When the (Speed)Freaks Come Out

Anybody who knows me at all will know I hate nullsec. I really can't say it enough: bubbles and blobs are the bane of my existance, and my time in Lower Syndicate is hardly remembered fondly.

But when someone named Fish Brain suggests an interceptor run into the drone regions, it's hard to resist.

Fish is one of the Bastards' newest recruits and he's already proven himself both in combat and FC ability and in sheer weight of personality. He's quickly become one of my favourite people to fly with, so I knew the near-spur-of-the-moment op (it was planned for earlier in the week, but got postponed when an error hit stargates all over the cluster which caused ships' systems to shut down on reaching a jump destination for a couple of fairly miserable weeks) was guaranteed to be fun.

The Bastards and Hellcats are based fairly close to the entrance into nullsec through EOA-ZC, but the route we took led us instead through LXQ2-T via Paala. Fish called for the gang to orbit the gate while he took a peek inside. The other side was camped, mainly by members of Legion of xxDEATHxx and a couple small bubbles.

FC Fish obtained aggression and the lot of us jumped in, quickly wiping out the Legion Falcon and a random Merlin which happened to get caught in one of the bubbles. The Drake tore the hell out of 3Jayne's Taranis before Jayne got away, then it managed to drop aggro and jump through the gate. The Ishtar set sentry drones on us, but they didn't seem to do it much good; we swarmed towards the HAC and he booked it for the nearest celestial, leaving his drones behind. A Muninn showed up, and another Drake, and a capital ship somewhere in the system assigned fighters to the campers. FC Fish called for a tactical regroup some 250km above the gate.

We milled about up there for a couple minutes; then the fighters were withdrawn and the Drake and Ishtar returned. FC Fish made a calculated decision and went down to test his luck on the second Drake and ended up having to jump back through the gate when the Ishtar opened up on him. Fish came back, the Drake attacked him, and we descended upon the gate, popping and podding the Drake and running back out again, but not before 3Jayne's Taranis bought it.

godsend22 > need hlp paala gate
godsend22 > fuckers
Mr Frog > gf to you too
godsend22 > nice try

We decided to jump back into Paala for a quick break and to let Jayne reship, and when Randgris warped back to the gate one of the bubbles caught him and pinned him in the open like a piece of laundry left out to dry.

Round Two saw 3Jayne replaced by Raelyf, with Randgris back at the helm of an Ares. Instead of hanging about for more silly buggers on the gate, we shot through LXQ and into PX-IHN, skirting Etherium Reach and heading into Insmother. It was quiet out here, and we encountered nobody until C-J6MT, where we pounced on and blew away a hapless Intrepid Crossing Ishkur.

Lord Golgatha > fuck you
Lord Golgatha > all

Then came the Moby Dick of the run: a Shadow of xxDEATHxx Dominix we swarmed on the 78-0R6 gate. I was happily orbiting on manual pinning the space whale in place when he locked us up.

(notify) Light Ion Blaster II requires 1.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 0.0 units.
(notify) Light Ion Blaster II requires 1.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 0.0 units.
(notify) Light Ion Blaster II requires 1.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 0.0 units.
(notify) Warp Disruptor II requires 4.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 2.7 units.
(notify) Catalyzed Cold-Gas I Arcjet Thrusters requires 36.0 units of charge. The capacitor has only 4.7 units.

Oh, crap. Our boy Andprand had clearly come prepared to take on a group of interceptors and had loaded his battleship with cap neutralisers. I started kiting in a growing spiral, glad I'd jumped by accident to the clone that had speed implants the night before. Finally the neut cycle on me ended and I had enough capacitor power to warp away. We lost Randgris' Ares and Mr Frog's Taranis to the hungry Domi and expressed our appreciation for an opponent who kept us on our toes.

Mr Frog > nice one
Shae Tiann > :D
Andprand > gf ?
Andprand > ah

Our casualties started home, and after a bit of conference the rest of us decided it was getting too late to consider delving further into the drone regions and set course back to Evati.

Four jumps back, and a Vagabond belonging to a pilot who'd mocked us in Local on our way through earlier appeared on the G-QTSD gate in EFM-C4. Four interceptors versus a Vaga? At this time of the night? With our reputation? Bingo!

All in all, it wasn't a bad roam. We had some laughs and some tense moments, kicked some arse, took a few names and generally agreed that despite our losses we came out ahead. Thanks to Fish Brain for fantastic FCing; and to our targets, as always, nothing personal, mates!