He popped on today and asked, "Someone got you?"
"No. My corp found out and I was ordered to drain it."
"No fun. I was hoping for epic fights over you for it."
"Naw. I've had lots of offers to 'help' me and split it, but no one came and hunted me down. Want your isk back since I had to drain it?"
"That'd be nice."
"Done."
That is that little cycle of life for my bounty.
This morning, while scanning I found a 5/10. As always, this excites me. As usual, I had the misfortune of being alone. I saved the site and continued on with the hope that someone would log on shortly.
About half an hour later, Ren logged on. I tackled him and dragged him off to the plex.
The plex was unkind to us and did not drop anything. However, as I was hanging out while my prober searched the systems, Ren said that there is a cynabal on the gate that wanted to engage him.
"He aggressed?"
"Yeah."
"I'll be right there." I undocked and hopped into the system. The cynabal was eyeing Ren. Ren had gone flashy red (-5 sec status) on our sunday roam. So, if the Cynabal attacked him he'd not have to worry about gateguns. Drakes are always up in the air however. It all depended on how he was fit.
I uncloaked and went for the Cynabal. I just kinda attacked, confident that Ren was at my back and it would be a bad day for the cynabal. For a moment I wondered if I had made a mistake. I remembered Ren had said the cynabal aggressed on him. I was puzzled why it was not flashy red. Then I realized that because Ren was flashy red the cynabal did not take GCC and therefor I got to take GCC. Oh well. Hi gateguns.
As the gateguns started to wear at me I was reminded of some of the recent anti-gatecamp posts I have read that they want the gateguns to be untankable and instablap people. The reasoning is that low sec will be safe to enter. It seems that there is a gatecamp on every gate of every low sec system at every hour of the day or something. That, and the residents have a terrible habit of shooting people who are not blue to them. Something I seem to be engage in myself.
The cynabal immediately tried to pull range. I had a long point however and overheated everything as fast as I could. Nav skills are win. I chased him downdown and got him neuted out. Without cap he was going to be in a very unhappy place. The gateguns were blapping me and then so was he.
It was a good choice to scram me and shoot at me. The gateguns were consuming my shield. The chances of me popping before him were there. The chances of me popping after him were also there. He was safe from them. However, ren and I dropped drones on him and broke the lock. At 1% shields I warped off and left Ren to finish the job. However, I had caught up to the cynabal and neuted him out. Ren dropped a web on him and finished the kill.
I had anticipated the cynabal's goal to pull range and try to stay outside of my range. I expected it because that is how the people I fly with fly theirs. That anticipation helped me catch and hold him I feel. I knew that he needed range to be effective and I knew that neuting him would destroy his day. He also had a faction disruptor fit. Sadly, it did not drop, but it did give him that range he would need normally.
So, I acted upon a series of mental notes based off of my knowledge. For once, I didn't have a long 'what to do, should I, uhh, hmm, worry fret" phase. That makes me happy. I feel I did the right thing. Oh, I panicked as my shields started to vanish and I was scrammed. I had a nice, "oh shit" moment for a bit. Turns out that he had an ASB (Ancillary Shield Booster). I felt a little better about why my DPS didn't seem to make the dent I expected it to.
If I had been by myself the cynabal might have killed me if I had not stayed on the gate and deaggressed. If he had gotten distance and lured me off the gate he could have scrammed me and let the gateguns eat me alive. Now, if I had been in a bad position I might have been able to break the lock with my drones. However, that is up in the air because with distance the travel time for the drones might have been slow enough for the gateguns to pop them before they got a jam on him and that is if they even got the jam on him.
There are a lot of thoughts and situational moments here. I am pleasantly surprised that I processed so much information and made my decisions and actions based off of my unconscious analysis. I feel like I understand what happened, what could have happened, and some of the various probabilities to make my decision. I had Ren at my back and that made me willing to throw myself into a situation that I do not think I would have taken alone.
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