Close call

"And Howondaland Smith, Balrog Hunter, practic'ly eats the dark for his tea."
-- Gaspode the wonder dog
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures) 

A lone buzzard appears on scan in Eifer, in the direction of a relic site.

A cloaked hunter enters system, a new class of ship, designed for a specific purpose but this one refitted for something entirely different, something more malevolent

The cloaked hunter warps into the relic site, the Buzzard appears to be having issues as a scatter container explodes, the hunter approaches under cloak, tackle systems primed as it he uncloaks in range and engages with a full compliment of drones. The Buzzard experiences more issues as it explodes in a brilliant flash just as a Hurricane warps in.

The hunter quickly draws range but has a change of mind and corkscrews in to engage the Hurricane at point blank range. After dispatching the Hurricane's drones, the hunter concentrates all fire-power on the battlecruisers shields, the medium guns of the massive in comparison ship not able to track the small frigate as it zipped around the stricken vessel, it would only be a matter of time before it exploded.

At half shields another ship joined the fray, a Wolf class assault frigate.

The Hunter had to make a choice, an epic kill lost but now it became a fight for survival. Choice made, afterburner shut off and microwarp drive engaged, quickly out ranging the Wolf, but not before the assault frigate put the hunter deep into hull, fuel and atmosphere venting into space, in flames.

The hunter cloaks, a close call.

How do you EVE?

 Basically, there were two sides to the world. There was the entire computer games software industry engaged in a tremendous effort to stamp out piracy, and there was Wobbler. Currently, Wobbler was in front.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Only You Can Save Mankind)

This is how I EVE

The Battle of Arnher

Greebo's technique was unscientific and wouldn't have stood a chance against any decent swordmanship, but on his side was the fact that it is almost impossible to develop decent swordmanship when you seem to have run into a food mixer that is biting your ear off.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad) 

A rather dull evening locally, very little happening other than me being impressed at my skills with a 36km infinite point on an old Broadsword, which was put to good use catching a stabbed Procurer who thought he was immune to old school gate Piracy.

Started playing around with a Strateo fitting but I'm not convinced yet, but holy shit, have you guys seen the Mobile Depot?

Anyways, I was bored so boarded a Tristan and headed to Amamake. Very little I could engage realistically en route, cross jumped a rather large frigate gang on the Amamake gate, but I liked this Tristan and wasn't going to just throw it away.

I docked up in Ama for a bit to have dinner, the Vegan Mac n Cheese is particularly delicious.

Setting my nav com to Bosena I headed on out again, still not much I could fight until I hit Arnher. Scan showed a few frigates about, possibly together or fighting amongst each other, who knew, so I warped to the Novice plex at 50km, soon enough A Firetail warps in and we start a slow dance around each other, to see who would make the first move.

we hover at about 24km from each other and the Firetail engages with a long point. he's not moving terribly fast, possibly on afterburner but he could always be duel propped. I start to spiral in as he starts to apply damage at range... Artillery, goddamn artillery and with the Firetail being more agile and faster this was going to be a problem.

I launch my drones and engage, I land a web but he seemingly has me dual webbed, as he outruns me and gets out of web and scram range. At least he's not dual propped.

A Magnate warps in at range, things are about to get interesting, it seems the Magnate is waiting to take on the winner, who would most likely be severely damaged giving the Magnate the high ground. The fight between me and the Firetail isn't over yet as I'm deep in armour, my overloaded repper clawing back vital hit points as my drones continue to go to work on the Firetails armour, but he is repping great big chuncks back, I can see the nanites working furiously to keep him intact.

He moves out to 30km and eventually loses point, it seems he's running but still applying damage to me, I'm just about out of armour, my repper decides to reload... What the actual fuck!

The Firetail explodes... Instead of warping out he tries to kill me off with a last volley or two, but my drones are tenacious little bastards and quite deadly.

The Magnate decides now is the time to try steal the loot, he's faster than me and closes on the wreck quicker, but I get in range to get point and web on the golden ship. He engages, with me in deep armour already, an easy kill.

My repper finishes it's long reload and starts to burn, repping great big chunks of armour, I change ammo as this fight is going down eyeball to eyeball.

The first module to melt on my Tristan is my afterburner, then the web and finally the scrambler... This isn't going to end well, I can't get away.




This is it.




I'm in structure




The Magnate explodes, he was in deep trouble but the thought of getting that last shot in was too tempting.

Who needs tackle when you just need to look like you're one shot away from dying?

GF in local before I headed off to find a place to put out the fires and repair all the damage. Eventually made it to Bosena, saw Sard Caid in a Dramiel and took a break. The rest of the night was a wash, I went back on the Amamake route, saw nothing I could fight so went home.

FWZ and the cost of combat

The Yen Buddhists are the richest religious sect in the universe. They hold that the accumulation of money is a great evil and a burden to the soul. They therefore, regardless of personal hazard, see it as their unpleasant duty to acquire as much as possible in order to reduce the risk to innocent people.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

I'm quite enjoying hunting in the Minmatar Faction Warfare Zone, whilst it is frustrating it can be rewarding. I'm now on to Tristan number six after a less than stellar night.

Last night I warped in on a Firetail that was waiting on the beacon inside a plex, his neut and superior speed made short work of me. Not an auspicious start to my evening. I caught a rather young Condor pilot a bit later, seemingly asleep at the controls.

Things started to get interesting when I warped in a plex just in front of a Maller, there was a Navy Slicer and Malediction on scan too, I was kinda hoping for one of them to come in, but when they all landed the fight was on and a race for survival was on. I aligned to the sun at full speed, clawing range from the Maller but the Slicer and Malediction had me tackled, easily weaving in and out of long point range, I set drones on the Malediction to try force him off, my overloaded repper just about keeping up with the long range damage, every now and again I would Crazy Ivan towards the Slicer but it's superior speed and agility meant I was just not able to get into web range, the Maller at this point was no longer a threat, I either needed to get out of point range o both o them or kill one of these fuckers. my repper was out of paste and as the long reload cycle started I had managed to force the Malediction off, still pointed by the Slicer, but the damage wasn't too overwhelming, I was however in deep structure but it was just me and the Slicer now, painful seconds ticking by as I waited in hope of the reload cycle finishing.

5% structure now and the reload cycle finishes, overload and activate, the rep cycle starts, my structure implodes.

A really good fight and one that lasted far longer than I expected.

The night was seemingly a wash, no much about other than a few larger groups of faction warriors, nothing I could realistically pick off on my own and due to the previous two losses I was feeling a little disappointed, a quick Rifter snack perked me up a little and refreshed my appetite, but it was getting late so I decided to head to Bosena to dock for the night, on the way, passing through Evati I spied another Rifter on scan, I warped to the plex and made my way inside, I land pretty much on top o the Rifter and engage, moving out to Null range and launching my drones.

My shields are stripped and massive holes are being shot out of my armour.

Goddamn Arty Rifter, being flown rather well.

I can not stress to you how important a skill thermodynamics is, the overloaded nanite fuelled repper had kept me alive just barely, now it was out of paste and I had to resort to some smart flying but the Rifter was by this point in trouble, I had hit structure but so had he and fortunately for me, I had more structure, an explosion of satisfaction as debris of the Rifter rains against my Tristan.

A great fight and after looking at the killmail, I saw the pilot was vastly experienced with a very high rank on Battle Clinic, the dude could fly.

This got me looking at my stats at Battle Clinic (I mainly use BC because it's probably the most comprehensive of all the options available and has most of my early kills)

Over the years the way killmails are generated has changed, instead of just showing what was destroyed it now shows everything, a great deal of information can now be harvested from them.

One thing that really stood out for me was the ISK damage I have inflicted over my career... 1.1 Trillion ISK worth of damage to the pilots of New Eden
Average cost per kill is just under 355million ISK
Average cost per loss is just over 85million ISK

Edit: It just ended up being a very, very expensive day

Give that drone a medal

The pre-luncheon drinks were going quite well, Mr Bucket thought. Everyone was making polite conversation and absolutely no one had been killed up to the present moment.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade) 

[20:03:53] Randy Wray > 20:02:29    Combat    222 from Kane Rizzel[NOVAK](Tristan) - Hobgoblin II - Wrecks
[20:03:57] Randy Wray > I warped out after that
[20:04:06] Randy Wray > consider my anus rekt

Tormented

Quote #163.

The kraken stirs. And ten billion sushi dinners cry out for vengeance.

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)

A few days ago I was contacted by a long time reader, recently retired from wormhole space and looking to find his way in lowsec, as such he endeavoured to battle me.

Yesterday I spent a fruitless day hunting the Minmatar faction warfare zones, I was met with either overwhelming force or MWD kiters, with only one fight I headed home, rather despondent with only one proper fight the whole trip.

Sitting in Amamake, on what would seem to be yet another fruitless day, when all the Navy Slicers would warp away, Jiffah contacted me and asked if I was still up for the battle, now anyone who knows me will tell you I love 1v1s, have always and will always honour them, so I headed back to Gusandall after a quick shower and dinner to get ready for what I expected to be an interesting fight.

I haven't had a 1v1 in a while, folk are so skittish these days that I've even been laughed at for even offering, saying I would just get my 'friends' to come gank them, didn't know folk were so attached to their frigates to be honest, so to say I'm a little rusty is a slight under statement.

1v1s are a little different than most combat in the universe, for a start, you need to make sure your 1v1 tab is set up properly, not having the person you're fighting show up on your overview does not help your cause.

Jiffah arrived in Gus with a Tormentor, a ship I have not battled yet but one I've heard a great deal about. I had chosen my Battle Probe, a ship that I consider to be pound for pound the best brawler in the game

Tormentor

 



The Tormentor is a Combat Frigate designed for frontline fighting.
Traits 
Amarr Frigate skill bonus per level:
10% bonus to Small Energy Turret capacitor use
5% bonus to Small Energy Turret damage
Development
The Tormentor has been in service for many decades. For most of that time it saw service as a mining ship, its size barring it from making any kind of impact on the battlefield. As with most Amarr ships, however, its strong defenses always made it a tough opponent to crack, and with recent advances in turret capacitor use and damage output, its lasers have now stopped digging into dead ore and are instead focused on boring through the hulls of hapless vessels in combat. 

VS

Probe

 


The Probe is a Frigate designed for exploring the depths of space.
Traits  
Minmatar Frigate skill bonus per level:
7.5% increase to scan strength of probes
5% bonus to Salvager cycle time
Role Bonus:
+5 Virus Strength to Relic and Data Analyzers
Development
The Probe is large compared to most Minmatar frigates and is considered a good scout and cargo-runner. Uncharacteristically for a Minmatar ship, its hard outer coating makes it difficult to destroy, while the limited weapon hardpoints force it to rely on fighter assistance if engaged in combat.

Kane Rizzel > just say when you're ready
Jiffah > I'm
Kane Rizzel > ?
Jiffah > I mean I'm ready and waiting
Kane Rizzel > in warp, gl and hf
Jiffah > you too :)

I land on grid and nothing on overview, quick pan out, lock and engage, I know the Tormentor can have good range but I have a trick up my sleeve to force him in,, we dance around each other at 8km with purple pulses of death slamming into my Probe, I reply with salvos of rockets and autocannon fire, drones from both ships, pass each other on the way to the other.

We're both in armour, I'm pulsing my repper as I start to orbit to mitigate some of the scorch damage, my opponent however seems to have activated Beast Mode tank, I'm starting to get down to my last few remaining explosive rockets (Another thing to remember about 1v1s is to bring enough ammo)

I make the mistake of switching to thermal rage rockets, but after he near reps all his armour back I switch to faction thermal and start to overheat in earnest. I'm slowly dealing damage to his structure before he reps chuncks of armour back, it's starting to look grim as bits of my ship start melting, first to go is my scram, I'm having to nurse my gun and launchers to make sure they don't suffer the same fate. With one last burst of overheating, I punch through his last armour and decimate what structure is left, the Tormentor torments me no more

Kane Rizzel > great fight
Jiffah > gf :)

I scoop the loot and dock up to repair what is left of my Probe, everything is on fire and my deck crew are going to have a hell of a time fixing everything. 

Jiffah > One more round if you don't mind?
Kane Rizzel > sure
Kane Rizzel > mind if I change ship?
Jiffah > sure
Jiffah > fair enough
Kane Rizzel > the probe is a little op
Kane Rizzel > that tomentor tanks like a beast
Jiffah > I burned out my AB, after that it was only matter of time when you finish me
Kane Rizzel > I always end up burning something out

Jiffah returns in another Tormentor but I want to try something a little different, I go for an old Incursus build of mine with one minor upgrade from my old standard

Tormentor

 



The Tormentor is a Combat Frigate designed for frontline fighting.
Traits 
Amarr Frigate skill bonus per level:
10% bonus to Small Energy Turret capacitor use
5% bonus to Small Energy Turret damage
Development
The Tormentor has been in service for many decades. For most of that time it saw service as a mining ship, its size barring it from making any kind of impact on the battlefield. As with most Amarr ships, however, its strong defenses always made it a tough opponent to crack, and with recent advances in turret capacitor use and damage output, its lasers have now stopped digging into dead ore and are instead focused on boring through the hulls of hapless vessels in combat. 


VS

Incursus

 



The Incursus is a Combat Frigate designed for frontline fighting.
Traits
Gallente Frigate skill bonus per level:
7.5% bonus to Armor Repairer effectiveness
5% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage

Development
The Incursus may be found both spearheading and bulwarking Gallente military operations. Its speed makes it excellent for skirmishing duties, while its resilience helps it outlast its opponents on the battlefield. Incursus-class ships move together in groups and can quickly and effectively gang up on ships many times their size and overwhelm them. In recent years the Incursus has increasingly found its way into the hands of pirates, who love its aggressive appearance. 

Jiffah > Ok, same spot, i'm here
Kane Rizzel > ok, omw gl and hf

I warp in again, Jiffah is at 18km from me, and he moves rather quickly, but very soon we're in range of each others scrams,but my blasters seem to be doing very little damage to his shields, I'm barely scratching him at this point, so with a web advantage I move closer and reload to void, the Tormentor explodes.

I check the killmail and see why my damage to his shields appeared weak 

Kane Rizzel > gf again
Jiffah > gf
Kane Rizzel > did not expect the switch to shields
Jiffah > hehe
Kane Rizzel > thought my damage was really poor lol
Jiffah > rushing straight to you was clearly a mistake
Kane Rizzel > I switched to void
Kane Rizzel > so yeah
Kane Rizzel > clear punched right through
Jiffah > more important you caught me with scrambler
Jiffah > no chance for MWD
Jiffah > anyway that was fun
Kane Rizzel > yeah, thanks for that, very rare I get 1v1s these days, everyone so paranoid
Jiffah > thank you too for accepting my challenge
Kane Rizzel > you're welcome dude
Kane Rizzel > will do a blog about it :)
Jiffah > That's it for now, fly dangerous o7
Kane Rizzel > o7
 

Thank you again Jiffah, was an honour to battle you.

I did the Faction Warfare loop once again, swinging via Bosena and the only fight I got was a terribly close encounter versus this fellow, good fight sir, I was in structure and on fire :)


Edit: A little closer to home while I sort out my loot hangar to be moved to market a curious fellow in a Worm calls me out

hoogy thekiller > Gusandall IV - Republic Justice Department Tribunal
hoogy thekiller > come out

So I undock in my Tristan, I'm almost convinced it's a trap as he's hugging the station but I intend to see this through as I close and start to circle, he engages and the fight is on, I'm already in armour as my drones and guns start to chew meaningfully into his shields, an overloaded repper is just about dealing with the incoming damage but I have now well and truly got him as his shields vapourise and chunks of armour are shredded away, he explodes violently, lighting up the dark side of Gusandall station.

Kane Rizzel > gf
hoogy thekiller > fuck u
Kane Rizzel > no use get angry about it, you called Gus out
hoogy thekiller > can i see ya fit
hoogy thekiller > and i had lagg

Oh well, sorry for your lag.Other than the guy being an absolute muppet it was a very good fight.

Gusandall IV - Republic Justice Department Tribunal: Courts where judicial matters are judged

And this finally arrived in the mail this afternoon, my favourite ship in the whole wide universe

Surviving the Bomb

Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms)

A quick roam through to Bamamake sees me watching everything in a faction warfare plex cloak as I land on the acceleration gate. I sensed a frustrating evening as this seems to be SOP for faction warfare. Perhaps a beacon inside the plexes that stopped all cloaking?

Anyways, I digress, I plan to pop into Bamamake before heading to Bosena, in Gulmogrod I'm in warp to the Ama gate, spamming the on-board scanner as is my way, a Panther appears on scan at the gate, a quick check of local confirms my suspicion, an old cloaky dramiel flying plex farmer now gate bomber waits for my arrival.

I turn on my damage control, overload my repper, turn it on as I land on the gate:

22:27:29    Combat    159 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits
22:27:29    Combat    159 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits
22:27:29    Combat    159 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits
22:27:29    Combat    216 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits
22:27:29    Combat    328 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits
22:27:30    Combat    159 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits
22:27:30    Combat    159 from Santo Trafficante[CODE8](Panther) - Imperial Navy Large EMP Smartbomb - Hits

At half armour I jump through into Amamake.

Got my heart racing for a second.

I did get to have a great little 2v1 on the way to Bosena, an Atron and Slasher that didn't cloak as I warped to the small plex in Egmar, they killed three of my drones though, I do hate losing drones, but I love a good fight. Thumbs up to these guys for standing and fighting.

Nothing else for the evening so I headed back to Gusandall.

Roaming and a rather important announcement

The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, was currently researching the question: How many whales can you catch in one week?

-- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens) 

I've taken to roaming a few faction warfare zones with no real fights to speak of, one fight against a Firetail on a stargate ended with his Cynabal friend jumping in and popping me just as he was about to die in a fire, and two separate procurer kills. (Edit, a rather nice little fight against a merlin now) It appears faction warfare is plagued by Cloakers... Oh well.

The big announcement is that I will be next year be volunteering for Sea Shepherd as crew member on one of their ships, basically according to the 9th circuit court I will be a Pirate.

I've not yet been assigned a specific ship, will find out more after the current Antarctic campaign ends but will be shipping out next March, most likely from Melbourne in Australia.
I have given notice at my current employ, which ends mid December, so that I can go spend the festive season and new years with my family in South Africa for the first time in 13 years, before returning to the London to finish preparations for at least a year away.

The Rizzel's will go into hibernation, waiting for my return.

Until then I will be about a bit more often, trying to get fights here and there, doing piratey things as is my way.

On vacation...

My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.

My dream holiday would be

a) a ticket to Amsterdam
b) immunity from prosecution and
c) a baseball bat :-)

-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett) 

I'm on a road trip, Geneva, Genoa, Sienna, Florence, Venice, Como, Zermatt and Geneva. Breakfast in Chamonix tomorrow.

See you when I get back

Summer time blues

The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked: Yo, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear? And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

It's been mighty quiet as of late, trade and traffic through Gusandall at a summer time low, a few bits here and there if you have endless patience and nothing else to do but most the locals spend their time running plex, missioning and once in a while engaging in that fantastical past time, commerce at gunpoint.

I myself haven't done much of anything, even the rest of AARGH seem to be in hibernation,
Keira on sabbatical engaging Sansha at leisure, but even she hasn't found the energy or time to do much.
Kenny has returned to Emolgranlan to consolidate and sell loot. our other associates in limbo, even Midnight is on an extended break, it just seems it's that time of year.

I'm hoping things pick up soon™

I'm also needing all the lucks as I'm planning a great adventure that will take me away from EVE for a very long time.

X

 On nights such as these the gods, as has already been pointed out, play games other than chess with the fates of mortals and the thrones of kings. It is important to remember that they always cheat, right up to the end...
-- (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters) 

This looks interesting...

We have a winner...

I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.
From: StS Wolv
Sent: 2013.08.11 21:01
To: Kane Rizzel

That's a quote from broken arrow the movie ;=)

BR

Wolv

Congrats sir, 50million ISK is in your wallet

I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.

There was a polite beeping from the Thing. "You may be interested to know," it said, "that we've broken the sound barrier." Masklin turned wearily to the others. "All right, own up. Who broke it?"
-- (Terry Pratchett, Wings)

Keira taking full room Incursion HQ aggro so hard it nearly broke a rig.

•50million isk to the first person who messages Kane the name of the movie which the title of this blog is a quote

I'm still a Pirate

 "There must be a hundred silver dollars in here," moaned Boggis, waving a purse. "I mean, that's not my league. That's not my class. I can't handle that sort of money. You've got to be in the Guild of Lawyers or something to steal that much."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters)

Miura Bull brought up an interesting point of discussion, whilst I have always been a PvPer, I have always considered myself first and foremost a Pirate, I am both, I will PvP you to death... And then steal all your stuff.

I do not need to live exclusively off loot cause I got rich long ago from Piracy, but I can still pull in 2 billion plus a month from all loot and salvage from the unfortunate victims of  my Piratical nature...

Not too shabby for an old man ;)

There's a quote in the About Me section that still stands to this day

“Life's pretty good, and why wouldn't it be? I'm a pirate, after all.”

No shame...

And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be living in a slum, for some reason owning a whole street of them merely got you invited to the very best social occasions.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)

EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Gusandall
Si'Andregal Grungolash > gfgf!
Kane Rizzel > gf
Si'Andregal Grungolash > I'm so surprised to find you still here, after all these years
Kane Rizzel > hehe, this is my home :)
Si'Andregal Grungolash > I'm not ashamed to lose to Kane Rizzel, o7
Kane Rizzel > o7


I'm told that this is the way forward for Maelstroms
This guy loved that ship.

Bounty placed on you
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2013.08.06 20:26

Cpazykampu placed 10,000,000 ISK in bounty on your head.

--------------------

Bounty placed on you
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2013.08.06 20:27

Cpazykampu placed 16,000,000 ISK in bounty on your head.

--------------------

 Bounty placed on you
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2013.08.06 20:42

Cpazykampu placed 50,000,000 ISK in bounty on your head.

Out of time

"But ye gotta know *where* ye're just gonna rush in. Ye cannae just rush in *anywhere*. It looks bad, havin' to rush oout again straight awa'."

-- Feegle tactics (Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men)  << This quote is one of my all time favourites

Last night I undocked one of my re-purposed Armageddon class battleships called Rob Anybody, the purpose of said undocking was to violence a Crane and Phobos who had strayed a little too far off the undock.

By engaging the Crane first I drew sentry fire and the fight was on, the Crane managed to crawl into dock range and dock up so I switched to the Phobos, a flight of Garde IIs, heavy neuts and pew pew lasers.

Next thing an Apocalypse battleship undocks and the fight gets serious, the Phobos is tanking well but will break, it senses that and crawls towards the station and docks up, I switch to the Apoc and things get interesting, a Hyperion undocks, a Loki decloaks and a few Thorax jump into system.

Splatter Girl was in system with her Thrasher, she had been around the area and helped me earlier when I couldn't break a rather stubborn Drake's tank with my Succubus. Her Thrasher of very little help on the station she recommended I deagress and try dock, I was way ahead of her, I had started to crawl towards the station, deactivated all modules and recalled sentries to stop full aggro, it was a race against the clock, their damage output and my massive passive armour tank.

With half the aggro clock left, they broke my armour and my structure started to buckle, fuel, and atmosphere venting through massive cracks in my hull, the clock continued to count down and with it my structure, sliver by sliver, second by second.

10...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4...

3...




Rob Anybody explodes.

3 seconds, 3 goddamn seconds. I GF as I warp my escape pod to a celestial.

Splatter and I would later try to draw them off the station, their numbers had grown, including a blackbird, oneiros and a few cruisers, but they wouldn't give chase too far, eventually undocking a Thanatos and Archon as a show of force.

I went off and watched the Alliance Tournament, congrats to Pandemic Legion, well done and condolences to my friends in Hydra Reloaded

This wasn't my first loss of the night to sentries, the first though was a lot more fun as I warped a Bellicose into a frig gang on the Emolgranlan gate in Eifer, I shot first, took sentries, killed two, Splatter killed another two and I lost my lovely Bellicose.

Actually had a bit of fun with both those losses, pity I have to take sentry aggro but them's the breaks when you're a Boss. I do sometimes wonder what if I didn't have to take sentry aggro, that will be an interesting day.

Uhm... Yeah.

People came to Ankh-Morpork to seek their fortune. Unfortunately, other people sought it too.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Soul Music)

Time to die!
From: Delta- Four
Sent: 2013.08.01 16:05
To: Kane Rizzel, 

The battle of NOVAK and Ours Corp! has now begun! The battleships will arrive when your not expecting it, First of all, we need to scan your stations, This is not the first time Kane! not the first time! When your station is done! we will "Jettison" your Space Station Wreck, you can have it! Good luck! hahahhahah!!!!!!!!!!! And im gonna have the Honor of your Capsule!! Delta out! see you in the battlefield! hahhaha!


Moments earlier:

Delta- Four > wassup, what are you guys doing in a low sec?
Kane Rizzel > we live here
Delta- Four > Watch out for Pirates,
Kane Rizzel > I am one
Delta- Four > :) me too
Delta- Four > im just a scout for the fleet
Delta- Four > there aren't many ppl here right?
Delta- Four > whos comming around?
Delta- Four > Nice Customs Office
Delta- Four > Good, ill call in the fleet
Kane Rizzel > where are they?
Delta- Four > Hey hold on!
Delta- Four > If you dare to shoot that capsule ill send in the Battleships
Kane Rizzel > ok
YellowRaven > lol
YellowRaven > i like that you dont play with your food ^^

Blogging across the universe..

"What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and *writes* a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade) 

A quick shout out to a blog by Johnny Twelvebore, Fragmonkeys, check it out.

This makes me happy

Thank you!
From: Greg Dalton
Sent: 2013.07.27 12:36
To: Kane Rizzel, 

Hi Kane,

unfortunately I discovered EVE quite recently...World of Warcraft and other MMOs made me miss that awesome game over the years. But now I am totally addicted to the game. I am training my skills, practise fighting, read every tutorial on the Internet i can find. That's how i found you and your great blog.

When starting EVE it took me about 5 mins. to recognize, that I wanna be a red flashing pirate/pvp'er who makes people angry bite in their keyboard :-) Glittering missionrunning is not my game....

So i just want to thank you for your work, which makes a rookie's life (like mine) easier. So I will go on reading, learning and hoping NOT to be shoot by you anywhere in space :)

Have a good time and keep up the work mate!

Greg

PS: Sorry for my English, it's not my first language.

Thank you Greg, and you're welcome, good luck and good hunting :)

Slaver Penetration

No enemies had ever taken Ankh-Morpock. Well *technically* they had, quite often; the city welcomed free-spending barbarian invaders, but somehow the puzzled raiders found, after a few days, that they didn't own their horses any more, and within a couple of months they were just another minority group with its own graffiti and food shops.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

Keira has started running Incursions with The Valhalla Project, courtesy of TetraEtc. Many thanks for hooking her up.

Incursions are interesting and the communities that do them can be quite competitive, even as far as purposefully denying other groups from running sites by overwhelming odds in sites without being able to cash in on the rewards, or capping the Incursion by killing the mothership early, denying everyone from making ISK. Incursions are very, very serious business.

Last night, two such groups ended both high security space incursions, denying all communities a few days worth of ISK.

The mechanics are interesting the gangs themselves are actually fun to fly with, something a little different and before everyone asks why, because she can.

She purchased a Vindicator, a dead sexy vessel of bad-ass awesome and it's fun to fly, but when an entire incursion decides to primary you it's thanks to some very switched on Logi pilots that you don't become a statistic.

The Vindicator's DPS is unf

I'm trying to find the inspiration for a small work of fiction I want to write, I've looked back over the years and a lot of my best writing was done in an almost fiction like style, which I haven't used in a very long time. This is my 409th blog about my adventures, five and a half years of stories and adventures. It's been a very long road, ups and downs, but still here, still strong.

I have Kane back, account restored with apologies, hopefully targets will present themselves and violence will ensue.

I ain't dead...

In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.
-- Schrodinger's Moggy explained
(Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies) 

It's just that CCP are having a few technical difficulties with my account, it went dead on July 12th, I was told it had been fixed on the 15th... And still nothing.

Kane is a sad Panda :(

Fly it like you stole it...

A day ago the future had looked aching and desolate, and now it looked full of surprises and terror and bad things happening to people... If she had anything to do with it anyway.
-- Granny Weatherwax commits optimism
(Terry Pratchett, Maskerade)

A few weeks ago I was gifted a Hematos by Sard Caid, I already own a Violator and had used it once or twice to rather hilarious effect. The Hematos I really liked, some nice bonuses and a decent slot layout meant I liked it more than the Violator and was a little more bold.

I was very bold earlier this morning when a Gnosis appeared on scan in Eifer, my long time friend and accomplice  otified me of a young pilot in said Gnosis running a drone anomaly and had already set up the warpin. I entered Eifer in my Hematos conveniently named Flyitlikeyoustoleit.

I landed at 5km away from the Gnosis and engaged, his tech 1 hobgoblins immediately set upon me, and then something curious happened, I exploded.

A little surprised, it took me a moment to gather my senses and warp my escape pod out.
Even more surprised when I looked at the killmail and saw that damn near everything dropped... A nice little payday for the Gnosis pilot, along with a shiny killmail.

Of course when the Gnosis pilot returned to Eifer and started running another anomaly, I returned with something less foolish and revenged. A rather smug now Gnosisless pilot pointed out he won the ISK war but I suppose he is right :)

...

Moving on, I'd like to extend my apologies to  anyone I spoke to about that thing with that POS, but it seems whenever I get a bee in my bonnet about some fools trying to move into my home, they're all hurf blurf and then disappear. The POS is still there but the pilots seem to have gone walkabout elsewhere.

...

Again I want to ask for some help

Keira would like to start running some Incursions and I'm interested in finding out how to make it happen. Any information would be appreciated. Here is her skill set if it helps.

She is a competent logistics pilot but can add DPS if needed, I know some crews require absolute max skills from their DPS ships and a rather large amount of bling.

Do you still make ISK as a logistics pilot? And can she stay in NovaKane?

The wheel always turns... But that only matters to those on the rim

 "There's nothin' wrong with bein' a son of a bitch."
-- Gaspode the wonder dog
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)

From time to time I like to look back and marvel at how far I've come, or how low I've sunk.
Good days and bad, from my early days as a small pilot in a small alliance in Catch, the upstart Huzzah making waves against the likes of FIX, then off to bigger things with the games largest alliance at the time ASCN and my first large scale war against Band of Brothers, a short stint in a reborn Curse alliance and then off to Goonswarm where my taste for nullsec was soured, so I spent my time as part of Rens 911, a small bunch of Goons who would play with the numerous war targets Goons would acquire along the way.

My friend Steve Dave who was in Mercenary Coalition at the time said I should try Piracy... And here I am, over six years later.

I have done a great many things, but never have I had the opportunity to kill a super capital, it's still something I wish to cross off my list... One day™

I remember AlphaMeridian, aka James Caple-Nisby, who we lost two years ago now, I remember helping him with his first Flipmode Industries highsec POS take down, I remember what a great guy he was and how devious he could be, all the while laughing and enjoying the game he played. I wonder what he would think of EVE now and how far the game has come.

We've all lost friends, may their skies always be clear.

I remember old friends, who no longer play this marvellous game, but who instead choose to play a game called Real Life™, sure the graphics are very realistic, but even though it is the ultimate sandbox, you're far too limited and some of the end game bosses are just plain scary, nothing can tank them.

I still remember my very first solo kill, as a scout for a small raiding party in Delve, it was only a Cheetah and the covops cloaked dropped , at the time a hefty 120million ISK and I successfully managed to get it out of Delve even after stirring the hornets nest.

Speaking of ISK, I remember it taking me a month of ratting near Bamamake to make my first million ISK, it was much harder back then to make ISK and we appreciated everygoddamn cent.

When you lost a ship back then, it really hurt

I remember killing a rather tough rat in a belt in Abudban, a Domination frigate which dropped a BPC for a Dramiel, I sold it to a fellow Arsian for 100million ISK and I moved to nullsec shortly after, being super wealthy and all.

I remember my first day in nullsec, a stressful freighter escort through HED-GP down to V2-VC2 in Catch in my one and only Rifter. I remember losing that Rifter the very same day but not before getting on my first killmail, tackling Noobjuice's Claw before exploding in blaze of adrenaline fuelled glory.

This game has given me many great memories, from being at the unveiling of the universes very first Titan, being part of the universes very first Titan Bridge, losing regions and seeing alliances crumble, rebuilding a corporation and watching that corp go on to be in some of the biggest and baddest alliances in this verse.

And yet, after all these things, memories and experiences, I still get the shakes when I engage in boat violence.

And I still smile every time somebody gets upset about said violence...

Miworker > asshole...
Kane Rizzel > thank you

To old friends long gone, to old friends still fighting, to the new friends I have yet to make, thank you. Special shout out to Sard Caid for gifting me a Hematos, it has blood on it cause I fly it like I stole it.

And a big thanks to CCP for keeping this universe turning.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled violence and chaos.

Just not my day...

Many an ancient lord's last words had been, "You can't kill me because I've got magic aaargh."
-- Magic armour is not all it's cracked up to be.
(Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times)

It's not every day the Rizzels embarrass themselves totally, but today was such a day.

I had a few successful hunts, a fine catch of an Anathema, who then came back in a Legion, who I managed to point and hold down whilst El Brutor and I took it apart piece by piece.

So it looks like it might be a good days hunting... You'd think so?


There's a few gangs floating about, well, it is Sunday after all and when a small group with some frigates engage the Greeks in Gusandall, I warp in to see if I can pick off some frigates.

I decloak my Loki about 60km from the main group which includes two Armageddons.

I make a lot of mistakes, I shouldn't be fighting anything, I'm exhausted, not sleeping well and working too hard without a proper day off for four weeks, but needless to say I get tackled, and everything is on top of me in the blink of an eye, neuted and tackled it's a painful wait, my Loki, Achmed the Mad explodes, damn near everything drops and the shock of being so violently disconnected from the strategic cruiser gives me a severe concussion, and I lose some of the knowledge to fly the Loki properly.

And then Keira would get ganked shipping a replacement to Gusandall... For the life of me I can not figure out why she didn't just fly the bloody thing here already built .

A very expensive day and I'm glad I got a call from a friend that asked me to join her for some non-alcoholic drinks which calmed me down.

You've got RED on you needs you

Quote #103.

- "Do you know, humans think the world was made by a sort of big human?"
- "Get away?"
- "It took a week."
- "I expect it had some help, then,' said Dorcas.

-- The Nomes discuss religion
(Terry Pratchett, Diggers)
I have an itch that needs scratching and I'd like to ask my readers if they'd be up for a little serious internet spaceships, a little NPSI action (Not Purple Shoot It)

Shoot me ingame mail or join NovaKane chat channel if interested, I shall be approaching one or two other heavy hitters for help once I have a PoA sorted, right now I just need to see what firepower I can bring to the table.

It's small scale but I do need help, I can't do this myself.

I still hate Plex Farmers

"The singers all loathe the sight of one another, the chorus despises the singers, they both hate the orchestra, and everyone fears the conductor; the staff on one prompt side won't talk to the staff on the opposite prompt side, the dancers are all crazed from hunger in any case..."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade)

Kane Rizzel > gf
spiffboy > go fuck yourself
Kane Rizzel > haha
spiffboy > i didnt jump out since you were in my chat channel
Kane Rizzel > chat channel doesn't mean safe
spiffboy > nope
spiffboy > you are correct, a douchebag, but correct
Kane Rizzel > cry some more
spiffboy > douche
Kane Rizzel > you don't get a free pass to run plexes
spiffboy > douche



This douche now has your Gistii b-type shield booster

New Beginnings

The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

The new exploration systems introduced recently have brought a new kind of brave pilot to low security space, not fighters, but explorers, looking to exploit the new systems and make a quick ISK.

A few changes to an old predators hunting practices were required but soon explosions were to be seen.
I'm not the only Pirate who does this, the locals have taken to it very quickly too, and I'm sure other low security Pirates are doing the same.

Entire constellations are probed, sites bookmarked and as soon as other probes are seen on scan the wait for the target to land ensues. I have no patience to play a hacking mini game, I'll rather let others do it and collect the rewards from their still smouldering wrecks.

Not had much energy or time to hunt as of late but will try harder soon™

A small misjudgement...

All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming "Arrrrrrgh!" and axing their legs off at the knee.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

And a rather expensive loss.

I tried to engage a Gnosis and a Hurricane with my Sleipnir, I had a Hurricane and Gila in support, but the Gnosis' tank was unbelievable, hero reps just as we thought we broke him, but the combined fire-power of two battlcruisers and sentries was enough to relieve me of The Fifth Elephant, my long serving Sleipnir. They also killed the Gila and Hurricane o_0

In hindsight we should have switched primary to the Hurricane but c'est la vie.

I'm feeling rather sheepish after this loss :(

Surprise Surprise

In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies) 

This is now the Official You've got RED on you alliance them tune



A fairly uneventful day, not even any good plexes to hunt in, the area just didn't have any life in it. I had gone out for a movie and when I got back there was reports in an intel channel of a Legion and Loki in a safespot near planet 4 in Gusandall.

An associate on her way back from nullsec was passing through and dropped probes, her usual spread of 5, normally sufficient to probe damn near everything down, but recently there seems to have been a glitch with some of her cyber implants not working properly, she has put in for leave to get them looked at and is waiting to hear back from the developers of the implants.

She narrows down both ships but can't get a clean hit, no matter what she does to the formation, but then she drops two more probes and forms Volt... uhm, I mean a diamond formation and narrows the hit down even more, she eventually has to tighten the group up almost all on top of each other before she gets the 100% hit.

She warps in and reports both vessels immobile, ripe for the violencing.

I undock in The Fifthe Elephant, because well, I'm a little short on appropriate firepower, have to wait for Keira to authorize a shopping trip, but the Sleipnir would do.

I warp to our associates spot and land right on top of the Strategic Cruisers, Legion first, it evaporates, I lock its escape pod whilst switching tackle to the Loki, the Legion pod goes squish, and then the Loki explodes, followed shortly by its escape pod.

Loot is scooped and I head back to the station. Minutes later, one of the pilots opens convo with me:

Kane Rizzel > sup
Ako Izumi > how in the fuck did u kill my ships
Kane Rizzel > well
Kane Rizzel > you see
Kane Rizzel > there's this thing called space
Kane Rizzel > it's rather big
Kane Rizzel > and these two ships were loitering in it
Kane Rizzel > blatantly on scan and everything
Ako Izumi > in a fucking safe
Kane Rizzel > so a friend dropped some probes
Kane Rizzel > and probed them out
Kane Rizzel > poor fellas never stood a chance
Ako Izumi > thats bullshit they are unscanable
Kane Rizzel > quite clearly they are not
Kane Rizzel > might you have activated your cloaks, then maybe
Ako Izumi > u can make ships unscanable according to ccp
Kane Rizzel > you might want to check that
Kane Rizzel > cause that all changed a while ago
Ako Izumi > if ur sensor strength is higher then your sig
Kane Rizzel > mate
Kane Rizzel > maaaate
Ako Izumi > i mad
Kane Rizzel > yeah
Kane Rizzel > it happens to me too
Ako Izumi > yea shits stupid, its hard to keep up with all these gay patches
Ako Izumi > well reship and fly on i guess lol
Kane Rizzel > it did take a max skill character with full virtue set and a spread of seven probes but everything is probe-able
Kane Rizzel > good luck and fly safe


New Star Trek is good by the way :D

Failure Too

If it wasn't for the fun and money, I really don't know why I'd bother.

-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

One of my esteemed associates had probed the Evannater area shortly after lunch today and notified me of a Loki about to run a site, I grabbed the most appropriate ship for just such a venture, the mighty Caracal.

I'm a fan of the Caracal, after its systems updates and to be very honest I thought it would be perfect for the task, as I have in the past managed kills against Loki's using her.

Unfortunately I was wrong, the Loki pilot was competent, the plex rats were ruthless in switching to me and my little Caracal failed

Failing

All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming "Arrrrrrgh!" and axing their legs off at the knee.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!) 

Rens Fight Club has not taken off, one or two recruits who are active but not actually dueling as I expected, as such the idea and concept is a failure.

Am I surprised? No, not really, not everybody is like me, not everyone can make their own game play, unfortunately I can't commit the time to run a corp and actively recruit.
Am I disappointed? Most definitely.

I will however not give up on Midnight, or his exploits on the undock of Rens Brutor Tribe Bureau, Rens Fight Club will continue, but once again as a solo project. I will also allow those that wish to stay, stay, and maybe we shall gain one or two recruits, one never knows but there are no roles in Rens Fight Club and with future updates you can quit a corp immediately anyways.

A Bounty on my head

 "I mean are we talking Thicko City here or what?"
-- Gaspode the wonder dog
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)

This is my loss that provoked him to laugh.


Here is his shit fit Drake and Pod that provoked the bounty



Evemail formatting, first message at the bottom
--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:41
To: Kane Rizzel, 

People like you make me laugh so HARD. ^_^ Thanks for the laffs chump. :D

--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Kane Rizzel
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:38
To: Richard Kiml, 


You are really bad at this game, maybe use some of that isk and learn how to fit a Drake
--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:37
To: Kane Rizzel, 

Or maybe I just don't keep track of insignificant deaths. :P Don't feel flattered I put a bounty on you, I put bounties on a lot of people. :)

--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Kane Rizzel
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:33
To: Richard Kiml, 


Granted it was two weeks ago, you seemed really mad at the time, now trying to act clueless, or maybe you are just that clueless
Kill: Richard Kiml (Drake)  Kill: Richard Kiml (Capsule)

--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:32
To: Kane Rizzel, 

What?.. lol. I don't even know who you are, I haven't flown a drake for weeks


--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Kane Rizzel
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:29
To: Richard Kiml, 

Bounties are useless mate, killrights too, I'm -10, people can try kill me whenever, they don't need your sad killrights and bounty because you lost a shit fit drake and poor mans implants. Next time save your isk and fit your ships better and buy a clue.

Bounty placed on you
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2013.04.23 20:34

Richard Kiml placed 200,000,000 ISK in bounty on your head.

--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:27
To: Kane Rizzel, 

Lol. What?

--------------------------------
Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Kane Rizzel
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:26
To: Richard Kiml, 

200million of them

--------------------------------
Re: Re: Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:25
To: Kane Rizzel, 

Tears? I don't know which tears you're referring to I'm afraid. ^_^

--------------------------------
Re: Ha
From: Kane Rizzel
Sent: 2013.05.08 20:24
To: Richard Kiml, 

I have been known to do that, but it took a carrier to kill me, your tears however, fuel my space vessels

Have a nice day

Hugs and kisses

Kane

--------------------------------
Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.08 05:45
To: Kane Rizzel, 

Ha. You died.

Edit: I'm crying so hard right now...

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ha
From: Richard Kiml
Sent: 2013.05.09 07:08
To: Kane Rizzel, 

Lmao. On your shit blog that nobody reads?

Why you crying so hard bro? You even blogged about it? Why don't you go write it in your diary too?

Thank you mister Kiml for the best laugh I've had all year

BURNOUT

"Nac mac Feegle wha hae!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum)

Rens...

Brutor Tribe Treasury...

My home...

My name is Midnight Freeman and I live here.
Rens is one busy system, traders, gamblers, scammers, griefers, warriors and poets, all passing through on the way to or from their next big adventure. Some stay for a little while, others for longer, but one thing that never chages, is Rens itself.

I live here because it's a good place to get into a fight.

Tonight was such a night, I was mooching about, challenging various folk to duels and not having much luck. So I docked and went for dinner, some tofu noodles would make me feel better and when I returned I would challenge people in the face.

I undock one of my new Tristan class combat frigates, having moved on from some great success with the Atron class attack frigates. I have a similar fit as my Atron but with the added versatility of drones, something unaffected by the ubiquitous tracking disruptor that spelled the end for many an Atron.

There are a lot of corpses floating in space and I start to clear up some of the poor frozen meatsicles when a Rifter class combat frigate, something my mentor and hero, Kane Rizzel loves still to this day, somewhat out of favour with the duelists of late but things are always changing as the various weapons manufacturers update systems and weapons to make them more powerful.

This particular Rifter pilot is a member of the Midnight Freeman Billion ISK Pod Club, along with this fella. So I assumed he was after some revenge. Now a friend of mine has also podded him recently, costing him even more ISK, so not only may he be after revenge, but he be mad.

He closes on me, I try to gain range, lock him up and offer the duel... He locks me up, closes right up and accepts, I hit him with web, scram and rails, drop a flight of Hobgoblins and try to claw a little distance for my rails to hit better.

He hits me hard with a volley of autocannons, an energy nosferatu, web and scram. My shields are stripped in an instant and I start overloaded repairer cycles as my drones and little rail damage eviscerate his shields, his armour repair is much more significant, I suspect one of the new ancillary armour repairers, but I keep trying to claw range as we are both at the limit of our armour, I try to build some transverse, allowing my repairer to be more effective against the incoming damage, but I'm out of cap, my scrambler burns out and afterburner melts, I'm waiting for the end as I prepare to warp my escape pod out. The moment never comes, the Rifter explodes... Instinct takes over and I lock the pod, no scrambler dammit, he's going to warp out, but instinct again takes over as I punch my rails into action and my drones follow... a dull thud as a corpse hits my Tristan's hull, nearly doing it in as it's venting atmosphere and fuel all over the undock lane of Rens' premier station.

I survey the damage, not quite believing my little Tristan survived that. He was quicker, more damage, better reps, more experience and a lot more skill points, but the best thing about this fight...

Even though I was on fire, had no tackle or propulsion, when I opened my combat log I was greeted with this, another addition to the Midnight Freeman Billion ISK Pod Club

  

And all this with 3.5mil SP and some cheap learnin implants I got with the tutorials.

IN OTHER NEWS

Kane violences shinies

Midnight Bounty

Lancre operated on the feudal system, which was to say, everyone feuded all the time and handed on the fight to their descendants.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum)

Rens Fight Club carries on regardless, recruitment hasn't moved as I would have liked, in fact it's not moving at all, but it's still a very fun idea, one which Midnight is revelling in.

A few nights ago he challenged an Enyo to a Duel, the Enyo eventually accepted and the fight was on, but a very curious thing happened shortly after hostilities commenced, the Enyo pilot, for some reason or another got fried by sentries. Oh well, he got the killmail, but not the fight he was after.

So Midnight wakes up today to this:

Bounty placed on you
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2013.04.26 06:26

Iron Gilbert placed 300,000,000 ISK in bounty on your head.

Well shiver me timbers, what's this? A lot of ISK on his head,  for an Enyo, that he only shot for a few seconds?

Seems some folk have too much ISK to burn, so I sent the fella a reply:

Bounty
From: Midnight Freeman
Sent: 2013.04.26 21:17
To: Iron Gilbert,

Should have spent that isk on some mids

Please give our recruitment thread a bump, send any 2013s looking for some fun in our direction, but whatever you do, DON'T TALK ABOUT RENS FIGHT CLUB

Then and Now

Most gods find it hard to walk and think at the same time.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Seven years ago, the Rifter was the King of Frigates, none could compare with its ferocity, its looks and its style, I made it my priority to be the best Rifter pilot in the universe and I went off on my adventure as a Pod Pilot

What a difference seven years makes, the Rifter still looks fucking bad ass, unfortunately it is now simply outclassed by pretty much everything else, but it will still be my first and only love.

Seven years has been such an experience, hihs and lows, friends and enemies, I thank each and every one of you for some of the most fun gaming I have ever had.

A little traditional gate Piracy to celebrate, a Drake and Pod
       
---------------------------------------------------------------

  Channel ID:      -43952426
  Channel Name:    Private Chat (Richard Kiml)
  Listener:        Kane Rizzel
  Session started: 2013.04.23 20:32:33
---------------------------------------------------------------

[ 2013.04.23 20:32:35 ] Kane Rizzel > sup
[ 2013.04.23 20:32:42 ] Richard Kiml > why...
[ 2013.04.23 20:33:03 ] Kane Rizzel > it's a pirate thing

Bounty placed on you
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2013.04.23 20:34

Richard Kiml placed 200,000,000 ISK in bounty on your head.

Rens Fight Club is still recruiting, join today for some good clean frigate action.

 

BLUDZ still recruiting

- "Have you any last words?"
- YES. I DON'T WANT TO GO.
- "Well. Succinct, anyway."
-- Death at the other end of the scythe, for once
(Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man)

Rens Fight Club is not moving as fast as I'd hoped but it's still going and will do even if it's just Midnight doing it, we have a few recruits, all 2013s and all chomping at the bit to kick ass and chew bubblegum, so why not join is and while you're at it, please bump our recruitment thread from time to time.

 

Podding is allowed and whilst I initially had to get over my Piratical nature of ransoming pods, I now pop em as soon as, before they get a chance to dock. The above is Midnight's second billion ISK pod, at 3 million SP it's a lot of fun, the challenges of fitting ships with low skills is amazing and tactics become a million times more interesting, as with Kane I could pretty much predict the outcome of most frigate brawls before the first shots were fired.

The dueling system is great, could use some tweaks to make it easier to initiate duels, but I like the system.

Midnight's Battleclinic killboard is growing, plenty of losses but a lot of good and close fights in those losses.

Last night saw Kane flying a Basilisk in a nullsec operation with Calamitous Intent and friends, an operation to rep a tower and get a fight turned into a brawl with four Pandemic Legion Super Capitals, two Aeons and two Nyx.

7-2 lost a repping carrier in the time it took us to warp from the gate to the cyno but we mostly then killed fighters and fighter bombers whilst battling with a glitched broadcast system. We didn't have any interdictors or heavy interdictors with us but we managed to bubble the supers with mobile bubbles, moving them and getting them online just as the Supers managed to get out of one. 

We lost a few Maelstroms due to said bugged broadcasts but held the Supers down for a good long time, before PL cynoed in a carrier group to break out their Supers, we retreated at this point as the Alpha from a whole bunch of carrier's worth of sentry drones would be too much. We didn't have a batphone but some friends of 7-2 did bring an interdictor and bubbles were flying everywhere, annoying the PL carrier group even further.

At long last, with us inside the POS shields, the PL supers jumped out, but the carriers were having a tougher time as the interdictor kept dropping well timed bubbles, causing frustration. They targeted the tower and started shooting it, but as time went on they focussed on the Sabre interdictor, eventually killing it and saving face by jumping out. 

We sure did get a fight, just not the one we expected but all in all we had fun, sure we lost a carrier and a bunch of other things, but we did inflict some financial damage in the form of lost fighters and fighter bombers.

With PL gone, we repped the tower with our Basilisks and a single Niddhogur that jumped in.

Tower saved, a good fight, objective accomplished, we head home

Keeping solo alive

History, contrary to popular theories, *is* kings and dates and battles.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

A rare lazy Friday night and I get buzzed in a shared Intel channel, I ask what's up and then nothing, OK, I carry on watching over Midnight's training and dueling activites.

Eventually it appears there's a rather large combat operation in the works by the residents of Molden Heath and I have received an invite. I eventually get all the details and Clone jump to Bosena. My ship for the op was all the way in Unertek so I would need to go fetch it and move it to the staging system.

The trip to Unertek went by uneventual, nobody interested in my rookie ship, but moving to the staging system would prove more interesting, in a massive Abaddon, with the agility of a brick in the Great Wall of China. I solo'd it, like a boss and waited for the op to kick off. We were quite a large gang, composed of Heavy Amarr and Minmatar battleships, some T3 support and triage carriers.

The POS came out of reinforced as we moved into nullsec and we took a round about way as not to plough directly into a waiting force, hostile numbers were growing, tier 3 battlecruisers, setup for range and Scimitar support. We enter system and warp to our covert eyes, but for some reason we land off grid, 150 odd km from the POS, a few adjustments later and we enter grid with the hostiles at 130km, outside our Abaddon's engagement envelope, but their Naga's were easily able to apply damage, our FC decides to jump one triage carrier in as we start to hit the POS instead of chasing the Naga's and getting out of range of our Archon. Inside the POS is a Broadsword and a stealth bomber, apparently POS gunning but we moved closer to the POS and applied high damage lasers being fueled by cap transfers from our triage carrier.

The Naga's would dip in and out of our range, trying to apply higher DPS to our setup, we would chase one or two and drop their shields but their Scimitar's easily dealt with that and they moved out of range again.

A strange thing happened when one of our fleet members mentioned he was inside the POS... a wtf moment but it turns out he guessed the POS password...

It was...
1...
2...
3...
4...

Cue Spaceballs quotes in local and in fleet

At this point local bumped and a fleet of Oracles with frigate support warped onto grid, well out of our and their range. The POS explodes and the action hots up, with superior numbers against us, our FC jumps two more Archons in and the fight starts in earnest as some of the hostiles start moving closer, we chug some Frentix, load Scorch and start hitting hard. One or two failed bomb runs on one of their bombers part doesn't do much, but as we now have three carriers on the field, the odds of escalation start to rise and one of our carriers is out if Stront, so the decision to extract is made.
Carriers, once out of triage, jump out to refuel.

OPI4-E engagement
We took some losses in OP but they were not in 7-2 so not posted on their board

The Hostiles follow and both groups land on the B-VIP9 gate with us and they jump through, we follow and hold cloak, the order to decloak is given and targets are called, I decloak before the rest of our gang so get primaried, our cyno isn't in place yet for our refueled triage carriers to jump in yet. So I burn back to the gate and jump deep in armour.

On the other side only one other hostile is there, a Blackbird ECM cruiser, who isn't long for this Verse as I light him up and bring solo back. While waiting out my timer and feeling rather smug, our triage jumps into B-VIP9 but we've already taken losses but my re-entry into the system turns the tide and we obliterate what is left, scattering the remnants of the hostile fleet to the four solar winds

B-VIP9 engagement

A great nights entertainment and rather fun to fly with others, Sard seemed to enjoy himself and so did I, solo isn't dead, but sometimes even us old Soloists can fleet up with others and kick ass.

Rens Fight Club got it's first big money kill last night, the fights have been great, the losses a learning curve, it's not so easy when you have under 3million SP but this guy must be fucking furious.

There are only three of us at present and recruitment hasn't gone as well as I expected but BLUDZ are here to stay and it's so much fucking fun. Please spread the word and bump our Recruitment thread from time to time