Losing a hurricane and fooked up station geometry

I hate station fighting

"We have a hostile raven outside Gusandall station. We have a hostile raven outside Gusandall station," wailed the automated warning.
"Flash - what's going on?" asked Viper.
"Not sure - there is a raven outside but I have intel that there's a four-BS fleet from New Justice hanging around in Ingunn, on the gultraten gate. Stand by." I had up to date intelligence reports on the whereabouts of the ship and ship-types and pilots. The raven was bait, I could feel it and I relayed this information to the other Black-Flag pilots. The four ships were sitting aligned to the Gusandall gate. Then they moved. My contact, hidden behind a cloak, beamed the information to my GUI.
"NJ ships are incoming," I said.
"Someone has engaged outside. Raven is aggressed," added RedBad. "It's Dogz. He's sprung their trap."

Great. All that was required was a bit more time. The current fleet only had Black-Flag pilots and we couldn't now risk sending an invite to Redbad and Dogz as they might need to perform an immediate redock. It was going to be a mess.
So I undocked to the mess outside. My overview had friendly ships not in the gang screwing up the view. The cane was bounced around by the odd spatial geometries of Gusandall station and after a few minutes it was obvious that no one on our side had any control. It was a free for all as Dogz and Redbad were battling away with the NJ fleet of five. Black-Flag had three ships but our FC could not assign targets without knowing who RB and Dogz were fighting. Nor could we contact them or get them into the fleet mid-fight.

In the event, I lost the cane as I had somehow bounced too far from the docking point. Dogz lost his battleship but NJ lost their dominix. It was messy, laggy and ultimately a wasted opportunity.

I hate station fighting in the fleet cane!!!


Roam and roam and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

"Flash. You're scout," said Viper Sam.
"Roger that, setting course," as I hit the auto-pilot. Being a scout is fun but you need to have wits about you. Also, one needs to be to the point on description so that the FC can quickly make decisions. We were going to Skarkon for a roam and I raced ahead, two jumps ahead of the main fleet. Nothing much until we arrived in Bogelek were the fleet engaged and killed an Absolution on the gate. As scout, I stayed two systems away and could only listen. I couldn't join in and abandon my role. Bah.

The main fun was on the way back.

In Gultraten, I spotted a Ka-Tet gate camp hovering around the Arnstur gate. I was about 12km from them, the gate having deposited my hurricane in the only area that the gate camp could not cover. Staying cloaked I visually scanned them.
"Fleet. Hostiles on the arnstur gate in Gultratren. Do not jump into Gultraten. I have two megathrons, two Rokhs, one apoc and one drake."
"Roger that Flash, can you give me pilot names?" asked Viper Sam. I hit the micro warp drive as I powered away from the gate, the hurricane shuddering slightly as the missiles and rail gun fire splattered off my shields. The camp had locked and fired on me as soon as they could.
"Roger that. Am taking minimal hostile fire. Is the fleet ready to engage the camp?"
"I think so. Another ten seconds or so. We're not all here, Muelac is en route."
"Excellent. Linking pilot names."

Rapidly dwindling behind, I soon lost visual contact of the gate and decided to slowe down the hurricane. I wanted to be far enough away that no one could see me on their overview but close enough to the gate that I can jump instantly. So I didn't warp out to a safe spot that was over 24 AU away. I wanted to be in the thick of the action. My laziness was to prove a fatal mistake as I started to link in the names of the pilots with their ships and ignored the blinking proximity light on the battle GUI. Unknown to me, the gate camp had pulled in a thorax and it was burning it's way towards me. Closing the distance towards it's target and me looming ever larger.

As soon as the last pilot was linked, I looked up and was horrified to see drones around me. I was warp scrambled and it took me a few seconds to realise why. By this time, it was too late as I was also webbed and the the battleship gate camp was on my once more.

I died very quickly, cursing my own stupidity.

Relaying this information to the assembling fleet was my priority.

"Flashfresh is down. Flashfresh is down. Fleet do not jump. The camp is now off the gate."
"WTF?"
"Huh?"

Ignoring the questions, mainly through embarassment, I relayed the latest information.
"Fleet hold. Fleet hold on gate." I whipped the pod out and was determined to salvage something. One by one the battleships went back to the gate. I was about 100km from the gate and was making sure I would not get caught out.

"One of the megathron is back at the gate. It's jumping. I repeat it's jumping."
"Roger that Flash. Fleet: primary is apoc. Jam the megathrons. Let's get to work," said Viper now with the fleet assembled.

The Ka-Tet camp jumped into Gultratren and engaged the Black-Flag gang.

Ka-Tet Fleet comprised of:

Drake
Apocalypse
Megathron
Megathron
Rokh
Rokh
Thorax


Black-Flag comprised of:

Maelstrom
Maelstrom (TSL)
Rokh (TSL)
Scorpion (TSL)
Hurricane
Hurricane
Hurricane
Myrmidon

Details recorded here.


Black-Flag (and friends) utterly destroyed the Ka-Tet fleet for the loss of WayCharles Scorpion and the sentry guns had a lot to do with it too. There was a TSL gang member in the Rokh who was too excited and inexperienced and was giving a running commentary initially but Muelac and Viper put a stop to that instantly. On Ops only the FC and Scout should be talking unless there is some major bit of intel.

I was in my pod watching and listening. Feeling helpless and very impotent.


I got a kill!

"Flash is in charge now. See you all," said Viper Sam - satisfied with the night's roam. Being FC is a bit of a nightmare if the fleet mates are not used to flying in a gang. Even worse if you have no team voice communications too. However, the group we had was majority Black-Flag so I had no worries.
"There's a drake and scorpion here in Eifer," said Snake Boy.
"Do you have their location?" I asked, sitting up from my chair and finger poised over the 'red alert' button to scramble my crew and ship.
"Negative. Dropping probes. Stand by." Glancing at the fleet chat, I could see Jubes, Muelac and WayCharles.
"I want that scorpion. Pilots: Status please."
"Jubes here. Cane and ready on gate."
"WayCharles. Arbitrator. In Eifer."
"Muelac. Cane and docked up in Gusandall."
"Flash. Cane and docked up in Gusandall." Not a bad fleet to chase after a hostile scorpion and his drake friend.
"Jubes - get into Eifer and get ready for the tackle. Muelac and I will undock and wait at the gate. Snake, update please."
"Still scanning Flash. I had a weak signal return for the scorpion but it was gone when I arrived."
"Roger that. Keep at it. Fleet, move into position please." Muelac and I both undocked at the same time and slid the hurricanes out. There was some slight bumping as the arrow-shaped battle cruiser squeezed out of the small exit point of the station.
"I have a hit on the drake. Still scanning for the scorpion."
"Snake. Warp towards the drake. Jubes and Way, get ready."
"Affirmative." Chorused the pilots. "Muelac, ready?"
"Sure thing," replied my corp mate - I could picture him slouched to one side, relaxed looking but deadly like a rattlesnake and ready to pounce. The seconds ticked down as I imagined Snake moving his covert-ops towards his mark. We didn't have to wait long.
"Contact. Contact. Contact. Drake 30km from me. Approaching."
"Snake - provide a warp in point for Jubes when you are 20km from the drake. Jubes - get ready to warp to Snake. Snake, once you have provided a warp in point for Jubes, keep moving. Way and Mue, warp to Jubes when he has a point. We need to be quick and I hope it brings in the scorpion." I reloaded for EMP based ammunition.
"Warp to me now Jubes."
"On my way." I grinned and it would be a mere few more seconds before me and Mue and Way would be called in. "Get Ready."
"Drake pointed. Warp to me. He's going down." I activated the warp gate and aligned as quickly as possible. Jubes had a fearsome reputation for dishing out damage and there was a good chance that the drake would be a mere pile of sputtering wreckage by the time we arrived.
"Hurry guys - he's shields are almost gone!" Whooped Jubes, this took him only five odd seconds. A fine example of fearsome damage dealing right there. Arriving, I 'pre-activated' my weapons as the tactical computer started it's lock cycle. The drake was already on fire and I managed to squeeze off a total of three rounds before it was destroyed. Amazingly, I was on the kill mail.

So I did get a drake kill. Thanks to SnakeBoy for the great call in. What a night!

Finally, Ka-Tet pilot came into our home system and was killed. Yarrr!