Summer time, RR roll-out and stealth bomber magic.

The last couple of roams we have been going out with Stealth Bombers - partly inspired by Rixx's excellent article on Stealth Bombers and that their new make-over is SEX has meant that us pirates have been screaming around low-sec in these little beasties. I am flying a hound but I have to say, the Nemesis looks sweet. Might need to get me one of those. However the pickings have been slim so we decided that it was time for a change. Stealth Bombers are ninja for sure but I think I need Rixx to give us some pointers! I will continue to fly them for sure but a little bit of luck would have been welcome.

We have the ships now....

So time to ship up to the venerable battle-ship class ships and with six pilots & hulls available, we decided that the remote repping set-up would give us the most bang per buck. Thrown in a force recon and we were good to go.

Our fleet: 
Megathron
Dominix
Typhoon
Typhoon
Armageddon
Rapier

With the recent revamp of Faction Warfare we have definitely seen an increase in numbers in all systems but most pilots have been flying around in smaller ships classes: frigates and destroyers so not too useful against the larger (and slower) battle ship hulls we were piloting. With a scout ahead of us, we rolled around low-sec until we ended up in Molden Heath when the fleet scattered a little in order to cover more ground. This proved to be a fatal mistake but at the time it wasn't obvious.

Our scout reported that a neutral dominix was tackled one jump away from our current position in Oddelulf (we were headed to Bosena but our other scout reported negative targets) - our megathron suddenly lost connection two jumps away while the rest of use leapt into action. Timing was horrible as the megathron was our main source of DPS but we were committed to the action so away we rumble into fire and destruction!

I promise you that is what I said!

Landing at the gate we saw a megathron, stabber, blackbird, typhoon and a tempest. We set primary to be the tempest while sending our drones onto the blackbird. They counter attacked by going after Dil'e Mahn's Dominix having dispatched the neutral Dominix easily. Any remote repair work requires timing and organisation and quick reactions. We fired off our reppers and kept Dil'e alive while we got to work on the megathron, the ship we assumed would be the main damage dealer. Our DPS was low however, relative to the fleet hulls we were flying. The megathron was going down slowly but without the punching power of our own megathron, it was going to be tight. The blackbird came back at range and then, an Archon appeared.

Game over for us as it quickly slapped armour repairers onto the megathron completely negating our incoming damage.  In addition to the archon, it was joined by an abaddon and an armageddon to add to our woes and we were surrounded.

Damn....

Our own repairing efforts was too little to counter the incoming damage. Edney went down, guns blazing and then it was Dil'e followed by Mal. I was left to last (thanks guys!) and whipped my pod back home along with the rapier and megathron. A sobering experience for sure - I really should scrape some cash together to get a carrier for myself!

(oh, for some insane reason I now have Minnie Dread and Minnie Cap Projectile at V) - why, I ask myself? I must have wanted a long skill training when I went on leave all those weeks ago and never checked back. 

However, I have now looked at the price of ships (from frigates all the way up to capital class) and all I can say is this: DAMN. Most ships have increased by at least 35% if not more; luckily I have a bunch of ruptures but I feat that this will mean we will need to fly even smarter. I suspect that (at least for us poor pirates) - we will be flying the T1 express more!

Have no fear, my rupture of doom will be taking to the skies this week. I am going to see if I can fit a ship for just a few million in terms of fittings and still be effective? Absolutely. Stay tuned.

This is my ship of choice and there should be no other....

You are crap. You therefore deserved to die.

"You are crap. You therefore deserved to die," said Gorgoleon to me in his very, matter-of-fact tone. Sadly, I had to agree though I did not want to take anything away from the victorious Lau Wensink and his deathmatch offer. Yes, I lost to Lau in an arrange 1 v 1.

However, just a couple of hours before the duel - Jaxx and I found ourselves out in space in our recons (Jaxx in a Lachesis, me in my rapier) and we started to poke around our local area of space. We had new corporations move into our immediate area and we were interested in finding out who they were and whether they are 'fun' and potentially lucrative. A gang was formed and we went hunting. It would be an hour before I was ready and in typical fashion, I had not even fitted a ship.

Lau had challenged me to a duel and I agreed though I wanted it in a Bastard fashion: so I stipulated that it would be cruiser hulls with one (or more) battleship sized weapons. For me, I choose the rupture and bolted on a dual 425mm repeating auto-canon. My engineers had to add extra reinforced bulk heads to the hull so that I could dock without the weapon shearing off its mount. To power this monster gun required an entire rackful of reactor control units to provide the necessary power for the weapon. Extra large ammunition was added and crammed into the hull and I even managed to fit a medium smart bomb with three racks of 125mm auto canons. Truly an abomination. I then threw in some warrior II drones and with a scram, mwd and ECCM; I considered myself ready.

I had a bookmark set up and Lau, wisely came in his pod to bookmark the location and then warp off back to the station. He wanted to hide is ship until the very last moment. I was already undocked and was in a rupture, the overly large dual-425mm canon a very obvious addition.

My tactics were predicated on a number of things:

1. Any BS sized weapon would have problems hitting a cruiser, especially one moving with a MWD. Therefore, I fitted a MWD.
2. Therefore an alternative and supporting method of attack would be required and they would range from target painters, webbers, scramblers, nos, ecm and drones. I would be relying on drones and my smaller, frigate sized auto canons to do most of the damage. Hence warrior IIs and x3 125 mm auto canons.
3. I know Lau has been using ECM before (against VenomOrchid for example) and it was possible, that he would come in a vexor with a load of drones (some ECM) and nos. Therefore I fitted, with some difficulty, a medium smart bomb to take care of the drones.
4. I had no tank however and was probably cap unstable, toyed with the idea for a cap booster but decided to fit a ECCM module just in case he was cheeky and fitted a racial ECM.

It was with some surprise (and worry) that Lau arrived, after being counted down by Jaxx to initiate hostilities, at the bookmark in his rupture. Not what I expected.

As soon as he arrived, I locked him as he did me. I punched my MWD and moved into a wide elliptical orbit. Lau spat out his drones and I kept mine inside. As soon as I started taking shield damage - I hit the smart bomb with a grin. Meanwhile, I fired up all my weapons and my ship shuddered as the dual 425mm canon opened up, spitting out large calibre EMP shells the short distance to Lau's rupture. He started to take damage but I noticed with alarm how quickly my shields melted. His drones were not quite dead, even after three pulses of the smart bomb and with little armour behind the shield, I was concerned. Once his drones were gone (or hastily recalled); I sent out my own lovelies out. My armour continued to wink down and my scram shut off. My MWD had long since turned itself off as well. I had no cap left.

Odd; I thought. However, my auto canons required no capacitor to fire, being almost entirely mechanical and they bucked as they spat out shells. Lau was down to armour but I was now down to almost hull. With no damage control available, I would be dead.

His surviving drones buzzed into me and my ship blew up.Everyone had a good laugh, myself included.

Great fight by Lau, looking forward to the write-up

After the duel, Lau joined our pirate fleet and we moved around sniffing for targets but we ended up with him losing his drake to a gate-camping abaddon around the notorious Akkio to E0A-ZC entry-point. Gorgoleon, always a hoot to have in our fleet, with a dodgy microphone this time round, managed to get in on two kills including a hiliarious drake kill of an ex-corp mate's drake (not an agreed 1 v 1 or anything like that, target was in a belt) who calmly stated to Gorg, that he "had lost a friend."

To which Gorgoleon, shrugged and replied, "I will make more more friends on dating sites." Gorgoleon is a true Bastard.

The drake setup wasn't too bad either.

OK - back to some admin stuff as well as tweaking our requirement page. Yes, The Bastards are getting ready to open up recruitment. I will announce the day here and in the EVE-O forums too.

Final news: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1171104 - looks like we might be back on the reserve list but with such a short time to prepare; I wonder if it's a good idea to submit a request?

Pirate raid into null-sec and our probing kung-fu

I found myself some 48 jumps from my home system recently. The reason for such a detour was a stealth bomber and covert cloaked ship roam into syndicate led by z0de. In fact, we were headed for a system called, 'Pain', the official head quarters of The Bastards. Am sure this was for tax purposes only.

However, I had to return through 48jumps through low-security space and the journey was fun; with some have-a-go heroes chasing me and trying in vain to find and pop me in my hound.

Once back in Evati, it was time to go again and already a fleet of blood hungry pilots had already gathered. As I was getting ready for the fleet; n00bish and Alaki had already spotted some Minmatar militia members securing a military bunker.

"Flash, I have a rifter, vexor, thrasher and vengance on scan towards the military bunker." Replied n00bish, already out in his vengance. Jmaar also confirmed this and he was cloaked and close enough to the militia ships to spit on them.

"OK chaps - time to pay them a visit. Everyone undock and form up on Flash please."

The ships rumbled out, cruisers, frigates and one destroyer and we warped as a group towards the, as-yet-oblivious militia ships. As the warp tunnel dropped out around us, we landed approximately 80KM from the military bunker. N00bish, already ahead of us had raced towards the bunker and engaged all four protaganists in an effort to keep them in one place; ready for us.

I started to call primaries.

"Primary is Seraphine Keratus. Primary is Seraphine Keratus. Secondary is Sasawong. Secondary is Sasawong. Tiertiary is Kesi Rae. Confirm points. Confirm points."

The fleet pilots answered back with points and scramble and I grunted in satisfaction as I saw the vexor slowly bleed into armour. It took a bit longer than expected so it must have been plated. No matter, we had more than enough to kill it. Most FW pilots tended to travel in larger groups than these chaps and I was mindful of an incoming fleet, racing to their rescue.

I was also aware that most FW pilots fit their ships very cheaply: ship loss is a fact of life in the militia and thus, we decided to ransom only the pilots. If we could catch their pods. The vexor went down after a brieft spell of holding out from the hammering it was recieving and we turned to the thrasher who also went down, guns firing. The vengance was last as the rifter managed to sneak out and save his ship. He actually came back and finished the plex too - good on him.

We then went on a null-sec roam but it was not too lucrative; we missed out on three opportunities of isk and ransoms as the null-sec locals (a jittery bunch) evaded from us. We all came back in one piece though disappointed. Me0de who dropped out of the null-sec raid was busy probing down a worm hole and he eventually found a POS tower, with modules and no shields. He promptly requested for some help, in which The Bastards all responded to and they started the long job of taking the POS down. Unfortunately, the ransoms didn't go as planned and the POS owner, who logged on later to discover the attack was most upset and didn't feel like negotiating. Oh well. His POS tower went pop.

All in a days work I suppose.

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.

T1 cruiser bum rush

"Cruiser gate camp. X up if you want in." Said Kulmid. Within five minutes, I was outside in a rupture (having rushed back three jumps) and was alongside Kalazar (cane) and Maltrox (ruppie) alongside Kulmid, in his thorax.

Not a record-breaking time for a fleet set-up but not bad for us Bastards.

With no further ado, Kulmid took the fleet towards EOZ-AC briefing us as we made the three jump journey.

"There's a drake, rapier, vagabond and a frigate on the Akkio gate in EOA. They have a bubble there. We're just gonna bust it."

I glanced at my watch list and was satisfied at with the numbers. With our own four cruisers, we had to drop the rapier first and then work on the frigate and then drake. Or something close to this.

We arrived at the gate and without any preamble, we jumped on contact and held cloak on the other side.

There were a couple more ships here than Kulmid had stated. In addition to the named, there was a hurricane and a falcon. Not good.

Betraying no unease, Kulmid ordered us to de-cloak and primary the rapier. We dropped him quickly enough but by then, the falcon had us locked and cycled through us. The enemy Keres was next but was too quick and we switched fire to the enemy hurricane.

It didn't work and we all popped successively. Normally, isk wise - with the drop off the rapier - we would have broken even but we all left with nothing, our pods flashing all the way home. So no loot and this makes most pirates a big sad panda.

I have a stack of ruptures in the hangar all fitted and ready to go but this time, I did forget to bring drones. Am sure I would have had the keres killed if I had drones. Doh.

Next time!

Saving Private Frog

A Frog is in Trouble

While we pirate and make life a misery for mission runners and ratters; we're not *that* cut-throat and we do stick together and watch each other's backs...providing we don't expose ourselves to too much danger of course. We're all focused on the loot and ransoms as that is how we make our living in New Eden. So all combat to us is a balance between gaining and losing isk. Sure, sometimes people fight (or duel) for honour and reputation but we mainly fight to secure more isk. Isk is God to us pirates.

I was in my gank-tank rupture with Jorge Belda in his malediction, assisting Mynxee in wrestling some decryptors from the local Angel Cartel pirates. Yes, we were running an exploration site and the destruction of the Angel Cartel ships under my guns, was deemed a good thing by CONCORD. So good in fact that they increased my sec status from -9.998 to -9.995; thus the perfect '10' was now getting further. I was obviously heading in the wrong direction.

The Bastards, as a whole were between corporation sanctioned excursions - some pirates were holed up in the station, drinking and wenching while others were out trading and scheming. Mr Frog was in null sec and chasing down the bounties on some low- to mid-range Guristas pirates. The credit crunch has hit even New Eden and forced Mr Frog to 'rat' to make much needed isk.

Mr Frog has the honoured distinction of being the only Bastard to be awarded the 'Running Away' award. Something that he is very proud of.

Anyway, the ratting wasn't going too well.

"Those gits! Can't they leave me alone to collect the bounties?" Complained Mr Frog.

"The locals giving you problems, Frog?" I asked half concentrating on taking down yet another Arch Gistii raider.

"Yeah - they have sovereignty of this area but does that give them the right to stop me from doing what I want to do?"

"Absolutely not." I nodded, chuckling as the raider blew up in a thousand shiny pieces.

"And just because they have gone to the effort of securing this space, does this mean that they have the right to hassle an honest bounty-collecting pilot, harming no-one?"

"The sheer gall and audacity of that alliance." I nodded.

"I just told them to 'leave me alone' and they laughed at me. They're now dogging me with a zealot and raven."

"Damn. The locals sound down-right unfriendly."

"I just want to make some isk. There's no empathy in this part of the world. I fear for the youth of today!" Said Mr Frog, now in full flow.

"You can always run away?"

"And that is exactly what I am doing..." Fired back Mr Frog. I could see from the star map that he had gone deeper into null-sec and was now into the Vale of the Silent region. "Shit. A shuttle on the gate. Am cloaking!" Mr Frig was flying a cloak enabled Vexor.

Mr Frog is not a coward, he is just very, very cautious. He came back to the group, sounding a bit more worried.

"They have an onyx here and that bloody zealot again. A dominix, malediction and astarte too. Damn it. I can't rat in peace! Have to find some empty space for myself."

"I think they are determined to chase you down Mr Frog." I said as a plan slowly formed in my mind. "Did you say an onyx, zealot, astarte and domi?"

"Er yes and bugger me with a sharp marrow. They're camping the two gates in this system. Am stuck!" Wailed Mr Frog as he realised that, at least for tonight, his ratting excursion would be seriously curtailed. Nothing makes a pirate cry than a lot opportunity to make isk.

I glanced at the various corp and corp related chat channels. We had plenty available tonight, I thought, along with the two resident Hellcats (Shae and Mynxee), a decent fleet could be assembled. Clearing my throat, I asked around and tried to find out if anyone was interested in an incursion into null-sec space to rescue our very own Mr Frog.

Indeed there was interest and Kulmid stepped up as FC.

A fleet was already set up but its first task was to deal with an ishkur that was dogging Khaled Urduni. We completely overwhelmed the plucky assault frigate with excessive amounts of firepower. As we waited for our Global Criminal Flags to disappear, I updated all the available pilots on Mr Frog's 'predicament'.

"Chaps, we have an onyx, zealot, domi and drake dogging Mr Frog."

"Yeah, so we hear." Said Jed. "Frog, you're a knob-end. Why are you collecting bounties on those Guristas?" This brought a lot of guffaws from the assembled crowd.

"Well, it's easy isk innit?" Replied Mr Frog.

"You're a pirate. A PI-RATE. By definition it means you pirate other people not chase down bounties."

"Yeah....but the isk is good; but that is not the point. We have some fools here who have been dogging me. You coming to help me or not?"

"Well, we're not too sure if we want to risk our ships. Any idea what the loot would be like?" Asked Euan.

"Dunno, but the onyx, domi, malediction and ishtar has been joined by a second domi. Come on guys, there's isk to be had here!" Pressed Mr Frog. "They're Interpid Crossing Alliance [IRC]; who are dogging me, am sure we can take them. Come on chaps!" Exhorted Mr Frog. The inability to make isk from the bounties was making him mightily antsy.

There was a general murmur of agreement on the potentially lucrative loot drops and Kulmid, who was still eating something, asked for a vote to either 'rescue' Mr Frog or leave him to the tender mercy of the null-sec alliance. The show of hands was definitely for a pirate romp into 0.0 with the full intention of stomping anyone we could find.

"Mr Frog. Tell your new found friends that your help is on its way."

There was a pause and then Mr Frog came back.

"Those guys laughed at me........"

The Fleet moves out....and along blundered in a raven
So we had assembled the following:

Kulmid (FC) - Armageddon
DanMart - Drake
Mynxee - Hurricane
Shae Tiann - Myrmidon
Jorge Belda - Maller
Jedziah - Omen
Euan8 - Vexor
Flashfresh - Rupture

and of course,

Mr Frog - Vexor (with cloak - good for running away)

Not too shabby, plenty of points but a bit slow on the locking front. An interceptor or frigate would have been useful but we wanted tank and we had it. There was much yelling and hooting and the FC was (once again) having trouble establishing order but eventually, Kulmid made himself heard.

"Fleet! Destination set. Assemble on the Todi gate. We bum-rush."

The fleet rumbled out of the dock bays - a surge of ships, blinking red and angry in everyone's overview. Aligning, we completed the three jump journey and arrived at the EOA-ZC gate in Akkio. On the other side of the gate was null-sec. I love null-sec due to the absence of effective gate guns but hate it for the sheer emptiness of the place. Shae muttered 'here we go again' not too quietly to herself.

Our destination was 7G-H7d, IRC space (we think), where Mr Frog was trapped and the rescue fleet jumped into null-sec, with no scout and a shout of 'BUUUMMMM RUUUSSHHHH!!!"

There was nothing in E0A-ZC; the scene of many a bubble camp but not tonight so the fleet moved on; neglecting the use of scouts we moved as one angry mob of ships and guns. Jumping through on gate-contact and making best speed to 7G-H7D. At QPOK-B; we assembled at the 1W-0KS gate - there were some ships around in local space and we tried to give chase but they were too fast and evaded our efforts. Grumbling, most of the ships gathered around the gate when our computers detected an incoming gate fire - an indicator of an impending arrival from 1W-0KS system.

"All ships, orbit the gate." Ordered Kulmid. The fleet parted and moved around the gate, maximising the size of our 'net'.

"Overheat your warp scramblers." I added.

"He's holding cloak for as long as he can." Chuckled Euan; his voice dripping with eagerness. A few seconds later, there was a shimmer about 7km portside and the distinctive shape of a raven-class battle ship materialised. The gate induced cloak finally wearing off. The raven was already frantically aligning to get away.

"Point." Said Shae and that was it.

With the warp core on the main drives disabled, the ship was helpless. We quickly pummelled it into scrap and grabbed the pod; Kulmid led the ransom but after some time wasting; the raven pilot (his corp is part of the alliance that claimed local sovereignty) was killed out of hand. His last words, before he was exposed to hostile vacuum, were: 'Chill and let's hang together, man."

The cavalry is here!
We finally jumped our ships into 7G-H7D and local spiked up high enough that the locals dogging Mr Frog ran off. We tried twice to point them but they were too quick, who said nano and therefore speed, was dead? Part of the reason is the increased size of the star gates but the roam to 'rescue' Mr Frog was successful. We even bagged a raven at the beginning of the journey. So nothing to complain about.

Leaving Mynxee and Jorge as tail-end charlies to ensure we were not followed; the fleet turned back. Mr Frog was already busy eyeing up the null sec systems between us and Akkio and telling everyone about how he was going to earn millions of isk. Partly concerned for his turn to carebearishnish (is that a word?) we secretly plotted to blow him up at a belt.....

It was Jorge who cut through our chatter.

"Local spiking. It's jumped by five. Six."

"Mynxee here. IRC Astarte arrived at gate and is locking me." There was a pause. "He's aggressed. Am jumping."

"Jorge here. I see IRC Domi, domi, onyx, zealot and raven on scan. They're in line from outpost to gate."

"Jorge, this is FC Kulmid. I think they're coming. Come back and rejoin Mynxee. We're leaving." Said Kulmid, aware that we had been in one place too long. He had his armageddon to think about as well as those lovely +5 implants in his head.

Jorge joined Mynxee on the outbound gate, passing the still hostile IRC Astarte.

OMG - Runzor!
"Okay guys, we are leaving." Announced Kulmid as the fleet began to align to the next gate. Mynxee and Jorge one gate behind us. As we jumped to the next system, both of them caught up with the fleet. An unknown number of hostile ships now following us.

We run but we don't (can't) hide
So yes, we ran. With an unknown number of hostile ships chasing us, we had no idea what we were facing. We're pirates and we lose isk and if the fight yields no coin for us. We ain't interested. We ran but due to the mixed nature of the fleet (cruiser heavy); there was a risk that Kulmid would be left behind. He was having none of it.

We pirates did not get any further than two more jumps when the same Onyx dogging Mr Frog, raced past us and landed at the gate we were heading to. The IRC trap was beginning to close on us. Already, IRC had a good idea of what ships were in and how many of us.

"Wait for him to jump. Wait. Wait."

The Onyx jumped ahead of us, into 1W-0KS - no doubt eager to catch us as we raced through.

"Here they come!" Yelled Kulmid

Local was filling up as more IRC Alliance pilots answered the call and came in.

"All fleet, jump! Jump!"

We activated the warp gate and jumped in after the Onyx. The onyx pilot did what any HIC pilot in null-sec would do: he dropped a warp disruption sphere and bubbled us all up.

The Epic fight and resulting loot
"Kill the onyx now!" Shouted Kulmid, who later, fully confessed that he was trying to save his implants if he lost his ship during the inevitable fight. "Primary is firestrm!"

"Flash is on the onyx." My 425mm auto canons, pre-loaded with EMP spun up and delivered a furious broadside to the Onyx just as the rest of the fleet did the same. Laser fire, rockets, missiles and projectiles showered the Onyx and it went down quickly. It's shields stripped off in a pyrotechnical display of symphonic destruction. The onyx died and there was much hooting and laughter.

1-0 to the pirates.

"Gatefire. Gatefire." Said someone. The rest of the chasing IRC fleet came in, no doubt eager for the kill and to avenge the destruction of the quite ineffective, onyx. A malediction, flown by Aelux existenz decloaked but he bugged out before anyone could finish target locking him. The remaining enemy ships, mostly T2 variants winked into existence on our overviews.

It was game on.

"Primary is Matthew2451. Secondary is Alan Flease." Commanded Kulmid as he was counter-targeted by the IRC fleet. The shields on his armageddon flashing and blurring as it absorbed the multiple impacts from the hostile fleet.

Matthew2451 was in a Zealot, deadly in close combat and it had to go down. Jedziah bravely pushed his omen into his optimal and started to track the zealot.

"This is Shae. Am being primaried but am tanking." Her myrmidon's repairers working furiously at patching the holes being punched into her thick armour.

"DanMart here: more gate fire. I see a second Domi."

"Check. Check. Check. This is Jorge; new contacts: second ishtar and raven."

"Primary is down. Switch to Alan Flease. Primary is Alan Flease. Secondary is Greyform." Commanded Kulmid.

2-0 to the pirates.

"Yaarrr, I got the killing blow!" Interrupted Jorge.

"Christ, there's a lot of drones out!" Continued Kulmid.

Sure enough, the two dominix and two ishtar-class ships spat out swarms of advanced combat drones that buzzed around us. We replied in kind.

"First ishtar is going down." I said. There was a burst of light and my own shields flared as shrapnel peppered my cruiser from the destroyed HAC. "First ishtar is down." I said.

3-0 to the pirates.

Off to my left, Jorge Belda was now being hammered back by a mass of ogre II heavy combat drones as well as the close range attention of Shinzon Ren's Astarte and his blasters. IRC were obviously wanted to avenge Matthew2451's demise.

However, it was Jedziah in the omen who went down first; succumbing to the horrendous damage dealt by the Zealot in the very first opening moves of this, most deadly dance.

"Jed is down. Jed is down."

3-1 still to the pirates.

Mynxee's hurricane held the centre of the line alongside Kulmid's Armageddon but a newly arrived raven levelled it's missile launchers and unleashed a salvo of paradise cruise missiles, cutting her battle-cruiser in two.

"Mynxee is down. Mynxee is down."

3-2. We're in the lead by one.

"Primary Killljoy. Secondary Shinzon." It sounded like Mr Frog. Where was FC Kulmid? I thought, but didn't bother asking as my 425mm auto canons reloaded and sought out the Dominix piloted by Killljoy. It was already in half armour when I resolved my lock. The dominix died under a hail of fire, followed by Shinzon's astarte, the latter's blasters shredding off all my armour.

5-2 to the pirates.

"Jorge is down. Jorge is down."

5-3.

"Euan is down, Euan is down." I saw Euan's vexor tank a massive stream of cruise missiles but it could not take any more and exploded.

5-4. We're in the lead by one.

"Frog is down. Frog is down." NO! I thought bitterly to myself, we were to rescue him not see his demise.

5-5 and it looked like IRC were drawing level.

"Shae is down. Goddamn raven!"

5-6 and IRC took the lead.

"This is Kulmid. Kulmid is FC again! New primary is Suboran and secondary is Cavalera. ECM drones on the raven. Points and webs on the ishtar!" I had no ecm drones left but hit the afterburner to close the distance to Suboran. I was starting to run out of ammunition and some of my weapons were close to shorting out, due to my excessive over-heating; pushing them beyond the original design parameters.

I glanced at my watch list and we were down to three ships: Kulmid's Armageddon (how did it survive for so long?), DanMart's Drake and my rupture. However, IRC were down more. There was Cavalera's raven , a plucky harpy, a second ishtar and second domi. Aelux in his Malediction was nowhere to be seen while Brendalin Kerr, in the rapier had sustained enough damage from Kulmid that he wisely retired from the field.

The second ishtar went down.

6-6.

The the second domi.

7-6.

"All fire on Cavalera! Take it down!" Ordered Kulmid, I did not need telling twice and locked the magnificient Caldari battle ship. Kulmid's laser beams, long and as thick as palace columns, streaked the short distance from his laser pods to the raven, boiling off it's shields. Cavalera tried to match the damage output but this is where missile based boats have problems. Missiles need time to travel to it's target and it can be slow. Rapid fire systems such as lasers, deal their damage almost instantly. The raven melted under the combined fire. So did the harpy. Even more odd, some of the pilot capsules stay around; spectators it would seem. They obviously were not paying attention as DanMart (in his drake) managed to lock one pod and proceed to send the unfortunate pilot back to the clone vats.

With the raven and harpy dispatched. We held the field and floated, victorious amidst the detritus of battle.

9-6. Quite a high scoring and thrilling match if it was a football game.

Us Pirates (9)
Kulmid - Armageddon - Survived
DanMart - Drake - Survived
Mynxee - Hurricane - Destroyed
Shae Tiann - Myrmidon - Destroyed
Jorge Belda - Maller - Destroyed
Jedziah - Omen - Destroyed
Mr Frog - Vexor - Destroyed
Euan8 - Vexor - Destroyed
Flashfresh - Rupture - Survived

Them Null Sec'ers (11)
Greyform - Dominix - Destroyed
KillJoy - Dominix - Destroyed
Cavalera - Raven - Destroyed
Firestrm - Onyx - Destroyed
Shinzon Ren - Astarte - Destroyed
Alan Flease - Ishtar - Destroyed
Suboran - Ishtar - Destroyed
Ron Bacardi - Harpy - Destroyed
Brendali Kerr - Rapier - Survived
Aelux existenz - Malediction - Survived
Matthew2451 - Zealot - Destroyed

(Matthew 24:51 --> And shall separate him and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.)

We held the field. My goodness. Instead of running back to base however, we eyed the wrecks with hunger. There must have been much good tasty loot considering the enemy IRC fleet was largely made up of advanced tech 2 and battleship hulls.

"We should loot up you know?" I suggested.

"Hell yeah." Agreed Jorge - in his pod, no doubt racing back to home base.

"This is Kulmid, I am going to a safe. Grab as much loot as you can and dump it with me."

"Roger that. Flash is going back for the goods!" My rupture turned around and burned towards the gate.

"DanDrake is joining Flash."

Those in the fleet who were in pods, raced home and despite the presence of a half-hearted gate camp at EOA-ZC into Akkio. All pirates got back safely.

Dan and I grabbed all the loot we could and each made over nine separate journeys between the gate and Kulmid's safe spot. We were eventually joined by a friend in his hauler and some other corp members returned in salvagers.

The very late Cap Drop
In all, the loot drop alone was about 300million isk and it practically filled a viator's cargo hold. With all the jangling loot, we escorted the precious ship blockade runner home. As we left; Jorge (now back in another ship) announced that IRC had come back into the system and instantly dropped a cynosural at the gate bringing in two thanatos and archon-class capitals.

We had long gone by then. Too little, too late.



The battle statistics make me warm inside:


The wrap up and Sarvic with them smart bombs.....
Once the fleet had returned to HQ safely, we had passed a massive frigate swarm around the EOA-ZC to Akkio gate. They didn't appear to be too good at the camping as even in a rupture, they failed to lock me let alone point me. Sarvic and a couple of others linked into the fleet, just as a few left for the night, satisfied with the kills. Sarvic loved that there was a frigate swarm around and came out in his smart bombing typhoon just for the occasion. After some missed opportunities, Sarvic was finally 'tackled' at a belt by one, then two then the rest of the frigates. The smart bombs were activated and much laughing and ewok-dancing ensued. Sarvic even podded some of the unfortunate pilots.

'Tis good to be a Bastard.

Frigate roam with big trouble in little Oto.

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

Speed, Speed, Speed and then it will be gone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Point!" Yelled someone.

"Point!" Said another.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"He's cloaking!" Said someone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Do we go in Flash?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Proph: get into Amamake and assist Jorge."

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

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

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

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

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

"Jorge: grab the pod."

"Do we ransom?"

"Yes."

"Pointed."

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

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

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

"Grab the pod of the stabber."

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

"Ransom him for -"

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

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

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

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

Yet another roam and the death of a mega navy issue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Agreed."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sarge is jumping."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Raaarrr!" Someone else said.

"BRING THEM ON!"

"Kill them and let the blood flow."

"We're in Belt V-!"

"What are you waiting for?"

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

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

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

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

"Come on. Where are they?"

"Probably bringing in reinforcements?"

One of the hostile pilots responded to our challenges.

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

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

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

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

We laughed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"INCOMING!"

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

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

"Yessir!" replied my tactical officer.

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

"Scrambling sir!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Tactical! Report"

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

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

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

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

"A tree sir! A fucking tree!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

Back with a bang. Literally.

Let's start with the loss mail first:

2008.11.03 00:00

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

Involved parties:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More news:

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

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

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

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