I love low-sec.

Yesterday I received a message from Altair, one of my corpmates. He stated that we needed a vacation.

I agreed.

So we went to the Maverick Navy's longtime vacation spot, Yong. Tash-Murkon region. Now inhabited by the exiled CVA.

RRBS was the order of business, and we started out with 4. Our Onyx pilot went to Amarr to buy and fit his ship... and my alt scouted the Emperor station undock while he bought and fitted. Sure enough, our Orphanage friends had a Tengu and a Harbinger on the undock. So he sat in station, while 2x Geddon and a Mega burned towards Amarr from Yong, some 10jumps or so. We had to leave Bonecaya behind in his Mega, as his sec status doesn't allow for high sec travel.

I sat my alt on the undock and we stacked up on the Amarr gate. I watched as an Anzac Cov Ops undocked. I just tried to look through IT Alliance lossmails to find it... and got too frusterated with the stupid losses I was seeing and gave up. How people lose a Cov Ops in high sec is beyond me. The fact this Anzac guy got podded too... ridiculous. For the record, this was not a kick out station.

Anyways.

We undocked the Onyx and sure enough, Harbinger insta locked and insta pointed our Onyx. Tengu joined in on the fray, but kited our Onyx well out of point range.

We jumped into system and warped to Guis in his Onyx... which wasn't tanking as well as I had hoped. At least thats the way he made it seem on comms. As we landed, we locked him up for reps and found him to be holding at 25% shields... not too bad. Titus in his Geddon disconnected while in warp. So my Geddon and Altair's blasterThron were all there was. Tengu kited but stayed out of point range. If I had gotten my web/scram on him he would have died. Harbinger tanked well enough, but two short range battleships with webs and scrams mean no transversal. So the Harbinger popped. I would suggest, once again, that if you are going to triple trimark your Harbinger that you put on a plate of some sort. 1600mm would work well for station camping, giving you enough time to deaggress (more often than not). 800mm is also an option. The trimarks give you a percent bonus, so if your base armor is only x, that multiplier is much less effective than if your armor is Y.

So we moved back to Yong and begun the ever famous prowling and camping.

Our first kill was this Brutix. Completely gank fit, only one rig (?). He didn't even try to reapproach and died extremely fast.

Then the fun began.

An Armageddon jumped in from our next door pipe of Biphi. We watched him with eyes as he landed... and jumped. Immediately he was pointed by our Hictor. His warp core stab was useless, as the infinipoint kept him locked down.

Expecting an interesting fight with possible reapproach (as Geddons are known for tanking ability), I had Altair hold dps. Once we got his ship scrammed and webbed and he still wasn't trying to reapproach, Altair engaged. The Geddon dropped ridiculously fast, and check out his fit. 7x Cargo Expanders? 1x Warp-Core Stab? My personal favorite was the shield booster.

I'll say it again. Ignoring your ships bonuses and natural resists is really dumb. The Geddon is meant to be an armor tanker. To shield tank one... active shield tank one... with no boost to resists that are horrible for shields as it is. Which means it ended with him popping and the loot drop being really large. I had my alt pick it up in her hauler. Local chat picked up, as the gentleman we had ganked expressed anger in local. Apparently it was a not his ship, and he was transporting two weeks of loot. I didn't tell him it was crap loot, merely offered to contract it back to him for 10 mill. He actually accepted, and we concluded our business transaction. He then asked what he could have done differently.

We all expressed different opinions, but the gist was: Get a Viator and never fly a bastard fit Geddon like that ever again.

He thanked us for our time and departed. I popped an empty hauler... and we tried to kill a CVA Zealot that came through from Mamet. Our hictor got him, but he reapproached and none of our battleships had the scan res to get him on the other side. He left and we resumed our business.

I think we pissed off CVA, which is no new thing. What was new is that their bait ship slow boated into Yong, while our eyes in Mamet watched their 25 man RRBS/Logistics/all else gang stack up on the Biphi gate.



We laughed and safed up in local The CVA gang moved into Biphi and sat on the Yong gate. We were safed and aligned full speed to the station, just waiting off GCC. Didn't want station aggro if we could avoid it. We new they had a prober out, and we saw probes. He was horrible, however, and it took well over 5 min for him to probe 3 battleships out that were 2,500 kilometers above the gate.

I almost shat myself laughing when one of the Guardians went GCC, repping one of the CVA battleships who was solo tanking gate guns after GCCing one of our guys. This was made even more hilarious when one by one, all the CVA Guardians went GCC as their rep cycle infected GCC like a virus. One by one they all went flashy red and warped off gate. I was in tears.

When their cov ops finally found us, he fleet warped himself and a CVA Harbinger to our safe, and we initiated warp to the station as soon as they appeared on grid. Local spiked as all the CVA jumped in to get us.

We laughed more.

I instructed everyone to dock in station. We could have logged off, but the station was so much more cozy, and I didn't want to make all the e-honor people angry (har har har). So instead we docked and bio'd for 30 min. CVA camped system with 30 people in bs, for awhile, then moved to Gemodi and back. Aurelis, the leader of CVA, was kind enough to grace us with his presence. We dropped line after line on him in local, but he didn't give us the reaction we wanted. In fact, CVA didn't say a thing in local, which is different from the old power bloc. Not even an Amarr Victor. I guess losing all your space, all your friends, gives you a little less to say.

As they left we contemplated hitting a straggler Tempest, but decided against it. Our 5 man gang was too vulnerable to counter. I noticed a Navy Geddon in their gang and mentioned something about CVA only bringing out their pimp ships while large gangs.

As soon as CVA was out of Biphi we got back at it. We waited for quite some time, until a new neut appeared in Biphi.

The name looked familiar, and when the scan showed up I remembered. Armageddon Navy Issue. He landed on Biphi, and our hictor pointed him. All but our Drake jumped through and burned at him, but only the Onyx aggressed. We figured that he would A. jump into Yong or B. Pop a cyno and CVA would come pouring. CVA had done that time and time again to us, dropping 30 man bs gangs and several carriers. So the option B. became very plausible when the Geddon aggressed our Onyx. His fate sealed, ours undecided, I jumped our Drake in from Yong and the order to take him down was given. I had everyone passively align towards a celestial in case a cyno went up.

The cyno never happened.

In fact, the Geddon dropped like a rock. His armor tank went so fast that the possibility for ransom came and went in seconds. Combined with our fear of a cyno it wasn't until later that we thought about the money we could have made. Oh well.

The Navy Geddons Killmail says it all. I wanted to cry for that ship, similar to seeing the Ferrari get blown up in an action movie. It felt wrong for someone to buy a beautiful ship like that and mutilate it. One empty rig slot, 3 empty lows. Large shield booster in the mids... two Geddons in a row trying to shield tank. At least the first guy had fitted out all his slots. I wanted to scream at the Navy Geddon pilot. Instead, he screamed at us.

[00:51:55] GoMg JoeE2 > ASSHOLE BASTARDS

[00:52:00] Titus Loken > gf

[00:52:01] Perseus Kallistratos > nice navy geddon bro

A proper fit Navy Geddon should/could have tanked us long enough to get out. He may have taken our HICtor down. He would have been ballsy but sane to engage.

This fool was a dumbass to engage with that fit. Worst case, he starts hurting one of our ships.. we warp off. Whats he gonna do, point us with a mean glare?

For Agro's perspective of the Geddon kill, click here.

We had a jump in Drake from Shousran (high sec). He sat on the gate for a few minutes in Shousran, and my bait Iteron sat their with him. On a hunch, I jumped in the bait Iteron, and sure enough, he followed presumably thinking it was safe (or with bad intentions). Sadly, our dps and his MWD let him get back to gate in time. He sent us fan mail:

From: Tom Gerard
Sent: 2010.06.07 01:24
To: Titus Loken,

You almost defeated the power of the drake... =P
almost gave me a heart attack =P Did the itty get away?

Titus responded that no, we had killed the Iteron.
From: Tom Gerard
To: Titus Loken,

Aww shucks =P

Let me thank you for the warm reception, good to see BoB back out there one way or another, Keep up the good work, and I hope to hear more legendary feats from the folks of IT =)

-- Tom Gerard

Legendary feats? I hope so. Lately we haven't done much that can be considered special. But thanks anyways, Tom Gerard came through later on... in a pod.
At this point my eyes in Shousran reported a Gila on gate. He jumped into Yong and warped to the Biphi gate. We all jumped through and engaged, except our Mega. Our Drake had logged off (wife Aggro), which was unfortunate. The Gila reapproached and our Mega we had left in Yong was unable to point him in time, and he warped around a bit before jumping into Shousran again.

We waited for awhile with no kills, getting discouraged a little, when local spiked a couple guys related to the Gila. A Celestis and a Falcon were poking around. My sense picked up... as CVA and pets had been moving assets through Yong into Mamet/Misaba/R3 area. Kheram is frequented by pirates, but Yong has/had been pretty safe since Mavs have been at war. These guys seemed to be related to Core Factor (CVA Ally) but I wasn't sure.

My heart skipped as the Gila jumped into Shousran, and glancing at my eyes in Shousran I saw an Orca landing on gate. "Holy shit! Orca landing in Shousran, warp Shousran!" I yelled. Quickly I realized the Orca had landed on the gate... and was super bouncing off of it at tremendous velocity. "Hold warp, hold warp, warp to off grid Shousran!" Too late. Avi in his Geddon had already warped to the gate at 0.

Everyone else had warped to the off grid spot of Shousran, but Avi landed at 0 and tried to warp off. The Orca was slowboating the 14km to the gate after his bounce subsided. Key was SLOWboating.

Unfortunately for us at this time, the Gila jumped back into Yong, probably checking out the other side. He saw Avi in the Geddon on gate (trying madly to gtfo) and reapproached, jumping back into Shousran.

Then the Orca logged off.

DAMN!!!!!!!!

But I still held hope, against all hope, that we still may get lucky. I kept everyone at an off gate spot, fully aligned to the Shousran gate.

And so we waited.

After 15 minutes, the Gila showed up on gate. I sat there with my eyes and watched intently. Yong local jumped one as the Falcon pilot came in from Biphi or Gemodi. I now operated under the assumption that the Shousran gate in Yong was being watched.

And so we waited. This time I figured that dumb people would still be dumb. I'm always amazed at how bad people are at this game; I always assume intelligence but am continually dissapointed. There are those that are good, and being prepared helps when fighting those smart players. But they are far and few between. This isn't meant to be a cocky statement, as IT and MVN have their share of lemmings too. Just... reality.

So we waited and watched for about 10 minutes when Shousran local bumps one. The Orca pilot.

Excitedly I whisper on comms, as if the enemy can hear me, "Guys he just logged on, get ready". Of course they were already in position, fully aligned to the Shousran gate. Sure enough, Orca lands close to the Yong gate...

He sat there for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was about a minute. Not moving. Gila was at 0 on the gate. I waited, staring at the Orca.

He moved!

Transversal slowly picked up, and the Orca rotated on its axis, its engines burning brightly. Slowly the speed ticked up and the Orca moved towards the gate. Ten kilometers, nine kilometers... he slowly crawled towards the gate.

The Orca slowly approached the gate and I barked orders. "Everyone hold alignment. Orca will be primary, all turrets will stay on the Orca. If Falcon shows, he will be primary with drones only, turrets will stay on Orca. Gila will be tertiary." These simple instructions, although common sense, would make sure we executed the next few minutes flawlessly. As the Orca reached jump distance, the Gila jumped into Yong.

About 10 seconds after Gila jumped, Orca jumped. The moment he clicked the jump button his Orca died. It didn't matter if he logged off, tried to reapproach, opened a cyno. He was dead.

"WARP TO THE GATE!" All battleships warped at 0 to Shousran. Orca immediately decloaked, as did the Gila. I locked up the Orca and immediately started tearing into his shields, then armor. My colleagues did the same. I also locked up the Gila, and immediately punched my MWD at him. The Orca was racing through armor and leaking structure when I got into scram range of the Gila. I immediately activated my short point on the immobile Pirate Faction Cruiser. Altair, like minded, had closed the distance to the Gila and put a web on him. The Orca, now in structure, was dying. His numerous structure hit points only delayed the inevitable. Avi, with the kill of the Orca impending, turned his guns on the Gila and promtly three shotted the cruiser, killing it mere seconds before the Orca exploded in a violent flash of light. After a few seconds two yellow wrecks were all that remained, one enclosed by a giant husk of what was once an Orca. The Falcon landed on gate as the ships exploded... I locked him and he wisely jumped through into high sec.

Exuberant, we posted the killmails and began our analysis. "We're the fuckin Maverick Navy, bitch, don't you ever mess with us!" he yelled over comms. Avi gets very excitable and takes great pride in the corp he built over the past two years. In local he merely wrote "Well, that was fun".

I'm not sure how something like that could happen, but I'm happy we were there. There are six members of the same corp in local. One has GCC. There are 5 battleships and one Heavy Interdictor within a 3000km scan of the gate. What could possibly allow you to think that you will get a Gila into low sec and through with a Falcon and Gila as escorts? Looking at the fits, let me add to that: Unfitted Orca and fail freaking fit Gila. Why the Gila didn't bug out, I don't know. Perhaps he was dual boxing, perhaps he was stunned. His hesitation allowed for a scram and web to make up his mind for him.

Happily we waited out GCC and docked up. Agro was taking out a roam in 30 min, so I disbanded fleet and started the long treck home in my Buzzard. No jump clone available and I was in +4s.

On the way back through Aridia I chatted with Spectre (EVE NEWB) in Ami. They had just ganked somebody when I entered local, and I offered a "gf" in local, which blended with all the other "gfs". I mentioned his lack of posting as of late, to which he responded that crocheting has become his most recent hobby. The conversation continued, evolving into clubbing seals and other nonsense. I eventually offered my farewells and moved on, but I did drop a mail to him expressing that, on a more serious note, I missed his postings.

We left 5-C on a roam that lasted about an hour. Let it be known, Sunday night (USTZ) is a horrible time to roam. There were no targets. Nothing. I logged for the evening, almost falling asleep the last few jumps home.

All in all, a great day of pirating. Nice to bring my sec status down a bit... although its still in the +2s. A few more vacations to Yong will take care of that.

I've been steadily noticing a trickle of people joining the Aggressive Tendencies chat channel. Feel free to join and chat it up. I have guys from neutral corps, friendly corps, hell even the NC in there. Join "PK's House of Love".

That is all.