The what!?!, The Enyo and the rust…

A few false scans, a few escapes, a few missed targets and then it was suddenly there.  Like a sledgehammer in my face, then Enyo frigate was chewing through my shields quickly before I’d had time to come to my senses after my extended EVE break.  “I really must have a word with those cloning techs” I mumble to myself.  We were locked in a grapple which would end with one of us being destroyed, and I was sure as hell I wasn’t going to let it be me.

Moments earlier I’d just jumped into the system and warped to my partner-in-crime.  We were on a practice run for things to come, and this system seemed a good place.  What mattered was that it was getting me back in shape, scratching away the rust like sand paper on steel.  The crew were called to “Action Stations” and all ships systems were ready and waiting - some were already enabled in preparation for the battle.  I’d noticed a few nervous glaces exchanged between members of the bridge crew, no doubt sensing my slight hesitations and reservations.

We’d seem him around, the Enyo, and I was going to tackle and tank the initial wrath from the potent little frigate in my T1 Cruiser.  Warping in, he was over 50km away.  I fired the afterburners and made for his ship as fast as possible.  Initally the gap closed and the kilometers ticked down - then it stopped and he kept pace with me.  No dobut his nimble frigate easily keeping up with my Vexor burning it’s precious cap away to close the distance.

A Vexor!?! Yes, A Vexor! Not my usual type of ship, but during my absence I decided to brush up on a few other skills :D  The ship was a tough little cruiser, fitted nicely with T2 gear and all the relevant skills in order to make it work as efficiently as possible.

Opening a comm channel I state; “He’s keeping pace, matching my speed” I said.  “Do I continue or warp away?”.  Moments later the reply came “Wait and see what he does, a little longer”.  I confirmed.

As if reading our minds the potent frigate came about and sped towards me, the kilometers now decreasing rapidly.  No doubt failing to check any records, not checking his data accuratley combined with the taste of a juicy “easy kill” Vexor he was eager to engage.  “Am I shooting?” I asked, knowing that 21km was the limit, which was fast approaching. 

“How far?”

“Nearly 21km I replied”

“Tackle”

“Ok, here we go… warp to me”

That’s when, moments later the sledgehammer struck my T1 cruiser.  The shields were at about 40% before I came to my senses from a shell-shocked daze, trying to remember what to do.  I know this, I’ve done this, I wanted to do what I knew but my mind wasn’t quite keeping pace with events unfolding.  The sandpaper of my mind was forced a little harder against the steel of my mind.  “Lauch drones!” I yelled, followed by another order a few moments later “Ready the tackling gear and engage at optimal ranges”.  The crew complied and drones launched, hurtling towards their target.  The tackling gear disabled the Enyo’s warp drive and caused his sub-light drives to have severe thrust problems.  He wasn’t going anywhere!

“Ma’am, our warp drive has been disabled” reported one of the crew.  “We’ll have to fight our way out” I replied with a broad grin across my face.

His missles, blasters and single drone were making short work of the shields - but I was expecting that and ready to engage my armour resists when the time was right - again I was slightly slow.  “Armour!” I yelled as we hit about 95%.  I should have already given the order at low shields ready for the cycle, but a few percent wouldn’t matter… hopefully…

The dance of death had started.  I wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he - we were both warp jammed.  Realising my armour was running low, I hit the repper which provided a massive boost but sucked the cap badly.  Although he didn’t know, he was already dead for I had an ace up my sleeve.  The ace was in the form of a large battleship already in warp to my position.

Weapons fire continued to be exchanged and I was holding my own.  The Enyo was getting back more than it was dishing out, but that was down to my 5 T2 drones which were chewing it up nicely.  I forget the exact readings, but in a continued exchange I think I’d have pulled it off, just and just.

The Domi arrived as my cap ran out.  Checking the systems I cursed myself and realised I’d left the afterburner on when it wasn’t really needed at this stage.  Then almost, like magic, I was back.  Managing the cap, pulsing the modules, switching systems on and off as required.  Even the weapons had to be switched off to save cap for a few moments to get the warp jammer running again.  He wasn’t aligned, so wasn’t going anywhere, I knew a couple of seconds would be fine.  The drones would continue to provide my DPS rather than the turrets, which were there for more psycholoigcal purposes.

“Take his drone”

 It insta-popped as we attacked it.

 The shell shock was there again, as I fiddled with my drones trying to re-call them as my FC requested I stop attacking.  I’d grouped them, into light and heavy.  This combined with my return to eve, semi-ready overview and rust coated ability meant he was down to about 2% structure before I’d finally ceased firing.

“Stop attacking”

“Ok, stopped”

 The battleship loomed over the helpless frigate, which was still firing upon me.  He was also jammed by the BS and I’d managed to regain some cap, although the repper was off the resists were on and the Enyo was still making dents in my Vexor. I opted for the cautious approach and warped away to regain some cap and make repairs whilst in warp.

“I’ve got to go, I’m hull tanking here”

“Rgr” 

“Come back, or wait here?”

“Warp to 20km”

“Omw”

I returned to the scene to see debris scattered across space.  The once potent and vicious frigate reduced to scrap metal, escaping gas and wrecked components.

Compliance was not an option, it was the only route available.  My battle scarred Vexor was recoving well as the pod was dual jammed.  The ship structure was severely weakend, bits of wrecked components littered the bridge and corridors but the armour and shields were back up and at full capacity.  We were good to go for another run if needed.

Our comms channel was already open as we invited the disabled pod to join us.

“Your pod is being ransomed, please comply”

“Shoot or don’t shoot is your choice” he replies.

~Comms close~

 My drones are once more released from their bay and orbit awaiting their next instruction. I engage the drones, but before they can reach their target…

“The drones were unable to complete their last command, as the target was no longer present.”

A small flash and debris little the darkness, and a familiar squishing sound.

Hello! It’s good to be back!

A little time for RL…

So you’ve probably been wondering where I am, where I’ve been and what in New Eden has happened to me.  I’ll take a few moments to explain…

I’ve not been online or on EVE very much/at all lately.  To be honest, I’ve not had the inclination or the will to at the moment.  Why?  Well an immediate family member recently had a near and close brush with the afterlife.  Luckily they were not too seriously hurt and are doing fine now.

It’s times like these that make you sit back and re-evaluate things.  Not to mention getting over the whole shock and distress of it all.  So I’ve taken a little time out for RL, because you only get one and this incident made me realise how thin and fragile that link to mortality really is.

Probably a bit deep and philosophical for this time of the day, but nonetheless it explains my recent absence and lack of presence in New Eden.

I’ll be around, off and on in the *very* near future and intend to get back into the “swing of things” but I’ll be making sure RL also gets a good dose of attention.

Thank you to everyone who reads the blog, and for your patience. 

See you soon!

Fly safe,

Alia

Impending blog update

One word…. “Holiday”.  Holiday translates to;

No EVE

A long skill in training

No blog update

Grumpy Alia

Anyway, back to business now

I’m writing a couple of posts now, so keep your eyes peeled for rambling shortly.

Alia

I love this reply

I was looking around the EVE online main forum and stumbled across a thread that is now long since closed which I had made a comment on.

The discussion was the difference between a PvP’er and a Pirate. I couldn’t help but make at least one comment. It wasn’t to troll or anything like that, I just wanted to give my over opinionated opinion - so I did just that. Normally if I am trying to “stir it up” (aka trolling I guess) I’ll write something provocative or controversial.

It wasn’t my post that I liked, but the response someone wrote in reply to it. Anyway, without further a do, here’s the post (my original is in pink italics, the response is yellow normal text):

Originally by: Alia Xi
——————————————————————————–
Edited by: Alia Xi on 16/12/2007 19:13:29
Hello everyone, my name is Alia Xi and I’m a pirate. Thank you for having me at Pirates Anonymous

If you consider any of the following piracy, then I guess I qualify;

Shooting “innocent” people
Ganking
Baiting
Ransoming peoples ships
Not ransoming peoples ships
Looting wrecks, mine or otherwise
Tanking sentry guns whilst laughing and shooting haulers
Podding the pilots

I do it for money, and because it’s funny and I enjoy it.

Yarrrr!

I don’t care, I’m a pirate - simple, no problem admitting it. I’m not going to hide behind so-called “morals” and pretend to be the goodie goodie “anti pirate”. You are all just wolves in sheeps clothing and really want to be like us!

To that extent, here’s a snippet of a local convo - very funny:

G***** F** > wow, this hoarder really wallows when she is full
Alia Xi > mmmm nice full cargo holds ~licks lips~
G***** F** > *blush*
Alia Xi > lol… quite safe… you’re in 0.5 and i’m not in my BC :p

Oh if only, if only… my mind still wonders what delights were inside

Yarrr!

/me points and screams hysterically “aaahhh anti pirates be here!!” then warps away
——————————————————————————–

This is my favorite post so far in this thread. This………is an honest pirate. I trust this pirate to be a pirate and nothing but a pirate, so long as she wants to be a pirate. Perhaps she has other characters that are not in the pirate role and plays them differently, but this one she plays as a pirate.

The point is, this character is a pirate and she’s not pretending to be something other than a scurvy scourge of space. The honesty is to be admired and is far less chicken**** than those pirates who pretend to hold themselves to a high moral code of some sort. It’s hilarious when someone who holds a gun to your head and demands your money says, “trust me, I’m honest and of high moral fiber”. Yeah, right. You can get more moral fiber from breakfast cereal.

Kudos to you, Alia Xi.

Why do I like it? Well it’s always nice to get a compliment, but that’s not the main reason. There were plenty of things in my post which were on the edge of being provocative but this guy decided not to attack me, or them, but instead decided that it was a good truth. The best and main reason I like it is because the description of me, a pirate, is “a scurvy scourge of space” - it’s just brilliant! Kudos to you too Sir!

I’ve made no qualms about being a pirate, because it’s who I am and what I do. I can admit it, accept it and live with it. I don’t have a guilt pang after destroying a ship or popping a pod, because I’ve accepted that is something I am quite capable of. I have no need to justify it to myself or anyone else, therefore I have no need to deny or conceal who and what I am.

Link to the original post http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=660697&page=2#56

I thought it might be a good idea to copy the transcript here incase the forums are ever cleaned up - otherwise none of this would make much sense :p

There will always be difference of opinions on what a pirate is, what a PvP’er is and so on. Personally I consider myself a pirate. Not down to security status, bounty or anything like that but due to the way I choose to live and play EVE.

Final thought: “Jack: me…i’m dishonest and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest…honestly its the honest ones you have to watch out for” - You have to love that quote

Time for me to be moving along now….

Thoughts and things I must do…

As I sit back in my hanger after a brief break I take a few moments to think about where things might be going in the future, and my raison d’être. 

The hangar is vast, grey, empty and dull with the smell of machines and mechanical parts hanging in the air.  It’s reasonably bright, with a few flickering lights in the distance near the smaller frigates and my first destroyer - still intact and being serviced.  I glance across at my beloved Battlecruiser, the largest of my ships, and a wide sly grin spreads across my pale Caldari face.

The occasional clanging and banging as men go about their work, replacing, refitting and servicing.  I sit in what can only be described as a small tin office, the worktops scattered with paperwork, parts, data discs and chips.  I sit with my feet on the side, reclined in my comfortable leather chair, my State War Academy (oh the irony) jacket loosly buttoned as I absentmindedly fiddle with my journal.  My thoughts start to race….

I chose to be a Caldari pirate because initially I’d heard that they’re not great at PvP - well more specifically solo PvP. That could have just been a narrow selection of viewpoints however.

A lot of pirates that I meet and know are Minmatar. It’s not that surprising really considering it’s in Minmatar space, but I do wonder about people’s choices.  Minmater, rebellious, carefree.  Gallente, liberal, free, peaceful. Amarr, supercilious, arrogant. Caldari, ruthless, efficient, order.

The choice of race probably has a lot to do with the underlying person or at least their personality traits.  Maybe not even that, but a darker side of their self they want to embrace - so it’s possible their choice is the complete opposite of what they are really like.

Anyway, I digress.  I chose Caldari partly because of the aforementioned reasion - they’re so-called lack of PvP prowess (seems odd, huh? but I wanted to prove a point) and because a lot of the Caldari sentiments I approve of, whilst at the same time they fill me with dread (see above personality stuff).

So here I am.  A Caldari pirate, with no other skills than PvP.  Show me a mining barge and I’ll be scratching my head.  Show me a blue print and I’ll use it as a napkin.

Maybe in recent releases Caldari have become better for PvP - I can’t really say.  However compared to DPS tank to DPS dealt, Caldari can be considerably lower.  Not accounting for blasters at close range of course.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that whatever setup you have, it can be effective in a PvP situation.  It’ll take a few attempts to get it right, and you do have to vary it for different situations.  I don’t think there is *one* “right” way of doing things, there are many.  Just as there are many wrong ones.

On to the things I must do;

1. Choose another race of ships to fly.  Only one, because I don’t want to dilute my talent too far and become a JOAT (Jack Of All Trades)

2. Head out in groups more often.  Solo is nice, but a small fleet is even better fun.

3. Meet up with BF and Havo. See #2

4. Find some new hunting grounds

5. Train for more T2 equipment

6. Get onto EVE more often

Speaking of point 6, it’s been over a week since I’ve shot at something and I’m getting twitchy.  Hopefully the next blog post will have an interesting story to tell.

Happy yarring

Alia

Complex capers

A few days previous…. 

You’ve got to love complexes haven’t you?  There’s always (well usually) someone wandering around there ready to be another victim at any moment.

I was fleeted (gang’ed/X’d) with a friend who was doing some ratting.  He’s not a pirate, but I was in the area and he needed a hand.  His corp was empty, so a message popped up.  I wasn’t doing anything particularly exciting or useful so thought I’d join him.

I arrived to find him having a little trouble breaking the tank of a couple of the rats.  He was obviously PVE fitted, and I was PVP fitted.  It meant whilst he had the comfort of distance and a PVE setup, I had to go roaring in at almost point blank range to be effective.  I wasn’t in my “usual” ship or setup.

Firing on the rats and quickly popping them I floated towards the acceleration gate to go through to the next pocket whilst he headed to the wrecks to salvage them.  The beams of the gate grabbed my ship like tenticles wrapping themselves around a helpless victim and then slung it through deadspace into the next pocket.

After a few minutes of slow-boating my way towards the rats in the next pocket I got a panicky and somewhat confused message.  What had actually happened is a guy in a T2 frigate (a vengeance) had actually turned up and had looted the wrecks.  He was now orbiting my colleague with weapons locked.

“Don’t fire, warp out and I’ll come take a look” I said calmly.  “Whilst you’re there, give me his name too” I continued.  I wanted to see who he was and what sort information I could gather on him.  The name arrived, and punching up the info channel I found out all that I needed to know.  He was about 3 months old, in an NPC corp and in a T2 frigate.  He also seemed to like provoking people into fights - nicely done

Quickly running figures through my mind (whilst in warp out of the complex) I deduced that if he was in a T2 frigate that would have ate up a lot of training time.  Which lead me to the further conclusion that his weapons and tanking skills probably wouldn’t be up to scratch.

I was in a T1 Cruiser, with rigs and T2 fittings - A Moa infact.  Now before you fall about laughing, this little lovely can tank sentry guns with enough time to shoot haulers, grab the loot and be home in time for breakfast.  Plus it recently received a nice pressie from the Devs - an extra high slot Thank you CCP!

As I arrive at the planet I’d warp to, I head back towards the complex.  I’m pretty certain he’s not going to be too much of a problem - and I always have a gang mate to help.

Heading through the next gate I see the vengence at about 30km.  He’s flashing, so he’s looted pretty much all of the wrecks, including the couple I’ve popped.  I immediatley head right for him at maximum speed, getting ready to hit the warp jammers and webbers once he’s in range.  Then I notice the distance closing down *very* rapidly.  A check the tactical systems and he’s heading right for me too.

“Confident so and so aren’t we” I thought to myself.  I say to my colleage “Get ready to come back in on my next shout”.

The two ships hurtle towards each other, the range ticking down quickly.  I must admit I’m a little concerned as to this guys confidence, what’s he hiding, does he have something up his sleeve?  However I quickly reassure myself, going over the fit and specs of my ship and knowing I have additional firepower waiting at a moments notice.

The distance now sufficient, I engage the webbers and warp jammers.  He also warp jams me - so it seems neither of us are going anywhere.  At a few km out, rockets and lasers speed and slice through space striking my shields causing some minor fluctuations, however they continue to drop slowly due to the almost constant laser fire.  The rockets are pretty quick firing too, so they don’t help either.

“Now” I say to my colleage and he quickly confirms he’s on his way.

I’m staying calm, and want to make sure my friend doesn’t get popped - he’s not that old.  I open fire with a single missile launcher and a single blaster.  They impact pretty well, but hopefully nothing to worry him too much.  I want to be the primary - not the newbie…. Who suddenly bursts onto the scene.  “Start firing” I say.  He’s out of harms way pretty much and can give support from a safe distance.

My shields enter peak recharge rate, and the tank steadies.  Missiles from the supporting ship streak past me, slamming into the vengence who’s shields are now starting to drop.  I’d guess he was about 70-75%.

“Now time to start shooting, he’s hooked” I think.  Powering up the additional weapons slots and activating my nos I settle into a steady orbit - or at least attempt to.  However he’s also doing the same so it’s more like a dance of death with a deep space background.

My t2 blasters, loaded with t2 void charges and the missile slot loaded with precision missiles are no match for his shields were are quickly reduced to nothing.  The supporting cruiser firing volleys of missiles from a safe distance, now slamming into the weakening armour of the ship.

Raw energy rips from the blaster turrents, it’s deadly void charges striking well and slowly eating through the sturdy armour.  A few rep cycles help to sustain the tank, but it’s broken for sure.  I’m guessing the nos isn’t helping his tank one bit.

Slowly creeping down into structure, the ship beings to break apart.  Flames and oxygen spew from the multiple hull breaches and seconds later another volley of missiles and hybrid charges put an end to it’s existance.

I let my colleage loot and salvage the wreck, as he probably needs it more than I.  It’s also a nice way to say thank you for his support.

So all in all, not a bad fight at all.  His tank was certainly impressive for a young character, and he was indeed gutsy to throw himself headlong into a fight.  It’s one of the things you can quite ascertain for sure, your opponents strengths and weaknesses apart from throwing yourself in and finding out.

A good fight was had by all

Giving up piracy…

It’s a sad sad day, but I’ve decided that I’m going to give up piracy and settle into a corp.

APRIL FOOL! Kidding… Not a chance I’m giving this riot of a lifestyle up to go mining or missioning.  Were you worried there for a moment?

So why do I choose this lifestyle…. well I’ll come to that in a moment, but did you notice I use the word “lifestyle” rather than career?  Piracy isn’t exactly a career, it’s more a lifestyle.  Mining or researching is a career because outside of the jobs you can do other things - say for example missions or trading, even a bit of PVP if your skills allow.

No, piracy is much more than that.  I would say that it’s probably something within you (or not as the case may be).  You’re either able to ransom someone for every isk they have, or you can’t.  You can quite happily blow up a mining barge and pod the pilot for no good reason, or you can’t.

That sort of explains the “why” part for me, but now onto the “how”.  Being a pirate is more than a career, as I’ve said it’s either something you can or cannot do but outside of that it’s a lifestyle because when you’re not hunting someone you’re dodging the anit-pies coming after you.  When you’re not robbing someone, you’re being robbed by someone.

It’s a 24/7 constant and unending cycle, because there is no “clock off” option in this lifestyle.  You can’t simply say “I’ve done my pirating for the day, now I’m off mining” because the chances are another pirate will shoot you, somone out for revenge will catch you or the anti-pies will have a shoot-fest!

Going further than that though being a pirate gives certain freedoms (and of course curtails others) which you would not normally find in other careers.  A mission runner/part time PVP’er for example is probably quite protective of their security status and would not want to ruin it - that restricts their choice of targets.  A high sec pilot cannot simply go on a trigger happy frenzy without a wardec.

Also being a pirate gives other freedoms, freedoms from corp responsibilities.  Of course there are pirate corps, but they are of like minded people doing the same/similar thing.  As a pirate, you don’t get your CEO shouting “haul this over here”, “help so and so with this”, “go and refuel the POS”.

Piracy = freedom.  The freedom to do what you want, when you want to.  Freedom from rules, laws and regulations.  Freedom from the corporate grind.  Freedom to choose.

It’s not for everyone of course, because those freedoms come with a lack of safety.  You don’t have police protection (the opposite infact), you don’t have the security of high sec space, you are not safe from other pilots.  At anytime you may be the victim of anothers opportunistic gamble.  If you are willing to make the trade-off then it’s quite worthwhile IF those things indeed appeal to you.

Pirates are often viewed in a negative light, for obvious reasons.  It’s assumed we have an easy life, sitting back, counting our loot and spoils - and to an extent thats true.  But it’s not all the high life.  Being an outlaw makes travel much more difficult - sometimes it doubles or triples the journey.  It means you simply cannot pop to the local hub for some goodies - you have to make arrangements to have it delivered to you.

I’ve heard someone say “I’m not mining and missioning all day so some lazy pirate can come along and gank me!”.  That’s fine, that’s your perspective.  From mine, it’s slightly different.  Your work is mining and missiong.  My work is to hijack, rob, loot and steal from you.

They each involve risk.  You might be able to outmatch me and I skulk away with my tail between my legs.  You might have friends closeby ready to help.  The way I “earn” my money is different from the way you earn yours.  It’s far from laziness, just a different choice and different lifestyle.  They can be equally hard, and equally rewarding depending upon your persona and what you’re looking for.

Enjoy your career, enjoy your lifestyle… depending. 

Until the next time, happy yarring, looting and robbing.  May your killboards fill with victims, your wallet bulge with isk and your hangar overflow with loot

Alia

Apologies to….

Apologies to whoever convo’d me the other day - I failed to respond as you may have noticed.  I was actually AFK at the time, and when I’d returned and accepted the convo you’d vanished. I then closed the window without looking at your name…. epic fail :s

So a little note here to say I wasn’t being rude, I was just AFK.

Anyone who does want to convo/message me in-game please feel free to do so, although I can’t guarantee I’ll reply right away as I may be;

1. AFK

2. Shooting someone

3. Getting shot at

So an EVE mail may be best, or drop a comment here on the blog.  I do like to hear from people and don’t mind mails at all - infact I’m happy to speak with any budding pirates and pass on any limited knowledge rattling around in my head. It all adds to the YARR

Until the next time…

Alia 

Gazzelles on steroids

Gazzelles on steroids… That is what I’m currently liking the high-sec miners to.  They are jumpier than jack-rabbits, and twitchier than twitchy things.

Who can blame them with the current JihadSwarm from the Goons?

Whilst this provides me with endless hours of amusement and sniggering (the sheer hilarity of it is almost beyond comprehension) it does pose a bit of a problem.  Again back near my starting place in EVE and waiting for some friends to arrive I decide to skulk around some 0.5-0.7 systems and look for miners.

I find them all right.  Their barges glistening with shield hardeners and boosters, no doubt suspecting that I’m about to suicide gank them any moment.  Haulers are also nearby, and cans are scooped up right away before I can flip them.  One of the miners greets me in local with a friendly “P*ss off!”.

I wander around for a bit and decide to try my luck with the same miners, again they have a can out but it’s quickly scooped before I can do anything.  I lock them, just for the sheer hell of it before warping off.

No joy sadly.  Oh well, on to low sec now….

A helping hand

I’ve been a bit quiet?  Busy busy busy

It all started a week or so ago when I had some people I knew from back in my empire days contact me.  The problem they had was a war dec from a rogue merc corp who were out for ISK ransoms.  A fair enough tactic for sure, and usually quite an effective one.

The problem wasn’t that so much, but that they had a lot of newbie’s who were being popped like balloons.  Their more experienced players were either offline during the enemy active times, away or simply unable to rally enough force to make an effective stand.  Enter….. yours truly.

Normally I don’t get involved in this sort of thing, but these people have always kept an eye out for me and I’m pretty fond of them too.  With an offer of a replacement ship and fittings for each one I lost, and a bounty for each target killed I thought “What the hell” and decided to get stuck in.  Approaching the medical station, I winced as I knew the impending transfer of my consciences across the vast distance was about to take place.

Arriving slightly groggy and worse for wear I staggered out of the medical station at my destination.  My 20+ jump trip cut down to a matter of seconds.  Having left the clone at a 0.5 station after my last empire visit meant I had a little freedom - at least in the surrounding area.

Getting in touch with their CEO, I requested a ship and rigs to be sent to the destination system.  The corp mostly operates in the lower high security systems, rather than 1.0 which means I don’t get hunted down by my Concord/Faction friends.  However the ship itself (all those on the market) were in systems I couldn’t get to - hence asking for it to be delivered.  The other fittings I was able to collect for myself.

Stating that our “area of operation” would be limited due to my security status, they would need to either bring the targets here by luring them in or letting them find us here.  As it turned out, it wouldn’t take very long.  I’m not sure if they had good locator agents, or newbie spy alts, but whichever they didn’t take very long to arrive.

The other problem I had was this was all arranged on short notice so no time for me to train a “dummy” to hold my corp spot open, not to mention the CEO wasn’t too keen to have a wanted pirate criminal in their midst (yeah, ironic and all that).  So this meant I had to be “fleeted” with someone at all times so that I would appear “blinky red” to the enemy.  It also meant I couldn’t attack first, until I was attacked.  Now believe me that takes some concentration after not being in high sec.

So each and every problem has a solution and work around.  Now, to stop the newbie’s being splattered across space like scrambled eggs it meant I had to be “bait” (more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing).  The enemy docked up in our station, along with me and a character of a month or so from that corp.  Shortly he disappeared from the station guest list, which meant only one thing - show time!

Being a bunch of trigger happy overconfident smack talking pilots, I highly doubted they would resist a blinky red target - let alone even check the corp I was a member of.  I was right.  Moments after undocking from the station, I pulled the ship to a full stop and sat… waiting.  Tactical consoles informed me of what I knew was already going to happen as the HAC’s targeting computers tried to resolve a lock on my ship.  The lock was completed a few moments later, and I kindly returned the favour.

The HAC launched it’s T2 drones and zoomed around at a very high speed indeed.  I was up against a 2006 pilot, in a HAC with T2 heavy drones.  The drones swarmed me in seconds and set about their job… very ineffectively!  I had tanked my ship to resist their preferred type of drones, the shield holding around 90-95% if memory serves correctly.

I still sat there, doing nothing.  I didn’t fire, I didn’t launch my drones.  This part reminds me of the film Zulu (thanks dad):

“What are they doing, why aren’t they fighting?”
“See the old boy on the hill?  He’s counting your guns!”
“What!?!?”
“He’s counting your guns, testing your firing power with the lives of his warriors”

That’s along the same lines of thinking I had.  I knew a 2006 player with T2 drones could probably put out 500-600 DPS which is quite considerable by any standards.  So I wanted to know if I was going to be in one piece by the end of it - it certainly seemed so.

Then a moment of concern…. The drones were recalled and another type deployed.  Another set of different T2 drones roared towards me, their weapons blazing.  The concern was that I wasn’t tanked for that type of damage - I was fully tanked for the other.  So I only had my natural resistance, plus my recharge rate - however both of them are considerable.

The tank ebbed, but we hadn’t hit peak recharge yet and the DPS wasn’t nearly enough. I summoned the two “newbie’s”.  Their ships burst out of warp, one virtually on top of me one at 10km just as requested.  The staggered drop out of warp formation would give a better spread for the webbers and warp jammers - basically increasing our web and jam distance, rather than having two tacklers right next to each other.

“Web him, jam him!” I shouted a few times.  “Trying” they said, racing towards the enemy ship with their afterburners lighting up.  As they did so, I launched a volley of faction missiles which should have struck for around 1100 damage, but the tacklers hadn’t managed to web him at that stage.  His tank was speed, so the missiles didn’t do nearly anything like they were capable of.

Still, it was a nice distraction and kept him busy whilst the tacklers did their work.  I heard the distinctive “hiss” of an energy neut and looked at my cap, it had indeed been hit with a neut (two it turned out).  I couldn’t help but smile, not actually needing the cap for anything apart from warp power.  The attempt was probably to disable the tank - he’d wrongly assumed it was an active one.

Moments later, the HAC was webbed and jammed.  Unable to escape and it’s only tank, speed, crippled.  “Keep on him, keep in range” I said which they did very well considering their age.  Now he was webbed, I once again launched a volley of faction missiles this time striking for considerable damage.  The two tacklers launched their drones upon the HAC, blushing slightly as I’d forgotten mine, I launched them too.  15 light drones swarmed the HAC.

Missiles spewed from their launchers - almost a constant stream slamming into the HAC (you have to love the sound of Havoc and Thunderbolt’s).  Half the missiles were set for his shield, the other for his armour, my intention to switch when his shield was down but there really wasn’t enough time.  The two tacklers providing extra DPS with their drones, blasters and rail guns with the combined fire of missiles meant the target popped very quickly.

As soon as the ship popped, I started to target the pod instinctively but my lock time would be slower than the tacklers.  However, being relatively new, they didn’t target it until I started yelling “Get the pod, get the pod!” by which time it warped out.  “F***!” I cursed.  Still, it didn’t matter.  A good result and morale booster.

Having fought my body was awash with adrenaline.  I actually had to get up, walk away, and walk it off a bit having a drink and smoke to calm myself.  Nothing beats that, and I know everyone who’s PVP’d will have experienced it at some stage or another.  Returning later, still slightly wired and on a massive high I reflected over the whole experience.

Why had it affected me so much this time?  Thinking further on it I came up with a few possible answers.  The first being that the opponent was considerably older than me and in a T2 ship (yes, mine T2 fitted, but the ship itself it T1).  The second thought was because I was “responsible” for the other pilots.  I’d not really FC’d (fleet commanded) before and any mistakes would ultimately be my responsibility.

Thankfully, it all went well and there were no casualties although the HAC did switch to one of the tacklers in desperation to escape, but it was far too late by then.

One of my more enjoyable PVP encounters, aside from my first as a tackler with Independence – the sound of Auto Cannon’s is really quite impressive the first time you hear them

Several similar encounters with similar results occurred, albeit with different enemy targets.  It seems they don’t communicate very well.

This entry is rather vague as I was asked to keep details to a minimum – which is understandable.  However, I couldn’t resist writing about the outline of the entire event.  Hope you enjoyed it too.

Happy yarring,

Alia