Ok so I’ve been lazy and haven’t updated my blog in a couple of weeks – there’s news to post and stories to tell. Well not so much lazy, but preoccupied with real life at the moment. Work comes with spikes and dips – this being a spike at the moment.

Some things for you to look forward to on the next update….

Most importantly while I remember

THE BASTARDS ARE RECRUITING

If you are a solo pirate, aspiring pirate or someone who fancies getting into piracy with a good corp and good bunch of people you should consider dropping in an application. You can find the recruitment post below – or just convo one of us.

Useful links – all of which are available via the main EVE-O forum link;

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=788358

http://the-bastards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1899

http://the-bastards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3683

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was browsing the market when the call came in, although I couldn’t really be bothered to speak to anyone at the moment. Whoever they were though, they were persistent and didn’t give up easily. Eventually the blinking “incoming message” light and annoying alert got the better of me and I accepted.

Not recognising the person on screen, I abruptly answered with just a “Yes?”. The originator wasn’t put off and seemed in a chirpy, happy mood. I scowled slightly. “Good morning Ma’am” she greeted “I came across your details in my file and….”. I cut her off mid sentence and interjected “Whatever it is you’re selling, I’m not buying” and went to hit the disconnect button. “Oh no! Wait!” she exclaimed “I’m calling from Fl…”. I interjected again “Listen, I don’t know who gave you my details or what you want but I’m really not in the mood and frankly I don’t have the time.”

Reaching across for the disconnect again she bellowed “Flash sent me!”. My hand stopped in mid air and I slowly looked her over with a smile spreading across my face “Well, why didn’t you say so” I said in a much better mood.

“I did try Ma’am, but you were rather….” again before she could finish her sentence I completed it for her “Grumpy!? Yes, I always am in the mornings, sorry”. She continued her conversation, which was actually rather one sided since I couldn’t get a word in sideways after that. She was Flash’s “secretary” and I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself knowing what that mischievous pilot was like. The long and short of it was that he wanted to see me, and figured the best place might be in the Independence bar – which suited me just fine.

At the designated time I walked through the double sliding doors. The air hung thick with cigar smoke, people huddled around tables playing cards, drinking and muttering to each other in the dimly lit atmosphere. It made a perfect place for discussions and planning. “Oh hi there Alia” said the bartender who knew me pretty well after all this time. I just smiled and winked at him “He’s out back, is he?” I asked. “Yeah”. I made for the back of the bar behind a semi partitioned area. This was the private area where none of the riff-raff were allowed, a personal space. It still had the same dim lighting and was filled with smoke.

I was about to step through when two burly Brutors blocked my path. “Can I help you two esteemed gentlemen?” I said in a sarcastic tone. “You’re not going in there” one of them grunted. “He is expecting me you know” I protested. They looked at each other and snickered slightly, which only served to infuriate me. I didn’t want to cause any trouble in Flash’s haven, and it was strictly forbidden by the bar rules and etiquette “Don’t you know who I am?” I raged. “We don’t care if you’re Tiberius Heth, you’re still not going in there with that”.

“With what?” I exclaimed! One of them extended his arm and pointed to my pistol, which was strapped to my thigh in a holster and grunted “That!”. I looked down at it, and then back at them “You don’t seriously think I’m going to…” but before I could finish he said “It’s the rules, no exceptions”.

“Very well” I sighed. I reached down towards the pistol and unclipped the holding strap keeping it in place securely, the popper opened with a slight “pop”. They were alert and ready for any trouble, you could see the change in their stance but I wasn’t here for trouble. After un-clipping the popper I raised my right hand into the air, making it very difficult for me to get hold of it again and stood still. One of them stepped forward and reached to the holster and removed the pistol.

“Careful with that!” I snapped. “It’s an antique”. After taking it from me they looked at it and snickered again. “You two boneheads don’t even know why I carry it, do you?”. Suddenly the smiles were wiped from their faces and they shook their heads. “Well, did you hear any alarms, sensors or alerts go off? No, no you didn’t”. The reason I carried this antiquated weapon was simple – because it was very hard to detect unless you were visually looking for it. It didn’t have an energy pack, a hybrid charge or any advanced form of projectiles. It was plain, simple and still did the job using old fashioned gun power and cordite – which no one bothered to scan for these days since it was so outdated. I shoved through the pair of them exclaiming “I’ll be back for that later”.

He was sat in the back corner, laid back against a chair with his feet on another. Occasionally putting down one data pad and picking up another, taking a puff on his cigar or a swig from his drink. Waiting I wondered if he’d notice me since he seemed pretty engrossed after a while he did “Hey there, thanks for coming” he said as he rose to his feet and pulled out a chair for me. “Thanks for inviting me” I replied as I looked up at the tall well build Brutor who towered above me. Shaking my hand enthusiastically he beckoned for me to sit down on the chair he provided, which I did and he also took a seat.

“Drink?” he asked. “Usually excessively, but I’ll just have a coffee today thanks”. He pressed a button on the table and spoke “Coffee please”.

“Well then” he said looking me over “You wanted in?”

I nodded but didn’t speak, just an “mmmm hmmm” escaped my mouth.

We’d known each other for a couple of years maybe, along with a few other people here and there. I’d flown with him countless times, and many of his crew. Even so, no favours or special treatment would be granted – and none were expected either. There was a rigorous trial period where you were evaluated, and after which were either accepted, declined or extended.

“Well” continued the Brutor with his shades still rested atop of his head “I’ve discussed it with others, the directors and so on” I nodded, listening intently and focused on each word. “I’m sorry to say….”

My face must have fallen and he obviously saw that and a loud bellowing laugh echoed around “… that we’ve decided to accept you!”. I shrieked with delight “Really?”. “Really” he said firmly.

Standing up, he extended his hand to me. I took it and he gave me a vigorous handshake, which was actually rather tight but I didn’t flinch or look uncomfortable. “Congratulations” he said, also giving me a hearty slap on the back nearly knocking me over. Jesus, did these Brutors not realise how strong they actually were? Probably not.

“There’s one last” he cleared his throat “thing we need to attend to”. Handing me one of the data pads that had been on the table and said “You’ll need to review these company terms and conditions, and sign it”.

I nodded once again and started reading. Slowly taking a seat and taking a sip of my coffee which had just arrived I continued reading the terms and loyalty pledge. Once finished I looked back up at him, he was sat there waiting with a large grin “Think you can work with that?” he said. I nodded in affirmation “Sure, not a problem at all” I replied signing my name at the same time and handing the pad back.

“Great, well welcome aboard once again. I’ve got a few things I need to attend to now, but finish your coffee by all means” and with that he headed out. Stopped on the way by his two bouncers who had obviously started to question him about my pistol, seems they were actually confused about how to unload it. I watched with interest as he took the pistol, flicked the safety on, ejected the magazine, and pulled back the barrel unloading the round in the chamber. I smiled, and the bouncers nodded in understanding – obviously this wasn’t exactly modern technology.

He called back “Oh yeah, I’ll see you at the next op” and strolled out of the bar. I finished my coffee and walked out, standing by the bouncers I just held my hand out for them to return the pistol which was delicately returned a few seconds later. “Thank you boys” I said as I strolled out of the bar.

With that, I was a fully fledged member of The Bastards and loving every minute of it.

The Bastards

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

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 stirred somewhere unfamiliar but yet familiar, somewhere comfortable but not comfortable. I was warm but also cold at the same time, and I suddenly remembered I always hated this…. whatever it was.

Voices echoed in my head as everything span around and around and around;
“Dude she’s hot”
Some snickering ensued followed by a slightly embarresed “Yeah”
“And she’s… uh… got no clothes on”
Footsteps approached in the distance, somewhere, to the left maybe, or was it the right
A slightly formal yet conducted voice interrupted the two “I think you two jerks better get and do what you’re paid for, souldn’t you?”
Various snorting and grunting sounds ensued, as my eyes began to flick open and saw them standing over me. My initial reaction was to reach for my sidearm, which I realised was a wasted gesture as soon as my hand met my slimy wet thigh. I sighed. He would have looked much better with a hole between his eyes, at least if I could shoot straight anyway.
“You two fecks don’t have the slightest idea, do you?” said the disembodied voice.
Again sniggering and somewhat immature giggling ensured “Uh, no, not really…”
“Then I suggest you get the fuck out of here and leave this to me, really, one day you’ll thank me for it – although I’m not sure civilisation will” as they plodded off into the distance.
“Please, allow me Ma’am” came that disembodied voice again as I was helped/hauled to my feet.
“Wh.. wha.. what happened?” I managed to splurt out, as I looked around the room bath in the Gallente greeny blue glow and reacted with somewhat horror.
Sensing my discomfort and handing me a pristine white dressing gown, which I quickly got into and pushed my hair back over my head attempting to look as presentable as possible. “There was a, shall we say, technical error, with your pod Ma’am?”
I finished tying the cords and looked him straight in the eye, tilting my head slightly “Technical error?” I said sternly, and then repeated again “Technical error?”
“Yes Ma’am” he replied clearing his throat. “You’re aboard the CeoDron station, near the boarder, in metropolis. During your last combat, your ship was critically damamge and well, uh, you died…. but… em, you shouldn’t have, a slight technical error Ma’am” he said looking uncomfortable.
My senses started to come to once again and I shook the cobwebs from my head. “I know this is a stupid question, but tell me… how long was I out” I said in an expectent yet hopeful voice. There was a slight cough and he cleared his throat and shuffled somewhat uncomfortably “About 3 months Ma’am”.
“Three months!” I replied in disbelief. “Three damn months!” I said again almost open mouthed. “What the hell do I pay you people for?”
“Well technically Ma’am… you don’t” he replied trying to be as polite as possible. I scoffed and said “Well, you and yours got… yours… didn’t they?”. “We’re very well provided for, thank you Ma’am”

I smiled at him. He was a middle aged gentleman, and that was rare these days – to find a gentleman. He filled his uniform slightly too well, but it worked on him. “In that case, the first round at the bar is on you” I quipped. “I’ll just get my jac..ke..et” as I stumbled to a halt. Turning towards him and smiling I said “I don’t suppose you know any fresh faced academics from Kosigo.. do you?”. He cleared his throat again and looked around shiftly “As a matter of fact Ma’am… I do”.
I smiled again and extented my hand to him “Call me Alia, but the first drink is still on you” I finished.

Yes, I have my pc back and the eve client is downloading as I type over my shoddy copper wire internet connection. So, with any luck, I should be back sometime between now and 2014 when the download finishes. Although whenever I make a concerted effort to get back into the swing of things my real life seems to slap me across the face and say “No”. I’m still rather busy with work, expecting another addition to the familiy but I hope to see you real soon.

Alia. o/

As the title suggests that’s mainly what’s been going on lately. My hard drive died taking everything on it with it to the big computer graveyard in the sky (thanks Western Digital) so rather than crying over spilt milk – time to get a new one.

I decide on a nice shiny SSD figuring if it’s good enough for CCP then it’s good enough for me. It should also help the grid load a lot faster on warp in (that should have been a clue my disk was dying).

I order it and hope it arrives before my scheduled 3 day break in Barcelona. Does it? Does it hell! When I return home I find I do indeed have a package waiting. Yay! Time to unwrap, install and get on EVE again. Opening the package I find not what I expect (a hard drive) but instead a hardware raid card (wtf!?!). Back it goes, and finally, today I get what I’m looking for

That covers the holiday and hard-disk. The headache you ask? Well partly from the hard disk saga, and partly from drinking too much on holiday :p

See you real soon.

This will be a brief post as my time is currently short, but I feel compelled to post it.

At present most of the CSM delegate is made up of hi sec empire dwellers, traders, mission runners and so on – with a few exceptions.  There is virtually NO REPRESENTATION for low sec, or pirates – at all!

There have been various threads flying around with some potentional candidates, although none of them particularlly strong.  That is until yesterday, when Larkonis Tassler entered the fray!  He’s the CEO of Neo Spartans (if you didn’t know), he’s a pirate (if you didn’t know) and I believe he would be a great representative for the pirate community, and C&P in general.

I’m sure he’ll have the support of many pirate corps (and also some anti-pies who recognise there is a need for us) and the C&P community in general.

You can see his official thread and manifesto blogs using the links below.

Happy voting (when the time comes)

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1027388

http://larkonisforcsm.com/blog/