The Winds Hit Heavy

Well, if you go when the snowflakes storm,

When the rivers freeze and summer ends,
Please see if she's wearing a coat so warm,
To keep her from the howlin' winds.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash - The Girl From North Country

I had quite alot of fun last night with comet projectors along with a few members of my alliance. It's a novelty I know, but it's fun to fling them around this time of year. Celebration day may be past, but it's never to late to have some fun with your friends.


That said, I went on quite a long roam with Mynxee and MatarRae. Matar's a new Hellcat that's been wandering around Evati for the last few days with Mynxee. I gotta hand it to Mynx, she tends to bring in some good pilots.

I managed to get my own fool self caught at a gate. For the first time ever I got caught aligning my Rifter. All night the ship'd been sluggish in response to my commands. I'll never know what was wrong with it because a few interceptors made spare parts out of the damn thing. Mynxee and Matar were kind enough to wait for me to get into a new ship and we continued on.

Unfortunately the interceptors decided to follow our little roam a bit further down the pipe, and I suggested we divert from the normal path. We did so and lost the tail. We were wandering a bit in another branch of low-sec for a while before we returned to the pipe. We went into Amamake and for about ten minutes could not find a target. Not even a trap to spring. We decided to move on.

Sadly for us Matar had to head back about halfway to our next waypoint, but Mynxee and myself continued on. We continue into Vitrauze. I used to live there for a short time, and Mynxee had based the Hellcats there at one point, so we reminiced with the locals a bit while Mynxee sorted some inventory.

So far the only targets available had been to elusive to nail down. After arriving in Old Man Star we were surprised to find that hadn't changed. We flew around a bit but couldn't find anything. We decided to head up to Tama, a place I've visited on more than one occasion, before returning to Evati. Along the way Mynxee spotted a target.

"I've got a Kestrel and Catalyst in a Minmatar Installation," she said as I was about to activate the next gate.

I turned my ship back around and met her at the entrance gate. She engaged the gate and I did as well, but it took me a bit longer to get through. As I landed I saw the Kestrel warp away. The Catalyst however had decided to test his chances and Mynxee's Rifter sped in his direction. I did my best to catch up. She started to engage and as I closed I saw both of them going down fast. Mynxee's ship went up in a orange flare as I reached the target, already at half structure.

He popped before he even got a shot off, and I hammered the pod with all my ordinance even before Mynxee managed to yell on comms, "Pod him!" I scooped the loot from both wrecks and waited out my Global Criminal Countdown, as Mynxee mentioned she had some ships in Tama to replace her Rifter with.

In Tama we accosted the locals and threw out a few hellos. Mynxee managed to convince another pirate in the area to come down to Evati with us. They hopped into Stabbers and I hit the gate in my Rifter. We sped through high and low sec even past Rancer, which at the time was empty of the Smartbombing battleships I normally expect. I did take note of the Crielere labs along the way.


I have no doubts that if they were not Research Outposts, the two stations would be firing at each other daily.

Back in Evati I wasn't sure what to do. I'd had a pretty full day already, but I was interested in the fleet that seemed to be forming around Mynxee. I have to give the girl some credit, if you want a fleet organized, she's the best one to get it done. Not many people can tell her no.

With quite a little fleet under our belts we decided to set out. Somehow I got voted as the squad commander and I set our destination as Katugumur. Mean Coalition's home.

The trip was rather uneventful but the Katugumur gate was camped by a Deimos, Abbadon, and Hurricane. We all broke the gatecamp and formed up in the system. After a bit of hunting and chasing shadows Mynx volunteered to be bait. She took her new Rifter into a belt and began to shoot. I had the rest of the fleet align to her and we waited. True to form, the Deimos and Hurricane jumped in to kill her. The rest of the fleet were on them in moments, and I managed to warp to the wrong belt. I called the Deimos as primary without even being in the battle and the fighting commenced. As I arrived I started shooting the Deimos, who was at about half shields.

I asked if anyone had a point on the Hurricane and someone volunteered to do it. The Hurricane was pointed and the Deimos began to melt. Someone said they were removing point for the pod and I told everyone else to burn for the Hurricane as soon as the Deimos popped. The Deimos pod managed to warp out as the pointer accidentally moved out of range, but we continued to engage the Hurricane who soon too met his fate. I designated looters and had everyone else warp out. It was a quick affair, which was to be expected when in enemy territory.

The trip back to Evati was mostly uneventful, with a few ships trying to chase us down. We could've taken them as a group but I wasn't taking chances. Eventually they stopped pursuit and we made it back to Evati with loot in hold and everyone else intact.

Then we had another snowball fight.

Good Day.

Lead Your Shots

I want to glide down over Mulholland

I want to write her name in the sky
I'm gonna freefall out into nothing
Gonna leave this world for a while
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Freefalling

So tonight I had quite an adventure trying to track a friend down and do someone a favor. Lets cover how it all began.

First I decided to head out to Vitrauze to sell off my belongings there. The ten million I made will be of much use to me elsewhere. After docking I went to check out a bar in the Federal Navy Academy. There was a particular waitress, who of course wasn't there tonight, who I'd been wanting to see again. She found me.

A ragged shell of a girl came up to me in that dingy bar and asked me if I could track someone down. She looked so helpless that I found it hard to refuse. I got her cleaned up, fed, and welcomed her aboard my ship. It was a mistake and wasted my time, but I'd do it again.

The person I was looking for was actually a friend of mine. She operated out of Evati just the same as I did, but was on a holiday. I had to find her.

Her last communication was from Dead End, and I figured that'd be a good place to start. Upon arriving there I found no trace of her, and moved back towards Vitrauze. As I did, a bit of intel came filtering in. A place out in null-sec called C9N-GC. I've barely ever ventured into null-sec, but I was determined not to dissapoint the girl that was surely pacing my ship at that very moment. Until a few jumps in, it was a fairly uneventful passage. Then instead of dropping out of warp at the gate, I was fifteen clicks away. I kicked on my microwarp drive and was jumping out as a single volley smashed into my shields. The ship barely rocked.

I passed by some Smuggler Gates along the way. They're of interesting design.

The remainder of the trip was completly uneventful until I arrived in C9N-GC. The system was completely deserted, and I keyed up a bit more info. In fifty jumps it had taken me to arrive she'd moved back to Evati. I cursed but discovered the wreck of a titan in system. I visited it.




In AZN-DZ, which was an unavoidable obstacle on my trip home, I noted a larger number of kills and pilots on the galaxy traffic maps. When I warped in, I discovered a huge camp on the gate I needed to travel through. I cloaked up and waited. Shortly the fleet moved, and I passed through. It was a simple waiting game. The path was clear for the rest of my trip back to Evati until the final piece of null-sec.

As I came out of warp on the Paala gate in LXQZ-T, I was almost seventy kilometers from the gate. I kicked on the microwarp drive and burned hard for the gate. A Manticore and Crow locked me and managed to place a warp disruptor on me. From what I understand these folks are more used to people cloaking when they run into trouble, and were probably better prepared for that instance. I was burning over thirty-five hundred meters a second towards the gate and actually jumped out just as their first volley passed through where my ship would've been and smacked off the gate. They were likely angry as my lowly rifter ran their gamut.

The trip back to Evati was alot more subdued and finally I was docked. I told the girl to go on her way, that she could find my friend in that station any time now. She thanked me and walked away.

A hundred and twenty jumps to end up back where I started.

Good day.

A Ramblin' Man

A candle throws its light into the darkness

In a nasty world so shines a good deed
Make sure the fortune that you seek
Is the fortune that you need
Ben Harper - Diamonds On The Inside

So I took a friend on a little tour of Minmatar space tonight. I had alot of fun and I believe this will not be the last of my tourism. I'll offer you up a few of my pictures. Enjoy.

The Hyperbole Nexus

Lord Bastion

Sanctum Psychosis
The Asylum

Reactor Factory
Inside The Sister Camp

The Glass Edge

Assassin's Overhang
Culture Recess
Insurgent Encampment

OOC: Just to note, that Culture Recess image I took is my new desktop. ;)

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.