Ineffective against an Imicus
12th September 2013 – 5.41 pmWe really ought to try to make some iskies tonight. Throwing two strategic cruisers hard against a bait battlecruiser was kinda thrilling but it can't be done too often. Having the class 2 w-space occupants collapse their wormhole connecting to our home system will help, as will having a bunch of anomalies available to us. At least, it would, if the bastards had the common courtesy of finishing the job.
Whilst Aii watches battleships being thrown through the K162 I hit our neighbouring class 3 system to see what the prospects are like abroad. Ripping through our anomalies would give us profit, but their sustainability is limited. A class 3 system rich with anomalies could be replenished by another suitable static wormhole the next day, or sooner if we force the connection shut. This one, however, is a bit rubbish.
There are almost no anomalies in the system, and without any ships it's lacking in maintaining my interest. But I can still scan, at least to check for data or relic sites, and for wormholes to see how secure the system is. Nope, just gas, a dying static connection to low-sec, and a K162 from null-sec that makes this is rather poor system for making ISK. To prove it, a Helios covert operations boat jumps past me to null-sec, obviously unimpressed himself.
I'm heading home. Aii's half-way to killing our wormhole already, now that we're not going to be doing anything in C3a, and we should isolate ourselves properly for security. That means getting rid of that C2 K162 in the home system too. The pilots left it sitting at critical levels, and although that won't let many ships through you don't need many ships to wreak devastation on a Sleeper fleet.
Maybe the C2ers are intentionally seeing if we believe a critical wormhole is a safe wormhole, hoping to surprise us. But I think it's more likely, believe it or not, that they simply don't know about collapsing wormholes with a heavy interdictor. I do, and I'm going to get rid of that gaping hole in our security. Of course, this may be foolish, throwing a ship in to their system, but we're not doing anything whilst that wormhole's still there.
I warp to the wormhole, activate three warp disruption field generators, and watch my ship's mass drop to about 500 t. Out I go, hoping that no one's watching, or at least their static exit to high-sec remains, and find nothing but the warp bubble waiting for me. Good enough. Even better, the wormhole lives. I decloak, activate the over-sized afterburner, increasing my ship's mass to around 65,000 t, and jump back. The wormhole dies. Success!
Now to kill our static wormhole, as it looks like we need the HIC for that too. I warp across, getting ready for the final push, only to see an Imicus sitting on the wormhole. This is why we need to make sure our connection is secure, otherwise any prick in a frigate can bother us. But maybe we can trap him and try to catch his ship on the fresh connection. I jump out light, come back heavy, and the damned wormhole stays where it is.
The Imicus must be rather nonplussed by what's happening. He hasn't cloaked, and indeed launches probes when I return. I inflate the HIC's bubble and target the frigate, keeping him from getting away. But this ship is fit only for killing wormholes, there is nothing I can use to kill ships. I call for Aii to swap to something fast and get to the wormhole, but he's been distracted. By the time his interceptor appears, the Imicus has burned far enough away to break my target lock, and cloaks.
The frigate's still stuck here for now, as we don't have any other route out of here. We can watch and wait, but trying to stop a single Imicus seems like a poor use of our time. Once my polarisation effects dissipate I make another round trip through the wormhole in the HIC, but still it lives, and I realise I am now polarised again and won't be able to give chase to the Imicus. I don't think he realises this, through.
To try to speed up matters, Aii and I swap ships on the wormhole, and I take the interceptor back to our tower to swap it for my scanning Loki strategic cruiser. Once Aii kills the wormhole I'll resolve the new one and try to catch the Imicus there. Or, at least, that's the plan, but as I warp away and Aii jumps out, the Imicus sneaks through the wormhole himself. The only consolation is that Aii's jump kills the connection.
It looks like we are safe to make some ISK from Sleepers. If only it hadn't taken almost all of the evening to reach this point we could recover the cost of one of our destroyed ships. As it is, we have time to blast through one anomaly, and loot and salvage the wrecks, for a profit of ninety million ISK. That's not bad, but we can do better. Still, having so far felt rather dumb and ineffective, it's a positive end to the evening.
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