The Naive Orca Pilot

This may come as a surprise but I have had issues getting my Orca into low sec, yet again.  This is an ongoing problem. I've never met so many issues before yet again, over the weekend, I was attempting to stock my store. I've worked hard to patch the holes that wore into my stock and I was able to get some productive feedback on things people would like to see (still no one uses the form for the most part but Naughty and Tyro).

Sunday was the eve of Eve's 10th birthday. It was a very busy day and space was more full of random people than ever. The Dust 514 effect is hitting Molden Heath and shaking up the population. The Dust thing has drawn lots of Faction Warfare types due to them being the first connection to Dust. This particular day had random groups gatecamping. It was well outside of our primetime and wild fleets of 10+ kept appearing and pushing our little side attacks back.

I had loaded the Orca and found Bosena to be quiet with only one neutral and the rest blue. I warped it to the gate, only to find the gate camped on the high sec side. An anti-pirate group had some insta locking ships. It was an interesting mix of Rokh, Heron and Cynabal. I warped the Orca back off the gate and went to do some shopping with it in Rens. Later, I sent Chella to the gate in her Viator with the smaller items. My first run they just watched. The second run, when I landed on the gate they jumped through.

Now, one habit I've gotten out of because of fleets is auto jumping gates into low sec. I had Sugar on the Bosena side and Chella just landed on the gate and watched them jump through. Sugar watched them re-approach the gate and wait. Chella, I did not jump into them so that their instalocking camp could nab my Viator. After all, there is more than one way into the area. I saw no reason to take that particular risk. I turned around and went another way to drop off my goods. They decided to camp the Bosena side of the gate for a while. Uninterested in losing my ships or haul, I waited until our corps woke up.

A bit later in the day, local was solid blue with about 12 or 13 people. They had been running around chasing this and killing that. We had been shooting at another group earlier. I jumped through a small gang on the gate and the boys went to kill them. With everything clear, I made sure that I was all set and off I went with the Orca. The rest of the gang decided to come to the gate as well.

As I warp the Orca to the gate Razor goes, "a gang is landing!" Sigh. It is a Rupture,  a Stabber Fleet Issue, a Maller and some other things. I land on the gate with them. On the other side is my fleet which is composed of the kitchen sink and drain (Throax x3, Mininn, Naga, Tornado x2, Zealot, Cyclone, Ishtar, Taranis, Talos, Omen). I ask, "Want me to jump and see if they follow?"

"Yes. If you wan't." In the background, some that are not used to my Orca jumps are going, "Orca? Orca?" while others go, "Do not shoot the Orca!"

As I am about to jump, I get a conversation request from the other group.  "Want an escort?"

"Oh yeah, that'd be great. Has it been bad?" I ask as I relay my new conversation to the fleet.

"Yeah. We're anti-pirates and there have been gate camps all day on some of the gates. It's clear now they warped off."

On my other screen, I am staring at a 13 man fleet sitting on the gate. Interesting. Warped off, huh?  "I should be good. I have a cloak and agility mods," I tell him and I jump.

They jump with me. I decloak and set warp for the station. Someone on coms commands them, not to shoot the Orca again and shoot instead the people that just jumped in. The rupture pilot targets me. Diz also targets me. Diz tosses me into warp with webs and I start assisting on the entire killing of everyone with the rest of the fleet. I tell the guy that sent me the convo that, "They webbed me and I got away are you okay?" but he didn't respond and left the convo.

Oh well. I suspect they had other ideas that had nothing to do with being an escort! It is a sad, sad day that anti-pirates are lured by an easy kill such an an Orca.

Or, as Titus said, "Sugar, I love that Orca."

Yes. I'll lose it some day at this rate but it has been a very fruitful Orca so far when it comes to attracting random fights.