EVE Blog Banter #4: I Don't Know.

Welcome to the forth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by yours truly. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's EVE Blog Banter comes to us from Manasi of A Mule in EvE. Manasi asks "How do we, EVE bloggers, adapt to changes as they are thrust upon us (speed changes, no more ghost training, all the Dev blogs, etc), or as our lives make playing the game different (more time, less time)?"

Of course we adapt. Of course we change. I mean, I haven't been around long enough for any real game changes to affect me. I'm sure it's a big deal to others but to someone new to the game like myself, I've yet to see any big game changes that really impact my play.

I've always flown small light ships, so the speed "nerf" was a boost to me. It didn't affect my playing style because I've always flown small light ships.

I'd already trained probing skills before the wormhole stuff came out. That might affect me later, but it isn't changing my plans for now.

Come to think of it, since I've only been around for one "expansion" I'm probably not the best person to answer this question. Ahh well, at least I can provide my readers with links to other people that can do a better job.

The question of how the time I'm available changes how I play the game is an interestingly simple one. I have therefore a simple explanation.

When I have more time to play, I play more. When I have less time to play I play less.

Good Day.

Other Writers:

• Attitude is Everything
• “If I could save time in a bottle….”
• The Game with the Thousand Faces
  
• [OOC] January’s Blog Banter
• New Ballgames, Same Home Team
  
• EVE Blog Banter #4: I Don't Know
• Adaptation
• CK’s Blog Banter #4
• Roll With the Punches
• Blog Banter 4: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
  
• We, the EVE-bloggers
• Adapt or Die
• I'm in ur blogosphere, hijackin' ur Blog Banter (4)
• Blog Banter
• Opportunity or Burden?
• Mystic Pizza

The Rest Is Silence

Will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it,
Had offers but don't know which one to take,
Please don't tell 'em how you found me,
Don't tell 'em how you found me,
Gimme a break, give me a break.
Albert Hammond - It Never Rains In Southern California

Angel Creo-Mining Station - Gusandall

"Richard?" The pitch of the voice was high, but soft. The sound of the rushing water almost drowned out the voice. The two men were up to their waists in water. The first tapped the other on the shoulder again.

"What do ya want Barney?" The man turned around and looked down at the man following him.

"I was just thinking," Barney spoke over the water, "Maybe we could get out of here?"

"Oh yeah, they're just going to let us go," Richard turned around and started struggling to turn the valve again, "Give me a hand will ya?"

Barney stepped forward and grabbed the uppermost part of the lever, and the two of them slowly turned it. The water stopped flowing, and except for the drips from them and the pipe, the room was silent again.

"I wasn't talking about them letting us go Rich, I was talking about leaving,"

"So you were talking stupid. Glad we cleared that up," Richard began to trudge through the water towards the ladder.

"Rich, you and me got alot of freedom here. We could steal a ship and never look back."

"And you want me to give that up Barn? You'll get us both killed. Or worse. Now shut up and lets go," Richard started to climb the ladder and stopped before opening the hatch to look back down at Barney, "Look, you're my friend so trust me when I say this. I've seen better men than us try it and fail," Richard looked Barney in the eyes and pointed at him with one hand as he continued, "You said it. We've got alot of freedom here. We get caught running, we're stuck for good. Give it time, and maybe, just maybe we'll find an opening. Until then, stop talking about it,"

"Rich, this isn't where I want to be,"

"It ain't where any of us want to be, even them," Rich looked down at Barney and motioned him towards the ladder, "Come on,"

_______________________

"Barney!" The woman who yelled his name was clad in a miniskirt and a blouse that showed her bellybutton. He looked over and she ran to his table.

"Hey Trixie. How you been?"

"Pretty good now baby," She sat down in his lap and ran her hands through his hair.

"Heh, Good,"

The girl looked him in the eyes, "What'd you do today?"

"We had to lock down a water pipe on level fifty six," He grabbed her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing it softly before looking back up at her, "This place is falling apart,"

Her expression turned stern for a moment, "This is my home as much as yours,"

"Yeah,"

"Oh god, not this again," She leaned back and rolled her eyes.

"Yes that again. I have a degree in molecular physics and they've got me working on pipes,"

"You're working on pipes because that's the best job they could find for you,"

"I'm working on pipes because the Cartel and Serpentis have no use for anyone that doesn't know drugs,"

"You know, you might want to lay off the 'woe is me' bullshit while you're talking to the doxy,"

"I'm sorry Trix,"

"So am I," She turned her head as someone walked into the bar, "Look babe, I gotta go to work, I'll meet you after. Your place this time," He nodded and she jumped up.

Barney looked into his drink before he cradled his face into his hands.

_______________________

Evati VII - Moon 1 Kaalakiota Corporation Warehouse - The 'By Jove' Bar and Restaurant

"What?" Hallan was looking over his maps again from his back office. His recently acquired bar gave him a bit of solace to conduct his business away from The Hub.

"We let them build it. They're working for us," Alfroren Karsteinn was talking to him from Balginia over comms.

"Why?"

"Because the only ones who can run a mining outpost in Minmatar low-sec space is the Cartel,"

"Look, whatever. I just need the coordinates,"

"Yeah. I'm uploading them now. What're ya going to do?"

"I'm gonna steal some shit, then run like I stole something,"

"Very, logical," Alfroren laughed and looked down at his keypad, "It's done man," He looked back up at Hallan, "Try not to kill anyone,"

"I always try," Hallan clicked off the comms before standing up and walking over to the wall of his office. He grabbed a pistol and held it up to the light. He'd recently come into a huge cache of Guristas firearms. They all bore the mark of Fatal and the Rabbit. He put the gun into his holster and hefted a huge rifle from the wall, "Never seem to manage it though,"

_______________________

Eight Years Ago - New Caldari Prime - Prime City - Mindclash Arena

"I can do this!" Barney was chuckling as he concentrated on the vision in front of him.

Hallan was taken aback for a moment and the zombies on his side of the field began to degrade. He steadied himself and closed his eyes. Suddenly in the middle of the field gravestones began to rise. From underneath them numerous zombies began to crawl out and onto the field. They advanced past Barney's tentacled monster defenders as he stood stunned and reached forward to grab him.

"Enough!" Came a computerized voice as the crowd that had gathered cheered.

The two participants climbed down from the playing field and met on a walkway along the arena.

"Thanks for the match," Hallan said reaching out his hand, "You put up one hell of a fight,"

"Hal, we both knew what was going to happen before we started. I'm glad you agreed to a match though," Barney reached out and shook Hallan's hand, "I'm going out for a meal. You wanna come? It's my treat,"

Hallan nodded and they walked off, with Barney patting Hallan on the back.

_______________________

"So you're going into Molecular Physics?" Hallan asked with a mouth full of food.

"Yeah," Barney said, sipping his Quafe, "I figure I'll do a nice six year stint with the Academy, then head out and find a job,"

"Head out?"

"Yeah, NCP is a horrible place to find a job in any kind of research,"

"Where ya going to go?" Hallan looked out the window and into the street, which was, as it always was, locked with traffic.

"Probably Alliance space, the Capsuleer corps pay very generously,"

"You sure that's safe?"

"Of course it's safe,"

Hallan grabbed his bookbag and stood up from the booth, "I appreciate the meal Barney, If ya want to go another round, you know my number,"

"No problem Hal,"

_______________________

Now - Angel Creo-Mining Station - Gusandall

The alarms outside the room made it hard to hear anything but the beat of his own heart. Barney looked dumbfounded at the commander as he spoke.

"Just do it!" The commander was screaming at Barney now. He hated it when the commander screamed. He put up his hands to protect his face as the man hit him between the shoulders with the butt of the rifle, "Get to docking bay five and shoot that fucker,"

Barney fell to the floor as the commander threw the rifle down beside him. He reached over and picked it up. He stood up and looked at the commander. The commander stopped and they looked at each other.

"Just go," The commander started, "The guards outside will come in at even the--"

Barney fired the rifle twice into the Commanders chest. He let out a wheeze and slumped onto his desk. Barney stepped against the wall beside the door just as it slid open and both guards rushed in. Barney kicked the second guard that came in into the first, and unloaded a clip into both of them before he ran out the door. He loaded another clip into his rifle and began to run down the halls.

The alarms already blared loudly as he sprinted through the deserted halls. He made his way to the fourth level, where his own quarters resided. The door wouldn't open. He banged his rifle against it but it wouldn't open. He wondered silently if Trixie was alright, but right now he had to get himself safe.

He turned around and saw a familiar face.

"Hallan?" Barney's eyes lit up with suprise.

"Barney Mullen?" Hallan raised his eyebrow.

"We have to find some kind of way out of here," Barney said banging on the door again.

"I gotta go," Hallan turned around.

"Wait," Barney called after him, "How'd they get you too?"

"They didn't, Man. I just stole something valuable and now I gotta leave. If you wanna come with me, I suggest you hurry," Hallan broke into a sprint as Barney followed after him.

Docking bay five had twenty or so guards stationed to guard the ship he'd brought in. As Hallan ran around the corner, half of them turned around to look in his direction. His assault rifle came alive and the men fell jittering to the floor.

He ran past their bodies and keyed a code into the door. It opened with a hiss and Barney came from around the corner. Hallan looked behind him and smiled for a moment before gunfire erupted behind Barney, and he fell to the ground.

Hallan quickly jumped inside the ship airlock as his old friend crawled in his direction leaving a bloody trail as he did so. Hallan keyed another code into the door and it hissed shut. He turned to his ship's door, put in another code and as it opened he hopped inside. He hit the pad on the other side and that door closed too.

Hallan looked through the two windows, sighed and ran to his pod. He hopped in, jacked in, engaged his engines and broke away from the docking clamps which had him locked down. The airlock and part of the docking bay stayed attached to his ship as he engaged warp to the Republic Justice Tribunal station. He turned his cameras behind him once to see the bodies flailing in the darkness before looking back out into the stars.

OOC: The Bastards Vs. KIA Alliance: Video and Links

Thought this deserved it's own post. Congratulations again to my Corpmates on such a nice win.

For some details:

KIA Alliance fielded: 7 Ishtars and 1 Vigil
Everything Died.

The Bastards. fielded: 3 Abaddons, 1 Scorpion, 1 Scimitar, 1 Celestis and 2 Griffins.
They lost 1 Celestis and 1 Griffin.



There are a few blog posts about it as well.

A Mule in Eve

Dense Veldspar

Flashfresh--The Pirate

Letrange's EVE Blog

Life in Low Sec

Sweet Little Bad Girl

Mahn AlNouhm has done a wonderful write up from his perspective as a participant, and it deserves a good read:

the Eagle : the Cold : a Darkness

It's also his first piracy blog post, so show him some traffic please.

Good Day.

It Sure Is Smokey In Here

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'
We gonna do what they say can't be done
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there
I'm east bound just watch ol' Bandit run
Jerry Reed - East Bound and Down

OOC: I'd like to congratulate The Bastards on a convincing win against KIA in the Sixth Alliance Tournament.

I'd be lying if I said this was unexpected. This is the Bastards.

IC: The first round of the Alliance tournament was held today. The majority of the Bastards were in the Hub drinking and celebrating. I stopped in to offer my congratulations and noticed a decided lack of Hellcats. I brought up Mynxee on corp comms and she let me know she was out on a roam with Venom, one of her new recruits. I offered my Rifter as support and she accepted. I went down to my hangar and happily undocked.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself as I warped from gate to gate, quickly making up the fourteen jumps between me and them. By the time I arrived they'd only moved on one system, so I followed them and joined their fleet.

We were a motely crew, two rifters and a republic fleet firetail. Agile and quick, we roamed from system to system, looking for targets.

Most of the systems were rather devoid of life, but I managed to scan down a Drake. I warped in on him a hundred kilometers away, and signaled to Mynxee that if she warped to the gate, and then to me at a hundred, she'd be on top of him. She followed the directions, but as she came out of warp, we discovered the Drake was aligned. He disappeared into a warp bubble before anyone could get a lock.

Disappointed, we moved into the next system. The Drake followed us oddly, and I managed to scan him down again. Mynxee warped in first this time, and I followed quickly afterwards. She pointed him and Venom came in guns firing. The Drake pilot was a bit smarter this time and his friends came to his aid. We were suddenly set upon by quite a few ships. I was already taking heavy damage from the Drake, and I died rather quickly. Everyone else got out, fortunately.

So I began to trek back to Evati, telling the girls to continue on. I'd catch up.

It seems the whole world of Eve is abuzz with love for the Bastards today though, as more than a couple of people offered a congratulations to me for our teams win today along the way. I wish I could've been a part of it.

It wasn't too long that I got back out there, covering the thirty-two jumps in no time. One thing can be said about the power of the small squad, it doesn't take much time to get back into the fight.

We began to warp from gate to gate checking for targets. I had a rough location on a Thrasher, who happened to be in line with an Amarr military complex. A Phobos showed up on scan too, but I wagered he was in one of the belts behind the complex. Turns out I was wrong, and I went completely silent on comms as I emerged from warp on a Phobos.

Heavy Interdictors are always an annoying pain in the ass, moreso when you don't have a gate cloak to give time to figure your situation out. In hindsight I could've tried to activate the gate, but in practice I started to warp to a safe I had just set up. This required me to come to a full stop, turn around, and then gain enough speed to enter warp.

A Phobos has a hell of a locking time, let me tell you. So I was pointed rather quickly. I engaged my damage control, armor repair, and afterburner. He was only seven thousand meters away, and I made a decision to head towards the Phobos to buy myself the time to figure out my situation.

As I passed under five thousand kilometers his medium autocannons found me impossible to track, and I looked ahead of me to see a planet. I aligned and waited. As I passed back into his gun's range, I began to take some heavy damage. I was not optimistic about my chances. He was following, however slowly, and I wasn't making the ground that I needed too.

Around twenty kilometers, the Thrasher came out of warp. He may've been neutral as it seemed he engaged the gate into the Amarr plex. Shortly thereafter though, two Huggins came out of warp. I was now twenty eight kilometers away, and I'd passed out the range of the Phobos's guns. I hit twenty nine kilometers and two Ishtars came out of warp.

The warm glow of webification surrounded my ship, as the Huggins began their work. I cursed loudly but though my speed was decreasing, I had enough momentum to coast out of the Phobos's warp disruption range. As the point fell off my ship, I hit the warp button, seeing ten sentry drones deploy just as my afterburner deactivated for warp.

I broke through comms at this point, screaming almost unintelligibly "Eleven Percent Structure!".

I've always heard, "You don't want to see your own obituary". I've always said "Yes you do, cause if you see it, you're not dead,". Next time your ship is on fire, remember that.

After a quick repair, I was back in space, no worse for wear. We wandered for a couple more system, finding a fan along the way. Venom did a fairly good write up of that encounter, so I suggest you go check out her commnet logs.

Good Day

Killswitch: Chapter One

Chapter List:
Prologue

Meeting the Man

There are two kinds of people in this world, those that are gonna die, and those that are me.
Cruikias Mondet, Minmatar Racing Champion.

After a much quieter second leg, Hallan finally arrived in 6NJ8-V. Venal. The home of the Guristas pirates. He checked the system beacons and found two stations, he recognized the one the instructions had mentioned and engaged warp.

He came out of the warp bubble quickly, and angled his ship for docking.

Hallan Turrek then effortlessly glided his Rifter into the Guristas Logistics Support station, just like he'd done hundreds of thousands of times in the past. This time though the hangars were devoid of crew. He wasn't sure what that meant. He slowly lowered his Rifter onto a landing pad and felt his ship clang as it held his ship down.

"I'm grounded?" He thought from inside his pod, "Oh this ain't normal,"

"We ain't normal, get out of the pod," A voice boomed inside his head.

_______________________

Hallan Turrek was being led by several armed men through the station corridors. It looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in years, the normally shiny interior of the Caldari station was stained with a puke green hue. One of the men grabbed him by the arm and shoved him against a door. The door opened and he was kicked inside. He flew into the room and came down on his knees.

Hallan looked up to see a man sitting behind a desk, who reached forward to turn on a lamp on his desk. Hallan stood up and looked in the man's eyes.

"Sit down," The man said it plainly, without the hint of command in his voice.

"I'm good," Hallan said, dusting off his coat.

"You know, you remind me of a guy who used to work for me, went by the name Zippo," The man behind the desk leaned back and put his boots up in front of him.

"That's a funny name," Hallan said, looking up.

"They're all funny names. Thing is, he had a real problem with authority. Give the guy an order, he'd find some way to shove it up your ass. It's how I ended up with him. One day, 'bout eight years ago I tell this guy before a job, 'Make sure you bring a backup detonator.'

"I mean, Zippo was a professional demo guy. He could make a light show like you wouldn't believe. This was important though, so I felt like saying it. He didn't like it, but he shut up about it. We get to the bank, we break into the vault--"

"Where at?"

"What are you a fucking cop? It's a vault. We break into the vault, we rig up the charges, and it doesn't go off. So I tell him to break out the extra detonator. And he tells me, he didn't bring 'em,"

"So what'd you do?"

"I shot that prick and used mine,"

"What?" Hallan raised an eyebrow.

The man behind the desk threw his feet to the floor and leaned forward into the light, "I told you to fucking sit down,"

Hallan looked around for a moment, laughed softly, and sat down in the chair across from the man.

"Now, who are you?" The man asked, picking up a pen on his desk.

"I'm Hallan Turrek,"

"That's what you're going with, 'I'm Hallan Turrek?'" The man let a half smile cross his face and it quickly faded away.

"That's my name,"

"I know your name jackass. You think I'd let you in this room... you think I'd let you on this station if I didn't know your ident code, what you wear to bed, what you had for breakfast this morning, and who your mom and dad were fucking last night?"

"My Dad's dead,"

"And your Mom's a prude. Let's not get distracted," the man twirled the pen quickly between his fingers, but focused his eyes on Hallan, "Do you at least know who I am?"

"You're Jira..."

"No, that's wrong. We don't play by those rules here. I'm Fatal,"

"Ok,"

"Who are you?"

Hallan stopped for a moment and looked up, "I-I'm Jack,"

"Now we're getting somewhere,"

"I'm here to work for you,"

"I know that,"

"I can be useful," Hallan leaned onto the table as he spoke.

"If you weren't useful you'd have never made it here,"

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to prove to me that I can trust you,"

"How do I do that?"

"You tell me,"

"I've been killing miners, traders, and anti-pirates for months now. I've been stealing from and killing the Cartel on a regular basis," Hallan stopped speaking for a moment as Fatal's pen fell to the table.

"Yeah, the Cartel. They fucking hate you. And I hate them. But I don't really see where killing and stealing from thieves is supposed to get you currency in this exchange," Hallan shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Fatal spoke, "You know the difference between you and me and the cartel?"

"The rules?"

"Not where I was going with that, but I like how you think. You and me? Style. Them? Profit,"

"I try both when I can," Hallan said with a chuckle.

"Me too man, me too," Fatal stared at Hallan intently for a moment and sighed, "Listen, I can't really be sure Concord wouldn't send somebody like you down here to fuck with me, or to spy on me. So here's what we're going to do. Concord's got a nice blockade set up at a stargate we'd been using for smuggling into Empire.

"It's pretty obvious we can't use the gate again, but since you just fell in my lap, I've got an idea. Go find Orvyllerier Allerande on the promenade. He'll get you the coords for the stargate. Go there. Kill them. All of them. Talk to Orvy when you're done.

"If this works out, you report to Orvy from now on. You don't want to see me again. It means something bad is about to happen. I'm letting you know because if that time comes, there's nothing you can do about it,"

Hallan nodded and stood up. He extended his hand and the man shook it. Hallan turned around and walked out the door. Hallan realized the guards were gone and as the door closed behind him, he shivered.

The One Where I Lose 70 Million

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain't no one keepin' score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
And feel the wheels rumblin' neath the floor
Alro Guthrie - City of New Orleans

Jorge Belda, Mynxee, Myself, Sarvic and another unnamed patron sat at a table in the Hub, the Bastards favorite haunt. I leaned back and pushed another pile of chips into the center of the table. The rest of the players looked around a bit and put down their hands in turn, except the man I didn't know, who was sitting directly across from me, next to Mynxee and Sarvic.

"That's fifteen million," He said raising his eyebrow.

"I'm glad you can count, I'd hate for you to not know how much I'm taking from you," I quipped with a chuckle. Mynxee couldn't contain her giggle and his face turned red.

"I'm in," He said with a huff.

"Call," I flipped my hand down, "Full house,"

"Crap," he muttered, throwing his hand down, showing the two pair he'd been betting on.

The man flagged down a waitress and whispered in her ear, softly patting her behind as he leaned back down to the table. She glared in his direction and started walking to the bar. She pointed in our direction as the Bartender looked up and nodded to the man sitting across from me.

"Good hand Hallan," Jorge Belda said before taking the cards for another deal. Before he dealt the hand, the waitress dumped a load of chips onto the table next to the man.

"Lets play for real this time," He said with a chuckle.

_______________________________

I hadn't fared well after that, and after losing seventy million isk I was feeling the hurt. I stood up and began to leave the table but the man grabbed my sleeve as I passed. He was obviously drunk.

"There's that little matter of the Rifter you threw in that last pot," He stood up and looked into my eyes, "I wanna see it."

"You a pod pilot?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, or I'd already have one of those rinky dink things," the waitress from earlier passed by to give Sarvic his drink as the guy pointed in her direction and spit out, "I'll be back in a few for you sweet cheeks,"

I looked over at Mynxee who had a mix of amusement and irritation on her face and mouthed "Sweet Cheeks?!". She shrugged and laughed, and I looked up at the gambler again.

"Lets go get you that ship,"
_______________________________

"It looks like Bruzen shit," The man was leaning against the frame of the door as he observed one of the many Joker's Wilds that was sitting assembled in my hanger.

"So do you, but I had the good sense not to mention it," I said with a chuckle, interrupting him before he could complain, "How's about we take it for a spin?"

"Yeah sure, where do I ride?" He almost fell over as he wobbled towards the ship.

"Oh you know, anywhere," I said with a smile, before climbing aboard myself.

You know, he never did make it back for that date with the waitress.

Killswitch: Prologue

A Path Through The Cold

Run, Run as fast as you can. You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man.
The Gingerbread Man - Traditional Gallente Fairy Tale

The Aces Wild jumped through the gate, and very loudly landed on the other side. The gate induced cloaking laid a veil over the ship as it's pilot surveyed the situation. Hallan Turrek's mind raced inside his pod.

A mobile warp disruption bubble and an Arazu laid between him and the next gate. He slowly turned his camera drones to view his surroundings and noticed a few asteroid belts behind the gate. He told his navigation computer to warp in it's direction, and it quickly did so, shrugging off the cloak as it entered warp.

He landed on three Angel Cartel Battleships and three more Angel Cartel Frigates. Hallan turned his ship around and selected the planet that the next gate orbited and engaged warp again. The Cartel hadn't even managed to target him. That was for the best he imagined, the Cartel would pay a high price for his head.

He opened his navigation menu and created a bookmark just before landing. He then stared at the scene before him in disbelief as he realized he'd been pulled into a warp bubble orbiting the planet. He engaged his prototype cloaking device and began to burn his way out of it. No ships were waiting for him, and he figured he had cloaked before they got a fix on his location as none arrived. When he emerged from the bubble, he engaged his warp to the bookmark he'd created. The Aces Wild shook as it came out of warp again and shimmered softly before disappearing again in the dark night.

Hallan's directional scanner showed five small bubbles surrounding the gate accompanied by a single large bubble and a Caldari Navy Raven. Imagining that support could be on it's way any moment, Hallan dropped cloak again and engaged his warp drive. The Rifter sparkled in the starlight as Hallan's heart began to beat faster. He came out of warp inside a warp disruption bubble, pointed his ship in a direction and engaged his cloak. He was twenty eight kilometers away from the gate. He watched as the Raven headed in his direction. He'd cloaked fast enough to avoid a target lock, but not fast enough to avoid detection.

Hallan cursed mentally as the Raven passed four kilometers from his ship. The cloak would malfunction if anything came within two kilometers and Hallan knew it. Suddenly the Raven released a full load of Ogre's that began an orbit. The drones were regularly coming within three kilometers of his ship. Hallan selected the gate, and readied his microwarp drive. He turned the camera to see a web of warrior one in the direction he was flying. He changed his trajectory and headed towards the gate. He zoomed his camera out and saw that a huge web of warrior one's surrounded the gate. These guys were good.

Suddenly the Arazu came out of warp within five kilometers. So these two were working together. It released it's own load of Hobgoblin two's and began to perform an orbit around the Raven. It inched closer.

"Arazu's don't usually carry warp scramblers," he thought "That Raven would take to long to lock me if it carried a scrambler,"

The Gisti-B type microwarp drive he'd stolen from the Cartel had netted him nothing but trouble from them in the past, but today, he imagined it could save him. If he was right, there was nothing these guys could do about it. The gate was now twenty six kilometers away and his reduced speed while cloaked made that a long wait. The Arazu worried him though, and he decided to stick to plan A until it became prudent to make a run for it.

Then the cloud of Hobgoblin's disappeared into the Arazu's holds. It stopped in space for just a fraction of a moment before warping away. Hallan smiled inwardly and decloaked. He activated the microwarp drive and headed for the gate.

He was faster than the Raven by a long shot. It's lock hadn't even resolved by the time Hallan signaled for gate activation.

His smile melted away as he realized that another bubble awaited him on the other side of that gate.

It was unattended but Hallan knew the Raven was lumbering back to the gate while the Arazu was likely in warp to the gate as well. This system was full of capusleers and his name was probably plastered across all of the local intel channels. Hallan decided to take all available precautions.

He warped to a belt and cloaked. He was thankful the next gate was in scan range. No activity on the scan. He warped in, activated the gate and landed in an empty system.

"That's better," he thought, before engaging warp.