It was a long week in the Drone Regions burning down the remaining PanFam structures, and I was a good soldier over most of the time, getting in fleets when I could and setting timers without getting on very many kill mails. You do the work first and worry about kill mails later.
That said, I was determined to get on one particular kill mail. I wanted to get on the kill for the Keepstar in MTO2-2.
I was particularly jazzed for that particular structure because I had been there to first shoot the shields to set the armor timer and then was sent back again to shoot the armor to set the hull timer. Having done that I was feeling a bit entitled to get on the kill. This was the same Keepstar I mentioned the other day, where we got a ride back from a B0SS titan. (We tipped the driver generously.)
The B0SS titan waiting to give us a ride
But the scheduling crew in skirmish command doesn’t do things for my sole benefit, nor should they. So I had a feeling I might need to make this happen on my own.
Thursday afternoon and into the evening I rode along in a Reagalan fleet, a mix of Kikimoras and bombers and assorted other small stuff as we went through a few systems, killing three Fortizars and an Azbel. Not a bad haul for an outing, especially after a week of mostly setting timers.
And Azbel beginning to brew up
We even knocked off a Pharolux Cyno Beacon because it was there and unfueled and we could kill it in one sitting.
Shooting the cyno beacon
And, honestly, there was another one of those… and an Ansiblex… sitting one system over that we could have taken. Targets were everywhere.
I had joined that fleet in hopes that we would end up at one particular target, the MTO2-2 Keepstar. But Reagalan announced that we were going back to R-AG7W… and we were just seven gates from MTO2-2. So when the fleet went through the first gate home I stayed on the near side, dropped fleet, and set my destination for MTO2-2.
This was not without risk. I had already lost a Kikimora to some pipe bombing battleships on a gate when an FC sent a small group of Kikis off to shoot a secondary structure. The Drones had been easy on us at first, loaded with people eager to leave. They were happy enough to leave us alone if we left them alone. But new groups had been patrolling or even moving into the region, some chill, like B0SS, and some… well, happy to camp a gate with a gang of smart bombing Praxis battleships. (And why has the Praxis become the pipe bomb battleship of choice? I do not know enough of the art to know what it is no longer Abaddons.)
This time I lucked out. I made it to the system, check in on the Keepstar, saw I had time to spare, so safed up and did the dishes. (My wife had nicely brought me some stir fry and rice while I sat at my computer.)
The Keepstar of my kill mail desires
I figured a fleet would be heading out for that kill and I would just join up with them when they arrived. And, sure enough, there was a ping for a fleet under Andreas Ayers which said that there was a Keepstar kill mail to collect. Right on the money. I joined that fleet, got on coms, and listened as they undocked from our deployment staging Keepstar in R-AG7W and took a titan bridge.
Good thing too, it was a long run out to MTO. And then the FC put the destination in fleet and it was UDVW-O. I was at the wrong location, the wrong Keepstar kill. Well, for them anyway. I still wasn’t going to miss out on this one. It just looked like I would be on my own. I dropped fleet… I wasn’t with them and might never be… and waited a bit, as I had lost track of when the MTO Keepstar would be ready. But it takes a good 25 minutes to kill a Keepstar with no tidi, so I had a buffer. And I had seen blues in system.
I set the desto to UDVW-O, just to see how far away it was, and I was a good 24 jumps away. Maybe I could make it to the second kill? Probably not. So I warped to the Keepstar in MTO at range and found that we had sent out some supercarriers to take care of business.
Supercarriers on the Keepstar grid
They were way off, having the advantage of being able to send their fighters long distances. Closer to the structure itself there were a variety of neutrals shooting the structure. I steered clear of them and none of them came for me. We all shot the Keepstar in peace. I had actually been later on grid than I thought I might be so I didn’t end up hanging around too long. We were going to be done fast. Sure enough, boom, and the Keep was gone.
Another structure on the list in the Drones
Then it was decision time. Do I go for the other Keepstar? I mean, the obvious answer is “yes!” But it wasn’t that simple. The route wasn’t just 23 gates through the Drones. MTO is the system with the region gate to Venal and UDV is the system with the region gate to Vale of the Silent. The fastest route was to jump from Perrigen falls into Venal, loop around, enter Tribute, pass through that then Vale of the Silent, before taking the regional gate that would bring me to The Kalevala Expanse and the Keepstar in UDV. Here is the path displayed via DOTLAN EVE Maps.
The shortest route goes through hostile space
That is an unfriendly route for an Imperium pilot. Tribute and Vale of the Silent are governed by Fraternity and its Winter Co allies, while Venal is nominally NPC null sec, it is viewed by Fraternity as its space and they have plenty of structures there as well.
A hot run through hostile space on a route between two Keepstar kills that the locals are no doubt aware of… that has about a 30% chance of success in my experience. The most likely outcome is an interdictor or drag bubble on a gate along the route to hold passers by in place while a small fleet chews them up.
But what else was I going to do with the evening? So as soon as my aggression timer was almost up I warped to the regional gate to Venal and jumped through.
I was not alone. I saw a number of Imperium pilots in that first system, Merkelchen, the KarmaFleet CEO among them. There were maybe ten of us. That was good. There is safety in numbers and… to be blunt… you don’t have to be faster than the tiger, you just have to be faster than everybody else running from the tiger.
So off we went, gate after gate. Some of the pilots had planned this out and were in interceptors, which aligned and warped faster. They pulled away from the pack after a few jumps. But that was fine. They could go get caught or break camps or whatever and maybe help get us through.
Remaining behind were half a dozen Kikimoras, jumping, warping, and jumping again. I was near the same three other ships for most of the journey. If time were not of the essence, I might have taken care, bounced off a celestial rather than warping straight between gates, a behavior that plays into any camp’s plans.
The systems did not lack for hostiles. I thought for sure I was done when I came through a gate and a Fraternity Sabre was sitting there, 13km off the gate. All he had to do was put up a bubble and call his friends in system… and there were a dozen in local… and I would have been toast.
And that is the job of a Sabre pilot, to put up a bubble and catch hostiles… and to get blown up. No true interdictor pilot has just one ship handy. Multifit was created to help Sabre pilots to extra hulls in a hurry.
I hit warp and hoped for the best… but he didn’t bother. Maybe he wasn’t in position yet, maybe the continued appearance of Imperium ships coming through the gate made him think twice. Maybe he was just moving his ship around I don’t know. But off I went, no bubble there to impede me.
As we got into the Vale of the Silent, things got a little more quiet. On one warp I put “Ride of the Kikimoras!” in local and got a response from one of my fellow runners as we warped across the system.
On a wild run through hostile space
It wasn’t until the final system that I took a bit of care. The most obvious gate to camp would be the one into UDV as it would catch and gawkers or those interested in getting on a Keepstar kill mail. I bounced off the sov hub and then headed to the gate, hoping that my altered angle of attack would thwart and camp.
But I need not have bothered. Nobody was at the gate. Me and the rest of the hasty flotilla on a ride between Keepstars went through the gate and found our target awaiting. I joined back up with Andreas Ayers’ fleet, warped to the FC, and got myself setup to shoot the Keepstar. It was past half way. I had made it with plenty of time left on the clock. The gamble had paid off.
The Keepstar was there for us
The shoot was mostly uneventful. A few hostiles lurked at a distance. The gunner on the Keepstar would launch fighters to try and grab a target of opportunity, but would recall them almost immediately once they were targeted. The gunner was going to lose the Keepstar, but wasn’t going to give us free fighter kills.
That all ended as expected with the Keepstar dead. Then GSOL dropped in, as they always do, to salvage the structure, pick up the Quantum Core (a 30 billion ISK prize) and pick up any loose loot the structure might have dropped. They are going to have a pile of such cores and loot with all the structures they have cleaned up.
After GSOL was headed out, the FC sent all the Kikimoras and other small stuff to go guard the gate on the route home while he, the battleships, and the supporting boosters and logi went to the Vale of the Silent gate, and odd move.
Keeping watch on our out gate
As it turned out, somebody had a stray Zirnitra dreadnought stuck in Geminate, so they jumped to the other side of the gate and came through, where we then shepherded the capital ship far enough along so that they could jump back to our staging. A worthwhile effort while we were there.
Then it was back to the staging Keepstar. After a few jumps together, we were let loose to free burn back. I made it back and docked up, happy at achieving my goal and getting on a bonus kill mail along the way. A couple of the pilots who went on the ride through Venal were in the fleet with us, so we exchanged a few “well, that was a ride” comments.
There were still more structures to go in the Drone regions. But the end is in sight. Soon we will be headed home, and the total for all of this destruction, already estimated to be past 20 trillion ISK lost, will be added up and assessed.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 