Saturday 8 August 2009

Blasters, Bubbles and Blobs in lower Providence

To Enforce Amarrian law and bring an end to piracy in the Empire

-1st Objective of CVA’s ‘Operation Deliverance’

We came because the Capsuleers of Amarr had begun their so-called ‘Operation Deliverance’.

Amarrian Imperialists seeking to expand their holdings and spread the foul practice of slavery in the name of a twisted god.

-Ushra’Khan Broadcast to the Residents of Providence.

Lately, it seems that Providence has been heating up. U’K, has, of late, stepped the fighting against the ProviBloc, most notably Sylph alliance, up a notch or two. Thus, It seems to be the perfect place for a pirate such as me to insert himself among the chaos, and, if lucky, peel off a couple of kills here and there. On Wednesday morning, I did just that.

After a highly eventful op with Wensley (one of the most fruitful too: we killed a Rifter, an Ishtar [OOC: I had to log so I didn’t get on the killmail], an Ishkur, a Catalyst [missed the kill but nabbed the pod] and a Vexor) much of the corp was thinking only of returning to Hevrice and turning in for the night. Personally, I was too wide awake to even contemplate my bed back at the station and decided to roam around Amarr space for a couple of hours until I felt tired enough to dock for the night. With that, I dropped fleet and set my destination to the Saidusairos system in The Bleak Lands.

The roam down to the system was fairly boring, I tried to engage another outlaw Rifter at a gate in Gratesier but he warped out when I locked weapons onto him. I arrived in Saidusairos with my guns ice cold and fast asleep. I, however, was still wide awake and decided to extend my roam into something more substantial. After a moment’s contemplation, I set a course for Amamake

Arriving in Oyonata, I had a sudden change of mind. Seeing as KBP7-G (an entry system to Providence) was so close, I decided that it would be more fun to see how my old haunt, Providence, was fairing. With only a moment’s hesitation, I reset my destination to the system of KBP7-G, one of two high-security entry systems into the region.

Again, the journey to KBP itself was uneventful. An outlaw pilot in a thrasher chased me through Sosala and Kamela, but was nowhere near fast enough to catch my Rifter. He finally managed to tackle me on the Choonka gate. Without panicking, I jumped through and made the two final jumps to KBP7-G

The insertion into Providence was easier then I had expected. The KBP7-G gate was completely empty, even with 40 pilots- 30 of them CVA- in local. However, a Latchesis pilot that had seen me jump into the system was halfway into anchoring a sling bubble at the XHQ-7V gate when I landed. Frustrated, the pilot took a few token shots at my Rifter before I jumped out with my shields barely scratched.

I continued through the heavily populated system of 9UY4-H into the THHH-T constellation, which adjoins the northern and southern parts of Providence. Again, no fights were to be found as I headed down to the system of R3-K7K, my exit system.

I arrived in R3-K7K to find 20 other pilots in local. Cautiously, I moved to the Mamet gate (which is not scannable from any of the planets in the system) to find a Crow belonging to a CVA pilot sitting at the gate, not 10 kilometers away from me. As soon as I land, he burned away from me at close to 5,000 m/s. Foolishly, I lock and open fire but the Crow is to far away for me to land any substantial blows, while his missiles maintain good damage against my shields. I try to cut his orbit off next, but his maneuvering is surgically precise and he maintains range with ease. Realizing that I will not ever get close enough to point him, and shut down his MWD, I attempt to deagress and jump through. However, he is going through my armor too quickly for me to wait my aggression timer down and jump out.

Just when all seems lost, a Taranis (this one belonging to a neutral pilot) warps in at range and engages the first crow, who burns away from me to aggress the new interceptor. At this point, he moves out of scram range and his point on my ship drops. Taking this as my queue to leave the area, I warp to a planet before jumping out of the system.

Again, things cool down as I leave R3. I begin check out the surrounding systems of N8XA-L and 1-1I53, eventually finding myself blocked in by two VVA gate camps in AY-YCU. As I attempt to retrace my steps, an Eris class interdictor lands on the ZT-LPU gate and preempts my jump. I jump in shortly afterwards.

I appear on the gate 17 kilometers from the Gallente interdictor, who immediately puts a bubble up. Deciding that the most important thing to do is to burn away from the bubble, I align to a planet and engage my afterburner. The ‘dictor pilot is quick on the uptake and MWD’s towards me. As he does, he comes within the falloff range of my blasters, and I open fire. The Eris pilot double webs me, and cycles up his blasters and missile launcher.

We orbit each other at close range. His blasters are melting my shields and chewing into my armor; I finish the last of his shields with me at 70% armor integrity. Now into armor, the Eris pilot overheats his guns but they are repeatedly missing, giving me a brief respite, in which I make ground against his ship, dissolving his armor slowly until it is almost at par with him.

The fighting now intensifies, we are both slugging away, our respective integrities almost the same. Although I have less of a buffer then him, and my armor is dropping faster then his, I enter structure with his armor at 20% (or less) integrity.

Now in structure, another VVA pilot jumps in, this time in a Taranis. The remaining structure of my Rifter is almost wiped away before a small amount of my armor is reconstituted. My guns are now melting the interdictor’s hull, but not nearly fast enough. All I need is one more shot!

[ 2009.08.07 00:21:45 ] (combat) Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II places an excellent hit on Defqon [ASSTI]<ABOVE>(Eris), inflicting 307.2 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:46 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon misses you completely.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:46 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon hits you, doing 38.5 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:46 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon lightly hits you, doing 29.7 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:46 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon hits you, doing 27.3 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:46 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon hits you, doing 27.7 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Your Foxfire Rocket hits Defqon [ASSTI]<ABOVE>(Eris), doing 29.8 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Thorn Rocket belonging to Defqon hits you, doing 7.8 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Hobgoblin II belonging to Defqon heavily hits you, inflicting 29.5 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Your group of 200mm AutoCannon II hits Defqon [ASSTI]<ABOVE>(Eris), doing 177.9 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon hits you, doing 21.6 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon misses you completely.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (combat) Light Ion Blaster II belonging to Defqon hits you, doing 31.5 damage.


[ 2009.08.07 00:21:48 ] (Notify) Ship is out of control.

My Rifter succumbs with the Eris at less then 50% hull integrity. To add insult to injury, he puts up a bubble as soon as my Rifter pops and catches my pod too. Although, after such a long journey, I am glad to be able to simply take the pod express home.

A good fight indeed!