Dropping Caps

This weekend was filled with EVE. Fail and win. This should be a long post.... as long as work (on Labor Day dammit) stays dead.

Friday night was a POS shoot. I was going to co-FC the op with Ciryath, but ended up having a girly come over. We ended up at the POS shooting it, with me in a Manticore keeping eyes and my alt cloaked in system for a safe. We didn't  bring in caps, and the CH fleet stayed inside the pos, an Archon venturing outside and barely making it back into the shields in structure.

At this point I went AFK due to uhmmm.... reasons :) and didn't see what happened next. Talking with alliance command later on it appears the CH fleet warped to a safe, got caught, almost lost an Archon but right before it popped they lit a cyno and bridged in DOOM's supercap fleet. We only lost a few ships (which was pretty good considering) and were forced to retreat.

The interesting part was, I had specifically brought up this concern before we started the op. All of DOOM's FC's were on, and they had an op schedule right before ours. Their fleet dissapeared from X-7 to parts unknown. I told alliance that CH would be easy to handle, but if they called in DOOM we would be in trouble. This was prime USTZ on a Friday night... huge particpation time.

The sad part was that when I got back from my computer, I was sitting 5-C station. Apparently some jackass had warped to me at 0, and since I was only 200 off the POS I got killed. I know better than to stay in fleet, but my leaving the computer was sort of abrupt (girls don't like staring at EVE and do things to distract you), so I was asking for it.

I laughed at the situation and got a clone back up to 6-C staging system. Sorted my alt and played the market for a bit. The girly fell asleep on the couch at this point, so I moved her into the bedroom and started talking on comms again. Decided to take out a small gang and managed a couple small kills, then fell asleep myself.

Saturday was made of win. I took out an Alliance roam early on. Destination was to break up the perma camp in F67E. Plan was to bridge in on them, as their early warning scouts make any kind of hide-n-go-seek action impossible.

That was until reports of carriers undocking and aggressing 7 jumps away was reported in intel...

Jackpot.

A small (10 man) gang of alliance was in DP34- and had skirmished with a gang of neutrals. They ended up bailing, but over FC channels I heard the news and took my 20 man gang down that way. I scouted out the target system along with my cyno Falcon, Max Paralax. I had the other alliance gang gtfo of system (they were scaring the locals) and put my gang in an adjacent system that was empty (no eyes, no worries to the enemy).

Intel had the carriers on station engaging other neutrals... perfect.

I warped my Sabre in at 0, and burned right at the little engagement. I counted about 20 neutrals, but without spending time looking each of them up I wasn't sure who was engaging who. No need though, as our gang (along with the other alliance gang) could take all of them. I burned right throug the heart of the orgy on the undock and dropped first bubble. Immediately I called in both alliance gangs, Max dropped cloak and lit cyno and the party started.

Most of the subcaps were immediately zooming off. Those that didn't docked. The first Thanatos docked immediately when local bumped. The second managed to dock as blues filled my overview, landing on station. In came our Nyx's (2) and an Avatar. The Chimera was the only carrier left on field, and I'm sure he was madly spamming the dock button. The Nyx's do amazing DPS; the Chimera was dropping shield rapidly and had hit about 1/3 shield when the Avatar's Judgement lit my screen up....

BOOM.

Chimera wreck lay at the undock, a husk of its former self. Props went all around, gf's exchanged in local. Nyx's moved in to scoop capital mods and fighters, support fleet stood guard until the titan capped up and jumped back out.

I almost hoped for a counter drop... we had several more supercarriers on standby at this point, ready to go. But the drop went off without incident and off we went.

We formed up on the titan again, and had Cardking in his uber tanked Megathron jump into the wonderful F67E almost perma camp. By almost I mean that if you're running solo in a tackleable ship, you are going to die. If you are an even fight or superior in numbers/composition they will have long since safed up when you arrive. So that solo mega looked pretty juicy.

He jumped into their camp and they immediately aggressed. Card laughed as he tanked their DPS with shields. We waited until he got more aggression from their gang and then he popped cyno. In we piled... but most of their gang was able to burn off. We did grab a Drake and a Hurricane.

We continued onwards, I was scouting in a Dramiel. I jumped into X-M and found a Retribution 20 klicks off of the in gate. I locked him and and tackled, holding gang on the other side. He slowly moved towards the gate, and I assumed afterburner fit. I figured he would jump, so I tightened my orbit, making my Dramiel a juicy target.

He bit.

Drones popped and he lit me up. First couple hits were hard, I called in gang and thankfully the Scimitar's got reps on me as I hit low armor. Retribution popped, bubble was late and he warped pod off.

Took gang back to set up for another bridge... Some of the gang managed a Falcon kill on the way.I switched out for a dictor in 6-C and met gang as it was coming back. Found a Harbinger chilling in MHC- on the F67E gate. I dropped a bubble and forced him into F67E, where the gang popped him.

After the Harbinger kill, I brought the gang back to 6-C and set them up on the the titan. The plan was to move one of my covert cyno alts into max bridge range towards Cloud Ring, to cut down on transit time. However, as she hit the F67E gate in MHC-, she found a bubble up and a fight on the gate. Neutrals engaging neutrals, nothing too crazy. But the Sleipnir trapped in the middle of a bubble was worth it.

"Guys wake up wake up if you're on the titan get ready if not get there fast!" I yelled.

I talked to titan pilot, who was ready, and decloaked my alt and lit the cyno. In we piled, the enemy ships yellow boxing but for some reason not shooting my alt (they weren't on the gate, so aggression timers meant nothing). Sleipnir started to burn off, but multiple webs and scrams ensnared it quickly. His tank was good, but not good enough for the gang that bridged in right on top of him. Within 30 seconds the Sleipnir went kaboom. He didn't take that much damage... his active tank without much buffer a horrible match for the slew of DPS that came at him.

We rest on the titan, but my alt got popped on the way to destination system. She decloaked to light cyno and the two battlecruisers on gate were too fast and one volleyed her poor ship. So we humped it towards Cloud Ring. Easley and the fast movers killed some small random crap (frigs and such) as they were burning ahead of the main gang.

Scouting, I hit FD- and found some Evoke camping the PF- gate. They scattered as we neared, but I had a prober enter FD- and take a peek. He found a Harbinger safed off grid above the PF- gate and got me a warp in. I landed 22km and burned at him... as soon as I hit 17km I dropped bubble. My Sabre was scram/web fit and he was burning straight away from me. Before I could get scram on him he was out of bubble and warped off.

Laughing in local followed, along the lines of "fail bubble hahahaha". I had a Rapier de cloak nearby and immediately his points and webs were on me.

His mistake.

His artillery fit Rapier hit me with one volley for damage before I realized he was arty fit, and started an orbit. Combined with the Falcon who had been probing that jammed him shortly after, his drones were the only damage and I started shooting those immediately while dropping a second bubble right on him. Gang was jumping into system and the Rapier was now stuck doing no damage and unable to leave. Gang landed, Rapier died.

I laughed in local this time. Rapier Kill > Harbinger Kill.

Into Cloud Ring we went, killing a bomber and T1 frig on the way. We stopped by G8- to visit CH... they had about equal numbers in local but I'm sure many were AFK and no fights ensued.

Up to Pure Blind we went, and managed a a Rokh kill on the way there. I had bubbled the in gate in an attempt to nab a bomber, and after I was warping away and bringing the gang in (and after the bubble had actually dropped) he landed... but way off gate as he had initiated warp while my bubble was still up. Needless to say the Rokh died. His active tank didn't last long--not long at all.

I sent BigVix into P-2 solo, and he found a Vagabond on station. I'm guessing Fidelas Constas didn't report our gang moving in intel... or the Vagabond pilot didn't look at intel. Regardless, Bigvix in the Dramiel tackled, Vagabond aggressed we came in and Vagabond died.

Not much else happening in P-2, so we hit the out gate and started home. In KU5R I found the rest of the Fidelas Constas gang, of which we had only snagged a Rokh before. Bigvix and jumped right into them, as gang was in warp in the previous system. I waited until we were landing and then bubbled up. The smart ones burned off and got out, but a Hurricane and Dominix jumped through right into the waiting arms of the gang. Hurricane and Dominix went poof, along with one of their dictors.

Not much of a fight to be honest, but a case in point of how important eyes are when you are traveling. Had the enemy gang been aware of the situation I doubt they would have jumped... in fact I bet they wouldn't have even been sitting on the gate.

We hopped back into Cloud Ring and got convo'd by Cry Havoc. Pax Sex and General Longkill let Vix and I know that a Wildly Innapropriate gang was in and around G8-. See, thats just chill. I recognize we are hitting CH/Evoke/DT... mainly in retaliation for hitting one of our moons. But we used to fly with them quite often, and I know a lot of the guys. There are some pricks, but every alliance has those. So I took the intel and ran with it.

Ran right into the enemy gang. I had jumped into G8- along with Bigvix. Our CH friends informed us they were fighting on the station. Gang was landing on the opposite side, sitting on the G8- gate. I decloaked and dropped a bubble. The WI gang was landing, bam bam bam more and more ships. They all started jumping on contact. I couldn't jump due to aggression, and I wanted to keep eyes as it was. Easley took over on the other side and started barking primaries.

WI got owned. Onyx, Drake, Cane, Cane, Rifter and Incursus for no losses. Doubt they knew what hit them.

Meanwhile, Vix and I had tackled a Harbinger who chose (wisely) not to jump through. I managed to get a bubble on him, but his Heavy Pulse IIs were ripping me to shreds. I had to break orbit, and had Vix come in for the short tackle. He managed to hold onto the Harbinger until the gang started jumping in after letting aggro timers expire. Chalk up one more WI Harbinger.

We moved on towards 6-C, stopping to sniff around and almost catching a small gang just inside Syndicate (lemmings screwed that one up). Unfortunately we didn't get any more kills. Alliance was forming to hit a pos, but I was tired and hit the sack. Good Saturday I would have to say.

Sunday (yesterday) was a lazy day as well, so I logged some more EVE time. Started a roam, took a similar path into Cloud Ring and through P-2 and X-7. Managed only a few T1 kills, until we nailed this Fidelas Constans Vagabond. Just wrong place wrong time for a warp and he got insta-dead. In P-2 I found a Thorax off gate... and burned him out. I zoomed by the Brutix at high speed, dropping a bubble as I did so. He was scram/web fit, however, and I was locked down rather quickly. I immediately called in the gang and had Titus Loken in his Dramiel grab tackle, as Thorax burned out of the bubble. Titus held tackle until Thorax switched to him... and then had to burn off in low armor. By this time the gang was in system and burning out the Thorax, so I got close on him again for a scram/web and dropped a second bubble. Scimitars had me locked and repped and down the Thorax went.

At that point we headed back to 6-C, which was a very uneventful 20 minutes. I noticed that a fleet op that was scheduled (and cancelled due to no POS manager for NEXE being on) was being talked about. Apparently NEXE was able to supply pos for a moon we had reinforced that had come out... two hours before.

Eyes in system showed no CH. None. Pos was not repped. All mods offline.

Ugh.

Original plans for a hot drop were scrapped and I formed up RRBS > All Else. Talking with some alliance directors, I switched advert to Supercaps > Dreads > RRBS > All Else.

Giggidy.

In we went... no opposition. POS dropped with one siege cycle. I even whored onto it with my little stealth bomber. I hate flying worthless crap... but if we get fights I'm more valuable alive on field safely calling targets and managing the fight. Sitting in a new clone at some station is useless.

Another tower came out of reinforce while we were hitting the Cumemare pos... I sent my eyes to take a peak along with an alliance Arazu that had been watching system. Capitals were all out, conventional fleet was on standby as we waited for the POS in Cumemare. Funny story was... the NEXE guy was offline at this point. So the whole reason we had postponed op before (no NEXE pos guy) was now an issue again. So Bonecaya jumped in a POS kit and we took the neo moon.

At this point I contemplated handing off the fleet to Argentina due to homework constraints... but I was reminded that tomorrow meant no school (Labor Day!). So, we called for dreads again, and had 5 titans and some supercaps on standby.

We moved the RRBS fleet the 5jumps to Ruerrotta and lit cyno. In came dreads... and after a quick discussion in came titans and supercarriers. I wanted to bait CH into dropping on us (so we could counter drop), but the fact they had not bitten in Cumemare meant it was unlikely to happen. So in they came, and let me tell you, titans do massive damage with their guns.

Once again, after tower went boom, we scrambled to find a tower. DARK was supposed to take this tech moon, but they didn't have any guys on (understandable, it was insanely early morning euro time) so MVN dropped a small pos on the moon as a placeholder.

Caps out, conventional ships home and a succesful night. For those carebear/market types... it should be interesting to see the price of T2 ships as the technetium market fluctuates due to our activities. Keep an eye out for that.

Its only recent that I have started taking and using caps/supercaps for operations. Those that know me are well aware of my detest for POS shooting ops. Unless theres a fight, I couldn't be more bored. But it is a necessary evil, and to be honest having titans and supercapitals in your gang is.... pretty damn cool.

Look forward to more operations this week, as I have gotten school in a rhythm and such I should be able to manage time more.

When I get home from work, I will post some screenies from the weekend!

That is all.