It’s not all yarr, looting and drinking – although most of the time it is, but not always.  Like today for example, nothing but… well nothing and gatecamps although it did give me a chance to practice the latest set of skills streamed into my mind.  Although skillbooks provided an almost instant access to learning and certainly a lot quicker than the old fashioned pen and paper it still required some time to study, and to practice.

With that, I set about it.  I decided to roam a few systems and see if could find anyone to ransom or attack.  The small and frigate but extreamly high tech frigate slipped out of the docking bay and into the dark beyond, almost instantly dropping into warp and vanished.  “We’re clear of the station Ma’am” came the report, and with that I aligned the ship to our first destination since there wasn’t much going on in our current system.

The ship quietly and stealthily aligned to the gate and we were in warp once again.  Landing on the gate, I activated it and we were soon billions of miles from our original location in a new system.  The ident computers syncronished with the gate control and tactical systems were updated.  We headed to a safe spot ready to start the fun.  I had the skills, I practiced them in my mind.  I’d seen the tutorials and studied them but nothing was good as the real thing.  Finding something of interest on the direction scanner, I launched the probes and then swiftly re-cloaked, lest the hunter become the hunted.

Having got a few hits I quickly narrowed it down and was suddenly startled by one of my fellow corp mates on the comms “Is that your maelstrom on scan?” cut the voice through the silence.  I was so busy concentrating it caught me totally by surprise.  “No, but I’m trying to scan it down now”.  I’d quickly got the location, and was quickly narrowing it down – but not quick enough because the next scan releaved nothing, and local was missing a person.

Had I spooked him?  Had he finished?  I guess I’ll never know.  The probes were still 8au away, so unless he was scanning frequently on his directional and at a great distance I highly doubt he’d have seen them.  Shame, I was looking forward to a decent ransom.  I packed up and decided to keep wandering to see what else I could find, if indeed anything at all.  Jumping through into the next system I was confronted with a half filled over-view of red!

“Crap!” I cursed.  “How the hell did we not spot this earlier?” I demanded.  “Um, I’m not exactly sure Ma’am, they could have been moving around, recently arrived or it might not be a camp”.  Whilst maps and statistical data did give you a forewarning, they weren’t totally accurate and unless you were jumping with a scout then you’re pretty much jumping blind into the unknown.

In the first few seconds I visually scanned the overview and found nothing that could cause a problem, at least not too much of one.  It was mostly large, cumbersome ships and they’d have trouble getting hold of us.  As the seconds ticked by I was aware that the visual distortions that were keeping our ship hidden from view and from sensors were fading rapidly – it was a side effect of jumping through the gate.  Until such times as various particles had dissapated, your ship was essentially hidden from view or until your ship moved and collapsed the field.

Aligning to our destination gate we broke the “cloaking” field and were visible – for a split second.  For as soon as we were I initated our cloak.  The frigate shimmered and vanished into nothingness once more.  It took a couple more seconds until we were away, during which time I kept a close eye on the proximity of the hostiles but they were too far away to de-cloak us.

I ran into a couple more gatecamps that evening, again employing the same tactics it wasn’t any problem.  There were a lot of people out and about tonight, but not many on the upstanding side of the law.  Others, others like myself looking for their next victim.  Being outnumbered and in an unarmed ship meant the only viable option was stealth and subdifuge – which suited me just fine, being a fan of it.

We set course for home and ran into, surprise surpise another gate camp.  This time I was slightly more concerned due to the fact there was an interceptor present.  If the inty pilot was on his game, had seen the gate activate and had is overview properly filtered he could pretty much instalock us, although it would be a close call.  Failing that an interceptor can close the gap down in seconds and possibly de-cloak a ship about to enter warp before it does.  This time, we made good our escape.

I reported the camp to other friendlies who might be interested, although it seemed I bought part of my fan club with me and some had followed home.  They didn’t stay too long though :p

All in all I’m quite happy with the newest feather added to my cap.  It’s taken a bit of time, and a lot of patience but I’m confident that I can do it and do it well.  It also brings another valuable role and an invaluable tool to the piracy arsenal.  On to the next…..