The unfortunate farmer.

No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man)

I walked into the hangar, the lights were out, a strange thing as I'm sure I left them on. I had left the hangar last night in a bit of a mood as one of my computer systems had crashed after a software update so I had to rebuild the database from scratch. I left the lights on, I'm sure I did.

I had gone out this morning to get some more work done on my tattoo, it's progressing nicely but a lot more work to get done. I was in a better mood, mainly from the adrenaline but I wanted to get out into the black and stir up some trouble.

I found the light switch after taking a detour around some loot that Keira has been meaning to move for a while, the lights pulsed into action and I was surprised to see the loot was gone, Keira's Claymore was docked and hooked up to some refuelling rigs. I walked around the Claymore to where my Rifter was docked and was suprised to see Keira grinning as I approached.

"I have a suprise for you" she said.

Really now, what could it be?

"You finally moved the loot and sold it?" I said

"That's not it genius. Seeing as how you passed 1000 kills I thought I'd grab something from our old highsec base that you could use"

She pulled the tarp off the nose of something that looked like a Stabber or Vagabond but wasn't.

"It's a Republic Fleet Stabber dummy" she blurted out.

Wow, that's really cool, I kind of remember her mentioning one gathering dust in highsec but never gave it a second thought. The Fleet Stabber was a beauty and I got on board to check it out and start loading weapons and mods. It's different from the standard Stabber and her heavier cousin the Vagabond but different in a good way.

I got her loaded and started doing systems checks but what she really needed was a name...

A name...

Flubber it shall be.

So Flubber and I undocked and headed to Eifer where I hoped to get some blood on her. Hanging about in my usual spot I waited...

And waited.

Eventually a target arrived in a belt and I initiated warp. I burst out of warp right on top of a Thrasher and went through the routine of locking, tackling and shooting the everliving shit out of it. It exploded in a satisfying flash and it was only moments after that I recognized the name of the pilot, a new resident of the Independence channel. Oh well, it's not like the first time I've shot an Independence resident. The very first being my good friend and accomplice flashfresh, who also just happens to be the founder of the Independence channel.

Independence is a great channel to talk to like minded people and has some good folk but does not guarantee safety.

I headed back towards Gusandall, not the most spectacular maiden kill for a new ship but blood none the less. As I flashed out of warp on top of the Gus gate there was a Stabber moving towards it, a better target and more of a match for Flubber. I wasn't too comfortable with fighting under sentry fire at this time so I targetted and tried to bump him, maybe getting him to agress but alas it didn't work, he jumped into Gus, I followed. He warped straight towards the Ingunn gate and I followed. A Hurricane piloted by an old friend also gave chase but we narrowly missed him at the Ingunn gate and jumped through to follow. He warped off again as I was too far away for a point but followed him in warp to the Gultraten gate where I engaged, safe in the knowledge that sentry fire would be shared by my accomplice in the Hurricane. The Stabber went down as I aligned to warp out, picking a random planet as my warp point. The sentries were eating me apart and I entered armour just as the Stabber exploded, I immediately hit warp to get Flubber out of harms way.

Thanks go to Redbad for the assist, most appreciated, although it later became apparent he was more interested in killing a Fleet Stabber than a vanilla one :P

Now this is where things take a bizarre turn, I burst out of warp at the planet and made preperations to warp to a safespot when three Imicus frigates warped to my position.

Well now, what have we here? A present for moi?

I targetted the nearest frigate and opened up, all the while locking the other two. After what seemed like an age the first lock resolved and I tackled and opened up, it exploded with such force that my tackling systems still thought it was there, it took them a moment too long to recalibrate and the other two warped out.

Damn I thought to myself, what rotten luck... As if.

I approached the wreck and opened it up, oh my, I knew today was special but this is too much. Some nice implants which will fetch a pretty penny and fuel our criminal enterprise further.

I headed back to Gus and docked up, a succesful maiden voyage for Flubber, no epic fights but ISK was made, the cornerstone of our business. Keira should be happy, the corp wallet looks healthy and we are well stocked with all sorts of violence. All in all, things are pretty damn shiny.