One night after getting home, I took a small gang on corpies out. It resulted in a few kills here and there, mostly neutrals unfortunately, and a bit of me scouting ahead and dying suddenly. After a while of little targets and large fleets (a WT geddon warping to a novice plex gate to protect a Rapier and a handful of frigs from our handful of destroyers comes to mind), our little gang eventually shed pilots until it was down to just me and one other corpmate. We decided the best course of action was to buddy-cop the warzone in a couple of brawling Vexors. Between us we had 4 webs and both long and short point. Before we got too far, another corpie joined us in another brawling Vexor. That made 6 webs between us. Nothing was going to get anywhere at anything faster than single digit meters per second.
Smilin' Death
Our little gang of Gallente power flew up through Avenod, hoping to find some pirates up there. Unable to, we came back down through Kurnianen and down into the Bleak Lands until we came across this fellow. Pointing him as after he jumped through a gate, we put him down fast. Sahtogas is an Amarrian stronghold and home to line-holders Amarrian Retribution, so we gladly helped clean the system up for them. Sticking around for just a moment on the Tannakan gate, we had this guy jump into us. Most surprisingly, instead of running, he decloaked and popped drones. We made short work of him.
A jump into Tannakan alerted us to a small gang of Mockers AO gathering in system; a stabber and a maller on scan with another Mocker in local but unseen. We thought they were looking for a fight, and so eagerly burned back to gate to await their arrival. Three of them, three of us. It looked like it was going to be a good fight. The stabber and maller landed on gate with us, and did nothing. I aggressed both, looking for one of them to aggress back and start the fight in earnest. Neither did. Another couple of Mockers jumped into system. 5cmmmm, the pilot of the Caracal we ganked was among them. Looked like they didn't want a fight after all, just revenge. We jumped through after my timer wore off and approached the gate on the other side.
Back in Sahtogas, we waited. We didn't have to wait long. In jumped the Stabber, Maller, and another Vexor. Looked like we'd have a fight after all. I aggressed and they aggressed me back. The fight was on. The Stabber immediately burned off 35km, leaving the Vexor and Maller behind. The Vexor was our primary. As I easily tanked the rather piss poor dps they were throwing out, the Vexor went down and we switched to the Maller. The Stabber we ignored entirely; we'd never be able to catch it. Soon after we switched to the Maller another pilot decloaked on field; it was a Falcon. Our gang sighed collectively, sure that the battle was now over. We attempted to put drones on the Falcon but it jammed all of us instantly. We made it easy for them by all flying ships of the same race.
Many things can't be because of Falcon.
Before the first jamming cycle ended, however, the Falcon exploded. The fight was back on, and we reprimaried the Maller. As it grew closer to structure, another ship appeared on our overview, this one a Brutix. The Maller exploded and having been being pelted with fire for around two minutes, the Brutix was able to finish me off. I left the field, leaving my corpies to finish the Brutix. The stabber wisely fucked off, the only surviving member of it's gang.
So now that we know what happened, let's do the fun part - the After Action Report. What happened to lead a gang of 3 cruisers, 1 BC, and 1 Falcon to die to a gang of three Vexors, only claiming one kill? Well, there was one overwhelming mistake made by whoever was their FC; I was their primary. There were three people in our gang: Katerina (sec status -10), FallenDream09 (-7.2), and me (-1.7). Anyone familiar with sec status mechanics in EVE knows that anything -5.0 and below in sec status is free to shoot without consequences. Anything above that, unless the pilot has commited a crime, is not.
Being aggressed as all sorts of fun consequences.
Their FC was likely either the Maller or the Stabber - one of the ships that I aggressed on the other side of the gate, if you remember - and my "limited engagement" status earned from that aggression led me to be an acceptable target for both of them. Thus, I was chosen as primary. When you look again at the poor Vexor we killed during that fight, you can see that the Sentry Guns got second place in damage. Their FC doomed him to die much faster than he would have otherwise.
Next, what should have sealed their victory, the Falcon, made the same fatal mistake. Unable to just jam out my two corpmates and leave the Stabber and Maller to finish me off, or perhaps afraid of my drones, he jammed me as well, leading to swift death at the hands of the gate guns (because he died solely to gate guns, there's no killmail to link, but you can see him at the bottom of my lossmail with his jammer).
Lastly, we have the Brutix. With both the Vexor and Maller dead, the only other ship putting out dps was the stabber, and he was 35km away and may as well have been shooting a pellet gun. Thus, to get any kills at all, the Brutix had to do it - he had to aggress me - and then was left with 2 other Vexors at full health and angry sentry guns, resulting in the inevitable.
Choosing the right primary can decide a battle, as it did here. What would have been a good fight almost turned into a gank, but the wrong primary turned it back into a good fight - for us, that is. Did 5cmmmm get his revenge? Possibly, though it cost him and his friends dearly. They might have gotten one more of us if part of their reinforcements (the first Vexor, who returned with the Brutix) hadn't been caught with his pants down, or possibly left to die by the rest of the Mockers Gang who were unwilling to engage with the Falcon another jump out. But instead they were left with 1 kill and a lot of broken hulls. We however, were left with all the loot and a very funny story.
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