Locked in here with me
"Candi honey, wait ... I think I'd better jump in also." I whispered over our comms to my co-pilot Candi LeMew before jumping into the Class 6 wormhole she was currently in to join her. Candi was quite frantic over the comms, saying something about "Capitals" and I just knew some shit was about to go down.
Thus far it'd been a quiet evening in space. Back at our home system of Pandora, and on our comm-networks, things were anything but quiet though. We seemed to have a larger-than-usual presence in our corporation's public channel and the chatter was also running thick in our private comms too with several new faces joining our ranks. Candi and I had decided to spend a couple of hours scouting down our wormhole chain from home to see if we could find anything interesting. We'd had some fantastic battles in recent times and they'd left us with a thirst for more action.
Initially the chain seemed very quiet. Nothing was moving - nothing was even floating. Empty. Our corp scouts had stopped scanning at a Class 4 system so Candi and I decided to pick up from where they left off and began scanning the chain even deeper. After moving through several systems we encountered a Class 6 inhabited by HYDRA RELOADED alliance. I waited one system out, cloaked in my Tengu while Candi entered and began scouting around inside in her cloaky Proteus, quickly finding the resident's control tower. Under it's forcefield was a juicy assortment of Tech 3 vessels, some haulers, a Chimera and .. an Orca. Candi reported back to me that two of the vessels (the Orca and a hauler) were manned, while a third pilot had been spotted flying around the system in a capsule. My heart skipped a few beats when Candi reported to me that the hauler-pilot had just reshipped to a Moros and the Orca had just warped off from the tower. I reported these events to my corpmates over our comms as they occured .. "Sounds like they're gonna roll their static and do sites." replied one pilot as my colleagues back at Pandora began reshipping to come join me.
But it was too late. Pandora was more than six systems back down the chain, and these guys were working fast to collapse their connections. Candi and I had just arrived several minutes earlier and hadn't even had a chance to scan out the system as yet so had no chance of catching them at any of the holes other than the one we'd just come from. I jumped in and sat orbiting the hole cloaked while Candi kept her goggled-eyes on the control tower. I watched as their pilot in a capsule warped to the hole I was on, proceeded to jump out, then back in again before warping off. Obviously this hole would be the next they'd be rolling...
"Heh. I think I'll just bail back the way I came before they roll it." I mentioned on comms as I gave Candi the order to warp to the hole to join me.
"Wait. Wait. Holy shit, Orca landing! Orca landing! MOROS LANDING! MOROS LANDING!!" I yelled over comms to Candi as both ships landed on the very hole I was orbiting. Candi was still in warp but I didn't hesitate and decloaked immediately.
"Moros is jumping through. Hole reduction. I'm gonna light up the Orca for a giggle and see what he does." I mentioned on comms as I locked up the Orca which sat motionless on my side of the hole before unleashing volley after volley of Mjolnir Rage into his shields. I blinked in surprise. Why wasn't he jumping through?? I fully expected him to follow the Moros, at which point I'd planned on also jumping out to prevent becoming trapped in the system.
Suddenly an activation and the Moros appears on grid once again, the hole collapsing behind him...
"Oh shit. Hole's gone, we're rolled in. Ok, killing the Orca then ..." I said over comms with a grimace as I settled into an easy orbit of the warp-scrammed Orca which was already hitting 50% shields. I wasn't too worried about the collapsed hole in one sense - both Candi and I had vessels equipped with probes - but I was far more concerned about what would be landing on grid to save the Orca as we had no exit bookmarks. Candi landed right at that moment in her Proteus and didn't waste a minute in joining me in wailing on the Orca. Meanwhile the Moros was aligning and quickly warped off grid leaving my little assistant and I slowly grind through the Orca's shields and into it's armor. Surprisingly it was melting very quickly and only a moment or two later it exploded, our vessels rocking heavily from the shockwave that spiralled outward from the doomed vessel.
While the victory was sweet I was fully imagining that it would be very short lived. Surely, like any adept wormhole corporation these guys wouldn't be rolling holes without a support fleet, right? Or at least some ECM to aid in escaping, right? What would the Moros pilot reship to? How many unseen pilots were also here with us? As we pulled range from the Orca's wreck and began to cloak I mashed my Dscan several times per second, and as the Orca's pilot warped his capsule to safety I waited for the fleet of doom that I fully expected to land on top of us at any moment.
But ... it never came!
Erica Dusette > BAHAHAHAHAHA
I burst out loudly into premature celebrations on comms when suddenly right at that moment ..... my ship's systems went dead. Completely-dead. Seemed my power source had gone offline at the worst possibly moment, but what was even worse - the same thing happening to Candi's vessel at that exact same moment. We both quickly found ourselves floating in space, decloaked, with our ships' helms completely unresponsive.
"Noooo!!!" I screamed from inside my pod-fluid as I desperately tried rebooting my ship's systems. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the systems back online. Inside my pod, consumed by darkness, I began to quiver softly in fear. This would be no way to die - helpless and unable to even fight back. I could picture the forces of HYDRA RELOADED scanning down our vessels' location that very minute. Resigned to our fate we continued to reboot our systems anyway until finally Candi managed to bring her Proteus online once again - finding it safe and un-tackled she quickly cloaked up. I could hear her whimpering over our emergency comms. "Erica, I can see your ship on Dscan. And ... combat probes, lots of combat probes!! Wait ... oh no I see a Rapier now too!!"
Erica's personal assistant, beautician
and combat wing-girl Candi LeMew
A chill ran up the slender curvature of my spine as I listened. "Arrgghh!!! Start you fucker! STAAART!!" I yelled as I bashed the console within my capsule. Suddenly, a moment later, my big blue eyes were bathed in the light of my console powering up. My ship coming back online. I immediately engaged my cloaking device and hit my Dscan to see both the Rapier and combat probes on very short scan from me. Wasting no time I immediately warped off to join Candi who'd bookmarked us a nice little safe spot.
Erica Dusette > Epic, I'm alive
Andrew Jester > Guess you went balls deep for that Orca o.o
We sat close by each other, both bursting out into giggles over the comm as we realised we'd somehow managed to get away with what is possibly the cheekiest gank we'd ever pulled off. For now though we were stuck in this Class 6 system, but we'd earned a break and decided to stay cloaked and relax for a couple hours and scan our way out later that evening. But for the poor locals it seemed we'd ruined their plans for farming that evening. I remembered an old holo-film I'd once seen on the Galnet, so decide to link this applicable scene in local chat before kicking back in my pod and checking-in with events back home in Pandora...
Blood Union Alliance
Meanwhile back home in Pandora my younger sister Dani Dusette, along with another of our family's pilots Amber Patoria, sat in system helping monitor the incoming connections. Amber didn't usually spend time in Pandora, but recently Candi and myself were forced to leave on an operation and thus I figured I'd bring Amber down to help Dani in maintaining a home-presence whilst most of our pilots were away. Blood Union, along with EXPLOSION alliance, had recently begun invading wormholes in a very-public campaign of chest-beating in the wormhole section of the Galnet forums. Ultimately they posted a list of notable wormhole corporations whom they intended to invade and evict from wormhole space. Understandably such a move is likely to attract some attention from the target corporations - and it did. Our corporation, along with Exit Strategy and Disavowed alliance invaded Blood Union's home system several days later. Ultimately this invasion would end dissapointingly with BU sueing for peace after realising they'd bitten off far more than they could chew. In anycase these events left Candi and myself away from home on operations for a couple days and gave Amber her first opportunity to visit Rolled Out's lovely home system of Pandora.
Having killed the Orca, Candi and I sat cloaked in the Class 6 system and chatted with Amber and Dani over the comms. We listened as a situation started to build in Pandora's home chain ...
Tazzina - A Northern Associates. pilot about to have a really bad day.
"Proteus warping to 4a, we need to get a bubbler on the other side..." Said one of our pilots over the comms as a small fleet of our colleagues pursued a pilot through the chain. The Proteus belonged to a nullsec corporation that was part of Northern Associates alliance. The pilot, a young woman named Tazzina, had entered our chain via a null-exit and had been busy exploring. Candi and myself weren't the only ones suffering system issues that evening, it seemed both Dani and Amber had been suffering the same power-outages too, and so decided to err on the side of caution and not join the others in the Proteus-hunt. It didn't take long and our skilled colleagues in Rolled Out had managed to capture and kill both the ship in question along with Tazzina's clone.
The kill had been quite straight forward. The girls and I listened over comms as the events played out, before going back to talking among ourselves. Several minutes passed when suddenly there was frantic talk over comms once again ...
"Guys, that same pilot from the Proteus is back on the null hole .... in a Thanatos!!" Yelled Mindful Visteen over the comms. His own co-pilot was at that very moment on the hole.
"Point Thanatos!!!"
For a moment everyone froze as the realisation of what was happening set-in. Candi and I groaned, stuck in this Class 6 system and unable to help kill the Thanatos, we listened in as my sister Dani and her co-pilot Amber both decided to throw caution to the wind and join the fleet in engaging the hostile carrier, despite their own ship's system issues. Comms were frantic as everyone scrambled to reship and make their way several systems down-chain to the null hole...
Amber Patoria > inb4 I dc and die
Henrayyyyy Andven > fack
Andrew Jester > lololololol
Henrayyyyy Andven > I want to go
Henrayyyyy Andven > but I accidentally sieged
Braxus Deninard > wow
Braxus Deninard > get on comms if not already guys thanny tackled
Andrew Jester > FUCK POLARITYYYYYYYYYY
Amber in her Loki, and Dani in her Tengu, quickly made their way with the others to the null hole and jumped out where they found the carrier tackled. Josh, our Sabre pilot, had already expertly set bubbles on the carrier as well as at range toward the system's only station to prevent reinforcements warping in on top of us.
From here it was straight-forward. More of our pilots began arriving and we quickly shredded the Thanatos' shields and began digging into it's armor. It was repping, albiet not too successfully. It was at this moment the proficiency of our Sabre pilot showed - an Archon warping in to attemp to save the Thanatos was caught in the bubble placed at range by our DIC. This gave us enough time to finish the Thanatos which exploded in a brilliant ball of light.
By this time our DIC pilot was at range, dropping more safety bubbles, and Tazzina managed to warp her pod to safety this time. There were cheers over our comms as our pilots celebrated the impromptu victory. Our FC, AgentFiftySix, ordered us to all burn toward the bubbled Archon as it would be our next target. But within moments the plan was foiled as not one, but two more Archons landed on grid. Realising we'd not be able to break the tank of three carriers with our small fleet Agent quickly made the decision to bail and ordered the fleet to re-approach the hole and jump through before free-burning back to Pandora.
Relieved, I listened in as Dani explained they'd all made it home safely without any losses. It'd been both her, and Amber's, first ever capital ship kill. For all of us, including Candi and I still locked in the C6, it'd been an exciting day with the Thanatos being the tasty cream on top of the cake.
Henrayyyyy Andven > he got, how you say
Henrayyyyy Andven > rekt
