Ironfleet Towing And Salvage

Today was pretty funny, VampireZim made several more efforts to get into my fleet while it was forming up, and even (briefly) got into the fleet before being summarily kicked by the fleet commander. Whereupon he began complaining about me in militia chat, to the general entertainment of all:

VampireZIM > Merlenus is a loot theif, hope you dont care about your loot fleet
Marlenus > LOL, the FC and I have an understanding

The reason I was LOL is that whatever grudge Zim has against me, thievery has played no part in it. Vandalism? Yes. Vandalism with intent to purloin? Also yes. But actual thievery? It never happened. As the lawyers put it, mine was a crime of intent.

Right then I had a computer crash, and when I got back on, one of the former AC-ME boys (one I always enjoyed flying against, and have happily flown with in FW) was saying in Militia:

Murdock Jones > uh oh ZIM! He’s back hide your POS :P
Marlenus > LOL

The LOL was real, and real loud. Murdock’s gibe (sheesh, there’s a word straight out of the old Hardy Boy books) told me Zim had been trying to impugn my sterling reputation (hence the LOL) while I was offline. Seriously, if I wasn’t proud of Ironfleet’s endeavors, would I publish this tell-all blog?

(Well, “tell-most” would probably be a better phrase. Ironfleet.com is of course the propaganda organ of Ironfleet, as if that weren’t obvious. If you see it here, it’s because I think it advances Ironfleet’s interests to have it here, or it amuses me sufficiently to outweigh any detriment to Ironfleet.)

Marlenus > x discoed
Threv Echandari > OMG Drama Detector peaking…….
Threv Echandari > wahts up this time guys?
VampireZIM > yea, hope you dont accidently disco when i am blowing up your ship :)
Marlenus > Murdock did he say mean things about me while I was gone?
VampireZIM > just the truth
Marlenus > Zim, in two years you’ve never managed to get weapons hot on my ship.
Murdock Jones > just the same old you stole and blew his stuff up
VampireZIM > yea, its easy to run and hide and you are good at it, so many people chasing you all the time, practice makes perfect
Threv Echandari > oh nvm Ironfleet/Zim Stuff….

Right about then, in fleet voice, somebody asked (for about the fifth time) “who is this VampireZIM at the rally point but not in the fleet?” And the FC said “Hey, he’s convo-ing me, I wonder what he wants?” And I said “He wants to tell you what a big old thief I am.”

… pause …

FC says “well, what do you know, that’s exactly what he’s telling me!”

A little more time passes, and Zim is back to smacking in militia chat:

Threv Echandari > Girls girls your both pretty now go and shoot some Gallente for a change
VampireZIM > I wanted to, but the FC would rather have a thief in fleet rather than an able pilot

Remember that “I wanted to” later when you see VampireZIM’s mail accusing me of lies. In two months of factional warfare based out of Nourvokaiken, I’ve seen the call go out to “x up” for hundreds of different fleets. Dozens of those fleet calls have happened when VampireZIM was present in the system. Out of all those dozens, the ONLY times he has ever attempted to x up for a fleet have been when I was in said fleet, and that has only happened … wait for it … twice. He wanted to go shoot Gallente, but only if I was going, too? How…flattering.

Not to mention, unlikely.

Anyway, I responded:

Marlenus > LOL, aggressive salvage is not *all* that I do
VampireZIM > merlenus, yes, you run like a little girl too

Of course I prefer to call it “sensible tactics and good business” — unless there’s some sekrit uber strat for taking on a heavy interdictor and two heavy assault cruisers in my Crane? Of course I run from that gate camp, and I always will. Any sensible solo pilot would. And anyway, until fleet warfare came along, I was never any kind of combat pilot, never wanted to be. Rallying to the defense of the Caldari State like all true patriots, I’ve been forced to learn a few modest skills, but I’m still pretty much in the “fly something simple, follow orders, and keep a deep hangar so you can be in a replacement ship instantly” school of PvP. Tangling with humorless smack-talking enemies offers no reward, so I’m not gonna bother. (Well, not unless they dangle Merlins and Kestrels in front of me like low-hanging fruit.)

So, yeah, Ironfleet is good at avoiding unwanted combat. We’re damned proud of it, too. Which makes it a great day when our enemies complain about how good we are at it.

While VampireZIM and his “buddy-who-often-logs-at-the-same-time” Max Threat were waiting for me at the fleet rally point, I was chillin’ in my undisclosed location, shootin’ quails and drinkin’ beers with my buddy Dick Cheney. (He’s there a lot.) Then the fleet scout reported a rare moment of clear space on the far side of the gate into Tama, so I took the opportunity to move out down the line of the fleet advance and get a few jumps ahead of the fleet. I am reliably informed that Zim/Threat followed the fleet as far as … the Nourv gate into Tama, where they set up camp for many more hours.

Fleet operations, until my dinnertime, were uneventful. At dinnertime, I docked in Tama to save drama at the Zimcamp, and went AFK. When I came back from my meal, I found somebody from Blood Raiders Dominion keeping me company in the station, plus EVEmail from VampireZIM, the first in two years. I’m sorry to report he still hasn’t had time to grow a sense of humor.

The mail — which I am going to go through line-by-line, just for fun, starts:

I have just read your blog, granted I had thoughts about burying my grudge, but in all honesty, Im bored.

First thought: Good. Boring the crap out of VampireZIM has been the main Ironfleet goal in all nine of the Zimwars. I’m delighted to learn that we have achieved our primary war aim.

Second thought: Wait a minnit. “Just” read my blog? All these wars, all this time, and VampireZim (an internet sort of guy — he publishes, or published, an internet video show about this online spaceship game fer chrissake!) has never bothered before now to type “Marlenus Ironfleet” into Google? It’s possible I suppose, but … wow.

The mail continues (we’ll be doing this for awhile):

I was happy to see that you agree that my grudge is justified, I kinda thought so myself.

It’s true that I did say, back on June 19, “to be fair, we did him an injury first, so he, too, would be justified in holding a grudge.” Of course, I was humorously attempting to mock him at the time; this was right after the part where I referred to him as “the notorious carrot juice drinker and wearer of feminine undergarments”.

The grudge is understandable. The passion with which it has been so unsuccessfully prosecuted? Not so much. Fairer minds than mine have considered the situation and said “he really ought to get over it, already.”

As for your childish names and lies, brings me back to the fact that you are a well spoken scumbag. First of all, it is untrue that I drink carrot juice, still not sure what insult that is supposed to bring against me. I do however enjoy V8 vegitable juice from time to time. Second, I do not wear womens garments, not sure where you came up with that.

I looked at that bit of the mail in astonishment. Could it be, could it genuinely be, that VampireZIM has no sense of humor at all?

Dude, those were jokes. You know, vampires, they drink, er, blood, right? Blood Raiders Initiates, Blood Raiders Dominion, the blood theme, it’s not exactly a new thing with you, right? Drinking the blood, it’s one of the things that makes a vampire scary, right? So what would be a fun thing to accuse a non-scary vampire of? Drinking carrot juice. It’s a gibe, it’s a joke.

Yeah, I know, when you explain a joke, all the funny falls out. Sorry ’bout that.

Anyway, it’s not a lie. A lie requires intent to deceive. If I said “VampireZIM drinks Quafe” that might be a lie, because — since the game mechanics allow it — it might be that I wanted someone to believe it. But unless there’s carrot juice somewhere in the EVE database, it was pretty obvious that “VampireZIM drinks carrot juice” was not believable, not intended to be believed. Not a lie.

Same pretty much goes for the “feminine undergarments” accusation. Joke. Mockery. Not capable of being a lie. Not a suggestion anybody was ever supposed to take seriously.

More from Zim:

I will go ahead and keep the war going, until I get bored of that.

Ironfleet shall continue endeavoring to hasten that day to the best of our ability.

To answer your question of why I camp the gate for hours on end, Im watching movies and doing other things, waiting for RED to show up and if you look at our killboard, you will see MILITIA KILLS IN TAMA, so we are doing our part, as well as several others in low sec. In fact CALDARI STATE MILITIA kills MORE THAN DOUBLE Ironfleet at the time of this writing.

No surprise there — as little joy as Ironfleet has given the CLDRI gate camps, it defied imagination to think the hours and hours of camping were solely for Ironfleet’s benefit.

I am laughing, however, at the proud assertion that Caldari State Militia, a shiny new FW corp with 18 members, has gotten on twice as many killmails as Ironfleet, which has seven pilots on its dusty rolls and only two pilots actually flying in factional warfare. Twice as many, in a corp that flies battleships and HACs and command ships. Jim Bridger’s T1 destroyers, and me in my cheap frigates, my Blackbird, my Drake, we’ve gotten on half as many killboards as CLDRI? I say in all sincerity: COOL.

So again, caught in lies. I am very sorry for an individual like yourself who preys on others, stealing and lying.

What is it with this repeated “lies” accusation? Hey wait a minute, does this sound familiar to anybody else?

Who here remembers Chebri? Yeah, that Chebri, the one who hated me with such an unreasoning passion, and always harped about “lies” when she couldn’t actually point to any.

Interesting.

Back to VampireZIM:

I just want to let you know, that I also have alot of ISK burning holes in my pockets, so I will be funding bounties on you and your corp mates, we will see how easy it is to fly in fleets when you dont see the shiny red star next to your enemies.

To which I can only say: “Good luck with that.”

I mostly fly fully insured T1 replaceable ships in fleet, usually ones I’ve got stacked four or five deep in my fitted ships hangar. I go out prepared to lose two or three a night. And if there isn’t a CLDRI tag on the killmail, I won’t even know who was the engine of my misfortune, so I won’t exactly be stewing in impotent rage about VampireZIM’s stealth victory for T1 manufacturers everywhere.

Not to mention the little detail that most FCs I have traveled with tend to primary anybody who shoots at a fleet member in low sec. So those “bounties” will be hard-earned by whomever collects them.

I rather enjoyed the recount of the initial attack, well done

Thank you!

But you failed to mention that shortly after we dec’d your corp, ALL your active members quit because we were chasing them around the verse. Leaving you, your alts and dead characters, for which I see you have never recovered from to this day.

I didn’t “mention” that because it’s not quite true, and the parts that are true contain false assumptions about Ironfleet’s goals and motives. Actually, several of my members did not quit, and some of the originals who moved to other corps during Zimwar I (that part is true enough) made new Ironfleet alts who still play from time to time. (Torpedo Ted, for instance, took out an AC-ME hauler during the INDY war, all by himself in a rocket kestrel.)

But the real fail in that view of the world is that Ironfleet was never intended to be anything but a way for me to get more hangar space, with tabs, and for me to easily give free frigates to some real world friends who joined the game a couple of months after me. Ironfleet has never “recovered” because growth was never an Ironfleet goal. Ironfleet does not recruit, we (politely) reject several applications a month, and I still don’t want anybody in the corporation whose neck I cannot get my physical fingers around if they jack up the stuff in the hangars.

BTW, do not incinuate that the war from BLOOD had anything to do with the drop in members, I pruned the dead beats to raise our CALDARI STATE to join the MILITIA, then decided it would be easier to start CLDRI. BLOOD is growing again.

I’m glad that’s cleared up.

Whew, long blog. My fingers will be glad when this war is over!

Last night when I logged into the game, a fleet commander I’ve been flying with lately greeted me and a few others in militia chat, proposing fleet ops at a specified time with a rally on the Nourvokaiken gate into Tama. Although it probably wasn’t the smartest thing I could do with a war on, I confirmed my intention (still in Militia chat) to be there.

In the event, we wound up rallying in another place, which was probably my good fortune. When the fleet warped to the Tama gate, I found a hitherto unknown (to me) member of CLDRI sitting fifteen clicks off the gate in a kestrel, flashing angrily at me as my war targets are wont to do. His name is vermilles, and he’s less than a month old.

He targets me.

I was in a Drake. I was still waiting for the fleet jump command, so what else could I do? I lit him him up and started chucking heavy missiles at him.

He absorbed one entire volley, which ate most of his shields. Heavy missiles don’t hit frigates very hard, sadly.

The next volley began to arrive. One missile, two missiles, three missiles, four missiles, armor melting in rotten chunks, he’s about to be dead… drat. He got into warp.

No worries. Fleet is jumping, I’ll follow as soon as my aggression timer counts away.

What’s this in local? VampireZIM, who was not in local last time I checked, is now in local shouting “XXX for fleet, XXX for fleet!”

I jumped into Tama, rejoined the fleet.

VampireZim is now trying to “X for nourv fleet” in militia chat. Someone in fleet calls the X to the attention of the FC. The FC, who was not born yesterday and who doesn’t seem to miss much that happens in his fleet, dryly says “I think we’ll leave that one.”

And off we went on about a two hour fleet operation, me keeping a weather eye on local in case any CLDRI boys decide to come into lowsec on an Ironfleet hunting excursion.

During the next twenty minutes, I observe that Max Threat and D34TH — the usual Zimster sidekicks — have logged in.

The fleet op is quiet but useful, we get several nice kills and show the Caldari flag on the pipe down to Old Man Star.

On our way back to Nourv, I observe that the three Vamskateers are all still logged in. Could they, are they, have they really been sitting, drones out, in their favorite Onyx/Ishtar/Ishtar combination, on the Tama gate, this whole time, camping for little old me to return from fleet ops in my fully insured disposable Drake?

I make discrete inquiries. It turns out, they could. They are. They have. Onyx/Ishtar/Ishtar, fully deployed in Nourv.

I decide to quietly end my evening in Tama, since I was planning to log anyway. The fleet jumps back into Nourv, without me.

About two minutes later, one of Zim’s former corpmates jumps into Tama. Looks like my failure to return with the fleet was noted.

I logged, content.

It’s late. All the dangerous war targets are logged off and asleep. I decide to pull out one of my Crane blockade runners and run around picking up market orders of valuable war supplies.

After picking up forty or fifty million ISK worth of stuff in Motsu, I head over to Aramachi. As I’m jumping into the system, my clock ticks over to the top of the hour, and my girlfriend calls to me to come watch a TV show with her that’s starting right now!

So, I select a station, select “Dock”, and leave my computer.

You know what happens next. One time in twenty, autodocking fails; I’ve never known why.

Half an hour later, I walk back into my office, where to my horror I see my Crane floating in space. Outside a station. With all kinds of ships around.

I dock hastily. Then somebody, a Caldari militia friendly, convos me. “Dude, what happened, did you fall asleep?”

I explain.

He tells me a Gallente war target in a TII fitted Brutix, one EvilSpork of Invicta, saw my Crane and could not pass up the bait. While intent on blowing up my poor unpiloted crane, EvilSpork got jumped and pwned by the Caldari militia.

Yay, AFK bait-Crane for the win!

Another uneventful war ended — Yorlock and his one-man corp have apparently failed to pay the Ironfleet war bill.

So far as I know, we were only once on the same grid at the same time. I warped to the Tama gate in Nourv to see what was what, flying one of my trusty stealth bombers; seeing no war targets, I hit my cloak and began steaming in a random direction.

After which I glanced back at my overview and there was Yorlock, in a freshly-uncloaked recon ship, drones out, and zooming rapidly in my general direction.

He never got closer than about sixty clicks.

And that was our war. Woo.

First blood in VampireZim Vengeance War Number Nine goes to Ironfleet. It happened like this.

For the last week or so there hasn’t been as much of the untouchable CLDRI Hictor/HAC/HAC gatecamp on the Tama gate in Nourv. VampireZim has been seen around Nourv, but he’s mostly been docked and AFK. Ironfleet operations have proceeded more or less normally despite the war.

Then, tonight, when I logged in, I noticed there were three relatively new players in system and flying the hostile CLDRI colors. Hmmm, I wondered to myself, stealth bomber food?

And then RapidTaco called for a fleet in the militia channel. One of the new meats in CLDRI promptly typed his X for a fleet invite. Then another, and another.

Now, I’ve flown with the speedy Mexican snack, and I know his methods. His rally points, in particular, are predictable. Tonight I was at the rally point in my stealth bomber, cloaked, before the CLDRI boys even arrived.

Then two of them arrived. Dragon Halk and Haraol. In Merlins. It was a turkey shoot, a pair of perfect one-volley kills. First Haraol:

2008.07.08 04:09:00

Victim: Haraol
Corp: Caldari State Militia
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Caldari State
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Nourvukaiken
Security: 0.8
Damage Taken: 1378

Involved parties:

Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Caldari State
Ship: Manticore
Weapon: Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile
Damage Done: 1378

Destroyed items:

Damage Control I
Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 940 (Cargo)
Cap Recharger I
Warp Disruptor I

Dropped items:

Ballistic Control System I
‘Malkuth’ Rocket Launcher I, Qty: 2
Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 60
125mm Railgun I, Qty: 2
Small Shield Extender I
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 840 (Cargo)
Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 160

Then Dragon Halk:

2008.07.08 04:11:00

Victim: Dragon Halk
Corp: Caldari State Militia
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Caldari State
Destroyed: Merlin
System: Nourvukaiken
Security: 0.8
Damage Taken: 1389

Involved parties:

Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.3
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Alliance: NONE
Faction: Caldari State
Ship: Manticore
Weapon: Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile
Damage Done: 1389

Destroyed items:

Ballistic Control System I
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 40
Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 420 (Cargo)
Standard Missile Launcher I

Dropped items:

Bloodclaw Light Missile, Qty: 40
Monopropellant I Hydrazine Boosters
Small Shield Extender I
Antimatter Charge S, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
Standard Missile Launcher I
125mm Railgun I

One volley per Merlin, the combat logs looked like this:

Your Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile hits Haraol [CLDRI](Merlin), doing 392.0 damage.
Your Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile hits Haraol [CLDRI](Merlin), doing 458.6 damage.
Your Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile hits Haraol [CLDRI](Merlin), doing 527.9 damage.

And:

Your Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile hits Dragon Halk, doing 392.0 damage.
Your Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile hits Dragon Halk, doing 437.1 damage.
Your Caldari Navy Wrath Cruise Missile hits Dragon Halk, doing 559.9 damage.

After Dragon Hulk went pop, I tried to target pods, but they, sensibly, warped away. About this time a third CLDRI target arrived on grid, but I also noticed that one of the fleet destroyers had closed with me, impeding my ability to recloak. I decided not to get greedy, so I warped out and docked.

Then I got curious — what did the fleet chatter sound like during all of this? I checked, and sure enough, I had some buddies in the fleet. Apparently there was a fair bit of consternation on fleet voice until folks figured out what was happening, after which it was “Merlins? No big deal then.” My buddy likes the blog, so he was kind enough to Evemail me the pertinent snippet of fleet chat. The CLDRI targets are in bold:

Acerbits > wut popped
Cobalt Crimson > who the hell is popping us?
Haraol > wtf
Brother Augustine > WE”VE BEEN COMPROMISED
Oxcidiax > wtf did he self destruct?
Haraol > no
Cobalt Crimson > someone sent cruises at him
Phoenix Red > no he didnt
Phoenix Red > harold pop
Acerbits > marlenus shooting
Darth Mikey > someone’s frig got shot
Brother Augustine > oh my fucking god
Brother Augustine > Marlenus is doing it
Dragon Halk > i just got here and im already dead lol
Cobalt Crimson > 72K off, uncloaked

Of course I’ve sent RapidTaco an explanatory email apologizing for disrupting his fleet operations and explaining the situation. As I told him, it purely sucks that people want to join fleet warfare and then disrupt the war effort by starting internecine corp wars. It’s rather a pity the FW mechanics don’t penalize this in any way. (They don’t; I can confirm that there were no standings hits of any kind for popping two members of CLDRI, a corporate member of the State Protectorate militia.) I would think a state militia would penalize its members for failing to put aside their differences for the duration — but no.

Amusingly, as I sit in station typing this, I am reliably informed that Zim and Max Threat and D34TH are waiting outside in their Onyx (heavy interdictor) and two Ishtars. Sorry boys, I don’t have any ships that can take that on, so you’re wasting your time.

I do find it both amusing and fitting that despite days spent camping the Tama gate in an apparent effort to make it harder for me and Jim Bridger to fly in FW fleets, VampireZim and the CLDRI boys seem never to have considered that their sword cuts two ways. Ironfleet may not be able to engage a Hictor and two HACs, but CLDRI is going to recruit young players, they will be just as susceptible as Ironfleet to suffering a bit of inconvenience forming up in fleets.

In conclusion, I still love my stealth bombers!

Remember Yorlock The Butthurt? This guy? You remember, the guy who wrote: “I am hoping your are exceptionally stupid and continus this conduct.”

Well, that was April. Lotta blustery smack, but then I never heard from him again.

Well, I did once. He saw me in local on June 22 and said:

Yorlock > 10 mil to whioever pods Marlenus
Marlenus > LOL, you still butthurt?
Yorlock > your a smacktard, a thief and a war dec dodger

Which I thought was pretty funny coming from Yorlock, whose outrageous smack has been documented before, and not just in this space. The war dec dodger remark is doubly funny — first because of my unblemished history of employment in Ironfleet, and even moreso because at that very moment, my last war had been the one Ironfleet declared against the INDY Alliance — and won.

It turns out that on June 22, friend Yorlock had just founded (the day before) a one-man corp called Bot Death (ticker: BOT-U).

The news: today’s bundle of junk mail from Concord included a war declaration from Bot Death. Yes, boys and girls, Yorlock is going to try and pod him some thieving smacktard war dec dodging Ironfleet “scumbags”.

We tremble in our pods, we truly do.

Also: good luck with that.

I was bummin’ around when Love Denied came into the State Protectorate militia channel, cursing bitterly and most foul about having lost 250 million ISK due to having fallen asleep at the helm of his rigged Crow interceptor in Komo, only to be popped and podded (with many valuable implants) by a roving gang of (he said) battlecruisers piloted by Gallente scum (although scum was not the word he used. Given his propensity to use female body parts as vile curses, is it any wonder he calls himself Love Denied?)

Onward. I don’t really have any ships handy for slugging it out with enemy battlecruisers, but the theory is, all I really need to do is hold them in place and let the Caldari Navy do the heavy work. I do have a Blackbird with a warp disrupter, put together for just this sort of eventuality. So in it I hopped and headed for Komo.

Komo was showing two war targets in local, one of whom was docked. I waited outside the dock.

He undocked. I locked, warp scrambled, hit the ECM buttons, and opened fire. He shot off about half my shields, broke my lock somehow, and warped to the Motsu gate. I followed.

Arriving there, I found some friendly Caldari militia as well as two more war targets, one of which was a badly battered Megathron. I locked the mega, scrammed-and-jammed him from here to Wednesday, and opened fire. The other two war targets began pummeling me, but they had problems of their own — somewhere in here, one of them wound up in a pod.

Just about then, the Mega (by now well below half structure) came unjammed and began blasting me to hell. Being an utter ECM newb, I completely forgot to mash those buttons again. POP! And I was in a pod, so I left, feeling pretty good about my small contribution to bringing down one very tough battleship.

The nearest ship for looting my wreck was one of my combat Cranes. By the time I got back, the other FW guys were mopping up pods, but there was a flashing red shuttle. Why not? I locked him (which turns out to take about twenty seconds in a blockade runner), warp scrambled him, and blew up his shuttle. He was carrying ten units of Quafe Ultra, but it didn’t survive the carnage.

2008.06.27 21:31

Victim: Planning
Corp: Federal Navy Academy
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Caldari Shuttle
System: Komo
Security: 0.8
Damage Taken: 508

Involved parties:

Name: Marlenus (laid the final blow)
Security: 1.4
Corp: Ironfleet Towing And Salvage
Alliance: Caldari State
Faction: Caldari State
Ship: Crane
Weapon: Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 508

Destroyed items:

Quafe Ultra, Qty: 10 (Cargo)

As you can see, he was not a war target, and his security status is 4.9, so I’m not sure what he did in a shuttle to get a general criminal flag. I also have no idea why he didn’t warp away, although I guess maybe he was just watching the carnage and didn’t care about losing his shuttle and his Quafe. This is definately the most bizarre kill I’ve ever gotten in my Crane.

I was able to loot the drops from my Blackbird wreck as well as a few TII pieces from the Megathron, though the guys who had killed it had righteously took most of the goodies and were gone by then. It turns out to have been one heck of a Monsterthron, fully rigged and a mix of T2 and faction fit. I confess to being a little impressed that they brought that monster into Caldari space.

Wrathful Hawk of Warsmiths, one of the other three Caldari militia on the killmail, says my one successful jam cycle saved his Raven, a credit I’ll happily take. All in all, a fun combat and (I think) a very nice use of a fully-insured Blackbird that I fitted with hangar scraps.

Not too many developments in VampireZim Vengeance War #9. For a corp aligned with the State Protectorate, CLDRI seems to spend a lot of time sitting on the Tama gate in Nour in hictors and hacs. I don’t flatter myself that it’s all for the camping of dear sweet Ironfleet, but if it’s not, then either CLDRI has no real interest in blowing up Gallente scum, or they have a long list of war targets in the State Protectorate and they are just preying on the factional warfare traffic moving in and out of Tama.

I did uncloak in a stealth bomber and bounce some cruise missiles off the shields of one of their HACs at a time when I suspected the lot of ’em of being AFK. That was about as pointless as you’d expect, but it made a nice noise. Sort of like dropping an endless stream of frozen canteloupes onto pavement from about eight stories up, it’s fun even though it doesn’t accomplish anything.

I’ve also been having a TON of fun flying rocket kestrels around in Gallente high sec. Everything would have to be perfect (pod or retriever or T1 hauler, alone, within about 10k of the gate, when I arrive at the gate) to actually get a kill, and that hasn’t happened yet, but many a Gallente pod pilot have made smelly accidents in their pod goo after being unexpectedly attacked in “safe” space. I’ve lost one Kestrel so far (to a brutix and thorax who arrived at a very inopportune moment) but it’s a real rush and I’ll get lucky eventually.

Funny camping story — after one long rocket run down to Villore and back up toward Jita, I docked in the first Caldari Border Zone system I came to, because my girlfriend called me about dinner. One thing led to another, and four hours later when I returned to my keyboard, Zim and two henchmen were trying to camp me into the station.

Somehow I suspect I had more fun that night than they did.

My only other contribution to the Vengeance War has been in the realm of propaganda. Since the Zimster is spending so much time on the Tama gate with his drones out, visibly contributing NOTHING to the State Protectorate war effort, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to launch a giant propaganda can there, alerting the militia folk who pass through to his carrot-juice drinking ways. Nourv is .8 space, so I expect the can to go away fairly fast, but given that Ironfleet has scooped about a thousand of these over the last two years, we can keep the message out there for as long as it takes, or for as long as it still seems funny.

I swear, Vampire Zim cannot seem to decide whether or not he wants to get his grudge on.

After Max Threat’s one failed attempt to gank me outside the station, today’s mail brings news that the 60 member Blood Raider’s Initiate (wasn’t it 80+ members a few days ago?) has withdrawn its war declaration against Ironfleet Towing and Salvage, a mere 35 hours after the war went live. Fighting (gank attempts?) stop tomorrow.

Ironfleet has and shorter and more uneventful wars, true. But not many.

In other news, VampireZim and two “Caldari State Militia” (CLDRI) henchpeople (D34TH, the original founder of BLOOD, and Kniteflite, a 2008 player who came to CLDRI from BLOOD) are in local as I type this.

Do you suppose tomorrow’s mail will bring a retraction of CLDRI’s war declaration without a shot fired?

This morning’s mail from Concord included a declaration of war from our old friends, the Blood Raiders Initiate (ticker BLOOD), one of the longtime haunts for VampireZim and his alts, associates, and split personalities. Interestingly, Zim himself has split off (as of five days ago) into a splinter corp (along with other known usual suspects) called Caldari State Militia (7 current members, ticker CLDRI).

I guess the “thinking” is that when Zim and crew spot me during faction warfare ops, they can call in the goon squads to gank me without having to muss their own precious State Protectorate standings. Which ought to be, uh, interesting, given the attitudes of some of the fleet commanders I fly with.

I promise a blog post in the next few days giving the complete and squalid history of Zim’s vendetta against Ironfleet Towing And Salvage. The first time it was command ships versus T1 fitted newb caracals. This time, things are not quite so uneven!

Update, day later: And here comes the wardec from Caldari State Militia, Zim’s current (FW-enrolled) corp. In other news, Max Threat from BLOOD was waiting for me outside the State Protectorate Logistics Office in Nourvokaiken, when I undocked in a suicide Caracal (irony). Although he was in an Ishtar with drones hot, I was able to redock OK. Then he camped me while I ate my dinner, which I always enjoy.