Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Nourvukaiken system
31 January YC 127
I was patrolling Okela constellation when my probe scanner revealed a Guristas base which I had not encountered before – Gurista Lookout.
I scowled and said, “These guys have no business squatting in my constellation and I am keen to kick them out but the question is: Do I need a destroyer or do I need a dreadnought?”
Aura raised an eyebrow, “Your constellation?”
“Well, I live here, even if temporarily, so I call Okela home.”
“Fair enough,” agreed Aura, “As to your question, a destroyer will be sufficient. Eve Uni academics say that Lookouts are typically guarded by frigates and destroyers. Merimetso should have no trouble fighting them.”
“Then fight we shall,” I said enthusiastically and warped to the stargate.
I boarded Merimetso in Tsuguwa, returned to Nourvukaiken and warped to the location of the Lookout. When I saw the overview I whistled in surprise – apart from the expected frigates and destroyers it showed two bunkers, two telescopes, a communications control centre and a shipyard!
“These guys feel pretty cozy here,” I said with a grin, “Let’s change that.”
I opened the local comms channel and broadcasted my first and final warning, “Hey you, rabbit-fanciers! You have exactly one minute to fire up your warp drives and start looking for another constellation where, hopefully, you can live a long and fulfilling life as honest Caldari citizens. Whoever remains here after 60 seconds will be terminated with extreme prejudice. The clock starts now.”
I started a 60-second countdown timer on my HUD.
Aura looked at me in astonishment, “I thought the idea was to kill ’em all, but with that broadcast not only you lost an element of surprise but also offered them to get off the hook altogether.”
I smiled dreamily remembering my early capsuleer days, “As one of my career instructors said, the purpose of law enforcement is to make crime unprofitable in your neck of the woods. Eliminating the bastards is great but making them move on achieves the same result, at least for your beat.”
In the meantime, the pirates sent me a few scornful messages but otherwise didn’t show any intention to leave the area.
“Alright,” I scoffed as the countdown reached zero, “let’s dance.”
“Wait,” Aura interrupted me as I was about to fly Merimetso closer to the pirate ships, “before engaging anyone else, kill that Dire Pithi Imputor.”
“Why? Is there anything special about it except that it’s called Dire?”
“Yes, pilots who encountered that kind of frigate before reported that it was equipped with a warp disruptor and a stasis webifier. You don’t want to find yourself webbed in the middle of a gang of fast frigates without an option to bail out.”
I grimaced, “Ouch! That would be unpleasant. Thanks for letting me know.”
I changed my course so that it would bring me into the vicinity of the Guristas tackler but not directly toward it. As the distance reduced to 45 km, I targeted the Dire Pithi Imputor and made a short work of it before it could approach me with its webs. I thought that the death of their best frigate would send the pirates a message and add gravitas to my warning. Instead, they suddenly aggroed me all at once.
“You are welcome,” mumbled I, “Now I can make sure that you won’t infest neither Okela, nor any other place.”
Firstly, I flew directly away from the approaching horde building the distance with the help of my afterburner. In the process, I targeted and destroyed the closest frigates. As Merimetso reached the limit of its firing range, I changed tack so that it was flying perpendicularly to the previous trajectory, giving the pirates a chance to close in on me. That didn’t do them any good – being faster than their frigates and having a longer reach than their destroyers I dictated the distance and stayed away from their effective firing range only occasionally receiving a hit.
I repeated my manoeuvre a few times and eventually destroyed all mobile threats. Then came the turn of the Light Missile Battery which managed to send half a dozen Scourge light missiles my way but otherwise was as harmless as the rest of that sorry lot. From the first shot to the last it took me five minutes to clear out the first pocket.
“Right,” I said rubbing my hands, “Which structure shall we demolish first?”
“Are you really going to spend the rest of the morning bashing those tritanium walls?” winced Aura.
I shrugged, “I have to. What’s the point of killing the guards and leaving alone the ones who do the actual work at this Lookout?”
“Can’t you you just send the coordinates to the Navy and let them take care of the structures?”
“The Navy is always stretched. As this is not an official mission, their level of interest will be pretty low. For all I know, this base will continue functioning for months, if not years.”
Aura sighed, “Well, if you have to, I suggest to destroy only the communications control centre. It will take the whole base out of commission and, given it is already compromised, it is unlikely that Guristas will rebuild it.”
That sounded reasonable and I spent the next two minutes reducing the comms centre to a pile of rubble.
“That will give them a pause, but our job is not done yet,” said I activating the acceleration gate which brought us deeper into the pirate-infested deadspace.
When we arrived to the second pocket I nearly chocked on the pod good. I had thought that the extent of the Guristas development in the first pocket was impressive, but now it looked like a side show or a façade which concealed the actual purpose of that ‘lookout’. In this pocket Guristas managed to build a whole starbase complete with a shield generator and a solar harvester. They even started constructing a star gate!
I didn’t waste time on pointless public service announcements and went into an orbit around the solar harvester. Having confirmed that there were no Dire Pithi frigates, I focused my fire on whatever ship managed to come closest to me. Even without Tech II ammunition Merimetso chewed through various Pithis and Pithiors in no time, all the while suffering only superficial shield damage. When I got rid of the red triangles, I looked at the overview and scratched my head.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to destroy that star gate,” I said thoughtfully, “It’s just too large.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t be too worried about it,” said Aura, “Firstly, the Guristas will not continue its construction, now that it has been discovered. Secondly, the Navy will be much more interested in this base when you tell them about an unauthorised star gate built under their noses. I expect them to send heavy cavalry here as soon as they hear from you.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed, “please prepare the relevant logs for the report. However, I would feel better if we could do something to these structures before the Navy arrived.”
“Just destroy their star base control centre and everything else will become pretty much non-functional,” suggested Aura distractedly as she scoured the ship logs.
I liked the idea and targeted the control centre. It appeared to be very crunchy for such an important part of the star base, and it took me only 20 seconds to destroy it.
As I watched the explosion, Aura said excitedly, “Vlad, look what I’ve found in the logs!”
I was about to check out Aura’s findings when my eyes fell on the overview which reported arrival of four more Guristas destroyers led by Dread Guristas Despoiler frigate.
“Later,” I said curtly as I focused all my attention on the newcomers.
I didn’t know if the Dread frigate had any special equipment like the Dire one before, but I didn’t want to take any risks and targeted it first. Three volleys later it exploded and a kill bonus notification appeared on my HUD.
I whooped triumphantly, “That’s what I call value for money: 60,000 ISK in three seconds! Send more Dread Guristas my way!”
“Seventy-two million ISK per hour wouldn’t be bad,” agreed Aura, “but you did much better at Guristas Scout Outpost, even with an inferior fit which made you waste a lot of time restoring your shield.”
“Let me deal with those pesky Pithiors first, and then you can talk finances to your heart’s content,” I chuckled and turned my attention to the remaining Guristas.
The pirate destroyers were not as profitable, bringing me only 48,000 ISK for a minute’s work. After the last of them exploded I waited for another minute but nothing else happened.
“I guess, it’s time to go home,” I said contentedly, “Have you prepared the logs for the Navy?”
Aura’s eyes glinted, “Forget the Navy, look here,” she said and opened a HUD window filled with binary data.
I blinked in confusion, “What’s that?”
“Oh, sorry,” Aura said hastily, “it’s not human-readable, but it says that as soon as we arrived here our sensors picked up a group of Blood ships slipping away.”
“Blood ships? At the Guristas base?” I asked, astonished.
“Yes, but that’s not all. Their leader sent her wing the coordinates of their destination!”
I looked at Aura in disbelief, “What, in local? Unencrypted?”
“In local. Unencrypted,” she confirmed enthusiastically.
I wrinkled my nose, “Do you smell anything?”
Aura became serious, “You know that I don’t have a sense of smell but I can tell you that the sensors in your pod goo filters show that all anomalous substances are within the acceptable thresholds.”
“Then why do I smell something fishy?”
Aura looked baffled but then it dawned on her, “Oh, you mean metaphorically?”
“Literally,” I said sarcastically, “When a group of Blood Raiders openly sends their coordinates at a Guristas base it literally reeks of a trap!”
Aura bit her lip and admitted, “I didn’t think about it.” Then she perked up, “On the other hand, what’s the worst thing that can happen if we follow them?”
“Finding ourselves webbed in the middle of a gang of fast frigates without an option to bail out?”
“Right. And what is the best thing that can happen to you when you follow the lead?”
I raised my eyebrow and looked at Aura pensively, “Guristas Scout Outpost?”
Aura nodded with a smile, “Guristas Scout Outpost.”