Things I Am and Could Have Been

Congratulations on the mess you made of things

I'm trying to reconstruct the air and all that brings

And oxidation is the compromise you own

But this is beginning to feel like the dog wants her bones, say

Tv On the Radio - DLZ

It's over.

So I got to spend a month in charge of an alliance. After losing a fairly large corp, while the DRF closed in, I took over the reins from an alliance leader who needed a break.

I'm a PvPer. I'm a PvEer. I do it all in this game. I don't like the neat stratification that everyone wants everyone else to be a part of. If you're on my side of the wars, you're on my side. I don't care if you're a carebear or the most hardened PvPer out there. There are no people that are less than me, just people who need to be educated and people who don't.

Still it was a change to go from the voice of reason and experience to the guy they have to listen to. To be sensitive to the amount of respect I get publicly... because I usually don't care. An alliance leader getting dissed is a big deal... because if it's not made into one... the level of respect for that leader goes down a lot. You gotta handle it carefully.

With help from subordinates(and a healthy dose of delegation) I got a moon mining/reaction operation underway providing the alliance with a few billion a month in income... our own set of renters were also paying us for the use of our space. I got a program going that provided pilots with PvP capable ships pre-built and ready to go. I got a mineral buy-sell program working for our miners. I improved our previously dismal participation in CTAs. There was a lot of contribution from the alliance members.

Of course, the time came for us to make a decision on staying or going. I made the decision to get out of Tenerifis. Since two weeks ago when I called that, the DRF has pushed all the way to our front door. They haven't started hitting our space, but then again... it's not really our space anymore anyway.

I've left the alliance, another of the larger corps has left as well. Split Infinity is down to 127 members. Half of that is almost certainly alts. The alliance hasn't completely failed, but it's coming close.

I had a lot of fun in there, and am only a little bit annoyed that my first foray into alliance leadership had to come at such a bad time for the alliance, but sometimes that's how it goes.

I got a little taste of a completely different gaming experience.

I think I like it.

Raise What's Left Of The Flag

The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don't shed a tear
I'll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive

Flogging Molly - If I Ever Leave This World Alive

PvP in low sec can be a lot of fun if you do it right. With that in mind I loaded up a T1 frigate and headed through low-sec with a small gang of alliance mates in their own frigates.

After passing through Rancer and Criliere without incident, I headed down to Metropolis. I'd tried to get someone to come and meet my gang earlier in the day, but no one was available on such short notice, so I passed by Evati without meeting any Bastards, and through Gusandall without meeting anyone from Mean Corp. I took the gang through one of the 2/10's in the area, just to show them that making money in low-sec is pretty easy. After that, we headed Amamake way.

That was a bit more fun... a little bit down the pipe, in Orfrold, we found a Hurricane in a belt. It took us a while, but he died, and we looted the field just as an anti-pirate gang came rolling through. After taking the time to wait out our GCC, we headed out again. Just as we went through the gate into Klogori, the Hurricane pilot was waiting on us in Dramiel. I knew that with gateguns on his side, he could conceivably take out our whole fleet, so I gave the order to warp away. As we began to warp away, he tackled one of our pilots... one he'd apparently shot first in the last system.

Gate guns go hot, and his Dramiel goes flashy. I stop myself, call a stop on comms, and target the Dram. Unfortunately due to the delay, the only pilots who didn't warp were myself and the one the Dram had tackled.

The other pilot in my fleet had the good sense to point his opponent as well, and I put my autocannons on from 20k away in an epic piece of killmail whorage.

After that we settled down and kept burning to Amamake. Once we got there, I told the rest of my pilots to blitz into the remaining belts. I warped into belt 3-1 for what I assumed was a quick death. An Ares and Caracal were waiting on me.

The Ares instalocked me and the Caracal began to shower me with missiles. I called my mates in, who quickly tried to swarm the Ares. Apparently he was a bit better of a pilot than I thought, cause he kept point on me most of the fight and avoided the rest of my fleet. After a certain amount of time a Mach and a Daredevil came in to join the fray.

At this point it was a Mach, a Dram, a Daredevil, and a Caracal against 2 Rifters, 2 Crucifiers and 1 Punisher. The Mach took a few potshots at me but failed to hit, while the Daredevil tried to close in. Very quickly one of my fleetmates scrammed and webbed the Daredevil, about 50k away from where I was. I gave up on getting out alive myself, and ordered everyone else to swarm the Daredevil. Just as I did the Mach switched targets and managed to one shot one of my gangmates.

The Ares and Caracal kept working on me, just as a mistake of mine caught up to me.

I'd overloaded my AB for too long, and it shut down. I almost caught it in time but no dice. If I had, I might've been able to shake the Ares long enough to get away(as I'd done a few times already, without actually warping out). But without the AB, he kept a nice normal circle going and the Caracal whittled me down. This whole time of course, the rest of my gang is finishing off the daredevil. Around this time, another one of my gang got oneshotted by the Mach.

Right around the time I popped, the Daredevil died, and almost immediately another gangmate got oneshotted.

I gave the order for all surviving fleet members to warp out, get to safes and then get out through the Osoggur gate and into high sec.

The final battle was ill concieved, but with the roam over, I wanted to go out with a bang. Luckily we killed the Daredevil, which more than made up for the loss of the t1 frigates. Plus we had some fun, which was the whole point of the outing.

Sometimes the inherent problem with piracy and low-sec seems so apparent. I love to visit, but I don't want to live there. But if I make enough visits... I HAVE to live there.

Anyone else feel that way sometimes?