The Citadel region — Suon constellation
Inari system
6 January YC 127
It took us seven jumps to reach Inari system, and we warped to the location pinpointed by the scanner. As soon as we arrived, Neocom informed us that we had found Guristas Scout Outpost rated 4/10 by DED.
“Uh-oh!” said Aura after researching the base on GalNet, “This will be a step-up from Guristas Guerilla Grounds – not so many frigates but multiple cruisers with target jammers. A worthy replacement for Guristas Watch, if you are still keen to test your buffer tank.”
Remembering the thrashing I got at the Watch, it took me some time to gather courage. Then I nodded determinedly and activated the acceleration gate. Merimetso landed 20 clicks away from the nearest cruiser. I immediately activated the shield hardener and the afterburner, and started moving away from the hostiles.
“This is pretty much the guard room,” explained Aura, while I was gathering my bearings. “You need to kill them all before jumping to the second pocket.”
I quickly scrolled through the overview and counted the ships – there were eight cruisers and about 20 frigates. My work was cut out for me, and I started shooting at the closest frigate. The good news were that only three frigates and two cruisers gave chase, and none of them was jamming me. As I was picking off the frigates, I kept an eye on the shield damage indicator which was slowly drawing a red arc on my HUD. All the incoming damage came from the cruisers which sent either a light or a heavy Scourge missile my way every 2-5 seconds. The damage rate was tolerable in the short term, and for a minute I concentrated on removing the chasing frigates from the equation.
By the time I finished with Pithi Wrecker, Pithi Plunderer and Pithi Infiltrator, the slow-moving cruisers were out of my firing range. Pithum Mortifier cruiser which pestered me with its hard hitting light missiles also couldn’t reach me, so the only damage I was getting was from heavy Scourge missiles launched by Pithum Inferno. Before engaging the cruisers I wanted to restore my shields, so I continued flying in the same direction. In fact, DPS from the Inferno was less than my shield recharge rate. In a couple of minutes the shield was almost full, and I turned back and flew toward the cruisers.
I concentrated my fire on the closest Inferno cruiser, all the time maintaining maximum velocity to reduce missile damage application. Unusually, I found myself focusing a lot on manual piloting. Normally, I would just command the ship to orbit the target or maintain a fixed distance from it. Both were suboptimal in this case, as the former could bring me close to the rest of the pirates, while the latter would reduce my speed to that of the cruisers. Consequently, I flew in straight lines periodically adjusting the direction to stay within my firing range.
It took me full 100 seconds to break through Inferno’s defences. Just before it exploded, Neocom notified me that I earned 74,063 ISK for my trouble. My shield was in a pretty reasonable state, so without missing a railgun cycle I switched to Pithum Mortifier which was already firing at me. Every five seconds a light Scourge missile would smash into my shield reducing it by 34 hit points.
“Damn,” I cursed, “I should have focused on the Mortifier first. The light missiles hurt much more than the heavy ones.”
Aura chuckled, “You will have plenty of opportunities to apply this lesson,” and pointed at the overview where more Infernos and Mortifiers were waiting for me.
The Mortifier’s defences were as solid as the Inferno’s, and I spent another 100 seconds bashing the cruiser with my one-twenty-fives.
“It’s taking too much time,” I complained when the pirate ship finally exploded, “Spike may be expensive but if cruisers are not the best target for it, I don’t know what.”
I expected objections from Aura who in the past scolded me for wasting Tech II ammo on low-value targets, but she just made a grimace which I roughly interpreted as ‘whatever’. Following my mental command, Merimetso reloaded the guns with Spike ammo and its damage output increased by 50%. I looked at the tactical display trying to figure out my next move. The remaining hostiles formed a blob which was significantly spread out. It precluded a simple orbiting approach as it would bring me in the midst of the group, so manual piloting was the tactic du jour. I noticed a group of frigates on the periphery of the blob, and charted a course which would bring me to them within my firing distance while staying away from the remainder of the fleet.
As I approached the Guristas fleet, all the hostile ships suddenly took interest in me and started moving on the intercept course. I only had time to destroy one frigate before the Scourge missiles from all the cruisers started smashing into my shield. I corrected my course so that it would be perpendicular to the pirates direction and continued firing at the frigates. At some point my shield was reduced to 25%, and I just flew straight away from the Guristas until DPS fell below the rate of my shield regeneration. I waited until my shield was 90% full and resumed my tactic of tangential fly-bys.
After I got rid of all the frigates, I focused my fire on Guristas Scout Officer, and then on the remaining cruisers, starting with Mortifiers with their pesky light Scourge missiles. Two more times I had to run away from the pirate fleet to restore my shields, and then return into the fray. All in all, it took me 30 minutes to deal with all the hostiles in the first pocket of Guristas Scout Outpost.
I took a deep breath of pod goo and relaxed, as the last Pithum Inferno disappeared in a ball of fire.
“That was hard work,” I told Aura, “but the good thing is that the buffer tank fit proved itself. I wouldn’t be able to sustain the damage from those cruisers with my original fit. By the way, what shall we expect in the second pocket?”
Aura smiled grimly, “Nothing good. Here is what Eve Uni academics say about it.”
Do not underestimate the incoming damage; a T1 battlecruiser will implode under the DPS within a minute or two, although a buffer-fit Drake can clear it without dropping below 80% shields.
“A battlecruiser?” I gasped, “What chance will I have in a destroyer?”
Aura wrinkled her nose, “I would take that statement with a grain of salt. According to the same source, there will be about 10 cruisers and only 13 frigates. Surely, the incoming damage from the cruisers will be higher but they won’t pop you in 30 seconds if you fly as smartly as you did here.”
I nodded, acknowledging the compliment, and said, “I guess, we can at least give it a try. As long as there are no warp disruptors, we can always bail out.”
“No disruptors,” confirmed Aura, “only target jammers which, by the way, they did not use in this room.”
“Okay, let’s do it,” said I and jumped to the next pocket.
The scene was dominated by a huge Radiating Telescope.
“I think that’s it,” whispered Aura in awe.
“That’s what?” I asked.
“The transmitter, the one which sent a signal to Tsuguwa.”
“You may be right, but before we can confirm it, we have work to do,” said I, pointing at the red icons on the overview and starting the now-familiar merry-go-round.
I won’t bore you with the details of the battle as it followed pretty much the same pattern as in the first room. My destroyer did not melt away under the fire of 10 cruisers, but I had to duck out of their firing range more often and, consequently, it took 45 minutes to clear the pocket of all the hostiles.
“Now let’s see how they managed to transmit that signal to Tsuguwa,” said Aura excitedly, looking at the telescope.
I raised an eyebrow, “And how do you propose to do that?”
“Well, we can go inside and examine their equipment.”
“No way I am leaving the capsule and going to that structure,” I said firmly, “It is definitely guarded and my only weapons are attached to Merimetso.”
Aura looked disappointed.
“Is there any way we can investigate it?” she asked despondently.
“If we had a squad of marines and a team of engineers then we could try, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Examining unfamiliar equipment may take weeks and months, and I don’t expect Guristas to sit on their hands all that time. More likely than not we will face a new fleet which will be stronger than the previous two.”
“Alright. Then we are done here,” said Aura with a sigh.
“Ah ah ah! Not yet. Although I don’t have a structure bashing fit on me, I am not leaving this transmitter to Guristas. And since I can’t take it with me…” I shrugged my shoulders, indicating that I had no other choice.
The telescope was tough. Without blasters it took me eight minutes to go through its defences and the structure. After three reloads I finally demolished the monster and was rewarded with a satisfying view of a huge explosion.
“Look,” said Aura, pointing at the overview, “there are some parts which survived. Maybe it’s the warp generator that they use to send signals!”
Indeed, Neocom identified a few intact parts as ‘cargo container’ which appeared in place of Radiating Telescope. I approached the object and requested a detailed manifest. Here is the list which appeared on the screen:
-
- 8th Tier Overseer’s Personal Effects 1
- Pithum C-Type Medium Shield Booster 1
- Pithum C-Type Multispectrum Shield Hardener 1
- Pithum C-Type EM Shield Amplifier 1
- Pithum C-Type Thermal Shield Amplifier 1
“Good stuff,” I mumbled indifferently, but then my eyes went wide as they fell on the price estimate – it was 450,000,000 ISK!
Aura swallowed hard and said in a strained voice, “This is not the warp equipment, but I have to admit that it was worth all the Spike that we spent on this base.”
I laughed nervously at that understatement of the year. Then a thought occurred to me, “And how do we transport it? This is above the safe hi-sec gank limit!”
“I suggest, Captain, that first you scoop those modules into your cargo hold, and then dock at the nearest station,” was Aura’s sober reply.
I followed the advice and soon found myself docked in the Joint Harvesting Mining Outpost station.
The Citadel region — Suon constellation
Inari system – Joint Harvesting Mining Outpost station
“So, how do we get all this stuff to Jita?” I asked Aura.
“Do you want to sell it immediately?”
“Not necessarily,” I admitted, “we have enough cash for now.”
“Then I would suggest to bring it to Tsuguwa and leave it there for the time being,” suggested Aura.
“But it’s still seven jumps away. What if someone scans our cargo and organises a gank?”
“Then just make sure those modules are not in your cargo,” replied Aura with a smile.
“But how do we get them to…” I started objecting, when the penny dropped.
Twenty minutes later the blingiest Cormorant in New Eden undocked from Joint Harvesting Mining Outpost and started its unremarkable journey to Tsuguwa system.