Delving Deeper

Ah. It’s amazing how much more relaxed I feel, even in planetary life knowing my wallet has been filled with some isk. The exploration has been good to me lately. I decided to take a few more interesting risks than I had been in the past. Most notably, diving into class 3 wormholes on my own to harvest their blue loot. It’s amazing actually how often empty wormholes seem to crop up. I managed to dive 3 in a week, inflating my wallet but about 300 million isk with just a few hours of work. Honestly it was nostalgic to be back in the C3’s. Constantly hitting the directional scanner and cursing the sleepers for their infernal neut and weapon’s ranges.

All in all it’s been a good month, topped off by a rather successful roam lately that landed me on the top damage for a killmail against a Legion. That felt pretty good. The corp I’m currently with is fun to fly with, but they seem to lack a degree of vision. Sure roaming around killing everything we come across is fun, but at the end of the day, I just don’t care that much about my killboard. I’d rather be fighting for something, a cause, territory, anything! So I’ve decided to do something I’ve thought about doing for a very long time.

Go back to Amarr faction warfare. I put an application in for a light roleplaying Amarr FW corp today that seems promising. No telling yet how it will turn out but hopefully I’ll have something new and exciting to look forward to this year!

Faithful Are The Wounds of a Friend; But the Kisses of An Enemy Are Deceitful – Aesop

In the spring of 2006, I downloaded a computer game called Eve Online. I watched the introduction trailer from beginning to end with the excitement of a 5-year old waiting to open gifts on Christmas morning. I digested volumes of text from the web about the New Eden universe and its inhabitants. I literally spent weeks thinking of my character and how they would interact with this immerse galaxy. The first thing my character did, was give himself over to God.

I love good role playing (not the bedroom kind of stuff, although that can be fun to). The Amarr race of Eve is intoxicating to me. An ancient powerful empire who is now struggling to keep itself together after wars and rebellions have raged for decades. The fluff to draw on for role playing was so good, I just couldn’t pass it up. I’ve loved every minute of playing as an Amarrian. I’ve spent time in the militia battling the rebellious scum of the MinMatar and the freedom loving anarchists of the Gallente Federation. It’s been an absolute blast, and long ago I vowed to never betray the Amarr empire or lose my faith in its leadership.

But I stand before you today a conflicted man.

I live in wormhole space. Probing and space exploration are how I fund all of my Eve based adventures. But as I browsed through the Amarrian arsenal last night I came to a realization that had been lingering just on the fringe of my conciseness for a long time now. Amarr has no ship worthy of wormhole space operations. It kills me to admit it publicly, and I hope that you the public can prove me wrong, but as I see it we just do not possess a ship that can perform to a sufficient degree in worm space.

Rebellious scrap heap

Well how about some justification for such a statement. Living in w-space requires one thing above all else. The ability to probe cosmic signatures. Sure there are plenty of Amarr ships that can do this, but none that can do so, cloak, and still possess some kind of military strength. The answer for other races is simple. Their respective strategic cruisers can be configured to deal respectable amounts of damage, have a modest tank, cloak, and still probe a system down. The Legion cannot. A covert fit Legion is made of paper thin armor and has no offensive potential to brag about.

Up until now I’ve used my Pilgrim to do the combat in w-space for me. I generally scan our w-space constellation and find a target worth killing. Then I’ll head back to HQ, swap into the Pilgrim and return to the target’s system to engage it. But this all takes a long time and the prey never stays still for long. No one in w-space does. It’s a matter of survival, I don’t sit still for very long either. But what is an Amarrian loyalist to do?

Gallente vomit barge

I’ve started looking at training for another race’s ship. I really really don’t want to but I’m not sure if there is any other way. The Proteus and the Loki are such potent killers and can cloak and probe as well. It’s hard to pass them up for the sake of staying true to my role playing roots. I am still resistant, if for no other reason than it would take a long time to train the skills to sit in either ship, and I don’t feel like doing it. So I am here to beg the citizens of New Eden to bless me with their wisdom. What is an old war horse to do? Train for a Loki? Commit the ultimate sin and fly a Gallente ship (it’s bad enough I use their drones now)? Or does someone know of a ship that can fill this role within the Amarr arsenal?

A Target Rich Environment

You ever hear that expression my eyes were bigger than my mouth? It refers to a moment when you think you’re a lot more hungry than you are and order a lot more food than you can actually consume in a sitting. It was a saying that ran through my head more than once a few nights ago…

The corp was on hand for some good ole’ site bashing. We had a couple of profitable sites in the home system and we hand nothing better to do with our time than make some money. Spirits were high and we were feeling pretty safe. Nothing but us and our static to a FW lo-sec chain. We probably wouldn’t be receiving any visitors anytime soon. Of course as soon as I think that, Azx calls out that he saw a probes on scan for a split second. SON OF A BITCH! I swear every time we start to make some decent money, some asshat with a probe launcher needs to show up. The command goes out to get back to the POS and our scout gets out his own set of probes.

Everything goes strangely quiet. The probes haven’t shown back up on scan and no ship has made an appearance yet. Azx scans down a new wormhole and we immediately head out to setup the blockade. Oz has a Devoter parked on the hole ready to trap anything that comes through. Myself and H5 are in sniper Oracles ready to pop any frigate that thinks his speed will save his life, and Snow has her Pilgrim waiting a few kilometers from the hole as a nice surprise addition if we do get engaged by an enemy fleet.

I feel pretty good about our setup. We are operating under the assumption that we have a single cloaked scout in our system with the potential for a fleet to come through the hole. We decide we want eyes on the other side of the hole right about the same time the wormhole flashes. My weapons immediately go hot and I lock the Devoter that appears on my overview. His shields are gone before he has time to finish locking his first ship, but I know the armor will take a lot longer to get through.

A covert ops uncloaks on top of me and starts to scramble my warp drive. That’s annoying, but he doesn’t seem to have any guns fitted so I’m content to let me keep me pinned down. I have no intention of leaving yet anyway. The wormhole starts flashing away. It’s not surprising considering they have a HIC with them, but what comes through that hole is the stuff of nightmares. A Guardian appears next and H5 and myself immediately switch targets to the logi. Poor Oz is on the front line taking the brunt of the fighting, but our Oracles are spitting out a pretty impressive amount of damage. I’m still happy to fight it out. H5 pops my little harasser which boosts my confidence even more.

Well that was short lived as the following start appearing on the overview:

• Proteus
• Proteus
• Legion
• Machariel
• Scorpion
• Legion

“OK I get the point!” I yelled at my computer as I align back to our POS. We do our best to flee, but Oz and Snow are caught in the Devoter’s bubble and are both going to lose their ships and pods. H5 and myself make it out unscathed but for our pride. It was a good fight, there was nothing we could have done. It does make the day hard though. Life in w-space can get you down. You never feel like the odds are even, though I guess that’s true for life anywhere in Eve. We spend so much of our time training skills and buying ships and modules to defend our system, but it seems like every time we encounter a hostile group they are light years beyond us. Oh well. Gfs are exchanged in local. I ask for a screenshot but it doesn’t sound like anyone was in a picture taking mood that battle. I decide to log off for a while to let the system cool down and grab some dinner. Hopefully exploration will go a little smoother once that C4 connection is closed.

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.

Emboldened By Fancy Flying

What an interesting evening in the sandbox. I log in to find nothing in system but a Radar, Grav and our static wormhole. I scan to make sure that no new holes have popped up since the last scan check and board the corp Legion to harvest some anomalies that have populated our system. I don’t even manage to get through the first Frontier before being interrupted by a Loki and Hound.

I warp back to the tower and switch to a stealth bomber Oz had lying around. Everyone in the system is cloaked. I’m surprised that the intruders are not trying to harvest up the wrecks I’ve left in the anomaly. Actually now that I think about it, I don’t remember actually finishing all the sleepers in this anomaly, but there are none left to harass me now. I bookmark each wreck and warp between it and the sun or some other bookmark over and over, picking up the loot one by one. It’s slow going, but it’s safe and and I’m making my isk.

Then I see a Thrasher show up on my scanner. This looks like the salvage boat I’ve been waiting for. I jump into my Oracle and warp way out on the anomaly off a distance sniping bookmark I had made for just such an occasion. The Thrasher is there looting and I lock on to him. I blast away from about 200 km and quickly get into the ship’s armor. He is able to warp off and a Hurricane is now joining us in the anomaly. This is going to make things more interesting.

I continue the cat and mouse game for a while, warping out and back again to various bookmarks I have around the anomaly. They can never get closer than 80 km from me and I’ve managed to almost destroy the Thrasher as well as blast a bit of the shields off the Hurricane by now. I decide the only decent thing to do is pop all the wrecks they’re planning on stealing and be done with it. Once that’s done I warp to within 100 km of the wormhole and begin to orbit hoping I can manage to pick off the Thrasher now that there is no reason for it to stay in system. I get a few shots off but he manages to get away.

The Hurricane leaves, but then comes back and he almost out smarts me by warping to a celestial behind me. But I’m all too familiar with that trick and am gone before he has a chance to get back and kill me. Some times goes by and I’m in my Pilgrim now about 100 km from the wormhole. The Hurricane shows up again at what I assume is his bookmark for where he last saw me which is also about 100 km from the hole. We both start slow boating towards the hole. I’m tempted to just let him leave. I’ve been a big thorn in their side, and so far I’m on top of the isk count. But there is something about this Hurricane.

Hurricanes are a bitch. They hit damn hard, and can be a pretty tough nut to crack. I assume that he’s got his Thrasher buddy on the other side of the hole, but even that isn’t really a deterrent. I am far enough from the hole that I can align and get out of trouble before he’s a factor. My faction webber should keep the Hurricane pinned down enough that I get to dictate range and be able to escape should things turn sour. I’ve wanted to test this fit against a Hurricane for a long long time and decide now is as good a chance as any. That and my fancy flying earlier may have had my ego every so slightly inflated.

I decloak and MWD my way towards him while my drones engage him. I’ve made sure to double check my orbit distance after the little blunder I made last time I fought in my Pilgrim. Everything goes off without a hitch. I was able to visually inspect his ship and know he’s running autocannons, which don’t have a prayer of hitting me at 12 km with 2 TD II’s on him. I’ve got him webbed, disrupted and my drones are starting to eat away at him. He has a fleet of ECM drones or something on me but I don’t pay them much mind as the wormhole flares.

Alright this is what I was worried about. A second Hurricane arrives through the hole. I’ve already started to align to a celestial…or at least I think I have. Turns out I hit a wrong button somewhere. I’m 20 km away from Hurricane number 1 but I’m not aligned and I still can’t warp. A little blunder with getting my ship pointed in the right direction may have made the difference here. Still I gain on my pursuers. I manage to put 24 km between me and the closest Hurricane but their disruptors are still hitting me! This is not good. I can’t web both of them at once and Hurricane two is rapidly closing on me.

It’s only a matter of time before their able to get their claws into me and bring the mighty Pilgrim down. My pod manages to warp away safely. We exchange some ‘gfs’ in local and I try to ask them which disruptors they were using, but they’ve become tight lipped. It always kind of annoys me when your killers won’t engage in a conversation with you after a fight. Fighting is the only way to learn and get better, I know I always take the time to talk up a victim if they have questions about how I won. Oh well what can you do. It was a fun fight, a costly loss, but a fun fight anyway. I think I would have been able to secure the kill if it had remained a 1v1, but you can never count on such things. The Pilgrim will return, and my thirst for Hurricane blood has only grown as a result of today’s events!

Where Does the Time Go?

Man it’s been nuts around here this past week. Well, except for the fact that I know it hasn’t. I honestly don’t know what has kept me from posting but I do apologize. In-game life has taken a rather interesting turn however. Towards the beginning of the week we stumbled upon a class 3 wormhole system that was, let’s just say, lightly defended by it’s null-sec based inhabitants. With a plethora of anomalies in the system, and apparently no one willing to defend their POS much, we evicted the current residents and have setup shop there!

Man is it good to be back in w-space. I didn’t realize just how much I missed it until I was back in it. I immediately took the opportunity to jump into Oz’s Legion and run through the half dozen anomalies that were scattered around. Over a billion isk and a few hours later I called it a night. Thank goodness for the bounty of Bob! The money is just rolling in and we couldn’t be happier. I’m excited to log on tonight and see what has changed. Our last two static connections have been a little rocky so I haven’t gotten a chance to bring in all my pvp vessels as of yet. That is on my to-do list as well as setting up the PI systems in our new home. Which reminds me we need to bash some POCOs and soon.

Anyway excited to be back and stay tuned for some new broadcasts from the void!

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.

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!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Apparently I had been complaining about not having enough action in the home system a little too loudly…

I logged in today to find Oz and Azx online in the POS, not getting anything done, as usual. But something is different. Azx has a strangely more intimidating aura about him, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I think it has something to do with the little red box with a skull next to his comm channel portrait. Apparently I had just missed some fun.

Between the giggles and joking I came to find that the pair had happened upon a capsule in the home system earlier today. They gave chase, and found a Rifter on the lo-sec side of our static worm hole. Oz immediately engaged and obliterated the ill-fated ship with little trouble, managing to snag and destroy the pod as well. It was later discovered the frigate actually had nothing to do with the capsule seen previously. The poor pilot was literally less than 24 hours old, but Oz’s bloodlust didn’t seem to mind, as another corpsicle was added to our collection.

The system was however quite again, so we decided to run some anomalies and be productive for a while. At least until a Cheetah shows up on our d-scan. We race back to the tower and hop into our combat appropriate ships. I choose my Devoter anxious to put her bubble to good use. I warp to the static and set the bubble up orbiting the wormhole while Oz scans the system suspecting a new signature to be found. Sure enough another wormhole has appeared in our system, and this one leads to Gallentean hi-sec empire space. The blockade is moved to this new wormhole. A few minutes go by and then the local comm channel springs to life.

Apparently our visitor does not like his chances against the ships buzzing about his exit out of w-space. We had been monitoring d-scan thoroughly and knew he hadn’t put any probes out, and thus was unable to find the lo-sec static so far. His diplomatic intentions were worth a try, but we were in no rush to accommodate him.

 

 

I tried extending an olive branch, but it was refused. Twice to be exact. The blockade continued for another 20 minutes or so. The stealth ship not making an attempt at the wormhole, and us refusing to just let him go. But our patience began to falter and we offered to remove the blockade. Unfortunately for him, he took his sweet time getting to the wormhole. His staling allowed Oz and I to get the idea of parking bombers 30km off the hole, and blasting it as soon as we saw the Cheetah decloak to activate the hole.

Enter blockade stand off number 2. The Cheetah pilot was watching his scanner closely and saw Oz and I hop into our bombers. This new tactic put the brakes on him moving anywhere near the hole. Another 15 minutes goes by and Oz decides to move an alt into the hi-sec system to make sure no enemy fleet is preparing to ambush us.

Not five minutes goes by before Oz yells into the comm that a fleet of 10 Legions is warping into our system. Our forces pulls back to the tower, clearly outgunned for the time being. Trash talking begins on both sides and real life duties are beckoning, so I go afk in the hopes that the rabble is dealt with by the time I get back.

It’s about 3 hours later and the home system appears quite. I scan down our new static and make sure to keep an eye on my watchlist to see if our visitors from before are online. Two are, but I’m confident that I can warp into k-space in my pod without getting caught. I fly to Amarr to grab my new Pilgrim and navigate it safely back to our home system and tower.

As I’m fitting the last module on the ship, a Broadsword and Buzzard appear on my directional scanner. I had been planning on running a few anomalies before calling it a night, but the arrival of more ships has ruined the mood. I’m content in knowing we at least got to fool around with a few hostiles and the encounter was fun even if not particularly violent, and log off for the evening.