Zero Sec Happened

A while ago, while leaving zero sec space I had one of the more intense encounters I have had in a while.

My corporation was once again moving to a new area, I had already moved my gear and some other ships to the high security area as that was the staging point for the next step in the journey.  The final ship to bring out was a Battleship, a Megathron.

The ship was fitted with short range blasters, a webber and some drones, a fairly typical PVP fit, though it was never used in that way as we moved before I had the chance.

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

"Yosagi this is Roku, I've scouted that route for you and it has no camps and little in the way of ships.  So it should be clear, out.", and the line disconnected.

Grumbling about another typically short message from Roku I receive permission from docking control to leave the station, the local system is empty, align to the stargate and I am away.

Jump through the gate, align, warp, gate the sequence goes on for a few systems as I begin to leave the zero security home and head towards the safety of the Cat system.

As I enter the next system I know I'm in trouble, about six locals are around the gate in Frigates.

They target the Megathron, I try and target them but for the Battleship this takes about 20 seconds, the time seems to slow down as I'm waiting for the first target option to appear, more Frigates also appear.

Finally I can start shooting somebody, but first the drones, I eject some light T2 drones, set them on the first unlucky customer and think what to do next.  The problem I have, which is now dawning on me is the fact I have large blasters, most suited for larger ships than Frigates zipping around my ship faster than flies, and about as numerous.  The second problem is time, I am now warp scrambled and webbed, they are smart enough to have jumped a couple back through the gate so if I go back I'll be in the same situation.

Oh nice, the drones have destroyed a couple.  Ahhh that new ship is a cruiser.  What I have been concerned about is the fact this could be a delaying tactic before some bigger hitters arrive.

Target the cruiser, attack with drones, web and large blasters, yes that fixed him up, he warps away in structure and doesn't come back.

The damage caused by a dozen Frigates is starting to build up, my shield is gone but being an armour tanker this is not a real problem, though even with the armour reppers on full time my armour is still going down.  They are shooting my drones, I am ejecting more drones to replace the destroyed ones, webbing Frigates, trying to shoot them once webbed with the large blasters, I also have an Large Energy Vampire which is messing up their Micro Warp Drives, I have killed a couple more.

By now a few wrecks litter the area, most of the Frigs have damage of some sort, they are warping in and out to try and escape my attack.  Given the chance I will have some more frigates on the other side of the gate I have to make a decision.  I align for a moon.

Risky?  Yes but in the current situation, with my armour failing and running out of drones it is worth a shot.

I concentrate on the warp scrambling Frigates as not everybody seems to have one, a couple more die, I am not scrambled and warp away!

I leave in my wake six destroyed enemy Frigates and also (I find out later) a noob entry level ship!  Boy did he pick the wrong day to come out.

While the situation might have improved I would not call it great.  I'm still in the same system with some seriously pissed off Frigates, I don't know what is on the other side of the destination gate, I only have twenty percent armour left, and I just noticed some hull damage also, no shields left obviously.  The drone bay is also pretty empty as most of those have been destroyed, all I have left is two mediums and three lights, so my last group of five, and they all have varying degrees of damage also.

I'll be very surprised if I get back to empire space.

Align for the gate, hope my Frigate friends are not sitting on it, this system has a couple of exits but they might be camping them all.  In warp wondering what is waiting for me, the shuddering starts as the ship decelerates, I'm leaning forward trying in vain to gain a better view of the rapidly onrushing gate.  It's clear!!!  Jump through.

Crap!!!

On the other side is a Battlecruiser, a Hurricane, he targets me.

So to update my situation I'm now being targeted by a Battlecruiser, I have almost no shields, little armour, not many drones and in the system behind me a hornets nest of angry Frigates.

So I do what has to be done, I target and attack!

Eject the drones, target the Hurricane, all blasters, Energy Vamp and webber.  I'm out of optimal for the blasters but they are having some effect, which should get better as I approach.  Oh and I'm running out of Capacitor Charges also as this thing is heavy capacitor negative.

He has ejected his drones, he is attacking, he can see how damaged I am, my ship is mostly in the red, obviously he wants to finish me off.

His drones are gone, he is aligning?  He warps away!!  I thought I was gone for all money, maybe he thought I was still going to be too tough, or the aggressive all or nothing attack scared him?  Guess I'll never know.

Only four jumps from Empire, no further incident, I enter Cat with damage to nearly every system and the ship is on fire.

When I appear in Cat a local hovering at the gate asks me what happened, referring to the burning ship.

My reply?

Zero sec happened.

The End.