There's always a bigger dog.....so find a puppy and kick it instead.

We decided that we want a slightly heavier gang last night: battle ship class with Vig insisting on showing off his damnation in all its glory. A mixed gang of fleet members assembled eager to pillage and plunder and we undocked from our home station, scattering the haulers and passer-bys. Evati was quite busy last night and we were confident that we would get something. We tried sparring with some of the local denizens but failed to grab anyone: the battle ships we were in had much slower locking times and the enemy battle cruiser gang we had spotted easily made distance on us and slipped away.

Not disappointed we started to roll towards Ardar way, though we could see that Lady Shaniqua was unavailable and therefore, the locals would be out and about. With our scouts and friends moving ahead we sprung a trap where a criminal gang were camping the (usually camped) Klogori / Orfrold gate. Our megathron got himself tackled and pointed an enemy myrmidon. Then his friends all piled in and it was our queue to jump in. As we started to land at the gate, our megathron pilot told us that the enemy battle cruisers were disengaging and moving away. He tried to keep his point but his slower ship was unable to keep range and the myrmidon escaped. Cursing our luck with a second potential engagement not actually hotting up we pushed down further towards Amamake.

A fleet of 50 or so craft were reported in various channels that they had tackled a carrier. We decided that to gate crash this would be fun BUT it would result in our almost certain fiery demise. It was not my intention to suicide us so I turned the fleet around. Determined to get some kills we went back to Evati and discovered to our delight that there was a new camp on the Todi  / Evati gate.

Joy!

With our excited chatter still reverberating in my ears, I sent in a battle ship to get their attention. As the megathron rumbled towards the gate, looking to all intents and purposes an auto-piloting ship, the pilot quickly called out that he was being yellow-boxed.

Everyone else in their battle ships tensed in anticipation.

"They've red-boxed me! One, two, three of them!"

That was our cue and we moved in; determined to get them. The align and warp felt very slow. I tried to mentally push my typhoon to get into warp quicker, to turn faster to get there before hell froze. As we ambled into warp, we wondered whether we would be successful on this third attempt at hostile engagement.

As we landed, I noticed the tell tale warp out signatures of half a dozen ships.

Some of our ships landed just a bit quicker than me but their locking times were too slow and the enemy battle cruisers slipped away. Third time unlucky in the night but all we could do was to move on and seek combat and loot elsewhere.

The fleet meandered our way towards another hotspot: Akora and one of our forward scouts spotted a camp. However, local had one or two suspicious looking fellows in there and I feared that our presence was already announced. Sure enough, the trap was sprung, our forward scout & bait was red-boxed and we went in, the slow align of the battle ship was beginning to grate on me; so used to the swifter cruiser and battle cruiser hulls. We landed and jumped into the next system but the camp had cleanly disengaged and moved off. Our scout had a point but couldn't keep up, even with the slowest ship.

Fourth time unlikely for tonight. Yes, piracy is feast or famine but this was the worst of all events: plenty of targets, plenty of opportunity just a bit unlucky in seizing the opportunities presented. It was also possible that we had a large and intimidating gang, all flashy and angry and word was probably moving ahead of us.

However, The Bastards are a stoic bunch and shrugged, it was part of the lifestyle we had chosen and it wasn't meant to be easy. If it was, why would we bother?

So we pushed down towards Metropolis, another good area to snag travellers or to encounter hostile gate camps. With out 8 battle ships and some light support, we had no logistics, it was deemed big enough to handle most of the usual encounters that we were used to.

Our luck changed for the worse however. Let me recall in full agonising detail.

Naughty Spawn in his zealot was ahead and was moving slowly towards Ennur. I had split the fleet up to cover more ground when Naughty Spawn informed us, calmly that he had encountered a camp.

"This is N.S. Location: Offikatlin gate in Tabbetzur. Enemy camp encountered."

Another camp, another opportunity, come on lady luck, fifth time lucky? I thought to myself.

"Am holding cloak. I see a T3 cruiser and a couple of other ships. One Maelstrom."

That sounded good and I moved the fleet to intercept the camp.

"All ships move full speed to Tabbetzur gate in Offikatlin." I was hoping that Naughty Spawn would be able to hold on long enough. I ordered him to re-approach the gate and jump back to us. There was a lot of interference on the reply back but it appeared that there were more ships landing on him at the Tabbetzur gate in Offikatlin.

Red Vegas in his hurricane (we weren't all in battle ships) - rolled ahead just as Naughty Spawn started swearing. His zealot had lost cloak and was pinned and being cut to pieces on the other side of the gate. The bulk of the fleet had not even joined me and Red Vegas in Tabbetzur but we couldn't let one of our own go unpunished. So Red Vegas went ahead to the Tabbetzur gate followed by me in the trash can shaped typhoon.

As he arrived, some of the enemy camp had come jumped into us in Offikatlin - no doubt to prevent Naughty Spawn from jumping back out and escaping. Instead they encountered an angry Red Vegas who promptly lit up an enemy maelstrom. I joined in.

The rest of the fleet were now landing around me.

"Hold on Naughty Spawn. We're almost there."

"Naughty spawn is down. There's a horde of ships this side. Be advised, large number of ships coming through."

There was a flash on the gate, and another and another and my overview started to fill up. Not used to seeing strategic cruisers, I refreshed my view and yes, indeed the enemy camp was made up of almost all T3 strategic cruisers: at least three tengu and one proteus class ships with a logistics ships thrown in for good measure. It was 13 versus 9.

Friendly (9)
Dominix
Megathron
Megathron
Typhoon
Typhoon
Typhoon
Damnation
Hurricane
Rifter (yes, tis true)

Hostile (13)
Dominix
Loki
Maelstrom
Proteus
Tengu
Tengu
Tengu
Tengu
Absolution
Sacrilege
Drake
Guardian

We had been dealt our hand and had no option but to play.

"Hmmm, looks hot but let's do this." Someone said.

This is why I love The Bastards: our motto is 'Overwhelming DPS then GTFO' but 'Stand your ground' is equally applicable. No one was scared or frozen into inaction as we opened fire, fully aware of what the capricious Gods of war had sent us.

The sentry guns opened fire on us to add to our woes.

The first to go down was Naughty Spawn, helplessly cut-off and alone on the other side. Red Vegas's hurricane, was second to die though he still kept on firing even as his ship was cut to small pieces. If Red Vegas could have strapped on guns to his pod, he would have stayed.

The primary was one of the tengus, a mistake by me but there wasn't much choice until the guardian decloaked. We set him to primary and nailed him. The fight wasn't the usual fast cut and thrust exchange of fire, our remote repair work was working but they were slowly grinding their way through us. The sentry guns were peppering our ships and each minute meant that we would be in greater danger. A minute or so later, Tibbs went down, yelling curses. Interdict was next to me, repairing my armour as I was repairing his but the damage was creeping towards overwhelming and Interdict saluted the fleet and punched his capsule out. His ship, spurting fire and gas and raining out crew escape pods burst open.

We all died except Fenneck who managed to get his ship out.

The last to go was Viginiti who's damnation had a huge tank and managed to hold on in the face of massive firepower. In fact, he managed to tank and jump through into Offikatlin but was caught by another ship who was obviously tasked with snagging those trying to withdraw from the fight. If it wasn't for this ship, Vig may have gotten away. However Vig's damnation, already seriously mauled and out of capacitory finally died.

Fleet Fight Summary

A good fight but as per title, we were still quite fired up so we grabbed new ships and continued to hunt. We chased a stabber fleet issue and sleipnir as well as a hurricane and the chase ended up in Ingunn where, out of boredom we started to pop the haulers that infested the area. We caught bits of pieces as well (a faction fitted stealth bomber, a hurricane) but the high light were the noobships. Fun and a nice way to relax after having been beaten up ourselves.

The drops were disappointing obviously, but one pirate did snag some cargo hold expander IIs. A nice bonus.

We also met up with an old sparring partner: General Dogzbody. Dogz, amazingly, is now not classed officially as a criminal/pirate and therefore not flashing a bright angry red in people's overviews. I actually did a double-take as I thought I had the wrong person. He was a respectable -10 or near to it for a while, so he must have done some serious repenting to be acceptable to CONCORD. Strange seeing him like that but times change I suppose. He was also out of M34N alliance but am sure still blue to them. Being positive sec does have advantages mind: now, pilots cannot just engage him on gates and stations in low sec as Dogz has sentry guns supporting him.

Being on the end of sentry fire is no fun but a hazard for the pirate that must be considered.

We chatted to see whether we should try and solo him but I laughed it off. Tackling his maelstrom with our hurricanes on a gate and Dogz having sentry fire support was foolish and not profitable to us. If he was flashy, then maybe but Dogz isn't stupid.

No big deal though. We exchanged pleasantries in local and I took the fleet home - eager to get a shower and some sleep. It was a fun night ending with the proverbial kicking of the puppies after getting your own arses kicked but I would prefer not to meet another T3 gang  for a while!

Dubious 1 v 1, frigate fight and other madness....

Frigate Show down

"We have an ass-load of frigate-class ships in Eifer!" Yelled Aiko Shinjiro, a well-respected M34N corporation pilot. He was in a manticore-class ship in Eifer, cloaked and keeping an eye on a small frigate fleet that was roaming between the belts in Eifer. There were other targets in the system but this was interesting.

"Aiko, how many?" I asked, my interest piqued.

"Er, I say between 4-6 rifters, one crucuifer-class and a tristan."

"Are they all together? Anthing else in the system?"

"Unsure Flash, there was a dominix battleship here recently and a rupture and a crow as well but they're not together, I don't think. Most of the frigates are from 'British Federation'."

"Roger that - keep us updated; let me get a fleet up and running. Wait five."

"Roger."

The communication link went silent as I searched for available pirates, a frigate swarm in Eifer, roaming and moving around like they were was basically either bait or they were looking for a fight. Either way, this was not to go unchallenged. A quick message pulse and in addition to Aiko, I had Yoshi and Kerjin answering the call. Our little anti-frigate fleet now consisted Yoshi's brutix, Kerjin in his vagabond, Aiko in the manticore and I decided to get into my trusty Jaguar-class assault frigate. Yoshi was going to be the bait as I formed my plan.

"Ok fleet, listen up. Yoshi - get to 1-1 and sit there as bait. A frigate swarm will love you my friend -"

"Uh-huh.."

"- Kerjin and Aiko, sit cloaked in 1-1 and see what will happen."

Undocking into Gusandall space, I moved towards the Eifer gate. The crew at the gate waved me through, it's good to keep these guys sweet to ensure a quick transit. In Eifer, I could see plenty of pilots. I moved to a safe spot and asked for an update.

"Yoshi here. Am in 1-1 and nothing yet, doesn't look like the frigates will bite..."

"Patience Yoshi - prepare to move to the next belt. Aiko and Kerjin, I trust you chaps are close by?"

Both Kerjin and Aiko pinged an affirmative to me.

"OK Flash, am moving towards -" Yoshi's comms-link suddenly went dead.

"Contact! Contact! A crow just engaged me." Testing to see if it's bait?

"Aiko and Kerjin: hold. I doubt the crow can kill the brutix. Do not tip off the frigates, if they are together. You ok Yoshi?"

"Yeah, yeah. Am OKAY."

So we waited, Yoshi giving a running commentary on the damage, limited as it was, on his brutix.
"Guys, they're all here!" Not too sure what was going on, but everyone else then warped to Yoshi's Brutix.

My Jaguar whipped into space and I was as eager as the others for the kill. Landing inside the belt at 1-1, my overview lagged to load up all the ships in it. I saw four rifters and one or two others, some were already leaving.

"Primary? Primary?"

I looked, too many and I was very confident that we could take them.

"Opportunity fire. Take down anyone!" I locked three rifters and pointed one. A pod suddenly appeared in my overview. There was another flash. Missiles I think. The pod whipped away. My auto canons spun up and spat death. The EMP rounds knifed through the rusty frame of the rifter and split it into two flaming bits. I switched to my next target, a tristan. Before the lock resolved, it exploded into a million pieces.

A rupture loomed in my overview, I locked him and he locked me. It was 'Lt Calman', the name rang a bell to me. We both opened up as the other rifters warped out. The fight was quick and dirty but the rupture couldn't fight the combined fire power of our group. I have no idea if Lt Calman was with the rifters, he probably wasn't but we didn't care. He too, died but also managed to warp his pod out.

The belt was strewn with rifter and other frigate wrecks. It was over in a little under two minutes but what a fight!

Well done to the frigate gang, very well done.

Good kills - mission runners beware.

We've tangled a few times with a number of corporations that we want coming back (which is cool) to the same area. One of them is a corporation called, Soldiers of Eve (SOM) --> so far, our work has been pretty successful in terms of numbers though isk efficiency is only at 33% due to our BS loss to them.

Details are here: http://www.black-flag.org/kills/?a=corp_detail&crp_id=8378

Last night, we had good intelligence that there were some SOM pilots making their way through a cosmic anomaly in Sotrenzur. We know the entire area well, so we were almost guaranteed to drop onto them with no problems. As a rule, we pirates keep up to date star charts of cosmic anomalies and other celestial bodies; just so that we can vector in our ships onto the target with the minimum of fuss. Our intelligence reported back that the ship types to be a caracal, myrmidon, zealot and hurricane. I managed to rustle up a cerberus, hurricane, hurricane and vagabond - drawn from three different corporations.

"Fleet this is Flashfresh: status please."

"Kerjin, in vagabond and en route."

"Kane in hurricane, ready and en route."

"Daplat, cerberus, on gate and ready."

Daplat was closest and we need a tackle.

"Daplat - go and point the zealot, secondary will be the myrmidon - that's your baby Kerjin."

"Roger that!"

Like wolves, we descended on the SOM ships. Daplat, Kane and Kerjin arrived before I did and due to some communication problems - the caracal was pointed by everyone. The myrmidon was already in warp when the ships were coming in; the Angel's in the cosmic anomaly had been utterly destroyed and the SOM fleet was already making ready to leave. The zealot managed to get out.

No matter, a kill is a kill and the caracal was torn apart in a very unfair 4 v 1 - but who the hell cares? It's not a duel; it's a kill. However, the zealot suddenly warped back into the anomaly - maybe in a belated attempt to rescue his corporation mate. We momentary held our fire (though we insta-pointed him) as a sign of respect for his fool-hardy bravery, then killed his ass.


2008.05.26 22:18

Victim: Renato Pace
Alliance: None
Corp: Soldiers Of Mercy
Destroyed: Zealot
System: Sotrenzur
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 7872

Involved parties:

Name: Kane Rizzel
Security: -10.0
Alliance: Derek Knows Us
Corp: NovaKane Incorporated
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 3518

Name: Piranha Light Missile / Minmatar Republic
Damage Done: 1750

Name: Daplat Mode (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Alliance: None
Corp: New Orion Underground
Ship: Cerberus
Weapon: Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 932

Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: None
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 848

Name: kerjin
Security: -9.5
Alliance: None
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 824


Destroyed items:

Multifrequency M
Multifrequency M
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Cap Recharger II
Armor Thermic Hardener I
Armor EM Hardener I
Heat Sink II
Medium Armor Repairer II
Conflagration M, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Radio M, Qty: 5 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Multifrequency M
Multifrequency M
Multifrequency M
Heavy Pulse Laser II
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Cap Recharger II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Heat Sink II
Armor Kinetic Hardener I
Conflagration M, Qty: 2 (Cargo)

We missed the pods in both attempts, I really wish we had a few smart bombs fitted!

Other bits.

Checking through the corp's killboard, I realised that I had hit and gone through the 300 kills mark with Black-Flag.

Time does indeed fly by on this and I cast my mind back to the kills and to be honest, only a small handful come to mind and usually the ones where I am (almost) hopefully outnumbered.


Finally, 1 v 1 - avoid them!!

Someone we knew accepted a highly dubious 1 v 1 and was then jumped by two others, making it a 3 v 1. Oh well.

Lost the Wolfie and my trophies

There was an itch this morning and I had to scratch it. The itch was the desire to kill someone, anyone. I went in the wolf to do the deed. Does this make me a psychopath? Loot and riches was a distant second. All I wanted was to hunt someone down, see the mark in my gunsights and kill him.

So I roared out of Gusandall in my faithful wolf class assault frigate and did a quick local scan. Nothing around but not too surprising due to the time zone that we were in. I went into Eifer and my scanner picked up the unmistakable signature of a hurricane-class battlecruiser. I checked local and it appeared that the mark was probably 'Ovip Lokos'. A name that does ring a bell for me but wasn't too sure where. Jubes was the only other Black Flag corp member online and I fired up the comms to him.

"Jubes bro' you there? " There was a moments pause before the distinctive rumble of Jubes' voice came through.
"Hi - am here. Bit busy at the moment."
"I have a possible at IV-3, Eifer. Hurricane." I then fired off the name of the pilot to Jubes. As I aligned to the belt and got ready.
"Getting ship and will be there soon."
"Okay hurry, I don't think he will be hanging around." I hit the scanner to make sure he had not moved and no, he was still sitting around the IV-3 belt area. I hit the afterburner to get more speed and then jumped to the belt. I had a 24KM warp disruptor on and was going to sit around an orbit of 14km and keep him pointed. I landed in the belt and there was the Hurricane. It was looming and angry looking and know full well the intimidating effect the hurricane's clean, deadly lines has on opponents. Ovip Lokos did not hesitate to lock me, I was only 6km from him and whipped the assault frigate away from him, my afterburners glowing brightly. I had him pointed and was now moving into an orbit.
"Jubes: Hurricane pointed." I said and prepared to settle into an orbit. Except the hurricane was closing the distance to me. Was it a nano-cane? I was then locked and webbed. Out came his drones: hobgoblin tech 2 drones. Oh dear, I thought. This would hurt.
"Am on my way!" However, once Ovip's drones were on me, I couldn't get out. My capacitor disappeared and I was helpless. The drones ripped my wolf to fragments. I got the pod out. The engagement lasted all of 15 seconds. Jubes was on the gate and was activating it as my pod flashed out from the belt.
"Get him Jubes. Kill him! IV-3. He should be picking over my wreck now."
"On my way. Guy is dead." Answered Jubes and I full well believe my fellow pirate. As my pod raced back towards Gusandall, Jubes came back to me, his voice thick with disappointment.
"He's gone. He isn't in belt." There was a pause. "He has left local too."

Bah. Down on wolf and no kill either!

2008.01.25 09:05

Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: None
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Destroyed: Wolf
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3841

Involved parties:

Name: Ovip Lokos (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.9
Alliance: Legion of xXDEATHXx
Corp: The xDEATHx Squadron
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 3841

Name: Domination Depredator / Archangels
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
Hail S, Qty: 160
EMP S, Qty: 80
Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
'Grail' Regenerative Plating I
Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 435 (Cargo)
Thorn Rocket, Qty: 103 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 261 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

EMP S, Qty: 80
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 30
'Limos' Rocket Launcher I
Warp Disruptor II
Gyrostabilizer II
400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Barrage S, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
Hail S, Qty: 299 (Cargo)
EMP S, Qty: 1764 (Cargo)


Anyway, on a separate note, I was checking my assets and inventory when i realised that I had a hidden room off the bar. I checked it and the sign on it read, 'Trophy Room'. The trophy hall is a dirty little secret of mine. I keep all the bodies of my kills in a cryo-freeze chamber. After a pod kill, my ship automatically scoops the body up into the hold and then freezes it and transport it back to this room. It is entirely automated and to be honest, I don't pay that much attention to it. No idea why I keep them here but it's a shame to dispose of them in space. For one thing, they would be a navigational hazard! There is a pilot who, for a slack handfuls of isk will 'bury' corpses around a system in an small anchored can with a suitable epitah.

Right now, I can't recall this pilots name but he definitely has a website available that one can use to search and index corpses. Nice idea and these corpse, while victims of mine, I will respect and I will see what can be done for them.

POS Bashing, A thorax in hull and their blob and EWAR is bigger than our blob.

The POS Action

Back in the Independence bar, I sat in the private member's lounge that only had Black Flag, M34N, TSL and Hellequin pilots in there. Kane is an honorary member of BF and has membership but apart from him, no one else is allowed in. Gulping down some bitter coffee, I looked at the morning's tasks. Being a Pirate Captain is increasingly turning out to be a full time job, I have a 1000 odd crew members to pay, house and feed. A hangar-full of ships to repair and numerous bills to pay, mostly to the authorities due to the antics of my crew. Beginning to sound like a legitimate businessman aren't I?

I noticed someone quickly coming into the bar and make a bee-line straight for me. It was Jubes.
"Jubes. You're up early."
"I haven't slept." Replied Jubes smoothly, not betraying any tiredness. I pulled up a chair for and prepared to call over the bar man when Jubes stopped me.
"Bro' can't hang about - we need some firepower; we're going to cause some pain for the new POS owner. The fleet is a bit thin at the moment." He pushed a thin plastic card to me. "The co-ordinates are there. Dogz and Grun' already in the system. Am going there in 'cane. See you there. Soon." Without even waiting for a reply, he turned and stalked out. I slipped the card into the data reader built into the table and scrolled through the contents. A few hours before, Dogz and Grun had popped a hauler bringing in ammo to the POS; then it was obvious that they started to fire on and take down some of the weapons batteries and the POS owners came out to repair the shields. This resulted in the POS owner losing a scimitar, to the same pair.

It appears that between Black Flag and M34N we had three ships in total. Who had ever heard of a POS blockade with only three ships?

Soon to be four, I thought as I made my way to the hangar, striding through towards the turbo-lifts that would take me down the where I had my ships. I would bring out my newest addition to the fleet: 'Paths of Pain', another hurricane-class battlecruiser. Slipping out of the space dock I punched the co-ordinates into the computer and was on my way. I had a smaller crew today as I was not expecting too much ship versus ship combat.

I called ahead to the fleet and ensured that I was heading in the right direction and that there were no operational scrambling or webbing batteries. They would hurt and cause me too much pain. Arriving at the POS, I saw Dogz and Jubes firing at the AC batteries, taking them down so they offlined. Grun was in his rapier, lurking. I could see a Jaguar and an Abaddon inside the pos, drifting inside the POS shields. A lot of the AC batteries were now offlined and by the time I had locked the AC battery - it too went off-line. We switched our attention to the webber battery, blasting it at close range and taking it's shields down. Even so, the prize would be the ships inside the POS. Sooner or later, they would be coming out. Grunanca was ready with his rapier. The Abaddon was piloted by an Inferno Inc pilot going by the name of 'Dronius'. He drifted his 'Abad up to 500m of the shield boundary and stopped. Not too sure what he had in mind but whatever, we were all ready.

Dronius drifted his Abaddon closer to the shields and after reducing his speed to 3m/s and 15 minutes later, the majestic form of his ship exited the shield.

"Abad is out of the shields. Abad is out of the shields. Lock and engage!" I said, I was 39km away, Dogz was 45KM and Jubes was even further. No matter, I hit the MWD and tore myself over there.
"He is locking me. No laser fire but he has locked me." Said Dogz, sounding entirely unconcerned. Dronius launched his drones and then his engines flared and he popped back into the protective embraces of his POS shields. The drones, obeying the last set of instructions, sped over towards Dogz and attacked his typhoon. We laughed as the smart bombs popped them all.

The next hour or so had this cat and mouse game where Dronius would stick his nose out and then duck back in. Was he trying to bore us? Also, we were surprised that there were no new friends coming in to help him. The scimitar pilot, someone called 'Sansey' - came back online and undocked in a typhoon class battleship. Now we had two battleships and an assault frigate inside the POS. Outside, we had three Black Flag ships: me and Jubes both in hurricanes, Grunanca in his rapier and one M34N corp member in Dogz in his ever-dependable typhoon.

The Abaddon and Typhoon both started to slowly power themselves towards the shield boundary; after two hours of messing around, it appeared that they felt confident enough to take us on? I started to ping both ship with my target locking but each time the POS shields prevented it however it was clear they would be exiting the POS shield in under a minute.

"Guys, hostiles about to exit shields. Get ready." I said.
"Grunanca: ready. They'll be dual-webbed and fucked."
"Jubes, ready."
"Dogz, ready."
"Primary will be the 'abad then the phoon. Leave the crappy Jag 'til last."
"Roger."

The abaddon was out a fraction of a second before the typhoon and they both locked Dogz' typhoon. We replied in kind and fired up our drives and closed the gap.

"Webbed and drones are out." Informed Grunanca as he shifted his rapier into an optimal locking and firing position. I closed the gap and locked both ships then opened fire. My hurricane shuddered as the gyrostabilisers strained to spread the recoil of my six auto canons. Nex to me, Jubes and Dogz also opened up and the deadly broadside began. It was clear from the first salvo that Dronius was horribly outmatched. Our munitions smashed gaping holes in the golden side of the abaddon. Fearsome as it was, it was webbed and could not turn round and get back to the safety of the POS shields, a mere one kilometre away.

Bright lances of light streaked out from the Tachyon lasers and touched Dogz but the tremendously thick armour of his typhoon class shrugged off the damage. Fires were now visible on the sides of the Abaddon as internal explosions ripped the shipped apart from the inside out. There was a plume of fire jetting out from it's starboard engines as some energy containment field failed and the abaddon, dipped to it's side like a drunken sailor. The explosion was tremendous and incinerated all the life pods that were streaking out. Dronius survived and zipped back inside the POS shields. We didn't care as we locked and did the same to Sansey's typhoon.

The loot was quite poor to be honest.

After another hour, we disengaged - there was no more help today to add to our four ships attacking the POS, but no matter. We had dreads and we would bring them in when required. Today was quite a profitable morning I thought as I docked up and had to take care of some important business.

Thorax down to hull

Later on, there was another Black Flag gang in place with Yoshi ( a BF prospect) in his thorax and Dogz in his typhoon. It was formed in response to some intelligence reports we had of a small (4-5) battlecruiser gang in eifer. While I was sifting through the reports, trying to ascertain on the accuracy of the intelligence, Dogz had already undocked and was on his way to Eifer!

The first that anyone knew of this was Dogz informing everyone that he was at the top belt and was scanning. Scrambling, the fleet bolted out of space dock and got to the Eifer gate just as Dogz had located the enemy battlecruisers and was en-route to them.

Our fleet comprised of:

Gwendoline - Ishtar (the source of the original intelligence.)
Dogz - typhoon
Yoshi - thorax
Krypt - hurricane
Flashfresh - hurricane

"Contact. Contact!" Yelled Dogz as he had obviously found the mysterious battle-cruiser gang. "There's only three of them. Two drakes and a brutix. Warp to me! Warp to me!" Okay, not a gang of five then.
"All ships: warp to Dogz. Primary is the Brutix, Dogz and Gwen points on the brutix. Krypt, Yoshi and me will point the drakes in alphabetical order. All DPS on the brutix. Then we process the drakes in alphabetical order. Clear?"
"Roger!" Chorused the reply as the Eifer gate flared up and gate command shot us through into Eifer. As soon as we arrived, we aligned our ships, located Dogz' location and then jumped to his position.
The warp tunnel wrapped itself around me and the hurricane was set to red alert, already, my tactical computer was picking up weapons' discharges that were distorting the local gravitational patterns.

The Brutix was already into armour as I put my points onto a Drake. This Drake-class ship was called 'Unbreakable'. We shall see. My guns opened up with HAIL that tore through the Brutix's thick armour. It shuddered and died. However, it wasn't going all out way as Yoshi in his thorax was being hit hard by the missiles from the drakes as well as the surviving drones. He was down into armour but holding. I checked the overview and saw that Kyrpt was frantically repairing Yoshi's shields and keeping him in the fight. I was too far away to do the same as I locked and proceeded to exchange hostilities with the 'Unbreakable' drake. Yoshi had to warp out but he was alive thanks to Krypt's work. We love our hurricanes!

With a Brutix down and only two drakes, we had the upper hand however, our overviews suddenly flashed as the ships detected increased with another three ships, all flagged as red, materialising some 150km from our current position. They were from Capital Storm Alliance, an anti-pirate alliance that we had many engagements with.

The odds were shifting against us but we focused on the job in hand. If these CS guys warped in, then we might be in trouble. Maybe they were frantically trying to contact either of the pilots of the two drakes and attempting to form a gang with them and then warp to them? Who knows? Who cares?

'Unbreakable' proved to be very breakable and popped, showering us in debris and bits of killed crew. The last Drake also blew up in a most satisfying explosion. The three new hostiles did not engage but disappeared from Eifer, leaving the field to us. The loot was okay - plenty of ammo mainly.

Our Kills: Brutix, Drake (No 1) and Drake (No 2)

Here's a picture of Yoshi as viewed from his cockpit GUI. He was down to hull and his near full shield was thanks to Krypt. Good job by Yoshi for rolling with us.

Their blob and EWAR is bigger than our blob.

We did eventually engage Capital Storm. It was a well-executed trap with some assistance from the sentry gun fire. Early in the engagement, we saw two Cynabal class cruisers in Gusandall local and we liked that immediately. It was flown by Dohle and Soraji and they moved freely between Eifer and Gusandall. We tracked them and tried to hunt them down but they were good and kept moving. They were also near the Emol gate with Gwendoline buzzing them in her Taranis - goading them into engaging us. We then saw DeltaUK1 in local and knew that there was also now a falcon, lurking and ready to engage. When we see DeltaUK1, there is a good chance that either Miriablis or Solon or Yoriks would be close by. More or less the same bunch we engaged yesterday.

We baited but they were not biting. All we could see were the two-Cynabal cruisers, a hyena and an unknown Cerberus near the gate. Yoshi was scouting in Ingunn and spotted a Rokh but it was unknown whether it was part of the hostile group.

Some 'pleasantries' we're exchanged in local between Dogz and the anti-pies. All fun and banter really, it comes with the territory. We saw two cynabals, a hound and a cerberus camping the gate.

Dogz, in his Typhoon was sick of the waiting in a belt and barelled into the gate with a 'YAAARRR' (or should that be 'LERRRRROOOOOYYYY!!!!'? He was on his own but we couldn't leave him there could we?

"Dogz engaging. Rokh there. Engaging. Yarrrr!!!!"
"All ships warp to Dogz. Primary is Dohle, Secondary is Soraji." I said, confirming the details we discussed before. However, from the reports there were an awful lot of ships there and all hostile. By the time I arrived, I landed in the middle of a much larger than expected fleet. It now included a Rokh (Yoriks), Cynabal (Dohle), Cynabal (Soraji), maelstrom (Miriablis), arazu (tatzu), Hound (Solon), Hyena (Stan G), Cerberus (Gladstone gander) and Falcon (Deltauk1).
"Primary is Soraji. Dohle is too far." It was Dogz, remarkably calm as he was being in the middle of a hostile crowd.
"Roger. Soraji is primary. Chasing." I replied as I hit the micro-warp drive and chased the speedy cruiser. It was down into armour and was racing to get out of scramble range. It was fast and even though I was running at 1000m/s it was moving away from me. It warped away when I was 50km from gate and he was 80km when he warped.
"Crap. Am perma jammed guys." It sounded like Krypt.
"Jammed too." That was Dogz. I desperately hunted for the Falcon and saw it: about 90KM from me. I was then jammed. Deltauk1 was doing his job very well. Too well and the fight had definitely shifted.
"Everyone, disengage and jump. Get out." Our ships all tried to turn but Krypt was in trouble. I watched with alarm as his shields disappeared and then the damage biting deep into his armour.
"Get out Krypt. Get out!"
"Too late. Abandon ship." There was a burst of static. "Krypt is down. Krypt is down."

I warped out as well and the pirates dis-engaged. We lost this one. Krypt was hit by nine ships as they (correctly) primaried his ass. Later in the evening, Dogz once more charged in but got his ship shot out from him by more or less the same group. Details are here. Dogz's single Typhoon versus 3 BS, a falcon and an inty. I didn't even get a chance to change ships before Dogz' ship loss was made known.

Killing that vexor.

Markoh was a vexor pilot. He was ratting in Eifer when I found him in my rifter. The first time, I locked him he was out of the belt and in a safe before I could complete my lock. The second time, same belt. I tackled him and was bracing myself for drones when he warped out. Damn, he was stabbed up. I waited until my GCC was gone then fitted x2 20km disruptors and a mwd. I had a nos in the high and knew that cap management would be crucial in the fight. In a T1 rifter with definite cap problems tackling a vexor would be a challenge. I had more experience but a vexor normally eats any frigate for a snack.

I waited for my GCC to expire and refitted the x2 20km disruptors. Cap hungry devices and it is nor recommended that you fit even one let alone two onto a frigate. Oh well, needs must.

The pilot was moving between the three belts in the V cluster. He was back there again, ratting. Hasn't he learnt his lesson? I thought. I adjusted the scanner to give me the best resolution and pinned him down to V-3. I had to be sure and panned the scanner around to make sure he was not above or below the beacon for V-3. Indeed, he wasn't and I warped into the belt.

You know the feeling when the GUI takes a second or so longer to load? You know it's slowed down by the extra information it will be presenting to you. Such joy; I thought. Such joy. I landed and yes, there was the vexor. I hit both warp disruptors on and had 2points on him from 20-odd km away. A minute or so later, the vexor was a wreck with the bloodied, frozen remains of the pilot in my cargo hold.

Love it.

2008.01.07 22:44

Victim: Markoh
Alliance: None
Corp: Federal Navy Academy
Destroyed: Vexor
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 10252

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: None
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 5993

Name: Angel Crusher / Archangels
Damage Done: 4259


Destroyed items:

Salvager I
150mm Railgun I
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 153
10MN Afterburner I
Medium Shield Extender I
Medium I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator
Damage Control I
ECCM - Ladar I (Cargo)
Tracking Disruptor I (Cargo)
LiF Fueled I Booster Rockets (Cargo)
Plutonium Charge S, Qty: 568 (Cargo)
Burned Logic Circuit, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator (Cargo)
Small Shield Booster I (Cargo)
Peripheral Weapon Navigation Diameter (Cargo)
1MN Afterburner I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Armor Plates (Cargo)
Small Hull Repairer I (Cargo)
Smashed Trigger Unit, Qty: 5 (Cargo)
Vespa I (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

150mm Railgun I
150mm Railgun I
150mm Railgun I
Supplemental Screen Generator I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Standard Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Alloyed Tritanium Bar, Qty: 5 (Cargo)
Metal Scraps, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
ECCM - Ladar I (Cargo)
Charred Micro Circuit, Qty: 11 (Cargo)
Stasis Webifier I (Cargo)
650mm Artillery Cannon I (Cargo)
Warp Disruptor I (Cargo)
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 3360 (Cargo)
Assault Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Guristas Silver Tag (Cargo)
1MN MicroWarpdrive I (Cargo)
Fried Interface Circuit, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
Defective Current Pump (Cargo)
Contaminated Nanite Compound (Cargo)
Vespa I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Hammerhead I (Drone Bay)

Hunting down a manticore isn't easy!

The hunting is the main thing, the chase, the scan, the anticipation and then the pounce. Especially, if one is chasing something that is designed to be stealthy and hidden; chasing it down is even harder but when (if) you get the kill - it does taste so sweet. So here I was in Eifer once more and the Independence channel had many new faces in it. Very happy to see old and new pilots alike and oddly, no Black-Flag pilots this time round.


I welcome all new pilots to the channel, so long as they are loyal to the Gank - then all is ok. MattCaladan and Nova Blackadder were in the channel and in local and we were hunting down some innocent pilots, completely oblivious to their imminent, fiery demise.

Spotting a thrasher - both Nova and I vectored to it. Due to a mix up, Nova warped and arrived at one cluster and I, at another. I was lucky. The thrasher was there, hovering over the still sparkling wreck of a destroyed Angel cruiser. No doubt, he was eager looting and salvaging the wreck. There is much money to be made.

Unfortunately for me, I had landed about 45km and was slamming my assault frigate into a tight turn and screaming towards him, afterburners pushing the weak-looking frame to its limits. I prayed to the various Gods to mask me, to make me swift like a hunting hawk, for a wave of confusion to confound him. My sudden appearance in his immediate vicinity must have given him a fright however, as he tore his thrasher-class destroyer out of the belt within a few seconds.

Disappointed, I tracked his ship and saw it was heading towards a gate.

Having some experience, I waited. No point in giving chase, I could at least check the wrecks. In the back of my mind, I also knew that for many pilots - losing a wreck or interrupting their salvage produces an almost irrestible urge to return. Sometimes within minutes. I have hunted prey like this for years. Patience I said to myself as I busied over the still smouldering wreck of another Angel cruiser. My automated salvage units removed some useful ammunition but that was all.

Glancing down at my system scanner, it was empty. No matter, I pulsed the engines and drifted quietly to the second of the Angel wrecks.

"Patience", I said, "patience."

Reaching the second, I checked the scanner. There was a blip. It was the thrasher and it was back and close by. Grinning, I had a familiar feeling building up inside me, a tingling and sharpening of my senses. Combat was imminent.

No doubt, the thrasher pilot had warped back to the planet and was scanning the belts and must have caught the tell-tale return of my wolf-class assault frigate. He also probably thought that his thrasher should be able to shred me and in some cases, I agree - if the thrasher could control the range of the engagement.

The thrasher came in and landed close to the wrecks - clever boy, he had bookmarked the wrecks before leaving. However, it meant he was now 2km from me. This was my kill-range and nothing dishes out pain like a fully-locked and loaded Wolf-class assault frigate.

On came the disruptor, pulsing and wrecking his warp core containment fields. My four T2 200mm ACs spat death in the form of EMP and Hail. Screaming and tearing into the shields of the thrasher. However, the destroyer replied in kind - it's eight turrets boomed out, and hit my wolf head on. I had zero transversal and took the full brunt of an eight-artillery barrage.

No matter. Shields and armour be damned. I wanted the kill and my third salvo punched into the hull and exploded the destroyer. He should have fitted auto-canons; he may have killed me sooner. I gleefully tracked the pod and killed the pilot. Disdaining the need to ransom him. Wasn't in the mood today. I looted the wreck and collected the sad looking remains of the pod pilot.

Throughout this fight, I was also aware that there was a manticore stealth bomber in the system. Chances are, the stealthy craft may have been tracking and watching me. Matt and Nova meanwhile, were doing their level best in tracking the manticore as well. I zipped to one of my usually scan spots and with one scan narrowed him down to a belt. Surely not?

I informed Nova and Matt to align to my ship when I was nearing the belt. Would the pilot be so bold I thought? Ever if i couldn't lock him, I would at least be able to identify the pilot.

"Align." I said in the Independence channel and I recieved affirmations from them both.

Coming out of warp, thin gossamer plasma streams trailing off my ship, my eyes spotted the distinctive, boxy shape of the Caldari stealth bomber. Instantly, I mentally ordered the targetting computer to lock onto the bomber. However, the computer was still re-aligning itself after it's journey through warp space and failed, I ordered it to lock, again and again as I also toggled the afterburner and my weapons to 'insta-fire' mode. My anger was rising as the computer failed to lock for the third time. The fourth attempt the targetting cursor was blinking steadily and in a second I had a lock. I was 25km away and my disruptor failed. I drew closer and the stealth bomber pivoted and started to move away. 24km and I wished I had fitted an expensive tech 2 warp disruptor. 23km and the stealth bomber melted away.

It had cloaked.

Cursing, I pushed my ship to it's last known location and proceeded to do a series of high speed orbits around him. Hoping to crash into him. However, it was no good. He had gone. I had no idea if he was in the belt, above me, below me or alongside me. No idea at all. I left the belt and went to a safe spot. At least I knew who the pilot was: 'MU Kurlyz'. I decided to access his Concord pilot profile. This happened a couple of times, coming close, so close. Frustrating.

Matt and Nova were still around. The manticore had re-appeared and both Matt and Nova zipped off to various belts to try and flush him out. It was an admirable effort and I was grateful for their work rate. Both would become good pirates given time. MU Kurlyz left local, probably wanting to avoid the attention of Matt and Nova. I checked his last known location and decided he went back to Gusandall and proceeded to go there with Matt and Nova holding station in Eifer.

Back in Gusandall, the local space was busy and yes, the manticore was back and on scan. Was he baiting me? I scanned him down to another belt and I banked on him warping not to 0km but a bit off it. Maybe I could get lucky? I warped in, modules toggled to 'insta-fire' mode. Bursting out of warp, I had caught the tell-tale trailers of a recently exited ship. He was in the VI-I belt. I spun the ship round and went to this belt. Cat and mouse indeed.

Exiting warp, I saw the stealth bomber but maybe he miscalculated as he was only 6km from me! I had to get an active lock and hit him with something to disable his cloak. Once again, the computer had problems with the target acquisition. Damn these old, useless Minmatar computers! Why not the latest Gallente or stolen Caldari technology?

The cursor then became a solid and I had a solid lock. It also told me that the manticore had done the same. My weapons and disruptor came on just as his heavy missiles slammed into my ship knocking it sideways. My systems blanked out for a second but the tough, no nonsense Minmatar chips refused to die and maintained lock. A more sophisticated computer would have rebooted. The EMP shells (I had switched all the ammunitions to the EMP variety) obliterated the manticore's shields in my first salvo. I had no shield left and the second missile salvo took me down to 85% armour. It was so quick that I had no time to even activate the armour repairer. However, we build our ships tough - unlike the now shield-less Manticore. The EMP munition, while designed to be anti-shield was still effective agains the thin armour of the Caldari and I was shocked to see the last shell of the second salvo blow the ship to smithereens.

Get the fecking pod! I thought to myself as I tried to lock the blinking egg-like capsule however, MU Kurlyz had already activated his drives and was gone.

In less than 8 seconds, the fight was over. The manticore now a unrecognised wreck amidst an expanding sphere of debris. Matt and Nova came in to help but the warp itself took over ten seconds so they missed out. I checked the loot and was delighted to see a Tech 2 Raltech Hidden-Eye Advanced Covert-Ops Cloaking device and a Tech 2 ballistic control unit.

Nice score.

There was also a large amount of Caldari Navy Issue Scourge missiles - I left them for Matt and Nova to pick up. I said 'Good fight' to the pilot but he had already left the system. No matter, the chase was thrilling and I love New Eden.

Concord fired off an evemail confirming the kill.

2007.12.03 19:09

Victim: MU Kurlyz
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Project Rain
Destroyed: Manticore
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Wolf
Weapon: 150mm Light AutoCannon II


Destroyed items:

'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
'Arbalest' Cruise Launcher I
Cap Recharger II
75mm Compressed Coil Gun I
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Cap Recharger II, Qty: 4 (Cargo)
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile, Qty: 23
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 199

Nano-ishtars are a real pain.

Just wanted to check skills when I call rang out in the independence channel. It was Grunanaca, now flying under a new pirate flag: BL4CK FL4G and he needed help.

"Get your 'cane! Eifer. Enemy 'cane." He said, tersely. I checked my chrono and found that yes, indeed, I had exactly 32 minutes before a meeting so I undocked in my hurricane. It still had damage from that megathron engagement last night.

I joined fleet and found that Jack'Frost was also a member of BL4CK FL4G and there is an open offer for me to join them. An offer as I have mentioned in a previous blog, that I will take up - just not yet as I needed some time to fix the corp and move stuff around. But soon.

The fleet had an enyo (Jack'Frost), rapier (Grunanca) and my 'cane. More than enough to kill a single 'cane. As I jumped into the system, I discovered that the pilot ('Jiam') was from Nebula Rasa alliance, an entity whom we had some dealings with in the past. It was moving around and re-aligning so the pilot was skillful enough to know not to sit in one place for too long.

However, they had not figured on our tackler: Grunanca soon had a lock and vectored us in. As soon as I arrived, I found the hurricane was double-webbed by the rapier and taking fire from the recon and also fire from Jack'Frost's enyo. As soon as I arrived, I was chosen as primary by the 'cane. A sensible move since I was the biggest and probably the easiest to hit.

The fight was one-sided with only us the victors. Jiam had a good tank on the 'cane but as it entered hull, we all prepared to snag the pod. As a reminder to all to get some points on the soon-to-emerge hull would be the capsule. Jiam was a veteran and we would ransom him. I reminded everyone about the pod. Soon after, the battlecruiser exploded and the pod was visible. Jack'Frost was the only one who could realistically tackle the pod and he did and then podded the pilot.

Ah.

There was a comms breakdown as we wanted to ransom the pilot, as someone of his age would a) have money and b) probably have implants that he would like to keep.

No big deal however.

However, a known Anti-pirate came into the local system and tracked us down. He was in an ishtar and could anyone get close to him? Could we hell. Instead, the ishtar spewed out deadly T2 drones and tried to chew us up. He succeeded in destroying Nframa (rifter) who came in soon afterwards but was unceremoniously sent back in a pod to the nearby station.

A real pain but kudos to the pilot who knew what he was doing.

Next time we'll have to get our rapier on him.

Skigannon came back.

Jubes and I tackled Skigannon, once again in his ishtar. Jubes went in first and tackled then called me in. Mid-way through warp I saw 'gf' from Skigannon.

I mean, WTF? I thought to myself.

On arrival, Jubes' hurricane-class battlecruiser (a dual rep active tank setup) was not there, just a smoking wreck. Drones were buzzing around and I was a tad worried, I locked and webbed Skigannon and was disappointed to see that the majority of the shields were still there and his armour was untouched.

Oh dear i thought.

No matter, I had Hail M loaded, not the best choice against shields but Jubes did cause enough damage that my drones managed to strip off the remaining shields quickly enough. My 425mm ACs (refitted from the usual dual-180mm ACs) opened up with a furious barrage. Hail M is a real motherfucker of an ammo, specialised yes, but it was perfect for this engagement: short and sweet. No tracking issues (due to both of us being webbed) and no running either.

However, Skigannon's drones (ogre IIs) ripped my shield to pieces and I was toggling first one and then both MAR IIs to keep my hull safe. However, his armour was being blasted off too - and from memory, he had only one MAR II and a Med Capacitor Booster in place. I was hoping that I would be on top. His armour disappeared before his MAR could cycle and his was in hull. The Hail ammo absolutely ate into him while I was tanking with about 55% armour and holding.

Skigannon's Ishtar went down to 50% and yes, it seemed to be just sitting there, I had this horrible feeling once more but the Gods of wars were with me and his hull popped. I snapped the scrambler towards the pod but he insta-warped out of there.

I grabbed all the surviving mods from Jubes' wreck and what was left from Skigannon. Once more, I congratulated Skigannon on what I think is the best Ishtar fit I have seen. Over the last two engagements, I have managed to get an idea on what his low-slot fit might be.

Killed some goons

Was hoping to jump to Molden Heath for some action when an impromptu gang was formed with Jubes, Viper Sam, Rhyko and ImYourNightmare. There appeared to be some Goons in local and while I respect them and wish them the best against GBC down South, a target is a target. So am in wolf and join the gang, eager for the kill. It would be an uneven fight in terms of numbers, as MDK187 only had one more gang mate (Dynamic Man in local) - we had four but what fights are equal? This wasn't a duel but an ambush / gank and we wanted to guarantee a kill. However, this Goon corp (Battlestars) had been in Eifer earlier and had scored hits. See this link. So they were out and about and all power to them.

The gang, having formed took some time to locate the target as MDK187 was moving in and out of low-sec. Us pirates couldn't move out after him due to the unpleasant gate guns, so we waited.

ImYourNightmare called us in however once he managed to engage MDK187. Nightmare was in his hurricane-class battlecruiser and man, can that baby tank. I have no idea what he has on that puppy but I want to know! We engaged the myrmidon and blasted it to scrap. Dynamic Man can roaring into the fight to help his fellow Goon and his Pilgrim clamped it's neutralisers onto the slab-shaped hurricane. Jubes (rupture), Viper Same (stabber) and I (wolf) kept on the primary target of the myrmidon but I switched my warp scrambler onto the newly arrived pilgrim. Can't be having that tasty looking ship escape now can we?

The myrmidon, mighty as it was, held on bravely but ultimately - it popped under the furious onslaught. I was in two-minds whether to snag and pod the capsule but I didn't want to lose the point on the pilgrim. I had no indication that anyone else had a point so did not want to risk it. MDK187 warped away.

The pilgrim, feared as it was, stood no chance against the four remaining ships and it was dismantled in short order, blowing up in a glorious burst of light and sound. I snagged and podded Dynamic Man since no fight would be complete without the lovely squishy sound of a pod being ripped open and it's organic contents flash-freezing in the vacuum. The gang did not agree, prior to the fight on whether we should ransom the Goons so the default option was to kill them.

'GF' was exchanged but MDK187 was a little sore complaining about the 4 v 2 they had. No fights are fair and to be honest, ImYourNightmare could have probably taken both the myrmidon and the pilgrim solo, such was his tank.

MDK187 promised to come back. I can't wait.

The loot was decent but it's about the thrill of the fight for me.

My reputation and a ransomed drake......

This is so funny, one of my past victims went looking for me and renamed his ship to reflect it's deadly new purpose. Unfortunately, it does look a bit confusing: is it MY revenge? I think it should have been called something like: 'Revenge on Flashfresh'......

LOL anyways.



Rifter gangs are deadly and with a gang of four: me, Jubes, Silvaran and Nozaro we felt like having some fun. We tracked down a number of ships and in Eifer we got lucky: Jubes had tracked a Drake-class battle cruiser. The rest of the rifter gang made their way towards Jubes who was busy scanning it down.

'Target scanned down. I am moving in' Declared Nozaro as the rest of the gang aligned towards their gang mate. A few precious seconds trickled by and then the announcement.
'X' – the signal for the gang to warp in.

As one, the three remaining rifters all swung round and accelerated into warp space; eager to join their companion in the kill. I popped out into warp and landed 3km from the slab-shaped drake-class battle cruiser. It was webbed and being pummelled by the other rifters. I locked, webbed and scrambled.

'2 points on the drake.' Announced Jubes.
'1 point on the drake.' Declared Silvaran.
'2 points from me.' Replied Nozaro.
'2 points.' I said. The Drake was well and truly locked down. It was also webbed but it did have a nice shield tank. I switched to EMP ammo to ensure maximum EM damage and my other gang mates did likewise. The drake's shields shifted only a little bit but it was going down. It was hurling heavy missiles at us, Nazor taking the brunt of the damage.

After a few minutes, Nozaro was declaring that she might have to bail out due to the damage – she wanted to save her ship. However, we were getting on top of the drake – the shield tank had disappeared and we were now eagerly chewing into it's armour relentlessly.

As a group we decided that we should ransom the drake pilot for a nice sum of lovely isk and I was asked to do the honours. All the while the gang kept firing and tearing off flaming chunks of Caldari armour. The pilot ensnared was called Azzail.

flashfresh > Hallo
Azzail > lo
flashfresh > Please jettison your cargo
flashfresh > Now
flashfresh > All of it. we've scanned you.
Azzail > u cant carry it all!
flashfresh > doesn't matter we have haulers en route
flashfresh > 50million isk to let you go
flashfresh > Now.

Azzail paused as he considered the generous offer, meanwhile he was down to 10% and in danger of hull breach.

Azzail > 30 mil

Wrong move.

flashfresh > 55 million. You are in no position to bargain.
flashfresh > I raise each time you bargain with me. So don't bargain and accept the offer.

The rifters kept up the barrage. No help was incoming to the drake but we didn't want to waste time. The drake was losing armour fast.

Azzail > 50 then!!!!
flashfresh > 55 now. Remember, don't bargain with me.

I kept an eye on the target readout and saw the drake's hull drop alarmingly fast, if he wasn't going to pay the ransom soon – he was going to pop. I composed a ceasefire message to the rest of the gang and made it ready to send as soon as I saw the welcome blinking of the wallet. Didn't want the welcome addition of isk and then for us to kill the poor chap! Reputations mean everything.

Still, he did not pay up. He was going to die. Come on,

Azzail- pay up!
Azzail > there!
Azzail > i paid!

His ship was now on fire and he was cutting things fine. I checked my wallet and there was the welcome addition of 55, 000, 000 isk deposited. In the gang chat, I yelled out:

flashfresh > STOP. STOP. STOP.
flashfresh > Disengage, ransom paid. All scatter and rendezvous.There was much yarring and cheering in the gang chat. Nice amount of iskies!!!

We let Azzail go and wished him God's speed and for him to safely go on his way. He was a good sport and no smack. He left immediately and high tailed it into Empire Space.
Feeling jubiliant we then tracked down a bellicose. It had a very tough shield tank but the four rifters ripped it to pieces. The pilot did skilfully deploy and scoop up his drones in order to save them but our auto canons killed his ship in short order.
We failed to get the pod as the pilot instawarped out of there and the loot was not too great.

Still, the killmail was important!

The day for me ended with my rifter being blasted apart by the fastest locking hurricane I have seen so far.

Well done Evel2k....

Yaarrrr - back

Been away from EVE for too long in RL (ok, a week!) so it is good to be back. I had some long skill training anyways and it is almost done. That makes me happy.

So what has happened?

1. All of my sell orders have been sold and netting me a cool 23 million. Loot FTW.
2. Lucius Cain has joined up with the Blood Corsair's and left Heimatar (Good Luck Luc!)
3. Malevolent (ex- Blackfleet) has left Heimatar region - I think.
4. Ingunn has more sweat shop haulers than I have toes and fingers.
5. Realised that while hopelessly addicted to EVE; I really enjoyed (nay, loved) my time off. It sharpens the EVE appetite in my view.

Without my ado, I jumped into my Jag and was instantly convo'ed in the Independence channel by a few recognised faces. They wanted a rifter gang and we were to head in to Eifer as there was a Stabber fleet issue and a myrmidon for the picking. Now x4 rifters can do damage but against a myrmidon? A stabber (fleet issue or otherwise) would be possible but both?

Still, I have thrown myself into worse situations and got into the jaguar and joined the gang. Into Eifer and yes, indeed - Myrmidon and stabber to name two. Unknown to me, I was made gang leader that included RailDuke, Jubes and Nozarro. We scanned and tracked the ships down and I gang warped to the top belt. Note: I had only just logged in about 120 seconds ago after a week of being away from EVE.

Bursting from warp, we landed close to the myrmidon. I webbed, scrambled and kicked off the weapons at the hulking battlecruiser. My overview updated and x5 drones came out - and they targeted me. Then horrors! My GUI was stuck, I tried to web the drones but the nothing was happening. I started to activate / de-activate the modules but nothing was happening. Gang chat was not updating either and I feared the worst. I started to hit the warp to option and after a minute, I spotted the dreaded 'Ship is out of Control' then my GUI was disconnected....and I was presented with the logging in screen.

ARgghhghghgh!!

Logging back in, I found that I had indeed lost the Jaguar but was not podded. Embarrassingly, I had to ask the chaps on the killmail if I had managed to hit them!

LOL.

Anyways, losing the jaguar hurt but what the hell! I grabbed a spare rifter and was back in the black....and instantly scanned down another rifter that was ratting. I popped him in two volleys and killed him. I wanted to hurt someone so I did.

Does that make me a bad person?

More kills

Yaarrrr.

Some joint kills.


2007.02.24 15:59

Victim: Immortal Spirit
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Angel Ruffian / Archangels

Name: Lucius Cain
Security: -9.9
Alliance: Pandemic Legion
Corp: SniggWaffe
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: Rupture

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Dual 180mm AutoCannon I

Name: Revivor
Security: -3.8
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter


Destroyed items:

280mm Carbine Howitzer I
280mm Carbine Howitzer I
Civilian Armor Repairer
Phased Plasma S, Qty: 1810 (Cargo)
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Standard Missile Launcher I (Cargo)
Arch Angel Nuclear S, Qty: 958 (Cargo)
Domination Silver Tag (Cargo)
F-S8 Relativistic Deflection Shield Induction (Cargo)
Arch Angel Nuclear S, Qty: 7

2007.02.24 23:20

Victim: Lykhej
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Stabber
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: 125mm Gatling AutoCannon II

Name: Angel Predator / Archangels


Destroyed items:

10MN Afterburner I
200mm AutoCannon I
Angel Ship Log 174132231 (Cargo)
Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 200 (Cargo)
Fusion S, Qty: 44
Fusion S, Qty: 3

Ferox kill

Still flushed from the success of taking out the Hurricanes, I wanted more. As soon as I logged there was a gang that had already formed to hunt BlackFleet pilots. I was in Eifer and there were some [M W] and [RLE] pilots as well as the usual independent contractors. Lucius was in his rupture and Revivor in his rifter. I piloted the stabber and Lucius had got the attention of a BlackFleet Ferox and had him pinned at the Gusandall side of the Eifer stargate. We all jumped and quickly engaged the two Blackfleet pilots. I aimed my stabber at the ferocious ferox and hit it with the NOS and the four dual-180mm Autocannos. The sprang to life and started to spit out EMP shells out in a satisfyingly fast stream. They flared off the ferox's shield and combined with the firepower of the other gang, ate into the armour of the ferox. It was blasted into scrap.

A second Blackfleet Vexor was sitting there - the pilot was relatively new and had a positive security rating and was protected by the sentry guns. I didn't care as I turned on the NOS and the four dual-180mm autocannons, still hot from the previous exchange.

As soon as I opened fire, the automated response from the sentry gun controller informed me that they would take action against me. By the time the sentence was completed, the vexor was down to armour. I started to align to my safe spot as I needed to perform a quick getaway. The sentry gun muzzle's flashed and lasers and projectiles screamed towards me. The first salvo missed me as I continued to pummel the vexor. The vexor pilot, either too surprised or scared didn't do anything. At least he was smart enough not to fire.

The sentry guns recalibrated for me and then started to score hits, small at first but increasing the damage with each second. The vexor was down to less than 40% armour when I hit the warp engines. He was down to 20% armour when I warped out.


I had 10% hull left.

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/flashfresh/10_structure.JPG

However, we made the ferox kill and it was good.

2007.02.24 16:20

Victim: Irish Whiskey
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Black Fleet
Destroyed: Ferox
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Zombieee (laid the final blow)
Security: -0.9
Alliance: Eastern Star Federation
Corp: Metal Winter
Ship: Megathron
Weapon: 425mm Compressed Coil Gun I

Name: Lucius Cain
Security: -9.9
Alliance: Pandemic Legion
Corp: SniggWaffe
Ship: Rupture
Weapon: Dual 180mm AutoCannon I

Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Stabber
Weapon: Stabber

Name: Revivor
Security: -4.6
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Warp Scrambler I



I waited out my criminal flag and docked.

Called it a day.

You win some and you lose some.....

Got another consignment of punishers.....I can't seem to get rid of them it would seem, so I went rummaging around the hangar and found enough bits and pieces to make another bleeder setup. I made a change and dropped a CPR for a damage control unit. I never seem to run out of cap before I die so why not make some changes? I also experimented with a few changes to the low slots but settled on the DCU variant.

Other setups (all variations in the low slots) included:

Variation one: x2 CPR, x1 200mm steel plate, x1 SAR
The standard Bleeder setup. Not bad but difficult against fast damaging opponents.

Variation two: x1 CPR, x1 200mm steel plate, x1 Damage Control Unit, x1 SAR
Dropping a CPR lowers the cap recharge rate but the DCU is very useful increasing the resists across the board.

Variation three: x1 CPR, x2 200mm Steel plate, x1 SAR
Increases the armour HP to 1500 and with the high resists; means it is a hard tanker.

Suitably tanked up I ventured out into my hunting grounds and stalked it. A few minutes later a rupture came into local. Oh yes, my heart beat faster as I checked out the information on the pilot. Still a RMS graduate but has been with them now for ten months. My goodness, is he having learning problems?

I wanted to test out the Bleeder against the rupture so was super-keen to take him out. It took me a few jumps before I found him, he left a trail of wrecks behind him so was easy to follow. I landed at 9Km from him and proceeded the scramble cycle. We exchanged fire but I then noticed that he was moving away from me: 1km, 3km, 5km - shite; he had a mwd installed and was pulling away from me. Partly my fault as I wasn't paying enough attention but I didn't want to get into a flat out race as my traversal would drop too low and his howitzers would tear me apart. I tried to re-orbit him but it was no good. From range, he started to hit while my trusty 200mm ACs failed to reach him.


Gah. I warped out and had to rethink my strategy. However, he left the system soon afterwards and I couldnot follow due to my criminal flag. Next time I need to be smarter as the bleeder doesn't have any webbers to slow fast ships down.

LC was busy in 0.0 with his corp mates but Revivor was back in town. I hooked up with her and we went hunting in Eifer. Local was busy and within a few moments, a rifter pilot - all cocky offered us a 1 v 1. Rozalina was her name and I admired her courage. Revivor and myself were hunting Rozalina, Underundertaker and threesixone but they were buzzing around the system like flies around crap.

We opted to wait for them to jump into a belt where we would be waiting. Within a few minutes, theesixone came screaming into the warp-in point in a freshly built rifter. Revivor and I proceeded to tear it to scrap. Revivor also podded the unlucky pilot.


2007.02.20 23:46

Victim: threesixone
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Revivor
Security: -2.5
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Phalanx Rocket

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Destroyed items:

150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun
150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun
150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun
Civilian Armor Repairer
Civilian Shield Booster I
Civilian Shield Booster I
EMP S, Qty: 71


Hmm decent weapons but a civilian shield booster doesn't cut it I'm afraid. Not local was down to two other pilots and Rozalina was asking (nay, demanding) that we meet her at a belt for some fisticuffs. I decided to warp to a scan spot first just to make sure all was ok. Revivor on the other hand leapt straight into belt IV-4 with a war cry.

She was jumped on by the remaining rifters so I turned round and went to help. Revivor was doing well but her shields were down. I locked underundertakers (also in a rifer) and proceeded to take her shields down. The 200mmACs spat EMP death and stripped her shields. Meanwhile, Revivor, who had targetted both Rozalina and Underundertaker knocked Rozalina's rifter out of the fight - Rozalina's pod popped out and blinking and just asking to be podded but no-one did the honours. I was too busy with underundertaker's rifter.

Her shields and armour disappeared quickly enough but it was then when I zoomed out a bit that I noticed a third rifter in the belt. Obviously, having just warped in and it went for the nearest pirate: Revivor. I heard her say someothing and then she was in a pod.

I quickly dispatched Underundertaker and scrambled the pod. Meanwhile, I had to quickly acquire the new target: another rifter piloted by Nak Nok. Not taking any chances I started to fire on Nak Nok with two of the 200mm ACs and the third 200mm AC was used to blow Underundertaker back to the cloning vats.

2007.02.20 23:52

Victim: underundertakers
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Revivor
Security: -3.4
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Phalanx Rocket

Name: Angel Defacer / Archangels

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

2007.02.20 23:54

Victim: underundertakers
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher

With Underundertaker duly dispatched, I concentrated on Nak Nok's rifter. It could hit hard and I suspected he was using Tech 2 ammo. Certainly my armour was protesting under the barrage. However, my tank held - and so did his but only for a minute. My 200mm ACs consistently scored hits on him, even without a webber and the NOS was adding more cap to my reserves while depleting his.

Nak Nok's tank was good though - probably some tech 2 stuff there too?

I controlled my cap flow and managed to get on top of the damage. Nak Nok's tank eventually broke (ran out of cap?) and my EMP rounds drilled into his hull. His ship exploded in a satisfying burst of light and debris - the scraps sparking off my remaining shields and armour. I quickly tried to acquire the pod as such a good fight deserved to end in a podding.

Nak Nok was good though and his capsule zipped off before I could even finish the lock cycle.

Checking the kill mail and all was revealed:

2007.02.20 23:54

Victim: Nak Nok
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Twisted Individuals
Destroyed: Rifter
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Revivor
Security: -3.5
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Ship: Capsule
Weapon: Rocket Launcher I

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Destroyed items:

EMP S, Qty: 2372 (Cargo)
Power Diagnostic System I
Power Diagnostic System I
1MN Afterburner I
Barrage S, Qty: 1378 (Cargo)
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
150mm Light AutoCannon II
Shield Power Relay I
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler I
Barrage S, Qty: 52
Barrage S, Qty: 52

Tech II 150mm with barrage s and a big shield tank. Nice.


I looted what I could and collected the bodies.

Revivor then had to log - she only came on to check skills and ended up with two kills to her name and a lot of fun!

Later on in the evening - I spotted Dakker (MW) in local and we said hi. Have tangled with his corp and his predecessor corp (RLE) but they are a good bunch. He safe spotted while I went hunting for a thrasher that was ratting in Eifer.

Eifer is a big system with lot of belts, some of which are outside of scan range. Makes a challenge to get pilots. However, Bariaur (RMS) in his thrasher was trying to be careful as he knew there were other pilots around. I located him in belt V-3 and zipped in; my heart hammering and the adrenaline pumping through me. The thrill of chasing down a kill is still there, as intense as ever.

Bariaur's thrasher was a mixed AC and howie setup - not much of a pain but he was fast. The Bleeder came in, plasma trailing off it's sleek body from the warp tunnel and locked the thrasher. I hit the afterburner as soon as the navigation computer could align itself. I then pushed the punisher into a high-g 1000m orbit and started up the 200mm ACs.

The destroyer's shields soon fell to the trusty EMP shells. I wanted t get into his armour and chew into his hull. The bloodlust was on me and there was to be no mercy. His ACs scored hits on me but this is where the Bleeder's tanking ability and high resists came into it's own. The key
to the Bleeder is that it is hard to hit due to its size but if it does get hit: the high resists should reduce most of the damage. Finally, even if there's damage the SAR can be run almost indefinitely. Only issue with the bleeder is that it's damage is slow over time. I like to alpha-strike my targets. Fighting for a long time in a busy system is asking for trouble.

I took Bariaur down to hull and popped the ship. Bariaur pod was scrambled but he couldn't pay a ransom so he was popped.

We continued to chat once he recloned and swapped notes.

The kill mail:

2007.02.21 00:12

Victim: Bariaur
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Thrasher
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Name: Angel Depredator / Archangels


Destroyed items:

250mm Light Artillery Cannon I
Damage Control I
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 1137 (Cargo)
250mm Light Artillery Cannon I
125mm Gatling AutoCannon I
250mm Light Artillery Cannon I
250mm Light Artillery Cannon I
Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 575 (Cargo)
Angel Bronze Tag, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Small Energy Transfer Array I (Cargo)
Small Hull Repairer I (Cargo)


2007.02.21 00:13

Victim: Bariaur
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Meanwhile, a cyclone had appeared in local. I initiated chat with Dakker and asked if he wanted to hunt the cyclone down. We agreed on a truce and went after the battlecruiser. Dakker made contact first and I followed but I landed 48KM away. Dakker didn't have a scrambler and the cyclone managed to warp out.

Ach.

We hunted the cyclone over the next few minutes but a Myrmidon came into the fray. Ah, so things were getting complicated. We finally locked down the cyclone and proceeded into him. The Cyclone had problems hitting the rifter and the punisher but we could hit him.

We had him!

However, the myrmidon came into the fray. I warped out while Dakker stayed. A few nervous minutes passed and Dakker informed me that Taxus ( the myrmidon pilot) was so-far, neutral. I warped back in and landed on top of the Cyclone pilot (called Briaritus).

We killed him quickly, as the myrmidon had tech 2 drones. As soon as Briaritus cyclone popped- the Myrmidon turned on me! I was scrambled and his drones then proceeded to tear the punisher to pieces. Even before the damage reached the hull I was attempting to warp out.

The Punisher was shattered into small pieces under the combined firepower of the Myrmidon's 425mm autocanon II (yes, ACs) and his tech 2 drones. I warped out - so much for Taxus and his myrmidon being neutral.

Briaritus was podded and Dakker also lost his ship. Taxus had a good night.

2007.02.21 00:58

Victim: flashfresh
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Destroyed: Punisher
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Taxus (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.2
Alliance: The Guardian Coalition
Corp: Soliders Of Eve
Ship: Myrmidon
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II


The kill mail for Briaritus:

2007.02.21 01:07

Victim: Briaritus
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Republic Military School
Destroyed: Cyclone
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: Taxus (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.2
Alliance: The Guardian Coalition
Corp: Soliders Of Eve
Ship: Myrmidon
Weapon: Berserker I

Name: dakker
Security: -1.6
Alliance: Eastern Star Federation
Corp: Metal Winter
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Phalanx Rocket

Name: flashfresh
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Punisher

Destroyed items:

Medium Peroxide I Capacitor Power Cell
Alpha Hull Mod Inertial Stabilizers
ECM - White Noise Generator I (Cargo)
Miner I (Cargo)
Dual 180mm AutoCannon I (Cargo)
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I (Cargo)
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron (Cargo)
Depleted Uranium M, Qty: 31

I lost the loot from the thrasher but no matter. It was a good night and with the adrenaline still coursing through my veins I called it a night.

Valentine Day's Surprise

Not much love this time round. Black Fleet have decided to park themselves in Gusandall and one pilot just talks and talks and talks. Gah, gives me a headache!!!

However, Auren was a bit quieter and I was stalking two ships (vexor and rupture) there. The rupture was piloted by an old victim (Tazit1z) and I called in Lucius for assistance. It was a game of cat and mouse for ages though with new pilots coming in frequently. It was clear the two Moon Hawk Corporation pilots were ratting as they left wrecks all over the place; however each time me and Lucius were too slow. The vexor was the most dangerous ship with its myriad of drones but a challenge is a challenge. The vexor pilot was also at least six months old so had decent skills we think.

Finally, local cleared down to only four pilots (me, Lucius, Taz and his mate) and Taz made a mistake and ended up in a belt - his mate warped off to another part of the system so LC and I made our move. I arrived first and landed 6KM away - excellent! My heart thumping - I locked on and hit the scrambler. Then I started to loose off EMP roounds. LC came screaming in a second later and his T2 ACs spat death.

Amazingly, the rupture did not have drones.

We tore into the rupture and laughed as Taz' mate LEFT local, leaving Taz on his own! He was toast and begged us to stop but he was already in structure and soon popped.

BoomYah.

But the rat got the kill mail - a freaking Angel frigate decided to get involved and boom. Landed the killing blow. We got the pod however.

2007.02.14 16:37

Victim: tazit1z
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Moon Hawks
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Auren
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Name: Lucius Cain
Security: -9.9
Alliance: Pandemic Legion
Corp: SniggWaffe
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Warp Scrambler I

Later on in the evening I was back on in Gusandall having made a 14-jump journey and it yielding no kills. Gusandall was full of Black Fleet pilots (again) but there were a handful of other non-aligned pilots. I spotted one in a Thrasher and decided he was a good target but he was a slippery chap.....

I went into the Angel plex but it was empty except of wrecks and I lacked the key to move to the next level. It was then that I spotted a new pilot....in a retriever come into local. With a manic laugh, I hit the jump drive. Just as I was leaving, another red blinky came into the complex in a merlin. It was Geigher (-9.6) and I had my eye on him. Better he stay out of my way and no funny business.

I landed in the first of three target belts but the retriever was nowhere to be seen. Frustratingly, he was still on scanner and I managed to eventually land on him. On came the scrambler and the tight orbit. Boom, boom. I quickly convo'ed him and asked for a 10million isk ranson, he took ages to reply but came back with a counter offer of 5 million.

I said no and repeated the offer with a time limit of 10 seconds.

He still wanted to bargain me down to 5million isk so I shredded his armour. Then something amazing happened. He ejected from the ship and sat there. I wondered WTF? but continued to blast his mining barge to scrap. I then scrambled the pod....as he hadn't even warped out. I was about to get another ransom when Giegher screamed into the same belt as me.

He targetted me and scrambled me just as I was 'negotiating' with Bahamut420. Gah - Giegher was more of a danger so I had to disengage.

Bahamut420 > FUCK YOU

Well, that was nice.

Anyway, Giegher in his merlin was now a threat. I tried to jump out as I didn't want to fight him but he had me scrambled. With that decision made, I went for him. His merlin was orbitting me at between 5-6km and even with my afterburner I could not close the distance. He had railguns that picked at my shields and my cap was going down fast. He had two small nosferatus on me.

I quickly shut down some mods and tried to save cap and returned fire. Even at 6KM my lovely 200mm autocanons were scoring hits. I turned off the warp disruptor as I reckoned Giegher was too intent on me to warp himself out. He wouldn't notice that my disruptor was off.

My EMP shells screamed across the vacuum and flared off on the merlin's shields. I was down to 35% armour but the tank had finally kicked in and held steady. The repairer was working at optimal effeciency while the merlin's shields were failing.

Once into his armour, like all other Caldari ships - their armour is like paper.

At this point, I knew that I had won this contest. I occasionally switched on the disruptor - just to make sure that Giegher decided to warp out. His Merlin was tough but not tough enough. His armour was eventually stripped off and his hull, well couldn't stand up to the pounding and fell to my 200mm ACs. I also snagged the pod and PK'ed him as I wanted my first bounty collection. Pity his bounty was only 55K isk!

2007.02.14 23:17

Victim: Giegher
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Black Fleet
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

Destroyed items:

Warp Disruptor I
Warp Disruptor I
1MN Afterburner I
125mm Railgun I
Small Nosferatu I
125mm Railgun I
Small Nosferatu I
Cap Recharger I
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 16
Iridium Charge S, Qty: 16


2007.02.14 23:17
For your termination of Giegher we have paid you the bounty that was set to his head: 55,000.00 ISK

2007.02.14 23:18
Victim: Giegher
Alliance: NONE
Corp: The Black Fleet
Destroyed: Capsule
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I

And the mining barge kill:

2007.02.14 23:14

Victim: Bahamut420
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Ice Fire Warriors
Destroyed: Retriever
System: Gusandall
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: flashfresh (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Independent Pilots
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon I


Destroyed items:

Strip Miner I
Mark I Modified SS Expanded Cargo
Strip Miner I
Hobgoblin I (Drone Bay)
Vespa I (Drone Bay)