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

Midnight the Coward

Duel: A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules
Written by Midnight Freeman with chat logs taken from Rens Local and Private conversations

An Enyo challenges my mighty battle Atron to a duel outside the Brutor Tribe Treasury, an older player with a ship that outclasses and outguns my frigate.
I decide to go for it and soon we are locked in battle, I quickly move to 7km away and my rails start punching into his shields but strangely he doesn't attack, he docks up.

Seconds later he is back out and I lock, tackle and start shooting again, his shields stripped and my rails start chewing away at his armour when he docks yet again.

A third opportunity to duel presents itself seconds later as he undocks yet again, but instead he warps to a safe spot and then to a different station in Rens.

Midnight Freeman > gf I suppose
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > just repairing
Midnight Freeman > so dock and run, dock and run is how you duel?

A few moments later, after I had repaired the damage to my guns and tackle I get a private convo request from the Enyo pilot

Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > o/
Midnight Freeman > sup
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > still wanna duel that atron?
Midnight Freeman > nah, I'm good
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > pussy

Say what?

Midnight Freeman > Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > pussy << says the man who ran away from the atron in his Enyo

So I undock again, to see if there's anything else that actually wants to fight, and the Enyo pilot is back out there in an Ishkur this time

Pyotr Kropotkin > did you beat him?
Airro Fairlight > Midnight Freeman You have an interesting face.
Midnight Freeman > Pyotr, he docked twice and then ran
Randy Orien-Beryle > He didn't. the Enyo fled the field to "repair"
Midnight Freeman > then comes back in an ishkur
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > u wanna keep range so il leven it out :)
Pyotr Kropotkin > oh dear

The Enyo, now Ishkur pilot starts duel request spamming me, I keep declining...

Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > lol now wont duel me
Midnight Freeman > and now he's dead set on winning back his honour
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > u wont duel me
Midnight Freeman > I don't fight cowards
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > ur the one being a coward now (Really?)
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > u only fight if u can keep range like a bitch (It was 7km)
Scaredwolf1 SemperFi > now i have something to even the range out and u wont fight
Midnight Freeman > why don't you come back in a cruiser or something
Cyro Manderville > good tactics = being a bitch
Cyro Manderville > welcome to eve

I would fight Pyotr's Slasher again and lose again a few minutes later... Damn Slashers :p