Curses! - Episode 24

Episode dedicated to the Micro Jump Drive

Engagement Report 10 – Dual Hull Brutix

I log both my toons in Curse, and was not feeling like going Thera, nor anyplace nearby. Looking at the map I noticed I’d never tried to mess with Darkness, Short Bus Syndicate, Methodical Alliance and company once they moved into Immensea Region and surroundings. I had never returned there since Gentleman’s Club left the place, so a visit was overdue. While not too far from Curse, It’s usually a boring place to go due to lack of other options nearby, but it would provide me the chance to have an idea of “what was going on” there.

I get into my Dual Hull Brutix and there we go. My 1^st sign of activity was a Magus Command Destroyer on a regional gate. I see his animation for the MJD and I jump out immediately, not wanting to be stranded 100km off the gate, nor knowing what’s on the other side.

The other side is empty… Odd… Would this guy be crazy enough to mess with a Brutix alone? He could have backup from another system close by, but with gates relatively far away I was confident I could kill him and MJD away or deagress and bail. I jump back, reaproach and see what he does. In either case, I’ll be “safe” from his teleport ability for more than 2 minutes or until I get a scram on him.

The Magus is really in tackle mode and comes at me at Scram range. I simply activate my offensive mods and he dies fast enough. While I’m aggressed, I have jump activations from my gate but they hold cloak as local rises.

+3

+5

+8

Ok… Steady…

I could have probably warped off at this point, and I would have if it were a normal small gate. Being a regional gate I got a bit more confident that my cloak, MJD and probable large distance from spawning foes would keep me safe-ish.

Once they decloaked, I managed to see they had mostly small tackle like interceptors, Interdictors, no support ships and 2 Scythe Fleets for DPS. You’re probably thinking this might be a wonderful gang for me to engage. Low DPS Ships and Low EHP ships, kill some, and bail out. I would agree, if not for the “1/3 numbers Tackle” rule. Let me elaborate…

Roughly speaking and as a guideline, small gangs have 1/3 of their numbers in Tackle ships. If they have 2 Tacklers, expect 4+ DPS Ships. If they got 5 Tacklers, expect 10+ DPS Ships. Only those 2 Scythe Fleets didn’t add up in my book, so time to check the other side again.

As expected, the rest of their gang (Vagabonds and more Scythe Fleets) is in local and starting to arrive at the gate, so I get safe. I think the whole gang was a bit more than 15 guys, something that surprised me… Why would the locals have such large gang in such a dead region? Anyway, it was time to move along.

Reaching the carebear pockets I found a Skiff mining. The Skiff long pointed me back showing his teeth. Ok… I’m not worried because I can MJD away, but better call in my backup Brutix. It’s likely they’ll bring some more once this Skiff cries on coms for help, so I better be ready!

Hitting D-Scan does not shows much movement… Nightmare and Rattlesnake are on scan, probably coming back from their own ratting anomalies, as well as an Orthrus that I expect to be indeed backup for the Skiff pilot.

To my surprise it’s the Nightmare that lands on top of me at 0km range! I don’t really know what to think at this point, but I’m sure going give it a try. Orbit 500m, load Void, deploy ECM drones and brace for impact! The 1^st thing I notice is the Nightmare doesn’t have energy neutralizers! That is awesome news for me as it fails to exploit what I consider to be my largest vulnerability: lack of cap injection in my Brutix. I also realize the Nightmare is not moving AT ALL, not taking advantage from his “Scram free mobility” and his guns are not hitting. I’m also not tackled in any way now that the Skiff is dead.

At this point I relax a bit… this is not a PVP Nightmare. I bring my ECM drones in (no need for them) and deploy damage drones, because he is indeed tanking a bit. I needed to overload my guns for a good amount, and he dies as a Rattlesnake lands at 0km on top of me. I pull the exact same trick with this guy, noticing he deploys Boucers that are, of course, missing me.

As the Rattlesnakes goes steadily down, Orthrus and Nidhoggur land at 50km. Ahhhhhhh…. So close… I cannot finish off the Rattlesnake under fire from a Carrier, so I warp off. D-Scan is more active, local has climbed a bit and they have intel on my 2 Brutix, so it’s time to make some distance from their home systems. Let’s see who chases me.

I made 3 jumps or so while being chased by around 6 guys. I wait a bit on an outgate in order to get proper intel. Hecate, 2 Orthrus, Ares, Rattlesnake that I can see in D-Scan. An Orthrus lands 20km away from me. I take the opportunity, overload Rtb’s MWD and try to snag it!

20km… 17km… 14km…13km…14km...16km….20km…. ARRRRRRRRGH so close to my overloaded web range. I cancel the chase and burn back gate. At the same time, Rattlesnake, Orthrus, Gila  and Hecate land on my gate and jump ahead of me. I got Rtb a bit far from the because of this chase, so I send Pleniers in alone.

I’m expecting this to be the same Rattlesnake pilot I engaged previously, even though I didn’t recalled his name, so I’m hoping it doesn’t has Heavy Neuts. I want to primary the Orthrus, secondary the Hecate and bail before rest of gang comes to help the Rattlesnake again.

Orthrus decloaks close to me, so getting a Scram Web on him is not a problem! Now, he must die! We both start going down. This time the Rattlesnake is applying damage to me just fine and Gila is making a big difference… I bring in Rtb, focus in the Orthrus, and notice they are actually splitting damage between my 2 ships. These were supposed to be good news for me, until I realised a HUUUUGGGGEEEE mistake on my part…

I had forgotten to activate the Damage Control in Rtb (this was before the Damage Control was a passive mod). Dual tabbing has an attention spawn cost and I was paying dearly for it. Do you know how fast a Hull Tank Brutix goes down without a Damage Control on? Well… pretty fast trust me! Suddenly my priority is getting Rtb out of harm’s way so it warps off in haste as the Orthrus dies. The only ship scramming Pleniers is the Hecate and I focus DPS on it as fast as possible, but DPS in the field is too much and I die.

By failing to activate Rtb’s Damage Control and subsequently warping off in haste meant he was unable to provide Pleniers the much needed backup to kill the Hecate and avoid any losses. Once again, my undoing was my own limitation and my own sloppiness, as are 90% of all my losses. Still, a Magus, Skiff, Nightmare and Orthrus in exchange for a Brutix was a very good score.

Before going bed I brought Pleniers back to Immensea in another Brutix and logged off. Tomorrow I’d check some other carebear pockets nearby.