It's a TARP! Oh, Wait... NO DON'T WAIT!

Saturday morning I logged on for some hot pew-pew action. There wasn't a huge amount going on by the sounds of it. It was early in my TZ meaning that there were still a few of the late-night US contingent on still. There was no proper fleet and we were all dispersed around Northern Black Rise hunting solo and in pairs with the knowledge if anything big showed up we'd have back up nearby. It's called a NAFF, Not a Fleet Fleet.

It worked well that morning as two of our guys got jumped by half a dozen neuts in a faction war plex in Pyne. The QCats were in small ships and the neuts had BC and down, so I jumped into an AHAC and went over to help.

We managed to snag this Stabber Fleet Issue. A fast MWD Hurricane was able to escape our long points as were the rest of their smaller ships.

Next bouncing around solo I tried to get a Imperial Navy Slicer. He was kitey, I was short range AB fit and he came in at range, so was pretty stuck. But that's not what killed me, although now he had me with a long point he could have solo'd me, he decided he needed a blob to complete the kill.

Thankfully some nice person killed him before he had a session change so I got onto his mail. Plus, as a bonus, he had a 30m ISK MWD fitted, so I got a nice trade there in ISK efficiency for my much cheaper Hookbill!

After a bit more chasing faction war pilots who didn't want to fight, I decide to camp a gate as I have some stuff to do on the other PC screen. I selected a dead-end system, put a Cockbag Thrasher on the only gate and waited to hear the gate sound whilst working on the other screen. After a while I hear the gate activate, look at the main screen and there is a squid in local! I get ready and a Tristan decloaks. I lock him, point him and volley one puts him into structure. The pre-overheat on the top rack means volley two comes quickly and puts him in his pod which I also point and kill. I scoop the loot and head back to station to repair the overheat damage on the guns and drop off the loot before returning to the gate to wait for my next customer.

5 minutes later the gate fires again and I turn my attention back to the main screen. Another squid! No, actually it is the same squid. Now I have to think very quickly before he uncloaks. Why would he come back to a gate he knows is camped?

1. He's come back in a ship that can survive the Cockbags initial volley and then counter the 'slow-ass' tracking artilleries?
2. He's come back in a cruiser or similar that can easily take a Thrasher solo?
3. He's dumb enough to come back in a frigate thinking last time he was just unlucky or that I might have moved on in the last 5 minutes?

Whilst I'm wondering whether to wait and try it (if it was option 3) or if I should warp to station (if it was options 1 or 2), there are several more gate fires and the number of war targets in local tells me I may have forgoten that there could be a number 4.

4. He's brought his friends.

I hit warp before anyone uncloaks and head to station. 4v1 in an untanked Thrasher won't end well for me. I dock, swap to a differently fit Thrasher and undock. Outside the station is a Talwar and a Tristan. However the other two are about somewhere in system. A wide D-scan shows a Kestrel and a Merlin on max range. My new Thrasher is AB/AC fit so a fast and kitey Talwar is going to be an issue, never mind the others who would be on scene quickly if I engaged. I dock back up as the Telwar engages from range and undock in a Vexor. The Talwar warps off (sensible guy) and the Tristan takes a flight of light combat drones to the face before deciding that warping off might be a great idea.

I sit there and start D-Scanning the two faction war plex that are open. It would seem their plan was to split up with two taking an open plex each and the other two were probably meant to be trying to keep me pinned in station. Unlucky for them I keep a range of ships in various stations around so I can reship when needed.

The Telwar comes back at range and starts to burn towards me. I align towards him and move slowly. When he gets to 24km he points me and target-paints me before opening up with his missiles. He's now at 20km. I overheat my entire mid-rack and hit the MWD. My lumbering fat green ass is propelled forward thanks to the over-heated MWD and of course, because my webs and scrams are also overheated, I have a nice range bonus to them. I snag him with the scram and double webs. I'm soon at point blank range so stop the overheat, launch drones and open up with the medium blasters. The Tristan is here but I assume the Telwar pilot knew his fate and told him not to bother. The Telwar goes down, I scoop the loot and wait out the aggression timer before docking up and repairing the ship damage.

With their one and only Destroyer dead they have three frigates left. So I jump into a Hookbill and go for the others. First plex I snag their Kestrel and after that local empties of war targets.

Now, anyone who has been reading this blog over the last two weeks knows I've been ranting about the farmers. Cloaking Rifters and cloaky Algos, Daredevils with cloaks, ships with so many stabs they have to wind the window down and throw the ammo at me as their lock range is so short. But this weekend I've not seen as many. I'm not saying they are not still out there, as my CEO Chatgris pointed out, they still are:-

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=19047205
http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=19047527
http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=19045702

It's just I've not been seeing them. I've been using capsule kills as an indicator of how much farming is going on. Generally farmers don't get their pods out in a hurry. On a normal month I'd usually get between one and three pod kills. The first full month the Caldari hit warzone control level III which was Fenruary I got 11. In the first 9 days of this month I have 8! But hopefully that will now drop off if the farmers aren't bothering with this area now.

In fact the majority of the squids that I have seen this weekend have been PvP fit and are looking for a fight.

May be the farmers are learning not to come to the Nisuwa area and those that do want a fight are replacing them?

Whatever the reason this weekend was low on farmers and high on PvP. Is this a turning point? I can but hope!

Into The Black - Part 9 - Planetside

FFF! If fiction is not your thing, in a departure from my normal suggested alternative blog post, I give you the YouTube page of Jonny Pew. His in-game character of Sir Livingston has recently joined QCats to fight the ebil squids in faction war. If you are following the story why not read today's episode and then go see the videos. I'll even link it again at the bottom of the piece!


Into The Black - Part 9 - Planetside

Once again the huge battleship started its slow align to the outbound startgate. Captain Dorn had not moved from the viewport. He knew it was only a matter of time before they got into an engagement. Every time they jumped through a stargate there was the chance there was some capsuleer waiting on the other side.

He didn't have long to wait. Battle-stations sounded throughout the ship and Dorn cursed. They had made it as far as Heydeiles, only two jumps from the Gallenete Federation border. They were so close. Dorn pressed his face to the viewport to see if he could make out what was out there. In the distance he saw something smaller, a cruiser perhaps orbiting the ship at speed. What ever it was, it had locked a warp disruptor onto the battleship, they were going nowhere. Suddenly the darkness of space was illuminated as the massive hybrid turrets on the battleship fired. The sound of the massive hybrid blasters firing resonated through the ship.

Dorn felt helpless. A captain stuck in luxury passenger quarters is not a captain.

"What is it?" Kara asked nervously.

"Some type of cruiser has us pointed. There it is." Dorn pointed out the speck as it orbited past the window. Only the engine contrails were properly visible against the blackness of space.

Another volley of blaster fire lit up the surrounding area and they saw the shields on the cruiser light up and flicker. Dorn smiled. Normally the large guns on a battleship would have trouble tracking the small and manoeuvrable cruiser. However the Guardian Angels had given the Vindicator some help in that regard. The stasis webifiers fitted to the ship were improved many times over their normal specifications. Specific subroutines and power amplifiers built into the Vindicators hull for the stasis webifiers ensured that any ship caught in the swirling graviton field slowed to a faction of its normal speed. Hopefully the fight would soon be over. Dorn saw a series of five engine contrails leaving the battleship, swoop over his window and head out towards the cruiser. A flight of combat drones to finish off the work the guns and stasis webifiers had started.

Dorn could tell the Vindicators shields were still up, and the battleship relied more on its heavy armour plating rather than the shields. The battle appeared to be going their way.

-o0o-

"Shields down to 30%, shield booster chargers are getting low. Speed is down to 60. We cannot hold them for much longer." The captain on the Tengu was shouting over the alarms to the Agent.

"Light it!" she replied calmly.

-o0o-

Dorn watched in horror as a pulsating red energy field appeared over the Tengu. He grabbed Kara by the wrist and yanked her towards the door. She nearly fell over.

"OW! What the........"

"That red flash was a cyno. This ship is about to become scrap metal!" Dorn said as he dragged her at speed into the corridor.

He stopped at a viewport quickly, still holding Kara by the wrist tightly. The space around the Tengu erupted in a mass of ships. Red energy fields streaked around the hulls as an entire Caldari task force of capital and super-capital ships jumped in. This was followed by the appearance of a fleet of sub-capitals. They must have used a jump-bridge portal generated by a Titan class super-capital.

Dorn didn't stay to see the waves of fighters being launched by the numerous carriers and super-carriers. He was heading to the escape pods.

The fight was over quickly. The Basilisk logistical cruisers that had jumped in with the sup-cap fleet locked up the Tengu and started feeding energy direct to its shields. The guns and drones of the Vindicator now could not break through the heavily reinforced energy barrier. Crow class Interceptors used their warp disruption modules to keep the Vindicators warp drive off line whilst the wings of fighters did the damage. Within a minute the task force had inflicted sufficient damage that the reactor on the Vindicator went critical and the ship was blown in half by the force of the explosion.

Dorn and Kara watch this all from the tiny escape pod that had slipped unnoticed from the fight and was now getting into warp. Whilst very slow, doing only 0.1 astrological units per second, the warp drive got them clear as the Caldari fleet moved in towards the wreckage. The inside of the pod smelt of burnt electronics. Dorn had ripped an access panel open as soon as the pod cleared the ship and shorted out the emergency beacon. The last thing they wanted was a electronic signal broadcasting to all where they were.

"So where are we heading?" Kara asked.

"Well we're a bit low on choices." Dorn replied. "This pod cannot travel through a wormhole like an eggers pod can so gate travel is out. Its also safe to assume both stations are covered by Caldari agents and a Vindicators escape pod requesting docking permission may give the game away. Also this pod isn't equipped for re-entry or atmospheric flight so landing planet side is out."

"So?"

"Only one place I can think we can dock in this system." Dorn said pointing out of the window as a huge grey structure loomed in front of them as they dropped out of warp.

-o0o-

President Roden looked at the report in front of him. The economy wasn't doing well at all, it needed a jump start and he had no idea what to do. His headache had been getting worse all morning. He winced as the door to his office flew open. He glowered at the aide who had barged into his office without even knocking.

"SIR!" the aide panted out of breath as if he's been running "A Caldari task force just jumped into Heydieles!"

"Miltia?" the President asked hopefully.

"No sir! State Navy!"

"That's only two jumps for Villore!" the President growled. "Get me Admiral Toolong now!"

The aide nodded and rushed out of the room.

Jacus went back to his datapad whilst he waited for the Admiral. He retrieved an intelligence report that had come in an hour ago. A woman posing as a Federation Naval Intelligence Officer had been stopped in the capsuleer section of one of their forward stations only two jumps from where the Caldari fleet had jumped in. She had easily overpowered the three Navy personnel who challenged her. Reports from the capsuleers on what their heightened perception and optical implants had picked up on disturbed him. This was too much of a coincidence. He opened a separate file entitled "Pike's Landing". He was one of only 3 people in the entire Federation who could access that file. He skipped over the first few sections that covered the Amarrian deployment of the first immortal super soldiers. He stopped at the section entitled "THANATOS". The bio-engineered agent's corpse had been studied closely in a joint effort with the Caldari Ishukone Corporation and the Federation. Even though the State was officially at war with the Federation a secret agreement had been reached between Ishukone and the Federation to jointly research the corpse and the immortal super-soldier technology that had been recovered at Pike's Landing. Jacus skipped to the summary.

"In conclusion  the body recovered can hardly be called human. Although looking so from the outside, the internals have been heavily bio-engineered. The blood-stream is composed solely of special nanites suspended in solution which perform their function much better than normal red and white cells. The bone structure is reinforced with a carbon polymer which appears to have developed in-situ, perhaps by nano-bot delivery. Muscle structure is, on the surface, apparently normal but the strength of the individual fibres are many times stronger than normal. This gives the subject the appearance of not being participially strong whilst at the same time giving them incredible strength. All internal organs and senses are augmented as is the brain. This person is stronger, faster and fitter than anyone we have ever seen. They have increased perception and reflexes. We currently do not believe any of the four Empires has the level of bio-technology to create this clone. Therefore the only conclusion, given the level of the bio-engineering, that the technology is derived from Jovian Technology. Furthermore, that they were discovered during the Pike's Landing incident leads us to conlude this is a covert agent of CONCORD and was trying to prevent empyrean technology from expanding onto the battlefield.

Jacus leaned back in his chair. This report had given him a major headache for the last year. The conclusions of the report fit perfectly. CONCORD had overstepped their remit trying to limit Empyrean technology entering the battlefield. In doing so they had murdered a Federation Spec-Ops team that had inadvertently discovered the CONCORD agent and her ship whilst trying to recover evidence of the Amarian immortal soldier technology. CONCORD also knew that he knew. But there was no solid proof. Neither side had mentioned the engagement although Jacus had eluded to it. The relationship was strained between CONCORD and all the Empires since the Pike's Landing incident. Jacus was furious over the blood on CONCORD's hands, but he himself had wasted no time in ordering further study into the technology. The Caldari had obviously beaten them to it. The Federations own version had yet to leave the training facility.

A bleep indicated Admiral Toolong was on the comm. The President pressed a button and a hologram of the Admirals head appeared.

"Report Admiral"

"Yes sir. At 0735 Heydiles local time a seemingly neutral Tengu Strategic cruiser engaged a Vindicator class battleship piloted by a capsuleer aligned with the Federal Defence Union that had jumped in from the Abune startgate. The Tengu lit a cynosural field and we have 2 Wyvern, 10 Chimera and 10 Phoenix all supported by a sub-cap fleet. We're assuming they have a Leviathan within bridge range. They destroyed the Vindicator and are holding position."

"Admiral. To me that makes no sense. They have deployed a task force costing tens of billions to take out one egger's battleship. Then they hold position inside Federation territory and don't try to extract?"

"Agreed sir. There is more to this, but we don't know what. It is not an invasion nor an incursion. In fact we don't know what those squids are playing at."

"Where did the Vindicator originate from?"

"It left Nisuwa a short while before." Jacus knew then the incident at Nisuwa station and the Caldari fleet were after the same person. His suspicions confirmed.

"Thank you Admiral. Send the Villore Task Force into Old Man Star and have them set up on the Heydiles stargate. They are not to enter Heyd. They may engage if the Caladri fleet tried to move towards Federation space. Get a cyno recon into Heyd and get them set up near the Caldari fleet."

Jacus disconnected the comm link. He knew the Caldari had their own version of THANATOS now, as did the Federation. That Caldari agent must have been chasing someone, the capsuleer from Nisuwa must have been taking that target somewhere. They were heading towards Federation space. If the Caldari were so desperate to stop someone they must have information critical to the State. That meant the information was critical to the Federation.

The President went back to his datapad and typed in a coded message. It simply said "Activate Asia. Heydeiles." He hoped that they were ready for this.

-o0o-

"Negative on the DNA scans on all lifeboats ma'am."

The Caldari Agent reviewed the results herself.

"Also scans around the wreck site are negative too. There was a lot of plasma fire in the explosion. It is possible the bodies were vaporised or so badly burn the DNA is too corrupted."

"And we are sure none of the lifeboats escaped?"

"Yes ma'am. The regular lifeboats aren't equipped with warp drive. We've retrieved all that made it clear of the blast. The executive pods do have warp drive capability but we didn't get a signal that any of those launched expect for...." the officers voice trailed off.

"What?"

"Well ma'am." the officer brought up the scanner logs "Here there appears to be a distress beacon active. This was actually only one ping and it stopped. Not enough time for a lifeboat to warp off and it was also before the real fighting started so it must have been a glitch. No crew would have abandoned ship at that point. The capsuleer wouldn't have let them, the pods would have been on lock down until the ships armour failed."

The agent pushed the man out of the way. She linked the sensor logs with the other ships in the fleet. Within two minutes the officer gasped at the model she'd built of the battlefield. The ships computer would have taken hours to do the same thing and only if someone had helped it.

"A pod did launch. The emergency beacon was active for one cycle and then someone disabled it. It was an exec pod and it warped off. We'll have triangulation in a few hours. I'll be on my Tengu. As soon as the triangulation program has finished, send me the destination."

With that the agent left the bridge of the super-carrier.

-o0o-

Kara walked along the walkway looking down at the robots tending the conveyors loaded with crates and moving the goods into various cargo bays.

"These customs offices are completely automated." Dorn said "Goods are shot up here from the launch facility on the planet and then collected by the capsuleers."

"So where are we going?"

Dorn pointed to a door at the end of the walk way.

"As well as launching goods up here, they also fire them back down to the surface. We're going to hitch a ride planetside."

Kara gulped at the term "fire them back down".

-o0o-

The Tengu strategic cruiser had briefly docked with the the customs office and had pulled back from the structure and engaged its cloaking device. The crew were completely unaware that a second strategic cruiser was also cloaked off the office and had been watching them. Whilst it took the Caldari several hours to triangulate the trajectory the escape pod had taken. The Gallente didn't need to do that. As the space was theirs the customs office was linked to their computer systems and had detected the escape pod docking and the unscheduled launch of the drop-craft.

A surface lander probe had been launched from the Proteus which had then cloaked up a good 10 minutes before the Caldari ship had arrived.

-o0o-

The factory on the planets surface was mostly automated. Kara and Dorn had taken the drop-craft from the orbiting customs office down to the surface. They had then followed the transit lines and ended at a factory. Hoping to someone who might be able to help them. The automated assembly lines and robotic arms weren't what Dorn had hoped for.

"Damn eggers! Why cannot they employ some good old fashioned humans to work for them." Dorn complained.

"Like her?" Kara pointed to a woman walking towards them.

Dorn's hand went towards his gun but he didn't draw. He studied the approaching woman who didn't seem to be in a hurry. Even from this distance she looked stunning. She was Gallente with jet black hair and an olive complexion  She was wearing some sort of black one-piece with lace panels that hugged her curves and shimmered as she moved. Her movements were fluid, graceful. Even the way she walked was erotic. She looked more like she belonged in a nightclub than a factory. Dorn shook the lustful images from his head realising that was the point of her dress, to distract him, to put him off guard. This was no normal person coming towards them but she certainly didn't match the description of the Caldari assassin Lola have given to him as she lay dying. The only thing Dorn knew for sure was she was very out of place in this factory. But what did didn't know was whether she was their salvation, or their doom.

She stopped ten feet from them in an easy and relaxed way. Dorn was still ready to draw, but she looked so non-threatening it made him uneasy.

"You can call me Asia." she said sweetly. "I am with the Federation. I was told that the State was pursuing someone and was trying to stop them reaching the Federation. I am here to help."

"How do we know you're not working for the State?" Dorn asked suspiciously his hand hovering over his gun in its holster.

The woman in front of him smiled.

"Because the Caldari agent that is trying to kill you is behind you."

Dorn spun around and drew his weapon at the same time. The blonde woman who was a good way behind him dived behind a robotic arm and vanished as he fired. The dark haired woman placed a hand on his shoulder. Dorn jumped as he neither heard or sensed her approach him.

"Here take this locator. There is a shuttle waiting for you. Return to my ship in orbit. They'll see you safely through to the Federation. I'll take care of the Caldari."

She handed Dorn a small device and stepped in front of him. Dorn backed off with Kara towards to exit from which the Asia had originally appeared from.

Dorn glanced back as the brunette started walking down the assembly line to where the Caldari agent had vanished.

-o0o-


Link to Jonny Pew's YouTube page 

Buzz Kill - PvP Style

From the dark days many years ago, when I was a fluffly carebear, I recall there is a level 4 hi-sec mission called "Buzz Kill". The NPC pirates try and swarm you with small ships. It was not my favourite as it was a lot of grinding and the rewards were crap. Anyway, I got a taste of that mission again PvP style last night and it was much more enjoyable......

I logged onto Eve yesterday after getting home from work to see if I could farm some farmers. I blapped a Condor and got my own Thrasher blapped when I chanced taking it into a plex where there was a Firetail (No tank/no prop mod/Arty Thrashers are always a risk when you could land on a target at zero!). I podded to station, grabbed a different type of Thrasher (I have many) but he'd gone by the time I got back.

I ran a few plex's to keep the local home area 'contestedness' (is that even a word?) down, but generally there was a distinct absence of war targets in the area. It was unusually quiet when I left the PC and went and started to cook some food.

Whilst the food was bubbling away, I went to log into DUST. The 40 minutes between cooking stages meant I could get a couple of games in. I started it up and got the error message that the PSN was down for maintenance. This confused me as I thought that was yesterday. Went to the website and it said everything was up. Tried starting DUST again, same error saying the network is down for maintenance. More checking on the web, everything looks OK. Third time trying to log into DUST, goes straight in. These PS3's are wierd! Anyway I've not been on DUST for a week and it shows. If you play a lot, you get more skill points, the more skill points you have the more dangerous your toon is in game. I've clearly slipped back here and rather than being typically top three in every game, I was lurking mid-table.

I suppose I should grind some battles and get my SP back up!

Anyway, eventually the wife gets home and after a nice hot lamb vindaloo which I claimed was actually a mild lamb and potato curry from our Indian cookbook (I even had the cookbook open in the kitchen on that page) we watched some TV together. After token "quality time together" I slipped away to play some more Eve.

Holy squids batman!

There were 7 in system suddenly so I swapped to a Vexor and undocked.

Pro-Tip! Cloaky eye's work best if you are cloaked!

There was a war-target Anathema 50km off station sat still. On D-Scan there was the other six and they were in frigates and destroyers in a medium complex. Mmmmmmm. Six destroyers and frigates verses a cruiser? I asked in corp if anyone want to join the fun whilst slowly approaching the Anathema  I got to 40km and launched a flight of light drones. A quick lock and engage and they chewed through the covert-ops in double-quick time and I then did the same to the guys pod. I assume he got back to his PC at some point and thought "Did I dock up? I don't remember that! Wait, where's my pod?".

Anyway, by the time I land my fat, green ass on the acceleration gate, Tzenick from the Quantum Cats Syndicate was already there in his Coercer. I go in first to see what the rest do. They attacked me! I get a sudden shock as the DPS from them really hammers my shields and the low-shield alarm goes off very quickly. Relax Drack! It's an armour tanked ship! Tzenick warps in and we start going to work.

I start off with a Merlin before moving onto a Hookbill. They are doing the sensible thing and targeting my drones but I keep pulling them and re-launching as the drones are pretty much on top of me. Takes a bit of multi-tasking but I settle into a rhythm.

After a Condor and another Merlin go down and I reassess where we are. I'm in high armour, Tzenick and a Corax are having a kitey fight some 40km from me, and the Corax is in fact the last squid left. So I activate the MWD and burn towards him. Unfortunately I'm not quick enough for Tzenick who goes down to the Corax's final volley before my medium blasters and Hobgoblins dismantle the Corax by force.

It takes me a while to scoop the loot in the armour tanked fat-ass cruiser but when I'm done I have more than enough to cover Tzenick's loss so contract him over all the loot to make up for his dead Coercer.

I admit I have been giving the Caldari Militia some stick over the last week regarding their army of LP farmers, and it was nice to find a group who where here for the fight.

Farmers and Fields

A week ago I did a blog post regarding the numbers of LP farmers in Faction War since the Caldari hit warzone control level 3. One Caldari Militia member even accused the piece of being propaganda! Fairly fitting with the current blog banter! I don't think it is propaganda it was a frustrating factual piece on the issues I'm having with PvP in Black Rise. That post is now over a week old, and over the course of the last week nothing has happened that has changed my mind. I'd just like to do this quick follow up....

Vulnerable systems are Still Vulnerable
There are currently 10 vulnerable Gallente systems at the time of writing this. Many of these have been vulnerable since the last post on this topic a week ago. In the last seven days the Caldari went from having 21 of our systems vulnerable a week ago down to 10 today. And they only took two of them in the week, the rest have been plexed down by the Gallente. The Caldari had 65 systems last Monday, they have 67 this Monday.

If the Caldari are an organised fighting force bent on dominating the warzone, why haven't they taken these systems? Why is nobody organising a bunker busting fleet to capture these vulnerable systems? The answer is the people who are doing most of the plexing don't want the systems captured. They want the Gallente to plex them back down so they can farm them a bit more.

The Farmers are Still Farming
Now before anyone gets their backs up, I'm not saying that everyone in the Caldari Militia is a farmer, I'm just saying there are a lot. Please see exhibit A below which was a kill from last night. When you leave out mid-slots on a Cormorant so that you can crowbar that cloaking device into your utility high-slot, then you are not looking for good PvP are you?

When you are flying kitey Condors that do as much DPS as a bald, blind hedgehog who has lost his teeth and claws and is trapped in a Hessian sack, then you are not looking for good PvP are you?

However, you can PvP with those two fits, technically. Better for farming, but they can PvP.... ish.... they have a point or scram after all.  Moving away from my KB and just a quick look on the corps kill-board's frontage shows these gems from today!

Ragers are Still Raging.

There is only one thing madder than a farmer who cannot farm. A farmer that cannot farm and gets his ship blown up. My CEO and head of the Quantum Cats Syndicate appears to have upset one such farmer and I repost a forum entry here. I've changed the name to protect the guilty rager. I'll call him "A Very Angry Boy"

Apparently, this guy knows me from a while ago... 

 

Your contact level has been modified

From: A Very Angry Boy

Sent: 2013.02.xx

 

A Very Angry Boy has changed your contact level to Terrible Standing

 

But Friday night:

KILL

chatgris > gf

A Very Angry Boy > Bitch .!.

From: A Very Angry Boy

Sent: 2013.03.xx

To: chatgris,  

 

ты ебаннная падла 

 

KILL

 

A Very Angry Boy > chatgris bitch

A Very Angry Boy > ебанный ублюдок

 

A Very Angry Boy > chatgris .!. bitch

A Very Angry Boy > chatgris whole

EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Nisuwa

A Very Angry Boy > chatgris .!.

 

KILL

 

Cromwell Savage > buh bye

chatgris > hi

A Very Angry Boy > Cromwell Savage Bitch

chatgris > see you soon?

Cromwell Savage > no farming for you!!!!

 

KILL

Pod's are getting Pod'd
Catching a pod is not that easy in low-sec. That's why many low-sec pilots have decent implant sets. Yes, lag, IT issues and simple mis-click/herpa-derping means you lose the odd one, but generally pod kills in low sec are relatively rare compared to the number of ships getting blown away.

Notwithstanding the above, I have caught a fair few pods this year in low-sec. Last month in February I caught 11 compared with my usual haul of 1 to 3 in a month. Why? Because most farmers are low SP/empty head clones and it is faster to lose your pod and die a cold hard death than pod back and get a new farming ship.

Given that the farmers only started really becoming an issue in late January and February, have a look at my pod kills for the last 6 months -

So a clear jump in February. Then again we are talking low numbers that are more susceptible to random fluctuation  I suppose I need a bigger sample size. The QCats monthly kills should do! How has our PvP corp been doing in smashing pods open during the last six months?

So am I getting better at catching pods? Are the QCats getting really good at it too? Are the Squids getting worse at "getting their pod out" suddenly? Or do we have a lot more farmers that don't care if their pod gets out or not?


Now I know there are Caldari Militia corporations out there who are giving me and my fellow Gallente Militia pilots good fights. There are pilots who want to capture systems and dominate us (oooo eeer!). My problem is that there are so many farmers out there and they are diluting the good fights currently.

And whilst I'm half gate camping/half writing this blog a stabbed Merlin escapes my clutches followed by me getting my second pod kill in 24 hours! Nuff said!

Into The Black - Part 8 - Battleships

If this works it should post whilst I'm sat on the beach! Therefore there is no escape pod this week if you dislike Eve-O fiction. Head over to Eve Bloggers and pick a blog at random from their excellent array of blogs if you're not interested in hot assassins and big-ass battleships!

Into The Black - Part 8 - Battleships

The agent walked into the bar. Although she too felt the same level of wonderment Kara felt, she didn't show it. She had never been into a capsuleer bar before, and it was an assault on her finely tuned senses. All eyes were on her and she liked it. Heads turned as she walked through the bar and she knew these people were capsuleers. Her finely tuned senses could 'see' these people were not normal. But why did they look at her like that?

She walked up to the bar and the barman came over glancing at her uniform.

"What can I get you?"

"Matari Fire Whisky and some information."

"Whisky I have plently of, and of course I'll do what I can for an Officer of the Gallente Navy."

"Really?" asked the agent "And were you working here three years ago?"

"I was."

"And what would you say to a officer of the Caldari Navy who turned up when this was under the command of the State Protectorate?"

The barman smiled and placed a glass of whisky on the bar.

"Exactly the same. Look, I'm the barman here. I have no allegiance and no agenda in this war. I like an easy life and am not looking for trouble. So what do you need to know?"

The agent pulled out her datapad and showed the barman two pictures of Captain Dorn and Kara.

"These two were here." it was more of a statement than a question. "Where were they heading?"

The barman studied the two pictures and stroked his chin.

"Ah yeah. Those two! They were bothering capsuleers all afternoon. I wanted to sling them out but as they were here it meant someone had invited them and I didn't want to upset the wrong egger. They wanted passage to Orvolle of all places."

The agent looked at the barman carefully.

"Orvolle. Why would they want to go there?"

"Beats me. If you wanted to head to null-sec then Pure Blind or Cloud Ring are the nearest from here. I assumed they had business in the Syndicate region."

The Agent thought about this for a moment. The Serpentis Syndicate pretty much ran that entire region of nul-sec. From Captain Dorns records she would have expected him to at least have worked with the notorius pirate faction at some point in the past. But the Guristas were the dominant pirate faction in the areas he previously opperated out of. It didn't matter, it was clear they were heading for Syndicate null-sec. That was good as far as the agent was concerned. They were running and not looking to reveal the information they had and such lightly populated space would make them easier to find.

Whilst she was here she thought she'd better ask around some of the capsuleers to see if they knew anything more. She had never dealt with Empyrean's before.......... and if she had known what was coming, she'd have left straight away.

-o0o-

"Welcome to my hanger!" the capsuleer made an over-the-top bow swinging one arm in a wide downward arc with the other folded behind her back.

Kara and Dorn just stared speechless. Rows upon rows of ships lined the hanger. From small shuttles to massive carriers and dreadnoughts. Captain Dorn looked at the ships with envy. Even the smallest ones were worth several times his old cargo ship and the larger ones could easily fit that entire ship into their own cargo hold.

"Impressive!" Dorn finally said. "So what are we going in? A stealth-bomber? An interceptor?"

"I was thinking something a little more.... erm.... shooty?" the capsuleer replied.
That is what Dorn was afraid of. The capsuleer wasn't interested in helping them until they mentioned they were being pursued. It was the chance of combat this pilot craved. She wanted a good fight, simple as that.

With a click on the console the three watched a massive battleship lumber into position. 10 minutes later the massive battleship undocked from the station.

-o0o-

The agent had just tried the 4th the capsuleer with no luck. She didn't known what was wrong. She was posing as a Naval Intelligence Officer, these Gallente Militia eggers should be falling over themselves to help her. She'd tried flirting, she'd tried authority. Nothing had worked and they all had treated her with a level of mistrust she had never seen. The drink, the food, the "entertainment", the whole atmosphere of the bar should make anyone relaxed. But these capsuleers, it was almost as if they knew who she was.

She glanced over to the door. A Gallente Navy officer had entered along with two armed MP's. She saw him look her way. She knew she was in trouble.

"Excuse me Sir." the Officer addressed her "Could we have a word?"

"I'm very busy!" the agent replied trying to sound annoyed.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist!"

The two MP's drew their weapons and the bar went quiet.

"So what gave me away?" she smirked.

"Your body." the officer replied matter of factly.

This surprised the Agent. How on earth had her body given her away?

"You look puzzled. You're in a room where 90% of the people are fitted with a variety of implants. Most have a optical implant of one form or another that increases perception. I don't know who, or indeed what you are, but you're not Gallente and you're not Navy. Additionally, from what the capsuleers are saying, your not entirely human either."

The agent smiled, nodded and suddenly swiped a glass from the bar with an open palm. The flying drink made the three Navy staff flinch and gave the agent the split second she needed. Her foot struck the officer in the face knocking him back into the other two. She flipped over the bar, forcing the barman to scurry back to avoid her twisting body. She rose and grabbed two bottles and flung them at the rising MPs. Each bottle sailed through the air and struck the men dead centre in the face. As soon as it had started, it had finished with the three Navy staff laying unconscious on the bar floor. The capsuleers had all stopped what they were doing and watched the brief fight. As soon as the three Gallenete Navy men were down they went back to what they were doing before.

The agent slid back over the bar and headed to the lift. She pulled out her datapad and accessed the stations scanners.

-o0o-

The massive battleship undocked from the station. Dorn and Kara were in a luxury cabin with a viewport into space.

Kara flopped onto the huge, soft bed and groaned in pleasure. "This is more like it! At last luxury transport!" Dorn just grunted.

"Oh come on Captain. This is great, we couldn't have got better. You have to admit its much better than that cramped and uncomfortable Manticore!"

Dorn stared out the window. He would have given anything to have swapped this ship for a cramped and uncomfortable Manticore. The capsuleer was flying a Vindicator. One of the most prized battleships in the cluster. The Gallente Federation's old trusty Megathron battleship had been almost completely redesigned internally by the Guardian Angels. Whilst from the outside it looked like a normal Megathron with a new paint job, the ship was much more deadly. It was also hideously expensive. Every pirate and Caldari Militia pilot would throw everything they could at it to take it down. He knew they were riding in a combat magnet. And that is exactly what the capsuleer wanted. A fight.

Dorn didn't want to tell Kara the truth. But they were inside a luxurous flying bullseye.

-o0o-

"Captain get the ship ready to depart now!"

The agent was running along the walkway that led to the Tengu strategic cruiser. There were scanners in the Capsuleer decks positioned at the entry and exit points. This way everyone could be accounted for. The two targets had left the capsuleer areas and entered one of the private hangers. She was just cross-referencing the hanger with the docking control logs. She entered the ship and closed the outer door. An eyebrow was raised when she saw the ship that they had undocked in. She would need the promised back-up from the State but she was confident the mission would soon be complete.

"Bridge, get us through the Abune Stargate ASAP. The target is a Vindicator Class Battleship. We are going to engage on sight."

-o0o-

The jump alarm sounded and startled Kara. To Dorn it was a common sound. Travelling via gates was generally an unpleasant experience for the human body. The artifical wormhole played havoc with the body, especially the stomach. Whilst capsuleers, floating in their hydrostatic capsule were immune to the effects, an alarm was sounded so the rest of the crew could brace themselves.

A second later they had travelled several light years through and artifical wormhole and appeared in the star system of Abune. The lumbering ship slowly started to align to warp to the opposite startgate.

As the massive ship slipped into warp the Nisuwa stargate activated again. The much smaller Tengu Strategic Cruiser appeared and quickly warped to the Abune stargate. The agent was on the bridge, her hands tightly grasping the headrest of the chair in front of her. They were so close. The ship slipped out of warp and the huge stargate appeared to race towards them as they decelerated heavily. They just had time to see the Vindicator battleship vanish into the artificial wormhole.

"JUMP!" the Agent demanded. "Jump and engage!"

-o0o-

Dorn looked out of the viewport, he could see the ships dotted around. A classic gate camp. The intercom broke his train of thought.

"Don't worry guests. The ships you see outside are the pride of Gallente Militia. Obviously set up to catch some squid scum. Next stop Heydeilies!"

Dorn relaxed a little, however he knew it was only a matter of time.

-o0o-

"Hold cloak. Report on hostile's." the Captain ordered.

The Tengu strategic cruisers viewscreen showed the hostile gate-camp.

"Sir, we have 12 Thrasher class destroyers. The target battleship is aligning."

"Acknowledged. Give me a close up on one of those Thrashers."

The view screen filled with the image of one of the destroyers. The captain looked carefully at the image and sighed.

"OK, they are artillery fit. What the Frogs call 'Cockbag' Thrashers. We cannot win this one. Helm, identify the celestial in closest alignment. I want a warp-cloak on my command."

"Sir, yes Sir. Planet 3 locked in Navicom. Ready to align-cloak on your command."

The Tengu was visible to the Gallente fleet for only a tiny fraction of a second. As it started to align towards planet 3 the cloaking field provided by the stargate dropped but at the same instant it engaged its own covert-ops cloaking device and slipped into warp.

"Helm, upon landing warp us to the Heydieles gate and jump on contact. We need to snag that Vindicator on the otherside!"

Now I Am Become Death....

.....Destroyer of Squids.

You know those Eve Online sessions that follow Murphy's Law? If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong? I get plenty of those. Lose a ship, reship, immediately lose that ship, reship, die and then rage quit before losing any more ships trying to turn around the losing streak. Well last night it went the other way.

Despite what some Squids are commenting the Nisuwa area is damn full of farming squids. I don't really know if their "PvP forces" are concentrating on other areas, but currently there is no real effort around us. So when I logged on I thought I'd camp the Nisuwa gate in Notoras with a Thrasher and kill some of them.

After a while there was gate-fire and a squid in local. I pre-overheated my guns and hovered ready to try and catch him. Another gate fire, another squid. OK, two of them. But this is Notoras, a dead-end system popular with farmers. I might be able to kill them if they are plexing fit. A third gate fire but I didn't care. A Daredevil decloaked! I don't care what is jumping through, I want that DD!

I grab point and my first volley wipes out his shields. He posts something in local in Russian as my second volley turns him into a wreck. I assume he has saying "I say old chap. Jolly good catch there!". The 2nd squid had decloaked during this and I am now pointed by a Vengence. I am happy with my DD kill so I return fire on the Assault frigate not expecting to survive. He dies, quickly! By then the 3rd and an unseen 4th squid have me in a Slasher/Rapier combo and I go down. A T2 fit Thrasher for a Daredevil and a Assault Frigate? I'll take that any day of the week. I reship in system and head back to the gate. All three wrecks are still there so I scoop the loot and post my DD kill in corp. Its only after a corpie starts laughing that I relook at the kill-mail. Yes, it's a Daredevil with a cloak!

I go AFK a few minutes to start cooking dinner and when I get back I find a squid Hawk in system. I jump into a different fit Thrasher and decide to give him a go. I scan him down with the D-Scanner to a medium plex and find him sat on the acceleration gate. We engage and I am in low armour as he pops. Super!

I scoop the loot, repair in station and go back to the medium plex to capture in. After a few minutes the squid Rapier pilot who got me on the DD engagement appears on short scan and I align. He warps in, I warp out. The D-scanner indicated that he had cloaked up inside the plex so I relay that to the intel channels, its a tarp!, and head to a small plex that he cannot get in and start capturing that one.

A few minutes later the Hawk pilot is back in a brand new Hawk! He enters my plex and I'm a happy bunny. The last fight was close as he started with a bit of range. This time we're 500m from each other. My AC's tear him a new one and he pops as I'm just entering armour. We have a chat in local as he is wondering what he is doing wrong (but nobody uses local chat right?) and I give him some pointers. I've already decided I'm not going to fight him a third time as I just told him how to fight an AC Thrasher in a Hawk. I suppose I could have then swapped to an Arty Thrasher....

... but in the end he didn't try for a third time.

Next up a fellow QCat was engaging a Cormorant next-door and was having trouble so I went to help. He was MWD snipe fit and I couldn't catch him as I was AB/AC. Took some creative flying with liberal overheating of the afterburner to shake off his long point and warp back to station in 40% structure. How did I get away? Another corpy snagged him and killed him so for me that was just a whore-kill. But again, it was amazing I was able to get away from him.

Back in Nisuwa I decided to camp the Kedama gate next. I swapped ships and waited. Gate-fire and new squid! I recognised the name, it's the guy who flys Merlins with a full rack of warp core stabilisers  He decloaks, I grab point and he just sits there as I two-volley him. Strange! However as I'm podding him for flying with so many stabs, two neuts have appeared and see a juicy pirate ripe for killin'. I accept I'm in trouble, this Thasher has zero tank and no prop-mod and is simply set up for sitting on a gate at zero and insta-locking stuff and dealing two massive volleys. The Rifter comes in close and I align hoping to give the 280mm's enough range to track. His Kestrel mate is also closing fast, I assume the Kessy is short-point and rocket fit as I see no light missiles coming from range. The Rifter takes a few glancing blows before I get a lucky shot and pop him. By now I'm in low armour and the Kestrel has me pointed. Again my luck holds and I pop him in two good shots. I warp to station with my ship on fire and in low structure thinking "What is happening tonight?". That is a 4v1 and and 3v1 where I've come out grinning plus the two 1v1's and a lucky escape with that kitey Cormorent.

I go AFK to eat and come back an hour later. Nisuwa is now packed with blues. I'm about to call it a night when someone spots a Hurricane on the Oin gate. I was docked so I hop in my RJ Sacrilege and undock. The 'Cane is reported to have jumped through whilst I was in warp to the gate. I land and jump after him knowing other QCats are warping to the gate, I tell them to hold as I have jumped into a small gate camp. Certainly nothing to worry about with the 'Cane, a Hawk and an Incursus. My Sacrilege has a massive buffer tank and could easily slow boat back to the gate even when webbed. In fact that gives me an idea for snagging all three even though it was the 'Cane I wanted.

I decloak and align back to the gate. I don't activate my MWD and the 1600mm plate makes the align nice and slow. As expected they think I'm trying to run and get back to gate. Seriously guys? With no prop mod? The Hawk gets a web on me which is when the Hurricane and Incursus red box me thinking I won't be able to make it when webbed.

"They are red boxed! I mean red circled! Oh whatever you want to call it these days, jump in and kill 'em all!"

Points are spread, squids are killed and my armour hardly took a scratch. A good finish to a great night of PvP between doing small jobs around the house, burning some mix CD's and cooking a Tandoori chicken dinner. Lets end this happy, happy blog post with some happy, bouncy music..... with ponies... and DEATH!!!!!

Is This the State of Faction War?

I chased a Algos around Nisuwa last week. I was having a real hard time catching him as he'd always "warp away" before I landed inside the plex. I'd have him on short range scan as I activated the plex gate and when I landed, he wasn't there! It was highly frustrating until I managed to warp into the plex whilst he was still there and I saw him vanish. He wasn't warping off, he was cloaking!

Now that was bad enough, a destroyer with a cloak. However later it got a lot worse. Fellow QCat pilot Rabugento was able to do what I hadn't be able to do. He caught him and killed him. Below is a screenshot of the kill-mail. Go on, click it to make it bigger and have a look.

OK, if you need to go to the bathroom to throw up I'll wait.

OK?

Done? Have a drink to wash the taste away!

Yes your eyes were not deceiving you. That is a militia pilot in an Algos with a cloaking device, an ECM burst module and a warp core stab!

A limited case I hear you say?

No.

Almost one hour earlier I caught this....

Yes, its a Thrasher with a cloak.

And lets not even dwell on this fitting who I caught in the same session.

These are just a few from my weekends Eve. So why are we seeing this massive spike in shit-fits? Well it all started in December and comes down to loyalty points....

In December Gall Mil announced it would have a concentrated effort to capture the whole warzone. It would be our "Christmas gift" to everyone. And we plexed, and plexed and plexed and plexed. My god that is boring! Slowly but surely we advanced. Some systems such as Rakapas put up a great fight, but it was futile as the big green frog steam-roller squished the squids.

During this time we didn't see many cloaks or stabs. We were at warzone control level 4 and the squids were at level 1. Then in January we did it. The last system was captured and we'd taken the whole war zone. After weeks of constant plexing the Gallente Militia breathed a huge sigh of relief.... and stopped plexing.

It was also in January that Ev0ke joined the Caldari Militia with a large group of fresh-faced pilots. Things swung about pretty quickly. With the Gallente burnt out, the Caldari soon recaptured a lot of their systems. Soon they were out of warzone control level one, the area where LP rewards are crap and had enough systems to gain warzone control level 2, where standard LP rewards kick in. With a bit more of a push they touched on level three where LP rewards are bonused.

That was the event that opened the flood-gates. Caldari LP were suddenly worth grinding again. There was a spike in squid activity with many more pilots logging on. Why? Because, of all the LP's in game Caldari are seen as best. Why? Let me ask you a question, actually I need to ask two.

Q. Who buys the most faction modules?
A. Level 4 carebear farmers.

And question two...

Q. Give a common lvl 4 missioning fit.
A. Drake or CNR with missiles and shield tank.

Yes that's right. Missiles and shield tanks are the most popular level 4 mission fits. So what LP store sells nice missile and shield mods. Yup, the Caldari.

So suddenly all the farmers log on their faction war alts to start farming the LP. The stabbed t1 frigates, the destroyers with cloaks. They all come out of the woodwork. Smeg, even some of the more truthful players call their alt characters "Farmer" and say they don't fight in local (yes, people actually do use local).

So the sad fact is that as soon as the Caldari hit a half decent level of warzone control and LP farming becomes worthwhile we are swamped with farmers. But what can we do about it? We can use Cockbag Thrashers to camp gates, we can chase them until they derp and we snag them. But in the end the only true solution is to capture systems, drive down their warzone control level and watch them send their farming alts into hibination until its worthwhile for them to start farming.

Currently the Gallente are still fat and bloated from the December/January push, I myself have over 2.5m LP's. We are still burnt out from all that plexing. But soon (TM) we'll get back into it, drive the Caldari warzone down, take most the systems, get burnt out, the Caldari will fight back, get their WZC high, the farmers will come back, the Caldari will capture most systems......

To quote Battlestar Gallactica, all this has happened before, all of this will happen again.

Don't believe me? Why are the kills not proportional and why are all these systems left vulnerable and not captured?

Into The Black - Part 7 - The Capsuleers

FFF! Escape pod is here if Eve fiction is not your thing. I'm sick and tired of cloaky, stabbed Caldari militia getting away. Nice to see I'm not the only one who is fed up with WCS!

Into The Black - Part 7 - The Capsuleers

The lift was accelerating quickly now. In terms of decks neither Kara or Capitan Jorn had been this far up in any space station.

"Now listen carefully. We are going to get stopped at the security section. Do not panic. This is expected. I will talk us through. Be calm, follow my lead and did I mention before.... don't....... panic!" Dorn said without turning.

Kara adjusted her collar whilst nodding. The tailored suit she was wearing fitted well but she was unused to a business dress-suit like this. She looked at herself in the mirrored wall of the elevator  A week ago she had been a fun-loving secretary at a successful corporate research centre on a quiet planet. She worked during the week with no real pressure with relaxed management and partied at the weekends with her girlfriends. Life was fun. Now she was dressed like her bosses, deep into low-security space with a highly trained assassin on her trial looking to kill her. Her whole life was a lie. Her job was easy as it was a front she now knew. If she performed excellently or poorly never really mattered. She was hired simply as camouflage.

She looked at Dorn, the privateer who had saved her from the disaster that befell her home city. He had changed out of his usual clothes and was wearing a smart business suit. He had even had a close shave. From privateer to respectable business man. They were indistinguishable from the hundreds of Caldari executives that roamed space stations like this one.

The lift stopped and they were confronted with a security station, neither of which had seen the like of before. They stepped out of a lift and a green laser passed over them. Within two seconds two heavily armoured guards stepped out from concealed locations.

"Halt. You are not capsuleers. State you business here."

"We have a personal invite from a capsuleer. I have the documentation right here." Captain Jorn passed the card to the guard who looked at it and stepped back to a terminal. He inserted the card into a reader. A green light flashed.

"Do either of you have any weapons, poisons, bio-agents, nanite technology or any other device that could be used to inflict harm?" the guard asked.

"No." they both repeated.

"You'd better not, the scanner will detect them and that will be entered as evidence of guilt." the guard indicated to a door.

Captain Jorn went in first. The small booth was barely a metre and a half square. The door shut behind him and he was bathed in a green light. After 10 seconds the opposing wall facing him slid open and he stepped out to the far side of the security station. Kara repeated the process.

As they entered another lift at the opposite side of the security station and the doors closed Kara whispered.

"Where are we?"

Captain Dorn smiled. "Enjoy it, you are now somewhere very, very few mortals have been. You are on the capsuleer decks of the station."

-o0o-

The blonde was squatted down and was wiping clean the bloodied blade of her knife on the jacket of the man laying dead at her feet. Another false lead. She was sure he was telling the truth before he died in that he did not know where the two fugitives were. In fact she was convinced he didn't know who she was talking about. Any man would have happily given them up to stop her doing what she had done to him. So the lead that Lola had given her was indeed a ruse. The agent knew she was running out of leads and the trail was now cold.

Just as she slipped the now clean blade back into its sheath in her belt, her datapad beeped. A hit! The fugitives could change their names, their dates of birth and their backgrounds. But they couldn't change their DNA. The Agent had placed a watcher-worm virus into the DNA database of the Caldari State. A DNA bio-scanner had just picked them up. These expensive bio-scanners were used throughout the cluster in the most high-security areas of stations and installations and also in hospitals. In a universe where one could change any aspect of their appearance, DNA scanners were the last line of defence  However with cloning technology they were by no means infallible. She had assumed the fugitives would avoid the high-security areas like station command centres but there was always the chance one of them may get injured and need medical treatment. She looked quizzically at the datapad wondering if a mistake had been made. She decided it was unlikely to be an error or bug, and that they had some how managed to cross onto the capsuleer deck of a low-sec station. She smiled to herself. She had been giving these two less credit then they deserved. A smuggler and a secretary gaining access to the capsuleer decks. She mused how they could have achieved that.

The agent turned to leave as the door to the man's quarters opened. A woman stepped through carring some shopping bags, almost bumping head-long into the assassin. Her eyes went wide in shock, not expecting to see someone there. Her reaction was that of any woman returning home and finding a beautiful woman just leaving her family home. But before she could speak, she saw her husbands lifeless, bloodied body on the floor behind the agent. The assassin didn't flinch. The blade moved at lightning speed and stabbed the man's wife through the front of her neck. The strike silenced the scream before it could leave her wide-open mouth.

"Captain, get the ship ready to depart. We're heading to Nisuwa. Be ready to undock as soon as I get on board." the assassin said into her come unit.

With that she casually left the quarters, stepping over the body of the wife who was writhing on the floor clutching her throat, making sickening gurgling noises, drowning in her own blood.

-o0o-

Kara's head was turning in every direction, marvelling at the spectacular bar. She'd never been in anything like it before. There was wood everywhere. Real wood from trees, polished to a magnificent shine and not the faux plastic imitation that was the norm on stations. Vast floor to ceiling windows overlooked the planet below and into space. Exotic metals glistened in the light, plush velvet sofa's lined the booths. The undock was also visible and vast battleships could be seen undocking.

All around her were capsuleers, immortal spaceship commanders who held the lives of thousands of people in their hands every day. Mixed in with capsuleers were the bars entertainers. At least that was a polite name for them, beautiful men and women here to keep the eggers entertained. Some were dancing on special podiums around the bar, others were giving more private dancers to capsuleers in bars. The excesses were everywhere, it was like something out of a holovid to Kara. Captain Dorn led her up to the bar. The barman came over with a smile.

"What can I get you?" he asked cheerfully.

"Two double Gallente vodka's. Orange flavour. Over ice with a slice of orange."

"That is a very specific order. You must have a thirst that cannot be quenched." the barman asked carefully as he started to prepare the drinks.

"Almost as bad as the one the woman who sent us here has." the Captain replied in a measured tone.

The barman gave a subtle, almost undetectable nod. Kara suddenly realised they were speaking code. A verbal handshake. The drinks order, the question, the reply. It was all so the barman knew Lola sent them.

"I need to know where you are heading." the barman said in a low voice as he continued to prepare the drinks. "Our mutual friend didn't want to risk communicating that even on a secure channel."

"Villore. Federation hi-security space."

"Right." replied the barman as he sliced a fresh orange with a sharp knife. Kara was watching him carefully. Fresh oranges were a luxury and she'd rarely seen them.

"Any one you need to avoid?"

"Well. We'd hate to trouble the State. I know there is absolutely nothing they won't do for us, but we'd really like not to bother them. At all. Ever." Captain Dorn put emphasis on the last words.

"That won't be an issue here. No love of the State on this station since the Gallente Militia captured it. We've got a few eggers I think could help."

The barman nodded over to a booth. Captain Dorn and Kara turned to look. Inside the booth a female capsuleer was seated on a bench. She was Gallente with short red hair. Her legs were wide which allowed one of the female dancers, who was sensually swaying in time to the music, to be in close. The dancer was skimpily dressed, wearing just lingerie and high heels. Both Captain Dorn and Kara were transfixed by the scene. They'd heard the stories about the excess of capsuleers, but had never imagined a place like this.

The capsuleer went to reach for her drink, but the dancer grabbed it first and pulled away. The capsuleer leaned back with a quizzical look on her face. The dancer lifted the glass and took a large drink. She moved forward and kneeled on the edge of the sofa so she was towering over the capsuleer. The dancer took the capsuleers head in her hands and tilted her head back, bringing her lips close to hers. The capsuleer opened her mouth slightly as she realised what the dancer was doing and the dancer let the drink she was holding in her mouth slowly flow to the capsuleers. After the drink was gone she lowered her head the final few centimetres and they kissed. The dancer drew back and continued her dancing.

"You know" said Captain Dorn "I've always wanted to be a capsuleer!"

Kara laughed. Yes, I can see why you would be attracted to the lifestyle.

A minute later the capsuleer stood and hooked a finger in the dancers minimal clothing pulling her towards a lift at the rear of the bar.

"Hey, Lexx! Work!" the barman called indicating to the Captain and Kara.

"Hey, bar steward! Play" the capsuleer turned to the barman and thumbed over her shoulder at the dancer. She eye'd the two by the bar carefully and stopped.

"Give me two hours, if they are still here when I'm finished then we can talk."

As the capsuleer was saying that the dancer came up behind her and placed her hands on the capsuleers hips. She ran her tongue up the side of the capsuleers neck and then took her ear lobe in her mouth and sucked.

"Actually, better make it three hours." she said with a shudder and with that they left together.

The barman looked thoughtful and scanned around the bar.

"Oh well. Who else is there?"

-o0o-

The agent's Strategic Cruiser was cloaked off the station. She was seated at her desk talking to the admiral.

"What is the delay?" he asked.

"They are in the system of Nisuwa in the station. As you will be well aware the Gallente Federation have captured this system and that station. My credentials are useless. In fact they are worse than useless, they mark me as the enemy." she replied.

"When has bad ID stopped you before?"

"It hasn't. I've already uploaded a new ID into the Federation Navy database. Luckily we still have assets in side the Federation. The problem is that given this station is only two jumps from the State's borders, they have not hard-wired the mainframe systems of the station into the Federation network. Just in case we recapture the station at some point. They use a burst transmission twice a day to synchronise critical data. Whilst my new ID now works fine anywhere else in the Federation, I have to wait until 1200 hours for the database here to refresh."

"Understood. And the targets?"

"Still on the capsuleer decks. They haven't logged out at the security station on exit so they are still in there. We can assume they are looking for a ride. Don't worry sir. We almost have them."

The Admiral leaned back in his chair.

"Any chance we could have a cleaner visit than Nourv?"

The assassin cocked an eyebrow quizzically. The Admiral held up his datapad and read from it.

"11 dead. Two apparently tortured. We are lucky that they all belonged to competing crime syndicates. The authorities are going with a turf war/revenge attack between the two gangs. If you had been caught....."

"Sir, all the deceased are criminals and are no loss to the State."

"How about the wife of the man you pretty much turned into a woman? As far as the investigation reveals she was innocent."

"Collateral damage sir."

The Admiral narrowed his eyes, nodded slightly and disconnected the comm link.

-o0o-

Captain Dorn and Kara were seated opposite another female capsuleer. Again Gallente and again with red hair. Kara observed the Intaki woman and wondered if she really would live for ever like they said capsuleers would.

"So. What can I do for you? I must say it is most unusual to meet in this fashion. People looking to secure capsuleer services usually see one of our agents who sets up the contract."

"We need to get to Federation space as fast as possible. Avoiding all Caldari State forces and assets." Captain Dorn said.

"But you are in Federation space!" the capsuleer smirked.

"I mean hi-security Federation space. Not a conquered no-mans land."

The capsuleer smiled and nodded. Kara wondered if everything was a game to them. Immortal, ever living. How would she behave if she was one of them. Rich, powerful and with no fear of death.

"Well I suppose we could pop down to Villore for fifty million ISK."

Kara gasped loudly. That was more money than she could imagine.

"We have a few thousand local credits and no ISK" Captain Dorn replied calmly.

"Well then I guess our conversation is over. If you'll excuse me I have some serious partying to do." the capsuleer started to rise.

"The State is desperate. They are chasing us. We have knowledge of the weapon they are planning to use to change the course of this war." Dorn said matter-of-factly.

The capsuleer paused for a second and then sat back down.

"You're both wanted fugitives from the State?" the capsuleer smirked.

"Yes. And don't get any ideas about some reward egger. If the State knows you've spoken to us and may know about the weapon you'll be marked as well. As I understand it, all that metal in your head will be no use to you when a State assassin sticks a blade in your heart."

The capsuleer paused again. We was clearly thinking about what Dorn had said.

"Interesting. Any idea of the heat that is after you?"

"We don't know for sure. We know there is at least one assassin who has left a trail of bodies in our wake. I think you can assume they have mobilised more to stop us from reaching the Federation." Dorn suddenly stopped. He realised he was making it sound worse with a Caldari fleet possibly on their tail.

"Sounds like fun. Meet me in an hour at docking port C386. Don't be late." with that the capsuleer rose and left.

"What? Are they serious? They wanted 50 million ISK but in the end they settled for a possible fight?" Kara asked in amazement.

"When you are an Empyrean" Dorn replied "A fight to the death can be fun apparently."

-o0o-

At 1201 hours station time, a Strategic Cruiser was given permission to dock in the station. A high ranking Federation Naval Intelligence Officer was visiting the station according to the logs.