Angry Bees!

I've been a bit quiet lately. Its been quite a while since I last undocked so in order to stir my stumps a bit I organised a Tuskers fleet operation for the weekend. As usual the plan was pretty simple. Form up a frigate gang in Hevrice and head out looking for trouble. Last time we found lots of action within a couple of jumps of home. Yesterday the plan was to move out through Aeschee and Old Man Star and then head up to Aurohunen. The Python Cartel had recently destroyed Jolo's Myrmidon and it was revenge time!

The gang formed up in surprisingly orderly fashion and we were soon able to move out. As usual the fleet consisted of a mixture of T1 and T2 frigates with lots of Rifters and Incursus hulls. We had no ECM boats this week but plenty of other e-war and a pair of interceptors for scouting.

The action started pretty quickly. In Jovainnon VaJo reported an outlaw Helios sitting uncloaked on the gate. He made the tackle but the Helios had warp core stabilisers and got away. VaJo was able to make a second tackle and this time I was able to warp there quick enough to add my warp scrambler to the mix and allow VaJo to finish off the Helios. The fleet landed just as the covert ops ship exploded. Already we were up a Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher which was safely stowed in a station before we proceeded on to Aeschee.

There were no targets in Aeschee or Adirain but VaJo was able to find a Hurricane in Lisbaetanne. Once again his Crow made the tackle and the fleet jumped in and warped to the target. With his guns heavily tracking disrupted the battlecruiser was unable to fight back and we ate our way through his armour plates like a swarm of starving locusts. As the Hurricane exploded a Vengeance class assault frigate dropped out of warp and we quickly despatched VaJo to make the tackle. Before he could get there an Armageddon landed on us as well. We the battleship closer and offering more of a threat I called it primary and the fleet went in. The first smartbomb removed a lot of our drones from the field and gave Man Barthelme a bit of a fight but we quickly adjusted our orbits and settled down to chip away from outside of the smartbombs' range. It took a while but we steadily wore down the 'Geddon's armour and it eventually gave way.

So far so good. We'd annoyed the locals, though, and they wanted revenge. A second Hurricane and a Dominix dropped out of warp on us and we moved to focus our fire on the battlecruiser first. The Dominix was fitted with energy neutralisers and without ECM to remove him from the fight he began to cause us some serious problems. The 'Geddon pilot returned in his own Dominix and the retreat order was given. First Ka Jolo's Ishkur and then a pair of Rifters and a Tristan fell as the fleet fled the field. My own pod interface crashed and my ship performed an emergency warp to safety. Once I onlined my systems again I told the fleet to rendezvous back in Hevrice. Those of us who still had our ships waited out our criminal timers before returning home. Despite our losses we'd managed to get most of the loot from the Hurricane and Armageddon out safely so things were looking good for us. You can see the full battle report on our killboard.

After a short break we set out again. The Roughnecks alliance was now baying for our blood so I diverted the fleet up through Costolle to allow them to calm down a bit. In Costolle VaJo quickly narrowed down a Thorax and an Ark jump freighter! It seems the Thorax was trying to tackle the Ark and with the sentry guns pounding on him and VaJo holding him in place he exploded before our fleet could arrive. Still, more loot for us.

Several mission runners were on scan in Melmaniel so the fleet idled on the gate while a prober was sent to try and pin down a target. While we were waiting a Ferox jumped through into Costolle and, seemingly out of panic, warped to a belt. The fleet followed in hot pusruit but the Caldari battlecruiser was in warp before we could lock him down. His direction was towards a station so most of the fleet returned to the gate except for me. I went to do a quick scan of the two planets that he might possibly have gone to and while I was idling he dropped out of warp right on top of me. I've never fought a Ferox in my Rifter before and I was quickly yelling for support to warp to me. While they arrived I noticed that the Ferox's shields were melting under my guns. By the time support arrived he was already at half shields. With the extra firepower it took seconds to break through and destroy the ship. Looking at the killmaill its hardly surprising. The pilot had an, erm, unusual fit with rail guns and no mid or low slot modules fitted.

With the pitiful loot collected it was back to a safespot to count down our timers while our scout continued to hunt for targets in Melmaniel. After a bit of clever scanning he got a warp in on a Sacrilege for our Crows and they did a fine job of getting the tackle. Despite our timers the fleet warped to the gate and jumped straight into Melmaniel. We were in warp before the sentry guns could even pick a target never mind fire a shot. With the combined damage of our frigate spawn even the heavy assault cruiser didn't stand a chance and we took him down.

That was it for action on this operation. The fleet scouted into Old Man Star but no suitable targets were located. We hadn't had the chance to blow up Spectre but we had seen a lot of pretty explosions along the way and, despite our losses, made some money too. We did approximately 514 million ISK damage and only took 62 million ISK in losses. Better still we rounded up 105 million ISK in loot so even after reimbursing our losses there's still plenty of ISK to share around.

As always thanks to everyone who came along for being so great to fly with. Special thanks to our tacklers and probers. Without them we wouldn't have anything to shoot. Also an honourable mention to all our e-war pilots. Its not the most glamourous of jobs but it really makes a difference. The next operation that I organise is going to be something other than frigates but I'm not going to say anything until its time to report back.

If you want a chance to fly with us or are interested in finding out more then drop by The Tuskers Public Channel in game.

Fly reckless!