Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Massacre

I was shaken from my reverie as my Ishtar suddenly lept into warp towards an asteroid belt. I quickly asked Spectre, our FC, if he had warped us all to 0. I sighed after receiving an affirmative, as my Ishtar's tank was reliant on speed. Reaching down to the comm panel, I warned engineering to hit the MWD as soon as we landed in the belt.

Before long, the shuddering increased again as the Ishtar re-entered normal space. Asteroids were becoming visible on the view screen, and the signatures of enemy ships were resolving. As soon as I landed, my Ogre II's slipped into the depths of space, chasing a Brutix which had been primaried. The Ogre II's went in for the kill, litterally blasting it apart, while I orbited the maelstrom of the fight, secure from danger.

But before my Ogre II's reached a rupture, their next target, an enemy Falcon uncloaked. I immediately siezed the initiative and began streaking towards it. Unfortunately, the Falcon pilot noticed me and ran away. As I was now effectively on the outskirts of the fight, I ignored the primary calling of Spectre.

Instead, I targeted an enemy Stealth Bomber which had uncloaked and begun firing off volleys of torpedoes at my comrades. I locked and pointed it instantly, depriving it of the ability to cloak or run. My Warrior II's danced around the now helpless Nemesis. Just as it entered structure, a volley of torpedoes from Lachesis's Stealth Bomber landed a direct hit, ripping through the flimsly craft.

Instantly, I lached onto yet another Stealth Bomber which had unwisely shown itself during the fight. I laughed at it's pittiful attempts to escape, as my Warrior II's shredded the doomed Manticore.

Suddenly, the silence of space was no longer punctuated by the silent concussion waves of blasters and torpedoes. As soon as it had begun, the fight was over.

The enemy had lost 1 Battlecruiser, 3 Cruisers, 2 Stealth Bombers, and 2 Frigates. We lost nothing.

The fight was not as one sided as it looks, they did have a falcon, but they failed to protect it from my Ishtar, which forced it off grid.

As the fleet was preparing to warp to a SS, our scanners picked up an enemy Abbadon and Stabber Fleet Issue fleeing into Amamake. We briefly considered the danger of bringing our GCC'ed fleet into Amamake, possibly the most dangerous system in EvE (after Rancer), but decided to press the matter.

As my Ishtar phased out of Jump Space, I could already see the projectiles and lasers streaking across the silence of space. I immediately locked the Abaddon and sent my Ogre II's, despite the sentry fire, on it. It was a race against time, the Abaddon was straining, ever so slowly to get within 2.5 Km of the gate, it was less than a kilometer away. Throwing all caution to the wind, I ordered my Ishtar into a tight 500m orbit of the ship, and activated my triple blaster battery. The shuddering was immense, I couldn't tell when my volleys left the Ishtar and when sentry fire hit it.

Just as it seemed like the Abaddon was going to escape from us, Kerblamo's Tempest phased into Real Space and fired a torpedo volley into the stricken Battleship. Suddenly, it's engines died down... the piloting lights flickered out... and it just sat there, for a moment, before the majestic ship imploded on itself.

Checking my sensors, I realized that the Fleet Stabber was still here, on the gate, even though it had had more than enough time to make good it's escape.

It was a mistake we capitalized on.

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