Friggin Fun

Another great night yesterday. A few of us were sat around in out home station, chatting about weapon rigs and throwing cats from the air locks when we decided some gang action would be fun. Seven of us ganged up together and headed out.

We had already decided that we would be using frigates as they are very cheap and we didn’t really have any desire to bring them home again. We were out to have some fun, and hopefully get someone else to come play with us.

We formed up at a gate and set of, with a scout always one jump ahead to call out contacts and the gang tightly controlled to keep us together.

And so it began….

Several jumps in and all we’d seen were friendly’s on they way to scout meetings and bake sales, a quick chat to see if any action was expected and we moved on. It quickly became apparent hat for some reason the inhabitants of the drone region had all gone home for the night, and although their were signs of fighting, (pod kills in last hour etc..) we were yet to find anyone.

Then, just as the banter became crude, and we started to comment on the colour of each system we hit pay dirt. The scout reported 5 neutrals in the next system. We were each assigned a belt and we jumped in, fingers hovering over the function keys ready to ruin someone’s day.

In we went…. changing session… they sky was red……right click……….bugger.


Their was over 15 asteroid belts, we had been assigned the first 5. By the time we had check them all they would be in deep safe spots. We cut our losses, although we hadn’t lost anything, and left.

Next time we would find out how many belts b4 we jumped into a system, lesson learnt.

After a dozen more jumps, and still no action we we’re starting to get nervous. Had we stumbled onto the test server?

Then we ran into some more blues, after a quick chat we found out that they had just came through a gate camp with multiple big nasty ships sitting pew pewing smaller more vulnerable ships. Sounds like my sought of fight….

We headed towards this mysterious gate with the belief that any self respecting gate camping pirate would gladly fight a few lonely frigates coming back from the depths of 0.0.

Moments later we were on the gate into the system that held hope of a good fight, our scout went in. Vent went quiet. The scout was silent……Loading,…….Loading………

Bugger, "The node has crashed me out!"

Damn.

But hay, who are we to complain, we figured we might as well jump, as even if their was a camp set up on the other side, that’s what we were here for!

We all jumped, are screens went black……screens still black…….still black……..

COME ON CCP THROW ME A BONE HERE!

For two hours I sat and watched my screen change through various shades of black, then maybe that was just the alcohol!


Once I finally got back onto the server took me 4 minutes to traverse the 400m to the gate so that I could jump. I wasn’t happy, especially since most of my gang were either still locked out or had long since logged in and been killed by rats waiting for the ship to respond.

So it was that alone I began the 17 jumps back to my home base so that I could log of knowing that my ship was safe to fight another day.

Then it happened, 6 jumps from home the call went across alliance chat that several tech 2 ships had entered our system and had been actively hunting ED members.

I saw red and started willing my ship to move faster, bolts were shacking, doors were rattling and the engine began to cry as I flew through gate after gate at breakneck speed.

Moments later I entered the loop where we had the guy cornered, I was in a Merlin fitted for drone killing and tackling, so sitting amongst the battleships and destroyers I felt a little small to say the least.

He came through the gate we were passing, I asked with cat like reflexes and jabbed his name until my fingers bled and knuckles wept. In less than a second I had him locked (impressive) and was racing towards him at 800m/s, closing the distance quickly I saw that my gang mates had only just realised he was in system.

His ship started to turn, he was going to try and run into warp. I willed my finger onto a button and it’s icon went green, I had him scrambled! He wasn't going anywhere WOOT.

Now orbiting at 1km I clicked the rest of by icons, NOS turned on, sensor jammers came to life and my web sucked the life from his engine. He was a sitting duck.

He must have known this, but instead of ejecting and warping away he fought on, T2 drones appeared and began shooting, I turned on my smart bombs, and the drones began to cry…..I laughed!


It was all over within two minutes, he was dead, we took no losses and I collected the loot. He was fully fitted with tech 2 gear and fought well. Unfortunately for him, he chose to fly with cowards, his friends logged off before we could hunt them down.


One kill for the night for the gang, which I assisted my making sure the victim remained for the show, I even managed to scramble his Pod as he tried to fly away from his wreck.


“The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed during war.”

Chinese Proverb