Repeat that please?

Report from OPSRD0113

“Afternoon Khal, you in the area?” Jon opened the coalition’s private communications channel to find Khal Evingod already connected. Khal was a good pilot, and part of the Indecent Exposure Alliance, the group that the coalition had been fighting daily in Enden and Erstet only 6 months earlier. He was also the guy that landed the initial tackle on the Charon a couple of weeks ago, and knew his way around the block.

“Hey Jon. Yeah, I’m just in Enden. There is Drake in here somewhere, and a Widow as well. They appear to be at a POS sadly”

Jon perked up at the news of a Widow in Enden, and the news that it appeared to be at a POS only increased his interest. Who was this pilot, and which POS were they using? Jon quickly called up the hanger to make sure the Cheetah was prepared and quickly jogged over to Leeroy’s office to let him know that he was going to go out for a quick spin. “Just going solo, all I need to run is the covert cloak and that’s something that I can easily do.”

“Roger Jon. Oh, and we still haven’t taken the Cynabal out for a test. Do you want me to make sure it’s all prepared and crewed for when you get back in?”

“We haven’t done that yet have we?” Jon was perplexed at how he had forgotten that vital chore. “Oh, that’s right. I went to Amarr to test out those Bellicose fits. Yeah, get a crew ready to take it for a test, I shouldn’t be too long with the Cheetah.”

Making his way to the ship hanger, Jon got an update from the hanger crew, informing him that the Cheetah was ready to undock. Upon reaching the Cheetah Jon quickly boarded it and undocked from the station. Turning hard to the right as soon as he undocked, warp was initiated to the Enden gate and the covert cloak engaged to make sure it was working properly. After a quick warp the Cheetah landed at the gate and jumped into Enden. Information provided by Khal gave a rough idea of which moon the Widow and Drake were at, and within a short period of time Jon was sitting off their POS cloaked, looking down upon both ships safely in the middle of the protective forcefield.

“I’m going to check Erstet out Jon, let me know if anything happens with those two.” Khal’s Orthrus disappeared off D-scan as he warped off to the gate.

“Certainly. It doesn’t look like they’re interested in doing much, at least not with me in system with them. How’s Erstet looking?” Jon finished noting down the features of the new POS and prepared to head back to Wirdalen to pick up the Cynabal. “Oh, hold that. We just got two new pilots in system, I don’t recognise them either. I’ll see if I can find out what they’re flying.” Within a short period of time an Orca and Procurer appeared on D-scan, and their location narrowed to one of the asteroid belts in the centre of the system. “Khal, I have an Orca and Procurer in Enden. They are in the belt, this is not a joke. I am going to reship to my Cynabal and attempt to tackle the Orca, you able to back me up?”

“You’re kidding right? Umm, sure, what do you want me to bring?”

“Whatever you’re comfortable in. We don’t know if these guys are related to the Widow and Drake, so we may have a fight on our hands. My Cynabal needs a test, and this seems like a good way to do that.”

“I’ll bring my Orthrus then, good range control if things turn bad. Erstet is empty, I’ll get on the Enden gate in Nein.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see if I can rustle up another pilot or two, I believe Pick is close by.” Hitting up some less-used communication channels, Jon managed to get hold of Pick, and brief him quickly on the situation. ‘Orca’, ‘Enden’ and ‘belt’ seem to be magic words, and within a short time there was a Vagabond joining Khal’s Orthrus on the gate. “I’m jumping into Enden and warping to the belt guys, I will let you know when I have tackle.” As soon as the jump between systems finished, Jon activated warp to the belt that the Orca was last seen in, and prepared for a potential fight.

“All crew, we are going after a high-value target, so I want no mistakes. Gunnery, make sure we have Hail loaded, we’re going in hard and close. Navigation, keep an eye on short-range D-scan. If that Drake or Widow start heading our way I want to know. E-war crew, get that long point heated, we may need the extra range. We are going to be initiating bumping on the enemy vessel until our friends arrive on field, as the Orca may have warp-core stabs fit, and I don’t want this target escaping.” As the Cynabal came out of warp the Orca appeared in front of them, sitting still while the Procurer mined away next to it.

“We have engaged the Orca, jump jump jump guys!” Jon shouted over comms for Khal and Pick to join him, and local jumped by two as they entered Enden. In a few short seconds the Orthrus and Vagabond were on grid with Jon and the Orca, with the Procurer escaping off grid just before they arrived. Reports came in quickly from Khal and Pick that they had engaged the Orca themselves, and the shields and armour disappeared rapidly. Upon hitting the structure of the Orca the damage slowed down noticeably. “Oh, we have a hull tanked Orca guys. Keep a look out on D-scan for the Widow coming to play.”

The Orca’s structure was slowly ground down, with no movement from the Widow pilot to intervene. As the last scraps of structure were torn apart from the barrage of fire coming from drones, missiles and autocannons, the Orca exploded in a massive explosion. Escape pods were seen ejecting as the once massive ship twisted into a mess of melted metal, and the pilot’s escape pod warped off to safety.

“Enemy ship down, good job guys.” Jon congratulated Pick and Khal, and thanked them for their quick and professional response to the unexpected appearance of the Orca. “Sadly it didn’t drop anything nice, this guy didn’t even have a T2 shield buffer. No wonder he melted quickly, but it’s not like T2 would have saved him.”

“What’s the plan now Jon?” Leeroy came up with a grin on his face “Also, I think the Cynabal passed its test with flying colours.”

“Indeed it did, passed the test perfectly. Can’t beat an Angel Cartel ship for build quality, they use a bit more than the duct-tape and rust that proper Minmatar ships seem to use. That being said, Pick’s Vagabond does look nice, I might have to get one myself and give it a spin. As for the plan now, take us back to Wirdalen. The Mordu’s Legion appear to have launched an attack on a Gurista’s research facility in Enden, and I feel like taking the Machariel for a spin.”

 

****
It was certainly an unexpected sight to see on my D-scan. Apparently they thought that because they posed no threat I would leave them alone. Sure, an Orca doesn’t scream out ‘threat’ to me. However, it does scream ‘large and shiny’, and that’s enough to make me try to kill anything. Why they used an Orca and a Procurer instead of two Procurers I’ll never know. A lot cheaper, and a better overall yield if you’re using just two ships.

Orca killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/47108252/

A dinner of Hail.

Report from OPSRD0107

“Morning Leeroy, how was your sleep?” Jon asked as he came down the walkway towards the Cynabal. Leeroy turned around from inspecting the placement of the 425mm autocannons on the new hull, the old Cynabal having been destroyed by an Ishtar in the Curse region a week ago.

“Good thanks Jon.” Gesturing back towards the ship, he continued. “The new Cynabal is fit out and ready, all systems seem operational. Do you want to grab a crew and take her out for a spin in Enden? One of these guns looks a bit rusty, I wouldn’t mind making sure that it works on the local rats first.”

“Sounds good. Round up a crew and…” Jon’s personal communications device lit up all of a sudden, its blaring sound echoing through the hanger. This setting was only used in emergencies, and Jon’s mind raced as he answered it, wondering what was going on. Leeroy ran to the nearest console and sent out a full alert to all crew to gear up and get ready for whatever was required as Jon answered the device. “Jon here, what’s happening, where are you, and what do I need to bring?”

“Jon. You are in Wirdalen correct? Stay in station, do not undock, and get in your remote repair battleship. We have a situation, and we’re light on numbers.” Khal’s voice came through the device with urgency. “See Aerith Nagato in local, they’ve been moving a Charon back and forth between Enden and Wirdalen. They’re setting up a POS, and they have a corpmate in Enden that’s webbing them into warp. I’m sitting on the gate cloaked in my Proteus waiting for them to come through again, and then we need all the DPS we can get. You’ve got a RR battleship correct?”

“Indeed to both having the battleship and being in Wirdalen. I’ll join the fleet shortly, just have to get into the Tempest”. Turning to Leeroy, the order was given to get the Tempest crewed and ready to go. “Check ammo, cap charges, drones, everything. And do it as quickly as possible.” Turning back to the communication device, Jon assured Khal that he would be ready to roll out whenever the order was given. Ending the conversation, Jon then started running down the hanger to where the Tempest sat. Jon noted that a thin layer of dust was covering the top layers of the ship, but decided that this operation should blow that right off.

As Jon reached the bridge of the ship he noticed that Leeroy has just finished checking the cargo. “Leeroy, how are we looking?” Jon shouted across the bridge, making the navigator jump at the sudden noise. Jon walks quietly, and the navigator hadn’t even realised he had arrived yet. Leeroy looked up, he hadn’t noticed Jon had arrived either and had his nose stuck in his data pad viewing the reports coming in from the different stations around the ship.

“We’re all good to go” replied Leeroy. Guns are loaded, cap charges are ready for use. Oh, and the crew is ready to kick some arse.

“Cool. Now all we have to do is wait for this fool to undock and head back to Enden. Bao is cloaked outside the station that they are residing in, so we’ll know as soon as they undock.” The HUD in front of Jon lit up as he spoke. “Speaking of which, it looks like the Charon has undocked, and is aligning to the Enden gate. All crew prepare to undock and warp to Enden, this is going to happen fast…Undock, undock, undock, the Charon is off D-scan from the stations. Navigation, align us to the Enden gate. As soon as Aerith leaves local I want us in warp to that gate.” Turning to the fleet communications, Khal had reported that he was 2.5 km off the gate, and ready to uncloak as soon as the Charon jumped through. The corpmate with the webs was nowhere to be seen at this time.

“The Charon has jumped, the Charon has jumped. All fleet members jump into Enden and get to the Wirdalen gate.” Khal’s orders came through as he uncloaked his Proteus, and waited for the Charon to uncloak. Pick and Lillith jumped into Enden from Nein in their Typhoon’s and engaged warp to Khal while Jon’s Tempest and Bao’s Panther hit the Enden gate in Wirdalen and jumped in. “I have point on the Charon, I need reps when you land.” Khal’s voice came through comms, and you could hear the smugness in his voice.

Jon turned to Leeroy and grinned. “Looks like we’ll have to take the Cynabal for a spin another time.” Turning to the ship comms, Jon rattled off orders to the crew. “Lock up the Charon and start firing. Drone crew, launch our Hammerheads and set them on the Charon as well. Armour crew, make sure our hardeners are running, and get ready with the remote repair units once we’re in range of Khal’s Proteus. Navigation, get us within 5km of Khal, as close to the Charon as possible. E-war crew, get the web ready and apply it as soon as we get within range.

A few minutes later the Charon exploded, with Aerith escaping in their pod. Checking the wreck for loot revealed about 300 million ISK worth of gear, the majority being in fuel blocks to run their POS. A concerted effort by the fleet members resulted in the loot being rescued and taken to Wirdalen. Aerith was contacted, and a deal was made to sell the loot back to them for 300 million ISK, resulting in 60 million ISK profit for each fleet member, plus a nice killmail. Jon then went back to Wirdalen and docked up. “Leeroy, release the crew for today. They performed admirably, and I have some reports to catch up on. We shall take the Cynabal out another day for a test.”

 

****
Whoops, haven’t written a post in a long time. Still been playing, just a large reduction in time thanks to study and exams. Not sure what happened over the Christmas break, I’m going to blame me not writing much on work. Thanks to Winterweb Delphi in Wirdalen for saying that they liked my blog, and that I should write another post. I’ve been contemplating it for a while now, and that made up my decision. Hopefully I’ll get a couple more done in the next few days, I’ve got a couple more kills that I want to write about.

And because that’s enough about me, here are the killmails.

The Cynabal that I lost in Curse: https://zkillboard.com/kill/46777326/

And, of course, the Charon: https://zkillboard.com/kill/46965097/

Roam the skies,
Jon.

Why were you in low-sec Mr Retriever?

Report from OPSRD0021

“Retriever on D-Scan sir, there is only one belt he could be at.”

“Very well, take us in. Warp in at 30, I doubt he will be sitting on the warp-in, no-one is that silly in low-sec.” Jon turned to the ship wide radio and informed the crew that there was the possibility of action, and for all crew to man their stations. “Gunnery crew, are you ready?”

“Yes sir” came the reply, crisp and confident. There was only two manned ships in system, and one of them was Jon’s Rupture, so there was little worry within the crew that this would be anything other than an easy kill. As the ship began to exit warp, the regular pre-combat routines began to be run.

“Pre-heat the armour rep, the neut, the scram and the after-burner. If we have to burn to him I want to get there as quickly as possible.” The crew quickly complied, with switches being flicked as he started speaking. While the possibility of a Retriever putting up any sort of resistance that would threaten the Rupture, it was good to keep the crew on their toes and kept in practice.

“Coming out of warp in 3, 2, 1. Target spotted, 30km away, sitting on the warp-in.” The navigators tone of voice betrayed his surprise.

“Start burning towards him. We have to get within scram range!” Jon groaned, with a 20km burn before we could have the chance of getting the kill, and with the possibility of the damn barge having 3 stabs fitted, the odds weren’t looking in our favour. “As soon as we’re in range, activate the neut and scram, and start firing. Over-heat the guns, I want this to be killed as quickly as possible. Ram it as well, stop it aligning out if possible.”

After an excruciating 20 seconds, burning at 500m/s with an over-heated afterburner, the point was activated on the mining barge, with the neut and gunfire being laid down shortly afterwards. Drones were deployed and ordered to add their damage to the barge.

“We have been targeted by the barge, they are sending their drones to attack us Sir.” The defence teams were already closed up and ready for action, and this report had them checking their instruments for where they may be required.

“How many, and what type?” Jon wasn’t too worried about drones from a mining barge, the barge was melting quickly, and wouldn’t last long enough to do any lasting damage with its drones.

“Four Warrior I drones Sir, nothing to be concerned about, they’re hardly touching our shields.”

“Good to hear. Continue firing on the Retriever then, let me know if they manage to get through our shields.”

“Roger.”
Jon sat back and watched the tactical screen. There was nothing to do until…

“Enemy vessel will be exterminated in 3, 2, 1…Boom. Congratulations on the kill men and women.” The report came from Leeroy’s command chair, as he sat back at grinned. Turning to Jon, he said “SoE have been contacted to rescue as many as they can from the wreckage. As they don’t like pod pilots such as yourself a huge amount, I would recommend looting the wreck for any goodies and heading back to station.”

“Who invited those nit-pickers?” Jon grumbled before giving the orders to loot the wreck and warp to a safe-spot to wait out the 15 minute suspect timer given to his ship for his recent action.

“A message went out just before the barge exploded, their captain must have sent one out.”

“Roger. At least he did one thing correct. We should not have gotten that kill by any means. I hope he learnt his lesson. If not, we’ll just have to repeat this lesson won’t we?”

****
Just a short post, I would love to write a longer one chronicling the loss of my Stiletto and Hurricane, and the killing of a Hurricane and Tayra, but I find myself running out of time to play anything more than ‘skill-queue online’ over the last few weeks due to assignments and reports. University is hard, but worth it.

Retriever killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38403670/
Hurricane killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38571302/
Tayra killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38618245/

Stiletto lossmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38418769/
Hurricane lossmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/38582951/

I’ve managed to still have fun blowing up ships (mine and others), and I have a roam on Saturday that I’m hoping will give me something to write about (probably a whelping of the fleet, I’m leading it, but we shall see).

Roam the skies,
Jon.