Wanted Dead or Alive; But Mostly Dead

Another milestone has been reached in my Eve career. Today my friends, Vultirnus had the first bounty placed on his head. That’s right, old Vult is now a wanted criminal. All because he blew up a Heron, can you believe it!? The bounty is probably more than the cost of the ship. Seems like I picked on someone who’s a little touchy about getting their frigates blown up.

It was an interesting day to say the least. I logged in and scanned down our home system. Nothing too much new to worry about. We had a null-sec connection that was still critical from my collapsing efforts yesterday. Our static, and a new connection to a class 1 wormhole. That deserves some attention. I warp into the C1 and start poking around. There are a few derelict towers and one active tower, but no ships or pilots to be seen. That’s fine with me as I also find a ladar and grav site as well as four anomalies. I decide to scan the system down since I’m alone and would like as much free intel as I can get.

The C1 has its hi-sec static connection and a connection to a C2. I scope out the C2 just to make sure that no hostile pilots are buzzing around before I start pillaging the C1 for it’s isk. As everything is quiet I grab my new sleeper slapping Zealot and head into the C1 to “relieve” the C1 inhabitants of their anomalies. I pull in about 120 million isk in about 45 minutes. Not a bad operation for a lone pilot in a hostile system.

That’s when things start getting weird. Industrial ships start popping up on my directional scanner. Only for a second or so at a time. I have all the signatures in the system bookmarked. I have no idea where these ships are coming from or where they’re going. Just then Azx logs in. We get into some cloaky ships and head into the C2 to see if we can shed some light on what is going on. The industrial ghosts continue to haunt us for a while, long enough for me to log off to attend to some real life obligations. Azx continues to monitor the situation and determines the ships are now dismantling a tower in the C2.

I get back online as soon as I can. Ok I could have gotten on earlier, but Wolverine was on tv and well, I like Wolverine. Anyway I get on in time to join up with Snow and Azx and try to ambush these industrial ships moving cargo from the POS to a hi-sec wormhole. After much observing we get a good handle on their operation and get ready to take down the next ship we see. Sadly at this point a Bestower, Vexor, and Orca have made it through the wormhole and the hole has gone critical for mass. But a pilot continues to come back in just a pod to move more ships out of the system. Eventually I attempt to grab a Buzzard as it runs to the wormhole but was not able to lock it down fast enough to manage a kill.

So as it stands our ambush was unsuccessful. We didn’t manage to catch any enemy ships and we’ve now given away our intentions. Then some other ships start popping up on the scanner and then disappearing. We have no idea what is going on. Pilots are all over this system, but apparently just alts of the other pilot we saw. Finally I have an idea. All of the ships still in system appear to be frigates which are a pain in the ass to catch. Unless you have two sensor boosters with scan resolution scripts. Something my sniper Oracle just happens to have fitted. As I fly back to our home system to grab the Oracle the Buzzard shows up on the hi-sec wormhole along with a Heron.

I’m flying as fast as I can to get back to the C2. The Buzzard jumps through but the Heron remains on the hole. Snow is parked cloaked by the hole watching and Azx is in a Tengu out of scan range aligned to the hole ready to jump in if I need the help. Finally I arrive at the C2 and warp to 70km off the hole. The Heron is locked in less than a second and vaporizes as eight large tachyon lasers melt through the ship’s structure. The pilot probably didn’t even realize I was on grid before he died. The pod ejects and I’m able to lock that and destroy it as well.

We didn’t manage to make a big isk kill, but at least we got a corpse out of it. Then to my amazement, a notification pops up on my screen. Wouldn’t you know it, the Heron pilot put a 20 million isk bounty on my head! A badge of honor as I see it. The corp enjoys a good laugh over it, and I decide to initiate a new practice in my Eve playing. I open up my mailbox, and type out the following to my latest victim:

Hey every blog needs it’s visits. Seems like a good way to keep things light hearted; and maybe rub it in a little.

Back to Flight School

I log on again a few hours after the server crash. Unfortunate how that happened, but Oz and Azx are waiting for me and quickly shuttle me through two wormholes and into hi-sec space. They tell me they filed a petition and have a way to teleport us back to our home w-space system. Great! I have a few things to take care of in hi-sec and then an easy trip is in store for me to our home system.

I’m particularly in the market for some skillbooks. Exciting skillbooks nonetheless. My propulsion jamming V skill is just about finished and it’s just about time to buy the official Heavy Interdictor skill. Not only that, but I realize how close I am to being able to pilot a T3 cruiser! How did I not notice that before!? I’m very excited as I map out my skill planner for the next day and a half and realize I’ll be able to pilot both the Legion and the Devoter within 24 hours.

My shopping spree over, I get back into w-space and start looking for some trouble. Not much going on in the home system. I find a C2 neighboring system and jump in to look around. Two towers in the system, and there is a bubble just off our wormhole which lets me know that the locals here are aware of my home system. I scan down the two towers, both have a handful of ships floating in them, only one Buzzard is actually piloted and it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.

I warp back home, and then move out into our lo-sec connection. Odd, the system it spit me out in is only two jumps away from our last static lo-sec. I move into Akora and start hunting. It’s a crowded system. There are a handful of towers around and a bunch of ships are up on the d-scan. Checking through the local channel, it doesn’t appear that many pilots are from any one corporation and I decide I can probably get away with a quick kill if I’m patient and attentive.

Wrecks are littering my d-scan, someone must be out ratting. I warp into a belt and see two wrecks floating there. Just then a Worm jumps in and moves quickly to one of the wrecks and starts salvaging. Why isn’t is he on my overview? I click on him manually as my ship accelerates towards him. I’m still cloaked and he has bad salvaging skills so I have some time. I get within 10km decloak and…he’s gone. Damn! There’s no way he warped off that fast from seeing me, I immediately cloak again and turn my camera to see an Armaggedon in the belt with me. Oh! That’s probably why he warped off. Man am I glad I have a cloak on. I hurry out of the belt as well.

I examine my overview settings. I can’t believe all the ships got deselected somehow. I must have loaded a strange overview file when I was running missions earlier after the crash. Sure enough the ships are deselected. No good. I switch them back on and double check the rest of my overview files to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

It looks like this system is a little too hot for me this evening. I make it back to our home system and monkey around with some planetary extractors before deciding I’m tired and hit the hay. Tomorrow should be interesting considering I have two new ships to start buying and fitting out. Never thought I would see the day were I was sitting in a T3!

Freighter Route Interrupted

Wake up and am excited. I’m working from home today and know there will be quite a few opportunities to get in-game. It’s 12:26, Azx and Oz are both on making me even more excited. Finally might be able to get a little action going in here. I open the corp bulletin to see that Oz has been on quite the adventure in my absence. He’s managed to lose two ships in combat in lo-sec systems with Kap. Well if he’s gotten into action why can’t I!?

I have about an hour before I have to start work and decide to buzz over to the connecting C4 to see what’s going on. Nothing on scan when I warp in, launch zee probes!

Hmm…

I was pretty sure that wormhole said it was stable, and yet it has disappeared from my overview. I check the bookmark again. Yup, I’m definitely stuck in the foreign C4. Great. I start scanning down the signatures before realizing Oz has done it for me already, bless his scanning soul. The C4 I’m currently in connects to a C2, that should be fun and probably lead me back out to empire space.

I enter the C2 and scan around looking for any prey before resigning myself to scanning for the wormhole out of here. System appears empty and I lock down the wormhole in short order. It dumps me out in Gallente space in Sinq Laison. This day just keeps getting better. My reputation with the Galls is not particularly good. I mean, did I partake in the wars against them? Yes, but only because the empire told me to, I’m innocent!

Well the First Sergeant who has just opened fire on me doesn’t seem to think so. These Galls must have some impressive sensory equipment on those navy ships! I’m still cloaked at the wormhole, and yet he has warped to me and started to engage! Well that’s all the hint I need. I warp to the stargate that will eventually link me home.

What a bunch of jerks. I finally make it into Caldari space and couldn’t be happier, except for the fact that I’m still about 20 jumps away from the lo-sec connection back to w-space in Vehan. I check the clock, about 15 minutes left until work begins. I decide instead to hop into my ice miner near Amarr and afk harvest on my laptop while I do some work.

17:32 and I’m on lunch break and back in Vehan. Seems like the same characters are in system that were here before. Another cyno goes up. These are some productive guys! I warp to 100km to watch the parade. A good sized jump freighter train passes through and immediately warps to the gate leading to hi-sec. The Probe that opened the cyno is just floating there, making a very tempting target if it wasn’t for the nearby station guns. Damn empire space, always takes the fun out of it.

I warp home and put together a small roam with Azx and Oz. A new wormhole has opened up leading to a different lo-sec system and we decide to check it out. I pop through and scan real quick. That’s a lot of Tengus, with more Tengus on the side. We quickly decide Vehan might be more fruitful. So I zip back over and start scanning around again.

We setup a quick makeshift gate camp from hi-sec hoping to snag one of these transport ships that keep flying back and forth. The gate flashes and a Viator comes through, but he cloaks before we can catch him. I have a feeling he may have told his buddies. I go through the gate and cloak to see what’s on the other side. Sure enough a Rattlesnake and Apocalypse are sitting on the gate. I report back to my crew to get out of there just as another Viator warps in and jumps through, quickly followed by the battleships. Our camp is already in warp back to w-space. Glad I decided to check that out!

It’s 22:12, and I’m finally done with work and have a little time to kill before the evening’s real life activities become a priority. I warp back into Vehan, but nothing is going on. I practice my d-scanning, which I determine, needs much more practice. Another time perhaps. I pop into the next lo-sec system in the chain, Undianoor, but an Onyx and Buzzard on scan persuades me to call it a night early.