The Warrior's Path

  There are times in every Eve player's career when they just have one of those times they think "wow...that was just epic-ly full of epic epicness." And one of those times has come yet again for me.

  I'll have a TL;DR at the end if this doesn't get put into two different posts. Basically, you want to look at our killboard and specifically at Oct. 1st. We can't even fit it all onto the front page it's so long..

  So I woke up yesterday, late since it's the weekend and I am trying to avoid my work, and decided to pop on to update my PI and skills if they were running out. Bringing up comms gave me a bit of interesting chatter, the type that usually involves shooting someone. So I made a comment about how I was probably going to miss it since I just got on and needed to get bookmarks and all that jazz.

  To which I got "No, you definitely won't miss it."

  "Oh, I guess I'll get bookmarks and head out."

  Listening to the chatter intently now, it seemed that we had been playing around with Narwhals Ate My Duck in our chain a bunch, popping some of their frig sized hulls and ended up running into White Noise in a nullsec link. We had tackled a Proteus that then got reinforced by an Archon.

  So I hopped into my trusty Drakghar, a Legion with an interesting fit that has served me quite well.  As I got out there, we were jamming the Archon and having to kill the Prot in between jams. It wasn't long before his tank gave way and melted under our fire. I think we also podded him. Nearly 2 billion worth of destruction in one small cruiser hull....astounding. All that was left was to work this Archon down before he decided to log or self destruct.  Until the Chimera landed.

  Our force was too small to burn the Archon and now the Chimera was going to make things even harder. But thanks to our two ECM pilots, of whom I have to give major props, they kept the Chimera jammed the whole time. The Archon kept cycling in and out of triage to get cap from the Chimera and keep his own reps up, despite our neuting power. It was like fighting uphill through molasses and every time you think you're at the top, a fresh wave of molasses hits you and drags you back. I just kept popping his drones and fighters, then back to neuting and dpsing the carrier itself. It was especially annoying when the Chimera started to smartbomb and nearly killed my entire flight of Hammerheads.

  "Chimera disappeared! Chimera has logged!"

  What?! With all our notifications, nobody has noticed him go and the Archon most likely wasn't far behind. But here's a couple stupid points I want to bring up. Amusing that it's, yet again, Russians doing it too.

• Log off timer for a cap is 15 minutes. Wtf is that about CCP? We don't roll in dreads or supercaps so downing caps in that time is stupid.
• Some modules shut off when you log, some don't. Cloaks decloak, but reppers keep running? CCP, fix it to be one way or the other for all modules.

  So now it was a race against time and the carrier's offline reps. After a few heart pounding minutes, we finally had it capped out so that the reps stopped running. But now we needed to eat through 3/4ths of its armor and the structure before it disappeared. At this point, I began to cycle my overheating on and off to make my guns last as long as possible, but still get some good dps out of them. 

  It was getting so close and comms were getting quiet as it got closer. Pixel by pixel the armor chipped away and we all were urging it down further.

  "It'll melt like butter when we get it to structure."

  It felt like an eternity trying to wear it down, finally getting some excitement with structure bleed. We had no clue when he had logged and didn't know how long til we lost yet another cap kill to Russian flee tactics, but it was intense.

  Structure. Everyone overheat! Burn that sucker down!

  Then came the blessed explosion.

  Wait...that Proteus was twice as expensive as the carrier? Yup...apparently so.

  And wow what a way to start your day. But it seems this chain was to be the chain blessed by Bob, god of wormholes, and the chain that would keep on giving.

  As we were fighting the Archon, a Narwhals manti had decloaked and then recloaked near us. We had also had some more of their cloakies following us around the chain, so it wasn't long til most of our fleet was nearly home and our scouts ran into a Harby, while its buddies staged in their home system.

  Two of ours that had stayed at the nullsec engaged the Harby and, by a comedy of errors both jumped out when they thought he jumped. So he got back to the hole that went towards his home, only to run into another one of ours. Ohai der Mr. Harby. Uh....you seem to be missing a couple slots there bud. With the Ducks out killing Russians, I guess only alts are left to guard home.

  That was when we moved the entire fleet to engage what force they had waiting. By the time we got there though, only a cane, guardian, brutix and something else that warped out was there. The cane got out thanks to someone getting jammed or something. It was ok though, for some reason both the Guardian and Brutix were pointed but didn't jump through the wormhole to run. Soon they both met their manufacturer.

  This gave us a good bit to talk about as we headed home. But yet again, we would not make it there. Instead, a Duck ran around in his Loki and engaged one of our Tengus. So we all waited for it to jump into our fleet on the other side of the wormhole, while 2 of ours tried to break him. This wormhole was in the direction of the Duck home system.

  Of course, this all got confusing when one of our pilots got engaged by the residents of the next hole over toward our home. Two conflicts at once made things frantic. Finally the Loki jumped in half armor and we polished off his Loki and pod.  It seems it was the season for a Duck hunt. We then rushed to our corpmate's aid, who had been reinforced by one of our cloakies and both had been pushed through the wormhole before they got popped.

---

  Keep an eye here, the second half of this whole story comes in the next post.
-Mem

Olga Got Thirsty

  So I haven't really come up with a better name yet...sue me. It fits her after all, being so big and...well not that I am implying anyone named Olga is necessarily big, but..you know....oh nevermind.

  Last week or so I saw fit to release my beautiful beast from the shackles of station life, tentatively undocking and vigorously spamming the warp command until she was safely away. My poor mouse. Happily, she gracefully slid into motion like a massive pair of hippie pants, albeit deadly hippie pants. She is not quite as ludicrously expensive as she will be sometime soon, but she is enough so that I can make good use of her. Or stare at while in the relative safety of the shiny bubble I call home.

  I figure there are few times I shall use her, but I shall find as many as I can. Frankly, I surprised myself tonight by using her before I even thought her fit to do so. Oh, but I quite enjoyed it and it left me wanting more so let me regale you, my dear reader.

  As I logged into comms, things were peaceful and I drifted away from my station to be with a pretty lady. After a bit of watching sharks on the tele, I heard comms get a bit chatty. So I nipped over to see what the fuss was about and it seemed to be that we had some neighbors getting a bit cheeky. And by cheeky, I mean they tried to scan down some of our pilots who were innocently mining away. So there was talking and some scouting and analyzing and some eyes that glazed over after the minutes just dragged on. Admittedly I owned said eyes, but it really did just drag. This went for a long time, til finally we had been sitting on our connecting hole with a few chaps when one of them decided to have a poke about.

  Bad move, mate.

  His little covert ops frigate made a mighty dash and got a cloak up. With a bit of grumbling we sped around until he made an encore appearance. I don't think he got along with our fastlock. And then off went his pod, bouncing around the system avoiding us. And here we just wanted to help him find his way out...through some cloning facilities, perhaps, but in the nice way of course.

  Apparently he got bored, since he logged. This got his buds into a bit of motion as they were bouncing all over at range on their side. I guess they wanted their friend back, but obviously not that badly if they weren't going to come get him. So it went for a loooong time, us watching them try to decide to do like a barrel of ADD fish. At this point I had gotten into a frigate to catch the pod and our fleet had diminished drastically. I felt a bit vulnerable and fragile, so I decided to get a bit beefier. Hence Olga coming out to play. Even this was in a bit of jest, since I never thought to actually use her. Just pretend to crash our hole and force their hand or give them shiny bait. The hippie pants can be quite compelling.

  More back and forth between the two sides and finally one of ours logs in with his Mach to go straight for them. At this point, the opfor finally amassed two Tengus, a Rokh, Legion, Proteus, Scorpion, and a Harbringer. I thought there were more T3s but it's late so who knows. Anyways, they decide to finally engage our poor lone Mach. This brings the rest of our fleet, which had refilled and then some to quite the force. Then it was on.

  I urged Olga through the wormhole with soothing murmurs of blood to come. She must have understood, because she went eagerly. The only Tengu to actually arrive was first on the menu, but out of my range so I went to work on the Legion who was in hump range. Webs and point on, drones launched and snack time commenced as he graciously began to melt. It was not quick enough, however, as he decided to jump out of the fray. Sad Vindi is sad. Back to the Tengu!

  No matter, there are others about. It was at this point I noticed neuts from the Rokh eating my capacitor away. So like a booze hound begging for change, I drank from the faucet of cap boosters and kept my point bouncing around to targets I didn't hear were pointed. Bad idea that, since the Legion came back through and poofed away along with the Rokh leaving our party. No worries, as we had a few others to chew into. As an ECM enthusiast, it was my pleasure to burn this terribad fit into space since he had been shutting down most of our points. Then I noticed the naughty little Harby that was trying to sneak out the back, like some bad houseguest. Well, 90% webs will do the trick for that and make short work of poor manners.

  Alas, twas all that we would have of these fellows after we cleared the field of debris. I guess their friend was not worth it as we soon found his corpse in space...what a tease. At least it has a good home now.

  It felt good to get a bit of blood all over Olga, she's kinky like that. It also gave me a good gauge for what she can handle as far as cap warfare and engagement range or engagement type. But I loved every second of it, expense justified.

  And with that I bid you adieu. I believe I shall make my fashionably late analyzation of the latest dev blogs in my coming posts, but for now sleep beckons.

  Don't be afraid to get a little wild sometimes
-Mem

There's Also A Reason...

  That I should go to bed at a reasonable hour. If I don't, like tonight as many other nights, bad or crazy things happen to me or I do them myself. Either way, it can have interesting outcomes. So, while my last post was a sleep deprived night of loss and anger, tonight is a night of elation and poverty.

  Why, you ask? Just pretend you asked, alright? Well, I kind of went of a spending spree. My wallet has been rather healthy lately, thanks to my usual frugal nature and some work I have been doing that rewarded me in isk. My legion loss was a big hit, but I didn't want to get back into one anytime soon.  But if someone offers you a new T3 for free, just because "they have one sitting around"...don't think, just thank them profusely as you accept the contract. You might wanna check it, just to be sure it's actually that T3 :P

  Ambiguity aside, someone gave me a Legion hull like a saint. I had subs sitting around from a second fit I forgot about and some in Jita just waiting to be sold. So I fit up my new shiny Legion after buying a final subs and fittings, over-tanked like a mothertrucker, and happily took it home. I also noticed 3% armor implants are only 10 mil...really?...so I nabbed that while I was out. Yay, more EHP! If you're on grid trying to shoot me...you might wanna switch targets.

  But my free-flowing ISK didn't stop there. T3s are the new HACs, after all, so what we need is a big buck expenditure. Something to really make 'em say oooh and aaah. So I give you, Olga! Temporary name, though, methinks.

  Thanks to CQ, it's a crapshoot trying to get decent screenies and I'm too tired to care. I'd get in-space shots, but there's no heckin' way I'm undocking her yet. If it's too dark or hard to tell, yes it is indeed a Vindicator.

  Now, before you run off to trying getting your locator agents to find me you may as well not. Like I said, this baby ain't going anywhere for a loooong time. I have all of 30mil ISk to my name, so she has no fittings. I want her tricked out properly for her maiden voyage, and that will only be at an undisclosed time. I should probably figure out more than one or two uses for her as well. I'm sure I can find some for a ship with well over 100k EHP and 1500dps...and don't forget the ridiculous web bonus ;D

  But there you have it, from one end of the spectrum to the other. This was not, believe it or not, a complete impulse buy. I have been debating a faction battleship for a loooong time. I just finally decided to pull the trigger on one of the more useful ones. Everyone has Bhaalys these days and I gotta represent my Gallente pride after all. Besides, the Mega hull is so sexy.

  Anyways, it's about time I sleep.
-Mem

That Which Doesn't Pod You, Only Makes You Smarter

  Welp, I just hit the 6 month mark of being in Adhoc and living in wormholes. Half a year already? Wow...on the one hand it feels like I just got here, but on the other like I've always been here and never played any other part of Eve. Which is ok with me, wspace is what has kept me addicted to this mistress of a game. And now I realize it's been a year of me playing in general and here I didn't do anything special. Hmm...might have to fix that.

  It's been an amazing 6 months and there will certainly be plenty more to come. My first week I saw and helped steal my first dread, bashed my first tower and it's been a long list of firsts ever since then. I went from 'roid drilling carebear to bloodthirsty warbear pretty quickly. I kind of miss mining sometimes and we do get sites to mine, but my carebearing is mainly restricted to PI nowadays and the occasional mission.

  I think my skill sheet can show how chaotic my path has been. It's all over the board, only recently becoming more focused and solid. Goodness, I'm coming up on 20 mil SP even and my stash of shinies still confuses me. 2 Tech 3 ships that I can fly well in a year is not bad by my ruler, among the other stuff. I am still loving my Falcon, it is the best ECM platform after all. In fact, we have been getting some good fights and ganks lately, one of which we actually needed the Falcon.

  We were running Sleeper sites in our static connection as some of our cloakies scouted around and kept eyes out. Since we were flying a shield gang, I was able to use my Thundercat Tengu. I keep intending to take it into kspace and leave it there for missioning...I just never seem to get around to it. Anyways, one of our cloakies found a new hole and jumped in, only to squawk a second later about a gang sitting on the other side.

 "Two Machariels, Scimi, Loki, and more landing." He called.

  This just got fun and it always seems to happen when we try to PvE. I'm ok with that. It seemed that they saw our Noctis cleaning up behind us and were looking to ruin our carebear party. We don't go outside the POS in anything that can't fight on the whole, so they were more than welcome to try. But when we heard what they had and weren't sure if their numbers would swell, we decided to play it safe and switched to Guardian backed armor ships. In all honesty and without trying to sound arrogant, when we field them we are a force to be reckoned with in Eve. It takes extremely overwhelming force or a bad situation to get us on a bad foot when we get the thirst.

  Apparently, running back home got them trigger happy though. A buzzard had scanned our hole down and two things started happening. The buzzard decloaked and jumped in to our system, seeming to not mind a suicide mission. We had no fast tackle sadly so he got away, but not before I got his name and added him to my watchlist. We got your number, Austex. Their gang started moving at the same time.

 They thought we were running? I'm not sure if their buzzard simply didn't get a look at what we had as he changed his pants, but suddenly they were landing. On our hole. Right on it. And jumping in?
They decloaked in piecemeal, kicking us into immediate action of grabbing point and lighting them up. Laser fire cut through the black of space and I decloaked to lay some ECM smackdown.

  That's when they realized how bad a decision it was to come to us. We were ready with a good force much faster than they predicted and happy to meet them. One of ours had the Scimi tackled and was pounding on it on the opposite side, making their day even worse. He eventually jumped in and started repping the Loki, but not before their forces began to panic and scatter. We gave chase, their Scimi oddly staying in our Scimi with one of our new recruits to keep him company. In what seemed a  hiccup in our communications, points were spread as much as we thought, so three of them warped out. Pushed for more blood by this, we finished burning the rest to rubble and spacedust. When all was settled and accounted for, it seems we lost 3 of them but got some great kills. And now we saw why they failed.

  They had jumped a Mach onto a hole in the first place, which a sniper BS is not supposed to do but it was understandable if they thought they were chasing. That allowed us to get under his guns quite easily. 3 faction sebo's though? I don't mind gettin' paid. They also had brought a Scimitar, the Minnie shield logi in with an armor gang and he was rather easy to jam. Pro.

  A good fight over all and they brought it, so props. We don't get enough fun like that, but the Narwhals always seem willing which is cool. Oh yea...I was dualboxxing that entire fight. That was my first time fighting with two clients on the same screen...on a laptop. Canhazkudos?

  As is the case in just about any sec, sometimes you get fights all the time and sometimes it's nothing for weeks. I am happy to take them where I can get them in between RL engagements. I also am happy to get blood on my Legion again...I wonder how it feels about killing its own kind. Oh well.


 There you have it, 6 months and still kickin'. I have learned much and continue to do so each time I log on. Adhoc is still recruiting the Euro/Aussie times so head on to Adhocracy Public and give a shout if you're interested.

  Fly smart
-Mem