I was floating in my pod, helpless, a few jumps into 0.0 “Time to get out” I thought to myself and proceeded to the nearest gate.  The gate officials kindly informed me that it was off-line, but due to be restored shortly.  

Having dodged a couple of bubbles on the way there, and the night previous I didn’t need to be told twice – time to get out – asap!  Plotting an exact return course, I headed back to my safe spot to wait for the gates to come back on-line.  There were a few people in the system, but most too busy trying to get out rather than shoot each other – this was good, for me at least.

After another 15 minutes or so, I thought I’d chance my luck again.  I noticed local had dipped, so they’d either logged or got out – time for another try,  “Particulars verified, jump in sequence” came the reply from the gate – it was back on-line!  Shortly I was back in low sec and away from those god awful bubbles, which were almost certain death for a pod if any hostiles were nearby.

Some sort of cascading virus had affected most gates in New Eden, and they were off-line.  Stations were having trouble undocking ships too – time for a nap.  I made haste to the nearest station, still in my pod and got some downtime whilst the gates were onlined again.

The night previous, which had lead me to this situation had involved a frigate roam.  We’d wandered a little and ventured into 0.0 where a battle had ensued.  Burning to our primary, I pointed and tackled him keeping a close orbit to try and avoid any outgoing fire.  That was well and good, the other hostiles managed to take me down pretty quickly, various munitions making short work of the tackler shields.  I had to eject and leave sharpish!

Having no safe way back, I decided the best option was to power down and wait them out… which I did.  Brining us up to speed once more after the gate chaos, I was home.

A T1 frigate roam with Coochie – good fun indeed, sadly no kills for me as our primary which I’d tackled had survived.

Returning to the scene of the action I had a few ships ready and waiting.  “Get her prepped and ready” I said to the deck crew.  Intel was coming in from multiple channels – it was hard to keep up at times.  It would have probably been easier if I’d not sat and drank some cheap station grog after returning from 0.0

Shaking my head, I boarded the aptly named “Marmalade” – a blackbird with some heavy EWAR fittings.  She had very minimal offensive capability, but could “switch off” and aggressor and buy time for either the attack to complete, or a gang-mate to escape.

Fleeting with some of the Bastards crew, I made 18 jumps through low sec to catch up with them – finally making contact on a course correction.  The fleet comprised of various ships (not going into too much detail), we started to roam.

The Bastards had a few WT’s wandering around, amongst the usual crowd.  The first ship to be engaged was a Jaguar, which the ever redoubtable Flashfresh and Ronin made very short work of. Piling in slightly behind the main force I locked her and unleashed my deadly arsenal – not in the form of any sort of projectiles or missiles but EWAR.

“The targets locking and targeting are now disabled Ma’am” said our tactical officer.  “Good” I replied.  “Ensure it stays that way!”.  The frigate taking massive fire from Flash and Ronin was sure to pop but we’d saved them maybe a few megawatts of shields or armour repair cycles.

Carrying on, new intel was received.  The fleet channels were awash with chatter and confirmations and were were soon en-route again.  Five, maybe six jumps later we were at our destination.  Gods, lay off the station grog next time Alia, I thought to myself.  My head having far too many cobwebs in and trying to clear them and focus was proving hard.

Nonetheless, arriving shortly behind the main attack force the primary was quickly locked as my nimble EWAR frigate fired it’s sensor boosters.  This ensured a quicker lock, again saving time for both myself and the fleet to get the job done.  A lock was quickly established and the electronic attack computers began hacking the targets systems in order to disable them.

“Lock is established, estimating time to target shut down” the tactical officer said.  “Fire ECM modules in staggered formation, lets maximise our jamming potential” I replied.  “Aye Ma’am” he confirmed, getting to work.  The modules activated at 33%, 66% and about 90% to give the best ECM spread and maximise the havoc upon the target.

Smiling I said “Lets do our bit too”.  Our pathetic offensive capabilities in terms of damage clunked into their launchers and sped to their destination.  The couple of thunderbolts slammed into the target a few seconds later – well it all helped

The T2 ships piloted by Ronin, Flash and 3Jane made short work of the enemy battle cruiser which was reduced to smouldering scrap within 60 seconds.  I was primaried (if not, I’d certainly pissed a load of them off) – and far too much to jam.  The shields and armour melted pretty quick, but I got the pod out.  Time for a quick stop, refit and re-launch…..

The roam continued, and various stand-offs ensued.  The best of which was attempting to get a capital to engage.  The odds were stacked against us – technically, but these guys knew their stuff.  Sadly it was not to be (he didn’t wanna play) – so we continued onwards.

A few of the Hellcats, namely Minxee, Venom and another X’d up and came to join us.  Some fighting ensued in one of the local systems (again, vagueness prevails).  Warping to the main battle slightly ahead of the others en-route I engaged an enemy Mega with one of our pilots under fire.  I knew I’d maybe get one or two jam cycles off before the sentry guns shredded my shields – which they did rather quickly.  “Alia is under fire, gotta duck out for a few” I said over the comms systems – as the rest of the fleet arrived.

For what help it did, I’d got two jam cycles on the enemy but couldn’t tank the sentries for more than about 30 seconds in my cruiser.  “Sentries locking… and firing… incoming ordnance” tactical reported.  “Maintain position, keep our ECM hot and align” I said.

We got another jam cycle in at a health distance before the sentries started to bite into our shields heavily.  “Ma’am, we cannot take another salvo” confirmed tactical – engineering confirmed.  “Take us out… quickly!”.  We insta-warped to our destination, escaping the savage fire of the sentries.  The shields barely operational, and the resistance fields struggling to keep operational we waited for a few moments.

The comms were hot, more ships engaging, more friendlies going in – and more enemies arriving.  They’d bought along some EWAR too, which were causing us to lose locks – and valuable DPS.  I decided a game of chicken was in order.  Warping back into the action at 50km, we attempted another couple of jam cycles, maybe pulling out one or two before the shields were shredded again.

A rinse and repeat occurred as the battle continued.  Their EWAR pilots proving to be very effective, which I couldn’t get a jam cycle on.  The battle shortly petered out, with no kills, no losses.

“Align and ready to dock” I announced.  Having been in the pod for some hours and still groggy from the grog it had been a good night, but it was time for some rest.  “Ma’am, we’re still valid targets for sentries” the XO exclaimed.  Grinning and nodding slightly I replied “Yes we are, but I’m tired”.  Checking the shields they were about 70%, with our DC systems and resistance barriers we could probably pull it off.

“Warping to dock” the ships systems confirmed.  “Maximum DC, Maximum resitance – and tell the docking officer we’re in a hurry, and there’s a bonus in it for him!”.  “Yes Ma’am” comms and engineering confirmed.

We docked under sentry fire, the damage control and resistances giving us time to complete before we were torn to pieces.

All in all, a good time was had by all.  I very much enjoyed fleeting with The Bastards and their pilots – some superbly skilled guys in there.  I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that kind of wrath.  Whilst I didn’t get any final blows or inflict a massive amount of DPS (lol @ DPS) I did get a bit more experience in the EWAR field (excluding cock-ups) but it was indeed a great new experience.

You either love EWAR or hate it, but either way you can’t live without it and it’s here to stay.  It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it – and I’m enjoying it so far – yay! \o/

A hunt, a romp and a few kills – not to mention some games with neuts – what more could you ask for?

Thank you one and all.