He pulls on his flight jacket and sprints for the hanger. The only remedy for paperwork is getting into a spacecraft and winging it. Along the way he ponders his options, screw it he thinks, he'll just take the Rifter. Always a fun time.
Along the way his CommLink buzzes. It's Itsme with another hair-brained scheme. But, as always, this one could be fun. He drops the idea of taking the Rifter and decides to undock his HAM Ferox instead. The Ferox is a strange ship, not really suited to anything specifically. He's flown blaster Ferox, Laser Ferox, HML Ferox, Sniper Ferox and each one shared one common outcome... sooner or later the ship let's you down. Because of its versatility, the Ferox suffers from not being great at any one thing. But, he thinks, it does look sexy.
Itsme jumps in his Tempest (and Cyclone) and they head up the pipe, looking for trouble. After a few close calls it doesn't take long for trouble to find them. Rixx jumps into Jovainnon and finds a flashy Tusker's Cane sitting on the gate. He engages and Itsme, who is a couple jumps away, turns to assist. The one Cane might have been a challenging fight, but shortly another one joins his brother on the gate. This is not going to end well. Rixx wants to test the mettle of the Ferox though, so instead of dropping the locks and heading for safety, he plunges ahead. And anyway, he has a Tempest coming. The Ferox takes a severe beating and hangs in there, but as usual, the ship starts to betray its pilot in subtle, it sucks ass kinda ways. Even cycling and babying the ship doesn't help much, and although it is pumping out some shredding damage, two Canes prove to be a bit much. The Ferox explodes just as the Tempest jumps into the fight. Sadly, the Tempest faces not only the two Canes, but also a Tengu that arrives. Despite a valiant fight, it too losses the battle of structural integrity.
Not a great start to the day, but Rixx learned a valuable lesson that he won't soon forget. The Ferox is simply not very good. He slams his pod into the hanger and jumps into his trusty Rifter. Time for some fun.
Nothing. System after system of either barren wastelands or huge gangs. An Ishkur tries to scout him down, but they end up guessing wrong about each other and head in opposite directions. His frustration long since forgotten, Rixx turns back towards home. He lands on the gate into Loes and notices a Fed Navy Comet sitting off the gate around 160k. He holds on the gate so the pilot can get a good look at him. Rixx doesn't believe for a second the pilot would be dumb enough to fall for this, but he casually jumps into Loes and quickly burns back towards the gate. Sure enough, the gate-fire signals the Comet has taken the bait. Rixx punches the AF and primes his mods, waiting for the ship to de-cloak. Sure enough, there he is. The Rifter jumps like a tiger and the Comet locks it up nicely. Rixx braces himself for the impacts to come, but all he hears is the deflected dings of smaller impacts. The Comet isn't hitting him. The same can't be said for his bullets, they are so close together in space that he can see the bits and pieces ripped from the Comet's hull. In no time at all he has shredded it down to the pod.
Angor comes around and they spend some time hunting together, managing to find a Catalyst. But they both need a break and return to the station for some lunch.
Rixx is just finishing up his Ham and Sansha Cheese sandwich when he hears the call over the Pirate frequency channel. It seems the self-same Tuskers have managed to pull down a Thanny and some other big ships in a nearby system. The call goes out on secure Lucifer's Hammer channels and Rixx races to the hanger. Already he can hear Cyber warming up his Archon and Itsme prepping his ships. Other pilots in other systems are alerted and they all undock in a hurry. Rixx decides on the Fleet Stabber, another ship he rarely gets to fly, but it should work extremely well in tackling bigger ships.
It is 10 jumps to the conflict and already he is being joined by a litany of other Pirates along the way. This is the kind of thing he is really starting to enjoy about being a scum-sucking Pirate. Despite fighting against each other earlier, when the call goes out they respond together. It is something that not long ago he wouldn't have understood, but that now is starting to feel like second nature. Why wouldn't they?
He jumps into system, right into a mess. Ships are everywhere, neuts, reds and everything in between. The Fleet Commander is screaming into Comms, making sure everyone knows which is which, friend or foe. It is orchestrated chaos and Rixx is smiling ear to ear. (Which is a scary sight.) His SFI webs the Thanny, while his guns start ripping thru the enemy ships. Itsme is already on the field in his Rapier and shortly DeepBlueMax joins them. Suddenly the fabric of space rips open and Cyber's Archon lands amid several other Carriers. Hot damn! Now this is a fight. The Thanny quickly pays for being caught out in the open. As do other Battleships, Cruisers and Frigates, including a Dominix that wandered too close.
It takes awhile for things to settle down, some action on the station needs clearing up. But soon the dust settles, only long enough for a new call to heard over the Pirate channels. This time it is their friends in Shadow Cartel. 15 jumps away and Rixx starts burning in that direction.
Much more remains to be told. There are so many stories to relate, great kills, amazing challenges, and more. I can only cram so much into one of these posts. But a special thanks and notice go out to Cyber for undocking the Archon and bringing it into battle, well done mate. Special notice also to our newer members for stepping it up, iLoveFallout and DeepBlue especially yesterday. It is tough right now with Spring Breaks on and everyone jumping around on vacations and spring activities, but for everyone that continues to undock and fight good fights, thanks.
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Many more kills awaited that night. All in all LUCRH ended the day 29-8, including the Thanny and 6 Battleships destroyed. With no significant losses other than the Rapier and a few BCs.
Lucifer's Hammer is now ranked #2,715 on BC, up 10,000 in just three short months since we started. If you or your corporation would like to talk to us about joining LUCRH or our new Alliance, please contact me in-game, by email, or join LUCRH HAMMER TIME public channel.
It's more fun with more people.