Janu Hull
Caldari
Order of Z Industries
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Posted - 2007.06.14 18:19:00 -
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I was ratting in BR one jump out from Prometheia station when I saw a newbie corp toon enter the system. Didn't think much of it, since Providence is largely NRDS, so I waved and no response.
After I loaded up the hold, I checked the employment history. Ex-ENH. Spotter toon, for damned sure. I warped to the planet closest to the IS-R7P, ran a scan, nothing showed. Cloaker too. Figures.
Figured what the hell and jumped in to IS-R. Sure enough, Josiah of ENH sitting there in a Hyperion. For grins and giggles, I go ahead and set my warp to Prometheia, and as soon as I appear, he locks on and the warp drive goes dead. I send a call out on the intel channel, hoping some of the pilots in Sylph were listening in, and call the camp out in local. No reply.
Not looking to fight at a blatant disadvantage, I turn the Rokh back to the gate and kick the tank and afterburner into high gear. A few shots landed, not even coming close to threatening my ship, and I noted that he wasn't webbing me.
Keeping cool and not returning fire, I dove for the gate and jumped back into BR, immediately aligning for another gate. I made the jump just as he appeared, so I figured he knew exactly where I was going, so when I reached the next gate, I turned and aligned on an asteroid belt and figured I'd try playing waypoint tag until I could slip back into IS-R.
Didn't quite go as planned. When I reached the belt, I didn't align fast enough (typical in a damned Rokh) and he got me scrammed. There were a couple NPCs there, and I got locked on by them. I cursed a bit, then set the AB on full, figuring I'd try to get a little distance on him, or at least line up some straight shots so the radial velocity between me and him would ease up enough that I could light up the 350mm Prototypes I was packing.
I revved up the tank again, and he popped drones. Ogre IIs naturally (What the hell is it about Ogres? They have a sale at Gal-mart or something?). Anyway, I assess the situation, his guns, whatever they were, doing about 45 points a shot, and his damned drones were spitting 25 a pop. I launch my Vespa IIs and decide my best option is to force a stalemate, and pull his teeth. I wait out the 45 second lock ons for his drones, and break the lock on him. When the locks go solid, I send the Vespas after his Ogres. Not quickly dying, but they start popping.
After the first Ogre explodes, I notice a sickeningly familiar red effect on my ship. Son of a bugger is NOSing me... The shields are steady, taking the abuse pretty well. I'm pulsing my Shield Booster when I go down too far, and even with him vamping me, my cap stays stable at about the 45-50% mark. Thanking God for having spent the ISK on the CCC Is, I set the Vespas on Ogre #2, when I see him pipe up in local about why the heck I picked a belt with rats. Curious, I lock onto him again, and son of biscuit, the Sanshas have eaten his shields and he's halfway through armor. A little rush kicks in when it occurs to me that this battle might not go as badly as I thought, and I redouble the effort in chewing up his Ogres.
Just as quickly as the rush of confidence kicks in, it all goes to hell. A second ship warps in, and everything I'd hoped falls to pieces. Fwaatcha rolls in flying a tackler Merlin, complete with even more NOS, which puts the pressure on my cap too far over the edge, and finally it starts losing ground. To add insult to injury, he's also webbed me, and the speed that was keeping the battle open vanishes as I slide into the optimal range on Josiah's blasters.
When the cap dies, my tank goes with it, and I'm into armor. Exhaling, I recall the Vespas into the drone bay, figuring the least I can do is NOT give them five free drones and hope the ship destroys them when it blows. I watch the damage roll in, semi-helplessly, but I set the right click menu to "Eject". I wait until the Rokh is half into Structure and punch it.
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