A Good Impression of Myself.

A chasm between point A and point B this week. A lot has gone on, and my feeble writing skills may not suffice to keep this somewhat on topic. For starters, the Recruiter Fight duel didn't turn out so well for me, but the original intent of an exercise in building Alliance cohesion seemed to work pretty well. Although I lost my Vexor, it was still good to see so many in attendance for the event, and I believe something like 100 million changed hands due to bets being placed. Too bad for those betting on me I made a few critical newb mistakes, even accidentally recalling my drones at one point. Hopefully Symbiogenesis continues to do great things, although I totally disagree with holding a cruiser tournament on the test server. Guess that brings me to my next point. Moving on from Critical Mass Inc.

It's a big decision to leave the corp, but I think it's for the best. Seems like only yesterday I was guided through some sleeper anomaly combat sites, in a domi I could only fit medium turrets on. Nik W, 3rd Panzer, jamesthejust, and others will be missed. I've talked this over with Nik W and I think he understands. When I joined Critical Mass Inc., I honestly had no idea what EVE could offer. But as I began growing in ability I realized what I enjoyed most about my EVE experience thus far. For clarity sake we'll just call it Piracy for now, until I figure a better term to describe the experience. These past few weeks have been marked by more and more solo flights through low-sec, searching for the rush that only that type of engagement can bring. During my time spent as a 'wannabe' I spent a lot of time reading the exploits of the great pirates...Ka Jolo, Wensley, Spectre to name a few. But it wasn't until a glimpse of a pirate in EON Magazine would I finally arrive on the decision to strike out in low-sec. Sard Caid was only briefly mentioned as the author of a blog listed in the EVE DIRECTORY section. After reading said blog I decided to drop into the 'Broadside' channel and give Sard a piece of my mind. And by piece of my mind I mean I wanted to tell him I really enjoyed his writing. As soon as I joined the channel I was completely star-struck. Several of the most famousest of hobbi...pirates were there in the channel, and seemed to be getting a kick out of the newb who was so star struck. At any rate, Sard and Rax, thanks again for inspiring me.

So the final nail in my coffin has to be a lonely patrol in Molden Heath. I had barely 15 minutes in the seat of an interceptor when I decided to get a feel for her. I jumped into an empty clone and set a course for Kamela, taking only five or so jumps through Providence to get there. I felt pretty confident in my abilities to escape a gate camp, which ultimately hinges on decision making ability. Burn away, re-approach, whatever the situation calls for you only have to choose quickly. I figured that given my Taranis' speed, I would surely be able to dodge any campers. I should have calculated the likelyhood that my client would get all 'Socket Closed' right as I jumped gate. Of course I logged back in to see the familiar surroundings of Gamis X - Ammatar Fleet Logistic Support station. Frustrated that I didn't even get the chance to try my 'ceptor's capabilities on a null-sec camp, I threw together another 'ranis and set course for Molden Health, with the plan being to simply park the 'ceptor and the clone in preparation for the invitation to gang-up with Sard and Rax soon.

Arriving in Molden Health, I found no shortage of would-be targets on my directional, and set about narrowing them down. Even though I had no plans to tangle with a Vexor, I was curious about his movements. One belt to another, then a planet, then another belt. Then tech 1 medium drones on scan. Curious. Noticing the local channel, I had my first encounter with Franga. He was piloting the Tristan I was looking at on scan, and attempting to challenge the Vexor pilot to a fight. Delighted at the thought of trying out a tech 1 frigate in my 'ceptor, I began scanning the celestials, and found the Tristan near a planet. Warping in at 100km, he and I were separated by about 70km, a distance I figured I could easily cover. Making my mind to go for it, I again saw him in local saying something to the effect that 'oops, i hate this game sometimes'. It occured to me that he was most likely trying to goad me into engaging him. That feeling continued to build as I noticed he wasn't making effort to align his ship. What better way to describe that type of fight than by calling it a 'blur'...or maybe blankly stating that 'it all happened so fast'. We tangled up, and drones started whirring. I switched from my MWD to my AB and set a tight orbit, checking that I was still within optimal of my blasters. Seeing that his ship was already bleeding some structure before I even started shooting, I swallowed down the bad feeling I was getting from this cat, and overclocked my blasters. My eyes must have bounced between my own ship's armor readout and my target's armor percentage a hundred times in the span of a few seconds. Seeing that he was fueling an armor repair unit with his ship's capacitor, which I had no means of taking from him, I realized that I would get to try my hand at escaping a fight. I set a course as close to 180 degrees away from the Tristan as I could manage, and pulled my drones back in as I anxiously watched my range increase. 6k, 7k, 7.5k...come on come on. Here's where the formula gets all skewed. Take equal parts dread and adrenaline, and combine in bowl. Fold in inexperience and add fail to taste. I turned off my AB. I saw that it had nearly a full cycle left at around 8k, and judged that I would be 10k or so by the end of it's cycle. I had reasoned that I would be clear of his scrambler and my ship would then be able to engage it's MWD to make good the escape. I TURNED OFF MY AB. As soon as the AB cycle ended, the Tristan was right back on top of me and too much of my own armor was in flash-frozen-droplet form to hope for another escape. Anyway, I can't locate the kill mail for this posting, but lesson learned. Good fight. Franga, being the gentlemen he is, discussed the fight with me, curious if I had burned out my AB. Wouldn't that be a better excuse? And does the term 'gentlemen' even exist in Australia?

Anyway, let's move on. That's how I met Franga, who then invited me to fleet-up with him and his Tristan for some more action. I threw together my third Taranis and linked up with the still bleeding Tristan in the next system over. What an unbelievable night. Sometimes I find myself standing at the end of a string of random occurrences, and realizing those random events are telling me something. In this case, they were telling me I'm on the right path, and I was meant to be in Molden Heath that evening. Franga types in fleet chat that he has found a Rokh on scan at a belt, and wants to know if I'm comfortable engaging a BS, considering I just got owned by a tech 1 frigate. I reason that a rail fit Rokh will surely not be able to track us, and give my blessing. We warped in to the belt, and Franga arrived before me exclaiming in fleet chat that the Rokh was indeed rail fit, and I needed to be hauling ass ... POINT!. Franga called primary on any drones he might launch, and then I thought 'oh ya! drones!' and sent my two loyal Warrior II's about their business. It didn't dawn on me for a few days, but I'm still waiting on Franga to pay me back for those two drones. No way the Rokh blew up my Warrior II's that fast man, come on. Anyway, good fight! Of course, it would have been better if I hadn't warped to a gate in my excitment, but everything happens for a reason! Sard Caid himself was sitting at that very gate I had just impaled my busted Taranis upon, and got quite a kick out of local during and after the fight. Apparently the Rokh had backup in the next system, but told them the wrong belt, and they didn't arrive in time to save him. The Rook showed up on overview right as the fireworks started, but I had already pilfered the wreck and engaged the final flight of my Taranis. Franga wasn't so lucky on the escape, but I still want my drones back.

So all these random events are like road signs telling me I made the right decision in leaving the Symbiogenesis alliance. I hope you all the best. Fridge, you talk to much. Waited a long time to say that. Fly safe!