Intel Failure

I was going to log in and start a gate camp if no one was doing anything but imagine my surprise when I saw one was already going with a good 20+ pilots. I got into my Crow and joined in.

Meanwhile a ~20 pilot Ursha'Khan fleet came into a nearby system. We didn't know their ship types so while we tried to find out we waited with one finger on the lock and one on the warp.

Then in the Citadel intel channel we see this:

XXXXXXXXX > Some 22 reds in bk4...that's a dead-end system if there's a fleet up in search of some u'k bashing.
YYYYYYYYYY > what ships are they flying?
ZZZZZZZZZ > bombers
ZZZZZZZZZ > a few tackle
ZZZZZZZZZ > there was also a curse earlier

Now out gate camp is an eclectic mix of mostly interceptors, interdictors, and a few heavier ships. We do a quick weighing of options and decide to move to try and engage the hostile fleet because Stealth Bombers are not great in a full on fight without support and interceptors are the solution to any stealth bomber problem in a fight.

I reshipped into my Onyx as we had a slew of inties already and the bubble might come in handy. We moved to an adjacent system as they came out of the deadend system of BK4. We sent a scout in. A hostile Malediction Interceptor and Vagabond HAC came into our system but avoided our tackles and zoomed out of range. Then we get word the rest of the hostile fleet is warping to the gate to jump into us.

"Rapier, Huginn, Onyx, seven vagas! Headed towards you!"

"Warp to the jump bridge! Get off the gate!"

Caught off guard by the unexpected tonnage of the enemy fleet, we still managed to get most everyone out except a Drake and Ishkur that either were too slow or didn't hear the sudden command on Teamspeak. Our scout then corrected the record in the intel channel:

YYYYYYYYYY > UK gang: ares, huginn, manti x2, muninn, rapier, rifter, stabber, taranis, vaga x8, vengance onyx

As you can see, "bombers [and] a few tackle" does not match the actual fleet. That's almost flown blown HAC fleet, one of the most feared roaming fleets in 0.0 space.

Still, if I had been FC I would have stayed and fought. I'm a little crazy like that. I would have preferred to lose the battle and take a couple down with us than to run and lose a couple ships for no reason at all. Of course, that is one of the main reasons why I don't FC... I don't care about losing ships and others might feel differently.