Shake It Off


I went almost 29 days without undocking from Station. I had logged in a few times along the way to take care of Alliance/Corp business, but it had been almost a month since I had ventured into space. Yesterday I managed to find an hour to log into Eve and change that.

I fully expected to be very, very rusty. There are times when you return from a break, when New Eden feels strange. It can take a few minutes to feel normal again. But yesterday it didn't feel weird at all. I fitted up a Comet and undocked to go find some targets. Maybe, after a month, the locals wouldn't remember me or we'd have some new locals who didn't know me. But first I had to deal with the new camera! Ugh, why it no lock to selected items in my overview!?! Luckily the opt-out function is still there. I love the "idea" of the new camera, but it still needs some of the functionality of the old camera before I use it daily.

A couple systems and nothing much on scan. And then a Venture warps into a large plex. If I remember right, a Venture is a spaceship. Which means I shoot it. Luckily for the Venture pilot I landed about 20k from him and he could warp off. Warp off in structure though! So a few more jumps and more time to shake off the rust. In Prism I catch the ping of a Thrasher and a Tengu on scan. The thrasher is in the medium and there are 4 pilots in local. This is either a stupid Recon trap with links running, or these things have nothing to do with each other. This is exactly the kind of choices us Pirates have to make every minute in space. A good fight, or a horrible loss. As in most cases I decide to YOLO it into the medium. You don't become a pirate if you don't have a pair.

So AC or Arties? This is always the most important question when facing a Thrasher. And it is usually easy to tell by the distance they are from the button. I landed 4k off. ACs then. This Thrasher didn't know it yet, but he was toast. It was a good fight and he managed to get me into structure, but sadly for him that is exactly where all my tank is located. So first fight back and I have first blood.

By this time fellow Stay Frosty pilots are about the neighborhood. Ceye has managed to catch a Hookbill with her Kessie, and I warp over to save her. Sadly, in warp to the plex, I dc mid-warp. I log back in on the gate, but the delay means she lost her ship. The good news is that the Hookbill did not survive.  Even better, a Cormorant comes in to try and steal the lootz, and we all know how that ends.
Now John and Ceye report a Worm and a Tristan together in Unna. Worms with a sidekick along are becoming more and more common. Typically the sidekick has TDs, or Neuts, or is used for drone support. Nasty for solo engagements, but with two gang mates? We all warp in together, the Worm is primary. The Worm is shield boosted of course, so I burn in hard to give my rails exceptional tracking, overheat and wait for the explosion.  He put his drones on me when he should have gone for my support instead. The Tristan was already pointed and died quickly after the Worm went boom.  The Worm pilot asked to be podded.  No implants at all, surprising choice. Or maybe he disconnected them?

By this time Jose had undocked in an Omen, so we formed up to find him some fights. Our friendly neighbors the Mighty Ducks arrived to say hello and we managed to make short work of their Malediction and Ishkur.  After the fight I warped off because I needed to re-load my nanite thingies. While I was doing that a rather large gang landed on Jose's Omen. It was obviously a losing fight, but I warped back in to help anyway. Sadly for me I landed poorly and within range of several enemy ships and my trusty Comet finally gave up the ghost.  Good fight though.

Not a bad run for my first day back. Rust was not a factor after all. YARRR!!

Can't wait to do that again as soon as possible.