Run Silent, run deep.

Running silent, Running deep, we are your final prayer,
Warriors in secret sleep, a merchantman's nightmare,
A silent death lies waiting, for all of you below,
Running silent, Running deep, sink into your final sleep.
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A few updates from this weekend, was a pretty good one!
Lots of fun happenings, roams and gangs and camps, and Yar/Gok have been quiet!
Have joined up with the Python gang and moved homebase , im still in the same alliance but now taking orders from esteemed gentlemen such as:
Golden Helmet


and Spectre

I´m in good hands eh?

They are very capable pirates tho, whenever we go out they attract targets!
We went on sunday to a "Secret fishingspot"
If you´ve ever gone planetside and engaged in "fishing" you know that sometimes you find that hidden backwater area, secluded and untouched, ripe with big fat fishies.

I wont go into details as I do not want to spoil our spot, but with a little trixing we ended up in a part of space where the drakes and ferox´s go to mate.
(read: do missions)
Our small gang scanned down target after target, and like with a successful fishingtrip, our holds were so full of loot we had to return home even though the area was still full if prey.
Took my hangar crew an hour to clean off all the pod-goo splattered on my Thorax.

Mental note, get an Afterburner fitted next time, as MWD does not work inside a warp-gate where the missioners dwell..
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Oh, and I have placed second in a "space-photo" contest!
Point your holo-feeds HERE
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In other news..
The Caldari school of applied knowledge does not seem to pass along much knowledge to their stutents..
Why would you go into a low security system with a badger to mine kernite?

And not just any system, Ishomilken! -Home of the Guristas Associates!
This system is not some quiet low sec, it is filled to the brink with bloodthirsty pirates!

What I mean is, we were hunting around some Myrmidon that had trespassed into our domain, when I found a badger on scan at a remote ore-belt.

I quickly scanned it down and jumped to engage.
He died very quickly, and seeing his low age I found no use to ransom him, instead I thought I´d help him, make this experience a valuable lesson!
So after his ship and pod were turned into space-debris I sent him a friendly letter explaining the dangers of going into low-security space, how he would not be making any more ISK there but should stick to mining veldspar for now, and not go into such places again unless ready and looking for a fight.

Something like that, did not get any word back from him, but looking at the confirmed kills listings this morning I found THIS

Apparently about fifty minutes after my first "lesson" and advice he takes a bantam and goes to try the same thing AGAIN!!
This time apparently a fellow Gurista put a stop to him..
Definition of ignorant i suppose.. to do the same thing over and over and expect different results!

You gotta know when to hold´em

-Know when to fold´em!

Intelligence.. recent events has me brooding over the importance of this warfare tool..
And I realized that it is most important in all things,
knowing what goes on.
"It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter."
- Thucydides

Firsly, I´ve begun to play a little good ol´ Poker while my ships are being refitted or repaired..
Most relaxing to be chatting with some other capsuleers and risking my hard-earned ISK in other things then my ships.
((LINK: EOH POKER))
And it is most important to know your fellow players, how they play, what bluffs might work and what cards might come up.. the more intelligence you possess the better choices you can make.

Secondly, when I need to sit at a safespot and wait out a Criminal countdown, I´ve also begun playing an old game on my ships computers "Starcraft"
Not played in a while so I am a little rusty, but my lack of experience I make up with keeping good tabs on my enemies.. It is much easier to fight on my terms then on his.
So once again good intelligence helps profoundly.
Sadly the old AI of that game is cheating.. damn maphacker!

Thirdly, most importantly, the other day I joined a fleet camping at a gate in a system not far away.
I wont get into details as there might be sensitive information, and also I was just a soldier, so I never understood exactly what went on.
But I was thoroughly impressed by our FC´s (Fleet Commander) skills and methods:
The voice-comms were kept to a minimum to ensure that valuable information got through unhindered.
He had scouts in all adjoining systems, and could separate possible threats quickly as intel was passed to him of shiptypes and corp-affiliations.
A fleet soon formed in a system ahead of us, and he knew always their members and shiptypes.
As half of it disappeared we knew they were after us, but up to something, and yes.. our scouts behind us soon relayed they were sneaking up the rear.

I dont know if they thought they would surprise us, that we did not know they were coming.. that we did not notice they popped up on local comms.. that we did not see their scan-probes..
But we did, and were never in any danger.
He had us aligned to warp-out spots, but still sitting still.
We could have moved to safety long before their "ambush" came but I guess he wanted to tease them.. because just as they made their move, we were gone.

Initially I had been somewhat nervous of such gatecamps, as I have to put such a big and costly ship on the line, but when certain FC´s are in charge, I am never worried.

And, on the topic of poker and FC´s, here is my re-make of:
"The Gambler" (Earthen singer K. Rogers)
-------
On a cold space evenin, in a freighter bound for low-sec,
I met up with an FC; we were too tired to sleep.
So we took turns a-starin, out the window at the darkness,
til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

He said, son, Ive made a life, out of leadin fleet engagements
And knowin what their ships were, by the intel from my scouts.
So if you dont mind my sayin, I can see youre out of Iskies
For a taste of your long-limb roes, Ill give you some advice.

You got to know when to hold at the gate, know how to spot a bait.
Know how to get away, and know when to flee.
You never count your troopers, when youre engaged in a battle
Therell be time enough for countin, when the fightins done.

Now every FC knows, that the secret to survivin
Is knowin who to sacrifice, and knowing who to keep.
cuz there has to be a winner, and there has to be a loser
And the best that you can hope for, is to die in your sleep.

So keep your scanner open, and let a word not be spoken
have eyes on both front and back, and look for combat probes.
You will never loose a battle, and you will rule on the killboards
if you know your own forces, and what your enemies do.

You got to know when to hold the gate, know how to spot a bait.
Know how to get away, and know when to flee.
You never count your troopers, when youre engaged in a battle
Therell be time enough for countin, when the fightins done.
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"When generals cannot assess opponents, clash with much greater numbers or more powerful forces and do not understand the level of skill of their own soldiers, they are beaten."
-Sun Tzu

Back in black

Vacation.
Such is not needed for one that leads a life like mine.
Tranquility? Not compared to warping to an empty spot in space and taking in the scenery.
Adrenaline and adventure? Hardly.. Going down a slope has nothing on taking on another pilot head to head out in space.. I was tricked by that damn poster!

And the darn place was expensive too! The crazy Jita marketplace has nothing on these guys on overpriced goods!!
Ah well, I´ll make a note of bombarding them from space if I ever get into a battleship.

It was good to get home.. Yar had started going off more often and so I was relieved that the first thing I heard when I entered my home system again was that there were some folk in belt one looking for a fight!
A hastily made-up fleet later and we blew them out of the sky!! Damn it felt good.

Little did I know that I was up for a few "first-time" experiences!

I lost my first ship the very same day.
My trusty destroyer-class Thrasher, who had netter me 18 kills!
I had found a punisher inside a caldari warfare thing-a-ma-jiggy.. I had been into one before, where a frig were doing something, surrounded by battleships.. then warped off when I came and they targeted me.
So in my ignorance I thought they were passive while he was there somehow..
I landed from warp a bit away from him, and speeded towards my intended prey.. so far so good, locked him and lay the hurt on.
Then the 5-6ish battleships in the area locked me.
And jammed me.
And killed me.
Embarrasing.

I got out of there with one less destroyer-ship.. but lots of experience gained.
Was my first time I got to practice my "insta-warp-pod-to-planet" trick I had been taught.
Also, I now know how these warfare installations work, and wont make that mistake again.
Sad that I did not die in a fair fight, but now I was more initiated into the life of a pirate.

The next day I got another "first" with complementary valuable lesson.
Feeling vengeful I made two mistakes.. I jumped in a too expensive ship for my wallet.. and I charged the first prey I could find without much thought.
I could blame Yar but I wanted it as much as him..

I went out in my Thorax you see.. a pretty deadly cruiser, and I guess it made me feel abit too sure of myself..
So when I find a lone incursus at a planet, with two other neutrals in local I charge it almost blindly.
Sure my scanners told me that a tristan and a blackbird was in system aswell.. and that the tristan was probably in the same corp as the incursus.. but I was sure that I could take them both on if that was the case.
Well I warped, the incursus was a bit off, so I flew towards him.. and he towards me!
That should have warned me off, but I was reckless and bloodthirsty, so I engaged anyway.
Thirty seconds later the tristan comes.. and the blackbird!
I thought that since they were all in positive security standing, and engaging me meant commiting a crime, since the only one that had the right to shoot back was the incursus.. so they would not be so quick to join the fight..
..but they were.
I was warpscrammed.. and....JAMMED!

Auugh the horror, and it was strawberry-flavored too!!

But from what I had read, the jam was not permanent, so I did not try to disengage, as I hoped to have a chance to re-aquire lock on my target in a few seconds...
But as my shields were blasted away from the three ships, and my armor started to look like swiss cheese (old earth food-product with lots of holes) I tried to run but too little too late.
Once again I warp off in my pod, adrenaline still coursing with a ship gone but knowledge/experience gained.

I had my mind set on brooding in station for the rest of the evening, my kill ratio gone down from 30kills no losses to a 15:1 ratio.. I needed to get back in control.

But then my third "first" presented itself.
On the internal piratecomms I had semi-listened to two pilots trying to find a caracal in our home system.. one of them was skilled with scanning down hidden ships, but had not his gear.. and was trying to teach the other.. it is a hard thing to explain, but I had studied it hard, both reading guides and watching instructional videos.

So I popped out of station in my puny Imicus.. a ship made for scanning and little else.
And even tho lacking in equipment and experience, I found the caracal quickly.
Wow, this was easy.. maybe I´ll make a career out of this!
Anyhow, I let the two corp-mates know that I had found the prey and we warped there to engage.
Sadly, he had been clearing out a hidden acceleration-gate and was just finished when we came charging in, too far off from him to engage in time, and he fled.
Had we been there sooner while he was fighting we might have gotten a drop on him, but no matter.. I was very satisfied with myself quickly and successfully scanning down my first ship!

To sum it up.. The vacation was expensive and not so fun.
My homecoming was even more expensive(12mil isk down the drain) -but a thousand times more fun, exciting and educational.

So the gist of it is, stay at home and do what you love.

Heaven can wait.

New entry.

Did I mention why I am logging my life here?
And why am I asking a computer log questions??
Ack, did it again.

Err, back to point... it is just so that if I totally loose control to my dear voices, perhaps these stories would explain whatever it is that I do..
Like I have this nightmare of "Gok" taking full control and clones his conciousness into a rabbit body or whatever.. is that possible? heh..

Also, I seem to have blackouts when these episodes occur, so it is good to read up on what I was doing and who I am.. because sometimes it does feel a bit blurry.

But enough of the unpleasantries..
I am going to treat myself to a vacation!

I made some ISK doing market gambling that I am taking the weekend off on a nearby ice planet.. Best Ski-resort in the universe they say!

Skiing is an old earthen sport where you strap planks on your feet and ride them down a snowy mountain.. it sounds crazy but it is nowhere half as deadly as my current profession.

Also, if I do snuff it I will just awake in a fresh clone, wonders of being a capsuleer!
Atleast I hope it works that way..

Space will be safe for a few days.
Yargok out.

Weekend warrior

Update.

Slow week, my shipments of items and ships I ordered came in, and there was much organizing to be done.. much fitting of the ships, and planning their setups.

This did not sit too well with Yar/Gok, but there was an operation planned for sunday that would satisfy their bloodlust.

Funny enough, before any major event, I seem to have a small one.

Sunday morning, I was hunting the nearby systems with my great mentor mr "H.Lecter"
Funny guy.. one of the most successful killers in our alliance, but in person he is helpful, friendly and quick to a laugh.. must have multiple personalities.. or maybe voices whispering him, like me?
I must ask him about this sometime.

Anyhow, I scanned down an Incursus in a belt, and quickly jumped, but had no hopes up that it would remain... it did!
From its slow reaction time to my precense, and the sudden calls of "paece!" in local comms, I gathered it was a new pilot.

Lecter was on his way, wanting blood I assume, because I was in no danger from her guns.. so I asked him, "what do you ransom a puny T1 frigate for? is it even worth it?"

He suggested a million Isk, wich I suggested to her..
She took some time to power down, but was not doing much damage anyhow... but the money finally came!
My first ransom!
Puny, but a first is a first.

I felt kind of bad, as I realized she was trying to pirate, and was not going to live long around these parts sitting still in belts in her frigate waiting for victims to come to her!

So yes, she had only bought herself two more minutes.. she jumped to a nearby system after our fight, and came back in a pod.. wanting "pierating" advice.

Sorry, I´m no cook!
-------------------------------------
Much later, time for our big operation!

The commander entered our comms, and told us he wanted fast agile ships with a bite!
We were going on a long...long trip..into 0.0! ! ! Nullsec, the most feared killinggrounds in new eden!

I opted for a "Thrasher" with plenty of firepower and speed, not flown this before, but it did sounded fun.

The trip down was a bit dull.. It was 40! jumps through lowsec!
Yar started whispering, but he got his when we made a quick stop to kill a Rupture.

But.. the morale was high, and we had fun on the comms, making our way to what would be a quick slaughter of..us or them.

There it was, the gate.. nullsec was on the other side!
The plan was apparently to jump in and burn 2 jumps in to a secluded pocked where a big corporation around here would normally be mining ice.. if we were too slow they would get warned on their Intel channels.

We flew like crazy, pushing the ships to their limit.. and I noticed the Thrasher was a really slow warping ship!! Me and the others in destroyer-class ships were lagging slightly behind!!

I heard on the comms, those that had landed had found targets and engaged!
I landed, and what a sight!
Trapped in our interdictor bubble was several expensive "mackinaw" mining barges, and an ORCA!
The ensuing slaughterfest was a blast.. we got a Mackinaw, retriever, mack, ORCA and a Megathron who warped in to help his mates..

Apparently in our wild charge, a third mackinaw pilot got so spooked, he abandoned his ship and tried to flee in his pod! (that wont work buster!!)

So the call went out if we had anyone among us able to fly such a ship.. the prospects of that seemed low, us being pirates and not miners, but luckily we had a former miner among us!

He parked his ship safely, and collected the mack.. meanwhile our leader had found that the local system the gang we attacked lived in was dockable!

So he docked up there, and put the ship up for sale on the local market.. I cant remember the sum, but 120mil maybe?
Ten minues later the ejecting pilot bought back his ship.. hah.

It was a blast.. and we quickly left the system after, as we knew a large fleet would soon drop to protect their home..
But, as we had suffered no losses, and we were planning to anyway.. we figured we´d go in and cause more havoc around here!

And we did.
Typhoon, hurricane, drake, raven, brutix, drake and a Phobos! -fell to us before we had lost half the fleet and retreated back to where we came..
Well, those were the ones that my ships computed registered I had a part in.. we probably took down 7ish more ships that I did not get to shoot at in the great melee.

What a damn great day.. Oh and did I mention I survived? -ship bruised, but it flies still!

Out of the silent planet..

Dreams of desolation!

Listen to this!
[soundfile embedded into log: "Iron Maiden -Out of the Silent planet"]

Withered hands, withered bodies begging for salvation
Deserted by the hand of gods of their own creation
Nations cry underneath decaying skies above
You are guilty, the punishment is death for all who live
The punishment is death for all who live

It is an old earth-song I have begun using when jumping into battle.. gets me speeded, and also it helps with keeping a clear head and not having to hear Yar/Gok´s silly advice..

And talking about battle, I have just have had two AWESOME engagements!

Firstly, earlier on I was casually roaming around looking for sinners against my new spacerules..
(if it does not come up blue on scanner, it must die)
And having found a rifter and a stabber in a nearby system, i noticed that the rifter was friendly.

Very friendly infact.
He was "Kazaji" of the Python Cartel, and hailed me on a secure comm-channel, asking if I wanted to help take that stabber down.
Surely! Two Rifters should be able to if we can get in close and orbit!
Sadly he was sitting in a "safe" location in space, one that you cannot reach without proper scanning gear, but so determined was Kaz that he went to get such a scanning ship.

It was not long before the skilled scanner had found our victim and jumped to pin him down.
I quickly flew to his location and engaged, and it looked pretty well for starters, until a small display on my ship started blinking red.
I was running out of capacitor!

You see, this was my first venture out in a Rifter, and it seemed I had not the proper module setup nor skills in managing this ship, to keep all modules running.

So now and then one or more of my modules would shut down, wich made our victim almost escape or get a good shot in!

It took a while, i learned to "pulse" certain mods, and shut down others to keep him pinned down, but it was taking its toll.. and I was slowly loosing hull integrity!

I had to warp out, and a little bit after my gangmate did the same.

I am sure we could have taken him if I had better skills/fittings or my mate a better suited ship.
(he had no guns because the scanning-gear took so much power)

So I felt sad that I failed to kill the target, after Kaz was so nice to scan it down, but I am really happy with all the new knowledge I gained in the areas of fitting and controlling the Rifter.
Next time I will be victorious!

The second awesome fight of the night was to be had just a little while later.
I had returned to home station, and was repairing and refitting the rifter "Hunkajunk 1" when my fellow academy-bunnies were forming a fleet to go out and roam.
"Time for a kill" I thought and happily joined them, blazing out of the station with a fresh lust for blood and spacewrecks!

And, not long after, thanks to magnificent scouting from our esteemed C.E.O mr Lecter, we found a belt with some juicy targets in.
The call finally came, he had engaged and locked down a cruiser of some sort.. and another was nearby, so we hurried to his aid.
I landed on the asteroid belt and locked down the target when all hell broke loose.

It seems the cruiser had friends.
Lots of friends, in bigger ships then ours.

What happened after was chaos, organized chaos.
As more and more enemy ships warped there were targets all over, but our fleet commander held his cool.. "point arby, primary rupture"
Such clear and consice orders came through my voice-comms.. from his voice you could not make out the chaotic situation he was in, it could just as well have been a game of "poke the asteroid"

And it was exactly what was needed in that situation, but the actual fighting was nothing but chaos.
It was beautiful.
I charged a rupture, all my ships displays blinked angrily as I pushed the modules to their limits, scrambling that, web that.. activate that!
The autocannons sang their song of death, and the rupture exploded.
Next target arbitrator, change course!
Rifter turning as the rupture explosion sends bits and debris spraying over its hull, but already the autocannons are shooting at the arbitrator.
New target called, more ships have warped in!
Omen, stabber, rifter and a rupture!
We attack like a small cluster of drones, efficiently and without care that our opponents are bigger and better we zip around and take out one after the other.
Their clumsy attempts at rescuing their friends have them shooting wildly at us.. no concentrated fire, nor are they able to hit our small, fast ships.

We loose someone.. to something, it is hard to tell in the heat of battle, but suddenly battleships warp in and start giving off waves of searing heat, blinding light!

They had called in even further backup, this time in the form of smartbombing battleships!
Those of us too close did not make it, their ships instantly vaporized, but the rest of us made it away.. content in the knowledge that we managed to beat the better equipped and more experienced pilots that we engaged.

A great victory for the wabbit academy, and a massively valuable learning experience.

I am still speeded, having made it home to station again.. adrenaline rush not settled down still!!

I love this job.