Never safe

As castles went, this one looked as though it could be taken by a small squad of not very efficient soldiers. For defence, putting a blanket over your head might be marginally safer.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant)

The one constant in the EVE universe is, you are never safe. It is something I like to remind folk of from time to time and when some plex farmer decides to set up shop in Gusandall, you just know summer is over and school is about to commence.

The Thrasher appears on d-scan in the third room and the Rifter I'm in doesn't have the tools needed to get there. So a quick warp back to the station, grab something that had said tools, undocked and warped to the plex entrance.

The Rifter hulled Wolf class assault frigate, with warp trailing off its sleek hull, immediately activates the gate as it lands, going through the motions as it reaches the next gate, and again in the next room.

Finally in the third room of the complex, the Thrasher doesn't appear on my overview, so using the d-scanner, I start trying to pinpoint his location.

Station and sun? ... Not there.
Various stargates? ... Not there.
Belts and moons? ... Not there.

Very curious... I narrow down to 90 degrees and start a quick sweep of system.
Strangely enough, he appears directly above me, so I start to narrow the search and eventually have him on a 5 degree sweep, I hit my MWD and head in the direction of the scan, as it appears Mr Thrasher is trying to hide off of Mr Grid.

It doesn't take long, only a few hundred kilometres, as I have a rough idea how big the grid in the last room is, before he appears on my overview, 150 clicks away. I sneak up on him as best I can, he seemingly oblivious to my presence, doing his nails as he lets me get right within disruptor range.

From here on in it's pretty much over as I settle into optimal range and open fire, he eventually wakes up, but it's too late as he explodes. He mumbles something in Russian as he warps his escape pod out, leaving me with the delicious loot.

Not much else happening of note recently, unless you count me trying to take on a Hawk in my Rifter and losing, but I did give it a good old whack :)

The Tank

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)

Not much about today, a good 1v1 vs Ava Starfire earlier in the day, letting a Harpy escape not once, but twice, but still managing to kill his Dramiel corp mate.

So things weren't looking up but late evening, one of my associates reported combat probes on scan as she was running an anomaly. A Cyclone is spotted on scan, shortly followed by a Tengu. Tengu moves off scan but is still in system, a boosting T3 no doubt but I was up for a fight regardless. My associate had cloaked in the anomaly and reported the Cyclone had warped in.

I undock Mort, a Hurricane class battlecruiser, something I haven't flown in a while in a configuration I haven't flown in even longer, a shield buffer fit.

I warp in on top of the Cyclone and engage immediately, he lights me up, scrammed I can't gain range as my MWD stares at me blankly, but I fight tooth and nail, his tank impressive, boosting... A lot. My shields are done for as we both enter armour except he boosts some shields back even under staggered dual neuts.

Mort collapses under the onslaught, the Cyclone at about 10% structure as I warp my pod to safety.

I decide to go back for seconds, grabbing Sgt Detritus, a Harbinger :)

The Cyclone had docked to repair the damage from the first fight and went back to the anomaly as he exited the station, I followed immediately, almost catching him on the gate but he waited for me inside.

Knowing I would struggle breaking his tank, my associate decloaked and engaged with her Ishtar, a flight of Ogre IIs spewing forth from her drone bay as I kept the Cyclone pinned down. The Cyclone still tanked like a champ but the combined firepower eventually breaking him.

A good fight for me in the end as I got revenge, even though it was a team effort, the Cyclone Pilot not saying anything after his loss, I don't think he was happy, the Tengu leaving system shortly after he did. Impressive tank mate, something I'm definitely interested in for the future.
I don't think I would have broken the tank on that thing without the Ishtar's help and would have lost another ship in the search for vengeance.

New shirt?

Epic 1v1

Wash: "Hey, I've been in a firefight before! Well, I was in a fire." (beat) "Actually, I was fired from a fry-cook opportunity."

This evening was one for the books, it started off slowly with me setting up a new killboard, it's going to take me some time to move all my kill and lossmails over so please be patient.
Halfway through some uploading of mails I decided to undock and go check the local 2/10 plex, only to be greeted by flashfresh who was patiently waiting for some prey to return, so I headed to a safespot and watched the local banter between a Myrmidon pilot and some of the residents of Gusandall. I went back to the plex once more to check things out and spotted a Wolf class assault frigate on my scanner when all of a sudden my overview flashed with a target entering the 2/10, it was a Rifter and was very quickly dispatched and podded without much undue fuss. My real target was the Wolf and I warped to the 1/10 and activated the ancient acceleration gate. Bursting out of warp I was greeted by the familiar visage of the Wolf, about 30 clicks away from me. I hit the afterburner and closed the distance, the Wolf locked me and I returned the favour, once within range I activated my disruptor and stasis web and opened fire. I know from flying the Wolf that it's lack of midslots leaves very little options in tackling and he wouldn't have a web but it does pack a punch, more so than my Jaguar. I'm intimately experienced in both ships and have extreme confidence in my abilities and knew from the start the outcome and so it came to pass, the Wolf's armour tank unable to cope with the sustained assault from my guns and rockets, it failed and this resulted in a shiny explosion, the pilots escape pod instawarping out before my lock could resolve.

I returned to station to offload the loot, still watching the local comms with interest, it seemed the Myrmidon pilot was after a 1v1 but was being selective of who he'd fight. I offered a 1v1 against a Hurricane build I've been toying with but he left Gusandall before he could see my offer. It was however relayed to him by some other pilots and he accepted, I quickly boarded the Minmatar battlecruiser and undocked, heading for Eifer.

A gang was formed between us and once in system I warped in at 20 clicks, allowing me to dictate range to some degree. I had received Intel that his Myrmidon had a passive shield regen tank and was very tough, I loaded faction EMP rounds, locked and set myself to an easy 10km orbit, he locked me in return and the fight was on. His tank was very impressive and he launched drones, I in turn launched some ECM drones and set them on him but he recalled his flight to engage them, I recalled my drones and targeted his, trying to pop them. This was going to be a very tactical fight with drones being deployed and recalled. I was easily maintaining range as he had no web and the fight was going nowhere, I had dual NOS set on him to feed my tank, along with cap booster 800s. I overheated my guns and saw his shields dip somewhat but not fast enough and my guns came dangerously close to overheating and going offline so I had to repair them midfight. Repairing half the rack at a time seemed to take forever and it was at this time he asked me if I was cap stable stating "If you are this is pointless" but I'm a firm believer in finishing what you start, no matter the outcome. I had just run out of cap boosters and it was only the two medium NOS that were fuelling my tank, the endless dance of deploying and recalling of drones continuing. I was starting to struggle for cap, my medium armour repairer eating away at it like a fat kid at a candy shop, his cap must have also been low as the NOS had been sucking him dry but he didn't need cap for his tank. Mine started to fail, I was at zero cap trying to repair my NOS from overheating, desperately close to them going offline. My Amour hardeners turning off as my cap vanished, his shields still holding strong. I knew I had lost the fight and could have bailed at any time as he had no tackling gear on me but I don't run, not from a 1v1.

After about 25 minutes the fight ended, my Hurricane no longer able to withstand the battering it had taken, 53k damage and it exploded after having been on fire for what seemed an eternity.
An epic fight, an honourable fight and one I'll remember for a very long time.

Respect to Jax Savage, fucking epic.

I returned home, physically and mentally drained, it's very rare for a fight to go on so long and even rarer that it goes off without a hitch. I docked up and lit a cigarette, made sure to make a note for Keira to move some Hurricane hulls down to HQ for me and slumped into my bunk.
I could really do with a good nights sleep

Back to basics...

The last few days have been fun, I have had my fill of gang combat and was looking to get back into frigates and their variants for some good old fashioned anarchy. I have used the Rifter and Plex Wolf to great effect these past few days and only ventured out of my home system once, granted I was drunk and undocked a Rapier but I managed two kills, an Ishkur and Cormorant and had a good fight with two Ruptures before they managed to warp out, the alcohol effecting my reflexes. (I'm sticking by that story)

My numbers for the two days look decent, 28 kills including 13 pods, their corpses now residing in "The Morgue" 7 Rifters, 2 Ishkur, Cormorant, Scythe, Merlin, Catalyst, Slasher and Manticore all going down for zero losses on my part.
Looking at my Killboard it appears that these kills brought another milestone, 600 kills with no end in sight. Of course numbers don't mean much, the fight is what matters and I had a few good 1v1 Rifter fights particularily with an up and coming Pirate called Izzy Lizzy, an Eve University graduate and recent convert to the dark side.

Some good loot, a mixture of Tech 2 and Complex which should fetch much ISK in the trade hub of Rens when it gets moved there and put on the market.

I sit on my bunk, head still dazed from last nights excess, I take some more painkillers and prepare for the numb

Memories...

CARRIER DOWN

The hangar at home is cold, it's always cold, but I like it that way, keeps you keen, sharpens the senses. I'm sitting on a stack of Republic Fleet EMP shells watching Keira make fun of the deck hands as they load Karma. I should be more specific and say Karma IV . The first Karma had served me well and thinking back on her I'm reminded of her finest moment.

About 3 months ago, a fine Saturday evening, I was hanging around in station talking to some friends when someone got a call, Anti Pirates had been spotted in a system nearby and a fleet was being assembled to go have some fun.

I had a long day at that point checking inventory and making sure Keira didn't get into trouble but the chance for some explosions always makes me happy and woke me up sufficiently to join the party.

I boarded Karma and did a systems check, made sure the deck hands had loaded the correct ammo and undocked. Heading to the gate I was trying to gather as much intel as possible. The anti pirate gang was sizeable, with battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, with an interceptor thrown in for good measure.

Our fleet consisted of two battleships and seven battlecruisers, six of those the mighty Hurricane class.


With some intial trouble trying to connect to voice comms I eventually found the gang next door trying to bait the anti pies into action. From memory the Anti Pies had:
1xTempest
1xMaelstrom
1xMegathron
1xMyrmidon
1xHurricane
1xCyclone
1x Ares

We initially had:
6xHurricanes
1xTyphoon
1xAbbadon
1xBrutix

At this point we had our Abbadon on the station trying to bait their fleet into aggroing, a bit of cat and mouse later and they dropped a Thanatos carrier on us, a quick decision was made and our two Battleship pilots happened to have Archon Carriers in System, a quick dock later they were ready and the decision to engage the enemy carrier came down from the FC.
All hurricanes were ordered to bump the Thanatos , with the carrier now 6km off the station, all guns focused fire, I was duel neuting and shooting with all my drones out, continuosly making bumping runs. The Anti Pie fleet undocked and watched helplessly as we tore the Thanatos apart. We had a decision to make at this point as it entered hull, would we ransom?

FUCK NO, SHINY EXPLOSION

My first lowsec carrier kill

While hanging about popping the vultures around the wreck, a Sleipnir undocks and died quicker than you can say "Who's your daddy" under the firepower amassed.

General revelry ensued and amazement that the Anti Pies never even tried to help their carrier.

Going back home and just chilling we get a call from a Vagabond pilot tackling a Munnin in a system one jump out, off we go and engage, Munnin almost down, Myrmidon warps in and starts neuting and NOSsing our Hurricanes , Munnin goes down and then Myrm dies to some epic firepower.

EPIC DAYS ARE MADE OF THIS

Another of my better days is as follows:

Today was a beautiful day, for the first time in a very long time I had Friday off, so I decided to do a spot of hunting. I undocked a Rifter and immediately saw a Thrasher on scan, appeared to be in a plex. Now plexes don't play nice with MWDs but I needed to move fast, warped to the gate and activated it, warped in and the thrasher was 30km, from me, totally oblivious to my presence I sneaked up on him and activated Disruptor, web and all guns, he died quite quickly and I snapped up his pod for good measure.

Good start I thought as I sat in the plex waiting for my GCC to expire (Rifters don't do well against sentries, don't ask how I know)

Once GCC was up I went next door to Eifer and scanned down a Rifter pilot using the on board scanner, within seconds I was on top of him and made his ship all shiny like and sent him back to the clone vats.

Another GCC wait later and I headed back home to drop off loot and corpses, Sitting in station I receive a report that there is a Megathron camping the station and was asked to join two other pilots in taking him out, I boarded a Gank Hurricane and waited for the signal to undock. It came as the Astarte and Typhoon engaged, I undocked and joined the battle, it was quite intense as the Mega pilot was very experienced, 03 player in a good setup. The Typhoon died mere seconds before the Mega exploded. Unfortunately I missed the pod.

Once more next door I'm in a Rifter and scan out a Thrasher, I warp in and the ship and pod is dispatched without being targeted back o_0 AFK in lowsec, GCC expires and I'm back home

Hanging out in station Keira undocked in her Cheetah covops and warped to a scan spot high above the station, from there she could use the on board scanner to see the whole system, she spied an Enyo and Manticore on the HUD, mmm, in the plex. Knowing they had some good firepower I boarded a Wolf class Assault Frigate and loaded an Afterburner for the Plex, undocked and headed out. I got to the gate and using the on board scanner determined they were still there.
Now or never I said to myself and activated the gate, the Enyo is a good challenge for the Wolf but if the Manticore had range on me it would be over very quickly.
Fortune favors the brave and I had come out of warp right on top of the Manti with Enyo 40km away. Manti was locked and disintegrated under fire, I snapped up the pod for god measure and activated my afterburner towards the Enyo, he had put one Hobgoblin drone on me but I destroyed it without even blinking. Once on top of the Enyo the fight was over in seconds. Missed his pod but you can't have everything. I grabbed the loot, which was very nice and headed home.

Docked up and chatting in over various channels I received intel on a bait ship sitting on a high sec entrance point, said bait ship had been used before by a CVA pilot and the Intel was confirmed that once the bait was taken he would jump in with a Battleship. A hastily assembled gang of myself in a Broadsword, 2 x Hurricanes, a Tempest, an Astarte and a Megathron headed to a gate in the adjacent system, one of our Hurricanes would warp in and spring the trap. Call came over comms and we jumped in and warped in, the trap consisted of a Thorax as bait and a Megathron. We all engaged and the Megathron went down very, very quickly, I had tackled the Thorax too and he went down even quicker with his pod being quickly snagged and popped. Slavers in Heimatar? not on our watch :P

Loot was grabbed as we held the field and those of us with GCC headed to safe spots, the call came in that our Mega pilot had just been engaged on the gate by a Tempest, he was in serious trouble and the gang had separated, urgent “HOLD ON, WE'RE EN ROUTE” went over comm channels as the gang tried to hastily go in and help, all the while I was thinking “This has to be another trap”
most of the gang had come out of warp just as our Megathron popped but revenge was quick and ruthless, the Tempest went down, he was using ECM drones and had our Mega jammed for the entire engagement, I was then next to get the ECM drone loving but they only got one cycle off on me. This time loot was grabbed again and pilots warped to safe spots but unlike last time all stayed in system. Holds were full and the Mega pilot had gone back to his base to grab a Dominix.
Now the hunt peaks, the Domi is grabbing loot and we hear “Guys, Navy Raven on gate, engaging”
Holy shit Faction Battleship, our ships can't enter warp fast enough and the warp to the gate seems to take for fucking ever, finally I come out of warp, 40km away, hit the MWD and headed straight for the Faction ship hoping to get a good bump off, the Domi is doing it's best to bump it from the gate.
I hit the Raven like a fluffy pillow but we are 7km from the gate, I hit the Stasis Web II and open up with all my guns, the rest of the gang joins in and the Raven starts to melt. All this time our gang is under sentry fire but the red mist has descended and nothing but the death of the Faction Raven is on our minds. It pops and a “FUCK YEAH” is heard over comms.
I snap up the pod for good measure and warp out. The gang grabs the loot and decision is made to dock up as we would be getting more attention now that the system is glowing on the map.

Sitting in station Keira shouts out over comms that there's an Incursus and two Kestrels in the plex, so into a Wolf again and off I go, warping in there's a Malediction engaging them, a Pirate I've known for a while and get on well with but he had to warp out as he wasn't able to use his MWD, I targeted the Incursus first and dispatched him quickly, followed by one of the in range Kestrels, while burning towards the last kestrel the pods of the other two hadn't warped out so I locked them and sent them home via clone express. Kestrel flashed into nothingness shortly after followed by his pod.

Later on caught another Rifter in a belt, missed his pod though


I was sitting docked up and watching movies, kinda drained from much carnage when Keira spotted a Claymore sitting 60km off station. I reported this in an Intel channel but there was very little awake. Two other pilots woke up enough to express interest in taking it on, I undocked in my Shield Gank Hurricane and MWD'd towards it, it woke up and started to move at over 2km/s, damn I thought, not going to catch it, just then an Ishtar decloaked just off my port side and started in on me, so I kindly returned the favour and it died oh so quick and even allowed me to pop his pod, I started chasing after the Claymore again and was joined by a Sleipnir and another Hurricane by the time I got him webbed down I was already deep in hull from sentry fire, I had to warp out just as the Claymore popped.

I had docked up to repair when the other Hurricane reported being engaged by a Vagabond, I undocked and saw them on station, MWD goes active and I burn towards the Vaga to bump it off the station, guns go live and dual neuts till I'm in web range, Vaga goes pop.

I'm drained atm but absolutely stoked

So, revised list for the day so far:
2xRifter (Solo)
2xThrasher (Solo)
2xMegathron
1xEnyo (Solo)
1xManticore (Solo)
1xTempest
1xNavy Raven
1xIncursus (Solo)
2xKestrel (Solo)
1xIshtar (Solo)
1xClaymore
1xVagabond
10xPods

Using Rifter, Wolf, Hurricane and Broadsword

The Ishtar left me a nice Domination Warp Disruptor and loads of t2 drones and mods

Complexity of Complexes

What a day, I sit in my hangar and try to run the events through my head, I have a slight headache but nothing I'm not used to.
I take a sip of the tea sitting on the table and light a cigarette, where do I start?

Well as usual, Keira was up bright and early, that woman is really annoying, most morning people are. I have never been good at mornings, one of my many failings but Keira was insistant that I get my ass into something that could go into one of our local Angel Complexes, I boarded a Wolf class assualt frigate and undocked. Keira had spotted two targets, a Rifter in one plex and a Slasher in another. I decided to target the Rifter pilot first as he was the most experienced from the reports we were able to gather, I warped to the plex entrance and activated the ancient warp gate, it slung me into warp and after a few moments I re-entered normal space and the Rifter was sitting dead still as my systems adjusted after the warp, target lock resolved and the Rifter melted, I locked and warp disrupted the pod and opened convo to offer ransom "10million ISK and the pod goes free" a reasonable request considering the age and experience of the pilot, the answer? "Fuck Off"
Now that wasn't nice, so I relieved the pilot of his pod after terminating the conversation, scooping his corpse into my hold to add to the collection, his loot was also scooped and I warped out.

My next target was in a Slasher in the other plex and I caught him just as he finished off the last Angel frigate, his fragile frigate no match for the power of the Wolf, his pod was locked, and scrambled, kinda like breakfast this morning.

I docked up and placed the two corpses in "The Morgue" and boarded a Jaguar class assault frigate, there was a Rifter ratting in the asteroid belts and I wanted to introduce him to my 150mm autocannons, I caught the pilot napping and soon his corpse was floating in space, scooped and addd to the collection.

Keira came over comms again and said she had spotted a Flycatcher class Interdiction destroyer in the first complex and I made all haste back to the station to grab the Wolf, the Jaguar I was in was not setup for plex hunting.
I undocked and made my way to the plex once again, activating the gate and being shot through to the deadspace where the afterburner fitted to the Wolf would prove invaluable. I burst out of warp and my systems resolved to show the Flycatcher over 50km away fighting Gistii frigates, I flicked the afterburner into life and started to close the distance, every second would count and it seemed like an eternity till I had closed to within 24km and could activate my warp disruptor, lock resolved and the disruptor did its job and the Interdictor was now trapped, I loaded Republic Fleet EMP shells into my guns and closed to within firing range and opened up, the Flycatcher returned lock and opened fire itself but was deep in structure and barely denting my shields, a flash and his escape pod was jettisoned, the wreck of the elite destroyer smoldering in space, I locked his pod and opened convo "10million and the pod goes free", he countered with "9Million" Now I really hate when someone tries to negotiate when they are in no position to do so, don't waste time, so I said "11million, don't try to negotiate" again he countered with "9million"
I closed convo and vapourised his pod, scooping his corpse to my hold.

Now you might say I lost out on 9million ISK but it's the principle for me, I don't negotiate, I'm a Pirate not a salesman.

I docked up and had a much needed cigarette and tea when Keira shouted over comms that she had probed out 3 Vexors in a mission, I raced to "The Fifth Elephant" my Slepnir class Commandship and undocked, set warp towards Keira's position and primed my weapons and tackling systems, I burst out of warp on top of the acceleration gate and activated it, being flung into the mission deadspace. Coming out of warp I was greeted by three targets, three Vexor cruisers to be exact. 3 on 1 would have been an epic fight, my lock resolved on all 3, I primaried the closest and set my disruptor on him, the other 2 warped out and left their friend to die, his corpse joining those already collected today.
I warped out to a safespot and waited, the other 2 returned onto scan but they had a scout on the gate now, the Vexor pilot who died in the plex had recloned and boarded a rookie ship to act as an early warning, I warped in and dispatched him again, grabbing the corpse in the process, I hastily returned to base to Grab a recon ship with a cloaking system that would allow me to enter the complex and wait for them to return, bypassing the scout entirely.
With a bit of patience they did return, the scout first, and then the two Vexors, I uncloaked the Rapier and targeted both, setting tackling systems on one whilst the other warped out, another Vexor down but he managed to warp his pod out.
I recloaked and waited, the scout came into the plex twice to see if I was about and soon the 3rd and last Vexor would return to his death.

I spent the rest of the day cloaked in the plex with the Rapier waiting for them to return, they popped into local numerous times but I suspect that seeing me there scared them off, I did grab a Thrasher in a belt later using the Rapier and another Rifter in one of the plexes using my trusty Wolf, both corpses now residing amongst the collection.

All in all 18 kills including 8 pods using 4 different ships, no losses for me, a good day but kind of unsatisfying. I'm drained and sitting here in my hangar I hope for better days.
I turn on the soundsystem and slump back into my bunk, the music soothing me further.
Darkness envelopes me and a good nights sleep should help ease my unease.