The Ancient Gaming Noob

Cerberus Goes Home May 29, 2009

In pursuit of some of my prerequisites for The Expedition I have been running some missions with my alt with the goal of getting a 8+ standing with Amarr Navy so I can get him a jump clone or two.

So there I was clearing out the second pocket of the first part of the three part mission called Recon. (The second and third parts are described here.)  I did not have to do that.  The mission was declared complete the moment I entered the pocket.  All I had to do was warp out and turn in the mission.

But I was clearing it because that pocket also has more veldspar asteroids than any mission I have ever seen.  Potshot and I mined and hauled more than 3 million units of veldspar out of that pocket and barely made a dent in it.  But that was later.  I still had to clear the pocket.

My alt was flying his Cerberus and tanking the pocket.  With the afterburner and shield booster on at all times, he was barely ever taking a hit, and when he did, his shields were quickly restored.  I dragged my main in with his Raven to sit and provide more firepower while the Cerb skated around holding everybody’s attention.

An equilibrium had been reached.  My attention waned as I was listening to Gaff describe the dynamics of setting up a player owned station, which he got to do with his 0.0 corp this week.  In addition on of our kittens, Trixie, was sitting in front of the monitor trying to swat missiles as they flew past on the screen.

All of this was why I failed to notice the four frigates spawn in the mission. (The mission report linked above says three, but there were four.)

I was sitting in the window trying to retarget my main around an active kitten when I noticed that my alt, on the watchlist, was suddenly showing more red than before.  A lot more red.

I switched windows to find that he was no longer scooting along at 520 meters a second and immune from all fire.  Three of the frigates had him webbed, so he was down around 20 meters a second and taking heavy damage.  His shields were only at 20%.

My first reaction was to get out.  Unfortunately, two of the frigates also had him warp scrambled. (One was doing double duty!)  As hits started digging into my armor, I targeted the scrambling frigates and opened fire.  They were, however, elite frigates, and I was only able to take one down before my alt was flying a pod.  Cerberus was back where he came from.

Ouch.  Well, I’ve lost ships to this mission before.

2009.05.28 03:26:00

Victim: Selirus Szin
Corp: Twilight Cadre
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Cerberus
System: Ebtesham
Security: 0.7
Damage Taken: 20996

Involved parties:

Name: Centus Overlord / Sansha’s Nation (laid the final blow)
Damage Done: 20996

Destroyed items:

Scourge Heavy Missile, Qty: 1901 (Cargo)
Capacitor Flux Coil II, Qty: 2
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 2122 (Cargo)
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 20
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II, Qty: 2
Capacitor Control Circuit I, Qty: 2
Ballistic Control System II
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Qty: 2

Dropped items:

10MN Afterburner II
Widowmaker Fury Heavy Missile, Qty: 623 (Cargo)
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 30
Medium Shield Booster II
Salvager I
Ballistic Control System II
Heavy Missile Launcher II, Qty: 3
Thunderbolt Heavy Missile, Qty: 1390 (Cargo)

I warped the pod and my Raven out of the pocket to regroup.  Losing a 100 million ISK ship on a mission calls for a pause.  Plus I was being called upon to read a bed time story.  So a break was taken.

Once everybody was settled in bed (though it was not my best reading performace, there being a bit of edge in my voice as I read “The English Roses,” and not just because I dislike the book as a transparent “don’t hate me because I’m successful” plea from Madonna… yes, I have serious opinions about children’s books), I went back to finish things off in space.

Fortunately, the biggest pain of losing a ship, refitting a replacement, was already covered.  I still had the fearsome Drake on hand and equipped.  And, not only that, but my alt had built up even more shield compensation skills (now level V for all forms of damage) so the mighty Drake tank was even mightier.

Back my main and my alt went.  I popped the alt into the pocket first, got all aggro, and pretty much tanked it without much worry while the combined fire of the Raven and the Drake cleared the pocket.

Then it was just a matter of Potshot and I mining as late as we could manage on a school night and then turning in.

The next day I ran the second and third parts of the mission series, which are both fairly short and easy.  On turning in the third part, I got a storyline mission.  An easy delivery.  And once that was completed, I found that I had achieved my standing goal with Amarr Navy.

So my alt is now jump clone ready.  Or he will be once he trains one more skill.  This is EVE Online.   You always need at least one more skill.  In this case it is Infomorph Psychology.  So I just have to buy that and train for all of 8 minutes and I will be set.

Now, do I go buy another Cerberus or do I plug along with my old pal the Drake?