Entry: six hundred twenty-six.
NOTIFICATION:
I found out yesterday that Cascade is recruiting again. To my knowledge, two corporations have left: Serenity Prime and Red Horizon Industries. I also found out yesterday that Militaris Industries, my corporation is recruiting with relaxed restrictions.
WHY WOULD I WANT TO JOIN:
Cascade is not interested in becoming a massive alliance like TEST or Goons. We are interested only in combat, and only take sovereignty to fund that combat itch. Militaris Industries is typically tied for first place in kills with one other corporation in Cascade, Paragon Fury. Considering that we at present have twelve or so active members in the corporation compared to Paragon Fury's thirty to forty, this is quite the achievement. Militaris Industries is almost entirely focused on combat, but understands the need to engage in carebear activities to generate the ISK required to fund these combat operations.
RECRUITING RESTRICTIONS:
In terms of corporate restrictions, the main recruiter for the corp had placed a ten million skillpoint limit on entry. Exceptions did exist, but everything was and is on a case by case basis. The ceo has decided to relax these restrictions and dismiss the skillpoint restrictions. The reasoning is that we simply need more blood in the corporation.
As for the Alliance, with two corporations gone for varying reasons, there's a void to fill. Cascade doesn't aim to be huge, and is only looking for two mid to large sized corporations to fill the void, mid-size meaning thirty-five plus members.
WHICH LEFT AND WHY:
As far as I know, Serenity Prime mostly dissolved due to internal workings breaking down, and Red Horizon Industries for reasons I don't know. Cascade hasn't begun a failscade as far as I can tell, however. Those two corporations have been absent for some time now.
LOCATION:
Cascade does hold sovereignty in Querious and a few systems in Delve, Catch having fallen to the DRF. At present however, the Alliance is deployed to Blood Raider space, more specifically 1DH-SX.
BUT I DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN NPC NULL:
Sure, NPC null is supposedly where alliances go to die. It's also where new alliances go to be born. In a point more relevant to the current situation, most alliances worth talking about are in Blood Raider space or staged just a few systems out, excepting the DRF, Against All Authorities, and StainWagon. Goons, Test, Cascade, Atlas, Warped Aggression, Evoke, Ewoks, Fatal Ascension, Morsus Mihi, and Brick Squad are all in Blood Raider space. Black Legion, a notable pirate corporation, is deployed nearby as well.
If you want combat in null sec, Blood Raider space and by extension Delve, is, to be blunt, your only real option. If you want structure grinding, the option of Catch opens up to you, but that is about it.
ALLIED PARTIES:
Cascade is currently allied with Morsus Mihi, Brick Squad, Atlas, Warped Aggression, and Against All Authorities (not present in Delve). Goons, Test, Fatal Ascension are allied as the Deklein Coalition. Evoke and Ewoks are allied with each other as part of the DRF. Black Legion is neutral to all. In summary, there are four parties involved, all excepting Black Legion being involved in the sovereignty warfare side of things.
WHO TO CONTACT:
If you are interested in joining Cascade Imminent or Cascade Probable, you may contact any recruiter from a member corporation. If you are interested in joining or learning more about Militaris Industries, contact me or join the corporate recruiting channel.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Pax Sanguis Sicarius: Duabus Partibus
Entry: six hundred twenty-five, supplemental one. Link to previous entry regarding Pax Sanguis Sicarius.
Even as murderous as my life has been to this point, I was not prepared in any way for this. Especially for this. Up till now, every life I had taken had been cold, impersonal, distanced. This was everything that wasn't.
The heat from the priest's blood was practically visible in my shaken state of mind, the air shimmering with the rage boiling from out of his skin. My skin felt on fire where his blood met my flesh.
Deep breaths..."woo-sa"..."woo-sa".
"Traitor!" he seethed through clenched teeth. His eyes wild, searching, panicked yet filled with hate on a level far beyond human. To be quite honest, it was more than a little disturbing. "After all the good work you've done for Nation, all those you helped convert, all that we tolerated because of your service, you turn on us now?"
I shit you not, he lunged at me and tried to bite me. My all too human instincts made me flinch away. There's something strictly primal when someone lunges at you for a bite, something unsettling that drives you back on a level so deep you can't comprehend it.
It pissed me off.
I'm a Capsuleer, meant for things beyond mere humanity, and it pissed me off so much to be reminded of my "humanity", after all the inhumanity I'd come to encompass since that first day.
Plus, the deranged bastard made me flinch.
My anger drove me at that point, and I remember little except an unending feeling of rage. I remember I grabbed the dagger, still embedded in the stone through his arm, and wrenched it. His screams nearly broke my eardrums, piece of shit that he was. I pulled the blade free, and sliced his body apart, slow, dragging, ripping strokes meant for pain and not death.
At some point, his voice broke. I didn't stop, his eyes still screaming for him. I kept going, dragging the knife along his bones, letting him bleed out on the altar, the blood itself collected by a pool at the base of the altar.
At some point past that, exhaustion hit me strong enough to dissipate my rage. His stomach was a mess of pale grey meat covered in red sticky fluid. His legs were mangled beyond recognition, the bones themselves protruding in awkward places through the cuts I'd given him.
The dagger was still clean, however, shining with a red brilliance.
I felt a compulsion, something so wrong that I tried to resist even though I had no choice. I held the dagger high over my head, tipping my head back and opening my mouth wide. Something nudged me inside, and I triggered a catch on the hilt. Something happened...
Blood from the pool swirled into the air lazily, forming a stream towards the point of the dagger, and once established, rushed from the point into my mouth. Blood overflowed from my mouth, into and out of my nostrils.
"Drink his lifeblood, or die," a voice spoke to me, a voice penetrating my mind. Sound had no relevance in this matter.
I swallowed, and the blood in my nostrils cleared. Rust, iron, red fluid, a sickening combination overflowing with power suffused into me after each swallow. I kept swallowing the blood, as fast as I could to make sure I could breathe.
My body tried to throw the blood up, but the blood was having none of it, pushing deeper and deeper into me, penetrating the simple walls of internal organs and merging with my own blood. My heart pounded, more powerful, yet under more stress.
At last the ritual finished. The pool was clear of every drop of blood, the priest's corpse a dried husk crumbling before my eyes.
No one was there to see how shaken I was. I took some time to gather myself before heading to the quarters I'd been assigned.
As I left the temple, a whisper brushed my mind.
"Revenge has never tasted so sweet, has it, Sanguis Sicarius?"
The only taste I could remember was that of iron and blood.
Computer: terminate recording
Even as murderous as my life has been to this point, I was not prepared in any way for this. Especially for this. Up till now, every life I had taken had been cold, impersonal, distanced. This was everything that wasn't.
The heat from the priest's blood was practically visible in my shaken state of mind, the air shimmering with the rage boiling from out of his skin. My skin felt on fire where his blood met my flesh.
Deep breaths..."woo-sa"..."woo-sa".
"Traitor!" he seethed through clenched teeth. His eyes wild, searching, panicked yet filled with hate on a level far beyond human. To be quite honest, it was more than a little disturbing. "After all the good work you've done for Nation, all those you helped convert, all that we tolerated because of your service, you turn on us now?"
I shit you not, he lunged at me and tried to bite me. My all too human instincts made me flinch away. There's something strictly primal when someone lunges at you for a bite, something unsettling that drives you back on a level so deep you can't comprehend it.
It pissed me off.
I'm a Capsuleer, meant for things beyond mere humanity, and it pissed me off so much to be reminded of my "humanity", after all the inhumanity I'd come to encompass since that first day.
Plus, the deranged bastard made me flinch.
My anger drove me at that point, and I remember little except an unending feeling of rage. I remember I grabbed the dagger, still embedded in the stone through his arm, and wrenched it. His screams nearly broke my eardrums, piece of shit that he was. I pulled the blade free, and sliced his body apart, slow, dragging, ripping strokes meant for pain and not death.
At some point, his voice broke. I didn't stop, his eyes still screaming for him. I kept going, dragging the knife along his bones, letting him bleed out on the altar, the blood itself collected by a pool at the base of the altar.
At some point past that, exhaustion hit me strong enough to dissipate my rage. His stomach was a mess of pale grey meat covered in red sticky fluid. His legs were mangled beyond recognition, the bones themselves protruding in awkward places through the cuts I'd given him.
The dagger was still clean, however, shining with a red brilliance.
I felt a compulsion, something so wrong that I tried to resist even though I had no choice. I held the dagger high over my head, tipping my head back and opening my mouth wide. Something nudged me inside, and I triggered a catch on the hilt. Something happened...
Blood from the pool swirled into the air lazily, forming a stream towards the point of the dagger, and once established, rushed from the point into my mouth. Blood overflowed from my mouth, into and out of my nostrils.
"Drink his lifeblood, or die," a voice spoke to me, a voice penetrating my mind. Sound had no relevance in this matter.
I swallowed, and the blood in my nostrils cleared. Rust, iron, red fluid, a sickening combination overflowing with power suffused into me after each swallow. I kept swallowing the blood, as fast as I could to make sure I could breathe.
My body tried to throw the blood up, but the blood was having none of it, pushing deeper and deeper into me, penetrating the simple walls of internal organs and merging with my own blood. My heart pounded, more powerful, yet under more stress.
At last the ritual finished. The pool was clear of every drop of blood, the priest's corpse a dried husk crumbling before my eyes.
No one was there to see how shaken I was. I took some time to gather myself before heading to the quarters I'd been assigned.
As I left the temple, a whisper brushed my mind.
"Revenge has never tasted so sweet, has it, Sanguis Sicarius?"
The only taste I could remember was that of iron and blood.
Computer: terminate recording
Pax Sanguis Sicarius: Pars Altera
Entry: six hundred twenty-five.
I've been laid up recently. The move to Blood Raider space was not kind.
Since moving here to 1DH-, Cascade has had to form another Peace Treaty, this time with the Blood Raiders. From what we were told, the Sansha were no friends to the Blood Raiders, especially given the recent Incursions where the Blood Raiders operate.
A critical part of our pact with the Raiders was to engage in human sacrifice, and while any enemy of the Raiders would do, a Sansha would "go a long ways towards mending relations".
Before leaving LGK- in the Cyclone, I invited a Sansha Priest over for 'talks concerning my conversion'. We had a meal together while he explained the better part of the roles and responsibilities I would take on as a Collaborator. After listening to his preaching for a few hours, and playing the part of someone not yet sure at first but finally convinced to join the ranks, we made our way through the station towards the Medical Bay.
It was a well thought out plan on my part, I thought.
As we crossed the Hangar to the Medical Bay, I stunned the Priest with a blow to the back of his head. As he began to fall, I caught him, pretending in pretend conversation that he just needed some rest, and played out a scene where he could take a breather aboard my Cyclone while he recovered.
We made into my ship without a hint of trouble.
I clubbed him again, to be certain he was knocked out and then tied him to the metal grating that sufficed for a floor on Matari vessels. With him restrained, I entered the pod, still seated deep in the Cyclone, and jacked in.
"Capsuleer, why are you undocking with a Priest on board?" came a harsh female voice over a communication link.
"Father Hedekai requires transport to the planet three True Power station in TG-, and has asked me to provide this while he talks to me about becoming a Collaborator."
"Capsuleer, power down your ship and prepare to be boarded. An inspection will be carried out immediately."
Shit.
I didn't power down. I powered up the ship completely, and used the fitted autocannons, already warm from power-up and spinning in anticipation, to shred the docking clamps. Freed from the shackles of the dock, I engaged the microwarpdrive and navigated out of the station, entering warp towards MB4D- immediately.
My ceo was waiting me for me, one jump ahead in his Rapier. I had no doubts that his captive was aboard his ship as well.
We had a thirty-six jump trip to make through two portions of 'hot' space. With my fingers crossed, I began the perilous journey.
We had encountered no resistance all the way into FWST-. CZK- had been taken over by Jagged Alliance, and they were already at work killing off the local Sansha while ignoring us. No one stood in our way, nor made any moves to do so.
I set up my medical clone in FWST-. The Sansha would surely not treat me well were I to wake up in their medical bay. Implants being drilled into my brain would be the least of my worries.
After the change in medical clone locations, I made the final two jumps into 1DH- and docked. A Blood Raider entourage waited for me at the dock, already notified of my presence. The leader of the entourage gave me a hard look, one that turned to muted glee and back as his eyes flickered down to the lethargic priest and back to me.
A terse gesture, and the lackeys filled in behind me, the leader setting the pace at my side towards what looked like a temple in the background.
No words were shared between us.
The priest had struggled valiantly, but in vain. No one person, even a Capsuleer or hyper-augmented Sansha priest can hold his ground against a group of sickeningly eager Blood Raiders.
He had been strapped down to an altar, the old fashioned way. Genuine rope circled his wrists, shoulders, thighs, neck, and ankles. There was enough give in the ropes to let him struggle, but not near enough to allow him to escape. His blood had already caked into the ropes, the bonds tearing at his skin.
The leader cast a look at me, his words writhing past his lips towards me. I was quite certain the man was mad, multiple expressions and emotions flickering across his face faster than I could track. Sane people couldn't hope to mimic such a display.
"Take your time with this one, Capsuleer. Savor his life, his energy, his strength, and devour it. Take his essence and make it your own." His fingernails dragged against the priest's chest, gouging out a section of skin and letting blood spill from the wound. He gently mashed a finger into the priest's wound, getting his finger bloody before raising the finger to his lips to suck the blood off.
"But don't take too long, or I might come for him myself." He pulled out a dagger, blade simple but with an ornate handle, with a groove for collecting blood on the blade. He smirked slightly, raising the dagger above his head, then his face contorted into an expression of righteous anger as he slammed the blade through the left forearm of the sacrifice. Confusion crossed the leader's face for a split second, the priest giving out a scream of pain, and then malicious glee returned to those cruel Blood Raider features.
The leader looked back at me, then walked out of the temple while mumbling vehemently to himself.
Computer: pause, no, terminate recording.
I've been laid up recently. The move to Blood Raider space was not kind.
Since moving here to 1DH-, Cascade has had to form another Peace Treaty, this time with the Blood Raiders. From what we were told, the Sansha were no friends to the Blood Raiders, especially given the recent Incursions where the Blood Raiders operate.
A critical part of our pact with the Raiders was to engage in human sacrifice, and while any enemy of the Raiders would do, a Sansha would "go a long ways towards mending relations".
Before leaving LGK- in the Cyclone, I invited a Sansha Priest over for 'talks concerning my conversion'. We had a meal together while he explained the better part of the roles and responsibilities I would take on as a Collaborator. After listening to his preaching for a few hours, and playing the part of someone not yet sure at first but finally convinced to join the ranks, we made our way through the station towards the Medical Bay.
It was a well thought out plan on my part, I thought.
As we crossed the Hangar to the Medical Bay, I stunned the Priest with a blow to the back of his head. As he began to fall, I caught him, pretending in pretend conversation that he just needed some rest, and played out a scene where he could take a breather aboard my Cyclone while he recovered.
We made into my ship without a hint of trouble.
I clubbed him again, to be certain he was knocked out and then tied him to the metal grating that sufficed for a floor on Matari vessels. With him restrained, I entered the pod, still seated deep in the Cyclone, and jacked in.
"Capsuleer, why are you undocking with a Priest on board?" came a harsh female voice over a communication link.
"Father Hedekai requires transport to the planet three True Power station in TG-, and has asked me to provide this while he talks to me about becoming a Collaborator."
"Capsuleer, power down your ship and prepare to be boarded. An inspection will be carried out immediately."
Shit.
I didn't power down. I powered up the ship completely, and used the fitted autocannons, already warm from power-up and spinning in anticipation, to shred the docking clamps. Freed from the shackles of the dock, I engaged the microwarpdrive and navigated out of the station, entering warp towards MB4D- immediately.
My ceo was waiting me for me, one jump ahead in his Rapier. I had no doubts that his captive was aboard his ship as well.
We had a thirty-six jump trip to make through two portions of 'hot' space. With my fingers crossed, I began the perilous journey.
*****
We had encountered no resistance all the way into FWST-. CZK- had been taken over by Jagged Alliance, and they were already at work killing off the local Sansha while ignoring us. No one stood in our way, nor made any moves to do so.
I set up my medical clone in FWST-. The Sansha would surely not treat me well were I to wake up in their medical bay. Implants being drilled into my brain would be the least of my worries.
After the change in medical clone locations, I made the final two jumps into 1DH- and docked. A Blood Raider entourage waited for me at the dock, already notified of my presence. The leader of the entourage gave me a hard look, one that turned to muted glee and back as his eyes flickered down to the lethargic priest and back to me.
A terse gesture, and the lackeys filled in behind me, the leader setting the pace at my side towards what looked like a temple in the background.
No words were shared between us.
*****
The priest had struggled valiantly, but in vain. No one person, even a Capsuleer or hyper-augmented Sansha priest can hold his ground against a group of sickeningly eager Blood Raiders.
He had been strapped down to an altar, the old fashioned way. Genuine rope circled his wrists, shoulders, thighs, neck, and ankles. There was enough give in the ropes to let him struggle, but not near enough to allow him to escape. His blood had already caked into the ropes, the bonds tearing at his skin.
The leader cast a look at me, his words writhing past his lips towards me. I was quite certain the man was mad, multiple expressions and emotions flickering across his face faster than I could track. Sane people couldn't hope to mimic such a display.
"Take your time with this one, Capsuleer. Savor his life, his energy, his strength, and devour it. Take his essence and make it your own." His fingernails dragged against the priest's chest, gouging out a section of skin and letting blood spill from the wound. He gently mashed a finger into the priest's wound, getting his finger bloody before raising the finger to his lips to suck the blood off.
"But don't take too long, or I might come for him myself." He pulled out a dagger, blade simple but with an ornate handle, with a groove for collecting blood on the blade. He smirked slightly, raising the dagger above his head, then his face contorted into an expression of righteous anger as he slammed the blade through the left forearm of the sacrifice. Confusion crossed the leader's face for a split second, the priest giving out a scream of pain, and then malicious glee returned to those cruel Blood Raider features.
The leader looked back at me, then walked out of the temple while mumbling vehemently to himself.
Computer: pause, no, terminate recording.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
My First Fight
Entry: six hundred twenty one.
Since moving I haven't time for anything but reading. While reading to some of the public logs I follow though, a memory surfaced regarding my first combat experience. Not first gank experience, first combat experience.
I was still a wide-eyed pilot, the asteroids in space looking like a wallet ever increasing. I was still limited to my first Stabber, however, and mining was the way to make money. Level one missions sure don't pay much.
I remember mining into a jetcan, minding my own business, and someone flips my can, and starts orbiting me. I'm very poorly fit, and I know better to engage in combat fit like that, but there he is orbiting me. I have a hard time remembering what he was in, I think perhaps a Merlin.
I opened convo with him and asked him if he wanted to fight. His replies are at first terse, and mostly in the little bit of Gallente that I can understand. We shortly come to an agreement for an equal battle, or at least what I thought was one at the time.
He made a trip to buy and fit out a Cormorant, to Jita looking back on it. I made a trip to Eystur, fitted out an autocannon armor Thrasher. When he came back, we agreed to stop at structure and warped to an asteroid belt. Thirty seconds later, we landed within twenty kilometers of each other.
As we closed the distance, afterburners on, my heart began to hammer. All sound was drowned out by the blood pumping through my ears. We exchanged webs and scrams, my autocannons pouring bullets at him, his missile launchers assaulting my armor, concussion after concussion.
I tried to pull range, but couldn't get away. He was only marginally slower than me, so I turned around and barreled at him. It felt like nothing was changing. His damage was coming on just as strong, his shields dropping the same as before.
He entered structure before I did, myself at about a third remaining armor. We called the fight, congratulating each other on a great fight, and happy that neither of us had lost our ship to get it.
Xerophim was about the same age as me. We had roughly the same skill set.
After the fight, my blood still hammering, he was talking to me about him joining a pirate corporation. I had this concept of the wild west, no law enforcement at all, wide open spaces and ruthless bands of pilots just itching for the next kill. On reflection, however, the concept I had was of what low-sec would be like if there was no weaponry on the gates or stations, and if the population was vastly vastly reduced.
It was an awesome thing to imagine. It's a shame that low-sec didn't quite live up to the scene I had imagined. It comes close though. W-space is really what I had imagined, but low-sec isn't that far off the mark.
Computer: terminate recording.
Since moving I haven't time for anything but reading. While reading to some of the public logs I follow though, a memory surfaced regarding my first combat experience. Not first gank experience, first combat experience.
I was still a wide-eyed pilot, the asteroids in space looking like a wallet ever increasing. I was still limited to my first Stabber, however, and mining was the way to make money. Level one missions sure don't pay much.
I remember mining into a jetcan, minding my own business, and someone flips my can, and starts orbiting me. I'm very poorly fit, and I know better to engage in combat fit like that, but there he is orbiting me. I have a hard time remembering what he was in, I think perhaps a Merlin.
I opened convo with him and asked him if he wanted to fight. His replies are at first terse, and mostly in the little bit of Gallente that I can understand. We shortly come to an agreement for an equal battle, or at least what I thought was one at the time.
He made a trip to buy and fit out a Cormorant, to Jita looking back on it. I made a trip to Eystur, fitted out an autocannon armor Thrasher. When he came back, we agreed to stop at structure and warped to an asteroid belt. Thirty seconds later, we landed within twenty kilometers of each other.
As we closed the distance, afterburners on, my heart began to hammer. All sound was drowned out by the blood pumping through my ears. We exchanged webs and scrams, my autocannons pouring bullets at him, his missile launchers assaulting my armor, concussion after concussion.
I tried to pull range, but couldn't get away. He was only marginally slower than me, so I turned around and barreled at him. It felt like nothing was changing. His damage was coming on just as strong, his shields dropping the same as before.
He entered structure before I did, myself at about a third remaining armor. We called the fight, congratulating each other on a great fight, and happy that neither of us had lost our ship to get it.
Xerophim was about the same age as me. We had roughly the same skill set.
After the fight, my blood still hammering, he was talking to me about him joining a pirate corporation. I had this concept of the wild west, no law enforcement at all, wide open spaces and ruthless bands of pilots just itching for the next kill. On reflection, however, the concept I had was of what low-sec would be like if there was no weaponry on the gates or stations, and if the population was vastly vastly reduced.
It was an awesome thing to imagine. It's a shame that low-sec didn't quite live up to the scene I had imagined. It comes close though. W-space is really what I had imagined, but low-sec isn't that far off the mark.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Entry: six hundred nineteen.
I do realize that this log is public, and some of the comments I've gotten make me think that perhaps I am viewed as whining.
I'll be honest, I was a little bit, but not as much as I'm getting the impression that I have been. Largely, my goal is to provide an accurate recounting on what occurs wherever I am, but to completely accurate about it, I have to include the subjective as well as the objective. Facts may be facts, but without a subjective context they can be...lost in translation is perhaps the best way to put it. Without context, facts don't have an impact.
Am I wrong?
Shortly after my last entry, I managed to catch the trailing edge of the logistics train from LGK- to 1DH-. One kind and very capable carrier pilot took on three of my battlecruisers, my remaining Guardian, and six of my frigates, and shuttled them out to 1DH- for me. The insurance may or may not have been voided, Pend Insurance sends me notices all the time to re-insure ships they've already paid out for, so I don't honestly know without checking the ship logs myself.
All that remains in Stain, in terms of ships actually worth taking to 1DH-, are my Cyclone, and a Malediction I have yet to even assemble five jumps down the pipe in TG-. Hopefully soon, when things cool down in Catch, I and two corpmates will make the trip. Jumpbridges have been taken out everywhere, so worst case, we're looking at a thirty-six jump trip.
"It's thirty-six jumps to 1DH, we've got half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and I'm wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"
Computer: terminate recording.
I do realize that this log is public, and some of the comments I've gotten make me think that perhaps I am viewed as whining.
I'll be honest, I was a little bit, but not as much as I'm getting the impression that I have been. Largely, my goal is to provide an accurate recounting on what occurs wherever I am, but to completely accurate about it, I have to include the subjective as well as the objective. Facts may be facts, but without a subjective context they can be...lost in translation is perhaps the best way to put it. Without context, facts don't have an impact.
Am I wrong?
Shortly after my last entry, I managed to catch the trailing edge of the logistics train from LGK- to 1DH-. One kind and very capable carrier pilot took on three of my battlecruisers, my remaining Guardian, and six of my frigates, and shuttled them out to 1DH- for me. The insurance may or may not have been voided, Pend Insurance sends me notices all the time to re-insure ships they've already paid out for, so I don't honestly know without checking the ship logs myself.
All that remains in Stain, in terms of ships actually worth taking to 1DH-, are my Cyclone, and a Malediction I have yet to even assemble five jumps down the pipe in TG-. Hopefully soon, when things cool down in Catch, I and two corpmates will make the trip. Jumpbridges have been taken out everywhere, so worst case, we're looking at a thirty-six jump trip.
"It's thirty-six jumps to 1DH, we've got half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and I'm wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"
Computer: terminate recording.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Re-Deployment Number Four
Entry: six hundred sixteen.
Computer: play back mail.
"Playing back redacted Alliance mail."
From: ----------------
Sent: 2011.09.18 00:39 ----------------, --------, --------------, ---------
To: Cascade Imminent, ----------------, --------, --------------, ---------
So, I'm extremely sorry but also happy to say, as of right now, we are not going to be living out of Stain.
After many talks and the recent --------- ------------- and ---- -- -------, we (the leadership) have decided that it is in our best interest to move the alliance ---- -- ----- --- system ---. Whilst there we will be "modifying" the -- ------ so that you guys can have quick access to the --- ------ to carebear,
Yes this means that our resident neutral friends will no longer be so neutral.
Those of you that need help moving ships, etc, speak to corp leadership, as much of the fuel cost will be covered by alliance by fuel given/paid for by your corps.
I recommend that you sell/self destruct remaining battleships, sell spare mods, etc. Travel as light as possible. Once there we will be using ------ --, specifically the --------- ----- fit which will be posted on the forums shortly.
Please note, Blue standings will be sorted by 18:00 tomorrow, so don't jump into --- just yet. If you have any further questions about why, etc, please go to either you corp leadership or myself, -----, or ------ directly and we will be happy to explain the reasoning.
Again I'm sorry to make you guys move again, but I promise this will be the last I will be moving my shit for the next forever. At least until the Q and D sov is secure and we can relocate to a new system to call home.
-------
P.S.: Guys, please understand that it isn't lightly we make the decision, we want what is best for this alliance and although we all hate moving including me, once this is over and done with we can settle down and get back to business, which after all is what we're here for, I'm afraid I couldn't sit around any longer and watch my friends leaving this alliance because they didn't want to be in Stain. ---- ----- we will build on what we have and grow again like we were before.
P.P.S.: Please don't hate me.
Suffice to say, it's annoying as hell what the current situation is. Still, since I don't want to change alliances/corporations, I made an effort to move my stuff down to the new staging system. I took my Claw around the back route, and about halfway through I ran into a Dramiel gatecamp with a cloaky Eris. Obviously I didn't make it and got sent back to FV-.
I took the back route because the other day the DRF took CZK-, and there's a timer today for 4-07, which is camped pretty heavily by the DRF as well for the next few hours at minimum.
Doesn't matter what alliance orders are. You can't redeploy if you can't get to the redeployment system.
Computer: terminate recording.
Computer: play back mail.
"Playing back redacted Alliance mail."
*****
Sent: 2011.09.18 00:39 ----------------, --------, --------------, ---------
To: Cascade Imminent, ----------------, --------, --------------, ---------
So, I'm extremely sorry but also happy to say, as of right now, we are not going to be living out of Stain.
After many talks and the recent --------- ------------- and ---- -- -------, we (the leadership) have decided that it is in our best interest to move the alliance ---- -- ----- --- system ---. Whilst there we will be "modifying" the -- ------ so that you guys can have quick access to the --- ------ to carebear,
Yes this means that our resident neutral friends will no longer be so neutral.
Those of you that need help moving ships, etc, speak to corp leadership, as much of the fuel cost will be covered by alliance by fuel given/paid for by your corps.
I recommend that you sell/self destruct remaining battleships, sell spare mods, etc. Travel as light as possible. Once there we will be using ------ --, specifically the --------- ----- fit which will be posted on the forums shortly.
Please note, Blue standings will be sorted by 18:00 tomorrow, so don't jump into --- just yet. If you have any further questions about why, etc, please go to either you corp leadership or myself, -----, or ------ directly and we will be happy to explain the reasoning.
Again I'm sorry to make you guys move again, but I promise this will be the last I will be moving my shit for the next forever. At least until the Q and D sov is secure and we can relocate to a new system to call home.
-------
P.S.: Guys, please understand that it isn't lightly we make the decision, we want what is best for this alliance and although we all hate moving including me, once this is over and done with we can settle down and get back to business, which after all is what we're here for, I'm afraid I couldn't sit around any longer and watch my friends leaving this alliance because they didn't want to be in Stain. ---- ----- we will build on what we have and grow again like we were before.
P.P.S.: Please don't hate me.
*****
"Playback terminated."
I took the back route because the other day the DRF took CZK-, and there's a timer today for 4-07, which is camped pretty heavily by the DRF as well for the next few hours at minimum.
Doesn't matter what alliance orders are. You can't redeploy if you can't get to the redeployment system.
Computer: terminate recording.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Reality of Life in Stain
Entry: six hundred twelve.
Many capsuleers make their living fighting off the Sansha hordes, pushing back incursions from high sec, low-sec, even null-sec. Many capsuleers never take into account what happens to the abducted.
They end up here, in Stain.
Stain is controlled by Sansha's Nation, which is to say, by Kuvakei. Those who live here willingly need have no fear of the Sansha, or of the reconditioning given to those abducted during Incursions. All who live here work with and for Kuvakei, by choice or by force.
The exception, in part, are the capsuleers also living in Stain, basing out of Sansha stations. Still, this exception isn't the entirety of the capsuleer population in Stain, as many who live here work willingly for Sansha's Nations, carrying out missions of all security levels for them in exchange for ISK, items, ships, and favors.
Often times, when I venture beyond the sparse quarters provided to me, the screams and wails of those yet to be converted reach my ears. On the rare occassion, one will manage to break free of his captors, only to run into a capsuleer such as myself.
Escapees don't manage to stay free beyond that point. The treaty the capsuleers have with Sansha's Nation demands that we apprehend any escapees and turn them over to Nation alive. I've had to turn over a handful myself, lest I be in violation of the Sansha-Capsuleer Accords and be denied all services at all Sansha stations. At least Nation doesn't seem to mind that I typically break the knees of the escape artist that crosses my path.
Being denied the ability to conduct my own war is a greater evil in my eyes than allowing Sansha to enslave trillions.
For this service to the Sansha, by which I mean making sure I apprehend all nearby conversion escapees, Nation even tolerates me destroying some of their manned vessels when I go out in space to make ISK. I've destroyed somewhere between fifty and one hundred such vessels, ranging from frigate class to battleship class. Nation is apparently pulling in more convertees than we capsuleers are destroying in our effort to fund our own wars, and apparently doesn't mind much as long as their numbers continue to climb.
I wonder when I changed. I used to care about people in general, and now I'm only concerned with myself and the capsuleers I associate with. It doesn't bother me that I am this way, but it does bother me that I can't point to when the change occurred.
Computer: terminate recording.
Many capsuleers make their living fighting off the Sansha hordes, pushing back incursions from high sec, low-sec, even null-sec. Many capsuleers never take into account what happens to the abducted.
They end up here, in Stain.
Stain is controlled by Sansha's Nation, which is to say, by Kuvakei. Those who live here willingly need have no fear of the Sansha, or of the reconditioning given to those abducted during Incursions. All who live here work with and for Kuvakei, by choice or by force.
The exception, in part, are the capsuleers also living in Stain, basing out of Sansha stations. Still, this exception isn't the entirety of the capsuleer population in Stain, as many who live here work willingly for Sansha's Nations, carrying out missions of all security levels for them in exchange for ISK, items, ships, and favors.
Often times, when I venture beyond the sparse quarters provided to me, the screams and wails of those yet to be converted reach my ears. On the rare occassion, one will manage to break free of his captors, only to run into a capsuleer such as myself.
Escapees don't manage to stay free beyond that point. The treaty the capsuleers have with Sansha's Nation demands that we apprehend any escapees and turn them over to Nation alive. I've had to turn over a handful myself, lest I be in violation of the Sansha-Capsuleer Accords and be denied all services at all Sansha stations. At least Nation doesn't seem to mind that I typically break the knees of the escape artist that crosses my path.
Being denied the ability to conduct my own war is a greater evil in my eyes than allowing Sansha to enslave trillions.
For this service to the Sansha, by which I mean making sure I apprehend all nearby conversion escapees, Nation even tolerates me destroying some of their manned vessels when I go out in space to make ISK. I've destroyed somewhere between fifty and one hundred such vessels, ranging from frigate class to battleship class. Nation is apparently pulling in more convertees than we capsuleers are destroying in our effort to fund our own wars, and apparently doesn't mind much as long as their numbers continue to climb.
I wonder when I changed. I used to care about people in general, and now I'm only concerned with myself and the capsuleers I associate with. It doesn't bother me that I am this way, but it does bother me that I can't point to when the change occurred.
Computer: terminate recording.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Going Nomad
Entry: six hundred eleven.
I got the mail yesterday. We're moving yet again. The reasons are good, the side effects both positive and negative, and job to be done itself rather annoying.
It's the third time in a month we're moving. As far as I'm aware, there are no truly nomadic corporations in the galaxy. I think Pandemic Legion is about as close to one as I can imagine, since they are so terrible at holding space. But even they, as nomads, need stations.
It's a problem. You move, you accumulate ships, modules, ammunition, and backups of all of those to provide yourself with the maximum amount of choices for spending your time in a worthwhile manner. And then you need to move. You get three choices: sell it all and re-purchase at the new base of operations, or haul it all with you, or some middle ground.
Selling is a bad idea. Lots of sneaky trader types are out there, waiting to take advantage of your inconvenience, and since they have the ships capable of moving large crates of cargo and ships, it's not as much of an inconvenience for them. That said, you won't have to move any of it.
Hauling it all can also be a bad idea. Simply moving all of it even a few jumps can be an all day proposition. Unless you have friends willing to help, it's going to take a while, or unless you have your own personal carrier or jump freighter, but then you're looking at a cost in ISK just to move everything. Case and point, I had twelve ships that needed moved seven jumps away. Each ship moved costs fourteen jumps, two docks, and two undocks. Thus, the total move cost in jumps, docks, and undocks, was eighty-four, fourteen, and fourteen. Docks and undocks take about the same amount of time as jumps, so the total cost in jumps was one hundred twelve. That's a fairly serious investment in time, and that doesn't take into account avoiding gatecamps or gangs of enemies.
Then there's that middle ground, the best and worst of both worlds. You'll get shorted on the market, but not need to move as much. Still, you have to move some, and that will still take a while.
My alliance is on its third move, as previously stated. It's been an all day operation for the alliance just to move assets seven jumps, a task accomplished partially by helpful capital ship pilots, cyno pilots, and the strange absence of the settled in gatecampers between 9RQ and WHG on the pipe between FV-SE8 and LGK-VP.
Still, leadership set aside ten days to get this done, so I imagine alliance redeployment operations will continue even well after that. Some people still haven't moved assets out of Catch, Querious, and Delve yet!
This recent string of events leaves me wondering what it'd be like to be truly nomadic. No way to make supers or titans, always living out of POS control towers and forcefields, refitting out of carriers when ship maintenance arrays aren't onlined or even anchored. Your home, ever changing, ever in imminent danger, just one reinforcement timer away from total annihilation.
It'd have to be incredibly hard...I couldn't imagine. The constant theft that would occur, the subterfuge, the being camped in and harassed endlessly, dogs circling your property, kept out only by the walls that could crumbling down once every few days at best, assuming you could manage to patch them together in the first place. Quite honestly, I think it'd be too much handle. It'd be like w-space, only on crack, speed, and rabies. Yes, definitely rabies.
I would love it if there was some way to go nomad. It's much easier to pack up and move a tent city than a brick city filled to the brim with all the trappings of civilized life. Space life would be simpler, and for an alliance that operates the way mine does, always moving with the prey, but coming back for a short respite between campaigns, it'd be perfect.
Maybe someday.
Computer: terminate recording.
I got the mail yesterday. We're moving yet again. The reasons are good, the side effects both positive and negative, and job to be done itself rather annoying.
It's the third time in a month we're moving. As far as I'm aware, there are no truly nomadic corporations in the galaxy. I think Pandemic Legion is about as close to one as I can imagine, since they are so terrible at holding space. But even they, as nomads, need stations.
It's a problem. You move, you accumulate ships, modules, ammunition, and backups of all of those to provide yourself with the maximum amount of choices for spending your time in a worthwhile manner. And then you need to move. You get three choices: sell it all and re-purchase at the new base of operations, or haul it all with you, or some middle ground.
Selling is a bad idea. Lots of sneaky trader types are out there, waiting to take advantage of your inconvenience, and since they have the ships capable of moving large crates of cargo and ships, it's not as much of an inconvenience for them. That said, you won't have to move any of it.
Hauling it all can also be a bad idea. Simply moving all of it even a few jumps can be an all day proposition. Unless you have friends willing to help, it's going to take a while, or unless you have your own personal carrier or jump freighter, but then you're looking at a cost in ISK just to move everything. Case and point, I had twelve ships that needed moved seven jumps away. Each ship moved costs fourteen jumps, two docks, and two undocks. Thus, the total move cost in jumps, docks, and undocks, was eighty-four, fourteen, and fourteen. Docks and undocks take about the same amount of time as jumps, so the total cost in jumps was one hundred twelve. That's a fairly serious investment in time, and that doesn't take into account avoiding gatecamps or gangs of enemies.
Then there's that middle ground, the best and worst of both worlds. You'll get shorted on the market, but not need to move as much. Still, you have to move some, and that will still take a while.
My alliance is on its third move, as previously stated. It's been an all day operation for the alliance just to move assets seven jumps, a task accomplished partially by helpful capital ship pilots, cyno pilots, and the strange absence of the settled in gatecampers between 9RQ and WHG on the pipe between FV-SE8 and LGK-VP.
Still, leadership set aside ten days to get this done, so I imagine alliance redeployment operations will continue even well after that. Some people still haven't moved assets out of Catch, Querious, and Delve yet!
This recent string of events leaves me wondering what it'd be like to be truly nomadic. No way to make supers or titans, always living out of POS control towers and forcefields, refitting out of carriers when ship maintenance arrays aren't onlined or even anchored. Your home, ever changing, ever in imminent danger, just one reinforcement timer away from total annihilation.
It'd have to be incredibly hard...I couldn't imagine. The constant theft that would occur, the subterfuge, the being camped in and harassed endlessly, dogs circling your property, kept out only by the walls that could crumbling down once every few days at best, assuming you could manage to patch them together in the first place. Quite honestly, I think it'd be too much handle. It'd be like w-space, only on crack, speed, and rabies. Yes, definitely rabies.
I would love it if there was some way to go nomad. It's much easier to pack up and move a tent city than a brick city filled to the brim with all the trappings of civilized life. Space life would be simpler, and for an alliance that operates the way mine does, always moving with the prey, but coming back for a short respite between campaigns, it'd be perfect.
Maybe someday.
Computer: terminate recording.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Testing my Mettle
Entry: six hundred ten.
I just came away from a fight. I didn't win by any measure, but I learned some good things and had a good time.
I was bored today, so I traveled a few jumps from home to go do some Magnetometric sites in OGY3-. After some time being wasted, I noticed combat scanner probes on the directional scan. I spent the next fifteen minutes bouncing around and making safes.
Once I felt the pressure was off, I went to the second site I had scanned down. I killed some Sansha, and had salvaged three of the six cans when a Helios, the same one that had been probing me down earlier, warped in on me.
Yes, I panicked. Also on directional scan were a Sabre and a Machariel, and I knew I would not make it out alive at that point.
After wasting a few rounds of ammuntion on the container, I switched fire to the Helios while burning for my on-grid warpout. I had thought for sure I destroyed it just as a Sabre warped in, but apparently not as I never got the killmail.
Helios gone, Sabre lands and throws up a bubble, further delaying me as a Machariel warps in. I again waste precious rounds on a container before firing on the Sabre. Damn containers are getting in the way. The Machariel burns for me, and he's faster than me I'm pretty sure. Sabre gets a web on me, I set orbit one thousand on the Machariel as he gets close to me. I keep firing on the Sabre, he goes into armor as I start hitting structure, and then he warps out and I explode.
I offer gf in local while heading back home.
What lessons did I learn? First, if you get scanned down and engaged, unlock the containers. Second, carry ECM drones with you, in case something as nasty as a Machariel is going to warp in on you. Third, something I should have done but didn't do, overload everything except maybe the microwarpdrive.
I tell you what though, I thought for sure I got that Helios and that I was about to get that Sabre.
Computer: terminate recording.
I just came away from a fight. I didn't win by any measure, but I learned some good things and had a good time.
I was bored today, so I traveled a few jumps from home to go do some Magnetometric sites in OGY3-. After some time being wasted, I noticed combat scanner probes on the directional scan. I spent the next fifteen minutes bouncing around and making safes.
Once I felt the pressure was off, I went to the second site I had scanned down. I killed some Sansha, and had salvaged three of the six cans when a Helios, the same one that had been probing me down earlier, warped in on me.
Yes, I panicked. Also on directional scan were a Sabre and a Machariel, and I knew I would not make it out alive at that point.
After wasting a few rounds of ammuntion on the container, I switched fire to the Helios while burning for my on-grid warpout. I had thought for sure I destroyed it just as a Sabre warped in, but apparently not as I never got the killmail.
Helios gone, Sabre lands and throws up a bubble, further delaying me as a Machariel warps in. I again waste precious rounds on a container before firing on the Sabre. Damn containers are getting in the way. The Machariel burns for me, and he's faster than me I'm pretty sure. Sabre gets a web on me, I set orbit one thousand on the Machariel as he gets close to me. I keep firing on the Sabre, he goes into armor as I start hitting structure, and then he warps out and I explode.
I offer gf in local while heading back home.
What lessons did I learn? First, if you get scanned down and engaged, unlock the containers. Second, carry ECM drones with you, in case something as nasty as a Machariel is going to warp in on you. Third, something I should have done but didn't do, overload everything except maybe the microwarpdrive.
I tell you what though, I thought for sure I got that Helios and that I was about to get that Sabre.
Computer: terminate recording.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Pristine Sansha Ship Remnants
Entry: six hundred nine, supplemental one.
I came out of station somewhat late today. Not as late as the day before, but still, somewhat. Not seeing any fleets happening, I decided to see more about the ISK situation. When the combat is there, I'll go after it. When the combat isn't there, I'll make ISK. It's a nice balance I think, a very "go with the flow" attitude that seems to work out well in Stain, especially with given how quickly the winds of anything can change.
Three signatures in FV-. First one scanned down was a wormhole to null-sec, not terribly interesting in itself. Second one scanned down was a Pristine Sansha Ship Remnants site. I suspected more tech two salvage, and research proved me correct in type, if not quantity.
One particular new member of the alliance who recently joined us from Atlas was running low on ISK. To further aggravate her situation, her only source of ISK generation was missioning in empire. I couldn't allow this to continue, so I contacted her while scanning down the final signature.
Truen1ght > how'd you like to make some isk today?
Truen1ght > you're looking at, from what i can tell, 120 million minimum
Libria Kyzal > /emote stretches.
Libria Kyzal > When? Where?
Truen1ght > fv-, whenever
Truen1ght > http://exorigreg.blogspot.com/2009/08/pristine-sansha-ship-remnants.html
Truen1ght > that describes what i scanned down
Truen1ght > intact armor plates are 27 mil a pop in LGK-, 30 mil at jita. coincedentally, I found a wormhole in fv- also, so a route to hi-sec is probable
Libria Kyzal > What would you like me to bring?
Truen1ght > the author ran it in a domi/raven
Libria Kyzal > Ohhh if we find a route to high I might see how close we are to my noctis.
Truen1ght > so domi is best
Truen1ght > if you want my help, i'll bring a nano cane or guardian
Truen1ght > most likely a nano cane to deal with the scrambling frigs
Libria Kyzal > Roger.
Libria Kyzal > Chuck a salvager onto teh domi then?
Truen1ght > if you want to run it solo, i'll drop you the bookmark
Truen1ght > yep, you need at least one
Truen1ght > the loot/salvage from the ships won't be worth your time compared to the cans
Libria Kyzal > Okay.
Libria Kyzal > D'you wanna come? :P
Truen1ght > lemme scan down this last sig, then i'll set up on-grid warpouts, and then we'll run it, so you have a little time
Libria Kyzal > I'm ready whenever.
Libria Kyzal > But a fleet might be soon >>
Truen1ght > ok
Truen1ght > this won't take long
Libria Kyzal > Plenty of time anyway, he said at least an hour.
Truen1ght > i'll have the on grid warp out ready in a few minutes
Libria Kyzal > Thank you!
Having set up the run on the Sansha site, I finished scanning down the second wormhole, had her warp to me and bookmark the spot, and then reshipped to a Nano Cane.
Nothing happened for the first four cans, one of which yielded seven intact armor plates, a gross sum of two hundred ten million. To be thorough, we attempted to salvage the remaining two containers and triggered the Sansha trap. Several frigates, battlecruisers, and battleships appeared from the aether, systems powering up and weapons priming on me.
I made quick work of the battlecruisers, but the frigates were too slippery for me at close range, so I aligned to the warp-out, microwarp throttle at the upper limit, and managed to kite and kill a few before needing to warp-out, the Centus battleships simply too much for my shields to handle.
Libria had to warp out for ammo and a weapons refit, and came back after my warp-in/gank/warp-out tactics had destroyed all but two of the battleships. Once she landed, we made quick work of the remaining Sansha and salvaged the remaining containers, finding nought but some tech one loot totaling me about ten million. Since I hadn't gotten anything worth writing home about, I asked for one of the armor plates. She agreed, grateful that I had given her that opportunity to make a lot of ISK relatively quickly and easily, and commented that she would be getting into exploration as a source of income for the future.
We docked up, I took a break. I went and exercised.
I came back from my workout, a little tired, a few aches here and there with exhaustion lining the edges. It was a good workout.
The two other signatures I had scanned down were wormholes. I boarded my Cheetah and went to investigate. The first one I'd found, as previously mentioned, led to null sec, chatter indicating that the system was xxShadowOfDeathxx space. There was no data about the second wormhole however, and I warped to it. Visual inspection showed that the connection was to a class three system. Since class three systems tend to drop out in low-sec, chances were good that I might end up relatively close to empire. I went in.
My stomach roiled. It took a minute to overcome the effects of the transition: unpleasant, but manageable. First order of business was to make safe spots, drop probes, and scan away. It didn't take long for allies to contact me, however, a group of which was currently in the wormhole system running Sleeper anomolies. Allies provided warp-ins for the two other connections in that system, and of the two, I chose a connection which emptied into another class three.
My stomach wasn't happy.
First order of business, same as before. Directional scanner indicated no activity via lack of wreckage and only two industrials sitting inside of a forcefield. Scanning took perhaps thirty minutes, revealing four connections: one to low-sec, one to a class three, one to a class five or class six, and one to null-sec. By the time I had finished scanning, the friendly fleet was reporting unfriendly vessels on direction scan one wormhole back from me.
I jumped into low-sec, wondering at my chances. Was I developing acid-reflux disease?
Sure enough, it dropped out into low-sec. Better yet, it was directly connected to secure empire, and because I was on the low-sec side, I would not have to contend with gatecamps.
I jumped back through, and back through, and back through, and back through into Stain. I took some time to empty my stomach in private while the robots loaded up the expensive loot I'd collected over the last week into a specially fitted Rifter designed for serious travel. Only bubbles and insta-locking ships would stop this.
Undock. Warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, jump, warp jump. Dock. I emptied the ship, the station owners happy to see a capsuleer in need of their services. A nominal fee on my part, under the table of course, and all was right with the world.
Undock. Warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, jump, warp jump. Dock.
FV- station, home again.
The ISK must flow.
Computer: terminate recording.
I came out of station somewhat late today. Not as late as the day before, but still, somewhat. Not seeing any fleets happening, I decided to see more about the ISK situation. When the combat is there, I'll go after it. When the combat isn't there, I'll make ISK. It's a nice balance I think, a very "go with the flow" attitude that seems to work out well in Stain, especially with given how quickly the winds of anything can change.
Three signatures in FV-. First one scanned down was a wormhole to null-sec, not terribly interesting in itself. Second one scanned down was a Pristine Sansha Ship Remnants site. I suspected more tech two salvage, and research proved me correct in type, if not quantity.
One particular new member of the alliance who recently joined us from Atlas was running low on ISK. To further aggravate her situation, her only source of ISK generation was missioning in empire. I couldn't allow this to continue, so I contacted her while scanning down the final signature.
Truen1ght > how'd you like to make some isk today?
Truen1ght > you're looking at, from what i can tell, 120 million minimum
Libria Kyzal > /emote stretches.
Libria Kyzal > When? Where?
Truen1ght > fv-, whenever
Truen1ght > http://exorigreg.blogspot.com/2009/08/pristine-sansha-ship-remnants.html
Truen1ght > that describes what i scanned down
Truen1ght > intact armor plates are 27 mil a pop in LGK-, 30 mil at jita. coincedentally, I found a wormhole in fv- also, so a route to hi-sec is probable
Libria Kyzal > What would you like me to bring?
Truen1ght > the author ran it in a domi/raven
Libria Kyzal > Ohhh if we find a route to high I might see how close we are to my noctis.
Truen1ght > so domi is best
Truen1ght > if you want my help, i'll bring a nano cane or guardian
Truen1ght > most likely a nano cane to deal with the scrambling frigs
Libria Kyzal > Roger.
Libria Kyzal > Chuck a salvager onto teh domi then?
Truen1ght > if you want to run it solo, i'll drop you the bookmark
Truen1ght > yep, you need at least one
Truen1ght > the loot/salvage from the ships won't be worth your time compared to the cans
Libria Kyzal > Okay.
Libria Kyzal > D'you wanna come? :P
Truen1ght > lemme scan down this last sig, then i'll set up on-grid warpouts, and then we'll run it, so you have a little time
Libria Kyzal > I'm ready whenever.
Libria Kyzal > But a fleet might be soon >>
Truen1ght > ok
Truen1ght > this won't take long
Libria Kyzal > Plenty of time anyway, he said at least an hour.
Truen1ght > i'll have the on grid warp out ready in a few minutes
Libria Kyzal > Thank you!
Having set up the run on the Sansha site, I finished scanning down the second wormhole, had her warp to me and bookmark the spot, and then reshipped to a Nano Cane.
Nothing happened for the first four cans, one of which yielded seven intact armor plates, a gross sum of two hundred ten million. To be thorough, we attempted to salvage the remaining two containers and triggered the Sansha trap. Several frigates, battlecruisers, and battleships appeared from the aether, systems powering up and weapons priming on me.
I made quick work of the battlecruisers, but the frigates were too slippery for me at close range, so I aligned to the warp-out, microwarp throttle at the upper limit, and managed to kite and kill a few before needing to warp-out, the Centus battleships simply too much for my shields to handle.
Libria had to warp out for ammo and a weapons refit, and came back after my warp-in/gank/warp-out tactics had destroyed all but two of the battleships. Once she landed, we made quick work of the remaining Sansha and salvaged the remaining containers, finding nought but some tech one loot totaling me about ten million. Since I hadn't gotten anything worth writing home about, I asked for one of the armor plates. She agreed, grateful that I had given her that opportunity to make a lot of ISK relatively quickly and easily, and commented that she would be getting into exploration as a source of income for the future.
We docked up, I took a break. I went and exercised.
I came back from my workout, a little tired, a few aches here and there with exhaustion lining the edges. It was a good workout.
The two other signatures I had scanned down were wormholes. I boarded my Cheetah and went to investigate. The first one I'd found, as previously mentioned, led to null sec, chatter indicating that the system was xxShadowOfDeathxx space. There was no data about the second wormhole however, and I warped to it. Visual inspection showed that the connection was to a class three system. Since class three systems tend to drop out in low-sec, chances were good that I might end up relatively close to empire. I went in.
My stomach roiled. It took a minute to overcome the effects of the transition: unpleasant, but manageable. First order of business was to make safe spots, drop probes, and scan away. It didn't take long for allies to contact me, however, a group of which was currently in the wormhole system running Sleeper anomolies. Allies provided warp-ins for the two other connections in that system, and of the two, I chose a connection which emptied into another class three.
My stomach wasn't happy.
First order of business, same as before. Directional scanner indicated no activity via lack of wreckage and only two industrials sitting inside of a forcefield. Scanning took perhaps thirty minutes, revealing four connections: one to low-sec, one to a class three, one to a class five or class six, and one to null-sec. By the time I had finished scanning, the friendly fleet was reporting unfriendly vessels on direction scan one wormhole back from me.
I jumped into low-sec, wondering at my chances. Was I developing acid-reflux disease?
Sure enough, it dropped out into low-sec. Better yet, it was directly connected to secure empire, and because I was on the low-sec side, I would not have to contend with gatecamps.
I jumped back through, and back through, and back through, and back through into Stain. I took some time to empty my stomach in private while the robots loaded up the expensive loot I'd collected over the last week into a specially fitted Rifter designed for serious travel. Only bubbles and insta-locking ships would stop this.
Undock. Warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, jump, warp jump. Dock. I emptied the ship, the station owners happy to see a capsuleer in need of their services. A nominal fee on my part, under the table of course, and all was right with the world.
Undock. Warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, jump, warp jump. Dock.
FV- station, home again.
The ISK must flow.
Computer: terminate recording.
How the Battle Really Went
Entry: six hundred nine.
Evenews24 put out an article within twenty-four hours of the battle at CNC- yesterday. The two forces were the DRF and Southern Coalition, the second of which is more commonly known these days as the conglomerate of Against All Authorities, Cascade, Atlas, Nulli Secunda, Warped Aggression, Red Overlord (deployed in Tribute and Venal), Imperial Order (now disbanded via DRF spy), and Legio Astartes (I think, I only know them as Legio).
Computer, link the news report.
Before I continue, it is my duty to note that I was not actually part of the first part of the fight. I was a scout planted in FAT- nextdoor to CNC-.
I read the news story, and it smacks of ignorance and bluster from the story submitter. Not only did he not have a clue what the objective was, his details on the fight are shady at best, and his claim that the battlereport proves NCdot can fight with subcaps is a blatant lie.
Here's how it really went.
-A- formed its own fleet, Cascade/Atlas/WA (Warped Aggression) formed its own fleet, AHAC by composition. Cascade's fleet bridged into CZK- and immediately jumped into CNC-. Archie, the FC, ordered scouts into all adjacent systems. I volunteered for FAT-GP duty. I was told Morsus Mihi would be coming to join the battle and to ignore them when they made their way to CNC-.
What the Cascade fleet did, I can't be sure, but given that this was a CTA fleet, it's a sure bet they were shooting SBUs, attempting to destroy them and thus save CNC- from DRF control.
NCdot formed up an Abaddon fleet, bridged either into CZK- or very close by, and jumped into CNC- to engage the Cascade fleet. NCdot warped in at range on Cascade, Cascade immediately warped away to a safe POS. Archie asked a cloaked scout for a warp-in.
Approximately five minutes after asking for the warp-in, a cloaked scout reported having a warp-in seven kilometers from the NCdot fleet. Archie fleet warped the Cascade AHAC fleet to the warp-in and landed forty kilometers away from most of the NCdot Abaddon fleet.
Suffice to say, the Abaddons took that battle. AHACs are afterburner fitted, and at forty kilometers, have zero chance of catching and killing an Abaddon fleet fitted with microwarpdrives. Archie did what he could to kill what was there on the field while attempting to drive the AHACs out of the dictor bubbles that were dropped on the Cascade fleet, and eventually managed to get most of what was left of the AHAC fleet away after taking extreme losses.
Archie ordered an immediate reship to Geddons. While this took place, -A- bridged in via Jumpbridge from K717- into CNC- while Morsus Mihi jumped a group of approximately thirty bombers from FAT- into CNC-. Morsus Mihi bombed the Abaddon fleet while it was engaged at the IHUB on planet five, losing most of their bombers in the process, most likely to drag bubbles placed pre-emptively by NCdot and undoubtedly some to delayed bubbled placed at the determined warp-in point.
While the bombing runs were commenced, Morsus Mihi also cyno'd into a fleet of forty Dominix battleships. It's unclear to me if the force was cyno'd in directly, or next door in K717-, CZK- or whatever the other system is aside from FAT-, but they were there.
-A- and Morsus engaged NCdot together, but at some point -A- abandoned the Morsus Domi fleet, leaving Morsus Mihi's forces to be pretty much obliterated with but a few survivors. NCdot had taken heavy losses at this point, but the composition of the -A- fleet was and is unknown to me. It seems probable that, given the losses, Morsus Mihi's plan of forty Dominix's was a bad idea and that a suitable warp-in could not be obtained by either -A- or Morsus Mihi.
As Morsus Mihi left CNC-, Cascade/Atlas/WA had reshipped to Hellgeddons, and joined forces with the -A- fleet, and at this point it seems likely that -A- was also running a Hellgeddon fleet. The previous desertion of the field can then easily be explained by a bad warp-in on the NCdot fleet, as the Hellgeddons have a short range of engagement compared to artillery Abaddons.
Cascade/Atlas/WA bridged to LGK-, then bridged with -A- into FAT- and jumped into CNC-, at which point I joined the fleet in CNC-. Once in CNC the Geddon fleet warped to the sun, only to learn a few seconds later that the NCdot fleet was landing at the FAT- gate, trying to escape but landing in the heavily bubbled portion of the area some twenty kilometers off the gate. The Geddon fleet obtained a ping three hundred above the gate, warped there, then warped to the gate, annihilating any of the NCdot fleet foolish enough not to abandon the field and retreat through FAT-.
Having taken the field, -A-/Cascade/Atlas/WA warped to and destroyed two of the SBUs in CNC before bridging to LGK- from CNC- (I'm certain the cyno-jammer was cycled for this very purpose).
As for using supers/titans in the battle, not that many were used. Compared to the number DRF members use, our hotdrop was a breeze compared to the power overwhelming they typically field. Yes, it was an "I Win" button, but by then the fight was already won. NCdot was finished the minute the Geddon fleet got a good warp-in.
After bridging back to LGK-, Cascade/Atlas formed another fleet and destroyed two more SBUs in a system I'm not familiar with, a small fleet of approximately sixty accomplishing this task over two hours, and burned back to FV- via LGK-.
I hope this play by play clears up the copious errors in the evenews24 report. Bad warp-ins were the reason my side lost so many ships. It had nothing to do with NCdot's "prowess" at subcapital combat.
I also feel the need to note that what seems like ninety-nine percent of the people who commented on the battle and battle-report were not there, have no clue what really happened, have no idea how to read a battle-report aside from "x lost more than b", and from what I can gather, have no real idea how large scale battles work, why long range battleships kills close range cruisers, and that interdictor bubbles catch bombers. The incompetence is staggering and inexcusable, matched only by the sheer arrogance of those commentors and the submitter of the battle report.
Computer: terminate recording.
Evenews24 put out an article within twenty-four hours of the battle at CNC- yesterday. The two forces were the DRF and Southern Coalition, the second of which is more commonly known these days as the conglomerate of Against All Authorities, Cascade, Atlas, Nulli Secunda, Warped Aggression, Red Overlord (deployed in Tribute and Venal), Imperial Order (now disbanded via DRF spy), and Legio Astartes (I think, I only know them as Legio).
Computer, link the news report.
Before I continue, it is my duty to note that I was not actually part of the first part of the fight. I was a scout planted in FAT- nextdoor to CNC-.
I read the news story, and it smacks of ignorance and bluster from the story submitter. Not only did he not have a clue what the objective was, his details on the fight are shady at best, and his claim that the battlereport proves NCdot can fight with subcaps is a blatant lie.
Here's how it really went.
-A- formed its own fleet, Cascade/Atlas/WA (Warped Aggression) formed its own fleet, AHAC by composition. Cascade's fleet bridged into CZK- and immediately jumped into CNC-. Archie, the FC, ordered scouts into all adjacent systems. I volunteered for FAT-GP duty. I was told Morsus Mihi would be coming to join the battle and to ignore them when they made their way to CNC-.
What the Cascade fleet did, I can't be sure, but given that this was a CTA fleet, it's a sure bet they were shooting SBUs, attempting to destroy them and thus save CNC- from DRF control.
NCdot formed up an Abaddon fleet, bridged either into CZK- or very close by, and jumped into CNC- to engage the Cascade fleet. NCdot warped in at range on Cascade, Cascade immediately warped away to a safe POS. Archie asked a cloaked scout for a warp-in.
Approximately five minutes after asking for the warp-in, a cloaked scout reported having a warp-in seven kilometers from the NCdot fleet. Archie fleet warped the Cascade AHAC fleet to the warp-in and landed forty kilometers away from most of the NCdot Abaddon fleet.
Suffice to say, the Abaddons took that battle. AHACs are afterburner fitted, and at forty kilometers, have zero chance of catching and killing an Abaddon fleet fitted with microwarpdrives. Archie did what he could to kill what was there on the field while attempting to drive the AHACs out of the dictor bubbles that were dropped on the Cascade fleet, and eventually managed to get most of what was left of the AHAC fleet away after taking extreme losses.
Archie ordered an immediate reship to Geddons. While this took place, -A- bridged in via Jumpbridge from K717- into CNC- while Morsus Mihi jumped a group of approximately thirty bombers from FAT- into CNC-. Morsus Mihi bombed the Abaddon fleet while it was engaged at the IHUB on planet five, losing most of their bombers in the process, most likely to drag bubbles placed pre-emptively by NCdot and undoubtedly some to delayed bubbled placed at the determined warp-in point.
While the bombing runs were commenced, Morsus Mihi also cyno'd into a fleet of forty Dominix battleships. It's unclear to me if the force was cyno'd in directly, or next door in K717-, CZK- or whatever the other system is aside from FAT-, but they were there.
-A- and Morsus engaged NCdot together, but at some point -A- abandoned the Morsus Domi fleet, leaving Morsus Mihi's forces to be pretty much obliterated with but a few survivors. NCdot had taken heavy losses at this point, but the composition of the -A- fleet was and is unknown to me. It seems probable that, given the losses, Morsus Mihi's plan of forty Dominix's was a bad idea and that a suitable warp-in could not be obtained by either -A- or Morsus Mihi.
As Morsus Mihi left CNC-, Cascade/Atlas/WA had reshipped to Hellgeddons, and joined forces with the -A- fleet, and at this point it seems likely that -A- was also running a Hellgeddon fleet. The previous desertion of the field can then easily be explained by a bad warp-in on the NCdot fleet, as the Hellgeddons have a short range of engagement compared to artillery Abaddons.
Cascade/Atlas/WA bridged to LGK-, then bridged with -A- into FAT- and jumped into CNC-, at which point I joined the fleet in CNC-. Once in CNC the Geddon fleet warped to the sun, only to learn a few seconds later that the NCdot fleet was landing at the FAT- gate, trying to escape but landing in the heavily bubbled portion of the area some twenty kilometers off the gate. The Geddon fleet obtained a ping three hundred above the gate, warped there, then warped to the gate, annihilating any of the NCdot fleet foolish enough not to abandon the field and retreat through FAT-.
Having taken the field, -A-/Cascade/Atlas/WA warped to and destroyed two of the SBUs in CNC before bridging to LGK- from CNC- (I'm certain the cyno-jammer was cycled for this very purpose).
As for using supers/titans in the battle, not that many were used. Compared to the number DRF members use, our hotdrop was a breeze compared to the power overwhelming they typically field. Yes, it was an "I Win" button, but by then the fight was already won. NCdot was finished the minute the Geddon fleet got a good warp-in.
After bridging back to LGK-, Cascade/Atlas formed another fleet and destroyed two more SBUs in a system I'm not familiar with, a small fleet of approximately sixty accomplishing this task over two hours, and burned back to FV- via LGK-.
I hope this play by play clears up the copious errors in the evenews24 report. Bad warp-ins were the reason my side lost so many ships. It had nothing to do with NCdot's "prowess" at subcapital combat.
I also feel the need to note that what seems like ninety-nine percent of the people who commented on the battle and battle-report were not there, have no clue what really happened, have no idea how to read a battle-report aside from "x lost more than b", and from what I can gather, have no real idea how large scale battles work, why long range battleships kills close range cruisers, and that interdictor bubbles catch bombers. The incompetence is staggering and inexcusable, matched only by the sheer arrogance of those commentors and the submitter of the battle report.
Computer: terminate recording.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Everyone Loves a Good Story
Entry: six hundred nine.
I ventured out of station a bit late today. There wasn't much of anything going on for the first two hours, so I took the time to get a good workout in. When I got back, still nothing was going on, so I took some time to catch up on the public logs of several other capsuleers. Of the ones I keep up to date on, the ones most interesting to me are the ones that harken back to my old days, of how they were and how they should have been.
Taurean's logs reflect how I wish my early days had been: full of life, access to good information, and every day seemingly as interesting as the last.
TurAmarath's log bring nostalgia to my door, reminding me of a secluded, dangerous life in unknown and undeveloped space. The little I'd managed to learn from my first six months in Empire paled to the knowledge and understanding I gained in W-space. The riches I acquired from W-space far outstripped anything I had made in Empire prior to then. The fun I had compared to Empire was such an immense gain, I knew I could never go back for long.
Rhaldar's logs however tell a different story, more closely resembling my early days even when I was recruited into my first corporation. Information was hard to come by, support far flung, ISK more difficult to acquire than it should have been. On reading his logs, had I not experienced similar hardship, I don't think I would be able to relate. Life in New Eden is exceedingly more difficult when you have to learn from scratch, as opposed to having resources at your disposal to point you in the right direction, the most important of which being knowing which questions to ask.
This isn't to dismiss the lives of others, such as Taurean's. I can't say for sure if he had information and understanding about a capsuleer's life before becoming one, or how much access to information he gained early on via the pirate community, but my impression was that advice was given quite liberally, and that he did have some knowledge of what awaited him. Still, knowledge nor understanding does an easy life make, not necessarily.
Of the logs I follow, those I find the second-least interesting are the meta logs. They're largely the sort that take every opportunity to take yet another tidbit of information about or from the Concord Police's {CCP} records or politics and use it to speculate on the future of New Eden. While it's clearly important, as I can clearly see that they have quite large followings, they aren't for me. Keeping abreast of the mood of New Eden in a must though, however lacking in excitement such speculative logs and hard analyses are. I do sometimes find these "hard" analyses to be skewed in data however, focusing on single or small sets of related talking points, and ignoring other issues that come in to play on the data in question.
It is worth noting that some of these meta logs are interesting, and do not (usually) have skewed data and skewed arguments, directing a reader towards a particular conclusion. Admissions of inaccuracies are typically clearly laid out, a refreshing practice for anyone doing any sort of analysis.
My favorite source of reading material at this time are Pirate and Factional Warfare logs. The incidents are exciting, the analyses thoughtful and unbiased, and After Action Reports written extremely well, engaging my senses and drawing upon my own memories to manufacture replays worth watching.
I do wish there were more null-sec oriented logs available. Perhaps I've not searched enough, perhaps there really are that few. Currently, I only know of two other capsuleers with public logs concerning null-sec, one by Easley Thames, and one who titles his logs "Aggressive Tendencies".
Last on my list, logs I can't bear to read, these are logs that rarely talk about anything relevant to capsuleer life in any respect, except for the occasional "meta" entry, almost always geared towards slamming CCP, or New Eden, or some other faction in this galaxy, and always talking about other stuff such as Tanks, or politics in another galaxy, all of it completely unrelateable and completely uninteresting to me. What the hell do I want to read about tanks for? I pilot starships, the smallest combat variant being at least double the size of a tank, able to move in four dimensions quite freely, with massively more firepower, and more speed. What do I care about events on some distant world that may or may not exist, as if the politics in this one weren't interesting and relevant. And yet, these logs are still somehow popular among the active public loggers of New Eden. Consider my mind blown.
To finish up, I do follow several news sources. Evenews24 is a good one, though typically sensationalized, and for as long I've been with Cascade Imminent, a propoganda machine for the DRF and the Deklein Coalition. Lost In EVE is another excellent one, sadly reduced to one or two podcasts a month. Voices From the Void is another excellent one, largely for entertainment value as the news sources seem to come straight from Evenews24. Kugutsumen is an excellent source of the "real news", but sifting through troll posts for the meat if an exercise in masochism at best. Kugu is one those places that requires real dedication to bring the story to light, or rather trudge through all the slag to find it.
To anyone who reads this, I recommend you visit the above logs at least once. You should be able to make a determination within one log entry if you will enjoy the logger and his style of recording. If you do, you've helped yourself and perhaps inspired the logger to put more effort into his own logs, and if you don't you've lost nothing but a few minutes you were going to spend unwisely anyways.
And to anyone who reads this, what types of logs do you follow, and how do you get your news?
Computer: terminate recording.
I ventured out of station a bit late today. There wasn't much of anything going on for the first two hours, so I took the time to get a good workout in. When I got back, still nothing was going on, so I took some time to catch up on the public logs of several other capsuleers. Of the ones I keep up to date on, the ones most interesting to me are the ones that harken back to my old days, of how they were and how they should have been.
Taurean's logs reflect how I wish my early days had been: full of life, access to good information, and every day seemingly as interesting as the last.
TurAmarath's log bring nostalgia to my door, reminding me of a secluded, dangerous life in unknown and undeveloped space. The little I'd managed to learn from my first six months in Empire paled to the knowledge and understanding I gained in W-space. The riches I acquired from W-space far outstripped anything I had made in Empire prior to then. The fun I had compared to Empire was such an immense gain, I knew I could never go back for long.
Rhaldar's logs however tell a different story, more closely resembling my early days even when I was recruited into my first corporation. Information was hard to come by, support far flung, ISK more difficult to acquire than it should have been. On reading his logs, had I not experienced similar hardship, I don't think I would be able to relate. Life in New Eden is exceedingly more difficult when you have to learn from scratch, as opposed to having resources at your disposal to point you in the right direction, the most important of which being knowing which questions to ask.
This isn't to dismiss the lives of others, such as Taurean's. I can't say for sure if he had information and understanding about a capsuleer's life before becoming one, or how much access to information he gained early on via the pirate community, but my impression was that advice was given quite liberally, and that he did have some knowledge of what awaited him. Still, knowledge nor understanding does an easy life make, not necessarily.
Of the logs I follow, those I find the second-least interesting are the meta logs. They're largely the sort that take every opportunity to take yet another tidbit of information about or from the Concord Police's {CCP} records or politics and use it to speculate on the future of New Eden. While it's clearly important, as I can clearly see that they have quite large followings, they aren't for me. Keeping abreast of the mood of New Eden in a must though, however lacking in excitement such speculative logs and hard analyses are. I do sometimes find these "hard" analyses to be skewed in data however, focusing on single or small sets of related talking points, and ignoring other issues that come in to play on the data in question.
It is worth noting that some of these meta logs are interesting, and do not (usually) have skewed data and skewed arguments, directing a reader towards a particular conclusion. Admissions of inaccuracies are typically clearly laid out, a refreshing practice for anyone doing any sort of analysis.
My favorite source of reading material at this time are Pirate and Factional Warfare logs. The incidents are exciting, the analyses thoughtful and unbiased, and After Action Reports written extremely well, engaging my senses and drawing upon my own memories to manufacture replays worth watching.
I do wish there were more null-sec oriented logs available. Perhaps I've not searched enough, perhaps there really are that few. Currently, I only know of two other capsuleers with public logs concerning null-sec, one by Easley Thames, and one who titles his logs "Aggressive Tendencies".
Last on my list, logs I can't bear to read, these are logs that rarely talk about anything relevant to capsuleer life in any respect, except for the occasional "meta" entry, almost always geared towards slamming CCP, or New Eden, or some other faction in this galaxy, and always talking about other stuff such as Tanks, or politics in another galaxy, all of it completely unrelateable and completely uninteresting to me. What the hell do I want to read about tanks for? I pilot starships, the smallest combat variant being at least double the size of a tank, able to move in four dimensions quite freely, with massively more firepower, and more speed. What do I care about events on some distant world that may or may not exist, as if the politics in this one weren't interesting and relevant. And yet, these logs are still somehow popular among the active public loggers of New Eden. Consider my mind blown.
To finish up, I do follow several news sources. Evenews24 is a good one, though typically sensationalized, and for as long I've been with Cascade Imminent, a propoganda machine for the DRF and the Deklein Coalition. Lost In EVE is another excellent one, sadly reduced to one or two podcasts a month. Voices From the Void is another excellent one, largely for entertainment value as the news sources seem to come straight from Evenews24. Kugutsumen is an excellent source of the "real news", but sifting through troll posts for the meat if an exercise in masochism at best. Kugu is one those places that requires real dedication to bring the story to light, or rather trudge through all the slag to find it.
To anyone who reads this, I recommend you visit the above logs at least once. You should be able to make a determination within one log entry if you will enjoy the logger and his style of recording. If you do, you've helped yourself and perhaps inspired the logger to put more effort into his own logs, and if you don't you've lost nothing but a few minutes you were going to spend unwisely anyways.
And to anyone who reads this, what types of logs do you follow, and how do you get your news?
Computer: terminate recording.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Revenge, Domination, Starvation, and Acquistion
Entry: six hundred six.
The last few days have been incredibly busy.
Three days ago there was, as always, a CTA fleet, or more properly put, a Revenge Fleet. One of my alliances junior FC's gave his recounting for evenews24, but I'll replay the log here as well from his perspective.
I don’t really know what happened prior to Fatlas Agression forming an emergency CTA fleet, but what I do know follows:
I joined this fleet among shouts of “SAVE AN AEON” etc, but by the time I really knew what was going on -A-’s Aeon got killed and this fleet became a revenge fleet.
[21:54:10] Vince Draken > http://www.northern-coalition.co.uk/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=82024
[21:54:31] Vince Draken > never log as SS
Welp.
Anyways, our glorious FAIL FC shouted words of encouragement to us over comms, “WE WILL AVENGE THIS KILL (etc etc)” We formed up into the coalition standard hellgeddons (which didn’t really include -A- this time. Funny how they’re the ones who lost the super and they don’t even form up to save it?) We warped to a pos and sat on a titan, while scouts were relaying where NCdot’s gang was.
After much screwing around, NCdot jumped into V-3YG7 seemingly to spring our cyno trap. Eventually, they warped to the B-3QPD gate and FC ordered cyno up. Our massive blob of golden penises entered the system with very little lag (yay CCP) and approached the V-3 gate. The fight, it seemed, was imminent.
NCdot jumped a flycatcher through and proceeded to bubble us, while we had a sabre go through and bubble them. A tense Mexican Standoff existed for about 30 seconds, at which point NCdot put on their big boy boots and jumped into us. Primaries were called and drones were deployed and NCdot’s Abaddon fleet was melting to the might of our FAIL Penises.
However, about 2 or 3 minutes into the fight, NCdot lit a cyno and while only 3 titans and 3 carriers came in at first, there was going to be a grand total of 7 titans on the gate fighting us. This surely would scare us Stain refugees away wouldn’t it?
Yep, it did.
FC calmly ordered us to disengage and jump through back into V-3.
However, we would stand and fight on this side as surely no more titans would be available to fight us, and the ones on the other side had to cap up still, right? Basically, we were wrong. But this time it was only 3 titans that came through, and they did little to stop the annihilation of the mighty NCdot Abaddons. Several more titans came through and our FC got doomsdayed, so we de-aggressed and jumped out, losing some of our fleet at the same time.
But during this point and time, with next to no subcap fleet left, NCdot must have shit their pants with, “OH MY GOD WE HAVE TITANS TACKLED ZOMGGGGGGG,” for they proceeded to log on their entire supercap fleet lul.
Fatlas Aggression did the only honorable thing we could do: we ran. But while we were running, we were laughing our bums off at the thought that we very nearly wiped the floor with not only NCdot’s Abaddons, but also their titans.
GF NCDOT THANKS FOR THE FUN!!!! Next time don’t press the “I-Win” button and learn to fight with subcaps
-Nitor1013Z
I feel that his perspective pretty closely matches my own, however, I had the honor of making the fleet hate Rifters for the next few days, as I got called out repeatedly after that battle when flying a Rifter, and being told to never broadcast for reps while in a Rifter. Clearly, my usual gang, the Logistics portion of any CTA fleet, doesn't feel tacklers are important for things like webbing, scramming, and killing enemy tacklers. Sure, the Geddons are important, but so are the tacklers. Let's also keep in mind that the battlereport shows that we did not, in fact, have much of a fleet left to fight with. We were however reshipping at LGK, a mere five or six jumps from V-3.
Two days ago, there was, as always a CTA fleet, but this time it wasn't a revenge fleet. It was a proper fleet to disrupt DRF acquistion of null-sec territory. We formed up in LGK-, bridged in GJ0-, burned twenty jumps to another titan in R-XDKM, and bridged onto a DRF fleet in G-DON3. I was, as per usual, a guardian pilot.
Before jumping in, Archie told the dictor pilots to warp in, bubble the fleet, and get out, repeating as many times as possible during the fight. Once we bridged in, he called out target after target, sporadically asking us how the Guardians were doing. After a few minutes, when he next asked, someone mentioned that the Scorpions were jamming out the logis pretty hard. Archie then called all the Scorpions and had the fleet melt them. Once that was complete, our HellGeddons laid waste to the enemy fleet, taking very few losses from that point on. I got jammed out by ECM drones from time to time, but every time I did, I activated my smartbomb. I almost never ended up jammed for more than one cycle that way, as I either killed the ECM drones or they were assigned to jam out a different Guardian pilot.
After ten minutes of frantic target calling by Archie and frantic remote-repping by the Guardians, the enemy fleet started to disengage, trying to get away. The dictors continually swooped in and out, dropping bubbles, allowing even more carnage to litter the field in our favor. It was only when the enemy fleet was routed that Maka called in the hotdrop. Quite a few capital class ships jumped in to whore in on the fun.
With the objective achieved, a wonderful fight had, we bridged out of G-DON3 to R-X, docked in DZ6- next door for a break, then burned back to GJ0- where we bridged back to LGK- and called it a day.
Yesterday I was on fleets on all day, from when I woke up in my new quarters in FV- to when I went to sleep there. Despite being on four fleets that day, one of which was a CTA fleet against the DRF forces in what was just a few moments prior to and the first two hours of Imperial Order having lost all of their space, all I got to show for it was "blueballs" and a Sabre kill. Computer: link evenews24 report on Imperial Order's loss of space.
Today I wasn't able to make it out of station until very late. No immediate fleets in the area were up, so I decided to see about my ISK situation, and I scanned down a Pristine Sansha Abandoned Colony. I immediately went a known log of a former Stain resident for consultation, but didn't find any notes on what I would find in terms of opposition. I did however learn that there were five intact armor plates waiting to be had.
Jita puts five intact armor plates at one fifty-million isk. I was not going to pass that up.
Upon immediate warp-in, I burned away from the Drone horde to make a warp-out still on grid, some two hundred twenty meters from the main cluster. Once that was completed, it took some time to figure out how best to deal with the Drones, as there were five to seven Battleship class, about as many cruiser class, and about as many frigate class. My typical tactic, since I was piloting a standard nano cane was to warp-in, nuke a ship or two, and warp-out on grid to recharge. Eventually, I docked, got a sniper cane, and used that to draw a second deadlier spawn which showed up away from the main cluster, killing several of the deadlier drone frigates in the process.
Once that was complete, I reshipped into the nano-cane, and destroyed the main cluster of drones rather quickly, warped out for a recharge, then destroyed the second cluster of drones about as quickly. It took about one and a half hours to complete this site with all the fumbling I'd done, so my ISK per hour ratio is quite high. On top of the armor plates, I gained approximately six million in minerals on insta-sell, various tech one salvage worth another few million, and some various tech two loot.
All told, that site was worth about one hundred seventy million ISK. That can easily replace my previous Munnin loss, although I think it more likely I will invest said ISK into a second Guardian, as my first was destroyed in a failed AHAC fleet in A-E several days ago.
That's what I love about null-sec: it's a rollercoaster of all sorts. Politics, war, emotion, poverty, wealth, and friends, the whole situation one big mess that gives and takes just enough to leave you hopelessly addicted. I can never go back to empire after coming out here.
Computer: terminate recording.
The last few days have been incredibly busy.
Three days ago there was, as always, a CTA fleet, or more properly put, a Revenge Fleet. One of my alliances junior FC's gave his recounting for evenews24, but I'll replay the log here as well from his perspective.
I don’t really know what happened prior to Fatlas Agression forming an emergency CTA fleet, but what I do know follows:
I joined this fleet among shouts of “SAVE AN AEON” etc, but by the time I really knew what was going on -A-’s Aeon got killed and this fleet became a revenge fleet.
[21:54:10] Vince Draken > http://www.northern-coalition.co.uk/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=82024
[21:54:31] Vince Draken > never log as SS
Welp.
Anyways, our glorious FAIL FC shouted words of encouragement to us over comms, “WE WILL AVENGE THIS KILL (etc etc)” We formed up into the coalition standard hellgeddons (which didn’t really include -A- this time. Funny how they’re the ones who lost the super and they don’t even form up to save it?) We warped to a pos and sat on a titan, while scouts were relaying where NCdot’s gang was.
After much screwing around, NCdot jumped into V-3YG7 seemingly to spring our cyno trap. Eventually, they warped to the B-3QPD gate and FC ordered cyno up. Our massive blob of golden penises entered the system with very little lag (yay CCP) and approached the V-3 gate. The fight, it seemed, was imminent.
NCdot jumped a flycatcher through and proceeded to bubble us, while we had a sabre go through and bubble them. A tense Mexican Standoff existed for about 30 seconds, at which point NCdot put on their big boy boots and jumped into us. Primaries were called and drones were deployed and NCdot’s Abaddon fleet was melting to the might of our FAIL Penises.
However, about 2 or 3 minutes into the fight, NCdot lit a cyno and while only 3 titans and 3 carriers came in at first, there was going to be a grand total of 7 titans on the gate fighting us. This surely would scare us Stain refugees away wouldn’t it?
Yep, it did.
FC calmly ordered us to disengage and jump through back into V-3.
However, we would stand and fight on this side as surely no more titans would be available to fight us, and the ones on the other side had to cap up still, right? Basically, we were wrong. But this time it was only 3 titans that came through, and they did little to stop the annihilation of the mighty NCdot Abaddons. Several more titans came through and our FC got doomsdayed, so we de-aggressed and jumped out, losing some of our fleet at the same time.
But during this point and time, with next to no subcap fleet left, NCdot must have shit their pants with, “OH MY GOD WE HAVE TITANS TACKLED ZOMGGGGGGG,” for they proceeded to log on their entire supercap fleet lul.
Fatlas Aggression did the only honorable thing we could do: we ran. But while we were running, we were laughing our bums off at the thought that we very nearly wiped the floor with not only NCdot’s Abaddons, but also their titans.
GF NCDOT THANKS FOR THE FUN!!!! Next time don’t press the “I-Win” button and learn to fight with subcaps
-Nitor1013Z
I feel that his perspective pretty closely matches my own, however, I had the honor of making the fleet hate Rifters for the next few days, as I got called out repeatedly after that battle when flying a Rifter, and being told to never broadcast for reps while in a Rifter. Clearly, my usual gang, the Logistics portion of any CTA fleet, doesn't feel tacklers are important for things like webbing, scramming, and killing enemy tacklers. Sure, the Geddons are important, but so are the tacklers. Let's also keep in mind that the battlereport shows that we did not, in fact, have much of a fleet left to fight with. We were however reshipping at LGK, a mere five or six jumps from V-3.
Two days ago, there was, as always a CTA fleet, but this time it wasn't a revenge fleet. It was a proper fleet to disrupt DRF acquistion of null-sec territory. We formed up in LGK-, bridged in GJ0-, burned twenty jumps to another titan in R-XDKM, and bridged onto a DRF fleet in G-DON3. I was, as per usual, a guardian pilot.
Before jumping in, Archie told the dictor pilots to warp in, bubble the fleet, and get out, repeating as many times as possible during the fight. Once we bridged in, he called out target after target, sporadically asking us how the Guardians were doing. After a few minutes, when he next asked, someone mentioned that the Scorpions were jamming out the logis pretty hard. Archie then called all the Scorpions and had the fleet melt them. Once that was complete, our HellGeddons laid waste to the enemy fleet, taking very few losses from that point on. I got jammed out by ECM drones from time to time, but every time I did, I activated my smartbomb. I almost never ended up jammed for more than one cycle that way, as I either killed the ECM drones or they were assigned to jam out a different Guardian pilot.
After ten minutes of frantic target calling by Archie and frantic remote-repping by the Guardians, the enemy fleet started to disengage, trying to get away. The dictors continually swooped in and out, dropping bubbles, allowing even more carnage to litter the field in our favor. It was only when the enemy fleet was routed that Maka called in the hotdrop. Quite a few capital class ships jumped in to whore in on the fun.
With the objective achieved, a wonderful fight had, we bridged out of G-DON3 to R-X, docked in DZ6- next door for a break, then burned back to GJ0- where we bridged back to LGK- and called it a day.
Yesterday I was on fleets on all day, from when I woke up in my new quarters in FV- to when I went to sleep there. Despite being on four fleets that day, one of which was a CTA fleet against the DRF forces in what was just a few moments prior to and the first two hours of Imperial Order having lost all of their space, all I got to show for it was "blueballs" and a Sabre kill. Computer: link evenews24 report on Imperial Order's loss of space.
Today I wasn't able to make it out of station until very late. No immediate fleets in the area were up, so I decided to see about my ISK situation, and I scanned down a Pristine Sansha Abandoned Colony. I immediately went a known log of a former Stain resident for consultation, but didn't find any notes on what I would find in terms of opposition. I did however learn that there were five intact armor plates waiting to be had.
Jita puts five intact armor plates at one fifty-million isk. I was not going to pass that up.
Upon immediate warp-in, I burned away from the Drone horde to make a warp-out still on grid, some two hundred twenty meters from the main cluster. Once that was completed, it took some time to figure out how best to deal with the Drones, as there were five to seven Battleship class, about as many cruiser class, and about as many frigate class. My typical tactic, since I was piloting a standard nano cane was to warp-in, nuke a ship or two, and warp-out on grid to recharge. Eventually, I docked, got a sniper cane, and used that to draw a second deadlier spawn which showed up away from the main cluster, killing several of the deadlier drone frigates in the process.
Once that was complete, I reshipped into the nano-cane, and destroyed the main cluster of drones rather quickly, warped out for a recharge, then destroyed the second cluster of drones about as quickly. It took about one and a half hours to complete this site with all the fumbling I'd done, so my ISK per hour ratio is quite high. On top of the armor plates, I gained approximately six million in minerals on insta-sell, various tech one salvage worth another few million, and some various tech two loot.
All told, that site was worth about one hundred seventy million ISK. That can easily replace my previous Munnin loss, although I think it more likely I will invest said ISK into a second Guardian, as my first was destroyed in a failed AHAC fleet in A-E several days ago.
That's what I love about null-sec: it's a rollercoaster of all sorts. Politics, war, emotion, poverty, wealth, and friends, the whole situation one big mess that gives and takes just enough to leave you hopelessly addicted. I can never go back to empire after coming out here.
Computer: terminate recording.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Hellgeddon/AHAC
Entry: six hundred three.
It's been pretty slow lately.
I've had the chance to do a little exploration, make some potential ISK that way. Beyond that, not a great deal except for an AHAC roam we took to A-ELE2 in Delve the other day and a failed Hellgeddon Defense Fleet against Stain Empire.
The Hellgeddon Defense happened two days ago. Stain Empire had jumped Dreadnoughts into FV-SE8 and started taking out or reinforcing friendly towers. After some time of forming up, Makalu Zaraya joined our comms with our fleet, and formed up some -A- pilots to help us out, which eventually were bridged in from LGK-, about seven jumps away.
We sat on station for some time, waiting for a moment to strike, and eventually, we found our shot. Stain Empire was on the FZSW- gate at zero, bubbles finally down, apparently spoiling for a fight. Our fleet warped to zero and landed ten kilometers off.
As the first of approached the gate from warp, an enemy cyno went up and additional enemy forces were bridged in. Apparently Romanian Legion had decided to join forces with Stain Empire to attack us, the very people they rely on for hi-sec access. Prior to then, Romanian legion retained blue standings only with Atlas, but given that Atlas flies with Cascade Imminent and the rest of the coalition, that blue status may get revoked, preventing the use of jump bridges, opening up anything cyno'd in from hi-sec to assault by Atlas and Cascade members. If this happens, the immediate consequences will be few since we're all deployed to Stain to fight the DRF, but the long term consequences will be starvation. Romanian Legion will be cut off from the Empire trading hubs, and most likely will crumble shortly afterwards.
Access to Empire is not something normally considered in null-sec politics, but without it, unless you have every blueprint, and the ability to make anything you need, and a massive industrial force, you rely on the Empire trading hubs for supplies. Quite frankly, without them, even simple things like fueling towers will become impossible as Ice mining in null is minimal and suicidal at best.
Having warped into a trap, Archie ordered us to burn for the gate and jump, shortly countermanded himself with an "Align station" command, then uncountermanded with "Burn for the the gate and jump". We lost a few more than necessary this way, but since the commands were so close together we didn't lose but one or two ships more than we would have.
Having been outfoxed and disorganized, we were ordered to burn to UF- and dock. Some thirty minutes later we undocked and returned home.
The AHAC roam roam happened some time after that.. Archie had originally formed the fleet as a CTA for some purpose, but the fleet turned into a reimburseable roam as we browsed through Stain. Partway through Stain on our way towards Delve, we were notified of a Morsus/Brick fight against Evoke/Ewoks and made best speed to 1DH- in Delve.
When we got to 1DH-, we waited on the A-E gate while a cloaky maneuvered into position. Once there, we jumped in and warped at zero, landing twenty kilomters from the enemy fleet. Archie had warned us Guardian pilots that we were likely to be destroyed immediately by the enemy AHAC gang, but we went in anyways.
The battle report shows that the fight was about even though we technically lost and realistically lost that fight. We went into the fight knowing we might well lose, and that there were standing issues with Morsus and Brick, but we didn't travel sixty jumps to not engage, and we made sure we would get some kills, win or lose. We did, however, have to leave the field as most of our logistics were dead, and those not dead were undoubtedly off the field.
Computer: terminate recording.
It's been pretty slow lately.
I've had the chance to do a little exploration, make some potential ISK that way. Beyond that, not a great deal except for an AHAC roam we took to A-ELE2 in Delve the other day and a failed Hellgeddon Defense Fleet against Stain Empire.
The Hellgeddon Defense happened two days ago. Stain Empire had jumped Dreadnoughts into FV-SE8 and started taking out or reinforcing friendly towers. After some time of forming up, Makalu Zaraya joined our comms with our fleet, and formed up some -A- pilots to help us out, which eventually were bridged in from LGK-, about seven jumps away.
We sat on station for some time, waiting for a moment to strike, and eventually, we found our shot. Stain Empire was on the FZSW- gate at zero, bubbles finally down, apparently spoiling for a fight. Our fleet warped to zero and landed ten kilometers off.
As the first of approached the gate from warp, an enemy cyno went up and additional enemy forces were bridged in. Apparently Romanian Legion had decided to join forces with Stain Empire to attack us, the very people they rely on for hi-sec access. Prior to then, Romanian legion retained blue standings only with Atlas, but given that Atlas flies with Cascade Imminent and the rest of the coalition, that blue status may get revoked, preventing the use of jump bridges, opening up anything cyno'd in from hi-sec to assault by Atlas and Cascade members. If this happens, the immediate consequences will be few since we're all deployed to Stain to fight the DRF, but the long term consequences will be starvation. Romanian Legion will be cut off from the Empire trading hubs, and most likely will crumble shortly afterwards.
Access to Empire is not something normally considered in null-sec politics, but without it, unless you have every blueprint, and the ability to make anything you need, and a massive industrial force, you rely on the Empire trading hubs for supplies. Quite frankly, without them, even simple things like fueling towers will become impossible as Ice mining in null is minimal and suicidal at best.
Having warped into a trap, Archie ordered us to burn for the gate and jump, shortly countermanded himself with an "Align station" command, then uncountermanded with "Burn for the the gate and jump". We lost a few more than necessary this way, but since the commands were so close together we didn't lose but one or two ships more than we would have.
Having been outfoxed and disorganized, we were ordered to burn to UF- and dock. Some thirty minutes later we undocked and returned home.
The AHAC roam roam happened some time after that.. Archie had originally formed the fleet as a CTA for some purpose, but the fleet turned into a reimburseable roam as we browsed through Stain. Partway through Stain on our way towards Delve, we were notified of a Morsus/Brick fight against Evoke/Ewoks and made best speed to 1DH- in Delve.
When we got to 1DH-, we waited on the A-E gate while a cloaky maneuvered into position. Once there, we jumped in and warped at zero, landing twenty kilomters from the enemy fleet. Archie had warned us Guardian pilots that we were likely to be destroyed immediately by the enemy AHAC gang, but we went in anyways.
The battle report shows that the fight was about even though we technically lost and realistically lost that fight. We went into the fight knowing we might well lose, and that there were standing issues with Morsus and Brick, but we didn't travel sixty jumps to not engage, and we made sure we would get some kills, win or lose. We did, however, have to leave the field as most of our logistics were dead, and those not dead were undoubtedly off the field.
Computer: terminate recording.
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