Yesterday, the war between Cosmic Euphoria Inc. [EUPHI] and United Ordo Astartes [UOA] had just begun. I logged into EVE expecting them all to be offline hiding, but low and behold, all nine of their members I had in my address book were online!

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I had my passive targeter running, locking up a Thrasher, when all of a sudden over the intercom, “Tony!”

Sigh, I unlock the ship and scoop the contents of my jetcan into my cargohold. This kill is not going to materialize.

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Overview

The Cormorant is the ship bridging the gap between frigates and cruisers. Even though its purpose is to shoot down small and speedy ships, there are several odd jobs that I believe it can exceed at.

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Or not.

A Spark of Idea

As it is the usual Saturday afternoon, the three of us in my corp (Saft, Zoe, and I) sat in the corp chat channel discussing ship setups, plans, and researching something that was of the unknown.  Sooner or later, these conversations would lead us to an op; either missioning, can flipping, or very rarely, a mining op.  That night, however, was different.  As Saft questioned me about CovOp ships and other information on probing, this idea about ninja-salvaging came into his mind.

Ninja-Salvaging

He was training Astrometrics when he remembered the time we were ninja-salvaged from and he suggested we do the same thing.  I was at Astro. 3 and could use my probe launchers and 2 of the 5 recon probes.  Good enough.  Saft asked me to explain more on this subject to him and so I did; it was to scan down in a system any CNR’s, Ravens, and other missioning ships, then warp in on them and steal their salvage while they sit there helplessly.  It sounded like it’s a pretty fun way to get a few million eh?

Setting it all in Motion

Saft and I loaded up in our special new ship setups, and with our special ships they fit just perfectly!  These Manticore stealth bombers do the trick just perfect.  Enough space for salvaging as well as enough CPU for those probe launchers!  Undocking threw us out and we formulated a few plans.  First, find some spots in the system so we can get good cover with out probes.  At the time, I could only use the Fathom and Snoop probe, and Saft could only drop the Snoop.  So every 10AUs or so we bookmarked and dropped a  probe, and once half of the system was covered, we scanned.  This was my first time so I acted very noob, scanning for Cosmic Anomalies and Cosmic Signatures with recon probes.  A good waste of 5 minutes but hey, a lesson was learned.  Next up I finally remembered what someone said to me, “scan for ships!”.  No doubt, this next scan brought me a lot of results!

Yum Yum

We found 3 deadspaces marked by CNRs (Caldari Navy Ravens) on our first scans, and immediately after I start salvaging in one, I pressed analyze again.  While the computers were sweeping the system looking for ships, I blasted the afterburner and hurtled towards a what seemed to be a large Guristas wreck and as soon as I got into a range of 5000m, I activated all 3 of my Salvager Is.  One my first run I was successful, yes!  Saft flew in beside me into the complex and began his salvaging.  At this same time, Zoe became interested in what we were doing and decided to observe us and tag along in his Buzzard.  We hadn’t even noticed where he was when he told us he was right there beside us, thanks to his CovOps cloak that enabled him to warp unseen.

More of Us

Wow, there was quite the bit of people also ninja-salvaging.  During our time so far, we had met about 3 other ships trying to get and salvage what they can.  Of course, we were faster and managed to get to the salvage faster and pull the materials out quicker.  Thank goodness for lots of high slots and good skills, I think today’s work will pay off very well…

One Down, Two Left

On accident, Zoe pressed warp on an acceleration gate and was slung into the next room of the deadspace.  Once he arrived, all the space debris around him decloaked his ship and then the enemies began to shoot on him.  The debris that decloaked him also bumped the Buzzard around and the warp vector he was trying to go to did not align with his ship.  A few seconds later, the frigate became a blue flash in the sky and he was left in his pod.  A distress signal was sent to Saft and I and we began evacuation procedures right away.  When Saft warped in with his Manticore, he got shot before he could retrieve Zoe’s belongings so he had to make an emergency dock… at a station without any repair mechanics!  A quick message was sent to a private contractor and in less than 10 minutes, his ship was repaired and ready to go again.  While Saft missed his goal, I was able to switch out of the stealth bomber for a speedy interceptor and zipped over to Zoe’s wrecks, grabbed everything I could and got the heck out of there!

Two Down, One Left

Okay, after that first incident, Saft and I split up and Zoe left for a while.  During this time, I happily salvaged about 4 more deadspace pockets before Saft told me he was shot down.  Oh dear, what happened this time?  The transmission between us two kept cutting out, but eventually I found his wreck and retrieved his stuff.  Probe launcher, probes, some salvage; hey, most of the good stuff survived!

Let’s Call it a Day

T’was getting late, ships were being blow up, voices grew tiresome, and a good chunk of salvage has been found.  Zoe retired a long time ago and Saft decided to go dock up, adjust some orders and finish his routines.  As I headed back to the station, I scanned one more time to see one last time if there are any delicious stuff still laying around.  Bingo, a hit with a Drake, a Nightmare, and a Cormorant!  Tired, but I though I could do this one last one as if there were more than two people doing a mission, then sure had to be full of salvage!  I took off to the location and when I landed, I saw the Nightmare tractoring loot in for salvage and loot.  Quickly I turned on the afterburners and caught up to it.  Before he could even get another cycle on the salvage, I yoinked them from his grasps and he broadcasts into the local channel demanding I give him his stuff back.  Like I always do, I ignored his request and keep going.

The Waiting Game

His friends must have warped out of the next room because as soon as I got the last wreck, they warped into the first, already cleared room.  A guy named Beepus started a private message conversation with me and I replied:

Beepus: u want this stuff m8? go for it, u warp in and tank for us and u can keep the stuff
Me: Nah, i’ll let you tank!
Beepus: hows ur patience tank m8?
Me: Good, it’s a slow sunday afternoon so i’m pretty chill.
Beepus: well good man, i got so much pot and alcohol and powders we coulod be here for a week ;)
Me: Cool stuff.

Looks like he wanted to wait.  Alright then, no problem with me.  Then after a while when his patience got to him, he said:

Beepus: for sure, u obvuioulsy not 13.. that gives u a few plus points
Beepus: ok ur boring, we going thru the gate gonna clean up, dont know what ur doing
Beepus: u smoke or drink?

I was doing some maintenance on the ship so I didn’t bother to respond to him*.  I have lots of patience!

Hurry Into the Pod

I ran towards my pod as the ship began to buckle; I had to act quick to survive.  The crew has already scramble for whatever was available or left and just as I jumped into the little egg, the ship exploded; the second blue flash I saw today.  So this Beepus guy hired a mercenary and both of them suicide killed me with Caracals.  Hehe, I laughed and went back to the station to grab my Crow again.  In no time I was able to warp back and loot all three ship’s wrecks while his friend in the Nightmare just sat there looking at space.  Hey, I got some pretty nice stuff; my ship was uninsured because T2 insurance is just corrupt; there were T2 heavy missile launchers and various other good stuff!

The Final Act

Done and done, finally.  Lost my ship but tonight covered all expenses.  It was a super fun night and after signing some contracts, I made for my quarters.

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*I actually wasn’t working on the ship, but rather alt-tabbed out doing some homework…  That is another lesson learned in the same day; EVE is not a game to be played in AFK mode!

Boo!

Halloween is creepy. Bad things can happen. Well in my case, bad things did happen.

My great corp mates were helping me with Enemies Abound, 5 of 5. You know, the one where the ships respawned every 4 minutes for 6 waves. Anyways, with 3 trusty battleships (2 Ravens, 1 Hyperion) and an ever so popular battlecruiser (Drake), we managed to get through it all in less than 30 minutes.

At least until those damn ninja-salvagers arrive as we were about to finish the last wave. First one showed up, a Thrasher, salvaging all our stuff. Then a Cormorant. Arg!  We quickly ran through the mission and grabbed the salvagers of our own. It was a race to the last wreck with 5 salvagers doing stuff. The tractor beams favored us and in the end we had a little bit of salvage and all of the loot.

I flew my Badger back to pickup the stuff and suddenly one of the ships steals from our can! The one in the Thrasher came back in a Rupture and waited for our next move.

We decided to have some fun so I got my Thorax and Saft got his new Harpy. When we came back the guys were about 80 clicks out. The Harpy caught up to one until it flew away before it was jammed. So we went for the Rupture.

I warped out since now I am 100+ clicks out from them. We have yet aggroed them so I thought sure. My adrenaline was pumping and meanwhile our other 2 pilots went to get their other ships. One Raven and one fighting Corm. Saft engaged before I was able to have warped in on him so his Harpy was webbed, scram’ed, and killed. Mid warp I prepared for the fight.

As soon I dropped out he was looking at the Harpy’s wreck. I scram’ed, launched my drones, and fired. The 5 heavy ion cannons pounded into his shield and armor while he webbed me and took me into my armor. Ah, I was just winning by a little bit! As the 5 hammerheads shoot and my guns cycles, both of our armor melted away.

I am in my hull and him also. “Damn it, get him my drones!” I yelled. But in the end my tank broke and he lived with 1 to 3 percent hull. Nooo! He began to loot my wreck so I decided to go grab my Vexor. Zoe pipes to me that he was in system in his Raven ready to go. I confirmed and warped to my wreck.

Jeez, now that other guy was back and the one I was looking for left, probably to lick his wounds. I locked and killed this thief and scavenger and looted our stuff back.

Now here was where I made my biggest mistake.

I called for Zoe to have warped in on me. Now I spot another Rupture next to my Vexor. Guns heated up and turned on the Rupture while my massive drones ate away at it. He melted my shields but had a little trouble with my armor tank. I also had the same problem.

Zoe showed up in his Raven and launched his cruise missiles at our foe. All of a sudden the Pigs show up and ruins the party; in no time the Raven succumbed.

Jesus, it’s time to GTFO. I launched my ECM drones in hopes to get a jam cycle and break this guy’s lock. Oh please, oh please!

Yes! It worked and I docked up. The loses were pretty staggering for this one little mission – 15 million for the Thorax loss, 30 for the Harpy, and who knows what for the Raven. Our inflicted damage? 20 million to that annoying salavager. I was able to pickup most of the loot that we lost so that lessened the hurt some what.

In the end, I have learned that:

• Aggression is really weird, your corp mates can’t shoot at who’s killing you
• Always think before shooting
• Fleet and corp members do not get to shoot just because this guy is shooting you
• Have a plan or backup that will work

I hope you can learn from my mistakes. Tomorrow will be a day to regain the losses. I will be running missions and donating to my friends! Till next time, fly safe!