Im just a peaceful miner..

No I really am.

I AM!

I spent the majority of the last two days flying around in an Osprey. And it is quickly becoming my most favourite ship of all time. But, its not because I like sitting in belts and sucking huge rocks, and its not because I like fitting shield transporters to it and keeping all my friends alive. ..

Its because I like the way people under estimate it in their interceptors, frigs and AF's and wonder "WTF? WTF just happened?" when they see their overpriced, shiny new frigate explode before their eyes.

Lo and behold... The Doomsprey (shamelessly nicked from some guy who hangs about in one of our local comms channels )

3x Light Nuetron IIs
1x Small Nuet

10m AB
scram II
Web II
Sensor booster II

1600mm Rolled tungsten
EANM II
Damage Control II

Drones to taste, but I go with 4 warrior IIs.

It can handle any AF/frig and yesterday I even managed to gank a Brutix in it. Which has to be one of the greatest moments in my EvE career so far. Sure he was young and barely had a clue, but the mail from Concord sure looks good. I bet the guy handling them must of thought there was some mistake before he posted it.

Anyway, give it a try, you will be surprised how much action it gets, sit in a belt and it wont be long before a cocky guy in an Incursus or a Tanaris comes along thinking hes gotta free kill.

Fraction Battleships!!!11

In low sec its pretty rare to see a faction battleship on scan. And you can imagine our surprise and joy today to see no less than THREE of them on scan, and to kill them afterwards.

It all started when we heard a report over on of the local Intel channels about a Caldari Navy Raven on scan in Aurohunen. Relaying the information to one of my friends, Golden Helmet, he decided to go check it out in his Helios. I told him I would go fit up my Vagabond for mission busting on the off chance he managed to probe him out.

Arriving in Aurohunen, Golden Helmet was busy probing away, and we had been joined by Apoctasy in his Pilgrim. A few moments later GH told us he had a hit and he was warping to it. I aligned my ship in his direction waited for the call...

"Warp to me, hes 20k off.... I got a point!" Gh called down the comms.

Me and Apoc walked in and landed about 20km off, we both got points and GH activated his ship scanner revealing he was decked in faction modules.

"Great, payday" I thought

"Err, wait a minute..." Said GH, interrupting my train of thought "Hes got THREE warp stabs"

God dammit. A few seconds later the raven warped out. Apoc had been unable to get his extra 2 points on him and it seems we had been robbed... we sat there a moment, wondering what to do next.

"Two Navy Megas and a Raven on scan" said GH, filling us all with hope once more.

As he went to probe them out to our surprise the Navy Raven warped back into his mission and began to lock me. He had come back to kill us?? I wondered a moment what was going on. Maybe it was a trap? Maybe he had backup on they way?

I saw Apoc began to scramble him and figured I might as well do the same, Apoc had 3 points on him now and I activated my own point a few moments later. GH warped in after hearing the good news and we proceeded to blow up his ship without much trouble, and we were several million isk richer.

Checking scanner we saw that the other two navy Mega's were on scan, along with the Raven. With our current firepower I doubt we could of took them if they were fitted properly so we asked around our local Intel channels for backup. Our friends The Guristas Assoicates responded and told us they had sizable gang only a few jumps away. Gh continued to probe and a few moments later, to our surprise he told us they appeared to be at a belt?

We cant be that lucky can we?

Gh warped to belt and informed us they were actauly there at 0km RATTING. Guristas Associates responded by jumping their 17 man gang into Auro and warping directly to the belt, me and Apoc followed suit and all landed at the belt spreading out points evenly among them. Jammed by the Guristas super blob and taking huge chucks of their shield and armor, they quickly evaporated leaving nothing but smoking wrecks ready to be looted.

During the fight another pirate gang seemed to have the same idea as we did but they didn't expect a 20 man gang to be in the belt and we managed to bag a Myrmidon of theirs too.

All in all, a pretty good outing wouldn't ya say?

Just like the old days.

"5...4....3...2....1....HIT!, warping to the Raven right now!" Golden Helmet called down the comms.

Golden Helmet was the old CEO of my old corporation, and had recently came back out of retirement to start pirating once again. Him, Spectre3353 and Inertial (he was also one of the directors of The Python Cartel) have both joined The Carebear Stare. And now The Carebear Stare is alot like The Python Cartel as many of its core members are all here. The past few days have been alot of fun.

My own probe finished its cycle 2 seconds later and I also got a hit. Dammit, I lost. Me and Golden Helmet have like a private competition when it comes to probing out mission runners. I'll never hear the end of it, I thought. But lets not worry about that for now, we got to Raven to kill.

This Raven had been flying around our home system for quite some time. It seemed like he was running a mission, but he had to keep warping out, as the Guristas kept kicking his ass. Every time our probe cycle was about to finish he moved spot, and after an hour of this, we were desperate to kill him.

We all landed right next to him and quickly locked and scrambled him. Our gang was relatively weak, consisting of 2 cruisers and 2 Cov ops ships. But the Raven pilot appeared to be clueless. And as we watched his shield melt in a few seconds,, WE KNEW he was clueless.

He exploded a few moments later, and wondered why we had spent so long hunting this guy down. The kill mail showed he had 4 warp stabs. 4?? No wonder the Guristas kept kicking his ass, by the time he had locked one of them his Shields were probably gone.

So, saddened by the anticlimax, we retreated to our safe spots to wait out our timers and dock up. When Spectre3353 alerted us that a friend of his, in a system reasonably far away, in a system called Vifrevaert, had a drake tackled. Apparently he was in a Punisher and couldn't break the Drakes tank. But the Drake couldn't kill him either.

"so how far away is this system Spec?" I asked gingerly.

"17.." he replied

17? by the time we got there he will of either got backup or someone else would have came in and killed him. Spectre wouldn't hear of it and told us he was going anyway. I sighed, and docked up my Buzzard to get my Stabber. And I headed off to Vifrevaert close behind Spectre, and with Golden Helmet close behind me in his Rupture.

We sped through the gates not bothering to check the scanner, while requesting updates from the Punisher pilot on any change of the situation.

About 15 minutes later we arrived in Vifrevaert, and the Punisher Pilot had still got the Drake tackled, and he had been joined by a Rifter. I warped to the Punisher to see Spectre already there attacking the Drake. Checking my watch list I saw Spectre was already half into armor, and I set about orbiting the drake and then firing my 220mm's and heavy missile launchers at it.

Spectre's armor was getting low, and I told him to warp out if he needs to.

"Nah I'm fine, I can take it a little while" he said, drunkenly.

A few moments later, watching his Vexor suddenly go into structure, he yells down the comms "What the hell? Why wont my ship warp?"

"Err maybe hes scrambling you?" I said in a matter-of-fact way.

"Oh shi-" Spectre said quietly. And I watched as another volley of missiles left the drake, hitting Spectre, completely destroying him in the process. I laughed at the situation and continued to fire at the Drake.

Golden Helmet landed and also began firing, the Drakes tank was very strong and now he had started to agress me. I watched as my shield slowly disappeared and I contemplated getting out before I left it to late like Spectre. I overloaded my guns a little more, and hoping he exploded before I did.

Luckily enough the combined DPS from both my Stabber, GH's Rupture, the Rifter and the Punisher, were hitting him pretty hard and soon after the Drake popped.

We gave the loot to the Punisher as thanks for holding the Drake in place for such a long time. The pilot was only a few months old too, and did very well to keep a Drake tackled for so long.

Afterwards, Spectre brought a new Vexor and scrapped together a ship fitting from his old wreck and from the stations in the nearby area, we went around Old Man Star and killed a few other ships including a Thorax, Enyo and a Kitsune . And it really was just like the old days, back in The Python Cartel. Its great to have those guys aboard The Carebear Stare bus!

You gota lose it eventually...

You gota lose it eventually...

This is a saying familiar to most pod pilots. Especially pirates. You see when we buy a new ship, we know that someday, its going to go down in a ball of fire. No matter how careful you are, one day that shiny new Hurricane is going to be nothing but an insurance payout.

Today I proved it, and it all started like any other day. I was sitting in my bunk, watching some rubbish on the Holovision. Why is there never anything good on?

I switched off the Holovison, and the comms panel in my room started to flash. A voice crackled through the speaker, which I recognised as Grumbler1, from the Bamboule corporation. We got on well with those guys, so i listened.

"Charon tackled on Litura gate, send assistance if possible" There was a click and the comms panel went silent.

A Charon? Killing something that big and expensive is a pleasure that comes few and far between. I quickly threw on my jacket and ran down to the hangar bay as quickly as i could. Knocking over several people in the process.

When I arrived I took a moment to decide on a ship. Tempest or Hurricane?

Tempest has more damage, hurricane has... Right! I ran up the ramp and into my Tempest, lovingly named -Bad Karma-. I ordered the Hangar tecs to swap my cap Injector for another Stasis Web, as Keeping the Charon webbed would be important. I hurried the docking manager for permission to undock and was soon out in space.

Litura was it? I'm pretty sure it was. I set a course for the Litura gate, which was a few AU away.

I landed a few moments later, to see Grumbler also in a Tempest blowing large holes into the hull of a Charon. I wondered if i would be able to get a lock in time..

I did, barely, I fired two rounds of my Duel 650mm before the Charon exploded a pretty blue flash. I sat there a second, happy to have killed such an expensive ship, when I saw Grumbler aligning without even checking the wreck. Wheres he going? I wondered

"GET OF THE GATE NOW!" " GET OFF IT!" Grumbler yelled over the comms.

What? I only just got here. There was nothing aro...

The gate fired and a Huginn decloaked 30km off. Immediately I saw what was happening and I frantically tried to warp. Aligning in a battleship takes forever, and just as I was about to enter warp, the Huginn manages to Warp scramble me. I sighed, and locked the Huginn. I opened fire and watched as 6 heavy rounds of EMP shattered against his shield.

That was the only shot I'd fire, because a few moments later a Falcon decloaked and started to jam my targeting systems. I hate those dam things. I lost my lock on the Huginn and realised what was about to happen. I was Webbed, Scrambled, Jammed, and taking fire. I was screwed.

A vagabond jumped in, followed by a Thorax, and then another Tempest. I sat there helpless, being jammed, unable to fight back. This is why I hate Falcons. I don't mind losing a ship, but losing a ship and not being able to fight back has got to be the worse feeling in the universe.

My ship exploded a few moments later and I warped my pod out to safety.

I had helped kill a Charon which was alot more expensive than a Tempest but I couldn't help feeling angry at losing my Tempest in such a lame way. As I docked my pod in the station I promised myself i wouldn't ask questions again. If I was told to get out, Id get without question or hesitation next time.

I went back to my bunk reminding myself that "I had to lose it eventually...". Just a shame it had to be today.