21 Nov 2009

Boom Boom and The Bastards new used car salesman...

"The fleet is all assembled sir. Capsuleer Captains already on board their ships. All ready for your order to move out."

Flashfresh looked around his assembled bridge crew and nodded to his first officer, the new collar rank pins still shiny. After reviewing the sheath of papers, Flash looked up.

"Excellent work, number one. Prepare the ship." Snapping salutes, Flash's bridge crew spun on their heels and stomped out of the capsuleer loading bay. Turning to a smaller group of white cloaked technicians, Flash reached up his collar and unclipped the fasteners.

"Gentleman, ready my pod."

'I hate this bit' - thought Flash laying down inside the capsule. It was already filling with warm shock gel, designed to entirely cushion the pilot and more importantly, form a medium through which he would interface with his ship. The bit he hated was the filling of his nose and his mouth of the highly oxygenated fluid. Even after a thousand such immersions, he still struggled briefly against the drowning sensation. As the fluid seeped up his nose and down his throat, the reflex gagging action began. As if that wasn't bad enough - flexible tubes snaked out from hidden recesses inside the pod and clamped themselves over other orifices.

Synatic connectors crawled over Flash's bald scalp and in a blink, his consciousness expanded past the usual five human senses. He looked with eyes that were linked to hundreds of sensors on his ship and beyond and now able to see across the vast range of frequencies from ultra-violet to infra-red and beyond. Colours beyond human imagination flashed and danced across his view as he switched observation filters. Tactical overview superimposed itself over the star field and the various ships of the fleet pulsed steadily, alive and ready.

Flash knew, that in another twenty or so capsuleers were all undergoing the same ship synchronisation. A mere thought and Flash could interface with the mighty Raven class battleship of K Starwin with a crew of thousands or the small zippy incursus class frigate, piloted by the forever cheerful Avid Nray.

"All ships this is Flash. Undock, undock, undock and align to the Todi gate. Status report on all ships once you have cleared the docking lanes."

Slipping out of the cavernous hangar of the Kaalaikiota station, the black hulled ships of The Bastards was an intimidating sight and caused two small industrials to collide into other as they fled. Their intent to cause mayhem and violence as clear as the double-winged, crossed sword grinning skull motif emblazoned on the ships.

One by one, the ships winked once in the tactical overview, indicating their readiness and then whipped into warp space. Flash was in his rapier class recon-ship, equipped with target painters and webbers. The scouts raced on ahead as the fleet manoeuvred into Todi and assumed position. There was a brief firefight in Eifer where the frigate scouts got themselves engaged by an ishkur class assault frigate, resulting in the loss of a rifter and Avid's incursus. Both raced back to get new ships.

The fleet warped into Akkio and proceeded to move on when Mr Frog, flying the magnificient megathron class battleship requested permission to check out EOA-ZC. A well known entry point into null sec.

"Frog, exercise caution. That megathron makes a tempting target. The rest of the fleet will remain aligned to Otosela."

With a chuckle, Mr Frog's megathron disappeared into warp and landed at the EOA-ZC gate. He jumped and with a whoop, announced that there was indeed a target for him. A blackbird ECM cruiser sitting some distance from the gate.

"Am locking it." Announced Mr Frog. "Locking..."

"Could be a trap mate." Muttered Viginti, the capsuleer Captain of one of the two Armageddon class battleships in the fleet.

"Locked! Neuting and sending out drones." There was a burst of static and a curse. "Shit. Local just jumped by ten. No, make that fifteen. Shit."

"Mr Frog. De-agress and get back to the gate. Give me intel on the local spike."

"Shit. Stealth bombers. Lots of them on the d-scanner. This is going to hurt." Mr Frog sounded worried and so he should. Stealth bombers are one of the most effective anti-battleship vessels in New Eden. Packing torpedoes and target painters and of course, the various bombs; they could do immense damage to larger hulls.

"Trying to activate the gate -" A sharp squeal interrupted Mr Frog's transmission "-launching. Bombs, they have bombs. Brace for impact!" The rest of the fleet could only sit still and listen-in helplessly. "Into armour already, shit they're killing me!"

Flash quickly interfaced with Mr Frog's own tactical computer and was jolted at the flood of damage notifications. Quickly sifting through the digital cacophony, the salient information was clear: the warp engines had been smashed apart and there was a huge hole, on the port side where part of the armour plating had already peeled off revealing the vulnerable hull section. The megathron was already in a slow uncontrolled port side spin and was leaking precious atmosphere and fuel. The abandon ship call had already been announced and the crew escape pods were spat out from the doomed ship. With what looked like glee, the stealth bombers unleashed yet another devastating wave of torpedoes at the doomed ship. Slamming into the shield-less and armour-less ship, the warheads with their hardened heads burrowed deep into the superstructure of Mr Frog's battleship and detonated. For a split second the megathron bulged as it it tried to contain the explosion but physics won and the once mighty ship, burst apart into a million flaming pieces.

Mr Frog's capsule was safe as was that of most of his crew though immediate extraction wasn't possible.

"Frog, status please?" Asked Flash, clamping down hard on the disappointment of losing a battle ship so early in the operation. Sounding remarkably cheerful, Mr Frog beamed back.

"All okay FC. A bit shaken but man, I LOVE stealth bombers!" Mr Frog's renewed enthusiasm of the stealth bomber class was obviously rekindled by the sudden and fiery demise of his ship. "Am getting my Hyperion class battle ship ready and will catch up. Hope most of my crew made it out. Mr Frog, out."

The fleet continued on their way.

"Fleet this is Flash - set destination to Paala. Scouts move on ahead." Flash paused as the ships all winked back on the overview and shifted their alignment. "Scouts report back."

"Scout one: in Paala and moving to LXQ2."

"Scout two: holding in Paala."

"Scout three: in LXQ. Bubbles and three potentials. Cyclone, Hurricane and Rapier."

The commentary drifted back as the fleet moved into position, one jump from Paala and settled into a safe spot about 1 AU distant from the Paala entry gate. Flash toggled between the scouts.

"All scouts, report. Are hostiles still on the Paala gate in LXQ?"

"Scout three here: roger that FC. Claw class interceptor here too."

"Scout two here: cloaked up three hundred kilometres above the gate. There are drag bubbles all around. Ship count doesn't match with pilot count, we have cloakies here."

The fleet now joined by Mr Frog in a shiny Hyperion class battle ship was split up into three parts, the bulk would remain with Flash, some would cluster around the LXQ gate in Paala while two more would join the scouts in LXQ. Mr Frog and K Starwin, in the Raven-class battle ship, were chosen for the forward bait role. With a cheer both ships peeled off from the fleet and moved ahead, followed by three more ships who were to hold on the gate.

Jumping through, the raven and hyperion immediately got some interest. The claw, foolishly stayed too still for too long and one of the fleet's hidden scouts, provided a warp in point for Mr Frog. He landed and amazingly, tackled the much smaller and nimbler ship.

"Point on Claw! Sending out drones." The small automated robots, screamed out from the drone bay of Mr Frog's hyperion and proceeded to dismember the unlucky claw. Meanwhile, K Starwind was attracting attention some more ships. A hurricane battle cruiser was closing and local increased by three.

"Ship on the LXQ gate: jump, jump, jump and engage hostiles." On the tactical view, The Bastards now had seven ships in LXQ - a Raven, a Hyperion, one Armageddon along with the scouts versus a potential eight ships. The enemy hurricane engaged and angled towards the Raven.

"Point on the hurricane!" Announced one of the scouts and this was followed by acknowledgements from the other ships. Tactical interfaced with the camera drones of the 'Golden Dong', the Armageddon class battle ship piloted by Viginti. Thick lances of light streaked out and boiled away the shields of the hostile hurricane, followed by a train of missiles slamming into the hull. Meanwhile a hostile cyclone and rapier had appeared but sat, silent three hundred kilometers away. The hurricane was quickly killed off as other hostile ships angled towards the fleet, though still too far away to do anything except watch. They could have warped to the gate and landed close but it was clear they wanted to assess the situation first. However, scout three, cloaked and hidden was already burning his way towards them.

Meanwhile, a hostile stealth bomber de-cloaked and made a bombing run - releasing his deadly cargo and warping away.

"Incoming! All frigates scatter now!" Yelled Morkas, one of our hidden scouts. By this time, Flash had sent his own camera drones to the fight and could see what was going on, more of less first hand. The bomb did little damage to the large ships having missed all our frigates. The bomber decloaked a second time. He was unlucky as another hidden scout provided a warp in for Ishalar and his rifter.

Quickly tackling it and holding it down allowed K Starwind to hit hard with a run of torpedoes. Meanwhile, the hurricane pilot was already held down by another frigate when I asked Ishalar to take care of the ransoms, even if there were hostiles running around the fleet.

Amidst numerous bombing runs by other stealth bombers, our fleet rotated around and stayed in LXQ. Ishalar did a fine job trying to ransom the hurricane pilot, using all his negotiating skills to little effect. In the end, the kidnapped pilot was dispatched by a bomb blast from one of his friends. Maybe he asked for a swift execution from a friend or maybe it was a case of disasterous friendly fire. Whatever the result, the ransom was not met but a long, rambling and very funny conversation was had.
Dougal Laphroaig > I'm a null sec combat pilot, won't pay it mate. But just remember this. A day will come, and I will make a decision, save your pod and let you fly away, or blow your +5 full hat off.
The full log has been re-posted and commented elsewhere.

However, when it was time for the fleet to leave, Dougal followed the fleet out in a rifter and after two jumps, oddly sat with The Bastards fleet in Uemon at a star gate. He didn't move but in a private conversation was requesting a duel with Ishalar. Ishalar declined as his rifter was fit up for tackle with hardly any DPS. Dougal had time to undoubtedly fit something a bit more appropriate. Ishalar replied that if he was to meet him in Evati in twenty minutes, he would be ready.

At Uemon, Dougal called out to Ishalar for a duel, yet again. Bored, Ishalar declined to comment as he wouldn't duel in his near weapon-less long range tackler.

"What's he doing?" Asked one of the pirate Captains, a bit bemused.

"Looks like he wants us to lock him?" Replied someone else.

"Probably thinks the gate's sentry guns will protect him! Fuck it. I am going to give a go!" Announced Mr Frog in his hyperion. Battleships are not known for their fast target acquistion times so surely Dougal should have seen the attempt but after a seven second cycle, a lock was made and the Hyperion's blaster canons swivelled into position.

"Opening up in three, two, one - fire!" In a flash, all eight large ion batteries on the Hyperion opened up and the rifter, one moment intact and sitting serenely near the gate and the next instant - a small but rapidly expanding cloud of debris.

Everyone burst into laughter .

"That's not very nice." Complained Dougal, his blinking capsule wobbly in space and sitting amidst the wreck of his former ship.

"Er, pirates?" Countered Ishalar, barely able to contain his laughter.

Oddly, Dougal, either suffering from temporary brain damage didn't warp his pod out or jump through and Mr Frog, after a ten second acquisition time, locked the pod and pulped it. This generated even more laughter from the assembled pilots.

A few seconds later, Dougal waking up in a reclone station contacted Ishalar again via the public ransom channel.
[23:44:05] Dougal Laphroaig > No problem. I understand. Small penis and all, it's okay. One day you might just be able to grow up and become a man.
[23:44:22] Dougal Laphroaig > Not likely though. lol
[23:45:31] Dougal Laphroaig > I guess that's why I never went down the pirate road. No code, no honor.
[23:48:21] Ishalar Molina > I'm quite sure you will win this war even though you have lost the last several battles :)
[23:48:58] Dougal Laphroaig > My kill board it actually pretty good. I've inflicted alot more damage than I have taken, and funny thing is. I have never paid a ransom.
While this conversation was rivetting, our scouts had spotted a Tengu class strategic cruiser and we raced towards it. The conversation with Dougal was left hanging. Unfortunately, we missed the Tengu, it had evidently cloaked up and disappeared and we had a consolatory kill of a curse.

Due to pressing matters, I recalled the fleet and broke it up once we had docked back up in Evati. It was a fun night even if the kills were light.

11 Nov 2009

Recruitment update, Armistice Day and a solo kill of EPIC proportions..

A Minute's Silence
Today is Armistice day and while this blog is meant to be more or less about the in-game antics of my pirate-self, I think it is worth just spending a minute in silent contemplation of all those who have fought and died in the countless wars in our history but especially those who fell in their tens of thousands in World War I. Ironically, the war to end all wars.


Recruitment
OK - been a most busy week at The Bastards and I wanted to give an update on how we're doing in terms of recruitment:

Updated: 11th November 2009
Total Applicants: 91 (all stages)

Rejections: 33
Withdrawn: 20
In Progress: 27
Accepted: 11

Some reasons for the rejections or withdrawn
Instant rejection due to failing to complete form as directed: 3
Rejection due to failing basic security, AGE and API checks: 4
Rejection due to failed interview (ex. no vent): 3
Rejected due to inexperience in piracy: 10
Rejected due to other reasons: 3

A BattleCruiser Roam
A roam was arranged and a fleet raised and while I had planned for only seven ships, mainly battle cruiser class ships, I ended up with a fleet of ten. With a few new members, recruits and applicants as well as hardened veterans, the impressive fleet rolled out of Evati with plunder and violence on their minds. A route was already selected and entered in all our auto-pilot computers. Our scouts raced ahead, eagerly seeking out prey and within one jump we had potential targets. Our scouts seeding the system with probes in an effort to seek them out. Most pilots are now on alert for such measures and the potential targets quickly scooted back to their towers and stations. So we moved on, led by our scouts. They spotted a cruiser in Eifer, a well known system and the home of Kane Rizell, the notorious solo pirate acknowledged as one of the finest solo operators in New Eden. He wasn't home and nor were anyone else. M34N has a base here too but nothing else was on scan. Most of the fleet idled in Gultratren, ready to move through Ingunn and onwards to Wiskeber. Eifer and Gus backs onto a high sec system and it is easy for a fleet comprised of pirates like ourselves, to be backed into a corner. Anyway, our scout had spotted what appeared to be a missioning cruiser along with some other ships. It was unknown if they were all together. So I sent Fenneck in his hurricane to tackle and ransom (or kill) the cruiser while Plat in his harbinger would sit on the gate and attempt to catch any help.

Fenneck announced that he was en route to the last known location of the cruiser but on arrival didn't see anything. Our scout had lost the target. No big deal; Fennecks' hurricane and Plat's harbinger re-approached the Gusandall gate and paused for the Eifer scout to catch up. One of my intelligence channels pipped: a friendly pilot, loitering in Gusandall just stated that three M34N corp ships had undocked and were en route, at speed towards Eifer as well. A dominix, megathron and a hurricane. Either they were going to tackle Plat and Fenneck or they were going to camp it.

Instantly, I was alert. They must have spotted our two battle cruisers when moving through Gusandall and had decided to go for them. The main Bastards fleet, still two jumps away made ready. I ordered a full burn toward the Gusandall gate in Ingunn and the remaining ships all raced towards the new destination.

Fenneck and Plat both jumped - apparently unaware of the looming danger but soon realised what they had jumped into. Fenneck dropped gate cloak first and calmly asked:

"Orders?"

I was still two jumps away and commanding an engagement across star systems was difficult.

"Primary is the megathron, secondary the hurricane, tiertiary the dominix." I said and repeated the order. Then adding, unnecessarily, "Hope you can survive long enough for us to help!" Already Fenneck was repeating the orders and locked his targets.

The rest of the fleet jumped on through and the violence began. Fenneck got some shield repping love from a neutral, Dirty Protagonist who has flown with us in mixed fleets but his scimitar could do little to Fenneck's hurricane as it was pummelled into structure by the combined might of a megathron, hurricane and a dominix. The dominix neutralised Fenneck's capacitor so the plucky pirate couldn't even fire up his microwarpdrive to get some distance.

"Fenneck going down. Fenneck doing down"

The bulk of the fleet landed around the Eifer gate and proceeded to engage the M34N corp ships, I repeated the targets with our Blackbird attempting to jam the dominix and disrupt the energy neutralisers it had. Fenneck tried to turn his ship around but it was badly holed in several places. The abandon ship order was given and with a salute, Fenneck punched out in his pod.

Suicidal Larsson, an appropriate name, was the pilot of the megathron then went down quickly to the vengeful firepower of the drakes and hurricane. Even when the glow of Fenneck's fiery demise was not quite over, the megathron's rear engines blew out and it started to spin away from Eifer gate. My 425mm auto canon chattered away, spattering armour piercing rounds into the dual-hulled Gallente ship.

"Primary is the megathron, secondary the hurricane, tiertiary the dominix." I glanced at my overview, dancing with lights and sound. I spotted a fourth ship: a rook and it was flashing red also.

"FC! Rook! Rook!" Announced one pirate.

"I see it but ignore it for now, concentrate on the targets. ECM drones now on the dominix." The megathron held on bravely but finally exploded into three pieces. The fire switched quickly to the enemy hurricane, some 17Km away from me.

"Webs on the goddamn Hurricane! Primary is the hurricane, primary is the 'cane. Secondary Dominix, secondary Dominix. Send all drones towards the rook."

"Plat needs to disengage." Said one of my harbinger pilots as it slid away from the fight, trailing fire and debris.

"Enemy hurricane is going down." With only the dominix to worry about - we turned our full fury on it. I was being harassed by his drones and my shields were quickly eaten away and then so was my armour plating.

"Take the domi down. The rook has disappeared, take the domi and start picking up the loot also." Never forget the loot even in mid-fight.

The dominix couldn't escape but bravely stuck to his guns. It was piloted by Cpt Nassaja, an individual that I had tremendous respect for and I knew he would be fighting back with every ounce of his being. The dominix came apart under the onslaught of missile, rocket and shell. Once the three enemy ships had decided to engage Fenneck and Plat, it was all over for them - our superior numbers a telling factor. We knew also that they had no help on the way so it was easily wrapped up.

We looted and discovered to our joy that the hurricane had dropped over 11,000 rounds (!) of barrage ammunition. We grabbed what we could, rueful that we didn't have a salvager and left the system. We exchange 'gf' in local and continued on our interrupted roam, minus Fenneck and his hurricane. The remaining roam was uneventful and we docked up for a celebratory drink about 45 minutes later.

Epic Kill
Almost forgetting: those who follow The Bastards may know that we run a Kill of the Month competition for corp members. While we believe in ransoms 100%; there is room for the display of individual prowess and for November, we truly thought the Kalius Prime taking on and defeating two omens in his rifter would ensure his nomination.

We were wrong.

Step forward Jirat who managed to solo a proteus in his cyclone. He also had an enemy cyclone AND ishkur on him as well. He was so stunned at his kill that he forget to kill the two other ships as he warped out.

Well done my man!

5 Nov 2009

A tower that got away....

With deadly intent, a small stealth bomber gang slipped out of Evati. The activating cloaking devices hiding the ships from all sight as soon as they were more than two kilometers away from the station. Some of the local ships reacted in alarm, frantically requesting for immediate docking permission as they spotted the two swords-crossed, winged skull motif of The Bastards pirate corporation and alliance of the same name emblazoned on the hulls of the ships.

"All ships report status please." Requested Flashfresh, in his hound-class stealth bomber.

Each ship squirted back a data-dense electronic pulse to the fleet commander and with a mental nudge, the entire fleet started their journey of plunder and loot for the night.

With two scouts racing ahead, the cloaked gang sneaked into systems heavy with potential enemies. Certainly, around Fuskunen there was a very large Legion of XxxDeathxxX fleet regrouping and most likely heading into Paala and into the drone regions. The dozen or so stealth bombers whispered past the fleet and proceeded to more suitable targets elsewhere.

It was at this time that our scouts had spotted a variety of ships: Loki, Drake and others. Both scouts were busy dropping combat scan probes in order to find them. However, it was RoninData and Happy San who spotted something infinitely more interesting.

"Check, check."Interrupted Happy San over the murmur of fleet chat. "I have a hurricane orbitting an un-anchoring large tower and it's being attacked by two crows."

"Happy: confirm please." There was a pause as Happy got closer in his stealth bomber. A minute later he came back, sounding more urgent.

"This is Happy San, confirmed. The two crows are attacking the hurricane. Hurricane pilot is owner of the large tower. Large tower has twenty one minutes remaining before unanchoring is complete."

RoninData, on a rare visit chimed in.

"We could do with some of that."

There were mumbles of agreement from the fleet. I agreed but continued to send my scout ahead, no use in wasting time or resources.

"This is Flash. RoninD, you're in rapier with a point. Primary will be the hurricane and the first crow by alphabetically by pilot name. We might have to let the second crow go." Flash paused as he consulted his tactical notes. "Happy, is the 'cane pointed by one of the crows?"

"He must be though I don't think they doing that much damage."

Suddenly there was a laugh and expletive from Happy.

"The hurricane aligned and got away. The crows are fail."

In the local communications net, the two crow pilots complained that the hurricane wriggled free due to some sub-space anomaly that induced a dsynch. From one of the crow pilots, the following terse message was squirted out into local.

"Local anomalies are inducing some sort of d-synch. You're lucky."

We weren't going to let this one go.

"Find the hurricane." The stealth bomber pilots all scattered and attempted to locate the fleeing hurricane.

"Jmarr at planet IV. Clear."

"Vig at planet V. Clear."

"Persephone at the Moselgi gate. Clear. I think the 'cane went through here though, there's a few fluctations here and the gate is still warm."

"Damnit." Said Flash, the night was slow going as he prepared the fleet to move, RoninData, ever the isk pursuing pirate put forward an idea.

"We could always steal the tower?"

"In a stealth bomber?" Queried someone.

"Actually, I have a mate in a viator three jumps away. She's finishing off a supply run...." Offered Happy San.

"Stealing towers is an accepted part of being a Bastard," said RoninData, already making up his mind.

"Also, a large minnie tower is worth around 360 million isk...."Said Viginti.

"360 million?" asked someone. There was a pregnant silence, as that was a lot of isk.

"That's like, er 36 million each right?" offered someone else. With the loot sales and ransoms, this was another good source of isk. We couldn't really turn it down.

"Okay. Let's do it."

After some quick re-adjustment of the fleet we had our cloaked hauler 2.6 km from the unachoring tower. Ronin was also there in his rapier. The rest of the fleet sat in the next system, cloaked and aligned and ready to offer assistance.

With less than two minutes to go, the owner of the tower appeared in local and in a bestower. We had a total of two points in the system and another six one jump away. Even stabbed, the hauler couldn't get away.

The one minute mark appeared and the bestower aligned and warped towards the moon where his large tower would be waiting for him. However we were ready.

"Hauler...decloak." Ordered Ronin and our own hauler shimmered into view and ambled the last 300 metres or so into scoop range. The bestower was now on scan but we were in the process of scooping the tower as the seconds ticked down.

As the tower finally unanchored, the bestower was still en route and we cheered.

"Scoop it."

The tower should have disappeared from overview. There was nothing from our hauler pilot.

"Scoop it please." Repeated RoninData. The rest of the fleet remained quiet as Ronin decloaked.

"Er, I can't. I don't understand it. It won't let me." The bestower burst into view as it dropped out of warp. I landed close to the tower. Robotic arms snaked out from the bestower's hold.

"Scoop it!" Repeated RoninData with more urgency.

"Am trying damnit. Am trying!" The tower disappeared. "Crap. He got it."

"Then point the indy!" Ronin then started to cycle his scrambler. There was an explosive curse. "I can't lock him.....and the bestower, he's gone."

"What?"

The ventrilo communication net, quiet until now, burst into life. We had somehow lost out on a 360 million isk tower and failed to grab the hauler as well. Disappointed, the roam was approaching the closing window and I ordered the fleet back home. We would review our notes at a later date.




Other news:

The Bastards run a solo kill of the month competition every month and I will comment more on this in another post but I wanted to give a shout out to Kalius Prime who took on x2 omen-class cruisers in his rifter. I think this will qualify him from a nomination in the November Solo Kill of the month. October's winner was our very own Ard who, took on destroyers (twice) in his signature vigil of doom. It's his well kept secret but it can not be secret no longer! Winners get a medal (ohh shiny) that's we've called 'Microwave Meal For One' award and a choice of T2 frigate or some other hull type as a gift and yes, most of the time, we're outnumbered....

However, here are the other solo kills to look over, some impressive ones for sure - the post is a discussion of the kill but it's only available to corp members. The killmail link is publicly available.

October 2009 Ard's super Vigil v Coercer
Killmail: http://www.the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_ ... l_id=12583
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4129

September 2009
z0de's taranis versus Typhoon
Killmail:http://www.the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=12325
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3958

August 2009
Did not run.

July 2009
Coochie in Thorax vs Harbinger
Killmail: http://www.the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_ ... l_id=11566
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3643

June 2009
P'XEL in Ishkur pops Arazu while under fire from Broadsword and Sac
Killmail: http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10727
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3528

May 2009
Nova in his Rapier and his 4 cruiser kills:
Killmail: http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_related&kll_id=8700
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3244

April 2009
Fish Brain in Wolf - 5 Frigs
CAN'T FIND KILLMAIL LINK
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3044

March 2009
Rodneystar in Rifter vs rep fleet firetail
Killmail: http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7161
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2834

February 2009
Unknown.

January 2009
Hera in taranis killing a vagabond
Killmail: http://the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=5825
Post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2447


The Ransoms!!

However, even though we love the thrill of a solo kill, we have been busy with ransoms. Just to answer back at some of our detractors who 1) accuse of manipulating our kb by flying cheaper ships and 2) having a 'poor' K/D efficiency I can only say, boo-hoo.

For one thing: we're pirates and it's a hard life. We like to kill and ransom stuff (especially expensive T2 stuff) in our t1 hulls. Many of us don't have mission alts or play the market or have GTCs drip feeding isk into our accounts. It fits in with our play style and attitude. We're not rich and like I have said in the past - too much isk can have odd effects on some pirates.

A second thing is that we've been busing ransoming people rather than blowing them up and hence, we've cracked 1B isk in ransoms of the month of October. We're doing well in November once more. We would love to hear comments and feedback on our RANSOM BOARD.

One of the highlights of the ransoms are the accounts that we ask each Pirate to make on our forum.

I want to share with you just some of the fun and inventive ways The Bastards have been obtaining their ransom isk. Normally, I do not post other people's content here. This is a blog with 100% Flashfresh derived content but I wanted to show people that The Bastards do live and breath piracy as much as we can...

Take AzazelDev, for example. He's been a busy bee.

In one ransom, he just entered the mission of a young Rupture pilot, 'morrowwind'. Unfortunately, he was too far and escaped before Aza could point him.

In his own words....

He convoed me shortly after and after a lot of haggling I got a ransom out of him.

Highlights:
  • I got a ransom even though I had him not pointed :D
  • I got a ransom from a pilot on a trial account and it was in-game-value - which I think is probably a novum...
AzalDev also managed to get a French-speaking pilot to produce a Haiku style poem. Again, in Aza's own words.

First invited him to yarrsom, didnt seem to react for a while, so I kicked him and started shooting. Then DJ mentioned the guy was French and he could translate.
So invited him to convo with DJ. See below for the discussion.

In the end we got a small poem in haiku style, albeit a bit on the weak side regarding content...

PS: Thanks to DJ for translating!

AzazelDev > tu parlais francais?
Naoru > what do you want?
AzazelDev > ah, ok

AzazelDev > well

AzazelDev > I told you

Naoru > oui, je suis francais

AzazelDev > I want 1million isk

AzazelDev > and you are free to go

Naoru > je ne les ai pas
AzazelDev > and finish your mission, if there is yet something to finish

AzazelDev > ok, hold on a sec

DJ Akula > Bonsoir

DJ Akula > Apparemment tu n'a pas un million isk?

DJ Akula > il y a une autre solutio pour conserver ton vaisseau..

DJ Akula > serais-tu dispose a chanter ou a ecrire un Haku?

DJ Akula > Naoru, il serait a ton avantage de repondre...

AzazelDev > c'est vrais :)
DJ Akula > no s Az ;)

Naoru > un haku?

DJ Akula > poeme japonais, je te trouve la definition

Naoru > heu, je connais mal mes ideogrammes

DJ Akula > tu peux le faire en francais
Naoru > et ça consiste en quoi?
DJ Akula > 5 syllable dans la premiere phrase, 7 dans la deuxieme et 5 dans la derniere

AzazelDev > yes, that would actually be very cool (pls translate)

DJ Akula > I will translate

DJ Akula > Je le traduirai en anglais

AzazelDev > (moi, je comprends, mais ne parles Francais bien :( )

Naoru > Je vais m'en aller, loin de vos turpitudes, et aller dormir

Naoru > ça vous va comme poeme? :)

Naoru > 5/7/5

DJ Akula > je crois que loin compte pour un mais je vais te le laisser :)
DJ Akula > You can let him go az :)

AzazelDev > have fun :)

AzazelDev > you're free to finish this mission

AzazelDev > afterwards you are fair game again

Naoru > i don't understand your motivations, but " ce fut fun"

DJ Akula > bonen soiree et ca va t'arriver souvent si tu reste dans les parrages

DJ Akula > nous sommes pirates.. la motivation est l'argent.. ou le divertissement


Je vais m'en aller, loin de vos turpitudes, et aller dormir Translation: Will be on my way Far from your many hassles and speed to my sleep


1 Nov 2009

October Pirate Speedlinking...

Welcome to my October 2009 speed-linking of pirate focused blogs here in New Eden.

[OOC] - on a personal note with the poor health of my mother (not quite improving) and a couple of humanitarian disasters that I deployed to, EVE has had to take a back seat.

Anyway, what has been going on the length and breadth of New Eden's piracy? Here's a very, very quick round-up....


-MYNXEE-
No one could have failed to have noticed that Mynxee was pounding the drum for the Hellcat's party. Her idea simply grew and grew and by the time the party had kicked off, Evati local (and the Hellcats public channel) was heaving with party goers. Local was a mish-mash of impromptu 1v1, the station was also camped by some party crashers, there was some whineage in various channels about targets and over seeing this entire ensemble was the queen of piracy herself, Mynxee. Her after-party thank you and thoughts is well worth a read.

There was also a nice surprise Celebrity Death Match (CDM) that Mynxee was asked to participate. The brain-child of this fun series of matches is Nashh Kadavr, who had placed an application with The Bastards a while ago with the condition that if he beat me, he would be considered. Mynxee and Nashh were to go up against Quivering Palm and Luminus Aardokay of Split Infinity Radio. Ships would be faction cruiser with some tip-top commentating by EVE Alliance Tournament commentator, Teadaze. Mynxee's report is fun and exciting.

Mynxee is my view, should be running for CSM herself but for now, she's content to comment on the candidates and their policies, she's done an analysis on the 49 candidates so far and has already found a fair chunk of them uninspiring and wanting.

-KANE RIZZEL-
Kane's blog is always on my to-read list and his latest exploits has shown that Mr Rizzel is now an Admiral having an impressive fleet that includes his latest toy: a carrier. Recently, he and friends from Mean and Hellequin got together to pop a POS tower in Sotrenzur. I was in a roaming frigate gang when we spotted the cap ships on our scanner and it was good to get some corroboration from Kane. Kane is also a respected fighter of the highest order and I have been honoured by flying as his wing-man in the past. Like me and Wensley and countless others, we fly the rifter and love it. Kane's philosophy, prompted by Wensley excellent post is simple: Fit to Win.

Check out Kane's impressive KillBoard.

-NASHH KADAVR-
Nashh Kadavr is now a Bastard but he's more well known for his well thought out celebrity death match (CDM) series of blog posts. He has already fought a number of times and is doing well. His account of CDM during the Hellcats party is exciting and gripping. An enjoyable series of posts and amusing insights into these 1v1s.
Nashh has been unable to log-in recently due to a hardware crash on his gaming rig but we hope he should be back in the groove soon. Certainly, the killboard and ransomboards are missing his love. Come back soon mate.

-WENSLEY-
With a new name for his blog (Rifter Drifter) and layout, Wensley continues to lead the way with rifter based may-hem and madness. The latest post has Wens showing off the signature making abilities of yet another Pirate, Helicity Boson of the Python Cartel. Who said pirates didn't help each other?

I loved his article (Price of Death) in which he discusses in detail, the cost of pvp and the balance between winning and losing and the isk cost that this entails. Wens brings in and attempts to collect together the different schools of thought when it comes to ship fittings and I thoroughly applaud his effort in doing this. Well done Wens - a talent with the written word as well as the 150mm T2 auto canon!

-SPECTRE3353-
One of the craziest and most fun persons that I know of, is Spectre3353, AKA EVENewb. He's on my quick read list and the antics this chap gets to is nothing short of outstanding.

I knew that Spectre had decided to run for CSM and I threw my support behind him, as did many other of the pirate persuasion. Unfortunately, Spectre fell foul of some EULA ruling that barred him from further consideration. Spectre took this in his stride and decided to get some isk via his silver-tongue and scamming. He's good at it though he attributes the ease of isk to people's greed as much as anything else. Still, he has been accused of being a 'lost cause to humanity'. While I don't scam - I understand that it is a viable method of isk generation and I loved the post. All power to you Spectre.
-ANDREA SKYE-
The last time I visited Andrea Skye, she filled me with some confusion - she's left New Eden for something called WoW, claiming it is a little something sweeter...however, piracy and New Eden always will call people back and being pulled back in Spectre's scamming antics (see above post) - she did her own thing and made enough isk to get a machariel....only for her to lose it. Andrea called it Karma and took the loss with some aplomb. She can always scam to get more isk.

-SHAE T'IANN-
Shae has been so busy in real life and in-game that's it has reduced her pirating time somewhat. However, when you read her latest published installment, I think we can all agree that it is worth the sacrifice.
Well done Shae, you are an inspiration...

-HELICITY BOSON-
Hulkageddon was an event put together by Helicity Boson of the Python Cartel. She deserves the credit for bringing together the groups and doing the lion's share of the organising. A fun event that resulted in much dead miners in high-sec. Due to the swift CONCORD response, we were unable to ransom any of the miners.

She has a nifty new site as well and have I mentioned that Hel does a fine side-line in signature art? I love the clean and clear colours and lines she uses.

-OMGAH-
Omgah the friendly pirate is another PC pirate putting his thoughts down into a blog, no doubt inspired by Spectre.

-BRUTUS SEVERUS-
I was looking forward to some excellent yarr tales of yet another rifter loving pilot but his post was in March and he explains that with the demands of the new client, he would be grounded for the forseeable future. All power to you and hope to see you back in the yarr!

Eve-pirate is a great site but I have neglected it as of late but there's a new post by a chap called 'Grumbles' who has skilfully posted about what an adrenaline rush piracy and pvp is in New Eden as he embarks on his first solo kills in his thorax. New posts include: On a Whim and trial of a newb, part 1. If you want quick snippets of pirating goodness from newer bloggers, go to Ander's excellent site. I still think their forums can do with some improvement....

I know I have missed out many of you but have no worries - am going to try and attempt a part 2!