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.
Bellicose, Stabber, Wolf
August 10th 2009
Summer is a quiet time in New Eden. Rather than sit in the doldrums doing nothing I decided that Eve is what you make it. To that end I introduced “Wensley’s Wasted Wednesdays”. Its a pretty simple concept. Every Wednesday night I will do my best to organise a gang and go find some trouble. I can’t make every Wednesday and have already had to postpone the first couple to the following day but its been a success. Lots of people are logging on and we’re going out and having fun. The only rule is that any lossmails that don’t feature spirit aren’t reimbursed.
This week’s operation was a definite success. A good sized gang formed up and we headed out looking for trouble. The first destination was Adirain, a system that used to provide us with good hunting while Blood Money Bootcamp lived there but has become pretty barren since the Roughnecks claimed it as their own. Still, we’ve been able to pick off a couple of targets there and Thursday was no exception as the gang landed on an unfortunate Rifter. A quick scout into the surrounding systems didn’t reveal any targets so I moved the gang on to our next destination, Old Man Star.
Before the cold war between the empires broke into open hostilities Old Man Star was a pirate heaven. Its high security border systems provided plenty of targets and competing pirate gangs would slug it out in territorial disputes. These days the system is pretty well controlled by the Caldari militia but there are still plenty of opportunities for pirates like ourselves. Caster reported an Ishtar ratting in a belt but it was too far away from his Arazu for him to make a tackle without dropping his cloak. I warped to the belt in my Stabber and began burning for the Ishtar. As I began to close on the assault cruiser he dropped sentry drones and opened fire on me. My agile cruiser caught him right on top of his drones and they were unable to cause me much damage. “Point!” The gang warped in. Seeing the rest of the fleet land the Ishtar pilot scooped his drones and began to burn away from us. Heck that thing was fast. My Stabber and VaJo’s Vagabond were just about able to keep up and apply damage but we both encountered capacitor problems. How was he running away so effectively? It was only some tenacious tackling by Tarik in his Ares that allowed us to keep him pinned down. Every time the Warrior II drones gave him serious cause for concern either VaJo or I were able to take over tackling duties while he bugged out. Despite desperate efforts we were unable to get the gang a decent warp in to apply a warp scrambler and shut down his microwarp drive. Eventually, though, our persistence paid off and a final volley from VaJo’s Vagabond ended the chase.
With the loot safely in VaJo’s cargo bay we patrolled Old Man Star waiting for our criminal timers to tick down. Targets appeared on our scanner but either left system before we could pin them down or were able to evade our pursuit. Eventually a Catalyst was found in a belt and with a typically bloodthirsty whoop the fleet pounced. With a fresh timer we began to prowl the belts again. Eventually I pinned down a Kestrel I’d been stalking and warped to the belt my scanner showed him in. Jackpot. Not only the Kestrel but also an Ishkur. I pointed the Ishkur and called in the fleet while I took care not to allow either ship to scramble me. The Kestrel got away but the Ishkur wasn’t so lucky. Before the dust had settled a pair of Vexors warped to the belt. Reinforcements or opportunists? We didn’t care. The nearest Vexor was pointed and destroyed while the other fled for its life. As Commoner pointed out, why roam when the targets can come to you?
