Celebrity Death Match #6 Venom Orchid

Venom Orchid – Blogstar and Hellcats Meany (17th August 2009)

On the last day of my holiday I decided to fly a Kestrel to Evati. I fitted the Frigate the day before, having thought about it long and hard. Evati is the notorious home system of the infamous Hellcats and Bastard pirates. I made the 20 jump trip in preparation for a fight I was hoping to get with the scoundrel Venom Orchid, a Hellcat I have seen online a lot over the last week or so.

About two jumps from my destination I started to have doubts about my fitting, however there was little I could do about it anymore. I had decided to put some rigs on the frigate. The rigs where cheap, especially as I build them myself, however this did limit the options of changing the setup. There is only one way of finding out I figured and on route through the low security systems I tried to find a suitable target, preferable a Rifter as that is the likely ship Venom would be flying.

I jumped through the last gate on my route and hey presto! A pirate Rifter about 15 clicks from the gate! The opportunity was to good to be true and I decided to engage. My systems locked on to the Rifter rapidly and rockets followed a straight trajectory to the pirates’ frigate. The setup I had chosen involved ECM jamming instead of shields and the Phase Inversion ECM worked very well. The target ship was unable to get a lock on me and was by now taking serious damage from my Faction armaments. He was forced to warp off and I considered it a victory. Brilliant! My setup works! I quickly docked before any of his friend turned up.

Safely docked I decided to look into the pirates details and.. o dear.. it was a Bastard. Mon Palae the Bastard pirate. Mmm, I thought, interesting, maybe he would like to spar a bit more. Full of confidence in my new ship I quickly invited him to a conversation and requested to tussle it out a bit more. He agreed and invited me to come to Planet 3. I had to be a little careful as I had not prepared for a battle other than the fight with Venom. I carry expensive implants and it would be silly to lose them. I was confident however and mid warp made the decision that if he would warp off again close to me being victorious, I would refit and replace the Webber for a Disrupter. The fight ensued and didn’t quite work out the way I expected and within 20 seconds Mon Palae had ruined my dream and my ship named ‘Venom Orchids Doom’. It had turned out to be my doom instead. (I think I burned out my ECM array)

I quickly docked as my pod would not be safe from the Bastard because no 1 vs 1 rules had been agreed. We chatted briefly and I explained my intentions in his home system and the name of my ship. Mon Palae is obviously a friend of Venom but gladly he understood and over the next hour or so we chatted about Kestrel fittings.

Venom Orchid had in the meantime logged on I we talked about the ‘accident’ that had just occurred to the ship spelling her doom. She (after chuckling at me) agreed to fight me whenever she is free next, perhaps later that day.

I managed to get a new vessel prepared and was keen to fight the Bastard pirate again to see if my new fitting would work better. I had opted for not one but two ECM modules to see if I could perma-jam him whilst destroying his ship. I did not rig the ship as I actually had to purchase the modules this time.
We agreed to fight under the standard 1 vs 1 rules and again we met up at a planet in Evati. I warped in on him with 20 kilometres of space between us. Before I fired a single rocket I activated the first ECM module. The gap between us closed rapidly and with about 12 kilometres to go I started firing both sets of launchers. The ECM module had by now reached the half way point of its first cycle and I hastily activated the second. My head was pounding, and I felt a little stressed hoping that now my setup would work. His shield parted with the rest of his ship and his armour was laid bare. Tunnel vision set in as I tried to remain at some distance from his clearly faster frigate. His armour reached the halfway mark and I overheated all my racks to push that little bit harder at this crucial stage. My red hot launchers briefly stopped firing as there where no rockets for ten seconds to feed them. I stopped overloading as I feared I may lose the modules before the fight had been decided.

What? I started to receive damage! And not a little either, the two active ECM’s failed to get a lock for 2 cycles each and Mon Palaes auto-cannons shredded through my unprotected ship like as if it wasn’t even there. The fight had swung in his favour in the space of 10 seconds and dramatically altered the outcome.

My ship lay in tatters. My pod gently bobbed up and down in the vacuum of space.

‘Back to the drawing board’, I said, a little disappointed in the fights result. I had started so well. Mon Palae kindly traded me back my dropped ammo and modules after repairing them. We talked a bit more about Frigate battles and his help has been appreciated. Again, if you read this; thanks for your time.

I am obviously aware at this point that Venom Orchid will have read the killmails produced by her fellow pirate and knows my intended fitting style. I ponder the rest of the afternoon on what to do and whether I should change the ECM’s to weapon disrupters and lose the mwd for an afterburner. I gave up in the end and decided on the setup I was to fly into battle. Appropriately I named it ‘Sorry Venom ;-)’ for I was sure it would annoy the hell out of her.

About 5 hrs later and I spotted Venom logged off, I presumed to make her way home from work. When I looked next to me in the Evati station not long after, she was there. I didn’t waste any time and convo’d her immediately, as by now it was 2 am on my side of the planet.

She didn’t take long in getting a ship ready and we agreed the by now standard rules of 1 vs 1; no eggs to be broken, no warping off and thus to the death! Venoms Rifter screamed from the undock point and jetted to a safe spot. As soon as she arrived and got in position I got the green light to warp to her. I did so straight away. My sleepy eyes opened a bit further as soon as my warp drive activated and my heart sped up. I tried to remain focused on the fight about to ensue. The fight I had prepared and waited for all day, knowing it could be over very quickly.

With both sets of rocket launchers and the first of 3 ECM’s primed I anticipated the warp bubbles collapse… Lock! Rockets didn’t need any further encouragement and propelled themselves at speed to her spacecraft. Half her shield crumbled by the time the first ECM reached about a third of its first cycle and I activated the second. Her shield now gone, I remained calm and activated the third ECM. Initially I intended to keep some distance but her faster and more agile ship was hugging me closely. Her armour nearly broke and I overheated everything I could. Knowing now I was to win this fight with not having received any damage I zoomed out the view and prepared a screen shot.

As I did so my rockets started to fall short and exploded before they even came close, as she had by now created a gap between us. My weapons unlocked and deactivated. The fight would normally have been over at this stage as in a pvp scenario she would have warped to safety. I quickly turned around my ship to create an even bigger gap, big enough to make a 150 k fleet warp to her, but it was not necessary. She had already turned back and so did I. Like a lamb to the slaughter I believe she accepted her fate. Honouring the ‘fight to the death’ she granted me the killmail.


We discussed my fitting briefly and both chuckled. Three ECM modules just for her. The victory was mine but I felt like a coward. This is not how I wanted to win. I had her perma-jammed from the start. We agreed it was an interesting experience and we should tango again sometime.

I offered to trade back her dropped items however she offered for me to keep them and I will. A trophy one might say.

It has been a long day and with some losses in the afternoon and a late night, but again it has been worth the buzz! Thanks again to Venom Orchid and I hope to share space with you again someday…



Related links/posts;
Venom Orchids version of events; http://www.venomsbite.com/2009/08/18/binary-duel-ship-log-8-17-09/
Hellcats Kilboard; http://hellcats.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=4015896

Bastards Killboard #1 Mon Palae; http://www.the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11941

Bastards Killboard #2 Mon Palae; http://www.the-bastards.com/kb/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11942

Celebrity Death Match Killboard; http://818-k.eve-tools.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10