Tuskers have recently opened an office in Molden Heath, and we are once again happily recruiting!
Tusker Recruitment
Also, Ronan just finished a new video! It mainly features my vagabond, but also plenty of Tuskers rocking the small-gang action we love.
Injun Summer
Music:
Aqueduct - Hardcore Days and Softcore Nights
Fear Factory - Cars
Primal Scream - Trainspotting
Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Goings-on
I'm going to be very honest for a second here.
Verge Vendor has seemed kinda slow.
And yet, that is not at all to say nothing has happened...
For instance, I (Ronan) am now the proud home-inventer of the Lazer-bellicose, which played a serious role taking down this Eagle: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3504522
Also Caster Rom has been posting some great stories: http://criminally-yours.blogspot.com/
As well as one of our newest recruits, IzzyBella: http://not-about-living-forever.blogspot.com/
And we can't forget Wensley, who has been having entirely too much fun roaming 0.0 in his Rifter! http://www.rifterdrifter.com/
Then came a day that will...I dunno probly be forgotten, but looking over the past few weeks it certainly sticks out! June 16th...It's a story of Dreads and Freighters, Lady Luck and The Effing Loot Devil, Nanos and Stealth Bombers, Ransoms, and long, seemingly dull roams to Amarr space.
It started the day before when one of our old amigos, now a Tusker Public groupy (if you'd like a better title, please see recruitment section of Tusker forums =P) started tracking a Harbinger and Caracal in the Costolle system.
As it turned out they were setting up POS defences, but had only managed to set-up 4 Cruise Missile batteries by the time we started warping in for closer looks.
The Harbinger seemed to disappear, and the Caracal logged off inside the POS. Tuskers began testing their tanks and damage on the Cruise launchers, hoping for the harbinger to warp back in and engage.
Before long one of the cruise launchers was going down, and we decided we may as well try to ransom the thing.
So we convo the only guy still in local, here's some sweet sweet chat-logs:
Channel Name:
[ 2009.06.15 16:20:34 ] Alex Rudd > o/ shiktar
[ 2009.06.15 16:20:37 ] shiktar > hi
[ 2009.06.15 16:20:56 ] Alex Rudd > we're kind of killing your pos here
[ 2009.06.15 16:21:12 ] shiktar > what delay?
[ 2009.06.15 16:21:40 ] Alex Rudd > but for the small sum of 100mil we'll get the hell out and leave you alone :)
[ 2009.06.15 16:22:50 ] shiktar > I will just invite some guys from my allianc if you permit :) because like you see we are an alliance and not a bunch of guys
[ 2009.06.15 16:23:48 ] Venkarian > xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:24:09 ] Alex Rudd > hello there
[ 2009.06.15 16:24:48 ] Venkarian > THe Tuskers want shot a pos of stellar ?
[ 2009.06.15 16:24:49 ] Venkarian > xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:16 ] Ronan Jacques > actually the missiles are already incapped
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:27 ] Ronan Jacques > and the POS is at 3/4 shield
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:30 ] Alex Rudd > we wanted to and we have, now we're offering you the chance to save it before we completely destroy it
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:49 ] Venkarian > Oh ok
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:52 ] Venkarian > Attack we wait xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:54 ] shiktar > sorry ronan but you are wrong I m in the pos atm
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:06 ] Ronan Jacques > oh, 4/5th?
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:31 ] shiktar > certainly not :) 100%
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:39 ] Alex Rudd > we have cap pilots available who would cladly take this pos down in a matter of minutes. but before we call on them we'd rather give you the chance to save this beautiful structure of yours
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:51 ] Venkarian > Lolll !
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:02 ] Venkarian > You are 42 we are 360 xDDDD
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:13 ] Alex Rudd > gratz
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:37 ] Alex Rudd > any how 100mil or we destroy your POS
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:42 ] Venkarian > tilk chuis mdr ils ont des caps ships
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:45 ] Ronan Jacques > hopefully you get good participation for pos-repping ops XD
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:57 ] Tilk02 > feu a volonte
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:59 ] Tilk02 > yop
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:14 ] Venkarian > On a tous peur abusé xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:24 ] DustBlow > salut les fille
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:27 ] DustBlow > filles
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:51 ] Alex Rudd > Again, 100mil or you'll be short one POS
[ 2009.06.15 16:29:31 ] DustBlow > how many lol??
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:35 ] Alex Rudd > matter not, we have the fire power to destroy your POS, will you pay the ransom of 100mil?
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:46 ] Venkarian > Heu no
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:51 ] Tilk02 > no you pay
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:51 ] Alex Rudd > rgr
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:52 ] Venkarian > Shot first and die :p
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:54 ] Ronan Jacques > k then, have fun repping o/
Now then, Ronan has had this certain issue when ransoming people who don't speak english terribly well....You may have spotted it in the course of these logs, but the point is we THOUGHT this was the Harbinger pilot, and that he had warped off the POS as we came in.
The last time I did this, one of our buddies from Public had caught a Russian destroyer in a mission, and I ended up ransoming him. Obviously I picked the guy in local with Russian in their bio, and started negotiations through google-translate...in Russian.
Long story short, and no I don't have those chat logs, I had chosen the wrong russian...
This time, I had chosen the wrong POS owners.
We worked this out when the Harbinger logged back on inside the POS shields, and was completely not the guy we had just harassed for money.
About this time, the french people we had demanded ransom from, (for no particular reason) started sending convo's to Tuskers, demanding money and asking them if that Ronan guy is crazy.
I think played it off quite well, insisting that it's more like we accidentally tried to scam them....y'know, as opposed to Ronan totally fails at ransoming foreign people >_<
[ 2009.06.15 17:01:56 ] Ronan Jacques > you got that 100mil yet?
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:06 ] Venkarian > No you are making dream
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:11 ] Ronan Jacques > lol
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:18 ] Venkarian > You are crazy
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:19 ] Ronan Jacques > no, I'm ASKING
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:21 ] Ronan Jacques > FOR
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:26 ] Ronan Jacques > ONE HUNDRED MILLION!!!!
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:28 ] Ronan Jacques > :9
[ 2009.06.15 17:03:09 ] Venkarian > You want a war ?
[ 2009.06.15 17:03:16 ] Ronan Jacques > no, 100 million
[ 2009.06.15 17:03:28 ] Ronan Jacques > look dude, you have my name, just send it already
Anyway, it turned out the real POS owners weren't interested in Ransom either, but they did start unanchoring something... And due to the little 'unanchor' timer being sort of off to the side and no-where in particular, The Mighty Tusker Battle-fleet was convinced for a good 20 minutes that the guy was unanchoring the entire tower in his foolishness, and at any moment we would be able to smash the harbinger and grab the POS tower!!
We realized about a minute before it finished that it was a coupling array, and by this time the POS was nearly reinforced, so we begrudgingly finished the job, and put out the call for Dreadnought support to kill it after it's 16 hour reinforcement cycle.
Bright and early the morning of the 16th, just after downtime, a majestic Moros Dreadnought undocked from Hevrice 5, and cyno'd to within blaster-range of the Small Caldari Tower. The mighty guns wound up, and proceeded to pulverize the structure alongside a small fleet of Battleships, Stealth Bombers and other support.
(FRAPS AT BOTTOM)
Some 55 million worth in mods were looted, and on top of the pretty pictures it was at least worth the ammo!!
While clean-up was taking place, an Ishtar was sighted roaming Costolle, and so I went to bait in a belt with my Omen. After quite some time he warped in, and I took up point and orbit as the fleet warped-in. He came terrifyingly close, in fact he was within 12km of me for a split second as I changed course to dodge the asteroid belt! But at that time Kruger's Hurricane had landed, and Paul Jons' Nemesis and Ghoststalker's Manticore had begun launching deadly salvos that devastated the Ishtar with it's MWD-inflated signature.
This kill and the POS are included in this Battlereport:
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3541742
Soon after, a planned 'nanos and stealth bombers' squad was set out under my command.
The fleet consisted of two Hounds, a Purifier and a Manticore, assisted by an Omen, Taranis and Rifter.
In Agoze, we were incredulous to stumble upon a SCUM Nighthawk command ship, RATTING IN A BELT!!!
Ronan dove in with his Omen and got point, and told the fleet to bum-rush it! Unfortunately, also totally incredible, the Nighthawk was warp-stabbed, and warped-off in alarm at the local-spike.
Just, one more time for the people in the back: THE WARP-STABBED RATTING NIGHTHAWK FROM SCUM ALLIANCE escaped our clutches.
It's so funny, we were just discussing how one of Jolo's old pirate corps had a 100% tax-rate to prevent exactly these horrible moments...
A few jumps later, a Flaming Brotherhood member jumped through the wroooong gate in his blackbird. He was so swiftly annihilated, one of our sensor-boosted bombers did not even acquire lock!
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3542170
Finally, we found a system with scans cluttered by TONS of ships parked in POS, even a Nyx!!
We spotted a Phobos away from the POS', and commenced probing it. However the heavy congestion in the system and our scouts' focus on helping pin-point the phobos allowed several ships to slip in and begin moving around. When we finally decided to give up and move-out, I found the Phobos sitting on the gate out of the system....
I promptly warped to the nearest belt, and a couple of our stealth bombers warped-in to take up ranges. The Phobos followed soon after, and my Omen took up point and orbit, kiting him marvelously. As Man Barthelme came in and added to the tackle, the Stealth Bombers began to de-cloak and open up their launch-bays. At this point we were also joined by Nupe in his Vagabond, who had caught up to the fleet during the lengthy probing session...
At just this moment, a Falcon decloaked some 50-60km away and began jamming! Vajo's Hound warped out jammed, but Ghoststalker's Manticore got a lock and managed to fire a volley into the Falcon as I rushed it with my Omen. Two Tempest battleships also landed in the belt, but then the Falcon warped out, and the Tempests were rather quick to follow it, leaving the Phobos to take our fire!
Unfortunately, at this point Vajo had warped back in outside of torpedo range, and I would take more precious seconds to get the Phobos back in range of his guns. The Phobos' incredible tank was actually holding against the three Stealth Bombers and Nupe's Vagabond. By the time Vajo's torps were hitting again and the armor was falling under 50%, the Tempests had returned!
After an incredibly tense moment of watching the Phobos' tank waver, hearing cries of heavy-neuts from my fleet mates and checking the ages of the Tempest pilots, I found that one of them was grossly under-age, and ordered primary be switched to him.
He must have known how to fit a buffer, however, and their heavy-neuts were forcing the Stealth Bombers off the field. I ordered a general retreat as the Neuts began to cap out my Omen, and the single remaining MWD cycle was not enough to carry my ship free of the Phobos' Focused point. Man Barthelme's rifter, and Jin's Hound were also lost in the retreat:
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3542570
_____________________________
Tusker luck was about to take a wild, wild ride however. A few hours later, Vajo Mithrandhir was sitting on the Jovainon gate, awaiting a roaming gang that Leo Solunar was forming up.
Already tired from a day of roaming, and used to seeing the rectangular brackets of industrial vessels jump through the Jovainon gate, it took him a moment to recognize something very, very interesting about one that took a particularly long time to align...
It was a FENRIS.
And then, Vajo's brain farted quietly, as the Fenris warped majestically off....to a belt.
The Tusker gang that had been slowly forming suddenly coalesced in the belt beside it, swarming it, tearing it apart with wild abandon! But when the smoke cleared, there was something terribly, terribly wrong with the wreck:
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3543073
Ogod, why.
I got into space shortly after seeing the news, incredulous but still in time to catch Leo's gang on it's roam down to Amarr space.
The pipes seemed empty, but we did find a Harbinger to kill: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3543828
The whole time, this rather paranoid, sort of woody-allen style neurotic character was jabbering at us in local about how he didn't care we were camping his system, and then declaring he was coming out to smash our fleets, and then congratulated us on calling his bluff. He proceeded to suggest that he would pay double for us to go back and camp the guy who had paid us. We waited out our GCC's enjoying the word play between Leo, who repeatedly failed to be a smooth con-man, and Caster, who managed to repeatedly save the negotiation with his own smoothness.
Later we fought a running battle with a Vagabond (note: this is the wrong kinda battle to fight with a Vagabond when everybody but Ronan has Afterburners lol).
My shiny rail-taranis went down, as I forgot the part of my magic Vagabond-kiting skills where I actually bring him closer to my gang...
But the kill emboldened the Vagabond, who promptly dove into the fire, allowing the undeterred Caster Rom to scramble his MWD, and died.
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3544778
His snide remark upon killing Ronan sorta bit him in the butt there, he was much quieter when we came through his home-system later =P
Anyway, there's even been cool stuff in the time since then, but those are other stories for others to tell.
Today for instance...
Haha, oh I'm such a tease...
Check out the POS Shoot!
!!!FULL MUSIC VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE!!!
Music: San Francisco - John Phillips
Verge Vendor has seemed kinda slow.
And yet, that is not at all to say nothing has happened...
For instance, I (Ronan) am now the proud home-inventer of the Lazer-bellicose, which played a serious role taking down this Eagle: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3504522
Also Caster Rom has been posting some great stories: http://criminally-yours.blogspot.com/
As well as one of our newest recruits, IzzyBella: http://not-about-living-forever.blogspot.com/
And we can't forget Wensley, who has been having entirely too much fun roaming 0.0 in his Rifter! http://www.rifterdrifter.com/
Then came a day that will...I dunno probly be forgotten, but looking over the past few weeks it certainly sticks out! June 16th...It's a story of Dreads and Freighters, Lady Luck and The Effing Loot Devil, Nanos and Stealth Bombers, Ransoms, and long, seemingly dull roams to Amarr space.
It started the day before when one of our old amigos, now a Tusker Public groupy (if you'd like a better title, please see recruitment section of Tusker forums =P) started tracking a Harbinger and Caracal in the Costolle system.
As it turned out they were setting up POS defences, but had only managed to set-up 4 Cruise Missile batteries by the time we started warping in for closer looks.
The Harbinger seemed to disappear, and the Caracal logged off inside the POS. Tuskers began testing their tanks and damage on the Cruise launchers, hoping for the harbinger to warp back in and engage.
Before long one of the cruise launchers was going down, and we decided we may as well try to ransom the thing.
So we convo the only guy still in local, here's some sweet sweet chat-logs:
Channel Name:
[ 2009.06.15 16:20:34 ] Alex Rudd > o/ shiktar
[ 2009.06.15 16:20:37 ] shiktar > hi
[ 2009.06.15 16:20:56 ] Alex Rudd > we're kind of killing your pos here
[ 2009.06.15 16:21:12 ] shiktar > what delay?
[ 2009.06.15 16:21:40 ] Alex Rudd > but for the small sum of 100mil we'll get the hell out and leave you alone :)
[ 2009.06.15 16:22:50 ] shiktar > I will just invite some guys from my allianc if you permit :) because like you see we are an alliance and not a bunch of guys
[ 2009.06.15 16:23:48 ] Venkarian > xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:24:09 ] Alex Rudd > hello there
[ 2009.06.15 16:24:48 ] Venkarian > THe Tuskers want shot a pos of stellar ?
[ 2009.06.15 16:24:49 ] Venkarian > xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:16 ] Ronan Jacques > actually the missiles are already incapped
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:27 ] Ronan Jacques > and the POS is at 3/4 shield
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:30 ] Alex Rudd > we wanted to and we have, now we're offering you the chance to save it before we completely destroy it
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:49 ] Venkarian > Oh ok
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:52 ] Venkarian > Attack we wait xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:25:54 ] shiktar > sorry ronan but you are wrong I m in the pos atm
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:06 ] Ronan Jacques > oh, 4/5th?
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:31 ] shiktar > certainly not :) 100%
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:39 ] Alex Rudd > we have cap pilots available who would cladly take this pos down in a matter of minutes. but before we call on them we'd rather give you the chance to save this beautiful structure of yours
[ 2009.06.15 16:26:51 ] Venkarian > Lolll !
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:02 ] Venkarian > You are 42 we are 360 xDDDD
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:13 ] Alex Rudd > gratz
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:37 ] Alex Rudd > any how 100mil or we destroy your POS
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:42 ] Venkarian > tilk chuis mdr ils ont des caps ships
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:45 ] Ronan Jacques > hopefully you get good participation for pos-repping ops XD
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:57 ] Tilk02 > feu a volonte
[ 2009.06.15 16:27:59 ] Tilk02 > yop
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:14 ] Venkarian > On a tous peur abusé xD
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:24 ] DustBlow > salut les fille
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:27 ] DustBlow > filles
[ 2009.06.15 16:28:51 ] Alex Rudd > Again, 100mil or you'll be short one POS
[ 2009.06.15 16:29:31 ] DustBlow > how many lol??
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:35 ] Alex Rudd > matter not, we have the fire power to destroy your POS, will you pay the ransom of 100mil?
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:46 ] Venkarian > Heu no
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:51 ] Tilk02 > no you pay
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:51 ] Alex Rudd > rgr
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:52 ] Venkarian > Shot first and die :p
[ 2009.06.15 16:30:54 ] Ronan Jacques > k then, have fun repping o/
Now then, Ronan has had this certain issue when ransoming people who don't speak english terribly well....You may have spotted it in the course of these logs, but the point is we THOUGHT this was the Harbinger pilot, and that he had warped off the POS as we came in.
The last time I did this, one of our buddies from Public had caught a Russian destroyer in a mission, and I ended up ransoming him. Obviously I picked the guy in local with Russian in their bio, and started negotiations through google-translate...in Russian.
Long story short, and no I don't have those chat logs, I had chosen the wrong russian...
This time, I had chosen the wrong POS owners.
We worked this out when the Harbinger logged back on inside the POS shields, and was completely not the guy we had just harassed for money.
About this time, the french people we had demanded ransom from, (for no particular reason) started sending convo's to Tuskers, demanding money and asking them if that Ronan guy is crazy.
I think played it off quite well, insisting that it's more like we accidentally tried to scam them....y'know, as opposed to Ronan totally fails at ransoming foreign people >_<
[ 2009.06.15 17:01:56 ] Ronan Jacques > you got that 100mil yet?
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:06 ] Venkarian > No you are making dream
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:11 ] Ronan Jacques > lol
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:18 ] Venkarian > You are crazy
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:19 ] Ronan Jacques > no, I'm ASKING
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:21 ] Ronan Jacques > FOR
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:26 ] Ronan Jacques > ONE HUNDRED MILLION!!!!
[ 2009.06.15 17:02:28 ] Ronan Jacques > :9
[ 2009.06.15 17:03:09 ] Venkarian > You want a war ?
[ 2009.06.15 17:03:16 ] Ronan Jacques > no, 100 million
[ 2009.06.15 17:03:28 ] Ronan Jacques > look dude, you have my name, just send it already
Anyway, it turned out the real POS owners weren't interested in Ransom either, but they did start unanchoring something... And due to the little 'unanchor' timer being sort of off to the side and no-where in particular, The Mighty Tusker Battle-fleet was convinced for a good 20 minutes that the guy was unanchoring the entire tower in his foolishness, and at any moment we would be able to smash the harbinger and grab the POS tower!!
We realized about a minute before it finished that it was a coupling array, and by this time the POS was nearly reinforced, so we begrudgingly finished the job, and put out the call for Dreadnought support to kill it after it's 16 hour reinforcement cycle.
Bright and early the morning of the 16th, just after downtime, a majestic Moros Dreadnought undocked from Hevrice 5, and cyno'd to within blaster-range of the Small Caldari Tower. The mighty guns wound up, and proceeded to pulverize the structure alongside a small fleet of Battleships, Stealth Bombers and other support.
(FRAPS AT BOTTOM)
Some 55 million worth in mods were looted, and on top of the pretty pictures it was at least worth the ammo!!
While clean-up was taking place, an Ishtar was sighted roaming Costolle, and so I went to bait in a belt with my Omen. After quite some time he warped in, and I took up point and orbit as the fleet warped-in. He came terrifyingly close, in fact he was within 12km of me for a split second as I changed course to dodge the asteroid belt! But at that time Kruger's Hurricane had landed, and Paul Jons' Nemesis and Ghoststalker's Manticore had begun launching deadly salvos that devastated the Ishtar with it's MWD-inflated signature.
This kill and the POS are included in this Battlereport:
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3541742
Soon after, a planned 'nanos and stealth bombers' squad was set out under my command.
The fleet consisted of two Hounds, a Purifier and a Manticore, assisted by an Omen, Taranis and Rifter.
In Agoze, we were incredulous to stumble upon a SCUM Nighthawk command ship, RATTING IN A BELT!!!
Ronan dove in with his Omen and got point, and told the fleet to bum-rush it! Unfortunately, also totally incredible, the Nighthawk was warp-stabbed, and warped-off in alarm at the local-spike.
Just, one more time for the people in the back: THE WARP-STABBED RATTING NIGHTHAWK FROM SCUM ALLIANCE escaped our clutches.
It's so funny, we were just discussing how one of Jolo's old pirate corps had a 100% tax-rate to prevent exactly these horrible moments...
A few jumps later, a Flaming Brotherhood member jumped through the wroooong gate in his blackbird. He was so swiftly annihilated, one of our sensor-boosted bombers did not even acquire lock!
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3542170
Finally, we found a system with scans cluttered by TONS of ships parked in POS, even a Nyx!!
We spotted a Phobos away from the POS', and commenced probing it. However the heavy congestion in the system and our scouts' focus on helping pin-point the phobos allowed several ships to slip in and begin moving around. When we finally decided to give up and move-out, I found the Phobos sitting on the gate out of the system....
I promptly warped to the nearest belt, and a couple of our stealth bombers warped-in to take up ranges. The Phobos followed soon after, and my Omen took up point and orbit, kiting him marvelously. As Man Barthelme came in and added to the tackle, the Stealth Bombers began to de-cloak and open up their launch-bays. At this point we were also joined by Nupe in his Vagabond, who had caught up to the fleet during the lengthy probing session...
At just this moment, a Falcon decloaked some 50-60km away and began jamming! Vajo's Hound warped out jammed, but Ghoststalker's Manticore got a lock and managed to fire a volley into the Falcon as I rushed it with my Omen. Two Tempest battleships also landed in the belt, but then the Falcon warped out, and the Tempests were rather quick to follow it, leaving the Phobos to take our fire!
Unfortunately, at this point Vajo had warped back in outside of torpedo range, and I would take more precious seconds to get the Phobos back in range of his guns. The Phobos' incredible tank was actually holding against the three Stealth Bombers and Nupe's Vagabond. By the time Vajo's torps were hitting again and the armor was falling under 50%, the Tempests had returned!
After an incredibly tense moment of watching the Phobos' tank waver, hearing cries of heavy-neuts from my fleet mates and checking the ages of the Tempest pilots, I found that one of them was grossly under-age, and ordered primary be switched to him.
He must have known how to fit a buffer, however, and their heavy-neuts were forcing the Stealth Bombers off the field. I ordered a general retreat as the Neuts began to cap out my Omen, and the single remaining MWD cycle was not enough to carry my ship free of the Phobos' Focused point. Man Barthelme's rifter, and Jin's Hound were also lost in the retreat:
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3542570
_____________________________
Tusker luck was about to take a wild, wild ride however. A few hours later, Vajo Mithrandhir was sitting on the Jovainon gate, awaiting a roaming gang that Leo Solunar was forming up.
Already tired from a day of roaming, and used to seeing the rectangular brackets of industrial vessels jump through the Jovainon gate, it took him a moment to recognize something very, very interesting about one that took a particularly long time to align...
It was a FENRIS.
And then, Vajo's brain farted quietly, as the Fenris warped majestically off....to a belt.
The Tusker gang that had been slowly forming suddenly coalesced in the belt beside it, swarming it, tearing it apart with wild abandon! But when the smoke cleared, there was something terribly, terribly wrong with the wreck:
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3543073
Ogod, why.
I got into space shortly after seeing the news, incredulous but still in time to catch Leo's gang on it's roam down to Amarr space.
The pipes seemed empty, but we did find a Harbinger to kill: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3543828
The whole time, this rather paranoid, sort of woody-allen style neurotic character was jabbering at us in local about how he didn't care we were camping his system, and then declaring he was coming out to smash our fleets, and then congratulated us on calling his bluff. He proceeded to suggest that he would pay double for us to go back and camp the guy who had paid us. We waited out our GCC's enjoying the word play between Leo, who repeatedly failed to be a smooth con-man, and Caster, who managed to repeatedly save the negotiation with his own smoothness.
Later we fought a running battle with a Vagabond (note: this is the wrong kinda battle to fight with a Vagabond when everybody but Ronan has Afterburners lol).
My shiny rail-taranis went down, as I forgot the part of my magic Vagabond-kiting skills where I actually bring him closer to my gang...
But the kill emboldened the Vagabond, who promptly dove into the fire, allowing the undeterred Caster Rom to scramble his MWD, and died.
http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3544778
His snide remark upon killing Ronan sorta bit him in the butt there, he was much quieter when we came through his home-system later =P
Anyway, there's even been cool stuff in the time since then, but those are other stories for others to tell.
Today for instance...
Haha, oh I'm such a tease...
Check out the POS Shoot!
!!!FULL MUSIC VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE!!!
Music: San Francisco - John Phillips
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Working with others
There's this rival pirate corp that hangs around our area, called the Flaming Brotherhood. I suppose you could characterize them best by saying that they tend to enjoy station-fights with big ships, and readily employ alts and various allies from several other corps, such that it is frequently difficult to assess a scenario in which they are involved.
As such, and because they are often ready to lose ships just to get fights, for a while Tuskers scoffed at them for their station-oriented style. But when Ka Jolo instituted a killboard campaign against them, the statistics quickly made it clear we had nothing to scoff at really, we were in fact losing money on these guys!
Anyway, Ronan has NEVER liked them, ESPECIALLY ollie123, essentially because of their technique of aggravating opponents in local chat. However today I did team up with them, and not for the first time...
As a breif roaming gang settled down into hevrice and most other Tuskers logged off for the time, I hopped into my Drake, looking for a little change of pace, and set out. Having spotted an FW Myrmidon moving around in costolle earlier, I headed that way. Distructo of the Flaming Brotherhood was in muetralle, but scans showed him in a pod and no real threat.
Moving into Costolle, I scanned around for the myrmidon before settling into a belt to rat, so at least he could say he had been there.
I was aligned and just reaching the edge of disruptor range when the myrmidon, piloted by a member of the 22nd BRDU warped in, but to my dismay it landed 85km away!
I pointed out that I wasn't leaving until the rats went down, but the Myrmidon pilot warped out contentedly, scoffing at the stink of bait on me.
As I was jumping out through Muetralle gate, Distructo jumped through in a shuttle, so I dropped a line asking him how many Tuskers he had seen on his way here with a little wink for the myrm pilot. Distructo convo'd shortly after.
They wanted me to bait out the myrm, and promised no hostilities. I was somewhat reluctant obviously, generally their style of hunting is not at all my style, and it wears greatly on my patience. But I figured hey wait, Ronan's in a drake...when in Rome I guess. I agreed to help.
They brought ollie in his Dominix, Distructo in a Rupture as well as Daniel Essig in another Dominix. In response the 22nd brought in a Harbinger, Ferox, and Armageddon to support the Myrmidon in attacking Ollie's Dominix on the station! I landed from warp and locked on as the myrmidon entered structure, and my salvo of Caldari Navy missiles tore into its detonating super-structure: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3412554
A blackbird had become involved at this point and so ollie and distructo gave the order to deaggress. As I had actually immediately put a point on each of the battlecruisers and opened fire on the harbinger, I had to warp-out before anyone noticed me...And so I wasn't really even needed, ah well. Thanks for the fun guys =)
Of my old 22nd buddies (posted on them before, BFF!), I didn't note whether Capt Thryss was piloting the Harbinger or Ferox, but the Armageddon named '<3<3not so lil gurl' was a dead give-away for Anna Sophia, who I'd never seen out of a particular crow named...'lil gurl.'
Anyway, my corp mates were properly scandalized, here I had gone and teamed up with some of my least-favorite neighbors to shoot some of my very favorite neighbors!
But to dig up some history, this is how I met ollie123: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=757718
Basically he was hanging out in Tuskers public, probably spying, when I mentioned I had just had a megathron tackled in a belt. He immediately sent word to some friends of his and got on the scene himself within a minute or so to help me catch and hold the thing. When it went down my stabber was on fire, I have great pics of us all clustered around the wreck, my first time seeing a broadsword up close (before we had the fancy viewer thing in the info), and they of course ready and able to blow me away in an instant.
It was a great moment for me, and one when I realized reputation is a sort of mutual thing. Just as Tuskers honor is a practical manner to facilitate ransoms, these guys have an e-honor to facilitate the backup to have their fun, with friends in unexpected places.
So ya, I still don't like much about the Flaming Brotherhood, almost out of necessity I have to despise the idea of engaging with them unless it will clearly result in swift victory, because these guys tend to suck you in.
But everybody needs fleet-mates sometimes! And pirates are opportunistic creatures...
As such, and because they are often ready to lose ships just to get fights, for a while Tuskers scoffed at them for their station-oriented style. But when Ka Jolo instituted a killboard campaign against them, the statistics quickly made it clear we had nothing to scoff at really, we were in fact losing money on these guys!
Anyway, Ronan has NEVER liked them, ESPECIALLY ollie123, essentially because of their technique of aggravating opponents in local chat. However today I did team up with them, and not for the first time...
As a breif roaming gang settled down into hevrice and most other Tuskers logged off for the time, I hopped into my Drake, looking for a little change of pace, and set out. Having spotted an FW Myrmidon moving around in costolle earlier, I headed that way. Distructo of the Flaming Brotherhood was in muetralle, but scans showed him in a pod and no real threat.
Moving into Costolle, I scanned around for the myrmidon before settling into a belt to rat, so at least he could say he had been there.
I was aligned and just reaching the edge of disruptor range when the myrmidon, piloted by a member of the 22nd BRDU warped in, but to my dismay it landed 85km away!
I pointed out that I wasn't leaving until the rats went down, but the Myrmidon pilot warped out contentedly, scoffing at the stink of bait on me.
As I was jumping out through Muetralle gate, Distructo jumped through in a shuttle, so I dropped a line asking him how many Tuskers he had seen on his way here with a little wink for the myrm pilot. Distructo convo'd shortly after.
They wanted me to bait out the myrm, and promised no hostilities. I was somewhat reluctant obviously, generally their style of hunting is not at all my style, and it wears greatly on my patience. But I figured hey wait, Ronan's in a drake...when in Rome I guess. I agreed to help.
They brought ollie in his Dominix, Distructo in a Rupture as well as Daniel Essig in another Dominix. In response the 22nd brought in a Harbinger, Ferox, and Armageddon to support the Myrmidon in attacking Ollie's Dominix on the station! I landed from warp and locked on as the myrmidon entered structure, and my salvo of Caldari Navy missiles tore into its detonating super-structure: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=3412554
A blackbird had become involved at this point and so ollie and distructo gave the order to deaggress. As I had actually immediately put a point on each of the battlecruisers and opened fire on the harbinger, I had to warp-out before anyone noticed me...And so I wasn't really even needed, ah well. Thanks for the fun guys =)
Of my old 22nd buddies (posted on them before, BFF!), I didn't note whether Capt Thryss was piloting the Harbinger or Ferox, but the Armageddon named '<3<3not so lil gurl' was a dead give-away for Anna Sophia, who I'd never seen out of a particular crow named...'lil gurl.'
Anyway, my corp mates were properly scandalized, here I had gone and teamed up with some of my least-favorite neighbors to shoot some of my very favorite neighbors!
But to dig up some history, this is how I met ollie123: http://tuskers.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=757718
Basically he was hanging out in Tuskers public, probably spying, when I mentioned I had just had a megathron tackled in a belt. He immediately sent word to some friends of his and got on the scene himself within a minute or so to help me catch and hold the thing. When it went down my stabber was on fire, I have great pics of us all clustered around the wreck, my first time seeing a broadsword up close (before we had the fancy viewer thing in the info), and they of course ready and able to blow me away in an instant.
It was a great moment for me, and one when I realized reputation is a sort of mutual thing. Just as Tuskers honor is a practical manner to facilitate ransoms, these guys have an e-honor to facilitate the backup to have their fun, with friends in unexpected places.
So ya, I still don't like much about the Flaming Brotherhood, almost out of necessity I have to despise the idea of engaging with them unless it will clearly result in swift victory, because these guys tend to suck you in.
But everybody needs fleet-mates sometimes! And pirates are opportunistic creatures...
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Nano-Fleet
Ok so it's actually called 'nano-gangz', but whatever.
Here you have it, the long story will be forthcoming as this was really a ton of fun.
Ze NanoGangz
http://www.damagedealer.com/media/video/991
http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/RonanJ/ZeNanoGang.wmv
Music:
Roman Pushkin - Fat Bottom Girls
Rage Against The Machine - Renegades of Funk
GirlTalk - Play Your Part pt.2
GirlTalk - Don't Stop
Ships flown - Nano-Omen and Stabber, alongside Nano-vexors, RR-Blackbirds and interceptors. Ganks And Shenanigans, Hurrah!
EVE-O thread
Here you have it, the long story will be forthcoming as this was really a ton of fun.
Ze NanoGangz
http://www.damagedealer.com/media/video/991
http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/RonanJ/ZeNanoGang.wmv
Music:
Roman Pushkin - Fat Bottom Girls
Rage Against The Machine - Renegades of Funk
GirlTalk - Play Your Part pt.2
GirlTalk - Don't Stop
Ships flown - Nano-Omen and Stabber, alongside Nano-vexors, RR-Blackbirds and interceptors. Ganks And Shenanigans, Hurrah!
EVE-O thread
Friday, May 22, 2009
Somali Pirates Are So Win
This is not, in fact, an endorsement of RL Criminality.
The conditions in Somalia giving rise to the piracy situation there are very serious and complex symptoms of the troubled global community. They deserve the considered attention of any responsible citizen of the world.
But seriously, those pirates are doing a damn fine job of raising awareness.
And knowing is half the battle!
So I'd like to share the greatest article I just heard about them on NPR:
After the Ransom
After that story, I'll never again feel like a big softie when chatting up one of my pirated victims! Even the pros are doin' it.
You can listen to the original story on Pirate Business in Somalia here.
Also there's a neat one on Pirate Careers and the 'worlds worst pirate' here...
Stay tuned over Memorial Day weekend (U.S. anyway) for reports and footage from Ronan's double-Nano-op week.
(image pulled from BBC.co.uk)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Blood Money and the Carrier Dance!
This post is very much excuse to post videos.
First of all, as mentioned a couple posts back, we've been having repeated clashes with the Blood Money corp and their Bootcamp group. This has been mainly over the system of Adirain, which has been a bit of a mission hot spot lately.
Tuskers have even missed a couple opportunities to counter-probe a Bloodmoney mission-busting gang. Once a Tusker gang warped into a mission too late, another time Bloodmoney was observed with superior force, actually stealing an Abaddon from which some hapless mission runner had ejected!! Goodjob guys, ya we saw that, watching veeeeery close ; )
The Tusker killboard has a Campaign up for the recent encounters, altho this does not of course recount our first brush with Bloodmoney.........
Long ago, Tuskers did in fact ask a pilot to leave. I say all Tuskers are good Tuskers, and I think I'm pretty safe including this guy, as he was indeed a good guy. But he had a habit of flying above his SP, and his fits were weird.
When he actually bought the character San Rintu from former Bastard Jedziah, Ka Jolo decided this was pushing Tusker ethos a little far and asked him to leave (cuz he was buying skillpoints basically). San Rintu joined Blood Money, and paid us a visit shortly after to show off their shiny toys and gang mates. We ransomed him for 50mil, the biggest Tusker ransom to date, but silly considering how much we knew he was spending (in fact Cap'n Tickles made that tackle, and has a blog post on this I can't find, linkz?)
ANYWAY, haven't seen anymore of San Rintu, and the Blood Money campaign goes well for us, although admittedly we are mainly facing their Bootcamp grunts. One of the two most significant battles fought were in Adirain, where Leo Solunar's Brutix fell to a Blood Money Cyclone and Rupture before Ka Jolo's Ishtar and Prezident1's Thorax could drop them, holding the field.
Also in Yvangier where Crewcifier's Rifter went down, and Tuskers Ka Jolo and Leo Solunar (they sure get rowdy together XD) lost their vexors to a nice trap, all Bootcampers there too.
My latest video has footage of a 1v1 with Ian Morrelan of Blood Money Bootcamp's Rupture (he's only 3 months so go easy on 'im, I didn't =P), and tackling a Bootcamp gang in my Stabber for Ka Jolo and Leo to bring da pain!
Cathartum II - Spring Time
_______________________________________________
Furthermore, I just had some CRAZY fun last night when these Taurus guys (they're gonna be so mad I misspelled their name in the video >.<) were trying to camp hevrice 5 station. Of course, camping Tuskers is give and take, so Wensley started looking to yank their crows in his Daredevil/Dramiel (i don't remember, it better be the Dramiel tho, all the Daredevil's got is the name...). Perhaps realizing that they weren't going to get anywhere without serious backup, they undocked a Chimera carrier to keep their campers repped. Wensley agreed to one up things, undocked a Rupture and got that Crow. At this point, we can assume things were a little hairy for good ol' Wens.
Funny enough, we had Antillies on station and bored as hell. The most satisfying thing ever was riding my Rupture through the warp to the station, hearing Wens call for backup, 'possibly with remote reps if possible,' then an Archon appearing on scan, and then Wensley goes 'Ace'.
We proceeded to have a crazy, almost totally gratuitous bumping-brawl outside the station, with the carriers managing fighters and drones and competing to keep their gaiz repped and other guys neuted, and us little fella's trying to bump something out of docking range and lock it down.
It was pretty wild, Wensley and I did a helluva job knocking this Myrm about but couldn't follow up. Wensley did lose his Rupture, but Antillies also got one of their fighters, so with the crow kill I think we did pretty well, especially for having such a good time XD
I even frapsed it! And then I probably made Antillies cry by putting it to Lady Gaga, but that goddamn song is addictive and appropriate (carrier fighting w/ effects on is very disco), and you gotta get it out of the system some how.
voila: Carrier Dance
First of all, as mentioned a couple posts back, we've been having repeated clashes with the Blood Money corp and their Bootcamp group. This has been mainly over the system of Adirain, which has been a bit of a mission hot spot lately.
Tuskers have even missed a couple opportunities to counter-probe a Bloodmoney mission-busting gang. Once a Tusker gang warped into a mission too late, another time Bloodmoney was observed with superior force, actually stealing an Abaddon from which some hapless mission runner had ejected!! Goodjob guys, ya we saw that, watching veeeeery close ; )
The Tusker killboard has a Campaign up for the recent encounters, altho this does not of course recount our first brush with Bloodmoney.........
Long ago, Tuskers did in fact ask a pilot to leave. I say all Tuskers are good Tuskers, and I think I'm pretty safe including this guy, as he was indeed a good guy. But he had a habit of flying above his SP, and his fits were weird.
When he actually bought the character San Rintu from former Bastard Jedziah, Ka Jolo decided this was pushing Tusker ethos a little far and asked him to leave (cuz he was buying skillpoints basically). San Rintu joined Blood Money, and paid us a visit shortly after to show off their shiny toys and gang mates. We ransomed him for 50mil, the biggest Tusker ransom to date, but silly considering how much we knew he was spending (in fact Cap'n Tickles made that tackle, and has a blog post on this I can't find, linkz?)
ANYWAY, haven't seen anymore of San Rintu, and the Blood Money campaign goes well for us, although admittedly we are mainly facing their Bootcamp grunts. One of the two most significant battles fought were in Adirain, where Leo Solunar's Brutix fell to a Blood Money Cyclone and Rupture before Ka Jolo's Ishtar and Prezident1's Thorax could drop them, holding the field.
Also in Yvangier where Crewcifier's Rifter went down, and Tuskers Ka Jolo and Leo Solunar (they sure get rowdy together XD) lost their vexors to a nice trap, all Bootcampers there too.
My latest video has footage of a 1v1 with Ian Morrelan of Blood Money Bootcamp's Rupture (he's only 3 months so go easy on 'im, I didn't =P), and tackling a Bootcamp gang in my Stabber for Ka Jolo and Leo to bring da pain!
Cathartum II - Spring Time
_______________________________________________
Furthermore, I just had some CRAZY fun last night when these Taurus guys (they're gonna be so mad I misspelled their name in the video >.<) were trying to camp hevrice 5 station. Of course, camping Tuskers is give and take, so Wensley started looking to yank their crows in his Daredevil/Dramiel (i don't remember, it better be the Dramiel tho, all the Daredevil's got is the name...). Perhaps realizing that they weren't going to get anywhere without serious backup, they undocked a Chimera carrier to keep their campers repped. Wensley agreed to one up things, undocked a Rupture and got that Crow. At this point, we can assume things were a little hairy for good ol' Wens.
Funny enough, we had Antillies on station and bored as hell. The most satisfying thing ever was riding my Rupture through the warp to the station, hearing Wens call for backup, 'possibly with remote reps if possible,' then an Archon appearing on scan, and then Wensley goes 'Ace'.
We proceeded to have a crazy, almost totally gratuitous bumping-brawl outside the station, with the carriers managing fighters and drones and competing to keep their gaiz repped and other guys neuted, and us little fella's trying to bump something out of docking range and lock it down.
It was pretty wild, Wensley and I did a helluva job knocking this Myrm about but couldn't follow up. Wensley did lose his Rupture, but Antillies also got one of their fighters, so with the crow kill I think we did pretty well, especially for having such a good time XD
I even frapsed it! And then I probably made Antillies cry by putting it to Lady Gaga, but that goddamn song is addictive and appropriate (carrier fighting w/ effects on is very disco), and you gotta get it out of the system some how.
voila: Carrier Dance
Monday, May 11, 2009
Angry Bees!
I've been a bit quiet lately. Its been quite a while since I last undocked so in order to stir my stumps a bit I organised a Tuskers fleet operation for the weekend. As usual the plan was pretty simple. Form up a frigate gang in Hevrice and head out looking for trouble. Last time we found lots of action within a couple of jumps of home. Yesterday the plan was to move out through Aeschee and Old Man Star and then head up to Aurohunen. The Python Cartel had recently destroyed Jolo's Myrmidon and it was revenge time!
The gang formed up in surprisingly orderly fashion and we were soon able to move out. As usual the fleet consisted of a mixture of T1 and T2 frigates with lots of Rifters and Incursus hulls. We had no ECM boats this week but plenty of other e-war and a pair of interceptors for scouting.
The action started pretty quickly. In Jovainnon VaJo reported an outlaw Helios sitting uncloaked on the gate. He made the tackle but the Helios had warp core stabilisers and got away. VaJo was able to make a second tackle and this time I was able to warp there quick enough to add my warp scrambler to the mix and allow VaJo to finish off the Helios. The fleet landed just as the covert ops ship exploded. Already we were up a Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher which was safely stowed in a station before we proceeded on to Aeschee.
There were no targets in Aeschee or Adirain but VaJo was able to find a Hurricane in Lisbaetanne. Once again his Crow made the tackle and the fleet jumped in and warped to the target. With his guns heavily tracking disrupted the battlecruiser was unable to fight back and we ate our way through his armour plates like a swarm of starving locusts. As the Hurricane exploded a Vengeance class assault frigate dropped out of warp and we quickly despatched VaJo to make the tackle. Before he could get there an Armageddon landed on us as well. We the battleship closer and offering more of a threat I called it primary and the fleet went in. The first smartbomb removed a lot of our drones from the field and gave Man Barthelme a bit of a fight but we quickly adjusted our orbits and settled down to chip away from outside of the smartbombs' range. It took a while but we steadily wore down the 'Geddon's armour and it eventually gave way.
So far so good. We'd annoyed the locals, though, and they wanted revenge. A second Hurricane and a Dominix dropped out of warp on us and we moved to focus our fire on the battlecruiser first. The Dominix was fitted with energy neutralisers and without ECM to remove him from the fight he began to cause us some serious problems. The 'Geddon pilot returned in his own Dominix and the retreat order was given. First Ka Jolo's Ishkur and then a pair of Rifters and a Tristan fell as the fleet fled the field. My own pod interface crashed and my ship performed an emergency warp to safety. Once I onlined my systems again I told the fleet to rendezvous back in Hevrice. Those of us who still had our ships waited out our criminal timers before returning home. Despite our losses we'd managed to get most of the loot from the Hurricane and Armageddon out safely so things were looking good for us. You can see the full battle report on our killboard.
After a short break we set out again. The Roughnecks alliance was now baying for our blood so I diverted the fleet up through Costolle to allow them to calm down a bit. In Costolle VaJo quickly narrowed down a Thorax and an Ark jump freighter! It seems the Thorax was trying to tackle the Ark and with the sentry guns pounding on him and VaJo holding him in place he exploded before our fleet could arrive. Still, more loot for us.
Several mission runners were on scan in Melmaniel so the fleet idled on the gate while a prober was sent to try and pin down a target. While we were waiting a Ferox jumped through into Costolle and, seemingly out of panic, warped to a belt. The fleet followed in hot pusruit but the Caldari battlecruiser was in warp before we could lock him down. His direction was towards a station so most of the fleet returned to the gate except for me. I went to do a quick scan of the two planets that he might possibly have gone to and while I was idling he dropped out of warp right on top of me. I've never fought a Ferox in my Rifter before and I was quickly yelling for support to warp to me. While they arrived I noticed that the Ferox's shields were melting under my guns. By the time support arrived he was already at half shields. With the extra firepower it took seconds to break through and destroy the ship. Looking at the killmaill its hardly surprising. The pilot had an, erm, unusual fit with rail guns and no mid or low slot modules fitted.
With the pitiful loot collected it was back to a safespot to count down our timers while our scout continued to hunt for targets in Melmaniel. After a bit of clever scanning he got a warp in on a Sacrilege for our Crows and they did a fine job of getting the tackle. Despite our timers the fleet warped to the gate and jumped straight into Melmaniel. We were in warp before the sentry guns could even pick a target never mind fire a shot. With the combined damage of our frigate spawn even the heavy assault cruiser didn't stand a chance and we took him down.
That was it for action on this operation. The fleet scouted into Old Man Star but no suitable targets were located. We hadn't had the chance to blow up Spectre but we had seen a lot of pretty explosions along the way and, despite our losses, made some money too. We did approximately 514 million ISK damage and only took 62 million ISK in losses. Better still we rounded up 105 million ISK in loot so even after reimbursing our losses there's still plenty of ISK to share around.
As always thanks to everyone who came along for being so great to fly with. Special thanks to our tacklers and probers. Without them we wouldn't have anything to shoot. Also an honourable mention to all our e-war pilots. Its not the most glamourous of jobs but it really makes a difference. The next operation that I organise is going to be something other than frigates but I'm not going to say anything until its time to report back.
If you want a chance to fly with us or are interested in finding out more then drop by The Tuskers Public Channel in game.
Fly reckless!
The gang formed up in surprisingly orderly fashion and we were soon able to move out. As usual the fleet consisted of a mixture of T1 and T2 frigates with lots of Rifters and Incursus hulls. We had no ECM boats this week but plenty of other e-war and a pair of interceptors for scouting.
The action started pretty quickly. In Jovainnon VaJo reported an outlaw Helios sitting uncloaked on the gate. He made the tackle but the Helios had warp core stabilisers and got away. VaJo was able to make a second tackle and this time I was able to warp there quick enough to add my warp scrambler to the mix and allow VaJo to finish off the Helios. The fleet landed just as the covert ops ship exploded. Already we were up a Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher which was safely stowed in a station before we proceeded on to Aeschee.
There were no targets in Aeschee or Adirain but VaJo was able to find a Hurricane in Lisbaetanne. Once again his Crow made the tackle and the fleet jumped in and warped to the target. With his guns heavily tracking disrupted the battlecruiser was unable to fight back and we ate our way through his armour plates like a swarm of starving locusts. As the Hurricane exploded a Vengeance class assault frigate dropped out of warp and we quickly despatched VaJo to make the tackle. Before he could get there an Armageddon landed on us as well. We the battleship closer and offering more of a threat I called it primary and the fleet went in. The first smartbomb removed a lot of our drones from the field and gave Man Barthelme a bit of a fight but we quickly adjusted our orbits and settled down to chip away from outside of the smartbombs' range. It took a while but we steadily wore down the 'Geddon's armour and it eventually gave way.
So far so good. We'd annoyed the locals, though, and they wanted revenge. A second Hurricane and a Dominix dropped out of warp on us and we moved to focus our fire on the battlecruiser first. The Dominix was fitted with energy neutralisers and without ECM to remove him from the fight he began to cause us some serious problems. The 'Geddon pilot returned in his own Dominix and the retreat order was given. First Ka Jolo's Ishkur and then a pair of Rifters and a Tristan fell as the fleet fled the field. My own pod interface crashed and my ship performed an emergency warp to safety. Once I onlined my systems again I told the fleet to rendezvous back in Hevrice. Those of us who still had our ships waited out our criminal timers before returning home. Despite our losses we'd managed to get most of the loot from the Hurricane and Armageddon out safely so things were looking good for us. You can see the full battle report on our killboard.
After a short break we set out again. The Roughnecks alliance was now baying for our blood so I diverted the fleet up through Costolle to allow them to calm down a bit. In Costolle VaJo quickly narrowed down a Thorax and an Ark jump freighter! It seems the Thorax was trying to tackle the Ark and with the sentry guns pounding on him and VaJo holding him in place he exploded before our fleet could arrive. Still, more loot for us.
Several mission runners were on scan in Melmaniel so the fleet idled on the gate while a prober was sent to try and pin down a target. While we were waiting a Ferox jumped through into Costolle and, seemingly out of panic, warped to a belt. The fleet followed in hot pusruit but the Caldari battlecruiser was in warp before we could lock him down. His direction was towards a station so most of the fleet returned to the gate except for me. I went to do a quick scan of the two planets that he might possibly have gone to and while I was idling he dropped out of warp right on top of me. I've never fought a Ferox in my Rifter before and I was quickly yelling for support to warp to me. While they arrived I noticed that the Ferox's shields were melting under my guns. By the time support arrived he was already at half shields. With the extra firepower it took seconds to break through and destroy the ship. Looking at the killmaill its hardly surprising. The pilot had an, erm, unusual fit with rail guns and no mid or low slot modules fitted.
With the pitiful loot collected it was back to a safespot to count down our timers while our scout continued to hunt for targets in Melmaniel. After a bit of clever scanning he got a warp in on a Sacrilege for our Crows and they did a fine job of getting the tackle. Despite our timers the fleet warped to the gate and jumped straight into Melmaniel. We were in warp before the sentry guns could even pick a target never mind fire a shot. With the combined damage of our frigate spawn even the heavy assault cruiser didn't stand a chance and we took him down.
That was it for action on this operation. The fleet scouted into Old Man Star but no suitable targets were located. We hadn't had the chance to blow up Spectre but we had seen a lot of pretty explosions along the way and, despite our losses, made some money too. We did approximately 514 million ISK damage and only took 62 million ISK in losses. Better still we rounded up 105 million ISK in loot so even after reimbursing our losses there's still plenty of ISK to share around.
As always thanks to everyone who came along for being so great to fly with. Special thanks to our tacklers and probers. Without them we wouldn't have anything to shoot. Also an honourable mention to all our e-war pilots. Its not the most glamourous of jobs but it really makes a difference. The next operation that I organise is going to be something other than frigates but I'm not going to say anything until its time to report back.
If you want a chance to fly with us or are interested in finding out more then drop by The Tuskers Public Channel in game.
Fly reckless!
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