Crappy weather, sick children, and the ever impending Holiday meant that this weekend resulted in more Eve playing than any weekend in a very long time. I might have logged a good six to eight hours all told. Some of it went extremely well and some of it did not.
I logged into Lisb on Friday night to grab my wittle ship ( I usually keep two or three ships in Lisb. My Sac of course, and one or two wittle ships - INSlicer, Rifter, something small I use to travel. ) In this case my wittle ship was a Firetail. As usual however, I jumped into the Sac to poke around for a few minutes to see if anyone was ratting or mining or lighting a cyno. Sure enough I caught a Thrasher at a belt and his pod as well. And then a Cormmie using Autopilot to warp to station. I missed his pod because the station suddenly got extremely busy and I had to warp away. But he had some nice lootz in that thing.
I jumped into the Firetail to go roaming. Nothing much was about and a few ships ran away from me, so I figured I'd go get something a tad cheaper. This being a Saturday and all. In Hev there were some things on scan so I waited. It turned out I wasn't the only Tusker hunting and Morin and I got on the same kill. While it was good to kill something with the Firetail, I didn't mean to barge in on someone else's kill. I blame it on my overview, but I always back away from those situations unless someone needs help. But it does happen sometimes.
I took some time to fit up a Corax and decided to try the ship out. After getting the hang of it by killing a few rats I noticed another ship on scan. Once again Morin got there a tad ahead of me and he got the ship, but we shared the pod. Kill one in the Corax. I noticed a Cormmie on scan and started chasing him. He asked for a 1v1 at the Sun and I was more than willing to oblige. Cormmie vs Corax should be a good test of the ship. The fight started out fine but quickly turned into a strange bug-filled dance of death. No matter what I did my mods wouldn't activate! And yes, the safety was on full red. Remember I had just killed a pod not ten minutes before. Apparently it didn't matter as we both died. And me.
I hate losing a ship to issues, but it happens and it was a good fight. I returned to station and the Corp was busy getting ready for a roam. This was going to be an interesting one, full of Gila's and support. I had a Gila just waiting for this opportunity, so we formed up and went out looking for a fight. I won't bore you with two hours worth of frustration, but we really couldn't find a decent fight. Either the enemy gang was too small and ran away, or they were huge fleets with BS/Gaurdians, or they were cyno baited hot-droppers looking for easy ganks. We did manage to get some kills, admittedly also mostly ganks. A Vexor, a Solar Fleet Broadsword, a Talos along with his buddy the Drake, and a Megathron. There were many more kills on the roam that I didn't manage to get on, Gila is rather slow to warp, so you often arrive after the kill is already made.
A bit of fun on the way back. We caught a Miner mining in a belt in Hev. Poor guy must of crapped his pants when he was pointed and held down by so many Gila's! We tried ransoming his pod, but he only laughed and asked to be podded instead.
And then yesterday.
We were organizing a T1 Cruiser roam around Mallers and logi. I had bought a Maller a few weeks ago in anticipation of Retribution, so I got it fitted up. And before long we were on our way. It didn't take long to realize that once again it was going to be hard to find fights. We were scouted out by a rather large Russian based gang which we tried to out run, but eventually we were pinned to a station in Tama. It was a confusing and slightly tense couple of minutes, trying to time our escape to miss their fleet. Several align to gates followed by several get back on stations and finally they landed on us. In such situations you try to anticipate the orders and be ever so slightly ahead of them. I simply guessed wrong and was a hair-second late on the warp. Got my ass double webbed about 3,500 from the station. I tried to dock, but the dps was too much and I exploded. Despite being in dock range and and or "already in warp" they also managed to pod me.
( For a detailed telling of what happened after, Suli did a nice wrap up.)
Being podded for me means losing about an hour of game time. Set up the new med clone, get back to Hev, log into my alt, travel to hi-sec to buy new batch of implants, get back to Hev, contract them, log back into Rixx and do some brain surgery. Since I am a poor Pirate I can't afford to keep multiple sets of implants on hand, so I only buy what I need. Which on average is about once a month these days.
So two hours of game time and not a single kill. So I jumped into the INS and decided to go roaming. Only two jumps in and someone in Aeschee asked for a 1v1. Devas Weddo, a fellow tweetfleet member, was in an Atron looking for a fight. I made sure to let him know I was in a INS before the fight, but he wanted a go anyway. I ddn't know how he was fit, but it was safe to assume he would be rail fit. So I decided on a closer approach than usual. If he was rail fit I could quickly get in under his guns, if he was blaster fit - well then I'd still be outside his guns most of the time. It is a dangerous game this guessing game, with a MWD based fit, a web can ruin your day. It was a good fight but he was blaster fitted and the fight went my way. I never pod 1v1 fights and we ended up talking for a bit afterwards, which is always good.
I went into Lisb to jump into the Sac for some Spree Fun and ended up killing a loaded Catalyst before noticing a Vexor ratting in a belt! I love those. The poor guy never had a chance, but it made the events of the day earlier a bit easier to take.
I got back into the INS to head back to Hev. No one was about so I decided to fit up some new ships in my hanger. A Hawk, a Punisher and a new Slasher. A few neuts popped into system so I undocked in the Slasher to see if I could get a fight.
I was warping around trying to get a bead on a few things when I saw the Obelisk on scan. This is an extremely unusual happening in low-sec, it is extremely rare to see one of these things on scan. I warped to the Jov gate just as he landed. I told Corp about it but no one was really around. I jumped thru with him and watched him warp off into deep space. I did give the 'ol bump a shot, but Slasher! Sadly, once again, wrong ship wrong time. Before we could get probes he disappeared into his WH. I give the guy props for having some big balls.
Back in Hev to dock up and call it a day, when someone asked for a 1v1 in local. A Venture this time. I accepted of course, although honestly I have no idea why someone would be attacking me in a Mining Frigate. I know people are fitting them for PvP, but still. How exactly do you tank a Venture, shield or armor? I didn't know, so I went for Phased Plasma. It was a good fight but the Venture never stood a chance to be honest. Turns out it was shield fitted. Oh well. Thanks for the fight though. My first Venture kill.
So what is that 18 kills for 2 ships and a pod. Not bad. Some of the loot will help with the death costs and some of those were good fights.
It felt good to have time to participate in some Corp gangs again, I don't often get the chance any more. So all-in-all a decent weekend.
Onward and upward.