Carriers and POS oh my, oh my

Yesterday was interesting to say the least, not sure if I recall things correctly as my brain shut down halfway through.

Started off with a bit of Rifter hunting in my favourite haunt. I spotted a Punisher class frigate on scan and tried to narrow him down but to no avail, so I gave Keira a call and asked her to come work her magic, shortly after she entered system and started scanning she got a hit on the Punisher. She warped in to set up the ambush and yelled in comms "CYNO LIT"
Ooh, a cynosaural field, the thing you jump to, with a capital ship that is. The Punisher was totally imobilised as lighting the cyno drains ships energy for approximately 10 minutes, know ing this I warped in and engaged the sitting duck, I popped him and his pod but not before a Chimera class carrier had jumped in. Oh well I'm only in a Rifter so I layed down a tackle and orbited at 18km just in case he was packing smartbombs.

While this was going on both Keira and I were asking in various intel channels if anyone was available for some action, slowly but surely the local pirate community woke up. I was taking heavy damage at this point from fighters as I was trying to conserve cap and keep the warp disruptor active. I popped very shortly after we started forming a fleet but got my pod out and headed to HQ to grab something more robust, KARMA Baby, let's get it on.

Keira was holding position above the carrier and provided a spot on warp in for the gang as it was forming, we had managed to amass eight pilots, one of whom was bringing a dreadnaught, the Ammar Revelation.

Before Deathstar brought the big guns we had:
1 x Dominix - SAVAGExxxWARRIOR
1 x Huginn - Muelac
1 x Vagabond - Grunanca
3 x Hurricane - Jubes, Redbad and myself
1 x Jaguar - Tenchuu Khaan

Not a massive force but one more bloodthirsty than any I've ever seen.

The Chimera was tanking us comfortably when our dread entered system and immediately engaged siege mode and opened up with its massive guns, we were being neuted by the carrier and targeted by it drones and fighters, experience has tought us that we have nothing to fear from theses nuisances but we lost point and the carrier warped away, Grun in his vagabond followed and tracked him down to a belt, the gang jumped after and engaged except our dread who was in siege mode and couldn't move. Again it was a case of trying to hold points and trying to evade the fighters, he was effectively neuting our ca so we were losing points by mods shutting off and getting out of range evading the fighters. Once again the carrier warped out, we were cursing our luck when fortune truly shined on us, the carrier had logged off with aggro.

Keira immediately started working her magic and scanned the now unmanned Chimera, the massive signature radius of the carrier made it very easy and soon she had vectored us in and we went to work. Without the pilot the tank of the Chimera was now innefective and without much hassle and without the need of the dread it popped, the pod insta warped away but Grun's vaga probed it out very quickly and popped it like a can of Pringles.

Tenchuu said it best:

This picture was forwarded to the now Chimera-less pilot

2008.01.27 14:08:00

Victim: Martin866
Alliance: Shadow Rock Alliance
Corp: Hitec Mining Corp
Destroyed: Chimera
System: Eifer
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 783195

Involved parties:

Name: DeathStar
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Unknown
Weapon: Dual Giga Pulse Laser I
Damage Done: 233661

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 142961

Name: Kane Rizzel (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Alliance: Derek Knows Us
Corp: NovaKane Incorporated
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 128213

Name: Redbad
Security: -9.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Tempered Steel Legion
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 89640

Name: SAVAGExxxWARRIOR
Security: -9.5
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Mean Corp
Ship: Dominix
Weapon: Ogre II
Damage Done: 63510

Name: Grunanca
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: Vagabond
Damage Done: 63046

Name: Muelac
Security: -10.0
Alliance: NONE
Corp: BLACK-FLAG
Ship: Huginn
Weapon: Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 43942

Name: Tenchuu Khaan
Security: -9.8
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Hellequin Inc.
Ship: Jaguar
Weapon: Jaguar
Damage Done: 18222

Destroyed items:

Heavy Shield Maintenance Bot I, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
Capacitor Power Relay II, Qty: 2
Acolyte TD-300, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Corpse (Cargo)
Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I
Explosion Dampening Field II
Mining Drone I, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
Nitrogen Isotopes, Qty: 8440 (Cargo)
Capacitor Control Circuit I, Qty: 3
Hornet I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)
Liquid Ozone, Qty: 50 (Cargo)
Valkyrie I (Drone Bay)
Capital Shield Booster I
Warp Core Stabilizer I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Improved Cloaking Device II
Templar Blueprint (Cargo)
Photon Scattering Field II
Medium Shield Maintenance Bot I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I

Dropped items:

Capacitor Power Relay II
Mining Drone I, Qty: 6 (Drone Bay)
Wasp I, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)
Drone Control Unit I
Hornet I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Ballistic Deflection Field II
Shield Boost Amplifier I
Valkyrie I (Drone Bay)
F-90 Positional Sensor Subroutines
Heat Dissipation Field I
Light Armor Maintenance Bot I, Qty: 5 (Drone Bay)
Large Rudimentary Concussion Bomb I
Heavy Armor Maintenance Bot I, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)
Dragonfly, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)
Medium Shield Maintenance Bot I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I

A good kill and definitely one of opportunity.

The rest of the day involved some things I'll never do again, POS Shooting is not for me along with some strange gang mates later on it defintely wasn't one of my better days even though it showed so much promise later on.

I did a bit of solo roaming later on and almost got a Caracal but he got out of range.
Disappointed I headed home and headed straight for my bunk.

I dream of better days

The Fifth Elephant

Eifer, a system I call my haunt, no stations and the entry system to a lowsec pocket in Heimatar.

It's like a home to me, I feel very comfortable here, more so than in any station system. It can also be very dangerous for the unsuspecting as it's neighboring highsec system of Emolgranlan can hide nasty suprises. The past eight months have brought me many good memories in Eifer and qite a few losses too but it's the first stop on any hunt I start. Tonight was such a night and as I sat above belt 1-1 I was at peace. I had undocked “The Lost Continent”, a Republic Fleet Firetail and decided to do some frigate hunting.

Now Eifer can either be feast or famine and tonight it was quiet to begin with, just the usual mindless zombie haulers moving back and forth appearing on my on board scanner. Eventually the monotony was broken by a Sacrilege Heavy Assault Cruiser. Now this particular ship is dangerous but the Firetail is quick and nimble, the Sacrilege would struggle to hit me, but by the same token it would be nigh impossible for me to do any significant damage to it. I did decide to have some fun with the HAC though as I was bored and there was nothing more enticing in system.

I warped in above 1-1 at 400km, the HAC was in the belt and I noticed he had increased speed and was closing on me, ok, let's see what you've got. By the time he got within 100km of me I changed course to intercept, spiraling in I got within 25km and settled into an easy orbit, my velocity at 4km/s meant his weapons systems would struggle to hit me. He locked me and I returned the favour, he launched a flight of tech 2 Warrior drones, inty killers but experience kept me calm and I started to target them and fire on them. He recalled them and redeployed as is standard tactic in that situation, all the while me orbiting him, this went on for a few minutes with me destroying a few drones and him seemingly oblivious to my presence. Bored of this I broke orbit and disengaged, he left without uttering a word.

I went back to HQ, I was bored and was looking for something a bit more challenging. It's not often I have the time to hunt on a weekend so I was looking to make the most of it.

I boarded “The Fifth Elephant” a Sleipnir class Command Battle cruiser and undocked, there were some friends out front the station, doing some testing, I joined in some tank testing which was good for me as this was the first time I had undocked the Sleipnir, I have never used an active shield tank before and this was a good way to find out how it fared, I took fire from two Megathron Battleships and was quite happy with the results.

After the Megas went there way I undocked once again to be greeted by a Scythe cruiser, it just sat there saying “Shoot me” so naturally I did, first blood for the Sleip, not the most glamorous of kills but sometimes a kill is a kill.

A short while later a call came over an intel channel of a Drake and Vagabond in Eifer, finally, a little action, I undocked and made best speed to the system, Jaxx Blackfox in a Megathron and general dogzbody in a Vagabond were engaging in belt 1-1, I set the nav coordinates into the ships computer and entered warp, in mere moments I burst out of warp right on top of the Drake, the target Vaga was nowhere to be seen, I initiated lock and primed all weapons systems, lock resolves and my 425s go to work. The fight didn't last long.

2008.01.27 01:16:00

Victim: Minoti Clor

Alliance: Brotherhood Of Steel

Corp: Net 7

Destroyed: Drake

System: Eifer

Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 28199

Involved parties:

Name: Kane Rizzel (laid the final blow)

Security: -10.0

Alliance: Derek Knows Us

Corp: NovaKane Incorporated

Ship: Sleipnir

Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Damage Done: 17939

Name: Jaxx Blackfox

Security: -9.6

Alliance: NONE

Corp: Mean Corp

Ship: Megathron

Weapon: Ogre I

Damage Done: 7786

Name: general dogzbody

Security: -9.9

Alliance: NONE

Corp: Mean Corp

Ship: Vagabond

Weapon: Warrior II

Damage Done: 1828

Name: Angel Defacer / Archangels

Damage Done: 646

Destroyed items:

Shield Power Relay I

Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 3

Fleeting Warp Scrambler I (Cargo)

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 21

Invulnerability Field I

Stasis Webifier I

Ballistic Control System II

Large Shield Extender II, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 2961 (Cargo)

Reactor Control Unit I

Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 4

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 28

Invulnerability Field I

Ballistic Control System II

Large Shield Extender II

Short and sweet, the target Vagabond warped in one more time but left in a hurry when he saw he was outmatched.

Minutes later I received intel of two Ruptures, a Thrasher and a Rifter sitting on the Eifer gate in Gusandall, I was docked at the time and decided to take Karma for a spin, the Hurricane quickly becoming my favourite ship, mixing tremendous firepower with a tank that can deal with most situations. I warped in on the gate and the marks were still there, I engaged, instantly drawing sentry fire along with the attentions of all four pilots, both Ruptures went down to Karma's guns all the while taking a tremendous pounding from the gate sentries. Deciding that the Thrasher and Rifter weren't worth losing a ship to I warped out with 50% hull integrity, a close call but well worth two kills. Soon afterwards I docked up to have my hangar crew inspect and repair the damage, it would take them a while to get the dents knocked out so I boarded the Sleip once more.

Keira during all this had positioned herself in Eifer, she reported that the Drake pilot from earlier was back in system, in a new Drake, accompanied by his Vagabond friend. I forwarded this information to an intel channel to see if anyone wanted to join the hunt, the lack of response unusual I decided to chance my luck. Keira had been using recon probes to try and vector in on there position and was getting good hits but they kept moving.

I had by this time jumped into system, perhaps showing my hand but nonetheless I was going to see this through. I got a call from Prediction Pain, an acquaintance I met in Independence, he notified me of his presence in system piloting a Falcon Recon Cruiser, a rather nasty ECM boat, one I personally have no love for but would probably need the assistance of in this engagement.

Keira's tenacity payed off as she had managed to probe out the marks safespot, moving into a position to allow me to warp right on top of the duo. I engaged my warp engines and the massive bulk of the commandship was flung though space. I burst out of warp right on top of them, initiating lock on both the Drake and Vagabond. I primaried the Drake and engaged all systems on it. I was taking an amazing amount of damage from the pair and lucky for me Prediction had got the go signal in the fleet channel and had joined the party, the Falcon locking both targets and jamming them to Jita and back. It was fortunate for me that he did as my tank was taking strain, the extra large shield repairer chewing through cap like a fat kid at a buffet, the cap booster struggling to keep up. The drakes shields were failing under the assualt of my guns and when they did it was over in the blink of an eye. The Vagabond took this as his cue to leave but left us with the spoils of a good fight.

2008.01.27 02:33:00

Victim: Minoti Clor

Alliance: Brotherhood Of Steel

Corp: Net 7

Destroyed: Drake

System: Eifer

Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 32978

Involved parties:

Name: Kane Rizzel (laid the final blow)

Security: -10.0

Alliance: Derek Knows Us

Corp: NovaKane Incorporated

Ship: Sleipnir

Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Damage Done: 32947

Name: Angel Ambusher / Archangels

Damage Done: 31

Name: Prediction Pain

Security: -2.3

Alliance: NONE

Corp: Independent Pilots

Ship: Falcon

Weapon: ECM - Ion Field Projector II

Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Shield Power Relay I

Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 3

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 57

Stasis Webifier I

Ballistic Control System II

Large Shield Extender II, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 1751 (Cargo)

Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 4

Power Diagnostic System I

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 76

Invulnerability Field I, Qty: 2

Hammerhead I, Qty: 3 (Cargo)

Ballistic Control System II

Large Shield Extender II

Thanks to Prediction for the assistance, much appreciated.

Later on I decided on some good old fashioned Rifter Violence and managed to pop a Thrasher who was hunting Angel Cartel ships in the belts.

I then spotted something very curious on my scanner, an Exquror class cruiser and Rifter in a belt, I was intrigued and set my sights on the pair, bursting out of warp I was greeted by the sight of the Exquror mining... yes... I said mining, with the Rifter as a sort of security, oh well, I primed my tackling equipment, locked the cruiser and closed in, the Rifter locked me and started firing, so I returned the favour, keeping the warp disruptor on the cruiser as that was my prize, the Rifter started venting gas into space as it's hull was breached and it decided that it was time to leave, leaving me all alone with the now defenseless mining cruiser. It was a bloodbath as it's hull split in two and exploded, my targeting systems quickly locking the escape pod and my guns liberating the body inside.

I was later convoed by the Rifter pilot and we had quite an amicable chat on Rifter fittings and tactics for lowsec survival. He expressed an interest in Piracy which is always good, it's always good to have new faces trying to make a name for themselves.

Heading home I reflect on a quiet night but one where getting back the sharpness of solo hunting felt great. I docked at HQ and the Hangar chief notified me that Karma was back to fully operational status, I dismissed the crew for the night and headed to the corner of the hangar where my bunk welcomed me, my eyes barely open as exhaustion overwhelms me.

The world fades into darkness

As always my work can be seen here

Chaos Inflicted

Tonight was a bit strange, doing some paperwork in my hangar I see general dogzbody giving intel in a private channel.

Putting aside the cursed forms which seem to be multiplying at an exponential rate I look to see what's happening

[ 2008.01.25 23:19:46 ] general dogzbody > blob on the ingunn gate in gult

[ 2008.01.25 23:19:54 ] general dogzbody > bb jamming

[ 2008.01.25 23:20:08 ] general dogzbody > brutix drake

[ 2008.01.25 23:21:08 ] general dogzbody > clone

[ 2008.01.25 23:22:11 ] general dogzbody > fight to be had 2 jumps away ill spell it out

[ 2008.01.25 23:23:53 ] general dogzbody > so who,s up for fighting this blob anyone ???

[ 2008.01.25 23:24:47 ] general dogzbody > ingunn gate in gult
[ 2008.01.25 23:24:59 ] general dogzbody > drake brutix clone bb
[ 2008.01.25 23:25:09 ] general dogzbody > few other small things

[ 2008.01.25 23:25:21 ] Kane Rizzel > I'm game
[ 2008.01.25 23:25:35 ] 50freefly > ah hell im in

Looking at my options in the hangar I settle on Karma, my trusty Hurricane. This is the second iteration of Karma as the first died to some anti pirates a few weeks back, but that story and the tale of it's many adventures is for another time.

Making my way towards Ingunn we hastily set up a small gang of dogz in his Typhoon, 50freefly in a Deimos and myself. We weren't quite sure where the targets were or what the total composition of there force was but we were up for a fight. Our only definite plan was to primary the Blackbird when we engaged.

Our communication wasn't very good as we were all in different spots in Ingunn. I noticed a Cyclone battlecruiser parked at a planet and warped in to say hi, bursting out of warp I was greeted with the familiar targeting reticle on my overview, it went from yellow to red in a split second and I returned the favour, opening up with the mighty 425mm Autocannons, I launched a flight of drones and so did the Cyclone. I had given the go signal in fleet channel and would shortly be joined by dogz and 50. My overview started blinking as the Cyclones friends came out of warp on our position and the game was truly on. My support arrived just as the Cyclone gave up and flashed as it exploded. Being the first in I was primaried by the opposing force but was holding my own. Dogz and 50 had joined and the party really got going. Blackbird, then Stabber, Curse, Brutix and finally the Drake all died for zero losses on our side.

Midway through the fight I had to warp out due to being primary but I quickly warped back in to help finish the fight.

We should never have cleaned up as we did as our communication was poor and our DPS was diluted between targets for much of the fight but the fact that we did is testament to experience and us knowing what needed to be done. I only made it onto the Cyclone, Brutix and Drake killmails, the Cyclone being solo but all in all a good job by our small gang

Props to the Chaos Affliction pilots, it was a good fight, nice and clean.

There were one or two hints of more action later but unfortunately they were nothing more than hints, so calling it a night I headed home.

It's been a long day and my bunk looks very comfortable, hopefully tomorrow will be filled with explosions.

Firetail of Doom

Waking up on the floor of my hangar with a pounding in my head is never a good sign.
All I remember is walking into Independence bar and it all went fuzzy as I imbibed some concoctions which are or bloody well should be illegal in some systems.

The cold hangar floor sobers me up enough to recognize I didn't quite make it to my bunk.
Oh well, nothing clears the head like a spot of Piracy. Looking around the hangar my eyes fall on the Republic Fleet Firetail that Keira bought, the name "The Lost Continent" carefully inscribed on the side. Oh well, might as well use it or as I assumed, suicide it.

It had already tasted action the previous night as I engaged a Breacher class frigate. The Breacher didn't offer much resistance and I added another meat popsicle to the collection.

Undocking and heading to my favourite haunt, there were reports of a Rifter gang in the area, maybe if I was lucky I would run into them.
A Bellicose cruiser had appeared on scan and I quickly narrowed it down to a belt, bursting out of warp, my warp disruptor primed I engaged the Minmatar cruiser. The shield systems of the Belli melted and soon it was in armour. I made a mistake at this point and drifted out of warp disruption range and the Bellicose pilot took this failure on my part as his que to leave, which he did. A missed opportunity and showed me I was rusty, need to hunt solo more often, sharpen up so that such mistakes don't happen again.

A few minutes later a report came in of the Bellicose pilot being destroyed sitting on a gate. Oh well, somebody got the kill.

Later on I spotted another Bellicose on scan, a different pilot but he was accomponied by two Rifter pilots. Oh well, best to give it a shot I thought as I threw the Firetail into warp. Entering the belt I found one Rifter and the wreck of the Bellicose, mmm. Time to crash the party, I engaged the Rifter and pretty soon he was deep into armour. Just then another Rifter burst out of warp and I thought they were together but the latest addition to the tango engaged the first Rifter. The first goes down and it's just the last and I, I naturally engage and soon another wreck is added to the belt. Quickly looting I got out of the belt as some Angels were trying to introduce me to the cold black.

Fortune smilled on me as I got another crack at the first Bellicose that escaped due to my mistake but this time he went down hard to the combined firepower of my Firetail and Deathstar's Vengeance. Satan's Minion lost his pod too for his trouble.

Hanging out in system I spotted a Caracal on scan, he was sitting in a safespot so I would be hard pressed to engage. Just then Deathstar, a pilot from Mean Corpv gave me a call saying he had scanned out the Caracal and asked if I wanted to help take it down, Death was in a Falcon so his offensive capabilities were very low. I of course said yes and primed my nav systems to Deathstar's position. Bursting out of warp right on top of the Caracal must have given its pilot an emergency pants moment. I engaged, Warp Disruptor active, guns engaged, and missile batteries firing, settling into an orbit around the Caracal. A moment later I lost lock and the Caracal warped away.
"AAAAAAAARG STABS" I yelled at no-one in particular, I kicked out in frustration and think I may have broken something. Oh well, I had spotted a Rifter on scan and decided to take my frustrations out on the poor pilot.

I came out of warp right on top of the pilot and opened up with everything, soon his ship was reduced to a wreck, his pod was snapped up for good measure (He was a very young pilot but I wanted to kill something and this is as close to kicking a puppy as it gets in this universe)
Later in convo with the pilot after he recloned in a station many systems away, I found out he had just spent his entire fortune on implants, oh well, I'm a Pirate, not the Salvation Army, I did give him some fitting tips and went on my merry.

Last mark of the evening was a Stabber pilot, I wanted another kill so vectored in on him and engaged, Deathstar had just come out of warp as the Stabber warped away.
"STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBS"
We got a second chance at him but it was futile as the cursed Warp Core Stabilisers would allow him to warp out at will, this time though he warped out and left system.

All in all, not a spectacular evening and the Firetail survives yet another night, wonder how long it will last. I dock at HQ and feel the hangover creeping up on me, probably a good time to hit the sack. I lie down, the darkness overwhelms me and I slink into a deep sleep.
Dreams of space and epic battles take over my consciousness.

Pie haters and the love for ECM

Last night saw a rag tag bunch engage Capital Storm pilots in Gusandall, our home system.
Our ship compliment of Hyperion, Brutix, Hurricane, Rapier and Rupture versus Raven, Maelstrom, Basilisk, Hound and Falcon.

Primary was the Basilisk as the tanking capabilities of the Maelstrom and Raven are boosted massively by the logistics ship. Hopefully we would be able to drop it before the Falcon came into play with it's myriad of Electronic Counter Measures. We were succesful in dropping the Basilisk, in doing so losing a Brutix. Primary was shifted towards the Raven and our remaining ships closed in.

Getting the Raven down to half shields as the Falcon uncloaked and started to get cycles on us, effectively removing us from the fight and forcing us to disengage.

Two of us had gotten close to the Falcon to force him to cloak but in doing so had spread out and diluted our firepower on the primary. we made the mistake of all trying to get back in on primary, allowing the Falcon to uncloak and start cycling its jammers again.

With us unable to lock targets the order was given to disengage, which we all did.

The duration of the fight lasted for about 10 minutes with both sides losing only one ship, disappointing to say the least.

Sitting in my bunk, watching the video feed from the engagement reinforces my hate of EWar.
Sure it's a viable tactic but I feel it's too easy. The Falcon is a massive force multiplyer and I'm wracking my Sibby brain to come up with counter measures. I just don't like the fact that one ship can effectively nullify multiple ships in a fight. It's even more potent in small gang engagements like we find ourselves in.

One which we have been succesful with is forcing the Falcon to disengage by getting on top of it and forcing drone aggro, unfortunately to do this means diluting firepower. Using dedicated means to force the Falcon to disengage has the same result.
Of course bringing our own ECM to the fight just means we perpetuate the stupidity and is something I'm loathe to do.

Personally I prefer a stand up fight, guns blazing but I must give props to Capital Storm, a good bunch of pilots, sure they are Anti Pie, but are amongst the better Pie haters I've fought against.
Zero smack and respect at the end of a fight.
Props too to Deltauk1, the Falcon pilot, his skills are keeping me awake at night trying to figure out a way to effectively remove him from any future engagements.
I'll get you... and you're little Falcon too ;)

How can anyone not like Pie

My evening started with Keira bringing something into the hangar that I did not expect. A Republic Fleet Firetail. Double U tee Eff woman. I had sent her to Rens to pick up some Republic Fleet Gyrostabilisers. All I got from her was “If you don't like what I buy then maybe you should go to highsec and get it yourself... oh wait, you can't” and she stormed off.

So I loaded the Firetail up with some bits and pieces that were lying about and took off to see if there was any hot action about, hanging out in my local haunt I heard news of anti pirates in Ingunn. The most shocking thing about this news was the source.

50freefly is one of the few anti pirates I respect, straight up and never dishonored a 1v1. A few weeks back I saw him in local and heard he was turning towards the dark side and had joined Blood Corsairs. Seeing him in our intel channel was a surprise but a pleasant one. I raced back to HQ to grab Karma, my Hurricane class battlecruiser, joining the fleet I moved all haste to 50s position where he was engaging Miriablis in a Maelstrom and Darktour in a Drake. Both these pilots are highly skilled and there Alliance has been a thorn in the area for a few weeks now,

Darktour was primary and with the combined firepower of 50 in his Megathron, myself in Karma and Gbutterz in a Tempest, the Drakes impressive tank winked out of existence.

We changed our focus towards the Maelstrom and I know from previous engagements that Miri's tank is epic. Thing is, it was breaking but unfortunately for us he docked and I don't blame him. These guys fight with little to no smack which is rare for anti pies.

2008.01.20 23:49

Victim: DARKTOUR

Alliance: Capital Storm

Corp: UNITED KINGDOM MAYHEM

Destroyed: Drake

System: Ingunn

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 72411

Involved parties:

Name: 50freefly (laid the final blow)

Security: -9.8

Alliance: Blood Blind

Corp: Blood Corsair's

Ship: Megathron

Weapon: Electron Blaster Cannon II

Damage Done: 32026

Name: kerjin

Security: -10.0

Alliance: None

Corp: Bullfire

Ship: Unknown

Weapon: Dual 425mm 'Scout' Autocannon I

Damage Done: 26405

Name: Kane Rizzel

Security: -10.0

Alliance: Derek Knows Us

Corp: NovaKane Incorporated

Ship: Hurricane

Weapon: Hurricane

Damage Done: 11661

Name: GButterz

Security: -9.4

Alliance: None

Corp: Mean Corp

Ship: Tempest

Weapon: Tempest

Damage Done: 2319

Destroyed items:

Thunderbolt Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 62

Scourge Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 62

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Prototype Cloaking Device I

Invulnerability Field II

Large Shield Extender II

Shield Power Relay II

Shield Power Relay II

Vespa EC-600, Qty: 6 (Cargo)

Warp Core Stabilizer I, Qty: 2 (Cargo)

Republic Fleet Phased Plasma L, Qty: 266 (Cargo)

Core Defence Field Purger I, Qty: 3

Dropped items:

Thunderbolt Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 62

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Heavy Missile Launcher II

Scourge Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 31

Invulnerability Field II

Large Shield Extender II

Large Shield Extender II

Warp Disruptor II

Shield Power Relay II

Shield Power Relay II

Scourge Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 4007 (Cargo)

Thunderbolt Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 3582 (Cargo)

Scan Resolution (Cargo)

I had moved back to HQ when some juicy intel had appeared. There was a lone Drake sitting in a deep safespot in a system nearby. I gave Keira a call to see if she would lend a hand in tracking him down. Begrudgingly she obliged and moved her Cheetah Covops to the system. In a short space of time she had located the Drake and was moving into position to allow me to warp right on top of it.

Almost there the Drake warped off and docked in station, damn. Keira didn't panic though, neither was she aggrieved as she had already started tracking another Hurricane, pretty soon she gave me the go ahead saying “Don't screw this up”

Bursting out of warp, 20km from the Hurricane I activated my tackling systems and proceeded to lock the Hurricane. Lock resolves and it's game on, moving into range if my guns I open up with numerous salvos, drones are launched and we dance. His shields melt which lead me to believe he has armor tanked, I activate energy neutralizers which interfere with the power of the targeted vessel and pretty soon his reppers shut down. The fight is mine, he did very well and did massive damage to my shield systems but his ship exploded before they were breached.

“Good Fight” was exchanged in local and I went home

2008.01.21 01:47:00

Victim: Drogrum

Alliance: NONE

Corp: The Malevolent

Destroyed: Hurricane

System: Sotrenzur

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 22298

Involved parties:

Name: Kane Rizzel (laid the final blow)

Security: -10.0

Alliance: Derek Knows Us

Corp: NovaKane Incorporated

Ship: Hurricane

Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Damage Done: 22298

Destroyed items:

Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I

'Malkuth' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I

Initiated Warp Jammer I

Fulmination Assault Missile, Qty: 74

X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator

1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I

Medium Armor Repairer II

Medium Capacitor Booster I

N-Type Thermic Hardener I

EMP M, Qty: 184

220mm Medium Prototype I Automatic Cannon, Qty: 5

Dropped items:

Y-S8 Hydrocarbon I Afterburners

Fulmination Assault Missile, Qty: 202 (Cargo)

'Malkuth' Heavy Assault Missile Launcher I

N-Type Explosive Hardener I

EMP M, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)

N-Type Kinetic Hardener I

EMP M, Qty: 93

220mm Medium Prototype I Automatic Cannon

My ship board cameras captured the fight and hopefully soon I'll be able to release this footage

Sitting in station a distress call comes in over intel channels, a fellow pirate has been engaged by hostiles outside a station, his tank was failing and he was too far to dock so a few of us made all haste to his position. When we arrived the two hostiles engaging bugged out.

Rescue accomplished.

Earlier in the evening I had scouted an offline POS at a moon in my local haunt and decided I would undock my Tempest, I was bored and targets were few and far between, I engaged the POS and shot at it for about 15 seconds until the novelty wore off. So I decided to dock at HQ. As I came out of warp, I tripped over a Stabber cruiser trying to dock.

2008.01.21 02:24:00

Victim: Tallitar

Alliance: NONE

Corp: 101st Space Marine Force

Destroyed: Stabber

System: Gusandall

Security: 0.4

Damage Taken: 3912

Involved parties:

Name: Kane Rizzel (laid the final blow)

Security: -10.0

Alliance: Derek Knows Us

Corp: NovaKane Incorporated

Ship: Tempest

Weapon: Dual 650mm Repeating Artillery II

Damage Done: 2771

Name: Muelac

Security: -10.0

Alliance: NONE

Corp: BLACK-FLAG

Ship: Typhoon

Weapon: Typhoon

Damage Done: 1141

Destroyed items:

'Malkuth' Standard Missile Launcher I (Cargo)

1MN Afterburner I

150mm Light AutoCannon I

Titanium Sabot L, Qty: 500 (Cargo)

200mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun

'Malkuth' Assault Missile Launcher I

280mm Prototype I Siege Cannon (Cargo)

200mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon (Cargo)

Depleted Uranium S, Qty: 11

200mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, Qty: 3 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Large Shield Booster II

'Arbalest' Assault Missile Launcher

Defender I, Qty: 72

Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 100 (Cargo)

200mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun

Counterbalanced Weapon Mounts I

Nuclear S, Qty: 82

Warp Core Stabilizer I

Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 17

200mm Light Prototype I Automatic Cannon (Cargo)

Carbonized Lead L, Qty: 99 (Cargo)

280mm Prototype I Siege Cannon

Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 213 (Cargo)

Long Range Targeting (Cargo)

Defender I, Qty: 27 (Cargo)

Electronics Upgrades (Cargo)

Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 180 (Cargo)

Sorry dude, you were in my way.

Rest f the evening was pretty much a washout, Hunted a stabbed Machariel, Megathron and Blackbird gang. The Machariel docked up and we camped him in station for a bit until a large Roadkill gang arrived and chased us off station. We offered them a 5 of us vs 6 of them fight, no ECM but they declined and left.

Another slow night, I returned to HQ, tired from a long day.

I think I'll just have a shower and hit my bunk, hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting

A curious conversation...

Friday night and I'm sitting in my hangar tying up some business interests, I have a migraine behind my left eye, a result of one too many cloning vat visits, the painkillers are taking there sweet time in going to work and I'm slightly stressed after a long day. No hunting tonight, too much inventory to sort through to be moved to highsec markets. Stuff just accumulates so quickly, the Tech 2 and better quality mods are separated from the chaff which is melted down into there mineral components.
This stuff should fetch a nice profit in Rens, well, technically it's all profit as I didn't pay for any of it

Keira is out shopping, she loves to shop, of course it's not just for her. She's picking up a hull and gear for me.
At one point tonight she'd traveled as far as Jita, a system full of the most vile and ruthless beings in this verse, also the place where the best deals on ships systems is to be had.

My left eye is throbbing with intense pain, I feel like stabbing the thing out, it'll be back next time I clone, I'm distracted by a buzzing coming from the vidphone near the hangar door. The blast doors as always closed for security reasons, being a pirate makes you lots of enemies.

I walk over to the vidphone and hit the green button:

[ 2008.01.19 01:51:43 ] Kane Rizzel > sup
[ 2008.01.19 01:52:29 ] Howaway1982 > May help me to hit a fight? I may give you very many money
[ 2008.01.19 01:55:09 ] Howaway1982 > miss;shipyard thef
[ 2008.01.19 01:55:31 ] Howaway1982 > 4 levels of fights

Alarm bells were ringing inside my head, not helping this stupid migraine. Checking the callers Bio it appears he's part of one of the many empire mega corps, Hedion University, He's very young to be flying level 4 combat missions and I'm sure I've seen him in a hauler before.

Now there's no love lost between the mission farmers of the area and I, I've jacked their ships on numerous occasions so this just smelled like trap to me. No-one in their right mind calls a known Pirate to help them out with a mission. Perhaps the mission farmers were tired of me crashing their party and had decided on revenge.

[ 2008.01.19 01:55:36 ] Kane Rizzel > sorry man, I don't run missions
[ 2008.01.19 01:56:31 ] Howaway1982 > I may give you the money
[ 2008.01.19 01:56:40 ] Kane Rizzel > I'm a Pirate, not a Mercenary
[ 2008.01.19 01:57:10 ] Kane Rizzel > I have enough isk, have a nice day

I hit the close button and the screen went blank. I scratch my head... curious. I dwell on it for a bit, thinking if it was a trap maybe I should have sprung it, suicided a battlecruiser and see how many I could take out. If only I could concentrate which is pretty much impossible at this time with my head seemingly about to explode. In hindsight I probably made the wise choice but for me it might not have been the right one, I loves me a good fight.

I'm drawn back to the here and now by a low rumbling sound coming from the docking bays, a huge Mammoth class industrial ship enters the hangar, Keira has arrived, always curious to me what all she flies, from small Cheetah covops all the way up to the mighty Fenrir Freighters. The sheer diversity of what she can fly is staggering. Ammar, Gallente and Minmatar, although mention Caldari and she starts to twitch slightly and starts mumbling things like “Aesthetics” and “Symmetry”

The massive cargo bay doors open and inside I see the hull of my new Sleipnir class Commandship, surrounded by boxes full of mods and what appears to be a palette containing 5000 cans of sliced peaches. Damn woman, that's a lot of peaches.

My hangar crew offloads the cargo and goes to work fitting the Sleipnir, soon my new shiny, soon, we shall have many fun times together.

Keira is last to walk off the loading ramp of the Mammoth, carrying several bags filled with clothes and shoes. In the distance I can hear the corp wallet crying.

The painkillers kick in and numbness takes over my body, I slump into my hammock in the corner of the hangar and forget the worries of the verse, dreams of epic battles amongst the stars fill my mind.