Sunday, 22 November 2009

Filling your boots.

The past few weeks Ive been watching our Killboard with some sadness. Activity of late in our corp has gone down considerabilty. Mostly because of a bunch of new games that have come out, and partly because a huge alliance has moved into our home system of Egghelende.

The corp had grown fat. Egghelende gave us all the kills we could wish for without ever having to jump through a stargate. Now were competing for kills tho, alot of people dont seem to be intrested in searching for greenier pastures, and as such our killboard has been very bare.

My own activity has dwindled too, mostly because I've been playing WoW a little and Dragon Age: Origins. But today I felt the urge to play EvE.

Looking through my now overcrowded and slightly dusty hangar, and found myself stuck for choice when it came to ships. I remember when I didnt have a choice when it came to ships. It was Merlin or Ibis, because i simply couldnt afford anything else. How times have changed.

Figuiring I'd be a little rusty, I picked something cheap and expendable, which just happened to be my Stabber. Little Polly as I called her. She had served me well in the past. So I jumped in and undocked and prepared for an epic adventure.

Checking scanner, I noticed the a large number of pilots from the alliance I mentioned ealier. Thier called Dead Terrorists (DT), and what they lack in skill and tactics, they make up for in huge numbers.

Seeing hunting here would be difficult I pointed my ship towards Amamake and set off, arriving a few gate jumps later. I recalibrated my scanner and checked out the many asteroid belts that dot Amamake.

There was alot of ships about. And I assumed that nearly all of them were faction warfare. (as thats usualy the case now). But I continued scanning to find a lone Claw towards a belt. Now I am always wary of engaging scambling frigate ina nano ships, as all they have to do is get under you guns and your a sitting duck.

But, today I was trying a new load out for Little polly and it included 2x Small Energy nuets. If I did get scrambled and couldnt hit him, I could just nuet him and escape right?

Loading up my Guns With EMP I warped straight to the belt. The claw was only 20km off and I locked and activated my warp disruptor just in time to stop him warping away. I hit my MWd and approached him, figuiring he would try to flee. And flee he did, 20km, 25 km, 28km dammit almost outa point range... I overloaded my MWD for that extra burst of speed and noticed I was going nearly as fast the Claw but I still couldnt quite keep up with him. About to give up, I watched in slight amazement as the claw did a 180 and sped straight towards me. Moments later I was scrambled, and he was under my guns. I couldnt hit him and I watched as he started to make slow progress on my shield.

Ok this was it, time to see if those nuets really work . Activating both my nuets the effect was almost instant. The ship almost completely slowed down and I was no longer scrambled. I pulsed my MWD to gain abit of distance and lower transversal, and the Claw ate several facefulls of EMP. He couldnt stand up to the destructive power of the autocannons and exploded shortly after.

'I guess this fit works then' I thought to myself.

As I was checking the wreck, a Rifter landed in the belt only a couple of KM off. I was at about half sheild but i figuired I'd stick around anyways. I can beat a claw, why not a Rifter? as I tackled him, I also got scrambled. I activated my nuets just like before and again he stopped dead in the water, only to be torn to shreds by several rounds of EMP.

Another Rifter warped in. This time I figuired I'd stay outa scram range as I was low on capicator. The pilot was very new and his ship didn't pose much of a challenge. He didnt even get a shot off before his ship exploded.

I quickly looted the wrecks and warped away to the saftey of the station. What a rush! Even tho I had only killed 3 frigates, to me it seemed so intense. I hadnt felt this feeling for a long time, and it seemed I wasnt so rusty afterall.

Destination: Amamake 3-1

Probably the most infamous belt in all of EvE. Your almost as likely to get killed as to get a kill there. And tonight Me and Spectre decided that we needed to fill up or killboard due to the recent inactivity. We had to prove to everybody that kills could still be found, if your willing to go a little bit further than a few AU of the undock of our home station.

We were joined by Kobrakilla, who is a friend of ours from Space Jerks. I was in a Typhoon, Spec in a Megathron, and Kobra was in a sniper Mealstrom.

Following some intel from a source of ours, we found that there was a rather large gang, baiting in 3-1 Amamake.

It would almost certianly be scuicide, but we didnt care. We fitted ECCMs and simply hoped for the best. Warped straight to the belt we landed right in the middle of a gang about 20 in number. They were fighting a smaller group but we didnt care. We picked out the biggest ships and started calling primaries. The fight was pretty intense, and I wont detail every explosion. But in the end we killed 9 of them and they killed 2 of us.

Not bad considering we were vastly outnumbered. and it was a helluvalot of fun.

Dead Terrorists - bad at this game.

Heading home in our capsules, still feeling the adreniline of such a good fight. Spectre informed me that Dead Terrrists were camping the high sec gate in our system. Hardly a suprise, but aparently they only had a smallish gang consisting of a Vagabond, Sliepner, Eagle and a Hyperion. Only me and Spec were available at the time, but we couldnt let this opportunity pass. We had to get at least one of them and so we constructed a plan.

Spec would get an assoiciate of his to watch the gate they were camping while cloaked. Once they went after a target, and thus getting sentries we would make our move. We moved our ships to a safe spot way outa scan range from DT, and we waited a little while for an unsuspecting civilian to jump into Egg.

Sure enough, the Jel gate didnt dissappoint, and soon Spectre was reporting that DT had engaged a Scorpian on the Jel gate. I warped my Raven straight to the gate, and spec followed in his Curse. As we landed we watched to our dismay as all thier ships warped off the gate back to thier safe spot.

That is, all except one of them. I noticed the hyperion head straight to another gate, and I quickly aligned my ship after him. Spec did the same and soon he was teeling me he had a point. I landed a few KM off and locked him. I hadnt really tested This Raven much, and I overheated all my launchers in an attempt to get the Hyperion down as quick as possible before his friends would arrive.

And did he go down. The Torpedos completely annihilated his sheild, and soon his armor. He was in structure when his Sliepner buddy landed, I told spec to drop point ont he Hyperion and to get a point on the Sliepner.

A volley or two later and the Hyperion went up in smoke and I turned my Torps and nuets toward the Sliepner. His sheilds were tough, and my Torpedo explosions were way to big and dumb to do full damage against him. But with the combined nueting power of our ships, his sheild did start to fail.

Watching him slowly dip into armor we were shocked to see a hostile Loki uncloak near us. We figuired we could take that too, but he warped off almost immediatly. A little saddened I turned my attention back to the Sliepner.

Bleeding into structure, we were suprised to see a Megathron Navy issue appear on scan, and then on the gate. Debating wether or not to engage it, a few moments later a hostile falcon uncloaked.

Lameass falcons... This wasnt a fight anymore, it was time to bail. I overloaded my nuets in an attempt to get the Sliepner to stop neuting me. I aligned my ship and it paid off, capped out the Sliepner lost point and I managed to get out. ME and Spec both cursed, the Sliepner was in structure and a few more seconds he would of been toast.

But our anger soon turned to joy as we recieved some intel informing us that the Sliepner had indead been destroyed by another gang just a few second later. The Mega Navy Issue and falcons gang apparently.

Today, me and Spectre filled up our KB (with the help of Kobra) in just a few hours. Proving that just because your home system is overun, doesnt mean you cant find kills elsewhere. And if you cant find them elsewhere... you can always kick DT in the nuts instead.