Invention!

Apart from all the Tortuga fun, I have discovered the joys of invention!

( Click to enlarge image)

After much gnashing of teeth, frantically buying missing skills and reading up on invention (and then crying when I realise decryptors aren't reusable and very very bloody expensive. The best Minmatar one is ~90m (Assembly Instructions). Ouch. It does improve chances of success hugely, so I guess I'll save those for inventing the new Trinity ships.

Anyway, my first bash of 4 inventions proved very successful, as you can see above. Yay!

Tortuga

I haven't written much over the past week or so, as KIA has been involved in a major hush hush build up to invade Period Basis.

First, the official write up by ISD which was published today, and explains it all nicely:

---
Tortuga: A new future for Period Basis
reported by: ISD Tsuki Kiyuu 2007.12.16 08:36:43


In a series of press releases that shocked some and came as no surprise to others, the Mercenary Coalition reset all standings and swiftly followed it up by outlining a new future for the Period Basis region as a mercenary-and-friends owned area “unfettered by the agendas of foreign powers”.

The Tortuga announcement declared that “as of Saturday the 15th of December MC, KIA Alliance, Ev0ke and Outbreak claim the region of Period Basis as our home” and stated as their reason: “we do this for ourselves, our fellow brethren of space.” It finished by claiming that “once our new home is secure, MC and KIA will be available for regular contract work.”

This latest dramatic twist in the southern war is being seen by some as perhaps the largest turning point in a conflict littered already with many landmark moments. The removal of the Mercenary Coalition from the side of the Band of Brothers means one less group for them to call upon, and arguably the greatest loss so far in terms of willing allies. Leaked instructions have alleged that BoB leadership has ordered their alliance to withdraw from most of the current theatres of conflict and prepare to make a final, decisive stand in Delve.

“All Catch fleet will be pulled to Delve on Sunday and onwards, 5-N2EY will be left, V2-VC2 will be left. We keep FAT-6P and 25S-6P. I’m sorry, but no one spits on our face like that. Ever.”

Words exchanged between the once steadfast allies (or business partners, depending on one’s perspective) are already showing signs of an increase in a tension many have observed for quite some time. Zakma of the MC advised his BoB counterparts that the move could in fact be a blessing in disguise, reducing the number of areas they need defend, and indeed reinforcing the key region of Period Basis which neighbors Delve. His statements however were laced with an animosity that is fast coming to define at least parts of the new MC/BoB relationship.

“In the end, we do what is in our best interest. If BoB’s leadership thought about this a bit more, they'd see that this probably benefits them in the long run. Their south side border is shut off…they have a region less to defend…However, in typical BOB style they'll probably try and go against us. Opening yet another front for themselves, and weakening the defences on the other ones…their ego just can't take it so their leadership will ultimately be their downfall.”

BoB’s leader SirMolle was quick to retort, claiming that since his alliance had come under direct attack from the MC and was thus being immediately threatened, they would not simply ignore it or leave the MC’s actions free of consequence.

“There’s a huge difference between asking ‘Hey, guys, can we have this space here for XXXX and XXXX so that we feel secure?’ or sending in 250 pilots with 40 dreads and attacking head on. I don’t really think it’s us who needs to do the thinking here, if you for one second think that we are going to sit idle while you attack us, you’ve got another thing coming. Make no mistake, this is your doing, and no one else’s.”

Some of the first public signs of tension between the MC and Band of Brothers were seen months ago during the assault on the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate in Catch, when GoonSwarm leaked internal discussions between MC revealing a frank and robust debate amongst them about BoB’s tactics and their worth as allies and clients. In a telling exchange, leader of the MC Seleene had this to say at the time:

“One last thing to any of you who doubt it - My loyalty is to the MC, to you. BoB is in no way, shape or form in control of me or this alliance…Don't think for a minute that MC is on anyone's strings. There are always plans within plans and I'm not one to tie our destiny to any specific path. The MC will always adapt and overcome.”

In yet another leaked internal communication, the CEO of Black Nova Corp Coranor was alleged to have labelled the MC as traitors and warned his alliance mates to expect harder times ahead, including the loss of stations. Despite this he maintained that BoB would and should continue to fight regardless and not buckle under the increasing pressure.

”MC is probably going to hit us tonight in Period Basis. Traitorous bastards, to be honest. The goons and company are hitting us tonight in Catch. Pretty much every northern alliance is due to hit us tomorrow in Fountain…stations are gonna go damn quick once this kicks off.

We [have] fights on our doorstep every day now…they think that they can actually drive us out of delve and kill us. They think they're actually better than us. They think we're panicking….We're the un-killable alliance and we're gonna bleed them for every system they take. If we lose our outposts then we move to the [Blood Raider] stations and take them back. We're not leaving delve…Delve is the Alamo…”

It remains to be seen just what the fallout from this latest turn of events will be. Some are expecting the MC to consolidate their space and then open up for business, claiming that it would be unlikely for them to push on further against BoB outside of Period Basis without a contract. What exactly any potential new contracts could bring however, assuming they do secure the region, remains anyone’s guess. Speculation is already flying. Some are predicting that MC’s capital fleet just may enter Delve in their first contract against BoB, whilst others claim that if BoB goes down, MC will be the next target regardless of these recent actions – a suggestion that one of GoonSwarm’s leading pilots The Mittani has refuted.

“If MC goes through with their plan…and gets the hell out of the war, they're no longer on the list of 'people who make me an unhappy mitten'”

As with much at this early point in the next stage of the southern conflict, it remains unclear whether of not his words will hold true in time. For the moment, all eyes are on Period Basis, watching with anticipation of just how deeply these latest changes will affect the conflict at large.!

---

Which explains it all pretty well. KIA have teamed up with MC Alliance, Evoke and Outbreak to go and take Period Basis. I knew nothing of the plans to do this, but I wouldn't expect to. So, it came as a complete surprise to me.

We ended our Hydra contract a few days early (the announcement is here) in order to prepare all our ships, mods and generally everything we needed for the, frankly, huge logistical nightmare of getting all the 4 participants ships into Period Basis. I shan't bore you with the details of the very long night we spent moving ships (and that was just one of the 3 nights in total that it took).





(Click on the pictures for larger views)

Everyone co-operated extremely well considering we'd never worked with each other before.

More amazing was the fact it never leaked out in a huge way. MC made an official announcement about the coalition (nicknamed Tortuga), and the thread has already turned epic.

Clearly BoB will respond and respond big. Why? Because this is BIG news, and people are keenly watching. Bob fighting RA/ Goonies is old hat. So BoB needs to fight us to save face and keep up PR. This is by no means over. More to come, as there are things happening I still can't talk about.

Death of a Phobos

Well, I finally got to see one of the brand spanking new Phobos Heavy Interdictors. Regrettably it was at the receiving end of our gang's weapons:

(Click for larger image)

They are 220m ISK at the moment, plus fittings, must be quite expensive. I can imagine they'll drop in price, but not just yet :)

The Eve Cemetery

With cloning technology, life is cheap. Death is even cheaper. No-one is that bothered about getting killed, as it's not perma-death.

So, corpses from ruptured pods are spread all over the galaxy until the harshness of space breaks them down, they fall into orbit of a celestial object, or are just blown up for a laugh.

Thus, the thought of a final resting place for corpses seemed a little... pointless. Until someone did it, and now it's done, it's suddenly a nice idea!

In the orbit of Molea II, in Khanid, a pod pilot called Azia Burgi has created a cemetery for the corpses of fellow pod-pilots, regardless of race or affiliation. She has catalogued the corpse names, here. There are approx. 200+ small secure cans that the corpses are stored in, to be kept forever.

As I had to collect a ship in deepest Khanid, I swung by to see for myself. Molea is a quiet system, so it seemed an appropriate final resting place for many corpses.

The dots are the cans

After a moment of quiet introspection, I headed back to Taisy.

New Camera Drones

Well, the past couple of days has been a whirl.

People have been reporting that they feel like they lost a day, and to be honest I feel that way also. One moment I was docked up in Taisy, the next I was still docked in Taisy, yet I felt like there was a hole in my memory. A lot of pod pilots have been muttering darkly about it amongst close friends but no-one wants to come out and say anything as it sounds mad.

The scientists have pulled a blinder and upgraded our external camera drones- they now show our ships and the outside space in general a lot more clearly and true to life. There had been some kind of restriction previously and the optics had been downgraded.

We've been pulling long shifts, camping the M-O, P3 and Jita pipe and getting a lot of kills. Some losses also... and my first loss while in KIA:

We had jumped into M-O to bust up a camp, and then hung around.... just too long it would seem, allowing them to form a counter.

I had recently taken delivery of a brand spanking new Sabre Interdictor class ship. I'd never really flown them before, and was just getting used to the unfamiliar behaviour (not really spent much time in the Thrasher, it's T1 brother either). Popping out Interdictor Bubbles was nice, seeing how effective they were.

Anyway, the people we'd just busted up had come back and engaged us. A couple of Stealth Bombers had decloaked and they decided I'd be the primary (a wise choice, tbqh, given the ship I was in). And I didn't last long:

2007.12.08 12:59:00

Victim: Ombey
Alliance: KIA Alliance
Corp: Obsidian Inc.
Destroyed: Sabre
System: M-OEE8
Security: 0.0
Damage Taken: 3294

Involved parties:

Name: RazorCRO
Security: 5.0
Alliance: Morsus Mihi
Corp: The Arrow Project
Ship: Manticore
Weapon: 'Malkuth' Cruise Launcher I
Damage Done: 1561

Name: m00ny
Security: -1.9
Alliance: Insurgency
Corp: Greenspring
Ship: Rokh
Weapon: Valkyrie II
Damage Done: 1101

Name: Farseer Shas'o'Kais (laid the final blow)
Security: 2.0
Alliance: Giant Space Amoeba
Corp: The Patriot Society
Ship: Manticore
Weapon: Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile
Damage Done: 632

Destroyed items:

Barrage S, Qty: 1155 (Cargo)
200mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 2
Interdiction Sphere Launcher I
Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters
Warp Disrupt Probe, Qty: 7
Barrage S, Qty: 102
Warp Disrupt Probe, Qty: 24 (Cargo)
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Dropped items:

200mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 5
Fusion S, Qty: 1100 (Cargo)
Warp Disruptor II
Barrage S, Qty: 132
Stasis Webifier II
Type-D Altered SS Overdrive Injector

I am sure the guy in the Rokh put his drones on me at the last moment just to get on the killmail! Got my pod out, thus saving my implants (nothing special, but saves me having to source more).

[as our killboard is down at the moment, I am not sure if we killed the Rokh who was our primary target]

After that, we hopped back into HACs/ Recons and prowled the Jita pipe, netting us some kills from Hydra pilots who were STILL flying solo and unescorted. I am still flabbergasted by this. One plucky chap in an Viator evaded us in Maskononen, despite the fact we'd had him locked and points on. He had the inbuilt transport bonus and I think only two of us, maybe three had got points on. We figured he was going to P3, and someone remembered there was a MDK bubble up in there, so we followed, and sure enough caught and despatched him in P3.

He was carrying loads of the new scripts for the modified Sensor Boosters amongst other stuff but again our corporate KB is down so I can't offer any more information. This is because Concord have decided to help their admin dept. and not send an EveMail to everyone involved with a kill, but rather just update the log of the person who gets the final blow. To make this more attractive to killmail hungry pilots, they have given us more stats, like damage done by each person, and what survived the kill as well as what got destroyed.

KIA Alliance are also proud to welcome In Terrorem and Lyonesse to the KIA family. After Trinity Nova left, we needed to bring our numbers up and we have on good authority that these 2 corps are well up for a PvP scrap. So, they joined us in the last 24 hours, and will no doubt fit in well!

[Trinity Patch] PCs get the boot

[out of game context]

Well, most of us in the UK will be waking up to patch Eve eagerly, but finding out our brothers in the US/ Canada have hit major problems with the patch. Namely, a mis-placed "\" has meant the boot.ini file that Windows XP/NT/ 2000 uses gets deleted. No biggy... until you reboot.

As you imagine, the forums are on fire. I am on Vista (never thought I'd be chuffed about it), but I am not patching a damn thing until I get back from work when, I assume, CCP will have sorted everything out. Probably.

New patch preparation

[out of game context]
Well, the much awaited Trinity patch goes in at 0200 tonight, and I have set long skills on my 2 accounts. CCP have released an in-game story to cover the release of Heavy Interdictors in the patch which I thought was quite cool, so have copied it:

Annual Physics Summit Unveils New Technology
reported by: ISD Baram Vorus 2007.12.04 12:18:26

Luminaire - Yesterday, the annual Physics Summit - a yearly gathering of highly renowned scientific minds - saw the unveiling of Project Cronus, a highly anticipated yet closely guarded project headed by Gravitech, with assistance from the Kaalakiota Megacorporation. Yukia Feuren, CEO of Gravitech, gave an hour long presentation detailing how Cronus works, with the focus being on the technology directly constructed using theories present at last year's summit:

"Theories such as those put forth by Professor Haalikim of Pator Tech School last year, are the foundation of this technology. The system created allowed for warp disruption technology to be exerted from a ship itself. Rather than simply installing a single target warp disruption system, it became possible to create a highly modified ship control system which allows for a powerful disruption field to be generated within a vessel. This field is not only as powerful as current interdiction technology, but is also able to be focused, like with the more common warp disruptors, allowing it to use its incredibly powerful disruption ability on a single target. The systems have been created for use on a Cruiser chassis, and while the field will weaken the mobility of the Cruiser-based interdictor, the vessel is capable of mounting a defense far superior to that of current Destroyer-based models."

Not all reaction to the announcement was positive. Several groups of students carried signs with slogans such as 'Not a Commercial' and 'Advance Peace Not War' stood outside, protesting the involvement of a Mega Corporation in the Summit. During closing questions, a Kaalakiota spokesman stated that they have been contacted by several other companies and are already in discussion to sell the technology to other corporations for use in their own designs.

Gravitech was not the only focus of the summit though. Tel Mu'Kor, a leading Physicist at the Imperial Academy, led a three hour round table where he and several others put forth work that is believed to be a key in creating a more effective means of stargate operation, allowing for faster and smoother travel between star systems. Doctor Kaeli Zemnar of Poteque Pharmaceutical gave a presentation on Zero G bacterial research, which has shown promise in the field of developing more effective antibodies for fighting illness and disease. It was applauded by many in attendance as the most promising presentation of new research given this year.!

Caps and POSs

Already been a busy evening, we went to kill a Hydra POS in Otsasai:

Small tower goes boom

That went down fairly fast, M-D-K were also in on the job. They are at war with Hydra as well (as well as Mournival Alliance), so it made sense to co-ordinate.

Some time after we gathered a BS fleet, a large one, and had intel that Morsus Mihi had caps in M-O. We hustled over there, and jumped in. They had a LOT of ships, mainly caps. We started killing support and keeping E-War on the cap we had primaried. About 5 mins later, we weren't making much progress, they were getting reinforcements, and things weren't going well. Also there was Razor alliance. Suddenly, they started withdrawing their fighters, and the Titan pilot from Morsus Mihi was in local. We started de-agressing, and I attempted to jump out, but due to lag, I couldn't. This time, we all saw the DD go off....and I had the presence of mind to grab a snapshot:

Click to enlarge image (gate at ships at bottom right)

I was left with half armour, and jumped out. I think the vast majority of us got out, as we all have meaty armour/ resistances. He got 3 BS, a Command Ship (Astarte) and a Recon (Arazu). First major losses of the contract in one engagement, but it had to happen sometime!

Morsus Mihi's Titan

Well, funny how fate has a way of beating you with a stick.

Only yesterday I read about MC's titan kicking some serious arse, and hoped (is that the right word?) to see a Titan's DD going off.

Well, yesterday I got my wish... and lived to tell the tale.

We'd been running around The Forge, M-O, P3, hitting Hydra and Morsus Mihi (who seem to be a major player and majory of Hydra's), getting some quite respectable kills. Hydra in the main seem to fly solo a lot, and it's costing them heavily. However, it's early on in the war, and in major alliances there are always people who think they know better and that it won't happen to them.

Anyway, we were all in small, fast ships, and happened to be in M-O being the usual pain in the arse. We'd just killed a couple of Drake Battlecruisers, when a ship suddenly appeared.... it was a capital ship. My overview told me it was a Ragnarok piloted by Deki, but I had no idea what a Ragnarok was. Which then made me wonder why our FC was screaming at everyone to jump out. Fortunately, we'd all deagressed from the latest kill (30 seconds earlier, it would've been different) and jumped out.

As we left M-O, we saw the pretty lights of the DD starting to fire up and I started wondering if the mystical properties of the weapon would somehow drag me back and engulf my ship with raw power, smashing the shields, melting the armour and ripping the structure apart.

However, the wecome space of Taisy appeared, and around me over the comms, came sighs of relief as it turned out everyone had jumped through, and we'd had no losses.

Now I knew what a Titan looked like up close, and felt pride that it was a Minmatar one too.

MC's Titan

Overnight, the MC Coalition (fellow mercs), decided to unveil their 2nd Titan (the first one got destroyed while they were working for Band Of Brothers).

They are currently fighting Brutally Clever Empire (BRUCE) in Syndicate. BRUCE pulled a 300 man fleet together to fight them, which is also impressive, but MC trumped them with a DD explosion which killed 138 ships, including 72 battleships (and 4 friendlies).

The aftermath- large T2 bubble- the dots are the wrecks left behind

Not bad going! I can imagine the loot retrieval must've taken some time.... I wonder if anyone brought any salvagers ;-)

Head of the Hydra

After a week of a very slow contract, where our targets, Nihil-Obstat (an alliance of 95 members) and Balkan Express (a corp of 43 members) pretty much refused to fight us. Considering their numbers combined were about 140, they should've been able to field a larger force.Anyway, there were some kills on either sides, but no-one was enjoying it much. Some people like to talk about PvP and others like engaging in PvP.So, our new contract proved to be more promising. This time it was versus Hydra Alliance:



Apart from having a cool alliance logo, I didn't really know much about them. I knew they'd been at war permanently from one alliance or another, so they weren't going to be noobs who'd run and hide. They are friends with, amongst others, Morsus Mihi, Pure, Roadkill/ Smash

We got the order to move all our stuff down to Taisy, where we'd be able to move into their 0.0 space via P3EN-E (Vale of the Silent), which was 2 jumps from Taisy. Also, Taisy borders onto the 0.0 entrypoint into Tribute, via M-OEE8, which is usually camped by Morsus Mihi.

So, I got my Tempest to Taisy just in time for a hastily assembled small fleet to jump into M-O and kill a Scorpion belonging to Golluk Forsight, Alliance: Combined Planetary Union. I didn't get a chance to get a shot in as I was late to the party. Oh well.

Shortly after, we received intel that there was a sizeable Hydra camp on the P3EN-E gate. Although our contract hadn't officially started, there are no rules in 0.0, and they were big boys.

We put word out, soon gathered a bigger force than previously (mainly battleships), and hauled ass over there. We were given the order to jump through as soon as we arrived at the gate. I took a deep breath as we jumped through the gate....

A maelstrom of drones, ships and light hit me after I arrived on the other side. The confusion was showing itself all over my overview until I clicked a filter on which removed everything bar the enemy ships. The FC immediately started calling targets. They had about the same numbers as us, and were obviously feeling confident, as the majority of the ships were on the gate. They could've jumped through and escaped but engaged us, thus disallowing the gate operators to process them though.

Primary target was KvaNTy Troiden in a Rokh, sat on the gate. He had warp scrambled tigerduck, our CEO. It seemed tiger was the primary target as his shields were flaring from the incoming hits, dissipating some of their force. I engaged guns on the Rokh, and drones on the secondary target, Eldest 007 in a Raven, also on the gate. They were very close and I was concerned my 1200s wouldn't be able to hit them so close. However, BS sized targets which weren't moving were no problem for them. My projectiles slammed into his shields.

About this time I started taking damage from 2 ships that were sat some distance from me. I think they were either Ravens or Drakes as they were exclusively using missiles. My shields buckled, but as soon as they hit my armour and it's boosted resisitances, nothing much was going on. They were shooting EM and Kinetic missiles at me, which didn't really do a great deal.

I had to ignore them, they weren't a primary or secondary target, but I was prepared to call for armour repping should my armour drop significantly. tigerduck had done precisely this as his armour started collapsing, and immediately was repped up to full armour by many of us who has remote reps fitted. I am sure this must've been frustrating for the people who'd primaried him!

We concentrated on primaries and secondaries and the targets fell quickly. Just as we were thinking that was it, an Arazu and Cerberus showed up 100km from the gate. I frantically cycled some long range Tremor ammo to my guns, muttering to myself "don't warp, don't warp". At the same time, Eddz and BeetleBoy shot out toward them, and managed to lock them down. Me and the people who could hit them at that range pounded on them and the Cerberus fell. The more lightly armoured Arazu crumpled and exploded in a blue flash, spitting out the pod which was targetted and killed in short order.

So, the final tally was:

Armageddon
Raven
Rokh x 2
Drake x 2
Hurricane x 2
Cerberus
Arazu

Not half bad for a start. We lost none whatsoever. Interestingly, most of the pilots were from Imperium Sanctus Formare Romanus alliance, about 260 strong. They too appear to be friends with Hydra then.