Killer Whale

Finally after months of training my alt took comfortable sit in her brand new Orca!

I had buy order up on the market for last month but eventually I had to just buy it from a sell order for 420 mln. Anyway after dragging her 18 jumps from Torrinos I loaded he cargo maintenance ship with my rusty boats and took her for a spin. Not having any experience with cargo maintenance bay, I parked Orca in safe spot and will be using her for a few days as a remote station and not warping her into missions just yet.

First victim of my new setup was one brave missioner in a Prophecy. He didn't even try to run from my Hurricane, but charged me instead. He was quickly put in his place and I even managed to save small group of Gallente Marines whom he tried to imprison.

It was getting late and my last scan of the evening revealed Abaddon whose pilot clearly had too much money and not enough brains. He promptly shot my Vigil and waited patiently for my return, I wasn't going to disappoint him and returned few seconds later in Hurricane. His cap was quickly drained, drones killed and when I made sure his lasers are unable to hit me, I opened convo.

He was rich and he was greedy and he shot me first so I wasnt going to let him go anyway but I wanted a ransom. Unfortunately it took me few seconds too long to kill all NPC's and his Abaddon popped like a firecracker. Opening his wreck was a real pleasure, dropped loot paid for my newly acquired Orca and there was still small change left!

I have to admit, there are small problems like not being able to dock your ship if you have a cargo in cargo bay so you have to store it in corp hangar or jettison it before swapping ships but those are really minor issues and benefits of having Orca are undeniably great.

Back to Amarr

In Pator I scored 2 more Hurricanes and moved my operations back to Amarr space, my Orca alt is nearing completition of his training and I wanted to find a cosy spot with unsuspecting targets for my enterprise.

Star map analysis revealed high density of mission runners in Domain in Orkashu system, I liked this spot from the moment I warped through the gate. Firstly it has only one station, secondly only 2 gates, thirdly is relatively small and most importantly is buzzing with mission runners comming here from neighbouring systems.

Despite the fact that I was identified as a ninja and mentioned numerous times in local chat on the day of my arrival, Apocalypse and Raven pilots fell to my guns.  Pilots were instructed not to shot thiefs in the future but no valuable tears were collected on that day except for that one drop.

Timmer702lv > why are you in my mission taking my loot

I was just about to answer when this happened

(combat) Warrior II belonging to Timmer702lv hits you, doing 16.5 damage.

I had no choice but to defend myself

(notify) You have started trying to warp scramble Timmer702lv [R.W.R]<PMA>(Raven).
...
(notify) Warp Disruptor II deactivates as Timmer702lv's Raven begins to explode.

I think that answered his question, I really had no chance to clarify my position before he ragelogged.

Next encounter was very interesting one, I scanned Dominix, he just finished a mission and was about to take off as I arrived. I started cleaing up the mess he made and seconds later Cormorant arrived on the grid, it looked unrelated to mission runner and I also started salvaging and looting wrecks, I filled up my cargo and left one can with my loot as a bait for Cormorant. Back to station I changed my Salvaging Vigil to Mighty Vigil and came back to the mission grid, Cormorant ignored my can and I was loosing hope when directional blinked with Crow. Interceptor, now that looked interesting, no doubt he has backup so only question is can I kill him before cavalry arrives or not, he landed on top of me and targeted me immediately I returned lock and he turned red. He had MWD on and my scram held him in place firmly, my overheated guns and drone tore him apart in seconds, I'd love to see his face when he realised what he got himself into. Upon closer inspection this turned out this was very old ship, it still had large rigs fitted. Unfortunately his faction MWD was destroyed but it was very satisfying kill nonetheless.

Moments after Crow exploded Gila arrived on the grid, looked unrelated to Crow pilot and I started heading towards my bait can planted there for the purpose of catching Cormorant. I knew there was no point trying to charge Gila in my Vigil so I warped back to station to reconsider my options. Gila pilot and Crow pilot were from 2 different corps, I knew Crow tried to stall but was he waiting for Gila (?) that seemed unlikely. I really had an itch and it needed to be scratched, I jumped inn my Hurricane, checked supplies of ammo and cap boosters and hit undock.

Gila was parked at the station waiting for me, Crow pilot was nowhere to be seen. Every common sense in my brain was screaming "TRAP" but every emotion was screaming "HIT HIM", so I did. He had shields lots of it and hardeners, as My drones and my guns were nibbling slowly his shields, he slowly started grinding my armour plates, I was clearly winning, he was at 1/4 of his shields and I have lost only about a quarter of my armour. I was about to start my victory dance when Crow pilot appeared at station in Rokh! I checked timers, there was still 2 minutes on my aggro, he left me in no doubt about his intentions, suddenly tables have turned and I've found myself surrounded by 10 Hammerheads II and fired upon by a bloody Battleship. They made a quick work of me and my second "ninja cane" went up in flames.

We had a good chat and I've learned there is a small group of them in the area, doing some extortions, mercenary assignments and high sec wars. They told me to call them if I ever need some RR and we parted our ways.

2 days later I had a hilarious encounter with a missioner who despite being warned by other pilots in local chat about nature of my enterprise decided to shot my Bait Vigil. To make it worse he then waited for me and tried to shot my Mighty Vigil. Needless to say everyone in local had a good laugh after his Destroyer assploded. I continued my hunt and the same day my long wait was finally rewarded with a great catch.

Since downing TFI I am always on the lookout for faction Battleships and my probes soon returned with some good news. There was Apocalypse Navy Issue harassing local Sansha population. I'm no fan of Sansha but when opportunity calls .... In seconds I was sitting in my Bait Vigil setting up directional scan and keeping my fingers cautiously crossed. He must have finished mission just before my arrival, I speeded to nearest wreck to make sure I blink red to him before he warps off. ANI pilot wasn't in a hurry, he was looking at me waiting to see what this small ship is doing in his mission. As soon as I looted first wreck he targeted me and fired, I am alway on a move so he missed me completely. I decided to check him out before warping away, findings were good, expensive fit but complete failure, shield booster, armour hardeners, perfect target for me. If I had Orca this would be very simple, he couldn't hit me and appeared to have no drones (or forgot them) but at the time my alt was still 5 days away from being able to fly it and I had to swap ships in station.

In my infinite optimism I undocked my Hurricane and swiped area with directional, he wasnt in the mission anymore but scanner quickly detected him at gate. It was going almost too easy, he returned fire instead of jumping so either he was overconfident or stupid. I remembered trap from couple of days ago but what did I have to lose. After making quick work of his drones my guns scratched his structure and I opened convo with demand of 100 mln isk - now I think I was cheap, should have asked for 200 mln.

First without a word he paid 100k, then after another volley hit his hull and he paid 100 mln! In a classic ninja move Apocalypse Navy Issue exploded seconds later. Sadly he wasn't going to share his tears with me and ragelogged immediately. I had to be really quick collecting loot, his wreck was empty looted and salvaged within seconds. Imperial Navy Heat Sink netted me cool 61 mln on contract and other bits were put away for later use or sell if the need be. That one kill covered all my loses since start of my ninja experiment and more, really pleased with myself I logged and decided to have a couple of days rest from EVE.

First faction battleship

Those 3 words summarise my recent enterprise pretty well. Feeling smug after dropping Maelstrom day earlier I pinpointed Hurricane in a mission, he shot and warped out. As I settled in his mission preparing for extension, directional blinked with another Hurricane, he was back. I haven't done my research and it seems he had EM hardeners on his boat so while I was fiddling with my ammo his guns and drones were drilling holes in my armour plate, it was very close fight, we have raced through structures together and unfortunately for me he was faster. I congratulated him and let him pod me to Rens where my new cane was waiting for me already.

Next few days was rather uneventful, scans mostly came back with nothing and those that detected potential customers did not resulted in any decent baits. Star map map revealed increased carebear activity in Pator and I decided to move my operations there for a few days. Initial scans did not look very promising and I settled on a Cyclone. I must really not be a very charismatic because my ransom request was ignored and I had no choice but free this narrow minded individual from his rather badly fitted ship.

Following day looked very promising from the start, my eyes almost started bleeding when I saw fit on this Dominix, I really did not expected anyone flying this badly fitted ship to have any money so I dispatched him quickly without eve offering ransom and moved on looking for more valuable targets.

So far I limited myself to Battlecruisers and T1 Battleships, those seemed easier than Marauders and Faction Battleships, that was until my probes detected Typhoon Fleet Issue doing T3 mission. Quick ship scan revealed complete failure of fitting department and battleclinic check confirmed this potential victim to be completely clueless carebear. He hasn't lost any ships in high sec yet and was in NPC corp, chances were he would take a bait and stay in mission. My assumptions were 100% correct, TFI opened fire almost immediately. With shaking hands and pounding heart I swapped to Hurricane and undocked with one though in my mind - "is he still there?". Not entirely surprisingly he was still in his mission sitting still on landing, his defense was very anemic and in panic he must have forgotten about his drones, when my guns tore through his armour and hit his structure I recalled drones and opened convo.

Qintes > 200 mln you have 30 sec

I decide to give him really good deal and don't drag it too long, this looked almost too easy and I really didn't want to risk any RR arriving.

Qintes > 15
WOLF SKAR > ok
Qintes > 5
WOLF SKAR > you win 

What a genius, I have no idea what he meant perhaps he though I am going to thank him for good fight and let him go :P. My first Faction Battleship swiftly became a space dust, I was hoping for some tears but all I got was ragelog, well you can't have it all all the time.

Anti-missioning

I fell asleep and almost died running lvl 4 mission trying to fix my security status. After warping out in 50% of hull I gave up and decided that mission running is unbearably boring.. Another option was to go to 0.0 and try ratting there but from my previous experiences I knew how mind numbing that can be so I quickly discarded that option. I needed a solution, my goal was to have fun in this game and blow up stuff without being exposed to boredoom of killing npc, not being forced to participate in blob fights and at the same time not loosing a security status so I can have access to trade hubs. There is a factional warfare which is pretty cool and I am interested in exploring this aspect of the game in the future.

For the time being I moved my operations to Heimatar region and quickly made some interesting acquaintances, to add to hilarity he came back a minute later wanting a revenge in this failfitted Rifter. One of the students from EVE University was clearly falling behind in his study and I had to give him a private tuition ungrateful sod hasn't spilled any tears and quietly warped away in pod . Lustrevik has proven to be overflowing with ill fitted ships flown by aggressive and trigger happy carebears and I had to move swiftly. My apetite grew with every fallen battlecruiser so in search for a bigger targets I jumped next door to Isendeldik. First scan revealed a Maelstrom slaughtering group of Angels, my completely peaceful intentions were met with this angry response

[ 2011.03.12 22:18:07 ] (notify) You successfully salvage from the Angel Large Wreck.
[ 2011.03.12 22:18:09 ] Malekif > if you want to die quintes go ahead and try

I spotted wreck with some loot and decided to check what's in it, nothing of an importance but any loot is a good loot as far as I am concerned so I picked up whetever was in the wreck and moved on.

[ 2011.03.12 22:18:18 ] 800mm Heavy 'Scout' Repeating Artillery I belonging to Malekif barely scratches you, causing 258.9 damage.
[ 2011.03.12 22:18:23 ] Valkyrie I belonging to Malekif lightly hits you, doing 16.0 damage.

Now that's very uncalled for. My Orca alt is still in training so I have to swap ships in station. Sitting in my Hurricane I was wondering whether it is worth going back, he probably warped away, docked and is going to wait out his aggro, I braced myself for long aggro extension session and undocked. I sat for a moment in a safe spot near the mission thinking what do do, maybe just forget it and scan another mission but this bear really was asking for it.

[ 2011.03.12 22:26:09 ] Malekif > btw guys we have a ninjasalvager in the system name is Quintes
[ 2011.03.12 22:26:16 ] Malekif > he also likes to steal stuff

Now I have been called worse than ninjasalvager in this game but insult is an insult and had to be punished. Directional spotted Maelstrom back in mission 5 minuted before aggro expired. Warp engine lighten up and medium rack modules were overloaded before landing. I landed 16 km from him, he must have felt very confident in his big scary battleship and didn't even try to run.

[ 2011.03.12 22:29:15 ] (notify) You have started trying to warp scramble Malekif [WECH](Maelstrom).
[ 2011.03.12 22:29:18 ] Your group of 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II lightly hits Malekif [WECH](Maelstrom), doing 384.1 damage.

Web held him in place and NPC did most of the job, that was one of my fastest kills.

[ 2011.03.12 22:30:33 ] (notify) Warp Disruptor II deactivates as Malekifs Maelstrom begins to explode.

I think that made him rather angry, I am cutting some local spam below.

[ 2011.03.12 22:31:05 ] Malekif > fucking asshole
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:11 ] GazzCrawford > who ?
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:21 ] Qintes > \o/
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:25 ] Malekif > quintes
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:29 ] Malekif > is gonna die now^^
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:32 ] GazzCrawford > dude the guys making cash
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:44 ] GazzCrawford > he's laughing at you
[ 2011.03.12 22:31:54 ] Malekif > I dont care
...
[ 2011.03.12 22:32:29 ] Malekif > well he didnt make anything
[ 2011.03.12 22:32:41 ] GazzCrawford > he did
[ 2011.03.12 22:32:45 ] Malekif > nah
[ 2011.03.12 22:32:46 ] GazzCrawford > he;s made you angry
...
[ 2011.03.12 22:37:43 ] Qintes > so melekif are you going to keel me with your mighty vigil now?
[ 2011.03.12 22:38:15 ] Malekif > I dont care I have enough money to pump missionship after missionship out^^
[ 2011.03.12 22:38:20 ] Qintes > cmon mate im tanking 5 bs here
[ 2011.03.12 22:38:36 ] Malekif > losses like this are calculated, and you make maybe 5 million out of the pissy mods :D
[ 2011.03.12 22:38:50 ] Malekif > youre not even there
[ 2011.03.12 22:39:14 ] Qintes > course i am i have to pick up stuff i jettisoned to loot your crap

I was in his mission at the time to pick up cap boosters I jettisoned to make room for his loot.

[ 2011.03.12 22:39:32 ] Malekif > youre just a coward thats all
[ 2011.03.12 22:40:07 ] Qintes > couldnt put it better myself, i leave heroic deaths to losers like youreself
[ 2011.03.12 22:40:52 ] Malekif > maybe next time youre not so lucky eh
[ 2011.03.12 22:41:35 ] Qintes > im good at lottery man, im the best
[ 2011.03.12 23:13:54 ] Malekif > someones afraid lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:14:04 ] Malekif > pussy :P
[ 2011.03.12 23:15:57 ] Malekif > well youre afraid to die
[ 2011.03.12 23:17:08 ] Malekif > ahh are we afraid to lose the implants when I pod you yes? so bad

I changed back to Vigil and salvaged all his wrecks while he followed me in RF Firetail. Damn if I only knew he wants to pod me in high sec! Only 2 days ago I installed set of implants if I only knew :P.

[ 2011.03.12 23:24:40 ] Malekif > cmon take somthing you looser
[ 2011.03.12 23:25:27 ] Vicious Warslut > lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:25:51 ] Malekif > I knew hes just talking
[ 2011.03.12 23:25:53 ] Qintes > you seem upset Malekif, holding a grudge or something?
[ 2011.03.12 23:26:04 ] Malekif > well im waiting you promised
[ 2011.03.12 23:26:14 ] Malekif > and now you do nothing
[ 2011.03.12 23:26:25 ] Malekif > gotta mean something you know
[ 2011.03.12 23:26:36 ] Qintes > on the contrary i salvage your mission you tailing me god knows why
[ 2011.03.12 23:27:18 ] Malekif > yeah you salvage all the little shit I left for poor people to pick up
[ 2011.03.12 23:28:06 ] Malekif > hes salvaging all the small wrecks for real XD
[ 2011.03.12 23:28:16 ] Qintes > every little helps my friend, its the difference between smart and dumb, some people are willing to throw away maelstrom on a whim, i will just pick up the pieces
...
[ 2011.03.12 23:32:36 ] Malekif > of course hes a noob
[ 2011.03.12 23:33:02 ] Qintes > yep im a nob and you are experienced, lost mael to my cane :P
[ 2011.03.12 23:33:20 ] Malekif > I dont care youre a fuckin coward^^
[ 2011.03.12 23:33:26 ] Malekif > whata mael lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:33:50 ] Vicious Warslut > rofl
[ 2011.03.12 23:34:01 ] Vicious Warslut > so sad :p
...
[ 2011.03.12 23:34:53 ] Malekif > to bad you have to rely on your prick skills to make a living lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:35:23 ] Malekif > he made like 8 million from my wreck maybe even less
[ 2011.03.12 23:35:43 ] Malekif > quite some isk for over an hour of work
[ 2011.03.12 23:35:48 ] Malekif > wohooo lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:35:53 ] Qintes > *hangs head in shame* yes i did, but its your fault for having shit fit
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:03 ] Malekif > I dont need more
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:17 ] Malekif > why would I fit expensive shit if theres no difference
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:27 ] Vicious Warslut > ur too poor to fit more :p
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:34 ] Qintes > and he calls me a noob *rolls eyes*
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:42 ] Lia Suchong > sigh.
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:45 ] Lia Suchong > smacktalk.
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:50 ] Malekif > erm dmg is the same sufficient tank all I need
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:54 ] Qintes > its great isnt it :P
[ 2011.03.12 23:36:56 ] Lia Suchong > so nice to see in local on a boring day....
[ 2011.03.12 23:37:05 ] Malekif > I dont need expensive 40 million mods to run effective :P
[ 2011.03.12 23:37:07 ] Qintes > saturdays are always fun
[ 2011.03.12 23:37:24 ] Malekif > because some noob like you tries to take it away and I laugh XD
[ 2011.03.12 23:37:50 ] Qintes > always happy to provide entertainment for a pro like you
[ 2011.03.12 23:37:56 ] Malekif > yep thank you
[ 2011.03.12 23:38:16 ] Malekif > wonder how much money you got 50 million?
[ 2011.03.12 23:38:35 ] Malekif > I mean you killed me with a cane lol you dont even have money for a T2 ship
[ 2011.03.12 23:39:02 ] Qintes > yep im poor, want to donate to my t2 fund so i can stop stealing from you?
[ 2011.03.12 23:39:12 ] Qintes > and become decent member of eve society?
[ 2011.03.12 23:39:26 ] Malekif > look and you didnt even do much damage because you rely on npcs to make dmg how sad is that^^
[ 2011.03.12 23:39:40 ] Qintes > i cant afford expensive ammo
[ 2011.03.12 23:39:58 ] Malekif > see 9 million what you made this mission alone gave me 40 million so far
[ 2011.03.12 23:40:03 ] Malekif > youre pisspoor lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:40:36 ] Qintes > i broke man, give me a 5 mln if you made 40, ill buy a decent ship and go missioning like all good people
[ 2011.03.12 23:40:48 ] Vicious Warslut > malekiff, ur actually an idiot for attacking him while under fire of npc's :p
[ 2011.03.12 23:41:13 ] Malekif > nah he was sneaky he came with a vigil, and I shot him while he stole stuff^^
[ 2011.03.12 23:41:33 ] Malekif > and I wasnt quick enough to warp out when he was back so I dont care :P
[ 2011.03.12 23:41:51 ] Malekif > my next mission ship will have a scrambler and then ppl like him are toast
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:04 ] Qintes > yeah it only tok me about 11 minutes to come back in cane, it wass like a lightning
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:24 ] Vicious Warslut > lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:30 ] Malekif > well you were lucky to warp in that close to me thats all
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:34 ] Jake McCord > blah, blah, blah.
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:36 ] Malekif > I was already aligned
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:40 ] Malekif > nooby
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:47 ] Malekif > you were very very lucky :P
[ 2011.03.12 23:42:57 ] Qintes > yeah i told you im a pro in lottery
[ 2011.03.12 23:43:10 ] Lia Suchong > hm. smacktalk. counter smacktalk. all leading to one thing: more tears and boredom.
[ 2011.03.12 23:43:25 ] Qintes > tears are good, dont dis it
[ 2011.03.12 23:43:27 ] Malekif > Im just wondering what drives him^^
[ 2011.03.12 23:43:34 ] Malekif > look at the km he made 9 million
[ 2011.03.12 23:43:38 ] Malekif > lol
[ 2011.03.12 23:43:51 ] Jake McCord > nothing more boring than smacktalk.
[ 2011.03.12 23:44:33 ] Malekif > he probably hoped for some shit with faction mods or whatever
[ 2011.03.12 23:44:36 ] Lia Suchong > the ship was worth 122 million.
[ 2011.03.12 23:44:45 ] Malekif > but he didnt get it
[ 2011.03.12 23:44:51 ] Lia Suchong > in truith he made somming more valuable than a measly drop.
[ 2011.03.12 23:44:51 ] Jake McCord > drop in the bucket
[ 2011.03.12 23:45:20 ] Malekif > quint you should go to jita and scam that makes more money
[ 2011.03.12 23:45:30 ] Qintes > my alt does that
[ 2011.03.12 23:45:33 ] Lia Suchong > bah
[ 2011.03.12 23:45:38 ] Lia Suchong > worthless waste of breath
[ 2011.03.12 23:45:52 ] Malekif > see hes a prick lol

What an angry young men, he left system after that. Now to put things right I dont have an alt who scams people in Jita, not yet anyway :P.

T1 vs T2

Friday evening looked busy, local channels were swarmed with weekend warriors like me so I decided to look for trouble in new area. After spending most of my working day on Friday studying maps of low sec sectors I set  best speed to Essence Region. With my security status now under -2.0 and no real desire to improve it I was going to look for a nice spot somewhere in low/null area to settle permanently and pirate my heart out.

In Akila I met a friend (who shot me down few days ago) who invited me for some training in frigates. Firstly my Rifter was set up against his Sentinel. Despite it's innocent looks Sentinel is a nasty piece of work, I managed to shot couple of his Warriors II but while fiddling with his drones he slowly drain my cap and got out of my web/scram range. Without AB and Armour Repair system working his drones started quickly chipping bits of my armour. To make matters worse I somehow lost drones from my overview setting and had to target little buggers manually. Thankfully it was just a training and at about 50% of my structure we stopped. Later I though that possibly better strategy would be just to ignore drones and focus fire on the ship, it is clearly a "trick" ship and as some examples show can be overpowered with sheer force of Minmatar cannons. After short recess he brought Punisher just to see how my Rifter will perform against T1 frigate and this time I had him in structure in no time with very little damage to myself.

We parted after that exercise and went our ways. Sinq Laison was very busy, I played with local pirate alliance in Raeghoscon for about an hour. At some point there was swarm of Sister Combat Probes in the system trying to pin me down but combination of random safe spots and staying in constant move kept me out of harms ways. Bored with that cat and mouse play I jumped to Essence looking for more suitable targets and the one I could actually engage with at least minimal chance of success.

I really like systems without stations, at least you know everyone in local will be somewhere in space, they might be at POS, cloaked or at safe spot but at least you know they are not docked at station. Onne looked promising and as soon as I jumped there I knew I am going to get a fight. There were 3 guys in local, all with low sec status, directional identified ships as Rifter, Ishtar and Republic Fleet Firetail. Ishtar was out of the equation and jumped out soon after my arrival, Rifter and Firetail looked a bit like me, clearly looking for some action. I quickly set up few observation points and started following Rifter, he also was using safe spots and I changed to Firetail.

Rifter left the system soon after I changed my focus to Firetail pilot. I checked his killboard, he knew his stuff, record showed him almost always flying solo and there was a number of Rifters destroyed on his account. It looked a good challenge and I wouldn't have a problem loosing my ship to this guy. He was ratting on the belt and I noticed 3 NPC wrecks, I wanted to give myself maximum chances and I waited for him to jump to new belt, some help from NPC would be welcome in those circumstances. He probably noticed me on his scanner and waited for few minutes before confidently jumping to next belt. This was a moment I was waiting for, I delayed by few seconds to give rats a chance to acquire aggro on Firetail and engaged my warp drive.

As I landed on the belt he was just finishing 2nd rat, there was nothing left and we immediately locked each other. He was very quick, I was scramed and webbed in seconds and his 150s started spewing bullets into my ship. I expected him sporting large shield buffer and my overheated 200mm autocannons immediately replied with volley of RF EMPs into his direction. My shields went down very quickly but that didn't worry me much, I engaged armour repair system and I knew I can stand up to 150s for some time. What was much more worrying was the fact that despite my opponent being webbed, my guns and rockets made little impression on his shields. Exchange of fire was going on for some time and soon it became apparent that my armour repairer was loosing the battle with my opponent guns, my armour was disappearing  faster than my opponent shields. I was already well in structure when I finally punched hole in his shields and red sliver appeared on his armor status, unfortunately it was all too late. I still had EMP loaded and thanks to native EMP resistance of armour I knew I wont be able to win this encounter. Rifter lasted few more seconds and exploded, after initially catching me in scram and trying ransom, he let me go.

We have exchanged gf had a quick chat afterwards and he confirmed that he had large shield buffer with EM and Thermal rigs on his ship. I plugged his fit into EFT just to check how it compares with Rifter and it is clear I had no chance, he would have to mess things up pretty badly in order to lose this fight. His Firetail is faster and has alot more of EHP than my ship. My 5th Rifter was lost but I only just started enjoyin this new EVE experience and decided to extend this experiment by another 50 or so Rifters :).

Patience is a Virtue

I have a cat, his name is Angelo, hes a gorgeous 3yr old black furball. Anyone who has/had a cats and played with them knows that cats like to play 3 different games. There is a chasing game, everyone has seen cat chasing a paper ball or a laser light, there is a wrestling game, that game often leaves scratch marks on your hands, and then there is a "watching" game. Cat can sit for a long time without moving a muscle in his body and just watch his prey waiting for this perfect moment to catch it. I really can not figure out when is that perfect moment for Angelo but I had 2 of those moments not long ago in Genesis.

Undeniably piloting skills, knowledge of ones ship and it's abilities are some of the most important aspects of PvP in EVE, there are however other aspects that are not often spoken about. Research, preparation and patience play a big role and will often make a difference between coming back home with couple of corpses in your cargo or coming back in a pod.

While researching few pirate corporations which I knew are settled in my neighbouring low systems I was looking for where they hunt, where they score solo kills, what targets can be found in different systems. One small low sec pocket Between Zarer and Hesarid caught my eye in Genesis system. I haven't been there before and some pilots reported solo kills in that area, targets were always soft and I noted 5 recent solo kills between 2 guys from local pirate corp.

My Rifter was loaded with supplies for the evening and I instructed ship computer to set best speed to Sibe. I have met some familiar faces on the way to my new playground but nothing worth mentioning happen. My usual routine in new area is to prepare observation spots on all celestials. After making some bookmarks I familiarised myself with inhabitants of this place. Literally all of them had high sec status, and BattleClinic killboards showed mostly loses with just a couple of kills in large fleets.

In Hesarid one pilot was parked at POS and I was about to go back to Toon which was more lively with about 10 pilots docked in station when 2 more ships jumped through the gate. Usually when carebears see someone with low sec status in the system they just dock or hide in safety of a tower shield, but those guys were all from the same corp and it seems they were called as a support for the guy sitting at POS. Three of them threaten me in local and asked me to leave or they will shot me down, I answered that I claim this system and either they leave or I will shot them down to which I didn't get any answer.

Ishkur and Myrmidon showed on directional, my Rifter was not a match for those 2 together. As they had amost zero PVP experience I was tempted to go after them, shot their drones really quick and try to do some damage but in the end I figured that would be pushing my luck waaay too far, all they needed is any kind of point and neutraliser to take me down. They probably thought themselves very smart parking at anomaly above my, sadly they stayed together all the time and there was not much I could have done to split them.  POS pilot was in Cormorant and didn't want to come out to play at all. I was patient, I had all evening and dedicated those 4 systems to be my hunting ground for the evening so I sat on my observation spot and watched and waited, after about 15 minutes 3 of them gave up and left the system.

Slightly disappointed I jumped back to Toon. There were only 3 guys there, all docked, again I decided to sit quietly and dont look threatening (hehe). After couple of more hours with nothing to report, directional in Toon blinked with one target. Moa undocked from station and headed somewhere, directional started searching space for her destination and to my surprise found her on local plex. Looked like my patience was about to be rewarded with big fat slow prey. I landed about 20 km from her and overheated mediums, in seconds warp scrambler disabled her propulsion system and 200mm Autocanons crackled sending volley after volley into her soft underbelly.

After extracting pilot capsule from her intestines I tried to catch pilot for some ransom but he was switched on and instantly warped away to the safety of a station. Moa had disappointingly bad fit and apart from kill satisfaction I didn't get anything of a value from her. 

During the fight I noticed that Cormorant pilot I saw earlier in Hesarid showed in local for few seconds and disappear. Aftaer loosing my GCC I made my way to Hesarid again hoping I may catch him there. You can always count on a noob, he came back and was ratting happily on a belt nearest to gate exit. Pilot of the Cormorant only managed to say "You again..." before his ship exploded and I delivered him safely to his cloning bay. Cormorant fit was just as bad as Moa but slightly more expensive and after long waiting whole evening turned out to be rather good. With full cargo hold, 2 kills and significant dent on my security status I headed home without any further interruptions.

Hunter hunted

It's not National Geographic people nor is it a game from 90's, rather is a short story how I managed to fell into 2 traps one after another. 

As usual I went looking for trouble to Genesis region, one lucky industrial in Dom-Aphis who was onlining POS defenses managed to escape into safety of the tower shield in structure, slightly frustrated I left the system heading north.

Most of the inhabitants of the area was sitting in stations, only in Assez which is often more busy system in this pipe couple of BC was camping exit to high sec in Serren. I noticed on  the map single low sec system called Ahbazon and decided to check it out. To my surprise it had 12 people in local and directional started spitting potential targets. Most of the reported ships was of course parked at POSes but I noticed an Omen in one of the belts. 400mm fitted Rifter is in my opinion not an ideal fit for Ammarian Cruiser but after assessing locals I decided to give it a try anyway, chances are he is PvE fitted and if shit hits the fan I can always fly away. 

As I landed on the belt, cruiser was just warping off, I followed him to few celestials but eventually he managed to shake me off. While I was rather annoyed with this turn of events my confidence grew. I analysed situation, all pilots in the system were from different corps, this guy was ratting solo and run away from me, conclusion was - I am only bad apple in this basket. I went back to directional and spotted Wolf in a belt right next to me, Wolf does not have a web and worst case scenario I will just run away from him, my decision was an instant and Rifter warp drive spatted bright burst of flames. 

I engaged Wolf overheating all my systems instantly, he replied with fire and disruptor, I should have read a warning sign better and gtfo from there but my confidence was high and adrenaline rush held me in place. My plate was holding pretty well against this AF, our armor was going down at similar rate and I was pretty sure it will be a very close race into a structure for both of us. I kept close distance knowing that Wolf has better faloff than my Rifter, about half way through the armor 2 more ships landed on the belt, the same Omen who was earlier running away from me and a Crusader. For a split second I hoped they may help me but it turned out not to be, I didnt even try to escape and kept firing at Wolf but very quickly I was heading to the station in my pod. 

We had a chat afterwards and they said it was a trap. I still don't know why Omen was running away from me but really it doesn't matter, shame we couldn't finish duel with Wolf, it would be interesting to see how my Rifter stands up to this more advanced ship.

Next day I aimed for a different low sec pipe starting in Kador ending in Domain, after checking it out few days earlier I wanted to explore the area a bit more. Few familiar names with low sec status flying cruisers and battlecruisers was on the main route and I expected this trip to be short and uneventful. In Bersyrim directional detected a lone Harpy on celestial, quite excited with prospect of fighting another AF I warped to the planet he was sitting just a split second too late, we started playing this cat and mouse game for a few minutes, I am getting better at this and I followed him exactly and not loosing him even for a moment but every time he managed to escape before I landed a point on him. 

My frustration with this slimy character grew with every unsuccessful attempt at pointing him him. I noticed a local pirate entering the system, I knew he was flying Rapier as I have seen him en route here. I decided to catch this Harpy and fight it at any cost however and kept my chase. He headed for a sun and I followed again without loosing him out of my directional, as we landed at 0 and finally my scrambler was locked on his ship and held him in a place. 

At the same time pirate in Rapier decloaked 10 km away. He released swarm of Hammerhead II and pointed me, I think he was also shooting but with AB running I was too quick for his guns and drones, he did not neutralised my cap and I though I have a fighting chance. Harpy was going down and was going down fast, my victory was almost certain, my armour was holding firm while his was falling apart under my overheated guns and rockets. Maybe 15 more seconds of that and he would be heading to the station in a pod but as I started relaxing Zealot landed on top of Rapier and in 2 volleys I was out of armour. To make matter worse Rapier neuted me and now without AB his drones started chipping away my structure, my end was inevitable.

We had a long chat after that, turned out there was a larger fleet in the area spread across many systems and my faith was predetermined long before I realised that. Harpy pilot was a trainee in a local pirate corp and he wanted to show his mates how he can kill Rifter, we had a chuckle about that and they admitted that without support from Rapier and Zealot he instead of me would be now heading home in a pod. Despite loosing my 2nd Rifter without one kill to my side I was rather pleased with my performance.

Hunter became a hunted twice in a row, such is life of a lone hunter, sometimes you bite more than you can chew. Rapier pilot asked me to join his corp, they have a trainee spot open and said they will be happy to take me on. I am still considering this offer but there is a certain romantic charm in going on a solo hunt and I get more buzz from not knowing what's behind next gate than from relative security granted by corporation intel. 

Flying a dual rep Rifter

I have found this fit somewhere and decided to give it a try, dual armour rep on frigate is a tricky business but hey its a learning exercise so why not.

Next day after scoring 2 good kills I went again my now well known route. To my surprise, in Cheneya system which is usually empty was 6 pilots, turned out one of my previous day victims was there with his corp. We have exchanged greetings and I started assessing situation.

After checking all guys in the system and confirming them to be bunch of harmless carebears I proceeded with scanning the system to find out what they are flying. Apart of usual ships which I have known to be parked in the POSes I noticed 1 Maelstrom, 2 Drakes, 2 Caracals, Manticore. Charging on them in lone Rifter is probably not a smartest of the moves but I figured if I can catch Manticore alone, I could probably pop it and dissapear long before reinforcements arrive.

They were moving from one celestial to another, I followed Manticore staying on my observation spots in the system. Eventually Manticore and Maelstrom ended together up on a belt with rest of the group out of scanner range, that was the moment I was waiting for. All systems of my Rifter were overloaded on landing, I came out of warp 5km from Manticore and Maelstrom, it was very quick fight, Manticore was hitting the armour when Maelstrom sent 5 Warriors II on me. 4 more ships appeared on directional as I engaged my warp systems but when they arrived there was only frustrated Maelstrom pilot and a pile of rubble which used to be fancy stealth bomber. Not wanting to risk facing rest of that crew I left wreck without looting it.

My appetite grew after this initial kill and I resumed that cat and mouse play trying to catch one of the Caracals solo. Working hard on my directional I have noticed them trying to set a trap on me, they left one of the Caracals on the belt and stationed rest of the group on nearest planet. Just a moment later local ticked up by one notch, a pirate from a corp to which I lost my first Rifter came in Vaga and quickly found single Caracal parked between asteroids. I decided to snatch the killmail even risking loosing Rifter should Vaga pilot turn on me before finishing Caracal. He either decided me to be friendly or unworthy his attention and without even locking my Rifter let me warp off soon after Caracal went up in flames.

After that loss their little group decided that is enough PVP for the day and went their merry way. It seems they forgot to loot Manticore wreck and I picked up few nice bits for sale from its wreck. Warmed up and in a good mood I have set course for Genesis.

I went up all the way to Gonditsa where my directional spotted  low sec gate camp, there was 3 wrecks on the gate and 5 ships BC and BS with GCC so I turned back and set best speed to my home in Dresi. In Iaokit on the gate Solo Pilgrim targeted my Rifter, instead of immediately burning back to the gate I was being very noosy and wanted to check out this character that targeted me. Before I realised what is happening I was out of cap and 5 Warriors 2 were tearing my ship apart I popped cap booster in and aimed at gate but it was too late. My Rifter exploded seconds later and now only in capsule I returned home.

I don't think I will be flying dual rep Rifter much, it seemed very fragile and required more attention than heavy plated one, I had identical one already fitted so there was no harm trying again but I knew already this is not a fit for me, not at that stage of my pirating career.

Just want to mention that this blog was added to EVE Online blog pack at CrazyKinux's Musing!

First Steps

Day after loosing Rifter No 1 I headed for Genesis region again. Bordan and neighbouring systems were disappointingly empty and quiet and I quickly jumped to Dom-Aphis. There was only 2 other pilots in the system, both with high sec status, I checked killboards and they appeared to be harmless with only few kills from 0.0 blob fights. One of the pilots in Caracal was few kilometers from gate, he locked my Rifter but I ignored him knowing that shooting me here would be his suicide.

My Ship was slowly orbiting gate as I gathered info on those 2 pilots, suddenly red blinking light on console waked me up. Caracal pilot send volley of his rockets in my direction, gate cannons responded immediately and I had just a couple of seconds to stop this criminal from escaping. Luckily he was only about 5km away from me, almost instinctively my fingers landed on console and engaged warp scrambler, at the same time afterburner roared with full power sending my Rifter on tight orbit around now almost certainly doomed Caracal pilot.

Memories of my previous unfortunate encounter on this gate were somewhere at the back of my mind but this was completely different set of circumstances. Caracal was alone and he was much weaker than Rapier, my only worry was that this Rifter had active dual armour rep rep fit and if this Caracal has neutraliser he can mess up with my plans. His doom was inevitable, combination of my weapons and gate cannons was ripping through his shields, he didn't have neutraliser and soon met his inevitable end. Pilot warped out in capsule in general direction of the sun and I proceeded with stripping Caracal wreck from remaining valuables.

Towards the end of that quick encounter second pilot in the system landed on gate in a Hawk and looked like he was trying to help me too but as soon as Caracal became a pile of rubble he warped off. My security status was at that point still positive so there was no harm in trying to catch Caracal capsule and convince him to donate some ISK in exchange for not sending him express to cloning bay.

Directional detected Hawk and Capsule in the system, Hawk was more risky but potentially better for my killboard than capsule. He was sitting on a planet and looked rather surprised when I landed on top of him and instantly scrammed and webbed his ship. After meeting little resistance his boat exploded, this time I was quick and held his capsule in my scram. He wasn't interested in funding my pirating fun and was instantly delivered to his clone bay courtesy of yours truly.

First steps were made, for the first time my security status dropped below 0 and I have now officially joined ranks of outlaws of New Eden.

On choosing targets

For my first 5 Rifters I pretty much decided not to choose and pick targets but attack anything that stands on my way if I have at least slim chance of having a fight, Fighting large gate camps and CONCORD falls outside of this rule.

This approach has both advantages and inevitable drawabacks. Main drawback is that you going to loose ships, first few days into my venture to lowsec costed me 3 well fitted and rigged Rifters. There is sometimes also an element of frustration when you realise than you have bitten more than you can chew or when you learn that your chosen target is a bait and has few buddies who just waiting for you to take a bite. Those minor problems are however quickly overshadowed by satisfaction you get from good fight and some nice killmails.

Genesis region looked inviting again, after checking map for recent kills that may indicate low sec gate camp I jumped to Dom-Aphis. On exit was one Rapier who quickly targeted me, local chat indicated he has corp mate in the system. I blame that on my eagerness for fight and inexperience when I decided to take him on if he aggros, sporting 400 plate on my Rifter I though my web and scram should keep him long enough for gate guns to finish him off. He slowly approached me I targeted him back and he opened fire. AB on and after a moment of hesitation my guns returned fire and Rifter set tight orbit around my agressor.

Almost instantly Pilgrim appeared about 10km from gate, turns out his buddy was there all the time, sitting cloaked waiting for someone to take a bait. Rapier lost his shields almost instantly and his armour quickly started crumbling, mine wasn't looking too rosy either but I still had him on 1.5km webbed and scrammed and I though there is still a chance to trade my Rifter for a killmail of that Rapier. Weapons systems glowed from overheating and almost at the same time I realised how badly I misjudged situation. Pilgrim took a couple of seconds to acquire target and then neuted me to the oblivion and back, I lost web and scram on Rapier, lost my AB and my ship was also webbed and scrammed now. I could only watch them finishing the job with Rapier getting away close to the structure. We have exchanged "gf" and had a brief conversation afterwards, they even invited me to their corp but since leaving one not long ago and wanting to do some stuff solo I declined.

Lessons learned, when there is 2 guys from same corp with low sec status in the system and one of them is attacking you on the gate, it's a trap and you should gtfo. Anyway it was a good experience, limitations of my frigate became more apparent to me, in particular importance of capacitor even for projectile weapon boat can not be underestimated. Damage was also rather underwhelming, my expectations were higher when fighting cruiser sized boat, perhaps I need to experiment with ammo, I wasn't really sure really what to load when, EMP or Barrage?

Despite that setback my plans remain unchanged, anything that stands on my way will be attacked and more than likely only one of us is gonna make it out in one piece.

Change of direction

Let me start by saying that 0.0 is good, in it's own way it can be also fun. I have lived in Fade for last few months and for the most part it was enjoyable experience. Isk is good, I got to the point where I could easily buy new Maelstrom from corp every week and fit it. My KB stats have significantly improved since I started participating in fleet battles and CTA.

Despite those positives more and more often I have found myself sitting in the station spinning ships rather than having fun, something wasn't right. I came to realisation that my living in Fade was a bit like having secure, well paid employment. Since I have a fairly secure and reasonably well paid employment outside the game I wasn't necessary looking for one in the game, it was time for me to move on.

So I started considering my options. My play style doesn't really fit well in corp/alliance 0.0 life, I tend to go afk suddenly and for long periods often without warning, sometimes I don't log in for days. While hunting in small fleets or large scale CTA are often fun, nothing gives me as much buzz as going solo.

In my last days I ignored CTA and fleet ops and mainly went out solo wandering in Fountain, while I didn't score any kills it was more enjoyable than sitting for an hour on the POS waiting for bridge. Decision was made, I am moving out of 0.0. Still without clear direction as of what I will be doing in EVE I started moving my assets to Torrinos. I managed to move about 15 ships and 4 Hoarders filled with various crap, whole operation took me about a week and I made it without a scratch. It really is surprising how people are able to die to a gate camp in Torrinos, someone even lost Orca warping directly from station and landing in a bubble gate, I just sat in my Hoarder out of the grid shaking my head in disbelief, camp was even announced on local intel channel.

I left my corp, thanked guys for fun times and wished them all the best. For few days I was even thinking about selling my character, my skills are all over the place, I am a Jack of all trades but I decided to focus on one thing. I did put myself on character Bazaar, there was couple of offers, money earned from sale would allowed me to train new char to reasonable skill levels for free but in the end I decided not to sell.

I ended up building 5 rifters with my industrial alt and have drawn rough plan to go to local low sec and attack anything that comes my way. I started in small low sec pocket few jumps away from my new home in Dresi. 5 people in local all from the same corp and nothing on directional, almost certainly corp of industrial alts. As I scouted neighbouring systems I stumped upon this Bestower who was too slow picking PI goods from a planet.

Feeling very smug that I killed defenseless industrial I went ahead sightseeing neighbouring low sec systems, in Dehrokh 3 Hulks warped off the belt as I landed on it, I need to be quicked with scanning next time. I went towards Genesis region more to get the feel of the place than to fight, its a quiet place but I have seen couple of ships disappearing from directional soon after my arrival, there is a definitely a chance to catch something here, Ill be back for that.