A Leap of Faith

Yesterday we were connected to The Last Chancers. I hear tell that they recently got a bit of a drubbing by KILL, but the corp which was most active through the K162 to C6 was Merchants Trade Consortium [MTCU].

I am not sure if they are moving out, but they were certainly making a lot of jumps out through our static C2 to highsec with all manner of things. Being mid-week and a school night for our US TZ people we didn't have a lot of active pilots, so we couldn't completely interdict their logistics, so we were restricted to skirmishing. We were not going to let them use our hole without at least havving a crack at them.

I demanded, cheekily, a hooker tax for each jump they made; one Exotic Dancer (female). Without lice; an important stipulation. I got no reply.

Late, late AU TZ the boys from SWIFT were bored after closing their holes, and located only 10 jumps from one of our highsec exits. I had been spotted and likely put on watchlist from a few skirmishes before downtime, which was us nearly bag a Zealot and Brutix, but the SWIFT guys were an unknown force. We would try for some pods coming back from hisec, so they brought recons (Falcon, Rapier, Arazu),4 bombers and a Sabre, in via the O477.

The plan was to set up on the C2-C5 connection, and I would watch the k162 to C6 which was by now mass reduceed and end of lifetime. If something juicy and killable came through, we would bubble up, murder it, and then likely just go to bed. 

Unluckily, our Sabre got cross-jumped while landing on the connection between our static C2 and our C5. Just a bit of shit luck for him to get spotted, but the remainder of the force remained on the QT, so we began camping. Being well past midnight, every time one of our guys would start heading home, something would jump.

Suddenly, an Archon jumps from the C6, collapsing the hole. I pointed it immediately; a static C2 exit means no exit, practically, for trapped capitals. The SWIFT guys came through after a few seconds, having to have me confirm that yes, I did in fact have an Archon pointed.

We weren't prepared for this apparent derp, so things were a bit rushed, which would come back to bite us about 25 minutes later. We landed an Archon and me in a Niddy to prop the subcaps, and began the arduous process of shipping people into neut BS. Confusion, and too many bubbles from the Sabre preventing warp-outs, prevented us crushing the static. But nevertheless, the guy tanked like a boss and his cap began drying up.

Sadly, the batphone had been rung, possibly a significant time earlier (who knows) and old nanna in the form of Sleeper Social Club turned up to put a stop to proceedings, save the MTCU Archon and drive us from the field with a Devoter, Deimos, neut legion, 3 Guardians, and eventually, a handful more Protei and Lokis. There were some losses (+ 2 Domis + Mega).

I say nanna turned up, because we got our Archon and my Nidhoggur back to the POS in one piece, as did most of the lent-out Domi ball and battleships we'd shat out of our SMA's. We honestly all should have been back in hisec, but it is what it is.

Chaos kicked us in the arse in responding to a totally unexpected situation when most of the toons in fleet were from a visiting corp and couldn't reship.

Az Anyosod however, was very sporting, and offered to sell his Archon. I apparently drive a hard bargain. It was past midnight, and I have super-important IRl shit to do today, so I had to leave the negotiations halfway through. Negotiations were concluded and a corpmate bought the Archon, though I am unsure for how much.

I'd like to obviously thank MTCU for providing us with hours of cloak and dagger, and a decent fight, and the SWIFT boys for copping the majority of the losses (sorry lads), and SSC for following their FC's orders. Also, Az Anyosod for jumping his Archon in and giving us some content. May your puckered rectum eventually relax.