Crossfire

Even now aspects of my past return to haunt me.
Well, I say haunt.
I ran into an old associate in The Skyhook the other night, A pilot who'd flown under my command in Asteri Ethnos. A Kestrel Pilot, who had since moved on into a Hawk. I was under the impression that everyone who worked for me was either dead or against me. It seems this is not the case. She was understandably upset when I told her the truth about the implants we issued.

Without really thinking about it, I ordered her a drink and we ended up talking about her employment prospects with the Cartel. It looks promising. Commander Yishal mentioned some stuff about interviews. I'm seeing new faces all over the place, Heyna being the first of many.

Later that evening we headed out into The Bleak Lands, Almost landing a drake in Oyeman, but getting jumped by a larger fleet intent on catching it. From the scraps of intel and scanner data I managed to get it seems we were merely caught in a Crossfire. The ships intent on catching the Drake fighting amongst themselves. The Surviving Fleet, which was thankfully most of us, slunk out of Oyeman and docked up for the night.

Rather than making for my usual haunt in the Skyhook, I elected to take a walk around the station. On my way round I passed Celia's Quarters. I felt a small element of concern, as I haven't seen her for a few days. I pushed the thought from my mind and continued my little tour for another 30 minutes or so, before heading back to my Apartment and making another attempt to fix my implants.

They've been playing up since Seyllin...

Shame

Then Molok the Deceiver sundered the lands and the people suffered floods and plagues conjured by him. Molok turned the people against the sefrim and people who once sang their praise now abhorred them.

Ametat and Avetat 43:13

Amarrian Scriptures

A lot has happened since I last logged an entry here. I have been cast aside by the remaining directorate of Asteri Rising. Barely given time to clear my apartment, I was pursued from the CBD outpost in Qeti by those I once considered my friends and allies. I headed for a quiet bar nearby and considered my options. I needed to disappear, and start again.
I spent Hours spent searching GalNet, hours of my life wasted skimming over trashy recruitment videos and adverts.
Eventually I gave up and drank myself unconscious. I woke up lying in the station corridor a few hours later with my sidearm gone and bruises all up my chest. Thank what gods there are my ISK was wired to my base implants, and, for that matter, my Implants were left alone. I didn't bother reporting it, and headed back to my temporary accommodation, feeling ashamed and sick.
I need to find a way out.

Upset

Well, Asteri Rising is Finally starting to collapse. I don't like to jump ship, but after the war with MO, it's been very stressful for me. The directorate have been pushing for me to leave ever since construction 312 was destroyed anyway.
I also can't help but feel the war could've been avoided.

Posthumanism was dead from the moment Sansha's Dream became a Nightmare. I don't know why we bothered...

On another note, my Ishkur's Pod Interface has been Mysteriously Locking up...

Milo Out.

Qeti

It's been an interesting few weeks since we've moved into the Qeti Constellation. We've had a fair number of fights, our production lines are running again, and we've met some... Interesting Pilots. All in all, it's been profitable. On a more personal note, I made the decision to put my Vexor, the Python, back into the hanger for a bit and see what kind of results I get from The Sabre, a Brutix class battlecruiser I bought about a week ago. I was hesitant to try it out, as it lacks the capacity to take sentry fire for any length of time. However, I managed to convince myself that I would be careful with it.

A few hours later, however, being careful was no longer an option. A small fleet of red flagged pilots had entered Raravath, and we were not going to let them do whatever they intended to do. These same pilots had attacked, destroyed and podded a lone drake of ours a few days ago. They had arrived en-masse, in a large number of frigate and cruiser sized vessels, and converged upon the drake at a station. The Drake pilot claims there were at least 20, but I feel she may have been exaggerating.
Four of these pilots were now loose in our territory. I called fleet, and we gathered a Drake, Brutix, Helios, Blackbird and Maller. I waited impatiently as the pilots arrived one by one at the Raravath gate. The helios jumped through first, engaging it's cloak and warping to a designated safespot.

"Drake, Harbinger and Prophecy on Scan. Fourth Pilot may be docked or cloaked"
"Roger that. Everyone ready to jump through?"

There was a chorus of readies on the comms, and we jumped through.

"I've got them down to Planet III, they might be at the station, you want me to check it out?"
"Yup, just make sure you warp in at an angle, they might have something set up to decloak you if you come in at 100km from the gate."
Seconds later we got a reply.
"Yup, all three are here. you might need to come in from a different vector. If we engage them first-"
"Sabine!"
Our Drake Pilot had warped off in the direction of the station without us.
"Damn, Follow her in warp. I didn't realize she was this pissed about losing the Drake the other day..."
The Scene that met our eyes when we exited warp was not good. All Three Battlecruisers were pounding on the Drake's shields, and the sentries didn't appear to be doing anything. We were going to have to engage on their terms.
My heart pounded in my chest as I engaged my Microwarpdrive and gunned the Brutix towards The Harbinger. The Helios had called it primary before we jumped in, and rightly so. With every burst of it's lasers, Sabine's shield dropped a little more. I got into range and unleashed by Ion Blasters.
what was left of the Harbinger's shields were stripped instantly, and it disengaged it's lasers as it was jammed by the blackbird.
With Sabine now able to divert power to Her Missiles and Nosferatu systems, the Harbinger was now well into it's armor. It turned slowly in space, and prepared to head back into the station.

"Someone Ram him!" Screamed Sabine. Jiag took the initiative and Flew his Maller full speed into the battlecruiser. It took little damage, but the hit was enough to throw it off course long enough for us to finish it off. There was a wonderful blue flash and the Harbinger was no more.
I checked my overview and recoiled in horror as I saw my armor was well below 50%. the Prophecy and Drake, which had almost been forgotten in the rush to kill the Harbinger, had been chipping away at my armor.
"Kill the Damn Prophecy, it's at it's optimal, and getting closer to structure."
Xen was now too far away to jam it in his blackbird, and my capacitor was slowly being drained by my armor repairer, which was doing far less than it should have done. In a desperate attempt to save my ship, I launched my drones, knowing full well they would be destroyed by the sentries, but in the hope that it would do enough damage to kill the battlecruiser before it was too late. I gave a sigh of relief as the sentries cycled off me, onto my drones, and the Prophecy screamed back into the station's docking bay, bleeding fuel and oxygen.
The Drake was now well out of our range, and aligning to a different station. There were cheers down the comms, as we aligned to our safespots to repair and wait for the sentries to calm down and forget us. 5 Minutes later, the Helios pilot spoke again.

"Drake and Prophecy have undocked. Do you want to engage?"
"Hell yes."

We warped to the station, and again, I was called primary. Our Blackbird pilot had gone Awol, and we had nothing to Jam our targets, so I was taking heavy fire. Suddenly, my Microwarpdrive Disengaged, and my Heart Sank.

"I've been scrammed, Drake has me Scrammed!"
Suddenly, it's missiles were doing far more damage, and the Prophecy was hitting more than it had been. To make matters worse, I had no drones to save me this time.

"Going down, repeat, Milo is going Do-"

There was a blue flash, and my pod's interface froze up. I frantically gave the command to warp out. Suddenly, I was in warp, my pod had unfrozen, and I was sitting in space a few million kilometres, looking glumly at my scan.

"Uh, guys, we have a problem..."
"What now?"
"More Reds reported in Chemilip, a few more have jumped into local. It might be an idea to grab what we can from the wrecks and dock up. Now."

Everyone checked intel, and indeed, there were a lot of reds in local. Sabine Kindly scooped what was left of the Sabre into her cargo hold, and we docked up, leaving with what salvage we had.

I've now put my plans for a Brutix to one side until I can use more powerful turrets. I think I'll have the know-how to do some in about 15 Days.
In the mean time I've invested in an Ishkur. It's a wonderful little ship, and I've scored 8 or so kills in it so far. People have a real tendency to underestimate it.
Congratulations to Likhar for getting me out of my Brutix and finally into an assault frigate.