Peri Simone started the Target Everyone Somebody Fire (TESF) R1FTA roam a long time ago and when the R1DER alliance was started the invitation was extended to all alliance members. This had become a regular roam where usually Peri would FC but anyone could volunteer to FC and The Strabusiness stepped up to the plate last Tuesday.
Kane the Black and Zodiac Black performed sterling service as the scouts and The Strabusiness did a good job as the FC. The Rebels would take down any larger ships that they could find or engage other gangs but on this occasion despite the odd shenanigans there was no big fight. A couple of Coercers were the fleet victims:
- Coercer piloted by Yoyomommy was sitting in a complex and got tackled. He died extremely quickly, so much so that a number of the gang were not able to get in on the kill
- Coercer piloted by Dante Vicari was playing station games and had a battlecruiser with him but when the Rebels arrived they scarpered - to the sun. This was such a common escape point that it was not a good escape location and the Coercer was caught there and then left to its fate by the battlecruiser
Starwalker had docked up in Ishomilken after the TESF roam and the following day he was returning to base when he was caught by two Condors. He tried unsuccessfully to slingshot into range but the distance never closed to less than 16km and he was unable to escape the long point so his trusty Merlin was gone. Some small compensation was had by killing this Slasher with a Tristan but as Starwalker flew the Tristan he considered whether he needed to fly a frigate with a micro-warp-drive (MWD), scram and web combination to catch those pesky kiters.
The problem with using a MWD fit frigate in lowsec was that it sacrificed range control to a frigate with an afterburner, scram, web combination. Starwalker had nearly always flown with an afterburner brawler fit in lowsec and had only really used a MWD in nullsec on the rare occasions he flew in that space. He had learned the hard way that burning out of a bubble with an afterburner was painful and getting to a target fast was needed in nullsec. In short, almost everyone used a MWD in nullsec, except perhaps for surprise value or due to ignorance of nullsec bubbles.
Using a MWD frigate within a TESF roam would be no problem and indeed Starwalker had already used one to act as fast tackle if needed. Generally in a TESF roam Starwalker had always flown with a ship that he would use solo, which seemed to be generally accepted practice. The TESF roam had always been popular within R1DER and it was largely composed of solo (frigate) pilots who came together sometimes for small gangs, so these fleets tended to be simply a collection of solo pilots looking for action together. An FC and scout/tackle would be identified and then the gang, usually composed of various frigates would head out into space.
Employing fleet doctrines, roles, ships and fits based around combining logistics, scouting (beyond +1), fleet tackle and damage dealers was largely alien to R1DER. Similarly alien was using fleet tactics such as hot drops, bombing runs, black ops or capital ship engagement. Indeed Starwalker had not actually seen a RIDER or R1FTA fleet that actually had a battleship and Starwalker was fine with that. If he wanted that experience then he would join a nullsec alliance and respond to the Call to Arms (CTA) at whatever time needed.
Starwalker liked being solo with very few real rules and with like minded people. He enjoyed the small gang culture and sometimes combining with other Rebels if they happened to be in the same area or going on a TESF roam. The composition of R1FTA and R1DER had changed over time and in particular core R1FTA members like Miura Bull, Kaeda Maxwell and Lhorenzho have recently moved on. But Starwalker felt that the core principles had remained the same
- Fly what you want, where you want, when you want and how you want
- Honor 1v1 and ransoms
Starwalker wished all ex-Rebels well and hoped to see them back in R1DER in the future.
Starwalker joined the weekly TESF roam FC'd by Peri Simone. He had re-shipped into a Merlin fit with an MWD (micro-warp-drive) that enabled the ship to go super fast at the cost of increased signature radius but the primary reason was to act as fast tackle if needed.
[Merlin, MWDMSE]
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Damage Control II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
Medium Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Starwalker generally liked to have two magnetic field stabilisers when in full gank mode but for tackling he had replaced one of them with a damage control module. The MWD required more power grid and consequently he had used the meta 3 shield extender, which was chosen over the meta 4 equivalent due to cost. This pushed the overall EHP down to 7.2k but that was still good for a fast brawler style fit.
Daathen volunteered to scout and before long he had pointed a nice Arbitrator at a medium outpost. The fleet piled in and set to work on what seemed like an endless succession of drones but with so many ships and so much firepower available it was straightforward. Attention then inevitably turned to the Arbitrator itself and it succumbed with barely a whimper - it only took down the scout with it.
Brink Albosa stepped up to the plate and continued scouting, finding a Vengeance and Wolf at a station. The Vengeance was an outlaw and the fleet again made short work of the target. The Wolf however, was slightly more complicated as it was not an outlaw and it was yellow to most of the fleet. However, the Wolf pilot seemed to panic and appeared to randomly select a Rebel to shoot and died very quickly, primarily to the sentry guns. He posted "manger moi tute le gland", which amused the Rebels no end as they tried to work out the translation.
A Maller and Vexor were found next but they were young, inexperienced and ratting - their respective ships simply melted. It was over so fast that Starwalker only got onto the Maller kill, which was called as primary.
Mehenn having been killed earlier in an Arbitrator did not seem to have learnt his lesson and was pointed again at the sun by Brink Albosa in his Wolf. The fleet swarmed in and started to apply DPS and then Brink noted that he was scrambled and heading into structure. Peri called for the fleet to overheat all guns on the Arbitrator and ignore the drones. The Arbitrator and Wolf started their countdown to destruction and it was a race to see who would be destroyed first. The fleet were hoping to save their scout... and they did as the Arbitrator shattered into a ball of fire and its drones just stopped in space.
It had been a very successful roam. There were some other minor events like chasing a faction warfare fleet out of a plex but no further kills. Starwalker docked happy with the night's events.
Starwalker only had a Merlin left after losing this Kestrel to gate camp and this one to a Merlin. It was his current favourite ship as Starwalker liked the sheer firepower that the Merlin could bring to a fight. Its tank was reasonably good for a brawler and when attacking cyno ships it was clear that the shield resistance helped to mitigate sentry gun damage, much better than the default resistances seen in the Kestrel.
Starwalker favoured damage over tank and that was reflected in his Merlin fit that employed two magnetic field stabilisers, cranking out 223 of kinetic and thermal damage with Caldari Navy Antimatter.
[Merlin, MSE2MFS]
Micro Auxiliary Power Core II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Stasis Webifier II
Medium Shield Extender II
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Neutron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Hybrid Burst Aerator I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
It was a good brawling ship and easy to set the orbit to 500m and unleash hell. It was also able to deal with cyno ships quickly and get away - sometimes on fire. Starwalker undocked and given that this was now the third attempt to get to the TESF (Target Everyone Somebody Fire) roam in Eugales he was determined to not be distracted. The only thing that would stop him would be a gate camp.
Starwalker got to Eugales and was pleased to join the roam, something he was rarely able to do given its regularly scheduled night. The roam itself was FC'd as usual by Peri Simone with Kane the Black (Merlin) and Kohana Maxwell (Arazu) scouting. It was good with some nice kills:
Starwalker enjoyed the Merlin but was thinking that the Kestrel might make another good T1 frigate to fly. He needed to buy some more ships, as he deliberately kept very few fitted ships at any one time, and the Kestrel would be on the shopping list.
Starwalker was heading to Eugales for the regular fleet roam - TESF (Target Everyone Somebody Fire). However, he had to return to base (Gultratren) to collect another ship after losing his first Kestrel to a gate camp in Aubenall. It was his own fault because he had been lazy and not checked:
- The waypoints to look out for any hotspots when he had set the route through hi-sec to reduce the overall number of jumps
- The map looking for evidence of a gate camp
- His avoid system setting in auto-pilot for Oulley, due to it being regularly camped
He had another Kestrel fit as a brawler and was looking forward to seeing what it could do. Starwalker liked the Kestrel for it potential surprise value given the commonality of Merlins, Incursi and Rifters. He was expecting to stay out of the range of blaster ships and simply brawl the Rifters and similar. He set off on his second voyage with the Kestrel.
The first opportunity for a fight came when a flashy red pilot, Aj Oguntunde, was loitering around 25km from a gate in his Incursus. Clearly, he was looking for a fight as anyone could engage him as an outlaw on a gate, without fear of taking gate fire for the aggression. Starwalker needed no second invitation and engaged.
He had the perfect approach and was able to overheat everything and establish an orbit at around 6km. The Incursus tried to close the distance and a little manual piloting was able to gain range again. The Incursus was repairing its armour but was losing ground as the rockets smashed in. The Kestrel's shield disappeared and it had dipped into armour but when the range was maintained the incoming damage dropped. It was tense, but then the Incursus went into structure and exploded into a satisfying ball of fire. Good fights were exchanged and Aj Oguntunde noted that he had under-estimated the Kestrel - good!
Starwalker was very pleased with himself and not a little over-confident when he saw a flashy Merlin on a gate a few jumps later. However, the Merlin was literally on the gate and when Starwalker landed they were only ~4km apart. With his over-confidence flowing freely Starwalker engaged and regretted it almost immediately as he lost 50% of his shields within the first few seconds. It had taken those few seconds to start moving, lock, scram, fire and over-heat but those precious seconds were the difference between life and death.
Starwalker tried to gain range but it was not fast enough and Jev North piloting the Merlin was able to close the distance again and that finished off the Kestrel as it tore apart. Starwalker was still trying to manage his modules and piloting rather than aligning and escaping and that delay cost him another pod. He woke in Gultratren, where he had started, and had to do the usual:
- Upgrade the clone to retain skill points
- Stop training to plug-in augmentations
- Plug-in the implants, primarily learning to speed up training
- Restart the training queue
He had one fitted ship left - a Merlin - he undocked to head to Eugales yet again...
