Rifter Drifter

Sunday saw the highly anticipated Tuskers “E-war Op”. The plan was pretty simple, as all the best plans are. Everyone was to turn up in a ship with bonuses for electronic warfare and fit the appropriate e-war to their ship. I opted for a Bellicose named Michaelangelo seeing as it was a target painter.

[Bellicose, Michaelangelo]
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Overdrive Injector System II

Valkyrie II x1
Valkyrie II x1
Valkyrie II x1
Warrior II x1
Warrior II x1

After a bit of messing around in a safespot in Hevrice the fleet was ready to move out. We had my Bellicose, an Arbitrator, an Arazu, two Blackbirds, a Celestis, and a pair of Keres, as well as a couple of other ships along for the ride. Every race was represented and the plethora of bonused sensor dampners would hopefully allow us to counter any e-war brought against us.

The early parts of the roam were completely barren. We moved through Aeschee and the surrounding systems, into Old Man Star, and eventually on to Tama without incident. In Sujarento we spent a while dodging the fleets moving through the system before entering Tama and looping back towards Old Man Star.

In Nisuwa we found an Ishkur and Caster bravely tackled it in his Arazu before he’d moved out to a safe range. I say bravely. It was nearly suicidal. Thankfully the gang landed in time the Ishkur was quickly reduced to nothing more than an impotent training drone and then shortly after into a pile of wreckage.

By now Ronan was en route to join us in a second Bellicose. In Abune we picked up a battlecruiser gang on scan while Caster was scouting a Blood Money Cartel gang in Heydieles. The battlecruisers jumped out and shortly afterwards we saw probes up on scan. Interesting. The gang had been spread out so we regrouped and watched the scanner carefully. If an interesting gang warped towards us we would engage. Otherwise we would flee. Pretty quickly two interceptors from the Caldari milita appeared on scan and I decided to bug out. I warped the fleet to the Heydieles gate and gave the order to jump. On the other side we were greeted by a pair of interceptors, a Drake, and a Rupture. As I cold warped the fleet to a safespot the ‘ceptors got a lock on me and shut me down. While the rest of the gang warped to safety I was torn apart. Not only that but the buggers got my pod too. Bye bye to a bunch of +4 implants.

Reeling from the podding I woke up in Amamake and handed control of the fleet over to Leo. There wasn’t much I could do from here. With frustration coursing through my veins I undocked one of my crap Rifters and patrolled the area to see what I could find. Nothing but a largish fleet in Amamake and the surrounding areas were all empty. Now I was even more frustrated. I jumped into Auga and saw a large fleet in a Minmatar compound. Desperate to avenge the loss of my clones I warped in at range to see if I could pick off one of the interceptors. Some less than cool piloting saw me scrambled by a Claw and then despatched by the whole fleet. At least my pod got out this time.

Even more frustrated I grabbed another Rifter and decided to go hunt for Goons in Delve. The journey involved several high security jumps and I safely passed through Tash-Murkon Prime, Sarum Prime, and Amarr. I was nearly back in low security space. My ship was in warp to the next gate and all seemed well. All of a sudden my control systems froze. My pod interface lagged. I was hammering the jump command but nothing was happening. This wasn’t good. The police were onto me now and I was taking damage. More desperate pounding of the jump command but no joy. My ship was destroyed and I was forced to retrace my steps back to Amamake.

At this point my frustration had peaked and I decided the only option was to power down, jump clone back home, and hit my bunk for the night with some holoreels for company. Maybe tomorrow I’d feel more productive.

On Saturday I wandered down to my hangar and fired up the corporate communications channels. The guys were out on a roam in Placid. I hopped into my Bellicose and set out to join them. By the time I hooked up with them in Loes they were heading home but I tagged along for the ride. There were a couple of outlaw battlecruisers in Ouelletta but I was unable to make a tackle on them. Giving up I warped to the Melmaniel gate and jumped. Imagine my surprise to see a Drake, Harbinger, and Brutix on the other side. Better still the Harbinger and Drake proceeded to engage the Brutix. The sentry guns took a dim view of this and opened fire on the two battlecruisers. Then a Manticore belonging to Distructo uncloaked and began firing on the Drake. With the sentry guns, Brutix, and stealth bomber on it the Drake’s shields collapsed and it exploded. Scared by my presence the Manticore cloaked and I burnt for the Harbinger. My warp scrambler activated as the Brutix’s hull ruptured and buckled. Now it was just me and the sentries against the golden-hulled Harbinger. All I had to do was keep him pinned down. Alex Rudd jumped through in his Stabber and joined in the fun. Amazingly the Harbinger engaged me. Why he didn’t try and tank the sentries and just jump back into Oulletta I’ll never know. The Harbinger exploded just before Novantco could make it to us to join in the fun. We held the field and I looted and salvaged all three wrecks. A very nice haul for very little work indeed.

Later on I was prowling with another small Tusker gang. We were back in Placid and this time I was in my Stabber. We found a Hurricane in Agoze and the fleet engaged. Yet another nano’d ship. Once again we found it hard to get a scrambler on him but it didn’t matter. I was able to keep up in my Stabber and with Latronicus’ tracking disruptors as well as Caster’s ECM drones he was unable to fight back effectively. Just as he was about to explode local suddenly spiked and a fleet of battlecruisers descended upon us. Where had they come from? None of us had seen them arriving in system. Crap. We overloaded our guns and burnt away from the incoming gang. As we fled the Hurricane exploded but we were unable to loot the wreck. As we disengaged Caster’s Thorax and Latronicus’ Arbitrator were caught and gunned down. In my desperation to flee I’d left my ECM drone in the belt. Rather than let a good drone go to waste I warped into the belt and range and recalled it. With the drone safely tucked in my ship I engaged my warp drive. The Stabber aligned and began to pick up speed. “Warp drive active” appeared on my display and I relaxed. But my ship didn’t warp. It bobbed around. I hit the command again. Nothing. Shit. A Crow was burning for me. Once again, warp. Nothing. The Crow had me. Oh bugger. My Stabber went down. That was, erm, stupid.