Entry: two hundred ninety-seven.
I scored another kill.
Lately the victim corp has been banding together, flying in packs, watching each other's backs...all good fleet tactics. But they've gotten a bit cocky just because we wouldn't walk into their trap the other day. They had some neutral buddies there to remote repair them while we shot at them, and we knew it. Three or four versus four with invulnerability doesn't work out well for us, so, no, we didn't engage.
So, because of that, at least two of them, Vistus and Dodd, have both gotten very cocky. Vistus has been trash talking us, and Dodd I'm pretty sure bought an older character to use against us.
Unfortunately for my comrades, they're a bit sketchy on taking on gangs of two or three.
I on the other hand flew in guns blazing. It's probably a mental defect. I guess throwing defeat into the jaws of victory a few times in wormhole space has given me an appreciation of taking on odds that don't appear to favor me.
So I jumped into Bereye from Mies. Vistus and Dodd were sitting on the gate. Let's pretend this is you. Do you:
one: attack the rifter
two: attack the caracal
three: burn for the gate and jump
four: run (ie warp out out)
five: sit there while your pal gets riddled with bullets
The answers for me were one and two, in that order. The answer for Vistus was five. I'll never understand why he sat there while Dodd got the living crap kicked out of him, even while I was trying to pod Dodd. He didn't engage at all until I attacked him.
The first engagement with Vistus didn't go. I was at range, and hitting with Barrage against his shields, which doesn't work out so well. Sure he got me into half armor, but it's not like I was worried. I warped out, repaired, came back, and repeated. He launched drones, I shot them down, warped out and repaired again, and came back. Clearly I did the same thing again. The last thing I wanted was to get into webbing range of him and become a sitting duck, so I kept at range, not knowing if he had a web or not. I warped out again, came back, and found Dodd now waiting for me in a Rupture.
I'm not a fool. Two cruisers versus Wolf equaled not this Wolf. I jumped out and went about my daily business while waving my kill in front of Riddick's face. Riddick had been on for a while, but had not felt like jumping into a group to fight them. He's had bad luck getting kills this week. Me stealing them isn't helping his case.
Looking back on that combat though, I should have bit the bullet and orbited at eleven kilometers and attacked with EMP rounds. It's technically in range for me, and he wasn't going any faster than I was. I could probably have ripped through his shields with ease if I had done that, and probably would have landed the podding on him as well, which, if I must say so, would be nice payback for the trash he's been spewing at us. Arrogance must be fought at every turn where it isn't deserved.
After that Rifter kill, I noticed something strange about an hour later when I engaged Dodd and someone else. Dodd was in another Rifter and someone else was in a Thorax.
Naturally, I attacked.
Dodd got away somehow almost into structure...I thought maybe I had just let him slip out of warp disruptor range. So I engaged the Thorax, and when he went into armor, he warped out too. This was despite my warp disruptor on him!
They were using warp core stabilizers. In case anyone has forgotten, they seriously screw up your ability to fight period. They cut your targeting range in half and your targeting speed in half. Probably something else too, they're that bad. So, clearly these guys are feeling the edge a bit in that they're stabilizing Rifters and Thoraxes.
Seriously, I may be in a Wolf, but I'm not suicidal. Attack me instead of sitting there like a doofus and maybe I won't get away, or at least won't get that kill next time.
Because I got the most kills for every war our corp had this week, I got fifteen million ISK in door prizes, five for each war. In the war against the Crimson Hellhounds, I scored the only two kills by destroying then podding The Garantine. In our war against Starhug, I scored the only two kills by destroying SkyDragon's Punisher and pod. In our war with the Black Merc's, I've scored the majority of kills, which would be seven. All in all, I've had a fairly decent week of combat .
And with that, our war with the Black Mercs draws to a close.
Computer: terminate recording.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Day 292
Entry: two hundred ninety-two.
After some consideration, I've left my now previous corp with some friends, Crimson Light Horse Brigade, and joined them to form Spartan Guard. We declared three wars almost right from the outset.
Having never been in a war before, I never realized how painful finding a war target could be. The target might be docked, at a safe spot, or winging by in a shuttle. This on top of the fact that it can be easy to lose a target in one of those transit hub systems.
You know the kind, they have five plus jump gates in them. Unless you're right on the guy's heels, you might never find him, much less catch him.
I did manage to snag ten kills today despite that. That includes pods however, so only three involved an actual explosion.
The first kill, or rather kill plus pod, was a ratter. That's right, he was ratting, but at a celestial beacon which I rather stupidly forgot to check, and thus had to wait at a likely exit gate for him to come to me. As luck would have it, he did, and in a Catalyst no less versus my Rifter. He should have been able to smash me into dust, but given his age, he likely has not seen much combat, and that led to his downfall and subsequent mental transference into a brand new body. He was on autopilot, and I orbited him tightly, raking into his shields, armor, and hull with fiendish rage. When he appeared in his pod, it suffered the same fate.
After this fight, I joined a fleet with Dread Delgarth and went about searching out more targets. After some fruitless searching, Dread Delgarth managed to lure out a Battlecruiser, a Drake. He had had an unfortunate run in with the pilot of this cursed Drake earlier and was nearly blown up.
This had encouraged the enemy. The Drake pilot he had fought earlier was feeling like he could take on Dread Delgarth. Delgarth had, of course, changed to a more traditional Drake fit, and could easily outclass the other pilot on his own. As they began the engagement, Dread gave me the go ahead to jump in system and engage.
Without fail, I warped to the wrong station.
I got the correct station from Dread and then I warped to the correct station this time, outside of which the engagement was taking place, and opened fire in my Wolf on the aforementioned Drake.
This is where the situation would have gone badly for Delgarth had I not come in: The Drake pilot had friends, and they both warped in as well. One was in a Stabber, one in a Bellicose. Even though Delgarth was more than capable of destroying one or even two of them by himself, the combined forces of three would likely have cost him his ship, undoubtedly more expensive than the Drake which we toasted earlier.
But since I was there, we made short work of the Stabber, and then the Bellicose. The Bellicose pilot had the misfortune of being the last to blow up, and had the misfortune of also being podded.
We looted the wrecks as much as we could, with their spy ex-corpmate Manik holding position in an industrial ship right near one of the wrecks. I took what I could, then destroyed the wrecks.
We took a short break. Or rather, we meant to. On the way back to base, I came across another war target.
I came across him via looking at local. I knew what he could fly somewhat and not effectively, so I waited at a gate for him, wondering if he was actively participating in the war against us. As it turned out, he did not exit the system via my gate, which led to his corp's staging area. With my little history of him, I reasoned that I knew where he lived and that I should head that way in the hopes of catching him for another kill.
I tracked him. I had to follow him for four jumps before I managed to get just enough ahead of him that I could destroy his ship and take his loot before he could leave. Without hesitation, I opened fire on his shuttle, which was on autopilot in a time of war, and then his escape pod.
We had a convo afterwards, and it turns out that he had no idea we were at war. His CEO seems not to have told him. That sucks for him, and his corp, since first blood was drawn in self defense. Second blood as well.
After this rather vindictive yet unsatisfying kill, Ranger reported that he had maneuvered nearby to some miners and a hauler. On an high, and in my Wolf, I asked where.
"It's in Amarr space."
Of course it was. Of course. I can't fly into Amarr space without the Amarr navies trying to roast me on a spit. Feeling a bit drugged on adrenaline though, I bit the bullet and go for it. I flew deep into Amarr territory, outrunning the Navy at every turn. Warp, jump, warp, jump...twelve times. And our targets were spread out three jumps prior to the system I needed to get to, so of course, the targets were warned, and they got away, and docked up.
So there I am, deep in Amarr territory, constantly warping around, staying ahead of the Navy, and then I jump into the target system seeing a war target go through.
I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side, but I didn't fly into space where my head is worth untold fortunes to turn back. I jumped through and immediately attacked the man that went ahead of me, a war target. I pummeled him even as the Imperial Navy assaulted me. I took him and his silly escape pod out while under fire, and warped away to evade the Navy yet again.
After that, the kills ceased coming in, and after hunting rather fruitlessly for an hour, my corpmates and I made our way back to base. I made sure to loot wrecks that didn't belong to me on the way, trying to get someone to shoot at me so I could blow them up. Alas, it was not to be.
All said and done, even though they were relatively new capsuleers, I cost one corporation at least sixty million ISK. This estimate does not include lost implants from poddings, which no doubt numbers in roughly the hundred million ISK range, assuming a decent set of plus three implants. For hi-sec miners and industrialists and missioners, it's not easy replacing those things.
There were plenty of opportunities for them to kill me. Like when I jumped in to attack that last frigate. If three out of eight of them had shown up and attacked me I would undoubtedly have lost my ship, and it would have been a well deserved victory. The first batch of killings was close, except for me being there, but another few of them would have made all the difference and probably done us in.
But this is how I learned. Through failure. The resolve to become better is what gets you through and makes you more able, more experienced, and in this way, more deadly.
Computer: terminate recording.
After some consideration, I've left my now previous corp with some friends, Crimson Light Horse Brigade, and joined them to form Spartan Guard. We declared three wars almost right from the outset.
Having never been in a war before, I never realized how painful finding a war target could be. The target might be docked, at a safe spot, or winging by in a shuttle. This on top of the fact that it can be easy to lose a target in one of those transit hub systems.
You know the kind, they have five plus jump gates in them. Unless you're right on the guy's heels, you might never find him, much less catch him.
I did manage to snag ten kills today despite that. That includes pods however, so only three involved an actual explosion.
The first kill, or rather kill plus pod, was a ratter. That's right, he was ratting, but at a celestial beacon which I rather stupidly forgot to check, and thus had to wait at a likely exit gate for him to come to me. As luck would have it, he did, and in a Catalyst no less versus my Rifter. He should have been able to smash me into dust, but given his age, he likely has not seen much combat, and that led to his downfall and subsequent mental transference into a brand new body. He was on autopilot, and I orbited him tightly, raking into his shields, armor, and hull with fiendish rage. When he appeared in his pod, it suffered the same fate.
After this fight, I joined a fleet with Dread Delgarth and went about searching out more targets. After some fruitless searching, Dread Delgarth managed to lure out a Battlecruiser, a Drake. He had had an unfortunate run in with the pilot of this cursed Drake earlier and was nearly blown up.
This had encouraged the enemy. The Drake pilot he had fought earlier was feeling like he could take on Dread Delgarth. Delgarth had, of course, changed to a more traditional Drake fit, and could easily outclass the other pilot on his own. As they began the engagement, Dread gave me the go ahead to jump in system and engage.
Without fail, I warped to the wrong station.
I got the correct station from Dread and then I warped to the correct station this time, outside of which the engagement was taking place, and opened fire in my Wolf on the aforementioned Drake.
This is where the situation would have gone badly for Delgarth had I not come in: The Drake pilot had friends, and they both warped in as well. One was in a Stabber, one in a Bellicose. Even though Delgarth was more than capable of destroying one or even two of them by himself, the combined forces of three would likely have cost him his ship, undoubtedly more expensive than the Drake which we toasted earlier.
But since I was there, we made short work of the Stabber, and then the Bellicose. The Bellicose pilot had the misfortune of being the last to blow up, and had the misfortune of also being podded.
We looted the wrecks as much as we could, with their spy ex-corpmate Manik holding position in an industrial ship right near one of the wrecks. I took what I could, then destroyed the wrecks.
We took a short break. Or rather, we meant to. On the way back to base, I came across another war target.
I came across him via looking at local. I knew what he could fly somewhat and not effectively, so I waited at a gate for him, wondering if he was actively participating in the war against us. As it turned out, he did not exit the system via my gate, which led to his corp's staging area. With my little history of him, I reasoned that I knew where he lived and that I should head that way in the hopes of catching him for another kill.
I tracked him. I had to follow him for four jumps before I managed to get just enough ahead of him that I could destroy his ship and take his loot before he could leave. Without hesitation, I opened fire on his shuttle, which was on autopilot in a time of war, and then his escape pod.
We had a convo afterwards, and it turns out that he had no idea we were at war. His CEO seems not to have told him. That sucks for him, and his corp, since first blood was drawn in self defense. Second blood as well.
After this rather vindictive yet unsatisfying kill, Ranger reported that he had maneuvered nearby to some miners and a hauler. On an high, and in my Wolf, I asked where.
"It's in Amarr space."
Of course it was. Of course. I can't fly into Amarr space without the Amarr navies trying to roast me on a spit. Feeling a bit drugged on adrenaline though, I bit the bullet and go for it. I flew deep into Amarr territory, outrunning the Navy at every turn. Warp, jump, warp, jump...twelve times. And our targets were spread out three jumps prior to the system I needed to get to, so of course, the targets were warned, and they got away, and docked up.
So there I am, deep in Amarr territory, constantly warping around, staying ahead of the Navy, and then I jump into the target system seeing a war target go through.
I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side, but I didn't fly into space where my head is worth untold fortunes to turn back. I jumped through and immediately attacked the man that went ahead of me, a war target. I pummeled him even as the Imperial Navy assaulted me. I took him and his silly escape pod out while under fire, and warped away to evade the Navy yet again.
After that, the kills ceased coming in, and after hunting rather fruitlessly for an hour, my corpmates and I made our way back to base. I made sure to loot wrecks that didn't belong to me on the way, trying to get someone to shoot at me so I could blow them up. Alas, it was not to be.
All said and done, even though they were relatively new capsuleers, I cost one corporation at least sixty million ISK. This estimate does not include lost implants from poddings, which no doubt numbers in roughly the hundred million ISK range, assuming a decent set of plus three implants. For hi-sec miners and industrialists and missioners, it's not easy replacing those things.
There were plenty of opportunities for them to kill me. Like when I jumped in to attack that last frigate. If three out of eight of them had shown up and attacked me I would undoubtedly have lost my ship, and it would have been a well deserved victory. The first batch of killings was close, except for me being there, but another few of them would have made all the difference and probably done us in.
But this is how I learned. Through failure. The resolve to become better is what gets you through and makes you more able, more experienced, and in this way, more deadly.
Computer: terminate recording.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Day 285
Entry: two hundred eighty-five.
Yesterday I logged in to the sound of boredom.
Some corpmates, Aelith, Moph, and Riddick, in particular, were rather bored. So bored in fact was Aelith that he was actually considering just going to work.
We really need to war-dec someone. I have no idea why it hasn't happened yet. I got my yellow skull before the week was out, and I'm doing my best to not wreak some violence on some poor soul, or even some of those pirates I enjoy reading about so much, just for the thrill of combat. Fighting them probably means them wreaking it on me, but that's how it goes.
I announced that I was planning to go roam low-sec. My plan? Act like a newbie, rat, hopefully get someone to aggress me so that I can attack them without losing anymore security, and generally have a good time or die trying.
With a plan like that, it couldn't go anywhere but wrong.
Aelith, Moph, and Riddick joined me. After putting together our crap fleet of two Rifters, one Merlin probably Rail/Missile fit, and my Thrasher, we jumped into Hagilur.
Unfortunately for us, we did more ratting than actual killing by one hundred percent, which is to say, zero killing, because no one would aggress us, despite the nine other people in local. In fact, no one so much as warped near us.
We repeated this trend for a few more systems before deciding that null sec was a better opportunity.
We arrived in EOA-ZC, and the whole trip we saw practically no one in local. Entry into that first null sec system was the same. It was nice to see two warp bubbles leading to the gate from any celestial body though, as we hoped to take advantage of it later. Until such a time however, I flew off grid and made a safe spot for various reasons, one of which was to avoid flying into the bubbles in an attempt to get out.
After that, since there was no one in local, and we all needed to make some headway into sec status in case of pirating in Ebodold again, we went ratting, and encountered some belt rats, one of which was a Guristas Obliterator.
"Dude, they're going to chew us apart!" groaned Riddick.
Thankfully, I had a bit of null sec ratting experience in small ships and knew that this would not be the case. We proceeded to obliterate the Obliterator, with me cawing at the end, "Hey, I thought he was supposed to Obliterate us!"
A hurricane popped on local. We made our way to the gate, but are confused because the pilot, Vile Plague, is blue to us. After a minute, he makes up our mind for us and locks us.
At this point we should have run. If someone aggresses you on the gate, it can't go well for you. Then again, we were there for bloodshed, his or ours, and blue or not, it was going down right there.
I would like to say that it all went well from there, that we smacked him hard. It's really the reverse though. Hobogoblin II's literally tore Aelith's Rifter apart while I downed two or three of those nasty little buggers, and during this a Falcon piloted by his alt, also named Vile Plague, jammed out Riddick and Moph completely. An Ishkur who was also blue apparently jumped in, but I don't think it participated in the fight as it didn't show on any killmails.
Aelith imitated the big bang, and I played follow the leader maybe fifteen seconds after that. I'm pretty sure Moph went out in a blaze of glory, and Riddick was the only one to get away with his ship intact, which, incidentally, was my ship, since I traded it to him at Hek so that he need not lose his more expensive Hurricane.
We all got away, all but Riddick in pods since he was flying the loaner Rifter. Even though we got owned, we still had a much better time than we would have running missions, plexes, or mining.
Computer: terminate recording.
Yesterday I logged in to the sound of boredom.
Some corpmates, Aelith, Moph, and Riddick, in particular, were rather bored. So bored in fact was Aelith that he was actually considering just going to work.
We really need to war-dec someone. I have no idea why it hasn't happened yet. I got my yellow skull before the week was out, and I'm doing my best to not wreak some violence on some poor soul, or even some of those pirates I enjoy reading about so much, just for the thrill of combat. Fighting them probably means them wreaking it on me, but that's how it goes.
I announced that I was planning to go roam low-sec. My plan? Act like a newbie, rat, hopefully get someone to aggress me so that I can attack them without losing anymore security, and generally have a good time or die trying.
With a plan like that, it couldn't go anywhere but wrong.
Aelith, Moph, and Riddick joined me. After putting together our crap fleet of two Rifters, one Merlin probably Rail/Missile fit, and my Thrasher, we jumped into Hagilur.
Unfortunately for us, we did more ratting than actual killing by one hundred percent, which is to say, zero killing, because no one would aggress us, despite the nine other people in local. In fact, no one so much as warped near us.
We repeated this trend for a few more systems before deciding that null sec was a better opportunity.
We arrived in EOA-ZC, and the whole trip we saw practically no one in local. Entry into that first null sec system was the same. It was nice to see two warp bubbles leading to the gate from any celestial body though, as we hoped to take advantage of it later. Until such a time however, I flew off grid and made a safe spot for various reasons, one of which was to avoid flying into the bubbles in an attempt to get out.
After that, since there was no one in local, and we all needed to make some headway into sec status in case of pirating in Ebodold again, we went ratting, and encountered some belt rats, one of which was a Guristas Obliterator.
"Dude, they're going to chew us apart!" groaned Riddick.
Thankfully, I had a bit of null sec ratting experience in small ships and knew that this would not be the case. We proceeded to obliterate the Obliterator, with me cawing at the end, "Hey, I thought he was supposed to Obliterate us!"
A hurricane popped on local. We made our way to the gate, but are confused because the pilot, Vile Plague, is blue to us. After a minute, he makes up our mind for us and locks us.
At this point we should have run. If someone aggresses you on the gate, it can't go well for you. Then again, we were there for bloodshed, his or ours, and blue or not, it was going down right there.
I would like to say that it all went well from there, that we smacked him hard. It's really the reverse though. Hobogoblin II's literally tore Aelith's Rifter apart while I downed two or three of those nasty little buggers, and during this a Falcon piloted by his alt, also named Vile Plague, jammed out Riddick and Moph completely. An Ishkur who was also blue apparently jumped in, but I don't think it participated in the fight as it didn't show on any killmails.
Aelith imitated the big bang, and I played follow the leader maybe fifteen seconds after that. I'm pretty sure Moph went out in a blaze of glory, and Riddick was the only one to get away with his ship intact, which, incidentally, was my ship, since I traded it to him at Hek so that he need not lose his more expensive Hurricane.
We all got away, all but Riddick in pods since he was flying the loaner Rifter. Even though we got owned, we still had a much better time than we would have running missions, plexes, or mining.
Computer: terminate recording.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Day 279
Entry: two hundred seventy nine.
Since the move out, I've come to find that the old standbys, namely missions and mining, have gone out the window for me. I can't bear the thought of doing either again.
Since the wormhole I've become a combat junkie. And while I fully admit this deepening spiral into steaming organs pulping out into empty space and a continual drain on my wallet,with probably very little in the way of influx to that same wallet, I can't bring myself to run missions right now, or suck dirt.
So for the last few days I've been out running around lowsec, trying to get some kills, some combat even. Hell, me being blown up was more appetizing than spinning ships, which was slightly more appetizing than missions or mining. Unfortunately, the only person I managed to find in a killable position was a salvage catalyst out to salvage a Hulk wreck. Everyone one else was either sitting on a gate, in a station, or in a tower. Those that were sitting on a gate were in HACs or drakes. Sure, there was the one rifter, but again, why the hell attack anyone sitting on the gate? If they get in real trouble they just jump and let the gate guns finish you off.
So, I was, and am, quite bored now.
Today on my lowsec prowl I got so bored I jumped into a zero zero system, despite a spotter on the gate which I knew would alert the denizens, likely gate camping, on the other side. And indeed a gate camp it was.
It was here reason abandoned me. I'm old enough to combat to love it, but so new that I still panic a bit sometimes. Here, I was being a bit panicky, and warped out to another stargate. Lo and Behold! An interdictor and a Rupture waiting for me! I tried to escape, failed miserably, got smashed by said Rupture, a Dramiel, and some other ships which I didn't really bother to pay attention to once I was dead in the water. I was subsequently podded as well.
On the bright side, I got my adrenaline fix. On the downside I got blown up and didn't kill anyone.
Did I mention my corp was looking for a Null sec area to go to? I have no idea if we're ready or not mentally, but I'd say combat wise, "probably not?" We're a bit of a mismash timezone wise, activity wise, and skill wise, though I'd say most of us have decent mining or industrial skills, and while those are great for a wormhole, zero zero is definitely more combat oriented. I'm pretty sure we need alot more combat orienting as a corp.
And this is where I actually think Faction War would do us better than zero zero. Don't get me wrong, the idea of constant war out in Null thrills me, as well as getting to do the Incursion bit. However, I'm pretty certain that Faction War will help us out in a number ways better than Null.
First, we get some experience in running with fleets not comprised solely of, say, us. Second, we get to kill regularly, either as part of fleet blobs with assigned rolls, or small hunting squads, again with assigned roles, or solo, also, with the assigned role of "bastard that podded you." Third, if/when we run out of cash, it's no biggie to run back to hi-sec and do some missioning or mining to recoup that money. Personally I would like being a bounty hunter more, but probably that won't be likely in the case that I'm out of cash. Fourth, we don't have to be told "man, your killboard sucks, WE REJECT YOUR APPLICATION!" followed by a big red rubber stamp imprinting "CAREBEAR" all over our foreheads.
Until we join Faction War however, there isn't a great deal going on. It's probably all good and well, given that I have two tests this week coming along.
Computer: Terminate recording.
Since the move out, I've come to find that the old standbys, namely missions and mining, have gone out the window for me. I can't bear the thought of doing either again.
Since the wormhole I've become a combat junkie. And while I fully admit this deepening spiral into steaming organs pulping out into empty space and a continual drain on my wallet,with probably very little in the way of influx to that same wallet, I can't bring myself to run missions right now, or suck dirt.
So for the last few days I've been out running around lowsec, trying to get some kills, some combat even. Hell, me being blown up was more appetizing than spinning ships, which was slightly more appetizing than missions or mining. Unfortunately, the only person I managed to find in a killable position was a salvage catalyst out to salvage a Hulk wreck. Everyone one else was either sitting on a gate, in a station, or in a tower. Those that were sitting on a gate were in HACs or drakes. Sure, there was the one rifter, but again, why the hell attack anyone sitting on the gate? If they get in real trouble they just jump and let the gate guns finish you off.
So, I was, and am, quite bored now.
Today on my lowsec prowl I got so bored I jumped into a zero zero system, despite a spotter on the gate which I knew would alert the denizens, likely gate camping, on the other side. And indeed a gate camp it was.
It was here reason abandoned me. I'm old enough to combat to love it, but so new that I still panic a bit sometimes. Here, I was being a bit panicky, and warped out to another stargate. Lo and Behold! An interdictor and a Rupture waiting for me! I tried to escape, failed miserably, got smashed by said Rupture, a Dramiel, and some other ships which I didn't really bother to pay attention to once I was dead in the water. I was subsequently podded as well.
On the bright side, I got my adrenaline fix. On the downside I got blown up and didn't kill anyone.
Did I mention my corp was looking for a Null sec area to go to? I have no idea if we're ready or not mentally, but I'd say combat wise, "probably not?" We're a bit of a mismash timezone wise, activity wise, and skill wise, though I'd say most of us have decent mining or industrial skills, and while those are great for a wormhole, zero zero is definitely more combat oriented. I'm pretty sure we need alot more combat orienting as a corp.
And this is where I actually think Faction War would do us better than zero zero. Don't get me wrong, the idea of constant war out in Null thrills me, as well as getting to do the Incursion bit. However, I'm pretty certain that Faction War will help us out in a number ways better than Null.
First, we get some experience in running with fleets not comprised solely of, say, us. Second, we get to kill regularly, either as part of fleet blobs with assigned rolls, or small hunting squads, again with assigned roles, or solo, also, with the assigned role of "bastard that podded you." Third, if/when we run out of cash, it's no biggie to run back to hi-sec and do some missioning or mining to recoup that money. Personally I would like being a bounty hunter more, but probably that won't be likely in the case that I'm out of cash. Fourth, we don't have to be told "man, your killboard sucks, WE REJECT YOUR APPLICATION!" followed by a big red rubber stamp imprinting "CAREBEAR" all over our foreheads.
Until we join Faction War however, there isn't a great deal going on. It's probably all good and well, given that I have two tests this week coming along.
Computer: Terminate recording.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Day 276
Entry Date Two hundred seventy-six.
It's been a rough two days since my last kill, an Iteron Mark III I snuck in under a swarm of twenty mostly battlecruiser and cruiser sized ships. Since that I time, I managed to get blown up twice, in two different Hounds, and my corporation has taken down its W-Space POS.
On the first Hound loss, Unofficial Ghost and I were chasing a shuttle that had come into our space. Some new capsuleer had gotten lost I believe since he was asking if there was anyone in the system. Unable to probe him out, I found him using Dscan, but couldn't match his speed while cloaked. The pilot had enough sense to fly in any direction at full speed, so I had to decloak and attempted to overtake with an overloaded MWD. Of course, he saw me, and warped away close to planet VII. As it turned out from using directional scan, he had warped into a Sleeper site. I foolishly warped to zero on the Sleeper site. I arrived cloaked, warped right by his wreck without realizing I de-cloaked, and was summarily blown to hell by the Sleepers.
Ghost then warped to me to pod the new guy. Just as he exits warp in the sleeper site, he disconnects and his Crow went offline. He reconnected as quickly as possible, launched a few defender missiles while podding the enemy pilot, and managed to escape with his ship barely intact.
After that incident, I bought a new Hound, and fit it up. I moved into the Class 4 adjoining our system, and went afk while cloak orbiting another Class 4 entrance. I came back a few minutes later to see a Buzzard probably jump through. Like a fool, once I jump through, I orbit the hole at 2500m uncloaked. I saw a wormhole transit from the previous system and continued doing what I was doing. Thus, without fail, a Thorax de-cloaked, and I attacked while screaming like a little girl running away. He ripped my spine out of my ass, the hard way, with Hobogoblin II's.
Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to warp away, as opposed to trying to make a run for the wormhole. I made it back to my original system with nothing but my pride and my second Hound in pieces. I went out and bought another Hound, fitted it up, and declared myself unfit to fly a ship for the rest of the day.
Computer: Pause Recording
Computer: Resume Recording
The next day, I logged on to find that we were taking down the Tower because the corp has had it with running sites and the lack of PvP. By the time I logged on however, half the tower was dismantled and most of the ships had been shipped out to Hi-sec. Not everyone managed to get out either, so Moph and Aelith stayed behind to scan people a way out when the time comes, if it comes before these people get blown to hell by new occupants. I doubt that wormhole will stay unoccupied for very long.
So right now, we're looking for a Null space home, a Null space alliance. We have a tower, with a decent setup, and we don't want get smashed by Pandemic Legion at the outset. Hauling all of this through low security space will not be pleasant however. Ideally we'd want to jump it in, but I'd not want to do that and broadcast our location via cyno. We might end up using covert cynos, but still...
Computer: terminate recording.
It's been a rough two days since my last kill, an Iteron Mark III I snuck in under a swarm of twenty mostly battlecruiser and cruiser sized ships. Since that I time, I managed to get blown up twice, in two different Hounds, and my corporation has taken down its W-Space POS.
On the first Hound loss, Unofficial Ghost and I were chasing a shuttle that had come into our space. Some new capsuleer had gotten lost I believe since he was asking if there was anyone in the system. Unable to probe him out, I found him using Dscan, but couldn't match his speed while cloaked. The pilot had enough sense to fly in any direction at full speed, so I had to decloak and attempted to overtake with an overloaded MWD. Of course, he saw me, and warped away close to planet VII. As it turned out from using directional scan, he had warped into a Sleeper site. I foolishly warped to zero on the Sleeper site. I arrived cloaked, warped right by his wreck without realizing I de-cloaked, and was summarily blown to hell by the Sleepers.
Ghost then warped to me to pod the new guy. Just as he exits warp in the sleeper site, he disconnects and his Crow went offline. He reconnected as quickly as possible, launched a few defender missiles while podding the enemy pilot, and managed to escape with his ship barely intact.
After that incident, I bought a new Hound, and fit it up. I moved into the Class 4 adjoining our system, and went afk while cloak orbiting another Class 4 entrance. I came back a few minutes later to see a Buzzard probably jump through. Like a fool, once I jump through, I orbit the hole at 2500m uncloaked. I saw a wormhole transit from the previous system and continued doing what I was doing. Thus, without fail, a Thorax de-cloaked, and I attacked while screaming like a little girl running away. He ripped my spine out of my ass, the hard way, with Hobogoblin II's.
Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to warp away, as opposed to trying to make a run for the wormhole. I made it back to my original system with nothing but my pride and my second Hound in pieces. I went out and bought another Hound, fitted it up, and declared myself unfit to fly a ship for the rest of the day.
Computer: Pause Recording
Computer: Resume Recording
The next day, I logged on to find that we were taking down the Tower because the corp has had it with running sites and the lack of PvP. By the time I logged on however, half the tower was dismantled and most of the ships had been shipped out to Hi-sec. Not everyone managed to get out either, so Moph and Aelith stayed behind to scan people a way out when the time comes, if it comes before these people get blown to hell by new occupants. I doubt that wormhole will stay unoccupied for very long.
So right now, we're looking for a Null space home, a Null space alliance. We have a tower, with a decent setup, and we don't want get smashed by Pandemic Legion at the outset. Hauling all of this through low security space will not be pleasant however. Ideally we'd want to jump it in, but I'd not want to do that and broadcast our location via cyno. We might end up using covert cynos, but still...
Computer: terminate recording.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Day 274
Entry: two hundred seventy-four.
After several transits through the Wormhole Space network my home system was currently a part of, I was in a class one.
"Entering Unknown System: Locus Signature J213653," reported the deep, guttural voice, overflowing with menace. A male voice, without question: female Klingons always sounded a bit too husky for my tastes, and if I was going to do menacing, nothing fit quite like disgruntled male Klingon warrior. I wasn't so geeky as to actually learn Klingon though. On top of that, there wasn't a skill for sale called "Klingon".
It was only a class one transit, so recovery time was zero. The worst symptom I faced was a gurgling stomach. "Running Directional-scan," reported the AI Klingon. After the briefest of pauses, "Multiple signatures detected." A list of all the signatures flitted through my mind. I moved the report off to my right while I surveyed open space.
As always, I set to orbit the tunnel at thirty kilometers, then activated the cloak as quickly as was possible. Manually operating the directional scanner, I quickly tracked down which planet the signatures were at. Most of them were at planet XI, the rest somewhere else in space. The ones at planet XI were mostly ships, mainly battlecruisers, Tech threes, and stealth bombers.
I set course for Planet XI. The warp transit was short, perhaps twenty to thirty seconds total.
Upon arrival, I took another few seconds to directional scan each moon, and found the signatures at moon II. I short warped there in less than ten seconds.
"Enemy ships detected," reported the Klingon. Clearly I had been watching too much Star Trek, broadcast from Earth some many eons ago. "Cloaking Device active, shields raised. Torpedoes, ready at your command. Phasers are OFFLINE."
'Phasers...I better edit that one out.'
Bringing myself back to bear on the situation in front of me, I took quick stock of where I was in relation to the other ships, then blanched. I hadn't quite been expecting what I was seeing. I turned command over to the Klingon while I assessed the scene before my eyes.
After recovering from too many inputs, I set to move off the beaten warp path. I tracked out behind them to the left until no celestial was in line with the pack and my ship. I made sure to keep my distance, as I still needed to identify a target.
I had failed to identify a viable target.
There were two problems with attacking a battlecruiser: one, all the other ships, and two, any of the battlecruiser's proximity to the other ships.
There were three problems with attacking a stealth bomber: the aforementioned two problems, plus the length of time it would take to torpedo a stealth bomber into dust.
There were four problems with attacking a Strategic Cruiser or the lone Megathron: the aforementioned three problems, plus the fact that they were either Strategic Cruisers or the Battleship.
And finally, there were problems with attacking the Prowler that warped in and out every now and then, resupplying the fleet with ammunition: one, all the other ships, two, the location it warped into being a hornet's nest, and three, the location it warped out to being unknown.
I had managed to identify why that Minmatar Large Tower was going down, however. There were apparently, and quite idiotically, no warp disruptor batteries on the tower, and all the batteries that were there had been completely incapacitated. To top it off, there had been no one controlling the weapons systems to alpha-strike any attacker.
In that time, I had discovered the presence of another Control Tower in that system. It too had the same fatal flaw as the one being destroyed en masse: no warp disruptor batteries. I'd also determined that that system had a permanent link to Hi-Sec space.
I attempted to relax while watching the steady stream of missiles impact the control tower. It seemed that the hunter would have to wait to make his kill.
The Minmatar Large Tower finally went down. A massive shockwave rippled through the fibers of my Hound, threatening to shake it to pieces before finally subsiding. The attacking fleet targeted the Ship Maintenance Array, and I locked my eyes to the scene, wondering what treasures awaited.
The array exploded...and two Iteron Mark III's popped out.
"SERIOUSLY?!!!" I screamed. "UGH! What a waste..."
I had to wait another five minutes before a pod showed up to take the Iterons away. Upon seeing that the fleet was indeed going to try to take the Iterons instead of simply demolishing them, I began maneuvers to get within bombing range.
"I only need to get within forty k..."
I carefully moved about under cloak to get in position as the fleet demolished what was left of the wrecked base.
I finally made it into position five minutes later. Flying a meandering path had been requisite for getting into position. The nearest objects were drones, some twenty-five kilometers away, but the target, the last remaining Iteron Mark III was at thirty-three kilometers, well within bomb range. I made sure to keep one eye, literally, on the overview, to make sure nothing got too close while waiting for the capsuleer hauling the ships away to come back.
As luck had it, the capsuleer returned right about then, but had warped about ten kilometers away from the Iteron Mark III. I waited patiently for the pod to get within seven kilometers of the ship.
'...seventy-five hundred...seventy-three-fifty...seventy two-hundred...seventy-fifty...,' I counted to myself, de-cloaking and launching the shrapnel bomb immediately at the Iteron. The entire fleet continued shooting at the wreckage of the tower. I warped out as soon as possible.
No one had even attempted to target me. I could tell by how no klaxxons were ringing in my ears. As I transited I cackled with the best of the ancient wizards on ancient earth, nearly insane with laughter. I had gotten away with murder and no one had noticed while I committed it, much less left the scene of the crime.
I imagined the victim's expression must have been one of, "Ummm, where did the Iteron go?" It only set me doubling over with laughter even harder.
There was nothing left to be done in that system, so I made my way back home.
Computer: terminate recording.
After several transits through the Wormhole Space network my home system was currently a part of, I was in a class one.
"Entering Unknown System: Locus Signature J213653," reported the deep, guttural voice, overflowing with menace. A male voice, without question: female Klingons always sounded a bit too husky for my tastes, and if I was going to do menacing, nothing fit quite like disgruntled male Klingon warrior. I wasn't so geeky as to actually learn Klingon though. On top of that, there wasn't a skill for sale called "Klingon".
It was only a class one transit, so recovery time was zero. The worst symptom I faced was a gurgling stomach. "Running Directional-scan," reported the AI Klingon. After the briefest of pauses, "Multiple signatures detected." A list of all the signatures flitted through my mind. I moved the report off to my right while I surveyed open space.
As always, I set to orbit the tunnel at thirty kilometers, then activated the cloak as quickly as was possible. Manually operating the directional scanner, I quickly tracked down which planet the signatures were at. Most of them were at planet XI, the rest somewhere else in space. The ones at planet XI were mostly ships, mainly battlecruisers, Tech threes, and stealth bombers.
I set course for Planet XI. The warp transit was short, perhaps twenty to thirty seconds total.
Upon arrival, I took another few seconds to directional scan each moon, and found the signatures at moon II. I short warped there in less than ten seconds.
"Enemy ships detected," reported the Klingon. Clearly I had been watching too much Star Trek, broadcast from Earth some many eons ago. "Cloaking Device active, shields raised. Torpedoes, ready at your command. Phasers are OFFLINE."
'Phasers...I better edit that one out.'
Bringing myself back to bear on the situation in front of me, I took quick stock of where I was in relation to the other ships, then blanched. I hadn't quite been expecting what I was seeing. I turned command over to the Klingon while I assessed the scene before my eyes.
After recovering from too many inputs, I set to move off the beaten warp path. I tracked out behind them to the left until no celestial was in line with the pack and my ship. I made sure to keep my distance, as I still needed to identify a target.
**********************************
I had failed to identify a viable target.
There were two problems with attacking a battlecruiser: one, all the other ships, and two, any of the battlecruiser's proximity to the other ships.
There were three problems with attacking a stealth bomber: the aforementioned two problems, plus the length of time it would take to torpedo a stealth bomber into dust.
There were four problems with attacking a Strategic Cruiser or the lone Megathron: the aforementioned three problems, plus the fact that they were either Strategic Cruisers or the Battleship.
And finally, there were problems with attacking the Prowler that warped in and out every now and then, resupplying the fleet with ammunition: one, all the other ships, two, the location it warped into being a hornet's nest, and three, the location it warped out to being unknown.
I had managed to identify why that Minmatar Large Tower was going down, however. There were apparently, and quite idiotically, no warp disruptor batteries on the tower, and all the batteries that were there had been completely incapacitated. To top it off, there had been no one controlling the weapons systems to alpha-strike any attacker.
In that time, I had discovered the presence of another Control Tower in that system. It too had the same fatal flaw as the one being destroyed en masse: no warp disruptor batteries. I'd also determined that that system had a permanent link to Hi-Sec space.
I attempted to relax while watching the steady stream of missiles impact the control tower. It seemed that the hunter would have to wait to make his kill.
****************************
The Minmatar Large Tower finally went down. A massive shockwave rippled through the fibers of my Hound, threatening to shake it to pieces before finally subsiding. The attacking fleet targeted the Ship Maintenance Array, and I locked my eyes to the scene, wondering what treasures awaited.
The array exploded...and two Iteron Mark III's popped out.
"SERIOUSLY?!!!" I screamed. "UGH! What a waste..."
I had to wait another five minutes before a pod showed up to take the Iterons away. Upon seeing that the fleet was indeed going to try to take the Iterons instead of simply demolishing them, I began maneuvers to get within bombing range.
"I only need to get within forty k..."
I carefully moved about under cloak to get in position as the fleet demolished what was left of the wrecked base.
*********************************
I finally made it into position five minutes later. Flying a meandering path had been requisite for getting into position. The nearest objects were drones, some twenty-five kilometers away, but the target, the last remaining Iteron Mark III was at thirty-three kilometers, well within bomb range. I made sure to keep one eye, literally, on the overview, to make sure nothing got too close while waiting for the capsuleer hauling the ships away to come back.
As luck had it, the capsuleer returned right about then, but had warped about ten kilometers away from the Iteron Mark III. I waited patiently for the pod to get within seven kilometers of the ship.
'...seventy-five hundred...seventy-three-fifty...seventy two-hundred...seventy-fifty...,' I counted to myself, de-cloaking and launching the shrapnel bomb immediately at the Iteron. The entire fleet continued shooting at the wreckage of the tower. I warped out as soon as possible.
No one had even attempted to target me. I could tell by how no klaxxons were ringing in my ears. As I transited I cackled with the best of the ancient wizards on ancient earth, nearly insane with laughter. I had gotten away with murder and no one had noticed while I committed it, much less left the scene of the crime.
I imagined the victim's expression must have been one of, "Ummm, where did the Iteron go?" It only set me doubling over with laughter even harder.
There was nothing left to be done in that system, so I made my way back home.
Computer: terminate recording.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Day 273
Entry: two hundred seventy-three. Begin playback.
"Warning: Shield Capacity to 38 percent," chimed the emotionless voice of the AI.
Unfortunately, you can only hear the same warning messages so many times before you can't stand it. Another wave of Sleeper missiles slammed into my shields, blinding me for a second as the energy splashed off of them.
"Warning: Shield Capacity at 36 percent."
"I KNOW! SHUT UP SHUT UP ALREADY! GOD! SO STRESS..."
"Warning: Shield Capacity to 38 percent," repeated the hot, but extremely annoying babe.
"I can't deal ..."
"Warning: Shield Capacity BSSZZZT!!!" announced the computerized voice.
A smoking hole now occupied the space where the AI's alarm sounds, in the case of low shields, low armor, and hull damage, were stored. It was a very small disk. Was. Now it was a satisfyingly shattered piece of machinery.
"Bitch," I spat. "I'm going to have to change your programming so that you actually have some personality. Maybe I'll make you sound Caldari too while I'm at it. Or Klingon. Whatever. And some new warning messages."
The day had not been going well for me. I had been solo'ing the same Sleeper base for almost two hours now. Granted, it was the hardest class two Radar site known, an Unsecured Transponder Farm, but still, two hours. And since I had to operate autocannons because my artillery skills blew, and because I didn't have Advanced Weapons Upgrades V, and because there probably wasn't power enough anyways to fit even the tech two six fifties, I wasted ALOT of bullets. So far, I'd used six thousand bullets, split evenly between Fusion, Phased Plasma, and EMP. The upside was that my ship, Repulse, even in my home class two Wolf-Rayet (which happened to be worst possible system to run my ship setup) had a peak shield recharge of two hundred forty-eight per second.
Of course, that doesn't stop eight cruiser sized sleepers and four frigate sized sleepers from making that look pitiful. I'd already had to warp in and out several times, a few with armor damage, which of course needed repairing. I felt I could maintain my peak recharge rate though at this point, with only four cruisers left. I just wasn't sure I'd have enough bullets to make it through comfortably. It was more of a hope and pray situation that someone didn't come in to gank me, because I would go down faster than a Matari whore's thong when said whore was drugged out of her mind at a Gallente orgy.
I'd seen it happen and knew exactly how fast that was. Some neural processes are slower than that.
Upon arriving at the base, I stored my Hurricane in the Ship Maintenance Array, and boarded the Salvage destroyer I'd fit so long along. Nothing special about it. It was a Thrasher. Two rigged bits of Salvage tackle, three salvagers, three tractor beams, an MWD, a codebreaker, and an analyzer, and some CPU upgrades to accompany my core probe launcher. A decent general purpose looting ship, minus of course all the firepower that has to proceed looting of any sort.
I made my way back to the wreckage.
Sullenly, I warped back to base, and upon arrival, stashed the salvage and loot, boarded my trusty Hound, "Kernel Panic!", and went to camp the Hi-sec entrance to the system. I was hoping some idiot would come prowling around for a good time, and I'd pull it out his ass the hard way. I muttered angrily under my breath. Setting the ship to auto-orbit the anomaly at twenty-eight km, I stalked out of the command module to my library of books and picked up the Harry Dresden novel I had been reading the night before.
**************************
22:00...
I had quickly grown bored of camping the Hi-Sec wormhole.
In search of greener pastures, I got up the gumption to go explore the W-space network as it was at that moment. After talking shortly with two corpmates, I warped off in the direction of the class four wormhole my system always generated. I jumped through immediately upon arrival. The transit wasn't pleasant as space-time folded like so much origami around me, inside me, spitting me back out into normal space after roughly five seconds.
I shivered. It never got any easier. It did unfortunately get worse depending on the type of wormhole one entered. The more mass was allowed to pass through a wormhole, the bigger the distortion, and the bigger the physical effects.
Pulling myself together, I quickly set my ship to orbit the exit at thirty km, cloaking as immediately was possible.
"Nothing on D-scan...that's good," I muttered to myself. With nothing in the immediate vicinity, I made a quick tour of the outer planets to verify the zero occupancy of the system. After a few minutes, I had confirmed it. Not a trace of life. An empty wasteland.
With no apparent threat, I de-cloaked and launched my sister's core scanner probes, four out of six of them. I re-cloaked as soon as was feasible, setting about discovering the treasures left in that abandoned system.
Before heading in, I decided to check out the other one. I initiated warp and closed my eyes for the twenty second journey, listening to the relaxing hum of compressed space-time moving about me in my own little tunnel through the universe.
The ship decelerated reluctantly, edging back into normal space-time as I approached the other exit-connection.
"WHOA!! A Class five!" I exclaimed over the corporate comms. "Hey Moph, I'm gonna go check it out."
"Alright True."
I prepared myself for a rather nasty set of side effects, pushed through the space-time membrane that was the entrance to the next w-space, and did my best to bear with it.
Thankfully, I had programmed a simple AI of myself to make commands for me when I was otherwise incapacitated. My AI clone immediately set to orbit the exit at thirty km, cloaking as soon as possible. It wasn't as fast as I could have done it, but considering that I was still hunched over the floor in an almost unnatural position retching my insides inside-out, it was extremely well done.
After half a minute, I finally managed to catch my breath and stop the heaving. Wiping my tears and my mouth, I took slow deep breaths while the ship glided through the new system unseen, hopefully undetected. I paced unsteadily, getting the blood flowing through my body again in a normal fashion, recovering.
"No signatures on directional scan," declared the clone. It was kept up to date with my procedures, my voice, my verbal inflections. I sometimes couldn't tell if I was speaking or it was.
The ship set about using directional scan on the outlying planetary bodies that were beyond directional scan range. I let it, using the time to get myself put back together.
"Well Moph, I got us a decent ladar site," I sent over the comms.
"Can we handle the Sleepers?" Moph sent back.
"I don't know. These are the tough ones. I have no idea though if they'll behave like their lesser counterparts and not warp disrupt us...Yeah, we could...I think I'll go check out this Class six attached to this Class five though."
"Alright, I'm still out in Hi-Sec anyways, getting implants," replied Moph.
With that I warped to the Class six entrance and mentally prepared for the journey, one that was sure to be excruciating.
"No signatures on directional scan. Checking outer planets." I was just barely recovering when my ship warped in on a sight I'd not seen before. A group of capsuleers were dismantling their tower. The tower was a Serpentis Tower at that! The group was patrolling half vigorously around a set of ships at the interior, gathered around the tower packing itself into a nice little box. According to sensors, it would take another thirty minutes for the tower to finish. I hit d-scan reflexively and noticed something strange.
"Well, that answers that."
I sat there, watching them, blood racing, thrumming with anticipation as I contemplated how the kill would go down. I ran various scenarios in my head to kill the remaining industrial, a Badger Mark II. It was going to be dicey the way things were at the current moment though. A Phoenix, a Caldari dreadnought, was cloaking and uncloaking every now and then. A Loki and a Tengu patrolled the scene. An Orca was there as well, but some had been known to fit to kill attacking ships. The Badger had to be the target.
'But what about all those wrecks?' I wondered.
Doing some quick reasoning, I came to the conclusion that I should check out the other moons around that planet, planet X. I was currently at moon I and recorded the position in the ship computer before launching at moon II.
I arrived to find a very similar scenario. Another tower was being taken down.
I traveled to moon III, and finding nothing, warped to moon 4, the final moon around planet X. It was there that I found what appeared to be a graveyard for shuttles.
I contemplated the situation further, checking moons I and II several times over the next thirty minutes.
The blood boiled under my skin. 'This is it,' I thought excitedly. 'The Badger hasn't blown himself up yet, so he's planning on picking up the tower when it finishes.'
"That badger is MINE," the AI and I snarled. It was good to have someone in on it with me, even if it was only a ghost of myself.
Waiting impatiently, my hands shaking, I checked several times that I was lined up on the target. I cloaked, reciting the commands I would give and when.
The Orca apparently was fitted with a cloaking device, just like the dreadnought, and flickered on and off scan repeatedly. As if the situation wasn't stressful enough, I practically jumped every time the overview flickered.
'forty seconds...'
The Loki still hadn't shown up. I hadn't seen if it warped or cloaked, but it hadn't been flicking in and out on me, so I assumed it was at the other tower. The Orca was currently uncloaked. I was still cloaked, thirty eight km off the badger.
'thirty seconds...'
The Dreadnought was still nowhere to be seen, even though I knew it was there.
'twenty seconds.'
Immediately I set to approach the badger. I de-cloaked, hit the MWD, then launched the bomb, planning to deactivate the MWD just before the bomb went off. Hopefully that would allow me to get close and warp disrupt the badger if it had been prepped for an ambush.
At five seconds the badger exploded in an expanding ball of shrapnel. 'I did it! That Badger's dead!' I immediately veered off and reactivated the cloak, the Orca the only other ship on scan. My ship had not auto targeted, so it seemed that I hadn't even been noticed until I was gone. "You fools were watching that tower just like I was!" I crowed, laughing maniacally. Just to add to the flavor, I raised my arms over my head.
I made my way over to the other tower after watching the Orca scoop the tower, the Loki and Tengu now quite agitated.
With that I traversed back into the Class four adjacent to my own Class two, and finally went into the other Class two it was currently connected to. I saw a tower on D-scan, and immediately set about locating it. In the end, I was sitting, cloaked, seventy km away from an Amarr Large Control tower, with all the Sleeper Strongholds scanned down and easily accessible. I reclined haughtily with a satisfied smile on my face.
'This could take a while.'
"Playback terminated."
Computer: terminate recording.
*****************************
"Warning: Shield Capacity to 38 percent," chimed the emotionless voice of the AI.
Unfortunately, you can only hear the same warning messages so many times before you can't stand it. Another wave of Sleeper missiles slammed into my shields, blinding me for a second as the energy splashed off of them.
"Warning: Shield Capacity at 36 percent."
"I KNOW! SHUT UP SHUT UP ALREADY! GOD! SO STRESS..."
"Warning: Shield Capacity to 38 percent," repeated the hot, but extremely annoying babe.
"I can't deal ..."
"Warning: Shield Capacity BSSZZZT!!!" announced the computerized voice.
A smoking hole now occupied the space where the AI's alarm sounds, in the case of low shields, low armor, and hull damage, were stored. It was a very small disk. Was. Now it was a satisfyingly shattered piece of machinery.
"Bitch," I spat. "I'm going to have to change your programming so that you actually have some personality. Maybe I'll make you sound Caldari too while I'm at it. Or Klingon. Whatever. And some new warning messages."
The day had not been going well for me. I had been solo'ing the same Sleeper base for almost two hours now. Granted, it was the hardest class two Radar site known, an Unsecured Transponder Farm, but still, two hours. And since I had to operate autocannons because my artillery skills blew, and because I didn't have Advanced Weapons Upgrades V, and because there probably wasn't power enough anyways to fit even the tech two six fifties, I wasted ALOT of bullets. So far, I'd used six thousand bullets, split evenly between Fusion, Phased Plasma, and EMP. The upside was that my ship, Repulse, even in my home class two Wolf-Rayet (which happened to be worst possible system to run my ship setup) had a peak shield recharge of two hundred forty-eight per second.
Of course, that doesn't stop eight cruiser sized sleepers and four frigate sized sleepers from making that look pitiful. I'd already had to warp in and out several times, a few with armor damage, which of course needed repairing. I felt I could maintain my peak recharge rate though at this point, with only four cruisers left. I just wasn't sure I'd have enough bullets to make it through comfortably. It was more of a hope and pray situation that someone didn't come in to gank me, because I would go down faster than a Matari whore's thong when said whore was drugged out of her mind at a Gallente orgy.
I'd seen it happen and knew exactly how fast that was. Some neural processes are slower than that.
***************************
Thirty minutes later, my shields finally had the chance to recharge. To full, mind you, none of that peak recharge stuff. All the Sleepers had finally been destroyed and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The transit back to base was short, but relaxing, and not filled with red bars oscillating between almost dead and kinda dead. My guns weren't constantly sending tiny shock waves through the ship either, a welcome relief. I think if it had gone much longer my back would have been jazzercized to mulch.Upon arriving at the base, I stored my Hurricane in the Ship Maintenance Array, and boarded the Salvage destroyer I'd fit so long along. Nothing special about it. It was a Thrasher. Two rigged bits of Salvage tackle, three salvagers, three tractor beams, an MWD, a codebreaker, and an analyzer, and some CPU upgrades to accompany my core probe launcher. A decent general purpose looting ship, minus of course all the firepower that has to proceed looting of any sort.
I made my way back to the wreckage.
***************************
After thirty minutes, and salvaging something like twenty-five wrecked Sleepers, my biggest loot in terms of salvage were the two Melted Nanoribbons that had come off of the one battleship to appear during that whole ordeal. "Two friggin' nanoribbons...ugh! That barely covers the bullets I had to use to kill all this crap!" A few new dents made their way into the walls of the Thrasher's interior, none of any consequence.Sullenly, I warped back to base, and upon arrival, stashed the salvage and loot, boarded my trusty Hound, "Kernel Panic!", and went to camp the Hi-sec entrance to the system. I was hoping some idiot would come prowling around for a good time, and I'd pull it out his ass the hard way. I muttered angrily under my breath. Setting the ship to auto-orbit the anomaly at twenty-eight km, I stalked out of the command module to my library of books and picked up the Harry Dresden novel I had been reading the night before.
**************************
22:00...
I had quickly grown bored of camping the Hi-Sec wormhole.
In search of greener pastures, I got up the gumption to go explore the W-space network as it was at that moment. After talking shortly with two corpmates, I warped off in the direction of the class four wormhole my system always generated. I jumped through immediately upon arrival. The transit wasn't pleasant as space-time folded like so much origami around me, inside me, spitting me back out into normal space after roughly five seconds.
I shivered. It never got any easier. It did unfortunately get worse depending on the type of wormhole one entered. The more mass was allowed to pass through a wormhole, the bigger the distortion, and the bigger the physical effects.
Pulling myself together, I quickly set my ship to orbit the exit at thirty km, cloaking as immediately was possible.
"Nothing on D-scan...that's good," I muttered to myself. With nothing in the immediate vicinity, I made a quick tour of the outer planets to verify the zero occupancy of the system. After a few minutes, I had confirmed it. Not a trace of life. An empty wasteland.
With no apparent threat, I de-cloaked and launched my sister's core scanner probes, four out of six of them. I re-cloaked as soon as was feasible, setting about discovering the treasures left in that abandoned system.
**************************
I warped to one of the wormhole signatures I had found with my probes. It appeared to lead into Class one or Class two wormhole space, but my money was on Class two. I've never found any Class one w-spaces connected directly to a Class four.Before heading in, I decided to check out the other one. I initiated warp and closed my eyes for the twenty second journey, listening to the relaxing hum of compressed space-time moving about me in my own little tunnel through the universe.
The ship decelerated reluctantly, edging back into normal space-time as I approached the other exit-connection.
"WHOA!! A Class five!" I exclaimed over the corporate comms. "Hey Moph, I'm gonna go check it out."
"Alright True."
I prepared myself for a rather nasty set of side effects, pushed through the space-time membrane that was the entrance to the next w-space, and did my best to bear with it.
**************************
As I exited back into normal space, my stomach wrenched violently. Grotesquely so.Thankfully, I had programmed a simple AI of myself to make commands for me when I was otherwise incapacitated. My AI clone immediately set to orbit the exit at thirty km, cloaking as soon as possible. It wasn't as fast as I could have done it, but considering that I was still hunched over the floor in an almost unnatural position retching my insides inside-out, it was extremely well done.
After half a minute, I finally managed to catch my breath and stop the heaving. Wiping my tears and my mouth, I took slow deep breaths while the ship glided through the new system unseen, hopefully undetected. I paced unsteadily, getting the blood flowing through my body again in a normal fashion, recovering.
"No signatures on directional scan," declared the clone. It was kept up to date with my procedures, my voice, my verbal inflections. I sometimes couldn't tell if I was speaking or it was.
The ship set about using directional scan on the outlying planetary bodies that were beyond directional scan range. I let it, using the time to get myself put back together.
**************************
I had discovered few places of interest in that Class five. A bountiful reservoir, a barren reservoir, two gravimetric disturbances that I had ignored, and yet another wormhole connection. I was hardly surprised by this last; most systems in W-Space opened into another system of some type. I had not yet heard of one that only ever got opened into. And I'd be damned if I was going to sit in a mining barge, never you mind how long it had taken me to break down and train Mining Barge V, in the middle of Class five W-Space sucking down rock, Arkonor, Mercoxit, whatever. Mining is my last resort, and most of the time I favor simply "Logging Out" as opposed to "mining". Sleep was important too. So were a lot of things that, while they didn't pay nearly as handsomely as sucking rocks, sure were a lot more fun or more satisfying, usually both."Well Moph, I got us a decent ladar site," I sent over the comms.
"Can we handle the Sleepers?" Moph sent back.
"I don't know. These are the tough ones. I have no idea though if they'll behave like their lesser counterparts and not warp disrupt us...Yeah, we could...I think I'll go check out this Class six attached to this Class five though."
"Alright, I'm still out in Hi-Sec anyways, getting implants," replied Moph.
With that I warped to the Class six entrance and mentally prepared for the journey, one that was sure to be excruciating.
**************************
It took a full minute before I was able to do anything other than retch uncontrollably. The AI persona had taken over, of course, doing the same tried and true routine."No signatures on directional scan. Checking outer planets." I was just barely recovering when my ship warped in on a sight I'd not seen before. A group of capsuleers were dismantling their tower. The tower was a Serpentis Tower at that! The group was patrolling half vigorously around a set of ships at the interior, gathered around the tower packing itself into a nice little box. According to sensors, it would take another thirty minutes for the tower to finish. I hit d-scan reflexively and noticed something strange.
"Well, that answers that."
I sat there, watching them, blood racing, thrumming with anticipation as I contemplated how the kill would go down. I ran various scenarios in my head to kill the remaining industrial, a Badger Mark II. It was going to be dicey the way things were at the current moment though. A Phoenix, a Caldari dreadnought, was cloaking and uncloaking every now and then. A Loki and a Tengu patrolled the scene. An Orca was there as well, but some had been known to fit to kill attacking ships. The Badger had to be the target.
'But what about all those wrecks?' I wondered.
Doing some quick reasoning, I came to the conclusion that I should check out the other moons around that planet, planet X. I was currently at moon I and recorded the position in the ship computer before launching at moon II.
I arrived to find a very similar scenario. Another tower was being taken down.
I traveled to moon III, and finding nothing, warped to moon 4, the final moon around planet X. It was there that I found what appeared to be a graveyard for shuttles.
I contemplated the situation further, checking moons I and II several times over the next thirty minutes.
**************************
The countdown timer was at five minutes for the tower being repackaged at moon one.The blood boiled under my skin. 'This is it,' I thought excitedly. 'The Badger hasn't blown himself up yet, so he's planning on picking up the tower when it finishes.'
"That badger is MINE," the AI and I snarled. It was good to have someone in on it with me, even if it was only a ghost of myself.
Waiting impatiently, my hands shaking, I checked several times that I was lined up on the target. I cloaked, reciting the commands I would give and when.
**************************
As the timer hit one minute, I was practically gnashing my teeth.The Orca apparently was fitted with a cloaking device, just like the dreadnought, and flickered on and off scan repeatedly. As if the situation wasn't stressful enough, I practically jumped every time the overview flickered.
'forty seconds...'
The Loki still hadn't shown up. I hadn't seen if it warped or cloaked, but it hadn't been flicking in and out on me, so I assumed it was at the other tower. The Orca was currently uncloaked. I was still cloaked, thirty eight km off the badger.
'thirty seconds...'
The Dreadnought was still nowhere to be seen, even though I knew it was there.
'twenty seconds.'
Immediately I set to approach the badger. I de-cloaked, hit the MWD, then launched the bomb, planning to deactivate the MWD just before the bomb went off. Hopefully that would allow me to get close and warp disrupt the badger if it had been prepped for an ambush.
At five seconds the badger exploded in an expanding ball of shrapnel. 'I did it! That Badger's dead!' I immediately veered off and reactivated the cloak, the Orca the only other ship on scan. My ship had not auto targeted, so it seemed that I hadn't even been noticed until I was gone. "You fools were watching that tower just like I was!" I crowed, laughing maniacally. Just to add to the flavor, I raised my arms over my head.
I made my way over to the other tower after watching the Orca scoop the tower, the Loki and Tengu now quite agitated.
**************************
It was rather unfortunate, but to be expected, that there were no other kills to be made without most likely losing my life. I watched with glee as the Tengu, Loki, and Orca were extra careful in recovering their other tower, a simple Minmatar Large Control Tower. Definitely not worth dying over.With that I traversed back into the Class four adjacent to my own Class two, and finally went into the other Class two it was currently connected to. I saw a tower on D-scan, and immediately set about locating it. In the end, I was sitting, cloaked, seventy km away from an Amarr Large Control tower, with all the Sleeper Strongholds scanned down and easily accessible. I reclined haughtily with a satisfied smile on my face.
'This could take a while.'
"Playback terminated."
Computer: terminate recording.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Day 272
Entry: two hundred seventy-two.
"On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took all of four people breathing the same air to make the earth too crowded to stand."
I sat comfortably in my open capsule, lodged in the Hound I was flying. It had been a very long day for me: long, tense, and entirely too adrenaline filled how for completely uneventful the day had been. I reclined in my command chair reading the latest Harry Dresden novel. If not for the books I owned, the day would have been a total waste to that point.
When I had woken up from my slumber, I had kept the ship's stealth systems active, and everything else but the most basic of life support systems and internal lighting inactive. I'd groggily taken care of the basic necessities, such as using the facilities, cleaning up, and getting dressed. Once all of that was taken care of, I activated the ship from "Logged out" to "Logged in". Immediately, as was always the annoying case, there was a glitch in the software subroutines that forced every Covert Ops Cloaking Device to deactivate when the "Log" mode changed, and as always I immediately reactivated it, showing my ship to the rest of space for less than a second.
That was more than enough time for some paranoid raider on D-scan to pick me up. Thankfully, it hadn't happened yet, and I felt my chances were nearly a hundred percent that I hadn't been detected for several reasons.
On top of being cloaked, I always made sure to change "Log" modes where no one else was about. Unlike most of my corporation, I was enjoying the secluded and stealthy life. I had several "safe spots" sprinkled throughout this W-Space system we occupied, and logged at the ones where absolutely nothing came up on D-scan. Not ships, planets, moon, celestials...anything. In combination with the cloaking field I employed for my ship, it was an almost absolute surety that I'd never be detected by raiders whenever I changed logging modes.
The unfortunate side effect of this, in W-Space no less, that fewer raids happened in W-Space than I had been lead to believe. Those were the benefits, but there were also the downsides.
Just as I was getting into the novel, some noise came in over the comm line. I kept it active in case of situations like this. "True, I'm on my way back to the hole."
I snapped back to attention as I lazily orbited the Hi-Sec exit from that system, cloaked of course, at 25km. I didn't particularly like or dislike guard duty, but it allowed me to do several other things while helping my corp and giving me the opportunity for combat. "Roger that Ranger, how many jumps out are you?"
"Three," replied Ranger. As usual, transmissions from Hi-Sec to W-space came in garbled and distorted, but usually intelligible thanks to some handy filters on the audio bands.
I settled back into my command chair, no need to get all fidgety just yet. Picking my book back up with a huff of annoyance that never made it out over the audio, I continued reading. My sensors kept attuned to the exit wormhole, configured to transmit visual and audio signals as a virtualizations of wormhole distortion via transit.
Naturally, just as I settled in, I heard the telltale signs of Wormhole activity. "Ranger, did you just enter the system?"
"Negative."
"Roger." I paused, watching the spatial distortion intently. After a few seconds, a Purifier appeared briefly, re-cloaking almost immediately, and undoubtedly warping away immediately as well. An evil smile crept onto my face.
"Purifier. Stealth Bomber. Cloaked immediately and warped out. Probably thinks he got in unnoticed," I transmitted.
"Gotcha, coming up to the hole." There was a pause as Ranger undoubtedly warped towards the system entrance. "Uhh, there's a manticore here...annnd he warped away."
"Roger that...come on in, no one is going to attack a Megathron sitting on the hole anyways, and they're not likely to come in on seeing it either."
"Will you be watching the hole?"
"Yeah, I will," I replied. "You going to close this hole?"
"Yeah."
"Guys, I have a proposition," I transmitted over my corp comms. "We have a Sleeper stronghold I picked up earlier today. Damn robots show up at the weirdest times, but regardless, we have it."
"That Purifier from earlier is still in here with us I think. I want you guys to run that Perimeter Hangar and I'll stay there with you, but cloaked. I want to set up an ambush."
General agreement followed over the comms. After ten minutes, the fleet leader, 'Ghost', called out to me over the comms. "Ok True, we're here, warp to us."
"Roger, warping at 30." I settled back as I sent the warp command via my implants to the ship AI. There was a brief gravitational shift as the ship aligned, accelerated, and began compressing the space in front of it to travel faster than light. A few short seconds later, I emerged back into normal space-flight mode, hovering 30km above my colleagues. I carefully maneuvered my Hound to where I thought my compatriots would eventually arrive while dealing with the newly awakened Sleepers, and then set myself to be above them by 10 kilometers so that their proximity wouldn't interfere with the cloak, a field roughly spherical and 2500 meters in diameter.
I watched rather intently for any signs of enemy activity while they completed the site. Eventually, they did.
"Leaving for salvager," called Ranger. Inside of a minute, he returned with the salvage Catalyst we had set up for corp use, and quickly salvaged anything and everything possible from the shattered Sleeper hulls.
With only a few wrecks left to go, the suspected ambushers revealed themselves. A Manticore and a Purifier decloaked, lobbing bombs towards the salvage catalyst.
As the bombs sped towards their target, Ranger had already begun warping out, leaving the area of effect as the bombs exploded.
Unfortunately, Ghost was hit with the full force of two EM bombs, one from a Purifier and one from a Manticore. The Purifier and Manticore turned to warp out as Ghost starting warping away. Before either Stealth Bomber had managed to warp out, however, a third Stealth Bomber uncloaked, also an enemy, who targeted Moph and began launching torpedoes at the last remaining Drake on the field.
I brought my ship around towards the new Hound, de-cloaked, and warp disrupted him in an instant. I maneuvered closer, making sure remote sensor dampeners wouldn't disrupt my lock, and launched two sets of Bane torpedoes at our catch. Moph, when he finally managed to lock onto the Hound, began hitting him with seven sets of Heavy Missiles.
The target was down within twenty seconds. I was too close to be sensor-damped, no matter how much the enemy tried to squirm away. When the ship blew up, I immediately targeted and warp disrupted the enemy pilot's pod. "Moph, we need to hurry and kill him, my cap is almost gone," I called out. I jammed the launch buttons as often as possible, trying to get the torpedoes to fire faster as I saw my capacitor reservoir dwindle to nothing.
Eventually the cap ran out, and the warp disruptor deactivated. The enemy escaped immediately, pod damaged, but intact.
"Ranger, come on back. We blew up his ship. We didn't manage to get his pod, but I don't think they're coming back," I transmitted.
With that, I moved away from the wreckage and re-cloaked, secretly hoping that the enemy would come back so that I could blow up all their remaining ships.
They did not return however.
Computer: terminate recording.
"On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took all of four people breathing the same air to make the earth too crowded to stand."
I sat comfortably in my open capsule, lodged in the Hound I was flying. It had been a very long day for me: long, tense, and entirely too adrenaline filled how for completely uneventful the day had been. I reclined in my command chair reading the latest Harry Dresden novel. If not for the books I owned, the day would have been a total waste to that point.
When I had woken up from my slumber, I had kept the ship's stealth systems active, and everything else but the most basic of life support systems and internal lighting inactive. I'd groggily taken care of the basic necessities, such as using the facilities, cleaning up, and getting dressed. Once all of that was taken care of, I activated the ship from "Logged out" to "Logged in". Immediately, as was always the annoying case, there was a glitch in the software subroutines that forced every Covert Ops Cloaking Device to deactivate when the "Log" mode changed, and as always I immediately reactivated it, showing my ship to the rest of space for less than a second.
That was more than enough time for some paranoid raider on D-scan to pick me up. Thankfully, it hadn't happened yet, and I felt my chances were nearly a hundred percent that I hadn't been detected for several reasons.
On top of being cloaked, I always made sure to change "Log" modes where no one else was about. Unlike most of my corporation, I was enjoying the secluded and stealthy life. I had several "safe spots" sprinkled throughout this W-Space system we occupied, and logged at the ones where absolutely nothing came up on D-scan. Not ships, planets, moon, celestials...anything. In combination with the cloaking field I employed for my ship, it was an almost absolute surety that I'd never be detected by raiders whenever I changed logging modes.
The unfortunate side effect of this, in W-Space no less, that fewer raids happened in W-Space than I had been lead to believe. Those were the benefits, but there were also the downsides.
Just as I was getting into the novel, some noise came in over the comm line. I kept it active in case of situations like this. "True, I'm on my way back to the hole."
I snapped back to attention as I lazily orbited the Hi-Sec exit from that system, cloaked of course, at 25km. I didn't particularly like or dislike guard duty, but it allowed me to do several other things while helping my corp and giving me the opportunity for combat. "Roger that Ranger, how many jumps out are you?"
"Three," replied Ranger. As usual, transmissions from Hi-Sec to W-space came in garbled and distorted, but usually intelligible thanks to some handy filters on the audio bands.
I settled back into my command chair, no need to get all fidgety just yet. Picking my book back up with a huff of annoyance that never made it out over the audio, I continued reading. My sensors kept attuned to the exit wormhole, configured to transmit visual and audio signals as a virtualizations of wormhole distortion via transit.
Naturally, just as I settled in, I heard the telltale signs of Wormhole activity. "Ranger, did you just enter the system?"
"Negative."
"Roger." I paused, watching the spatial distortion intently. After a few seconds, a Purifier appeared briefly, re-cloaking almost immediately, and undoubtedly warping away immediately as well. An evil smile crept onto my face.
"Purifier. Stealth Bomber. Cloaked immediately and warped out. Probably thinks he got in unnoticed," I transmitted.
"Gotcha, coming up to the hole." There was a pause as Ranger undoubtedly warped towards the system entrance. "Uhh, there's a manticore here...annnd he warped away."
"Roger that...come on in, no one is going to attack a Megathron sitting on the hole anyways, and they're not likely to come in on seeing it either."
"Will you be watching the hole?"
"Yeah, I will," I replied. "You going to close this hole?"
"Yeah."
***********************************
After an hour of watching Ranger jump back and through the hole with his Megathron, eventually the sheer transited mass collapsed the hole. Luckily, Ranger ended up on the W-space side."Guys, I have a proposition," I transmitted over my corp comms. "We have a Sleeper stronghold I picked up earlier today. Damn robots show up at the weirdest times, but regardless, we have it."
"That Purifier from earlier is still in here with us I think. I want you guys to run that Perimeter Hangar and I'll stay there with you, but cloaked. I want to set up an ambush."
General agreement followed over the comms. After ten minutes, the fleet leader, 'Ghost', called out to me over the comms. "Ok True, we're here, warp to us."
"Roger, warping at 30." I settled back as I sent the warp command via my implants to the ship AI. There was a brief gravitational shift as the ship aligned, accelerated, and began compressing the space in front of it to travel faster than light. A few short seconds later, I emerged back into normal space-flight mode, hovering 30km above my colleagues. I carefully maneuvered my Hound to where I thought my compatriots would eventually arrive while dealing with the newly awakened Sleepers, and then set myself to be above them by 10 kilometers so that their proximity wouldn't interfere with the cloak, a field roughly spherical and 2500 meters in diameter.
I watched rather intently for any signs of enemy activity while they completed the site. Eventually, they did.
"Leaving for salvager," called Ranger. Inside of a minute, he returned with the salvage Catalyst we had set up for corp use, and quickly salvaged anything and everything possible from the shattered Sleeper hulls.
With only a few wrecks left to go, the suspected ambushers revealed themselves. A Manticore and a Purifier decloaked, lobbing bombs towards the salvage catalyst.
As the bombs sped towards their target, Ranger had already begun warping out, leaving the area of effect as the bombs exploded.
Unfortunately, Ghost was hit with the full force of two EM bombs, one from a Purifier and one from a Manticore. The Purifier and Manticore turned to warp out as Ghost starting warping away. Before either Stealth Bomber had managed to warp out, however, a third Stealth Bomber uncloaked, also an enemy, who targeted Moph and began launching torpedoes at the last remaining Drake on the field.
I brought my ship around towards the new Hound, de-cloaked, and warp disrupted him in an instant. I maneuvered closer, making sure remote sensor dampeners wouldn't disrupt my lock, and launched two sets of Bane torpedoes at our catch. Moph, when he finally managed to lock onto the Hound, began hitting him with seven sets of Heavy Missiles.
The target was down within twenty seconds. I was too close to be sensor-damped, no matter how much the enemy tried to squirm away. When the ship blew up, I immediately targeted and warp disrupted the enemy pilot's pod. "Moph, we need to hurry and kill him, my cap is almost gone," I called out. I jammed the launch buttons as often as possible, trying to get the torpedoes to fire faster as I saw my capacitor reservoir dwindle to nothing.
Eventually the cap ran out, and the warp disruptor deactivated. The enemy escaped immediately, pod damaged, but intact.
"Ranger, come on back. We blew up his ship. We didn't manage to get his pod, but I don't think they're coming back," I transmitted.
With that, I moved away from the wreckage and re-cloaked, secretly hoping that the enemy would come back so that I could blow up all their remaining ships.
They did not return however.
Computer: terminate recording.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Day 123
Entry: one hundred twenty-three.
We're currently holed up in POS right now. Things somehow went south all of a sudden. I'm terrified right now, to be honest. I didn't expect it to be this bad.
Location: Unknown
Locus Signature: J133557
Classification: Wolf-Rayet, class two.
Nearest: J133557 II
Active W-Space Link: exit to Hi-Sec
Active W-Space Link: exit to a class four
Two months ago, I and a few others in corp decided that we wanted to move into a wormhole system. The riches of uncharted space vastly outweighed the potential dangers we had factored into the move. For the last week, we've scanned down every system within fifteen jumps to find a good wormhole system to occupy. We hadn't, however, until today.
The link from the wormhole system and Teonusude was dissipating when Adorol had discovered it. This was the only viable wormhole we had discovered in the entire week, so we jumped at the chance. Riddick piloted the Orca from Hek to Teonusude, Ranger Omega in tow with his Occator. Our link to this system had less than four hours of life before it vanished. It took almost an entire hour to get the Orca into Teonusude.
Everything went wrong once the Ranger onlined the tower.
A neutral entered system in a Buzzard, a covert ops probing vessel. This person wasted no time telling everyone in Teonusude that we were there. There was no way we could stop anyone from going in, with CONCORD rules preventing us from destroying anyone who would enter. This same pilot then vanished through the link, and we never saw her come out.
We were committed at this point. Anchoring and then onlining the Large Minmatar Tower we had scraped the funds together for had taken an over an hour, and unanchoring it would take another hour at the least. Our link wouldn't last that long. We safed up under the forcefield while Ranger went about anchoring and onlining other parts of the POS that we would need active.
Adorol had found the class four link and notified us that the occupants were active. Unsettled by this, Riddick and I had decided to disperse the link via multiple transits. The occupants were not happy.
Riddick was the first one destroyed. He had been entirely incautious and had left command in his Maelstrom to visit the mess, apparently feeling the need for a beer. Not at command, the enemies in two Tengus caught him on the class four side of the link and destroyed him.
Not at command, he was unable to notify me what happened. I jumped through and encountered the Tengus on the other side. Panicky, I wasn't able to do anything until thirty seconds had passed, at which point I approached the link and jumped through again.
I was followed. I attempted to warp out to the POS for safety, but the Tengu pilots caught my Hurricane. Shields were but a thin veil before the savage fury of their missiles, and my armor wasn't long for life after that either. With my fate written on the wall, I ejected, and at least got away in my pod.
Since then, those occupants have been terrorizing us at our POS. Hit and run tactics, attacking modules and warping away before they could be targeted. They'd been at it for an hour before they left. Ranger crawled out in his Occator to anchor and online a Warp Disruption Battery quite literally the solution to our problems.
Or rather, it would have been. Our neighbors hadn't actually left.
They decloaked and pointed Ranger, keeping him from warping out. He attempted to crawl back under the safety of the forcefield, but just a few thousand meters away from salvation they destroyed his ship. They wasted no time in catching his pod and crushing it.
Ranger woke up somewhere in hi-sec. I don't know how his transmissions can get to us, but they apparently can. Maybe through the hi-sec link...
Computer: terminate recording.
We're currently holed up in POS right now. Things somehow went south all of a sudden. I'm terrified right now, to be honest. I didn't expect it to be this bad.
Location: Unknown
Locus Signature: J133557
Classification: Wolf-Rayet, class two.
Nearest: J133557 II
Active W-Space Link: exit to Hi-Sec
Active W-Space Link: exit to a class four
Two months ago, I and a few others in corp decided that we wanted to move into a wormhole system. The riches of uncharted space vastly outweighed the potential dangers we had factored into the move. For the last week, we've scanned down every system within fifteen jumps to find a good wormhole system to occupy. We hadn't, however, until today.
The link from the wormhole system and Teonusude was dissipating when Adorol had discovered it. This was the only viable wormhole we had discovered in the entire week, so we jumped at the chance. Riddick piloted the Orca from Hek to Teonusude, Ranger Omega in tow with his Occator. Our link to this system had less than four hours of life before it vanished. It took almost an entire hour to get the Orca into Teonusude.
Everything went wrong once the Ranger onlined the tower.
A neutral entered system in a Buzzard, a covert ops probing vessel. This person wasted no time telling everyone in Teonusude that we were there. There was no way we could stop anyone from going in, with CONCORD rules preventing us from destroying anyone who would enter. This same pilot then vanished through the link, and we never saw her come out.
We were committed at this point. Anchoring and then onlining the Large Minmatar Tower we had scraped the funds together for had taken an over an hour, and unanchoring it would take another hour at the least. Our link wouldn't last that long. We safed up under the forcefield while Ranger went about anchoring and onlining other parts of the POS that we would need active.
Adorol had found the class four link and notified us that the occupants were active. Unsettled by this, Riddick and I had decided to disperse the link via multiple transits. The occupants were not happy.
Riddick was the first one destroyed. He had been entirely incautious and had left command in his Maelstrom to visit the mess, apparently feeling the need for a beer. Not at command, the enemies in two Tengus caught him on the class four side of the link and destroyed him.
Not at command, he was unable to notify me what happened. I jumped through and encountered the Tengus on the other side. Panicky, I wasn't able to do anything until thirty seconds had passed, at which point I approached the link and jumped through again.
I was followed. I attempted to warp out to the POS for safety, but the Tengu pilots caught my Hurricane. Shields were but a thin veil before the savage fury of their missiles, and my armor wasn't long for life after that either. With my fate written on the wall, I ejected, and at least got away in my pod.
Since then, those occupants have been terrorizing us at our POS. Hit and run tactics, attacking modules and warping away before they could be targeted. They'd been at it for an hour before they left. Ranger crawled out in his Occator to anchor and online a Warp Disruption Battery quite literally the solution to our problems.
Or rather, it would have been. Our neighbors hadn't actually left.
They decloaked and pointed Ranger, keeping him from warping out. He attempted to crawl back under the safety of the forcefield, but just a few thousand meters away from salvation they destroyed his ship. They wasted no time in catching his pod and crushing it.
Ranger woke up somewhere in hi-sec. I don't know how his transmissions can get to us, but they apparently can. Maybe through the hi-sec link...
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Day 118
Entry: one hundred eighteen.
I've been missioning pretty much straight for the last two weeks. It's all very unexciting. I needed the money though, and apparently an endless number of Damsels in Distress needed rescuing, so there it is.
I needed a break today. I made clear over corp comms that I was headed into Ebodold to kill something. The CEO decided to join me. I was already headed to the target system in a Rifter from Balginia. The CEO said he would meet me there in a Thrasher.
The trip was uneventful.
I landed, and Wolf landed shortly after me. We jumped in, and started bouncing around the belts, trying to find the Stabber on directional scan. After five minutes of bouncing around, he stopped bouncing and waited for us. We got a good idea of his location with d-scan, and made best speed.
We found him forty off. He approached, released his drone, and engaged Wolf. I microwarped at the Stabber, scrambling him while orbiting close with my microwarp on.
The adrenaline rush was intense. It was difficult for me to do much beyond the activate the guns and wait. True spray and pray style there.
It's hard to remember what happened. While I orbited, I unleashed the full fury of my autocannons, as did Wolf. Wolf's Thrasher was destroyed, and it was left to me to destroy the Stabber. My shields vaporized in an instant, my armor was taking a little longer to go as he hit structure. I overloaded, praying that that would do the trick.
I entered hull.
I prayed while I continued to orbit, spraying bullets.
The Stabber exploded, leaving me with approximately half of my structure. I was stunned, unable to move as TriggerTruls warped away in his pod, Wolf long gone and offgrid in his own pod. Eventually, meaning a few seconds later that really felt like an eternity later, I got enough of myself together to loot the Stabber wreck and exit Ebodold.
God, did that just happen? I'm still in shock, with a grin that won't come off my face.
After all the despair and failure I've experienced, I'm finally succeeding. It's...an amazing feeling. I'm no longer a loser, no longer a carebear, no longer a failure.
Computer: terminate recording.
I've been missioning pretty much straight for the last two weeks. It's all very unexciting. I needed the money though, and apparently an endless number of Damsels in Distress needed rescuing, so there it is.
I needed a break today. I made clear over corp comms that I was headed into Ebodold to kill something. The CEO decided to join me. I was already headed to the target system in a Rifter from Balginia. The CEO said he would meet me there in a Thrasher.
The trip was uneventful.
I landed, and Wolf landed shortly after me. We jumped in, and started bouncing around the belts, trying to find the Stabber on directional scan. After five minutes of bouncing around, he stopped bouncing and waited for us. We got a good idea of his location with d-scan, and made best speed.
We found him forty off. He approached, released his drone, and engaged Wolf. I microwarped at the Stabber, scrambling him while orbiting close with my microwarp on.
The adrenaline rush was intense. It was difficult for me to do much beyond the activate the guns and wait. True spray and pray style there.
It's hard to remember what happened. While I orbited, I unleashed the full fury of my autocannons, as did Wolf. Wolf's Thrasher was destroyed, and it was left to me to destroy the Stabber. My shields vaporized in an instant, my armor was taking a little longer to go as he hit structure. I overloaded, praying that that would do the trick.
I entered hull.
I prayed while I continued to orbit, spraying bullets.
The Stabber exploded, leaving me with approximately half of my structure. I was stunned, unable to move as TriggerTruls warped away in his pod, Wolf long gone and offgrid in his own pod. Eventually, meaning a few seconds later that really felt like an eternity later, I got enough of myself together to loot the Stabber wreck and exit Ebodold.
God, did that just happen? I'm still in shock, with a grin that won't come off my face.
After all the despair and failure I've experienced, I'm finally succeeding. It's...an amazing feeling. I'm no longer a loser, no longer a carebear, no longer a failure.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Day 104
Entry: one hundred four.
Today I got my first killmail, followed shortly by my second killmail! It's difficult to express how excited I am, how proud I am, how lucky I feel!
Some of my corpmates and I have been planning to move our residence into w-space, not only for the ISK opportunities, but also the adventure, the possible combat opportunities, and in large part for a change in pace. In preparation for this move, we've been running wormhole ops once or twice a week depending on attendance. I discovered some time ago that Eystur regularly spawns an entrance into class one space, so I felt that checking it might be a good idea, just in case.
In my Probe I quickly located a wormhole signature, scanned it down, and warped to it. The transit was mildly unsettling, but quickly over with.
"Locus Signature: J152928
Sovereignty: Unkown
Constellation: Unknown
Region: Unknown
Security Status: 0.0"
The information flitted through my mind dutifully, as per every system change. Indicator lights showed that my ship was attempting to reach local but was unable to, a common occurrence as there are no Neocom beacons in w-space. Without further ado, I bookmarked the exit with the appropriate coordinates, and made a safe spot from which to scan the system. I noticed a cormorant wreck and a rifter wreck on directional scan, and two capsules floating somewhere in space as well. I wondered if perhaps I might find the wrecks and capsules.
Shortly after creating the safe spot, I deployed my combat probes and cloaked up, beginning my task in relative safety.
Within a few minutes, I had gotten the exact coordinates of the capsules. With trepidation, I engaged the warp sequence and slid through space to the coordinates, landing just shy by twenty kilometers.
Adrenaline spiked my system so hard that it was difficult to deploy the two hobgoblins I had onboard. I was shaking, almost violently, not out of fear, but plain bloodlust. An opportunity such as this had never presented itself, and there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let it slip past.
Drones deployed, I engaged Tytaron's capsule, and destroyed it seconds later. I immediately deployed the drones to engage Lutschaer's capsule, and when his capsule had lost approximately half of its armor, Lutschaer warped off.
Frustration took hold. I recalled my drones, warped back to my safe spot, and began scanning for the pod again. I managed to find him, and warped to him again, at a different planet, and just as I landed, he warped away. Clearly he was still alive and kicking, although apparently trapped as he hadn't yet left system.
I couldn't be bothered with the situation. I warped back to the safe spot, scanned him down, and exited the wormhole. I switched into a Rifter, re-entered the wormhole, and warped to the last known location of his that I recorded.
I landed fairly close to him. Without thinking, I engaged the warp disruptor and held him down while the autocannons did their work. It didn't take long before his pod was broken enough to kill him, exposing his flesh to explosive decompression and space. Specks of red dented in the cockpit window, a mild revenge for his merciless slaughter.
It's taken nearly six months, but I've finally broken into the realm of those I've only previously dreamed about joining. I've become dangerous, a killer. This rush is so intoxicating, I don't know that I can ever go back to the life of a missioner.
Computer: terminate recording.
Today I got my first killmail, followed shortly by my second killmail! It's difficult to express how excited I am, how proud I am, how lucky I feel!
Some of my corpmates and I have been planning to move our residence into w-space, not only for the ISK opportunities, but also the adventure, the possible combat opportunities, and in large part for a change in pace. In preparation for this move, we've been running wormhole ops once or twice a week depending on attendance. I discovered some time ago that Eystur regularly spawns an entrance into class one space, so I felt that checking it might be a good idea, just in case.
In my Probe I quickly located a wormhole signature, scanned it down, and warped to it. The transit was mildly unsettling, but quickly over with.
"Locus Signature: J152928
Sovereignty: Unkown
Constellation: Unknown
Region: Unknown
Security Status: 0.0"
The information flitted through my mind dutifully, as per every system change. Indicator lights showed that my ship was attempting to reach local but was unable to, a common occurrence as there are no Neocom beacons in w-space. Without further ado, I bookmarked the exit with the appropriate coordinates, and made a safe spot from which to scan the system. I noticed a cormorant wreck and a rifter wreck on directional scan, and two capsules floating somewhere in space as well. I wondered if perhaps I might find the wrecks and capsules.
Shortly after creating the safe spot, I deployed my combat probes and cloaked up, beginning my task in relative safety.
Within a few minutes, I had gotten the exact coordinates of the capsules. With trepidation, I engaged the warp sequence and slid through space to the coordinates, landing just shy by twenty kilometers.
Adrenaline spiked my system so hard that it was difficult to deploy the two hobgoblins I had onboard. I was shaking, almost violently, not out of fear, but plain bloodlust. An opportunity such as this had never presented itself, and there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let it slip past.
Drones deployed, I engaged Tytaron's capsule, and destroyed it seconds later. I immediately deployed the drones to engage Lutschaer's capsule, and when his capsule had lost approximately half of its armor, Lutschaer warped off.
Frustration took hold. I recalled my drones, warped back to my safe spot, and began scanning for the pod again. I managed to find him, and warped to him again, at a different planet, and just as I landed, he warped away. Clearly he was still alive and kicking, although apparently trapped as he hadn't yet left system.
I couldn't be bothered with the situation. I warped back to the safe spot, scanned him down, and exited the wormhole. I switched into a Rifter, re-entered the wormhole, and warped to the last known location of his that I recorded.
I landed fairly close to him. Without thinking, I engaged the warp disruptor and held him down while the autocannons did their work. It didn't take long before his pod was broken enough to kill him, exposing his flesh to explosive decompression and space. Specks of red dented in the cockpit window, a mild revenge for his merciless slaughter.
It's taken nearly six months, but I've finally broken into the realm of those I've only previously dreamed about joining. I've become dangerous, a killer. This rush is so intoxicating, I don't know that I can ever go back to the life of a missioner.
Computer: terminate recording.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Day 76
Entry: seventy-six.
The pirate element of our corp asked for help again. They are trying to tame and claim a system known as Ebodold. It is quite literally a dead end backwater of a low-sec system. The only system connecting to it is a hi-sec system. I'm told that this system is not valuable because it is cordoned off low-sec, but rather because of staging capabilities related to capital class vessels, such as the one Sophias lost about a week ago in Otou.
Wolf, Vearde, Soph and I engaged another pirate corp, Bad Passion, off the station.
We primaried the Hyperion, Wolf jamming him out. The Myrmidon let loose drones on Wolf, and he screamed for someone to get the drones off of him as he didn't have any tank at all. I turned around, destroying drones as I set orbit around him.
Damage took the Hyperion down rather low in armor, and then it happened.
The Typhoon lit a cyno.
Two capitals jumped in on us. Deploying fighters and locking us, they also targeted and then repaired the Hyperion even under heavy fire. The Hyperion, Myrmidon, and Typhoon landed points on all of us, making sure we couldn't get away as the fighters tore us to shreds.
We lost a Falcon, Vagabond, Rokh, and my Rupture. They lost nothing.
While I admit to relishing the combat, I greatly dislike losing. In fact, I don't remember a time when we won.
I think I'm going to stop flying in combat with these guys. Quite honestly, we suck, and we don't win, and I'm pretty fucking dispirited at this shit.
...
I could deal with losing my ship if we actually won a goddamned battle.
Computer: terminate recording.
The pirate element of our corp asked for help again. They are trying to tame and claim a system known as Ebodold. It is quite literally a dead end backwater of a low-sec system. The only system connecting to it is a hi-sec system. I'm told that this system is not valuable because it is cordoned off low-sec, but rather because of staging capabilities related to capital class vessels, such as the one Sophias lost about a week ago in Otou.
Wolf, Vearde, Soph and I engaged another pirate corp, Bad Passion, off the station.
We primaried the Hyperion, Wolf jamming him out. The Myrmidon let loose drones on Wolf, and he screamed for someone to get the drones off of him as he didn't have any tank at all. I turned around, destroying drones as I set orbit around him.
Damage took the Hyperion down rather low in armor, and then it happened.
The Typhoon lit a cyno.
Two capitals jumped in on us. Deploying fighters and locking us, they also targeted and then repaired the Hyperion even under heavy fire. The Hyperion, Myrmidon, and Typhoon landed points on all of us, making sure we couldn't get away as the fighters tore us to shreds.
We lost a Falcon, Vagabond, Rokh, and my Rupture. They lost nothing.
While I admit to relishing the combat, I greatly dislike losing. In fact, I don't remember a time when we won.
I think I'm going to stop flying in combat with these guys. Quite honestly, we suck, and we don't win, and I'm pretty fucking dispirited at this shit.
...
I could deal with losing my ship if we actually won a goddamned battle.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Day 69
Entry: sixty-nine.
This is my first entry in just over a month. I've done almost nothing except mine and run missions. I've been mining with a corpmate I've recently become friends with named Ranger Omega. He's a pretty smart guy, interesting to talk with, and we make a good mining team. We're both using Retrievers, and for the moment it seems to do fine. In a given night of mining for a few hours we can pull about ten to fifteen million ISK each as a team.
Mining, however, doesn't make worthwhile memories. Neither does running repetitive missions.
Today, our corp was invited to join some pirates we are friends with. These pirates, they're part of our corporation as well, but geared completely towards combat whereas some of us, like Ranger and myself, are geared more towards just making ISK. Since the corp was mostly participating, we joined up as well.
The fleet formed up just outside of Otou. I admit, I was feeling fairly nervous, I still am. Low-sec has never been a place where I've succeeded, but I'm willing to keep plugging away at it until something clicks. Despite that, I picked up a Rupture I'd been able to purchase recently, mostly decently fitted.
We jumped in together as a fleet, and warped to a station. It was a strange Gallente station. We were sitting directly underneath the main body of it, the point which was called the undock. We waited there for someone to open fire on us for a while, maybe an hour, and no one did. JStar though, he played with us, toyed with us. He knew we wouldn't attack on a station. Eventually, this situation changed for the worse.
JStar warped to an asteroid belt. Vearde, feeling clever again, followed them and cloaked in his Vagabond. Being cloaked did not provide him safety, however, as the enemies at the belt approached the spot he landed, decloaking him and destroying his ship. He belatedly called for help, and after the Fleet Commander Wolf fleet warped us to the belt to save Vearde, he reported he was dead.
This was not our biggest problem however, as Sophias had the misfortune of being asleep at the command chair while we warped.
I arrived first. I was pointed by the Hurricane, and destroyed rather quickly before the rest of the fleet landed. I exited the system rather quickly in my pod and docked up in hi-sec, shaken.
Chatter over comms told me that our fleet was losing badly. An enemy guardian had warped in and repaired our enemies while we crumpled under their firepower. They had fewer numbers, but they had Logistics, easily overpowering us. Half way through the fight, Sophias woke up to find himself targeted, pinned, and unable to escape. We were fighting desperately to save his Carrier, worth well over a billion ISK.
I picked up the shards of my composure and reshipped into a Stabber, fitting the mid slots with ECM bursts in the hope of disrupting locks long enough to let Sophias escape. I reentered Otou, warped to the belt, and began firing ECM bursts. My firepower was non-existent though. I didn't last a full minute, losing my Stabber to enemy fleet. I exited Otou once more, being able to do nothing but sit back and listen as I remained docked in hi-sec.
We lost every ship. Every. Single. Ship.
This is fucking disgraceful.
Computer: terminate recording.
This is my first entry in just over a month. I've done almost nothing except mine and run missions. I've been mining with a corpmate I've recently become friends with named Ranger Omega. He's a pretty smart guy, interesting to talk with, and we make a good mining team. We're both using Retrievers, and for the moment it seems to do fine. In a given night of mining for a few hours we can pull about ten to fifteen million ISK each as a team.
Mining, however, doesn't make worthwhile memories. Neither does running repetitive missions.
Today, our corp was invited to join some pirates we are friends with. These pirates, they're part of our corporation as well, but geared completely towards combat whereas some of us, like Ranger and myself, are geared more towards just making ISK. Since the corp was mostly participating, we joined up as well.
The fleet formed up just outside of Otou. I admit, I was feeling fairly nervous, I still am. Low-sec has never been a place where I've succeeded, but I'm willing to keep plugging away at it until something clicks. Despite that, I picked up a Rupture I'd been able to purchase recently, mostly decently fitted.
We jumped in together as a fleet, and warped to a station. It was a strange Gallente station. We were sitting directly underneath the main body of it, the point which was called the undock. We waited there for someone to open fire on us for a while, maybe an hour, and no one did. JStar though, he played with us, toyed with us. He knew we wouldn't attack on a station. Eventually, this situation changed for the worse.
JStar warped to an asteroid belt. Vearde, feeling clever again, followed them and cloaked in his Vagabond. Being cloaked did not provide him safety, however, as the enemies at the belt approached the spot he landed, decloaking him and destroying his ship. He belatedly called for help, and after the Fleet Commander Wolf fleet warped us to the belt to save Vearde, he reported he was dead.
This was not our biggest problem however, as Sophias had the misfortune of being asleep at the command chair while we warped.
I arrived first. I was pointed by the Hurricane, and destroyed rather quickly before the rest of the fleet landed. I exited the system rather quickly in my pod and docked up in hi-sec, shaken.
Chatter over comms told me that our fleet was losing badly. An enemy guardian had warped in and repaired our enemies while we crumpled under their firepower. They had fewer numbers, but they had Logistics, easily overpowering us. Half way through the fight, Sophias woke up to find himself targeted, pinned, and unable to escape. We were fighting desperately to save his Carrier, worth well over a billion ISK.
I picked up the shards of my composure and reshipped into a Stabber, fitting the mid slots with ECM bursts in the hope of disrupting locks long enough to let Sophias escape. I reentered Otou, warped to the belt, and began firing ECM bursts. My firepower was non-existent though. I didn't last a full minute, losing my Stabber to enemy fleet. I exited Otou once more, being able to do nothing but sit back and listen as I remained docked in hi-sec.
We lost every ship. Every. Single. Ship.
This is fucking disgraceful.
Computer: terminate recording.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Day 31
Entry: thirty one.
I haven't been taking my previous losses well these last two weeks. I've only recently earned enough ISK to buy another Rupture, but I've been wary of using it.
Because of my last two deaths to frigate sized vessels, I've been scared to engage anything. I'm taking my first step out of the comfort zone today. I have a Thrasher fitted out.
I've done some research, and it seems that I knew nothing about how to properly fit out a ship. Looking back, I not only tried to do what is called dual-tanking, but I also tried to run both as active fits. The weapon slots were generally ok, although being tech one gear they were a far cry from being good. Using what I've learned, I've managed to fit out this Thrasher in a semi-respectable fashion, although the problem of tech one gear remains. I don't have the necessary skills use tech two gear yet though, so there's nothing I can do about it.
My destination is Hagilur, a zero point four system, low-sec. Let's see how it goes.
Computer: pause recording.
"Recording resumed."
My venture didn't go well, to say the least.
After venturing into Hagilur, I warped to an asteroid belt, attacking the pirates in the belt there. They weren't the capsuleer variety, so I was doing alright. Without warning, something called an Ishtar warped in on me and attacked.
I attempted to fight back, locking the Ishtar and afterburning towards him, but it was to no avail. He was at range, kept me farther away than my autocannons could hit him, and these little flying things called Hobogoblins attacked me, wrecking my ship. I tried to save myself by killing the drones, but my efforts didn't last long.
My ship exploded. Another loss. I warped my pod away into hi-sec asap and managed to prevent another migraine. Really, my fear of those is worse than my fear of losing my ship. I've also had to replace my implants every time I've been killed, a venture I don't enjoy doing.
I had no idea that tech two ships existed, that drones existed, that there was another way of fighting instead of close range. I've learned something valuable, managed to save my life, and am now safe thanks to CONCORD. I'm still distressed at how impotent I seem to be in combat, but perhaps one day I'll be useful. I'm not entirely distraught though, as I've managed to glean some new vital information with this loss.
Still...that loss is going to take a few missions to recover from. Guess it's back to running missions.
Computer: terminate recording.
I haven't been taking my previous losses well these last two weeks. I've only recently earned enough ISK to buy another Rupture, but I've been wary of using it.
Because of my last two deaths to frigate sized vessels, I've been scared to engage anything. I'm taking my first step out of the comfort zone today. I have a Thrasher fitted out.
I've done some research, and it seems that I knew nothing about how to properly fit out a ship. Looking back, I not only tried to do what is called dual-tanking, but I also tried to run both as active fits. The weapon slots were generally ok, although being tech one gear they were a far cry from being good. Using what I've learned, I've managed to fit out this Thrasher in a semi-respectable fashion, although the problem of tech one gear remains. I don't have the necessary skills use tech two gear yet though, so there's nothing I can do about it.
My destination is Hagilur, a zero point four system, low-sec. Let's see how it goes.
Computer: pause recording.
*********
"Recording resumed."
My venture didn't go well, to say the least.
After venturing into Hagilur, I warped to an asteroid belt, attacking the pirates in the belt there. They weren't the capsuleer variety, so I was doing alright. Without warning, something called an Ishtar warped in on me and attacked.
I attempted to fight back, locking the Ishtar and afterburning towards him, but it was to no avail. He was at range, kept me farther away than my autocannons could hit him, and these little flying things called Hobogoblins attacked me, wrecking my ship. I tried to save myself by killing the drones, but my efforts didn't last long.
My ship exploded. Another loss. I warped my pod away into hi-sec asap and managed to prevent another migraine. Really, my fear of those is worse than my fear of losing my ship. I've also had to replace my implants every time I've been killed, a venture I don't enjoy doing.
I had no idea that tech two ships existed, that drones existed, that there was another way of fighting instead of close range. I've learned something valuable, managed to save my life, and am now safe thanks to CONCORD. I'm still distressed at how impotent I seem to be in combat, but perhaps one day I'll be useful. I'm not entirely distraught though, as I've managed to glean some new vital information with this loss.
Still...that loss is going to take a few missions to recover from. Guess it's back to running missions.
Computer: terminate recording.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Day 14
Entry: fourteen.
Today I learned that even in hi-sec I wasn't safe. As if the lesson about low-sec wasn't enough, this is starting to become a much heavier burden to bear than I had ever suspected.
A corpmate of mine, MaiteK, was under attack. She called out for help, and I came in to save her. She had apparently had her can flipped by a pirate, WildAtHart, and had unknowingly given the pirate the rights to attack her by stealing her stolen ore back.
I responded, and only a jump or two out, made best speed to Magiko in my second Rupture so far.
I made it into system rather quickly, and warped to the asteroid belt given to me by MaiteK. Upon landing, I saw the pirate, red on my overview in a Rifter, and engaged. The pirate immediately set orbit in close on me, and I found myself unable to hit her while she kept a warp disruptor on MaiteK. It didn't take long for her to destroy me and MaiteK.
To be clear, I lost yet another cruiser, and to a frigate, and the frigate also destroyed a mining vessel I'd been trying to protect. I feel helpless, as if I'm doing everything wrong and unable to help anyone. I can't even kill a lowly frigate, and yet I've now lost approximately fifteen million in ISK, and am barely able to keep myself afloat with all the missioning I'm doing. I quite literally have to go back to doing level one missions in a destroyer I had left over, as I don't have the ISK to replace my cruiser, and I can't yet do level two missions in anything smaller than a cruiser.
It's so frustrating, I don't understand, and no one seems able to help me understand. I can take the losing, I can take the dying, I just can't take NOT UNDERSTANDING. To be honest, I'm on the verge of tears, only the shreds of manhood holding them back.
What choice do I have though, except to push forward and persevere? I can't go back to being a baker, not now. At the same time, I'm completely unprepared for everything going on out here. I can't protect my friends, I can't destroy ships I've moved past. I can't even keep myself in enough ISK to afford new ships. I can barely afford to buy myself a new clone to make sure I don't lose skills I've already trained.
Please, someone, help me...I can't take this...
Computer: terminate recording.
Today I learned that even in hi-sec I wasn't safe. As if the lesson about low-sec wasn't enough, this is starting to become a much heavier burden to bear than I had ever suspected.
A corpmate of mine, MaiteK, was under attack. She called out for help, and I came in to save her. She had apparently had her can flipped by a pirate, WildAtHart, and had unknowingly given the pirate the rights to attack her by stealing her stolen ore back.
I responded, and only a jump or two out, made best speed to Magiko in my second Rupture so far.
I made it into system rather quickly, and warped to the asteroid belt given to me by MaiteK. Upon landing, I saw the pirate, red on my overview in a Rifter, and engaged. The pirate immediately set orbit in close on me, and I found myself unable to hit her while she kept a warp disruptor on MaiteK. It didn't take long for her to destroy me and MaiteK.
To be clear, I lost yet another cruiser, and to a frigate, and the frigate also destroyed a mining vessel I'd been trying to protect. I feel helpless, as if I'm doing everything wrong and unable to help anyone. I can't even kill a lowly frigate, and yet I've now lost approximately fifteen million in ISK, and am barely able to keep myself afloat with all the missioning I'm doing. I quite literally have to go back to doing level one missions in a destroyer I had left over, as I don't have the ISK to replace my cruiser, and I can't yet do level two missions in anything smaller than a cruiser.
It's so frustrating, I don't understand, and no one seems able to help me understand. I can take the losing, I can take the dying, I just can't take NOT UNDERSTANDING. To be honest, I'm on the verge of tears, only the shreds of manhood holding them back.
What choice do I have though, except to push forward and persevere? I can't go back to being a baker, not now. At the same time, I'm completely unprepared for everything going on out here. I can't protect my friends, I can't destroy ships I've moved past. I can't even keep myself in enough ISK to afford new ships. I can barely afford to buy myself a new clone to make sure I don't lose skills I've already trained.
Please, someone, help me...I can't take this...
Computer: terminate recording.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Day 12
Entry: twelve.
I've been reluctant to admit this, but ten days ago, I lost my first ship at the hands of pirates.
At the time, which was my first real day as a capsuleer, I had the idea that I would harvest gas clouds for ISK. I remotely purchased a gas cloud harvester, and set the autopilot for Dal, where the purchase was to be made. While the autopilot handled the trip, I handled watching the television.
Some time later, I arrived in Amamake. I really had no idea what happened, finding myself back in the system I started in, Huadagago. I've learned, only recently, that I had been caught by what is called a gatecamp. Apparently, pirates sit at the hi-sec to low-sec gates on the low-sec side, and prey on people silly enough or naive enough to go through. So, not only did I lose my Stabber, which I had worked so hard to earn the ISK up for, but I also got podded.
The headache was excrutiating. Only after it passed did I have an inkling what happened, but I was still in shock, unable to register what happened. These days since then I've mostly blocked out the experience. Today it all came rushing back.
I had recently acquired a Rupture. I knew, at this point at least, that low-sec was dangerous, but seeking ISK, I ventured in anyways. With my tech 1 fitted Rupture, I warped to an asteroid belt, and engaged an Angel Battleship. Evading the battleship was simple, though killing it was taking some time. Evading the pirate piloting the Wolf that warped in on me was impossible.
Shock had once again set in. I saw him on the overview, I saw him warp in, I noticed I was taking a lot of damage rather quickly. I was in so much shock I didn't have the presence of mind to disengage the battleship and engage the Wolf.
I woke up not even a minute later back in Huadagago, another excrutiating headache. I couldn't understand what was going on. I KNEW I lost my ship, I KNEW I lost my capsule, but I couldn't register it.
It's taken some time today, simply dwelling on it, before I understood.
I'd lost yet another cruiser to pirates, again in low-sec. All the ISK I'd earned had to be put towards a replacement, draining me of most of my hard earned ISK over the last ten days. Only in hi-sec did I seem to be safe from other capsuleers, and in low-sec I was something akin to a donut to a fat man: irresistible and not long for the world.
I think the lesson is simple, if difficult to grasp at first: everyone is out to get you.
Computer: terminate recording.
I've been reluctant to admit this, but ten days ago, I lost my first ship at the hands of pirates.
At the time, which was my first real day as a capsuleer, I had the idea that I would harvest gas clouds for ISK. I remotely purchased a gas cloud harvester, and set the autopilot for Dal, where the purchase was to be made. While the autopilot handled the trip, I handled watching the television.
Some time later, I arrived in Amamake. I really had no idea what happened, finding myself back in the system I started in, Huadagago. I've learned, only recently, that I had been caught by what is called a gatecamp. Apparently, pirates sit at the hi-sec to low-sec gates on the low-sec side, and prey on people silly enough or naive enough to go through. So, not only did I lose my Stabber, which I had worked so hard to earn the ISK up for, but I also got podded.
The headache was excrutiating. Only after it passed did I have an inkling what happened, but I was still in shock, unable to register what happened. These days since then I've mostly blocked out the experience. Today it all came rushing back.
I had recently acquired a Rupture. I knew, at this point at least, that low-sec was dangerous, but seeking ISK, I ventured in anyways. With my tech 1 fitted Rupture, I warped to an asteroid belt, and engaged an Angel Battleship. Evading the battleship was simple, though killing it was taking some time. Evading the pirate piloting the Wolf that warped in on me was impossible.
Shock had once again set in. I saw him on the overview, I saw him warp in, I noticed I was taking a lot of damage rather quickly. I was in so much shock I didn't have the presence of mind to disengage the battleship and engage the Wolf.
I woke up not even a minute later back in Huadagago, another excrutiating headache. I couldn't understand what was going on. I KNEW I lost my ship, I KNEW I lost my capsule, but I couldn't register it.
It's taken some time today, simply dwelling on it, before I understood.
I'd lost yet another cruiser to pirates, again in low-sec. All the ISK I'd earned had to be put towards a replacement, draining me of most of my hard earned ISK over the last ten days. Only in hi-sec did I seem to be safe from other capsuleers, and in low-sec I was something akin to a donut to a fat man: irresistible and not long for the world.
I think the lesson is simple, if difficult to grasp at first: everyone is out to get you.
Computer: terminate recording.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Day 2-1
Entry: two, supplemental log one.
The Representative laid out his plans for me. I wasn't pleased. I did not, however, see a way out. That changed earlier today, after meeting with the Representative.
I was contacted by another capsuleer, one of the first in my brief existence as a a pod pilot. We talked briefly, and his intent became clear: he was looking to recruit me into his corporation.
He made it plain that were I to accept, I would not join the corp proper, but rather a recruiting corp for the head organization. After a time, and the ability to pilot certain vessels, I would be allowed into the main corp should I choose to join.
I suppose I don't have many options at my feet right now. As it stands, I am only allowed free rein in that I can stay in Minmatar space, and fairly soon, join the militia as yet another warm body on the front lines against the Amarr. This could offer me a way out.
I've heard through bits of overhead conversation that capsuleer corporations have technology that rivals National governments. Perhaps they have the tools to save me from this predicament. If such is the case, I'll probably join up with them.
This programmed-bomb in my head is not a pleasant thing to have on my shoulders.
Computer: terminate recording.
The Representative laid out his plans for me. I wasn't pleased. I did not, however, see a way out. That changed earlier today, after meeting with the Representative.
I was contacted by another capsuleer, one of the first in my brief existence as a a pod pilot. We talked briefly, and his intent became clear: he was looking to recruit me into his corporation.
He made it plain that were I to accept, I would not join the corp proper, but rather a recruiting corp for the head organization. After a time, and the ability to pilot certain vessels, I would be allowed into the main corp should I choose to join.
I suppose I don't have many options at my feet right now. As it stands, I am only allowed free rein in that I can stay in Minmatar space, and fairly soon, join the militia as yet another warm body on the front lines against the Amarr. This could offer me a way out.
I've heard through bits of overhead conversation that capsuleer corporations have technology that rivals National governments. Perhaps they have the tools to save me from this predicament. If such is the case, I'll probably join up with them.
This programmed-bomb in my head is not a pleasant thing to have on my shoulders.
Computer: terminate recording.
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