Waves
It'd been another long day in space and I'd just departed the gooey confines of my capsule once again, standing under a shower in the area adjacent my tower's docking ring I let out a long, deep sigh as the liquid from above splashed across the angles of my face. Long, warm streams soaking my hair and rebounding as they pelted against my chest. Warm water, mixed with pod goo, gently following the contours of my figure as it ran the long length of my legs to eventually meet the shower floor. Relaxed, I began to drift into thought as the pod goo was washed from my naked form .... The highs and lows of life, like waves they are never ending. The same can be said with life in space for any capsuleer - we have good times, bad times, exciting times and boring times.
This past month had contained examples of all these 'times'. The first of which was a mixture of both high and low - the arrival in Pandora of my baby sister Shelby. Tasked with overseeing our family's corporation whilst I am away working for others, Shelby had never seen the likes of a Class 5 system and jumped at the chance to come visit Dani and I. While in ... a way, it was nice to see her again, I do wish she'd stayed at home. She's so easily excitable and hasn't the best judgement so an environment the likes Rolled Out flies in would likely end bad for her. Not to mention having an out-of-corp baby sister following my colleagues and I around would be rather ... embarassing.
As I feared, Shelby became delerious with excitement after partaking in a kill beside me and other Rolo pilots. Next thing she was spouting off in fleet about wanting to be "a super space pirate just like all of you!!". She continued to follow our fleets, constantly making errors leading to me to have to discipline her time and time again. Late one evening, after yelling at her for the tenth time that day, I lamented to fellow pilots in the Intergalactic Summit channel.
Vizage > You have quite the large family Ms. Dusette.
Vizage > But it must have it's benefits no?
Erica Dusette > Aye, it does at times. For instance it mean more DPS when we attack things, more eyes when we scout things.
Erica Dusette > But otherwise ... is more often than not just big headache.
Erica Dusette > I barely turn twenty three yet I feel like old woman, like a mother sometimes with these junior siblings all here visiting.
Erica Dusette > Shelby nearly die yesterday once already when my colleagues think she was hostile pilot, ah...
Shelby is Disciplined by Erica once again
Erica Dusette > ... I let my brother use my stylist for makeover, for instance. He come home to tell me he's spent almost two billion of my monies on .... junk. Then Danika, she start to go out to Empire to visit boys, and girls. Now Shelby...
Erica Dusette > She think she super space pirate and keep wanting to fly with my corp wherever we go.
Shalinea Vyvorant > Oh my!
Erica Dusette > I can't take all this stress.
How could I deal with Shelby? If she continued to hang around I may well need to ask her to apply to the corporation! But this organization was quite often not a place suitable for the eyes and ears of one so young. I pondered my options as I stepped from the shower, my slender figure now free of the goo that earlier surrounded it. Leaving a trail of little wet footprints I made my way to the nearby mirror, beginning to carefully rub myself dry with a towel. If Shelby was forced to join our ranks then it may actually be a good thing for our numbers as we'd lost several of our finest pilots this week. I still remember the day the news broke ...
The morning had begin like any other. I woke and greeted my sister Dani, along with fellow pilots Candi and Amber. After conducting our morning exercise routine and enjoying some breakfast I set off in my cloaky Tengu the 'Isis' down-chain to look for targets. I hadn't flown with my sister Dani much recently, so she accompanied me in a cloaky Tengu of her own, the 'Osiris'. We travelled for several systems though our static chain until finally coming to a Class 2 system with a black hole anomoly. Our ships jumped through the wormhole and landed within, Dani immediately cloaking on the hole while I warped off to scout the interior of the system. Landing near a plant on the system's far side my heart skipped a beat ...
Erica Dusette > 2c Dominix doing sites
Erica Dusette > Trying to find
Ama Atavuli > where?
Erica Dusette > 2c
Noticing the large battleship on Dscan along with drones and wrecks I knew this pilot was fighting sleepers that very moment. I began moving around the system attempting to find him when suddenly my comms light up, my sister Dani reporting that the Dominix had landed on the wormhole and was about to jump out, having likely seen our ships on scan as we entered. I began warping back to the wormhole as I ordered Dani to follow the Domi and tackle it on the other side if it jumped, which it did - Dani immediateky decloaking and jumping to follow.
"Scram Dominix" Reported Dani from the other side of the wormhole as I landed, jumping through to assist her. "Be careful he doesn't jump back through, be ready to tackle again!" Advised one of our Rolo colleagues on comms. But there was no need to worry about that, it seemed the Domi was aligning to something in space with his afterburner running and by now had gotten around 15k from the hole, dropping his drones and engaging my sister. Dani and my Tengus kept up easily, settling into a nice orbit as our missiles quickly removed the battleship's shields and began working on it's armor. Meanwhile back in Pandora reinforcements had begun reshipping and making their way down chain to us, it seemed this Domi was actively repairing it's armor and managing to tank both our Tengus without too much difficulty - not helped by the fact my sister and I had neglected to load the appropriate ammunition in all the excitement, but his capacitor wouldn't last forever. "We're on the way" Announced AgentFiftySix as he and several others neared our location.
Erica Dusette > #Shrekt incoming
Erica Dusette > Sorry bro
Bzykacz Bzykator > dont callmebro
I chuckled to myself within my capsule, it seemed this Domi pilot wasn't all too pleased about his impending doom. But it was simply the way of things, we are not here in the deep, dark reaches of unknown space to find gentlemanly-duels. We are here to murder people, anyway we could, and this Domi would be no exception. "Erica, my shields hitting 50%. Those Geckos are shredding me!!" Yelled Dani to me over comms. The Domi had deployed numerous Tech 1 level Acolyte drones which were of no real threat, but I also noticed among the drone-ball a pair of Geckos! It'd been the first time I found myself on the recieving end of these fearsome machines, and it seemed the stories of their prowess were true. I quickly locked up both heavy drones, taking my missile fire from the Domi and swiftly destroying the Geckos as Dani breathed an obvious sigh of relief. A moment or two later our colleagues arrived, warping in to join us...
Managing to warp his pod to safety, the Domi pilot began venting his fury in the system's local channel. After we discovered almost 400m ISK of loot awaiting us in his wreck we began to understand why...
Bzykacz Bzykator > assholes
Bzykacz Bzykator > like mosty pl here
Bzykacz Bzykator > shit incoming ??
Bzykacz Bzykator > what is shit
Bzykacz Bzykator > duel is for kids
Bzykacz Bzykator > i dont care u kill my small ship enjoy if u atack in 6 ppl
Bzykacz Bzykator > is wh
Bzykacz Bzykator > so dont care u are suckscose u dont get pod
AgentFiftySix > sucrose?
AgentFiftySix > i aint your sugar pal
Erica Dusette > I like sweet things
Bzykacz Bzykator > i have no time for blabla cya
Returning home, I wandered down to the corporate hanger to inspect the loot from the battle. It'd been awarded to Dani and I for finding the Dominix, but we didn't really need the money so later that week I'd end up giving it to a broke pilot in corp who'd scouting three lovely Tengu kills for us but found no valuable loot. The Domi had been a fun little gank - I always enjoyed flying with Ama and Agent, which is why it really stung when shortly after the battle it was announced that not only Ama and Agent, but also one of our lead FCs, Ket Dett, would be leaving the corporation to take lucrative positions within Nulli Secunda alliance. What a day ... from the excitement of the Domi gank to the sadness of friends' resignations.
Ama Atavuli Key Dett AgentFiftySix
Was I concerned that this could spell doom for our corporation? Actually I wasn't. This felt very different to the time the lead pilots left Sky Fighters, and while Rolled Out morale undeniably took a hit from the departures there was a communal spirit to get on with things, get out into space, find things to kill. As Sith1s Spectre announced "Out there right now is someone doing something stupid in an expensive ship. Find them, and kill them." And so we began to do our best, in wormholes, in nullsec and even in lowsec. Several pilots even getting so bold as to go looking in Jita for Marmite pilots, the alliance having recently declared war on us.
I stood in front of the mirror, my long, glossy black hair now dry from the shower as I studied the image before me. Dark patches under my eyes from a lack of sleep common to the capsuleer. The muscles on my toned shoulders, the definition across my tight abdomen, I'd lost even more weight from not eating properly this past week it seemed. I cast my blue eyes downward and grimaced, noticing that along with my diet my personal grooming had also taken a back seat - I'd need another waxxing from Candi very soon. All these waves of stress, excitement and long hours were taking a toll on my petite frame. But for now I had to look my best, I was expecting a visitor ...
Consistantly in Erica's Top 3 "crush list" - Jack Miton
Jack Miton. While being a well-known wormhole capsuleer he's also always been somewhat of an enigma. A highly skilled combat pilot, the author of a popular deep space blog, with a rough, tough frontier attitude about him and dark, handsome chiselled features I always thought he was super dreamy. When I finally met him in Sky Fighters it was all I could do not to pass out when on grid together. I soon learned Jack was highly independant, he did things his way and he did them well. He seemed to get on the nerves of some pilots though, never tagging his ships properly, flying whatever ship type he wanted, bookmarking wormholes his own way. Why? Because he's Jack Motherfucking Miton, that's why. I thought this was great and only made him even more attractive. I'd often drop hints or a casual invite to visit my tower but like the iceman he is Jack would always shrug them off. Until one evening I was talking about an old galnet holomovie I once saw ...
Erica Dusette > You remember in 'The Running Man', when Buzzsaw punches that fan in the face outside the studio? That'd be what I'd be like if Jack killed me.
Jack Miton > lol
Jack Miton > havnt seen it
Erica Dusette > WHAT
Jack Miton > *shrug*
Erica Dusette > You're missing out Jack.
Jack Miton > i bet
Erica Dusette > Wanna ... like.... uhmmm, come watch it like .. sometime?
Jack Miton > mmm, tempting
That was as good enough as a 'yes' to me, so I'd begun getting prepared. Fixing my hair to ensure not a strand was out of place, sliding into my form-fitting leathers and applying heavy lashings of dark makeup. I powered up the old-style holomovie projector in my quarters and waited on the sofa for Jack to ride in on his Naglfar at any moment. My dreams of popcorn, snuggles and holoreels were quickly vaporized though when Jester came over comms. "Dusette! Duseeeette! Hallllp. Come help me kill this Gnosis in lowsec A"
You haven't lived until you've had #thejesterexperience
It'd become almost a meme, known collectively as #thejesterexperience, Andrew Jester began forming a habit of getting himself up to his eyeballs in trouble and calling for backup. Usually resulting in us all being massacred, but often resulting in a good time had nonetheless. I quickly slipped back out of my clothes and into my capsule, boarding an Ishtar and making my way to the lowsec system in our chain. It soon turned out I wasn't helping kill just some Gnosis but had been duped into a mini-roam. With visions of a fiery death, Jester, myself and a couple others attempted to find this errant Gnosis who was continually warping from safe spot to safe spot, gate to gate, escaping us. Having no luck, I went back home and reshipped to a Falcon before rejoining.
We were joined by two other pilots, Burning Chrome - a very experienced combat pilot who'd recently joined Rolled Out and Josh Tsutola - also newish to the corporation. Josh was by far the best Sabre pilot I'd ever seen and one of the very best scouts I'd witnessed. Josh wasted no time in attempting to probe down the Gnosis in it's safe spots, always missing by mere seconds. Finally he managed to bookmark one of the safes thanks to skillful probing. Burning Chrome and myself warped to the safe and remained cloaked while Josh continued moving his combat probes around system, hoping to force the Gnosis to continue bouncing safes until he landed in this one again. Sure enough, like magic, after a minute or two it worked and the Gnosis landed back within tackle range of Burning Chrome who promptly pointed him. I decloaked and put ECM on it immediately. Feeling confident with multiple jams on the Gnosis I moved close enough to apply some damage with my light missles while Jester and Josh landed on grid to assist in the gank.
Langur > gf ^^
Josh Tsutola > gf
Josh Tsutola > why didn't you just leave system lol
Langur > i like u guys
I hadn't flown my Falcon very much, despite owning one for almost a year. This was only the third occasion I remember taking one into combat and it felt really nice. While Josh and Chrome headed home to get some sleep I stayed in lowsec with Jester to continue looking for targets. Dreamscythe joined us shortly after, and over the course of the next hour or two we enjoyed numerous skirmishes while killing a stratios, Vexor Navy Issue and Sleipnir (with one very angry pilot who undocked a Scimitar to try to save his Sleipnir). After a successful night flying in lowsec I found my mood was only getting better. While I'd missed my movie date with Jack I was still feeling optimistic that, while my heart may be devoid of men, my life won't be devoid of excitement and fun while flying with my Rolo friends.
Andrew Jester > jamming the scimi let us kill the sleip otherwise he would've been able to rep and dock up
Andrew Jester > also he would've shredded the deimos
Erica Dusette > Yay I'm a hero
