Small Cluster

There I was, checking on the sales of my Onyxes (3 down, 3 to go for the official count) when who should I see in an old Strife Mercenaries channel but the famous Grismar, author of Grismar's Eve Wiki which was one of my most visited sites when I was a neophyte pilot.

Turns out he is a friend of Cronyx Ravage who he knew from a corp they used to be members together in*. That corp? Fine Goods for Fine Gentlemen. Of course, Cronyx was the pilot that joined Strife and brought the attentions of FINEG upon us last year, upon which we imploded and scattered like a supernove heralds the end of life of a star.

Alas, we burned to bright too quickly, but that is ancient history.

Back in the present, I chatted with Grismar about the new wormholes that have seduced him back to the game and how they are the sources of Tech 3. I love the single shard architecture.

* = Grismar left FINEG well before the war and destruction of Strife Mercs, so I hold no grudges against him.

Stalker

You might remember back at the end of January me posting about my ingame stalker MeLuvYU LongTime who had declared war on my industrial corp with a corporation called Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club.

Well, shortly after that I received another evemail that got a little creepier, with a link to a woman in a bikini and calling me by my last name. My real life last name.

Now, I've not made special efforts to hide my identity and anyone familiar with google and this blog could nail down who I am pretty easily. I've just seen no need to advertise as this is a gaming blog, mostly about Eve. But still I was perturbed and filed a petition as a way to make an official record of the harrasment. I have no problem with in-game war decs, hunting, killing POSes etc, but that's all in game. You take your griefing out of the game and I get a little worried.

Next abour a few days later I got an anomymous comment on my personal blog that I keep for friends and family to know what's going on with the Boys and my wife and I. That comment posted my home phone number. I deleted it even though, again, I have not taken great steps to hide it in the past.

It was quiet since then and I thought maybe this annoyance had blown over. Then this morning I noticed a comment on last night's post linking to my personal blog by an anomymous commenter. I deleted it, but on my most recent post another link to my personal blog again by anonymous. I deleted it again.

To save them the effort, here it is for everyone. If you really feel the need to know that Lukas is teething or Sean is standing or what family we visited last weekend, knock yourselves out. It doesn't get updated very often and the content is not scintillating by any stretch of the imagination.

As for the anomymous commenter, I've disabled commenting without logging in. I'm sure there are ways to get around that but if you are going to spam my posts with useless drivel, at least give me a name even if its fake.

In the past I've suggested someone at FINEG might be behind the alt MeLuvYU LongTime. I take that back; this doesn't feel like them and I'd hate to drag their name through the mud if they had nothing to do with it.

That's Nice In A Creepy Way

You may recall that my industrial alt corp, Insisto Armamentarium, is currently under a war dec from a corporation called Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club whose single member is called MeLuvYU LongTime. Not much has happened on that front since December; still war decced, still no sign of hostiles.

Then Kirith had this show up in his inbox:

Click to receive full impact.

That's very nice sentiment and well written... even if the character's portrait is quite creepy. So here is my public reply:

Dear MeLuvYU LongTime: I'm married, honey. Going on twelve years this May. I'm flattered but I'm not available. I suggest you look up a nice strong Brutor and settle down with him and have ten kids. Later, KK

Apparently They ARE Paying Attention

Back at the beginning of December I mentioned how my industrial corp, Insisto Armamentarium (INSAR), had been war dec'd by an alt corp called Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club (KKFC), presumably a font for FINEG to try and annoy me. I dropped Derranna from the corp as she was the only valuable member and carried on with my life with little bother.

Well, on Dec 19th the war came to an end and figuring they got bored with paying for a meaningless war, I put Derranna back into the corp. Well, this morning I got the message from CONCORD telling me that INSAR has been war dec'd again by my very own stalker corp. An early Christmas present to be sure.

Anyways, Derranna's roles have been dropped and she will be safe from any surprise attacks once again, and whoever is behind KKFC can waste more ISK paying to upkeep the war again.

* * * * *
In industrial news, the Onyx sold for a really nice price of over 99 million (which translates to over 20 million profit even at higher material costs) and I was able to buy the parts for the 110 Invulnerability fields and another Onyx build. Should have them on market after Christmas.

Two Wars Is Not Enough

I logged in Friday night and what do I find in my inbox? A War Declaration against my industrial corp Insisto Armamentarium.


What's that corp name again?


Ok, I'm sensing this is not a random war dec then. Let's see how many war targets I need to watch out for.


One. I'm assuming that's an alt, right?


Oh yeah, definitely an alt. What amuses me most is how they got the corp name wrong at first and then realized that there is a character named "Kirith" in the game who started before I did hence why I had to take a last name for my main.

Since my industrial activities are not using a POS1 this war dec is nothing more than an annoyance at most. I will need to be careful with Derranna so I won't be doing any autopiloting unless I have her drop from the corp and go into the NPC corral. If I don't, I'm not too worried about a 3 day old alt but I do have some concern about a stealth application attack: have real characters put in applications to the corp but don't accept them until they can ambush a target suddenly. Seems unlikely but not impossible.

And yeah, I'm assuming this is a FINEG alt simply because I don't know of anyone else that would go after Derranna & Co with a corp named "Kirith Kodachi's Fan Club". I mean I don't hide the relationship on this blog and the corp does have Kirith as the founder, but this act feels like something Cap'n Sandi would do.

Well whoever is behind it, kudos for making me laugh all weekend. Its nice to know I have a fan club. :)
--
1 - Lesson Learned from FINEG: don't anchor a tower you can't defend.

On The Prowl

Friday night the mother in law was up so I was free to load up Eve and fly for a while.

As the client loaded I got a quick flash from a corp mate that FINEG was snooping around Sukanan again. Hmmmmm. Here I am sitting in my Carrier in a hostile system (hostile until proven otherwise in Eve) with our alliance at war and my buddies from FINEG spotted around on a weekend night when most pilots are out for blood.

Yeah, let me take the keys out of the ignition and unbuckle the seatbelt. This baby ain't going nowhere tonight.

With that decision to discretion made, I jump cloned back to base and found out an alliance op was underway in Citadel space. I jumped into my Falcon and headed out to join them. The Falcon, like all of the Recons, is a good all round ship to have in a gang; can scout, ECM to shut down enemy ships, and a scan probe launcher for hunting duty.

The fleet was 15 jumps out so I boogied as fast as I could. Just as I was a few jumps out I hear we got a war target's Drake. And when I say "got" I mean we acutally got it; the war target opted to eject from the ship and run away in his pod rather than go down with the Drake battlecruiser. We found this very odd as it means he wouldn't get insurance for the vessel and we get the 32 million ISK ship. Oh well, his loss.

By the time I had joined up with the fleet we had three more war targets penned in a system. Since I had a scan probe launcher I was directed into the system to see if I could pick up on any of them but I never found them. We played cat and mouse with them for another hour, trying to catch some unawares later on in another system, but the gig was up and they were skittish. Made sense, we outnumbered them considerably at this time.

So we made it back to base without any more kills or any losses and we chalked it up as a moderate success.

* * * * *

I had planned to get back online Sunday night for some more action, but the Twins came down with the cold I had from Chicago airport and are having a rough go of it since they don't know how to hork and spit or blow their noses yet. Sleepless nights abound and not a lot of free time.

C'est la vie.

* * * * *

I found out today that Tony of Eve's Weekend Warrior put an ad for my blog into his rotation:

I really like it, thanks man!

* * * * *

Industry update: the Covert Ops Cloaks are two-thirds done and then last batch of ten will be ready for market tomorrow, while the 6 Cerbs will be ready tomorrow night. Although one of the Cerberuses might fall of the back of the hauler into Kirith's hanger if you know what I mean.

I got 20 Invulnerability Field BPCs and 20 Large Shield Extender BPCs from the labs and started invention on them. The Invuls generated 10 tech II bpcs (right on odds) and I need to pick up more datacores before running the extenders. Probably build them later this week.

* * * * *

Skills update: Kirith is done with Capital Shield Booster skill for now having it up to level III and is working on Shield Emission Systems V to open up the Capital Shield Emissions skill for the Capital Shield Transporter. That's a very important module since a Large Shield Transporter II repairs 85 shield points per sec while the capital version repairs 300 points per second. Should be done that skill next Sunday.

Derranna is finishing up Mining Barge V this week and will be working on Mining Foreman skill to get it to level V thereafter. Once that is done, only one level of Mining Director stands between her and the Orca.

"Skill Training Complete"

I finally finished Tactical Shield Manipulation V this morning and will be able to fit my Capital Shield Booster tonight.

Overall this means I'm in the short strokes of my Carrier training, another two months for full capabilities, and less than 3 weeks to operational capability.

* * * *
In other carrier news, last night I made the second jump of my journey but my time online got called short due to a visit to the blood donor clinic that lasted over 2 hours (110 minutes of waiting, 10 minutes to give my pint of blood... AB+ second rarest type and also known as the universal receiver... all your blood are belong to us).

However, when I logged in quickly to get Derranna back on track to Task Murkon, who should I see in local in this far off jump point but Lemage, CEO of FINEG! Either it was coincidence or he was checking up on me for an easy POS takedown again or even a carrier kill.

Definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for those guys online next time.

Drake of Power

I was feeling well rested last night so I sent the wife off to bed and logged into Eve for a little late night gaming. The corp chat channel was me and two others (one of which was doing homework), and the alliance seemed asleep. The Sukanan constellation was quiet with no war targets or questionable characters around, not even Cap'n Sandi. I was on my own tonight.

Having a faction standing of -5.0 to Amarr there is not a lot of agents I can use in Tash Murkon region, but there is a nice Gallente Chemal Tech station nearby with level 1, 3, and 4 agents and I have the standings to access the level 3, so I mosied over there and jumped into my PvE Drake.


Note that its not uber-optimized for missions, its just something I threw together months back for level 3s and never revamped. It wasn't necessary since this thing has no issues with level 3s ever.

The first mission I was assigned was a simple retrieve the package from some rogue drones. What was interesting was the large energy bubble I had to destroy first to attack the Lesser Drone Hive. I didn't look up the mission first and had to look around and see if there was a generator to attack first, and when I didn't find one I tried attacking the field itself. Of course, this aggroed everyone in the area but my shields never dropped below 75%.

Once the package was delivered I decided to run another and got assigned a mission to go in and destroy a Serpentis outpost. Heh, I love killing Serpentis rats. This mission was even easier than the drones and the single Battlecruiser NPC amoungst the frigates and handful of cruisers was the biggest challenge... it took three salvoes of my Heavy Launcher IIs.

Man, I need access to those level fours.

Anyways, as I was finishing the second mission I was getting ready to log out and head to bed when who should show up in local? Cap'n Sandi! He was probably still in the area from Sunday night prowling in his Rapier. I sent the warning up on the local intel channels and logged, sad I didn't have more time and a better ship in system to tangle with him. While I wasn't worried about losing a Drake to a Rapier, I doubted he would engage the battlecruiser in a Force Recon alone.

Targets of Opprotunity

The boys went down without fuss last night, the wife was tucked into her Lazy-Boy chair to watch one of her shows, and I skipped upstairs with a spring in my step to log into Eve for a good stretch.

As comms came online and the station in Tash Murkon swam into view, I got myself oriented. I was in my revamped Falcon, prepped for solo-hunting work with tech II heavy neutron blasters, HAM II launcher, and some tackle gear and damage mods. Not uber at jamming like a fleet Falcon setup but capable for taking on a lone war target that gets careless. I just wanted something for solo roams through empire looking for targets of opprotunity if no alliance ops were going on.

However, as I get ready to dock I get the news that Cap'n Sandi is in our low sec constellation! How can I resist the chance to go exchange witty barbs with him again? As I get to base I looked at my selection of ships to use, trying to figure out if he is still in his Rifter or something bigger. A few alliance mates ask if we want to form up a gang to try and get him and I say sure, the more the merrier. I am designated target and I jump into my Drake and fly to the system Captain is in to try and bait him.

I pretend not to notice him in local and fly to the belts to rat. Hey, those rats are dying quickly. What the hell? I has Caldari Navy missiles and no regular missiles in my hold. I hope the Captain attacks soon, this ratting is costing my money!

I get word he is flying a Rapier recon, annoying due to the awesome ability to web from a distance and warp while cloaked. I go through the belts, carefully watching for his signature in my overview, when we get word he has attacked a neutral Carcal in system that was chilling in a safe spot. That can only mean he's probing. Hoping that he might be less likely to avoid me as a trap if I go into a cosmic anomaly I bring up the on board scanner and find one first try, warping to it and taking out the rogue drones there.

Meanwhile the CEO of the killed Caracal pilot mentions that the FINEG corp description says they are anti-pirate and he is going to contact their CEO and ask for a reimbursement. I chuckled heartily as I remembered this thread from their forums.

Back to the hunt, the Cap'n doesn't appear on my overview but instead takes off into an adjacent system. We form up on the gate since its one way out of the dead end pocket and try and get him to engage something that can tackle. The Cap'n decides to sneak out and jumps into our camp but manages to cloak before we can lock him. While this is occuring, a known pirate in a Vengeance assault frigate passes by us into the cul de sac as well. Interesting, but unrelated to FINEG as far as anyone knows.

As we try and find the cloaked Rapier, the other pirate jumps back into us. Dude, what made you think that was a good idea? We lock and pound him to dust in short order, making me very happy that I actually got in on a kill mail for once.

We continued to try and catch Cap'n Sandi but he proved to be to sneaky enough to avoid us and the fleet dispersed into the night as people had to log, myself included.

I got in on a kill, although not the one I wanted, and had a good time working with alliance mates and other blues. All in all a successful night.

Um... What?

I didn't get on very much last night but when I did as Derranna I received an invite to a convo from Cap'n Sandi himself. Well, I was surprised (not that he knew of my alt but that he would bother to convo me at all) and curious as to what he had to say.

I'll avoid the biting sarcasm about how he figured out how to use a locater agent to see I was in Providence 0.0 space (i.e. AY-YCU system), but for future reference, FINEG pilots, know that I assume you are aware of my location at all times, ok? I'm not surprised if you show up in local. Moving on.

I can think of many taunts and threats FINEG could use against me. Some I would reccomend:

"Trying a POS in 0.0 eh? Hope you guys bring a carrier to defend this one!"

"Hiding behind CVA's skirts in Providence won't save you."

"Great, I don't have to worry about losing sec status now when I kill you."

"Leave your corp behind to deal with us, eh?"

"There are no missions to run in Providence you know."

"You're going to have to run farther than that."

"Unlike you, we are not afraid to follow people into 0.0"

You get the idea. There are lots of ways to smack. This is however not one of them:

"I heard AY-YCU is haunted... [...] Ghosts and goblins come out at night"

*Stunned silence*

What the f*** was that? This is not the first time he mentioned ghosts. Back to his last blatherings in local:
[ 2008.09.28 02:27:53 ] Capitan Santiago > too noob to do missiosn solo kirith?
[ 2008.09.28 02:28:15 ] Capitan Santiago > or you just afraid ghosts might appear?

So we seem to have a theme here in that Cap'n Sandi considered himself and the rest of FINEG to be "ghosts" and "goblins" apparently, and that I should be scared of them. I can only think of a couple possibilties:

1. Cap'n Sandi is indeed 7 years old and thinks monsters hide under his bed and are in his closet.

2. Cap'n Sandi is an adult with a warped and odd sense of humour, and thus finds his threats the height of hilarity.

3. Cap'n Sandi is playing Eve while drunk and/or high, and thus finds his threats the height of hilarity.

4. Cap'n Sandi is just plain dumb.

I suspect 2 or 3 are the strongest canidates. Regardless, that has to be the strangest convo I've had in Eve to date.

The Cap'n Speaks!

I was running a level four mission with some corp mates in my trusty Rokh Battleship Saturday night when Captain Santiago of FINEG shows up in a Rifter.

[ 2008.09.28 02:18:46 ] Capitan Santiago > Kirith Kodachi Rokh
[ 2008.09.28 02:19:22 ] Capitan Santiago > 30 secs till log
[ 2008.09.28 02:21:42 ] Capitan Santiago > Ctrl + Q is fastest way
[ 2008.09.28 02:27:53 ] Capitan Santiago > too noob to do missiosn solo kirith?
[ 2008.09.28 02:28:15 ] Capitan Santiago > or you just afraid ghosts might appear?
[ 2008.09.28 02:33:24 ] Capitan Santiago > Doing vengeance?
[ 2008.09.28 02:33:54 ] Capitan Santiago > not a bad mission, cake walk
[ 2008.09.28 02:35:47 ] Capitan Santiago > Hey so how is derrana? good?

Pretty lame smack if you ask me although the line about Ctrl+Q being the fastest made me chuckle. After the mission we go to turn it in and a FINEG alt pipes up:

[ 2008.09.28 02:36:11 ] EVE System > Channel changed to XXXXX Local Channel
[ 2008.09.28 02:36:52 ] Zer0 CooL > run kirith!

Curious to see what the Cap'n would do I went back in Thorax Mynxee's Bane and we circled each other for a while outside the station.

[ 2008.09.28 02:41:59 ] EVE System > Channel changed to YYYYY Local Channel
[ 2008.09.28 02:42:19 ] Capitan Santiago > omg you came for me
[ 2008.09.28 02:42:29 ] Capitan Santiago > or did you forget your drones?

Then this after several minutes of nothing happening:

[ 2008.09.28 02:56:14 ] Capitan Santiago > wanna go to a belt?

So I warped to a belt, he shows up, and we continue to circle each other. Now, I'm under strict corp orders to keep my sec status above -2.0 AND I didn't feel like giving him kill rights so I thought I would let him shoot first. No sentries, right?

But nothing. Until:

[ 2008.09.28 03:01:41 ] Capitan Santiago > im not grinding sec for a rax kill

Well I'm not doing it for a rifter kill either. So I docked and logged. And as I warped:

[ 2008.09.28 03:02:12 ] Capitan Santiago > lol
[ 2008.09.28 03:02:19 ] Capitan Santiago > u war dec and run like a pussy

I gave up on the solo war dec against FINEG because I came to realize it was pointless: I didn't have the numbers to bring them to combat unless they had more firepower, and I was tired of flying alone. But I saw no point in trying to explain that as I doubt anyone in FINEG is looking for explanations.

I wasted a good 45-50 minutes of his time and that's enough for me. :) Note that I did not directly communicate with him via evemail, convo, or in Local. The above local log was all there was in the chat box.

Accepted

I was travelling for the weekend but always checking my iGoogle page for updates on Kirith's corporation. Sunday morning I got the good news: I was in m3 corp. Elated I logged in Sunday night to see a populated corp chat channel and an alliance chat channel and I immediately went to work reading the corp and alliance mails.

Halfway through the corp mails I saw one warning of hostiles in the area threatening harm to m3 pilots for harbouring me. FINEG has come to town.

Insert long suffering sigh of frustration here. I immediately contacted the director online to explain the situation and why these guys were coming around. I felt guilty that I had not explained it during the application and interview process but really, where do you insert the fact that this corp may or may not come after me depending on their mood? They did ignore me all summer and they have not bothered any other Strife leadership that went on to other corporations.

Of course, this could be part of their plan: try and force me to be isolated in my own corp or in a public corp and drive me to pay their extortion fee; perhaps they see me as a weak link since I was the one that opened negotiations with them last spring. Well, I have no intention of giving them a red cent and I get the feeling that the m3 directorship will not be intimidated by these guys.

In the meantime, I need to get some channels and forum access set up and get into the swing of things.

FINEG - POS Siegers

Not me this time. A friend, an ex-Strife pilot, had a POS in some out of the way place that he was using for R&D much like I planned to. Well he was gone for a few days and came back to find it in reinforced thanks to my "buddies" at FINEG.

My friend said the worst part was he was planning on taking it down today anyways. One week earlier and he would have been OK. I have some sympathy for him but he was quite aware of the nastiness I went through with my POS in August; he too underestimated FINEG's determination and investigative talents for finding those towers.

At least he got a couple months out of the thing unlike my tower which was destroyed within a week. Sigh.

Not What I Was Expecting

Friday night I logged in for a good long session (ok, 2 hours is long for me now) and immediately checked to see if any known FINEG pilots were online. None. Hmmmm, what to do? I was feeling like relaxing so I decided to run a mission with my level four agent. He spewed out some rogue drone mission and I quickly went to work dispatching them with mechanical efficiency.

The Rokh with its 350mm Tech II rails and newly added Tech II Shield Boost Amplifier had no trouble. Soon I was back in my salvager getting the material rewards of my hard work. Then Amaro Ray logged in. I immediately left the rest of the salvage for the depredations of deep space and jumped into my Thorax that I used to spank Mynxee in some duels earlier that week. I had my agent look up his location and groaned when I saw the result. Ashokon, deep in the Genesis region, high sec to boot.

I set out determined to make an effort to find him. Apparently he decided the same thing because halfway there in Gallente space I warped to a gate only to see him pop up in local and decloak at the same gate.

Now when faced with a sudden enagagement an Eve pilot has to do many things. First he has to see what ship he is facing, typically from the overview. He has to recall from the name of the ship what race and class it is and what its capabilities are, not a small feat considering there are ~40 ship classes per race (not including the faction ships). Then he has to add the pilot's known abilities both in terms of skills and raw PvP skill, and his own ship, setup, skills. Sometimes you also have to add in further factors like sentry fire and other possible combatants engaging later. With all those factors combined in his head he gets a rough estimate of the odds of his success and best course of action whether it be to engage or retreat.

The thing is, you get about 1-2 seconds at most to recall the information and calculate the odds before the enemy comes to his own decision and acts first. If you decided to run one second after the enemy has you scrambled, well, your odds just went way down. This is the difference between experience and noob pilots: the vets can make those snap decisions long before the rookie has even realized that a Myrmidon is a Gallente battlecruiser and more than a match for a Thorax cruiser.

Seeing Amaro Ray in a Mrymidon was a surprise as I had not seen him in one before but I knew my odds of survival if I engaged were low; the Mrymidon is infamous for its tanking ability and my Thorax build was all about the quick kill. So I ran and he gave chase.

I tried to lead him back to Rens where a new Drake was outfitted and ready to party. I was willing to test its mettle against the Gallente counterpart so I kept waiting for him at the next gate and letting him see me warp off. But a few jumps out he disappeared from local and I figured he took a wrong turn. I rushed to Rens to grab the Drake and went back out to find him, stopping at my base in Gulfonodi to see if he was there. Depite 30 minutes of looking I didn't see him again and my locator agent put him back in Ashokon before I left to do the dishes.

Saturday rolled around and I once again found Amaro Ray online and cooling his heels in Genesis region. As I prepared to head out I (and everyone else) was hit by a lag spike in Gulfonodi and I spent the next 20 minutes simply trying to change ships and leave system. While I was doing that Chaotic Theory logged in and I was able to get a location check placing him in Madrimilire in Domain region. Do these guys never stick together?

Deciding to check out what Chaotic Theory was up to since he was a less active member and might be more easily surprised, I took out the Drake and plotted a course for the Amarr heartland. About 18 jumps later I arrived and was pleased to see the war target still in local... and right on the gate!

He was in a Pilgrim Force Recon and I felt confident I could take it so I hit the engines and went for the gate as he jump through. I then chased him through a couple system hoping to show up close enough to grab a quick lock and scram him but he was quick with the cloak and made good his escape everytime. Finally he gave me the slip in the Caldari border zone and while I searched nearby systems along the route I never saw him again.

Frustrated I logged out. This is the problem with a one man war against a small corporation: no support when I need it to track and trap the war targets. Still, I did get out and at least saw the enemy and didn't loose any ships yet. Part of me wonders if they are spread out on purpose to make it harder for me to go after them. Time will tell.

* * * * *
As I ran that mission on Friday night I was struck by how much I didn't want to be doing it alone. The time for me doing lots of solo missions has passed, I need more interaction. If I could be sure of consistent gaming time a week, even four hours total, I'd try and join a corp again. But life is still too jammed with twin baby responsibilities to be able to be a useful part of someone's organization. Its frustrating but this too shall pass.

Tracking the Enemy

In the time since I decided to become official Eve stalker of FINEG (note: my stalking is limited to their in game lives and websites; I care to know nothing of who they really are and live) I've compiled some decent information on them, most from their own kill board and public forums.

I'm guessing that their 0.0 base of operations is the CVY-UC system in the Curse region based on the description of their history:

We decided to move into Curse finding it had good rats and lots of great targets. During our timezone we found a system nearly empty , dead end , great system to live in. However during the Euro timezone we found out that a major alliance lived there namely TCF.

As well their kill board has the most kills in that system (354, over 250 more than the next highest) and my locator agent has put them there a few times. Looking at a map of Curse CVY-UC is definitely in TCF's area of influence and the best cul-de-sac system in the region.

I'm also confident that their low sec base in Derelik region is in Faspera system. Between these two points I hope to have some chances to see them and perhaps even engage an opprotunistic target although I would prefer to keep my fighting to Empire where neutrals could not interfere and bubbles would not be a concern but I will try to do what I have to in order to bring the fight to them. I know they love the Broadsword in FINEG (used in 424 kills, almost twice as much as the next highest which is the Ishtar at 232).

I'm currently guessing their time zone is west coast NA making it difficult for me to catch them in their prime time. On the other hand, perhaps that is better for me to avoid getting seriously outnumbered 3+ to 1. Make no mistake, I'm on my own here and its better if they are not working together when I move to engage.

Going to War

The war declaration against FINEG went active last night but I didn't have time to log in as I was busy with the twins and my wife. C'est la vie. I do hope to get an hour or more tonight as the MIL is coming for a visit and I'm watching the twins while my wife and her go to the movies and the mall.

Sigh. Where was Eve when I was in college and had lots of free time?

Anywhoo, in the lead up to war I've prepared some jump clones and ships in various locales so that if I log in and find out some FINEG pilots are on, I might have a chance to track them down.

In other news, I've been working on three skills at once for Kirith and I've gotten to the point where I've got one hour left on Leadership V and Shield Compensation IV and 23 hours on Caldari Carrier III. When those three are finished, I plan to spend a week doing Shield Upgrades V for easier fitting of Large Shield Extenders on my ships primarily. Then more Carrier skills.

Finally, I spent a good chunk of change this past week. Not only did I buy and outfit a Thorax for dueling with Mynxee, there were some other ship purchases including a trophy Worm frigate which I bought from a friend at a discount price because I love the Merlin hull and couldn't pass the chance to own it once more. I owned one a long time ago before I had access to tech II frigates but was so hard up for cash I sold it and regretted the move ever since.

And I also bought a Firbolg BPO that I slipped into a queue for ME research last night. In case you didn't know, the Firbolg is the Gallentean fighter used by carriers and while I don't intend to limit myself to one type of fighter (that would be foolish) I do hope to be able to supply them to myself and allies at cheaper than market prices. Its a long term investment as I'm thinking of training Derranna up for carrier construction. Its just a wild thought at this stage while I'm trying to figure out what to do with her, go combat training or more indy. We'll see. She's still working on her hacking and archeology skills in any case, followed by scan probing skills.

Full Circle

Well, I'm back in Strife Mercenaries today.

As review, last winter I was a Director in Strife Mercenaries and things were running well. PvP and mining ops, group cohesion was decent, morale great. But we wanted some 0.0 space.

We tried Slyph alliance but decided the space was not good and the alliance was a little arrogant in fleet ops. We tried joining Rejuvenate alliance but didn't like the executor, so took most of that alliance and created Wrath alliance. But then the politics, crappy space, and time demands were too much and we limped back to low sec Placid, dejected, drained, and depleted.

Then the war with FINEG struck just as we were at our most vulnerable and things went downhill quickly. Since the boys were coming and I knew I'd have little time to play properly, I decided to go into Factional Warfare and with the rest of the directors either on break or frustrated to quitting, the corp disintegrated. Strife still existed but with alts and inactives in it for all these months.

Now FINEG has shown they have no let their war with Strife end with the fall and dispersal of the corp. I've been tracking their movements and times in Eve, and I've decided that I want to declare war on them (not that I'll be able to cause much if any damage on my own, but I want the option if I find them in high sec of engaging, or doing so in low sec without sentry interference). I considered using one of my alt corps like Katana or Insisto Oblivium but it felt fitting if I were to go back to empty Strife and use it. So I checked with the other shareholders and with their approval I'm back as a director of Strife and put the vote through for declaring war last night.

Although I got some moral support from my ex-corp mates, they are all too involved in their own business in new corps and alliances to help me with my little vendetta, so its me against the older and more experienced pilots in FINEG. I'd look into getting a killboard but I think I'll need more of a deathboard, LOL. Still, it could be fun and if I get lucky I might even get one of them.

See you in space FINEG.

Darn Real Life

I didn't get a chance to log in much last night as real life was hitting me square in the eyes. Which is a shame as when I did log in to change a skill, three FINEG members were logged in. I was itching to look for them but alas could not.

In other news, I needed a fresh breath of air so I switched to Carrier training again so I can actually get some use out of it.

Preparations

So I had Derranna ferry some ships down to Derelik for me (thus avoiding the overzealous Ammatar Navy) and a clone with less expensive implants for flying around in. Of course, every night I logged in this past week I didn't see any of the FINEG pilots online and if that trend continues, I could be in for some boring sessions.

I've nailed down the identies of 10 of the 12 current members and a few ex-members that I will keep an eye on. Next step is to find a good location agent in the region so I can do quick checks when they are spotted online.

They are also announcing a recruitment drive!

As of the end of this week, FineG will begin recruiting members for its low sec base. We will be looking for guys who enjoy running some missions as a means of income along with the occasional gate camp. The requirements will be:

Minimum SP 5 mil - Must fly a Battle Cruiser or Battleship at a decent level.
Age 18 years or older , exceptions will be made but basically we don't want anyone who is easily offended.
Smack Resistant - We need people who can resist the urge to splurge info in local. (Smack is just a dumb way to give the enemy info about yourself).
PVP orientated - We don't need miners, mining is bad...
Must be able to enjoy the taste of care bear tears. - If you can't drink down a glass of care bear tears, this corp isn't for you.
A microphone for ops is mandatory.


I know we have been lacking in recruitment so I ask you guys if I'm missing anything?

*nods* Pretty standard stuff (as a side note, Lemage, if you are reading my blog: I'd add minimum activity levels, like say 5-7 hours a week. Nothing worse than a pilot with all the skills but never online). If I had a combat alt that they didn't know about, I'd consider trying to infiltrate their squad and get inside intel. But I don't. And the thought occurred to me that the post, since its in the public forum on their website, is a surripetous attempt to get me or a friend to try to join to bilk us out of ISK or gank the ships we fly with them. I mean, if they read this blog they know I'm checking them out and its worth a try, right?

But alas its only me in this operation and while I meet the basic requirements to join I doubt that they would be so inclined.

New Project

Well, I've spent some time thinking about what to do next, and about FINEG. This morning when I logged in I found this evemail:

2008.08.25 17:19
As you have noticed we have been keeping an eye on former strife members,
We once again offer you a way for us to forget about you.

Package A - 500 Mil

I will remove you and your alts from my addressbook and we will never bother you again.

Package B - 600 mil

I will remove you and your alts from my addressbook and we will never bother you again.

I will also instruct our pos expert to give you vital pos defense tips.

Package C - 1 Bil

Same deal as before this will include all former strife members.

-Lemage

One thing I have to give FINEG, they keep the smack down. Straight forward, to the point, and they back it up. Although this line here: "I will also instruct our pos expert to give you vital pos defense tips", that stings. I mean, Ouch. LOL

I tried to think of some witty or defiant reply but really it would sound like the rantings of a pissed off player and I know I have very little in the way of ability to back it up right now. My PvP skills (especially solo) are nothing special and I don't have the allies to call in for a protracted campaign.

So I'm going to play to my strengths. I'm good at research and information gathering so I've decided that in lieu of production at my POS, my new project will be to find out everything there is to know about FINEG and its pilots. Where they go, what they fly, and what they do when they get there.

Then we'll see what I can do.

Of course I'll post it all here starting with the current location of Lemage: Faspera I - Ammatar Fleet Testing Facilities station in the Faspera system, Ananah constellation of Derelik region.