You’d Think I Would Learn My Lesson

I sit here writing this today making typos every other word because I am shaking so very badly…

I logged into Eve probably about an hour ago. I scanned the HQ system to find our static to lo-sec along with a K162 to lo-sec. Not much going on and an anomaly in the system means I’m hoping in my Legion. I love the Legion, it’s such a monster. I warp into the anomaly and start blasting away at the sleeper ships.

About half way through the second wave I notice an Anathema come up on the d-scanner. I align to the POS and warp out. I jump into my Pilgrim and warp to the K162 hoping to see where the covert ops ship came from. He stayed uncloaked for a while when he first entered the system but I never saw any probes go out. I assumed that he saw the sleeper wrecks and my Legion and quickly found the anomaly I was in. But then he left? I see him warp to the K162 and exit the HQ system.

Huh that was weird. I wait on the lo-sec side of the wormhole to see if he comes back. I assume he is bringing something in to blast my Legion or Noctis while I wrap up the site. I wait for a few minutes alone in the lo-sec system. I decide with only one battleship left to go I can probably finish it before he comes back. If he comes back at all.

I was wrong.

As I’m chewing through the last of the battleship’s armor an Arazu appears in the anomaly with me. Well that’s just great. How did I not catch that coming in on d-scan?! He throws his disruptor on me at about 35km preventing me from escaping. I know how this is going to end. I flip my ship around and burn as fast as possible toward his ship getting ready to engage when the rest of his fleet jumps in. A Hurricane and a Cyclone jump into my position. Luckily a very similar gank attempt from a few weeks ago has me mentally prepared. I instantly lock the Hurricane knowing he is going to be spitting out most of their damage.

The Hurricane’s defenses fall to my lasers pretty quickly. Unfortunately an energy destabilizer and sensor dampener are making it difficult to keep my active tank running, regardless of the cap booster. The Hurricane warps out before I finish him off. I start to switch targets to the Cyclone when all of a sudden the whole gang evacuates. Perhaps they were afraid I had backup on the way. I doubt the Cyclone alone could have held up long against the Legion though. Especially with the last Sleeper battleship also pounding away on him.

With the hostile ships gone I warp back to the tower and log off after exchanging “gfs” in local. That was enough excitement for one night I think. I’m happy to have remembered to get some screenshots and immediately sit down to write down another amazing fight in Eve!

Return to the Pod

The pod goo is colder than I remember it being…

It is good to be back! After a long stint planetside, I’m finally back in the pod. A lot is going on planetside. I’m moving back to Brooklyn, just broke up with my girlfriend of four years (well she broke up with me), and things are pretty crazy in general. The good news is I’m finally settled in and seriously back in Eve.

The whole corp was online last night and we began telling old war stories as we pillaged the anomalies of a neighboring C3 system. After a particularly exciting engagement a few nights ago, Oz convinced me to start writing in the blog again. A fantastic idea, and this fight is definitely worth the spotlight of the first in the re-opening of Capsule in the Void.

Well it was about a week and a half ago. I had finally got a replacement Legion for the one that Oz borrowed and returned to me as a smoldering pile of wreckage. I was the only corpie online and a few anomalies looked more promising than scouting new wormholes or suckling Ladar sites. I align to my target and warp in to find the expected sleepers. So far everything is going as plan. I start popping sleepers, admiring my Legion’s shiny hull and blazing pulse lasers.

Huh, that’s funny, I don’t remember there being any Lokis in this class of anomaly, or any anomaly for that matter…

Oh shit. A few months away from the game has made me rusty. I was not spamming d-scan as much as I should have been. Regardless the reaction to the Loki appearing on my overview is instantaneous. The Legion begins aligning to the POS while I lock the Loki and begin to engage the new hostile. I should mention at this point, there is still a sleepless defender buzzing around who begins engaging the Loki as well. It’s nice to know the sleepers think this guy is as big a jerk as I do.

The cloak fitted Loki is no match for my tank or my lasers. His shields are dropping quickly, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s done for. That is until his friends in a Hurricane, Vexor, and Broadsword show up. I get it now. The Loki was just a point to lock me down until the real fleet can get there.

I start planning my next Legion purchase. It looks like the corp wallet is robust enough to handle another big purchase so I could be back in a new Legion by the end of the day. But let’s see what we can do.

As you would imagine the Broadsword catches up with me and puts the bubble up. It’s a good thing he does because now the Loki who is almost out of armor bugs out before becoming a casualty himself. I switch targets to the Broadsword, I need to bring that bubble down if I’m ever going to get out of here. The hurricane closes the distance and starts throwing his own weight into the mix. The Vexor thankfully is over 60 km away, not sure what he was doing out there, but I’m grateful he isn’t in the fight yet.

It occurs to me that the Broadsword has quite a tank, but is probably contributing very little to the damage being inflicted on my ship. The Hurricane is the real threat to my hull. I know my armor repair unit can handle the Broadsword, but the close range hurricane is beating me up pretty bad. I overheat the armor repairer while I switch targets to the Hurricane.

The Minmatar have fast ships that hit hard, but they are made of cardboard. Within 30 seconds the Hurricane has to disengage or succumb to my righteous lasers (my lasers have a special affinity for Minmatar). The Hurricane warps off leaving the Broadsword and Vexor. Well now what do I do, the Vexor is getting closer but still doesn’t seem to be in the fight. Might as well take this chance to pummel the Broadsword some. His tank is strong, but it’s passive, and he has no way to repair himself. His shields begin to evaporate just as the Vexor starts to realize he can’t shoot me from where he is. The Loki warps back in to the fray, but at this point I have a good read on their strategy and their ship weaknesses. I re-lock the Loki, quickly making him warp out again. Target focus is now back to the Broadsword.

Suddenly I realize the Broadsword is falling behind. Could it be I’m not wreckage after all? Sure enough I manage to get outside of the Broadsword’s bubble and slam the warp button to bring me back to the POS. I had remained aligned to the tower the whole time. I broadcast a “gf!” into the local channel which is reciprocated by the aggressors. I keep them chatting in local while I switch to a stealth bomber. I end up back in the anomaly aligned perfectly to the Vexor and launch a bomb to remind them they aren’t in hi-sec yet.

It’s a direct hit with something like 3,000 damage registering in my log. I get the obvious “that tickles!” in local, but they get the hint and warp out. I have a feeling the Vexor felt that bomb a bit more than he wanted to. Now it’s just me and a cloaked Loki looting my hard earned loot. I align to one of the last wrecks hoping to pop the wrecks with a bomb while damaging the Loki a bit. Unfortunately for whatever reason he leaves the last 3 wrecks. After floating aligned to the wreck of choice for five minutes, I decide to call it a day. This has been enough excitement for me thank you very much.

Welcome back to Eve!

Bombs Away!

Melcron and myself are in the home system. I have just logged on and notice a set of probes about. I ask Mel if they are his, and he says no. Looks like it will be an interesting evening. I check in on the bulletin to see that we’ve been visited a few times by our C2 neighbors already. I grab my Pilgrim and punch the latest data into my nav computer. I throw the burners on and head off to the C2 to see what I can see.

Before I even get to the wormhole I spot a Tengu  on my scanner. I begin thinking to myself, well that’s not going to be fun, when I see a second Tengu on the scanner as well as a few wrecks. Ah, now I see what’s happening here. I use my directional scanner to narrow them down and warp into the anomaly they are currently working on.

There is no way I’m touching that kind of firepower, but I assume they will be bringing in a salvager to clean up afterwards, hopefully unescorted. For now I head back to the tower and grab my stealth bomber for a little fun, and fit it with a salvager. I then proceed to start looting their anomalies. Jumping from one to the other after they’ve finished with one and moved on. I like this system! I don’t have to do the tedious combat and I get all the goodies! Oz and Azx log on and I quickly inform them about our trespassers.

We hobble together a small fleet and start trying to track down the destroyer that just entered the system. We assume it is their salvage boat. Eventually one of their pilots ends up dropping out of warp right on top of Oz. His Harbringer engages and Azx and I rush to his aide. We’re noticing the flood of new ships on the scanner and decide it’s time to bug out. We all get away, damaging their ship and taking few scrapes ourselves. After that it’s just about a stand off. We don’t have the number to engage them and they’re not really looking for a fight with the salvager around.

I decide to hop into my stealth bomber again and head to their wormhole to see if I can bomb one as a going away gift. I start orbiting the wormhole and wait for all but their last Hurricane pilot to pass through. As he approaches the hole, I decloak, and fire the first bomb I’ve ever used! Unfortunately I was unaware that the bomb was a dumb bomb, and it didn’t approach the ship at all, but rather flew off into a random direction of which I was pointing at the time.

Oh. That’s how those work.

Between the fits of laughter on my voice comms, I suddenly realize the enemy ship is engaging me. Obviously a rookie stealth bomber that doesn’t know what he’s doing is no threat. His drones hurtle towards me and I’m already just about out of armor. I’m already complaining about losing a ship but somehow I managed to get free! All in all a strange encounter. They stole some of our anomalies, but I stole some of their loot. We damaged some of their ships, and they did the same to ours. Really the only loser in this skirmish was my pride.