Well, I finally reprocessed or bought the minerals for a Cyclone-class battlecruiser and hired a crew. Fit it up with tech 2 arties and decent shields, and took her on a maiden voyage tour through the belts of Hrokkur. It's just so frackin' SLOW. Yeah, the big guns are nice. But SLOW.
The crew performed admirably, so we docked in the Vherekior tribe station in the system to see what sort of work the tribe had to offer. Only some eight-jump jaunt into Ammatar space turned up was offered by the agent. I told the crew they had station leave indefinately, and hopped back into my pod and loaded it into my Jag... Double Trouble, the fifth of that name. Haven't gotten back into that expensive, shiny new cyclone since. Probably the stupidly ostentatious name I gave it in a fit of pride that did it: Lion's Mane.
A friendly Vherekior pilot in Gradient corp, Aule, was ratting in-system when he got jumped by four pirates of the self styled Immortalis Silens. Vahakin, a new recruit but already commanding a cyclone battlecruiser, and me in my trusty jag responded.
By the time we got there, Aule was in his pod, and all four were hammering away at Vah. I fired up the autocannons and hammered at a caracal that quickly warped off as my barrage ammo vaporized it's armor. Then I turned to the stabber when I saw the Domi let loose a whole damn swarm of drones... and I DIDN'T HAVE DRONES ON MY DAMN OVERVIEW. By the time I had them added I was down to 25% shields... as I saw another damned pirate warp in, I knew the cause was lost, and signaling Vahakin, I warped off. Vah put up a valiant fight but it was hopeless...
Best outcome of this was Aule, a good, solid chap, joined Huang. Guess he liked our quick response, even though it was in vain.
Later, I was pinged by family for a medical emergency, so I couldn't join the fleet that was warping in to deal with these clowns. Later I heard that they got the stabber pilot. Last night we chased these same criminals around Hrokker and Hrober, but they didn't stand and fight. Someday, I'll pod one of those suckers.
