A Combat Filled Day

I can probably mark it down as one of the most turbulent days I've had in my time as a capsuleer. I've been neglecting my blog the last month or so due to a lack of anything terribly exciting happening, but this day was just filled with ups and downs, both physically and emotionally.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still busy making ships, modules, and drones, both for my own use and for the market. And I’m still maintaining my planetary production lines, making it a stable source of passive ISK on my part as they only need my attention once a week now. My industrial efforts continue apace, and I've even made a few of the new Prospect frigates for my own use and put some up on the Placid market. I even plan on taking one into Nullsec in the coming days and mining some Mercoxit for myself…  

I haven't been slacking in my combat efforts either, a good portion of my income still comes from Concord payouts of the local Serpentis pirates' bounties. And I was just as active against the capsuleer threats to Intaki, it's just that I was doing awfully in those engagements. I'd lost more than a dozen ships of various sizes and classes with nothing to show for most of June. Pend Insurance is threatening to increase my rates, despite the fact that the payout on some of the ships I lost was just abysmal. For example, I had a few Tormentor frigates in my hangar leftover from their days as mining vessels, and decided to refit them according to their new specifications as a front line combat vessel. I received less than 50,000 Isk when I inevitably lost them, even though they were Platinum insured for the full cost of the materials that go into their construction. In any case, I've told my hangar manager not to hire crews for anything smaller than a destroyer at this point, so at least I'm not costing other people their lives in my attempts at even a Pyrrhic victory. 

The rut I was in was not improved by the three ships I lost that day, one of which was the Aliastra Catalyst I'd received for our roam into the Serpent's Coil earlier this year. The others were just situations where I ran up against superior firepower. At that point much of the corp began to join me in space, and I had a pirate Enyo in system whose location I was reasonably sure of. I decided to go for broke and brought the Caracal online and stocked it with explosive warheads. I was initially disappointed with my warp-in, more than 20 km off, but the Clone Soldier Negotiator he was fighting had him disrupted and damaged allowing me to close range. It didn't take many volleys before I found myself alone with the notoriously vicious Serpentis pirate, who wasted little time in focusing his attentions on me. I called for help from my corpmates, knowing I didn't have the kind of sustained damage necessary to break the Negotiator's tank. Several minutes later, corp-mate Richard Masseri and I left the belt several million ISK richer, and me with my first PvP victory for the month. Richard and I roamed Placid for a bit in smaller, less expensive vessels, with numerous sightings but no engagements before most of the corp decided to get some sleep. 

My own elation at finally getting a pirate kill led to a flurry of activity on several projects I'd been putting off, mostly finishing the fits on various ships. I tend to have plenty of hulls on hand, but gathering all the guns, modules, and rigs that I can't make myself, from all over the region, tends to put me off leaving station. One of the fits I had recently finished was one of my favorites, the Vexor. The fitting I had devised enabled me to make short work of the local Serpentis menace, while also being capable in most PvP situations. I worked for several hours, clearing the asteroid belts around Intaki, and occasionally warding off curious capsuleers in vessels smaller than mine. All but one, a pilot named Lincoln flying a Rifter who insisted on attacking me, despite my warning that it would only result in the loss of his ship. A short fight later I had another kill for the day, and Lincoln hopefully learned not to attack a drone boat cruiser with frigate. We continued to talk for a few hours as he stayed in system fighting other pilots as they came through. Apparently he'd spent the last few months in the safety of Null sec and was looking to become less risk averse in his flying. His situation was one that was familiar to me, as I'd spent a considerable amount of time fighting for Nulli Secunda in their war against then rising starts TEST Alliance. He eventually ran out of ships while fighting against local pirate Brian Skrudland, and left on amicable terms and with a neutral setting in my personnel notes.

I continued my search for Serpentis pilots throughout Viriette Constellation, finding and eliminating several more Clone Soldier Negotiators and Transporters before I came upon a vessel that left me checking my sensor readings. It was one of the new Mordu's Legion Cruisers reported to be patrolling in Lowsec space. I quickly transmitted my intentions not to attack to the cruiser, but to no avail as it quickly closed the distance between us and began its assault. My Vexor was rocked by massive blasts as the first volley slammed into my shields, severely depleting them. I released my Hammerheads from their cradles and brought all of my E-war and guns to bear against the vessel I could now identify as an Orthrus. A second volley smashed into my Vexor, taking another significant chunk out of my shields as my drones streaked towards a vessel I was reluctant to call an enemy to swarm it with plasma fire. The third volley knocked out my shields and started damaging my armor, forcing me to cycle my repairer as my drones and guns began unleashing molten plasma against their own shields. The next few volleys hit even harder, forcing me to keep my armor repairer online as the cruiser's shields began to fail, with shots leaking through the gaps in their coverage to splash against it's armor. I was beginning to receive armor integrity and heat damage notifications when the Orthrus finally succumbed to the onslaught of plasma and exploded.

The skirmish with the Mordu's Orthrus had caused minor structural and heat damage as my repairer cycled back down to work on mending my plates back together, and my shields began to recharge. I approached the result of my retaliatory actions with a grim mindset, I hadn't planned on destroying the ship, but I think they more than likely have standing orders to destroy any capsuleer vessel they encounter. As I drew closer I remembered a talk I had with one of the corp leaders in the days after the first sighting of these new, formidable vessels. We both lamented that we had insofar been unable to make diplomatic inroads with the Mordu's Command, despite their presence guarding our home station above Intaki Prime. We had discussed this very event occurring, with the hope that we could establish peaceful or at least neutral standings to avoid just such a situation. Maybe in the future we'll have more success on this front, and I earnestly hope so, as fellow Intaki, many of the Mordus' are likely just as interested in a free Intaki as we of the ILF are...

I coasted next to the wreck and efficiently tagged those escape pods I detected for pickup by rescue crews from further in system, and then began salvaging what I could. My efforts were rewarded as I discovered the potent warp scrambler used against me was still in working condition, and seemed to be a design favored by the Caldari Navy. The real treasure I was able to find however was a schematic blueprint, good for just one production run, of the ship I had just destroyed.

Returning to Intaki soon after was necessary, both to repair the damage incurred in the battle and to give my crew some shore leave after what for them was likely a terrifying experience. It left me in a rather more contemplative mood, wondering how I could better relations with the Mordu's and maybe stop such a thing from happening again. No matter how lucrative hunting these vessels might be turn out to be, I still knew they were all crewed by people like me, fellow Intaki who had found a place they could do something useful with their skills. Maybe a personal visit out to the Mordu's Command station deep in Nullsec might help bring me some clarity on the issue... 

A Battle to Remember!

My day began innocently enough, communiques were exchanged with my personnel ground side throughout Placid, I updated the few market orders that required my attention, and I finished reorganizing my hangar, something I'd neglected to do the night before after mining for several hours. Then I undocked for my regular patrol of the Intaki system, looking for any potential Serpentis pirate activity and my day really began. I was just finishing up my salvage work after "removing" another set of Serpentis craft when a Naga battle cruiser flown by Duluku Ukaladu (Dul) warped into the belt at more than 100km away and took a shot at me.  I quizzically sent a greeting in local, and received a friendly one back in response, saying he'd just wanted to see if his fit worked. Mentally shrugging to myself, I finished my salvage work and warped to the next belt in my patrol route and got to work on destroying more Serpentis vessels. A few moments later Dul warped at zero on the belt in a Hawk, still suspect from the shot he had taken at me earlier. Once he closed range our epic battle commenced!

I was quickly scrambled and webbed and I reciprocated with my own limited e-war capabilities as our guns began to fire and my drones started their assault, the Serpentis ships in the distance momentarily forgotten. A cry of warning came from my drones as they began to take fire from my opponent, Dul's shields being rapidly regenerated from their withering blasts of plasma. One of the drones winked out in a fireball, and I momentarily overheated my guns to compensate as I swiftly brought one of my reserves to bear.  Two more of my drones ended up being vaporized before I was able to get through to my opponents armor as his ancillary shield booster was being reloaded.  My own armor was taking a beating and I was forced to overheat both my afterburner and my own repair systems as he tried to pull away until his shields began to regenerate again. 

We closed range again, superheated plasma and rockets flying back and forth to slam against both Dul and my poor drones, who he had focused on again once he could bring his ASB back online. I lost the last of my reserve drones before his shields began to falter once more, and I burned after him with my engines exceeding their tolerances as I tried to keep him in range of my guns this time. My overheating repair systems struggled to keep my ship together as we both began to take shuddering hits to our internal structures. Heat warnings went off over most of the ship as my overtaxed systems began to melt from being pushed far past their operating limitations. I was starting to lose my control of structural integrity when I was finally rewarded with a backwash of heat and free neutrons as my opponent's vessel exploded in a glorious nimbus of hard radiation and shrapnel.

I quickly turned off all my modules to prevent further damage to my ship as his pod warped away from the scene of our battle. We exchanged a "good fight" in local before I got down to the dirty business of rendering the remains of his ship for usable modules and materials. The escape pod for Dul's minimal crew floated nearby, and I tagged them for pickup by station services. The escape pod for my own crew had been tagged as soon as I finished bringing my modules back from the brink of melting into useless scrap. I'm pretty sure Dul and I both told our crews to abandon ship once we both started taking structural damage. I finished gathering what usable material I could from the wreck of Dul's Hawk and limped my way back to Intaki 5-5. I'm pretty sure I saw Scotty down on the hangar floor shaking his head after I asked him for a repair quote before I began to decant from my pod. I still had a big grin on my face once I finished toweling off and heading to my couch for a nap, I refuse to sleep in the cubbyhole, or "bed" provided in my quarters. That had probably been one of the most stressful, yet enjoyable skirmishes in my career, and seemed like a great way to end my day. 

The next day I would be heading deep into Amarr space to continue my work with the Aliastra corporation, who had sheltered me in the turbulent months after my escape from the drudgery and politics of Null space warfare more than a year ago. I felt good knowing that I was part of a recent push by many in the Intaki Liberation Front's recent efforts to foster better relations with the people known throughout the cluster as, "the Intaki megacorporation." Hopefully our work would shed more light on our cause among up and coming Intaki capsuleers, and perhaps give hope and purpose to those who found themselves without a cause or corp of their own...

Lost Drones

A lone Tech 2 Hobgoblin floated, adrift in the depths of space, rudimentary Artificial intelligence slowly winding down as its internal power stores were depleted. All the Tech 1 drones nearby had already gone dormant, their less advanced power supply and systems forcing them into an earlier hibernation to preserve energy for their emergency beacons. The other T2 drones it had been able to sense nearby had stopped communicating an eternity ago, the pinpoint lasers they used between themselves having been turned off since then. Timescales were different for combat drones, much shorter than those of the organics that guided them, the fast paced action of their usually brief lives required calculations and decisions in the fractions of fractions of a second. No, their last burst had really occurred maybe an hour ago when the final T1 drone had gone silent, their simpler cousins drifting in a cluster of their own nearby.  This single drone remained online as a sentry for the others, on the off chance that one of their owners might return, life sustaining energy radiating from them in an almost magical aura. The drone's sense of time began to shift to longer lengths without further external stimuli. Nanoseconds morphed into milliseconds, into seconds, into minutes, hours, and finally days as power slowly dwindled away...

...

Senses instantly snapped back into focus on the here and now as a mass spike was detected nearby, a ship uncloaking less than 2 kilometers away, profile recognition software instantly identifying the hull as an Imicus, the next instant locating the distinctive Creodron corporation logo and paint job signifying this was an advanced Covert-ops frigate, Helios-class. The next few milliseconds saw the Hobgoblin beaming wake-up commands to all the drones in preparation for retrieval. The faintest stirrings of joy permeated its complex circuits before it and all of its brethren were brought into the ships life sustaining embrace. 

...

Another group of drones was loaded into the cargo bay, a full flight of T2 Hobgoblins and many more T1 versions, as well as some Hornets. As I brought them back to station I wondered to myself why I never thought to do this before? I fly through the Placid region constantly, whether I'm looking for unsavory characters or looking for resources for my industrial pursuits. And almost every time I'm in space my directional scanner is crowded with the signatures of drones, sometimes dozens of them, left behind in some pilot's frantic attempts to save their ship. The saddest part to me is the T1 models, even the few enterprising scanners will leave them in favor of picking up the more economically viable T2 ones. The way I see it, these (hundreds of) T1 drones are just waiting to be made into brand new T2 models with all the bells and whistles. Many of them will go into my personal stores for use in my oft lost combat vessels, but about half of them will go up on the market throughout Placid, hopefully to find new homes. And if not hopefully I can find them drifting in space, just waiting for someone to come find them and make them useful again...

Transition to a New Year

A steaming cup of strong black tea sat cooling on the table in front of Erun as he relaxed in his quarters in Intaki 5-5.  The last two months had been a storm of frenetic activity, filled with the completion of old projects, laying the foundations of current ones, and brainstorming of new ones.  He'd passed several personal milestones in December and January, and February held an even bigger one. 

Continuing his efforts at becoming a better combat pilot had seen him doing quite well for both months, with his losses becoming fewer as his skill at analyzing situations improved.  Finishing his small missile skills had greatly expanded his combat options, ships like the Corax, Breacher, and the Crow now viable.  The Corax had seen mild success, and he was working on fittings for the Breacher and Claw. Encountering several Serpentis Clone Negotiators had also done a great deal to pad Erun's wallet, having been fortuitous enough to locate three in a single day in January.  Having more Isk on hand had done wonders to soften the blow every time he lost a ship, and his crew losses were minimal due to their small size and the general predictability of his battles.  The frigates he tended to fly himself, and his destroyer crews had procedures in place depending on their tanking method. 

A cautionary sip of tea was taken as Erun leaned back in the couch, as he reviewed his balance sheets for the last two months.  Many of his projects had borne fruit, to the point where he had nearly doubled his cash on hand.  A significant part of that was his continued research into the most used components of his ship fittings, namely his guns.  He was now producing all of his own T2 hybrid turrets, greatly reducing the Isk burden he had to replace them.  Flying and losing as many Gallente ships as he did meant he lost a lot of turrets, as well as the accompanying drone complements.  Being able to pull replacements from personal stores instead of buying them off the market saves him a lot of money.  His newest research into hull and armor modules was doing just as well, with dozens of shiny new Tech 2 Damage Controls coming off the assembly lines in the last few days, with Energized Adaptive Nano Membranes soon to follow.  Another big contribution to his much expanded wallet was the asset consolidation he had done in the last two months.  It had taken several days to travel throughout New Eden and clean out dozens of hangars, with most everything being sold, or broken down and then sold.  It was also his hope that it would stop his Aura unit from grumbling every time he needed his assets displayed for navigational purposes.  

Thinking of Aura caused Erun's eyes to glaze over as he checked his Neocom and chuckled quietly to himself, thinking of another milestone he had passed just a week ago.  With the completion of Rapid Launch to Level 5 he had finally passed the 100 Million Skill points mark.  While many would mark this occasion with partying or some other frivolity, Erun had more than likely been asleep or meditating. It had honestly slipped his mind with everything else he had been working on.

Setting the now empty cup of tea on the table in front of him, Erun came back to the present. The biggest milestone on his mind was the anniversary of his joining the ILF! A year ago today he had joined the secessionist cause, hoping to find something worth fighting for after the endless drudgery of Nullsec. A loneliness had grown in him in the months leading up to joining, most everyone he'd started his career with more than five years ago had retired planetside, leaving channels emptier and emptier until he was soon left with only one or two semi-active channels.  The pilots of the ILF had become like a family to him in the year he had been with them, providing the camaraderie and basic PvP training he'd been craving since he'd first entered lowsec all those years ago.  Hopefully he'd be able to spend more time with them and work towards theirs, and now his, promise of a safe and secure homeworld...

An Unsettling Battle

Erun warped away from the scene of the battle, his mind filled with a sense of disquiet.  The charred remains of an Enyo Assault Frigate fell away behind him, a grim reminder of what may have been a bad decision made in haste.  He'd entered Aubenall to find a neutral Federal Defense Union pilot, Orford, in an Enyo being held down by a Goon, Charles Case, in a Condor, at a nearby Faction War complex.  As soon as he had entered system the Goon had called for help in what he labeled an "easy kill,"  leaving Erun immediately unsure what to do.  He made his way into the complex and made up his mind to aid the neutral FDU pilot, setting his drones on the Goon's Condor as his Algos began to burn towards them. 

So focused was Erun on the Goon's Condor that he didn't see the Enyo target him, only noticing with alarm as his shielding was stripped away by a barrage of blaster fire.  Several seconds of indecision went by before Erun reassigned his drones and began focusing his fire on the Enyo as the Condor soared away from them at kilometers a second.  It didn't take long for the withering hail of fire from his Algos and it's drones to decimate the Enyo, despite what he later learned were numerous repair cycles from an Ancillary Armor Repairer. 

Orford warped away from the remains of his wreck, Erun hadn't targeted the pod - he still didn't like actually killing other capsuleers if he could help it - instead turning his attention to his original target, Charles Case.  He needn't have worried though, as the Condor was more than 100 kilometers away and still going.  Drawing closer to the remains of the Enyo he quickly removed what functional modules and ammunition he could find before he made his way to the Eugales gate for some repairs. Orford had left the system before Erun could ask what happened, leaving him to brood on what had just happened as he made his way back to Intaki. 

Had he acted correctly in this case?  Should he have held his fire and kept his focus on the Condor, risking the destruction of his Algos?  Probably, though his chances of catching the Condor with the Enyo on him were slim.  Should he have just disengaged completely and and allow the Enyo to be destroyed?  He just couldn't do that, his personal code of ethics made that option seem abhorrent.  No, at least Orford was able to go down fighting, rather than being plinked away at by a ship he couldn't reach.  Erun had had enough experience in battles were he was kited out of effective range, and remembered with loathing that feeling of helpless despair as the ship around you was torn to pieces without being able to retaliate.

Conscience a bit clearer, Erun finished docking in Intaki 5-5, discussing the battle with an up late Devan Corvel before turning in for the night.  He still felt a bit uneasy, but less then he had right after the battle, and though he was skeptical, Devan's idea that entire affair had been a set up could have merit...

November in Review

Another busy month, both in and out of combat, though that seems to be a recurring theme in my time with the ILF.  I honestly don't see the pace slowing for a while and that's perfectly alright with me.  I haven't been this engaged since my initial forays into the designs and mechanisms of Tech 2 drone research.

First up is combat, and as I mentioned it was another busy month, with several ups and downs.  I believe this is the first month in which I destroyed more ships than I lost.  I did lose a pod this month after a really close battle where both of us went into deep structure.  But I also had two excellent kills where I managed to destroy assault frigates. I believe this is the first month in which I destroyed more ships than I lost, though just barely. So all in all I'm happy with my combat work for the month.

My industry work is also coming along nicely, I'll soon be going into production on my next project, further lowering the costs of my PvP fittings.  I also expanded my industrial work within the corp itself, bringing some additional flavor to my current offerings.  I'm looking into some more PI work to help me begin production of some of the new deployable structures.  I had this strange idea of deploying the new Mobile Tractor Unit as a sort of communal structure for Corp members using the belts...

Somehow A Good Day, With Help From The Harriers

The eleventh of November was an interesting day to be sure. I started it by joining Suresha Sakaane Eionell and Mahesha Bataav as they began the planned "removal" of a Pilot Owned Customs Office in Vey. Really they should be called COCO's or Corporation Owned Customs Offices, but I digress. I brought the heaviest DPS ship I had available, a blaster fit Dominix, to assist in their efforts. We were later joined by several other ILF pilots, and over the course of the next few hours we continued to bombard the POCO with ridiculous amounts of firepower, hiding as necessary when neutrals and hostiles wandered into system. My personal troubles began as we were nearing the end of our structure grind, when we were scouted by a HYDRA RELOADED pilot flying the limited release Chremoas covert ops. Most everyone got away by the time a small fleet arrived, including Sakaane in her Abaddon, but my Domi was still next to the POCO when my cloak was popped due to proximity and locked down. I was unable to bring any of my considerable DPS to bear on my captors due to their small size and speed, and the end came relatively quickly for my poor Domi. The crew had been ordered to evacuate once I lost control of the warp core, so their losses were minimal, but with a ship the size of the Dominix there were bound to be a few regrettable losses. I was later informed of an interesting fact: aligning with a cloak engaged will still help you get into warp faster, something that had allowed Sakaane to get her Abaddon out before it could be scrambled.
We returned a while later when the coast was clear to finish the job we had started, this time I was flying my lower DPS, but much safer Manticore Stealth Bomber. We quickly tore through the remaining few shreds of the Interbus POCO, and stood by while some of our allies set up their own. All in all a successful operation, despite the loss of my Dominix to my own ignorance, though in my own defense it's not often I fit a cloak to a battleship... 
Over the the next hour or so, members headed planetside for the day, while some remained in and around Intaki. A few of us discussed the upcoming overhaul of many ships and other upgrades to the Neocom in the coming weeks. My biggest concern during this discussion ended up being the Orca Industrial Command Ship I somehow moved into Intaki unscouted, and how the changes to more efficient warp calculations might effect my ability to get it back out again. I queried the vetted Intaki Intelligence channel, wondering if anyone would be willing to help scout me out of lowsec now that my industrial work foe the day was complete. A short time later I a positive response was sent by Hong WeiLoh, so I quickly transferred my pod to the Orca and got the now active-duty crew working on moving all the necessary ships and materials into its holds. Less than 20 minutes later I was undocked from Intaki V-5 on my way to my new hisec mining location, Hong as the vanguard of our small fleet, and another Harrier by the name of Apollo Kids guarding the rear. 
The trip itself was rather anticlimactic in reality, we quickly and efficiently made our way to the nearest high sec entrance to my destination. As I was dropping off the Orca Hong suggested we could go on a patrol after I was done, and I readily agreed, always looking for more action. I made my way back to Intaki to pick up my Algos, and the Harriers met me there before we headed out, Hong in another Algos and Apollo in a Thrasher. We made a loop through the Viriette constellationbefore making our way through the Pegeler constellation where we encountered a small group of TEST pilots in frigates. We scanned them to one of the complexes in the Moclinamaud system and quickly engaged. The Testies scattered as soon s we landed, warping off in multiple directions, but not before we were able to point and quickly destroy a Merlin, and then not so quickly a very well tanked Punisher. We continued on our patrol afterward, as we were averse to sticking around in case the Testies called in reinforcements. Our course took us for a quiet jaunt through the Josmaert constellation before we made our way back to Intaki, I think Hong and Apollo were ready to get some sleep at that point.
I trailed a bit behind, so when Hong and Apollo were on their way to resupply at their bases in Intaki, I was still sitting on the Agoze gate in system when a pirate named Titus Veridius emerged from warp nearby in an Algos. I targeted him and began to burn towards him as he turned and burned away from the gate, my ship letting loose the first salvo once we were out of jump range since he would have been destroyed by the gates defenses had he attacked me. What followed was a brutal fight as we engaged at close range, guns and electronic warfare blasting and blaring between us as our drones viciously careened all around us. My tank must have been just slightly better as my structure was half destroyed before his finally gave way, his pod quickly escaping the twisted wreckage. We both posted "Good Fight" into the local network as I turned my ship to gathering up the remains of his, including the abandoned and confused drones he had apparently purchased from me only moments before he got to the gate.
Hong congratulated me on my solo kill, apologizing that he hadn't made it in time to help, while observing that his fleet boosts as he made his way to me had likely provided that edge I had needed to outlast my opponent. I thanked him for all of his help and company throughout the night before he departed, likely to get some sleep, I think I'd kept him up rather later than his normal operating hours. As for myself, I limped my way back to home base, instructing the repair crews there to take their time getting my Algos put back together, as it was unlikely I would take it out again that night. As I relaxed into the hydrostatic fluid of my capsule to get some rest of my own, I imagined a small smile on my face. Despite the initial setback of the day it had ended on a pretty good note...