The Captains Log 17/12
System: Obe
Ship: Ishkur Class Assult Ship
With the release of dominion CCP introduced the Pirate Epic Arc Missions, which I decided to try out for myself. CCP stated that these mission would work best for interceptors, but I think Interceptors are a little too weak for this sort of work so I bought and fitted a Ishkur to take with me and brought Fishy Night up from the depths of 0.0 to scout me through Venal. The trip up there was rather uneventful as I took it nice and slow with plenty of caution, which prevented me from being sucked into a bubble unlike this noob.
TreeSlayer > dont shoot
TreeSlayer > I am a rookie
TreeSlayer > please ?
TreeSlayer > 
DrDooma > sorry
Star Nove > Welcome to eve online 
As it turns out Venal is the playground of Triumverate, who are blue to Sys-k, which made running missions a fair bit easier, though there were still plenty of neutrals flying around. There was even one GoonSwarm guy in local when I got to my agent. Sigh. No matter where I go I can’t escape them.
My first Agent, Kori, informed me that the Caldari Navy was trying to push the Guristas out of Venal, thus he wanted me to kill some miners along with their escort so I could capture one a crew member so my agent could determine the location of some Caldari Navy bases. Well I had allot of experience killing Hulks back in empire and this time I didn’t have to worry about CONCORD interfering with me. Well the miners died and the Guristas got to torture some helpless people, which got me my next mission. The miners gave my agent the location to starbase that was producing a unknown capital ship, so it was my job was to go in there and get its blueprint. I had a choice of knocking on the front and barging my way in or taking a back door in which case I would have to pass through a minefeild. I chose the minefeild and didn’t quite see the mines until I ran smack bang into the middle of them. My ship survived in deep amour, which wasn’t that big of a deal as I was shield tanked. I then entered the next room killed the guards, who were quite surprised to see me and stole their blueprint. After this mission my agent promoted me and sent me to a colleague, named Cellis, a few jumps away who apparently used to work for the Gallante intelligence services before defecting to the Guristas.
Minefeild: Somethings in life just have to be done
Cellis had located a listing outpost and wanted me to go there and redirect the signals it was broadcasting so that the Guristas would be able to locate the Caldary Navy assets located in Venal. I was quite surprised at this, normally people tell me to blow them up. A refreshing change. I did as Cellis asked with little trouble, though I was a little supprised when I found a holoreel in the listening outpost which showed a recording of Cellis torturing a man called Inrichi, dated from when she was still working for the Gallante Federation. Inrichi, as it also turns out, also works for the Guristas and there was no love lost between them as the torture had destroyed most of his body and left him somewhat deranged. It seemed that this may cause some problems a little latter on.
Communications: A Caldari Navy Communications array waiting to be hacked
Redirecting the signals from the listing outpost had allowed Cellis to locate the majority of the Caldari Navy gathering at a fuel deport so they could launch an attack on Guristats assets. It was my job to stop them. While my little Ishkur had no chance against a whole Navy fleet I had one thing working in my favour; the fuel tanks. The whole Navy fleet was gathered around them so all I had to do was blow them up and the Navy ships would follow in short order. Well what can I say, the explosions were spectacular and It was a massacre. However, my job was not over yet.
Bang: A fuel tank explodes taking out the ships near it.
Some of the fleet had managed to escape to deadspace compound where they had Carrier support. Furthermore, they had locked the inner acceleration gate so only shuttles could get through. While this may stop a ship piloted by a normal crew it couldn’t stop me. I boarded a shuttle the Guristas gave me, which had some extensive modification made to it, namely a great big bomb in the cargo hold. My job was to get into the deadspace pocket and drive my shuttle into the side of a Carrier, where apon my bomb would explode and blow up the carrier. Well the plan went off without a hitch destroying the last of the Navy fleet vessels based in Venal. As a reward my agent gave me a Dread Guristas Multifrequncy ECM. Not all the Guristas were happy with my agents decisions and my actions though. Kori, my old agent believed that we should have left the Carrier to live. It seemed that tensions were running high in the Guristas ranks.
Suicide: Suicide Ganking a Carrier. Gotta love it.
My agent though believed that the latest conflict had shown that some of the Guristas had become weak and it was now time to cull them from the ranks. It was therefore my job to spy on one of two agents, either Kori or Inrichi, and if I saw the opportunity to strike I should. So I chose to spy on Inrichi.
Upon arriving at the station he told me that a Caldari Cooperation was setting up a station that need to be taken out, so it was my job to deliver a Dread Guristas Strike Force to the station while also keeping the surround space clear of Hostiles. Not too difficult of a job and one that was completed with relative ease. After doing this mission for my agent it seemed I had gained some of his trust and he began to tell me of his plans of forcing the pirates to evolve and ascend over the empires. To do this he had been rebuilding a person in a his first attempt at forcing evolution. It was my job to retrieve this experiment from a secret base my first agent, Kori had set up of the purpose of experimenting on this person. So off I went expecting a nice easy mission. The first room in the Deadspace complex contained the wreaks of six dead Leviathans. I decided to pass through this room quietly until some sentry guns located at the acceleration gate to the base fired upon me. Enraged I tore them down and proceeded to go through the acceleration gate, whereupon I was ambushed by some Caldari Navy vessels. Despite their initial advantage they could not stand up to my Ishkur and they were all soon smocking wreaks. I then went over to Kori’s base and proceeded to shoot it down and the retrieve Inrichi’s evolved human from the wreckage. Betrayal was met with vengeance and vengeance won.
Graveyard: The wrecks of six Leviathans loomed over me.
After I got the experimental human back to the station, Inrichi informed me that he was going to trade the human experiment with Cellis for a series of holoreels that covered his torture session with her. I couldn’t understand this fixation on the past, surely he must know he should look forward to the future. However, if I did this simple mission for him he would give me a Gila BPC. Well that was a nice reward and I was willing to do it. I flew to another Deadspace pocket that was commanded by Cellis and where the trade was to take place. However, as soon I delivered the experiment to the station it was promptly blown up. Apparently Inrichi’s modifications to humanity consisted of explosives used to blow up his rivals. However, when I traded the human over I did not receive the holoreel I was sent to collect, which I also needed to get my Gila BPC. So I took the acceleration gate to the next deadspace pocket in the hopes of finding the holoreel there. Well there was a storage warehouse there, which I presumed contained my holoreel. Between me and the warehouse though there was a small gang of Caldari Navy ships. It seemed that Kori was still poking around the affairs of both Inrichi and Cellis. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to let these Navy vessels stand in the way of my prize though, so I turned their ships in to some pretty explosions and picked up my holoreel. After arriving back at the station Inrichi was at I traded him the Holoreel I had acquired for a shiny Gila BPC! It was now time to get my loot back home.
The End: My last act in this saga.
The run into Venal had being a quite affair in which I had avoided al the hostiles that infested the systems enroute to my agent. This was not to be the case on the return trip. Seems the locals don’t mind letting you in, but when you come back loaded up with you hard won booty they want to take you out. The first gate camp I came across snagged my buzzard. It had a broadsword for the initial bubble and a Sabre that dropped another bubble and decloaked my buzzard. Fortunately, I was able get my Pod out, thereby allowing me to scout with that. I managed to get the Iskur past the gate camp a little while later.
When I got to within one jump of freedom I ran into another gatecamp, which killed Fishy Nights Pod. So there I was stuck one jump from freedom with a gate camp in the road and no scout. So I set fishy up in condor to head back where Prometheus09 was to try and scout him through. It was then I noticed that one of the guys in local with Prometheus09 was from Noir, which happens to be the corp that Hallan Turek is part off. So I convoed him to see if he could get some scouts for me. Well it turned out he could, but he wanted me to pay. It Wasn’t happening. I needed the ISK. That didn’t stop Noir from coming to the system I was trying to get through though and setting up a gate camp to catch me. Sigh. Seems I put myself a couple of steps back. No matter though, I had got Fishy Night back in system shortly after to scout me through. So began a merry chase through the system with me trying to find a warp point that wouldn’t land me in a sling bubble. Eventfully, I found one and warped to the gate where Hallan then launched a bomb at me, which was not very nice. He could have hurt me. And to think we were once alliance mates.
Despite everything though I was free and now had the pleasure of being able to build myself a Gila.
