Mom Always Said I Was Good At Holding Aggro

Ok maybe not in those exact words, but I definitely recall a couple of fits she had in which exclamatory language was used with similar effect.

Last night was odd. Very outside the normal for my experiences with Eve and operating out of wormhole space. I logged in to find Azx in the POS. He’s heading out to a DED site he found that he’s hoping might be profitable. I wish him luck but no one has scanned in a while and I want to make sure our intel is as accurate as possible. Why hadn’t Azx scanned? Why indeed…lazy Caldari. Nothing new in the system but we have a connection to a class 4 wormhole that requires more investigation. Azx is busy with, whatever it is you do in DED sites. So I decide to check out the C4.

An Orca on scan! And it’s named Master Bob!! Our holy god of the wormholes! Fate has truly smiled on me today. I quickly warp to the BM  at the only operating tower only to find the Orca unpiloted. Well the C4 is empty and there are clearly some industrialist in the local corp so I take the chance to scan the whole system without scaring off any prey or attracting any unwanted attention. 4 ladars and a grav site later the system is scanned. Wow was that a lot of scanning for nothing. Hopefully the Europeans can catch something working one of the sites while I’m at work tomorrow.

It’s right around this point that Azx pipes up in corp chat that things hadn’t gone according to plan. Apparently he had lost his brand new Ishtar to the DED site. That sucks, aren’t you glad I’m broadcasting it all over the interwebs? Price you pay for flying with a blog sensation like myself! He asks me to grab a ship and help him recover his wreck since a lot of the good modules ended up dropping. Sure thing Azx! I grab my pvp Harbinger and adapt the fit a bit for some pve action and off I go. The site is an absolute bitch. First off when you warp into the area your frame rate dropped to about 0.5. There was debris and rocks everywhere and the nuets these things were throwing my way were out of control.

I almost lost the Harbinger when the nuets disarmed my repper and I got caught on some debris in the site! What had Azx gotten me into!? It’s too much to handle on my own although I managed to bookmark his wreck which is a start I guess. He grabs his Drake from w-space and we try to take the site together. While blasting away a local roaming group passes through. A lot of cruisers looking for trouble, but apparently no one with a probe launcher so we’re safe for now.

At this point we’ve warped in and out of the site a few times. Each round we get closer to absolute victory but it’s slow going. Azx decides to head out to repair some of his modules real quick, and maybe pick up a few replacement drones for myself. Of course with poor Azx’s luck tonight he hits a gate camp from the same roamers we encountered earlier. I think the convo went something like this:

• Azx: FUCK
• Azx: I’m so dead
• Azx: Wait, what?
• Me: What happened?
• Azx: They forgot to point me.

Well at least something went our way tonight! We resume work on the site. The nuets seem to like me very much, but the rat’s dps is pretty bad. So I basically become a passive tank drone boat doing my best to hold aggro while Azx does the dirty work. If an Amarr hull is good for anything it’s soaking up damage. Finally the site is finished and Azx cleans up the mess a bit. It sounds like he more or less broken even on the night so we can’t complain too much. But man what a weird night. I head back to our home system and grab my new Legion to try some anomalies with the new fit out. It’s still having some trouble staying cap stable with the sleepers attacking it. I think I’m going to have to drop the tracking computer for a capacitor battery. I also need a faction repairer on there. It can just barely keep up with the damage with the ancillary rep but really would make things a lot easier with the extra repair amounts. How can I steal one from Oz….hmm. Maybe tomorrow!

 

P.s. sorry for the lack of entertaining imagery! I’m still getting back into the swing of writing these things. I always forget to take a screenshot while fun things are going on haha.

A Mammoth In My Sights

A funny thing about Eve. Even after spending over a week away from the game, I come back to find I still have 10 days left before Advanced Starship Command is done training to level V. Didn’t I start that a month ago?! I swear those skill queues never seem to finish when I step away from the game for a while.

Apologies again for not posting recently. Like I said some real life responsibilities came up and severely limited game time. I had been able to log on in bits and pieces during the past week, but never for more than half an hour or so at a time. In that time it seemed like lo-sec had all but emptied out. I would take a spin around my local chain and find almost no pilots in any of the systems, and if I did they would be docked up in a station. Frustrating to say the least.

But finally on Saturday I managed to carve out some Eve time, and I knew that the corpmates would be on and inspire me to play for a while. Snow has been scanning the HQ site and has found us a C3 wormhole which she is monitoring. I take the Oracle out for a anti-pirating field trip. My security status is finally below 0.0 and I’d like to spend at least a little time raising it.

Snow reports there is a weakly defended POS in the C3 and only three pilots in the system active. They are apparently running anomalies in there, but having a slightly rough time of it. She watches them sweep an anomaly and then harvest the loot in a destroyer, which speaks to this group’s lack of experience. Oz and I start to get the bloodlust twitch and begin hatching a scheme to snipe the destroyer while Oz cloaks near it in a stealth bomber. He can scoop the loot once the salvager is destroyed and the Drake escorts are occupied with me.

Unfortunately just as we start getting the ball moving the target fleet holes up in their POS shield. We start to play the waiting game, speculating that Oz got caught on the hole before he could cloak, alerting the target of our presence. Regardless Snow continues to spy on them and we continue to wait. Eventually the destroyer pilot swaps ships for a Mammoth industrial ship. This is starting to look promising. If I were a betting man I would say they are hauling up all their anomaly loot for the day and getting ready to sell it. They’ll need a link to high sec and our wormhole just might be it.

I warp my Oracle to about 70 km from the wormhole on the lo-sec side. My sensor boosters are activated and my tachyon lasers are primed and ready. Snow reports the Mammoth has warped out of the POS to one of the planets, maybe to collect PI materials for the trade run. The Drakes remain motionless, hovering near their precious tower. Shortly there after the wormhole flares. The pilot takes his time holding his session cloak after seeing me waiting for him, but it doesn’t matter. He decloaks and I lock him almost instantly. The large laser turrets and heat sinks annihilate the ship in two volleys. Sadly I’m out of practice and only manage a screenshot of the wreck, after Oz had looted it. I’m a little rusty, bare with me.

The pod quickly warps away and Oz runs over to scoop up the 90 million isk in loot. Not bad for two shots! Ah it’s good to be back in the swing of things, although my security status didn’t move in the direction I was hoping it would. Eh, who needs to go to hi-sec anyway?

Varus, Give Me Back My Legion(s) – Augustus Caesar

A flurry of activity this morning has more than made up for the last few weeks of inactivity. I started off the morning in my Pilgrim hunting in Gallente FW space. Things were going fine. I even managed to catch an Imicus speed tanking a major complex by himself, while afk. That adds up to a simple frigate killmail for me! As I’m congratulating myself on the clever kill, I had stalked up to the orbit path of the ship while cloaked, Oz asked to help him out in a lo-sec deadspace complex in our static. I think I have time for that and it sure beats spending hours hunting elusive T1 frigates.

I head back to the HQ system and swap ships for my Legion. My beautiful Legion of invincibility. I jump back through our static wormhole and join Oz in the destruction of many Gallente NPC pirates. As we finish up the last room Snow logs on and helps out by grabbing a Noctis and sweeping up our mess. We’re just getting started when Oz notices combat probes on the scanner. Snow aligns for the wormhole and I drop a can so I can start to orbit the acceleration gate’s drop off point to intercept anything that might cause trouble. Oz positions himself on the front end of the acceleration gate to give us a heads up if someone does show up.

Only a minute passes before Oz calls out that ships have landed on the acceleration gate. Snow warps out as Oz joins me in the first room of the complex. D-scan is showing a Tornado, Talos, and Drake on scan. A Drake on Drake brawl sounds slow but doable, and I’m positive I can easily handle the Talos and Tornado on my own. Oz asks if we’re going to engage or run. I make the call to fight it out. These ships shouldn’t be a problem and my bloodlust is up from my earlier kill.

I believe there is a quote from someone famous that I can’t recall with enough precision to find it on google, but it goes something like, No man goes to war believing they will lose.

I should have kept that in mind. Obviously a secondary fleet was in waiting. Why else would they have attacked with three outclassed ships? Regardless it was too late to think about it now, as the third and fourth Drake warped into our position along with a Blackbird. The Tornado was destroyed easily, and we managed to drive a few other ships off before finally succumbing to the punishment of all those missiles. The Legion fought bravely, I couldn’t have asked more from her. But in the end even her armor wasn’t enough. Oz lasted another minute or so before joining me in the HQ system in a pod.

I didn’t mind losing the Legion, that’s what combat ships are for. I didn’t mind losing the skill points for not ejecting before it detonated. Four days of training again to me isn’t worth the possibility that they could fly my Legion home. One thing that did bother me is the half a billion isk armor repairer module which was unscathed in the attack and I’m sure met with much enthusiasm by it’s new owners.

No I didn’t mind losing. It was a fun battle, and the Legion will be built again and again as need be. But it is important to remember that with every defeat comes a lesson, and it is important to make sure that your emotions after the fight do not prevent you from learning it. Mine was to assess the situation a little more carefully before engaging. In truth we should have pulled out of the system as soon as we saw the probes, but I think we were both having an itchy trigger finger. We should have realized the backup fleet was just outside system though. Even without a scout to think a corp with only three members in relatively weak ships would engage our forces was absurd. I should have seen through their deception as the acting fleet commander. It will not happen again.

R.I.P. ISS Hades’ Scorn. I will avenge you.

All This for a Tech 1 Frigate?

It’s been a dull couple of days. The corp has had a great presence online lately and our pilots are logging in a lot and getting quite a bit done while there. Unfortunately there hasn’t been very much action in terms of combat. I logged in yesterday hoping that would change. The corp was once again online in force. With Snow now active in the HQ system, mining has come to the forefront of our thoughts. Hulks, crystals, and refineries are the topic of the day, as well as launching a second POS to house it all.

It’s all over my head though and I jump in the pilgrim to see if I can catch someone in our neighboring lo-sec systems. It’s not looking good. Our static system is empty. The system after that is empty. The system after that, is full of pilots. A huge fleet is sitting about 700km off of one of the gates. In fact I’m not sure how they are even showing up on my overview, I would think being that far away would put them off grid. Eh, what do I know? I keep moving hoping to find someone ratting in a secluded system.

I come across a Rifter or two, but they bug out as soon as they see someone in local. I can’t blame them, although I curse each and every one of them as they jump out. I’ve lost count of how many jumps I’ve done now. The lo-sec is a nice complex web of systems. It’s easy to keep moving but hard to get lost, and this many systems means inevitably someone is going to get careless, ballsy, or both.

I jump through a stargate to find a Ferox sitting on the gate I just came through. He’s not moving and the firing of the gate doesn’t seem to have disturbed him at all. I see two other pilots in local, but everyone of them is from a different corp. I know that doesn’t mean they aren’t working together but it’s enough incentive for me to call in for backup. Oz responds with a Drake in route. The Ferox still hasn’t moved and I’m beginning to think this pilot is afk. Interesting! Who leaves a battlecruiser at a gate in lo-sec? This seems too good to be true and I feel paranoid that I’m missing a trap here somewhere.

Oz warps in and engages while I decloak and launch my probes. We’re both aligned to celestial, well I hope Oz is aligned because I am. I’m still waiting for the local spike. After about 30 seconds I assume it’s not coming and Oz and I are very entertained as the ship explodes leaving the pod. It’s tempting to kill that too, just to really drive the lesson home, but neither of us really care for the security status loss we would incur from it. We loot the wreck and warp off to wait out our global timers. A kill is a kill but it seems somewhat hollow I suppose. We manage to make it back to HQ without incident and I log off for a bit to get some food and real life stuff taken care of.

A few hours have passed and I’m logging back in. There is a fleet invite on my screen before my systems have even finished loading which can only mean something is up. Apparently we are on full alert! A mining operation was interrupted by an Imicus entering our system. Oh no! It is impressive to see the reaction. Bubbles up on the static, flotillas stationed at each wormhole trying to intercept the intruder. Apparently he is fitted with a cloaking device, which will keep us from scanning him down, but it will also prevent him from warping from one spot to another without decloaking. I’m told to take up station on our lo-sec wormhole and point my pilgrim in that direction. I arrive on the scene but am the only one there.

Wait a minute, I thought someone was watching this hole? Apparently not, and as the minutes tick by I’m starting to feel convinced that our intruder has left a long time ago. But just as I’m about to scold the corp for their less than stellar vigilance, the wormhole flares. I call it out on comms and heat up my warp scrambler and other offensive modules. The Imicus decloaks and rushes the wormhole. I give chase, abandoning my wave of light combat drones. “It’s OK! I’ll be back in a minute!” I yell to them as I activate the wormhole. I always feel bad when I abandon drones. I can feel their sense of abandonment through the internets. I emerge on the other side of the hole just in time to see the ship align and warp off. I’ll never catch him in this thing, but I guess the mission is complete. We drove off the bastard! Good thing too, who knows what kind of damage that Imicus could have caused!

Drake Party

I log on today and finally hook up with Oz and the crew. We exchange bookmarks and I gather up my missioning loot to sell in Amarr. I make a modest wage for two nights of minimal work and set the autopilot on its 14 jump course to our worm hole connection. I settle in to finish some work while I listen to Aura take my ship home.

As I’m reading through part of my spreadsheet, a more complex formula that I would have liked, I realize the sound of a webifier is clearly audible through my computer speakers. I find that interesting, I’m in hi-sec, I wonder what’s going on. I switch windows just as the first volley of fire hits my shielding.

Damn Gallente, still holding a grudge I see. My shields evaporate almost immediately and the blockade runner’s armor is no match for the Navy barrage heading my way. I target the system’s star and start spamming the warp button. Another volley of damage, my armor is gone and I can see a sliver of red on my structure overview. This is going to end badly, in fact I’ve already started cursing into my mic before the ship finally enters warp.

By the skin of my teeth I made it out of the killzone. I quickly warp back to the gate and jump through. Thank goodness the navy forces take such a long time to notice your presence! Looks like I’ll be flying manually from here on out. I safely navigate through the last of Gallente space and into the lo-sec system with a bookmark to our home wormhole system.

Back in the home system I set out to mine some gas, and attend to my planetary facilities. With no wormholes to our system other than our static lo-sec system, I’m not too worried about anyone finding me. I harvest a good amount of gas before getting too bored and decide to hop back into my ole’ faithful Pilgrim. I head out to the lo-sec system to see if I find something to shoot.

I end up in Obalyu with another pilot in local, and a Drake on d-scan. What a party pooper. I swear these drake pilots know I’m coming before I even undock. This particular lo-sec chain is odd having only two lo-sec systems before connecting with hi-sec again. I move to the next lo-sec gate and find a pair of wrecks with a few abandoned drones floating about 20km off the gate. Looks like I just missed a party. I jump through to the Parts system to find three more people in this system, and another Drake on scan. You’ve got to be kidding me! Does the Caldari State even make any other ships anymore? Before the void can not answer my question the Drake vanishes from my scanner. Hmm…

I hit some other lo-sec systems nearby while dodging the Gallente Navy. I find an empty system and decide to kill some local pirates to pass the time. A little security standings boost wouldn’t hurt, especially in this neighborhood. Soon enough the belts are cleared and it’s time to head home. I manage to catch a Hurricane finishing off a Vexor at one of the lo-sec gates. I figure I have a decent chance at taking the Hurricane with two tracking disruptors fitted, but decide against it with the amount of traffic in the local comm channel. I warp back into my worm hole and pack it in for the night.