13 Dec 2007

Watch out for concord!!

Right - a busy day and not that much time to record but a Black-Flag gang was set up and went roaming all the way down to Amamake. We had a few scouts racing ahead (I was one) but the meat of the fleet were three specially configured hurricanes. Deadly ships, solo but when configured in the Black Flag special way, they would become deadly things.

So the gang roamed and Nightmare is proving to be the joker though no one can doubt his skill and intent...he justs makes it a habit to tell everyone about it. Viper is a good FC and once we were in Amamake - Blade and I went in to seek out worthy opponents and no-one was biting, yet. Snake Boy had also arrived so we proceeded to drop some scan probes and see what we could see. The three other hurricane pilots stayed put in the neighbouring system, chomping at the bit.

Amamake was busy. Probes were dropped by the other pilots to find suitable targets. From observations we estimated at least three different gangs were around in Amamake. All hunting no doubt. All hunting for each other. However, we waited in an obvious belt and may be our nonchalant presence shouted out 'BAIT' to everyone else. Nothing happened.

Blade and I split up - he was in a Myrmidon and I was in my jaguar. Tempting targets no doubt. It was Blade who tickled their interest.
"I think I have something Flash." He said calmly over our voice comms.
"ID?"
"Vagabond and something else."
Viper jumped into the conversation, "We have to get webs on that sucker."
"I have a web but we probably need more. " I replied, now aligning to Blade's position. I quickly hit the scanner on my ship and I also noticed another blip: a jaguar-class assault frigate and a vengance. They were close to me and probably vectoring in. At this moment we still had no intelligence on what cloaked ships were hiding in the system, this being Amamake, chances are there were at least three or four of these sneaky ships. I warped to Blade, hoping that the two enemy assault frigates would follow me and ending up with Blade's Myrmidon and his vagabond adversary. Once the party began, we would call in the heavy guns in the form of Nightmare, Viper and Jubes.
"They're close. Very close." Said Blade, excitement now creeping into his voice. I confirmed it with my own scan during my warp. "Shit. Contact! Contact! Contact!" Yelled Blade.
I burst out of warp and landed 10KM from the elongated shape of his myrmidon, a vagabond was streaking past us - its microwarpdrive pulsing. He was throwing AC shells at Blade, I hit the scrambler and webber and snagged him.
"I have one point on vagabond." I turned and tapped into our fleet comm's channel a single 'x'. An unambiquous signal for the hammers to come down, hard and heavy. On the otherside of the system, a star-gate flashed and three, arrow-shaped Hurricane-class battlecruisers materialised. It was Nightmare, Viper and Jubes and they all aligned then activated their warp drives and jumped to my exact position.

Bring the pain.
I thought with some glee.

Unfortunately, in the instant the 'x' was sent, a jaguar and a vengance assault frigate came into view and locked me. I had a point (just) on the speedy vagabond but turned my guns onto the vengance as my ship shook under their combined fire.

My GUI struggled to update me as missile fire, auto-canon shell bombardment and lasers filled my vision. My shields were stripped down and I had to quickly activate my armour repairer. I replied in kind, choosing the vengance as my target - Blade had meanwhile, also locked the Jaguar and was hitting it hard. I was now webbed and couldn't move but I was getting on top of the vengance. The three hurricanes appeared and Nightmare, seeing that I was in danger of dying got a shield transfter to me - saving my ship from destruction. I re-loaded and pummeled the vengance when it turned and warped away. No one had a point on it, mine was still on the vagabond now orbiting at a 20km distance from Blade. The Jaguar, who was hitting me - exploded as Blade's weapon systems smashed it apart.

The vagabond was too fast and with three new Hurricanes, it turned and ran. No sooner had it gone, a sleipnir appeared. A feared command ship based on the cyclone hull. It would make a fine kill for us. However it was over 55km away and probably thought it would be safe. How wrong it was, of the five ships (six including Snake in his Cheetah) - the hurricanes were the fastest. Jubes, turned on his microwarpdrive and slammed his ship into space, eating up the distance in chunks. Nightmare and Viper did the same. I could only toggle my afterburner and struggle at 800m/s - poor Blade couldn't ever do that.

The sleipnir pilot must have looked on shocked as the hurricanes got within scramble then web distance within ten seconds, too quick for him to align and get the hell out of there. The hurricanes tore the sleipnir to fiery pieces within seconds. I didn't even get close to get a point to him as I was 35Km when the command ship blew up. The pod got away but what a kill.

Concord confirmed:

2007.12.13 14:38

Victim: MattFighT
Alliance: Long Distance Serial Killlers
Corp: Boennerup Banden
Destroyed: Sleipnir
System: Amamake
Security: 0.4

Involved parties:

Name: ImYourNightmare
Security: -8.6
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane

Name: Viper Sam (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.9
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Name: Jubes
Security: -9.8
Alliance: NONE
Corp: black-flag
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 425mm AutoCannon II

Destroyed items:
Dropped items:, Qty: 6
425mm AutoCannon II, Qty: 7
Barrage M, Qty: 224
X-Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
10MN MicroWarpdrive II
Warp Disruptor II
Medium Electrochemical Capacitor Booster I
Invulnerability Field II
Gyrostabilizer II, Qty: 2
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Overdrive Injector System II
Cap Booster 800, Qty: 7 (Cargo)
Barrage M, Qty: 1580 (Cargo)
Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer I
Polycarbon Engine Housing I

The Sleipnir was fast but the 'canes were faster.

We celebrated the kill with much cheering and prepared for more combat but nothing then happened. Snake and I scouted around and there was definite movement in ships and pilots, as most people now had decent intel on our ships and locations. So we decided to move out and roam some more while heading back home. Snake and I raced ahead.

Then disaster struck.

Viper warped the fleet, now joined by Nozarro to a high-sec gate and the pirates found themselves in the warm embraces of concord! There were cries of horror and disbelief. I could only listen helplessly as Concord webbed and scrambled Jubes, Viper and Noz and pumelled their 'canes into wrecks. NIghtmare, to his credit, managed to save his cane and get back into low-sec. He then proceeded to chid his other fellow pilots on how to avoid concord. Endlessly. I had to chuckle.

A successful night, where the ships were tested ended with the almost total destruction of the fleet! At least I managed to get home in one piece but Viper, to his credit promised a full replacement for all ships and items lost.

What a night.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love the stories with which you regale us with Flash... Always excellent and always eloquently written :))

I made the same mistake, an accidental jump into high sec whilst chasing a target across several systems.

For me it sucked, I lost my shield tanked ship... but they're only ships and we all live to fight another day, usually.

Congrats on a good night, tactics and great kills. Keep em coming!

Good hunting,

Alia