Anatomy of a Hunt: Patience is a Virtue

Last night I found myself warping about my usual roam in a Breacher when I spotted a Cerberus on D-scan. What the scanner told me was that the Cerberus was sitting at an I-Hub, while an Incursus sat at a medium FW Plex. Local was nearly empty, and judging by the names of the ships and the killboards of the people in local, the two pilots suspected of flying the two ships were Delta Zhang and Flame-Hair Shana. Although they are not in the same corp, they shared an interesting kill a day ago where an identical setup was used to bait an unsuspecting Tristan pilot into a hail of missiles. The trap became obvious, as was the likely Cerberus fit, which the pilot has lost twice recently: A RLML fit without a point, used to apply DPS at range against a tackled target.

Space was relatively empty, and so I decided to see whether I could turn the tables on the would-be gankers.

I set course to home and reshipped to my Stratios. I recently bought the ship and it did not see much use as of yet, so I was happy for the opportunity. After all, I love cloaks, and the Stratios is a beautiful vessel that can fit one.

I went back to the system to find the duo gone, but they were quickly located in a nearby system. Again, the Incursus sat at a med plex, while the Cerberus was at the I-Hub. After arriving cloaked onto the grid, I could see he was aligned. I could not hope to slow-boat to the Cerberus in a timely fashion, nor could I warp on top of him due to him having moved already off any obvious warp-in vectors. And even if I could, my decloaking delay and the fact he was already aligned gave him the ability to escape if he were on the ball. I had to guarantee tackle, or else they would realize they are being watched, and just change up their plans.

So I decided to stalk them. Perhaps a target for them would appear and I would be able to get the drop on the Cerberus as they were to spring their trap. Or, perhaps, a different opportunity would present itself.

After a short while, they decided to relocate again. I followed a safe distance behind and warped to the I-Hub. The Cerberus was there and it was evident that he warped to the I-Hub at 100km. If I could predict their next system, my own trap would be ready. After a few minutes, the Incursus' position on D-scan has changed: The pilot had warped to a gate.

I knew where they were going!

The Incursus jumped out, while the Cerberus remained aligned to the plex. I quickly warped to the outgoing gate, hoping to make the jump before the Cerberus would spot me jumping out and gambling on the fact the Incursus on the other side warped off the gate already. Once on the other side of the gate, I cloaked up, warped to the I-Hub at 100km and waited. The Incursus was already at his position at the medium plex in the system. The pattern of their trap appeared not to change.

As luck would have it, they did not keep me waiting for long. Local count rose by one, and Delta Zhang jumped in. In a painfully predictable fashion, the Cerberus appeared on my short scan, and then at the edge of the I-Hub grid. As the Heavy Assault Cruiser began decelerating from warp, I waited to see where he would stop. As it became obvious he was slowing down right next to me, I decloaked. He was still locked in his warp deceleration and could not respond as my sensors started coming back online.

At that point, my own trap was complete and the tables have been turned. The Cerberus could not align out before he ended up scrammed and shortly afterwards he perished in a swarm of drones. His Incursus buddy (or alt) wisely decided to keep themselves out of it.

I do love it when a plan comes together.

A (Re-)Introduction

Greetings!

I am Angelus Ryan.

If you've heard of me before, it is either because we've shot at each other in New Eden, or you've stumbled across the fine gentlemen of Thanks For The Belt Roam which is the blog where I've been (rather) infrequently publishing my musings. That is likely to continue, and I do hope to not just duplicate posts to both locations.

I'll first point out that I am not an ace pilot, I do not publish amazing PvP videos (although I strive to change that Soon(tm) and start recording interesting fights) and I am not an epic leader of pilots, nor a high-profile corp infiltrator. In fact, I am about as anti-social a pilot as exists in New Eden. I do not like taking orders, and I reluctantly give them only if I must. I do not like voice communications (outside of the neccessity of combat) and I do not play EVE to socialize. On the contrary, EVE is my reclusive retreat from the real world. This is not to say I have no friends or contacts in New Eden, but both my blues list and my contact list are both very, very, very short. That is, I believe, a rather unique viewpoint on New Eden (since, at least in the public perception, most solo EVE players are not lowsec denizens).

In general, I am a nobody in EVE, like most of my potential readers. Probably unlike quite a few others, however, I rather like it. I do not seek to affect the game world in any way that would be deemed as "important": I play for my own entertainment, for the mind clearing allowed by living in a world of internet space ships, and for the realization of dark streaks of character that New Eden allows to bubble to the surface.

Yes, I do rather enjoy playing the anti-social killer in EVE.

Perhaps, at times, a bit too much.

That said, I am not that anti-social in real life (although I do tend towards the introverted part of the human spectrum), and I won't turn down an interesting conversation in-game or in the real world - It is just that most of my in-game interaction with people not in my small circle tends to come in the shape of high explosives and a sporadic "gf" in local.

And that suits me just fine.

So what would cause an anti-social pilot exit a comfortable cloak of anonymity to publish a blog, you ask?

The Muse is the Muse, and sometimes you just have to write.

So if the musings of another outlaw are of interest to you: Welcome along for the ride!