The what!?!, The Enyo and the rust…

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How far?”

“Nearly 21km I replied”

“Tackle”

“Ok, here we go… warp to me”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Take his drone”

 It insta-popped as we attacked it.

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

“Stop attacking”

“Ok, stopped”

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

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

“Rgr” 

“Come back, or wait here?”

“Warp to 20km”

“Omw”

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

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

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

“Your pod is being ransomed, please comply”

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

~Comms close~

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

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

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

Hello! It’s good to be back!

I love this reply

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yarrrr!

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

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

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

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

Yarrr!

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

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

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

Kudos to you, Alia Xi.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time for me to be moving along now….

Complex capers

A few days previous…. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A good fight was had by all

Gazzelles on steroids

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

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

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

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

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

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

A helping hand

I’ve been a bit quiet?  Busy busy busy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy yarring,

Alia

Frigate piracy FTL :(

It seemed like a good idea at the time…. Fitting a frigate and doing a bit of piracy in that.  I mentioned it a few posts back.

After getting all the things I needed delivered, I fitted a ship and was on my way.  I checked out a few complexes, belts, planets… Nothing!  All in all pretty uneventful.

The highlight was finding a wolf on the scan as I was looking for a rifter.  There weren’t many in local, so it was pretty easy to see who the wolf pilot was.  He was about a year or so older than me.  Knowing that, and the fact he was in a wolf I knew he’d be onto me within a few minutes.  I continued scanning for the rifter, but he must have been belt hopping as I couldn’t get a fix.  Moments later a blinky red wolf arrived.

There’s a saying about discrestion and valor, I decided to implement it and run knowing I would be no match for a T2 frigate and a pilot that had 12 months plus on me.  As I zipped towards the gate, I said a hello and that I was looking for a rifter - maybe he’d have more luck.

A few plexes and belts later still more nothing.  Someone in the Independence channel noted there was some activity in Eifer so I thought I’d go check it out.  Spotting a stabber, in a belt I thought I’d take my chances.  I started a lock, and at the precise moment a blink red Thorax arrived.

The stabber fled before I could get a lock and point on him, oh well.  I noticed the ‘rax was the guy I’d been chatting to in the channel earlier.  I also noticed he had a lock on me.  Back in the channel I said “Hey Chris” trying to get his attention, sadly it didn’t and a webber, scrammer and multiple blaster hits reduced my frigate to scrap metal pretty quickly.  I got the pod out pretty quick, not knowing if that was his intention.

In the channel I said “Didn’t think you’d fire” he replied “Oh s*it! Was that you”… “Yuppers”  I wrote.  Various apologies were exchanged and a few laughs too.  All was good, and pretty ironic seeing as I’d been out looking for other frigates/destroyers.

Never mind, friendly fire happens!  A frigate only takes a few shots against a cruiser, so you get little time to respond and even less time to get their attention.  Not to mention my weapons probably wouldn’t have been much use against his ‘rax.

Damn frigates… I’m done with them unless I’m tackling.

Time for some battlecruiser action me thinks

Prior preparation and planning….

When I first started on my course of piracy 4, maybe 5 months ago it was mostly can flipping and agroing people in high sec.  Well we all have to start somewhere….

I mainly used a frigate or a destroyer.  However I did have a Drake available to me and wanted to use it - for no other reason than to see if I could, and to give me a bit of extra damage over my opponent.

I wrote about such an incident and sent it to Eve-pirate.com.  It didn’t appear so I assumed it was too poor to appear in print.  Suddenly to my shock, my mailbox fills up with comments about an article.  I noticed it had been published, in January - months and months after the event.  You can see it here http://www.eve-pirate.com/index.php?/archives/928-Stubbornness-gets-you-killed,-cash-gets-you-free!.html

Anyway, I’d stated in the article that I *could not* outfit a drake properly at the time.  Don’t get me wrong, I knew *how* to fit one, but was simply unable to at the time so went with what I could use.  Thank you to those who offered congrats on the kill.  Likewise, thank you to those who told me I was a buffoon and didn’t know what I was doing - I already knew that though and did make a point of highlighting it.

Nonetheless, said Drake is still in existance and happy rumbling along.  It provided me with my first BC kill, even though poorly fitted.  To date has been very useful in many other exploits - mainly shooting haulers and sentry gun tanking.

Some had commented that I was lucky to get out alive against the Brutix in my noob fitted Drake.  I beg to differ.  Although poorly fitted, poorly skilled I had made adequate compensations for this.  Checked out my opponents age, his ship, how many mining lasers he had, drone bay capacity, high/mid/low slots and so on.  I was also aligned ready to warp out.  Using the information about his character, ship and visible fittings it gave me a *very* good idea of what I was up against.

A gamble?  Yes.  It paid off though.  I was 90% certain I could beat him with that setup after doing a little research.  So the moral of the story is even if you’re not the best, you can still catch your opponent off guard and use what information you can gather to ascertain if it’s likely to be in your favor or not.

It always pays to be prepared as a pirate - and do your home work.  Against popular belief we’re not just a drunken opportunist rabble…  Anyway, I’m off to drink that rum I stole from an unconscious guy earlier.  Happy yarring!

Concord dodging…

Lost in a warp tunnel? Well that’s what you might be thinking, but I’m not :p

I have been a little quiet lately, I’ll give you that.  Aside logging on for a skill change here and there and to pick up a few supplies I’ve been a little unavailable.  Hopefully that will all be changing quite soon.

Although I have been doing a little Concord/Empire police dodging in high sec and generally up to a bit of mischeif.  I found myself slap bang in the middle of empire space, thinking I’d be podded.  Alas not, it was a clonejump and a splitting hangover - personally I blame Flash and his latest dodgy batch of beer :p

Whilst I was in high sec, I decided to grab some skills and thought I’d also grab a few thrills and spills whilst I was there. Undocking in a shuttle from upper high sec (0.9) I punched in a course to the nearest stargate and didn’t spare the whip.  Concord/Empire police were hot on my tail and had a present for me - in the form of a volley of anti matter charges.  Thats one gift I can do without at the moment!

Arriving at my destination and finding my trusty old Comorant destroyer from days gone by still neatly docked in it’s hanger.  Pulling together a makeshift rag tag crew, dusting off a few surfaces and loading the ammo magazines we were ready for action.

Whilst I can’t enter upper high sec systems, 0.5 and 0.6 are still good.  It would be a shame to waste a clone jump - wouldn’t it?  I thought so.  Steadying myself, and remembering *not* to fire without agro first was a bit of a re-learning process, but it came back to me quickly.

Searching a few belts, I found a miner in his Exqueror cruiser.  Jet can mining - wonderful.  Flippy flippy time then I thought and headed towards his stash.  Upon getting in range, I flipped the can and then took my usual course of action - lock weapons and orbit at optimal range.  This wasn’t low sec, this wasn’t someone hugely experienced - I wasn’t too worried and the lax behavior in the circumstances is forgivable.

A few moments passed, nothing happened.  I opened a communication channel to his ship, and sent him a message “If you want your ore back, it’s gonna cost you 250k”.  A few more moments passed and the ship aligned and warped out.  “Oh well I thought”.

Then, unexpectedly the reply came.  “Ok I will pay you but I want to haul it back”.  I smirked to myself thinking “That old chestnut” and replied “Sure, no probs”.

As I closed the comm channel, I activiated the alert and grabbed the internal comms mic “All hands, make ready for combat.  Weapons to full power, engineering standby for damage”.  Frantic scuffling as crew members fell over themselves to prepare the ship.  They meant well, but were slightly…. Well… Disorganised.  Still it was the best I could do in the time.  I just hoped the ship, under this crew would be sufficient.

“Helm, set a course and orbit our ransomed ore at 2.5km” I snapped.  I didn’t want to be caught still if/when he warped back in.  I wasn’t expecting a hauler - and I was right!  Shortly, the overview reading confirmed it was a Thorax cruiser.  It stopped, dead in space as if contemplating it’s actions.

Sensing he needed a little encouragement, I locked my weapons knowing full well I would be “red flashing” to him.  Hopefully it would provoke him into action, as I couldn’t fire without agro first.  It did.  A weapons lock was returned and a few moments later 4 superaccelerated particle shots struck my shield in the form of railgun fire.

Now knowing his weakness, I activated the warp jammer and raced towards his ship at full speed - banking at the last minute to get within an optimial weapons orbit - and screw up his railgun tracking/range.  To add insult to injury, I engaged the webber dragging his ship to the speed of a snail.

Unable to leave, unable to move efficiently, unable to target and strike quickly or accuratley enough he was a sitting duck.  This had all happened in a few seconds, but it seemed like minutes.  Taking my time, I firstly engaged the nos draining his ship of it’s lifeblood and topping up mine from the various systems which were now in place.  “Fire batteries one through six” I shouted to the weapons officer.  The small T2 ion blasters locked, tracked and fired within moments.  Their deadly anti-matter charges hitting the shields of the tangled ‘Rax and making quite a dent.  Reloading and firing quickly again they continued their assault.

I was calm, oddly.  Maybe after being in low sec so long I had grown more comfortable with things.  Besides, it didn’t look like he had anyone coming to the rescue seeing as he was in an NPC corp. 

Upon his shields collapsing and just biting into the armour I opened the comm channel again “You ore and your ship will cost you 2 million, if you don’t want both destroyed” I said.  I was even gracious enough to stop firing and give him a few moments to think.  It seemed a fair price of his ore and ‘Rax.  My shields were at about 60% probably due to a mixture of his poor choice of ammo and me being so close to his rails.

He agreed.  My wallet blinked, and I checked the transfer.  Good to his word it had been depositied.

“You’re free to go” I replied, disabling the webber and scrammer.  I set a course to a nearby moon to de-agress and reload weapons.

A most polite “customer” indeed.  No smack, no ranting - although a do find it funny I must admit.

Fun though it was, low sec is calling me and a familiar solar system that I love so much.

Until the next time….

Blog tanking…

Well nothing EVE related, well not exactly anyway.  It is in a way because it’s reflects my experiences on EVE, and that of others - our blogs.

A friend of mine recently had their blog “nerfed” by some asshat.  The probability was that he’d (the asshat) been the victim of piracy in EVE, checked his agressors profile, found his blog and then reported it as “offensive” because his “name” appeared in the kill mail post.

This is *very* annoying to say the least.  Not only because it causes untold pain for people trying to read your blog, but also the fact that someone couldn’t quite grasp the concept that it wasn’t their *real* name.  I mean really, are you that ashamed of losing your ship that you have to bring out of EVE aspects into it for revenge?

What happens in the game, happens in the game.  What appears on a blog is an account of that occurance.  All I can say is that whoever flagged it as “offensive” should go and research the EVE “honor tank” phrase.

I may actually appear quite calm in the writing of this, but I’m actually quite livid about it.  What can I say apart from “get a grip”. Grrrr!

I quite enjoy writing my blog, and I hope people enjoy reading it.  To keep it that way, I’ll either be omitting killmails or censoring victims names.  Asshats 1, Pirates 0.  We’ll level the score in game, shall we? :p

“Combat: Total asshat strikes your blog perflectly wrecking for all enjoyment”

Scramble, scramble… pop!

I was wandering around low sec recently looking for some targets to ransom.  Sadly the search was a little fruitless, but as I roamed the belts, scanned staring into the dark emptiness of space I wasn’t alone.  I’d been chatting with some fellow pirates over the comms, general chit-chat really.

Suddenly there was some excitement as a target had been spotted.  I replied that I was on my way.  I set a destination, and swung the ship around heading for the stargate.  The align complete, I fired the warp drive and was catapulted to my destination.

8 jumps to go!  It was going to be hard to make it in time, but I’d give it a go.  The comms system came alive again and I was now in a secure channel with the rest of the hurridly assembled fleet.  Another few jumps….

As I emerged from a gate, and aligned for the next one I noticed a hostile WT (War Target).  I slammed my fist into the navigation computer again and again urging it to hurry up and complete the align.  Seconds passed, which seemed like hours, the WT completing a lock on me.

The align complete, I fired the warp drive once more the blue glow of the engines indicating it was about sling me through space once more.  Then, nothing.

Various profanities spilled from my mouth, and several blows to the navigation computer put it out of action.  As it turns out, I wouldn’t be needed it again anyway.

I returned the favor of my WT’s lock, and launched a rack of missiles towards him taking his shield to about 60%.  Cursing again as they reloaded.  I needed to be faster than this!  I fired the afterburner in a vain attempt to get out of warp jam range, but I webber soon put an end to that idea.  My options were reduced to a mere 1 - fight!

Another salvo of missiles lit up the dark sky, seconds later slamming repeatedly into the target ship whose shields were now crackling under the strain.  I grabbed my headset as the comms said “Alia, I’m going to have to kick you from the fleet - you’re too far away”.  I replied “It’s ok, I’m probably not going to make it anyway” - or words to that effect.

I was now no longer on a way to a hunt, but being hunted.  Oh the irony :p

2 racks of missiles and a few more seconds had now passed, probably about 30 seconds all in all.  The target ship having only a little power in it’s shields, but I knew I wasn’t quick enough.  With that, another ship arrived on the scene, quickly followed by a handful over others.  3 or 4 ships, including the initial tackler we now setting about me.  The weapons console screamed at me as multiple locks were being resolved.  “Damn it!”

The single ship, I could tank - easily.  But that wasn’t it’s purpose.  It had already served it’s purpose - to keep me here whilst others arrived.

My fingers quickly accessed the weapons console again, targeting all my aggressors.  I wouldn’t get to kill them, but it made me feel better.  Navigation (or what was left of it) reported multiple jams on my drive - even if the tackler was dispatched, I still wasn’t going anywhere.  Another salvo of missiles launched, quickly followed by my drones which swarmed the tackler.

I figured he may as well die with me :p

Quickly into armour, the drones continued their work.  I switched ammo in two of the launchers to help melt his armour more quickly - I might be able to take two.  My ship rocked under the weapons fire, the webber not helping my tanking as I couldn’t eavade the weapons fire effectivley.  I watched my shields fluctuate.  The tank wasn’t holding, but it wasn’t breaking easily either.  Smiling to myself knowing they were going to have to work for it.

I glanced up from the weapons console, my attention caught by a bright explosion and multiple shield impacts as debris from the ship struck them.

More missiles loaded into their bays, I recalled the drones and deployed them to the next target - a cruiser.  Again they swarmed, pecking at his shields, with the unrelenting missile barage striking true each time.  Smirking to myself, I enjoyed the fact they were having to work hard.  Although it would  soon be wiped off my little caldari face as another 2 WT’s arrived.

No doubt they had asked for more help, perhaps getting twitchy that the job was taking so long.  A couple of BC’s had arrived to perform the knock-out punch.  Getting close, their blasters tore into the shields, my tank now failing as the shield power dropped rapidly.  Struggling to evade the weapons fire and maintain the shields, I continued to fire at the cruiser whose shields were now gone.  It was a thorax, so probably armour tanked if setup well.  I knew he was going to outlast me… shame!

My shields now at about 10% I gave the order to everyone to abandon ship, the crew reporting to their evac points.  I prepared myself as well, knowing what was to come - I always hated this bit.

The shields managed to hang on a few more moments, regaining a little power before another barrage of enemy fire took the offline.  The bridge was a mess, full of blinking lights, flashing screens and alarms sounding, the last few crew members running to the escape pods.

Bless this lovely ship.  I set a course for one of the BC’s.  No reason really, other than to “stare him down” and look him in the eye before the end.  The marvellous shield tank now gone, my caldari paper armour (paper may have been more effective) melted almost instantly under the enemy guns, quickly followed by the structure.

Alone in space, my pod insta warped away - the course already set in the last few moments.

I didn’t make the hunting that day, unfortunatley I was the one on the receving end.  That’s the way it goes sometimes, a good fight and very enjoyable nonetheless.