A New Outlook?
Posted: 2018.12.10 07:31
Well, I can blame Marcus for this.
Dec. 9 - 10, 2018
Marcus Arilia convinced me, somehow, to head out into the Placid/Black Rise region, thanks to some fortuitous wormhole connections, and try out this roaming frigate combat he had spoken of. We set out in Ostingele (as one does), and made our way through the low-sec FW in the Gallente area. Our roams were not particularly fruitful at first; we scraped by a few would-be gate camps and roams on our journey. Finally, we stumbled across a Condor in a faction warfare complex, and both entered the area intent on making our presence in the galaxy known in force.
We dropped in to find the Condor kiting a Federation Navy Battlecruiser. As a sometimes-patriot of the Federation, my Intaki sensibilities were offended by this blatant example of anti-Federation behavior and I activated my afterburner to burn in towards our target. It is at this point, I am concerned that my scrambler does not want to work, and I realize I have left the safety on. Damn my desire to remain safely off of CONCORD's radar! Thankfully, Marcus has already scrambled this fellow, and it isn't long before my safeties are off, and my scrambler joins Marcus's in ensuring that our Caldari friend shall not be leaving this complex in his ship. Between our 10 drones and the still-firing guns of our erst-while NPC compatriot, we make short work of the Condor. This victory afterglow is put on hold, however, as we are soon visited by a new ship that warps in off of the acceleration gate. A ship that is certainly larger, and most likely angrier, than either of our ships.
In the age-old spirit of "Getting the F- Out," as the kids say, we made our retreat, managing to even save our drones in the process. With a harvest fleet forming in w-space, I called it with this singular kill for the moment and returned to w-space, as Marcus discovered that just because someone drops a black-ops ship on your head, doesn't mean you can't still escape (and kill their cyno pilot for good measure!).
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73940952/
Condor: 520,564.26
Critical lesson learned: One's scrambler, webifier, and guns are useless if one does not remember to turn the safety off in low-security space. Additionally, at Marcus's advice, I learned to keep my scrambler on overheat when entering the complex, as you only have a brief window to capture your target, should they decide to flee your generous offerings of aggression.
-----
My interest in this "Pee Vee Pee" had not waned during the harvest, however, and I returned to Placid many hours later. Lacking Marcus's advice this time, as he had gone to sleep, it was on me to put the lessons I had been taught into action. I began my journey in Ostingele once more, and left for the Verge Vendor connections via Agoze. However, upon entering Agoze, I detected a Venture on the D-scanner. I traveled to the center of the system, and began to track down this ship, only to find myself showing up to empty space despite knowing that they had been there. Clearly this Venture was not completely new to this environment, and was moving between systems to avoid my predations. Eventually, however, they came to a stop in a large complex, and I began my approach by warping to the acceleration gate.
After confirming that the target was still inside through a short-range d-scan, I pre-heated my scrambler and webifier module, and landed on the plex at 15 km from my quarry. A FDU-aligned Venture, shielded by two Federation Navy ships. Now, one might ask why a sometimes-patriot such as myself would suddenly be so violent towards my militia brethren? The answer is quite simple, dear reader. By "sometimes-patriot' I of course mean, "patriotic when it makes me money. Or alcohol is involved. And violence, of course. Preferably all three." But I have digressed. Upon landing, I activated my overheated scrambler, and successfully tackled this Venture at 15km. A rather nasty surprise, I suspect, that my Maulus Navy Issue's Scrambler II has a base range of 13km (and overheats to 16km) and that it also counts as 4 points of scramble strength. A mistake that cost him his Venture in very short order as my drones set upon him like angry wasps in a summer drought.
And with this, my first solo-kill that I tracked and initiated on my own was now complete. Perhaps it will be a pirate's life for me just yet.
Drink up me hearties, yo ho...
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73944398/
Venture: 264,160.71
Dec. 9 - 10, 2018
Marcus Arilia convinced me, somehow, to head out into the Placid/Black Rise region, thanks to some fortuitous wormhole connections, and try out this roaming frigate combat he had spoken of. We set out in Ostingele (as one does), and made our way through the low-sec FW in the Gallente area. Our roams were not particularly fruitful at first; we scraped by a few would-be gate camps and roams on our journey. Finally, we stumbled across a Condor in a faction warfare complex, and both entered the area intent on making our presence in the galaxy known in force.
We dropped in to find the Condor kiting a Federation Navy Battlecruiser. As a sometimes-patriot of the Federation, my Intaki sensibilities were offended by this blatant example of anti-Federation behavior and I activated my afterburner to burn in towards our target. It is at this point, I am concerned that my scrambler does not want to work, and I realize I have left the safety on. Damn my desire to remain safely off of CONCORD's radar! Thankfully, Marcus has already scrambled this fellow, and it isn't long before my safeties are off, and my scrambler joins Marcus's in ensuring that our Caldari friend shall not be leaving this complex in his ship. Between our 10 drones and the still-firing guns of our erst-while NPC compatriot, we make short work of the Condor. This victory afterglow is put on hold, however, as we are soon visited by a new ship that warps in off of the acceleration gate. A ship that is certainly larger, and most likely angrier, than either of our ships.
In the age-old spirit of "Getting the F- Out," as the kids say, we made our retreat, managing to even save our drones in the process. With a harvest fleet forming in w-space, I called it with this singular kill for the moment and returned to w-space, as Marcus discovered that just because someone drops a black-ops ship on your head, doesn't mean you can't still escape (and kill their cyno pilot for good measure!).
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73940952/
Condor: 520,564.26
Critical lesson learned: One's scrambler, webifier, and guns are useless if one does not remember to turn the safety off in low-security space. Additionally, at Marcus's advice, I learned to keep my scrambler on overheat when entering the complex, as you only have a brief window to capture your target, should they decide to flee your generous offerings of aggression.
-----
My interest in this "Pee Vee Pee" had not waned during the harvest, however, and I returned to Placid many hours later. Lacking Marcus's advice this time, as he had gone to sleep, it was on me to put the lessons I had been taught into action. I began my journey in Ostingele once more, and left for the Verge Vendor connections via Agoze. However, upon entering Agoze, I detected a Venture on the D-scanner. I traveled to the center of the system, and began to track down this ship, only to find myself showing up to empty space despite knowing that they had been there. Clearly this Venture was not completely new to this environment, and was moving between systems to avoid my predations. Eventually, however, they came to a stop in a large complex, and I began my approach by warping to the acceleration gate.
After confirming that the target was still inside through a short-range d-scan, I pre-heated my scrambler and webifier module, and landed on the plex at 15 km from my quarry. A FDU-aligned Venture, shielded by two Federation Navy ships. Now, one might ask why a sometimes-patriot such as myself would suddenly be so violent towards my militia brethren? The answer is quite simple, dear reader. By "sometimes-patriot' I of course mean, "patriotic when it makes me money. Or alcohol is involved. And violence, of course. Preferably all three." But I have digressed. Upon landing, I activated my overheated scrambler, and successfully tackled this Venture at 15km. A rather nasty surprise, I suspect, that my Maulus Navy Issue's Scrambler II has a base range of 13km (and overheats to 16km) and that it also counts as 4 points of scramble strength. A mistake that cost him his Venture in very short order as my drones set upon him like angry wasps in a summer drought.
And with this, my first solo-kill that I tracked and initiated on my own was now complete. Perhaps it will be a pirate's life for me just yet.
Drink up me hearties, yo ho...
https://zkillboard.com/kill/73944398/
Venture: 264,160.71