When smack talk bites you in the ass

There has been a general advice going around that you should not smack talk in local. There's rarely anything good that will come of it. I try to live by this philosophy and not taunt my opponents too much. Sometimes it's hard to resist. But smack talking in local will only make your enemies extra motivated to kill you. If you do manage not to get killed, chances are your name will be remembered next time you encounter same people, which brings to our story.

After stalking yet again inactive c4 I was on my way to scout for a new home. The current system has a c2 static which has a c4 and a high-sec statics. That's my favorite kind of c2. I scan the system, check surrounding connections and get ready to move to, what looks like, a decent c4. As per standard procedure I check a killboard activity of every system I visit. Killboard was nothing out of the ordinary. It had bunch of random kills/losses as expected for a system with a high-sec static. I usually look for same corporation/alliance to appear on different dates to identify locals. With a bit of scrolling one particular name stands out - ArcAngel7 saken. He has repeating kills and losses in this system. But there's something more to it. For some reason this name sounds very familiar. I do a quick search in my blog and indeed, I have a last year's December post turn up.

Memory quickly comes back. This is the guy that me and my, at the time, partner tried to ambush by setting a trap bubble between the towers. Our trap failed as instead of expected shiny slow battleship he swapped for a quick light dictor and escaped the bubble before we could get him. We then proceeded to fool around on high-sec connection, hoping that one of us will make some sort of mistake. In the end we called it a day and moved on. But it wasn't an "elaborate" plan that made this encounter memorable. It was the smack talk:

ArcAngel7 was very confident. And why shouldn't he. He had all the rights to brag. We failed to gank his ship and we failed to trap his Bhaalgorn on the high-sec wormhole. I did not reply anything, but simply moved on and forgot the encounter. Until today.

Everything that happens in w-space happens for a reason. It's no coincidence our paths have crossed. It's Bob's will! I prepare for the hunt. Wormhole seems to be empty so I move in my Nestor fleet and scan out all the remaining signatures. Park my Proteus on the high-sec exit and wait.

Glimpsing with a corner of my eye to the monitor while watching TV, I spot a strange visual effect. Upon closer look I now see an active bubble. Interesting. I did not hear any jump sound, but now there's a mobile warp disruptor. An guess who shows up on my overview!

ArcAngel7 in a Tengu! Of course he is in a safe spot and I can't get to him. I could warp from celestial to get his position, but my Proteus is not interdiction nullified and I don't feel like refitting as I might get spotted with wormholes all around the system. Instead, I will scan him out.

I warp off d-scan range, launch probes and get back to my safe. I'm not sure what ArcAngel7  is doing, but we must not be alone in the system. There are sisters core scanner probes and I don't think they are his. Regardless, I scan the Tengu out and warp to him at range. I could decloak and go for the kill right here, right now, but I keep the cool head instead. First, I check out which direction this strategic cruiser is flying to. Turns out he is aligned to his tower.

If probes are not his, he must be waiting for someone to make their move. If that's true, my chances in getting him are very slim. I try to follow and wait for him to change direction, but he slowly gains distance. His speed is higher than mine and soon I find myself out of scram and web range. Then Tengu turns on his propulsion module and flies away with 1km/s+ speed. Back to square one. I get back to position and wait for the next opportunity.

I start to think that next opportunity might not arise anymore. He warps back to tower. I follow. He warps back to high-sec, I follow again. To my surprise Tengu lands on exactly same spot as I have scanned him out. I must have been very lucky to get his signature when he was in his "safe". Of course he immediately aligns back to the tower and warps away again.

I watch him swap for a Dominix this time. There are a couple of active c4 exits and he is crashing them both. For a second I think if I should try and get him polarized or when he lands 10km off the wormhole. It's very tempting, but I am not sure if he is not fully wcs fit. I must be patient. If he is crashing the wormholes, farming might take place. In his killboard he has t1 battleship losses, so I guess he won't use anything more expensive to clear the c2 sites. I sit at the tower and wait for Domi to finish rolling those wormholes. At least he is doing like a man and not using any yachts. Points for that. Finally Dominix lands and I eagerly wait for him to swap a ship. What will it be? An Armageddon? A Rokh? Or Perhaps an Abaddon? He has different kind of battleship losses on his killboard. No, he swaps to a Tengu again!

My hunter senses go off. I've already seen him warp to the tower and back to the high-sec wormhole to the same perch. Perch that I have bookmarked. Without even waiting for Tengu's velocity to go up, I warp out to his spot near the high-sec. It's a gamble, but I follow my hunch. In just a matter of seconds Tengu appears on overview. I watch distance decrease and once I'm sure his exit from warp will be close to me, I decloak.

I spam lock like a mad man and nervously watch his speed pickup while my lock timer counts down. Target locked. Scram, web and disruptor are on. I exhale. He is not going anywhere now.

My Nestor fleet arrives and I proceed in murdering the strategic cruiser. With combined 6 heavy neutralizers I was expecting this to be a short fight. But Tengu turned out to be quite resilient. His shield would just go up and up and up. I would understand for it to go up once, twice or even trice after neutralizers kicked in, but he just kept boosting his shields up. Suddenly I see my heavy drones were going down like flies. I even use faction drones for that extra hp, but that didn't seem to matter. What the hell is going on?

Figuring this black magic shield boosting sorcery can't go on forever I keep applying the pressure and throw more heavy drones from my vast drone bay. Finally the shield gives in and ship explodes.

3 large ancillary shield boosters with light missile launchers. That explains this supernatural tank and why my drones were taking such heavy damage. Given the circumstances, I must admit he put up a good fight. I even manage to lock the pod and send him pod express back to high-sec, saving the travel time. Such a good guy I am. With the fight now over, I convo the pilot to see if he still feels in the same chatty mood as he felt almost half a year ago.

Turns out he also had a memory of our previous encounter. I must admit, this kill felt good. The value of the ship is nothing to brag about, but the hunt itself was a worthwhile experience. But probably the most fun part is that if it was not for the smack talk I would have most likely ignored this wormhole and the pilot as I had a very attractive c4 to go to. I guess every action has a consequence. I throw the dead body to cargo container to pay my respects to Bob for granting me such an opportunity and move on with my journey.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch

Risk vs reward is the name of the game. Or at least it should be. There are many things I don't agree with how things are in EVE. One ship that has been annoying in particular is that god damn yacht. Big advantage of orbiting wormholes was that I could often encounter a wormhole rolling battleship. I could prepare myself and do a surprise attack. That has become obsolete. All I can do now is helplessly watch a couple of cruisers crash a wormhole. Fuck you yachts.

With all the recent patches, I encountered an awesome bug feature - unable to turn off my cloak.

The only way I was able to decloak was by flying into an object. If I had this happen when trying to grab my target I would have been upset to say the least. Thankfully this stopped occurring after few days of patching.

I do some scouting and jump to one system and immediately spot an interesting sight.

A recent violence took place. I fire up the z-killboard, but don't see any kills, so must be very recent. I fly around the system and sure enough I find the fleet. D-scan can tell a lot of interesting stories.

The fight seemed to be happening at one of the planets. I land just in time to get visual on the bad guys.

Or what's left of them at least. Fleet warped out with few still left on grid. I was very interested in a Tengu, but he was not there anymore. I ponder for a few seconds if I should try and attack them, but it's only cruisers. I would be risking Nestor fleet without proper intel for a cruiser kill. Not a risk I'm willing to take. Anyway, with hostile fleet around, locals won't be doing anything for today. I go back home.

Next day I launch probes and resolve several active connections. There is a high-sec down the chain and also a connecting c5. As I was expecting, soon I started hearing activity. To find a high-sec few jumps out when living in a c5 is a big deal. Few ships pass by during the extended period of time, but one piques my interest. A Barghest lands on the wormhole!

Oh, what a ship. Too bad he is already sitting on the wormhole and I am too far away to do anything. I watch him jump out, but don't get too upset. Not like I expect to kill much on transit route anyways, unless it's a very slow ship like an Orca.

I continue to passively orbit the wormhole when I hear an activation sound and see the very same Barghest appear on overview. Oh boy, oh boy. He warps to an anomaly. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I follow. As per normal procedure I wait a little bit and warp at 100. I land, but Barghest is nowhere to be seen. D-scan shows he is on the wormhole again. I warp there, but now he is back at the site. Then another site. To be honest, I am just chasing the shadow.  I have no idea what this guy's game is. Finally I meet him at the original anomaly.

I watch him spew missiles at the sleepers from 300+km range. Talk about being over protective. Problem is, I don't really have a good warp in. I need to bounce few times from random celestials to get into tackle range. After few tries I get closer.

It's not close enough, but after few more bounces I should be golden. I become optimistic and already start dreaming about my first Barghest kill. How special will that be! While I'm in my own dream world, the faction battleship warps back to c5 and jumps out, never to be seen again. Wait, what? What about the sleepers? I then spot sisters core probes on d-scan. Nooooooo. I soon see a random guy in a scanning frigate jump to the c5. My prey has been spooked. God damn it. This is what you get for celebrating victory too early. May Bob forgive my impatience.

Everything happens for a reason

It was a successful hunt lately. As successful as ideas of some dads.

The most exciting thing I've been able to see on d-scan in a week was a t1 frigate and t1 transport ship.

Wormhole space started feeling like a desert. Where the hell is everyone? Perhaps busy fighting Goons? The news and propaganda was all over r/Eve, hard to miss. But earthly empire politics excite me little. While it's fun to read all the drama, I belong to wormholes. My interaction with empire space ends with me checking which system wormhole exit leads to. I'm becoming a hermit of w-space. All I need now is a beard. Oh wait...

I casually orbit an exit when I hear an activation sound. I see a frigate decloak and then jump right back in. I manage to grab the name and proceed checking out the corp. Knowledge is key and I like to know who is poking around. This time it's a pilot from The Enclave Frontiers. A rather active corp that has done way more killing than dying. I resume my activities, when I hear an activation sound once more. This time a Legion appears! Without wasting much time he warps to an anomaly and I follow. He barely manages to create two small sleeper wrecks and I already got my eyes on him.

I get excited. It's only a Legion, but holy crap does it generate sparkles and joy in my eyes. I setup my Nestor fleet and align to the anomaly. Preparations are done. I get a good warp-in on the Legion and decloak. Once target is locked and tackled I bring in the fleet. Everything goes by the book.

I unleash my Faction Navy Ogres and neut the strategic cruiser into oblivion. Of course he is active tanked and after few repair cycles he goes dead quiet and quickly pops soon after. I'm happy for once not to have to kill an MTU on the field. I scoop the faction adaptive membrane and warp out. I salute the pilot with gf in local, but get no response. Coincidence or not, I also have locals awake. I spot a familiar Nemesis on d-scan for a few seconds, no doubt checking out the anomaly with Legion wreck in it. I won't waste my time here anymore and so I pack my things and move to the next wormhole.

Few days later I log-in to find my email notification flash. That's strange. Who would be writing to an old wormhole hermit?

An email from a true believer. There are probably few things in EVE brings people together. One is sharing the ammo and the other is faith in Bob. I now I see that my and nightmarefiend's paths were destined to cross. It's a subtle reminder from Bob that he has plans for each of us.

Catching red handed

Time sure flies. It's been awhile since my last post. Truth to be told there hasn't really been that much to write about. I've been cutting down on my gaming and engaging in some other things, like learning to play golf. That shit is hard, no matter how easy it looks on a TV. In my first attempts I hit a good chunk of ground together with the golf ball and it flew further than the ball. Spring time arrived and here in Sweden we got some really nice days.

While I still log in daily, I haven't been doing any scanning or scouting. Every time I choose a system in which I hope to find some activity, I end up with no targets. Instead of visiting c4's and waiting for that shiny, I tried to stalk a c3 for a few days. Lucky me, I would soon find a Rattlesnake starting his farming activities. I get quite annoyed when I see him anchor a mobile tractor unit together with a mobile depot. Seriously.  I know it's a smart thing to do, but I despise that. I look forward to a soon to come patch, that will at least prevent you refitting if you shot your weapons in the last minute.

Since I don't want this Rattlesnake to warp away  after refitting to warp core stabilizers, I align my Nestor fleet, send them in warp and only decloak once they are on d-scan for a few seconds. I also decloak 10km off and aim for a good bump. My Proteus has 4 warp core strength in tackle. It will buy me some time before he refits his low slots. Everything goes well. Nestors land and soon I have Rattlesnake scrambled with 4 ships. He is not going anywhere now.

I am please to see his shields dropping fast. He quickly pops and pod warps away.

As I expected, he was refitting to warp core stabilizers. He still had one wcs left in his cargo. I'm not sure if he got bumped out of mobile depot range or he just died that fast. Either way, that extra wcs would not have saved him. While it's not an expensive kill, there's something mildly satisfying killing a ship full of warp core stabilizers.

He who looks, finds

While being a hunter, more often than not, I feel like a god damn prey. When I think the system is empty, I will have a random fleet out of nowhere land on the wormhole I watch.

Or stalk a nice "quiet" c4 in hopes to catch a ratting ship, only to encounter a fleet that would suck my capacitor dry before I could turn on first repair cycle.

Wormhole is full of dangers. I got two big fears when hunting. One - getting ganked by one of such random fleets while traveling, and two - getting ganked while ganking a ratter. Sitting afk on the wormholes you can see all kinds of things. I would watch fleets traveling and returning back in pods. Some would never come back. I won't lie, it can get stressful. Especially when I put 4 billion on the line, I can't be just replacing my fleet left and right. I decide it's time to take it down a notch.

Class 5 and 6 are where the big boys are playing. I never go to those wormholes as it's a small chance I will encounter anything I can kill. Class 4 is hit or miss. Can be occupied by a pvp corp or by farmers. Class 3 and 2 are just right. It might not have such lucrative targets, but the corps that usually live there are less dangerous. I settle-in in one of c2s. I am very interested in the Tengu sitting at the tower.

If I ever saw a name that deserved to be shot in the face, that would be it. Unfortunately, the Tengu does not do much. No matter, I got time.

While stalking the system for a few days, I did not see any action, despite system being kept tidy. I finally manage to nab a Brutix and was ready to call it quits, but Bob sent me a sign. The very next day I saw a ship that would change everything.

A Golem! In a class 2 wormhole. That is certainly a sight you won't see every day. It's not totally unexpected though. This particular c2 has a c4 static and that's exactly where I see the marauder warp. I warp after him at range. He jumps. I give him a head start. I don't want to try and get him on the wormhole. I prefer the anomaly, less room for error that way. Without waiting too long I jump in. The marauder is nowhere in sight. System is large so I warp around and finally spot him on d-scan.

I spin around my screen, but struggle in getting his position. Naturally, I expect to see him at one of the anomalies, but his position is not even close to any of them. Is he at a signature? Perhaps he is at some random wormhole? Fear start settling in as this might not be as straightforward gank as I'd have hoped for. Finally I start seeing some wrecks on d-scan.

I pinpoint Golem's position and without moving my screen warp out of range, launch combat probes, send them far away and warp back to position. I now see 6 small sleeper wrecks. I get a bad feeling about this. I've seen these guys mine gas as if they were addicts. Could it be that this marauder is actually clearing a gas site and not a data or relic site? No time to waste. I align my Proteus, scan the marauder in one try and warp at 10. Something I rarely do, but as I feared, it was a gas site and I might not have enough time to make a perch. Within seconds I land on grid. The Golem is just sitting there, doing nothing. No more sleepers on the field, but his velocity is a round zero. I make an instant decision and decloak.

I spam that lock, but nothing happens. Seriously, how long can that sensor re-calibration timer last? Suddenly ship disappears. What the...?  Did he warp? No, that's not possible. Did he... did he actually cloak? Thanks to my good habit of approaching my targets, I set max speed to the last direction my Proteus was going and sure enough, the Golem decloaks. It's play time!

I set the Nestor fleet in warp and keep a close eye on that Golem. The marauder goes into bastion mode, but that does not help him much. Reason I swapped out my Dominixes to Nestors was to double the neuting power. Triple, if you count refitting to extra neut instead of cloaking device, which I can do without a mobile depot. The marauder, with his dying breath, does a few shield boost cycles, then goes dead silent and quickly pops.

To be honest I expected more. While I am extremely happy with the Golem kill, I did feel disappointment not to see any faction or deadspace modules. It's a poor man's marauder. I'm not even sure how well he could deal with class 4 wormhole anomalies, but it certainly was overkill for the gas site.