Captains Mast…

or~  How Complacency Lost My Mastodon…

Been a while since I journaled ‘bout th’ goings on in our new homehole, so…   =]

We all have, as so many do this time of year, a lot of commitments and family stuff that reduce the amount of shipboard time we have available to us but, in the time we do have, we are settling in ok.

One of my hats is Director of POS Ops and Maintenance, meaning I get to keep the fuelling records and manage all the module and defense battery planning, placement, anchoring and loading in the case of the guns. I plan, schedule and oversee CPU/PWR use/requirements and online/offline mods as required for refining and production balanced against the current defense needs based on SecStat (Security Status).

OK, I jump in my Cheetah. I set the HUD/OV to tactical and enable distance/vector markers for the selected mods I am going to anchor next. I warp out to one of several BM’s within 150km of the nearest DP [Defense Position], warp in to the DP nearest the next one I need to set and then sublight over to the position. I BM the DP and repeat until I have BMs for the next 3 or 4 DPs. My Cheetah is capable of over 2k m/s so this goes rather quickly. Next I have to launch and anchor the mods, I usually use my Mastodon for this, it has the highest m3 of my available Indies and when you have as many defense mods up as we do… well, you need the m3. I have a load of mods transported onboard, check the POS MDP [POS Module Deployment Plan], then ‘Launch for Corp’, usually 4 mods at a time, and set about anchoring the mods.

Once I have 3 or 4 positions all anchored, I check the Plan and select the required ammo, have that transported over and now I have to do the dangewus part… I have to be physically within 2500m of each gun in order to load the required ammo type… this means I have to    leave    the    force    field. Ok, yes, I ‘could’ use another ship…I ‘could’ carry ammo for just one set of guns at a time… I ‘could’… and I should have… I really, really should have… but I dint. Now as anyone who has read this journal at all knows I am not noob at W-space, which is why I place the blame for my Mastodon loss squarely on the shoulders of “Complacency”… Lt. Sha-rel com Plai-sensii was the officer on duty and had the con at the time of the incident. It all HIS fault!

I was in my Parlor of Preparedness, all… you know… prepared 'n shit. The ammo loadout op was running smoothly so I was taking a bit ‘o… personal time… and watching one of those 2D ‘tainments from Uurth… something called “Big Bang Something” as I ‘member it. First thing tells me we’re in any trubble is the Target Lock Klaxons feariffic wailing. I run to the bridge just in time to see a warp bubble go up around us. Huh?? I always fly on the inside of the guns and as close to the FF as possible, usually around 8000m. Only 8000 meters. And now I have a Broadsword HIC in bubble range of me… cripes.

“Captain on the Bridge!” the COB calls out and I relieve Lt. com Plai-sensii and take the con. I order an immediate turn and max burn for the spike, the shortest route back into the FF. I order the Invuln II and the Lrg Shield Booster brought online… and the bridge goes deathly silent as the deck crew collectively holds its breath waiting to see if we can cover that measly 8000m in time. Our shields begin to go down fast under the incoming DPS from KTyJIxyc’s Broadswords 425mm AC IIs. But… the booster is doing its job… and while we are losing shields we are tanking back a part of it each cycle.

It was at this time that I saw the eerie pulsing red glow of a Neut in action and I assumed it was the Broadsword neuting my Mastodon… however I am not sure it was not our POS as, of the Ewar mods I had online, 2 Neuts were up and the beam was at an angle in my view… not dead on… and I did not note a ‘neut’ warning icon on the HUD/OV but in the heat of battle I can’t say it was not there either… I guess I will never know. If however, the POS did get him locked and engaged, I wish I had had enough guns up to drive him off.

But it was not to be, as it was, I ordered a Combat Evac as I watched the shields go under 20% and then down. After that it did not take long for him to eat through my armor and the hull disintegrated like it was paper… I was ready and instawarped out of the cloud of smoke and burning gases from the first Mastodon I had ever owned to a SS 300km out and from there immediately to another off grid SS then back as quick as I could to the POS and rehipped to my Loki. I saw the Broadsword was still on Dscan but had warped off grid so I recalled all the crew evac pods, thank the gods most of the crew were ready, we lost only five from the engine room… the watch had refused to evac and were desperately working to get every erg out of the engines to get us into the FF… brave lads all.

I was taking stock and considering my options… and TBH, working to get my heart rate down to reasonable levels… when my CEO warped in and said…

AINeumann > tuurrrr

AINeumann > hey

TurAmarth ElRandir > I just got jumped... and lost my Mastodon...

AINeumann > sad

AINeumann > loose anything?

AINeumann > besides the mastodon

[copied killmail details here]

AINeumann > good thing it wasnt to much... where were you jumped?

TurAmarth ElRandir > shit happens

TurAmarth ElRandir > look around... you'

TurAmarth ElRandir > my wreck is right outside...

AINeumann > really at the pos

TurAmarth ElRandir > I almost got back inside...  alllmost

AINeumann > i am looking at it right now

AINeumann > i see him on d scan

TurAmarth ElRandir > SHIT I was RIGHT THERE.... on the edge of the FF

I was too, right smack on the edge of the FF. My wreck was actually in the Flux Zone. For them as dunt know, a Planetary Orbital Station’s Forcefield is not a sharp line as ‘twere… it… breathes… pulses in and out sorta like cloth balloon inna breeze… and this variable edge is the Flux Zone. It can vary by as much as several hundred meters and my wreck was only slightly moar out than in… every now and again it was actually completely inside the FF at the farthest out flux... I was THAT close! Damn… danm damn damn. I reshipped to my Mammoth and slowboated down to the wreck to try and grab the remaining loot and salvage her when…

TurAmarth ElRandir > HE’s back!!!

TurAmarth ElRandir > he blew the wreck???

TurAmarth ElRandir > fukker...

He warped in, blew up the wreck and warped out. He saw I could loot and salvage from inside the FF so he decided to deny me the L&S. He then warped out to 100k off the sun and sat there… uncloaked. Hmmm…

The next thing that happens is just effin stoopid… He starts talkin in local… this guy tries to bait us out to the sun ‘cause the poor fool is “lost in space”… riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight… LOL

KTyJIxyc > Help me get out

TurAmarth ElRandir > uh...  lemmethinkaboutitno...

TurAmarth ElRandir > self asplode... you will go home

TurAmarth ElRandir > LOL

KTyJIxyc > I'm here with yesterday I forgot to do bm

TurAmarth ElRandir > too bad.... asplodin my Mast not goodwill move your part

KTyJIxyc > throw me

KTyJIxyc > bm

KTyJIxyc > and I will go

TurAmarth ElRandir > tell ya what.... I'll drop a BM in a can 19km from the POS... come get it...

KTyJIxyc > in the sun

TurAmarth ElRandir > I know... sat 50k from ya for a few mins...

While we were chattin up local… in W-space, which BTW felt really weird as you NEVER TALK IN LOCAL in holes… NEVER EVER. Like gravity, it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law. In all my time ingame I have seen that rule broken only like 3 or 4 times… anyhoo.. This guy actually believes he has a chance in hell to get us to warp out to th’ sun where he (and all his cloaky frens) can die horribly… uh, oh wait, KILL us inna horribad fire… yea, right.



TurAmarth ElRandir > kill me once, shame on you, kill me twice, shame on me… you dunt get a second go…

KTyJIxyc > lol)

Anyhoo… needless to say we closed up shop as the hour was late and we have seen neither hide nor hair of ol miss little lost KTyJIxyc. So… I lost a Mastodon, a 230M ISK loss. I should have been buttthurt. I should’a been all ragequitty. I should’a been… but I wunt… LOL.  It’s EVE and it’s W-space man… the deadliest space ‘in’ EVE… and I was watchin TV while flyin an Indie outside of the FF… feces occurs.  =]

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