Come on. Hit me!

Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash, as we fell into the sun,
And the first one said to the second one there: I hope you're having fun.
Paul McCartney and the Wings - Band on the Run

I went into Amamake for the first time for a look around tonight. I've one things to say about the place, I've never seen such a hive of scum and villainy. Wait'll they see me.

So I'm wandering the belts, looking for a fight. I see a Typhoon on scan and head in it's direction. I warp in on it, it's got five Ogre I's dropped and is in the middle of trying to kill some Angel Cartel ships. I move in to take advantage of it's singular focus only to discover that it's decided that the Jokers Wild, my Rifter, was the real threat. I can hear the missiles launching and immediately warp out. I took a bit of shield damage but nothing major. I made a decision to warp back in and see how long I can last, since I now knew he didn't have a warp scrambler.

As I warp back in he's finished with the Cartel ships and is moving towards one of the wrecks. I approach him again and begin targeting him. I let loose my single rocket launcher and watch as his drones drop again. This time I head at an angle past him and begin targeting his drones. The first Ogre I resolves and I begin to fire. My shields evaporate in a mist and his drones and missiles begin to work on my armor.

The Ogre I is heavily into armor at this point, but holding steady. I hit 25% armor and kick my repairer on. The module does it's job admirably, holding up against his DPS. The entire time this dance goes on, I keep out of easy range of his Large Turrets and keep a fair transversal on his ship.

As the drone hits 50% structure, I web it, in case he gets some ideas about bringing it back into his bay. It's apparently the right move as my ship's speed and direction suddenly take me into his guns and the other drones immediately catch up to me. Then, just as my capacitor bottoms out and I start to really take damage, the Ogre I begins a beautiful light show. I warp out immediately and tip my hat in the local comm channel.

I've yet to lose a ship in the past few days, and it's starting to get me to thinking I'm doing something wrong(or right, some might say). I dunno either way, but staying in a fight with a Typhoon was a hell of alot of fun. I don't doubt I could've kept him tackled for a while until someone else got in there to kill him as well.

Good day.

A Mountain Exists

Cold winds on the moors blow.
Warm the enemy's fires glow.
Like the harvest of Culloden,
Pain and fear and death grow.
Deanta - Culloden's Harvest

The wind was cold.

I find the wind to be a comfort at times. There is something in knowing that something so immaterial is stronger than you. Stronger than anyone.

Stronger than me.

I stood with the wind at my face, I hunched over into the cold and hiked further up the mountain. I could already see the lights from the house. The snow was coming down hard now, I didn't have much time. I almost missed the tripwire at my feet. I wasn't particularly happy with myself for almost triggering a trap, but I stepped over it and kept hiking. The man I searched for was a few minutes away, just a little bit more. Just a little bit more time, that was all she'd needed. All I'd wanted.

She wasn't mine. Dolivia Hurst belonged to an Amarr master. She was resigned to her fate from birth. She was to service her master in any way he wished. She wouldn't talk about the things he made her do, and I learned not to ask. A week after liberating her from her master's compound out in Eifer, I took her to Ivar. The Brutors promised me they'd take care of her. She was so bright and so happy. I went back to Evati and was happy with myself for doing a bit of good. I was out for another week before Alfroren Karsteinn, a good friend of mine in the Brutor Tribe let me have the news.

Vitoc.

Vitoc is among the horrible methods the Amarr use to control their slaves. Without an antidote, they die slowly and painfully. I... I didn't know. Dolivia, a bright, beautiful, and wonderful friend, was already dying when I left her in Ivar.

I had to make it right.

I knocked three times on the door. There was a rustling in the cabin and it opened. There stood, almost defiantly, an Amarr slavemaster.

"I've been expecting you," He said softly.

"You probably should've been running then," I said, putting my hand on the pistol at my hip.

"Look, my family is upstairs. You won't kill me here. Just walk away," He began to close the door.

I put my hand on the door and forced it open, pulling my gun from it's holster.

The wind was cold.

Lady Brings the Blues

Crazy people walkin' round with blood in their eyes.
And all she wants to do is dance, dance, dance.
Wild-eyed pistols wavers who ain't afraid to die.
And all she wants to do is dance.
Don Henley - All She Wants To Do Is Dance

I warped into the duel at a hundred kilometers. I chuckled as Mynxee asked if I needed some time to think. Nope, just hoping she burns some cap to get to me.

I set a course for her location and start burning her way the old fashioned way. It takes a few minutes but I eventually see her targeting me. Good, I wait for my overview to display her as 20 kilometers out and cycle every module, kick my microwarp drive on and wait to target her. Just as I hit 12 kilometers I start targeting, it resolves right at 9k and she's webbed, twice. She slows to a crawl as I keep coming in but eventually my speed drops off as well, I start to hammer away at her from 6 kilometers out, well outside the range of my autocannons. I'm going to need all the cap I can muster to get in under her artillery. I begin to take heavy damage to my armor and start to realize this fight isn't going to end well for me. I grin as my ship explodes and offer a good fight.

It really was too.

I've been having alot of fun with the Bastards lately as well. I finally got in on some of the action they've been seeing. We formed up a gang in Evati and warped in on a Huginn, Myrmidon, and a Falcon. I warped in and immediately burned for the Huginn, at thirty two hundred meters a second, it did not take long. I was on him in a moment and applied a web, but the gateguns decided to take my shields down, so I had to warp out. I could hear on voice comms they were having some trouble getting that Huginn as I warped back in. The billboard decided it didn't like me and began flashing with more than advertisments. I once again tackled the Huginn, and called it out in fleet. Another ship came, took over the point, and I got back out again in half armor just as the Huginn figured out I was an actual threat and started firing faction heavy missiles at me.

As I sat in a safe spot, I heard the call: Myrmidon, Myrmidon(Where in the heck did he come from?), Huginn down. Falcon escaped. Nice drops apparently, and a good fight. Wish the Jokers Wild had been more help, but sometimes you don't get what you want. Apparently making the tackle is half the battle with a Huginn, so I'm not to broken up about it.

I should mention that Mynxee actually kicked my ass in a duel twice. The second time I refit a module to try something different and still got the same result, almost exactly. She's pretty good at makin' stuff explode, and I'm still having a blast.

Good day.

In the Pale Moonlight

So... I lied; I cheated; I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men; I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all is... I think I can live with it. And if I'd have to do it all over again... I would.

Benjamin Sisko - Deep Space Nine

I'm on fire. As the Jokers Wild, my Rifter, flew in a death spiral towards the gate I smiled a bit. The trap was laid, the Hurricane would die and I would have his corpse. Everything was as it should've been.

Lets dial it back a day and talk about setting traps and tricking people. My word is my bond, I think you should know that by now. That doesn't mean I'm above playing a trick or laying a trap. I had a couple of bits of fun with that lately.

I'm hanging with the Bastards lately. A solid group of folks I hope to join in mayhem and destruction. You know, of others. Anyhow, I've been hanging out in Evati for a bit, looking for targets and just flying whenever I see an opportunity to kill something.

I scanned down a Stabber near a planet. The planet only had one belt around it, so I warped straight to that. Nothing. I scanned again and saw him in the direction of the planet, but I didn't know if he was in a safe or actually at the planet. I warped his way anyhow and didn't see him at the planet. My scanners didn't show him in range anymore, so I went back to my central scanning spot and started again.

Once again I saw him at another planet with one belt around it. I decided to try for the planet this time and caught him there. I tackled him and called out on the Bastards voice comms that I had a stabber tackled but no one was in range. I died gloriously and warped my pod out.

I went straight to the station I keep my ships in, but discovered my ammo was at another station in system. I have locations set up in my navcomp to undock and leave the station before it's sentry guns fire on me, even if Concord has sanctioned my death, so I equipped my Rifter and headed back to my scanning location.

By this time Ard UnjiiGo had made it in the system with his Rapier. He started tracking him from planet to planet while cloaked, but couldn't get him to stay still long enough. I brought up a private comm channel with the fellah and told him I was going to kill him. He asked me how I intended to do that in another Rifter and I told him I'd fit it a bit differently this time. This was true, as my Rifter had no ammo this time.

Eventually I got a call for which planet he was sitting at and warped in. He stayed for what he obviously thought was another easy Rifter kill. After I had him pointed Ard UnjiiGo uncloaked and began to fire. He was taking damage rather quickly just as Prophet came barreling through in his Amarrian Battleship.

The Stabber died.

Pay attention to exactly what I say kiddies, this is low sec.

The next day I watched Marovinchian podding the hell out of haulers as they filtered through Gusandall from Eifer. He let me know that one of the wrecks contained about fifty thousand mexallon, so I hopped into a Badger and scooped it up. Once he was done there I grabbed my rifter and went into Eifer lookin' for trouble. It found me on the gate there, I saw the guy who's mexallon I'd just stolen in a Hurricane also looking for trouble. I reported this to Maro, who asked me where he was, but by the time I was back through the gate, the Hurricane was gone. I tried tracking him but he was too fast and got away.

Then I had an idea. I opened a comm with him and asked him a question. I said "Do you want this Mexallon back? I think it's yours,".

"Yes," he answered quickly, "Where are you?"

His mistake here was assuming I was offering it back to him. I just asked him if he wanted it.

I stopped a moment and asked Maro where he was. The Gus/Ingunn gate. I told him I was in Ingunn, since it was unlikely he passed that way without Maro noticing.

"OMW," he told me, and I booked it to Ingunn so I didn't show up in local as he passed through.

He showed up in Local a few minutes later, and Maro tells me he missed the tackle.

The guy docks up at the station I said I was in and asks "Where are you?,"

I wait about two minutes and say "Someone shot at me, I was lucky he didn't have a scram on that Rifter or I'd be dead right now. I'm in Gusandall right now," At which point Maro tells me he's moving again. This is getting troublesome so I say, "I'm going to keep your Mexallon," and close out our chat.

I go sit next to Maro and wait. Minutes later the fellah warps in about fifteen kilometers out. I burn hard in his direction to make the tackle when he does something extremely stupid. He cycles his guns and shoots me down.

Maro says "I've got the tackle," just as I explode, "But it won't matter because he'll just use the gate,"

"He's got gate aggro," I chuckle, as I warp my pod out.

I wait, two minutes, three. Nothing. No reports, no anything. I ask Maro what's happened and he tells me, "Oh, I didn't have a web on this thing, he used a MicroWarp Drive to get out of my scram range,"

I throw my hands up and chuckle.

"Eh, it's just a Rifter,"

And you know what? It's true. I die gloriously all the time. Despite the missed Hurricane that was a heck of alot of fun. I pay for my fun in little packets of five hundred thousand isk. A fair trade I think.

Good day.

OOC: Some of Everything

All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don't break 'em for no one. You understand?
Tony Montana - Scarface

So, maybe it's time to pull back the curtain a bit. My handle is Hallan Turrek, and that's how you'll know me, but that doesn't mean I'm just a charactor either. I exist. I am real. Sometimes people don't get that. Sometimes it doesn't matter.

I'm a bit off you might say. I tend to do what I want, when I want, where I want. When I'm not populating this universe I'm busy busing tables at a restaurant or operating machinery. I don't do much besides play games, but I'm not really a gamer either.

I like old video games, but it's been a while since I've had time for 'em. I played WoW for about a year, and I've played Eve for about 3 months now. I'm finding it to be a much more fun and interesting game to play.

To the main focus of this out of charactor post though: There was an interesting focus on Honor a week or so ago in some of the blogs I follow.

Yeah, it's that important.

I've played alot of online games, alot of folks believe that their word is just another weapon they can use to trick, trap, and hurt others. I don't mean words in general, I mean promises.

If you say you're going to do something and don't do it, you are not clever, you are not smarter, you are not better. You are a liar and a piece of garbage. I'm always on the lookout for scams in Eve because I've been around gaming long enough to know, there is alot of garbage laying around.

Now, if I offer a ransom for a pod and it's paid, they are safe until they comes back in a new ship. Simple as that. I know there are those that will take a ransom and a pod and move on. It belies a fundamental flaw in their charactor. It betrays a basic lack of self-worth as well.

I kill people for a living. I enjoy it. If I tell you I won't kill you, I mean it. If I say the duel is to the pod, or you ask for that, it's to the pod and nothing further. If I win a duel with someone who's failed to make that choice beforehand, they are not safe. My word is my bond, but sometimes I count on you not asking. I am a scoundrel after all.

If you break your word with me, there is no way to gain that trust back. I do not forgive. I do not forget, and I am extremely annoying to people I do not like. If you're on the naughty list, I don't just leave you coal, I leave you torpedoes and put downs.

A game is, after all just another part of your life, however minor. The defense of "It's just a game" doesn't hold up for that very reason. You hurt others through dishonesty, it's your and someone else's life. Your integrity vs. his trust. The conman that steals from your grandmother does the same thing. The man who yanks a purse off a ladies arm is doing it too.

It's not competition to steal or lie, it's wrong.

Be true to yourself, and you'll never go that way.

Good Day

"i reached for the stars through the darkness, but the light shied away from my hands"

The Quick and the Dead

Thug: I've had fun before, and this is not it.
Schlock: Sometimes you have fun, and sometimes the fun has you.
Sergeant Schlock - Schlock Mercenary

Ok, so I had a really bad start to my day. I like to think that, despite my inexperience, I have a brain in my head, I know when to engage and when not to engage. I lost a ship twice due to my own stupidity, or audacity, as some would call it. I decided to break a gate camp in Huola, just for the hell of it.

I died, gloriously to a smartbombing Hyperion. I was very lucky that it apparently took all his smartbombs to pop my rifter, because my pod would've been quite a trophy for them.

So I headed back and got a new rifter, which I then lost warping between gates to an interdictor. This was starting to look like a pattern, so I gave up for the night and docked up in Vitrauze.

Just a bit later Mynxee showed up in system and we got a lead on someone doing a job four jumps out. BravoFox, Mynxee, myself and Joc formed a gang and headed out to kill him and take his stuff. Turned out the lead was cold by the time we got there, and the ship was gone. Mynxee suggested we should head out to Tama, and I didn't have any better ideas. On our way BravoFox noted his fit was set up to handle the mission runner, missing his MicroWarp drive. He got caught on a gate literally a minute or two later and went down.

Tama was active, but no one was up to playing. Mynxee tried to coax a target or two out of the stations, but no such luck. I headed back to Vitrauze and went to bed for the night. I had fun, but it's been a week since my last kill. It was starting to bug me.

Today, I got a bit of a progress report on my application to join the Bastards, and decided to move myself back down to my base of operations in Gusandall. I stocked up a bit of my equipment in my rifter's meager holds and made the jumps. The area is alot more active than Vitrauze. I unloaded my equipment, loaded up a bit of ammo, and headed into Eifer. Eleven people were jacked into the local podnet, but no one seemed to be doing much besides traveling to gates. That was when I caught it.

An interceptor on scan. Raptor.

He was jumping from belt to belt, I saw the wrecks of Angel Cartel warships as he did so. I managed to warp in about thirty kilometers from him as he tried to loot another wreck and burned in his direction. He warped out as soon as he saw me and I picked up his loot. I called out on my personal comms for anyone who wanted to take down an Interceptor, but no one wanted to make the jumps. I decided to try for it myself. I warped my rifter out of the belt, and then back in. I sat right at the warp in point, started all of my modules, and brought up my scanner.

He was out there, maybe watching me watch him.

I kept rescanning until I saw him show up as four thousand kilometers out and closing fast. He warped in five clicks off and I started targeting him immediately. I keyed an orbit of a thousand meters into my navigation terminal and my afterburner which had been burning idle threw me a thousand meters a second in his direcion. The target resolved and my web, scram, and guns fired off. I watched happily as his shields dropped like a rock, while taking almost no damage myself, but then his own webifier kicked on. His armor took a bit more time, but I got him to structure before he had my armor down to half. I saw him start to align to a gate, so I kicked off my orbit and started following him, I started to take alot more damage as his guns finally found me an easy target to hit, but it was too late. He exploded as I fell to thirty eight percent structure.

The fellow offered a good fight after he warped his pod out, which I was too slow to grab. I regretted missing it, but for the first time, someone was smart enough to leave after I killed them. I told him it was a good fight as well, and carried his stuff back to the station for smelting and selling.

Good day.

You Gotta Learn to Play it Right.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,

Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
Kenny Rogers - The Gambler

The Aces and Eights bucked hard to the right as the drones slammed into it's left side. I dialed up a shield diagnostic on my console and saw that the repair systems had already failed. What a piece of crap. I kicked on my armor repair and loosed another volley of Gremlin Rockets. The Thorax had me webbed and scrammed at close range. The blasters were vaporizing large pieces of my armor and the drones were unrelenting. His structure began to take damage just as I exploded. I loosed a string of expletives and tried to warp.

Jammed in my pod. Just where I didn't want to be. The Thorax's drones were already pulled back and he held fire.

He asked me for ten million. I told him his mother wasn't going to get her money back.

She was lousy anyway.

I had the feeling that if a Manticore hadn't uncloaked just at that moment and slammed a full volley into the Thorax I'd have had some problems with breathing very shortly. I took the reprieve and started to warp as the Thorax exploded in a pretty little halo.

Just another day out in Old Man Star. I love and hate that system. I've yet to score a kill there, as every single bit of "honest combat" is merely another trap. But if you want some action, you're sure to find it there.

I warped my pod back into Vitrauze and unpackaged one of my Rifters. I had the deck hands label it like all of my Rifters, and I took the Jokers Wild into the cold.

I felt like exploring, so I took a trip to New Eden. It was fairly uneventful, but I took some pictures.

Close up shot of the Eve Gate.














From the stargate.














My Rifter and the Gate














Warping towards the gate.















After that I warped back out to Gusandall, looked around there, and sped my way through high-sec in my Rifter. The faction police got one volley off on me but didn't take me down. I made it back into Vitrauze and decided to grab some sleep. An uneventful day, but I had fun.

Good day.

This Thing I've Become

It was the wicked and wild wind,
Blew down the doors to let me in,
Shattered windows and the sound of drums,
People couldn't believe what I'd become.
Coldplay - Viva La Vida

*boom*

Hallan Turrek > 1 million and you live.
Hawkiee > i spent all my money on this
Hallan Turrek > Huh. That sucks.

*squish*

Sometimes, a ransom just doesn't go your way, but I'd had a good weekend, so I didn't care.

Let me do a quick recap of all the stuff that happened.

I spent a bit of time working out of my base in Vitrauze. I met a couple of people out there that were remarkably nice to a new pirate elbowing into their turf. The first of which was Shae Tiann, one of the other pirates that writes down her experiances on the ComNet for all of you guys to read. Her and I hung out in Ladistier for a while, watching things and running around the system in search of targets. Nothing came out of the shadows after an hour or so, and I docked up in Vitrauze and began to sort my ships and equipment out.

A bit later, another pirate named Mynxee came through the station hangars and I stopped to watch her walk past me and into her Rifter. I ran up to my own Rifter and logged into the Comms. I asked her for a duel, and she accepted. I hopped into my pod and was out of the station in seconds.

I warped to her, and immediately locked on and opened fire. As my Scram and Web came online, her guns had already chewed through half of my shields. This was already looking bad. The rest of the story of that night is already up on her ComNet logs, and I suggest you go read it, as hers is extremely interesting.

Needless to say, the next day I was feeling a bit better about myself and went out looking for trouble, this time down in Eifer. I only managed one kill, but I was extremely satisfied that I was able to cure his terminal stupidity. Too bad he probably had a clone.

I have though, thoroughly converted to a bloodthirsty killer. My picture now periodically appears on the Most Wanted list, due to a few bounties that I've built up. I've destroyed almost 20 ships. I'm not a nice guy.

Have a nice day.

Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting

Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! You know…I just do things.
The Joker - The Dark Knight

Yesterday was quite an exciting time, alot of kills, a nice fight and a good nights sleep. Sometimes things just break your way.

I walked the decks of the Aces and Eights and got into my pod. The Aces is the Kestral build I started pirating with, and still use from time to time. I wandered into Eifer, after telling myself I'd just stay docked and relax a bit, and found two frigates taking down some Angel Cartel goons. I've had a growing hatred for the Angel Cartel, and these two frigates were doing me and the rest of the region a favor by taking them out. I however, am a pirate by trade, and these guys were ripe for the picking.

I scanned down the Executioner first. I warped in next to him, literally. Targeting went up and he was locked down with scram and web. Gremlin rockets started raining on him and he pops. The pod hung around for a few seconds and I locked it down. I asked for 1 million in local but got no response, so I popped the pod as well. Well, that went better than I expected.

I moved back into my scanning location, I saw the other ship, a Rifter on my scan. This was piloted by someone over a year old. He no doubt had the skills to give me a run for my money, so I programmed the asteroid belt I suspected he was at into my navcom and began to warp.

I warped in about thirty clicks away from him, activated my afterburner, and burned in his direction. I held off on targeting him until I was twelve clicks off, so as not to spook him. He was still trying to grab some loot out of a Angel wreck when the lock resolved, scrams came on, and the web slowed his ship to a crawl. Only then did he target me. His armor was half gone already, and I made quick work of him. I locked down his pod as well and pulled into a tight orbit of 500 meters. I once again suggested in local that he pay me 1 million or die. I got no response, so I decided to try a different tack, I opened a private convo with the target.

Hallan Turrek > 1 million and you live.
Kyle Ribacchi > how do we do that?
Hallan Turrek > Right click my name and give money.
Kyle Ribacchi > is there any gurantee ill live?
Hallan Turrek > My word.
Hallan Turrek > You will die elsewise. 10 secs.

At this point my wallet flashes, I load it up to make sure it's not a dummy deposit.

Hallan Turrek > Thanks.

My first ransom, paid and delivered. It took me a bit later to realize that since he was a year old, he likely would've paid more than that, but it went well, all considering.

So, happy to have a ransom in my pocket, I headed back into Gusandall, I docked up, picked up some ammo, and started to head in the direction of Evati, where apparently pirates are becoming extremly wealthy on the strength of other's stupidity.

I was headed down the pipe as I noticed an Abaddon on the same route as myself. I ignored him mostly till I came out of a gate in Gultratren and saw a field of wrecks. I spied, just 20 clicks away, a Vagabond wreck, I burned in it's direction and picked up some faction ammo for my trouble. I was about to warp away as the Abaddon's guns laid some serious damage on my shields. I was in warp in mere moments and chuckling to myself.

For me, this Kestral is the definition of disposable, so I thought that taking down that Abaddon was not in it's power, but if he was stupid, maybe I could keep a point on him until someone else could. I warped back to the gate but he'd gone. Ahh well, easy come easy go.

I warped a couple of gates down the pipe and see my friend in the Abaddon again, literally a couple thousand meters from my ship. I pulled into a tight orbit of 500 meters like always and started to sing "Kung-Foo Fighting". Don't ask me why.

Oh Oh Oh hoooooooo. My targeting system resolved long before his did.

Oh Oh Oh hoooooooo. Gremlin's began to fly, I kicked on my afterburner, webber, and scram.

Oh Oh Oh hoooooooo. He still hadn't targeted me.

Oh Oh Oh hooooooooo. There we go, he had a target lock too.

Everybody was Kung-Foo fighting, those cats were fast as lightning. Heeeey, drones, that's not fair. In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing. Oh look, my shields are gone. There were funky china men, from funky china town. Ow, hey! Stop that, I like my armor where it is! They were chopping them up, they were chopping them down. Oh, fine, I didn't want that armor anyhow. It's an ancient chinese art and everybody knew their part. Ok fine, I brought the planets tab up, obviously this was going badly. From a feint into a slip and kicking from the hip. I spammed the warp button until I was free from the confines of my Kestral. I bid the Aces and Eights a fond farewell and warped away.

Ok that went badly, but damned if it wasn't fun. What's great about it is that as I left my wreck of a Kestral behind he said and I quote "GF I guess, but that was a little crazy,". I said "You obviously haven't met me before," and warped my pod back into Gusandall.

I decided to call it a night. I had the deck hands load up another of my many Kestrals for tommorrow and walked to my quarters.

Good day.

Everybody was Kung-Foo fighting...

Killing Is A Choice

And after we kill 'em all, sir?
Zoe Washburn - Firefly

So, after waking up today, I made a decision. I needed to add a few kills to my resume. This was certainly going to result in a lost ship or two, but I needed to blow something up. I knew a good place, so I clone jumped into Frarn and picked up my Drake. Once I arrived, I fitted it out with two Sensor Boosters and scan resolution scripts. I climbed into my pod and wasted no time setting course for Eifer.


I stopped one system out and hopped into a shuttle, taking it through the Eifer-Emo Gate, the Eifer-Gus gate and back again. I got back into my Drake and piloted my way to one of my Eifer safespots. I scanned the Gusandall gate and warped in. I aligned to a planet and began attempting to target ships as they warped in. I killed a bestower. Why in the hell the pod stuck around I'll never know, but I nailed that too. Huh, the chick's back in a rookie ship. Must be macro'ing. Hey, that bestower warped in pretty far away. I wasn't waiting for the pod to leave. I'd probably never catch that shuttle... nevermind. Ok now that's just shooting fish in a barrel.

Hey, is that a Myrmidon?

I couldn't tank the gateguns and a combat vessel, so I high tailed it and took stock of the sixteen minute long killing spree. Well, mission accomplished, and I haven't lost a ship yet. Time to wait out my global criminal countdown and get docked up in Gusandall. My security status was too low to go into high sec anymore, so I only had one exit from the system.

That Myrmidon was still in system. I bet I could take him, I was fitted out to resolve small targets, and his offensive power was going to be in his drones. I scanned him down in an asteroid belt. I watched him for a bit. No wrecks showed up in the belt, he was just waiting to be jumped. Trap.

"Why the hell not?" I thought to myself. I jumped into the belt and there he was.

I started targeting him, he targeted me. I aligned to a planet and as my slow ass ship began to move I saw a Rapier. I targeted him as well and switched my targets around. Then I saw a swarm of drones. Each ship was dropping it's max loadout of tech II's, and my ship's not aligned yet. I'm Webbed and Scrammed. Ok, they can't possibly have enough DPS to take me down, I know my tank. I started trying to hammer the Rapier, who took hardly any damage from my heavy missiles and drones, but his shields started to slowly go down. I was liking my odds until I saw yet another ship warp in. It was a heavy interdictor, and I'm not getting out of this one. I switched targets to the drones.

If I'm going down, I'm taking a shit ton of tech II drones with me.

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, that Myrm had to be crying. I killed quite alot of Hammerheads. Why weren't they pulling their drones in as they took damage? It took me two volleys to kill 'em, but they seemed so confident that they didn't even notice. Ahh, there we go, the Myrm was pulling his drones in. Aha, someone shot at my drones. I pulled 'em back in as the first one popped. I was about to relaunch them as I noticed my own ship was heavy into armor. It's a shield tank and if it's taking armor damage I'm doing it wrong. Screw 'em, if they want Warrior IIs they'll have to pull 'em from the wreck. I brought up the planets tab and started spamming the warp button.

65,907 damage later: Pop. I dunno if they were expecting quite the fight they got, but damn that was fun. The 5-7 million I cost them in drones, not to mention the tech II ammo they most assuredly had to expend to take me down likely made it a bittersweet victory for them, but a victory nonetheless. A good fight goes out to the folks over at the Mean Coalition.

And thanks for finally giving me something to do.

Now I'm going to get my Rifter out of storage and look for a nice cruiser to kill.

Good day.

It's Not a Habit.

It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive
If you don't have it you're on the other side
I'm not an addict (maybe that's a lie)
K's Choice - Not An Addict

I hit my scanner once, thrice, ten times. There's the target, coming in fast. I turn the scanner off, I'm going to need all of my CPU focused on this. He drops out of warp and my targeting system starts to ring in my ears like Christmas bells. Both of us resolve a lock at approximately the same time, I throw on the webber, scram, and activate my microwarp drive. The ship swings dangerously into a tight circle. Suddenly my 200mm Auto-Cannons add a little warmth to the cold eternal night. I watch happily as his shields melt away. My own shields evaporate in a few moments, and my armor plates begin to absorb the majority of the damage. The Tristam stars to buckle under the pressure, it's shields dropping. Suddenly I'm dealing armor damage. Then I notice, too late, that I'm in structure. This is going badly. I bring up a planet in my overview and wait for the inevitable, my guns hammering away the entire time.

POP

Five minutes into Vitrauze and I've lost my rifter. I could get used to this place.

What did I learn from my encounter? Just because someone says they want to duel in T1 frigates doesn't mean they'll be coming with T1 equipment. We exchanged good fights across local and he offered to blue status me since I honored the duel conditions. I declined. I'm here for the target rich environment after all.

Did I mention I'm flying Rifters now? Something of a recent development, they are by far superior to my Kestrals in every whichaway. I love the way they look, fly, and deal damage.

Tomorrow I'm seriously thinking about checking out the Eve Gate. I'm also seriously considering recruiting people into my own corp or joining someone else's. I like my freedom though, so recruitment is more likely. I need backup, friends, help. I love my freedom, but going it alone at times can be a lonely sad existence.

I Get the Gist.

Well, maybe there's a god above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
It's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah.
Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah

I moved back into Balginia after setting up a jump clone in Gusandall, I felt the urge to see some action again. The Cartel's still strong as ever, and the tribes still can't figure out who's winning the galactic pissing contest. I decided I was going to put a few warships down, so I headed to my old agent, Alfroren Karsteinn.

"Hey, Hallan,"Alfroren said as I walked up, "Last time I saw you was on the news for blowing up somebody in one of the belts,"

"What in the hell are you talking about Karsteinn?" One less miner usually didn't reach the level of system wide news.

"Apparently," He offered as he handed me a datapad, "The owner was the son of one of the Cartel's commanders,"

I looked down at the image on the datapad, the face matched the frozen corpse I had back in my cargo holds. "I killed somebody trying to go straight," I said while holding my forhead.

"Don't sweat it, if you weren't an amoral monster, you wouldn't be good at your job,"

"You're not helping,"

"Maybe this will cheer ya up then, I've got a job for you. Real nice one, lots of explosions. Got a Cartel patrol making it's way through the system. Kill them all and get back to me as soon as you can," He smiled and turned back to his computer station.

I muttered as I dialed up the info on the datapad.

"Try not to kill any miners while you're out," He said as I walked away.

I headed into my hangar and eyeballed my Drake. It always strikes me as such a sleek ship. The damn thing's kitted out with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to help it recharge it's shields. I climbed inside and walked it's empty halls towards the pod. I went up the ladder, jumped into the pod, sat down, and leaned my head back against the neural shunt. The rest would happen automatically for me. Suddenly I could see the outside of my ship.

I gave the commands to undock, and slipped into the cold. I activated my warpdrive and headed towards the last known location of the Cartel patrol.

I wasn't out of warp more than three seconds before the first one targeted me. I returned the favor and banked hard to the right as the first volley of missiles came in hard and fast. They struck the port side of my shields as I kicked my engines on full blast and burned for the targets. The first Gistii Haunter exploded in a cloud of evaporating metal. I had the time to take a count of my targets, twenty four to one. Not bad odds really. Make that twenty three.

As the Shatterer shattered, a Crusher came into range and began to hammer away with it's missiles as well. My shields were still holding steady at eighty-four percent. I got off another volley of Scourge missiles just before it happened.

My overview lit up, and a massive fleet of Angel Cartel ships warped in. I aligned to warp back to the station and kept chucking missiles at my targets. One of the Vipers caught up to me and threw on a webifier and warp scrambler. As my speed slowed to a crawl I launched a full compliment of Warrior IIs and tossed them against the Viper. Suddenly my ship was rocked by a Paradise cruise missile.

A freakin' Saint, they brought a freakin' Saint. I focused all my missiles on the Viper, but his massive speed beat most of them. The drones were still tearing him apart, but the other two vipers wear gaining on me, not to mention the cruise missiles and heavy missiles the rest of the fleet was throwing. Then, very quietly my drones did their job and the viper exploded, I called them back in and gave the command to warp to the station. The next few moments were a bit scary as the ship struggled to enter warp. Then I was gone, and the battle faded into the background.

I docked at the station and climbed out of my pod. I walked out of my ship and into my personal hangar to hear a beeping coming from my office. I opened the door and sat down. There was a message on my vid mail.

"We're not done,"

Killing for Profit

Don't be afraid to be the first to resort to violence.
Rule 27 "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates"

I'm a pirate. Sorta.

I learned something over the last week. I'm still not very good at this. After stealing ore and tricking someone into stealing it back, I popped a bestower. It felt hollow, I knew it was under me, but it paid the bills. I will do it again.

I got back in Eifer late tonight, I popped into a belt with a Rifter pilot I'd spent some time talking to a while back. I wasn't sure if he actually was the Rifter or if he'd scared the Rifter off. I tracked the target into another belt and caught up to him there. It was indeed the fellow I'd seen before. I held fire and offered a hello in the local chat channel when I could've warped out. I was webbed and scrammed in moments. As I took fire, watched my shields evaporate and finally caught on fire, the Kestrel popped. My pod warped out pretty quickly but I never fired a shot. I offered up a duel afterwards with no poddings. He accepted and I at least got his Rifter into armor. Small solace since he was likely set to tank armor. I'll except my place in things for now. Learning requires patience. I've got a hangar full of Kestrals, and I don't doubt I'll see use out of all of them.

On the plus side of things, using a Kestrel to pirate means I never have to worry about going bankrupt. Four hundred thousand isk a pop isn't going to break me by any means. At this rate I can go through almost five hundred Kestrels before I run out of money. I'm actually profiting from this, on a fairly small scale.

Oh, as an addendum, I met a Minmatar chick up in Balginia. She said she might help me with branching out into Minmatar ships. The training for it shouldn't take me that long. One of the things I've picked up from my time out in low sec is that Minmatar ships make fiercesome pirate ships. I'm looking forward to meeting up with her again actually, she seemed pretty nice.