Rifter Drifter

Seeing as plenty of people have been offering up the contents of their hangar I thought I should probably join in. My hangar in GE-8JV contains the following ships:

• Rifter: I have about 15 of these kicking around with a couple of fits that I am trying out. They are usually just called Rifter but at the moment I have one called Freki after the alliance tournament prize and one called Agincourt after its victory over the French in Curse.
• Cheetah: Called Peek-a-boo and used mostly for probing exploration sites. My probing skills are terrible and I use the exploration sites to get some practice. Honest.
• Claw: I have two of these both confusingly called Claw and it takes me a couple of attempts to tell them apart. One is fit with an active tank and the other with a buffer tank. Not a ship I regularly solo in so the active tank ship gets more use in interceptor packs.
• Stiletto: My staple fleet ship. I currently only have one of these because they die pretty often. She’s called Point! and my fit is pretty standard for a tackle interceptor. Sometimes I like to put on explosive shield resist rigs when I’m tackling for a small gang.
• Hound: When I run frigate gangs I tend to FC from the safety of my stealth bomber. Hound is fit to be able to use torpedoes and bombs and the cloak makes it a good ship to lead from.
• Republic Fleet Firetail: Currently unassembled my Firetail is waiting for me to come up with a fit that I like before I take her out hunting.
• Dramiel: I have two of these sleek and popular Angel frigates. The hefty price tag and status as flavour of the month has put me off flying them. I should really sell them while their price is at a peak but I like having them around.
• Thrasher: This is probably my favourite ship to fly at the moment and I have seven in my hangar. Three of them are fit; one with artillery, one with autocannons, and one with an experimental setup I have yet to try. All of them are called either Sabre or Thrasher except the test one which is called Brick.
• Sabre: This is the most recent addition to my hangar and one that I am just getting the hang of flying. She’s called Sabre and has been out on a couple of gangs now.
• Rupture: Another staple and a ship I have been flying in solo a lot recently. I currently have two fit in my hangar. Freki is fit as a nano ship for pretending to be a Vagabond in and Rupture is a pretty standard armour tank fit.
• Muninn: A pretty standard sniper HAC that hasn’t been used in far too long. Named Muninn in case you didn’t spot the general theme here.
• Vagabond: Another staple of any Minmatar hangar. Eponymously named Vagabond she comes out in small gangs.
• Rapier: I haven’t actually used her in anger but she’s there for when I need her. Until then Rapier still has the manufacturer’s shrink rap on some of her controls.
• Scimitar: Because I only have Logistics IV I haven’t played with Scimitar much. She’s fit for roaming PvP gangs but I’m still adjusting the fit until I’m happy with it. I do sometimes fly logistics for alliance fleets but in those cases I use official alliance-fit logistics ships.
• Hurricane: I have just one of these called, imaginatively, Hurricane. She’s fit for damage and hasn’t seen the light of day for quite a while.
• Tempest: Machariel is my fleet fit Tempest for when DPS is the only thing we need. I prefer to fly in support roles but lately there hasn’t been any point so the fleet battleship has been brought out. Despite being a small ship pilot in general I have had fun flying Tempests in small gangs with some of my old pirate friends. I tried a nano fit but it died due to over confidence or lack of ability. Hopefully I’ll try another before too long.
• Typhoon: This is my ratting ship. I lost her predecessor due to accidentally turning off all my hardeners so this one is called Pay Attention. I don’t use her much these days because my alts provide most of my income.

As you can see, Wensley’s hangar is fully focussed on PvP. The Wolf, Jaguar, and Cyclone are noticeable by their absence at the moment but I’ll probably buy some soon. I like to be stocked for any eventuality. In general I tend to solo in the T1 ships and use the T2 variants in gangs and fleets.

The An’Har family, by contrast, have a selection of shuttles, a Prowler, and a Mastodon to their name. They’re saving up for a Fenrir but that is probably a little while away because Wensley loses ships at a phenomenal rate.

Yesterday I logged on and, with no alliance operations planned for a couple of hours, grabbed a Rifter ready to head out and have some fun at the expense of Libertas Fidelitas alliance. It was good fun and I managed to find a couple of fights in their constellation where I was able to take down an enemy interceptor or two before they could mob my Rifter. Taking T1 frigates out and fighting outnumbered is lots of fun and I will be doing plenty more of it.

Those engagements had wet my appetite ready for the day’s main meal, part two of our attack on Providence after they rejected our truce offer. With D-GTMI secured there was a lot of talk about what we would do next. On the forums the Providence residents are expecting us to grind our way slowly through their 50 station systems. That is not how -A- do things, though. We formed up up on a titan and prepared for the order. The cyno went up and the order to jump was given. Our destination? 9UY4-H. The beating heart of Providence.

For those who don’t know it, 9UY4-H is a key strategic system. It is a crossroads at the centre of the region and provides access to three of their key empire entrance systems. It also splits the Holder alliances so that they have to pass through it in order to consolidate their forces. On top of all of this it is a key market system and losing it would be a major blow to the whole region.

The support fleet went to secure the gates as usual and our SBUs were anchored and the onlining process began. While this was happening the battleship fleet warped to they cyno jammer POS and began to take the jammer down. Once this was achieved the capital fleet jumped in and began to do their work. There was no resistance other than the odd ship that didn’t read its intel channels and the usual terribly inept bombers (this one even had a Falcon for support).

While we were waiting for our SBUs to online we got word of a CVA fleet forming up and moving towards D-GTMI. They anchored their own SBUs there and in HED-GP. Once our work was done in 9UY4-H we used our titans and jump bridge network to go back to HED-GP and purge the CVA SBUs from there and D-GTMI. This was done in time to jump back in and reinforce the station and infrastructure hub in 9UY4-H in a matter of minutes.

Now its a waiting game. The timers on both the station and infrastructure hub are very favourable for us and the week ahead should be full of good fights as CVA attempt to defend their key system. For now we will be roaming the area, locking down systems, and disrupting this key area of Providence as much as possible. Our hand is around CVA’s throat, let’s see if they can shake us off.

Edit: I forgot to mention that “Deliverance Reclaimed” station used to be Ushra’Khan’s “Unity Station”. Let’s just say that Ushra’Khan are foaming at the mouth with excitement about liberating their former home.

Its been a while since I was out in a Rifter and it felt good to be back behind the controls of my favourite ship. Even though I was now living out in null security space I’ve stuck with the same fit I used in low sec. Most people out here say that a microwarp drive is mandatory but I think an afterburner is enough to keep me out of trouble most of the time and the advantages it gives me in combat are well worth the added risk. Of course, as I spend more time out here I might change my mind but for now I’m sticking to what I know.

My plan for the evening was pretty simple, I was going to harass Libertas Fidelitas. I’d just got back from a long range HAC roam that had turned out to be pretty uneventful even though I’d only caught the very end of it. We’d tackled a Proteus but it was able to escape our gasp and there seemed to be nothing else on the horizon. I swapped ships in GE-8JV and headed back to D-GTMI. From D-GTMI I set my destination for 5KG-PY, the deepest system in LFA’s pocket of Providence and I set off to find some trouble.

I’d already taken the opportunity to make myself on grid bookmarks at every gate so I was able to move through the pipe towards PI5-39, LFA’s key system, in relative safety. Once there I proceeded to make some scan spots and prowl the belts and planets. It was like the good old days in Hevrice. Pretty quickly the skills that I’d let go rusty over the last few months started to come back and I was getting proficient with the scanner again. As well as the planets and belts I made sure that I used my onboard scanner to check for any interesting anomalies that might harbour juicy targets.

My trip out was pretty uneventful and the only ship I came across was a Rapier that appeared to be scouting a hauler. I easily evaded him but I was unable to pin down the hauler.

In 5KG-PY I finally got a sniff of action. There was a Cerberus ratting in one of the belts and I instinctively warped in, switching my guns to EMP ammunition in the process, as I landed my tackle systems were primed but I was devastated to see that my target was 160 km from me. Despite this I began to burn towards him but, predictably, he warped off and I was unable to find him again. There were a couple of battleships in system and a pair of Sansha Sanctums on scan so I checked them out to no avail. Oh well, time to head back.

On the F-DTOO gate I found a Raven but he warped off to a safe spot before I could take a proper look at him. Never mind. While I was considering my options an Enyo jumped in and my eyes lit up. This was the perfect target. I set my navigation computer to maintain a wide orbit and waited to see what he did. He aggressed me and it was on! With Barrage loaded I could easily outrange his blasters and the inevitable microwarp drive would mean that his tank would struggle for capacitor unlike the tough Enyos I met in low sec. To my surprise he was hitting me, and pretty well at that. I checked my logs and saw that he had fitted 75mm railguns. A single command later and my orbit tightened and I began to circle him at close range. Now he was barely hitting me and I was able to power my way through his armour while I took very little damage myself.

As he hit structure a Nemesis stealth bomber decloaked. I quickly locked him up and put my warp scrambler on him while I moved to intercept. The assault frigate went down and I shifted my focus to the stealth bomber. The next thing to decloak was a Blackbird and, with the Nemesis about to break, he quickly locked and jammed me. Damn. A Taranis quickly joined the club. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for me and would just mean another kill but with the Blackbird jamming me there was no way I could keep the interceptor at range. Instead I made the most of my forced deagression and burnt back to the gate. By now a Drake had joined the club and when I finally managed to jump out I had just 85% structure remaining. I warped away from the gate to safety and kept an eye on my scanner while I repaired my armour and fixed the heat damage to my weapon systems.

By now it seems that LFA had woken up and I was being chased by a couple of Crusaders and several more Drakes as well as the original defence gang. With the Blackbird there I didn’t have a chance, even if I could split the interceptors up. After getting lost a little bit I eventually made my escape, going via QO-SRI rather than adopting a straight line. They didn’t follow and I made my way back to QBL-BV where I decided to camp the PI5-39 gate. If only I’d brought a small bubble along with me.

It didn’t take long before a Claw jumped in but he didn’t seem interested. He warped off to the station without engaging and I settled back into my vigil. A couple of minutes later the Claw came back and I locked him up. This time he wanted to play and I applied my tackle modules while rounds of Republic Fleet Fusion tore into him from close range. He was fit with artillery and it didn’t take long to kill him. As he was going down a Brutix jumped in and I decided not to hang around.

I warped back to a spot a few hundred kilometres from the gate to see that the Brutix had now been joined by a Stiletto. I was in the mood for more kills so I warped down to 100 km from the gate and I was rewarded by the sight of the interceptor burning towards me. I powered up my afterburner and told my ship to approach him directly. He seemed to hesitate but kept approaching me. Lock, web, scram, autocannons. You know the formula by now. One dead Stiletto was the result.

This time I did hang around to loot and suddenly the reason that he seemed to hesitate dawned upon me. The Brutix was almost upon me. I tried to warp off but he had put his scrambler on me. Now I had two options, I could try and fight or I could attempt to burn back to the gate. This was a mistake. If I’d stayed to fight I could probably have got myself under his guns and at least killed off his drones. Instead I burnt off in a straight line and paid the price for my folly. What I should have done was apply my own web and scram, align to a celestial, and overheat my afterburner. I would have got out of range of his blasters in seconds and been able to warp to safety. Still, you live and learn – or at least die and learn – and two interceptors and an assault frigate is not a bad return for a Rifter.

Providence looks like it could be a fun hunting ground. In the future I’m going to take advantage of our new outpost in D-GTMI and set up a forward supply station with ships and ammunition. I’ll be back soon doing what I do best.

At the moment I’m working pretty hard on getting the latest version of the Rifter guide together. Its taking some pretty big leaps forward from the original version and is going to include a lot more discussion about the flexibility of the Rifter. One of the things I want to do is showcase a few fits and discuss their pros and cons. This is where you guys come in. Please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment with your favourite Rifter fit and, if possible, a few words about why you like it. The sheer range of fittings I’ve seen lately is mind-boggling so I’d really like to see what kind of great stuff you guys have come up with.

Its been a while since I’ve stepped into my pod so slipping into one of my beloved Rifters felt good after the break. It was time to head out and look for some trouble. Thankfully trouble can be pretty easy to find. Especially in Old Man Star.

As I jumped into the familiar system I engaged my scanner. Plenty of ships on scan. Instinctively I filtered out those that I knew were sitting idle at starbases. There was a Crow somewhere. There’s nothing quite like a bit of interceptor hunting to shake off the rust. I quickly narrowed him down to one of the stations in system and warped in to investigate. After a couple of nudges he sped away and lit me up with his targeting systems. I began to give chase and he opened fire. As the second salvo of missiles slammed into my shields I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to catch him so I docked up and hoped to use the aggression timer to get the jump on him when I undocked. No such luck, he’d already warped off.

I warped back to a safespot and began investigating my communications channels while keeping half an eye on the scanner. Nothing much was happening. The Crow was sitting with a Thorax and Curse and I couldn’t see any other targets. As my attention drifted I was quickly jerked back into reality as a red spot appeared on my combat overview. It was closing rapidly and the Crow dropped out of warp alongside me. I quickly gave the command to begin targeting routines and began to activate all of my modules. My web and warp scrambler engaged and the Crow was pinned down. In my haste, though, I’d forgotten to instruct my ship to close down the target and I sat there stationary while the Crow began to retreat. By the time I realised it was too late and although I was able to get a web on him again he sped away and I turned my ship to warp out before he could come back. Damn. My lack of attention had cost me a kill and very nearly my ship too. A lucky break I guess.

A short while later I noticed that there was a Caldari military complex in the system. Even more interestingly there was a Taranis and Cormorant on scan in its direction. Without a second thought I engaged my warp drive and headed in to investigate. There was no sign of the Cormorant but the Taranis was sitting on the acceleration gate and I quickly webbed and scrambled him while instructing my ship to move out to a wide orbit. With Barrage loaded and my ship rigged for extra range I was soon able to outdistance his rounds of Null ammunition and began the process of whittling down his ample structure buffer. Just as he began to explode a Crusader landed and without a second thought I switch over my web and scrambler and began to work on this second target. He wasn’t alone, though, and support began to arrive quickly. My poor little Rifter was quickly overwhelmed and the Crusader lived to fight another day.

Not being one to be put off by this kind of death I was soon back in another Rifter. I wanted action and there’s no denying that this seems like a good place to get it. After a while idling in Old Man Star there was nothing that I could engage and I decided to move next door to Heydieles, a system that I’ve found some good fights in lately. As I warped to the gate I saw a Cormorant idling. Instinctively I locked it up and began to settle into an orbit to see if he’d return fire. An Incursus landed and they both locked me up and began firing. Hmmmm. As I was deciding what to do a Vagabond arrived and I decided it was time to beat a retreat back to the gate.

As I jumped I saw the Vagabond follow so I sat in Heydieles waiting for the stargate to settle down. As soon as it was prepped I burnt back to it preparing to jump back to Old Man Star. The Vagabond decloaked and I allowed him to engage me. His weapons cool down period would keep him pinned this side of the gate for a while. I jumped back and immediately set a course for the Incursus. He was flagged as a valid target and I knew he had a web and scrambler. If I was going to win this engagement range and speed were vital so he was my primary. His simple fit didn’t stand a chance as my rounds of advanced autocannon ammunition tore into his hull from a safe distance. With the frigate down I turned my attention to the destroyer. My combat logs revealed that he was using basic blaster cannons so I set up an orbit to keep him at range and rained Barrage onto him. It wasn’t long before I breached his hull and he died in a satisfying explosion.

By now a Caracal had landed on the gate and I decided to hang around to see how he was fitted. My combat log showed that he was firing light missiles and I decided it was time to call it a day. I was too late, though. As I punched the warp command an Ishkur landed on the gate and was able to lock me with his warp scrambler before I could get away. Damn damn. Now the Caracal had me locked, a Drake was landing, and the Vagabond had jumped back in. Come on. Warp. Warp! WARP! Damn.

I sighed philosophically as my pod warped back towards Hevrice. I’d come looking for good fights and I think I got them. I’d lost two frigates but I’d enjoyed both fights and handled myself pretty well. I guess it comes down to what you expect from a fight. If I’d been out to make a profit I would have been much more cautious and not hung around. Instead I was looking for an adrenaline hit and I definitely got that on all three occasions. Thanks to NibbleTek for making Old Man Star a fun place again. I will be back with more Rifters…

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.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had been generously gifted fifty Rifters by a reader. Well, they’ve finally all been hauled to low sec and are now sitting in Amamake along with a big pile of tech 1 fittings. I think I spent about 25 million ISK fitting up this little fleet so that’s about 500,000 ISK per ship (I got bored of waiting for buy orders to fill). Not bad at all. My plan for them is pretty simple, I’m going to take them out and try and have as much fun with them as possible. Because they’re cheap I’ll take risks but I’m not going to be completely suicidal. I am going to film every fight and put it all together in a video. Okay, I’ve so far missed one of my deaths but I got all the rest.

To spice things up Commoner, a Tusker, suggested that we run an in-house sweepstake on the whole thing. We fairly quickly agreed on a 10 million ISK buy in with the winner taking everything. So far the prize pot is at a measly 60 million ISK but I hope more people sign up soon. It’ll encourage me to actually get out there and look for fights. The Tuskers seem to have a lot of faith in my abilities. Even with the crappy fit that I am using the spread is between 72 and 200 kills. I was thinking it’d be somewhere closer to 30. Now I’ve got to prove them right.

At the time of writing my current kills to death ratio is four kills for three losses. I’ve managed to pick off a couple of Rifters, and Incursus, and a Kestrel so far while at the same time dying pretty horribly to a couple of null sec gate camps and a Rifter / Rapier pair. The second null sec camp I should probably have escaped from but I was an idiot. After a bit of consideration I’ve decided that null sec just isn’t worth the distance I need to travel to get there so I’m going to stick to the Amamake are for now.

Warp core stabilisers seem to be the bane of my life right now. I’ve lost a Vigil and Magnate despite having them scrammed. Its got me so frustrated that I’m tempted to go and fit up a Thrasher with dual warp core stabilisers and annoy the hell out of people in belts.

So far things are looking pretty good, though. I might even live up to my corporation’s expectations. I’m going to have to go and lose a fair few of these buggers, though, if I plan on ever finishing this project.

After several hours hunting I got a welcome break when another reader challenge me to a fight. Unfortunately for me Lau Wensink (his name is already ominous) only really flew cruisers and battlecruisers and I didn’t have any in the area. He generously offered to buy me a Hurricane, though, so I headed down to Kamela and scraped together the fittings for a shield tanked Hurricane while he fetched his Drake. The biggest problem was that I could only get T1 guns and that crippled my damage pretty hard. Never mind. My main mistake was fitting an afterburner rather than a microwarp drive. I assumed that it would help me mitigate the damage from his missiles but it crippled me because when we began the fight I was outside of my engagement range. Shit. By the time I closed to a distance where my guns were effective I was already at half shields. The fight was over before I’d even begun it. Damn.

I offered a rematch with cruisers and spent my insurance pay out on a Rupture. Again I was crippled by T1 guns and his Caracal had a mean active tank. I was slowly breaking it down while my ECM drones singularly failed to get a jam until I was already in structure. By now his shields had broken but horror of horrors I was out of ammunition. Nooooooooooo. Another ship lost. That’s my killboard stats for the week in tatters. Lau really enjoyed the fights though and even gave me another donation to thank me for giving him some fun. I enjoyed it too and I came out of it with enough ISK to actually go and get my own Hurricane to replace one I lost to an obvious bait trap last week.

On Friday night I decided it was time to continue my exploration of Syndicate and have a go at some more nullsec combat. Inspired by D’Fenexius’ Sweet Little Frigates video I grabbed myself a small bubble, fitted up a Rifter, and headed out in search of adventure.

Once out in Syndicate I made my way to Poitot (it’s the only named system in Syndicate, you know). In system I began making myself a serious of bookmarks so that I could scan the gates in safety and move around the system without being caught. With the system mapped out it was time to set up my bubble. Poitot is on a pipe between MHC-R3 and FD-MLJ and only has two gates. I chose the F67E-Q gate and set up my bubble behind it in line with the X-BV98 gate. Anything warping between the two would be caught and I had enough time to get away should a large gang enter the system.

I patiently sat on the edge of my bubble and waited for my first bite. It didn’t take too long before a Malediction landed in my bubble. I locked, scrammed, webbed, and opened fire. Unluckily for me the interceptor was fit with an afterburner and was able to make it back to the gate. A couple of targets that I had no chance of engaging followed and I moved away to allow them safe passage. The next thing to come into my system was a Crow. I burnt towards the gate on an intercept course but I was unable to get the lock. I chased him around for a while before giving up and jumping to safety. The Crow pilot attempted to taunt me but I kept quite and went off to get myself a microwarp drive. With the MWD installed I went hunting for the Crow again but he jumped out of system without engaging again. Never mind. A few minutes later he came back in a Drake and again I ignored him.

So far I had been sat around for quite a while and not got any kills. I was chatting away in various channels and keeping an eye on the local count. Ess Erbe, my Goon friend sent me a link to poitot.com. While taking a look at this a Deimos landed in my bubble. I paid the price for sitting in my own bubble not paying attention to local and my Rifter was destroyed as I fled back to the gate.

Not the type to be easily put off I went back to Hevrice to grab another Rifter and another bubble. I returned to Poitot in my new ship and dropped the bubble off in station. Back in my fishing position I got lucky this time. A pair of Goons jumped in flying a Rifter and Punisher. They began to burn towards me and I grinned to myself. Poor Goons. They thought they’d found an unsuspecting idiot. Little did they know… First up was the Rifter. Lock, scram, fire. His ship didn’t last long with my overloaded guns on him and it was time to deal with his friend in the Punisher. I swapped over to EMP ammunition and tucked into a tight orbit. His scorch ammo hurt my shields but was no problem for my armour. The Punisher’s armour and structure failed and the night sky was lit up by the explosion. This bubble camping business was all right.

A couple more heavier ships came through and I ducked away to the safety of a safespot while they passed through the system. The next thing to land in my bubble was an Executioner that didn’t stand a chance.

Things were quite for a while. Null sec can be like that. Sometimes its unpleasantly busy. Sometimes deathly quiet. The peace didn’t last, though. The gate flashed. And again. And again. Local shot up. Shit. This was no time for hanging around. I warped away as the local chat channel went berserk. Oh great. Goons. Lots of Goons.

[ 2009.06.20 01:13:19 ] Eustratius > ALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUALIEALIEUA
[ 2009.06.20 01:13:26 ] Mathias Skillius > NIGGA YOU DEAd
[ 2009.06.20 01:13:31 ] Eustratius > GOD IS GREAT
[ 2009.06.20 01:13:46 ] Uriq > INFIDEL
[ 2009.06.20 01:13:58 ] JohnHoe > COME BACK DUDE
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:03 ] JohnHoe > WE JUST WANT TO TALK
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:27 ] Eustratius > ALLAHU ACKBAR, ALLAHU ACKBAR! THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND MOHAMMED IS HIS PROPHET!
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:34 ] digi > WE KILL YOUR INFIDEL BUBBLE

Time to dock up in station for me, then. This was a storm I was just going to have to sit out. All of a sudden they realised quite what I was doing.

[ 2009.06.20 01:14:47 ] JohnHoe > hes all alone
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:51 ] JohnHoe > with a bubble and rifter
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:52 ] Wensley > awwww, i was romantically attached to that bubble
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:53 ] JohnHoe > wtf
[ 2009.06.20 01:14:54 ] digi > CLEANSE THE SYSTEM OF THE INFIDEL BUBBLE
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:04 ] JohnHoe > why are you gate camping with a rifter
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:10 ] Wensley > why not?
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:18 ] digi > YOU FAIL
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:22 ] Effects > what the hell
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:24 ] JohnHoe > uhmm… are you really asking me that?
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:25 ] digi > WEDNESDAY YOU FAIL
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:29 ] RobTheRad > WE HAVE COME FOR THE HOLY LAND
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:30 ] Effects > gate camping in a rifter makes him awesome
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:39 ] May Zonday > fuck
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:42 ] May Zonday > Fleet Invitation (Alliance)
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:50 ] Eustratius > wensley, you wanna join goonfleet?
[ 2009.06.20 01:15:51 ] JohnHoe > lol rifters are cool and all but… alone
[ 2009.06.20 01:16:03 ] Proplus > ASS-2-ASS
[ 2009.06.20 01:16:32 ] Vadinho > rifters are great wensley, keep livin the dream
[ 2009.06.20 01:16:36 ] Vadinho > from all of us here in goonfleet
[ 2009.06.20 01:16:41 ] Wensley > i always do mate, i always do
[ 2009.06.20 01:16:59 ] Uriq > drink
[ 2009.06.20 01:17:04 ] Uriq > for the dream
[ 2009.06.20 01:17:07 ] JohnHoe > this is a slosh op btw
[ 2009.06.20 01:17:09 ] JohnHoe > you should come
[ 2009.06.20 01:17:26 ] Wensley > mummy told me never to trust a goon

The upshot of all this was that I eventually took them up on their offer. I was going to lose this Rifter anyway so what was the worst that could happen? I joined the fleet and tagged along for the ride. Fleet chat was, erm, entertaining. Goons are funny. Drunk Goons are hilarious.

The roam itself was pretty uneventful. We headed down to S-U8A4 with just a single Rifter kill on the way. S-U8A4 is home to our old friends The Dead Parrot Shoppe (FOOM) and we sat outside the station for a while. Nothing was happening, though, and the Goons inevitably got bored. I was lit up by several ships’ targeting systems and then suddenly dropped fleet. I was ready for this, though, and quickly ducked into the safety of station.

[ 2009.06.20 02:01:49 ] Wensley > /emote cries emo tears
[ 2009.06.20 02:01:53 ] JohnHoe > wensley
[ 2009.06.20 02:01:54 ] Maezer Ludd > Bye Wensley we love you
[ 2009.06.20 02:01:59 ] JohnHoe > we kicked him
[ 2009.06.20 02:01:59 ] Mathias Skillius > miss you
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:00 ] Eustratius > wensley…
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:03 ] Julian Kirov > o7
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:08 ] FreeOJ > guys come out of ht e pos
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:11 ] FreeOJ > please
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:15 ] Wensley > o7
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:17 ] Uriq > baby come back
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:18 ] Wensley > t’was fun boys
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:20 ] Krilgor > WEEOOOO AS YOU WERE CITIZENS
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:20 ] Eustratius > o7
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:23 ] JohnHoe > why did you leacve fleet?>’
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:35 ] Maezer Ludd > o7
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:36 ] Wensley > je suis le kicked
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:44 ] JohnHoe > i dont speak commie
[ 2009.06.20 02:02:45 ] Eustratius > some fag called wens primary
[ 2009.06.20 02:03:12 ] JohnHoe > fag is right
[ 2009.06.20 02:03:30 ] Wensley > FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
[ 2009.06.20 02:03:46 ] Wensley > now i is just going to listen to ur muzac
[ 2009.06.20 02:04:06 ] Wensley > /emote wants MOAR ISK
[ 2009.06.20 02:06:05 ] Wensley > BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GOON FRIENDZ!!!

It was a fun ride while it lasted and my new Goon friends filled my pockets with some ISK donations. Once the Goons had gone I decided it was time to head back to Poitot. I had the money for another bubble so I could go back and camp my gate some more. FOOM had other ideas and I had to dodge a couple of camps in order to get back to my little corner of Syndicate. By now it was late and I’d had a bit too much to drink while roaming with my new friends. I attempted to kill a Nemesis in Poitot despite the fact that I knew he had a gang in support. The gang came to his aid and I died. Time to call it a night for me, then.

The next day I logged on to sort out my stuff and JohnHoe, the FC from the previous night, opened a communications channel with me. They were inviting me to join in their Thunderdome friate battle. Unfortunately I couldn’t go along. It seems that I am now a bit of a Goon hero. Maybe one day I’ll have to go down to Delve and shoot some of my new friends…

Inspired by the combination of Genos Occidere’s reign of terror in Providence and the videos of Kil2 and Willington I decided that it was time to go back to nullsec and see what fun I could have. The plan was pretty simple. Head in through Cloud Ring and then do a full lap of Syndicate and Solitude. I didn’t expect to get out alive but at least I’d hopefully get some good fights. I saddled up a shield tanking Rifter and headed out in search of adventure.

Most of the roam was pretty empty. Early on a found a Vexor but he warped off to a safe spot before I could get a scrambler on him. After that I continued and dodged a couple of gate camps but didn’t encounter any bubbles. At the south of Syndicate I bumped into fellow Tusker Menthez who had no idea how he’d ended up there and was just wandering around aimlessly. Eventually I found a target in lower Syndicate. A Caracal was ratting in a belt. I loaded EMP and warped in on him. Pretty quickly I had him locked and scrammed and started to eat away at his shields with my EMP ammunition. He had a target painter and quickly lit me up with it. Heavy missiles began to pound at my own shields and were slowly wearing them down. Without an afterburner I was unable to avoid his heavy missiles and I was worried that firing up my MWD would make me more vulnerable to them. It was getting close and both our shields were edging towards zero. I blinked first and decided to warp away and go find an afterburner. There was one available a couple of jumps away so off I went to track it down. By the time I came back the Caracal had docked up and after a bit of waiting I decided to cut my losses and keep moving. I traversed the main pipeline of Syndicate and found no action. Even FD-MLJ and PF-346 were empty other than a solo camping Ishtar.

With nothing much doing I decided to wander further afield in search of adventure. After passing through Cloud Ring again I found myself in Fade, home of Mostly Harmless. I was eventually hailed in local by one of the gang who had witnessed our suicidal incursion a couple of days ago. Apparently he’d been chasing me in a Sleipnir but had unsurprisingly been unable to keep up. He offered me a 1v1 in the Rifter with a sweetener of 10,000,000 ISK if I beat him. Well, there was no way I was going to turn down that offer. Especially after such a fruitless roam so far. I waited while he put together a ship and then he warped to me. As usual I burnt towards him with my MWD and shut it off as we got close. I didn’t want my blooming signature radius to make his life easier. Lock, scram, open up with my autocannons. It was instinctive now. Once he was in optimal range I began to overheat and tore through his shields and armour with almost no resistance. It seems he’d opted for a speed tank rather than a plate. Chatting after the fight it turns out that he was a fan who’d wanted to fight me for ages. My wallet suddenly flashed and I saw he’d given me 20,000,000 ISK. I didn’t need the incentive but it was good to know that this roam had already paid for itself no matter what happened to my Rifter in the future. I thanked him for his generous contribution and moved to a safespot. Once the thermal signature of my guns had cooled down I power off my systems and retired to my bunk. It had been a long day.

The next day I powered up my systems again to be greeted by the desolation of the north. The residents were off fighting KenZoku over Delve and there was little or no activity on my scanners. Rather than heading home I decided to continue my adventure and see how far I could get before my Rifter died and I took the clone vat express home. The next region in my sights was Deklein, home of Tau Ceti Federation. I set my autopilot for the station system CZDJ-1 and moved out. In 3T7-M8 I found a young pilot in an Omen. He wasn’t on scan at any belts so I tried my luck with the onboard scanner. I got a hit on a cosmic anomaly and warped to it. There he was salvaging away a bunch of Serpentis wrecks. Lock, scram, autocannons. Did I mention it was an instinctive routine? The defenceless cruiser melted quickly and I got my second kill. This was probably the busiest bit of my roam so far. A Wolf came into the system but I was able to evade him and carry on my merry way.

I made it safely to CZDJ-1 and tried to dock. I wanted to drop off my loot and try and sell it on the market here. Tau Ceti Federation owned the station and apparently weren’t receiving visitors. My docking requests were denied. My feelings were hurt. What had I done to upset them? I’m just an innocent traveller! Oh well, where next? Venal was the nearest NPC region so probably the best place to find somewhere to dock. I set course of H-PA29 and carried on.

Somewhere along the way I found a Taranis on a gate. My nullsec Rifter doesn’t have a web or afterburner so engaging him was going to be risky but I wasn’t going to shirk any challenge on this roam. Lock, scram, autocannons… you know the routine. He had a long range disruptor and no web. Brilliant! I could dictate range using my own MWD. It was all going swimmingly until a friend of his showed up in a Jaguar. The assault frigate didn’t seem to be packing a point but his presence somehow allowed the Taranis to get out of my scramble range and eventually get away with just a fraction of its hull integrity remaining. I got away from the Jaguar without about 60% hull integrity myself and ran to a safespot to allow my shields to recharge and repair the damage from overloading my guns. Once everything was fixed I carried on again. The Taranis pilot was following me in a Jaguar and trying to get me to fight him 1 v 1. I laughed and refused to be part of such a one-sided exchange.

My journey to Venal took me through a number of regions that I’d never visited before. In Branch I found a Crusader and quickly despatched him. It was an odd fit with railguns but I didn’t complain and just scooped the loot before moving on again. There were no more action along the way and I eventually ended up safely docked in H-PA29. Luckily this is the major trade hub in Venal and has a surprisingly active market. I listed my loot at good prices and it began selling right before my eyes.

From a good fights point of view this has been a bit of a disappointing roam. In I don’t know how many jumps I had a total of five fights, two of which I disengaged from. Three kills and approximately 40 million ISK profit is good piracy, though, and my ship lives to fight another day. So far she’s visited Cloud Ring, Outer Ring, Syndicate, Solitude, Fade, Deklein, Branch, Tenal, Venal, and Tribute. I’ve definitely expanded my horizons since my Where I’ve Been post last week. I guess there’s only really one thing for it. Keep roaming until I lose this ship.

One of the things I plan to do more of is nullsec roaming. There are lots of rich, foolish people out there and its my duty as a pirate to separate them from their ships. I decided that Friday night would be the ideal time to go out and do some exploring. I mentioned this to Joc and he wanted to come along too. When I logged in on Friday night there was a whole host of Tuskers kicking their heels around Hevrice. I told them about our plans and all of a sudden the corporate chat channel was full of eagerly typed ‘x’s. Amongst those who signed up was a friend of a friend who had only graduated from the academy three days ago. He’d never faced combat and definitely not the certain death that was ahead of us.

I hadn’t really prepared for such a large scale operation so told everyone to bring cheap ships and implantless clones. There was only a slim chance that we were going to make it out in one piece. Ships were fitted up and without too much delay we set off for Cloud Ring. The fleet was instructed that we wouldn’t stop to hunt for targets along the way and we made quick progress to Alsavoinon. After a quick pause to allow stragglers to catch up we made the leap of faith and the fleet jumped into F7C-H0 without scouts. A battleship gatecamp waited on the other side and I quickly warped the fleet to our next waypoint. As we passed through we were greeted cheerfully in local. The campers admired our style running a frigate fleet through without checking our way. They informed us of a large Triumvirate gang further into the region and we thanked them accordingly.

On the O-ZXUV gate we landed on a Hawk. Without a moment’s thought I gave the order to attack and the fleet opened up on the lone assault frigate. Only it wasn’t so alone. As the Hawk exploded and we began to loot the wreck the stargate began to flash. A fleet was incoming. The Hawk was scouting for a gang and they were coming to his rescue. I called for the fleet to jump out but we couldn’t use the stargate right away because our weapon’s systems were interfering with the subspace systems. We lost several members of the gang but half of us got out okay. The remaining fleet regrouped on the FD53-H where a Crow jumped into the system. I fired up my microwarp drive and burnt for the Crow. He must have been shocked to see a frigate coming for him at such great speed and I easily scrambled his warp systems. With his microwarp drive shut off the rest of the gang caught up and we blew him away.

With limited resources I turned the fleet around and we returned to Alsavoinon while those who had been killed went back to Hevrice to fetch new ships. With fresh ships we made a second foray into nullsec. This time we chose Syndicate. This time we were unable to make any kills and once again suffered heavy losses. Despite the fact that we didn’t cover the killboard in glory the operation was a huge success in that all involved had massive amounts of fun. As well as having a good giggle I also learnt that commanding fleets in nullsec takes far more preparation and organisation than lowsec fleets. Joc has also written about our adventures and I recommend you read his account.

After a brief rest from the excitement of getting everyone killed I decided it was time to come up with another way of losing ships in a fun way. The obvious answer was a suicide gank. I told the remaining Tuskers what I was considering and once again they all signed up without a moment’s hesitation. Organising the gank took a while. I ran out to Alentene to buy a range of cheap fittings and brought them back to Hevrice. The next challenge was finding a target. I saw some Hulks in Ranielles as I passed through and told the guys what I’d seen. At this point one of our friends began to get anxious. It seems that the Hulks were those of his CEO and his alts. To keep our friend happy I sent my alt off to find other targets. It didn’t take long to find a Retriever in Vey and I quickly pulled up alongside it in my mining Vexor. The trap was set. The Tuskers leapt into action and we flew through high security space laughing at the Gallente police’s threats. Upon landing in Vey I warped the squad to Tigre. Or so I thought. It seems that I left everyone else behind. They quickly caught up and we landed alongside our happless victim. Each of our four destroyers (and one Reaper) got off a single volley before CONCORD came to destroy us. It wasn’t much but it was enough. The Retriever was destroyed. It was brilliant. We will be doing this again before too long.

So there you have it. A night of dying in horribly fun ways! How are you going to have fun dying next?