drive. Jorge and the tackled thorax were in a complicated dance that had it ambled over 60km from the warp in point. There was a small shudder as my micro warp drive engaged and I closed the distance. The thorax was firing small blasters and not the medium ones I would expect. Meant that this thorax had slapped on a 1600mm armour plate all around it. Could be interesting.

My scanner pipped up.

A falcon had decloaked and a hound too.

Ah, so the hand was revealed. The thorax, was bait. What a surprise.

I closed the distance to the thorax and managed to hit my warp disruptor before the falcon flooded my targeting computer with an ECM jam.

"Falcon just decloaked. Am jammed." I informed Jorge, who no doubt managed to see the danger himself. The falcon pilot was from the same corporation as the thorax pilot. The hound was some other third party.

"Hound too, damn - doesn't look too good now does it?"

"Nope. Prepare to hit your micro warp drive and get out of range from the falcon."

"Roger that. Damn it!" Yelled Jorge in frustration.

I was now being perma-jammed by the falcon. No way could I break through his ECM - I had toyed with the idea of ECCM being installed but wanted more firepower instead. However, if you can't lock your target, you can't hit anything. Not for the first time have I regretted my ship fitting decisions.

Checking my scanner, I aligned towards a planet and was about to accelerate away when my a shared intelligence channel opened up.

"Need any help ladies?"

It was Tenchuu Khaan, a pirate I know from the respected Hellequin Inc pirate corporation [JOKER]; he had arrived into the same belt as Jorge, myself and the three other ships. No doubt, his interest piqued by the presence of so many juicy ships. For some idiotic and noobie reason, the falcon pilot, having decloaked, was right at the warp-in spot for this asteroid belt. It was his bad luck that TK warped in and landed on him. The falcon pilot died horribly as TK blasted him to scrap. The loss of the x30 trit alloy bars must have hurt too.

With the ECM gone, we proceeded to work on the thorax and it wasn't long before Jorge and I dismantled the plucky cruiser in short order. We missed the pod however. The ship was mostly tech-2 fitted and it was a good haul.

2008.09.03 15:30
Victim: Aeon Veritas
Corp: merovinger inc
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Thorax
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 13601

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 8638

Name: Jorge Belda
Security: -9.9
Corp: The Bastards
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Malediction
Weapon: 'Malkuth' Standard Missile Launcher I
Damage Done: 4912

Name: Angel Shatterer / Archangels
Damage Done: 51

Destroyed items:
Void S, Qty: 160
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Warp Disruptor II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Damage Control II
Void S, Qty: 2501 (Cargo)
Vespa II (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead II (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Void S, Qty: 240
10MN MicroWarpdrive I
Medium Armor Repairer II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Valkyrie II (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead II (Drone Bay)
Infiltrator II (Drone Bay)

The Hound had quickly cloaked and probably got out. Pity really - it he would have been a very nice kill.

Switching back, I left Jorge to hunt around and I retired to check up on my sale orders. I was in my wolf when I Jorge, once again, requested help. A friend of mine had already alerted us to a rupture-class cruiser moving around between Eifer and the other systems and this time - Jorge had managed to track it down and was screaming his way towards it and to make the tackle.

"Flash? I have a point on the rupture!"

Damn, Jorge's scouting and tackling kung-fu is strong today! I thought.

"OK, am in my wolf - will get there as soon as possible. Where are you?"

"4-5"

"Roger that. On my way."

The wolf whipped round and headed back towards Eifer. Some of my sales will have to wait as a kill always takes precedence. As I entered the belt, I saw, in the distance - Jorge and a rupture. They were both moving just under 1km/second.

I warped closer to Jorge but by the time I got there. The pair had moved off. The rupture pilot desperately gunning his cruiser hard and fast in an effort to get away from Jorge's attention.

My wolf was only capable of a maximum 659m/s velocity and I didn't want to over-heat my after-burner. I had to switch ships and toggled the sub-space chat with Jorge.

"Jorge, need to change ships. I can't keep up!"

"OK Flash - this chap is moving fast but I am cap capable. Just hope he doesn't have any friends!"

"Roger that, like last time huh?"

I quickly changed to my own rupture, made sure I had a micro warp drive installed and was soon back in the belt - chasing the tackled rupture down. I had a webber installed as well as a warp scrambler in addition to the all important MWD.

As I closed to within web range, we opened up a line of dialogue with the rupture pilot. Apart from some spelling and grammatical changes, the conversation is lifted straight from the logs.

grytpype > Dumbass.
grytpype > Your missiles aren't doing shit.
grytpype > I could do this all day.
grytpype > Asshole.
flashfresh > Hello all!
Jorge Belda > Your compliments enlighten me, have a great day!
grytpype > What a cunt.
flashfresh > Huh? What type of language is that?
Jorge Belda > This fine fellow was commenting on my fine tackling skills.
flashfresh > Fine indeed.

At this point, I had closed and webbed the rupture, slowing him down to a fraction of the speed he was once enjoying. I sent my drones at him as he started to fire back at me.

grytpype > I'm going to self destruct anyway.
grytpype > You wont get shit.
flashfresh > Really?
grytpype > You wont get my t2.
grytpype > You wont get a killmail.
grytpype > You wont get jack shit.
Jorge Belda > Ah but I get the satifaction of watch your carebear little heart die a little as all your 'T2 loot' goes pop, regardless of whether I get it or not. grytpype > cunt.

Ship went boom as my dual-180mm auto canons spun up and spat death at it. The rupture had a tough shield and the killmail revealed why.

flashfresh > bye bye ruppie!
Jorge Belda > 5 mil for your pod, or that goes too
Jorge Belda > You have 10 seconds Jorge Belda > 5
Jorge Belda > 4
Jorge Belda > 3
Jorge Belda > 2
Jorge Belda > 1
Jorge Belda > pop
flashfresh > Oops
flashfresh > Thanks for the salvage.
Jorge Belda > Thanks for flying Eifer Airways, welcome to Heimatar.
flashfresh > And please, fly with us again.

He was right of course, the T2 MWD did go pop but we had the corpse to add to our collection. We always ransom pods - it's a good source of isk. I suppose he was upset however. I hope he didn't lose any implants.

I had one more kill that evening of a rifter pilot, not the one I was hunting for but another who blundered into my belt. A kill is a kill and my appetite has been whetted.