Thursday, July 23, 2009

Shore Leave Successful!

Hello readers! First, I apologize for such a long period of time between my last update and now. It's really quite ridiculous isn't it? At the end of June, about the time of my last update, I took my wife and out young son (turns 1 today!) on vacation to Hilton Head Island. If you've never been, and you have the opportunity and means to go, I highly recommend this location. Hilton Head has got to be the most beautiful place I've seen. It's humid and hotter then hell during the summer months though - so be prepared. It's well worth it.

Another thing is, well I just haven't had much to write about. I've begun to feel like all my tails of combat are beginning to sound all too much alike, and I've just not experienced any action that I'd say was unique enough to write about. I mean, really. How many accounts of Vasavia pew-pewed this or that is really going to keep readers interested? My updates will probably be farther between then they have been, although I'm hoping not as far apart as this one has been from the last update.

As I said, not much unique things have happened over the last month. I've acquired some nice solo kills against other frigs over the last month. I've been with Gunpoint now for a few weeks as well and I'm really starting to get comfortable with the little gang of villainy-pirates. Right before I joined with Sard and the gang, Gunpoint rejoined a former alliance. Rote Kapelle. I'm also getting more comfortable with the alliance. I've been on a couple alliance roams and everyone I've flown with seems to be light years ahead of me in regards to combat. That's to be expected though. Suffice it to say, I'm very happy with my change in employ in New Eden.

I've yet to pull off any ransoms. "What!?! A pirate without ransoms in no pirate at all!", you say? Well, you're probably right I suppose. It's not so much that I wouldn't like to ransom some poor capsuleer that I just separated from their ship. The right opportunity just hasn't presented itself. Most of the time, in the systems I've achieved my kills in, there just isn't enough time to deal with the negotiation of ransoming. It may only take 30-60 seconds to strike a ransom agreement, but as any experienced capsuleer will tell you sitting in a belt for that amount of time is a huge window of opportunity for another pirate or capsuleer to come in and ruin everything for you. So, I've popped a shipped, and I'll warp out because there's just too much activity in the system to loiter and make myself an easy, already damaged target.

In other developments, I finally finished training up for Assault Ships. It's nice to fly something that handles and looks just like my beloved Rifters, but packs more punch and tank then the fragile frig. The downside, of course, is cost. Jags and Wolfs are considerably more expensive then Rifters. Especially after buying and fitting the modules. Since getting into the Assault Ships I've lost a few wolfs, and have a single Jag in my hanger now. I don't take the Assault Ship out as much as I do the Rifters though - my attempt to minimize the chance of loosing an expensive ship.

Yesterday, I took the Jag out for a stroll though. I undocked from the station, and the first thing I see is silly Raxip's frozen corpse floating right outside our home station. How embarrassing (facepalm). I approached Raxips frozen corpse and scooped it up into my cargo bay, and immediately turned back towards our station to dock up and put his corpse in my Frozen Corpse Storage collection (the official Piratey Trophy Room). Seems his former clone had had a rough day.

After docking back up in the station and having the hanger crews unload Raxip's frozen corpse from the cargo hold of my Jaguar, I set out for a short quick roam around Molden Heath. I went through the typical hunting grounds: Aedald, Heild, Bosena, Odde, into Istodard, through Half and even as far as Sakulda. Nothing. Not a single thing worth pew-pewing. Disgruntled, I set destination for home. It was getting late and I needed to hit the ruck-sack.

I quickly traversed back through Half, Istodard, Odde and landed in Bosena. I hit the scan button on my directional scanner - this was Bosena after all, and the traffic is always changing in this system. Since I'd been in Bos last there could be new potential victi...err targets. The scanner swept the space in front my Jag. I sat idly in front a jump gate still under the jump cloak from when I entered the system. The scanner returned a hit on a Rifter, not far from my location. Much to my pleasure, the Rifter was in an asteroid belt. I commanded my Jag to leap to the asteroid belt. She sprang into action, quickly reaching optimum velocity for the warp drive to engage. I hurled through space towards the asteroid belt, watching the scanner to see if the Rifter dropped off - a que that he had moved out of the belt on to some other location.

My Jaguar burst out of its warp tunnel into the asteroid belt. The Rifter, my prey, appeared on my hud's overview readouts. I exited warp and landed under 2,000 meters away from the frigate. Perfect range. I activated my warp scrambler and webber, followed immediately by my Auto cannons and rocket launcher. I set my orbiting range and activated my afterburner to get my speed up. I sat back and watched as my auto cannons span and my rocket launcher hurled their projectiles of death towards the fragile frigate I had pounced on. The Rifter immediately took heavy shield damage, and I could tell from the readouts I was getting from the targeting computer that the Rifter pilot was desperately trying to heal his frigate's shields with a shield booster.

He must have realized quickly, that it was all in vane though. I was astonished to see the capsuleer eject his pod manually, rather then waiting for it to eject automatically as all ships do once the final bit of hull integrity succumbs to an onslaught. I hesitated for a brief moment. Amazed at this occurrence. I'd not encountered a capsuleer who would do this. All my foes had fought bravely to the end. This capsuleer didn't even fight back. He didn't even try and lock my Jaguar. I brought my mind back into focus and tried to lock the pod. However, the brief pause in my consciousness allowed the former Rifter pilot to get his pod into warp and out of the belt to the safety of...anywhere else.

I shrugged. I allowed my Assault Frigate to continue it's death-dealing on the now pilot-less Rifter. It quickly caved with no one to run it's defensive modules. The hull gave out and I immediately was greeted by a "free" killmail. Just as the Rifter exploded, my scanners screamed about the presence of a new ship in the belt. Another Jaguar. I didn't waste anytime investigating the wreckage of the former Rifter. Immediately, I set course for a safe spot. Then I realized, the other Jaguar that had entered the belt was sitting a far 230K away from my location in the belt.

My ship leaped into warp and I waited out my GCC in Bosena in a safe spot. After my criminal flag dropped I set destination for home. I arrived without any further incidents. Having docked up, I asked the maintenance crew to prep the vessel for the next day's action.

While shore leave is nice, it's always great to strap back into the pod and head out for the unknown pew-pew.