Any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright
enough to realise that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay
with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to
beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.
-- Why summoning demons is a Bad Idea
(Terry Pratchett, Eric)
I've been super busy of late but wanted to recount a little bit of piracy from a few weeks ago, I was busy sorting out loot to be moved to highsec when an associate reported a Tempest running a Cosmic Anomoly in Eifer. I've much enjoyed my time flying the Proteus, an ugly but vicious little cruiser.
One would under normal circumstances not take on a battleship in a cruiser, but these weren't normal circumstances, and this wasn't a normal cruiser, it was strategic, of the tech 3 variety, packed a brutal punch and could take a bit of punishment to boot.
So with that I set off to Eifer, my associate had already found the site and was waiting for me, I entered system and initiated warp to her position, overloaded disruptor and scrambler primed. It was a gated site so as I landed my cloak collapsed, I activated the gate and was catapulted into the site, I had just managed to reactivate my cloak as I landed, a full 78km off the Tempest, easily dispatching the local rats. I started to close, one of the bonuses of this particular Proteus is extended range for warp disruptors and scramblers, overheated my disruptor had over 50km reach and this was the number I eagerly counted down to, once within range I dropped cloak, acquired the target and proceeded to corkscrew my way in to a tight orbit.
The Tempest immediately engaged back, aligning out the the highsec gate of Emolgranlan, but once I was in orbit I activated the scrambler with a further three points of warp scrambling power, and the bonus a shutting down any microwarp drive or microjump drive the Tempest may have had.
The Tempest however was fitted with an afterburner and was desperately trying to claw range from me, every so often getting just out of range of my blasters. His shield was strong, easily boosting away the damage of my faction Ant Matter rounds smashing into it, I made the decision to change to void ammunition, a much higher damage choice, but limited range and tracking, meaning I would have to orbit tighter.
His damage was appreciable, and he made the choice of taking out my drones with his own to mitigate some of the incoming DPS, I consumed two boosters, one to improv my tracking and the other to boost my armour repairer which was by now keeping up with the incoming damage, as long as I kept up my transverse speed I could easily rep.
This was taking too long, I was overloading in bursts, careful not to burn my blasters out, but trying desperately to deal as much damage as possible to break through, slowly but surely his shields were breaking, I considered calling for help but the damage was taking its toll, big chunks of shield disappearing with less and less boosted.
After what seemed like an eternity, and almost 200km, the running battle neared its conclusion as his sheilds finally gave in, huge chunks of armour stripped away under sustained blaster fire, the reward for my persistence, an almighty explosion as the Minmatar battleship ceased to be, raining bits of metal and rust on the Librarian, the Proteus earning its spot as one of my favourite hunting ships since my return to the Black.
The loot wasn't much to write home about, the Abyssal shield booster didn't survive, I imagine it was so fragile after the onslaught it had endured, that there was no chance it would survive.
An enormously enjoyable bit of violence, it had me shaking after, adrenaline coursing through my veins, I grabbed the loot and headed back to Gusandall.
What are your thoughts on Abyssal modules? I've not much experience myself and was wondering if others had
Monday, 16 December 2019
Wednesday, 9 October 2019
A close shave.
...He hated the very idea of the world being divided into the shaved and
the shavers. Or those who wore the shiny boots and those who cleaned
the mud off them. Every time he saw Willikins the butler fold his,
Vimes's, clothes, he suppressed a terrible urge to kick the butler's
shiny backside as an affront to the dignity of man.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)
The hunt today proved rather fruitful, and almost ended in disaster.
This morning Keira and I had set up the days activities by scanning out the local cosmic signatures and patiently waited. Patience, as always, is a Pirates most valuable skill, and sometimes it pays off in a significant fashion. This morning was one such occasion as Keira spotted probes deployed in Gusandall, a Stratios cruiser had entered system, not your average data runner but Keira focussed her directional scanner in the direction of two data sites, and so the Stratios appeared at one. Keira immediately initiated warp and found herself 20 clicks off the Stratios as her warp ended.
While all this was happening I had moved to the Gusandall gate in Eifer and was waiting, I somehow suspected the Stratios was only passing through and was hoping it would come through Eifer, it would have been a long shot to catch a cloaky Stratios but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
But with Keira now only a few clicks away from the target I activated the stargate and was launched into Gus. I didn't even bother cloaking as I initiated warp, I would need every bit of targeting speed to catch the Stratios before it could warp away or cloak. I had overloaded both the warp scrambler, the warp disruptor and the microwarp drive to get into range and lock down the Strat, I landed just out of scram range but well within disruptor range, targetted and tackled, I flicked the MWD into overdrive and closed the distance, scramming the Strat for good measure, not only making sure he couldn't run away in case he was warp core stabilised, but also shutting down any MWD he may have had.
Within blaster range I opened fire, launched some hobgoblins and started my own repair systems. The Strat didn't return fire but I could see my little hobgoblins exploding as it seemed he felt killing them was a higher priority than the now 850 DPS of Federation Anti Matter now blasting huge holes in his armour. In truth, the fight was rather insignificant, the Stratios exploded and he managed to warp his escape pod out before I resolved target lock on it, and I was left to peruse the wreck.
Needless to say it was a very nice haul, estimated to be around 400million ISK, a good mornings worth of Pirating.
This afternoon though almost ended in tears, a Machariel was running a mission in Eifer, a tasty target to say the least, I quickly dropped combat probes and soon had the target in my sights as I had warped to the acceleration gate and warped in, he was quite a distance off which would make this difficult to say the least, it would be a tough task to get under his guns, which appeared to be 800mm autocannons. I was feeling brave, and cocky so started to close, one volley of those autocannons damn near wiped out my shields, and just as I was about to get into overheated warp disruptor range, the Machariel warped out.
The mission however didn't go away, I imagine he returned to Emolgranlan to consider his options or to wait till I left system. But only half an hour later he returned to Gusandall and was soon on my scanner, I was cloaked off the mission gate, waiting and as he entered grid I uncloaked. He was smart and didn;t warp right on top of the gate, he was 30km away and the distance almost proved my undoing. He was however in disruptor range so I tackled and started to close the distance, trying to keep as much transverse velocity as possible, making it harder for his massive guns to track my itty bitty cruiser, but that didn't matter as my shields were stripped in a single volley, my armour repairer was already active and only just keeping up as those 800s tore my armour apart, soon chewing massive holes in the structure of the Librarian.
I decided it was time to get out, I would have been at a loss for the day were I to explode and the added loss of skills were too dear, so I initiated warp to Gusandall gate, time slowed, to a near standstill as it felt like an age to align, luckily the Machariel didn't have me warp disrupted or my day was about to go pear shaped.
But not today, today was a lucky one for Kane, and I headed back to Gus to face the expensive repair bill.
Good fight Machariel, until next time.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)
The hunt today proved rather fruitful, and almost ended in disaster.
This morning Keira and I had set up the days activities by scanning out the local cosmic signatures and patiently waited. Patience, as always, is a Pirates most valuable skill, and sometimes it pays off in a significant fashion. This morning was one such occasion as Keira spotted probes deployed in Gusandall, a Stratios cruiser had entered system, not your average data runner but Keira focussed her directional scanner in the direction of two data sites, and so the Stratios appeared at one. Keira immediately initiated warp and found herself 20 clicks off the Stratios as her warp ended.
While all this was happening I had moved to the Gusandall gate in Eifer and was waiting, I somehow suspected the Stratios was only passing through and was hoping it would come through Eifer, it would have been a long shot to catch a cloaky Stratios but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
But with Keira now only a few clicks away from the target I activated the stargate and was launched into Gus. I didn't even bother cloaking as I initiated warp, I would need every bit of targeting speed to catch the Stratios before it could warp away or cloak. I had overloaded both the warp scrambler, the warp disruptor and the microwarp drive to get into range and lock down the Strat, I landed just out of scram range but well within disruptor range, targetted and tackled, I flicked the MWD into overdrive and closed the distance, scramming the Strat for good measure, not only making sure he couldn't run away in case he was warp core stabilised, but also shutting down any MWD he may have had.
Within blaster range I opened fire, launched some hobgoblins and started my own repair systems. The Strat didn't return fire but I could see my little hobgoblins exploding as it seemed he felt killing them was a higher priority than the now 850 DPS of Federation Anti Matter now blasting huge holes in his armour. In truth, the fight was rather insignificant, the Stratios exploded and he managed to warp his escape pod out before I resolved target lock on it, and I was left to peruse the wreck.
Needless to say it was a very nice haul, estimated to be around 400million ISK, a good mornings worth of Pirating.
This afternoon though almost ended in tears, a Machariel was running a mission in Eifer, a tasty target to say the least, I quickly dropped combat probes and soon had the target in my sights as I had warped to the acceleration gate and warped in, he was quite a distance off which would make this difficult to say the least, it would be a tough task to get under his guns, which appeared to be 800mm autocannons. I was feeling brave, and cocky so started to close, one volley of those autocannons damn near wiped out my shields, and just as I was about to get into overheated warp disruptor range, the Machariel warped out.
The mission however didn't go away, I imagine he returned to Emolgranlan to consider his options or to wait till I left system. But only half an hour later he returned to Gusandall and was soon on my scanner, I was cloaked off the mission gate, waiting and as he entered grid I uncloaked. He was smart and didn;t warp right on top of the gate, he was 30km away and the distance almost proved my undoing. He was however in disruptor range so I tackled and started to close the distance, trying to keep as much transverse velocity as possible, making it harder for his massive guns to track my itty bitty cruiser, but that didn't matter as my shields were stripped in a single volley, my armour repairer was already active and only just keeping up as those 800s tore my armour apart, soon chewing massive holes in the structure of the Librarian.
I decided it was time to get out, I would have been at a loss for the day were I to explode and the added loss of skills were too dear, so I initiated warp to Gusandall gate, time slowed, to a near standstill as it felt like an age to align, luckily the Machariel didn't have me warp disrupted or my day was about to go pear shaped.
But not today, today was a lucky one for Kane, and I headed back to Gus to face the expensive repair bill.
Good fight Machariel, until next time.
Friday, 4 October 2019
A return to the Hunt
It was hard enough to kill a vampire. You could stake them down and turn
them into dust and ten years later someone drops a drop of blood in the
wrong place and *guess who's back*? They returned more times than raw
broccoli.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)
It's been a while, the hangar bears witness to years spent dormant, the lights have been off for a long time, and as such take a moment to warm up when I flip the switch. Slowly the light rises and all sorts of machinations of violence start to take shape, familiar shapes, shapes which at once inspire awe and fear.
In the corner, on my desk, on a small screen, the local comms channel sits barren, Gusandall, the once vibrant Pirate hub, now an empty expanse.
The pull of the black, the vast nothingness is strong, instinctively I board a Strategic Cruiser, a hunter killer, resilient and sneaky. I initialise her start up and she slowly comes to life, I check all her systems, make sure the appropriate munitions and sundries are in the hold and initiate undocking procedures.
As I emerge into Gusandall's inky blackness, I'm struck by an immediate sense of familiarity, and emptiness. I head to Eifer, once the most fertile hunting grounds in the universe... Empty.
Ingunn... Empty
Sotrenzur... Empty
Hrondedir... Empty
Auren... Empty
Not feeling up to venturing too far from home, I start to scan out the various anomolies in the area, and then I start to see one or two familiar faces passing through, some of the old Irregular Warfare boys still call the area home. In the process of probing, I find myself in Sotrenzur, with one of them, and a unknown pilot in a Dominix. Slick Duoros is in a unfamiliar ship to me, an Enforcer, a rather sexy ship, and I soon spot combat probes on scanner, not wanting to spook the Domi I refrain from dropping a set of my own.
Slick reaches out to me and asks if it's me in the Domi, I reply to the negative and soon I'm invited to a fleet with the promise I won't be shot, an opportunity to knock some of the rust off and to shoot something substantial was one I wasn't about to pass on. Moments later Slick says he has point and is bringing in some black ops DPS, I initiate warp and drop cloak, landing right on top of the Dominix I open fire, two black ops battleships appear only a few hundred metres away and soon the Domi explodes. Moments later all my drones explode as one of the black ops cycles a smart bomb to deal with the Dominix' escape pod, but the loss of the drones didn't bother me, it felt so good to be causing spontaneous explosions again. The owner of the smart bomb was a pleasant surprise, an old friend from those halcyon days of static plexes and Mean Corp clashing with Anti Pirate alliances in the glory days of the Gusandall pocket.
A lot has changed, but seeing familiar faces has eased this homecoming somewhat, still need to find my place again, and I'm hoping I can still make lots of ISK as a solo pirate, but look forward to forging friendships, new and old to where I can still help with bigger targets.
This mornings hunt did turn up a small payday, only a frigate but it dropped a fair amount, even resulted in a little hate being thrown my way:
[ 2019.10.04 10:58:46 ] Lexana > пЕДРИЛО СУКА СДОХНЕШЬ БЛЯ И НЕ ЖАЛКО ДЕНЕГ ЗА ТЕБЯ МУДАК ЕБАНЫЙ
[ 2019.10.04 10:58:46 ] Lexana > fUCK YOU
[ 2019.10.04 10:58:55 ] Kane Rizzel > you're welcome
A nice little 60 mil to start business up again. It's also good to be back writing again, I'm somewhat rusty and it will take me a bit to get back into the swing of things but as with Piracy and PvP practice makes perfect. I'm hoping to see some old faces about and if you're still out there drop me a mail in game, if you know of any fertile hunting grounds and are willing to share, please do so, my little corner of the universe seems very sparse so looking for new opportunities to ply my particular brand of violence.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)
It's been a while, the hangar bears witness to years spent dormant, the lights have been off for a long time, and as such take a moment to warm up when I flip the switch. Slowly the light rises and all sorts of machinations of violence start to take shape, familiar shapes, shapes which at once inspire awe and fear.
In the corner, on my desk, on a small screen, the local comms channel sits barren, Gusandall, the once vibrant Pirate hub, now an empty expanse.
The pull of the black, the vast nothingness is strong, instinctively I board a Strategic Cruiser, a hunter killer, resilient and sneaky. I initialise her start up and she slowly comes to life, I check all her systems, make sure the appropriate munitions and sundries are in the hold and initiate undocking procedures.
As I emerge into Gusandall's inky blackness, I'm struck by an immediate sense of familiarity, and emptiness. I head to Eifer, once the most fertile hunting grounds in the universe... Empty.
Ingunn... Empty
Sotrenzur... Empty
Hrondedir... Empty
Auren... Empty
Not feeling up to venturing too far from home, I start to scan out the various anomolies in the area, and then I start to see one or two familiar faces passing through, some of the old Irregular Warfare boys still call the area home. In the process of probing, I find myself in Sotrenzur, with one of them, and a unknown pilot in a Dominix. Slick Duoros is in a unfamiliar ship to me, an Enforcer, a rather sexy ship, and I soon spot combat probes on scanner, not wanting to spook the Domi I refrain from dropping a set of my own.
Slick reaches out to me and asks if it's me in the Domi, I reply to the negative and soon I'm invited to a fleet with the promise I won't be shot, an opportunity to knock some of the rust off and to shoot something substantial was one I wasn't about to pass on. Moments later Slick says he has point and is bringing in some black ops DPS, I initiate warp and drop cloak, landing right on top of the Dominix I open fire, two black ops battleships appear only a few hundred metres away and soon the Domi explodes. Moments later all my drones explode as one of the black ops cycles a smart bomb to deal with the Dominix' escape pod, but the loss of the drones didn't bother me, it felt so good to be causing spontaneous explosions again. The owner of the smart bomb was a pleasant surprise, an old friend from those halcyon days of static plexes and Mean Corp clashing with Anti Pirate alliances in the glory days of the Gusandall pocket.
A lot has changed, but seeing familiar faces has eased this homecoming somewhat, still need to find my place again, and I'm hoping I can still make lots of ISK as a solo pirate, but look forward to forging friendships, new and old to where I can still help with bigger targets.
This mornings hunt did turn up a small payday, only a frigate but it dropped a fair amount, even resulted in a little hate being thrown my way:
[ 2019.10.04 10:58:46 ] Lexana > пЕДРИЛО СУКА СДОХНЕШЬ БЛЯ И НЕ ЖАЛКО ДЕНЕГ ЗА ТЕБЯ МУДАК ЕБАНЫЙ
[ 2019.10.04 10:58:46 ] Lexana > fUCK YOU
[ 2019.10.04 10:58:55 ] Kane Rizzel > you're welcome
A nice little 60 mil to start business up again. It's also good to be back writing again, I'm somewhat rusty and it will take me a bit to get back into the swing of things but as with Piracy and PvP practice makes perfect. I'm hoping to see some old faces about and if you're still out there drop me a mail in game, if you know of any fertile hunting grounds and are willing to share, please do so, my little corner of the universe seems very sparse so looking for new opportunities to ply my particular brand of violence.
Sunday, 8 September 2019
Rumour
Rumour is information distilled so finely that it can filter through
anything. It does not need doors and windows -- sometimes it does not
need people. It can exist free and wild, running from ear to ear without
ever touching lips.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)
There's a rumour I may be back soon...
-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)
There's a rumour I may be back soon...
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