My luck held out, and I flew the Gun of Happiness, my PvP-fitted cruiser, back home. Everyone else in our null-sec adventure — on our side, anyway — got sent home via express mail. But we hit them first, and we hit them hard, but they soon outnumbered us and that was that.
We’d been planning on a PvP op more than our usual wormhole exploration for awhile. Red had scoped out some NPC complexes in low security space. We could play around in those and if some other players happened past — BOOM.
This must have been a holiday for EVE pilots, though, for in one lowsec system after another — no pilots! We split up in each new system, checked every asteroid belt for players or NPC battleships and battle cruisers — and if we found those crunchy NPC villains, we’d gather together, take them down, and listen for that unmistakable clickclickclick as the pirate bounties hit our wallets.
All that was left was to leave behind even the scant safety or lowsec for nullsec, the lawless domain where things that matter happen. Where pro players would eat up PvP noobs like ourselves, even though we evened things up a little bit by being in a fleet. Red was the only one who brought real firepower, a Raven he’d been testing and tuning all evening. I was in my cruiser — packed to the hull with electronic warfare stuff and a wide selection of drones, but unable to take any real heat. We also had a Stabber (cruiser) and a Rifter (frigate) and … another ship, I can’t remember.
First thing we found in the 0.0 system was an ice field — I didn’t get a picture of it, because we’d already started splitting up and someone had found a couple of players in a belt — one in a Dominix (battleship) and the other in a Drake (battlecruiser)? Or was it a Raven? Anyway, the rest of us warped in and immediately set on the Domi. They’d been fighting some NPC pirates (rats) but they hadn’t taken any damage that we could see. I came in a little late, but I did get there and unleashed my ECM drones on the Domi. Well, actually, on one of the NPC ships by mistake. But I corrected it and circled in to a tight orbit so my guns would be sure to hit, and the Domi wasn’t packing something unusual like smart bombs, anyway.
The Dominix held out a VERY long time, and was still getting shots in. The Drake had warped out or been destroyed (we got a kill mail on it, so it did get destroyed at some point). We killed the Dominix just as their cavalry arrived. Red hung back while the rest of us headed for the hills, but only I was lucky enough to get away. I was just fortunate to be at the end of their list.
I knew heading to any gate would be suicide — if I were them, I’d be watching all the gates looking for survivors. The cursing as one by one, our fleet was podded, convinced me to just hang in deadspace and be very quiet. I eventually just logged out in deadspace, because what else was there to do? Trying to escape would be suicidal. We were in nullsec, surrounded by lowsec. There’d be no help.
Still — we did get two kills. Next time, we need to bring more ships and have a REAL battle. I’m glad my Vexor got away, but it’s not right to put all the big ship burden on Red, so next time I’ll have a Brutix (battlecruiser) fitted. It’s not going to be as powerful as my Myrmidon, but I think it would be best to stick with drone boats for now. We do have the killmail for the Dominix we killed, and I’ll be using that as a template to fit my own out at some point.
Now to log in and see if the coast is clear… it’s been a couple hours….
9 thoughts on “EVE Online: First PvP ops”
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Your descent into the darkside continues Tipa. It is only a matter of time until you join Syncaine ganking noobs in Darkfall.
Did your fleet have some kind of battle plan Tipa? Perhaps the Rifter was a fast tackler, you were there to shut down the opponent with ECM and while the other two laid on the damage?
Our battle plan was Red tanked, the rest of us shut down warp and webbed and targeting and tried to kill. We’ll get more sophisticated.
Well done! the first fight in 0.0 is often the most memorable – congratulations on the kills – on my first time in 0.0 my entire fleet died also despite the fact we had an actual plan, a good amount of DPS, ewar and a HIC… live and learn 🙂
Oh you’re making me long to come back just for night like these. PVP ops are exciting even when you don’t find anyone because the threat of danger is around every corner. You don’t know when you will run into others or where. Sound like good times.
One of these days I really need to get in a Corp and start doing more interesting things. I have plenty of hulls I could afford to lose in PvP if needed.
To avoid podding (assuming no bubbles) have your corpmates set up a tab in the overview with celestial objects. Once it becomes apparent you’re going to die, switch to that tab, pick a celestial at random and start spamming your “warp to” button. Pods instawarp, so it’s extremely rare that anyone can target your pod and get a point on you before you escape. Keep pingponging around from place to place until you can sneak out the gate or log out.
Of course, if they start chasing your pods around the system, then it can get *really* interesting…….
It was pretty tense, and the aftermath turns out to be even more fun. Sure, we’re KOS to an important alliance in a highly desirable part of space, but you can’t play the game if you don’t sit down at the table. I just have the feeling that I’m seeing just a little bit of the REAL EVE, the one I’ve been working five months to find.
I loved reading this article 🙂 Made me really want to get stuck into EVE 🙂 It’s been ages since I’ve played it properly. Awesome screenshot btw!