Thursday, April 10, 2008

Excuse Me?

So after fighting Andrew in Dawn of War, I had some time before bed and I logged into Eve. Took care of some business (Korannon applying at Strife, Derranna getting some blueprints) and then logged in as Kirith to do some hunting for a few minutes.

While chasing a Slasher out in 0.0 in my trusty Falcon IPRC Reborn, I run into a couple alliance mates sitting at a gate outside of a system with an NPC station, a popular place in this desolate part of 0.0. I was invited to join their gang and I figured, sure why not?

Uh oh. The gang was being led by CP, an individual known for being a less than stellar Fleet Commander. I opted to give it a try anyways because I had not yet experienced his issues and wanted to see first hand how he worked. Plus I had a better chance at getting in a kill and one of the better alliance PvPers (according to the killboard) was in gang as well.

So I'm sitting on the gate with two other gang mates, one in a Taranis frigate and one in a Caracal cruiser. Not exactly awe-inspiring. I put in fleet chat my ship and its tackling ability (1 x 20km point, web) and listen on Ventrilo as the two other gang mates try and get a Raven outside of the station to engage so it can't just dock up. I found out later that CP was in a Drake and the other pilot in a Deimos.

By the way, local is apparently populated with reds but the lead team still decides to tempt fate.

The Raven engages (obvious bait ship methinks?) and the order is given to jump in. Then on vent I here that one of the initial two pilots, not CP but the other, is down. Had I known he was in a Deimos I might have been taken aback at the time but for all I know he was in an interceptor and took some drone damage.

I warped in a 70 km since I had pitiful DPS and long ranged ECM. To my surprise I see not only the Raven and the Drake, but also a hostile Cerberus Heavy Assault cruiser, Onyx Heavy Interdictor cruiser, and a Nemesis Stealth Bomber. All Tech II. In fact, the Cerberus is the Tech II version of our gang's Caracal and the Nemesis is the Tech II version of our Taranis. We are severely outclassed here and it explains why the Deimos is a wreck at the moment.

Since no ECM primary was called and the Raven was primary, I used my best judgement to jam as many enemy ships as I could starting with the battleship. The Stealth Bomber warped off and I thought to myself, uh oh, he's coming back at range I bet to hammer me. Our pilots in the Caracal and Taranis are quickly dispatched I believe I heard on vent. Sweating, I aligned for a warp out.

The Raven docked and I heard CP give the order to disengage just as the Stealth Bomber was warping back in. I cloaked and warped, eager to put myself as far away as possible from that nasty hostile gang. I expected the Drake CP was in to dock as long as he could tank the damage long enough for his aggression timer to count down.

Then things got really whacked.

The Raven undocked and CP choose to engage it again. He then calls on vent for everyone to warp back and help him kill the Raven. I'm in a safespot and consider:
1) I think the Caracal and Taranis are dead and I'm the only one left in the gang to assist him and I have neither DPS nor tank;
2) If the hostiles are still there I would be dead in seconds as I can jam one or two ships, not three or four;
3) There is no help coming for us.

But I'm loath to disobey an order from any FC so after a moment's hesitation I decide to warp in cloaked and take a look. Maybe the rest of the reds warped off and we have a window of opportunity to get that Raven battleship?

OH FRACK! I tried to warp in at 70 km again but the Onyx had its bubble up this time and sucked me right to the heart of the action at the edge of the bubble, 10 km from bad guys. Very bad guys: not only the Raven, Cerberus, Onyx, Nemesis from last time but also a Golem Marauder Tech II battleship.

That Drake is toast and the Raven pilot must be laughing his ass off.

I was lucky there was nothing within 2000 meters of me and my cloak does not get disrupted. I warped off to safe spot and seconds later CP and his Drake are dead. I leave fleet and head home as it is time for me to log.

Never again CP, never again.

Post script: The Deimos pilot from our side went and got his plated Megathron while the rest of the action was occuring. After I left gang CP went and got his Raven and apparently they both came back and engaged the exact same hostile gang with an additional Hurricane and Myrmidon battlecruisers thrown in. Together they managed to kill the Cerberus and Hurricane but in the process lost the Megathron (how the Raven escaped I have no idea) which ISK-wise is a roughly equal exchange. However considering we also lost the Drake, Deimos, and possibly two tech I ships I assure you it was not an even exchange overall.

1 comment:

  1. He tried to pull the exact same thing earlier. This time it was a 22 man gang and he was trying to convince me to engage with my stealth bomber. I told him straight off there was no way.

    Glad you got your Falcon out. I would have been extremely pissed at him if you'd lost it.

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