ScanFu

After putting together our newsletter, available to pilots of The Bastards alliance, I sat back and reviewed my work. It is the third of such newsletter and it has the aim of bringing everyone up to speed with the latest goings on at The Bastards; though I might approach Mynxee and put together a joint news letter that includes the Hellcats as well. Am sure that Mynxee would consider this an interesting project.

By the way, the picture on the left has nothing to do with this post, I just found it on my hard drive and decided that I wanted to post it up. Just check out her sword, is it a ninjata? Who cares...

Anway, this monday night was a sanctioned corp operation day: that is; an organised event with full support of the corporation hierarchy. We tend to have two to three such events per week.

Tonight's operation was to focus on scan probing, a vital skill for all us pirates. After all, we're trying to find pilots who don't want to be found so a sprinkling of combat scan probes into a target area is a vital step in locating these potentially, juicy morsels. One needs to be able to use scan probes to locate worm holes as well. The objective was to practise and share information about scanning between all the participants. Some of the participants had a lot of experience, while others less so.

To increase the participation and fun, the operation was to take the form of a treasure hunt. Where the pilots will be challenged to locate a secured can, somewhere in space. If they find it, they get to keep the loot inside it. I made sure that there was some nice items available; just to give a competitive edge to it all. Also, each can had either a ticket that was worth either 5 or 10 million isk.

Requirements for the operation:
- A probing ship: can be covert-ops, recon or whatever. One needs to install a combat probe launcher however.
- Patience.
- You should also combat fit your ships; just in case you get a mission runner.

Rules:
- n00bish made a point that to level the playing field, experienced probers with better equipment might sweep everything before them. I agree but can't think of a fair method; except to let the newer probers start probing earlier or give them one or two 'free' probes before the experienced probers can commence.

- To make probing easier; there will be a drone left alongside each GSC. The GSC will be anchored and password protected. Password will be the same and given to all participants on the evening.

- Each GSC will have either a tech2 item, a faction item or a bookmark that says either: 5M isk or 10M isk.

Prizes:
1. Bookmark worth 5Million isk + Dread Guristas XL and Med Shield Booster
2. Bookmark worth 5Million isk + Dread Guristas CPU ship upgrade
3. Bookmark worth 5Million isk + Dread Gurista Covert Ops
4. Bookmark worth 5Million isk + Warp Scrambler II + Domination Overdrives
5. Bookmark worth 5Million isk + Gisti B Type 1MN AB
6. Bookmark worth 10Million isk + 10MN AB II+ SAR II, DCU II
7. Bookmark worth 10Million isk + 1MN AB II + x5 Warrior II drones
8. Bookmark worth 10Million isk + Spirits + x5 Warrior II drones + x5 Hammerhead II
9. Bookmark worth 10Million isk + Corpses
10. Bookmark worth 10Million isk + x5 Warrior II drones + x5 Hammerhead II

So all to play for!

Of course, one can not scan down a secured can (of any size) under the current probing system so I had to drop a drone around each can in order to give the probers something to aim for. The first two attempts were even easier: it was me in my probe orbiting the can. All they had to do was probe down my frigate and therefore, find the can.

Randgris actually had a proteus (a strategic tech 3 cruiser) rigged and fitted to be a scanning vehicle of the highest order while Jaxxon decided to go hard core and just do it with his humble probe-class frigate. Others came in a variety of covert-ops vessels. Alia Xi was going to use the force to scan as he got all the hardware in place but forgot to train up the required skills! Noobish was quietly confident in his covert-ops; me0de was eager to participant fully in his buzzard. Rhi was the lone Hellcat representative.

FishBrain and Jirat joined the group as well and the operation was started off with the pirates all streaming out of the station, hooting and hollering.

The next couple of hours was fun and challenging. Of the ten cans probed out, here were the highlights and results:

+ N00bish and his fiendishly fast scanning kung fu
+ Rhi's equally fast scanning and sekret techniques
+ LOL at Fenneck who probed out a can but typed in the wrong password and Randgris ninja'ed in!
+ Alia Xi...who got all the tools ready; but not the skill!
+ Rand's scanning proteus.

RESULTS:
n00bish = five cans
Rhi = three cans
Randgris = two cans
Fenneck = very close to one can but his fingers forgot how to type as Randgris bore down on him...

Great fun and I thank all the participants. I also noticed that Persephone then FC'ed a roam down to Siside later on in the evening so it was a good night. It is good to be a pirate.

OMG!!

I logged on quickly to check some applications emails and some orders that I had posted but was hastily asked to join a fleet of Battle ships rumbling out of Evati. There were two typhoon class battle ships en route and we were going to tackle them. I was the tackler and I was piloting the hurricane.

Both typhoon pilots did not aggress but sped back and jumped back out. Disappointed the fleet moved forward two jumps and managed to engage an abaddon and his thorax companion. Both were smashed to pieces.

However, this post isn't about that kill - no, it's about one that happened a few hours later once I had logged out and went to bed. The Bastards were part of a mother ship kill. Holy cow - an Aeon was probed out and located just as it cloaked up. The pilot then went AFK - a large fleet was assembled and, Benny Hill style, swept a 100 x 100 x 100 cube of space in order to decloak him.

Patience won out and the kill was made of a mother ship by The Bastards.

Mynxee has a blog post about it, as she was lucky enough to be online to do it. A fair few Euro based Bastards were online too; at 01:00 in the morning? Man, some people need to sleep and yes, I was weak and succumb to the sleep monster.

Well done you pirates, well done!

New Cheetah, Old Cheetah

"But sir, the cloak hasn't been engaged yet...."

"What?"

"We had to drop them to launch a recon probe and you didn't give the order to engage the cloak sir!"

"Wha?"

The harbinger lit up on my overview, the white brackets flashing orange as the pilot started to lock me.

"Raise the cloaking device! Raise the cloaking device you fools!" With me being the biggest fool of them all.

The harbinger flashed red as his pulse lasers taught me the error of my ways.

"Oh shi -"

And so, the shake down cruise in my new cheetah ended rather abruptly. I warped to a gate (uncloaked), intent on using my new found ninja skills but my wonderful red flashy status allowed anyone with brains an opportunity to destroy me. One volley later and I was fleeing back with my tails between my legs.

Well, it's nice to be back.

WTB: New, rigged cheetah please.

Ach no - scan probes FTW!

Complacency is a great teacher. It taught an expensive lesson today. Little did I realise as I undocked from Gusandall that my day would end in fire and destruction of me, my ship and my loyal crew. The stabber class of cruiser was typical of minmater ships: fast and looking like it was held with duct tape and prayers. I love them and after a refit it was time for a shake down cruise just to work out any last minute oddities about the ship. We had replaced the dual-Nosferatu with two assault missile launchers, they were needed after a few disappointing encounters with fast frigates.

My crew ( a right motley mix from across New Eden) joked that they could see through the clingfilm that were being used in place of plasteel glass more common on other ships. Oh well.

The stabber responded to my mental commands and the new GUI interface (version 3.14.31081) was a tad quicker. All good it would seem.

I sifted through the intelligence reports and it appeared that once more Eifer was a busy little hot spot so I set course to the system and set the ship to yellow alert. The stabber responded like a frigate and flowed into warp the engines glowing brightly as the my camera drones kept a respectful 500m from the ship.

Eifer was indeed hot, ADF were back out in force and I recognised two Captains instantly: Muhaar and Dueft. Alongside them were other ADF ships and they looked like they were busy. A quick scan already revealed numerous wrecks of various class ships. I quickly sent the ship to a safe spot and waited them out. Scan probes came out and I quickly moved from one safe spot to another, ADF have proven to be very competent when it comes to scanning ships out. Always good to be on your toes.

I switched my GUI to another overview filter and checked the system scanner. The local comnet exploded with chat as yet another unlucky pilot was blasted back to the cloning vats. I chuckled to myself and congratulated myself on my intelligence and experience at not getting caught. Something flashed past the ship. I froze and checked the overview: nothing.

However, my sixth sense was screaming at me that something had just warped in close. I quickly sent all the camera drones into a wide 360 parabolic arc and as they moved, my heart stopped and my blood froze. It was a Lachesis-class cruiser.

My mental commands shot out to the various sub-routines around the ship; all geared to get the hell out of here. I set the ship to battlestations, the klaxon ringing loudly as my crew bolted to their stations, I snapped on the micro-warpdrive, I checked the weapon levels and cursed the overview. There was a bug in the software, now I remember, in which certain class of ships did not appear. One had to manually adjust the GUI software.

Cursing myself for being stupid and no doubt dooming me and my crew to a certain death - I accelerated away from the Lachesis-class cruiser. A quick glance revealed that the Captain was one Muhaar Gemeinian.

Great.

I hit warp drive to get out.

'You are unable to warp because you are warp scrambled'

Shit.

Then the space around my exploded with light and colour as four more ships tore themselves out of the warp. With a sinking feeling I recognised an Armageddon, Drake and Tempest. They locked me and opened fire.

There were screams from the crew as a horrific mix of laser fire, projectiles and missiles slammed into the shield of the stabber. In an instant the shields disappeared as I tried, desperately you maneuver into safe space. The armour was holding but against this firepower it was impossible. So I gave the order to my crew:

'Abandon ship. Abandon ship. Save yourselves.'

My crew, seasoned veterans all, leapt into escape pods and shuttle craft and left the stricken stabber. Like rain, they exited the cruiser, now shuddering as the last of the the armour was ripped off. I had to wait until the capsule was ready to be ejected. I also knew that the ADF Captains would want to either capture or destroy me. The ejection countdown wound down from 5 then 4,3,2,1 and I readied for the ejection.

There was a bump and a screech as the capsule ejection system vomited me out but there must have been damage to it as ejection was not far enough away. I tried to instantly warp out but was too close to the debris of my ship. Seconds later, I managed to get away from the wreckage but in that few precious moments, the ADF ships had my capsule locked. I ordered the capsule to warp.

'You are unable to warp because you are warp scrambled'

I laughed as I knew I had less than one second to live. No matter - the ADF pilots deserved their kill. There was a flash and a moment of disorientation. Then a delicious nothingness as the backup scanner inbedded into my brainstem squirted my last moments to a receiving station thousands of light years away.

I fell out of something onto a cold floor. I was covered in a rapidly cooling gelatinous goo. The air was cold and harsh. My head hurt and my limbs felt like fleshy appendages with no bones in them. They flopped.

Someone wrapped a blanket around me and said something. I didn't understand anything.

Re-cloning and reanimation hurts more each time.

2007.04.18 16:55

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

Involved parties:
Name: IchIro
Security: -9.5
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Scourge Heavy Missile

Name: RealZonk
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Tempest
Weapon: Tempest

Name: dueft (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Armageddon
Weapon: Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II

Name: Muhaar Gemeinian
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Lachesis
Weapon: 'Arbalest' Assault Missile Launcher

Destroyed items:
Nuclear M, Qty: 249 (Cargo)
Fleeting Warp Scrambler I
Carbonized Lead M, Qty: 476 (Cargo)
220mm Medium Carbine Repeating Cannon I
Type-D Altered SS Nanofiber Structure (Cargo)
Small Armor Repairer II (Cargo)
Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 412 (Cargo)
Assault Missile Launcher I
Piranha Light Missile, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Titanium Sabot M, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
Gyrostabilizer I (Cargo)
Phased Plasma M, Qty: 213 (Cargo)
Large Shield Extender I
EMP M, Qty: 621 (Cargo)
220mm Vulcan AutoCannon I
EMP M, Qty: 80
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 60
EMP M, Qty: 80

2007.04.18 16:57

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

Involved parties:
Name: dueft (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Armageddon
Weapon: Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II

Name: Muhaar Gemeinian
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Lachesis
Weapon: Lachesis

Name: IchIro
Security: -9.5
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Armee der Finsternis
Ship: Drake
Weapon: XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay