"Look, I trust you, it's just that I... well... no. No I don't."

Weekend. Nothing much going on. I start to click on the Faction Warfare link in the Neocon bar and get the Fleet Finder window by accident.

Lo and behold, there's a fleet up that isn't some random dude in Jita advertising mining. It's a faction warfare "frigs and dessies" roam.

I can do that. More to the point, I want to.

I join up, and they've got voice comms set up from right inside Eve, which is fast and convenient (once we get it set up correctly).

Geade logs in just as I join, and he comes along too.

The guy that's organized the thing is... fine.

No, really, he's fine. A little cautious. A little.

A little "assume every gate is held by a 14-man pirate instalock gate camp" cautious.

Maybe too cautious.

Also? Kind of obsessed with hunting pirates and neutrals instead of war targets, but whatever.

He can't get anything going with the pilots in the system where we're at and, apparently familiar with faction war but not, shall we say, recent events (the last two years) asks for suggestions on where to go.

I know where the action is happening, so I suggest a system, link it, and we start heading that way. Sort of. It takes us 30 minutes to get three jumps.

He asks for a scout. I'm in an armor-plated MWD long-range talwar with no point and I leap at the opportunity, because that's still an improvement.

Four jumps in 2 minutes. Three kills. Another jump. Another kill. Another three jumps, four more kills. Boom, boom boom. Move.

"I lost track of you guys," says the idiot who brought a typhoon and is about to lose it, three jumps behind us.

"Yeah..." I check d-scan and head for a gate that's about to get a few more wrecks around it. "I move fairly fast sometimes, so... umm... keep up, I guess." I lose track of the conversation for a second when a dragoon lands right next to me. "... warp to Ty. Everyone warp to Ty. Kill this idiot."

We have a medal we give out in the corp, for pilots who Warp to Ty and explode as a result. Everyone's earned that medal quite a few times. I don't tell anyone this until after the fight.

No one on our side exploded. There's a medal for that, too, but we don't give that one out as much.

A good night. The FC thanked me for taking over without asking so... op success?

"It's what I was hoping would happen," he said. "I just try to get things started."

Good for him. Wish there we more like him. Wish I was one of em.

---

Last night, Geade knows some guys who are going to do a roam. Asks me along, which is cool.

"What are you flying?" I ask, and they say Assault Frigates and Dessies.

"You can bring other stuff if you can't fly that, though."

I like how, if someone doesn't know you, they figure you just started playing three days ago. I can fly every sub-capital class in the game, so yes, I think I can manage to bring a destroyer if that's called for.

Actually, you know, I don't know these guys. I start hearing what people are bringing on their "Assault Frig and Destroyer" roam (Hookbill. Atron.) and instead of a destroyer, I'm suddenly thinking Assault Frigate. Let's say LONG range, because I'm really not sure I want to be in the middle of a furball with these strangers.

No.

I mean, "trust but verify" is nice, as long as you're very good at verification, you know? I'm not, so... no. Rail harpy it is.

Then a guy with lots of opinions tells me my Harpy is faster and more agile than the Atron and Condor in the fleet. And is kind of a jackass about it. I let him chatter while he explains about his amazing, superior Jaguar. Cool story.

So we head for a VERY SPECIFIC system where the FC got a good fight the night before and is thus assured (despite no war targets nearby) the exact same thing will happen again. We set up and wait. It's like fishing.

I hate fishing.

I see Milton from the Rifterlings (former militia, turned pirates) jump into Local and we wave at each other in a separate channel we're both in. We get along, though we'll shoot at each other if the opportunity arises.

"Anything going on in this system, Ty?"

"Nah. Just trying to kick the Amarr in their hornet's nest."

"Nice. Hey, is that Jaguar part of your group?"

"Probably."

"Oh."

I think about this, and how if we don't get a fight, I'm going to be bored. "You can attack him if you want, though. I don't like him much."

"Oh! Well in THAT case..."

The local channel floods with Rifterlings, and we're all called back to one complex by the FC.

They have more guys, and pretty much all of them brought the same class of ships. At least they're organized.

Our FC doesn't run. He probably should have. The fight is on, lots of stuff explodes (most of it on our side).

As trust building goes, it is not a success.

I pop a few things and the FC is calling for a retreat, so I bail. Geade shows up at the safe right after me.

The Jag pilot is pissed. Lost his ship, and got podded on top of that. Whoops.

Milton keeps apologizing to me. I try to tell him it's okay, but it's hard to type when I'm laughing.

Yes, I would have laughed even if I'd died. I asked for the fight, after all. I'm calling it op success.

It's Eve, though, you know? Trust no one, including me.