Wednesday, August 3, 2011

They Came, They Saw, They lost their Noctis

Its been a long time since I've posted and a lot has happened.

I've learned null sec statics make for really sucky logistics, been "evicted" from a wormhole for the first time (staging POS for a move), learned the "joy" of Sov Warfare in 0.0 (an IHUB has how many HP?), gained a lot of small fleet roam experience, and invested a lot of time into learning the ins and outs of PI.

The one area I have "grown" the most is in a willingness to get into situations that might not always have a favorable outcome for me (not to be confused with a Death Wish, but more a Death Apathy).

So in my shiny new wormhole, complete with a crap ton of anomalies (since it had not been "worked" in awhile), I logged on to find 2 T3's, and 2 BC's running sites.  Well, in the past I would have let them go and have their fun, done my resetting of PI extraction units and logged off.  As long as people left my POS alone, I never really cared too much.  I even threw a probe and scanned down the K162 to see it was a "dangerous" route in.

But then they had to bring in a Noctis.  That is too juicy of a target to not try to at least take a pot shot at.  So to the POS I flew and swapped out the scanner for a SB.  Now being in my own "home" here helped.  I had several well positioned spots to use d-scan and quickly was able to determine they were leaving the Noctis alone in sites to salvage.  In the first site I found the Noctis, he was almost done and it was too late to setup a bombing run.  But the next site I caught him just starting to salvage as I warped in at 100km.

So I bookmarked a wreck right next to the target, warped to the closest planet and back at 30km.  Got lucky  on the warp in to not get too close to a wreck, and was able to sneak into 25km away.

Uncloak, fire bomb, target Noctis, overheat point, orbit 20km, hit the torps, wait for target lock, bomb explodes, half armor, volley 1, bye bye rest of armor, second volley and bye bye Noctis.

Forget the Pod, lock the wreck, crap here comes the Calvary, warp off.  Pray the melted nanos died a glorious death in the wreckage.

Warp to a safe, warp back to the site at 100km and watch them orbit the wreck farther and farther out with drones.

Check killmail, and yes the melted nanos didn't drop.  Bye bye 150M in loot (probably closer to 200M at the time of the kill) and a nights work for at least 5 people.

While not my first kill, it does represent the first for the corp that once served as a carebear in w-space corp, that used to run and hide in a POS and would never risk pissing off "dangerous" people.  But having now been in a "dangerous" corp or two, lived in null, and seen the other side of eve, I am more then willing to risk a 20M loss to win a Noctis kill.

http://eve.battleclinic.com/killboard/killmail.php?id=13771475

On the opposite side, I am amazed that a corp experienced in W-space would not 1) Guard the Noctis, or 2) Monitor my POS.  Especially since I had announced my presence with probes, and changed ships at my POS.  They should easily have seen me reship into a Bomber and at the very least sent one of the 4 combat ships to protect the Noctis.  Having the Noctis aligned would have saved it also.  It was sitting still, and easy prey. Overall, they probably had not encountered great resistance in a C1 before, or thought so little of the possible occupants, that they got lazy.  Again the 200M loss probably represents a drop in the bucket to what they make, but its still is 200M.

So if you come to visit my wormhole, please fly lazy.  I like Noctis kills.

Fly Safe everywhere else,
Mick Flaherty

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