Archive for the 'Salvage Notes' Category

Ironfleet is BACK, people!

Like I said yesterday, I’ve been looking for an ambitious Hulk pilot who wants to shoot at the helpless hauler. And, today I found one.

I had to go hunting, but I found a system with a lot of hulks mining in it, about six jumps from home. Nobody had jet cans out though, so I reverted to Plan B, and spent a little time motoring around cleaning up their wrecks. (This usually doesn’t work … not without the motivation of lost ore to fire the blood … but I’m having to do a lot more of it, since people don’t jetcan mine much any more.)

And then this one guy jetted a whole cargo bay full of ore while I was cleaning up some of the wrecks in his belt. Really? That’s got to be bait, I told myself; he must want me to flip him. I better check out his backup. Nope, he’s alone in system, no corpies standing by. Could he be aggressive enough to think his Tech I drones will toast me?

Let’s see.

So, I motored over there and flipped his can … more ore than will fit in my battle Crane, of course. But I took what I could, and put the rest in an Ironfleet jet can.

Negative response from target. Sigh, oh well. I’ll go stow this and come back, sometimes they get angry and do something foolish when you come back for the second load.

Docked at nearest station. Dumped ore. Check overview before undocking… NO, WAIT! He’s a skull now! Did he really take my ore back?

Let’s go see.

I undocked. When the overview loaded, I see that he’s now got a corp mate in the system, showing in local. Crap! If he gets backup, there’s no chance. But maybe it’s his hauler alt, right? I’ll be careful.

So, back to the belt with me. There he is, one official flashy red hulk, just like I ordered. It’s a sight I have only seen twice before in my Eve career, once in my Crane and once in a bomber. Lock, point, orbit, and start with the heavy missiles. My heart’s in my throat now … where’s his backup, and what are they flying?

He’s only got Hammerhead I drones, which I can tank easily. But he’s a trooper; he sends them out to chew on me. He’s also got some active repair, so it’s going slowly. I’m gaining on his shields, but it’s clear he’s not going to die to the first launcher full of missiles. Where is his backup?

By the time I’m nearly out of missiles, I’m halfway through his armor, but it’s going slowly because I’m still shooting Caldari Navy Thunderbolts — great on shields, not so great on Hulk armor. So, I reload with Havoc Furies, and let fly again.

About this time, he pulls his drones and tries to pop a conversation window with me. Does he want to beg? Or smack? No matter; I need this kill. So I click away the convo request without accepting it. (When I was in the TEARS alliance, they’d have yelled at me for missing a chance to harvest tears … but that’s not why I play.)

Where is his mutherfrackin’ BACKUP? The suspense of waiting for the other shoe to drop is KILLING me.

Unfortunately, the change in ammo was a big mistake. In the time it took me to reload, he got a repair cycle or two in, and so now I’m shooting the wrong ammo type at his shields, and he’s easily outrepping me. So, I reloaded again, back to the Thunderbolts, and by the time I’m done with that reload, he’s all the way back up to half shields. Frick!

By this point, I am starting to think he’s got the worst corpmates ever, because his backup still has not arrived. I’m trying — and mostly failing — to think of a ship his corpmate could be in that I wouldn’t have to run from.

Meanwhile, the slow barrage continues, one heavy missile downrange every 6.34 seconds. Finally he’s into structure. Do I dare break my orbit and close with his soon-to-be wreck … the place where his backup has GOT to land eventually? Answer: whether I dare or not, this is Ironfleet. If I don’t get the loot, it’s only partial credit. There are standards to uphold. So, I broke orbit and started closing, at my majestic 257 meters/second.

Then… finally… came the Earthshattering Kaboom we’ve all been waiting for:

2011.04.07 23:48:00

Victim: Grabarka
Corp: 5 Inch Incorporated
Alliance: Black Core Alliance
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Hulk
System: [redacted]
Security: 0.5
Damage Taken: 11537

Involved parties:

Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crane
Weapon: Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 11537

Destroyed items:

Modulated Strip Miner II, Qty: 2
Medium Cargohold Optimization I, Qty: 2
Medium Shield Booster II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Azure Plagioclase, Qty: 13015 (Cargo)
Micro ‘Vigor’ I Core Augmentation
Hammerhead I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Modulated Strip Miner II
Survey Scanner II
Ditrigonal Thermal Barrier Crystallization I
Ballistic Deflection Field I
Hammerhead I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)

I was still staring wildly about, twitchy about his backup that never came, as I cruised up to the wreck and looted it. Then I headed for a nice safe dock. Just as the station environment loaded, here comes local:

[23:52:42] Grabarka > Death by Crane….that’s a new one for me.
[23:52:53] Marlenus > ;-) It doesn’t happen often
[23:53:05] Grabarka > haha, true. enjoy the loot :)
[23:53:05] Marlenus > Only the second such kill for Ironfleet in five years of trying
[23:53:17] Marlenus > Thank yous
[23:53:21] Grabarka > I’m going soft. Been in Empire too long.
[23:53:38] Marlenus > I hope Etternus is your hauler alt … I kept expecting reinforcements
[23:53:58] Grabarka > No alts here, just me.
[23:54:17] Grabarka > My corp/alliance is all in Vale…im waiting for transport out there
[23:54:37] Marlenus > corp mate in system didn’t come help you? You need a new corp. {cries}
[23:55:07] Grabarka > Didn’t even notice him. I’m going to yell at him now!
[23:55:24] Marlenus > LOL … no blame if you didn’t yelp timely I guess
[23:56:21] Marlenus > Look for a little blog post on ironfleet.com in about an hour … I can’t NOT write this one up
[23:56:36] Grabarka > haha, I look forward to reading it.
[23:56:59] Grabarka > Oh, just watch yourself in Vale. Your on my alliances kill list ;-)
[23:57:09] Marlenus > Fair enough, I wouldn’t have it any other way
[23:58:27] Grabarka > Im very tempted to copy your approach :)
[23:58:39] Grabarka > Was clever. I figured my drones would scare you off.
[23:58:47] Marlenus > It’s hours and hours of dull finding people, to be honest
[23:59:07] Grabarka > I didn’t even shoot you. I shot the can cus I thought it was mine :P
[23:59:30] Marlenus > Ooopsie, I was actually coming back for that ore you know
[23:59:53] Grabarka > hahahaha, now I don’t feel as bad about loosing the hulk. At least they are cheap.
[00:00:10] Marlenus > Yeah, not like they used to be
[00:00:22] Grabarka > very true
[00:00:55] Grabarka > Still laughing about that fight tho…I mean I lost to a f’ing CRANE! My corp is laughing too
[00:01:16] Marlenus > I’m glad you can see the fun, some people don’t. :(
[00:01:21] Grabarka > And this is further proof of why I DO NOT PvP
[00:01:38] Grabarka > I’m glad you’re not a total duche, most ppl are.
[00:01:41] Rui Hoshino > so when did a crane get enough firepower to kill?
[00:01:54] Grabarka > I dont know, wasted my Hulk tho
[00:01:54] Marlenus > One heavy missile launcher, every pertinent skill maxxed, lots of prayer
[00:02:05] Grabarka > haha, and no backup for the hulk
[00:02:12] Rui Hoshino > im sure it was the prayer
[00:02:17] Marlenus > And if the hulk has t2 drones or a tank, it’s a coin flip
[00:04:19] Grabarka > Anyone ahve a Hulk they want to sell cheap? :) And I don’t mean parts Merlenus, I want a whole one :-P
[00:04:27] Marlenus > LOL
[00:04:31] Rui Hoshino > lol
[00:05:58] Marlenus > AFK a bit, I have a “hulk down” blog post to write
[00:05:58] Grabarka > later guys, off to get another one :) Fly safe, except you Mar, you can pop all I want
[00:06:11] Marlenus > ;-)

As you can see, he was surprisingly cool about it. And no blame to his corpie for not coming to his rescue; it sounds like he never spoke up and yelled for help.

Of course the best part for me is “My corp is laughing too” — there’s nothing I like better than creating one of those “WTF?” killmails for somebody who actually uses a killboard and will have to explain it for a few days.

The worst part, though, is that now I want another one. The last Hulk I killed in a Crane was in 2008 — I sure hope I don’t have to wait until 2014 to do this again!

Wow, has it really been eight months?

I’ve been having a bad case of EVE burnout, the worst ever for me. And my log says it’s been 266 days since I’ve blown anybody up.

That. Simply. Will. Not. Do.

So I’ve been back in the game for a few days, and I decided to jump into one of my old combat Cranes and go see if there’s still anybody left in EVE who will fall for the old “helpless hauler” trick.

I went and buzzed a few belts, when what to my wondering eye should appear but a whole 3-man corporation, none of them as old as a week, mining in a Bantam, an Osprey, and a Badger, with lasers shining from all three ships. Could it be that Asteroid Mining Corporation [AM.CO] would give me some sport?

Despite the Badger on the scene, they had a couple of jet cans out with paltry bits of ore. I scooped those.

No response.

They also had a rat wreck there, so I went and looted it. Then the Bantam jetted another can. I went and scooped that.

Finally, some reaction. The Osprey mining cruiser started to lock me up.

I locked him back, which always takes a while in the Crane. Before I’m done, I hear whooshing missiles. Sweet! A customer!

My lock completed, I tried to point him. I get the Concord warning. It’s laggier than I remember — missiles are hitting me for trivial damage, but he’s still not flashy red. That always takes longer than you think, but finally he goes flashy. Pointed! And then I began to piss on him from a height with my heavy missile launcher.

A properly fit Osprey cruiser — especially if in “bait” mode — can give me a serious run. But not one that’s piloted by a three-day-old-pilot and mounting a single afterthought assault missile launcher in mining mode:

2011.04.06 22:17:00

Victim: Kane Redeemer
Corp: Asteroid Mining Corporation
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Osprey
System: [redacted]
Security: 0.7
Damage Taken: 3174

Involved parties:

Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crane
Weapon: Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 3172

Name: Guristas Imputor / Guristas
Damage Done: 2

Destroyed items:

75mm Gatling Rail I (Cargo)
Miner II
Warrior I, Qty: 4 (Drone Bay)
Pyroxeres, Qty: 2485 (Cargo)
ECM – Spatial Destabilizer I (Cargo)

Dropped items:

‘Arbalest’ Assault Missile Launcher
Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 2
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 19
Small Nosferatu I (Cargo)
Miner II, Qty: 2
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 1850 (Cargo)

I never saw the Warriors; my guess is that in the excitement he forgot to launch them — I know I’ve done that! It’s even possible this was his first-ever ship loss, if he was genuinely new to EVE. (But he had good gear for his age, so I’m dubious about that.) To his credit, he did not snivel; he stayed silent in local until I finished blowing the Osprey, then warped away his pod.

It was fun once, but what I want is another ambitious Hulk pilot to play with.

Jim Bridger, here. Marlenus has already told the story of our Atron gank last night. But I wanted to add the cherry on the top of the sundae. This morning the Atron popped up on the top of my current alliance killboard in the banner showing the five “Most Expensive Kills In The Last Seven Days” listing. Sure, it’s the cheapest of the five, but I’ll take it! (Click image to see full size):

most expensive kills

Well, young Jim Bridger has upheld some of the finest traditions of Steelfleet tonight, even if he does fly for somebody else these days.

The evening did not start well. He shot at something in the Maelstrom. It must have been a stupid shot, because he won’t tell me what he shot at.

He missed. Poof. After insurance, about 30 million ISK down the drain.

We kept hunting. Came upon an Atron in Amarr.

It was just hanging at a stargate, pilot snoozing like they do. Cargo scanner showed a couple of mutherfrackin’ +5 implants and a ton of tags. Market said it was close to a quarter billion ISK in cargo.

Jim said “You wait right here. I’ll be back.”

And he went and got a Thrasher. Atrons can be tough little frigates and he didn’t want to miss this one, so I think he spent six or seven million fitting it out all Tech II. But about five minutes later, he was back. Atron pilot was still snoozing.

One shot, one kill. All goodies dropped, I scooped. I love it when a salvage op comes together:

2010.08.12 03:04:00

Victim: Driver M
Corp: University of Caille
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Atron
System: Amarr
Security: 1.0
Damage Taken: 805

Involved parties:

Name: Jim Bridger (laid the final blow)
Security: 2.7
Corp: Steel Fleet
Alliance: Important Internet Spaceship League
Faction: NONE
Ship: Thrasher
Weapon: 280mm Howitzer Artillery II
Damage Done: 805

Destroyed items:

1MN MicroWarpdrive I
Small Auxiliary Thrusters I, Qty: 3
Overdrive Injector System II

Dropped items:

Small Capacitor Battery II
Overdrive Injector System II
Small Standard Container (Cargo)
Ocular Filter – Improved (In Container)
Republic Fleet High Captain Insignia I, Qty: 84 (In Container)
Republic Fleet Captain Insignia I, Qty: 10 (In Container)
Neural Boost – Improved (In Container)

Jim tells me that the Amarr market buy order offer prices on the loot that dropped was about 242 million ISK. Of course I expect Ironfleet’s cut to arrive any day now…

I like Jim’s opening volley, not bad for a destroyer:

[ 2010.08.12 03:04:07 ] (combat) Your group of 280mm Howitzer Artillery II hits Driver M (Atron), doing 805.6 damage.

Nothing real notable about this one but the T2 cargo expanders in the lowslots, and that doesn’t mean what it used to:

2010.07.08 23:53:00

Victim: Vordi
Corp: Science and Trade Institute
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Osprey
System: [redacted]
Security: 0.7
Damage Taken: 6897

Involved parties:

Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crane
Weapon: Havoc Fury Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 6646

Name: Guristas Imputor / Guristas
Damage Done: 251

Destroyed items:

Rich Plagioclase, Qty: 691 (Cargo)
Expanded Cargohold II
Tungsten Charge S, Qty: 100 (Cargo)
Small Shield Booster I
Sabretooth Light Missile, Qty: 23
Small Capacitor Booster I
Mining Drone I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)
Small Energy Neutralizer I (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 2
Miner I, Qty: 3
1MN Afterburner I
Assault Missile Launcher I
Mining Drone I, Qty: 2 (Drone Bay)

I’ll say this for him. It took a while, and he did not blubber.

It’s important to remember: even a newb can be careful/paranoid.

Today I encountered one Monrew, member of Galactic Exporters [GAL-X], jet-can mining in an Osprey in Kaimon. I flipped quite a lot of Azure Plagioclase into an Ironfleet can.

Fellow did not want to fight, warped prudently away.

I took what I could carry, resumed my tour of the belts.

Finished my tour of the belts, returned to my can.

Found him there, in a Badger II, on a vector for my can. Awesome!

I locked him up and started “racing” for the can.

He grabbed the contents, started flashing red. I turned on my warp disruptor, started lobbing heavy missiles. They were hitting for 300+ each. I thought I had a kill.

Then he warped away. Sneaky bugger was stabbed!

Good job, Monrew. You can never be too careful.

Remember the Osprey pilot from the other day who contributed two of the six GSCs I yoinked?

Well, his name is Schwen. Apparently he and his buddy still haven’t figured out what makes a giant secure container “secure”.

Found him today Osprey-mining into a total of eight unanchored GSCs, of which six were full. One quick visit in my trusty Bustard later…well, as they used to say on Dr. Katz, you know what the music means.

Twice today, twice I tell you, I’ve gotten faction spawns in .7 belts.

The first time I’d annoyed a mining Osprey until he warped off, then was waiting for him to return. Instead, a Dread Gurista Arrogator frigate spawned. I engaged it with heavy missile in my Crane, a slow process, when a newbie ratting in a caracal showed up. He started shooting too, but not in time. Kaboom, my wreck.

But, uh, he’s closer to it than me. Does he know it’s worth a quick scoot-n-scoop?

Apparently not — I crawled to the wreck and was rewarded with ammo, tag, a Dread Gurista small shield booster, and a DG invul. Nice!

[Updated insert: ZOMG, I am an idiot. I looked at the Dread Gurista Invulnerability Field, noted the stats were the same as Caldari Navy, and did a quick contracts check that I must have flailed somehow. Because I failed to discover that it’s a freaking 400 million ISK piece of loot! “Nice” doesn’t even begin to cover it … this is the single best item of loot in my Eve career to date.]

Then, a bit later, in another .7 system, I noticed a Hulk wreck and was going to check it out when an unlooted Dread Gurista wreck nearby caught my eye. Went to check it out and you could have knocked me over with a feather:

worm blueprint drop

In all my eve career, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a ship blueprint drop of any kind. And it was just laying there in space, waiting to be salvaged!

I love my job.

Marlenus here. Jim Bridger finally shamed me into logging on.

After his recent battle Mammoth fun, I thought about setting up a classic BattleBadger. But, truth to tell, I don’t have Jim’s skill in small weapons. So I decided to stick with one of my old trusty combat Cranes.

Out to the belts. Second belt I checked, there’s a Retriever and an Osprey mining into a cluster of Giant Secure Cans. And by cluster, I mean six of them … a tight cluster, without the minimum 5 kilometer separation needed for anchoring.

Sadly, ever since they redesigned the graphics for the cans, my broken color vision makes it impossible for me to see whether a Giant Secure Can is anchored or not. There used to be a red nav light on anchored cans and a green one on unanchored ones, hard to see but distinguisable. In the redesign, they took this off, or made the shading more subtle, I’m not sure which … but now, the only way I can tell if a can is scoopable is to see it too near another can.

This cluster: too obvious to miss.

So, back I went for the big rigged bustard. Warp to the cluster of cans, silently scoop them. As my old friends in Suddenly Ninjas would have said: YOINK!

There was no sign that anybody noticed, so I docked.

Judging by the names, four of the cans “belonged” to the Retriever pilot, two of them “belonged” to the Osprey pilot. Between the six cans, there were four full cans-worth of Azure Plagioclase.

Then I went to lunch. When I came back, I had the following Notification in my mailbox:

Your contact level has been modified
From: Goa’ul Ra
Sent: 2010.06.22 17:57

Goa’ul Ra has changed your contact level to Terrible Standing

u mother f***ker i will get u

Charmed, I’m sure.

Remember, boys and girls, a Giant Secure Can is only secure when it has been anchored. That is all!

So. Yesterday. Your trusty correspondent Jim Bridger is still stuck in high sec waiting for a jump clone timer. Can flipping in an armed destroyer is a little too … obvious and is not passing the time. I’m remembering how much fun Marlenus used to have in the combat Cranes, but I can’t fly a Crane, and I don’t have a Prowler available inside of thirty jumps. I check the market, but they’re more than sixty million, and this 0.0 PvP stuff has left me skint.

Obviously, there’s nothing for it but to step next door into Jita and set up a nice cheap battle Mammoth.

A short fitting flurry later, the Pissed Pachyderm is patrolling the belts. What’s this? A Retriever mining barge, jet can out, flying a single Hornet I drone? Surely that’s got to be bait, right?

Quick check, the pilot has a corp, only one other pilot in the corp, not in system. He’s on his own.

Motor motor motor. Battle Mammoth is not speedy. Motor motor motor. Can is getting closer.

Pass my time investigating the pilot, one Xhaine. He’s a… what? Ohshit noshit, he’s a freakin’ 2003 character? I smell herring and buttfuckery.

But if I chicken out and shy away from this juiciest of battle Mammoth targets, I might as well put the ship away. Plus, here’s the can, and it’s mostly full of the juiciest veldspar. Take what I can put in the Mammoth, flip the rest. It’s my way.

He’s locking me. The Retriever is locking me. I start locking him back, waiting nervously for four Warrior IIs or some sort of long-forgotten unobtainium GM’s-handed-them-out-as-loot-in-some-2004-event Drones-O-Death to launch and start nibbling my kidneys.

He’s locked. Still just one Hornet on me. He’s webbed, he’s pointed, and I am autocannoning him about the head and shoulders.

Faster than you’d think, he pops. No surprises, no tricks. Just kaboomage. Turns out he didn’t even have a fitting on the barge, just two strip miners and four mining drones he wasn’t using:

2010.06.21 02:11

Victim: Xhaine
Corp: Internet Gods Inc.
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Retriever
System: [redacted]
Security: 0.7
Damage Taken: 2241

Involved parties:

Name: Jim Bridger (laid the final blow)
Security: 5.0
Corp: Steel Fleet
Alliance: Important Internet Spaceship League
Faction: NONE
Ship: Mammoth
Weapon: 200mm AutoCannon II
Damage Done: 2089

Name: Thorn Rocket / Guristas
Damage Done: 152

Destroyed items:

Dense Veldspar, Qty: 16953 (Cargo)
Mining Drone I (Drone Bay)

Dropped items:

Strip Miner I, Qty: 2
Mining Drone I, Qty: 3 (Drone Bay)

If I’ve ever shot at an ’03 character before, I don’t know it. And I still can’t quite figure this guy. A seven-year-old mining alt would be in a better barge, surely? Even a purchased character shouldn’t be that broke — anybody with the billions to make the buy would have some more isk available for the purchased character, right? Just can’t figure out how anybody could be simultaneously that old, that broke, and that clueless.

But it was a great first outing for the Pissed Pachyderm!