The Drake, the Plex and the A-Type Invuln

"He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

A Drake is playing docking games with one of the local residents, so I hatch a plan to get him to aggro me, I undcok a Megathron and tell the M34N corp pilot to start shooting me, make it seem like he could help kill me, I hero tank for a bit and get called a noob for my trouble, but he never aggros.

[ 2012.03.28 16:21:44 ] Kt0nad0 > megatron canddy
[ 2012.03.28 16:21:49 ] Kt0nad0 > active tank
[ 2012.03.28 16:21:53 ] Kt0nad0 > capasitor booster
[ 2012.03.28 16:21:58 ] Kt0nad0 > you noob bro

So I hatch another plan as I later see him dropping combat scan probes in system, I have an associate probe out all the complexes and have her set up in one of them with an Ishtar, sure enough, probes are soon zeroing in on her position. This time, I would use a Sleipnir as the Drake is fast and would easily elude my Megathron.

He initially warps to the plex in his pod, paranoid doesn't start to describe him, but I was a touch worried too, I suspected he might have a cyno fitted to his Drake so the complex would have been the perfect place to fight as no cynos can be lit near its beacon.

I'm sitting at a deep safe when another associate says he had returned to station and undocked his Drake, warping in the direction of the plex. I'm aligned and at speed and warp to the gate, we land simultaneously. The trap is sprung, hostilities opened, he fights back but starts to move away at speed, I give chase, staying just within overloaded warp disruptor range, never letting him go, never giving him up, the range of my guns playing merry havoc with his shields, without much fuss, his drake explodes, nobody calls me a noob and gets away with it.

[ 2012.03.28 18:02:17 ] Kane Rizzel > gf
[ 2012.03.28 18:02:21 ] Kt0nad0 > fuck
[ 2012.03.28 18:02:47 ] Kane Rizzel > no need to be upset
[ 2012.03.28 18:02:52 ] Kane Rizzel > you tried
[ 2012.03.28 18:02:56 ] Kt0nad0 > not fair

Not fair that he couldn't undock or run gates?

[ 2012.03.28 18:03:09 ] Miura Bull > this won't hurt a bit will it doctor?
[ 2012.03.28 18:03:13 ] Kane Rizzel > what? you couldn't dock?
[ 2012.03.28 18:03:20 ] Kane Rizzel > sup Miura
[ 2012.03.28 18:03:24 ] Miura Bull > HI
[ 2012.03.28 18:03:29 ] Miura Bull > just passing through :)
[ 2012.03.28 18:03:34 ] Miura Bull > (hopefully)
[ 2012.03.28 18:04:39 ] Kt0nad0 > nice disruptor xD
[2012.03.28 18:04:53 ] Kane Rizzel > yep
[ 2012.03.28 18:04:59 ] Kane Rizzel > got to have one cause folk run away (Republic Fleet disruptor btw)

so some time passes and he logs back in after rage logging:

[ 2012.03.28 18:31:52 ] Kt0nad0 > give me drake kane
[ 2012.03.28 18:32:01 ] Kane Rizzel > no
[ 2012.03.28 18:32:12 ] Kt0nad0 > ok give me tengu
[ 2012.03.28 18:32:20 ] Kane Rizzel > no
[ 2012.03.28 18:32:30 ] Kt0nad0 > give me 40rr
[ 2012.03.28 18:32:33 ] Kt0nad0 > 40kk
[ 2012.03.28 18:33:03 ] Kane Rizzel > no
[ 2012.03.28 18:33:31 ] Kt0nad0 > don't behave as the Jew
[ 2012.03.28 18:34:12 ] Kane Rizzel > don't be racist
[ 2012.03.28 18:36:05 ] Kt0nad0 > it not racism, is the fact, don't translate a subject, there is such saying that you will sow that will reap
[ 2012.03.28 18:37:39 ] Kt0nad0 > http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11943986 you are a rich man
[ 2012.03.28 18:38:50 ] Kane Rizzel > yes I am, still not giving you anything
[ 2012.03.28 18:39:05 ] Kane Rizzel > you have called me a noob and been racist
[ 2012.03.28 18:39:20 ] Kane Rizzel > so as far as I'm concerned
[ 2012.03.28 18:39:22 ] Kane Rizzel > fuck off
[ 2012.03.28 18:42:50 ] Kt0nad0 > fuck you

And just like that... He left. My associate decided to finish the complex and was rewarded with this:



Happy days :)

Blast! Part Deux

"There's nothin' wrong with bein' a son of a bitch."
-- Gaspode the wonder dog
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)

The Megathron has been rebuilt, of course it has, you saw a picture of it in the last post, renamed Gaspode to fit in with my fleet naming convention, sorry Sard :P. Been a while since I've had as much fun in a battleship as I am with this one and for good reason.

It requires some micro-managing of guns, cap booster and armor repairers and when a swarm of drones is about, the smartbomb is just ace.

It is particularly handy for going in outnumbered, especially if there aren't gate guns playing merry havoc with your armour.

A trio of Drakes are camping the Emolgranlan gate in Eifer, I was keyed to this by my cousin Kenny, who mentioned that some Russian dude from the same corp was saying there was a 6/10 in Eifer and he needed help... A lame tactic but a viable one to lure carebears into a trap.
What made me decide to go in guns blazing was when an associate had just warped to her gate peep and said the red flashy Drake was 10 clicks away from her, out of range of gate guns.

She got as close as she dared, to set up the warp in, as I made my way to the Eifer gate in Gus, when she was ready she signaled and I jumped in to make the long warp, listening intently to her intel in case they warped off.

Bursting out of warp a mere 5 clicks off the primary Drake, I drop drones and close, target locked, tackled, engaged. First Drake lights me up, second is a bit hesitant, third still sitting at zero on the gate, not sure what to do, which gives me a precious head start.

My guns aren't tracking all too well until I maneuver to reduce radial and transverse velocity so they could hit better, by this time second Drake had lit me up and third had warped in, A swarm of small drones envelopes my Mega, smartbomb pulses, destroying waves of drones but doing a good job on my capacitor too. Overloaded heavy cap booster* starts chewing through charges, both large armour repairers engaged as I'm deep in armour and won't be able to hero tank.

First Drake explodes, a combination of sentry drones and the blasters from my Mega chewing it up, the pod warps out as I engage the second Drake, with extreme prejudice. The third Drake curiously warps out, strange but it becomes clear as CptHaoc from Celestial Argonauts warps to the wreck of the first Drake to join the fight, not sure of his intentions as I target him but keep burning the Drake, I see he has engaged the Drake too and it is not long for this verse, it explodes and CptHaoc warps out, unsure of my intentions and to be honest I was in two minds, sure he helped but he also ruined my solo of these guys, c'est la vie. Anyways, help sometimes is needed, even when you're me :) Thank you.

Before all this though, I did kill and pod a mission runner's Hurricane with a Harbinger, he never responded to the ransom offer :( which is becoming common place, other than the Rifter pilot from a few days ago who paid the ten million offer for safe release of his escape pod.

And just because I'm enjoying taking screenshots atm, here's one of Havelock Vetinari
Remember to RIGHT click and open in a new tab/window for best results


* Something I see very little of in PvP videos is overloading of cap boosters to get that extra out of the charges, always frustrates me as I watch them, furiously trying to click their HUD to overload

BREAKING NEWS



A Thanatos carrier appears on scan of my associate in Eifer, she probes it down in seconds and reports a warpin, I start asking if anyone is nearby to help as I board Interesting Times, my Machariel class battleship. I warp in and tackle, he requests a private conversation:

Kane Rizzel > yes?
clamslayer > what up
clamslayer > unfitted
clamslayer > you want to make some isk to let me go?
Kane Rizzel > what's it worth to you and I'll see if it's worth more than the killmail
clamslayer > fuck off

He initiates self destruct shortly after I start shooting him

[ 2012.02.23 00:58:24 ] (notify) clamslayer has initiated self-destruct of their Thanatos, it will explode in 120 seconds.

[ 2012.02.23 01:00:24 ] (notify) Thanatos belonging to clamslayer self-destructs.

It explodes as it enters armour, denying me a killmail but it matters not, a Thanatos wreck is now before me, spoils to the victor of 43 armor plates.

TECHNICALLY KANE RIZZEL JUST SOLO'D A CARRIER WITH A BATTLESHIP, WHO WANTS TO TOUCH ME? Truthfully though I was cockblocked in the most unimaginative way :(

Just one of those days

In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.
-- Schrodinger's Moggy explained
(Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

First time in a long time I've been able to hunt properly and it just didn't happen today.
Flew a Drake for the first time, killed an unfitted Apocalypse, went on a solo roam, lost said Drake making the wrong choices trying to split a gang up, lost a very expensive pod to same gang, lost a very expensive Daredevil to a Jaguar and Ishkur duo later on, got chased off by a Proteus and Loki in my Harbinger and lost a very good Rifter fight against Saftsuze, very close.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Screw Dust514, Rust is here and now

Slab: Jus' say "AarrghaarrghpleeassennononoUGH"

-- Detritus' war on drugs
(Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)

The hangar is cold, too long have I been away. Tonight however I had a date, a date with explosions.

A few weeks back I was challenged to a duel by one Lau Wensink asking if I would be so kind to grant him a 1v1 duel. I agreed at the time but was unavoidably detained with other activities.

Yes I've been away and yes I'm rusty but there's nothing like violence to shake the rust off. The duel was to take place in Eifer, at a safe spot of Lau's choice, I always allow my opponent to choose the safe and form the fleet as it gives them peace of mind that no one will interrupt our little party. We had decided to use Battlecruiser class ships and looking over the assembled hardware in my hangar I was torn between my trusty Hurricanes, two different setups but both rather efficient, and the Harbinger, a brick of a ship but capable of a rather beautiful light show.

Well, Lau was on his way and I chose that age old method of choosing something when undecided, I tossed a coin, Heads it would be the Hurricane, tails, the Harbinger.

The coin spun in the air and took its sweet time to fall, reminds me I need to make sure the artificial gravity is reset in the hangar. I caught the coin and placed it on the desk, a certain unease came over me as I slowly lifted my hand.... Tails

I walked over to the Harbinger, named Sgt, Detritus, an absolute slab, massive armour plates and pretty lasers. My pod was set up nearby and I made preparations to be plugged in. Once inside the pod it was inserted into the Harbinger, systems coming online as soon as I was set. I ran through the installed modules, making sure everything was in order, that I had the correct crystals for the pulse lasers and everything was five by five.

Lau had opened comms with me and said he was in Eifer, I told him to set up a safe and we'll form fleet when I get there.

The long undock of Gusandall station is dark but it helps one focus on the task at hand. I started running through my mental checklists, wondering what I would face, what my tactics would be, finally the night sky of Gusandall greeted me, a fantastic site.

I warped to the Eifer gate and jumped through, automatically aligning and warping to a central safespot where I could scan most the system. Once there I was greeted by a Drake on scan. Interesting, a most formidable battlecruiser with a legendary shield tank. We formed fleet and waited a bit for Lau's capacitor to regen before I would warp in.

Once ready Lau gave the signal, we agreed beforehand the fight was to the wreck of the ship, no podding, suited me fine. I warped to zero, landing about 5 clicks off the Drake, warp trails still streaming off the Harbinger's golden hull as I swung her around and made a direct line for the Drake. Warp scrambler set to overload, stasis web set to overload, I locked the Drake and opened fire.

A flight of light ECM drones spewed out of the Drake's drone bay and it was then I deployed my own drones, a flight of Warrior IIs, chosen specifically to deal with the prospect of ECM. I locked each drone and set my own to deal with them.

The PvP rust was showing as I was neuting drones, webbing and scramming them and Lau got away from me for a moment, until of course I dusted the cobwebs from between my ears and got my act into gear. All the ECM drones were dealt with, but I had more pressing problems, Lau had stripped my shields and was slowly eating away at my massive armour buffer, I had closed the distance and had him firmly tackled, a medium energy neutraliser sucking the lifesblood of the Drake away, my lasers eating at his shields. I had started to overheat everything but neglected to turn off my MWD, my sig radius that of a small moon meaning Lau's Scourge Fury missiles had a whale of a time with my armour. Schoolboy error Kane.

I shut the MWD off, Lau wasn't going anywhere as he was firmly pinned down. My lasers and neut were overheating, climbing into the red, I stopped overheating the lasers as I broke through the Drakes imperious shields, not long now, his armour stripped away, hull venting gas and fuel into space and then my guns winked out, overheated beyond repair. Sweet zombie jesus Kane? What the fuck is wrong with you? I had left the neut running overheated and it did collateral damage to my lasers, burning them out. Lau, at most had 5% structure left and it was down to my flight of Warriors to finish the job and they did a fine job, heroes, each and every one of them.

Lau's Drake exploded, illuminating the expanding cloud of gas and fuel. A fantastic fight, really enjoyed it, burnt out lasers and all. I was at 27% armour when Lau popped, nice and close, just the way I like it.

We spoke for a bit after and then Lau went on his merry, slightly disappointed I think but he did very well and respect to him. This duel is only a small part of this pilots adventures and it appears he has taken it upon himself to challenge celebrities from around the EVE universe to duels, a fantastic idea and one I'm honoured to say I've been part of.

Take a look at Lau's blog for further adventures and you never know if or when he'll challenge your celebrity :P

I docked up in Gusandall, set the crews to knock the dents out of Sgt Detritus' armour and lit a cigarette... I'm back... Sort of.

Boom... DOH... Boom

Wash: "Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction."

Zoe: "We live in a space ship, dear."

Strange evening for me, I was hanging out in station when reports filtered down that there was a Drake outside criminally flagged. A friend undocked in his Drake and was engaged, I boarded my Sleipnir and undocked, the fight very short and unremarkable, sentries doing the bulk of the damage to the unfortunate pilot. He was very verbose about the fact we were outdamaged by sentries but then he died to them with our help so his smack was weak.

Another Drake caught our attention in a system next door and a small gang was assembled to engage but he kept moving and our prober couldn't get a good position. While waiting on the gate to the system a Brutix and Curse had warped to the gate, Curse jumping through but Brutix engaged me. No biggie I thought, but a Rapier uncloaked and webbed me, I was going nowhere, my gangmates unsure of what was going on. My Hurricane went down in flames and I warped my escape pod out. I got on comms with my hangar crew and told them to prep another Hurricane ASAP, I was going back in and this time my gang mates had entered the fray. A quick dock and I was back and this time someone was going down, the Brutix bearing the wrath of my autocannons. With the tide turning the Rapier and Curse disengaged, a wise choice but a very good fight and respect to them.

I'm also training some interesting skills at the moment, just recently finished tech 2 small lasers and busy skilling up for tech 2 small blasters, going to add the Gallente Tech 2 Frigates to my repertoire of Minmatar, Caldari and Amarr small ships. Just a detour from my long skills that have been boring me senseless, looking forward to having some fun getting used to new and different styles of fighting.

Things that go bump in the Dark

I take a long deep draw on the cigarette and breathe in, exhaling I sigh, a sigh of contentment. It's been a fun day.

Started off by setting up a Jaguar class assualt frigate, a ship I've never flown before but always meant to. It is based on the Rifter hull, my favourite and one I'm intimiately familiar with.
Thing is the Jaguar is a shield tank, a skill set I only recently became comfortable with so this would be interesting.

I undocked into the black and headed to my favourite haunt, a bit quiet with one or two aquaintances hanging about but very little in the way of targets.
After a few minutes one did enter system, a Slasher class frigate and I quickly narrowed it down to a belt and went in, engines roaring. The fight itself was unremarkable, the young pilot being no match for the firepower brought to bare.

Another Slasher was dancing around the belts and I gave chase but he was smart, warping in at different ranges and always managing to elude me. Oh well, I thought I'd go check out some other systems. I arrived at the gate out and was greeted by a Drake and Hurricane, both battlecruisers locked me and opened fire but I merely activated the jumpgate and was thrown into the next system.
Excellent, I thought to myself as I hastily headed to HQ to grab something a bit beefier than the Jag. A new Hurricane class battlecruiser awaitied me and I quickly switched ships and headed back to the gate, I was going to have me a fight, win or lose.

My systems resolved the system I had just jumped into and whilst under gate cloak I saw the marks were still there and flashing red, a sign that they aggressed me first and I would be able to fight without having to tank the Republic gate sentries. I broke cloak and decided to go for the hurricane first, the Drake has a legendary tank and would take me too long to break under the combined firepower of the two hostiles.
It proved to be a wrong choice and engaging more so but you know I just had to give it a go. The combined firepower of the Drake and Hurricane tore Karma to pieces, I warped my escape pod out and quickly returned home to grab another Hurricane, I had called ahead to my hangar crew to have one prepped and ready to roll.

I boarded the new ship quickly and made all haste back, fuzzy intel had come through that the Hurricane had left system, possibly a trap but I wanted a fight again and the Drake was a tasty target. Once again I jumped in, the Hurricane nowhere to be seen and I headed straight for the Drake, my mighty 425s spitting out EMP rounds. The Drakes tank was solid and his DPS impressive, I started overloading my autocannons to get the most out of them and his tank started to break. His friend in the Hurricane had returned and soon I was under fire from him too, my shields and armour had failed and I was venting atmosphere and fuel into the dark.
A last overload of my guns and the Drakes fragile hull gave way.
My guns had overheated and had all offlined leaving me no response to the Hurricane, his drones and guns working on my hull, I overloaded my MWD to get out of range of his web and warp disruptor and with one final burst made it into warp, 10% structure flashing on my overview. Damn that was close.

I immediately set destination to base to repair and as soon as I did I returned but the Hurricane now on it's own decided that discretion was the better form of valour and left the scene, jumping into another system and safespotting.
A good fight by my opponents and well played.

Two versus One is always tricky but are sometimes the best fights out there.

I headed home and joined a small group of locals chasing a pair of destroyers out of the local Angel Complex, they got out but I had gone back to HQ and boarded a Broadsword, I caught both pilots outside the station and dispatched them under sentry fire, popped another Destroyer whilst it was trying to loot the wrecks.

Intel filtered through that the Drake and Hurricane had returned and some locals had given chase, no news on whether they were caught.

A good day, I exhale another plume of smoke, the flickering lights of the ships systems make it dance in the dark of the hangar