A night of the dead sleipnir, dead Chupas and loot.

Dead Chupas

The start of the evening
"Targets destroyed. Grabbing loot." Said one of The Bastards' Captains over the voice comms. I had just linked into the fleet chat as I was going to be leading a fleet out in the evening, but The Bastards were already out and as busy as ever. They just had a successful encounter with our erstwhile neighbours: 'Los Chupacabras' and we had held the field and were looting it and salvaging the wrecks. Piracy can be an expensive business after all.

It was with some surprise that I was informed that our local Mexican space bandit charlatans have apparently joined the Minmatar Militia? What is going on I wonder, but it does look like they have taken up arms for the Republic. Wonders never cease. My best wishes to them as they are extremely good at what they do.

So the night appeared to be starting off well and once things had settled down, I got all the ship Captains together and briefed them on our roam tonight, outlining the route and the ships we would be taken. After some lobbying by Lord Breathnach - we would be taking his Vulture class command ship for a spin aided by a sleipnir. I had some administrative tasks to compete (loot related) but then was ready to roll - our scouts once again racing ahead eagerly seeking out targets. Some of our Captains needed quick bio breaks (their pods were obviously not fitted with the new suck-o-matic urinal, but I digress) before they could get into their ships with their crews.

Once this was all done, the fleet rolled out - a magnificent sight: several battle cruisers heaving past the startled industrial traffic at the undock point with support ships darting in and out. The two command ships, our fleet's flagships, led the way and we were off. Our scouts ranged far and wide and we set our destination that included that well known pirate hub of Eifer and Gusandall, the latter home of the infamous Kane Rizzel, who sadly had to take a long break from New Eden. I think he was last spotted ambling off towards some island retreat on a tropical island in Heimatar. Come back soon my friend.

Our scouts and contacts had informed us of the locals and this time, with some delight we spied M34N coalition ships - mainly from the core M34N corp but some of their newer brethren in the alliance were docked up. A quick scan and we had their ship types and in the absence of any other viable targets we opted to go for them. As we got ready our scouts shouted out a warning:

"EM ships landing on the Ingunn gate. EM ships landing on the Ingunn gate."

The Wait....

Electus Matari - we can't say no now can we? So we switched targets and hastily gathered ourselves. Our sleipnir and one drake raced ahead in an attempt to tackle the EM ships on a gate. The rest of the logistics and fleet would follow in support. We waited and hated it.

Fighting on just one side of a gate with the guns against you is always tricky and required team work and timing. Captains Dame Death, TheHermit and Marco moved to engage and jumped into the waiting ships. They were designated as Red1, Red2 and Red3 to ensure clear communications.

"Contact. Contact. Contact!" The fight was on. The rest of the fleet jumped in, there was some jostling on the gate and the sleepy gate crews were not the most efficient but the rest of the fleet was processed through.We should have jumped in earlier to be honest, my mistake.

"Red1 engaging."

"Red2, engaging."

The adrenaline levels rose as the rest of the fleet jumped into warp. Even from this distance, we could get remote telemetry from the fight and it looked ferocious indeed. We approached the warp exit.

"Hurry, Red1 is going down. Need shields."

"On our way." I said. The short warp felt it was going on forever.

"Red1 is down. Red1 is down. Getting pod out."

Shit.

We landed at the gate and hammered our request to jump. Ominously, there were a couple of M34N coalition battle ships, also on the gate. We had to ignore them and jump.

Red 2 is down

"Red2 is down."

Right, time for revenge I thought and as we dropped cloak we found that our fleet was a bit scattered. Never mind, I thought, we would have to make do with what we had.

"Primary is Hoe Bag. Secondary is Duch Crystal. Tiertiary is TenTon." I called out, selecting the appropriate targets. All around me, The Bastards fleet re-aligned and discharged their ordnance while the EM fleet returned in kind. Actually, there was only one EM alliance pilot (Duch); the rest were a mixed bag - probably all blue to each other. These chaps were too fast and they managed to squirm away before we could lay enough damage. Our webbers were too far to be effectual and we only managed to keep one of their hurricanes and drakes locked down.

"Gatefire! Gatefire!" The Gusandall gate flashed multiple times as more ships came through, a quick check in local and we discovered it was M34N coalition.

As we poured fire onto the hurricane and drake, the newcomers dropped gate cloak. Battle ships with some battle cruiser support.

"Do not engage M34N, concentrate on the EM ships." I said, despite knowing that everyone would be yellow boxing each other. Pretty standard really for pirates: in an unclear situation with multiple actors, go for the anti-pirates and neutrals before you go for other pirates. Simple in theory really but notoriously difficult to execute. Fog of war and all that.

We lost the enemy drake (somehow) but managed to snag Duch in his hurricane. Just as Duch's ships blew up, one of The Bastards declared that M34N had gone hostile and he returned fire. So much for the truce. We locked horns with M34N Coalition as they unloaded on us: Marco's drake was targeted and was blasted into near hull until our scimitars picked up the pace and saved him with some last minute shield repairs.

Ship, it go boom.

Slick Duros in his hurricane was blasted into scrap quickly followed by Escort Zodiak, also in a hurricane. Captain Nessaja in an Armageddon class battle ship, was the next target but the wily pirate knew how to disengage and managed to retreat in good order, his armour smoking and pock marked from our fire.

Vaginitis in his tempest was next, the distinctive looking Minmatar battle ship shook as heavy missiles unleashed from the drakes of The Bastards tore into it. The tempest returned fire but it was ineffectual as the drakes overwhelmed it. Vaginitis exploded in a ball of flame and scrap - his pod whipping away while the rest of his crew died in the conflagration.

Macadee1, in the barrel shaped typhoon class battle ship was broadsided by our ships and was left a smoking wreck. With his destruction, it was over. We held the field and looted it while TheHermit and Dame Death finally arrived after racing back to Evati to re-ship.

Unhappy at missing the fight, Dame Death took his fury out on an absent minded covert ops, even podding the pilot.

Let's continue to roam...
The fleet took a ten minute comfort break before we resumed, with our scouts racing ahead. Our destination would be Molden Heath. Nothing was found between Sotrenzur to Atlar, there was some evidence of fights all over the place with wrecks as evidence. This only made us want more.

Our scouts (and sympathetic contacts) notified us possible targets and it was with some delight that we discovered that one of our targets was Hoe Bag, who managed to squirm away from us in the earlier evening. We definitely had to try and get him!

There was some false alarms but eventually our fleet had managed to manoeuvre into an advantageous position in Bosena (or Bosnia) on a gate. A vexor blundered into us, which we swatted but then the main entertainment piled in. No idea whether the vexor was their scout or whether he was just unlucky.
The enemy fleet dropped in, we immediately noticed TenTon Tommie in his sleipnir. He was quite far from the gate but z0de was on the ball and gave chase and with the arazu's enhanced systems, optimised for warp disruptors and scramblers. At 80KM from us and TenTon Tommie was still unable to escape.

As we raced close to the sleipnir, his friends piled in. Fighting far off the gate didn't give them any advantages but certainly helped us escape the sentry guns.

Thanks to z0de for the initial point, we managed to kill the sleipnir. A rook dipped in and out of the fight, causing nuisance to us but his luck ran out as well, one missed jam and it's thin defences get blown away. The artillery hurricane as flown by Dame Death certainly did the job. The enemy drake died, thanks to Meode (where the hell has he been?) for dealing the most damage with Dil'e delivering the killing blow. Then an enemy smart-bombing blackbird - it probably was scared of drones but well, we had lasers, artilleries and long range missiles. We killed the blackbird pilot too, which was fortunate for us but we lost out on a few more ships who sped away from us. Finally ended up with a myrmidon kill to end this encounter. It was a triple rep fitted but went down easily enough.

It was a mad affair the ten minutes of the engagement: targets appeared and were locked, some died, some escaped. It was a blast and we held the field thanks to our logistical support who saved more than a few of our fellow fleet mates from a fiery death. Importantly, we held the field and had the pick of the loot. Moneys!

We raced home after an exhausting three hour roam.

Guilty Pleasures

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


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


Don't call me weak now...


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

a-Ha

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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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


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

Heaven is a place called earth

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


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


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


The Bastards Guilty Pleasures Playlist, 26th October 2010:


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

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

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

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

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!

All in a day or two with the Bastards....

Day One
Small fleet action is where most of the fun is a fleet of no more than say a dozen vessels is the ideal number in my view. It allows all fleet members to play a real part in any engagement yet feel safe with the strength in numbers. The Bastards love to solo as well so it is a nice mix of action for us in any week. There are no typical weeks in The Bastards!

I was busy with tedious administrative tasks when my personal communicator flashed. I checked the call and linked into the current fleet chat. It was JManza and he had a fleet going with imminent ship violence looming just ahead. Administrative work can put me in a cranky mode and the night was young. I agreed and found myself out in a small fleet of four battle cruisers. A nice number with Mortol Strike stepping up as fleet commander. Within a minute we were called in and landed among ships from the Chupacabras corporation. They weren't even our nominated target as we were racing in to assist on a tackle in the next system but decision was made to open up on these chaps. The Chupas gang was mainly drake class battle cruisers, while we had hurricanes. They had six (x5 drakes and x1 scorpion) and we had four (three hurricanes and a drake) - good odds for The Bastards.

First down was a Chupas Hurricane; it had the highest DPS and had to go down to give us a chance of holding the field. Since our target was a flashing criminal, the sentry guns remained silent. However, despite the lower dps from the drakes, our own Red Vegas went down, her guns still firing as his ship was cut in half.  JManza followed soon after as he ordered his ship to ram an enemy drake just as his reactors blew. Mortol and I remained and concentrated on the Lou Reed, who was in a drake. One of the Chupas had returned (Atmos TA) in a new ship, a hound since they are basing themselves in Evati.

Both Red Vegas and JManza had declared that they were just getting into a new ship and waiting for Scotty to let them undock. I love these fights when both sides can come back in new ships. JManza and Red Vegas were already on scan and returning to the fray. Since Evati is a busy system, there are plenty of ships coming and going and it was with some surprise that Mortol and I were joined by a vagabond pilot, Tybele who decided that the Chupas were more interesting targets than us. He added his firepower to the fight and I wasn't going to stop him!

However, Mortol Strike, was jammed and so was I by the scorpion - being the only two Bastards left on the field. We should have both hit our MWDs and burned towards the scorpion (also getting us out of harm's way) but with us both unable to lock, Mortol was soon destroyed, followed by myself just as Red Vegas and JManza returned to assist us. Most of the Chupas ships then safely withdrew under the cover of the Scorpion's highly effective ECM. All except Giampolo in his drake who was pointed, quite handedly by Tybele our friendly positive security status enabled pilot. This of course, spelled doom for the unfortunate drake. By this time, Red Vegas, JManza and Mortol had come back in new ships and with Captain Blackler also in the frame (having raced the seven odd jumps to reach us) - we cut the drake to pieces.

Despite our heavier losses, we had the field of wreckage to loot and made good on some of our losses, taking the sting out of the defeat. Nothing cheers up a pirate than loot (and ransom money) - so we cleared the field and continued to roam now that the Chupas had withdrawn entirely from the field. With a much strengthened fleet we roamed on but it appeared that the fireworks for the night had already been used up. We caught a hurricane in Hadozeko and an apparently afk helios on a gate.

I then docked up for the night, thankful for the excitement and loot. It was then back to some more administrative work. The Bastards, as much as I want it to, doesn't run by itself but sometimes, I wish it did!

Day Two

Still finding myself working through recruitment emails and stuff, my personal communicator went off again and it was Mortol Strike this time; a fleet was rolling out - a mixed HAC and BC fleet and since I was around, would I be interested?

Of course, I was! Quickly finishing up my work, I raced to the hangar and grabbed a cyclone. Haven't flown one in an age and it looked tempting to go out and bash someone's head in it. The fit was inspired by Lady Shaniqua, a fearsome proponent of the solo/duo-style of play.

Mortol was the fleet commander this time round and the Red Vegas was ahead, looking for targets. Only two jumps out from Evati, Red Vegas announced that there was something 'fun' in local.

"I see a myrmidon class ship on scan. He looks like he is towards the belt. Going in."

The rest of the fleet was now on the gate, ready to jump in and assist.

"This is Red. Myrmidon is 100 clicks away. Am burning towards him." He said. "Myrm has spotted me and....and is turning towards me. We may have some fun here."

It read bait all over it to be honest but we were confident.

"I have him pointed and spinning up my 425mm on him." We offered words of encouragement to Red Vegas but we were waiting for more.

"Hmmm, his armour tank is holding." Observed Red Vegas, not sounding too concerned but we could imagine him furrowing his eye brows as he overloaded his guns. Then he shouted.

"Local spike! Local spike! All members from the same corp! Here we go..." We all jumped in even before Red had finished his sentence as Mortol had us all primed.

We jumped into warp and raced towards Red's current position just as the myrmidon's friends came the other way. Part of the excitement of such encounters in low-sec is that you have no idea what the other side is bringing in. Certainly, the corporation was new to us.

Landing in a loose cluster around Red Vegas, we saw the enemy myrmidon battling it away with Red Vegas' hurricane. Drones and neutralisers were all over Red's battle cruiser while he battered away with the awesome 425mm auto canons. We all locked the myrmidon just as his friends arrived: two vagabonds initially. Secondary and tertiary targets were called. The vagabonds were fast and slip in between our ships. The enemy myrmidon, held out bravely against our ships just as his remaining friends arrived in seven frigates: two vengeance assault frigates, two crusaders, one wolf and two punisher class frigates along with the two vagabonds. This was going to be interesting.

I threw my neutralisers onto one of the vagabonds in an effort to destroy his capacitor and thus, hopefully slow him down but the nimble cruiser had enough momentum to slip away. However, the frigates and HACs were dangerous and Nashh, spitting fire and fury went down in flames. We took revenge and  blew the tackled myrmidon into tiny pieces. Our drones screamed out of their bays and chased some of the slower frigates down but my 220 mm auto canon, tracked and then blew one of the hardy punishers to pieces. Then the second vagabond, who put in the killing blow, was destroyed in a concentrated salvo as it got too close to us.  The first of the two vengeance assault craft then went down, JManza's zealot and his holy lasers burning the plucky craft to cinders. I took out the second vengeance with a well timed shot as the craft raced across my kill zone. The last punisher was despatched just as the remaining enemy fleet dis-engaged from the fight. We had no way of catching the last vagabond or the two crusaders and all three withdrew cleanly. To be honest, the fight was never in doubt due to the placement of the frigates - they all came in too close to the our larger battle cruiser class ships where their size and lower signature radius meant nothing.

An excellent confrontation with us holding the field and therefore the pick of the loot. Love it.

Unfortunately, we pushed our luck too much and got walloped by the Minnie miltia on the gate an hour or so later. Don't you hate the feeling when you have a ship tackled on a gate, you're seeing it's armour flaking off, you're just about tanking the sentry guns (another 10 seconds!!) and you see the stargate flash and flash and flash as ship after bloody ship hurtles into the fight?

In hindsight, we should have been more cautious and not initiated hostile action in sight of the sentry guns  as soon as we landed but our blood was still up - what can you expect?

I still love it though and went back to Evati whistling a happy tune. Low-sec, who doesn't love it?

Interview and kill that thanny! Oh no. Eve-uni crash the party?

I was asked by Jayne and Jade of 'Lost in EVE' podcast fame to participate in their latest podcast. These chaps wanted to expand their podcast programme to include other aspects of New Eden including living in low-sec. It was a very enjoyable chat and I will chat about the particular episode a bit later. However, feeling a bit tired, I decided to get a drink at the bar and it was with some delight that RoninData made a re-appearance. 

Sitting down and sharing a beer with RoninData was relaxing and we laughed and chuckled our way through a year's worth of story and drama. The evening was going well but it was to take a new turn. Around 22:00, six beers into the evening, I was interrupted by an urgent message from Lady Shaniqua. I excused myself while RoninData wandered off to the bar to get more beer. Discretely, I took the call. 

"Lady Shaniqua. How are you?" I said to the infamous 'police enforcer' of the Metropolis pipe. 

"KRIMINAL ELEMENTS spotted! Polic units requesting assistance for imminent battal! I have firm information that there's a camp of two battle cruisers, two recons and a battle ship on the Taff gate in Egmar. You interested?"

Lady Shaniqua's information has always been first class - she's well-known for her fast paced solo work (or deadly duo work with Sassy B) but there's an understanding that she is free to ask for additional help amongst the pirate fraternity, The Bastards among them. Such is the respect pirates have for her, people usually rally to her assistance. She also has a tendency to SHOUT but one can't deny her ability. 

"Of course. How old is the intel?"

"Minutes, no more than ten minutes."

"Roger that Shaniqua, sounds good and close by too."

"Excellent and Flash, it will be your show and your lead - me comm thingymajig is acting up and I am communicating with my fellow polic scout through radio."

"Understood. We're en-route." RoninData came back, his tray laden down with drinks and bottles.  He looked happy but threw me a quizzical look as I stood up.  

"Ronin, grab your beers - we have some imminent boat violence."

So it was no surprise that I agreed and grabbing RoninData, Viginti (he was excused from his logistical duties) and one of our new recruits, Mortol Strike - I set up a fleet and invited Lady Shaniqua and her two companions to it. Ronin and I were in our hurricanes, Vig in his Falcon and Mortol in his drake. Our fleet met up on the Taff gate in Egmar alongside the three remaining ships of the fleet: Snippse and Kingwood had hurricanes and Lady Shaniqua herself had the feared vagabond. One thing about ad-hoc pirate fleets like this, everyone knows how to work together when there's a common target. 

"The camp is gone, some chaps from Gunboat Diplomacy came in and whooped their ass. They've gone too but I have eyes on a criminal Typhoon in Taff."

"Let's bait it shall we? Snippse, jump into Taff and re-approach the Egmar gate." Snippse is known to The Bastards as we've tangled with him a number of times. He's an excellent pilot, pity he isn't a pirate but his positive security rating has its advantages. 


Snippse acknowledged and jumped into Taff. 

"Flash, he is here.The typhoon is here." There was a crackle of static and then Snippse chuckled. "The fool has locked me. Going for point." We all waited what seemed like an eternity. "Point."

It was time to move and I gave the order.

"Fleet: jump, jump, jump." When we were all on grid, we decloaked immediately. The typhoon was there; flashing red and angry. "Primary is Sami Zarik, primary is Sami Zarik." Our battle cruisers surged towards the battle ship, currently pointed and exchanging furious fire with Snippse's hurricane. With the added firepower of our ships, the typhoon was doomed. 

"Webs on the typhoon please." I wanted to make sure that we would get the kill. Bits of the typhoon were being smashed off the hull by our fire and internal fires were clearly seen, bursting out in deadly plumes all over the structure. 

"Shall we ransom?" Asked RoninData, I considered the option and decided that some isk was welcome. 

"RoninData, that is an affirmative, can you open up a conv -"

"Cyno. Cyno." It was Viginiti, still cloaked up in the falcon and not participating in the one-sided fight. It looked like the typhoon was fitted with a cynosural field generator and it had opened up an incoming portal: we should be expecting incoming capital ships it would seem.

"Incoming."

In a burst of purple and silver light, the rip in warp space vomited forth a Thanatos-class carrier. This was not expected. Communications remained calm, there was an expectant hush in the fleet communications net. I had already made my decision as soon as the cyno was dropped. 

"Kill the 'phoon. Kill the 'phoon. Watch for fighters from the carrier. Point the thanny."

As expected the thanatos carrier was remotely repairing the almost-dead typhoon. Sami Zarik held on but we overloaded our guns and the typhoon went down in flames. We had no hope in killing the thanatos but we decided to kill the fighters. Also, a cyno field is detected (and usually investigated) for ten jumps in every direction. So we would be expecting company. 

So we set a wide orbit around the thanatos, it was taking sentry fire as the pilot made the mistake of shooting Snippse first, drawing the attention of the automated sentry guns. We worked on the fighters first: small one-person manned fighter craft. Sami obviously called in for additional help and an arbitrator dropped into our lap. Not sure if the pilot thought that he would get help from the thanatos but we locked and killed it dead before the thanatos pilot could have locked it to help. However, RoninData got too close to the carrier - he was fully intending to solo the mighty craft but found that it was too tough and he ended his one-man onslaught with an explosive burst of fire. We're now down one battle cruiser. 

While all this was going on, my directional scanner was picking up new ships and with Viginiti's help, we quickly negotiated a temporary cease-fire with Nemeron of Gunboat Diplomacy who had brought his fleet into the fray. On our own fleet of five, we had little chance to down the carrier before it could escape but now, with a few battle ships in the picture - the likelihood of the carrier going down was greatly increased though it was not a certainty. So long as we had time. 

Time was not on our side. Ronin, on his way back to Evati spotted a 40-odd fleet of EVE-University students on the Taff gate in Egmar. It as unknown whether they knew about the carrier beforehand but their presence greatly complicated matters. 

The students jumped into Taff while we continued to pound the carrier. We fired off a number of requests to some of the students in an effort to get them to side with us and destroy the carrier. No doubt, Nemeron of Gunboat Diplomacy was doing the same thing. Lady Shaniqua, due to her frequent (and successful) run-ins with the university was cautious about the sudden change in circumstances.  

"Guys, this is Flash - am getting nothing from the University."

"Think they'll come for us?" Asked Kingwood. 

"No idea but we need to down this carrier." There was a squawk on my directional scanner as it detected an influx of ships.

"Here they come. All ships, align and prepare to gtfo. Vig: can you fire off an update to Nemeron?"

"Er, no need boss. Nemeron is broadcasting on all frequencies in local."

I switched across and indeed, Nemeron, no doubt frustrated by the lack of response was blaring out in local.

"EVE UNI - ATTACK THE CARRIER PLEASE. HE IS A CRIMINAL. NO ONE ELSE WILL FIRE ON YOU."

This was repeated over and over as my overview threatened to shut down as it exploded with ships of EVE-University. Cruisers, battle cruisers, battle ships and others. A right mix as per usual. 

"This is Lady Shaniqua - bugging out, am being shot at by those student kriminal space cadets!" In a blaze of burning warp drive, Lady Shaniqua whipped out of the fight, cursing the short sightedness of EVE-University. I was being yellow boxed as well and so was Vig and Kingwood. We requested that they dropped their locks on us but received nothing. Nemeron continued to broadcast his request, all the while attacking the carrier with his fleet.  

I was red boxed and took fire from an EVE-University ship and decided that being the attention of 40-odd ships was not what I wanted. I was aligned and warped out. The carrier was down to hull already but it wasn't worth a loss of my ship. 

Nemeron changed his tune in his broadcast and cursed the EVE University for their short sightedness. I wasn't too sure if some of his chaps were also the attention of the newcomers.  Meanwhile, the carrier was in trouble already and quickly collapsed under the fire of the new EVE university ships. I had no doubt about the result, it would have died regardless but I was more worried about what would happen immediately after as the newcomers had already shot at Lady Shaniqua. 

We re-grouped in a safe just as the carrier blew up; there were some grumbles about EVE-University gate crashing but such is life. 

The night was not over. EVE-University loitered around Taff for a bit but with those numbers, no-one was going to engage them. They got bored and left the area - just in time as Sami Zarik came roaring back in a hurricane with four friends: a deimos, dominix, tempest and a vagabond. We still had our battle cruisers though Ronin had finally shipped up into a Raven. 


I called point on the hurricane with the deimos as secondary and the dominix as tiertiary. I told the rest of the fleet to engage the vagabond if the opportunity presented itself.


We noticed that the pilot of the tempest, lying over 100km from the fight in his sniper-fit ship was the thanatos pilot; back for some revenge it would seem. Kingwood went down in his hurricane as the dominix showered drones over him but we quickly popped the enemy hurricane in return. The pilot of the 'cane was none other than the 'phoon pilot who kicked off our night's entertainment. RoninData's raven, locked in a deadly embrace by the Dominix was showered by drones and a lucky long range strike from the Tempest burst his raven. We took our revenge and killed off the dominix. 


The vagabond pilot, either unlucky or sloppy got too close to us and we snagged it and pulverised it. With his speed and range, it should never have got close to us. Finally, we dispatched the deimos with disdain. It was too slow and lumbering and we gleefully cut it to pieces. The real prize was the sniping tempest but he had already aligned and warped out before we could complete the set. 


The field was ours and we picked it clean. Snippse even made 80 million isk from salvage alone. The fleet members all congratulated each other on a fun and profitable night. I realised the time and called for the fleet to be broken up. We made sure that the loot went to those pilots who had the greatest need and then docked up. 


An excellent night and thanks to Mortol, Lady Shaniqua, Kingwood and Snippse. Hope we can do it again. 

Old and New Friends

"Contact. Contact. Contact." Yelled one of my pilots, alarmingly it wasn't one of the forward scouts but Viginti who had just jumped. I had already activated the gate and it was too late to abort. Shit, I thought they couldn't have ran into the gate camp already? 


With a burst of light, the rest of the battle cruiser fleet jumped into Egmar. As per standard operating procedures, all The Bastards held their cloak. I eyed the ships. . 


"Approximately a half-dozen cruisers all orbiting the Anher gate."


All were flagged as non-criminals, which meant that if (when) The Bastards initiated hostile fire, the sentry guns dotted around the gate would open fire on any transgressors adding to the incoming damage. However, The Bastards, being long-term low-sec residents had fitted our ships to be a bit more durable under sentry fire. 


Once the fleet was in the system but still under gate cloak, I gave the order to de-cloak and the first enemy ship to burst apart under The Bastards furious fire was a rupture followed quickly by a thorax. The sentry guns, detecting criminal activity, spun up and spat deadly and accurate fire all over The Bastard's fleet. 


However, such is the fast and deadly environment of low-sec that the numbers around the gate started to swell up. A second fleet, undetected by us had come from the nearby Taff system (and not Anher) and promptly piled into the fight against The Bastards. The resulting combined fleet now facing The Bastards came from eight different corporations including some old friends from Cloud 7 Nebulosa. The numbers looked bad but it was nothing new for The Bastards, however the enemy brought some ECM boats and the combined force had two falcons, one blackbird and a rook added to the 'party'. Pacifist Priest raced after them in a brave attempt to disrupt their work but the heavy ECM started to push down the damage output of The Bastards quickly. We had to kill off the ECM but were poorly equipped to do so with little in the way of fast, high damage cruisers or ECM boats of their own to counter. Tibbs's hurricane was the first to go down, caught by the cross fire of nine ships; followed quickly by JManza in his hurricane. Both jammed so hard that they couldn't even see what was in front of them. Space was now full of wreckage and escape pods as crews from all stricken vessels bolted out of immediate danger. The surviving ships ploughed through the debris field, eager to get close enough to trade broadsides.  


The decision was made to stand and fight and we took down a Cloud 7 Nebulosa hurricane and (inexplicably) a Manticore stealth bomber from Pinch Harmonics United that was caught by Silvetrys' claymore. A glancing shot perhaps?  However brave (or fool hardy) it may have been to stand and fight, the butcher's bill had to be paid and The Bastards suffered four more lost ships (including Silvetrys' Claymore) before the pirates withdrew. FloppyM (ex-GIS and ex-Cloud 7) and his fleet held the field and they had the pick of the loot and wreckage. This was a great fight and well-deserved.  


Returning to Evati to lick our wounds, The Bastards shipped up and grabbed new crews and ships. It was only two jumps back to our home system after all. As soon as The Bastards were docked up, reports came back that another corporation 'Los Chupacabras' (am going to call them 'Chupas' for short) had been camping the Todi' gate and blowing up incoming traffic and were now racing towards the Anher gate. These chaps are relatively new to the area and we had seen them about and thus, were eager to make their acquittance. New friends and neighbours and all that. There was about nine or ten of them and about equal numbers of The Bastards too. A decision was made to engage these (quite elusive) chaps and then return to Egmar to re-engage with the Cloud 7 Nebulosa 'alliance'. 


The Bastards fleet, still mainly battle cruisers, un-docked, whipped into warp and raced towards the Anher stargate. As we approached and about to drop out of warp, the lead ships and their directional scanners could clearly pick out the energy signatures of the target ships against the background noise. Firing weapons does light you up in certain parts of the electro-magnetic spectrum! Landing in a tight formation, we quickly took stock of the situation: Brutix, sacrilege, drake, drake, drake, harbinger, thorax and a couple of others were on the Anher gate. Some had drawn aggression already for some random act of violence. The Bastards, without any further ado, opened up with extreme prejudice. The first target was the brutix, due to it's proximity to The Bastards fleet. The hurricane-heavy battle cruiser gang opened up with a mix 425mm auto canon, drones, lasers and 725 mm howitzers and pulverised the brutix in short order. Chunks of its structure smashed beyond recognition. It was only after the fight, that we realised the brutix was most likely not part of the Los Chupacabras. Caught between the two fleets, it's options were extremely limited. 


Mezrah's sacrilege was next. 

"Primary is Mezrah. Primary is Mezrah." All guns, drones, missiles and lasers re-directed onto the dark blood red heavy assault cruiser. Even with advanced armour alloys, there isn't much one can do with this sort of attention. The wedge shaped HAC was webbed, target painted and pummelled into scrap, bits of the dark blood red armour spinning off into space,  still on fire. 


Los Chupacabras fought back, their lachesis causing Tibbs' hurricane some trouble and before the spikey headed pirate could warp to safety, his ship was dismantled around him though he managed to get his capsule out and most of his crew escaped and docked up in Evati. The space between the ships was now filled with laser fire and ponderous low-velocity howitzer shells. Drones screaming and darting between the battling ships. Dropping below the plane of battle, me and Nashh came up below the enemy ships, attacking the weaker hull and armour of the ships' bellies. My delightful 425mm auto canons rattling away with purpose while Nashh's drones punched forward with their own ordnance. 


Despite our recent loss, the Chupas were faring worse, losing their prophecy, drake and harbinger class ships for only the loss of JManza's (second) hurricane. Due to their recent weapon discharges, the Chupas ships couldn't bleed off enough energy fast enough from their weapons to enable them to immediately jump into high-sec and safety. They had to stop firing to allow their weapons to 'cool down'. 


The troublesome Chupas' lachesis was eventually driven off by the combined attention of lasers and drones, thus giving some breathing space to us. We then continued to flay into Los Chupacabras' remaining ships. Persephone delivered the killing blow on their thorax, the Caldari Navy terror assault missile smashing into the bridge of the Gallente cruiser. Followed closely by the fiery destruction of the Chupas' hurricane, a second drake and third drake before the remaining Chupas ships successfully disengaged and jumped into high sec (into Anher) to withdraw and re-group. A fair few of the Los Chupacabras have a security status of above -5.0 and thus are not classed as criminals so they could travel into high-sec space. The Bastards on the other hand are all criminals and such an avenue of retreat is barred to us. We all cursed as we could not follow to finish off the job, however it was acknowledged that the fight was a good one and the Chupas gave as good as they received with no smack or whines. The best type of fight in other words. 


Holding the field meant that salvage and loot was now with The Bastards and within minutes, the field was clear of any useful debris: drones and wrecks were recovered efficiently and damaged ships moved back into space dock for repair. Everything was usable either as a spare or for sale. The loot collected was a nice haul. 


The night ended with a few more kills - including the ever comical 'Stokar' but that is another report and hopefully, by someone else. 

Back with a small bang....

Rolling around Metropolis as pirates can either be feast or famine and last night it was a famine - with a decent sized fleet of 19 - we only caught a vexor and something else. We avoided a bait ship that was primed to cyno in seven (7) thanatos class carriers and also a few other blobs. We tracked a nice fleet of a typhoon, armageddon, tempest and three cruisers but lost track of them and lost them. We were too far out to be begin with and were chasing. Meanwhile, Nashh (who had docked up and was several jumps behind) had managed to locate a roaming gang and had engaged and then successfully disengaged as the numbers increased. We were too far to help as they were moving away from us.

Meanwhile, we were getting reports of large (+20) fleets roaming too. It was all happening, yet - strangely it wasn't happening. I had no intention of sacrificing needlessly the fleet for a 'good fight' as I am interested in ransoms and loot. However, boredom and frustration can settle in and before you know it; sensible decisions become a thing of the past. Luckily we were more disciplined than bored and got home safely.

While our (unofficial) motto is 'Overwhelming DPS then GTFO'; I do also follow another motto and that is to bring everyone (well nearly everyone) back home in one-piece.

Gentlemen of low moral fibre with a dash of Hulks and Bushkazi...

With TheHermit already engaged with a new fleet; it looked like that the evening would turn out to be very eventful. TheHermit and some lads tackled a very obvious bait-drake; it was killed then ship after ship poured in along with a couple of logistical ships, a command ship and a splash of ECM. It was a gunboat diplomacy gang who then started to pile in more ships.

Our fleet wisely left the local area and waited the baiters out.

So starting the op late - the fleet assembled and We moved down the Metropolis pipe with scouts ahead. The GunBoat Diplomacy gang was spotted - identical set-up; I made the decision to back track as tackling them under sentry with their logistic and ecm support was asking for trouble. I think we would have bloodied them but the price would be too high for me.

Moving towards Molden Heath (haven't been there for a while) - we quickly ran into Hermit's old friends [SCONE] - 'The Gentlemen of low moral fibre' on the Wiskebar gate in Matebar - I think these chaps were coming up from their home base in MH towards Metropolis just as we were paying them a visit.

They jumped in first, with a SCONE harbinger holding cloak as long as possible before he appeared, 27KM from us. Naturally, Pere Madeline was called primary and we started on him straight away. The star gate flashed and local jumped, here comes the rest of them I remembered thinking to myself with some delight. Having no idea of what this new enemy fleet composed of - we had to knock them quickly starting with the webbed, pointed and trapped harbinger. With a nice tank, it held out long enough for the Gentlemen fleet to de-cloak and return fire. A couple of harbis, brutixes and 'canes with some logistical support. They singled out TheHermit, in his rook and while Hermit got off one or two crucial jams, he died quickly under the focused fire of the Gentlemen. We returned the favour by first melting Maya in her Harbi then working on Jack Dant in his Harbinger. The Brutix battle cruisers, being definitely close range monsters were webbed and we had distance on them; so had little to worry at least in the first stages. Our very own TFS Tibbs in his hurricane went down just before Pere in his Harby went pop. The sentry guns by and large, were silent as 100% of The Bastards fleet were classed as criminals and we think almost all of the Gentlemen were criminals too. So there were no reasons for any additional damage from automated sentry guns.

Once TFS Tibbs went down, Silvetrys or Garett was brought under enemy fire while we switched to the four remaining battle cruisers - two hurricanes and two brutix class ships. The vent server was calm and controlled though someone did query why we didn't go after the two guardians that the Gentlemen had with them. We had thrown ECM drones onto one of the guardians and just relied on the first part of our motto: 'overwhelming DPS' to get ahead of any repping that the two logistics cruisers could do. Sure enough Crefakis and CrafytCroc joined the two SCONE harbingers in fiery destruction. Silvetrys, one of our own hurricanes then succumbed to enemy fire, his pod spitting him out while his ships exploded into a thousand burning pieces. Silvetrys actually disconnected from the fleet communication system as soon as the Gentlemen fleet arrived for some reason, vanishing from the watch lists before the first shot was even fired, much to our horror. We thought he was alpha'ed but it turned out to be comms trouble only.

As Garett went down we refocused on the the two brutix and one myrmidon battle cruisers. The ugly, brutal looking brutix battle cruisers took a massive does of hostile ordnance and were quickly reduced to scrap; the myrmidon and two logistical cruisers managed to lose their aggression timers and pass through the star gate and escape.

The SCONE's fleet:
Brutix | Maya Silverman - Destroyed
Brutix | Tobie T - Destroyed
Harbinger | Pere Madeline - Destroyed
Harbinger | Jack Dant - Destroyed
Hurricane | Crafty Croc - Destroyed
Hurricane | Crefakis - Destroyed
Myrmidon | Alcolol - Escaped
Basilisk | UNKNOWN - Escaped
Basilisk | UNKNOWN - Escaped

The Bastards Fleet:
Rook - TheHermit - Lost
Hurricane - Silvetrys - lost
Hurricane - TFS Tibbs - lost
Hurricane - Garett No'Jubai - lost
Hurricane - Flashfresh
Myrmidon - Viginti
Stabber - Persephone
Zealot- Zem
Harbinger - Capt Blackler
Drake - Lord B
Drake - Leroxee
Drake- JediJane

We came out on top and held the field though we lost the more expensive hulls (hurricanes v their brutix/harbinger hulls) - our scimitar pilot (Enubis) wasn't in the fleet with us so he couldn't properly rep anyone - if he did; we could have saved at least one of the hurricanes if not more. However, the loot was the important thing and we grabbed everything we could. A great fight against some excellent pirates. We had some luck, good fortune and superior numbers to win this fight and no doubt we will meet them again.

Good fight chaps.

BC roaming and HKIII

Another Bastards fleet went out a roaming and we had an Amarr FW fleet land on us. We were on the gate and first one, the two and four interceptors landed with us. All of the assembled pilots started to cheer as we hoped to pop at least one of them provided we could point and web them. Then local rocketed  by an additional 35 pilots and since we were already had an aggression timer from popping a couple of thorax cruisers we were almost sure that we would lose everyone. We did lose ships but 'only' four with the rest of the fleet jumping through the gate and racing towards the exit gate. If only we had a smart bombing battle ship close by! We swung round and went back towards Evati and then into The Forge and (unsuccessfully) broke a gate camp. I say it was unsuccessful as our intention was the kill all their ship but we only managed to snag the megathron before his mates wisely left us to our own vices. Plenty of banter and we had a fair few recruits with us - so one could call it almost like a running interview! There's some good ones in there I can tell you.

Just want to give a shout out to one of the corporation's director Raelyf and Kai both whom have found themselves solo on most nights and they have been proving that solo piracy is alive and kicking. Well done chaps. Hope to see whether you two get plenty of nominations for July 2010 Solo Kill Of The Month.

Metropolis is getting busy once more - not too sure why right now, but it is obvious that a fair few corporations and alliances have moved into a number of constellations not to mention the less-than-regular-but-still-frequent horde of faction warfare militia, either Amarr Empire or Minmatar Republic.  I can see that Python Cartel is now based in Resbroko but after they bloodied BANE am surprised that PC moved as far from Amamake as they did.

Finally Hulkageddon III is almost upon us; The Bastards stand ready to do our bit but competition this time round will be very stiff. Should be fun but HKIII will be over a week in length! A marathon session by anyone's calculation. A long weekend would have been sufficient but I suppose it does give time for corporations to get involved rather than a mad 24 hour CTA to kill exhumers.

ORBAT

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

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

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

"A friend of Captain Blackler."

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

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

Finishing my drink, I put the glass down.

It is time to move. 


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

Order of Battle (29-06-10) 

Status: live

Area of operation:  classified

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drake-class battle cruiser... 

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

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

It was time to 'speak' to the fleet.

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

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

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

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

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

Is the camp moving away? I wonder.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

In a flash, they jump through into Klogori.

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

My battle cruiser start to shift around.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show time.

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

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

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

"The enemy fleet are aligning to planet one!"

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

"Roger that FC. Bring them on."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Vig is jammed and neuted."

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

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

"Jmarr is jammed. Moving away."

Crap have to knock out the ECM. 

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

0-2 to the campers.

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

0-3 to the campers.

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

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

1-3, we get one back!

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

"Enemy rook is down."

That was quick.

2-3, come on Bastards!

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

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

3-3, a draw so far!

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

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

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

"Vig is down."

3-4, the enemy take the lead.

"Silv is down."

3-5, they're stretching ahead.

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

4-5 but The Bastards could draw level!

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

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

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

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

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

5-6, that's more like it.

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

5-7 to the campers! Come on Bastards!

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

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

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

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

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

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

7-7 a draw!

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

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

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

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

The butchers bill is high...

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

The Bastards lost:
Drake
Drake
Lachesis
Falcon
Hurricane
Harbinger
Hurricane