Posts Tagged ‘Pirating’

A Little YARR…

punisher-flashSo I’ve decided to accept the invitation to join the pirate corporation, Black Wings. I’m pretty excited about it. I can’t wait to get in and start learning.

Today I spent most of my time making the rounds of the belts in the systems near my home system. I had a handful of encounters but only one worth mentioning. I found a Retriever mining in one of the belts; a few Acolyte drones floated around him. He was the only one I had seen but he didn’t have a can so I wrote him off as useless to me and warped to the next belt. There were some wrecks here so I took a look at whose signature was on them. What luck! The Retriever from the previous system.

I quickly looted the wrecks, which alerted CONCORDE and gave the miner freedom to attack me. I warped back to the belt was in and meandered about, ultimately settling into a high orbit around his ship. After a few minutes my computer alerted me that he was targeting me and soon his drones were digging into my shields. Jack pot!

I warp scrambled him, kicked in my active tank and began unloading on him. It was over quick. I hailed him just before he popped to see if he wanted to pay to keep his ship. My computer indicated he was no longer connected to the network. Shame.

Netted me a couple T2 modules that sold nicely. My first pirating payday. Hopefully the first of many.

Tags: ,
Filed under Pirating : Comments (0) : Jan 11th, 2009

My first loss and an interesting proposal

Tonight my corp mate asked for some support again to ward off can flippers and again I obliged. This time I had a slightly more exciting time. I was dozing in my pod, planetside, when he said an assault ship had just warped in and was making for his can. Eager to get into some action I warped to 0 on my corp mate and targeted the now red flashy Vastenio. I set my orbit to optimal range and fire all guns his way. My corp mate complained that he was warp scrammed and couldn’t warp out.

Vastenio’s shields went quick and I was chipping away at his armor. He had me in armor too at this point and MAR II wasn’t keeping up. I was going to pop first. I told my corp mate to try and get out and he confirmed that he could now warp and was gone. I watched his warp streamers rip off to the horizon as my ship began to come apart. Moments later my hull cracked and I found myself floating away from the wreckage in my pod.

I warped to the safety of the station, sullen for my lost ship. A normal person might have been angry at the loss but after only a few seconds of sadness I realized that this pilot was what I wanted to be. We exchanged GF’s in the local broadcast comms channel and he complimented me on the fit. I thanked him and went about ordering parts for a new ship.

Well that was the loss. Next came the interesting part.

Vastenio sent me an invite to a private channel. I assumed he was going to try and persuade me into buying the parts that he was able to save from my wreck. In reality he said he was impressed with my attitude and wanted to know if I was interested in join the corp he was in. A lowsec pirate corp, offering me a job.

This is a dream come true. Now I have to make sure I’m ready. I have 24 hours to make my decision.

Tags: , ,
Filed under Pirating : Comments (2) : Jan 10th, 2009

Sometimes they get away…

Last night I was tooling around looking for some trouble when a corp mate, another newbie pirate that I’ve befriended, mentions that he has found a couple of jet can miners in Niyabainen. A Retriever and a Cormorant. I checked my map. 8 jumps away. I told him to hang tight and rushed over as fast as I could. I knew that if the miners caught sight of him they would bolt. Then they gave me a glimmer of hope. My corp mate told me that they had seen him and sent their drones to orbit him. A clear warning that they would engage if he tried anything.

My mate was in a hauler so if they engaged before I could warp in he might be in trouble. One jump away, I told him to go ahead and take the ore. He complied and I warped into the belt just to see them open fire. Jackpot. I locked the destroyer and prepared to open fire. Suddenly my on board computer warned me that I would provoke the CONCORDE authorities if I opened fire. WHAT?! They were attacking my corp mate, why couldn’t I attack back? I would later learn that his act of aggression gave them full rights to fire on him but their attack gave no rights to our corporation. Sigh.

He quickly warped out and the Cormorant gave chase. Shortly after he was safe in station.

Annoyed at our poor handling of the situation he and I exchanged ideas on how to do it better next time when he received a communication from the Cormorant Pilot. The conversation went something like this.

Cormorant Pilot: Why did you steal our stuff?
Bustacapho: I didn’t steal it, I borrowed it.
Cormorant Pilot: Borrowed eh?
Bustacapho: Hehe
Cormorant Pilot: Well we’d like compensation.
Bustacapho: Well you can want compensation in one hand and shit in the other. Tell me which one fills up faster.

Needless to say, the Cormorant pilot wasn’t pleased. He threatened to pod kill Bustacapho. I joked that he should let him do it. I knew that CONCORDE would severely downgrade his standing if he did. To my surprise my corp mate thought it was a great idea. So we set a plan in motion. So he boarded a shuttle and flew out to the belt where the Cormorant pilot was and found himself surrounded by a good squad of ships.

Before the action started I warped in. I knew his aggression timer had expired and if these clowns attacked him I wanted to be around to pick up the pieces. Before I had even come out of warp their attempt to take him out had been foiled by CONCORDE. Three ships popped in seconds and Bustacapho’s shuttle remained untouched. They couldn’t even suicide a shuttle. I thought I was an amateur.

Fortunately, one of their ships remained intact and after I quickly looted of one of his mates ships he opened fire on me in his Cruiser. I kicked in the afterburner; warp scrambled him and opened fire. It was clear after a few seconds of battle that I had the upper hand. His shields were dropping much faster than mine. Then I noticed I had a problem. My cap was dropping faster than his shields.

I took the afterburners offline but still I was losing cap fast. With a sigh I dropped off the warp scramblers, hoping that maybe his pride would keep him around long enough to let my cap recover. I had no such luck. As soon as I stopped disrupting he warped off. Double sigh.

That was the end of my action for the night. Sure, I didn’t get to post a kill but at least I got to shoot my guns. Bustacapho had an interesting encounter shortly after that but I’ll let him tell that story.

Tags: ,
Filed under Pirating : Comments (0) : Jan 7th, 2009

A pirates life for me…

punisher

I knew the day I left pod school that I could be no miner or hauler. I longed for excitement and the thrill of battle. I thought perhaps a military career might be what I needed but it wasn’t long before I knew the structures life of the Navy was no life at all. No… there was only one option for me.

Even after I decided that I would be a pirate I didn’t really know what to do. I wasn’t experienced enough to sign on with any of the pirate gangs out there and I wasn’t much of a threat to anyone alone. So I studied and practiced while trying to stay low and off the radar. I spooked the asteroid belts, watching other pirates in action. Learning from their successes AND their failures.

Several weeks went by before I had the nerve to try something on my own. I had been spooking the belts for hours watching to see who was in for the long haul and who was using jettisoned cargo cans to offload from their burdened cargo holds. I finally settled on a mark and I docked up to get my hauler. My heart was hammering as I came out of warp for 2 kilometers from his jet can. I imagined him scrambling to gather as much of his ore before I reached him.

I quickly filled my hull and rushed back to dock before he could bring friends. The thrill or taking from someone else was exhilarating. He hailed me shortly after with a litany of insults and threats but I had his ore and I was safe in station. Oh, a pirates life for me.

It wasn’t long before this cheap form of pirating became mundane and boring. The thrill was gone and I wondered if even pirating would satisfy my urges. Then I heard of another trick. A trick that targeted not the ore but the ship. Can flipping. This promised a little more excitement. I immediately wanted to put it to use.

After making a round of the belts in the Oiniken system I found a couple of miners doing what they do. One was in a Badger and the other in a Cormorant. They seemed to be working together. I was about 50km out and they didn’t seem to notice me so I bookmarked their jet can and warped to nearest planet. I felt my heart begin to pound again and I knew that old excitement was back. I set my warp coordinates to the location of their can and kicked the warp drive in gear. I landed right on top of them and quickly jettisoned a can of my own before I opened theirs and emptied it into mine. I knew as soon as i touched their can CONCORDE had been notified and they could now open fire without retort. That was exactly what I wanted.

I set my orbit to an optimal range for my guns and waited… and waited… nothing. Feeling a little let down and getting concerned that perhaps help was on the way, I got set to warp back to station. Suddenly I was being targeted. The destroyer was targeting me. Maybe he just noticed I flipped his can or perhaps he only just got up the nerve but I was going to get my fight.

As soon as he opened fire I returned fire, lighting up his shields. I was taking heavy damage but he was dropping faster and before long he went pop. I quickly gathered the remains of his ship and warped off with a cackle of glee.

Oh, ho ho… a pirates life for me.

Tags: , ,
Filed under Pirating : Comments (0) : Jan 6th, 2009