Rifter heart and soul

Death was Nature's way of telling you to slow down. -- (Terry Pratchett, Strata)

I had been patrolling Eifer for most of the day, won some (Using a Rifter to kill Malediction before his Hurricane friend could catch up and a Dramiel most notably), lost some (Lost my Navy Vexor to Harbinger bait) and had a bit of fun on the hunt.

One particular hunt stands out, a young Hurricane pilot was running a mission out of high security space, employing the services of an associate, the Hurricane was probed in his mission site in short order.

Warping to my associate I could feel butterflies, even a half decent Hurricane would be dangerous to The Cunning Man. Feeling the need for some action I went on in, landing not too far away from where the Hurricane pilot was finishing up, I moved in for tackle, in range and active.

A mixed flight of tech one drones is launched and set about trying to dismantle my Rifter, of course I couldn't stand for that, locked them all up and popped them one by one until none stood against me.

The Hurricane Pilot was trying very hard but his guns just couldn't track my Rifter in its tight orbit. Volley after volley of RF Phased Plasma rounds slam into the shields and armour of the Minmatar Battlecruiser, my speed enough to mitigate all damage.

The Hurricane pilot is smarter than I give him credit for as he moves closer to one of the structures in the mission complex, disrupting my orbit and allowing him to get a few good hits on the Cunning Man with his 425s. Manual flying from here on in Kane as I start to throw the Rifter around.

After a good few minutes I chew my way through the Hurricane's shield, armour and structure and it explodes in spectacular fashion, bits of debris raining against the Cunning Man's beautiful hull. The pilot had all but completed the mission by the time I had commenced violence and his mission objective was left only a few hundred metres away. As he was very young and he tried very hard to fight back, I made arrangements to get the mission objective back to him, free of charge.

I've had quite a bit of fun flying the Rifter again and I hope it shall long continue as I shall try very hard to stay away from the bigger ships and concentrate on Rifter Violence™

Return of the Kane

The hippo of recollection stirred in the muddy waters of the mind.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Soul Music)

It has been a long time, the station has been refurbed and my hangar now has an office, not just a few crates for a desk and a makeshift bed in the corner. Someone has spent a lot of money on this and it all looks very pretty but somehow it's just... Wrong.

The Cunning Man floats above the docking platform, I ease myself into my custom built 'pod' and set about making my way into the black, Gusandall, it has been too long.

There's a few pilots showing up on the local comms net, but mostly in bigger ships and quite obviously together and possibly a little too much for a rusty old pirate.

There were a few frigates with them but soon they all jumped out, destination unknown, but I loitered at the usual haunts. A Malediction from the large group re-enters Gusandall, a scout no doubt, I wait for him in the first room of the 2/10 complex. A tech 2 Interceptor vs my Rifter... Well... I know how this was going to end but you got to let people think they're in it to win it.

As predicted, the Malediction appears on scan in the direction of the 2/10 beacon, soon he would be arriving, all systems primed and set to overheat from the get go.

Malediction comes out of warp only a few hundred meters away from The Cunning Man, targeting systems acquire the target, yellow box, then red as the Malediction pilot gets serious.

My guns spin up and ordinance starts flying, the interceptor at point blank range melting with every volley, it explodes, with my shields barely troubled by the missiles it had launched.

This was not about the hunt, as I was hunted, or the fight itself, as it was wholly unremarkable, but how knowledge of my surroundings and the predictability of others led to victory.

And just like that, Kane is back :)

[OOC] The future is exciting

YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE?
"Yes. Yes, of course."
Death nodded. IN TIME, he said, YOU WILL LEARN THAT IT IS WRONG.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Due to massive changes in my Real Life I will be very scarce for the foreseeable future.
I'm moving to London in three weeks to start a new job, same thing I'm doing now but on a larger scale.

I'll see you guys when I see you o7

Four

I isn't dead...

...I is just busy.

"You're dead," he said. Keli waited. She couldn't think of any suitable reply. "I'm not" lacked a certain style, while "Is it serious?" seemed somehow too frivolous.
-- Princess Keli in trouble
(Terry Pratchett, Mort)

Apologies to my readers, life is just a touch hectic at the moment. Three accounts have been given the summer off with just Kane remaining active, in case a scratch needs itching.

Work will be dominating any time and energy I have so updates and playtime will be few and far between :)

Killing kittens isn't easy

"He's muffed it," said Simony. "he could have done *anything* with them. And he just told them the facts. You can't inspire people with facts. They need a cause. They need a symbol."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

Have had a bit of a rough patch of late, a few too many losses for my liking but Kane stays strong, Kane never surrenders. With this in mind I did something different tonight and went out on a quick roam with the M34N Coalition guys.

The M34N alliance has grown considerably recently and our small gang was soon quite sizeable for the locals, thirteen assorted battlecruisers and strategic cruisers. no ECM or logistics in sight, me in a Hurricane.

We got our first fight of sorts as we jumped into Ingunn, an equally sized Electus Matari/Dragoons fleet with a Scimitar logistics and Falcon ECM support. We jump in without hesitating, hold cloak, primary is called...

It's the Falcon :D

Primary goes down hard, Scimi is secondary but escapes, Electus Matari jump out. Some of us follow back into Gusandall, with eventually just me on the gate, Electus Matari/Dragoons find their minimals again and start shooting me on the gate whilst one of their Hurricanes dies next door, I jump through with 15% armour left as the roam is moving and gate games don't interest us.

Everytime a Falcon dies, god kills a kitten...



...Do your part.

The rest of the roam consists of us chasing a large Ivy League gang around but never getting within spitting distance and trying to get a fight out of a large Independence Cruiser gang that was waiting for the Gusandall locals to take the bait in Gusandall but nobody was home.

A Falcon died, GREAT SUCCESS.

Zombie Flubber rises and shall feast on the brains of many, watch this space :)

Quit while you're only losing a little

Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant "idiot".
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic)

I've lost Flubber :(

Well it all started out by me fitting up a Navy Hookbill and warping to what seemed like a Navy Comet at the 2/10, turns out it was also an Enyo, Ishkur, Sentinel and Jaguar too.

Navy Comet almost goes down but the Navy Hookbill just couldn't cope with everything being thrown at it.

So Kane does what Kane would do in any situation like this, he goes back for revenge, I board Flubber and warp to the 2/10 but they have moved to the Hrondedir gate, I follow and they jump through, again I follow and they warp to the Hrondmund gate.

Instead of cutting my losses I say:

Kane Rizzel > all of you vs me?
Kane Rizzel > I'll be at the sun

:FACEPALM:

There isn't a facepalm picture big enough, even the famed Picard montage facepalm would just not do. Keira is either going to laugh at this or be extremely angry

I have given up range dictation and in essence I just threw Flubber away like she meant nothing, all these years together and I sacrifice her for no gain.

The gang warps in, Sentinel at 40km, would have been my primary but my genius is not only matched but exceeded by my stupidity.

I take the Ishkur into armour but the tracking disruption from the Sentinel is fatal, for all my skillpoints, for all my experience and bravado, this fight was lost the minute I uttered those fateful words.

I'm sorry Flubber :(

I had been looking for a fight all night, but between the residents of Broadside and Independence channels running through the area in their own gangs, I had seen zero that I could take on my own, my impatience got the better of me.

Not been one of my better weeks but I shall persevere, I shall bounce back, for I am Kane Rizzel.

Today marks nine months since I took my first steps down the Straight Edge, stay strong and never surrender :)