Operation Farmer Smash

"ER...HO. HO. HO."

-- Death makes a career move (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)

Damn, how drunk was I last night? Way too much bourbon and shooters to be healthy is for sure but hey, I had a great time at the pub.

I decided to go play with my favourite Raven pilots next door in Ingunn. My covops friend was already in place and it wasn't long before she had two mission sites probed out. I brought the Pilgrim and went about spreading xmas cheer in the only way I know how.

Highlight of the evening was the first kill on Pissonp, I had killed his Raven, he came back in an Ibis, a few friends were in system, I tackled it and a Disco Dominix came in and popped and podded him. Much laughter was had on voice comms.

Five Ravens and a Thorax later I decided to try and get some shut-eye, might get some dinner later.

I've decided to name my little adventure against the ISK farmers Operation Farmer Smash

Happy holidays everyone.

A Farmer's Tale

The trouble is that things never get better, they just stay the same, only more so.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

Take Two

I'm not normally vindictive but when I am it's probably best just to leave system.

Last night was such a night and I only had one thing on my mind, killing Pissonp as many times as I could. Well, my original plan was to get him to eject from a Raven but that didn't go down too well so it was down to killing him.

My friend in her covops had scanned out a Raven in Ingunn, I received the call and boarded my Pilgrim, a ship I was really starting to enjoy flying and a good challenge to use going up against a Raven. I joined fleet with my covops friend and headed over to Ingunn, jumped into system and hit warp to her location. She had patiently set up the warp in but she relayed to me as I was in warp that a scout had arrived on the gate. All I had to do now was hope the acceleration gate wouldn't decloak me as I landed. Unlucky for me as it did and the scout definitely spotted me because as I burst out of warp, having cloaked again, the Raven headed back to station.

Not really too worried about him turning tail and legging it, I patiently waited, cloaked inside the mission, he'd be back.

I waited for a good hour or so as he did a few other missions in system, I knew he'd be back as his scout warped to this mission a few times to check things out.

Nope, nobody here besides us sneaky, cloaky types, nothing to see, move along.

After a few more minutes the scout warped to the gate again, my friend relayed the info and said the scout warped into the plex, I confirmed he was inside with me and then she reported the Raven landing on the gate.

"Excellent!" I thought to myself.

The Raven landed 7 clicks off my port side, I waited a few seconds, savouring the moment.

I uncloaked, target lock resolves, scram and web go active, a bank of energy neutralisers glow green on my HUD. He returned lock and launched a volley of cruise missiles my way just as I released a swarm of Hammerhead drones in his general direction. They bit into his shields as my Pilgrim rocked from bow to stern from the missiles impacting its shields. Armour hardeners and damage control go active, I set the armour repper running whilst maintaining a tight orbit with afterburner glowing in the Ingunn night sky. His shields fail and I open up a convo with the pilot.

Pissonp > no
Pissonp > Let me complete the duty
Kane Rizzel > eject or be destroyed
Kane Rizzel > this is not a negotiation
Pissonp > Was me to give you raven
Kane Rizzel > that's the plan

I gave him my terms.

He chose... Poorly

I was left alone in conversation and carried on assaulting his ship, Grand Theft Raven™ would have to wait for another time. Cap Booster charges were being consumed as I continued to rep armour, but soon his Raven was a smoldering wreck, bits of debris raining against Kumano-San-Zan. His escape pod barely made it out before the lock resolved but I was satisfied with the loot he left.

I recloaked and basked in my own awesomeness.

Interlude

Noz gave me a call as he was hunting Pissonp too, he had scanned out an Armageddon, had it tackled and asked if I wanted in?

"On my way" I said.
"It's Disco" he replied

A smartbomb Geddon would be tricky for me but I would just use my energy neuts to cap him out and set drones on him, it didn't take us much time to explode him.

Not long later, a call from a pilot in Independence channel piqued my interest.

"Freighter tackled in Gultraten, on Ingunn gate, need DPS"

Well now, how could I resist? I warped on over and jumped into Gult where Nozaro was engaging the Obelisk freighter in his Broadsword, as luck would have it the Freighter was blocked from crawling back to the gate by a Concord Billboard :D

I smiled wryly as I engaged, knowing full well I would be losing drones to sentries. Sentry fire was shared between Noz, myself and my drones but eventually we downed the massive freighter but were disappointed to find it empty of any loot. But still, a kill is a kill and a freighter is a big one.

Take Three

I headed back to Gusandall to repair what drones I had left and re arm with some new ones before heading back to Ingunn and the mission plex. Pissonp would be back and I wanted to be there when he did.

I shot the breeze in Independence before falling asleep in my ship, cloaked in the plex.

Hours later I was woken up by the sound of explosions, I was expecting this and it makes a change from the horrible beeping of an alarm clock. As predicted, the Raven was back, 15km from me, I closed the distance under cloak.

Decloaking in range of warp scrambler I locked and opened convo with my prey.

Rejected :(, Oh well, Grand Theft Raven™ was put on hold as I resumed the routine of making his day that little bit more interesting. I set a flight of Warrior drones to intercept his Hammerheads as volley after volley of cruise missiles battered into my recon, my armour repper and cap booster keeping up as my energy neutralisers sucked the life blood from the Raven.

Then my moment of "nubness." In my haste to get back I neglected to reload on cap boosters and I had just run out

"DOH!"

Well, now it got really interesting as Pissonp got clever and started on my drones, this gave me the respite I needed to really pay attention and the game of "Scoop and Redeploy" started. As he missiles hit a drone I scooped it and redeployed. He would then target another and launch a volley at it, wash, rinse, repeat.

My Hammerheads were doing an amazing job of chewing into his armour and hull as we played but eventually he ran out of both as he exploded in a violent flash of light.

Damn, that was actually close, a damn good fight and I must give props to Mr Farmer, good job, awesome fun.

I scooped the loot and warped out, I returned to Gus but not before warping back to the mission gate and dispatching the scout for good measure.

I docked and repaired my drones, made sure to resupply with cap boosters before heading out to do some things. A good night and a good start to the day.

Pissonp has lost three Ravens to me in two days, six altogether in four days to Nozaro, kerjn and myself. It's just not his week

Tagged

Seems the EVE Blogging community are playing a game of tag and it seems I'm it.

Thanks flash :p


1. I'm German born, grew up in South Africa, currently work and live in sunny England and have travelled all over the world.
2. I once walked into CCP's offices in Reykjavik to ask if I could change a skill. They said no :(
3. I'm a Chef, so spend more time at work than most people.
4. Have on more than one occasion considered joining the French Foreign Legion.
5. I have a savage Cherry Coke addiction.
6. I ice skate but wish I had the time to play hockey.
7. I can speak 4 languages and can swear in a further 14

The Rules:

1. Link to the original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about myself in the post - some random, some weird.
   
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Alia Xii @ The Caldari Piratess
Furious @ Drawing Aggro
Felysta Sandorn @ Vagabond's Requiem
Cussbeard @ A Fistful of ISK
PsycheDiver @ Diving into PsycheDiver's Psyche
Sarah Conna @ Sarah Conna Chronicles
Jorge Belda

The seven I've chosen have not been tagged yet so I'm hoping they keep up :p

YOINK!

"You can think and you can fight, but the world's always movin', and if you wanna stay ahead you gotta dance."

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

Sometimes you just have to smile. I was bombing around in my Pilgrim trying to see if I could catch anything, scored an Ishkur kill in Gus before moving on out to surrounding systems. Joined up with Arzal trying to jack a Megathron who was sniping on a gate in Ingunn but all of Arzal's hard work probing him out were for nought as I uncloaked to try and lock before he warped off. He was aligned and at speed and got away before my lock resolved.

I was still mucking about in Ingunn watching a Megathron and Abbadon play docking games when a Cyclone undocked and warped to a planet, I followed but found he was safe spotted. So I gave my friend a call, she had just replaced her Cheetah, which was killed by the Megathron we missed earlier (An unfortunate cloaking accident led to her demise) and she headed straight on over to probe him out. Seconds after she dropped her first probe she reported a hit, I waited as she set up the warpin.

"No mistakes this time."

I warped in at her signal and landed right on top of the Cyclone, sitting dead still, I locked, scrammed, webbed and set my tracking disruptor active. A swarm of Hammerhead drones engulfed him and went to work as I held a tight 500 metre orbit. He deployed a flight of medium ECM drones and it wasn't long before they got there first cycle.

"Oh for crying out loud."

I furiously spammed lock on him and his drones. First order of business was to destroy the drones, my lock resolved and my Hammerheads were sent to intercept his Vespas. One down as another jam cycle hits me.

"Now you're starting to annoy me" I said to the Cyclone pilot although he probably didn't hear it.

My drones were now autonomous and were still taking out his ECM annoyances. He got one last cycle on me just as the last drone popped but it was now a matter of seconds before I started in on him again. My armour repairer and cap booster were working overtime, earning there keep as I finally got lock again, set the tracking disruptor active and resumed my tight orbit with the aid of scrambler and web. Hammerheads tearing into his shields as he capped out and lost his shield hardeners. He was at about half armour when he did something that surprised me... HE EJECTED!

Kane Rizzel > good fight I suppose
Shilo Harris > eh, was afk for the first 2 min so yeah :)

His escape pod made a hasty exit stage left.

Drones recalled in an instant as I set a bookmark of the Cyclone's location, warped to a station, ejected my pod, undocked and went about some Grand Theft Cyclone.

I boarded the Cyclone and was pleasantly surprised at the haul, some nice tech 2 goodness which will fetch a shiny penny in Rens.




2008.12.15 18:59
okay i'm noticing from the lack of insurance that you probably quit shooting and stole my ship.

either you're a great pirate, or i'm a dumbass, or both :)

Well, a little of both mate. Was a good fight and even though I didn't get a killmail the ISK is always welcome

UPDATE

I was sitting cloaked in the Pilgrim when I spotted a Claw interceptor entering the local 2/10 plex, knowing I couldn't follow in the recon I docked up and grabbed Going Postal™ for a bit of Rifter violence.

I warped in to the plex, having made sure I had the keys for the next two acceleration gates. The Claw was moving quickly through the rooms, not spending time to engage the Gistii guards. I approached the third gate, scanner showing my mark in the third room. I burst out of warp, trails of plasma streaming of the Rifter hull. My intended victim was 50km away so I punched my afterburner and started to make to intercept his orbit.

The Claw pilot didn't notice me until it was too late as I relieved him of the confines of the once beautiful Claw. His escape pod was scrambled and ransom terms offered in private convo.

"I don't have any implants so pod away" was his reply to which I gladly obliged.

The loot surprised me but I also grabbed the loot from the deadspace overseers can, which yielded a Gistii B-Type 1mn Microwarp Drive, Afterburner and Small Shield Transporter.

A nice kill, an even better haul in loot.

Update part deux

I have a new forum signature and blog banner courtesy of Brother Benthor

Hide and Shoot

"'E's fighting in there!" he stuttered, grabbing the captain's arm. "All by himself?" said the captain. "No, with everyone!" shouted Nobby, hopping from one foot to the other.

-- Making Friends and Hitting People (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I've just been busy is all.

I stumbled into the hangar and winced as I hit something that might have been ammunition. Everything is powered down and there is no light to speak of until I find the cursed light switch. Slowly dawn breaks upon the NovaKane hangar and makeshift office. Ships, mods and ammo litter every corner. I walk on over to my desk and get to working through the mass of mail and station bills. Interesting times again as Mean Corp and The Bastards have ended a long relationship and initiated hostilities to each other. I did help Mean down a carrier a week back and I do enjoy flying with The Bastards but I'll just do my own thing and stay out of it.

Keira has been busy in highsec helping a cousin get standings with one of the Empire corps so he can get jumpclones but other than that it's been quiet for the family.

I boarded my Rifter as my covops friend had said there were a few of its kin in system, the paperwork could wait. I undocked to see if anyone wanted a fight, I scanned out two of them and headed towards their location only to miss them as they warped to the station. I followed as is my way and waited to see if they would engage me, one did and paid the price. The other became the victim of the station's automated sentries by engaging another Rifter who wasn't an outlaw.

I docked up as I was itching to try a new ship, something I've been training for a while now and finally felt comfortable taking it out and getting some red on it. The Pilgrim force recon is a sexy little beast although it felt weird flying something which didn't actually have any guns fitted. Its main offensive capabilities being energy neutralisers and drones. I went on over to Eifer to see what was about and soon was vectoring in on a Jaguar and Retribution. I warped in on top of them both, uncloaked and started targeting but they warped out before I could get a lock.

"Too slow" I said to myself as I cloaked and warped to a scan spot.

"There's a Raven in Gus... Missioning"

"You have a probe out"

"But of course, by the time you get your ass here I'll have the warp in"

Awesome, a true test for Kumano-Sanzan. I jumped into Gusandall just as my friend stated she was on the acceleration gate. I immediately intiated warp, cloaking in the process. I arrived, the gate alone in the dark, my friend safely cloaked above it, I activated it and was slung into the deadspace. I burst out of warp to see the Raven fighting some Amarr cruisers and battleships and still under cloak I closed the distance. Once in range of my scrambler and web I uncloaked and engaged. The Raven locked me and cruise missiles were launched in my direction. A flight of Hammerhead drones spewed forth from my drone bay and started stripping the Raven's shields. He was tanking comfortable enough as the first assualt from his cruise launchers slammed into my Pilgrim.

"Probably a good idea to turn on the armour hardeners and damage control."

My drones were slowly eating his shields as he desperately tried to tank but this was made difficult by my energy neutralisers sucking the life out of his Raven. My cap booster was chewing through its charges as my armour repairer kept up with the cruise missile damage. His tank was broken, capped out and no way back now as the Hammerheads hammered the final nail into his coffin.

A satisfying kill and some nice loot. I'm going to have some fun with this ship

I might not be around much until January but fear not, the blood and tears will flow once I'm back.