KIlling Your Friends(twice)

While I am not 100% settled into my new home in the Spire, my Alt is still busy hauling stuffs around Empire, I am settled enough to enjoy some much deserved pewage.  So yesterday I spent some time hanging with Eradicator44 way the heck up in Geminate, killing ships and having some much needed fun.  I managed eight kills and while that is way short of Erad's twenty-four in the day, it was awesome to be back at work.

I had bought and fitted up a new Daredevil to replace the one I lost the other day and decided to fly it back into zero.  Erad asked me to join him in Geminate, so I flew up there instead.  His Sabre and my Daredevil made a pretty good combo, especially against anything lower than a BC.  I managed to tackle and kill a Thrasher, Incursus, Ishkur, Kestrel, Drake (with some help from a passing Blue gang) and a Crow - as well as three pods.  The Crow was a Hero tackle and the Ishkur was the second attempt.  The first time I discovered that I had the wrong ammo loaded into my guns and had been hitting for no damage, when you're in a hurry Void and CN Anti-Matter look a lot alike.  But it was the Thrasher/Incursus combo that was the highlight of the day.

I rarely pay any attention to the names of the pilots I engage, especially when I am flying a tackle ship.  Speed is of the essence and all I really care about in that split-second of decision making is what are they flying.  Proteus? GTFO!!  Frigate?  Attack!  Even when I am flying bigger ships or hunting down someone, usually all I am interested is the Born On Date.  How old they are indicates many things about them, the rest can wait until later.

So this Thrasher jumps in and we kill it, his pod gets away because (as happens sometimes) I am traveling so fast I over shot the darn thing.  It's only then that I see that the pilot said hello to me in local.  Huh?  Oh my God, I killed Requiemsorn!  Req and I were in SMEGI (Smegnet Incorporated) together during the LFA defense of Providence and we both left that Corp at the same time when LFA started falling apart.  Together with some other ex-pats we formed a short lived Corp called Unforgiven Blood.  I sent him a quick eve mail saying oops, but he was neut and fair game.  He wrote back and said no worries, it's a game and all.  He came into local to say howdy and thought I was chasing the Sabre.

That isn't the weirdest part however.  He came back in an Incursus.  Not to attack us or anything, he just showed up in local about thirty minutes later and we started talking in local.  Catching up, sharing stories, he had just started playing Eve again after a long hiatus.  After a few minutes Erad gets on comms and tells me he is going to try and find him, he must be safed up somewhere.  So I keep him occupied in local and it doesn't take Erad long to find him, 200k above a planet. Erad starts burning towards him expecting him to warp away at any moment.  He doesn't.  Erad tackles him and I warp in and we kill him again.  We decide to let his pod go, having done enough.  He says he was on his Alt and not paying attention.

I've killed pilots I know before.  Yesterday I killed some pilots from RAGE.  I've even killed people that I've flown with at various time, or from former Corps.  But not someone so specific.  Twice in a matter of minutes.  I didn't feel bad about it, if you're red to me (or neut now, yeah!) I will engage you and try to kill you.  Within the context of the game I am playing to win, I will use every trick in my arsenal, every single bit of knowledge of game mechanics, every advantage I can think of to make sure your ship explodes and not mine.  Even talking to you in local while my Corp m8 hunts you down.  Or bending the truth a little about warping to bookmarks. (!)

Outside of that situation, I hope we can still be friends.  If not buddies, at least friends based on mutual respect.  Like the aces of World War I, who fought to the death over the skies of Europe but managed to treat each other with respect at all other times.  Fly safe.