18 Jan 2014

Wormhole Adventure: The POS Bash

So much for the beginning; so much for the end, foreshadowed, perhaps, at the burning control tower, when we see the men cowering beneath their shields, their leader crazy with talk, wounded and covering his bloodied face with his white-gloved hands. In the distance a Hound wreck smoulders.

The barrage is intense. Relentless. Miura rides out in his flagship Abaddon, his loyal generals by his side. Miura's lasers break the ice upon which the panicked Russians are retreating.

This is the painting in my mind.


Miura sat proud atop his horse, his men with weapons primed, weapons that resemble fixed bayonets like the pickets of a shadowy black fence. A storm cloud rolls menacingly overhead. The dark sky. Swords will soon paint it crimson. Fate is about to let loose.

This painting of the battle of J101957. 

The SKRMR Army rides out into the flames.





Okay, was that romantic enough for you? Duke's battle report paints a truer picture.


I have to admit, I was a little nervous going into this POS bash. My only experience with being on grid with a POS has resulted in either a fried frig hull or wreck. However, thanks to Ilik and Dong's logi skill we successfully fucked up some Russian POS mods. Unfortunately we didn't accomplish our goal to reinforce their tower. As Dong mentioned, it took 20 minutes to drop the shields 1% and we needed to drop them 75%. Imagine a bunch of frig PVPers shooting at anything for longer than a minute... WHY IS IT NOT DEAD YET!?! At that rate though I'd be divorced. 

The shoot was pretty uneventful until the Russians tried to make a run at us. We didn't really have an FC but a big gold star to Dong for calling targets. While we were comfortable on our perch, the Russians finally got a warpin on us with their combat probes (as anticipated). Within an instant, a hound and muninn were on top of us. I couldn't tell what everyone else was doing but I think we all started separating to put range between us and the enemy ships so our sniper weapons could do damage. That's what I was trying to do anyway. The muninn stayed right on top of me for awhile but they were focusing fire on Vincent's Naga so as I pulled further from Vincent, range from the muninn began to open as well. About this time Ilik came back from the toilet after he had gone afk just before they landed, and carried on playing logi with Vincent's Naga hitting deep armor. Then a Pilgrim joined the fight. We had the muninn at like 5% armor when he warped out. The Pilgrim was dropping armor fast too but he warped as well. Dong said on comms.... "A PVP corp and nobody has a point?" ... We're so bad! We all had our mids full of tracking comps and sensor boosters. We did kill the hound though. 

After that, we had tackle in the fleet, my wolf and Crake's Atron, just in case they poked their little fluffy hat wearing Russian heads out again. Every now and then they sent a frig or the muninn out but as soon as we turned our guns on them, they'd skitter on back into the POS shield. 

In the end I think we disabled a handful of mods and brought the tower down to 93% shields. A ransom attempt was made but they weren't buying. The chat log is as interesting as it is confusing.

[21:35:11] Commandarm Lex > we're only in order that it may be bad, not more, so enjoy the presence of guests, you will not be here the rest, and not only do we
[21:37:00] Commandarm Lex > I do not think that it will suit you, so pay 1kkk and I'll let you live here
[21:37:16] Commandarm Lex > pos )) it 500 ml) )

... he then links a bunch of his loss mails. 

[21:38:21] Commandarm Lex > ? one pvp fly .... do you think it's a penny .... nothing to me means that I can only mean your pain
[21:39:23] Commandarm Lex > in any case, we have already found) and the sleepless nights are guaranteed
[21:44:08] Commandarm Lex > Vincent R'lyeh we play in order to overbear, an excellent case
[22:03:03] Commandarm Lex > Duke Thunderhorse I have such a lot, you will choke))) but try to understand the other, on the very fact that you are weaker than me


Lesson Learned:
POSs are hard to kill! But holy shit we can organize and with short notice! I appreciate everyone who took time out of their frig roaming to join us out there. It was really cool to see all of us lone wolves come together for this operation. Although we didn't accomplish our goal of reinforcing their tower, we did show we are a force to be reckoned with and we inconvenienced them quite a bit. They have increased their defenses ($$$) and offlined their production ($$$). Also nobody died on our end so I call it a success. Their leader, Commandarm Lex or whatever it is, seems to be a hothead but if we keep putting pressure on their finances, maybe the others will talk some sense into him.



To be continued ...



MB.



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