Speed Freaks - Part I

I'm, unfortunately, going to gloss over the saga of my journey to and from Phaze-9, which was the arc I had embarked upon before I (once again) ran out of momentum on this diary last time. Suffice to say I had a good time, met some people, killed some people etc. I had the great pleasure of taking part in several very large battles, and, teamed with Caster Rom, won the Ushra'Khan cruiser tournament. However, I found the numerous rules of U'K too restrictive and they dampened my fun on more than one occasion. Having enjoyed the freedom of piracy before hand, suddenly having vast swathes of space where I couldn't attack people who weren't specifically marked as enemies really hurt. On one occasion I defied this rule to save a friend from otherwise certain death and was reprimanded for it. U'K obviously wasn't for me; I didn't have the self control. So, leaving several good friends behind I set out to forge my own destiny. I returned to my own corporation: Teeth of the Beast.

I won't expand on the happenings between then and now, at least not in this entry. I shall expand on a very recent adventure with the aforementioned Caster Rom, who, no matter where I go in the galaxy, always seems to turn up. I'm never sure if this is a good thing or not. I joke of course Cas, if your reading this. For this particular adventure Caster plus two other factors were the catalysts for it even starting. The additional two factors were my birthday and Casters amazing generosity. Having accidently let slip in a conversation with him that it was my birthday, and spending the next ten minutes dodging questions about my exact age, he proceeded to buy a present to mark the occasion. To my utter incredulity the present he had bought me was a rare faction frigate, the Dramiel. I happened to know that these fetch a pretty penny and that it was a very generous present. He hadn't only bought one either. He had bought us a matching pair and the cherry on top of the cake would be a Dramiel roam into null sec.

For those of you who haven't ever talked to another human being, the Dramiel is a frigate designed by one of the galaxies most feared organisations: the Angel Cartel. This thing is a masterpiece of engineering, I haven't quite decided whether the man who designed this was a genius or a lunatic. Now I come to think about it, only genius with the oily film of lunacy could have produced such a design. Unlike a lot of ships, this one looks like a weapon. It's flowing curves that come to deadly points epitomise the beauty in war and death. This combined with its, quite frankly, terrifying speed, surprising toughness, and respectable damage output make it a truly sublime ship. When I say speed, what I actually mean is SPEEEEEEED!!!!!!! I have witnessed these things moving in excess of 10km/s. It is this attribute which makes them an object of fear and awe in my eyes; many a time have I been in a system and left purely because one of these has entered local. I have also had the misfortune of being on the wrong end of their weapons and, without exception, I have died every time. This is what Caster Rom had handed me. God I love that man.

I eagerly broke out my wallet and bought a nice fit for it. I opted for a kiting setup, and splurged a bit on the afterburner, buying a Gistii B-type 1MN afterburner. This would give a big speed boost and wasn't that expensive as dead space modules go, weighing in at a moderate 14mil. This was a pirate faction ship, it deserved some preferential treatment. The kiting setup would give me much greater survivability and allow me take on a wider range of targets that a close range fit. You paid for this with less DPS, but I felt this was an acceptable price. Unbeknownst to me Caster had gone for a close range fit by fitting a scrambler rather than a disruptor like I had. This meant we would complement each other nicely. I can practically taste the explosions.

I Plead Lazy Your Honour

I must apologize profusely for my lack of updates, or indeed any kind of activity, on this account of my life. It won't continue for any longer, this, I swear to you. Even if I don't find the time to write a finely crafted account of my actions, I shall at least write a few sentences to update you all on my progress, thoughts, schemes, etc. This scant, snivelling update will have to satisfy you for now, but a much larger update is in the works and I shall have it for you as soon as I can. I will endeavour to be multitudes better than I was previously to make up for my many months of idleness.

Mayhem - Part II

So, fit complete, I headed out to test it. The first test wasn't anywhere near as eventful as I had hoped, but it was still a success. I went into Providence through HED- and moved up to D-G. This was a station system so I spent a while scouting it out and setting up bookmarks. I then settled down outside the station and waited for a target to undock. The very first thing that undocked was a Badger Mk II. A hauler that fell easily to my bomb run. The format for a bomb run is simple: sit cloaked until a viable target appears. Then move directly towards them, uncloak, launch the bomb and warp off. By the time the enemy knows what's going on, your long gone, and the bomb explodes. As you can see this first run was very successful, and this first act of violence towards the locals quickly got their attention. Several rather nasty ships undocked to protect any more undocking vessels and to deter me, scariest of all was a sensor boosted artillery Hurricane which was something that I really didn't want to mess with. A long range, fast locking ship is death incarnate for a ship like the stealth bomber. While the heat from my attack died down I moved into another station system and again set up my various safes and bomb spots. It seemed though that the owners of this station took immediate offense to my presence and a lot of ships undocked including several interceptors, a Dramiel, and some interdictors. Again all very fast, and quite capable if catching me if I attempted a bomb run. A collection of ships that is lethal to any stealth bomber. I backed out of there pretty quick as with that lot floating around I dare not uncloak. I moved back into D-G and set up ready to bomb again, but unfortunately I didn't get any kills. My continued presence though was starting to annoy them, and I received some intelligence telling me that they were forming a coherent gang to try and catch me. Before this could materialise I made my escape and headed home.

I took it out again the next day, still into Providence but a different area this time. The area I took it to was a dead end area where I knew there were several large industrial operations. I would try and bag myself some more kills or at the very least disrupt these operations. So I headed out and almost immediately jumped into a gate camp. No problem though, as soon as I left the protective cloaking field provided by the gate I turned my own on and was gone before they could even get a lock on me. I got to the first system that I had planned on searching for targets in. This too, was a station system, but before I set up shop I mapped out the jump bridges and set up safes and bomb spots. The activity around the JBs was limited at best so I moved into position outside of the station. Again a hapless hauler undocked and my bomb blew his ship apart. As I was warping away I inspected my read outs and realised that his cargo had survived. So I warped back at range to destroy the wreck to prevent them from recovering it. When I landed there was a Devoter sitting outside. I was out of its elongated point range so I uncloaked locked up both the wreck and him. Tracking disruptor on the heavy interdictor, and target painter and torpedoes on the wreck. The TD nicely nullified the Devoters weapons and I blew the wreck apart, denying them the cargo. A hauler undocked at this point, it was no doubt trying to save the cargo before I could destroy it. I targeted that as well and transferred my torps and TP to it before I could land the hit however, it warped off. I transferred my weapons to the Devoter and blasted through the shields and started working on the, sadly, much tougher armour. I didn't dare go into point range for fear of being pointed myself. This was definitely something I didn't want as I knew reinforcements would be on their way. Several of the aforementioned reinforcements landed on grid, including a Rapier and several T1 frigates, so I made a hasty get away.

Back at one of my scanning spots I detected a Cormorant along with a large quantity or wrecks. Assuming it was a salvage ship I scanned for anomalies and quickly located him. I warped in and landed about 50km away from the ship. Annoyingly he was moving around to quickly for me to accurately bomb, so I uncloaked, locked him up and put all my E-war on him. The ships relatively small signature radius protected him from a lot of the damage but even still by volley three he was in deep armour. The moment I appeared though he had signalled his friends and I soon detected a stream of inbound ships. This denied me the destroyers death but it did give me a great deal of intel on the ships that the rest of the pilots were flying. It was a very varied selection which included almost every ship class. I warped to gate and several of them had beaten me there. I had no intention of leaving though, I was having far too much fun messing with these people. Just as these thoughts were passing through my head, a stream of angry abuse came across on the local channel: demands to leave their system, and derogatory terms of abuse. Of course I found this extremely amusing and I told them so. The reaction was so child like I was practically crying with laughter: "Well we don't really care that your here anyway!". For a bunch of people who supposedly didn't care about my presence they sure put a lot of effort into catching me.

They set up several ill conceived and obvious traps. I sprung every single one and tried to catch several of them off guard. One of the worst traps was a slow aligning mining barge on one of the gates, guarded by a Brutix. I deduced that the moment I uncloaked to launch a bomb the barge would insta-warp and the Brutix would try and hold me there for the backup to arrive. I decided to go for the Brutix, from a basic inspection of the ship it looked as though it were fitted with T1 guns. I hoped the rest of the ship was as shoddily fit. I decloaked and launched by bomb. As I suspected the mining barge warped off, and the Brutix started targeting me. I responded in kind and launched torpedoes, and suppressed it's weapons with my tracking disruptor. My bomb had dealt it a serious blow; it's shields had been totally obliterated and a good chunk of its armour had been taken out. I hoped I could finish it before his friends arrived. The so far impotent Brutix didn't do anything to dispel this notion as it deployed T1 drones. Still nothing to fear from this ship. My torps were knocking chucks out of its armour and I reaching structure. I kept an eagle eye on my scanners and unfortunately a large number of ships showed up and were approaching at high warp. I stayed until they landed on grid, trying to finish off the battlecruiser, but it was not to be. I bailed before any ships could get a lock on me. I triggered several other "traps", but I didn't get any kills. More people piled into local, raising it to around forty. At this point I jumped through the gate into a massive gate camp. It consisted of at least thirty ships, but they couldn't catch me, ooooh no! "better luck next time guys!", I taunted in local. At which point I jumped into another gate camp and was promptly blown to smithereens, pod and all.

While the trip had a rather unsatisfactory ending, I felt that, as a whole, it was a success. The fit had faired very well and had foxed many an opponent. With it I had caused so much trouble I had pulled over one hundred pilots away from their regular duties in order to catch me. I had also significantly disrupted the industrial operations in the area, and I had gathered a lot of intel on the area. I had also mapped out many areas of interest such as POSs, jump bridges, and stations. I had set up many bomb spots and observation points. In actual combat this fit worked admirably and on more than one occasion I had been able to suppress one target with the TD, while attacking another. Bar a few scratches from some drones I had taken virtually no damage despite several small skirmishes. Seeing as I had mapped this area so thoroughly and the fit had been such a success I would definitely return, to harass the locals some more.

Mayhem - Part I

I'm taking a quick brake from the tale of my journey to Phaze-9, to talk about one of my more recent adventures. If I don't, I will forget some of the details and the retelling will not be anything as entertaining, as when it was fresh in my mind.

I have been flying a lot of direct combat ships recently and decided I wanted a change of pace. So away went the battlecruisers and frigates, and out comes the stealth bomber. I fly the Gallente interpretation of the this ship class: the Nemesis. Based on the successful Tristan hull, this ship could pack quite a punch. For those that don't know, stealth bombers are frigate sized ships that that can use the extremely useful Covert Ops Cloak. Unlike other cloaking devices this highly sophisticated piece of technology has none of the setbacks that the other, cruder, forms suffer from. When cloaked there is no speed penalty, there is a greatly decreased lock delay after uncloaking, and most significantly you can warp cloaked. The last point in particular is a frighteningly powerful ability. It allows almost total freedom of movement around a system, even if it is crawling with hostiles. Other notable advantages this ship possesses, is the ability to fire torpedoes (huge missiles which are usually the purview of Battleships) and the unique ability to use bombs. Again the last point is of note. Bombs are an unguided explosive charge that can only be fired from a stealth bomber. They do not require target locks, but fly in the direction launched for a set amount of time before violently exploding. The damage they dish is surprisingly large and is distributed over a wide area. For all the destructive power these little ships have they are however, rather flimsy. All these traits, when combined, make this ship ideal for a hit and run, guerrilla style of warfare.

The version I fly, the Nemesis, seems to be particularly underused with the Caldari and Mitari versions being the favoured; the Manticore and the Hound respectively. The Nemesis seems to be a very poorly treated and fitted bomber. You quite often see horrible fits with shield extenders, and only one sensor dampener. First of all I see no point in wasting a slot by putting a shield extender on there. The ship, like all stealth bombers, has the structural integrity of a wet paper bag. Putting a shield extender on there is like putting the wet paper bag that is the Nemesis into another wet paper bag. In short it doesn't make enough difference to warrant losing a slot. In principle the Sensor dampener is a very good idea however, one of them is not going to make enough difference unless you are working at long ranges. At these ranges it is impossible to keep the tackle on your target and you become reliant on other pilots to hold them there for you. This doesn't seem to occur to many people though as I frequently see fits with both sensor dampener and a warp disruptor. At ranges where you can tackle with the disruptor the SD will make no tangible difference so you might as well have an empty slot. On second thought an empty slot is probably better as it doesn't drain your capacitor. Below I will detail my journey to a useful and functional fit and how the fit performed on its first outings.

I have been flying bombers for a while now and as I have gained experience and the learned to use new pieces of equipment my fit has evolved. It has gone through three distinct stages. This first stage, was after I had only just learnt to use the ships and their basic equipment. At this point in time I couldn't use bombs so the fit looked like this:

[Nemesis, Stage 1]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
[empty high slot]

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

This setup is in no way suited to solo flying and must operate as part of a group. It has no real way of defending itself and can't hold anyone down. The lack of a bomb launcher also means it isn't very viable for any of the guerrilla tactics normally associated with this ship. It served me well for a while but I soon learned how to operate the bomb weapon system so I upgraded to this:

[Nemesis, Stage 2]
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II

1MN Afterburner II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

As you can see the major changes are the addition of a bomb launcher and the replacement of the MWD with an AB. The fitting was rather tight so I had to downgrade the MWD. This was still very much a gang ship, as it suffers from the same limitations as the previous version, bar the bomb launcher. With the addition of the aforementioned launcher I could now start practicing with them. I had a few initial runs that didn't actually result in any kills but did provide me with the skills for setting up bomb points and escaping quickly. Between this stage and the next there was a minor change in the fit:

[Nemesis, Stage 2.5]
Ballistic Control System II
Beta Reactor Control: Reaction Control I

1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron
Sensor Booster II

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

[empty rig slot]
[empty rig slot]

Back in came the MWD and out went a BCU to provide room for a fitting mod allowing me to fit the MWD. This change came after my Nemesis was caught and destroyed in a gate that I could have escaped had I an MWD rather than the AB. The small loss in damage I felt was a price worth paying for additional survivability. These ships aren't cheap you know. The next change was definitely the most sweeping change yet. The others had merely been modifications and alterations, but this heralded a fundamental change in the way I would use and pilot the ship:

[Nemesis, Final Stage]
Local Power Plant Manager: Capacity Power Relay I
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Warp Disruptor II
1MN MicroWarpdrive II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption
Phased Weapon Navigation Array Generation Extron

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Caldari Navy Inferno Torpedo
Bomb Launcher I, Scorch Bomb
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I
Small Semiconductor Memory Cell I

This setup is far more offensive in nature than the previous incarnations. I have thought about this setup in great detail and tried to make sure that every module serves a specific and useful purpose. The High slots need no explanation and they are the only element of the fit that remained virtually unchanged throughout this whole process.

The Med slots are where most of the thought has gone and where you see, in my opinion at least, most of the mistakes.

First off is the tackle, in this case it is a Warp Disruptor II. It has a base range of 24km and an overheated range of 28.8km. This is an essential module for keeping my prey in place so I can deal them a fatal blow. The longer range over a scrambler allows me to keep my valuable and fragile ship out of harms way. If I had some spare money I would substitute this for a faction point that has a higher base range, and consequently a higher overheat range. This would allow me to keep at an even safer range.

Next is the MWD. This module allows me reach great speeds, to keep me away from my target and get me safely out of camps.

The next module is my only form of defence on the ship, other than its speed. A tracking disruptor interferes with the targets turret tracking and range finding abilities. I have the choice of two different scripts to load into it to effect different parts of the turrets. The first script, and the one I most commonly use, is the optimal range script. This drastically decreases the range the turrets can effectively hit out to. With this module active ships can shoot as much as they like and I will take only a minimal amount of damage or maybe even none at all depending on the weapon fitted to the ship.

Finally in the last med slot is Phased Weapon Navigation Array. This is a type of target painter. It increases the signature radius of the target which means my torpedoes have an easier time hitting them. Effectively it means I can do more damage.

The Lows are simple. First off is the Nanofibre Internal structure II, this lightens the ship improving speed and manoeuvrability. Both of these are vital for me to keep out of hard tackle range (e.g. webs and scramblers) and to escape if things get a little hot.

The power relay when combined with the rigs allow me to run all of my E-war and be cap stable, which I believe to be very important, especially when dealing with large targets that take a while to go down. The last thing you want is for them to escape at the last moment because you ran out of cap. This has, rather embarrassingly, actually happened to me before. Also if the only thing keeping you alive is the TD, the last thing you want is for that to shut down due to lack of power. That could be a very expensive mistake.

Sweet Freedom

At the end of my last entry I was left in low sec with no affiliations to anyone or anything; be that corporations, alliances, even my friends, who were scattered across the galaxy. I had to worry about none of them, I was completely alone. It was intoxicating: I was uninhibited, totally free. While I loved this feeling I wanted to give null sec a second chance. I don’t think I got the best view of it and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get as much combat as it had to offer. So the search for a new corporation became my primary goal. This time I would on more than the CEO’s word, and I actually do some research into the corporation and just as importantly the alliance they were part of. Whilst I was awaiting the results of my searches I obviously had some spare time on my hands. I couldn’t just sit in the station bar for however long it took me to find a new corporation, as pleasant as that would be. So I formed my own one man band, to have fun and to strike fear in the hearts of my enemies. The name I choose was “Teeth of the Beast”.

And so commenced some of the most amusing days I had had in a long time. You guessed it; I made a return to piracy. Quite a triumphal return I’d like to think. The ship I choose to use for this period of piracy was the Vexor, in my opinion, one of the best T1 cruisers currently in production. At this point, my base of operations was still located on the border with null sec. This resulted in relatively high volumes of traffic through the surrounding systems, so the likelihood of finding good targets was significantly increased. I didn’t want to be too trigger happy as I wanted to keep my sec status intact, so I had to lay down some rules of engagement for myself. I would not pod at all, this would give me a big sec status hit that I simply couldn’t afford. I would also only attack outlaws where ever possible as this wouldn’t result in any security status loss at all. I would stick to these rules unless the target was just too damn juicy. So with these things set in my mind I sallied forth in my ship and started looking for targets.

I decided to have a quick foray in null sec first of all. In null sec I would be free from the limitations of my rules of engagement as you receive no penalties for attacking and killing ships of pods. I was feeling reckless and was desperate for a confrontation and so jumped blindly in. I was fully expecting there to be a gate camp and to die horribly, but I was pleasantly surprised to find no camp at all. There were however several residents floating around that I fancied having a crack at. I loudly proclaimed my entrance into their null sec system and challenged some of them to a duel. To my surprise someone offered themselves up. We rendezvoused at the gate from which I had entered so if he and a fleet of buddies showed up I could make a hasty exit. To my surprise the ship that showed up was an Amarrian assault ship classified as a vengeance. He saw my ship, which is pretty lethal to anything frigate sized, and to my surprise still consented to our duel. It was a swift and very definite victory for me. The ship melted like an ice cube in a furnace under the firepower of my guns and drones. Despite the fact I was in null sec and would not be penalized for it, I didn’t pod him and allowed to escape with his life. I respected his honourable conduct. With my first victory under my belt, and the related spoils I had appropriated from his wreck safely stowed in my cargo hold, I returned to low sec and unfortunately was called away from my ship on business, so the pirating session had to end prematurely.

The next day I awoke early, and eagerly leapt into my Vexor and went out scouting for targets. I managed to locate a potential target, but annoyingly he was a neutral and so attacking him would have caused me to lose security status. The ship in question was a Rupture, a Minmatar cruiser. I warped around to see if I could establish what he was doing, and quickly established that he was following me which in all likelihood meant he was hunting me. This was ideal, it meant I could bait him into attacking me, and if he fired the first shot I could fire back without any repercussions to my security status. I waited patiently at a belt for his inevitable arrival and prepared for combat. The Rupture landed on grid and I immediately burned for him, I locked and prepared to fire. He aggressed almost immediately so I opened up with everything I had: drones, guns, nuets and e-war. We were both had buffer fits, so it came down to a contest of raw firepower. As the rupture approached one third armour, I was still ahead of him with just over half armour left. But it was still going to be a very close fight. He got down to structure; I had less than a quarter armour left. I wasn’t taking any chances and overheated my guns to ensure I finished him off quickly. My guns obviously struck something vital, as a violent chain reaction tore the ship apart. I let his pod go free, and looted his wreck for anything valuable that might have survived the explosion. I had a quick chat with him and congratulated him on a fight well fought and moved on in search of more targets.

The next potential target I found was a far larger than the cruiser I had just taken on. It was a Hyperion battleship, and from my scans it looked like it was ratting at a belt. I warped in to have a look see, and I landed pretty close to a ship that dwarfed mine. I locked him to see how his tank was doing against the rats. If it was poorly fit I may have been able to tip his tank over the edge and so get myself a nice kill. He was through shield and partially into armour but it looked like his tank was buckling beneath the damage of the local pirates alone. One problem: he was a neutral. I blasted my RoE out of the airlock and attacked him anyway, this was too juicy to pass up and hopefully one kill shouldn’t push me over the edge. I loosed my drones and trained my guns on the cumbersome battleship which was slowly turning to attempt to make an escape. I had that covered however and jammed his warp engines. I kept a tight orbit to him, almost rubbing hulls. This would ensure my angular velocity was as high as possible, which would make it far more difficult for his large guns to track me and hit me. He was positively melting under the combined damage of myself and the local scum. Paying closer attention I noticed that he was neither firing on me, nor was there any kind of tank running at all as far as my instruments were concerned. This puzzled me greatly, had this pilot just resigned himself to death? It got to the point where his ship had received so much damage it lost all structural integrity, and blew apart in a massive explosion. Upon closer inspection of the wreck I discovered that the reason it did not retaliate or attempt to protect itself in any way was that the ship was totally unfitted! I contacted the pilot to ask about this oddity and he explained that it was insurance fraud that he appreciated the help. A sec status penalty for no gain. How irritating.

I returned to the station and went to the bar for a meal and a drink. Once I returned to my rented quarters, I noticed in my alcohol induced haze that my communicator was flashing up a missed call. I chucked a couple of pills in mouth and washed them down with a glass of water. These would quickly flush the ethanol out of my blood stream and allow me to concentrate. Once these had taken affect I went over to my communicator and checked what was on it; several mails and a few missed calls, all concerning my search for a new corporation. One in particular stood out from all the others though: a call from one of the recurring characters in my life. A certain disreputable fellow by the name of Caster Rom.

Disappointment

Once again I have been lax in regards to recording my activities for posterity and, of course, your reading pleasure. For this I apologize. I have done much since my last entry, so it shall necessitate several entries which I will endeavour to deliver to you as swiftly as possible. Anyway here goes:

When last we met I was a member of a corporation called Gravis Unbound, which was in turn a member of an alliance called The Council. When I joined Gravis, I was promised all the pleasures of null-sec, but most of all I was promised my beloved combat, and plenty of it. This did not materialise in anything close to the quantity I had been promised. It turned out the CEO of Gravis had overstated in regards to both quality AND quantity. I spent a significant portion of my oh-so-precious-time looking for combat in any enjoyable form, but I was having very little luck. The council did not even seem to a particularly big mover or shaker in the alliance world at all and very rarely went on big operations. It turned out that the council was far more powerless than I had imagined possible for any null-sec alliance. We only seemed to hold onto our space by dint of some rather formidable allies more than with our own skill and determination, or so it seemed to me anyway. Enough of The Councils inadequacies’, and back to my quest for combat.

The corp I was part of had a fair few pilots in it, around sixty if I recall, and I hoped I might be able to galvanize a portion of them into going out on ops with me. I made myself the unofficial head of combat and immediately started trying to organise some ops. “Try”, regrettably, being the optimum word. I knew there were some inexperienced combat pilots among us so the initial op I arranged was a fun training op. I set down some basic ground rules:

1) There are no ship or fitting restrictions, but you may not bring a ship someone is already bringing. You get kudos for bringing an interesting ship/fit.

2) No outright destruction of ships unless all involved parties agree to it.

3) There are no other rules.

I instated the first rule so that people would hopefully get a good idea of various different ships and ship types capabilities. With over sixty people in the corp, if only a quarter showed up we would have had a very interesting and varied bunch of ships.The second rule was for all the people who could not afford the loss of too many ships. I hoped that this rule would also encourage people to bring far more expensive ships i.e. T2 ships, battleships etc.Rule three? Well if a game has too many rules it is confusing, and takes the fun out of it.

The format for the op would be for general introductions to combat and study of ships and fits to begin with, then head into some mock fights to see how people would deal with various types of ships. Then to make things way more fun for all involved we would then split in teams of two or three and they were to try and hunt each other down. This would give them good practice with the on board scanner, give them a chance to try out various team tactics, work to the strengths of the ships in each team, and learn how to exploit the weaknesses of other ships. When your ship was reduced to hull you would return to the “safe zone” and await the end. Last team with a member left “alive” would win a prize and a good time would be had by all. Now I know for a fact that if I had organised this when I was in the Tuskers every single pilot would have signed up and we would have had a great laugh. Out of a corporation with more than sixty pilots in it guess how many signed up? Give up? Four! God damn four of the bastards signed up. I had been frustrated before, by now I was incandescent with rage and disappointment. These people had no sense of fun and adventure and the alliance as a whole was a huge let down, and I felt they were somewhat of an embarrassment. Don’t get me wrong there were some people in Gravis I very much enjoyed flying with or spending time with but they were a sputtering candle in the dark that was the rest of the alliance.

I had been mulling over leaving for a while but this was a deciding factor in my leaving the corp and the alliance. Something that sealed the deal was some turbulence with our allies. It looked like they wouldn’t be our allies for much longer and I was certain that were they to turn against us we would be wiped out in a very short space of time. So I packed my gear and got out sharpish, transporting all my ships and modules out of null-sec with the aid of a jump freighter pilot in Gravis. Luckily I had got my security status to a point where could once again fly freely in high security space, and had built up a significant store of ISK. With both those things sorted and having safely exited null-sec and Gravis Unbound I was free to roam the galaxy to my heart’s content and to find my new place in the universe.

Rare and exotic

These are two words to describe the ships that I encountered today. Another two would be deadly and lethal. I had a bit of an impetuous day today and as a consequence both the rare faction ship the Nightmare and the Tech III beastie the Proteus both ended up on a couple of my death mails. For your viewing pleasure these can be seen here and here.

I collected the Proteus death mail in null-sec. Me and a drake friend jumped through a gate, and to our delight found a falcon sitting there. We immediatly locked and attacked it. The falcon had the drake jammed and locked down in a very short space of time leaving only my DPS to break through it's shields. I had got it down to about 1/5 when the Harbinger and afformentioned Proteus joined the fray and attacked me. I immediatly deaggressed and went for the gate. I got in range but the gate wouldn't let me jump on account of my hostile actions and I would have to wait. It was a race against time; could my tank hold out against the two DPS heavy ships? Well obviously not and I have the death mail to show for it. The Drake pilot made it out alive.

The second wasn in high sec. Me and a corp mate went hunting for war targets and we located a couple in a nearby system. They were outside a station attacking another of our allies. It was a the Nightmare and a Hurricane. we decided we should go for the Hurricane. Now instead of doing the sensible thing i.e. waiting to see if I could cope with the Nightmare's DPS then attacking, I steamed towards the Hurricane and aggressed it. I immediatly regretted it as the Nightmare's guns tore into me. Once again I had the aggression timer and so couldn't dock staright away. The gauling thing is that my ship exploded just as I got docking permission. If I'd only lasted a few more seconds I wouldn't have a second Brutix death mail in the same day. Oh well, lessons learnt and all that. In this case I learnt (again) not to be too eager.