Get the pilgrim!

Fun night last night; some Amarr Faction Warfare pilots came to Evati to capture some military bunkers as part of the endless chess game they were having with the Minmatar. There were three such installations, two were of the smaller type with narrower acceleration gates. The third one was unrestricted in terms of what ship types could enter. To maximise our chances, we switched down to destroyers and frigates in order to get through them all. Viginti and Zem drew the short straw and found themselves in the larger installation.

So we waited.

Piracy is like this - some people don't 'get our brand of piracy'. It isn't all bright explosions and good fights as much as I would like it to be. Many times, it is down right boring - sitting and waiting and hunting for people who simply didn't want to be found. Roaming for ages with nothing to bring down. Feast or famine and usually more of the latter. However, we were in for some fun when Zem and Vig both called out that a punisher had landed and they had pointed it. Now, there were many destroyers of various classes spotted in and around Evati. It is probably the best type of ship for the smaller bunkers and installations.

So we had the punisher but there would be more and with a yell, Viginti announced that a pilgrim class vessel had decloaked as well. It began to spit out warrior IIs. Both Vig and Zem knew that they could only hold on.

Wikkid and myself both undocked, in a drake and hurricane respectively. We also had some ECM back-up and another vessel pulled in from a secondary spot three jumps away. We were busy in multiple areas but when a target was sighted, we all vectored in.

The pilgrim destroyed Zem's coercer - his ship bursting into pieces under the fire of the deadly drones.

"Zem is down. Zem is down." Announced Zemledock as he whipped his capsule out of harm's way. Vig was next, he kept the point on the pilgrim but the punisher, now free bolted as well. Wikkid and I landed at the silent acceleration gate - we sent the correct entry codes and the gate cycled up and activated.

We jumped through into the complex and promptly pointed the pilgrim. Not panicking, the pilgrim pilot slapped his eneryg neutralisers onto Wikkid's drake and tried to burn away. However, this drake wasn't the typical shield heavy version but sported a pair of stasis webifiers, bulging from the two pods on either side of the drake's wing. It held the pilgrim fast and once my ECM drones and neutraliser was on it. The fate of the pilgrim was sealed.

I asked Viginti, who had gotten out in time, his hull on fire from the angry attention of the pilgrim's warrior drones, initiated a conversation with the brave pilgrim pilot. We asked for 120million isk for the release of his ship. We followed the conversation with interest but the pilgrim pilot decided against it and offered his ship up to our destruction.

Viginti had come back now and he had the task of trying to capture the capsule as we pummelled the pilgrim into a burning wreck. The capsule got away but it was a decent haul. Wikked had started to salvage the wreck almost immediately. We're to leave nothing behind and it is a good motto.

A while later, Jabbajools had managed to spot a thorax and this time, Viginti and Avid were thrown in to tackle - however, Avid was too eager and jumped to JJ too soon and landed too far from the thorax who fancied his chances against Avid's catalyst. Chuckling, Vig followed to assist Avid while Jabba flew in with his rook.

A rook and two destroyers versus a single thorax should have been a foregone conclusion but the thorax pilot, through skillful use of his ECM drones, broke through the trap and escaped. It was very well done and made it clear that we were impressed.

We also killed a missioning drake (yes, mission runners can still be found in low-sec) as well as a handful of other ship types. Some loot, plenty of banter and we also got to see a new recruit impress us with his skills and attitude. A good night and I didn't even plan anything.