Jon leads a fleet, and we didn’t all die.

Report from OPSRD0118

“W’s up, fleet warp to S0UL, warp to S0UL. S0UL, what have you caught?” Jon’s call came over the fleet communication’s channel, and confirmations from the other 6 pilots in fleet quickly filtered through in the chat.”

“I’ve caught a Skiff in the ore belt. I’ll need a secondary point on this guy ASAP, he’s locked me up and set his drones on me.” S0UL’s request was quickly answered by other fleet members as they landed in the belt and engaged the Skiff.

“Sounds like we have secondary points on the Skiff, and I’ll be landing shortly. Drag the drones off if you can, warp out if needed. Everyone, if he sets his drones on you and you’re going down, warp out. We have enough interceptors on field to keep him from going anywhere.” The fleet of 8 interceptors, with one additional interceptor burning his way as quickly as possible to catch up, had been formed from the ‘Spectre Fleet’ channel and had just found their first target of the night.

“Confirming he is still pointed?” Iskanndar asked on comms.

“Confirmed, he’s not going anywhere.” Jon answered, certain in his answer as the Skiff was both pointed and scrammed by his Stiletto.

“Roger. I am cycling off my scram then, I am going to attempt to catch his pod.” The notification from Iskanndar’s Taranis to the Skiff stopped shortly, with the Skiff entering structure shortly afterwards.

“He’s nearly down, and no response forces are on D-scan. If his pod is caught I shall count down from 5 before killing it, that should give everyone a chance to get on the killmail. Once the pod is gone I shall warp the fleet to a safe spot to wait out our aggression timers.” Jon informed the fleet what the plan was, as was suggested practice by Jayne and NileZ, the Spectre Commander and Full FC respectively that had given Jon the chance to become first a trial, and now junior, fleet commander for Spectre Fleet. “He’s down, and his pod escaped. I am warping the fleet now, if you got the killmail please post it in fleet chat. Good job fleet, and nice catch S0UL.”

“I got the killmail FC, it’s in fleet.” LOLWTFBBO spoke up with the news. Jon had to stifle a laugh every time LOL’s name showed up, it was such a weird mix of letters that Jon could only wonder what was going through his parents heads when he was named. Ah well, as long as he did his job his name didn’t matter. That is as long as he doesn’t want to be the scout.”

“Awesome. It doesn’t look like it fit too badly. A shield extender would have probably served him better, but my knowledge on how to correctly fit a mining barge is pretty low, let alone an exhumer. Such an expensive ship for something so defenceless though. Okay, fleet warp to the B-W gate, scout please jump into B-W and let me know what’s on the other side. Hopefully we can get out of this pocket before the defence fleet wakes up and camps the gate into KBP7.” Jon’s Stiletto slid smoothly out of warp on top of the gate as the rest of the fleet exited warp. “Kast, how far away from KBP7 are you?”

“Just landing on the in gate from Dital now, where do you want me?” Kast was the pilot that had been catching up while the fleet killed the Skiff, and was now in the perfect position to check on the status of the defence fleet in KBP7.

“B-W gate clear, only the 1 guy in local from earlier” S0UL spoke up to inform Jon what B-W looked like.
“Awesome, fleet jump B-W and warp to the KBP7 gate. Whole fleet hold on the KBP7 gate, Kast can you jump into KBP7 and warp to a ping off the B-W gate and let me know what’s on it? If you don’t have a ping just warp to 100 off the gate.”

“Can do, I’ll be there shortly.” The activation noise of Kast entering the gate came through comms, and quickly faded away as he entered KBP7. “In warp now, nothing on D-scan from the in-gate. Landing at a ping now, the gate is empty. Two crows on D-scan though, if you’re going to jump I would do it soon. Svipul just showed up as well.”

“Fleet jump, fleet jump. Warp to the XHQ gate as soon as you enter system, Kast can you jump XHQ and let me know what’s on the other side. S0UL, I’ll get you back as scout once we’ve all regathered.”

As the fleet jumped KBP7 and initiated warp to the XHQ gate, Jon hit D-scan and saw a fleet of Caracals, Svipuls and Confessors heading to the KBP7 gate. Seeing the two Crows mentioned by Kast exiting warp, Jon initiated warp to the XHQ gate himself, and effortlessly glided into warp as the enemy defence fleet started exiting warp on the gate.

“XHQ clear FC.”

“Roger. Fleet, jump XHQ upon landing on the gate, I repeat jump XHQ. S0UL please jump into ‘Why-So’, that’s Y-W-S-0, and let me know what’s happening. The rest of the fleet warp to the Why-So gate and hold. Kast, welcome to fleet and thanks for the scouting.

****
I am now a Jr FC for Spectre Fleet. University and social commitments mean that I don’t have a lot of time to spare for Eve in general, let along the time required to run regular fleets, but I’m hoping to run one every 2-3 weeks. I got fully hooked on Eve when JOhnDrees and Darth A30NZ used to run interceptor fleets out to Providence almost nightly with Spectre Fleet, I absolutely loved the hit and run ability of interceptors, and the fact that if you have a fleet of 10-15 interceptors you can kill nearly every ratting BS that you come across, and want to experience that fun again.
We got a few other kills in that fleet, but nothing hugely exciting sadly.

Skiff killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48289641/
Procurer killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48290156/
Procurer #2 killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48290300/
Sabre killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48289754/
Thorax killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48290339/

And because I screwed up, a lossmail of my Stiletto. However, thanks to some luck I was able to reship relatively cheaply and continue leading the fleet: https://zkillboard.com/kill/48289944/

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Repeat that please?

Report from OPSRD0113

“Afternoon Khal, you in the area?” Jon opened the coalition’s private communications channel to find Khal Evingod already connected. Khal was a good pilot, and part of the Indecent Exposure Alliance, the group that the coalition had been fighting daily in Enden and Erstet only 6 months earlier. He was also the guy that landed the initial tackle on the Charon a couple of weeks ago, and knew his way around the block.

“Hey Jon. Yeah, I’m just in Enden. There is Drake in here somewhere, and a Widow as well. They appear to be at a POS sadly”

Jon perked up at the news of a Widow in Enden, and the news that it appeared to be at a POS only increased his interest. Who was this pilot, and which POS were they using? Jon quickly called up the hanger to make sure the Cheetah was prepared and quickly jogged over to Leeroy’s office to let him know that he was going to go out for a quick spin. “Just going solo, all I need to run is the covert cloak and that’s something that I can easily do.”

“Roger Jon. Oh, and we still haven’t taken the Cynabal out for a test. Do you want me to make sure it’s all prepared and crewed for when you get back in?”

“We haven’t done that yet have we?” Jon was perplexed at how he had forgotten that vital chore. “Oh, that’s right. I went to Amarr to test out those Bellicose fits. Yeah, get a crew ready to take it for a test, I shouldn’t be too long with the Cheetah.”

Making his way to the ship hanger, Jon got an update from the hanger crew, informing him that the Cheetah was ready to undock. Upon reaching the Cheetah Jon quickly boarded it and undocked from the station. Turning hard to the right as soon as he undocked, warp was initiated to the Enden gate and the covert cloak engaged to make sure it was working properly. After a quick warp the Cheetah landed at the gate and jumped into Enden. Information provided by Khal gave a rough idea of which moon the Widow and Drake were at, and within a short period of time Jon was sitting off their POS cloaked, looking down upon both ships safely in the middle of the protective forcefield.

“I’m going to check Erstet out Jon, let me know if anything happens with those two.” Khal’s Orthrus disappeared off D-scan as he warped off to the gate.

“Certainly. It doesn’t look like they’re interested in doing much, at least not with me in system with them. How’s Erstet looking?” Jon finished noting down the features of the new POS and prepared to head back to Wirdalen to pick up the Cynabal. “Oh, hold that. We just got two new pilots in system, I don’t recognise them either. I’ll see if I can find out what they’re flying.” Within a short period of time an Orca and Procurer appeared on D-scan, and their location narrowed to one of the asteroid belts in the centre of the system. “Khal, I have an Orca and Procurer in Enden. They are in the belt, this is not a joke. I am going to reship to my Cynabal and attempt to tackle the Orca, you able to back me up?”

“You’re kidding right? Umm, sure, what do you want me to bring?”

“Whatever you’re comfortable in. We don’t know if these guys are related to the Widow and Drake, so we may have a fight on our hands. My Cynabal needs a test, and this seems like a good way to do that.”

“I’ll bring my Orthrus then, good range control if things turn bad. Erstet is empty, I’ll get on the Enden gate in Nein.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see if I can rustle up another pilot or two, I believe Pick is close by.” Hitting up some less-used communication channels, Jon managed to get hold of Pick, and brief him quickly on the situation. ‘Orca’, ‘Enden’ and ‘belt’ seem to be magic words, and within a short time there was a Vagabond joining Khal’s Orthrus on the gate. “I’m jumping into Enden and warping to the belt guys, I will let you know when I have tackle.” As soon as the jump between systems finished, Jon activated warp to the belt that the Orca was last seen in, and prepared for a potential fight.

“All crew, we are going after a high-value target, so I want no mistakes. Gunnery, make sure we have Hail loaded, we’re going in hard and close. Navigation, keep an eye on short-range D-scan. If that Drake or Widow start heading our way I want to know. E-war crew, get that long point heated, we may need the extra range. We are going to be initiating bumping on the enemy vessel until our friends arrive on field, as the Orca may have warp-core stabs fit, and I don’t want this target escaping.” As the Cynabal came out of warp the Orca appeared in front of them, sitting still while the Procurer mined away next to it.

“We have engaged the Orca, jump jump jump guys!” Jon shouted over comms for Khal and Pick to join him, and local jumped by two as they entered Enden. In a few short seconds the Orthrus and Vagabond were on grid with Jon and the Orca, with the Procurer escaping off grid just before they arrived. Reports came in quickly from Khal and Pick that they had engaged the Orca themselves, and the shields and armour disappeared rapidly. Upon hitting the structure of the Orca the damage slowed down noticeably. “Oh, we have a hull tanked Orca guys. Keep a look out on D-scan for the Widow coming to play.”

The Orca’s structure was slowly ground down, with no movement from the Widow pilot to intervene. As the last scraps of structure were torn apart from the barrage of fire coming from drones, missiles and autocannons, the Orca exploded in a massive explosion. Escape pods were seen ejecting as the once massive ship twisted into a mess of melted metal, and the pilot’s escape pod warped off to safety.

“Enemy ship down, good job guys.” Jon congratulated Pick and Khal, and thanked them for their quick and professional response to the unexpected appearance of the Orca. “Sadly it didn’t drop anything nice, this guy didn’t even have a T2 shield buffer. No wonder he melted quickly, but it’s not like T2 would have saved him.”

“What’s the plan now Jon?” Leeroy came up with a grin on his face “Also, I think the Cynabal passed its test with flying colours.”

“Indeed it did, passed the test perfectly. Can’t beat an Angel Cartel ship for build quality, they use a bit more than the duct-tape and rust that proper Minmatar ships seem to use. That being said, Pick’s Vagabond does look nice, I might have to get one myself and give it a spin. As for the plan now, take us back to Wirdalen. The Mordu’s Legion appear to have launched an attack on a Gurista’s research facility in Enden, and I feel like taking the Machariel for a spin.”

 

****
It was certainly an unexpected sight to see on my D-scan. Apparently they thought that because they posed no threat I would leave them alone. Sure, an Orca doesn’t scream out ‘threat’ to me. However, it does scream ‘large and shiny’, and that’s enough to make me try to kill anything. Why they used an Orca and a Procurer instead of two Procurers I’ll never know. A lot cheaper, and a better overall yield if you’re using just two ships.

Orca killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/47108252/

We found a Jackdaw.

Report from OPSRD0109

“Incursus on scan, it appears to be the same one that was with the small gang that we passed earlier.” The navigator called out the new contact that had arrived on D-scan in the system of Tannakan, and waited for Jon to make a decision on what to do. The enemy gang consisted of at least two frigates and two tech3 destroyers, including the recently released Caldari one, known as the Jackdaw.

“Align to the sun, we’ll fight them there.” The sun was further from the gates than the large outpost in which Jon’s Bellicose found itself in, and therefore gave more time to burn down the Incursus tackle before his friends arrived. The 1600mm plated Bellicose hauled itself around to enter warp, engines shuddering due to extra weight, likely unanticipated by the engineers that designed the ship, from the armour plating. This ship was not fit like your normal Bellicose, instead it was a fit that Jon had designed himself to catch enemy pilots unaware. The standard shield tank had gone out the window, and a 1600mm plate was squeezed on with a rack of TPs and webs. Rapid Light Missile Launchers and a flight of Warrior II drones provided the DPS.

As the Bellicose entered warp, the Incursus landed in the large compound. Noting the name of the pilot, Jon was certain that it was indeed the tackle pilot of the gang spotted earlier. As the Bellicose landed at the sun, and aligned back to the large compound, the Incursus landed within 5 km and engaged, scramming and webbing the Bellicose. “Lock up the Incursus, launch drones and pre-activate the TPs, web, point and launchers. I want this ship off grid ASAP.”

“Local spike, we have three new pilots in local. We have a Jackdaw, Confessor and Punisher on scan, looks like we’ve got a party about to start.” Navigation shouted out the warning as the Incursus got one armour repair cycle off, throwing it’s armour back up.

“Heat the launchers, I want this Incursus dead now. Gunnery, get ready to lock up the Jackdaw when it lands, that is going to be the next target. It’s new and unknown, I want to get a feel for how it fares in combat. All crew, the likelihood of surviving this fight is low. Once we enter structure, I want all crew to prepare to get to the escape pods. Hopefully we take down this Jackdaw before we die.” Jon’s orders echoed through the ship, causing crew to look up and mentally prepare their escape route.

The heated launchers punched through the Incursus’s attempt at repairing its armour, with only three cycles of its ancillary armour repairer occurring before dying. As the Incursus exploded the Punisher landed and engaged, scramming down the Bellicose once again. Without the web of the Incursus being applied the Bellicose sped up, pulling some range on the Punisher while waiting for the Jackdaw and Confessor to land.

“Jackdaw on grid, locking them up.” The navigator called out as soon as the Jackdaw landed, and shortly had it locked up and ready to engage. “It has engaged with light missiles, and is attempting to pull range.”

“Web it, point it, and light him up. Overheat the launchers and set the drones on him. Let’s see how good this fabled beast actually is.” Jon grinned as the e-war of the Bellicose was successfully applied to the Jackdaw. The shields of the Jackdaw began to falter as light missiles began to spew forth from the Bellicose’s launchers, smashing into the side of the Jackdaw while Warrior II drones circled it at great speed, strafing the Jackdaw from all angles. Shield boosts were observed from the Jackdaw, but they only lasted a short time before stopping.

As the Jackdaw plunged through armour, heading straight into structure in one deadly missile volley, the structure alarms of the Bellicose started sounding. While Jon had been watching the Jackdaw fall to his Bellicose, the Confessor and Jackdaw hadn’t been idle themselves. The Jackdaw may have stopped trying to run, but it’s missile launchers still worked perfectly fine, and it was firing volley after volley of light missiles back into the armour plating of the Bellicose. The Confessor on the other hand had pulled range and was firing lasers into the other side of the Bellicose, smashing through the armour plating there.

“All crew, the Jackdaw is about to fall and so are we. Make your way to the nearest escape pods.” The last round of missiles fired off as Jon finished his announcement, tearing through the last vestige of structure remaining of the Jackdaw. The Jackdaw, little more than twisted metal at this point, exploded in a ball of flame and debris which rained down on the Bellicose and Punisher, which had managed to close range again during the manoeuvres with the Jackdaw. “Drone crew, if you are able please set the Warriors on the Confessor, and make your way to your escape pod.” Jon’s last act before boarding his escape capsule was to send a simple message  in the local communications channel, simply saying ‘Good fight’.

With the last remaining crew members ejecting from the Bellicose, and Jon safely aboard his capsule, he waited for the last shred of structure holding the ship together to get melted by the Confessor’s focused laser beams. Just before the last shot came hurling through space into what remained of the Bellicose, Jon sent a message to the Sisters of Eve, asking for them to send some ships to the location of the battle to pick up the escape pods of the destroyed ships. While they may not hold Jon in great esteem, the crew members have done nothing to anger the Sisters, and a confirmation message came back instantly. The Bellicose’s twisted body was suddenly torn asunder as Confessor landed its final hit, with the ship snapping in half, melted metal twisting and turning before freezing in the vacuum of space while explosions from the engines and on-board electronics rocked the wreck. Jon’s capsule flew out of the wreckage, and Jon urgently sent instructions for the capsule to warp to a random planet. Making a bookmark on the way, as soon as the capsule landed Jon turned it around and warped back to the bookmark in the middle of space while waiting for his aggression timer to disappear so that Concord would allow him to use the gates again.

“Thanks for the fight guys” Jon sent another message in the local channel, before engaging warp to the gate that led back towards the system of Amarr. A ‘gf’ was given by the enemy gang in the channel, and then the black tunnel from using a system gate appeared in Jon’s vision and he was catapulted into the nearby system of Anka. Setting the navigational computers to Amarr, Jon lay back and sighed.

****
I had a few days during my studying for exams where I just wanted to blow some spaceships up, and I had been playing around with the Bellicose. Getting a TP onto a shield fit is a bit tricky I feel, so I decided to see if I could fit a 1600mm plate onto it. I’ve got a few different fits that I have tried out, and have kept fiddling with the original fit. It’s not a normal fit, but it’s worked well for me so far and gives me the element of surprise in the fight.

Incursus killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/47067379/

Jackdaw killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/47067386/

Bellicose lossmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/47067387/

Roam the skies,
Jon

A dinner of Hail.

Report from OPSRD0107

“Morning Leeroy, how was your sleep?” Jon asked as he came down the walkway towards the Cynabal. Leeroy turned around from inspecting the placement of the 425mm autocannons on the new hull, the old Cynabal having been destroyed by an Ishtar in the Curse region a week ago.

“Good thanks Jon.” Gesturing back towards the ship, he continued. “The new Cynabal is fit out and ready, all systems seem operational. Do you want to grab a crew and take her out for a spin in Enden? One of these guns looks a bit rusty, I wouldn’t mind making sure that it works on the local rats first.”

“Sounds good. Round up a crew and…” Jon’s personal communications device lit up all of a sudden, its blaring sound echoing through the hanger. This setting was only used in emergencies, and Jon’s mind raced as he answered it, wondering what was going on. Leeroy ran to the nearest console and sent out a full alert to all crew to gear up and get ready for whatever was required as Jon answered the device. “Jon here, what’s happening, where are you, and what do I need to bring?”

“Jon. You are in Wirdalen correct? Stay in station, do not undock, and get in your remote repair battleship. We have a situation, and we’re light on numbers.” Khal’s voice came through the device with urgency. “See Aerith Nagato in local, they’ve been moving a Charon back and forth between Enden and Wirdalen. They’re setting up a POS, and they have a corpmate in Enden that’s webbing them into warp. I’m sitting on the gate cloaked in my Proteus waiting for them to come through again, and then we need all the DPS we can get. You’ve got a RR battleship correct?”

“Indeed to both having the battleship and being in Wirdalen. I’ll join the fleet shortly, just have to get into the Tempest”. Turning to Leeroy, the order was given to get the Tempest crewed and ready to go. “Check ammo, cap charges, drones, everything. And do it as quickly as possible.” Turning back to the communication device, Jon assured Khal that he would be ready to roll out whenever the order was given. Ending the conversation, Jon then started running down the hanger to where the Tempest sat. Jon noted that a thin layer of dust was covering the top layers of the ship, but decided that this operation should blow that right off.

As Jon reached the bridge of the ship he noticed that Leeroy has just finished checking the cargo. “Leeroy, how are we looking?” Jon shouted across the bridge, making the navigator jump at the sudden noise. Jon walks quietly, and the navigator hadn’t even realised he had arrived yet. Leeroy looked up, he hadn’t noticed Jon had arrived either and had his nose stuck in his data pad viewing the reports coming in from the different stations around the ship.

“We’re all good to go” replied Leeroy. Guns are loaded, cap charges are ready for use. Oh, and the crew is ready to kick some arse.

“Cool. Now all we have to do is wait for this fool to undock and head back to Enden. Bao is cloaked outside the station that they are residing in, so we’ll know as soon as they undock.” The HUD in front of Jon lit up as he spoke. “Speaking of which, it looks like the Charon has undocked, and is aligning to the Enden gate. All crew prepare to undock and warp to Enden, this is going to happen fast…Undock, undock, undock, the Charon is off D-scan from the stations. Navigation, align us to the Enden gate. As soon as Aerith leaves local I want us in warp to that gate.” Turning to the fleet communications, Khal had reported that he was 2.5 km off the gate, and ready to uncloak as soon as the Charon jumped through. The corpmate with the webs was nowhere to be seen at this time.

“The Charon has jumped, the Charon has jumped. All fleet members jump into Enden and get to the Wirdalen gate.” Khal’s orders came through as he uncloaked his Proteus, and waited for the Charon to uncloak. Pick and Lillith jumped into Enden from Nein in their Typhoon’s and engaged warp to Khal while Jon’s Tempest and Bao’s Panther hit the Enden gate in Wirdalen and jumped in. “I have point on the Charon, I need reps when you land.” Khal’s voice came through comms, and you could hear the smugness in his voice.

Jon turned to Leeroy and grinned. “Looks like we’ll have to take the Cynabal for a spin another time.” Turning to the ship comms, Jon rattled off orders to the crew. “Lock up the Charon and start firing. Drone crew, launch our Hammerheads and set them on the Charon as well. Armour crew, make sure our hardeners are running, and get ready with the remote repair units once we’re in range of Khal’s Proteus. Navigation, get us within 5km of Khal, as close to the Charon as possible. E-war crew, get the web ready and apply it as soon as we get within range.

A few minutes later the Charon exploded, with Aerith escaping in their pod. Checking the wreck for loot revealed about 300 million ISK worth of gear, the majority being in fuel blocks to run their POS. A concerted effort by the fleet members resulted in the loot being rescued and taken to Wirdalen. Aerith was contacted, and a deal was made to sell the loot back to them for 300 million ISK, resulting in 60 million ISK profit for each fleet member, plus a nice killmail. Jon then went back to Wirdalen and docked up. “Leeroy, release the crew for today. They performed admirably, and I have some reports to catch up on. We shall take the Cynabal out another day for a test.”

 

****
Whoops, haven’t written a post in a long time. Still been playing, just a large reduction in time thanks to study and exams. Not sure what happened over the Christmas break, I’m going to blame me not writing much on work. Thanks to Winterweb Delphi in Wirdalen for saying that they liked my blog, and that I should write another post. I’ve been contemplating it for a while now, and that made up my decision. Hopefully I’ll get a couple more done in the next few days, I’ve got a couple more kills that I want to write about.

And because that’s enough about me, here are the killmails.

The Cynabal that I lost in Curse: https://zkillboard.com/kill/46777326/

And, of course, the Charon: https://zkillboard.com/kill/46965097/

Roam the skies,
Jon.

Gnosis takes to the skies

Report from OPSRD0074 (Omnipresent Ship Recording Device)

“There appears to be a Hurricane at the location sir, what are the orders?” The navigator called out to Jon for instructions on what the plan was. It was a combat anomaly in high-sec space, Angel rats, and having another capsuleer in the site is not a normal occurrence.

Jon thought for a few seconds. As the Gnosis started to decelerate to exit warp, he came to a decision. “Figure out what rats the Hurricane is targeting, and take them out. Let’s see if we can annoy him.”

As the Gnosis came out of warp, the swarm of frigate rats appeared on the sensors, with the Hurricane in the middle of the site, webbing individual frigates down and taking them out, while salvage drones swarmed over the wrecks, picking out the valuable pieces of equipment from the scrap metal. By locking up the rats and determining which ones were taking damage, it was simple to kill the frigates that the enemy capsuleer was attempting to kill. After 7 frigates had been eliminated under the guns of the Hurricane, a simple order went out from Jon.

“Turn the safety system onto yellow, loot from the nearest wreck. All crew, we are going to turn suspect. Concord isn’t going to offer us any protection if this Hurricane decides to attack us, so I want all crew alert and ready for action. Get the e-war section ready to lock him down if he engages, and I want the repair crews on high alert.”

“Jon, what are you playing at now?” Leeroy had walked up to Jon as the orders were being given out, and was now standing next to the captains seat. “Are you sure this is a good idea? Indecent Exposure are active at this time, and there are a couple in local right now. If they get wind of this we are sure to get blobbed.”

“That is a possibility I am willing to risk. I just bought this ship, and I want to test it out against something. As Enden and Erstet are empty, the only opportunity for a fight at the moment is against this Hurricane, if he wants to take the bait. I doubt he’s PvP fit, so if things start to turn south we can just warp out.” Jon was calm about the thought of fighting the Hurricane, with the lack of experience of piloting the Gnosis not a worry.

“We have been locked by the Hurricane. Warp disruption attempt detected, the Hurricane just pointed a frigate!” The alert came out from the navigation station. Leeroy and Jon both looked up at the warning, Leeroy looking slightly worried while Jon just grinned.

“So, the bear has teeth, and is trying to get us to make a mistake. Let’s not oblige, and we shall see if he’s willing to make good his threats. Move in closer, I want an orbit established at 3 km.”

As the Gnosis moved into position, new reports came in from the navigation and damage control stations. The Hurricane had engaged with all it had, with a warp disruptor and a web being applied, along with the EMP ammunition being unloaded into the shields of the Gnosis.

“Apply the scram, webs, and neut, deploy the Hammerheads and start firing the guns. Let’s burn him down quickly, and get out before any friends or opportunistic third-party capsuleers arrive on scene.”

The Hurricanes shields disappeared as the Gnosis’s shields neared depletion, and both ships entered armour near the same time. The Hurricane took quite a beating as its armour was slowly whittled down, while the Gnosis’s reps were able to keep it at half armour quite easily.

“Hurricane has entered structure, it won’t be long now. Nothing is showing on long range D-scan.” The navigation crew had relaxed after it was apparent that the Gnosis was able to tank the Hurricanes damage, and shortly after entering structure the Hurricane had stopped applying its web and point, so there was an easy escape in case something unexpected occurred.

“Prepare a good-fight message in the local communications channel, that was well fought from the Hurricane pilot. Prepare to loot the wreck and warp to a safe to wait out the aggression timer. We are still suspect, and I don’t fancy being caught outside a station without being able to dock if it’s something we can’t handle.”

****
I’m finally back, for another 3 months anyway. University is finally over for the year, so I am now officially a third-year university student. It’s crazy how fast time has gone, but I’ve managed to keep relatively active on Eve while still keeping my studies going and my grades up.

The Hurricane was a fun fight. I watched Mr Hyde’s video on his Gnosis fights, and decided that it was a good time to buy a few hulls and have some fun with them. As said, nothing was found in the low-sec systems of Enden or Erstet. I saw the Hurricane on D-scan, and decided to see if it was at the combat anomaly. Sure enough, it was, and I was greatly happy that it decided to play with me.

Hurricane kill-mail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/42234524/

Roam the skies,
Jon

BLOPs drop

Report from OPSRD0049

“The Typhoon has aggressed, repeat, the Typhoon has aggressed.” The call came over fleet comms from one of the HK bombers, and silence came over the waiting force of bombers. “Cyno is up, cyno is up.”

The Black-ops battleships that were waiting for the call went into action, tearing open the fabric of space to make a bridge to the cynosural field. As soon as the two bridges were up, one from a Sin and one from a Redeemer, the force of fifty bombers jumped through the tunnel, landing deep inside of the Providence region.

“Lock up the Typhoon and launch the torpedoes. Activate the target painter as well, let’s light this ship up.” Jon ordered the small crew present aboard the Hound as we exited from the tunnel. Leeroy was not present on this roam, as the high-risk and low crew requirements meant that his presence was unnecessary.

The killing of the Typhoon did not take long at all. As the fleet consisted of nearly fifty stealth bombers, one salvo from each bomber was more than enough to kill the Typhoon. The battleship promptly exploded, with a wall of torpedoes smashing right through its shields, armour and structure. As the wreckage twisted into its final resting place, the bombers warped off to a planet of the captains choosing, activating their cloaks and waiting for the Sin that was their ticket out of system to jump in. While waiting for the Sin to enter the system, the bomber pilots started spamming the local channel with hyperlinks and talking among themselves.

“All fleet units, the Sin is back in system. Warp to the Sin, making sure you are still cloaked, and wait for the bridge to come up. As soon as the bridge is up, use it and get back inside the staging POS. Nice kill guys and girls, well done.” The fleet commander came over the fleet comms once the Sin and its exit cyno ship were in place for the safe withdrawal of the fleet.

Shortly the Sin uncloaked and again tore open space to make the bridge back to safety. Once all units were back in POS, the comms started lighting up again as the fleet members continued talking among themselves while waiting for another target to be found. The wait did not take long, with the call coming over comms of a Raven being tackled, and the cyno being lit.

“Take the bridge guys, take the bridge. Kill the Raven as soon as you land, same procedure as with the Typhoon.”

As we exited the bridge we saw the Raven, and heard that it was still attempting to lock the cyno ship. Jon gave the order to apply a scan resolution dampener along with the target painter and missiles, and sat back as the orders were carried out. The Raven promptly followed the fate on the earlier Typhoon, and the fleet followed the same withdrawal procedure.

We headed back to the lowsec POS to wait for another target to show itself, but nothing could be found and the black-ops battleships had to leave, due to their captains having prior commitments. The fleet packed up their gear, and headed back to highsec. Once in highsec the fleet disbanded, with the majority of pilots staying together in a group while heading back to Amarr to dockup.

****
Spectre Fleet is still giving me lots of fights and fun, and CVA gave my corp KOS standings within two days of it being created. I haven’t been as active as I would have liked over the last month or so, but university started back up again and decided to smash me with a large workload from the get go. I have been trying to get this post written for a good while, as shown by the dates on the killmails.

That’s life, study before Eve.

Typhoon kill-mail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/39679718/

Raven kill-mail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/39681900/

Roam the skies,
Jon

Killing all the things

Report from OPSRD0025

‘Look at those kill reports Jon, we’ve been active this month haven’t we?’ Leeroy entered the captain’s quarters, waving a sheet with the kills and losses that had been incurred so far this month.

‘We certainly have. According to the report that I was just reading, we have helped to kill over 3 billion ISK worth of ships over the last 3 weeks, and we have only managed to lose 5 ships, not even worth 300 million ISK. Pretty good going if you ask me, and heaps of fun.’

‘SoE and Concord aren’t exactly happy with us though. We’ve helped to increase SoE’s workload, as they come out to rescue the survivors of the destroyed ships, and Concord has decreased our security status by 2 over the last three weeks.’

‘It’s at 1.9 at the moment isn’t it? We may have to schedule in some mission grinding in the next few weeks if it keeps decreasing at this rate.’

‘Yeah, that won’t be fun. If we can stay positive until the new galactic changes are rolled out, it won’t be too painful to get our security status up. The increased power to the Machariel’s engines means that it will be able to warp faster, and it won’t be anywhere near as painful to follow incursions around, and we know that incursions are great for increasing security status. I’m planning on learning about how the advanced artillery cannons work, and getting the gunnery crew trained up for them over the next month or two as well, so that will help to make quick work of the rats.”

“Sounds good. Those cannons certainly look nice, and the extra damage won’t go unused.” Leeroy checked the time on his wrist-watch, a relic for certain, but something that he enjoyed to use. “I’ve got crew quarters to check, I shall check in once that is done.”

“Roger. Make sure everything is tidy, I have some plans brewing, but we may be sitting in station for a while before they bear fruit.”

As Leeroy wandered out to complete his duties, Jon pulled up the corporation information. 6 members in corp, with only one other person being seen on a somewhat regular basis. While Jon enjoyed the laid-back attitude of the corp, as no-one cared what he was doing, or trying to get him to join fleet operations when the crew didn’t feel like it, it would be nice to have people available to call out to for help if required. Solo roams were fun and all, but a lot of our opponents have friends that are willing and able to come and help out, something that usually meant defeat and death for our ship and crew.

Turning to the communications screen on his tactical monitor showed multiple channels being watched. While some of them were just people talking about whatever they felt like, and good for getting information on what is happening in other parts of New Eden, other chat channels were for close groups of people that had been introduced via various means, and yet others were for public roaming fleets. As Jon watched the screen, the channel for Spectre Fleet changed its message, informing people that yet another interceptor roam was forming in Amarr. This group was amazing, and was how we had scored the majority of our kills over the last 3 weeks. They are a NPSI community, meaning that if you’re not part of the fleet, and they find you in lowsec or nullsec, you’re a target and probably going to die.

We have been out on 5 Spectre fleet roams in the last 3 weeks, helping to secure and kill many ships. A few ships have been lost, the latest ship being a Rupture that was jumped into highsec without anyone realising that we still had a criminal timer, and that Concord really takes offence to such violations. Lessons have been learnt, and ships have been replaced. The only problem that the crews appear to have with these roams is the 20 jumps between Amarr and our home-system. While using a Stiletto means that the trip is not too long, and lowsec can be safely crossed, it does take time, and we can’t join a fleet five minutes before it leaves, unless stragglers are being accepted.

Jon considered joining this latest interceptor fleet, as an interceptor probably meant that a nullsec roam was heading out. After consideration however, Jon decided to stay in station. The next few days had the possibility to become very busy, and a well-rested crew would be essential.

****
Spectre Fleet is a great community, with multiple fleets running a day. I also keep an eye on the RvB Ganked channel, but they do not appear to be as active in my time-zone, and I haven’t managed to go on a roam with them yet.

Some of my favourite kill-mails from the last 3 weeks:
Stratios kill. This one was painful, took me down to hull. Drones are painful when you’re in an interceptor: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38747989/

Shiny capsule, came from a Slicer kill. 2048 scan resolution for the win: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38747081/

Kiting Talos kill, damn thing was going over 3 km/s and our poor T1 cruiser gang couldn’t catch it. Someone landed hero tackle with a warp-in, we were extremely happy to kill it: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38976382/

Most expensive Thrasher I’ve ever seen, with a lack of fittings. There were many tears spilled in local: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38976484/

Roam the skies,
Jon.

Why were you in low-sec Mr Retriever?

Report from OPSRD0021

“Retriever on D-Scan sir, there is only one belt he could be at.”

“Very well, take us in. Warp in at 30, I doubt he will be sitting on the warp-in, no-one is that silly in low-sec.” Jon turned to the ship wide radio and informed the crew that there was the possibility of action, and for all crew to man their stations. “Gunnery crew, are you ready?”

“Yes sir” came the reply, crisp and confident. There was only two manned ships in system, and one of them was Jon’s Rupture, so there was little worry within the crew that this would be anything other than an easy kill. As the ship began to exit warp, the regular pre-combat routines began to be run.

“Pre-heat the armour rep, the neut, the scram and the after-burner. If we have to burn to him I want to get there as quickly as possible.” The crew quickly complied, with switches being flicked as he started speaking. While the possibility of a Retriever putting up any sort of resistance that would threaten the Rupture, it was good to keep the crew on their toes and kept in practice.

“Coming out of warp in 3, 2, 1. Target spotted, 30km away, sitting on the warp-in.” The navigators tone of voice betrayed his surprise.

“Start burning towards him. We have to get within scram range!” Jon groaned, with a 20km burn before we could have the chance of getting the kill, and with the possibility of the damn barge having 3 stabs fitted, the odds weren’t looking in our favour. “As soon as we’re in range, activate the neut and scram, and start firing. Over-heat the guns, I want this to be killed as quickly as possible. Ram it as well, stop it aligning out if possible.”

After an excruciating 20 seconds, burning at 500m/s with an over-heated afterburner, the point was activated on the mining barge, with the neut and gunfire being laid down shortly afterwards. Drones were deployed and ordered to add their damage to the barge.

“We have been targeted by the barge, they are sending their drones to attack us Sir.” The defence teams were already closed up and ready for action, and this report had them checking their instruments for where they may be required.

“How many, and what type?” Jon wasn’t too worried about drones from a mining barge, the barge was melting quickly, and wouldn’t last long enough to do any lasting damage with its drones.

“Four Warrior I drones Sir, nothing to be concerned about, they’re hardly touching our shields.”

“Good to hear. Continue firing on the Retriever then, let me know if they manage to get through our shields.”

“Roger.”
Jon sat back and watched the tactical screen. There was nothing to do until…

“Enemy vessel will be exterminated in 3, 2, 1…Boom. Congratulations on the kill men and women.” The report came from Leeroy’s command chair, as he sat back at grinned. Turning to Jon, he said “SoE have been contacted to rescue as many as they can from the wreckage. As they don’t like pod pilots such as yourself a huge amount, I would recommend looting the wreck for any goodies and heading back to station.”

“Who invited those nit-pickers?” Jon grumbled before giving the orders to loot the wreck and warp to a safe-spot to wait out the 15 minute suspect timer given to his ship for his recent action.

“A message went out just before the barge exploded, their captain must have sent one out.”

“Roger. At least he did one thing correct. We should not have gotten that kill by any means. I hope he learnt his lesson. If not, we’ll just have to repeat this lesson won’t we?”

****
Just a short post, I would love to write a longer one chronicling the loss of my Stiletto and Hurricane, and the killing of a Hurricane and Tayra, but I find myself running out of time to play anything more than ‘skill-queue online’ over the last few weeks due to assignments and reports. University is hard, but worth it.

Retriever killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38403670/
Hurricane killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38571302/
Tayra killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38618245/

Stiletto lossmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38418769/
Hurricane lossmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38582951/

I’ve managed to still have fun blowing up ships (mine and others), and I have a roam on Saturday that I’m hoping will give me something to write about (probably a whelping of the fleet, I’m leading it, but we shall see).

Roam the skies,
Jon.

Machariels are awesome

Report from OPSRD0019

“Coming out of warp in 3, 2, 1. Targets confirmed, start locking the frigates and pull range. Engage the frigates as they are locked, don’t let them get too close.”

As the crew confirmed and followed out the orders, Jon sat down in to his captain’s seat and pulled up the information on his fleet member, who had just exited warp and was deploying sentries. Jon laughed and called over Leeroy.

“Ugly ships those things, don’t you agree?”

“What, the space potato? Yeah, form may follow function, but that thing is just hideous.”

“Enemy frigates are all destroyed sir!” came the shout from the gunnery sergeant. “Enemy cruisers are being engaged.”

“Good work, how many did we kill?”

“We got the majority sir, due to being on field first, but our friend in the Dominix is very adept at killing frigates, especially with the much shorter rate of fire of his sentries.”

“Good to know. Well, let’s kill the rest of the rats, show the potato who’s the boss.” Turning to Leeroy, Jon smiled. “It may be hideous, but I’m glad it’s on our side. I’ve seen the fit for that ship, and it’s stupidly over-tanked. That said, all that guys ships are over-tanked, he lost a Machariel around a year ago because it wasn’t tanked well enough, so he tends to over-compensate to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He tried to get me to armour tank this Mach, or at least stick an XL shield booster on it, cap stable even. It would take a massive gank squad to kill it, but it would have made this ship anaemic on the damage front.”

“Ouch. While this tank may not hold up against a full-rooms worth of damage at close range, that is the reason that we sit over 40km from most targets and shoot them down. No need for a large tank if the rats can’t hit us, and, as this fit isn’t blingy, we don’t have to worry too much about gankers. If they do decide they want to kill us though, that’s what D-Scan and bookmarks are for. It’s hard to kill someone if you can’t catch them.” Jon grinned as he remembered his discussion with some other pilots about the viability of ganking, and how much a fit had to be worth before someone decided it was economically viable to try and kill the ship. It came out at around 600-700 million ISK worth of fittings before his Machariel was deemed valuable enough to kill, and Jon had made sure that his fitting was nowhere near as expensive as that.

As the last enemy cruiser was eliminated, and the crew instructed to start taking out the battleships, Jon relaxed and thought back on what had transpired over the last week. Rumours had started flying about Against All Authorities, the alliance that S0uthern Comforts was a part of, was fail-cascading, unable to withstand the combined onslaught of what was left of the N3PL coalition and the new HERO coaltion. S0CO had issued a memo to all pilots a few weeks ago to pull all non-essential ships and equipment out of Catch, and Jon had followed this order, leaving only a few Stilettos and a Jaguar in nullsec. Fleets were constantly going out, harassing Provi-block and HERO mainly, but participation numbers were low and a set of new wardecs from highsec ‘merc’ groups had started to hinder the movement of goods meant for the front-lines, and put a halt on making ISK for Jon, with all PvE gear pulled out of null the only options for making ISK was running missions in highsec, which wasn’t safe to do in a slow battleship with war-targets around.

After having a meeting with the senior members of his crew, and talking to some friends that were no longer a part of S0CO, having left for greener pastures, Jon decided that he was going to do the same thing. Pulling his surviving Stilettos and the Jaguar back to highsec, Jon sent a mail to S0CO leadership, thanking them for the fun he had had in nullsec, and wished them well for their future endeavours. He then removed himself from the corp, contacted his mate who was wanting to raise his standings with the Brutor tribe so he could get a hold of some of those wonderful jump clones, and had been killing rats with extreme prejudice since.

“Last rat is nearly dead sir.” Leeroys exclamation startled Jon out of his reverie, and reminded him that he needed to keep his head in the game, or he was liable to get this ship, and his crew, blown and killed respectively. While he trusted in his crews abilities, and the Machariels ability to out-pace nearly all enemy ships cruiser sized and above, weirder things had happened if half the pub stories were true.

“Good job, that mission only took 15 minutes. Send our congratulations for a job well done to our friend in the potato and head back to station.”

****
I have left S0CO, and with them -A-. Yes, there will be the people saying that -A- is shit, and while that may be true, fleet participation took a huge hit when one of the FC’s left, I had fun while with them. I was privy to some information that I don’t believe has been leaked yet (at least not publicly) before I left, and I hope -A- manages to survive. As for S0CO, I had an awesome time with them, great bunch of guys to hang out with, even if a lot of them didn’t seem to log into Eve often, there was always a bunch on TS happy to talk. I wish them the best of luck, and, who knows. I may end up going back to them and sending in an application in a few months if I feel like sticking my foot back into nullsec.

Oh, and Machariels are awesome, and I shall love them even more when the summer expansion comes out and they get an increased warp speed and warp acceleration.

Roam the skies,
Jon

Shiny pods and fighting HERO

Report from OPSRD0017

‘Capsule on D-Scan!’ came the shout from the navigational crew. ‘Prepare to lock and point.’

Jon grinned as he turned to face the overview, waiting to see the pod appear. There were 12 ships making up this gate-camp, and all the captains were chatting away, having fun and waiting for targets to try and come through their gate. It had been a slow morning so far, with only a rookie ship getting caught and a few interceptors and a nullified and stabbed Tengu getting through. With 5600 scan resolution thanks to a friendly booster giving our Stiletto massive boosts however, nothing that landed in the bubble was going to get away.

‘Pod has landed, locking and pointing now.’ The shout came from the gunnery section as the overview showed the little pod landing 30km from the ship. One near-insta point later the pod was stuck, and the ships that formed the gate camp closed in to get on the kill. Once all the ships reported in that they had activated some sort of module on the pod, therefore confirming that they would be on the official report for the kill, the fleet commander gave the order for the pod to be killed, though some captains were wanting to keep him around until something else came along.
Once the pod was eliminated and everyone got back to their original positions around the gate, the kill-mail got shown to the fleet. Everyone was shocked, the killed clone had implants in it that had an estimated value of 1.35 billion ISK. Jon was ecstatic, as our kill-board had been nearing on red for a few months, and this was going to make it very green.

After waiting another 10 minutes and having no traffic through apart from a group of GSF pilots that attacked one of our fleet without reason, and nearly caused an incident that would have ended with the three Goons being killed and podded if the FC hadn’t been paying attention, the call was made to pull down the bubble and move to Doril, as Razor had a camp on the Sendaya gate. With Sendaya being the staging system for the newly formed HERO coalition that had decided to harass the Catch region, and Doril being the gate into nullsec from Sendaya, it meant that Doril was the perfect system to get many easy kills, with the constant threat of a fleet of Atrons or Thoraxes coming through the gate, the two doctrines that BNI especially enjoy employing, keeping the fleet alert while killing the almost constant stream of bombers, frigates and destroyers that were coming to and from the gate.

We stayed on the gate for around an hour, breaking in the Stiletto and getting used to the speed and point range of it compared to a Firetail, our normal fast tackle frigate. Jon then made the call to dock up in a local station, and headed off to his cabin to sleep.

After a few days of camping the Doril gate, Jon saw an advert for a roam heading to the Providence region to stir up some trouble, and that they wanted a couple of scouts and light tackle. The application to join the fleet went through quickly, and in very little time Jon was on comms with the fleet and ordering the navigation crew to get to HED-GP as soon as possible. Thankfully there are jump-bridges all around -A- space, and the trip took very little time. After only a couple of jumps into CVA space we encountered a defence fleet that had been formed to drive us off. While we won the engagement, with minimal numbers lost on our side compared to how many we killed, the small size of our fleet meant that we had to retreat before we took heavy losses.

****
I’m having a lot of fun down in nullsec now that I am settled in. Interceptors are fun.

Killmail of the 1.35bill pod: https://zkillboard.com/detail/37514407/

Roam the skies,
Jon