Megagank

After spending the previous week away from New Eden, I have returned to piracy, undocking for about an hour a day to get a quick kill. The first two were a missioning Myrmidon and a Stabber that engaged Mashashige's Rupture in a belt.
But yesterday brought a juicier target.
As usual, I was scanning different areas in Egghelende when I saw a Megathron on scan. A quick directional scanner check showed it was not at any celestial object so my prober mate got to work.
It did not take him long to pinpoint the Gallente battleship and confirm it was running a mission.
Excited, I grabbed my Rupture (forgetting to switch the MWD for an AB and ECM drones for combat ones) and warped to the site. As the gate catapulted me into the deadspace pocket, my heart sank: the Megathron was about 50 kilometres away which meant it would have plenty of time to spot me and warp out. Still, I ordered my Rupture to close distance, which it started to do, painfully slowly of course.
At the same time I checked the Mega pilot's background: a member of University of Caille for 22 days. What? A three-week old pilot in a battleship? In lowsec? Not moving? Not scooping his Tech 1 Wasp-class heavy drones? Even as I'm 37... 34... 32 (start targeting)... 28 (activate overheated disruptor) kilometres away?
He did wake up as I was trying to get closer to my guns' optimal range. The Megathron's railguns quickly destroyed my shields, but as they started to bit into structure I settled into a tight orbit around the target where his tracking was insufficient to hit me.
The Mega pilot then sent his drones, previously scooped, after me. They took out half of my armor by the time I webbed and sho them down one by one, but after that the battleship was completely unable to scratch me.
My guns, on the other hand, were doing quite a good job as the Megathron's defences melted quickly. Finally, its hull integrity was breahed completely and an explosion lit Egghelende's dark sky for a few moments.
I tried catching the escape capsule of the hapless pilot but it, umm, well, escaped, which did not spoil the satisfaction brought by my first solo battleship kill (yes, I know, it was a very poorly set up battleship).

Log2Blog

Corpse Collection Point public comms channel:
[ 2009.06.09 12:15:59 ] Nursultan's assistant > damn, there's a guy ratting in geddon here
[ 2009.06.09 12:16:03 ] Ashnazg's assistant > woot?
[ 2009.06.09 12:16:05 ] Ashnazg's assistant > eggh?
[ 2009.06.09 12:16:09 ] Nursultan's assistant > yeah
[ 2009.06.09 12:16:18 ] Nursultan's assistant > Jifftoolabahh
[ 2009.06.09 12:16:25 ] Ashnazg's assistant > oh
[ 2009.06.09 12:16:35 ] Ashnazg's assistant > ash is loggin in :D
[ 2009.06.09 12:17:01 ] Nursultan's assistant > we tried killing him with jyren's once but his friends came and killed us
[ 2009.06.09 12:17:45 ] Ashnazg > well, we'll have to kill his friends as well then
[ 2009.06.09 12:17:53 ] Ashnazg > underrun the lasers range.
[ 2009.06.09 12:17:56 ] Ashnazg > primary drones
[ 2009.06.09 12:18:09 ] Nursultan's alt > V-2
[ 2009.06.09 12:18:47 ] Ashnazg > warping
[ 2009.06.09 12:19:09 ] Ashnazg > one friend in local
[ 2009.06.09 12:19:16 ] Nursultan > who?
[ 2009.06.09 12:19:24 ] Ashnazg > delarth
[ 2009.06.09 12:19:33 ] Nursultan > k
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:06 ] Ashnazg > topbekt
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:08 ] Ashnazg > *l
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:10 ] Ashnazg > I 1
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:13 ] Nursultan > 3-1
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:27 ] Ashnazg > ^yeah
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:28 ] Ashnazg > ^^
[ 2009.06.09 12:20:57 ] Ashnazg > primary is the rifter if its shooting you
[ 2009.06.09 12:22:07 ] Ashnazg > get him
[ 2009.06.09 12:22:27 ] Nursultan > losing point
[ 2009.06.09 12:22:29 ] Nursultan > neuts
[ 2009.06.09 12:22:46 ] Ashnazg > have him pointed as well
[ 2009.06.09 12:24:13 ] Ashnazg > now go down already ^^
[ 2009.06.09 12:25:02 ] Ashnazg > NICE :D
[ 2009.06.09 12:26:22 ] Nursultan > woot
Solar system-wide comms channel, immediately after:
[ 2009.06.09 12:23:47 ] Jifftoolabahh > lol
[ 2009.06.09 12:25:27 ] Ashnazg > gf.
[ 2009.06.09 12:25:32 ] Nursultan > gf
[ 2009.06.09 12:25:34 ] Jifftoolabahh > lol not really
[ 2009.06.09 12:25:35 ] Jifftoolabahh > :)
[ 2009.06.09 12:25:39 ] Jifftoolabahh > was fun though
[ 2009.06.09 12:26:54 ] Dekarth Manic > lol
[ 2009.06.09 12:27:03 ] Dekarth Manic > next time .. we'll get u lol
[ 2009.06.09 12:27:22 ] Ashnazg > ofc
Concord report.

Click Click Boom, Just As Soon As We Hit the Room

If you are worried about losing ships, don't fly with Jyren's Rage. But if you want to have fun (as in lots of fighting) he's one of the best guys around.
We ganged up yesterday night and started looking for targets in Siseide and Egghelende.
The opportunity soon presented itself when a group of guys from Broski Enterprises, including a Harbinger and an Ishkur, engaged Jaster Arcturus' Myrmidon in Egghelende's top belt. The Myrmidon killed the Ishkur and, as I warped in, was finishing off the Harbinger. I shot a few rounds at it before the Amarr battlecuiser exploded and then warped out.
"The Myrm is almost dead!" Jyren's Rage said, knowing how to provoke me into reckless acts of violence. I warped back but it was gone -- only to reappear soon. I placed the tackle on the battered ship, but it destroyed my Rifter with just a few rounds of medium autocannons - an interesting choice of weapons for a Gallente ship.
But this was just the beginning. Lured by all the loot left at the belt, ships were coming back there.
I undocked my Rupture and headed to the belt as well, to be met by a Thorax. We pointed each other and opened fire. As I tried to get into a wider orbit around my opponent, I realised my first mistake: I had an afterburner equipped due to chasing mission runners earlier. Cursing, I overloaded my weapons and turned my attention to the Ishkur which had also joined us at the belt. I sent my ECM drones after him and turned back to the Thorax. Which was comfortably sitting there in structure, but not taking any more damage from me since my guns had burnt out. AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!
Jyren's Rage was shooting the Thorax too in his experimental sniper Maller, but it lived to kill me. I warped out and docked up. In the meantime, the Ishkur killed the Thorax.
I jumped into my Jaguar and warped straight to the top belt. The Ishkur was there and I quickly scrammed and webbed it, setting into a 7.5km orbit where his blasters wouldn't reach me. Rage was shooting the guy from distance while his drones tried in vain to dent my passive tank.
The Ishkur, still holding some loot from my Rupture, soon fell to our combined assault.
Satisfied with that, I called it a night. Fortunately, I will be able to buy a new Rupture with the money from ransoms and loot accumulated over the last week.

Should I move to egghelende.blogspot.com?

Somehow I spend most of my time in Egghelende these days, although I do visit Amamake quite often to resupply or kill a ratter. Egg' seems to have fewer blobs and more carebears, although it's still a tough place for a solo pirate, a fact I've learnt the hard way.
So, for the the last month I've mostly flown in gangs that usually consisted of pilots from Pyrotechnics Inc, Mayhem Brothers (mostly Jyren's Rage) and Corpse Collection Point (namely Ashnazg). This has been a great experience and we've had lots of good fights. But now I'm back home with my family which means less playing time, very limited voice comms usage and going afk quite often.
In the last few days I've done some solo piracy, probing out and killing mission runners in Egg', like these guys in a Thorax and a Celestis. My Rupture seems to be the best ship for such kills as my favourite assault frigates are often not allowed through mission gates.
The problem is that any ship bigger than a cruiser usually draws attention of other pirates, especially the guys from Eternal Perseverance who often use battleships, HACs and other expensive ships. Yesterday, for example, I probed out a Rokh only to find it already warp scrambled by an EP Sleipnir.
I'm wondering if some day we could get together a fleet strong enough to take on those guys.

Straight Outta Clone Vat

Kill & loss statistics since the last report:
- killed eight frigates, five destroyers, four cruisers, an interceptor, an assault ship, an industrial ship and five pods;
- lost five Rifters, two Wolves, one Rupture and a pod.

Ah, another week full of good fights. I'll mention just a few that have been the most interesting.
There have been a couple of good Rifter duels -- I lost the one against Arquebie and won against Switch 4. Then there was a great Wolf duel with Pax Sex. I was ahead in the damage race, but my guns were reaching critical heat levels so I toggled rack overloading. Unfortunately, this way I also overloaded my neutralizer which burnt my guns in just one cycle, allowing Pax Sex to finish me.

I also had my first fight in a Rupture last week after taking it to Egghelende. I jumped to a planet after spotting some frigate there, but it quickly warped off while another frigate, a Punisher, showed up, soon joined by a Firetail and a Rifter. I sent my ECM drones after the Firetail while focusing fire on the Punisher which soon exploded, its capacitor emptied by my neutralizer. Just when I switched fire to the Firetail, a Thorax joined the party. I refocused my fire on the cruiser, seeing it as the biggest threat, and sent the drones after him as well. My armour was melting under the combined assault of the three ships, but before going down I managed to kill the Thorax. I then tried to kill the Firetail as well and missed the chance to save my pod. Well, that just meant I made it back to Amamake a bit faster.

Another good fight was against two Ghost Festival pilots: my Rifter was able to tank and kill their Incursus class ships, both in proper PVP setups. Staying at a 7.5 kilometre orbit has helped me dodge blaster fire. Finally, there was a fight with Zombiedeadhead's Claw. He attacked me at a gate from Siseide to Amamake and I was unable to get within scram/web range so I jumped. Of course, then I just burned back towards the gate and jumped again. This time, for some reason (maybe due to bumping into the gate), he allowed me to get in close after which the Claw was doomed.

Somehow, I'm much more efficient with Rifters than with Wolves: lost the second one in a week yesterday after jumping a Harbinger which was quickly joined by a Vexor. Must be more careful with these expensive toys.

Ups And Downs

I love it when people complain about being killed in lowsec: "hey, this is not fair, I was fighting rats!". I usually respond with "rat in hisec if you want to be safe", but I guess they still feel offended. That was the case with Yvie Ly whose Rifter I destroyed in Amamake on Tuesday. Don't they read the pop-up message when entering lowsec?
Shortly after that I saw my old acquaintance Brutus Severus in local and offered him to gank a ratting Rupture. Brutus agreed and we warped to the target belt. He arrived first and started to take damage from the Rupture's drones and autocannons. I was dispatching the drones, but by the time I dealt with them my partner's Rifter was destroyed. "I'll finish that Rupture," I thought, settling into a tight orbit around the cruiser with my afterburner on.
Or was it on? Damn, all my cap-dependent modules were off and I was taking damage from the Rupture's guns. I quickly toggled them on and continued to chew through the cruiser's armour, wondering what had happened. Then -- BANG -- my cap dropped to zero, everything went off again and I realised the other pilot was draining or neutralising my cap. Frantically, I tried to relaunch my afterburner to reduce incoming damage, but in vain. My Rifter exploded while the Rupture was just a few percent into structure.
I sent a sincere "gf" to Kastet Mamont, the Rupture pilot and apologies to Brutus for getting him involved in a failed gank attempt.
Just 40 minutes later, having got myself a new Rifter, I noticed another Rifter and a Thrasher in a belt. I figured out that if they were fighting, I could kill the survivor. Well, I was wrong: despite being less than a month old, Dedal Halfov downed my Rifter with Tech 2 150mm autocannons after dealing with his first victim. He was at a comfortable 53% of structure. Guess someone forgot to tell him new players should spend their first months studying learning skills.
Later on that day my homey Dr. Dre came through with a gang of tanqueray I moved to a neighbouring system of Auga and spotted a Rifter in a Faction Warfare complex. I jumped in, but the Rifter, equipped with a microwarp drive, quickly got away. I returned to a safespot to see and wait if he returns. He did, but together with a Blackbird ECM cruiser and my corpmates told me to stay away from that thing. Fortunately, the Blackbird soon disappeared and the Rifter was once again alone so I decided to try again.
This time the other pilot, mr kangaroo, decided to give it a try and started approaching me. We did the usual Rifter dance, watching each other's shields and then armour melt under autocannon fire. The fight was close, just the kind I really enjoy, but the speed advantage was on my side with mr kangaroo's MWD shut down by my warp scrambler. I was at 15 percent structure when his Rifter exploded. We exchanged gf's and discussed each other's setups: turns out he also had no damage control module and used a gyrostabiliser instead.
On Wednesday, I returned to Amamake and soon scanned down a Tristan at one of the planets. Its pilot Sojiuro, who had beaten me once in the same ship, offered a one-on-one. I lost the previous duel after orbiting too close to him, at the range where his Tech 2 blasters outdid my autocannons. I made no such mistake this time, settling into a 7.5 km orbit (actual distance was about 5 km). I destroyed his drone and then his ship comfortably staying out of blasters' range and laying down torrents of barrage fire. As usual, we exchanged gf's while I scooped the loot.
I moved around neighbouring systems in search of new pray and soon scanned down Gambuk's Breacher in Kourmonen. He chose to engage me, but I guess Breacher just wasn't designed to take out Rifters.
My next target on that day was Eddie Monaghan who ratted in Amamake in his Rifter. Unlike some other pilots, he made no drama about the loss.
In the evening, while watching gangs roam through Amamake limiting my attack opportunities, I spotted a lone Osprey cruiser piloted by another Amamake resident Speshtard. I offered him a one-on-one and he agreed, despite noting that his chances weren't good - I like pilots who do that! Indeed, it turned out his missiles weren't hitting me hard while I was dealing with his drones, keeping a tight orbit. I destroyed the cruiser and thanked Speshtard for the fight.
That was a good time to dock up and go to sleep, but I decided to hang around a little longer. Soon, I spotted a Caracal at the infamous belt III-1. I hesitated for a while, knowing this was one of the riskiest places in New Eden to be in, but then said "what the hell" and hit the warp button. Of course, that turned out to be a trap set up by the VooDoo Technologies alliance and the Drunk GanG corporation. As soon as the Caracal had a point on me, a Lachesis, a Jaguar and a Rapier warped in and quickly destroyed my ship. This was the second time I fell into their trap - I MUST become more attentive to pilot identities and affiliations.
All in all, a nice couple of days, but at least one loss could and should have been avoided.