EVE Pirate Blog Speed-linking November 2008

November 2008 New Eden Pirate Blog Round Up.
As you all know, there's more and more blogs out there and difficult to keep track of. The speedlinking below includes only recently updated pirate based blogs. Manasi and Ombey, as much as I love them both don't feature in this list unless they have done something 'naughty'. CrazyKinux however, has most, if not all other non-pirate blogs covered.

I did notice something quite interesting: it does appear that at least five pirate bloggers are with The Bastards now and fly together on a regular basis. With the two regular Hellcats (Mynxee and Shae Tiann) flying with the Bastards on a regular basis as well; that's seven pirate bloggers all flying together. Good times indeed and readers can expect plenty of output.

Now, to the Blogs and recent entries as of 14-24th November 2008......

• Not all blogs are our own recounting of ransoms and kills; we have some very talented writers too and Thicker than Blood: Chapter One by one of my favourite lady pirates, Shae Tiann, is an atmospheric and tightly-written piece of work. Recommended reading by pirates and non-pirates alike. However, her post on frigate swarm is a fun recounting of the same mad-cap action that I was involved in. It's aptly called 'It's only a blob is you die'. Indeed it is. Oh, just realised that Shae has now Thicker than Blood: Chapter Two up and available. Now get your ass over to her blog.
  
• While I only play EVE-Online, I do like to keep abreast of other games and Havohej goes one further and carries on the pirate antics in Pirates of the Burning Sea MMORPG with a nice article on the Deliverance Heavy Frigate and the the Tiger Sleek Frigate. Like I said, I don't inhabit any other universe apart from New Eden but PotBS looks fascinating. Real wet navy yarrage.
  
• Mynxee and some of her Hellcats have been flying with us and her blog entries has always been a great read. I love this one about how aspiring bloggers can add some love to their blog. A wonderful article and I highly recommend it. Additional to thought provoking ones, we have a tale of busting mission and exploration runners here and Mynxee's own recollection of our frigate swarm in her post: Tiny HoofBeats from hell, is a nice read. By the time you read this, Mynxee should also be on her 100 or 101st Blog post. Happy Blogging Mynxee!!
  
• Pirates are people too and Wensley celebrates his birthday. Pop over to his page and say hi. I did and so should you, dear reader. However, what about tales of yarrage and mayhem? Well, his pirate corporation, the Tuskers is growing stronger day by day and Wes gives a nice update on them.
  
• Specre3353 has now joined The Bastards and for a time was top of our killboard. Such a bad boy and check out his picture of a baby sandwich, in all seriousness - he is a superb pilot and a wonderful addition to our group. This entry has the tale of an ejecting pilot who had his ship ransomed back to him for a cool 200 million isk; a result in anyone's books. He also has some words about those who are cocky as well as his much prepared hiatus from New Eden. Come back soon Spectre3353!!
  
• With the recent changes in Quantum Rise; there have been many reactions - San Rintu pens a few, well written paragraphs on the Assault Frigate class ship, much neglected but now being shown some love. Of course, he also chats about the infamous FC'ing cow.....read it here.
  
• Marleus, from Iron Fleet makes a welcome return to the pirate blogsphere with a post informing us that Iron Fleet are now in the same alliance as Suddenly Ninjas, a bunch of pilots who, well - 'acquire' your loot and wrecks. I think it can be best summed up as 'we're cloaked and we're in YOUR mission.' Indeed, now all mission and complex runners, be afraid. Tchell Dahhn's manifesto is here for all to see and to understand their position.
• Another corp mate of mine, Hallan Turrek, drops in a thoughtful post of 'what is the point?' - indeed; but there is a point isn't there? However, Hallan (like Shae) is also a fine fiction writer and please, please check the first in what I hope to be a superb installment: 'Death in the Family: Chapter 1'. His latest post is aptly titled 'It ain't suicide if you live.' - which Hallan has proven time and time again when he throws his rifter into absolutely crazy odds. Love that man.
  
• Not forgetting another female pilot of a pirate-like persuasion is Super Gamer House Wife, didn't realised she was part of the Ninja Pirates, but an enjoyable read.
• Now, a myrmidon is a mighty battle cruiser and Ka Jolo, a pirate of much renown regales us with his ship kill in this vessel and an enjoyable tale of revenge on Furb Killer. While his latest blog post; he explains that as CEO - it isn't all pew-pew and the sound of isk.
  
• I haven't heard much from Kane Rizzel during the months of Oct and early Nov as he had taken some much needed time off from being plugged into his various ships of doom but I hoped he kept up with news and we were all looking forward to his return......and speak of the devil - Guess who is back? also, since this entry Kane has been getting his teeth into many a foe and Rifter GoGoGo post epitomises Kane's professionalism and skill as a solo pirate. He's back and he's still the best.
  
• Anders has a tale to tell on his recent trip to Iceland and the fanfest. The Bastards are already talking about going to Fanfest 2009. I can't wait.
• OK OK - Manasi isn't a pirate but his post on over-view settings had to be linked here 'cause it is cool, so useful and damn well written.
  

New Pirate blogs ( well new to me!)

• Biz Quick, a pirate from Molden Heath has some great RL news here.
• BlackHeart, another new pirate in New Eden tries to get her head around the scanner in her latest musings. I wonder if she is a candidate for the Hellcats?
• Cussbeard was an applicant to The Bastards but switched to learn more with the much respected EVE University. We hope to see him in space once he has graduated. In his latest post, he talks about Alienhand and his tunes.
  

Frigates, frigates, frigates everywhere.....

'Frigate operation and roam. 21:00 EVE Standard Time. RoninData'

That was the message on the channel as I linked in. I glanced at the chronometer and I had 15 minutes. Checking my hangars, I had five rifter-class frigates, two wolf-class and two-jaguar class all loaded, fuelled and ready to roll. The fleet was being set up and pilots all linking in, most appeared to be wolf and jaguar and ishkur pilots.

No T-1 hulls I thought to myself and therefore opted to balance out the T2 goodness by readying the venerable T1 rifter hull. There was general excitement and anticipation from the pilots assembled. Sarge was outside, roaring about in his stiletto-class interceptor and decided to tackle a crow-class interceptor who took a shine to him. There were about seven other fleet members outside but who could not engage due to possible gate gun fire.

"Go get him Sarge!" Cheered the assembled crew.

"Slag him!"

The two interceptors duelled each other at high speeds, zipping in and out of each other's orbits. There were puffs of flame and leaking atmosphere from both ships - the rockets and missiles from the crow eating into Sarge's thin frame while he replied with concentrated auto canon fire; peppering the Caldari ship's own hull.

"Shit, this is going to be cloooooosssssseee!" Said Sarge, and we all willed him for an extra volley or a lucky shot. There was a flash of light and Sarge's stiletto burst into pieces with his capsule whipping out.

"Good fight!" Congratulated Sarge to BlackShadow007, a well deserved reward for an enjoyable fight.

"Great. We're about to roll and I was hoping you would our scout Sarge." Observed RoninData.

This was greeted by guffaws and laughs. The time for the operation kick off was in five minutes and as customary, we were not quite ready. We still had pilots linking in and San was five minutes away moving some stuff and a few were AFK. With a sigh, RoninData postponed the op by 15 minutes. Those pilots that were ready, grumbled somewhat but amidst good natured joshing of Sarge on his loss; time passed quickly and soon a very impressive frigate gang was in place.

Floating outside like a swarm of angry wasps. Now the frigate class includes the traditional T1 frame, the assault frigate class, covert ops, electronic attack ships and the interceptor class. We were missing covert ops but we reckoned that this was superfluous to what we wanted. Now, low-sec pirating usually involves a fair amount of gate and station fighting and the assault frigate class, of which this fleet was largely comprised of, does not last very long against the automated sentry guns. So tackling prey at gates and stations was not a possibility.

One could only hope that potential prey could initiate hostilities - but this still did not allow everyone else to jump in. Only the aggrieved. The only choice available was to engage at planets, belts and complexes - and other criminals of course of which there were plenty to be seen on any given night in Metropolis. So tough choices but something that we had to live with.

"Fleet: be ready to roll in five minutes." The fleet was joined by two familiar faces: Mynxee and Shae Tiann - the latter who came in bang on time, and was ready within 10 seconds. Pretty slick these female pirates. Soon, the fleet was ready - 30 minutes past the scheduled time; a definite improvement but what hell - we're pirates!

The fleet was:

San Rintu: Kitsune-class electronic attack ship;
Kulmid: Harpy-class assault frigate;
Mr Frog: Ishkur-class assault frigate;
Shae Tiann: Ishkur-class assault frigate;
euan8: Ishkur-class assault frigate;
Khaled Urduni: Jaguar-class assault frigate;
Mynxee: Jaguar-class assault frigate;
RnProphet: Jaguar-assault frigate;
Pacifist Priest: Retribution-class assault frigate;
Jorge Belda: Vengeance-class assault frigate;
Loth'nwenar: Wolf-class assault frigate;
Maltrox: Wolf-class assault frigate;
RoninData: Wolf-class assault frigate;
Jiremjahu Menasseh: Crow-class interceptor;
Thrac: Crow-class interceptor;
VB Sarge: Stiletto-class interceptor;
flashfresh: Rifter-class frigate;

17 ships.

A hell of a lot of DPS. Very vulnerable to smart-bomb packing ships. Still stung from our loss in EOA-ZC to the smartbombing Rokh, we vowed to be more careful. RoninData gave the order:

"Fleet this is Fleet Command: Destination has been set. Scouts move out ahead. One jump. All fleet; jump."

With multiple flashes the frigates leapt into warp space and it is so thrilling in seeing your fleet, barrelling alongside you in the warp tunnel. We were deposited in a group at the first gate, scaring the hell out of a number of industrial pilots. Sarge was ahead and fed back intelligence from what he can see. He found various ships, some at POS others hidden in deep spare. Jiremjahu assisted Sarge as well, moving into side systems but most of the ships were inside deep positions. More than once, we thought the presence of a covert-ops with a scan probe would have been a boon. Three times we had ships land at the same gate; we locked them, daring them to fire first but all of them held their nerve and jumped. The gate guns, silent, watchful and brooding kept their silence.

We roamed almost all the way down to Dal before the order was given to retrace our steps. With Kulmid joining the scouts, he entered Ardar first. Maintaining his gate cloak; Kulmid performed a customary scan.

"Fleet, this is Kulmid. We have members of the 'Drunk GanG' in local. He linked the pilot names and we digested the information. These chaps had taken us down, destroying Spectre only this morning. There were a total of five potential hostile pilots in Ardar local. "I see a megathron and 'geddon on scan."

"They'll be in battle ships and probably one or two falcons, if the gang is the same as before." Replied RoninData. "This fleet of ours should kill them."

"Really?" Muttered someone - clearly not believing the power of the frigate swarm. "Small frigates against a battle ship? Two battleships?"

"Yes indeed. We're too small for them to track." Said RoninData. "We have some ecm, tracking disruptors and webs."

"But what about smart bombs? You forgot about that Rokh in EOA-ZC?" Replied the concerned pirate.

"We just have to be careful now don't we?" I replied, silently hoping that no-one was packing any smart bombs. Kulmid then cut in.

"I think they're around planet III. Am going there to have a lookee."

With that, Kulmid jumped into orbit around planet III while the rest of the fleet was clustered around the entry gate - the atmosphere heavy with anticipation. The seconds ticked by as Kulmid counted down the time until the warp tunnel collapsed and deposited him at his destination.

"Warp tunnel collapsing in 5, 4, 3, 2,-" There was a hiss of static as Kulmid dropped back into real space.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Megathron, pointing."

That was our signal to move. Like one swarm with a collective mind; all 16 frigates activated the gate and surged in like a tide into Ardar. As one, we all aligned to Kulmid.

"Contact! Contact! Geddon and second mega! Shit!" A burst of static cut in. " - down, going down. No cap. No cap. Fucking drones -" The rest was lost in garbled static.

We warped to Kulmid - who was now in deep trouble. "- mid down, Kulmid down. Watch out for them drones!"

As the fleet arrived, we saw Kulmid whipping out of the orbit. Now it was game time and it was thanks to Kulmid. Time to get some payback. My overview shimmered with new information being fed to me by my sensors as it picked up the signatures of the three vessels in front of me.

"Fleet. Primary: Nasiliy in his megathron. Secondary: Sikh. Tiertiary: Yarrino."

"Nasiliy pointed." Said Jorge, quietly efficient.

"Nasiliy webbed."

"Tracking disruptors on."

"Here comes the drones." Warned Loth.

"Shooting them!" Fired back Priest.

"They're fucking my drones!" Wailed Shae. My overview burst into life as it filled with drones from both sides swamped my GUI. I quickly re-sorted my overview but it was getting frantic with friendly fire.

"Drones on me! Drones on me! Help me!" Yelled someone.

"Who is that?"

"It's me."

"WHO IS ME?"

And so on. There was a burst of light and the armaggedon rammed it's sub-light engines into full burn and started to power away.

"Point and web the 'geddon! He's getting away." Yelled RoninData, now concerned that there was too many points on one target.

"I want Maltrox, Priest and Shae, points on Yarrino. Frog and Euan on Nasiliy. Jirem and Sarge on Sikh."

"Roger."

"Aye-aye."

"YAAARR!"

"Contact. Contact. Contact. This is Flash. Falcon de-cloaking, 150km. Pilot is 'Helllife' in Falcon." I said, as my overview winked on with a new target. A Falcon. Feared due to it's ability to render any ship useless through the much maligned electronic warfare modules.

"This is Sarge, and I am close to falcon. Burning towards him. Locking." I knew that Sarge was over-heating his afterburner in his effort to close the gap to the danger. I warped out to a planet as it would be quicker for me to warp to Sarge or someone closer then burning the 150kms.

"Jorge here: assisting Sarge. Burning towards the falcon."

"Jirem on my way to Falcon."

"Proph en route. Warping out and back in."

"You guys are team two!" Said Ronin, thereby allowing us to better communicate through the cacophony.

"Sarge here: I have lock and point. Warp to Sarge. Falcon pointed." Then there was curse and the sound of thumping." Jammed!"

I warped to Sarge, landing only 4km from the falcon, I snapped on my warp scrambler and fired as soon as my lock resolved. I had hot primed my auto canons and webber to fire as soon as the lock finished it's fix on the falcon. My auto canons spat out EMP shells at a furious rate.

The falcon pilot had too many targets to deal with; this is what we were planning on.

"Nasiliy is going down but I lost my point. Maintain point on the mega!"

Meanwhile back at the falcon, I saw that the falcon was cycling through all targets and soon I was hit by a wave of electronic noise, shutting down my computer. Jorge was on top of the falcon as was Jirem and Proph. They too, were jammed but managed to re-acquire locks and maintain the punishment on the falcon. My tough minnie electronic apparatus recovered, relocked and I too continued to fire.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Second falcon. Second falcon!" OK, this was getting a bit complicated however, two frigates peeled off from the battle ships and chased after the second falcon. The FC designated this flight as team three.

There was a frantic shouting on the comms server. Voice discipline, while not always the best, began to break down.

"Voice discipline! Goddamn it." I said, but I was adding to the problem as much as trying to fix it. RoninData realised what was happening, cut through the chatter.

"Fleet; listen up - confirm points on targets."

"Shae, points on Nas."

"Jorge, points on Helllife."

"Loth, points on Yarrino."

"San, second falcon jammed."

"Priest, points on Sikh."

"Flashfresh, points on Helllife," and so it continued - each pirate confirming their target and through luck; there was no need to re-task any of the pirates with new targets. All hostile ships were locked down. The second falcon, suddenly realising the hopelessness, bugged out, temporarily leaving his compatriots to their fate.

"I think we can do this. Any ship with damage?"

"Loth here: no damage."

"No damage!"

"Flashfresh here: no damage." My rifter danced around the larger Caldari-made cruiser, its ECM modules blinking as it cycled and jammed our fleet. However, the punishment it had taken from us was evident in the numerous gashes and holes in it's hull. Many holes were leaking fluids and pumping precious atmosphere out. Its handling appeared to be increasingly erratic and some modules appeared to be off-lining. Our frigates buzzed around him, spitting our fury at him.

"Keep on Helllife in his falcon!" I said, the statement being so obvious that no-one answered but the rate of fire increased with more frigate-mounted missiles, shells and lasers lancing out towards the cruiser.

Not much to fear now eh? I thought to myself with some satisfaction.

My tactical computer shrieked as it detected a jam attempt from the stricken falcon. It was trying to align and get out and was using its remaining ECM ability to punch it's way out.

"Keep points on the Falcon! Points!" I roared.

"Lost lock!" Informed Jorge. "Re-tasking."

"Me too!" The frustration in Sarge's voice was clear. Frigate hulls are too small to fit enough ECCM to counter a dedicated EW boat such as a falcon or rook. All we could hope for was to swamp the falcon pilot with too many targets - more than it can jam and hold it down long enough with the remaining ships to kill it.

Helllife, initially concentrated on jamming the frigates attacking the three battleships but it was a costly mistake; this allowed himself to be trapped by the first anti-falcon team who managed to pile into him. Only now was he using his ECM and micro warp drive to extract himself.

"Flash still has lock." I said amazed that my warp scrambler was humming away and my guns running themselves dry. It would only be a matter of time before I was jammed again.

"Helllife has been jammed." Spoke San. He was our sole EW pilot in the Kitsune, still in the thick of the fight with the second returning, falcon and he came to us in the nick of time. I could imagine the frustration of Helllife, now realising that he too was jammed for a cycle; his targeting computers all going crazy on him as it tried to make sense of the electronic equivalent of a tidal wave crashing into it.

Team two swarmed in for the kill; and we took down the falcon. Once its shield systems were blown - our munitions then pummeled the ship into useless scrap. The pilot's pod managed to instantly whip out of the system.

"Falcon one is down." I said triumphantly as I re-aligned my ship back towards the main fight.

"Second Falcon is running!" Said someone from the team three. Sure enough, the second falcon, seeing the fate of his brother decided that he would have to leave his fleet mates to their fate and managed to get out a second time.

Only the three battle ships remained, looking huge and angry but now, so vulnerable.

"Primary is Nasiliy." Repeated RoninData as team two and three's frigates returning from their anti-ECM role were quickly re-tasked. The extra damage chewed through the first megathron, it's thick armour plating being slowly stripped off in flaming sheets. We had no interest in ransoms at the moment; we wanted to kill it and live off the loot that would drop.

With the megathron webbed, scrambled, partially jammed and completely unable to track the fleet-footed frigates and no drones to call it's own. This feared beast, and indeed the other two battle ships: a second megathron and an armageddon, would be dead very soon.

"Nasiliy is going down. He's going down!" Hooted Loth. We all wanted to see if we could provide the killing blow, the coup de grace. It was Euan8, in his close-range blaster ishkur who did it. His anti-matter hybrid rounds punching deep into the guts of Nasiliy's megathron and triggering a massive explosion. Buffeting us like chaff in the wind.

"Primary is down. New primary is Sikh."


Sikh, held down tight by another flight of frigates, suffered the same, ignomious death. It's guns simply too big and slow to track our frigates as we danced around him and slowly stung him to death.

Final target was Yarrino in the golden-hued Armageddon. It's mighty large lasers, hurled laser beams the size of palace columns, uselessly into space. Already, life pods were being spat out of the battle ship as his crew sensibly started to abandon ship.

"Ransom?" Asked someone.

It's usually customary for the last pilot in a hostile gang to be ransomed. A ransom midway through a fight is sure-fire way to a quick death so the last hostile pilot to remain, may expect some leniency if he doesn't escape.

"No. Show no mercy." Replied RoninData, mindful of exacting revenge for Spectre3353's loss earlier.

The hull of the armageddon cracked and then the ship broke apart, the inside of the ship blossoming like a new-born sun. The reactor had gone critical and the ship was consumed in a mighty explosion. Yarrino, expecting this, had already primed his pod to instantly warp out and we failed to catch him. No matter.

Once the flash of the armageddon's fiery demise had disappeared from our retinas - we started to cheer. Very loudly.

We held the field and gave a heart-felt 'GF' to the departing battle ship pilots. To the victor came the spoils and loot. One of them grumbled about us blobbing them, and yes, in terms of numbers our frigates out-numbered their battle ship & recon ships by 3 - 1 but even so; if they had coordinated more closely - concentrating their drones on just one of our frigates at a time for example - they would have slowly munched through us. If a ship fit cannot counter frigate-class vessels effectively; then you're always going to be in trouble. Smart-bombs, energy neutralisers, warrior II drones and tactics are some examples of anti-frigate warfare. Still it is easier to be a master tactician after a fight.

One can only assume that their communications was as frantic and chaotic as ours was.


Still, it was fun. A lot of fun.

LOOK OUT FOR THE SMART BOMBS.........

Umm yes, with the beginning of a new era in New Eden, dubbed as 'quantum rise' by some; 'crap' by others. We noticed some changes in our environment. Certainly, the star gates are now much improved: they have been under construction for such a long time that most people had simply ignored the building sites next to the existing gates. Other changes included enhancements to the pod GUI and other bits. There were also rumours of subtle changes in the underlying code used to control capsules that slowed down our responses. All need to be evaluated over the next week or so.

I noticed on our kill boards that there was a sudden increase in the use of assault frigate class ships. Certainly, I love this ship class, especially the Minnie ones (wolf and jaguar) based on the solid rifter hull. From all accounts, our pilots were testing and re-testing this ship class across all four racial ship types and I was asked to join yet another roving gang made up of only these fleet-footed killers.

"Time to roll: five minutes." Informed Kulmid, our FC for the night. I quickly scanned down my list of ships and settled on my wolf-class assault ship. I made some changes to it and had the ammunition locked and loaded. Was in space at the right time and updated my watch lists.

The fleet was nine-strong and I was greeted by a frigate-sized swarm made up mainly of other wolf-classes; two jaguar class, one harpy and one ishkur. Shae was in her taranis, named 'Unfinished Symphony'.

So off we went, with Kulmid barking out orders to us.

"Our destination is a 'bum rush' into null sec and the EOA-ZC gate."

Off we went, roaring into the inky vacuum with constant banter and chatter on the communication net.

Kills came quickly enough with a manticore and hawk going down very quickly. An unfortunate noob was also caught by us and ransomed for all his money, all 1800 isk. This was done by Kulmid, who gracefully let the bemused pilot go to much giggles and laughs. I actually felt bad and well, karma and all that and fate soon served us an appropriate dessert.

We stayed in EOA-ZC for too long, there was a myrmidon and harbinger buzzing us, tanking just long enough each time to jump back into low-sec. In AFs we could not possible kill a tanked ship under sentry fire but we should really have moved on. Instead, we hung about, circling the gate like vultures when a Rokh appeared on scan and then it warped close to the gate.

There were hoots and hollers and the assault fleet formed up, locking the shotgun-shaped ship quickly. For some reason I was 48km from the rokh and didn't get close enough when the surprise was sprung: smart bombs.

Oh, the deadly explosive pulse of these area effect weapons was devastating to the thin-skinned assault frigates, who relied on speed and their small signature radius to protect them. With smart bombs being lit off, there was no escape. We lost three ship instantly with one podding as well.

Fair play to the pilot (TheDisease?) who came in and pwned.

Now, why is the smart bomb thus called? It's not really a bomb and it's not smart either. It's more like an EMP Pulse generator. Whatever, it's pretty damn effective against frigates and drones and the like. Much humbled we ran back to get more ships; I was lucky and kept my ship and docked up to get some sleep while the rest of the crew came back out again; this time in battle cruisers and battle ships. However, it appeared that we came up empty handed.

Applications
We have welcomed some more applicants into the family and more applications continue to appear. Myself and Ard are doing our best to pile through another load of applications but we're on top of them. Many applicants do not read the instructions on the forum post. We need names on the subject line of the email you send us; otherwise we have trouble tracking all the emails.

Frigate roam with big trouble in little Oto.

[WARNING: LONG BLOG POST. Get a cup of tea]

Speed, Speed, Speed and then it will be gone

We wanted speed. We love speed. Not just ridiculous speed. No, ludicrous speed. So, it was that the order went out to all Bastards and friends (we include those bad girls, HellCats as well as our new corp applicants) to fit a ship and anything slower than 4KM/s would be laughed out and not included in the fleet.

I never did like the nano-craze, so didn't have the time or inclination to fit a ship up. Instead, I went down the faction route and grabbed my Republic Fleet Firetail; with i-stabs, nanos and ODs and a MWD - this little ship was fast and nippy. It had decent DPS, but the object was to be as fast as possible. So, a rag tag fleet of super-fast ships spewed out of the station. The fleet included the following:

Kulmid - Devoter
San Rintu - Ishtar
RoninData - Vagabond
VB Sarge - Vagabond
AntonioBanderas - Rapier
Maltrox - Stabber
RnProphet - Hound
Khaled Urduni - Jaguar
Shae Tiann - Taranis
Flashfresh - Republic Fleet Firetail

We decided to pay EOA-ZC for a visit but nothing was possible, though we did pop a blackbird a few minutes earlier in a different fleet configuration. The destination was to be Paala and LXQ-2T jumping in point.

Fleet Command was appointed and the fleet raced ahead, many pilots whooping in joy at the sheer joy of ludicrous speed, boosted by the fleet command modules and gang skills of our wing and squad commanders.

We approached the gate after a few uneventful jumps through low-sec and bounced in; no scouts - just a mad rush. We gleefully call it a 'bum rush' and thus we clattered into the LXQ-2T gate in Paala. We paused to reform the fleet and to cuff some of our more exciteable members over the ear. We're pirates and once the drink and adrenaline starts flowing, discipline gets a bit lax.

A lone deimos-class HAC warped into the same gate as us; we locked him but he jumped through into LXQ-2T. Even before the FC could yell at us to follow him, the majority of the pirates had bum rushed on through after him.

LXQ-2T was quiet, there was a bubble but it was designed to catch ships trying to leave the system into Paala and not the other way. The deimos held it's gate cloak for as long as possible but physics soon won out and he appeared 24km from me. I cycled the target lock and had him, however I had no warp scrambler installed having stripped it out for a tracking disruptor. Others in the fleet had this covered.

"Point!" Yelled someone.

"Point!" Said another.

"Point!" The deimos was well and truly snared and since we were all in null-sec; there were no gate guns to spoil the party.

Everyone burned towards the deimos and under ten seconds, the deimos was smashed into a wreck and the pilot was grabbed and mercilessly podded back to the clone vats. Our blood was up. With the glorious sound of Letifer Deus's body, flash-freezing in the cold vacuum still ringing in our ears, a buzzard decloaked off my starboard side. I locked and pummelled it with projectile and rocket. It didn't have time to turn as it's thin armour was stripped off in flame-sputtering sheets. The pod warped out just as a United Freeman Alliance Prophecy streaked in. Possibly to assist, most likely being pulled in by the warp bubble and with Kulmid dropping a disruption sphere. He was going nowhere and our small weapons ripped into it. We were shocked at how quickly we sawed through his armour and destroyed it. Once the Concord notification came through, we knew why. It was a poor fit.

We hoped more wanton destruction would follow as we went deeper into null sec but there was nothing, just empty space. We eventually returned to Evati; happy at the run through. I retired to take care of some business; I believe a new fleet was formed up and went on yet another roam.

T1 cruiser roam down to Amamake
Another day, another fleet another location. I was asked to be fleet command for this new gang that comprised of Sarvic, Shae Taen, DJ Akula, Spectre3353, Pacifist Priest, RnProphet, Jorge Belda, Mynxee, Marovinchian and one other who isn't a pirate and I don't want to name him - just yet.

"Fleet: this is Fleet Command. We roll in ten minutes. Cruisers only for this job. All available pilots, post your setup to fleet." My comms channel scrolled through with the ship types of the current gang. Plenty of firepower and scramble; not too much tank.

I asked Shae to be the gang's scout and gave the order for everyone to undock and make their way to the gate with Shae jumping in first. Like most gangs, people were not ready in time but I wasn't too bothered; making a mental note to do something about this next time.

"Shit. There's a camp here." Whispered Shae.

"Sorry?" I thought I heard it wrong; a camp - next door?

"A camp. A camp here. I see a falcon, a cerberus, a cane. I have ten seconds before I lose cloak." Shae sounded awfully calm. I had to think fast. Not all the ships were at the gate. I was missing a fair bit of DPS.

"Damnnit! OK Shae; am going to jump the fleet in. Prepare to burn back towards the gate."

"Cloaked drop......they're locking me.........they're firing on me."

"Fleet: jump." With a flash, the ships all whipped into Gultratren. Shae's gank-fitted thorax was being pummelled by the combined fleet and no doubt jammed as well. I hit my micro warp drive.

"Fleet: primary is FALCON. Burn towards it." What ships did jump, followed the command but I noticed that both Sarvic and Jorge were not present.

"Shae is down. Shae is down." That was fast, I thought and it was a testament to the damage potential that this enemy fleet possessed. Next it was me being selected as their primary target and it was only then that I realised my ship was fitted for ganking as well, not much of a tank in this one!

As auto canon shells streaked towards me from the hurricane and the lasers of the maller repointed I braced myself as my shield all flashed away into nothingness. The falcon then jammed me. I knew I was done for and I had seconds left.

"Fleet, this is fleet command. Primary is the falcon. Get it."

"He's cloaking!" Said someone.

"Damn it! Fecking ECM-pussies!" Cursed someone else, I love ecm - so long as it's on my side!

"Secondary is the cerberus." There was a shriek of escaping atmosphere and my ship broke apart around me.

"Sarvic! Get into something with a bit of DPS to knock these fools out!"

"That will be the Maelstrom then. Undocking." Then I was back out in space in my pod, joining Shae and racing back towards Evati. As I jumped through, Sarvic's mighty maelstrom went other way.

The remaining two minutes of combat was over relatively quickly under the mighty guns of the maelstrom: both the cerberus and the hurricane went down. The falcon and maller managed to escape. The cerb was a 180million isk loss and we grabbed the loot.

So I was a rupture down but I have at least six such vessels all fuelled, armed and ready to roll in my hangar. This time round, the cruiser gang was ready but I sent Jorge, Prophet and Marovinchian ahead as scouts and not Shae. Our destination was the infamous ship graveyard: AMAMAKE.

The journey down was fun with potential and real contacts all the way down into Dal but the real meat was the heaving system of Amamake. Prophet had already spied a large fleet sitting on the Amamake gate in Auga; by the IFF transponders, they were identified as members of the Tribal Militia - pod pilots who fight for the Minmater Republic. There was at least a dozen there from battle ship to frigate class.

Apart from Prophet, I had the fleet form up on me and I took stock:

Shae Taen - Myrmidon
Mynxee - Rupture
Marovinchian - Thorax
Spectre3353 - Thorax
DJ Akula - Vexor
Pacifist Priest - Vexor
RnProphet - Hound
Jorge Belda - Malediction
Flashfresh - Rupture

No ECM but fast with very decent firepower. I glanced at the chrono and it read: 03:28 and I mentally made a note to kick things off at 03:30 hours.

I had no desire to over-kill anything so sent in Jorge and Maro into Amamake to sniff things out. Everyone else clustered around the Amamake gate. Within minutes, Maro had lured in the first of what would be many ships.

"Contact! Contact! A stabber class cruiser in belt with me. He's locking."

"Jorge confirms: Stabber class in belt. Jorge going for point." There was a hiss of static and then "Point."

"Point." Confirmed Maro. "Proceeding to unload on him." The rest of the fleet waited.

"Do we go in Flash?"

"Negative. Do NOT jump. Hold positions and wait. There's more than enough." Despite the grumblings, discipline held. We're pirates and I was pleased. I have been in many a gang when, as soon as a point been declared that EVERYONE rushes in, eager for the kill. No, I wanted to play it differently; as I wanted more kills. A sudden jump in numbers would deter many a would-be rescuer from undocking. No, patience is the best weapon. Within a minute, we were rewarded.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Vexor and second stabber in belt." Informed Jorge. Maro didn't reply as he was probably busy ripping the first stabber to pieces.

"Myrmidon! Myrmidon! In Belt!" That was Maro. Looks like he was paying attention. Time to up the ante I said to myself.

"Both Vexors: GO. Warp to Maro. Primary is Myrmidon. Secondary is the Vexor." DJ Akula and Priest disappeared from my overview as they jumped into Amamake. I could sense the impatience in the remaining ships, still around the gate.

"Steady people. Patience. We'll get in. Patience."

"Enemy stabber is down. Switching point to vexor." Informed Maro.

"Myrmidon pointed. Releasing drones." Said DJ Akula, he was an aspiring applicant to us and had good credentials. Time for him to shine.

"Second stabber is moving too fast. I need a web on it damnnit!" Ordered Jorge, now acting FC as he was in the fight, rather than on the other side of the galaxy.

"Keep your eyes on the scanner, watch for reinforcements."

"Roger that Flash." Replied Priest as he started to look around. "Flash, I see a tempest and sleipnir on scan." A-ha. I thought to myself. The game is afoot.

"Shae, Mynx and Spectre: get ready." These three were holding around the gate with me, their lazy orbits hiding their impatience and the burning desire for violence.

"This is Prophet. Gang has left holding position in Auga."

"Proph: get into Amamake and assist Jorge."

"Roger that. I think elements of the Militia are in Amamake already." This changed things, and I made my decision.

"Shae, Mynxee and Spectre: jump, jump."

"About time." Muttered Mynxee; her husky voice dripping with menace. That's one woman I don't want to cross. There was the usual disorientation after a jump and it took me a second to work out where I was. I aligned my rupture to the belt where, in the distance, my pirate mates were ripping into the plucky enemy.

Whipping into the belt, my ship sailed through the sparkling debris of the first stabber. The second stabber was webbed and being ripped apart by drones, the enemy myrmidon was pointed and slowly going down. The enemy vexor was being attacked with vigour by Akula and someone else.

"Primary is myrmidon. ECM drones on the second vexor." The pirates smoothly switched targets and the myrmidon was down in little less than five seconds.

"Jorge: grab the pod."

"Do we ransom?"

"Yes."

"Pointed."

"Shit." Said someone, then the pod disappeared in a flash. With no time to react; I saw a hurricane suddenly warp in. I locked me the moment that it's re-entry was stabilised. Part of me was also tensing for the appearance of two or more battleships in the belt.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Jorge: point the hurricane. ECM drones on the 'cane. All firepower on the vexor and remaining stabber."

The two enemy ships were dropped in short order; with the vexor first. The vexor pilot expertly warped his pod away to safety.

"Grab the pod of the stabber."

"Pointed." Good old Jorge, efficient and deadly as usual.

"Ransom him for -"

"SHIT!" The pod disappeared in another flash. Just like the other one. What the hell? I thought to myself.

The hurricane popped under our fire but we missed the pod. Now to the mysterious pod popper. It was Prophet, who, in his hound was flinging cruise missiles at everything and he probably locked and fired on the pod, before Jorge could even get a point on the capsule. Mystery solved.

The remaining time was spent duelling with yet more ships; I believe both spectre and Maro managed to get another couple of kills; quite irritating when one wants to take the fleet home and certain members keep getting themselves criminally flagged! The battleships we had spotted never did make it to a belt or planet.

The return journey back to base was uneventful. Our stay in Amamake only lasted 29 minutes and we had no losses, six kills (no ransoms) and a pot of shiny loot.

Yet another roam and the death of a mega navy issue

With the nano nerf now upon us; RoninData decided on a nano-gang and a jaunt into 0.0 - however; we ended up losing a crow for no kills. The gang did try and chase down an abaddon who was stabbed up and nano'ed. It was faster at turning and warping than some of our cruisers.

However, under RoninData we decided to go in a big scary battle cruiser gang - after the disappointing 0.0 roam in nano-ships; we wanted something bigger. The battle cruiser class is a firm favourite of ours as it is fast, can bring decent fire power and relatively inexpensive. Certainly, more improvements can be done but overall, it isn't a bad ship.

San and some of our crew went for the 'in-yer-face' gank brutix. Cramming as many neutron blasters and magnetic stabilisers as they could and armour be damned. Then we had the four hurricane pilots (myself included) who went for the 425mm auto canon shield ganker. Not as damaging as the brutix but a bit more surviveable. We also had some harbingers, a myrmidon and one rupture.

All in all, a fleet of 13 foul-mouthed, isk-hungry, gun-happy pirates. Oh yes; it was going to be fun.

Ronin asked me for a route, I chose Amamake but it was voted down, instead - they wanted to move North and head into Paala and then into Etherium Reach. A fair enough choice; I just wanted targets. We moved into Akkio with Bandy as a scout and we reached into Otosela. I hesitated and waited since I was the last to jump. I noticed thatlocal started to go up; not down.

I hit the scan button and found nothing but local had some reds and oranges appear. For those who are interested, we code all known hostiles as either red or orange.

The fleet had already gone ahead with Bandy in the lead; when I hit the scan once more. Something was nagging me. What I saw on scan split my face with a grin.

"Check, check. This is Flash. Hostiles on scan in Akkio. I am on the Otosela gate. I see a BS heavy fleet from the gate. Linking names."

The ships included a tempest, megathron, armageddon, raven, sleipnir and a megathron navy issue. Yes, that last ship was worth more than all our 13 ships. This caused a stir of excitement and I was asked to stay near the gate while the Sarge made his way over to join me. The rest of the fleet, re-assembled near a belt inside Otosela and waited, the communications channel loud with excitement. RoninData let the pirates swear and yarr for a bit before imposing some discipline.

"Flash: can you confirm the fleet and numbers?" I scanned again and confirmed. Sarge, in his hurricane, had now appeared alongside me. He too confirmed the numbers and we decided that the ships were either outside the only station in Akkio or in a safe spot close by the gate. The majority of the BS heavy fleet was within 4 AU of us.

"This is Flash, I think they're at the station. Am going in at 100km to eye ball. Stand by."

The hurricane slid into warp easily and deposited me 100km from the station. My overview filled up with angry, red flashing icons.

"Contact. This is Flash. Confirmed that hostile battleships are outside the station." I turned the hurricane around and aligned back towards the Otosela gate. It was an obvious sign to them.

"Shall we bum rush them?" Asked one pirate, eagerness and excitement clear.

"Nah, they'll dock up. We need to get them out into the open." Replied RoninData.

"Would be nice at a planet or belt. Don't want to tangle with BS heavy gangs and worry about sentry fire." Said San, eager to unleash hell from his brutix.

"Agreed."

"Flash and Sarge, can you lure them to us in V-1?" Asked Kulmid.

"We'll try." Replied Sarge. "And there's more of them too now. That gang has been joined by another megathron and possibly a rapier."

"Am coming back to the gate, I think the battleships know we're here." I said, this brought some chuckles as I began hitting top speed and then leaping back into warp and towards the gate.

"That Navy Mega would be a juicy kill for us." Voiced Bandy, which brought much murmurs of agreement.

I landed at the gate and for some reason my heart-rate was higher than usual; as if, already aware of the oncoming violence. Suddenly, there was a burst of light and an armageddon class battle ship appeared next to me, golden, bulbous and threatening then a tempest class and then finally a raven class battle ship to join him.

"Contact! Contact! Contact! They're here at the gate!" Yelled Sarge. This was our cue to activate warp gates and get the hell out.

"Flash is jumping." My ship began winking out as the gate started to form the worm hole. Meanwhile, more hostile ships warped in. They were coming and in force.

"Sarge is jumping."

I was slingshoted to Otosela. My ship was on red alert already.

"Flash and Sarge. Was the navy mega with them?"

"Negative RoninData. He wasn't with the first group. We jumped before we saw them all."

When I arrived, I instantly aligned to belt V-1 and warped. Sarge was a bit slower and local leapt up as the hostiles jumped alongside Sarge.

"Come on turn you piece of junk!" Yelled Sarge at his hurricane, slowly, majestically re-aligning to the new position. While I was in warp, I could hear Sarge informing everyone that he could hear hostile target locks. He managed to warp before the locks resolved.

I was spat out into belt V-1 and into the friendly embrace of my fleet, all 11 of them. Soon; Sarge limped in. Local had gone up by about nine and then finally, twelve. No doubt, the hostile fleet could see us in local as we could see them. We were too far from them for an accurate scan. So our exact ships types, for now, was not known to them. At least we knew what they had.

So we waited. It would only be a matter time before they scanned us down. No doubt, covert ops ships would be flying towards us now. We had to play thing cool.

"Belt V-1!" Challenged Kulmid, bold as brass. Oh well, out goes subtleness.

"Belt V-1 and NO ECM!" Added San.

"Raaarrr!" Someone else said.

"BRING THEM ON!"

"Kill them and let the blood flow."

"We're in Belt V-!"

"What are you waiting for?"

I detected a change in our behaviour. As pirates, we kill for isk and loot though we like a good fight like any other pilot. We know when a fight is not worth the ammunition expended and we also know when to stay to get payout. However, there is a certain, adrenaline-junkie side to all pirates that was coming to the fore. We were certainly out-gunned as we had no battle ship class amongst our fleet and the numbers were more or less even. I think we had one more ship than the hostile gang. The fight that was looming was going to be a bare knuckle brawl. Toe-to-toe and no retreating. Sometimes, one fights to get isk, to seize control of assets. Other times, a fight starts (and ends) only to establish and maintain a reputation. I felt tonight it would be the latter and my own berserker fury was building. I could hear the crews of the other ships already howling with glee and barely suppressed anger and excitement.

I quickly reviewed our fleet. It comprised of 11 battle cruiser class and one cruiser and one recon class ships:

RoninData - Hurricane
VB Sarge - Hurricane
Flashfresh - Hurricane
AntonioBanderas - Hurricane
Kulmid - Brutix
San Rintu - Brutix
Euan8 - Brutix
Randgris - Myrmidon
Shader24 - Myrmidon
Pacifist Priest - Harbinger
Viginti - Harbinger
Maltrox - Rupture
Elitia - Curse

The rational, tactical and strategic side of my mind, was slowly being crushed under the red mist of berserker rage though it was not entirely extinguished. It told me that a battle cruiser pilot needs to live by this maxim: 'Out gun what you can not out run. Out run what you can not out gun." There would be no running tonight, I thought grimly.

"Come on. Where are they?"

"Probably bringing in reinforcements?"

One of the hostile pilots responded to our challenges.

"No ECM? Then why do you have ECM drones out?"

Well, at least that cleared things up - they had a scout close enough to scan us. We really should have scooped our drones.

"No ECM boats. No rooks or falcons or such. Drones are piffing little things. Frankly, they're shit." Fired back San.

"Yeah, yeah. Also, we're having some problems with some of our pilots synching into the communications channel. Some have de-synched." He replied.

We laughed.

"Bringing in reinforcements? You can see us in belt v-1. There's equal numbers here. What are you afraid of?" Replied San, taking the mantle as our spokesman.

"No, you out number us." There was a hesitation. "By one."

Hmmm, quite rare for intelligence of any type to be given out or even confirmed. We slowed our orbit and pinged the scanners furiously. Minutes and minutes ticked by. The hostiles were largely from Heretic Nation alliance and we've tangled with them before. There was no sign of them though local had not changed in numbers. We had no eyes on either side of us, in Akkio or Uemon or in Tasti. A whole new hostile fleet could be assembling there and we would not know. The atmosphere was reaching fever pitch; Sarge and Kulmid were pounding the war drums and RoninData was having trouble holding us back. I sincerely hoped that this display of testesterone would not be scaring our new applicants too much. We had two applicants with us: Maltrox and Elitia.

"Come on! Bring it. BRING IT YOU FUCKERS!" That was Maltrox.

The hostiles had warped closer as we could now see two battle ships on scan. An armageddon and a megathron. Soon joined by a second megathron and the megathron, navy issue.

"I see them on scan!" Declared someone, his voice hoarse.

"They're finally coming." Croaked someone else. My heart was pounding so hard, it felt like my rib cage would burst. It is the waiting before an inevitably fight that is the worst time. However, the time was close. All I could hear was the thud-thud-thud of my heart beat. Even the berserker howling from some of my more feral compatriots was now muted. Someone slammed on a thumping sound track that roared through our communications channel and that was it: we were now a bunch of socio-pathic, homicidal killers.

"Bring it! Bring it! BRING IT NOW!"

"Remember Mega navy issue is primary!" Said RoninData, his orders now almost lost in roar of noise and excitement. I think only a handful of us heard him.

The first hostile ship winked into existence inside the belt. Then the second, third and the others came in.

"INCOMING!"

The battle was joined as our fleet of battle cruisers surged into the hostile fleet as they roared into us; afterburners blazing. The space between the two groups was filled with a deadly and dazzling shower of screaming missiles, blazing laser fire and buzzing drones, weaving in and out. My auto canon rattled away as it furiously chewed through my Republic Fleet EMP rounds; my target was the looming megathron, 7km from me.

"Turn ten degrees port side, target 'Alpha' is the navy issue megathron and secondary target 'Beta' is the Dyphos' Megathron. Reload HAIL ammunition!"

"Yessir!" replied my tactical officer.

"Bring up the warp disruptor. Scramble that raven class battleship!"

"Scrambling sir!"

"PRIMARY is El'Tar in Navy Mega. SECONDARY is 'Spoony' in megathron." Ordered RoninData. The fearsome Federation Navy Issue Megathron, a specialised build on the already, magnificient megathron battle ship hull was taking a furious pounding from us though it was assisted by a remote repairing tempest piloted by Hercules Strongarm.

We lost two brutix class battle cruisers in the first ten seconds under a furious shower of fire. The Navy issue megathron was our prize, all 1+billion isk worth of war gear. It was our focus. Our reason for being. It had to die. With the Navy mega now into armour, another brutix of ours popped and I was picked by the enemy raven for some special love.

"We're locked Captain!" Yelled my tactical officer.

"Hard to starboard, get closer to them!" My hurricane was rocked and punched sideways, kicking off proximity alarms as I came close to colliding with Bandy in his hurricane, already on fire and spinning helplessly away from the fight, his engines shot out from underneath him.

"Kill the Navy Mega!" I roared. The fire poured on from the remaining ship and the black hull
battle ship, centre piece of this fleet, blew apart in a million pieces. Our remaining ships switched to the secondary megathron and we locked 'C7P9' in his raven as our third target. To my left and slightly above, another hurricane blossomed in a fire ball. The devastation was total, incinerating what ever life pods managed to get out.

A second shower of missile fire bathed my hurricane and an enemy rapier had me webbed and target painted. From the camera drones, I could see deadly torpedoes being loaded and aimed at me from the raven.

"Tactical! Report"

"No shields, substantial armour damage to the hull plating across all decks. We're leaking engine plasma and navigation is not responding."

I was dead. I had died the moment the hostile fleet had warped in.

"That rapier has has lit us up like a fecking christmas tree!"

"A christmas what?" I asked; not too sure what my tactical officer was referring to. It is odd that in times of near ship death, one latches onto some small inane little thing.

"A tree sir! A fucking tree!"

A tree? I thought. Odd to be chatting about trees I mused just as the final missile and torpedo salvo punched clean through my hurricane. My hurricane tried to stay together, something holding it's shape together a split second before the laws of physics came crashing in.

"Flash is down. Flash is down." I warped out and so did what was left of my crew. With RoninData also down, San and Kulmid out of the fight; it left Sarge to marshal what forces were left.There was very little left. Sarge had to make do.

"Sarge is now FC. Primary is C7P9 and secondary is AddictTadpole in the 'geddon."

I warped out of the system and if the fight was to last longer than a minute, I would back. However, Sarge went down, guns blazing to the remaining ships. Our remaining ships (all two of them) managed to get out. The butcher's bill was high for us. Of the 13 ships that had entered belt V-1; only two got out. Maltrox and Elitia managed to extract themselves.

Heretic Nation held the field and had the spoils of our wrecks and loot. It was a great fight and tactical analysis revealed that the hostile fleet comprised of the following:

Acidictapole - Armageddon
Dyphos - Megathron
Spoony - Megathron
El' Tar - Megathron Navy Issue
C7P9 - Raven
Hercules Strongarm - Tempest
Vorgx - Sleipnir
Lacco - Rapier
Kachak - Myrmidon
Switch 4 - Jaguar
Antoine Lefevre - Stiletto
MirrorGod - Impairor (?)

The loss of the Navy Megathron bumped up the isk efficiency to us but the fight was won by Heretic Nation; they held the field and while they lost more in terms of isk. They had the wrecks, loot and kills to look over.


A fantastic contest and concord recorded the following; it included the sentry guns and some gurista pirates. Bandy came back in his reaper for some reason while Hercules actually ended up shooting his own side.


All the survivors had a tremendous buzz from this and we wanted more.However, fate had already decided that our fun was over, at least for now. Well done Heretic Alliance!

New recruits and Jubes er, appendage.

Just something from Loth and a 'typical' Bastards gank squad and the belief by some pilots, that they have unbreakable tanks.....

New Pilots
Yet more new applicants from Python Cartel and others; we welcome you all.

Shader24 - Accepted
Atheist Priest - Accepted
Euan8 - Accepted
Comy2 - Accepted

We've been processing the applicants as quickly as possible and the above four have already joined our gangs and contributed positively to the corp and made great effort to work with us. One can't argue with this and their applications, so far checks out. So once again, welcome and may you have targets appear before your gun sights every day!

Something funny from own forums

''Jubes wrote: My penis is huge and I can smash buildings with it''

This was Jubes reply when we asked for all our pilot's skills and areas of expertise. I can't really argue against this now can I? Had to put it in. Just had to.

Back with a bang. Literally.

Let's start with the loss mail first:

2008.11.03 00:00

Victim: flashfresh
Corp: The Bastards
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Rupture
System: Klogori
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 11081

Involved parties:

Name: Sakura Nihil
Security: -2.5
Corp: Stimulus
Alliance: Rote Kapelle
Faction: NONE
Ship: Cerberus
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 6337

Name: Mishka Chinoise (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Corp: Stimulus
Alliance: Rote Kapelle
Faction: NONE
Ship: Armageddon
Weapon: Mega Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 4744

Name: Stiehl Asior
Security: -1.6
Corp: Stimulus
Alliance: Rote Kapelle
Faction: NONE
Ship: Falcon
Weapon: Enfeebling Phase Inversion ECM I
Damage Done: 0

Yes, after returning from a week long conference; I was in the mood to blow stuff up through the application of focused thuggery. A week is a long time in New Eden; a very long time. The Bastards have been picking up some good pilots and we now welcome Spectre amongst others into the group. If the name rings a bell, then it should. He is ex-Python Cartel, creator of the Ransom Board and a fellow pirate blogger.

So yes, THAT Spectre and with San, Sarge and myself - we have four pirate bloggers, each with our own take on how piracy works and tales from within the Bastards. Actually, Hallan has one as well! I think if you read all four (five?) blogs, you will have a pretty good idea of what is going on within the Bastards. With Spectre in the corp, I can at last ask him why his blog includes a pony in the title imagery.....I certainly haven't seen one, yet.

Anyway, I came back with a bang did I not?

As I joined the various corporation / fleet and private communication channels - I was invited into an impressive fleet led by our fearless leader, RoninData. A grand mix of ships from frigate to battle cruiser and battle ship class vessles. Undocking The Lord of Hate, my rupture class cruiser and a veteran of a dozen campaigns; I fired up the warp drives and pushed the ship towards Klogori, a system in the Angile constellation. For the last hour or so, there was a furious exchange of fire between our forces and ships from the Rote Kapelle Alliance. By all accounts, the pilots from this alliance had conducted the fight with honour, vigour and bravery. Despite our roles as villains and hate figures; pirates do like a good fight...so long as we end up winning and we get the loot, of course.

However, I couldn't ask for more from an opponent.

As I approached the Orfrold system; I passed the blinking pods of some of my pirate mates - racing back to base to pick up new ships. The fight was obviously not quite yet over. As I approached the gate, my sensors picked up the bulbous signatures of a few fleet ships.

"This is Flash. Approaching Klogori star gate in Orfrold. Fleet command: instructions?"

"This is Fleet command, Flash you are designated as Red One, hurricane coming up alongside you is designated as Red Two. Proceed to jump into Klogori and warp to Ard."

It looked like Ard, cloaked and all sneaky, had managed to get a decent warp in point around some Roke Kappelle Alliance ships and was waiting for me and Red Two to be in one the tackle.

"Primary is Stiehl in his falcon.We also have a cerb and armageddon as well."

"Affirmative. Falcon is primary." Thank goodness for my micro warp drive. I approached the gate and once within range, the massive warp gate engines spun up, grabbed my rupture and my fleet mate and pulled me into Klogori.

Without even waiting for the gate cloak to drop, me and the hurricane aligned to Ard's current position and warped to him at the designated range. If we could hit the falcon quick enough; we could kill it. Our warping to Ard was also the signal for the other ships to jump in from the second gate, approximately 17 AU away.

The warp lasted thirty seconds and I was deposited into real space in a splash of colour and light.

The falcon winked on my scanner but it told me I was 38KM from it and not closer.

"Flashfresh here. Falcon is too far for a successful point. Burning towards it."

The rupture turned slowly and the micro warp drive flashed white hot as plasma screamed out from the exhaust. I was getting closer but the falcon pilot, obviously not asleep, locked me and my hurricane companion and cycled in a successful target jam. My sensors, overloaded by the energy pulse went hay-wire and refused to re-engage any more targets. At least I wasn't webbed, I thought. A salvo of missiles streaked out towards me from the cerberus, while long, blinding flashes of purple light reached out from the armageddon and boiled away my shields.

"This is Flash. I can't hold on any longer."

"We're here Flash. We're here!"

The space around me burst into light as half a dozen ships from The Bastards engaged with missiles, and shell and bolt and laser.

I was going down fast and within another minute, I was mashed into scrap, but hung around long enough to see a good fight. Stiehl's falcon managed to escape but we got the other two.

The Bastards held the field, driving off the enemy and looting the wrecks. The Rote Kapelle Alliance ships and pilots had fought courageously and we salute them. We'll get them all next time.

More pretty explosions!
Well, in between a lot of smaller kills, the most notably being Maro's kill of a broadsword in his huginn (details are here) - I was once more back in the black, in a slasher no less. It's as quick as a shuttle and was useful for my current work which was moving crap.

Anyway, our sources had informed us of potential prey in the neighbouring systems. We scrambled and moved as quickly as we could. The bulk of The Bastards came out in battle ships while I was a scout in my slasher alongside Jorge in his crusader. The next 15 minutes had us moving around, hunting around and probing. Our intelligence was current enough that we knew a similiar sized gang was moving around in the same area. We hoped we would find them and pop them.

At Akora, I managed to find three targets: hurricane, caracal and a stabber. My position was poor and I could not get a decent warp in but no matter: Shae Tan (Hellcats) came screaming in, her thorax class cruiser landed on top of the caracal and promptly blowing it into scrap in a few furious broadsides.

Meanwhile, an enemy battle ship gang had entered local in Messoya where the majority of our fleet were still idlying at the gate. They decided to engage RoninData on the Akora gate in Messoya and gradually we all arrived and blew their ships to pieces. The loot wasn't too bad either. I managed to engage both battle ships on a gate in my slasher. Very happy with that!

More news:

We've been very busy with recruiting and in the last two weeks; we can now proudly announce that the first new batch are in and they are:

Spectre3353 - Accepted
Khaled Urduni - Accepted
Hallan Turrek - Accepted
Viginti - Accepted
Jubes - Accepted
DJB16 - Accepted

There are many others all at different stages. A few haven't been seen since they submitted their applications, others have an almost ghost-like existence - appearing in our public channel and then not saying anything before they leave.

Others have been unfortunately rejected and we're under increasing pressure to filter and respond through the existing and new applications in under two weeks. A tall order considering we're pirates and not a well-oiled corporation machine. However, the current batch of recruits; a fair few will need to do more and essentially pick themselves in order to avoid getting the chop. We want to see you in our gangs and in our local space and asking us to join up!