Diary of a Pod Pilot

When LeTo announced that he was organizing a Dramiel operation I just had to be there. After all, many of those originated from the blueprints I bought in Curse and had shipped over to Goinard. I had found buyers for each within Veto and soon after discussions on how to fit and operate the ship were held all over comms. The ISK this generated will be invested into improving my ability to run Cartel missions within hostile grounds, as Cursed Alliance and other capsuleer groups in the area are keen on defending “their” territory. Here’s to hoping my plan will work. I’ll probably write a little something about it later on.

Arriving in Old Man Star, our first destination of that evening, targets were sighted in the first belt: A bunch of Rifters with Osprey logistical support. The resulting battle was quite a sight, and Korthan captured a recording of it. While the Dramiels were doing their thing I directed my torpedoes at the Ospreys, which while far from optimal were the best targets for me on the field. Eventually dominating the field we collected the spoils and found out through local channel chatter the fleet were a group of Tuskers, whom were checking on a target there themselves. Ah, how quickly the roles of the hunter and the hunted can change. I had to break off a little later as I was feeling tired and unable to focus, but from the combat records I learned the fleet (or some of its members) ended up taking out another Stabber, Stiletto, Atron and Myrmidon. To my great joy — even though it is bad for my personal business — all Dramiels made it back home safely at the end.

Many camera drone snapshots were taken and shared around in the following days, the Dramiels being such aesthetically pleasing crafts to behold, but one of them beats it all. Morwen took a shot of them gathered around the Loki that provided us with leadership bonuses, and added a rather witty caption to it.

The feed starts with a birds-eye view of a docking bay and the adjacent hangars, recorded from an overlooking balcony. Crew are loading and unloading various containers and crates, and repairs are in progress. The ship hull is easily recognized as a Drake class battlecruiser.

Such a magnificent piece of Caldari technology …

While Myrhial narrates the camera drone descends and focuses on various activities being performed on and around the ship, lingering as long as it stays interesting. Most personnel doesn’t notice but those who do greet the viewer with a grin or nod.

… and such amazing performance.

By this time the drone has ascended again and settled in the air in front of the balcony. Myrhial is leaning forward, arms folded on the railing, gaze resting dreamily on the vessel below. Her unusually happy mood softens her overall cold appearance. If it weren’t for her PRETA uniform, dark makeup and the crisp clear white hallway behind her brandishing a large golden corporate logo in the marble floor she could be mistaken for that same young woman working so diligently for the State now almost a year and a half ago. The spell is broken the moment she changes her focus to the viewer and chuckles.

The Drake was the first ship I really felt connected with beyond the wires. I still remember exactly how I lost it. Duty declared war on us, something about dealing with Guristas, it all went above my head back then. Being so freshly graduated I was occupied with settling in and build up some funds running errands for the Navy. I suppose not seeing them in the neighborhood lulled me into a false sense of security that I took an actual ship hull out while picking up the modules I had purchased for it. And then there was Vanden to intercept me on a stargate. No surprise I lost the “fight”. Not much of a fight missing modules, having no microwarp drive to escape and lacking the damage capacity to overpower the attacker. I ended up forgiving him though, a while ago when he spent a brief period in our ranks.

She pauses briefly and smirks.

And just a while ago I effortlessly destroyed eight ships in two different systems with the very same kind of ship. It was a thrill to see how much damage the missiles did, and in the second engagement the shields also got throughly tested. A shame Whittenoom’s craft was worse off, and Rathnon escaped just in time. I decided to retreat as well as the remaining enemy forces were taking their range tempting me to pursue them. I really didn’t feel like staying and dying to reinforcements.

It is remarkable to witness how much training pays off since I last flew a Drake was back in Derelik. While this current setup is far more tuned for raw damage rather than survival she did so well the militia forces left me alone and went for the Myrmidons instead.

Another pause, and she adjusts her posture to standing upright.

But I start to repeat myself in all this excitement. I am off to the Last Gate for some drinks. I know just the way to celebrate my new found love for Caldari technology. Karlos better have some fine Hak’len in stock. This time I will make an exception and drink it alone.

The feed fades to black and displays the corporate logo before cutting out.

I’m sitting here in my office with a big smile on my face. Despite having lost a blackbird, and nearly losing an harpy as well I’m glad to see that Bold Harvest is now fully started. While we had a planned operation this weekend it wasn’t until yesterday I got to put a dedicated ECM ship to the test.

Earlier yesterday things had gone a bit sour when Zukko, Yishal and me decided to match up three assault frigates versus a Myrmidon. Little did we know the ship was fitted to counter frigates and we soon found ourselves missing a Vengeance. Draining the last bits of capacitor I managed to get out suffering only minor shield damage. I am ever so glad I took the time to perfect control of this vital part of the ship. Any less capable and it would have taken too long for it to recharge meaning I wouldn’t have been able to reactivate the MWD.

Returning to base we shrugged off the defeat and planned our next move. More and more pilots were tuning into the Neocom – resulting in a peak number in activity not witnessed since our roster was still double it’s current size! – and we formed up a new fleet with those that were combat ready consisting of several assorted frigate and cruiser hulls. And for once we did not have to look for targets as they came to us instead. A fleet of The Wings of Maak had occupied a site in our home system and we were going to crash their party.

Pretty classic scenario to start off with here. Our fleet drops out of warp and their pilots hightail it. Unlike most pilots we meet however they had the guts to come back and put up a fight. The Claw and Tristan sent in however did not stand a chance against the firepower we took along and the rest managed to get out. Celebrating our victory a little too early and having a hearty laugh about the fact Yishal had given me ECM bursts rather than multispectral jammers to be fitted on the Blackbird we failed to notice that The Wings of Maak had now matched up our fleet. As we noticed several Ruptures, a Blackbird and several frigate size hulls appear on the overview we braced ourselves but upon the quick loss of Yishal’s Arbitrator and my Blackbird alternate FC Vincent Pryce made the wise decision to retreat. During the struggle we did make them part with a Thorax. A rather enjoyable skirmish and the Gistii MWD found intact in the Claw’s wreckage covered some of the costs.

Guilty confession? I like ECM ships. Despite their fragility having the ability to render an opponent unable to fight back has a strange kind of allure towards it. As much as I like to be there up close with my fleet members the lessened need to micro-manage and keeping the oversight of the battle have their advantages. Even more so when filling in the role of FC. Who knows…perhaps I will find myself in a Falcon someday. The irony of proving Athas right would be terrible however.

But enough writing for now. There is work left to be done and I much long to find myself out there in the void again before this day ends.

Great success is what I would call last night. What was planned to be an evening of agent work resulted in not only getting a decent bunch of agent work done but also the destruction of about one billion ISK! Under the guidance of our Chief of Astropolitics, Gustovness, we formed up a fleet of assault frigates to make quick work of several missions around our home system. Things went well for a while until Brotherhood of Starbridge took notice of what we were up to and decided for a change it was their turn to probe us out. This was immediately noticed and our fleet commander, Sho Tu’a, issued the order to retreat to Hasateem for the time being and take a small break.

Arriving there we noticed another mission runner taking advantage of our absence. We immediately adapted our plans and had Aria probe out the Raven. His location was quickly obtained while we had our pods and crews transferred into ships more suited to this job. Warping into the deadspace pocket I immediately pinned him down while the rest of the fleet arrived. The Raven pilot declined our ransom offer so we opened fire. A little short on firepower Aria offered assistance in her own Raven. As she returned to bring out the battleship a Myrmidon belonging to the same corporation as the pilot we were engaging showed up at the deadspace pocket. I pinned this one down as well while the others kept the Raven in place and with the firepower of Aria’s ship we destroyed the Raven as well as the pod of it’s pilot, and moved on to the second ship. We offered him a chance to pay a ransom and leave unharmed but as he said he would only be able the pay half of it we decided to destroy his ship instead as well. His pod escaped our grasp by a tiny fraction.

Not that we minded when Sho announced the booty obtained from the Raven. It seems he had heavily invested in Caldari Navy modules and a good deal of them had survived the ordeal. The party was complete when we learned this would mean all pilots present could count on a payout of about 100m ISK. That beats the total ransom we demanded and had us all pretty puzzled about why he chose to sacrifice his ship while he could have saved such a heavy investment. Makes me a tad curious as well if he had matching expensive implants in his head.

After we returned to station with the booty and salvage we finished up our agent work and rounded up the operation, to enjoy well-deserved drinks at The Skyhook. Even when AFC arrived there in full force to bemoan our unwillingness to fight “fair” our spirits soared. We won in every way this day. Renown with the Thukker, a 100m ISK in our wallets, and Ammatar vexed at the fact we remain an untouchable torn in their sides doing damage they would so very much like to see gone…it doesn’t get much better than this. I am proud of the way in which every pilot present showed great discipline and teamwork. We may be small but we are leaving our mark. The irony of being chased out to run heads on into opportunity only made it all the more sweeter.