On Exploding

That which does not kill you has made a tactical error,
Rule 35, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates"

So, it's been a dead couple of days really. I haven't been able to pin anyone down for the life of me, or them for that matter.

I learned how to scan down targets from reading Kane Rizzel's logs. The man knows piracy.

I caught up with him out in Eifer and saw he was in a battle with a couple of ships, figured I'd jump in and give him a hand. By the time I figured out where they were, the two other ships were down or gone and someone else was in the belt with him. I knew I'd be jammed before I could get out so I did what any self respecting pirate would do. I smacked the other ship with everything I had and warped my pod out. Not exactly a glorious meeting but hopefully enough to help him get a kill in.

Then I realized they weren't fighting. I found out later that he was actually backup. Oh well, I lost about 500k worth of ship and mods, but it was still fun. I was alot less bored at the end of it, so that's a positive.

So I warped to a safe scanning spot in Eifer and started looking around again. Nothing but Kane for long while. Then an Astarte jumped in. It's a command ship which means someone was looking for a fight, but not with me. Some other guys warped in and Kane drops me a line letting me know that one is the Astarte pilot's brother, and he likes to fly covert ops. Not wanting to be probed out, I got the heck out of dodge and docked up in Gusandall.

On my way back through the Gus gate, I noticed that there were wrecks, mods, and corpses strewn about the area. I grabbed a couple of tech two cargo mods out of the wrecks and docked up.

Never turn your back on an enemy.

Rule 37 "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates"

So, I was talking with my some old corpmates about perhaps getting back into some higher security mission running when I got an itch to go into combat again. I jumped back into Eifer and started a scan. I got a hit on a rupture and 2 drones. About 20 seconds later I had the guy narrowed to a specific belt. I warped to within 30 clicks. It began.

I targeted him and both his drones, and clicked on my warp scrambler. He was already deep into armor from the Angel Cartel Crusher's he was trying to kill. He kept shooting at the crusher but set his drones on me. Sometimes I imagine my Kestrals evoke a bit of laughter when I jump in on something. No matter, my Gremlins were tearing his armor up and suddenly he was in structure. He aligned to a planet, but my Microwarp drive kept me orbiting at roughly 1000 meters. Suddenly his structure buckled and his pod popped out of the wreck. I locked it down but my microwarp drive kept me going and I moved out of it's range before I could activate the scrambler. He didn't leave though and just sat there, so I popped the pod too. I scooped the ill gotten goods, his corpse, and a wreck he hadn't picked up yet and warped back to my safespot.

I saw the probing fellah in local so I began to traverse all of the safespots I'd set up insystem as my Global Criminal Countdown began to go down. It struck me odd that he never fired a shot at me, I know the crusher was hurting him but it made no sense not to take out the scrambler.

When I got back into the station it all became clear, he'd fitted a single warp stab. He didn't shoot me because he wanted the bounty off that crusher before he warped out. At least that's how he thought it would play out. Because I'm a bit of a novice, I had to use a warp scrambler instead of a disruptor, so the cruiser had two points on him instead of just one. He got his ass kicked by a novice pirate because he had already figured out how to outsmart the old ones.

Financially I more than paid for my lost ship, but today was a good day because I got a kill in.

I hope there are many more.

Pirates Tend to Take Your Stuff.

Unless… it looks like… we're stealing your priceless Lassiter, 'cause… that's what we're doing. Don't ask me about the gun, though, 'cause that's new.
Malcolm Reynolds - Firefly

I jumped into Eifer with a bit of wonder. The man had said it would be a good place to start. Maybe it was a trap. I monitored the public coms to see a ransom demand going on immediately upon entry. I figured I could catch them with their pants down and maybe score a kill or two. I checked the first belt. Nothing. The second, nothing. Third nothing. The timer was running out for the little pod. He wants a million in bounty. I send .1 isk in hopes of delaying him a moment more and pop into the fourth asteroid belt. His ship lights up on my overview and I lock target. He starts talking about blobs coming in local and runs. No kill but a full shipwreck from his target. I kick my microwarp drive on and steal the loot. Aha, a Beta Reactor Control Shield Power Relay. 3 million easy. I warp to deep space and wait. So far it's a good day.

I grew up dreaming of joining the Caldari navy. The battles, the excitement, the money. You know what I learned on another boring patrol through Nourvukaiken? It ain't exciting. It's not fun. It's work, and it will always be work. The Caldari department of human resources said I'd be a great pilot. That I enjoy. Jacking into a pod every day and experiancing the universe first hand is great.

You know the Amarr support slavery. I guess I was the only one who was unaware of how bad it really was. I was out on patrol in Nourvukaiken when I got a call to support an Amarr trade convoy. I got there and it was pretty bad, a Gallente/Minmatar civilian fleet were carving the freighters up. I saw one of the freighters split in half and it's cargo spill out into the black. Thousands of bodies flailed for a moment and were still. I managed to take down a Reaper and a fighter drone as I approached the carnage. The enemy fleet withdrew and me and a few pilots were left to do clean up. One of the bodies slammed into my ship. The Caldari navy lost a pilot that day, but he didn't die on the outside.

I started running, I ended up in Minmatar space, Heimatar. I began to find work in Balginia. I began to find Caldari equipment on the black market and put it to use against them. I had a purpose again.

No one is incorruptable. My new masters bickered and fought amongst themselves. The Angel Cartel wouldn't have such a stranglehold on commerce in Heimatar if the Minmatar would get together and drive them out. I gave up on it. A friend of mine, Kara Mei, hacked into the regional log books and found someone else's piracy logs. Seems fun, bit of the freedom I desired. I went. Sold all of my things, loaded up 4 Kestrals and headed to my new home.

So far I've shot at a couple of ships and killed nothing. Not the most glorious start to my new life of independence and freedom, but it's something.