[I ain't givin' you no tree-fitty] Reductio Ad Absurdum

If you’ve taken a Critical Thinking class or been on a debate team, you’ve probably heard of this term and know it quite well. If you’ve have any kind of prolonged exposure to human society, then you’re 99% likely to have come in to contact with this argument. Reductio Ad Absubdum is Latin for: Reduction to the absurd. It’s an argument taken to base composition where the subject of the argument is proven false due to ridiculous nature of the proposed consequence.

For example:

If Goons is a good alliance, then I’m the most elite solo pvper ever.
Or
High sec is so safe, I can just haul my billions of ISK worth of [crap] in a frigate.

In both of these arguments the consequences stated are abused because their obvious falsehood. Presumably we all know this. In the instance of the first example; my only solo kill is from an auto piloting rifter. I’ll be the first to say that’s hardly elite solo by any means. However, we come to the second argument, there is a problem and a big one.

There are an alarming number of pilots that take this false argument as a truth. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at a few kill mails shall we?

○ Case #1 
○ Case #2 
○ Case #3

 
Now let’s discuss just why “High sec is so safe, I can just haul my billions of ISK worth of [crap] in a frigate" is so absurd.

There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Safe Sec (TANSTAASS)
When I was in high school I opted out of human health and took economics instead. In that wonderful class I learned about classic GTOs and economics. One of the concepts taught in the class was TANSTAAFL or There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch which is a lesson in opportunity cost and how there is a “cost” for everything.

The same concept can be applied to all space in New Eden. There is no such thing as Safe Space. Ever. No. Shush. There are elements of danger an any space in any security. There’s a saying amount EVE Online pilots. Logging in to the game is consenting to PvP. They aren’t bullshitting.

In high sec, there are people with ship scanners at gates scanning everything they can looking for a juicy target. There are gankers that don’t mind loosing their Tornado or [insert flavor of the patch here] for the chance of candy to spill out from an unsuspecting loot piñata. IT’S NOT PARANOIA IF THEY’RE REALLY OUT TO GET YOU! And make no mistake. They are out to get you… or at least what’s in your cargo bay and a pretty sweet kill mail on top of that.

The 6 P’s
Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Makes sense right? You didn’t spend all that time mining/missioning/plexing/ratting/market trading/etc to not want those several millions/billions worth of assets. You earned that shit. You want to take your shit and do whatever it was that you were planning to do with it. That’s why you got all that crap in the first place. You have plans for it. So why not protect your assets, your time and your sanity?

Use the right ship and movement methods. It really couldn’t be simpler, but we as pilots often become complacent in our habits. Once you get settled in to your Eve-Groove; you become complacent. I’m not saying you need to be on the edge of your chair and digging your nails in to your desk ever time you log in, but complacency is a bad thing. Eve Online is one of those games where constant situational awareness is necessary for survival. This is a sandbox and the name painted on the side is “Darwin.”

If you know you have to make a high value delivery then just be aware. Who hangs out in the pipe you use? Are any of them known gankers? Do you have the right ship for the job? If you don’t have the right ship is there someone who does that you can trust? Does your corporation or alliance have any war decs? You may be laughing by now, but those kill mails happen for a reason. The over all reason is usually because someone had a case of “The Dumb”, but asking yourself the simplest of question can save you a lot of heartache in the long run. It’s that simple and you have lots of options! Let us take a look at them for a moment shall we?

Choices, Choices, Choices
Orcas are fantastic for moving high value merchandise. They are capital class Industrial ships and boast a number of uses. You can tank them to high hell and the contents of the corporate hanger can not be scanned. As an added bonus; if the ship gets destroyed so do the contents of the hold.

There are also freighters and jump freighters. Freighters and jump freighters can be used in any space, but jump freighters can use cynos. The use of a cyno is a huge bonus if you’re living in low or null sec. I should also note that freighters do not have fitting slots. Their base stats are all you get. They do make up for it in cargo space.

A good mid range option for transporting goods is an advanced industrial ship. These Tech 2 ships come in two flavors; Transport and Blockade Runners. Blockade Runners have frigate like agility and a bonus to warp strength and a boost to an EHP modifier. Transport ships have the benefit of being able to fix a covert ops cloak which is valuable in any situation.

If you don’t have the skills for these there are other options. You could use a tanked T2 covert ops ship with cargo containers. It’s not the best circumstances for moving high value merchandise, but it’s better than nothing. If you have some extra ISK on hand, try a verified service like Red Frog/Black Freight. Red Frog Freight will deliver your goods anywhere in high sec for a modest fee. Black Frog Freight is their null/low sec counter part.

So please people. Spread the word and tell your friends. Stop being ridiculous.

Flying With Friends I

Null sec malaise has found me again. While I deeply enjoy null sec and I’m probably not going to leave any time soon, sometimes I just need a break from it. When I feel the malaise coming one of two things will happen. Either I’ll go off and play some other fun game for a while or find some friends who are doing something different in game. Last night I did the latter.

One of my new co-hosts, Marc Scaurus of the Tuskers, and his former Ransoms And Roams co-host, Professor Terror of Sinner., took me out for some low sec shenanigans. Our visible fleet composition consisted of two drakes and a talos. Thanks to the wonders of dual boxing we also had a scout and some secret sauce to add some flavor to the night.

The night was pretty quiet according to Marc and Terror and I’m inclined to agree with them on this one. There just wasn’t much legit activity going on in the surrounding areas. We didn’t come across any real roaming fleets or gate camps. Still there was a little bit of action to be had.

My first encounter in the area was with a Incursus off the station that my loaner drake had been deposited in. This would also be my first mistake of the night. Not thinking, I undocked without loading ammo into my guns while in station. When I undocked, the Incursus yellow boxed me as soon as they could in an attempt to bait me into agressing them. When I tried to shoot them... I couldn’t. I couldn’t shoot them because the person that loaned me the drake put Heavy Assault Missiles in the cargo hold instead of Heavy Missiles.... Marc. So unable to shoot, I simply docked back up. Professor Terror did manage to swoop in and make short work of him while I searched for ammo.

My second encounter of the evening was with a gnat of a Jaguar pilot. That’s exactly how he flew, like a gnat. In range for a couple of seconds and as soon as you line up a good hit, he’s off 70K away. We screwed around with him for a little bit, but then the guy that was in the Incursus was back and this time he was in a Iskur! I’m not sure what he was thinking.

While we did end up with the killmail, the fight went on a bit longer than I would have imagined. The three of us shot at him for a good minute and a half or so. I think someone might have been splitting DPS on the Jaguar. Plus we were on a gate, so our drones were dropping pretty fast. I wish I had fraps going because I would have loved to see his transversal.

After that, we did a bit more roaming around trying to find something else to kill. We popped over next door to get more drones and while we were waiting on a gate, an auto piloting Iteron appeared. Marc is so busy on his scout he didn’t even notice. I end up getting the ship webbed and scrammed before I get on comms and alert him there is an industrial ship to shoot.

Obviously the guy is afk. We get his pod and we attempt to hold it for ransom. I open the convo, but when I do Marc tells me the Jaguar is coming back and to just pop the pod. We pop the pod and go chasing after this Jaguar, again. About 10 minutes later, I get a standings notification with this little gem:

Wolf Aus has set their standing to terrible towards you.
nice one slut nice bounty for you and your fagot munching wanker

I have never laughed so hard in my life. I’m not sure why he was so angry. He didn’t have any cargo worth anything. He didn’t have implants in. Plus, if he’s baller enough to go through low sec on auto pilot in...an... iteron... well then you get what you get, Sir. You may suck it. Maybe he had come a bunch of jumps and I sent him back to his starting point. Ouch.

Something surprisingly fun happened. Marc decided to do a little experiment and started tweeting about he , Terror and I roaming around Mara. A few minutes later tweetfleeter @Zievarrenna shows up in local. He’s in a Merlin and Marc asks if he wants to 1v1. So Marc gets a rifter together to 1v1 and I jump in to a reaper to watch. I got it all on fraps, but TL;DR Marc wins. As fun as that was, it wasn’t the best part of the night.

The best part of the night was a fight that resulted in no kill mails. Marc found what was obviously a bait drake in one of the systems. By this time the fleet comp changed to a Drake, Tornado & Talon. He scouted out the rest of the fleet which appeared to be a hurricane and a falcon. We weighted the odds and figured that with out DPS we should be able to get the drake down provided we followed the game plan.

We were going to rush the drake and get him down. As soon as we were locked and shooting the drake we would release drones, but not aggress them to the drake. Instead we were going to wait to the falcon warped in and have the drone aggress that ship since the falcon was going to jam us all out and drones will continue to attack even if you’re jammed.

So everything is going according to plan. We’re pounding this drake down. The DPS is so good that he’s bleeding structure when the hurricane land and he’s half way in to structure by the time the falcon lands. Then something both amazing and horrifying happened. All three of us lost point. The Falcon was able to jam out all three us enough long enough for the drake to warp out. We were in three different races of ship and the falcon was able to reset the entire board. On top of that, an orcale dropped in which was the worst thing that could happen so an emergency GTFO was called.

Evening writing this I get that excited feeling or “pvp rush.” It was just fun. There was no kill mail, but hell yea that was a good fight. We “gf-ed” and all that in local and the drake pilot apparently pooped a little. It was hands down the highlight of the evening.

I think I might stay out in low sec for the rest of the week. It’s a different kind of atmosphere. A different kind of pvp. Plus if a couple of listeners or tweetfleeters come down to play, it would be really cool. Apparently Kirith Kodachi wants to shoot at me. It was nice surprise to have @Zievarrenna come down. Apparently there are others in RvB that want to come play. Party in Mara!

Ciao
Dani♥

Assult Frigates: All the Power & Utility, but Total Lack of Skill

This weekend I took a break from my “favorite ship to loose” and checked out the new and improved Assault Frigates.  In the Crucible 1.1 patch all frigates received healthy stat boost.  Across the board a new role bonus of 50% reduction in MicroWarpdrive signature radius penalty was added and each ship also received an additional fitting slot, additional CPU and a new bonus specifically chosen to add to the strength of each ship.

For my test runs I chose to stick with my Win-Matar roots and picked up a Wolf and Jaguar.  Big surprise I know.  I could have gone the Gallente route, but… eh. 

The Jaguar

The life of my Jag was short and not so sweet, but I had a really good time in it.  It’s 4 mid slots make it a great tackling platform and even allow for a little bit of tank.  Since we had a bubbler in the fleet with us, I choose to go for a scrambler instead of a warp disruptor.  After hearing about Gal Fed’s new noctis fleet doctrine, I fit a salvager to my empty top slot.  Other than those two things it’s a pretty standard fit.

Our fleet’s target area was Tribute.  W.I. has made it a pretty standard practice on those long boring nights to take a little fleet out somewhere in the area of J-GAMP or M-OEE8 to play with NC. and friends.  The nights usually turn out with a few “odds and ends” kills and then a skirmish with a home defense fleet. 

I guess this is about the time I say I didn’t get one kill in this ship.  While I feel that the end result is completely bogus… it is what it is.  In this particular fleet fight, we were sitting on the station with a bubble hoping that some of the miners or mission runners would warp to the station in the panic of seeing the reds jump in.  This did not happen.  However, slowly but surly some frigates started to un dock.  “Oh goody!” We thought.  “Maybe they’ll bring out a fleet comp close to ours!”

Nope.  Our fleet comp was drake x2, hurricane, cynabal, blackbird, scimitar x2, jaguar, saber, dramiel and rifter.  They undocked a Dominix, Drake x3, Oracle x2, etc, etc.  I won’t bother to list the rest, because you can see where I’m going with this.  They took down a drake, the cynabal and my jaguar before the FC called a retreat.  Our fleet did manage to take down a Omen, Thrasher x2 and Merlin when the FC decided that the drake was not the best primary to call in the first place.  Of course, this realization happened after my ship was blow to bits.  Oh wells.

The Wolf

So after my crushing defeat in the Jag, I did what any other slightly inebriated Eve Online pilot would do.  I made myself another drink and I re-shipped!  This time I would flip the script a little and go for a wolf. 

I was a little anxious about taking the wolf out.  It only has two mid slots and with its five low slots, it has to be armor tanked and minimizes the amount of DPS mods you can pack on.  However, from a medium sized fleet perspective, when you have two scimitars and you’re in a frigate… its fine to be armor tanked.  Also, your primary directive is to tackle and you’re not meant for DPS so phooey on your DPS mods.  Unfortunately, this also means that you’ll probably be one of the first ones to die right behind the saber pilot.

Three had lost their ships in the first engagement.  Two of us were lucky enough to be podded back to VFK where we could easily re-ship.  One of the pods escaped and rather then jump back to VFK the fleet just took a small high sec pit shop for bio breaks and a hull acquisition.  We were also lucky to bring a couple of additions to our fleet including a falcon, tengu and another drake.  The cynabal pilot opted for a rifter in this round.

Once we get back together, we push off and things were going well-ish.  On our way back to J-GAMP we came across a Drake and a Sabre that we made short work of.  Why we were going back to J-GAMP when we didn’t have significant additional numbers and we knew what they were packing… I’ll never know.  Still things stayed in our favor at least for a little while.  During our second tour of the system we happened to come across thiscomedy Talos kill mail.  Half fit ships for the win.

Feeling good about our victories we decided to call it a nice and head back to our base of operation.  Lucky for us, there was a great big welcome party in E-OGL4 just waiting to see us off on our merry little way.  Again… not even sure why were out there.  It’s not like the fleet of Drake x4, Armageddon x2, Apocalypse, etc, etc was a total surprise.  I do have to give it up for the logi pilots.  They kept me alive a lot longer than I ever planned or expected.

Overall, I had a good time playing around in assault frigates.  They’re a nice thrill that’s easy on the wallet and a good value for the utility and DPS.  I’d like a chance to take out an assault frigate again, but I’ll need to work on my GTFO skills and get back in to practice with tackling mechanics.  I think being a logi pilot has made me a little lazy. 

Note:  I would link the battle reports, but they are all fucked up on eve-kill.net.  I’ll have to see if I can find something better.

Audio Blog: To Dine With Death and Enjoy Its Company

I liked how the quasi-fiction blog came out so much that I decided to turn it in to an audio piece. Enjoy.

Quasi-Fiction: To Dine with Death and Take Pleasure in Its Company

Warning:

This blog features a writing style I’ve decided to experiment with that I’m calling “Quasi-Fiction” or “Dramatic-Recount.”  It features real events, but it presents them in a role-playish and very dramatic style.  If it seems over the top or fanciful, it’s supposed to.  Leave me comment if you like or don’t like it.  Constructive comments are always appreciated. 

Thanks!

Dani♥

 

Oh New Eden.  What have I done?

I’ll admit that I’ve done my share of deeds that could be considered criminal, but I’ve never done anything like this before.  What I did the other night was unthinkable to me at one point in my career.  Of course I had considered it once, maybe twice, but it was nothing more than a flicker of a thought pushed to the back of my mind.  I thought it was a trifle of a daydream, but I was wrong.  It was more than that.  It was seed of temptation.

I have now succumbed to that temptation, that little flicker of a thought.  In the blink of an eye I found myself sliding deeper into the rabbit hole.  The fruits of wanton destruction were bore unto me and I could resist them no longer.  I bit into its succulent flesh and found rapture.  Its exotic fragrance flooded my senses intoxicating me.  The taste of the divine upon my lips is something that I will never forget.  Then again, you never do forget your first.

The experience was a whirlwind when I think back.  We were alerted to a proper quarry and in a rush of action preparations started.  The blood in my veins quickened as adrenaline spread through my body like a fever.  Settling into minimally fitted destroyer class Minmatar ship seemed almost like a virginal experience.  Reverence came over me as I considered its sacrifice for my tawdry pleasures.  The time for such thoughts would be short as the fleet commander called for us to undock.

There we were.  Basking in rich, bold light of the Gallante sun that fed life to our system.  Oh, how it’s light flicker against our hulls.  It was a truly magnificent spectacle that would soon draw anguish in deed.  We were ready to be wielded like the steady and true hand of death itself, for that is what we had become.  Final checks were given and with the precision of a true professional our fleet commander took us and led us down a path where angels feared to tread.

Local would empty quickly.  Those left behind… no.  Those that were given a moment of freedom from our tyranny, loosed a bated breath.  It would be a short lived time of reprieve for them.  An opportunity to escape what had once held them down with impunity.  Still in the backs of their minds, as they skittered from our solar system they would know.  They would know somewhere out in some not to distant sector of space… someone was suffering a fate much worse than theirs.

We slipped into high security space moving as one under skilled direction.  I use the term ‘slip’ loosely due to the fact that Concord’s watchful eye is ever present in the higher security systems.  Announcements of our criminal status and threats against us flashed across our screens so quickly the names barely registered.  We were all criminals as far as the intergalactic law was concerned.  As poor as our reputation was… is… we cared naught.  There were more important and insidious things that kept our focus.

It happened so quickly, but those memories play like slow motion in my mind.  The scene could almost be described as serene.  The floating asteroids twirled as if they were in some majestic ballet.  The sun’s tendrils of light slithered through the darkness to cast it away.  Even the sight of that one lone hulk with its lasers drawing in the universe’s riches was peaceful.  While they are all very… placid, what happened next was truly beautiful. 

Really there’s no other way to describe it.  I’m sure there are others out there who would adamantly disagree with me, but this is my story.  When you combine the intensity of such sensory delights; the flecks destroyed hull that burst into space like burning diamonds, the unmistakable sound of artillery* fire, the tightness in your chest due to your heart stopping for briefest of seconds until your held breath explodes from your lips much like the vessel before you.  The ecstasy that you feel can not be denied.  No matter if it’s from endorphins wrapping you in their chemical bliss or the gratification if your inner predator being fed; you will have your satisfaction. 

In this exquisite dance of brutality and delight there is only one problem.  Once you have supped from the tree of life and taken in its fruits; your eyes are forever opened.  There is no turning back.  There is no straight and narrow.  There is no from whence you came.  No.  There is only you, your ship and the pursuit…

Oh New Eden.  What have I done?

 The Kill Mail

* This was originally auto cannons. I prefer the sound of auto cannon fire and I think it's more recognizable than artillery fire.  However, after having to listen to my corp mates bitch and moan on TS and through eve mail that our fit has artys, I've decided to change it.  Yes.  I changed my blog post to get my WSHOT to STFU.  Fuck you guys.  I like auto cannons.

I Ain't Givin' You No Tree-Fitty: STFU

No seriously. STFU.

Keeping your mouth shut and your fingers still can be your best weapon again those engaging you in unwilling PvP or uPVP as I’ll call it. Cussing pilots out in local and posting scathing threads about evil-doers in the forums does not help your cause. In fact, it usually only makes your problems worse. How do I know? Some of my closest friends are the people you love to hate.

Allow me to introduce to you Wrecking Shots [WSHOT]. They are greifing, shit talking, mood killing, monocle demanding assholes, liers, scammers and nere-do-wells lead by a delightful CEO by the name of ‘I’m Hostile.’ They also happen one of my former corps and remain good friends of mine. Recently one of the pilots in the corp, esquimo leviticus, sent me this tweet keeping me up to date with the corps happenings:

#tweetfleet WSHOT love [Short Link] @Arydanika Your missing out on the monocles x

Now that you’ve read that; back to my main point… STFU.

Do note that I’m not trying to be mean or troll you, but I do want to be harsh if only to engrain this method of survival into your heads; STFU.

Often times when pilots lose a ship by means which they think are “unfair”, “uncouth”, non-epic pvpzors or whatever; they feel the need to tell the world about the offending party. The victims of these events will resort to posting in local or (like in this case) on the forums. What these victims parties usually is realize is that more often then not; the offending party doesn’t care. What worse is that your act of out-rage can possibly make your situation worse.

How do I know? Well, after weeks of mandatory overtime, some real life bad news and spending the last few days running around like a chicken with my head cut off; I decided that I would log in to EVE and have some fun. I cloned down to Gallante space, fitted up a pirating hurricane and joined these evil horrible people in Oulley to obliterate my sec status. I needed this. I really did and I had a freaking blast.

Blast #1
Blast #2

But Dani! How could you do such terrible things?

That mind frame right there is part of the problem. If it was a “terrible thing” it would be against EULA and those doing it would be hit with the ban hammer so hard they’d go cross-eyed. Yes it’s horribly rude and inconsiderate, it inconveniences pilots, it costs the offended party ISKies, but it’s also perfectly legitimate game play. Once “victims” recognize that then they can start to develop ways to combat this type of uPvP which brings us back to our main point. STFU.

WSHOT is enjoying their time in Oulley and I had a great time with them. We spent our time in TS3 laughing at the above mentioned forum post that others thought would serve to mock, troll and de-moralize them. I read Lord Ashur’s blog post that highlighted the threaded and added a few additional lulz and then decided to write one of my own about it. Then of course there was holding pods for monocle ransoms while spamming local with pedo-monocle bear and bouncing between gate perches trying to catch any poor bastard that picked those the wrong time jump though. They also taught me the finer points of surprise buttsecks and prepped me for the possibility of hulk gank should a fitting target be found.

Hopefully that description illustrates the point I’m making here. The cries in local, the flaming forum posts, the angry tweets and the mails of outrage that are frequently made by PvP offended parties have only made their zeal for this activity stronger. The behavior of the pilots being targeted only served make their blip on WSHOTS radar that much brighter and caused the targets on the sides of the ships to grow larger and sweeter. The wailing, moaning, protesting, calls for revenge, offers of white-knightery and gnashing of teeth only caused WSHOTs resolution to stay in Oulley and “kill everything that moves” to grow stronger.

Of course there is an exception to every rule. Everyone once in a while a pilot may feel a flush of embarrassment as they are public called out for “low brow tactics”, but most PvPers have no shame. Then there are cases of those that use their communication skills in this situation for a higher purpose. One of those exceptions happens to be a plucky little hulk pilot named Theos Cragen.

After getting ganked by a surprise horde of thrashers, he opened up a convo with one of the pilots. That pilot then invited the entire fleet, including me, into the convo to troll the guy. In the convo he explained that he was a new player to the game and that he spent all his ISK on that Hulk. He also said that he understand that it was part of the game and that he wanted to eventually join up with WSHOT once he had enough SP and ISK because he was interested in PvP. The guy still ended up get trolled and scammed out of 25 Mil*, but I provided him with an invite to the Project Halibut channel where he could get some help with a new Hulk. Plus, he did make a positive impression on the corp which may help him out down the line.

So I implore you pilots of New Eden. Please. For the love of your own sanity. STFU.

*Yes, he got scammed too. One of the WSHOT’s pilots told him that he could by back his corpse and if he salvaged it, he might get his implants back… poor fool. I’ll also mention that one of the WSHOT’s guys felt bad since he really had no ISK and sent the guy 5 Mil, which he ended up giving to the other WSHOT guy that scammed him. At least they tried right?

I ain't givin' you no tree-fitty: The Little Noctis That Could

I’ve decided to start the series off with a story as opposed to jumping right into the lecturing.  Personal victories are a very important thing in EVE Online.  Some victories are large like being able to fly a titan or landing a industrial kill that drops 9600 unit of Tech.  Other victories are smaller like finally completing that level five skill training or farming enough isk to get that monocle you’ve had your eye on.  Big or small personal victories are important because they have the opportunity foster moral for the pilot, breed excitement in others and they also give bloggers like me something to write about.

Last week a group of Split Infinity. pilots experienced a personal victory.  Their victory came by overcoming a problem that many null sec alliances deal with on a frequent basis.  AFK Cloakers.  When it comes to reader reactions to the phrase ‘AFK Cloaker’ I believe the break down is this:

The translation being; the recipients get greatly annoyed while the participants are greatly amused.  I’ve been on both sides of the coin, so make of that what you will.  Now there are those in the 20% category and for you there is a brief explanation of what an AFK Cloaker is at the end of the post.

Tu Ko of Legio Geminatus, Gentleman’s Agreement happens to be the in-system ‘guest’ for this particular story.  Their ship of choice was a Purifier complete with damps, a warp disrupter and torps with a little Manticore on the side.  Ouch.  Tu Ko did experience some early success and was able to take a Noctis and a Hulk during their stay.  The tide would turn however.

A day after the two kills, S1. pilots realized that attitude and behavior towards the unwanted guest had to change if they wanted to go back to their normal in-pocket ventures.  The pilots got together and formed a strategy to remove our previously mentioned ‘guest.’ They already had an expected behavior pattern for the AFK Cloaker as his targets were poorly defended, lone industrial ships and so they set their minds to the task of luring him out and given him a one way ticket home via the pod express. 

One tanked out Noctis later they had their trap set.  How exactly do you tank out a Noctis?  I really can’t tell you that since we might have to use the tactic against you some day.  Not all intel is available intel after all.  Once the Noctis was positioned in a Haven they played the waiting game while the support fleet of 2 strategic cruisers, a stealth bomber and a command ship laid in wait. 

After a while opportunity came and the plan was sprung into action.  As expected the purifier warped in with damps, the disruptor and torps at full blast.  The support fleet would reveal itself soon after and the same treatment was extended to Tu Ko.  Within moments the Purifier was down, but the pod unfortunately escaped.  The Noctis did survive. 

Now I expect that this story will some become one of those EVE Online Urban Legends one day at least in a local sense.  I caught wind of it the day of and heard the Noctis pilot weave a tale including guns in the highs and having complete faith in his fleet counter parts.  Now.. I don’t see the Notics on the kill mail, but the Purifier did have damps so that could have something to do with it.  A little bird also told me that the Notics pilot was on the verge of crapping his pants from the moment the Purifier started shooting until it exploded.  That’s all hearsay though.

One thing is certain.  The Little Noctis That Could brought a huge moral boost to S1. troops.  The story will be repeated over and over to any ear willing to listen.  The spark of PvP will jump from pilot to pilot causing a rise in fleet participation.  Within the pocket; the S1. way of life will continue business as usual with spirits high.  That is.. until the next AFK Cloaker comes. 

Explanation:

An AFK cloaker is just what it sounds like.  A person will enter into highly populated enemy system using a ship with covert op capability (stealth bomber, strategic cruiser, etc) and remained in space cloaked up.  The AFK Cloaker will stay logged almost continuously though a period of days.  During this period two things will happen: the moral of the system inhabitants will drop due to actives such as logistics, industry and ratting coming to a halt and eventually when there are no kills during the initial waiting period the system inhabitants will become complacent in their situation.  This is the point where the AFK Cloaker will strike and begin attacking targets of opportunity.  More details about all of that will follow in a later blog post.  

Kill Mail Links:

Noctis

Hulk

Purifier