Tuesday 2 February 2010

Still a great day to be a Pirate, but maybe expensive?

Ok so from a day of great victories to a Monday evening of losses. And you know what? I loved every second of it!

When I logged in to EvE last night I wasn’t planning on playing much. I was just going to do some admin stuff, mess around with Hannibal’s new mission Drake and see if it can do the mission that my Harbinger found a bit difficult.

However logging onto Mail Lite I found a fleet was running 5 jumps out of home, the same system where we had the fun yesterday, Ikoskio. I joined fleet, jumped in my Brutix and made my way to join them.

Jumping through one of the gates I found an Onyx HIC sitting on the gate. He was red, like me, and I knew as soon as I uncloaked he would engage me. I advised the fleet of my intentions and broke cloak and started burning back to the gate. He locked and engaged me and I locked back. A friendly Arazu jumped in from the other end of the system and I tanked the Onyx for a few moments, and then jumped out of the system.

Looking back in hindsight I should of engaged that Onyx. I was in a Brutix and with the Arazu as support I could probably have popped his HIC quite easily but my discretion played a part and I made the decision not to.

The fleet had arrived on the other side of the Mushikegi gate and were holding there. The Arazu jumped out to join them and I jumped back to Manjonako with the Onyx to try and get him to engage again. Unfortunatly the HIC pilot had his own scouts and knew my fleet was waiting. We had a bit of a chat in local, where he admitted he was surprised I had not engaged as he was sure I could have taken him, especially with the help from the Arazu.

At that moment the fleet jumped through to me and we made our way back to home base and sent some scouts to a notorious system a few jumps down a different pipe, known well for it’s Russian bait blob fests, Mara. Our fleet reported back a mixture of Battlecruisers, a few Battleships and 5 unaccounted for, which normally means ECM support. While idling on the Nikkishina gate in our home system a red Rupture jumped in and, while we got points and DPS on him he managed to jump through and get away before we could finish him off. We got him to structure but missed on actually popping his Cruiser.

After the FC’s and scouts had had a bit of a discussion on where to go next, they decided that the Russian fleet was too big for us and to head back up to Ikoskio and see what was going on there. So we reformed on the Unna gate and made our way back up the pipe, having a quick chat with the Onyx pilot again as we passed. I must watch out for him if he is going to be in that system for a while, could make for some fun times. We held on the Ikoskio - Asakai gate as we were getting intel of a large fleet in the high sec system we were heading for. They were holding on there Ikoskio gate and had a scout in a Cheetah and another in a Falcon buzzing around. Both the Cheetah and the Falcon got eyes on us as they jumped through scouting the surrounding gates, so they knew our forces just as well as we knew theres.

We had a Falcon, Arazu, 6 x Hurricanes 2 x Drakes, Harbinger, Brutix and a Phobos in our fleet. They on the other hand had 2 x Falcon, Rook, 3 x Myrmidon, 2 x Harbinger, 2 x Drake 2 x Hurricane. We idled around for a while, deciding on whether to engage a fleet that had slightly more ECM support but pretty equal numbers. The major advantage over us that they had would be the gate guns. We are all red outlaws so they can engage us without sentry aggression, however when we engage them we would have to take sentry fire as well.

In the end we jumped into system and warped to our safe spot just off the gate. As we got there the scout advised that they had jumped into system with us and were on the gate. The FC called the warp order and the fight was on.

Rook was called primary and he went pop, our Falcon pilot was doing his best to keep the enemy Falcons jammed but was having issues, the enemy Falcon pilots were good. The DPS fleet primaried a Hurricane and he went down next. The enemy fleet were organized and were calling primaries really well. My Brutix was the first ship to go down. They had 3 Myrmidons, and being able to engage without sentry aggression meant their drones could come into play too. The next ship primaried was a Harbinger, and he went pop as well, though by this point a number of our fleet was lost. A Drake was primaried next but it was decided that retreat was needed and the remainder of the fleet warped to safety, with the aid of our Falcon Pilot, before they could finish the kill.

All in all we lost A Harbinger, Phobos, Brutix and five Hurricanes, for 3 of their ships. Well done Dust to Dust alliance.

The night didn’t end there. Our IRISH CEO was a bit late to the party and was a few jumps out in his Armageddon BS but as the fleet was lost he turned around to go back to home base, where we were to reship and go back for another go at that fleet. This time with Battleships and one of my alts, Gateway1, flying a Kessie of DOOM!

On the way back our CEO ran into a little problem of his own, 2 Drakes and 2 Harbingers in our home system. They popped his Armageddon and he warped back to station and reshipped himself.

Once we all had the ships ready and the fleet had reformed we made haste back up to Ikoskio to find a few of their fleet still in Ikoskio and the rest back in the High Sec system, still hugging the gate. We arrived on gate and engaged, but alas I was too quick with the Cyno and they jumped out just as our Carrier jumped in!

Bugger.

We waited for the Carrier to warp out to a deep safe and then warped the fleet in to stand guard around it, while my poor little Kessie was left defenceless on the gate! Luckily the only things that came past was a neutral Hurricane (my cyno alt is neutral) and a couple of shuttles.

On the way back our CEO ran into a little problem of his own, 2 Drakes and 2 Harbingers in our home system. They popped his Armageddon and he warped back to station and reshipped himself.

Gilg was going to do the Cyno for the Carrier in Ikoskio, but Gateway1 had finally cycled through her countdown and made all haste back to base to light it so Gilg undocked his own Archon carrier, to escort our other carrier, a Chimera, home.

So a tale of losses and premature ecynolation but a good fight was had, some good laughs were had and, even though we came of worse in the fight! We loved every second of it.

In other news, Hannibal is now at his level 3 mission hub in Caldari space and will be trying out his new Drake tonight.

Mail Lite has ordered his next Brutix from our friendly white rabbits, I’m pretty sure I am owed a discount for providing some ore a few weeks ago? *Cough*

Mail Lite also had a Drake delivered, it was meant for Hannibal but he got his from another source so now it's Mail's new toy! A Caracal and Merlin + fittings and fittings for the Drake are on order and should be delivered tomorrow.

I also got recognized in our home system by a reader! First time! I’M FAMOUS! So a shout out to Nivea (I think that’s how it was spelt anyway…) who reads this blog when bored at work, just like I write it when bored at work!

I also have a small computer problem. I was trying to take screen shots yesterday but every time I pressed ‘Prt Scrn’ it took a picture of my desktop instead of the EvE client that I was looking at.

Anyone help me with this issue? Comments below please!

Signing off,

Fly dangerous o/

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