The Mercenary arrives !

I met Zoolkhan at a low sec station. Brutor males make an impression. With Ombey next to him they were towering over me. Luckily size does not matter when you are in a POD.

Negotiations were short and conclusive which fits with the nature of the Matar people. Straight to business and no detours. I like that. Yes, they could allow a mercenary in their midst that came recommended. Price was another matter entirely. Minmatar ain’t a rich people and are mainly kept in the trade loop by the Gallente who buys their goods at fixed prices.

Being rebels they have even less money to throw around and most of the money are made on illegal trades such as drugs and weapons.

Anyway, agreement was reached and I was now officially part of the minmatar rebellion.

I cleared the logistics over a week jumping through no less than 4 low security systems.Ombey helped me with the final jump to my new home. I arrived in style, in my newest addition to the ship gallery. The Wolf. A true beast that can dish out ammo slugs at an alarming rate while holding the enemy down and disabling micro warp drives.

Ombey and I took it out for a spin but as fortune would have it we ran into another gang consisting of amarr loyalists. I was at the very edge of the interdictor warp disruption bubble and was pretty sure I could make it. I hit the afterburner and my Wolf made it out but Ombey had to bite the dust.

I was chased for a short while in the system of CB4-Q2 but eventualy they gave up. I had to power down my ship at a spot in space as a hostile fleet was reported to hold a star gate I had to go through on the way back.

The wolf came to life with a slow burst of the engines. All lit up green and the ship reported itself ready for another day. KW was still reported full of hostiles and I considered taking the long way around through a region called Providence that showed almost no activity. To hell with it I though to my self and jumped into EX-0LQ.

The scanner screamed at once and reported 5 unknown hostile ships in the system. I took the Wolf to an asteroid belt close to the gate leading to KW-I6T and did a quick scan. Drake, Rapier, Crow, Sabre and a Heretic.

Ill be damned… Almost the very same gang that attacked me and Ombey last night.

I hung around for a minute and considered my options. A scam was what was needed. I warped to the gate at a distance of 250 km and the crow at once turned and approached me while the rest of the gang aligned towards their prey.

Ive never actually executed this kind of maneuver but seen Eddz implement it every now and then. The chase was on.

I jerked the ship around, though I had plenty of time before the crow would be even remotely close and warped to the gate leading to CB4-Q2. On the scanner I could see the crow had followed me into warp a few seconds after. He landed at the gate as I jumped. I was pretty sure that I would have time on the other side to warp out but all of a sudden I wasn’t so sure this was such good an idea.

I engaged the warpdrive on the other side and warped towards a gate leading out of the system.

As I entered warp the rest of the gang jumped in to the system and they at once engaged their own warp drives. My warp was however not very long. Some 700 km off the gate I stopped at a spot I had prepared the other night. The enemy gave chase towards the exit of the system while I doubled back and jumped out of system the very way I had just entered.

Well back in EX-0LQ I was VERY satisfied with myself. I called up on the alliance intercom to know how the situation was in KW-I6T. It was reported clear with 4 docked hostiles and a single somewhere outside. I jumped in and was met by Maggot of the Ushra’Khan. We talked briefly and I was not late to let him know about my little manoeuvre. Sadly he was unimpressed and he continued north.

I hung by the EX-0LQ gate in KW-I6T as Paddington of Sarz’na Khumatari jumped into the system. He informed me that he was going to place a bubble on the line from the two gates to the newly erected station in that system. I hit a scan and reported that I had a Thanatos on scan from the gate and that made all hostiles accounted for.

I had to power down the ship and run a quick diagnostics.

As the ship and the sensors came back to life 5 minutes later, so did the voice coms. Paddington had been joined by Conlin on the duty of disrupting the logistical lines in the system and there was something very wrong.

Conlin:”Holding him, point stable, taking heavy fire from figh..grzz..fzz”

Ohh I thought to myself, there is a fight at  the station. I reported in that I was available and called for a fleet invitation. I was ignored…

“Structure compromised. Need to warp the fuck out now ! Take the point.” Conlin called into the voice coms. Paddinton confirmed that he had point.

Paddinton:”Fighters are engaging need back up NOW!” The distress signal went out.

Fighters ??? A carrier ??? Two man engaging a carrier with 4 more hostiles in…  ohh my… 6 hostiles in station by now.

I called again and was told they were buzy keeping them self alive but if I warped to the station at 100 km from my current location I would be in the fight.

As I came out of warp I took in the field of battle. A hyperion, Drake and a Stabber was at the station some 80 km away from the carrier.

Paddintons ship was in a miserable state and Conlin was not ready to enter the fight again.

Enter the Wolf ! I smiled to myself.

Ducking the fighters I quickly closed the distance. The Wolf is made for a specific type of combat but that does not include a fully fitted carrier with energy neutralizers and smartbombs. I called that I had the short range micro warp disabling version of the warp disruptor.

“He aint got no Neutralizers!”, Conlin called back.

I called the point the second I got confirmation that his warpcore was utter disabled and Paddington warped out.

All of a sudden I got the full attention of some 6 Fighters, but my wolfs maneuverability made it hard for the Fighters to track it. Laying a low orbit of 5000 meters around the Thanatos, my 200 mm autocannons opened fire on the pursuing Fighters.

Conlin came back and entered the fight again and the Fighters were called off me to chase Conlin off. We quickly made short work of two Fighters that exploded some 7.000 meters from me in a silent explosion. Paddinton came back and entered the fray once more and we were able to kill 4 more Fighters before the Carrier pilot called the rest back.

Out came medium combat drones and I noticed that the Stabber on the station was now moving. I alerted Paddinton who told me to hold off for now till they had point on the Thanatos again. Approx 10 secunds later Paddinton told me to engage the Staber. He came in hot at around 1800 km/sec as I calculated an interception vector. Paddington had already dispatched drones to deal with him but he was too fast fro the heavy drones. Point I called and the Stabbber had his micro warpdrive disabled and came down to a satisfying 300 m/sec that allowed my auto cannons and Paddingtons Ogres to track him.

Conlin and Paddinton had in the mean time gotten hold of Ushra’Khan command and called in the trapped Thanatos and the Ushra’Khan fighters were heading the call.

Slowly the system status showed increasing numbers of friendly pilots. Battle cruisers joined the battle and that spoke the end of the Thanatos that entered a final futile struggle for its life.

The hostile Hyperion and Drake outside the station was joined by an Abaddon, but all they could do was watch hopelessly as two Falcons perma jammed their targeting systems.

Reports ticked in that there was a hostile fleet inbound that were send to save the Thanatos. We on the other hand had called in support from Against All Authorities. By chance the two fleets met both on their way to respectively kill and save the Thanatos. The result was a clear win for AAA, though I am still unclear about if the inbound fleet were Rebellion Alliance or Paxton Federation both of which got a rough handling around the same time.

The Thanatos inevitably met its doom.

While the pilots of Ushra’Khan screamed for blood and howled at getting the final report that confirmed that the pilot had landed the killing blow, my guns ran out of ammunition. Almost 900 Barrage S and 700 Republic EMP S was used in the engagement.

Comparing the time that the Stabber was killed with the time the Carrier was destroyed one can see that 20 minutes of fighting had elapsed and before that almost the same.

I got the honor of dispatching the POD of the Thanatos pilot to his nearest cloning facility.

Just before I blew him up he saluted our small fleet and gave a “GF” in local.

An industrial was called up as noone had even considered that the Carrier contained anything but regular modules. We took up position on the gate to cover the incomming industrial and some stayed back to protect the loot, which to out surprise SSI did not blow up.

A small gang just doing a roam payed with a Recon Ship and ran off.

The loot got safely back to our main base in F4R2-Q and there was much bravado on the coms.

I hung out with Ombey and some other from the alliance at the hostile station where we found out that we could dock… They have since corrected that mistake. However a Drake and a Brutix just had to play with us and was dispatched in due course. I’m not quite sure what the gesture was about but we thanked them for the modules we got of their ships.

Exhausted by the combat I powered down safe and sound at a spot in the system ready for whatever tomorrow will bring. Which reminds me I have to get back to the Warchest with the loot I have in my cargo hold. Mostly drones and such, but none the less valuable stuff that will be sold and pay my mercenary salary which I believe I have earned.