As mentioned in the previous post, yesterday was my day off. So I played EVE lots, as the weather was crappy (no motorcycle rides).
First order of business is always checking mail. I had one from Titus, one of my Euro LTs. Apparently we had a wormhole leading to Fade open in 5-C.
Hmmmmm.
He also said he wanted to roam it but didn't have enough people online. Unfortunately there was no bookmark on contract. So I took out the Tengu and scanned it down. Wormhole was nearing end of life but Xoo insisted a few hours were left. Got a couple in fleet and started evacuating some ships out of X-7. Xoo took his Redeemer out, and I scouted in a Manticore with an officer mod. Couple of pucker moments, but we got the 6j to the wormhole and safely back in Delve.
I took another trip, this time picking up Haakmed in an Apoc while I got my Harbinger out. Xoo scouted in a dictor while my alt picked all my mods and a couple ships up in a Viator. This time we enocuntered targets, and pursued. Evoke had an active gang in the area as well, and we chased down a small frig gang. Hard as we tried we couldn't get a bubble on them, and Pax Sex of Dead Terrorists was in pursuit as well. I opened a convo with him and we attempted coordination.
Pax was in a Drake, and we caught up with the gang. I one shotted an Imicus (big whoop I know, it was the only one too slow to warp) and warped next gate. Jumping right into a bubble with Pax. Vengeance was in bubble aggressed on Pax, and Pax was wailing on it. Machariel was 300 off the gate, but I figured I would get my shots in and get out since the Machariel wasn't helping his Vengeance buddy. We killed the Vengeance, then I deaggressed. Machariel warped in and started shooting me... I was confused, as he had waited this long and I assumed he would have started shooting Pax before I even entered system if he was actively participating. So down I went before I could get out. I was pretty pissed and told Pax I was down. He was like "how did you die?". "The Machariel". "Oh hes blue to me". "Thanks for passing that long".
So I help kill a neut, and get killed because of standings issue. Had the Machariel been actively aggressing I would never have aggressed the Vengeance. But he wasn't because Pax was friendly to him. So... Mr. Machariel... fuck you for not seeing I was helping your buddy.
That being said I was a neut and I would have shot to, but Mr. Pax, it would have been appreciated to pass my good intentions along to your buddy.
So I picked up a Curse and bugged out right before the NC fleet came into X-7 and started their hour long camp. We moved to the wormhole and jumped out. Haakmed and Xoo got a couple more kills with the Evoke fleet while I was picking up my Curse.
Needing to make up 20-30 kills for that Harbinger loss, I formed up a small gang in X-7. Curse, Taranis and Drake. We jumped back through the wormhole with the intention of hitting targets in Fade. Ten minutes in Haakmed piped up "uhhh, the wormhole just dissapeared".
Damn.
So I decided to head home, 36 jumps. Off we went. We avoide one hostile gang, and continued moving. No targets to be found. We even went through one system with 20 in local... the only active ones in space were found in various POS' all around the system. Had they formed up or coordinated in any way we would have been heavily outgunned and outnumbered. No response though.
Just before Cloud Ring my cloaky alt scout reported a new red just after she jumped in. She cloaked up off the in gate and waited.
Vagabond. hmm.
"K guys. Ranis will point. If he aggresses, we get him, if he burns off, we get him, if he reapproaches, Drake and Curse will jump with him and hope to point on other side."
Lucky for us, the Vaga aggressed me immediately. He had 180 Auto's, and was hitting me for close to nothing. My 3x Medium Neuts ripped into his cap, and he was still motionless. Alt next door reported another MM in local... Rapier. He jumped in as the Vagabond was in half shield and had started trying to move finally. If the Rapier had been smart, he would have double webbed our Taranis and popped him, or bugged out, or done something. Instead, he sat there for a few seconds, then slowly reapproached. I locked him up and dropped a point on him and one of my neuts. Vaga was dying now, and once he hit armor it was over. He exploded in a ball of fury, and we focused on the Rapier. He started dropping extremely fast... then jumped out. Another MM in the next door system... also a Rapier. They both came through shortly after, cloaking and warping off. I offered my customary "Nice Vaga bro" in local.
After hitting me for crap damage the Vagabond had switched to the Taranis. The Ranis pilot iniitally was worried and was going to disengage, but wasn't getting hit at all. We laughed when we looked at the mail... the Vagabond had Barrage loaded. Tracking penalties FTW!
We returned home without incident.
Last night we went on an alliance roam. Scouting was a problem. We had two scouts and the FC just couldn't keep track of them. Those scouts were also not very good at communicating. Often they would go silent and take way too much time to respond. As I have mentioned before, scouts are crucial. Especially in hostile space. We did have 40 in fleet, which is decent numbers. Half of those were Mavs.
The one fight we got into... we got lucky. Brick Squad had a HAC/BC/Recon gang. Our scouts missed them (somehow). Ended up being us on one side of the gate, them on the other side. Hesitation from the FC, as he didn't have the intel until someone spoke up "they are on the other side of the gate!!!" "I need help" from one of the lemmings that had already jumped through. We lost a tackler in the engagement (doesn't show in battle report, it was an RKK guy who hasn't posted his lossmail). We ended up smashing the Brick Squad for one reason: numbers. We had overwhelming numbers. Their fast movers got away but they left behind the slower guys. Battle report here.
You may ask, why am I whining? We won, right. This is true. But neither side had scouts in position, and we basically ran into eachother. We won because we had more people. Thats it. We got lucky; that they didn't run away and we had more people. You should never have to keep asking "where is my scout", "where is this scout again". You should always know where your gang is, where your scouts are, and have a DOTLAN map open. Especially where we were, in -A- space, where response gangs are common and 40 in fleet doesn't make you untouchable by any means. If you are going to be a scout, you need to SPEAK UP. Don't assume the FC has ESP and knows whats going on. You are his eyes. If you can't handle this, don't scout.
We also got an Absolution kill. He undocked into our gang and didn't dock up in time. Maybe moved early, maybe bugged, who knows. Wasn't a kickout station.
The roam kept going and going, and people started complaining that they needed to go to sleep. It had been 2-2.5 hrs since we left... so the FC took us to high sec so we could log if needed. Agro and I headed to Yong instead of staying with the rest of the fleet, as they were going to bio for like 10 minutes and head home. Got a couple easy kills in Yong and logged for bed. Better day than the one before.
That is all.
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