You’re not getting out alive

I sat hunched over the Independence bar on a tall red leather stool, the palm of my right hand propping up my face and elbow squarely implanted on the heavy oak-style wooden bar. The bar lights bore down upon me making me hot and slightly irritable, which probably explained the wide distance around my chair from the other clients. That and my Bastards badge which I had sewn recently onto my beloved SWA jacket – I still wore it to mock the “powers that be” as it were.

The bar was covered in beer, spirits, quafe and so on and was occasionally mopped down by one of the servers which just make it stickier. I realised after some time on concentrating on my log write-up that I’d actually had my elbow in some beer for quite some time, eventually soaking through. I huffed and looked up and caught one of the servers eyes.

“Another?” she ask in a “I’ll bring you another” manner.

“Sure, keep em coming” I said. I’d been busy that day with various planet-side activities which I always hated, so decided to come to Independence, get drunk and relax to shake off the dusty planet atmosphere, dust and grit – and write up my notes.

The heavy bottom glass slammed onto the heavy wooden, warn bar just in front of me. It wasn’t meant to be rude or hasty, but there were busy. “Thanks” I uttered without looking up “I’ll square the tab on the way out, or Flash can dock my payment” I grinned.

I took a swig and shuddered. Damn that was strong! I was drinking brandy and quafe, a superb and delicious drink which had survived from the days of ancient earth – quite thankfully. Not sure about the quafe, but it mixed alight and tasted pretty good. I’d never had it before but it tasted great and all thanks to one of the Bastards directors – Ronin. I grabbed a cigar and lit it and started to enjoy it, but it wasn’t long before I was back at my notes again, leaving it in a nearby ashtray where it’s smoke mingled with the rest in the bar.

My mind slipped back 48 hours and I continued writing….

I’d come here, again after a roam with some other members of The Bastards and friendlies. We’d poked our heads into 0.0 chasing another gang and also being chased ourselves. For some reason they’d left a falcon behind on the gate, he’d jumped through moments earlier into our waiting gang but theirs had fractured and splintered. The stricken falcon had attempted to burn it’s way back to the gate but it was heavily tackled and under ECM attack from myself and another pilot, Ghost. With it’s main ability shut down it had no chance of breaking free from our deathly grip and exploded very shortly after.

Fish had lead the roam, and a great one it was too. On the way back we also bumped into an unfortunate Myrm which was also quickly popped. Fun times.

I headed here to relax and had just got a drink when I heard a familiar voice bellow across the room “ALRIGHT YOU FILTHY SPACE DOGS, WE LEAVE AT 21.30!”. Smiling I knew that voice right away and that chaos would soon ensue. “Count me in” I said to one of our directors and former CEO, Ronin.

He’d made a long trip back, some 40 jumps and wasn’t exactly sure how he’d ended up there – probably better not to ask. He was in a good mood and up for some havoc. I necked my drink and headed to my hangar getting updates on the way. It was to be a T2 frigate and interceptor roam with a bit of stealth thrown in.

I rubbed my hands with glee, I had exactly the thing lined up and had been itching to use it. “Is she rigged and ready?” I asked hesitantly dreading the possible reply. “Alia, she’s rigged, fuelled, loaded and ready to go” my XO said. “Superb!” I replied with a smile “Get the crew together and we’ll be making tracks – picks ones who are familiar with frigates, especially this type”. My XO stood close by, his hands clasped behind his back and gave a respectful nod to me “Aye Ma’am” and with that strolled off rounding up people.

Glancing around the hangar it looked more organised these days, since the move had been completed and most components had arrived. I still needed more though, but back to the job in hand.

I stood on the maintenance lift and hit the button and rose up towards the hatchway of the ship whilst other members ran up gang planks and ladders. “The joy of being captain and a capsuleer” I mumbled to myself. “Good job you are too Alia, or you’d have been dead ten times over” came the reply from my XO. I prodded him in the ribs “Less of that!” as the platform juddered to a halt.

I was about to step on board when he said “You do realise, you’ve not named this ship yet?”. I stopped dead in my tracks “Oh no, I haven’t… well pointed out”. She was so new and I was in such a hurry I’d neglected to take that ceremonial duty. Well, lets do it now I said grabbing the microphone and yelling “Welcome aboard…. ‘Not Primary’” I said as a cheer rang out around the hangar deck.

I didn’t have anything to christen her with, like a bottle of champagne – I mean, why waste good booze. So I took out my hip flask, took a swig only to find it was empty and flung the flask at the side of the ship. It hit the side and metal struck metal and it bounced off with a loud “clang” much to the amusement of the deck crew who let out another cheer.

I got “podded up” and ready to go. We’d be performing essential duties in the gang, but alas, no, no shooting peoples faces off. I preferred a much more subtle approach, which was key to our mission here”. We’d had to strip a cloak off of one of my cruisers at short notice since this was a “sneaky peaky” roam. I’d spent a while wondering if it would overload the frigates CPU, but Caldari ships were notorious for their high CPU output.

With that our docking clamps were released and we left the station. I took our usual procedure and kicked the ship into warp as soon as we were clear of the doors, landing a few hundred kilometres off the station and activated the cloak until everyone else was ready. I received a “priority message” from the station – I always got those. They hated pilots kicking in warp engines in such close proximity to the station so I could expect another fine and an automated “ticking off” but to hell with that, my ship and crew were more important than regulations.

Other pilots started un-docking and clearing the station. We were just waiting on our FC who was currently engaged in a grapple with another pilot in a pre-arranged 1v1 after we’d attacked him outside the station. As it turned out, he was a decent fellow and was invited to come along for the ride.

We were finally ready, our new friend too and set off. The scouts burst into warp ahead of the fleet and got a couple of jumps ahead and began analysing traffic, comms signals, scanners and dropping probes where necessary.

The comms blared open and checks were made as to everyone’s particular fit. “I need you to be stealthy until we’re in there Alia” Ronin said. “Like this?” I replied as my Kitsune frigate shimmered and vanished into the ether. He replied that was more than satisfactory in no so many words, laced with expletives – that was our Ronin, and a pirate to boot.

We roamed, scanned, hunted, chased system by system, star gate by star gate occasionally picking up the odd red herring when as last our scouts had probed a Drake running a mission. By which time the gang was ravenous for blood, money or both and being an impromptu roam called forth from the Independence bar – mostly drunk. Comms were quiet during important times, no matter how intoxicated you were a pilot, a capsuleer and especially a pirate knew when to shut up and listen.

During the ever churning fleets agitation an occasional “Check! Check! Check!” would come in from the scouts and it went dead whilst they fed information back.

“Check! Check! Check!” blared over the comms as everyone fell silent. “I had a green hit on the Drake – going to tackle”.

“Roger” replied our FC. We were to jump through once he’d arrived at the deadspace location and warp to the scout post hate. There was some discussion as to the particular severity of this deadspace pocket and would microwarp drives work… we concluded they probably would – but to be safe would send in one with an afterburner. It would be slower, but meant that our scout wouldn’t be left slow-boating to the target giving it an eternity to warp away to safety.

“I’m in, heading to tackle” our scout confirmed.

“Jump through” our FC said calmly.

Spatial distortions opened up all around the star gate as ships were sent on their way. Some a few seconds before, some at the same time, some after. We arrived at the distant side of the gate, an eternity, many lifetimes and distances covered in mere seconds and burst into warp in the direction of our scout to provide more fire power.

“It’s full of fucking reds in here” our FC said. “Yeah?” replied the scout. “I thought you said HE was red?”.

No, no, they’re all reds. We could expect a “big wing” of ships to drop on our heads if we weren’t careful. Did this put us off? Hell no! Welcome to the lions den!”.

The gang of T2 frigates and interceptors aligned together, and warped together. The warp drives opening up the subspace tunnels between the two points would only normally have on ship in, but from time to time there would be more – this time, the entire gang. If everyone travelled at the same time, same speed and same destination it was possible to be within the same tunnel.

Small but horrifically deadly ships danced and skewed, crossing paths and billions of miles an hour and there was nothing the pilot could do until the tunnel collapsed on the other side. No noises, no psirens in the tunnel this time – they were probably drowned out by the comms.

“He got away, he got away” reported our scout. I checked our distance and we were still 5au from landing so there was no hope. A lucky escape for our target.

“He’ll be back”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah”

“Who’s cloaky?”

“Me, me, me” a few replies echoed, including my own.

“I need a cloaky to stay here” said Ronin

We had some others, but I was the logical choice and replied “Me?”

“Yeah, you, Alia”.

“Sure” I replied and put some distance between my current location as the rest of the fleet warped off. The tell-tale noise of a cloak sounded and a moment later my newly commissioned Kitsune vanished from any instrument”. The rest of the gang were to head onwards and continue looking, whilst the others stood by in the middle in case our mark came back or another was found.

We hung, slowly drifting in space towards my designated spot. I pinged the scanner and continued to be infuriated by it’s lack of responsiveness – two seconds between scans? No matter, we’d work with what we had and make the best of it.

I continued to listen in whilst checking d-scans for hits. The Drake was there. “Drake is on scanner, within 1 bill km” I replied having narrowed it down – and then it was gone. He must have warped to a safe, or a celestial and then scurried to his hangar.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back I assure you” said Ronin.

I continued to ping my scanner as often as possible and got a hit on a Vagabond. Shortly after it appeared on the overview.

“Report” I asked. All stations refreshed their data and reported into me. Analysing the collective information we could ascertain he was checking this deadspace pocket to ensure it was safe. I smirked to myself knowing he though it was safe, but he didn’t know I was, as always, watching.

As the Vaga started to take rat agro, it moved at high speed. 65… 50… 42 kilometres “Please don’t plough into me you bastard” I thought as it suddenly arced and warped away. I maintained heading and speed, such as it was, more like a crawl. Another frigate warped in, also checking the deadspace area was clear – wondering if we were still there and if we were, would we trip over ourselves to get there too soon.

We’d seen this, many times, many many times before. I checked the local ident and comms channels, there were no Bastards here – save me. As far as they knew, it was clear and I was in the shadows.

Clearly we were just opportunists passing through, and now we’d gone apart from one. I watched the frigate move around and take rat agro again, monitoring it’s course, it’s trajectory and other statistics as they were fed in. It warped off too, and then I smiled, hopefully knowing what I was hoping to see next.

“Ma’am! There’s a hit on the scanner” reported tactical. “It’s the Drake, again”. So he was coming back to finish off the last four rats – and maybe one of those held the key to his dirty pay-cheque from his agent. Maybe it didn’t and it was just greed, who knows but nonetheless he was back and now on overview dropping out of warp.

“Check! The Drake is back” I piped up over the comms.

“How far?” asked our FC, Ronin

“About 65km” I replied

“Can you manually pilot, Alia?” he asked

“Yeah, I can do that” I replied having done it several times before. “Will that gas cloud de-cloak me, do you think?”

“Maybe, just watch the shit around you and get in as close as possible”

“No worries, I can do that”

“Tactical, nav and engineering give me manual please” I requested.

“Tactical – transferred”

“Nav- transferred”

“Engineering – transferred” they reported in. “Ok, now give me fully manual” I said back. Various glances were exchanged around the bridge, and no doubt the ship. A pilot was expected to do many things as once, but mostly the ship was automated 99% of the time, including helm and other systems.

“You know what to do, yeah? Left a bit, right a bit, avoid that”

“Yeah yeah I got it, I’ll get you as close as I can” I replied.

As I took over the multitude of systems previously attended by crew, computers and automatic procedures I was really flying the ship now. “Flag up all debris, flag up anything that’s there – even the nearest detectable particle” I said as the overview filled with clutter, asteroids, wrecks.

“I have control” I announced as I guided us in slowly, avoiding anything within a few km that would break our cloaking field. We zig-zagged through the littered deadspace area with care but trying to maintain best speed before his mission was completed.

“How close are you now Alia?” asked Ronin

“About 45km” I said to which he replied it was good going, but I would try to get closer. The rest of the gang were on standby but a scout/tackler would be dropping in and visiting shortly to tackle the target.

“It’s good, just warp slag bang on me – decloak me if needed, it doesn’t really matter then” I said – and it didn’t. For at that point the game was up and it was a matter of speed, reactions, timing and tactics. I was a mere 30ish kilometres from the Drake at this time with it clearing the last of the rats with it’s drones and missiles when our tackler landed close to me, but not on top and decloaking me as I’d expected”.

It burned towards the target at an amazing speed, within several seconds the Drake was tackled and locked down. Local jumped as the rest of the gang came in, and my Kitsute made it’s appearance and shimmered back into existence, conveniently at optimal range for weapons.

“Lock target!” I yelled “and crew to re-assume all systems” as I dumped them back to their consoles. Tactical reported we were unable to lock the target due to particle interference “How the hell did that happen” I yelled, slamming a fist into my pod wall.

“Ma’am, it’s uh, a lower grade of equipment from a cruiser”.

“Get it locked, get it locked asap!” As soon as the Drake recovered from it’s initial shock and managed to lock the interceptor the drones would open it up like a tin can in no more than a few seconds. As I spammed the lock button, willing it to take it eventually did.

“Transfer all CPU cycles to me” I announced and they were “Are you, are you gonna?” asked one of the bridge members, who was quickly silenced by my XO who’d seen this before, numerous times. “Alia, you realise that thing has a 19 point firewall on it, with redundant loops, decoy paths, ghost entries and fake subroutines…..” his voice trailed off. “Damn! That was fast”.

I grinned having almost disabled the Drake in a ship many many times smaller than it. “He’s jammed baby!” I yelled over the comms. It would take him and age to lock frigates, let alone interceptors as the rest of the gang burst in and let rip. Don’t get me wrong, these ships were small but in a pack very deadly with one putting out a couple of hundred dps.

“Sorry, sorry I couldn’t take the drones too” I said. He must have got a brief lock and set his drones to attack, either that or they were aggressively programmed and programmed to destroy anything that attacked the battle-cruiser. It was too much to hope for a perma-jam considering the size differences in ships, but a few cycles here and there would buy us a lot of time.

“No! No! Keep the MWD up!” yelled Ronin as our guest member had slowed – obviously to reduce his sig radius but now he was at the mercy of the drones. It was too late and before he could gain speed again he’d exploded. The rest of the gang had the ship tackled and were making impressive work into a Drakes shields for such small beasts.

“Lets ransom the piss out of this guy!” came the suggestion.

“Be advised, there are 7 hostile in local” I replied.

“Kill him!” came the counter-order as the gang laid into the hapless battle-cruiser. At this stage, in a system of reds we had little time. A ransom was out of order, since he’d call for backup before paying. The only option, was dead.

“Ma’am! Compensation routines have just become active”

“Shit!” I cursed as our signal strength began to waiver and extra security measures came on-line within the Drake. Although he was into 50% armour and going down, frigate size interceptor zooming around blasting holes in the Caldari armour it wasn’t over yet. “Come on! Come on!”

At that point several jam cycles were lost and the Drakes drones didn’t waste any time. “Vagabond inbound” I yelled as a hit on the scanner turned into an overview hit. “Two more incoming” I said calling out the ship names which I’ve long since forgotten, but they arrived seconds later.

We’d finish the Drake before we’d bug out. I took a couple of Jams off the Drake as it was pretty much dead and prevented the reinforcements from targeting ours (frigates were easy). We were expecting at least another 4 ships to come into the fight which would more than out-gun us. The Drake bled into armour and was about to explode just before it’s drones chewed up another of our interceptors for breakfast, but it managed to escape with a sliver of hull left*

“Get out! Get out!” came the order

Pirates aligned their ships and scrambled in all directions as a few more hostiles arrived to help bail out the Drake and allies.

The next thing I remember is a Minmatar ship speeding towards me, firing projectiles. Some missed, some clanged into the shield. Dang-dang-dang-dang they bounced off, some hitting, some missing from a good 40km away but this chappie was determined. The rest having scattered but I remained here for some reason, a comms freeze and equipment lag had left us several seconds behind.

“Warp! Warp us out of here!”

“Where Ma’am”? Asked navigation.

Another salvo of projectiles slammed into the shields, as the ship bore down us, quickly, very quickly. Others were heading towards us too, since we were the only one left.

“It doesn’t matter, get out, get out now!”. I wanted to be well away from here before we were within warp disruption range, which would have meant our almost certain death.

The systems had lagged out due to my excessive consumptions of CPU cycles, the best option we had to get out between spikes was a star gate, which was almost certain death since the sentries would let rip as soon as we jumped into gate range.

“Systems restored to consoles” echoed across the bridge. I huffed, this was going to be the first and only cruise of the ship once we’d torn to pieces. But I wasn’t going down without a fight, especially to some automated sentry gun.

“Seal all hatches, damage control teams to standby. Shields, get ready to burn our cap – all of it, upon landing”. And we did, before dropping out of warp on the gate. Massive amounts of energy were diverted from capacitor to shields as a pre-emptive strike. As the ship aligned to a safe, the sentry guns tore into us, maybe only for a few seconds.

“Shields are down!”

“Armour has failed” the reports flowed in, seconds apart.

The sentry guns kept their deadly automated aim dead on target, a high velocity kinetic round punching right through the starboard side and out the other. Another two shots and we’d be dead, but we were almost ready to go. The shields crackled with raw energy as gigawatt’s were dumped into them but another sentry gun shot smashed them to pieces and punched the hull in a second location.

The yellow boxes faded a moment later, as we were in warp. We’d escaped by the skin of our teeth, and by the skins skin of our teeth Sadly no kill* and several were suffering from neural exhaustion by this time and needed to unplug and get some rest.

Carelessly we jumped 20 or so jumps back to home, where Lakasha had found an Apoc which appeared to be ratting in a belt. Let that be a warning not to get on the wrong side of the Hellcats – ’cause they’ll scratch your eyes out, and then play marbles with them.

We didn’t want to spook the BS, so yours truly volunteered for the “dirty deed” and moments later a covops ship entered the field. “He’s 73km from me, I warped to 70. He’s at zero” I relayed. Before you could say “Gank me I’m here” the mighty battleship was engaged, and whilst we thought it might be a trap (read tarp) before I could get back, change ship and ‘whore up’ the kill mail the so-called mighty apoc was reduced to dust.

It was a Hellcat and Lakasha find to be sure, and her scanning skills were superb. We needed someone to check it out and see what was going on, so I volunteered but we expected it to have a bit more tank, than, er, none.

All in all a superb roam with a some good hunting, a good fight, a good gank and then some….

…. suddenly my face made contact with the bar. The independence bar. Oh yes, there I was carefully writing up my notes.

* The Drake had warped away whilst tackled, probably using logoffski and a known exploit/bug. By rights it belonged on our kill board but we’d been robbed. Oh well.

This is a blag, er, I mean ransom

I liked to people watch, I always did. Something about the “human condition” that fascinated me again and again and I couldn’t shake it. I sat near the corner of the bar, my feet extended onto the table crossed at the ankles as I laid back in the chair plugging away at my data pad examining fittings, tactics and so forth along with answering the occasional message.

I watched the station’s population (or part of them at least) dancing away to the latest Gallente music and trends – well it would come from the Gallente, wouldn’t it? I didn’t hate them exactly, I just thought some of them were demented – well 90% of them I’d guess. That didn’t stop me appreciating the 10% and their art and culture.

As I continued to plug away at my data pad some drunken people spilled onto the comfortable bench seat extending along the wall near me. A moment later I was covered in quafe and god only knows what. Wiping the excess from my eyes and putting my hair back in place I glanced over, tossing my data pad aside. They hadn’t noticed, so I politely tapped the nearest member of their party on the shoulder. His head turned so fast, I thought it might continue all the way around.

“I believe this is yours, isn’t it?” I said holding the semi empty quafe and alcohol container. “Oh yeah, yeah it is” he replied. I exaggerated the movement and wiped some more quafe from my face. “I’m sorry, sorry about that… I didn’t realise”

“Clearly not” I retorted with a smile.

“Holy fuck! It’s you, isn’t it?” he nearly bellowed at the top of his drunken voice. My right hand made a swift and brutal contact with his face “Why don’t you shut the fuck up” I hissed at him “and besides, I don’t know what you’re on about”.

“Hey gu-”

I grabbed his hair, grabbing it tightly with my fingers and yanked his head back slamming in into the wall behind the bench. He slouched, I checked his pulse and then intervened the small party his friends were having “You might want to check on your friend, seems he’s had a little too much tonight” I said grabbing my data pad and heading out.

Enough people watching, it was time to do some more people watching – just of a different nature this time. I undocked my trusty covops ship and went to see what I could find. It was a quiet night but I was sure if I found something that some corp mates could come and deal with it – either that or I’d have to be quick and get into a dps ship and hope it was still there.

As it turned out, a few systems over and via a few “gate watchers” I managed to probe out a Brutix doing a mission.

“We have a fix on the targets position Ma’am” tactical reported

“Ahh, good about time” I replied, since I’d been concentrating on other systems and events I wasn’t giving it 100% attention. “Narrow the probe range to point 5 au and get a confirmed fix”. Seconds later it was re-scanned, confirmed and locked. I closed my eyes and focused as I scanned all the ships systems – we might yet need a quick escape.

With that we warped in and the long distanced ticked down. My senses were heightened, I was ultra alert, aware of my surroundings You often were in these situations. I could have swore I heard something, a noise… maybe, an image. I don’t know. I often saw it in the spatial distortions that the warp drive created as the tunnel slipped passed us, it was something I was used to now but that I’d found initially disturbing. Suddenly we were there, the psirens had vanished, their song muted as the acceleration gate appeared.

“We’re holding at 10km, cloaking field is stable Ma’am”.

“Yes… yes, I know” I replied softly. “Let’s go through” I said as I fired the engines and we headed towards the gate. I set our status to battle ready – which wasn’t that we’re actually in a fight, but we might well be and everyone should be on their toes and ready.

The gates grip released us, and we slowed to a crawl on the other side deep in a dead space pocket and were presented with a wonderful sight. The overview filled with rats, a few frigate wrecks and our target. He was just starting.

Crew members fell and stumbled across the bridge and probably various decks of the ship as I banked hard to port to avoid us being de-cloaked. “Watch the field! Watch the distances” I yelled, but it remained intact – just and just. A few more meters and we’d have been busted.

“Very well, load co-ords into the nav computer” I said as we took a bookmark of our current location “and now get us back home – and don’t spare the whip” I continued as the warp engines kicked in and we left, pronto.

Gates flashed by, jump after jump. Time was of the essence and so was security – we’d not get past these gate “watchers” or the possible locals in system. I decided that we’d instead trying to attack and ransom our target that we’d in fact – blag it.

“I don’t want any dps, I want maximum survivability and the best tackle we can muster” I yelled across my hangar deck! Now MOVE!” I finished as techs and engineers scattered and verified the best set-up we had to hand. I knew which ship it would be, I’d used it before and it had worked well – although not in exactly the same situation

Within a few minutes we were out again, this time in a different ship. A small frigate, with no weapons but with tackling equipment and energy vampires that would drain their capacitor – not for the effect of hurting them but for keeping us alive. A single frigate was hardly worth reporting for our watchers so I figured that we’d continue relatively unimpeded – which we did. Arriving at the destination system I uploaded the co-ordinates that we’d previously taken from our scouting.

The ship aligned and accelerated into warp again and via the gate we were upon the target. “Full power to propulsion” I signalled via the pod/neural interface as I pushed the engines to maximum and the afterburner kicked in – the gap closed quickly, very quickly and before long we were within tackling range and a weapons lock was resolving on the ship. “Lock confirmed!” yelled tactical as I activated our warp scrambler.

Scrambler? Yes! Our target was using mid to long range weapons in the form of railguns, which would be a bitch track us so close and so fast. Thankfully it wasn’t blasters – but I’d noticed that from our initial visit, otherwise I might have revised the tactics. The ships engines burned brightly in the dark sky as we continued to accelerate towards the Brutix, the sun glinting off it’s shiny Gallente armour almost blinding me as it caught me straight on. Disabling the afterburner slightly too late, we almost overshot the target and preferred orbit, but nonetheless his warp drive was disabled for now.

Tracer beams shot out from our ship, fixing upon vulnerable locations on the Brutix and once established and energy vampires got to work and bled power from it across to our ship. This enabled us to continue at our best offensive capabilities. I watched the streams of energy in various forms (microwave, xray and ultraviolet) leached from the Brutix and diverted into our capacitor, helping to sustain us.

This was not the usual ship I’d use for this, nor the usual tactic. It was neither ideal, but seemed the best option given the route and other considerations. It would either work, or fail miserably.

“Comms, open a channel and give the prepared warning” I said. A communications channel with the enemy ship was opened and our pre-arranged hail/greeting was transmitted.

“Stop firing! Your ship is warp scrambled and you are unable to escape. This is a ransom and will be honoured. If you do not comply, reinforcements will be called in to destroy you.” Our standard pre-prepared message was transmitted, upon which I quickly followed up with “You will be released for 20m isk”.

This is the bit I hated. The pilot had to read the incoming message, acknowledge it and comply – or not. It always took a few moments and you had to hold your nerve whilst they evaluate their options, but in doing so also expose yourself to getting ganked by his friends (it pays to check if there are any in system first :p)

There was still no response, and we didn’t have anything to actually fire with or cause any damage for this was a tackling ship pure and simple. It was designed for gang work, and not really for solo, unless you could be ballsy and blag it – which is exactly what I was attempting.

“Your time is running out pay the 20m before I call for backup” I said in the channel as we continued to orbit, disrupting their warp drive and leeching their energy for our own. “I have friendlies holding on the gate, pay now!” I bluffed and kept my nerve despite the long delays. He hadn’t fired on us, although we’d been locked which I assumed might be an auto-lock but there was no signs of hostile intentions – he seemed frozen like a rabbit caught in headlights. The Brutix hung in space, dead still with our small frigate orbiting around it like a fly.

“Last chance 20 million or you get ganked and podded” I transmitted hastily. Finally the reply came, and it was a simple “Ok” and my wallet flashed moments later. Checking the transaction was indeed valid – which it was I aligned to our designated gate. “You’re free to go or finish as you wish” I finally said and closed the channel. Disabling our warp scrambler as we burst into warp I smiled to myself. It wasn’t a bad result for a total blag.

Could it have been genuine? I could have had friendly ships waiting to jump in – yes.

Would you take the risk? Sure, you could lose the ransom paid, plus your ship but that’s not the way I operate – and neither does the corp I belong to – we always honour our ransoms. The long and short of it is that if you’re on the losing end another X isk for the ransom is neither here nor there so it pays to… er… pay really. You don’t know if it’s a bluff, or if it’s not – and usually it isn’t.

I returned to the bar for a night cap, the poor soul that I’d wall-slammed was still there unconscious when I left. So I stuck a sticky-note to this head with “Reserved for Hellcats” on it before leaving chuckling to myself.

Nothing, more nothing… Run away! Nothing… Dual Gank!

Coming to in my room I looked around at the pristine yet drab Caldari interior. It was somewhat homely, but still it had that underlying Caldari “efficiency” to it, after all we were on a Caldari station and nothing could change that. But it was a good station, in the back end of no where, quiet and lawless – just the way I liked it.

I wandered over to my desk and sat on the grey steel framed chair and check comms, messages and intel on various data pads strewn about. I never was the most organised person, and probably never would be. Signing into the secure channel I asked if there was anything currently in progress – met mostly by silence and a few “hellos” I assumed not much.

Grabbing my NavCom data pad I scanned over some systems and eyed them, after a while I had a route and decided to go and see what I could see. “Upload” I said to the pad, to which it replied “No specified vessel has been assigned for this route”. I huffed at the smart ass computer and cussed my own carelessness “Frigate, fast, scout, tackle” I replied to it giving it no choice but to select what I wanted.

“Upload complete, vessel ‘Pinnit’ assigned” came the automated response. Nodding happily I decided to see what I could find for breakfast, there was nothing in storage. I’d have to head to the cafe/bar/restaurant. It was all of these, depending on what hour and who you were. I threw on my SWA jacket moodily – I hated interacting with people on the station at this time of day. I mostly ignored them and many of them didn’t bother to introduce themselves anyway, but the 1% that did was still a chore.

Finishing my breakfast which consisted of a Gallente style pastry (ironic I know, but I liked them), a strong coffee and a cigarette (to which the server had objected to until I gave him ‘the look’ and he’d withdrawn his objection) I stood and headed towards the hangar again.

The lift dropped onto the hangar floor with more force that I was used to, a jolt shot through me. I angrily kicked the side of the lift in disgust and walked out onto my hangar. It was business as usual, and so it should be – what else did I pay them for. Although I did wonder if they ever slept, it seemed not.

My XO was always eerily on hand, and strolled across the deck happily as usual. “Good morning Alia” he said to me. I looked at him half grumpily, half with a raised eyebrow. He was still the only person outside of my compatriots or strangers that could get away with calling me by my first name. I ran my fingers through my hair and expelled a long breath whilst never breaking eye contact with him. “That good, huh?” he continued. There was no intimidating the bastard, not from me anyway – but I liked it like that.

“Lets go, shall we!” I stated. “Yes Miss” he said almost mockingly knowing what he’d done previously. I looked at him and burst out laughing “C’mon you buffoon” I replied as we strolled towards the ship. “Make ready, all combat and engineering crews report to stations” he bellowed across the deck and people dropped things and scattered. I got into my pod and neural interfaces, were connected and I synchronised with the ship and my XO’s console plus various other ships systems. Everything was ready, I requested un-docking permission and it was almost immediately granted as the doors slid open.

The hangar depressurised and the ship was sucked out into space, guided by my corrections using the thrusters we made a safe un-docking. Way points flooded through my mind, I selected one and initiated the warp and the ship aligned and sped through space – only a short distance to clear the un-docking ranges and potential hostiles outside station. The ship banked sharply to port as I made a harsh course correction grinning to myself as various crew stumbled and attempted to keep their feet, and once complete flinging the ship across the vast astronomical units towards our destination stargate. We decelerated quickly, dropping to sub light speed and approached the gate – our frigate holding position for a few moments conducting scans and observing another about 50km away.

Tactical information suggested he’d been attacking the gate rats. “He’s of good standing with empire factions, no criminal record” reported my XO. I could have easily given orders, or allowed the crew to perform their functions but instead I just cut the engines via the pod/ship interface indicating we’d be waiting here for a little while. “Aye Ma’am, holding position” my XO replied, knowing full well what I was thinking and what my intentions were.

The small frigate hung in space near the massive stargate, within jump range and given clearance to do so. “Lets see what he does, shall we?” I asked in a rhetorical manner. I willed him to yellow box us, get closer and for a moment…. he did. “He’s bugged out, warping away” yelled one of the bridge crew. I became one with the ship again and initiated the jump protocols, the stargate activated and we were catapulted thousands of light years across the galaxy.

“Follow designated course, conduct system scans and lets see what we can find” I said. “The XO has the con, navigation and weapons – I will assist with scanning”. The truth is, I needed someone to help keep an eye on things whilst engrossed on the scanning. We were warped between safe spots, planets, new safe spots, at angles off safe spots and between them again. The scans were promising, the local ident computer showed the registered vessels and I was scanning them down. A few corrections, a few warps, narrows it down, getting closer, closer and finally… bingo!

“Hurricain, Thorax, Deimos and Ishtar” are pinpointed. I laughed at the futility. We didn’t stand a cats chance in hell during an inferno. “Report locations to friendlies, lets see who’s interested” I said as we broke course towards another safe, since we were sitting rather close to a planet.

“It’s a trap Ma’am” shouted one of the bridge crew “It’s a damn trap!”. I scanned and analysed for a few moments “Maybe, more than likely – lets see what else we can find”. We continued on our projected route, system through system, stargate through stargate. Scan through scan. It was quiet, very quiet – aside from a few Minmatar fighters struggling against the Amarrians. I had their location, I knew where they were but their gang was more than a match for our solo ship, although it deserved a look – just to see.

The ship banked sharply to starboard this time and flung itself towards the Minmatar bunker. Would they shoot us down? No doubt about it. They weren’t pirates, but they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot one either – no matter what our intentions were. “Small gang of 2 cruisers, 3 frigates at 60 km away”. I knew that already, but it was good to have the crew on their feet. “Get us out, quickly” I added. “Oh, and take us home”.

It seemed there would be nothing but traps and blobs tonight. We set course for home and made our way back quickly, not stopping along the route. Everything was quiet, even the intel channels. I then saw the massive docking doors of the station as we were towed in. I quickly scanned the passenger manifest (something I wasn’t supposed to be able to do, but you know, a few ISK here and there can buy a lot).

“Docking complete” said a bridge officer. “Ok everyone with me!” I said “We’re swapping ships, get ‘Duck’ ready for immediate launch!”. This ship I knew was correctly fitted, armed and ready to go. We boarded the large, lumbering battle cruiser “Release clamps, request clearance and prepare to undock”. I’d noticed a neutral in the station – and I wanted to kill or ransom something, anything even if it meant doing so outside the station under sentry gun fire! It was that blood-lust that many of us have spoken about in the past.

The visitor left the station manifest. “Get us out, undocked, quickly”. We eventually cleared the protocols and undocked to find a slasher hanging nearby. “Lock weapons, align to a safe and send a full rack his way”. Although before we could complete the lock he was gone. “Damn!” I cussed and signed. “Very well, re-dock, re-dock” I confirmed to the crew.

Getting off the ship I marched towards the lift. “Alia, you up for a drink?” my XO said. “You seem a little tense, pissed off almost”. I inhaled deeply “Sure, why not. Nothing going on around here, lets get ratted” I laughed. He looked nervous but willing, since he’d seen it all before.

Several hours later we emerged from the bar. It was a bar tonight, and various fights had ensued throughout those hours. “I’m off to bed” he said. “Sure” I replied “I think I’m going to take an evening stroll”.

I staggered through the corridors and eventually got to my floor, my room and collapsed on the bed and hoped to get a decent sleep. Although I couldn’t, my mind spinning, flooded with alcohol and god only knows what they served. It had been a fruitless evening and I wanted to shoot something, someone. I got up off my bed and threw on my jacket again, hitting the door release button clumsily on the way out I took the lift to my hangar once again.

The lift stopped with an abrupt jolt again. This time I kicked it harder and ranted at it, still doing so as the doors opened much to the surprise of my deck crew. I attempted to look sober and strolled out, “Ok who’s up for a wander?” I asked, loudly and probably slurred. A few ran to their stations, but not nearly enough. “Ok, ok, how about ¼ mil ISK for those who’re coming?” I added. Suddenly the ship was full. It was a lot of money, especially for planet bound persons, and even station crew who were lucky to have a station job.

“Alia!” boomed a voice before I was about to enter the ship! I turned around, eyes blazing, because I knew that voice. I stopped in my tracks and walked over to him, pointing at him and prodding him in his chest. “You! You call me ‘Ma’am’” I said to him swaying slightly. “Yes, yes I do Ma’am, when you’re acting sensibly and not on some suicidal jolly”.

“Don’t you ever address me as such, in front of the crew, got it?” I hissed furiously into his ear, my long dark brown hair remaining perfectly straight, it would appear as if we were just whispering to each other. “Yeah, yeah I got it” he said casually which only served to infuriate me further as I took a swing at him, catching him totally unaware as my fist slammed into his face, knocking him sideways. He staggered slightly, reeling from the blow. I went for another, which he caught my punch in his fist and stopped it flat. How could he do that, how did he know that. His fist tightened around my small hand, and I knew it was for my best interest but I didn’t want to know. With my free hand I reached across my body, down to my holstered weapon. I couldn’t shoot him, or kill him, but I could do this… The butt of the pistol was quickly brought down the back of his head knocking him to the floor. He collapsed like a dead weight to the floor. “Sucker” I giggled to myself. He’d be ok, just have a bit of a headache in the morning.

“Make sure he’s ok would you?” I said to one of the remaining deck crew. “Yes Ma’am” he replied and propped him up against some storage containers as I continued on into the ship. “Ok, lets get undocked and cause some chaos” I said once I was in my pod and ready to go once more. I’d opted for a more agile and smaller ship this time, the cruiser class ship slid out of the dock and into the darkness of empty space – it was clear around the station. I selected one of our spots and warped the ship to it, once we’d arrived I aligned and started scanning.

I’d noticed a couple of unknown pilots in the local vicinity and wanted to see who was around, and if there was any chance of a kill or a ransom. Narrowing down the scans there were a couple of possibilities left, the only way to be 100% sure was to get between the planets and belts so I could pinpoint exactly where he was. We’d need to change our perspective and scan the possible remaining options. Aligning to the planet the ship burst into warp, far quicker than I was expecting, but then again this was a smaller and lighter ship.

To my utter surprise, there was a vessel at the planets designated warp-in location – which I’d clearly not warped to, that would have been silly. Scanning the information it was a Vexor class cruiser, in good standing with authorities. His personal info read “Death to all pirates” and quickly reading further I could see he was only a month in space. “Probably not too experienced then” I snickered to myself, but then again you could never be too sure. We’d landed about 67km away from his ship.

I fired up the engines and made towards him, once fully on course I hit the afterburners to close the gap down quickly. I expected him to run before I got there, unless we’d caught him napping. The other alternative was to leave and jump him at the warp in point, but there was no guarantee that he’d still be there. This way, he’d either fight or take flight – and it appeared to be the latter as his ship vanished into warp.

“He’s gone Ma’am, we lost him”. I pondered for a moment and a sly grin spread across my face once more “I don’t think so, remain here and we’ll see if he comes back”. A minute or so later tactical picked up a ship on the directional scans which was approaching fast – it was the Vexor! I knew, I just knew he’d be back. Very well then, it was on!

The ship came to an abrupt halt from it’s warp at about 27km from our position. Locking targets on the ship, we burned down the distance until I was in warp scramble range, at which point I disabled his warp drive and kept the engagement range to maximum. Weapons were ready and a salvo of missile left, not long followed by another. His shields were toast. I looked down clumsily at our weapon load inventory and then became aware of the horrible truth – we weren’t carrying a full compliment of missiles. “Shit!” I exclaimed “Have we got anything, anywhere else that we can fire?” I asked in a half panicked half enraged sate. “We’ve got some explosive heavies Ma’am” came the reply.

“Get them loaded, immediately” I snapped. That was all very well but we didn’t have anything to fire that would be of any use from 60% of our launchers. I cursed myself and my stupid decision to go drunkenly hunting around for trouble. During the time it had taken to reload correct ammo into the launchers that could accept it the enemy pilot had launched drones – which I was expecting, since he was piloting a drone vessel. I’d already launched the minimal compliment of drones that we could carry, which were relentlessly attacking his ship – but his tank, the armour was holding fairly steady.

More contact signatures filled my view as his drones launched. I quickly flicked over the overview and to my horror saw these were Hammerhead Mk 2’s, deadly little Gallente drones. In a second they were on us and swarming all over us, the first shots stripping the shields far quicker than I’d have hoped for.

“Ma’am, the shields! They’re unresisted!” yelled the weapons and tactical station. I closed my eyes and cursed my second mistake “Damn it!” I said to myself. “If we get out of this alive, I’m not flying again while this drunk”.

The ship wasn’t properly fitted, we had no way to recharge the shields. We weren’t carrying the correct type of missiles and I’d been far too slow to harden our shields to damage. Frankly I deserved to lose this fight for not doing all the pre-checks and for being under the influence. I could barely see straight, let alone pilot a starship. Our shields were dropping – and fast! The missiles we were firing were doing better, but not by much. It was clear we couldn’t win the fight and his tank would outlast ours.

The one thing I had done correctly, which was our saving grace was control the engagement range from a maximum distance that our warp disruptor permitted. I can only assume the enemy pilot had a short range scrambler and we were well beyond his range – either that or it was my lucky night.

“Recall the drones we’re getting the hell out of here!” I announced. The hammerhead 2’s were still buzzing around furiously and by the time we’d completed our alignment for warp they’d completely stripped our shields, they fired again just before we were warped to safety biting into our paper thin Caldari armour. You could hear the noise of their thermal blasts hitting the armour and biting into it, even penetrating it in places.

The ship swayed slightly under the fire and damage indicators lit my vision. Thankfully at the moment it was superficial and nothing that would prevent our escape. I looked around the bridge and there were relieved faces all around, and probably including mine. We hung at the safe spot for a few seconds while I found an alternative one and put us on course for it, managing to successfully align to a second safe spot without warping the ship I allowed myself a sigh. We’d now have to wait, until such times as the criminal records were flushed from the station guns and we could be permitted to dock again without being fired upon.

The time went by slowly and I surveyed and replayed the engagement. It had sobered me up a bit, as had the paying attention during our wait-out with the sentry guns. I decided to check the pilot information once more, the thought that it would be unlikely for a 1 month old character to be able to use such advanced drones. I couldn’t believe it – in my rush I’d misread the information and the pilot was 8 and a half months into his licence, only having changed employment in the last month, hence my quick reading error.

Eventually we were able to dock safely and waiting for me on the deck was my XO, who wasn’t very happy. I just walked towards him and held up both my hands “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You were right, I was wrong”. He just sat there in a makeshift chair and grinned at me “That’s all I wanted”. With that his eyes left mine and looked over the ship, and then back to me again “So, did you kill anything?” he asked somewhat excitedley. I just continued to stare directly at him and shook my head. “Looks like you had fun though?” he replied with another grin. I chuckled slightly and rolled my eyes “Next time, make sure I’m on the end of a pistol whipping if I try that again”. He nodded “Already there, and well ahead of you on that one”.

I retired to my office, which was a sort of large container in the corner of the hangar bay. There was computer access, all sorts of stuff and even a bed. I threw myself onto it and lay there a while, after some time I got up and plonked myself down at the desk and drank a few coffees. I wasn’t sober by any stretch of the imagination but I was better than previously. Looking over various schematics and keeping half an eye on comms, both audio and text I was interrupted by a fellow pirate.

“Got a couple of pilots, both in Ravens. They’re obviously working for agents”. It got my attention and my heart started racing, another dose of adrenaline. “X me up” I sent the reply, and got onto voice comms fully. “Do you want my speciality, or tackle?” I asked. “Tackle is great” replied my gang mate.

“Get me some nos, an afterburner, a long and short point, overdrive injector and the usual” I yelled running across the deck towards a frigate. “C’mon, move with a purpose, time is short” I yelled again boarding the ship. Pre flight checks were under way as soon as the relevant subsystems had been fitted and we were soon back in space making the trip across several stargates.

The fleet consisted of 6 pilots. Myself, Happy, Randgris, Antonio and two others which were classified. Jumping through the final stargate to the destination system we were immediately thrown into a fleet-wide warp along with a couple of others. Some pilots were already ahead and into the first area of the dead space complex. I’d arrived just in time to get the fleet wide warp, which saved some vital seconds. On the way over, there had been reports of a hostile gate camp which we’d warped right into the middle of and we didn’t lose any time making the jump through and I half expected some to be on the other side as well. There was only 1 ship, maybe nothing to do with the camp and he didn’t bother us – but it was noted for the return journey.

We arrived at the dead space complex to once again be greeted by the ancient acceleration gate, which I quickly activated and headed through. The gate grab the frigate and aligned it with various tractor beams, pushing and pulling us into the correct place after which we were “flung” into the blue yonder with just enough force to reach the destination. The area was littered with wrecks and no sign of our gang mates, just another gate to another pocket further into the dead space area.

Warp drives were useless in these pockets, but I had prepared for the distance between the gates which was some 20km give or take. We approached the second gate at a high speed, our afterburners burning brightly leaving a blue ion trail behind us. Without wasting a second as soon as we were near enough for the gate to grab and align us I requested it do so. The beams lurched out grabbing a the small frigate and attempting to turn it – which was no easy thing to do given our speed but eventually we were once again flung forward.

The overview lit up. There were our gang mates, and the two pilots we were after. Peripheral systems showed various goons working for the Arch Angels around – no time for them at the moment and they weren’t interested in us anyway.

Punching the afterburner again I headed directly for our primary target, kicking in the warp disruptor at maximum range. He was already pinned by one of our other pilots, as was the second Raven but they might yet warp out or escape if they could compensate for their warp core disturbances With my additional disruption, they would have no such chance.

We ploughed towards the Raven at high speed, then turned into a tight orbit around it. Close, very close to it indeed. “Keep the afterburners fired up, hit it with the nos and transfer the long point to the secondary target, keep the short point on this one”. I was focused on piloting and the crew would this time maintain the other necessary systems.

I didn’t have anything to offer in the way of damage, but we did have additional points. These guys weren’t going anywhere. Our fleet pounded the primary target, which was also taking rat fire and he responded by targeting some of our bombers. Missiles sped back and forwards between the Ravens and our ships, shields crackled under the strain, molten chunks of armour flew around, drones circled firing as we kept our points and nos on the primary target. It forced one of our bombers to leave, and eventually a second, but he wasn’t going anywhere and between the combined damage from our gang and the rats the mighty Raven’s shields failed and it was shortly nothing more than scrap metal.

Seeing the pilot eject, I attempted to lock onto his pod. It would have made a nice ransom. The lock resolution ticked down but the pod warped to safety a few seconds before we could complete it.

A similar situation followed for the second Raven pilot. Although we were 2 DPS ships down, his shields eventually failed and his ship was destroyed. It took a little longer, but we had the time, all the time in the world really. It seemed like an eternity, but the whole thing was probably over in no more than 2 or 3 minutes.

I checked the loot and scooped what I could, since I couldn’t carry much. Other gang members scooped the rest and we met up at safe spots. Deciding I wasn’t the best to carry the loot back through possible camped gates I jetted it and it was picked up by another gang mate. All in all the total haul was about 40m which wasn’t too bad at all.

Heading back it was getting late and I volunteered to scout since we had a rather expensive prototype vessel with us and it would be a shame to lose it to a gate camp. Jumping through the overview filled and I looked around. “The gate’s camped, it’s still heavily camped” I replied. Our pilot decided to take a safer option instead.

Jumping through the camp on the way in, wasn’t so much of a problem since I could just vanish through the stargate. Here was a different story, it would take me a few seconds to align and warp which was more than enough time for their interceptors to lock me down. Would they fire on a single frigate? Since they could freely shoot me without incurring the wrath of sentry guns I suspected so. In a moment of clarity during the rapidly fading alcohol haze I looked around and noticed that we’d come through the gate aligned to an asteroid belt.

The gate cloak was ticking down and it was clearly the best option. Opting for the belt as our destination the gate cloak broke and the ship aligned and accelerated. “Weapons lock!” tactical alerted me a split second later the shields were all but wiped out by an energy blast and the ship shuddered – then we were gone! Safely in warp, and I doubt they’d break their camp to collect a single frigate.

The next few jumps home were uneventful, which I was pleased about. We docked up and I was happy with the result after an uneventful solo roam, a drunken scuffle with a Vexor pilot. It ended nicely with my partaking in a dual Raven gank.

TL;DR: Caldari pilot takes command of vessel while drunk. Has an uneventful solo roam, swaps ships and goes hunting. Misjudges their opponent, nearly getting ass handed back on a plate after not checking ammo or fit properly. Fits a tackling frigate and helps dual gank two battleships, then narrowly avoids a gate camp.

I don’t usually include a TL;DR but thought I would this time since it’s a long post, with several events and contains some additional creative/storyline writing in it.  I could have posted this at the top, but then you’d have probably scrolled right to the TL;DR wouldn’t you? :p

per-PLEX-ing

I sat a few hundred kilometers off the station watching the traffic coming and going and making ready for our upcoming outing.  The only sound was the quiet, very quiet hum of the engines at a minimal speed and the sound of the cloaking field – it made for an eerie experience compared to the usual roaring of propulsion and ships systems.  In a strange way, I quite liked it though.  It was peaceful, calm, serene and I could sit watching people with them never knowing I was there until it was too late.  Since I’d last sat in the ship it had been offlined and I was in a new pod and needed to reconfigure all the systems correctly – well not exactly “correctly” but more like how I liked them.

A couple of gang members loitered outside the station, then went about their business as I finished my adjustments.  We were heading out shortly and information was coming in about the surrounding systems.  Local was pretty quiet, when we noticed a few FW pilots fighting hard for the Minmatar Republic.  We met at a safe spot, and got ready.  As usual the tacklers would go in first and disable their escape, quickly followed by the support.

I finished flicking through my settings, happy that we were indeed ready for whatever might be coming our way very shortly.  Did I feel bad about attacking pilots defending their heritage, their faction?  No, not really.  This was the lawless side of space which Concord didn’t monitor and didn’t care about – in fact they didn’t even patrol it.  Aside from station and gate sentry guns, there was no law which is probably why I liked it so much.  They knew the risks, they new the rewards – as did we.

We weren’t fighting for a faction, an empire but for ourselves and mainly for money, equipment and whatever else we could gain from them.  It was the only way we knew how and the only way to make a living that appealed to us.

I must have been day dreaming and absently mindedly thrown the ship into warp on the signal to do so, only when we decelerated and started to drop from warp did I snap back into it.  Putting the ship into battle ready configuration we emerged from warp landing about 50km from the targets, which were both tackled, save a frigate who we weren’t concentrating on for now.

The primary was called by Flash who was leading the gang.  Another of our pilots, a tackler had been pointing it and holding it in place for us graciously sacrificed his ship in order for us to do so.  It was quickly re-pointed and the attack continued from the two cruisers, our small frigate and cruiser gang providing the DPS and myself providing the E-War cover.  The enemy Vexor quickly melted under our heavy attack.

“Flash, are you there?”, “Flash?” someone said over the comms.  There was no reply, and the fleet navigation systems showed he was no longer connected to the fleet.  His ship hung in space, motionless, lifeless.

Initially in my haste, I’d thrown all my E-War systems at the Vexor and quickly realising this was a silly mistake I took some off-line and re-pointed them at the Thrasher in order to give our people some more cover.  It was also quickly destroyed, it’s escape foiled and it’s offensive systems shut down.
We heard some chatter on the voice comms again, it was Flash.  He was attempted to get his ship back up and running which had suffered some connection failure to the fleet comms and navigation.  Oddly the emergency warp-out hadn’t worked and he was taking fire from rats in the complex.

The assault frigate that was loitering around was suddenly on me.  In all the confusion I wasn’t sure if he’d warped out and back or if I’d been too engrossed in the destruction of the previous ships.  In either case, he was already locked when my tactical overview showed he’d locked on to me.  Moments later, auto cannons peppered my shields as the nimble frigate strafed by as I watched it bank sharply and turn into a tight orbit it’s engines burning brightly against the darkness.  The auto cannons fired again, you could see the flash of the guns and then a few moments later the impact of the projectiles, but this time struck reinforced shields which I’d activated as soon as I’d noticed him yellow boxing me.

I knew an assault frigate could be a potent ship, handled correctly by an experienced and skilled pilot.  I was tackled by him and my warp drive was now disabled – not that I had any intention of running anyway.  The simple and most effective measure would be to simply stop him firing at me, and luckily I had exactly the ship to do it.  Somewhat surprised and somewhat angered by the attack I huffed to myself and bought the full ECM payload to bear on the frigate as it’s guns fell silent and it’s disruption of my warp drive ceased.

The next order of business was to try and destroy him, launching 3 racks of heavy missiles they had barely enough time to leave the ship before slamming into his and exploding.  Due to his speed and small size, the damage was negligible, but then again so was his.   Calmly I asked my gang mates “Can I have a bit of dps over here please?” who were attempting to keep the rats off Flash’s ship until it could be re-activated.

A couple of drones broke formation from their target and screamed towards the frigate.  “Surely he’ll run now” I thought to myself since I didn’t have any means to keep him in place and my gang mates were too far away to scramble him – or so I thought.  But he didn’t run, it turns out a long point was holding him in place.  In split seconds the drones were on him and his ship exploded into a display against the darkness of space.

Shortly after we collected the dropped loot (all the ships were T2 fitted ) and Flash’s ship was back and running once more.  Luckily his systems had held out long enough to cause considerable damage to two of the ships and scramble them. We were ready to go again, and the brief battle had netted us 26m in loot which wasn’t bad for a few minutes work all in all.

Deciding to head into 0.0 and take a roam along some popular pipes and systems along the way hoping to find more targets either ratting, missioning or generally looking for trouble.  We shortly found trouble in the form of a curse and a warp disruption bubble. Carefully sending through a scout we set a trap.  Another joined him shortly in order to give us a warp in point, avoid the bubble and get points on the curse.  The rest of us held position on the other side of the gate until we were ready to go, but the curse pilot was jumpy and quickly made good his escape.

We continued our roam, getting occasional hits on the scanner and our probers explored to see if they could narrow down – which they did rather quickly.  A harbinger and a drake were way off the system, in a plex.  They were quickly narrowed down and we had a warp-in point as our small gang whipped through the vastness of space arriving in staggered formations.

Wasting no time, we were in warp only to hear that the first secluded area was empty but there was a way into the second area in the form of an ancient acceleration gate – the predecessors of our commonly used star gates, a throwback from a younger age.  However they worked perfectly well in these anomalous pockets of space.

Activating the gate and readying ourselves for a fight the fleet went through.  Defensive systems were once again activated and I checked my tactical settings to ensure I was ready.  Dropping out of our sling-shot warp to find, nothing.  It seemed everyone was playing extra safe tonight and not taking any chances.

Plotting a course back home, we continued to look for opportunities along the way.  A few hits, a few probs a few d-scans but nothing.  It was a quiet night but we’d had a little action, right at the start but it goes that way sometimes.

Docking the ship in the station and being towed to my hangar seemed to take an age, but we eventually arrived and I was helped out of my pod by my docking crew.  Throwing on my jacket, trousers and running my hands through my goo covered hair and tying it back I got off the ship and onto the deck.  Looking over at my newest arrival with a smile which was still being fitted I wondered what it would be like to fly and how potent it would actually be.

A voice interrupted my thoughts “How did it go Ma’am”.  I snapped my head back around somewhat startled out of my little world, my untied hair nearly hitting one of my techs in the face.  “It was… quiet, but nice” I replied.

“Quiet… AND nice?” he said in a somewhat quizzical tone.  “Well yes, I didn’t want anything too hectic on my first day back”.

I’m in *what* squad?

Strolling through the station corridors until reaching the docking bays I yawned, having just woke up from a nap after a lazy day doing nothing. Boarding the ship, I logged into the various comm channels only to find all hell breaking lose. There was excited chatter and people talking, yelling and shouting over one another.

I decided to wait a few moments before announcing my arrival to glean some information and figure out exactly what was going on. I’d managed to deduce that a small gang had tackled and were in the process of taking down a Domi. The pilot was refusing communication and rejecting ransom requests, so it looked like his ship was heading for the big space graveyard – when suddenly and unexpectedly he ejected and flew off.

The Domi was quickly boarded and docked up. It turned out to be a fully fitted T2, Trimark Domi – a very nice bit of loot indeed, especially intact. Even more beautiful was the fact that later that evening the pilot paid to have it back, so there was no need to strip and resell it.

I’d just cleared the station docking perimeter as the Domi was being hoisted away.

“Deimos heading to planet one!” someone yelled. I hadn’t been fleeted at this point, but instantly set a course and warped to the planet arriving about the same time as a few of the others. Flicking the overview into “battle mode” I locked the ship, and his accomplice. Before I could start my attack the Deimos was melted into scrap metal, just as I was activating my modules to fire. They switched over to the secondary ship which was hit hard with ECM attacks, the missiles had launched at the Deimos were speeding randomly into space.

“Blackbird at planet one!”

“Primary the blackbird” yelled the FC.

“Blackbird is friendly, it’s Alia” I repeated twice – just to make sure they heard me. It turned out the accomplice ship wasn’t a target, but another associate who wasn’t in fleet and I’d not had standings set.

After a quick and mostly harmless blue-on-blue we were both fleeted and my overview updated. Having barely got ourselves together once again another gang member had found a mission runner in a plex in a vengeance. It proved to be a nightmare to get to and was giving us the run around, taking up valuable time so we decided to spend our time more productively and moved on to bigger and better.

To that end we organised the squads into fleets and subsections so we could be as efficient as possible. Squads “Anus Fur” and “Shaved Ass” were formed, along with “Jam Doughnuts” which caused an insane amount of laughter on the Vent server as Flashfresh calmly recited the names without so much as a smirk, finishing off with “I can’t believe I kept a straight face through that” – which made it all the more funny.

We moved through a few systems, spreading ourselves out a little in the hope of maximising our chances of finding something juicy. That chance came to fruition when a Maelstrom was found in a mission. Arriving at the gate in staggered warps we proceeded through. The tacklers caught the mighty battleship dozing and quickly had it immobilised whilst the DPS laid in. Keeping the DPS and tacklers safe, I was up to my usual tricks and keeping his offensive capabilities to zero.

The ship was burning up, but not before a corp mate of his arrived to help in his Thorax.

“Incoming Thorax” I yelled as it appeared not too long after getting a hit on my scanner. I quickly locked the ‘rax and switched a couple of jammers over to him. One of the tacklers locked him down quickly and he exploded very shortly afterwards.

It was then back to the business in hand, and finishing off the Maelstrom. Which we did, and collected the loot. Not wanting to hang around too long as there were other members of the corp in the solar system and one jump over (nice of them to come help, huh?).

After the loot was safely tucked up, we headed down to Gurkala. The gang was split over several systems and waiting GCC’s and so on. A Jaguar was playing merry hell with our tacklers and dps one jump over. When they could get it pointed it was tearing chunks out of them, and it was very very quick indeed. I offered to go help, and left the rest of my gang members in their safe spot. Heading into Gurkala I warped to the tacklers chasing the Jaguar.

Dropping out of warp about 60km from the action I fired my sensor boosters anyway, it looked like this was going to get out of hand quickly. Locking and jamming the Jaguar kept some of the heat off our tacklers, which meant they had to concentrate on keeping him tackled rather than tackling and living.

“Ma’am, we’re about to lose our lock on the target” reported tactical.

I nodded and punched as much power into the ships engines as possible. Their bright blue ion glow light up the night sky as we made for the action at best speed.

We had no chance of catching this thing, not a hope in hell but that wasn’t my intention. The ship was a maximum speed, pointed towards my gang mates. As soon as one of them….

“Warp Drive Active!”, the ship was flung across the 150km distance to a nearby gang member landing me smack-bang in the middle of it once more. Re-locking the Jaguar at point blank range we unleashed our attack again.

“Load a full compliment of EM missiles” I said

“Aye Ma’am”

We could at least see if we couldn’t make some damage to their shields and help out the tacklers and DPS. Targeting data, trajectories, distances and massive amounts of other computations flowed into me via the pod/neural interface. Calculating and correcting as the missiles launched towards the speeding target, they struck well considering they were heavy missiles against a small, fast, moving target – but I’d always had a knack for that

Another rinse and repeat followed as I’d had to re-warp to gang members again, but the Jaguar was going down. Arriving this time, the tacklers had it dual webbed and it wasn’t able to return fire and keep them at bay. 20 minutes after the initial encounter it was finally dispatched.

A very skilled pilot, who probably deserved to live after all that – but it had made us even more determined not to let him. It turned out he was faction fitted, whilst it made him trickier to catch and kill, provided some very nice loot indeed for such a small ship.

We set a course homeward bound and were greeted by a command ship outside our “home” station, a combination of tiredness, a possibly broken overview readout and no standings/war dec in addition to being too close to the station guns got me attacked for my trouble.

Warping in a maximum range to try and keep out of sentry fire I locked up the target and started to attack, but I was too close! The sentry guns instantly swung round and spewed their projectiles at me.

“Ma’am we’re taking heavy shield damage”

“Active barrier! Full resists, lets get out of here ASAP” I said, wasting no time. I couldn’t head to a gate or a station as I had a GCC.

In the few moments it took to switch overview and get a planet up, our shields were knocked out and we were taking heavy armour damage.

“Alia, what’s going on?”

I didn’t answer at the moment as I was busy navigating the ship out. We were aligning to a planet and I willed the warp drive to kick in, but it seemed to take forever.

“Alia! Get out! Get out” yelled Flash as more sentry fire melted our ablative armour and bit into the hull.

The ship stained under the massive pressure of the manoeuvre to get out, it’s structure severely weakened. Alarms and sirens were sounding, damage reports scrolling down my vision, fires breaking out, consoles exploding and crew members running like headless chickens to either escape pods or trying to contain the damage.

Another salvo from both guns smashed into the ship, tearing through the hull in several places as pieces of ship armour, structure and contents were blown into space.

“Engineering reports there’s nothing more they can do Ma’am” said one of the bridge crew in an oddly calm matter. “We’ve got plasma fires across several decks and the external structure is burning”.

In what would have been split seconds from the guns “coup de gras” our warp engines finally kicked in and out – heading to the relative safety of a planet.

“Report” I yelled!

“Shields down, armour gone, but the structure is holding Ma’am – although we’re an embarrassment to even a minmatar ship at the moment”.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. The final damage report indicated we’d escaped with a sliver of structure left, a mere 8% which had been just and just enough to hold the ship together for our emergency warp out.

“I’m good! I’m good!” I replied over the comms letting my gang mates know I’d escaped.

All in all a very fun roam indeed, with some good kills and loot. The atmosphere in gang and on vent was superb and I can pretty safely say I think everyone enjoyed it. One of the most entertaining nights in recent memory – including the oddly named squads :s

Yoink…. Cha-ching!

Arriving in the docking bay, my docking bay I was greeted by a sight of chaos… still.  Partly assembled ships, equipment, tools, guns, modules and so forth scattered across the decks as far as the eye could see.

“You!” I yelled to one of the Caldari techs responsible for this scene of bedlam.  “Why are my fricking ships STILL not ready” I yelled into his face whilst grabbing his collar.

“We’re still fitting Ma’am, we need the protocols and assignment procedu-” I cut him off mid sentence.  “I don’t care! Make it work, make them them.  I don’t care if you have to put round bolts in square holes – get me some more birds to fly. Clear?”

He nodded, somewhat shaken at the ferocity of my yelling, and grabbing of his oily coveralls.  “Good” I said, much more calmly, half slapping, half patting him on the cheek.  “Off you go then”.  Bless them, being Caldari through and through they were keen to “follow procedure” unlike their Minmatar counterparts who’d quite happily just “slap it together and go”.

I looked around the station, I had to admit I preferred the Caldari ones – having grown up on one most of the time.  They were also more “clinical” and up to date compared to the Minmatar ones and a lot less noisy.  Ok, sure, they were all a uniform and boring colour but I could live with that.

An attendant arrived with a drink and some olives that I’d ordered.  Taking the drink in one hand I smiled, taking the olives in the other and calmly, carefully up-ending the container and tipping them onto the floor.  “These are black, I wanted green” I said solemnly as they rolled across the deck in various directions.

“I’m sorry, I’ll fix that for you” her voice trailed off as she’d turned and made her way back.  I hadn’t meant to be so snappy, at either of them, but I was having withdrawal symptoms from the various stims that I’d been used to taking, or nerve sticks to counter their effects when no longer needed.

I still had a choice of a few ships, and made my way to the preferred one and got ready to launch.  Happily in my pod, on board and clearing the docking ramps we headed out into space to see what could be found.  The comms were somewhat quiet with three of us talking, exchanging info on various possible targets and the like.

Another new recruit joined us and shortly after we found a Maelstrom on scan.  It was quickly narrowed down and tackled.  Our DPS arrived along with myself, and shortly after another tackler in the form of the newest recruit.  Fluffing up the initial lock, I managed to target a fleet member.  Realising my mistake quickly, I targeted the Maelstrom.  The locks were resolved, but I’d forgotten to disable one of the ECM modules.  For the several seconds it was active, I disabled one of the locks on our tackler – or so we thought.

Not to worry, we had another.  The other ECM modules were on the battleship and hitting decent regular cycles, I switched the last one over as soon as possible whilst the tackler re-established his lock.  Then everyone lost their lock – except for me being quite some distance away.

“He’s got an ECM Burst” someone yelled.  The tacklers did an amazing job keeping the ship pinned down, although a couple of the enemy drones were chewing one of them up.  Flicking the overview, I went to jam them but they were quickly popped before I had a chance, so I continued to focus on the battleship.

The pilot was invited to a convo and ransomed, we took off the DPS to “show willing” and were quickly rewarded with a blinky wallet.  “Points Off” said Raelyf who was conducting the ransom – the pilot was free to go.

A very nice reward for a few minutes work, and good teamwork and communication all round.

On to more business, this time a Raptor which had found our new recruit and tackler.  The Raptor engaged and sped towards him.  Giving his location we were quickly in warp from various points in the system all landing at our desired ranges, to see a fight well under way.  

Moments after arriving our tackler’s incursus exploded into fireworks across the darkness of space, but the Raptor wasn’t escaping.  We had him pointed with another incursus and our rupture was tearing chunks out of him, to ensure he didn’t escape by popping the tackler, you’re truly had him jammed up more than a jar of marmalade

We didn’t offer a ransom, but simply blew the ship to smithereens.  Unfortunately we missed the pod as the pilot made a very quick escape with his tale between his legs.

Waiting out and criminal countdowns, collecting loot and so on we then made our way 1 jump over with Hrothgar being in the lead.  He’d tackled an Enyo but I was still in warp to the gate.  Raelyf arrived to assist and they quickly destroyed it.  Dropping out of warp, about to lock the target and it exploded.

To our surprise it was faction fitted so they scooped some very nice loot from the deadly little frigate.  Nice work guys, brilliantly done.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet, although we did have a look around to see what we could find.  A large enemy blob was cyno’d into a system near us, consisting of about 15-20 ships.  Being a mere 4 or 5 of us, not in a set up for that sort of thing we decided to steer clear and avoided their clear trap that they’d prepared for us.  They left shortly after without causing any trouble.

It seems it’s either really busy, or really quiet.  Tonight started off very quickly, with a ransom and a kill (plus another for 2 of the gang mates) after which it trailed off quickly.  No doubt being a Friday everyone is busy enjoying holo-reels and whatever their poison may be.

Time for me to do the same.  o/

The Falcon Hunter

Things were a little slow to get rolling that Saturday night, although there were various people wandering around looking for targets.  The one’s we’d managed to find on scan were either at safes, pos’s or just passing through.  I didn’t mind, I was in a relaxed mood and enjoying the scenery after a week in station or grounded to the planet.

“Ma’am looks very happy today” ventured a crew member.
“Mmmhmmm” I muttered, offering a slight smile and a wink.  I was just happy to be back in space once again.

Communications were buzzing lightly with general info coming in and some idle chit-chat.  We organised into a fleet and decided to start a bit of a roam.  Before we’d even managed to leave the system a Cynabal cruiser was found on scan.  The tacklers warped in and quickly pinned him down, along with the rest of the gang, myself in tow too.

No ransom was offered and the ship was quickly taken apart by our mix of frigate and cruiser gang, the pilot made good his escape and left with his pod.

Now the roam started proper and we set a course out towards the 0.0 boarder.  Jumping through various systems, scanning and probing we’d managed to find a few things here and there but it was very quiet all in all.  Nothing but the distance and vastness of space, stars and suns littering the sky and the occasional nebula – that and the mixed frigate/cruiser gang streaking across this back-drop with their engines roaring creating an ion trail which slowly dissipated like an aircraft of ancient Earth crossing the sky and leaving a vapour trail.

I was snapped back into focus again by our FC; “We’re going to head into 0.0”.  I needed to be a little more on the ball in that case, and stop my mind wandering so.

We briefly ducked into 0.0 to see what we could find, which consisted of a few large gangs and bubbles – more than our gang was capable of dealing with.

We headed back towards home after some reports of more activity back that way, the fleet quickly aligning, warping and jumping together.  A little while later we were back in Evati and a Sleipnir Command Ship was found on scan near a belt.  The pilot was known to some in the gang.

The gang now consisted on a Rapier, some frigates, cruisers and interceptors.  The Sleipnir was tackled and the rest of the gang warped towards our target like a group of hungry piranha finding lunch to snack on.  The tacklers did an amazing job of keeping him in place, despite on of them getting popped during the process they made sure his escape was not an option.

I followed moments later arriving at the action at 70km in my Blackbird.  Firing up the sensor boosters the Sleipnir was locked and quickly on the end of an ECM barrage.  From the distance I could see the rest of the gang orbiting, firing.  Trying to keep under the CS’s guns, whilst inflicting maximum damage.

The comms were chatty and I reported that I had my brought my full load to bare on the CS’s, hoping this would give our small gang time to take the CS down without suffering at the hands of it’s auto cannons and neut.

I scanned the tactical overview and our target, the ECM modules were cycling but we weren’t getting a single jam cycle in – not one.  I decided to get in a little closer to try and make a difference, although we were pretty much almost at optimal.  Closing to within missile range I ordered our offensive weapons to open fire too, which they did.  Continuing to fire our ECM and missiles at the target it became clear that I wasn’t going to get a cycle in.

“Alia here, I’ve not had a single jam cycle! He must have ECCM”

One of our pilots was pinned down by the CS’s warp disruptor and was taking heavy fire.  I cursed at fact that I couldn’t get a jam cycle off as this would have allowed him valuable seconds to get out, but it wasn’t to be.  The Sleipnir claimed an interceptor, in additional to it’s earlier stabber (which I’ll point out was a ‘temporary get me home stabber fit’ one of our guys was flying).

Now I know for a fact I can jam a command ship in a T1 cruiser, with T1 modules so by this point I was utterly convinced he had ECCM. 

“Ma… Ma’am”
“Yes, what is it?” I replied snappily as I was concentrating on other readouts and systems.
“I.. I can’t get a jam cycle off”
I sighed heavily.
“Very well, transfer systems over to my pod – I’ll do it myself”
“Yes Ma’am” the tactical officer said sheepishly.

The ewar modules were transferred over to the pod, where I realigned them making quick adjustments here and there.  Every attack angle, every vector, every option was met with quick resistance and compensation – there was no way in.

“Neither can I, transferring control back to you – I’m busy, but keep trying”
“Yes Ma’am”

It didn’t matter too much as the cruiser and frigate gang polished him off rather quickly all things considered and without any additional casualties.  The pod was quickly in warp before we could lock it down.  The loot was scooped and loaded and we headed to safes and stations to wait out our Criminal flags.

Checking over the combat logs I was astonished to find that the pilot had fitted no less than THREE ewar counter-measures to his ship.  This explained the fact he was invulnerable to my attacks, but of course left his ship very vulnerable in other areas.  He told us that he was trying to kill a Falcon – hence the very strange fit, and very strange behaviour.  I felt a little better in the fact that there were 3 eccm modules fitted and nothing I could have done would have made a difference.

After a quick rest we were off again, the gang now consisting of only 6 pilots.  The rest had other business to attend to, or were refitting.  Hera had spotted a Drake heading through to the Todi gate and followed it through where they went head to head, Drake Vs Brutix.  Hera was also under sentry gun fire and ECM drone attack.

“Break the gate cloak and get that Drake locked down” I ordered, whilst manoeuvring the ship into a more suitable position.  Tactical and weapons officers made busy and we were ready almost right away.

I was the next to arrive on scene, quickly breaking my gate cloak and locking the Drake who returned the favour.  As were were almost at point blank range, there was no need for any additional boosting, I just let rip with my ECM and missiles.

The Drake pilot was quick – and smart.  He pulled his ecm drones off of the Brutix and onto me, hoping to “jam the jammer”.

“Ma’am, the Drake has re-deployed it’s drones onto us”
“Reinforce the shields” I snapped, assuming at first they were attack drones.
“Yes Ma’am” as our shield hardeners kicked into life.

I quickly realised they were not attack drones and we cancelled our additional defence to save our precious capacitor for our continued EWAR attack against the Drake – which was pretty much now Permajammed and unable to return fire upon either the Brutix or myself.

“Defensive – stand down on shields”
“Tactical – get ready to re-establish lock if we’re jammed”
“Weapons – keep our ecm on the target, I don’t want it getting a shot off and switch missiles to EM”

A chorus of “Yes Ma’am” echoed around the bridge as the crew continued their work in the dimly light surroundings, which had a faint red glow. It was not only to signal we were in combat, that much was obvious but it made readouts and operating the systems easier for people.  The bridge was packed with high-tech equipment – even by Caldari standards.  It was boxy though, I was used to something more spacious, but I’d had it fitted to my own specification to match my styles and skills perfectly.

The gate activated but we were calm in the knowledge it was the rest of our gang jumping through to help break the Drakes tank.  2 Interceptors, a Thorax and a Rifter arrived to reinforce our attack against the immobile, disabled and helpless Drake.

Hera’s Brutix, Ronin and 3Jayne in their interceptors and Jack in his Thorax quickly ripped through the Drakes shields whilst an additional tackler, Porcus kept the Drake locked down and sharpened his auto cannon teeth on the shields.  The Drake was utterly helpless, unable to move, unable to fire it’s fate was sealed. 

I’d seen this many times before.  The Drakes shields crackled under the final strain and barrage unable to keep charge with the incoming damage, they were down and incoming fire was striking the paper-thin Caldari armour taking chunks out of the once proud ship.  The armour and hull were quickly breeched and the ship veered out of control exploding moments later as more ordinance ripped through the mangled ship causing it’s warp drive to explode, and in turn the entire ship.  The crew braced for a shock wave from the explosion, which was absorbed by our shields just causing a slight buffeting.

No criminal flags, so we were able to slow boat to the gate and jump through.  By this time it was getting very late (or early depending on which way you look at it) so I decided to dock up and get some sleep.

A pleasant night-time roam and some good kills.

Hauled over the coals

 

The ship dropped out of warp directly in front of the gate, a few seconds behind the rest of the small gang.  Contact alarms, sensors and indicators light up across my view as we’d landed slap bang in the middle of the enemy ships.

Whilst the rest of the gang got to work I raged at my bridge crew “Why the hell have you dumped me in the middle of this!” I demanded.  “I… I… I didn’t see it Ma’am”.

“You didn’t hmm?” I retorted

“No Ma’am”

“The get the hell of my bridge, and send someone else in who is more attentive”.  With that he scuttled off.

“Take us out, quickly” I told the crew as the ship came about on it’s axis having no other celestial objects to get to, we have no option to return or safe.  Taking the quickest option, we were shortly in warp once again.  The warp conduit and spatial distortions, which I usually love seemed to last for an eternity – and we still had to get back, again!

“Hurry up! Hurry up, damn it!” I cursed.

A similar pattern re-occurred, as the ship swung around once again.  The best we could hope for was 100km and to get out of sentry range asap.  We didn’t actually need to take that precaution, but it made sense.  I was in a tin can crammed full of electrical wizardry, keeping the distance and making them work for it made sense.  Besides, more friendlies or neutrals could jump through to assist any moment – who might not be -5 flashy.  No point in getting mashed by sentry fire, or having to leave my gang mates.

We raced across space, no expense spared to get there as soon as possible.  The ship shuddered as it decelerated out of warp, landing smack bang 100km from the gate.

“Weapons systems, target all hostiles – ECM officer standby”

“Yes Ma’am” various voices echoed around.

“Get the sensor boosters on-line, inject range scripts – and get us away from the damn sentries”.  Thankfully we only needed to be another kilometre.

Preparations were made, all systems were ready.  The ECM burst into life, emitting their invisible but deadly rays towards the enemy targets.  I’d decided to split the load 50/50 across the primary and secondary targets.

The nimble frigates and interceptors whizzed around the geddon, which was having trouble tracking them.  It was slowly but surely being torn to pieces to smaller, faster and more deadly adversaries.  The Nighthawk command ship was in a supporting role.  The gang dealt with various drones that had been deployed admirably, and kept both targets pointed at all times.

“Alia, are you jamming these?” the voice comms crackled.

“Yes, we’ve got 50/50 on each and getting in a few cycles here and there” I replied.

“Ok, switch to the nighthawk, the geddon is taken care of”

“Roger” I replied.

I disengaged the ECM on the geddon, and switched everything over to the nighthawk.

“Get us in closer, helm!” I snapped.

There was a few brief glances exchanged.

“We need optimal jamming on that command ship” I clarified “Keep us at maximum, but optimal”.  

“Aye Ma’am”.

The nighthawk was now under electronic attack from our 4 jammers, supported by sensor boosters and distortion amplifiers.  Now we were closer, we were getting off a hell of a lot more jam cycles – sometimes between 20-40 seconds across a staggered formation.  A perma was too much to hope for against a nighthawk in our poxy tin can.

As the EW attack wreaked havoc with the command ship, this brought valuable time for the gang to finish off the geddon which exploded – after de-agressing and then foolishly re-agressing.  That had sealed his fate.

The gang switched to the nighthawk, buzzing around it like flies but there was no way we could break the tank of this monster with our current deployment.  Suddenly, and rather wonderfully the vent came alive with a recently arrived corp member.  “I can bring a BS with some neuts”.

We quickly withdrew and re-grouped.  There was some smack in local from the enemy ships, but we kept it cordial and didn’t take any bait.  Shortly we were ready once more, and with a neuting BS in our arsenal which would tip the balance ~evil grin~

“He’s on the gate, the nighthawk” intel reported “And the wolf is back again”.  The plucky frigate pilot had quickly re-equipped and got back into the fight.  Fair play indeed.

The gang warped to engage once more.  We held position until they were in place and had the command ship pointed.  Warping to 70km this time, a rinse and repeat ensured – with a few differences this time.  The CS had full ECM attack 100% of the time, and our neut BS was taking chunks out of his cap and ergo his tank.

The command ship was going down – slowly, but was going down nonetheless – his tank was broken and it was only a matter of time.  The wolf had scattered pretty quickly, maybe warping to a safe or another point – we were busy on the CS.  It’s shields were about 45% – which is concerning for a Caldari pilot and were continuing to drop.

The question was – why wasn’t he de-agressing and jumping.  The answer soon became clear as friendlies to him jumped into the system on the gate.  With what we had there’s no way we’d have held them off, plus broken the tank of the CS.  There weren’t enough neuts or ECM to go around.

“Disengage, disengage!” the FC ordered as we scattered to safe spots throughout the system.  The enemy ships actually made good of their smack previously and offered “gf” in local, which was returned.

All the time the comms were alive with various chatter, scans and intel popping up.  The most interesting one, and most accessible one which got every pirates attention was an AFK freighter heading towards a high sec gate.  He was only 15km from safety.

“Point it, get webs on it – lots of them” the FC said.  Pirates scrambled over themselves to get to their ships – a combination of battleships, tacklers and so forth to take down the freighter.  The lumbering hulk was quickly multiple pointed and webbed.  Going a mere few km/s it’s fate was sealed as the DPS ships laid into it.  Warping to 100km and backing off out of sentry gun fire, we powered up the sensor boosters and offered our DPS for what it was worth.  3 heavy missiles launched across the 100+ km distance and slammed into their target an eternity later – their damage was limited but every bit helped before the freighter jumped into high sec.

“Shall we…” ventured a crewman.

“Yes, why not” I laughed as our ECM modules attacked the freighter across the void.  They were even more useless than the heavy missiles, but still, why not.

We tried to ransom the hauler when it reached structure.  The lumbering hulk swaying as it crawled towards the gate.  It’s shields inactive, it’s armour melted and massive holes in it’s structure venting cargo and oxygen into space.

There was no response – so we blew it up and snagged the pod.  Again no response, so the pilot was quickly returned to his medical facility courtesy of The Bastards + Co.

Some nights are quiet, some nights you’re down – and others, you’re busy and right back up again.  Ride out the lows, and enjoy the highs.  A good night all round with an awesome gang and corp, what more could you ask for?  Sure, solo is good for a while but there’s only so much you can do and only a few people to share it with.  When you have a good gang, and a good bunch of guys then it just amplifies the experience.

A good time was had by all, and looting to boot.  Yarr!

Catch a cheetah

The past couple of days (the one’s I’ve been here) have been a little quiet but entertaining nonetheless.  A couple of days ago we were generally wandering around looking for mischief and avoiding large blobs that were roaming around waiting to gank anything in sight.

Some pretty good kills, namely a taranis solo by Rodney in his T1 frigate.  Sadly by the time I arrived the taranis was already scrap metal but Mynx managed to get in on the action.

The rest of the night was pretty quiet apart from when someone said they’d seen an unpiloted cheetah a jump over, just sitting at a gate in high sec on the boarder to low.  Tempting indeed but we suspected it might be a tarp (for tarp, read trap :p).  No one plucked up the courage to go and yoink it, until Ronin decided he was game for it.  The problem being he’d need to be in his pod, in high sec then grab the ship and get it out before the faction police popped it.

Jumping through into high sec in nothing but his pod (crazy crazy guy) he landed at the gate.  Approaching the ship from 11km  (and somehow not being popped by someone) he went to board it.  You could hear the excitement building as the distance slowly ticked down and the ship was to be stolen right off the gate.  One slight problem – it was actually manned.  Whether someone had got there or it had been manned all along was a mystery, but it caused no end of laughter on the Vent server.  After giving the pilot a friendly wave, he returned to low sec.  Cue more hysterics on Vent.

Later we had a blackbird warp to within a few hundred km of the station, and it just sat there.  We suspected it might be a prelude to something, but it didn’t move and didn’t engage.  A few of the gang tried warping to various points to get it within scram range but no joy.  

I remained hidden and slowly closed the gap on the ship.  Not wanting to de-cloak and tip our hand it was slow going as my ECM cruiser inched closer and closer waiting for someone to get a point on it.  I would have to be quick and get to my gang mate as no doubt the blackbird would overpower the frigates small targeting systems, break the lock and scrambler and warp off.  So the order of the day would be blackbird VS blackbird while the frigates took it down.

A few warps here and there we were no closer to getting a point on it.  Seeing what was going on the pilot must have been wary that we’d get in close pretty soon, so he left sharpish – probably a wise decision on his part.

Last night, again pretty quiet during the times I was there but we did find a mission runner on the scan.  We also found a falcon – which was guarding him.  By the time we’d got an accurate probe hit, he’d warped out.  The plan was for the small gang to deal with the mission runner, while I tackled the falcon to give them locking and shooting time.

So nothing extraordinary to tell so far, although there’s always tomorrow and Friday nights are piracy and grog night \o/

Wham! Jam! Thank You Ma’am

I was floating in my pod, helpless, a few jumps into 0.0 “Time to get out” I thought to myself and proceeded to the nearest gate.  The gate officials kindly informed me that it was off-line, but due to be restored shortly.  

Having dodged a couple of bubbles on the way there, and the night previous I didn’t need to be told twice – time to get out – asap!  Plotting an exact return course, I headed back to my safe spot to wait for the gates to come back on-line.  There were a few people in the system, but most too busy trying to get out rather than shoot each other – this was good, for me at least.

After another 15 minutes or so, I thought I’d chance my luck again.  I noticed local had dipped, so they’d either logged or got out – time for another try,  “Particulars verified, jump in sequence” came the reply from the gate – it was back on-line!  Shortly I was back in low sec and away from those god awful bubbles, which were almost certain death for a pod if any hostiles were nearby.

Some sort of cascading virus had affected most gates in New Eden, and they were off-line.  Stations were having trouble undocking ships too – time for a nap.  I made haste to the nearest station, still in my pod and got some downtime whilst the gates were onlined again.

The night previous, which had lead me to this situation had involved a frigate roam.  We’d wandered a little and ventured into 0.0 where a battle had ensued.  Burning to our primary, I pointed and tackled him keeping a close orbit to try and avoid any outgoing fire.  That was well and good, the other hostiles managed to take me down pretty quickly, various munitions making short work of the tackler shields.  I had to eject and leave sharpish!

Having no safe way back, I decided the best option was to power down and wait them out… which I did.  Brining us up to speed once more after the gate chaos, I was home.

A T1 frigate roam with Coochie – good fun indeed, sadly no kills for me as our primary which I’d tackled had survived.

Returning to the scene of the action I had a few ships ready and waiting.  “Get her prepped and ready” I said to the deck crew.  Intel was coming in from multiple channels – it was hard to keep up at times.  It would have probably been easier if I’d not sat and drank some cheap station grog after returning from 0.0

Shaking my head, I boarded the aptly named “Marmalade” – a blackbird with some heavy EWAR fittings.  She had very minimal offensive capability, but could “switch off” and aggressor and buy time for either the attack to complete, or a gang-mate to escape.

Fleeting with some of the Bastards crew, I made 18 jumps through low sec to catch up with them – finally making contact on a course correction.  The fleet comprised of various ships (not going into too much detail), we started to roam.

The Bastards had a few WT’s wandering around, amongst the usual crowd.  The first ship to be engaged was a Jaguar, which the ever redoubtable Flashfresh and Ronin made very short work of. Piling in slightly behind the main force I locked her and unleashed my deadly arsenal – not in the form of any sort of projectiles or missiles but EWAR.

“The targets locking and targeting are now disabled Ma’am” said our tactical officer.  “Good” I replied.  “Ensure it stays that way!”.  The frigate taking massive fire from Flash and Ronin was sure to pop but we’d saved them maybe a few megawatts of shields or armour repair cycles.

Carrying on, new intel was received.  The fleet channels were awash with chatter and confirmations and were were soon en-route again.  Five, maybe six jumps later we were at our destination.  Gods, lay off the station grog next time Alia, I thought to myself.  My head having far too many cobwebs in and trying to clear them and focus was proving hard.

Nonetheless, arriving shortly behind the main attack force the primary was quickly locked as my nimble EWAR frigate fired it’s sensor boosters.  This ensured a quicker lock, again saving time for both myself and the fleet to get the job done.  A lock was quickly established and the electronic attack computers began hacking the targets systems in order to disable them.

“Lock is established, estimating time to target shut down” the tactical officer said.  “Fire ECM modules in staggered formation, lets maximise our jamming potential” I replied.  “Aye Ma’am” he confirmed, getting to work.  The modules activated at 33%, 66% and about 90% to give the best ECM spread and maximise the havoc upon the target.

Smiling I said “Lets do our bit too”.  Our pathetic offensive capabilities in terms of damage clunked into their launchers and sped to their destination.  The couple of thunderbolts slammed into the target a few seconds later – well it all helped

The T2 ships piloted by Ronin, Flash and 3Jane made short work of the enemy battle cruiser which was reduced to smouldering scrap within 60 seconds.  I was primaried (if not, I’d certainly pissed a load of them off) – and far too much to jam.  The shields and armour melted pretty quick, but I got the pod out.  Time for a quick stop, refit and re-launch…..

The roam continued, and various stand-offs ensued.  The best of which was attempting to get a capital to engage.  The odds were stacked against us – technically, but these guys knew their stuff.  Sadly it was not to be (he didn’t wanna play) – so we continued onwards.

A few of the Hellcats, namely Minxee, Venom and another X’d up and came to join us.  Some fighting ensued in one of the local systems (again, vagueness prevails).  Warping to the main battle slightly ahead of the others en-route I engaged an enemy Mega with one of our pilots under fire.  I knew I’d maybe get one or two jam cycles off before the sentry guns shredded my shields – which they did rather quickly.  “Alia is under fire, gotta duck out for a few” I said over the comms systems – as the rest of the fleet arrived.

For what help it did, I’d got two jam cycles on the enemy but couldn’t tank the sentries for more than about 30 seconds in my cruiser.  “Sentries locking… and firing… incoming ordnance” tactical reported.  “Maintain position, keep our ECM hot and align” I said.

We got another jam cycle in at a health distance before the sentries started to bite into our shields heavily.  “Ma’am, we cannot take another salvo” confirmed tactical – engineering confirmed.  “Take us out… quickly!”.  We insta-warped to our destination, escaping the savage fire of the sentries.  The shields barely operational, and the resistance fields struggling to keep operational we waited for a few moments.

The comms were hot, more ships engaging, more friendlies going in – and more enemies arriving.  They’d bought along some EWAR too, which were causing us to lose locks – and valuable DPS.  I decided a game of chicken was in order.  Warping back into the action at 50km, we attempted another couple of jam cycles, maybe pulling out one or two before the shields were shredded again.

A rinse and repeat occurred as the battle continued.  Their EWAR pilots proving to be very effective, which I couldn’t get a jam cycle on.  The battle shortly petered out, with no kills, no losses.

“Align and ready to dock” I announced.  Having been in the pod for some hours and still groggy from the grog it had been a good night, but it was time for some rest.  “Ma’am, we’re still valid targets for sentries” the XO exclaimed.  Grinning and nodding slightly I replied “Yes we are, but I’m tired”.  Checking the shields they were about 70%, with our DC systems and resistance barriers we could probably pull it off.

“Warping to dock” the ships systems confirmed.  “Maximum DC, Maximum resitance – and tell the docking officer we’re in a hurry, and there’s a bonus in it for him!”.  “Yes Ma’am” comms and engineering confirmed.

We docked under sentry fire, the damage control and resistances giving us time to complete before we were torn to pieces.

All in all, a good time was had by all.  I very much enjoyed fleeting with The Bastards and their pilots – some superbly skilled guys in there.  I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that kind of wrath.  Whilst I didn’t get any final blows or inflict a massive amount of DPS (lol @ DPS) I did get a bit more experience in the EWAR field (excluding cock-ups) but it was indeed a great new experience.

You either love EWAR or hate it, but either way you can’t live without it and it’s here to stay.  It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it – and I’m enjoying it so far – yay! \o/

A hunt, a romp and a few kills – not to mention some games with neuts – what more could you ask for?

Thank you one and all.