No place like home

22nd Febuary YC117

It's been a little bit of time since I updated this blog. Last week I was planet side dealing with a personal issue, and have been itching to get back to Lazarus and my work for 13.

With my return a few days ago, I welcomed new members in to our corporation. Our old corporation, United Systems, had suffered from a leadership crisis with the disappearence of their CEO Galmas. A steady old hand, he was the 'glue' that held a mish-mash of piltos with different bloodlines, nationalities and beliefs together as a fully functioning group. With him gone, it was decided among the vast majority of United that they would join 13.

Returning to my quatres at Starbase "Tea House" (a recent addition to our collection of towers in Lazarus) I was welcomed with plenty of reports of fights. On a quiet Saturday morning, I would soon get my own taste of combat Reported in the chain were a known group of fighting capsuleers, Band of Magnus. Forming up, we had a handful of pilots on, with triage carrier and jams. On the opposing end, Band had similar numbers but with Guardian logistics. They boldy decided to come down the chain to us.

A long drawn out fight with jam and counter jam, we were wearing low on ammo while more Band pilots jumped in to the frey. We eventually lost a proteus before more of our own pilots woke up. With neutralising battleships landing on grid, Band extracted with no losses for their own, killing an Armageddon of ours who had jumped through the wormhole to add mass. All in all, not a great start to the weekend.

Fast forward to today. After some dicking around lowsec and losing my own Huginn earlier in the day, we decided to roll the hole and get ourselves a hisec connection. As our intrepid industry director Odi was returning with an orca, we reported a gang of hostile lokis engaging him. Bringing reinforcements quick, a large fleet of ours formed up and chased them out. No kills, but Orca saved. Our scout decided at this time to report a larger group on the way. After some tense negotiation with my brother Miguel, on account of a recent falling out, I managed to get him to convince his wife Kailen to step into an Archon once more, allowing the rest of our fleet to bring the big guns.

Jumping in with the carrier and fleet, we were engaged by a large combined force of pirate capsuleers from various corporations. Landing right on top of our neutralising geddon and legion, the former piloted by myself, their guardians melted like cheese on a hot plate to our dps. Taking out a couple of t3s, we stood by at the hole as they extracted. Looting the field, we were suprised by the sudden appearence of a Naglfar. Establishing tackle, we immediatly set about engaging him. This prompted the slow return of our mish mash of 'friends' in various ships. More t3s, legions, a Vindicator, each slowly dying to our guns before a triage archon of their own landed. After this, we managed to force a falcon and vigilant off field before the slow and long decline of Kailen's capacitor ended the fight. One point of note was that Mrs Onzo managed to have her crew evacuate and single-handedly kept her archon alive on low capacitor for a full 10 minutes thanks to the ship refitting capabilities of Jay's Nestor. Sisters of Eve, we thank you for your Capsuleer Approved battleship.

All told, we walked out of that fight slightly ahead in terms of kills. Battered, bruised and leaving field, we still walk away proud of our achievements while fighting outnumbered, never outgunned. There's just no place like home.

Utari Onzo

Poetic Justice

4th Jan YC117

Last sunday I celebrated my 27th birthday. Normally, I don't do anything aside from enjoy a good drinking session, but this year I decided to try something new.

Booking a week out from the wormhole for a combination of sight seeing and profitable combat with pirates, I hired what has turned out to be an exquisitely designed room at the Elysion. Not content with merely taking a week off from my normal duties, I managed to strong arm some of the lads in 13. to join me in a bit of poetic justice. Battle Barges.

A graduate of the School of Applied Knowledge with a major in practical astrogeology (Mining for non-industrial minded capsuleers) I am quite proficient at piloting Ore vessels. Of course, having joined a small hisec based mercenary corporation early in to my capsuleer life,  I quickly trained into combat orientated vessels. Rusty doesn't even describe my abilities with a mining laser these days. With that in mind, I decided to break the mold a little. Could a mining barge be made to be something feared?

Following a recent improvement to the defensive systems by ORE, the procuror seemed to be my answer. With a little discussion between myself and my engineers, we settled on the idea of a highly resistant 'bait' ship, coupled by a modest remote shield transfer capability. Alone, it wasn't much of a threat, but in a small pack it could stand a chance. With the redesigned fittings in hand, I approached a number of capsuleers in 13. who fitted up and tagged along. On his insistance however, our CEO Jay brough along a Redeemer class Battleship for extra firepower. Just in case.

With the bait prepared, we needed a target, ideally small time pirates who wouldn't think twice about dropping on a small group of 'hapless' miners. After a short time roaming around various lowsec pockets, we got a catch. Noting combat probes on our ship scanners, our small fleet of barges awaited what would come. To our suprise, a lone Vexor Navy Issue cruiser landed right on top of us. Hook, Line and Sinker.

Not content with just the one punished miscreant, we went hunting further afield. Once again, it didn't take long for our particular brand of fleet to get noticed. Sitting in a mining belt, we were visited by a Hurrican. At some considerable range, we wondered if he would move in. 50km, 40km, 30km, he was indeed burning in despite the fact we weren't firing any mining lasers. Most fortunate none of the Hurrican pilot's crew were looking out of the windows, that or he just didn't see an obvious trap for what it was. Once engaged, it swiftly became clear why he felt so reckles. He had friends, and plenty of them. With a Caracal landing on grid, followed by a Proteus strategic Cruiser, we quickly finished off the battlecruiser that started this engagement. With battleship signatures on scan and a logistics cruiser on field, we knew time was running out and Jay extracted his Redeemer. Priming the Caracal with our drones, we managed to wear him down before extracting. All in all, not bad for a group of toothless miners. All in all, even with some ship losses on our side while attempting to extract, it was a successful event. Isk can't buy you a present quite like embarrasing pirate capsuleers with ships that shouldn't 'win'.