Pirates Ahoy! #2

Pirates Ahoy!

As a new dad I have 2 weeks off work. Yes I do all the laundry, housekeeping, nappy changing, cooking breakfast lunch and dinners and general juice-fetching for the wife and 2yr old. However there is plenty of time left to play EVE.

Within New Eden I have come to respect and admire solo pirates a lot as the skill, patience and determination required is immense. Kane Rizzel, Spectre, Wensley and Sage to name but a few of the pilots I have learned to respect outside of the Bastards.

Within the Bastards however we have some truly skilled pilots that I am proud to call my brothers in arms. Raelyf is at the top of my list as one of the greatest pilots in the game. Guts and glory for that man, solo’ing his way around EVE in any hull type. Other than that we have Arrhidaeus with a penchant for Amar Navy Slicers but again a very skilled pilot and a few others I have a lot to learn from.

Anyways enough of talking about other peeps, my point merely is that although I have a proven track record of solo kills I do not feel I am a skilled solo pirate. So time for change and experiments I figured. To soften the emotion of ship losses I have build up my main hangar with over 50 hulls and enough fitting packages (I’ll explain that later) for all of them. On top of that I have a second hangar in Old Man Star with 6 fully fitted & rigged ships and now a third hangar in Hevrice with 7 fully kitted out vessels.

I have grown an affinity for my sexy Vexor but still have to justify that love with some more kills and less losses of that bad boy. My other interests have been Ishkurs and lately my Faction Worm. Wich leads me to some piracy related stuff this week;

After an unsuccessful and boring night on Monday I prepared to log off for the night when some guys temporarily sharing our vent piped up and said the where gonna drop some carriers into Egghelende. Although tired I figured this was worth watching and signed up.

To be honest it was a bit of a fail op and I wish I had just gone to bed. On arriving in system in my Vexor (yeah I know) I warped to the Station where the action was at. A super shiny Bhaalgorn was taking some fire and was called primary. I checked the pilots name and hesitated for a moment… Kane Rizzel… I figured if Kane would have the opportunity to pew pew one of my shiny ships he wouldn’t hesitate and open fire and thus did I. Kane tanked a shit ton then docked, a great example I thought, and followed suit, logged and went to sleep. Read Kane’s Version of event here.

Tuesday saw another joined corp operation but I think that is confidential at the moment so ‘no comment’. I did get in on a few kills but also missed out on a lot as there where many in fleet with faster ships, faster lock time and I sported Heavy Missiles...

After the scheduled roam RoninData, another Bastard legend rallied a few of us to go to Amamake for some late night pewpew. Not a bad run as we managed to kill a Harbinger, Moa, Vexor, Drake, Stabber and a Crow.

I logged off in Auga that night and intended to fly my Vexor back to Evati the next day. I never made it back in my Vexor, In fact I only made it one jump. I managed to save my pod however.

All the above pushed me to go out solo and practise…

I took out an experimental Kiting Ishkur fit and made my way towards Egmar. My alt scanned out a Ranis, Caracal, and Vagabond out in a mission and figured I’d give it a shot…

Nashh jumped in, evading a small Cynabal blob and set course to where I thought my target was. On arrival at the acceleration gate D-scan revealed a lone Rifter? Wtf wher’s the Caracal, Ranis and Vaga? Activating the gate I flicked back to my alt and then realised I warped to a Minor Outpost not my alt. Silly me, o well. The Rifter and his pod popped as I aligned to meet up with the next target.

On landing at the correct gate this time it appeared my prey was still there. The warp gate slung me a short distance and on exiting warp I found the Caracal on his own 20 clicks from me. Primed and overheated point locked on and I settled into a comfortable orbit before I even launched my drones.

The Caracal warped off?!?! For some reason I managed to switch off my Warp Disruptor and kicked myself. The second warp gate within reach and the Ranis on D-scan I decided for the rage to enfold later and proceeded. The Ranis immediately felt the pain of my drones on landing as the Vaga started stripping my shield and half my armor. Time to run I figured as the Interceptor’s hull began to show. In my haste I warped to a belt not a safe, mid warp I had hoped for a round two with the Gallente Tech2 Frigate. On landing I aligned to my safe and initiated the warp drive as the Taranis landed behind me. Furious ‘cancel warp’ commands failed and the fight was over. The 3 pilots docked and that was that.

A little later I spotted the Rifter pilot back on D-scan and this time with a friend in a Hound. They were easily found but after some cat and mouse I only managed to kill the Covert Ops.

Whilst all this was going on a Griffin had been in a mission for about 30 minutes. I could not enter the mission as my MWD would be useless and it didn’t allow for T2 Frigates anyway. It seemed pointless to reship in Evati to come back but when 40 minutes hit I thought sod it and sped back to Evati in my pod. One of my trusty Worms undocked smoothly into blackness and evaded yet another camp on the way back to Egmar.

To my surprise and joy the Griffin was still on scan and after activating the second mission gate he appeared on my overview. It was clear the Caldari T1 was no match for my Faction beast.

On route back to Evati I crossed Lady Shaniqua and a duel was requested… I would have instantly agreed in my ‘up-close-and-personal’ variety Ishkur but I took a minute to decide if a scram fit, fast Tech 2 Minnie was the right opponent for my setup. What the hell, its been a good day…

Planet 1 was the meeting point and we wished each other good luck after agreeing not to squish pods. The fight lasted a few minutes but with my drones and ammo drained it appeared to be a stalemate as Shaniqua couldn’t get within shooting range.

With Arrhideaus just fitting up a new Slicer it appeared to be a good time to take off on a little roam, I invited Shaniqua along whom gladly accepted. I decided to come along in a Crow but after one jump into the roam had to jump into a Worm yet again to get access to another Minor Site.

Lucius Invictus in his fast Punisher either disconnected or logofski’d mid fight and his ship fell to the Worm’s power. I spotted Lucius in local about an hour later in his pod but he didn’t seem too happy to talk to me.

Arrhi had to log of for RL reasons which left me and Lady S to find targets. I found a Cynabal but didn’t dare to engage; I had made that mistake before and paid the price. Help was too far out thus it was time to move on.

Mr Knight was scanned down in Frerstorn but slipped the net for a good 30 minutes until Lady S got the prober out. Short work was made and the poor guy got his Drake ransomed for the handsome sum of 40 million isk. The price seemed right as he did pop 5 of my drones and the time it took to catch him. I say poor guy as Lady S has actually killed and ransomed this guy on 4 previous occasions. A friendly chat in local evolved with the pilot who seemed a nice enough guy, I wish him luck in his further adventures.

As the GCC timers ran out it was time to dock up and get some well deserved sleep. I thoroughly enjoyed flying with Lady Shaniqua and would not hesitate to do so again.

Until we meet again my friend, may it be against or alongside each other.

All in all not a bad week so far; as it stands at the moment I am top killer and top ransomer for the month. Let’s hope Raelyf and Kalius Prime take a few days off before the end of this month =)

Also for those interested I am now a recruiter for the Bastards. EVE-Mail me if you are interested in joining one of the best Pirate Corps in New Eden!


Watch this space…

'A week in the life of...The Python Cartel'

‘A week in the life of…The Python Cartel’

Corp Name/Ticker; The Python Cartel (GROP3)
Current CEO; Spectre3353
Directors; Spectre3353 & Golden Helmet
Home System; Old Man Star
Description; A pirate corp set out to have fun and talk a lot about penis.
Alliance; The Jerk Cartel
Recruitment Status; Open
Recruitment Contact; Spectre3353, Golden Helmet, Lachesis VII, Lars Lodar
Additional Info; Spectre would say this is the best corp ever, they rule, are extremely good looking with huge phalluses and everyone else should sit in belts afk so they can kill their faces.

===

After making contact with Spectre we agreed my first day with the Pythons should be Thursday 25th February. This date was to have a scheduled op; part 2 in the ADF series. I read Spectres first post on the first ADF adventure and laughed my ass off. A good day to come along for a bit of work experience I figured…

After getting details of their vent server and logging in I was greeted with the following message; ‘Welcome to the Jerk Cartel, we love penis’. The Jerks love of penis has been rumoured about before, but I can assure you it’s true.

The first words in there communication channels usually start with ‘PENIS!’ Generally any conversation will involve or revolve around genitalia and all the fun chit chats makes it surprising how well organised these actually guys are.

Much to my liking the op started on time with Spectre calling for all ADF Officers to undock our ECM heavy fleet in Old Man Star. I had expected to see some cheap ECM cruisers at the undock point of the Quafe station but when a 10 man strong fleet filled my overview I had to do a quick retake; Scorpion?! Wowser, surely this is a one way trip? I was surprised to see someone putting a ship of reasonable value on the line. The fleet comprised of 1 Griffin, 1 Celestis, 1 Scorpion and 7 Blackbirds, later joined by a Federation Navy Comet (just because it looks like it’s got a flashy light on its roof).

(I shall not bore you with too many details of our little excursion as Spectre’s tale of events is pretty accurate)

Every system where acts of aggression were found would find the following stuff in local;
Spectre3353 > By order of the Amamake Defense Force, we request full compliance from all pilots in system
Spectre3353 > Halt! In conjunction with The Amamake Peace Accord of 58177 we, the Amamake Defense Force, demand that you cease your aggressions and retreat from the field of battle immediately!

Compliance was greeted with;
Spectre3353 > Thank you for your complience.
Golden Helmet > Thank you for your cooperation, citizen
Golden Helmet > If all citizens were like you, New Eden would be a much safer place for us all

Non compliance simply meant any aggressor got 40 ECM modules trained on him/her. In small numbers of aggressors this was extremely effective and the local chat response made it worth its weight in gold. Some pilots played along but most just spammed local with abuse.

At the Bastards we have a (fairly) strict ‘no chat in local’ policy so I was hesitant at first but joined in here or there.

After flying and ‘securing’ various systems in the region the final destination was set; ‘Tama’. I used to reside around these parts and god it’s a hell hole…

The fleet warped in to the top belt at range and waited. Some complete retards in local were amusing to toy with for a while. The Jerks have a great sense of humour and all the abuse flung at our fleet got laughed about and witty responses returned.

Before long a few would-be-aggressors got chased off until a sizable fleet warped in at various ranges. Warp-scrambled and my overview filling up so fast I could find the right target to jam I went down in flames.

The end of my career as an ADF officer and the end of my op. The difference in time zones forced me to log for the night as I parked up in a local station and get some sleep…

===

Day two and Spectre briefly logged on to give me access to the most used comm. Channel for the Pythons. Great as a roam was scheduled to leave not long after.

As the clock struck 1:30am the channel filled up nicely. The following is a brief and fairly standard chat with the Pythons;

IEATCRAYONS > morning
Golden Helmet > we have things up our arses, but they're often big, black, and ridged
Nashh Kadavr > nice my fave!
Golden Helmet > i apologize in advance for our two kaz's
Nashh Kadavr > circumferance?
Golden Helmet > we got complaints that we weren't equal opportunity employers, so we hired two retards to fill our quota
Nashh Kadavr > i see
Nashh Kadavr > any gays?
Golden Helmet > we also have a contingent of stoners, since High Times magazine complained about us all being sober
Golden Helmet > we're all homo. we need straight people so the non-gay magazines will stop complaining
Nashh Kadavr > righto
Nashh Kadavr > /emote makes notes...
Golden Helmet > and we have a large portion of alcoholics too
Apoctasy > then we beter start recruting straight people
IEATCRAYONS > penis
uwai223 > an stoners
kazz djinn > lol
IEATCRAYONS > the most said word by our corp would have to be "penis"
kazz djinn > hey gh can i tend to the rabbits now
Golden Helmet > so we're 1\3 gay stoner, 1\3 gay retard, 1\3 gay drunks, and 1\3 gay and bad at math
Nashh Kadavr > would you say there is a minimum iq requirement for this corp?
HAUL 5000 > 60.
Apoctasy > and 1/3 multiple categories
Fred Neiman > and i'm a miner!
Golden Helmet > if you can identify the difference between a shoe and the sky, your in
Golden Helmet > brb
Nashh Kadavr > whats a shoe?
HAUL 5000 > Apoctasy is in the catogory of gay and bad at math fyi

The scheduled op was to start at 2:00am and left on time yet again, very impressive. By now I had had a few beers and settled in on the sofa.

Golden Helmet was the fleet commander and did a brilliant job too, scoring the fleet some nice T2 cruiser kills. I was only able to participate on one of them as after my first kill I had to safe up due to an aggression timer. The Pythons are at war with some guys around here and are scoring some lucrative kills on them.

Mynxee showed up in local and it was nice to speak to her briefly before moving on again.

About 25 jumps around the local area got a few more kills under our belt but when a mission-ing Drake was probed out and promptly tackled a request for his ship was promptly answered with the pilot ejecting.

I finally logged of at 4:15am absolutely knackered and half asleep. It’s nice to be in a fleet that can bring decent numbers instead of running away all the time. I was also somewhat surprised to see the value of ships taken out on this roam; the majority of ships where Tech 2 Cruisers.

===

Day three saw another late night roam (for me) under Golden Helmets lead. Some great kills along the route. The fleet was fairly well organized and the ship types again mainly consisted of T2 cruisers.

I only mention it as the Bastard roams are a little more Frigate or Battle Cruiser orientated, some Stealth-Bombers roams perhaps but T2 cruisers are referred to as shiny’s and valued highly and rarely put on the line.

I spend the duration of the roam chatting to Trazis, a pilot that tapped me up some 5 months ago regarding a 1 vs 1. We had intended to catch up for a fight ever since but never got around to it. Along the route I suggested he joined the roam with GH’s permission and fight a little later.

Trazis joined the fleet around the Tama area and with my night coming to an end the time arrived for our duel. Still under GCC timers I docked to repair my overheating damage from a previous fight.

Undocking with GCC made station guns pewpew my shield and a touch of armor but I felt very confident. We agreed to have our fight in front of the Python fleet and GH would be our warp-in point. Bets were taken and it appeared my Vexor was to be the favorite, great, more pressure…

With my shields recharged I signaled I was ready and initiated warp. Trazis fielded a Maller, the same ship 00Sage00 killed me in some time ago.

Our shields vanished within mere seconds. Beer made my confidence grow in my new Vexor fit and I let rip my guns, overheating them before I even launched my drones. Beer made me miss-click my heavy damage drones. Instead I launched 3 Warriors and two Hammerheads.

I realized my mistake and pulled the Warriors and released two Ogre’s and a Hobgoblin. Our armor steadily decreased in equal measures and it dawned on me I should take out his drones rather than concentrate on his hull. Right, good idea, switch off guns, retarget drones, fire guns…fire guns? Wtf? Beer made me burn out my guns.

There was nothing left to do but watch our ships slowly drop armor, bit by bit, it sure was going to be a close one now… our hulls peered through as the last bit of armor escaped us both at the same time. Crossing my fingers I hoped for a wrecking blow to save my day...

Alas, it was not to be, my remaining structure expanded into the vacuum, vomiting out my pod in the process. Trazis got out with a mere 26% hull still protecting his fragile egg. Too many mistakes on my part but nevertheless a great win for Trazis.

Slightly ashamed to be pummeled in front of the Pythons I retired into the nearest station and called it a night…

===

Day four to six were mainly spent talking to some of the peeps in the Alliance Comm channel. I did spend some time in space with some the pilots but I kept it local as I couldn’t face another late op. Well I could but the RL repercussions (wife-aggro) made it difficult to justify.

LEE118, an ex Bastard recruit has been accepted into the Pythons for a trial period. It was nice to catch up with him and he appears to be having fun.

Another familiar face was Gorgoleon, an ex-Bastard of epic proportion. It’s nice to see he has found himself a good home and he has fitted right in with his banter.

00Sage00 has also taken up residency in Old Man Star recently and joined the Python ranks. He has spend some time with the Tuskers before making his move here and it was interesting to hear about the difference between the two.

One of the longer standing members of the corp Apoctasy explained that the old core of the corp was still there. He himself has left the game and come back, remaining with the Pythons. He explained that over time the corp had grown steadily in number, are more organized and have more roams on the go.

Spectre himself was logged in at a more Euro suitable time and was chasing some ships around OMS. I asked to join him and tried to keep up with him for the next 30 minutes. I say tried to keep up as I didn’t actually manage to do so, he scored some sweet frigate kills, with me exiting warp just after he squeezed out some tears.

I did participate in a Drake kill, rather brave of the participants as you can see on the killmail its Russian owned. We didn’t get blobbed even though it took a long time to take him down.

===

Closing statement;

I have really enjoyed my time at the Python Cartel, so much so I have left 3 fully equipped and rigged ships in Old Man Star may the opportunity arise to fly with them again.

The corp-chats are filled with penis related conversations, and smack talk in local is deemed absolutely fine. The guys are rude and crude but extremely witty and clearly intelligent. Their responses quick and calculated had me in stitches for the duration of my time here.

All this joking around would lead one to be believe these jokers are badly organized but to my surprise the arranged ops left on time and the fleets were well led. Although the fleets usually are not scheduled to leave until 2am Evetime.

Many high profile events are organized from within the Python Cartel, ADF and Hulkageddon to name but a few, doing their thing and leaving their mark.

The amount of shiny ships the pilots are willing to risk surprised me a little but have given me reason to pull out my T2 cruisers from under the dust sheets and actually fly them.

There are plenty of highly skilled pilots (some more reserved, some more balls out) within their ranks and they should be feared indeed.

Remember may you wish to apply contact Spectre3353, Golden Helmet, Lachesis VII or Lars Lodar in game.




(or if you want to join the really cool guys apply at the Bastards)

Contest entry

Below you find my entry to this contest. I am very keen on winning something in this although my story is short I tried to make up for that with the drawing. Please note I have trouble uploading images to blogspot atm for some strange reason and this image is uploaded via ImageShack and it does not sow the full image. Please right click to view the full image.

Please also check the other entries, especially this unexpected but brilliant post by Spectre. (And read the comments if you want to have a laugh).

The drawing is made with black felt tips, then scanned and edited with my first attempt of Photoshop. Not the best but I think it should put me in the running for a Faction cruiser at least.

Celebrity Death Match #12 Spectre3353

Spectre3353 – Carebear Tear Extractor (13th September 2009)

Spectre, loved by some, loathed by others, none more so than his victims.

I have been following Spectre’s blogs for some time, with his unique style and with increased attention to his blogs I figured it was time to give him a call…

It appears I am most known as ‘that Celebrity Death Match Guy’, which suits me fine. It means I am not cold-calling. As soon as a pilot in Eve receives a convo of a person they do not know they check their bio…

After a short pause my convo request got answered with the now familiar; ‘you are that Celebrity Death Match guy!’. To which my reply was simply; ‘yes, and you sir are a celebrity’.

It has become the norm for celebrities to choose; location, hull type, any additional rules etc. To my relief the location was only 14 jumps away. To my dread however the ship type was to be Cruisers.

My CDM statistics clearly show my win/loss ratio in cruisers do not stack in my favour. However the choice is not mine and I accepted.

Even though a lot of time had been spend on Eve last week I had not managed to get a Cruiser to Egghelende.

Just after posting my weekly update, the first without a CDM, I decided to drop of a ship (via Jita) in the agreed system. I had spent a little time on the super secret epic CDM coming soon and planned to log for the night.

As always things don’t work out as planned; on arrival in Egghelende with Spectre in local I thought; ‘hell, why not’.

Just before my much needed beauty sleep and Spectre’s dinner we agreed to fight there and then.

Spectre undocked and warped to a safe-spot as I waited, slowly feeling the nerves build up. On his signal I undocked myself and aligned the ‘Caldari Navy Caracal’. I named the ship after the famous Caldari Faction Cruiser but I was strapped into something far from that.

After some losses in rigged Caracals (some pre-rig change) I decided to change my flavour and bring a Gallente Thorax. Electron Blaster fit, I set off on the long warp jump towards the ruthless pirate.

Heartbeat racing I cringed as the warp bubble collapsed. A Vexor, crap, the last thing I wanted to appear on my overview.

Readers may know I am a Caldari pilot mainly and indeed with a badly fit Thorax I had little chance. I fitted the Thorax with the best EFT had to offer on a Tech 1 level and with some named or Tech 2 mixed in. I figured with the high DPS I could still put out I would stand a chance against auto-cannons and/or missiles. However a skilled Blaster pilot was undoubtedly going to rip my first Thorax apart.

Drones burst out of their holds, their counter parts already filling my screen in bright flashy red. Lock, afterburner, orbit, scramble, web, FIRE!

Circling each other closely like birds of prey we fought over who was to be the bird and whom the prey.

Shields split and parted with the rest of our ships, his sooner than mine. Armour held for a moment but my inferior skills were now showing and rapidly overtook the decline of his integrity. My blaster skills at a mere minimum where to be my downfall. His armour dented as mine buckled, misshaped and contorted ready to break. I sighed as his mixed drones took the last of the armour and slowly began biting away at the soft structure. There was nothing left but the inevitable…

Unfortunately I could not provide the merciless cold-blooded man with the tears he so craved. I had enjoyed myself and deserved to lose.

Merciless? Cold-blooded? No not really. Spectre’s evil character is merely the façade of a nice geezer out for a laugh. We chatted briefly as both had important stuff to take care of (dinner/bed-time).

The carebear-tear-extractor explained his choice of ship was not his usual as he would normally go for a nano-setup to complement his snake implants. I laughed, slightly embarrassed and explained my implants where missile related. A brief mention on his side that the fight had been unfair but I corrected him and explained that truly all is fair in love and war.

It had been my choice to pick the Thorax with inferior fittings, and wrong implants. It had been my choice to fight an experienced PVP’er. Spectre beat me fair and square. However upsetting… How stupid of me. That Bstrd Spectre…

A tear welled up as I logged for the night…



Related links/posts;
Spectre’s blog; http://evenewb.blogspot.com/
CDM kill board; http://818-k.eve-tools.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=18