Back with a bounce.

"Time for a roam and blow some cobwebs out!" I said with some glee. The Alliance had returned from our jaunt in the Alliance Tournament - we did not make the next round as we didn't score enough points. Our win against KIA Alliance had helped us increase our profile and garnered us a lot of praise and notoriety. Certainly, the various email and evemail boxes are quite full and I have a long (but enjoyable) task ahead of me in sorting them out.

Oh, before I forget - those who sent in applications before the christmas break; so long as it wasn't rejected; you've been held in limbo all this time and I can only apologise. I have sent an email to each of you explaining the situation and how we best go forward. We were very busy with the alliance tournament preparation and we were trying hard to minimise any espionage and spying. Now that the Alliance Tourney is over for us; it's back to pirating. We had to say good-bye to a few pilots as they delayed their departure to assist us Bastards in preparation and training and we thank them and wish them the best of luck.

We will find you.....

With some hardware and software problems; I had trouble linking into my pod - the technicians gave me some gibberish about something needing new firmware etc. I just decided to sit back with a fine bottle of brandy, a good book and no disturbances.

However, I was able to test out the upgrades last night - leading a small assault frigate gang into a low-sec pocket. Maltrox is a gank magnet and within seconds of entering a system the communication link went wild.

"I have a hit on a dominix and warping in!"

The frigate fleet was split across three systems in order to find targets so we raced towards the gates to rejoin with Maltrox. We shouldn't have bothered.

"Crap. He was stabbed." Said Maltrox; his voice thick with disappointment.

We tried to chase but the dominix pilot wisely slunk his way around the gates and stations; with the sentry guns offering him protection. The frigate hulls would have been pulverised by them if we wanted to initiate hostilities within range of them.

The first part of the roam was over as we returned to base for a refit.

"Five minutes and we roll out. Get a bio-break, a snack or a ship refit." I said to the fleet now docking up.

Once the five minutes were up, the fleet was re-organised and zoomed out into the black and soon; we had scanned out a missioning tempest. Like a pack of rabid animals, we warped to our covert-ops and then unleashed hell. Our frigates (basic and assault variants) buzzed around the huge form of the tempest spitting our fury. The pilot was clearly bemused when we ransomed him - he accused us of using some sort of hack to prevent his ship from escaping. We laughed and asked for some isk to let him go. The ransom went well and reasonable and we each in the fleet became 10million isk richer. Some would say we should have went for more but meh; 10million is 10million!


We then moved on, the hunt continuing with a few more kills and ransoms before our return.

Another frigate roam a few days later involved me, Hera and Fenneck. Kerblammo was also with us in a double-plated Maller but he followed some jumps behind and as luck would have it; it was Blammo who found targets. He was first ambushed by a rapier than an inty and finally a 'cane. We were too far away to assist but Blammo just thought it was fun as his hastily patched together maller came apart around his ears.

Without the irrespressible Kerblammo we continued down and bumped into a massive tribal militia force; I warped towards the top planet and a caracal (not attached to the militias) - he landed on top of my rifter. I called my two companions to assist as I snapped on the warp scrambler and started to cycle up my auto canons.

I had the caracal down to 1/3 shields when Fenneck and Hera warped in with their interceptors. I then warped out my armour smoking. My two friends took the rest of the caracal apart. Chancing my luck, I went to another planet and orbitted it. This time, I attracted a wolf-class assault frigate.

Not good. The firepower of this beast is legendary. I snapped on my webber and held him there as I tried to get out it's way. I failed as his first volley took all my shields off and then bit deep into my armour. My response wasn't too shabby either; the triple 150mm auto canons speaking back with EMP.

Then the wolf pilot drew out his ace: a falcon.

The much feared EWAR recon cruiser decloaked and his powerful jammers avalanched over my puny systems. I was rendered blind and the only option was to run however, the fall off of the wolf's weapons enough to clip my port-side engines and shatter it. I spun helplessly as the wolf then helped himself to seconds and utterly destroyed my rifter.

Fenneck and Hera had come in and ran for their lives as more ships warped in; Fenneck just getting out with no armour and near hull breach in several locations.

I whipped my pod out and quickly docked up - fully intending to rejoin the fight.

It was at this time that the GalNet comms channel went utterly mad and I could see why:

'Band of Brothers Alliance had been disbanded'

All thoughts of continuing with the roam ended as I sat back down and ordered room service and a high-bandwidth news feed. The news was quite shocking and while the corporation and pilots that made up BoB were still active, the alliance (and hence sovereignity) was now, to all intents, dead. This was a massive shake-up of nullsec alliance and the power-blocs there.

It would be interesting to see how this plays out. The Goons, to ensure that there would be maximum pain gained at the expense of BoB; created a corp called Band of Brothers - thus preventing any new alliance to be created (or recreated) under that name. However, the corporations that were members of BoB could easily reform under the banner of a new alliance and then attempt to kick out the interlopers.

Anyway, we all are living in interesting times....