Pilgrimage to Heild

A Familiar Place

Ever since our move to Ishomilken over a year ago, I still found myself yearning for the soothing rusty red glow of Minmatar  space. Heimatar, Metropolis and the outskirts of Amarr space were my hunting grounds. As time went on, events occurred that left us no choice but to leave our then home system of Gultratren for greener pastures in Caldari/Gallente space. The migration proved fruitful and continues to provide R1FTA with targets and good fights. 

But from time to time one misses the red glow of space, so I made the trip through the sparsely populated non faction warfare low sec that serves as a quiet highway of sorts to Metropolis. From there I pushed further to our first home after our migration from Adirain, to the near empty system of Gultratren. 


Molden Heath

Kind of looks like a cat's or fox's head!

The Golden Age of Heild is a legend to many of us who never experienced it. The literature that covers it along with memories divulged from those who lived through its glory continue to arouse our imagination of a land filled with explosions, frigate wrecks, smoking autocannons and good fights.

It was on this reflective note that I realized I've never roamed the area. Sure I paid homage to the sacred home of R1FTA, but I never roamed it in search of targets. Mostly because Ishomilken provides quick action to scratch our itchy trigger fingers. I arrived in Gultratren where my stockpile of ships, guns, smokes, booze and ammo greeted me and prepared to set out on my pilgrim roam to Heild.

From Gultratren I set my destination to Heild. I plotted a route that would keep me in low sec and circle me back around to Gultra. The route bordered both null and high sec systems, so even though I wasn't expecting the amount of activity usual for FW space, I figured my chances of finding a ratter or miner would be pretty good.

I double checked the route to ensure it didn't take me through any surprise high sec systems, did an ammo check, and everything was good to go. I undocked and warped off to my first system. Gultratren was empty save one person, a reminder of why we moved a long time ago. 

With the lack of FW plex's, I would have to no shit search every nook n cranny of each system along the way. Belts, planets, and even anomalies. If a ship was in system, I was going to find it. The next few jumps I did just that. The handful of folks in system were either some kind of industry alts due to the years in corp, or new players between two and several months old. A couple folks took advantage of the desolate space and were running sites. Imicus and Probes would pop up on d-scan as well as an Ishtar or Gila, conducting their business in peace. 

I entered the system of Atlar, a few jumps before Bosena and continued my search. I scanned the belts within scan range and found nothing. There was another cluster of belts far off scan away from the center so I warped to those and did a 360 scan as I neared scan range. Unnamed Bellicose. I landed a distance from the Customs Office and scanned the belts there but no cruiser. There was one more location, a Ruined Minmatar Mining Outpost, so I gave it a scan. Boom. I don't know what's in those outposts, but d-scan don't lie!

I loaded EMP and Mjolnir rockets, overheated everything and warped to it. There were four other people in local and given our distance from center, I wasn't expecting any third parties.

I landed on grid and the outpost came into view. A couple cruiser sized rats and one frig were engaged with the Bellicose who had a couple drones out firing back. I exited warp and immediately burned towards the cruiser who was 25km away. I zoomed in on him to see if he was getting ready to warp but he was burning into empty space at a snails pace of 160 m/s. My Rifter closed distance fast as I landed my web and scram and fired the guns. I settled into my close orbit and shut off the OH on my mods except my rep and guns. The Bellicose was steadily entering deep shields as he yet to lock me up. I glanced at the drones and saw there were two Hobs and a Valkyrie. There was a plus one in local as the Cruiser finally began to lock me up while the guns continued to chew away at his shields. I was target painted and some heavy missiles exploded near my ship but weren't doing any significant damage. With no webs on me plus the combination of my speed and sig radius, the Bellicose might as well been shootin' fireworks. I punched through his shields and his armor began to fall apart as he entered half. Another plus one in local but nothing on short, so I was still in the clear. My Rifter was circling the cruiser like a lone wolf on a wounded beast. His structure crumbled as the drones joined the assault, going to work on my shields. A series of rapid volleys finished off the last bit of hull. There was a silent flame followed by a brilliant and satisfying explosion as the Bellicose went boom. In the midst of the explosion I scrammed the pod and sent his capsule away with a greenish explosion. Saint Wensley be praised! I could've gone for a ransom given our relative privacy, but I was caught up in the blood lust of the moment. I checked the wreck and sifted through the loot. Blueprints! There was nothing above 100k ISK worth of mods, so I left the 'em there, gathered the corpse and the blueprints and warped off to a safe to examine the killmail. 

The pilot had a couple good looking blueprints that didn't drop, an Ogre and Bersker drone BPO which surely would've earned us a nice source of ISK. I docked up to rep and thought for a few seconds on whether to leave the loot here or take it with me, and decided to bring it along. I undocked and continued on my way to Heild. 

Bosena.

As I got close to Bosena, I remembered reading about a pilot by the name of Sugar Kyle, the Pirate Queen of Bosena. There was a market she used to run based out of that system, but judging by the lack of activity it appears they had packed up and moved elsewhere. The next system was sacred ground to R1FTA. 


Heild

I jumped through and saw a couple people in local but no ships on scan. I had a fresh corpse in cargo, so I warped to the sun to leave my offering. The sun was a brilliant purple with a white aura. It looked pretty badass to be honest. I hit d-scan again hoping to see a target, but no luck. This is where it all began. The location of the now extinct 2/10 DED site was still saved in R1FTA's bookmarks. It's badass that this system was the center of Molden Heath's reputation and content, and simultaneously sad that its time has long past and leaves a desolate region. I ejected the corpse, savored the moment a bit longer, and continued on my pilgrimage. 

Tribute.

The next few jumps went on without any folks in system or ships to shoot. I arrived in Gultratren, dropped the loot in station and considered bringing in some new Rifters since the ones here were outdated from the last module tiercide. 

I plan to stick around for a few more days, the region of Molden Heath could still provide a fight or two.

Catch Me If You Can!

Nikkishina

The previous day a corp mate, Chuck Sanussi, got me a gift. It was a badass new skin, and it looked sexy on my Rifter. I took it out for a spin to admire the new look and to break it in. 

Uhm ... it's there! 

There's nothing more to that story then just a new skin and it looks cool. Now to the pew pew!

Neighborhood Watch

Within the following days, it was time to search for the good fights. I hopped in a Rifter and set out. D-scan showed an unnamed Vexor, and a quick search narrowed him down to a Rogue Drone Swarm site thing. These events that bring people into low sec are a real winner.  It encourages people who wouldn't otherwise venture into low to fit up a ship, take a deep breath and take the plunge in search of loot; and gives us low sec denizens some fresh targets to hunt. Win win!

I went back and forth between going in with a Rifter or switching to a Rupture. R1FTA pilots are frigate junkies at heart, but from time to time we dabble in other ships. Plus there were only two other people in system (including the Vexor pilot), and the other pilot was in a Tristan fighting the good fight for the Caldari. A golden opportunity for a cruiser 1v1! I parked my Rifter in the Bar and scrambled through the hangar searching for my Rupture. Damn! I must've exploded it a while back and not remembered because there was none available. There's gotta be one in Isho! I jumped back into my frig and burned to Isho which was one jump over, hoping there would be a Rupture there. Isho was empty as well, so the prospect of a legit cruiser 1v1 grew a bit stronger. Once again I scrambled to find the Rupture amidst the rows of Rifters, and there it was. I jumped in and before I undocked, made sure it was fully fit with the guns and repper loaded. Good to go! 

The Chase

I love my Rifter, but there's something majestic about undocking a large ship as the sun shines along the hull and the auto turrets spin. The cruiser slowly turned as it aligned towards the Nikki gate and prepared for warp. The seconds that ticked by made me anxious that perhaps the Vexor pilot was either chased away or finished the site. I entered the system and it was still only us three. Beautiful. The Vexor was still on scan and at the same site, so I warped and prepared for space battle. I landed on grid with the debris of a large damaged station of some sort, and the Vexor was 24km away with his drones out working on the rats. 

I locked him up, activated my AB and let loose the drones! I was soaring close to 600 m/s as the Vexor recalled his drones and warped off. Nooooo! He warped towards a cluster with a belt and a planet, so I warped to the planet and gave chase. I landed near the customs office but no cruiser. He was still within 1 AU so I scanned the nearby belt and there he was. I hit warp and scanned the belt once more, but now he was gone. Damn. At some point during the chase one more pilot entered the system. I expanded the scan range to 5 AU and it showed the Vexor, Tristan and now a Tengu. I scanned the gate and plex's within 5 AU in search of my quarry, but nothing. Maybe he went back to the drone site? I scanned one site and the Tengu was there. Nope. I scanned the other and a Vexor popped up. I hit warped and went over a game plan. One more pilot entered system to make it five of us. The Rupture was in warp and there was no going back. I did a 360 scan and there was now a Claw in space. Welp! Go out  guns blazing man. I shortened the range to 1 and it was only the Vexor at the site as I landed. As the ruined station came into view, another scan revealed the Tengu on short as well. 

The Vexor was 17km off working on the rats again (committed!) as a flash brought the Tengu on grid. Oh man. I went back and forth between the two unsure of which to go for. I don't know anything about Tengu's, the Vexor is probably the deadlier target, but he's probably the tank between the Tengu and the Claw (who was yet to arrive). Tengu. I burned towards him as he was closer (16km) and spammed lock. I kept my Fusion ammo because the reload would take too long and shit was about to go down. My Rupture got to 13km of the Tengu, and just as I activated my web he warped off! The Vexor was 16km away from us so I burned towards him and locked him up hoping to grab him before he took off again. The Vexor warped off towards the same cluster! This time I warped to the belt and readied myself. I landed right on top of him and just before I got a lock, he warped off again! Word to self, swap the AB for an MWD. 

I warped to the cluster he went off to, but no Vexor at the belt. He was still 1 AU from me, but the only things in range was the cluster I was at, the infra hub and a medium plex, neither of which our Vexor was at. The Tengu and Claw pilot had left system as well, so once again it was myself, the Vexor and the faithful Caldari pilot plexing away. I was at a loss as to where the hell the cruiser was! He definitely didn't go to a safe because he warped directly towards the celestials in the cluster. The sun? Nope. Planet. Nope. Customs office? 

He was at the Customs Office the entire time! I spammed warp once again. The Vexor was motionless as I exited warp. No drones out and no movement as I landed right on top of him. I spammed target lock and burned towards him. He came to life and targeted me as I landed my web and scram and fired the cannons! It's a fight! The Shakes returned as he landed a solid volley with his blasters. Orbit outside their optimal! GET OUT OF BLASTER RANGE! The guns were louder and the hits were bigger as our drones joined the fray. A lot of time with quick, nimble frigates didn't prepare me for the lumbering, slow moving cruisers. By the time I began to orbit outside blaster optimal I was well within the Vexors kill range (700m), as he landed heavy shots. His shields were already down and his armor a quarter damaged at the start of the gun fight, and now he was entering mid armor as his blasters and drones were chewing through my shields. All in all I was sitting pretty in the fight! I overheated my afterburner to get out of range quicker as another volley broke through my shields. I was drifting slowly but surely outside the range of his blasters as the hits grazed my armor or missed entirely. Suddenly I lost my lock on him. What the hell?? I went for another lock and burned back towards him. Maybe I got out of range or something? I webbed and scrammed him again and checked to see if any ECM drones were out. Nope. That was weird, but I returned to business. I orbited at 5,000m and was comfortably outside his range as his armor began to fall. My armor was relatively unscathed as the auto cannons shredded the remainder of his hull, sending the cruiser to space Valhalla. I enjoyed the beauty of the explosion as his pod warped off. We exchanged gf's in local as I went in to loot the wreck. That was fun! I checked out the killmail and saw why I lost point. He had an ECM fitted! It would've been a bummer (for me) if he managed to get away, but thankfully it all worked out in the end ;)

The Faithful Caldari Pilot

Throughout the entire ordeal, the Caldari militia pilot was still plexing away in his Tristan. Since I was going to take the loot back to Isho, I figured might as well switch ships and fight the Tristan in the chance of me getting more loot and saving an extra trip. I docked up the Rupture at the Bar and hopped in a Rifter and warped off towards the plex. Tristans are very versatile in their fits. They can be shield/kitey/rails, shield/neuts, armor/hull/brawl/neuts, shield/brawl/rails, or armor/hull/brawl/blaster fits. Add in the drones, and you have a solid opponent. 

My rule of thumb (thanks to fellow Rifter gear head 47 Goon) is to fit for armor and get in close. That way if he's kitey, just align towards the sun and pop the drones until he has no way to hurt you. If he's brawl, neut and shields, the Fusion ammo is enough to break through his tank and tear apart the armor and hull. I entered the plex and the Tristan was 40km off with the drones out and ready. I burned towards him and zoomed in to eye ball his ship. Rails. Charge! At 35km he began to lock me up and I killed the zoom. My Rifter was burning towards his ship, he still wasn't moving. At 16km his drones swarmed my ship as I locked him up and began firing my auto cannons. His speed jumped to 800 as his rails landed a solid volley breaking through my shields as his drones followed up with a volley of their own, damaging my armor. My Rifter was getting rocked as I struggled to get a tight orbit to mitigate the damage from his rails. At half armor I activated my repper, which by this point is pretty late in the game in terms of frigate fights. My repper was struggling to repair the incoming damage as I creeped towards deep armor. I wasn't getting the range I wanted! I checked out the speed and his speed was enough to keep me in the sweet spot of his rails. Another volley from his rails and drones rocked my ship as I overheated my afterburner to go in for the kill. I broke through his armor and began to take huge chunks of metal out of his structure. My repper was holding my ship together at 3/4's armor as his ship continued to fall apart. Moments later the Tristan exploded as I locked up his pod. It was just us two in system still, now with his pod pointed next to the wreck of his Tristan. It's been a while since I ransomed someone, so I decided to give it a go. I got straight to the point in local:

[ 2017.06.16 06:51:02 ] drex orlan > gf
[ 2017.06.16 06:51:09 ] Sem Skord > gf
[ 2017.06.16 06:51:15 ] Sem Skord > how much isk is your pod worth to you?
[ 2017.06.16 06:51:20 ] drex orlan > none
[ 2017.06.16 06:51:28 ] Sem Skord > very well
[ 2017.06.16 06:51:29 ] drex orlan > it'd be faster transsit

[ 2017.06.16 06:51:34 ] Sem Skord > o7

He went on his journey as I scooped up the loot and the corpse. I returned to the Bar to grab the loot from the Rupture as the ping for the pod km appeared on my neocomm. Whoa! If close to 160 million is nothing, then this guy must be swimming in ISK! I'm a reasonable man and would've settled for 50 - 100 mil! No matter, he made his decision and I obliged.

After consolidating the loot and rearming, I continued on my roam but there was no more action outside of Nikkishina. Nature of the beast, but I didn't complain. Two gf's (and a chase!) back to back, that's what the pew pew is all about ;] 

The Range

Outside the Bar

Guns? Check. Ammo? Check. Paste? Got that too. Liquor, smokes and Quafe? Check, check AND check! After a quick prayer to Saint Wensley and Mother Adirain, I undocked from Brink's Bar and set off on a roam through the Citadel and Black Rise.

As I drifted off the undock my d-scan detected a Vexor in system. I began scanning possible locations where it could be. Not at a large plex, or a medium. No FW mission sites up either. Hmm maybe an agent mission? I did a 360 scan for any NPC wrecks but nothing turned up. I narrowed down the search and he was towards a cluster of belts with a station near it as well. I scanned that area and a 5 degree hit confirmed he was certainly there. As I warped I checked to see who was in local. Besides myself, three others were in system.

I landed at the station and the Vexor was motionless near the undock. I eyeballed the ship and saw he was fitted with blasters, but no drones out and still he was not moving. I hit scan again and saw there was a Garmur out in space now. I checked local again and saw one had entered system, and it was a pilot from Se7en Sins.

A while back the heavy hitters in Isho and the nearby systems was DUTY; they had the numbers, the ISK and the ships to fight off any force their size. There is no tactic they won't use to kill you. At some point another alliance arrived to the area and DUTY joined with Se7en. After multiple skirmishes and gun fights with them, we became familiar with their ways. We employ guerrilla tactics with 'em, rarely do they fly solo; let alone in a frig! If you see one, then expect many more nearby. 

The memory of foolishly expecting a fair, honorbru fight from these folks was fresh, but given the hour and the type of ship the Sins pilot was in, I figured he was flying solo. Why not? With this in mind I warped to a novice and waited. I set my d-scan to the range of 1 AU and every couple seconds hit scan. After a few hits and no sign of the Garmur on short, I extended the range to check if he was still in system. He was, and after some quick scan work saw he was at a large. Well I'm not going to you! I aligned towards the large, killed the engine, and waited some more. I loaded EMP and Mjolnir rockets and planned my course of action. If he lands more than 10km away, I'm warping to large. I lowered my range to 5 AU (since the large plex was 10 AU) and scanned. Garmur. I lowered the range to 1 AU. Garmur. I pre-heated everything as the Sins pilot landed. 20km. Warp! I spammed warp as the Garmur yellow boxed me. I landed at the large and immediately aligned back towards the novice to warp at 20km and hopefully get the Garmur right on top of me. A couple seconds before warping, the Garmur landed at the large right at zero! Damn! I didn't want to play these warp games long and lose his interest in the fight, so when I landed at the nov it was now or never. I re-aligned towards the large in case he landed at a distance again, and waited. A flash of light brought the Garmur on grid. Immediately I spammed approach and activated the afterburner. He exited warp 15km away which meant he landed at the gate at zero. He was eager to catch me >:]

I locked up the Garmur at 14km as my speed increased. I had a lock and landed my heated web just as his MWD activated. 13, 12, 11, 10 .. I scrammed him, effectively removing his one advantage over me. I left the scram, web and AB heated for one more cycle just to ensure I was sitting pretty. I kept a nervous eye on local, waiting for his comrades to save him. My autocannons were steadily working through his shields as he returned fire. With three volley's the Garmur broke my shields as his was on the last bit of health. Fight wasn't over yet! The 200mm's broke through the last sliver of shields and tore a nice chunk from his armor. A couple more rapid volleys put him in deep armor. Seconds later the Se7en Sins Garmur exploded in a wonderful flash of orange. No gf for this pilot as I spammed target lock on his pod. Lock, scram, autocannons. The Shakes flowed through my body as I finally relaxed and let out a sigh of relief. Great start to a roam! Still no spike in local or third parties on short, so I scooped the loot from the wreckage (the Loot Fairy favored me this fight), docked up to rep and reload and set back out.

I jumped into Ishomilken ready for more, but sadly it was only myself in system. No matter, there will be more down the pipe! From Uuna to Asakai, and the systems in that triangle of sorts, there was no targets. Still riding the high from the Garmur fight, I headed to Okkamon to roam the surrounding systems.

Okkamon was fairly active with at least ten people in local. A quick scan showed another Garmur out, along with a Keres (ew) and other ships. Another Garmur, let's do it! I warped to a nov with the intent of waiting inside the plex instead of on the gate, in case a Keres and other stuff showed up. Mid warp I scanned the nov and saw there was a Breacher in that direction. Shit. I had no intention of fighting on the gate. As soon as I landed I aligned to the nearest celestial in front of me and spammed warp. The Breacher was targeting me but I was able to warp off. Paranoia V.

The Trek Home

The rest of Black Rise turned up nothing. Once I hit Pynekastoh I began to circle back to Okkamon through Hirri -> Nisuwa -> Kedama and then Reitsato. I skipped the outlying systems connected to Asakai and headed straight for Nikki to return to the Bar. I entered Mushi and d-scan showed a Merlin in space. The Merlin was at a novice plex, so I warped to it. Guns, web, scram and afterburner heated. Correct ammo loaded. Let's finish strong! The Merlin was right on the warp in waiting for me. As I exited warp I locked up the Merlin and set my orbit to 5,000m to get outside his blaster optimal. The advantage was with the Merlin as his blasters tore through my shields. My Rifter had the speed advantage but struggled to match the Merlin's dps. Nevertheless the speed of the Rifter put me outside the Merlin's range. One last volley landed which damaged my armor. I used one nanite rep and turned it off but kept it preheated ready to go just in case. I was no in the sweet spot, the Merlin couldn't hit me but I could definitely hit him. The Merlin's blasters missed, with a couple grazing hits sprinkled in. Once the shields fell, the Merlin crumbled. The pilot got his pod off grid and short scan revealed no third parties so I proceeded to loot 'n scoot and continue on home. 

I entered Nikkishina and docked up at Brink's Bar. Sexy pirate frig kill, even better pod kill, finished with a Merlin. Not bad!