Solo Sard 4

Pirates of Molden Heath 2

The afternoon following my venture into nullsec with a group pirates found me again with the same individuals. I bumped into Odareum and his alt in Istodard while roaming Molden Heath, and quickly formed a gang with him after exchanging greetings. We chatted idly about what we had seen in adjacent systems, and I decided to scout the one we hadn't probed, Half. It so happened I would need the backup for what I found there.

After jumping into system, I maneuvered my Huginn recon ship towards a pocket of asteroid belts to begin my scans. Upon arriving at a planet, I was able to narrow down scan on a Hurricane ratting at one of the belts surrounding the planet. The pilot was oblivious to my presence right up to the point where I immobilized his vessel with two Webifiers and a Warp Disruptor. With tackle completed, I reported to my gang mates that I had a target and they should make haste to my position in Half.

It was seconds before aid arrived in the form of a Hurricane, Bellicose and Rapier. Our combined damage swamped the target battlecruiser in projectile ordinance, which quickly reduced the ship to rubble. The Hurricane was able to summon friends however, and before being consumed by fire an Armageddon, Eagle and Rapier arrived in the asteroid belt. Being seasoned cutthroats, there was no hesitation as I called the Rapier primary and the Eagle secondary.

The enemy Rapier had the misfortune of landing amongst the asteroids of the belt after coming of warp: this left him easy prey as he couldn't MWD away or recloak. The moderate buffer tank on the ship was swept aside and the Rapier dissolved moments after being called primary. The Eagle then became the focus of our attention, and I raced to place my tackle kit on the Caldari HAC. A burst of my MWD slew the distance between the two ships, and the Eagle was firmly held for my gang to pound to dust.

In the excitement of destroying the two cruisers, the Armageddon was able to slip away. The field was ours, and we set about scooping the loot, eventually forming midwarp safespots to wait down our GCCs. While waiting, we decided to head towards Egbinger, where we would likely dodge into nullsec to give the residents there a run for their lives.

Fifteen minutes passed, and I moved ahead of our gang to scout for targets. Systems passed without any excitement, and we breezed through lowsec until reaching the Heild system, two jumps out from Egbinger. While scouting the multitude of belts there, I spied a Ferox battlecruiser working the belts surrounding the seventh planet of the system. It wasn't much longer than half a minute before the Ferox hull lit the void with a sapphire brilliance.

The Ferox left little in the way of booty, however once again it seemed the victim had an ace up his sleeve, as Foundati0n presence in the system multiplied while our pirate gang destroyed his ship. Atomic Betty, a foundati0n pilot known for flying Broadswords and baiting for blobs was in local, and it wasn't long before his HIC arrived at our belt. I could only grin as our gang took the bait, autocannons licking fire towards the FDN cruiser as we awaited the eventual enemy response.

I don't know whether it's an intentional tactic of Foundati0n to trickle in support when blobbing a foe. Perhaps it's a trick to lull their prey into a sense of security until it's too late. Today their retarded maneuvering system would cost them. Atomic Betty put up the usual heroic show as his HIC tanked our small gang, too slowly running out of shields for our gang to drop him before his support arrived. However, the first ship to arrive at the scene to aid Betty was a FDN Falcon... a mere 20km away from our gang and stuck in the asteroids of the belt. Voice comms was thick with variants of "SMOKE THAT FALCON!"

The pirate gang retreated from the HIC to concentrate fire on the Falcon, which was incapable of jamming all of our ships. Shield, armor and structure faded and the Falcon was removed from the field. In the time it took to maneuver and kill the Falcon, the rest of the FDN gang had arrived, and as they outnumbered us four to one, those that could escape did. In doing so, we traded a Hurricane for a Falcon: a fair trade any day, especially when the Caldari recon fit rigs and a Dark Blood Warp Disruptor.

With Foundation presence in the system established, we pirates decided to take a break and let things cool down before continuing. We docked up, and the rest of the day was relatively quiet, with only a few minor upsets. A note about the Myrmidon gank: Odareum has little compunction about using shady means to achieving his goals. This particular victim happened to accept the wrong gang invitation that day, as we descended upon his ship like the rabid opportunists we were. While using such means to an end felt below me at the time, it's certainly worth a try, and any pilot that falls for such a trick deserve the lesson.