Persistence Pays Off - For Us

It began as I logged into Comms while running my Planet Goo business and heard the rumblings of some activity with Stealth Bombers in Null.  So needless to say, the restarting of extractors could wait and I quickly logged on to my combat character in Null.

I guess to start I should mention that I love Stealth Bombers.  I mean I downright Love these little beasts.  I assume it is a side effect of living so long in a Wormhole, where stealth is king, and bombs are Queen.  To top it off, I get great satisfaction watching people in the Stealth Bomber when I know they are going to die, and they don’t yet.

So I log in, jump into the Purifier, and head off for the target system.

As I am warping to the system, I hear on Comms there is a Command Ship in a site with wrecks.  Oh Sweet Lord of Eve, let it be true.

As I hang on the last gate to avoid another +1 spooking the prey, I hear our fleet has grown to 3 Stealth Bombers and a Falcon.  We all figured if it was a trap we were willing to lose 3 SB’s for a shot at a Command Ship, but we were fairly certain this was not a trap.

Our scout lands on grid with the Nighthawk and confirms he is just merrily ratting away.  The order is given to assemble on grid, so I jump and warp to 10km off the lead scout.  Sure enough, the Nighthawk is finishing a site with Fighter escort.  I am sure he felt with Fighters he was more than safe enough to handle the 4 reds in system.

When we confirm all 4 cloakies are in position, the order was given to launch the attack.  With the unknown of where everyone was, we decided against bombs and went straight for the torps. 

The initial volleys hit their target and the shields made no effort to recover.  The Falcon pilot happily reported the target was jammed, and the SB’s proceeded to pound the target into submission, which didn’t take long.  A look at the KB later confirmed the buffer fit.  We waited on grid for any response and covered the SB looting the wreck.  We then warped to safes and warped back in at range to look for the response from his almost 20 friends in local.  Nothing came.

As we waited on grid for something, anything, to happen we received notice on Comms from our scout watching their station that our friend had undocked in a Raven.  “He is aligning towards you” quickly followed. 

With the Command Ship kill already under our belt we were playing with house money at this point so we held on the field and waited for our friend to arrive in another ship.  He did not disappoint as he landed on grid with his Raven about 20km off my position.

I quickly confirmed everyone was in place, and satisfied we were ready, I uncloaked, primed the Warp Disruptor and Torps, and locked the Raven.  Again the Falcon pilot reported the target was jammed.

As the Raven melted, a Manticore uncloaked about 60km off me, locked me and started to launch torps.  About the same time the Fighters reappeared on the scene.  My Neocom screeched at me as my shields melted and armor started to vaporize.  I aligned quickly and hit the warp button to my safe.  I landed and continued to listen to the situation as a drake and another ship landed to aid their friend. 

The order was given to warp to safes, and about that time I suddenly had a fleet of fighters land on me.  I was not happy to see them, but as I warped to a second safe I was happy I had pulled them off the field.  I remembered to cloak this time.

The fog of war played in here as we did not know if we had succeeded in the kill of the raven or not.  As we warped back in at 100km we saw the Raven wreck, but we never did get a Killmail for it.  On the shame.

So we were sure the night was done and the fourth SB on the field was lamenting his bad luck at missing the fight and our scout on the station had left to find other targets.  I guess the target also thought the night was over, because after about 5 to 10 minutes, in warps a Cormorant.

We laughed, got into position and proceeded to dispatch the cormorant in plenty of time before they could “spring the trap” again.  As the Calvary arrived, we were all in warp to safes and laughing in Comms at the persistence of these people.

Now we are sure they have learned their lesson and are not stupid enough to try again to trap our merry little gang of SB’s (which has grown to 5 now), but our scout (now back on their station) reports a Pilgrim undocking.  Say it isn’t so Joe.  Guess Forrest was right, “Stupid is as Stupid Does”.

Sure enough, the Pilgrim lands on grid.  One of our SB’s is fit to hit from almost 80km and we decide to let him fire a couple of volleys from that range and see what happens.  The rest of us closed to within point range.  Nothing happens except the Pilgrim starts to bleed shields. 

Since we are still playing with house money, we decide to go for another kill.  We all uncloak and proceed to pound the Pilgrim.  Sure enough the scout at station reports a fleet of 4 BC’s and a Falcon undocking.  At the same time the Manticore uncloaks again at about 60km off the Pilgrim.

We all hold field long enough to kill the Pilgrim, and start to align to safes.  One of the pilots announces they have the Pod, and three of us hang around just long enough to launch a volley at the pod before hitting warp as his backup finally arrives on the scene.

We throw a few barbs in local about yet another fail trap, and we warp back in at range again.  But alas, the Pilgrim was their final attempt at trapping us.

They get at A for effort, and we get three ships and a Pod, with a fourth ship destroyed but never accounted for on the Killboard.  Not a bad night, for us.

And yes Carebears, I managed to reset my extractor heads too.

Fly Safe,

Mick