Eek another patch

Another patch - downloading it. Hope it doesn't break my copy of Eve-Online.

Frigate roam with big trouble in little Oto.

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

Speed, Speed, Speed and then it will be gone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Point!" Yelled someone.

"Point!" Said another.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"He's cloaking!" Said someone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Do we go in Flash?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Proph: get into Amamake and assist Jorge."

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

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

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

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

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

"Jorge: grab the pod."

"Do we ransom?"

"Yes."

"Pointed."

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

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

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

"Grab the pod of the stabber."

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

"Ransom him for -"

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

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

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

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

Yet another roam and the death of a mega navy issue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Agreed."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sarge is jumping."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Raaarrr!" Someone else said.

"BRING THEM ON!"

"Kill them and let the blood flow."

"We're in Belt V-!"

"What are you waiting for?"

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

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

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

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

"Come on. Where are they?"

"Probably bringing in reinforcements?"

One of the hostile pilots responded to our challenges.

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

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

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

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

We laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"INCOMING!"

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

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

"Yessir!" replied my tactical officer.

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

"Scrambling sir!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Tactical! Report"

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

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

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

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

"A tree sir! A fucking tree!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

New recruits and Jubes er, appendage.

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

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

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

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

Something funny from own forums

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

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

Back with a bang. Literally.

Let's start with the loss mail first:

2008.11.03 00:00

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

Involved parties:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More news:

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

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

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

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

[OOC] - At Conference.

Hi all

Am at a conference ATM in RL hence no activity on the kB or Forum or blog for me. Hotel is charging an extortionate rate for poor LAN access.

Sorry, not much access here but will be back to some more yarring in a week!

F

Singing Ransoms

Ransoming in New Eden isn't just about taking someone's money though we do love isk. Rather, it is the payment of a victim (er customer) for safe passage through space or for us to let you go. A bit like wheel clamping I suppose.

Now, we normally take isk as payment but occasionally, we took other forms of payment. Yes, we all have heard about the infamous ransom payment to a pirate corp (BYDI?) of REAL PIZZA delivered to someone via Dominoes. My story is third hand so if someone can pass on some information; that would be great.

However, not to be outdone - we've done our own and yessir, we're Bastards and as part of our ransoms we have decided that a jolly song would be enough to satisfy our urges. No isk, just a song. A good song mind and one of our chosen but if we think it's good - you can leave; scott free. Scouts honour.

So if you happen to be passing through low-sec space, you see a Bastard on scan and have no isk and then you get scrambled...

Then it might be time to warm up those vocal cords........

http://www.the-bastards.com/mp3s.html

WTF? A full freighter,afk'ing?

Luck sometimes does shine on you and last night; it's searing light was illuminated on us. I was in my rupture and was out scouting around our patch along with Z0de when I arrived in Gultratren. I sat there, the rupture still under the gate induced cloak hiding me. The scanner was flipped open and I ordered my survey crew to perform a 360 degree sweep; to the maximum range of the scanner.


"Nothing to report Captain." Replied my surveyor master.
"Scan once every five seconds for another 30 seconds then we leave."
"Yes sir." I settled in and cycled through the seven or so other pod pilots in local. Checking the new, unfamiliar pilots for their corporation affiliations and security status. There were some reds in local. The scanner piped up. I glanced over.
"Surveyor. Report."
"Sir, a fenrir-class freighter. Based on the vector. It's on approach towards this gate."

My heart skipped a beat.

"Surveyor. Confirm!" I nudged the rupture towards the gate and hit the micro warp drive.

"Sir, freighter, fenrir-class confirmed as being inbound." I toggled the communications array and flipped into fleet chat. Just as the other fleet captains appeared on the chat window, my rupture was buffetted by the sudden appearance of a massive, block-like shape of the minmater republic's own fenrir-class freighter. It landed about 14-15km from the gate. A quick glance and I had the pilot's name: 'Mustaffa Goodtime' from the M4G corporation. Oh, we were going to have a good time on his behalf. From the angle of entry; it looked like the freighter was also on autopilot.

"Check. Check. Check. This is Flashfresh. Fenrir freighter at the Arnstur gate in Gultratren gate! It is approaching the gate and will be in Arnstur in approximately two minutes. The replies from the pirates was swift; a quick response is expected when freighters are in the equation!

"Am burning around." Said RnProphet.

"Coming in 'phoon." Replied RoninData.

"Point it!" said someone else.

"This is Z0de. Am in Arnstur, will get to the gate and hold."

I did not lock the freighter as the gate guns would shred me before I could kill it; it was best to catch such ships on the exit side with help. The trick was to spread yourselves out around the exit gate with warp disruptors and scramblers primed and over-heated. As soon as the gate cloak is dropped; everyone should see the target and with luck, someone would in range to point and tackle.

I jumped into Gultratren and waited; praying that the freighter Captain would follow through and not get spooked by the fact that I jumped ahead. Surely he saw me? Z0de in his taranis zipped around the gate, poised and ready. I decloaked and got into position. We waited as, in my mind's eye, I could imagine the slow crawling progress of the massive ship, inching it's way towards the gate. Four Angel cruisers had appeared, as if they too, knew that there would be blood. They locked me and started firing at my rupture, much to my displeasure. I held off on firing back for now. My impatience was building and what if the freighter Captain performed an emergency stop and docked up? I should have stayed at the entry point and risked a tackle. Just as I was about to order the ship back through when there was a flash of gate activation and the local communications net updated itself with the name of the frieghter pilot. RoninData, having come into the same system also spotted the name.
"Freighter pilot in local. Go! Go! Go!" We both announced.

"For feck's sake; point it before any one webs it!" Ordered Ronin.

The frieghter held cloak for a few seconds and decloaked 7 kilometers from my position. My warp disruptor, already over-heated, snaked out and punched through the freighter's plasma containment fields - preventing the ship from warping.

"Point!" I said. The sentry guns, detecting my illegal act, spun around and smothered my ship in ordnance; combined with the four Angel cruisers (I should have fired on them) - I was in danger of going down as my shields started to shrink awfully fast.

"This is Flash. Am taking too much damage. Need to bug out soon."

"Point!" Shouted someone, I think it was Prophet.

"Point! Go Flash, we have it covered. Go." Said Z0de.

I didn't need telling twice as I whipped out from under the sentry gun's range, my ship well and truly on fire. The small armour repairer was in danger of burning itself out as I had it patch the numerous holes dotted all over the super structure of the ship.

Meanwhile, the firepower was poured on as we had a typhoon, an armageddon class battleships, a myrmidon and Z0de's interceptor attacking the freighter. I could hear the conversation over the communication net with Ronin demanding a cool 1billion isk ransom. There was a muffled laugh from someone as the reply was something similiar to: 'Damn, I was on auto-pilot and I only have 400 million isk....'

I had to see this and warped back; my global criminal flag still very much active.

As I arrived back, the sentry guns were busy cycling through the fleet; I had a minute or so before it was my turn. The freighter pilot was too slow in responding and Ronin, fearing that he was calling for help gave the order to pop it. So we did.

The freighter burst apart as our weapons tore it to pieces. The pilot, traumatised from his loss was too slow in getting the Captain's pod out and he was snagged and then ransomed once more.

He refused to pay and we dispatched his capsule with glee, the sound of organic matter flash freshing in the cold vacuum of space heard clearly by all the pilots.

"Let's check the wreck!" Said Prophet, exciting clear. The golden hued 'geddon approached the wreck and salvage crews dispatched.

"Oh my Gods! Blueprints! Blueprints and shit. The freighter was almost full! Oh my God!" I got close and glanced at the wreck with my own crew examining it and the inventory list was massive. It included ships, all packaged up neatly for transportation as well as tech 2 equipment and ammunition and ores and minerals and compounds. We had, indeed, hit the jackpot.

The kill mail is too long to post here but the link is here.

Highlights include:

• Minmatar encryption methods skill book
• A Jaguar-class assault frigate
• A Hulk-class exhumer
• A Hyena
• A Wolf-class assault frigate
• Tech 2 mining crystals of most types
• Cloakings (improved, covert-ops and prototype)
• Electron bomb blueprint
• Jump drive calibration and operation skill books
• Some Cosmos storyline blueprint for a very nice 200million isk afterburner. The BP could make a 1000 of them? (Need to confirm this one, Flash.)
  

and much, much more.

We did lose the packaged maelstrom and huginn however. There was an intact interon type-V in the freighter's hold as well; too big for us to liberate. So we left it and another two hoarder-class industrials along the wreck, a gift to anyone who had the space to carry them.

It looked like the contents of someone who was moving their personal contents due to the range in goods being transported. Oh well. It was a nice haul for us; the kill board has a 5.6billion isk value but while the exact figure is in dispute; what isn't in dispute is that this was a massive haul for us. Some laughed, some cried and we did the ewok dance.

It's great being a Bastard.


Oh, if one wants to see some cool merchandise, click here for some Bastard merchandise and for cool, kick-ass shirts and stuff. We'll try and wear these for Fanfest 2009!

Lovely weekend - with loot, kills and a taste-less POS

Mach and Scorpion......massive pay-out and sex-wee

(Quite a long post..)

A pay-out for most pirates is an important part of being. While other professions have isk generating schemes; a low-sec pirate's income can be very precarious. More so if you're solo, which I was for a long time. It was hard but it was good too. Recently, been scanning the pod pilot forums and I just wanted to link to one of Le Skunk's post about piracy in New Eden after a new pod pilot was asking if piracy could, indeed pay. Here was Le Skunk's elegant answer. I have only linked the final paragraphy. The full thread can be read here:

In return, you're the only profession in the game who makes a living blowing people up. You call no man mister. You're not skulking around in high security space with concord at your back. You don't have to bow down and ass kiss alliance leadership. No pos bashes. No ratting. No mission grind. No fiddling with 0.01 isk buy orders. Just warp and pop.

You are fighting with the biggest handicaps CCP [Sic Da Man] impose on any pvper in the game. And you are still pwning their asses.

Plus you get your own song

Le SKUNK

Amen.

The Bastards were roaming around on the Friday night, adding minor kills here and there. Business as usual really. I logged into the corporation communication net and caught up with the latest news. There was already a fleet of about nine to ten, all eager to tear into some poor pilot's ship. Over time, the fleet pilots were split over three, nearby areas. Roaming, scanning and ransoming.

I was idling in my hurricane class battlecruiser, 'Arbalast' and keeping the intelligence channels flowing. It was San Rintuu who sent a terse message to the rest of the corp, it's content bursting upon us.

"Mach and Scorp inbound to Todi." She croaked.

The pirates all poured out from the two stations and safe spots from the three neighbouring systems. There was a lot of chatter but the FC put a kosh on it immediately. The machariel is a fast battleship having been created and extensively fitted by engineers from The Angel Cartel. It is a worthy prize for any pirate to grab. This would be my third such catch. Never been involved in a ransom of a faction battleship before.

It was Proph and then Sarge who braved the gate guns and decloaked first, poised to drop down on the victims. The primary was the macherial and all points were to be allocated to it. We were not leaving anything to chance. The scorpion could run.

"Mach pointed." Said Proph.

"Mach pointed. Mach webbed. Shit, he's fast - more webs" Commented Sarge. With these two committed to the action, I urged my ship towards the gate. The gate control crews here knew us well and didn't even wait for a request, I approached the gate, there was flash and I materialised in a different system. There was the macherial, Proph and Sarge orbitting around it like vultures.

"Ronin inbound."

"Flash here. Mach Pointed."

More gate fire. More ships.

"Sellina here. Pointing. Dropping sentry drones." My overview filled up with small crosses. "Go my lovelies!" Whispered Sellinato her now deployed sentry drones.

"Ard now applying webbers. It isn't going anywhere."

"Jorge here. I can't jump yet through. Two jumps. "

"Jed arriving. Give me a target?"

"The big fecking Mach!" Guffawed Loth, flitting around in his stabber, his weapons spitting out EMP rounds.

There was a chuckle as Jedizah's Abaddon class battleship slowly turned and levelled her gun turrets at the faction battleship, a retina searing flash and the lasers joined the game.

Voice comms were crackling up as the combined firepower from the gate guns, our own guns and the Machariel's own weapons created enough localised disturbance that the static cut through most of the conversations. Ronin and I had both our 425 mm auto canons furiously cycling through our ammunition hoppers as we slammed 100s of shells into the target. The damage per second of a hurricane is fearsome. Two of them is can melt through most battleships. The Machariel was very quickly shredded. A bit too quick as we were getting ready to ransom the poor pilot. A kill is a kill but there were some grumbles that we could have gotten a nice ransom.

His companion in the scorpion inexplicably warped in, too late to assist the Machariel pilot. Jorge had arrived as well, just in time to see the dwindling explosion of the battleship dying off. All that happened was that our guns, still hot and glowing from the Machariel kill turned on the recently arrived scorpion and pummelled that ship into sputtering scrap.

What followed next had us all dumbfounded.

I approached the machariel wreck and quickly scooped the loot, my crew well used to grabbing loot and salvaging wrecks quickly and efficiently. There are loot thieves about after all.

"This is Flash. I have the loot."

"What dropped?" Asked Proph eager to know what we had managed to grab.

"All ships get off the gate and start to re-align." Ordered Ronin, efficient as usual.

I glanced through the cargo manifest; there were a number of blinking message notifications from my own crew. All asking for my attention.

"Er, some tech two goodies. Rest are all tech one and some named...." I froze. I looked closely, at the inventory. I wasn't too familiar with some of these modules.

Inventory #3554. Items recovered:

Gist X-Type 100MN Afterburner
Mizuro's Modified Stasis Webifier
Gist B-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Dread Guristas Invulnerability Field
Dread Guristas Invulnerability Field
Domination Gyrostabilizer
Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer
800mm Repeating Artillery II
800mm Repeating Artillery II
800mm Repeating Artillery II
Caldari Navy Cataclysm Cruise Missile, Qty: 26
Republic Fleet Cruise Missile Launcher
Barrage L, Qty: 114 Capacitor Flux Coil II
Synth Frentix Booster, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Dragon F.O.F. Cruise Missile I, Qty: 200 (Cargo)
Republic Fleet Depleted Uranium L, Qty: 1103 (Cargo)
Vespa II (Drone Bay)
Valkyrie II (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead II, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)

Slowly, I realised what was now laying in my cargo hold.

"Flash. Report." Demanded someone, the eagerness clear.

"Er, guys. I, er. " I had trouble talking so I then linked the item descriptions to the fleet chat menu with their estimated market values. One by one.

"Holy shi..." Muttered Sarge.

"OhmyGodWeWonNewEden." Exclaimed Jed.

"Just did a sex-wee." I think that was RoninData. The communications channel was full of hoots and yells and yarrs and it was deafening. Nice to hear happy pirates. Someone was shouting.

"FLASH. DOCK UP NOW." Ordered RoninData. "NOW. DO NOT PASS GO." Raising his voice in order to get himself heard. He realised how a stray group or an act of stupidity could result in a potentially heart breaking loss.

I quickly checked the stations, a part of my brain was shouting at me not to warp to a high security empire gate. Being concorded with this loot in my ship would entail an instant corp dismissal. Never had a short hop to a station been fraught with so much tension. As soon as a docked up, I quickly signed over the lot to the safe keeping of RoninData, who also added the very nice loot from the scorpion kill. The scorpion loot also contained faction loot, though not in the same quality and quantity.

We calculated the value of the loot from the two kills would come to about 4 billion isk.

Not bad. We laughed hard and all did the ewok-dance. It was clear that the pilots of both ships had not planned ahead or expected resistance. Certainly, the scorpion pilot was quite young to be flying such a powerful ship. The fittings were lavish and the mind boggles at the monetary outlay but one suspected that either outside financial help [sic:GTCs] or even the nefarious EBAY was part of the answer.

For your delight: Macharial kill and Scorpion Kill

A cheeky pilot in a thrasher came in and tried to salvage the two wrecks, right under our noses. He was quickly killed. Naughty thrasher.

Sternhagel can bring it.
AntonioBanderas is one of the corp's best pilots but he missed the lucrative mach and scorpion kill, linking in just as I had passed the loot over to RoninData. I can not repeat what he said but the profanity filter on this blog would break under the strain.

Needless to say, 'Bandy' vowed that he was going to kill something and we can all jump off a building for all he cared.

Several minutes later, Bandy's voice came in. A bit too quiet as there was still a lot of joyous celebration on the communication server, so no-one caught his initial announcement.

"Vagabond pointed." Said Bandy, a little bit louder this time. Still there was no reply.

"VAGABOND POINTED!" Yelled Bandy.

"Check. Check. Check. Clear the channels. It's Bandy." The noise in the communication channel dropped down to a manageable level.

"Bandy. Go ahead."

Some static cut through but then Bandy came through, loud, clear and calm.

"I have a vagabond here at the Egmar gate in Arnher." There was a pause. "Am okay though, have it webbed and my drone will tear it to pieces. Am just a bit worried about his friends. The vagabond pilot is Steinkalt."

Steinkalt flies with N0Fear corporation and Bandy was close to one of the N0Fear's area of operation. He was clearly expecting company.

"We're on our way Bandy. Hold on." The fleet began to move out, most of our global criminal count downs had expired now, saving us from the opportunity fire from gate guns and station guns.

"Shit! Contact. Contact. Contact." Yelled Bandy. "Vaga is down. I have a tempest, munnin, maller, thorax, blackbird and dominix. They're on my ass."

We were still two jumps out.

"Bandy: we're inbound. Get to the Evati gate in Arnher. We're almost there."

"Negative. Bandy is going down. Bandy is going down."

The N0Fear/Sternhagel fleet melted Bandy's myrmidon down to it's constituent components.

We chased the slower Tempest into Lasleinur, catching it on the gate as it decloaked and tried to lumber away. The NoFear fleet was already smaller than ours by four ships and they had the bad fortune of being split up between two gates. We killed Tial'c's tempest with contemptuous ease. The presence of the blackbird, maller and thorax distracted us somewhat but me and Ard recognised the potential danger of the EW cruiser and dispatched it quick enough. The maller and thorax crusiers than bugged out while the muninn and dominix class battleship came roaring in, too late to save Tial'C but quick enough to get themselves well and truly snared. Coming into the fight, in small packets like they did, doomed them.

Still, much respect to N0Fear (and to Sternhagel in general) - as they do bring the fight and one has to respect them for it. They have NO FEAR, so I can't argue with that. Seek them out for some pew-pew.

Comic Strip.
Well, The Bastards has some talented individuls and I have to mention Loth'nwenar.
I feel that New Eden needs to have more comic strips. WinterBlink and his comics are the trailblazer but please check out:http://thebastards.stripgenerator.com/ (NOT WORK FRIENDLY!!!!!)

Yes, The Bastards have their very own comic strip(s).

Mention must always go Rob Repper, Jarek and Gazur who all have also put together some very funny strips but, for now - they are only on The Bastards internal forum. Have to give them all a shout out so here's Jarek's efforts.

It tells us a story of a mission runner who was jacked by us and he lost his VIPs...
Rob has a funny story about a well-known pilot who frequents our area. We have killed him many a time but he still keeps on trucking. We now decide to run away in fear as we reckon he's not what he seems. Take it away Rob...
Some of our tales of yarring are better retold in the comic form. Well done to Loth for the strip. My intention is to feature his work and others in the blog each week or so.

But there's more...
San Rintuu has a new Blog called 'Ramblings of a Bastard' and VBSarge has his literary outpourings here. San has already demonstrated his eloquence in posts to the EVE-O forum as well as in our internal forum. I love his style. Sarge is a dark horse, he has already written some outstanding materials in the form of short stories and I hope he can revisit them for my (and your) benefit. All our blogs will be linked together. Two outstanding corp mates now taken to writing down their thoughts and actions and between us all, I think people will have a more complete picture of what we, The Bastards, do in New Eden.

Overkill? No, this is New Eden
Overkill? Maybe - dropping a carrier onto a rupture that was already under sentry fire!
http://www.the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3126

However, the kill mail doesn't tell the whole picture. We failed big time to get these chaps to engage us as we dropped a dread and a carrier on them before they aggressed. Premature ejaculation one can say. They wisely docked up without firing another shot and stayed there for the rest of the night. They laughed at us, which is fair enough. We executed the trap poorly.

Is there taste in EVE? [OOC]
We did end up going after a rather tasteless POS in Evati. One of the pilots who frequents Evati caught my eye last week. He has the name 'SS Deathcamp' and his bio (probably since changed) was in a poor taste, to match his name. I made a mental note to bring this up to the corp directors. More so that he was hanging around in Evati then anything else. His corporation (The Minmatar Defence Project ) had a large POS set up and and we discovered that the pos labs were named after notorious death camps, to match his rather tasteless name. It had some scramble, dampner and neut towers; nothing to worry about.

Now we tend to ransom POS owners, and ask them for a weekly fee so as they can stay unmolested. For the POS, we demanded a 100million isk a week ransom AND a change in the name of the offensive modules.

We jumped into the POS and proceeded to knock down the shields of the weapon modules. We cyno'ed in the dread that was used in the failed hot drop from Todi to help speed up the job. The mods went off line one by one. The POS owner could not do anything as we were set up now and kicking his doors in. He paid the ransom. He then changed the POS module names and apologised for a lapse in judgement in naming his modules as he did.

Winsauce.

Mach and Mega Meal at the gate.....drive-by take out please.

Capt Nessaja (aka Nessa), Tenchuu Khaan (aka TK and pictured), RealZonk (aka Zonk) and I were out hunting for a raven, running some sort of kill mission but it had been proving to be a most, elusive prey of the night.Numerous probes were dropped but the raven pilot was evading us. Taunting us even, with his continued presence.

The scanner piped and I checked the results. I toggled the fleet channel:

"Raven has left system."

There was a groan from the small fleet's captains as we all scrambled over to the various gates and jumped into neighbouring systems, hoping we could catch the raven.

No such hope.

Grumbling, I pinged the scanner a couple of times more before leaving. I stopped and starred at the result. I checked local and scanned again. I reached out to my fleet mates.

"Guys, I see a Machariel and a Megathron on scan. We have some friendlies but those two beauties are not ours."

"Flash. You sure?" queried Nessaja.

"Yeah, am sure. Goddamn Mach and Mega on scan. Towards the Arnstur gate in Gultratren. There's also a couple of NO FEAR pilots in local too." I said. "We saw one of them in a vaga going through Brin." I added. After some fiddling with the scanner and the process of elimination we had more or less narrowed down the possible battleship pilots.

"Then I am going to get my maelstrom." Said Zonk in a matter-of-fact voice - he swung his ship towards his homebase.

"Getting my Domi." Added Nessaja as he too, left for home. Steady on I thought, we haven't even located them let alone pointed them! However, I guess Zonk and Nessa's instincts were stronger than mine on this occasion.

"Am on my way to the gate. Phear my ruppie of doom!" Roared TK; completely disregarding the danger he was in. He just wanted that tackle and had no interest in changing ships.

I re-aligned towards a safe spot and waited. It was a few jumps back to my home base as well; I could really do with my hurricane and not this rupture. Gate fighting is fun but against monstrous brutes like a megathron- and machariel-class battleships, under sentry protection as well? However, TK had made his stand and I was going to stick around to help him out. No sooner had he settled onto the gate, that his voice came over the communications channel, excitement clear.

"NO FEAR Corporation Vagabond locking me."

"ID of pilot TK?" I asked, though I had a pretty good idea which one, I began reloading barrage ammunition into my dual-180mm auto canons.

" Tial'C and he's firing on me!" TK laughed manically, "Yes! Am coming to get you, you.... " the rest of TK's response was lost in a burst of static as his guns opened up.

"Fleet: enemy vagabond has aggressed on the Arnstur gate in Gultratren!" I began my warp to the gate; the rupture picking up speed as it aligned to the destination.

"Zonk; one jump."

"Nessa; one jump also. Overkill for a single vaga. Where's that Mega?"

My rupture was mid-way towards the gate when the communications cleared and TK shouted out.

"Mach and Mega at the gate. They've just come through.....They've fired on me!" There was something incoherent as TK's communications broke down once more, no doubt interference from the weapons' discharges. The TK came back. "Going down. Going down."

Cursing at my long warp - I hoped that TK could hold on.

"TK - move away from the gate!" I said, not being too helpful.

"What do you think I am doing?" I didn't get a chance to reply as my sensors detected the sudden presence of a pod.

"TK is down. TK is down. Didn't even get a chance to fire on the mach and mega! Shit!"

"Mach? Where?" It was Maro from M34N corp who was listening in. "Am undocking!" Nothing could stop Maro or his friend, Jubes from throwing his ship into the fray.

"Arnstur gate in Gultratren." I said.

"OMW," replied Maro.

Meanwhile, back near the gate. "GF." Offered Tial'C in local, no doubt proud of the kill. Having a machariel and megathron arrive definitely tipped the odds!

My rupture arrived just as TK's pod whipped out from under the sentry guns and the dual brooding presence of a machariel- and megathron-class battleship. The vagabond, no doubt damaged from her engagement with TK's rupture, was nowhere to be seen. The two battleships' guns were still glowing from the salvo they had delivered into TK's rupture. They turned their guns onto me. I locked them. The targeting reticles cycled. It was going to get very ugly. My targeting computer resolved it's lock and I threw a point onto the machariel.

"Flashfresh here: Mach pointed." I croaked. The sentry guns spun up. I braced myself for the inevitable battering from battleship class weapons as they slowly turned their attention to me.

"Hold on Flash. We're almost there." It was Zonk, his accent is unmistakeable.

Then things happened very quickly.

Multiple gate fire seared my senses. Zonk and Nessa were back, in their battleships. Maro also joined in his megathron, a second later.

"Who's primary?"

"The Mach." Replied Zonk.

"The Mega!" Someone else counter-ordered.

"The Fecking MACH is the primary!"

Oh the confusion. The shouting. The swearing. With no recognised FC, it was a brutal affair. Half the ships now engaged were not in the original fleet of four and therefore they cluttered each other's overviews. More pirates were being alerted and we had Annapolis, Mandaro and WayCharles on the way. The latter bringing in the curse. The machariel is very fast for a battleship and was in danger of leaving the battlescene, so the presence of WayCharles' curse was vital. My rupture was spewing out gasses and fluids as the hammering it was getting from the both Machariel and the sentry guns was just too much.

"Flash is disengaging. Someone take over the point on the Mach."

"Mach has been pointed. Go." Said someone, it sounded like Nessa. It was unclear as I was in danger of popping in a spectacular fashion. My rupture re-aligned and whipped out. My warp engines un-molested. Meanwhile, there were curses as the machariel was moving out of the other pirates' ranges. It wasn't until WayCharles had arrived and hit the fast battleship with a couple of energy neutralisers that the prey was locked down. We had no losses and both the enemy megathron and machariel were down. The Mach dropped some gorgeous loot. Concord, efficient as ever recorded both the megathron and machariel kills. Check out the dread gurista cloaking device that survived the explosion.

In all, the loot drop totalled between 400-450million isk according one pirate, so a nice payout to all of us. Very nice indeed and fair play to the pilot for having enough courage to undock in his faction battleship in the first place.

Killing me softly, killing me softly.....

Killing my targets - one by one....

"There is a FECKING FREIGHTER on scan!" Yelled someone. The call reverberating in the joint intelligence channels that all pirates have. "Freighter in Gultratren."

Nothing moves a pirate faster than the prospect of a pay-day and a freighter can be a mighty big pay day. We had word it was coming in from Ingunn and was already inbound towards either the Gusandall or Sotrenzur gates. There was a mad scramble as pilots from five pirates organisations roared out of the station and scattered towards the two gates; bumping the dwaddling industrials out of the way.

Some of the faster ships got to the Sotrenzur gate and jumped in. Others were still turning their ships in space and aligning.

"Who is the freighter pilot?" I asked. The only answer was a load of noise, talk of isk and non-sense.

"WHO THE HELL IS THE FREIGHTER PILOT?" I asked, a little louder.

"Er, Fest or Fester or something." Reported someone. I forgot who replied but a quick scan on the local communication channel and there was a pilot in Gusandall local called 'Festry'. That must be him I thought, panic rising as the prospect of this most juicy of prey slipping away from us.

I snapped on the ship's onboard scanners and performed a 360-degree scan. What I saw made my heart miss a beat.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. I have FESTRY in local and can confirm a providence-class freighter in local." From the angle of my scan, it was inline with the Eifer gate. "I think it's closing on the Eifer gate." I willed my rupture to turn around and face the right direction.

"We need to move, tacklers on the other side of the Gusandall gate in Eifer!" Said someone, it sounded like RoninData (The Bastards Corp) or Annapolis (Modern Amusement Corp); either way - everyone raced towards the gate. Festry disappeared from local as did the freighter. Jesus we're a bit slow today, I thought to myself.

"Festry jumped. He jumped into Eifer."

"Jumping now." Said someone. I approached the gate and was granted immediate gate activation, sling-shoting me into the Eifer system. I joined the tacklers on the other side. Checking the local communication channel, I saw that Festry was also there. His freighter was still under gate cloak and no doubt he was pondering his next move. He had to hurry, he had but seconds to act before the gate-induced sensor cloak disappeared.

"Freighter is under gate cloak. All ships spread out and get points ready." I said, dropping my own stargate-induced cloak and proceeding to orbit the stargate. Other pirates decloaked as well: Ard and RoninData from The Bastards and Annapolis. Our heavy hitting battleships had only just arrived on the Eifer gate in Gusandall.

My scanner pinged up.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Freighter just decloaked. Get him!!"

A klaxon blared in the background, angry and potent.

"No one web him! Get a point first!"

We were all too far to immediately scramble the engines of the freighter. I was 38km and even over-loading my warp disruptor, it would only get a range of 28km. That's why they made micro warp drives, I thought as my ship start to shudder, the engines pushing the rupture towards the freighter. I slowly gained speed.

The freighter was slowly aligning to it's next destination. It was too slow and ungainly to escape. I could only imagine the thoughts racing through the mind of the freighter pilot as he was steadily surrounded by red, flashing, angry and hungry ships.

"Point!" Said Lord Saradomin.

"Pointed." Informed Serenator.

"Got it!!" That was RoninData.

We had it. Now came the hard bit, the freighter had a massive amount of structure and it would require a lot of firepower to kill it. The sentry guns spun up and started to fire at us, there were now a total of five ships and we shared the sentry gun's damage. More were coming in. We yelled for more damage. More battleships, crewed by battle-hardened and blood-thirsty pirates, answered the call.

Now to ransom it.

"Ronin. You do it. Ransom it. 500million isk. " Said someone.

"Okay, hold on." Replied RoninData. The freighter was now into armour and soon it was down to hull - thanks to the presence of a rokh- and hyperion-class battle ship adding to the firepower. I glanced down at the local channel and the avatar of Festry winked off. I checked my equipment to ensure it wasn't in error. He had disconnected his pod from his ship hoping for an emergency warp.

"He's logged. He's logged. The fool has disconnected his pod."

"Okay - wonder why the ransom negotiations ended so abruptly..."

"Kill the freighter before it emergency warps." With the prospects of a ransom now gone, we took it upon ourselves to destroy this ship. The combined firepower of eight ships just pulverised the unfortunate freighter into scrap a few seconds later. The resulting wreck twinkled, all forlorn in the night sky.

What was odd about that freighter?

It was completely empty. No cargo.

Cynabal - we want it
Chasing down a faction cruiser is always fun. So anyone flying one around Eifer and Gusandall is bound to attract attention - pirates are always looking for 'bling' kills and faction kills are sweet. Ransoms also work well with faction ships. They're relatively hard to get on the open market and expensive when they are available. To fully utilise it, faction and rare modules tend to be used in place of the more plain tech one variants. You wouldn't drink a vintage Chateaux Du Paris '89 in a plasteel cup would you?

All in all, these ships are highly coveted things. Both to keep in your hangar and for us pirates, to kill to get the CONCORD kill mail.

So, I was there chilling in a safe spot and enjoying the sights of the stars wheeling above my head when the shared intelligence crackled to life. It was Assassin X, a pirate from the ever-present Mean Corp.

"Flash, I have a cynabal in Auren. Trying to scan it down."

A fleet was quickly formed from the pirates lounging around and my rupture slid into position on the gate. Kane Rizzel joined us, with his broadsword. Daplat Mode was in his HIC as well but he volunteered to sit at the Auren gate in Gusandall, in case our cynabal pilot made a run for it. Of course, Auren had a gate back into Empire space and safety but we hoped he wouldn't do that.

A fleet of three then joined Assassin X and our prober (who shall remain nameless).

"Flash here. Will sit on the Gusandall gate in Auren - just in case our Cynabal pilot comes towards me."

"He can always jump into high-sec." Ventured someone.

"True, let's hope he becomes complacent."

"I have a hit!" informed out prober. We all warped eagerly to the spot. It was empty. Our instruments still registering the tell-tale signs of a recent warp drive activation. We waited for the next probe cycle and we got another hit, and on arrival, we had just missed him once more. We decided that, like most pilots, the cynabal pilot will cycle through his safe spots and left one of our own in each newly discovered safe spot. There was a strong probability that the pilot would eventually come back and get a VERY nasty shock.

I waited patiently in my spot as did the others, scattered across the three to four safe spots around. We did not have to wait long.

"Contact. I have a point on the cynabal. Warp to me." It was Gousgounis Theos (Mean Corp) who had the luck. The cynabal landed on him, it was pointed and within moments, the other three had descended on it and proceeded to tear it to pieces. I was locked by the desparate pilot, the cynabals strength was speed and we threw as many webs on it as we could. It strength was not heads-up toe-to-toe fighting and against overwhelming odds; he was doomed.

"Ransom the ship."

"Aye, aye."

The avatar of the pilot then winked off.

"Kill his ship. Find the pod. Kill the pilot."

The Cynabal shuddered and burst open as our explosive ordnance detonated something inside the ship. The pod instantly emergency warped out but we found it easily enough. Without any ceremony, we podded the pilot and pulped the bio-mass. All the tech two gear on the cynabal was lost bar one overdrive injector. Oh well. Like I said, a bling kill mail will have to do.

Lesson for would be prey: If there are probers in the system - cycle through your safe spots once but do not linger in one spot too long or repeatedly return to one. Chances are one or more may have been cracked open and you will have a nasty surprise in store for you. Best you negotiate a ransom to leave the local system intact.


More kills
The other days had more kills and one loss (my rupture) to a well-executed trap where our little pirate gang was ambushed. No complaints. What goes around, comes around.

So in the last six days since my entry, I have chalked up the following kills:

A thrasher, a vexor, a huginn, x3 stabbers, coercer, cyclone, x2 rifter, hyperion, a freighter (!), a myrmidon, a thorax and a cynabal.

A fair few came from a new corp calling themselves the 'Elusive Russians'. Not so elusive as Kane and I found them readily enough.

Hunting them ravens
Now, not all days are full of yarr and isk and fire. Far from it. A pirate needs to be patient but coiled tight like a spring; ready for action. We spotted a couple of ravens missioning and finally managed to probe them down. We knew that they were stabbed to the max so we had HICS as our tacklers. These ravens were quick too in cutting through their mission: by the time the prober had settled close to them and provided a warp in point; the mission was almost complete. By the time the HICS were in the system and warping to our prober, the ravens (already aligned to leave) had almost completed the mission. By the time the first HIC popped warped into the area: both ravens had gone, the last one's engine exhausts leaving a glowing trail of plasma behind us.

So some disappointment for sure - we need to be smarter when hunting these mission runners. They endlessly churn through the agent missions 23/7 - day after back-breaking day.

A cross-road
Just recently, I sat down with Nightmare, the only other active Black-Flag pilot and we shared a drink and chatted. Haven't seen Nightmare or his friend Huaca in a while and it was good to catch up. This was it now: Black-Flag had been reduced to three pirates. The conversation quickly turned to what we could do with the corporation. We could not (I would not) seize control as it would be mutiny but nor could I stay indefinitely. I had sorted out the bills and sold as much of the (rather useless) loot on behalf of the corporation.

The hangars were empty now. Nothing left apart from tech one ammunition.

So we three now had come to a decision-point and we had stayed long enough to satisfy all requirements for pride and loyalty. What next? Nightmare muttered about staying for some unfinished business while Huaca was already leaving. He just wanted to say his farewells.

Me?

Since the problem with Black-Flag I had a number of invites from organisations and alliances. I thank them all but I really only have two choices: Mean Corp or The Bastards. Going solo had crossed my mind (what have I been doing since Viper Sam took his leave?) but Hiematar has her King of Solo Pirates and that is Kane Rizzel. A friend, a colleague, a brother. I have nothing but respect and admiration for him. He will (singlehandedly) make life unpleasant for anyone foolish enough to cross his path. No, my solo days are not yet over but it's not the right time to drop back into this way of life.

So I considered Mean Corp - a bunch of cut throats, now part of the Mean Coalition of pirates. Jubes had left Black-Flag and joined up with them; strengthening them with his unique talents. In their ranks they counted fearsome pirates such as Ceraci (only 16 registered losses in her career!), WayCharles , Kerjin and RedBad. With their new Alliance and friends, I am sure that Mean are going places. Cap ships are in place too I believe.

However, it is the smaller corp, gleefully calling themselves, 'The Bastards' that I am going to throw my application to. Four ex-Black-Flag members had joined them and this has swayed my choice. Sarvic, Snake, Vertias and Jorge are all there and it's the continuity that is appealing to me.


Call me nostalgic but I miss flying alongside them in a gang consisting of hurricane-class battle cruisers. How the skies shake as we roar through towards a target.

So that's it for now. In a week or so, I will leave Black-Flag and be a Bastard. Not going to relocate as Gusandall is my home and the Bastards stomping grounds is but four jumps away. However, I will keep the small Black-Flag badge on my uniform for a while longer. I looked at our kill board and took down the details for prosperity: there was a crash about nine months ago and we lost a lot of data so the information below is not 100% accurate but there you go.