Frigate Roaming...love it.

I linked into our communication server, slightly sleepy-eyed and tired but I knew that Arrhidaeus was running a frigate class roam this evening. I linked in and was happy to see that the chaps had come back to Evati to replace lost ships. I was invited into the frigate fleet and my rifter ('SENTINEL PRIME') blasted out of the hangar.

The fleet was an interest mix of frigates all named after either Autobots or Decepticons. I was SENTINEL PRIME and I was joined by a collection of esoterical named robots. All fun and we raced ahead with scouts and probers pinging ahead. Love frigate roams, they fast, cheap and a hoot.

However, it started poorly for us with The Bastards fleet losing a rifter, crusader and a punisher in quick order. It didn't dent our confidence as the pilots raced home to re-ship. We did manage to catch a nicely fit jaguar with our frigate blob of nine but lost a griffin and a nemesis to a very well flown hurricane. It had mad speed and appeared to be able to hit, hard from range. After losing these two, we quickly disengaged, a wise decision to be honest in order to minimise losses.

We then killed two ruptures and a punisher but we bumped into the hurricane for a second time and he popped me. Damn that hurricane, not one of us could lay a finger on it to slow the beast down.

That's why I love the 'cane...

Stealth bomber roams are fun for sure and lately, we've discovered that most of the action is within a few jumps of our home system. We organised a stealth bomber based roam with a bait brutix up ahead to draw fire and attract targets. Persephone had the honour of this most magnificient role. I also made her secondary FC after me as being ahead, she would be ideal to call targets. She was also desperate to lose the brutix. I have no idea why as I think it is a brutal looking ship and quite effective too.

The rest of the fleet was made up as follows:

Brutix

Hound

Hound

Rapier

Rifter

Purifier

Purifier

Ares

Manticore

(and a couple of others that I forgot to include)

Quite effective though lacking in the probing department. No matter, Persephone raced ahead and the rest of the fleet started to assembling. Persephone's voice crackled through:

"Drake is tracking me. Moving to planet 1. Let's see if he follows. I am in Akkio."

The rest of the fleet aligned and jumped towards Persephone's system - we were two jumps out when Persephone called point. Excited we all jumped in and warped to Persephone. Other hostile ships were also warping in as well including a dominix, curse, armageddon and a few others. It was at this time that something odd happened. Space travel is always a funny business, one is stretching the rules of known physics to destruction in most cases and sometimes, just sometimes, the universe fights back. Our jump towards Persephone was characterised by mashed up sensors, non-jumps or a jump journey that lasted for an age. Some of the ships landed close to Persephone but their sensors (as well as their eyes) could not see her or the enemy ships or indeed the planet she was orbiting. Others, like myself, find themselves in a very long warp only to rubber-band back to our original position. Very odd and needless to say, not one of us could get in and help Persephone and her Brutix was duly dismantled. Only one other fleet member landed near Persephone, could see some (not all) of the enemy ships and fired one salvo.

A most disappointing initial engagement but we bounced back and soon found ourselves in Null-sec chasing the local residents. Being all cloaky and hidden no doubt freaked them out and most docked up either in their outpost or POS. Some were complaining that they wanted to 'reclaim their local' and that we had to leave immediately.

We did pop a heavily laden hound caught in a number of bubbles that were anchored around the Paala / LXQ2-T gate - it was carrying about 40million+ of items so a valuable score for us. Nashh grabbed most of the loot and scooted to a nearby station. Kalius also popped a raptor buzzing us, he was in his trade-mark rifter and one always puts your money on Kal Prime. The fleet had cohesion, discipline and a big degree of fun and despite the low harvest, we all returned home grinning. I had to then pass the FC baton to Kalius and Co. and they continued killing and ransoming people until the wee hours.

I had to get the current loot sales sorted - we are close to hitting 2B in items sold so am going to bank the money and get ready to split the proceeds amongst the pirates. We do need to paid after all.

Rifter V Taranis

Roaming on your own should be done by every pod pilot - I started solo and stayed a solo pilot and pirate for a long time. It is the only way to learn combat in New Eden as well as a understanding lot about yourself. It was a slow day at the office and I sneaked out of The Bastards headquarters in my trusty rifter and zipped through space. I pointedly ignored the flashing mail notification icons and the incoming message prompts. I just pointed the rifter in one direction and opened up the throttle. I needed a break and I wanted to see what I could catch and didn't really care whether it was a rookie frigate or a titan. However, after five jumps, I saw nothing on scan. Not a sausage. I paused and checked in with Aurora, just to be sure.

"Aurora, push the scanners out to maximum. I can see people in local but so far, no even space junk on scan."

Aurora's lush and husky voice flowed back.

"Maximum scans indicate that there are no vessels around asteroid belts, planets or any other celestials. There are three vessels, marauder class deep inside an anomaly. Scan probes of sufficient strength are required."

I pushed on and increased the volume of the in-flight music, an eclectic mix of chilled ambient and techno. Try it, works for me, especially when it is quiet.

A few more jumps and I landed in Resbroko and pinged the scanner once more.

Taranis on scan - let's have some it, I thought.

A quick fiddle of the directional scanner and I had the interceptor.

Warp drive active.

As my rifter leapt into warp, eager for combat and blood. I quickly reviewed the taranis: short range weapons with quite thin armour. It was devastating up close and fitted properly could hit out quite far with tech two ion blasters and null ammunition.

With all these variable flowing through me; I was eager to test my rifter against it. My tactic was to keep range with my webber and blast the taranis as it tried to close on me. I would have to pulse my micro warp drive to ensure that I could maintain some range but it would be a challenge for sure.

As I approached the belt my directional scanner pinged ahead and confirmed that the taranis was at the top belt but whether he was moving or staying still was an unknown. My heart started to beat faster. A feeling that most combatants are familiar with. Despite having fought in low sec for a few long years, I still loved the thrill of approaching violence and I would never get sick of it.

I landed at 20km from the centre of the top asteroid belt; as I was planning on the taranis being at zero. My eyes snapped up as I saw the taranis barrelling towards me, its micro warp drive burning brightly. The pilot was intent on closing on me and he had landed off the warp in point as well. He had the same idea as me and was 'only' 14 km from me.

I fired when I was at optimal range (in other word, immediately) but then realised that I had EMP-based ammunition loaded and not barrage; a rookie mistake and I cursed. The EMP ammunition was designed to knock down shielded system but it wasn't to be used at long range, while the barrage type was, especially at my optimal. In a moment of indecision, distracted by my annoyance, I lost track of the taranis and forgot to web him. My rifter's close collision alarms blared as the taranis passed by, its close range blasters racking my ship, my shields boiling off in two and then three bright flashes but I did bring him down to armour by some luck.

The taranis swept round in a wide arc as I gunned my rifter in the opposite direction, my webber snaked out but he was too close and continued to chew through my armour. We both went down into hull at the same time but I then ran out of capacitor to power up my armour repairer. Poor use of my ship's capacitor had opened me up to yet more damage. I cursed, as the taranis pilot could smell blood; even webbed - it was delivering devastating hits. My poor rifter was down to half hull but my 150 mm auto canons continued to fire and the taranis was also on fire.

With a jolt, my automatic ejection system kicked in and vomited my capsule out into space. The rifter no more. My rifter had been blasted to atoms around me. The taranis was in a bad way but at least it still flew. As I powered away, I saw the pilot approach my wreck and grabbed what he could.

There was a pinging sound and I realised that the pilot wanted to talk to me.

What followed was a pleasant exchange and it was then I saw that the victorious pilot was from GIS - a corporation that had frequented these parts but had disappeared for some unknown reason. It was with some pride that he said The Bastards are one of the few honoured pirates around and that he was glad that I didn't chicken out. We chatted about the antics of General Coochie, one of our very best of ours who gave GIS no end of trouble. He is on a long term sabbatical at the moment and I hope to see him back soon. We ended what turned out to be a very pleasant conversation when my criminal count-down had cooled off. He even contracted back the salvaged remains of my ship after I cheekily asked for it back.

A bit surprised, I set a course for home and made my way back to Evati.

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

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

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

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

"Gentleman, ready my pod."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The fleet continued on their way.

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

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

"Scout two: holding in Paala."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amidst numerous bombing runs by other stealth bombers, our fleet rotated around and stayed in LXQ. Ishalar did a fine job trying to ransom the hurricane pilot, using all his negotiating skills to little effect. In the end, the kidnapped pilot was dispatched by a bomb blast from one of his friends. Maybe he asked for a swift execution from a friend or maybe it was a case of disasterous friendly fire. Whatever the result, the ransom was not met but a long, rambling and very funny conversation was had.

Dougal Laphroaig > I'm a null sec combat pilot, won't pay it mate. But just remember this. A day will come, and I will make a decision, save your pod and let you fly away, or blow your +5 full hat off.

The full log has been re-posted and commented elsewhere.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone burst into laughter .

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

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

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

A few seconds later, Dougal waking up in a reclone station contacted Ishalar again via the public ransom channel.

[23:44:05] Dougal Laphroaig > No problem. I understand. Small penis and all, it's okay. One day you might just be able to grow up and become a man.
[23:44:22] Dougal Laphroaig > Not likely though. lol
[23:45:31] Dougal Laphroaig > I guess that's why I never went down the pirate road. No code, no honor.
[23:48:21] Ishalar Molina > I'm quite sure you will win this war even though you have lost the last several battles
[23:48:58] Dougal Laphroaig > My kill board it actually pretty good. I've inflicted alot more damage than I have taken, and funny thing is. I have never paid a ransom.

While this conversation was rivetting, our scouts had spotted a Tengu class strategic cruiser and we raced towards it. The conversation with Dougal was left hanging. Unfortunately, we missed the Tengu, it had evidently cloaked up and disappeared and we had a consolatory kill of a curse.

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

Zombie Apocalypse

"So Rodney, just what is your zombie escape plan?" I said to my fellow pirate when I saw him link into the corporation chat window. I was outside in my rifter just cruising but there was a lot of talk on our internal forums of Rodney's zombie escape plan. To be honest, this was probably started with a throwaway comment by Rodney and it's been picked up by others and repeated by others until the whole thing has built up enough energy that it just needed some release. Poor Rodney.

Rodney played game and recounted a plan he had hatched with friends when he was planet-bound and didn't fly internet space ships. I think his plan to survive a zombie apocalypse involved stealing a boat, loaded with supplies and get into a large body of water....preferably an ocean. Since, as we all know, zombies can't swim. Then wait it out.

Oddly, I know a thing or two about zombies as well (!) - being an avid reader and pointed my intrepid pirate survivor friend to two excellent resources: World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide. Hera loved the first one so much, she went out to buy one while Shae then jumped in and gave us a link to a Zombie Survival Quiz - I came out with a 59% survival rating.

Anyway, as one can clearly see this side-tracking of 95% of our online pilots down the zombie survival route added a certain extra flavour to the rest of the evening, which also ended in our own zombie swarm in the form of GIS and their friends.

Without much ado, a fleet (mainly cruisers) was put together and the rabble roared out of Evati, the destination was to be Skarkon but the fun is in the journey and we were delayed when our scout informed us, just two jumps into the route that there was a large cruiser and frigate gang in Otosela. We waited impatiently on the Otosela gate in Akkio when a myrmidon blundered in.

A trigger happy pirate yelled out 'POINT!' and it was game on. Unfortunately, I had already given the order to approach the gate and therefore we were in a very poor position to take down the myrmidon under sentry fire. The myrmidon managed to jump back into Otosela while we had to disengage and warp to the nearest planning and away from the guns.

Meanwhile our scout was relaying information and it appeared there were two or more groups around. A ferox class battle cruiser, vagabond, hawk and harbinger were now on the Akkio gate in Otosela - a worthy snack for us, while a much larger cruiser class gang was apparently cleaning out some nearby Gurista bunkers. Our scout was looking for both.

We had the gate on our scanners and I ordered people to keep a keen eye out. A ferox suddenly appeared on our scanner. It was obvious and the order was given. The ships, already aligned to the Otosela gate whipped back to our starting position and we tackled and webbed down the ferox. It was a quick gank and module grab.

Our scout then reported a positive hit on the missioning gang and without hesitation, the fleet warped in. The numbers were about even but they were spread out and we only managed to take down the myrmidon and the vexor. Please note, that our 12-jump journey we had only ventured 3 jumps from our home system!

As we waited and cooled off our global count-downs, pilots docked up and repaired and sorted out the loot. Cooche had a malfunction with his docking computer and it crashed his thorax into the station - all the time stating 'Docking sequence initiated. Docking sequence initiated.' There's bugs in some of those computers I can tell you and to add insult to injury, Cooche was carrying a fair chunk of the loot too. Some of it blew.

A large GIS and friends gang swept through our system and the order was given to exit the system and scatter back to Evati. I had temporarily handed over the FC role to someone else as I need to effect some much need armour and hull repairs but I proved to be ineffective when I took it back and failed to marshall the fleet well enough to bring them all back in one piece. In short, we lost Rodney(Zombie Survivor) Star and Gorgoleon to overwhelming numbers. The rest scattered home.

Disappointed we needed something to end the evening with a cheer and it was Randgris who spotted a missioning Cerberus and Cooch scanned the pilot down. We all raced in and the pilot, seeing his fate, yelled out that he would pay a ransom. Cooch took the pilot into a ransom channel, quick negotiation and we were 135million isk richer. We then departed and cooled off our global countdowns.

The pilot then continued with his mission and this generated a heated debate over what we should do once the criminal countdowns had expired. After all, we all had the mission area bookmarked. He had paid his ransom but not a pass. The former lets you go with a clip around the ear after you have been jacked while the latter sets you blue for a set period and allows a varying degree of freedom in nominated areas. This pilot had paid a ransom and didn't even leave the mission area. The Bastards do NOT go back on our word. So we honour 1 v 1 and ransoms and pass-holders. However, it has been noted that this was a grey area and could do with more clarification.

Anyway, I should have squashed the discussions flat but in a moment of weakness, I encouraged it. Eventually, I decided to inform the missioning pilot to vacate the area for a bit and let things settle. We were planning on leaving anyway. He agreed and left unmolested.

Pirates are quite a democratic group, believe it or not and have been ever since wet-navy days when societies were largely planet-bound. Debate and votes are encouraged and unlike a lot of our more 'civilised' societies - the results of such votes are binding. Of course, it would be a foolish Captain to encourage too much debate that would run counter to his goals but such is life!

Traditionally a wet-navy pirate organisation was quite flat and loose. Here are some examples and here. If anyone has any thoughts on how ranks were traditionally put together, I would be very interested to know!

The night ended with Gorgoleon and Hera testing out new ship configurations. Gorgoleon in his new hound and Hera showing off his new Moros dread. The firepower of the hound was quite impressive, considering Gorgoleon (an excellent pilot) had just taken this stealth bomber into his hangar a few hours earlier. I was his crash test dummy in my maelstrom and he was firing off deadly salvos of torpedos at me - with him illuminating me through a target painter, the damage was quite impressive from such a little ship. Hera decided to unleash his dread on me and I quickly docked up. Rodney, was also out in his rupture and it dropped down into low armour after just a couple of 'testing' shots. RoninData, our CEO made an appearance and caught up on the day's events.

So a fun night and not a zombie in sight, eh Rodney. ......er what's that behind you...?

Cruiser roam and our probe.

There was a cruiser / battle cruiser roam last night. I joined up late as the fleet already had a couple of kills and ransoms by the time I joined up. The fleet was distracted by a couple of missioning typhoons that we came close to probing out but we finally ended up in Atlar - having set off all sorts of warnings in the Molden Heath Intel channel of our presence. Didn't realise that this channel was still working or even trusted but there you go.

Initially, we smashed apart a rifter/cruiser gang that had killed Bhaull at planet II. We even managed to pod some of the enemy pilots, all refused ransoms. We then found a hyperion class in a belt. It screamed 'bait' but we said 'what the hell' and went in. A stabber fleet issue whipped in as well both were pointed and webbed and then the hammer dropped on us. In the confusion, half the fleet was accidentally warped out by the squad commander. Jmarr, after warping out, bravely came back in. He was determined to sink the hyperion we had initially tackled. It was near hull when we left.

Unfortunately for us, the enemy fleet, very battle ship heavy, pulled Jmarr apart. He was congratulated on his tank however and gracefully accepted the praise. z0de and 3Jayne lost their myrmidons and RoninData, had his drake (why is he flying a drake?) smashed to pieces around his ears. Speaking of Jmarr, he applied to join us but had his application withdrawn - mainly due to his inexperience but he is impressing everyone with his rapidly improving skills and eye to detail. Certainly, we are delighted to have him flying with us and he is determined to do well and learn. Excellent attitude to have. Gorgoleon was a successful applicant and now has The Bastards infamous winged skull with crossed swords motif stitched onto his flight suit; he's turning out to be a right bastard: smart, deadly and with a mouth to match. We love him. He was in a probe-class ship last night, determined to kill someone in the crappiest ship possible (bar the shuttle or rookie ships). Personally, I like the probe; 'tis a good cargo carrier. He was using it as a cheap covert-ops. Minus the role bonus and good looks.

Anyway, Gorg lost his probe to the remnants of the rifter/cruiser gang (from z3ro gravity corp) that we had killed. So SAD PANDA.

The night ended up in defeat but it was drowned out by the chuckles and roaring laughter from our pilots. We have to come back to MH again.

Oversized Clip & Carbine

"Tuesday the 21st of April sees the most ridiculous fleet yet - Operation Oversized Clip and Carbine.

I want to see the biggest motherfucking guns you can cram onto your ships - frigates, think cruiser guns - cruisers, think battleship guns and so on. Shit, if you can fit a battleship gun on a frigate, go for it! You know this is going to be comedy gold, even if we just get one kill mail. Only rules are, no damage other than the oversized guns, no drones. Try and fit for gank if possible. ECM drones allowed. T2 allowed, if you can fit it.

Prizes will awarded for most outrageous and stylish fits."

I re-read the corp message three times before the message sunk in and then grinned like an idiot. Oh this is going to be fun. Chucking a cruiser sized gun onto a rifter is a strict no-no in anyone's books but the corp had decided that, for tuesday's pirate roam - this fitting was exactly what we wanted.

The order was given to all assembled pilots to select a weapon system that was normally fitted to a ship class one or two classes above. In other words, a cruiser gun onto a frigate, a battle ship gun onto a cruiser etc etc. I picked up the voice comms and and it was RoninData, my CEO.

"Ronin. Oversized clip and carbine?"

"Hell yeah. Going to be a hoot, probably can't hit anything but what the hell. You in?"

"Of course, just trying to figure out how the hell I can cram an oversized gun onto a frigate." I paused and flip open a schematic of a rifter hull. "I will have to remove practically all the forward infrastructure to accomodate a set of dual-180s. Remove the armour plating and reinforce the mid-sections. Otherwise the guns will fall right off."

"Yeah, I am having problems jamming a set of dual-425mm onto my rupture." Replied Ronin as we shared notes.

"No way can we do all this work in the station; even if we can reduce the gravity. Has to be done in zero-G."

"Already ahead of you Flash, here's the coordinates of the construction yards. Ship your gear and crew and get ready. We roll out in four days." The line winked off and I sat back. Four days? Easy.

Actually, it wasn't that easy. While the frame was strong enough to sport a set of dual-180 auto canons; I was lacking power and the only way to overcome this was to rip out the existing system and replace it was three new auxilliary power cores. No room for even an afterburner if I needed tackle but I could pop in two top-line target painters.

A day before the operation, we gathered our fleet of engineering monstrosities. It meant for very unbalanced ships, both in terms of aerodynamics and looks. With the large 180mm dual ACs strapped to the front, my rifter had trouble keeping it's nose up in the hangar bay, once there was a hint of gravity.

So here's the ship:

The other pilots had similar issues: 'Unable to sustain my repper!', 'Can't generate lift, guns too big!', 'I can't see!! - that electron canon is blocking my view!'. We decided that the only thing we could hit would be battle ships and above and moons.

Hilarious, with much laughter to be had by all. Our tracking was horrible.

So with a flourish we left Evati on the operation and headed out for prey and we soon found one, a hurricane class battle cruiser, z0de was in his thorax that was sporting a massive electron canon - normally fitted onto battle ship class ships and not the venerable thorax cruiser. He already attracted attention from some station camping carebears who questioned his sanity.

'z0de warping in.....'

We waited on the other side of the gate for the successful tackle. Worried and excited at the same time and fully expecting to die. Our setups were so gimped to near-uselessness; all to fit in the large guns with no guarantee of hitting anything smaller than a battle ship.

"Point." Said z0de and we all screamed in.

What happened over the next fifteen minutes was some of the most amusing time that I had spent with my chaps. The hurricane had drones: deadly to frigates but since our tracking was so poor we had problems shooting down the deadly little robots. Even quad-target painted and dual-webbed, a single drone could only be dropped by a lucky shot. We had Warrior drones shield tanking us. Yes, you read that right.

Thanks to Gorg (love that dual web) and Fish for dealing with most of the drones as well as z0de for keeping a point on that hurricane. Am sure the pilot was rather bemused by our attempts at trying to kill him. He may even thought that he could take our fleet. At many points, some of our ships had to warp out to repair. Finally, the last drone was dropped and we concentrated on the hurricane.


We eventually dropped the pilot.

There was a second opportunity with another hurricane but without enough webs or afterburners, the hurricane escaped. Much to our frustration.

We called an end to the operation and we gathered together our learning points.

Weakness:

1. Vulnerable to nos/neut and drones.
2. Many could not fit afterburners or microwarpdrives.
3. Poor tracking.
4. Vulnerable to smart bombs.
5. Poor DPS - since we could fit one gun at most.

Strengths:

1. Lol-factor

Enemy frigates outside our door!

"We have lots of war targets outside." Informed Shae in her cloaked and hidden position above our station. After over a month of official war with GIS and their friends, where we have been successfully attacking their more expensive ships in our much cheaper T1 frigates, the enemy came back to visit us last night in similar T1 frigates. No doubt to entice us to fight and to cut down their losses. Their killboard efficiency isn't too good at the moment.

"Can you ID the ships Shae?" I asked as I quickly scrolled through the available pilots list.

"Er, incursus, incursus, rifter and griff. There's more in local than there are ships."

"So expect some cloakies, probably falcons." I observed. GIS are well known for their love of ECM. A valid tactic by the way and something we need to work on.

"Yup."

"Shouldn't matter; all pilots 'x' up to kick GIS and their frigates." The corporation communication channel, always populated and busy flashed several times and we had a small fleet of eight pilots.

We undocked and then we danced with the GIS frigates who didn't immediately engage us but tried to dock. On several occasions, buzzing us and taunting us with their close fly-bys and then docking up. It could not continue and we eventually popped three of their frigates. Through a combination of poor tactics and sloppiness on their part and good placement of ships by us. This is where the war declaration has helped us as we could engage these chaps without any interference from station guns and CONCORD.

Long live bribery!

We've learnt some more and will adjust our tactics and ships accordingly.

I lost my rifter due to a moment of absent mindedness where I locked and fired on a neutral. The gate guns, detecting an illegal weapon's discharge, dismembered my rifter in very short order. Obviously, we didn't bribe enough people!

During all this, and since we were pirates, we still managed to probe down and tackle a drake. Forcing the pilot to eject from his ship was a bonus but the pilot wasn't in a talkative mood when we offered to sell back his rigged ship.

Finally, the frigate/destroyer fleet - restless for more booty went off on a roam towards Metropolis / Heimater. We managed to ransom a rifter and killed an arbitrator and a falcon. The arbitrator pilot was very unhappy with us as we tried to first ransom his cruiser and then when his ship popped, we tackled his pod. He wasn't too happy with us.

Cooch took over the fleet as I had to dock up - there was a very odd bug where my global criminal countdown kept on resetting back to 15 minutes every five minutes. This went on for over forty minutes! Very odd and quite disturbing. The arbitrator pilot, just before he popped, threatened that his friends would find me and deal with me. Maybe this was what he had in mind?

Crime does pay
Finally crime does pay as the list below shows you the pay-out from yet another batch of loot that we have sold.

**** 106,010,958.01
**** 11,105,295.58
**** 69,740,264.89
**** 21,870,671.50
**** 19,612,745.53
**** 9,931,825.00
**** 23,492,253.50
flashfresh 26,791,258.38
**** 60,780,529.25
**** 99,981,083.50
**** 257,043,220.38
**** 45,905,777.00
**** 67,048,803.00
**** 34,709,465.75
**** 2,928,337.04
**** 24,085,517.52
**** 31,507,797.67
**** 111,800,468.37
**** 27,544,864.15
**** 55,779,574.33
**** 58,828,362.91
**** 21,963,471.13
**** 10,481,149.30
**** 2,743,399.30
**** 460,331.98
**** 80,226,163.64
**** 21,538,028.42
**** 16,092,014.48
**** 1,593,181.82
**** 154,550,897.47
**** 83,056,499.50
**** 20,580,517.82
**** 47,697,812.10
**** 11,284,585.71
**** 24,271,850.71
**** 60,041,643.82

Total sales were around 1.7 billion isk and there's another load of gear being repaired, repackaged and loaded up.

One of the strengths of our pirate corp is the equitable split in all loot collected. We've developed an application that takes all kills and loot and hyperlinks them to each pilot involved, the killboard and the item values from EVE-Central. In one place, everyone can see the value of the loot drop per kill, the pilots involved as well as total value.

A very slick, almost automated loot management and isk distributing system, developed by pirates for pirates. Something that we, The Bastards are very proud of. Here's an example from the application.



The Recruitment -'Recruitment for The Bastards is now closed'.
New recruits are fitting in quite nicely but we still have a number in the queue being evaluated - it's a long process and unfortunately, mistakes during the evaluation period might result in the application being rejected. It's a bit harsh but we can't afford for someone to be a paper weight.

January to March 2009 Recruitment Intake Details

Total Applicants: 29

Instant rejection due to failing to complete form as directed: 2
Rejection due to failing basic security, AGE and API checks: 2
Rejection due to failed interview (ex. no vent): 1
Rejected due to inexperience in piracy: 4
Rejected due to other reasons: 12

Still in progress: 5 (to be completed by middle of Mar 2009)
Passed and accepted on a three-month probationary period: 3
Those in the queue and ready for next recruitment cycle: 2

Back with a bounce.

"Time for a roam and blow some cobwebs out!" I said with some glee. The Alliance had returned from our jaunt in the Alliance Tournament - we did not make the next round as we didn't score enough points. Our win against KIA Alliance had helped us increase our profile and garnered us a lot of praise and notoriety. Certainly, the various email and evemail boxes are quite full and I have a long (but enjoyable) task ahead of me in sorting them out.

Oh, before I forget - those who sent in applications before the christmas break; so long as it wasn't rejected; you've been held in limbo all this time and I can only apologise. I have sent an email to each of you explaining the situation and how we best go forward. We were very busy with the alliance tournament preparation and we were trying hard to minimise any espionage and spying. Now that the Alliance Tourney is over for us; it's back to pirating. We had to say good-bye to a few pilots as they delayed their departure to assist us Bastards in preparation and training and we thank them and wish them the best of luck.

We will find you.....

With some hardware and software problems; I had trouble linking into my pod - the technicians gave me some gibberish about something needing new firmware etc. I just decided to sit back with a fine bottle of brandy, a good book and no disturbances.

However, I was able to test out the upgrades last night - leading a small assault frigate gang into a low-sec pocket. Maltrox is a gank magnet and within seconds of entering a system the communication link went wild.

"I have a hit on a dominix and warping in!"

The frigate fleet was split across three systems in order to find targets so we raced towards the gates to rejoin with Maltrox. We shouldn't have bothered.

"Crap. He was stabbed." Said Maltrox; his voice thick with disappointment.

We tried to chase but the dominix pilot wisely slunk his way around the gates and stations; with the sentry guns offering him protection. The frigate hulls would have been pulverised by them if we wanted to initiate hostilities within range of them.

The first part of the roam was over as we returned to base for a refit.

"Five minutes and we roll out. Get a bio-break, a snack or a ship refit." I said to the fleet now docking up.

Once the five minutes were up, the fleet was re-organised and zoomed out into the black and soon; we had scanned out a missioning tempest. Like a pack of rabid animals, we warped to our covert-ops and then unleashed hell. Our frigates (basic and assault variants) buzzed around the huge form of the tempest spitting our fury. The pilot was clearly bemused when we ransomed him - he accused us of using some sort of hack to prevent his ship from escaping. We laughed and asked for some isk to let him go. The ransom went well and reasonable and we each in the fleet became 10million isk richer. Some would say we should have went for more but meh; 10million is 10million!


We then moved on, the hunt continuing with a few more kills and ransoms before our return.

Another frigate roam a few days later involved me, Hera and Fenneck. Kerblammo was also with us in a double-plated Maller but he followed some jumps behind and as luck would have it; it was Blammo who found targets. He was first ambushed by a rapier than an inty and finally a 'cane. We were too far away to assist but Blammo just thought it was fun as his hastily patched together maller came apart around his ears.

Without the irrespressible Kerblammo we continued down and bumped into a massive tribal militia force; I warped towards the top planet and a caracal (not attached to the militias) - he landed on top of my rifter. I called my two companions to assist as I snapped on the warp scrambler and started to cycle up my auto canons.

I had the caracal down to 1/3 shields when Fenneck and Hera warped in with their interceptors. I then warped out my armour smoking. My two friends took the rest of the caracal apart. Chancing my luck, I went to another planet and orbitted it. This time, I attracted a wolf-class assault frigate.

Not good. The firepower of this beast is legendary. I snapped on my webber and held him there as I tried to get out it's way. I failed as his first volley took all my shields off and then bit deep into my armour. My response wasn't too shabby either; the triple 150mm auto canons speaking back with EMP.

Then the wolf pilot drew out his ace: a falcon.

The much feared EWAR recon cruiser decloaked and his powerful jammers avalanched over my puny systems. I was rendered blind and the only option was to run however, the fall off of the wolf's weapons enough to clip my port-side engines and shatter it. I spun helplessly as the wolf then helped himself to seconds and utterly destroyed my rifter.

Fenneck and Hera had come in and ran for their lives as more ships warped in; Fenneck just getting out with no armour and near hull breach in several locations.

I whipped my pod out and quickly docked up - fully intending to rejoin the fight.

It was at this time that the GalNet comms channel went utterly mad and I could see why:

'Band of Brothers Alliance had been disbanded'

All thoughts of continuing with the roam ended as I sat back down and ordered room service and a high-bandwidth news feed. The news was quite shocking and while the corporation and pilots that made up BoB were still active, the alliance (and hence sovereignity) was now, to all intents, dead. This was a massive shake-up of nullsec alliance and the power-blocs there.

It would be interesting to see how this plays out. The Goons, to ensure that there would be maximum pain gained at the expense of BoB; created a corp called Band of Brothers - thus preventing any new alliance to be created (or recreated) under that name. However, the corporations that were members of BoB could easily reform under the banner of a new alliance and then attempt to kick out the interlopers.

Anyway, we all are living in interesting times....

More roams and more booms

More new faces.
We have welcomed more recruits to The Bastards so let me introduce to you all:

DJ Akula
Fenneck
Vanamoinen
Kerblamo
Maltrox
Shader24

We are stronger with these chaps and they have been busy adding to our kills and loot. We have 14 applicants in the queue and the next batch will be processed as soon as this post is complete. In fact, the month of December has been a magnificent period for us, both killboard and loot-wise. We were posting up 1billion isk in kills per day for a period of five days....and this was only the first five days of December! However, it did start to slow down but, for a small corp like ourselves, this sort of activity meant plenty of loot and ransoms.

A roam into null-sec

I FC'ed a roam into null-sec, hopeful that we could re-enact the 'Saving Private Frog' episode from a week ago. However, it did not go according to plan as we ran into some rather recaltriant members of Southern Cross Alliance who kicked our asses royally at the FDz gate in M-MD31. We were all in T1 cruisers ('cept Viginiti) and managed to knock down a drake and arazu but we were over-whelmed.

Fight summary here.

They were much better than the IRC chaps and I am sure we'll pay that part of Geminate a visit soon for some kills and loot and ransoms.

Moving down the pipe then?

So, a few days later I found myself in a rifter and decided on a solo roam. There were Bastards about of course, in stations and in many of the neighbouring systems but no sanctioned corporation excursions, so we were left to our own devices. The Bastards does expect pirates to have a bit of get up and go and to personally lead roams in search of loot and kills. So it was around Egmar, I met up with Khaled Urduni, on a shake down cruise with his Hurricane. We both had the same idea and I set up a two-man fleet and we continued on our merry.

It was wasn't long before I had spotted three ships in local: a rifter, rupture and zealot. A quick spin of the scanner and I found two of the three. With a quick kill in mind, I asked Khaled to hold on the gate and leapt into the belt.

Both the rifter and the rupture were not in the same corp but evidence of their work was all over the belt: sparkling wrecks. I quickly narrowed them down to a single belt, set battle stations and raced into the belt, with all my weapons primed. As I arrived, I caught the tell tale warp signatures of the departing ships. They went in two directions.

Cursing, I chased after the rupture and raced after it towards Planet III.

"Khaled: this is Flash. Hold on gate, going after rupture."

"Roger that Flash. Good hunting." I was determined to solo it. The rifter could sense my eagerness and like a blood hound, it strained at the leash. I landed around planet III and found nothing.

Disappointing but to be expected. I hit the scanner again and found, that both the rifter and rupture were nowhere to be seen. Setting up a lazy orbit around planet III; I continued my scan and stopped. A zealot had appeared within scan range. The third ship and not one that I was initially hunting. His location steadied around Planet IV.

"Khaled. This is Flash. I may have a zealot. Stand by."

"Roger, Khaled standing by."

Planet IV was a short hop and the warp jump took less than five seconds, dropping into orbit - my overview updated with a the solid white square of a HAC-Class ship. It was the zealot, moving at around 900 m/s and away from me. I hit my afterburners and gave chase. The zealot pilot (Anni Bonney) obviously saw me and turned her ship around, 180 degrees and made her intentions clear to me: she locked me. As I did her.

"Khaled. Prepare for imminent violence. Zealot is approaching me. Should have a lock and point in seven seconds."

"Roger that Flash. Waiting for your signal."

The steady pinging of my targetting computer changed tone as I got a lock on the zealot as did she. My shields boiled off almost instantly as her lasers washed over me.

"Flash has point. Warp to Flash Khaled." I got into an eye-crushing close orbit around the zealot, desperate to keep myself alive long enough for Khaled to come through. It looked like she was using heavy pulse lasers and my tactical computer detected it was most likely scorch laser crystals. If I could just keep this orbit; I should be okay.

A laser purple beam cut deep into my port fuselage, jarring me out of my tactical day dreaming. Red alert lights flashed across me, looks like I had suffered some major damage to the port stabilisers. I compensated and adjusted the power input.

Well, there was alway bad luck too, another hit like that and my ship would be cut in two.

Khaled's hurricane finally roared in, the wedge shaped minmater battle cruiser always had an impressive entrance.

Between the two of us, we finally made the kill. The zealot pilot had a very impressive armour tank and when it looked like she was stabilising at 10% armour, I decided on a ransom. Before I could finish the demand, the armour was blasted away and her hull critically damage. She went up in a flash and we missed the pod.

We celebrated with an ewok-dance as the loot drop was decent and the fleet was joined by Euan8, Raelyf (a new applicant) and z0de. The latter in his incursus and racing from ten jumps away. The expanded fleet spread out into the neighbouring systems; we all had hits on the scanner but the ships slipped away.

I was luckier - while I missed a thrasher (twice) in a belt; I did manage to attract the attention of a sentinel frigate. A deadly Electronic Attack Ship and piloted by Darth Semios. He doggedly pursued me from planet to planet and belt to belt. Each time, I managed to slip away. I knew what the outcome of this fight would be: my death.

Raelyf was the first to get close enough to assist, having raced past Khaled at Ardar. Euan8 and z0de were a bit further behind.

Me and Darth danced around the ice belt; the large chunks of ice and rock bumped and shattered around us, littering the space between us with debris. I landed as he was re-aligning to get out. He stopped as we both locked. His drones popped out and his nosferatu winked to life. I was going to knock him down as quickly as I could, my guns required no capacitor to fire but his nos would drain me enough that my afterburner, web, scrambler and armour repairer would all go down. I could counter with my own smaller nos. It would be a bit tight but this was not a 1 v 1. It was me being bait.

As soon as I had point, I ordered Raelyf in and he started to warp to me. I was down to no cap and well into armour. My repairer shutting down with a squawk of protest at the lack of power. Darth's warrior II drones screeched around me and ripped the rifter to pieces around me. I managed to kill one before my pod was out in space.

I warped out, leaving Raelfy to kill the sentinel. Khaled sneaked in as well and between the two, the sentinel was doomed. By this time, I passed the FC to Euan and z0de as I couldn't do much in a reaper with a GCC. As the same fleet tracked down towards Amamake; they engaged and destroyed a thorax and phobos; both from the Pegasus Foundation Corporation.

I managed to sneak in with the reaper to point the pod.



Don't mess with a combat reaper!

At this time, I docked up as sleep was calling but the small gang managed to snag yet another thorax, a rifter and an arazu before they too, called it a night. For the loss of one rifter, the gang made six kills and got some good loot.

Well done chaps!

Frigates, frigates, frigates everywhere.....

'Frigate operation and roam. 21:00 EVE Standard Time. RoninData'

That was the message on the channel as I linked in. I glanced at the chronometer and I had 15 minutes. Checking my hangars, I had five rifter-class frigates, two wolf-class and two-jaguar class all loaded, fuelled and ready to roll. The fleet was being set up and pilots all linking in, most appeared to be wolf and jaguar and ishkur pilots.

No T-1 hulls I thought to myself and therefore opted to balance out the T2 goodness by readying the venerable T1 rifter hull. There was general excitement and anticipation from the pilots assembled. Sarge was outside, roaring about in his stiletto-class interceptor and decided to tackle a crow-class interceptor who took a shine to him. There were about seven other fleet members outside but who could not engage due to possible gate gun fire.

"Go get him Sarge!" Cheered the assembled crew.

"Slag him!"

The two interceptors duelled each other at high speeds, zipping in and out of each other's orbits. There were puffs of flame and leaking atmosphere from both ships - the rockets and missiles from the crow eating into Sarge's thin frame while he replied with concentrated auto canon fire; peppering the Caldari ship's own hull.

"Shit, this is going to be cloooooosssssseee!" Said Sarge, and we all willed him for an extra volley or a lucky shot. There was a flash of light and Sarge's stiletto burst into pieces with his capsule whipping out.

"Good fight!" Congratulated Sarge to BlackShadow007, a well deserved reward for an enjoyable fight.

"Great. We're about to roll and I was hoping you would our scout Sarge." Observed RoninData.

This was greeted by guffaws and laughs. The time for the operation kick off was in five minutes and as customary, we were not quite ready. We still had pilots linking in and San was five minutes away moving some stuff and a few were AFK. With a sigh, RoninData postponed the op by 15 minutes. Those pilots that were ready, grumbled somewhat but amidst good natured joshing of Sarge on his loss; time passed quickly and soon a very impressive frigate gang was in place.

Floating outside like a swarm of angry wasps. Now the frigate class includes the traditional T1 frame, the assault frigate class, covert ops, electronic attack ships and the interceptor class. We were missing covert ops but we reckoned that this was superfluous to what we wanted. Now, low-sec pirating usually involves a fair amount of gate and station fighting and the assault frigate class, of which this fleet was largely comprised of, does not last very long against the automated sentry guns. So tackling prey at gates and stations was not a possibility.

One could only hope that potential prey could initiate hostilities - but this still did not allow everyone else to jump in. Only the aggrieved. The only choice available was to engage at planets, belts and complexes - and other criminals of course of which there were plenty to be seen on any given night in Metropolis. So tough choices but something that we had to live with.

"Fleet: be ready to roll in five minutes." The fleet was joined by two familiar faces: Mynxee and Shae Tiann - the latter who came in bang on time, and was ready within 10 seconds. Pretty slick these female pirates. Soon, the fleet was ready - 30 minutes past the scheduled time; a definite improvement but what hell - we're pirates!

The fleet was:

San Rintu: Kitsune-class electronic attack ship;
Kulmid: Harpy-class assault frigate;
Mr Frog: Ishkur-class assault frigate;
Shae Tiann: Ishkur-class assault frigate;
euan8: Ishkur-class assault frigate;
Khaled Urduni: Jaguar-class assault frigate;
Mynxee: Jaguar-class assault frigate;
RnProphet: Jaguar-assault frigate;
Pacifist Priest: Retribution-class assault frigate;
Jorge Belda: Vengeance-class assault frigate;
Loth'nwenar: Wolf-class assault frigate;
Maltrox: Wolf-class assault frigate;
RoninData: Wolf-class assault frigate;
Jiremjahu Menasseh: Crow-class interceptor;
Thrac: Crow-class interceptor;
VB Sarge: Stiletto-class interceptor;
flashfresh: Rifter-class frigate;

17 ships.

A hell of a lot of DPS. Very vulnerable to smart-bomb packing ships. Still stung from our loss in EOA-ZC to the smartbombing Rokh, we vowed to be more careful. RoninData gave the order:

"Fleet this is Fleet Command: Destination has been set. Scouts move out ahead. One jump. All fleet; jump."

With multiple flashes the frigates leapt into warp space and it is so thrilling in seeing your fleet, barrelling alongside you in the warp tunnel. We were deposited in a group at the first gate, scaring the hell out of a number of industrial pilots. Sarge was ahead and fed back intelligence from what he can see. He found various ships, some at POS others hidden in deep spare. Jiremjahu assisted Sarge as well, moving into side systems but most of the ships were inside deep positions. More than once, we thought the presence of a covert-ops with a scan probe would have been a boon. Three times we had ships land at the same gate; we locked them, daring them to fire first but all of them held their nerve and jumped. The gate guns, silent, watchful and brooding kept their silence.

We roamed almost all the way down to Dal before the order was given to retrace our steps. With Kulmid joining the scouts, he entered Ardar first. Maintaining his gate cloak; Kulmid performed a customary scan.

"Fleet, this is Kulmid. We have members of the 'Drunk GanG' in local. He linked the pilot names and we digested the information. These chaps had taken us down, destroying Spectre only this morning. There were a total of five potential hostile pilots in Ardar local. "I see a megathron and 'geddon on scan."

"They'll be in battle ships and probably one or two falcons, if the gang is the same as before." Replied RoninData. "This fleet of ours should kill them."

"Really?" Muttered someone - clearly not believing the power of the frigate swarm. "Small frigates against a battle ship? Two battleships?"

"Yes indeed. We're too small for them to track." Said RoninData. "We have some ecm, tracking disruptors and webs."

"But what about smart bombs? You forgot about that Rokh in EOA-ZC?" Replied the concerned pirate.

"We just have to be careful now don't we?" I replied, silently hoping that no-one was packing any smart bombs. Kulmid then cut in.

"I think they're around planet III. Am going there to have a lookee."

With that, Kulmid jumped into orbit around planet III while the rest of the fleet was clustered around the entry gate - the atmosphere heavy with anticipation. The seconds ticked by as Kulmid counted down the time until the warp tunnel collapsed and deposited him at his destination.

"Warp tunnel collapsing in 5, 4, 3, 2,-" There was a hiss of static as Kulmid dropped back into real space.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Megathron, pointing."

That was our signal to move. Like one swarm with a collective mind; all 16 frigates activated the gate and surged in like a tide into Ardar. As one, we all aligned to Kulmid.

"Contact! Contact! Geddon and second mega! Shit!" A burst of static cut in. " - down, going down. No cap. No cap. Fucking drones -" The rest was lost in garbled static.

We warped to Kulmid - who was now in deep trouble. "- mid down, Kulmid down. Watch out for them drones!"

As the fleet arrived, we saw Kulmid whipping out of the orbit. Now it was game time and it was thanks to Kulmid. Time to get some payback. My overview shimmered with new information being fed to me by my sensors as it picked up the signatures of the three vessels in front of me.

"Fleet. Primary: Nasiliy in his megathron. Secondary: Sikh. Tiertiary: Yarrino."

"Nasiliy pointed." Said Jorge, quietly efficient.

"Nasiliy webbed."

"Tracking disruptors on."

"Here comes the drones." Warned Loth.

"Shooting them!" Fired back Priest.

"They're fucking my drones!" Wailed Shae. My overview burst into life as it filled with drones from both sides swamped my GUI. I quickly re-sorted my overview but it was getting frantic with friendly fire.

"Drones on me! Drones on me! Help me!" Yelled someone.

"Who is that?"

"It's me."

"WHO IS ME?"

And so on. There was a burst of light and the armaggedon rammed it's sub-light engines into full burn and started to power away.

"Point and web the 'geddon! He's getting away." Yelled RoninData, now concerned that there was too many points on one target.

"I want Maltrox, Priest and Shae, points on Yarrino. Frog and Euan on Nasiliy. Jirem and Sarge on Sikh."

"Roger."

"Aye-aye."

"YAAARR!"

"Contact. Contact. Contact. This is Flash. Falcon de-cloaking, 150km. Pilot is 'Helllife' in Falcon." I said, as my overview winked on with a new target. A Falcon. Feared due to it's ability to render any ship useless through the much maligned electronic warfare modules.

"This is Sarge, and I am close to falcon. Burning towards him. Locking." I knew that Sarge was over-heating his afterburner in his effort to close the gap to the danger. I warped out to a planet as it would be quicker for me to warp to Sarge or someone closer then burning the 150kms.

"Jorge here: assisting Sarge. Burning towards the falcon."

"Jirem on my way to Falcon."

"Proph en route. Warping out and back in."

"You guys are team two!" Said Ronin, thereby allowing us to better communicate through the cacophony.

"Sarge here: I have lock and point. Warp to Sarge. Falcon pointed." Then there was curse and the sound of thumping." Jammed!"

I warped to Sarge, landing only 4km from the falcon, I snapped on my warp scrambler and fired as soon as my lock resolved. I had hot primed my auto canons and webber to fire as soon as the lock finished it's fix on the falcon. My auto canons spat out EMP shells at a furious rate.

The falcon pilot had too many targets to deal with; this is what we were planning on.

"Nasiliy is going down but I lost my point. Maintain point on the mega!"

Meanwhile back at the falcon, I saw that the falcon was cycling through all targets and soon I was hit by a wave of electronic noise, shutting down my computer. Jorge was on top of the falcon as was Jirem and Proph. They too, were jammed but managed to re-acquire locks and maintain the punishment on the falcon. My tough minnie electronic apparatus recovered, relocked and I too continued to fire.

"Contact. Contact. Contact. Second falcon. Second falcon!" OK, this was getting a bit complicated however, two frigates peeled off from the battle ships and chased after the second falcon. The FC designated this flight as team three.

There was a frantic shouting on the comms server. Voice discipline, while not always the best, began to break down.

"Voice discipline! Goddamn it." I said, but I was adding to the problem as much as trying to fix it. RoninData realised what was happening, cut through the chatter.

"Fleet; listen up - confirm points on targets."

"Shae, points on Nas."

"Jorge, points on Helllife."

"Loth, points on Yarrino."

"San, second falcon jammed."

"Priest, points on Sikh."

"Flashfresh, points on Helllife," and so it continued - each pirate confirming their target and through luck; there was no need to re-task any of the pirates with new targets. All hostile ships were locked down. The second falcon, suddenly realising the hopelessness, bugged out, temporarily leaving his compatriots to their fate.

"I think we can do this. Any ship with damage?"

"Loth here: no damage."

"No damage!"

"Flashfresh here: no damage." My rifter danced around the larger Caldari-made cruiser, its ECM modules blinking as it cycled and jammed our fleet. However, the punishment it had taken from us was evident in the numerous gashes and holes in it's hull. Many holes were leaking fluids and pumping precious atmosphere out. Its handling appeared to be increasingly erratic and some modules appeared to be off-lining. Our frigates buzzed around him, spitting our fury at him.

"Keep on Helllife in his falcon!" I said, the statement being so obvious that no-one answered but the rate of fire increased with more frigate-mounted missiles, shells and lasers lancing out towards the cruiser.

Not much to fear now eh? I thought to myself with some satisfaction.

My tactical computer shrieked as it detected a jam attempt from the stricken falcon. It was trying to align and get out and was using its remaining ECM ability to punch it's way out.

"Keep points on the Falcon! Points!" I roared.

"Lost lock!" Informed Jorge. "Re-tasking."

"Me too!" The frustration in Sarge's voice was clear. Frigate hulls are too small to fit enough ECCM to counter a dedicated EW boat such as a falcon or rook. All we could hope for was to swamp the falcon pilot with too many targets - more than it can jam and hold it down long enough with the remaining ships to kill it.

Helllife, initially concentrated on jamming the frigates attacking the three battleships but it was a costly mistake; this allowed himself to be trapped by the first anti-falcon team who managed to pile into him. Only now was he using his ECM and micro warp drive to extract himself.

"Flash still has lock." I said amazed that my warp scrambler was humming away and my guns running themselves dry. It would only be a matter of time before I was jammed again.

"Helllife has been jammed." Spoke San. He was our sole EW pilot in the Kitsune, still in the thick of the fight with the second returning, falcon and he came to us in the nick of time. I could imagine the frustration of Helllife, now realising that he too was jammed for a cycle; his targeting computers all going crazy on him as it tried to make sense of the electronic equivalent of a tidal wave crashing into it.

Team two swarmed in for the kill; and we took down the falcon. Once its shield systems were blown - our munitions then pummeled the ship into useless scrap. The pilot's pod managed to instantly whip out of the system.

"Falcon one is down." I said triumphantly as I re-aligned my ship back towards the main fight.

"Second Falcon is running!" Said someone from the team three. Sure enough, the second falcon, seeing the fate of his brother decided that he would have to leave his fleet mates to their fate and managed to get out a second time.

Only the three battle ships remained, looking huge and angry but now, so vulnerable.

"Primary is Nasiliy." Repeated RoninData as team two and three's frigates returning from their anti-ECM role were quickly re-tasked. The extra damage chewed through the first megathron, it's thick armour plating being slowly stripped off in flaming sheets. We had no interest in ransoms at the moment; we wanted to kill it and live off the loot that would drop.

With the megathron webbed, scrambled, partially jammed and completely unable to track the fleet-footed frigates and no drones to call it's own. This feared beast, and indeed the other two battle ships: a second megathron and an armageddon, would be dead very soon.

"Nasiliy is going down. He's going down!" Hooted Loth. We all wanted to see if we could provide the killing blow, the coup de grace. It was Euan8, in his close-range blaster ishkur who did it. His anti-matter hybrid rounds punching deep into the guts of Nasiliy's megathron and triggering a massive explosion. Buffeting us like chaff in the wind.

"Primary is down. New primary is Sikh."


Sikh, held down tight by another flight of frigates, suffered the same, ignomious death. It's guns simply too big and slow to track our frigates as we danced around him and slowly stung him to death.

Final target was Yarrino in the golden-hued Armageddon. It's mighty large lasers, hurled laser beams the size of palace columns, uselessly into space. Already, life pods were being spat out of the battle ship as his crew sensibly started to abandon ship.

"Ransom?" Asked someone.

It's usually customary for the last pilot in a hostile gang to be ransomed. A ransom midway through a fight is sure-fire way to a quick death so the last hostile pilot to remain, may expect some leniency if he doesn't escape.

"No. Show no mercy." Replied RoninData, mindful of exacting revenge for Spectre3353's loss earlier.

The hull of the armageddon cracked and then the ship broke apart, the inside of the ship blossoming like a new-born sun. The reactor had gone critical and the ship was consumed in a mighty explosion. Yarrino, expecting this, had already primed his pod to instantly warp out and we failed to catch him. No matter.

Once the flash of the armageddon's fiery demise had disappeared from our retinas - we started to cheer. Very loudly.

We held the field and gave a heart-felt 'GF' to the departing battle ship pilots. To the victor came the spoils and loot. One of them grumbled about us blobbing them, and yes, in terms of numbers our frigates out-numbered their battle ship & recon ships by 3 - 1 but even so; if they had coordinated more closely - concentrating their drones on just one of our frigates at a time for example - they would have slowly munched through us. If a ship fit cannot counter frigate-class vessels effectively; then you're always going to be in trouble. Smart-bombs, energy neutralisers, warrior II drones and tactics are some examples of anti-frigate warfare. Still it is easier to be a master tactician after a fight.

One can only assume that their communications was as frantic and chaotic as ours was.


Still, it was fun. A lot of fun.

Musings of a Pirate - Part 8 - Pushing the envelope.

Being a pirate means you need to be very isk efficient. Am in this business to get rich at the expense of others, thus I need to fly something that is relatively cheap and easy to replace. Forget faction mods or a ship dripping in tech two goodies. However, expensive mods and rigs can give a pilot the crucial split-second advantage to win a contest, so it's always a balance. After bagging that freighter and machaerial, my luck changed appallingly.

While I view uneven odds as a given and challenge, I recently pushed my ship and my skills too far and in the last few days have lost a rifter, a wolf and a rupture.

My Rifter versus Rupture and Stiletto: Loss of Rifter but gain of a rupture.
This was an interesting hunt as my intelligence sources told me that they were both working together. The rupture and stiletto were playing the station hugging game and I decided to bring them out into a belt. With a gang of three, I jumped into Hrondredir. Surely a lone rifter was too obviously shouting 'bait' to them? The stiletto arrived and engaged me, I did not have the speed to kill him but he didn't have the damage output to make much of a difference. I informed the situation to some local pirates and waited for a response while I danced the complicated dance with Sahonen, the stiletto pilot. I was ready to take advantage of any mistake.

Then his friend in the rupture arrived.

The game was up. I switched my attention to the more dangerous threat of the rupture and the rifter gave a good account of itself but when it was down to armour, I knew that I was in trouble. I could repair the damage from the stiletto but not that and the rupture. DJ and Daplat (I think) now entered into local. The interceptor scampered off while the rupture smelling blood, managed to clip my port side engine nacelle and my rifter blew up. He stayed too long however, a flashing thorax entered into the belt and tackled the rupture. It was DJ in his thorax. Something very funny happened soon thereafter. The rupture pilot, fearing a podkill, ejected from his rupture and got away. I re-entered the belt and boarded the still smouldering rupture and piloted it away! I tasked one of my camera drones to take a picture of the still-on-fire rupture.

Details of the rifter kill.

My Wolf versus Deimos
Still chuckling from getting a 'new' rupture I docked in Gusandall. One of my contacts informed me that there was a ship inside the Angel plex. Now, normally, it is Kane Rizzel who patrols these plexes; ensuring them that it is clean of all interlopers. He wasn't around so I took the job. The wolf would be perfect, with it's formidable armament it will shred any other frigate or assault frigate into scrap. Feeling confident, I undocked and engaged the warp engines. It was a pity that I bounced off the warp gate into the plex and even worse luck that i fell into the embrace of a waiting deimos. Too big to go in, the heavy assault cruiser was sitting there with the sole purpose of snagging anyone trying to get into the complex. Fair play to him, I would do the same. My bad luck he snared me. My wolf did not last long as the hybrid blasters punched into it's frame and his five drones screaming all over it, buzz-sawing it to death. I was too close, in fact, I was inside the deimos' optimal kill-zone. Mercifully, it was over quick and here's the details for everyone's amusement.

My Rupture versus Cyclone, Crusader and Incursus
Still smarting from the loss of the wolf, I wanted revenge and Gusandall was proving to be most active. Even though the systems from Gusandall to Evati had pirate HQs and roaming gangs and solo operators; we still get many, many pilots and corporations going through it. Providing a constant source of combat but more importantly, isk. So, it was with interest that I spotted some new faces in local and undocked in my rupture (no, it wasn't the one I liberated) and proceeded to do what all pirates do: scan and get a closer, more accurate location of the prey. I picked up a cyclone, a rifter, a crusader, an incursus and another rupture. I had no idea if all the ships were in a pos or in a safe or running a mission. Not many pirates were active today, probably sleeping off the night before.

I managed to scan and pin down the crusader it to the top belt but the rupture, without sensor boosters, was woefully in-adequate for tackling the speedy interceptor.

Sitting in my scanning perch, high above the system plane, I managed to pin down the crusader a second time but no, I was too slow. I whipped into the top-most belt. Like most systems, the top belt (usually designated as 1-1) was the main area that people visited first. It's also the most obvious location for baits and traps and counter-traps.

I thought I was being smart and laying down the trap. Little did I know I was the bait and kill.

A cyclone came into the belt, plasma streaming off it's bludgeon-like hull. Excellent, I thought - time to chew into a battle cruiser then. I readied myself and locked him, reloading EMP into my auto canons. Then the crusader came back in, eagerness evident in it's hostile attack pattern and to add to my woes, a fanged incursus joined them. My ECM drones screeched out and attempted to do their work on the cyclone.

OK, not too bad but I better get some hits in I thought and I volleyed the cyclone. The cyclone replied with it's own volley, this time from it's much larger 425mm auto canons. My shields were ripped off in one salvo.

I wasn't expecting that. The cyclone pilot quite clearly knew what he was doing and I was past the point of being worried.

The Crusader was buzzing around me and the incursus was blasting at me as well. At least I wasn't jammed but the plated Ruppie couldn't cope with the DPS and the cyclone was FAST. I hit my own micro warp drive to get some distance and managed to get away from the incursus but the cyclone was on me and maintained it's range. It had a micro warp drive too.

I died very quickly.

Fair play to the other pilots but losing three ships was a blow and humbling. Hope my luck changes soon!