Operation Thundersphere

A good plan isn't one where someone wins, it's where nobody thinks they've lost.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

A few weeks back I was in communication with some old corp mates in Ars ex Discordia, during the conversation on the IRC network they said they were having a corp frigate battle aka Frigate Thundersphere. They had invited me along so I started planning how to make the 80 odd jump trip to Delve, their new home.

I set up a Battle Cheetah that would make the trip quicker and also make it so I could get through any bubble camps I may encounter. Ars ex Discordia are part of the massive Goonswarm alliance and as such I would be a target the moment I set foot in Fortress Delve. Nevermind the fact I'm normally a target the moment I undock in empire space.

On the way I spotted an escape pod about 180 clicks off a gate in lowsec, no other pilot appeared on the local comms net meaning the pilot had logged his critical systems, so Kane being Kane I made my way over to investigate. During my examination of the pod, I activated my special pod analysers, they tore the pod apart and revealed a gooey centre and a freshly created corpse.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and I docked up in Sakht, waiting to hear what my final destination would be. Y-OMTZ is the home to ARSED, 14 jumps from Sakht. I headed on in and it was amusing to hear that the Delve and Goonswarm channels lit up.

I entered Y-O and local lit up, old friends and corpmates saying hi and I imagine a certain element of panic which was confirmed as they hastily set up on the exit gate with a small camp. Little did they know I was here for a party.

AlphaMeridian, Soup Spoon and Estar Thorongil were my team mates and the instigators behind this little roadtrip and I'd like to thank them for providing me with the mods and ships for this little shindig.

A large Warp Disruption Bubble was set up in a safespot and Captain Wolfman started giving the team leaders the rules.

After a bit of banter in local I was set, a Punisher my ship of choice for this and the very first time I have ever flown one. Our reasoning behind this was that I would plate the hell out of it as I would certainly draw some fire. The rest of our ships were Alpha in an Incursus, Soup in a Hero Vigil and Estar in a Kestrel. We had a simple plan, I would draw fire, Estar would take on any ranged ships as we closed on them, myself and Alpha would get up close and personal and Soup would whizz around painting the bubble red.

The first fight was a bit of a blur but needless to say our strategy worked till about midway through when only 8 ships remained. One by one we went down and soon we were eliminated.
A good fight and quite an interesting format.

Captain Wolfman then suggested a Free for all and I was gifted a Rifter for this one. I warped to the bubble and waited, spotting a Merlin near the edge of the bubble so I slowly made my way over. The go ahead was given and LymeM went down, I then made my way over to another Merlin piloted by Ikada, he was being harrased by another Rifter being piloted by Errik Thrakkar. Ikada went down and Errik followed suit. NightlyFlyer was engaging Errik at the same time and turned his attention to me, by this time I had taken significant damage and this was a damage race I would be hard pressed to win. His shield tanked Rifter was very strong and I almost broke through but ran out of hull, exploding in a rather magnificent fashion.

I managed to get on five kills between the two fights for two losses.

A good time was had by all and I'm rather glad I made the trip, many thanks to my old Corp for giving me standings so I could dock at their outpost, Alpha, Soup and Estar once again for sorting out the ships and mods I would need and for the invite to come play and all the pilots who took part.

Stay classy Ars ex Discordia