How To Lose a Helios

So this past week, I've discovered the key to losing a Helios completely decked out with all the latest in warpy-cloaky technology.  Apparently, despite my sense of supreme safety and arrogance, it is possible to be chased and killed even while cloaked.

I was minding my own business, flying from station to station, cleaning out my assets list because I was tired of having useless crap strewn throughout the universe.  Those few things that I deemed not useless were in my cargohold as you can see from the kill mail above.  Whilst en route to yet another station, I had noticed that a Taranis was following me for a few systems, but in my self-perceived safety I ignored him and continued on my merry way.

About 5 systems after I first noticed the Taranis, I was mid-warp to another stargate when I got snagged on a bubble.  Not a big deal--I get snagged by bubbles all the time, so I turn for the edge and start moving away still cloaked.  A moment later, that Taranis lands on top of me in the same bubble, forcing me out of my protective invisibility.  I immediately switch on my microwarp drive trying to gain some distance from him, as I have no weapons and my cloak was on cool-down.

Thanks to the MWD, he was able to lock me faster thus removing my ability to cloak altogether.  At this point, I just kept the MWD on and tried to keep away from the Taranis.  He had me pointed, but failed to web me so I still sped along at 2464m/s and I actually seemed to be gaining distance on him.  Volley after volley slammed into me, obliterating my shields and spinning chunks of my armor into the cosmos.  Just as he started to miss most of his volleys on me and my armor was all but gone, I began to hope that I might actually escape.

Sadly, this was not to be the case, as he managed to slam another volley into my structure, obliterating me in that final hit.  I tried to warp out my pod but he pointed me once more, drawing several curses from my lips.  He gibbered something in a strange language in local chat, but I understood what he wanted.  I understood 10 billion ISK and pod.  He had already stolen 40m+ from me, and I had no implants so I welcomed the ion particles from his friend, who had shown up just as my Helios exploded.  As my pod was decimated around me, all went dark.

I awoke on a table somewhere in Aridia, slightly disoriented but remembering everything.  I thanked the technician and donned a robe.  Shaking my head at such a loss, I decided to call it a night and reflect on how to survive that situation next time.

The moral of the story:  Even when cloaked, danger is everywhere.  I think from now on, I will be following the old "warp to a nearby celestial before warping to a gate" even while cloaked.  It's still not perfect, and it still carries risks, but warping gate to gate is too dangerous even cloaked in null sec.

At Home Among the Stars

My first venture into 0.0 space was rather short, but not a bad turnaround from it.

A corps-mate, Ralcoss, after giving me a short lecture on why my wanting to join some pirate friends was disappointing, was kind enough to drag my sorry pirate-loving arse to ASPOT's little pocket of CVA space.

For clarification, my corporation's philosophy on what makes one a pirate is probably drastically different from that of people who actually call themselves pirates.  According to ASPOT, the unprovoked killing of people in null-sec is piracy, and I will be banished from the corporation if I partake in such activities.  According to the people I wanted run off and play with, namely Casiella, Chainer Cygnus, and Denovin Zyrinax, it's just life in null-sec.  I believe Casiella's exact words were, "I'm not a pirate!  I'm a trader with a pirate's heart... and Chainer is 'unfocused'," to which Chainer only agreed.  I didn't get Denovin's take on it, because he likes to sleep while I'm harassing everyone else in New Eden.  Bastard.  Get a New Eden Life!

Back to the story!  After changing the subject to steer it away from Ralcoss' dissertation on the evils of piracy and the corporation's take on good morals, I convinced Ralcoss to make the 26 jumps or so back to high security to haul me back to null security with him.  He played scout for me as went slowly from system to system, watching for gate camps and reds.  The trip itself was rather uneventful for the most part.  After arriving in 0.0, we only encountered one gate camping blob (my first blob encounter!) in our route.  We ended up docking for about 15 minutes while the camp fire was getting doused and we moved along.

Upon reaching our "pocket" Ralcoss showed me the major POS and stations, as well as a nifty jump bridge that would make the trip a bit easier next time.  After acquiring the passwords and bookmarking locations around the groups of systems, we jumped in on top of a group of pirates.  Two battleships and three frigates against us, a single cruiser and battleship, seemed like a fair fight so we decided to keep on them.

Well, I quickly discovered that when two battleships and three frigates primary a cruiser... it frigging hurts!  Apparently, I was doing more damage than my Dominix counterpart as he had only drones at the time, and I made a good target.  I warped out just as they broke my armor about 50%, and let Ralcoss take some of the heat again.

I warped back in right on top of the frigates and took them out with my drones, as my rail guns weren't posing much of a threat to them at less than 10km.  They fell slowly, but before my shields broke again, and I quickly threw on my afterburners and maneuvered myself around some giant asteroids that were keeping me from the battleships.  At about 50km out I threw my drones forward and discovered my control limit was about 40km.  No big deal, 10km at 380m/s... still waiting... still waiting... damn finally!  Go, go, gadget Hammerheads!

I opened fire as my drones closed in, and I grinned smugly as the other battleship, which had been fending off Ralcoss' drones, exploded and quickly went dark.  Now with 10 drones and my rail guns all over him, the remaining battleship stood little chance.  She went down valiantly, fighting to the death.  I gave them a moment of silence while I bounced from wreck to wreck looting and salvaging.  Having never ratted below 0.5 security before, I had expected much more from the looting and salvaging, but alas it was very similar.

A few moments later, however, the big difference between 0.5 and 0.0 became instantly clear when my neocom blinked at me about a deposit.  I opened up the wallet on the neocom and nearly choked on my pod fluid as I saw a nice fat 950k ISK deposit from bounties.  Null sec rocks!  I can't wait to get some more action, and hopefully some good fights.

I feel that at this time it is probably prudent to give ASPOT the warning that I'm still planning on helping my friends out in their "piracy" endeavors, and I had hoped that I could remain with ASPOT, as I don't consider it piracy.  Since it truly seems to be a problem, then I'm sorry...  You guys have been a fantastic corporation, very helpful and fun, but I'm looking for more activity and to get myself blown up over stupid stuff.  I will keep all of you on my buddy list and I will go out of my way to not have to kill you guys if you wander into BKAT's area, but I can't stop a corporation function, and I won't back out of something I'm already committed to.

I will say this about ASPOT, if you need a friendly corporation with a range of activities and are willing to adhere to the NRDS (Not Red, Don't Shoot) lifestyle even in null-sec, then ASPOT is a great place for you.

To BKAT I present a warning:  I hope you are ready for a fairly active pilot who wants to do just about everything in New Eden.  I'm brash, sometimes crazy, and I love nothing more than spending hours covered in pod fluid with some good people flying nearby, each helping tear a path through the cosmos.