Looking for Content

Content is always there. You just have to be patient.

I had spent a week watching content pass me by. With only a few people around, I was reduced to being a spectator in a couple of WH fights. We had shared a static with Ministry on Inappropriate Footwork as well as Ash Alliance, who spent an age setting up a brawl in said static. Ash obviously didn't like the odds and asked us to help out. I think 3 out of the 5 guys we had were up for it. Either way, we enjoyed the view.

Later that week, One of the guys got a fleet together because he saw someone log in at a POS about 7 jumps down a chain. Sadly, the unsuspecting pilot didn’t even move inside of his forcefield and the guys decided to bait with shield-nano in one of the lowsec connections further back.

I had the opinion that something was going to happen and waited around. It took a while but more pilots logged in. Maybe I should have waited longer, but when an Epithal started moving, I followed. I didn’t think that this particular C4 group were likely to escalate an engagement with a PI hauler. I didn’t mind waiting, but not for too long so the Epithal would have to do. Well, it would have if the pilot wasn’t switched on. Following him around wasn’t the problem, but there wasn’t enough time to lock him up at the customs office before he warped, even with a sensor booster on my Stratios. Instead of warping back to the POS, he confidently carried on with him hauling, which said to me that not only did he have agility mods fitted, but probably stabs too and that prompted me to leave it at that.

Jumping back through the chain led me through a lowsec system. There was a reasonable number of people in local (I can’t remember the exact number, but it was between 10 and 20), but what was striking was that all but one were flagged as suspects. OK, not unusual for lowsec and usually the result of a gatecamp with the non-flagged pilot tending to indicate a victim. A quick D-scan came back with a bunch of battleships, some of them faction, along with a Phoenix and a Naglfar. This all but ruled out a gatecamp – I have seen dreads on lowsec gates before, but that kind of thing tends to be a rarity. And suspect?

Either something was going on, or I had just missed it. Whatever it was warranted a quick D-scan of the system. As I narrowed the angle, the gate was ruled out, but the ships did turn out to be in line with a station and a celestial with a POCO and a POS. Warping to the station turned up blank, and the ships seemed to be back the opposite way, towards the planet. I made the assumption that they were at the POS, although the absence of wrecks from outside the station (and on D-scan completely) didn’t explain the suspect flags. I quickly narrowed the POS down to a specific moon and checked it out. There I was thinking that I’d missed the action and they were safe inside the forcefield either waiting out their timers or waiting for the next victim. Whichever way it was, as soon as they left the safety of that forcefield, I could have a fleet prepared to jump them.

Landing on grid I discovered they were indeed at the POS, but were outside, shooting it. Battleships, an Attack Battlecruiser, sieged Dreadnoughts and a Nidhoggur in support. Here was the content I was looking for. I told the guys on comms to get home a get themselves some proper ships. Apparently, the baiting wasn’t going too well and when I reeled off what I had seen on grid, there were no arguments.

Legion, 4 Loki, 2 Proteus, 1 Tengu, Ishtar, Arazu, Stratios, Curse and a couple of Guardians. To top it off, most of those were dual-boxed (hence the oddments of that fleet comp), which included my Loki and Legion, and while I was pleased to see other Loki’s around, reducing my chances of being primary, I was slightly concerned by the fleets dps or lack thereof. The absence of neuts (Curse aside) was a conscious decision since the consensus was our best chance of any kills was to down battleships as quickly as possible as it was unlikely that so few of us would be able to bother the capitals, if they were set up right. Only one way to find out.

>Who’s FCing this?

Well, I was kinda hoping you were going to. Oh well…

> Jay’s got this.

Sending the Arazu ahead to get us a warp in, I reflected on breaking my own rules – ones that I’ve discussed in ‘the art of cheesecake’. Truth be told, capitals are little out of my comfort zone. I’ve not flown them much at all and have avoided FCing any engagement involving them because I just don’t know enough about them. To be fair, it had been a shitty week. Activity had been low and we’d had to decline a couple of fights because of this so confidence probably wasn’t on a high. At least I managed to sound confident in taking charge.

We stacked up on the WH to lowsec as I gave instructions to the Arazu for our warp-in. People were eager to get in there despite the reservations we may have had while discussing it moments before.

>I’m 30km off them.

>We going?

>No, that’s no good. Get right on top of them. I want scram range. They might have MJD’s and I don’t want anything getting away.

I was well aware how tall an order that was. With drones flying around and ships moving, it’s not easy, but not impossible. Still, our scout did the job perfectly and our warp-in was ideal. Our primary was a Tempest Fleet Issue which we started to burn down while scrams were spread around the other Battleships. The dreads were still in siege and the carrier, well, that did a 'Brave Sir Robin' as soon as we landed and warped off along with any chance the rest of his fleet had of surviving. A Dominix had already taken some punishment from the POS guns and soon followed the Tempest and a Tornado as a couple of Maelstroms burned away from the beleaguered capital ships. They did try to go for the weaker ships, but it soon stopped being a fight. We had reps and there was no sign their own was returning.

We dispatched a Rattlesnake and an Abaddon before turning our attentions to the Naglfar. He resigned himself to his fate and became a victim of his own self-destruct two minutes after we started shooting at him. The Phoenix pilot didn't give up so easily and his tank was holding up pretty well, although with little chance to fight back, and his companions seemingly uninterested or unprepared for a rescue recognised the inevitable when his tank began to fail.

Explosions are explosions and it makes it all thebetter when they leave behind a pretty capital wreck. My assessment of the whole thing is we got lucky. We went in thinking we'd be happy with a couple of Battleship kills. I was even fully expecting to lose a few ships. Whether it was luck or not, I've always said you need to put yourself in the position to benefit from the good luck in the first place.