The Boom Box

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

There has been a rise in traffic in Eifer and Gusandall while I was away in Molden Heath, so I brought out a new toy to play with some of them.



It's... Different, but I like the speakers on the front :)

Marauder

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)

21:25 I receive a call from Bosena

Dirty Protagonist > hey kane
Dirty Protagonist > got a jc in bos still?
Kane Rizzel > yep
Kane Rizzel > wassup?
frogstomper > want to come gank a vargur in a catalyst?
Kane Rizzel > yes
frogstomper > get down here and on comms then plz

The RANSM crew have been ganking spendy mission ships in Molden Heath highsec for the past week or so and this evening I got an invite to join in the fun.

The mark had already been identified and the trap was being set up, not too subtle this trap, the mark was being bumped off the gate where he had gone AFK, almost 200 clicks of bumping.

With everything in place, ships were handed out and the gang made ready for departure, a well co-ordinated effort swinging into action.



Undock Bosena...
Warp to Teon gate...
Jump...
Hold cloak...
Fleet warp to covops...
All mods overloaded...

Our location announced in local comms, our intentions doubly so, as I said, not too subtle but then sometimes subtlety gets in the way of giggles.

We land...
Lock target...
And open fire...

The Vargur explodes.

CONCORD warps in and destroys each one of our destroyers, justice dispensed, our escape pods, escaping rather sharpish, the Vargur's escape pod not so lucky. We head back to lowsec, GFGF in local, giggling all the way.

Here are some of the more expensive suicide ganks as of late.

I do love Molden Heath.

Active

The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)

A Hurricane is a mighty test for the ship I was flying, but it was a test I was going to take, or as the case was to be, let the test take me.

Cyclone

The Cyclone was created in order to meet the increasing demand for a vessel capable of providing muscle for frigate detachments while remaining more mobile than a battleship. To this end, the Cyclone's eight high-power slots and powerful thrusters have proved ideal.

Battlecruiser Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire and 7.5% bonus to shield boosting per level

99% reduction in the CPU need of Warfare Link modules.

I had been hunting a Tengu running a drone complex in Eifer, but headed back to Gusandall. As I jump through a Hurricane pilot that was reported earlier appears in Gus local, so I warp straight to belt 1-1 and wait...

... Didn't have to wait long as the Hurricane warps in at range. His MWD pulse clearly showing he was quicker than me, getting into range of my scram was paramount, as I started the approach under full MWD speed, I needed to get under 12km for my scram's overloaded range and it wasn't easy as the Hurricane easily outran and out ranged me, pulsing my shield booster as the Hurricane's 425s tore into me.

I pop a strong blue pill, the universe takes on a blue hue, an immediate headache a side effect, reducing my ability to keep my shield capacity at full strength but the massive boost to my neural pathways allowing me to maximize the shield boost from the shield booster.

Massive chunks of my shield being ripped away, massive chunks of my shield being repaired, timing of my cap boosts becomes critical as dual neuts from the Hurricane putting pressure on my capacitor, the time has come, I overload my MWD, a cap boost charge fires, I force the engagement into scram range as I get within 12km, my overloaded scram bites hard and the MWD of the Hurricane is nullified, I close to point blank, second cap booster fires, shields bouncing like crazy, I'm starting to miss timings on cap boosts, the dual neut pressure hurting, the 425s hurting, my shields dipping further, armour hitting red, my drones seemingly off on their own mission to kill an Angel cruiser, double you tea eff guys?
It doesn't take long for me to get my timings right, overloaded shield boosts and cap boosts allowing me to stay ahead of the damage and neut cycles... Just.
My drones, having killed the cruiser, decide to come back and help me.

At this point though, I have broken the shields of the Hurricane and am biting into the soft underbelly of the passive shield, its weak armour being ripped apart by my rockets and 220s, and in no time his structure starts to vaporize under the assault, my weapons near melting point as the Hurricane explodes.

A rather good fight, sentiments shared in local comms.

I'm having fun in active tanked ships of both shield and armour variants and for the first time in a very long time I suffered side effects of the drugs that help boost them to insane levels. Some of the fits might not be conventional but damn if they don't keep you interested :)

Active tanks fell out of favour as of late, replaced by logistics and remote repair chains, but for solo they can be really effective in my not so humble opinion, whilst still vulnerable against neuts and large amounts of deeps, choose your targets and have fun.

Edit: To include the ship I was flying, thanks Trony for pointing that out :)

The Century Club

The students were staring at her in the manner of those who have heard of the species 'female' but have never expected to get this close to one.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Soul Music)

Another Rizzel Centurion

Current Skills: 197 (Skill Points: 100,318,943)

Congrats Keira


New shirt and hair to celebrate

Special Tuesday

"Some people are heroes. And some people jot down notes."
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Truth)

There comes a time, when even I'm at a loss for words, so I leave you with this special snowflake

Having failed to tackle him with a Scram on a Megathron in Eifer, I refitted The Librarian with dual scrams and had another associate probe him out in Gus

EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Gusandall
Kane Rizzel > stabs are bad m'kay
Slick Duoros > lol
Masarama > worked the first time you tried to scram me
Kane Rizzel > should have taken the hint
Masarama > thanks for insurance money
Masarama > :-)
Kane Rizzel > lol

I leave you with this gem:

Crefakis > what do you call it when you dual tank with a rolled tungsten plate and a fs-9 regolith extender
Crefakis > a mixed meta4.

Always outnumbered, quite often outgunned

The class was learning about some revolt in which some peasants had wanted to stop being peasants and, since the nobles had won, had stopped being peasants *really quickly*.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Soul Music)

I've been toying with something old, but kind of new and took it out for a test last night, however it didn't quite work out the way I had hoped, it did show that I can sometimes bite off more than I can chew, I did manage to kill two of the gang with the help of an old friend who has been on-world for far too long, Welcome back to Gusandall CPT NESSAJA


It tanks like a beast, no links, only drugs and a little grit, I probably would have made it out had I not derped and burnt one of the repairers. Matter not, this is the replacement, awaiting a similar situation to be hurled against.

Fighting outnumbered is something I'm used to, more apparent in recent months as the dwindling force that once was M34N not having my confidence to drop everything and help a friend in need. It will be something I will have to rely on even more after the choices I have made. C'est la vie.

This evening there was a Rifter and an Enyo loitering far too long at a safespot in Gusandall and as Kane does, I requested my associate provide me with the co-ordinates of the pair so that I may officially welcome them to Gus in my own special way.

A dangerous pairing, the recent modifications done to the base Enyo hull making it a DPS monster and we all know the Rifter in the right hands to be a dangerous adversary.

With the warp-in set I undocked in a Hawk assault frigate, itself recently modified and better than its previous incarnation, I made warp to the location and had my associate move off.
I land about 20clicks away, not the best warp-in but in my associates defense they were moving. I would have to rely on my charm and good looks to get the pair to hang about, but I didn't need any of that as the two of them must have looked at each other and said "Yeah, we can take him" and took me they did. Both engaged and moved to point blank range, I had primaried the Rifter as it would have the weaker tank of the two, it was going down but the Enyo had closed to within range of its blasters and started to rip my shields apart, Rifter goes down and I can switch tackle to Enyo, being able to gain some range and start to kite.

His tank is strong, my kinetic rockets a poor choice so I reload to thermal but something jams and kinetic are reloaded. I'm spamming scan as local rise and falls a few times, always wary of backup warping in and killing me dead. Slowly his tank breaks, a Crow warps in and engages, but Enyo is going down, my shields easily dealing with the Crow's missiles and the Hob II from the Enyo, its blasters not able to touch me at 9km.

Enyo explodes, the Crow casually saunters into scram range and it's all over except for the crunch of an escape pod.

A good fight, never outclassed :)

Had a few good fights the past week, a Vigilant kill using something a little different again, a lot of fun to fly and taking the old Rupture out for a spin in the black. I do however fail at flying Drakes, I had to warp out of an engagement against a brick tanked Drake as I derped once more, burning out some of my launchers and not being able to break his shields before mine failed.

I will get better however :)

The Reset

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 gone done something drastic, but it was something that has been a long time coming

M34N Corp have for a long time been friends of mine, specifically pilots who I had fought alongside to make Gusandall a fortress.

In the beginning, M34N and I were hostile to each other, me having to prove myself to the established Pirate corp in the cluster, won some, lost lots but eventually I made friends with some of the bolder pilots from M34N and was brought in to their inner circle.

Many years have passed since those days, many of my friends in M34N Corp have retired, M34N itself a shadow of the powerhouse it once was, as such, the agreement I had with them, no longer stands, I've been blue to them for a long time, but no longer, today I contacted them, out of courtesy and informed them of my intentions to hunt their carebears, to have good fights and make Gusandall a place for fighting and Piracy once more, I requested them to reset me.
I'm hoping this kick starts what is left of M34N into action.

I actually expect some good fights and hope they give as good as they get, but I won't just engage willy nilly, I will still try be smart about it and pick off the weaker members and I won't just throw ships away.