Ironfleet Towing And Salvage

Wow, has it really been almost five months since I posted here?

Sadly, my gaming time was short this summer, and then recently I got sucked into playing a fair bit of Team Fortress 2. (Look for the Cheese Factory server, it’s run by a friend of mine.) So I haven’t had any good salvage exploits to report.

Tonight, however, I attempted a tricky bit of ore salvage, and got away with the goods, but only by dint of careful preparation. For, you see, I took on a well-defended corporate mining op. Only my extreme caution let me escape alive. I do so hate to lose ships!

These days when I feel like doing a salvage sweep of the belts, I tend to go out in my trusty covert ops frigate. That way, if I find a likely bit of salvage floating loose in a can, I can bookmark the can, then drop right in on it in whatever ship seems best for the conditions and the goods to be salvaged.

Tonight, I found a busy mining op being conducted by the Advanced Combat Machines And Equipment corporation (AC-ME). It was a juicy looking setup (and I choose that word advisedly), featuring two Retriever mining barges, two cruisers with mining lasers burning, and a diverse cloud of mining and combat drones. Ore cans were out and named with well-aged timestamps, no haulers were present, and there was a full buffet with open bar. (Well, no, actually I made that last bit up.)

However.

I’ve had bad luck with multi-vessel mining ops, even fairly undergunned ones like this one. Given time, even a swarm of gnats can lock a fellow down and do him a meanness. So, no combat, no expensive ships, just one quick in-and-out with a well-tanked, well-stabbed, disposable Badger II. Don’t get greedy, don’t get stupid, just haul some ore and move on.

Queue the undocking of the good ship “Iron Extricator”, band playing, crowd cheering, and dockside hookers crying sweetly into their hankies. Without further ado, I drop in on a canful of rich plagioclase.

Actually, it proves not to be full, but it holds more ore than my cheap Badger can carry, so that’s fine. Grab the ore, hit the warp button. It’s about time, too, because somebody I hadn’t seen before is flashing red and locking me.

Geez, I’d forgotten what a pig-dog a Badger II is when it needs to turn. What’s the flashy ship? A Hound?

“Computer, what in the heck is a Hound?”

No answer — not, that is, unless you count the sound of a salvo of cruise missiles hitting me. Fortunately, a skilled and careful mechanic can install a metric shitload of shield extenders on a Badger II.

It turns out, for those of you as didn’t already know this, a Hound is the Minmatar stealth bomber. Also known as potential pwnage on a stick.

Fortunately, I hit warp speed and was gone before a second salvo could land. Mission accomplished without so much as a scratch on the armor.

But seriously, guys: a full-time stealth bomber flying mining overwatch? It’s a great tactic, but nobody actually does it, because nobody can find a bomber pilot patient enough. I am impressed! Sadly, I forgot to note the name of the patient and loyal pilot as I was warping out (in a big hurry).

A very good show by AC-ME, my hat’s off to you all. You came closer to getting me than anybody has in quite a long while.

===

Update: Of course I had to get greedy.

The time: about an hour and a half later. I log in, jump in the covert ops frigate, and zip out to have a look at the op. It’s down to one (visible) ship now, with several ore cans visible.

Alt tab out, look at the log for the prior encounter. Who was flying that stealth bomber? Looks like Chebri. Is Chebri in system? No.

Go back for the trusty disposable badger. Undock. Warp directly to a can. Geez, it’s got two shiploads in it. Fill my hold. Warp out. Visible response from miner: none. Maybe he didn’t notice? It’s late, could be.

Back for a second load, now that I’m a free target for the whole corp?

Sure, why not? What could possibly go wrong?

Warp in. Looks clear, just the miner. Give the approach command for the can, my “warp to zero” was more like 2.2 klicks this time.

“RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Battlecruiser off the port bow!”

I yam, he said in his best Popeye voice, startin’ to respect these AC-ME boys n’ their deadicashun to protectin’ the ores they done thrown overboards like so much garbaggies.

At which point there is much mashing of the emergency warp button, turning on of the shield booster, and sacrificing of chickens to the Voodoo God of Quick Bugouts.

Warp procedures have commenced, and — hey! — the can’s in range, so let’s get the ore we came for.

At this point I think I’ll let the damage log speak (mostly) for itself:

[ 05:50:07 ] (notify) Autopilot engaged
[ 05:50:10 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:11 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:11 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:11 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:12 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:12 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:16 ] (notify) Autopilot warping to Inoue stargate
[ 05:50:18 ] (warning) You are about to steal items from Shye Hwa. If you continue, Shye Hwa and Shye Hwa’s corporation will be free to attack you!

Are you sure you want to continue?

Er, yes. What’s the downside in this situation?

[ 05:50:22 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:23 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:23 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:24 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:24 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:25 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:34 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:34 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:36 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:36 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:36 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:36 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:44 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:45 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:47 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:47 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:48 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:49 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:56 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:50:57 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.

OK, that’s a downside, but I think it was already incoming before I took the ore (this time).

“Er, Nav? Is there some reason we are still here?”

“Look out the window, Captain. We’re humping an asteroid.”

Shit.

[ 05:50:59 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:00 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:00 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:01 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:07 ] (notify) Medium Shield Booster I requires 57.6 units of charge. The capacitor has only 49.3 units.

That can’t be good. I guess I’ll keep mashing the shield booster button, maybe I’ll get a few single boosts in while this humping situation resolves itself.

[ 05:51:07 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:09 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:11 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:12 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:13 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:14 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:15 ] (notify) Medium Shield Booster I requires 57.6 units of charge. The capacitor has only 48.3 units.
[ 05:51:19 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:21 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:22 ] (notify) Medium Shield Booster I requires 57.6 units of charge. The capacitor has only 28.6 units.
[ 05:51:23 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:25 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:26 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:27 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.

Just how long can one Badger hump an asteroid? That’s about it for shields. “Nav, you can warp any time!”

[ 05:51:30 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:32 ] (notify) Medium Shield Booster I requires 57.6 units of charge. The capacitor has only 20.4 units.
[ 05:51:33 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 144.0 damage.
[ 05:51:35 ] (combat) Widowmaker Heavy Missile belonging to Deathslovelystar hits you, doing 123.5 damage.
[ 05:51:37 ] (notify) Medium Shield Booster I requires 57.6 units of charge. The capacitor has only 45.8 units.

Warp. At last.

On the bright side, I got home with all the ore. And the armor repair bill was only 2,012 ISK. Only a scratch, only a scratch!

I must remember to send a Giant Secure Container full of whiskey to the shipyard that fitted my shield extenders. They did a fabulous job!

Howdy, folks. Jim Bridger here.

Went out to an asteroid belt today to test my new gun setup, when I saw a Hulk mining into a jet can. Well, a can like that’s too juicy a salvage target to pass up, even if Hulks do tend to carry Tech II drones and get nasty with ’em.

Swooped in, flipped the jettisoned ore into an Ironfleet can, got it on the tractor, and began to drag it off to a safe distance. Nope, that’s not gonna work, here come the swarm of Vespa IIs, time to go.

Went.

Local smacktalk, not very nice:

moryia evenstar > jim you arse hole
moryia evenstar > come back here chicken shit
moryia evenstar > be warned every body in system, jim bridger is an active ore thief

Then comes the private convo with Moryia’s very optimistic hauler alt / companion:

Torredon Schreck > what you upto
Jim Bridger > Salvaging, as per usual
Torredon Schreck > stealing you mean
Jim Bridger > Naw, if I meant that I would have said that
Torredon Schreck > you stole from me a few minutes ago
Jim Bridger > Don’t think so, you’re not on my agro list
Torredon Schreck > check moryia evenstar
Jim Bridger > Yeah, I salvaged some ore from a can with her name on it, so?
Torredon Schreck > in my gang, you stole from hiim you steal from me
Jim Bridger > LOL, you keep using that word
Jim Bridger > Say, did you need something or did you just call me up to put ugly names on my chosen style of gameplay?
Torredon Schreck > come back to the roid belt
Jim Bridger > LOL, for what purpose?
Torredon Schreck > so i can try and kill you again
Jim Bridger > Right, and this is in my interest as a professional salvager exactly how?
Torredon Schreck > maybe you might get something out of it
Jim Bridger > Yeah, well, I prefer to pick my battles, thank you very much
Torredon Schreck > where are you hiding atm?
Jim Bridger > HIding? I’m busy salvaging.
Torredon Schreck > where
Jim Bridger > I don’t mean to be rude, but are you stupid? Why do you imagine I would tell you?
Torredon Schreck > just asking, to see if you are that stupid
Jim Bridger > LOL
Jim Bridger > Sorry, no
Torredon Schreck > so your not THAT STUPID THEN
Torredon Schreck > SORRY CAPS LOCK
Jim Bridger > No, but you are surely very optimistic to imagine I might be
Torredon Schreck > its worth a try
Jim Bridger > I know that feeling
Jim Bridger> After all I just took my salvage destroyer into drone range of a Hulk
Torredon Schreck > so do all of your corp go around “salvaging ” other ppls kit?
Jim Bridger > Check the corp description, or the blog at ironfleet.com
Jim Bridger > It will answer all your questions
Jim Bridger > Short answer: if it floats in space, we salvage it
Torredon Schreck > ok i see
Jim Bridger > Been a pleasure bantering with you, but I gotta go. Ironfleet out.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Marlenus went back in a Badger II and hauled the ore, which they had left unmolested in the Ironfleet jetcan. So the operation was, as usual, a success.

The war continues, if you can call the occasional “sight the enemy in local” a war. We did give friend Eidelon a chance to launch his drones today, but not enough time to achieve target lock. And we made a HUGE salvage haul thanks to him, so we’re buying his after-action Quafe.

It all happened like this. I was sitting in a station helping corpmate Jim Bridger refit his destroyer. He was feeling some power pain, so I rummaged up a rig from the corporate stash for him. Alas, he was short on a rigging skill, so I sent him to the nearest school to, well, get schooled.

But of course, there’s a war on, so we check local first. Yup, Eidelon is lurking. No worries Jim, just be alert.

Jim undocks. Sure enough, Eidelon is camping us. Jim warps away just as the drones pop out. He is not targeted, nor is he followed. His is, presumably, not the corpse Eidelon is being paid to obtain.

Me, I think it would be fun to have a little friend watch Eidelon for awhile, somebody he can’t currently shoot at. It just so happens I have a little friend parked a few jumps away, so I logged out, logged in my little friend, and started jumping back.

And on my way back…

My little friend. Anonymous character in an anonymous corp. Less than a million skillpoints. In a disposable frigate. And what to my wondering eye should appear, but about a half dozen battleships slugging it out at a jumpgate?

I sit at the jumpgate at zero meters, watching the slide show. It’s a busy system, there are at least ten ships involved in close combat around me, and at least thirty drones. My frame rate is, shall we say, teh suck.

Boom. Somebody goes boom. With a big boom. Did I mention the boom?

Click wreck in overview. It’s in range. Open wreck. First item: “True Sansha….” I stop reading, after that it’s a mass of Tech II icons. Grab grab grab! I think I sprained my mousing wrist I was grabbing so fast.

Dragging complete. Can we get a screen update please? I’d really like to jump out now.

One dead Minmitar, two dead Minmitars, three dead Minmitars, four dead Minmitars, five dead Minmitars, six dead Minmitars, any second now guys, you can update my screen, show me the empty wreck, let me jump!

Seven dead Minmitars, eight dead Minmitars, nine dead Minmitars… finally!

Loot in cargo hold, right click on gate, jump jump jump. Traffic control, we are ready (oh so ready!) to jump.

We jump. We dock. We dance around the station with glee and relief. We examine the loot.

It’s verrah nice. Not counting a regular warp core stabilizer, there was:

1x True Sansha Medium Energy Neutralizer (10+ million ISK ea)
3x E50 Prototype Energy Vampire (7 million ISK ea)
1x Invulnerability Field II (5 million ISK ea)
1x Large Shield Extender II (5 million ISK ea)
1x Warp Disrupter II (5 million ISK)
4x Shield Power Relay II (7 million ISK)

Those are conservative estimates of loot value based on current market orders. More than 75 million ISK worth of salvage, minimal possibility of blowback, and it’s all because of our mercenary friend.

Eidelon, this Quafe’s for you! {Hoists glass, drinks.}

Whew! I had an exciting day today, and really had to work for a jetcan full of pyroxeres. I swear, it might have been easier to mine this one myself!

But, much less fun.

So let’s see, I was scouting my local system when I noticed two covetors mining in close formation. One was in a corp and one was in an NPC corp, but there was something about their alignment that made me think they were together. I bookmarked both their cans, and returned to my hangar for my trusty Crane transport ship.

Warp to zero on one of the cans. Scoop a load of ore. Can is not empty, so I dump the rest into an Ironfleet jetcan. This covetor is not flying drones, and he offers no fight. I go home and deposit my salvaged ore, return for more.

Still here, still mining. I scoop another load, this can is almost empty.

Right about then the other covetor — the one in the player corp — begins to target me. Huh? You can’t shoot me. But he is flying five drones, maybe he thinks he’s threatening me to warn me off. Well, buddy, that’s not how I work.

So I zip over with an eye toward emptying that other can into an Ironfleet jetcan. Which I do. This one is almost full of pyrox, lots of loads for the Crane.

Of course, no sooner do I swap the ore than the covetor starts chewing on me with five drones. About this time, the other covetor leaves. Uh oh, this could get ugly if he comes back with a big stick.

So I align for warp and then crank up my one missile launcher on the covetor. This will be a test of tanks, his drones are doing fair damage and so are my heavy missiles. But I pull ahead quickly, this should go OK.

Suddenly, I’m enjoying the rumbling thunder noise of cruise missiles detonating all over my lovely blockade runner. And my shields are EVAPORATING like gasoline on hot pavement. Time to go! Emergency warp, ye swabbies!

Once the warping is underway, I take time to see that Covetor Pilot #1 has returned in a battleship. And he looks pissed. No way to waggle my wings in a Crane (no wings) but I exit with all possible panache. The armor looks like it’s going to need some serious plates welded over the new holes.

So what am I leaving behind? Blinky battleship, blinky covetor with half his armor gone, most of a jetcan full of ore with an Ironfleet tag on it. Hmmm.

What have I got in my hangar that can deal with a blinky battleship?

Hmmm, nothing at the moment.

Hmmm.

But hey, the battleship can’t haul that ore, now can he?

Time to dust off the stealth bomber.

Fast forward ten minutes. I’m hanging in the belt, cloaked, watching my two Ironfleet cans and the drones one of the covetors left behind. Nobody here but us chickens.

Here comes blinky battleship. He sniffs around, does nothing.

Here comes Covetor Pilot #2, now flying a blinky Drake battlecruiser. Another target I don’t feel like spamming with cruise missiles, because what would it prove?

Blinky battleship and blinky Drake hang around. Blinky Drake collects the drones. Blinky battleship eventually stops blinking, because time is up. But blinky Drake? Ah, he’s going for the Ironfleet cans. I watch while he flips them into his own cans. Now he’ll be flashing another fifteen minutes.

He hangs around a bit more. Then he leaves.

Will he come back in something large and thin-skinned and crunchy, with a creamy center? Will he?

He does! With a long elegant slide, a flashing indy warps back into the belt and directly to the ore can. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for!

“Wake up, you gunnery dogs!” (Working for Ironfleet, the gun dogs don’t get much practice, except at playing poker in the ready room.) “Wake up, I say! Look lively, and man the missile tubes!”

So I uncloak, target, launch the first volley of cruises. I can’t kill a Badger in one volley, but unless he’s very alert, I ought to get more than one volley. With any luck, he’ll get hung up on the can or something. One away! Two away! Three away!

Kaboom. Kaboom. Kaboom.

Damn.

For the first time ever in my salvage career, I meet somebody ELSE who flies Tech II transports in high sec. I’m not shooting at a badger-class indy, I’m shooting at a Bustard. Those babies are tough. At this rate it will take ten volleys to get through his shields alone, and I won’t get ten. On the bright side, he can’t have a gun on that lumbering beast, it ain’t possible.

In the event, I get four volleys, and take down about half his shields, at which point he warps away.

But right at that very moment, something much more exciting begins to happen, which utterly replaces my mild disappointment.

Remember Covetor Pilot #1? Who is still hanging around in a battleship? He’s long since lost the right to shoot at me, so why is he targeting me?

Did I say “targeting”? Forget the targetting, why is he shooting me?!?

Ouch ouch ouch, I’m in a ship made out of origami tissue paper!

Make that “Half a ship”, after the first volley.

Did I say “Emergency Warp!” already? No, but the guys in the black gang got the idea when holes the size of pumpkins (big ones) began appearing in the engine room bulkheads. They must have decided to hit the big red button without waiting to hear from their astonished captain.

I’m not sure I would have made warp before the second volley landed, but by the time I actually did make warp, Concord had arrived, blinky battleship was a smoking wreck, and Covetor Pilot #1 was sitting beside said wreck in his pod, contemplating the smoldering consequences of his anger management problem.

After that, there was no more excitement. Somebody beat me to the battleship loot, but I got the salvage from the wreck. And I had to pull out a Badger to haul all the ore home, which took about three trips. But my combative covetor pilots never returned for it, so it was an uneventful haul.

I spend quite a lot of time probing for derelict ships from the days when folks routinely left them in “safe” spots. Found one today that was an ancient hulk indeed: A plain Badger with two Cold-Gas I Arcjet thrusters fitted, drifting cold and aimless through space more than 40AU from the nearest celestial object.

It’s been some years since they added the “only one afterburner active per ship” rule, so I suspect this Badger’s been drifting, abandoned, that whole time. Sadly, other than the afterburners (which are still valuable, being best named) the ship was unfitted and bereft of cargo.

So tonight I was flying around in my souped-up Heron, probing for goodies. The directional scanner showed an interesting assemblage of ships and wrecks in the vicinity of the local sun, so I dropped an exploration probe and patiently waited for the results.

What I got was, of all things, a hit on a covetor mining barge, off the ecliptic and well away from any roid belt.

Interesting! In a change from my usual tactics, I decided to take a Badger II, just in case there were any complacent cans of ore laying about.

Once inside the deadspace, I found a used-up mission and a Caracal, an Apocalypse battleship funning eight lasers, a Covetor, and (alas) an Iteron V. The mining op appeared to be low end minerals from the mission roids. Jet cans were out, but they were well served by the indy, and were mostly empty. However, by sitting near the cans for several minutes, I was able to assemble most of a Badger load of ore. These miners were not, shall we say, paying great attention. I warped away without ever seeing any sign that my presence was noticed.

Not exciting, not very profitable, but it’s the first time I ever salvaged ore from a mission deadspace. (We won’t talk about the Bustard-load of Omber I took from an exploration roid complex once….)

Hello, my name is Emma Gunwin. First day in Ironfleet was uneventful. Spent most of my time training skills and helping with loot clean up for buddies doing level four missions.

Day two started me off doing more of my Ironfleet duties, such as removing navigational hazards in my brand new, freshly waxed Iteron. You would be suprised at what nasty suprises people leaving in these navigational hazards. I found a Large Secure Can with hundred and six Flameburst missles tucked away in it. By my calculations, if someone had hit that LSC before I had gotten to it and set off those missiles, it would have caused a sizable thermal explosion capible of doing 7950 damage. Good thing I got it before that could have happend.

The crew did an amazing job getting the cans in the cargo hold quickly, especially while being under fire from local priates. Good thing the Gallente know how to make a Iteron right or someone might have had to pick us off the nearest asteroid with stick and a spoon. Despite the danger we cleaned up more then eight navigational hazords that day and made space a safer place.

Emma Gunwin out

It’s no secret I do a lot of belt salvage in my Crane transport. She’s tough and fast, has a cargo hold big enough for many jobs, and the one heavy missile is enough to give an unpleasant surprise to many of the miners who think they’ll pop themselves a “helpless badger”.

So today I went for my daily belt sweep, and found a bunch of plagioclase floating in the vicinity of a Covetor. And that’s the Crane’s big weakness — as haulers go, the hold size is minimal.

So I grabbed what I could and stuffed the rest into an Ironfleet can. Haul to station, empty, undock, return.

Blink, blink, blink, here’s a new party heard from! An Iteron V is flashing red, and the Ironfleet can is missing. Well, we can’t have that, can we? It’s lock and rock time.

Dang. Not sure I ever shot an Itty V before, but it takes a long time to chew one up with one missile launcher.

About half way through the chewing, the guy in the Covetor decides to come to the Iteron’s rescue. His three Vespa I drones began chewing on me.

So picture this, folks! It’s a slow motion dogfight at knife fight ranges, since I warped to zero and everybody’s moving at Iteron V speeds. Two haulers and a mining barge, plus three drones. The world’s biggest slowest furball.

Eventually the Iteron goes *pop*. Loot? Would you believe I got one Cargo Expander II (yes!) and one Civilian Shield Booster? (What the fuck?)

The painful thing: Four more of those expander IIs went pop:


2007.03.24 20:26
Victim: vririeed
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Science and Trade Institute
Destroyed: Iteron Mark V
System: [redacted]
Security: 0.7
Involved parties:
Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.1
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Ship: Crane
Weapon: Havoc Heavy Missile
Destroyed items:
10MN Afterburner I
Civilian Shield Booster I
Civilian Shield Booster I
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II


Jesus people, you fit fifty million isks worth of cargo expander on your ship, can’t you afford to get a decent shield booster?

But let’s not forget, I’ve still getting chewed on by a few drones. Covetor? You still here? You still want a piece of this?

Apparently, yes:


2007.03.24 20:30
Victim: Amigal
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Native Freshfood
Destroyed: Covetor
System: [redacted]
Security: 0.7
Involved parties:
Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.1
Alliance: NONE
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Ship: Crane
Weapon: Havoc Heavy Missile
Destroyed items:
Expanded Cargohold I
Strip Miner I
Strip Miner I
Civilian Shield Booster I
Vespa I, Qty: 35 (Cargo)
Plagioclase, Qty: 5561 (Cargo)


The third strip miner dropped, so all in all, it was a good morning’s salvage.

I got my first good scare in weeks, playing Eve today.

I’ve got a salvage Merlin that’s all about speed. Salvagers up top, salvage rigs aboard, speed fittings in the lows. It’s specialized for salvaging wrecks that, shall we say, I did not cultivate.

With those salvage rigs fitted, it’s a very expensive Merlin, and I would hate to lose it. So normally, when flying the Miniluxe Salvager, I avoid the wrecks that have loot in them (this will change after tomorrow’s patch).

So, today. Sweep of the belts. Cleaning up empty wrecks. Ignored three corp-branded wrecks in the first belt that still had loot in them.

Finished the belt sweep. On my way back to the station. I’m docking anyway, why not stop by and clean up those three wrecks?

Warp in. There are the four wrecks again, lock ’em and get to work.

About the time I clear the loot from the first wreck, my brain kicks in.

Wait a minute, four wrecks? I could swear there were three here just mere moments ago. It’s odd for somebody to pass through and pop a rat that fast…

And as my eyes flicked nervously to the overview, *blink* there’s now a frigate-sized icon on it, 30 clicks away. Click, Manticore? Stealth Bomber? Targetting me? FLASHING RED? RED? RED? WARP YOU LAZY ENGINE ROOM SODS, CRUISE MISSILES INCOMING! WARP! WARP LIKE YOU’VE NEVER WARPED BEFORE! OMG There go my shields WARP DAMMIT WARP I SAY!

My warp was slow and inelegant, because I was bobbing on the wreck. The first salvo hit me and ate about three quarter of my shields, and I was gone (with much screaming) before the second salvo hit. In subsequent conversation with the very cool Manticore pilot, I found out just how lucky I was. He’d had the skills to fly his Manticore for just a couple of hours, and he didn’t have the fitting skills to fit all three cruise missile launchers, nor all the ship and missile skills to make them extra deadly. But even so, his first salvo hit me for 367 points, and my ship has less than 1200 points total. If I’d stayed stuck on that wreck for another couple of salvos, it would have been very ugly indeed.

All’s well that ends well, as they say. But, having been on the receiving end of a stealth bomber for the first time in my Eve career, I’ve gotta say, they don’t feel quite as worthless as the forum warriors claim they are. With better skills he could have instapopped me, and if I had been just a smidge more inattentive, he’d have got me anyway.

It was just like last time. There I was, minding my own business, autopiloting in a speed-fitted Executioner (frigate) around the galaxy collecting parts to build a couple of Gravity Capacitor Upgrade rigs.

Yeah. Sad to say, the tissue-paper Heron onto which I fitted the last pair had an unfortunate accident after jumping through a mission acceleration gate. Nobody said the life of a salvage explorer was easy.

Anyway, I came through a jumpgate and spotted a fat Armageddon wreck about thirty clicks out. Zoom zoom, it’s full of cheap large lasers (ten of them!) and supporting cap gear. More than will fit in my frigate hold.

Take a load to nearest station, come back. Now there’s a Condor orbiting the wreck, with a name suggesting an alt of the wreck owner. Apparently there’s no agro, because he orbits quietly while I finish looting the wreck and turn on my salvagers.

Bonus! Salvage is six melted capacitor consoles, very likely worth more than all the heavy lasers and related gear.

“Oh, the salvage life
is the life for me
with a rum tum tiddly-um rum tum tee
and I never ever ever give a fig about the weather
for the salvager’s life is the life for meeee!”