First encounter!

First encounter!

With 12 jumps to go before reaching New Eden, I was beginning to get excited about getting close to where the colonisation of the galaxy began. Almost straight away I encountered May Long, a friendly lady who responded amiably to my greeting in the Nebian system, and invited me to help her do a 4/10 complex. I thought about it for a moment, and decided to accompany her. This was an adventure after all!

As I ganged up with her and travelled to where the complex was, we met a pirate in Neranim. May Long wasn't that interested in engaging in pirates, but for me, Destromath was an interesting possibility. He was only a few months old and already around -5.0. Unfortunately, he was also a drunken coward, inviting a fight but not willing to come out of the station. Here's the conversation log:

Destr0math > hey i heard that you guys love penis
Destr0math > just what i heard
Destr0math > lamers
Destr0math > yeah, thats right
Destr0math > you suck
Destr0math > seriously suck

Black Claw > you must be angry today?

Destr0math > just drinking and abusive

May Long > who pissed in your cornflakes?

Destr0math > yeah
Destr0math > its pretty awesome

Coincidentally, it turned out that May Long and I were born only hours apart, something which made Destromath believe we were alts. We weren't, however.

Destr0math > are you guys alts?
Destr0math > you're from the same day

Black Claw > I am who I am

May Long > not the last time i checked

Black Claw > I'm travelling the galaxy, hunting pirates

Destr0math > i'm a pirate
Destr0math > hunt me, c**tmuncher

May Long > holy crap, we are the same age

Destr0math > yeah, within 2 hrs ofeach other
Destr0math > soundes like f**king alts to me

Black Claw > kindred spirits

May Long > HA, what are the chances of that
May Long > :P

Black Claw smiles

Destr0math collapses miserably in apool of his own vomit

There was more drunken bluster from him, while I was roaming the system trying to find him. I couldn't though, so May asked:

May Long > . . .are you docked

Destr0math > yes :(
Destr0math > i don't trust myself to be undocked

May Long > . . .black, lets move on

Destr0math > becasuse i'll get blowne up

Black Claw > come out and let us hunt you

Destr0math > i'm sorry :(

He then encouraged us to go somewhere else to find pirates, and we moved on, with me annoyed at his cowardice.

Black Claw > if you can't get the courage to put your guns where your mouth is, you shouldn't be opening your mouth

Destr0math > i'm not
Destr0math > i'm typing
Destr0math > no mouth required
Destr0math > if i open my mouth i might vomit
Destr0math > drinking-= bad

Black Claw > goodbye Destro. I hope to meet you again

Destr0math > when i'm sober
Destr0math > i'll take you booth on.
Destr0math > yahhh
Destr0math > rarrrrrrrrrr.
Destr0math > i'm ere most daus.

Black Claw > I'll be mentioning you on my blog... the address is in my bio. Look out for yourself
Black Claw smiles

Destr0math > :D yarrr.
Destr0math vomits

And so we left the system as he vomited all over his control panel. Ah, the wonders of pirating. Such attractive people...

May and I continued on for a few systems, her leading me to the complex, and me very happy to find that we were travelling through the same systems that I'd be going through if I was still heading to New Eden. I was getting even closer!

And then we entered Petiou, the system that the complex was in, but it was also inhabited by two pirates. One of them threatened to take us out with his mining barge, while his friend remained silent.

I suspected the vocal one with the mining barge was the bait, while his friend would wait until we attacked. May learnt their ships were Tech 2 equipped, so we decided it wouldn't be worth staying here to attack the complex, as the risk of the pirates attacking us was too great.

We agreed to cancel our plans to attack the complex and part ways. May went back to where we'd come from, and I moved on towards New Eden. May joined the bctravels channel, in order to be part of my ongoing journey. It was truly a pleasure to meet her.

As I travel and learn new things and work out the better way of doing things, I have decided to make it a rule to only attack pirates that are less than a year old, so that they are the equivalent of me. While my goal is to travel around and attack pirates, I know there's no point fighting when you know you can't win. I'm more interested in fighting when I know I MIGHT win. Makes more sense that way.

With only 7 jumps to New Eden, I took a 3-jump detour to replace my Afterburner with a Micro Warp Drive. With no instas to get through the systems, it made more sense to me to have something that would get me to the gates as quickly as possible.

Picking up the MWD took me 10 jumps from my destination, and I was glad to get back under way. It was at this time that Vance Avalon and May Long, both of whom were sitting in the bctravels channel, helped me understand the value of working with transversal velocity. Using my newfound knowledge, I found two Blood battlecruisers in one of the systems, and decided to take them on. It was my first ever solo attack in a cruiser against two battlecruisers simultaneously.

I was very pleased that with constant management of the MWD, armour rep, drones and weapons, I was able to sustain my armour at no less than 80%, and the fiery explosions of the battlecruisers, one after the other, was a glorious sight indeed.

Grabbing the loot, I made my way to the nearest system to recover costs. As soon as that was done, I continue, once again, on towards New Eden.

By the time I reached Gateway, I was getting rather tired. The previous two systems had no stations to dock at, and neither were there any stations in Gateway, so I created a safe spot in the middle of the system. Before shutting down and going to sleep, I was pleased that I had not spotted anyone in the 3 systems leading up to Gateway. I was alone, and the closer I was getting to New Eden, the more alone I felt. Strangely, there was just no one around!

As the fog of sleep comes, I sign off for today...

To be continued...