Starwalker joined the Rebel roam from Eugales to Aeschee in his Hawk. He would have used a T1 frigate like everyone else except that he had lost the last one recently. Given that everyone else was in Rifters he noted in fleet that he would happily perform the meatshield role, although others noted that his Hawk might be targeted last.
Peri Simone settled into his regular role as FC and similarly Kaeda Maxwell was the +1 scout. It was not long before Kaeda had found a Stabber Fleet Issue at a Gallente Major Outpost and had it pointed. And it was not long after that the Stabber Fleet Issue was a wreck, however, the Rebels were soon warped to a safe spot as a Tengu arrived and it seemed that the locals were gathering a reprisal force.
The Rebels waited out GCC and then moved on and seemed to be chased by another R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N pilot in another Stabber Fleet Issue (SFI). It was not engaged immediately but eventually Peri Simone said that after the next jump if the SFI jumps through engage it. It did and soon the SFI was in trouble with the incoming Rebel damage.
However, a Legion came through to help repair it but whilst it tried to save the SFI it was not enough and the second SFI of the night exploded. The Legion was targeted but it did not have aggression and it was able to jump back to safety through the gate. Surprisingly, no one else from R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N came - so perhaps they had given up or those two were always on their own.
The Rebels were very satisfied with the kills and decided to head back to Eugales. Not far from the home system a flashy Vexor appeared on the gate with the Rebels and it was clearly looking for a fight. It got one.
The Rifters soon made short work of the drones as the Vexor targeted Starwalker's Hawk. The Vexor's neutraliser soon had the Hawk capped out and the shields started to fall. However, the Hawk rockets continued to smash into the Vexor and the ancillary shield boosters operated from their own capacitor charges, In short, the Hawk gank and tank was still operational and that wasn't counting the rest of the Rebel fleet pounding away at the Vexor and its drones.
The Vexor released more drones but it was going down and it was not much longer before its structure buckled under the Rebel firepower and it became the third kill of the roam. Starwalker was pleased that his Hawk had survived as it was his last frigate and he would need to move more frigates to Eugales soon. As soon as the regular Oulley gate camp was asleep...
Starwalker was returning to Ishomilken in his pod to collect another Merlin to take to the staging point in Eugales for the Rebel roam. He noticed a Stabber Fleet Issue and Wolf on scan and also Miura Bull in local. Waving to his esteemed leader, he offered to fleet up and see what damage they could do.
Undocking in a Hawk, Starwalker and Miura Bull, piloting a Wolf, looked for the targets but they seemed to have gone elsewhere and so Starwalker returned to station and undocked in his Merlin. The Stabber Fleet Issue was there, outside the station, and Starwalker warped to the sun wondering if it would follow - it did.
It landed 100km away and seemed to wait as the Rebel Merlin and Wolf burned towards it. The Merlin was going faster and arrived first to a wall of incoming fire and drones and it was simply too much for the active shield tank to hold and it died in a ball of fire. The SFI could have made a fast getaway as the Wolf arrived shortly afterwards but it stayed to fight and Starwalker docked up to get his Hawk.
The SFI was active armour tanking the Wolf when Starwalker arrived and immediately engaged with his rockets spewing out. With the combined firepower it was clear that the SFI was going down and it was only a matter of time, shortly afterwards the SFI was another ball of fire in the black of space.
In retrospect, Starwalker thought that he could have done better with the Merlin approach, the ship might still have died but it could have lasted longer:
- Merlin directly approached the SFI and should have tried to spiral in, the early hits from the 220mm Vulcan Autocannons could have been avoided or their damage significantly reduced
- Miura Bull noted that he was struggling to keep up when approaching the SFI and Starwalker should have slowed down so that they arrived together. His overview excluded fleet members and so he never actually knew where the Wolf was beyond the fact that it was behind him
- Starwalker had not expected the damage to start so far out of scramble range, when it did start he should have changed course to reduce tracking, in short react to the new information and reassess the plan of attack
