Low-Sec Roam

TFAce and Hal joined me for a low-sec move through Heimatar and Metropolis space, we were going for a hunt in and around Angel Cartel space but we were prepared for pirates as well. TFAce had a hard hitting zealot, Hal in a missile spewing cerberus heavy assault ship and I was in the wonderfully pink, lachesis-class recon cruiser.

Should be interesting but I would have preferred a falcon or rook in place of my lachesis. ECM appears to be all the rage nowadays.

We undocked and I set the destination to be DAL, a place I know quite well have done a fair bit of business there. Encountering cosmic anomalies along the way, TFAce and Hal made very short work of them in; am impressed by their firepower and control.

In Klogori, there was one pirate in a hurricane, he was flagged so he had recently engaged in some criminal activity.

"T and Hal. Hold in system please. There's a pirate here, am scanning for him." I flipped open the scanner and narrowed him down to the top asteroid belt. I warped to the belt at 100km just to ensure that I would be out of harm's way. On landing, the hurricane was inside the belt - around 56KM. I fired up the remote sensor dampners and locked him but even with the new avionics, my disruptor could not reach him. The hurricane turned and warped out.

It was now going to be cat and mouse it would seem. Calculating the vector, I warped after the hurricane.

"Pursuing the hurricane. I think he went towards Planet III. T and Hal, status please?"

"Still quiet. Nothing here."

"Roger. Wait for my call. I hope to have him soon." I was confident that I could get the hurricane if I could land between 20-40km. I could dampen, disruptor and control the range then call in Hal and T to kill him.

Landing close to the planet, the hurricane had already moved. I turned and scanned again, he was close and just as I was warping out - the hurricane roared in and we almost collided.

"Damnit. He just warped to me. He just warped to me." I said, as I left the hurricane behind me. Unfortunately, my last statement was very confusing and Hal jumped in and was making ready to warp to me.

The presence of Hal and then TFAce spooked the hurricane pilot, who then left the system into Hadozeko. We gathered and regrouped at a safe spot.

"Stay aligned to the Hadozeko gate chaps - am going to investigate."

My Lachesis spun on the spot and then arrived at the Hadozeko gate - there was BoB crow interceptor zipping around though I wasn't worried. An exquiror came through and I made contact with the pilot just before he jumped. I asked him to keep an eye on a hostile hurricane that could be on the other side. The cruiser pilot acknowledged this and jumped through. Seconds later, I was receiving a may-day from the pilot. The BoB crow pilot had already jumped as well.

"TFace and Hal - come to the Hadozeko gate. I think the Hurricane just engaged and is flagged." We all jumped.

I waited impatiently for the gui to clear but even inside the pod, I could feel the explosions. Something was going on....

The hurricane had popped the unfortunate Exquoror pilot, the BoB crow was engaging the hurricane and I was about to give the order to engage when a brutix and falcon warped in to assist the hurricane. An extra brutix would be tricky when tackled alongside the hurricane - especially since both T and Hal were not in their optimals due to their recent gate arrivals but it would be the falcon that would be causing me the most problems. I could dampen him but he could still fire off a jam. The crow was an unknown and could turn on us and local was creeping up.

"T and Hal - please move off to a safe spot. Now please."

It was just as well, as we left - two armageddons, a basilisk and one other ship arrived from the otherside of the system. They were from a different corporation entirely but then it would have been a free-for-all. I had to protect my pilots and their ships.

Ah the fun of low-sec combat....

We found some very good cosmic anomalies but I should have brought the helios to scan out some exploration sites. Next time.