Drunken ops death roam: great fun!

When I logged in late last night, it was quiet in our neighbourhood, and all but one of my corp mates had already logged for the night. Looking for something to do, I heard Lucian Ghorric on Teamspeak: ‘last call for the death roam! Do you bio, stock up on beer and something to eat and form up at the pos.. we leave in 5’ (funny detail: one of the participants is still a minor, and he was advised to ‘get some lemonade instead’). Even though it was late, I thought.. why not join! I’d just bought a couple of fitted/rigged Rifters, I had time and opportunity. 

Lucian announced the “drunken ops death roam’ in alliance mail a few days before, but I forgot all about it as I assumed I wasn’t going to be on at that time. It’s a funny way of PVP: everyone flies an empty clone and a cheap ship, and the intent is to consume alcohol, and score as many kills as possible before being slaughtered somewhere. You aren't even expected to bring your ship back home.. So I did my bio, grabbed a few beers and a Rifter and headed to the fleet location! At that moment the fleet consisted of about 15 T1 cruisers and frigs, with a few pilots still on their way.

We moved out of HY-RWO down the pipe out of Catch to 0-SHT (obviously pronounced as ‘Oh-Shit’) and steadily worked our way into Curse. The forward scout mentioned a few neuts here and there, and there was some funny banter in local when we happened upon some pilots who often try to disrupt our PVE activities.. this time the roles were reversed! They chose not to engage us, however, and after some final insults in local we moved on. We left Curse and went into Scalding Pass, entering via ARG-3R which is currently owned by Bringers of Death. They are in a bit of a failcascade currently, and there was pretty much no one around in their space. Things got better when we moved into Imperial Legion territory: the forward scout engaged a lonely Cyclone at the gate, he jumped through straight into 17 cruisers and frigates.. he died soon. Score one for the drunken ops roam!

We pressed on to Wicked Creek where - in the end - our roam would find it’s expected end. After a couple of uneventful jumps, we stumbled on a populated system: UM-SCG.  It's currently owned by The Unthinkables, and there were thirty neuts in local! Us Frigate pilots quickly warped to the belts and anoms in the hopes of catching a ratter or miner; the cruisers went to the station. 

But just when they landed, one of the frig pilots yelled on TS he had caught a ratting Hurricane in a belt! Warp to me warp to me! All warped, including the cruisers.. but just as they left the station.. they saw a Hulk undock! If only they had stuck around for a couple of seconds more, we might have gotten that Hulk. Would have been a great kill, what a shame! The Hurricane got away too, he cloaked and warped before the frig pilot could get point and within range. So back to the station we went. 

They played undock/dock games for a while, and even though we were close to killing stuff a couple of times (including a Tempest, a Scimitar and a Guardian),  they managed to dock up safely again and again. Then they changed the game: three carriers undocked, followed by a whole kitchensink fleet! Against 15 T1 cruisers and frigates! We felt very honored of course, but still got out as fast as we could; all of us got safe in the system next door. Of course they followed.. a cloaky Tengu, a covops frig, a Hound.. all cloaky stuff which we didn't catch. A few of us, sufficiently inebriated by now, asked them in local to leave the carriers behind and come get us in a fleet of BC's, as we were just looking for a good fun fight. They duly complied: the main body of their fleet jumped a short while later, and it was mostly battlecruisers. We jumped out, to H-HHTH this time, and reapproached gate, this is where we were going to make our last stand!

As their fleet jumped in, we waited for a certain Drake pilot to primary. He had been a bit of a loudmouth in local (nothing untoward, the chat remained friendly throughout, but still) so we wanted him dead. And we managed! Next primary: a Hurricane! His shields dropped, armor melted.. But by now our cruisers and frigs began to die rapidly, and just as I thought we were going to finish the Hurricane, my Rifter exploded, and shortly after I managed to say 'gf - ty guys' in local, I was given a pod express ride home back to HY-RWO. 

Pretty soon all of us were back in Catch, laughing and cheering as one after another 'suddenly' appeared in HY-RWO local. We scored two kills, we 'painted the killboard red' as promised (there were no survivors)  and we had great fun. Small gang pvp.. still the best pvp! And thanks to The Unthinkables for giving us the fight we were looking for!