22 Jan 2008

Hit and Miss

A new POS has appeared in Eifer and there was much discussion over who should go over there to remove it. I was all for it, even if I could only bring a hurricane to the fleet but with enough numbers one could knock the POS into reinforced mode and then try to destroy / off-line the weapons and eventually, destroy the POS. However, the gaggle of pirates clustered in the bar could only agree that it was a bad idea for there being a POS and that Dreadnaught classes would be required. Meanwhile, a number of battleships would have been enough to disrupt the anchoring process.

In the end, nothing was done. The POS now has a webber and some auto-canon batteries in place. We definitely need a dreadnaught (or two) to take this POS down. Hope we do it soon. POS bashing is boring but in this case, a requirement.

A fleet was set up as a Capital Storm Alliance crew was spotted: a maelstrom, raven, hound and basilisk. There was a fifth pilot, 'DeltaUK1' and therefore one could add a cloaked falcon to the mix. We scanned down the group and bookmarked their position. It was clear from how they were aligned that they were expecting a visit from us.

A mixed pirate fleet was in place led by Hellequin corp with some M34N and Black Flag pilots making up the rest. Kane Rizzel was also in the group. Due to the different engagement protocols between the corps, it was unclear to me whether our rapier had decloaked and locked and pointed a target and therefore provided our first warp in point. It was not until I heard Muhaar speak that I realised that it was game on. I hit the warp drives and jumped towards Amber in her rapier. The fleet had selected the basilisk as primary and by the time I arrived, it was scrap. I was 7km from the maelstrom, 34km from the raven and hound and right on top of a ball of sputtering ship wreckage, the basilisk I believe. The raven was next and I locked and hit the micro-warpdrive, eager to get into the fight. I put a point on the maelstrom just to be sure.

Our own brutix was being pumelled however and soon it popped too - I had now got within decent weapon range of the raven and unleashed EMP rounds at it.

"Maistro down. Maistro down." Said the Mean corp pilot as he whipped his pod out of the fight. We were awfully spread out however, due to the spacing of the raven and the maelstom and then DeltaUK1's falcon uncloaked some 80Km from me. The deadly recon ship would be locking us all and then jamming us. We had to take it out.

"Falcon has decloaked, 80km!" I warned.
"Falcon is primary - get it. It needs to be taken out. Shit. Am jammed." It sounded like Muhaar.
"Am jammed too. Damnit. Aligning." Not too sure if that was Amber. The Kane spoke up just as I aligned to the falcon and hit the micro-warpdrive. It was still far from me and it reached out with it's ECM and knocked out my target locks.
"Kane is on the falcon."
"Flashfresh is on the falcon." My micro-warpdrive pulsed as my ship hit over 1200m/s and closed the distance to the target. Kane in his hurricane was a little ahead of me. We had over 50km to cover. My heart was thumping hard as my overview updated with tactical information. We were holding our own but so were the raven and maelstrom, we could tank their damage but we could not lock them due to the falcon. The Falcon had to go.
At 38km distant, the falcon seemed to shimmer and then wink out of existence as it engaged it's cloaking engines, disappearing off all out sensors.
"Falcon has cloaked." We informed the rest of the fleet, now very spread out. I decided to warp out and warp back onto Muhaar's position as did Kane. When we emerged, Muhaar was already warping out to get new cap boosters - Kane was selected by the raven and maelstrom as primary and was blasted, I got hit as well and then the Falcon re-appeared - jamming us once more. Stalemate though Kane was taking a tremendous hammering and was down to hull when the order came through:
"All ships dis-engage. All ships dis-engage." Kane pushed his ship out of warp disruption range and hit his warp drive. I was not scrambled and hit my warp drives as well.
"Muhaar dis-engaging."
"Kane dis-engaging."
"Amber dis-engaging."
"Flash dis-engaging."

So the engagement had ended. The tally was as follows:

United Kingdom Mayhem, Capital Storm Alliance.

Raven
Basilisk
Maelstrom
Falcon
Hound

They lost a basilisk.

Pirates

Hyperion
Hurricane
Rapier
Rupture
Brutix

We lost the brutix.

It was a fun fight though inconclusive. The falcon was the force multiplier and showed just how deadly EWAR is when used properly. We all retired from the fight while the CS Alliance pilots all left the system.