Malediction et alia v Vagur

The hunt:

I heard the first attempt go down when I first logged in. I was not sure what was going on, but something was clearly happening in Jov. As I was passing through that system on my way to Adirain, I offered to help, but the crew were too focused on the fight to give me a response. Sadly, this was the result:

2011.12.21 20:46:00

Victim: Bartomeu Sosimo
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Destroyed: Lachesis
System: Jovainnon
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 14172

Involved parties:

Name: Sanityfree Soldier (laid the final blow)
Security: 5.0
Corp: Liquid Cold
Alliance: None
Faction: None
Ship: Vargur
Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II
Damage Done: 14172

Destroyed items:

Invulnerability Field II
Small Capacitor Booster II
200mm Railgun II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Large Shield Extender II
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I, Qty: 2
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 56
Navy Cap Booster 400
Spike M, Qty: 110
Heavy Missile Launcher II
Warp Disruptor II
Caldari Navy Havoc Heavy Missile, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 871 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 400 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 271 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

F85 Peripheral Damage System I
200mm Railgun II
Large Shield Extender II
Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 28
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Qty: 2
Y-T8 Overcharged Hydrocarbon Microwarpdrive
Power Diagnostic System II
Warp Disruptor II
Navy Cap Booster 400, Qty: 20 (Cargo)
Spike M, Qty: 794 (Cargo)
Federation Navy Antimatter Charge M, Qty: 902 (Cargo)

Apparently, Bartomeu had scanned down the Vargur at a mission and warped in on him, holding point for a dps ship. However, Bart took far more damage than he had anticipated from the Vargur, and had gone down before his backup could navigate the warp gates that separated the warp-in from the fight. The Vargur escaped and logged off.

Undeterred, Konig decided to try his luck by sitting in the mission in a Hound. Since the Vargur had provided such a spirited defence on the last attempt, and because he had proved adept and destroying tacklers, my Malediction was added to the gang to provide a secure second point; Konig would probably need to bail pretty fast.

Sure enough, the Vargur logged back in to continue his mission, and he must not have realised that Konig was in the same corp as Bart, because he warped right back into the mission. Konig established point right away, and we proceeded to jump into Jov from Aeschee and warp to the mission.

However, the Vargur was game for a fight, and blew the bomber out of the sky before we could land, once again escaping to a station and logging off.

2011.12.21 21:06:00

Victim: Konig Dreizehn

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Destroyed: Hound

System: Jovainnon

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 2129

Involved parties:

Name: Sanityfree Soldier (laid the final blow)

Security: 5.0

Corp: Liquid Cold

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Vargur

Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II

Damage Done: 2129

Destroyed items:

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo, Qty: 28

Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

Warp Disruptor II

Dropped items:

Ballistic Control System II

Catalyzed Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters

Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

'Arbalest' Siege Missile Launcher, Qty: 3

Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo, Qty: 14

Medium Shield Extender II

Salvager I

Caldari Navy Bane Torpedo, Qty: 707 (Cargo)

This was a disheartening second loss, but Tuskers are a stubborn crew. While someone suggested that the Vargur would be ill advised to return, I pointed out that he had effectively won the last two engagements; why would he not come back?

Still, there was obviously something not quite right here - a pve battleship should not have been able to deal so easily with our tacklers. Something more dedicated was required.

With this in mind, we had Jaxley's Claw log off from within the mission. My Malediction loitered in the next system, and we had a Wolf and Hurricane nearby for dps. After about 10 minutes, our neutral alt reported the Vargur logging back in. Once he was back in the mission, Jaxley relogged.

Without waiting for a point, I also jumped into the system, warping to the mission. Jaxley dropped out of warp first, of course, and established point. I secured a secondary point as soon as I landed on grid, and we settled into safe orbits, watching our combat logs.

The Vargur had a go at both Jaxley and I, but we finally seemed to have found tacklers the Vargur couldn't hit. Time to ask for a ransom.

The pilot, Sanityfree Soldier, seemed game, and we brought in our Wolf (with scanner) to establish the level of ransom we should be asking for. 1.5 billion ISK would have been a real steal for Soldier, but he could not afford more than 100 million. As the drops were likely to (far) exceed this value, we brought in our dps (Bart's Hurricane) and opened fire.

Bart had two tracking disruptors on his 'Cane, but he was nevertheless forced off the field by the Vagur! He also managed to chase off the Wolf, leaving only Jaxley and I able to hold a point. The tracking on the VagurJax and I were flying armor tanked Interceptors - the added signature radius from the shield extenders could have made all the difference (edit - according to Jaxley, he was actually flying an MSE Stiletto, and not a Claw, so I guess we had some leeway).

Of course, two Interceptors were never going to be able to break the active tank of a cap stable pve battleship. We needed something tough enough to tank the Vargur's damage, while also having enough dps to break it's tank.

Finally, Tsubutai, who had been monitoring our Vent conversation, decided to come to our rescue and warped in his Machariel. With two interceptors holding the Vagur in place, the Machariel was able to pound it to scrap. Victory at last!

2011.12.21 21:41:00

Victim: Sanityfree Soldier

Corp: Liquid Cold

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Destroyed: Vargur

System: Jovainnon

Security: 0.3

Damage Taken: 99367

Involved parties:

Name: Tsubutai (laid the final blow)

Security: -9.8

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Machariel

Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II

Damage Done: 33243

Name: Morin Blain

Security: -9.7

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Wolf

Weapon: Wolf

Damage Done: 29734

Name: Bartomeu Sosimo

Security: -9.3

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: 

Weapon: Warrior II

Damage Done: 22962

Name: Jelen Sidheil

Security: 1.6

Corp: CNRN's Named Recursively Now

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Drake

Weapon: Caldari Navy Thunderbolt Heavy Missile

Damage Done: 11660

Name: Taurean Eltanin

Security: -10.0

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Malediction

Weapon: Warp Disruptor II

Damage Done: 1768

Name: Jaxley

Security: -10.0

Corp: The Tuskers

Alliance: None

Faction: None

Ship: Stiletto

Weapon: Warp Disruptor II

Damage Done: 0

Destroyed items:

Large Capacitor Control Circuit II, Qty: 2

Small Tractor Beam I

Cap Recharger II

EMP L, Qty: 100

Salvager II

800mm Repeating Artillery II

Tracking Enhancer II, Qty: 2

Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer

Contaminated Nanite Compound (Cargo)

Condensed Alloy, Qty: 20 (Cargo)

Precious Alloy, Qty: 17 (Cargo)

Broken Drone Transceiver, Qty: 3 (Cargo)

Tangled Power Conduit (Cargo)

Dark Compound (Cargo)

Fried Interface Circuit, Qty: 11 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Shadow Serpentis Tracking Computer

Tracking Speed

Cap Recharger II, Qty: 2

Pith X-Type X-Large Shield Booster

EMP L, Qty: 100

Salvager II

800mm Repeating Artillery II, Qty: 3

Power Diagnostic System II

Phased Plasma L, Qty: 201

Gist X-Type 100MN Afterburner

Republic Fleet Gyrostabilizer

Lucent Compound, Qty: 5 (Cargo)

EMP L, Qty: 56 (Cargo)

Sheen Compound, Qty: 9 (Cargo)

Phased Plasma L, Qty: 115 (Cargo)

Crystal Compound, Qty: 29 (Cargo)

Gleaming Alloy, Qty: 16 (Cargo)

The killmail answered a lot of questions about the events leading up to the Vargur's eventual destruction. The faction tracking computer had allowed the battleship to swat aside all but dedicated tacklers and apply dps onto our Hurricane despite the two tracking disruptors. How very, very awesome. Full credit to Soldier for the fit.

Afterthoughts:

This is the sort of thing I love about flying Interceptors; you can do some light solo work, but when something big comes up, you can also play a necessary role in fleet. While you can optimize your fit for one over the other, there is enough overlap that the two fits are not mutually exclusive.

Bart handled the loot split, and took it all to Jita, where it fetched over a billion ISK - easily the most profitable kill I have ever been part of. After reimbursing the lost ships, we were still left with about 200 million ISK each. Time to buy some Caldari ships!