Kill of the Week - The Belt Miner

Kavis Vercet is not having a good August. He started the month off losing a Mackinaw in lowsec - only a 270mil loss so not the end of the world. A few days later he was hauling a Tayra full of blueprints near Jita and when that inevitibly exploded he was down approximately 3.1 billion ISK. Some players might have just given up playing Eve for a while at this point but not Kavis Vercet - he forged on. I remember many years ago when I first started playing I read up about RvB and how it was a great PvP primer for new players. I joined Red Fed, spent all the ISK I had on T1 mods and ammo and undocked in a barely-trained Badger ready to get myself to the front line. 

I made it as far as the 4-4 undock.

At this point I didn't realise that ongoing wars between RvB weren't just constrained to those two corps but that third party entities had wardecc'd them too and I was livid that I'd just lost my worldly possessions to some random station campers. I nearly ragequit Eve there and then I was that mad but instead went off for about a month before coming back.

I digress but the message from that anecdote is that Kavis Vercet is clearly made of sterner stuff - the 3bill loss of all those blueprints did not dissuade him from staying in New Eden and merely a few days later he was back plying the space lanes. Unfortunately he took a Providence into lowsec which was promptly blapped on a gate and the hero of this tale was out of pocket by another 1.5bil. Like I said at the beginning, not a good month for Kavis Vercet.

The bad fortune for our budding hauler does not end here. A few days after losing the Providence, Kavis Vercet was out mining in highsec in an Orca - probably to recoup some of the losses he'd incurred earlier in the month. Now I've never taken part in asteroid mining because it seems colossally boring and I assume Kavis Vercet thinks so too because (and I'm making assumptions here) he went AFK in the belt. During this time an NPC Punisher belonging to the Blood Raiders landed on grid and promptly put an end to his Orca. I bet its laser crystals were nearly burnt out after putting out 114k damage.

Now you might be wondering where this is all going - what is all this buildup and backstory about? Well dear reader, lets find out. 

I've recently taken to roaming around my local haunts in my HAM Sandwich Loki. It has a wide engagement envelope and is all-around a fun, versatile ship. Yesterday afternoon I was bouncing around a few systems and ended up in Hulmate, in Essence. I noticed Kavis Vercet in local but couldn't find anything on d-scan so prepared to jump out and find somewhere else to go. I then caught wife aggro so had to go AFK. One of the joys of flying a cloaky ship is that I can drop Eve at a moments notice if needed and still be safe. 

I returned an hour or so later and hit warp to my out gate, idly d-scanning as I zoomed to my destination. An Orca flashed up on scan. I landed on the gate and held cloak. There were no stations or Citadels within 14 AU of this gate and yet there was an Orca somewhere in space. Immediately I dropped down to a 5° angle and started scanning the nearby celestials. 

There! Planet 3, belt 10. Orca.

My initial thought was that surely this was bait of the highest magnitide but I'm a big fan of taking the bait so I warped in anyway. Kavis Vercet and I were the only people in system anyway so I'd have time to bug out if local suddenly exploded.

I landed on the belt and found Kavis Vercet belt mining in his Orca. Clearly the losses of the month had drained our poor hero of a lot of ISK and he felt the need to risk the dangers of lowsec to mine some valuable ore. 

Slowboating within point range I uncloaked and got tackle. Local did not explode. I announced on the SC intel channel that I'd tackled an Orca in a belt in Hulmate. A few alliance mates scrambled to come and assist me. Meanwhile the Orca's shields were slowly being whittled down. A flight of light drones came and went. ECM drones were shot out of space. Kavis Vercet tried neuting me but I was too far out of their optimal range for them to do anything of note. The shields were almost down.

Two of my alliance mates landed on grid to get secondary and tertiary tackle and apply DPS. It didn't take long before the Orca exploded, briefly illuminating the belt.

 I collected my loot (fuck you loot fairy!) and slipped back into the night, content with the aggressive transaction that had just taken place. My two alliance buddies were happy to get on the kill. In hindsight I could probably have solo'd it but I had no idea if Kavis Vercet had any back up or any other hidden surprises so it was the right choice to bring in extra DPS.  

Moments after leaving Hulmate my notification feed lit up.

I can't say I was surprised in all honesty but I'll take it. A fairly good chunk of ISK though, 50mil - the highest one-time bounty I've accrued to date I think so happy with that. So that, dear readers is what I'm claiming as my kill of the week. It might not have been ~elite pvp~ but it was a big kill for me at least so I think it counts. I think there's only one thing left to say -

Kavis Vercet is not having a good August.

Until next time, fly reckless o/

- Cable

Ominous Latin Name

 

So I seem to have wound up joining Shadow Cartel. Yes I know, this has completely come from out of nowhere especially when you take into account two posts ago I was shilling for my own, newly created PvP corp. 

Despite flying around New Eden solo most of the time it's still nice to have folks to chat to and enjoy the social side of Eve. In a one-man corp you don't really get much of that so when an opportunity to join Mea Culpa came up I took it. Since my return to Eve I've got to know most of the locals around Hevrice and I kept bumping into Max, one of the geezers from Mea Culpa and another SC pilot who keeps killing me in his Dragoon. Several ad hoc roams up and down the Black Rise pipe later (do not recommend - you always die when Max is in fleet) and I was basically in! There aren't too many pilots in the corp but I see that as a good thing - when you get to know basically everyone on TS/Discord a much more tight-knit group is formed rather than having randoms from a pool of a couple of hundred turn up for a fleet. 

Shadow Cartel then, eh? I remember back in my days as a Tusker they were the big alliance a couple of doors down from Hevrice who liked to drop carriers on cruisers for a laugh. I'm told they (we?) still do that, which is mighty entertaining. I mean it would be if I regularly flew carriers. I do have a Panther sitting around gathering dust so that will hopefully be useful in the not too distant future.

Speaking of big(ger) ships, there are a bunch of doctrines that SC use, some of which are nice to have and others which are pretty essential to own. Some of them aren't cheap either so I thought I'd try and grow my liquid ISK by doing some carebearing (I hear the cool kids call it krabbing these days), because PvE in Eve is easy right?    

There's no use hiding it so I'll just link it here. I welped a Loki on some random site, probably because I had no idea what I was doing. The first three battleship rats in the plex died easily enough to my HAM sandwich and I was barely taking any damage. Anyway after they exploded a whole bunch of other Mordu rats spawned and some of them webbed and scrammed me, which led to my beloved Loki with a bunch of killmarks on it also exploding. Something something hubris I guess. So yeah, I guess I'll go back to just taking other pilots modules after I've popped them. Might take me a bit longer to afford that Tempest Navy Issue though...

In other news I killed a Garmur today. That piece of information on its own isn't particularly noteworthy because lots of Garmurs are killed every day in Eve. Even the manner of how I killed it isn't really that interesting. On d-scan I saw a newbie in a Hurricane sat at an open FW plex. A few moments later I saw a Garmur on scan at the same plex. Using my incredibly impressive powers of deduction I identified the pilot, checked his recent Garmur fits on zkill - which were all semi-pimped LML kiters - and then fitted up my own Garmur with a scram and rockets.

I warped to the plex and due to Eve's rock-paper-scissors methodology I easily caught and killed the enemy Garmur. The loot fairy was not gracious and did not grant me the Republic Fleet long point but she did give me the B-type MWD which is better than nothing. I offered a gf in local and got one back and then the pilot said something in French which according to Google was slang for being irritated. Moments later my wallet flashed.

"for your skill". Had a good laugh at that. The irony of an LML-kiting Garmur pilot being salty because he got killed by an anti-kite fit Garmur is almost palpable. 

Until next time, fly reckless

- Cable

Flight of Icarus

Bait is an oft-used tactic in Eve PvP and comes in various forms. Early last month some random guy in Adirain began trash talking in local when I declined to 1v1 him. I briefly mentioned this in my 'Settling In' post just after joining the Tuskers. This is one way of baiting people to fight you, by getting them riled up. It didn't work on me  but I did find his Thrasher sitting pretty on a planet which leads me onto another form of baiting:

The most traditional way - in my eyes at least - is the heavily-tanked, lone ship sat on a belt or a celestial patiently waiting for someone to pounce on what he thinks is an easy kill. Whenever I see a Maller on d-scan I always smile to myself and think "Haha, bait!" and ignore it. There's a pirate corporation in Old Man Star who like to leave a Punisher sat on the top belt and then warp in silly amounts of battlecruisers, ECM boats etc on anything that attacks it. I learnt that the hard way but it only took one lesson.

Fast forward to last night and I was out roaming with Tawa and one of the Sinners, Abellona. Initially we forayed into nullsec but after losing his Wolf to a Sabre with complimentary SUDDENLY FALCON! and Abe losing his Rifter to a bubble camp we decided to stick to lowsec and go up to Sinq Laison in our search for some pew pew. 

Reshipping from a 0.0-fit Wolf to an active shield tanked Jaguar we made our way system to system towards Eggenhelde. Along the way we killed a Thorax and a Vexor, probed out by Tawa, but they were both young characters and stood no chance against our two Jags and Rifter. On both occasions pods were pointed and upon invite to the ransom channel both victims declined to pay up.I did get two amusing quotes to add to my bio:

GOLDENANGELL > GO to hell!


Jean Benneau > arseholes

Upon jumping into Egg we found it to be pretty quiet so I went through to Siseide and then on to Dal. A Catalyst caught my eye on d-scan and Abe and I set about scanning it down. Despite our best efforts it get bouncing from cluster to cluster and in the end I mentioned the idea over comms for Abe to sit on the sun as bait. I suggested Abe for two reasons: Firstly he was a Sinner and as such unaffiliated with the Tuskers so anyone who had the sense to check local wouldn't be wary of out ploy, and secondly lone Rifters are far more inviting than a Jaguar, at least to a T1 destroyer. 

Checking local we noticed that the Cata pilot (who had warped in on belts as Abe was leaving and thus shown his identity) had a friendly corpmate in local. Tawa and I were confident we could handle anything they could throw at us in our uber-fit Jaguar (a fit I won't post until I've had chance to fully test it out). 

Abe warped to the sun and minutes few passed before the Cata warped in. Despite being rail fit he landed quite close to the Sinners Rifter. Not long after announcing point, Abellona relayed that a Stabber piloted by the destroyers corpmate had landed on the sun as well and that he was starting to take a beating. I was already mid-warp when this unfolded and as soon as I was greeted by the fiery sight of Dals star I pointed the Catalyst and began unloading autocannon shells upon its hull. The destroyer disintegrated pretty quickly, especially with Tawa firing too. 

When Tawa landed he pointed the Stabber while firing on the Catalyst so when it popped it was simply a case of applying dps. I was spamming d-scan furiously in between adjusting my orbit and watching the cruisers health bars. Stabber went pop soon enough and I offered a 'gfgf' in local. Abe had managed to escape in his Rifter and warped back to the sun to get some of the loot. We managed to point the Stabbers pod but our ransom wasn't accepted and he was sent back to the clone vat.

As we were wrapping up a Drake piloted by a FW pilot landed 60km from our position. Seeing local begin to fill up we bugged out quickly leaving some of the loot behind in the process. Nothing of great value was lost and it was a very, very good fight.

That Sweet Kill. Also teamwork!

Looking back on my past few posts I came off with the feeling that people reading this might be getting bored of me going on about an above class kill. Well, I can cheerily say that I've gone and done it though it wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

I was fitting a Rifter in Adirain and after undocking saw a Scythe on d-scan. Arriving at a safe I began the task of scanning him down to the belt, planet or other celestial he was (hopefully) sat at. It was at this time that an Incursus came onto scan as well. Seconds later I found the Scythe sitting on a belt but unfortunately the Incursus was there too and it wasn't too long before pod replaced cruiser.

Being used to arriving at a fight late I warped to another cluster-safe and spent the next few minutes trying to pin down an Imicus that had appeared, but to no avail. It was then that the pilot who had just had his Scythe asploded was back, and at the same belt! Without hesitating I keyed in the co-ordinates and warped in, making sure my scram was pre-overloaded. Landing right on top of the cruiser I engaged him gleefully.

It was only when it reached half armour that I realised the pilot wasn't firing back. The reason for this is that he was bloody mining. I sighed long and hard and popped the miners pod for good measure. I was/am still reluctant to use this as one of my Tusker-required above class kills because there was no competition at all. It still is an above class kill so I guess it counts. Its just I don't know when I'm going to find another cruiser to take on solo again so I may well end up using it. At least now you don't have to read about me whining about not having one!

The rest of the evening was spent roaming around and stuff(tm). I didn't find any action until Taurean Eltanin (whose blog you can find on the right -->) mentioned he needed help in baiting a Cyclone who had evaded his clutches. I was given a bookmark to a mission site and sat there waiting for the spooked Cyclone to return, while Taurean left the system to give the illusion he had given up on hunting him. It really wasn't long (read: five minutes, if that) before the mission runner popped up on my overview. I was on him straight away like a tramp on chips. Announcing merrily into comms that the battlecruiser was pointed I began the task of taking his drones out. Seconds later and Taurean was back in system and had landed on us started to smash through the Cyclones tank. Suffice to say it wasn't long before it exploded in a really pretty shade of blue. We tried to get his pod to try and get a random but it eluded us.

More stuff happened afterwards but my night was ultimately ended by my internet being really bloody annoyingly stupid and not working well at £$%^*()(&^%!


Fast forward to tonight and it was more of the same roaming and failing to find any action. I ran a few gatecamps, tried to engage flashy reds on gates who were too chicken to stay and play but didn't get any kills.  Tawa then mentioned that he had seen a Raven Navy Issue on d-scan who was presumably mission running. As he began scanning the carebear down I made my way back to Adirain. It wasn't long before Tawa warped on me and dropped a bookmark to the R.N.I.'s location. We had the help of one of the Sinners in a Hurricane and our merry trio warped in.

Landing on top of the Raven we made short work of melting his tank and upon reaching structure, Tawa called out for a cease fire and invited the pilot to the ransom channel that he made, but I share ^_^. The following is an excerpt from the channel:


[ 2011.09.03 20:36:54 ] Tawa Suyo > 500mil to keep the ship
[ 2011.09.03 20:37:04 ] Cable Udan > Hello Romulis :)
[ 2011.09.03 20:37:11 ] Romulis Blakk > Hello.
[ 2011.09.03 20:37:20 ] Romulis Blakk > I don't have it. Please...spare me.
[ 2011.09.03 20:37:29 ] Cable Udan > How much do you have?
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:17 ] Romulis Blakk > 19,785,341.27
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:24 ] Tawa Suyo > lol;
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:28 ] Romulis Blakk > in other words...I am broke.
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:28 ] Tawa Suyo > sorry
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:32 ] Cable Udan > Don't fly what you can't afford.
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:33 ] Tawa Suyo > 300mil minimum
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:35 ] Romulis Blakk > please don't do this..
[ 2011.09.03 20:38:44 ] Tawa Suyo > cya
[ 2011.09.03 20:39:10 ] Romulis Blakk > wowl..
[ 2011.09.03 20:39:15 ] Romulis Blakk > thanks..
[ 2011.09.03 20:39:27 ] Tawa Suyo > sure you only got 19mil?
[ 2011.09.03 20:39:32 ] Romulis Blakk > I just wanted to run missions
[ 2011.09.03 20:39:51 ] Romulis Blakk > That's all. Just missions.
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:00 ] Tawa Suyo > 19mil to keep the implants then
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:05 ] Tawa Suyo > since you have that
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:11 ] Romulis Blakk > have no implants.
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:24 ] Romulis Blakk > you take all the fun out of this game.
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:39 ] Romulis Blakk > You really suck.
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:49 ] Tawa Suyo > 2nd tutorial
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:50 ] Cable Udan > I'll say again, don't fly what you can't afford to lose.
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:52 ] Tawa Suyo > don't fly what you can't afford
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:57 ] Tawa Suyo > especially in lowsec
[ 2011.09.03 20:40:57 ] Tawa Suyo > also
[ 2011.09.03 20:41:00 ] Romulis Blakk > This game isn't fun at all with guys like you in it.
[ 2011.09.03 20:41:01 ] Tawa Suyo > YARRRRRR
[ 2011.09.03 20:41:04 ] Cable Udan > :D

It was then that his ship and shortly after his pod went BOOM! I was kinda hoping for more raging tears than what we got. I suppose he genuinely felt hard done by. If he wanted to lower his chance of getting popped he should have:

a) Not been missioning in lowsec

b) Have read one of the many mission-runners guides to surviving in lowsec

c) Not gone flying in a Raven Navy Issue if he couldn't afford the ransom. Who seriously flies around in a half a bill ship and claims to only have 19mil?

So all in all it's been a good few days. I'm flying around in my second Jag, having lost the first one to taking on a Hookbill whilst absolutely gazebo'd. I have a total of three ready to go and will experiment with some fits I think. 

That's all for now as I'm tired and need to go and photoshop this posts image and get some sleep. Fly reckless, people!

Edited for spelling and clarity.