Vengeance and Rifter vs Harbinger et ali

This was an interesting little evening. I was roaming around through my little low sec pocket finding not much. There was a loki with Sisters Core Probes that I thought was searching me out, but I guess he wasnt after I taunted him in local for trying to find and fight an Assault Frig in a t3. He replied back with a similar taunt and left system. Then there was a Rifter on scan, and my evening suddenly got alot more interesting.

Well, looking at this Rifter pilot, he's been in Brutor Tribe for at least 10 months. Obvious alt or returning player. Talking in local is sometimes a bad idea, but I usually ignore that rule and talk anyways. Striking up conversation with this pilot led us through the usual chat of Vengeance vs Rifter and the Vengeance winning easily. Thats true so I didnt bother trying to find this guy. I was looking for a good fight, not something so one sided. And then he offered to fleet up and roam together with him as fast tackle. Something me in my Vengeance would appreciate greatly, being the brick that I am.

Hesitantly, at first, I just flew through a couple systems unfleeted. Knowing that this pocket isnt normally busy, I saw no reason to risk any of my safe spots for someone's alt who's main I dont know yet. Soon we ended up in Rammi, with 4-6 other people. Three of these people are part of UFO, a corp I ran into when I was making bookmarks. I knew they were capable of scanning down a ship quickly if they werent cloaked, so I kept moving between planets instead of safes. Before my partner had jumped into Rammi, he mentioned seeing two Harbingers on scan. From prior experience flying this ship, I knew Thermal was its weakest resist most of the time. Just in case, I thought, Ill switch to CN Foxfire missiles.

As we warped around trying to find a ratter, the two harbinger pilots jumped into our system. One, I recognized as the one who tried to scan me down previously. I wasnt too worried about her as much as I was about the other unknown pilot. Either way, with my partner and myself both warping around, they werent coming out of their safe POS. Finally fleeting up with him, I recommended we use him as bait in a belt, with me arriving shortly after to make it look like I was hunting him and we were fighting.

With the trap laid, I was soon rewarded with one Harbinger landing 30-40km from us. With primary called, my adept Rifter friend zoomed towards the battlecruiser.....and then bounced off an astroid. I let out a quick giggle as I saw him bounce off it pretty far. In this instance, I noticed I was heading for the same roid, but I was slower with my AB fit and still hit it altering my course slightly. At about 12km, the Rifter was in orbit, locking down the Harbi, when the drones came out. I typed out quickly in our private chat "Kill the drones!"

I felt they were more of a danger to our frigate hulls than the harbinger's medium sized guns. Which, by the way, were of the heavy version. Lower tracking than focused version I used in my fits. This told me two things:

1) He had a light tank, both heavy pulses and 1600 plates are grid hogs.
2) He was dps fit, meaning its possible he has some tracking enhancers fit.

Fact two was negated when I was webbed, scrammed, and I think tracking disrupted. I forget what the third symbol was exactly. Seeing this, I assumed he had a cap booster or recharger in his 4th midslot. Assuming the light tank, most likely was an active armor tanked Harbinger with a cap booster. All of this before he was to 90% shields. Yay for my awesome retention of knowledge that I need to prioritize. Thank you much Taurean!

Now, at this point, I figured I had the opponent fixed. I knew how the Harbinger flies and fits from personal experience; always helpful. Next, I knew the drones needed to be took out first if I was going to survive. Finally, I tried to target the drones. Not easy when I dont have them added to my overview settings. Woops? So I clicked a few times before I finally got one targeted and locked. Quickly right click and adding to overview, I webbed and shot my missiles at my first drone. Somewhere between now and the rest of the drones dieing, my Rifter partner bit the dust. I think he got his pod out, but Im not entirely sure as I didnt see him local when I glanced over when he said he died. The rest of the drones quickly followed the first, to my surprise.

At this point, my shields were completely gone and my armor took some damage. This Harbi was fit with a neut, which had me completely capped out. Between cycles, I was able to get off one or two cycles of my repper, which kept up easily with the damge I was now taking from the medium lasers. Surprisingly, as I was managing my modules (scram on as much as possible, web off), I was regening shields. Wow, I might have this kill! How naive of me to think that.

With my shields coming back online, at about 40% with the harbinger at 85-90% armor, I saw a new yellow hit grid. Great, what now? A Guardian? Ok, what the hell is this shit? Turning off the overheat of my missiles that I had turned on to get through the 30% shield regen (not that I needed it), I taunted the opponents in local. Seriously, who brings a Guardian to rep a battlecruiser against a fucking ASSAULT FRIGATE?!?!? If it was the second Harbinger I heard about earlier, I wouldnt have cared. Still mad they called in backup, but not as much as this.

I mean really. I had this kill until the guardian showed up and repped his corpmate (alt?). Then, once they saw I wasnt bailing, the guardian moved in to neut me also. Or I think so, they turned red and my cap was obliterated. Not even my DC2 was able to be turned on once its cycle finished. So, once my armor hit 50%, I offered them to let me live for 20 mISK. A fair offer, considering my ship was only about 13-14 mISK. I turned off my missiles to show I was serious, and they laughed and continued shooting.

Once I popped, I figured out the real reason I wasnt warping my pod out in previous fights: I was hitting "D" instead of "S". How noob of me, but I realized this in time to actually get my aligned pod out. They offered up a gf, to which I replied with, "w/e, woulda been better without your friend." I refuse to gf someone who has to have a repper friend in a AF vs BC fight.

Adventures in New Eden

I meant to post this yesterday, but got pretty busy with RL and stuff. Anyhow, a few other people posted the question about what drew you into EVE. I felt like answering in a small, quick post.

For me, it was the "Great Scam". A story of trust and betrayal. Its not the best tale Ive read, but it was enough to draw my interest and motivate me to find out more. So I did. I found a ton of lore and history in EVE and thats the main point for me to play. Even though I enjoy New Eden, I could spend hours upon hours just reading of the adventures of the capsuleers. I think I enjoy that more than actually playing the game tbh. It was the same for me before I started raiding in EverQuest as well. Raiding ruined me, tbh! But I digress.

The lore and background of EVE Online is what brought me to the internet spaceships/spreadsheets game. Im going to finish up by stealing a short chronicle from the EVE-O homepage because its a cool little bit of info. Without further ado, "The Vicious Cycle".

And then it was all over. The capsule cracked open. The naked skin, exposed to direct sunlight, flared up. The body swelled, convulsing uncontrollably. Just as consciousness faded the saliva boiled on the tongue. Death came quickly thereafter. The body mingled with the debris of the former frigate. In the background police ships chased down the killer.

It all began so innocently. Two Gallentean frigates cruising along in Federation space. Chatting amiably. One a wide-eyed rookie; the other one acting the veteran part. Disaster: a war of words, followed by threats and insults. Then chat stopped and weapons talked. The rookie never stood a chance. But wait! Police ships approach. Too late to save the rookie. So they punish the offender. Justice is swift - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The veteran’s body joins the rookie in its graceful dance around the sun.

Yet both live. This very moment they wake to life in their brand new bodies. Maybe they will get a chance to dance again some other time - maybe then the rookie will have learned some new tricks.

This is not the end. The cycle of life saved the fallen two from oblivion. So too their cadavers are returned to the eternal circle one more time. Their frozen dance interrupted as soon as the horizon swallows the police ships. A non-descript ship sidles up. A couple of salvage drones fleetingly deployed. The lifeless bodies snatched up and hurriedly returned to the ship. Getting caught body mining by the Gallente police means serious, serious trouble. Then the ship warps away, wanting out of Federation space quickly with its very hot cargo. Searching for a cloning facility that doesn’t mind a bit of ill-gotten A-grade biomass on the side. Life goes on, citizen. Nothing more for you here.