Sacred Pod Goo

The weekly MATE roam went out a day late this week due to a roast pork shoulder with bourbon cajun glaze. It was Saturday, the day after rather a bit too much bourbon spilled down my neck and not on the pork shoulder, so I wasn't feeling 100%. I had to go have a lie down before putting on the business face and leading a bunch of random guys out of Berta.

The plan was to run a gang of Condors out to some ratting lands, find a few raters, and blob them to death with annoying kitey damping frigates. Move quick, get in, get a few shiny kills, and get out in one piece. Or welp. Welping is always on the cards.

The first stop was a detour past a wormhole where friends of mine had been picking off some victims for the past few hours, and had gone to ground in the hope of luring out a Nighthawk and some Drakes. I offered a bait Svipul, which we would deploy into the C2 and pretend to run sites, and then we would blob. My friends kind of didn't really understand the whole 20 Condors thing, but after a bit of coaching of our Svipul pilot we pushed him ahead like a sheep into a minefield, and he jumped into system just as the Nighthawk and 3 Drakes landed on it, and got engaged by a friendly Tengu, Eagle and Deimos. We pushed the Nighthawk through the hole, bumped him off, and pecked him to death.

Then we exited the other end of the chain into Malukker, and burned out to Kalevala because there was a cluster of people showing in space on the map, and it was all renters and idiots. The beauty of the Condor gang was the speed - in 20 minutes we were 30 jumps down the route and entering the final dog-leg pocket full of ratting kills and fools.

We were being trailed by a few xxDeathxx alts in ceptors, so they ought to have known roughly where we were but as I assured the guys, intel chanels are only as good as the people reading them. Lo and behold, one of our scouts reports cross-jumping a rattler and follows him back, gaining point. We all coalesce like flies round a corpse and begin hounding the Rattler back and forth through gates, as people aren't 100% on bumping. But finally we get the bumps right and the Rattler is pined down, drifting helplessly off gate, mobbed by 20 frigs, tanking us fine.

In this situation as FC you have achieved success. You have created content, especially for the guys who've only been on one or two roams before, who are now plinking away at a faction battleship in a hostile system with all manner of shit on d-scan. Your Rattler is doing his job, staying alive and doubtlessly bleating horribly on comms (maybe signing in and fleeting up for the first time, ever) and his mates are furiously scrolling past luxo-barge Vargurs, Archons, now-obsolete Skynet Thannies, a bunch of cyno frigates, PI haulers, etcetera...searching for something which can help out their mate in the Rattler.

Of course, I am on my batphone, hoping Bob has been good and gives some other friends of mine exits not too far from kalevala. My corp are busy, murdering a Paladin who strangely decided to just come in to our hole in our prime time period and started running sites. So they are too busy, but finally get motivated and turn up 27 jumps away in Branch. Everyone else is 50 jumps away.

The locals begin undocking bombers, and lobbing bombs. I get taken out, but hang around in my pod giving what advice i can, as the Condor fleet eventually takes out a Manticore and a Kitsune and their pods. And such pods - the roam's ISK efficiency is assured as 900M in pod goo gets spilled on the gate before a pair of RLML Cerbs, backed up by a Basilisk and Osprey, come and begin swatting Condors and we all bail before a Flycatcher bubbles us all in. Losses, 130M.

I finished off the roam at that point, as I was out of a ship, and humped 27 jumps back home to my wormhole in a pod.

I'd like to give a shout out to the Redemption Road roams. All public roams, with FC's from all over EVE donating time and ISK to new bros, or bored bittervets, to create content for all. Mostly we run cheap, affordable, noob friendly setups and go null, or at worst lowsec, to take fights, get welped, and green up the boards.