Demigoddess with a Conscience

November has seen a clear lack of action. Only thing I’ve killed was a  buttload of Sanshas and a moron in a Harbinger. I’ve been involved in some other fights as well, but with nothing but the memory to tell about it. Two days ago, we had a hostile in Hoshoun who undocked in an Archon. I was hesitant to engage, since he was clearly within docking range, able to redock at his leisure. However, my fellow pilots felt differently and opened up on the carrier. We managed to bring him down to 50% armor, and he was actually trying to kill us. He had neuts and fighters out, yet felt that it was readily pointless, so he deagressed and redocked.

Later the next evening we were chasing another pirate, who was in a Vagabond and roamed around our turf. Knowing that Vagabonds are notoriously hard to catch, I flew my Anathema with Combat Probes, while King flew his HAM Drake and a buddy of ours, Shaun, flew a Taranis with a scram. However, it appeared as though luck weren’t on our side, and aside from a short entanglement on a gate, we did not catch him.

UPDATE 2009/12/07: It appears he ran out of luck and was caught later.

I have at least managed to secure a lot of ISK during these slow times, and I have now reached about 2 billion in my wallet. It’s a modest sum, I agree, but for me it’s somewhat of a milestone. I like to sit at least at 2 bil or I tend to feel poor.

Slightly drowsy, I eyed the numbers that flowed past my eyes and tried to find some sense in it all. Trading was really not my thing. I had made lots of ISK on it, but I simply didn’t have the patience for it, or the concentration to keep up with it all.

Just as was nodding off, a message across the corporation channel startled me. Apparently my corpmate, Whistle, had been tricked into a duel with another pilot under the false pretense that the fight would be to structure only. In spite of this, the pilot destroyed Whistle’s Omen.

I felt something inside. This transgression was against my family. It could just as well had been me that was destroyed. No, this was worse…this was a brother in arms. I had to do something about his, so I quickly got up and paged my XO.

“Get the Warthog prepped for launch, we’re going hunting!”

“You got it, mam. Same fit?”

“That very one, hurry up, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Ayeaye!”

I got dressed, since I’d been sitting in my undewear browsing the market, and tried to straighten out my, now blonde, hair as best as I could. Not that it would matter once I was submerged in ectogoo in the pod, but there was a fair bit to walk to the hangar elevator, and I couldn’t let people see me with a bad hair, now could I?

As I arrived in the hangar, the Ferox class battlecruiser “Warthog” was already suspended on the docking clamps, prepped for launch and the crew already on their merry way on board. Ah, it was a glorious piece of machinery!

I got on board, got undressed and stepped inside the pod. The hatch sealed shut and the interface arm connected with the back of my head, and the pod started filling with that green goo I hated so much. Once I was safely suspended in the ectoplasm, I willed the comms system online.

“Allright, people. Saddle up, strap up and get ready! We’re about to head up to high security space to avenge a fallen comrade. I’ll expect your utmost on this journey, just as I always do.”

I shut the channel, and asked docking control for clearance, which was swiftly granted. As I glided out through the docking chamber, I couldn’t help but again become amazed by the sheer immensity of the station.

I shook my head violently in the pod. This was no time to get light headed, there was combat ahead! I set course for the Mista gate in Kheram, a mere five jumps through low security space before I would be in high security, and have another nine jumps before I would reach Youl, where Whistle was waiting.

The whole journey was massively uneventful, and as I entered Youl, Whistle informed me that our friend, Captain Boomstick, had left a can hanging in the belt where Whistle now was. I warped over there and took the contents, knowing that this would register as a minor offense towards our friend, leaving me open to attack to him without CONCORD involvement.

I then willed the ship into warp towards the station, where I knew he was holed up, and there he was. A Harbinger class battlecruiser, hanging motionless just a few kilometers off the undock ramp of the station. I approached him and got into a stable 1 km orbit, waiting. Soon enough, he started moving off, trying to put some distance between us, and then…laser fire struck my shields.

Blasters returned fire, the warp scrambler shut his warp core down, and in addition to that killed his microwarpdrive. He wasn’t going anywhere. My hobgoblin drones started chewing on his hammerheads, and after that, it was cat and mouse as I pulsed my microwarpdrive to keep up with him. He had me webbed, so even without his MWD, he had the speed advantage. So I had to pulse it to keep up, but I was filled with adrenaline now.

Deep into combat, not caring for anything but the fight. Not caring that I had hundreds of people under me, working the collective butts off to keep the ship together, and that they would die while I lived on if the ship blew up. But I didn’t think of that in that moment. All I did in that moment was focus my energy, my will and my concentration on winning this fight.

His armor was literally melting under the onslaught of my blasters, while his lasers couldn’t seem to get my shields below 50%. My shield booster was working full time, pushing many hundred gigajoules of energy into the shield generator, and the shield hardener was overloaded to provide the most possible hardening for the shields. But I was doing okay, he was going down, and I wasn’t. He apparently came to the same conclusion, for suddenly, his remaining two drones were recalled, his guns fell silent and he slowly started to approach the station in an attempt to dock.

I was furious, he was not going to get away with this! I knew I had 60 seconds before his aggressions were cleared with the docking manager and he’d be allowed to dock. I pushed my guns to their limit, overcharging every antimatter slug with more energy, trying to munch through his massive armor buffer before he reached safety. Just as he reached the docking perimeter and asked for clearance, my volley of supercharged antimatter breached his armor plating and slammed into his unprotected hull. His ship started venting atmosphere and I yelled, albeit silently in my pod:

“Die you BASTARD!!!”

I sputtered as my mouth filled with ectoplasm, but I wasn’t going to give up yet, and with glee I watched his ship explode with a brilliant blue flash and debris flying everywhere. He had forgot to deactivate his stasis webifier, causing the docking manager to deny his docking request since he was still technically in combat.

Vengeance is sweet!

I was in one of my Armageddons, the Destroyer and joined up a large fleet hunting a couple of pirates around Kheram. We turned out to be over 30 pilots in the fleet, and the enemy were no more than a maximum of 7-8 pilots. It seemed rather excessive to me, but whatever floats your boat, I guess.

It turned out like most pickup fleets do. A complete chaos of pilots warping everywhere and doing whatever they wanted. Everyone tried to be a hero, everyone tried to help, and very few listened to the FC.

In the end, it appears we managed to kill two of them, but as far as I know, we also lost 3-4 people, so I can’t really say it was a success. But that’s what happens when you’re unorganized.

Well, there hasn’t been much going on lately. I’ve been playing the market and also pulled a few strings here and there with Zoar & Sons, for which I’ve done a lot of work.

I managed to get my hands on a couple of cybernetic implants which I’ve put up for sale on the markets, as well as done some buying and selling to gouge prizes.

As far as combat goes, the only combat I’ve had lately (except for those horrible losses) is some sparring against my corporation members. I had a duel with Tydcrims, him in a faction fitted (cheater) Prophecy, and me in my Ferox. I won, naturally.

Another duel was me, again in a Ferox, versus King Klown in his HAM Drake. I lost, naturally. I got pretty much slaughtered by his quite superiour DPS, and in addition to that, he had ECM drones and that made my job a lot harder. I had him to 20% shield when I hit armor, which is when we called it.

I then had a duel with my Rokh versus Soren Oboro’s Rokh. It was a nice fight. He opted for more damage, less tank and ECM drones, while I was heavier on the tank, but less damage. I was still spitting about 900 DPS, and once I got rid of his ECM drones, it was pretty much over.

Immediately after that, Klown wanted a rematch in his Raven versus my Rokh. Low on cap boosters, I still barely won that match. He had the wrong torpedoes for my tank, but it was still a close call.

Thank you all for wanting to spar a bit! It might not be real combat, but it’s still good from an educational perspective.

Another embarrassing trip in my pod. This was starting to become a really bad habit.

I was in Yahyerer, looking up some Imperial Navy agents. Apparently that place had an abundance of them, both good and bad news really. Good news because it made mission-running a lot more efficient. Bad news because it was low sec and a popular mission spot. It’s a pirate heaven.

I decided to test anyway, so I set myself up with a new clone and headed up there. Just as I headed out to my first mission, I landed smack dab in the middle of a NOIR. camp. Oh joy, in a PVE ship no less.

I was engaged by half the gang, a Dominix and a Typhoon. Most of the guys jumped through the gate, hoping to tackle me on the other side. I didn’t want to shoot back, because I didn’t really have anything to bite back with, so I just sat there, hoping the Curse would engage, but he didn’t. So in the end, I just jumped through, and found a Phobos, Cerberus and of course the Curse there.

I was immediately pointed and engaged. This was a fight I could at least try to take, so I dropped sentries and opened fire on the Curse, but unfortunately, I had waited to long on the other side, and was already deep into structure, so I blew up in short order.

Had I not waited so long, I could probably have put up a fight against the cruisers, but c’est la vie. There’s no use crying over spilled milk.

This was going to set me back though. I noticed in the logs that most of the crew was lost. Thankfully, my XO made it out safely and was on an interbus transport back to our home. I was grateful for that, since I’d come to rely on him for much of my daily business.

Hiring new crew, however, was going to take precious time, and knowing me…probably lots of agony too. I hated having to send reports to these people’s families, telling them that their spouse, son, daughter or sibling had been lost in battle.

Ugh, time for some more sticks, I muttered as the pod was allowed to dock.

I was on my way down to a mission-running spot in deep low sec, flying a useless piece of crap Ibis when I came across a Devoter on the out gate. He was all blinky getting shot at by sentries, and I figured, he’s never gonna bother with an Ibis.

Apparently, he did. He must’ve been horribly bored. Not even I would would bother with an Ibis, and I can be damn bored sometimes…

I slammed my fist in my desk. So humiliating!

I had just recently found a gravimetric signature in my home system, a massive hidden belt of Gneiss and been happily harvesting it for two days, making quite a bit of ISK in the process. Today, as I undocked, we received a report of a hostile in system, flying a Curse. I figured Curses seldom fit probe launchers so since I was in a sig, I would be safe.

Oh how wrong I was. Just seconds after I dropped out of warp in the signature, a Crusader appeared on my overview. I was locked, scrammed and under fire within seconds. I bravely put up a fight, activated my shield hardeners, and the repper and sent the drones for him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and the Crusader was slowly working through my shields, while I pressed every ounce of power into the repper as I could. I just wasn’t enough and as I entered armor, he asked for a 100 million ransom.

I’m not the one who gives up easily, so I reported my predicament in the local intel channel, and started fleeting people up, but apparently they were too far out and they didn’t make it in time. As I entered structure, I thought of stalling him. I told him I had to raise the money, and acted panicky about it. In the end he stopped shooting and waited patiently. I glared at the fleet list, and they were still too far out and I realized I wasn’t going to make it.

Grudgingly I wired him the 100 million ISK and he quickly warped out, thanking me for the business. I was fuming. I should’ve known better than go out in a mining ship with a hostile in system. I should also have fit a proper tank on the Hulk, instead of maxing it for mining. All this time of non-combat must clearly have slowed my mind.

Well, at least I know how humiliating it is to be caught on the wrong side of a ransom now.

I was literally bored out of my skull by now, nothing had happened that was even remotely interesting, and the smartbomb incident was surpressed by overusage of nerve sticks. I knew I should feel guilty over it all, but I couldn’t, and I liked it.

Bored as I was, I brought out one of my cheaply fit Armageddons, the Annihalator, and went for a long range roam. I was itching for battle, and I hadn’t had any for a very long time.

I went up the Kheram pipe, through Mista and further on past Amarr. I was heading for Caldari space. More densely populated, and also an area of space I was quite familiar with since I spent a lot of time up there in my youth.

It took me over two hours before I even saw a ship in low sec, and they weren’t much up for engaging. Another Armageddon and a Drake both warped off the gate without bothering to engage. I followed them to the station, only to find a camp of two Ravens, the Drake, Armageddon and a Proteus, all shooting a Rokh.

The Rokh kept docking up every time his shields dropped below 50%, and I was quickly getting bored of the whole thing, so I left the system, and roamed for another 30 minutes before coming across two Typhoons that were just engaging a Dominix.

Score! Time to do something here. I locked up both Typhoons and opened up with my dual heavy pulse lasers, energy neutralizers, sentry drones and the whole shebang.

Right about then, the gate started flashing like crazy, and my warpcore went dead. Oh great…a trap!

Three Armageddons, a Megathron and a Hurricane came through the gate and they all opened up on me. My pod interface yelled at me with warnings all over as my armor vanished and the sharp pain struck me as the ship’s structure started falling apart.

It didn’t take long for the structure to start venting oxygen at the incoming barrage of their fire. It was a tremendous amount of damage that struck the ship, and blinded as I was by the pain, I felt the interface disconnect and the pod rocket out of the exploding wreckage of my once proud Armageddon.

Everything didn’t go exactly to plan here, and I spent the whole embarrassing journey home thinking of things I could’ve done differently, but honestly I couldn’t find any. They simply outnumbered me.