Run Wild, Run Free!......or try atleast.

Just after our first jump of the Roam, in Bosena, right after the first engagement. I was, again too focused on what was going on around me and completely forgot to get shots of the action. I'll try to remember next time.

I was hot of the freshness of my first PVP kill from the evening before last. All day as I sat at work I kept thinking about the next opportunity to grab another Killmail. I thirsted for more. One of my corp-mates (Xochitl) and I are good friends from our college years. We've kept in-touch since then via phone, and many many different MMOs. So, naturally, we talked one the phone yesterday about my first Kill, and we both were in the mood to find more for our logbooks. We planned to form up after work and go do a small roam together, our minds set on unknown prey. Our eyes glowy-yellow like a Sith.

After putting my son to bed for the evening I suited up for another evening of New Eden bliss, walked out into the hanger where I had parked my Rifter the night before. After settling into the cockpit, running through all the pre-flight checks, I started powering up my Rifter's systems one by one.

Power, Fuel Control, Displays, NavComp, Targeting Comp, Communications, Weapon Systems, & Lighting all check good. I hailed Xochitl over comms as he was already loaded and running a couple errands before our little excursion into Low-Sec. At this point, he informed me he had lined us up with an Alliance fleet that was forming up to go on a roam through neighboring low-sec looking for targets of opportunity. Splendid!

I joined the Alliance fleet channel, and called for the rally point. Teon was where I needed to head, so I quickly loaded up my ammo, made a slight adjustment to my highpoints loadout, checked for clearance from the Station Control Tower, and undocked to set out for the unknown.

I was still in Josekorn where I've been based for mining operations lately, so I had little bit of a jaunt to Teon. Nothing too bad, about 13 jumps if I remember correctly.

Once I arrived in Teon, I quickly joined up on the wing of our Fleet Commander. And then it was time to just sit and wait for the rest of the fleet to finish preparations and form up. After about 20 minutes or so, everyone was fitted out and either formed up or well on their way to Teon to meet the rest of us. Within another 10 minutes our Fleet Commander came over comms and ran through the flight plan for the evening, and the general strategies we would employ.

Once he was finished running through this briefing, he came back on comms, announced the fleets alignment target, and within another couple minutes he announced fleet warp. We were hurled through the system to our first gate in unison. Definitely one of the coolest things I had ever seen in EVE. Our fleet had grown at about 10 ships - 2 Rifters (me and Xochitl), and a bunch of various BCs.

We jumped through the first gate, anticipation and itchy trigger fingers throughout our small fleet. As the fleet members came through the other side of the jump gate our Fleet Commander immediately started calling primaries. There was a small gate camp of a few other BCs waiting for prey. Me and Xo (being in Rifters) were told, prior to the jump, not to fire on anything that was not flashy red because the sentry guns would make short work of our fragile Rifters.

So I sat, and I sat, waiting for the flashy to happen. Explosions and Missles lit up the blackness of space. Utterly amazed at the firepower that was being poured into the small little gate camp we found. Then, as the target ships started to fall I hear Xo over fleet comms (screaming like a little girl mind you): "Oh shit, Oh shit I'm taking hella damage!" "Oh shit Oh shit".

I turned to look towards where I last had seen Xo's Rifter and just as my eyes came about to his vicinity I see nothing but the grey spider legs - the tell tale sign of an explosion. Xo, in his anxiousness (it was his first roam too), had forgotten the instructions to not fire or engage anything that wasn't flashy red to us. First jump, and one Rifter down. Luckily Xo managed to get his pod out. He wouldn't be able to catch up with the fleet for the rest of the Op though. I was now the lone scout for the fleet.

We made several more jumps, but the first jump into Bosena was the only engagement we were to have last night. The rest of the roam was uneventful. We saw a couple lone frigates, some Industrials, and some mining ships passing through, but nothing worth the 15 minute criminal countdown.

It was probably one of the most fun (despite somewhat uneventful) things I've done in New Eden since I became a capsuleer in January. I'm really looking forward to the next roam with the Alliance members. Big thank you to the pilots of Dark Star for getting the Alliance fleet together last night, and for being patient with a couple Rookies in the fleet.