Keep High Value Ships Away From Towers

All in the title. Towers and standings are bugged right now it seems. Just keep 'em away until it's resolved, people are losing very expensive ships very quickly to friendly POS's today.

The Lights Are Faded

Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.
Louis L'Amour

So Mynxee won the chairmanship on the CSM. If you didn't see that coming you're out of your mind. I saw it coming from before she even announced. Have fun with it Mynx.

And the game is down. Can't wait to sink my teeth into planetary interaction.

See you when I see you.

Why Paxton Had To Go

No I would not give you false hope
on this strange and mournful day
but the mother and child reunion
is only a motion away.
Paul Simon - Mother and Child Reunion

I don't know exactly what was going through Paxton's head when they decided to attack their neighbors in Providence. They weren't bound to our mutual defense pact, but they were informed of it's existence. I'm not sure what "do not participate in sov warfare in Providence" means to you, but participating in the dropping of a TCU in a Provi system(regardless of how easy your neighbor made it) is pretty obviously sov warfare.

This was also a few days after AAA gave them back D-G on nothing but good faith.

Paxton are good guys, solid PvPers, and I was sincerely looking forward to having even more targets to shoot in Providence when we went on R&R. We'll be fine though.

So the Mutual Defense Pact gets activated, we start setting blues up that've been dropped, and the work begins. Really Noir.'s contracts pre-empted our participation in the early invasion, but that may not've been a terrible thing, since it failed. The second wave was done a bit better and produced much better results, save a drive by Pandemic Legion capital smack down. It happens.

So what's the situation now? Apparently Paxton's pulling out completely. They're not happy with CVA either(but who is, these days?) Paxton has lost four of it's nine systems, and only controls 2 more stations.

Their blind loyalty to CVA led them to this point, and it's a shame.

Clik Lok

I found this particularly hilarious.

Ballroom Blitz - Dueling Garmon

Don't know if we'll ever make it back
Now we're off track
Being chased by patrols
Pull it together, hands back on the controls
Tailspins and barrel rolls out of narrow spaces
To the center of a meteor, they can no longer trace us
Dub Pistols - Speed of Light

I wasn't sure what to think when I discovered Garmon had challenged me to a battleship duel. I suppose he'd done his homework and realized I'd never flown a battleship before. One of his many incarnations, by the name of El'Tar would be my opponent.

Given his ranking as the number one pilot on battleclinic, my never firing the guns on a battleship in the entirety of my eve career, and the fact that I could decline the duel, given the rules of the tournament I was participating in, I did what any sane pilot would do.

I accepted.

Revan Neferis sat 10 kilometers away from me. My stomach churned as El'Tar's Typhoon came out of warp less than 10 kilometers away from me. I followed the rules of the tournament and allowed the observers to lock me first, and then we locked each other. I set my ship on a collision course and I waited for my Raven to cover the distance between us.

It became clear from that point on that my microwarp drive would be useless. I had already assumed he carried neuts, so upon seeing how much faster he was (using an Afterburner, I imagined), I knew that my microwarp drive wouldn't carry me far enough fast enough to avoid being drained dry. He had nearly triple my speed without any of my modules active.

We stopped barely a meter off each other's bow, and waited for the go order. Once given, I overloaded everything and activated my tech 2 launchers, neuts, hardeners and damage control. I launched a flight of hammerhead 2(setting them to engage my target)'s and set a close orbit. I had imagined he carried torps, but if so it wouldn't have mattered if I was far or near, while if he happened to use autocannons, being close might save me a bit of initial DPS. That part became unimportant though, once he put a web on me.

After the initial volley, I turned off the overload for all of my modules.

His Mjolnir torps tore into me from the start, but my Infernos blasted his shields away in a puff. Then I smashed into his armor, and it was like a brick wall. Torpedos the size of frigates pounded away and were deflected effortlessly. My shields were holding up to his EM damage, so he took the time to switch to Infernos himself.

Then things started to go south. My capacitor began to fade, and I overloaded my hardeners to get the most use out of them before they deactivated. His armor still wasn't moving, and my shields were starting to accumulate damage. My cap was gone now, and everything deactivated. I spammed my DCU to keep it going, and got it working again. I tried to activate one of my invulnerability fields as well, but sadly couldn't get it to work. Then my shields were gone.

It took him a minute to work his way through my armor and structure, but as I knew it would, my ship eventually exploded. I overloaded my torpedo launchers in the last moments and burned them out, still not breaking 75% armor damage.

I had only a rough idea of how to fit the ship before hand, but before you go correcting me, I have some observations to make:

If you're using rage torpedos, use a target painter, even if the target is a battleship. I would've benefited more from a web than my microwarp drive. I also should've dropped the rage torps entirely and went with Caldari Navy Torps(instead of wasting a slot/drones on target painting). Not to mention carrying multiple torp types on the off chance that I needed it.

A few modifications and I might've done a lot more damage, I probably still would've lost to a well piloted Typhoon though, and I still put up a good fight. So here's till next time, Garmon.

Understanding

A Year Ago

Providence Imperial Trading Bank

Command Meeting Room

"I don't care, I want an Archon and a Revelation," Jarvik Tomalan pounded his desk as his staff cowered in their wood and leather chairs. He sat at the head of a long obsidian table which sparkled with the light of the stars from the exposed window.

"Sir," The woman to his direct left began, "The workers are getting restless. They have been working for the last few months without much rest,"

"You're in charge of worker morale. Do something about it. The war machine doesn't feed itself and god will not forgive us if we fail,"

"Yes sir," The woman answered with downtrodden eyes.

"If that's all," Jarvik said while placing his considerable bulk on his small feet, "I'll be going,"

He waddled out of the room and left the station staff a bit angry, and more than a bit confused.

Now

The Black Mansion

Command Meeting Room

"So," Alekseyev Kardde leaned back in his chair as he spoke, "This is all ours. Right now it's just this and HP, but GA9 is falling as we speak. 7YW will follow soon after. This constellation is ours,"

The collected officers raised a glass and drank from them. A smile crossed everyone's face.

"Aleks," Hallan said after placing his glass on the table, "We've got a bit of a situation on the promenade,"

"A big problem," Mynxee said, with fire in her eyes.

A Year Ago

Providence Imperial Trading Bank

The Promenade

"Joka'Vild you stand accused of inciting rebellion and heresy. How do you respond?" The man speaking had his face covered by a black mask, and he stood on the second level of the promenade next to a man who had a rope tied around his neck.

"If by heresy, you mean I don't buy into that crap about you being better than me, then yeah, I'm a heretic," The accused was standing precariously on the edge of the railing, with two other men holding him by the legs.

The executioner pushed the man off his perch with a single shove, "The judgment has been made,"

Now

The Black Mansion

The Promenade

Hallan, Mynxee, and Aleks stepped out of the corridor and turned towards the promenade. One side of which was both dirty and crowded with people, while the other was vacant and spotless.

"How long ago did you take down the fences?" Alek asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A few days ago. They won't cross. We've tried," Hallan answered as they walked.

"Well then we'll have to join them then," Alek motioned to a restaurant on the other side of the promenade.

They walked towards it and the crowd parted as they passed. The patrons looked surprised as they sat down at an empty table. One of the waitresses came over almost immediately. She was Brutor, just like Mynxee, but her eyes betrayed a broken spirit.

Hallan felt captivated by the girl as Aleks joked about the menu, "You guys got anything that isn't spicy?"

"I'm sorry sir," She said with a bit of fear, "But we can make anything you want sir,"

"Woah honey," Mynxee said standing up, "These guys are customers. We're not Amarrian, we're just some folks looking for a meal,"

"Lets be clearer," Aleks said rising out of his chair raising his voice over the hushed conversation, "Ladies and Genetlemen, CVA no longer controls this station. You are no longer under the thumb of the Amarr Empire. Your jobs, should you wish to keep them, will be compensated fairly. If you want to leave, you can leave. We will even provide you with transport to do so. You are free," He paused and sat back down, "I'll have the octopus salad,"

"I wanna see if I can handle brutor style wings," Hallan said as the girl smiled back at him.

"Make that two," Mynxee chimed in.

"And drinks for everybody," Alek said, tossing the girl some credit chits, "On me," Alek leaned towards Hallan and Mynxee, and whispered, "Lets make this a party,"