Yeah. It was a boring Friday night and all of us were missioning in separate systems, trying to recoup from the last deployment to Branch. Suddenly I spy Jalak and Ruric(2 of my directors) alone in a ventrilo room together, their push-to-talk signals going green alternately. My interest piqued, I dropped down, silent as a stealth bomber.
Jalak: "Yeah, it's been so boring lately. I'm tired of flying one jump, killing some pirates, and making a meagre two million ISK every twenty minutes."
Ruric: "Yeah, I've been mining this fucking Veldspar 'roid for 5 hours straight. When I close my eyes, I can still see all of it's pits and crevasses."
Jalak: "Lets do something. Something fun. Something fabulous. Something...wildly inappropriate. Like a gay orgy."
Ruric: "Wow, we totally sho-"
Securitas: "Stop right there!"
THE REST OF THIS BLOG HAS BEEN DEEMED WILDLY INAPPROPRIATE AND IS CENSORED.
...okay not really.
We were bored in highsec, we weren't making much isk, and we also were itching for combat. So, we hit up our old friends in Ethereal Dawn and suddenly we had landed ourself a job in that most inappropriate of regions; Geminate.
With a click of our collective heels, we headed out to the nearest lowsec and proceeded to wreak havoc on the southern tip of Wildly Inappropriate's space.
If the previous sentence sounded at all impressive, I'm sorry. Most of that space is quite possibly the most empty I've ever seen, not counting those parts of Oasa where you jump 2 hours before downtime and are told that the system has not yet loaded. Thus, "wreaking havoc" has been limited to simply killing some various ratters with our ED friends, except for one notable and very fun instance.
But before we get to that, I want to briefly expand on the insane fun and craziness that has resulted in the recruitment of a certain pilot: Plavis. If you think you have ever met someone who is completely and totally addicted to bombs, Plavis was that person. Not only have I received multiple (and I mean MANY) complaints from our allies and corpmates about his completely crazy bombing behavior when "bombs were not necessary", but I've personally almost died twice as a result of it. And it's not the fact that he's not good at bombing. He is. Very. Very. Very. Very. Very. Good.
Speaking of bombs, on to the main show...
*the lights dim*
It was a dark night in Eurgrana, filled with Stealthers and ED'ers tired after a long day's work, drinking their weariness away. However, one man sits alone, away from all the others, writing crazy and half-brained plans on a piece of paper. Suddenly finishing, he walks over to the others.
Securitas: "Hey guys, lets try something fun."
Everyone: "Not again, Securitas. I have to log."
Securitas: "Seriously guys, this time is different. I want everyone in a stealth bomber in five minutes."
Everyone else moaned and groaned but finally 24 ships sat outside of the station, 16 of which were stealth bombers, loaded to the gills with concussion bombs. One Stealther, who later that night was to become a hero (for about 10 minutes), sat instead in his trusty Blackbird ECM cruiser.
The command came to go and the gang made their way around, ducking into FDZ and losing a bomber in exchange for a Destroyer. People grumbled. It was not an auspicious start to the night. Finally, the fleet commander ordered an advance from FDZ towards the station system of BWF- in hopes that they would get a kill.
Halfway there, the forward scout in an Ares sights a Myrmidon on a gate, and due to bad luck misses him. The chase begins, with the awe inspiring sight of 17(2 more bombers joined) bombers decloaking at every gate before jumping, as well as a Falcon. Finally, the Ares catches up one jump out of BWF, and the glorious FC Securitas orders the fleet to open fire. The ensuing damage only came from 4 bombers, but he still popped inside of 30 seconds.
Having immense foresight, Securitas orders the fleet to get on the BWF- gate in anticipation for the retaliation fleet. A throwaway newbie scout jumps in and reports that yes, indeed, a large, 20-man fleet is waiting on the other side.
FWOOSH!
The gate activates and a single Claw comes in. There is a brief pause before he decloaks and burns back to the gate, only seeing a Blackbird, Huginn, an Ares, and an Atron on the gate. The air is thick in anticipation.
And then...
FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH FWO-FWO-FW-FWWWWOOOOSH. The gate flashes like crazy and enemy's tacklers decloak. Our Huginn, so outnumbered, flees. I could practically hear the enemy tacklers giggling as they pointed the Blackbird.
Tackler 1: "Oh, lol, a blackbird all by itself. Lets shoot it!"
Tackler 2: "OMG yeah. I wonder where the other 20 reds in local are. They're not on scan and all celestials are on scan. That must mea-"
Enemy FC: "Who cares, there's a kill to be had! Fleet, jump jump jump!!!!"
The gate flashes a lot more times and some heavy-hitters decloak in a nice little cluster. By now our Blackbird is giggling in vent as he jams the tacklers on him, just waiting to die.
Suddenly, the command comes. Bomber squad 1 decloaks and bombs.
Enemy Zealot: "Lol, this blackbird is melting. Oh, what are those things. OH CRAP! BOMBOMBOBMOM!!!!!!"
Boosh.
My Nemesis enters warp, ponderously turning while I curse the fact I didn't have enough time to line up a celestial. 50% shields...30%....70% armor....20% armor....60% structure...
Warp drive active.
As I and a few other bombers whizz off into the distance, we see a pair of bright explosions. The rest of the bombers drop their loads and bug out as we tally our losses.
Enemy:
Curse down.
Arazu down. This guy had a faction point too.
Zealot down.
And the pods.
Us:
Nemesis down. (I was dumb and came back)
Manticore down.
Blackbird down. (YAAAY VALATH)
All in all, a successful night. Unfortunately, we didn't kill more (which I think we could have) because bomber waves 2 and 3 fired at the same spot that wave 1 fired at, which was already a 15km dead zone.
This was what the guys in Stealthfield were really waiting for, a demonstration of the power of stealthed ships against a conventional fleet using hit-and-run, baiting tactics, and other such trickery.
In all honesty, it was a really good fight and props to Wildly Inappropriate. for bringing it. The above was written semi-sarcastically, so don't think my head is that big or that WI are bad enemies...they're not and I respect them.
Till next week,
-Sec
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Rest and Making ISK
Well, it's been a while since my last post. In that time, we've finished our successful deployment in Oasa against Shadow of xXDeathXx and friends, doing 1.6 Billion damage and having 85% efficiency. For our first contract ever, that's not too bad.
Immediately after, we had an interested party contact us about deploying to Branch to take on Circle-Of-Two, which we did 2 days after leaving Oasa. In fact, a lot of our pilots were still in Oasa when our forces were in Branch. I thought this would be the easiest contract ever; CO2 are well known for being an "ISK Farmer" alliance and just more carebears. However, they gave us a very (un)pleasant surprise.
We were used to fighting Shadow of xXDeathXx, who are renters and, with a few exceptions, don't really form up to help a buddy who's being shot at by "stupid AFK cloakers." CO2 were a real alliance and thus, if we didn't kill a target fast enough, they'd come and kill us. They also tried baiting us, which worked a few times.
We had deployed to their home system of AH- on the first day, and it seemed a good start. In short order we had killed a Drake and a Myrmidon, with the help of our friends (now alliance-mates) Ammo Inc. However, shortly they started learning how we worked and would form up large gangs (sometimes 20+ with carrier support) and gatecamp us into systems. This, of course, was exactly what we wanted to a certain degree, as it furfilled the contract's intent of making them chase after us instead of ratting and mining.
The next day, I found a Hulk burning off station, pointed it, and quickly killed it. His buddies didn't come and the faction shield booster he dropped paid for about half of all of our losses in the entire campaign.
Over the next couple days, we got more kills, although we were deployed for disruption and the kills were just a bonus. However, I was impressed with CO2's ability to counter us, which proved very effective in some circumstances. They gave us some very good fights, although they did like to smacktalk a LOT. The contract finally ended nicely with a Navy Raven kill, which was done when I was offline.
After we finally returned home from Branch, tired but 400 million ISK richer, we eased into making some ISK to get ready for the next contract, which is still coming up. In the meanwhile, I lead "Secs Fleets" of cheap but effective T1 Cruisers around 0.0. For example, 2 days ago I led a roam into C-J6MT, the Red Alliance "holy land." We killed a Brutix on the way in, engaged on station against a Rokh, 2 Drakes, a Rifter, a Hound, and a Crow (we had maybe 6 T1 cruisers), and killed the Hound. Combined, these 2 kills brought us way above the amount of ISK lost and it was a lot of fun. I thought it couldn't get any better. It did.
Yesterday, we took the same route, although I took a Thrasher instead of an Arbitrator and it was a scheduled roam, so we had maybe 15 in fleet. However, for various reasons only 8 of them ended up in the actual roam. Upon finding C-J boring, we headed down to Curse. In Scalding Pass we almost killed a red hurricane on a gate, but he managed to burn back. Excited, we headed on until we got to HLW-. We all jumped...
...straight into a gatecamp. I saw the ticker "-10.0" and almost freaked out. We were in a Pandemic Legion gatecamp! The masters of PVP in EVE! With that excitement over, I ordered the fleet to primary the Flycatcher who's bubble we were all stuck in. The Flycatcher managed to get out, and we lost 3 ships, leaving about 5 of us in T1 cruisers against 6 Pandemic Legion in Tech II ships. However, I ordered the fleet to get out to a safespot, which they did.
Finally, we warped back to the gate out of HLW- to KLMT-, and...landed in a sling bubble. Then the Flycatcher warped in along with the rest of the Pandemic Legion fleet. We quickly killed the Flycatcher and his pod, followed by the Cerberus and his pod, before mostly dying horribly to the rest of the ships. Still, we were all hooting and backslapping in vent. Not only had we killed 10x more than we had lost, but we had done it against Pandemic Legion, in equal numbers, in Tech I cruisers. I was very proud of my guys. The Battle.
The End. :)
Immediately after, we had an interested party contact us about deploying to Branch to take on Circle-Of-Two, which we did 2 days after leaving Oasa. In fact, a lot of our pilots were still in Oasa when our forces were in Branch. I thought this would be the easiest contract ever; CO2 are well known for being an "ISK Farmer" alliance and just more carebears. However, they gave us a very (un)pleasant surprise.
We were used to fighting Shadow of xXDeathXx, who are renters and, with a few exceptions, don't really form up to help a buddy who's being shot at by "stupid AFK cloakers." CO2 were a real alliance and thus, if we didn't kill a target fast enough, they'd come and kill us. They also tried baiting us, which worked a few times.
We had deployed to their home system of AH- on the first day, and it seemed a good start. In short order we had killed a Drake and a Myrmidon, with the help of our friends (now alliance-mates) Ammo Inc. However, shortly they started learning how we worked and would form up large gangs (sometimes 20+ with carrier support) and gatecamp us into systems. This, of course, was exactly what we wanted to a certain degree, as it furfilled the contract's intent of making them chase after us instead of ratting and mining.
The next day, I found a Hulk burning off station, pointed it, and quickly killed it. His buddies didn't come and the faction shield booster he dropped paid for about half of all of our losses in the entire campaign.
Over the next couple days, we got more kills, although we were deployed for disruption and the kills were just a bonus. However, I was impressed with CO2's ability to counter us, which proved very effective in some circumstances. They gave us some very good fights, although they did like to smacktalk a LOT. The contract finally ended nicely with a Navy Raven kill, which was done when I was offline.
After we finally returned home from Branch, tired but 400 million ISK richer, we eased into making some ISK to get ready for the next contract, which is still coming up. In the meanwhile, I lead "Secs Fleets" of cheap but effective T1 Cruisers around 0.0. For example, 2 days ago I led a roam into C-J6MT, the Red Alliance "holy land." We killed a Brutix on the way in, engaged on station against a Rokh, 2 Drakes, a Rifter, a Hound, and a Crow (we had maybe 6 T1 cruisers), and killed the Hound. Combined, these 2 kills brought us way above the amount of ISK lost and it was a lot of fun. I thought it couldn't get any better. It did.
Yesterday, we took the same route, although I took a Thrasher instead of an Arbitrator and it was a scheduled roam, so we had maybe 15 in fleet. However, for various reasons only 8 of them ended up in the actual roam. Upon finding C-J boring, we headed down to Curse. In Scalding Pass we almost killed a red hurricane on a gate, but he managed to burn back. Excited, we headed on until we got to HLW-. We all jumped...
...straight into a gatecamp. I saw the ticker "-10.0" and almost freaked out. We were in a Pandemic Legion gatecamp! The masters of PVP in EVE! With that excitement over, I ordered the fleet to primary the Flycatcher who's bubble we were all stuck in. The Flycatcher managed to get out, and we lost 3 ships, leaving about 5 of us in T1 cruisers against 6 Pandemic Legion in Tech II ships. However, I ordered the fleet to get out to a safespot, which they did.
Finally, we warped back to the gate out of HLW- to KLMT-, and...landed in a sling bubble. Then the Flycatcher warped in along with the rest of the Pandemic Legion fleet. We quickly killed the Flycatcher and his pod, followed by the Cerberus and his pod, before mostly dying horribly to the rest of the ships. Still, we were all hooting and backslapping in vent. Not only had we killed 10x more than we had lost, but we had done it against Pandemic Legion, in equal numbers, in Tech I cruisers. I was very proud of my guys. The Battle.
The End. :)
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