Super FW Changes - But We're Not Super With a 'C'

So last week CCP announced the details of the Faction War changes after a couple of weeks of testing on SiSi.

The notable changes are:-

• If the opposing side control they system, you cannot dock in stations!
• The various UI windows and map filters for FW have been cleaned up.
• The control bunker is now an iHub allowing Loyalty Points to be used to upgrade the system if you own it
• Capturing a system will now take 5 times longer
• Items in the Militia LP stores will change prices depending on how your side is doing in the war (from 4 mes higher than current to 4 times lower than current)
• You will get LP for offensive plexing from 10,000 LP for a minor site to 30,000 LP for a Stonghold or Major compound (split between who was there)
• You will get 40,000 LP split between the fleet for "Bunker Bashing" (now iHub Bashing?)
• Capturing Plex in an enemy system will remove LP's from their upgraded iHUB. Even reducing the upgrade level if you do enough.
• LP for kills based on the value of the victims ship, cargo, modules, rigs and minus max insurance. T2 fit Abbadon = 8100 LP, T2 fit Punisher = 800 LP, T2 fit Machariel = 111,500 LP! Reward will be shared by fleet (that get the killing blow?)
• Research is getting nerfed generally in-game (CCP don't like this passive income) and datacores will be added to the Militia's LP store

As someone who pretty much as been in FW for the last 3 and a half years, I approve!

I do have some neutral alts doing research points, so not fantastically happy about the research nerf, but hopefully the other changes will balance this out.

Faction War has always been an ISK sink. We do it for the PvP and replacing ships with very little income from our in game "career" has always been an issue. Now there is a reason to plex! Now there is a reason to hold systems! Now there are income streams for those of us in the militia which involve shooting other players! Yes, things are looking good.

Of course, we don't know the real effect these changes will have. I remember an expansion most of Eve was looking forward to about a year ago, and that didn't really work out well did it?

The end of the CCP Dev Blog states....

"As a parting gift, here are some points for us to consider in the near future:.....The possibility of adding new advantages for upgrading a system through the Infrastructure Hub"

At Fanfest, one of the upgrades proposed by CCP, and was discussed at length, were cyno jammers. We WANT cyno jammers and we are really disappointed they aren't to be included in the first release of Inferno. This was apparently as a result of feedback at Fanfest. This is also really disappointing in that two vocal players can influence CCP so easily.

Why do we want them badly?

As discussed above, Faction War is not rich, well the proper PvP players aren't. Yes, the farmers who do missions in their cloaky bombers all day long may have a bit of ISK. But those of use who take part in proper factional WARFARE aren't rich as we spend all our cash on ships that die in a fire and ammo that we throw at the enemy!

What do rich people have in Eve? They have super-capital ships. Faction War cannot compete with those. I think there have been probably about three Titans in Faction War and they are only ever used for bridging. I've never seen a Titan used "in anger" in FW simply because FW players need to save heavily for a year or more, to be able to buy one. I've seen two super-carriers in FW before too. I know one of them is no longer alive (silly squid!) don't know about the other.

We cannot afford to buy them, we cannot build them (the required assembly arrays can only be anchored in sov holding null-sec), supers generally don't belong in the scale of warfare FW provides. Those 1 or 2 that have them in FW are scared to use them as replacing them is a massive task.

Overall, FW has very few supers and will rarely use them in anger (read hardly ever).

A week and a bit ago, we got dropped by 4 Nyx class supercarriers in the system next to our home. On that occasion we had expected them and had a counter plan. We didn't kill any of them, but lost a lot of ships. At the end of the same fight NC. dropped 3 titans and 20 more super carriers. Seriously, how can faction war players counter that? We can't.... ever!

Faction War cannot compete with supers, faction war is rarely about large scale capital battles, so a cyno jammer is going to stop the big alliances coming over to stomp on our sandcastles in certain systems. Currently, when the supers are dropped in numbers, there is not a lot we can do!

This was discussed at Fanfest and the tears started. So let me put on my cagoule and lets run through the biggest full-bodied whines (although at the round-table there were only two moaning).

"I am neutral and I want to be able to light a cyno anywhere!"

We're not talking about cyno jamming low-sec in it's entirety. We want to be able to cyno jam a couple of key systems where we can fight without one of the big power blocs dropping 300 super-carriers on our heads which we cannot defend against. You cannot light a cyno in every null sec system, so why should you be able to light a cyno in every system in low sec. Hang on, let me rephrase that from "in low sec" to "in A F'IN WARZONE"? Cyno jammers should be the top and most expensive upgrade meaning that people only donate that many LP's to systems that really matter to them. I consider that we'd only see two or three systems per militia cyno jammed, a drop in the ocean really.

"I am a trader with a jump freighter and that's going to effect my business!"

It's war. We're talking about the front lines here. Seriously, you think in a real war the "neutrals" just go about their business dodging the bullets! Low-sec is supposed to be dangerous, a low-sec war zone will be even more dangerous. However, with the added LP's and income streams for militia members, there will be more demand for goods in low-sec. Risk vs Reward. Just remember this is supposed to be war, and as said by General Arnold J Rimmer "There are always casualties in war. Otherwise it wouldn't be war. It'd be just a really nasty argument with lots of pushing and shoving". OK so there may be a couple of stations that you cannot reach with your JF. But with soaring demand and inflating prices, won't it be worth it in the long run? Want to supply a cyno jammed system? Contact the alliance who own it and work a deal out for escort through the gate. I'm sure most would love to see their home system with a well stocked market. Remember the 34th Rule of Acquisition "War is good for business" (there is some debate if rule 35, peace is good for business, is really accurate).

"Just ban supers from entering low-sec!"

Lets be realistic here. Supers have to move. If you prevent supers entering low-sec you'll at the minimum cause a massive headache for anyone wanting to move from one null-sec region to another. Worst case you'll trap supers in one area from which they can never leave. "Banning" supers from low-sec is not the answer (preventing fighter-bombers deploying may be another solution). Being able to cyno jam a few limited systems is.

So come on CCP, let us compete with the big boys. We are not null-sec wanna-be's and we have no 0.0 desires. We just want to fight and murder internet spaceships on a sort of level playing field. Cyno jammers would allow us to fight on better terms when the big alliances come looking to play!

Lets stop the "Oh they dropped a shit-ton of supers, lets head for home then!"

The feeback thread on the main Eve-O site. Place your support for Cyno jammers here....

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1272333#post1272333

The Jita Ripper - Part 4 - Travel

The Hawk class Assault Frigate bumped as the station's tractor beams locked onto it and pulled it into the hanger. Inspector Avi looked at the golden interior of the massive docking bay. He was somewhat pleased that it was an Amarrian station. The last one had been Gallente and he'd received a rather cold reception. May be arriving in a Assault Frigate wasn't the best way, but with the Empyrean Wars still raging, Caldari Navy staff always travelled in a war ship these days.

Co-operation between the empires was at an all-time low. Even though a cross-empire agreement existed to allow law enforcement personnel to assist each other in solving connected crimes, the war still meant people were hostile.

On that Gallente station he'd learnt a few new things. Firstly the perp was going higher class. He'd rented some quarters under a false ID and taken his victim back there. Usually he got them to take him back to their own quarters. He'd also removed half of her toes. It was clear now he had no preference to what he removed from his victims, just that he wanted something as a souvenir. However, all the detailed investigations had been kept from him simply because he was Caldari. And currently the Gallente and Caldari didn't like each other much.

"Inspector Avi!" he'd only just cleared the walkway and an Amarrian delegation was already there to meet him.

"On behalf of her holiness, Empress Jamyl, I welcome you to our humble station. My name is Balashi and I am here to serve in the name of the glorious Amarr Empire."

Avi thanked the man. That was a much warmer welcome than what he received at the Gallente station. The Gallente had sent a wet-behind-the-ears recruit to meet him and bring him to the police office where they’d kept him waiting for three hours. Truth be told he was worried what reception he’d receive from the Amarr. The incident on Pike’s Landing in Amamake was still fresh in people’s minds. The mega-corp Ishukone, part of the Caldari State, had attacked Amarr forces along with the Gallente Federation and Modu’s Legion. The fact this was in response to the Amarr developing immortal soldier technology in breach of CONCORD laws was the only thing that stopped the whole thing dissolving the alliance between the Amarr and the Caldari.

He was quickly escorted to the morgue. The victim was laid out on a slab, uncovered. Before he got near he could tell it was the work of "him".

"The Lord surely tests us at this time. How such a..... demon..... can be allowed to exist amongst us god-fearing children is beyond me."

The Inspector looked carefully over the body.

"Well I'm pretty certain this is the same guy. When was the body found?"

"Two days ago. The lady didn't show up for a family meal so her relatives contacted security. However she wasn't found until service-bots went to clean a rented quarters on deck 14."

Avi moved her blond hair checking around her head. Her left ear was missing. The Amarrian turned white.

"Our medical examiner says she was still alive when he did that. This is indeed a test of faith for us all"

The Inspector wanted to scream at the man. This was done by no demon and it was not a test. It was done by one sicko who needed to be stopped before he struck again. However, he couldn't afford upsetting the Amarrians. He'd got so little information from the Gallente on victim number four that the whole visit was almost pointless. The only real details he got was that he stopped there, killed a woman and took some of her toes with her. He needed the Amarrians help here to give him the boost to catch up with the perp.

"I'd like to speak to the investigating officers now please." Avi asked.

"Of course, they have already been told to fully co-operate and to release any files, evidence or test results to you direct."

-o0o-

The Interbus Shuttle approached the gate. The "brace for jump" alarm sounded. There was a flash of brilliant light as the large shuttle vanished, landing several light years away in a different solar system. The shuttle aligned and warped off in the direction of the next stargate.

Marcus sat back in his spacious chair sipping fine Gallente champagne. His first class ticket meant he could drink himself silly if he wanted. However he was being careful, the case he carried would be an automatic death sentence if he was caught after leaving it somewhere and someone else opened it.

He closed his eyes and thought back to the previous station. He'd thought finding a willing Amarrian woman would be a challenge. In the end it wasn't in the slightest, they are all the same, all looking for the bigger, better deal. All seeing a free meal ticket in him. She'd not screamed or struggled as much as the previous women which disappointed him. She seemed to accept her fate all too readily. Next he'd need to find a nice Minmatar or Gallente lady. He'd enjoyed those best so far. The Caldari were slighter of build and couldn't take as much punishment.

An attractive stewardess approached and offered to top up his glass which he accepted. For a moment he considered her as a possibility until he thought she might find it suspicious for a “capsuleer” to be taking an Interbus transport, even first class. As she walked away he turned on the vid screen to see if any of his “work” had made the local network.

As usual there was nothing on the major networks. So he just lay back in his seat, closed his eyes and simply imagined what he could have done to the hostess.

Target Their Engines!

You never hear Kirk or Picard screaming "All DPS on the primary" do you? No, it's something more specific like "Target their engines".

So what if the largest ships in Eve Online had targetable systems? I got thinking about this after The Mittani posted a link to a blog a few months or so ago. In summary, PL warped a titan to a station to bait a 30-man BC gang. Using a few repping carriers docking and undocking PL's titan was safe enough and it was popping the BC's with impunity.

The December CSM minutes noted that super-capitals are too "slippery" and can escape too easily resulting in discussions about supercap mounted infina-points or an entirely new capital ship designed to point supers. Bloody Heavy Interdictors? Mahooshive Interdictors? Whooping Interdictors?

This weekend we found that too, when Snuff Box drop four Nyx class super-carriers on us. Good piloting skills, burst ECM and neuting along with not enough HICs on our side meant they got away after we counter dropped them with a fleet of dreadnoughts. With Interdictors in being fairly useless in low-sec (no bubbles) Supers are very difficult to tie down.

What if the systems on a super-capital could be specifically targeted? A fleet could focus fire and disable each gun? More importantly, what if you could target and disable a super-capital's engines? Clear Skies III suggested it with the super-carrier that acted as bait and it fitted in with the story well.

Now I'm not saying some noob in a T1 frigate should be able to disable a Titan. Taking a supercapital system off-line should be a massive task. But by doing this a new element could be added to the game?

Could each element have it's own shields, armour and structure. Could the super-capital pilot divert power the these in response to the enemy fleets attack? Could the take down be temporary? Repair crews on super-capitals would be huge at a guess.

I'm not going into details. But just throwing this idea out there. Would it be a good idea? Could it work? Would we all drown in super-cap pilots tears like the titan nerf discussions at Fanfest? Or should we stick to "Eve game mechanics" and not "Sci-fi on TV mechanics"?

Actually, on those lines....

What if the sarcastic, meme-quoting Eve Online players infiltrated the groups of writers of popular sci-fi programs and movies. What if local style chat was used in Star Trek. What if your aggressive FC was in charge of Red Squadron in Star Wars?

Admiral Ackbar - It's a blob!

Picard - "Worf! You Klingon F***-tard. Shoot the primary and stop trying to wh0re on kill-mails you long haired-c***"

Obi Wan - You can't win Darth. Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possible imagine.
Darth Vader - Come at me bro!

Sisko - "OK, which noob lemming-jumped through the wormhole when I distinctly said warp and hold?"

Kirk - KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARN!!!!!!!!!!
Karn - You mad bro?

Obi Wan - ..... and now the Jedi are all but extinct.
Luke - Cool story bro.

Janeway - Fire phasers!
Tuvock - Cool! We've got a chick in fleet!

Darth Vader - I have you now!
Han Solo - Yeeeeeee haaaaaaa!
Tie Fighter Pilot - Look out!
Darth Vader - Derp!

Dave Bowman - MY GOD! It's full of Drakes!

Aftermath of the Battle of Wolf 359.....
Federation - gf
Borg - gf

Scotty - I canny do it captain. I don't have the capacitor.

Spock - Live long and.... save on medical clone costs.

Picard - Engage!
Traffic Control is offline.....
Picard - FFS! Geordie spam the jump button

Jack O'Neil - Is the Stargate camped?

The Hotdrop that was Hotdropped that was Hotdropped that was.......

Friday night fleet time! Our scouts have spotted a few carriers repping a PoS a few jumps away. We quickly form the fleet 30 minutes early. All is set and a minute before we are ready to go, a member of a local pirate corp enters their system and they get spooked and all warp away! Bugger!

So we ship down to BC's and go for a roam, heading towards a gang we'd heard hitting a POCO. They start chasing a friend of ours so we ask them to lead the gang to us. Unfortunately they give up. There are others in the next system so I'm asked to jump in and shake my ass on the gate.

"Check! Check! Wanna-be Tengu jumping into you"

"Rodger, everyone orbit the gate at 10, drones out."

"He's blue! Flipping hell Drack how drunk are you? He's blue"

"He wasn't blue on my overview and YES mine is set up right"

"I cannot believe you called Mr Smith (real name changed) jumping through as a target"

"Erm, I didn't! He jumped through too, but there was a neut Tengu too a few seconds before"

"There's another Tengu? THERE HE IS! GET HIM!"

So they kill the Tengu and then the excited chatter starts. What kill did I just miss out on? Bugger that's some nice loot!

Anyway, everyone jumps through to me and our scout reports the gang we had come for, who had gone back to bashing the POCO, all warped off. They had neut eyes in the system we are in by the look of it. Tonight is NOT going well for fleet fights and we're always 3 minutes too late.

Then we get reports of a Snuff Box gang back near home. We have to carefully avoid them to get back home. We've engaged the Snuff T3/Abso/Guardian fleet setup before in shield BC. It has NEVER gone well. We slip behind them, swap to armour BS and go sit on their home system gate. They've docked up, but we know Snuff always bring the fight so we wait.

My New Toy, First Time Out

Whilst waiting we spread our scouts around. My alt is ordered to Tannolan. I'm scanning away when a new result pops up.

"Erm guys, I got a Nyx on scan in  Tannolan!"

"Great, see if you can find it and see if it's Snuff."

I'm crap at DScaning. Seriously crap. After about 30 minutes I'm sat 100km off a POS, cloaked, looking at a Snuff Nyx. I let the FC know that Stuff indeed has a super ready to go.

"Roger! This could get interesting"

But it doesn't. After about 45 minutes sitting on a gate with faction BS we turn around. We get almost home and Snuff undock.

So we manoeuvre around and in the end we're in Hirri on the Kedama gate with them the other side. A convo starts between our scout in Kedama and the FC.

"They want to know if we're going to fight!"
"Yes! Tell them to jump"
"They asked why"
"Tell them we jumped into them last time!"

lol

Anyway they won't and warp off to the Tama gate. So we jump in and warp to the Tama gate too. We all land at zero and it kicks off. Big time. We don't agress and wait to see what their DPS is like. Our logi are holding our Baalgorn up so FC starts to call primaries.

We know Snuff Box, Snuff Box know us. Each side knows the other will have a number of Cyno ships. We kick things off by dropping some Archons after they start taking our Guardians down.

So Snuff respond by dropping some of their caps. We escalate by dropping some dreadnoughts. They escalate by dropping their dreadnoughts and 3 or 4 Nyx supercarriers. We are massively outnumbered and trying to pop fighter-bombers to keep our caps alive. I'm quite surprised how squishy FB'rs are to large guns.

But Snuff Box have the advantage. We are outnumbered and outgunned. As our FC said in his write up...

"When the battlefield is awash with laser beams, anti-matter charges and cyno's ... No1 knows what the fuck is going on and operation security suddenly goes out of the window."

Another Cyno lights. Suddenly my overview is full of blinking orange dreadnoughts. The Caldari militia just dropped in to say "Hi". Thankfully it's not any old Caladari Militia, it's Wolfsbrigade. Our PL titan killing chums.

Our cap pilots are "WTF! Squid dreads! Tons of squid dreads!"

Our FC is "They are friendly! Don't shoot the squids! ONLY shoot the primary I call!"

It has been agreed by the CSM and CCP that supers are too "slippery". Yes, they are! Thanks to good piloting on their part, ECM bursts, neuting and only a small number of HIC's on our part the Snuff Box Nyx's manage to warp off. But the battle appears to be going our way.

X13 drop some caps onto the field, we take them out in short order. We don't want to have all these dreads hanging about so the WBR guys cyno out. Just as the Snuff Box Nyx' come back at range and deploy more fighter-bombers. So we start popping them. I wish FB'rs showed up on KM's. We must have killed billions of ISK worth!

Anyway with their DPS gone the Nyx warp off and my scout still at the POS see's TURBOman jump his Nyx back to Tannolan.

The Tama gate in Kedama is awash with dead capitals, wrecks and fighters. We sit there in our faction BS holding the now silent battlefield, whilst people haul-ass to grab haulers.

As we wait, a Fatal Ascension rapier jumps into us and cloaks. We know where this is going.

A small squid gang jumps into us and we kill a couple of them as they try to run. With us agressed FA pop the cyno and 15 dreads appear (our dreads and carriers are all off field at this point). FC calls for people to either warp off if they can or deagress and stay on gate. By the time the FA dreads have locked us, we're either warping off or jumping out.

So we have a FA dread fleet with no support sat on the gate. Unfortunately for them, they are not the only alliance that's heard there was a capital slug-fest going on in Kedama. A new cyno lights and NC. drops in couple of Titans and about 30 super carriers.

Some of our guys jump into Stealth Bombers and wh0r3 away on the FA dreads as they DIAF.

So in terms of hotdrops....

1. Drunk 'n Disorderly (our alliance) started it
2. Snuff Box escalated
3. We escalated some more with dreads.
4. Snuff Box escalated even more with dreads and some super carriers
5. We escalated again with an entire WBR dread fleet
6. X13 dropped in (assuming to help Snuff?) and get wtfpwn'd
7. FA are late to the party and fail to kill any of is after dropping what was left of our BS fleet.
8. NC. escalate for the final time by dropping an "In the face!" fleet of supers on FA.

What a night, what a flight and a few billion of loot to boot!

Here is the KB, pretty pointless other than to see what was there and what was killed as it was a four-way battle in the end! 57bn is mudered spaceships which was probably well over 60bn if you countered the fighter-bombers that died.

http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_related/627614/

gf guys, gf!

The Jita Ripper - Part 3 - On the Move

The quarters on this Gallente station were much larger and luxurious than those on Jita 4-4. Marcus walked over to the kitchen area and poured a drink. He sipped the ice cold Gallente vodka slowly, savouring it's taste. Yes, these executive quarters were worth the money. The last kill was a good one, just before he left Jita he did it one last time. He knew the authorities were closing in on him but he needed the money for his escape. The Caldari woman he'd tricked had been loaded. He'd made more from her than all his previous victims combined. Money was no longer a problem to him. He walked over to his case and opened it. A hiss escaped from the preserved air inside. He looked at the rows of jars containing flesh suspended in a clear preservative. He picked one full one and one empty one out and walked over to the bed. He placed them on the table, a Gallente woman was tied spread eagle to the corners of the bed, a gag in her mouth silencing her screams.

"See this, I took this from a lovely Caldari brunette." he pointed to the jar. The woman turned her head trying to see what was inside but the liquid was cloudy. She looked confused. He opened the jar and with a pair of tongs lifted the item from the jar and dangled it in front of the woman’s face. Her eyes went wide with terror as she realised what he was waving in front of her face.

"What do you think I should collect from you?" he pulled the razor sharp Minmatar dagger out. He placed the cold steel blade against her cheek.

"Something from your head?" he ran the blade down over her face and down her throat. He was doing it lightly but as she jerked in her bonds the knife drew blood.

"May be something more interesting?" the blade continued downwards over her chest. She was screaming into the gag as the knife went lower and nicked her near the navel.

"Or may be something easily removed?" he traced the blade down her leg and finally let it rest between her toes.

The woman was hysterical by this point. Marcus smile as he gripped her little toe of her left foot and went to work.

-o0o-

Inspector Avi entered the room in Jita 4-4 station. A scent of blood and death hung in the air. A number of crime scene technicians were working in the room. One of them noticed the Inspectors arrival.

"Morning Inspector" he said chirpily.

Avi knew these guys dealt with the worst cases and always put the actual victim out of their minds when doing their job. If you thought about the victim at each of these crimes you'd soon lose it. It was a standing joke that the dreaded Jovian Disease could infect both the Jove and CSI Tech's. Even so it always caught him off-guard to deal with someone so happy doing their job amongst the most brutal and vicious crime scenes.

"Was it him?"

"We'll not be sure until we get the lab results back. But, yes, I'd say with 90% certainty that it's him."

"90% eh? That's pretty high. Why are you that sure?" asked the inspector.

"Well. She's bound like the last victim. Multiple lacerations doesn't quite sum up what happened to her" the CSI tech led the inspector over to the bed. "As you can see the cuts are again shallow and numerous. Their purpose was to inflict pain and terror, not to kill. They also show the same profile as the knife used in the previous two murders, a razor sharp serrated blade. Probably Minmatar."

"Mmmm. But she appears to be, how can I say it diplomatically.... intact? Our boy is a collector" the Inspector looked upon the body in disgust. How can any man inflict that on another human.

"Well inspector, if you look carefully...." the tech leaned over the body and carefully opened her mouth wide. A short bloody stump is all that remained of her tongue.

“Hell! He’s crazy!”

“He’s the Jita Ripper!” said another one of the techs.

“What did you call him?” Inspector Avi snapped?

“Erm…. That’s the they are calling him on the news sir. The Jita Ripper!”

-o0o-

Macrus dropped another toe into the jar on the bed-side table next to the jar containing the severed tongue. His latest victim had passed out again. He looked at her feet which now had every other toe missing. He reached into his bag and pulled a stim-pack out. He stuck it into her arm and she suddenly came around, screaming into the gag. She lifted her head and looked down at the bloody remains of her toes and started screaming and shaking even more.

"I don't know why you're screaming like that! I'm just warming up!" Marcus sneered as he climbed on top of her so he was sitting on her stomach. He took the blade in his hand and leaned forward, smiling.

-o0o-

By the time Inspector Avi returned to his office the lab results had been sent over. They confirmed the same drugs had been used as well as traces of the same organic glue. It was "Him" again.

A large holo-board glowed in the corner of his office. With a few flicks of the wrist Avi transferred the details of the latest file from his datapad to the larger holo-board. Victim number three was placed alongside the other two. Avi opened his desk draw and pulled out a glass and a bottle of Minmatar Fire Whisky. He poured himself a substantial glass and leaned back in his chair looking at the holo-board.

"I'm going to get you, you bastard. I'm going to get you."

What's in My Hanger?

Good to see old Rixx Javix blogging again after his own 1v1 with the global economy! His latest post on Eveogander is worth a read. He simply lists what ships he has in his hanger, all 55 of them. At the end he asks "So, what's in your hanger?"

Well Rixx, it looks something like:-

(2) Harpy - Getting to love the Harpy. I thought, like many others, the AF MWD bonus was pointless. It's not. Fun ship to fly.

(2) Hawk - Love the Hawk. Great little ship and fun to have Drakes agress you and then deagress as they cannot take you. Pity DPS is low.

(3) Drakes - One insane tank fit, a double web fit for ze hugz and a fit to scare enemy Falcons off the field.

(6) Hurricanes - Mostly either arty or AC. One is a camper fit. The staple ship of low-sec!

(1) Tornado - BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

(1) Scorpion - "Sir! The radar! It's jammed... Raspberry! There's only one man that would give me the raspberry! LONE STAR!

(1) Tempest - Because everyone needs a ship with a top wingy bit!

(1) Geddon Navy Issue - DPS for ze lulz

(1) Raven - Torpedo fit for PoCo and bunker busts

(1) Dominix - Death by drones especially as I can now use T2 sentries!

(1) Abbadon - Death by Laaaaaaazors!

(1) Chimera - Only ever used once in anger. More about moving stuff than fighting.

(1) Slepneir - BIG tank

(1) Cynabal - Loren Gallen fit aka Chuck Norris approved. Scared to undock it!

(1) Buzzard - Cloaky Eyes

(2) Vexor - Used as cheap drone DPS for PoCo bashing where time isn't an issue

(1) Thorax - For any p3n15 fleet o'doom

(1) Rupture - Trust in the rust!

(6) Thrashers - Again a nice cheap fun ship to fly. Selection of AC and Arty fits.

(2) Catalyst - For sitting in faction war plex's awaiting someone to warp in. Surprise!

(7) Assorted frigates. Mainly cyno ships.

(1) Falcon - See Scorpion

(1) Rook - Rarely leaves the hanger. People see a Rook and whine about ECM whilst running away.

(1) Vagabond - Fun to fly. Bit less common now we have the tier 3 BC's but I still like the Vaga.

(1) Cerebus - Wow, that's old! Back when I couldn't use guns!

(1) Eagle - Another old one from when it was the only HAC I could fly

(1) Badger - And yes, IT'S A BATTLE BADGER! 

(1) Iterion MK V - Why do I have this? I cannot fly it! WTF?

(1) Iterion Mk IV Quaffe Ultra Edition - Fanfest goodie. Actually can I actually fly it?

(2) Sabre - From our last null-sec roadtrip

(1) Ibis - And yes, IT'S A NOOB SHIP O'DOOM!

(1) Shuttle - For quick visits to high-sec where I have a misunderstanding with the law.

(3) Stealth Bombers - Null sec, low sec PvP, low sec structure shooting

(1) Loki - Another fun ship to fly especially with boosts.

(1) Tengu - Don't really fly this. Just own one, actually think I have 2!

(3) Assorted "CCP Gift" ships - Not into PI, Wormholes etc. When are CCP going to give us a combat ship as a freeby?

So a total of 59 ships in my home hanger. Just don't ask what I have scattered around the cluster!

Can I Haz Your Moon?

As well as us Gallente Militia fighting the Caldari Militia and the odd pirate corp y'aaaarrring through space, down here in the low-security Black Rise Region, there are also a few very high-value moons. We faction war players and the pirates tend to leave them alone. These are owned and run by the big alliance boys, Raiden, PL, Evoke etc.

Anyway some changing of hands is going on, rumour has it, from the problems that Raiden have been having lately. Or not having if you listen to them. Or big problems if you listen to their rivals. Whatever!

Whatever the case, a corp friendly to us jumped in and stuck their own POS up in a gap in the fighting over these moons in our home system. When I heard this Iol'd a bit. Ballsy idea guys, but seriously, how long do you think that will last? You just stuck a POS in a position that every large alliance wants.
 

 

Sure enough, an Evoke fleet turned up to reinforce the POS pretty much as soon as it was up. It was coming out of reinforced during the night for most of us but I didn't need to stay up to know what would happen. Like I said, a ballsy move, but a 100-man faction war corp ain't going to stand up to one of the major alliances when it comes to moon mining.

As expected, when I woke up the POS had been destroyed. Pandemic Legion had dropped six Titans (3 Avatars and 3 Bus') as well as a load of Nyx for good measure. However, things are not that simple, and the story I was told gave me a bit of a laugh.....

 

So as the POS comes out of reinforced mode a PL sub-cap fleet turn up consisting of a lot of Rokh's. A couple of carriers then join them. Our guys know PL supers will soon blot out the sun so jump into tier 3 BC's and try to pop some PL BS from range. For some strange reason, PL just happen to know we have plenty of dreadnought pilots, so maybe they are trying to bait us into dropping them and are holding their supers back in case we do. Well we also know Pandemic "ZOMG SUPERS!" Legion, so we don't! The Rokhs are sniper railgun fitted so the initial engagement doesn't go too well, sniper BC vs sniper BS. So we reship to battleships ourselves and take them on again.

The engagement goes rather well after that. In fact in the end, nearly 10bn ISK was inflicted in damage before PL cyno'd in the 6 titans and 14 super carriers (presumably when they saw we'd heavily damaged their BS fleet and taken down two of their carriers and therefore weren't going to drop any dreads). Apparently we bailed at this point, understandably. The POS obviously died to PL's supers and we suffered just under 2bn ISK in loses throughout the engagement. So the ISK war went to us then to a tune of nearly 8 billion ISK. But PL destroyed the target - the POS.

 

So why do I think this was a great laugh? Especially when it looks to be a simple fight and I wasn't even there. Well what happens next defies belief.

PL drop their own tower at the moon, presumably to secure it to start moon mining operations. They then promptly bugger off, leaving the tower pretty much defenceless. Our guys, who have enjoy shooting PL stuff purely for "shits and giggles" in the past, decide wouldn't it be funny to reinforce their shiny new tower within minutes of them putting it up? So they go back and start shooting the tower. PL don't come back, probably cannot be bothered coming all the way back and think that they'll sort it out when it comes out of reinforced. So we kick down the towers shields for a laugh, and stop laughing when the tower starts taking armour damage.

 

Pro Tip for all people running POS'.....

 

THEY NEED STRONT IN THEM TO ENTER REINFORCED MODE

http://www.sotfkb.com/index.php/kill_detail/625969/

Derp!

And then the icing on the cake? We steal all the POS mods that were still anchoring.

 

P.S. I wasn't there, so this report is made up from several, probably very biased, people who were there.

 

P.P.S. I used the term "we" as it's less to write than "a combined force of Gallente Militia pilots from various corps and alliances"

P.P.P.S WTF? Those cheeky Militia boys put up their own POS again?????

The Jita Ripper - Part 2 - The Cover-up

Marcus checked the factory control panel. Everything was ready. He saw Gren checking the lines below. A few more minutes and it would be over.

He let his mind drift back to the weekend. It was going fine, just like it had a dozen times before. He had found a case of expensive looking antique Minmatar ceremonial daggers. He was just looking at one when he heard a noise behind him. She'd woken up. Even with enough drugs to fell a Brutor Commando she'd come round. She had charged at him like a mad woman. She ran into him and the knife he was holding had slid into her. She'd backed off and fallen over. He'd assumed dead.

The smelter indicated that it was up to temperature, the tritanium was now molten.

He had stood over her body. He'd never seen a dead body before. She still looked beautiful, naked and with a knife sticking from her abdomen. He'd gone back to looting the room, surprised how little the event had unsettled him. After about twenty minutes she had come round. She hadn't died, but she was badly hurt. She started pleading for him to save her, that she'd not tell the police, she'd not rat him out just as long as she got medical attention. He'd gone over and knelt by her. She was in pain, she was in terror, and it had excited him. When he pulled the knife out and she'd screamed and he felt something inside him spark. When he raised the knife to finish her she'd put her hand up to protect herself. As the knife plunged through her hand and she screamed again, that spark turned to a rush, a feeling that had spread over him. He had then taken his time, he'd never felt more alive.

"Check! Check! Is the smelter offline?" Gren's voice broke Marcus' concentration.

"Yeah, all safe. Get your ass in there."

Marcus watched Gren enter the mould on the factory floor. The forge-line start-up scan had reported a foreign object in the mould and it would have to be removed before the line could start. Gren had gone down to the floor to check. Marcus hit the dump command and several tons of molten refined veldspar fell into the mould below.

Marcus was slightly disappointed as he never heard anything from Gren, just the hiss of the hot metal. The only person who knew about his activities impersonating a capsuleer on the station in orbit above had just been vaporised.

-o0o-

One week later.

Inspector Avi entered Chief Inspector Chan's Office.

"Avi, what have you found?"

"Well sir, he struck again this weekend. A 24 year-old Caldari woman. He's..... well sir, he's evolving."

"Go on."

"The initial MO appears the same. She picked him up in a bar, took him back to her quarters. They made love, he drugged her. That's where the similarities end."

Inspector Avi placed a small holoprojector on Chan's desk. It sprung into life. It showed a hologram of a woman tied spread eagle to a bed.

"My god!" the Chief Inspector exclaimed. "What the hell did he do to her. Where are her....."

"He cut them off sir and took them with him. We think he kept the dagger from his first murder. He took two hours to kill her. Over 150 wounds."

The Chief Inspector reached over and turned the holoprojector off.

"Thanks for that Avi. That will give me nightmares for a week."

"Sir, we need to warn people. We need to get the message out there."

"What? That we've got a nutter who loves seducing women before slicing them up slowly? The CEO has said we must keep this under wraps, we cannot have any negative press. The Goonswarm attack on the local traders has left people wondering if Jita is still the best place to do business in the cluster. Something like this could drive people to Dodixie or Amarr. You need to find this guy before he strikes again." The Chief Inspector didn't sound convinced himself.

"You’re kidding? We bury the truth from the public because it might affect profits?"

"It's not that simple. Our stock isn't doing too well and neither is the war against the Gallente. The last thing the Caldari Navy needs is people associating our name and this station with some lunatic after that Goonswarm attack. First 'Burn Jita' then a serial killer on the loose? We can issue warnings for women to be on guard. We don’t bury the truth, we just don’t tell them everything."

Inspector Avi shook his head.

"So we post warnings about a con-artist but don't tell the women of this station that his new favourite hobby is slowly slicing them up and hacking off their..."

"Look!" the Chief Inspector cut him off "I don't like it any more than you. But those are our orders. Look, I've got enough on my plate trying to control the flow of information. That pirate news network, Tech4News, has already run with the first victim’s story. If they get hold of news of this latest victim, who know what shit-storm that will be caused. On top of that, the board has allegedly hired a private investigator to do his own parallel investigation."

“Oh fantastic” Avi exclaimed “That’s all we need, some private dick on the case too getting in the way!”

“Well that’s the situation we have to live with, just find this guy Avi, before he strikes again.”

Can I Haz Eve Stuffz

Did you know that CCP are pushing for a new version of the classic Rifter frigate?

 

No, it is not a pirate faction Rifter.

 

No, it is not a Navy faction Rifter.

 

No, it is not a T3 Rifter.

 

It's a......... Lego Rifter!

 

Here is a picture of the "prototype" that I took at Fanfest where it was on display.

 

 

If it gets 10,000 votes on the Lego website, they will look at it seriously. And we're OVER 9000 currently. So why are you still reading this when you could be voting to make the Lego Rifter a reality!

 

There has been a lot of talk recently about Eve branded stuff. I was amazed at Fanfest of all the gear that was there. Of course there were the T-shirts from Quaffe to "Can I haz your stuffz". The laptop backpacks were very nice.... and very pricey! Eve mugs, hoodies, glasses, bottle openers, stickers, shot glasses, ship models, patches, stickers, books, the list goes on and on. But no real electronics or computer related items.

 

Legs, sorry I mean Sindel Pellion, from the #tweetfleet raised the other week that if Razer are making a Star Wars: The Old Republic special edition keyboard, why are there no Eve keyboards? Think about it. There are some great reasons why an Eve keyboard would sell.

 

Longevity.

Eve is nearly 9 years old. Next May it'll have been going 10 years! A decade of one single game with no signs of slowing down. What other games have that longevity? Seriously how many games are still going strong after a year, never mind 10.

 

 

The year Eve started was the year:-

 

- The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry

- First case of SARS was reported

- The Iraq war began

- Arnold Schwarzenegger took office in California

- Sadam was captured

- The Beagle II explorer lands on Mars. The logs, and everything else, show nothing, at all, ever!

- Bob Hope and Johnny Cash died

- The movies of the original Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo were released.

 

Now wasn't that a long time ago! Now think of that in gaming terms. The following games were released same year as Eve Online:-

 

- Star Wars : Galaxies

- Star Wars : KOTOR

- Silent Hill 3

- Homeworld 2

- Call of Duty (The first one!)

- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

 

Now also remember those are releases for the PC, PS2, XBox, Game Boy Advanced and Gamecube. The very first initial prototype of the PSP was shown in 2003. The PS3, 360, WII etc were still on the drawing board.

 

Technology wise the following happened:-

 

- Intel Pentium M was released.

- Intel Pentium Celeron 2ghz was released.

- GeForce 5600 was announced.

- Windows XP 64-Bit Edition.

- iTunes store is opened.

- Steam releases.

- Windows XP Media Centre.

 

Your average shop bought PC came with a gig of RAM (yes, just the one!) and a 30-60gb hard drive!

 

Geeks

As Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw said, Eve is "inhabited by geeks that are to geeks what geeks are to normal people". We love technology, we love gadgets. We'd love an Eve keyboard. Here is my set up below, I tried to take the picture in a Sindel Stylee (as it's her idea!) but ended up crushing my nuts. So no legs in this one!

 

 

Technology

I have heard of corporations in Eve that insist their logistics pilots must have PC's with SSD's fitted and minimum scores in 3DMark. Seriously what other game has people THAT dedicated. As you can see in the above I have a Razer Keyboard and Razer Mouse. We Eve players love our technology.

 

Yes Eve doesn't have the millions of players that SW:TOR and WoW has, but what we do have is more long term players. People who are more likely to invest in hardware that would help them play that one particular game. I for one would pre-order an Eve Online keyboard and pay the extra get it ship out here to the desert if someone would just make one.

 

Only real fans will buy a game specific keyboard and if it's one thing Eve Online has in abundance, it's real fans!

 

So again, why are you reading this when you could be Tweeting @cultofrazer and saying what a great idea a Razer Eve Online keyboard would be.

 

After that's sorted, I propose Eve branded lingerie! It's the only way I'll ever get my wife "into" Eve!

 

Cyno Lighting 101

Lighting a cyno isn't difficult, but get it wrong and you can incur the wrath of your cap ship pilots.

 

Following an incident last week, it was suggested to a fellow corporation mate that he should "go forth and multiply" and that bio-massing their character might be an excellent career move. This was from a guy who found his carrier 17km off station after an epic bump due to a poorly positioned cyno. I'm no expert, but here is Drack's very simple cyno guide for people who don't know how to light a cyno and do not want to get raged at as you watch a corpies carrier being propelled at high speed away from the station whilst wondering "Why is he doing that?" whilst you can hear in your headset "What was that cyno! You are a F........".

 

Lighting a WHAT?

A cyno. Otherwise known as a cynosural field. This is an energy field that is projected from a cynosural field generator mounted in a high-slot of a ship. When the module is activated, providing there is sufficient liquid ozone in your cargo bay to act as fuel, a cyno field is generated which allows all capital ships in your fleet to jump to from other systems. It also makes you a target.

 

 

A target????

When you light the cyno, you cannot move for the duration of the cycle (10 minutes usually). You cannot dock, you cannot warp. You can use other modules and weapons, but your are basically a sitting duck. Also the cyno appears system wide on every ones overview. Any ebil piwats in the system, like me, might just warp to the cyno and pop you, just because they can! Therefore most "cyno lighters" tend to be alts created for that purpose.

 

Sounds easy?

Yes and no. Any numpty can light a cyno as long as he has the skill, the module and a ship with enough fuel. What you want is to light the cyno where the ship is not going to get bumped yet still is near enough to the POS or station to be safe.

 

Bumped?

When a capital ship jumps to a cyno it will appear somewhere within 5km of the cyno. If it appears touching part of a station or POS shield it will be "bumped" away.... at high speed. When cynoing onto a station your capital pilots want to land, wait their 10 second session change and dock. That doesn't work if you've been bumped 17km off the station. In fact it's rather dangerous if enemies are around! Carriers and dreadnoughts are not the fastest ships around and 17km is a long distance to travel at well under 100kph.

 

So How Do You Prevent Bumpage?

First look at the station as a 3D object. What you are looking for is an area "within" the station ideally. Look for things that jut out, towers, masts and aerials are all useful. What you want is a point that is surrounded by as much of the station as possible, but has enough room to prevent bumpage. Turn on your tactical overview and fly your ship to a location where, if you took the 5km radius as a globe, there is no part of the station within it. Even thin aerials will bump the carriers so you need to make sure the full 5km sphere is clear (and add some margin for error too) . Below is Nisuwa station, home for me and my corp.

 

 

As you can see it has this big jutty out thingy at the back (that's the technical description, similar to "top wingy bit"). Now if I fly a ship within that V and head down until I'm a good 5km clear of any part of the station in all directions...

 

 

.... I have a good cyno spot. It's 5km, plus a bit extra for safety, from any part of the station. But the whole 5km radius of the cyno sphere is within insta-dock range. That bottom aerial keeps any ship at 0km from the station.

Any capital landing here can simply insta-dock 10 seconds after jumping in.

 

Simples! And it'll stop you from being referred to as a "Fundamentally flawed individual!"

The Jita Ripper

Would you like a lot of ISK, some nice expensive modules as well as some good old fashioned fame? Of course you would! You're a capsuleer and live for these things right? Well follow this, take part in the in-game live event and you could have it all!

A while ago I posted this piece of fan-fiction about a gold-digger getting played herself. If you are going to follow this series you really need to read that to set the scene. After I posted it I thought that may be she got more than she really deserved, women should be warned about this man! This led to another piece on another website. I met the guy who runs the other website at Fanfest and we got talking. He had some fantastic ideas about running with it and it all leading up to a live event in-game.

So here is the first breadcrumb. My job is to set the scene every Friday, if you are part of the final battle you might have a moral choice to make that will effect the final outcome and how much cash you'll get. This blog series will help you make your decision there.

You will find other information on websites such as..... well telling you would be too easy. Eventually, I'll stop here and let others take over as it approaches the end. They'll give you the clues you need to get to the final fight where the aforementioned fame, fortune and phat lootz can be had.

I wish you all the best of luck!


The Jita Ripper - Chapter One - Escalation

Deena shifted nervously in her seat. She checked the time, 5 minutes past. Only 5 minutes, what is 5 minutes, especially to men like him?

She took a small mirror from her bag and checked her make up. Perfect.

"Calm down. It's just a man you’re meeting. You've met them before. No need for nerves." she told herself.

"But you've never had a date with a man like this before. Play this right and your wildest dreams will come true." the voice in her head had been telling her that all evening.

She'd spent hours getting ready. This morning she went out and spent nearly an entire months’ salary on the outfit she was wearing. Very classy, very seductive. The expensive Gallente underwear cost as much as the dress and shoes. This afternoon she spent the rest of her savings at the spa getting treatments and hair styling. She had done everything she could possibly do to make herself look desirable. Now it was down to her to seal the deal. She was in the most expensive bar in the station that was open to the general public. If he didn’t come, and pay the bill, she was in big trouble.

She saw him enter. He looked her way and smiled. Her heart fluttered. He approached the booth and she stood to greet him.

"Wow! You look amazing!" he said as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks, you’re not looking too bad yourself" she replied smiling. They sat opposite each other and a waiter took their drinks order. After he left to get the drinks Deena leaned forward.

"I hope you don't think I was too forward asking you for this date last night. I mean life's too short to wait don't you think?"

"It can be." the man replied smiling

Deena returned the smile.

"And I didn't know if I'd see you again. After all this station is so big, and not many people stay long. Especially, people like you."

"People like me?" the man asked quizzically.

Deena looked embarrassed.

"I didn't mean that as a slight. I mean you look like a starship captain, am I right?" Deena was being careful, she knew what he was but didn't want to play her hand too soon.

"Very perceptive. What gave me away?"

She wanted to say Those implants on the back of your neck which you try to hide but I saw but she knew she shouldn't.

"You have an air of command about you. I knew that when we met last night at the bar."

The man smiled.

-o0o-

Two hours later Deena couldn't believe how well things were going. They were really getting on well. He hadn't told her he was a capsuleer and she thought she'd better wait for him to mention it. Currently he thought she didn't know and that was the best way, she didn't want him thinking she was coming onto him just because of that, even if it was the truth. However, this station was a trade-hub, the majority of capsuleers came and left within a short time. She had to seal the deal. If she didn't hook him tonight, she might not see him ever again.

"I've got to say I'm having a great time. I was really nervous before you arrived."

"Why?"

"Well the fact that I asked you out on a date. You know, a lot of you guys prefer to chase. If the woman is forward, it puts them off."

The man laughed.

"Don't be silly. Maybe that's what some guys are like, but as far as I am concerned it is impossible for a woman to be too forward. As you said earlier, life is too short."

"Really? Impossible to be too forward?"

"Yes, really. I actually prefer my women forward, those that make sure they get what they want. All that coyness and teasing is such a waste of time."

Deena smiled and discretely raised her foot under the table. She reached down and unhooked the clasp of her shoe and slowly lowered it to the floor. She slipped her foot out of her shoe and ran her foot over the inside of the man’s leg under the table. As soon as she touched him he smiled.

"A woman after my own heart." he said as her stocking-clad foot slowly worked its way higher, sliding upwards over his inner thigh.

-o0o-

Deena slowly woke. She could hear sounds, she kept still. She was scared, she knew something was wrong. What had happened? Her mind was foggy. She had met Marcsal in the bar, the date had been going great. She had even started to play footsie with him.

He had responded. He didn't want to go back to his quarters, probably still didn't want to reveal he was a capsuleer, so they had gone back to hers. They had spent a while in bed, then he'd made her a drink, then, nothing, she'd passed out. She knew she had not been that drunk. Drugged? More crashing sounds, she opened her eyes slightly, she was laying on her front with her head to the side. Marcsal was naked and searching her apartment. The few remaining "implants" on his back were hanging off.

Fakes!

Deena slowly rose, she picked up a small lamp to use as a club. She started to approach him from behind. Suddenly she tripped over her shoes that had been discarded in the middle of the floor. Marcsal looked around as she scrambled to her feet and charged at him. She looked in terror as he finally turned fully and was holding one of her ceremonial daggers from her collection in the draw he'd been searching. She couldn’t stop herself crashing into him.

-o0o-

Inspector Avi entered the medical bay. Chief Medical Examiner Boras was washing his hands in a metal sink.

"Evening Chief."

"Inspector Avi! Good to see you again. I assume you are here for a debrief about our victim there?" Boras nodded to the body laying on a slab, covered by a white sheet to her neck.

"Yes. What can you tell me?" both men approached the slab. The Chief Medical Examiner pulled the sheet away. Deena lay there, her body was covered in wounds and her arms and legs had been removed.

"Well it's been a hard one to puzzle out. Minmatar female, 26, details are in that file, that was the easy bit as she was a station resident and was found in her quarters. Well, not exactly in her quarters. The perp cut off her arms and legs and shoved her into the garbage chute to hide her body which became jammed. Those janitors who found her won't be sleeping well for a few weeks I'd guess! The rest was much more difficult. We think there are three distinct events. Firstly she was a willing participant in the bedroom. Blood-chemical analysis indicates she made love several times in the hours before he death. No evidence of a struggle or wounds at that time."

"Are you kidding?" Inspector Avi said in surprise. "Look at her! It's like some wild animal has been at her!"

"Inspector, we can give you an exact time of death. We can also time-stamp all her injuries back from that point. None of these injuries were sustained in the period up to 30 minutes after she'd finished her, shall we say 'coupling'."

"So she was either with the person who killed her, or someone else 30 minutes before she died?"

"No, it was an hour before she died. The first wound was 30 minutes after, well you know, death was another 30 minutes after that."

"Sorry, you're confusing me" the Inspector took out his datapad "Perhaps you can run through this for me slowly."

This place always creeped the Inspector out. The room where the dead were sliced open again to reveal their secrets.

"The victim was making love to a person unknown. There was then a 30 minute gap, I will explain this shortly. Then she took a deep stab wound, here, to the abdomen. We believe it was a bladed weapon, perhaps a serrated dagger. As she is Minmatar it is possible she had one in her quarters or the attacker brought it. We think she was standing when she was stabbed, a wound on the back of her head and a brain-scan shows its likely she fell backwards, struck her head on the floor and was rendered unconscious. It may be that the attacker thought she was dead. Twenty minutes later she sustained the other injuries in a sustained attack for approximately ten minutes which finally killed her."

Inspector Avi pondered this for a moment, making notes on his datapad.

"You said you could explain the 30 minute gap?"

"Ah yes. When we tested her blood we found two chemical traces. First is Lanzazine. This is a powerful tranquiliser used by the Amarr in their tranq-darts for capturing fleeing slaves alive. The second is Insorum, which as you will know is the cure for Vitoc, our victim here is a rescued slave. The interesting thing is that the Insorum not only counters the mutating virus aspect of Vitoc, it also blocks the receptors in the brain that lead to the addiction to Vitoc. The blocking of those receptors would also greatly reduce the effects of the Lanzazine. A dose that would have knocked her out for several hours would have only worked for a short period of time."

"Right. Anything else?"

"Two things. Firstly the wounds. The first appears to have been in defence. It's possible he was surprised by her waking up early and she may have attacked him. She's Minmatar so quite likely she went for him if he drugged her and was still there when she woke. It is a deep penetrating wound, but it did miss her vital organs. At that point she fell and knocked her head and became unconscious. He probably thought she was dead. When she came around she would have been in no state to defend herself due to the first wound. But it took him ten minutes to kill her and over 100 separate wounds."

"He took his time?"

"Very much so. The wounds she suffered are generally shallow and carefully targeted. As you can see he concentrated on several areas. I believe this man didn't intend to kill the victim at first. The original wound was probably self defence when she woke up too soon. However, it would appear once he got a taste for it, he started to enjoy himself. "

"And what was the second thing?"

"We found traces of organic glue on her. We couldn't work out why, so we sent them for analysis. The forensic lab gave me us a chem-match to two previous recent unsolved crimes on file." the Examiner took his glasses off.

"I fear your pretend capsuleer con-artist has now got a taste for blood."

-o0o-