Back in the hole

Well, here I am, back in Z3R0 Return Mining, my ancestral home so to speak.  Run by friend and fellow blogger Oreamnos, the corp occupies a C4 (C5/C3, we call it “Tim”) and by attrition has collected a motley crew of space cadets that behave on comms more like a family during a Thanksgiving Dinner than a hard hitting PvP elite corp.  We have known each other for longer than really is healthy and when people break out into jokes about things that happen in space 5 years ago (really Orea, I still want my bomber back that you warped to ZERO km onto the hostiles) then you know you are in both a good place and a place that needs to pick up its recruitment effort.

But I digress.

So, in contrast to a newbro who moves to WH space for the first time, I don’t need to ask what ships to bring.  One needs

• Heavy, cloaky tackle:  T3 of some sort. Preferably heavy tank, mean tackle and some DPS.  While the Legion with his neuts is being discussed much, I mostly see Protei’.  I had to build one pretty much from scratch which was not cheap but it feels good to be flying my second favorite boat in EVE.
• Cloaky support ship.  I used to have my alt in a bomber or a Falcon when I go out roaming but this time I gave him my Stratios. It has no tackle (thats the Proteus’ job) but it does have neuts and of course packs a decent wallop.
• PvE ship.  There are more guides how to run sites in WH space than there are Wormholes and I happen to have an old Prophecy lying around. It even has tackle (just in case) and an absolute brick tank good enough for fleet work.  Its not exactly our Doctrine boat but I need to make some ISK before I go out and get one that fits.
• Fleet PvP ship.  Well, in a pinch, I can take the Prophecy and drop it onto hostiles.  But I really like my Recon boats (recon V ftw) and while Arazu’s are fairly uncommon in Wormhole space, I have seen what they can do when piloted competently (i.e. by someone else).  So, Arazu it is, I’ll follow it up with a Falcon and a Rook when we have another route
• Bombers.  Never not have Bombers.  I am mostly out of them or mislaid them in some dead-end NS system where I can never get them out.  But yes, I need 3 bombers.  Max DPS Torp, Max Rocket (for Covops that hack sites) and actually one that throws bombs (maybe).  I am very fond of Rocket Bombers since they are so weird.  Blasters will work as well, btw but its not as pretty to watch.  I would love to build a Rapid Light Missile Bomber but it cant be done.  Booo
• Buzzard.  With max hacking mods and rigs.  Must get the ISK from somewhere.
• The corp has a few ships in the shed that I can use while I get my bearings, Ventures, Epithals etc.  Not worried for now about those but eventually, I’ll bring some in, just in case.  Or, easier, I’ll ask one of our industrialists to bake me some.
• Eventually hole rollers (Battleships, I am fond of a “tinker pair” of Dominixes) and something cheap that just drops massive amounts of DPS into some direction.  Its role is to sit off a hole where my friends tackle things and bring the pain.  Generally an Oracle or a Railgu but I want to try the Naga again.

Alright, ships mostly ready, I am bringing in my first batch and get scouted in by Oreamnos into an adjacent C2, where there had been a skirmish before between the locals and some raiding party.  A Caldari Battle cruiser wreck floats in an expired Anomaly and as I am about to enter the hole a messy fleet of rag-tag boats nearly stampedes me over.  I guess they are leaving?  Anyway. I go in and check things out.  A Scythe is on D-scan, seemingly aligned with an Anomaly.  Thats unusual…. I warp at range and to my surprise find a Lachesis Recon ship at work clearing the site with the Scythe repairing him.  These Recons dont show up on Dscan hence I didn’t see him until I land on grid.

Thats a rather unusual combination and screams “bait” to me.  But I watch these guys plink at sleepers  – it while it “sort of” works, it doesn’t look elegant.  Its not bait, me thinks, its just stupid.  So, Orea and I get ready to drop on top of them and murder them.  Between the 2 of us, we have 3 boats (2 Stratios, one Proteus) and my idea is to tackle the Lachesis with the Proteus and scratch his paint, assuming that the Scythe believes he can hero-rep him through it.  Then drop the two Stratios and kill the Scythe (that should not be too hard), then take our time with the Lach.  Or it is bait and we can see what counter drops us, write off the Proteus or drop our 2 Stratios into the fight.

Anyway, Proteus is in place but has a crappy tactical spot., 80km off (i.e. I cant warp in). They are down to 2 sleepers and time is running out.  I decide to “blind drop”, i.e. make a bookmark near the Lachesis (anomalies have structures, buildings etc), warp to a celestial, turn the boat around and drop onto the bookmarked site without checking first whether the situation had changed.  In principle a really bad tactic but its faster than burning a safe spot.  And so I commence my attack run, at 2AU drop cloak, overheat point and land….

…. on top of the Lachesis and the Scythe wreck and 10km off a Proteus and about 20km off 3 Stratios.

… ooops ….

I aim for the nearest celestial and warp off but not before I got yellow boxed by the new Proteus.  Literally 2 seconds later I would have been scrammed.

What happened??  The FC of the new crew convoes me and we tease it apart.  Turns out they kind of live nomadically in this C2 and casually murder site runners (hence the Caldari Wreck and the chased out kitchen sink fleet earlier).  They had seen Orea and me jumping into the C2 and assumed the Lachesis and the Scythe are our bait.  And just as I was going to drop on them, they had the same idea. We basically were 2 packs of wolves going after the same sheep at the exact same time.  Here are their kill mails.  Lachesis, Scythe. Nearly would have added my Proteus to the list.

We did laugh about it – thus are the wonders of the Wormhole space – and went our merry ways.  I moved into my old / new C4 and damn, its nice to be home.

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