Diplomacy at the tip of a Gun

As mentioned in previous posts, and foreshadowed in my last post, change has indeed occurred. I have said before, I was not sure what path Vasavia would ultimately walk-down in the volatile world of New Eden. Over the last couple weeks, the fog lifted, the world around her came into focus.

The time has come to break free from the repression of the more, "legitimate" practices that the universe's governing bodies would like its citizens to abide by. The time has come for norms to be violated, and mores cast into the galactic toilet that is Faction Governance. Vasavia has realized, as should you dear reader, that the pirate in Vasavia has been set free.

As of late Wednesday night, I had quietly tendered my resignation from Origin Systems and Shadows of Light Alliance. I waited anxiously for my corporate stasis period to expire - longest 24 hour waiting period EVAgh! I reflected over my time with OS & SoL. There was no question that I had enjoyed my time with my Corporate Colleagues and Alliance business partners. However, it had become blatantly obvious to me that my interests were not in line with that of the Alliance or the Corporation.

I had been in talks with Raxip Elamp for a couple months. Since our chance encounter I wrote about here (Rax loves it when I bring this up), we had had some friendly banter off and on since then. A couple days ago, I announced that I would be pursuing a life of "Yarr!", and had a conversation with Rax that same evening. The short form, he was gracious enough to extend a welcoming offer from Gunpoint Diplomacy if I was interested. And I was highly interested. An opportunity to work with, as well as learn from, Raxip and Sard is a great opportunity. I quickly submitted my mark to join the ranks of Gunpoint. It was now just a matter of waiting out my resignation stasis period.

While waiting for my stasis period to end, and in the final hours of my employ under OS, I ventured out into Molden Heath in search of my last official acts as a member of OS. It was time to go hunt.

I wondered around for about half an hour when my directional scanner revealed a Gallante frigate close to me. I worked my sensors, carefully manipulating both the direction of the scan and the radius my sensors were sweeping. I eventually pinpointed an Incurus at a mining complex not far from my current location. The complex appeared in my navigational overview, so I activated my warp drives and warped to it's reported location.

I landed next to the acceleration gate into the complex. There she was, a very shiny Incurus sitting right on top of the acceleration gate, not more then 3500 meters of my Rifter's nose. I half expected the Incurus to use the acceleration gate to, literally, throw itself away from me. However, once it became clear who the pilot was I knew she wouldn't shy away from the fight - a pirate, in one of the local pirate corps. I locked, pinned, and span up my autocannons. I set my orbit range preference, and activated my afterburner. I began to overload my high slots to give my autos that little bit of extra "umph" as they spewwed forth their ammunition. As with most frigate fights, the little skirmish didn't last long. The Incurus' structure gave way. Just as I was about to approach the wreckage to scrape for loot another pilot jumped in on the acceleration gate in a cruiser.

My weapons were overheated from the previous engagement, and my armor and shields still were recharging. I was in no shape to take on the cruiser so I quickly set destination for a safe spot and got out of there to wait out my criminal flag. Once it expired, I docked up, paid for some quick repairs for my modules that had taken heat damage from being overloaded. I set course for a neighboring system to continue my little hunt.

It didn't take long before I pinpointed another Rifter at a cluster of 2 planets and a station. I warped from planet to planet looking for the Rifter. However, he was not at either one. He still was showing up on scanner though, so I began to search the neighboring moons. As I was working my scanner, Aura started screaming at me about a frigate sized vessel that was exiting a warp tunnel at our current position. Within seconds, the catalyst of Aura's bitch fest was there.

The Rifter I had been searching for landed out of warp about 100k away from me. It was flag criminal. The pilot? -8.something sec status. Very "red flashy". I threw my Rifter towards the other frigate and began burning towards it. Damage control activated. I just needed to get within targeting range. The other Rifter burned towards me as well. Two deadly birds about to partake in a deadly dance. We were screaming towards each other and it didn't take long to reach targeting range.

I commanded the targeting computer to lock onto the other frigate, and the lock was resolved quickly. I wanted to make it abundantly clear to the other pilot I was here to party. He was locked as soon as I was within the range my targeting computers are capable of locking. He had yet to lock me. I quickly closed to within 10,000 meters.

I activated my scrammer and webber. Autocannons blazed to life, afterburner lighting up the blackness of space behind me. The two frigates screamed past each other in very close range, and we maneuvered into orbiting range. Heavy damage being inflicted, and taken by, the both of us. As far as who was in the lead in this fight - it wasn't clear. All my racks were overloaded. We both eventually began to loose our armor plating, and then we were both into structure.

I squinted my eyes and began to plan my exit in a pod. Much to my surprise all of the sudden, he was well into his structure, his Rifter smoking much more so then mine. I watched eagerly.
The opposing Rifter exploded. I tried to nab his pod, but he must have known his pod trip was coming because just as soon as he exploded his pod shot off to safety. We exchanged "gf" in local, and had a short convo about fittings and Rifter combat. Cool capsuleer to be honest.

My two last offical acts as an employee of OS. I was pleased they were victories. I'm sure I'll miss some of the fellas in OS, but I have to be honest with myself. My interests are in Piracy. Pure and simple. It's not that I think I'll get lots of iskies out of it. It's not even for the sake of causing grief to newbies, miners, and industrialists. It's because the fine line I've been walking between legitimate combatant and flat out piracy has been fun. It's very clear to me, crossing that fine line into the world of Piracy would be that much more fun. Let's face it folks. Piracy. It's just damn fun.

o7 @ Gunpoint Diplomacy

Oh yeah, and new blog title. Much more suitable. Will be updating banner image as well.