"Oh shit guys, I screwed up. They've got me pointed."
Like many good fights, this one started with someone making a small mistake. We were hunting what was supposed to be a small Caldari militia gang estimated at about 6 frigates and destroyers lurking around faction warfare complexes in the Vlilirier system, the home system of our corporation, Justified Chaos. Vlilirier was not in any danger of being captured by the Caldari at that time, but every plex they captured would require a counter plex operation by us. Stopping them was therefore a priority.
3 of us settled on a plan. We would take 3 ships to the medium complex where the gang was last spotted. I would take a Hawk-class missile assault frigate together with another pilot in a Vexor-class drone cruiser, and would enter the plex and get the enemy engaged while a third pilot in Stabber Fleet Issue Heavy Cruiser would come in a minute later.
The Stabber Fleet Issue (SFI) is a real beast of a ship, packing heavy armour and a heavy punch, with excellent turret tracking allowing it to rapidly shred frigates. It is also very expensive, costing more than the rest of put little gang combined.
And unfortunately, it was our SFI pilot who announced he screwed up.
By the time the Vexor and I got into the medium plex, it was empty. We settled down in there waiting for our SFI to join us. But when he landed out of warp at the acceleration gate to the plex , a Caldari militia Comet class frigate and Stabber-class light cruiser were waiting for him and managed to target him and engage warp disruptors on him before he could activate the gate and join us.
"Oh shit guys, I screwed up. They've got me pointed," came the disappointed voice over our comms.
This was bad, but even a Comet and regular Stabber together should be no match for a Stabber Fleet issue. The regular Stabber is a light cruiser, barely doing more damage than some frigates. Nonetheless, with our SFI now asking for help, the Vexor and my Hawk warped out to return to the acceleration gate.
Before we landed, as expected our SFI soon announced that the Comet was destroyed. There were still several seconds left until we dropped out of warp, and I began to wonder why the two ships thought they could stop a SFI. My question was soon answered by our Vexor pilot, reading his scanner output
"Guys, watch out - Cane on scan coming to the medium"
The Hurricane-class battlecruiser was once considered to be the best ship in EVE. The ship design was later changed to make it less powerful, while changes in Faction Warfare mechanics made all battlecruisers a much rarer sight in the warzone. It remains a ferocious creature, capable of greater firepower and heavier defences than even our SFI.
My Hawk landed on the battlefield moments before our Vexor. Our SFI was tightly engaged with the enemy Stabber but the Hurricane was charging into the fray as well. I quickly began targeting both ships while maneuvering towards the Stabber. The targeting lock cycle completed and I could see the ship was already heavy mauled by our SFI. I began blasting salvos of Scourge Rage rockets from my ships's launchers into Stabber and he blew apart seconds later.
By now the Hurricane was alongside our SFI, had him tackled, and was unloading into him. I fired up my microwarpdrive and burned in toward the hurricane.
Our SFI reported that he was now almost out of capacitor due to the Hurricane's energy neutralizer. For a moment this made me pause - a neuter out frigate would lose its speed advantage and soon be a dead frigate. Then I decided that I could still survive if I was orbiting as close as possible to the Cane, getting in so close that his guns couldn't track me. That would leave just his drones to contend with. Activating my webs and rockets as soon as I was in range, I activated my webs and rockets and settle into a tight orbit on the battlecruiser. His shields began going down fast under assault from my Hawk's rockets and our Vexor.
At this point our SFI couldn't last any longer and exploded. The Hurricane turned its attention to me, and I couldn't see my capacitor level start to sink and disappear completely, switching off my warp scrambler and webs. Luckily my rocket launchers needed to capacitor to fire and so I continued beating away at him. Once in a while my capacitor would flicker back into life and I could activate one or more stasis webs to stop the Cane from getting away, while our Vexor kept the heavier ship pointed and unable to escape, and under assault by a swarm of drones.
Though my shield alarms began screaming as the Hurricane's drones burnt through them with salvos after salvo, this was one damage race that the ship would not win. We finished stripping the shield off of our prey and rapid pounded through his armour, pulverising the structure underneath and finally seeing that beautiful blue flash that signalled this fight was over.
Loot was scooped and we took score of the situation. We lost about 75 million ISK worth from the SFI, but took down a 75 million ISK Hurricane, and a 30 million ISK Comet together with a 35 million ISK Stabber. Clearly a victory for our side.
We barely got a moment to recover before we found ourselves balls deep in the next fight. While I docked up at our home station to repair my ship, our Vexor remained at the scene of the last fight, curious about a Condor-class light frigate showing up on his long-range scanners. The Condor duly dropped out of warp on top of him and warp disrupted the Vexor. Our pilot called for help, seeing the remainder of the frigate gang that we were originally after show up on long-range scan as well.
I immediately undocked together with our former SFI pilot, now in a Griffin-class electronic warfare frigate. Warping to the fight, I made the mistake of loading in long-range, low-damage Scourge Javelin rockets, expecting to fight the Condor first at ranges of 15-20 km.
Instead, I landed in the middle of the enemy fleet, with the closest target being a Kestrel missile frigate just 6km away from me. I could either reload with Rage rockets but waste 10 seconds waiting for the reload cycle to complete, or stick on with my Javeline. I chose the latter.
Our Griffin pilot called out that he was beginning to jam a Bantam-class shield repair frigate as I finished locking up the Kestrel. My warp scramble and double webs landed on him and I knew he was going nowhere. Volley after volley of rockets left my ship and slammed into the Kestrel, but I noticed with dissatisfaction how much lower the damage I was doing to him was due to the Javelin rockets. Nonetheless, I avoided retaliatory fire as the enemy fleet stayed focused on our cruiser.
The Kestrel finally exploded at the same time and I searched for my next target - a Corax class missile destroyer that had already taken heavy damage from the Vexor. Learning the lesson from earlier, I finally reloaded Rage rockets, watching patiently as the Corax's shield disappeared while my reload took place. Finally I opened fire as the Griffin pilot shouted that he lost his ship and that our jammers were gone. The Corax dropped deep into armour before its shields shot up again, but the next set of salvos from the Vexor, its drones, and my Hawk quickly reduced the enemy destroyer to a floating wreck in space.
I knew that the enemy logistics had to be cleared off the field quickly. The Bantam frigate was keeping at range 30 kilometers from the fight, but activating my microwardrive let me quickly catch up to it before the pilot reacted. With double webs and a war scramblers once more holding him in place he blew apart in seconds, and without his repairs, an expensive Caldari Navy Hookbill frigatewas swiftly dispatched by the Vexor pilot.
The fight was almost over now. The Caldari Militia now just had a single Burst-class repair frigate on field, as well as the Condor that started this second brawl. Once more I activated my MWD to try and run down the Burst, but he swiftly warped out of the fight while safely out of range. The Condor stuck around though, and the reason became clear when the Vexor pilot nervously called out that he was heavily damaged, with no shield or armour remaining and just 60% of his ship's structure operational. The Condor continued trying to shoot it light missiles at the Vexor while simultaneously staying our of range of my webs and scrambler . Finally he started burning away from us and warped out, enabling the critically damaged Vexor to enter warp and safely return to station.
With the battle over, the butcher's bill could be totaled up. Justified Chaos lost 2 ships worth 77 million, and exchange bagged 7 ships worth 208 million. Holding the field also enabled us to loot the wrecks, helping offset some of our SFI/Griffin pilot's substantial losses.
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Thoughts and Conclusions
1) Never hesitate when landing out of warp and trying to enter a plex, else you end up pointed like our SFI.
2) We were lucky that the 2 Caldari fleets operated separately and didn't communicate with each other.
3) The first gang operated near perfectly. It was truely a good fight, almost equal in the amount of ISK committed on field
4) The second Caldari gang was bluffed by the reputation of the Harpy for being heavily tanked. They ignored my presence on field despite having the DPS to quickly pop me. Their focus on the Vexor instead allowed me to quickly dispatch 2 of their DPS ships and half of their logistics. That said, it was arguably the right call by them because should I have turned out to be fitted for maximum tank, they would have spent too long breaking my defence down and would have risked the Vexor whittling them down instead. So it was the right call, bad situation for them.
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