Without the Ironing Board

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'

Rather than bore you with my own bit on the Dominion patchnotes, I'll simply link you to a whole plethora of posts of others(don't worry, you'll likely get my opinion after I've given it a spin). Probably good to have it compiled.


Actual Patch Notes(This won't work for a while yet).
Mynxee's Life in Low Sec
Eve's Weekend Warrior
Massively
My Loot, Your Tears
A Mule In Eve
Ecliptic Rift
Ombeve

If I missed you, let me know. Peace out and have a happy patch.

Fail of the Silent

I know I dreamt you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom, but I don't have much time
Fate has been served and tears must be cried
So let's do some living after we die
The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses

I believe I may become a permanent fixture in Vale of the Silent for a while after today's events. Noir'd already been staging near there for incursions into Majesta space since they dropped eighteen capital ships on our POS.

Some stuff hasn't gone well for them since then.

Apparently they failed to account for Danny X(which happens sometimes). Seems he jumped into a system with a Rorqual in a belt along with a few hulks. Being Danny X, he realizes this just means some shit is about to die, despite only having a Taranis.

He then proceeds to warp into the belt and tackle the Rorqual. The Hulks ran away and left their friend alone. The Rorqual logs out aggressed. That means Danny X has 15 minutes to kill him. Reasoning that might be unlikely, he calls up a Triumvirate gang.

In a couple of minutes they arrive. The Rorqual then dies. The kind of shit Danny accomplishes just boggles my mind.

He never would've been there if they hadn't provoked us by taking down the POS. Payback is a bitch.

A few days later we got a logoffski Carrier to half structure with a gang of two bombers and two Rapiers. Honestly, I can't make this crap up.

I'm 21 jumps out when it's called and I arrive literally as his fifteen minutes is up. I'm annoyed we barely missed it, but it was a BAD call on the Carrier's part to log out. How about you stay on, keep the reps going, and clean the four man gang off you? All I'm thinking at that point is that Majesta Empire can't possibly do anything stupidier.

But then we come to the Fail of the Silent. By all accounts, Majesta Empire forgot to pay their alliance bill. In 2-3 days, autopayment will go into the game. In 2-3 days, those with Sov already will be converted over to the new system with minimal fuss. It is now of course that they forget to pay the bill, and the Alliance closes.

I swear to god, I can't make this shit up.

Among The Stars Part 3/3

Cause you're working
Building a mystery
Holding on and holding it in
Yeah you're working
Building a mystery
And choosing so carefully
Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery

Continued From Part 3

Things got a bit quieter from there, and we began to wait at our positions again. A bit of a rumble came down the pipe about a tech one BC and Cruiser gang. Apparently the Legion of Death had decided to remove us from the gate. A raptor came into local and began to do recon from four hundred and fifty kilometers away. We watched him, and then watched as his gang began to descend on the system, all they saw were our two Drakes, and they landed a Vexor first, to encourage us to engage. Aleks wavered for only a moment before deciding to engage. At this point they outnumbered us Seven to five.

I decloaked and released a volley of torpedos into the Vexor. The Heavy Assault Missile Drakes had already pounded him, and my torps ripped the last of his structure away. A Rupture, Stabber, Ferox, Drake and Caracal all landed just as the Vexor died. The Raptor came down from his perch as well, and began to engage. They began to primary Mon, who was having trouble keeping up with the damage. Aleks called the Rupture as primary, and my torpedos didn't even make it in time before he was dead. Next up was the stabber, who died before I even managed to get him targeted.

At this point rogue drones appeared on the gate and began to gun for me. I warped out and back in, to what was effectively a mess. Mon and Aleks had just managed to break points with their energy neuts and Mon warped out with twenty seven percent structure. As I landed the Ferox was deep into armor, and another torpedo volley ripped into his structure. He lit up just as Mon landed again to apply the finishing touch.

The Raptor pilot reasoned that discretion was the better part of valor and warped away. Time to mop up. We turned our attention to the Drake that was left on the field. His passive fit was entirely unprepared for the volley damage our ships could deal, and again he died before my torps even arrived. That left us a Caracal. He was trying to run, but with a Rapier on him, it was only a matter of time before he died as well. We'd completely demolished the opposition and held the field.

"Alright, lets get this loot back to empire," Aleks said with a chuckle.

New Dominion Trailer

All I've got to say for this one is wow. Also I'm going to leave it at it's current size. It's worth seeing.

Among the Stars Part 2/3

Give us a tantrum
And a know it all grin
Just when we need one
When the evening's thin
Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery

Continued From Part 1

My Manticore sat in a position between the bubble and the gate. If anything decloaked on the gate, I could shoot it, and if anything tried to warp to our gate, it would get caught on our bubble, where I could also shoot it. The first few minutes were quiet, until a couple of blues came into the system. They warped to our gate and landed on our bubble. We didn't bother them, and watched as they began to burn back towards the gate.

"I think they're shooting our bubble," Mon whispered over comms.

"Tell them to stop," Aleks said from a system over.

"I did," Mon answered.

"Give them one last warning, then blow them out of the sky. I'm on my way,"

After a listen to the local chatter, it became apparent that the two blues were pretty drunk:

Nutmegpainter > F*** yo catch n**** f*** yo coutch!
MonwrathDisortium > Leave my bubble alone
Hallan Turrek > Hey!
Pistrik > yo
Hallan Turrek > Get off our bubble.
Nutmegpainter > olololololol
Nutmegpainter > RAPIER NEGAGED
Nutmegpainter > GET HIMMM

The annoying part about this was that the Rapier was a member of Noir Academy. They engaged it, sorta. The drake continued to lob missiles at our bubble as he burned towards the Rapier. It became apparent that we were going to have to end these guys. I decloaked, our Hound decloaked, and both of our Drakes engaged the unprepared blues. We primaried the Drake, and my torpedos ripped him apart. We turned our attention to the stunned Prophecy, and he also died in short order. We allowed their pods to go on their way, but they weren't done in local.

Nutmegpainter > WTF?!?!?
darkvadur > WOW GO F*** URSELF
darkvadur > F***IN PIEADE OF S***
darkvadur > F*** ALL OF U
Alekseyev Karrde > Don't shoot blues next time moron
Nutmegpainter > HAHA TAHNKS FOR DECLAIR WAR B****ESS
darkvadur > doucvhes
darkvadur > go f*** urself u f***in tools
Hallan Turrek tips his hat
darkvadur > ya look at ur stocmach u old fat f***
Alekseyev Karrde > Pro pilots, would shoot again.

Among the Stars Part 1/3

You come out at night
That's when the energy comes
And the dark side's light
And the vampires roam
Sarah McLachlan - Building a Mystery

I looked around the bedroom for a moment. A new temporary home. I seldomly missed being based in a single part of New Eden. Today it was a Sebiestor Tribe Bureau around planet nine in Eram. Somewhere in this station my Manticore sat in a hangar, waiting to be used.

Of course, the ringing next to my bed that woke me up hadn't stopped yet. I sat up and pressed the call button.

"Hallan, you awake yet?" My CEO's voice asked through the phone.

"Yeah," I muttered.

"Get your ass down to the hangar, we've got a null sec camp going already,"

"Alek, come on. This is R&R. I'm tired,"

"Alright, just thought you'd be interested. Hold on,"

The line went quiet, and I laid back down on the bed. After a few moments I was already drifting away again.

"Are you snoring?" Alek's voice came back on the line.

"What? No," I said with a snort as I shot back awake.

"Alright, I'm going to let you get some sleep. We've gotta get this Domination Warp Disruptor back to empire anyhow,"

I rolled my eyes and jumped out of bed, "Bringing a Manticore!"

_________________________

As I entered the hangar, I waved the techs off my ship, "Sir, we can't get all of your modules online," one of them said as he left for the control station.

"I know, I have to manage the powergrid a bit for them all to work," I'd answered.

Fortunately this new implant would manage that for me without my having to pay it any attention. Sooner or later I'd need to learn to handle the powergrid on my weapons a bit better, or keep using the implant. For now it worked, and that was the important part.

I walked up the ramp to my Manticore and closed it up. This was a new ship with an experimental fit. I walked into engineering to review the fittings once more. I squinted as the screen lit up with the information.

[Manticore, Ewar With Online Bomb Launcher]
Ballistic Control System I
F85 Peripheral Damage System I

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
DDO Photometry Tracking Disruptor I
Parallel Weapon Navigation Transmitter
Low Frequency Sensor Suppressor I

'Malkuth' Siege Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Juggernaut Torpedo
'Malkuth' Siege Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Juggernaut Torpedo
'Malkuth' Siege Missile Launcher I, Caldari Navy Juggernaut Torpedo
Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Bomb Launcher I, Concussion Bomb

Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I
Small Hydraulic Bay Thrusters I

"It all fits," I said to no one in particular. I was especially proud of the low cost, by aiming for slightly less than perfect equipment, I could build quite a few of these things.

From engineering I walked towards the pod room, passing by the bridge crew's bunks.

"Hey Cap, got a minute?" The Ewar officer asked me. The crew, my nav, weapon, and Ewar officers, were all new recruits. Given that I'd left my last crew with my ship in Pure Blind it was a bit difficult for them to help me now. I'd be coming back with a terrible vengeance for Maru Ka'ge sooner or later, but for now we were bringing our variety of mayhem down on the Legion of Death. Potato, Potahto.

"Yeah," I answered, stopping at the door.

"We just wanted to say how honored we are to be working for Noir," The other officers nodded behind him as he spoke.

"Yeah, me too," I said with a grin before moving down the corridor.

_________________________

I couldn't move much anymore. That was normal. Something flipped a switch in my consciousness and suddenly I was the ship. My nav officer had already requested undock clearance for me, "Good," I thought as I guided the ship through the newly opened hole in the roof.

In a few moments I was among the stars. I thought my cloak on, and my ship disappeared.

Continued in Part 2

Child's Play

Somebody save me,
Let your warm hands break right through it,
Somebody save me,
I don't care how you do it, just
Stay, stay
C'mon, I've been waiting for you
Remy Zero - Save Me

It is without much ado that I point you yet again(I did this a year ago...) towards Childsplay:

Christmas is next month. I thought I'd get this out before Thanksgiving. You know, before you start buying that holiday swag. Now I know it's been a tough year pretty much everywhere for people, but there's a charity run by the guys over at Penny Arcade. It's called Child's Play, and I can't think of a more noble cause to throw a few gaming bucks. They buy books, games, movies, and toys for kids in hospitals across the world.

Check it out.

Good Day