B L O G G A N E E R S ▫ home of the irish pirates

With recent events on our minds, Viin and I were musing over our exploits, or lack of action, over some foul tasting drinks.  He had complained that he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep hassling other people.  We weren’t making much money from it, and people seemed to be a lot more cautious lately.  Clearly, gone are the days of jumping into Eifer and having small squads chase you down and tear you up, and gone are the days of having foolish pilots stick their noses where it doesn’t belong, thus making them easy targets.  Maybe we’re just getting old…

But we decided to go for one last crawl around Saidusairos and the surrounding systems.  It seemed quiet everywhere we went, and Local Comms suggested our presence was making a few people nervous.

“Don’t go out yet.  I’ve scanned down a Rifter and a Stabber.  I’d say they’re flying together; it’s not worth the risk,” one pilot said.  I smirked, wishing Viin could see my face.

“Are we going to try and track them down?” I asked him over voice comm, already thirsting.  I kept an eye on Local, as they continued their wary conversation.

“Nah, not now.  Who knows where they’re headed.  At least we know they have something planned.  Let them have their fun, we’ll catch up with them later,” he said, laughing a little at my enthusiasm.  I knew he was right, but I was itching to play with them.  We jumped to Gratesier, and Local Comms suggested the system was quiet, but not empty.  Viin took on the duty of scanning, and over the next short while we found a Thorax and lost him again repeatedly.  We tracked him down to a cluster of asteroid belts, and both took a belt each, warping in.  The Thorax jumped in on top of Viin shortly after he arrived.

Viin locked him down in seconds and they tumbled around each other.  I jumped in to back him up should he need it, but by the looks of things he wasn’t going to need my help.  I didn’t want to sit back and watch the fireworks, so I locked and engaged.  I didn’t regret it.  Viin’s Stabber took some damage, but the Thorax was taking the full brunt of my Autocannons and Rockets, and Viin was ripping his hull to pieces.  Each salvo brought him closer to the crucial point, and as his ship exploded before us I targeted his capsule.  I wasn’t willing to let this one get away so easily.  Viin had no real taste for popping the pod, but I scrambled him and took my first shot.  Again that adrenaline rush kicked in like an unnatural drug, my heart pounding my head pulsing.  This wasn’t fear, it was exhileration.  This was the first time I’d chosen to kill a capsuleer.  I knew he’d be somewhere across the universe, waking up in his new body, and felt no pity.

I hopped into my Rifter not really expecting much.  Admittedly lately, days have been merging into nights; I have no real concept of time any more, but all I know is that the lack of action has been making me restless.  The system I was in was relatively empty and the station was incredibly busy.  I needed to get out, so I requested permission to undock and decided to go for a spin.  I knew I wouldn’t get much here, so I moved on to Saidusairos, one jump off where I’d been staying recently.

Local Comms suggested there were few people here too, so I sat down and tried scanning them down.  No stations, so I hoped that someone would be within my reach.  My scanner picked up a Scythe sitting in one of a few asteroid belts, so I started systematically warping in to track him down.  As expected, he was mining a stray asteroid, a little away from the main cluster.  I sped up to him, afterburner on, praying to any gods that might listen that he wouldn’t warp out before I could get my scrambler on him.  I locked him down and activated my guns.  His shields were down in no time and I started taking chunks out of his hull.  For whatever reason, he chose not to engage me.  Shrapnel exploded before my little Rifter, and I targeted his capsule half-heartedly.  Before I could make the decision, he chose for me and warped out.  I didn’t care, and sat with a grin of satisfaction on my face.  I salvaged what I could from the wreck; a Heavy Missile Launcher and nothing more.

It is a simple pleasure, to have killed such a ship, but combat always gets my blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing.  It makes me feel truly alive, when some days I have to doubt the meaning of the word.  It’s hard to get attached to a piece of flesh and bone that can be so easily replaced.

Last night was an uneventful evening as far as combat goes, and I have to admit my Rifter is thirsting for action.  Viin and I were crawling a few 0.4 and 0.3 sec systems, without much luck.  No one seemed to want to play!  I was somewhat disappointed, but when one system emptied I happened to jump into an asteroid belt containing the remains of what looked like a brutal fight.  Somewhat disheartened because I missed it, I decided to make the most out of it.  There were a few stray E-War drones floating around aimlessly, and when I checked the marketplace I noted they were worth a fair bit.  I scooped them up along with a few stray regular combat drones, and approached one of the destroyed ships; the wreck of a Vexor.  There was likely nothing in it; either the pilot would have come back to salvage what he could, or the aggressor would have taken his spoils and gone long ago, but I thought it worth a try.

To my utter surprise the wreck was filled with Tech II equipment, all worth at least two million ISK each.  I called Viin in for help carrying it back, as my Rifter cargohold filled up very quickly, and we sifted through the other two wrecks as well.  All in all, between us we made around 25 million ISK.  When the system started filling up again, we quickly docked to drop off the kit we’d just grabbed, joking about how the poor victim would probably be rebuilding his ship soon, and end up buying all of his own equipment back.

It brought the question to mind — we didn’t get much proper pirating or combat in at all in the past few days, but surely pillaging is a part of it?  We made profit from someone else’s kill, but to be honest he shouldn’t have left his mess behind!

– Metal