I am Infernal Travesty. Currently a nobody but soon to be somebody. I don’t know who yet.
A little background.
Some time ago our corp Something Rotten and our alliance W A S T E L A N D moved into Black Rise low sec, calling Teskanen our home for some time. Some of you may recognize the name of the system as the one in which the Clear Skies and John Rourke took out an Avatar class Titan before it was rammed into the station in that excellent movie Clear Skies II. Although that was probably recorded a long time before we moved there I still like to point out “I lived there” as my claim to fame.
When we moved in there was a small mission running alliance, Barrel of Monkeys, living there who almost immediately contacted our alliance leader and requested blue standings. After careful consideration a non-aggression pact was signed and we lived peacefully together.
Little did they know that a plan was in motion to completely annihilate them.
One quiet evening we put together an operation to drop a POS in a nearby system. The other alliance was invited and, as they had the protection of twenty or so of us they happily joined in.
But we had no intention of destroying the POS. About twenty minutes into the usually boring POS bash one of our members curtly pointed out in local chat that “standings have been reset.” Our weapons were immediately turned upon our old “allies” and they were obliterated rather quickly.
Suffice is to say they did not remain in Teskanen after this.
Unfortunately for us this now meant that the majority of traffic in the area was already flashy red. Roams around the area yielded little in the way of neutrals to fight. Our hunts often ended in and around Tama, sometimes even as far out as Old Man Star. The fights we could get were too far away for our liking. We would not be able to become outlaws ourselves like this. So a couple of weeks later, after some exploration and local research, we finally picked a new home.
Hrondedir. Minmatar space. It took a whole lot of logistics to move all our members out there but it was worth it. Even ignoring the macro haulers there was a decent amount of traffic and, just a few short jumps away, Evati and other ripe hunting grounds. If we wanted a fight we would find one. If we didn’t… wait, what?
Our new neighbours, Mean Coalition, don’t like us. In fact they even started a whole campaign against us on their killboards. Oh well, there’s a whole bunch of new targets for us. Unfortunately their main tactic seems to be to not leave docking radius unless they outnumber us at least five to one. Or probe down one of our younger guys and warp five battleships onto him. Where’s the fun in that?
Our Corp, Something Rotten, was once a high sec war dec corp. Most of our battles and hunts were performed in frigate gangs. Our enemies, secure in the knowledge that our frigates were no match for their huge battleships, were always happy to engage us and always surprised when they lost.
We continue the tradition here in Hrondedir with regular T1 cruiser roams. We win some, we lose some but, either way, good fun is had by all.
Background out of the way.
I apologize that now I have to disappoint you all. Just a few weeks ago I lost a couple of relatively expensive ships. One in a battle at a POS in which Mean warped in with the POS owners and destroyed our Dreads’ four-battleship support but ran away the moment they started losing ships to the dreads, which were just seconds from coming out of siege mode. The other ship lost was my own stupid fault when I warped into a PvE (yes, I said it) situation that I knew the ship couldn’t handle, as I’d already warped in and out of it several times.
Coupled with these losses, it was quickly approaching the moment in which I would have to renew my pilots’ licenses. Quickly running the maths, I realized that I would need at least 1.7 billion isk to replace both losses and pay for both 60 day licenses, prices of which have been fluctuating greatly between 650mil and 800mil a piece.
Now, my income in low sec is abysmal. So I run some plexes here and there, I run radar sites, I ransom, I do all sorts of stuff. But I really don’t make money.
I realised I would have to do the unthinkable. I took my high sec pvp alt and started running missions for Republic Fleet, while ratting Infernal’s sec status up to be able to enter up to at least 0.7. It was a simple matter to get my alt to the point in which I could run level 4 missions, but the Domi is just so slow at it. But, once Infernal could enter the appropriate systems with his raven, it was so much easier.
I hate running missions, I really do. It’s tedious and repetitive. But it makes isk. Lots of it. I don’t sit and run missions all day every day. If I tried to do that I would very quickly get bored of Eve. So with just a few missions a day and a little scamming in Jita I was able to earn 1.3 billion isk in a couple of weeks. I’m not quite there yet but I have the time to pick and choose my missions before i need to buy the second license. Once that is done, and I have replaced those losses and have a large pile of isk hidden in the mattress then I will be ready to return to low sec and the life that I enjoy so much.
I apologize that I have nothing fun to write about, no epic battles or even small ones. Not in Eve anyway. So instead I must write about other battles.
Out of Game Combat: Airsoft.
I’ve only recently been introduced to Airsoft, but I can tell you already that it is the most fun I’ve had with my clothes on.
Possibly the only time a man can play dress-up and get away with it, Airsoft is a military simulation sport. We run around the forests with guns that fire plastic ball bearings (BB’s) shooting at each other.
Some of you may have seen the spring powered BB guns you can buy in the shops for just a small cost, say £30, $50… that sort of price. Those guns are toys. They fire at maybe 150 feet per second, barely touching the person it hits.
We don’t use these guns. The Sub-machine guns and Assault rifles we use fire at up to about 400fps, the sniper rifles up to 500fps. Costing between £100 and over £2000. These are limited to the site we play at. Believe me, a BB hitting you at 500fps from 50 metres away stings quite a bit and leaves a mark for maybe a week.
*Rubs the welt on his neck from the last time.*
I am a gunner. I use a stubby M4 with extended stock and large battery. It has a faster ROF than the support weapons, but smaller magazines. If I fit the 3000 round drum magazine I can tear apart an area, unfortunately running empty after about a minute of constant fire.
In other words, I hurt.
Speaking of hurting, the first time I played I expected to be knackered before the day was over. I am not fit. I sit around a lot at home doing barely anything, let alone running anywhere.
Surprisingly I was having so much fun that I got through the day with the only pain being the soles of my feet. New boots. I got home after stopping for KFC and sat down. 15 minutes later my back ached. Oh well.
Next day… everything ached. Everything hurt. I could barely walk and spent those next 4 days recovering. I am unfit and I know it.
I played yesterday. Today… I feel great. No pain except for the lingering stinging of the sniper shot I took to the neck and my right elbow which has been bitten by mosquitos about 4 times and is a little swollen around the joint. Meh. At least I can walk.
Engagements.
When one finally finds a battle in Eve, for a short while your heart beats faster and the adrenaline rushes. I love this feeling. Unfortunately this extra pumping of blood and adrenaline has nothing to be put into but a few mouse movements and keyboard button presses.
In Airsoft, once you find a battle and are pinned down behind a tree by a sniper and machine gunner, the blood pumps faster and the adrenaline rushes. In Airsoft you can put that anywhere. You can stay where you are and call for back-up, possibly signalling the people with you as to the number of enemies and locations. You can make a plan to attack them, storming out from behind your tree under covering fire from your allies or your own blind fire. Or you can sit quietly and make a plan to outflank them.
On the occasion I’m speaking of, I was stuck on the right hand side of the track with my gun on my right so was unable to shoot back without breaking cover. My tree was being constantly peppered by support fire, so I needed a plan.
After signaling those with me that this route would be inaccessible and to attempt to outflank their position, I unslung my assault rifle, held it to my left (which was easier said than done) and sprayed the area ahead of my position, using my own blind fire to break cover and run to the left hand side of the track with a small path leading off. This was successful and I was free to resling my gun.
At this point I had no idea if the other guys had managed to flank them, communication being difficult as they weren’t carrying radios. So I waited for a minute or two.
Finally I heard the machine gunner firing in a different direction so I jumped out from behind a bush, back onto the track that I’d been previously pinned on, and opened fire in their direction. A cry of “Hit Delta!” from the sniper as I jumped back behind the bush told me that I had successfully taken him down. It also told me that these guys were honourable players that would take their hits and spend their 5 minutes in the deadzone, unlike some I could mention. Now the machine gunner had been flanked and had no sniper support. Over and over again I jumped out from my bush, firing towards him and jumping back before he could track my movements with his heavy weapon. Another shout of “Hit Delta!” informed me that one of my teammates had gotten in a good shot as the gunner was trying to fire at me. The path had been taken. One tiny battle among a day of small battles had been won by us. Good work Bravo team.
Another memorable small engagement saw myself and my sniper buddy dug down in the forest on the outskirts of our base, planning to reduce the enemy forces as they approached. We waited. And waited. Sure enough after a while We could hear movement. As my sniper was completely covered head to toe my hearing was less obstructed so I was able to accurately track the enemy’s movement and figure out that there were just two of them, creeping around us right to left. Keeping my buddy updated constantly with signals we waitied for them to show themselves.
Then I realised that there was now only one person moving to our left. Listening intently I was lucky enough to hear more movement directly ahead, this time moving right to left. It dawned on me that they had our position and were moving to outflank us. Fortunately the guy up ahead was well out of range, and we were behind a small ridge. Concentrating again on the target to the left I realised he was quite a lot closer and heading straight for us.
I came up with a plan and signaled my buddy to aim slightly further left than the position we knew the guy to be in.
A few seconds later a head popped out from behind a very close tree, trying to make our exact position. I immediately opened fire to the right of him, sweeping across to the left, forcing him to break cover and run to our left. Directly into the line of fire of our sniper. One down.
All of a sudden there was gunfire from the approximate position of the guy we had just shot and the sniper was hit. I was left alone in the forest, already flanked by two of the enemy.
I dug down a little further, popping up just enough to see the guy to my right still out of range, but the one on my left advancing into cover. From cover he peppered my position with BB’s but the ridge stopped them about a foot in front of my face. I lay perfectly still and silent and the firing stopped. The crunching of dry brush told me that he was moving further left to get a better shot. Looking that way myself I could see that he would have to come over the ridge and into view to be able to take that shot. So I waited for him.
Sure enough there he was coming over the ridge and I opened fire, forcing him to take cover behind a small bush which would block his view of me, yet still allow me to hold him there while I located the guy to my right.
Unexpectedly he stood straight up and fired in my direction. I fired back, moving as quickly as I could to avoid his fire, successfully repositioning myself. I had him in my sights and one more burst would take him out.
I fired. Nothing. No BB’s flew out of the barrel. No sound from the gun’s electric motor. The battery was dead.
The modification made to the M4 enabled me to fit a larger battery into the stock. I would have to open it, unplug the small battery, take the large one from the pouch on my belt, push it in, reconnect it and push all the cables into the stock to close it. There was no way I could avoid fire for that long. So I jumped up and prepared to run as fast as I could. As I jumped up the sling broke, making me almost drop the assault rifle. I would have to carry it.
So I ran. Down the hill, over the bridge, up the other hill and into the forest, never moving in a straight line, successfully avoiding enemy fire. I hid in the trees, changed the battery and reloaded the almost empty magazine, then fixed the strap as best I could. By the time I went back they were already gone.
So, no kills on our side in this engagement but more adrenaline than any battle in EvE. Except maybe my first ever PvP encounter.
I would recommend anybody to try Airsoft at least once. The site I play at is a walk-on site so we have up to maybe 150 people playing. Ages range from 12 to maybe 60, male and female, noobs to ex-military types. Everybody gets on great, the staff are fantastic and membership allows you to buy your own Real Imitation Firearms for use on similar sites. In the UK you have to be a member to buy them as they are based on real weapons. Either that or for a small surcharge they will paint them bright green for you. Read up about UKARA for more information on these rules. United States residents are not subject to them.
Conclusion or TL:DR to these long winded posts.
PvP is expensive. Mission Runnning Sucks. Airsoft is more fun and healthier.
I am Infernal Travesty. I was never here.
