A couple of stressful days - and a couple of kills

The next day brought much of the same luck, the only good thing was a couple of hours before dt an old friend reactivated her account and happened to be in the area. We hunted together, and found nothing. I was giving Oddelulf and Bosena one last check while she finished a mission and logged. Oddelulf was empty, but Bosena had a couple of nubs chatting to someone who seems to be a part-time pirate. He had apparently been ratting and chased the nubs to their POS and station. I cloak outside the station in the hope that i might be able to catch one as they undock. To my surprise, the pirate undocks in a Brutix. Its a bit big for my Huginn, so i watch him closely. It takes him a while, but eventually he starting aligning for a belt and i align also, getting ready to uncloak and warp.

Soon after he warps, and i follow. I catch him in the right belt, and im 20km away. the next 15minutes goes by slowly as i slowly break his 2 armor repairer tank, unable to use my drones because he keeps shooting them down, and hampered by the cloak (1 gun short). Frequent scanner checks reveal an arbitrator, but he doesn't warp in. Finally, he pops, and he confesses he was trying to hold out till downtime, a mere 10 minutes away. His wreck holds some nice t2 loot, including small guns, the armor reps and some hardeners.

Happy with the loot, i retire for the night. Over the next few days i catch nothing but a few frigates, which pop in 2 volleys, and i have a go at the arbitrator, which turns out to be stabbed and warps very quickly.

Soon, i decide it would be best for me to try out my claymore's tank a bit more, and perhaps show off a little. I clone jumped to my 0.0 home station, get into the command ship and challenge my fellow corp mate to try to break my tank (before my boosters run out). Alas, most of them are busy, so only 3 try their luck against me, and so when they lose it is no big accomplishment. However, my disappointment does not last long as a soon hear my excited corp mate's voice over vent, regarding a red nano'd Rapier entering the system. We all redock, replenish our ammo and undock ASAP. We are all stunned to see the Rapier a mere 20km away from us. He was accelerating out, so soon escaped and cloaked, but he was not the only one. While we assessing the situation and potential gang members, a further 5 reds enter the system. Soon, the Rapier, Ishtar, Vagabond, Taranis, Huginn and another Vagabond were all within 20km of the station. My lot (a mixture of ships as people kept docked and undocking) were crowded at the undock ramp, trying not to be bumped off while reversing back inside the undock ramp. We were doing minuscule damage to the speed tanked ships, whilst ours were being hammered by the Ishtar's heavy drones. We targeted the drones whilst I myself managed to get under the ramp, but not quite in it.The Rapierre cloaked. the nano'd ships were moving away. My spot was good enough.
Apparently not. The Rapier suddenly uncloaked swung round under the station, doing nearly 7000m/s. Keeping its speed, it turned and headed toward me. I was bumped far away form my fellows, almost 30km off the ramp, however i was still in docking range. Webbed by the Rapier and Huginn, the other ships started towards me while i tried to shut down my guns and dock. Too late i realized my drones were still shooting when the vagabond arrived, followed closely by the Ishtar.

After i slowed down, i was 100km off the station, and 130 from my friends. With no support organized and not in warp range, unless my buddies got here quick, i was screwed. The nano'd ships soon caught up in under ten seconds, and proceeded to settle into their optimal range. I targeted and engage the Huginn and promptly forgot about him, he was at 14km and there was a slight chance i could get him to warp and get his webs off me. I sent my drones after him and settled down to manage my tank. My claymore could hold 14 boosters, and it seemed my tank was doing alright, even against the 6 ships. I zoomed out in time to see one of the Vagabonds warp away - however it was replaced immediately by a Sacrilege who immediately one upped the DPS. My corp mates were frantically organizing a gang, and had changed Ventrilo channels to join the others in the gang, however i was stuck in my empty corp channel because even a slight lag or delay in minimizing could cause me to waste half my cap, or die for lack of shield. I grimly kept on, the X-large booster was given a couple of seconds rest every second boost, saving every bit of cap possible.

I heard someone enter the Ventrilo channel as the robotic voice activated - i should really turn that off sometime. It was a corp mate, and i explained why i could not change channels, and he in turn told me of how the gang was slowly filling up. I reached the 1 minute 30 mark and had still 8 boosters left. I remembered the Huginn and glanced up at the indicator - to see him in mid structure! I couldn't believe my eyes as I had no scram on him, but he i saw him pop in a spectacular flash. I grinned, but it would be for nothing if i didn't survive, so i started on the Ishtar's heavy drones. I never did much except annoy him, without a web i did no appreciable damage except maybe forcing him to pull a couple in every now and then, not reducing the damage on me much at all. Unfortunately, while i was watching the Huginn explode, unbeknown to me a Sleipnir had come in. I was only after i had targeted the drones did i see the damage against me increase dramatically. I started using up boosters at a fearful rate, running the x-large full time and after a total of 2 minutes and 30 seconds of punishment, i was down to a single 800 booster, 30% cap, and half shields. I got the gang invite then, and as i was running the booster full time, i reasoned i might as well change vent channels and inform them of my imminent demise. I minimized and changed channels with almost no lag until i opened eve again. A slight jittering occurred as my ship appeared and i groaned, as everything was full - shields, armor, the lot, and i knew i was dead - i was in the 'twilight zone'. Just before you blow up, everything goes to full before your ship explodes and you appear in a pod. I waited, expecting the bright flash and a pod to appear, but nothing happened. I stopped my booster, and it actually stopped. No Desynchronize. I blinked. there was nothing around me except - I was now surrounded by green! The gang had arrived to save me! I got up and danced briefly before i realized that i couldn't warp - the interceptor was still scrambling me, but it wasn't long before a friendly Scorpion jammed him and the entire gang warped to a POS and then back to the station. I turned out that in rescuing me, we had lost a Huginn, and lost all the loot as well, but that was expected. Apparently he had suffered lag and had popped pretty quickly, so it was slightly disappointing, but still I docked for the rest of the night, well satisfied with my lucky kill.

Thanks for reading!