Shine On You Crazy Black Rebels

It had been nearly a week since my last kill, I had spent most of my time in dry dock with my flying hours reduced to a minimum for various reasons or another. My lust for battle was intensifying, the rush was back, the kick of the dogfight was coursing through my veins and today was going to be the day that I appeased my hunger.

Spotting a suspicious looking Malediction class Interceptor hopping the belts and bouncing planets I decided to give chase in my Wolf, narrowing the ship down to the star I landed out of warp some 80 clicks off of my foe. Expecting the pilot to initiate warp I was surprised to see him burning towards me, I set my microwarp drive thrusters to half capacity and snaked towards him.

As I got closer I smashed open the throttle and the Wolf sprung into life at full speed, autocannon fire and rockets spewing out into space with ferocious gusto as we locked horns. The fight was good, my over-heated armor reppers were needed and at one point in the fight I was fully neuted and had to juggle my modules as my capacitor was bled dry. As the Malediction began to break into fragments he made a run for it, deep into structure and almost out of overloaded scram range I got off one last volley and the plucky frigate exploded in a glorious fireball.

Next up I decided to make a pod run over from Bosboger to our home turf of Molden Heath where I then jumped into a Myrmidon that had been gathering dust in my Oddelulf hangar.

Setting my waypoints for a counter-clockwise circuit of the Molden Heath Loop I spotted a young pilot in an asteroid belt in Heild, spooking him as I landed some way off his Hurricane, he was already in warp and docked in the station before I had time to do anything about it. At this exact moment a rather unfortunate Rifter decided to land smack bang on top of me in the belt and as my autocannons tore into the ship, the Rifter was soon no more.

In what turned out to be an uneventful roam, my only other kill was this Bestower that I crossed paths with on a stargate.


Docking up for a few hours rest I later decided to take my Dramiel out for a spin. Heading down towards Verge Vendor I found a Jaguar idling in Ouelletta, the fight was on and the Jaguar's shields were stripped with ruthless efficiency, however, it soon became clear that this was no ordinary Jaguar and after an in your face up close and personal brawl the Jaguar eventually buckled.

It was while waiting out my criminal flag that an old acquaintance from my early days as a Black Rebel entered local. Ilik Tanikalot was one of the first members through the doors and although we had both now moved on to pastures new, you never forget your roots as a member of the Black Rebel Rifter Club. The chance to roam with an old buddy was too good to turn down and Dramiel and Enyo partnership was on.

Ilik Tanikalot uses Brutor Tribal Wax Hair Products.

It didn't take us too long to find our first fight over in Costolle. A gang of two Hawks, a Caldari Navy Hookbill and a Manticore (which later decloaked, we didn't realise it was there at the start) were loitering in one of the faction warfare complexes, after a few attempts at getting a decent warp in and the gang warping off and back at various ranges we eventually got the fight going. During this process I warped to a gate to bounce back and forgot that I had GCC, luckily I managed to rep the incoming sentry fire and avoid an embarrassing loss mail.

We started on the Hawks, they seemed to quickly pull range and it soon became clear that the Hookbill had dual webs and had snagged Ilik's Enyo, in the confusion the Enyo popped and the Hookbill's webification was now strangling my Dramiel. Switching my full focus to the Hookbill and also trying to lock the Manticore in the process the race was on to shake the webs. The Hookbill exploded and I switched back to the Hawks as the Manticore disappeared from view.

With bits of my Dramiel breaking up and my faction modules on fire, my armor repper working overtime and the Hawk's tanks holding nicely I decided to do what most Dramiel pilots do best and I disengaged and made a run for it. A good fight and Ilik was pleased to see the Hookbill mail to compensate for the Enyo loss.

After some re-shipping and a short break we made our way over to the Parts/Obalyu pocket, Ilik now in a shield Thrasher. In Atlulle we found an Incursus and Wolf in a belt but they both decided to run from the fight as we landed, probably spooked by the Dram. As they left local I made the decision to drop off the Dram and jump into a Thrasher of my own, a 400mm armor plated model would do just nicely.

We set a new destination to Amamake.

After a few quiet systems we found some life in Mannar, an Ishkur and a Federation Navy Comet at the same belt. As I entered warp to the belt it became clear that this was one rather large system, Ilik was on the other side of the system as we had split up scouting duties upon entering. I was first on the scene and immediately pointed the Ishkur as Ilik's Thrasher made best speed behind me.

Swathes of tech II and tech I drones and autocannon fire from the Ishkur (yes you heard that right) took me deep into armor as I locked up the Comet which Ilik now had pointed. Thrashers are mean ships and as I entered structure the Ishkur broke up in a flash of blue light, relieved to have his tech II drones off of my back we demolished the rather poorly fitted Comet in quick fashion, his capsule destroyed in the excitement and Ilik taking a full sec-loss in the process, forgetting he wasn't an outlaw I apologised for my nasty pod-killing habits. Scooping loot and licking my wounds at 55% structure, we docked for repairs and another short break, the Thrasher smoking under the green hue of the hangar lights.

We made best speed to Amamake, cutting across Gratesier via the couple of high-sec systems but we found no targets on this route apart from a couple of gangs in Egghelende which we decided to swerve. It was now getting late and after chasing a Vexor for a short time in and around Amamake's neighbouring systems we decided to head back to Amamake where we would end the evening in the top belt, one way or another.

After a few false alarms and elusive targets we found another Thrasher sat proudly in the fabled top belt, we initiated warp and held our breath. Landing 20 off of the outlaw Thrasher we began taking artillery fire, we burnt towards our enemy with microwarp drives blazing and ripped through its shields and watched as it broke up under the green glow of the gaseous Amamake sky.

Just as we were initiating warp and leaving the belt the back-up landed, the usual local neighbourhood watch consisting of recons and a couple of cruisers. We offered up a 'good fight' and a 'too slow' in local but strangely got no reply.

It brought to an end a good day in the space lanes and great little roam with a ghost from the past, here's to more of the same in the future.

The Black Rebels are alive and kicking.

MB.