That's the Ticket!

I missed my weekly Eve night last week due to my escape to play board games, and coupled with not being able to talk about a game I'm in the Closed Beta for due to the NDA (hint: I bought this joystick to enjoy it more), I found a lot of wind taken out of my sails.

Throw on top of that a busy long weekend due to Canadian Thanksgiving, two family dinners requiring two car rides, and general little child rearing of three hyper-energetic (and loud) monsters, I was pretty wiped when I logged in last night.

Can I do it, I asked myself? Can I get the motivation to fly again? IS THIS THE END?

I joined a fleet that was next door in Old Man Star running a plex. Apparently this fleet's raison d'etre was plexing. I wondered if I should go off on my own (or just give up and log off). We finished the plex and moved into Ladister to run another Major outpost.

IS THIS THE END OF KIRITH KODACHI!!?!?!?!

"Tusker in local."

My ears perk up, the haze clears, the senses sharpen. My eyes focus on local and I listen more closely as chattering on teamspeak gives way to intel.

"IK Thel in Arbitrator one hundred klicks off OMS gate, in line with station."

"Roger, warping."

"Point point, warp to me!"

I activate my warp drive and its 14 AUs away. The Arbitrator cruiser goes down fast to our little gang and I arrive just in time to lock and engage my weapons. I do no damage on the kill mail but the blood has started to flow.

Moments later, more intel. "Another Tusker, Naoru Kazon in local, looks like Hurricane." The heartbeat picks up. That name I recognize, he's one of the more proficient pilots in The Tuskers and most likely come to fight.

At the sun one of our gang made a tackle and we went in full force. I was right; the Hurricane was ready to fight and fight dirty. He was setup to fight and kill frigates (which was our fleet comp) and he tried to spread us out but we got multiple webs on him and started to go to work. Sensing he was doomed, he decided to go after me for some reason, probably because I went in early and hard. It was a close thing, but I exploded a second before the Hurricane did.

Ah yes, that's more like it.

I went back to base and got a Vagabond. The fleet caught and killed a couple more ships while I was in the Vaga but I didn't see any action as I covered a gate. Its all good, the blood was flowing now. I was

Later on I went back to Heydieles and saw a pirate Condor 100 klicks off station. I docked and grabbed my Dramiel, perfect for tuning up these upstarts who think the new Attack frigs are "all that". AS I undocked I saw him warp off to the static dungeon called an Abandoned Battlefield. I warped after and after I landed I gave chase. I was fast, but he was a good 700 meters per second faster. I was patiently giving chase, hoping he would try to come into range to fight me when two more Condors landed behind me. Two Condors I would consider engaging in my Dram, three was too much risk. I went back to station and got my Hurricane and rushed back, but they were gone.

I floated around for a little while longer. Then, as I was docking and preparing to log off I saw a war target who I knew was in a Cormorant from intel earlier in local chat. Engaging destroyers can be tricky as a properly fitted one can, well, destroy frigates. So I selected an Arty Thrasher and narrowed down on deep scan the Cormorant to the minor plex in system.

As I dropped out of warp on the plex gate I saw my three 'friends' in their Condors again. Before I could react two warped into the plex and one warped to the sun. After a moment pondering options and chances, I decided to warp to the sun and see if I could take out one Condor before his friends could arrive. At the sun I saw not only the Condor, but the other two Condors and the Cormorant.

Ah what the hell. CHARGE!

I decided to go down swinging at the Caldari foe (because, for the Federation and all that so I accelerated towards the Cormorant with guns blazing. I don't know if the Condors were winning the fight or not but my salvo finished the enemy off. I then blazed in a straight line hoping to drop the transversal of any pursuing Condors. That worked on one of the damaged Condors as one salvo popped him at 19 km away from me.

The other two, sensing perhaps a tougher prey than they could handle, warped off. I beamed. Not only did I get a couple killmails, I survived AND held the field.

God I love this game.