The Older Gamers Forums - Blogs - Ninja Gizmosis http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/ Online Gaming for Mature PC and Console Gamers en Sat, 25 May 2013 23:11:58 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg The Older Gamers Forums - Blogs - Ninja Gizmosis http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/ Chapters 4 and 5 http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/87-chapters-4-5.html Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:37:14 GMT Chapter Four To the Zero Lands and Beyond... Zero - zero space.... what was this place and why was it so dangerous? Melantari 401A was...
Chapter Four
To the Zero Lands and Beyond...


Zero - zero space.... what was this place and why was it so dangerous? Melantari 401A was thinking as she flew along. Not knowing exactly where she was headed, she had engaged a few old friends, who were glad to help so they could get away, to help find where Viper had gone. In doing so, she had also learned that an old flame in Shinjo was also out here in the very corp that viper was in.

Before setting off from Frugilur, Mel 401A had applied to join Dragons Rage and had been accepted with ease. Having a name like her brothers helped, but he would never know that she had used it as an excuse to get into the corp. With access granted and here place approved, she had set out on the long run into the bad lands of space. She could not get there the same way as the others due to the fact that she had no clones available to her.

Heading into the main system, Mel 401A had cought a glimpse of her targets in an ajoining system just before she jumped through the gate. They were here and they were now in trouble. Frozen Roses... Yep they would find out where they could stick those. Her story had even been plastered on the local concord billboard in Bei. What a nightmare these men cause...

The trip had been quiet whilst Mel 401A docked at the local station, only to find mail addressed to her. It was from someone called Hydrolic Gumball. A name that escaped her memory. In the mail it said that he was wanting to chat with Melantari. That was it, Concord had stuffed up the mail again and had sent her brothers mail to her instead. It looked darn important and that ment getting in touch with big Mel. Oh brother, this was going to be embarrising.

On the other side of the coin, Viper, Mel and Shinjo along with a few new DR mates, were ratting and mining the fields a few jumps away, glad to be rid of 401A. Kroolish was looking for vengance after loosing his HAC in a one on one with a war target, and Pika was busy sorting through the corp mail. Vipes was griping again about loosing another ship and Shinjo was rubbing it in again. The ratting was going well after finding a few Drone Queens to destroy and then came the call.
They all new the voice.... those who were part of BALM new the voice....
"Mail for Melantari, Concord mail service at your service..."
Vipes Shuddered, Shinjo Laughed and Mel tried to hide deeper in his pod.
Kroolish and Pika wondered what was affecting these three so much, and then they saw it.... A Road Train of.... umm yea. 5 trailers long being pulled by a half Amarian, Half Gallente looking cruiser.
It was Mel 401A's Road Train of Pleasure.

"I got mail for ya bro", called 401.
"How did you find us?" replied Shinjo.
"Tavardi." she replied, "but thats not important, I have mail for Mel."
"What is it?"
"A brute called Hydro something wants to get in contact with ya."
"Brute.... Hydrolic Gumball? have you ever met him?" questioned Mel.
"Nope, but he sounds nasty according to his mail."
Melantari laughed, knowing full well that the person she was talking about could not harm a hair on her head. He sounded gruff, looked mean but when it came to killing, he could not hurt a pod flea. In fact, he tended to breed them for 'other' purposes.
"Oh and Vipee, i bought you some roses just to show you there are no hard feelings." They were roses with nothing left but thorns. Shinjo burst out in another laughing fit before seeing a present for him.
"Why has that got my name on it?" he replied.
"Oh, after hearing you have a go at Vipee about his bed clothes, I decided to make a set for you."
Shinjo cringed. The bed clothes she was talking about was a spiderman costume at least two sizes too small for vipes.
"Open it and see." called Viper.
"Go on" niggled Pika.
"Ahh maybe later." cowered Shinjo.
"As the CEO of this corporation and all round nasty, I order you to show us what it is", bellowed Krool.
Shinjo opened the package and turned white as a ghost. This was private but now it was public. Inside the wrapping was a Batman Cosume, complete in leather with only the buttocks missing.
Everyone burst out laughing.

With the message needing reply, everyone got together and headed for Moes Tavern. A lowlife place of used ships and seedy characters that DR called home.

Upon entering the docking bay, all anyone could hear was the constant yelling of parts for sale by none other than another of the DR crew.
"Get your Cruisers here, Hardly used, clean pods and free 3 light year service with all sales this week", was the call from Ranna.
Ranna was into making money any way he could, and with his loss ratio so large when he was supposed to be ratting, the only way he was successfull in this area of space, was to steal wrecks and repaint them ready for a quick sale. It was lucky for him that other members of DR could kill with precision and therefore reduce the repairs needed on these rather seedy vessels.
Upon seeing Krool, pika and toher he knew, Ranna shut up shop and hurried to catch up. They were heading to The Amazing Red Bar and Grill.

After entering the pub, they found there normal room out the back and turned on the Concord mail service console, stolen by Ranna of course, and proceded to get in contact with Hydrolic.
"And what do we 'ave 'ere then 'ey?" called a rather hairy old bloke from behind the bar. "Bit early for you lot to be in 'ere aint it?"
"Shove it Red," said Shinjo, still in a bad mood after having his private affairs aired.
"Oh we are in a good old mood today then arnt we."
"Normal rounds for all," stated Krool in a rather happy mood.
"I know all your drinks, but what wil the young lady have? Milk?"
"I'll have what the guy over there in the red and green suit is having, that looks interesting." squalked 401.
"Ahh you gotta be a bit older or have some sort of I.D. to be getting those."
"I'm old enough, Just ask Vipee and Shinjo-man!"
"Shinjo-man?" the group called out at once.
Shinjo shrunk lower in his seat knowing full well that he was never going to live this one down.
Fragito, after hearing his suit called out, walked over to the others and sat down.
"Whos this little piece of work then, hey?"
"I'm Mels Sister."replied 401 handing Fragito a piece of paper with her docking number on it under the table. Fragito having a fairly good memory, tried to memorise it and then threw the paper away.

After a few rounds of drinks and a lot of laughter, the DR group got up and headed over to the offices. Hydrolic wanted to join so things had to be set in motion. Lots of new people were in the area now and rights and passes had to be organised for the new DR members. Cleaning up after the DR crew had left was another member, who in a little debt with the establishment, was cleaning up in The Amazing Red Bar and Grill. He came accross a piece of paper stating Dock 131, Trailer 4, 11pm. Cheesehelmet for once in his life felt lucky.

To Be Continued.



















Chapter Five
Introductions

Sitting in his Pink Fluffy Bunny suit, Hydrolic was on his way to Moes. The invite had come back and he was into DR. What was next, he was totally unsure of.
Waiting for his arrival was the corps new welcome party. A Road train with extras as Null had put it. It was 401.
She had given herself the role of welcoming all the new players to the corp and Krool had thought that if they could put up with her, then they deserved to stay. Any spy would run at the sight of 401 rushing them.
Plus she had the uncanny ability of being able to 'sniff out' the opposition.
Only one problem had come of this, when the alliance boss had come in and 401 had invited him in for drinks. Well lets just say, after 5 mins of drinks, he was a runnin fast and Kroolish had a lot of explaining to do. But at the same time, it kept a lot of the allaince HQ people out of reds bar, which in turn improved Reds bottom line (and his belt line).

Cheesehelmet had made his way to dock 131 at the required hour only to find Fragito entering trailer 3. Fragito's memory was not what it used to be. Cheesehelmet sneaked into trailer 4.

In trailer 3, Fragito was dumbfounded to find the inside set up like a bat cave. There were bats hanging from the roof, moss on the walls and a black bed in the center that rotated just like in those old 21st century batman movies when the car spun around. He was scared. This girl had wierd tastes. In the corner was a Caldari uniform that was torn with what looked like a cat of nine tails. Fragito ran, ran fast as far as he could away from the trailers.

Trailer 4 and the door was locked. This was not going to stop Cheesehelmet, oh no , on the contrary. He was good at breaking and entering... just ask those that had lost alloys from there corp hangers in the other systems. That was also why he was working at the bar. He was paying for his indifferences.
The door opened and he stepped in.

Standing in the corner in Green Leathers was the girl from the bar. The room looked like a tropical forrest and she had frog mask on.
"Want to help me find my taddies?" she asked...
Cheesehelmet ran, it was the last time he would break in unanounced.

Thirty minutes later, Hydrolic landed in station. At the pad was 401 in a suit and a cardboard sign with his name.
"Im Hydrolic", he stated.
"Well you are a big boy, but whats with the bunny suit?"
"Oh, Forgot to change from the party I was at last night"
"Cool costume, can I use it after your finished... I have a bar that could use some spicing up." 401 replied. They had just finished installing her new pole in the back room earlier that day.

Harliey was in the bar serving drinks to the non-comms that alway hung around during the day when Red asked her to go out back and get a new bar cloth. When she was out there, she saw the new pole and wondered why such a thing was in this room. Sitting in the far corner was a 7 foot cage with a name tag place that was empty. She felt all weird inside. Ever since 401 had arrived, this place was becoming stranger by the day.

There was a meeting of staff in the area to be help tomorrow and things had to be set up. Red was hobbling between the tables setting up when Harliey came back in and told him about the pole. His eyes just shone a little brighter at the news. Meetings would be getting more interesting in the future.

Capt Archer was flying in from a recon mission in empire when he heard that there was going to be a meeting called. He also knew that his aquantences from BALM were going to be there and it was a chance to catch up.

5 hours later

The meeting was due to start right on 12. But they were still missing those members who had the most to say. Kroolish, Pika, Null and Slumber. As usual, Kroolish was running late, but the others were normally early.
Things were quiet in the back room or Reds Bar and Grill, mainly becouse 401 was not allowed in. But there was plenty of wolf whistling coming from the main bar where she was entertaining the crowds.

Krool arrived with the others in toe and made straight for the head of the room.
"We have problems folks, and it dont look good", he started. " the four of us have been in talks with the allaince and they have no idea what they are doing. We have new rules for anyone wishing to join up, new training schedules and new ways to fight. And we dont agree on any of this. If this continues, we may be looking for a new home!"
The room went very quiet. Everyone looked at Krool with intent on what was going to happen.

"We as a corp will continue to function as we always have. We will fight the way we do and we will hire the way we like. If they want us to be there when they ask... well, Im going to say, choose yourselves what you want to do. i believe we should fly together and work the alliance second."

The people in the room aplauded with glee this news. Finally they had a direction in battle. Krool sat down and Slumber got up to say his bit.
"We will fight together and use our own FC's, we will work with the alliance but dont get caught in there fights if you think its not worth loosing your ship over. And dont mine in there areas. That seems to be pissing them off a bit."
The room burst out in laughter. Everyone knew that there were a few close calls lately over ratting and mining. and it went as high up as the directorship in this area. Pika was being rather quiet.

Krool stood up again and started on the topic of new homes.
"We are not moving to a new station of our own at the moment, even though a lot of you have donated a lot of your time lately to improving our financial position. It is greatly apreciated and is being stored for further use when the time comes. At the moment, we will stay with the alliance and watch from within its walls for the cracks to appear. We will be hunting our war targets a bit more viligantly and we will be training new FC's in specialist roles. One of those will be a 'black ops' fleet for hunting purposes. We may also be looking at setting up some bait ships to help start the fights."
Another round of applause broke out with the latest ideas.

The rest of the meetin was rather quiet and informal with the usual stuff about who was doing what where and when. It broke up 2 hours later when Krool got a call from the alliance leadership. They wanted DR's help again. But would they give it knowing that they would get little in return for such an outlay.

401 and Harliey were exchanging thoughts and ideas in the main bar area when Shade walked in. he was late for the meeting and as such was also locked out of the back room. Shade upon seing 401 again, went and sat on the other side of Harliey. Drinks were being served by Cheesehelmet, who in all honesty, could not look 401 in the eye. For once in his life, he was scared of someone. And that someone was a girl of all things.

Red lights went off, Buzzers sounded and a general alarm was being broadcast.
DR to your ships! We are under attack!
All the screens in the bar automatically flicked to the external cameras, but there was nothing there. Red cam running out from the back and started switching channels. It was a home defence alert. War targets were being spotted in the next system as well as Dizney.

Shade was just getting to his feet and the girls were just getting out from under the bar stools when the back door opened and DR members came running past. Pika looked woried, a little more than normal, and Fragito was white as a ghost.
"What have they hit?' yelled Fragito.
"Dizney" came the reply from Red. "Its not damaged as yet, but its not looking good."
"All pilots to small agile craft, called Pika, in krools absence." Ranna, release the small craft from the lock up now!"
"There painted and ready to go, just a few of em are missing little bits and pieces, but they should be all right. Bay 12, cypher code Alpha - one - niner -four."
Dr were running down the corridors. 401 and Harliey still under the stools after the mad rush by and started chasing after them.
"You two will stay here and watch the bar! This is no fight for you youngsters this time!" stated Red on his way out, hobling on his bad leg.
The pub was being left to the youngsters and the back door was still open. ]]> Ninja Gizmosis http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/87-chapters-4-5.html Chapter 3 http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/86-chapter-3.html Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:35:29 GMT Chapter Three From BALM to the Dragon’s Nest The decision had been made, those who wished it were moving there alliances over to Dragons Rage...
Chapter Three
From BALM to the Dragon’s Nest


The decision had been made, those who wished it were moving there alliances over to Dragons Rage Corporation. It was time to play with the big boys in this universe.
BALM was always looking at going this way, but with Viper talking to Dragon’s CEO Kroolish, we were now going to test the waters. It would be a decent trip to their headquarters and a few were making it. With Relatives installed to watch over BALMs community, Viper, Melantari, Grendel, Tavardi, Sacro and other high ranking officials started the journey.

Forming the fleet to head from Bei to Fruligur, Viper was constantly on the ariw2ves trying to answer questions that he himself had no found answers for. He was also in two minds as to weather or no this was the right thing to do. They were leaving behind what seemed to be a safe haven of friends and acquaintances that had served them well and were heading into the relative unknown. Capt Archer had told them about what to expect and as usual, it sounded too good to be true. He had also arranged for the BALM members to chat with Kroolish about the move.

Whilst the trip to Fruligur was a quiet one with no real hassles.... after arriving at the offices or Dragon’s Rage, and applying, things started to turn a little more hairy. Now they had a choice to make. 1. Do you try and pilot yourself out to the main station or 2. Do you transfer your medical clone to the station and then suicide yourself to get out there. Either way sounded dangerous. Whilst trying to navigate that way, you could be caught by the many various pilots out there looking for new blood in the area. But podding was also rough on the system. The headaches of the transformation, the aching of the so far unused muscles and the torment the mind had to go through was sometimes enough to send the strongest pilot into the madhouse.

There was another small problem as well. They were being tailed by a little Amarian destroyer who no matter what they did, would not seem to get off their tail. Melantari was chosen to sit back and find out who this was behind them. Mel jumped into a parallel system and decided to double back on the destroyer. Well it showed as a destroyer on the ship scan but it seemed oddly out of shape for an Amarian one. On doubling back, he saw the ship and recognised it at once. He had seen this ship many times including in its construction. It was his sisters. It was the Amarian Road Train of Grief, as he called it. They were being followed by Melantari 401A. A clone gone wrong had created this sister of Melantari’s.

Mel called back to the main group that the threat was not a threat and that Viper was in trouble. Viper not sure what to make of this enquired about why he was in trouble...
401A was the response and Viper turned green in his seat. He thought that he had gotten rid of this problem. Viper was supposed to have been on a date in one of the many pleasure dromes in the Bei area with 401A, but he had renigged on his responsibility and sent freeze dried roses in his place. This had obviously not gone down well with his supposed date and she had been hounding him ever since.
It was supposed to be a double date with Berryl and Shinjo. A date where it would be explained to Shinjo what was happening and an invite sent out to him to join them. Well... Shinjo had watched from afar as Beryl and Viper had dinner not 50 meters from the waiting 401A, whilst he shucked oysters in the Blue Oyster Bar. He hadn’t of yet told Viper that 401A was sitting there crying her eyes out and he had not the slightest inclination of calming her, knowing full well that she would latch onto the first male she saw and recognised.
Well now they were being tailed by the little girl with the massive crush and she was bringing everything with her including the kitchen sink. Viper could only run and hide. She was hot on his tail as if a beacon was sitting in his pants.

Viper decided the only thing he could do was to clone jump to the new system as that would leave her no way of following him. Melantari also decided on this as he was just as likely to have a device planted somewhere. The others chose multiple ways of going. Shinjo coming in from another way was laughing so hard, he hit an advertising sign outside of a jump gate and got a nasty bill from Concord. A bill that had to be paid before leaving the system. The only thing that could be heard on the airwaves for the next few hours was the laughter and jeering at Viper and the melodramatic song of ‘Here comes the bride’. Viper was constantly turning from red to green as different verses were sung. He could not wait for the trip and to finally ( he thought) be rid of the little joke he had tried to play on the little Amarian girl known as 401A. A joke that had come back as a nightmare and kicked his crooked little but way across the universe.
]]> Ninja Gizmosis http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/86-chapter-3.html Chapter 2 http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/85-chapter-2.html Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:34:46 GMT Chapter TwoThe Taming of Sacro “Another day, another corporation run fleet operation,” Sacro was thinking again. This was about the third week...
Chapter Two

The Taming of Sacro

“Another day, another corporation run fleet operation,” Sacro was thinking again. This was about the third week in a row where BALM had been hunting down pirates in both low and high security areas and, as usual, Sacro was being left with the corporation newbie’s. The main fighting force today was being made up of Triask, Emearg, Kujack, Viper and Setelle. Unlike the operations of the past few weeks, today BALM was in the open. Kujack was the shield logistics pilot, while Setelle, Viper and Emearg were flying battleships, and Triask was flying a tackling and jamming capable cruiser. Accompanying Sacro was Rokmun, Flint 1 and 2, Bezza, Malphia, Cyk and Kaldarius. Bezza, Bellie and Courtie were running late again and that was really getting on Sacro’s nerves. Four times in the past three weeks he had been left on the outside as the “guard” in case something went wrong. Did Viper not trust him or something? Why, when he was consistently being asked to be fleet commander for the corporation, was he constantly being left with squad two? With Melantari away for a couple of weeks now, Viper was becoming less and less talkative with the rest of the corporation; something just had to change.
Over TeamSpeak, the pirate raid seemed to be going well; Kujack had the shields and capacitors nearly full for all of squad one and they had killed, but not podded, three of their five intended targets. Only a battleship was left fully untouched, but that would go down quickly under the massive amounts of firepower that was out there.
Sacro once again inquired, “Can squad two enter the fight for some practice?”
“It’s not safe enough in here for your squad Sacro,” answered Viper.
“It’s never safe enough!” exclaimed Sacro. “These guys can fight you know!”
“Next time mate, next time we can reverse the roles,” stated Viper.
“Oh crap!” yelled Bezza, “My shields are being hit!” Sacro had taken a shot at Bezza knowing full well that whilst they were of the same corporation, Concord, the military police in the area, would not retaliate.
“Help him Sacro,” yelled Viper.
“I am, he’s learning the hard way like I have”, snickered Sacro.
Bellie called out while he aligned to the closest station, “It’s Sacro doing the damage!” Too late did he notice the five combat drones circling him and that his shields were no more.
“Fight you little wimps; show the boss man that you can fight. Take me into hull, if you can,” Sacro stated.
“Sacro, what the heck are you doing man?” inquired Viper.
“I am teaching these suckers not to be late to an operation; I’m sick of it and I’m always left out there so they don’t get ganked and you get all the fun!” Sacro noticed his shields starting to go down. On his tactical display he could see that Rokmun, Flint1 and 2, Malphia, Cyk and Kaldarius had all locked him up. “Maybe these wimps could fight, but who was organizing them?” On the corporation channel he read that Courtie was sending out orders, orders to put him out of action. No later did Bezza’s ship explode. “Haha, one down.” Next on the list was Bellie, but Bellie was running and BALM members never run from a fight unless told to; Bellie had to die next. It was interesting though that Viper had not come to the rescue of his corporation mates... maybe he was locked down in the other system with the pirates. Even Kujack had not arrived, but Kujack would have been an easy kill in that logistics ship.
“That’s not going to help you lead a group into battle Sacro,” came Viper’s voice over TeamSpeak.
“Maybe not, but we will see if they have any guts when it comes to fighting; these ‘rock apes’ should still be able to hold me, but we will see about that,” proclaimed Sacro. It was only then that Sacro noticed that his targets were disappearing from his tactical display. His locked targets were becoming unlocked and people were disappearing but not warping away. Who had the jammer? Flint 1 and Flint 2 were learning jamming, but when did they outfit one? They had practiced with it last week but Sacro was sure that it was not fitted to either Flint’s ships. And where were all the others? Cloaks, it had to be cloaking devices, and if that was the case, all he had to do was move the drones around until he found them.
Sacro’s second squad had sorted themselves out, they had practiced many a time against other BALM members whist being watched by Sacro and told what to do. This time they were going to do it right against the teacher, the teacher who had shown them all the things that they had done wrong. Squad two would hold Sacro to his disadvantage; they would surround him without him able to find them; they would report all of his movements and they would find his weakness. Realistically, the only weakness in Sacro’s ship was the capacitor, take that out and you had a chance; that and the drones. But drones could fight drones, and there was enough drones being carried out here to fix that problem. Flint 2 created a new chat channel with the members of fleet two so that Sacro would not know what was being organized. One by one, they uncloaked, released their drones against Sacro’s drones, then cloaked up again and moved away; Sacro’s drones did not last long.
The advantage over cloaked people is to use your drones to ferret them out. Sacro had just lost that advantage and now twenty plus drones were onto him. He opened up with all he had. Drones started disappearing, but so did his capacitor levels; squad two was a support squad, therefore capacitor neutralizers and vampires, repairers, and tackling ships were at hand. These were to be used and lost to help squad one escape, but this squad was not meant to be this good.
Kaldarius and Rokmun appeared behind Sacro, obviously getting too close to each other for their cloaks to work. But both were locked hard onto Sacro, but Sacro still could not get a solid lock on either of them, and was still losing capacitor at a drastic rate. No active tank turned on, and his guns still spewing out death to the drones circling his ship, as the fight continues. Light drones didn’t take much to kill, if you could hit them; they moved fast.
With his capacitor all but gone, Sacro aligned himself with the closest sun; warping to it would hide him if they chased him. His ship turned slow... too slow for his liking, and he knew what was going on. Malphia had to be here somewhere, slowing him down. There he was, 2,500 meters away and yes, the energy pulse that was coming out was all too familiar to Sacro. He still had his warp available due to the fact that he had taken out Bezza. He flicked the warp switch and awaited the satisfaction of getting away. But it was not going to happen today; forgotten as usual, was Cyk and his ability also to warp disrupt. All of squad 2 was now uncloaked and surrounding him; no capacitor available, no drones alive and he was going nowhere. Through the gate not more than 1,000 meters from him, Viper and squad one arrived.
“Looks like squad two can handle themselves quite well I see”, acknowledged Viper over the voice comm. Viper would pay for the ship loss of Bezza as Viper himself had learnt how good this squad was; Sacro had taught them well and it showed, maybe it was time for them to have a go instead of sitting back in support. Sacro also had to admit that this squad was good, perhaps he has taught them better than he realized, although, time would tell. Sacro had been tamed by the squad he taught, a squad that was ready and now he had to prove to Viper that he was ready to lead them. Sacro had no other option than to surrender.
That was all that Viper needed to realize that Viper, and his squad, were ready, which was kind of good actually because Viper needed a break from always leading in group one. To see Sacro not only teach his pupils how to fight, but also know when to back down, gave confidence in making the decision to let Sacro lead the next mission. And that was how Sacro came to trust his squad and his abilities, and Viper came to trust that things could be done without him always looking over their shoulders. ]]> Ninja Gizmosis http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/85-chapter-2.html BALM Ideas novel chapter 1 http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/84-balm-ideas-novel-chapter-1.html Mon, 11 Oct 2010 09:33:02 GMT *The Chronicles* *of* *BaLm* By Melantari
The Chronicles

of
BaLm




By Melantari









Chapter One


Misunderstandings


After flying through the belts of the local asteroid fields, John Colan came across a Hulk sitting there mining without an escort. What a prize kill this would be; it even had a can sitting there, next to it, obviously full of ore. John was cloaked at a range of about 4,000 meters. With this fat target there, and no hauler to be seen for the last five minutes, this was going to be really easy for the veteran pilot of 3 months. Never had John seen such a precious gift. Blasters, and his newly fitted warp disruptors, would easily take care of this ship.
Grendel knew that a ship was cloaked in system with him, he had other plans though. A veteran of over 20 such killings, he was playing this game close to home. Instead of carrying his compliment of attack drones, he only had mining drones aboard and they were out in the open at the moment. He knew he was safe though, due to another three ships close at hand, real close actually. Somewhere behind him was Melantari in a logistics ship. Grendel’s Hulk was safe today; there was also Viper, cloaked as well, in his Megathron class battleship. Viper had recently changed to blasters on his battleship after collecting enough money to finally fit it out correctly; this would be good. The third ship in the awaiting cloaked fleet was a cruiser fitted out with warp disruptors, jammers and energy vampires. They were all ready, but when was their prey going to take the bait? This solar system was well known for its can flippers and that’s why the BALM Corporation had decided to give their plan a go. They were here to help a friend who had gotten it wrong and was now sitting in a pod awaiting some funds to get a new ship.
John was now within 3,000 meters of the Hulk, it was time to uncloak and lock up his target. Uncloaking, John had to wait until his targeting systems came out of standby before he could lock up the Hulk. Grendel saw the ship, a missile boat damage dealer, Drake class battlecruiser, and being this close was going to hurt. The TeamSpeak server lit up as all four pilots claimed kill rights on the target. Viper, being the fleet commander for this little operation, called for silence and that no-one was to uncloak. Equcin was ordered to move within 3,000 meters of the target and be ready to uncloak at a seconds notice. Melantari was 70 kilometers away and orbiting, never getting any closer. Viper could not believe his luck, this drake was less than 5 kilometers off the starboard bow and closing.
John finally got his targeting systems online; he locked up the Hulk, which had started a lazy turn towards the closest station, but its drones were still out. “Well, more to collect later,” John thought, “the pilot has forgotten his expensive drones.” Life as a pirate was getting better. Grendel knew what he had to do, align towards the closest station without warping while leaving the drones out and acting scared, the Drake pilot would think that Grendel is trying to flee. John acquired lock; warp scrambled and jammed his prey, and launched his first volley of missiles at his target. This ship was going nowhere. Looking at his damage control console, Grendel noticed the shields of his Hulk were going down relatively fast. “That Drake must have some high tech weaponry fitted if the shields won’t hold,” Grendel thought to himself. Grendel let the shields of his Hulk drop; he needed to be into armor before they could spring the trap. Into armor he went after the next volley, followed by a proposal for submission in the local channel asking for 100 million ISK. But John would still destroy it.
The message flashed across the local channel, "100 million ISK to spare your ship!"
"Stop, stop, I don’t have that much money," Grendel replied.
"Make me a good offer or you lose the ship," proposed John.
On TeamSpeak Equcin heard the long awaited command, "Now! Shut him down, now!" That was all they needed. Equcin uncloaked and immediately began acquiring lock on John’s Drake. Melantari uncloaked and locked up Grendel’s Hulk. Viper held off and waited for his cue to enter the fight.
"What in the...," was John’s first response when he saw a ship at 70 kilometers appear. John had his tactical scan set at a longer range so he could spot such a happening; this ship was not getting closer though. They would not be able to close the distance fast enough, so he was mildly pleased. What he had not seen was the cruiser class vessel that had uncloaked behind him and acquired lock on his ship. The first thing he realized was that his capacitor was rather low; strange as his ship was fit to be capacitor stable at 60%, but it was now down below 30%. Next thing John noticed was that his missiles were doing no damage to the Hulk; in fact, the Hulk had no damage to its armor anymore.
“What’s going on here,” John thought.
A message was transmitted across the local channel by Grendel demanding, "200 million ISK or you lose your ship!"
"Not likely," responded John, aligning himself with another moon. John braced himself as he attempted to activate warp, but something was wrong, he was going nowhere. In fact, his ship had been slowed by a stasis webifier down to a snail’s pace. It was time for John to return to his tactical display to assess the situation. He narrowed down the range of his tactical scan only to reveal a Myrmidon class battlecruiser. It was pulsing out waves of energy and he knew exactly what was happening. The Myrmidon had him locked down and going nowhere. Locking the Myrmidon, it was time to start fighting back and John immediately launched his two medium Hammerhead combat drones; John also redirected his missiles to the battlecruiser.
John was on his own out here, with no help, but these fools were not firing on him. A Hulk with no weapons and a Myrmidon with tackling capabilities only... he could take these attackers out with his drones. John could see himself getting out of this situation to fight another day.
Melantari locked up Equcin’s Myrmidon and started using his remote repair capabilities on him. One module would be enough and Grendel didn’t need all four anymore either. One was to be left idle in case Viper started taking damage and now was the time for Viper’s appearance. Viper uncloaked his Megathron at a mere 3,000 meters from the bow of the enemy Drake.
"Oh crap," John exclaimed to no-one in particular. It was a Gallente battleship and it was too close for comfort, really close. Some trap this had turned out to be... a trap that he fell into, and not the other way around. 200 million ISK to spare his battlecruiser was sounding nice, but he did not have it.
Viper and his fleet were not interested in the money from this little operation, it was the revenge that they were seeking and they knew all too well on how to deal it out. Sitting just one system out, another gang of BALM members was awaiting the outcome of the trap. There were 15 members in this other fleet and they all were awaiting the command by Sacro to jump into system and join the fight. Viper locked up the drake and then opened up with seven large blasters ripping right into the drake. Three volleys later and the drake was taking armour damage; not good for a shield tanking ship. Another four volleys from the blasters and it was into structure.
John knew he was in trouble with no tanking ability due to a lack of capacitor. His drones were attacking the Myrmidon but going nowhere into its armor, due to Melantari repairing it remotely. This was happening too fast, and there was no time to react. The drake went bang... no more Drake. Its drones turned idle, but there was still a pod there with the pilot in it. This was the pilot that had podded their friend, a hauler pilot who helped them out in times of need. This pod had to be destroyed to revenge their friend’s death and Grendel had the final say in that. His hulk was not carrying its normal array of strip miners, no… not for this trip. He had on board, three smart bombs, just for this specific occurrence. Only little ones, but they would do the trick and now they were ready to go off. The small tech two EMP smart bombs went off simultaneously and ripped into the pod; there was no escape for John Colan.
John woke up in the clone vat in his new body, his implants destroyed and his head a blur. Thinking back he realized what had happened; he got ganked and ganked big time. But why, why had they been waiting for him... he would find out sooner or later.
Grendel turned off his smart bombs, and the deed was done; revenge was almost complete. One more kill on this pilot and things would be even.
Viper called the fleet in and told them to return home and home was 27 jumps away, and this was a perfectly executed mission. Jumping a fleet accompanied by a hulk that far would normally be difficult, but being in a low security area of space, and having friends, would make the trip manageable. Sacro called in the jump freighter and it would load all the ships up for the return home. BALM’s reputation would, again, grow as a fear to the pirates, their reputation of righteous vengeance. They ask, “Why do they come and attack us? We never attack them.” We say, “Just don’t attack another helpless ship,” we say,” and you will never know who we are...” ]]> Ninja Gizmosis http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/blogs/ninja+gizmosis/84-balm-ideas-novel-chapter-1.html