With a Vengeance

"Today Is A Good Day For Someone Else To Die!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)

Keira finally got off her ass and moved the loot from the "Farmer Smash" campaign, which only totalling 14 kills thus far has netted some nice ISK. I took a break from harassing them and mostly messed about in a Rifter.

One kill, that's all I had. A Rifter sat still at a planet, My systems froze up for a few seconds and by the time I regained control of my ship the other Rifter was dead. So not much to write about. The varied blobs and unwillingness of others to leave safespots meant I spent a lot of time in station sorting out paperwork and shooting the breeze in the various pubs.

While Keira moved the loot to highsec she reported a Vengeance class assault frigate in the 2/10 plex. I raced to my Jaguar and started the undock procedure. After more seconds than I cared for I eventually emerged into the Gusandall night sky, scanner primed towards the 2/10 plex. Vengeance still there.

WARP DRIVE ACTIVE

I burst out of warp on the gate and scan in it's direction... Nothing. I swing the scanner's narrow arc towards the 1/10 plex and the Vengeance appears in its direction.

WARP DRIVE ACTIVE

Another warp and the gate is in front of me, scan in the direction of the deadspace confirms he's in there. The ancient gate slings me into warp. Warp disruptor is primed and set to overheat so that if the mark has moved off from the warpin that I would have the range to keep him in place.

Warp trails stream off my Jaguar and the Vengeance is only 5 clicks off my port side, targeted and scrammed in an instant, the game is on. My autocannons and rocket launcher strip his shields away but that's not the meat of a Vengeance, it has a formidable armour tank and it was only now I realised I made a schoolboy error... WRONG BLOODY AMMO KANE!

Tech 2 Amarr ships have good resists except for Thermal, which is its weakness, lo and behold I didn't have any ammo that would take advantage of that hole so it was down to my thermal rockets and EMP based ammunition to wittle the armour away. Meanwhile the Vengeance pilot was hammering away at my shields, a futile excercise on his part as I was holding steady with passive regen and good resists.

Slowly but surely my damage output was creeping up on his repping ability and soon he was in low armour. The time had come to overheat everything and throw the kitchen sink at him. Three minutes of dogfighting and his Vengeance was venting fuel and oxygen into space, it was on fire from bow to stern and exploded in a satisfying ball of flames. The pilots escape pod made a hasty retreat as my systems tried to establish a lock. A good and honest fight and a view the other pilot acknowledged in local comms.

A quiet few days for me but New Eden has been busy with the 6th Alliance tournament in which my good friends The Bastards are competing. They totally annihalated KIA alliance and have Cry Havoc next up on the dinner plate.
Next qualifying rounds are Saturday and Sunday and you can listen live at New Eden Radio and if you missed any of the action can watch recorded footage of the matches from here.

Good luck to The Bastards in their next match

Kane likes free stuff

"Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad."

-- (Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)

One of the screenshots from the Tourist series of posts I did was selected to be published in EON #013. Don't know which one as I don't have my copy yet but Zapatero said it was on the way.

It also seems I missed NovaKane Incorporated's second anniversary but I made up for that by violencing many Rifters over the past few days. One unfortunate pilot got killed and podded twice... in succesion... He shot first, I promise.

There's also a new sig in town, made by Bobbechk from the Illuminate.



Stay Classy.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

"Some people are heroes. And some people jot down notes."

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Truth)

...Is to track down and kill a Raven infesting the Ingunn area.

Well now, who am I to refuse such a mission. A key participant in tonight's hunt was already in place, sitting silent and invisible in a spot carefully chosen to give best coverage for her scan probes.
I had a few things to take care of in station before boarding my Pilgrim and heading out into the black.

Keira had just Clone Jumped back to HQ so she could take care of the paperwork whilst the hangar crew got her Broadsword ready, I would need her help if things went south and I really hoped they did.

Our sneaky friend had reported multiple hits, three Ravens were doing the rounds and I asked her to set up the first warp in, within moments of my request I was told she was ready and I entered warp.

WARP DRIVE ACTIVE

Bursting out of warp under cloak I spotted our mark, a mere 5 clicks away... Perfect.
He was chewing through the mercenary force and would shortly be done, but not before his life got that bit more interesting, a little Kane to spice up his night.

I uncloaked at point blank range, he was aligned to warp out but not up to speed so the slightest nudge would give my targeting systems enough time to recalibrate from cloaking to lock on to him. The seconds ground away, it felt like an age as my systems locked onto his ship. I was relieved to see my lock confirmed and my warp scrambler started its gentle glow. The Raven wasn't going anywhere in a hurry. I took my time now, savouring each second, Two energy neutralisers bridged the gap between us, only moments before he would be without any energy to power his shield booster. He had at this point targeted me and set about introducing volley after volley of cruise missiles to my recon, a flight of medium drones spewed forth from his drone bay and opened up on me.

Don't panic, no need to, things are under control. I pulse my cap booster as it charges my capacitor, the two medium energy neuts are no longer needed, instead a small energy neutraliser kicks in to keep him capped out. I start taking armour damage and pause a moment before my armour repairer goes active, a few seconds pass before it finishes its first cycle and my armour starts to creep back. My capacitor spikes as another round of boosters goes in.

The Raven is no longer boosting its shields, his shield hardeners have turned off without any power to run them, the time to strike has come.

Five Hammerhead IIs are released from my drone bay, like rabid dogs they set upon the Raven and tear his shields away, chewing at his armour and dining on his structure. The explosion is violent, debris raining down on Kumano-San-Zan, a beautiful sound. The flash disipates and I'm kind of disappointed that my scans hadn't picked up reinforcements in the shape of the other Ravens.

While all this was going on my friend in her Cheetah was busy probing out other mission sites and setting up the necesary warpins, unfortunately they all had acceleration gates and the other Ravens had taken to employing scouts. Keira had warped in on one but was just that bit too far away to get the tackle before he warped out and we missed a few others due to said scouts.

A Caracal did warp in to the first site and was duely dispatched.

A bit disappointed I cloaked up and went about having my dinner and a much needed cigarette. I accomplished my mission obejective but would liked to have had more.

I'm back, more or less, depending on how I feel and hopefully I'll start writing a bit more and with a bit more creativity, unfortunately there's only so many ways you can describe a kill/loss and sometimes I just don't know how to make them sound interesting. I may just go back to doing this for my own amusement, to help me analyse my hunts, my success and my failures as I originally intended for this blog, I just hope y'all will find that interesting

You spin me right round baby

"No running with scythes!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time)

I thought I'd update my small reader base as to why there have been few updates as of late.
I'm a bit burnt out from a hectic December at work and can't really find the energy to log in and hunt. Apologies to those that want to hear more about the adventures of Kane but at present I just can't be bothered.

Keira will be online as she does some work in highsec but other than that I'll be back when I feel like it.