The Hunters Become the Hunted

I log in Saturday morning to find most of the corp already in-game. Not much is going on, we have our static wormhole connection to lo-sec and that’s about it. No anomalies, no other signatures, in short nothing to do. I get my planetary obligations sorted out and deliver a new order of rocket fuel to the ever eager missile production team. It’s nice to feel wanted.

Our connection is close to hi-sec, right on the border actually, so Oz and I take the opportunity to go shopping. Our wallet is flush with cash from his subsystem production and I’m more than happy to help him spend it. We had been talking earlier about the recent engagements we’ve had in the HQ system. After browsing through our hangars we realize we have a very specialized fleet. Almost no T1 ships to speak of, and the T2’s we do have are very specialized and honestly not particularly useful in many fights. We need to solidify a good fighting base of ships to keep in the HQ for system defense.

I write up a corpwide email detailing our new goal. Every pilot should have two combat ready battleships and two combat ready battlecruisers focusing on damage output. It won’t guarantee that we can fight off every hostile force that comes our way, but it certainly will be more effective than just bombing the wrecks in our own system’s anomalies.

Between one of our runs to Amarr we notice a hostile pilot in our HQ system’s local communication channel. Apparently he had warped to the tower and managed to not get decloaked in our warp bubble and can traps. We quickly scan down the new wormhole that connects us to a class 2 wormhole system and setup a blockade. We park an interceptor on either side of the wormhole and I position my new sniper Oracle 95km off of our side of the hole. With my sensor boosters and tracking enhancers I can lock frigates in less than three seconds and pop them in one or two volleys. The waiting begins.

The waiting lasts for a long time, and we never actually see our intruder again. Eventually we collapse the C2 connection trapping the scout in our system. We see him later on in the static system, where he threatens to bring out his pvp ship. Interesting how he has a pvp ship in this system he didn’t have a connection to until we locked him out of his own wormhole.

Now that the intruders are dealt with and our new purchases are fitted out and sitting in our hangars, it’s time to hunt! Oz, Snow, and myself fit out some T1 cruisers and get ready to roam. I’m piloting a speed tanked Arbitrator, Oz is in a brawler of a Maller, and Snow rolls out in a Retribution. Unfortunately we find a few ships in safespots in our static system, so we ask Snow to head back to HQ and get a scanning boat instead. It’s incredible how often you find ships in safespots in lo-sec systems, especially in FW systems. Having that scanning boat leads to a lot of kills and I’m grateful she was willing to forgo a combat ship to help the team out.

We find an Imicus afk in a safespot, and as par for the course, I blow that shit up. We cruise around for a while longer looking for someone to shoot but don’t manage to find much. Until a Jaguar lands on Oz’s Maller at one of the gates. He warps through and Oz gives chase as the rest of us enter warp to catch up. After a short game of cat and mouse Oz manages to lock him down at the sun of the system we’re currently in. I enter warp to join the fray. The Maller is having a hard time breaking through the Jaguar’s shield tank. Luckily my Arbitrator is fit with some serious energy neutralizing power. After one cycle of the neuts, the Jaguar starts breaking down. Another Jaguar enters the fight but is surprisingly ineffective at, well everything. He start shooting my drones, which is annoying but doesn’t accomplish much. I have plenty more. The first Jaguar finally explodes and our attention shifts to the second one.

The second Jaguar begins rocketing away from us. Neither Oz nor myself can keep up with him, our caps are both empty. Not only that, but they aren’t regenerating very fast at all. Neither of us see any neutralizers or vamps on us, but our cap is still not regenerating. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not a fan. The Jaguar is out of disruptor range, but he’s still not warping out.

Well shit, that means this is going to be a trap…

Sure enough I click the d-scanner and see a whole fleet of ships start to appear in system. We need to get out of here and now. I align to a FW complex (probably not the best idea, but I was panicking). A Talos leads a small fleet of ships into our area. I don’t remember what they all were, but it was a lot more than we were going to be able to handle. Oz’s ship is aligned and just about to enter the warp bubble when his warp engine gets disrupted. I warp out, Oz is a lost cause at this point. I’ll never be able to save him. Oddly the enemy fleet is able to catch his pod as well. A near impossible feat without specialized modules. We’re surprised and saddened when his pod explodes ejecting his corpse into space.

Still in the grand scheme of things we managed a 53 million isk kill and lost a Maller that topped off around 40 million I think. So not too bad, although losing all of Oz’s implants definitely swings the scale back to the negatives. It was still a fun roam and we’re getting better at the fleet combat every time we go out. I’m excited to see us improve even further.

Another interesting point I wanted to make involves the Pilgrim speed fit I had come up with a few weeks ago. Oz had actually built one and tested it out before all of this went down (during my first trade run). He topped out at about five kills if I remember correctly, before he accidentally got caught on an acceleration gate and subsequently destroyed. But the reports coming back from him are promising. He was able to chase down assault ships that tried to run from him, and the flexibility of being able to engage and disengage at will is incredibly valuable. My Arbitrator fit mimics the Pilgrim fit, but with only four mid-slots, it has a hard time being as effective. Still I think a switch over to the new Pilgrim fit is in order for tomorrow!

Boredom, The Anti-Blockade

Logged into Eve after a super cold refreshing shower. Six hours of beach and volleyball has taken it’s toll and I’m anxious to sit in one place and not move for a while. It’s a tough life isn’t it?

The corpmates are on and buzzing about, running PI and setting up industrial…things. I am still rather ignorant of the whole operation. Anyway our lo-sec static connection is to a useless system in Gallente space. It is a lo-sec island surrounded by hi security space that is less than appealing to me. We decide to collapse it, which is a new trick for me. I understand the mechanics behind it, but have never been confident enough to put it into action.

Oz and Mel get to work while I rat out the static. My security status has plummeted these last few weeks, I need to make a serious effort to get it back up. We finish off the wormhole and I grab my Anathema to scan out the new one. Just as I jump back into the HQ system after scouting our new connection we spot a Manticore blip on the direction scanner in the HQ system. Oz was sitting on the new static wormhole so he must have come from a new one. I launch my probes again and quickly scan down a new K162 connection to a class 4 system.

As I jump through to the C4, I’m greeted with a less than friendly welcome. An Armageddon is parked on the wormhole. Luckily I’m far enough away from him and the wormhole to be able to activate my cloak and burn away from them. Just as I’m reaching a safe 30km from the hole and battleship, a Devoter and Jaguar show up. This isn’t looking good. The Devoter jumps through the hole, and my isolation in a hostile C4 begins.

After the initial shock of seeing the hostile ships wears off it occurs to me to have a look at the d-scanner. Hmm, This doesn’t look very promising at all. Dominix, Armageddon, Velator, Orca, Archon, Ibis, Scorpion, Revelation, Bestower, Oracle, Dominix, Dramiel, Hurrican, Jaguar, and a Scimitar. That’s quite a fleet. No, this is a fucking dread fleet. This is going to be a serious problem. Our only saving grace is that the capital ships won’t be able to pass through our small wormhole, which is really all that is stopping them from obliterating our towers and ships if they wanted to.  The corp gets eyes on the HQ side of the wormhole and as I suspected the Devoter is parked on the hole with his warp disruption bubble up.

I decide to be as productive as possible while in a covert ops ship in someone else’s wormhole. I find a remote spot in the system and launch probes to start scanning down the dozen or so signatures that are present. I also locate their tower and park my ship a good 200km away from it to watch what is going on. I’m a little less frightened now. The hostiles only have about 4 or 5 pilots online from what I can tell. Only the Dramiel, Scimitar, Devoter, Jaguar, and Hurricane are actually being piloted.

I scan down an absurd amount of ladar sites in the C4 but there are no other wormholes present. The only way out is heavily guarded. This isn’t going to be pretty. Scanning all of those anomalies has eaten up quite a bit of time however, and luckily for me the blockade is lifted. Boredom is my ally in this one. I notice the Devoter and Dramiel that were previously in the HQ system back in the C4. It’s now or never! I rocket to the wormhole and dive through. Success! Glad to be home! The last thing our killboard needs is another loss this month.

Hat Trick and a Chance Encounter In The Sandbox

Jimmeny freakin’ crickets!

This has been an absolutely epic day in Eve. I don’t even know where I should start to be perfectly honest. I had been dying to get into the game all day long. It’s summer, which means summer Fridays here in New York (we get out at 2:00 pm). I watched alliance tournament coverage for most of the day (don’t tell anyone), and basically just didn’t get any work done while I day dreamed about Eve. Needless to say I was excited when I finally got past the log in screens and was welcomed by a full turnout from the corporation.

We got a lot done. Things were shuttled to and from hi-sec space. PI got switched around, again, and we tested out a few fits for durability and damage output. I even got an Arbitrator fit to resemble the Pilgrim speed tank fit I developed recently. It will be interesting to see how it performs, but I think the cap is too unstable to make it a viable fit.

Snow suggested we go for a lo-sec roam. She apparently has quite an itchy trigger finger, but a little more bloodlust in the corp is always welcomed in my books. I grab my Pilgrim, Oz rolls out an interceptor, and Snow brings a covert ops boat for scouting. Ok maybe not the most intimidating gang ever, but we should be able to find some fun. We start out in our static system and its adjoining lo-sec chain of about four systems. Not much going on here, but I notice we’re only a few jumps away from a very familiar spot.

Oz and I used to operate out of the Fensi lo-sec chain. It was our first experience living in lo-sec and we felt pretty badass at the time. We know the systems pretty well and have fond memories of some very good hunting spots. It started out pretty much on par with my hunting style so far. An afk frigate was sitting outside a station with a cyno up. I popped him pretty quickly and evaded taking too much damage from the station guns. Sweet only a few minutes on the roam and we’ve got a kill, not bad.

We continue moving through the chain until we enter a system with an unusually chatty local channel. There are only a few pilots in system so I’m surprised to see so much dialogue. It sounds like one of the players has an Eve blog they publish and was recognized by the other pilot in local. The blogger was sitting in a Jaguar outside a station about 15km from docking range. He noticed Snow’s combat probes but didn’t dock up or warp away, instead broadcasting over local where he was. While all of this was going on I was slowing crawling my way towards his ship while cloaked. I was still about 30km away from him and needed to buy myself some time.

I decided to ask the pilot in local about his blog, trying to distract him while I closed the distance. As he was describing his blog to me I mentioned I had an Eve blog as well and we exchanged links (his blog can be found here: After time adrift under open stars). Much to both of our surprise, he recognized my writing! Apparently he had visited the blog a few times in the past. What a small world! A random player in the same lo-sec system as me that I found through a wormhole connection reads my blog. Blows my mind, but doesn’t prevent me from engaging the Jaguar while he is alt-tabbed out reading my blog. Shameless? Absolutely.

Luckily for him the Jaguar’s tank is robust enough to buy him enough time to get into docking range. We all have a laugh in local and I warp to a celestial to wait out my new global tag. We hang around a little longer talking until my tag expires and our roam continues on to the next system. A number of ships appear on d-scan, but there aren’t enough pilots in local to account for all of them. Snow throws out some combat probes to start getting a handle on them while I d-scan the system to help narrow the field. It turns out a Velator has decided to going afk while in a safespot. Never a good idea, especially with my expertise in popping afk Velators. Snow locks down the signal from her probes and I warp in to make quick work of the defenseless ship. Two ships down! What a good roam!

A few more ships are hanging out in the system, but we know there aren’t any pilots in them. Snow finds them with the probes and we see two Herons unpiloted floating in what remains of a POS. The tower and many of the buildings are still there, but nothing is online and the Herons are free for the taking. I wanted to blow them up, but apparently Snow could make some use of them for some of that industrial, profitable stuff she does. Oz ejects and “commandeers” the vessels. This has been a surprisingly profitable excursion so far. I mean considering we were expecting to lose our ships, things are turning out well. We move on, and find a rather elusive Myrmidon. We play cat and mouse through a few systems but can’t seem to lock him down. He knows we’re after him, and we know his ratting ship won’t withstand our force. A Myrmidon would be a very nice addition to the killboard.

Eventually we let Oz into the system alone with our prey. Hoping with only one pilot in local he will be less likely to run. Oz is having a tough time finding him even in his interceptor, but it’s only a matter of time before he eventually lands in the same belt as him. I kick the slow as hell Pilgrim over into the warp and heat up the modules. Oz has the Myrmidon locked down well, and isn’t taking too much damage. The Hobgoblin I drones can’t keep up with him and he hasn’t taken much if any damage so far. I lock onto his drones and launch a wave of acolyte II’s. They begin chewing through the outclassed enemy drones while I get into a suitable orbit of the target and engage my tracking disruptors.

The pilot of the doomed vessel begins a chat session with Oz asking for us to spare his ship. Negotiations begin but he is less than reasonable. We offer a ransom of 80 million isk, which is a steal in his ship to be honest, but he refuses. Alright, no sweat off my back. The energy nuets make his attempts at actively repairing his armor impossible and he shortly vaporizes in a brilliant blue explosion. We loot the wreck and even salvage what’s left of the ship with Snow’s salvager module. Who fits salvagers on a roam? We do apparently. We decide to call it a night after such a great kill and fly our ships back to the HQ system.

What a great day playing in the sandbox! This is really what keeps bringing me back to Eve over and over. You just can’t get these kinds of conflicts and interactions in any other game. Not to mention flying spaceships is super fun!

A Jaguar in the Dark

I got home much later than I was hoping for. Most of my Eve time was already gone, but I decided to log on for a little while to just see what’s happening in the home system and hope against home for a quick kill.

No one is online, not that I expected anyone to be, and the home system is quiet. I move some PI around and scan the system since it’s been a few hours since Oz scanned it. A new connection to a C4 wormhole is here so I decided to pop in to check it out.

It’s empty, other than a few pos towers which I ignore. It’s full of anomalies and signatures, but it’s too late and I don’t feel like scanning it down. I decide instead to jump over to the our lo-sec connection and see if there is any activity in k-space.

I arrive in Gusandall, only two jumps from hi-sec in a nice looking lo-sec constellation. A Jaguar appears on d-scan, along with a wreck. A few moments later another wreck appears. Ahh this looks promising. I start d-scanning and determine he is in one of the complexes in system.

I’m cloaked, and approach the jump gate ready to quickly jump through then cloak again or engage. I get within 2,000 m of the gate and decloak only to discover my Pilgrim is too large to go through. I’m too close to the gate to cloak again and warp to a celestial to cloak and then warp back to sit 20km off the gate, hoping the Jaguar will need to warp out after taking damage and reenter the site.

A Rifter enters the system which appears to spook the Jaguar pilot and they both leave the system within seconds of each other. I decide there is a good chance they went to the last lo-sec system before connecting to the safety of hi-sec.

I appear on the other side of the Eifer gate and find both ships on the gate, maybe 15km away! Have they sprung some kind of trap for me? I accelerate and immediately put up my cloak while I start checking the local channel to see how many friends they have. They don’t appear to be in the same corp and that’s when I realize, they’re fighting each other!

Oh this is too sweet. I wait until they orbit themselves a little closer then decloak and engage the Jaguar as he is the bigger threat. My drones rocket towards him while my two tracking disruptors reduce his turret’s range to spitting distance. The two frigates continue attacking each other, ignoring me or not even noticing I’m there.

The Jaguar explodes in a molten rain of metal and the pilot’s pod warps off. I move towards the Rifter and begin to engage him with my drones, but he’s seen what they can do and jumps away.

BOOM!

My shields drop rapidly as the gate’s defensive systems begin to light me up. Oh right, I forgot about those guys. I warp away and cloak again while I wait for my aggression timers to wear off. Fairly proud of myself, I warp to my wormhole, to find it missing. That’s just not cool Bob (the god of wormholes). I head out to hi-sec, avoiding Min Matar and Gallente police along the way. Finally I reach Caldari space, and dock up to call it a night.

The next morning I log in around 12:41 Eve time and are welcomed by Oz and Azx. After sharing stories of the battles from yesterday they tell me the static to Gusandall is still up in the home sysetm. That’s odd since it wasn’t were I had bookmarked it the night before. I head back into the lo-sec chain while Oz jumps out to allow me to find the wormhole without scanning for it. Sure enough it’s in a new location. Very strange, I didn’t know wormholes were mobile!

We decide to head into the C4 wormhole space and run some more profitable anomalies than the few in our home system. We warp to the site and are just beginning to engage the sleeper’s battleship when we all notice that our controls are no longer responsive. Sure enough the Eve server had crashed. I just hope I called my drones in and warped off before the loss in connectivity. Losing a Harbringer isn’t the end of the world but I would like to avoid it if possible. Especially since it wasn’t within my control to lose!