Two slippies, a drake, a rattler and friends and the welcoming committee when I got home...

This went boom....

I wandered into the usual Bastards hang-out; the 'Independence' bar and saw Fitz, Marco and a new chap called Jin. Fitz looked and sounded horrible: he had a serious case of man-flu and embarrassingly, excused himself from the bar, coughing and sneezing as he went.

Our fleet of three (two sleipnirs and a drake) undocked and went out hunting. The drake went on ahead, Marco and I in our sleipnirs sat on the gate and waited, our shield boosters primed to resist. as our scout and bait. However, it didn't take long before the star-gate we floated around pulsed once: signalling incoming traffic.

"Deploy drones." I said to Marco. The small winged mechanical killers slid out from their moorings and took up an orbit around us. Whoever had come in held their cloak. This boded well for Marco and I. Ordering battle stations as there was going to be some imminent violence, I waited patiently. I activated my shield hardeners and made sure that the capacitor booster was packed full with charges. The mystery ship still hadn't dropped its gate cloak but it was only a matter of time.

"There it is." Marco.

"Rattlesnake, rattlesnake!" I said with much excitement.

The distinctive Scorpion-class battle ship hull was there, hanging in space 25 km from me. Marco was closer and threw a point on it. I hit the mwd and raced over. The rattlesnake attempted to move back to the gate. We bumped it. We opened fire on it. His two friends in cruisers fired at us. Drones buzzed everywhere. The gate guns fired back on us. Our drake came back in to help. It was mad, fast and it was great.

The rattler went down and we got to work on the two cruisers: we somehow missed his fourth friend in a tempest and I think we also missed an Orca!

There's only so much a fleet of three can do on a low-sec gate. We quickly got off the gate and found a safe spot where we could collect the dropped loot and parcel it out amongst the Captains and crew.  Unfortunately, I had to leave the fleet and ran right into a small gate camp in our home system and rapidly blew up.

Not a good end to the evening.

Bang, bang, your dead!

TL;DR I posted this blog early and had lots (i.e. eight) of people convo me about the contents. Main issue was my rather inept attempt at masking the identity of someone, only for his name to appear in the post further below. Oddly, this had a rather pleasing effect: a few of the chaps chatting to me ended up apologising for the action of others. Ass Muncher might be a poor choice for name in hindsight.


The blog was incomplete and I have added to it in order to complete it. I do love Shizraak by the way, even if he is a low-sec noob but he is learning about gate guns, the hard way. 


People are never happy
[22:58:58] A***** M** "Tomorrow write about how the basterds wouldn't fight"

No one wants to fight me...

His name has been obscured to protect this chap from embarrassment. For now, let's call him, 'Ass Muncher'.

So, indeed here I am, blogging about it. The bit of text above was spewed in local, I do not read local, especially when I am running a fleet so it was with some surprise that the text was forwarded to me by one of his own people in Ass Muncher's fleet on the night. This chap (completely random chap who I never heard of, but thank you) informed me that he was a wee bit embarrassed at Ass Muncher for talking in local as well as bringing a blob big enough to scare almost everyone else into hiding and then complaining that he couldn't get a fight. Not a good FC it would appear.

Why this little bit of bitterness thrown towards us lovable, roguish Bastards? Well, we had another typical night where our gang of twelve battle cruisers roamed around Heimatar and Molden Heath. We were looking for loot and ransoms. We successfully avoided a superior force made up of battle ships, strategic cruisers and battle cruisers. This was Ass Muncher's fleet, roaring up from Ardar for some potential fun. A fleet this size pushes forward a bow wave: people know you're coming. You're fooling no-one. Having avoided them and keeping my fleet intact, we were called out on it, for doing what any sensible fleet would do in our position: i.e. avoid un-necessary losses.

Tactics and common sense appear to be lacking in the opposition this time round. Why would anyone sensible be willing to engage in a fight that they would surely lose? For glory? For honour? For 'Good Fights'?  It amuses me greatly that there are those who think that all fights in New Eden need to be fought irrespective of conditions, numbers, tactics and strategy. That the real fun is participating in a fight, regardless of outcome. Anyone else who subscribes to a different view, is deemed, well - not worthy.

As pirates, we're after loot and profit only. For that to happen, we need to ensure that we hold the field so that we can pick over the loot and salvage. Losing any fight, including those where people exchange hearty 'good fights!' in local ensures that we speed home in our pods with a lowered isk balance and the need for a new ship. We will engage and often but only if there is a chance that we can hold the field. That the conditions are right, the terms being our own. Tonight, against Ass Muncher and his fleet, they were not. So 'A.M.' I reply to your little nugget of frustration and bitterness with riposte: deal with it or bring a smaller fleet. If you want to have a fight with equal numbers - I suggest you play chess.

Another pirate running away from the blob...

Also, it is spelt as 'Bastards' not 'Basterds'. Am assuming that English isn't your first language so you're forgiven.

Anyway, let's go back in time by about an hour or so to the beginning of the night....

The miners
The evening started off with a mining op being busted by our chaps. We grabbed the Armageddon and drake but failed to grab the two hulks. No matter, we piled in and requested for a ransom. We were rejected and we popped the Armageddon (failed to grab the pod), then popped the drake and we managed to grab the pod as wanted to try a second ransom, mindful that there might be expensive implants in the drake pilot's head.

He rejected us again and we podded his capsule. Shame, he could have parted with a few million isk and not wake up with a headache.

We roamed down the metropolis pipe after the snack and chanced upon a stabber in a complex. It was pointed and we started to kill off the rats that were molesting the stabber in order to keep him alive long enough for us to try a ransom. The pilot, 'Boz Bozly' refused to pay the reasonable amount we requested and we couldn't get him to give us a haiku either. Shocking. So we  killed him with some regret. His last words were: 'I have noted down your names....' Well, if you check your killmail we should all be there too.

The Blob
It was at this time that we realised we were being tracked by another corporation: the Chupacabras, famed for their skilled gate camps between Evati to Jita to Yulai and back. They had over a dozen BC class vessels as well as a couple of probers who scattered scan probes everywhere. They scored a hit and managed to bust a safe spot used by one of our fleet pilots. He was caught and quickly dismembered. We were also informed that an even larger gang was en route and we discussed amongst ourselves what we could do. The most obvious one was to see if these new chaps would plough into the Chupacabras. No such luck as the Chupas scattered before hostile contact was made, losing only a brutix to this new fleet's vanguard.

We stayed put in the system, observing the proceedings as my efforts to link up with the new chaps didn't quite work out. Had a lovely chat with one of the fleet members though! It was at this time that we were being childishly goaded in local, no doubt pickings were slim for Ass Muncher's fleet. There's nothing worse than frustrated fleet mates and not enough targets for the evening. So why not resort to childish attempts at getting a fight?

Not wishing to push into the brick wall in front of us, we turned around and came racing back towards home and proceeded to move towards Molden Heath via the Katugumur system. As we moved towards the Katugumur, we were informed that a flashy cyclone and a neutral Tempest Fleet issue was buzzing around the infamous Gusandall / Eifer gate; home of M34N and the infamous Kane Rizzel. The two ships, with a loki were no doubt looking for easy pickings moving between Eifer and Gusandall. It is a great system.

We decided that since the cyclone was red, we could just tackle him on gate and burn him down. Which we did, his friend in the Tempest Fleet issue was the main prize but he managed to wriggle out of the first tackle only to be caught on the other side when he jumped. He managed to escape this attempt as well, return to the gate and jumped back into our main gang. He then raced away from the gate, which sealed his fate.

We then raced back into Laslienur and popped an Armageddon who was hassling a friend of ours.  We missed out on killing a guardian (who docked) and a T3 cruiser, who we simply failed to locate once he warped off.

In these situations, with a battle ship within docking distance, one has to bring overwhelming DPS to burn it down quickly. This is one of the occasions where you need to plough into someone and there's no such thing as 'too much DPS'.

We ended the evening with some false alarms but all in all a great time.

Last week we went a roaming as well and here's the high-lights:
I jump cloned back to Evati and a hello to the new chaps, battle cruiser roam with logistic support. TheHermit was fleet commander with myself as an ordinary team member flying my Sleipnir with command links. A position that I quite enjoyed, TheHermit is an excellent fleet commander and I felt confident that it would be a great op.

Fleet comms was chatty and boisterous but cutting through the chatter was Raelyf requesting for some extra tackle: he had a tengu probed down close by but needed some extra help to take down the T3 cruiser. However, when you have a fleet of about 22, the ransom pay out is quite low. The craziness continued with our regular fleet favourite, the eve-dependable low-sec noob Shizraak getting volleyed by the sentry guns while he was in his hawk! Don't tackle on gates Shiz, you will die - that's the job of the Meatshield Bastards!

While we idled on a gate, preparing to move, a scorpion class battle ship landed and promptly jumped. We obviously followed him and tackled the feared Caldari ship and reduced it to scrap in a matter of moments. The pilot accused us of being cowards but we chuckled and grabbed the loot. Grabbing ships under gate gun fire isn't fun. As we were picking over the loot, we were then fortunate to catch a Loki. It landed on a gate, saw us and jumped. Unlucky for him, I was in a sleipnir and was on the entry gate for the Loki pilot. As soon as he undocked, I had him web scrambled and demanded a ransom, he refused the convo and the Loki unable to move off, fired at me in despairing fashion awaiting his fate. We then grabbed the pod and demanded a second ransom but once again, he refused.

In Katugumur was a drake from an alliance we had not heard of, so we got in close and tried to see whether he would bite. Which he did and we promptly melted him down to structure before I could even try a ransom. The drake pod raced back to the station with us in hot pursuit. It was then that his mate came out in an Abaddon, a deadly battle ship class vessel that had our fleet salivating at the prospect. He made the decision to target Arrhideaus whom we tried to save but the mighty lasers of the Abaddon cut through Arrhi's harbinger just as he was almost into warp. However, we took revenge and dog piled him and smashed him to scrap. Since we didn't want him to dis-engage his lasers and dock up we did not bother to ransom him.

It's a knock out

Of course, the battle ship pilot complained that we blobbed him but we pointed out that the only way to kill a battle ship within docking distance of a station is to take it down quickly with as many ships as possible. Not elegant solution but an effective solution.







Open Night with The Bastards - another drunk roam? 
Anyway, there's been a number of people who have been asking for another open roam with The Bastards, whether it is a drunk roam or not is partly dependent on the state of my liver and kidneys but I think I will manage it. Low-sec and null-sec roam, with drinks and drunkeness the order of the day (or night) with a twist; we will also be doing the AFK FC concept as well.

It is coming up soon, within two weeks so contact either me or TheHermit or leave a comment here and I will get the details to you. Just make sure you get hold of a T1 cruiser hull with as many weapons as you can cram onto it AND make sure you have your favourite drink handy. I have been told to stay away from Jagermeister shots...

Drunk roam carnage

Laters.

F

Guilty Pleasures

I decided to inject some 'fun' to the sanctioned op for tonight; as typically, The Bastards always have a laugh as New Eden to us, should be a place of fun and opportunity. We don't have super serious 'CALL TO ARMS!!!' hysterical rubbish nor do we micro-manage our pilots. We want our pilots to enjoy themselves and thus I decided on flavouring our battle cruiser roam with....guilty pleasures. We all have them: power ballads from the 80s that you sing (with gusto) when you think you're alone but you would be a little bit embarrassed if this fact came out, or was somehow recorded and released to youtube....


Anyway, I logged on late as I had a dinner invitation suddenly spring up on me and what can one do when a lovely curry (Lamb roushini, niramish, paneer masala, sag aloo and bindi bhaji with stuffed paratha) is dangled in front of you?


Don't call me weak now...


So, with a full belly I finally got into the station to find that The Bastards had already set up a fleet and had gotten a jump on a brace of Los Chupacabras ships, Mexican Space Banditos indeed. We came out on top and it sounded like a superb engagement.

a-Ha

I undocked my hurricane to the chintzy keyboard tunes of 'Take On Me' blasting out of my speakers. This song was A-Ha's break out song that reached Number 2 in the UK charts and Number 1 in the US in 1985. Remembered for its revolutionary rotoscoping music video.


Feeling my mullet growing I ordered the fleet to set sail to Eifer. As we jumped we had reports of a large gang in Ardar and we then bumped into a battle ship gang from a corporation well known to us: The Gentlemen of Low Morale Fibre [SCONE], a spiffing bunch of renegades and rascals if I say so myself. It was decided to go into Ardar with our fleets backing each other up. The first potential targets of the night was a fleet of battle cruisers from Focused Intentions alliance, Los Chupacabras' erstwhile alliance mates, were seen loitering around Egmar and Taff and with some excitement, the Gentlemen raced in and settled on the main Taff to Egmar gate. However it looked like the FI chaps were tipped off and they docked up and logged off. Not too discouraged, the combined fleet moved down towards the Ardar system - a busy system with plenty of potential. As the leading elements of our fleet (led by the Gentlemen) went through into Ardar, they discovered a 'SCUM.' alliance almost twice the numbers of the Gentlemen were sitting on the gate. Both sides were criminal so gate guns would have stayed silent.


There was plenty of yellow boxing but the SCUM. alliance did not engage [SCONE] and instead jumped through and docked up a station.


With Vixen's 'Edge of a Broken Heart'** thumping away over the speakers we tried to entice the SCUM. alliance pilots to undock but they were not playing. However, since The Bastards were one jump away and holding on a gate, we *did* catch one SCUM straggler who popped and podded. 

**Vixen's 'Edge of a broken heart' topped the UK and US charts in 1988. I also knew that another 80s icon, Richard Marx wrote the song...


So with visions of big hair, shoulder pads and lipstick (and this is the guys were were talking about) - the fleet roared into Molden Heath where we took leave of the Gentlemen; our Guilty Pleasure playlist being too much for our fellow pirates. 


On arrival to Oddelulf, we spied a small grouping of ships: an ishtar, hurricane and falcon all clustered around the high-sec gate to Gefliven. TheHermit, Fiz and Hin, with T'Pau, Queen and The Bangles blasting away decided to have a go at these chaps. TheHermit opened up on the hurricane who leisurely yellow-boxed him back. The hurricane was down to armour and then jumped into high-sec. The gang then switched over to the ishtar and once again, the gang opened up. The ishtar pilot wasn't stupid - he probably knew that as soon as he returned fire we would jump in. So he sat there, tanking and (probably) enjoying our music. It was so loud that we could hear it clearly through our ventrilo speaker whenever anyone spoke....and we weren't even streaming it through. 


However, once the ishtar was down to low-armour we knew he was getting ready to jump. He was teasing us. The cad. 


Fate, obviously, had a sense of humour as roaring into sniping range was a lass called 'Ariartus' who volleyed the ishtar straight into hull and into a lovely explosion straight-after. I bet the ishtar pilot didn't see that one coming! However, Ariartus wasn't in our gang and therefore a viable target - there was no communications before hand and besides, he turned his guns onto Hinaj and knocked his ass down to hull too. All is fair in love and war so Fizixx raced over and tackled the tempest and killed him. The pod got away. 

Heaven is a place called earth

With Alannah Myles now caressing our ears with 'Black Velvet' (classic one song hit from 1990 that won her a grammy award) - we started our journey back but amazingly we missed a dominix, a loki (NO!!!) and two drakes as we burned back home. Just a tad slow on the tackle by the fleet. I blame Belinda Carlisle for missing the loki as 'Heaven is a place called earth' certainly had all of us in a crazy sing-a-long. This track was Belinda Carlisle's only number one, topping the UK charts at number one for two weeks and the US billboard. A great song by the ex-Go-Go singer but cost us the loki. Worth it? Discuss.  


As per usual, our fleets tend to see action as we come home and this time it was no exception. Initially we thought it was a camp on the Todi / Evati gate but it was actually a fight. Time to gate crash it but we jumped in too late and only managed to snag a BRICK SQUAD drake after chasing one of their devoters and harbingers as it raced off the gate. We did get nearly all of the loot that was left from the big fight though and it contained some nice gear, so bonus!


Oh, a shout out to Tibbs who linked in a special version of Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the heart' - a literal version. MUST SEE. 


The Bastards Guilty Pleasures Playlist, 26th October 2010:


Take on Me - A-Ha
Edge of a broken heart - Vixen
Alone - Heart
We Built this City - Starship
Crockett's Theme (from Miami Vice) - Jan Hammer
Kyrie - Mr Mister 
If you leave me now - Chicago 
Hello - Lionel Richie

Livin' on a prayer - Bon Jovi 
Total Eclipse of the Heart (Literal version) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIO2e0pYtSg - Bonnie Tyler 

Hero - Bonnie Tyler
we are the champions - Queen
simply the best - Tina Turner
because the night - Patti Smith Group
the one i love - REM
i drove all night - Cyndi Lauper
the power of love - Jennifer Rush
heaven is a place on earth - Belinda Carlisle
is this love? - Whitesnake
black velvet - Alannah Myles
died in your arms - Cutting Crew
total eclipse of the heart - Bonnie Tyler
china in your hand - T'Pau
how you remind me - Nickleback
love hurts - Nazereth / Cher? 
every rose has its thorn - Poison
nothing compares to you - Sinead Oconnor
drive - The Cars
broken wings - Mr Mister
hard to say im sorry - Chicago
the living years - Mike and the Mechanics
when i see you smile - Bad English
it must have been love - Roxette
eternal flame - The Bangles
Sweet Child o' mine - Guns 'n' Roses

ORBAT

"Sir, here's the Order of Battle for tonight's operation. The Fleet designation is 290610. " Said the  pirate officer, a young Gallente. I took the sheet and start to scan down the list, I nod as I am happy.

"Eighteen ships, mostly battle cruiser class. Excellent. I see we have a number of unaffiliated Captains with us." My finger circle the names of a few pilots on the list.

"Three are potential recruits and one is a friend of an existing ship Captain." The officer took a glance at his clip-board. I think it makes him look extremely officious.

"A friend of Captain Blackler."

I dismiss the officer with a curt nod. He snaps his heels together and salutes and strides out of the my ready-room.

I reached over and grab a bottle. I pour myself a drink and jab at a few buttons on my tactical console. The order of battle (orbat) is projected onto the large tactical screen behind me.  I want to make some adjustments to communication protocols and default orders for the fleet and fiddle about with some coloured icons on the screen before I am satisfied. The list of ships tell me that, for tonight, it would be more than enough to do the trick. I execute the necessary commands that would trigger alarms along the entire length of the space station. Ship crew and Ship Captains would now be alerted to make ready their boats for violence and loot.

Finishing my drink, I put the glass down.

It is time to move. 


The fleet Orbat is left on the screen to slowly fade away as I make my way towards the capsule docking lounge.

Order of Battle (29-06-10) 

Status: live

Area of operation:  classified

Falcon-class force recon; ship designation: TH901-887

Lachesis-class force recon; ship designation: LB003-552

Huginn-class force recon; ship designation: JM776-643

Hurricane-class battle cruiser, mark III-Fury variant; ship designation: FF665-261

Hurricane-class battle cruiser, mark III-Valiant variant; ship designation: ST293-331

Drake-class battle cruiser, HAM-II variant, ship designation: PA887-002

Drake-class battle cruiser... 

The fleet of eighteen or so ships start to rumble out of space dock amid a blare of klaxon and whirling sirens. The un-docking queue is promptly cleared of commercial traffic as the pirate ships of The Bastards, all matt black with the winged skull and crossed swords motif,  muscle their way out. As soon as each ship makes minimum clearance; it jumps to a random spot in the system before forming up around my Hurricane-class battle cruiser, Arbalast VI, also in a safe spot.

Deep inside my ship, entombed in my pod, I sift through the telemetry from the multiple scouts we have, all feeding data to the fleet. I am hooked up intravenously to my ship, drinking in the information flowing through sub-space radio frequencies. I know that deep inside each of their own ships, the capsuleer Captains of The Bastards are now communicating with their own ships, their own crew and the other Captains - simultaneously and at the speed of light. After all this time, I still cannot describe to a non-capsuleer how the the command and control of a ship is accessed. Around me, the pod gives me the illusion that I can see multiple maps and displays hanging in the space in front of me. It is an illusion as this information is piped directly into my cranial cortex. It is just the only way my mind can convey the information to me without driving me insane. Each ship flashes their readiness to the me and on the tactical map, the ships blinks green once.

It was time to 'speak' to the fleet.

"Attention Fleet. This is FC - destination has been broadcast. Scouts indicate a large fleet of comparable vessels around the Ofrold / Klogori system. They're camping the outbound gate in Klogori. We're going to go and say hello to them. Enemy fleet at the gate has been designated as Alpha-one."

A lusty cheer both from the crew and the Captains rises up. I hear them clearly as my own hearing is now augmented ship- and fleet-wide.

"All ships. Roll towards destination minus one. Engage."

With that, all the vessels smoothly align and fire up their engines. The order means that each ship is to 'roll' forward with minimal communications and hold one jump away from the destination. As the fleet moves towards the waiting camp, one of our scouts, who has the task of keeping an eye on the camp, establishes an encrypted channel with me.

"Scout-two to FC. Alpha-one is moving towards the Hado gate in Klogori and jumping through. Scout-two is following."

Is the camp moving away? I wonder.


"FC to Scout-two. Attempt to re-establish contact." I wait as I know that the scout, inside his tiny craft, is shadowing the enemy ships and hope that he doesn't lose his cloak and blow his cover.

"Scout-two to FC. Contact re-established. They are now in Hadozeko and re-approaching the Klogori gate."

Wonder what is going on? Not too odd, though I have to be careful. 

"FC to scout-two. Maintain watch. Fleet is three jumps away from destination minus one."

The fleet jump in unison and arrive at the destination on the Klogori gate in Orfrold. No mishaps. I order a hold position. We look poised like bullets in a gun barrel, ready to fire and our ships wait for the enemy fleet to return.

"FC to scout-two. Fleet now in position. Re-confirm composition of alpha-one."

There is a pause and then the voice of the scout comes crackling through.

"FC, I have the following ship classes:Typhoon, Armageddon, Scorpion,Tempest, Drake, Hurricane, Vexor, Rook, Drake, Stabber, Ferox, Tempest and Blackbird. They are all none-flashy and appear to be camping for flagged criminal ships only. I just saw them ignore a number of worthwhile targets who were all non-criminals, including a strategic cruiser. The scorpion and rook are about 50KM from the gate."

OK, time to rock and roll. I think to myself. The enemy fleet is one less than us in number but is heavier in tonnage and fire power than our fleet. They have four battle ship class ships, one of which is the dreaded Scorpion. They also have an additional two ECM boats too. We have no battle ships, only battle cruisers and one ECM. We have the advantage in speed and manoeuvrability.


"FC, looks like they like to have sentry guns on their side. Not much of a camp but could cause us problems, if we go into them." Say one of my Captains. It sounds like JManZA and he appears very eager to jump in nonetheless.

"We will be sharing sentry guns so we are fine." Replies another, eager to jump in as well. One thing about pirates: once they smell potential loot and money, it is almost impossible to stop them.

I don't want to have sentry guns on this fleet as well as a scorpion, rook and blackbird ECM boat on our collective asses.

As I ponder, there is a blare of proximity alarms as two frigate sized ships appear alongside us. I am unsure if they were cloaked along side us or had just come through the star gate. I quickly get a scan on them. The results come flashing back revealing them to be the same corporation as the alpha-one  targets.

In a flash, they jump through into Klogori.

"Crap." I am not pleased about this. "All ships, we have just been rumbled - they now know who we are and our ships types. We need to move now. All ships align to planet four."

My battle cruiser start to shift around.

"FC, let's just bait them with our drakes around planet one. I am sure they have a scout close by this gate, all cloaked up and dropping probes. I can see at least five of the little buggers." Suggests Silvetrys. Have to admit, it is a sound idea by my able secondary fleet commander. I like it.

I quickly pick an icon from one of the maps and drag the tactical map and in a sweep, grab the three icons representing the drakes and give all three new orders. God I love my tactical battle viewer! The three drakes acknowledge the change in their orders and flash their acknowledgement back. They then disappear from view as they warp off to orbit planet one.  I am confident that anyone scanning for ships around the gate will see the drakes only.

"FC to fleet - warp to planet four then align to planet one on arrival."

Setting a trap like this was fraught with difficulty as the two enemy scouts surely had gotten a right eyeful of this fleet. However, Silvetrys idea is a good one and I am confident that it will work.

"FC, this is scout-two. Plus one scimitar to alpha-one. I have also spotted a secondary fleet of three ships around planet three in Klogori. Designating second fleet as beta-one. Unknown if beta-one and alpha-one are working together."

So a logistical ship had joined the main enemy fleet with a potential backup of another three ships! The odds are against my fleet and now stack up even more.

The drakes signal back that they are in position. The main fleet is now in a safe spot and aligning to planet one. My directional scanner reveal scan probes are everywhere. So someone is actively scanning for us. Hope they find the drakes first.

"FC, this is scout-two. The scorpion and rook both warped away and then came back to the gate. I think they're about to move." There was a pause. "They're jumping to you. They're jumping."

Show time.

"Scout-three to fleet. Incoming gate fire. Incoming gate fire."

Sure enough, another one of our scouts, positioned on our side after we had vacated the gate confirmed the presence of the enemy fleet as they slowly de-cloaked.

My heart was hammering away as I wait so see whether alpha-one would be warping to the drakes or elsewhere.

"The enemy fleet are aligning to planet one!"

"Silv you beauty, your plan appears to be working." I said. "Persephone, keep your eyes peeled -  you have hostile ships inbound."

"Roger that FC. Bring them on."

I hated this bit: the waiting. In my mind's eye, I can see the ships all in warp, the plasma playing over their hulls. I can imagine the excitement in the crews as they approach our drakes. Their weapons ready.

"Contact! Contact! Contact!" Yelled Persephone and a clear signal for us to go.

"FC to fleet, warp to planet one. Red alert, battle stations and all that jazz."

My ship leap into the warp alongside the fleet, a deadly synchronised move. From the camera drones and external cameras dotted alongside the hull of my ship, I can see the awesome beauty of warp space. Purple gossamer threads fold around our ships as we plough through towards planet one. In the corner of my eye, the countdown ticks down until the warp tunnel collapse at our destination. Persephone had started calling out targets so that the three drakes could kick off the party with gusto.

In a flash, I am back into normal space. My telemetry starts to update. The space in front of me fills up with the bulk of enemy ships. Laser beams lance out, drones scream and missiles lurch drunkenly in all directions. I check my tactical overview as quickly as I can and see the scorpion-class battle ship. It is forty kilometres way. I want it. I fire up the micro warp drive and start to close the distance. I scan the other ships to see that we are all here.

"FC to fleet. Primary is Minorchik, in the scorpion. Primary is Minorchik, in the scorpion. Primary is Minorchik, in the scorpion." I like to repeat (three-peat?) a command, especially when the things hit the fan.  "Secondary is Shkip Matroskin in the rook. Secondary is Shkip Matroskin in the rook. Secondary is Shkip Matroskin in the rook."

"I am jammed! Going to ramming speed." Wasn't too sure who's voice it was, sounded like Silvetrys. Probably was Silvetrys as he would be crazy enough in using his entire ship as a ramming weapon.

"Vig is jammed and neuted."

A hail of shells hammer into my shields. My shields hold. Keep calling targets, Flash ol' buddy!

"Tiertiary is Shi Kara in the 'geddon. Tiertiary is Shi Kara in the 'geddon. Tiertiary is Shi Kara in the 'geddon."

"Jmarr is jammed. Moving away."

Crap have to knock out the ECM. 

To my right and slightly below, one of our drakes is on fire and spinning away. It's guidance systems most likely smashed. It still fire out missiles salvoes in defiance. It has to be Persephone's boat. Close by and lower still, a second drake, already dark, badly holed with the occasional bloom of escaping flame. Not good.

0-2 to the campers.

"Lord B going down." Crap, I forget we have a lachesis and I need his points.

0-3 to the campers.

No matter. I finally close the distance to the scorpion and now was the time to show my displeasure.

"Gun crew - red line the guns, take the safeties off. Primary is scorpion. Free fire! Free fire!" Am sure it is my imagination but I swear, I can feel the battle cruiser lurch as the bank of mighty 425mm auto canons spin up and thump out projectiles. With satisfying splashes, the scorpions shields disappear quickly. Another few seconds and the shells are smashing into the armour, gouging out huge terrible wounds in the Caldari battle ship. Some of our ships had gotten close too and they too open up. The scorpion, armour plated, blew up into a nice ball of scrap.

1-3, we get one back!

"Primary is the rook. Primary is the rook. Primar -"

"Enemy rook is down."

That was quick.

2-3, come on Bastards!

"New primary is the geddon, primary is Shi Kara in the 'geddon. Primary is Shi Kara. Secondary is Gadsky II in hurricane, secondary is Gadsky II in hurricane, tiertiary is Klutch Johnson in the ferox, Klutch Johnson in the ferox."

My ship continues to shake as the 425mm auto canons threaten to rip itself off it's housing as I continue to pour fire on the gleaming golden hull of the Armageddon. A flash and the Armageddon detonates in a most spectacular fashion.

3-3, a draw so far!

"Primary is down. Secondary is gone. Moving to tertiary." The ferox takes a bit too long and I switch targets.

"New primary is Fyr in the phoon, primary is fyr in the phoon, primary is fyr in the phoon. Secondary is Threeofseven in tempest, tertiary is Wollk in drake."

The distinctive shape of a typhoon class battle ship squats in space, surrounded by drones. I lock it up and fire a nice salvo of barrage ammunition. I grin as a stream of hyper-velocity rounds race towards the Typhoon. My other surviving ships follow suit. Missiles, lasers and shells shower past me.

"Vig is down."

3-4, the enemy take the lead.

"Silv is down."

3-5, they're stretching ahead.

The enemy Typhoon explodes, debris shower the adjacent ships with scrap, shrapnel and bits of Minmatar starship engineering.

4-5 but The Bastards could draw level!

"Hermit down." Shit, there goes our own ECM.

4-6, the enemy maintain their two ship lead! 

"Primary is ThreeofSeven in the tempest, primary is threeofseven, primary is threeofseven. Secondary is Wollk in the drake, secondary is Wollk in the drake, tiertary is Klutch in the ferox."

I spot a massive salvo of missiles spewing from the drake. I hit the micro warp drive and dive down and away. I am too slow and a good fifty per cent of the missiles slam into my ship. Ouch. 

"Tempest is down! Tempest is down!" I can't tell who said that due to the sub-space distortion from the weapon discharges. At least I had one more compatriot!

5-6, that's more like it.

"Jmarr is down." Not good, we are running out of fire power.

5-7 to the campers! Come on Bastards!

Wollk in the drake, his after burners glows brightly as he tries to get some range but my stasis webifier reaches out and slow him right down. He isn't going to get anywhere and has my full attention.

"Primary is Wollk in the drake. Wollk in the drake is primary. Secondary is Klutch. Tiertiary is the scimitar." I push my hurricane closer to give my 425mm the best chance of hitting the drake at close range.

Wollk's Drake, as mighty as it is, explodes under the onslaught. I see the ferox, scimitar, vexor and a stabber remaining. They look like they're ready to bug out.

6-7, but can we get a numerical draw?

What ships do I have right now? A quick scan on my watch  list and I see that I still have a hurricane, two myrmidons, a drake and cyclone. More than enough.

"Primary is Klutch in the ferox. Klutch in the ferox."  What is left of the fleet smoothly switch across to the new target. There's a boom as the caldari battle cruiser blossoms out in a gorgeous flower of flame and light several seconds later. God I love those explosions!

7-7 a draw!

The remaining ships, decide that a heroic death isn't a sensible option and start to withdraw quickly.

We had held the field and can now loot the wrecks - hopefully it would yield enough to cover our ships losses.

"Great job fleet. Now loot up, pick up survivors and salvage everything. We leave nothing."

I salute the enemy crews who we leave alone - they fought well and valiantly but we hold the field and to the victors goes the spoils.

The butchers bill is high...

The Campers Lost: 
Scorpion Killed.
Rook Killed
Armageddon killed
Typhoon killed
Ferox killed
Tempest killed
Drake killed
Blackbird got away
Vexor got away
Stabber got away
Scimitar got away
Hurricane got away
Drake got away

The Bastards lost:
Drake
Drake
Lachesis
Falcon
Hurricane
Harbinger
Hurricane

Get the pilgrim!

Fun night last night; some Amarr Faction Warfare pilots came to Evati to capture some military bunkers as part of the endless chess game they were having with the Minmatar. There were three such installations, two were of the smaller type with narrower acceleration gates. The third one was unrestricted in terms of what ship types could enter. To maximise our chances, we switched down to destroyers and frigates in order to get through them all. Viginti and Zem drew the short straw and found themselves in the larger installation.

So we waited.

Piracy is like this - some people don't 'get our brand of piracy'. It isn't all bright explosions and good fights as much as I would like it to be. Many times, it is down right boring - sitting and waiting and hunting for people who simply didn't want to be found. Roaming for ages with nothing to bring down. Feast or famine and usually more of the latter. However, we were in for some fun when Zem and Vig both called out that a punisher had landed and they had pointed it. Now, there were many destroyers of various classes spotted in and around Evati. It is probably the best type of ship for the smaller bunkers and installations.

So we had the punisher but there would be more and with a yell, Viginti announced that a pilgrim class vessel had decloaked as well. It began to spit out warrior IIs. Both Vig and Zem knew that they could only hold on.

Wikkid and myself both undocked, in a drake and hurricane respectively. We also had some ECM back-up and another vessel pulled in from a secondary spot three jumps away. We were busy in multiple areas but when a target was sighted, we all vectored in.

The pilgrim destroyed Zem's coercer - his ship bursting into pieces under the fire of the deadly drones.

"Zem is down. Zem is down." Announced Zemledock as he whipped his capsule out of harm's way. Vig was next, he kept the point on the pilgrim but the punisher, now free bolted as well. Wikkid and I landed at the silent acceleration gate - we sent the correct entry codes and the gate cycled up and activated.

We jumped through into the complex and promptly pointed the pilgrim. Not panicking, the pilgrim pilot slapped his eneryg neutralisers onto Wikkid's drake and tried to burn away. However, this drake wasn't the typical shield heavy version but sported a pair of stasis webifiers, bulging from the two pods on either side of the drake's wing. It held the pilgrim fast and once my ECM drones and neutraliser was on it. The fate of the pilgrim was sealed.

I asked Viginti, who had gotten out in time, his hull on fire from the angry attention of the pilgrim's warrior drones, initiated a conversation with the brave pilgrim pilot. We asked for 120million isk for the release of his ship. We followed the conversation with interest but the pilgrim pilot decided against it and offered his ship up to our destruction.

Viginti had come back now and he had the task of trying to capture the capsule as we pummelled the pilgrim into a burning wreck. The capsule got away but it was a decent haul. Wikked had started to salvage the wreck almost immediately. We're to leave nothing behind and it is a good motto.

A while later, Jabbajools had managed to spot a thorax and this time, Viginti and Avid were thrown in to tackle - however, Avid was too eager and jumped to JJ too soon and landed too far from the thorax who fancied his chances against Avid's catalyst. Chuckling, Vig followed to assist Avid while Jabba flew in with his rook.

A rook and two destroyers versus a single thorax should have been a foregone conclusion but the thorax pilot, through skillful use of his ECM drones, broke through the trap and escaped. It was very well done and made it clear that we were impressed.

We also killed a missioning drake (yes, mission runners can still be found in low-sec) as well as a handful of other ship types. Some loot, plenty of banter and we also got to see a new recruit impress us with his skills and attitude. A good night and I didn't even plan anything.

Star Trekking, across the universe.......

Due to a real-life emergency (involving A&E 15 minutes before the kick off time) the much anticipated 'Star Trek' roam was postponed to a later date. It was to be a destroyer-based roam with each ship named after a 'famous' vessel from any of the Star Trek movies and series. To add more atmosphere; one had to try and use a signature quote from the film during an appropriate time during the roam.

Examples: 'Klingons on the starboard bow!' (enemy spotted) or 'She cannae take it Jim!' (overloading my guns is bad m'kay?).

You get the idea and I will re-organise this once I clear my time-table. I plan on FC'ing and doing roams at set times; just to give people some structure and the ability to plan. Star Trek Roam will go ahead.

Anyway, been quite focusing my efforts on recruitment; the current batch is being cleared down now and we're getting ready for the new batch, after the exhausted recruiters have had their break. Recently, there's been an update that has affected the agility of all ships. We decided to check out the rumours that frigates could now get caught quite easily without bubbles. We laughed that it wasn't possible. However, me and Snake Boy were proved to be in gross, error tonight and both were instantly caught by a camp and cut to pieces. However, every cloud has a silver lining and this means that we can now catch other ships just as easily! Bonus.

We chased a smaller fleet around around 21:00 but all who docked and logged off as soon as AntonioBanderas appeared in local! We were amazed to be honest. Earlier in the night, we were in frigates and were roaming around looking for kills and loot and I was lucky enough to have a drake land next to me at a gate and open up (illegally) at a neutral hauler. Not quite believing my luck, I pointed and webbed the drake and called in the backup. Who promptly and gleefully killed the foolish pilot.

So, a fun night - not being on for a few days; it was good to catch up with some of the pilots and find out what things are going on. The Bastards and Hellcats are a family and we care deeply for each other. Our forums are active and bursting with great content and threads. Examples include Bandies foodie thread - he can cook and very well it seems, Ronin's Music threads (this guy knows his sounds!) and the cool picture thread of us pirates in real life. Yes, some of us have decided to post our 'real' pictures up there and it is of great interest to me to see how they look in real life when compared to their vicious avatar persona.

Things are great at the moment; we as an organisation are getting stronger each day and we have ambitious but achievable goals in the near future. However, just wanted to end this post with a big thank you to all at The Bastards, The Hellcats and my readers.

So, to help with our Star Trek Destroyer roam, I would like to have a collection of ST quotes that I can either use or give to other fleet pilots to use. Pop your entries into the comments box........

.....and watch the current Star Trek movie, I loved it - like to hear your views dear reader.

Yoink....and a happy new year!

After a crushing defeat where The Bastards lost almost an entire battle ship fleet to a mix of The Final Stand and their friends, it was time to recoup our losses and lick our wounds. From what I can gather, the fight was a good ol' fashioned toe-to-toe smash mouth type of engagement with no falcons on either side. TFS gave us a good spanking, smashing apart our fleet with 11-to-1 kill to loss ratio. Of course, we could not even pick up our loot or wrecks so it was a big isk loss too. Still, congratulations need to go to TFS for showing how effective a BS fleet can be.

The New Year started off with myself, Kalazar and Maltrox jumping into Rorsins to assist another pirate in tracking down a rokh-class battle ship. The pilot in question is normally red to us but pirates tend to put aside such small matters when there is a definite prize and in this case, a battle ship pilot, ratting in the belts was worthy enough to turn a blind eye to a fellow fleet member blinking an angry red. With a complete cruiser fleet we jumped through the high-sec pocket of Anher and the rendezvous point was to be Thelan.

Unfortunately, we were too slow to move as we had to wait for a criminal countdown to expire and by the time we were ready to move, the Rokh had docked up. After wandering around, with no targets in sight we returned to Evati for a refit, reload and break. The plan was to take one of the set roaming routes we have and travel the circuit.

In one of our many semi-public channels, filled with information brokers and their ilk, someone volunteered some juicy information.

"A raven and drake in Ofstold." Said our contact. I instantly perked up.

"Confirmation please? Pilot ID and general location?"

"Er, I left system now but caught them on scan."

"This is Kalazar. Am ready to roll. Let me have a look." With that, Kalazar zipped out of our station and performed a one-jump trip into Ofstold. I waited, scanning my sell and buy orders but keeping an ear open for anything solid from my fellow corp mate.

"Confirmed: there's a raven and drake here. About seven in local. I can see some pods too."

I grabbed Robert Peston, my rupture class cruiser and arriving in Ofstold, I also had a look. There was also a few other pilots around, moving between Ofstold and Evati. The chatter trickled through the various channels and slowly the fleet of four grew as a few more pirates linked in.

"This is Flash, confirmed raven and drake. I think they're at a pos. I also see a second drake and one wolf here."

A new voice joined the chatter.

"Need a prober?" It was Havoc, another new pilot with The Bastards. Probers are always so useful and a decent pilot with experience and skills is worth his weight in gold. I replied that we indeed, need one and soon Havoc was joined by another newcomer, BravoFox who was probing for targets but in Evati instead.

"This is Kalazar." He said, loud enough to cut through the chatter. "The Raven and Drake are currently at a POS. The POS is being taken down. It will be off-lined soon am sure....."

Interesting.

"Link pilot names please, we'll check them out to see if they have paid for protection." Kalazar efficient as ever, popped the pilot names and I soon had the corporation details and the employment history of each pilot. They had no passes or any standings with us. They are fair game.

"Let's nick their POS." Interjected Jedizah, linking in to the chat.

"Jed! - where are you?" I said, glad to see one of our best pilots back online. She must have been listening in and had not said anything until now.

"Urm, am docked up and nursing a slight hangover....but you said there's a POS being unanchored? In Ofstold?"

"Affirmative. Kalazar has eyes on it."

"We're going to nick it. Let me get a cloaked ship and I can get better intel. Wait one." With that, Jedizah raced off to make the necessary arrangements.

Meanwhile, the two probers were sifting through results but were having little luck. Probing is a tricky business and success is down to luck as much as skill and experience.

Jedizah, now with the prospect of a POS steal adding a bit of fire to her day confirmed what Kalazar had initially reported back.

"We have a medium POS being offlined. Guarded by a raven and now two drakes, two more pilots are in pods hanging around." There was a laugh from both Kalazar and Jedizah. "It's being unanchored now. Right, we are definitely going to nick it; right from under their noses!"

It was at this time that I discovered that The Bastards had a history of POS stealing, so many of these towers are being thrown up by corporations and then (apparently) forgotten or poorly defended has resulted in rich pickings. It looked very likely that we would add more within the hour.

"Okay, briefing time in two minutes!"

All the pilots in the fleet, available for this operation docked up and left their pods. We all met at the back of the smokey Independence bar in Evati (yes, I still own it) and pulled up chairs in front of Jedizah. We all had drinks and snacks and amidst good natured joshing, we settled in. The fleet now included three non-corp members, but pirates nonetheless. Jedizah outlined the plan on a white board:

"Right everyone. Listen up."

The chatter stopped.

"This medium tower in Ofstold will be unanchored in 57 minutes. I am going to get a cloaked hauler to slide up alongside it, ready for the grab." A hand shot up.

"You're kidding me? You're putting your hand up?" Said Jedizah. The embarrassed pirate pulled his hand back down sheepishly.

"Won't they have a hauler ready? And won't our hauler be decloaked and shot by them?"

"They do have a hauler but with two minutes to go before the POS tower is unanchored, we rush in with combat ships and blow up their hauler and every other ship guarding it." Stated Jedizah. This was greeted with murmurs of approval. "The unanchoring of the tower will continue and once we drop the enemy ships, we take the POS."

"What ships are we likely to face?" Asked Havoc.

"I'll answer that." Kalazar stood up beside Jedizah and tapped on white board and linking into his own tactical computer. The images of two ships appeared. "From what I can see, there's a raven-class battle ship and two drake-class battle cruisers. Two other pod pilots were in the their capsules so we're hoping that they'll come back in something else when the tower goes off-line."

The pilot ID flashed across the board. "Corporation is called 'Commonwealth' and their members of Nebula Crusade Alliance."

"Who are they?" Asked someone.

Kalazar shrugged.

"Thanks Kal." Said Jedizah as Kalazar sat back down. The images of the pilots and the ships disappeared and was replaced by the constellation map of Ofstold. With a swagger stick, Jedizah pointed out the system.

"We will rendevous on the Ofstold gate in Lasleinuer. Am sure they'll be watching the Ofstold gate in Evati." The map rotated a quarter turn and zoomed in.

"I want Flash and Kalazar to bring your HICs. Point and lock down the drakes. Flash you will have 'Kab Ikarus'. Kal, you get 'Infamewolf'." Both Kal and I exchanged looks and nodded. Nice to be bring out the HICs to this party, we both thought.

"Everyone else with a point, get the raven locked down tight and proper. Primary will be the hauler. Then the raven, then the drakes."

I nodded to myself, it was a simple smash and grab plan. Effective with not much to go wrong.

"Questions?"

There were none.

"Okay, be ready in Las on the Ofstold gate in exactly 17 minutes. Let's go!"

Amidst the sounds of screeching chair and table legs, the briefing was over and the pirates went back to their ships and crew. With three minutes to go, all the ships were in position and ready to go in. We had the cloaked hauler already in the same system and the pilot was feeding us up to date intelligence. One of the floating pod pilots had returned in a shuttle.

I glanced at my tactical watch list and scrolled through the fleet pilots:

The Bastards

• Jedziah, Apocalypse
• BravoFox, Dominix
• Randgris, Ishtar
• Kalazar, Devoter
• Flashfresh, Broadsword
• Ard UnjiiGo, Rapier
• Havok Pierce, Harbinger

Filthy Scum Associates:

• Lea Shyavase, Thorax
• Yukkiro Amumishi, Drake
• Lumari, Eagle

A total of ten ships. A bit much too be honest but one can't keep honest pirates from a score can we? I prevented more from joining up as the pay out would prove to be too low as well as being just down right silly. We're Bastards but we do like to do things in style.

"Okay, the drake targets are starting to orbit around the tower. It's going to be tricky with me cloaked up so close to them. Hope they don't decloak me! The raven is still stationary. Four minutes until POS tower is un-anchored."

"All pilots: final systems check and give me a status report." Ordered Jedizah.

"Flash here. Ready."

"Ard, Ready." So it continued with all fleet pilots reporting back their readiness. The clock read three minutes and I made ready. The timer trickled down to the two minute mark with what felt like glacial-like slowness but finally the order was given.

"Jump, jump, jump and warp to hauler at 10!" Said Jedizah. There was a single gate activation as all the ships jump simultaneously. Once we all materialised in Ofstold, I quickly re-oriented myself and warped to our cloaked hauler at the prescribed 10km range. My broadsword crew and I were eager for blood and as soon as I landed near the POS, I located and locked my designated target: Kab Ikarus in his drake-class battle cruiser. My warp disruption launcher, specially modified by some hacking scripts enabled me to push out a nigh-unstoppable disruption beam that would induce enough instability in my target's warp engines that they could not jump.

"Kab pointed." I said and I knew that the drake was doomed. There was a flash however as the raven managed to align and warp out. No one managed to get a point on it!

"Infamewolf pointed." That was Kalazar in his devoter. With us deprived of our primary target, we locked and pummelled the lumbering hauler. The pilot was no doubt expecting to scoop up the previous tower and was not expecting this. His ship was peeled back to the inner super-structure and destroyed. Our attention then switched to Infamewolf's drake; even with it's massive energy shielding, the firepower we had was overwhelming and it melted and died as did Kab's drake. We even managed to pod one of the shocked pilots.

As soon as the pretty explosion of the last destroyed ship evaporated, the POS tower unanchored. Excellent timing and on cue our industrial pilot decloaked and in one swift, well practised move - scooped the tower, burned away and cloaked. A clean get away.

We scored a tower, some okay loot from the drakes and with no risk and had a laugh doing it. A fast tackler would have been useful to get a point on the raven but meh.

Piracy. Love it.

In the words of Jedizah: "Yoink!"

Mr Vash and dangerous, solo tackles...

[18:00:45] Maximus Vash > fresh come on out

[18:01:00] Maximus Vash > big bad brave destroyer killer

Oh yes, it appeared that I had angered this pilot by killing (ok, overkilling) his destroyer in my maelstrom. I was after his typhoon but the big maelstrom arrived too late to make the tackle. So I sat there hoping that Max would come back either in his typhoon or something else.

It was something else and I popped it with the help of a friend in a taranis. I am a pirate and I collect loot and stuff and I know full well the ups and downs of New Eden to be picky over kills. Pity we didn't pod him. To his credit Max has a very good Typhoon tank.

I was out when Max came looking for me. I know where he is and will see him soon, on my terms, of course. When I came back, Max was gone and I called it a night.

A dangerous solo tackle

The next day, looking out at the vastness of space, I was excited by the plans that the main pirate corporations had for the local area. Faction warfare had arrived, the four Empires were now starting to tear into other and many pod pilots had aligned themselves with one of the four Empires. Did not matter to me one jot but it did mean more potential victims.

Tonight however, it was quiet and there was only three pirates from The Bastards out roaming. No one from Black-Flag or any other. I pinged a message to them and found out that they were out hunting. Little did I realise that within an hour of my hurricane battle cruiser undocking from Gusandall, that it would end in a fiery demise.

The internal communication between myself and The Bastards was limited: my ship was being refitted with a new communication unit and until it was fitted in, I could only listen and relied on the most simple of out-going communication system available: morse. This disability would add to my woes.

There was new intelligence that The Bastards had spotted some potential prey. I moved closer to the Ofstold gate in Todifrauan and announced to my fleet mates that I would be hiding at the gate. This brought a lot of guffaws but I was quite serious. They were hunting a helios and drake. I knew that Xray Commander was the Drake pilot.

There was a flash as the star gate activated for incoming traffic. I tapped out in morse to RoninData and his mates.

+GATE FIRE. GOING TO TACKLE WHATEVER IS COMING THROUGH+

I checked the local communication channel, all pod pilots automatically register with it when they appear in a new system. I saw it was Xray and his ship de-cloaked about 22km from me. Tackling a drake solo under gate fire isn't ideal. The hurricane is a fantastic ship, it's strength is an ability to hit hard and fast, relying on it's passive shield buffer to make it out in one piece. A drake, with one of the most fearsome shield systems of any ship in New Eden would prove to be challenge for me but it was the gate guns that would worry me more.

What the hell.

+POINTED+

I tapped out to RoninData as red klaxons sang out in warning responding to the automated gate guns now firing at me after the illegal weapons discharge on my part. Low-sec combat is always so complicated!

“SHIT! OK, everyone warp to Flash! Warp to Flash!” Yelled RoninData. There wasn't much Ronin could do as he was in a small frigate and it would be shredded by a single volley from the robotic sentry guns.

“Roger, switching ships now – be there in 35 seconds, keep him pointed buddy.” Said VB Sarge. Thirty Five seconds is a life time in New Eden combat. An absolute lifetime.

My shields started to flash down, the gate guns have been tuned to deliver explosive, kinetic, electromagnetic and thermal damage – no amount of resistance tuning could combat this. I needed an active shield system or very fast shield recharge to overcome this. I had neither and had to hold on long enough to deliver a knock out. The drakes shield started it's slow count down. I was already into armour but Caldari-built ships are well known to be tough on the outside with nothing inside. As soon as his shield systems were shut down – my guns would shred his armour. A bit like what the gate guns were doing to my armour actually.

“Captain, we're detecting system failure along the primary armour plating and small hull breaches along decks 2 to 7.” Reported back my Executive officer. I did not need him to tell me, my own nervous system was part of the ship and I knew full well the damage that the hurricane was taking. The drake was going down but the gate guns were shredding my hurricane faster than I had anticipated.

+BASTARDS. FLASHFRESH IS GOING DOWN. REPEAT: FLASHFRESH IS GOING DOWN+

“On my way. Keep the point on the drake!” Said VB Sarge, roaring his way towards my position. I maintained the point but was now shifting the hurricane towards a safe spot.

+ROGER THAT. ALIGNING TO GET OUT+

I had time. I think.

The drake was not static throughout this fight, it was moving towards the gate and then moving away, peppering me with missiles. The damage output of most missile ships is low, the drake being typical. VB Sarge was counting down to his warp exit.

“FECK! Where is he, negative on scan no drake, no hurricane, no........ Am a retard. Warped to the wrong gate!” Wailed VB Sarge.

This was not good. I could run, hit the micro warp drive and get some range then engage the warp drives or I could hold on, keep the drakes warp engines offline and wait for VB and Ronin and others to get over here. The drake was smelling blood, my blood and it was doubtful he would leave. Since he had not disengaged, he was still firing at me – thus he would be unable to jump until his weapons had 'cooled' off and bled off the excess energies that would normally disrupt the star gate drives themselves. However, he could warp out to another point within the system.

+RE-ENGAGING. MAINTAINING POINT+

My armour was flashing off into space, fiery chunks glittering away.

“All crew. Prepare to abandon ship.” I closed my eyes, an unnecessary unconscious decision for a plugged in pod pilot like myself, and bade my ship, 'FDZ' a farewell.

“We're on our way. Sorry Flash. We're almost there.”

There was a flash and a momentary dis-orientation as I was violently ejected from the hull of my ship. The rest of my crew were already in their escape launches, pre-programmed with the destination. We would be re-united in a new ship soon.

+FLASH IS DOWN. FLASH IS DOWN. GET THE DRAKE FOR ME. HIS SHIELD SYSTEMS WILL BE CLOSE TO EXHAUSTED+

The drake did not re-engage the backup and managed to escape our clutches.

What did I learn that I did not know already?

I should have released my drones – they would have given me precious seconds as the dumb gate guns, powerful as they are, would have split the fire between my hurricane and the five deployed drones. Stupid really, but backup was in-system. Still, my fault – and it's a useful lesson for me. One is only as good as your last fight.

KillBoards and Forums

Also, to all our public out there. The Black-Flag Killboard and forums are down. We're sorry for the problems this has caused (internal and external) but we're working as fast as we can to get this fixed.

Duo of Death

The Angel Legionairre exploded into a ball of light and debris as my 220mm ACs slowly spun down to idle. I approached the sputtering wreck and sent in some drones to investigate it, I managed to salvage some ship components as well as cut out two 650mm howitzers. They should sell well or failing that, I could melt them down to scrap. I decided to move on and jumped into the next system. The warp tunnel collapsed around my hurricane with a sigh and I hit the scan button. Nothing. I was on a solo roam and could not find a thing, I knew of an anti-pie crew moving up and down the Metropolis pipe but with me in my solo hurricane, it would end in a fiery death. I am aggressive, not suicidal.

After 12 jumps, I turned round and decided to head back. One of my many chat channels blinked at me, demanding attention. It was a contact that had been quiet for a while.

"Salah. Well met." I said, greeting a fellow Brutor. His avatar broke up a few times but his message was clear.
"Flash. Well met. I have possible marks in Evati for you. No idea if they're out of dock but I have checked your killboard and I have a feeling you would be interested." A second window opened up on my interface and I expanded it. I recognised the face of the pilot and oh yes, I would be interested.
"Thank Salah. Come into Independence some time, I owe you a drink."
"I will my friend. Good hunting." With that, the link was broken and I set course to Evati, some nine jumps away. The mark was Turion Leatherface and we had tangled with him before, from what I remember he was piloting a Myrmidon and it was outside Gusandall.

Approaching Evati I made sure that the ship was on red alert and that damage control teams were in place. I toggled my corporation chat and only Viper Sam, the CEO was logged in.
"Sam."
"Flash. What's up?" I quickly explained to Sam the mark and that I was now in Evati and tracking him. Turion was in a drake-class battlecruiser this time round. He was outside a station and was just sitting there. Difficult to tackle him there. Viper Sam told me that he was undocking as we speak and on his way; five jumps and he would inbound. So I waited and kept the scanner active. I could see him and no doubt, he could see me. I realised that he was not at a POS and was still at the station. I warped to a spot 300km off the station. Too far for a visual lock but close enough to confirm beyond all doubt his location. He was there but I also spotted a brutix within scan range.
"Flash. Am on the gate."
"Sam, we have a brutix here at a belt. I think. Hold on." I fiddled with the scanner to confirm. "Yeah. The brutix is in belt III-I and the drake is in a holding position at the station." I said as I started my docking cycle. I needed to change some drones. As my docking request was accepted, my scanner told me that the drake had moved and was also at Belt III-I. "Drake is there too. Belt III-I. Drake should be primary. "
"Roger."

Things then happened awfully fast.

Viper Sam shot me a fleet invite - thereby improving our co-ordination. I accepted but then realised that I could not undock immediately. My computer was still trying to finish off the handshaking with Viper Sam. Stupid of me - never accept such invites prior to undocking or jumping to another system. Never. Never.
"Am on my way in." Informed Sam calmly, quite clearly thinking that I was already in the belt and engaging or in space and aligned. In reality, I was docked and stuck temporarily.
"Engaging."

I was still docked and hammering at the undock button.

Precious seconds crawled by.

"Er, Flash?"
"On my way! On my way!" I shouted, throwing a thousand curses at everyone as my hurricane, sluggishly moved out of the station and painfully aligned to Viper Sam's position.
"Flash. Hurry."

The hurricane finally jumped into warp space. I locked into Sam's hurricane-class battlecruiser and from the remote fleet telemetry, I could see he was taking tremendous damage. His shields starting to wink off and damage biting into his armour.

"Sam. ETA ten seconds." I said as reassuringly as possible.
"Brutix has engaged. Drake has engaged. Need to get some distance." Sam was an experienced hurricane pilot, able to utilise the characteristics of this minmater ship to maximum effect.
"ETA five seconds." My computer was already picking up the EMP flashes from Sam's guns.
"Shit. They've got ECM! Flash, where the hell are you?" By reply, my hurricane burst out 1 km from Sam's hurricane. I locked the Drake and Brutix. My webber snapped onto the Drake and my 220mm ACs spun up and threw EMP shells over the 1000 meters at the drake. The Drake had disappointingly high shields left. Damn those passive tanks!
My ECM drones slid out and went after the enemy brutix who was 15km and closing, afterburner flaring brightly. It had it's own drones all over Sam's hurricane. Sam's hurricane ('La Cruces') gained some distance and nimbly moved behind the Drake, however the drake's missiles were still peppering the 'cane. The brutix was close. I suddenly lost all locks.

"Jammed!"

The drake's own ecm drones had a cycle on me and my tactical computer went into a frenzy as it got itself confused over the multiple targets. The brutix was now starting to tear chunks at Las Cruces. We had to change tactics.

"Sam. Brutix is now primary." I said, just as Sam said the same thing to me. We both could see the danger. Leave the drake, it's tank was too tough and it would take too long. I managed to relock both targets and swivelled my guns over towards the brutix; what was left of my ECM drones were on the drake now. At this close range, it would be a down to who had the faster DPS and / or better tank. I was confident that I had both.
"Engaging Brutix." It's shields flared as they were stripped off. It was into armour very quickly. "Part switch to anti-armour ammo." Half my guns went silent as my ammo loaders changed from the EMP rounds to the hail and phased plasma rounds. They've always proved devastating against armour tankers. La Cruces danced closer to me and got some distance off the drake, now silent as our ECM drones were doing there work.
"Flash, point the drake!"
"Roger that." I replied, switching the warp disruptor over towards the drake. Silent and brooding, the pilot no doubt seething at his temporary blindness. As soon as my disruptor came online - the drake re-acquired me and sent a salvo of missiles towards me. My armour repairers came to life as I fed it capacitor to patch the holes now rapidly appearing on my hull.

La Cruces was into armour and she had no shields. She also had no armour repairer either and was surviving through Sam's good piloting and good damage control. The brutix was down to 10% armour and this was soon gone, the hull flaring out with flames. I could only imagine what was happening on board the ship. It must be like an inferno. The drake was still at 85% shield and well up for the fight.
"Brutix is going down. Brutix is going down." There was a sudden stream of crew escape launches than the brutix burst apart. Rounds from my ship and La Cruces scissoring the ship into two pieces. We left the captain to escape. He fought well.

The drake was throwing out fearsome ordnance but his tank was the big problem, if it was configured properly, it would be very difficult to break.

"Switching back to anti-shield ammunition!"
"Roger that. Keep at it. We can break it."

The drake twisted around as it tired to move itself away from my webber. I noticed that it had webbed (double-webbed?) La Cruces now. I switched on my neutralisers once I was close enough. I had to try and shut down his capacitor. The Drake's shields started to drop as both hurricanes continued the bombardment. It was webbed, scrambled and trapped. It was dying. A minute of solid EMP based bombardment later, the shields finally broke and the thin armour was pummelled to pieces. There were cheers on my ship and on La Cruces when the final blow was delivered and the drake was destroyed.

http://www.black-flag.org/kills/?a=kill_related&kll_id=1544

The drake appeared to have some very nice loot in his hold.

Well done to Captains Delta Arcani and Turion Leatherface for fighting back hard.

Ambushing that Drake and why one must always check wrecks of nub ships....

Lootz

I was in Ingunn popping haulers with Jubes and Grunanca, the number having dropped down from the 100 odd pilots to a more manageable 20.

http://www.black-flag.org/kills/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=1518

Like I posted before, Ohnoes. We should have checked the lootz!!!

bah.

Mission Ambush

Later on in the day, I was taken out of my day dreaming by a squark on my MSN.

"Flash? You online?" Said a contact I occasionally used. I knew him to be a decent scan prober and he would not be calling me unless he had something juicy.
"Yo V. How's things?" I muttered, my mouth full of noodles. Sweeping my desk clear of detritus, I concentrated on the console.
"I have a hurricane and drake on a mission here. I see you're in the next system and wondered if you wanted to pop them?"
"Yes indeed. You scanned them out?"
"Not yet. I can do it - just need to know you can ambush them. Anyone else around?" I glanced over at the various communication channels I had open, some flashing away demanding my attention.
"Hmmm, Kane I think and that's it at the moment. You know him?"
"By reputation only. OK, ready to drop a probe. Let me gang you and Kane okay?"
"Roger that." I then raced over to my hurricane, undocking it and positioning myself at the gate to the system. Kane was also ready but in another system. Pirates can move fast when there's a kill available.
"Okay, dropping a probe. " I waited anxiously and chatted to Kane, my excitement building. "I have a hit. Moving in." That was quick, I thought; my friend has certainly improved his probing skills.

"Right - the drake is primary and I am above him cloaked. The hurricane is moving off - it's about 20km away. Warp to me now." I reloaded to EMP shells as I activated the gate and warped to our contact point. Kane arrived first and I arrived a few seconds later. The drake was 3km away from me, the enemy hurricane was 31km close to a cluster of rats. Kane's and my tackling rigs snapped on.
"Drake pointed." Said Kane.
"Drake pointed and webbed." I replied and we hurled EMP shells at the drake. Most mission drakes have huge shield systems and resistances tweaked according to the enemy pirates they would be fighting against. The wrecks appeared to be Minmater republic fleet.

So the ships were:

Pirates

Hurricane (Kane)
Hurricane (Flash)


Mission Runners

Drake
Hurricane

Quite evenly matched though we did get the jump on them. Our 425mm auto cannons proved devastating at close range and the drake shuddered and it's shield systems flared out. His gang mate in the hurricane did not race to his rescue - rather, he took our appearance as the cue for him to warp out. Some gang mate, leaving his drake piloting friend to face our combined firepower.

We dispatched the drake with ease but missed the pod. We would have ransome him too but oh well.

2008.02.19 20:33

Victim: Anhid Olow
Alliance: Evolution Alliance
Corp: SpinTronic Group
Destroyed: Drake
System: Sotrenzur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 74936

Involved parties:

Name: Mjolnir Torpedo / Minmatar Republic
Damage Done: 54933

Name: Kane Rizzel (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: Derek Knows Us
Corp: NovaKane Incorporated
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 14455

Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: None
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 5548


Destroyed items:

Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 86
Small Tractor Beam I
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Shield Power Relay II
Havoc Heavy Missile, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Private Insignia V (Cargo)
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 791 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Advanced 'Limos' Heavy Missile Bay I
Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 63
Non-Inertial Ballistic Screen Augmentation I
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Photon Scattering Field II
Invulnerability Field II
Ballistic Control System II
Shield Flux Coil II
Shield Power Relay II
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 1986 (Cargo)
Devastator Cruise Missile, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

Nice T2 goodies and the loot from the mission wrecks were great too. Love piracy. Yarr.


Something to amuse you all.

Before the relationship between Black Flag and M34N and her friends turned sour, we had many a joint operations and here is one that I missed but expertly retold by Tenchuu Khan...

http://www.tenchuu.com/index.php?view=article&catid=38%3Adaily&id=56%3Aeve01&option=com_content&Itemid=60

Enjoy.