Always Bet on Stupid

This is for sure my favorite motto when it comes to PvP.  I don't know how many times after killing someone I sit back and scratch my head and wonder what the heck they were thinking.  Last night was no exception.

I logged in expecting a night of heavy logistics, as I needed to get some stuff moved and I know I have commitments to attend to in the coming nights that will not allow me to get what needs done, done.  So I was a little disappointed listening on Comms that we had found a C5 with several Mag sites and I was not going to be able to participate in the Billion Isk funfest.

But as I am loading up the truck for its 20+ jumps to market, I hear on Comms a small skirmish on the wormhole to the C5.  Disappointed, the nights primary activity is scrubbed and everyone proceeded to go about their "normal" Low Sec lives.  For some this was a jaunt to mining and WoT (seems the two are inseparable now for some), scanning for other WH's, Sec Grinding, and running logistics.

So as I get about 9 jumps out and to my first of several "stops", the normal "chatter" of Comms is broken by a slightly higher than normal pitched voice of one of our regular WH Scouters.

"Check, Check, Guys, Holy F*^K, Guys, Shit I am sweating, Guys there is a group of 3, no 4, shit 5 guys setting up a POS in here.  Holy F*$K its got 9 minutes.  There is a Domi, two navy issue ships, Orca, Bestower, Drake, Cane, Maller, and 5 are manned. Holy Sh*T guys get here now!!".

Now I am pissed.  I mean really pissed, this kind of fun does not come along every night.

Decision time.  I open my Jump Clone list and sure enough the only Clone I have in the area of the soon to be fight is my "PvE/Training" Clone with all 5% implants and  several +5's.  The thought of heading out to a large fight in a Clone worth about a Billion Isk does not excite me, but missing the fight excites me even less.  So I pop out of my ship, stop learning about the intracies of POS Guns, and wake up 9 jumps away, feeling a little smarter and a heck of a lot better at gunnery then I had moments before.

Unfortunately, I was still 2 jumps from my HIC and 5 from the fight.  Off I went.

So final plans are being layed.  The Armageddon Navy Issue is 200km off the POS.  I assume its supposed to be "protection".  The Domi is in closer, and the Bestower and Orca are hanging out right on the POS (Cloaks FTW for the Orca by the way.  Why they had it sitting at the POS during the 30 minutes online time is beyond me.  They were fortunate that we did not find them 10 minutes earlier.)

The decision was made to go after the Domi and See if the Navy Issue would engage.  Not the approach I would have used with multiple HIC's and ECM on the field, but a solid plan.

The party never waits for anyone, and the group jumped in about a minute before I arrived at the wormhole.  As I am screaming through warp towards the fight I hear the Domi is in structure.  At this point the Navy Issue has not even moved.  Our Cyn pilot starts to burn out to him in hopes that he is far from his speakers and the screams of his friends.  As I land on grid, the Domi has just been finished off and the Pod is being popped, Too late to get in on that fun.  As I align to the Navy Issue, our Cyn pilot just gets him locked and pinned as drones appear and the ship starts to move.  I initiate warp and land within range of the Navy Issue.  It did not take long melt under the pressure of the group.  We catch the Pod again and send other w-space explorer back to the comfy confines of the CQ in K-space.

The inevitable local chatter from the shocked owners of the POS ensues of "Where did you come from", "Is this your hole" etc etc.

So the initial scout says in Comms, "Hey everyone, lets leave the grid, everyone warp off to the last planet, and I will warp back in cloaked off the Navy Issue wreck and see if they come out to loot and salvage it."

I laugh in my head and think to myself "no way they are THAT stupid", then I immediately say to myself "always bet on stupid".

So off we go to the last planet, and not 3 minutes pass before a laughing scout comes on Comms, "Warp Warp, the Maller came out to loot the wreck, I have him."  This was quickly followed by a little more worried voice "Cane and Drake in warp, they are on me".

So I land again in the middle of the fight and learn that HIC's with no prop mods are great for gate engagements, but suck in open space.  I will need to adjust my fit.

So the Maller is already half way through Armor, so we finish him off and send another on the white light express back to K-Space.  At this point the Cane and the Drake run in opposite directions.  The drake back towards the POS and the Cane farther out.  The Drake was primary, so we decided to stay on him.

I bounce to the closest planet and back into the scrum.  I manage to get a few shots in before the Drake burns out of range. "Why the hell did I not grab the Rapier I think, but remind myself of the value in my implants and am thankful I am in my HIC.

So finally, with me trailing the fight by 60km, the Drake goes down and the fourth person is given a free, one way trip to the afterlife (about 6 seconds for most capsuleers).

After that we are pretty much convinced that we are done, unless the Orca wanted to try to turn the tide of the battle.  As we prep'd to reship and start hitting the POS, we heard there was a fight back in the Low Sec system we came from, so off we all went back the wormhole.  We sat there on the W-Space side to avoid spiking local, eventually heard we had successfully gotten them to fight on another wormhole in the system. So we all started jumping.  At that point we broke the cardinal rule of W-space of "prober jumps last".  The hole collapsed as we were jumping and one pilot, in a "Drake with no Probes" (parody song anyone) was left behind.

Well turns out the Cane on the second hole was bait, and the pilot tackling him had the good sense to hit D-Scan in time to see the massive incoming fleet from their POS.  We disengaged, and scattered to safety.

The thought of continuing to fight a larger group did not appeal to me.  So I docked up and proceeded to pod back to where I had left off my logistics run.

Turns out the Maller and Drake were their two scanning ships in the wormhole, so while we had stranded one pilot, they were stranded till they could get word out for another scanner to log on and find them another way to get their 4 fallen comrades back into the hole.

The story ended well for the Drake pilot, as he convinced the new "owners" of the system to let him out in exchange for a small fee and not warping to all their combat sites. and killing a single sleeper.

So "Stupid" won the day with an extra Navy Issue kill, because someone had gone afk in a 500m Isk ship, and an additional Maller and Drake kill because someone could not resist trying to "salvage" a little bit from a bad situation.  I will never know what possessed the Maller pilot to try to loot the wreck (of cap boosters)  not 5 minutes after the battle was over, with us having 3 known cloaky ships on the field.  But I thank him for the fun.

So here's to Forrest as he was so right when he said "Stupid is as Stupid Does".

Fly Safe (or smart)
Mick