P&P Fiction Contest - The Oxfeld Account

THE OXFELD ACCOUNT by Judas II

APHEND VII – Moon 7 – Carthum Conglomerate Foundry Kador – Amarr Empire

His quarters were remarkable small if they were supposed to home a captain, he thought. Indeed. The room was laid out on two levels, separated by two or three small steps. The great eye catchers were of course the three large screens repeatedly displaying unimaginative advertisement and battle reports from far, far away. In front of the display screens a low coffee table with accompanying couch. He turned around and found a set of cupboards, and a bunk one would not dare sleep in for all the ISK in New Eden.

Next to the uncomfortable looking bunk, in the corner, was a mirror. He walked up to it, paused, and sighed. In front of him stood a reversed image of one very weary ore miner. A short, stocky, middle-aged ore miner with a bewildered set of black hair full of dirt. Leather jacket, leather boots, and yes, leather pants, which were extremely uncomfortable. Marcus Oxfeld gazed his own reflection in the eyes and sighed once more. His Caldarian face was a mess, not to speak of the hair! Ignoring those scars, (for those were hard to hide) his face was covered in space dust.

Having a drink he walked over to the sofa, keeping his eyes on the monitors displaying the latest price index of the Covetor-class Mining Barge. He was so fascinated by the rising stock prices.

Generally, Marcus Oxfeld’s days passed by quietly without much action to speak of, he was an honest and hard worker. Although it commonly should be for an ore pilot, he never kept a journal or log on his space travels. The life on the Gleaner, his Venture-class Mining Frigate, was not much to make a note of. He never particularly enjoyed this line of work either but it was an honest living, of sorts. Marcus was currently on contract for the Carthum Conglomerate Foundry corporation, part of the Amarr Empire in a solar system named Aphend. To be frank, he didn’t care much for the Amarrians and their fanatic weirdo religions.  Oxfeld did what he could to keep his head afloat, knowing, or rather, hoping he would one day earn enough to leave his mining career behind him. But the awful truth is that he didn’t know of any other life other than that of a miner. But there was one other thing. His name. He didn’t quite like it at all. No adventurer or privateer was named Oxfeld. Pathetic.

APHEND IV – Asteroid belt 1

Bit by bit the mining lasers scorched through the rocks, yielding the precious minerals ever so slightly. Veldspar was probably the most common rock you could find in New Eden but a profitable piece of stone nonetheless for it housed the ever-required Tritanium, which was the undeniable cornerstone of the world as he knew it. ‘Trit is love, trit is life’, he cheered to himself from inside the Gleaner.

Upon inspection the Venture’s ore bay was filling up nicely just when a familiar Procurer-class Mining Barge warped in next to him and a Commlink went up.

‘Marc, my man! How’s it going today? How is that Veld coming along, sucking up good, eh? Ha ha!’

‘Good day to you too, Xander. All’s well, as long as you stay away from my rocks, why don’t you take that Pyroxeres over there that nobody wants anyway,’ Oxfeld replied with a smile.

Xander Geolof was of Gallente origin and had met Marcus a good few months ago in a system close by and had decided to keep an eye out for each other ever since. Marcus and Xander got along well, not only because of their equal way of making a living, but also because of their mutual interests in activities outside a mining ship. And that was drinking. A lot of drinking. Booze, spirits, liquor, the hard stuff, by Jove he drank it all, as long as there was a trace of alcohol in it. And for better or worse, so did Xander Geolof.

APHEND VII – Moon 7 – Carthum Conglomerate Foundry

Marcus unloaded his ore bay of the Venture and had it piled, ready for shipment to his contractor. He had been drilling for a couple of hours already and decided now was a good time for a sip of something intoxicating. Some moments later, he indeed found himself heavily intoxicated laying on his sofa in a most unnatural manner. Just then the captain’s quarter’s door opened and Xander Geolof walked in. A most unusual event for some, but certainly not for these miners. The Procurer pilot was a tall lad, much taller than Marcus. Or perhaps Marcus was just rather short indeed, but in any case the two didn’t look like the other at all; Xander Geolof was a large, blonde short-haired man with a merry face. A peculiar feature of his was that both his ears and nose would turn fire-like red after consuming only the tiniest amount of beverage. A remarkable quality. Right now his face was glowing.

Hours passed whilst the two drunks discussed a wide variety of pointless topics as well as just generally dismissing the entire Amarr Empire all together.  At this moment a most unexpected Commlink opened and projected on the quarter’s main screen. The portrait of a security agent appeared and replayed an obvious pre-recorded message.

SLAS RAUNARD

‘Good day, Marcus Oxfeld. My name is Slas Raunard, head security of Carthum Conglomerate Foundry, and I require your assistance ...’

Marcus was completely perplexed by the sudden appearance. This made him instantly sober, he had never had a security agent contact him before, for he was just a simple miner. ‘I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong guy, pal.’

‘A few days ago our security team intercepted an encoded package from the criminal organization the Blood Raiders. So far we have managed to decipher several pieces of information and traced a major complex within the neighbouring system Dresi ...’

‘Do they make this stuff up as they go along, or what?’ Xander wondered out loud.

‘Will you shut up, I’m trying to listen to this,’ replied Marcus.

‘We need you to head over to system of Dresi and follow the coordinates. Find the Blood Raider complex and intercept any information you can get. Any details we get could prevent a future attack. The hidden complex will likely be well guarded by hostile warships. Be prepared and take a wingman with you if you must. This mission is of utmost importance to the Carthum Conglomerate Foundry, and would not go unnoticed in the world. I’m sending you the full details through your NeoCom.

Help us, Marcus Oxfeld, you’re our only hope.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Your only hope? By Jove, what am I supposed to do with this then,’ Marcus reflected. First of all he had no idea where all this was coming from, and secondly he couldn’t remember the last time he sat in a combat vessel before. ‘Blood Raiders, eh, aren’t those the nasty ones?’

AMARR VIII (Oris) – Emperor Family Academy

The Amarr Empire’s main trading hub was eponymously called Amarr too. A colossal place. Or palace, even. Although he was somewhat reticent at first when he arrived he reminded himself he was here for a reason. The Gleaner certainly was a fine Venture but for this next task he would need something better than Mining Lasers. Actual firepower! Marcus Oxfeld had extremely little experience flying any combat ship, but coming from a traditional Caldari line he was schooled in the use of missiles, but again only with slight experience. Another issue was ISK. Or rather the lack of it. He could keep his Venture maintained but a whole new combat ship could be a costly investment. In fact, the main reason he accepted the agent’s contract was the promise of a good amount of hard cash. Browsing through the market availabilities his eye fell on a Caldari Kestrel-class War Frigate, equipped with a full rack of missile launchers. This would do just fine, he convinced himself. Indeed, so did the docking master trying to sell the ship to him; Marcus didn’t need much persuasion when a reseller spoke to him.

‘Excellent damage projection, this one,’ he got told, ‘These launchers make short work of all them you-know-what. In fact, tell you something, I’ll put a proper Afterburner on it for you, no worries. Have you thought about completing it with some ballistic units? Could improve your missiles a great lot further, don’t you know. If you like maybe I can find a cheap shield boost for ya.’

Quite. A shield booster. Marcus hadn’t even thought about it. He didn’t realize until now the potential danger he would be walking into. For ages he flew under the protecting wings of CONCORD, but not this time. He did indeed question the agent why they couldn’t just send CONCORD in there and do the job for them, but the only answer he would get, which he found rather improbable, was that it just “doesn’t work like that”. Doesn’t work like that, he mumbled to himself, then how does it work?

‘Eh, yeah, a shield booster, that’d be good, wouldn’t it. And you can throw me a discount on that?

A couple of hours later Marcus Oxfeld was the proud owner of a new Kestrel-class Frigate, equipped with, missile launchers, afterburners, missile control systems, even a shield boost. The latter he hoped he wouldn’t had to be using at all. He figured the ship would need a name. And a celebration! He symbolically opened a bottle of champagne for his own consumption and baptized his new prize the “Adventure”. For he was to have one indeed.

DRESI – Outside the Royal Amarr Institute station

Marcus and Xander agreed they would meet up outside the Royal Amarr Station with a combat ship and to then draw up a plan of action. A Gallente Thorax-class Attack Cruiser appeared within directional scan range.

‘A Thorax? You’re joking! Where did you get that from?’

‘I sold the Procurer, look, it’s even got Neutron Blast...’ Geolof cheered with great enthusiasm but got interrupted immediately.

‘You what?!’ Marcus cried out, ‘Sold the Procurer? What the blazes were you thinking!’

'Well, I didn't think I'd need it any longer,’ he replied, somewhat surprised by Marcus’s reaction. ‘What, is that a Kestrel you've got there? Ok, so what’s the plan then, rush in all guns blazing?’

Opposite to Marcus, Xander had surprisingly enough slightly more combat experience, but only just. His father forced him to enlist to the Gallente Navy where he flew as a poorly skilled Interceptor pilot. After the death of his father he quickly resigned to pursue other career paths. Due to his drinking behaviour he never quite made it passed the Procurer Barge. He figured this just might be a good opportunity to lead him to another way of life.

‘Well, I’ve been reading over the mission details again that I got from Slas Raunard. The complex is probably split up into multiple zones, we’d need to go through them all and see what we can find. It’s now or never, I guess.’

Marcus was convinced. Now or never, he repeated to himself. The two brave-hearts initiated their warpdrives and jump off towards the unknown.

DRESI – Deadspace

There it was, right in front of them. They beheld an ancient acceleration gate with great excitement. Neither knew what they were to expect. They activated the gate and their warpdrives kicked in again. Marcus was pumped, full of excitement Full of fear.

‘Hey, you got insurance on that....’  Marcus couldn’t finish his sentence. Their ships had exited the warptunnel and landed at the Blood Raider complex. ‘Would you look at that...’ he stammered in awe. He had never seen anything like this in his life.

Before them in a near distance laid the ruins of some sort of small outpost. It was barely visible as it was surrounded by a cloud of red dust. Blood red, he thought, most fitting. The Adventure carefully approached the Amarrian structure, followed by the Thorax behind him. They noticed that close to the outpost another acceleration gate was anchored. The ruined outpost didn’t look very lively, as most ruined structures are, so they figured their best bet was to follow through the next acceleration gate. Indeed, they were told that the complex would consist out of multiple areas. ‘Doubt we can salvage anything out of this,’ Geolof hinted towards the outpost.

But then, more than half a dozen warships appeared before them! Frigates, even Destroyer-class Blood Raiders came rushing and crushing towards the two pioneers.

‘I’m getting locked up,’ a nervous voice said coming from the Thorax.

‘Blast ‘em, blast ‘em!’ Marcus echoed back whilst he readied his missile launchers. Laser fire crossed space left and right and the Thorax responded with volley after volley from his blaster cannons.

‘Low on shields, this armor repper better work, no wait, they switched fire, I think.’ Indeed, the Kestrel was now the focus point of the Raiders’ attention. Marcus had his closest target locked and fired a salvo off his missile battery. Boom! ‘One down, five to go’, he encouraged himself. His afterburner gave him a good thrust as he zipped passed the Destroyers. Two down! Xander too did an astonishing job hitting their foes but they didn’t want to linger any longer than they had to.

‘Let’s leg it, the gate is almost there!’ the two told each other. But the Adventure was not in agreement; it was stasis webified and drastically slowed down by the Blood Raiders. The Blood lasers blistered through the poor Frigate’s defenses.

‘Kick it!’ Xander shouted at Marcus, referring to his shield booster, ‘Now, now!’ A blue hue appeared around the Kestrel’s hull and boosted up his shield defense, again and again. No time to linger indeed, and he fired another volley of missiles into space, and again. Along the zapping of repeating blaster fire the Blood Raiders were bleeding well, till their raiding was no more and all that was left were the red coloured dust clouds.

‘Good shot, my good sir!’ Oxfeld commented on his partner in a jokingly posh manner.

‘Why indeed, thank you, sir! And you, well done!’ Xander putting up a mighty chic tone. ‘Wondrous!’ they laughed.

Marcus Oxfeld felt good. His fears got replaced by pure adrenaline and was more than ready to continue the mission, plus he was really looking forward to a good bottle of brandy afterwards. The two took a last look at the ruins and confirmed their scanners picked up nothing of interest and moved towards the acceleration gate. “Intercept any information you can get”, Marcus reflected the agent’s words, but he wasn’t entirely sure what sort of information he should be looking for. Data logs? Cargo? He hoped he would find something so very obvious he couldn’t be mistaken.

‘Alright, let’s go then, I’m activating the next acceleration gate again.’ Marcus followed the Cruiser into a deeper pocket of the so-called deadspace. What he found at the end of the warptunnel almost gave him a heart attack. Dozens upon dozens of Blood Raider warships popped up on his scanners, all of them pointing their blooded noses at the two.

‘Maybe not, eh,’ cried Xander.

‘No, no, we can do this! See that cluster of Frigates to your right, just forty clicks out, take them out. I’m going to fly right through the main blob, that will get their attention no doubt! We’ll pick them off one by one, let’s focus our weapons!’ He didn’t know what had come over him, but Marcus felt more confident than he had ever been in his life. It felt like a turning point and he wouldn’t let it pass uninvolved. Geolof acknowledged his mate’s order and started burning starboard. Meanwhile the Kestrel’s afterburner began thrusting again and headed straight ahead towards a group of Blood Raider Cruisers.

Marcus was too busy dodging laser fire he didn’t noticed a peculiar looking Amarr Bestower-class Industrial vessel anchored to a minor outpost the Blood Raiders were guarding. It would only be until after the fight that he realized this Bestower was carrying a mother lode of illegal drug, mostly combat boosters. Among the debris of the smoking Industrial wreck they would find a detailed trade log belonging to the Blood Raiders. Exactly what their mission agent was looking for. This achievement definitely deserved a bottle of brandy, no, two!

APHEND VII – Moon 7 – Carthum Conglomerate Foundry

SLAS RAUNARD

‘Excellent work, Marcus Oxfeld. We, and indeed the Amarr Empire is grateful to your services. I am sending you your reward in credits along with this message.’

Marcus Oxfeld counted his ISK, every million of it. He had never been as rich as he was now! Mister Raunard the security agent was pleased, and had rewarded them well, but for now his job was done. He had retreated back to the old trusty Gleaner and continued his quiet routine of drilling for Veldspar, but he couldn’t deny the thrill he got from combatting the Blood Raiders. In the following evenings Oxfeld and Geolof would sit together accompanied with a crate of port wine. Gallentean port, the proper stuff, grown and processed in Caille. The two, especially Marcus reviewed their actions with great enthusiasm.

‘Who would have thought it,’ he said to the former Procurer pilot, ‘Us taking on the Blood Raiders! By ourselves! What a feat, eh, Xander!’ He was very proud of himself. ‘Oh I wish I could do it all over again, and again all over! Pass me that bottle will you. Not that one to your left. Thanks.’

‘This one? Here you go. So why don’t we?’ asked Geolof daftly and handed over the port.

‘What do you mean? The Raiders? They are gone. It was a hypothetical statement,’ he answered, but then remembered the fact Xander had sold his Mining Barge and the only vessel he had of note was his new Thorax. At least Marcus still had his Venture but he knew his good partner would not want to go back to mining. The last few days, ever since their combat encounter Geolof had hardly undocked. He would spend his time walking in the station, which turned out very uneventful time after time, whilst Marcus kept harvesting Tritanium for his contractor. The nights they would spend together mostly drunk.

‘Well, have you at least asked Raunard if he had any more work for us?’

‘No, I haven’t,’ confessed Marcus. He had his reasons. During his drunken hours at night he did not care for any more action, as long as he had enough ISK to import more spirits. During his sober hours he was mining, and if he were to be honest, he was a little scared to do it again, despite him bragging about it towards Xander. Truth is he was proud of his feat, his achievement, and he did enjoy the thrill, but somehow he thought it was mere luck that kept him alive, and he wouldn’t risk his skin for it twice. ‘No – no, I haven’t contacted Slas Raunard again. You think I should?’

‘Well, we did pretty well, didn’t we? There’s good money on it, be fair, Marcus, loads better than mining, Jove curse it. Dammit, do we have another bottle of brandy?’

The next few days were quite unremarkable. Xander Geolof said he had some business to attend to closer to home within the borders of the Gallente Federation, which left Marcus alone for a couple of days. Things weren’t the same though. He thought about the conversation he had with Xander and kept thinking of his mission agent. One fine morning it happened again. He had just drank the most disgusting coffee he had ever had, (a typical Amarrian “quality”), and was about to undock the Gleaner Venture when Slas Raunard made contact for a second time.

‘Got another job for me?’ asked Marcus Oxfeld curiously.

SLAS RAUNARD

‘Why, yes, Marcus Oxfeld, something has just came up. One of our facilities right here in Aphend got sabotaged by a squad of infiltrators belonging to the Sansha’s Nation. We would like you to go in and stop this menace. Be wary, they are both armed and dangerous. I’m sending you the details to your NeoCom. By the way, I took the liberty to upgrade your Kestrel-class Frigate. Make good use of it.’

Marcus did not had to think long. He knew Xander was not here to aid him but it did not stop him – an offer like this could not passed along. He had been too held back to contact Slas himself but if the agent came to him then it surely meant business. Slas Raunard needed his help, right now, right here, in Aphend! He threw the appalling Amarrian coffee away and jumped in the Adventure.

When he undocked he had realized the Adventure was indeed fitted quite differently. The agent had made room for a Target Painter module and the Afterburner was replaced by a Micro Warp Drive! ‘By Jove, man, this guy is made of money!’ Marcus cried out. He simply couldn’t believe it.

APHEND – Deadspace

As the Adventure exited its warpdrive Marcus observed a field of wrecked ships in front of him. Tens of them, all of which belonged to the Sansha’s Nation. Someone has already been here, he thought to himself. Just ahead laid another acceleration gate. He activated it and went through. On the other side he found a badly damaged station as if an attack had just happened. Most likely the work of the mentioned saboteurs! There had been no other ships on the grid when he arrived but when he approached the outpost a Destroyer undocked from it. A Sansha’s Nation Destroyer! Both parties didn't hesitate a moment and proceeded to lock each other up. But before Marcus could activate his shield defenses a beam laser scorched the Adventure’s wings. ‘Oh boy, not good!’ as he readied his launchers. ‘Don’t panic, Marcus!’ he cried to himself. He fired a volley of missiles at the enemy Destroyer but hardly breached its defenses whilst more laser fire hit him. His shield booster had a real proper time catching up with the incoming fire and it looked as if it wasn’t going to hold. ‘Wait, wait! Don’t panic, DON’T PANIC!’ Just then he remembered his newly acquired Target Painter which would literally “light” the Destroyer up. The Target Painter would work as a guidance system for his missiles, drastically increasing its chances for a hit. And indeed the missile went home! The Destroyer was losing its shield rapidly now! Another salvo, and another! But the fight was not over yet. Marcus’ Kestrel was getting in dangerous low shield when the Sansha pirate took another course of action; he legged it! It turned about and started burning away from the Adventure with increasing velocity. But Marcus would have none of it! He activated the Micro Warp Drive and chased him down with great fury. He aimed the Target Painter a final time and launched another volley of his missile launchers. The Nation’s Destroyer was now nothing more than a burning scrapheap of metal fragments.

He reviewed his Kestrel; missile launchers emptied, no shields, armor breached half-way. ‘Phew – good thing I didn’t panic...’ A Commlink went up.

SLAS RAUNARD

‘Well done, Marcus Oxfeld. I just got word the demolishers are dealt with. Loot their cargos; it appears a very specific document was taken from the outpost. We need it returned immediately. Do not return it to me. Bring it to my colleagues in Bordan V – Noble Appliance Factory. I will contact you again once I have received clearance from them.’

The Sansha’s Nation Destroyer wreck had indeed a sealed cargo container in it, and very lucky it wasn’t destroyed or even damaged. But Oxfeld did face a problem, though. The Bordan system had a low security rating. A system housed by harmful people that would have no greater pleasure than to destroy any by-passer coming through that pipe. Damn pirates. And not to speak of his badly damaged Kestrel Frigate. Marcus knew that Raunard would not give him a dime of ISK before successfully completing his objectives, and if he was send to Bordan then that is what he would have to do. He just didn’t like it one bit. But first he had to get his priorities straight: he needed a cold beer.

APHEND VII – Moon 7 – Carthum Conglomerate Foundry

He was more than pleased to see Xander Geolof returning to his base station when he saw the Thorax docked up at the hangar bays. The two quickly met up and Marcus was anxious to tell him what was going on. He also noticed how Geolof’s ears and nose were glowing again.

‘For real? You went in all alone? You’re crazy!’ Xander danced around, nearly spilling his cognac in excitement.

‘I know, I know! But I need your help. Or cash. Or both, actually. I see you still got the Thorax, marvellous! First I need to get the Adventure patched up and then I need to find this system called Bordan. Do you know this place?’

‘Yeah, cakewalk,’ and Xander poured himself another glass.

‘Cakewalk? It’s low security space! How exactly do you consider that a cakewalk?’ Marcus knew he shouldn’t really be drinking all that much right now, but he couldn’t help himself within the company of his friend.

‘Well, you know, it’s not like its null-sec, I mean, come on. Besides, I’ve seen low-sec before during my time in the service.’

‘Right... And how long have you been in the Navy again?’

‘That’s classified.’

The two were on their way to become uncontrollable drunk but it did not bother them one bit. Marcus had become slightly more conciliatory towards the Amarr Empire (especially after the security agent handed them over a bag of money for their work), so they would now had to target their drunken malice towards something else. The Sansha’s Nation would be suitable, they figured.

‘They’re as bad, if not worse than the Blood Raiders, aren’t they. That Destroyer was proper- tough! Bloody Sansha, and their bloody lasers.’

‘You know,’ Xander went on, ‘I’ve heard the Sansha would invade a planet and kidnap everyone, then brainwash them to turn into slaves. True Slaves, they call them!’

‘Woah – no way!’ Marcus yelled in a voice that was not entirely his own anymore after so many drinks.

‘A story like that has got to be true!’

The next morning they would start their short journey towards Bordan, a mere six or so jumps from Aphend. The Kestrel and Thorax pilots both denied the fact they were still somewhat intoxicated from the night before but didn’t want to come out like a total wimp. Oxfeld made sure the sealed package was in his cargo hold, nicely labelled with the destination station. They approached the first stargate and moved through, system after system, till they reached the Zimmem system, one jump out of Bordan.

ZIMMEM – The last high-sec on the Bordan-stargate

‘We’ll be alright in there, you said? It’s safe, right?’ asked Marcus.

‘Safe? Yeah, it’s... I mean, it’s pretty safe. It’s like picking red at roulette. Safest bet in the house.’ Marcus sighed. ‘That will have to do, I guess... Here goes!’

BORDAN – Low security space

The Bordan V station was easy enough to find. The station belonged to the Noble Appliances Factory, an Amarr corporation that specializes in customized jewellery for the Amarr overlords. Interesting? Not at all; the only thing on Marcus’ mind was the fact there were fifteen astronomical units between him and that vault – just out of scan range.

‘Got anything on your directional scanner?’ ask Marcus to his Gallente wingman anyway.

‘Nada, let’s make a run or it.’ Geolof replied, and activated his warpdrive without actually waiting for a response from Marcus. In response the Adventure’s warpdrive got set into motion too. The station got closer and closer till it finally appeared in front of them. With their minds rushed they quickly docked up and dropped off the cargo for their agent Slas Raunard, confirmed the deed and a moment later Marcus saw his wallet balance skyrocket.

‘We’re loaded!’ he shouted at Xander in delight whilst looking at his unbelievable amount of ISK, and Xander, whose first response in return was to look for a bottle of liquor he might have kept in his Cruiser, for celebrations. Xander Geolof would often keep a few with him, just in case. However, they decided it would be best to make their way to Aphend first, after all they were still in low security space. Xander wasn’t impressed though.

‘You see, all this low-sec stuff, it's a cakewalk! Told you! Nothing to worry about, at all,’ and climbed in his Thorax again to depart from the station.

‘You know,’ said Marcus, ‘maybe it’s about time we team up with Raunard.’

‘I hope this corp has a wine cellar,’ Geolof nodded.

Marcus agreed, ‘Ain’t that right. Now let’s get out of here.....’

Daily Adventures of the One Eyed Buccaneer: A Journal

Hello Internet! A couple of weeks ago I started with a daily journal that I kept on the Dark-Rising corp forums about the things I do in EVE as a semi social experiment. I kept that journal going for one month exactly and I thought it might be fun to share it here too.

I don't expect everyone to read it from top to bottom but I think there are some amusing bits to scroll through. Hope you like it.

Friday, 22th May

* Flying a Jump Freighter is sloooww, but all of Flax's courier jobs are done for now.

* Spend silly monies on a new implant set, but my Ares interceptor now warps 20 AU/s weeeeeee

* (Thankfully) missed a Galmil derp against SNUFF but joined a Joint Op with DARK and DSC flying Crack Pigs (SFIs), good brawl, no losses. Frapsed!

Saturday, 23th May

* Made and uploaded a video of last night's SFI fleet, DSC seems to like it too.

* Bought a Blarpy for Raz Almight so he doesn't have to fly a Ferox for lvl 3 missions anymore.

* Played an action-race game with Mitch Taylor called 'Gas GuzzlersExtreme', hopefully more players to come, lots of fun.

* Joined Shock Fist on T1 Cruiser fleet in Akidagi - no targets.

Sunday, 24th May

* Started this series!

* Spam spam spam the Recruitment thread on the eve-o forums.

* Dark's Facebook is getting more likes. Shout out to all of you; if you got a funny video or peculiar, perhaps witty screenshot, share it with us, the internets will love you.

* Fitted a Cov Cyno Manticore to move Shock's Widow, cynod three times and failed to jump three times because Shock doesn't understand lightyears.

* Mmmmm new recruits. Meat shield!

Monday, 25th May

* Woke up to read my alt had finished Astrometric Pinpointing to V overnight, and that concludes a long long skillplan to perfect probing alt \o/

* Sank a Myrmidon but the pilot ejected before the bang. He wrote: (transl.) "such a shame when old players kill newcomers: (("

* Cloaky Tengu and cloaky Stratios are sneaky, but Combat Recons are sneakier! 1.25b turned to space dust.

* I don't mind talking with noobish recruits, butt wuld be nyce if they culd speek ienglish . . .

* Very interesting encounter with a bait Procurer Mining Barge in a belt. +6 killmails for me! (CNH, Nemesis, Kestrel, Thorax, Procurer, Tristan)

Tuesday 26th May

* Rocket Specialization V completed. You never know when you might need that 2% extra damage. Jackdaw (Caldari T3D) I'm ready for ya!

* Earlier ISK investment is taking a promising -very interesting- turn. Let's see how it plays out over time.

* "Fortune favours the bold", as they say . . . A Ferox engaged my Curse on a Station. A very unwise decision of him.

* Merc wardec is ending tonight. Hoist the colours! Set sails for Jita!

Wednesday 27th May

* Headache ;(

* Logged in a highsec alt to discover a fuckton of LP stashed that I should be using. Not sure on what yet.

* Speaking of LP, helped Aesir run some lvl 4 FW missions in Black Rise. Blarpy set up proves to be the winner again, as long as it doesn't get neuted and or jammed. I think these missions are best done in small groups any way.

* Wish my sec-status wasn't -10 . . . Presidente found an Orca in high-sec with a Killright on it. Hope he gets the kill though.

* Joined DSC on a roam through Cloud Ring. Shocking to see half of it doesn't belong to EXE anymore. How quick things can turn around.

Thursday 28th May

* Fuck Frigates.

* Fuck 'em.

* Who the fuck would want to fly Frigates. Ever.

* So I got myself a new Dramiel, been ages since I sat in one. Lost it instantly, got a new one, lost that too in exactly the same fashion. rip.

 Friday 29th May  

* Well, whoop-tee-do! Got a Firetail and killed a T1 Frigate. The problem I have with Frig fights is it's so typical 'Rock, Papers, Scissors.' There is hardly any tactics involved, because fights don't last longer than 8 seconds. There is no 'Plan B' in dogfights, no alternative maneuvers. Gimme back my Cruisers!

* Traded my Astarte in for a Deimos. A downgrade in some people’s eyes, but not mine. Hope I get some fun out of this one! Dual prop dual rep fit wooo!

* Had a very interesting and meaningful Director meeting last night about the future of Dark and social media.

* Squid Pig fleet! Navy Ospreys and RR Ospreys. Sadly no kills tonight except for a Shuttle.

 Saturday 30th May  

* In an back alley somewhere in London there’s a party going on tonight . . .

* Popped a Covetor. “Sniper Strelkov > You fucking idiot. i`m civil!!!!” Oh, the irony.

* And I guess kids don’t need no T2 Guns or even Gyrostabs anymore to fly a Machariel nowadays. A sad state of affairs indeed!

* And I’m so glad I got that Deimos fitted up. Caught a Charon Freighter on a gate and my Diemost had no problem dealing with the sentries!

* Funny little encounter on the Station’s undock. A Proteus was called in to protect an undocking Tayra from harm. Naturally, the Tayra went down with a single volley, long with the 80m capsule, and all the Proteus could do was sit and watch.

 Sunday 31th May  

* Been offline most of the day, but had a fun 2v1 with a Moa and a Maller vs my Deimos. Otherwise not much action, but I’m still in a good mood of yesterday’s Charon and Naglfar.

 Monday 1th June  

* Back in Jita. What a night. Two unfitted Scorpions. Then some Calmil guys started to form a fleet against us, I hopped in on their TS and joined their counter fleet. They undocked with a Scorpion Navy Issue, a Raven, and some light shit. Against all probabilities the SNI was full neut fitted instead of missiles and neuted Plague’s Vindicator. We killed the SNI and the Raven, but due the cap issue we had to use two neutral Guardians which thus became global and got killed.

* Wardecced – big surprise.

* Lost the Diemost against a  little gang, I guess two Vagabonds, a Loki and a Confessor was a bit too much.

* However, 10 minutes later we stumbled upon a Hurricane and a shitfitted Garmur along with a nice 800m pod.

 Tuesday 2th June  

* Phantasm vs solo Scorpion started as a nice brawl till he neuted out my DPS and finally got a lucky jam. Scorpion warped in structure. Le sad.

* PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY PATCH DAY Jackdaw wooooo!!

* Marmite Dominix (Wardec) in Jita, but when we logged in he didn't want to fight us ... ;(

* Met a .EXE newbro in Kubinen, three days old character. He didn’t quite know his way around. Helped him set up his clone home station and blasted his ass back to Branch.

* Picked up a lovely Marauder SKIN 4-pack from the New Eden Store, and saved myself some AUR. The Kaalakiota Golem SKIN is absolutely stunning! And a POLICE KRONOS!

 Wednesday 3th June  

* Two Jackdaws down in Jita, and three more within the wreck of a Badger … oopsie

* Marmite (Wardec) finally showed up. We shot a Vindicator into structure when they undocked another Vindi with two RR Nestors. Couldn’t fight that, sadly. But no losses on our end. 

* Apparently it’s very "unhonorable" to shoot neutral people in lowsec – according to a poor Thorax pilot.

 Thursday 4th June  

* Got myself a Jackdaw \o/

* Much rockets

* Wow Caldari

* Very missiles

* Did some minor forum management, fiddling with the horrible vBulletin crap, glad that’s done.

* Found an Ishtar in a DED site, took his homeless Geckos and C-Type of his wreck (Curse ftw!), and then continued to finish the DED itself for another 200m drop, not a bad way of making some ISK.

* NEED MOAR ROCKETS This Jackdaw spits them out, like, like … why, like a spitter!

* Joined an amazingly fun fleet with Dopified from Galmil, loads and loads of fun kills.

 Friday 5th June  

* After a few easy ganks I got to use the Jackdaw in a proper fight versus two other Destroyers at once, and with great success!

* Stabber Fleet Issue roam with DSC – no targets ;( rip black rise

 Saturday 6th June  

* Spend a fair amount of time stalking a Rattlesnake and a Raven in a WH, only to find out the Raven was warp core stabbed … and the Rattlesnake never showed up. God damn them.

* Two month old pilots really, really shouldn’t be flying a Battleship. I hope this Tempest guy learned his lesson, though I doubt it. Missed a Raven kill, but got a random Tempest instead, I can live with that.

* A Drake and a Hurricane warped to the top belt and … just sat there. Top belt is never a good place to sit at. Cleverly pointed one while shooting the other resulted in two killmails.

* What a stroke of luck! Another Battleships; an Apocalypse this time. He had a faction Armor Repairer fitted, which unfortunately got scooped by the MTU. I popped the MTU but the Repper didn’t drop. Still, such luck! Two Battlecruisers and two Battleships on a day!

* Couple of Stealth Bombers tried to shoot an offline POS. Got two of them while the rest ran away and pooped in local chat for a good two hours. Sigh.

 Sunday 7th June  
* A quiet sunny Sunday, not even much action in Jita today.
* Obvious cyno Prophecy is obvious; bumping and locking up my Phantasm on Station. Not gonna happen, buddy.
* Great monthly corp meeting this evening, with a great community future ahead of us!
* Preparing Black Ops action for upcoming week. It's been too long since I did some Blopsing.
* Played some Star Conflict with a few corpies after the meeting.

 Monday 8th June  

* Spend the morning shuttling and moving the Jump Freighter around, all the way down south to Irshah, so I got myself a new Panther and ditched the Redeemer. Let’s goooo!

* Came across a dead-end system with 11 Procurer-mining barges in an icebelt. Unfortunately they warped off again just when I decloaked. I went AFK for two hours doing some gardening and when I came back they had returned. Managed to catch two Procurers with the Panther. Their swarms of combat drones did some significant damage – till I smartbombed them off field.

* About to hotdrop on two Ishtars when a known PL cyno Legion uncloaked with me! Thankfully got both the Tengu and Panther out for the loss of two Geckos.

* Talking with a new recruit on TS, but instead of playing EVE we did some Magicka \o/

* Does anyone remember a little system called Van…?

 Tuesday 9th June  

* IN DARK-RISING FOR THREE YEARS! How did it ever get this far …  

* Had to abort my solo Black Ops trip for a day because I got word an angry miner was looking for me. For revenge! I jumpcloned back to Kubinen to find his Tristan. And after one laser volley his wreck.

* A Gnosis was running a DED site but sadly forgot to MJD out when I only long-pointed him. And a minute later a Jackdaw that fell a bit short on his 400m deadspace-fitted tank when facing a set of Heavy Beam lasers. This is the EVE pirate life coming true – over the last months I made hundreds if not billions on ISK by shooting other people in the face. I love it.

* New corp forums! \o/ Looking good!  

 Wednesday 10th June  

* No action ;( Did a LOT of jumping around with the Black Ops. Found and tackled a Stratios in a Relic site with my Cyno Tengu, but it turned out to be a special Sleeper site where the cyno wouldn’t lit … Oh it vexes me so. Better luck tomorrow.

 Thursday 11th June  

* Tried to bait a Stratios but he wouldn’t bite. I need more neut alts …

* Taking a break from Black Ops and parked it in Kubinen. My little trip of this week: http://i.imgur.com/uusVAFa.png

* Accidently jumpcloned to the ‘wrong’ clone and ended up with Crystal implants instead of my trusty Snakes. But got to put them to good use flying my ASB Vagabond against a high DPS Gila.

* Played some more Star Conflict with Aesir and Mitch, I think I’m slowly getting the hang of it.

 Friday 12th June  

* Star Conflict

* Star Conflict

* Star Conflict

* Star Confi…

* Str.. Con...

* send help please …

* So after 5 hours of Star Conflict I actually log in into EVE, and guess what, instantly a Raven undocks and meets its doom to me.

 Saturday 13th June  

* Thorax, Prophecy, Harbinger and Augorer gate camping. Solo’d the Thorax and the rest ran away … What’s wrong with people these days.

* Missed 16:00s BC fleet but apparently it was really good. Joined 18:00s Bomber fleet which was less so successful. Hotdropped two Vigilants but nobody thought about pointing them so they warped off … Good an Exequror instead, but still.

 Sunday 14th June  

* Oh no what have I done … spending monies on SC …

* Caught a Drake in one of the new ‘Burner missions’, by god, they are tough! I popped the Drake quiet easily but before I knew it I was 5 times scrammed and webbed by elite NPCs and there was no way of killing while they ripped through my Deimos’ tank. Mael Chalbi came to the rescue but paid the ultimate price: the NPCs changed their tackle to his Gila while I warped in half structure. RIP Mael ;( 

 Monday 15th June  

* Lately Flax has been slaxing … flacking … eh, anyway, did some more courier contracts in the morning.

* Pvp op with Mitch in Vlil, grabbed some Police Thrashers to cause some trouble! Got a nice shiney Astero with an equally shiney capsule.

* Caldari Tactical Destroyer V done; it gives the 2 second reload on missile launchers which is quite brilliant! Now, onwards with Marauder V … hmm I wonder how that will end.

 Tuesday 16th June  

* Took the Jackdaw out for a spin and slaughtered a Thrasher. He congratulated me on my tank and then dared me for a second fight against his nano’d-Claymore-boosted CN Hookbill. I think not.

* More Jackdaw fun later in the afternoon. A Navy Comet, Catalyst, Tristan and Navy Slicer jumped on top of me. Sank the Comet is no time, Catalyst ran away, but the Tristan and Slicer kited my Jackdaw for a while. They were just a few hundred m/s faster, oh how I wished I was in my Snake clone … However, the Slicer ran out of cap and slowed down, and then died very quickly. The Tristan couldn't bear the sight and quickly left.

* Having just recovered from an intense little fight I returned to find a Caracal in a large outpost. Along with two Navy BCUs in his low slots. A well-deserved killmail I think. I am digging this Jackdaw! Some bits Frapsed, might make a video later on.

* Met a nice Galmil dude along the way (helped with the Caracal) who just might be looking for a new corp, who knows!

* I need a new Jackdaw … Or maybe three. Four? 

 Wednesday 17th June  

* Got some new Jackdaws \o/ Always good to have some spares around you.

* Sank a tripple-warpstabbed Tayra while he was undocking and trying to warp out. Funny how stabs can give you that false sense of security, even when you got Heavy Beam laser fire coming at your face.

* Jackdaw shines again! A poor man’s Drake will never see the light of day again. And in the same belt there was a Mordu’s Legion Cruiser NPC which dropped a nice Orthrus-BPC.

 Thursday 18th June  

* Out of boredom we Black Ops hotdropped a Venture in an Ore complex. Dropped a 30mil mining upgrade module, I guess that makes up for the fuel.

* Thrasher called me a ‘noobie’ and then ran away from my Jackdaw ;( Tough life.

* Started working on a new video, some short clips showing off the Jackdaw.

* Joined AF fleet with corp.

 Friday 19th June  

* Amateurs. Scrubs in T1-Frigates and Svipuls (meta fitted Svipuls, mind you) tried to take on my Phantasm with little success. The only vexing thing was that a Griffin had me heavily jammed. Still, we got one of the Svipuls and some of the Frigate.

* A few minutes later a meta fited Navy Slicer. What is happening !!!

* Got report of a Vindicator flying around close by with some Cruiser back up. Interesting enough the Vindicator logged off in space, his companions leaving him behind. The result: 1.6b ISK wrecked.

* Oh, dear: oh, dear. Faction fitted Stratios undocked from my Station, fired up his MWD and that is all he did … 400m down along with a 250m pod, very very odd. He could have easily docked up again but never considered to do so.  

 Saturday 20th June  

* Devoted the entire day to catch an Obelisk on his weekly routine hauling run. He had escaped me near a dozen times already but today I will catch him. Ran a locator agent on him to confirm he was in Jita, logged off.

* Pre-DT: Cyno Tengu in place on the highsec gate, Panther ready next door to jump to it.

* Post-DT: All characters ready, moved an alt in Jita to shadow him once he logs in.

* 1300h: Where is he?

* 1400h: Come on dude.

* 1500h: Y U NO WEEKLY ROUTINE PLZ

* 1600h: RIP Saturday afternoon

* 1700h: Please at least log in …

* 2000h: le sad. Guess no Obelisk today.

* Well at least I got to hotdrop a Raven passing through a gate. T1 shit fit, but got to use the Panther …

* Funny little mishap when an Iteron Mark V looted the Raven wreck and thus triggered aggression against me.

 Sunday 21th June  

* What a day. Obelisk pilot logged in about an hour after DT in Jita. He undocked his Obelisk and started moving towards the lowsec pocket I was camping…

* He arrived in the last highsec system, turned around and went to god damn Amarr.

* I continued to shadow him to Amarr, then to Dodixie of all places.

* He finally returned to his highsec base next to lowsec, he WARPED TO THE LOWSEC GATE and …

* Turned around, went to his safe POS and logged off in highsec. Mother fucker. Sunday wasted and still no Obelisk kill. Moral: low.

 Monday 22th June  

* The last entry of this daily journal! It has been one month, and what a month!

* Caught a Caracal passing through the gate and luckily I was out and about with my Cyno Tengu: Panther strikes again!

* Was looking for a Kestrel in a belt so I took the Jackdaw for a spin – the Kestrel ran away but just then an Arty Wolf warped on top of me! Well, well, well, that was a short lived adventure for him.

* Double X-Large ASB PvP Dominix was a tough nut to crack, but we got him down!

--- To those who have been reading and following this, I hope you enjoyed it and I thank you for your time. I enjoyed writing them up and showing what I keep myself occupied with in New Eden.

As I’m writing this last note I read back on some of the entries I have written down the last month, and I amuse myself with events that occurred which I’ve already forgotten about myself, such as a wild Ferox that aggressed my Curse; the terrible failing attempts with my Dramiels; the empty fitted Scorpions in Jita. All these little things that had slipped from memory, and if I didn’t write them down I would probably never remembered them.

Lately I noticed that people log in to EVE and ask the cursed question “Anything going on?” Sadly, more than often the reply is that of a negative one and the person then logs off with the illusion there is nothing to do in EVE.

Well, I hope the journal has proved my point there is always stuff going on all around you, everywhere! All you need to do is undock and open your eyes and you’ll find it. Good luck and have fun! o7

Thanks for reading. 

DARK Knights - Black Ops PVP video

A few months ago I wrote a post about the DARK Knights (Dark-Rising Black ops wing): http://judasii.blogspot.nl/2015/03/dark-knights-ride-again-aar-22th-march.html

Today I present you a Black Ops video of a few of those actions back then as well as some new material. Lately I've been cruising around in my Cyno Tengu again and found a few interesting targets. I won't write a full report this time but here is a the new video. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Feedback is welcome as ever.

Factional Warfare: HOMEFRONT

Factional Warfare; the clash of empires, the eternal conflict; the empyrean age; the spinning of buttons in tech one Frigates. Factional Warfare (FW) is a lot of things, but FW is mostly recognised for the ongoing struggle over low-sec systems between the four Empires. It has exciting unique mechanics that lets players fight for the “sovereignty” of low-sec systems and gain all sorts of fancy bonuses. High-sec is an altogether different story, though. High-sec gates are patrolled by the (not so) fierce Navy NPCs at all times, ready to smash down any enemy of the state; a player of the opposite faction. This blog is about combatting exactly that; FW Highsec PVP. To put into context, FW is divided into two parties: Caldari and Amarr VS Gallente and Minmatar. I.e., a Caldari militia pilot that would enter Gallente and Minmatar high-sec space gets hunted down by the NPCs. Similar CONCORD and the Custom Officers, the higher you go, the more fierce the NPCs react. Though the NPCs will never warp scramble a player, they will use all other ewar at their disposal to disable you. Starting with webs, up to Energy neuts and ECM. This is where high-sec dwelling gets tricky. 0.5 high-sec systems are relatively easy to deal with: a ship with a half decent local-tank can easy hold itself against the NPCs. You will deal with two webbing Frigates and two sensor-damping Cruiser (that will respawn immediately upon destruction), but as long as you got enough Sensor boosters and are just sitting (read: camping) on a gate, it is not a problem. A few hundred DPS tank is enough to keep the Cruiser damage at bay, which is quite easily achievable on a T3 Cruiser or a BS. People have been doing this for many years, camping enemy high-sec 0.5 traffic lanes, and have been doing quite successfully. The only problem is that local-tanking the NPC damage is only really doable in 0.5 system. As with 0.6 system and beyond the incoming damage is much much hazardous. Whereas two cruisers and two frigates are no problem in 0.5, a 0.6 system spawns an Energy neuting Battleship which makes local-tanking nearly impossible, not to speak of the extra incoming DPS. 0.7 and 0.8 systems spawns more Battleships, and 1.0 you will even face ECM. Again, all this means that camping in high-sec was more or less “restricted” to 0.5 systems only. But this did not stop us. As members of the Gallente militia, our ultimate goal is to camp Jita, the economic heart of EVE. Of course, Jita is surrounded by high level security systems, and Jita itself is a 0.9 system too. Our gate camping Arty Lokis wouldn’t stand a chance against the Navy police. There had to be another way.

Thankfully, the Navy AI is miraculously unintelligent. It is true that the NPC would follow the player around the system wherever it warps, and respawn as soon as it gets destroyed. But we found one loophole: drones. Drones are not players, drones are just ... drones, but will get aggression from other AI nonetheless. As I said, this bit of AI in incredible unintelligent, but also very persistent. What we discovered is that when you deploy a combat drone in space, the Navy NPC will focus its fire on that drone as soon as you’ve left grid. It is then programmed to destroy the drone and then warp back to the player (wherever he is in the system). What’s the loophole? Make sure that drone never gets destroyed. As long as the NPCs have the drone targeted and is still alive they will never turn away from it. This means that the player ship is now completely free to travel across the system without being hunted by the NPCs. 

But how to execute this in practice. We’ve tried several things. We realised the alpha damage from NPC Battleships can be quite hefty so we looked at the drones with the most hitpoints; Navy Curators. And we needed enough Remote Repping power to keep it alive; RR Apocs and Nestors. As predicted our plan worked out quite alright in 0.5 and 0.6 systems, we would deploy a Curator drone on a safespot or close to a POS forcefield and have it repaired by neutral RR while the Lokis could then happily move around the gates. But two issues arose: one, the neutral RR ships would get a Suspect flag for aiding other characters in a high-sec war. And two, despite Navy Curators having the highest armor hitpoints, they would still get alpha’d by the NPCs in 0.7 and higher. 

It is important to note that each militia pilot gets an individual spawn for that character, but if you had multiple characters on grid (with thus multiple spawns), all the NPCs would eventually focus fire on only one militia drone, regardless who’s drone it is. One drone could take aggro for multiple militia characters. Enter the Rattlesnake. 
The Rattlesnake has got a ridiculous 275% (!) bonus to sentry drone hitpoints. To spare you the math; a Rattlensnake’s Navy Curator with a helping rig would get an astonishing 13.500 armor hitpoints. To put in perspective, an Megathron Battleship has the base stats of merely 6.500 armor hitpoints! 13.5k hitpoints, plus the RR power of the Nestor turned out to be enough to tank even multiple 0.8 system Battleship spawns! Another key element is that the Rattlesnake itself would be sitting idle on a station and not actually engaging any Wartargets, this means that the RR ships will never get a suspect timer either. 

But for what price? To run this trick you need a bare minimum of two FW pilots, plus one Neutral RR pilot for every DPS/camp ship. But to play it properly, with three guys, we use about 10 characters doing various jobs, four of them belonging to the Gallente militia: 

• A passive local-tanked Rattlesnake in militia 
• Camping Lokis in militia 
• Neutral RR (Nestor) for every Loki (+one Loki means +one spawn to tank) 
• Eyes on as many gates as possible Warfare fleet links 
• Quite possibly backup Logi’s on standby 
• Seinfeld 

 “If we could just harness this power and use it for our own personal gain, there'd be no stopping us.” - George Costanza

DARK Knights Ride Again! (AAR: 22th March)

After months and months of postponement we finally got the Knights back into action again.

We readied the DARK Knights at around 12.00, presenting Karashur, Schwarze, Mitch, and me. Accompanied by 3 Vanguards (cyno hunters) we rode into Providence. Mitch went afk.

Karashur was on the ball and soon after we started we found our first pray; the most myriad of all; a Raven-class Battleship. But even the mightiest of all shield tankers crush under the force of two Redeemers and a Sin combined. And due our secret super weapon, a Proton Smartbomb, we manage to turn his capsule to dust, too.

Meanwhile, Schwarze found various potential targets in space, varying between rare Mordu's Barghests and Hulks, but unfortunately none were located on time to catch.

We jumped back to our staging system Irshah when no less than 20 minutes later Karashur found an Armageddon-class Battleship in the very same system! Luck was on our side. In the 'Geddon's dying breaths he activated his Micro Jump Drive to fly off into safety, but alas, a warp scrambler had cut down his escape in short order indeed.

Underking, aka Judas, was on the hunt as well. I found a Rattlesnake sitting in belt fighting off the wicked Sansha Nation. I was about to decloak and land tackle when a most unexpected visitor disturbed my doings. A Drifter Battleship warped on grid! The Rattlesnake pilot too realized this was no ordinary foe and fled the scene, not to be seen again. Alas.

But again! Karashur hook caught bait. This time a Guristas Rattlesnake-class Battleship. The scorching of laser fire burned through his shields turned him to dust.
At this time our Jump Fatigue cooldown has risen to more than two hours so we decided to log off in Provi, in space, and take a break. At this point Mitch returned from being afk.

Our work was not finished yet. A few hours later our fatigue was down and set the hunters loose again and with avail!
In the distance I saw a golden glittering; a beacon of light. And when I looked closer I saw it was another Armageddon!! But there was more. While the Armageddon's armor crumbled we noticed a Typhoon on D-scan, undisturbed by our presence. Mitch was afk again.

A very unorthodox manner of Blopsing happened next. Because the target was in the same system as the Knights were we couldn't use a Cyno. Instead had to warp the Blops on top of the Typhoon in other to get it. Nevertheless, success.

By now the Jump Fatigue had risen to an unmanageable high point and we had to call it a day:

Still, I think we had a good and enjoyable run. We've not done Black Ops in many months and it's nice to be back in business. Right now the Knights are back in Irshah ready for a next adventure!

Executive Outcomes - Dr. Mo's fantastic VEGAn cleanse

Short little update today.

The last two or thee week we (Executive Outcomes - alliance) has been harassing V.e.G.A. alliance in the Syndicate region. We have been hitting their towers furiously but unfortunately we don't get as many as many good brawls as we hoped to. Still, managed to capture a little bit of Fraps material. Hope you like it! :)

Personally not a huge fan of the Ishtars. Dropping drones and assigning them isn't nearly as fun as blasting your own guns. They make good ships for bashing a tower though with unlimited ammo :P

I absolutely love the Tempest and I'm really glad we had a chance to roll these once again. We were finishing up a Tower when VeGA formed a counter fleet. Excellent brawl, enjoyed that. Could've used a bubble though ....

Fan Fiction: Metempsychosis

Memory Log 100.42 RAL
In a world where life no longer more has value, would the dead have a price? The Veschens documents never truly explained what happened with Axroth after the experiment; Yomir Veschens said the Reborn have been dead since their birth. How appropriate, I thought, that the only consorts on this journey are a migraine and the bootlegged documents written by a mad man.

More than a year ago I finished a piece of work called "Fan Fiction: A First Attempt". Today I present you with a new story.

Fan Fiction: Metempsychosis
Metempsychosis follows the tale of the narrator cruising among the stars in search for a mysterious capsuleer named Sideryn.

The work is too large to post in a thread or blog thus for your ease I've uploaded a PDF you can download here: METEMPSYCHOSIS.pdf

This is my second EVE related fan fiction and I hope you like it. As ever, I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Happy reading! :)

The story itself is largely build around CCP's lore for EVE but I took the liberty to build upon that and nearly all names, places and characters can be looked up in-game.
Example screenshot:

PS. My first fanfiction can be found here.