The Soleater Journal

A journal about the EVE Online experience that covers everything from PvP and ninja salvaging to trading and planetary interaction. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24963919-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Reading the just released Templar One

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New EVE Online Rifter and Punisher Loadouts

So I've got a few more fights under my belt, including a few 1v1's, and have had some fail and some good ship loadouts. This post has two current ones that are working well.

The first is a Punisher. I had almost given up on this ship. Just way too slow for me, meaning I couldn't get in on enough kills or do enough dps. It has some great potential as a tanky fleet frigate though. 

This Punisher loadout with level 5 skills has over 10K effective hit points, does almost 100 dps and can get from fight to fight quick at 1900+ m/s with a microwarp drive.

[Christian Soleater's Punisher]

Damage Control II 400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I Adaptive Nano Plating II Gyrostabilizer II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I 

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S 150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S [empty high slot] 150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet Phased Plasma S

Small Trimark Armor Pump I Small Trimark Armor Pump I Small Trimark Armor Pump I

The other primary frigate I fly is the Rifter. This is the new loadout I like. It has a decent tank for a Rifter, good engagement speed with afterburner, and some pretty amazing damage. Level 5 skills will get you 4.3K hit points, over 1200 m/s and 165 dps. Yes, 165 dps. That's enough to kill other frigates pretty nicely in 1v1 situations, even if they have a much larger tank.

[Christian Soleater's Rifter]

Beta Hull Mod Overdrive Injector Gyrostabilizer II Gyrostabilizer II

Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S 150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S 150mm Light AutoCannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender I Small Core Defence Field Extender I Small Core Defence Field Extender I

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Blue Republic fleet forming for Sink the Bismark Event

[soleaterjournal-blog]

You think you know this... Originally posted here: http://bit.ly/nx1y1j 

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Rag Doll, Give It All You Got

http://tinysong.com/JaEK

Killing isn’t an easy game. Sometimes you feel used in the process, especially as a pilot in EVE.

The last few days I sat in wet pod goo like the others, travelling from system to system and from safe spot to safe spot. We were feeling out the enemy, taking constant warps from the fleet commander (FC).

When he was gone, replaced by another, the same. Cat and mouse, bait and tackle, one here, one there.

Morale was low after we got blobbed by an enemy fleet. The FC’s command to get out came too late for all but a couple of us. Too late for me.

This last weekend I got in on 13 kills and lost 4 ships. It was a blur of constant maneuvering.

Who am I to complain? No easy pickings. Hard fought. In the words of a famous smuggler, “I’d prefer a straight up fight to all this sneaking around.”  But hey, better than sitting outside HQ with my thumb up my arse. I’m a rag doll and would do it again. 

[soleaterjournal-blog]

My Iron Horse Rifter aligned to a gate to warp in on the enemy.

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Finding Your Fleet

Locating your fleet seems to be a challenge for newbs and experienced pilots alike in EVE Online. And for a fleet trying to get to killing, this can be hugely annoying. With people constantly asking, "Where's the fleet?... Where are you guys?" in the fleet channel, you can waste a lot of time and lose focus at a critical point. 

So here's a quick tip on finding your fleet. Click the Fleet button on the NeoCom, which will bring up the Fleet Finder. If you're used to getting invites to fleet, get use to this instead (especially in a larger corp). You can find the fleet yourself vs. asking for an invite. Next, right-click on the fleet boss. The Boss Location option will give you all you need to get to your fleet. Ideally you're doing this just before you join the fleet and are ready to go, but you can do it after joining by returning to the Find Fleets tab.

[soleaterjournal-blog]

I'm The Bait

Last night I readied my Iron Horse. Our fleet was up, pressing the enemy, who was playing cat and mouse with our ships outside their hive. Their fleet commander (FC) was no dummy. We caught one Rupture-class cruiser off their HQ, but that was it. The rest were buttoned down tight in their station. So we warped off and jumped out of the system.

The next hour was a chess match. They geared up a cruiser fleet to come after us. We warped to a safe spot off grid and a few of us upshipped to cruisers to make it a fair fight. We warped back, but only to sporadic engagement as each FC wanted a battle on their terms.

Then the call came down. “We’ll use the frigates as bait.”

Sure, I was getting tired of this ship anyway.

All of us in frigates and a lone Thrasher-class destroyer formed up and warped a ways off the gate while our cruisers stayed behind. They were the closers, we were the bait.

But 8-10 ships, mostly Vexor and Rupture-class enemy cruisers were having none of it. Instead of rushing to us, they deployed a hailstorm of drones. They rushed in and caused temporary panic in our frig fleet before the FC brought us around.

“Stay close and target those drones.”

“I’m primary,” someone called out. “I’m going down…”

Boom.

“They’re on me,” someone else said. “Warping out.”

 “Everyone target those drones now and take them out!” the FC said.

The drones battered us and shook our morale before we regained composure.

“Okay guys, we’re taking a short warp to the gate and engaging,” the FC said. “Cruisers, be ready.”

We warped, pulses racing into a force that would rip us apart in a few short minutes if help didn’t arrive. But when we got there, the last cruiser blipped off my combat overview. They had warped out.

We regrouped and headed to a safe spot in-system. They didn’t take the bait… this time. 15 minutes later we tried again.

Warping in to 70km off the gate we saw a lone Merlin-class frigate. They were trying to bait us. Missiles from our Kestrel frigates hit home once we were 35km out. But then our FC had second thoughts.

“Guys, orbit our Maller cruiser and slowly burn away. Let their fleet come to us.”

We did. A minute later my combat overview lit up with almost a dozen ships—mostly cruisers—that had jumped through the gate. This time they meant business, grouping up and burning for us while letting loose another hailstorm of drones.

We were ready for the drones this time though. We targeted them quickly and my autocannons took out several Warrior-class ones.

Before we knew it, they were on us. Our cruisers entered the fray in force. The FC called out the Ruptures as primary and secondary targets. He also put our ships with tracking disruptors on them to mess with the accuracy of their guns. It worked. While we had trouble coordinating fire on the first ship, it went down. It was the morale boost we needed. The next was faster.

We moved on to the Vexors with the FC calling them as his voice cut in and out over the comms. They were chewing us up though. Explosions pocked the sky. Our FC went down, calling targets without concern for his own demise. Then I went down too, but not before putting fire on another cruiser.

I escaped in my pod and rushed back to our HQ, reshipping in a Punisher frigate. Many other pilots did the same. On my way back to the battlefield, I heard through my comm link that the tide had turned. By the time I got there, it was mop up. The chess match had ended in our victory. Being bait wasn't so bad.

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Low-Sec Facepalm

Being a new pilot, you jump at the chance to get in way over your head. It’s part of the adventure. And that’s exactly what happened this last weekend. I fitted up a Merlin-class frigate to corp specs for low-sec system roaming and eagerly awaited the time when I could follow a fleet commander (FC) into the lawless naughty places to do some naughty things.

When I logged into my comm system, the FC was organizing people. They were at a safe spot in-system and scouts were already pushing into low-sec systems to see what was there—with the goal of killing other pilots attempting to be naughty and taking the booty. Valuable experience for a young pilot like me.

After several false starts, we formed up. I warped out from the station to a place off-grid that one of the fleet members had set up. There was a Rifter and a Keres electronic attack frigate in the group, but the rest—about 6-7 ships—were cruisers in the form of Ruptures, Caracals and Thoraxes. I felt safe. In fact, a scout spotted nearly twice our number in Red Federation ships laying in wait on what would have been our return route through low-sec, but they disappeared before we could get to them. The rest of the fleet felt very confident we could take them.

After our false start, something unexpected happened. Our FC got called away to speak with the top brass. Something about keeping the peace with our sister corp. That left us high and dry. Luckily, another fleet member stepped forward to take the FC spot and consensus was we press forward to low-sec.

The plan was to do a loop through 6 or so systems. But that’s not what happened. As we entered low-sec, my navi computer shot up warnings. Enter at your own risk basically. I shut off the newb messages and nervously tried to keep up with the fleet aligning and warping from one system to the next. We declined to engage a Tengu tech III cruiser and his friends on a gate. They followed for a short distance, but lost interest. That’s when someone piped up that a system 6 or more jumps deeper into low-sec was a haven for pirates. Why not? Go deeper into the rabbit hole.

The acting FC had us hold on a gate. He and another ship scouted forward in the next system. We were fairly tight up until that point, always one system behind a scout. But our FC and scout jumped ahead another system after the first. He called out the gate he was on, but it became confusing—especially for a new pilot—as to what system he was actually in. And that’s when the distress call came in…

“Guys, get to me now! I’ve got an Armageddon, Tempest and Rapier on the gate and they’re engaging.”

There was a moment of hesitation, and I wasn’t the only one. Where the hell is he? Then we all jumped through. When we landed on the other side, someone called out what I was thinking. “What system?” Although we knew he was looking at the gate for the current system we were on, we didn’t know what gate had jumped though.

“Guys, I’m down in my armor. Hurry up! Where the hell are you guys?”

When we finally warped in, it was too late. I saw our FC go down in flames just seconds after I was able to target the Armageddon battleship. I got off a few volleys of 150mm autocannon shells and rockets, but saw explosions all around me. My corp mates were going down. The staggered entry was literally killing us.

“Get out! Everyone get out,” the FC called.

We did. I luckily broke out of warp disruptor range after a few tense seconds and warped to a planet in-system. On the trip back to HQ, I was alone. They had gotten four of our cruisers. The rest of us were scattered to hell and gone.

Lessons learned? Oh yeah. EVE Online is a brutal place. Stay sharp, stay tight, no mistakes. Until next time...

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Vigil Salvager Loadout

The Vigil is a great little ship for trying out ninja salvaging in the EVE Online universe. It's very simple, straightforward and quick, so you can get to wrecks faster. It's also cheap should mission runners decide to turn on you. Here's the loadout I used in the previous ninja salvaging log.

[Vigil, Ninja]

Beta Hull Mod Inertial Stabilizers Beta Hull Mod Nanofiber Structure Beta Hull Mod Overdrive Injector

1Z-3 Subversive ECM Eruption Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters Small Peroxide I Capacitor Power Cell

Salvager II Salvager II Salvager II

Obviously not perfect, but it moves nicely. Be prepared to warp out quickly if you get aggroed. Add some Small Capacitor Control Circuit rigs and it's cap stable if you don't use the ECM module continually (which you shouldn't). Salvage rig is nice as well.

[soleaterjournal-blog]

First Time Ninja

Donning my alter ego last weekend, I outfitted two new ships—a Helios covert ops frigate and a fast Vigil tech 1 frigate. I had one goal in mind: to profit off the hard work of others and maybe cause a little mayhem in the process.

I exited the station in the Helios—my “Bloodhound”—checking all systems and loading up some scanner probes in a shiny new launcher. Setting course for the sun, I came out of warp to see my ships monitors overwhelmed with searing yellow and orange solar overload. The shields held stable and I launched one probe after the other.

Pulling up my system scanner, I arranged scans to cluster above the plane of stations and gates in the system—two probes center and one in each direction with edges overlapping. Each covered an area of about 8AU. The probes quickly warped to scan where I told them to, and a few seconds later I had weak hits indicating some large battleships in system.

I re-centered my probe cluster and scanned again multiple times, progressively reducing the scan area from 8AU to 4AU to 2AU for each probe. Then I got two very accurate hits close together—Rokh and Abbadon battleships. I cracked a close-lipped smile and bookmarked their coordinates in my navi computer.

What I did next isn’t exactly stealing… far beyond what the law considers anyway. I quickly recovered my probes and docked up at the station. Yelling at anyone I could, I quickly got the Vigil-class frigate online and ready to launch. In very short order I was out of the station again, warping my fragile looking ship toward what would surely be two very territorial corporate pilots and their kills.

I came out of warp to find the Rokh and Abbadon over 50km apart. There was a field of almost 20 delicious wrecks… live wires crackling, twisted metal and salvageable booty in each. They had done well killing pirate insurgents, but hadn’t cleaned up their mess. I was going to help them.

I mashed my afterburner controls and locked on the nearest wreck. It looked like it must have been a cruiser short minutes before. I could see bodies floating eerily around it as I stopped suddenly after nearly ramming the space debris at close to 1000 meters per second. The Rokh was less than two kicks away, rolling over like some prehistoric whale.

My salvager locked on to the wreckage and began ripping out anything of value. Armor plates, controllers—whatever survived the battleships was flowing into my hold. Before they recognized I was there, I was on to the next, then the next.

Local comms were dead, but I knew they were having a tense conversation between them. This was “their” battlefield. By the fourth wreck the Rokh had warped off. Relieved he didn’t blow me out of the sky, I knew he’d be back.. and fast. I sped through, salvaging several more wrecks before a Primae salaving vessel warped in. It was the Rokh pilot, and he was pissed I was cleaning up his mess. My smile turned into a full-fledged grin.

He locked onto a wreck I was closest to and engaged his tractor beam. It became a furious race to see who could salvage faster. He salvaged one, then me. He started edging me out because of the tractor beams, but I was greedy—elbowing my way to the juiciest. It went back and forth until there were just four wrecks left. But these were close to the Abbadon almost 50km away.

I burned for them. Within a few seconds I had left the Primae in the proverbial space dust. The Abbdon sat there helplessly as I took all the salvage from under his nose. He locked me, but thought better of it. Concord police would blow him out of the sky if he blasted my ship. You can buy a Vigil many, many times over for the cost of one Abbadon.

Then I was gone, leaving them to argue and curse my name. At the station I sold the salvage. The haul wasn’t that great, netting less than two million ISK. Great money? No. Deviously fun? Absolutely.

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Short video snippet of a fleet battle in progress where we engaged several Hurricane Battlecruisers on a jumpgate. Eventually took out all of them. Lost 2 Punishers in the process.

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Ship Specs

How you loadout your ship makes a big difference. Here are some early tech 1 Rifter, Punisher and Griffin hulls I'm experimenting with as a young combat pilot. The focus is on affordable effectiveness.

"Iron Horse" Rifter This is a loadout good for most combat situations. It sacrifices a stasis webifier for a medium shield extender.

[Rifter, Iron Horse - Shield Version] Beta Hull Mod Overdrive Injector Cross-Lateral Gyrostabilizer I Cross-Lateral Gyrostabilizer I

Medium Subordinate Screen Stabilizer I J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters

150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S 150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S 150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, EMP S 'Limos' Rocket Launcher I, Gremlin Rocket

Small Core Defence Field Extender I Small Core Defence Field Extender I Small Core Defence Field Extender I

"Pen-is-Mightier" Punisher This one is for for decent sized fleet fights. It's less targeted and tanked more than a Rifter, but sacrifices speed... which can be very annoying. Version of this has been floating around corp boards. Could replace salvager with other utility module. Can't remember if I'm actually using the plasma ammo or the EMP.

[Punisher, Pen-is-Mightier] Damage Control I 400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I Adaptive Nano Plating I Adaptive Nano Plating I

Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters Warp Scrambler I

150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, Phased Plasma S 150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, Phased Plasma S 150mm Light Gallium I Machine Gun, Phased Plasma S Salvager I

Small Trimark Armor Pump I Small Trimark Armor Pump I Small Trimark Armor Pump I

"Stinger" Griffin At first glance you might scratch your head. But this is a very cheap dedicated electronic warfare ship that has some good reasons for being fitted like it is. The concept was taken from the Griffin: Tech 1 Sorcery loadout on Battleclinic.

[Griffin, Stinger] Signal Distortion Amplifier I

1MN MicroWarpdrive I ECM - White Noise Generator I ECM - Multispectral Jammer I ECM - Phase Inverter I

Standard Missile Launcher I, Sabretooth Light Missile [empty high slot] [empty high slot]

[empty rig slot] [empty rig slot] [empty rig slot]

Hobgoblin I x1

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Fleet Commander's Lackey

eating up space

afterburners on

FC making callouts

all night long

hot sticky hands

bleary-eyed courage

addict to destruction

killmail page

evidence I

was alive tonight

autocannons thumping

one more fight 

[soleaterjournal-blog]

The Right Skills

Without the right pilot skills, you're as good as dead in the EVE universe. You always have to have a plan. That's what my relatives would say anyway (4 previous Soleater characters dating back to 2006 who were nice enough to keep a sizable inheritance in a trust fund for me).

So what do you do when you know you're a pilot that's meant to fight? Here are some core skills I value based on early Rifter, Punisher and Griffin hulls I fly currently. They each have a different purpose. The Rifter is my favorite, with the Punisher being good for larger fleet fights. The Griffin is an electronic warfare ship I haven't tested in combat yet.

Most Important

These help you fit better modules to your ships and make the difference between loading down your ship with micro auxiliary power cores and something like gyrostabalizers that put more and better shots on your target.

Engineering

Electronics

Core Fighting Frigate Skills (For frigate hulls mentioned and loadouts... Includes above 2 skills)

Drones

Drones

Scout Drone Operation

Electronics

Electronic Warfare

Electronics

Propulsion Jamming

Targeting

Engineering

Energy Emission Systems

Energy Grid Upgrades

Energy Management

Shield Management

Shield Operation

Shield Upgrades

Gunnery

Gunnery

Motion Prediction

Rapid Firing

Sharpshooter

Small Autocannon Specialization

Small Projectile Turret

Surgical Strike

Thermodynamics

Trajectory Analysis

Weapon Upgrades

Mechanic

Armor Rigging

Hull Upgrades

Jury Rigging

Mechanic

Projectile Weapon Rigging

Repair Systems

Shield Rigging

Missile Launcher Operation

Missile Launcher Operation

Rockets

Rocket Specialization

Standard Missiles

Navigation

Acceleration Control

Afterburner

Evasive Maneuvering

High Speed Maneuvering

Navigation

Science

Science

Thermodynamics

Spaceship Command

Amarr Frigate

Caldari Frigate

Minmatar Frigate

Spaceship Command

Note that these are just core skills. To use tech II weapons and really take advantage of these frigate hulls it takes more. I'll post current loadouts for the Rifter, Punisher and Griffin soon.

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Swarm Mentality

There is an uncertain strength that comes in numbers—the parts weaker than the whole, but blindly going after bigger prey. A swarm has the power to take down enemy after enemy if you let it. 

Last night I undocked, testing out a Punisher-class frigate. The armor was vastly superior to the Rifter, but it was slow as hell. It was lucky I tried it out though. Just off the dock there were three ships hitting our main station in Autaris. I targeted the closest one and burned for her—a Punisher. That's something I'll be able to catch.

The enemy must have sensed I was new, focusing fire on me. But there were five or more of my corp mates around the base too. They rushed in, locking the enemy Punisher down. I fired my autocannons, but they seemed off after flying my Rifter. Whatever my deficiencies, the enemy Punisher quickly blew. 

Whether done with fleet ops or someone put the call out, all my corp mates in the area came rushing back to the station, warping in at a rapid pace. Good thing. Over the corse of the next hour we saw wave after enemy wave hit the station. Somewhere in there I docked up and switched to my preferred Rifter-class ship, Iron Horse.

I'll fly out the remainder of my Punisher hulls, but they seem to have their place. In small engagements like this, I wasn't able to be part of all the kills. It just wasn't fast enough. Plus, it looks like a small penis. I'm not on board with that.

In the five ships I help put down in that hour, I came up against the same pilot twice... Leper from the Red Federation. He was the second ship killed, a Rifter, but came back later in a Condor-class frigate that was also destroyed. I thought he was as new as me, until the next day.

Although still new and not used to even mundane things like picking targets quickly in my combat overlay, I felt like I could do no wrong. That's the danger of letting the swarm success become your own, it gives you a false sense of superiority.

Earlier today I boarded my Iron Horse again and shot out of the Autaris I station. None of my corp mates were around and there was a lone Rifter waiting, flashing red in my combat overlay. It was Leper. Why not, I thought. I took him down twice before.

Hubris.

I sped in trying to keep my my transversal velocity high and afterburner on so his guns couldn't track me. It worked... for a few seconds. I was putting fire on him—150mm autocannon shells and rockets. But it just wasn't doing enough... Then he shot out of the tight orbit I had around him. I gave chase to get him in range of my guns again. 

That was all he needed. He locked me up and let lose his superior long range guns on me. I couldn't warp off or redock. I was too hot for the authorites to let back in the station. Shells ripped through into the structure of my ship, destroying everything around me. And that was it... Lesson learned. I'm still green. You are not the swarm.

The ironic part is that shortly after I joined up with the fleet. The experienced fleet commander (FC) had 20 of us tightly orbit him several klicks off the entry gate into Akonoinen from Hageken. It looked like a real swarm—one that was angry and waiting for someone to sting.

After what seemed like an hour and Red Federation fleet came through the gate, ships popping into the system one after the other. The FC calmly called out the targets. Unlike my first fleet expereince I knew how to better use my combat overlay and put fire on ships quickly. They fell one after the other. I was focused, obeying the FCs calls, moving from one kill to the next. Acquire, close, warp scramble, fire, again.

We put down their fleet quickly. I came away with 9 kills. What a rush. The swarm is something else. 

[soleaterjournal-blog]

Beginnings

It’s an odd feeling, in the pit of your stomach, when you know you’re going to do something dangerous. But it’s something to get through, right? You anticipate, you prepare, but are you really ever ready? No. That’s the fun in it.

So I sat there a few nights ago, in the hollow hanger of a space station, inside my Iron Horse Rifter-class frigate, feeling very small against the massive walls and my thoughts echoing, pinging around. I’d done it—joined up with a bunch of warmongers out of some need… I don’t know what. Why they accepted me, I’ll never know.

And so I sat there, going over the fact that I’d outfitted my ship, made contingency plans should I lose it, and set up instant warp points for the second I undocked. I came to the realization that I had forsaken all that was “legal” and socially contributive. This was about having some fun. Go for it, right? Then why the hell were my palms sweating?

Chatter on the corp channel made is sound like my new mates had just been jumped. They were in no shape to answer newb questions about whether it was safe to come out and play. So I just sat there… until I couldn’t take it anymore.

Undock, clear the control tower, and spit out of the station like some unwanted baby. I’d done it a million times. But nobody cared before. My combat overlay flashed red instantly—an enemy frigate and destroyer were off my bow, licking their chops. Adrenaline shot though me as I spun up my navigation computer and mashed my warp controls. Get me the hell out.

It worked. A few seconds later I was sitting several hundred klicks off station. I knew they’d give chase though. Corporate intel put badies on the jumpgate leading out of the system, so I made for it, hoping I could get into the fight. Iron Horse recovered quickly and was up for another jump.

On the gate, two more badies, bow and stern. Cruiser and interceptor. No winning that fight. Luckily I warped just shy of the jumpgate. I had authorized clearance almost immediately and felt that fuzzy vertigo I always do when jumping out of system.

The other side looked like hell. My combat overlay was all red and pulsating like some angry demon. Panic seized me as thoughts about dying became suffocating. I pushed them back. Fight the fear you newb.

A few seconds later I was frantically looking for a way out. I found an asteroid belt in my navi computer. Without hesitation I gave the command to warp. Aligning took a painful few seconds that I thought for sure would get me caught up in warp scramblers. Not today. I warped out without a scratch.

How does that happen? How do some people get blown to hell while others live? I wrote it off as being lucky and coasted into the asteroid belt feeling cocky. Yeah, I did that.

The corp channel was dead. Where was everyone? I decided to send along some intel and head back to station, where I hoped we were forming a fleet. “Two on the gate and ten or more behind it. There were also two on station when I undocked.” No response.

The way back was easy. My cockiness made be bold. It was soon to disappear.

Less than five minutes in station I got a fleet join up request. I undocked immediately to find a dozen corp mates buzzing around the station. It was an amazing sight. Frigates and cruisers—many that seemed exotic to me—were crouched, ready to strike.

That’s when I got on voice comms and heard my corp mates for the first time. Fleet command was rounding people up, talking strategy and generally putting order around the situation. We had over a dozen fighting ships looking to scratch an itch. During that time, the enemy made several scouting runs. A Thrasher-class destroyer made three passes. We could never lock on. It was making people tense.

Then the command came: Warp to our scout that was at the jumpgate. Everyone did. To my surprise, no enemies were there. “They’re waiting for us on the other side,” someone said.

After a tense minute, a woman’s voice came over the comms, “Fuck it, let’s go.” The fleet commander ordered us to get on gate and be ready to jump. A few piped up in support of going through. The woman pilot took the opportunity to press it and shouted, “Alright. Go, go, go.” The fleet commander calmly told us to hold and that not everyone was on the gate yet.

This next bit is what I joined up for:

“Alright, everyone is on gate,” said the fleet commander. “We go in 3-2-1, jump!” All around me I could see my corp mates ships jumping. I got an excited rush that only comes from charging headlong into the fray with warriors at your side. We’re going to mess them up.

Coming out the other side was sheer chaos. Everything was flashing, ships we spitting projectile and laser death, ripping around in tight orbits. They outnumbered us almost 2 to 1. I didn’t know what to do except pick the closest target. I jumped on my afterburners and locked a Vengeance-class Ammarian assault ship. I warp scrambled him and unloaded with 150mm autocannons and rockets. My weapons were stripping away his shields. But this was an Ammarian ship. He had thick, thick armor.

In 30 seconds that seemed like an eternity, I had peeled away his shields, but couldn’t cut through his armor. The initial haze and chaos was over and I could hear our fleet commander calling out targets. I disengaged and frantically burned for a Punisher-class frigate after fumbling through my confusing combat overlay.

Iron Horse sped me there quickly. I was able to lock him and hold him from escaping with my warp scrambler. Just as I fired my rockets, the Punisher blew up in a hot fireball. On to the next. But wait...

I could hear the fleet commander, but everything slowed down. My shields took an initial hit that rocked my ship. Then everything went black. I was suddenly naked, in just my pilot pod. Escape, escape was the only thought I had as my instincts kicked in.

“Re-ship if you can and get back in the fight,” my fleet commander said. “Those of you that have lost your ship, we can win this.” So I did. Warping back to station I ran through station protocol as fast as possible, exiting and warping back into battle.

Ten seconds after jumping in, the fleet commander declared a victory as I helped to chase off the remaining enemy. They had finished off the assault ship. “Good work everyone… Good work,” said the fleet commander. “Now loot the field!”