On the Second Day of Rhea, My FC brought to me...

Rhea has been good to me.  Phoebe was good to me too.  Seriously, the latest couple sprint releases have just been a lot of fun.  Nonetheless, I've definitely had some things to learn from.  One of them cost me 3.6B worth of pride.

On the First Day of Rhea - Bacon and Thera

I log in and Marcel is calling for ships to undock.  Vexors with enfeebling ECM.  Scramble - I have that mod, I'm in, I'm undocked I'm warping.  Enemies in a plex in our home system.  This is pretty much as "push button, receive bacon" as I've ever seen.  I've barely had time to settle into my chair and I'm plugging away at primaries and finding a Scythe to try to scramble with ECM.  Caracals backed by Scythes - as we weigh in we're starting to lose ships.  Somehow we balance - I don't know if it's the Logi wing catching up or the Caracal's getting out of sync or just being too fragile, but soon it's a rout.  Farewell, CalMil and thanks for the fight.  Later I look back and see they were mounting Rapid Lights - so the initial burst started off great, but once we got into their reload cycle it was over.

So then there's chatter on what to do next.  Thera!  Thanks to Eve-Thera and Eve-Scout he have an entrance, but ... it's in highsec.  With all of us less than reputable types we pile into frigates so we can avoid the police, and soon enough we're in there.  There is some weirdness with the grid since there are two nearby stations - there's a target near us but we can't see it because it's on the other grid.  We play warp-tag for a bit until we land near a Vargur and pile on.  Soon the skies are crowded and we're having to bail.

The fleet is ready to try again after upshipping to cruisers, but I know that by the time we reship and try to get through highsec it's going to be late for me, so I step out.  Very nice first day of Rhea though.

On the Second Day of Rhea - Confess your Sins

I hop into the fleet chat and undock to a pretty much immediate fight again.  There's someone moving too fast for our Tristans, so I dock back up and hop into my Retribution.  We start hunting around and in an unusual situation we have someone up with Skirmish links.  I must say I like to look of my overheated Warp Disruptor having a 31km range.  We bang around a bit and then head out roaming.

A Confessor is spotted on dscan.  It's unclear if the Loki nearby is boosting him, or just hunting him like everyone else.  Sard Caid is around in a Thorax, so that's keeping us on our toes since any slip and he'll probably find some way to down a straggler or anyone foolish enough to engage him on a gate.  I keep looking for the Confessor, but I figure that I must be pointing my narrow-band D-scan in the wrong direction.

Our fleet is split over a gate and suddenly there is excitement.  Scram + Web on the Confessor.  Jump, Jump.  Am I on the right side of the gate to see the Confessor or not?  I think I am, but I can't see the damn thing.  Then it dawns on me that my overview isn't updated to see Tactical Destroyers.  I have all brackets on, so I start locking, Scorch'd lasers overheated and pre-loaded... but just as I've almost gotten him locked he is reduced to a capsule.

Yup.  Confessor Kill Number Three in all of New Eden, and the most expensive fit to date.  I missed it for my own damn fault.  Yup, you followed that link right - if I had gotten in on that kill them my killboard would be green for a long time.  I don't know if I could lose enough of what I'm flying nowadays to drop my efficiency below 99%.  Yes, all the usual disclaimers about the twisted logic of killboard ISK efficiency and all, but still.  Bummer.

The Reddit thread on the kill is amusing.  Connall Tara is beside himself at the fit.  I can't wait for Fly Reckless to get back to its ship fitting/balancing geekiness with all that's happened since they were on break.  Come on, Connall, you know you want to!

On the Third Day of Rhea - o7 everyone

The o7 show lands in late afternoon of the workday in my timezone.  I block my work calendar so I'll be at my desk.  Honestly, it's a pretty quiet show compared to recent ones - particularly the last one.  Some teasing about Caroline's Star, some general promises about the coming year, some entertaining sweaters.  Ah, maybe tonight is a good night to take off from Eve.

Or maybe I should get that Amarr Tactical Destroyer skillbook shipped down to my home.  You know.  Just for the future.

Fly Reckless everyone, 'cause flying safe is no damn fun.