[Disclaimer - originally written for the Dragonstar Forums, and therefor aimed at that readership. Date of original posting: 30/Apr/2006.]

"Open up, open up!!" Kayleigh screamed in her mind. The Swordfish was hovering above one of the race containers but it seemed to be taking forever to accept her password and open up so she could take the bookmark for the next waypoint. And the problem was that this big Gurista cruiser was eating through the tiny Incursus' defenses as if they weren't there at all.

In helpless horror, she watched the display grow redder and redder until no shields remained, even though she had activated the civilian shield booster as soon as she'd heard that dreaded beeping that indicated an enemy trying to get a lock on her.

Then the indicator for armour started going red as well. She felt claustrophobic, all of a sudden, wanting to gulp big breaths of air through her mouth and unable to, surrounded as she was by goo. She turned to the one friendly soul somewhere out there, hopefully not too far behind her. "Icon, having trouble, they're eating through my armor!" she willed into the com channel. "I'm going to die!"

"Warp out!" Her team-mate's voice was somewhat reassuring, oddly enough. "I'll get you the bookmark. I'm almost there." All of a sudden she wished she hadn't sounded so panicked.

"You can't! The logs won't show me as having opened the can."

And precisely then, the anonymous voice of one of her crew through intercom: "Lock open. Retrieving bookmark."

Kayleigh called up the display. There was just a smidgen of armour left. She wouldn't have any time to program the route, so she inserted a random stargate as destination and tried to will the can to open faster. As soon as she heard that same voice say "Bookmark on board, go go!" she ordered the warp to her escape point.

Come on, Sordfish. Align, baby, align. Get us out of here alive...

The eighth race of the IRA Frigate League took place this past Saturday in the Lonetrek region, in Caldari space, and saw *two* members of Dragonstar line up: me and Iconath. Boy, was this race way more exciting than the previous one! But I'm very happy I got a nice, calm start in the Citadel before going up against more racers. This time, there were 5 of us.

Preparations

Icon and I showed up in Lonetrek and the Racing channel at the appointed time. We got our ships ready - there was a last minute scramble to get some assorted spare parts, like MWDs, cap boosters, warp drive stabilisers and such - while the organiser, Ms Gyra Rho, confessed she was stuck in a gate-camped system. She got the previous organiser, Ms Kaleigh Doyle, to come and give a hand. We were starting to dread delays, but at last Ms Rho got unstuck and joined the competitors at the starting point.

This time, 5 racers had shown up. In no time we paid our fees, got the destination of our first waypoint and we were off!

The Race

On the first couple of jumps it was hard to tell who was ahead, but it soon became clear that Owi (Alcatraz Inc) had once again taken the lead in his Firetail and indeed would not lose it until the end. Teo Kiesh (Gradient) was second, I found myself in third by a hairbreadth, Iconath in fourth and Horatio Cain (Sentinel Security) brought up the rear. This would be the order for most of the race.

The first waypoint proved to be clear of rats, which was nice. I still got to see Owi warp out, and Teo fiddle with the can. Unfortunately I overshot the can *again* and lost some time getting the waypoint. Also, tried to drag the waypoint directly into "people and places" and it wouldn't work. Lost some precious seconds there until I realised I had to first drag them into the cargo hold. Iconath as well encountered this problem and lost quite a bit of time on Waypoint 1. Lucky for us, Horatio Cain was having problems of his own and left WP1 after Iconath.

On the route to WP2 I didn't see any other competitors, which made me feel a bit more lonely. I'm happy I had my team mate to chat about the race with. He had solved his problems with laggy cans and stubborn waypoints and was following about two jumps behind me.

WP2 was pretty much clear, as I remember, but then WP3 happened. WP3 was in Mara, a 0.3 system, and to top that the can was in an asteroid field. The guys at the front of the race gave the warning: rats about. NPC rats, yet 0.3 rats against frigates rigged for races might be tough! I dove in...

Well... There was a Cruiser among them, and the Audit Log Secure Cans have this mean lag between you typing the password and actually getting access to the contents. I was targeted, shot at. Even though I had my civvy shield booster going, I saw my shield drop at a frightening rate, then the armour... and then the can opened! I grabbed the waypoint and warped blindly away before even programming my destination. I was down to 80% Hull! Not good at all. And on top of that, had to backtrack to a different gate because in the rush I'd warped to the wrong place.

Now I had half a race to run with no armour whatsoever, and only 80% Hull. Not a very good perspective. And here I made a fatal mistake, or perhaps error of judgement. I knew WP4 would be in an asteroid belt in 0.4 space, and soon got confirmation of my fears from Owi who was worlds ahead of anyone else: there were more rats in WP4! The temporary headquarters I had established in Lonetrek were pretty much just around the corner, 3 jumps away from WP3, and in the general direction of WP4. I *should* have taken the time to jump there, grab a spare ship and rejoin the race. But I didn't.

So when I approached the can in WP4 and was targeted by a couple of mere frigates it took them no time to eat through my shield while I was waiting for the can to open and all of a sudden I was in my pod

My temporary HQ was only 4 jumps away, now, so I headed there in my pod, which was stupid because a rookie ship would have been that little bit faster. Live and learn, I guess. So I got one of my spares and rejoined the race, now having been overtaken by Icon, who had been catching up to me in his Rifter slowly but inexorably all through the race. Dragonstar was still in with a chance for some nice points.

So I went back to WP4 to get my bookmark and to my surprise found that I still left the place before Horatio Cain. Yes, Horatio had been plagued with bad luck ever since the start! Now I had him hot on my heels, and the guys up front reporting a pirate here, a sniper there? Yet Icon reported only a couple low-sec systems in the route; I regained hope in making it to the end alive.

Horatio warped out of WP4 right behind me and as soon as we came out of warp tried to target me. He did that two or three times, but I always jumped the gate before he could get a lock - and this is high-sec space we're talking about! I don't know what he intended to do, but he would have been concorded if he'd tried to shoot me. I soon outran him, thankfully.

I warped into WP5 and guess what? Yes, more NPC rats! And of course they targeted me in no time. These were weaker, I hoped to make it out of there alive. I knew this was the last waypoint - Owi was already at the finish line, Teo too, and Icon about to get there. I was almost at the can, already locked by a Gurista and then suddenly no more lock! I look in my overview and Horatio had warped in. He had been shooting them at WP4 and still had the aggro counter going! Laughing, I took my waypoint without being shot at and warped out, while Horatio lost more time getting rid of the Guristas. I was clear! It was high-sec until the end! Hooray!

Official results have still to be published, but here?s the finishing order:
1st - Owi - Alcatraz (+20 points)
2nd - Teo Kiesh - Gradient (+15 points)
3rd - Iconath - Dragonstar (+10 points)
4th - Kayleigh Jamieson - Dragonstar (+0 points, as only first racer from each corp gets points)
5th - Horatio Cain - Sentinel Security (+5 points)

Aftermath

Even though I lost a frigate, I had a blast in this race. Iconath was a fun team mate to have and gave lots of support all through the event. Dragonstar got ten precious points that allowed us to overtake FREE Explorer and seize 4th place. I would guess our aim now is to gradually try to narrow down that big gap to third place (currently Convergent with 80 points).

I did put up more of a fight than in the previous race, which I count as an improvement. I pretty much had third place well in hand until my poor Incursus fell to the Guristas. I am more confident that my fellow racers won't shoot me at the tip of a hat, because we all want to have a fun race, and have discovered through the race channel that they actually seem to be rather nice, letting us at the back know of potential dangers such as rats, NPC or otherwise. I still won't trust them, though...

I'll let Icon himself talk about what he learned, if he so wishes. No matter how many times I might have tried to explain what it's like to be in a race, it takes hands-on experience to get the feel for it, and I'm sure he has a lot of plans for things to tweak in his Rifter

I can barely wait for the next race!

Next week they should announce the next region.

Kayleigh left the showers looking refreshed and freshly scrubbed, smelling of soap. After a nice, long shower to get rid of the pod goo, her hands had finally stopped trembling. They'd been trembling ever since she had lost the Swordfish in Daras. It had been scary as hell to return there to get the waypoint.

She tried very hard not to think about the lives she'd flown to their doom in Daras. She didn't know any faces, she didn't know any names, but she knew they had been *there* and now were no more. Because of her and a race and a slight miscalculation of risks.

She quickened the pace. The press conference ought to be getting underway, and Iconath would get some attention from the press, having finished in the podium. She wanted to be there to show her support.

When she arrived at the restaurant where the party was being held it took her little time to find her team mate, but he was surrounded by organisation and press so she didn't try to make her way there. Instead, she caught his eye, mouthed "congratulations" and winked.

She wasn't aware that her eyes looked somewhat haunted, and that her smile came out a bit shaky.

Kay.

[Disclaimer: as usual, this was written for a Dragonstar readership. Date of original posting: 15/May/2006.]

Kemerk V - Moon 10 - CONCORD Bureau

The Frigate League was getting more and more attention from the press, it seemed, as more corporations signed up, and Alcatraz promised to threaten Gradient's first place. They had been disappointed in that neither Gradient nor Convergent had show up in Genesis to defend their places, but Synergy had been reborn from the ashes and paraded a team of two Firetail pilots to rival Owi's speed.

Kayleigh panned her camera drones around, taking a good look at the neighbouring hangars, all doors open: everything had been staged for the camera. From left to right, Firetail, Atron, Firetail, Rifter, Firetail, Rifter. They looked good, all shiny and sparkling, some garishly painted, engines roaring and waiting for the start signal.

The young pilot felt the nervous energy of pre-race procedures and check-lists. She loved it. She glanced at Iconath's ship; she didn't like the idea of them setting off with a Firetail between them. Panning back, Kayleigh took one last look at her red and white Dragonbourne and hoped she would bring better luck than the Unicorn.

Then her attention was brought back to the organiser. They were about to start! Kayleigh was poised to program a course as soon as the first waypoint was announced. There it was: Toon VIII. She inserted the coordinates and undocked. As soon as she was out of the station she kicked in the warp drive. This time she'd got off to a good start, and so had Iconath; she had seen him briefly in space before jumping.

She smiled, unaware of the gleeful sparkle to her eye, taken by an adrenalin rush as the Rifter came out of warp. Everyone was so close together! She slammed the MicroWarp Drive on and the Dragonbourne dove for the gate. If she looked left she could see Owi's Firetail keeping pace; looking right, Shemar's Atron was a glow of engines in afterburn only slightly ahead of her.

They jumped so close she could read the registration numbers on the tiny Atron, and it was near impossible to say who'd disappeared first.

Lots of bad luck for Dragonstar in this, the half-season race, in spite of all the lovingly named new Rifters. At the same time, though, it was the most interesting and exciting race I've ever been in.

Preparations

Iconath and I actually went through a couple of training sessions and much brainstorming regarding this race: from practising the approach to cans, to planning several different loadouts for the DS Rifters. We were also careful to move our stuff over to Genesis well in advance

I was happy with my Rifter, especially when I noticed just how much low-security space there was in Genesis - there's a huge blob of low-sec at one end. I had this feeling, which proved to be correct, that the course designers would make us dive in there...

As usual we were ready to go and docked at the start point at the correct time. I must say I was dumbfounded when the two new racers, both from Synergy, announced for the roster that they would be flying Firetails. My heart sank. DS would be fighting for 4th place, instead of 2nd! And then I remembered my newbie mistakes from my first race - I confess I wished all of them upon those guys and many more

The Race

I had a really good start. There were 9 jumps to WP1; the first couple of stargates we went through it was actually hard to tell who was jumping first. I'm quite sure I jumped at least once before anyone else. Unfortunately, Owi started pulling slightly away along the 9 jumps, but he was within grasp, and Shemar and I got embroiled in a fight for position that would last almost until the end of the race. Icon and the two guys from Synergy (Lost Dragon and Captain Sonic) were jostling for position as well.

WP1 was the busiest waypoint I've ever seen! Fortunately no NPC pirates. Owi was the first one out. Shemar and I followed shortly afterward and then the other guys. From first to last I'd hazard saying we were split by 5 seconds at the most, at waypoint one. But I was high on adrenalin so I might have the wrong idea here. Iconath might confirm/deny.

The race itself was huge, the biggest so far with 61 jumps in shortest route. The way I lived it, I feel it was roughly divided into three parts. I'll tell you about them.

The first third of the race I was not far behind Owi, getting glimpses of him occasionally at waypoints. I was, however, fighting with all I had against Shemar (Photesthetics) in his Atron for 2nd place, followed at some distance by one of the Synergy guys (I forget which, but I seem to vaguely recall him being Lost Dragon). I tell you, I've never felt so much tension. It was nerve-wracking, it was fun, it was exciting! Shemar and I were never apart by more than 3000m, and quite often only separated by 1500m! Flying at about 3000m/s!! A couple of times we were actually together in the same warp jump. Amazing...

Iconath, however, had huge bad luck and got stuck for a while (and I mean minutes here, perhaps 3-5) on a gate, with an unresponsive ship, thus losing any chance to fight for points, unless some disaster hit any other corp.

The turning point that ended this phase was a long stretch of jumps, between waypoints 2 and 3 which had some long warp tunnels. My capacitor and Shemar's couldn't handle this and our ships stopped midway to recharge cap. The Firetails, however, not only gained on us, they overtook us and we never again laid eyes on them. We knew we were close behind, but no more eye contact.

So the second third of the race was all a tense fight for 4th place, pretty much always in low-sec. Waypoints 2 and 3 were separated by 16 jumps, all of them either 0.2 or 0.3 space.

Poor Icon had reconnected and followed a long way behind us all

Then an unexpected incident occurred. Owi, at the time about 5-7 jumps ahead of me, reported the can at WP3 wasn't there. It had disappeared! He lost some time, discussing with Gyra Rho (organiser) whether he was in the right place. A solution: we'd convo her when we arrived there and get the bookmark via chat to the next waypoint. I have no problem with it relying on sportsmanship. I do, however, have a slight problem with it relying on Gyra to type unhumanly fast so as not to destroy the fraction-of-a-second time difference separating me and Shemar.

Unfortunately for me, Shemar had warped in a hair ahead of me, so he got the bookmark first, programmed the route first, warped out first. And I lost a couple precious moments there to him.

I tried hard to catch up, but I made a mistake at the following can and overshot it very slightly. Some timing, huh? That was enough. Shemar had a few seconds on me.

The last third of the race I had a few problems with stargates. I'd been having problems all along the race (at one point, a delay in a gate gained Shemar a few seconds earlier on in the race, and allowed one of the Synergy guys to approach me dangerously), as had some of the other racers, but I started noticing them more at this point.

During this phase I kept trying to catch up to Shemar, but I'd be warping into waypoints as he was already opening bookmark cans. I couldn't glimpse him anymore before stargates.

In the end, I arrived 2 minutes behind him.

Poor Icon must have had a dreadful race, all alone at the back But I feel it's important he kept on racing. Not only could something have happened to me, but every race we run is more experience under our belts, and more publicity for DS He even got a special mention in the official report because of his persistence

Aftermath

Official placements:
1st - Owi [ALTZ] - Firetail (73mins)
2nd - Lost Dragon [S.Y.N.] - Firetail (80mins)
3rd - Captain Sonic [S.Y.N.] - Firetail (81mins)
4th - Shemar [PTO] - Atron (83mins)
5th - Kayleigh Jamieson [DS] - Rifter (85mins)
6th - Iconath [DS] - Rifter (100mins)

Well, it doesn't feel very good to look at the classification and see both DS racers at the bottom of the list, but these things happen. It was a serious case of bad luck.

With this victory, Owi brings his corporation to the first place with a total of 120 points, 110 of which he alone conquered. Makes you think, doesn't it?

The question came up toward the end of the race, placed by Gyra herself: do Firetails unbalance the race? I gave my honest opinion, which is: I signed up for this league, with these rules and they state Firetails are legal so you won't hear me complain in any official channels or capacity; however, they do make for an unbalanced race. They are fast, they can take a lot of punishment, they have a lot of low/med slots, they have bigger capacitor - it places them worlds ahead of normal T1 frigates like the rest of us mortals are flying around.

Owi, of course, replied he was beaten in his Firetail by Elsebeth. I've read every single report: he was beaten once since he has the Firetail on a day when he had navigation problems. And it was still a photo-finish. Is he really trying to convince us the Firetail makes no difference? Hah, I say!

But no problem. I'm happy racing, having lots of fun. I just hope the fun doesn't all go away with so many Firetails signing up for races. Dragonstar won't be getting many points if this continues :/

All in all, this race was awesome, absolutely fantastic for me. The fight for position with Shemar... I don't think I'll forget that for a very long time. Fabulous stuff!

I have to thank Dragonstar for all the support and loving they've show the Racing Team. It has meant a lot, and I'm prouder than ever to race under DS colours

More than ever, I'm looking forward to the next race in two weeks!

Kayleigh had to make an effort not to scowl as she joined the after-race party at the station in Yulai. The Firetail crowd was being noisy and boisterous, surrounded by a gaggle of press and Synergy groupies, it seemed. They could just be team mechanics, for all she knew... But it wouldn't do to pull a face near so much press, so she tried to smooth her features and actually had mild success.

A few reporters approached her, wanting to know what had happened here and there, what she thought of the newcomers from Synergy, her opinion on the sudden Firetail supremacy and so on. She gave generic answers where it concerned her tactics or opponents, but her honest opinion on the Firetails: although legal they created imbalance, but she had signed up for these rules, so she wouldn't complain.

After that she would answer no more questions and sought refuge by the buffet. It didn't take long for Iconath to join her, after having to fight his own fight to get through the press. The smile she gave him was the first sincere one since climbing out of the pod plasma at the finish line docks.

"Good to see you back in one piece," she greeted, hugging him briefly. A lucky reporter caught the moment and the hologram would later appear in the Dragonstar internal newsfeed. "Sorry you got stuck in that gate. No luck for us today," she said, sparing a quick glance at the Synergy team.

But then she caught sight of the 6th racer in the room. That had to be Shemar, of Photesthetics, with whom she'd just had the most exciting battle for position ever, and who she'd met previously in some faceless comm channel. She just had to say a few words to him. "I'll be right back," she said to Iconath.

The young pilot approached Shemar and shook hands with him. "You must be Shemar. I am most pleased to meet you in the flesh," she said by way of greeting. "That was some fight we had going." A glance at the Firetail boys. "Shame to think we had that second place within our grasp until that stretch of low-sec, no?" she commented.

Kay.

[Disclaimer: written for the Dragonstar Forums, with that readership in mind. Date of original posting: 28/May/2006.]

Oberen III – Ice Field 1

The Microwarp Drive roared to life as soon as Kayleigh came out of warp. She pointed her ship efficient and expertly at the waypoint container which showed up on her instruments, even before she noticed she had company besides the other competitors. That was when she took the first look around her through her camera drones…

… and hit the first chunk of ice.

Owi and Masim were already by the container, no doubt getting ready to warp out. Elsebeth, though, had just come out of warp beside her. She had to be quick! And there were Angel pirates out near the can.

At that speed, it was hard to manoeuvre among the chunks of ice, and Kayleigh found herself losing speed, bouncing off frozen chunks hanging in space. She cursed inwardly, gritted her teeth and tried to avoid a particularly large one, but it still clipped her wing, and Elsebeth, a much more experienced pod pilot, overtook her.

And that was the precise moment when the pirates chose to get a lock on her. The tiny jin-mei looked around again. Owi and Masim were warping out, leaving the girls to fend for themselves. The distraction, though, cost her more time as she hit a smaller ice asteroid.

Scowling at the image of the RhoDyne waypoint container, Kayleigh tried to unlock it as she was getting fired at. While she was waiting and keeping an eye on the status of her shields, she opened communications with her team mate, who should be warping in any moment now. “Iconath, I’m at the Ice Field and getting shot at, but I think I’ll be fine. Just to let you know there are rats around here.”

She was getting worried, as her shields were approaching the half-way mark, when the crewman’s voice came over the intercom. “Bookmark in, go go!”

“Warping out,” she told Iconath, who had by now appeared in the Ice Field. Elsebeth was close on her tail.

So race ten is behind us, and finally a good race and well run by Dragonstar. Owi has me stumped, though. The guy is good, we have to hand it to him.

On this race, also, a record number of competitors: 7 at the starting line, with both Dragonstar and Gradient showing up with a full team of two racers.

Preparations

Iconath and I got together several times during the past two weeks to get used to our shiny brand new Firetails. Those ships can *fly*! We did all we could to get them flying fast, to hone our approaching abilities to cans, to make machines that could beat Owi.

We also kept the secret about us having Firetails from anyone outside the corporation until the very last possible minute. We had fun imagining the faces on the other guys when we told the organisation what we were flying.

Unfortunately, Synergy did not show up for this race. I would have liked to beat those two guys. However, Gradient returned to the race in full force sporting their first Firetails as well, and bringing two experienced racers: Elsebeth (the only racer who has beat Owi so far since he got his Firetail) and Masim. Owi himself was true to his word and showed up *without* his Firetail and instead on an Amarr Navy Slicer!

Of note also the presence of two new guys in the race: M1rth (Condor) and Captain Rathonius (Atron).

The Race

Things were good for Dragonstar right from the get go. Icon and I had a good start. Masim, we later found out, had an insta for the first Gate and made use of it. Until the first waypoint the four of us were really close.

The newbies were having all sorts of problems, though. Rathonius spent ages at the station trying to find the WP1 destination on his *map*! And M1rth, I think, had troubles at WP1 with the cans.

After WP1, though, Owi took off. I was left with Elsebeth in an interesting struggle for position and Masim was a tiny bit ahead of us. Iconath followed close behind. I was feeling pretty good with myself at this point because although Elsebeth was flying slightly faster than me, I was navigating menus better than her – I know this because she was gaining on me during the course but then I entered warp before her on the way to the WP itself.

WP3 was interesting: an Ice Field in Oberen III with rats in it. I must have bounced off of every single piece of ice out there between me and the WP can. Crappy navigation from me. I should have been more careful and try to avoid the things, but I was not on my own computer and was afraid of doing more damage than good on an unfamiliar keyboard/mousepad. Rats also shot at me there, while I was waiting for the blessed can to open, but they only got half my shield down. I love my Firetail!

After WP3 Elsebeth disappeared from my overview. I was worried! Had she passed me? A few of the Gates out there were lagging a bit on me, and she could have extended her tiny advantage over me. Icon, a little behind us, couldn’t see her either. Turned out she had some computer/connection troubles and had to relog. Good! That meant 3rd place was firmly mine, barring any hardware/Gate malfunction.

WP4 was unusual! We had never had to approach a beacon before! Actually, I’d never even been on an Ice Field before this race. Thank you so very much, DS, for Ventrilo. I got my questions answered there so fast that I never lost any time. Thank you guys!

Masim, I realised from the racing channel on EvE was about half a jump ahead of me. At this point, I was just trying my best to keep alert and gain some little bit of time on the approach to Gates, and such. I was 4 jumps away from WP7 when Owi sounded alarmed on the chat. What could be wrong? Had the can disappeared once again? Was he in trouble? Would he lose enough time for me and Masim to catch up with him?

Laughter ensued when we found out that Elsebeth had bypassed WP4 and gone directly to WP7, having know the correct system from her team-mate. It was *she* who had lain in wait for Owi. She shot at him and warp-scrambled him, and would have delayed him a lot more but her cap ran out. I suppose that means Owi races with a Nos on his ships. Owi got away before Masim could warp in and finish or overtake him. A pity... Hee hee

When I warped into WP7 Elsebeth was still there, and flashing red to me. I got slightly distracted (between her and my RL friends looking over my shoulder at the race) and overshot that can badly. Poor flying on my part which meant Masim gaining even more on me.

In the end, Owi taught us all a lesson by winning in a ship with crappy base-speed in spite of being scrambled and shot at. Masim got second place for Gradient and I my third for DS. Icon came fourth and the new guys did their best to finish, learn how the League works and collect their first few points. Elsebeth, knowing that Masim had their 2nd place well in hand didn’t bother going back to the race at all and did not finish.

Aftermath

Gradient showed they had great team tactics; Owi showed he *really* doesn’t need the Firetail to win. Dragonstar showed we can race when the Gates don’t mess with us

The race was great, although I got more excitement from the previous one, when I was embroiled in a fight for position pretty much all through the race.

The Firetails behaved wonderfully! I just really have to thank Jormun, Gareth and Druif yet again for pooling their resources and putting this racing machine in my hands. I love my Firetail and I’ll definitely be experimenting yet a few different setups on it to see if I can keep up with Owi in the races. There has to be some way of making more similar times.

Dragonstar remains in fourth place with 40 points. Convergent has third with 80 points and haven’t show up for the races since I started racing. I hope they remain away from the races for a while loner Gradient has second with 120 and Alcatraz is first with 140 points.

Akhmon V, Moon 14, Civic Court Law School

At the after-race party, Kayleigh was all smiles. At last she had made a podium finish that she really deserved, with her own hard work and an incredible frigate. Every time a reporter came up to her she beamed him a smile that lit up the grey of her eyes and replied with pleasantries. “I’m very happy, yes. Dragonstar has shown we do indeed belong in this League. I can’t thank the guys at Dragonstar enough for the mean machine I was flying today. What a lesson Mr. Owi of Alcatraz has taught us all today, yes, my heartfelt congratulations to him indeed,” and other such sentences.

She was ecstatic, she couldn’t stop grinning, she could barely keep herself from bouncing up and down. But when she saw her team mate enter the room, she made a run for him and jumped into his arms for a big hug. “I did it!” she squealed, holding on tight. “We did it,” she amended, loosening her grip and touching the floor again with the tips of her toes.

She pushed the dark bangs out of the luminous grey eyes with one hand, still grinning up at Iconath. “And we’ll do better next time around, I vow,” she promised. The slightest hint of a frown marred her features. “I missed a couple of approaches,” she confessed. Just as quickly, she pulled Iconath by the hand. “We’ll discuss that later. Come celebrate!”

And she dragged him off deeper into the party, not taking no for an answer.

Kay.

[Disclaimer: writte for the Dragonstar boards and one week after the event, as I was away in the Azores during that time. Date of original posting: 20/Jun/2006.]

Owi’s voice came over the racing comms channel as Kayleigh was entering the Miyeli system: “What the hell? There is no waypoint can here!” A smile instantly overtook her lips, quite unkindly, despite the worry as she pointed her Firetail now to the supposed location for Waypoint 1, trying to shake off Elsebeth as she pursued.

She got on her private channel to Iconath. “Ha! Owi’s going to lose time,” she stated the obvious, as the Firetail entered warp just behind Elsebeth.

However, the worry soon came to the surface. Could this be another mistake from the organisation like the one in Kador? This was the very first waypoint in the race; a mistake this early in the race did not bode well at all. Still… maybe Owi had just made some navigational error and if only Kayleigh could get to the *right* location before him, she’d gain a precious advantage.

The Dragonbourne started vibrating as the warp tunnel collapsed… and Kayleigh came out of warp to find a gaggle of confused racers and no waypoint can. No matter how hard her luminous grey eyes scanned the display before her, Kayleigh could not see any Rho Dyne can at all. She frowned and double checked her settings. Yes, everything was in order on her black and gold Firetail. The can simply wasn’t there. She added her voice to the heated discussion starting up on the racing channel: “I confirm, no waypoint can at Miyeli VIII.”

It's been over a week since Icon and I raced in Domain, in what turned out to be the longest race *ever*! I think we were going at it for over two hours! The servers are currently down, though, so I can't check my facts against official information.

Unfortunately, because it has been a full week and the race was so huge, I have forgotten many of the race details. This is going to be a short report. Which is a pity, because we had a reporter show up at the race who made a lovely report. I might copy/paste it here somewhere. Linking to the topic on the Eve Forums night be hazardous, as the League topic is already going on 7 or 8 pages

Preparations

None, this time. Or not really. I did use the Jamieson Cup track in Essence to test a couple of loadouts, trying to decide whether to go for Nanofibers or Overdrive Injectors. I ended up racing with a combination of both, not willing to trust my Firetail entirely to the Structure losses of Nanofibers.

I raced with added agility but less 100m/s of top speed, bringing me down to about 5400 m/s.

The Race

What can I say? 99 jumps in total, says the reporter who wrote the race report. 99!! Eleven waypoints plus finish line... With some mean low-sec waypoints somewhere in there too.

A record 8 racers showed up at the start line. Fortunately, Gradient's second pilot (Masim) failed to show up in time and Elsebeth Rhiannon had to fly on her own, preventing her from using team tactics - I count myself lucky on that.

The notorious Owi (Alcatraz Inc.) showed up in a Rifter and *still* beat every single Firetail out there by a comfortable margin, navigating even through organisation errors as if it were nothing. My feelings toward Owi are mixed, at this point. I have to respect him for his flying prowess, but I hate the way he gloated about it at the finish line - same respect/hate relationship I have with Michael Schumacher in real life

From the very beginning I was deep in fights for position, always hovering in between third and fourth place. At one time, early in the race, Icon was actually ahead of me, but I fixed that after WP1

Unfortunately I really can't recall any clear sequence of events. I fought for position with Elsebeth and Icon, then Captain Sonic (Synergy) later in the race and until the very finish line - Icon, Sonic and I all got to see each other at the very last Waypoint, which was exciting, but gate bouncing put the second place safely in Sonic's hand It might have been a photo finish without those...

I seem to remember some mean waypoints, in low sec asteroid belts with big rats in them. I was fortunate in both occasions to warp in just behind other competitors. They would get the initial aggro while I did the approach to the can, and when they left and *I* got the aggro, I just orbitted the can fast, got less damage and would warp out without the rats getting into my armour. *That* felt good... but had my hands shaking for a while.

Both guys from The Older Gamers lost their ships during the race, though, and both to belt rats - the big ones I mentioned, I believe. Shemar (Photesthetics) also did not finish, but only because the race was like a marathon and RL engagements forced him to dock before the finish line was even in sight for any of us.

Aftermath

All in all, a race I won't forget that soon (even if details get too muddled in my mind to be able to report accurately over here)!

Dragonstar did well: we secured 3rd and 4th place, within a minute of 2nd place (Captain Sonic), and I seem to remember that for a two-hour race we were not all that far behind Owi in his Rifter. A Rifter! Argh! Must beat him sometime!!

(Edit: I did in the meantime check - I finished precisely 8 minutes behind Owi in a two-hour race (took me 131 minutes to complete the thing) which is not bad at all! Of course... it probably made some difference him being in a Rifter...)

Kayleigh spotted Captain Sonic the moment she came out of warp. Or rather, she spotted the dot representing him on her overview, because the glare of the Mamenkhanar sun hid the Synergy Firetail from her camera drone. She activated the microwarp drive as soon as she could and concentrated on her approach to the waypoint. She couldn’t afford to lose any more time to Sonic, but this was already Waypoint 10 and she was so tired it was getting harder to focus on approaches.

“Sonic is here, already at the can,” she informed Iconath over their private channel. “Approaching the can now.”

It was then that she noticed they were not alone. Warasu, the guest reporter that had interviewed her earlier in the week and shown up at Domain for a special report of the race was there. She had time to flash navlights at him and that was that: she was on top of the can and Iconath had show up at the star.

As soon as she got within reach of the can, though, Captain Sonic manoeuvred to warp out. She cursed inwardly. If the next bookmark indicated the finish line, she would not be able to catch him on time. She wanted that second place so badly, and Sonic kept slipping between her fingers!

Kay.

[Was kind of waiting for Gyra to post her report over here as well as on the EvE-o forums but got impatient. Here goes another report of mine, written the past Sunday. As usual, originally posted on the Dragonstar forums]

Kayleigh closed her fists in frustration, nails digging into her palms. How stupid could she possibly get? How had she forgotten to set the correct orbit distance in her Firetail? Scowling fiercely, she did a manual approach to the can.

All four of them were jostling for position around the can for waypoint one, while trying to avoid collision with the bigger asteroids floating about. Kayleigh was desperately trying to control her anger so she wouldn’t make another mistake at that waypoint.

Finally she got within range of the can, tried to unlock. The crew member responsible for retrieving the bookmarks reported lock open. Good. Iconath and Vindico were still latched onto the can themselves.

She took a deep breath. This was the only phase of the race that did not depend on her alone and her skill with the frigate. One of her crew had to physically get the coordinates from the container while she waited with baited breath.

Suddenly a choice expletive broke the silence, the voice she recognised as the usual man responsible for getting the bookmarks. “The damned Gamers stole our bookmark right from under my nose. Going back in for another!”

What the hell? “Get another one now,” she growled quite unkindly. Casting a glance around her via the camera drones, she could see Iconath warping out and Vindico beginning to align. “Quickly!” she pushed.

Her blood was boiling in those long, long seconds before the familiar voice got back to her. “Bookmark in, go go!”

As fast as she could, she aligned, inserted the coordinates and warped away, just before M1rth, but worlds behind Iconath and Vindico. Great. The one race when Owi failed to show up, she had to screw up big time at the very first waypoint. She got on her private comms channel to Iconath. “Warping out now. Are you ahead?”

“Yes. Vindico is right behind me, but that will soon change.” As usual her team mate’s voice seemed to have a calming effect on her.

“Go for it. Give it your best,” she said, sounding gradually more distracted as she focused her attention back on the race. “I’m way behind.”

“Just do your race,” he said coolly. “I have faith in you, and the race just begun. You can catch this guy.”

Still scowling, Kayleigh slammed on the microwarp drive on the approach to the first stargate. Damn right I’ll catch him…

A tiny race, and well disputed. Well, anything would feel tiny after that two-hour marathon three weeks ago in Domain…

Dragonstar finally wins!! Hooray! It happened last night in the Bleak Lands. Granted: Owi didn’t race and only four racers showed up in the region, but it still felt really good.

Preparations

We didn’t do anything special in preparation for this race. I’m happy with the current setup on my Firetail and I already know when I can and can’t activate the MWD on the approach to waypoint cans.

At the start line, only two teams. The Older Gamers would be facing Dragonstar with Vindico Phoenix and M1rth aboard a Vigil and a Condor, respectively. Though we felt a bit apprehensive before the start signal (would they be using team tactics on me?) it all turned out alright in the end.

The Race

Dragonstar was ahead from the get go. I confess my start was not the greatest I ever did; I think everyone warped out of the starting station ahead of me, but I beat some in acceleration to the first stargate. And soon I was warping in the same tunnel as Iconath, which is always cool

There were only three jumps to waypoint one. As soon as I noticed that I thought “this is going to be interesting…” I bet it would have been much more interesting had more racers shown up. As it was, all four of us showed up at the asteroid belt within seconds of each other.

I confess I made a mess at Waypoint 1. First I overshot the can badly, and then realised I’d forgotten to set my orbit distance to 500m. At 4500m I was not going to get any can open… Grr, silly mistake, Kay. When I finally got the can open, something happened with the bookmark ‘cause it did not appear in my cargo hold. I lost a couple of precious seconds wondering what the hell was going on before pulling another bookmark from the can. Sigh.

I think I managed to warp out just before M1rth. Iconath, though had already warped out and was defending that first place for DS with all he had. All I could do was try my best to catch Vindico in his Vigil, and I had faith in my Firetail.

I played catch-up until finally I started seeing Vindico as I came out of warp and accelerated toward stargates. And then at Waypoint 2, another Asteroid Belt, I overtook him on the approach to the can by maneuvering around the big asteroid. I swear Gyra places the cans behind big asteroids on purpose! This time I got my approach perfectly done and was away before Vindico, and chasing Iconath hard. Just because he is my team mate it doesn’t mean I’ll hand him the victory in a silver platter...

During this stretch, Vindico tried to catch me, and at one point got me worried because he was actually gaining on me, but somehow after a couple of gates seemed to lose touch.

All waypoints but one were in asteroid belts, and I think all had rats in them, but they were mostly frigates, which barely scratched the shields on our Firetails. M1rth, however, who had dropped behind in last place, was having all sorts of trouble at waypoints with the rats. The poor guy was warping in while the rats were still on top of the cans after they’d approached to shoot at us, the other competitors, orbiting the cans while waiting for the bookmaks. This time, though, he survived all pirates and made it until the end of the race.

One of the waypoints, though – I forget whether it was the last one or the one before that – had two cruisers about. At that point, though, I’d closed some distance to Iconath so the rats had to divide their attention and proved no big threat. Actually, at that waypoint Iconath missed a password and I didn’t, so I gained precious time on him and dogged his tail all the way to the finish line, making him sweat for that victory.

If only I hadn’t bounced off the very last stargate, we might have had a photo finish. Alas, a race well run and deservedly won by Iconath!

Aftermath

A Dragonstar 1st and 2nd places feels really good! Iconath confessed over Vent that it was great to be in the lead, but it had his hands shaking I can imagine! The first to warp into a waypoint gets all the aggro, and you never know what is lurking out there ready to pounce on you. Still I’m sure it was some consolation to him knowing that the racer right behind him was his team mate, and therefore no real threat to him.

We got a glimpse of the war that has been taking place in the region, but there were no problems. At one point, in Sahtogas, I think, we chanced upon a gate camp with IDAMA pilots. Next system I saw BL-IN shooting at someone right on top of the gate. It’s nice to see a bit of local colouring, as long as they don’t try to ruin the race for us

So, Icon brought 20 points to DS, which puts us just 10 points away from tieing for third place overall with Convergent at seven races still to go until the end of the Season. The Older Gamers raced a good race and got themselves 15 points, which brings them from 9th to 6th overall.

Now if only Owi would stay away from racing for a couple more races… I’m kidding. Although I’d love to get my hands on all those points, I enjoy the challenge of trying to outrun him (or at least get closer to him). A race without Owi is not the same thing. Iconath is really quiet at the front. If it weren’t for Vent I’d have no idea what to expect in asteroid belts. Owi usually lets us at the back know what he is seeing.

When she warped into the waypoint at Huola, she immediately saw Iconath… and he was not in between her and the can! Without hesitating, she set the Dragonbourne on course to approach the can, and veered manually enough to avoid a big hunk of rock in space.

“Damn. I went the wrong away around the asteroid.” Iconath on the comms channel.

Kayleigh spared him the briefest glance; she had her own approach to worry about. “Are those two Angels giving you grief?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. She was almost to the can, but then so was Iconath.

“Big time, but I can hold them,” he replied.

Silence while they both locked onto the can. And then just as the jin-mei was inserting her password, Iconath’s voice again. “Damn, wrong password, had to re-type.” She felt bad about not regretting that, but she had to confess she wanted that first place for herself.

“Warping out” they both said at once, moments later. Yet she had seen him align and accelerate just a fraction before herself. She chased as hard as she could. “I’m coming for you,” she teased on their private channel. These last few jumps ought to be interesting…

Kay.

[As usual, written originally for the Dragonstar forums; to be read with that in mind.]

The Dragonbourne shot off the starting station and… the display on Kayleigh’s instruments flickered oddly. She scowled, but tried to focus. First gate, warp drive active… Damn it! Warp drive active, there you go.

The damned mechanics had not been able to fix the electronics problems that had begun to manifest yesterday. A whole 24 hours and they hadn’t fixed a thing, the bastards.

The Dragonbourne came out of warp and, sure enough, Owi and Iconath were almost at the gate. Hikari in her tiny Atron was right beside her. Her piercing gaze focused on the stargate ahead of her. Approach, microwar- What the…? Come on, Dragonbourne, don’t leave me hanging, baby. Microwarp drive… and here we go.

Kayleigh watched helplessly as Hikari overtook her on the way to the very first stargate. She was never going to live this down.

Unexpectedly, my fiancé had to work on his computer on the day of the race, so I was stuck with my crap computer – it runs Eve (barely), has bigger load times, and has all sorts of problems when I get aggro (overview goes on and off like Christmas lights; you should see it, very pretty and all, impossible to select targets, though.) And, of course, it occasionally crashes…

Fortunately it didn’t crash, because it would not have been pretty to watch in the real life end of things, and I had a full house that night. Also I knew Iconath was under a thunderstorm and feared the power might go during the race.

Suspense for the DS team even before the start of the race!

Preparations

Not much. I practised new stuff to get that extra second here or there, but launching for a race in this computer kind of threw any training out the window.

The Race

The Older Gamers people failed to show up, which was a pity, but we had a newcomer: DeadRow of Cell Block 4, making it four racers at the start line.

As soon as I left the station in Ordion I knew things were going to be interesting; load time was long enough that I started fearing I’d get that black screen and would have to reconnect. Fortunately such was not the case. I think I was last to head to the gate, and am pretty sure I was in fact last to jump to the next system, much to DeadRow’s enthusiasm. I did overtake her later on the way to WP1, thanks to my superior acceleration on the way to gates.

We had had warning at the station that in this race the containers would not be audit log, but just secure containers. Of course, we can’t adjust overview settings inside the station, and in the short time until waypoint 1 I got busy trying to make my computer go and completely forgot to get my settings right. Obviously as I warped in to WP1 I couldn’t see the can. I used Mad Miner’s strategy from the last Jamieson Cup race and just approached Icon himself until I got the settings right. I still lost time… Owi, as usual, was in the lead.

I made a mess of all my windows in waypoint one as well. I lost tons of time, and I was getting shot at by two cruisers, I think. I was orbiting the can like crazy! I finally got my bookmark and warped out. DeadRow, unfortunately was left all alone in a teeny little Atron against all the baddies. She lost the ship just as she had finally caught the bookmark. Because the closest Atron was like 9 jumps away, she gave up on the race but vowed to return some other time.

That made me relax. Third place was all mine…

The rest of the race went pretty much without incident for me, except for overshooting the can badly at Waypoint 2 and losing even more time.

Iconath put up a brave fight, I must say, staying close to Owi for longer than I expected. Inevitably he did lose time to Owi. But then I did a double take: Owi’s icon was showing green to me indicating he’d just connected. What? Yes, Owi had crashed out of Eve and made a hasty come-back! He lost time to Icon, but still retained the lead, much to our dismay.

In the end, Owi won (as usual), Icon got second and I arrived in third.

Aftermath

This gets Dragonstar to third place overall at last! Also Icon has now amassed more points for DS in the league than I have. I’ll never live this down

With six races or so to go until the end of the season, we now are aiming for Gradient’s second place overall. I wish I could tell you we would fight for first but let’s be realistic: unless Owi never again shows up for a race (and what fun would that be?) we simply won’t be able to catch up with Alcatraz. But I wonder if things could have gone any differently if I’d joined Eve earlier and made DS join the League sooner…

Notes to self:
1) Spend less time chatting on the race channels and just make sure the bloody overview is set right, for once.
2) Pick up phone, get in touch with my friend at the computer shop and upgrade my computer already!

Kayleigh warped into the asteroid belt that was Waypoint 2. Her instruments instantly went haywire, having trouble dealing with all the information, apparently. She growled while trying to find the can through her camera drones. She saw it and made manual approach. The display went off again when the pirates scouting the belt targeted her. She cursed.

Catching a lucky moment, she latched the frigate onto the waypoint can. The display again went off, this time also shutting off the readouts on her shields. That’s it. “Whoever is responsible for my electronics is bloody fired!” she yelled on the team’s internal channel, her steely grey eyes shooting daggers.

How unfair! Kendar was going to be there at the finish line and she was going to be the last one to cross it, at this rate. Embarrassing, to say the least. Kayleigh desperately wanted him to be proud of her, now that she was in her element. But everything seemed to be conspiring against her on this day. What would he think?

Her blood boiled once more when the display showed her shields again. Fortunately they were holding alright. Someone was going to pay dearly for this. She warped out, fuming.

Kay.

(Edited for italics and some typos)

Kayleigh was already in her pod, well in advance. She liked to get in there as soon as possible, spend some time just relaxing, letting the race nerves calm down a little as she connected with the ship, reviewed region maps and fine-tuned her strategy.

At last she opened her eyes and opened up communications with the world outside her coccoon of warm plasma. When she caught sight of Captain Sonic in the racing channel, a smile curved her lips. Ah, a rematch. She very much wanted this chance to overtake him fairly in a race. She'd promised she'd catch him next time around, and here was her chance.

It was almost time to race again. Kayleigh loved the feel of adrenalin and that tingle of nervous energy course through her veins, she loved to feel agile and fast wearing the wings of her Firetail, and she loved the preliminary banter that the racers usually shared. So she joined the conversation and prepared to launch into another exciting race.

Space was hers to conquer...

Race reports really should be written while the races are still fresh in my head. The Aridia race, the 14th race in the Frigate League, has taken place more or less a month ago. That means I've forgotten most of what happened in there, despite what scribbles I put down in my notebook during the race.

Peparations

None whatsoever. Zip. Nada.

The Race

There were four racers at the start: the usual suspects (Icon, me and Owi) plus Captain Sonic. All of us in Firetails. I thought this would be my chance to get even with Captain Sonic and actually make him eat the fumes from my Dragonbourne, but such was not to happen.

What I recall of this race is mostly an endless succession of asteroid belts and ice belts, with me jostling Sonic all the way in a battle for second place. Sometimes I was ahead, most of the time he was. But most of all, I remember the uncanny amount of gate bounces that happened to me. Yes, it's all coming back to me as I write. I had to race in my own computer instead of the fiancé's better equipped one because he was busy doing some last-minute site building before he had to go away for two weeks. So there I was in my crap computer...

Oh boy... Every time I got shot at by belt rats my overview would go on and off like Christmas lights. While very pretty to look at, it's hell to aquire a target! I think I did pretty ok, considering the circumstances. And yeah, the race had 7 waypoints in total and only one was not in an asteroid belt. You can guess how stressed out I was, trying to race in my computer.

The only good thing to come out of this was that I finally made up my mind to upgrade the computer and indeed have in the mean time done so, and raced race 15 in it to no major glitches.

So yeah, no major happenings. I think Owi got disconnected once, yet again, but he still managed a victory. Sonic made it in second, and despite a ton (was it 9 or 11, I forget?) of gate bounces I made it right behing Sonic. And if it weren't for another gate bounce right at the last gate, it might even have been a photo finish. Alas...

Iconath took last place. Again, I hate it when DS brings up the rear, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances. Better times will come, I assure you

Aftermath

Sonic announced he'd quit racing. RL issues if I recall correctly. We're still hoping he can show up later on, but we shan't count on him for the next couple of races.

What can I say about my performance? I hope the new and upgraded computer will spare any further misfortunes of the kind I had. I mean, 9 gate bounces? That's an awful lot! And even more frustrating because it's so out of my control; there's absolutely nothing I can do at my keyboard against that.

Notes to self:
1) I'd say upgrade the computer, but I've done that in the meantime, so that will be it
2) Never let so much time pass again before writing up race reports. It's no fun when you can't remember what happened clearly anymore.

Kayleigh lashed out in a fury, trying to punch the inner wall of her pod. The bastards! That was what, the 5th time she got bounced off a gate? What was up with traffic controllers tonight?

In her fury, she forgot where she was and opened her mouth to protest. That made her nearly swallow a mouthful of pod plasma, which she instead spat back. Damnit! Let me through, she screamed within the recesses of her brain. "Unbelievable," she growled to Iconath alone. "I'm stuck yet again! Can you believe this? What's going on?"

Whatever gripe the gate controllers had it was mostly against her. Iconath had only reported a gate bounce or two. Captain Sonic the same. Kayleigh herself was going on five and the race was still far from over. Blood boiling with anger, she was just about to yell something nasty or other to the gate controller when her instruments informed her she was initiating jump.

She gritted her teeth and briefly wondered if Owi or Alcatraz had bribed some of these gate controllers, or something like that. Owi was the only one happily racing at the head of the group, not complaining of any glitches at all. Very suspicious.

Kayleigh left the moon at Molea V with a slight determined frown on her face. She joined the small talk on the racing channel.

"Well, I got a glimpse of Owi at waypoint two..." she shared with the world at large in a resigned voice. It was unlikely she'd ever lay eyes on him again during the race.

Some banter ensued. She barely paid any attention, focused as she was in getting the Dragonbourne quickly to the stargate. But then Owi's voice nearly made her hit a billboard. "You want me to wait for you?"

Right. Like he really would. Surely he wouldn't... Kayleigh just played along, as the Firetail jumped to a new system. "If you'd be so kind," she replied, expecting more banter to follow.

"Ok, I wait here," came the reply.

To her utmost surprise, she spotted him at once when she came out of warp. He was indeed sitting on top of the gate, waiting for her. She whooshed past him, intent on trying to get some advantage on him.

Kayleigh jumped first.

So the 15th race of the Frigate League is done. That's three quarters of the Season behind us. The finish line is looming ahead and some of us are starting to hope/pester Gyra for another season. Let's hope it happens because I want another go at Owi. He pretty much has time season in his pocket. As for Dragonstar, we have very much confirmed out third place overall and have our eyes firmly on second. A pity there are no prizes for second...

It was nice, though, to see another new face on the circuit. Malcolm Carswell of Ur-Helios Ventures joined the League and made a respectable début. We hope to see a lot more of him.

Preparations

None. We should have done something, anything. It turned out Icon and I were both pretty rusty, as we noticed on the first waypoint, as you'll see. Mental note: war or no war, never embark on a Frigate League race without having had a Jamieson Cup race the week before

The Race

There were four racers at the start line, a small number, but enough to get something interesting going. Owi showed up on his Navy Slicer again; Icon and I on our Firetails; Malcolm on an Executioner.

DS did alright from the start, with me tailing Owi closely. I actually kept him in sight for a much longer time than usual, all the way until WP1, where I mangled stuff badly by having my windows all in the wrong places and with wrong configs that I really should have checked and double checked before the race. My fault; lost some time there, and lost sight of Owi too.

Iconath and Malcolm both ended up at the wrong planet, on WP1, which cost them some valuable time and meant they lost sight of both me and Owi sooner than they otherwise might have. A pity.

When I complained after WP2 that I'd lost touch with Owi, he asked if I wanted him to wait for me. What was I going to say? I said yeah, please, of course (the dialog bits in the in-character portions of this report were actually taken from the chat logs themselves). And he did wait! So I zoomed past him, duh! DS in the lead!

...But not for long. He ended up overtaking me a few systems after that. Oh well... I still feel good, because even before that incident Owi had commented I was going fast, that night. *blush* Cool! Then he targetted me at WP3. Very funny, Owi, but that move doesn't scare me anymore. Would have scared the crap out of my in the first few races, though. Now I know you lose more time than you gain, by aggroing a fellow racer, and Iconath was following not far behind me, keeping third place well away from newcomer Malcom's hands.

After that I gradually lost terrain to Owi and got a last glimpse of him at WP5 (the last waypoint) where the can had been placed 200kms from the warp-in point. For some reason, 'right-click -> warp to' didn't work, so I immediately activated the MWD, and then I was too close to warp, so I just winged it on my MWD. You all know what that means: I never saw Owi again. I got close to him in the 20-odd jumps into the finish line, once getting the briefest glimpse of him in local channel, but never actually laid eyes on him again.

I think in the end I finished about a minute behind him, which is not bad at all.

As for Icon, I think he had a pretty uneventful race. He arrived close behind me too, a minute or two apart, I'd guess. Official results are not out yet, so I can't be any more specific.

Aftermath

I'm getting closer to Owi. The time I gained from him waiting for me is more or less equivalent to the time I lost by being unable to warp to can at WP5, so I think I am in fact improving with every race. That's always good to know. And if I'm improving then so is Icon, because he has kept up with me.

Now if only I could get rid of all the idiot mistakes I do every race. There's always something!

Also, DS is now a mere 15 points (the same you get for a second place) away from tying for second overall with Gradient. Hopefully we will achieve that come next race. However, the League hasn't gone into Minmatar space yet, and I know Gradient mostly hang out in Minmatar space. Will they make it back to the League in the next few races? They'd be very hard to beat; Elsebeth is one hell of a racing pilot... The future will tell.

Notes to self:
1) Must practise some before going into a race; that includes getting all the windows straight

As the Dragonbourne came out of warp into the ice field, Kayleigh frowned. The can was about 200 kilometres away from her and Owi was already on top of it. She commanded her ship to warp... and nothing happened.

Out of reflex, she immediately turned on the microwarp drive. At speeds of over 5500 metres per second it would still get her there fast. Grey eyes hard as steel, she tried to warp again. No deal.

"Warp, Kay," came Owi's voice on the racing channel.

Yeah, genius, what the hell do you think I'm trying to do, see the sights? She gritted her teeth. It would be bad PR if she started swearing in public, which is what she felt like doing, because to make things worse, she was getting targetted by the local rats.

"It wouldn't let me, for some reason," was all she said eventually. Her microwarp speed was good, but this would lose her some very valuable time to Owi.

[Written originally for the Dragonstar forums, and therefor probably quite biased. To be read with that in mind]

Kayleigh laughed. Suspended in pod fluid, doing the final pre-race checks on the Dragonbourne Mk2 she couldn’t help laughing as Loras teased the other guys mercilessly. Her team mate for the night was taking the racing comms channel by storm.

Good. It might distract guys such as Owi.

What had made her laugh were mock-conspiracies between Loras and Malcolm Carswell to chain Owi’s vessel to the hangar, or slowing him with tractor beams. Owi was taking everything in good fun.

Gyra announced the imminent start, so Kayleigh revved the powerful engines on her Firetail. She spoke to Loras on their private channel.

“Good luck, Loras, and a good race.”

Loras was a local. She knew the region well; she’d be fine, even though Kayleigh knew she had confessed to be a little nervous to be flying a borrowed Firetail.

Then everything happened at once. Gyra gave the green light and- malfunction! Kayleigh swore as her autopilot got stubborn with the coordinates. And to make things worse, by being distracted with that problem she also fumbled on take-off, clipping a wing against the station.

The jin-mei fought for control of her frigate and finally punched in the correct destination but the few seconds it took her to do it meant that everyone was well ahead of her. Or maybe not quite everyone.

She heard the news as the gate was processing her request to jump: Owi was indeed stuck in-station with a malfunction of his own.

“Loras, what did you do to Owi?”

She got only giggles as reply to the question.

The penultimate race of the League saw Loras’ début in the real competition, what what a début! I could definitely learn something about how to start off the line from her.

Preparations

I don’t think I got any practise done. And Iconath gave us short notice that he would not be able to race, so Loras stepped up at the last minute to race with me, so I doubt she prepared much of anything.

However, the race started with a half hour delay. We happened to notice there were only two gates out of the system, so we put that half hour to good use and made ourselves some instas for the first jump.

The Race

Gyra Rho was having connection troubles, so Nakatre Read stepped up as race official. I think she was slightly nervous about that, but we racers knew what we were about, and I don’t think we gave her any troubles.

Loras was leader from the very start, mostly by her own merit but also with some luck: precisely when we got the green light to race Owi crashed out of the game, and would start the race with a 3-jump handicap, give or take a jump. As for me, I got all my windows mixed up, resulting in me taking last place off the line and not even glimpsing the other guys at the gate. Fortunately the insta must have helped a little, but still the early race was all about catching up for both me and Owi.

I caught up to Shinji before Waypoint 1, which lifted my spirits a little, but not too much. I knew Owi was catching up fast.

Waypoint 1 was a first, I think – the can was at a distance from a gate. Fun!

I got to hear all about the exciting fight for first place from Loras on Vent. I have to hand it to her: she looked like a pro instead of a rookie on that track – funny and friendly on the racing chat, and darn fast on the track.

Unfortunately I was soon overtaken by Owi in one of his insta-jumps. *sigh* No matter how hard I tried to join the race at the front, the truth is I had committed too many errors at the beginning to salvage anything – the terrible start was followed by two dreadful can approaches and yet another mess with my windows before I got everything to my taste.

So I sped along on my own and listened to Loras’ adventures. If any of them made a mistake at the front I was just close enough behind to probably take advantage of it.

Loras fought bravely and led the race for about two thirds of the course. And then trouble at a waypoint, I believe, lost her her first place, and though she remained a strong contender she was losing ground to Malcolm and Hal.

Owi, with the help of two or three instas, soon not only caught up to Loras but overtook her. My hopes that Loras would be rewarded with a podium finish on her first race were quickly dwindling.

In the end we had a photo-finish between Malcolm and Owi, and although Loras finished in fourth she was close enough to Hal to actually see him dock his Atron into third place. I finished in a very lonely fifth, comfortably ahead of Shinji.

Aftermath

I can’t say this enough: Loras did great! She was a wonderful ambassador for DS in the Racing Channel, playing along with the guys, teasing them as only she knows how to do, and generally being her upbeat self as if she’d been there from the first race. And she led the race for so long! The 5 points she got for us again strengthened our place as second overall.

We finally had proof that Owi does rely now and then on instas (and I think he does it more often than he admits to).

Malcolm is beginning to worry me, when I think of Season Two. That’s three times now that he has beaten Owi since he joined the League, four races ago. That is no small achievement.

As for me… Shame on me for getting my windows all messed up. I should be beyond mistakes like that by now.

Notes to self:
1) Get the bloody windows right before the race starts!

“Owi has overtaken Shinji and I think he’s gaining on me,” announced Kayleigh to Loras only, who was impressively leading the race. “I’m going to try keeping him at bay as long as I can.”

Speeding from system to system, Kayleigh focused on her own race while she heard about Loras’ fight at the front via their private channel. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for the Alcatraz pilot to start showing up in system, and after a slight delay at a gate Kayleigh got a glimpse of him in space.

The diminutive jin-mei went silent as she concentrated on being faster than her adversary but to no avail. Every time they came out of warp he gained a few metres on her.

And then out of the blue he came out of warp well ahead of her. In her indignation, Kayleigh’s jaw dropped and she nearly gagged on pod fluid. She spat it out. “Bastard! Pardon my language,” she said quickly to Loras. “Owi just overtook me with an insta!”

Kay.