This is my entry into Mord’s Life in Losec writing. This is my sad, sad tale of how my valiant Wolf went down after i was lulled into thinking that a 1v1 would stay a 1v1. basically i fell victim to the classic mentality of, “I lost ships before, but now i have t2 gear and monies so obviously i won’t again” some classic bad thinking and mistakes on my part left me 30 mil out of the wallet. I would post the lossmail, but by some miracle it never made it to battleclinic. if it’ not hardcore pvp i always win fiction well then it isn’t. every time someone wins in eve, another guy loses- pvp is a negative sum game. I wrote this to explore the nature of losing, rather than the nature of winning. Since i know this side much better than my small triumphs over cynoalts, i felt that this would be more appropriate.
My eve main is Tennebrosa… just to solve any confusion
To be honest Tennebrosa himself didn’t know the reason for this nostagala roam.
Okay that was a lie. Officially he had made the long transit from Lonetrek to Heimatar because one of his many, many cousins had once again heard about the “fortunes in the stars” and had completed the academy- set to do great things for the republic. and of the family success-story was meant to be there for him, and potentially offer him a ship.
They of course noticeably neglected to mention the fact that he lived in Caldari space, didn’t give a shit for the militia, and his usual employment was for Spacelane patrol which often included removing Republic “disturbances” in state space. All that was forgotten when Tennebrosa was around with all his state given millions.
Of course none of that had explained why after he had given the brat a rifter, sat through a long a tedious family reunion, that he had ended up back in his old prowling grounds in the Molden Hearth.
Way back when he was fresh out the academy he and several other members of his extended family who had graduated at the same time had seen the sizeable bounties on the Sanshan raiders, and had immediately jumped on the oppotunity. There were safer, more stable ways to earn money in government employment, but those meant working their way slowly up the bureaucratic chain of command in the Republic law enforcement agencies, but to rash young pilots bureaucracy was anathema. so into losec space they went.
It had ended predictably, losing ship after ship to experienced pirates but continuing because they didn’t and dind’t know any thing else.
One by one his friends had left behind the life of hard vacuum and death by the hand of pitiless strangers. Some were farmers or miners back planet side, others doctors. one had even made a small station manager.
Until there was only Tennebrosa left, and he had moved to what he should have done in the first place.
Full circle he thought darkly, and adjusted his Wolf, the Hibernia XI through warp. It was him now that was hunting for fresh academy jocks through the molden hearth, not the other-way round, him with the t2 frigate and equipment. His old ratting systems were now his one time hunting grounds. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he shouldn’t be doing this. he was much more familiar with the local pirate groups, who not to piss off and who was fair game. Out here he was just as clueless as he was back in the bad old days.
Slightly preturbed, he jumped through the Audseen stargate. Like usaul, it was almost completely empty. No matter, if there was one thing his own small forays into the life of a pirate had taught him it was infinite patience.
After isolating the two registered pod pilots in the system down to a Starbase and the station, he jumped into Aedald, which was truly empty. Just as he neared the Muttokon stargate, another signature matieralised in front of him.
The Hibernia stared down the Taranis as it hung there 12km above the stargate. the Taranis didn’t move, no panicked warp to a planet or belt that he could take advantage of. the Taranis simply sat there. Tennebrosa cautiously brought the Hibernia around, approaching the Taranis.
while he did he weighed up his options. A Taranis had the resilience of wet toilet paper, and he was fairly confident that his 150mms could shred it in short order. Under gate guns though it would have to be fast. as soon as the Taranis got any kind of transversal going it would be tough. the Taranis appeared to come to the same conclusion on the wolf, and the impasse continued, neither willing to fire first.
he bumped the Taranis, although he already knew that he simply couldn’t risk it. when the Taranis still failed to aggro him or panic, he jumped.
Egbinger was the same as always, the locals sitting in it’s many stations, pirates and adventorous industrialists sitting on the region’s link into the great wildlands.
Hopefully he’d find a fight here.
But inevitably there was nothing. And the njust for old times sakde he started to rat in the Hibernia almost out of pure boredom.It was a challenge almost, attempting to PVE in a buffer-plated PVP ship. the secret was not to let them get past the shields.
He had a motion of that if he gave off the appearance of being a carebear noob ratting in belt, than someone might stretch their luck. But he had forgotten the most curcial rule of space combat- there is always more than two people that could be invovled.
The Taranis- the same Taranis- dropped out on the belt 15km away and immediately aggroed the Hibernia. If Tennebrosa could have grinned, then he would have. Game on.
he locked up the Interceptor pilot before he started spiralling, and he felt the pod shudder as the Hibernia belched fire and spoke death. On his Hud, the Taranis’s shields and half of his armor flashed red, as the flimsly interceptor’s paltry defenses fell beneath the 150mms.
Tennebrosa, if he could, would have grinned, and angled his wolf to maintain the distance between him and the interceptor. after all it would only take another volley or two.
“Electronic interferance. System jamming detected” the cool voice of the ship’s AI said.
“What the…” he said then noticed the red boxing Rook in the edge of his HUD, more than 100km away.
“Targeting offline, weapons systems deactivating.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” The moment was lost as the Taranis slipped into a tight orbit around the forlorn wolf, it’s webs online and it’s blasters hot. Tennebrosa sat back dumbfounded as his Wolf’s shields vaporized, and then it’s massive armor layer. the long range missile’s hit the now almost stationary wolf, piercing the hull in several places.
“Goodbye.” he thought, as his ship went up around him.
Tennebrosa woke up in the clone harsh steel room that all the Caldari medical facilities used. A plastic smiling doctor was looking down at him, and only then did he notice he was on the floor.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.” the doctor said in a uncharacteristicly humorous statement. “I am oblidged to inform you that you were killed in combat in the Egbinger system 13 days ago. your insurance been transfered to your account, and the cloning operation was enacted without any detectable faults.”
Tennebrosa grunted in reponse and the doc gave him a knowing smile.
“As always CBD medical is always happy to be of service. we hope we are not needed for many months to come.” Tennebrosa sat up, and heaved with the effort of the brand new muscles.
This calls for a night at the bar. he thought with grumble. And tomorrow at physiotherapy. He didn’t do gym- why work for weeks when you could get the same result in four hours asleep he didn’t know. And then the next few days dealing with the lastet outbreak of voilent protestors. His agent had forwarded him the details of the lastest crisis even before he ad woken up. Bastard.
He smiled ruefully at the memory of his ship’s untimely death including his own failures in command- mistakes he hopefully would learn from- and checked the prices for a new one.
Hibernia XII would fly.