The Threeway

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)

Harrassing an ISK farmer by making it difficult for him to run the 2/10 plex is a favourite past time of mine, his frustration, my jollies. He doesn't like, me, he doesn't like Keira and her uber links, in fact, I don't think he likes the EVE universe much as he chooses a poor way to venture through it, all cloaks, very little dagger, means I care little for his opinion, or his anonymous comments on my blog.

Anyways, whilst waiting for him to come back and try his hand at running the plex, my associate in Eifer reports a Myrmidon ratting. I recognize the name, the corp and the alliance, not ones to fly alone so I ask about to see if anyone has spotted his corp or alliance mates. Eventually it seems like this fellow is ratting solo, in Eifer... I know right?

I undock the Fifth Elephant™ once again, I'm liking this again, a white knuckle ride of a ship. I enter warp to the Eifer gate just after spotting an Electus Matari pilot warp the same direction in a Hurricane, he jumps through to Eifer, followed by me. The Myrmidon is in the belt closest to the Gusandall gate and as I enter system I see the Hurricane warp to said belt.

I warp at range and land as the Myrmidon goes red, engaging the Electus Matari pilot. Deciding it's a nice day, I light the Myrmidon up, he goes down faster than a choir boy at an Amarr church service. Then it's just me and Karum... He engages me...

Say what? Here I am, being a pillar of society, helping this man out of the goodness of my heart and he shoots at me.

Well, I can't stand for this, stand idly by whilst my good intentions are spat upon, so I lock him up and start shooting.

The shooting is going good, I'm easily able to tank his damage whilst obliterating his shields and armour, things are going well until...












BLACKBIRD! piloted by Ekkeko, for those keeping track












Karum's friend warps in at 100 clicks, lights me up and negates any use of my targeting systems what so ever.

I pop a blue pill, a strong one as I'm going to need it.
First jam cycle is a given, a cap booster charge is consumed, my shield booster repping massive chunks of shield, but it is hungry.

Second jam cycle, another cap 800, I'm smashing the targeting console, hoping, for even the slightest chance. Karums Hurricane is humping The Fifth Elephant™ like a rabid poodle, his warp scrambler and web meaning I'm dead in space, unless I get lucky.

Third jam cycle, this is getting tiresome, there's no chance I can fight back, my drones start taking damage as Karum's Hurricane is in hull and his only chance is to kill off my autonomous damage.

Fourth Jam cycle, another cap 800, more shield reps, more damage being applied by Karum, strangely no energy neutraliser, I'm being hit by... what the fuck are those... Rockets?

Fifth Jam cycle, cap booster 800, shield rep, smashing target button

Sixth jam, cap booster, recall drones, down to three of my brave friends.

Seventh, booster, repping like a Boss, deploy drones.

Eight...

Nine...

Ten...

TARGETING!!!

The Blackbird misses a cycle, lock resolves, Karum has two thirds structure left, guns overloaded, drones aggressed... GOGOGOGOGO!!!

It's a race, despite it's name being associated with a lumbering animal, this was one The Fifth Elephant was destined to win, Karum's hull not able to withstand the ferocious onslaught of sheer ECM hating destruction unleashed upon it.

A very good fight, sentiments shared in local chat.
For all the haters out there, Keira wasn't in system during this fight :P

Took some shots of the Rizzel's in formation, rather shiny if you ask me :)





Edit: It also helps to read this story whilst listening to this song as it was playing during the fight :)

Rep it up, before you slap it up

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

A day of mixed feelings, I lost Flubber, again, and Keira lost Feet of Clay, her Claymore command ship, to two well flown Tengus. Working on Replacing Flubber and Keira has already replaced her loss.

But that's not why we are here, life goes on, ships explode and I'm in the business of making others explode before I do. Yet another Tengu was trying to run a complex, this time in Eifer and before you knew it, an associate had the co-ordinates.

Grabbing the most capable ship as soon as I could, I undocked in Sgt Detritus, a Harbinger class battle cruiser, a fearsome machine of death and destruction, I initiate warp and check all systems.

ARMOUR CRITICAL 24%

Along with the armour damage I notice most of the weapons and electronics systems have heat damage.

"Nice one Kane, you're going into battle with half a ship

Kane Rizzel > oh christ, going after a tengu with a quarter armour



I enter Eifer as systems were primed to jump as I landed on the stargate in Gusandall (I know you can abort the jump but time was off the essence here)

Well, half a ship was better than no ship, so I warp to my associate as fast as Sgt Detritus could align. All the while my associate is checking that the mark was still inside the plex with her directional scanner.

I land on the acceleration gate and initiate warp, moments later exiting inside the complex.

As luck would have it and I was going to need a lot more in the next few moments, the Tengu was only 8km away as I landed on grid, fortuitous indeed as the merest warm breath might have melted my tackle. Systems primed, locked, cocked and open fire.

It takes the Tengu pilot a moment to figure out what is happening but when he does he opens fire, we trade blows, his shields dipping slowly but surely but my meager armour already evaporating under salvo after salvo of heavy missiles.

Do I dare overheat the pulse lasers? Take a chance? I've been lucky so far in this fight, but luck might turn and with no guns I'd either be dead or helpless to kill him forcing me to warp away with my tail between my legs.

I am Kane Rizzel!

I overheat like a motherfucker, shouting at my drones to spur them on, every last ounce of damage is needed as Sgt Detritus starts to vent fuel and atmosphere into space, the combination of the two bursting into flames before being extinguished by the vacuum, but I'm hurting, his shields disintegrate and the Tengu is not much longer for this 'verse. He explodes, a mighty explosion, a satisfying explosion.

I warp off, the loot safely retrieved and a satisfying if slightly nerve racking kill.

In other news, I've started flying a new class of battleship, will take a little getting used to as range is an issue and I've not truly tested her but she has some kills scratched on her hull already.

Edit: Just had an amazing fight with the Megathron, so I'm here to regale you with awesomeness.

There are some new neighbours taken up residence in Hrondedir and I've tussled with them a few times, stirring the hornets nest so to speak, mainly picking them off in complexes and anomalies. Seems my efforts to get a reaction out of them has succeeded.

A lone Typhoon in an anomaly, screams bait as I had watched them gather a sizeable force earlier to camp the Eifer gate, to no avail.

So... Bait!

I wanted to test the Mega and see if I liked it, an associate had already located it, set up the warpin and told me it was aligned to the station, I undock and warp to her.

I come out of warp 5 clicks in front of the Phoon and engage, drop sentry drones and open fire.

Phoon engages back, tackles me and trap is sprung, local spikes and I see Arazu, Hound, Hurricane and Falcon now in the mix. The all hit grid and a swarm of ec-300 drones engulf my Mega. I pulse the smartbomb and the pressure eases but the Falcon is well and truly messing with my targeting electronics.

I pop an exile booster and continue to tank like a Boss, not being able to shoot anything but doing damage none the less as my drones are still engaging the Phoon and my smartbomb explodes another wave of ec-300s.

One of the locals asks me if anything is going down? I calmly reply "Me"
The locals that are awake x up, a Legion, Loki and Falcon join me in mighty battle, but as they hit grid, the hostiles warp out, leaving my Megathron on fire, deep into structure, no cap boosters left but still in one piece.

The Typhoon explodes from my sentry drone onslaught and I was curious as to why he never warped out, only to see the answer in the killmail.

A cyno? I was Black Ops dropped, managed to tank them all enough for friends to bail me out and still managed a kill, FUCKING RESULT. I initially thought I had been login trapped.

An associate would later probe the Hound out, which was destroyed, the pod probed and popped for good measure



Thanks to RealZonk, Xylorn and Xintri for saving my ass :D
The logs have been parsed and this is the story of the fight:
Total Damage done to your targets: 69,300.2
Total Damage done to you: 77,776.4

•To view the images in all their glory, right click and open link in new tab

[OOC] I will also be around a lot less as I'm back to work tomorrow after a months R&R

Alone in the dark

Mal: "Which one do you figured tracked us?"

Zoe: "The ugly one, sir."

Mal: (beat) "Could you be more specific?"

It cuts through the night sky, elegant in its invisibility, sophisticated scanning and probing systems it's key weapon and in this respect it is deadly, the scanner sweeping the system. A target is narrowed down to a 15 degree arc, probe is launched and the aching wait starts, the seconds tick by, the probe finishes it's first cycle and finds nothing... damn it... second sweep is under way, 21 nerve shattering seconds, cycle ends and again the target is not amongst the results, just the usual space junk of haulers & shuttles. Third cycle starts, nerves are on edge... it's as if everybody is holding their breathe. Cycle ends and the results show a drone, a single drone in the entire system, the scanner is narrowed down and tuned to show drones, the target has drones deployed and the probe result is amongst them. The invisible ship initiates warp to the position of the probe hit. A Sleipnir undocks from the station and waits for the invisible ship to report back that she's in position. Deep in the system at a safespot outside of scan range a Claymore Command ship uncloaks and activates its Skirmish Warfare links. The word is given and the Sleipnir slips into warp, the seconds ticking by like a glacier on an age old journey to the sea. It feels as if time is standing still as the Sleipnir bursts out of warp and sees an acceleration gate, which is activated as soon as the Command ships systems return to normal space.
Tackling modules are primed and set to overload in case the target is not where it's expected to be and the extra range is needed. The gate launches the Sleipnir into a deadspace complex where MWDs are useless but the pilot is smart enough to fit an Afterburner, he's done this before.
A flash of light greets the Raven calmly killing Amarr faction ships inside the plex, the Sleipnir a mere 17km from it and closing rapidly a warp disruptor reaches out and touches the Raven, it's own drones streaming out towards the Sleipnir. The night sky is lit up as Autocannons and Cruise missile launchers bridge the gap between the two ships, the EMP rounds of the Sleipnir tearing massive holes in the strong shield systems of the Raven and soon its armour is being ripped to shreds. In an instant a bright flash eclipses everything in the system, the Raven explodes in a violent spasm and the system falls silent as the escape pod warps out. The Sleipnir pilot is grinning and acknowledges his two accomplices as he warps back to the station

Deep in the system the Claymore cloaks.

The Cheetah covert operations frigate is a marvel of Minmatar engineering, favouring electronics and sneakiness to the traditional speed and in your face approach of so many of our ships. The Cheetah is a key component in many of my hunts, specifically for fat, juicy Mission running battleships. Keira used to be my go to girl for this but recently she has taken to flying her Claymore and it's difficult to get her out of it. So it was with much trouble I recruited someone to replace her and oh boy what a pilot, way more probing skills than Keira and without the holier than thou attitude that makes her seem like a bitch at times. The new Cheetah pilot is however a private contractor and has chosen to remain anonymous but has become a vital part of our little team.

I'm a solo Pirate but the machinations behind the scenes make it less lonely in the dark and at times very, very rewarding.

A devil is born

Unveiled another new ship tonight for it's first trial run and it surprised me. The Daredevil Guardian Angel frigate. It has a split weapons system like so many faction frigates, favouring Hybrid Blasters and Rocket Launchers for a close range brawler. I undocked it as there appeared to be a few Rifter pilots in system and they would make good test subjects. I missed two of them as I had a warp scrambler fitted with less range than the disruptor and they both managed to warpout before I got into range but I spotted another Rifter warp into a belt as I was leaving, he was hunting me so I warped to a belt and waited. Soon enough he warped in and I closed to within range, scram and web active. He returned tackle and the fight was on, Daredevil vs Rifter and it was a close fight with me in deep armour when he finally popped, I had overloaded my weapons to squeeze out every last bit of DPS and was relieved to see the Rifter explode. The escape pod warped out near instantly so was unable to add to "The Morgue"

But a successful test nonetheless.

I docked up and dropped the loot in the corp hangar and made myself a cup of Earl Grey, lit a cigarette and put some music on, time to relax. I have a busy weekend planned, it's my Birthday on Sunday and I plan on much carnage.