Things were a little slow to get rolling that Saturday night, although there were various people wandering around looking for targets.  The one’s we’d managed to find on scan were either at safes, pos’s or just passing through.  I didn’t mind, I was in a relaxed mood and enjoying the scenery after a week in station or grounded to the planet.

“Ma’am looks very happy today” ventured a crew member.
“Mmmhmmm” I muttered, offering a slight smile and a wink.  I was just happy to be back in space once again.

Communications were buzzing lightly with general info coming in and some idle chit-chat.  We organised into a fleet and decided to start a bit of a roam.  Before we’d even managed to leave the system a Cynabal cruiser was found on scan.  The tacklers warped in and quickly pinned him down, along with the rest of the gang, myself in tow too.

No ransom was offered and the ship was quickly taken apart by our mix of frigate and cruiser gang, the pilot made good his escape and left with his pod.

Now the roam started proper and we set a course out towards the 0.0 boarder.  Jumping through various systems, scanning and probing we’d managed to find a few things here and there but it was very quiet all in all.  Nothing but the distance and vastness of space, stars and suns littering the sky and the occasional nebula – that and the mixed frigate/cruiser gang streaking across this back-drop with their engines roaring creating an ion trail which slowly dissipated like an aircraft of ancient Earth crossing the sky and leaving a vapour trail.

I was snapped back into focus again by our FC; “We’re going to head into 0.0”.  I needed to be a little more on the ball in that case, and stop my mind wandering so.

We briefly ducked into 0.0 to see what we could find, which consisted of a few large gangs and bubbles – more than our gang was capable of dealing with.

We headed back towards home after some reports of more activity back that way, the fleet quickly aligning, warping and jumping together.  A little while later we were back in Evati and a Sleipnir Command Ship was found on scan near a belt.  The pilot was known to some in the gang.

The gang now consisted on a Rapier, some frigates, cruisers and interceptors.  The Sleipnir was tackled and the rest of the gang warped towards our target like a group of hungry piranha finding lunch to snack on.  The tacklers did an amazing job of keeping him in place, despite on of them getting popped during the process they made sure his escape was not an option.

I followed moments later arriving at the action at 70km in my Blackbird.  Firing up the sensor boosters the Sleipnir was locked and quickly on the end of an ECM barrage.  From the distance I could see the rest of the gang orbiting, firing.  Trying to keep under the CS’s guns, whilst inflicting maximum damage.

The comms were chatty and I reported that I had my brought my full load to bare on the CS’s, hoping this would give our small gang time to take the CS down without suffering at the hands of it’s auto cannons and neut.

I scanned the tactical overview and our target, the ECM modules were cycling but we weren’t getting a single jam cycle in – not one.  I decided to get in a little closer to try and make a difference, although we were pretty much almost at optimal.  Closing to within missile range I ordered our offensive weapons to open fire too, which they did.  Continuing to fire our ECM and missiles at the target it became clear that I wasn’t going to get a cycle in.

“Alia here, I’ve not had a single jam cycle! He must have ECCM”

One of our pilots was pinned down by the CS’s warp disruptor and was taking heavy fire.  I cursed at fact that I couldn’t get a jam cycle off as this would have allowed him valuable seconds to get out, but it wasn’t to be.  The Sleipnir claimed an interceptor, in additional to it’s earlier stabber (which I’ll point out was a ‘temporary get me home stabber fit’ one of our guys was flying).

Now I know for a fact I can jam a command ship in a T1 cruiser, with T1 modules so by this point I was utterly convinced he had ECCM. 

“Ma… Ma’am”
“Yes, what is it?” I replied snappily as I was concentrating on other readouts and systems.
“I.. I can’t get a jam cycle off”
I sighed heavily.
“Very well, transfer systems over to my pod – I’ll do it myself”
“Yes Ma’am” the tactical officer said sheepishly.

The ewar modules were transferred over to the pod, where I realigned them making quick adjustments here and there.  Every attack angle, every vector, every option was met with quick resistance and compensation – there was no way in.

“Neither can I, transferring control back to you – I’m busy, but keep trying”
“Yes Ma’am”

It didn’t matter too much as the cruiser and frigate gang polished him off rather quickly all things considered and without any additional casualties.  The pod was quickly in warp before we could lock it down.  The loot was scooped and loaded and we headed to safes and stations to wait out our Criminal flags.

Checking over the combat logs I was astonished to find that the pilot had fitted no less than THREE ewar counter-measures to his ship.  This explained the fact he was invulnerable to my attacks, but of course left his ship very vulnerable in other areas.  He told us that he was trying to kill a Falcon – hence the very strange fit, and very strange behaviour.  I felt a little better in the fact that there were 3 eccm modules fitted and nothing I could have done would have made a difference.

After a quick rest we were off again, the gang now consisting of only 6 pilots.  The rest had other business to attend to, or were refitting.  Hera had spotted a Drake heading through to the Todi gate and followed it through where they went head to head, Drake Vs Brutix.  Hera was also under sentry gun fire and ECM drone attack.

“Break the gate cloak and get that Drake locked down” I ordered, whilst manoeuvring the ship into a more suitable position.  Tactical and weapons officers made busy and we were ready almost right away.

I was the next to arrive on scene, quickly breaking my gate cloak and locking the Drake who returned the favour.  As were were almost at point blank range, there was no need for any additional boosting, I just let rip with my ECM and missiles.

The Drake pilot was quick – and smart.  He pulled his ecm drones off of the Brutix and onto me, hoping to “jam the jammer”.

“Ma’am, the Drake has re-deployed it’s drones onto us”
“Reinforce the shields” I snapped, assuming at first they were attack drones.
“Yes Ma’am” as our shield hardeners kicked into life.

I quickly realised they were not attack drones and we cancelled our additional defence to save our precious capacitor for our continued EWAR attack against the Drake – which was pretty much now Permajammed and unable to return fire upon either the Brutix or myself.

“Defensive – stand down on shields”
“Tactical – get ready to re-establish lock if we’re jammed”
“Weapons – keep our ecm on the target, I don’t want it getting a shot off and switch missiles to EM”

A chorus of “Yes Ma’am” echoed around the bridge as the crew continued their work in the dimly light surroundings, which had a faint red glow. It was not only to signal we were in combat, that much was obvious but it made readouts and operating the systems easier for people.  The bridge was packed with high-tech equipment – even by Caldari standards.  It was boxy though, I was used to something more spacious, but I’d had it fitted to my own specification to match my styles and skills perfectly.

The gate activated but we were calm in the knowledge it was the rest of our gang jumping through to help break the Drakes tank.  2 Interceptors, a Thorax and a Rifter arrived to reinforce our attack against the immobile, disabled and helpless Drake.

Hera’s Brutix, Ronin and 3Jayne in their interceptors and Jack in his Thorax quickly ripped through the Drakes shields whilst an additional tackler, Porcus kept the Drake locked down and sharpened his auto cannon teeth on the shields.  The Drake was utterly helpless, unable to move, unable to fire it’s fate was sealed. 

I’d seen this many times before.  The Drakes shields crackled under the final strain and barrage unable to keep charge with the incoming damage, they were down and incoming fire was striking the paper-thin Caldari armour taking chunks out of the once proud ship.  The armour and hull were quickly breeched and the ship veered out of control exploding moments later as more ordinance ripped through the mangled ship causing it’s warp drive to explode, and in turn the entire ship.  The crew braced for a shock wave from the explosion, which was absorbed by our shields just causing a slight buffeting.

No criminal flags, so we were able to slow boat to the gate and jump through.  By this time it was getting very late (or early depending on which way you look at it) so I decided to dock up and get some sleep.

A pleasant night-time roam and some good kills.