" All Good Things "
Part One
All good things eventually come to an end. That thought was running through my mind every now and then as I pondered recent events within our corporation. With the exodus of numerous senior pilots, returning to nullsec, our group had seen several more casualties follow as a result. One of which was my friend Andrew Jester. As much as I hated him I still adored him and his company, same with my assistant Candi who shared a somewhat love/hate friendship with Jester, often exchanging insults or even friendly fire in space. Jester had recently left the corporation to pursue a career in lowsec space. He really seemed to enjoy the action there, being able to undock and get a fight almost instantly. I could appreciate that, even though lowsec isn't for me. I'd flown with Jester in border regions numerous times and always enjoyed myself, I could see Jester's enjoyment in his eyes during these fleets and so his leaving for lowsec was of no great surprise.
Lowsec, the borderlands of Empire space. I'd flown there many times, in the past as a State Militia pilots and in recent times with my Sky and Rolo colleagues. Exits to lowsec in our chain were pretty frequent and you'd always be guaranteed some action. Right now it was a wormhole to lowsec that I found myself orbiting in my Tengu the 'Isis', as I cleared my mind and focussed on the task at hand.
Beside me, orbiting the hole in a pair of Gila, was my boss Sith1s Spectre and another highly experienced Rolo pilot, Fido Goran. In the lowsec system beyond the wormhole was my sister Dani, in her own Tengu the 'Osiris'. A corp scout had discovered a Drake running a combat site in system but unfortunately had scared it off. The Drake pilot had left a mobile depot and wrecks in the site however, so I figured it may be worthwhile having Dani sit there cloaked and waiting incase he returned. Sure enough, after a wait of around ten minutes the Drake returned to the site and continued to fight the Sansha's Nation ships present.
Erica's sister Dani, fellow Rolo pilot and Tengu lover.
Burning around under cloak, Dani had a lot of difficulty getting close to the Drake which was micro-warp driving around the grid at range from the site. Eventually she gained close range and decloaked, going for tackle, only to discover the Drake was aligned to a planet and insta-warped away. Dani followed, landing on top of the Drake at zero on the planet's customs office, only to watch it warp away once more. This wasn't Dani's lucky day - the Drake had escaped her twice now and would be well aware that danger was lurking. The Drake was still in system though, and Dani figured it worthwhile quickly checking the site once more before returning home to the wormhole.
Sure enough the Drake was back in site ... and back to shooting at Sansha ships.... Hmmm, odd....
Either this guy was stupid, or this was bait. Tellingly the Drake didn't seem to eager to avoid Dani this time as she easily managed to burn within scram range under cloak before decloaking and tackling. "Scram Drake" Came Dani's voice over comms as myself, Sith1s and Fido all jumped through the wormhole into the lowsec system.
"Small local spike" Reported Dani as she and the Drake slugged it out in-site.
"Yeah, that's probably us jumping in." Replied Fido.
But Dani had noticed us appear in local already - this was a secondary spike. Sure enough within moments Dani found herself somewhat surrounded as a Legion, Moa and Scimitar landed in site, the Scimi immediately beginning to rep the Drake, turning the tables. "Yep..." Stated Fido over comms and the three of us landed on grid .. "It was a setup". Suddenly the tables had turned for a third time though - the gank that had been counter ganked was now being counter-counter ganked as Sith1s called the Scimitar primary and we began burning toward it, 40k away. The Scimi noticed his impending doom however and quickly warped off grid causing us to switch fire back to the Drake once more which quickly crumbled and imploded in a bright flash of light.
"Legion is new primary, Legion is primary" Stated Fido calmy over comms as all of us now turned our fire onto the Legion, Dani moving to range and getting tackle on the Moa which was now trying to flee. The Legion melted quickly under our combined DPS, the Moa following shortly after to leave us sitting victoriously on grid alone. Lowsec could indeed be fun at times and I empathised with Jester's enthusiasm somewhat.
When ganks go bad.
With all the hostile capsules managing to flee 'GF's were given in local. My sister and our colleagues returning home to Pandora shortly after, Dani and I docking our Tengus at our tower 'Pandora Harem' where we ordered our baseliner crews to set about repairing our overheated modules. That had been the second exciting encounter we'd had in lowsec space that night, and we both retired for some rest to our respective quarters. Arriving inside my own, taking up the entire third level of the Angel Control Tower, I slid off my knee-high boots and flopped into the sofa that sat curving before a large viewing window. Sticking my feet up onto the coffee-table before me I wriggled my little toes to relax, casting my mind back over the evening's battles as well as the issues facing our corporation at the time. Things were a little grim, and our boss Sith had informed us that it was likely the corporation would close. He'd taken the time to speak to leaders of other prominent wormhole organizations and informed us that he could get us accepted to almost any corporation we chose. Discussions took place within the corp, and the sentiment to stay together and continue trying to make Rolled Out work was almost unanimous. As such it was announced that we would continue as a corp for a while and do our best to swell numbers once again.
Several days later I found myself once again relaxing within my quarters in my home at Pandora. I'd just finished my morning exercise routine and was preparing to shower and change. I stopped in the kitchenette area to grab a drink as I caught my breath - The black lycra outfit clung to my slender form, moist with sweat. I'd just performed close to 200 pressups, 100 situps and a short cardio routine consisting of some martial arts and a jog of several laps around the tower's stront tanks. Sweat was beading on my pale skin, my ponytail damp with persperation as it flopped around behind me while I lifted my head and took in a cool drink from the refrigeration unit. Moving for the shower I was interruped by an alarm coming from my comm panel.
I quickly rushed over and joined comms...
"I've got a Fenrir tackled in a belt!" Yelled Mick Fightmaster, who had flown out to nullsec alone in an interceptor looking for fun.
"Need DPS here!" He added as we all sat stunned wondering if what we were hearing was true. A Fenrir? Tackled in a belt?
I slammed the intercom on my comms console, opening up a line to my sister Dani's quarters. "Dani, wake up!! In your Tengu, NOW!"
Rushing to the docking area, I boarded my Tengu the 'Isis' once again, warping to our static to await my sister as I listened in on the comms. Things weren't looking good. Mick had the Fenrir tackled around 8 jumps deep into nullsec, with 20+ in local it was no surprise when he reported a Stratios and Myrmidon had landed on grid, deploying drones and engaging him in his interceptor. Right at this moment I was joined by Dani, her Tengu the 'Osiris' landing on the static as we both proceeded to jump through, making our way to the null exit from our chain and beginning the 8 jump trip to the Fenrir. Our Tengus both had warp speed subsystems fitted, enabling us to make fantastic time, but we held little hope of making it fast enough as Mick reported he was now in structure. Dani and I were still several jumps out, but Commander Freir had just landed on grid in his own interceptor to assist Mick in holding tackle on the Fenrir while trying desperately to fend-off the hostile drones.
Mick Fightmaster - Hero tackler
"In system, warping to you now!" I yelled over comms as Dani and myself jumped into the target system, warping to our colleagues and landing on grid moments later. There it was ... the Fenrir. Partially stuck on asteroids it was being tackled by our two interceptors who were both trailing flames. Nearby sat the Myrm with sentry drones deployed. Dani and I landed right on top of the startled Stratios pilot who I immediately tackled. "Kill the drones, please kill those drones!" Yelled Mick on comms, as his interceptor neared death...
"Wait, scratch that! Taking more damage from the lasers, kill the stratios!" Corrected Mick, a moment later.
We were already in the process of doing exactly that. I held tackle on the Strat while Dani burned for the Myrm which quickly aligned and warped off grid. With only one hostile combat ship left we turned our full attention to the Stratios which melted very quickly. Without missing a beat I burned toward a Mobile Tractor Unit which had been dropped on grid - we didn't want loot from the Fenrir being swallowed! Meanwhile Dani moved for the Fenrir and quickly tackled it, allowing our fearless interceptor pilots to take a relaxed breath. Local was still sitting at more than two dozen pilots, we expected more hostiles to land at any moment, however none seemed forth-coming. The MTU went down in short order, all of us turning our attention to the mishappen Fenrir ...
After a minute or two shooting it was quickly put into structure. We had several other pilots enroute to join us, two Ishtars and a Scimitar, so we held the Fenrir at 5% structure while waiting for our friends to arrive. Meanwhile the Fenrir's pilot had initiated self-destruct, but it would be too late - our friends arriving within moments we finished off the freighter in a blaze of fire and wild laughter.
Looting the field and exchanging 'GF's our fleet returned home to celebrate. Lots of laughs had over the following hours as the story was relayed to corpmates waking up. I sent off a text transmission to our leader Sith, informing him of the events and recommending Mick Fightmaster an award, medal or title for his outstanding efforts in not only finding the Fenrir, but keeping it tackled for more than ten minutes primarily alone in a busy hostile system while under heavy enemy fire. His 'ceptor had returned home at 5% structure.
Mick had only recently joined the corporation, and this was a good sign of things to come. This optimism was reinforced around a week later when another of our new members, Domoso, while scanning our new chain encountered two Paladins running sleeper sites. The announcment over comms set us all into an excited frenzy, reshipping to travel down chain...
Similar to when the Fenrir had been tackled, there were few pilots online when the formup was called to kill the Paladins. A mixed shield and armor fleet converged down chain shortly after, Dani and myself in our DPS Tengus the 'Lusty Wench' and 'Adulterous'. Our flagships, the ships sported over 125k EHP while producing in the area of 900 DPS each. This, combined with the warp speed subsystem, often assured they would be both the first to land on grid and the last standing. Our small fleet got into position, orbiting the connecting hole and ready to jump at a moments notice as our two scouts moved into position close to each Paladin to stage warp-ins. Around 60k seperated the two ships and so we would need two teams. Splitting into seperate squads, I warped mine to one of the Paladins when the order was given. Landing first, Dani and I quickly established tackle, destroyed a nearby MTU and settled into a gentle orbit just outside the ship's smartbomb range. Meanwhile, 60k off, our second squad had also tackled the other Paladin, warp bubbles being deployed over each. With a lot of sleepers still remaining on field, both Paladins quickly set into bastion mode as we began chipping away at their armor. After some minutes it became obvious that we would need the combined DPS of both squads to break each Paladin individually, and so the second squad came to join mine (minus their bubbler) where shortly after our combined fire wore down the big ship's defences causing it to explode in a bright, expensive ball of flame. It's pilot executed in short order afterwards.
All ships began immediately burning for the second Paladin. Things weren't going perfectly peachy for us though either - the Paladins proving very little danger, it was the sleepers remaining on grid that made things quite difficult. At least two of our ships, a Sabre and Proteus falling to sleeper fire alone. Our combined DPS was slowly breaking the last Paladin though and all was going well. Our Tengus were fairing just fine, Dani's reaching 50% shield at one point from sleeper fire and a brief trip within the smartbomb range of the hostile vessel. We could do this all day!
Suddenly a fresh ship appeared on grid at close range from us. A Pilgrim! Were reinforcements about to land? It turned out not, the lone Pilgrim only lasting a few seconds as we all momentarily switched fire before also killing it's pilot's clone. Turning our attention back to the second Paladin as it was just coming out of bastion, it too fell moments later with it's pilot managing to slip out of bubble-range and escape with his clone intact. We cheered in delight regardless.
Scooping loot and readying ourselves to return home, pilot Fido Goran announced that today was in fact his birthday and this was a wonderful way to start it! We agreed and all wished him a truly happy birthday. Several pilots, including Fido, remained behind to harass the locals who were trying to recover loot from the field while the rest of us returned to Pandora to take stock. Dani and I danced together in delight, unable to contain our giggling as we stood in the docking foyer of our tower - mission complete.
On the surface things appeared to be looking up for our corporation. Fun new members and some very successful battles. However slightly beneath the skin things weren't proceeding so well and within days of the call to continue recruiting it was announced that we would in fact be closing our doors that very week. I whimpered a little as I woke one morning, opening a corp mail entitled "All good things...". It seemed numbers were still thinning and many existing pilots had pressing issues planetside that kept them from the capsule causing the corp's outlook to be grim.
It seemed that within the next few days Dani and I may well find ourselves having to once again decide on our future ...
(To be continued...)
