Guest post by Jeff

Having only turned to the 'Dark Side' recently I was very much excited by the whole lets blow **** up philosophy. My first few kill mails came in with the final blow being dealt by my Rupture, all good, having fun, heart thumping in the ears kind of fun. Then the inevitable happened, I jumped into the Keshiro system and started scanning, Ohhhh a Thorax, let's have at him. There were a few others in local but not showing up on my scanner so I didn't worry about it. Warp in hit the scram and lock him down, start pummelling away with my Auto cannons whilst sucking his cap dry with my Medium NOS. A few seconds later Pop goes the Thorax. But alas, the other couple in local were already on top of me in a Raven and a wolf. No more Rupture.

And so begins my tale of piracy… I have learnt the basics of ransoming and what is a reasonable amount to ask for a ransom. I have learnt that my Rupture handles other cruisers very well. Long range / fast ships are a problem though. But now, after a little inspiration from Lyticus, I have been trying my hand at flying T1 frigs for this task.

Loaded up in a Rifter myself and a corp-mate had planned a little op, him in a long range Cyclone, me in my Rifter fitted to tackle. The meet point and time had been previously agreed and I was there with plenty of time to spare. Minutes clicked over as I waited, and waited for my friend to arrive. Son half an hour had passed and there was still no sign. Comms traffic was silent and I could not hail him or his ship. What could have happened? It was not like him to be like this, something big must have happened for him to miss this appointment. I had a few options; I could wait it out till he showed up, though that could be never. Or I could head out on my own and see if I could cause some havoc without him. Havoc causing it is.

I left the station with many different feelings washing over me. Worry, for my friend. Excitement, the taste for blood had grasped me. Vulnerable, I was in a frigate, about to engage a no doubt superior force. I had not flown a frigate class vessel since my cruisers had become available and it felt like I was flying inside a nutshell.

Lets do it! I warped from system to system scanning the belts looking for a suitable opponent, and then finally one presented itself. A solo Caracal, perfect. Got him locked down to within a 15 degree radius scan and only one belt inside those 15 degrees, he must be there. I hit the warp drives, as I came warp weapons primed and warp scrambler at the ready I was surprised to find it empty. What? What's going on? I quickly scanned back the way I came and yep, there he was. Somewhere between the 2 locations with no suitably warp point. Wait, I picked up something else on my scanner, it had a weak signal but it was there, a Dead space Complex entrance point. It was rated a 4/10, too much for me to take on in my frigate but if what I thought was true it wouldn't matter. I warped to the entrance point. Last chance Jords, I thought to myself, but the thrill of the kill had already taken over and the ancient jump gate was already sending me into the depths.

Success… there he was, he mustn't have spotted me because he didn't try to leave or communicate with me in anyway. He had obliterated his enemy forces and there was only 2 lonely cruisers left cowering hundreds of kilometres away. I hit the afterburner straight towards a tight orbit around his ship. As soon as I was within the max range of my warp scrambler it engaged. I held off on the weapons for a moment, thinking to myself is this such a good idea? But yet again I had no choice; the Auto cannons were already beginning their firing sequence. The Caracals shields disappeared a lot quicker than expected, I was quickly into his armour. I had picked a good target, as his weapons discharged for the first time I could only laugh. He had a full rack of heavy missiles, while doing damage to my Rifter it was nothing to be worried about, my armour repair modules could handle it.

I quickly contemplated a ransom but then shrugged it off and thought my first trip out with this ship I better get a kill… then BOOOOooom! His Caracal shattered into a million different pieces, my targeting system was not quick enough to get a lock onto his pod but that was fine. I was victorious.

I collected some nice loot from the ship too, which more than made taking this ship out worthwhile as the modules I collected were easily worth more than the ship itself. Frigate encounters will be a big operation of mine from now on. The excitement and thrill you get when taking on ships twice your size is unbeatable.

(My first ever story/written piece like this so go easy with the comments aye :P If you enjoyed this there will be many more.)