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!