Vengeance & Rifter v Cyclone

 

The hunt:

This is an older kill that I forgot to post, but as it was a little different from my usual approach I thought I'd post it now.

I had scanned down a missioning Cyclone in Aeschee and made an attack run. Unfortunately, he was a long way from the warp in point, so he simply warped to a station. The pilot did not immediately leave system, however, and did not seem to abandon the mission. I tried waiting at the warp in, but he made no move to return.

Guessing that he was watching local, I reached out for assistance. At that time Cable Udan was not yet a Tusker, but his application to join the corp had been submitted on our forums. Knowing that he was in the region, I convo'd him and asked if he wanted to help catch a Cyclone. He did.

I created a fleet and invited Cable to join. Once he had done so, I asked him to warp to me (in the mission) and sit at the warp in point. After he was settled, I jumped into Jovannion and sat on the other side of the gate.

At this point it was a waiting game. If the Cyclone was keeping his eye on his mission with a narrow beam scan he would see right through our ploy. However, because there were no other Tuskers in system there was a chance that he would simply warp back to the mission once he saw me leave local. Sure enough, only a few minutes had passed before the Cyclone jumped back.

Cable immediately landed point on the Cyclone and I jumped back into Aeschee. Warping to Cable, the only question on our minds was whether or not Cable's Rifter would hold out long enough for me to land and take over point.

Impressively, his tank held out, despite the drones. As soon as I landed I started to clear the drones; a task we had agreed Cable would start as soon as he had locked down the Cyclone - a few extra seconds of dps on the battlecruiser were meaningless compared to mitigating the drone damage. Between the two of us, the drones did not last long.

Switching from Caldari Navy to Rage, I opened fire on the Cyclone. Cable and I whittled away his tank until, finally, his hull gave out.

2011.09.02 19:09:00

Victim: Opzuz
Corp: Novacorp
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Cyclone
System: Aeschee
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 24735

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Foxfire Rage Rocket
Damage Done: 15454

Name: Cable Udan
Security: -8.0
Corp: Caldari Provisions
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Rifter
Weapon: Rifter
Damage Done: 9281

Destroyed items:

650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 3
Quake M, Qty: 38
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay
Invulnerability Field I

Dropped items:

650mm Artillery Cannon II, Qty: 2
Gyrostabilizer II
Quake M, Qty: 60
Tracking Enhancer II
XR-3200 Heavy Missile Bay, Qty: 2
Reactor Control Unit II
Invulnerability Field I, Qty: 2
Co-Processor II
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 105
Large Shield Booster II
Large Shield Extender I
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 802 (Cargo)
Quake M, Qty: 500 (Cargo)

We split the loot 50:50, with Cable happy to buy out my share.


Afterthoughts:

It's always nice to see a plan come together. Being flashy, and a member of a notorious pirate corporation, the element of surprise is a rare treat.

As a bonus, the exercise gave me a chance to fly with Cable before he joined the Tuskers; because of my restricted play hours I sometimes find it difficult to fleet up with the new members joining the corp in this current round of recruitment.