Astero v Omen

Looking, as ever, for above class kills that push the envelope a little, I was very intrigued by an Omen that appeared to be running a Guardian's Gala 'plex. Warping in on the 'plex at range (and under cloak, obviously), I could see the Omen hard at work.

However, it was a busy system with about a dozen people in local. If the Omen felt confident brazenly running the the 'plex, I had to assume that at least some of those people were allies. Taken to an extreme, the Omen could even be bait (although a Maller would have been a better choice for that).

I decided it was worth the risk, though. The Omen has very little chance of applying turret damage to me, and it the cap and fitting demands of those turrets mean that the Omen has little room for a robust tank.

Moving into position, I uncloaked and set to work. I was immediately counter-pointed, which started setting off alarm bells, and I began spamming my short range D-scan.

Seeing no immediate support, but knowing that time was precious, I decided to ignore his drones and go straight for the kill. Overheating my laser, I tore into him while orbiting under his guns; he may have had a point, but the Omen's notorious hunger for cap had him fitting a cap mod rather than a web, a decision that he was now paying for.

My repairer was easily tanking his drone damage, and my own drones were battling with his MAAR. As soon as he ran out of paste, the damage started stacking up fast, but long range D-scan was now showing activity.

Narrowing my D-scan down to just our cluster, things were still clear, so help was probably still 10-20 seconds out, depending on what they were flying. Time enough to destroy the Omen. Not time enough to try for the pod.

I took my win and warped out. 'gf's were exchanged in local.


Afterthoughts

This was a nice example of a fight where things go smoothly. It was the classic 'get under the guns' approach that is the stuff of a frigate pilot's dreams. The Omen was well fit, and well flown, but my ability to start the fight at zero countered his mwd and the damage that I would otherwise have taken on the way in.

The cloaked approach also denied him any advanced warning, so any call out on comms was only going out after the fight was well and truly started. Even a frigate takes a good 30 seconds to undock and warp across the system, and that assumes the pilot is sitting at the keyboard ready to go. Every little delay added up until support could not arrive until too late.