POSitively awful....

OK... here is the sad yet painful story of the loss of a POS...

Not one that was up and running with it's forcefield shimmering in the starlit permanight sky of EVE...
Not one that was all spikey and DETHSTARRY in it's occupation as our Wormhole Fortress of Solitude... oh noooo... <fadeout>

My corp has harbored the desire to put up our on Planetary Orbital Station ever since we first joined the Alliance and got all trained up in the Alliance C1 wormhole. We are old hands now at runnin sleeper sites, mining gas and mining the ABCs, Arkonor, Bistot and Crokite... We have defended our WH space and we have been killed in our WH space.

Some time ago we were talking about wanting our own POS and one of the Alliance guys decided to gift our corp with a Medium Amarr Spike and some basic mods to go with it. We got ALL excited and started to do some real research and talk to a lot of people and we found out the majority opinion was a small POS (in a WH) is nuthin more than a near-future small wrecked POS... period. And a medium POS was basically considered to be the same, only with a slightly slower dethrate... but still a 100% fatality just beggin for it. In WH's go LARGE or go back to hi-sec...  mmmKay...


So... we had received a Medium POS, which for hi-sec would possibly be fine, but we want to be wormholers and so we decided to sell the Med Spike and churn up the I$K for a Lrg Spike and such mods as were not included in SB's very fine gift. Two of our guys were really getting into WH mining and PI... well one was and he sorta dragged his RL friend, another corpmate, along with him.

Anyhoo, T and KK were spending a LOT of time in the Alliance C1 and getting all bent about how they could not access the hangar bay and other mods as we are a Alliance corp but the POS is owned by the Alliance executor corp. Initially they, well T, wanted to leave our corp and join the POS corp so he could use the bays and mods and such, but KK was not really into that, he was not interested in leaving our corp and in addition deal with the politics of the POS corp.

I then had an idea that suited everyone, I said, "Why don't the two of you take a leave of absence, a sabbatical of sorts and temporarily join the POS corp so you can learn all about POS mechanics and suchlike and when we get our ducks in a row and are ready to setup our own POS, come back to our corp and then we all benefit." Our corp will have people with POS experience, and as I put it, "Ya'll will know where the bathrooms are." and T would get to run all the PI and WH mining he can stand, AND KK tuned out to be pretty good at managing the C1's sleeper site ops. C1's are the lowest WH I$K faucet and have to be managed or you can pump em dry in short order.


So things go on like this for a while and then one fine EVEning, SL is online and tells us all the tale of how he had churned and churned and saved up the I$K and had bought a Lrg Spike... and as he exited the station in his Indy, he was ganked immediately and popped and lost the POS... sigh.

"OK... Look, we're ok, we just need to churn and mission and run as many sleeper sites as we can to make the I$K back so we can... huh? what?? We're at WAR???"  "Oh great flying crap!!!" Our Alliance was wardec'ed and so we now have to deal with that, which of course kinda puts the kybosh on a lot of "normal" activities, like making I$K etc., etc.

And so the war goes from exciting with us getting some really good kills to a sorta stalemate as he (the one man corp what wardec'ed us) starts playing the "kick the stargate", "warpaway" and "cloak and seek" games until we all got tired and bored and a few got careless and stoopid... then he started racking up some kills.

So finally the war come to a close an we all look forward to things getting back to a peacetime footing... and we get that nasty CONCORD letter, "XXX has War Dec'ed your Alliance, hostilities may commence in 24 hours." OH DAMN NOT AGAIN!! Yup, and this time it is an Alliance with 4 corps and, while not nearly as many as ours, still and all, more and probably more dangerous... um, what was that? They're French? Really?? Huh. I mean... french. Really? this could be... interesting.

Anyhoo... so we gird our loins (which we had to look up how to do BTW...) and prepare for... well whatever. Now while this is taking place, my guys, both in corp and especially KK on sabbatical in the POS corp are getting ancy about the whole "Are we THERE yet??" thing with a POS... and the answer is nope. The corp wallet is not fat enough. SO KK priv chat's me and says, "You know, T has been WH mining and PI'ing his silly ass off and he and I are sitting on more than enough I$K for a POS." "Why not just have the corp borrow it and we'll work out a deal?"

Mmmm... interesting. So we are talking about this and then SM and Tis, from the corp that owns the C2 WH POS the Alliance has access to, discuss the idea of having us setup our POS inside their C2. We work out an agreement, AND it turns out they have a whole stockpile of POS Mods they would be willing to sell to us at a very decent price... Mmmm.... interesting. Well that sure put a spark in our collective britches I'm here to tell you! We could actually do this..! we can actually put up a POS, like real soon even!! So when and how?

Well, I get deep into more research and then I get into it w/ SM and we strike a deal for the Mods they can spare. Good price, I am well satisfied. SL drops some major I$K in the corp wallet, KK drops even more I$K same e same. And I get our ducks all lined up. I buy a Lrg Minmatar Control Tower, 8 Med Artillery Batteries, and 5 Med Autocannon Batteries and that plus the stuff we bought from SM plus the stuff we already had from SB basically give us a fairly nice 'starter' dethstar.

Finally we're ready... and THIS TIME we are NOT getting ganked! I use an out of corp alt as my Indy pilot, so the War Targets are not an issue, I run my main down to the last hi-sec system before the two hop low-sec run to the WH so he can take over and re-establish corp ownership of the POS and mods.

KK is going to run scout for me and SL is waiting in the C2. Our only real worry is a ganking. My Hoarder simply accelerates like a fat lady runnin uphill in august wearing a rubber suit... From the time I break cloak until I warp I am vulnerable to attack. SM tells us of a mechanic whereby I canflip KK and go red to him and he can then webify me... OK, so why in hell would I want to go SLOWER??? Then he explains that 'cause the webber cuts your top speed, you reach 3/4 of your new top speed much much quicker an then warp out... Huh? Ok, we'll try it. Sounds weird though.

So we head out one hop away and warp to the sun in the next system. I canflip, KK locks me up and webs me.... no CONCORD, good. We head out. First gate he calls clear and I start my run... we did try the webwarp... and by god it really does work. I align to the next gate and hit 'warp to'... he webs me and I basically instawarp. Really cool mechanic...  =]  Anyway off we go...

We had, I think, about 14 hops, w/ 2 of em in low-sec to the hole. We make the run uneventfully, thank god. SL is in the hole and comes out so I can warp to him, I do so. Now I had brought my main down but had forgot to swap over, so we decide that I will swap over to SL at the Relay Point, a bookmarked safespot 1.5AU from the C2 POS. I warp inside, BM the hole, and SL warps to the Relay Point. After he landed I use the Fleet 'warp to member' to warp directly to SL. Once I am fully inside the warp tunnel I call out "I'm in warp." at which point SL warps to the POS.

Now we were using a game mechanic we have used so often that we have come to rely on it. If you fleet warp to someone who is landed and they warp away, you will always land where they were. If you fleet warp to someone who is currently in warp, you will land where they were when you initiated your feet warp... so I "should" have landed at the Relay Point...

Instead I see the POS Force Field shimmer into being outside my ship as I land directly outside the POS. Now AK, my alt is not a corpmate and not in our Alliance, I was using her specifically because of that as she was immune to the War Targets... so the POS sees a stranger, an ENEMY... and opens fire on me and destroys my Hoarder, and the POS Spike, and the 8 Med Artillery pieces and the 5 Med Autocannons...  poof.

To say I was pissed... is like saying Hitler didn't get along well with Jews... that Atilla the Hun was politically incorrect while on vacation in Europe... that Stalin did not play nice with his peasants... I was madder than I have ever been in this game... especially when you consider that I arrived at the POS BEFORE SL did... You see, as I landed and realized I was dead, that there was NO WAY that fat ol lady was going to make it either warping away or running to get inside... I heard SL call out, "I saw you blow up!" as he landed inside the POS after I had been killed.

So... our second POS was taken from us before it ever even saw the starlight of New Eden...

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Victim: AK
Corp: NPC
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: Unknown
Destroyed: Hoarder
System: JXXXXX
Security: -1.0
Damage Taken: 3154

Involved parties:

Name: Amarr Control Tower / XXXXXXX (laid the final blow)
Damage Done: 3154

Destroyed items:

Expanded Cargohold II, Qty: 2
Expanded Cargohold I (Cargo)
Medium Shield Extender I, Qty: 2
Medium AutoCannon Battery, Qty: 2 (Cargo)
Medium Cargohold Optimization I, Qty: 3
Minmatar Control Tower (Cargo)
Bookmark (Cargo)
Hardwiring - Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' SX-1 (Cargo)
Medium Artillery Battery, Qty: 8 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Expanded Cargohold II
Amarr Battleship (Cargo)
Viscoelastic EM Ward Salubrity I
Depleted Uranium M, Qty: 10000 (Cargo)

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Fly Safe and see you in the Sky =/|)=