Expanded Flying Horizons

3 Doors Down - Kryptonite

I got on today and was told by Titus to get in a frig and meet him five systems away for a roam. "Why I asked?" "Come on." I was told.

My automatic reaction was to dig my feet in and demand to know why. Instead, I took a step back and smacked my stubbornness a little bit. I had just been invited out by another corp to roam with them. This was a good thing. I didn't know why or what and this was also not good. Frigs meant nullsec. If I am to do the things I say I want to do then I need to start somewhere.

I down shipped into Jaguar. Cake Batter was on the line for today. He was one of my purchases during the Eve Uni War in June. I flipped him from 100% gank to a tad bit of tank and headed off to my new adventure. I met up with Titus on a gate and was given the system destination. I immediately warped to that gate as he told me to jump through the one we were sitting on.

Sigh. I corrected and reappeared feeling a bit like an idiot. I haven't flown with them a lot. I have that first day of school feeling. I'm kinda on my own now in a new situation. I'm not the same person that I was the very first time I flew with them. But its different but I like them and I am going to assume that I'm liked back.

So we went... and I was quiet...

Our goal was a null sec system. Frigs everywhere. So small taking pictures is almost impossible without the HUD.

The goal was a system that had about eighteen pilots in system. When we jumped in the scout, no one was on scans. The general consensus was that they were all docked or cloaked. The area was Sov null and the station was a player owned station so we did not have docking rights. Then the scout tackled a Navatis in a bubble. So the rest of the fleet jumped in and tackled this little frigate. No response.

Next they started to random him in local. "50 million" was the demand. That got an answer. Their fleet arrived and started to decloak. They launched a bomb and killed the only cruiser in the fleet. It was like "scatter!" The rest of us bailed but not before they popped the Navatis.

We then ran away. I really had no idea what was going on but it was getting to be a bit amusing. They were just out to have a good time, lose their ships, and have some fun. I was relaxing into it. We shed a few people along the way and our numbers were down to ten when we found the Hurricane.

He wound up engaging an Enyo on one side of the gate and jumping through to the rest of the fleet. There he was swarmed and pewepewed to death in assault frig hell. Its one of my personal fears. Like the day I got taken down by the RANSM ruppies. That was terrible too.

And he burned.

We continued on. Here and there in a swirling pattern. My auto pilot kept disagreeing and I had to be careful that I had the gates correct. I didn't want to ask "where am I going" every five seconds. I think I handled it well but I'm not sure it was the best way. I used maps and watched where people fleeted and figured I'd call out if I got lost.

I did alright. Targets were low when we came across Hatchery and their harass into pewpew. And that's when things started to fall apart. RANSM and 9POOL know each other well. They fly together they fight each other. It's an interesting relationship dynamic.

I watched Hatchery play with my fleet. They are amazingly good at making themselves tempting. Range, kiting, baiting, luring people in by almost falling into their range and then dancing back out. It is rather graceful to watch. I'm not sure why people fall for it. But I am the cautious one. I'd have gone "bye" and looked for something else instead of letting them dismantle the fleet piece by piece.

That is what they do and they are damn good at it.

It seems that we were all supposed to die on the roam in one glorious explosion. I think I was okay with that. Instead we were bleeding off bit by bit. The temptation to play with hatchery was to great. We lost ships one by one to them. They had links in system. They had a stabber fleet issue. It was faster then I am I learned to my frustration at one point. The fleet was feeding itself to them bit by bit.

So I orbited the gate and listened.

Someone got scram and web on the stabber or the drake. I'm not sure which one. But everyone jumped at that point and went for them. When I made it through the gate the entire fight was just under warp range but over 100k from the gate. There was a drake and a SFI on the field and a crow circling them. Plus, they had links in system. The entire scene did not make a lot of sense to me but they were having a lot of fun and ships were exploding under me. I headed down, tried not to burn straight in but somewhere shooting the SFI and some shooting the Drake and then the Drake was almost dead in low shields but only two... and then one frigs left on field.

It was uncoordinated. I really had no idea what to do. I'm used to fleets having more form and cohesion. This was a suicide fleet and everyone was riding to their own beat at this point. They wanted to kill the drake that was on grid.

And then at the end, DP (who had reshipped into a dictor) dropped a bubble right before he exploded and locked everyone in the battle. Including the handful of people in pods.

And then I was the only one left on the field. And someone targeted me. So I left.

There was a low sec system a jump away. I bailed out of null and headed home through low. It was different. Perhaps I didn't handle it well. Maybe I should have been more aggressive and also died with everyone. I can spend some time thinking about it.

But I went out. So that is good in and upon itself.

It was a good experience. I'd do it again and try to be more bold the next time.