Back with a bang!

Not only have I returned, but I returned with a bang!

But first, a bit of background. After returning home to my corp HQ, I discovered it was in disarray. Assets scattered across about 30 systems! It's going to take a bit of time to get everything sorted. I decided, however, that I'd sort that out later. First, some fun.

I set off to Amamake, where I had heard the asteroid belts were paved with gold, and naive adventurers were plentiful. Upon arrival, I scanned the system and found - pirates! Someone with a -9.5 security status, and 50 million bounty.

I remembered a time, oh so long ago, when finding such a pirate would have caused me to sound the call to battle, to gather a squad and hunt them down. But I was alone, and unlike my distant past, I was here to join them.

I made contact, and after a brief chat where I told them I had been out of touch for some time, but now I wanted to become a pirate, they trusted me enough to let me join their small hunting squad.

Now, I know that a random stranger such as myself, wanting to join their pirate group, must have set off alarm bells. I applaud them for trusting me. However, I didn't trust them. Old habits die hard. And so, while I was in their squad, I was constantly moving from one safe spot to another.

Unfortunately, after they had destroyed two ships without my involvement, I realised I was really wasting my time with them, so we parted ways.

I parked in a station in Auga and went to sleep. The next day, I woke up to see that Kaenon Steel had sent me a message in reply to one I'd sent him yesterday.

He used to be my Chief of Security in my corp, and is a fantastic warrior, with MANY kills under his belt. I brought up a live comm channel with him, and discovered he was in Amamake in a faction fleet, and I was invited to join them. However, I was in my Thorax, and they needed frigate or destroyers in the fleet, so I withdrew. I had no other assets in this area, so I set about purchasing a Tristan frigate and equipping it.

Halfway through this process, I decided to go on a small patrol, just for the fun of it. It's been almost a couple years since I last patrolled. But now I was BEING the pirate, instead of hunting them.

A small diversion... is one a pirate simply for looking for a fight? I think not. So what does that make me? I'll ponder that....

So, back to Amamake. I was scanning the system, and managed to pinpoint a Wolf to one of the asteroid belts. I warped in and found him sitting there. Agamaggon was his name. I activated the microwardrive and started closing in on him. I was pleased to see that he wasn't running away, and the distance between us decreased fast.

As I was closing in, I was going over my controls, making sure I knew what I was doing! Remember, it's been almost a couple of years since my last battle, so I was hoping I'd get it right.

I activated the amor hardeners, ready for combat. Upon reaching 20km, I began a target lock on him, and then while that was gaining a lock, I activated the webifier and warp disrupter. At 10km I set the dual NOS on him, and then the Neutron blasters. It was on!

We whirled around each other, energy and blaster patterns lighting up the darkness of space. He was quickly chewing through the shields, but that was ok, as my strength was the armour. I opened the drone bay doors, and unleashed all 5 of my T2 Hammerheads. The battle continued for another 20 seconds, and then I realised the Hammerheads weren't attacking. Dammit! So I ordered them to engage the target, and so they did. Stupid things. Where's the AI when you need it....

By this time my shields were gone, and he was starting to blow off chunks of armor. I activated the armour repairer, and started biting my fingernails. I was a little concerned as his Wolf was down to only half his shields, and here I was into the armour.

But it was a sign of relief from me when he turned his attention onto my drones that were quickly blasting away at him. I was able to return my armour to normal, and so I disengaged the armour repairer, while chuckling to myself that he was at half armour. I think I was winning!

Then I noticed that one of my drones was damaged, so I ordered it back to the drone bay for repairs, but I was too late. As it tried to return, it exploded in a flash. Meh, I thought, it's just a drone. Oops, there's another one seriously damaged.

As it also exploded just before entering the bay, I consoled myself with the fact that the Wolf was now having its hull blown apart. No shields, no armour, and my 3 remaining drones and the Thorax's blasters were biting into the hull.

Suddenly another ship warped in from nowhere! It was 140km away though, and my heart was beating even faster as I was looking between the distance meter on the new ship and the damage on the Wolf. Which would arrive first, I wondered with some anxiety!

But the Wolf exploded in a glorious ball of fire, while the other ship didn't move an inch. I let Agamaggon go in his pod. I had no interest in actually killing him, as my motivation here was simply to see if I could still fight. I was still wary of the new ship, still not moving. So I decided to err on the side of caution and I left behind the remains of Agamaggon's loot and scarpered for my safe spot.

If I stayed for the loot, I might have been jumped by other ships. There were, after all, another 12 or so pilots in the system. I won a good fight, and that was all I needed.

In the local comm channel, Agamaggon and I thanked each other for a good fight. It was indeed a pleasure to meet someone willing to fight. I've heard so much since returning that solo fights were rare these days, and everyone fought only in large groups. I prefer the solo fight.

I thank Agamaggon for helping me enjoy my return.

My kill mails are recorded here.

I hope to have many more! (Below is the kill mail for those that don't want to follow the link.)

2008.08.19 12:31:00

Victim: Agamaggon
Corp: Blue Phoenix Industries
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Wolf
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 2681

Involved parties:

Name: Black Claw (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.6
Corp: Scorpion's Sting
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Thorax
Weapon: Hammerhead II
Damage Done: 2681

Destroyed items:

Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 30
200mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 3
Damage Control II
Pneumatic Stabilization Actuator I
'Limos' Rocket Launcher I
Hail S, Qty: 25
Overdrive Injector System I
Small Armor Repairer II

Dropped items:

200mm AutoCannon II
Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 1845 (Cargo)
Faint Epsilon Warp Prohibitor I
Gistii B-Type 1MN Afterburner
Hail S, Qty: 24
Hail S, Qty: 5096 (Cargo)�