The official "This is not my month" month

Eight losses this month, and April isn’t even over yet. I’m just hesitant to undock at this point!

So how did I lose eight ships?

Less harmful damage

The first loss is from a corp death roam in the MTO2-2 area. We were bringing in a new corp member, which was a funny story in itself. We were moving from MTO in his direction, and he’s supposedly moving towards us. At some point we notice he’s not getting any closer, as a matter of fact he’s burning away! Turns out he was on his way to our PVE system in the southeast, not our PVP deployment area in the northeast. Oops. Twenty minutes and lots of jumps through deserted nullsec later we join up and move back in the direction of MTO. Via intel channels we hear of a hostile RAZOR fleet near MTO along our way, and we try to catch up with our guys chasing said fleet. That doesn’t work - we never find them - but we manage to get stuck in a bubble at a gate, together with the escaping hostile fleet. Most of our ships explode, including my Talwar; I get podded, too. Deathroam mission: goal accomplished.

About a week later, I’m in station in MTO2-2, bored and waiting for action. A hostile fleet is bouncing around the area, and a fleet is formed to do something about it. We undock and there’s some brawling at gates and such. We lose some, we kill some; I manage to survive but fail to score any kills (although I suspect some kills weren’t posted..)  after which our still sizeable fleet follows the FC deeper into Venal, in hot pursuit of the hostiles. Finally, at a gate we catch them, and the fight is on. I deploy drones and assign them to the FC, but pretty soon (well, immediately really) after that, the entire hostile fleet yellowboxes and subsequently redboxes me. Boom goes my Prophecy, and I’m podded as well.
The fight is, however, escalating: the enemy brings carriers on the field, and of course I want to get on those juicy capital killmails. I quickly reship to a Caracal, determined to lob missiles at said carriers from a bit of a distance, i.e. not within 5000 meters of our FC. As soon as I land.. here we go again: yellowboxed, redboxed, boom. I don’t think I successfully fired one missile! Ffs! As I float around the battlefield in my pod, cursing the hostile FC who apparently has it in for me,  I realise I forgot to upgrade my clone after the first podding. Crap. I am now suddenly trembling behind the PC.. please don’t pod me please don’t pod me please.. With a sigh of relief I make it out alive and return to MTO2-2 to upgrade the clone. Phew, lucky escape there.

I was angry that I didn’t score any kills, but suddenly two Megathron kills appear on our killboard, with my name on them. I can’t remember them at all. Of course these are from my sentry drones, they were assigned to the FC who shot at stuff while I was being exploded, so that’s what netted me two kills. I don’t feel good about it, at all. I didn’t see them or target them, I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing the damage overpower the ships’ reps until it exploded. It leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. But at least my kb efficiency is saved.. for what it’s worth.

Again a few days later, and the R3 hellcamp is in full swing. There’s talk of pvp and I want some real kills after those Megathron 'semi kills', so I hop into the coalition approved Prophecy, and make it to the Titan just in time to make the jump from MTO to R3.. but that’s not where I land. I didn’t know it was two Titan jumps, but here I am, 19 jumps out of R3, burning towards the second Titan whose bridge will bring me to R3 proper! It’s just that I really, really need a bio break now! So I warp to a celestial and go afk. When I come back a minute later (yes, I am that fast and that close to the sanitary stuff here) the second Titan pilot says ‘afk, back in 2 hours’ and is gone. Crap. Alone and 19 jumps out of where the action is I decide to go by myself; I am positively not going to hang around here for two hours. So I carefully make my way to R3, until - three jumps out of my destination - I land in a gate camp. Boom. At least I am able to get my pod out!
But you know what's really stupid? While I land in the gate camp, I notice something in the local channel: the lone blue in local said "watch out, gate camp at the out gate". Either I missed it, or I could have used the heads up a wee bit earlier :-)

Anyway, a few days later I log my main back on and make for R3. The final jumps are uneventful. In R3 however, I notice I can't get into the POS, and I can't dock I the heavily bubbled station either. So what to do? I warp from celestial to celestial, making bookmarks along the way. Warping between those bookmarks, I create a couple of safespots; when I'm done, I warp to one of them. Not contended with being in a safespot, I align to one of the other bookmarks I created and, with the pod moving, I begin reading mail and chatting with corp mates. Until all over sudden a Manticore appears on screen! Did he warp in? I have no directional scanners and can't detect probes, but who'd make the effort to scan down a pod? To be honest, I believe I accidentally uncloaked him in his own safe spot.. what are the odds of that! Anyway, he points me and begins shooting at me, but his torpedos aren't really suitable for hitting a pod at 3000 meters. I barely get any damage, but am afraid to call in help; it might be a trap, who knows. So after an unusually long period of being shot at with Scourge Rage torpedos, my pod dies and my R3 adventure is over.

Sick and tired of all the coalition deployment losses, I decide to jc back to our PVE area for some peaceful anomming. Barely halfway into my first Angel Hub, I notice intel reports of a neutral Arazu coming in, and a small fleet is arranged to try and kill him. We are aware that he might be a hotdropper; what Arazu would venture out so far into hostile territory, all by himself? I bring a Drake I happen to have there and set out for the Arazu, after being warned to remain outside of 30 km which, I am told, is probably his point range. That information proved to be incorrect. I am pointed well out of 30 km, and pretty soon I'm webbed too, and pretty soon after that, there's a dozen or so hotdroppers on my Drake. Kaboom. Drake dead due to misinformation and (perhaps) carelessness on my part. The guys who told me '30 km' feel bad about their wrong intel, and I receive generous gifts, enough ISK to buy two fitted Drakes back. Thanks guys.

And here I am, month not over yet.. I wonder if I'll make it to May without further losses!