Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

The other day I was reviewing my killboard. A killboard that is currently bursting with the smoldering wrecks of miner hulls. Anyone who knows me, or has read a few of my blogs, will know that I’m not one to turn down even the easiest of kills. I get just as big a rush out of stalking and killing a miner as any other ship. The catch is, miners don’t really make me any money. They’re full of ore that I can’t fit in my cargo hold. They don’t use any modules that I would find particularly useful. And they don’t kill anything that would have given them loot that is worth a damn!

So the other day I decided to try something different. I found a Mackinaw in lo-sec mining and not watching his local. I stalked right up on top of him and engaged. But after I had blasted through his shields I called my drones off, and offered him a deal.

“50 mill and I’ll let you go.”

It makes sense for both of us really. I don’t want to waste my time killing him and not getting any money for it. He doesn’t want to lose his ship, and I make a little cash. It’s win, win! Sorta. Either way he paid up and I let him go. A success! I guess this means I’m officially a pirate now…

A little later on in the evening I came across two Ventures. I’m telling you if you want to kill miners give me a call. I can’t seem to go on a roam without finding them these days. Anyway I know the Ventures have +2 to their warp strength, making it impossible to scramble them with a single module. But I figured these two were being dual boxed by someone so I decided to give it a go, hoping I could bump one of them out of their align and getting a Venture kill. It seems like the kind of trophy I should have on my wall right? I crept up on them and only decloaked when I was about 5,000 meters away. I just missed my bump and the first Venture warped off, so I immediately locked the second one. This one ended up being afk. My drones only took two shots at him before he exploded. I stole his loot just for good measure.

Ah another fine day of killing defenseless miners. Maybe someday I’ll find another foe worthy of fighting me!

 

Sneaky Roam

Last week Azx, Jakob, and myself set out to lo-sec in a fairly odd fleet. We were looking for something a little more interesting than our standard Tech 1 cruisers and frigates, so we decided to roll out some heavy hitters. Jakob and I both piloted Pilgrims, and Azx brought out his uber-cloak Proteus. It was a sneaky fleet and it caught a poor Omen and Coercer unaware. Well the Coercer was actually just afk on a gate, so I guess anyone could have snuck up on him! o\

The Omen we found ratting in our lo-sec area. He never had a chance. In fact we didn’t even manage to get all our ships there before Azx exploded his ship.

The fleet did seem to work pretty well though. We were able to move from system to system without spooking too many people and we could pick our targets at will. I think we’ll definitely see this fleet roll out again sometime soon. Although I have to be honest, it was terrifying flying an expensive ship like that into combat again! I’ve gotten so used to losing a few million at a time!

A few days after that encounter I caught a thrasher ratting in lo-sec with the Pilgrim. It was a really clever catch and I wish the video had worked. I’m still having trouble getting the mic and game audio to work right with YouTube. I use the AVImux part of Dxtory, but the program doesn’t have a load bar, it just hangs when I run it. If I let it run for like a whole day, then force close it, the file usually works. But it’s super annoying that it doesn’t have a progress bar that works and I have to guess how long to let it run before knowing if it’s going to work. Does anyone know of a program that does what the AVImux program does as a standalone software?!

The Teacher Is In

So I’ve noticed an odd trend in my local lo-sec area.

The weirdest part is they aren’t always in the systems right next to hi-sec. Sometimes they’re way in there mining for god knows what. But none of them seem to know what they’re doing. They don’t align. They don’t seem to know what the directional scanner is for. They are the perfect targets, I just wish they dropped something more valuable. I might have to start ransoming them.

Ramming Speed!

A few days ago I found a Procurer on his own in a belt. Oddly enough he was bragging in local about how he hasn’t been caught mining in lo-sec in years…just as my Arbitrator landed in the belt with him. Now sadly I had swapped out my warp disruptor thinking I would use the Arby just for ratting and really run from most pvp. Which I will never do again. So I had to use the “bump” warp disruptor. It was effective for the first couple passes but he eventually was spared my onslaught by a catastrophic misclick on my part that closed part of my HUD and let him get away. I certainly learned from my mistake though and have since refitted the Arbitrator with the proper miner killing equipment.

Then just today, Poor Mujachip Muja got caught in a belt, unaligned, and with his d-scanner apparently switched off. Not that it would have helped him. My Pilgrim inched closer to him cloaked and eventually I got my fangs into a miner for keeps. I also managed a video (smiley emoticon). Ignore the part where I forget where the tactical overlay is. I spent a little time in local chat explaining how I had found him and how to avoid getting killed, or at least how to make it harder for me to kill him. A lesson I hope I can pass on to all the newbie miners in lo-sec!

DON’T SIT IN A BELT UNALIGNED. I don’t care how safe you think you are. Pick a station, a gate, something! ANYTHING! Stay aligned at all times. And if you see someone enter your system and not immediately warp out, guess what. They are probably going to try to kill you. Just saying. I do it a lot, I would know. Learn from Mujachip. Don’t end up on Vult’s board of Violence.

Devious Little Moa

Some more time in lo-sec today. Azx is around while most of the corp is out of town. We spend a fair bit of time looking around for something to do. The belts seem empty, nothing is very interesting from the probes. Looks like it’s going to be a slow day. On top of all that we’re too far from the trade hubs to blow some money on new shiny ships!

Unsuspecting Imicus

After a while we manage to find a lonely Imicus trying to hack a data site. I quickly probe her down, but she cloaks after seeing my probes I guess. Drat! I head to the data site anyway to hack it myself. Lo and behold our Imicus uncloaks in the site with me! She is racing towards the last loot box but with some quick math I give Azx a distance from myself to warp to. He lands about 10 km away. Needless to say he makes quick work of her.

After that things get really quiet. We both decide to log for a while and I head out for a long overdue jog. I grab some dinner and log back in many hours later. The less than exciting static connection is still up to my disappointment but I head into lo-sec again to see if I can find a fight.

My Pilgrim enters warp and before long I find a Moa ratting. A Moa is an awfully juicy target for a Pilgrim. I d-scan him down to one belt and decloak in warp to him ready to blast him out of his ship. I’m a hair too late though and he warps to the next belt. I give chase but can’t quite get him there either. He heads to a gate and jumps through with me in hot pursuit.

We uncloak on the other side and I see that he’s aligning to another gate. I warp there ahead of him hoping to get the jump on him on the other side, but he doesn’t follow. I warp back to 30 km from where I came from to find him at full velocity just flying aligned to the next gate. Smells like a trap, but if I can get him to attack me first, I would have the gate guns on my side and might get a kill before his friends arrive. You can even see in the video how long I hesitate before engaging, but engage I do! Sure enough local starts to spike and I start aligning towards the sun.

My drones are almost through the last of his armor but I am out of range of his point, and he is out of range of mine. Oddly we both manage to get out with our ships intact. It was a fun engagement and I’m happy to have made it out alive. Although a faction disruptor purchase may be in my very near future…

Tangible Metaphors About New Jersey

Pretty much…

This past week I have been shipped out to New Jersey for work. Not just office work mind you. Back breaking labor. I honestly don’t know why we don’t subcontract this crap out except that we make money by having one of us out there doing it. For those of you not from ‘MURICA! I’ll try to accurately describe for you this glorious state of the union. New Jersey sits along the eastern seaboard nestled cozily up against New York’s Staten Island. While a good portion of the state is made up of picturesque farmlands, most of the northern half of the state is industrial wasteland. It’s been a great 5 days, let me tell you.

Anyway since we start fieldwork so early I got out at about 2:00 pm yesterday and finally had some Eve time coming my way. With no one from the corp online, and nothing but our static wormhole active, I decided I would pop out and do a little ratting before hunting for a lo-sec kill. Our static wormhole dropped me off in a system called Shach. I had never been in the constellation before, but it was glorious. A whole string of lo-sec systems outside of factional warfare, with no stations to be seen. I couldn’t believe it! At least four systems in a row, no station in any of them, and nothing but cruisers and frigates on d-scan! It was a cloaked hunter’s dream and I made sure to make a special note of the system for the future. This was quickly becoming one of my favorite new hunting grounds.

Hunting grounds

With almost no one around I decided I would take some time and rat a little. The only thing I hate about hunting in lo-sec is the security status penalty. Might as well try to buffer the damage ahead of time. Plus those new security tags are worth some pretty good loot, never hurts to look for a few of those if you have the time. My Oracle jumps from belt to belt, picking apart pirate ships with ease. In under 10 minutes I manage to find one of the new security rats and promptly destroy it. The tag inside was worth 68 million isk. Not bad for 10 minutes of flying! I continue to warp around the area, increasingly impressed with the offerings, until I start to run into some pilots. Now is as good a time as any to switch over to the Pilgrim and see what I can catch. I start making my way back to my wormhole home, only mildly aware that there are core probes in our static system.

Once in the Pilgrim it’s out to hunt! The probes are still in system but I ignore them for now. One pilot in a Buzzard isn’t going to be much of a threat to me getting back home, even if he does find my wormhole. I warp around the lo-sec chain. A Rifter and a Thorax lead me on a good chase for a while. I end up on a gate with the Thorax for a moment, but hesitate to engage him with the gate guns nearby. He ends up jumping back the way I just came, and I can’t be bothered to try to catch him. I move on, continuing to rat in systems that don’t seem to offer any other amusement.

Unwelcoming party

Finally the time comes for me to start heading home. I’m exhausted and need to get some sleep soon. An uneventful trip back home is rudely interrupted by a notification in my inbox. “Your corporation’s base is under attack.” Double-U tee to the F. Who the fuck is attacking our system?! There were no other wormholes in there half an hour ago, I find it hard to believe one just happened to pop up with an aggressive corp on the other side. I race back to my wormhole assuming our attackers are from w-space. I get to the hole without incident but am greeted by an unwelcome sight after jumping through our static connection. A Cynabal, Broadsword, and Scythe are on the hole, drones out, looking for trouble. Luckily I seemed to catch them on break, because I’m able to immediately jump back through the hole and warp to the star. I accidentally warp to 0 though, and curse myself for my foolishness as the Cynabal shows up on my overview. By some divine act of Bob, the Cynabal warped to 100km, the distance I generally warp to when trying to evade someone. If I had not accidentally warped to 0km, there is a very good chance he would have had me.

But Bob is on my side today. He warps back to the hole and I follow at a respectable 70km. I then watch his whole crew jump back Shech from my home system and warp away. I decide now is my chance and burn towards the hole. Once safe at home I scan the system and find no new signatures. The attackers apparently were from my new favorite constellation. Perhaps my new favorite hunting area isn’t as perfect as I had originally thought.

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?

Hmm, Something’s Not Quiet Right Here…

Ugh! You ever have those days where all you want to do is play Eve, but you just can’t seem to get out of work or post-work social engagements? I swear my office was caught in a time vortex today. The hands on the clock above my coworker’s head did not move for hours! At least so it seemed. Then of course we have an old friend from out of town who wants to get beers. Fine, jerk! I’ll go have some beers with you. I finally get home, literally run upstairs and boot up the game to have this greet me…

Man today is just not going the way I want. I pace nervously around the apartment for a while and kill some time on reddit (shameless plug). Finally, sweet sweet Eve time is here! What wonders does the home wormhole system have in store for me today? Hmm, no anomalies. A ladar, a grav site, and two lo-sec wormholes. Yuck. Well, I need to take care of some online research so I might as well hit the ladar while I do that in a separate browser. But once I’ve finished that I think it’s time to get some hunting in. The Pilgrim hasn’t been out in a while, and I have a feeling there are some newbie pilots cruising around not knowing any better at this hour.

Sure enough once in the static system I find a Vexor, Maller, and Caracal pop up on my d-scanner. Mmm I can taste those newb tears now. Or maybe not as another Pilgrim blinks onto and immediately off of the scanner. Hmm, odd. Swinging the scanner around a few times gets me a nice vantage point on the Maller. But something doesn’t add up. There aren’t any rats in the belt, and he’s not moving, mining, or salvaging. He’s just sitting there. His toon is only a few months old, but if the Maller is known for one thing, it’s being a great bait ship. I decide to keep scanning.

The Caracal shows up as well, but he seems to be acting kind of funny too. He’s actually killing rats, but there’s just something about the way he doesn’t seem bothered with a dozen people in local, a Maller and a Vexor on scan. He’s about 70km away from me so I decide if maybe showing myself will elicit some kind of response. I point in a direction away from the ratter, decloak and hit my MWD. Sure enough the Caracal is trying to lock me almost immediately but I’m not close enough for him to get a clear lock just yet. And besides, I’m not really watching what he’s doing, I’m spamming my d-scanner. I’m watching the Tengu, Pilgrim, Curcifier, and a few other ships materialize out of nowhere.

Good call gut feeling, let’s get out of here! I align to a planet and warp away, never really in danger. I spark up a quick convo with the tricksters who continue their charade for a while but eventually give in. Oh well, no easy kills tonight, at least there was some excitement! There’s always next time, and at the very least…I didn’t lose my ship.

 

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.

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.

A Harsh Introduction

So here’s the situation. I have just gotten home from work and only had a few hours before running all the way back uptown to catch the midnight (actually the 12:05, damn 12:01 was sold out) viewing of The Hobbit (it was awesome by the way, although to be fair I’m heavily bias towards rowdy dwarves). I’m convinced though to make the most of my time in-game and immediately get to work.

It doesn’t look like anyone has scanned since I did so yesterday, so that seems like a good place to start. Four signatures doesn’t take long, and I’m left with two ladar sites and two wormholes. One hole is the same static as yesterday. It must be on its way out pretty soon. The second is an unknown K162 which leads to more w-space. This hole is noisy as heck though, and I thankfully check the info on it before jumping through. The hole is at critical mass. Apparently whoever is on the other side attempted to collapse it but didn’t want to risk the last jump through to finish the job. Sloppy. Oh well, they seem to not want me to poke around and I’m content to leave them be. I have plenty of other things on my plate.

I run some necessary PI around to keep my grunts manufacturing their precious rocket fuel and coolant. Shortly after that I commandeer Oz’s gas suckling ship and zip off to the first ladar site. The harvesting goes well, I manage to finish the entire site with only minor complications from a small fleet of sleeper frigates. On to the second one and its pair of sleeper cruisers. Just as I settle into a cloud with the gas guzzler again, a ship pops up on my directional scanner. A Venture! The new mining frigate is a welcome break from the tedious gas sucking task at hand and I immediately head back to the tower to grab the Oracle. I assume the ship came through the static that’s about to close and head in that direction. Except the static is already closed.

This is a monkey wrench. I have a hidden U210 hole and a new hole that this intruder has come through. I don’t like unknowns but as a set of core probes come up on the overview I determine the Venture has opened a new K162 which led him here and he’s looking to steal some gas. I zip back to the tower and grab my Anathema with sister’s combat probes ready. Directional scanning puts the Venture somewhere below the solar plane, and I start scanning for his ship. Oddly the Venture seems oblivious to all my ship swapping and the fact that a host of combat probes are now flying around the solar system. I begin to wonder if this guy is a total n00b or bait.

Either way I quickly lock down the ship’s location, hoping that he’s in a safespot and unable to escape back through the wormhole he came through. I decide to use the Pilgrim, since, well, I fucking love the Pilgrim. The Oracle would probably be a better choice, able to one shot the ship. But this is my first fight in over a month and the Pilgrim just feels right. I enter warp and check my scanner every second. If the pilot is concerned about my presence, he doesn’t seem to show it. His probes are still out in the system and he hasn’t moved. That “it’s a trap” feeling is starting to set in. In a big way too, but there’s nothing I can do now, I’m in warp and I’m going to land right on the bastard.

The cloak sheds upon arrival as I’m within 1km of the ship and the adjoining wormhole. I lock onto the ship and launch a fleet of light drones. It’s over quickly. The pilot never moved, and in fact his pod didn’t either. That blew up pretty easily as well. Another corpse for the collection! The loot is sparse. Very sparse. Oh good god this guy is like seven days old. I am that asshole in Eve.

Sweet.

It’ll be a good learning experience for him. If nothing else he has learned to fear the wormhole, and that is always a good lesson. The 255k isk loss shouldn’t set even a brand new player back much. Especially one in a corp with an alliance. The wormhole leads to hi-sec, conveniently very close to Amarr. This has turned out to be a handy little ambush I put together. With all quiet in system once again I turn my attention back to gas guzzling for a while longer before running off to my movie. Nothing like a little blood letting to get the evening off on the right foot.