Friday, December 2, 2011

The Snake Pit

Approx. 22:00 EVE eHarmony High Command

Shortly after dispatching the first scouts from Grinacanne, high command received an encrypted message from pilot RonPaul Rox. While observing a recent incursion into Gallente space by Sansha slavers in Mattere, he had discovered a group of capsuleers camping a worm hole.

A Rattlesnake class battle ship flanked by Myrmidon and Drake class battle cruisers had taken up intercept position with several mobile interdiction spheres to catch unwary travelers. A response fleet was scrambled and began to form in Adreland, one jump out of Mattere. Ron Paul was recalled to ship up into a Drake while Marysol Cwidda assumed the role of alt scout.

22:06 EVE J231545


Scout Marysol reported that there was no longer a single Rattlesnake on the hole, but now a total of no less than 5 Rattlesnakes, a Myrmidon and Drake with drones out 20 Km off the entrance to the worm hole. This would be no ordinary gank.

eHarmony High Command sounded DEFCON 3 and soon a sizable fleet was forming in Adreland. At this point eHarmony scout identified J231545 as a C3 Pulsar which gives a 55% buff to deflector shield capacity and 22% resist penalties to armor across the board. It doesn't take EFT to see that the odds were stacked against our armor fleet.

22:25 EVE Adreland

Morale was low. An additional two Rattlesnakes had been identified at a Large Caldari POS off scan from the worm hole and they were piloted. It seemed they had an unlimited supply. We could not match their numbers, much less the firepower they were capable of fielding.

No risk, No reward.

A call for volunteers was given and surprisingly not a single pilot opted out. With grim determination the order was given to update clones and insure ships. The fleet was prepared to fight to the death for the chance to exterminate a Snake or two.

22:38 EVE J231545


Scout Marysol sent a frantic message out that the Snakes were heading back to their pit. Our fleet of pilots were ready to meet death, not head home empty handed. The fleet was ordered to warp to the hole and hold. As the last snake warped off, Pollychrest maneuvered his Typhoon class battleship The Black Key II into the wormhole and prepared to act as bait.

22:40 EVE J231545

A lone Manticore uncloaked and engaged the The Black Key II. After exchanging blows at point blank range, the Manticore pilot soon found himself in a pod, heading back to his POS.

http://eharmony.griefwatch.net/index.php?p=details&kill=387

eHarmony's electronic warfare support was ordered to jump into the worm hole, cloak, and move into position 50 Km's off of the hole.

22:50 EVE J231545


The snake pit had been disturbed and it was only a matter of time before they came back for revenge.

Short range scanners detected first one Rattlesnake at 14 AU range, then two, then too many to count. Pollychrest patted his navigation officer on the back and maneuvered his ship to the edge of the bubble, in line with the warp in of the enemy forces. As soon as the first of the Snakes landed on grid, the fleet was ordered to jump into certain, outnumbered and outgunned death.

The enemy fleet landed 20km off the worm hole and committed fully by approaching The Black Key II inside of the influence of the warp disruption spheres. The primary was called and soon torpedoes, neutron blaster fire and Ogre II's were exchanged between the opposing fleets.

The Black Key II melted under the onslaught and soon Pollychrest was burning his capsule out of the cross fire. Only when he was safely in warp did he consider the unfortunate need to find a new navigation officer.

http://eharmony.griefwatch.net/index.php?p=details&kill=393

Comms stayed disciplined but the stress in FC Fangedterror's voice was evident. The first rattlesnake was going down but not fast enough. Falcon pilot LTTommyg was forced to warp out by enemy drones. Soon the second Falcon piloted by Kirila was forced off the field in a similar fashion, escaping in armor.

Voice chatter soon revealed that our suicide fleet had successfully eliminated a Rattlesnake but any consolation for Pollychrest's typhoon loss was soon wiped away when Fangedterror switched primary to a Machariel which arrived late to the battle. Apparently the snake pit had more than just snakes crawling out of it.

Primaries continued to be called but the order was given to regroup around the worm hole, surely a sign that whatever last stragglers we had were going to have to initiate a fighting retreat. Hurricane pilot Puregno grimly reported that he too had lost his ship.

http://eharmony.griefwatch.net/index.php?p=details&kill=394

It was time to make a mad break for the worm hole exit while there will still ships to serve as a distraction. Pollychrest warped to the worm hole knowing full well the bubble would catch him and it would be a desperate 20km dash to escape with his implants intact.

As he landed, only a single Rattlesnake remained. A quick check of the overview revealed that the bulk of the suicide fleets forces remained (only missing a Typhoon and Hurricane), while the last of the enemy ships which had not warped off, crumpled under eHarmony fire.

The cheers of eHarmony pilots were a mix of victory and surprise that they would be flying intact ships out of J21545
A combat salvaging operation resulted in over 1.6 Billion ISK in loot.

The logs revealed a total of 4 Rattlesnakes and a Machariel had been destroyed. Many of them containing Faction modules or T2 rigs.

http://eharmony.griefwatch.net/index.php?p=details&kill=388

500 EVE J231545


A victory like that only leaves the desire for more. “The Snake Pit” is the name given to the Caldari Large POS home of our adversaries and it holds true to it's name. Mad 4 Games was last seen moving at least 2 fresh Rattlesnakes into J231545.

eHarmony can not let a pest problem of this magnitude go unchecked. In a lightning raid we have successfully established a beachhead POS in the system as well as reinforced a small POS owned by Mad 4 Gaming's friends The Cult of The Knights of Ishtar before they had a chance to remove anything from their mobile labs.

The Mongoose and Rattlesnake must face off again.

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