Becoming the Hunter

I have played Eve now for a few years.  Admittedly, most of my career has been that of a carebear.  I have been, like many, the victim of pirates, thieves, gate camps, ganks, and camps.  I have tried my hand at new player friendly pvp corps on several occasions, but never truly found a good fit.  I eventually went into Faction Warfare space solo to learn the hard way.  Many traps sprung, fights being outnumbered, not to mention ships lost, and I finally started to get decent at it.  It wasn’t until I joined my current corporation that everything finally fell into place.  Living in wormholes forces you to learn or be victimized.

Moving into the wormhole it didn’t take long to start getting kills.  It wasn’t until a particular solo kill that I felt I was ready.  I was ninja gas mining some fullerite-c320 when I noted an imicus on d-scan.  So I watch diligently until the probes get close to my location, and then move on.  Knowing this person has my location I decided to head back to base before I lost the progress of gas I had mined.  Once I unloaded I thought, “What the hell,” and returned to the system with my nemesis.  To my surprise, even though several minutes had passed, the person was still scanning.  At this point a familiar feeling for those newer to eve’s brutal pvp system emerged…

My pulse increased as the adrenal glands released those oh so lovely endorphins into my blood stream.  I begin using all the skills I have acquired with d-scan and note the target seems to be showing up and disappearing.  Going on the idea that said target is uncloaking to check his wormhole findings, I track the location of his probes.  I have the entire system bookmarked already so once I would figure out what signature he was on I would warp there at 100km and wait.  Sure enough I see the imicus on d-scan, and approaching.  My heart rate increases to that of a sprint, and sweat begins to dampen my skin.  The would be victim arrives on grid… 30km away from the worm hole, but 70km away from me, and cloaks.  Through the excitement I realize that I didn’t align and approach the last known location.  Disappointed I again look to get ahead of the probes.  This time though I have the player’s name, and also begin to creeper stalk their kill mails.  I figure out which wormhole is their home, and keep this in mind if they decide to leave, but a chase isn’t what I want.

Once again ahead of the probes I warp in at a closer range to the wormhole.  Once again imicus on d-scan and approaching…  by now my heart rate has increased to levels I only experience while fighting a fire, and my hands are shaking like a virgin on prom night.  Sweat pores from my face the likes of which are reserved for habanero peppers.  They hit the grid 30km from me.  This time I remembered to align and approach.  They cloak up.  At this point time seems to slow in the anticipation of finally turning the tables.  I know I have them.  I launch a bomb at their location.  At this point I wasn’t sure that a bomb would destroy the target just that I wanted to spook them out of cloak.  What happened next I wasn’t prepared for.  I am looking for the ship to uncloak when I notice the players pod in front of me.  Time seems to be taking way to long as my shaking hands fumble at the commands to tackle the player.  I land the tackle and immediately go for the kill.  I want no bargaining, no scamming, I just want blood.

After dispatching the player I immediately recloak and hide in case of retaliation.  None came.  I almost get back to my home when I realize that I hadn’t checked my kill mail.  The wreck contained 90million isk of loot.  So, being greedy I turn around to go collect my reward.  I get the loot and his body for a new collection that I still have.  He opens a conversation with me asking how I found him.  In this moment all the shakes are gone, and calm washed over me.  I knew.  I was the hunter.

Making friends with Providence!

While you nerds were sleeping, Lucius and I got stuff done! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Speaking of nerds, our most recent adventure takes place in Providence. LA and I were just being cute lil nocturnal brats, just ratting and shit when we were rudely interrupted by a Crow. Some EVE players have no manners at all. Anyway, we met up with some Providence fellas that were set to blue and vice versa. We proceeded to fleet up and hunt our way through the Provibloc, with help of our faithful Provi assistant and his Intel channels.

Eventually, we stumbled upon some nerds that had a bit of issues with a red fleet coming in and causing mayhem. Being the excellent citizens we are, we couldn't let our fellow EVE players suffer! In all reality, Lucius was bloodthirsty and didn't care where the blood came from as long as it was the blood of enemies. It’s how he keeps his youthful charm. This is what his bloodthirst face probably looks like according to science ಥ‿ಥ

Anyway, our pals were having issues with a wormhole corp that were camping the opposite side of the gate, effectively trapping one of their buddies in. So, we all fleeted up and they jumped on comms with us. Lucius was the FC and was super professional! If he told me to give me his first-born for the good of the op, I probably would have done it and thought it was the right thing! After a cute lil skirmish, the Broadsword and the Pilgrim got away, but we got their Hurricane Fleet Issue! Here’s a link to the kill mail boop. Don’t mess with the best! ❀◕ ‿ ◕❀

All in all, it was a very interesting experience and a nice way to pop my PVP cherry! Though, I’m proud to rock my carebear status (✿◠‿◠)

The people from Providence were very sweet and we got to teach them all about wormholes and how much fun they are, along with some helpful tricks. While the idea of Providence is fascinating and we met some very interesting friends, I’m perfectly content to be the WH Gods that we are.

This has been a Slice of Enthusiasm, with Viktoriya!

Have you become trapped?

The other day we were using the hict trick to close a mass crit wormhole. For those of you unfamiliar with the hict trick, it allows you to close mass crit wormholes in relative safety. Hictor bubbles reduce the mass of your ship by 80% and stack, so with 3 of them, the mass of a cruiser comes down to less than that of a frig. The chances of your hictor getting stuck are very low (but still possibru). Sometimes it takes a few roundtrips to close the WH, but during this time it is unusual for anyone else to enter, as only the n00biest or most desperate of pilots will roll the dice on a mass crit WH.

This is the difference between a hict with a
100mn prop and a hict with 3 bubbles on it

So while I'm sitting on this WH with the hict waiting for the polarity timer to run out, I hear an activation. I had a few crewmembers on grid with me on the off chance that someone came through, and they all said "Activation?" on comms in a confused tone, not sure if I had gone back through, as my bubble wasn't up. We then watched in shock as the womhole disappeared, trapping the retard who had just come through into our wormhole. As it finally sank in that it wasn't any of us, I hit the bubble and then a wild tengu appeared on grid.

I shouted at the crew to get scram on him, as scouty t3s often fit nullifiers that allow them to ignore bubbles. My wingmen opened fire, we made short work of the tengu, and then his sad pod as well. Examination of the killmail revealed the first blaster-fit tengu I had ever seen. While there has always been a hybrid subsystem for the tengu, I hadn't actually seen one with it before in w-space. It was an unorthodox choice and made him completely useless when Jarek decloaked in the pilgrim and neuted him out. He also had a scanning sub on the ship but no probes or probe launcher, which raises the question of why he would risk entering a mass crit wormhole to begin with. At the very least he could have put the launcher, probes, and a mobile depot in cargo in case he ever found himself trapped. But no, his cargo held only ammo, not even paste or boosters, despite the tengu clearly being fit for pvp. At least the ship was cheap, despite a couple of faction mods (that were miraculously not destroyed).

Tl;dr: Always have friends on grid when you're closing a WH - you never know what the EVE gods will drop in your lap.

Grand theft carrier

If you keep your eyes open in w-space, you can sometimes spot the telltale signs of the presence of other pilots, often long gone. Some containers there, a mobile depot there, the flight of drones left floating in space during a mad dash for the exit. Most of the items floating are garbage, but occasionally, if you're vigilant and lucky, you will find something worth taking.

On this particular day I was scouting a C5 where we had discovered a highsec entrance, which was serendipitous as there were several new pilots who needed to enter the wormhole. I covered with a falcon as they brought in their ships and possessions, all neatly packed, like Boy Scouts going on a campout. In the middle of the convoy, a wild Colonel Smash appeared in local, and at the exact same time a thanatos appeared on dscan.

Colonel Smash: hey I'm selling these carriers, good price

This is my thanny. There are
many like it, but this one was mine.
Kind of

Obvious trap is obvious, I thought. It was an odd choice of bait, however, especially because Smash's corp did not match the towers in this system. I hustled the remaining crew into the wormhole and began looking for the pilot. Sure enough, there was soon a corpse on dscan - Smash's corpse. I quickly scanned down the thanatos and, lo and behold, it was unpiloted. I logged on a carrier alt and instructed the crew to get into position for coverage. We grabbed the thanatos and got away, and that's when we discovered 2 archons on dscan as well, at a different planet. They were also unpiloted. Sadly I didn't have an archon pilot available, and asked in alliance chat for an assist. Some Taggarts dashed over as quickly as they could, but just a few minutes too late - the Lead Farmers had found their way into the WH and were also making a grab for the archons. Vastly outnumbered, I ordered the crew to stand down. We then managed to find a null and cyno the thanny out of there.

I cannot say the events that led to Smash entering the C5, but as he did not live there, it seems more likely that he had trapped himself without a scout. Whatever happened, CCP soon confiscated the thanny, as Smash had apparently filed a petition that he had been hacked. I find it more likely that he derped EVE and then cried about it via petition, but who knows. At least my crew had some fun that night.