Vengeance et alia v Drake et alia

The hunt:

This was a small fleet action (as opposed to a gang action); a handful of us had formed up to take on a couple of pvp Drakes.

About four of us jumped in on the Drakes, me in my Vengeance, a couple of battle cruisers and another ship I cannot recall. The others were focusing on the primary Drake, while I burned towards the second Drake and tackled him. The op was running smoothly, but once we were well and truly committed, I heard "Local spike!" over vent.

I hesitated for a fraction of a second - I did not want to abandon colleagues in battle - but I'm getting to the point where I can smell a bug out coming. I began aligning for a warp out, and my instincts were validated when the FC ordered everyone out.

Unfortunately, before I hit warp I found myself tackled my the Drake I had been pointing, and a huge blob was dropped on me. As ever, in these cases, the killmail did not catch everyone involved, probably because some of them did not have time to lock me before I went down.

2011.07.23 18:07:00

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Vengeance
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 4385

Involved parties:

Name: JerichoSteele (laid the final blow)
Security: 3.6
Corp: The Free Haven Group
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Muninn
Weapon: 720mm Howitzer Artillery II
Damage Done: 212

Name: 2Pac Shakurian
Security: 1.2
Corp: Probe Patrol
Alliance: P R I M E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 1848

Name: Vamun Re
Security: -0.2
Corp: Kagan-Kincaid Enterprises
Alliance: Subspace Exploration Agency
Faction: NONE
Ship: Punisher
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 1610

Name: Kethen T'val
Security: 1.1
Corp: Rekall Incorporated
Alliance: The Fendahlian Collective
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: Hurricane
Damage Done: 574

Name: SureShot001
Security: 5.0
Corp: Colossus Technologies
Alliance: P R I M E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Cerberus
Weapon: Scourge Fury Heavy Missile
Damage Done: 141

Name: Keizer Kip
Security: 4.3
Corp: Probe Patrol
Alliance: P R I M E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Heavy Missile Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Name: Guttzu
Security: 5.0
Corp: Estrale Frontiers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Heavy Missile Launcher II
Damage Done: 0

Name: Gustaphen
Security: 0.1
Corp: Kagan-Kincaid Enterprises
Alliance: Subspace Exploration Agency
Faction: NONE
Ship:
Weapon: XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay
Damage Done: 0

Name: Kmelx
Security: 2.0
Corp: Applied Creations
Alliance: The Fendahlian Collective
Faction: NONE
Ship: Arazu
Weapon: Warp Scrambler II
Damage Done: 0

Name: JamesWyh
Security: 0.1
Corp: Probe Patrol
Alliance: P R I M E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Drake
Weapon: Parallel Weapon Navigation Transmitter
Damage Done: 0

Name: Xovbor
Security: 4.7
Corp: Colossus Technologies
Alliance: P R I M E
Faction: NONE
Ship: Keres
Weapon: Remote Sensor Dampener II
Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 126
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Rocket Launcher II
Damage Control II
1MN Afterburner II
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 408 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 3 (Cargo)
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 800 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 524 (Cargo)
Damage Control II (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
50W Infectious Power System Malfunction (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Small Armor Repairer II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 42
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 3
Phalanx Rage Rocket, Qty: 1000 (Cargo)
Gremlin Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
5W Infectious Power System Malfunction (Cargo)
Hobgoblin II, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Phalanx Javelin Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Foxfire Rage Rocket, Qty: 836 (Cargo)
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Medium Capacitor Booster II (Cargo)


Afterthougths:

Warping to a safe, I wished them all a gf for a trap well sprung. I was curious why they had pointed me, rather than one of the battle cruisers, which would presumably have made for a nicer killmail. They agreed, and explained that their point man had been "totally fail". He meant to point a BC, but had ended up targeting me instead.

Bad luck for me, but I can see how it happened. Eve does not handle multiple targets well; I've been thrown by it when trying to split my modules between drones and a ship.

While dying to a blob is never fun, or particularly instructive, I think the fight up to that point had been well executed. I had tackled my target and the fleet was taking down the enemy in good order. When the situation changed, I retreated in a timely manner, and would have survived but for a targeting error on the part of my enemy.

However, I did go into the fight with a hold full of loot from an earlier fight. I consequently lost any profit from that fight. What I should have done instead (given that gcc had prevented me from visiting a station) was drop the loot in a safe. Losing a ship unavoidably is one thing. Losing loot unnecessarily is another.