Tusker Pilot Wanted Over Missing Reporter

//

This is not an official statement on the disappearance of Sketur Treveiwerni.

I just thought that I should post that it has come to my attention that I am wanted for questioning for my involvement with Sketurs disappearance. I first learned about it through a blog post by Oxidizing Agent. This post that can be found here is part of an interview that I did with Sketur after my friend Romeo Blackstorm mention him to me in passing. He told me that Sketur was interviewing active members of the Tuskers for some ragtag new agency. I only agreed to do it after I had read some of the other interviews that he had did with my corp mates which can be found here. After agreeing to it I met with the man and did the interview. That is all though. But now they have brought Concord and the Gallente Federation into it, what an awful mess. So if I disappear like Sketur does you will know that it is because Concord has me hidden away in some remote station in the middle of nowhere or they have locked me up and sold me into captivity to the Amarrians. We all know how corrupt Concord can be when it is in their interest. So keep looking for me over your shoulder everytime you enter lowsec and if I am not there, you know why.

Tired of mining, but cant quit?

//

I thought I should post these steps to recovering from carebearing up for anyone struggling with mining addiction or missioningism who thought that all hope was lost. There is a way out, you can recover. These step are just a suggestion, but rarely have I seen a person who has failed if they have thoroughly followed them.

12 Steps of Carebear Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over Boredom—that our lives had become uneventful.
2. Came to believe that Piracy could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to go flashy and leave highsec behind.
4. Made suicide ganking and Gate Camping apart of ourselves.
5. Attacked noobs, miners and carebears of all types.
6. Were entirely ready to receive ransom, and take their assets and ships.
7. Promptly through out the GF(good fight) wether we won or lost.
8. Having a list of all ships we had destroyed, we prompty posted our Killmails.
9. Made direct attacks on any persons wherever possible, especially when to do so would would make us isk.
10. Continued to take personal ransoms and when we could not promptly podded them.
11. Sought through lowsec, nullsec and worhole space to improve our chances of gankage, praying only for the ability to kill our targets and to capture their pods.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps,
we tried to carry this message to carebears, and to practice these
principles in all our affairs.

Oh crap.......

//

It started with me just messing around Hevrice...

when I spotted a 2 year old pilot docking a hauler in the 5 station. Thinking that he might be grabbing some things to haul back to highsec I undocked my Tempest Battleship. The plan was to get set up to snipe his little hauler right out of existence. As I waited I spotted a shuttle being piloted by a guy on our corps watch list. He quickly disappeared and returned with a Phobos Heavy Interdictor, which was cause for a change of plans.

Being bored and tired of waiting on the hauler pilot to undock I decided to switch ships to my Typhoon Battleship. With the new plan of seeing if my heavy energy nuetralizers could shut off his tank and allow me to kill him. But alas to no avail. I ended up warping off as he had not aggressed me and the station guns were wearing on my tank. After which I went back and docked up to repair my damage and wait out my GCC(global criminal counter). The phobos pilot left shortly afterwards.

Thinking that is was all over, I reshipped back to my Tempest since the hauler pilot still had not undocked. As I waited I notice that the phobos pilot was back and had a corp mate with him. Thinking that they had comeback to take me on I switched ships yet again and got my corpmates on alert. Well his buddy went to the 6 station and undocked a Thanatos Carrier. I undocked my Typhoon to find the phobos waiting for me. This time he aggressed, I notified my mates and the call was made to try and take it out before the carrier could get reps on him. I immediately pointed and webbed him as my corp mates undocked and the carrier warped in. This time with the added fire power the phobos melted within seconds with a happy end result.

The surprise came next, the carrier had both web and scram fit and had me in full tackle with a full flight of fighter drones on me. Thinking that I was going to go down because I had station aggro and could not dock, I informed my mates of the situtaion as I waited for the end of my ship to come. As I sat there with depression hitting me harded with each second I noticed that I had only 9, I repeat NINE seconds to go till I could dock and had about 10% armor and all my structure left. Just that little bit of hope spurred me into even faster spamming of the dock button. Then it was 7 and my armor was gone, then 5 and my structure was at 70%, then 3 seconds and 30% structure, then 1 second and I thought that I was exploding and yelled to my mates that I was down.

Then something funny happened, I was setting in station still in my glorious Typhoon. With joy I started yelling over coms that I had made it and docked up with 1% structure. I immediately through out the GF(good fight) in local chat. The following is what I heard back:


[13:21:49] Valgore Meurte > gf
[13:22:06] Man Barthelme > gf
[13:22:45] Ethan Fletcher > You lucky b*****
[13:22:54] Ethan Fletcher > 5% structure?
[13:23:02] Valgore Meurte > less, 1%
[13:23:12] Ethan Fletcher > Oh crap.......
[13:23:40] Valgore Meurte > I have 73 hp of structur left
[13:24:01] Ethan Fletcher > I'll buy those at 10k isk each.


Yes you are seeing that correct, I had made it out with 73 hit points of structure. I cannot tell you of any other time I have made it out with so little of a ship left. I am so glad that when this first started and I decided to fight on a station that I had removed my 2 gyrostabilizers and put 2 more energized adaptive nano platings on for that extra bit of tank.

Recons Down

//

The other day us Tuskers got together to do some covert ops ganks.

We had us a nice gang to do it with as well. When we formed up in Hevrice we had a cloaky recon and bomber from every race. The hope was that we would find a battlecruiser gang or small battleship gang to decend upon.

After we sent our scouts out looking for targets, we started getting reports of a couple of large mixed gangs from the surrounding areas. Nothing really to our liking for a solid engagement. But considering the amount of traffic that was being spotted, we sent out a bait ship in hopes of luring a group in. Well the bait ship sat for close to 20 minutes without even a nibble, while our scouts kept looking.

As time was slowly clicking by, and feeling that nothing was going to happen sank in, we got word to be ready, a Tempest had been spotted. It was in a near by system and that it looked like it was being harassed by a Hurricane. So we got ready and waited for the report from the scout that the Hurricane and Tempest were indeed engaged, as soon as we did we dropped in and started working on the Hurricane. All of us moving out to our optimal ranges and hitting him with what we had, me in my Rapier hitting him with dual webs, the Arazu holding point and hitting him with sensor damps, the Falcon running its ECM to jam him up and the Pilgrim draining his cap. All the while the bombers hitting him with sensor damps and target painters and torps, it was all going so fast.

Then local spiked and we were hit with the Hurricanes support fleet which included a Gaurdian. The call was made to try and shut down the Gaurdian, and then to pull out. Needless to say, there fleet having more numbers, and being closer to the recons then we liked. had us fairly well locked down. Over coms I heard our Arazu pilot Ka Jolo, our Falcon pilot Kopecky, and our Pilgrim pilot Migrond Aramath, one by one say those dreaded words "I'm down". My heart started to sink, I was tackled by multiple hostiles with no support. I aligned to a planet and started burning as fast as I could, switching my webs over from one ship to another forcing them to slow down as I raced out from under the warp disruptors. About 60km away from where the engagement had started the hostile drones caught up to me and I started taking damage. By 70km I had out ran all but the fastest of their fleet and was working on shaking the 3 or 4 that was still keeping me pointed as my shield tank started to fail do to the amount of drones I had on me. At about 80km the inevitable happened, I went down.

I know what most of you are thinking, that this is me whining. Its not, I really enjoyed that fight and got some really good practice in piloting my rapier in. Though we might have lost and lost horribly, it was still a great experience. We all learned something in that fight, probably including the hostile fleet, and got to leave it with a smile on our faces from the sheer rush of it at. Props goes to the guys from Muppet Ninjas, and thanks goes to my fellow Tuskers for the fun.
Battle Report

We Stole a Tengu \o/

//



So, there I was in Onne.....


scanning down a noob harb when this Tengu pops up on the probes and the harb warps out. So naturally, I already having the Tengu at 20%, just switched to him. At the same moment Shigeru Tamura entered system. I got him into fleet and to warp to the Hulmate gate where I was waiting. As soon as he landed I warped us in to get point.

Well things werent so easy at first, us both being in rifters. Me and him started taking turns holding point while I started paging people in the afk channel. Sure enough itsmeHck1 answered my page and came in his Myrmidon. He helld point as me and Shigeru reshipped up to a Myrmidon(shigeru) and Rupture(me), since we were unable to break the Tengu with just the 2 Rifters and the single battlecruiser.

As we landed and hit the Tengu with our nuets and added dps, his tank broke and he ejected and ran away. This left us screaming on coms to hold fire, for we had us a Tengu. Well we managed to stop fire at about 10%, then we were like "who is going to fly it back to hev?". Well itsmeHck1 got on the batphone and had us a pilot that was willing to jump clone and then travel another 20 jumps just to fly our precious shiny back to hev for us. Thanks goes out to Icarus Helia for that.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, Icarus got there. During the wait, itsmeHck1 brought in his prober and let us know that the ship was fit with. I couldn't believe my ears as he listed the mods.
Here is what we ended up with:

Tengu with:
4x Heavy missle launcher II
1x Sisters expanded probe launcher
1x Gistii B-Type small shield booster
1x Invuln field II
1x Photon field II
1x Republic Fleet 10mn AB
1x Dread Guristas medium shield booster
2x Dread Guristas Shield Boost Amp
1x Cap Flux Coil II
2x BCS II
1x F85 Peripheral Damage Controll
3x Medium CCC rigs
1x TO- Acc Ejection Bay
1x TE- Emergent Locus Analyzer
1x TD- Amplification Node
1x TP- Fuel Catalyst
1x TE- Cap Regen Matrix

Not a bad haul for some really lucky timing with the scanner probes.

A change of Scenery

//




The other day I found a wormhole leading straight to Molden Heath.
I, having only been there on the rarest occasion, decided to take a little vacation there form the Verge Vendor area. So I got me a Jaguar and a bunch of ammo and jumped through with the intent of staying there for a week. I made it three days before I decided to head back.

This is not to say that it was a wasted trip, or bogus in anyway. I just got antsy to be back with my fellow Tuskers. I came back with a Dramiel BPC and a stack of loot worth about 300mil in isk. Not bad for a spur of the moment trip like that. I also got some really good fights out there. Total tally for the trip was 13 kills to Zero losses. So it was fun.

The things is I could have done a alot better if I wasn't out there solo. The area has several large pirate groups already. They dont go about business as we Tuskers do, and they didn't seem as active as us. But when they did come out they came out in force, 15+ man fleets is their norm. Gate camping and locking down systems is what they do, and do it quite well. But it took me a minute to learn this.

When I first got there it seemed that the local pirates were jokes, no offense guys, but I couldn't get any of the people who were flashy to engage me. They kept warping off or failing to get proper tackle on me to gank me. It was really kinda sad. Then they would chase me around in Dramiel fleets and fail at that, probe me out and miss tackle all over. But I could never seem to catch them alone or in reasonable numbers to get a proper engagement from my prospective. It was getting boring even though I was having a blast soloing the noob battlecruisers and cruisers these guys seemed to be ignoring.

Then I was out hunting on the back side of the area away from Bosena and was having no luck at all finding any one. So I made my way around to find the Bosena, Oddelulf, and Atlar completely locked down by several fleets, all about 20 man strong. I also noticed that most of the people that I had been having problems getting to engagements with were in these fleets. These guys were fleet guys, and they were doing what they do best, gate camp. That scene of them camping the gates, and killing everything that came through, which was quite a lot, got me to thinking.

See if I were back in home with my fellow Tuskers, we would throw together a ragtag fleet with the sole intent of pulling one or two of them off the gate to gank and run. Which we would do until their fleet broke up or we all died in glorious fireballs. Dont get me wrong getting the hard gank on my own is what I prefer, but at that moment I really was wishing I could call for my fellows to form up for a good smash and grab on these guys. So while I have gotten to know the area out there, I have more importantly come to realize even more why I like being apart of the Tuskers and flying the way we do.

To us there is no target to large or untouchable. Those three fleets were all from three different corps, and while they had scouts out to watch what the others were doing, they weren't willing to take the fight to the other guys. Where as from my understanding of the Tusker way, the rest of New Eden is nothing but targets, and when opportunities arises for quick in and out ganks like that, we don't hesitate, we salivate. Which is why I got home sick and headed back.

Now I am back in Verge Vendor waiting patiently for my Dramiel to finish in the oven, pondering where I should wonder off to next. I am thinking somewhere in Amarr space.

The Beauty of a Broadsword

//





If you are like me you hate warp stabilizers.

I was out hunting around in my trusty Rifter when I came across a an Exequror, so I went in for for the kill and assumed that it would be easy. Then to my dismay, he warped out while under point from my warp scrambler. Luckily I caught sight of where he went, which was to another asteroid belt. So I went in chase thinking I had missed point some how. Again he warped out! Now I am upset cause I am knowing that he has warp stabilizers fit.
Thankfully I had a associate of mine in system as well to keep eyes on him while I headed back to Hevrice to grab my Broadsword. Once I reshipped and headed back to the targets system I had my associate run some probes to locate him for me.

Well after the first two encounters with me the guy was nervous and had me hopping around quite a lot. So I figured I should just go set at a belt and wait till he comes to me. Especially since it didn't look like he knew how to use a directional scanner. Sure enough the guy went about his belt hopping looking for one that had no other entities in it when he landed right on top of me. Oh for the joy of it when my sensor boosted broadsword got lock and the focused warp disruptor hit. Then my guns did what they do best. The next thing he new he was in his pod and I had lock once again. Did I offer ransom like I normally do, NOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I took his frozen corpse as my trophy.

The lessen to all of you of higher moral standing and well to doness is that warp stabilizers aren't a get away free card. You can be got, so dont get cocky and think you are safe. To all my fellow Pirates and hunters of the space lanes, remember to train for a Heavy Interdictor.

Where I started...Where I am at

//




My name is Valgore Meurte.
I am a Capsuleer and a self proclaimed Pirate. I would like to tell you that I am one out of need or necessity, but that is not the case. I am because I can be, I enjoy it. It is not a simple life to lead in New Eden, but it is the one I lead none the less.

I started out like most capsuleers, lost and confused. Doing whatever it was that I could do to make isk. Just wondering through the vastness of space hoping to make something out of myself. I tried working for a few of the NPC(Non-podpilot controlled) corps. But it felt dirty, wrong some how. Me going out and destroying whole asteroid colonies of people, wiping out whole fleets of non-capsuleer ships just to make a little isk. It lead me to join The Tal'Shair, we were all about taking what we wanted and trying new things. We weren't exactly pirates, more like opportunist. It was good while it lasted. Like most capsuleer corps back then, it fail apart and I had to find a new way.

So me and a mate of mine started roaming around New Eden looking for a place to call home. One day he convoed me stating that he had been looking on the recruitment broads and found what looked like a good corp to join. After taking a look myself and needing a place to go, I signed up. It was The Ronin Syndicate, led by Graff and Ivan En'Vac. What a ragtag group of guys, they had missioners, traders, explores, miners, industrialist, you name it someone was doing it. Including combat ops through lowsec, which is what I was looking for without knowing it.

A few days after I joined, the CEO, Graff hops on coms and states they we are going on a lowsec roam to get some of the younger pilots some combat experience. That the corp was looking into taking on some merc contracts and we needed to get used to fighting as a gang. I got asked to be scout and tackler, so I hopped in a Rifter and we headed out. First into Egghelende, then to Alliette, then through Stegete, and finally into Ravarin. Thats where we found our target, a Navy issued Megathron battleship. Then everything happened, I went in and got tackle, then the rest of our fleet came, then his back up arrived. It was absolute chaos to me, then clarity hit, his back up started going down one by one, his tank was failing, we were winning this engagemnt. It donned on me then, this is what I wanted do most of all. Go out, find a target, engage and see what happens.

I finally felt alive after becoming a immortal capsuleer. After the Mega went down and we controlled the field, with my ship sitting there while I was spasming in the fluid of my pod it hit me that I didn't fell any guilt about destroying any of the ships we had just destroyed. I really cant explain how fast it happened, but my mind had processed everything and came to one conclusion, that this is what I needed to do. That the only time it was ok for me to destroy and kill to make a living was when I was destroying, killing, and taking from those that were my equals, my fellow capsuleers. Those that no matter what happened would see another day.

After that my accent in to piracy was unavoidable. Daily lowsec roams, and gate camping became second nature to me. The Ronin Syndicate and it members went criminal shortly afterwards.
Then one day, I got the word that Graff was stepping down as CEO and Ivan was taking over. It was long after that when Ivan contacted us stating that he was leaving as well to join a corp that was preparing to capture and hold sovereignty of some piece of nullsec. Most of us followed suit, myself included. But it wasn't for me, I stopped working for the factions to get away from what was going on out there, so I left that corp and went back to being a wanderer.

After a couple of months of soloing it, that old buddy of mine contacted me again to tell me about the corp he had joined. Said I should check them out and see about applying. So I did. It was The Tuskers, and they happened to have open recruitment at the time. So I at first opportunity joined them on a roam so I could get to see how they operated. It was Man Barthelme, Tressin Khyine who I hooked up with in Grateseir as they headed toward Amamake. The whole way there it seemed like nothing was going to happend. Finally we jumped into Dal which seemed lively. So we started scouting around for targets. I happened across a Thrasher and engaged it and called them over. It went down as they landed, but as we started to warp out a Cynabal landed, I got tackle and we melted it as fast as we could.

It was after the fight that Man Barthelme got on coms and told me that I should apply and that he would like to fly with me again that made up my mind. It was the casual way he did it, and the casual we had went about the roam with him FCing it that made me feel at home. So the next day I went to put my app in at their HQ when I ended up on another impromptu roam with a few Tuskers. We got a few kills in and I got my app in and became a Tusker.