Right place, right time

It's funny that I fly around in a stealth bomber, but I never have a bomb launcher equipped.  Bombs are too situational, take up too much fitting space and in the space I tend to operate in they can't probe down a wormhole exit.  For me it's much more effective to have 3 torpedo launchers, cloak and core probe launcher, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to try things out and to that end when I last exploded my ship I swapped the standard mobile warp disruptor for a bomb launcher and a concussion bomb.  Bombs are quite large, coming in at 75m2 so I didn't have a lot of room left in my cargo bay, but it was there should the situation arose that a large dumb fire, area of effect weapon was required.

I had wandered around a little looking for some action and happened to jump into a new system with a bunch of ships on dscan but no wrecks and no force field at the moon I narrowed them down to.  I had stumbled into a structure bash with 4 Oracles and a Jackdaw huffing and puffing away trying to pull down the dead defences.  Very interesting, I'll be setting up a perch and watching what happens here.

I did some research while I waited and found out that these same guys had all been killed in the same ships the day before, presumably bashing the same POS.  This could get really interesting, especially when combat and core probes appear on dscan.

I move closer to allow myself to be in range when the expected Sabre drops in, but after a while of nothing happening I conclude that either the prober is really, really, bad at probing or the probes belong to friends of the POS bashers, presumably to act as a deterrent to anyone in system or provide a quasi early warning system that something was on it's way.  That's a shame, but gets me thinking about how I could maximise my damage should these guys receive some unwanted attention, and decide that a bomb into the middle of a fight would be spectacularly fun to do and might get some kills.  Better to be prepared than be caught without the wrong tool, so I move back over a system to get to a safe and refit to the bomb launcher.  It's a bitch to fit, I basically have to offline most of my mid slots to get the thing online, which really sucks.  But whatever, this will be a one shot jaunt anyways.  As I jump back through I check the damage on the bomb launcher - this system is a Red Giant with the associated bonus damage to bombs, so my damage jumps to an impressive looking number.

I might be in with a shot at causing some real damage here.  I should really waiting for if and when these guys get jumped, but the nearly 16 and a half K damage compared with the around 7500 damage these Oracles took when they were killed last night makes me think I might be a chance to kill a couple of them by myself.  Stuff it, I get aligned up, choosing an Oracle that's has another 2 Oracles within the 15km blast radius.  Deep breath, de-cloak.

Tally Ho!!!

I warp off as I release the bomb and land still on grid but a couple of hundred klicks away just as a satisfying explosive shockwave reaches my ears after traversing the emptiness of space in cool defiance of real world mechanics.

In hindsight I probably shouldn't have warped off given the damage I did with the first hit.  If I'd had my target painter online instead of the MWD, stayed on the grid & locked up my target Oracle, the target painter would have increased the damage from the bomb by a bit and one or two volleys of my torpedoes hopefully would have done the trick.  The Jackdaw was probably my biggest threat and he was over 60km away, plus I was already aligned so it wouldn't have taken long to get out of dodge.  Note to self, analyse this stuff before you engage, you might get a better result.

In the end these guys aren't too worried by a lone bomber and all I managed to get from them in terms of a response is they are no longer sitting still.  It turns out I only helped them at their task, getting in on a sensor dampening battery  and a medium pulse laser battery killmail.

I move on, refitting back to the normal setup and trying to find some more targets.  I end up in a C5 and I know there is a bubble at a particular tower, but there isn't any cargo containers, so I warp over and land in amongst all the POS guns.  And then I die to a tower again.  Bloody towers.  I have resolved to ignore towers with bubbles in future, and I'm aiming to make July a "Losing ships to towers free month".  Bloody towers.

The next week or so is a bit of hard work, lots of scanning without much reward.  I eventually find a Vexor Navy doing a data site after working my way 5 holes deep down a particular chain, which is probably the deepest I've scanned out a chain while looking for players to interact with.  The problem is that I haven't scanned this hole out, so I'll need to use dscan to narrow down where this Vexor is and then drop probes hopefully on top of it.  I decide that for something different  I'll use combat probes, so I drop a depot outside of dscan range, refit and position the probes.  I'll be using a tip that Zosius has graciously imparted ,  where I pull the probes as soon as the scan cycle has completed to avoid having the probes visible for too long - if I need to rescan I can warp back out of dscan range of the target, redrop the probes and reposition them as needed, rinse and repeat.  It appears I'm not the best at this as it takes 5 goes to finally get a warpin on the Vexor, but they appear oblivious to my attempts at finding them.

I settle in to wait.  It takes a while, but the site is finally cleared and the Vexor warps home, hopefully for something like a Noctis given they haven't dropped a MTU.  They don't appear to be local, as they are gone for a while before warping back to the site in a.......

WTF?  I can only reason that they were going to try and hack the site, but it despawned while Geniva swapped ships.  The Helios buzzes around looting the field but not salvaging the wrecks.  In frustration I try and nab it on the last wreck, but it's already aligning out & warps out before I can lock it. Very frustrating, Maybe I'm just trying too hard, trying to force things.

For something different one afternoon after work I have a few minutes while the wife heads out to pick one of the kids up from daycare.  I'll login and see what's happening in the system I logged off in last night.  Wrecks on scan along with a Rattlesnake.  Curious, but not really hopeful of getting a kill due to the time frames I have available,  I resolve the anomaly they are at and warp over to have a look.

This shows promise.  He doesn't have a MTU out at this point so I'm liking the chances that there will be a salvager along at some point.  However, he is taking a really, really long time to clear the site.  It's a C4 anomaly & he only halfway through the first wave, with several battleships in waves 2 and 3 - it's going to be a while before he's finished, much longer than I have available.  However, I might be able to make this work.

I leave Eve running and start folding washing.  I'm about halfway through the basket when the wife gets home, and I say hello to the family before putting the clothes away, surreptitiously checking on the Rattler to see how he's progressing.  I also wash the dishes up.  All very good house husbandly things to do.  Eventually I ask the wife, can I pretty please play Eve for 5 minutes?  I remember telling her" You see this guy here, once he's finished killing these red things I'm going to have a chance at killing him".  Eve explained in 25 words or less, very informative and inspirational.  Needless to say, the wife isn't terribly impressed, but says she won't stop me, as long as it's only 5 minutes.  Hooray!!!

As a tradeoff I also let the wife use the computer so she can enrol in her next semester Uni courses.  As she's finishing up with that I check Eve and the Rattler only has a couple of Sleeper cruisers left.  Show time, start the clock.  While I haven't been watching a MTU has been deployed so the wrecks are nicely compressed into a ball.  I warp in at 30km and watch the Rattler warp off to the local tower.  What will he bring back I wonder.

I like Noct... Noctises? Noctii?

It's a little ironic that when I'm not really trying to kill something a Noctis drops in my lap, with a little bit of help from a caring, understanding wife.

When it rains it pours

I'm not the biggest fan of C5s.  Once you get caught in one it becomes a rolling highway of C5's with very few connections to lower class space.  This would be ok if those C5's weren't empty and lacking in content, but the majority that I come across don't have much happening.  So my adventure tonight begins with the uneventful login to a deserted C5. I throw probes at the new signatures that are present, hoping to find a C4 or something.  Aha - a EOL frigate hole to null sec - that will do.

I emerge from session change and do the normal things, bookmark the hole, dscan, recloak back up, but no hurry, local is empty but for myself.  A quick look at the system designation has me doing a double take and a quick search to make sure - yes it is the same system.

B-R, where a little over a year and a half ago over 7,000 capsuleers participated in the destruction of over $300,000 USD worth of Internet Spaceships in a battle lasting over 21 hours, all over an unpaid sov bill.  It's just a smidge quieter now, but the presence of the Titan graveyard is awesome and indicative of just how special New Eden is - there is no other game out there that I know of that player actions can have a lasting effect on the game environment in such a way as you can in Eve.

I've discovered that having local makes you lazy.  I mosey about getting my selfie screenshot of the Titan graveyard, refit to my dual painter setup and lazily dump probes to scan down the other signatures, all safe in the knowledge that there isn't anyone sneaking up to gank me.  As luck would have it we have another wormhole so I grab the mobile depot and head over to more dangerous space.  Ok, back to business, I find myself a C3 and a lonesome MTU.  Littering in W space, tsk tsk.  I quickly ensure that the natural order of things is restored.

Feeling slightly less soiled I push on, hoping to find some real content to keep me entertained.  Onwards to another C3 where I find a Gila and Cyanbal sitting in their POS.  I watch for a while before getting probes out and scanning everything down.  I take my time a bit bookmarking all the sites after scanning and the lack of activity after my probes are recalled seems to assure the locals that I'm gone - dscan shows wrecks on scan.  I quickly determine which combat anomaly the residents are running and warp in at 100km to have a look.

What a wonderful sight.

They appear to be having trouble with the two webbing battleships at the end of the anomaly as they keep warping off, but I don't mind all that much as it gives me time to make a nice tactical perch.  The fact they keep coming back reassures me they will also finish the site, and when they do something will be sure to come along for the salvaging and that's when I'll get my shot.  They eventually finish killing sleepers and the Gila warps off to their tower.  The Cynabal stays in the site.  Hmmmnnn, this could mess things up for me.  If he stays in the site I can pretty much guarantee I'll be in a pod if I have a crack at the Thrasher that warps back into the site.  I warp down from my perch 30km out and start moving into position to execute the gank while making sure that the Thrasher is in fact equipped with salvagers and not something nasty like autocannons all the while keeping a close eye on the Cynabal.

My potential headache removes itself when the Cyanbal warps back to it's POS just as the Thrasher starts salvaging.  I orbit the Minnie destroyer and wait until he's on the last wreck before decloaking and letting fly.  He doesn't last long but unfortunately the pod gets clear.

Not bad.  I'll take it.  But the night is still young.  Not really, it is way past my bedtime, but I'll keep going.  There is a Highsec hole in this system, I'll jump to K space to sell my ill gotten loot from the MTU I popped earlier and maybe see if there is another wormhole I can quickly dive into, as the C3 chain I'm in has hit a dead end.  I sell my loot and make a few jumps over before I find another wormhole.  It's a C2 and dscan again lights up my night.

This time we have a Legion and an Eagle running the site, and due to it being a C2 they are completing it with ease.  I don't have much time so I go about setting up my perch while keeping an eye on these guys at work.  I haven't had a chance to scope out the rest of the system as I warped straight to this anomaly so there is a bit of fog of war about what else might be at the outer planets, but I don't really want to move off until I have my perch set.  However, sweeping dscan around while I wait does shows me something intriguing:

Surely they won't will they?  I don't understand why people would use a Noctis when a MTU and cheap dessie will do the job just fine and for a fraction of the co....  ahhh... I retract the previous statement, everyone in wormhole space should ditch their MTU's and just use a Noctis.  They are way more efficient, look much cooler and are definitely NOT a target I would try to gank at every opportunity.

Noctis on grid!!!

Wow, this night just got really exciting.  I move myself into position while the Legion and Eagle warp off to their POS.  I'm setting up for a drive by, starting 20km from the Noctis just inside point range with my bomber aligned to my perch so my trajectory will take me within a couple of kilometers from the Noctis, but keeping me aligned for when he friends come to save him.  By starting at the edge of point range I also give maximum time for the gank to be completed, as my ship will need to cover 40km before my target is back out of point range on the other side.  I wait until the Noctis starts on the final set of wrecks, align to the perch, declock, lock, overload everything and then keep an eye on dscan.

Starting Well

Still no cavalry, nearly there...

So close - just as the cavalry arrives.

The Noctis is deep into structure when the Legion and Eagle finally land on grid and time seems to stretch out while I'm waiting for my next volley of torps to fly.  It seems to take an eternity for the reload cycle to complete, all the while I'm keeping a close eye out for impending doom of my ship via the flashing yellow targeting box.  Yellow boxes on the overview - discretion takes the better part of valour and I warp to my perch.  So, so so close.  I quickly warp back down to my warp in point hoping to decloak, get 1 or 2 volleys off again but the Noctis is aligning out and warps before I can get in position.

The Noctis pilot, Judu Hekki, confirms that it was a tight run thing, with his ship being at 27% structure - that's 864 structure HP.  One more volley probably would have done it, but I was pretty close to being targeted with all the associated squashiness that a targeted bomber experiences.  *Sigh*.  All in all I'm pretty happy with my night's work though, it's been one of the most productive nights so far.  I got a couple of kills, was a lot better in terms of my situational awareness compared with my last tangle with a Noctis even though I still managed to burn out a target painter and my warp disruptor near the end of the fight.  It's at this point though I have to hang my head in shame - I'm a stealth bomber pilot using torpedoes and I have Torpedoes and Warhead Upgrades only at level 4 - training those to 5 would have given me an additional 5% and 2% damage respectively.  I'm pretty sure 7% extra damage over the course of 8 volleys would have given me that extra 864 damage.

My Eleanor - Part 2

Previously on The Flying Target:

After stalking out a particular wormhole for 4 days after spotting my Eleanor, a Noctis floating in a POS shield, Eleanor's pilot finally logs in....

I quickly check whether the Noctis is piloted but it appears to be pilotless at this point.  What I do notice is a couple of pilots warping out to combat anomalies in a pod and a Zephyr, which turns out to be an exploration ship which sleepers won't lock up.  The pod and the Zephyr take turns warping in and out, making tactical bookmarks at a guess.  I do the same in the couple of anomalies that I watch them doing this in the hope that this is a precusor for the locals to run those sites a bit later on, which in turn will hopefully mean my Eleanor ventures out of the safety of the POS shield.

My attention switches away from the pod and Zephyr duo when my watch list chimes announcing a few more of the locals are logging in and a couple of battleships appear on Dscan.  This wormhole currently only has the C5 static (I scanned all the new sigs earlier that night) and I correctly assume that the locals are going to roll the hole to run the sites in relative safety:

Rolling the Hole.

This is part of the appeal of wormhole space to me - the lack of local means you never know who might be sitting cloaked not far off you watching your every move.  I've always been of the lone wolf kind of guy when it comes to playing Eve, so being able to find and watch people go about their business and choosing the perfect moment to strike really appeals to me.  I watch the locals go a couple of passes through with battleships before it the hole becomes mass critical.  I expect a HIC to come through and finish the job, but instead a Wreath transport ship lands on the hole.  This is a bit unexpected, but it becomes clear what the locals are intending when the Wreath poops out a couple of mobile large warp disruptors either side of the hole, before warping back to it's POS.

They must be worried about the hole collapsing behind them and locking a pilot out, or they don't know about using a double bubble HIC outwards and a oversized afterburner back through.  It's an interesting idea though to just bubble the hole, as this won't stop anything from coming through, but I suppose that if they have eyes/ears on the hole as a warning the bubbles allows enough time for the capitals they will be using on the field to bug out back to their POS.  It's also pretty a pretty expensive way to do it, with the large versions of the mobile warp disruptor going for about 10 million ISK a pop.    There's not a lot else doing at this point that I can see, so I decide to wait out the 8 minute anchoring time of the bubbles so I can get a screenshot. This looks like it is actually going to happen, my days of stalking might actually generate a payoff.

Gah!!! You are going to ruin everything!!!

My spirits are dashed when about halfway through anchoring period the wormhole activation sound throws my whole attempt at Eleanor into jeopardy.  An Astero sheds its session change cloak and warps off.  It's not a local and assuming the hole is watched this has probably blown the whole opportunity.  If the locals know there is another pilot in system with them it's unlikely they will risk running capitals through a combat anom.  However, the bubbles finally go up and I see battleships being swapped for Archons at the POS - can it be the locals didn't have eyes on the hole?

Pretty....  ineffectual....

It looks that way, the locals have a Damnation orbiting their POS providing links and a Moros and a couple of Archons warp away towards combat sites.  Most importantly though - Eleanor is now piloted.  I was worried they might just use MTU and cheap destroyers to do the cleanup, but it appears this corp likes to use a Noctis.

4 days of waiting to see this

Oh well, I don't have any qualms in taking advantage of people who make mistakes, especially if it means I can get some gank going.  I'm not too worried about the Astero being around, it would probably kill me if I got into a fight with it but the odds of that happening are pretty slim.

I follow the Moros to a combat anom at the outer planet and find it merrily slaying sleepers.  The value of killing sleepers is in the blue loot drops and the salvage - there's no bounty payments for sleeper kills so I know that Eleanor will eventually be coming this way.  I set myself up with a high perch above the solar plan at 150km so I can warp to the mobile depot I have bookmarked, before settling in to wait.

The locals end up putting a couple of Archons on the field which triggers an escalation.  However, the capitals make short work of the sleepers and the mystery of all the ECM drones at unfinished combat anoms in this wormhole is revealed.  The capital ships purge all of the sleepers until there is a single frigate remaining, at which point the Archons dump a flight of ECM drones.  The drones break the lock of the sleeper frigate and draw aggro and the capitals warp out back their POS, crossing paths with Eleanor who warps in and starts cleaning the field.  It's not how I would have run it, but I suppose the sleeper frigate does complicate the gank in that it's an extra ship that can possibly pop anyone trying to get the Noctis.  Do I think at any point about aborting the gank attempt?  Not on your nellie.

I warp to my bookmarked mobile depot at 30km to make sure I'm not decloaked by any wrecks that might be tractored my way and on landing safely start to slow boat into position to launch my attack, pausing at one point to settle my daughter who is teething at the moment.  I get inside 10km and remember the best time to strike a Noctis is just as it's salvaging the last wreck, so I take a few deep breaths and get myself ready to go.  However, my hand is forced when Ozz Burtus in the Astero I saw jumping in at the C5 static suddenly decloaks < 10 km off Eleanor's starboard bow and locks her up.  There is no point waiting now, I need to get in on the kill before the locals can react, so I align to my perch, decloak and get everything active and overloaded.

I apologise for the lack of screenshots for this, the critical part of the story.  I became a bit fixated on watching Eleanors shields, then armour and then structure drop with each volley of my torps.  Tunnel visioned on Eleanors defences, I totally lost all situational awareness and I vaguely registered that I had moved out of point range at one point, but didn't think to correct that.  I didn't know if I was warp disrupted or getting shot at - it was just me, Eleanor and Caldari Navy Torpedoes all building to the crescendo of My Eleanor exploding in a glorious ball of fire.  As I came to my senses, I stopped sucking on my cigarette and took stock of my situation.  I was in about half shields, there were 3 additional ships on the field, all of which had me yellow or red boxed and one very pissed off Sleeper frigate.

I tried warping off to my perch, but of course I was inside 150km at that point having been aligned to it the whole engagement (note to self - 250km perches next time).  I struggled to find a celestial or bookmark close to my direction of travel and thankfully found my probe drop bookmark was nearly dead on.  I mashed the warp button and had an 'Oh Shit' moment when I realised that I was warp disrupted.   I let out a slight sigh of relief when I confirmed it was the sleeper frigate that had me only pointed and not scrammed before punching the MWD and overheating it, hoping to pull enough range to drop the disruptor and warp out.  After what seemed like an eternity the warp disrupt icon disappeared and I warped out and cloaked up.

A few deep breaths later, I took stock of my situation.  My shields were nearly gone, but thankfully I didn't get into armour.  All of my modules had significant heat damage, with my MWD at 86% damage.  Luckily I didn't need to pull range for much longer else I would have burnt the drive out and been a sitting duck.  But I had a half a billion ISK kill as per Zkillboard had my merry way with my Eleanor, exactly as I had hoped I would when I first spotted her floating in that POS shield all those days ago.

My Eleanor, exactly as I wanted her

I warped back to the site and there are 3 wrecks and one bemused sleeper frigate still buzzing around killing drones.

It looks like the Astero was hero tackle for a couple of stealth bombers and a Rifter (WTF is a Rifter doing there) that showed up on the field, and in hindsight I probably wouldn't have got the kill if the Astero wasn't there for tackle because Eleanor was stabbed.  The locals bought a Comet to save the Noctis which killed the Astero, and I believe the sleeper frigate killed the Comet before the Astero's friends podded the Comet pilot for his trouble.

I got convoed by one of the gang that jumped in not too much later:

Gunner GzR > o/

Havlac Agalder > o7

Gunner GzR > hey how are you running the sight wiht out a webber?

Gunner GzR > found that intresting

Havlac Agalder > Return (my ship fit)

Havlac Agalder > I was just after the noctis

Gunner GzR > ahh ok

Gunner GzR > 3rd party lol

Gunner GzR > that noctis was doomed

It certainly was Mr Gunner, it certainly was.