The fun part of war: saving the carrier!

Another year, another Catch invasion. This time the reds aren’t Russian, and they aren’t coming through the north but via the south. One thing remains the same: there is an awful lot of fun PVP to be had! With most of our non combat essentials already evacuated to safety, we are free to focus on getting as many kills as we can get, before the inevitable long slog of sov war hits us. Until that happens, we’re milking this war for all the fun it can give us.

Yesterday when I logged on, gate camping was already under way. Intel was arranged, bubbles were placed, kills were scored, but nothing impressive. Our man MR 10 had a nice run, picking off pods before we could even lock them, much to my chagrin! This solo Talos kill was undoubtedly his personal highlight of the evening.

Suddenly, two of our scouts spoke up. A sizeable hostile HBC fleet jumped into V-3YG7 and it was unclear whether it would it go to GE-8JV or come our way. The other scout reported a 4^th District fleet, consisting of about a dozen ships, sneaking up on us from the other side. What to do.. we were contemplating our options, when the HBC fleet moved into GE and outside of our immediate area of interest, so we focused on the 4^th district fleet instead. Unfortunately, at this moment I had to leave the PC for a short while.. and when I returned, it was chaos!

While I was afk, EzSnake undocked his Chimera carrier, with the intention of using his fighters to overcome the three (yes, three) Scimitars the hostiles brought. But the 4^th district gang didn’t warp to the gate as expected, they warped to station instead and proceeded to bump the carrier off the station before it could dock again! Slowly but surely EzSnake drifted away from the safety of the station, and as for the nature of his comments on TeamSpeak.. let’s just say I was happy my son wasn’t listening in anymore :-)

But there was still hope. It seemed the enemy didn’t have enough firepower to break the Chimeras’ tank, which gave us a moment to calm down and contemplate our options. Counting the ships available to us we knew it would be difficult to break the hostile logi, but we had to try. On the FC’s signal, we mass undocked (or warped in from outside, depending) and began shooting the first Scimitar. To no avail, we didn’t have enough firepower on the field to break them, just as they couldn’t break our carrier tank. Still, they did considerable damage to our kitchensink fleet; I lost a Ferox I’d just bought a few hours ago. A couple of other battlecruisers were also lost, but nothing major fortunately. Anyone not pointed docked up again or warped out. So what now?

Frankly, by this time I was expecting a PL hotdrop or something like that. I don’t know if 4^th district has a batphone to them or anyone else for that matter, but if I were them I’d be looking for the extra dps to finish our Chimera which they obviously couldn’t break by themselves. Something had to break this stalemate! At that moment an alliance mate picked up on our fight (via alliance chat), and he casually mentioned he was with a nice -A- fleet four jumps out. Could we use some help? Why yes we could! Sensing we could turn the tide here, we reshipped and waited for our allies to arrive. As soon as local began to spike with blues, we again mass undocked, this time going for the kill. EzSnake called targets, calling a Lachesis primary. I burned my Merlin towards him as fast as I could and quickly pointed him before he got out. But then another FC took over, and targets were switched: Scimitars and Drakes were killed.. and all the time I was orbiting the Lachesis at 500 meter, keeping it pointed and nibbling away at his shield tank with my guns.

Obviously the hostiles didn’t want to lose the Lachesis, and after a while I was targeted by what remained of the hostile fleet. Frantically I typed in fleet chat that I still had the Lach pointed, and pretty please with sugar on top.. kill it! Now! Luckily, after about thirty seconds, the FC obliged, and after I had kept it pointed for a few minutes the Lachesis finally exploded. I am very proud of that kill, I’ve never had something tackled for so long, waiting for others to move in and kill it.

I had been so focused on tackling this Lachesis and keeping it pointed, that I hadn’t paid any attention to the rest of the fight at all. It turns out -A- brought around two dozen Tornados; more than enough to turn the fight upside down and break the stalemate. And with a sigh of relief, EzSnake docked his carrier!

Good fights were exchanged in local. And a good fight it was, with - for us - a happy ending.