It
had been a quiet weekend, and as one good idiom deserves another, the tranquillity
had indeed proved that the devil makes work for idle hands. Having the time to
reflect, I had invested heavily into some new industry projects to occupy my
time during the quiet periods. Late on Sunday night, the plans started to come
into fruition as I brought a fully laden Rhea into our C5 home and started
unpacking like it was Christmas Day.
Monday
looked like it was going to be another laid back evening with some sites on
their final escalations and a brief look at siggy showed that the static had
either not been opened, or had already been rolled as I logged in. The one discrepancy
in that (ignoring the connection to a C2 via a Fozzie-hole) was a direct
connection to Providence
My
cohorts had different ideas. Given that there is always content in Providence
Our
5 man fleet happened across a pair of Vargurs. We knew that even if they were
fit for ratting, we'd have more than a handful but we were there to shoot stuff
after all. The idea was to keep range and be ready to disengage if need be. If
they were, as we suspected, and were there to bait us, we'd have no problem
disengaging and getting clear, but the best laid plans of mice and men often go
awry. As their support started to arrive, both Odi and myself in our eagerness to tackle the newcomers drifted
too close the one of the Vargurs and we ended up exchanging a Cynabal and a
Vagabond for a couple of destroyers - not a good trade.
Those
of us that could got clear and headed back home to try and pretend nothing
happened. Gina's Sleipnir was the only other ship to not make it home and the
typical pod camping he was bemoaning of nullseccers beforehand prevented him from getting all the way back, and was held bouncing safes 2 jumps out.
On getting back to the hole, a quick d-scan showed that one of the locals had probes out. It looked like we had indeed piqued their interest. Jumping into my Stratios, I jumped back into null to see where this was all going. It didn't take them long at all and I was wary of my polarisation as a provi Loki and Proteus landed at 0 on the hole. Gina reported a much larger fleet from his unique vantage point, the mainstay of which was more Proteus'. This prompted Utari to ask if we could take them over comms. I answered him with a lackadaisical "Yeah, maybe", referring more to the two ships, now jumping into our home system, rather than the 20 man gang 2 jumps out. Sadly, that was all the affirmation he needed and without him realising, the 7 guys we had on comms did not translate to 7 pilots in-game
Utari> OK, I've got them tackled.
Myst> Hang on, I'm not even logged in yet.
With the Stratios still polarised, I logged in another toon and opted for the HAM/Neut Legion I'd used to successfully embarrass 3 BNI Proteus' a few days earlier over the usual links Eos - something I would come to regret later. Slowly, our ships arrived to back up Utari's intrepid Devoter and the Provi pilots were forced to jump back to null, where my Stratios was waiting to prevent their escape. Intel was reporting that the bulk of their fleet was now moving to reinforce and our low numbers meant we would need as much damage on the field as we could muster, so we called for a carrier. Utari was quick to volunteer dual-boxing his Archon and the Provi fleet was held on the null side as the carrier made the warp. I jumped the Stratios home in as low armour as I was willing to risk and warped clear to reship to a Loki as the Provi fleet poured into the WH.
As they decloaked, I called primary on their Guardians and made sure they were webbed and neuted before they could pull range. The Armageddon and the Legion allowed us to make short work of the logi, which we anticipated would make the provi fleet quit the field. As their ships started to jump out, our own ships began to follow so that we might catch a few of them before it was over. Several of their ships stayed with our Archon, though and therefore some of our own ships remained also. Those in null started to notice their fleet was swelling to numbers you might consider to not be advantageous to us, as if fighting with the fleet on different sides on the hole wasn't disadvantage enough.
The damage I was taking to the Loki was enough to convince me the fleet ought to be reunited, or at least, I ought to jump back to where the reps where. I held cloak and gave Utari fair warning I'd need the reps ASAP and when I decloaked to re-engage, it was evident he was not in triage any more. The Loki's already battered armour was fast approaching hull and I wasn't seeing any rep graphic coming from the carrier. I mentally prepared myself for the second lossmail of the evening but the Archon went back into triage and heroically kept me in the fight. This was bad news for Utari, as this directed the attention back into his carrier and the sheer number of ships jumping through the WH to join the fight brought it to the verge of collapse.
As the fight went on, we managed to pick off a few cruisers and several interceptors who were reckless enough to get into range of my Loki's dual webs. All the while, we were unaware of the Archon's plight until Myst asked how it was holding up.
Utari> Erm..... 60% structure
They say the best teams can anticipate one another - yeah, I'll just leave that one there.
Then the wormhole collapsed. At first glance, this seemed to be a good thing. Although the provi fleet outnumbered us several times over, they had no logi - until we realised what closed the hole. A Nidhoggur decloaked and joined the fight. Quickly, Myst volunteered a Dreadnought and disengaged to reship. It now because apparent that Utari's instructions to 'overheat all the things' would no longer cut the mustard as he announced he was going down. We all knew this meant things would be very grim for the subcaps we still had on the field. 40+ enemy ships vs 11 of ours with no logi didn't bear thinking about. Myst abandoned the dreadnought and grabbed the nearest Archon to hand. Gab offered a second but it still meant we would have to deal with the Nidhoggur, so I volunteered my dread - there was just the small matter of getting to it. My Loki was pointed by one of the Provi Proteus' but luckily, not scrammed. I burned the MWD out of the bubble, then out of point range and was clear.
That was when we lost the Archon. Myst announced he had taken warp and the next few seconds were agonising. Provi were bringing the prodigious dps of their fleet to bear on our stricken ships one after the other after the other. Each one watching the armour melting away but not ceasing the attack in hope of the carrier landing just in time. As the ships went down one by one, I started to wonder if what was left would be enough to continue the fight. The bubble meant a couple of pilots lost their pods and were out of the fight entirely, but Odi and Gina managed to get clear to reship. I'd lost my Legion on my second screen moments before we once again had Archon support. With a significant portion of our dps taken off the field, the carrier was under the same pressure as its predecessor, while our capability of relieving that pressure was lessened. Myst seemed to be able to hold the damage while applying heat to the reppers, but it meant that getting the dread on grid to neutralise the opposing carrier was critical for what was left of our fleet... if only POS modules allowed you right of way when you want to warp somewhere. Still, absence makes the heart grow fonder!
Arriving fashionably late, 'Rising Sun' did eventually join the party and Provi-bloc did not seem oblivious to a Naglfar on grid meant the death-knell for their Nidhoggur. In a last throw of the dice from their fleet, I once again found their attentions, in the form of all the neuts and dps they could command, switched back to me. We were still outnumbered by over 3 to 1 but all the Provi fleet's hopes rested on their carrier, now capped out and being donated ammunition from all of what our fleet had left. As they continued to test the Naglfar's shields, it was obvious that the 2500mm autocannons would win the race, and by some distance. The Provi FC cleverly switched to damage limitation and put everything they had onto our devoter. Both the Nidhoggur and the brave Devoter that started it all went down. Without the bubble, Provi had a means of escape and our pilots had to point what they could. With the siege cycle finished, I once again reshipped to a Loki to help finish off the stragglers, of which there wasn't enough to to claim an ISK victory, but with 7 real players multi-boxing for 15 ships against 47, you'll be damn sure I'll be claiming a moral one!
The Battle Report (thanks to the Provi fellas for providing this)
Thing is, whatever way you look at it, neither side denied it was a good, fun fight. The Provi guys had superior numbers, but they brought they fight to our home system, where we were always going to have the advantage of being able to tailor our fleet composition as required. The aftermath saw GF's cordially exchanged, they were Thanked for Content and I found a few convo's coming my way.
Atom Captain > GJ
Atom Captain > ii had no time to refit D=
Jay Joringer > Cheers. Thanks for a good fight
Atom Captain > XD wish yall handt warped a dread in
Atom Captain > my tank was holding fine vs them but holy hell 25k dmg on shield and 5k on armor
Atom Captain > kinda hurts with no self repps, and being nuted
Jay Joringer > If we had fought on the other side, we couldn't have done that
Atom Captain > WH collapsed when i went through
Jay Joringer > Shame that collapsed. I wanted to move my JF out through there :D
-----------------------------------------------
Fardendur > rly nice tanking
Fardendur > epic
Fardendur > now we need to get out somehow
Jay Joringer > It's a good ship for that
Jay Joringer > We've not opened the static yet, but we'll scan you guys a way out. It's only fair
Fardendur > thanks
Fardendur > would be epic
Fardendur > we found a wh that leads to j space again
Jay Joringer > There's a frigate hole, asides from the H296
Jay Joringer > Highsec through there, but no good for half your fleet
Truth be told, we were reluctant to open the static while we looted the spoils from the field. There was plenty there that could go into replacing Utari's Archon and the last thing we needed was from hostiles from the static chain to jump us while we cleaned it up. As that went on, I showed the pods and frigates out through the Fozzie-hole and Sherpa got onto scanning the rest of them out through the static, but being as slow and useless as he is at scanning, they found their way out to Fountain through the static without his help (only kidding Sherpa, you're not useless at scanning. Slow, for sure, but not useless).
In typical USYSC fashion, our pilots started to log in after that action was dead and gone.
Galmas > 'lo
Jay> Galmas! Don't look at the killboard
Galmas > What?.... Oh, that's a lot of red.
O'nira > It's OK. Your Bhaalgorn did well.
Galmas > You guys need to stop borrowing my ships.
Myst > Jay's Archon did ok as well
It was my turn to be incredulous. Myst's Archon is usually kept in the same hangar as mine, so I didn't mind him borrowing it so much. Especially as it was returned in more or less one piece, but he did mention that I might want to look at some of the heat damaged modules. I got into the carrier with a similar feeling to whenever I get into the car after my wife tells me "I think I hit something and now the steering doesn't feel right". 86% damage to the Capital Armor Repairers showed exactly how that fight was balanced on a knife edge. Thanks to Jin'taan and his fleet for the content.
Lastly, I'll give mention to a couple of other sources for this one. Salivan Harrdin mentions this in his Eve Scribe Providence news and USYSC's very own Utari wrote this up on the forums, but I feel I have to mention one of realape's reddit posts that I think is very fair and brief summary of what happened (and does have a line that makes me feel slightly smug):
"Story: a little provi hacs/t3 fleet was roaming in provi. They found a WH with some people in it who wanted to fight. Provi pinged for more people(this is how it went kitchensink). The fight started in 0.0 but moved to j-space. The wormholers brought an archon and we also tried to get an triage carrier but all we got was a shit fitted nidhogguer. When the nidoggur jumped into the wormhole it colapsed and we were all prepared to upgrade our clons. While we killed their archon they brought 2 others and a nag that killed our nidhoggur. We killed their bubbler and warped away. In the won iskwar but just because they wormholers were very honorable and let us go and didn't chased us. They even scanned a hs exit for our pods and frigates. But for some reason we needed to take another exit and they nearest we found was in Fountain.
Couldn't agree more.
Arriving fashionably late, 'Rising Sun' did eventually join the party and Provi-bloc did not seem oblivious to a Naglfar on grid meant the death-knell for their Nidhoggur. In a last throw of the dice from their fleet, I once again found their attentions, in the form of all the neuts and dps they could command, switched back to me. We were still outnumbered by over 3 to 1 but all the Provi fleet's hopes rested on their carrier, now capped out and being donated ammunition from all of what our fleet had left. As they continued to test the Naglfar's shields, it was obvious that the 2500mm autocannons would win the race, and by some distance. The Provi FC cleverly switched to damage limitation and put everything they had onto our devoter. Both the Nidhoggur and the brave Devoter that started it all went down. Without the bubble, Provi had a means of escape and our pilots had to point what they could. With the siege cycle finished, I once again reshipped to a Loki to help finish off the stragglers, of which there wasn't enough to to claim an ISK victory, but with 7 real players multi-boxing for 15 ships against 47, you'll be damn sure I'll be claiming a moral one!
The Battle Report (thanks to the Provi fellas for providing this)
Thing is, whatever way you look at it, neither side denied it was a good, fun fight. The Provi guys had superior numbers, but they brought they fight to our home system, where we were always going to have the advantage of being able to tailor our fleet composition as required. The aftermath saw GF's cordially exchanged, they were Thanked for Content and I found a few convo's coming my way.
Atom Captain > GJ
Atom Captain > ii had no time to refit D=
Jay Joringer > Cheers. Thanks for a good fight
Atom Captain > XD wish yall handt warped a dread in
Atom Captain > my tank was holding fine vs them but holy hell 25k dmg on shield and 5k on armor
Atom Captain > kinda hurts with no self repps, and being nuted
Jay Joringer > If we had fought on the other side, we couldn't have done that
Atom Captain > WH collapsed when i went through
Jay Joringer > Shame that collapsed. I wanted to move my JF out through there :D
-----------------------------------------------
Fardendur > rly nice tanking
Fardendur > epic
Fardendur > now we need to get out somehow
Jay Joringer > It's a good ship for that
Jay Joringer > We've not opened the static yet, but we'll scan you guys a way out. It's only fair
Fardendur > thanks
Fardendur > would be epic
Fardendur > we found a wh that leads to j space again
Jay Joringer > There's a frigate hole, asides from the H296
Jay Joringer > Highsec through there, but no good for half your fleet
Truth be told, we were reluctant to open the static while we looted the spoils from the field. There was plenty there that could go into replacing Utari's Archon and the last thing we needed was from hostiles from the static chain to jump us while we cleaned it up. As that went on, I showed the pods and frigates out through the Fozzie-hole and Sherpa got onto scanning the rest of them out through the static, but being as slow and useless as he is at scanning, they found their way out to Fountain through the static without his help (only kidding Sherpa, you're not useless at scanning. Slow, for sure, but not useless).
In typical USYSC fashion, our pilots started to log in after that action was dead and gone.
Galmas > 'lo
Jay> Galmas! Don't look at the killboard
Galmas > What?.... Oh, that's a lot of red.
O'nira > It's OK. Your Bhaalgorn did well.
Galmas > You guys need to stop borrowing my ships.
Myst > Jay's Archon did ok as well
It was my turn to be incredulous. Myst's Archon is usually kept in the same hangar as mine, so I didn't mind him borrowing it so much. Especially as it was returned in more or less one piece, but he did mention that I might want to look at some of the heat damaged modules. I got into the carrier with a similar feeling to whenever I get into the car after my wife tells me "I think I hit something and now the steering doesn't feel right". 86% damage to the Capital Armor Repairers showed exactly how that fight was balanced on a knife edge. Thanks to Jin'taan and his fleet for the content.
Lastly, I'll give mention to a couple of other sources for this one. Salivan Harrdin mentions this in his Eve Scribe Providence news and USYSC's very own Utari wrote this up on the forums, but I feel I have to mention one of realape's reddit posts that I think is very fair and brief summary of what happened (and does have a line that makes me feel slightly smug):
"Story: a little provi hacs/t3 fleet was roaming in provi. They found a WH with some people in it who wanted to fight. Provi pinged for more people(this is how it went kitchensink). The fight started in 0.0 but moved to j-space. The wormholers brought an archon and we also tried to get an triage carrier but all we got was a shit fitted nidhogguer. When the nidoggur jumped into the wormhole it colapsed and we were all prepared to upgrade our clons. While we killed their archon they brought 2 others and a nag that killed our nidhoggur. We killed their bubbler and warped away. In the won iskwar but just because they wormholers were very honorable and let us go and didn't chased us. They even scanned a hs exit for our pods and frigates. But for some reason we needed to take another exit and they nearest we found was in Fountain.
Couldn't agree more.
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