Monday, March 30, 2015

A Hunting We Will Go!

The gods favor you, Red is their color!
And favored me they did! Before the weekend hit and I sat down and watched a CONCORD marathon, this Black Jacket and his Rifter found some fights. Crack open your Quafe and sit back and enjoy the show!

Day One

First stop after Gultratren is Arnstur, quickly find a Breacher and warp to its location. Load up EMP and Mjolnir rockets, suck down my cigarette, and overheat everything! Let's do this! Breacher is 20km away from me and I head towards him full speed ahead. He does the same and I clock his speed at around 2k m/s .. immediately I question the tactic behind it. If he's that fast that means he's probably not tanked very well so he's fit for long range combat, so why is he flying towards me? I watch as the distance between our two Minmatar baby's closes, then I activate my web, scram and fire away. Without his MWD this guy is a sitting duck. I see I have no web slowing down my Rifter so I continue my fast tight orbit and listen to the symphony of my 200mm auto cannon's and rocket launchers pound away at the Breacher. The symphony ends with fireworks. Loot n scoot, throw a gf in local, and carry on.

Pass through my systems hunting for my next victim, instead I find a stabbed farmer or someone who leaves the plex as soon as I enter. Finally I hit Lulm. I check out the center of the system and see nothing. As I align to my outgate I hit D-Scan 1 more time and a Slicer appears. I halt the ship and do another search of the system but there are no plex's he can be at or at any belts.  I decide to open a Novice and sit outside the gate. Within moments of checking short scan I spot a slicer and prepare myself. Orders go out to the crew to load EMP and Mjolnir but have Fusion ammo and Nova rockets ready to go incase this Slicer is armor tanked. Slicer lands right on top of me, the fight already tipped heavily in my advantage. He hits me pretty hard as I close in from 5k meters away but my SAAR repairs the damage comfortably. I quickly break through his shields and begin to go to work on his armor making decent gains, but the gains disappear as he reps the damage. I maintain the assault hoping I can break through his armor tank with the current ammo but he successfully reps it back to full status. I cease fire and switch to my good 'ol Fusion and Nova rockets and go to work. The explosive armor punches through his tank without a fuss, leaving nothing but Amarr wreckage.

Nothing else was in Lulm or Bosbogger, definitely wasn't in the mood for Amamake so I decide to head back towards Egmar and go off towards the other side of the Neighborhood. I arrive at the Crossroads and poke around. There's a little too many people in the system for my liking so I decide to continue on my route, but then I'm flagged down in local for a 1v1. Wearing the Black Jacket, I got a reputation to uphold, even if I suspect a blob. I agree and the pilot and I work out the meeting place, which was a large plex. Yup red flag and sirens are screaming, but I'm already in warp and decide if there is a gang I'm gonna take this guy down with me. Autocannons and rocket launcher loaded for some shield blasting action, and he's right there waiting for me. We scram web and begin shooting each other immediately. I punch through his shields in two volleys as his armor starts taking damage. My shield is holding up with about 1/3 left but I have my armor repair crew ready to go! I check short scan, no gang. The Slasher's MASB kicks in as he activates the TD on my ship. I align towards the sun to mitigate the TD and help my autocannons get a better shot instead of just orbiting each other, at the same time I watch his distance to make sure he doesn't slip away. Check short scan again, still no gang. He breaks through my shield and my armor begins to take damage, but huge chunks of his armor blast away when my guns get through his shield repper. But with every good hit I land, I miss a lot more; and his guns are beginning to overwhelm my tank as the repper pumps out its last few cycles. We both reach low armor at the same time, and I begin to take hull damage. My hull hangs in there like a champion as I bring the Slasher into hull with me. My hearts beating! My hands are shaking! With one beautiful hit he's in deep hull as I'm reaching half structure; slowly but surely I'm catching up to him in the hull race. Miss .. miss .. miss! Shit! Another huge shot leaves him with the smallest sliver of structure remaining as the Slasher bears testament to the saying about Minmatar ships, flying and held together by duct tape! My autocannons fire true, and the Slasher explodes. Gf!! Man Mechanics V is definitely worth the train!


Watch out for Optimo and his Slasher!
We chatted afterwards about the fight and tactics and stuff and things. Man it was a close one. And there was no trap as well *smiley face*

After a good close fight like that, I decided to call it a night and return to Gultratren, Of course I search each system along the way, and find nothing but a cyno. Which of course, I dutifully exploded.

I docked up in Gultra, helped my crew restock my Rifter, gave them some ISK to enjoy themselves on the station, returned to my quarters and of course ... cracked open some Quafe and loafed on the nice sofa! More to come!

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Skirmishes here and there

Haven't had the time to get a good session in since our last R1FTA roam. Real life has allowed me some brief space skirmishes over the past couple days, and last night I finally got some time to get a good roam going. Here we go!

Got the crew together, fired up a Rifter and undocked into Minmatar Space!



 
I checked out the Arnstur Triangle, which was two other systems that went off the main path of Gultra - Arnstur - Todi, and went Gultra - Arnstur - Brin- Helga - AND then Todi. Found nothing. Continued on down the pipe when I entered Arnher, and saw a friendly face. Coraceus Aivoras!
 
 
Fought this man before in a 1v1 at the sun and he's good to go. Space Bushido is strong in this one! I asked him again in Arnher if he was up for another 1v1 since I wasn't having any luck finding targets. He agreed and we met at a planet away from the center of the system so we'd be left alone. I land and moments after his Merlin lands on grid. I overheat my afterburner and begin going into a straight line away from him to get out of his deadly blaster range as I scram, web and fire the guns. His shield falls apart fast, TOO fast! My autocannons begin to blast away at his armor, and that's when I saw he was armored tank. I continued to fire away with EMP loaded landing solid hits but each time he repped the damage. My shield hadn't been breached, and I was close to 7k meters away, a safe distance away and turned off the overheating in my afterburner.. I raised an eye brow as my speed quickly plummeted to almost a crawl. Dual Web Armored Tank Merlin! He was gaining on me, and I decided to switch to Fusion to do max damage against his tank before he got into blaster range. At 3k meters he let his blasters loose and my shield crumbled and began to tear away my armor. I activated my repper as my guns continued to reload, (the lack of activity has made my crew lazy and slow!). My tank was holding and my guns were ready to go with Fusion projectiles and I fired away. It was exactly what the doctor ordered, and the Merlin exploded in a ball of Caldari fire. Exchanged good fights and chatted a bit about stuff n things, and we went our separate ways. I returned the loot to Gultra and restocked on ammo and nanite paste, and continued with the hunt. I checked the Arnstur Triangle again, and this time spotted a Venture on scan towards a belt. Why not!
 
I loaded Phased Plasma and Inferno Rockets and warped off hoping to bag me a Venture! I landed at the wrong belt and warped towards the other belt nearby. He was 20km away from me, and I burned in his direction hoping he wasn't paying attention. 16km ... 14 km ... still motionless mining away ... 13km ... 10km .. FIRE! I even threw a web on him as my autocannons tore apart the Venture. Three volleys of Minmatar fury and the Venture exploded. I spam click target lock to grab his pod and succeed! I looked at his age, was about three months old so he should've known better to go afk in low sec at a belt. I throw a wave in local towards him as he was motionless throughout the entire ordeal to see if he'd respond. I fired away as he wrote "lol". Don't AFK mine in low sec!
 
I check out the wreck and take the Miner II laser since it was the most valuable module in there. I continue on my route, and entered Evati. Three Thrashers sat at the gate each about 15km off. I didn't have any celestials in front of my Rifter, closest was the sun which was a good angle off. I debated on whether I should warp for the safe, or burn back towards the gate. I took my chances with evading the Thrashers. As I was aligning and building up speed to warp off, the Thrashers began to target me. Just as I thought I was good, I heard the sound alarm informing me I was targeted and scrammed (long point) and got hit with a good volley that took me to half armor. I overheated my afterburner and activated my repper and burned back towards the gate. I was 8km from the gate, the long pause from the first volley must mean they had artillery cannons. I should've burned towards the gate instead.
 
I got my pod out of there and docked up, since I had no other ships in the area except back in Gultra which required me to go through those Thrashers. I decided to call it a night and go back at it my next time around. Apologies for the shortness of this entry! Happy Hunting!
 


Monday, March 23, 2015

The Bigger They Are

Running low on Quafe. I cracked a fresh one and sat back down as I waited for the rest of the gang to arrive. Today, R1FTA was gonna roam the Neighborhood. Soon the gang had arrived.

Kage and his baby blue's.
Relbmar n that neatly combed hair.


ThunderaceNL, don't ask him about his eyes!



Obidiah Kane, with a Leonidas scar.
One of our Prospects, Sayda Auduin.
 
 We hopped on comms, threw a fleet up, and entered our trusty tech 1 frigates. Here we go!
We were hunting methodically in Metropolis, our intention to reach the system where the "roads split" off into either the shortcut pipe systems of Orfrold/Klogori/Hadozeko, or head into the ghetto's of Amamake and roam Heimatar. Today must've been one of those days because there wasn't a lot of activity as we continued on our path. We enter Bosbogger and spot a Svipul on scan. Like a pack of hungry wolves we pounce on the Svipul and fire away with lasers, autocannons, rockets, drones and blasters. Even with all our combined firepower, the shield was tanking very well. Extremely well! Kage and his Tormentor exploded but we stayed on the ship refusing to give up. We were making progress on his shield but he was still reppin' the damage. Soon after another one of our Black Jackets went down, leaving myself, Sayna, Kane, and Relbmar still shooting the damn Svipul! His shield repper must've been reloading because our guns began to punch through his shield and fill his armor with dents and holes! It was strangely quiet on comms, but I figured everyone was just focused at the task at hand. When we got the Svipul into half armor, another comrade went down. We've lost too many to bail out, and the last of us on the field continued to press the attack. We broke through his armor and began to go to town on his hull, victory within our grasp. But then, huge chunks of his shield began to rep, and took another one of ours with it. It was just Kane and I left amongst the wrecks and debris in space. The Svipul pointed me and I told Kane to get out of there as my shield quickly fell. Moments after the ship lost point and I warped off to a safe, hoping Kane got out as well. I checked D-Scan and saw his capsule on scan. My goodness, very good work by that Svipul pilot. Most impressed!

Gf Patpewpew!


We gathered ourselves in fleet chat, and turns out the reason why everyone was so quiet was because our comms had gone down.


We reshipped and hopped on our backup comms just as the Prez himself logged in. Darth Terona!
Once you get past the tattoos and well groomed hair, he's a nice fella!

 We met up in Gultratren, and since Metropolis and Heimatar wasn't yielding any targets, we rode towards Amarr Space. Upon entering Kurniainen on the way to our out gate, we see a flashy Stabber at the gate with us. We locked it and fired away eager to dish out some payback from the last fight. The Stabber went down quick, and became our first victim of the day. We repped up, I slammed down a Quafe, and off we went again. In Sosan, we spotted a Thorax sitting at a plex. I called it out on comms as I warped off towards it. As I landed on grid, I burned towards it and got point on the cruiser. Immediately I saw my speed fall quickly as I was webbed and the Thorax was landing solid hits on my Rifter. Thankfully the cavalry arrived just as I exploded, and scored another kill. The gang pressed on hunting in Amarr space as I went back a couple jumps and reshipped into another Rifter. I caught up with them a few minutes later in Egmar. I checked D-Scan and saw a Kestrel at a novice plex. Perfect! I let the guys know where the fight was about to happen and went to tackle him. The gang was a jump off so it would be just me and the Kestrel for a bit. He was sitting about 25km off the warp in and I thought he was gonna warp away, but as he yellow boxed me I burned towards him. We pointed and webbed each other as his rockets rocked my ship. I had to reload from Barrage to EMP, costing me a few seconds of gunfire. I activated my guns and fired away with my good 'ol 200mm Autocannons. His shield was falling quickly as my armor tank was holding up very comfortably. As his shield broke and began to take chunks of damage to his armor, I saw the boys enter system. As the Kestrel was smoking and on fire, the gang entered in time to finish him off. Woot! Loot 'n scoot, dockup and rep, and off we went!

We checked out some more systems getting impatient with the lack of targets. A few minutes later in Hadozeko, we spot a Confessor, Exequor and SFI on scan and at the same plex. Impatience and eagerness to kill is quite a combination, and we warped towards them ready to go out guns blazing and in the name of good fights! Confessor would be primary followed by the SFI, and the logi cruiser last. I landed to the sound of explosions and gunfire, which meant they were shooting each other! I burned towards the Confessor but he sped away just as the pack of frigates landed. He was 25km away and I focused on the SFI who was within 10km. Scrammed and webbed the SFI, called it out on comms, and we fired away. The Exequor had warped off, and the Confessor kept getting farther and farther from the fight. The SFI pilot tried to fight, but our frigates were too much for him. Black Rebel Rifter Club baby! We celebrated on comms at what just happened, expecting to die in a glorious fire. Instead we forced a Confessor and Exequor off grid and caught a SFI with the simple element of surprise. Beautiful!



Couple jumps later we caught a Slicer pilot, who didn't like the extra amount of guns on his ship and dirty'd up local a bit. We laughed and carried on. Since RL was beginning to call many of our Black Jackets away, the Prez decided to have a free for all to finish the roam. We warped to a safe, Darth counted down, and we destroyed each other.

In the name of explosions and good fights! The boss went down first for lulz. I was able to explode the Sayna's Rifter in a display of Black Jacket to Prospect love. I followed suit, succumbing to the firepower of Thunder's blasters and kage's artillery cannons. Thunder exploded, leaving Kage and Kane in a Firetail duel of the fates! The winner of the R1FTA free for all emerged as Kane's smoldering wreck joined the graveyard. Kage self destructed his ship as the victor as we all laughed at the shenanigans. Good fun and explosions :)
 

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

My heart's beating, my hands are shaking!

An alert from my high sec contact woke me. Seems I had slept through a few episodes of my CONCORD marathon. Checked the mail and my shipment had arrived. Made my way down to the hangar to help the workers unload everything and set it up.

Few hours later, I stood back sipping Quafe, admiring the Wolf standing in front of me (insert Wolf photo). Can't wait to take you out for a ride! Soon! I slammed down the last of the Quafe (this stuff is awesome) and entered my Rifter.


Decided to head back to Gultratren via the "pipe" chain shortcut connecting the two constellations of Metropolis. I entered Gulmogorod and checked D-Scan and saw an unnamed Venture out in space. Why not? Now people may disagree with me, but nothing makes me feel like a pirate than killing a miner. I narrow him down to a nearby cluster, and shorten my range to 1 AU and begin scanning each belt. Now I know Ventures have an extra warp strength in their hull so 1 point won't do it, but I figure I can do enough damage to explode it before it warps off. I load Phased Plasma because I don't want to waste the good ammo, and land in the belt. Don't find a Venture, but man those asteroids are beautiful aren't they?

Oh Venture where art thou? 


I scan a couple more belts and  find him again. This time he's there, and does not get away.
Brave Low Sec Miner

Loaded the Miner II laser into my cargo hold as the asteroid debris was drifting into my Rifter. As I land on the out gate I see the same pilot out in space in a Firetail. Looks like someone wants revenge?? It was too late to stop the ship and I jump into the next system. I burn back to the gate and jump back into Gulmo. The Firetail is gone, but I see an unnamed Mammoth (belongs to him!) and a Condor on scan. I search for the Condor and scan him down to a plex but he's gone before I arrive. The Condor leaves the system, but the Mammoth is still on scan *evil smile* He's towards a planet with one belt, so I hit the Customs Office thinking he's doing some PI stuff. Exit warp and he's not there. No he can't be at a belt. No way! I land in the belt and through the debris I spot the Mammoth alone and unafraid. I burn towards it, scram and web and let the guns loose. The Mammoth begins to align, so I ram my Rifter right into it. After a few seconds, the Mammoth joins the debris in the asteroid. Along with his pod.

Really Brave Low Sec Pilot
And his pod.

Wreck was empty, I don't know what the guy's plan was but hey! Any explosion is a good explosion! I continue on and check out the rest of the triangle (Bosbogger, Lulm, and Gulmo). I enter Lulm and spot the Condor I was after earlier. First I have him towards a cluster of belts so I warp to one of the belts while scanning the other ones. It seems I miss him just as I land. The chase throughout the belts goes on for a bit, until the Condor lands on a small mission plex. As I warp I load EMP n Mjolnir rockets and overload everything and the Condor is sitting right there in the warp in. I spam target lock and fire away. He didn't return fire until he was in structure, and I didn't have to use any of my nanite paste which is always a win in itself. One of his volleys took out 3/4's of my shield so I can only imagine how close it would've been if he had fired sooner. Too little too late. I spam target lock on his pod and boom! As I'm sweeping the loot, and the corpse to add to my Crypt, I see a Rifter on short scan. Low shield, full cycle of nanite, smoldering guns, and it's a Rifter ... let's do this!

I overheat my scram and web but decide to wait to overheat my guns. He warps in about 20km away and I burn towards him. As I lock him I see he already has some damage in his armor. The barrels of my autocannons are spinning with eagerness, my rocket launcher waiting to go. He heads towards me as well with haste. This is gonna be a nice brawl. We enter each other's range and in an instant we scram and web each other, simultaneously exchanging volleys of projectiles and rockets. I immediately take a nice chunk of damage to my armor and activate the repper as his shield falls to 3/4's of it's strength. I fight off the urge to overheat my guns and wait for the right moment. I fall into half armor but my repper is keeping me in the fight as I bring him into armor. My armor does the back n forth dance of taking damage and repping, each time getting closer and closer to hull. The firefight continues with both of us holding a tight orbit and firing away. It was glorious. His Rifter enters hull first with mine right behind him. Overheat! His hull fills up with more damage as my guns hammer away. I enter structure but have a couple more reps of nanite that bring me to low armor but he relentlessly attacks. Now it's just my nanite-less repper trying to keep the ship together as it enters hull and takes damage. I got him, I got him, don't evade! With both of us in half hull, the Rifter took one last big volley. Woooo! R1FTA VICTOR! I exchange gf's as he warps off, loot 'n scoot.

Smoking Rifter Best Rifter.


Man my heart was racing at the end of that one, love close fights win or lose. The final few systems to Gultratren were uneventful, and I docked up, restocked my Rifter with ammo and nanite paste, leaned up against the handrail overlooking my Rifter, cracked open a Quafe and lit a smoke. Beautiful.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Win some Lose Some

Avenod. The night prior myself, kage, and my pal Gohdric went on a roam. Traveled all through Metropolis even venturing into Heimatar *shudder* but found nothing. We again decided to probe the lines of Amarr space and try our luck there. We found another farmer in his Merlin and took care of him. A couple systems later we engage a Retribution outside a small plex. We each land at separate times and begin a trifecta of autocannons, lasers, and blasters. His shields go down, and his armor is steadily being torn apart. Nice catch. Spike in local.

Before I can warn the guys, an Enyo, Wolf and a Griffin (grrrr) land on grid simultaneously. It was pretty cool to be honest. The Retribution was in deep armor, but his buds targeted me and I exploded in a glorious ball of Rifter fire. I threw a gf in local as I warped to a safe in my pod and awaited the result of the fight on D-Scan. A few moments later kage tells us he popped the Griffin (yay!) but three assault frigs against three T1 frigs was more than we could handle.

RIP Rifter
RIP Tormentor
RIP Fed Navy Comet

They died a glorious death, and will drink and tell tales of their endeavors together. *sniff* Since it was late and none of us had ships nearby, we called it a night.

And thus, Avenod! Since I still had loot laying around the area I decided to gather it all up and contract it to my hauler dude to keep the coffers nice and full. Problem is every time I tell myself "Just go straight to the stations, pickup the loot and go drop it off!" I end up checking every system along the way looking for a fight! Not even two jumps into my "pick up loot only" mission, Slasher at a plex. I cannot resist, who could!? Loaded EMP into my guns, chugged a Quafe, and overheated everything. Slasher was sitting right on the button as I scrammed, webbed, and let the guns loose. Just as I anticipated he was MASB fit with a TD. I was comfortably tanking his guns, but his shield was struggling; taking huge hits into armor as it repped. My 200mm Auto Cannons were too much for his tank, and boom. As I looted, I saw a Tristan on short. Hmmm ... my shields are gone, no armor damage, 4 reps left on my SAAR, guns aren't smoldering too bad from the last fight ... let's do it! I burn back to the beacon just as the Tristan enters the plex. I loaded Fusion which wasted precious seconds of me getting the jump on him. He points me with a long point which meant he was kite fit, and as I begin shooting his shield is holding strong. Damn wrong ammo! At this point his drones are doing their job and doing it well, and I'm not doing enough damage to break his shield. It's too late to switch back to EMP and I'm out of nanite reps. I calmly began evasive maneuvers (align to sun, overheat my afterburner, and spam warp!) as I enter low armor. I break his shields and his armor is taking big hits, but at this point I'm 13km away as I enter structure. Just as I reached the edge of his long point range, boom!

I entered Avenod in my pod and grabbed another Rifter. Had a quick smoke, slammed another Quafe and undocked. Executioner and Slasher at a plex. I can do this. Loaded EMP to deal with the Slasher first, landed on grid and duked it out as the Executioner warped off. He was taking good hits into his armor but his shield repped just in time to save him as I was comfortably tanking his guns. He begins to neut me! Spike in local. Not again!

I orbit at 7,500m to get out of neut range and continue firing away. Even though the voice in my head is screaming to GTFO spike in local why are you still here! his tank is about to break and I can pull it off! He neuts me again as I check short and see 2 Incursus and a Merlin. Oh yea here we go. I heeded  the voice (you win this time!) and began to pull range. Fortunately the Slasher had a short point, and as soon as Aura informed me I was safe, a Merlin and his boys had landed on grid. Threw a gf in local and docked up to rep the damage. Ok seriously just go pick up the loot!

I go along the route to my first destination, Vard checking D-Scan as I go :]
Navitas at a novice. Warps off just as I enter the plex. Continue my journey. I put the pedal to the metal as I fly through Heimatar. I don't even stop for a bathroom break as I load the loot into my Rifter and head off to Metropolis to collect my other set of loot. As I warp off the Vard gate in Amamake, a Slasher lands. What is this Slasher day!! I make haste back to Vard and find the Slasher at a novice. As I enter the plex he warps off. Ok back to the mission! I make it to my second destination and load the loot. Since I'm four jumps away from Gultratren, I decide to do the loot piñata.

Basically I look for fights along the way and the lucky person that kills me gets a nice amount of loot, like a piñata! But unfortunately there was no winner this time, nor any participants.

Landed in Gultra safe and sound, contracted all the loot to my high sec contact, cracked open a fresh can of Quafe and tuned into my favorite program. Nothing like watching CONCORD chase down bad guys! o7

Saturday, March 14, 2015

And so it begins ...

o/

So this is something I've been wanting to do for a good while. Along with the great and entertaining blogs I've read before playing EVE and during, I also want to share my stories and good fights with whoever happens to stumble upon this blog and hopefully inspire a young pirate out there or someone who's been apprehensive about spreading the pew pew.

This is for all those who fight the good fight, keeping solo pvp alive and to those who log on just to cause explosions.

I'll just get right into it. The following events occurred a couple days ago and finally am able to share it now due to real life (grrrr). Hope you enjoy!

Another late (or early for you Aussie's!) night (or day for you Aussie's again!) as the tinkers and clinks of the Republic University station greeted my ears. I checked my Rifter to make sure I had the essentials. Ammo, nanite paste and of course ... smokes, Quafe, and my sidearm. Check check AAAAND check!
Gultratren is where we call home, and by we I mean the Black Rebel Rifter Club

These guys took me in when I was a couple month old, wide-eyed newbro with dreams of one day becoming a mean 'ol pirate. Forever grateful.

The Neighborhood.





Heimatar. Metropolis. Red Space. This has been my hunting ground for a few months now. It has its fair share of gangs, gate camps, blobs and those linked "solo" fighters, but the good fights are here and the populace is good to go. I undock and begin my route.














I go through a few jumps checking the plex's with no luck. A fellow Black Jacket shows up in local, kage huren.
Don't let those beautiful blue eyes fool you!
I ask if he wants to pair up for double the trouble and together we set off with our engagement envelope a bit bigger now :)

We travel for a while getting teased by people who warp off soon as we get inside a plex. We hit Hadozeko, a system in a "pipe" chain of systems that connects one section of Metropolis to another. This route is usually camped during busy hours but at this time, it's clear and good to go. We spot a Caracal on scan and pin point it towards a small plex. Hmm.... together we warp. Loaded EMP since I was expecting him to be shield tanked, and overheated everything. We land on grid and there she is about 50km off the gate. We try bouncing off a nearby planet and landing at a distance hoping to get right on top of the cruiser but to no avail. The Caracal begins moving in a straight path towards us at a fast rate, close to 2k m/s. I watched his path for a few seconds, activated my afterburner and traveled in a direction that would intercept his. The gods favored me that day, yes because red is their color (Gladiator anyone?), and the dude either wasn't paying attention or was too cocky, and he got in point range. Scram, web and let loose, the Caracal was going down. A few seconds later, glorious explosion.

We pushed on to the other side of the neighborhood, where we found an Executioner chilling at a plex. R1FTA warp, load Fusion, and of course overheat everything. Land point and the pilot offered no resistance, didn't even move. That's because he was everyone's favorite type of person, the low sec farmer. Look at those stabs, poor ship. I held the pod and waited for kage to get on it as well, and together we executed the farmer.

 We continued on our roam. Couple jumps of nothing, D-Scan informs us of a Tristan at a novice. We land on grid, the Tristan warped to the sun. We have a chase!

Kage was the first one to land on grid with him, and as I exited warp the Tristan had already warped off and Kage was right on his Gallente tail to another plex. I catch up a few moments later, and as I slide the acceleration gate I check short scan and see a Griffin. Grrrrr ewar. CLOAKY ewar at that! Sneaky squirrel. I decide to focus my fire on the Tristan since it was the closest to me, with the Griffin about 15-20km off the warp in. The Tristan quickly falls into deep structure, and before I could get the last killing blow, I'm jammed. Cursing under my breath I spam target lock as Kage and the Tristan duked it out. A few more seconds go by and two more jam cycles or whatever they're called and my companion explodes bravely. Noooo!! Kage gets his pod out, and it's just me, mr Tristan and the good 'ol Griffin. I decide to stay in the fight but after another successful jam, I begin evasive maneuvers. The drones are hitting me hard, my armor tank hanging in there as I aligned to the sun and spammed warp. I can't shoot back let alone target the guy (grrrr ewar), and all of a sudden I hear Aura's beautiful, confident soothing voice "Warp Drive, Activated.". What the!!? Somehow someway either through the Tristan's error or some other unknown reason (the gods favor you, red is their color) I got away in a smoking Rifter.

We resupply a couple jumps from our fight and now Kage and I are flying R1FTA style ... Two Rifters *evil smiley face*

We decide to check out Amar space, and as we're passing through a few systems with no luck, we see this in local:

cjunkies > omg
cjunkies > rifta club
cjunkies > is still alaive
cjunkies > alive

Never met the man in my life, and as we land on the out gate I have time to throw back a wave. That was pretty cool :)

We continue on and I see a Rifter on scan that isn't us. I always get excited when I encounter another Rifter pilot in low sec, it's gonna be a good 'ol fashion brawl! I check the plex's but don't see him. Then ... I see it. It was on scan towards a cyno. No it can't be. There's some belts in that direction too, maybe he's going super old school. Gentlemen .. I saw it with my own eyes. Someone was using the Rifter as a cyno. Somewhere in the echoes of eternity, a thousand Rifters cried. I had to save the ship, and save the ship I did. Justice was served, and together we pressed on. We enter Vard and Kage spot's a Caracal on scan towards a mission plex. Inside the plex he was about 120km off, but we burned towards him anyway. Few moments later all the rats inside began firing at me breaking through my shield with their missiles. I informed Kage I was bailing and warped towards a safe. As I exited warp he said the Caracal warped off towards the sun, so I followed suit. I arrived a couple after Kage, but there was A LOT of t2 drones sitting there. So like a good 'ol space poor pirate I began scooping 'em into my cargo hold to find them a new home later. Kage said he saw the Caracal cloak up and was gonna burn towards its direction. I continued scooping drones, and Kage's determination and persistence uncloaked the Caracal! Surprised I scrambled to get a lock on him then proceeded to fire away. Kage and I fired with extreme prejudice and exploded the Caracal. Even got his pod with a couple implants *grin* We celebrated like two lions who have bagged a water buffalo.

We dock up to repair the damage and drop off the loot, and there's a Fed Navy Comet out 'n about in space sitting at a novice. I inform kage and we warped towards him, our autocannons still smoking from the last fight. Two Rifters, one Comet. Exchanged gf's and again docked, repp'd and dropped off loot.

The return trip back home to Gultra was uneventful. We docked up, cracked open some Quafe and lit up some smokes and heartily conversed about our roam. It was a good night.