Avian Gamers Network

I guess it is a day like any other day really. It's funny, the concept of days. They don't seem to hold much meaning anymore after so long in the black. The Stations so what they can with artificial lighting and keeping things on a 12 hour work cycle. For us rock hounds though we spend our time monitoring our systems, taking geo scans and keeping that ever watchful eye for those that me us harm.

It's been almost a week since Moniker left for Empire space on what we all thought would be a routine trip. Routine out here though often means trouble.

With her gone I've been ping-ponging back and forth in my hauler trying to do in 5 trips what Moniker could easily have done in one. All the while knowing that with each trip out I am risking everything. Even if my scanner could pick up an incomming pilot just as he breached my sector I know that there is no way I could turn this flying brick in time to escape - I am easy pickings. My newly installed tractor beam has helped a great deal in getting my load on board faster but even with that I know it is only a matter of time. I sure do hope Moniker makes it back soon - it does get lonely out here so far from anything and now, anyone that I know.

_________________
Moge

Invest in cloaking.

A 9 million isk prototype cloak is a great way to hide a hauler from pirates that suddenly enter your system.

-LA

_________________
"Do not try and make the enemy respect you, try and make them think you are a joke. Because it is much easier to shoot them in the dark when they are laughing."

Not really... I mean, think about it. The speed penalty for using a cloak on anything other than a covert ops or recon ship is 90%. That means that your indie will drop to about 10m/s... all the pirate has to do is fly in your general direction with drones out and he's got a pretty good chance of decloaking you.

As it happens, a, er, pirate acquaintance on the Gallente channel was talking about exactly such a thing happening last night. He warped into a belt, the indie was 46km away, the hauler cloaked. The pirate simply launched drones and flew towards the cans, and the next thing you know he's linking the prototype cloaking device on Empire channel.

If a pirate warps into your belt, just warp out. You've got the time =P

_________________
[insert Blackadder quote here]

Hehe, no I mean you see someone come into the local channel you cloak immediatly and wait em out. Cloaking once they see you is not very effective.

But if you are looking for a way to use a hauler effectivly against pirates that come into a belt then you need to invest in Multi Spectrum Jammers and the skills to use em effectivly.

A single pirate isn't going to be very dangerous if he can't even target you.

That gives you time to warp away then.

Also, in the event that they are drone carriers, use a ECM burst. Drones need to be inside the burst range to attack and the burst blinds drones all the time.

-LA

_________________
"Do not try and make the enemy respect you, try and make them think you are a joke. Because it is much easier to shoot them in the dark when they are laughing."

My Badger set up for runnin ginto low sec to pick stuff up is 1 prototype cloak, 4 Multi Spectrum Jammers 1 ECM burst, 1 10MN AB and 3 cargo extenders.

If you are using the indie to mine (Which I don't recoment in low sec) you can still fit a single mining laser II with this config.

-LA

_________________
"Do not try and make the enemy respect you, try and make them think you are a joke. Because it is much easier to shoot them in the dark when they are laughing."

yeah I always ponder the better option of Jammers vs core stabs. Everytime Ive gone pop is because I was scrambled. I have often thought that jammers would be a nice option though, especially for haulers. The ECM is a nice touch a well though it seems most pirates up here are HAC pilots so doubt they would bring the pain with drones.

tractor beam, ECM
10mn ab, jammers
cargo exapnders

could make a nice Itty V. For the empire runs adding the cloak is a good idea.

_________________
Moge

A little help from Strangers:


With still no sign of Moniker I set out again; work needed to be done and orders filled. My thoughts have recently be consumed with the safety of my friend and her recent trip into Empire space but today there was work to be done and a job at hand.

I've always thought my Dominix to be a great ship. She can rip apart almost any rock and she affords me great protection when needed. Today, we would test her limits.

After over an hour of peacefully mining Crokite I had amassed almost 24,000m3 of this highly precision ore. With no sign of any Rats and the patrol channel for the region giving the all clear I thought it time to warp home and start the slow ping-ponging of hauling my load back to base in my less that sizeable Iteron II. Just as I was about to disengage my mining operation my overhead radar screamed alert. Looking up to get a visual scan of the area by heart dropped out with what I saw.

Three Raven Battleships, four Ferox battlecruisers and two Brutix battlecruisers had just warped into the system and from the looks of it I had just become their target of opportunity.

I had battled rats before but never a patrol as big as this. Punching up their data I saw that the bounties out on the three Ravens alone was 1.4million ISK each - these were trained fighters and I was in trouble. Disengaging my mining lasers and punching my kinetic armor boosters into action I held on tight as the first volley came in. With over 30 million in Ore just sitting out here I knew I needed to clear these rats if there was any hope of getting a hauler in here to claim what was mine.

SMASH!

Not thinking it was possible my heart sank even further as the first volley had already taken out over half my shields. The second volley was already locked on and on its way. I needed a strategy if I was going to survive.

Locking on to the smallest of the ships I launched every drone I had and sent them screaming into combat. I had to reduce the damage if I was to have a chance in this fight.

SMASH!

The second volley hit my shields were gone. punching up my armor repairer in preparation for the third volley, this was the test. How well would my armor hold? I expected my shields to drop fast, maybe not two volleys fast but if my armor takes even a 1/4 of that damage I will have no choice but to abandon my ore, turn tail and run to live and fight another day.

My drones made quick work of the first Brutix so I routed them to the second.

SMASH!

"This could be bad" I thought as the third volley came crashing in. My armor held but 1/3 gone on just one volley. I punched in my last resort secondary armor repairer and hoped for the best.

2 Brutix down and my drones were starting to attack the first of the tougher Ferox battlecruisers. If I could just take out 2 more of these smaller ships I might have a fighting chance to survive. My armor was being repaired just slightly less that the damage I was taking, the battle was slowly turning in my favor. I knew that if I could even out the damage I could last long enough for my drones to plink away at the larger ships.

But that is the problem with combat, right as things start going right everything starts going wrong. I got so caught up in the action I failed to monitor my capacitor. I rarely needed to engage my secondary armor repairer and even when I do it is only for a few cycles. With this much incoming damage though I had to have both running full bore for several minutes and my capacitor was about to run dry.

Shields gone, armor 1/4 gone and both armor repairers running at max I knew I couldn't afford to turn it off but whether I wanted to or not my capacitor just couldn't take it anymore. reluctantly I switching off the secondary armor repairer to let me capacitor catch up to the demand. My only hope now was in my drones and their ability to dampen the incoming damage by taking out as many ships as possible.

Armor at 1/2 and my capacitor only 3/4 charged I had to risk turning on my secondary unit. Just as I did so the last of the Ferox exploded. It was down to just the three battleships now. I need to be within 25km of my target in order for my drones to receive proper battle commands. The battleships had each taken up separate positions: one of the north, south and the last directly below me. Each was 50km out.

Ravens are faster than my Dominix and I knew that without an Afterburner there was no way I could catch even one of them. Even if I did I knew my Heavy drones just couldn't do enough damage to take them out. I was at a stalemate.

Recalling my drones I pondered my options. I was tanking the incoming damage well enough now and with a periodic toggle of my secondary system my armor was living happily at 3/4 strength. Opening a comm to my corp I sent out a distress call asking for assistance. Within minutes I got three incoming messages all regretfully could not come to my aid. I had one last ditch effort - one that I knew would be a risky one.

Opening a comm to the local system I prepped a distress mesage.
need help. STOP
Engaged with three battleships.STOP
1.4million bounty each. STOP

I knew if I sent this message I would be disclosing my position to both friend and foe alike. If the wrong party answered I knew not only my ore but my ship would fall prey. So before I broadcast my distress call I aligned my battleship to the closest (and only) starport so that if pirates came to call I could hopefully enter warp before they could target me. Then I pressed send.

Within only seconds my comm buzzed with an incoming message. 'I'm on my way'. But who was it? Who had answered my call and did I just make an enormous mistake? I could do nothing but wait. It didn't take long to find out. Maybe a minute had passed an my scanner rang out with the approach of an unidentified battleship. Punching up the ship manifest I located the pilot and took a great sigh of relief. It was a pilot from a corporation that was friendly with mine. I had just been saved.

Moments later another friendly ship screamed into the system. As I watched these two friendly strangers pick apart each of the remaining battleships I couldn't help but admire the amount of damage these rats could take. You don't get a 1.4million ISK bounty for nothing.

5 minutes later the area was all clear. I thanked the pilots and I returned later with my hauler to start the collection process.

--

All was well. I had one more trip to make and I would have collected all the Ore and even scavenged several of the ships that had been destroyed in the battle. As my defenseless Itty II warped into the system for the last time I instantly knew that I was in deep, deep trouble. It seems a rat scouting party had just come into the system. My guess was that they were in search of their buddies who had probably just missed a report. Missed it because they were dead.

Kicking the thrusters I knew I could probably just collect the last of the ore before the 4 Ferox could close within weapons range. Coming up in the ore I only had seconds left. They had me targeted and the first volley was in route.

SMASH!

Shields gone in the first volley. I needed to get out of here, now! punching the coords I could do nothing as my ship calculated the jump. Looking up I could see the second volley was now hurling toward me.

SMASH!

Armor gone. One more volley and I am space dust. Wondering if it would help if I got out and pushed I looked, eyes wide, as the calculations were nearing completion.

Just as the third and what would have been final volley left the missile tubes of my foes I entered warp. Breathing a deep sigh I knew that I had barely escaped with my life. But with the heart racing and 30 million in Ore and just over 4 million in bounties collected I knew it had been a good day.

Time to head in, lick my wounds and count my days take.

_________________
Moge

Excellent!

_________________
Dr. Golga Bolg
SWTOR - Golga
Rift - Gnarlwood: Golgar Golgantua Golgate - Retired
WoW - Dalaran: Bolg Golga Virrok All Retired
SWG - Golga Bolg - Doctor (Resident) Retired
Eve - Edge Finn - Limbo
Section 2 - (Former) Director
What am I playing now?: The waiting game

Oh man. Great stuff!!

The Long Journey home

I finally got a message the other day from Moniker. It looks like she did in fact run into some pretty serious trouble on her return trip. The cargo was lost but she survived. Noting her mounting frustrations I agreed to make the long trip back to Empire to act as a scout for her second attempt at returning home.

After spending a day picking up a few things I needed Moniker and I thought it a good idea for each of us to get implants to help in our education. These are not cheap though and with a dangerous trip ahead we could be out ISK that we really could not afford to loose. Not now anyway after just loosing 300,000,000 ISK in goods. But caution to the wind we dropped a total of 200,000,000 ISK for 4 basic implants each. Knowing if we needed to activate a clone they would be lost. Given that, we tucked the implants carefully into a locked container and stowed them on Monikers ship along with the other cargo.

Our thinking was that if we did run into trouble at least the pirates wouldn't be able to unlock our container which could give us time to bargain for its return. With me in the lead in a small, cheap shuttle we set out.

The first few jumps are always the toughest. The first gate was fine , then the second, third and fourth. We started to get comfortable - and lazy. As I entered a system on the northern edge of Pure Blind I noticed several people logged into the local channel. Choosing the safe route I held Moniker up at the pervious jump station and flew ahead. As I approached the gate a felt a massive jolt as I was forced out of warp a good 4000km away from my target warp point. I was in a warp net. I was in trouble.

Screaming over the comm I sent Moniker racing off to our prearranged safe spot deep within the system. Stuck in the web my fate was all but sealed. I looked up and saw 3 battleships and a swarm of drones all around me. All around me but not attacking. What was going on?

Seizing at the moment I knew I couldn't warp until I got out of the containment field. Flipping my nimble shuttle around I raced for its edge. I knew my attempt was futile but better to die trying than crying right? My backside felt 100km wide as I turned to run. I knew the slightest nip from any of those drones much less battleship guns and I was dust.

Seconds later I was free! Slapping the controls I raced away. I lived! Heart pounding I met up with Moniker to go over our options and try to figure out why I was still alive. Maybe I was too small a target. Maybe I was an obvious scout and they were waiting on the real prey not far behind? Moniker thought they may be a friendly group that had yet to register with the local alliance but a quick check of the security channel returned a KOS highly dangerous flag. We would need a new way home.

Pulling up the map we knew there was an alternate route around but neither of us had taken it before so if we went around we would need to do it the slow way. Leaving Moniker I set out to scout this new route. The three systems we would need to use to circumvent the blocked jump gate all looked clear. With 300+million in goods in Monikers belly though it was a long detour around.

Several slow and nervous jumps later, crisis averted safe and sound and back on track we settled into our routine again. I scouted ahead and Moniker poked along behind. 6 jumps, 10 jumps, 15 jumps went by with nothing and no one in sight. But once again, we got lazy.

Only 6 jumps from home I again was snapped out of warp and found myself in the middle of a warp bubble. Again Moniker went scrambling to a safe spot and for some reason I again I found myself able to jet away. This time though there was no way around. We either needed to get through or wait them out.

Risking the cargo was to great so just as we thought we would be stuck out here for hours upon hours waiting we noticed our security channel flashing. "All Clear"

All clear? How can this be? Our network showed neutral relations at best with the fellows at the gate. But again All Clear came through. Opening a Comm with one of the ships blocking the gate I asked their intentions. 'You may pass unharmed' they said.

Not one to take something like this at face value I told Moniker to stay put, took at deep breath and punched in the coordinates. Slamming out of warp again I paused, and then slowly started making my way to the gate. No one seemed to even notice me, like I was a fly to small to even bother crushing. Coming within 5km of a massive battleship with heavy drones swarming in his orbit is not a reassuring thing to do while sitting in the middle of a warp field in nothing but a shuttle. After 1 very long minute I was at the gate.

Asking again their intensions they said I was clear. I asked about my travel mate (leaving out the part about the fact that she was in a hauler with a veritable gold mine in the hold) they said she too was safe.

Tentatively I told Moniker to come on through.

As she was warping toward my position one of the battleships radioed me. Leave now, your presence is becoming suspect. What! No! I am just waiting on my travel partner. This may have been a mistake but it was to late. Moniker came screaming out or warp and now she and her cargo were in the middle of the warp bubble. We were theirs for teh taking.

Watching Moniker pass through the gauntlet of ships and drones was a heart stopping experience. As she got ever closer another message came through. What is your final destination?

Home I said. UEJ system northmost corner of Delkein Region. I knew I could be giving away our flight plan but at this point if they wanted us here we were for the taking. If they thought us locals maybe they would continue to let us pass.

'UEJ' he returned. 'hmm I think you should have smooth sailing. We just came through there and all looked clear.'

Blinking twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things I sent a 'thanks' and 'good hunting' just as Moniker made the jump.

We were safe. We were almost home.

Making that final jump into UEJ was like a release of 1000m3 from our nerves. Not risking anything we barreled directly to our base and docked at the first available dock.

Moniker was finally home and our cargo was intacked. To celebrate we plugged in out new cybernetic chips, sat back and enjoying the new found brainpower.

We were home. For the first time in weeks we were home. Things could now start to get back to normal.

_________________
Moge

Nice story. Definitely a whole different way to play.

By the way, there's an easy way to get inside a locked container that you don't know the password for: repackage it. The stuff inside gets released when you do that, so you don't need the pass. A secure can is only secure when it's anchored in space, i'm afraid.

_________________
[insert Blackadder quote here]

Pirates, Revenge, Our First Carrier, Ore and Scavaging. Man do I need some sleep

It all started sp easy. Moniker and I headed out for our shift of mining. Nothing much was happening. I recently upgraded from my mining outfitted Domi to a Covetor Mining Barge. This thing chews through Crokite faster that anything I have seen. Taking over 1200m3 per minute our income potential is now up to 25-30mil and hour. Granted there are drawbacks. This new ship cannot take any damage so Moniker needs to stay in her Raven to ward off any Rats that wonder into our system. This of course means our Ore piles up quick. Those times when Moniker does go to get her hauler are tense times for me. I have my ship facing home and my hand on the thruster the whole time she is gone.

But, other than Rat patrols nothing much happens up here. My Corporation recently joined a local Alliance, which further protects us from danger so we all live in relative peace up here in the ass end of nowhere. That relative peace was about to end. Little did I know it would be me who threw the last straw.

Quite, that is how I discribe mining out here. the kind of quite that stands your hair up on your neck. 'The calm' I sometimes like to call it - the calm before all hell breaks loose.

Moniker was off on her third round trip hauling Ore back to UEJ, our home port. She normally wouldn't have left me for so long unprotected but she just dusted a patrol so we figured we had time. Crokite has been scarce in UEJ lately. Our 'ass end to no where' starport has started to get crowded. I guess the word of our tranquility up here spread. UEJ is a boom town now but that has forced us to mine one, two sometimes three jumps from home. Something that makes me nervous.

Right as Moniker returned for her fourth and final hauling trip before she could return in her Raven we had a contact pop up on our screen. Even with things being so quite up here my heart still jumps when I see someone jump into our mining belt. Almost always it is a friendly ship just patrolling for Rats. This one looked the same. Punching up his info I see he is in a Friendly Tagged Corp. This means they are not in our Alliance or any neighboring friendly Alliance but a guess Corp often brought up here to see if they want to move operations up this way.

Glancing down I see this and being that he is friendly tagged I go about my business of mining. I didn't see him close range on me and Moniker. I didn't see his drones launch, I just wasn't looking. That's the thing about 0.0. You let your gaurd down for a second and you get popped.

First sign of trouble I notice is when Moniker screams over coms "He's targeting us!". 'What? He is friendly! Are you sure?" The answer came in the form of a missle barrage hitting me broadside.

I smack the thruster to warp out but he has us both jammed. We are screwed. I punch up a local channel and scream over it "We are Friendly cease fire!"

He doesn't. Another barrage hits me and I see that Moniker and her fully loaded Itty V is being swarmed by Drones.

Our CEO happens to be in the system and hears my call. He screams into his comm. "Cease fire immediatly!" It is to late for me. I smack the eject button just as my 1 day old Covetor breaks up into flames. The though to but those three 25million tech 2 mining crystals pops into my mind. Boy, wish I had waited. Funny what you think as out float in space.

As my CEO and Moniker scream and beg for the offender to cease fire I see her ship cracking under the now direct fire of not only the drones but his missle fire as well. She is doomed.

I try and warp out in my pod but Im still jammed. If I dont get out soon I will wake up in a cloner. Moniker pops and she immediatly gets free and warps - luck her. Me, my pod gets targeted. I close my eyes because I know this is going to hurt. The thought of all those pricy implants I had installed months ago, like the mining crystals, now flash through my mind.

Over 250 million is ships, gear and implants gone in less than 30 seconds. All becuase I got lazy.

_________________
Moge

Cont:

To the credit of my Corporation and our peace agreement with the other local Corps and Alliances they quickly sprung into action. Not 3 minutes after the first shot was a group being formed to hunt down and kill my attacker. The word was spreading fast as all channels public and private where annoucing the hostile act.

A posse of 15 ships broke out. But after over an hour we couldn't nail him. We had him in our sights a few times but his cloaking device was just to good. He got away.

My CEO got on the horn immediately to track down who allowed this guy and his corp to be set to a friendly status. After hours of talking we learned that my attacker was just out for blood. Seems he was upset becuase the ruling Alliance in this area was dragging its feet in accepting him and his group into the area as residence. Piss off he wondered into my Ore field, saw me and Moniker and figured he would get payback.

We were quite literally, targets of opportunity. Two ships, no guns and no aggressive acts. We were nothing more than revenge for him.

-----------------

As a made my way back from Empire where I had to go to do some shopping to re-outfit my new-new Covetor (mental note: Always insure!) things started to quite down. My attacker was still in the region but he and his Corp had been set to KOS and whenever they popped their heads above water for even a second all channels call out their location and a posse quickly forms to hunt them down.

As I settled into my ship and finished my preflight gear check I toggle my Corporations channel to get the word and what is happening locally. My CEO screams at me, 'Do not launch!" What? Why?

I punch up private local defence channel and it is full on chatter, confusion and panic. "10 ships! Make that 12! 12 ships just left my system heading your way!"
Which way! Where are they now?

What is going on!

A raiding party was spotted not 8 systems away and from all indications they where heading this way.

A local commander broke over top of everyone. "We need scouts, if you are able launch scouts now!"

Knowing that this could be my attackers corporation out for payback and knowing that I cannot fight I jumping out of my Covetor and into the fastest ship I had.

Punching the launch button I called out i woudl patrol a nearby gate. Sitting a few 100km off the gate I knew I could run once I made visual contact with the raiding party. It wasn't long before someone a few systems away saw them. The raiding party seems to be up to 20 now and they are getting close.
Who are they? What could they want?
We call out to the primary Alliance in the area. It is their job ot protect us. Where are they!
Seems they know of the danger and are forming up but even then they are a good 10 systems behind us. If they start attacking we are all defensless.

I make contact. 1, then 2 ships. Looks like an advanded patrol working ahead of the main raiding party. I know i need to get numbers and relay them back to the forming defense team but if this scout team wants to I am easy pickings. My CEO screams for me to bug out and before he even finished I have the thruster jammed and I am out of there.

sitting, floating off a nearby moon I am stranded. I need to make 2 jumps before I can get home but that would mean riding behind the scout group and infront of the main body of raiders. I have no choice but to wait it out and hope they dont launch a probe drone in my general direction.

minutes pass. 3 systems away, then 2 and then my local comms lights up with a dozen or more contacts. This raiding party is huge! From the looks of it they are well organized and armed to the teeth.

They pass into and out of my system. I remained either unspotted or not enough of a snack to stop and chew on. Either way, I survived.

We are in the northern most corner on the northern most branch in our deadend system. There is however a little know warp channel that leads from out system and bridges across to the Branch Region. Appearently, that was the destination this party had in mind. We all knew there was a war happening in that region I guess this war party was looking to backdoor the locals there. God help them, I hope we warned enough people in time to take cover.

_________________
Moge

Cont

On a brighter note. Our Corporation launched our first Carrier the other day! An amazing ship of Caldari making. With this amazing ship we can cram its hanger bay and cargo hold jamm full of ore, mineral and ships and take them off to Empire Space in less that 2 jumps! With the primo Ores and Minerals we have up here we can easily increase our income by nearly 1000isk per mineral unit!

Things are going so well with the carrier we have already requested a second one to be built. Best yet, Moniker was tapped to fly it! Seems she has been working her way up in her piloting skills and the CEO took notice. He formally asked her if she would be willing to fly the new Carrier once it arrives! She of course said yes. For months I wondered why she was studing so hard to learn to fly these capital size ships. I knew she could never afford one on her own. I guess all her hard work is finally paying off.

As for me. I'm happy with my rocks. I hunt them down, I break them up, I grind them into priceless minerals. What else could a man want?

Well...let me tell you. I just bought my first salvaging ship this week. A nice little Exequror Cruiser. Now when Moniker is out blasting those Rat patrols I can roll in behind her and scavange the hulking wrecks she leaves behind.



However, recently I've noticed a lot of wrecks just floating in space. I know it is bad form and I know that the balance of peace in this area is constantly being tried and tested. Sometimes though I'll hop in my scavanger and troll the local belts for fresh kills. If no one is around, then that must mean that now one wants these wrecks, right?

So what harm is there if I just roll on up and grab some parts? In and out, fast as can be. Think of me as the tree that fell when no one was around.

It is risky but something in me just cannot stop myself. I may not agree with the condone the pirates random killings, but this? This isn't piracy. This is, opportunity.

And lately, I have had many an opportunity.

_________________
Moge

Beuatiful! Just.... beuatiful (spelled?)

I know where I'm gonna hang out when I get ingame. (Yup! The slowest member of Avian who has been a passive/forum member for approx 99.5% of the membership is slowly stepping into a MMORPG again )
Around Moge of course! It seems there is trouble around him all the time . Sound fun!

(Currently I have a laptop an old HP/Compaq nx9010. 2.8 GHz celeron with a Radeon IGP 345M (based on a old R100 core, so it is the equivalent of a Radeon 7200, Both my stationary and my Acer Ferrari burned out about 9 months ago. Static electricity for the stationary and overheat, no fire on the ferrari)

_________________
1st Feb 2008